Winnie The Poohssessed

[mr_macabre]

First post here so be gentle…

When I was very young, probably about four or five, we lived in a lovely old detached cottage in East Devon where all manner of very odd things happened, but this one incident seemed madder than the rest.

I had a Pooh Bear at the time, and took it absolutely everywhere with me, and even insisted on having it in the bed with me at night.

One morning I woke quite early (it was only just getting light) and was instantly surprised that Pooh was missing (I actually used it as a pillow, so I knew straight away that it wasn’t there).

I was lying facing the wall, and I heard a very soft sort of shuffling noise coming from behind me (c’mon guys, you must know where I’m going with this now!).

I slowly turned over in bed to face the room, and was dumbstruck to see the Pooh Bear walking across the floor with its back to me. As I watched, it slowly made its way to a chest of drawers and began rummaging through them. As I watched, fascinated by what I was seeing, it suddenly snapped its head round and looked straight at me.

Panicked, I dived back into a sleeping position and closed my eyes tight, hoping it hadn’t noticed me. I heard the soft shuffling noise again and, after a few seconds, couldn’t resist opening my eyes slightly, and this time it was practically standing over me with its face no more than a couple of inches away from mine.

I span away from it so that now I was facing the wall, and it was there too! I turned to look at the room again it was still there standing on the side of the bed, then when I looked back to the wall again it was still there as well. The next time I looked at the room it had vanished, and when I looked back at the wall-side of the bed the Pooh Bear was inanimate again and back on top of the pillows where I’d put him the night before.

My mum loves trotting this story out in front of friends and everyone has a good old laugh at my expense, but I think deep down she knows there was something very odd about that house (she had many unexplained experiences of her own there).

You’re probably going to dismiss this as a dream, but I know for a fact that I was as wide awake as can be and can picture it all as clear as can be even to this day (I’m 35 now).

Has anyone else experienced toys which have come to life?

 

[ramonmercado]

Perhaps Pooh ate some fermented honey or maybe you did.

 

[Mythopoeika]

Scary! :shock:

 

[escargot]

I think it's most likely a dream or hallucination induced by a high temperature. Kids are prone to stuff like that.

Sounds familiar. One of my sisters once 'saw' a goblin staring at her from a mirror. She was quite ill at the time, nothing serious but with a high temp. My mother still laughs, not about the goblin but because Sis insisted for many years that it had really been there.

 

[SHAYBARSABE]

One of my sisters once 'saw' a goblin staring at her from a mirror. She was quite ill at the time, nothing serious but with a high temp.

Perhaps the goblins are only visible when one has a high temperature?

 

[escargot]

Indeed. Both my own daughters used to swear, as children, that they'd seen both stereotypical fairies (wands, ballet shoes, gossamer wings etc) and tiny goblins (pointy hats, curly shoes.)

One also 'saw' many times and described 'nature spirits', who were little figures apparently composed of bundles of twigs which walked and talked like people.

All very strange. :?

 

[McAvennie]

Though if I died and had the power to come back as a ghost that is exactly the kind of creepy stuff I would do... :lol:

 

[mr_macabre]

I think it's most likely a dream or hallucination induced by a high temperature. Kids are prone to stuff like that.

It's very interesting that you said that, because there was a period in that house when I did indeed have a high temperature, and had a vivid aural and visual hallucination that my bedroom was a medival court complete with knights, jesters, servants and the like, very detailed stuff for a five year old. The point is that looking back I can clearly differentiate between that experience, when I was poorly and can rationalise it as my mind's creation, and the walking Pooh Bear experience, when I was not ill and didn't have a fever.

I spoke to my mum about the house last night and she told me there was a time when she was sitting in the front room having a cup of tea and clearly saw the shape of a toddler falling past the window as if it had fallen off the roof or something. She rushed out shrieking, expecting to find my broken body on the floor outside, but there was nothing there. Then, when she looked up to where the "body" had fallen from, she says she saw me climbing out of my bedroom window (I was a bit of a monkey in those days).

 

[poozler]

I had something very similar happen to me when I was about 4 or 5.

Let me set the scene: My two sisters and I shared 2 bedrooms when we were little, and we would swap around so that each of us would have a go at sleeping alone.

Anyway, my elder sister was sleeping in that room one night and swore that little elves crept out of her closet at night and climbed up onto her bed, where they proceeded to hit her with shovels and pickaxes. She told my mum, who told her it was just a dream. (We HAD been to see the Disney film 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs', I should tell you now.)

A few nights later, it was my turn to sleep in the single room, and I had the same dream. The little men came out of my closet but they did not hit me with tiny mining tools. I told my elder sister and my mum, but nothing came of it.

However, a few nights later (I was still in the room), I woke up to find several large firemen in my room--all dressed in black rubber firemen's coats with those lovely firemen's hats. They were carrying axes. They headed straight for the closet. I, of course, was wide awake at this point. My mother explained that she smelled smoke coming from my closet (why? who knows). The firemen also smelled smoke in the closet but could find no source. (Note: I was much too young to be sneaking illicit smokes in my bedroom. That came much later and in a different house.)

My sister saw the dwarfs again next time she slept in the room, but I never saw them again.

All very strange. I still remember that night, and I remember the little men that came out of my closet just a clearly as I remembered the firemen.

I would put the whole thing down to blaming Walt Disney and the influence of my older sister, but where did the smoke smell come from?

 

[searinglight2]

I am slightly confused, you say your mother smelt smoke, and felt concerned enough to call out the brigade, but left you sleeping in the room (and i presume your sisters) while she left to make the call and until they turned up, went all the way upstairs, unrolled their hoses and THEN woke you (or you woke up) wouldn't you usually grab the kids and at least take them downstairs or out of the room? don't the fire brigade usually TELL you to do that over the phone when you call for them?

Also just wondering, was your older sister perhaps old enough to be sneaking the cigarettes instead?

another thought occurs to me - could there have been wall vents or even a shared wall with cracks in it connecting your house with a neighbours house, who maybe smoked illicit substances, or some such thing even if they used a lot of hairspray near the opening. perhaps accounting for the vivid happenings your sister experienced and then related to you before you then had the same ones.

i hope that made sense, its pretty late and i am a little fuzzy around the edges right now.

 

[poozler]

All excellent questions. I will try to answer them as best I can (this was many years ago!).

My mother called the fire department. There was no hose in sight, just the firemen with axes. I can not tell you why my mother wasn't worried enough to get me (and my sisters) out of bed. Perhaps she was hoping we would all be incinerated. I can't speak for her and, at 90 years of age, her memory isn't the best. But you are right: it does seem strange.

I have two older sisters. They were much too young to smoke then, too. We were all well under the age of 8. My mum didn't smoke and did not hang out with smokers. (We were a fun bunch.)

With regard to 'next door' or 'air vents': This was a large detached house. Also, this would have been in the suburbs in the early 1960s, so illicit drugs were not the norm.

I really don't think the dwarfs were a drug-induced hallucination. Given my mum's straitlacedness (she had never even tried a cigarette in her life and barely drank), I doubt very much there were drugs on the premises. I think the little visitors (rather than the big visitors in the fire gear) were Disney-induced or sister-induced. I just think it's strange that the dwarfs were 'in the closet' and that is where my mum thought the smoke smell was at the same time. The last time I mentioned all this to my sister, she swore it was all true (the firemen AND the dwarfs).

 

[stu neville]

Firemen, dwarves and knights in armour all in childhood bedrooms - anyone else thinking "Time Bandits"?

 

[mr_macabre]

Firemen, dwarves and knights in armour all in childhood bedrooms - anyone else thinking "Time Bandits"?

Haha, brilliant! One of my favourite films! Maybe the writer had similar dreams/visions whatever!

 

[GNC]

I had a Pooh Bear at the time, and took it absolutely everywhere with me, and even insisted on having it in the bed with me at night.

What was your relationship to Pooh Bear like after that? Did you still carry him with you everywhere after that experience? (Obviously you stopped eventually!)

 

[jubecrew]

very odd happening, I used to try to take LSD and mushrooms for the same desired results as a teen, alas nothing more then some distortion and colors and shapes but not actually seeing anything

when I was a kid I used to have a little blue monster if anyone remembers the my pet monster series.

I used to bring it to sleep every night with me and would wake up the next day to find that he was missing, only to later find it in the basement or elsewhere. No pets at this time that could account for taking it away. One night he came to sleep with me and I never found him since. I searched high and low, every place I could think he could be and he never once returned to me. I was distraught and both parents weren't able to locate it either. I spent 7 years looking for him to turn up and 7 years empty. When we got rid of the water bed I was expectation to find he had gotten underneath the water bed during sleeping time, no luck there either.

I guess people would also say the same about socks, missing socks happen all the time. What and where my pet monster went is beyond me.

 

[Mythopoeika]

very odd happening, I used to try to take LSD and mushrooms for the same desired results as a teen, alas nothing more then some distortion and colors and shapes but not actually seeing anything

when I was a kid I used to have a little blue monster if anyone remembers the my pet monster series.

I used to bring it to sleep every night with me and would wake up the next day to find that he was missing, only to later find it in the basement or elsewhere. No pets at this time that could account for taking it away. One night he came to sleep with me and I never found him since. I searched high and low, every place I could think he could be and he never once returned to me. I was distraught and both parents weren't able to locate it either. I spent 7 years looking for him to turn up and 7 years empty. When we got rid of the water bed I was expectation to find he had gotten underneath the water bed during sleeping time, no luck there either.

I guess people would also say the same about socks, missing socks happen all the time. What and where my pet monster went is beyond me.

It's possible your parents took it away to wean you off the stuffed toys. Just a theory.

 

[Spookdaddy]

I think it's most likely a dream or hallucination induced by a high temperature. Kids are prone to stuff like that...

When I was very young I had croup and my mum told me recently that, between bouts of making a noise like an irritated sea-lion, I took to pointing at the wall of my room and giggling. She's pretty sure that I was 'seeing' something - thankfully something which obviously wasn't particularly frightening.

 

[_Lizard23_]

I reckon all supernatural stuff that happens to you in bed is a dream, or fever dream, especially when you are a kid. It's bloody hard to tell the difference, especially when you are a kid. I saw giant spiders on the wall one time and was repeatedly visited by the ghost of a dog that probably hadn't even died during the night as a child and swore blind it was all real at the time.

 

[Iris]

My youngest used to see spiders at night if she had anything with 102 colour in it. When we worked out what it was we made sure nothing had it in it and no more spiders.

 

[mr_macabre]

[What was your relationship to Pooh Bear like after that? Did you still carry him with you everywhere after that experience? (Obviously you stopped eventually!)

No no, he's still with me, in fact he's in the kitchen right now making us a nice cup of tea :lol:

Seriously though I just don't remember, I think I was rapidly moving on to more boyish toys, lego, star wars etc so I think Pooh Bear just faded off the scene. It definitely wasn't an immediate "let's burn the devil toy" thing though if that's what you meant.

Maybe he's still out there somewhere, foraging in bins and sheltering in waste tips like some sort of bipedal urban fox, always careful to stay out of human sight ever since that little brat saw him moving and went squawcking to his parents...

 

[Rushfan62]

Has anyone else noticed the similarities between Poozlers post, with its dwarves in the wardrobe and the Finehair posts of some time ago. I notice both hail from Australia too! Either Australia suffers from a plethora of vertically challenged beings hiding in wardrobes - or has Poozler posted similar tails before under a different name?

 

[GNC]

Seriously though I just don't remember, I think I was rapidly moving on to more boyish toys, lego, star wars etc so I think Pooh Bear just faded off the scene. It definitely wasn't an immediate "let's burn the devil toy" thing though if that's what you meant.

No, I only thought that maybe you were growing out of Pooh Bear and you were not as fond of him as you once were, hence the experience that alienated him from you for that night. Whether that's down to your subconscious or whether Pooh Bear was in the huff and fearing the worst so acted up as he had nothing left to lose, is not for me to say...

It's a bit like a sinister Toy Story sequel, isn't it?

 

[adamantius410]

Obviously your Pooh Bear was possessed by...

the malignant right-wing extremism of A.A. Milne, who spent quite a lot of time and energy smearing and otherwise persecuting P.G. Wodehouse, whose only crime was being a better and more successful writer.

 

[poozler]

Rushran62, although I live in Australia now (and have for some years), I was born and raised Canadian. My dwarfs were Canadian dwarfs.

 

[poozler]

...and I'm not Finehair.

 

[tilly50]

My sons collected "boglins" when they were the must have toys of the time. For Christmas that year we bought them a large Boglin hand puppet each. The eldest was thrilled with his toy and played with it for months, it was a blue grotesque made of rubber with swivel eyes. Then all of a sudden we found the boglin down the bottom of the garden on the compost heap. I took it back in the house and was washing it in the kitchen when my son became very upset. He begged me to return the toy to the bottom of the garden as he did not like it watching him and following him around the room with his eyes. We tried to reason with him but he was adamant that he did not want the toy in his room.
A swap was brokered with his younger brother. A few days later the yougest son informed me that the blue boglin had disappeared from his room. We found it later in a filing cabinet in our basement. It began to turn up all over the house and as by then both boys refused to have it in their rooms we decided that it would become an outdoor toy living in the shed.
It was last seen sitting on top of the paddling pool, then it disappeared for good, nobody wanted to go look for it and there was a general relief that it had gone.

 

[MsQkxyz]

My youngest used to see spiders at night if she had anything with 102 colour in it. When we worked out what it was we made sure nothing had it in it and no more spiders.

Interesting. As a child I was very sick from Tartrazine / 102 (which was in my medicine!) and had hallucinations...

 

[Daftbugger1]

very odd happening, I used to try to take LSD and mushrooms for the same desired results as a teen, alas nothing more then some distortion and colors and shapes but not actually seeing anything

when I was a kid I used to have a little blue monster if anyone remembers the my pet monster series.

I used to bring it to sleep every night with me and would wake up the next day to find that he was missing, only to later find it in the basement or elsewhere. No pets at this time that could account for taking it away. One night he came to sleep with me and I never found him since. I searched high and low, every place I could think he could be and he never once returned to me. I was distraught and both parents weren't able to locate it either. I spent 7 years looking for him to turn up and 7 years empty. When we got rid of the water bed I was expectation to find he had gotten underneath the water bed during sleeping time, no luck there either.

I guess people would also say the same about socks, missing socks happen all the time. What and where my pet monster went is beyond me.

Did you sleep walk? I used to sleep walk a lot as a child. My parents had to put a dead bolt on the front door as I'd try to open it. I also put my duvet in the bathroom once too.

 

[elprincipeoso]

It sounds to me like your parents may have tried on several occasions to surreptitiously remove your blue monster, maybe he was a bit mucky or something? But then, when you kept finding him in the basement, they decided to get rid of him once and for all and so he was "removed". I just can't believe they would go through the charade of looking for him with you for so long without eventually telling you that he was stuffed with asbestos or whatever. proabably best to ease off the drugs!

 

[James_H]

I reckon all supernatural stuff that happens to you in bed is a dream, or fever dream, especially when you are a kid. It's bloody hard to tell the difference, especially when you are a kid. I saw giant spiders on the wall one time and was repeatedly visited by the ghost of a dog that probably hadn't even died during the night as a child and swore blind it was all real at the time.

Just because something's a dream, does that mean that it does not have reality, in at least some sense? Or am I getting too far up my own forteana?