I thought as this was my first evening trawling through these pages, I would relate one of several experiences I have encountered that are inexplicable. I have no desire to be thought of as a man of doubtful character, however, so I hasten to add that my own conclusion is that in all cases there is probably a sound explanation, of which I have many, it is simply the fact that I have been unable to pinpoint such a conclusion that I have classed such events as unexplained.

In 2003 my Japanese wife and I lived in a Victorian house in Surbiton, England, it had been converted into several flats, (what you Americans call apartments). One morning whilst I was taking the grapefruit juice out of the fridge, I heard a noise from the empty dining area. I walked into the room to find my porridge spoon some yards from the table with some porridge splattered across the wood floor. I quickly cleared it up and told myself it was gravity against the stickiness of the porridge that caused the problem.

Some days after, I came home one evening from work and heard some brushing noises from the living room. On entering it, fully expecting my pregnant wife to be busying herself there. I was rather shocked when the loud noise ceased and found the room empty, my wife was out. I did not of course, tell my wife of these shenanigans, owong to her impregnated condition.

One morning in the early hours, I awoke for no reason. Soon after awaking, I felt a small arm around my waist. As my wife is quite small, I naturally thought it was her, so I turned over to face her. However, I could clearly see she had her back turned away from me and was at the opposite edge of the bed. I checked and found her to be sound asleep. I then fell asleep and had a dream. In the dream, my wife and I were young children of around 7 or 8 years-old, we were dressed in Victorian style clothes, very fine clothes. We were sitting in front of a large fireplace and were conversing with another child. It went something like this:

"Why won't they get me out of here?" A child's voice came from above the fireplace, clearly from the chimney-breast above.
"They'll come for you, I'm sure." I answered.
"No, I'm going to die here aren't I? They won't get me out. I'm going to die."

And I woke again. As I left for work that morning, I remembered that the apartment we lived in had been modernised within a Victorian house which dated from the 1850's. I looked up for the first time from the neighbours side to where our bed lay against the wall in the bedroom, from within which no fireplace was apparent due to the modernisation. I'd had no reason to look for a chimney before. When I looked, there was a huge chimney breast that tapered in sharply, exactly at the point where our bed lay.

Now perhaps you chaps do not know. In Victorian times, chimney sweeps used street urchins to climb up within chimneys. Quite often they got stuck. Because of the cost of knocking a breast down, they would be left there to die.

Egad!!

And they actually left the little kids wedged in the chimneys!? Not only inhumane but how on earth would they be able to light their fireplaces with a wee human blocking the vent - ugh!

I too (often quite desperately) search for scientific explanations for 'odd' things but perhaps 100 years from now what we now consider odd will be considered normal.

That is a fair point, Mara, about not being able to light the fire. Having perused the matter, I believe that whilst it was probably not a frequent occurence, it was most certainly a common known fact that it happened. Thus, the likelihood was that most well ordered households in Victorian England would have their chimneys swept in summertime for this very reason. I guess the body would disintegrate enough for the flue to be cleared at a later date, but in time for winter. Extremely sad and indicative of the age.

It was 112 Ocean Drive all over again.

When I first married my wife we were staying at her parents place. I woke up in the middle of the night to someone watching us at the foot of the bed. When I described her to my wife, she turned white. She got a picture out of her grandmother, whom I never seen or heard of, dressed in the dress that she was buried in. I described the woman and the dress to a T

We would also wake up and hear my 2 year old playing in her room. Go in there and the crib's filled with her toys that we didn't put there. We asked who she was playing with and she said "that old man that comes to see her all the time

Weird

Yes, weird - but I too believe that some day we will all understand these strange things.

Must say though that experiencing some of these strange things surely does change one. From believing nothing exists that can't be proved to simply accepting there are things that are yet unexplained.

Although not nearly the same thing, I know, on occasion I get massive feelings of "don't do it" - including not getting on a plane even though my ticket wasn't refundable and yes, the plane went down.

Isn't that called instict, what is sometimes called Female Intuition by women, and A Hunch by men?


The only thing that may be a little strange that I can add here is a face that 'appeared' in my bedroom window. The strange thing about this was the detail. It was a slightly demonic looking mans face. Before some wit mentions it, it was not a reflection.

It wouldn't have occurred to me that it would be a reflection - gentle smile! And I must say, if it had been me viewing it, I suspect "little strange" wouldn't quite describe it - eek!

But yes, instinct (by women or men) is something that honestly doesn't seem to be fully understood, even by 'experts'. Some say it doesn't exist, some say that it's a primitive passed-down memory type thing through the genes, some have other ideas of what it may or may not be. No matter what, instinct isn't our enemy.

Out of honest curiosity, have any of you changed your thoughts about things since experiencing these 'oddities', I wonder?

I ask because while I believe "evil" walks on two legs, I would never get involved in cults where "calling up demons" is regarded as entertainment.