[wolfen]

So I expect the typical Lounge Nonsense..but here we go...

Before my wife and I were married we were in college in East Texas. Along one very rural road we decided to drive down this dirt path. It ends in a very small clearing in the woods. There is nothing around for miles. And miles.

As I cut the engine, I see a bright glowing orb about 50 feet in front of our parked car to my left, and about 10-15 feet high in the air. It's the size of a golf ball. It's very bright and blue-white like when zinc burns during welding. Anyway, I ignore it -- certain I'm just seeing things. Besides -- I've got a hot babe beside me.

This little glowing orb quivers a little as it very slowly moves in an arc around the front of our car. It moves behind tree branches, in front of them, pauses, moves, and so on. It continues and eventually my girlfriend (now wife) says "Do you see that?!" It continues to arc around our car -- and we both have the very eery feeling that this thing is paying attention to us. It is watching us, and its arc is very obviously fixed on the position of our car. It gets around to the passenger side of the car (about 20 ft away) and my girlfriend says "let's get out of here." I would have been more disposed to jumping out and saying "Hi!" but I was really freaked out and didn't want anything to happen to her. So I start the car again and get in reverse.

I don't know if this is a "UFO" event, a spiritual being, a projection of my own...or what. But the fact that someone else saw it freaked me out more than seeing it alone.

What about you? What has happened that is too crazy to explain?

[Gossamer]

I went on a date once.

[Dakarʒ]

Originally Posted by Gossamer 

I went on a date once.

Damn it, I came in here with the express intent of posting, "I had sex once."

[Gossamer]

Who's the fastest now?

[C.A.T.S. CEO]

Originally Posted by wolfen 

So I expect the typical Lounge Nonsense..but here we go...

Before my wife and I were married we were in college in East Texas. Along one very rural road we decided to drive down this dirt path. It ends in a very small clearing in the woods. There is nothing around for miles. And miles.

As I cut the engine, I see a bright glowing orb about 50 feet in front of our parked car to my left, and about 10-15 feet high in the air. It's the size of a golf ball. It's very bright and blue-white like when zinc burns during welding. Anyway, I ignore it -- certain I'm just seeing things. Besides -- I've got a hot babe beside me.

This little glowing orb quivers a little as it very slowly moves in an arc around the front of our car. It moves behind tree branches, in front of them, pauses, moves, and so on. It continues and eventually my girlfriend (now wife) says "Do you see that?!" It continues to arc around our car -- and we both have the very eery feeling that this thing is paying attention to us. It is watching us, and its arc is very obviously fixed on the position of our car. It gets around to the passenger side of the car (about 20 ft away) and my girlfriend says "let's get out of here." I would have been more disposed to jumping out and saying "Hi!" but I was really freaked out and didn't want anything to happen to her. So I start the car again and get in reverse.

I don't know if this is a "UFO" event, a spiritual being, a projection of my own...or what. But the fact that someone else saw it freaked me out more than seeing it alone.

What about you? What has happened that is too crazy to explain?

You should check out Mysterious Universe, they know about these things

It sounds like the orb might have been spiritual, but maybe a UFO, seems like a cross between the 2

[nonhuman]

How big to fireflies get in Texas?

[bstone]

I think it intersting that people take glowing lights for UFOs/aliens. Why not from the spiritual? A wizard? Cleric of some ancient undead god?

[Big Mac]

Originally Posted by bstone 

I think it intersting that people take glowing lights for UFOs/aliens. Why not from the spiritual? A wizard? Cleric of some ancient undead god?

Modern pop culture prefers science fiction to religion.

[wolfen]

C'mon...somebody must've had something interesting happen.

[::maroma::]

I lead a very slow mundane life. I wake up, go to work, go home, go to bed. I expend a lot of energy trying to stay away from any situation that might even remotely lead me into an inexplicable event taking place in my presence.

Therefore, I have never had anything happen to me that I cannot explain.

[moonmonkey]

Ball lightning - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I think this is a slightly more likely explanation than a wizard.

[brassplayersrock²]

a few of my friends and I were down on a beach in california during a summer, and we started hearing an old grandfather clock striking. we looked around for a good 5 minutes trying to find where it was. never found the damn thing. No houses around, nothing but hills, sand, and the ocean

[wolfen]

Originally Posted by moonmonkey 

[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_lightning]Ball lightning - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/url
I think this is a slightly more likely explanation than a wizard.

Well, I certainly don't think it was a wizard. But it's funny how putting a name on it -- "ball lightning" -- makes us think we've explained something. In fact, the wiki link has all kinds of references that it tries to associate with this phenomena, none of which seem remotely related to "lightning." So while I apprecaite the reference, it appears more of a corroboration of similar sightings than it does an explanation for anything.

Our experience lasted at least a minute, probably a bit more -- and didn't disappear at all. We left it to wander around the woods. Here's another possible Wiki Link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_o_wisp


Anyhow, I was looking for OTHER peepz' weird stuff.

[Atomic Rooster]

I went to a party once and don't remember how I got home.

[Railroader]

Originally Posted by Gossamer 

Who's the fastest now?

You do realize, that in the context of dating and sex, being "the fastest" is nothing to brag about?

[Chuckit]

Strangely, inexplicable stuff only seems to happen when I'm not around. Whenever I'm there, things happen to have a logical explanation.

[design219]

I'm an incurable skeptic.

I want to believe, and I'd love to see something out of this world, but like Chuckit, the logical always prevails.

I hope someday you find out what it was you saw.

[centerchannel68]

http://forums.macnn.com/89/macnn-lou...ight=milwaukee

[design219]

Here is a good example of things not being what they seem. And people giving them hell about it.

FARK.com: (2618004) WTF did I just take a picture of? I thought it was a planet, but it looks really weird

[natnabour]

don't worry wolfen, i have a strange inexplicable story to share with you.


i was about 10 or 11 years old, playing around on the computer in our ''study." our study room is the furthest room in our house, on the 3rd story. my mom had just taken my little brother to karate lessons and my dad was outside watering the plants. i had the door locked (don't ask, I always lock my door) and so I noticed that someone was trying to get inside, as "they" were trying to open the door, switching the handle back & forth. I could clearly hear my dad outside, so I just yelled, "did mom leave yet?" and he said "yes". so obviously i panicked as there was no one else typically at our house. i get up very slowly and open the door (heart racing). walk very quietly to my bedroom, to my brother's bedroom....to my parent's bedroom.....no one's there. so i shake it off and go back to our study. back then, there was a picture of the Last Supper (made out of glass) and before I sit down, I take a long look at that picture and the SECOND I take a seat, it falls down to the floor and shatters.


not as suspicious as your glowing orb. but it obviously scared the living hell out of me.


also, a few years ago while vacationing in canada, we were having a BBQ at night. and for some reason the fire erupted into this huge flame and just for kicks we decided to take a picture of it. well low & behold after the pictures were developed - there is a face in that fire. i'll try to scan it & show you all.

[analogue SPRINKLES]

Originally Posted by C.A.T.S. CEO 

It sounds like the orb might have been spiritual, but maybe a UFO, seems like a cross between the 2

Jesus showing off his new flying orb daddy bought him?

[brassplayersrock²]

so that's whats behind his head in most of the paintings. finally, i understand

[Tiresias]

I once had a waking hallucination. I woke up and saw a photograph on the wall that wasn't there when I went to bed. It was a photograph of a Tibetan monk with red face paint. Crystal-clear. I just sat there staring at it for like half a minute. Then slowly it faded into the photograph of me as a child that my wife had put on the wall a week before. Weird. Got me thinking maybe I was a monk in my last life.

A little research established this is called a hypnopompic hallucination.

[Dakarʒ]

Originally Posted by Gossamer 

Who's the fastest now?

At sex or posting?

It's still me, but only because anything after 5 p.m. is considered bonus.

[andreas_g4]

[Gossamer]

Originally Posted by Dakarʒ 

At sex or posting?

It's still me, but only because anything after 5 p.m. is considered bonus.

I'll take what I can get.

[Dakarʒ]

Originally Posted by Gossamer 

I'll take what I can get.

Dakar's Guide to Dating, Rule #5

[kick52]

this isnt amazingly weird, but:

one night this week (i definatly wasnt dreaming), early in the morning, i remember laying down in bed, looking at my tv, with the wiimote in my hand, doing something on the wii. (no, i'm not a hardcore fanboy) then i remember seeing red writing on the tv (like the text which tells you which channel you are on, etc. though my tv's colour is actualy green), then thinking calmly "hmm, wtf.. ah, i'm just having a hallucination" not disturbed by it at all..

the memory is quite fuzzy, but i'm sure its not a dream.

[Goldfinger]

Originally Posted by andreas_g4 

Bang on.

[mdc]

A few years ago I used to live in London and rode the Tube (subway) all the time with my month pass.
To get a month pass you have to get a photograph I.D. with a unique number which is written on your month pass, so that only you can use your month pass. I kept my monthly pass in a ticket wallet which had transparent plastic over the I.D and the ticket on the other side for easy access. That ticket wallet was inside my regular wallet.

My friend and I got to a station and had to change trains; which entailed walking across the station to the other train line. I used my monthly pass to get onto the train, put the ticket back in it's wallet, inside my wallet and then we walked to the other train line.

As we got to the turnstiles I fished my wallet out my pocket, took out the train ticket wallet, took out my ticket and put it in the turnstile. The turnstile beeped and error, so I tried my ticket again, and again it beeped an error. I looked at my ticket and it wasn't mine, it was some child's ticket (different colour) with a completely different I.D. number.

We stood there wondering how the hell that ticket got into my ticket wallet and where my ticket was, since that was the only ticket in my ticket wallet. As we stood there wondering this someone came walking over to us, from the opposite direction we came from. He walked right up to me, says "Here," hands me a ticket, walks into the turnstile, and went on his way.

We look at the ticket he handed me and it was my missing monthly pass. It had my I.D. number written on it. I put it in the turnstile, caught the train, and have been confused to this day on how that child's ticket got into my pocket, into my wallet, into my ticket wallet. Who that guy was, where did he find my ticket, how did he get my ticket?

[paul w]

I have a little red spot on the back of my right hand I got from a bee sting when I was 4 years old. It's rather inconspicuous but it's there.



Anyway my ex girlfriend had the exact same thing on the exact same place on her right hand as well. She's had it for as long as she can remember but she doesn't remember how she got it. Just a little red dot.

It seems so minor but what are the odds? And we were together for nearly ten years. Neither of our dots ever changed or faded in the slightest.

Probably just a coincidence...

[shifuimam]

I sometimes have dreams when I'm awake. Or something.

I'll have the peculiar sensation that I am in two places at the same time, and that something else is happening to me while I'm doing whatever it is I'm doing IRL.

Then I get a headache when I try to focus on the other weird alternate existence thing.

I chalk it up to lucid/awake REM sleep or something.

[KeyLimePi]

When I was 19 a friend and I were going to a party (to, so we hadn't had a thing to drink. honest). It was dark and we were driving down a narrow, wooded road. Something very large flew across the road about two feet above the car. All we could really see was one wing, which was feathered, very white and bigger than the windshield. Of course we jammed on the brakes, got out..looked around, etc. Nothing. We told a couple people at the party, they just laughed and said it was an owl or something. If it was an owl, it had a 9-foot-wingspan. We talked about this for days until we realized most people think we were just drunk.

[Dakarʒ]

Originally Posted by mdc 

A few years ago I used to live in London and rode the Tube (subway) all the time with my month pass.
To get a month pass you have to get a photograph I.D. with a unique number which is written on your month pass, so that only you can use your month pass. I kept my monthly pass in a ticket wallet which had transparent plastic over the I.D and the ticket on the other side for easy access. That ticket wallet was inside my regular wallet.

My friend and I got to a station and had to change trains; which entailed walking across the station to the other train line. I used my monthly pass to get onto the train, put the ticket back in it's wallet, inside my wallet and then we walked to the other train line.

As we got to the turnstiles I fished my wallet out my pocket, took out the train ticket wallet, took out my ticket and put it in the turnstile. The turnstile beeped and error, so I tried my ticket again, and again it beeped an error. I looked at my ticket and it wasn't mine, it was some child's ticket (different colour) with a completely different I.D. number.

We stood there wondering how the hell that ticket got into my ticket wallet and where my ticket was, since that was the only ticket in my ticket wallet. As we stood there wondering this someone came walking over to us, from the opposite direction we came from. He walked right up to me, says "Here," hands me a ticket, walks into the turnstile, and went on his way.

We look at the ticket he handed me and it was my missing monthly pass. It had my I.D. number written on it. I put it in the turnstile, caught the train, and have been confused to this day on how that child's ticket got into my pocket, into my wallet, into my ticket wallet. Who that guy was, where did he find my ticket, how did he get my ticket?

It was David Blaine.

[analogue SPRINKLES]

Originally Posted by shifuimam 

I sometimes have dreams when I'm awake. Or something.

I'll have the peculiar sensation that I am in two places at the same time, and that something else is happening to me while I'm doing whatever it is I'm doing IRL.

Then I get a headache when I try to focus on the other weird alternate existence thing.

I chalk it up to lucid/awake REM sleep or something.

Time to go to the doctor.

[nonhuman]

Originally Posted by KeyLimePi 

When I was 19 a friend and I were going to a party (to, so we hadn't had a thing to drink. honest). It was dark and we were driving down a narrow, wooded road. Something very large flew across the road about two feet above the car. All we could really see was one wing, which was feathered, very white and bigger than the windshield. Of course we jammed on the brakes, got out..looked around, etc. Nothing. We told a couple people at the party, they just laughed and said it was an owl or something. If it was an owl, it had a 9-foot-wingspan. We talked about this for days until we realized most people think we were just drunk.

The Great Grey Owl can have a wingspan of over 5'. Great Horned Owls are more common and smaller, but can still reach a wingspan of up to 5'. One of those flying in front of your car in the dark is going to seem huge

[Judge_Fire]

Originally Posted by toothpick_charlie 

A little research established this is called a hypnopompic hallucination.

Yeah, I get these too, also the hypnagogic variant sometimes. It used to be scary as hell, with the 'presence of the dead' hallucinations, perceived suffocation and occasional long lasting motoric paralysis in the morning. Took years until I learned of sleep paralysis.

I've learned ways to communicate this to my wife, who now knows to wake me up (a touch suffices) if I get 'stuck'. But I've also been curious about learning to go with it, in a meditative way, since there is very little sensory awareness.

Good article on sleep paralysis at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis

[ort888]

One time I went to a Steak n' Shake drive-thru and I got my order correctly and promptly.

[BlueSky]

Originally Posted by Judge_Fire 

Yeah, I get these too, also the hypnagogic variant sometimes. It used to be scary as hell, with the 'presence of the dead' hallucinations, perceived suffocation and occasional long lasting motoric paralysis in the morning. Took years until I learned of sleep paralysis.

I've learned ways to communicate this to my wife, who now knows to wake me up (a touch suffices) if I get 'stuck'. But I've also been curious about learning to go with it, in a meditative way, since there is very little sensory awareness.

Good article on sleep paralysis at Wikipedia: Sleep paralysis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I've had it since I was a kid, and sometimes it's led to what seems like out-of-body experiences. Interesting at times, but I could do without it. I've found that while paralyzed, the only parts I can move are my feet and sometimes hands. I've used that to pull myself out of it, just keep moving them and eventually I snap out of it.

[Dakarʒ]

Originally Posted by ort888 

One time I went to a Steak n' Shake drive-thru and I got my order correctly and promptly.

This thread isn't called "Lie completely out of your ass."

[Rumor]

I've had the same girlfriend for five years now. If that isn't inexplicable, I'm not sure what is.

[Gossamer]

Originally Posted by Rumor 

I've had the same girlfriend for five years now. If that isn't inexplicable, I'm not sure what is.

This is:

Originally Posted by Gossamer 

I went on a date once.

[iMOTOR]

Originally Posted by Judge_Fire 

Yeah, I get these too, also the hypnagogic variant sometimes. It used to be scary as hell, with the 'presence of the dead' hallucinations, perceived suffocation and occasional long lasting motoric paralysis in the morning. Took years until I learned of sleep paralysis.

I've learned ways to communicate this to my wife, who now knows to wake me up (a touch suffices) if I get 'stuck'. But I've also been curious about learning to go with it, in a meditative way, since there is very little sensory awareness.

Good article on sleep paralysis at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis

Originally Posted by BlueSky 

I've had it since I was a kid, and sometimes it's led to what seems like out-of-body experiences. Interesting at times, but I could do without it. I've found that while paralyzed, the only parts I can move are my feet and sometimes hands. I've used that to pull myself out of it, just keep moving them and eventually I snap out of it.

When you first started noticing this phenomenon, was it initially accompanied by a deep sense of fear?

I suffer from sleep paralysis as well, but mine seem to be more like seizures with light convulsions than a complete stillness like they describe in the wikipedia article. Or maybe it just seems like I'm convulsing, no one has ever witnessed it happen to me.

[Dakarʒ]

Originally Posted by Rumor 

I've had the same girlfriend for five years now. If that isn't inexplicable, I'm not sure what is.

That I've been dating the same girl for 5 years as well?

[moonmonkey]

Originally Posted by shifuimam 

I sometimes have dreams when I'm awake. Or something.
I chalk it up to lucid/awake REM sleep or something.

Lucid dreams only happen when you are sleeping.

[Aron Peterson]

It was definitely spirits...



that made you think about orbs...

Your gal was thinking of orbs too but I can't show an image of that.

[Aron Peterson]

Originally Posted by mdc 

Who that guy was, where did he find my ticket, how did he get my ticket?

Did he look like this...

[Judge_Fire]

Originally Posted by iMOTOR 

When you first started noticing this phenomenon, was it initially accompanied by a deep sense of fear?

It's usually total paralysis for me, with me being able to control only my breathing. The first time was scary as hell, both due to the immobility and yeah, a 'deep sense of fear'. The horror is still there, but I can kind of rationalize myself out of it nowadays.

The perceived suffocation (can't feel self breathin) is nasty, too and can add to a sense of panic.

I still love sleeping, though - this usually hits me only when stressed, overcaffeinated, sleeping too little and particularly when waking up laying on my back.

[BlueSky]

Originally Posted by iMOTOR 

When you first started noticing this phenomenon, was it initially accompanied by a deep sense of fear?

I suffer from sleep paralysis as well, but mine seem to be more like seizures with light convulsions than a complete stillness like they describe in the wikipedia article. Or maybe it just seems like I'm convulsing, no one has ever witnessed it happen to me.

Originally Posted by Judge_Fire 

It's usually total paralysis for me, with me being able to control only my breathing. The first time was scary as hell, both due to the immobility and yeah, a 'deep sense of fear'. The horror is still there, but I can kind of rationalize myself out of it nowadays.

The perceived suffocation (can't feel self breathin) is nasty, too and can add to a sense of panic.

I still love sleeping, though - this usually hits me only when stressed, overcaffeinated, sleeping too little and particularly when waking up laying on my back.

I don't recall ever feeling undue fear about it, just a concern for ending it ASAP. I remember it happening for the first time when I was about 8 or so one morning. It usually happens to me when I've gotten too much sleep and am too lazy to get out of bed. Especially if I'm on my back and especially if I take a nap during the day. I notice as I get older it happens less often.

A long time ago I read about moving your feet/hands to eventually pull yourself out of it, and I don't recall if that's why I started doing it or I stumbled upon it myself. But it seems to be the only way I can get out of it.

The paralysis itself is the least of it, it's the brain zaps and perceived intense pressure on my eardrums which accompany it that annoy me.

[moonmonkey]

That hasn't happened to me for years, I remember being quite sacred when it first happened but I got used to it and didn't panic at all, just chilled into it. Recently getting the most amazing hypnagogic music experiences and a few lucid dreams (which seem boring compared to the music experiences).