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The Dog That Turned Into Green Mist, Cows Standing On Hind Legs & Other Cases Of Gibbering Insanity

I find the truly loopy happenings much more interesting tan anther Bigfoot / poltergeist / orb etc.

Part of it is - unless on hallucinogens, why would anyone make this crazy stuff up? If you wanted notoriety surely you'd come up with a story that was remotely believable.

The other comes from imagining my own reaction - would I actually believe my eye, or would I think 'mmm overdid the cheese and pickles again last night'.
 
On page 2 and bookmarking this thread for later reading... aka when it's not dark outside. I can't handle such things as dancing cows in the dark. And someone mentioned penguins... they're supposed to be cute and funny, not scary.
:eek:
 
I suspect that an online page called "Your True Tales" encourages folk to push the envelope, as they say.

The same was/is true of FT's "It Happened to Me," contributions, which often read like exercises in creative writing.

Extreme events plus signs of careful rewriting*, given the expected and usual level of literacy on the web, make me very suspicious. :nelly:

*I should add that terrible writing- in itself - does not convince me, though, when someone struggles to describe something which has puzzled them for years, I do at least believe in the struggle!
 
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Extreme events plus signs of careful rewriting*, given the expected and usual level of literacy on the web, make me very suspicious. :nelly:

Ah, but, some people just take the time to write properly - and that should be applauded, it shouldn't be something to be suspicious of, surely?

I've seen this sort of thing mentioned elsewhere (e.g. when I'm reading stuff on Reddit) and I just don't understand the reasoning behind it. Some people (myself included) take time to make sure that what they write is as understandable as possible. It's just how some people are.

Conversely, I find that really badly-written posts are the ones I tend not to believe (that's if I can even read them - I'm talking the ones that have atrocious spelling and grammar). Because if the person writing them cannot even succeed at basic spelling then how can I trust, for example, that the strange phenomena they said they saw wasn't just the moon or something?

I guess what I'm trying to say is - just because somebody takes the time to write an account of their experience properly, does not mean that they are making it up. Some people just write that way.

:)


Even as I wrote this I was actively changing and re-writing bits to make sure I'm saying the right things and making it understandable. Maybe it's my OCD or maybe I just like to make sure what I write is 'professional' enough, I don't know. But what you read above was my third attempt at this reply :D
 
On the other hand there are some story postings that read as fake. I think it had to do with the way the writer describes things - the type of details they focus on.

Edit to add: Or the turns of phrase that sound like they’re copied from a novel.
 
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Sometimes we've had people posting on here with interesting stories which provoked discussion (usually gently sceptical) who then proclaimed that they'd made it all up to show us how gullible we are. Ho hum.
 
On the other hand there are some story postings that read as fake. I think it had to do with the way the writer describes things - the type of details they focus on.
agree, the more they describe the scenery the more suspicious it is
 
sad that they dint check if there was some landed ufo nearby
also dint @Jayceedove investigate an similar case that happened near an school?

Hi, You are thinking of the dog and mist case in Oswestry, perhaps, where the second oldest free school in the UK was located. Though I had never linked the two.

See Time Storms (pp 20 - 22) but details:

9 February 1988, around 8am, on a rural road outside the town. It was south east of the town centre and the school is south south west, around a mile away.

The man was looking for farm work when he saw a car on the verge and a woman exercising her spaniel nearby. Suddenly it fled across the road barking furiously right into a single patch of spinning yellowish mist around the hedgerow. It disappeared into the mist, or was obscured by it. The barking stopped. He followed as did the woman across the road who was very upset. The mist was spiralling and causing the hedgerow to be disturbed like a whirlwind. In closer proximity they could hear a 'rushing' noise, smelt a sulphur like odour. the area was oddly 'still' and they both felt a an electric tingling and their hair was standing on end as if inside a static charge.

Moments later the mist vanished like smoke clearing and the dog was found prone on the ground where it had last been seen entering the mist and looked dead. As he approached he could see that it was alive but breathing deeply. Its eyes were bloodshot and it was soaking wet and warm to the touch. The body heat was causing the water to turn into steam and evaporate quickly. He likened it to when you get out of a hot bath and steam rises.

The man carried the spaniel back to the car and the woman quickly drove out of there still distressed but he recalled her registration and traced her as he was worried. The dog apparently recovered inside the hour and seemed normal but died a few weeks later. It was quite elderly so could well just be coincidence.

There were no apparent after effects on either of the witnesses.
 
Hi all, I’ve been a bit busy recently and not much time to post, but this one is so odd!

I occasionally trawl through the IHTM archives and just today accidentally stumbled upon this thread :


http://forum.forteantimes.com/index.php?threads/where-is-the-real-weirdness.48709/

It is the very one I began this post about, although the cows were dancing arm in arm not chatting. It can be located 6 posts into the thread via the wonderful Moooksta.

The really weird part?

Moooksta’s post was from 6 may 2012

Today is may 6th, ooooooh!
 
Hi all, I’ve been a bit busy recently and not much time to post, but this one is so odd!

I occasionally trawl through the IHTM archives and just today accidentally stumbled upon this thread :


http://forum.forteantimes.com/index.php?threads/where-is-the-real-weirdness.48709/

It is the very one I began this post about, although the cows were dancing arm in arm not chatting. It can be located 6 posts into the thread via the wonderful Moooksta.

The really weird part?

Moooksta’s post was from 6 may 2012

Today is may 6th, ooooooh!

The Dancing Cows (which were actually bulls) were one of the earliest mad things I read about online. The strangest thing, I've always thought, was that the adults seemed to know exactly what it was all about.
 
Hi, You are thinking of the dog and mist case in Oswestry, perhaps, where the second oldest free school in the UK was located. Though I had never linked the two.

See Time Storms (pp 20 - 22) but details:

9 February 1988, around 8am, on a rural road outside the town. It was south east of the town centre and the school is south south west, around a mile away.

The man was looking for farm work when he saw a car on the verge and a woman exercising her spaniel nearby. Suddenly it fled across the road barking furiously right into a single patch of spinning yellowish mist around the hedgerow. It disappeared into the mist, or was obscured by it. The barking stopped. He followed as did the woman across the road who was very upset. The mist was spiralling and causing the hedgerow to be disturbed like a whirlwind. In closer proximity they could hear a 'rushing' noise, smelt a sulphur like odour. the area was oddly 'still' and they both felt a an electric tingling and their hair was standing on end as if inside a static charge.

Moments later the mist vanished like smoke clearing and the dog was found prone on the ground where it had last been seen entering the mist and looked dead. As he approached he could see that it was alive but breathing deeply. Its eyes were bloodshot and it was soaking wet and warm to the touch. The body heat was causing the water to turn into steam and evaporate quickly. He likened it to when you get out of a hot bath and steam rises.

The man carried the spaniel back to the car and the woman quickly drove out of there still distressed but he recalled her registration and traced her as he was worried. The dog apparently recovered inside the hour and seemed normal but died a few weeks later. It was quite elderly so could well just be coincidence.

There were no apparent after effects on either of the witnesses.
no, i am talking about that "astronaut" that was seen by schoolchildren near an landed UFO
 
Do you know how he managed to do this? Did he go to the police, because I thought it was only they who could trace a car's owner by it's registration.
Can be done with a bit of social engineering. I once had a car that was blocking my garage, and there was some urgency involved - my parents needed a lift to the airport or something. So I called the non-emergency number, explained the situation, and gave them the registration number. The operator strongly hinted that if I went two or three doors down the street and knocked, I wouldn't be wasting my time. And so it came to pass. Thinking about it, this was just before my first daughter was born, so about 14 years ago. They may be a bit less relaxed these days...
 
Ah, but, some people just take the time to write properly - and that should be applauded, it shouldn't be something to be suspicious of, surely?

I've seen this sort of thing mentioned elsewhere (e.g. when I'm reading stuff on Reddit) and I just don't understand the reasoning behind it. Some people (myself included) take time to make sure that what they write is as understandable as possible. It's just how some people are.

Conversely, I find that really badly-written posts are the ones I tend not to believe (that's if I can even read them - I'm talking the ones that have atrocious spelling and grammar). Because if the person writing them cannot even succeed at basic spelling then how can I trust, for example, that the strange phenomena they said they saw wasn't just the moon or something?

I guess what I'm trying to say is - just because somebody takes the time to write an account of their experience properly, does not mean that they are making it up. Some people just write that way.

:)


Even as I wrote this I was actively changing and re-writing bits to make sure I'm saying the right things and making it understandable. Maybe it's my OCD or maybe I just like to make sure what I write is 'professional' enough, I don't know. But what you read above was my third attempt at this reply :D
I'm a translator by vocation if not by current trade, and a translation is never finished, it's only ever just about good enough to deliver. So I'm the same, I can never leave a piece of written work alone, even if it's only a tweet. I sometimes see old posts of mine on here, and have a strong urge to rephrase some of them, even though such relevance as they may ever have had expired 36 or so months ago... (doesn't stop me missing the typos until someone else has quoted the post, of course :oops:) There must be an intersection in the Venn diagram that covers people with a knack for writing (I'm not saying I'd be in it...) but excludes people who are taking the piss.
 
Yes, fewer cars about then. Rural area. You could find it more easily if you knew someone like that. Or who taxed cars at the post office and kept records. If you had a good enough reason it was not too hard. You could even just drive round a few local streets and look for it. I would have to check the case file (which I don't have as it is in the archives) to be sure which way this was done here. But it clearly did not strike me as unlikely at the time.
 
Hi, You are thinking of the dog and mist case in Oswestry, perhaps, where the second oldest free school in the UK was located. Though I had never linked the two.

See Time Storms (pp 20 - 22) but details:

9 February 1988, around 8am, on a rural road outside the town. It was south east of the town centre and the school is south south west, around a mile away.

The man was looking for farm work when he saw a car on the verge and a woman exercising her spaniel nearby. Suddenly it fled across the road barking furiously right into a single patch of spinning yellowish mist around the hedgerow. It disappeared into the mist, or was obscured by it. The barking stopped. He followed as did the woman across the road who was very upset. The mist was spiralling and causing the hedgerow to be disturbed like a whirlwind. In closer proximity they could hear a 'rushing' noise, smelt a sulphur like odour. the area was oddly 'still' and they both felt a an electric tingling and their hair was standing on end as if inside a static charge.

Moments later the mist vanished like smoke clearing and the dog was found prone on the ground where it had last been seen entering the mist and looked dead. As he approached he could see that it was alive but breathing deeply. Its eyes were bloodshot and it was soaking wet and warm to the touch. The body heat was causing the water to turn into steam and evaporate quickly. He likened it to when you get out of a hot bath and steam rises.

The man carried the spaniel back to the car and the woman quickly drove out of there still distressed but he recalled her registration and traced her as he was worried. The dog apparently recovered inside the hour and seemed normal but died a few weeks later. It was quite elderly so could well just be coincidence.

There were no apparent after effects on either of the witnesses.

Oh yes, this is one I've read in my 'time storms' book. :) As a dog owner myself I found this quite harrowing and unfortunately we'll never know whether it was old age or something else related to this experience, that sadly caused the dog's death shortly afterwards.

Whenever I read this one I always think the fact that the barking stopped suddenly, to me means the dog went somewhere else... if only just for a few moments. Was this why it returned soaking wet, perhaps it was raining heavily there? Would be highly interesting to find an account of a spaniel dog appearing somewhere for a few brief moments.
 
Another aspect of the small children/bizarre events coin is that small children may simply be less likely to ignore the impossible if they witness it.

Working my way through this thread slowly... I think this is a good explanation. Kids haven't learned that certain things aren't possible / don't exist so they take them at face value. I certainly did with something that happened when I was little. It didn't bother me, it just... was.


EDIT: To remind myself where I got to, I'm on page 7, just having read the Oven On Fire thing. Very odd story. A bit disappointed that the thread is so old many of the links no longer work, but still some good stories.
And just read the Dancing Cows story out loud to Mr Zebra. Well... sleep is overrated anyway.
 
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Ok, I did do a bit of research to determine whether this memory I have was the same as the ‘dancing cows’ mentioned on the gibbering insanity thread - but it doesn’t seem to be. I hope this is the right section of the board to post my query (I’ve been posting for a while now but have never started my own thread prior to this)!

I recall a story (in the style of ‘it happened to me’, but not quite sure if it was on the FT website), possibly quite a few years ago now, concerning more than one witness. Maybe two women? If I recall correctly they were out walking (or driving) in a rural area when they came upon a field of cows grazing. As they approached they witnessed a small group of cows - separate from the others - stood up on hind legs, human style, chatting and laughing to one another. As the witnesses came closer the cows quickly reverted back to type, hurriedly lowering themselves back on to 4 legs, mindlessly chewing grass,etc.

This little tale really stuck with me, perhaps it was in the telling, but it seemed quite genuine. Had me pondering for days :crazy:
I’m not ashamed to admit that I love this kind of oddity, and would really like to know if anyone else has come across it anywhere online.

There were a few other stories alongside this one concerning talking animals, although only this and maybe one or two others impressed me. I wondered if I might have read it on the digital spy forum a few years back, perhaps the ‘creepiest thing’ thread, but I can only say for certain that it wasn’t reddit.

Any idea?
weird! i remenber one exactly like this one on reddit!
except it was horses instead of cows and that they werent chatting or laughing just standing up
from memory the story was like this:
the redditors uncle or grandpa comes to home scared saying: "the horses! they werent what they seem!", the relative was standing somewhere, hiding and peering when out of nowhere the horses all standed up in their hind legs, after that the relative runned away to the house and the rest i dont remenber
 
i think the reason that the interdimensionals do such theatre is to make the witness think beyond: farm animals are an subject so simple, that most pre-schoolers can name them, but what if all is an lie, what if they are sentient beings with their own civilization?
the message is clear: amongst the familiar hides the unknow
this is a concept that horror writers have used for years in the shape of evil children, "how can something so innocent be so evil?"
we are seeing the same thing here but applied to another familiar subject
 
I remember reading a story like that, but I can't remember where. I think the one I read had horses, so maybe not the same story. It would have been here or Reddit, I'm 99% certain.

I also particularly like that kind of oddity.
lol you have read the same as me
i also like this type of oddtity and think that its here where the answer to the paranormal is found
 
There is another similar one, it was British and involved a body found under weird circumstances on top of a slag heap or something. He was apparently found with meds in his pocket that hadn't been licensed. Can't remember much more, it used to crop up all the time, I expect it will again.
zigmund adamsky (note the name! synchronicities are real, people!)
 
Do you know how he managed to do this? Did he go to the police, because I thought it was only they who could trace a car's owner by it's registration.

As far as I know, there is no legitimate way for a private citizen to obtain details of the registered keeper of a car from the DVLA, or via the police.

It is possible for a member of, say, a legitimate private parking enforcement firm to buy registered keeper details from DVLA, a practice which pops up in the news from time to time, e.g. here.

The DVLA themselves say that they will release information to:

• Local authorities for on-road parking enforcement, and dealing with abandoned and nuisance vehicles.
• Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) to improve the roadworthiness standards of vehicles through MOT certification and ensure the compliance of vehicle operators and drivers.
• Motor manufacturers to issue vehicle safety recall notices and remove potentially dangerous vehicles from use.
• Transport for London for the enforcement of congestion charging, which aims to reduce vehicle numbers and emissions in the city centre.
• Insurance companies to pursue claims following accidents, to investigate fraud and to trace uninsured motorists.
• Landowners or their agents who offer car parking facilities under specific terms and conditions to contact drivers who may have parked their vehicle in contravention of the parking conditions.
• Trespass companies who issue charge notices where parking is not permitted.

https://assets.publishing.service.g...lease-of-information-from-dvlas-registers.pdf

I suppose an employee of one of those entities could fraudulently submit paperwork to obtain a driver's name & address, but the risk of prosecution under s.55 of the Data Protection Act would be a powerful disincentive.

I am aware of an incident where a police employee fed car & driver info from the Police National Computer to animal rights terrorists. Bad idea...

The short answer is that I don't know of any legitimate route, though - as in all areas where humans are involved - there could be a work-round.

The problem is that the wording is so nebulous: "...he recalled her registration and traced her..." This could even include just driving around the area until he spotted the car on a driveway.

maximus otter
 

Oh I love this one. How utterly bizarre! As soon as I got to the bit about the upside-down man, I immediately thought, had he hanged himself perhaps, was that why he was upside-down? And maybe the man with the gun was the man from the house, trying to let someone know what had happened?

And now, as I'm typing this, I suddenly don't understand why I would jump to the conclusion of someone upside-down being a hanging victim - because they are upright, aren't they, when that happens? Yet it was such a clear thought that entered my head?
 
Oh I love this one. How utterly bizarre! As soon as I got to the bit about the upside-down man, I immediately thought, had he hanged himself perhaps, was that why he was upside-down? And maybe the man with the gun was the man from the house, trying to let someone know what had happened?

And now, as I'm typing this, I suddenly don't understand why I would jump to the conclusion of someone upside-down being a hanging victim - because they are upright, aren't they, when that happens? Yet it was such a clear thought that entered my head?
that was indeed an bizzare train of thought
but this is one of my favorite, stories so bizzare it escapes common sense
 
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