Little man...

Hello all,

I've been a fly on the wall here at ATS for some time and thought it was time I began posting!

I live in a little old town called Westhoughton in Lancashire, England and about 2 years ago I had a strange encounter with a 'little man' - I must add that I'm quite a serious (maybe not so down to earth) type of guy and was quite disturbed thereafter.

One rather 'typical' autumn morning I was walking along a pathway on the edge of some local woods (known to us locals as 'the bonk') when I saw a small figure dart behind the trunk of a conifer. I thought it may of been an animal of some kind but being just 4-5 metres away I knew it wasn't. I crept in a little closer until I could see the figure pressed up against the trunk. As it came into my field of vision it made a run for it towards the woods and into the undergrowth...

The 'little man' was 30-40cm high, but proportioned. The first thing I noticed was it's colour - black, and when I moved in for the closer inspection I realised it was black to due to the clothing it was wearing! To me it resembled a puppet.

In the past I've seen 'things' and all sorts of paranormal occurrences (in fact such things have become the norm at my parent's home) but this was the first 'physical oddity' I'd witnessed.

Can anybody explain this? As expected, most of my friends laughed it off, although my brother and I went back to the spot a few times to try and find it... god knows where it went!

I've seen other things in my time and no doubt will be confessing all on here, but never anything so unbelievable!

Bolton sure is a strange place.......
I once saw a old man dressed all in green in DEANE he walked up to me and suddenly dissapeared but It was 13 years ago and I was drunk and tripping,so I just put it down to that.

I'm not saying you were under the influence just sharing my experience.

Yeah i thought I was tripping, however it was 11 in the morning and I was completely sober, drug free, etc. The little bugger was probably just taking the ****.

......Brownie

HI, thebox ...

Have you heard about Charles Bonnet syndrome? I'm not saying it provides an explantion for your sighting, but what it does do is confirm that many, all over the world, have seen little-men(which suggests the little people are there to be seen -- by those able to see them, for whatever reason). Charles Bonnet usually affects those with poor eyesight. Mentally, however, they are perfectly sane. Manchester university (I think) researched the syndrome and established that seeing little-people is nowhere near as rare as might be expected. The fact that people with poor eyesight see the creatures suggests these creatures occupy some other dimension. If I were you, I'd read a selection of articles and studies on Charles Bonnet syndrome. Some are dismissive and peddle the usual establishment views, while others are more open-minded.

Children see the little people and of course, so do (some) normal adults with perfect eyesight. If you visit Fortean forums, you'll find several long threads in which people of all ages (established, respected members: quite a number of them middle-aged and older) relate their own experiences with the little people. Contrary to fairy-stories, the little people are rarely sweet. Usually they deliberately frighten people. They terrified me.

When you have a little-people experience, you have a difficult time because although you know what you saw -- you also doubt yourself and try to dismiss the experience because it's not a subject that many know much about and it places you at risk of ridicule and insults to your intelligence. You find yourself anxious to impress on those you DO tell, that you were NOT dreaming, did NOT imagine it, were not drunk or under the influence of drugs. And even when you find someone prepared to accept your story, you nevertheless continue to doubt yourself.

These days, there's quite a bit of information about little-people online. When I saw them, over twenty years ago, it was a different story; there was simply no information available. I kept the experience to myself. But it's something you never forget and you never stop trying to find an explanation for what you've seen and experienced.

By coincidence, I'm originally from Lancashire (UK) too. And apparently, a couple of hundred years ago, little-people (under a variety of names) were accepted as reality there ... some quite close to where I was born, in Pendle.

If you look on the Net, you'll discover that the Northern American Indians were familiar with the little-people and in the main were very wary of them. There have been reports of sightings in Central America in the past few years. And you'll find the ELFEN Project on the Net; they welcome submissions from those who've seen little people. I was informed by the founder of ELFEN (Prof. Butler) that currently, the ELFEN Project people are aware of 60-plus ordinary families in the US and Canada, who are sharing their homes (reluctantly in most cases) with one or more little-people. The ELFEN people believe that the little-people form an attachment to a locality rather than to individuals.

So, you're far from being alone in your experience and having the experience does not mean you're fantasy prone, or losing your mind, or that you hallucinated. It probably means you're more than normally receptive to things that the majority simply do not see.

Thanks anglosaxon, Brownies eh? That was an interesting little bit of info, I shall look into it more...

And hi to dock6! Funnily enough, my eyesight isn't great! But it isn't too bad. I'll certainly have to look into Charles Bonnet syndrome, it sounds interesting, and a little bit peculiar. I've rarely heard of others seeing little people, this is why it disturbed me so. Westhoughton is quite an old town (dates back to the 10th century I think) and has it's fair share of oddities, as startled as I was, it's kind of acceptable because of this.

I have quite a good reputation in these parts so even the ones who didn't believe what I saw believed I saw something. I'll be sure to look into the ELFEN project too.

Can I ask a little more about your experience dock6? Of course Pendle Hill has one hell of a reputation.

The brownies and boggarts are straight out of Harry Potter (Brownies= house Elves,free'd when you give them clothing- Boggarts= boggarts shape shifting creatures)
As for the little man, who knows what kind of things this planet is home to, storys of leprauchans(sp?) and pixies must have come from somewhere.

Brownies ..Boggarts....Bolton...Man it's the 3 B conspiricy

I really did see the old dressed in grren though .

Are you able to give a better description other than it was a black shape? It was wearing black clothes? Was it's skin also black? Anything....

Hi librasleep,

From what I could tell it was wearing what I can only describe as a black suit, I only saw it from behind. As ridiculous as it sounds I think it was wearing a hat, like a small top hat. As for the colour of it's skin, I could see it's hands and they were white.

There's a puppet shop in Manchester and I saw a puppet in a black suit and small top hat that resembled it. I'm going to try and find a picture of the little bugger...

Originally posted by chris01621
The brownies and boggarts are straight out of Harry Potter

No they aren't. Both of those possibly real beings have been around a lot longer than Harry Potter! They are both a very ancient part of British folklore which is why Rowling included them in her book.

Read this page.

BTW did oyu ever watch or read Noddy? Big Ears was a Brownie.

Do you have a scanner? Could you possibly draw a picture for us and slap it onto ATS? The description that you've given us is very vague. If you don't have a scanner, you can still use Microsoft Paint to give us a better idea.

My friend swears he saw a little man in the woods of the New Forest when he was younger, exactly like what you described, he also has bad eyesight so maybe he has "Charles Bonnet syndrome"? Maybe he's just a good liar though

[edit on 30-9-2006 by Xeros]

I have seen "things" out of the corner of my eye on many occasions, some were small humanoid shapes. But I have never experienced a straight-on look at any of these little beings.
What amazes me though is how many people see little men when they are buzzed. Two occurrences I know of personally happened while the person was sniffing paint and the other was on acid. The guy that sniffs paint (he's a strange one ) actually talks to them while you're standing there. He'll ask them questions for you if you want. It's real trippy.
The guy on acid is my best friend, he says it happens every time he takes it. He can talk to them also but he won't do it while other people are around.
I've heard lots of stories about people on mind altering drugs seeing little people, why do they all see little people? It would make more sense if they saw random stuff, but it's usually little people.
It makes you wonder if just maybe some drugs can make you see an alternate dimension? And other people can see it without drugs. Kinda cool in a way.....

While I haven't seen little people running around, I have seen the occasional shadow dart here and there out of the corner of my eye. Its not necessary to create another inter-dimensional species to explain this phenomena. Its a trick of the eye, an optical illusion, or simply a speck of dust that floated in front of our iris. Just take a minute to look away from the computer, and focus your eyes on a single object in your room. After a moment, you will naturally see very small shadows darting hither and thither. Or maybe its just my own eyes, I have a tendency to get carried away with my imagination. Well, see you all later, I have a cold right now and im off to take a nap.

Well I found a pic of a puppet online...! It's the best I can find chaps (albeit a very vague similarity), but it does have some resemblance. Just try to imagine it from behind...

Magician puppet...

And no I wasn't on any drug!



[edit on 2-10-2006 by thebox]

And no I wasn't on any drug!

I didn't mean to suggest that you were, sorry about that.
It's just something I've thought about a lot and your post reminded me of it all.

Maybe there was something in the air ...

so... did this little man have the hat and pimp cane as well? What color was his skin?

Weird ,so many countries have their "little men" In Africa esp South Africa it gets seen and is fully believed in as "Tokoloshe" by native Africans,i have spoken to numerous blacks who have claimed to have seen it or been attacked by it.

Other countries "little men" are not always black but the lore on the tokoloshe is that it is a black (30 - 50cm) and evil looking ,you find half the black population here by stacking out a few bricks and putting their beds on these bricks and what's so weird it's not the youngsters but the older people .. and i mean they range from 30 to 70 years in age the true believers.

True to i have caught small shadows in the corner of my eye,sometimes a few times in a row,trick of light or shadow people ,but myself have not seen this tokoloshe in my 34 years in South Africa,lots of paranormal things/experiences i have encountered and believe in,so i will not write the little black imp off even though i have not seen him ..."knock wood" yet.