• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

OOP Person

mikfez

Generally Bewildered
Joined
Aug 17, 2006
Messages
497
Location
East Yorkshire
I'm not sure what happened to me but -
I was attending a Good Councillor Course at Bishop Burton College yesterday and during a break I went out to get a cup of tea.
On my return there was a young man stood in the middle of the room with shoulder length black hair which was dripping wet - he held my gaze for a few seconds then ran out of the room. I put my tea down and tried to see where he went but he was gone.
The course was for Parish Councillors and there was no one there under 40.
 
I'm not sure what happened to me but -
I was attending a Good Councillor Course at Bishop Burton College yesterday and during a break I went out to get a cup of tea.
On my return there was a young man stood in the middle of the room with shoulder length black hair which was dripping wet - he held my gaze for a few seconds then ran out of the room. I put my tea down and tried to see where he went but he was gone.
The course was for Parish Councillors and there was no one there under 40.

a bit more detail. Was the man invited? What did everyone else do? etc.
 
I'm not sure what happened to me but -
I was attending a Good Councillor Course at Bishop Burton College yesterday and during a break I went out to get a cup of tea.
On my return there was a young man stood in the middle of the room with shoulder length black hair which was dripping wet - he held my gaze for a few seconds then ran out of the room. I put my tea down and tried to see where he went but he was gone.
The course was for Parish Councillors and there was no one there under 40.
A random student? Girlfriend poured a glass of water over his head and he ran off?
 
a bit more detail. Was the man invited? What did everyone else do? etc.

I don't think he was invited as I didn't see him at the beginning of the course and everyone else was totally unaware of his presence - I asked a few people and no one else seemed to have seen him.
There was only one entrance to the room and a fire exit which was shut and unable to be opened from the outside.

He may well have been a student but what was he doing stood in the middle of the room - he didn't have a life-support phone in his hand and didn't seem to be doing anything but standing there until he saw I was looking at him and he seemed rather surprised.
It was the first tea-break so there were no dirty cups to be cleared up.

I would think there is a totally mundane reason for his presence - he may have walked in by mistake but there are no other seminar/classroooms nearby that were being used. The toilets were just outside in the corridor and he may have taken a wrong turn after washing his hair ;)
 
I don't think he was invited as I didn't see him at the beginning of the course and everyone else was totally unaware of his presence - I asked a few people and no one else seemed to have seen him.
There was only one entrance to the room and a fire exit which was shut and unable to be opened from the outside.

He may well have been a student but what was he doing stood in the middle of the room - he didn't have a life-support phone in his hand and didn't seem to be doing anything but standing there until he saw I was looking at him and he seemed rather surprised.
It was the first tea-break so there were no dirty cups to be cleared up.

I would think there is a totally mundane reason for his presence - he may have walked in by mistake but there are no other seminar/classroooms nearby that were being used. The toilets were just outside in the corridor and he may have taken a wrong turn after washing his hair ;)


What I absolutely love about these sorts of accounts, and I 've had a few myself, is that we don't go up and check them out.

I still think us Brits are terrible Fortean investigators as we are like "hmm as you are, I've just seen a 10 foot Martain - I'm too British to check it out as I'd have to start an awkward conversation".

Britishness aside I think there is a brain-fade where the brain just shuts off weirdness and we just leave it alone. We don't stop, we don't go back, it's almost like we deny what we've seen.


When did this happen?
 
OTOH it was peeing with rain up here on Wednesday so he could have come in from outside to what he thought was an unused room and then you came in and he realised he was going to end up an unwanted extra, so he fled.

Students are just starting a new term now, so he could have been a new starter who got lost on his way to a lecture.
 
Sorry to party poop, but, just from the original description, I don't see anything particularly Fortean about this.

I work in a number of different schools and training facilities - and most of them are places where random people wander in - through being lost, in the wrong room- or checking things out.

Despite the presence of Security staff in many of the schools, opprtunist thiefs have been known to enrer some of the buildings and walk off with people's coats containg their wallets, etc.

I remember on occasion when I was at a teacher training event. We were doing some meet-and-greet warmer type of activity which consisted of walking around asking each other certain questions. There was a rather young looking new teacher partaking with us - and she looked increasingly distraught. Eventually she asked: `Why are all these old people here? (or something to that effect).

It turned out that she was a teenage student who had arrived for her first lesson of an English language course - but was in the wrong room!
 
Last edited:
What I absolutely love about these sorts of accounts, and I 've had a few myself, is that we don't go up and check them out.
I still think us Brits are terrible Fortean investigators as we are like "hmm as you are, I've just seen a 10 foot Martain - I'm too British to check it out as I'd have to start an awkward conversation".
Britishness aside I think there is a brain-fade where the brain just shuts off weirdness and we just leave it alone. We don't stop, we don't go back, it's almost like we deny what we've seen.
When did this happen?

Like Douglas Adams' SEP - Somebody Else's Problem
A shrug of the shoulders and get on with things.
It happened this Wednesday 2nd October - it was a lovely dry Autumn day
 
Sorry to party poop, but, just from the original description, I don't see anything particularly Fortean about this.

I work in a number of different schools and training facilities - and most of them are places where random people wander in - through being lost, in the wrong room- or checking things out.

Despite the presence of Security staff in many of the schools, opprtunist thiefs have been known to enrer some of the buildings and walk off with people's coats containg their wallets, etc.

I remember on occasion when I was at a teacher training event. We were doing some meet-and-greet warmer type of activity which consisted of walking around asking each other certain questions. There was a rather young looking new teacher partaking with us - and she looked increasingly distraught. Eventually she asked: `Why are all these old people here? (or something to that effect).

It turned out that she was a teenage student who had arrived for her first lesson of an English language course - but was in the wrong room!

You may well be correct - but it was the way he was stood in the middle of the floor in a room full of crusty old parish councillors doing nothing until he saw me looking at him then he made his exit.
I've always assume that most "Fortean" phenomena have mundane explanations and this example probably does but then Fortean Times would be and A4 leaflet if we discounted everything at first glance.
It's what make life interesting - or at least I think that's the case.
 
it was the way he was stood in the middle of the floor in a room full of crusty old parish councillors doing nothing until he saw me looking at him then he made his exit.
Oh, so there were other people in the room as well? I initially read your account as though you were first back in after a tea break, and saw the mystery person there. Did he seem to acknowledge the other people in the room in any way, or they him?
 
You may well be correct - but it was the way he was stood in the middle of the floor in a room full of crusty old parish councillors doing nothing until he saw me looking at him then he made his exit.
I've always assume that most "Fortean" phenomena have mundane explanations and this example probably does but then Fortean Times would be and A4 leaflet if we discounted everything at first glance.
It's what make life interesting - or at least I think that's the case.
The way you describe it, it seems as though he materialised in the room and was a bit dazed for a few seconds until he regained his wits.
 
The way you describe it, it seems as though he materialised in the room and was a bit dazed for a few seconds until he regained his wits.

Yup, reminds me of the story on'ere about the dog that materialised from an interior wall in front of two little boys!
It apparently sprang out of the wall, looked around a bit in a puzzled way then ran off!
 
Oh, so there were other people in the room as well? I initially read your account as though you were first back in after a tea break, and saw the mystery person there. Did he seem to acknowledge the other people in the room in any way, or they him?

Nope - he seemed totally oblivious to what was around him and as far as I could tell no one else noticed him.
 
Just had a strange coincidence with this post. Half an hour ago I was browsing on this site when my teenage daughter came in the room and told me of an event that happened yesterday. She attends a drama group in a small building in the town centre and they were sat in a circle yesterday in one of the rooms. The other rooms are used by the other drama students who are younger or older as the groups are seperated in age. So they are sat in a circle with their teacher stood talking to them when the door opened and a man stepped into the doorway. She said he was tall, dark skinned and wearing dark clothing. He looked at them for a second and then turned and ran. The teacher went after him but he had vanished. She said she had been quite frightened by it. I spent some moments reassuring her that he had probably just been lost, but the fact that he ran had unnerved me too. Then my daughter leaves and I click on the next post and its this . Who are these men?!
 
Just had a strange coincidence with this post. Half an hour ago I was browsing on this site when my teenage daughter came in the room and told me of an event that happened yesterday. She attends a drama group in a small building in the town centre and they were sat in a circle yesterday in one of the rooms. The other rooms are used by the other drama students who are younger or older as the groups are seperated in age. So they are sat in a circle with their teacher stood talking to them when the door opened and a man stepped into the doorway. She said he was tall, dark skinned and wearing dark clothing. He looked at them for a second and then turned and ran. The teacher went after him but he had vanished. She said she had been quite frightened by it. I spent some moments reassuring her that he had probably just been lost, but the fact that he ran had unnerved me too. Then my daughter leaves and I click on the next post and its this . Who are these men?!

People often report seeing what seems to be a person walking along when there shouldn't be anyone there. They disappear out of sight round a corner or through a door. Maybe they've all just materialised?
 
Just had a strange coincidence with this post. Half an hour ago I was browsing on this site when my teenage daughter came in the room and told me of an event that happened yesterday. She attends a drama group in a small building in the town centre and they were sat in a circle yesterday in one of the rooms. The other rooms are used by the other drama students who are younger or older as the groups are seperated in age. So they are sat in a circle with their teacher stood talking to them when the door opened and a man stepped into the doorway. She said he was tall, dark skinned and wearing dark clothing. He looked at them for a second and then turned and ran. The teacher went after him but he had vanished. She said she had been quite frightened by it. I spent some moments reassuring her that he had probably just been lost, but the fact that he ran had unnerved me too. Then my daughter leaves and I click on the next post and its this . Who are these men?!
Woooha! Spooky synchronisity!
 
Just had a strange coincidence with this post. Half an hour ago I was browsing on this site when my teenage daughter came in the room and told me of an event that happened yesterday. She attends a drama group in a small building in the town centre and they were sat in a circle yesterday in one of the rooms. The other rooms are used by the other drama students who are younger or older as the groups are seperated in age. So they are sat in a circle with their teacher stood talking to them when the door opened and a man stepped into the doorway. She said he was tall, dark skinned and wearing dark clothing. He looked at them for a second and then turned and ran. The teacher went after him but he had vanished. She said she had been quite frightened by it. I spent some moments reassuring her that he had probably just been lost, but the fact that he ran had unnerved me too. Then my daughter leaves and I click on the next post and its this . Who are these men?!

Grown up Black Eyed Children!

Not really. Lost students.
 
In the book Will Storr Vs The Supernatural, the journalist reports in detail a story reluctantly told to him by a man called Milton. Short version, at the age of 6 or 7 he and his brother are larking about in the upstairs bathroom, flicking water at each other when 2 people - both women in outdated (30s or 40s) clothing - visibly and physically materialise right there in front of them. They become solid people. "They were looking at each other and smiling at us and really happy". They run downstairs - with the women's encouragement/permission - to alert their parents who are unbelieving and indifferent. When they go back up the women are nowhere to be seen.

I recount this here because that mental image of the women looking - as I interpret it - pleased with themselves ("they were looking at each other") for succesfully achieving something (whether that's the act of materialising or the fact of managing to be seen), sticks in my mind. Your story of everyone else seeming unaware of the young man and his surprise to see you seeing him brings it to mind.

******
What of his dripping wet hair. That brings something more personal to mind and maybe someone here can answer a question I never pursued when I should....

As reported on these boards in the months prior to my brother's death he had a (pre) deathbed vision in hospital. He appeared to wake up to the announcement of a visitor and our late father, much younger and healthier than we knew him, appeared in his room. He didn't say anything but the thing of great note and mystery was that he was wet like he'd just come in from the rain, and was carrying a folded up umbrella.

I recounted the incident by email to the SPR's (and the Fortean Times's) ghost chap Alan Murdie with whom i'd had some previous correspondence, and I asked him about this particular detail.. the vision/apparition being wet..I was looking for some confirmation that this was a feature of other people's ghostly experiences, so as to bolster the supernatural interpretation of events. I asked if he knew of such in the literature. AM replied he had indeed heard matching accounts and invited me to phone him to discuss it. I'm afraid to say my aversion to phone conversation, the suspicion he may have misunderstood the precise nature of my query (about the water/rain/being wet) and life - or in this case death - getting in the way all meant i never responded or took him up on the suggestion to phone. So I still don't know, 3 years later, whether ghosts being "wet" is an established thing. The implication if it is might be that they pass through something in order to appear here. But as ive not heard of it as a common feature in other reports, perhaps not.

But does anyone know?
 
Very interesting thread, excellent accounts from all concerned and it got me wondering... yes, some of these sort of things could have a mundane explanation - but on the other hand it's possible that a lot of things we dismiss as 'mundane' may actually be paranormal in nature.

What I mean is... there's nothing to say that every seemingly 'normal' event has to actually be normal, or have a normal 'source' as it were.

A man walking into a room and looking confused would likely be dismissed by most people as just someone who'd got lost, because that's the sort of thing lost people do. But if that man had just materialised moments earlier, his 'normal' actions are no longer quite so normal... you see?


(This sounded much better in my head before I typed it out. Hopefully you all get what I mean).
 
Very interesting thread, excellent accounts from all concerned and it got me wondering... yes, some of these sort of things could have a mundane explanation - but on the other hand it's possible that a lot of things we dismiss as 'mundane' may actually be paranormal in nature.

What I mean is... there's nothing to say that every seemingly 'normal' event has to actually be normal, or have a normal 'source' as it were.

A man walking into a room and looking confused would likely be dismissed by most people as just someone who'd got lost, because that's the sort of thing lost people do. But if that man had just materialised moments earlier, his 'normal' actions are no longer quite so normal... you see?


(This sounded much better in my head before I typed it out. Hopefully you all get what I mean).

We getcha. Once again you've shown that things aren't just black n white.
 
Back
Top