Has anyone had any paranormal experiences...

Has anyone had any normal experiences?

[gveranon]

I've experienced hypnagogia, derealization, ideasthesia, coincidences I found striking, odd perceptions (such as those caused by peripheral glimpses and those caused by hearing sounds coming from long distances in open areas), bewilderments of memory and forgetting, suspicion that inanimate objects deliberately rebel against me, bothersome inability to explain what I was seeing when I couldn't see it clearly, propensity of my mind to see patterns and significance in anything, mild "oceanic" feelings (to use Freud's term), existential nausea, sense of wonder, spooky feelings in suitably atmospheric situations, etc.

[Revenant]

Quote Originally Posted by James

Has anyone had any normal experiences?

One time I was standing in front of a closed door. I reached out with my left hand (I'm left handed), put it on the knob (of the door), turned it counter-clockwise and it , like, totally opened.

I had a bizarre nightmare of a pumpkin-faced imp riding a unicycle in the foreground of a blue tinted dilapidated city. This was in a Zen center during a retreat. A few days later, I called a friend to tell him about my dream. He saw the visage of this demon before I could convey any details, and he began laughing hysterically, asking if I saw a pumpkin-faced imp in my dream. He claimed the image of this demon was sharp and somewhat painful.

I was astounded...

[njhorror]

Along the Delaware River on the western boundary of New Jersey one of the oldest continuously used roads in the U.S. runs from the Delaware Water Gap to Kingston, New York, the Old Mine Road. The Legend of Tom Quick the Indian Killer was born here. The road was probably started as a Paleo-Indian trail thousands of years ago, around 10,000 BC. Later, the trail was used by the Lenape. The trail was used to migrate, and travel to hunting and fishing areas.
I was able to explore this area when I had the good fortune to be unencumbered by any demands on my time for a period of two years. This swath of mountain, river, and forest has always held a fascination for me ever since the snowy day in December when a buck leapt from the mountainside over the hood of my Jeep Cherokee and down the mountain during hunting season.
There are streams, hills, deep woods and all kinds of wildlife including bald eagles and black bears. I took many photographs of my surroundings over the course of my travels.
One day I was reviewing my photos and in one, standing in the vegetation across the river, there was a person staring at me. The site was an unlikely one, because it was out in shallow water. I showed it to my wife and she agreed that it definitely looked like a person, but there was something funny about the clothing. The figure was dressed in what looked to be a roughly tailored animal skin jacket and pants.
I lost all those photos in one of my moves since then.

[Ibrahim]

Quote Originally Posted by James

Has anyone had any normal experiences?

Language is often, i feel, used as a shield. Having recourse to the simple verbal descriptor of 'a tree' absolves our little mind from perceiving the unique individuality of each tree, or that of the clumps of moss on it, the configurations of clouds &c &c. We'd probably go mad if we were to perceive the world without that screen of words interposed.

All our normal experiences are only a slight shift in perspective away from being supernatural ones.

[Speaking Mute]

None of these experiences are supernatural, but they certainly felt uncanny:

There was one spring when I woke up several times to find the same drunken man passed out on the steps of the house I was renting. The man wasn't homeless: he lived in a far off suburb and frequented bars that were several blocks away. But for whatever reason, he just kept turning up at my house. He would pull up in the middle of the night, crawl through the passenger side without closing the car door, and, despite a porch swing and chairs, pretty much belly flop directly onto the steps. He'd remain there semi-catatonic until he was dragged off by police or paramedics. Despite a restraining order, injuries, criminal charges, and having his license seized and multiple cars impounded from related and unrelated DUI's and DC's, he kept reappearing until he committed suicide later that spring. When he was in court, he said he didn't know why he chose my house, and his family was at a loss for any connection to the house. The land lady was friends with the previous tenants and told me they never had any contact with him.

Other incidents:

I was walking home late one night when I was spotted from across the street by a linebacker-sized, shaven head man in a cocktail dress who first screamed "WANNA CATCH SOME AIDS?" and then chanted "GOD BLESS AIDS!" as I walked on without responding. Even though it was a rundown neighborhood, it was never frequented by prostitutes or transients.

Along the same route home on a different night, I crossed in front of a car at a stoplight when I heard its door locks click. I reflexively looked over - inside the car were five extremely muscular men staring at me in terror. As soon as I was out from in front of the vehicle, they sped off, fishtailing and burning the tires. Again, not the best neighbor, but I'm 5' 11" and at the time I was maybe 160 lbs and wearing my glasses, khakis, a short sleeved button up shirt, and book bag. I am also not now, nor have ever been, a reanimated corpse unaware of my death.

I worked at a coffee shop where one of the regulars believed he was psychic. Whenever you'd talk with him, he'd constantly nod and preface just about every one of his responses with a variation of "I knew you were going to say that." He would also never make eye contact, but rather than looking down or glancing around, he would focus just a tiny bit to your right. The habit unnerved more people than his unusual manner of speaking; people who just met him would constantly look back over their shoulder, while one of my coworkers said he always made her feel like she had a pimple or something stuck on the side of her head.

Another one of my odd jobs was working in a frame shop - which, for some inexplicable reason, drew in some of the strangest people I've ever encountered:

A woman brought in a poster print of Jesus, which wasn't uncommon. However, when I presented her with options for framing, she would bow her head and pray to Jesus aloud to ask what he wanted. At the end, she actually got down on her knees in front of my counter and rocked back and forth while praying in tongues. She then casually got back up and made her final selection. Jesus chose a 3" neon green frame, a 6" top mat of purple velvet, and a 2" inner mat with a gold and silver zebra print. The poster itself was only around a 12" x 16".

Another woman came in to check if we carried a specific shadowbox for military flags. When I told her we carried it but didn't currently have it in stock, she instantly became enraged, shouted "SUCK MY LEFT TITTY!", pulled her left breast from her tank top and chest bumped me. She then spun around and stormed out of the store, leaving me standing there in shock.

I could go on, but that's more than enough...

[Dr. Bantham]

Quote Originally Posted by Speaking Mute

None of these experiences are supernatural, but they certainly felt uncanny: There was one spring when I woke up several times to find the same drunken man passed out on the steps of the house I was renting. The man wasn't homeless: he lived in a far off suburb and frequented bars that were several blocks away. But for whatever reason, he just kept turning up at my house. He would pull up in the middle of the night, crawl through the passenger side without closing the car door, and, despite a porch swing and chairs, pretty much belly flop directly onto the steps. He'd remain there semi-catatonic until he was dragged off by police or paramedics. Despite a restraining order, injuries, criminal charges, and having his license seized and multiple cars impounded from related and unrelated DUI's and DC's, he kept reappearing until he committed suicide later that spring. When he was in court, he said he didn't know why he chose my house, and his family was at a loss for any connection to the house. The land lady was friends with the previous tenants and told me they never had any contact with him. Other incidents: I was walking home late one night when I was spotted from across the street by a linebacker-sized, shaven head man in a cocktail dress who first screamed "WANNA CATCH SOME AIDS?" and then chanted "GOD BLESS AIDS!" as I walked on without responding. Even though it was a rundown neighborhood, it was never frequented by prostitutes or transients. Along the same route home on a different night, I crossed in front of a car at a stoplight when I heard its door locks click. I reflexively looked over - inside the car were five extremely muscular men staring at me in terror. As soon as I was out from in front of the vehicle, they sped off, fishtailing and burning the tires. Again, not the best neighbor, but I'm 5' 11" and at the time I was maybe 160 lbs and wearing my glasses, khakis, a short sleeved button up shirt, and book bag. I am also not now, nor have ever been, a reanimated corpse unaware of my death. I worked at a coffee shop where one of the regulars believed he was psychic. Whenever you'd talk with him, he'd constantly nod and preface just about every one of his responses with a variation of "I knew you were going to say that." He would also never make eye contact, but rather than looking down or glancing around, he would focus just a tiny bit to your right. The habit unnerved more people than his unusual manner of speaking; people who just met him would constantly look back over their shoulder, while one of my coworkers said he always made her feel like she had a pimple or something stuck on the side of her head. Another one of my odd jobs was working in a frame shop - which, for some inexplicable reason, drew in some of the strangest people I've ever encountered: A woman brought in a poster print of Jesus, which wasn't uncommon. However, when I presented her with options for framing, she would bow her head and pray to Jesus aloud to ask what he wanted. At the end, she actually got down on her knees in front of my counter and rocked back and forth while praying in tongues. She then casually got back up and made her final selection. Jesus chose a 3" neon green frame, a 6" top mat of purple velvet, and a 2" inner mat with a gold and silver zebra print. The poster itself was only around a 12" x 16". Another woman came in to check if we carried a specific shadowbox for military flags. When I told her we carried it but didn't currently have it in stock, she instantly became enraged, shouted "SUCK MY LEFT TITTY!", pulled her left breast from her tank top and chest bumped me. She then spun around and stormed out of the store, leaving me standing there in shock. I could go on, but that's more than enough...

By chance would you happen to reside in Twin Peaks?

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk

[Speaking Mute]

Quote Originally Posted by Dr. Bantham

By chance would you happen to reside in Twin Peaks?

Well, responding seriously, all these incidents occurred during a three year period when I lived in Toledo, Ohio - but, I don't think it was the city so much as the fact that, being extremely poor at the time, I lived and worked in areas where the effects of drug addiction and untreated mental illness are a lot more prominent than suburbia.