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Classic Archive Merged: Pani(ic) In The Woods

Well that was an impressive first post! Is there anyway you can find out why they all cut off contact with you?

That's a damn good point. My reticence to contact them again is, I guess, due to lingering upset that they'd delete me in the first place. No one likes to be told "I deleted you because you're a dick", after all. At this point it would take more courage than I have to approach them I'm afraid.

And thank you for being kind. I have told a few people about this experience since it all came back to me (or appeared spontaneously in my head due to the book, if it didn't really happen!) and as you'll appreciate, it's not been believed.

To be honest, if it's a case of sudden false memory, that's just as interesting to me as if I really did see what I "remember"!
 
Just found it on Google Earth. Obvious thing to say, but I have to you understand - were you aware of the rock formation called Bowerman's Nose which is very close to Jay's Grave?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowerman's_Nose

Looks like a giant figure. I accept you saw this thing moving, I am just pointing it out.
Good old Dartmoor, it never stops being fascinating even removed from it in both distance and time. I remember we drove from Jay's Grave- but have no idea how far. Could have been a mile, or several. Sorry I can't be of more help in locating the field and track in question. All I know is there was a wood on one side and we could get two cars up there. It may have been a dead end.
But I'm reasonably sure what I saw wasn't that (admittedly impressive) pile of rocks.
 
Is there any way of finding out if these former friends of yours are still in touch with each other? Can you see who their friends are on Facebook (I don't do FB, so I'm not sure).
Two have left Facebook entirely in the past few years, one is still there but has never responded to my friend request (I originally thought it must have been a mistake!) and the last one is still registering as having an account but hasn't posted in years.

Oddly, just writing all this down has made me think about it in a way I've not done in some time, and in the process I have answered one of my own questions. I had a strange experience on the tube years after, and the two people I was with again refused to discuss it. They didn't delete me though, and nowadays they claim to see nothing odd about what happened.
 
Two have left Facebook entirely in the past few years, one is still there but has never responded to my friend request (I originally thought it must have been a mistake!) and the last one is still registering as having an account but hasn't posted in years.

Oddly, just writing all this down has made me think about it in a way I've not done in some time, and in the process I have answered one of my own questions. I had a strange experience on the tube years after, and the two people I was with again refused to discuss it. They didn't delete me though, and nowadays they claim to see nothing odd about what happened.

What happened on the tube?
 
I remember looking up over the hedgerow and seeing... Well, I can only describe it as a giant. A man, about ten- fifteen feet tall at least, his face framed with hair, looking down at me. I remember us all getting in the cars and driving at speed down the track towards the road, and watching out the window as this giant paced us behind the hedge. I remember seeing his body when the hedge broke- and yes, seeing the typical bare chest, furry legs and cloven hooves of what I recognised as "Pan".

We reached the end of the track, turned into the road and sped off.

And never spoke of it again.
Somewhere on this MB I once posted a minor oddity that I noticed when walking down the main street in Penryn. It was night, and to my left there was a bright star or planet in the sky, just above the roof line of the houses there. As I walked, the star seemed to follow me, moving down from roof to roof as I walked.

Of course this was just a natural perspective effect - the star was very distant, so its angle to me did not change, but the houses in between did change as I moved. This explanation was reinforced by the fact that the star seemed to 'bounce' on the roofs with each step I took, as my head moved slightly up and down. (I was walking downhill.)

This leads me to wonder if you did see a rock stack some distance beyond the hedge, and a similar perspective effect caused it to 'pace' you as the cars moved past the hedge.

This doesn't account for the initial sighting of a giant, nor the final recognition of it as Pan, but memory's a funny thing. Sometimes it rewrites itself to centre the story on one aspect of what was actually experienced and fit everything else in around it. So I'm suggesting that the sighting of the 'moving' stack from the car became the predominant memory (a moving giant!), and everything else was fitted in around it.

Do I win a coconut?! :D

I used to know parts of Dartmoor quite well from my student days in Exeter, and later when I was in Plymouth for a year, but I don't recall Jay's Grave, etc.
 
What happened on the tube?
Nothing like as interesting. A bloke got on at one stop, looked to be homeless, shuffled through the carriage as the train went off and I noticed that a) he smelled strongly of rancid meat and b) everyone in the carriage was pointedly looking away from him, at the floor, over their shoulders, etc. When he passed me I saw he had a hole in the back of his head, just above his neck, about the size of a 10p piece. He got off at the next station and shuffled towards the tunnel entrance, in the opposite direction to the crowd.

We got off at Brixton and went to a club. My companions claimed there was nothing odd about him.
 
The hole was probably a burst cyst, might even explain the smell as exudate can smell appallingly bad and the hole can be pretty big before it starts to heal - you'd be surprised.

It's very easy if you don't wash very often to get skin infections. The nasty skin flora can get pretty hard to treat too.
 
The hole was probably a burst cyst, might even explain the smell as exudate can smell appallingly bad and the hole can be pretty big before it starts to heal - you'd be surprised.

It's very easy if you don't wash very often to get skin infections. The nasty skin flora can get pretty hard to treat too.
And that's the best explanation.anyone has given me in the intervening years. :)
 
Do you mean that you never talked about it with them even immediately after? I think I'd want to talk about it immediately & compare notes if something freakish happened.

If you did talk about it at the time, had you all seen the same thing? What did the others say?
 
Thank you for posting! great story :D

and also welcome.

is there any chance that the lane you went up was the one actually from Jay's Grave?
 
Do you mean that you never talked about it with them even immediately after? I think I'd want to talk about it immediately & compare notes if something freakish happened.

If you did talk about it at the time, had you all seen the same thing? What did the others say?
That's exactly what I mean. There was no discussion at all.
 
I remember us all getting in the cars and driving at speed down the track towards the road, and watching out the window as this giant paced us behind the hedge. I remember seeing his body when the hedge broke- and yes, seeing the typical bare chest, furry legs and cloven hooves of what I recognised as "Pan".

We reached the end of the track, turned into the road and sped off.

And never spoke of it again.

Mr T-H,
Do you remember what happened or was said in the car during the journey down the track? I mean, were the other occupants silent, or commenting in any way?
I think if I were in that situation it would be hard to keep quiet and not urge the driver to get a shimmy on!
Were you a passenger or the driver?
Thanks for sharing your interesting accounts. :)
 
Do you mean that you never talked about it with them even immediately after? I think I'd want to talk about it immediately & compare notes if something freakish happened.
You would think that, and so would I. On the couple of occasions I've experienced strange occurrences with friends we've absolutely spoken of it since, at length. And yet, accounts of groups of people experiencing odd phenomena then just not speaking about it again as though they wish to blank it out seem quite common. It seems to be a 'thing'. Perhaps Mr T-H's story hints at why. Perhaps sometimes the best way to deal with something so utterly inexplicable is to act as though it didn't happen, and that necessarily requires it not be spoken of, a sort of group-mind decision to bury it in the recesses of the unconscious. Good story, Mr T-H!

EDIT Further thought, perhaps among the tricks of nature sprites, such as pixie-leading and so on, is the ability to create this effect of causing our brains to hide memories of encounters from us. Just brain storming.
 
You would think that, and so would I. On the couple of occasions I've experienced strange occurrences with friends we've absolutely spoken of it since, at length. And yet, accounts of groups of people experiencing odd phenomena then just not speaking about it again as though they wish to blank it out seem quite common. It seems to be a 'thing'. Perhaps Mr T-H's story hints at why. Perhaps sometimes the best way to deal with something so utterly inexplicable is to act as though it didn't happen, and that necessarily requires it not be spoken of, a sort of group-mind decision to bury it in the recesses of the unconscious. Good story, Mr T-H!

EDIT Further thought, perhaps among the tricks of nature sprites, such as pixie-leading and so on, is the ability to create this effect of causing our brains to hide memories of encounters from us. Just brain storming.
Im really pleased that people have been open to this, and that I wasn't met with a stony wall of silence (again!). I'm much obliged.
The simple answer is no, in don't recall any of the conversation while going down the lane. I was in the back, on the right side, and just remember watching out the window as it paced the car.

I say "remember", but I'm at pains to point out that if it happened at all, it seems that the moment we turned into the road at the bottom, I instantaneously "forgot" for the next sixteen or so years! It was only the very similar story (though geographically different) in a IHTM volume that caused the sudden and overpowering surge of "memory".

Is it possible *something* about the story, some arcane rhythm or sequence of words and phrases *planted* an image so strong that I interpreted it as a "false memory"? I don't consider myself "particularly suggestible"- but isn't that how really good poetry is supposed to work? To be so overpoweringly evocative that it changes your brain?

It wouldn't explain the reaction of my friends though- surely a simple "No, nothing odd happened" would have sufficed? In fact, I would have expected some humorous reminiscences about the plastic gnome and suggestions of a probably ill-advised reunion.

I have no idea what, if anything, happened that night. Only what my memory tells me- which is in itself very hard to accept.

The one thing that niggles however is my age. I wasn't a kid, I was somewhere between 22 and 26, and probably nearer the top end of that. I know much time has passed, but I can't dismiss it as a fevered childhood imagination- like the "dog headed men", "headless punk", "Brixton skinheads", "Witchy Poo and her shears" and the "hanging skeleton of Bushy Wood"- all of which did the rounds among my playground friends, and some of which I have "memories" of seeing in the flesh (but were obviously dreams), and at the very least being so terrified they existed that I'd shut my eyes on car rides past where they were said to be seen.
 
Im really pleased that people have been open to this, and that I wasn't met with a stony wall of silence (again!). I'm much obliged.
The simple answer is no, in don't recall any of the conversation while going down the lane. I was in the back, on the right side, and just remember watching out the window as it paced the car.

I say "remember", but I'm at pains to point out that if it happened at all, it seems that the moment we turned into the road at the bottom, I instantaneously "forgot" for the next sixteen or so years! It was only the very similar story (though geographically different) in a IHTM volume that caused the sudden and overpowering surge of "memory".

Is it possible *something* about the story, some arcane rhythm or sequence of words and phrases *planted* an image so strong that I interpreted it as a "false memory"? I don't consider myself "particularly suggestible"- but isn't that how really good poetry is supposed to work? To be so overpoweringly evocative that it changes your brain?

It wouldn't explain the reaction of my friends though- surely a simple "No, nothing odd happened" would have sufficed? In fact, I would have expected some humorous reminiscences about the plastic gnome and suggestions of a probably ill-advised reunion.

I have no idea what, if anything, happened that night. Only what my memory tells me- which is in itself very hard to accept.

The one thing that niggles however is my age. I wasn't a kid, I was somewhere between 22 and 26, and probably nearer the top end of that. I know much time has passed, but I can't dismiss it as a fevered childhood imagination- like the "dog headed men", "headless punk", "Brixton skinheads", "Witchy Poo and her shears" and the "hanging skeleton of Bushy Wood"- all of which did the rounds among my playground friends, and some of which I have "memories" of seeing in the flesh (but were obviously dreams), and at the very least being so terrified they existed that I'd shut my eyes on car rides past where they were said to be seen.


Sadly the only way you are going to make any progress or gain any closure on this is to try and make contact with one or more of the group again. Doing so however will be to run the risk of being thought of as a crank, or worse some sort of deranged stalker.

If you can, I'd just say:

"I have recently had a very strange memory of the time we visited Jay's Grave, it's really troubling me and I wonder if you can give me an account of what happened from your perspective. If you don't want to talk in detail can you at least acknowledge that we did see something. Please for old times sake it would really help me and afterwards I won't bother you again."
 
We're usually open to accounts such as yours around these parts - and we've heard all sorts - especially when they're recounted so openly. Sightings of creatures that logically shouldn't exist fascinate me. Even in our times of searching for scientific explanations for ghosts and cryptids and psychic occurrences, people continue to see these entities and report them. We can't offer any explanation, obviously, but we can say that the the elements of your story have been reported many times before, so you're not insane and we have no reason to doubt your sincerity. :) Thank you for sharing your experience.
 
You would think that, and so would I. On the couple of occasions I've experienced strange occurrences with friends we've absolutely spoken of it since, at length. And yet, accounts of groups of people experiencing odd phenomena then just not speaking about it again as though they wish to blank it out seem quite common. It seems to be a 'thing'. Perhaps Mr T-H's story hints at why. Perhaps sometimes the best way to deal with something so utterly inexplicable is to act as though it didn't happen, and that necessarily requires it not be spoken of, a sort of group-mind decision to bury it in the recesses of the unconscious. Good story, Mr T-H!

Very much agree with your point here, Pete. There are people who greet high strangeness turning up in their lives with interest, curiosity or even excitement (probably most of us here are this type, I expect).Then there are others for whom such events are deeply upsetting and better off buried forever.

I've also heard talk about "screen memories" that hide other, more disturbing memories. These usually turn up in tne realms of alien abduction lore, but if such a thing exists, there's no reason it couldn't apply to other experiences, paranormal or not.


I say "remember", but I'm at pains to point out that if it happened at all, it seems that the moment we turned into the road at the bottom, I instantaneously "forgot" for the next sixteen or so years! It was only the very similar story (though geographically different) in a IHTM volume that caused the sudden and overpowering surge of "memory".

Is it possible *something* about the story, some arcane rhythm or sequence of words and phrases *planted* an image so strong that I interpreted it as a "false memory"? I don't consider myself "particularly suggestible"- but isn't that how really good poetry is supposed to work? To be so overpoweringly evocative that it changes your brain?

It wouldn't explain the reaction of my friends though- surely a simple "No, nothing odd happened" would have sufficed? In fact, I would have expected some humorous reminiscences about the plastic gnome and suggestions of a probably ill-advised reunion.

I have no idea what, if anything, happened that night. Only what my memory tells me- which is in itself very hard to accept..

Hi Mr. T-H,

Yours is an interesting story and unfortunately I have no explanations. Though, as you say, the behavior of your friends seems to indicate something is amiss. I can only think of two things that might spur some ideas for you. First, since memory is a mighty strange thing, you may want to have a look through these threads about (appearently) false memories and see if or how your experience fits with others. Here's two (but there are probably others on the board as well)
False memories:
http://forum.forteantimes.com/index.php?threads/false-memories.1485/
The disappearing story
http://forum.forteantimes.com/index.php?threads/the-disappearing-story.58490/

Second - usually when I have a sudden onslaught of memory that starts to haunt me, it's because there is something hidden in it that I needed to know but missed at the time. Sort of like a more woo-woo Sherlock Holmes, I have to sift through the details to find the thing that was bothering me. That might not be what's happening with you, but it struck me as similar. Maybe it might trigger some ideas anyway.

Also, sudden flashbacks can appear in cases of trauma, though it seems unlikely you would have had no inkling at all for 16 years that something had happened that night. Then again, stranger things have happened.
 
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The simple answer is no, in don't recall any of the conversation while going down the lane. I was in the back, on the right side, and just remember watching out the window as it paced the car.

I say "remember", but I'm at pains to point out that if it happened at all, it seems that the moment we turned into the road at the bottom, I instantaneously "forgot" for the next sixteen or so years! It was only the very similar story (though geographically different) in a IHTM volume that caused the sudden and overpowering surge of "memory".

Is it possible *something* about the story, some arcane rhythm or sequence of words and phrases *planted* an image so strong that I interpreted it as a "false memory"? I don't consider myself "particularly suggestible"- but isn't that how really good poetry is supposed to work? To be so overpoweringly evocative that it changes your brain?
Just yesterday, on another thread, I posted this:
http://forum.forteantimes.com/index.php?threads/artificial-intelligence-a-i.493/page-19#post-1563916
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Brain with David Eagleman - 2. What Makes Me?
Series in which Dr David Eagleman takes viewers on an extraordinary journey that explores how the brain, locked in silence and darkness without direct access to the world, conjures up the rich and beautiful world we all take for granted.
...
As we make new memories, learn new skills and have life experiences, the brain is constantly and dynamically rewiring itself. It never stops. Nor do we - the human brain is always changing, and therefore so are we. From cradle to grave, we are works in progress.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b06yrqzh/the-brain-with-david-eagleman-2-what-makes-me

Another excellent episode, especially in regard to memory.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------


So memories are not fixed, like video recordings, but are constantly reworked throughout life.
I tried to search for the story of mine (mentioned earlier) about the 'star' bouncing down the roofs as I walked downhill, but I couldn't find it. Thinking about it now, it was more likely the rising full moon, which would have made a more memorable spectacle, and often would be seen in that direction! Memory, eh?!
 
We reached the end of the track, turned into the road and sped off.

And never spoke of it again.

What if it was just you that saw this thing and it was your reactions that night that freaked out your friends? In the days following, perhaps they decided it was best not to speak of it, at least not in your company. Due to a sense of polite embarrassment.
Memories can be buried deep due to trauma and stress, could an acute feeling of shame also cause people to block them out? For me it seems as if embarrassing memories are the ones I remember the most vividly, but could you have felt in danger of losing your friends over this matter and so decided it was best forgotten? I think this would explain their reactions after nearly twenty years or so.

You mentioned in your first post that you had visited a pub. Could there be a chance that someone put something in your drink? I have heard of people getting a kick out of spiking random strangers. If neither you or your friends knew you had been drugged then your reactions would have seemed even more terrifying.

I have just been reminded (memories eh?) of an evening in a pub in the late 80's. A girl I was with had to go outside for some fresh air, she was feeling ill. She asked me if drinking alcohol ever made me see 'pink spiders'. She had seen them crawling over the bar. After a full recovery, this was never mentioned again.


For what it's worth Mr T-H, I love your story and I really hope that it was the Great God Pan you saw that night. In fact that's what I'm going to believe - that gods are roaming the English countryside. It was a vivid post and I can 'see' him myself right now, like it was my own memory.
 
What if it was just you that saw this thing and it was your reactions that night that freaked out your friends? In the days following, perhaps they decided it was best not to speak of it, at least not in your company. Due to a sense of polite embarrassment.
Memories can be buried deep due to trauma and stress, could an acute feeling of shame also cause people to block them out? For me it seems as if embarrassing memories are the ones I remember the most vividly, but could you have felt in danger of losing your friends over this matter and so decided it was best forgotten? I think this would explain their reactions after nearly twenty years or so.

You mentioned in your first post that you had visited a pub. Could there be a chance that someone put something in your drink? I have heard of people getting a kick out of spiking random strangers. If neither you or your friends knew you had been drugged then your reactions would have seemed even more terrifying.

I have just been reminded (memories eh?) of an evening in a pub in the late 80's. A girl I was with had to go outside for some fresh air, she was feeling ill. She asked me if drinking alcohol ever made me see 'pink spiders'. She had seen them crawling over the bar. After a full recovery, this was never mentioned again.


For what it's worth Mr T-H, I love your story and I really hope that it was the Great God Pan you saw that night. In fact that's what I'm going to believe - that gods are roaming the English countryside. It was a vivid post and I can 'see' him myself right now, like it was my own memory.
Entirely possible, I guess. I'm going to offer no opinion on what I "saw" one way or the other- except to say that like "most Forteans", I am hugely sceptical (but would love to be convinced). Logically, I can't have seen a giant Pan in that field, that sort of thing "doesn't happen" (except when it apparently does).

The possibility that I was slipped a Mickey and that after all these years my ex-friends were harbouring guilt enough to have never mentioned it, ever, and to run off when I eventually brought it up... is fascinating. As a bunch of healthy 20-something's in the early to mid 90s, drugs were part of our normal experience. None of us were even approaching what you'd call "regular users" (or even Casual), but I can't quite square the later behaviour with our attitudes at the time. It would have been a big deal, but not so serious as to throw up a wall of silence and then a quick legging-it when it came out. We all did worse to one another over that four years!

But then again, maybe it was. Too many variables. Nothing is ever simple. This has made me think about perception and memory in interesting ways, so thank you very much.

My original hope was that someone would pop up with a similar experience in the same place, and I could feel that shiver of maybe seeing something important. Either that or one of the other 7 or 8 people I was with had spent the intervening time obsessed with the events of that night and would turn up with all the answers! Maybe there's no woo here, but I'm very glad I shared it. Even if I never get to the bottom of it all, it's made my life more interesting!
 
Just to clarify: I wasn't suggesting your friends were responsible for any drink-spiking. I had a complete stranger in mind.

My original hope was that someone would pop up with a similar experience in the same place
Keep checking out the crypto sections on here, esp. Man-Beasts. There was something in a recent FT about someone seeing a Faun-like creature in Edinburgh, I think.
 
This whole thread is brilliant. Thanks for resurrecting in Mr T-H, and thanks for sharing your story.

I grew up on a council estate that ran into woodland, and can totally empathise with the accounts of feeling sudden and inexplicable dread that started this thread (never with buzzing though). Though these seem quite distinct from this specific Pan sighting.

I wanted to mention that I have a false memory - which I know to be false - that stems from a head injury when I was in my early 20s. My false memory is totally convincing, well rounded and utterly believable. If I didn't know for a fact that I had unconsciously invented it, I would have no reason to doubt it as it feels just like a normal memory.


Drawing on that experience I wondered if it was possible that Mr T-H could have hit his head that night? Could something have happened in the car, which his friends don't want to talk about? My false memory 'explains' (inaccurately) my accident. Could Mr T-H's be doing the same?
 
This whole thread is brilliant. Thanks for resurrecting in Mr T-H, and thanks for sharing your story.

I grew up on a council estate that ran into woodland, and can totally empathise with the accounts of feeling sudden and inexplicable dread that started this thread (never with buzzing though). Though these seem quite distinct from this specific Pan sighting.

I wanted to mention that I have a false memory - which I know to be false - that stems from a head injury when I was in my early 20s. My false memory is totally convincing, well rounded and utterly believable. If I didn't know for a fact that I had unconsciously invented it, I would have no reason to doubt it as it feels just like a normal memory.


Drawing on that experience I wondered if it was possible that Mr T-H could have hit his head that night? Could something have happened in the car, which his friends don't want to talk about? My false memory 'explains' (inaccurately) my accident. Could Mr T-H's be doing the same?
Yes, it's the idea of false memory that fascinates me most about this I think. While I would love to believe the cloven hoof'd one showed up to make my life just that little bit more interesting- I'm sure if there were a monster roaming around South West England, we'd have seen it on the telly.

I'm just glad nobody jumped on me for resurrecting a dead thread.
 
Logically, I can't have seen a giant Pan in that field, that sort of thing "doesn't happen" (except when it apparently does).


This is Being a Fortean! excellent stuff Mr T-H and long may you post here! :grouphug:

I'm just glad nobody jumped on me for resurrecting a dead thread.

It's how we do things :)
 
Yes, it's the idea of false memory that fascinates me most about this I think. While I would love to believe the cloven hoof'd one showed up to make my life just that little bit more interesting- I'm sure if there were a monster roaming around South West England, we'd have seen it on the telly.

I'm just glad nobody jumped on me for resurrecting a dead thread.


If it was a false memory then I'm pretty jealous. Mine is much more boring! I conjured a small brown dog jumping up at me and knocking me over. The reality is that I slipped on potato peelings! I'd trade up to see the Great God Pan any day.
 
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