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Shadow Spider

fizzy55

Devoted Cultist
Joined
Oct 18, 2014
Messages
128
Hi, this is my first post on here, although I have visited the forum for a long time now, always too shy to post about my own experience. I wasn't sure if anyone would even find it interesting. Around the time that it happened, I did search for explanations, asking around and searching the internet but nobody seemed to have experienced anything similar. Eventually I just put it all to the back of my mind but its always niggled and I find myself wondering if anybody on here can shed some light on it or even say they have experienced something like it themselves. At least that way I will know I'm not crazy! It started in 2006. I have to admit that looking back to that time has almost a dreamlike quality. My husband and I were very young, had just had our first child and taken on a morgage and were sleep deprived and quite scared about all the new responsibilities that we suddenly had and emotions were running high. One night we were in bed just about to fall asleep, our baby in the cot beside us. I remember the room was dark but it being late summer the night was not yet fully fallen. I lay in bed and suddenly to my right, on my husbands side, i saw ( and bear with me it is not easy to describe) a black shadowy mass fling itself out of the top of the curtain rail and fall on to the bed at my feet. The best way to describe what it looked like was as though someone had thrown a half dozen streams of black crepe paper over us. I remember sitting up quickly and looking down at the bed, but there was nothing there. Thinking my exhausted brain was playing tricks on me I shook my head and lay back down, at which point my husband, who hadnt moved or made a sound so far, asked "What the hell was that!?"
I asked what he had seen and it was exactly the same as what I saw. Thoroughly perplexed, we talked about it for a while and then went to sleep. I'm not sure if what happened next was on the same night or another night soon after but I woke to see, above my sleeping husbands face, some sort of shadowy mass. I saw this on numerous occasions, always at night when on the verge of, or coming out of sleep, and i will describe it here the best I can. I call it a spider for reasons that become clear but it didnt look exactly like a spider. It was around a foot in width, length wise about half of that. It was deep rich black in colour, almost like there was a complete absence of light to its body, although i remember on just one occasion it seemed to have some sort of purple light energy in the middle of its mass. It had tendril like "legs" coming out on both sides of its body, I'm not sure how many, although lots of them, and when the creature was stationary the legs seemed to have no substance and would wave around almost like the bottom of a jellyfish does to and fro in the water. (I hope this makes sense!) The reason i saw it as a spider is that it acted like a spider. Although it was most often very calm when i would first open my eyes and see it, it would react very strongly once it seemed to realise i could see it. Often it would rear backwards and scuttle upwards as though it was climbing an invisible strand of web up to the ceiling, where it would dissapear. Its legs would seem very strong and just like a spiders legs when it was using them. Once it floated sideways through a wall. And one very scary occasion i woke up and saw it in the cot straddling my baby daughter. Its legs were working quickly on either side of her little body and it brought to mind a spider when it has a fly and is wrapping it in its web... it looked just like that. It rapidly faded away and dissapeared as I jumped out of bed. And thats that. We moved out of the house pretty soon after as we just felt off the whole time we were living there and there were quite a few other strange things that happened besides the shadow spider. I saw the spider on a few more occasions but never again near my baby. Always above my face suddenly in the dark or above my sleeping husband. After we moved the shadow spider made 2 or 3 more appearances over the years and then I no longer saw it. Sorry for my rambling post, I hope it all made sense and I'd love to hear what you all make of it. Even after all these years I dont know what to think about what it could have been. I've considered that It could be hallucinations brought on by my half asleep state or tiredness but my husband saw it too on a few occasions and once as I described we saw it at the same time. Anyway, it was nice to get it off my chest after all these years. I did tell a few friends and family at the time, but they all just thought I'd gone bonkers so I stopped mentioning it.
 
Scary stuff ! Can't say I've ever experienced it but someone may have, nice that you've shared it.
 
That does sound scary - but I know I've read some similar events on this forum. I can't link them, as I am technologically inept,but search for the threads 'a spikey thing' and 'scariest fortean thing that happened to you' - these have similar accounts.
 
I wasn't sure if anyone would even find it interesting.

Well I certainly did! I'd also like to hear about what other strange things happened in that house.!

On first reading it does indeed sound, as you yourself suggested like a response to stress. It occured to me that the original event could have been something like a misinterpretation of something (like car headlights casting a shadow) and then whenever you were particular stressed/tired your brain replayed it (including after you'd moved) but the fact your husband also saw it and other things happened adds other layers of intrigue. Waking up when on the verge of sleep can be disorientating but your story has more substance to it that that being the simple explaination. I am looking forward to reading what ideas others can come up with.

Another thing that occurs to me is that spiders are a common phobia something that goes deeper than the fear of being poisoned. I've seen big tough men run away from our common UK house spiders lol. So where has this fear come from? Is it one of those visons that are created in the brain under certain conditions, like stress, and therefore get a negative connotation? (I'm thinking of things like how nearly everyone under the influence of certain hallucinatory drugs see twisted snakes? There's a word for it but I cant think of it at the moment. I'm sure others on here know more about it than me.

Whatever the explaination (and I never discount anything) it was a scary experience! Thankyou for telling us about it!

Sollywos x
 
I've never seen a black spider but several years ago for a number of weeks I would wake to see a brightly lit colourful jellyfish like thing hovering over my head.
It would remain with me while I went to the bathroom and stay till I went back to sleep.
It might have been because I was sleep deprived at the time but it eventually didn't come any more and I wondered why it had come and gone.
 
Welcome Fizzy55 and thanks for a creepy interesting post. I too find it interesting and would welcome hearing about your other strange experiences in the house.
 
A superb post fizzy55 and just the sort of thing IHTM is designed for!

I have never experienced anything remotely like this and can offer no easy explanations. I can say - along with ravensocks - that there has definitely been another thread much like this before - about 5 or 6 years ago. I am too much in a hurry to find it now - but maybe someone else can. At the very least it would reassure you that you are not alone.

It sounds as though you were going through quite a rough time of it in 2006 and maybe what you saw was some sort of psychic manifestation (whether internal or external) of your fears and insecurities.

I would be interested to know how many times there was another witness (your husband) to this phenomena. Just the once? I suppose I am thinking along the same lines as Sollywos above.

Has someone else got the time to find this similar thread? It had `spikey` in the title, I think.
 
I call it a spider for reasons that become clear but it didnt look exactly like a spider. It was around a foot in width, length wise about half of that.
:omg:
I have yet another thing to be grateful for--I haven't seen such a thing!

IIRC, in The Way of the Shaman by Michael Harner, spidery, creepy spiky things encountered while exploring in a shamanic trance are to be avoided. Apparently they are considered toxic/dangerous. This just emphasizes that the human mind regards this as a dangerous shape, for whatever reason. (Cats perceive such shapes as cat toys.)

I lean toward sleep deprivation and emotional stress as a source of your subjective experience. It is not certain that your husband saw exactly what you saw in all details, but I assume it's very possible that you could both externalize stress and both see it in a similar form. Perception in a semi-awake state can operate on different logic than mundane waking perception. It reveals truthful information that doesn't necessarily fit into our usual reality, so it's difficult to make sense of experiences that originate in this state of mind.

Thanks for sharing your creepy story! It IS interesting!
 
An excellent account of a series of terrifying experiences. Thank you.

Had it been just you perceiving the “spider” l might have suggested as an explanation the visual aura that sometimes accompanies or precedes a proper migraine. As your husband saw it too...

maximus otter
 
Entoptic images can have a very veinous, tendril-like appearance and can be provoked by fatigue, stress or intoxification.
It would be very unusual for two of you to experience a similar image though!

You_Doodle_2019-01-10T11_18_26Z.jpg
 
What a brilliant post! How terrifying for you Fizzy - I hope the baby was all right.

I remember 'seeing' some really awful things (and misperceiving others) when my children were small and I was sleep deprived but nothing like this. I wonder if there's a link between an inborn fear of spiders, the enotopic images and the shamanic visions others have reported? Maybe when we are in a sensitive frame of mind we 'see' shapes that are within us?
 
Thanks for all your interesting replies everyone! I will try and answer questions the best I can. Most importantly, the baby was fine, she slept right through it and didnt seem affected by it at all, thankfully.
I never noticed any features at all on whatever it was, no eyes or anything.
My husband saw it at the same time as me on just the first occasion, when it looked like crepe paper falling on the bed. He saw exactly the same as I did on that occasion. We never saw it at the same time again although he claimed to see a black spidery thing once or twice while I was asleep.
It did look very similar to the image on the left, blessmycottonsocks, but still it is strange that my husband saw it too and your suggestion could be right Zeke newbold. Maybe it was a physical manifestatation of my emotions and fears at the time. If so, I hope I dont create anything again!
I dont think I have ever suffered a migraine.
I have just read the spiky things thread, and along with Iris's jelly fish creature it makes me wonder about what our minds can create or make us think we can see. It also makes me wonder if in a half awake state with our defenses down we are sometimes able to catch a glimpse of things we we are not meant to.
All in all, its a lot to think about, any one of your suggestions could be right.
About the other things that happened in the house I will write in a seperate post as soon as I get a free hour this evening or tomorrow. Thanks everyone.
 
cool, and was it always encountered around bedroom/night-time and/or around periods of sleep
 
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As I said in my original post, the whole time we lived in that house feels sort of dream like when I look back on it. It was just a strange time and we just got used to the weirdness, I guess. All in all we lived there for around 3 years, moving just after our baby turned 3 and when we left it was like a sigh of relief. My husband and I were quite depressed when we were living there, but as soon as we arrived at our new house it was like something had been lifted and we felt so much happier. We had stopped socialising much and didnt invite people around or want to see anyone, but as soon as we got to the new house we were like, 'where did everybody go?' and we started inviting friends around again and basically enjoying life again. I really dont know if our collective fears and exhaustion caused some sort of poltergeist situation in the first house which was the cause of everything but by the time we left the atmosphere in the old house was so thick and oppressive by the time that we left that walking out of that house and into the new one felt like coming up into the air after being a long time under water. As for the other things that happened in the old house, these are the biggest that I remember:
*When my daughter started to talk, she started pointing into a recessed corner of the living room that led to the stairs and asking who that man was. When I would tell her there was nobody there but us she would reply "No, mummy. Theres a man over there and he's screaming."
*As everyone who has lived very closely with someone will know, you get to know their little habits and patterns and the way they do things. One day I was in the house alone, upstairs blowdrying my hair. My husband was due home from work anytime. We always used the back door and it would stick and scrape along the floor making a very specific noise. I heard it and turned the hairdryer off. My husband would put his keys on the countertop and then his workcase on the table when he walked in and I heard him do it. Then I sat there waiting for him to call out to me but was just met with silence. My stomach flipped. I just suddenly knew something wasnt right. I had my mobile in the room with me so I called him. He anawered and I heard traffic noise in the background. He said he was around half an hour away stuck in traffic on the motorway. I said "Please tell me you are joking because I'm upstairs and I just heard you come in. If it isnt you, who is it? "
Obviously he couldnt answer that and so he remained on the phone with me while I went downstairs. There was nobody there and the back door was locked.
*I would hear someone walking up the stairs when I was in bed. The stairs would creak with each step and I would even hear the rustle of clothes as they climbed. I would hear the inhale and exhale of breath as they climbed. Once the sounds arrived at the top of the stairs it would fall silent and whenever i went to check ( and sometimes when the sounds had been particularly vivid, I wouldnt dare ) there of course was never anybody there.
*I once had a vivid dream that 2 women had my daughter and had locked me out of my house. They were holding her and I could see through the frosted glass of the door and they were holding her and telling her I was bad and they were never going to let me back in and she was going to stay there for ever with them. Even in my dream i knew the women wern't human. They wern't alive. I know it was just a dream but I felt it was connected to all the weird happenings in the house and it terrified me.
Anyway thats most of what I remember. Interestingly, someone I know now lives in that house and I recently went back there. It brought back a lot of memories but the bad atmosphere seems to have gone and it feels better. Hopefully its gone.
 
Glad you are now in a nicer place fizzy55. Some houses do seem to have an uncomfortable atmosphere.
Have you noticed that when you go back to somewhere you have lived that it feels quite different?
I've felt that somewhere I was quite comfy before had become a bit indifferent so perhaps sometimes we stamp our personalities where we live.. Odd things have and do happen here but haven't made me afraid.
I'm glad I haven't had an experience like yours.
 
When my daughter started to talk, she started pointing into a recessed corner of the living room that led to the stairs and asking who that man was. When I would tell her there was nobody there but us she would reply "No, mummy. Theres a man over there and he's screaming."
That's nightmare fuel, right there. Has your daughter ever mentioned anything about that house? Granted, it's a longshot, given you left when she was three, but still.

Other than the spiky thing, did your husband experience anything else odd in that house?

FWIW, to add to the discussion over instinctive reactions to colours and shapes, I was snorkelling last year in some very clear water, and saw a row of five or six sea urchins on the seabed. They were, well, black and spiky, and they really did seem to exude a sense of malignancy - a marked contrast to the clownfish in the same waters. I genuinely couldn't stay in their vicinity for long.
 
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When I would tell her there was nobody there but us she would reply "No, mummy. Theres a man over there and he's screaming."
Kids are so damn cute at that age, the way they give their parents icy skin crawling chills of supernatural terror. Little darlings.

I have enjoyed your story a lot Fizzy, it's gripping, and I'm glad I didn't have to live through it.

It sounds to me as if your personal energy was run right down to the point where some otherwise powerless psychic detritus was able to parasitize you and your husband. You were both anxious and sleep deprived, and that is a good start for such things. The clue is in the fact that they are gone now. People with healthier energy simply evicted them without even knowing it, the way a healthy body will destroy an illness before it takes hold.
FWIW, to add to the discussion over instinctive reactions to colours and shapes, I was snorkelling last year in some very clear water, and saw a row of five or six sea urchins on the seabed. They were, well, black and spiky, and they really did seem to exude a sense of malignancy - a marked contrast to the clownfish in the same waters. I genuinely couldn't stay in their vicinity for long.
Krepostnoi how could you? You passed up one of the great delicacies of the sea! The tumeric colored innards of the sea urchin are called Uni and are totally delicious! https://www.sushifaq.com/sushi-sashimi-info/sushi-item-profiles/sushi-items-uni-sea-urchin/ One of the nicest things I have ever had the pleasure of eating, and heartily recommended.
 
That's nightmare fuel, right there. Has your daughter ever mentioned anything about that house? Granted, it's a longshot, given you left when she was three, but still.

Other than the spiky thing, did your husband experience anything else odd in that house?

FWIW, to add to the discussion over instinctive reactions to colours and shapes, I was snorkelling last year in some very clear water, and saw a row of five or six sea urchins on the seabed. They were, well, black and spiky, and they really did seem to exude a sense of malignancy - a marked contrast to the clownfish in the same waters. I genuinely couldn't stay in their vicinity for long.
Hi, no I dont think she remembers anything. I recently took her back to the house with me and she just shook her head when I asked if she has any memories from there. She did go through lots of anxiety issues over the years while she was growing, fear of the dark and needing to be reassured that nobody could get into the house before she would go to sleep. She grew out of it all for the most part although she is terrified of anything supernatural so we avoid anything about the subject when she is around.
My husband doesn't remember anything in particular apart from the spider and the general weirdness of those few years. It did seem to be aimed at me mostly.
I haven't ever tried snorkelling but maybe one day I will give it a try. It must feel like you are in another world down there. I imagine it must be very peaceful. Until of course, a black spikey thing approaches you!
 
Glad you are now in a nicer place fizzy55. Some houses do seem to have an uncomfortable atmosphere.
Have you noticed that when you go back to somewhere you have lived that it feels quite different?
I've felt that somewhere I was quite comfy before had become a bit indifferent so perhaps sometimes we stamp our personalities where we live.. Odd things have and do happen here but haven't made me afraid.
I'm glad I haven't had an experience like yours.
Yes, I do know what you mean. The house has had three other people live there between then and now and the atmosphere is changed. The person who lives there now is aware of what I experienced there and mentioned wanting to cleanse the place somehow, clearing it of any lingering bad energy. I'm not sure how she could do that though.
 
does sound somewhat similar to a night hag / night terror / sleep paralysis kind of experience, interesting that you observed whatever it was straddle the kid, as this is a very common component of the textbook encounter but its universally the experiencers torso involved ... i see references to spiders featuring in night terrors when i search ... the shared experience is interesting though, and wonder if your old mans recollection is as vivid as yours ...
 
Kids are so damn cute at that age, the way they give their parents icy skin crawling chills of supernatural terror. Little darlings.

I have enjoyed your story a lot Fizzy, it's gripping, and I'm glad I didn't have to live through it.

It sounds to me as if your personal energy was run right down to the point where some otherwise powerless psychic detritus was able to parasitize you and your husband. You were both anxious and sleep deprived, and that is a good start for such things. The clue is in the fact that they are gone now. People with healthier energy simply evicted them without even knowing it, the way a healthy body will destroy an illness before it takes hold.

Krepostnoi how could you? You passed up one of the great delicacies of the sea! The tumeric colored innards of the sea urchin are called Uni and are totally delicious! https://www.sushifaq.com/sushi-sashimi-info/sushi-item-profiles/sushi-items-uni-sea-urchin/ One of the nicest things I have ever had the pleasure of eating, and heartily recommended.
Yes, I did feel at the time that the thing was wanting to take something from us, or use us in some way. I switched from that, to wondering if it was something I had created my myself, sort of a manifestation of my fears and exhaustion and stress. But when it was in the cot with my daughter. I dont like ro wonder too much what the purpose of that was. I guess I will never know. But it has given me a respect for the fact that there are so many things out there that science cannot explain. When someone dismisses the supernatural out of hand I feel sorry for them as I suspect they are in for a hell of a shock one day.
 
does sound somewhat similar to a night hag / night terror / sleep paralysis kind of experience, interesting that you observed whatever it was straddle the kid, as this is a very common component of the textbook encounter but its universally the experiencers torso involved ... i see references to spiders featuring in night terrors when i search ... the shared experience is interesting though, and wonder if your old mans recollection is as vivid as yours ...
He remembers it well, although he likes to deal with what can be explained and if it cant he tends to not want to dwell on it, unlike me who is always searching for answers to all the big questions... Although I was the recipient of most of the strange happenings, he just happened to catch a glimpse of it from time to time. I wonder why spiders feature so much with this kind of experience?
 
I wonder why spiders feature so much with this kind of experience ...
i dont think they do especially, at least as far as night terrors go ... but i got a few hits ... the other thread linked is quite interesting for commonality too
 
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