Things that go bump in the night

I’ve only been on ATS a short will but I’ve had the chance to read some of the posts by other people and I figure it may help me understand my own experiences if I do the same.

As you would expect of any child I went through a stage of fearing ‘monsters’ in the night, but the main difference is that even now I’m still not quite over it. I believe (and its quite proven) that everything has a cause, and every other fear/idea/belief that I have I can work out a cause or at least a reason why that is so. My fear of the night and darkness I’ve always felt was irrational but was never able to shake it, and I mean a serious fear to the point that it can take over fifteen minutes to get out of bed and take 3 steps across the room. Recently I’ve started working on over coming this fear by force myself out of bed at night and also finding the reason and at what point did this fear develop.

Unfortunately I came to a paradox of circular logic, I worked out that I was afraid of the dark because i see thing in the dark, but the reason I felt I saw thing in the dark is because I fear the dark. Eventually I was able to trace back to when I first started to be afraid of these things and I find it quiet unsettling.

The first time I ever saw something in the night was when I was four years old, after spending time reflecting on the event I feel that I’ve cleared away enough of the distortion to say that what i remember is accurate.

It was late at night and I heard a noise that woke me, I ignored it and tried to go back to sleep but after a few minutes I had to go to the toilet so I got out of bed and headed into the hall way. As I walked out of my room I had my head down and was rubbing my eyes, I took a few more steps into the hall way (still looking at the ground) I stopped because there was something wrong. I noticed there was something in front of me that I could see out of the corner of my eye and I can clearly remember the amount of adrenaline that started pumping. I slowly looked up to see a pale white shadow with large black eyes (I always thought this was a ghost cause when you’re four that’s what ghosts look like), the shadow was standing at the end of the hallway staring straight at me (or at least it appear to be) after a few seconds of shock and panic I ran back into my room, jumped into bed and hid under the covers. I looked back over the covers to see that the shadow was following my and it had come into the room and was walking towards my.

After that there’s a blank I don’t remember falling asleep (which would be impossible as your body is designed not to when you feel threatened) and I don’t remember ever making it to the bathroom despite not wetting my pants so I don’t know what happened with that. A few other things that i remember is that this thing was short, as it came into the room it came to about the height of the door handle.

It has also come up with discussion with my parents last year, while talking about ghosts I told them what I had saw when I was four (I exclude the fact that it had followed my), the seemed to be shocked and said that that my dad was having night terror of ‘things’ coming for him during that same period and would wake in violent fits.

I’ve seen things like this few times over time and a few of them quite recent which have lead me to looking into this stuff. So my thought is if these are fears of a child and they only exist in my head, WHY ARE THEY STILL THERE? I’m allot more knowledgeable then when I was four and never even gave thought to what I was seeing was real, so when you acknowledge an experiences as a dream or hallucination aren’t they supposed to stop?

Originally posted by RokNinja
I’ve only been on ATS a short will but I’ve had the chance to read some of the posts by other people and I figure it may help me understand my own experiences if I do the same.

As you would expect of any child I went through a stage of fearing ‘monsters’ in the night, but the main difference is that even now I’m still not quite over it. I believe (and its quite proven) that everything has a cause, and every other fear/idea/belief that I have I can work out a cause or at least a reason why that is so. My fear of the night and darkness I’ve always felt was irrational but was never able to shake it, and I mean a serious fear to the point that it can take over fifteen minutes to get out of bed and take 3 steps across the room. Recently I’ve started working on over coming this fear by force myself out of bed at night and also finding the reason and at what point did this fear develop.

Unfortunately I came to a paradox of circular logic, I worked out that I was afraid of the dark because i see thing in the dark, but the reason I felt I saw thing in the dark is because I fear the dark. Eventually I was able to trace back to when I first started to be afraid of these things and I find it quiet unsettling.

The first time I ever saw something in the night was when I was four years old, after spending time reflecting on the event I feel that I’ve cleared away enough of the distortion to say that what i remember is accurate.

It was late at night and I heard a noise that woke me, I ignored it and tried to go back to sleep but after a few minutes I had to go to the toilet so I got out of bed and headed into the hall way. As I walked out of my room I had my head down and was rubbing my eyes, I took a few more steps into the hall way (still looking at the ground) I stopped because there was something wrong. I noticed there was something in front of me that I could see out of the corner of my eye and I can clearly remember the amount of adrenaline that started pumping. I slowly looked up to see a pale white shadow with large black eyes (I always thought this was a ghost cause when you’re four that’s what ghosts look like), the shadow was standing at the end of the hallway staring straight at me (or at least it appear to be) after a few seconds of shock and panic I ran back into my room, jumped into bed and hid under the covers. I looked back over the covers to see that the shadow was following my and it had come into the room and was walking towards my.

After that there’s a blank I don’t remember falling asleep (which would be impossible as your body is designed not to when you feel threatened) and I don’t remember ever making it to the bathroom despite not wetting my pants so I don’t know what happened with that. A few other things that i remember is that this thing was short, as it came into the room it came to about the height of the door handle.

It has also come up with discussion with my parents last year, while talking about ghosts I told them what I had saw when I was four (I exclude the fact that it had followed my), the seemed to be shocked and said that that my dad was having night terror of ‘things’ coming for him during that same period and would wake in violent fits.

I’ve seen things like this few times over time and a few of them quite recent which have lead me to looking into this stuff. So my thought is if these are fears of a child and they only exist in my head, WHY ARE THEY STILL THERE? I’m allot more knowledgeable then when I was four and never even gave thought to what I was seeing was real, so when you acknowledge an experiences as a dream or hallucination aren’t they supposed to stop?

Once you see even a tiny bit of the Truth, you're never the same again.

Interesting story, though.

Reading that just before bedtime gave me the chills!

One thing I've never understood though. Why do people hide under bed sheets? I can't imagine a worse place to be.

At our vineyard we have a well known force called "The Black Man". Numerous people have reported seeing somebody standing in their row and when they look up at it, the entity disappears. I've seen it myself on many occasions. It will only appear when you are the only person in the vineyard , which for me is quite often. I've found that if I 'see' the entity and without looking directly at it say something like "Don't just stand around ya lazy bar***d, give me a hand" it will disappear. The first few times I saw it were rather frightening. Now I just laugh and continue my work.

If you see something again, maybe you could try telling it to go away? Talk to it like a human. Don't hide away from it. Especially under the bed sheets!

Just a thought. Awesome post though. Star and flag for you!

Shane

One thing I've never understood though. Why do people hide under bed sheets? I can't imagine a worse place to be.

i guess its the idea of if i can't see it, it can't see me

as for confronting these things i've already tried that with interesting results (bear with me on this one, its very out there and even i think it so rediculous i want to slam my face into a wall)

a few months ago i was woken up by one of these 'shadows' this particular one i've seen once before when i was 16. i knew it was the same one because of its god damn voice! (warning: i may rant a bit about this 'guy' for some reason he's done somthing that has realy pissed me off) i woke and the was a flash of light in my head and i heard him say (its the most god damn clichen thing ive ever heared but) "do not be afraid, everything is ok".

i sat up and say very strange looking person crouching beside the bed. he was very short, very thin and had smooth pale skin. i could only see the corners of his eyes (as he was looking away) but they looked highly reflective, almost glowing. hes was also breathing heavily, i could see this from the movements in his chest and it was like he was gasping for air.

the first thing i thought was 'light' and i swung my arm toward the bedside lamp. just as i had my hand over the swich he yelled "don't turn on the light!" (his tone of voice was paniced), i stoped (god knows why) and looked down at him. at first i saw a streched out face, but it changed in to a creature that looked like a doll. he then said "you're not allowed to see what i look like."

i stared at him for a moment then burst into laughter, saying "you not real, i'm dreaming" i the reached down to poke him in the face to prove that he wasn't (very bad move on my part) as i did he bite my finger. it hurt like hell. i pulled my hand back and muttered "ok, ok, your real". he gave my a look (or a least got the impression) that can only be interpreted as 'damn straight'.

after this what i remember is very vague, i remember that i got out of bed and followed out of my room, we were having a concersation as we walked but i can't remember what it was about, how ever i had to keep asking him to explain somw of what he said. there was a brightly light path way (i don't know if it was a hallway or an open area but there was a defined walk way) there was also a room with fish tanks built into the walls.

after awhile we ended up back in the dream that i was having before he woke me. i asked him another question but he didb't answer. he then turned to me, said good bye and fell to the ground like a puppet with its string cut. the dream seemed to start back up again as if it had been paused. i grabed the doll and started yelling at it and shaking it violently for him to come back and answer my question. after that i droped the doll and the dream continued like nothing happened.

Do you still live in the same place as you did when you were 16? I'm just trying to figure out whether they are attached to you, our rather the place you are living.

no, we only lived in that house for a year and i was very glad to move. but the same things came with me so there not attacehed to a location.

Oooooh, this is interesting! What other experiences have you had?

Do you think the short pale being you saw was an alien? It reminded me of Communion, the movie based on Whitley Strieber's famous book, and in the movie the Strieber saw/was abducted by aliens who changed shape and wouldn't let him see their real faces. I don't think it was ever clear that they were even aliens.

Also, your father had "things coming for him"? Abducting him? Did he tell you more about it or was that all he remembered?

urgh this stuff creeps me out so much. When i was at college the theater we worked in was haunted by something. During one performance a few years ago a table was pulled out in the middle of the stage half way through! the first week i was there i heard footsteps behind me when i was comming up from behind the stage
is weird stuff. i hate stuff that goes bump in the night. I was staying with my sister at uni a few weeks ago and i had just got back from going to the bathroom and i locked the door and everything. My sister was fast asleep and i got into my bed. and about 30 seconds after i got comfy something freaking kicked my bed so hard. it proper shook my bed. i wanted to sleep with the light on for the rest of the night lol. sometimes when im at home stuff happens too not in a while but i used to get woken up by bangs and crashes and when i was a kid i used to swear i saw figures in my room. I dont know if that was just my imagination or something else

Also, your father had "things coming for him"? Abducting him? Did he tell you more about it or was that all he remembered?

my dad described it as a presence that he could feel before he'd wake up, he woul also not remember that he was violently thrashing and screaming. other that that he didn't say much about it, it was quite a while ago.

as for what i think these thing are, yeah, i do think there aliens and i have a very long list of reasons for why i think this and i'll post it once i get it typed up.

as for other stories i have a few more that were waking experiences, but i also have a few strangly vivid dreams that i can tell if your interested.

Here are some of the main reasons

a)I wasn’t dreaming because the sleep process is disrupted by adrenaline and pain (it would be pretty damn lousy if it wasn’t)

b)If I were hallucinating then I would expect to see
other thing as well as the shadows, so not seeing other things makes me doubt it.

c)They’re not sleep paralysis, as only a few of the experiences have included paralysis.

d)There are recurring figure that appear but most of the time it’s a different being so I doubt it’s a spirit haunting me.

e)‘I see short pale beings because I saw them on TV’ the problem that is i started see them when I was 4 and I didn’t see anything like that until I was
8 and first saw the x-files.

f)If your dreaming or hallucinating what you see is generated by your mind so focusing on minor detail of the memory will result in a blank as you only
generate the recognisable patterns, I can recall enough detail in what I saw to say that i actually saw something

g)The fact that on some occasions I wasn’t the only one that noticed there was something there.

Also the final point is when I first started see these shadows i started having dream where naked, grey skinned children with no faces would appear and say we had to go some were or that they wanted normally with no reason given but when i did ask why they said that they wanted to play a game.

Originally posted by RokNinja
as for other stories i have a few more that were waking experiences, but i also have a few strangly vivid dreams that i can tell if your interested.

Definitely tell more. I love reading about these things, particularly the waking experiences.

g)The fact that on some occasions I wasn’t the only one that noticed there was something there.

Did this person actually see anything? Or was it limited to your perception?

I really can't add anything, except to tell you I am intrigued, and I hope you will continue with your story.

You told us of your first event, can you tell us about the most recent one?

I don't have many good stories, but i would love to hear more of yours. specifically, all of them! the dreams and the waking terrors.

my most recent waking experience is listed in my second post as for my last dream experience i've posted else were but will place it here:

i dreamt that i was outside my grandmothers house and on a table next to me that was a cage with a white rabbit inside (i don't think the rabbit had any importance but its the reason i remembered the dream at all). i toke the rabbit out of the cage and carried it in my arms, but it kept tring to escape and i had to chace it to make sure it didn't get away. once i had managed to catch it agian a car pulled up to the front of the house (i can't remember what happened to the rabbit but i think it just disapeared). i waked up to the car and i got in the back seat (the door opened and closed itseld) and it began to dive. their was noone else in the car but i didn't even question how it was moving with no one driving. i began to feel tierd and the chair reclined untill i was lying flat on my back (the lighting had changed when i got in the car, outside everything was overly bright and there were no shadows, inside the car it was darker and was more like what you would see normaly). i began to think about the 2012 senario and that the date was wrong it would happen sooner or later.
the next part i remember the clearest.
i thought "ethier way it'll happen when you least expect it"
as soon as i thought it there was a flash of light (the only way i can explain the sensation in more detail is that i was 'hit' with it) and there was a woman ontop of me. she smiled, placed her hand on my chest (i physicly felt her hand on my chest) and she lent down and wispered something. i can't remember what she said and the next thing i remember was waking up (i woke up on my side, i don't know if that matters).

i knew the woman, or at least she was familar. she's not a person that i know in reality or have even seen but i think she goes way back in my dreams. shes one of the things that i am unsure of as i don't know if i'm putting things together wrong.

Jesus christ... trust me to click on this thread just before I go to bed!!

Have to admit though, I sometimes get a bit freaked out in the dark. Ive had a couple of weird experiences and heard a couple of weird things as well. Although none of them compare to the OP!.. Not sure why hiding under the bed covers would make you feel better though, especially if you've seen 'The Grudge'! If I were you I would have more likely gone through the window and 20 miles in the opposite direction from whatever it was..

So yea, my crappy experiences.. nothing major but I always remember them as if they'd just happened. First one was something that reoccured about 5 times, and didnt actually freak me out at the time. When I was about 3/4 years old Id gotten into the habit of if I woke up at night I would go and get into my parents bed. Now a few times when Id gotten into their bed Id be lying there waiting to fall asleep.. and I swear to god that someone would whisper my name, and it was always coming from the door. I remember Id always sit up and say 'hello?', but there was never an answer back. Weirdest thing though, was that although I definately heard it, knew it was saying my name and sounded female.. I didnt hear it as if I would hear a person speaking. Difficult to explain really... but from the age of 5 I never heard it again, or anything remotely like it.
Second one was when I was about 12. I used to have a few teddies on my wardrobe right next to my bed. One particular teddy was this really old sooty one, was about 1 1/2 foot tall and was really heavy... think it was worth a couple of hundred £'s as well. So one night I was happily snoozing away when I got woken up by something on my head. Guess what it was... yes thats right, the sooty teddy! And now all that sounds pretty average, things fall off wardrobes/shelfs all the time. But the sooty teddy that had fallen onto me was originally placed in the middle of the wardrobe, with other stuffed toys around it, none of which had moved.... and when I went to put him back where he was supposed to be the next day, the dust on the wardrobe showed where he was placed... but it also looked like it'd had been dragged off the edge.

Theres some weird crap going down in our bedrooms at night people!

I had a period last year where I would not sleep without the light on.

It all started from reading some threads on here about aliens and strange lights in the sky. Now the aliens I hadn't seen, but I had started seeing lights moving in the sky whenever I went for a smoke, sometimes they would be random in their movement occasionally getting brighter and then dimming out and other times they would be on a fixed trajectory. I wasn't scared of them as such but I was a little wary as it was abit paranormal and I wasn't used to it...

Anyway, I then started getting a little paranoid with noises at night, until it all culminated one night where I started hearing a scraping noise, it kept getting louder until it sounded like whatever it was, was trying to open the handle on my bedroom and get inside. It seriously scared the living # out of me and I rarely get scared. So I ended up sleeping with light on for a few months, sure I know if it wanted in it would get in but I'd much rather have my light on to see what the hell it was so I could assess a plan of action to defeat it or escape it (or at least try) than be in the dark and not be able to see it.

However now I'm back to not caring, the noises don't bother me and I sleep easily at night with the light off, I'm still seeing the lights in the sky everytime I go outside for a smoke but most of them are turning out to be satellites, apart from the weird I saw where a light flared up, hovered for few seconds, moved across the sky dissapeared and then I saw what looked like a shooting star zip across where it had been, to this day I still don't wtf it was but I'm not scared of it I'm fascinated by it

When I was younger I used to have some strange experiences, but now as an adult things still happen on occasion. We have lived in our current house for about 6 years and I never really thought of it as haunted...I still don't really. However I have had some things happen I cannot explain, coincidences maybe?? A few years ago we used to have 2 dogs, and they would sleep in our room. On more than one occasion my wife and I would wake up to the dog going nuts and our dresser drawer somehow had come completely out of the dresser and was on top of our dog. Our dog wasn't hurt but was scared the way she would yelp. My wife thinks maybe her collar got caught on it somehow and pulled it out...I don't think so, but I guess anything is possible. The same dog would sometimes sit at the foot of our stairs and just stair upstairs like she could see something. A lot of times she would whimper at things that were not there...or at least to us. The dog was from an abusive family and we got her from the humane society. At one point she turned on me and bit me, so we got rid of her. I didn't feel safe with her around and a baby on the way.

We used to have a very large picture on the wall above the headboard of our bed. It was more like a poster almost, made of carboard, but framed. Anway, it fell off the wall and landed on my wife and I. It woke me up and I didn't know what was happening. All I remember was getting up and putting it on the ground like nothing happend and went back to bed. I still don't know how it fell, it was pretty secure, the nail was in the wall and the picture was so light you would have to pick it up off of the nail to remove it.

One of the weirdest things that happened was one time my wife and I were sleeping and were awoken by this very strange noise. The only way I can describe it as is taking one of those metal door stops that are like a spring and pulling it back and letting go, sort of like a "springy" sound. We don't have any of these in our house...and it was very loud! I jumped up and tried to find out where it was coming from. It was almost like it was resonating throughout the house. I did this like 4 times. Never heard it again...but the weird thing is we were watching Ghost Hunters once and the guys were in an attic of this house and I swear the same sound happened on the show! Both of them heard it and had no idea what it was. Needless to say I got chills when I watched that.

Just recently we got an alarm system on our house because there have been many break in's in the area. Just a couple weeks ago my wife and I were awoken by breaking glass! I immediately ran downstairs and started looking around, no broken windows or nothing. After looking around we went back upstairs into my daughters room. There we find a mirror that was hanging on the wall had fallen off and shattered. This mirror had been in the same place for I don't know how long...but that night decided to fall off. My daughter is 7 months so I know she didn't do it, and she was in her bed!

I have a 2 year old son also, and sometimes he will "wake" up out of a dead sleep and just scream! Night Terrors?? I hate when this happens because it's like he is awake, but he just screams and cries and you can't really do anything about it. Sometimes I hear him talking in his room also...Not sure if he see's things or what, but it makes me wonder. We have an infrared camera in his room so we can see him when we are downstairs. I've never really seen anything because I get so much static...but sometimes it will get a lot of static for no reason. Just last night I was watching TV and the static on the monitor got real intense, then my son gets up and starts crying almost instantly. Makes me wonder if something is in his room...or all just coincidence.

Ever watched the film Cat's Eye by Stephen King? The final story features a troll which lives in a crack in the wall in the little girls' bedroom. It comes out at night to steal her breath.

Makes you wonder doesn't it.

reply to post by RokNinja


Yea that post scared me to lol i got up and turned my bedroom light on. Ive never actually seen any type of ghost but i have been scared and im not to scared anymore but i still cant sleep with my back to an open space i have to have it to a wall. and i have to have the tv on when i sleep. im not scared of the outside dark just the inside my house dark. weird?

In all likely hood you saw a Grey.

I too had visitations from them in my childhood, althought they implanted it as a dream and I remember a "Green Stick Man" that was trying to hurt my family.

Ive been abducted throughout my life, both by the good and the bad of alien life.

I will say- that I too have a very strange fear from when I was young, that I cannot trace back. It has to do with hanging my hand or arm over the edge of the bed, because (i fear) something is going to grab it. Something not human.

Whether or not that actually happened- I cant say- but I know that I cant keep my arms or hands over the edge of the mattress without the ebbie jeebies coming to get me.

Best of luck!