What I Saw In The Darkness

Greetings, ATS!

Let me start with a warning and some background info. This is a personal experience I had last night and I cannot explain it. It’s rather fantastical, to be blunt, and I don’t know what to make of it. I’m hoping someone can offer insight or an idea on how to proceed.

Some background you should know before hearing my tale. I do not take drugs or drink alcohol in any amount. I do suffer from sleep paralysis, but only one episode has included a hallucination (I prefer to think of it as a hallucination, at least) and that was about fifteen years ago. I haven’t had an SP episode in at least six months, maybe more. What happened last night did NOT feel like an SP.

We’ve lived in our current house for two years now; myself, my husband, and my 6 year old son. We are the first family to live in this house, and it was brand new when we moved in. Prior to moving here, we lived in an old mill house, circa 1900. It was while living in this house that my son was born.

When my son was about three, he began to fear being alone in his bedroom. I thought it was a normal response, but it was pretty extreme. I even wrote this post asking for help…we tried all the suggestions and although some worked for a while, the old fear would come back. So when my son found out we were moving to a new house, he was quite elated.

Within six months his fears were back, but focused solely on his closet. He refused to go into his room unless the closet door was firmly shut. He also insisted on having his overhead light on at night.
When questioned about his fears, he only says things like “The monsters are in my closet” or other generic-sounding phrases. We checked out his closet, nothing there. So, to help him sleep, we acquiesced to his demands. His closet stays closed and his light stays on.

Enough background. Here’s what happened last night.

Have you ever closed your eyes and then consciously watched the images on your eyelids? I have, and I’ve done it for years. It’s hypnotic, really. Usually what I see are simply blooms of color, kinda like fireworks. I can increase the brightness of the colors (which are either neon red or electric blue) by closing my eyes tighter or lightly pressing on my eyelids. Now, this isn’t something I do often, but last night I was laying on my side with my head pillowed in the crook of my arm. Something about that position put a light pressure on my eyelids, and the colors started blooming. The best way to describe the colors is to call them fireworks or blooms of color. The shapes aren’t interesting, but the way they morph from red to blue to black.

So last night I decided to consciously watch the colors and let them carry me off to sleep. Only, things were different. Instead of the typical blooms of color, these colors had faces.

I really can’t explain it better than that. The colors were faces. Not faces of smiling people, but faces contorted in screams. Some of the faces were horrific, deformed monstrosities that appeared to writhe in agony. Some simply didn’t look human at all.

I realized what I was seeing and it disturbed me enough to open my eyes. I guess the entire episode, from the beginning of the “faces” until the time I opened my eyes, might have been fifteen seconds. Anyway, I opened my eyes and two seconds later my son began to scream.

Instinctively, my head swiveled towards his bedroom. The room, situated diagonally across the hall from mine, was bathed in light. My son was hunched under the covers, screaming. And there was something…else…..standing in the doorway.

I blinked, surprised, and the thing was gone. It literally disappeared within a second of time. I do not know where it went.

What did it look like? Its really hard to describe, but I’ll give it a try. It was about two feet tall, maybe, and a darkish gray color. It had huge black eyes set in a rather strangely shaped head. The head itself set thrust forward, and tapered to a snout. The thing stood upright, with smallish forearms; I did not notice the hands or its legs. The overall impression I got was of something reptilian in nature.

I think I shouted, “Holy God! What is that!” which woke up my husband. We both ran to our son’s room, me consoling him while my husband looked through the room and proceeded to check the rest of the house (at my insistence). My son claimed he’d had a bad dream and awoken to see something by his bed. That’s what caused him to scream. I asked him to describe what he saw. He sleepily replied, “It looked like a dinosaur man, only really small. I think he lives in my closet.”

I tried to question him further, but exhaustion won and he was soon fast asleep. When I laid him back in his bed, I glanced over to the closet and noticed it was slightly ajar.


So, I’m unnerved, ATS. I don’t know if my seeing the “faces” had anything to do with my seeing the “creature,” if in fact I saw either. Perhaps it was a super fast dream? An hallucination from lack of sleep? What do you think? Any suggestions or ideas?

Thank you for your help….

smylee

A couple of questions before I attempt a response...

Did ANYTHING (tangible) make the journey from the old home to the new one that belonged to the old home?

Have you ever dabbled in the occult? (ouija board, se'ance, etc...)

Have you associated anyone in the home with a "sensitivity" to the paranormal? (yourself, your son in particular...)

Is this research for a book? (had to ask)

Originally posted by GoOfYFoOt
A couple of questions before I attempt a response...

Did ANYTHING (tangible) make the journey from the old home to the new one that belonged to the old home?

We moved the furniture from our bedroom and our son's bedroom, got new stuff for the living room and kitchen areas. We brought all our clothes and things, is this what you meant? Also, our two cats came.

Have you ever dabbled in the occult? (ouija board, se'ance, etc...)

No. Never. Although I do have an interest in the paranormal and like to read paranormal-event materials.

Have you associated anyone in the home with a "sensitivity" to the paranormal? (yourself, your son in particular...)

I don't think I'm sensitive, I KNOW my husband isn't. My son is... different. Sometimes I think hes a genius, other times I wonder about his sanity. The only thing is he's afraid of something in his closet.

Is this research for a book? (had to ask)

edit on 7-7-2012 by GoOfYFoOt because: added info

No....no book. Although it does sound like something out of a stephen king novel, doesn't it..

reply to post by smyleegrl


The whole thing could be psychological, like stress-related. Any problems in your work or social life?

Sweet Fancy Moses!!! That would have been terrifying! I am not sure if I could go back to sleep as easily.

I have "felt" things all my life. Seen things out of the corner of my eye, etc. But I have never stared at something like that and after reading your OP...I am thankful for it.

I FIRMLY believe in gut instinct and "feeling" when something is wrong or evil. Did you have any of those feelings when you saw it? Like you or your son were in danger? Did you "feel" like it was a threat or "feel" an overwhelming urge to leave the house?

I have always been fine in my house because I "feel" no threat. I have felt great threats in other places...and I get out of Dodge quick. Always trust your gut. It will never lead you wrong!

Originally posted by XeroOne
reply to post by smyleegrl

 

The whole thing could be psychological, like stress-related. Any problems in your work or social life?

There's always stress...I'm a teacher. But right now its summer break and relatively calm.

Originally posted by Kangaruex4Ewe
Sweet Fancy Moses!!! That would have been terrifying! I am not sure if I could go back to sleep as easily.

I have "felt" things all my life. Seen things out of the corner of my eye, etc. But I have never stared at something like that and after reading your OP...I am thankful for it.

I FIRMLY believe in gut instinct and "feeling" when something is wrong or evil. Did you have any of those feelings when you saw it? Like you or your son were in danger? Did you "feel" like it was a threat or "feel" an overwhelming urge to leave the house?

I have always been fine in my house because I "feel" no threat. I have felt great threats in other places...and I get out of Dodge quick. Always trust your gut. It will never lead you wrong!

You know, it wasn't a scary feeling when I saw it. Of course, I only saw it for a nano-second, so maybe there wasn't enough time to form an opinion.

What bothered me was the timing between seeing it and my son's scream. They may not even be connected for all I know, and the whole thing just a big coincidence.

I have never felt anything but peace in my new house, and although I'm kinda unnerved right now, I don't feel threatened or anything else.

My son also likes our house, "except at bedtime when my closet is open."

Young kids are often afraid of the dark, I know I was when I was young. It was probably you're mind playing tricks on you. In the last 2 months I thought I saw 2 of my deceased pets about 5 times but just for a second really quick I could swear they were there for a split second. I would see shapes and colors and outlines.

When I was younger I used to daydream a lot , it was a hobby of mine alone in my room or in the back of a car looking out the window. As I got older I had intense powers of visualization when my eyes were shut in my minds eye. Beautiful colors and animations that looked like they belonged on a computer, psilocybin only enhanced this. If you stay awake longer than usual or right before you go to sleep you're supposed to have the most visuals then any other time of the day. I read about it in a dream book but forgot the term or what it was called.

Often see shapes in shadows , I know I used to see them a lot when I was younger that's why I was afraid. Anything could just appear. Even the other day at work I was looking in an empty basement window and I expected to see a figure out of a scary movie like the Ring or Poltergeist or some homeless guy. It could've been yourself late at night playing mind playing tricks on you.

reply to post by smyleegrl


As for items from the old home, I was referring to something that was there when you moved in, that came with you to the new home.

WHat you need to decide is what you believe in. If you believe in the possibility of the paranormal then pursue paranormal remedies. If you think it was psychological, then seek advice from someone in that field.

(hint: the two realms overlap further than most people think)

If you choose to pursue the prior, I would be willing to assist you all that I can. If you think it is "all in your head" then seek a mental health professional.

I don't want to sound so blunt, but the truth is that if you don't believe in the possibilities of super-natural phenomena then you won't believe in the remedies required to control them. Rendering them useless.

As with both fields, the power is in the mind.

Originally posted by smyleegrl

Originally posted by Kangaruex4Ewe
Sweet Fancy Moses!!! That would have been terrifying! I am not sure if I could go back to sleep as easily.

I have "felt" things all my life. Seen things out of the corner of my eye, etc. But I have never stared at something like that and after reading your OP...I am thankful for it.

I FIRMLY believe in gut instinct and "feeling" when something is wrong or evil. Did you have any of those feelings when you saw it? Like you or your son were in danger? Did you "feel" like it was a threat or "feel" an overwhelming urge to leave the house?

I have always been fine in my house because I "feel" no threat. I have felt great threats in other places...and I get out of Dodge quick. Always trust your gut. It will never lead you wrong!

You know, it wasn't a scary feeling when I saw it. Of course, I only saw it for a nano-second, so maybe there wasn't enough time to form an opinion.

What bothered me was the timing between seeing it and my son's scream. They may not even be connected for all I know, and the whole thing just a big coincidence.

I have never felt anything but peace in my new house, and although I'm kinda unnerved right now, I don't feel threatened or anything else.

My son also likes our house, "except at bedtime when my closet is open."

I think the safe feeling says it all. As for the closet door? You might want to purchase one of those chain locks and just put it up on the outside of the door where he can reach it to latch it closed himself. Some will say that is coddling, or feeding his fear, but if it continued and he was actually really scared, it might be worth it for his peace of mind if nothing else. Hopefully you will rest easier tonight with no replays!

Originally posted by GoOfYFoOt
reply to post by smyleegrl

 

As for items from the old home, I was referring to something that was there when you moved in, that came with you to the new home.

WHat you need to decide is what you believe in. If you believe in the possibility of the paranormal then pursue paranormal remedies. If you think it was psychological, then seek advice from someone in that field.

(hint: the two realms overlap further than most people think)

If you choose to pursue the prior, I would be willing to assist you all that I can. If you think it is "all in your head" then seek a mental health professional.

I don't want to sound so blunt, but the truth is that if you don't believe in the possibilities of super-natural phenomena then you won't believe in the remedies required to control them. Rendering them useless.

As with both fields, the power is in the mind.

We didn't bring anything from the old house to the new house, at least that I'm aware of. Interestingly, our old house burned about half a year after we'd moved. Faulty wiring is what the fire department determined.

I'm open to the idea of the paranormal, I just don't want to jump the gun and say my house is haunted. Does that make sense? As for psychiatric help, I don't think that's necessary just yet. If I continue to see things, that idea may get revised.

I appreciate your advice and any suggestions.

Sorry to hear you and your son are having these experiences at your home..
Your son seeing things and you also seeing something pretty much rules out psychological problems being the origin of these occurances..

Closets have been known to be rooms where portals can open from reading countless reports of many kinds of paranormal stories.. Why or how is not really known very well.. I would venture to say that your son may be sensitive to spirits and as such, they can find him the same way you can go to a light in the darkness..

A good possibility is that something might have followed him from your old home.. I would advise finding a legitimate medium and also a priest to bless the house..

Without having the guts to do that, it could just keep getting worse.. The aim of whatever it is doing this is to create fear to feed off of..

Sometimes people allow these things to continue just because they feel it is personally embarrassing to reveal these things to outsiders or neighbors, and so they keep putting up with it until the family is ruined or ends in some tragedy...

It has already damaged your son's personal well being, and now is beginning to affect yours, so just forget everything except getting this fixed..

There are professionals and others out there that can help.. Finding them shouldn't be too hard I hope..

The faces sounds like hypnogogic imagery. Variations on a simple theme like your faces is very characteristic of HI. I'd wager the faces were completely unrelated to what you saw, just a random creation of your mind.

The hypnogogic state is an odd thing, somewhere in between sleep and wakefulness. It would seem this in between state allows you to see things you wouldn't ordinarily see. Commonly it's shadow people that are seen when people wake up. The consistency in the shadow person reports leads me to believe they are something real and not just a random creation of the mind.

My money is on this half asleep state you were momentarily in that allowed you to see this creature. If you're interested in experimenting with this, I find meditation before bed helpful for reaching the hypnogogic state. Once you reach it, you'll have to rouse yourself. When you do open your eyes, don't move. WHen I see shadow people, I can hold the sight of them as long as I don't try to move. If I do I quickly lose sight of them.

But they don't disappear right away once you start moving. You have a brief moment where you are able to rush them if they are close enough and if you are so inclined. I've made shadow people jump back in surprise with a good swiping blow.

If it was my kid, I'd send him to bed with some plastic swords or knives, something he couldn't injure himself with. Tell him that if he sees something he doesn't like, then he should tell it to leave. If it doesn't, go at it with the plastic blades. I have a theory that the archetypal concept of the blade is what can hurt these creatures, not the actual physical implement. At the very least, this will help him overcome his fear, which is most likely the main factor in turning these situation into something unpleasant.

The most pragmatic answer to your question is when you saw the faces you were in a state between sleep and awake, not awake but still lucid in the beginning of sleep, between theta and delta brainwaves and your son actually started screaming a second or so before you woke up causing you to see horrible faces in pain; then when you awoke he started screaming again creating the illusion your awakening was precognative. It's not uncommon after being suddenly awoken to hallucinate a little. It's possible the description given by your son and what you saw sych up because hes been terrified of the same thing for a while and subconciously any previous description of a monster came to the surface and your brain filled in that detail from shadows and regular things.

That said I've had experiences like this myself and i truly don't know what to make of them, they seem increadably real, and terrifying.

i have a few questions OP.
they may seem a bit odd but it could matter.
do you have any pets, if so where we're your animals while all this was going on?
what time roughly did this event occur?
when you sleep do you sleep on your side, back, stomach typically?
when you woke up how we're you laying?
when your son sleeps does he lay on his side, back, stomach?

Originally posted by notkmarx
what time roughly did this event occur?

I'd be interested in knowing the dates and times of any recurring incidents myself.

You need to read the book, Beware the Night, by officer Ralph Sarchie, as well as Fr. Malachi Martin's book, Hostage to the Devil. In these two books, you will find the answers to your questions.

In short, demonic entities are real, and can only be removed from the house by a Roman Catholic priest. Call your local Archdiocese and request for a priest to come to the house to perform a house blessing. That's a start.

You are not dealing with a problem that can be resolved through physical means. This is spiritual warfare.

I've seen many of your posts before and I definitely think you have a real and interesting story here.

One thing I wanted to share...about the images you saw when you closed your eyes.

I do the same thing sometimes when I try to sleep. I close my eyes tightly and see what images manifest. Mine are usually white against a black background. Like lightening. But in the past, I have seen faces. Not made of the white lightening, but just images come to mind. They will be the most horrific faces, and I cannot recall seeing them anywhere in a movie or picture. When they start to form in my mind I just open my eyes and change my thoughts to make it go away.

I'm sharing that because I never really thought about them as being anything before. I just figure it is my twisted mind making up images. So, perhaps, this is what your mind did and it is a coincidence your son screamed at the same time. And the figure you saw was your imagination.

Or, the figure WAS there and it showed itself in your mind. Which kind of creeps me out, given all the times I've seen images in my mind.

Didn't I tell you to be careful what you wished for?

I know children are able to see things on the spiritual realm that most adults don't.
Don't ever play it down to him by telling him it's just his imagination. I was told that so many times as a child.... knowing full well what I saw and experienced was NOT my imagination! I had no adult I could confide in that believed me. Made me grow up resenting my parents somewhat for not being there for me. But, I digress...
as for YOUR problem...

Has he been talking about the monster in the closet since you first moved in, or did this start recently?

You had a post a few weeks ago about visiting paranormal places during your vacation. Any chance you brought something home with you?

These beings feed on fear. Try not to feed it. Ignoring it won't make it go away completely, but it could keep things from becoming out of control until you can get your house cleansed.

I watched a true show last night about a haunted house, and bringing in a priest to bless the house just made it worse... pissed the sucker off!! Then things really got bad! But that was with a demon. Doesn't sound like a demon in your house, so a house blessing/cleansing should work to get rid of it.
Keep us informed.

Originally posted by tport17

. So, perhaps, this is what your mind did and it is a coincidence your son screamed at the same time. And the figure you saw was your imagination.

NOT!!!!!