My Paranormal Background

Hey everyone,

I'm new here. I hope this isn't too much of a newbie thread for you all, but I wanted to introduce myself to you all and explain a bit of my background in this area and maybe an experience or two.

As a child I was never very afraid of the normal things. I wasn't too afraid of the dark or of the monster in the closet. I was, however, obsessed with Ghostbusters and that kind of kickstarted my whole paranormal belief system. (I am not saying that I buy into Ghostbusters, heh. I am just saying it brought ghosts to my attention as a child)

Over the years I have read about many people's experiences, I've seen most of the pictures, a lot of the videos, etc. I have a pretty good idea of what is a genuine anomaly and what is easily explainable when looked at the right way.

I have a pretty extensive knowledge about ghosts and types of ghosts in the classical senses. I could clearly tell you the difference between a true haunting, residual haunting, poltergeist, posession, etc. if indeed these things do happen. I have brushed up on this subject for at least 12 or so years, as I am sure many of you have years of knowledge about the subject under your belt as well.

Members of my family and friends thereof have had experience with kinds of coincidental phenomena (meaning things that may have a more rational explanation, may not) and I have had a few personal experiences myself.

Some things from my past-

I remember walking down the street near the house of a friend of mine with a group of friends. It was an average summer night- not too hot, not too cool. It was a clear night. No clouds in the sky. We had spent much of the time of night beforehand just trying to freak each other out with odd stories and such.

As we walked and talked about odd things, a very loud sound came from the air in front of us. It was like a giant, booming roar. Imagine an angry beast god yelling at you. This is what it sounded like. From my perception, the sound seemed to come from about 20 ft above and in front of us out of the thin air. We ran back to our friends house immediately

More recently-

I had had an encounter with drugs (marijuana) about four years ago, I was 18 at the time. I had a very bad reaction once and I decided it was time to let go of my immature experimentation. However, I noticed that after that I was having anxiety attacks and trouble getting to sleep. Not that I wasnt getting tired or anything like that but I was getting a lot of anxiety during twilight. I would sometimes fear that I was going to go to sleep and not wake up.

To make a longer story short, I started having vivid images come into my eyesight while I was still awake. Mostly still scenes of familiar places. That is when I started having episodes of sleep paralysis. Hallucinations and all. I also had a few experiences that I would term as out of body experiences, but there is no way for me to prove to you, or myself, that these weren't simply vivid dreams.

That's all for now. I will post more later.

well i believe in the paranormal but you always have to consider other causes.

about the first exsperiance it verywell could have been a sreach owl. those things sound pretty scary and can be quite frightning if you dont know what they are.

also about the marijuana induced anxiety attacks i have several freinds that has happend too. I think it is quite an odd thing actually. one freind thought he was chocking eating cheetoes one time and that triggered his anxiety attacks, he gets them all quite often. another had to go on anti anxiety medications because of it. the doctor said some people are genetically predisposed and the marijuana is like a switch that activates it in those individuals.

about the sleep paraylisis i definatly know what you mean ive exsperianced that many times and never because of drugs. it can be concerning it first but you can learn to conquor it in time. here is one of my threads on it you might find intresting.
www.abovetopsecret.com...

lastly welcome to ATS!

Thank you for the welcome!

As for it being an owl, considering the sheer volume of the sound I am unsure if that is possible. I gave the god example because it was so loud and booming and thunderous that I went through everything in my head to try and figure out what it could have been and I came up with nothing except perhaps a sonic boom from a jet, which I think is illegal to do over populated areas.

I will check out your thread in a few minutes! Thanks.