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It never happened to me!! EVER!!

Absence of Strange Experiences

Looking at these boards, IHTM in particular, reminds me that, whenever I'm asked about past strange experiences, I come up empty. It seems like everyone has some old yarn about at least one odd encounter, but I don't have anyhting in memory that can't be done away with by calling it a dream, fatigue, or obvious natural occurence.

Anyone else defficient in weirdness or am I habitually over-rationalizing.

Heh, maybe that's why I come here. Or maybe I just need regression :)
 
Surely, from a logical standpoint - the fact that you havent had any unusual experience whilst most people (here at least) have seems to suggest that you yourself are the abnormality in the trend therefore, the event that nothing unusual has happened to you is in itself unusual.

*Runs away from the pedant-killers of Ee*
 
I might also have an exaggerated "weirdness scale." Perhaps I've become desensitized!
 
I think it is part of the nature of strange experiences that even if you've had one they are rare & unusual. Probably quite a lot of stuff on this board could be explained by dreams/hallucinations and so on but I try to keep an open mind.

I think that psychic senses can be cultivated to some extent and that too much left brained activities like working with numbers etc can stop it happening. So maybe this is you.

I've had a small no. of things happen in my lifetime (less than 5) not all of which I've wanted to post. Even when you post stuff here it is not necessarily believed so you might not be mising out as much as you think.
 
I've had all sorts of weird stuff happen, to me and to peeps close to me, and as it doesn't scare me I enjoy it all immensely.

As Zoe says, you can't be sure of being believed on here, or anywhere else for that matter, but so what? I like to share experiences and hear others', and as Forteans we shouldn't be quick to condemn others' stories as untrue.

And it's unlikely that nothing weird has happened in anyone's life. You don't need to have been abducted by aliens. Have a look at the coincidence threads (it must be more than chance that we have at least two! ;) ) and I bet you can remember a coincidence or two in your own life.

I love coincidences, incidentally, and always look for meaning in them, and never find any, and can accept the entire process as evidence of my rationality. :)
 
Vitrius: I've merged this thread with an earlier one along similar lines and, as with most things Fortean, it may be more to do with perception. As I posted earlier I didn't think anything weird had happened to me and then I kept mentioning odd things around these parts and eventually I released some pretty weird thins had happened. I've started sketching out a list that I'll keep updating when I remember more things:

http://www.the-emperor.org/wiki/strange_things_that_have_happened_to_me/

So it might be worth doing that?
 
It's definitely worth keeping a list like that Emperor. The more grounded in everyday matters someone is, the more likely they are to forget unusual events because they just don't have room (or time) for them in their lives.

Bringing up ghost stories when people are feeling relaxed and casual can bring about some surprising results, as memories previously set aside begin to surface. I think they are easy to forget partly because ghostly encounters tend to be so brief and inexplicable. The event might also be witnessed outside of the home, like at a friend's house or workplace. In that case, the person never sees the event repeated so never has to be forced to deal continually with phenomena that might challenge their concept of reality.
 
Just to add my tuppence-worth, nothing Fortean ever happened to me either. My Fortean CV is two totally blank sheets of paper, stapled together. :(
Sure, I've had co-incidences and stuff, but nothing I could reasonably post. I love the genre though. Plus, I keep hoping...

Big Bill Robinson
 
ive been directed here, so here goes;

im 41, ive lived in a few houses including a 300 year old farmhouse in the middle of nowhere and it wasnt even remotely haunted etc. ive NEVER had anything even slightly fortean happen to me, my family can all tell ghost stories that happened to them (mother, father, both grandmothers and both grandfathers and one is very scary - it still scares me, i genuinely wish i wasnt told it), my mother saw a UFO in the 1960s, pretty close up with silouettes of figures at the round windows, my 1st wife saw the ghost of her brother. My mother and her partner had a timeslip a couple of years back.

I always seem to look for a sensible answer and I do mean sensible NOT "well it was obviously a dwarf balancing a pineapple on his head, covered in green paint" kinda answer.

I still dont feel 100% content in darkness though, as if something could be there, but fortunatly it never is (although I blame the ghost story my mother, father and grandmother all claim happened to them i mentioned above, it still bothers me if i dwell on it).

I used to read ghost stories, folk stories and legends all the time, ive grown tired of it all though, I still enjoy horror movies though, i thoroughly reccomend "white noise" to anyone, edge of the seat stuff!

I am very interested in matters fortean, particually the gullibility of people, a few years ago, a neighbour saw spirits practically daily, but the strange thing is whenever i was there, nothing happened, which does give me the stench of bull****.

anyone wanna know the ghost story that scares me? ill post it if im asked, it didnt happen to me but did to mum, dad and grandmother.
 
Methinks this could be a case of "Fortean Envy", a fairly common dis-ease among the overly sceptical. Sometimes the patient experiences a spontaneous remission after spending a night in a haunted house, but has been known to last throughout adult life.
 
yes, PaZZa (btw: you know what your nickname means in italian, of course, that's why you chose it, right?), please expand on the stories your family told you. everybody (gullible or not) enjoys a good story, don't we?
 
Pazza = mad cow in italian lol, ive had thats nick for 15+ years tho, before any of us knew the italian translation :)

ill type up the ghost story and post it asap as a new thread (need to think clearly about it as 3 of the ppl in it are dead so i cant go and ask them for their versions, I have to try to remember as much as i can correctly), it still scares me.

cheers
 
I thought I'd found a new urban legend once.

Then this brummie went and ruined it by biting me.

Still waiting.... :roll:
 
I believe that you can train yourself to astrally project(experience a voluntary out of body experience).
There are many books on the market but basically you lay down on your back in a comfy poisition(your own bed is good)when its quiet and dark(removes distractions)close your eyes and concentrate.
It especially helps if you imagine "yourself" as a being inside your body(all thoughts and emotions occur within this being).
Then try to move this being without using your physical body.Almost everyone can at least experience vibrations that they can work on to increase in intensity until the physical body is escaped.
 
As a teenager, I was able to slow down and speed up my heartbeat just by concentrating on it, it didnt take much practice to do it. i eventually decided it was probably unhealthy so i stopped.
 
Not unhealthy

Changing your heartbeat isn't unhealthy, Pazza. It's not even unusual. Many people, though, can only do it if they are connected to a meter which monitors their heartbeat so they can see it - bio-feedback. ;)
 
If nothing weird has ever happened to you, then nothing weird has ever happened to you . . . what can really be said about that?

It's like saying "I've never had sex with Angelina Jolie, what's up with that? Isn't that bizarre?" No, not especially.

And millions of people claim to never have anything strange happen to them. Is that strange? I don't think so.

-Fitz
 
I wonder which would be more bizarre: not having sex with Angelina Jolie, or having sex with Angelina Jolie? Although I suppose any seasoned Fortean could handle her okay. :hmm:

Anyway, to reiterate an earlier post by Escargot: I think I've had a few Fortean type experiences, but most of them do take the form of extreme coincidences. I look for peculiar connections in my daily life, therefore I find them. If you're not looking, you may miss (or fail to imagine!) a lot of Fortean/paranormal stuff.

EDIT ~ For instance: a couple of weeks ago I dissected a tater-tot because I thought there was something unusual about it. The tater-tot turned out to be a normal, but my act stands as an example of the lengths some of us go to for the purpose of discovering and exposing Forteana. Understandably, not everyone is willing to commit themselves so fully to such a task.
 
A year later and still normal!

:roll:

Looking back at this thread a year later, I realise that once again another year has passed and still no ufo, ghost, fire from heaven or trillion to one chance meeting!

No speculation about high unusual-ness in Birmingham, although they do have a sushi bar in the middle of a department store, which is mildly unsettling.

No shag off Angelina Jolie, either - so I can't report on the strangeness factor there, either.

Fortean envy continues unabated.


shuffles off to the pub and huddles miserably over a pint of 'real ale'
 
example said:
For instance: a couple of weeks ago I dissected a tater-tot because I thought there was something unusual about it. The tater-tot turned out to be a normal, but my act stands as an example of the lengths some of us go to for the purpose of discovering and exposing Forteana.
Click to expand...
ERM (I must be getting older quicker than I thought) but :wtf: is a tater-tot?
 
You don't have to have had any Fortean experiences to be interested in them, just as you don't have to be a musician to appreciate music.

I believe some people believe weird things have happened to them, and I'd like to know why.

I'd also like to know what a tater-tot is.
 
Tater Tots are a frozen breakfast item, consisting of nuggets about thumb-size of shredded potato (hash browns, basically) and meant to be baked or deep fried. Not bad, but probably loaded with the usual preservatives, etc. At your grocer's frozen food aisle, right next to the Eggo Waffles and the Pop-tarts.
 
marslight42 said:
Tater Tots are a frozen breakfast item, consisting of nuggets about thumb-size of shredded potato (hash browns, basically)
Click to expand...
Thanks for that. But it only makes Example's post more mysterious
- why would anyone want to disect a hash brown? How was it 'unusual'?
I think we should be told!
 
Only the Shadow knows what lurks in the heart of a tater-tot!

Can we look forward to controversial film footage of one being dissected, Roswell autopsy-style? :)
 
rynner said:
How was it 'unusual'?
I think we should be told!
Click to expand...

Was it unusual in a "Kentucky Fried Rat" urban legend sort of way, or a "my Tater-Tot looks like the Blessed Virgin Mary" sort of way?
 
I didn't know it was a tater-tot until I dissected it. What happened was: I found a smooth, ivory colored, squishy object on our bathroom rug. I couldn't identify it, but it was gross so I threw it away. Then my curiosity got the better of me so I fished it out of the trash and cut it up, wherupon it revealed itself to be a common tater-tot which appeared to have been eaten, partially digested and then regurgitated by one of our dogs. So it was dog vomit. Sorry, not too exciting I know. :roll:
 
Heres a ghost thats wasnt; in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, UK there is a 16century manor house called "The Old Hall" (imagenative name eh), its claim to fame is King Henry VIII spent one night there.

As a teenager in the 6 weeks summer holidays I decided to have a look around it, I was the first there, probably about 10am. I paid a few pence and off I went looking around, the guy in charge was just turning the lights on as I walked up some stairs, at the top of the stairs was a very large room, the lights went on, I say a man, all dressed in white, with no head, for a second my heart skipped a beat, only to realise it was a papier-mache model of some 16century man, who for an odd reason had no head atm :)

I still look back and laugh, I wonder how many people have ran down those stairs in fear?

BTW The Old Hall has an alleged ghost - "The Grey Lady"
 
My current flat is really boring. :( I never thought of my other abodes as being interesting in any way until I moved to this one. There are no strange noises, no feeling of being followed in the hallway, no rooms which feel creepy. Even my dreams are dull apart from one I'm not going into. :shock:

Its a lovely flat and stuff but I'm starting to get worried about the severe lack of Forteana. I may have to kill someone in order to generate atmosphere... :twisted:
 
Haha, that bit about the tater tot was precious, Example! Keep it up, your curious nature will enhance our educations greatly one day, I predict.

And Rynner, aren't you glad you asked that last question!?! That'll teach you! :p

PS... Tater tots are NOT a breakfast item here, we use them for dinner instead of french fries. I have yet not worked up the nerve to dissect one. But I am sending Example some hairballs I think she'll enjoy. (sits down and waits patiently for the dissection results........) :roll:
 
Lordshiva

Your trying toooooo hard. Like was mentioned earlier, those who have experiences don't expect them and don't really want them. It's a very unnerving and out of control thing. I hope my life continues to be quiet- I've had enough.
 
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