A weird period of my life

Reading a few posts her on ATS has reminded me of a period I went through about 4 years ago, where I experienced some eiree events some of which still give me the creeps when I think about them even now. However I just realised I never did post them on ATS at the time (probably because I hadnt heard of ATS back then). So I thought I might share them here for you to contemplate.

Ok, about 4 years ago I met a girl over the internet. Her name was Tabatha (or Tabs as she preferred to be called). One of the first things she told me when we met was she was psychic. I laughed at this at the time but I was about to experience some events over the following 18 mths of our 'relationship' that convinced me she was in fact a witch. Anyone remember the TV show 'Bewitched' and the little girl in the family and her name? Coincidence? Maybe..

Anyway, during the period of relationship we resided in separate states for the most part. Several months after we met, chatting pretty much on a daily basis by phone and MSN webcam, she visited me and stayed for 2 weeks. She visited again for another 2 weeks about 6 months later. Many of the events Im about to describe however occured even before the first time we physically met. This will become relevant later in searching for an explanation.

Probably the first strange event I recall was when I was chatting to her 'sister' on MSN. I never physically met the sister but I subsequently talked to her on the phone on several occasions and she certainly sounded very different in voice and character to Tabs. The reason I mention this is because Ive put a few of these strange events down to Tabs possibly playing a game where she is several different people at once chatting away to me on the net. Thats possible. However if true there must have been more than 1 person in on the game in view of this. I spoke to another friend of Tabs who backed up everything Tabs had told me. The sister was by all accounts very attractive but a bit of a 'ride'. She came onto me on the net a few times but Tabs would shrug it off saying 'yea shes taken all my boyfriends in the past'. Anyway, one night Im chatting away to the sister and the conversation is becoming somewhat sexually heated. Then suddenly the conversation took an odd turn with accusations being thrown at me. The sister apparently could still type but said 'thats not me typing, dont say anything'. Tabs brushed this off later saying it was easy to hack into someone elses MSN and particularly as she had setup her sisters PC with remote admin rights. I didnt think too much of this at the time but this was only one of many strange events that occured and Ive only touched the surface.

Another time I walked out the front of my workplace with a colleague to take a break for 5 minutes. This colleague had never met Tabs. So were standing there and this petite blonde crosses the busy main road in front of us. We both made the typical male comments and returned to work. Several days later I was talking to Tabs on the phone and she reminded me of this event. At first I said 'what blonde' as I'd honestly forgotten about it, and she said the blonde you and Nigel spotted out front of your work the other day. She then recited almost word for word not only our reactions and what we said, but she recited it pretty much in the right order. Now remember, she had never met my colleague (she knew of him by name and that he was a friend whom I workd with) and shes supposedly interstate at this time.

On another occassion Tabs came onto MSN and I was feeling pretty tired and drab at the time. As we often chatted on cam I decided to quickly race into my bedroom (the PC is in the lounge other end of the house) and throw on a clean top and freshen up a bit. Before I could get back to the PC I got a mobile text from Tab saying 'you look good in blue'. The top I had pulled out (I hadnt even had time to put it on) was blue. The one I had taken off was grey.

Continued below


[edit on 19-2-2008 by dscomp]

On another occasion I was playing an online game - CounterStrike. What happened here (on several occassions) sickens me when I think about it. It shook me up so much (at least the first few times it happened) that I felt nauseated.

So anyway Tabs had told me over a period prior to this how she was getting emails from someone who wouldnt reveal his identity. But he claimed to know me and claimed to have worked with me. He claimed to have photos of me with other girls since I met Tabs (impossible as I hadnt seen anyone else since I met her) however some of his claims werent too far off the mark when it came to 'flirting'. The inaccuracy of his claims however invalidated his claim I cheated on girlfriends because I hadnt. However, this alleged emailer was also sweet talking Tabs in his emails and sending her flowers etc (according to her). I told her his was full of it, that he didnt know what he was talking about, and to just delete his emails w/o reading them.

So back to CS-online and one day Im playing away and suddenly my screen goes haywire. It was like I was hit by a lag spike however it was completely unlike the lag you would experience from a game server. This was PC or connectivity lag (in hindsight) totally unrelated to a problem with a game server. I know, Ive played online games for years and am a computer technician by trade. And the thing was I never lost connection with the server. After a few minutes (normal server timeouts would have dropped me within 30 seconds) the PC and the game came good again so I continued on playing. Back then I didnt have much of a firewall and didnt care too much for PC security so if this was a hack attempt (which I think it was) it wouldnt have been hard for someone to do that knows what their doing. Anyway, Im playing the game like nothing happened and some minutes later I typed a team chat. I think from memory it was hit 'esc' type your text, then hit Enter. Anyway I typed something and hit Enter but what came out alongside my name wasnt what I had typed. It was in fact something derogatory directed at me with a reference to how he was better than me and deserved Tabs more than I did. I looked at the text again and read it 3 times before it disappeared off the screen to make sure I wasnt seeing things and to make sure it was alongside my name and not soemone elses name in the text window. But it was exactly as though I had typed it. At this point I was already a bit emotionally on-edge due to this persons allegations over a period of time (which was one reason I was gaming in an attempt to take my mind off things) and I hadnt seen or heard from Tabs for nearly a week, which was unusual. Seeing this I put 2 and 2 together, and figured someone had just hacked into my PC but then thought even if they had, how did they take over my text w/o taking over my PC? At this thought I immediately switched off my PC and stood back from it stunned at what had just occured. However this occured again several times over the next few months. On different game servers, and even though I had formatted on at least 2 occassions since the first intrusion. The last time this occured I was ready for it. I hit Esc entered some text, but before I hit Enter I looked up at what I had typed. And it wasnt what I had typed so I cancelled out of it. I then typed something directed at whoever it was that was trying to make my life hell and by this time I had become accustomed to it. I made several remarks to the effect someone on the server was hacking my account by taking over my text (in case an Admin was on) and threw some nasty remarks directed at him laughing as though it didnt bother me what he was doing (it did, but I didnt want him to know that). I played CS for several months fater this and it never happened again. Ive spoken to people on Steam forums though and no-one can satisfactorily explain how anyone could do this. Some said an Admin could do it but I dont buy that.

Continued below



[edit on 19-2-2008 by dscomp]

You realise, it would be just as simple for someone to just install cameras around your home in order to play a rather delicate mind-fu#k on you.

In real terms there is little difference.

Anyway, even if she was psychic, she isn't mature enough to put it to the kind of use which you should be afraid of.

edit; i'm also slightly concerned over how you never asked this Tabitha how Psychic implementation works - perhaps you giving her what appeared to be the 'cold-shoulder' initiated your experiences.

The emotions of the powerful are not to be trifled with as if they were a momentary object of entertainment, in otherwords.

[edit on 18-2-2008 by Throbber]

HI .. you were cut off mid-sentence there.

Anyway .. so what do you think ? You think this girl is a witch ?

Or do you suspect she's lonely .. lives in a fantasy world .. like to control ?

I don't have a clue regarding the weirdness you encountered during your online game-playing. But have encountered several very weird people online who tout their psychic abilities .. claim they're 'witches', etc. .. and lie their faces off. Just about every small forum has at least one. They make up 'life stories' .. they're related to someone famous, for example, but can't name them, 'because'. They've met many of the rich and famous. They've just returned from this or that exclusive resort. They have genius-IQ. They have exotic diseases and are dying (usually they live very boring lives .. just them and their never-ending love for themselves, out in the suburbs in a house with unmown lawn and broken letter-box).

They also send themselves flowers, letters of undying love, jewellery, etc. etc.

Basically they're very lonely people with way too much time on their hands and feelings of entitlement that have not and will not ever come to fruition. So they invent not just one or two imaginary lives, but more imaginary cast-members (all of whom adore them, supposedly) than an Agatha Christie novel.

Some of them progress to becoming minor con-men and women ... selling real-estate and diet pills and body-enlargment processes that don't exist.

Others of them get married and make the lives of everyone connected with them a living hell.

I steer clear of them. Burnt early in the piece by a workmate who collected money for his mother's 'funeral' and then when that attention-gaining racket slowed down, he phoned a heap of us late one night to say he was standing on Circular Quay and about to commit suicide. Some of us went there in taxis to 'save him' and others called the police. Suffice to say, the guy was sitting in his grubby little room in Ermington when the police finally found him. He'd been nowhere near Circular Quay .. his mother hadn't died and actually opened the door for the police, etc. etc.

Mainstay of any worthwhile relationship is mutual trust. Sure, life's exciting for a while when it includes 'mystery people', but they become very boring and predictable .. very fast. Hope you said goodbye to this wannabe-witch a long time ago.

Besides, I didnt know any Admins on the servers?? Tabs certainly wasnt a gamer and nor where any of her friends.

Then on one of Tabs' visits we left for me to return her to the airport. As we got in the car to drive out of my driveway she turned to me and said 'Barbara'. I looked at her and said 'what'? She said 'Barbara. A Barbara is going to ring you tomorrow'. I said 'I dont know a Barbara'. She said 'you sure?' And I said 'yea?'. I thought nothing more of it.

The next day, Tabs was back interstate and I was home, and a Barbara rang me. She was a customer of mine whose PC I had repaired on several occasions previously. I hadnt heard from her in about 6 months. She had another problem with her PC and wanted me to come have a look at it..

Now theres no way Tabs knew Barbara. I didnt even leave a customer list lying around that she had access to while she was staying with me. She could have got the name off my mobiles phonebook but I have a 100 or so names in there. Some business, some personal. So if this was where she got it the chances of picking out a name and guessing she was going to ring me next day would be odds of 1/1 million or more IMO..

Another event was Tabs claimed to have had to head off to the US to care for a dying ex-husband. This guy was excessively wealthy (according to her) and he had asked his doctor to write to her to come and care for him during his last days. Tabs claimed they had separated amicably some years prior after he decided to pursue a lucrative position as a specialist in a major hospital. Now I realise that as I have since proven much of what she told me was lies, there are a few things that support this claim. Either it was true or she was a great actor. But then theres a few things I just cant get my head around that support it.

Firstly, when I spoke to her on webcam during my daytime it was her night time. I could see that because she had a window right behind her. When we spoke at night the window blinds were usually open and it was clearly daylight outside. After she had spent some 2 months or so there she left and came to see me. It was supposed to be a visit but when she arrived she told me she wasnt going back to care for him. She said he had a full-time doctor there and there was nothing more she could do. His death she said was imminent. Now this was the first time we physically met. She seemed genuine, and caring, and we got on exceptionally well. Then one night we were in bed chatting after a late night. It would have been about 2am. We were both drifting off to sleep when suddenly she sat upright. I asked her what was wrong and she said 'I dont know but somethings happened'. We both went off to sleep and next morning I awoke to see she was already up. She was on the phone in tears. I asked her what was wrong and she told me her ex-husband had died that night and that that explained her strange feeling that something was wrong the night before. Now again, it could all be a lie. But even from the point of view of the light situation I mentioned before, she definitely was the other side of the world when I was talking to her. And she often looked tired while she was there. She said this was because of the almost full-time care she had to provide for her ex-husband at the time. So again, it added up. She certainly didnt appear her herself as I had known her before she left.

Continued below

[edit on 19-2-2008 by dscomp]

[edit on 19-2-2008 by dscomp]

reply to post by dscomp


Seriously dude, this is quite elaborate.

Perhaps it would be simpler if you would cut down your story into stages - like the most important facts from the beginning, the most important facts from the half-way point, and then the ending.

Assuming there is going to be an ending, of course.

Sorry if my post appears a bit 'shotgun' guys. Im trying to keep it in some sort of chronological order but this all happened 4 years ago and bits come flooding back as I write.

Originally posted by Dock6
HI .. you were cut off mid-sentence there.

Anyway .. so what do you think ? You think this girl is a witch ?

Or do you suspect she's lonely .. lives in a fantasy world .. like to control ?

I think its a bit of both. The 'Barbara' just cant be anything but supernatural.

The control factor. Yea. I think shes a controller. And I think she uses her talents (knowing what you are thinking, contemplating, and doing while shes not around) to further this ability to control. When we first met she said I was a free agent that I was free to come and go as I pleased and to end the relationship if ever I thought it was the right thing to do. I was free to talk to whomever I please male or female. Once she had my full trust she gradually turned the relationship around to where I was at her beck and call and toward the end she would accuse me of the pettiest things and manipulated me beyond belief.

When I caught her out lying (she said she had had had to jet off to the US again the day before so I tracked down a phone number interstate with help of a friend, rang, and she answered) she still tried to deny it was her and made a couple of feeble attempts to reel me back in again, but I wasnt having a bar of it. Having lost my trust I figured she realised it was 'game over'.

[edit on 19-2-2008 by dscomp]

And as for the 'camera' explanation. Yea its one Ive considered. It would explain a lot of things.

But remember, shes recited conversations Ive had with people she doesnt know out in the middle of a main road as well as phone call conversations. A camera doesnt explain that one. And it happened more than once. When her psychic abilities became quite obvious to me I even put her to the test sometimes. I would ask her what I was wearing while on an interstate call to her and I wasnt always in the same room. She could tell me exactly what I was wearing and what colour. I think generally hidden cameras are black and white particularly fish-eye cams which it would have to be. Often after pausing for a few moments then coming up with an accurate description I would throw a few more questions at her and she would tell me she had to stop because she got headaches when she did this sort of thing for too long. But this was always after she had proven her point.

And Dock6, yea I can relate to what your saying. Tabs was like that. She had been Australian Kickboxing champion, owned a Porsche, a farm, etc etc..in her words she was a millionaire through business and also through predicting the x-lotto numbers for herself some years prior. Only I never ever saw proof of her money or assets. And sadly, she lost is all when a business deal went bad not long after I met her..lol..

Im of the opinion theres something not right with her but I never mentioned all this before as I didnt want to get into that sort of discussion. She may well have mental issues but my angle is trying to get an answer to the things I cant explain that I know DID occur but that just dont make any rational, logical sense, and that cant be explained away by science. Thats the part that has me intrigued to this day.



[edit on 19-2-2008 by dscomp]

Ok, theres one major thing I forgot to mention about Tabs that was very very odd indeed.

Dock6 asking if I thought she was a witch reminded me of something about her that I actually saw for my own eyes that convinces me she was.

There was the issue of her looks.

See I'd spoken to her many times on webcam and she looked to me to be in her late 20's. She told me she was 35. Now when we met for the first time in person she appeared about 45 - ie very middle aged.
Now my first reaction was 'oh oh, Ive been had' and Im sure my reaction to her was obvious. In fact she told me later EXACTLY what my thoughts were at the time. She said - you thought "im not f*cking that", and that was EXACTLY what I thought at the time.

Anyway almost immediately I thought 'I cant wait til she leaves' (she was here for 2 weeks). I know thats cruel but that was my immediate physical reaction taking over completely forgetting the relationship we had built up over the previous few months. I immediately put her physical appearance down to a bad webcam and good makeup..

But a few days before she was due to leave I was talking to a friend on MSN who I'd spoken to on and off also for some months that claimed to have met her through business dealings. She knew she was over and excitedly asked one day how things were going. I said 'not too good' so of course she asked why and I told her about my reaction to her physical appearance. She laughed and called me an idiot. I asked her why and she (I'd told her about Tabs psychic ability) said 'her looks change according to how she feels emotionally. If she feels wanted and cherished she will look youthful. If she feels rejected she will look aged'. She said, 'ask her to stand in front of a mirror or camera, I bet she wont'. I asked her why not and she said 'because a camera or mirror reveals how she truly looks, and you seeing this will desire her simply because of her looks and no woman wants that, particularly her'. And for me this is where everything started to fall into place. Im not into witches and the subject of them but childhood memories of something about witches and mirrors came flashing back. Im not sure of the correlation but believe there is one.

By this time I'd decided she was psychic but I also realised that if in fact witches really existed she could be one. I was about to finish work so I raced home knowing that Tabs could decide to leave early and just jet off back home without saying goodbye. Of course up until this point thats what I was hoping for, and as she was good at reading my mind I thought she might have decided to take me up on it.

When I arrived home she was still there. I now believe the 'friend' I had been talking to was Tabs (going by her reaction) but I asked her to stand in front of my webcam. She immediately refused and walked out of the room. At this point I got angry as I felt she hadnt been up front with me. She reiterated what my other friend had just told me more or less and agreed that was the reason. As I calmed down a bit she offered to stand in front of my webcam. I looked at my monitor and she looked in her late 20's again.. I swear to god. However looking at her directly she still looked mid-forties.

So yea, this one thing that really struck me about that 18 months and is what convinced me she really was a modern day witch.

Oh, and one last thing. Over the last few days she was here our relationship was fantastic. For me it was like we had just met all over again and Im sure because her looks no longer bothered me, in that short time, her looks reversed by about 10 years.

I hope Ive not freaked anyone out.

I saw a UFO once as a kid. Not up close, it was at night, and a mile or more higher in the sky at the time, but watching it dart off then at right angles w/o stopping, dart upwards and away I know it wasnt a plane or anything else I can explain. I dont believe in aliens but I cant deny what I saw with my own eyes..same with Tabs.

[edit on 19-2-2008 by dscomp]