The following is a story I've been meaning to convey for sometime and due to a recent submission by another poster, who's story in part has a similar occurrence, prompts me to relate my experience.
This happened when I was a teen many years back in upstate NY where I grew up. I had a rather bizarre friend at the time, who despite his own encounters with the supernatural (most of which were unpleasant) insisted on trying to explain away everything with logic and rationale. It used to really irritate me to no end because he would do this with even cartoons and shows we watched, it kind of spoiled the wonder and imagination for sure! I was and still am fascinated with ghost stories and the supernatural, pretty open minded but with a healthy dose of skepticism.
One day we were in my room having a discussion about the paranormal. I was tired of him finding loopholes in stories and of course being a teen, I wanted to be right, so I had found a story I didn't think he could argue his logic into. Because of what happened, I to this day won't relay the exact story I told him, a story I had come across in a book on ghost stories. In fact I haven't really told many people about it at all. Sufficed to say the story basically involved a man's ghost being seen by several people many miles away from where he at that very moment in time had been killed. A lot of evidence was presented in the story and so I figured it was fodder for a discussion about ghosts that I would surely win. We talked about it at some length.
It was a bright, sunny and warm day while this was going on and my parents were downstairs. Though I had some odd experiences in childhood, my home was never considered haunted, at least in the traditional sense. As we talked, something in the atmosphere of my room began to shift, it was subtle at first, but I was sensitive, and did notice it. I was so passionate about the topic though and I tried to disregard it. It felt as if there was a pressure building, something definitely felt off. It suddenly felt as if we weren't alone and I was having difficulty arranging my thoughts and expressing them. My room which had always been a haven for me, always a safe space, always good energy, began to become a very unpleasant and unfamiliar place to be in. My friend's face suddenly went blank and he stopped talking. I hadn't said anything to him or indicated how I felt up to that point, but when I started to say something else, he stopped me and said "Wait." At that moment I blurted out "Do you feel that too?" He merely nodded and his eyes went wide.
We decided at that point, that whatever was happening was too uncomfortable and to vacate my room. It didn't feel threatening, or dark or evil, but it was as if we had become enveloped in some sort of cloud that had a pressure to it and it didn't feel right or normal. I remember we moved quickly down the hall and went downstairs but whatever it was was still with us. I can see it all clearly in my mind even now. My mom was sitting on the couch and slightly distracted, but I told her we were going outside and she nodded and told us it was OK. Looking back, it was so bizarre, I could see my mom, but it was as if she was separated from us by some sort of field, like we were in some kind of fog, the afternoon sun was still streaming in the window behind my mom and I could interact with her, but I felt cut off, reality definitely wasn't running right.
We went outside to the garage, but 'it' was still with us. I couldn't feel the sunshine, the warmth, and the normal outdoor sounds of a village street had all but ceased. I had begun to panic, not because of the entity, (at that point I wasn't truly aware it was a presence) but because it felt as if I was cut off from the real world so to speak, as was my friend. Looking back I have trouble really relaying what I felt and saw, it's unlike anything I had ever encountered, at least until I read the recent story posted and that brought it all back. At that point we tried to flee, to outrun it and started down the tree lined street I lived on, moving towards the downtown area.
Then it happened. We got down to the first intersection of a side street and suddenly it's as if we stepped through a curtain, as if the field had shattered and we were suddenly thrust back into the real world. "It" was gone, I felt the sun, and it was warm, the street's sounds had returned; children playing, birds chirping, someone mowing a lawn, and the 'fog' had lifted. It's as if we had stepped out of a vacuum of some sort.
We both talked about it, but couldn't arrive at anything rational. It shook me up for sure, and later when I returned to my room, the old familiar warm and safe feeling of my room had returned, the alien presence had gone. I asked my mom later if she had noticed anything unusual when I had talked with her during the episode and she only stated I had appeared subdued at that time.
To this day it's not something I can explain. The feeling of unreality, the closest I can come, is like when a person's sick. Everything feels off, reality isn't our day to day experience when sick, perhaps because our physical senses are overwhelmed. I know because many people who have been sick with colds or the flu describe a similar feeling and I've had it too (it's why I hate being sick). Did my feelings of fear play into it? I am certain it amplified the experience for sure, but it did not cause it. The fact that my friend and I noticed the change in atmosphere at the same time without saying a word about it to each other and the fact that it left as suddenly as it had come on, makes no sense. Fear usually takes some time to come down from, it's not something that occurs at the snap of someone's fingers, unless it's not your fear you're feeling. I'm somewhat empathic, so I'm no stranger to someone else's emotions coming and going in my space. Although fear can inspire a feeling of unreality as well, I have experienced extreme anxiety and panic and know the difference between that sense of unreality and what I went through that day, it was definitely different. I have gone over this from several different angles, and it took some time to realize that there was some form of spiritual presence there that day. Most of whatever fear and panic I had were directly related to the fact that I felt as if my sense and connection to reality had been turned upside down, not from a potential ghost. I had felt no evil or malicious or negative feelings in whatever was there.
The story I related to my friend wasn't even scary, just a bit creepy, the kind of goose bumps you can get from hearing something bizarre and unexplainable. However because of what happened that day, I refuse to speak the story aloud again.
My conclusion is somehow in discussing the supernatural the way we had that day, drew something to us. Either a drifting spirit or the object of the story itself. Perhaps it was just curious or wanted attention? Maybe it realized it was freaking us out and that's why it left so suddenly? Since that day I make sure I'm protected whenever I so much as read a ghost story, either on this forum or in a book, much less speak it aloud to anyone. I firmly believe that you don't need a Ouija Board or a fancy séance to summon a ghost, merely being curious and having an open mind can provide a portal for these experiences. I've had it happen enough, that it has been entrenched in me.
This experience was a key in forming my beliefs in the supernatural and continuing to fuel an endless fascination in these types of encounters as well as anything in the spiritual realm. However it doesn't mean I wish to encounter ghosts myself, it happens of course, but for me, it's enough to read and study these experiences, I don't go looking for them myself, that I know leads to trouble, take it as advice if you will.
I will mention in closing that my friend, later on sort of went into some darker spiritual matters, and he had some personal issues, so he may very well have been key in summoning this spirit/ghost/entity/presence. He as I mentioned earlier had some rather unpleasant supernatural encounters prior to this experience. Of course we were both teens, which has endlessly been speculated about in poltergeist happenings (though this experience doesn't fit that category) so again that is something that could have contributed. I know it wasn't my imagination, yet I can't find too many rational justifications for what occurred, but I concede that I could always have overlooked something. That and to others like the poster who inspired me, who have had similar experiences who could add something further to this story, it's most welcome. Other than that, it's another bizarre yet fascinating story from my past.
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