Scary occurance reading a book

Hi folks. I never open up about this small episode in my life because it chills me to my bones thinking about it. I've brought it up in moments of levity to maybe one or two people. It has never been something I wanted to have the heavy air of seriousness hanging about while I mentioned it.
Okay, what was this book and what exactly happened while trying to read it?
About ten years ago or so I borrowed a copy of The Exorcist. It was really interesting up until I got to the part where they heard knocking in the book. So? Knocking no biggie right? Yeah right! Except that right when I got to the part that there was knocking, I heard knocking coming from my basement. There was no one down there at the time, this I know.
I tried to read on but kept hearing the knocking. When I stopped reading the book, the knocking stopped and I will never ever try to read that book again!
The woman I had borrowed the book from read it and didn't mention anything weird.
Have any of the good ATS members had a similar experience or has anyone read the book I don't even like to name?
Well, thank you for reading this small bit of my life that I feel filled with fear just mentioning.
If anyone is up for discussion, I'm willing to discuss any bizarre happenings concerning the movie as well.

a reply to: peppycat
I was watching that movie called The Ring and the phone rang. No, that's not freaky at all lol.

originally posted by: Skid Mark
a reply to: peppycat
I was watching that movie called The Ring and the phone rang. No, that's not freaky at all lol.

Lol! I would have lost it! The Ring had me scared of taking pictures for like two years after I watched it!
No way would I have answered the phone! Did you answer the phone?

a reply to: peppycat
Yes I did. It was my mom lol.

originally posted by: Skid Mark
a reply to: peppycat
Yes I did. It was my mom lol.

Pshew! Close one!



Also, I could do without mysterious knocking even if I wasn't reading the Exorcist.

Actually, thinking about this, I'm reminded that my uncle who was pretty interested in the paranormal had some sort of experience while reading the Amityville Horror, and refused to finish it or even allow it in his house afterward. My aunt (who was very interested in paranormal stories, etc and had a few experiences of her own) used to tease him about it, but I don't remember what it was that he alleged happened. I don't talk to him much since my aunt passed, but if I remember I'll ask him.

a reply to: RadioRobert Not sure if I am correct, but isn't the Amityville movie linked to strange occurrences on the set, much like the Exorcist? If your uncle feels like opening up about what happened while reading the book, I'd be very interested. Thank you for the reply.

a reply to: peppycat

I've heard about spooky things surrounding the Exorcist and Poltergeist movies, but don't remember Amityville stories (which doesn't mean you're wrong -- this noggin is like swiss cheese these days).

a reply to: RadioRobert

Babylon was my home town. Amityville is one town to the west. It was discovered pretty quickly that the story was phoney. No families ever experienced anything after the Lutz family left. . I'm not sure if they ever admitted a hoax or not.
Obviously many people were spooked by the book and subsequent movies. Including me and as a teen we would drive past that house at night and scare each other.

Also...The original tragedy in that house was true. Ronald De Feo did slaughter his whole family in there . That was a big enough horror for a small long island seaside town in the 70 s.

originally posted by: Sillyolme
a reply to: RadioRobert

Babylon was my home town. Amityville is one town to the west. It was discovered pretty quickly that the story was phoney. No families ever experienced anything after the Lutz family left. . I'm not sure if they ever admitted a hoax or not.
Obviously many people were spooked by the book and subsequent movies. Including me and as a teen we would drive past that house at night and scare each other.

There had been a mass murder there before the Lutz's moved in, but their story has been debunked for the most part.

I've never read the book or seen the movie. I make it a point not to see horror movies, and never have,except for a couple when I was a kid.

Anyway I do remember reading about the experience of a woman who was an atheist (as was her husband) who saw the movie. I had to look it up, this is the story:

Since the release of the movie “The Exorcist” some years ago, many reports are on file of the adverse effects it had on many who saw it. Maureen was an atheist. She had heard so much about the film that she decided to go to see it with a friend. The results were dramatic.
“It was the most terrifying thing I have ever seen. It was horrible. I could feel something was happening to me. I was shaking all over and could only just manage to pick myself up from my seat to walk out. But this was only the beginning of my troubles.
“Returning home, I was ready to burst into tears. My husband offered me little comfort as he had told me not to go to see the film in the first place. How right he was! I could not sleep that night, dreaming about the film.
“During the coming weeks things went from bad to worse. I was frightened to go to bed and when I did I would wake up in a cold sweat. I knew there was something in my house, as I could feel it with me wherever I went. I felt I was going out of my mind.

a reply to: peppycat

Books, huh?! I remember reading Amityville in my teens and practically having a heart attack at the part where the pig is looking through the window. Jeez a good, scary book and a healthy imagination is a dangerous combination!

Its weird that a purely fictional story can have such profound effects on people. Here is an interview with the author where he talks about being inspired by a real exorcism, but the work is completely made up,
www.washingtonpost.com...

A part of me thinks that the creative energies put out by writers and artists come from, well somewhere else. We tap into worlds beyond the veil to where things of our imaginations exist in some other dimension.
Perhaps some can, while working on a creative effort, thin the veil and make their fiction all to real for us in normal day to day reality... just my rambling thoughts.

originally posted by: peppycat
A part of me thinks that the creative energies put out by writers and artists come from, well somewhere else. We tap into worlds beyond the veil to where things of our imaginations exist in some other dimension.

Sort of Platonic forms, then? It's an interesting train of thought. A little Jungian even.

Stuff like this has been known to happen before. It is no joke seriously. It can in some cases set up a situation that enables evil to open a portal right to where the item is that gives it this opening. That book for one. A person participating (reading it) is also part of the mechanism, and I don't how it all works exactly, but, it is no joke.

The people that these things usually happen to are exactly like the skeptics here on ATS that taunt and mock the idea of it all day long, that is until this crud happens to them and then they are in a big mess they wish they could just forget. After it happens to the biggest unbelievers, there is no way to ever go back to being like they were before.

originally posted by: peppycat
Its weird that a purely fictional story can have such profound effects on people. Here is an interview with the author where he talks about being inspired by a real exorcism, but the work is completely made up,
www.washingtonpost.com...

A part of me thinks that the creative energies put out by writers and artists come from, well somewhere else. We tap into worlds beyond the veil to where things of our imaginations exist in some other dimension.
Perhaps some can, while working on a creative effort, thin the veil and make their fiction all to real for us in normal day to day reality... just my rambling thoughts.

It can indeed happen just like that, not because the story is made up, but because of who and what is being talked about in the book or story.

a reply to: RadioRobert Had to look up Platonic Forms and it will take awhile for me to wrap my mind around this philosophy... Thank you for helping me to expand my thoughts.
I will have to look into Jungian theory too.

originally posted by: NoCorruptionAllowed
Stuff like this has been known to happen before. It is no joke seriously. It can in some cases set up a situation that enables evil to open a portal right to where the item is that gives it this opening. That book for one. A person participating (reading it) is also part of the mechanism, and I don't how it all works exactly, but, it is no joke.

The people that these things usually happen to are exactly like the skeptics here on ATS that taunt and mock the idea of it all day long, that is until this crud happens to them and then they are in a big mess they wish they could just forget. After it happens to the biggest unbelievers, there is no way to ever go back to being like they were before.

I wasn't necessarily an unbeliever when this happened. I just didn't think about this sort of thing before and thought the book would be interesting.
The first part that I did read went into a statue or something being dug up from somewhere in the Middle East and it had a dark cloud, so to speak, over the archeological dig.
My mind at the time was a lot more fragile and susceptible to unknown forces.
Believe me, it wasn't funny and the only reason I ever spoke of it with any levity was because that is like a protective measure to keep me from letting the fear overtake me or my mind... not a path I ever want go down as I have in my past.
My friend and I were playing around with a Ouija board at his house and his mom saw us and told us to stop. She told us not to mess with anything that acts like a portal... I believe that certain things can behave like a portal, even if it is not meant to be, like that book I tried to read.

originally posted by: peppycat
a reply to: RadioRobert Had to look up Platonic Forms and it will take awhile for me to wrap my mind around this philosophy... Thank you for helping me to expand my thoughts.
I will have to look into Jungian theory too.

Jungian archetypes are some sort of collective underlying essence, if you will, that manifest or occur repeatedly in people or cultures. A semi-nebulous idea that pervades history and ideas and our subconscious. He compared it to an instinct. Jung eventually proposed that these archetypes had an existence of their own -- some "super reality" which we are trying to grasp through the archetypes.


Edit:

A part of me thinks that the creative energies put out by writers and artists come from, well somewhere else. We tap into worlds beyond the veil to where things of our imaginations exist in some other dimension.
Perhaps some can, while working on a creative effort, thin the veil and make their fiction all to real for us in normal day to day reality... just my rambling thoughts.

That's the part that struck me as Jungian.
But also a bit Platonic. That there are these other "forms" which we sort of come to terms with through the "shadow" of matter and our comparison to the actual form or essence itself. So the "veil is thinned" when we get stories/events/ideas/whatever that are closer to the actual "forms" themselves.