Panic: A Genuine Example In The Old Sense Of The Word?

[Rosebud]

Very spooky story.

Here is the thread you mentioned:

http://forum.forteantimes.com/index...e-example-in-the-old-sense-of-the-word.26643/

 

[djshadow]

Very spooky story.

Here is the thread you mentioned:

http://forum.forteantimes.com/index...e-example-in-the-old-sense-of-the-word.26643/

Ah yes, that be the one. Its a fascinating thread. Thanks. What I found most scary about our incident was how quickly it came on, seemingly with no apparent reason.

I wonder sometimes if a few of these experiences could be attributed to Infrasound. Which under the right conditions I understand, can produce feelings of fear. Although in our case I was not affected.

Thinking about it - At the time the panic came on we were at the top of a long downward slope - Could this factor have created a pressure difference in the car thus bringing about her panic?

I'll never know now - Strange event nonetheless.

 

[djshadow]

That really would seem to be the case. A couple of threads down, on the Glitch in the Matrix Thread on Reddit, Cochise quoted from the Survivalist Forum, Creepy Stories from the Outdoors. http://www.survivalistboards.com/showthread.php?t=57236



I'm in the UK, so I am not likely to feel that sense in relation to an animal predator, rather a human one, but I think people such as those who post on the Survivalist, who are out in wild and remote areas hunting or camping, would agree that sometimes panic should be heeded, not ignored.

This link about the Creepy Stories from the great outdoors is one of the best threads ever! I found it a while back - Spent half the night reading it I could have found it when reading this thread a year or two ago.

If anybody knows of any other threads on the net from seasoned/experienced outdoors types who have got scared whilst in the boonies please post the link.

 

[Naughty_Felid]

I wonder if it was a type of "Highway hypnosis"?

 

[Recycled1]

Hormonal changes in the body can bring on a feeling of panic.
Several times when I was approaching the menopause I woke in the night with amazing feelings of fear and distress.
I'd read / heard enough to recognise what I was experiencing was a panic attack, but with absolutely no logical cause -not even a bad dream. I guessed it was due to "my age".They stopped once my body had sorted itself out.

 

[living-in-ithilien]

Cochise: "I have had this accompanied by what I can only describe as a feeling of buzzing . . . "

It's a while since the Hummadruz was mentioned on the Message Board. Coincidentally I found this resource a week or two back.

I should say rediscovered, because I had probably followed links to it in the past. It impressed me more this time:

http://www.northernearth.co.uk/permhum.htm

Threads on here have some personal encounters:
Here, likened to insects in summer
Some mentions in the big Hum thread
Lizard23's link to Northern Earth articles back in 2004
Cases in NZ, Sudbury & Louth.

It's an interesting phenomenon becasue it is frequently experienced by people who have never read about its history!

Don't know if it's too late to reply, but thanks for the links. The buzzing sound is often reported during Matian apparitions and has been described at UFO events as well

 

[Cultjunky]

Hormonal changes in the body can bring on a feeling of panic.
Several times when I was approaching the menopause I woke in the night with amazing feelings of fear and distress.
I'd read / heard enough to recognise what I was experiencing was a panic attack, but with absolutely no logical cause -not even a bad dream. I guessed it was due to "my age".They stopped once my body had sorted itself out.

I suffer from nightmares, have done since... forever. Often I wake with a feeling of panic, that subsides fairly quickly, but I don't always remember my dream, I just wake up scared. So you could, possibly, perhaps have had a bad dream, rather than thinking it was due to your age.

But thanks for sharing that little tidbit, now that my hot flushes are kicking in, I have something else to look forward to. Oh Joy.

 

[Ulalume]

DjShadow -

I was reading an old journal of mine recently and found I'd witten down an entry a bit similar to your story - though I was not the one driving and but was the one panicking. I do have panic attacks, but I've had them so long now that I can pretty much distinguish the trigger, or gather if there is a real risk of harm vs just the "internal alarm system" going off without a physical threat. They both feel scary, mind you, but reality testing helps a lot in these cases.

Anyway, this incident happened while I was with my husband, driving on a narrow, winding highway in the dark. Not many other cars on the road. We're about 70 miles from home, out in the country, road is dark as pitch. This makes me a bit nervous anyway, so when I begin to feel a growing sense of panic, I try to rationalize it as just circumstances. After all, accidents often happen on that highway, it makes sense to be nervous. It starts to get worse and worse. I don't want to say anything lest hubs says "oh, you silly women and your paranoia" or something like that.

I'm really starting to panic though, and I remember that other times I've felt panic on the road, there was usually a good reason for it (I'd ridden with a few people who had little regard for traffic safety) and that there was more benefit to slowing down and being extra careful than there was to saying nothing. Besides, I was about to crawl out of my skin from fear. So I said, "I've got a bad feeling. Please let's slow down and be careful."

Luckily, he agreed, because when we came over the hill, there was a steer standing in the middle of the road - got loose from it's pasture I guess - and one car had already wrecked trying to swerve out of the way and the car and drivers were all in the road. Had we been going at full speed, we wouldn't have been able to stop in time and it could have had tragic consequences.

For those who don't live around many cows, just so you know - hitting one with your car is a very bad thing. The worst thing I've ever seen with my own eyes was a multi-fatality accident on the highway in Amarillo, where a couple of cars had struck a bull or steer. Utterly traumatizing to witness and I've never been able to forget it.
Thinking about it now, I kind of wonder if having been so distressed by that event in the past, something - some retro-cognition or something in my unconscious picked it up and caused this intense fear.

That is, if the panic wasn't simply a random occurance. It seems so apt, though. I didn't have any visulaization, no specific premonition, only the desperate need to slow down the car, and if there was a time to slow down and be careful, that was it.

Of course, it's only speculation, but it could be that the time your ex needed to wait while she calmed down allowed the both of you to escape some danger on the road.

I suffer from nightmares, have done since... forever. Often I wake with a feeling of panic, that subsides fairly quickly, but I don't always remember my dream, I just wake up scared. So you could, possibly, perhaps have had a bad dream, rather than thinking it was due to your age.

But thanks for sharing that little tidbit, now that my hot flushes are kicking in, I have something else to look forward to. Oh Joy.

I've heard that a small dose of melatonin every night can be helpful in relieving menopause symptoms. Just thought I'd pass it along.

 

[djshadow]

I wonder if it was a type of "Highway hypnosis"?

I'm familiar with the term, but not an expert on the subject. One would suggest no because we had not been driving that long. But I'm not sure how long it takes for this highway hypnosis effect to manifest.

I think I may have kinda experienced this when doing a daily commute but it never affected me in this utter dread manner.

 

[Frideswide]

The buzzing sound is often reported during Matian apparitions and has been described at UFO events as well

I don't know the term Matian Apparitions - can you explain please?

 

[rynner2]

I don't know the term Matian Apparitions - can you explain please?

I thought at first it was a typo for 'Martian' (odd enough in itself!) but then I decided that 'Marian' was meant - ie, an apparition of the BVM.

 

[Peripart]

I thought at first it was a typo for 'Martian' (odd enough in itself!) but then I decided that 'Marian' was meant - ie, an apparition of the BVM.

Yes, I went through the same logical steps!

 

[Frideswide]

ah! yes! of course happy now, thank you kindly.

 

[djshadow]

DjShadow -

I was reading an old journal of mine recently and found I'd witten down an entry a bit similar to your story - though I was not the one driving and but was the one panicking. I do have panic attacks, but I've had them so long now that I can pretty much distinguish the trigger, or gather if there is a real risk of harm vs just the "internal alarm system" going off without a physical threat. They both feel scary, mind you, but reality testing helps a lot in these cases.

Anyway, this incident happened while I was with my husband, driving on a narrow, winding highway in the dark. Not many other cars on the road. We're about 70 miles from home, out in the country, road is dark as pitch. This makes me a bit nervous anyway, so when I begin to feel a growing sense of panic, I try to rationalize it as just circumstances. After all, accidents often happen on that highway, it makes sense to be nervous. It starts to get worse and worse. I don't want to say anything lest hubs says "oh, you silly women and your paranoia" or something like that.

I'm really starting to panic though, and I remember that other times I've felt panic on the road, there was usually a good reason for it (I'd ridden with a few people who had little regard for traffic safety) and that there was more benefit to slowing down and being extra careful than there was to saying nothing. Besides, I was about to crawl out of my skin from fear. So I said, "I've got a bad feeling. Please let's slow down and be careful."

Luckily, he agreed, because when we came over the hill, there was a steer standing in the middle of the road - got loose from it's pasture I guess - and one car had already wrecked trying to swerve out of the way and the car and drivers were all in the road. Had we been going at full speed, we wouldn't have been able to stop in time and it could have had tragic consequences.

For those who don't live around many cows, just so you know - hitting one with your car is a very bad thing. The worst thing I've ever seen with my own eyes was a multi-fatality accident on the highway in Amarillo, where a couple of cars had struck a bull or steer. Utterly traumatizing to witness and I've never been able to forget it.
Thinking about it now, I kind of wonder if having been so distressed by that event in the past, something - some retro-cognition or something in my unconscious picked it up and caused this intense fear.

That is, if the panic wasn't simply a random occurance. It seems so apt, though. I didn't have any visulaization, no specific premonition, only the desperate need to slow down the car, and if there was a time to slow down and be careful, that was it.

Of course, it's only speculation, but it could be that the time your ex needed to wait while she calmed down allowed the both of you to escape some danger on the road.



I've heard that a small dose of melatonin every night can be helpful in relieving menopause symptoms. Just thought I'd pass it along.

Thanks for sharing that. Keeping a Fortean mind about it, I suppose your experience could be coincidence. Even conformation bias - how many people actually have crashes (or near misses) without any prior warning in an esoteric sense. Lots do.

Its interesting to consider if events such as the one you shared have more credence if a road-user has no prior knowledge of an area being a accident black-spot, for example. Or even if you read about only one accident on that road in 10 years.

If a person has prior knowledge - Maybe on a subconscious level the brain tells you to slow down. Being unaware of a roads 'history' lends more weight to these pre-cog events perhaps.

 

[David Brown]

I've just had my weekly telephone call to my mother, and was telling her about this thread:
http://forum.forteantimes.com/index.php?threads/ooh-err-nasty-house.37732/page-5#post-1756842
and the feeling of general, "can't put your finger on it" unpleasantness.

She then remarked, "Now where have I had that feeling? It wasn't a house..."

I was able to remind her. When I was a boy, we used to have a lot of holidays in Yorkshire, often involving hiking and trains, often in the same day. We'd visited some village or other, and now she's been reminded, my mother is going to check her Yorkshire churches book (all will become apparent) to work out which one. The village church was quite new, and thoroughly uninteresting, but something (OS map? signpost? Yorkshire churches book?) told my mother that on the outskirts of the village we'd find the old church, which should be more architecturally appealing.

Sure enough, after a bit of a walk, there it was, the churchyard looking rather over-grown, but the path still just about passable. We got about half way down that path, and, as though choreographed, turned and ran, really fast, out of that churchyard, because we both had a sudden, complete panic attack.

This must be about forty years ago, and I can give no other details. Of course, it is possible that I reacted after a split second to my mother's panic, and rationalised it afterwards as being a simultaneous thing, but if so it was immediately after, as I recall saying to her that we'd clearly both felt something. I have a vague impression that I might've said, "What was that?"

Even if it was only my mother who felt it, and I'm not a hundred per cent convinced that it was, the question remains, what did she feel that made her react so suddenly and decisively?

 

[EnolaGaia]

What, if anything, did your mother relate about the incident once you reminded her?

 

[David Brown]

What, if anything, did your mother relate about the incident once you reminded her?

Not a lot. Basically, "Oh yes, that was it. I think it might have been [insert name of village, possibly beginning with "Ma..." here]." She also thought that we'd taken the train to the village, and then walked out to the church, although I had an impression that we'd been walking all morning, and arrived in the village, on foot, about lunchtime. Remember I was very young, so she's probably right about that detail. Oh, and her immediate reaction was, "I just panicked," rather than, "We just panicked," but as she can be a bit self-centred, I don't think that proves anything.

 

[GNC]

Not a lot. Basically, "Oh yes, that was it. I think it might have been [insert name of village, possibly beginning with "Ma..." here]." She also thought that we'd taken the train to the village, and then walked out to the church, although I had an impression that we'd been walking all morning, and arrived in the village, on foot, about lunchtime. Remember I was very young, so she's probably right about that detail. Oh, and her immediate reaction was, "I just panicked," rather than, "We just panicked," but as she can be a bit self-centred, I don't think that proves anything.

It might... panic can be infectious, so you may have reacted to her irrational fright. Or vice versa?

 

[David Brown]

It might... panic can be infectious, so you may have reacted to her irrational fright. Or vice versa?

It was all a long time ago, there are only two witnesses, and three possibilities: I panicked and set her off; she panicked and set me off; we both panicked simultaneously. I don't think we can ever know for sure.

 

[Schrodinger's Zebra]

Fascinating thread. I've had a couple of panic attacks in my lifetime, once when I was in my mid-teens and once late last year, and although I know what caused them in each case (bad things happening in my personal life), it didn't stop them from being utterly terrifying. For me I can only describe them as feeling a need to get away, to run, somewhere, don't know where.

But the only thing I can think of that sets me off into a genuine panic for no apparent reason is being in a darkened room, at night near a mirror. I don't know why, but even from a very young age I refuse to look into mirrors at night, and if I have to pass one in the dark I get a sort of panicky- 'need to get out of here quickly' type of feeling, and I have to really stop myself from hurrying out of the room because that just heightens the fear instead.

In my case as far as the buzzing element of the panic experience is concerned I am referring to a small number of experiences a very long time ago (mid 70's) and I can't now recall whether at the time I thought the sound was external or internal. I certainly feel now that the sound was in my head,

This is interesting because I have in the last several months developed quite a bad anxiety disorder, and one thing I have come to know is that I can tell when I'm getting nervous or anxious - because I get a distinct buzzing sensation going up the back of my head, mainly on the left side. It's quite bizarre and not something I've experienced before the anxiety reared its head.

I call it a 'buzzing' because it feels more or less like the sensation you can get from a TENS machine, that kind of electrical vibration-y thing. It's a feeling, not a sound. I don't know why this buzzing occurs when I'm at my most nervous, but it has become a way for me to recognise the nervousness, if that makes sense.

But I wondered, really, if what I'm describing is the same as what you're talking about?

 

[Mungoman]

SZed...I reckon a chat with an MD about the sensation prior to those anxiety attacks wouldn't hurt - just to be sure mate.

 

[Cochise]

Fascinating thread. I've had a couple of panic attacks in my lifetime, once when I was in my mid-teens and once late last year, and although I know what caused them in each case (bad things happening in my personal life), it didn't stop them from being utterly terrifying. For me I can only describe them as feeling a need to get away, to run, somewhere, don't know where.

But the only thing I can think of that sets me off into a genuine panic for no apparent reason is being in a darkened room, at night near a mirror. I don't know why, but even from a very young age I refuse to look into mirrors at night, and if I have to pass one in the dark I get a sort of panicky- 'need to get out of here quickly' type of feeling, and I have to really stop myself from hurrying out of the room because that just heightens the fear instead.





This is interesting because I have in the last several months developed quite a bad anxiety disorder, and one thing I have come to know is that I can tell when I'm getting nervous or anxious - because I get a distinct buzzing sensation going up the back of my head, mainly on the left side. It's quite bizarre and not something I've experienced before the anxiety reared its head.

I call it a 'buzzing' because it feels more or less like the sensation you can get from a TENS machine, that kind of electrical vibration-y thing. It's a feeling, not a sound. I don't know why this buzzing occurs when I'm at my most nervous, but it has become a way for me to recognise the nervousness, if that makes sense.

But I wondered, really, if what I'm describing is the same as what you're talking about?

It sounds similar - really - its difficult to describe and a buzzing sensation rather than a buzzing sound is closer. But I've had it maybe half-a-dozen times in my life - if you are getting it frequently I would certainly get it checked out.

I should state that I now have tinnitus, but the majority of occasions I experienced the sound/feeling was as a teenager or younger. And anyway the tinnitus sound is quite different - more like white noise most of the time.

 

[Schrodinger's Zebra]

It sounds similar - really - its difficult to describe and a buzzing sensation rather than a buzzing sound is closer. But I've had it maybe half-a-dozen times in my life - if you are getting it frequently I would certainly get it checked out.

I should state that I now have tinnitus, but the majority of occasions I experienced the sound/feeling was as a teenager or younger. And anyway the tinnitus sound is quite different - more like white noise most of the time.

Ah, curious, thanks for replying, perhaps it is the same then

I understand about the tinnitus though - I've had that for years and as you say it's a completely different thing. It's like a constant sort of rushing noise, for me anyway.

 

[staticgirl]

I get a buzzy head (not a sound but like my parts of my head is vibrating) when stress gets too much. Even reading a book and listening to birdsong is uncomfortable and I have to lie down and close the curtains. It's not a fear related thing though as described here with the panics. It makes me wonder if we're all experiencing high stress though.

 

[Schrodinger's Zebra]

SZed...I reckon a chat with an MD about the sensation prior to those anxiety attacks wouldn't hurt - just to be sure mate.

G'day

Ok I'll take that on board, thanks.

But I've had it maybe half-a-dozen times in my life - if you are getting it frequently I would certainly get it checked out.

Sorry, Cochise, just re-reading this thread and realised you'd mentioned this too.

 

[AgProv]

Association of the panic feeling with nearby water... leading to people running away and even leaving the metaphorical front door open and half-consumed food on the table. Would this explain the Marie Celeste thing? Sudden contagious panic affecting a ship's company all at once? And if so, why hasn't this happened more often to isolated ships out at sea?

the nearest I ever got was when I was about fifteen, there'd been a documentary on TV that night about whether demonic posession was a reality and if not, what caused all the reports. Lying in bed that night in a cold frozen fear... never forgotten it, although it had a perfectly rational psychological cause...

 

[Krepostnoi]

Not a lot. Basically, "Oh yes, that was it. I think it might have been [insert name of village, possibly beginning with "Ma..." here]." She also thought that we'd taken the train to the village, and then walked out to the church, although I had an impression that we'd been walking all morning, and arrived in the village, on foot, about lunchtime. Remember I was very young, so she's probably right about that detail. Oh, and her immediate reaction was, "I just panicked," rather than, "We just panicked," but as she can be a bit self-centred, I don't think that proves anything.

Paging @Ghost In The Machine - there's a Yorkshire church that you have/have had strong negative responses to, isn't there? I know it's a long shot, but is it in a village accessible by train (or that would have been thus accessible 40 years ago)?

 

[Ghost In The Machine]

Paging @Ghost In The Machine - there's a Yorkshire church that you have/have had strong negative responses to, isn't there? I know it's a long shot, but is it in a village accessible by train (or that would have been thus accessible 40 years ago)?

Ello Krepostnoi. Yes. It happens to be my own parish church! And weirdly, I have plenty of connections with it via various ancestors being church singers, christened, married and buried there, so it really shouldn't have any ill effect. But it does.

There was never a train station here. It isn't within easy walking distance of one, either.

First time I went in it, when we moved here, (for architectural/historical interest which is the only reason I go in churches) - I felt uneasy but it quickly grew to the point I had to leg it. Now, I am too scared to go in - particularly to the far side - unless someone props the door open and I am not alone. Even with that quick escape route, I really don't want to be in there. It's sheer panic, just this horrible feeling comes over me. I am not even sure I can sit through an entire service in there even if it was full of people. I couldn't go in there alone.

A number of parishioners died in an accident, in the early 19thC and one of my relatives was one of the 3 survivors. I have read newspaper accounts of the funeral - they victims are all buried together - and one or two contemporary accounts mention the cries of the survivors being particularly heart rending throughout the ceremony. What they experienced during the accident will no doubt have given them PTSD for life. It must have been unbearable as they had to watch the others drown, and many of the victims were only teenagers. I know this now but didn't know it the first time I went in there. One thing that drew me to look round the graveyard was driving past and seeing the huge gravestone in the churchyard and wondering what had happened. (I live in the parish but another village - this church had three villages in its parish).

Unlike David Brown's experience, though, the person who has gone in the church with me has never felt panicked or worried. He is fine throughout.

I can't really explain it - it is just a feeling of imminent peril/claustrophobia which I don't feel in other churches. I usually love being inside churches as I grew up next door to one and it was my playground. They are not places I fear. "Claustrophobia" comes nearest to the feeling. I feel really agitated even thinking about it sitting here.

Mine begins with a different letter and is very well maintained - so I don't think it is the same place at all. But I may well know/have been in the church David describes, as we have 'done' a lot of Yorkshire churches.

 

[David Brown]

Not a lot. Basically, "Oh yes, that was it. I think it might have been [insert name of village, possibly beginning with "Ma..." here]."

Sorry for replying to myself, but it didn't begin with "Ma..." It was Levisham. Apparently the church has Anglo-Saxon work in that my mother wanted to see. These days, I'd be equally keen on that sort of thing, but my mother certainly has no intention of returning to a place that she found so creepy. If I'm in that neck of the woods again, I might give it a go, just to see if it's as bad today.

 

[Ghost In The Machine]

There are areas in Australia which are known to have the old spirits as residents, in fact the place names are quite often of those, or that particular fellow.
We have a female spirit in gulleys and ravines (Balyet)which is known to steal children away. Her presence is indicated by early morning mist.
We have Quinkins here, two types, one is shy, tall and very slender and lives and travels through rock. The other fellow is short, stout, has a head like a ping pong bat and has hugh genitals - He's known as a 'cheeky Fella' and its best not to have anything to do with him.
We have Potkooroks who live in treetops and have a propensity to throw gumnuts and twigs at anyone who walks under 'their' tree.
We have Narguns that are very very old and are the size of mountains and have a filthy disposition to anything that breathes. These fellows move at night, preferably moonless nights, and crush anything that breathes.
We have the Turong, little ones who live in water, These are the ones where young ladies who want to become pregnant, seek them out. It's best, if you're a bloke, when coming across a creek or a water hole to throw a small pebble in before you touch the water.
This very small list, of a broad panoply of spirits, has been acknowledged and affirmed by the Old People for tens of thousands of years in this country, and in consequence their presence can be felt in certain areas and some natural features.
I have been out bush (I fossick for gold and gems - sapphires and emeralds) and have come across areas that have welcomed me with open arms, conversely, I've come across other areas where I KNOW I must turn around and get the hell away and never come back.
I was up in a place called the Barrington tops on the Great Dividing Range, staying in a disused rangers hut with mates. The buck koalas where extremely vocal that night, growling and hooting very loudly and I went outside to have a pee. It was a moonless night and the wind was up, thrashing through the tops of the trees - on closing the door behind me and commencing the operation of having a pee I knew that I was not alone - nothing visual at all, just a dreaded awareness of something hugh and malign, to the extent that I stopped halfway and couldn't get back into that brightly lit rangers hut quick enough. I mentioned it on return to the hut of, my experience, and blokes being blokes they trooped out and experienced exactly the sense and feeling that we were not welcome out there that I had. In the morning, with the sound of native birds echoing though the gullies, the presence was no longer there - one of many strange experiences that is part of the Australian bush.
Another situation was out on a very old part of Australia where there had been occupation by the Old Ones for 40 thousand years. I'd got to know the Rangers by chatting and yarning over this and that, and they had promised to take me out into the sand hills to show me a skeleton that had been unearthing out of the soil there due to eaolian forces. it was only 6 or 7 kilometres away from where we were staying and it was a bright sunny cloudless day when we left. We drove the short distance, then commenced to walk in to the site through the sand hills, a distance of a kilometre or so. By the time we'd reached the general area it had clouded over, quite darkly, and the wind had picked up a bit. We were about to reach the site when there was a hugh thunder clap that had us checking each other to see if we were all there, and we looked up to see the biggest Western Red (kangaroo) we'd ever seen, bathed in a brilliant but confined ray of sunlight, just standing there, looking at us. One of the Rangers (Koori Fellas) said that that was as far as he was going - Needless to say, we all agreed with Him - (back at the camp site He reckoned that the Roo was the guardian spirit, which to me made lot of sense, the reason being, that Roo should have been halfway to Bourke after that clap of thunder, but He just stood there guarding the Old Fellas spot).
I reckon, some places accrue a malevolence, through some process or other, either through the reinforcement of myth by humans, over great periods of time, or, because there IS a negative energy inherent in that area. We have Massacre sites in this country due to the Pastoral Companies and others, that wanted the Aboriginal off his land - to this day there is a strange feeling there - that is obvious to many people.
This sort'ff makes sense to me, so I I'll keep this theory to myself.

Fantastic post. Sorry. I have nothing interesting to add just wanted to thank you.