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It!

A

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By Laurel Wentzel

The year was 1993 in the month of November in Phoenix, Arizona USA. It was a clear, beautiful night in the Sonoran desert and my husband-to-be, Dana Wentzel, and I chose to go out into nature and make love...

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Just out of curiosity, did the story of IT! remind anyone of H. P. Lovecraft's The Colour Out of Space?
 
Shades od Ambrose Bierce, 'The Damned Thing' too... but both HPL and AB used folklore as the basis of their works.

8¬)
 
Yes, that's why I asked - I wondered if perhaps HPL had heard some folklore concerning a colour draining 'thing' and used that as the basis for his story.

Yrs.,
D.S.Sh.
 
Quite possibly, after all he was friendly with Robert E Howard and Clark Ashton Smith, both collectors of outre folk lore among the native americans and the settler oral legends of the West


8¬)
 
There's a great deal of literary argument as to whether HPL based his work on folktales or whether it all came straight out of his not-at-all-Freudian head. Clearly, there are a lot of classical references, but the local mythology elements are a bit harder to ascertain.

It is known that he mocked any mention of the supernatural, though he may have based material on it!
 
i wonder if this it thing roamed around freely before powerlines were put in there
 
DanHigginbottom said:
There's a great deal of literary argument as to whether HPL based his work on folktales or whether it all came straight out of his not-at-all-Freudian head. Clearly, there are a lot of classical references, but the local mythology elements are a bit harder to ascertain.

It is known that he mocked any mention of the supernatural, though he may have based material on it!

A lot is just imagination, but some of the themes can be traced into real New England folklore, the Whiporwills in TheDunwich Horror is a prime example. Co-incedentally, another unseen prescence in the wilderness...

8¬)
 
harlequin said:
A lot is just imagination, but some of the themes can be traced into real New England folklore, the Whiporwills in TheDunwich Horror is a prime example. Co-incedentally, another unseen prescence in the wilderness...

8¬)

The Dunwich Horror is, I'm afraid, based very much on Old English history. Dunwich is a village on the coast of East Anglia which was once a major port in its own right. That was until the majority of it dissapeared beneath the waves in a single night. Since then it has been slowly eroded away until only the existing village remains.

I'm sure someone here has more information...

Niles
 
The Dunwich horror is actually based in the country around South Central Massachusetts, New England, which Lovecraft visted in 1928, where he found the sources for much of the topographical and other detail in both The Dunwich Horror, and The Colour Out of Space. HPL actually stated that his Dunwich was based on Wilbraham, Monson and Hampden(Selected Letters Vol 3, I think but my memory is not what it was).

Dunwich,Suffolk, is a charming albeit, small place (and getting smaller every year as its taken by the North Sea), which is probably more similar to HPL's Innsmouth, if a parallel were needed.

Apropos little, the fish shop near the beach in Dunwich was quite excellent :) The 'single night' legend is interesting since it actually refers to the closing of the mouth of the harbour and the concomitant opening of the river into the sea at Southwold, sealing the fate of The King's City of Dunwich. Local historians believe that it was possibly a mild earhtquake in conjunction with an incredibly violent storm.


8¬)
 
Didn't they find a huge stone coffin in Dunwich, with some oddly tall remains inside? Or was that just Colin Wilson making things up for one of his HPL homages?
 
In a crypt under one of the old churches there was found a the body of a 'large framed man, wearing stout boots' (from memory again), around 7 feet in height. The body disintegrated when moved. According to the book 'Men of Dunwich' true enough, rather than one of Colin W's things.

In all honesty, there is nothing much to link HPL to Dunwich saw the use of the name. IMHO of course <deep bow>




8¬)
 
The Lair of It

In the late 80's, after highschool, I moved to Phoenix to live with a friend of mine. At that time we were doing our best to be in the Industrial/Goth punk scene, I.e. going out only at night, chain smoking, dyed hair, black make-up, etc... Unfortunately, I kept letting him down as my nature is to be happy-go-lucky and cheerful. (Many times I was threatened by him and others because I found a certain verse in a Bauhaus song funny).
Anyway, I was reminded of something familiar that happened to me at a place called Kiwanis Park (if my memory serves me correctly). Extremely familiar. In fact, I even wondered if, somehow, my little adventure had become an Urban Myth. I won't go into the particulars as it would seem redundant. The differences are easier to list as there are fewer items. Namely: People (replace Laurel and Dana with myself and two others), Location (Kiwanis instead of the Squaw Peak area), the rustling bushes (strange wind). Now, after this happened, I was pretty freaked out and told just about anyone who would listen. Perhaps for someone else to say that they had similar experiences.
Over the years I have explained it to myself that it was an anxiety attack coupled with an active imagination, and a strong urge to want to see something that was paranormal or unexplainable, even if it was evil.
I AM NOT saying that Laurel and Dana did not experience this "IT". In fact, I would greatly appreciate it if they would e-mail me to compare notes.
 
this story is bunk. anyone familiar with place name
mythology or who has read the book entitled "mysterious america" will know that wentzel wetzel or variations on this
name are of german descent and are often supposidly associated
with strange events as the name translates or has its root in
the term "demon hunter" or some other such nonsense. Just reference a book entitled "Mysterious America"..way to obvious..pathetic really . In fact I wish if people in the future post "It happened to me stories" they would'nt fill them with such bad grammer and spelling and lame plot/fortean references as to make them obviously fake..ie.,. B.S. By the way most of these stories follow a pattern of people being students and are quite lame...LaTeR:D
 
HAHAHAHA...

I had to guess some moron would try and correct
my spelling and think he was high and mighty due to his english
"skills" but entirely miss the point of my post-ie..the "Mysterious America" and place name references. Some idiot always has to try...bah.
 
I have not read the book "Mysterious America" but due to my heritage I am fluent in German, and the name Wetzel or Wenzel has absolutely nothing to do with demon hunters - it is a rather common last name though. Would be interested to hear how he concludes this to be in any way demonic?
 
Wetzel?

Windagow~ said:
"this story is bunk..... wentzel wetzel or variations on this name are of german descent and are often supposidly associated
with strange events as the name translates or has its root in
the term 'demon hunter' or some other such nonsense."

I just checked the Greater Cincinnati, Ohio, telephone directory and there are nearly 100 families therein with the above names or very slight variations. (And that, of course, doesn't include those familites with unlisted numbers.) I have known Wetzels all my life and was in fact in grade school with them. It is a fairly common name in areas settled by German-Americans.

So are you saying that none of these peoples' testimonies can be believed about anything? Or is it merely any paranormal reports which they might make that can't be taken seriously?

You leave me genuinely confused.
 
Its always on an anceint indian burial ground :roll:
 
painy2 said:
Its always on an anceint indian burial ground :roll:

This story screams "bogus" from the get go. Whenever construction was begun in a previously undeveloped area here in Phoenix (which, because of the cancer-like spread of development around here hasn't been for awhile), the site would be examined for Hohokam ruins. A State claim to fame used to be (might still be, as far as I know) that we were the only state with an archeologist on staff.

Having grown up here since the 1950's, I know that even a hint of Hohokam ruins can put a development on hold for YEARS. I am quite familiar with the digs for miles in any direction, as they have always been of special interest to me. I also know the area referred to in this story, and there was/is no Hohokam dig anywhere near the Dreamy Draw. There was a rumor once that that same spot had been a UFO landing site, and the freeway was constructed there to "cover it up."

Sorry; not buying it. Nice story, but It Didn't Happen to You, or anyone else. Not really.

Did anyone else find it odd, too, the "my fiance's name is such-and-such and my friends' names are Thing One and Thing Two..."? A bit too contrived, I think.

Nope.... :?
 
DanHigginbottom~ said:
"There's a great deal of literary argument as to whether HPL based his work on folktales or whether it all came straight out of his not-at-all-Freudian head."

Howard Lovecraft obtained many of his plot-elements and scenarios from the turn-f-the-Twentieth Century books and magazine articles written by the pioneering American folklorist Charles M. Skinner.

The one that comes immediately to mind is the vampire account which became the genesis of Lovecraft's story "The Shunned House," but there are also many others. (And if memory serves, the ending of "The Shunned House" also mirrors the ending of the first and most famous section of Lord Bulwer-Lytton's "The Haunted and the Haunters - or, the House and the Brain.)

Lovecraft also picked many ideas from the pages of Arthur Machen, Ambrose Bierce, Lord Dunsany and Robert W. Chambers. For just one example, it is patently obvious that the apparently gentle nature spirit "Sheol-Nugganoth" which appears in Dunsany's fictional travelogue "Idle Days on the Yann" is the source for Lovecraft's demon-goddess "Shub-Niggurath." Another creature from the same Dunsany story became Lovecraft's monstrous "Nyarathotep."
 
Misinformed?

But assuming that the narrator was misformed about the highway being constructed over an Indian burial site (which bothered me, too), why does this neccessarily make the operative part of her testimony false?

Isn't it just as likely that the whole experience was purely subjective? There's nothing especially paranormal about a desert having a bluish tinge by moonlight and people (including me) panic for the damndest reasons.

And I'm not neccessarily saying that the experience wasn't paranormal, either, merely suggesting that subjective/panic makes just as much sense as hoax/bogus.
 
I am in the midst of a number of quandries, not the least involve whether HPL knew whereof he spake. I think it possible that he deliberatley disinformed his readers as to where he got his influence. Anyhow, anyone who has read Castenada would find this easy to believe. What is more is that (Link Pending) there are several stories related to the Sonorran Desert and what lives there. Just ask any native Sonorran Indians what they think. It is a little childish to dismiss something like this just because it "sounds" like something from a book.

I, myself, have had some odd things happen to me, as well as some equally odd things that have happened to people I've known, which sound all too much like a story that I've read. The main difference being that one of those people ended up in a Mental Institution due to what they went through, something similar to the "Black Hope Horror". I have witnessed things which could be outlandishly explained through science as being a combination of swamp gas, an overactive imagination, and someone playing tricks, but not just one of those things. It would take all of those situations to display some of the more disturbing circumstances that I've encountered. (see some of my previous posts). The idea that these things stopped at power lines rings long and true in my ear; Theory pending....
 
The link in post #1 is long dead. Here's the complete text, salvaged from the Wayback Machine ...

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IT!

Laurel Wentzel

The year was 1993 in the month of November in Phoenix, Arizona USA. It was a clear, beautiful night in the Sonoran desert and my husband-to-be, Dana Wentzel, and I chose to go out into nature and make love.

On the edge of town there are several secluded mountain ranges that can be accessed by a newly constructed freeway called Squaw Peak Parkway. Right past a street called "Northern" we found an exit. The street went toward the mountain range to the east where we found a road leading to horse tunnels (for horse back riding in the desert). One horse tunnel went right under a road. It seemed like a great spot. We locked up the car and walked through a tunnel approximately 100 feet long. As we emerged on the other side we looked at the landscape and the sky. Something strange happened.

I asked, "Dana, do you notice something about the light in this area?" He said, "Yeah, it's blue...almost as if something sucked out all of the other colors." I said, "It is weird isn't it. I've never seen anything like it. There is a full spectrum on the other side of the tunnel and on this side it's blue!" The stars weren't white and twinkling, the lights from the road were dim and his face reflected a shadowy blue-grey color. Next there was a rustling that started at the top of the tunnel – which we were facing. It started right above us. Now the tunnel was directly under the road and there were some shrubs up there next to it. (Most of these desert shrubs are about 4 feet tall or less and you can easily see through their branches.) They began wildly shaking in the absence of wind. Then it seemed as if some "thing" or things were all around us (about 10 feet away on each side) on the ground level closing in. It was absolutely eerie!

One shrub would shake, then the one next to it would start. A chain reaction started that created a circle all the way around us. This pattern of circling continued again and again. Sometimes these shrubs would shake all at once – including the ones atop the tunnel. It was like being stalked. It lasted several minutes. In case you are wondering, we are seasoned desert dwellers and are familiar with camping, hiking, animals, wind currents and the like. Rest assured it was no animal or group of animals, and it was not wind. It was a localized energy moving in a definite pattern and we were within it.

Dana said, "It feels like we are going to be murdered! Maybe there is some cult out here and we're it's victims. Run!" We ran for our lives back through the tunnel and locked ourselves into the car. The next thing we know the shaking starts again about 20 feet away all around the car – but there is no movement anywhere else in the landscape and again it is closing in on us. I was screaming, "Hurry Dana! It's coming towards the car! Hurry!" At that point Dana burst into tears. The feeling of death and fear was so thick that we fumbled to put the key into the ignition and fled in our car. He cried all the way home on that freeway – with the hair on the back of his neck standing on end! He was certain we were about to die, being stalked like prey.

Months later we were at a party where guests were recounting interesting events. Dana and I said we experienced something unusual one night at a horse tunnel off of Squaw Peak Parkway. Before we could tell the story, a couple interrupted us. Their names are Shane and Jennifer Bonheur. Jennifer told us that a group of her friends claim there is a frightening presence they encountered in that area around the horse tunnels. They call it "IT". She described it as "a fear feeder that soaks the light out of the atmosphere – turning it BLUE! It feeds off negative emotions." She told us, "You were in it's lair and were in mortal danger!"

What is startling is that we didn't tell her a thing about the presence we encountered. We just mentioned the tunnel and she finished the rest of the story. Jennifer also said, "IT can create such strong, violent and fearful emotions that people are driven to kill themselves or each other. There is a feeling of death in IT's presence because it will cause you to die if it takes possession of your emotions." She said, " IT can travel at least 50 miles an hour, but cannot easily pass through electrical power lines." Apparently IT chased her friends, even though they fled in their van, and it did not stop until the van crossed under power lines! During IT's pursuit of them, the driver threatened to kill himself along with his passengers. He said he was being overpowered and could not stop himself. After passing under the lines he was fine and his sanity returned. They outran IT.

Just about 4 years ago I was traveling from Paradise Valley back to my home in Phoenix. I missed the 51 entrance to the Squaw Peak Freeway and accidentally wound up on an access road. Knowing "IT" hangs out on the other side of the freeway I was hoping to find a way off that road. However, the road had no outlet. The last building at the dead end was abandoned and there was a huge message spray painted on the facade. The word was "IT" – in bright red letters. I spun my jeep around and high tailed it as fast as I could away from that place! What a nightmare that was for me. Later I found out that Squaw Peak Parkway is built right on top of a Hohokam (Native American) burial ground. Maybe the city dwellers upset some ancient power that is better left alone?

Laurel Wentzel

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SALVAGED FROM: https://web.archive.org/web/20011016083931/http://www.forteantimes.com:80/happened/invisibles.shtml
 
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