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The Buzzing Misty Entity At Helen's Bay Beach

as i read it there was a disconnect between the momentarily visible cloud and the buzzing noise ... bit of stray coastal fog ? sometimes only takes a couple of insects to get a buzz on, on a quiet night, thinking of how sound of crickets/cicadas also almost seem to follow you

Yes, that's right - the buzzing noise came first, very quiet to begin with, then the cloud became visible out of the darkness of the path from the direction of the treeline. It didn't materialise in front of me or anything - I got the impression that it was moving along the path, and was just entering my field of vision. The sound then became proportionately louder as the cloud drew closer.

As I retreated back towards the car, I could still make out the cloudy shape hovering over the bench where I'd been, and the sound faded as I moved further away.

Looking at the map, the distance I travelled from the bench back to the cut-through path is about 250 metres. I hadn't quite been running, but I'd certainly been moving at pace. When the sound suddenly started to build again around me again, louder than before, there was nothing at all to be seen - even though I was near to a streetlight, and my visibility was better.

Equally, when the noise started up again in the car a few miles down the road (and you'd best believe I'd been caning it, at 60mph+) there was nothing to be seen. I parked under a streetlight in Crawfordsburn's Main Street and nothing was visible inside or outside the car, but the noise seemed to be coming from all around me. And then it faded, but with a strange feeling of latency remaining for a few moments longer. Then, suddenly, I just knew that whatever-it-was had really gone.

I couldn't say for definite that I didn't see some stray coastal fog - but this was an area of coastline that was very familiar to me, at all hours of the day and night, and I'd never before seen anything even vaguely like that. Although overcast, visibility was good that night and I could clearly see the lights of the opposite shore; usually the first sign of fog or weather closing in is that the lights vanish.

I'm familiar with the sound of crickets and cicadas from my years in Australia, and many a night spent on the verandah listening to their nocturnal concert. This sounded very different, though - imagine a bumblebee in a plastic tube, and you'd be halfway there. Quite low in pitch, not 'bright' or raspy like most flying insects, slightly oscillating and with almost a bit of echo on it.

Suggested ideas are good though - even if it seems easier somehow for me to describe what it wasn't than describe what it was (infuriating though that may be to other commenters). Thanks for taking the time!

I recall travelling around the Netherlands with a mate around 1992/1993. We camped at a place called Uitdam outside of Amsterdam. It really was in the middle of nowhere.

One early evening we went for a walk along a bank beside the sea. There were no midges at all, until after a while we noticed that we had a cloud of them over our heads. If we suddenly stopped walking, they would carry on for about two metres and then come back for us.

Yeah, midge clouds can be quite something - I've camped around Europe and Australia, and seen some impressive concentrations of winged beasties over water, as well as following people in a column over their head. One of the worst I ever saw was in the Vendée region of France, also close to the shore, over some standing water beyond the coastal dunes. The air was just thick with mosquitoes, especially around sunset. Subtropical regions of Queensland also have their hotspots - you find out pretty quickly if your tent has any holes in it...

The encounter at Helen's Bay definitely wasn't anything similar to what I've seen or heard before or since, though - it was more like a round white cloud, opaque with no visible movement within it, and audible before it could be seen. The buzzing was also a good deal lower in pitch than the noise made by mosquitoes or the like.

At the point the sound was loudest, under the streetlight at the edge of the path, there was nothing at all to be seen - I would have expected such a large concentration of insects required to generate such a hum to be pretty visible at that stage.

It really was quite odd.

Great post! Can I ask what state the sea was in that night? Calm? Rough?

Also was there any moonlight and if so, what phase was the moon? (appreciate it was overcast but you can still sometimes see the moonlight through cloud)

The sea seemed very calm that night, though since the location was a bay on the shores of Belfast Lough, itself an inlet from the Irish Sea, it's usually quite a sheltered spot.

It was low tide though, as I had to walk a fair bit down the sand to get to the water's edge. At high tide, the water laps only about five feet from the path, and in some places right up to the path. The aerial photography on Google Maps shown upthread depicts the beach at low tide.

I can't remember seeing any moonlight at all that night, so either it was around the time of the new moon or the cloud cover obscured it. Because the area's sandwiched between Bangor and Belfast, with Carrickfergus just across the Lough, there's a lot of lightspill from the street lighting of these urban areas to light up the clouds from below - so it's easy for any moonlight to be obscured.

Dunno if that helps at all!
 
Fascinating account, thanks for sharing.

I rather feel we can rule out mozzies.

I rather feel we can rule in emotions. State of mind. Distress. Upset.

These things create things.

I think this became manifest.

That's certainly another very plausible reading of the event which I hadn't even considered up to now.

The thought that maybe some part of her was reaching out to me by psychic means unknown, and I ran away, makes me feel immeasurably sad.

All I can say is that the misty cloud shape didn't give me a sense of her, but it's hard to know how much out of whack my logic brain was at that stage.

It might be worthwhile to state here that both of us were fairly vivid dreamers, and used to experiment with reaching out to 'meet in dreams' while we were physically so far apart. We kept detailed dream diaries and frequently texted each other in the mornings (sometimes emailed, attaching MS Paint renderings of structures or creatures encountered in the dream) to share what we'd dreamt overnight, as they so often featured both of us together.

Sadly, although we had some occasional vague similarities featuring in both sets of dreams on the same night, we never managed to get a definite 'hit' of both of us experiencing the same dream at the same time, suggesting an actual connection on a psi level.

(She was a psychology student, so had a lot of resources available about sleep theory. Looking back, with her final year dissertation on shamanism, a lot of her interest was really in parapsychology.)

We did have an extremely strong bond, the two of us, and it's only while I've been jotting down more notes about the various odd things that have happened to me over the years that I've realised she was present for a considerable number of them, or they occurred in the years we were a couple.

I'm hesitant to even mention some of them, because they sound like they're stretching the bounds of credulity. But we were both there; we both saw, heard and sensed things that, according to general consensus, can't exist.

I've heard a few theories that some individuals can act like 'signal boosters' to others, heightening psychic or other paranormal experiences. The frequency of my unusual experiences certainly diminished considerably after we split up.

We are still in touch, on and off, and a few years back I sent her an account I'd written from memory about something that happened to us both on Chesil Beach, asking Is that what actually happened? Is that what you remember? Apparently, it was accurate.

So yeah. More to think about...
 
I think this became manifest.

Sorry, just re-read what you'd written and I may have gone off on the wrong tangent - I'd been mulling the idea that the misty shape could have been my then-girlfriend's heightened emotions somehow reaching out to me, but I think rather the implication was that my negative feelings somehow became manifest?

Two theories for the price of one. Thank you!
 
Asked about your surroundings (sea, moon) to ascertain if there was any Oz Factor evident, so thanks for answering and of course you mention this elsewhere
 
It was a small beetle-powered UFO, when you heard it in the car, they were broadcasting to you via your car radio.
 
Sorry, just re-read what you'd written and I may have gone off on the wrong tangent - I'd been mulling the idea that the misty shape could have been my then-girlfriend's heightened emotions somehow reaching out to me, but I think rather the implication was that my negative feelings somehow became manifest?

Two theories for the price of one. Thank you!
Did you speak to her about the incident afterwards? If so what was her take on it?
 
Did you speak to her about the incident afterwards? If so what was her take on it?

I don't recall talking to her about it immediately after it happened, by which I mean in the following day or two - though I'm sure we must have discussed it at some point, if only to explain why I had reservations about going back to Helen's Bay at night. Formerly, it was one of our favourite spots to go for a walk, although I do distinctly recall we went back there one evening around February/March 2002, not long after my grandfather had died. On that occasion we stayed on the beach quite close to the cut-through path and didn't go round the bay towards the forest.

I may have mentioned something around then about the buzzing cloud that followed me a few months before but I don't remember much in the way of response other than her listening with interest, and agreeing it was a bit weird.

I think, at the point it occurred, I was hoping that a 'logical' explanation would strike me, somehow, and I could then forget about it. Whenever weird things happened to me (and from my jottings, there really were an awful lot of them around this time) I rarely spoke to anyone about it for quite a while - basically, until I'd pulled the memory this way and that in an effort to resolve it myself. Only when that didn't work did I speak to others.

Which is why the swarm of insects theory remains a very attractive one, if it meant I can finally put the whole incident out of my mind - yet, somehow, it still doesn't quite square with my recall of what happened that night. I know what a cloud of insects near the shore looks and sounds like, and it's not like that weird buzzing mist.

It was a small beetle-powered UFO, when you heard it in the car, they were broadcasting to you via your car radio.

Hey, it's as good a theory as any of mine!
 
I'm still somewhat intrigued by the name Chimera Wood - the road that runs like a spine through the woods from which direction Quercus describes the sound approaching. (Not from the woods as such, but from the direction of the woods, if I'm imagining the process described in the account properly).

There does not appear to be a street suffix attached to the Chimera Wood name - which hints that it might be an old name ascribed to the locus, before it looks like the developers took a rather large chunk out of it on which to build houses.

I find it hard to believe that the name is new. Most road names on new developments in this kind of situation are pretty anodyne - I think very purposely so – often referencing a kind of faux rurality, but usually in pretty neutral and non-specific ways.

‘Chimera’ would seem a very odd choice for a modern developer – not least because the common usage of the word - as in something illusory, and impossible to actually grasp or attain - is about as opposite as you could imagine to that sense of the aspirational and progressive that builders and estate agents try to appeal to. (Unless they are being brutally honest – but I doubt that.)

So, I would not be surprised if Chimera Wood is an old – pre-development - name for the location. And if it is, I wonder if it’s associated with something odd – or reputedly odd - about the area. ‘Chimera’ is usually used these days in the fairly inoffensive way suggested above – but the Chimera itself was a more formidable and much stranger thing, and although it had very specific attributes it was not unknown for people to misapply classical names to the things they were trying to describe.

Unfortunately, Northern Ireland does not seem to be as well served by online map libraries as other areas of the UK – I’ve not looked exhaustively, but I can’t find anything with enough detail to suggest that this might be an older name.

It might be nothing – it could, for instance, simply be that the area was part of an old estate and there was the appropriate classical statue sitting in that location. It’s just, when someone describes something strange happening to them in a location with such a name, my Oz sonar starts beeping like crazy.
 
I'm still somewhat intrigued by the name Chimera Wood - the road that runs like a spine through the woods from which direction Quercus describes the sound approaching. (Not from the woods as such, but from the direction of the woods, if I'm imagining the process described in the account properly).

There does not appear to be a street suffix attached to the Chimera Wood name - which hints that it might be an old name ascribed to the locus, before it looks like the developers took a rather large chunk out of it on which to build houses.

I find it hard to believe that the name is new. Most road names on new developments in this kind of situation are pretty anodyne - I think very purposely so – often referencing a kind of faux rurality, but usually in pretty neutral and non-specific ways.

‘Chimera’ would seem a very odd choice for a modern developer – not least because the common usage of the word - as in something illusory, and impossible to actually grasp or attain - is about as opposite as you could imagine to that sense of the aspirational and progressive that builders and estate agents try to appeal to. (Unless they are being brutally honest – but I doubt that.)

So, I would not be surprised if Chimera Wood is an old – pre-development - name for the location. And if it is, I wonder if it’s associated with something odd – or reputedly odd - about the area. ‘Chimera’ is usually used these days in the fairly inoffensive way suggested above – but the Chimera itself was a more formidable and much stranger thing, and although it had very specific attributes it was not unknown for people to misapply classical names to the things they were trying to describe.

Unfortunately, Northern Ireland does not seem to be as well served by online map libraries as other areas of the UK – I’ve not looked exhaustively, but I can’t find anything with enough detail to suggest that this might be an older name.

It might be nothing – it could, for instance, simply be that the area was part of an old estate and there was the appropriate classical statue sitting in that location. It’s just, when someone describes something strange happening to them in a location with such a name, my Oz sonar starts beeping like crazy.

FFF70AC6-B05E-4E46-9332-0F8CD290020D.png


https://apps.spatialni.gov.uk/PRONIApplication/

Chimera Wood (both a street name and the name of the dogleg-shaped spinney at bottom centre).

To the north, also hinting at something Fortean, is Talisman Clump.

North again is Erminia Clump.

maximus otter
 
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I'm still somewhat intrigued by the name Chimera Wood

Tangent for weird forest names - there's a Baal Hill Wood in County Durham, although it's not thought to be connected to any ancient deities. But you never know.

Various suggestions have been made to explain the origin of the name ‘Baal Hill’ – a reference to an old term for a pit used for lead smelting, or to the fact that the Bishop’s bailiff lived nearby. Baal could also be a corruption of bale, an old word for a fire or beacon.

I think I've read on here about a place called Skeleton Wood. There's also a real place called Ryhope (as in Mythago Wood), but the forest there is known as Ryhope Dene, not Wood.

Googling about, I've just discovered they found a skeleton there in 1987.
 
Tangent for weird forest names - there's a Baal Hill Wood in County Durham, although it's not thought to be connected to any ancient deities. But you never know.



I think I've read on here about a place called Skeleton Wood. There's also a real place called Ryhope (as in Mythago Wood), but the forest there is known as Ryhope Dene, not Wood.

Googling about, I've just discovered they found a skeleton there in 1987.
Interesting analysis of dating by teeth - the degree of tooth decay means that he died post the introduction of sugar into the general diet.

Can someone more knowledgable than me tell me whether tooth decay as a result of poor maternal nutrition or other genetic disorders is distinguishable from that due to excess sugar in the diet?
 
Generally speaking, the prevalence of tooth decay in historical populations increased as those populations progressively consumed carbohydrates in addition to protein sources. Increased tooth decay seems to correlate with the transition from hunting / gathering to settlements and the introduction of agriculture.

This rate of increase accelerated in the Middle Ages as cane sugar became more widely accessible. It accelerated even further as sweet and sweetened foods became widespread around the 18th / 19th centuries.

Poor maternal nutrition would be a factor for baby teeth, but not permanent teeth.

I'm not sure how reliable or precise a dating determination can be made from tooth decay alone, because diet and dental hygiene are major influences on its occurrence.
 
...Chimera Wood (both a street name and the name of the dogleg-shaped spinney at bottom centre).

To the north, also hinting at something Fortean, is Talisman Clump.

North again is Erminia Clump...

Something about the proximity to the sea, and the resonance of those names, made me wonder about boats.

Turns out Frederick Lord Dufferin - on whose estate the model village of Helen's Bay was built - did in fact own a steam yacht called the Erminia. He sailed to Alexandria in it in 1858.

I can't find any such direct connection between him and vessels named Talisman or Chimera. (Harland and Wolff have a Talisman listed - ship no 956 - but it was built in the 30's, and in Glasgow; the world's first diesel electric paddle vessel, apparently.)

Still, I'm wondering if they could be the names of yachts, or something.

I really want it to be something spookier - but just running through all the options.
 
I doubt a name like Chimera Wood would go back beyond the 18th century, and would most likely be due to the landowner choosing fashionable-sounding Classical names, or naming after his ships, as mentioned above.
 
I'm still somewhat intrigued by the name Chimera Wood - the road that runs like a spine through the woods from which direction Quercus describes the sound approaching. (Not from the woods as such, but from the direction of the woods, if I'm imagining the process described in the account properly).

There does not appear to be a street suffix attached to the Chimera Wood name - which hints that it might be an old name ascribed to the locus, before it looks like the developers took a rather large chunk out of it on which to build houses.

I find it hard to believe that the name is new. Most road names on new developments in this kind of situation are pretty anodyne - I think very purposely so – often referencing a kind of faux rurality, but usually in pretty neutral and non-specific ways.

‘Chimera’ would seem a very odd choice for a modern developer – not least because the common usage of the word - as in something illusory, and impossible to actually grasp or attain - is about as opposite as you could imagine to that sense of the aspirational and progressive that builders and estate agents try to appeal to. (Unless they are being brutally honest – but I doubt that.)

So, I would not be surprised if Chimera Wood is an old – pre-development - name for the location. And if it is, I wonder if it’s associated with something odd – or reputedly odd - about the area. ‘Chimera’ is usually used these days in the fairly inoffensive way suggested above – but the Chimera itself was a more formidable and much stranger thing, and although it had very specific attributes it was not unknown for people to misapply classical names to the things they were trying to describe.

Unfortunately, Northern Ireland does not seem to be as well served by online map libraries as other areas of the UK – I’ve not looked exhaustively, but I can’t find anything with enough detail to suggest that this might be an older name.

It might be nothing – it could, for instance, simply be that the area was part of an old estate and there was the appropriate classical statue sitting in that location. It’s just, when someone describes something strange happening to them in a location with such a name, my Oz sonar starts beeping like crazy.

Yes, it is a remarkably peculiar name, given the genteel nature of the area - beyond my initial surprise, I'd just assumed it was picked at random by the developer from a list of impressive-sounding words that they didn't know the meaning of...

But I didn't realise the stand of trees seems to have always been known as such, nor the other classically-tinged names given to the clumps of foliage on what's now the golf course. Being named after boats owned by Lord Dufferin is quite a plausible explanation, though.

Ordnance Survey Northern Ireland (OSNI) is independent of OSGB, but I believe it does provide access to historical mapping - somewhere. I'll continue to have a rummage; unfortunately things have gone a bit nuts in work this week, so it might be a short while before I can have a proper search.

I did take a quick look through my copy of Walter Harris' 1744 gazetteer The Antient and Present State of the County of Down (no, not a first edition), but can find no mention on any of his maps or descriptions about Chimera Wood - this of course predates Helen's Bay village, which was only built in the 1850s. In Harris' time it was all just farmland leased to the Dufferin estate, with only 'Gray Point' itself getting a passing mention as the most northerly point of Co. Down, and that the bay (now Helen's Bay) was "a safe little harbour for boats".

View attachment 35756

https://apps.spatialni.gov.uk/PRONIApplication/

Chimera Wood (both a street name and the name of the dogleg-shaped spinney at bottom centre).

To the north, also hinting at something Fortean is Talisman Clump.

North again is Erminia Clump.

maximus otter

If you check out the Wikipedia entry for Crawfordsburn, it also has a picture taken from Grey Fort Road of the bay and beach:

Screenshot_20210224-235624~2.png


This would have been taken not much further along the road from where I parked my car in the original account - Chimera Wood is the stand of mature trees extending onto the outcrop that separates Helen's Bay beach from Crawfordsburn beach beyond. You can see part of the path leading from the cut-through to the right of the pic.

The trees look like they've been there for a while, anyway.

I also had a flick through my Breverton's Phantasmagoria and, as well as the Greek references to Chimera meaning 'she-goat' (in reference to the mythical beast being composed of a lion's head, a serpent's tail, and a goat in the middle), it also described an alternative spelling of the word as 'khimaira', seemingly an allegorical reference to 'icy wind' in Hesiod's Theogony.

The wiki article on the same does manage to give the broader sense of the term, which may be more relevant here:

The term "chimera" has come to describe any mythical or fictional creature with parts taken from various animals, to describe anything composed of very disparate parts, or perceived as wildly imaginative, implausible, or dazzling.

Woods of implausibility? Well, that kinda fits...
 
I had a thought about this the other day, when I stood up too quickly. It's probably not relevant but, explore all angles and all that...

When I am incipiently faint, I get a kind of grey misting effect across my vision and there's often a sensation in my head like a ringing, buzzing noise. I've never actually passed out, but I do sometimes have to bend or sit down until the feeling passes. If I move, the 'mist' moves with me (well, it would!), but it's usually more across the edges of my vision than the centre, but I don't know if it's the same for everyone.

Could it have been something similar linked to low blood sugar or something?
 
I had a thought about this the other day, when I stood up too quickly.

When I am incipiently faint, I get a kind of grey misting effect across my vision and there's often a sensation in my head like a ringing, buzzing noise. I've never actually passed out, but I do sometimes have to bend or sit down until the feeling passes.

Orthostatic hypotension?

maximus otter
 
I had a thought about this the other day, when I stood up too quickly. It's probably not relevant but, explore all angles and all that...

When I am incipiently faint, I get a kind of grey misting effect across my vision and there's often a sensation in my head like a ringing, buzzing noise. I've never actually passed out, but I do sometimes have to bend or sit down until the feeling passes. If I move, the 'mist' moves with me (well, it would!), but it's usually more across the edges of my vision than the centre, but I don't know if it's the same for everyone.

Could it have been something similar linked to low blood sugar or something?

Certainly worth bringing up in the spirit of looking at all possibilities, for sure - though I'd be reasonably confident it wasn't that.

Orthostatic hypotension is something that I've experienced plenty of times, especially back in my vinyl hunting days when I might spend fifteen or twenty minutes hunched over a crate of LPs on the floor, and then make the mistake of straightening up suddenly - yup, the high-pitched ringing in the ears, the sudden thudding awareness of the heart rate, dizziness, and vision greying out round the edges/ clouding over. All very familiar, and usually dissipating within about ten seconds or less.

I don't think that matches what happened on the bench by the beach that night - my body was in a relaxed, seated state with no particular strain on it, and I had been sat there for about half an hour. The humming/buzzing noise, at the point I became aware of it, seemed to be directional and originating off to my right, along the path leading over to the trees. On occasions where I've given myself a bout of dizziness, the ringing has very much been within my head; this time it seemed to be external and distant, but coming closer.

It was only while looking around me, into the darkness along the path, that I then saw the cloud, seemingly moving along the path in my direction. Again, I perceived this as an external object in my direct field of vision, and there was no other sign of 'greying out' round the edges, or any feeling of dizziness.

Having then got to my feet as I watched the cloud draw closer, I don't recall feeling any different, or faint, or anything like that. And, beating my hasty retreat back towards the car, by the time I'd arrived back at the cut-through path I was certainly wide awake with the blood pumping, after briskly walking 200m or so. But, at that point, the sound returned - directionally coming from the path, and varying in volume, but again I didn't feel any sense of dizziness. And I couldn't see the cloud at that point, under the streetlight, nor a few minutes later when the buzzing noise started up again in the car while I was driving.

I've never had any further experiences like that, and while I'm no stranger to orthostatic hypotension, it's not something that occurs without some sort of external pressure; usually when suddenly transitioning from crouching down to standing. (My blood pressure's fine; by the way - I've been a platelet donor since my late teens so I've had my blood pressure checked monthly for many years, with no concerns raised.)

Low blood sugar is another reasonable theory, though I'd been drinking a mug of coffee (with sugar) and scoffing Pringles before leaving my friends' place, so I don't think that might be a major factor here. I know people who do suffer from sudden low blood sugar crashes, but it's not something that's ever really affected me.

It was certainly late at night, admittedly, but back then I was fairly nocturnal and was often out and about way, way later than this. So I don't think I was hallucinating through lack of sleep, either.

As with the 'cloud of insects' theory, I can't say for certain that it wasn't any (or all!) of these things - but if so, it was very different from any frame of reference I have for hypotension or low blood sugar, and as such it remains a singular incident with no previous or subsequent recurrence.

Thanks for the query, though - it's definitely worth examining anomalous experiences from every conceivable angle. While I haven't yet hit upon something that feels like an exact match, it's been very worthwhile to check what I believe occurred against a variety of theories that would never have occurred to me.
 
Certainly worth bringing up in the spirit of looking at all possibilities, for sure - though I'd be reasonably confident it wasn't that.

Orthostatic hypotension is something that I've experienced plenty of times, especially back in my vinyl hunting days when I might spend fifteen or twenty minutes hunched over a crate of LPs on the floor, and then make the mistake of straightening up suddenly - yup, the high-pitched ringing in the ears, the sudden thudding awareness of the heart rate, dizziness, and vision greying out round the edges/ clouding over. All very familiar, and usually dissipating within about ten seconds or less.

I don't think that matches what happened on the bench by the beach that night - my body was in a relaxed, seated state with no particular strain on it, and I had been sat there for about half an hour. The humming/buzzing noise, at the point I became aware of it, seemed to be directional and originating off to my right, along the path leading over to the trees. On occasions where I've given myself a bout of dizziness, the ringing has very much been within my head; this time it seemed to be external and distant, but coming closer.

It was only while looking around me, into the darkness along the path, that I then saw the cloud, seemingly moving along the path in my direction. Again, I perceived this as an external object in my direct field of vision, and there was no other sign of 'greying out' round the edges, or any feeling of dizziness.

Having then got to my feet as I watched the cloud draw closer, I don't recall feeling any different, or faint, or anything like that. And, beating my hasty retreat back towards the car, by the time I'd arrived back at the cut-through path I was certainly wide awake with the blood pumping, after briskly walking 200m or so. But, at that point, the sound returned - directionally coming from the path, and varying in volume, but again I didn't feel any sense of dizziness. And I couldn't see the cloud at that point, under the streetlight, nor a few minutes later when the buzzing noise started up again in the car while I was driving.

I've never had any further experiences like that, and while I'm no stranger to orthostatic hypotension, it's not something that occurs without some sort of external pressure; usually when suddenly transitioning from crouching down to standing. (My blood pressure's fine; by the way - I've been a platelet donor since my late teens so I've had my blood pressure checked monthly for many years, with no concerns raised.)

Low blood sugar is another reasonable theory, though I'd been drinking a mug of coffee (with sugar) and scoffing Pringles before leaving my friends' place, so I don't think that might be a major factor here. I know people who do suffer from sudden low blood sugar crashes, but it's not something that's ever really affected me.

It was certainly late at night, admittedly, but back then I was fairly nocturnal and was often out and about way, way later than this. So I don't think I was hallucinating through lack of sleep, either.

As with the 'cloud of insects' theory, I can't say for certain that it wasn't any (or all!) of these things - but if so, it was very different from any frame of reference I have for hypotension or low blood sugar, and as such it remains a singular incident with no previous or subsequent recurrence.

Thanks for the query, though - it's definitely worth examining anomalous experiences from every conceivable angle. While I haven't yet hit upon something that feels like an exact match, it's been very worthwhile to check what I believe occurred against a variety of theories that would never have occurred to me.
Yes, I didn't seriously think this was a contender. just mentioned it for the completeness and because it pays to cover every angle.
 
Absolutely - and it really does pay to cover every angle.

So many things that our senses perceive as strange or anomalous turn out to not be anything truly inexplicable after all - lights in darkened rooms which are really just the headlights of passing cars; shadowy figures apparently seen while in a hypnopompic state; supposed orbs caught on camera which are simply insects or dust.

I listen to quite a few paranormal podcasts these days (hey, it gets the day in while working from home), and the number of listener stories which rely on dreams, non-verifiable premonitions (weird feelings), or figures seen when waking from sleep presented as apparent proof of the paranormal is high.

I mean, I listen to them, but I'm usually fairly sceptical of the scenarios and conclusions outlined. Some of them do make me think, huh - that's a bit weird; but then they're usually quite short, and there's no scope for drilling down, which is possible here. So it would be hypocritical of me not to welcome the same scepticism applied to my own accounts, and try to explain from all possible angles why these occurrences have stuck with me for so many years, and why I still feel they defy explanation.

It's only through filtering reports for simple explanations that allow the stories which really do seem to have genuine weirdness to come through.
 
Just flicking through Ruth Roper Wylde's Roadmap of British Ghosts earlier today, and this account caught my eye on p.88 - relating to the A379 crossing Shaldon Bridge, between Teignmouth and Shaldon in Devon.

"I was actually 19 years old at the time of this event [...] I had been to see a girlfriend in Teignmouth and had decided to walk home during the early hours of the morning - we had in fact had a row. It was quite normal in those days to walk into Teignmouth to meet friends or girlfriends - in fact, quite often, I would take the ferry over in the early evening and walk back across the bridge or cadge a lift with a friend.

"On this occasion, I was alone, sober and it was roughly 2.30 am. It was a very clear, cold and crisp evening with little or no wind. I had walked across and was about 50 yards from the start of the stone wall element of the bridge. I suddenly heard what I can only describe as a pppsssssstttt sound which was repeated every five seconds or so. I looked around and worked out that it was coming from the direction of St. Peter's Church. I stopped and watched intently as a small white cloud two or three feet across and four or five feet off the ground was slowly working its way along the road, right to left towards the Dolphin Court flats. I watched it for several minutes until it just disappeared. It had no form whatsoever just a cloud/mist like appearance.

"When I had plucked up enough courage to continue home - my route took me along riverside - there was a very strong smell of electrical burning in the air. I can't say that I was terrified - just on edge as if something weird had happened rather than "seeing a ghost".

I'm struck by a few similarities with my own experience - namely that the individual reporting the incident first noticed an odd noise (obviously I can't be sure if it's quite the same noise, and it seems perhaps more hissing than buzzing while also appearing to be intermittent - whereas mine was continuous, though did vary in pitch), followed by seeing a patch of white mist two or three feet in width and moving along the thoroughfare four or five feet off the ground.

This is all very, very similar to what I encountered - visually, audibly (possibly), and in its movements.

I didn't see the thing at the beach actively disappear - I just didn't see it again after I'd removed myself from the area, though the noise seemed to come back, twice - nor did I smell anything odd.

But adding in the other curiously parallel circumstances - the time of night, proximity to a body of water, and even the cause of the late-night peregrination being an argument with a girlfriend - and I'm getting a strange sense of familiarity.

Even the narrator's sensation that what he witnessed was 'something weird' rather than a ghost matches my own impression.

Unfortunately the account - which seems to have been collected by the author after an appeal for stories about odd experiences in the area - is undated, nor is the person who related it named. However they did state that "I distinctly remember the encounter as if it was last night - it was that vivid", suggesting that some passage of time had elapsed between the encounter and the relating of it.

Shaldon Bridge is also reputed to be haunted by the ghost of a schoolmaster who was blown from the bridge during a storm, and the ghost of a young boy.

Part of my reason for posting these things up on the forum is so I can make a note of similar accounts as and when I stumble across them, rather than just thinking, mmm, sounds familiar - and then forgetting all about it. And, of course, for others to chip in if anything I've written rings any bells.

It proves nothing about the nature of my own experience, but I reckoned it was worth jotting down, anyway.


Edit for annoying typo.
 
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