The Verisimilitude of The Vardøger

It may be possible that all of us have experienced this at one time or another:

We are off in some remote section of the house when we realize that our loved one has come home. We may hear some familiar mélange of sounds, tire-noise, a shuffling, or the opening and closing of doors, the setting-down of items, or footfalls.

Maybe we stop what we are doing and, elated at the arrival of our peep, we head to their usual port of entry, we may smell their familiar scent even, before we realize that......they aren't there.

“That was weird”, we think as we return to our previous preoccupation. “I could have sworn”...and then you hear the sounds again, the real sounds of the anticipated person, as they arrive home.

“WTF!?”

The Scandinavians have a word for that, and it's Vardøger.

Maybe them Scandinavians have some reason to experience that sort of thing more, and so it works it's way in to the lingo; I don't know. After all, they are the folks that characterized sleep paralysis as the Night Hag; either way, they got a word for it.

It's like a Deja Vu in reverse. With Deja Vu, you experience it after it happens, “I've been here before”. With the Vardøger you experience it before it happens, “I thought you were home (WTF!?)”.

It's not a Doppelgänger either, more like “The Spirit that precedes you”.

How many of you have experienced this, ATS?

I'd love to hear your stories

I'm getting deja vu about Vardøger. Does this mean time is a mental fabrication?

a reply to: cooperton

Does this mean time is a mental fabrication?

Yep.

How did you know that?

a reply to: Dan00

s & f

This happens to me quite often. I usually know my wife is home 3, 4 minutes before her car is in the driveway.
We are beings who are made of spirit not just flesh - we are connected

a reply to: TheConstruKctionofLight

We are beings who are made of spirit not just flesh - we are connected

So true.

I have a personal love for the topic of we being all connected.

I have been hooked on computer network models and analogies for getting my mind around same.

I like this article very much:

A Neuroscientist’s Radical Theory of How Networks Become Conscious

I would like to add to the thread that in Scandinavian countries, the folklore often considers the The Vardøger to be a separate entity from that which it represents. In other words, it is a being that, for whatever reason, becomes external to the person that spawns (?!?) it and then goes about preceding that person's arrival.

Them's the Tales.

a reply to: Dan00

Oh I didn't know that this was a thing. I've written before on here about my experience with this, it really freaked me the hell out. I was working down in my basement on some plumbing and heard my dogs barking and a minute later my wife call out "honey, I'm home" so I dropped what I was doing and went up the steps to say hello but there was no one there. I looked out in the driveway and her car wasn't there either. I scratched my head and thought she must have forgotten something and left again and I went back to work. Something like an hour later she finally got home and I heard her call out again so I again went upstairs. This time she was there! I told her what happened and she said no, she had not been home earlier she had just gotten off work and hurried straight home...

I swear the voice I heard the first time was my wife's, and it was loud and clear as a bell. I've told this story before on ATS in a couple paranormal forum threads but I never imagined it was an actual thing that has a name... this is the first I've heard of it, thanks!

Wonderful thread, I like your writing style.

It happened to me once as a child and it was a baffling, vivid experience.
I'd gotten home from school, was enjoying the half hour break that I had before a tutor showed up. I heard his moped pull into the drive way and I looked out the window and saw him drive in.
He was early, but I went and got everything sorted out for the lesson, expecting a knock on the door any second. It never came.
I eventually went outside and looked around, gate shut, no sign of anything.

Fifteen minutes later, he arrived "for real". He swore up and down that he hadn't come early and left again, or anything like that. It was surreal.
What makes it notable to me was that there were several sensory cues at play at different times; I heard the bike first, I checked the window and saw him drive in. It wasn't just one moment of "I think I saw something", it was a consecutive series of events, all apparently illusory.

a reply to: Unresponsible

I like the way you describe that experience that's how it was for me too, not just one thing but numerous 'sensory cues' as you put it. It was exactly this that made my experience so weird.

a reply to: Unresponsible

What makes it notable to me was that there were several sensory cues at play at different times; I heard the bike first, I checked the window and saw him drive in. It wasn't just one moment of "I think I saw something", it was a consecutive series of events, all apparently illusory.

Thank you! That's a fantastic Vardøger story for sure.

I think that if one were somehow able to study this (I imagine that it might be possible using wearable sensors in garments; who knows?) that one would want to start with those "sensory cues" that you mention.

The sensory cues seem to cast the mind in to some state of reverie that leads the person to believe that what their sensory apparatus is telling them is transpiring is true.

I suppose that's how your pets know you're coming home 5 to 10 minutes before you arrive?

I didn't know this thing had a name, but I swear this happens sometimes as well. I'd have that odd "Huh? They aren't here yet?" But I'll unlock the inside storm door and turn the lights on, since whoever the family member who I though to have arrived is supposed to be home soon anyways. Saves them from fumbling around finding their keys to get in.

I suppose this is a thing in Scandinavia, as worse weather increases anticipation of somebody coming home. Straighten out the house a bit, make sure there's a spot to throw down the boots and coat, and get something to drink setup at a cozy place near the fire or stove. If you're somewhere pleasant, you'd not need to do all that.

a reply to: Dan00

Is it ironic that there are two posts listed? One is an hour ahead of the other.

The topic and subject are also ironic.

Without a proof most people won't believe in parapsychology. But it
has been proven in innumerable studies that there are events that
occur that are not by chance.

I believe in it a lot.

a reply to: DrumStickNinja

Is it ironic that there are two posts listed? One is an hour ahead of the other.

Thanks so much for catching that, it really made my day.

a reply to: Dan00

A certain disturbance in the force...

Would the departed never nowhere nohow reappear? Ever he would wander, self-compelled, to the extreme limit of his cometary orbit, beyond the fixed stars and variable suns and telescopic planets, astronomical waifs and strays, to the extreme boundary of space, passing from land to land, among peoples, amid events. Somewhere imperceptibly he would hear and somehow reluctantly, suncompelled, obey the summons of recall. Whence, disappearing from the constellation of the Northern Crown he would somehow reappear reborn above delta in the constellation of Cassiopeia and after incalculable eons of peregrination return an estranged avenger, a wreaker of justice on malefactors, a dark crusader, a sleeper awakened, with financial resources (by supposition) surpassing those of Rothschild or the silver king

Not so sure about the incalculable eons though, but anyway the echoes within the ether are certainly there and they can even resonate within data such that they are recorded, but that's entirely at their discretion and you'd never catch them at it.

a reply to: Kantzveldt

a reply to: Dan00

That's kind of funny that you'd post that video, a little bit of synchronicity... my band recently started playing that song...