When the woods are scary

originally posted by: ColeYounger

Tales of people experiencing high strangeness in forested areas has made Listverse's top 5 list of bizarre phenomena, right up there with shadow people. A paranormal researcher has given the phenomena the name 'PANic in the woods', referencing the mythological Greek God Pan, who is said to be a protector of wild places.

listverse.com...
From the Listverse story:

Victims experience a feeling that there is a powerful, sinister force nearby, and sense imminent danger. This usually leads the person to flee the area, desperately seeking out civilization. One curiously common characteristic of PANic, is that people often describe the woods becoming quiet and strange just before the fear starts, except for an unusual, escalating, buzzing sound. At least one article on the phenomenon has been written for Fortean Times Magazine by Patrick Harpur, called “Landscapes of Panic”. Many other alleged actual experiences of panic have been posted on paranormal forums. Is there really a spirit of the woods that shuns humanity?

Some of the stories involve time rifts, where people literally get transported back in time. One such story involved a group of children playing hide and seek in some apple orchards. Three of the kids squeezed through a thick hedge of bushes, and we're freaked out to see an old farmhouse that "shouldn't have been there". They looked in a window and saw an old woman baking a pie. They ran home and told their parents, who thought the kids were playing a joke, but elderly relatives were astonished, as the kids described a long-gone farmhouse that stood exactly where the kids had said. (This happened in Washington state, not far from Seattle.)


I found this very strange story on a paranormal forum. It contains some elements of the 'Missing 411' stories, but thankfully the missing children were found almost immediately.
paranormal.about.com...
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Forest Mystery:
It happened around the summer season of 2008, when I was only 7 years old. I used to live in the RAF quarters in High Wycombe, and due to the well-populated area, there were a lot of kids the same age as me.

Our mothers always gave us one rule: Never go in the forest at night. They never gave us a reason for not going in the forest, so against all our mothers' wishes, we would treck through the forest for hours on end.

Nothing ever really happened, apart from sometimes we would hear scratching on the trees, and have the urge to turn around because you would feel like someone was following you.

A gallery of eerie forest photos.

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Even without the supernatural living into woods. The woods is a deadly and dangerous place. Freezing temps depending on time of year. you die of hypotherm over night waking up like jack Nicholson in the shining. Animal attacks, like brown bears, or grizzlies. They run fast and are scary as hell if they charge you. snake bites like rattlesnakes, especially in the southwest in the states. And no not all of them will rattle before they bite your ass. in fact they found a new species of rattlesnakes, that don't rattle before they strike. So there's that. The biggest one is getting lost. Even the most experience hiker or outdoorsman, can easily get lost in the field of trees. So yea am i scared of bigfoot or shadow demons that might live in the wood, hell yea. but I'm more scared of brown bears, rattle snakes, or getting your ass lost in the woods and having to spent it out there with zero or minimal survival supply. People make it look so easy to start a fire. Trust me its not easily without a lighter, matches, or a flint. good luck rubbing two sticks together, when your hands start to get frostbite from the night cold.

I have twice experienced the “silence” phenomenon, but it didn’t really frighten me because it happened at my home, which is sort of located in a wooded area, or at least surrounded by trees. It’s tough to get really alarmed in your own front yard.

People are always asking me if I’m afraid to live “out here” in the “country.” No, not really. As far as I know, there isn’t anything out here that wants to hurt me. Sure, critters will defend themselves if I appear to be a threat, but that’s self defense. I’m too big for anything we have to eat, so unless I threaten them they’d much rather avoid me.

You folks who live in cities are the ones who should be afraid, in my opinion. You are surrounded by hundreds or thousands of predators who want your money, your belongings, or just to hurt you because you’re somehow different, have stuff they don’t, or just because that’s how they get their jollies.

I feel much safer in the woods.

The woods often go silent. It’s not a paranormal activity. When I am hunting the animals will often sense or hear me and all go quiet. Usually for 20-30 minutes. This simply means the animals sense something is not right, and the animals go quiet. Often even bugs like crickets, and even frogs will follow suit. Any experienced woodsman knows this.

If you are in woods and everything goes silent it simply means you have company, and you should pay attention. If the hairs on back on your neck stand up and you feel like something is watching you, something predatory is watching you. We are just smart monkeys in the woods but you should not fear them. The most dangerous thing in the woods is typically the other “smart monkeys”

I do believe that the time shift theory may have some possible validity, but have seen nothing in my personal experience to support it

a reply to: openyourmind1262

I've never been spooked in the woods even when I should have been.

Maybe it's because my parents had a house in the woods when I was a small child. There were bears and cougars in the woods and yet I used to wander in them alone, even at the age of four or five. Later spent a few weeks deep in the Amazon jungle with my family (work related). I was a little afraid of snakes that might be poisonous but that was all.

I've gone camping more times than I can count including having to find my way to a privy in near total dark. I get bothered by bug bites but I have never ever experienced any spookiness or sense of being watched. I didn't even know so many people did experience that. However it was drilled into my head from a young age to stick to trails, especially marked ones. That's where people really get into trouble.

a reply to: Annagramma

Bugs are absolutely the worst thing in the woods typically. After it’s cold enough to kill them woods are virtually a paradise

We have a forest near me, the ford forest, I tend to travel near it a lot, we have two American airbases there and I like watching the planes.
I hate travelling in the forest though, I can take short cuts through the forest but always try and travel the long way round. I do not like that forest.

I'm pretty good with directions, I very rarely get lost when driving. But if I drive Thetford, I always get lost, it's like the forest want to keep you, it's full of straigh long roads, in grid like patterns, very rare in the UK were are roads are small and bends an turns are everywhere.
I find if I drive Thetford, my sat Nov won't work, and no matter what direction I take, I can turn left or right, I'll end up back were I started, the same junction.
I'm not one to panic when driving or bother if I do end up in the wrong place, I just find my way home, very rarely using sat navs or maps, but Thetford I just panic, I get stressed I can't find where I am, an I won't stop, normally I'd stop somewhere on the side of the road safe, check the map and away I go, nope something tells me don't stop.

Thing is Thetford is a pretty new forest compared to other forests around the world. It's a weird place though. Theres even Thetford Warren lodge, a little brick building in the middle of the forest, it's supposedly haunted by a red eyed rabbit, but I'd you see it you will die, or the black shuck, a dog who also brings misfortune, not seen either, don't really want to.

I love the woods, but I don't go close at night lol

a reply to: spookykt

In the dark nighttime yes, 3x the supernatural liability. I do faith in Jesus, how anyone doesn't when braving the outback......idk

Things...no....something comes out at night.....I walked the woods by Possumkingdom in Texas....west Texas all night, on the 30,000 acres I mentioned in another post 2 days ago....oil leases and longhorns on the Holt Grant on the Brazos. That family was off, Sept the son left out of the will unless he had a son.....Don L. Constable of Palo pinto county...The Sounds

The sounds at night are affected by the air....oddly.....as ya can hear the pump jacks for miles...mix in a cow goin off...

Now can serious....the silence....two kinds....deer season normal quiet and the other one.

Like when ya get hooked in to what's the haps......then the whistles, not bird whistles like you've heard before but close, then ya notice the whole valley has the push down power on your spirit goin.

You've never that bird sound from any bird before...

I keep my 44 pointed over my shoulder sorta when in bear country walking by the cliffs by the forest road for cougar young onbes are the desperate ones been pushed out by the Big ones...

So much for the normal critters, biggest. Near Seattle on the map they show of sightings....this is the spot all CLOBBERED up with dots...........got ads...I a jeep ad, I luv a jeep

a reply to: ColeYounger

I have spent my whole life wandering in the woods, fishing camping, hiking ...etc

Many a high strangeness experience. Best rules are the old ones from the native Americans and old Europeans. Sure others but those are the ones I am familiar with.

Never follow lights into the woods.
Never follow whistling
Never follow music
Never follow babies crying way out in the middle of nowhere. (unless there happens to be one missing)
When it gets all quiet and still there is a predator around. Be it spiritual or physical.
If you suddenly feel intense fear for no reason when entering an area. Turn around and leave. It is a warning.

Ignoring any of these instructions really does dramatically increase your odds of either experiencing something you don't want, getting attacked or just plain becoming a statistic on missing lists (or lack thereof.)

My walk in the local forest. Peaceful and quiet.

What an interesting post and I can claim two incidents of similar experience both in woods and mountainous areas. As a former soldier and someone fortunate to live within 50 yards of the woods I consider myself to be at ease with outdoor type locations and have spent many a night alone in such circumstances.

My first occurrence was around 5 year ago. I am a hobbyist photographer and used to leave my equipment in the boot of the car in case I came across something worth snapping. This day I was driving in the south of the UK and was driving through a dense wooded area. The canopy was low and there was little to no foliage at ground level. I thought this would be a good opportunity for snapping of some photographs. Pulled over the car, grabbed my bag and went walking. Having set up my equipment I felt extremely uneasy, almost sickeningly anxious with fear. No explanation other than I felt the need to grab my stuff and head out QUICK. I remember heading to where I’d parked the car unable to look around just hot footing as quick as I could and fixing my gaze on the floor. I dived in the car, fired up the engine and took off, petrified to even look in the rear view mirror. I later laughed this off, probably nothing more than myself and my mind working overtime.

Roll on a year or so later. I’d decided one Saturday to wake early ie 4am and get to a well know mountain before the usual crowds arrive later on. This was usually the only way to guarantee a car parking space. Arriving at the car park before day break I was the first one there. In just a few hours there would be another 100-150 cars around and the mountain laden with 1000s of visits walking its summit via many different routes. There was fresh undisturbed snow on the ground and from that I assumed I was the first one out, Perfect !!!!!

One hour in I began to feel uneasy, I’d stopped and was looking around. We don’t have any sort of predator in the UK but all the same I felt I was being watched, felt I was unwanted and felt I was intruding somehow. The fear wasn’t the same as the first incident I’d experienced but I knew I could not go any further today. I was to turn around and head back. I never did look around, again fixed gaze putting one foot in front of the other all the way back to the car park.

Strange experiences indeed

a reply to: thesaint

Better to show a little caution that not come back at all.

a reply to: Noppie

Sounds like you were lead back to the correct course.

a reply to: GBP/JPY

Reminds me of the H1 hgihway is Hawaii. They insisted on building it through holy areas.
30ton cats and 50 ton rocks would be moved back constantly as they kept trying to build.

a reply to: GBP/JPY

Reminds me of the H1 hgihway is Hawaii. They insisted on building it through holy areas.
30ton cats and 50 ton rocks would be moved back constantly as they kept trying to build.

a reply to: GBP/JPY

Reminds me of the H1 hgihway is Hawaii. They insisted on building it through holy areas.
30ton cats and 50 ton rocks would be moved back constantly as they kept trying to build.

a reply to: GBP/JPY

Reminds me of the H1 hgihway is Hawaii. They insisted on building it through holy areas.
30ton cats and 50 ton rocks would be moved back constantly as they kept trying to build.

a reply to: GBP/JPY

Reminds me of the H1 hgihway is Hawaii. They insisted on building it through holy areas.
30ton cats and 50 ton rocks would be moved back constantly as they kept trying to build.

a reply to: GBP/JPY

Reminds me of the H1 hgihway is Hawaii. They insisted on building it through holy areas.
30ton cats and 50 ton rocks would be moved back constantly as they kept trying to build.

Just thinking about the woods brings back a primal fear. I love nature. But nature can easily kill you if you don't know what your doing.