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My Strangest Experience

Years ago I won two wooden sculptures that csme from Africa. It turns out that one represents the tree of life. A friend insisted that I should get rid of the mask as it would bring bad luck. This was a long time ago I was spooked so got rid of it. She insisted that it was linked to dark forces.

I sometimes wake in the morning with an irresistible urge to buy something that will make my life complete (new motorbike, metal detector, helmet camera, steam mop). Fortunately the need sometimes wears off before I've flashed the credit card - a genuine shrunken head (human) was in Exchange & Mart for £500, I can't imagine wanting that in the flat now. One day I really really wanted an African tribal mask and went on the nascent Internet to buy one, but there weren't any (then). As I eventually realised that the mask was a religious item and not a curio or toy, two things happened. First was a story in Judge Dredd where an African had a fetish mask and was so worried some-one would steal it (and his powers) he nailed it to his face with small tacks. Secondly I visited a shop in Museum Street (London) which used to sell fossils and looted Egyptian funerary goods - on the opposite side of the road was a shop usually dealing with Americana but had changed to Africana. In the window was a mask associated with a local Corn Goddess with straw for hair. The power and menace dripping off that mask could be felt across the street, I swear I was almost gagging on the smell of blood. Not waking up with that one nailed to my face !
 
I sometimes wake in the morning with an irresistible urge to buy something that will make my life complete (new motorbike, metal detector, helmet camera, steam mop). Fortunately the need sometimes wears off before I've flashed the credit card - a genuine shrunken head (human) was in Exchange & Mart for £500, I can't imagine wanting that in the flat now. One day I really really wanted an African tribal mask and went on the nascent Internet to buy one, but there weren't any (then). As I eventually realised that the mask was a religious item and not a curio or toy, two things happened. First was a story in Judge Dredd where an African had a fetish mask and was so worried some-one would steal it (and his powers) he nailed it to his face with small tacks. Secondly I visited a shop in Museum Street (London) which used to sell fossils and looted Egyptian funerary goods - on the opposite side of the road was a shop usually dealing with Americana but had changed to Africana. In the window was a mask associated with a local Corn Goddess with straw for hair. The power and menace dripping off that mask could be felt across the street, I swear I was almost gagging on the smell of blood. Not waking up with that one nailed to my face !
I wouldn't give things like that any room in my house.
 
I used to chat online to a chap in Mumbai.
Once I mentioned that I had seen a nice statuette of Ganesh and he said unless I was prepared to worship it that it would be bad luck.
Needless to say I didn't buy one.
 
I used to chat online to a chap in Mumbai.
Once I mentioned that I had seen a nice statuette of Ganesh and he said unless I was prepared to worship it that it would be bad luck.
Needless to say I didn't buy one.
And once at work a man of East Indian extraction looked at a co worker who had come in wearing a t shirt with a large picture of Ganesh on it and asked her did she really want to get pregnant that much. She borrowed a different shirt to wear for the rest of the day.
 
And once at work a man of East Indian extraction looked at a co worker who had come in wearing a t shirt with a large picture of Ganesh on it and asked her did she really want to get pregnant that much. She borrowed a different shirt to wear for the rest of the day.

:rollingw:

Of course, we Brits too have potent fertility symbols; the dreaded corn dolly. Do we a thread on this? I've definitely posted before about them.
Dynamite, them are.
 
Oh flip, 'ere we go.

I'm still in bed, feeling rough, and listening to one of the BBC supernatural dramas on YouTube*.

A posh couple have just given another posh couple a xmas gift of an African carving of a woman giving birth. The edition is called 'The Exorcism' so I'm guessing all does not go well.

As Mytho says,
I wouldn't give things like that any room in my house.

But what if they sneak in through t'internet? Eh? Eh?

*Link here if you've missed it.
 
But I have spent years looking in charity shop for a crying child portait but never find one.

I bought one a year or two ago from a charity shop. I was putting a show together about fate and wanted to show one as I talked about curses and superstition. In the end I left it out of the show and it's in a box somewhere. I must say that I scoffed at the idea of them being cursed but on refelction, life hasn't been too easy since it came into my "possession" as it were. The past year has been especially tough.

Maybe time to get rid of it.
 
:rollingw:

Of course, we Brits too have potent fertility symbols;


cac.jpg
 
And once at work a man of East Indian extraction looked at a co worker who had come in wearing a t shirt with a large picture of Ganesh on it and asked her did she really want to get pregnant that much. She borrowed a different shirt to wear for the rest of the day.
I thought Ganesh was the god of good fortune and abundance, intellect and wisdom. Or something like that.
 
People not brought up in a faith or culture don't know what's what about it. I'd put my money on what the workmate of East Indian extraction had to say.
...Except that I was told that stuff by my friend and his Indian wife (who actually is a Hindu and worships Ganesh).
 
I"d like to see one, never did.

You've seen photos though?

They are believed to be scarily potent in matters of fertility.

When a relation was having trouble conceiving I bought her one from a seaside craft shop and had it double-wrapped, then brought it back in a duffel bag on the back of a big Honda! She swears it did the trick as she was pregnant within weeks.

Even more weirdly, one appeared in my home at a time when my own unborn baby was in danger. Nobody knew where it came from, and after the crisis was over and the baby was safe it disappeared. I never got to the bottom of that.
 
...Except that I was told that stuff by my friend and his Indian wife (who actually is a Hindu and worships Ganesh).

If even Hindus don't agree on what Ganesh is about what can we know?

Edit - it works both ways. A Hindu might be puzzled by the fact that a Protestant Christian has no particular regard for the Virgin Mary when Catholics adore her.
 
The UK folk-emblem of fertility has become the supermarket check-out chair*. Does it work only on the females?

I think we should be told!

*They tend to blame the chair but perhaps it is that particular check-out. Wide access seems most appropriate; 10 items or less is unlikely to be exceeded; basket-only is much to be feared! :horr:
 
The UK folk-emblem of fertility has become the supermarket check-out chair*. Does it work only on the females?

I think we should be told!

*They tend to blame the chair but perhaps it is that particular check-out. Wide access seems most appropriate; 10 items or less is unlikely to be exceeded; basket-only is much to be feared! :horr:

We've discussed this at length! Garments are also implicated. I wore a baggy coat during a pregnancy and gave it away afterwards to a friend, who almost immediately became pregnant herself. She later gave it away to a relation who also procreated in record time. Last I heard the coat was still wreaking havoc among local women of childbearing age.
 
If even Hindus don't agree on what Ganesh is about what can we know?

Edit - it works both ways. A Hindu might be puzzled by the fact that a Protestant Christian has no particular regard for the Virgin Mary when Catholics adore her.

No Scriptural basis for it. If I do go back I'll become an Anglican.
 
We've discussed this at length! Garments are also implicated. I wore a baggy coat during a pregnancy and gave it away afterwards to a friend, who almost immediately became pregnant herself. She later gave it away to a relation who also procreated in record time. Last I heard the coat was still wreaking havoc among local women of childbearing age.
Makes a refreshing change from a fertility chair though ..
 
I find it interesting that in European/North American/Hollywood culture, African masks are so often associated with malign spookiness. Maybe the evil is projected from a collective bad conscience from the ways we've exploited the continent and the people dragged out of there under hellish conditions, plus a general lack of familiarity with the original culture. Easy to project onto a blank screen.
Then again, there's also a tendency in popular culture to ascribe dangerous evil powers to any nature based spirituality, including neopaganism. Nature is just so, so out of control!
 
Found the mumsnet one , have copied and pasted below. Have to actually do some work now and get off here!

Warning: it's very long (sorry) and very freaky, and if anyone can come up with a rational explanation I'd be extremely grateful because I'm generally a pretty rational non-woo where's-the-evidence person, but I've never been able to explain this and it still makes my heart beat faster and the hair stand up on my arms when I think about it, years later.

I was pet sitting for my friend several years ago. She had moved into a sort of small holding right on the edge of a village in the SW, with a huge garden that backed onto trees. At the time she had a right menagerie - chickens, ducks, a couple of Shetlands, cats and four black retrievers, three fully grown and one a half grown puppy. Originally DH had been going to come with me as a little holiday but the dates she ended up having to go away for work clashed with a couple of his medical appointments so he stayed at home with our dog and I went to petsit alone.

It was about halfway through my stay, a couple of nights to go. Late evening, already dark when I heard a massive commotion from the chicken shed, banging and thumping. I assumed a fox or something had got in so went out to check. As I was halfway across the garden the noise stopped instantly as if it had been shut off; by the time I got to the shed all was calm and the chickens were all settled, mostly asleep. No sign of any intruder or disturbance at all, nothing to explain the noise or any indication that the chickens had made a noise. Bit freaky but I didn't (and still don't) know much about The Way of Chicken so I locked up again and left them to it.

As I went back in the house a small black shape ran past me out of the back door and I realised the puppy must have got out. It streaked across the garden and off towards the woods. Cue much cursing, then calling her name in vain. More cursing when she didn't come back. I grabbed a torch and put one of the other dogs on the lead, partly for protection, partly because I thought the pup was more likely to come back if I had one of her canine companions with me and partly because I didn't fancy my chances of finding my way back to the house on my own even though there were a couple of vague paths that I'd followed when walking the dogs throughout the week.

Off we trudged into the wood along one of these paths, me calling pup's name at intervals and trying not to imagine murderers and rapists behind every tree trunk. We got to a point where it felt like the trees were starting to thin out and I remember thinking that I didn't remember a clearing on this path and we must have gone wrong somewhere when the dog with me slowed right down and started to resist going forward. I tried to jolly her along - while my stomach suddenly dropped like a stone - and she started growling, a really low serious rumbling growl. By this time I was practically shitting myself. I tried shining the torch ahead but the beam just sort of bounced back off the darkness if that makes sense? I got the sense of something - or somethings - moving but just sinuous deeper black shapes against the blackness and always on the periphery of vision. (The hairs on my arms are standing up again just remembering how completely and utterly terrified I was. I have honestly never known a feeling like it.)

At this point the dog sank right down, still growling, hackles up and refused to budge. I muttered something like "Jesus, you have got to be kidding me" and this ugly gurgling inhuman sort of voice hissed, right up close as if someone was right next to me "don't say that name". At the same time there was a horrible snickering sort of laugh. I cant express how utterly petrified I was. I can't remember having any coherent thoughts apart from the word "evil". That's the only clear thing I can remember. Me and the dog were frozen to the spot with pure fear. Then a different voice, really commanding, said "GO. BACK." That sounded more in my head but echoey, where the others had sounded out in the air IYSWIM?

Wherever it came from it did the trick. Me & the dog turned and belted back through the woods. She basically towed me, I just clung onto her lead stumbling to keep up and sobbing with fear. I lost the torch somewhere on that wild run but there was no way I was stopping to find it. How I didn't run blindly into a tree I'll never know, she guided me I guess. I can remember thinking desperately that I mustn't let go of her lead or "they" would get me.

When we got back to the garden she suddenly stopped - I did fall over her this time, onto my hands and knees - turned around and started snarling, proper teeth bared, rabid-looking snarls, back at the trees and the darkness. I thought I heard the snickering again but the blood was pounding in my ears so hard I can't be sure. I scrambled up and ran to the back door and she followed me but backing and snarling all the way as if holding something at bay. Oh, and the chicken shed was banging and thumping again. I got the back door open, me and her belted in, I slammed home every bolt behind us. The other dogs left behind were staring at the door and growling too with their hackles up and when I saw all three of them, puppy included, acting like that I started to cry properly because I honestly thought I was trapped in some horror film nightmare and was going to die. I don't know - I still don't know - what the black shape was that ran past me out of the house and triggered all of this because the puppy was right there in the kitchen.

Anyway I made sure every door and window was locked and bolted, I turned on every light in the house, I wandered round mumbling all sorts of weird half-religious half-spiritual shit to ward off evil spirits. Gradually the dogs settled down and stopped growling, and eventually stopped glancing at the door. Funnily enough I didn't sleep for one second that night and I rang my DH and begged him to come over the last couple of days. I know I didn't dream it because I was covered in scratches from running through the woods and had grazed hands from where I fell over the dog in the garden.

Nothing like that has happened before or since and I hope it never, ever does. It was the single most horrible, terrifying experience of my entire li

Wow! That’s a great story!
Reminds me a little of something I heard on the radio 20 odd years ago. I think this is how it went, but the general gist of it is accurate.

A bloke called in to say that he was once staying in an old hotel and one night he was sat in a chair watching TV in his room. Suddenly, the lights went out and the TV went off. He got up and went to the light switch, trying it a few times with no luck. As he turned around to try the TV he saw a large black shape silhouetted against the window and right behind the chair he’d been sitting in. It was making a grunting noise and slightly pulsating. He was understandably frozen with fear when, in his head he heard a voice saying ‘call my name, call my name’. Involuntary he called out ‘Jesus’ and with that the dark figure let out a loud cry and vanished.
 
Wow! That’s a great story!
Reminds me a little of something I heard on the radio 20 odd years ago. I think this is how it went, but the general gist of it is accurate.

A bloke called in to say that he was once staying in an old hotel and one night he was sat in a chair watching TV in his room. Suddenly, the lights went out and the TV went off. He got up and went to the light switch, trying it a few times with no luck. As he turned around to try the TV he saw a large black shape silhouetted against the window and right behind the chair he’d been sitting in. It was making a grunting noise and slightly pulsating. He was understandably frozen with fear when, in his head he heard a voice saying ‘call my name, call my name’. Involuntary he called out ‘Jesus’ and with that the dark figure let out a loud cry and vanished.

Dunno about that one. I mean, you'd've already said the Name.

Well, His full name, 'Jesus H. Fucking CHRIST!'
 
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