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Odd Experiences: As A Child Versus As An Adult

Sollywos said:
mmm interesting and pertinent point. You seem to be suggesting it's your faulty hearing machanism that's at fault and that Ms. PeteS is sure you are ignoring her on purpose. (Forgive me if I got that wrong but 'faulty hearing' is a common cause of family distress in the various households I've been part of over the years!)

As someone who is frequently being accused I have the following explaination. It could be that we have heard it well enough with our hearing apparatus but our subconscious didn't like it so filtered it out for us? So we aren't being deliberately obtuse, are we?

On the other hand it's handy to be able to play the deaf card ......... ;)

Sollywos x
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It is partly faulty hearing, and I'm sure partly filtering - I won't deny it. My father became frustratingly adept at the latter, to the point that if anyone, including me, asked him a question or spoke to him, his automatic response was to say Pardon?. His hearing was not impaired at all either.
 
PeteS said:
It is partly faulty hearing, and I'm sure partly filtering - I won't deny it. My father became frustratingly adept at the latter, to the point that if anyone, including me, asked him a question or spoke to him, his automatic response was to say Pardon?. His hearing was not impaired at all either.
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My father did that. He'd interrupt whatever was said to him him with 'What?' then you'd report it and he'd automatically contradict everything.
 
Spookdaddy said:
I'm bumping this thread because

a) The assimilation over suppression thing really fascinates me, and I think it merits an airing out.

b) I'd just like to say that having, in the past, been completely unable to find the story I posted re my bedroom knocker, I'm impressed by how much improved the site search function is from the one I totally gave up on several years ago.

c) Looks like birdy hasn't been around for months, but I'd love to know if they ever got to the bottom of their own tapper.
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Hello! Never did get to the bottom of it but the next flat we moved into absolutely had things that went bump, crash and bang in the night, horrible awful place. The day I moved out the only things left in the flat were about five taped up boxes in the living room, I was in the adjoining room and heard a terrible crash, like something glass had fallen over, dashed in to find (of course) nothing that could have made that sound but I did get startled by a white flash that whizzed past my face. Maybe we took the tapper with us but thankfully we now appear to have left it behind!
 
LOL - Oh dear, my husband has been saying 'WHAT??' more and more to me lately, now you guys have me worried!
Especially after I go through a long list of all the things that have to get done the following day, and don't forget this, and don't forget that, and I get 'WHAT??' from him at the end........
 
Ronnie Jersey said:
LOL - Oh dear, my husband has been saying 'WHAT??' more and more to me lately, now you guys have me worried!
Especially after I go through a long list of all the things that have to get done the following day, and don't forget this, and don't forget that, and I get 'WHAT??' from him at the end........
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I learned a long time ago that reading a long list out to someone is a poor way to communicate. Give them the list and trust them to do what's right. Or not. :chuckle:
 
Oh, I do like a good bump!

To children, everything is weird. Until they learn questioning skills, understand the answers and translate them, then everything is magic. Or it 'just is'. After all, how many adults can explain to a child's satisfaction,, how trees grow? Or why the wind blows? To a child, watching your shadow move as a light passes around you, is magic. And given that very small children lack the vocabulary to accurately explain something they have seen, I think these may contribute to why children experience more odd things than adults.
 
When I was a child, I used to live in the "Tours Emile Aillaud" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tours_Aillaud ), in Nanterre, in the Western suburb of Paris. My parents were the first occupants of the flat.

Yet, as many small children, I was scared to death on a regular basis by "ghostly" apparitions specifically occurring in a corner of my room. There, in a small recess into the wall, stood a sink. At night I would wake up to see a shadow figure, the size and shape of a man but deprived of any features, standing in front of the sink, silently gazing at me (although he had no eyes). And slowly, the shadow would advance towards my bed. This would terrify me. The first time it happened, I couldn't move. On subsequent occurrences, I would spring up, and make a run towards the light switch in the hope that light would banish the intruder. It was a desperate move, since the light switch stood midway between the apparition and my bed. So after a while, I used the last remaining option : calling for my mother for help.

Night terrors you may say. And you would probably be right since I was between 6 to 7 years old when this happened.

However, there remained something very weird about the sink recess in this room, something I never really managed to understand : at the base of the wall, in a corner of the recess, under the sink, there was a small "point" of light that would never go out. Where did this tiny light came from, I cannot fathom, for on the other side of the wall only stood our bathroom, and we did not leave any lights open in the bathroom. This corner wasn't facing any window either. It should really have been a dark place. It still makes me wonder if my childhood night terrors were really night terrors, or if there was something else about the place that contributed to my childhood anguish ...

I migrated to another room at 11 or 12 years old.

Another weirdness about my childhood is that, earlier, when I was perhaps 3 or 4 years old, I would have bouts of panic while in bed. I would start screaming "balloon ! balloon !" (in English) and act as if something was trying to eat my feet. My parents interpreted this as the direct consequence of watching Disney's "Alice in Wonderland" and being impressed by the surprise apparitions of the Cheshire cat and his bright dentition. That well may be the case.

But what I find strange is the following : why was I calling that "Balloon" ? I was French, living in France, and French speaking. I should have said "ballon, ballon", with a very different pronunciation ...
 
catseye said:
Oh, I do like a good bump!

To children, everything is weird. Until they learn questioning skills, understand the answers and translate them, then everything is magic. Or it 'just is'. After all, how many adults can explain to a child's satisfaction,, how trees grow? Or why the wind blows? To a child, watching your shadow move as a light passes around you, is magic. And given that very small children lack the vocabulary to accurately explain something they have seen, I think these may contribute to why children experience more odd things than adults.
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Yesterday, out on the bikes, I noticed some adult with a young child walking along.
Suddenly the child ran off towards another adult and they had a big cuddle.

It was a set-up, I reckon. Parent said 'Let's have a walk on the square!' knowing Uncle Jack would be coming that way for tea and they'd all toddle off together.
It's the sort of astonishing coincidence all parents arrange. Blows kids' minds. :chuckle:
 
My kids are adults now, but they are still my children...

We were out at a food festival the other weekend, when there was An Incident. Several police officers passed us (I was with my three daughters and their partners) running, there was much kerfuffle. Two of the police came back down the road again and I said to the kids 'move to the side, there's an ambulance going to come up into the square.'

Seconds later, the remaining police officers came down, moving the crowds back, telling us to get onto the pavement as there was an ambulance coming. The kids were agog. I got asked 'how did you KNOW?' 'I'm psychic,' I said smugly.

But after I'd been asked for the third or fourth time, I came clean. I knew.... because the two police officers who'd walked down the road, had been talking about moving the crowd back because an ambulance was going to have to get through. I'd been listening to them. My kids had been too busy chattering amongst themselves to pay attention.

Usually, with adults and younger kids, this works in reverse. The children pay attention to the small stuff that passes under the adults radar, and seem to 'know things' they couldn't possibly know. Only because the adults didn't know it - they just weren't listening.
 
catseye said:
My kids are adults now, but they are still my children...

We were out at a food festival the other weekend, when there was An Incident. Several police officers passed us (I was with my three daughters and their partners) running, there was much kerfuffle. Two of the police came back down the road again and I said to the kids 'move to the side, there's an ambulance going to come up into the square.'

Seconds later, the remaining police officers came down, moving the crowds back, telling us to get onto the pavement as there was an ambulance coming. The kids were agog. I got asked 'how did you KNOW?' 'I'm psychic,' I said smugly.

But after I'd been asked for the third or fourth time, I came clean. I knew.... because the two police officers who'd walked down the road, had been talking about moving the crowd back because an ambulance was going to have to get through. I'd been listening to them. My kids had been too busy chattering amongst themselves to pay attention.

Usually, with adults and younger kids, this works in reverse. The children pay attention to the small stuff that passes under the adults radar, and seem to 'know things' they couldn't possibly know. Only because the adults didn't know it - they just weren't listening.
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Yup, some years ago I overheard a conversation between theme park staff about the flashy new ride that had been unveiled.
Seems it was always breaking down, every day something was wrong with it, deathtrap, never knew anything like it; tell you what, I've been on every ride in this place a hundred times but I'd never go on THAT!

I listened, all agog. :omg:

It was of course Alton Towers and the ride was the Smiler. This was two years before the big accident, after a long catalogue of failures and stoppages.
Seems it was so unreliable, staff treated the problems as routine. Vigilance declined and then began cutting corners.
 
AmStramGram said:
When I was a child, I used to live in the "Tours Emile Aillaud" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tours_Aillaud ), in Nanterre, in the Western suburb of Paris. My parents were the first occupants of the flat.

Yet, as many small children, I was scared to death on a regular basis by "ghostly" apparitions specifically occurring in a corner of my room. There, in a small recess into the wall, stood a sink. At night I would wake up to see a shadow figure, the size and shape of a man but deprived of any features, standing in front of the sink, silently gazing at me (although he had no eyes). And slowly, the shadow would advance towards my bed. This would terrify me. The first time it happened, I couldn't move. On subsequent occurrences, I would spring up, and make a run towards the light switch in the hope that light would banish the intruder. It was a desperate move, since the light switch stood midway between the apparition and my bed. So after a while, I used the last remaining option : calling for my mother for help.

Night terrors you may say. And you would probably be right since I was between 6 to 7 years old when this happened.

However, there remained something very weird about the sink recess in this room, something I never really managed to understand : at the base of the wall, in a corner of the recess, under the sink, there was a small "point" of light that would never go out. Where did this tiny light came from, I cannot fathom, for on the other side of the wall only stood our bathroom, and we did not leave any lights open in the bathroom. This corner wasn't facing any window either. It should really have been a dark place. It still makes me wonder if my childhood night terrors were really night terrors, or if there was something else about the place that contributed to my childhood anguish ...

I migrated to another room at 11 or 12 years old.

Another weirdness about my childhood is that, earlier, when I was perhaps 3 or 4 years old, I would have bouts of panic while in bed. I would start screaming "balloon ! balloon !" (in English) and act as if something was trying to eat my feet. My parents interpreted this as the direct consequence of watching Disney's "Alice in Wonderland" and being impressed by the surprise apparitions of the Cheshire cat and his bright dentition. That well may be the case.

But what I find strange is the following : why was I calling that "Balloon" ? I was French, living in France, and French speaking. I should have said "ballon, ballon", with a very different pronunciation ...
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I wonder what previously occupied the site where your home was?
 
escargot said:
It was a set-up, I reckon. Parent said 'Let's have a walk on the square!' knowing Uncle Jack would be coming that way for tea and they'd all toddle off together.
It's the sort of astonishing coincidence all parents arrange. Blows kids' minds. :chuckle:
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MrsF and I have done this with the dog. It blows her mind too.
Mind you, considering a fox ran right in front of her the other week and she didn't see it, it does take her a while to realise it's one of us who has 'miraculously' appeared in the park/field etc, when she only left home with one owner.
 
Floyd1 said:
MrsF and I have done this with the dog. It blows her mind too.
Mind you, considering a fox ran right in front of her the other week and she didn't see it, it does take her a while to realise it's one of us who has 'miraculously' appeared in the park/field etc, when she only left home with one owner.
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Mine is the same! She can scent out a hare and follow its trail across a field some minutes after the hare itself - yet we can meet one of the kids out walking and she will do her 'alert' stance and rush up as she would to a stranger, barking and defensive... surely surely if her sense of smell is good enough to track animals, she ought to be able to tell who she's looking at!

She is though, as I have previously observed, an idiot.
 
I used to hear -or think I could hear -someone breathing when I was in bed. Scary!
I can just about remember my parents coming in to check the bedroom, look under the bed etc etc.
I was sure it wasn't ME I could hear.

I'm relieved to say it doesn't happen these days!
 
Recycled1 said:
I used to hear -or think I could hear -someone breathing when I was in bed. Scary!
I can just about remember my parents coming in to check the bedroom, look under the bed etc etc.
I was sure it wasn't ME I could hear.

I'm relieved to say it doesn't happen these days!
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Oh, you've just reminded me! I used to lie in bed listening to a 'scratchy' sound that would come and go, sounding as though it was under my pillow or on the sheets near my face. Scritch scratch. Then quiet for a few moments, then scritch scratch again. I was terrified. I used to get my parents to come and check the bed and under the pillow - nothing there, I'd get back into bed and...scritch scratch again.

It took years for me to work out that it was my eyelashes making a noise against the cotton pillowcase when I blinked...
 
catseye said:
Mine is the same! She can scent out a hare and follow its trail across a field some minutes after the hare itself - yet we can meet one of the kids out walking and she will do her 'alert' stance and rush up as she would to a stranger, barking and defensive... surely surely if her sense of smell is good enough to track animals, she ought to be able to tell who she's looking at!

She is though, as I have previously observed, an idiot.
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It happened another time when a fox ran right in front of us that she didn't see, but when we walked a few inches further on to where it had crossed, she stopped suddenly and said ''somethings been here daddy, you wouldn't understand. Us dogs know these things''.
I replied, yes it was a fox, I saw it as plain as day. Do you need glasses?
 
Floyd1 said:
It happened another time when a fox ran right in front of us that she didn't see, but when we walked a few inches further on to where it had crossed, she stopped suddenly and said ''somethings been here daddy, you wouldn't understand. Us dogs know these things''.
I replied, yes it was a fox, I saw it as plain as day. Do you need glasses?
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I am impressed by your dog's cohesive thinking. Mine just goes 'Rah! Rah! Here! Thingthingthingthingthing! Bye!'
 
catseye said:
Mine is the same! She can scent out a hare and follow its trail across a field some minutes after the hare itself - yet we can meet one of the kids out walking and she will do her 'alert' stance and rush up as she would to a stranger, barking and defensive... surely surely if her sense of smell is good enough to track animals, she ought to be able to tell who she's looking at!

She is though, as I have previously observed, an idiot.
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Our dog now barks if someone she has just been in the room with, goes upstairs - when she hears them coming back downstairs. Not sure if it's dementia or just her general thickness. That's probably the discrepancy between being a child dog and an older one, so kind of on topic.
 
Ghost In The Machine said:
Our dog now barks if someone she has just been in the room with, goes upstairs - when she hears them coming back downstairs. Not sure if it's dementia or just her general thickness. That's probably the discrepancy between being a child dog and an older one, so kind of on topic.
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Years ago we had an old flat roof, covered in roofing felt (it's been re-done now in some rubberised stuff) and when I needed to do any minor work out there, to save going outside, getting the ladder out and banging my head on the shed etc, I accessed the roof via the spare room window.

Both our old dog and the one we have now would attack me when I was climbing back in through the window.
 
IamSundog said:
I think one reason these experiences get pushed to the back of the mental closet is that you usually can’t draw any useful information or lesson from them. They happen, they’re bizarre, and that’s all you can say about them. You can’t understand how or why or what they mean. You can’t recreate them or cause them to happen – well, I can’t anyway.

Also, it’s not generally socially acceptable to talk about them, it marks you as weird. It’s only occasionally that circumstances are right and people feel safe sharing their strange experiences. And you tend not to think too much about things that you never have cause to talk about.

But you have to wonder how many millions of strange stories remain untold. A few months ago I was having a drink with two of my best friends for the past 15 years – two guys I’ve hung with and talked with a lot. Somehow the conversation drifted to strange experiences. I told my ghost story and mild UFO sightings. One friend volunteered that his father’s ghost had visited him a few weeks after death. The other friend (1) had a UFO hover over his car shining a light down and had missing time, and (2) saw a pterodactyl in flight. All these years I had no idea. And this guy is a cancer surgeon – you know, a ‘’credible, rational” person.
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I had a friend who was convinced she saw a Pterodactyl flying in broad daylight in Bristol of all places. She looked up and there it was. The strangest thibg was that even though she was certain it was a Pterodactyl, it seemed entirely normal and unrenarkable at the time. It was obly days later she thouggt 'what the hell haooened there?'
 
Mr_Hermolle said:
I had a friend who was convinced she saw a Pterodactyl flying in broad daylight in Bristol of all places. She looked up and there it was. The strangest thibg was that even though she was certain it was a Pterodactyl, it seemed entirely normal and unrenarkable at the time. It was obly days later she thouggt 'what the hell haooened there?'
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When it comes to sightings like this, I'd have to ask how experienced was the friend with general bird life? I've had people shout excitedly to me about the 'pterodactyl' flying over before - it's a heron. But to people who know nothing about birds, the way they fly with their legs trailing, the size of them and the weird noises they make can look very pterodactyl-like.
 
catseye said:
When it comes to sightings like this, I'd have to ask how experienced was the friend with general bird life? I've had people shout excitedly to me about the 'pterodactyl' flying over before - it's a heron. But to people who know nothing about birds, the way they fly with their legs trailing, the size of them and the weird noises they make can look very pterodactyl-like.
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I've only ever seen a heron flying on one occasion. It was a weird sight indeed.
 
catseye said:
I live near a heronry (and river) so I'm quite accustomed to seeing them lurching about overhead. Not the most gainly of birds, certainly.
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I often used to see this one doing his fishing on the canal, but not for a while now;
Heron.jpg
 
Recycled1 said:
I used to hear -or think I could hear -someone breathing when I was in bed. Scary!
I can just about remember my parents coming in to check the bedroom, look under the bed etc etc.
I was sure it wasn't ME I could hear.

I'm relieved to say it doesn't happen these days!
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Exactly what happened to me, when I lived in a haunted building for some years.
I would wake up and hear someone breathing right next to my bed, on one side only, there was no mistaking it, I was alone and the windows were closed.
I would hold my breath to make sure I wasn't just hearing myself, it was someone breathing, and it was loud.
Horrible feeling.
 
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