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Floating Downstairs / Floating Down Stairs

That's happened to me

I figured I was, like, the only one. I remember CLEARLY jumping off the roof of my house and it was like I was floating down. Like the Princess Peach did in the Mario Bros games. It's so strange. I'm not the only one who remembers it though. My father recalls my jumping off the roof and he said it was weird because he didn't hear me hit the ground hard (he was on the roof at the time, I'd followed him up :D ). That's all I remember.
 
I think jumping from high up the stairs (I used to have competitions with my sister to see who could jump from the highest stair) combined with being carried down them combined with dreams of flying and some amniotic flotation memory are coming into play here.
Surely, all these kids floating downstairs would have been remembered by parents and we'd have all featured on "Nationwide"!!
It's different nowadays of course. Dreams of floating have been replaced with dreams of moving sluggishly and incredibly lethargically - a kind of imitation of life again!!
 
oh my god , oh my god , oh my god

when i first read this thread i couldnt believe it ! i thought i was the only person it happened to. i would have been around 3 or 4 when it happened, i can clearly remember many small details from our house in hemel hempstead, colours of carpets, wallpaper patterns even the pink bit of toilet roll that was stuffed into a small hole in the toilet window. I remember one day jumping from the first step, then the second, then the third, but the fourth step took a lot of determination, i finally plucked up courage and jumped, now we only had a small hall way so as i landed i only just managed to keep myself from hitting the wall. this played heavily on my mind whilst i stood trembling on the fifth stair.

Now all of that and what happened next is a clear memory to me no "fuzziness" or vague recollections, to me it is as clear a memory as this mornings breakfast.

i stood on the fifth step for ages but couldnt jump i just kept thinking to my self go to the top, go to the top, i dont know why i thought the top would be easier than the fifth but there you go.

i went to the top of the stairs and stood there for just a few seconds and then took a halfhearted jump kind of aiming a few steps down but i i didnt land a few steps down i found myself in slow motion freefall and landed one footed in the hall way without going any where near the wall of the hallway. the only way i can describe the feeling is like i was being lifted from the pit of my stomach and lowered down. until today i have only told one person , now i dont feel so wierd..


to try to clarify what happened i have a possible explanation try it on and see if it fits. could it be that the jumping from the fifth step was just too scary at that time of my life (especially after attempting the fourth step) that it was playing in my mind that night in bed, so i actually dreamed the top step bit and my mind has just knitted the two memories together. (real memories on 5 dream on 13) .

it was 33 years ago so although it seems real now is it just another case of the mind playing tricks on me????.

what do you think?????????
 
shadf said:
I'm very surprised to learn that other people have similar memories involving floating down stairs. I thoughts I was the only one.

I remember floating down the stairs at my grandparents' house when I was a very young child. I started with just a few stairs and then eventually worked up to an entire flight, wafting slowly like a balloon or a feather and touching lightly on the ground at the bottom.

At about the age of 5 or 6, I realized that I couldn't float down the stairs any longer. I remember standing at the top of that flight of stairs, remembering how I used to float and feeling sad that those days had passed. It was a powerfully nostalgic feeling. I understood that something had changed and that the "magic" of my infant years was now lost to me.

In retrospect, I don't believe that I literally floated down the stairs, but I also don't attribute the memories to a dream: the memories are different in character from remembered dreams. The fact that other people have experienced this phenomenon makes me wonder if extremely young children possess some ability to experience time differently than adults: to jump down a few stairs and somehow experience the fall as if it took much longer than it would appear if witnessed by someone else.

The mystery to me is, why stairs? I can't remember experiencing the floating phenomenon anywhere else, and it sounds like other people have similar memories involving stairs. An earlier poster suggested that we were carried down the stairs as infants and later mis-remember these experiences as if we were floating or flying. I question this explanation, because in my memories I am alone; in fact, being alone seems crucial to the floating process, since I wouldn't attempt it if anyone else were around. It was a very private thing. I also clearly remember standing on one stair, jumping, and landing again on the ground. So I don't think this memory originated in being carried down the stairs. Very odd. [/B]
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This happened to me when I was very young, too. It's an interesting theory - I'm convinced that young children definitely do experience time differently to adults. It probably explains why they are able to learn such a lot in a short amount of time - perhaps their brains run much faster, due to being less cluttered with stuff.
 
The fact that other people have experienced this phenomenon makes me wonder if extremely young children possess some ability to experience time differently than adults: to jump down a few stairs and somehow experience the fall as if it took much longer than it would appear if witnessed by someone else.Shadf
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Do you remember everything as moving in slow motion when you were a kid, or just the flying? I for one don't recall time passing by more slowly as a kid. Then again I didn't fly either.
 
for me it was only the stair experiance that was in slow motion, strangely other activities that might fall into the same sort of risk category ie, jumping off swings, out of trees, and off moving roundabouts all happened at normal speed, so i dont think its an addrenalin thing or even a time distortion. im still confused.
 
Anyone ever died in a dream before and come back as a ghost? Happened to me a few nights ago.. was quite good..:rolleyes:
 
In (yes, my fave fortean book) Jenny Randles' "Men In Black", she notes that an alleged "abductee" who was visited by the MIB (both her parents back her up) had a history of paranormal experiences, particularly being able to levitate down the stairs in their house when she was very young - and being seen to do so by her family.
 
I used to get this a lot. The only thing is I can never remember what happened once I had floated down to the bottom. I just remember a really really relaxed and excited feeling when floating. I have disscussed this with my sister and she has also experienced it many times. It happened mostly between the ages of 6 and 8.
 
lilly said:
It happened mostly between the ages of 6 and 8.
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Do you know the cause or what it represents? And why between those two ages? I personally feel a bit jealous of these people who used to float or fly. Why couldn't I ever experience a pleasant fortean phenomena? :(
 
How odd - I was just thinking about this thread walking back to work from lunch.
If you want to experience something similar I've been told that if you smear the backs of your knees (knee pits?!?) with Deep Heat (a sports local anaesthetic) it makes you feel like you have no legs but you can still walk around...
 
Re: Re: Floating downstairs

Bannik said:
Do you know the cause or what it represents? And why between those two ages? I personally feel a bit jealous of these people who used to float or fly. Why couldn't I ever experience a pleasant fortean phenomena? :(
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No idea why or what caused it. But It only ever happened in one house that me and my sis lived in. Actually thinking about it she must have been even younger... she was probably about 3 !! It all went on about the same time for both of us.:confused:
 
when i was 20 i was living away in a shared house whilst at college.

Approaching the christmas hols on my second year away i started having the floating dreams.

For about five or six weeks i had a dream that i was floating above my bed face up looking at the cieling. i felt that if i looked behind i would see myself. but also felt as though if i opened my eyes i would see my self floating, even though i could see everything i felt as though my eyes where closed.

Nearer the christmas break the dreams changed slightly and i would move around the room. i remember looking to one side at the top of my wardrobe and finding a some notes i had lost. never checked though that would have freaked me out.

The last time i had the dream i realised i could move outside, i paniced and never had the dream again.
 
One of the oddest things to happen to me.

Happened when I was really quite young - maybe about 4 or 5. I was in bed and had had trouble sleeping so I decided to wander downstairs to see Mum and Dad. I got to the top of the stairs and thought "What happens if I try to jump to the bottom?". So, jump I did. Instead of tumbling head over heals and ending up in a crumpled heap at the bottom, I distinctly remember a floating sensation and ending up at the foot of the stairs unharmed. I then entered the living room and said to my parents, "I just jumped down the stairs!" To which they replied, "no you didn't, go back to bed." I was most put out that they didn't believe me!

The only explanation I have for this is that I was in some kind of semi conscious state and my brain filled in the mundane bit of walking down the stairs with the more exciting version.

This is still bugging me some 27 years later, the memory is still incredibly vivid and is one of the earliest things I can remember.

Anyone get any suggestions as to what might have happened?
 
Ye gods. I never realised it was such a common thing.

I should have searched for "floating down stairs" really shouldn't I?
 
I guess, but who would have imagined they'd actually find a thread devoted to that subject?
 
I have a theory that might explain some of the flying down stairs memories. When I was little I was able to reach out my arms and put one hand on the bannister and the other on the wall. I could then suspend myself above the stairs and float down four or five stairs at a time in slow motion. Maybe some of you dimly remember doing the same kind of thing, but now remember it as flying downstairs.
 
I still remember what seems to me to be the one and only floating dream I've ever had (or at least, can remember), when I was around 9 or 10 or so. I was stretched out flat, floating around my school at ceiling level, with the whole school running around below me laughing and trying to grab me. I had an amazing feeling of euphoria for quite awhile after I woke up.
 
I've no idea what the significance (occult or psychological) of stairs is - Ronald Chetwynd-Hayes once wrote that 'no-one walks upstairs alone', but I'm not sure what he was on about, to be honest.


This quote really freaked me out!! WHAT DID HE MEAN??-I used to have the floating downstairs dreams all the time as a kid and they were fun but it was getting upstairs that always was an issue. Either someone had to stand there and wait for me to get upstairs and back down or i'd run like the devil was coming up after me, cause that's exactly how it felt. I would never stay upstairs by myself. Saw and heard too many things! House had been built by my grandfather and four generations were raised there. Is this stair thing common for kids to experience? The landing itself wasn't spooky, but getting up the stairs was.
 
I was the same way going up stairs when I was little. I couldn't go upstairs to go to the br or whatever without someone standing at the bottom of the stairs in case I screamed.
 
This thread really suprised me. A real "Wow, I`m not the only one" type of feeling! :)

I was always too scared to float down all the stairs. I would just to the landing - about 4 or 5 steps down, and then sort of float most of the way down, hit a step, then float the rest. I always liked to land facing the rest of the house (The stairs faced our door - the living room was to the right.) so I would hook my hand on the last bar of the hand rail and turn to the right before I hit the ground. The fact that I didn`t float UP the stairs made perfect sense to me. I was floating, not flying. I was sinking slowly. You can`t sink upwards. I never really gave it a second thought at the time. I mean, I knew people couldn`t fly. I was just sort of gliding. I even used to watch myself in the mirror as I did it. My head would move down in a perfect line, no bobbing or anything.

I also used to dream of floating back to my body from a certain point in my ceiling every night. It wasn`t just before I woke up or anything, but before I "really" slept - because if I wasn`t in my body it wouldn`t be good sleep.
 
omgg as im reading these posts im seeing it i used to do this too but im pretty sure it was not a dream....its the sort of thing u dont think is wierd wen ur a kid but by the time ur old enough to understand u have forgotten it!

btw a gollywog is a dolly that is brown and has afro hair

i dunno y but its supposed to be offensive or racist

funny how a white doll with blonde hair does not have the same effect on ppl :!:
 
Numenorian~ said:
I've no idea what the significance (occult or psychological) of stairs is - Ronald Chetwynd-Hayes once wrote that 'no-one walks upstairs alone', but I'm not sure what he was on about, to be honest.
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I think the theory is that the stairs represent crossing from one world to the next and while you're on the stairs you are in 'limbo', nether dead or alive.
 
I read the other day that dreaming of floating when a child indicates phsychic ability. ??
No floating of me springs to mind but I'm sure I remember my older brother doing it. We were both 5 and under and had two HUGE cuddly toys, one a Panda, and the other a Womble (It was Wellington in case your wondering. ;) ). We'd put them at the bottom of the stairs and jump down on to them. I only jumped from stair 2 - 3 at most as I was scared of getting hurt. My brother on the other had used to jump from stair 8+. I was in awe and wanted to do it too but like I said, was too scared. He didn't seem to just jump/crash, it was more like a fast floating movement (Quite high in the air too.), he'd seem to hoover too long for a mere act of gravity.
He taught our younger brother to do it but he managed only from stair 5 and not as good. Mind you, he was smaller. ;)
This was in the same place as were we saw shadow people and experianced unexplained phenomina, as well as other tenants in the block, not discussed untill years later.
 
How many people here have had the floating dreams and have experienced some form of paranormal phenomena aswell :?:
 
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