Bujin, I believe you mentioned in another thread that something inexplicable once happened to your parents? What was it that happened?
It's a little off-topic, but ok.
It happened about 2 years ago, and as far as I can tell, it almost certainly cannot be explained psychologically. And even physical explanations are not sufficient.
Anyway, my mother has a routine every morning that she gets up, gets her bag and mobile phone ready for work and puts them onto the sofa, then goes to the kitchen to make breakfast. Usually, my dad is in the bathroom getting ready for work at this point also.
One morning, after following this same routine, she was in the kitchen and heard what she describes as a "metallic clang" sound coming from the front room, but didn't think any more of it and continued with breakfast.
When she was ready to leave the house for work, she noticed that her mobile phone was no longer with her bag. Both she and my dad searched around for a short while before my dad suggested they ring it from the landline. On tracing the sound, they found the phone inside the (fake) fireplace, neatly placed behind the coals. (Thankfully, the fire was not on!!! ;D )
Now, the sofa is around 2m away from the fireplace, and there's a thick rug in front of the fire. The coals in the fireplace are very loose and easily disturbed, yet none of the coals were disturbed in this case. My mother and father are the only occupants of the house, and there are no pets.
The only possible physical explanation I could think of was that instead of being on the sofa, the phone was on the mantelpiece instead. However, dropping the phone from the height of the mantelpiece onto the rug produced a bounce of only around 2 inches. It would need to bounce to a height of around 1.5 ft, backwards into the fireplace and land behind the coals without disturbing any of them. While this is not impossible (in the same sense that nothing in the universe is impossible), it is VERY unlikely.
The only possible psychological explanation I can think of is that, ok, sometimes my mother can be a bit absent minded. But she has never been THAT absent minded that she would get down on her hands and knees and carefully place the phone behind the coals - and I mean carefully, as it does not take much to disturb them - and forget that she has done it.
Finally, before anyone suggests it, it is most definitely not a practical joke on my dad's part. He never does things like that because my mum would kill him!!! My mum isn't the most patient of people, so anything that hinders her getting to work in the morning is going to produce one severely pissed off woman!
So, I'm completely out of ideas on how this could have happened. On the surface, there does not appear to be a rational explanation for this event and it remains unsolved.
Fry: Hey, wait, I'm having one of those things…you know, a headache with pictures. Leela: An idea?
That is a strange one, but lets look at it a different way Why on earth would any spirit summon up the huge amount of energy needed to do such a pathetic thing? What would they possibly have to gain?
Spirit cannot move things under laboratory conditions, they cannot even move things with the power of ten mediums around if it is being filmed, so I would suggest that without doubt nothing paranormal was involved.
But then the hard part, how did it happen.
Well i think the drop from mantelpiece scenario seems the most likely. It would be impossible for you to replicate the fall and bounce as you didnt see it.
Perhaps the phone flew out of your moms bag when she turns in the living room, and the phone just happened to perfectly land where it did, i know it sounds hard to believe, but many times i have knocked something over by mistake and it has landed in an unusual position which has amazed me.
One time i was flicking an elastic band about, i flicked it to the other side of the room, and it landed perfectly around a pound coin i had dropped earlier without knowing. I was gobsmacked.
A bad ass who will beat you like he's using the fists of god.
That is a strange one, but lets look at it a different way Why on earth would any spirit summon up the huge amount of energy needed to do such a pathetic thing? What would they possibly have to gain?
I certainly wouldn't claim that it's spirits at fault. I'm just saying that I have no explanation for what happened.
I should point out that my mum did believe that it was a specific message from my dad's dad who died the year before. I won't go into the details, but it would have a plausible meaning if it were true.
But I don't think that's the case.
Well i think the drop from mantelpiece scenario seems the most likely. It would be impossible for you to replicate the fall and bounce as you didnt see it.
Perhaps the phone flew out of your moms bag when she turns in the living room, and the phone just happened to perfectly land where it did, i know it sounds hard to believe, but many times i have knocked something over by mistake and it has landed in an unusual position which has amazed me.
The phone wouldn't have been in her bag to start off with.
I know it's impossible to replicate, but in numerous attempts, I could not get the phone to bounce up more than a few inches - even when I threw the phone (my phone, which was the same model as my mum's - cheap, but very robust... ) with a bit of force onto the rug, it still didn't bounce up higher than around 4 inches. As I say, it needed to bounce up to around 1.5ft.
It gets more unlikely the more you think about it. For a start, it would have to be an extremely lucky bounce to get 1.5ft in the air. Then it would have to be extremely lucky to bounce back at the right angle to fly into the fireplace (as it would have to avoid hitting the roof of the fireplace on the way). Then it would have to be extremely lucky to land the way it did in the fireplace - face outwards, the right way up. And to do all that without disturbing any of the coals would have to be phenomenally lucky.
I think if you could put a number on all the "lucky coincidences" involved and add them up, it would probably be more likely that you would be killed by a meteorite falling on your head moments after you have just survived a horrific plane crash on your way on holiday having just won the maximum prize on the lottery...
That's not to say it didn't happen, but it is phenomenally unlikely.
Again, I'm not saying that "ghosts did it". But I do not have any rational explanation other than the very unlikely set of coincidences.
Bujin, how long have your parents lived in this house?, and have any other inexplicable or seemingly paranormal events occured in the house during this time?
Bujin, how long have your parents lived in this house?, and have any other inexplicable or seemingly paranormal events occured in the house during this time?
We moved in in 1981. As far as I remember, there have been no other inexplicable events.
Fry: Hey, wait, I'm having one of those things…you know, a headache with pictures. Leela: An idea?
We moved in in 1981. As far as I remember, there have been no other inexplicable events.
The fact that it was an isolated incident makes it even more of a mystery. I`m no expert in paranormal research but from what I can gather, in areas where paranormal activity is supposed to occur, usually it either occurs on a regular basis in the same place (giving rise to the so called "Haunted house", or it never occurs at all.
For example, when I was about 2 years old, my parents and I lived in an old rented terraced house. My mother swears that she once heard someone (an adult) walk up the staircase. As I was upstairs asleep at the time, she took a golf club or some other improvised large heavy item, and tentatively went upstairs, on the assumption that we had burglars. When she got upstairs there was nobody there other than myself, still asleep.
On another occasion, in the same house, I was lying in a cot / playpen type thing at night, presumably asleep or trying to get to sleep. I remember seeing in the darkness a luminous green mist form itself into a human form which appeared to be looking down at me inquisitively. As soon I started screaming for my mother it appeared to back off and just float away, as though it realised it was scaring me. I realise that most people don`t recall events as far back as when they were two years old, but that experience was so terrifying that it still managed to burn itself into my memory. Of course you can`t rule out the possibility that this was a dream.
The houses were demolished not long afterwards. Of all the addresses that I`ve lived at, or visited since, I have never known any other inexplicable or paranormal events take place, yet two did at the same address, and as we only lived there about a year, within a short space of time.
My mother (who`s an Atheist) is still convinced to this day that she heard someone walk upstairs and although she does not believe in ghosts she still can`t explain it.
Last Edit: Feb 9, 2007 17:15:29 GMT by alexraybould
My mother (who`s an Atheist) is still convinced to this day that she heard someone walk upstairs and although she does not believe in ghosts she still can`t explain it.
Was your mother alone in the house when she heard someone walking upstairs? If not, did anyone else in the house at the time hear it?
If she was alone, it's possible that she heard something that she interpreted as someone walking upstairs, and the more convinced she became of that, the less chance there was she would find a rational explanation, because her memory of the event would be distorted by what she thought she heard. And the more times she has replayed and retold that story either to herself or someone else since then, the more distorted and probably inaccurate it has become.
This is kinda like my own "bat incident" which I've recounted a few times over the past two years. I was in the cellar of a derelict building with a few guys (and one gal) from NWPR. We switched off our torches and were plunged into total darkness, and the instant the lights went out, I was hit in the chest by "something" (which I rationalise as a bat!) However, my memory of it is distorted now. I probably couldn't tell or show people with any accuracy just how hard the hit was because of the distortion. (Incidentally, this happened in the same week as my mother's phone incident...)
Fry: Hey, wait, I'm having one of those things…you know, a headache with pictures. Leela: An idea?
There was definately nobody else in the house, apart from my father who was sat downstairs in the living room with my mother at the time. I don`t know if he heard it too. I`ll have to ask him.
What led you to believe that this "something" was a bat? Had you seen any bats there during the rest of your time at the property? I assume that NWPR is an organisation devoted to the study of the paranormal?
This is kinda like my own "bat incident" which I've recounted a few times over the past two years. I was in the cellar of a derelict building with a few guys (and one gal) from NWPR. We switched off our torches and were plunged into total darkness, and the instant the lights went out, I was hit in the chest by "something" (which I rationalise as a bat!) However, my memory of it is distorted now. I probably couldn't tell or show people with any accuracy just how hard the hit was because of the distortion. (Incidentally, this happened in the same week as my mother's phone incident...)
Maybe one of the people you were with punched you for the hell of it?
This is kinda like my own "bat incident" which I've recounted a few times over the past two years. I was in the cellar of a derelict building with a few guys (and one gal) from NWPR. We switched off our torches and were plunged into total darkness, and the instant the lights went out, I was hit in the chest by "something" (which I rationalise as a bat!) However, my memory of it is distorted now. I probably couldn't tell or show people with any accuracy just how hard the hit was because of the distortion. (Incidentally, this happened in the same week as my mother's phone incident...)
Maybe one of the people you were with punched you for the hell of it?
What led you to believe that this "something" was a bat? Had you seen any bats there during the rest of your time at the property?
Yes, there were quite a few bats in the cellars. Also the room we were in was quite cramped for space too. From my (probably distorted) memory of the event, the strength of the hit would have been consistent with a bat hitting me too. Enough to sting for about 10 minutes afterwards, but not enough to knock me back.
I assume that NWPR is an organisation devoted to the study of the paranormal?
It was until around 18 months ago when we closed down.
Fry: Hey, wait, I'm having one of those things…you know, a headache with pictures. Leela: An idea?
As am I. I'm happy to leave it at the "bat theory" for now. The only other option is that someone threw something at me, but circumstances rule this one out too.
Fry: Hey, wait, I'm having one of those things…you know, a headache with pictures. Leela: An idea?
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) with a bit of force onto the rug, it still didn't bounce up higher than around 4 inches. As I say, it needed to bounce up to around 1.5ft.
