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

Places That Inspire Fear

G

giantrobot1

Gone But Not Forgotten
(ACCOUNT RETIRED)
Joined
Nov 18, 2003
Messages
549
I used to live in a rented house with a friend of mine, and he'd often go away to visit his girlfriend on a weekend. I really didn't appreciate this, since whenever I was alone in the house, whatever the time of day, I felt genuinely afraid.

I have no idea why, but the house would just inspire fear. It was a very nice house to live in apart from that, though. The worst part was one night, just after we'd moved out, I had to go back and do a little cleaning before we could give the kays back. This involved putting a bed together that I'd put in storage there and washing the bathroom. As night fell, I began to get REALLY sppoked out, and had to try incredibly hard not to just run from the house until I'd finished. :eek:

Has anyone else come across a house or other place that appeared to cause fear for no discernable reason? I never saw any 'ghost' type phenomena there, though.
 
Try the works of TC Lethbridge,possibly "Ghost & Ghoul".He had a theory regarding why some places were haunted but also why others were just downright spooky.
 
I have found that I sometimes experience a sensation of palpable menace when I walk into an unlit house during the day. It seems to happen more in some buildings than others and I assume it is some kind of effect of the light differential.
 
I sometimes get that too, especially if the light is begining to fade a little.

But this was certainly a couple of notches higher in the fear stakes...
 
When I was 10, I lived in a small village in south Lincolnshire. This village was horseshoe-shaped, but running off one side of the horseshoe was a country lane which led to a farm. There was a patch of thicket up there which produced some really good blackberries around September.

This particular year I had gone to eat blackberries with my neighbour, a girl a year younger than me. It was a sunny day, but there was a real air of spookiness about the thicket, even though we stayed on the road and picked the fruit we could reach from there. It was something about the way the sun was shining through the leaves of the undergrowth that gave us a real feeling of being watched. After a short while we were both so uncomfortable that we decided to go back to the built-up area, and as I recall we actually left at a run, truly scared.

I was never particularly comfortable up that lane again; there was always a lingering sense of something having been there. It may have been a moment of genuine panic, especially considering the isolated nature of the road. I'm always strongly reminded of the incident when reading the story of M R James about the haunted blackberry patch; it really strikes home with me!
 
That reminds me of the 'PANic in the woods' thread.

Had you spent much time near there before, or was that your first tie there picking berries? Might have been the 'thicket's spirit' wishing you'd bugger off and leave the berris for the birds to eat so the seeds could get spread! :D
 
Yep, that's what I thought, genuine panic - woo-hoo!

Before that particular day we spent a lot of time up there - picking blackberries in autumn, looking for primroses in spring, catching tiddlers in the little stream in summer. Afterwards, I only tended to go as far as the start of the thicket before I got spooked again.

Funnily enough, the proximity of the thicket didn't bother me too much when I was 18 and went up there with my boyfriend...maybe I had other things on my mind?
 
Sounds like the later times were just caused by the memory of the first experience of fear there.

I wonder what caused the original scare? Especially if two people experienced it. Can lighting effects really be that effecting? Quite possibly, I'd think.
 
Quiet country road....leaves rustling oh so gently in the breeze....sunlight flickering slightly due to said breeze....two small girls without another human being in sight....think about it, it makes sense!
 
Breakfast said:
I have found that I sometimes experience a sensation of palpable menace when I walk into an unlit house during the day. It seems to happen more in some buildings than others and I assume it is some kind of effect of the light differential.
Click to expand...

I'm the complete reverse. I hate it if someone puts a light on during daylight hours, even if it's a dull, grim, day at it is as I'm writing this. It always strikes me with a sudden feeling of melancholy.

I've put this down to some unremembered episode in childhood, but I don't really know why.

*Edited for crappy spelling :) *
 
I too hate having lights on in the day and resist them even when it's overcast and dark.

People used to close their curtains as a sign of mourning. D'you think we both unconsciously remember such a time from our childhoods?

Like, maybe we've been taken to visit someone who's lost a close relation, or been expected to sit still and be quiet when it's happened to our own family.

There's a spot where I sometimes walk my dogs beside a river with a bridge and a path and some trees... brrr, it scares the daylights out of me, no matter how warm and sunny it is, and the dogs always scarper ahead.

The BF hates another dog-walking place. It's the corner of a field with high hedges and he can't pass it without quickening his pace and glancing nervously over his shoulder.:D

My Ma used to feel as if someone was trying to chuck her down the stairs every time she reached a certain step in our old house. Right above this step was the loft hatch. I wonder.... :eek:



Like one, that on a lonely road
Doth walk in fear and dread,
And having once turn'd round, walks on
And turns no more his head:
Because he knows, a frightful fiend
Doth close behind him tread.

From Bk VI
THE RIME OF THE ANCYENT MARINERE
Samuel Taylor Coleridge


This was quoted in M.R. James' 'Casting The Runes', adapted for the screen as 'The Night of the Demon'. Sums up the feeling beautifully!
 
BUGMUM you couldnt give us a name/location for this village in south Lincs could you? ( or even a grid ref for the lane.. but thats asking a lot!!)

Just that South lincs is where I am right now, with a car and a post Christmas week off work I feel like a bit of and adventure. I sometimes get quite sensitive to places I visit, and it would be interesting to see if it provoked the same reaction in someone else.

Cheers
Mr P
 
Thought this might be relevant with the lights?



I've always got on really well with my inlaws, before and after we got married.

Before we got married we stayed with them for xmas and on numerous other occassions in their converted farm building, a great family home. Once we were married we had one room, before that a guest room each.

On one of the earlier times we all went to bed ( when the wood burning stove is done /everyone/ heads up at the same time!) and I read a short while and then settled down to sleep. Very dark (middle of the country) but you could just see where the window was. People still moving around, the odd ping of a computer game....

I became aware that I was frightened. Not gradually, not for any reason, just an overwhelming urge to be somewhere else. A sense of danger - like being on a central reservation of a busy road? no immediate problem but This Is Not A Good Place To Be.

Instinct was to turn the light on and then I decided against it - didn't want to be seen I think. Link the instinct not to skyline when walking? Slid out of the "unusual" side of bed and crouched on the floor, trying to see around the room and triangulate in on something - zip. nothing. I /knew/ there was nothing there, which made it even worse.

Still on the floor I pulled the duvet round me and eased towards the door (up about 3 steps) and then crouched there waiting and watching. Nothing.

Reached up and sprang the catch - think a sneck with a bar? like a gate latch? and waited crouched, too terrified to move. Nothing happened, was happening, was going to happen - I knew that! Could still hear the others.

slid out on to the pitch dark landing and considered the light again. Really bad idea... like steping out into the traffic flow with your hand raised to stop the cars?

so I slowly moved, crouched under my duvet (yellow and green flowers with the odd birdie) to teh top of the stairs in the dark and then, slow, slowly, step by step by step I eased down them...

I was unable to stop crouching until I got into the sitting room when I made a run for the corner behind the couch and promptly went to sleep.

My mum in law found me next morning and was sympathetic but had no explanation or experience of it. Offered to swap rooms around with a suitably boring explanation.

I declined because it wasn;t necessary - has never happened again, I slept there happily for the rest of the stay, we slept there once we were wed.... nothing.

Haven't thought about it for years! Don't have an explanation.

Kath
 
I've been afraid of the dark my entire life, so I'm inclined to view most "causeless fear" experiences as subjective/psychological rather than objective, the exception being places that cause fear in more than one person when neither has an opportunity to infect the other. Even then, certain physical conditions are likely to create psychological effects, and you'd want to try changing the place physically before concluding to a paranormal result - which I don't think anyone here is leaping to, but I've known folks who do.

Usually I'm the one who gets good and bad vibes off of places, but once when we were house-hunting my mother and brother were vehemently against a house that I liked. It was green (my favorite color) and had a fireplace, and the yard was a little overgrown and jungly - I think this may have been the place where we spotted the tarantula. (I like spiders.) Mom and Jeff, however, agreed that "somebody died here" and wouldn't consider it.

When I was grown and on my own, I began analyzing the conditions under which I did and did not feel nervous. I had an efficiency apartment for some years, in which I felt perfectly safe *as long as the bathroom door was closed.* If I left the door open at night, I couldn't sleep for terror. This effect, however, went away when I had someone staying over night; nor did I ever feel menaced or nervous in the bathroom itself. I finally decided that I had a sense of control over a certain amount of space which was just as big as the apartment minus the bathroom; leaving the door open increased the space past what I felt I could monitor and control, and therefore I became frightened. Another person in the space increased the size of the psychological safe zone.

Our present house is old for the area (pushing 100), a two-story Grecian revival with high ceilings and post foundations. It's a good house, but the age, construction, "deferred maintenance" as we say in real estate appraisal, and certain stupid decisions by previous remodelers create numerous odd noises and drafts. When the windows are open (as they are from April to the first norther in October, since there's no central air), the acoustics make anything that happens in the yard next door sound like it's on our front porch. One door won't stay closed and another won't stay open. All this, plus a confirmed cat-keeping habit and wildlife in the attic, means that we are normally oblivious to sourceless noises. Not only did I feel welcome and happy the first time I walked in the door, many visitors have remarked to me on the same feeling. But -

When you're alone here at night and in the evening, it's different.

You'd expect that from me - house full of noises and shadowy corners, woman accustomed to a nice strong protective husband left alone except for cats and the attic denizens, of course I get nervous. But my husband - all capable six foot one of him - is the same way. He hates it when I go off on school visits or to conventions, not only because he has to cook for himself and has no one to talk to, but because he gets scared at night. Noises which don't disturb him a bit when I'm in the house make him distinctly uncomfortable then. We don't have to be together for this effect to be so. We sometimes go whole evenings without being in the same room - he downstairs watching TV, I upstairs on the computer (where I type in the dark much of the time - I don't like unnatural light either) - and neither of us is remotely nervous then.

Is this the "filling the psychological space" factor again? I think so. Is that one of the reasons for the "panic in the woods" - the sense that the space is just too big to manage? I don't know. How would you test it?
 
One of the places that I've felt fear- enough to gather up my belongings and hurry back to more secure areas, was when I was on holiday in Greece. I went with my flatmate. It was a very quiet resort and my flatmate liked to sleep late and then transfer her lounging to the pool. I, however, liked to explore the nearby forest and spend time on the deserted beach .In both places I felt secure and welcome- even wandering lost in a wooded hillside.

One morning I woke up extra early and decided to go snorkelling on the beach. The sun was up, but there were only one or two people about. I felt nervous as I undressed, but I put that down to the fact that there was no-one on the beach, but once I got into the water real terror gripped me. I manged to calm myself, but as soon as I stopped concentrating on being calm, the over whelming fear came straight back. I realised that there was no point in trying to keep overcoming it and quickly left. I went back about an hour later and although the beach was still deserted the atmosphere had completely gone. Very odd.
 
Peni said:
Is this the "filling the psychological space" factor again? I think so. Is that one of the reasons for the "panic in the woods" - the sense that the space is just too big to manage? I don't know. How would you test it?
Click to expand...

That's a really interesting idea. :)

I felt fine in the flat I used to live in with a friend while she and the landlady were there, but extremely nervous when left alone there. It had a lower floor flat, a ground level, first floor and an attic which was converted into a room. So going by your theory, I had 4 floors, as opposed to 2 before, to fill since the landlady was downstairs and my friend slept in the attic room.
A friend did tell me, once I had moved out of there, that the place had given her the creeps late at night too (I was living there alone at that point), and when we'd been out, she helped me to check the house over from bottom to top before she left me. I also had another friend offering to let me sleep on her floor, since she felt the same way about the place and fully sympathised with me.

When I moved into another flat with 5 other friends, I felt fine if I was ever alone in there at night, which admittedly wasn't often, but still I did feel ok about it. This was a 6 bedroom flat but all on ground level.
 
I've got what I call an "trouble antennae" buit into my head... I can usually tell, for example, if there's going to be a fight in the pub I'm in some time before it happens. Comes in handy considering some of the places I've lived, and it works anywhere in the world! I've mentioned elsewhere on here about the 'bad feelings' I've had before having an accident on my scooter. Anyway... a few years back I was in Camden Market in London. On entering a converted railway arch selling African carvings, I suddenly got an overwhelming feeling of sadness and despair... I couldn't stay in there a moment longer, and the feeling went as soon as I left the arch. Never experienced anything like it, it was horrible.
 
GiantRobot, that story of yours has been an ongoing dream/phobia of mine for years. The idea of being last in the house, empty of all furniture and belongings and having to finish one last task before you move away forever...and it's getting dark and you aren't finished yet...

I did once share a four storey house with six other people. It was unnerving at the best of times, but as they all moved out one by one, it got increasingly so. I was intensely pleased when I wasn't the last to leave. I remember obsessively double checking that I hadn't left anything behind so I could just drive off and leave and never come back!

The house was large and light and run down with a six-roomed cellar (!). Many strange noises at night, but I have to agree and say that for some reason it was much more scary in the daytime when there was no-one else there.

Mind you, it was in Rusholme, Manchester, so nothing was particularly reassuring. Had some fun in Rusholme, but I still have bad dreams!
 
I lived somewhere where the stairs, hall and door into the living room were particularly scarey at any time (the whole place was scarey actually but that bit was the worst) I often had nightmares that I was somewhere in that area in the dark as if I was really there.
 
I'm watching 'Hidden' on Discovery. It's 'The World's Bloodiest Dungeons' and is full of secret passages, oubliettes, rcently-discovered skeletons and general horror and spookiness.

Chillingham Castle- :eek!!!!:
St Briavel's Castle Youth Hostel, Monmouth - :eek!!!!:

Will someone please walk me to the lav?
 
GiantRobot, I could never take an after-school nap when I was alone in our flat. Every time I closed my eyes and felt sleepy, I would wake up with a jerk as though someone was standing very close behind my back and staring at me. Time after time, just like this. Until I felt I couln't win. Then I would get up and go about usual things. Very unnerving. A regular 1-BR, panel-block flat, nothing Victorian.
 
This is an old thread, but an interesting one. I thought I would try and revive it.

I don't get around much now, but I went to some places when younger that reduced me to terror, and none of them were well-known, or famously haunted.

One memory from when I was very young, when I went all over the place with my grandmother, uncles and aunts, was of visiting relatives (of my Nan's age) in Weston-super-Mare. I remember a very quiet street, pleasant enough, and then seeing their house, which had one of those wrought iron porch/veranda's with the door deeply recessed under it. I was allowed to watch Hammer Horror films etc, when I was young and I pretty sure anything 'Gothic' looking left a mark on me, but as soon as we set foot in that house I was terrified. It seemed very shadowy, though it was summer, and unnaturally silent. (Well, my great uncle and aunt were childless, and lived on their own, so not surprising). I just sat in mute fear throughout the visit, and remember walking out, and into the sunshine with such relief, as if I was afraid it wouldn't be there any-more.

I never asked Nan, who could tell a good 'true' ghost story, about the house, and wish I had now. To this day if I see any porch/verandah that looks similar, I am thrown back to feeling like a scared child.

A house we lived in for a year when I was ten had the most oppressive atmosphere despite having large windows, and windows each end of the living room. It always seemed as if there were a brown smog in the rooms, and as if the lights were very low wattage. There was a lot of violent arguments in that place, non-familial abuse, and illness. When I was much older, and read something about Lethbridge's 'ghouls', I wondered if that might be what was wrong with the house. (Though the whole street affected me similarly).

The church in the village my sister lives in. I love churches, and think graveyards are peaceful. Whenever the BF and I have house-sat for her dogs, we take them and ours on a public footpath through the church and into the fields behind it. Something about the walk through that churchyard is 'uncomfortable', though the place itself is small and pretty; very peaceful. As an addendum to that, sis told me she was walking through there last year, and heard galloping hooves that seemed to thunder past her, and then go up into the sky. O_O She was more stumped than afraid.

I'll try to think of some more, and sorry for posting on an old thread, but I did find the previous posts very interesting.
 
Oh, I remember this thread! I always wished it was longer. :)

Fanari_Lloyd said:
A house we lived in for a year when I was ten had the most oppressive atmosphere despite having large windows, and windows each end of the living room. It always seemed as if there were a brown smog in the rooms, and as if the lights were very low wattage.
Click to expand...

This reminds me so much of my first apartment, what I came to call the "murder apartment" because (unbeknownst to me when I rented it) a woman had been murdered in the front room. It was a shabby place and suspiciously cheap, but it was all I could afford at the time. There were windows, yes, and big, industrial-type florescent lights in the living room, bedroom and kitchen. It should have been very bright but...this same kind of brownish smog seemed to absorb all the light. I thought of the place as having a pall over it. I brought in more and more lamps with 100 watt bulbs, but it would never get bright enough, always there was this dark haze in the rooms.

The place was creepy, no doubt, but since I had no other place to live, I just accepted it and lived with it. (Big mistake - a lot of bad things happened to me there) But my friends wouldn't come in, my brother wouldn't even cross the threshold. Once when I was out, I told a friend to let himself in and make himself at home until I came back. Well, when I got there, he was hiding under a blanket on the couch with teeth chattering, terrified, saying "this is a very bad place B., very bad!"
...

There have also been incidents where I became very afraid of a place for no apparent reason. One night, my husband and I were taking a walk downtown, where many of the businesses have apartments or studios on the upper floors. It was a pleasant night, and we were walking along chatting when suddenly we both felt overcome by fear. We could barely walk further, it was almost like the fear had made a force field around us. We shuffled forward a ways and saw that one of the doors leading upstairs was standing open. We could see a dark-painted hallway with a narrow flight of stairs and a light bulb burning at the top. I felt flooded with terror and had the thought that murder was at the top of the stairs. My husband grabbed my hand and pulled me across the street because there was no way either of us could step in front of that doorway. The fear wouldn't allow it.

When we got safely down the block, my husband said that he had also felt overwhelmed and the words "torture, murder, death" kept going through his mind when he looked at the stairway. We both agree that it was one of the most frightening things we ever experienced.

Interestingly, I have seen that door standing open at various times in the years since, and it never scared me again. This leads me to think maybe there was someone up there that night who was a danger to us and that was what we sensed.
 
I had a similar reaction in the pulpit area of the supposedly haunted church I worked in for a few years from 1977.
I heard all the various ghost stories of course,but I had felt uneasy in that area right from the start, I saw and heard nothing, although oddly the area directly below it always felt cold no matter what the time of year.
It was a sense of growing panic that crept up on me, like a feeling that I shouldn't be there, and no matter how much I told myself to stop imagining things, it was impossible to resist.
 
Great thread!

A number of years ago, some friends of mine moved into a cottage in Derbyshire which had been converted from something else. My friend was showing me into the lounge and I hated it; it felt cold and sad and had a distinct edge to it - I couldn't stay in there. When I mentioned it to her, she said that she'd thought that's where cattle had been slaughtered. (It was old farm buildings.) :shock:
 
I don't think I've seen this thread before!

I've only had one experience of real fear when entering a room. When I was around 13 or 14 I went on holiday with my parents. We stayed in an old villa near a village in the south of France - all wooden floors and beamed ceilings. I think there were about four bedrooms in the villa, one of which was by far the biggest, and also had a telly in it (not that I would have understood much French TV!) Being a teenager I naturally claimed it as mine immediately and dashed through the door, suitcase in tow. My parents went off to find their room, so I was alone in the big bedroom. I was just about to start unpacking when I got an inexplicable feeling firstly of fear, and secondly of a "presence" in the room. I looked around - everything looked completely normal, but in one corner there was a very old fashioned baby's cot with a lace cover. Thankfully it wasn't rocking (now THAT would have been scary!) but I started just staring at it because for some reason it freaked me out a bit. There was also a large darkwood wardrobe against one wall which I immediately decided NOT to open! The feeling of "something" in the room was now overwhelming. I could feel the panic rising in me and just had to get out of there! I promptly dashed out and installed myself in another of the bedrooms.

My parents were puzzled as to why I'd changed rooms, and I told them about the weird feeling in the room. They went in there and agreed that there was something not quite right about it, and again the cot was somehow the focus of the weirdness. We kept the door shut for the rest of the holiday! The spookiest thing was that the room was completely different to the other bedrooms. Everything in it seemed old, but not just that - it's as if it was weighed down with age, if you see what I mean. It was also the only room in the entire villa with a crucifix on the wall... :shock:
 
How great to come back and see more replies. What I especially love (or find fascinating) is that most of these experiences happen in 'ordinary' places rather than some famous landmark 'known' to be crawling with ghosts.

@ Bunnymousekitt, reading what you and your husband experienced with that stairwell, reminds me of threads on other sites (mostly by hunters, or people who spend time in remote areas) who report that feeling of 'being watched', and decide to trust their instincts and get out.

I read enough of those where they found that there was a mountain lion tracking or watching them (or even suspicious-looking people) to believe that it's not always alarmist, or just a feeling we should dismiss.

It should have been very bright but...this same kind of brownish smog seemed to absorb all the light. I thought of the place as having a pall over it. I brought in more and more lamps with 100 watt bulbs, but it would never get bright enough, always there was this dark haze in the rooms.
Click to expand...

Yes, exactly like this. My mother always likes a lot of light and brightness, and was pleased by the two large windows in the living room, but that was a big 'nope'. Even in cloudless summer weather, or with 100 watt bulbs blazing, it was like a 'brown-out' in that house.

I don't know who lived there before, and I am sure the neighbours or their kids would have let something slip had their been a murder so I am not convinced it was just that one house. They weren't old houses, (at a guess 1960's) and I felt the neighbours houses were equally gloomy, so maybe it was the area.

I think you were really brave to live where you did; I know you had no choice, but even so!

@Smokehead

It was a sense of growing panic that crept up on me, like a feeling that I shouldn't be there, and no matter how much I told myself to stop imagining things, it was impossible to resist.
Click to expand...

What were the ghost stories, if you don't mind me asking?
I used to love going in country churches, when they were accessible, and always felt they were peaceful, but my mother had an extreme panic-inducing experience when walking around Sevenhampton Church (Wiltshire) which she later described as feeling as if a cloud of something was descending on her to rip her to pieces.

There's a picture, here:

http://commondatastorage.googleapis.com ... 874751.jpg


We used to go past it regularly, and I always found it a bit foreboding, (maybe because of the very narrow windows) but as far as I know, there is no ghost story associated with it, and my mother didn't go in, she was outside. There's quite a long path to the village street from the church, and she felt as if she were pursued all the way along it until she got to her car.

@ onetwothree

it felt cold and sad and had a distinct edge to it - I couldn't stay in there. When I mentioned it to her, she said that she'd thought that's where cattle had been slaughtered.
Click to expand...

I am not really surprised that if that was so, it would feel cold and sad in the room. :(

@ Zoffre

The spookiest thing was that the room was completely different to the other bedrooms. Everything in it seemed old, but not just that - it's as if it was weighed down with age, if you see what I mean. It was also the only room in the entire villa with a crucifix on the wall.
Click to expand...

Never a good sign! But that does sound strange and very uncomfortable. It's a pity we can't always find out the history behind these places.
 
It was an old Methodist church,still with many original features that my company leased as a warehouse for electrical products.
WE PREACH CHRIST CRUCIFIED was over the doorway to the main stores, or what would have been the church assembly hall, there were stairs on the left that lead to an area, presumably the pulpit, that ran the length of the hall,with an area underneath and a set of stairs leading up.
I was told of two ghost sightings (one after we left and ATS tyre company took over the building), phantom footsteps, and later read of poltergeist type events in the neighbouring building,what used to be the Anchor pub.now the Livingstone Dance Company.
According to Nick of the West Midland Ghost Society,workman digging up the road outside found the skeleton of a child, he said a boy,although one of the sightings was of an old woman and a little girl, the later sighting also being of a woman.
I worked there from 1978 to about 1981, and never saw or heard anything,it could be a gloomy place in the winter I suppose,but generally it was well lit,bright and airy, I was also blessed to be working with two complete idiots so my memories are happy ones of laughing most of the time.
It was only the pulpit area I 'felt' uneasy, and the area underneath it always felt cold no matter the weather.
What seems odd to me is the persistence of that uneasy feeling, I have had nightmares about it,always that area,and always the same feeling of the compulsion to get away.I still have them nowadays sometimes,30 odd years later.
 
I have had nightmares about it,always that area,and always the same feeling of the compulsion to get away.I still have them nowadays sometimes,30 odd years later.
Click to expand...

Wow! O_O That sounds like one of those feelings that slithers in under the banter and laughter, but is strong enough to result in nightmares years later, as if being able to laugh with your workmates acted as a 'buffer' at the time.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top