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Weird IHTM Tales From Reddit & Other Sites

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WeirdExeter said:
Definitely worth a read:

"Found it. Warning: it's very long (sorry) and very freaky, and if anyone can come up with a rational explanation I'd be extremely grateful because I'm generally a pretty rational non-woo where's-the-evidence person, but I've never been able to explain this and it still makes my heart beat faster and the hair stand up on my arms when I think about it, years later.

I was pet sitting for my friend several years ago. She had moved into a sort of small holding right on the edge of a village in the SW, with a huge garden that backed onto trees. At the time she had a right menagerie - chickens, ducks, a couple of Shetlands, cats and four black retrievers, three fully grown and one a half grown puppy. Originally DH had been going to come with me as a little holiday but the dates she ended up having to go away for work clashed with a couple of his medical appointments so he stayed at home with our dog and I went to petsit alone.

It was about halfway through my stay, a couple of nights to go. Late evening, already dark when I heard a massive commotion from the chicken shed, banging and thumping. I assumed a fox or something had got in so went out to check. As I was halfway across the garden the noise stopped instantly as if it had been shut off; by the time I got to the shed all was calm and the chickens were all settled, mostly asleep. No sign of any intruder or disturbance at all, nothing to explain the noise or any indication that the chickens had made a noise. Bit freaky but I didn't (and still don't) know much about The Way of Chicken so I locked up again and left them to it.

As I went back in the house a small black shape ran past me out of the back door.... [continued in link below]

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_b...-has-happened-to-you-that-you-can-not-explain

I guess we will never be able to validate this story but it is a cracker and doesn't get carried away with a 'Hollywood ending' and thus has the ring of truth for me.
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Great story, it also sounds very familiar. Looks like it was posted in 2020, I haven't read that particular post before but I think I've either read the same story or one(s) very similar.
 
Ogdred Weary said:
Great story, it also sounds very familiar. Looks like it was posted in 2020, I haven't read that particular post before but I think I've either read the same story or one(s) very similar.
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I used to be on Mumsnet and that story has acquired a level of 'myth' about it. It's far older than 2020, but it does get reposted every time there's a 'spooky story' thread.
 
catseye said:
I used to be on Mumsnet and that story has acquired a level of 'myth' about it. It's far older than 2020, but it does get reposted every time there's a 'spooky story' thread.
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It has the ring of fiction to it, I presumed it had "done the rounds" and I'd read an earlier iteration or two, possibly on here or linked from here.
 
Ogdred Weary said:
It has the ring of fiction to it, I presumed it had "done the rounds" and I'd read an earlier iteration or two, possibly on here or linked from here.
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I too have read this somewhere. Not exactly the same story, but very close. It is vague enough that I can't quite place it.

It sounds something like a story I read (supposed to be true) about someone encountering a strange being in a backyard shed. Again, the strange sounds were heard and thing quickly ran off, leaving only a glimpse of it.
 
I’m pretty sure that being in the shed story was posted on here a few years ago.
 
catseye said:
I used to be on Mumsnet and that story has acquired a level of 'myth' about it. It's far older than 2020, but it does get reposted every time there's a 'spooky story' thread.
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I don't know, it feels extremely contrived to me. After the big build-up on the Mumsnet thread (never thought I'd be typing that) I have to say I was expecting something a bit more M R James.
 
(Mods, if this is in the wrong place, sorry, could you please move it?)

I’m on Dreamwidth and a couple of days ago a long-time online friend of mine posted this. (She lives in the US). I asked her if I could copy-paste her post onto this forum.

___________________________________________________________________

(Friend): Yes, feel free to share it if you'd like. You might add that it was about noon, or just after. The sky was very clear and very little wind. So, no odd weather to be a factor. (Unlike most of the past two weeks, which have been extremely windy).

____________________________

…Last Saturday, something weird happened.

I was on my way to the local dollar store to pick up a few necessary things. I try to limit my shopping as much as possible, partly due to wanting to limit any contact as much as possible (masked, of course -- except when actually driving) and also due to gas prices. >:/

Anyway, I was on my way out of town. I was heading to the junction of two highways, which is a nasty corner at best, which is the only way to get to the store. Now I've driven this road thousands of times and I know that before crossing, coming to a full stop is a must due to the oddities of the road. It's time for spring planting, so in addition to the normal traffic, there is a lot of farm equipment moving from place to place.

So I stopped. I know I waited because there was a pickup and trailer from the east, and turning south at the intersection. As soon as they were clear, I started across. That's when it happened. I was just starting across when all at once, I saw a gray car in front of me. I thought "Oh God, I can't stop, I'm going to die" when -- the car turned into a "frozen photo" and disappeared. You've seen the photos that have a blurred image of a car, where you see the lines surrounding the car, etc. Yeah, that is what I saw. And then it was just... gone.

I was so rattled that I continued crossing the intersection, waiting for the impact, etc. and... nothing. As soon as I was clear, I pulled off and just parked and sat for a few minutes. I finally decided that I was still alive and continued to the store.

Now I'm just trying to figure out what happened. Did I have some kind of mental/psychotic break? A glitch in the matrix? Divine intervention? Or... something else? I'm not sure even now.

Anyway, that is my story. Make of it what you will. Take care everyone, and stay safe!


_________________________________________________________
 
It would be helpful to understand the layout of the intersection and the direction in which your friend was traveling. The text mentions "crossing", which suggests it was a four-way intersection with the highways at right angles (like a "+"), and the friend was intending to continue through the intersection without making any turn.

The text is written to imply the friend only stopped as a matter of discretionary caution, not because of any stop sign or traffic light. An utter lack of posted or active traffic control at the intersection of two routes deserving to be called "highways" would be a very strange - even illegal - thing in the USA.
 
From 9gag:

sarucha 2h
Two months ago I used my husbands laptop to booked a hotel for the Easter week holiday... And then I forget about it,..... 3 weeks ago he asked me to open his laptop to print something related to his work, I did it and then I decided to watch an online movie... Open Safari and there is a booking.com website, I had a fucking crisis!! I started to cry, I called him and I told him that I loved him with all my heart but if he was unhappy and was going to cheat on me, I deserved to know, I wouldn't ever tell him to stay if he was so unhappy, and I was crying my heart out.... He came home immediately, confuse of what was going on, I told him about the booking website... He looked at me, look at the website and then he started to laugh uncontrollably and said "that was you!! " Then I remember I booked the hotel and even the destination was still on the booking search.... Now he jokes about being careful with his stuffs or I will find out he is cheating on me with me!!
 
I love this story. It features weird lights and a pond, what else could one ask for?
It's taken from here, sorry but I don't know how to link to the precise location. Just scroll down...

"Weird experience from the UK here.

I was about 18 and working a job that had me living with my grandparents. They still lived in the same village as when I grew up, very small, no local shop, middle of the countryside.

One of my early childhood friend's parents had bought some land on the edge of the village (about 40 acres) and said I could shoot some rabbits as they were destructive to the young vines, and, could fish one of the two ponds any time I wanted to. The pond I could fish was a natural pond and was fairly well hidden that you had to either know it was there or push your way through a lot of undergrowth exploring for it. If you were fishing there you were pretty much guaranteed to not be seen.

On the evening of the experience it was midsummer so I had lots of time to fish even after getting home at about 5pm, so I grabbed my gear and headed out for about 4 or 5hrs fishing time. My favourite spot was a nice little bay at the widest point of the pond. It was probably about 30ft at it's widest point. Opposite me on the bank were two old poplar trees that were maybe 80ft tall?

It had just dropped dusk so I put a glow tip on a float and thought "I'll just get 30 or 45mins extra in, then pack up and go home." I knew that patch of land like the back of my hand by then, so walking home just as it got dark wasn't a problem.

I'd cast the float out about 10 mins later and was watching it, I don't know how they appeared but suddenly two orb lights caught my attention. They were probably about 20ft up the trunks of the poplar trees and were a bright white/yellow colour.

They just seemed to be sitting there not doing anything. "Must be car headlights?" I thought and turned my attention back to the float. Something in my head said "but that direction is nothing but fields, no roads and no houses?". Plus the lie of the land behind the trees was a thick hawthorn hedge and a large field with a steep slope, so my LOS meant that any car it could have been would basically be buried in the field?

I reeled my line in so it was about 6ft from me and looked back at them puzzled. I did the cartoon blinking and rubbing my eyes, opened them again and they were still there. This time they had developed a purple ring around them. After what seemed like an age (but was probably only 5mins) of staring at them, they both moved, up and down about 6inches in both directions at first, then they started shrinking and getting larger. I'd say from the size of a tennis ball to the size of a golf ball. Then they stopped doing that and the orb on the left started rotating in a circle anti-clockwise, the one on the right in a circle clockwise. Then as they were doing this they started going up and down the same distance again.

After 10mins of this "dancing" they stopped and then started descending down the tree trunks, one orb dropping faster then slowing so the other could do the same, there was about 4ft of bank between the trees and the opposite water's edge, they floated over that and out onto the water's surface. They were moving at a decent rate so it didn't take long, maybe a minute to reach the centre of the pond?

By this time I was super freaked out, so I reeled my line in and I literally abandoned my fishing gear there and then as I knew no one would find it and I could go back the next day to retrieve it.

I ended up giving it the big legs and made it back to my grandparents house in 5 minutes in what should have been a 10 minute walk.

There was no sound from them and no smell - ruling out willo the wisps or marsh gas balls - and anyway THEY float over the ground, not at 20ft up a tree!

To this day 25+ years on, I still for the life of me can't explain them, but, I CAN see the whole experience as clear as day when I think about it....

Definitely a paranormal experience, as I cannot logically explain it rationally."
 
said I could shoot some rabbits as they were destructive to the young vines,

May be an odd question, but what kind of vines do we grow in the UK, that would need rabbits keeping off them?
 
ginoide said:
I love this story. It features weird lights and a pond, what else could one ask for?
It's taken from here, sorry but I don't know how to link to the precise location. Just scroll down...

"Weird experience from the UK here.

I was about 18 and working a job that had me living with my grandparents. They still lived in the same village as when I grew up, very small, no local shop, middle of the countryside.

One of my early childhood friend's parents had bought some land on the edge of the village (about 40 acres) and said I could shoot some rabbits as they were destructive to the young vines, and, could fish one of the two ponds any time I wanted to. The pond I could fish was a natural pond and was fairly well hidden that you had to either know it was there or push your way through a lot of undergrowth exploring for it. If you were fishing there you were pretty much guaranteed to not be seen.

On the evening of the experience it was midsummer so I had lots of time to fish even after getting home at about 5pm, so I grabbed my gear and headed out for about 4 or 5hrs fishing time. My favourite spot was a nice little bay at the widest point of the pond. It was probably about 30ft at it's widest point. Opposite me on the bank were two old poplar trees that were maybe 80ft tall?

It had just dropped dusk so I put a glow tip on a float and thought "I'll just get 30 or 45mins extra in, then pack up and go home." I knew that patch of land like the back of my hand by then, so walking home just as it got dark wasn't a problem.

I'd cast the float out about 10 mins later and was watching it, I don't know how they appeared but suddenly two orb lights caught my attention. They were probably about 20ft up the trunks of the poplar trees and were a bright white/yellow colour.

They just seemed to be sitting there not doing anything. "Must be car headlights?" I thought and turned my attention back to the float. Something in my head said "but that direction is nothing but fields, no roads and no houses?". Plus the lie of the land behind the trees was a thick hawthorn hedge and a large field with a steep slope, so my LOS meant that any car it could have been would basically be buried in the field?

I reeled my line in so it was about 6ft from me and looked back at them puzzled. I did the cartoon blinking and rubbing my eyes, opened them again and they were still there. This time they had developed a purple ring around them. After what seemed like an age (but was probably only 5mins) of staring at them, they both moved, up and down about 6inches in both directions at first, then they started shrinking and getting larger. I'd say from the size of a tennis ball to the size of a golf ball. Then they stopped doing that and the orb on the left started rotating in a circle anti-clockwise, the one on the right in a circle clockwise. Then as they were doing this they started going up and down the same distance again.

After 10mins of this "dancing" they stopped and then started descending down the tree trunks, one orb dropping faster then slowing so the other could do the same, there was about 4ft of bank between the trees and the opposite water's edge, they floated over that and out onto the water's surface. They were moving at a decent rate so it didn't take long, maybe a minute to reach the centre of the pond?

By this time I was super freaked out, so I reeled my line in and I literally abandoned my fishing gear there and then as I knew no one would find it and I could go back the next day to retrieve it.

I ended up giving it the big legs and made it back to my grandparents house in 5 minutes in what should have been a 10 minute walk.

There was no sound from them and no smell - ruling out willo the wisps or marsh gas balls - and anyway THEY float over the ground, not at 20ft up a tree!

To this day 25+ years on, I still for the life of me can't explain them, but, I CAN see the whole experience as clear as day when I think about it....

Definitely a paranormal experience, as I cannot logically explain it rationally."
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These orbs are not that rare, there have been quite a few similar cases. They have been seen around stone circles such as Stonehenge and Avebury, and often on or near bodies of water. Sometimes they behave in what seems like an intelligent way. People who get too close to them sometimes experience weird hallucinations -- this has happened to soldiers in Stonehenge, where the orbs seem to be able to hypnotise people before ascending into the sky. I think some of these reports are what got the MoD to view them as the answer to UFOs. A lot have been seen in the US also, near Skinwalker Ranch and other active areas. In one case in the US quoted by Skinner, someone got annoyed by seeing an orb playing around (I think over a runway) and aimed a laser at it. It then shot over towards him, and a female employee, and zapped them both -- they became seriously ill for some time.
 
Small, purple-fringed lights with a yellow centre, seen near a lake and dancing about erratically (even 20 feet up in the air) sounds very much like some of the old will-o-the-wisp reports to me.
 
This reminds me a little of a story my nan told me of the village where I lived — but it happened before I was born.
She ran the village school and even now they’re are older people who credit her with getting them through their ’Eleven Plus’ exams. (She went above and beyond for her pupils and they often came to her with problems).

There is a little copse around the village and kids often played there, I did myself. They came to her one day saying that a few of them had been there in the dark and saw floating lights that terrified them and chased them. It isn’t a marshy area, either. At any rate, even when I was young people were a bit reluctant to go in there after dark.
And there’s nothing to the place at all; you can just walk through it to join a tiny lane with a few houses that gives of the road.
 
Mythopoeika said:
Grape vines?
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I can only think of about three places that commercially grow grapes in the UK and they are all commercially managed, not anywhere near fishing holes or sparsely populated places such as described. We just don't have them like they do in, say the States or Australia.
 
catseye said:
I can only think of about three places that commercially grow grapes in the UK and they are all commercially managed, not anywhere near fishing holes or sparsely populated places such as described. We just don't have them like they do in, say the States or Australia.
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178 wineries in the UK:

https://www.statista.com/statistics/302991/number-of-wineries-united-kingdom-uk/

I know that the Sharpham vineyard in Devon had a problem with badgers eating the grapes and so used (legal) electric fencing to get them a mild shock
 
Ah now I knew about hops. I wouldn't call tomato plants 'vines'. Runner beans... mmm.... I'd just call those climbers more than vines.
 
I have to say I thought I detected a couple of non-UK sounding idioms in that account, but it's difficult to tell with Reddit users.

I suppose if 'vines' meant 'hops' then it might have happened in Kent, or Herefordshire. It does sound like a classic will-o-the-wisp / self igniting phosphine / diphosphine thing, though.
 
Fishing forums can be a good source of odd, if completely unverifiable, Fortean stories. Having done a bit of not-particularly-serious coarse fishing myself I guess that spending a lot of time sitting quietly in deserted places lends itself to experiencing odd stuff - plus fishing attracts quite a wide range of people.

Here's a good one posted to a carp fishing forum in 2008 - very much a 'yarn' but has a sort of understated M R James quality to it.

here goes...

A friend of the family owned a very large georgian mansion which had been in their family for years. The owner didn't have very much money and found it hard to maintain the place but refused to sell up considering how long it had been in his family for. It was creepy to look at, originally white but very over grown with ivy, he only occupied the first floor.

The grounds were huge with a very large lake filled with some very big carp and tench. He allowed me to fish it pretty much when I wanted in the day but was always uncomfortable when I asked if I could do a night session. After much pestering he finally agreed but for some reason said under no circumstance should I set up on the the south side of the lake. At the time I didn't really think much of it as I was rather excited about the prospect of finally being able to finally get a ngith session.

It was mid april, I had taken the week off work and the weather had been fantastic.. I arrived at the house around 12pm and knocked on the door. My friend answered the door and let me in. I had a cup of tea and started to talk about how I was going to fish the lake that night. He seemed distant and again said about under no cricumstance should I set up on the south side of the lake. I asked why and he paused before mumbling about how he was having some of the trees cut back but didn't know when and how I would be in the way. Again I just went along with it although.

I set up on the north side and settled in for the night. I had a run at 11 and landed a nice 14lb mirror. I put the fish back and baited up, it was dark, totally overcast and cold. As I cast out and my line hit the clip I heard a loud high pitched noise from the oposite side of the lake. It stopped and my ears kind of popped and I could hear ringing. I have a 2million candle power torch which I grabbed and shone across the lake. The lake was steaming, I scanned the beam along the bank but didn't see anything.. I switched off the torch, the beam faded, and I climbed inside my bivvy.

I was drifting in and out of sleep to the sound of the trees gently blowing in the wind. My alarm bleeped once and I sat bolt upright in bed. I watched my alarm LED light go out, the cloud had lifted and the moon lit up the lake. I remember thinking how awesome it looked and lay back in bed thinking there wasn't anywhere I would rather be at that point in time. "CRACK". What the hell was that? I sat up, silence "CRACK". I got out of my bivvy and looked across the lake, couldn't see anything. I stood there listening, nothing. I then heard a very feint voice. The voice was distressed, crying mixed in with what sounded like "no no can't no, not so". I grabbed my torch and shone it across the lake, my eyes widened and mouth opened as I saw a figure stumbling near to the bank. I quickly shut off the torch and then started to **** myself like I have never **** myself before. What seemed like an age passed as I decided what to do. I turned the torch back on and pointed it back across the lake, my breath was being pieced by the light shaft, I couldn't see anything,

I stood there for ages, before I plucked up the courage to shout out "Hey", "are you ok?". Nothing. "HELLOOOOOO". Nothing. I turned off the torch and was shaking. I went back to my bivvy and got into bed before pulling the covers right up over my head. The invincible force of my sleeping bag would protect me. I was curled up in a ball thinking what the hell should I do? Should I go to the house? Should I go and look on the other side of the bank? The house was little under a kilometre away, I couldn't see the house from where I was located. I got out of my bivvy and decided to go to the house. I reeled in and then started to walk around the lake to the east side. My walk started to quicken before I was doing one of those mad panic runs. I got to the landscaped meddow/lawn which allowed me to see the house. I was still running and noticed some of the lights were on in the upper part of the house. I made it to the door and hammered on it. My friend answered after a while and without saying anything he said "you better come in".

I was bent over double, so out of breath. I managed to form a sentence between breaths and told him what I had seen. He didn't seem phased he said lets talk about this in the morning. The next day I awoke to the smell of bacon and egg. I dragged myself off the floor and went into the kitchen. I ate some food in silence. He then put a book in front of me. It was a scrap book with a load of paper cuttings, pictures etc about the house collected over the years. He told me to look at page 28. The first thing I saw was "INFANT FOUND" in a big typeface, I read on and learned how in 1856 a infant of 3 had disapeared, and was later found in the lake by the mother.

Brilliant
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Tomato plants often referred to as vines (plant whose stem requires support) especially in older gardening books, maybe also because the fruit grows in clusters like grapes?

Here they are being grown in a strange vine like manner at West Dean Gardens in Sussex. (Also see FT 419 Fortean Traveller article)

IMG_7529.JPG
 
Tunn11 said:
Tomato plants often referred to as vines (plant whose stem requires support) especially in older gardening books, maybe also because the fruit grows in clusters like grapes?

Here they are being grown in a strange vine like manner at West Dean Gardens in Sussex. (Also see FT 419 Fortean Traveller article)

View attachment 55665
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I've only ever seen them grown like this indoors though. The original story states that the vines were outdoors and in danger from rabbits. This is all entirely off topic and entirely inconsequential, apart from the fact that it pulled me up short and made me wonder where the story was set!
 
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