Falloutdude Posted July 25, 2011 Share Posted July 25, 2011 Hey as a lot of you know i was raised in a pentecostal home. A big part of the doctrine was the idea that spirits/demons and angels were prevalent. When i was a kid i remember a few instances where i "saw things" like spirits or whatever, usually around when i was waking up or falling asleep. I know about hypnopompic and hypnagognic hallucinations, but i've also read that they're that common. I was just wondering if anyone else had "seen things" that they thought were spirits when they were kids. I realize that my perception was probably heavily effected by my upbringing, but i'm just wondering if I'm the only one. I guess i was wondering if there was another explanation, or if any of the people on this forum had dealt with this stuff when they were younger EDIT: This usually happened after waking up or during the night, thus the hypnogognic hallucinations idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
♦ Fuego ♦ Posted July 25, 2011 Share Posted July 25, 2011 I've never seen them, but I have relatives and friends that say they see them regularly (though most say they are spirits of dead humans, not demons), and have seen them since they were young. I figure that since they have their shit together in all other parts of their lives that either they have a shared mental issue, or perhaps I'm simply blind to what they are able to see. I've heard them say that we are acculturated to not see them, but not sure if I buy that. That is akin to the concept of an SEP field (Somebody Else's Problem) mentioned in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, where the mind blocks out anything too freaky and says "That's somebody else's problem". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chosendarkness Posted July 25, 2011 Share Posted July 25, 2011 Hey as a lot of you know i was raised in a pentecostal home. A big part of the doctrine was the idea that spirits/demons and angels were prevalent. When i was a kid i remember a few instances where i "saw things" like spirits or whatever, usually around when i was waking up or falling asleep. I know about hypnopompic and hypnagognic hallucinations, but i've also read that they're that common. I was just wondering if anyone else had "seen things" that they thought were spirits when they were kids. I realize that my perception was probably heavily effected by my upbringing, but i'm just wondering if I'm the only one. I guess i was wondering if there was another explanation, or if any of the people on this forum had dealt with this stuff when they were younger EDIT: This usually happened after waking up or during the night, thus the hypnogognic hallucinations idea. Yes I used to see demons. I learned that the time when you're not alseep and not awake is when it happens. What you see depends on how you were raised. I call it the monsters hiding in the subconscious. We still understand very little about the mind and even less about what's behind it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lostman42 Posted July 25, 2011 Share Posted July 25, 2011 When I was working at a christian summer camp a little girl had an emotional break down and claimed she saw a demom. when you put a whole bunch of kids in a camp for a week and brainwash them daily with lies about satan and demons, one of them is bond to become convinced that she is seeing demonic forces. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Falloutdude Posted July 25, 2011 Author Share Posted July 25, 2011 Well i know people can remember things that didn't happen, i guess i just was happy believing all that stuff was just superstitious or people's minds playing tricks on them. Believing that my dad and other pentecostals either A. Saw things that weren't there B. It was due to faulty perception or C. Their beliefs made them see what they wanted to see (demons or angels) I associate any kind of paranormal experience with the occult, with superstition and want no part of it. I don't want to start believing in ghosts and stuff again (mainly demons though, as i've been taught all such things are demons). After all, i hadn't seen anything since and i don't know, i was pretty happy just believing it was all bullshit. I used to be afraid of the dark too because i was afraid i'd see something. Basically i don't want to be sucked into that realm again. It's a lot more fun being in the natural world, and i don't need all these fears of spirits in my head Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DesertBob Posted July 25, 2011 Share Posted July 25, 2011 I call it the monsters hiding in the subconscious. Reminds me of the phrase "monsters from the id" -- from the classic 50's sci-fi movie, Forbidden Planet. :-) My stepson is an avowed atheist and at not-quite-19, still hews to a communistic, almost anarchistic politics. It's immature idealism, but still ... into this mix, incredibly, his favorite TV show is Ghost Adventures. He thinks there could be some kind of afterlife, just not one involving gods I guess. It fascinates him, to the point that this kid who almost never asks for anything for himself, wants more than anything else to go on a ghost hunt with his mother and I before he goes off to college. So here I am, having been bored out of my gourd more times than I care to remember watching this stoopid TV show with him, and I've forked over $150 to take the three of us on a ghost hunt later next month with a paranormal investigation outfit downstate from here. We get to stay up all night in a musty old building with K2 meters and EVP recorders and infrared cameras. He'll be in seventh heaven, at least going in, although I think the net result of actually experiencing something like this will fall way short of watching that nitwit Zak Bagins and his edited TV histrionics. I mention all this because people do "see things" in these situations, too, and I think it's no different than people "seeing things" in a holy rollers meeting or a deliverance prayer group or whatever. It's group hysteria. It's hard to put yourself in a dark building with other people, some of whom are either True Believers or afraid of the dark, who are sleep deprived, etc., and not think that when someone else gasps and thinks they've seen something, that maybe, just maybe, you did, too. At the end of the day I'm looking at this like putting yourself on a roller coaster, it's strictly self-inflicted kicks, enhanced by other people screaming. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dichotomy Posted July 26, 2011 Share Posted July 26, 2011 When I was working at a christian summer camp a little girl had an emotional break down and claimed she saw a demom. when you put a whole bunch of kids in a camp for a week and brainwash them daily with lies about satan and demons, one of them is bond to become convinced that she is seeing demonic forces. Yup that was me! I saw 'spirits' and 'demons' from the age of about 8/9 to 19/20. Not all the time, I went through phases. When I was at the younger end myself and my family tended to interpret them as just very vivid imagination, dreams or something 'spiritual' (but not in an eerie penty way) it wasn't until we got involved in more pentecostal/charismatic circles at the age of about 13/14 that we started to interpret it as spiritual warfare and demonic attacks. From the age of about 15-19 it was utterly utterly distressing, I fet harrassed by the demonic world and was pretty paranoid and terrified for a number of years. I've never really looked into it since but what has been said on here makes sense. I also experienced that whole floating up out of your body and looking back at yourself thing.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator Margee Posted July 26, 2011 Moderator Share Posted July 26, 2011 My sister and I were about 9 and 10 and slept in bunk beds. Both of us, at exactly the same time, saw a black figure of a man standing in the doorway to our bedroom. Right to this day, I remember her whispering,''Margee, do you see that''? and I said yes. We both went under our covers. We were petrified. I don't know when he disappeared, but right till the day she died, we talked about seeing it together. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
agnosticator Posted July 26, 2011 Share Posted July 26, 2011 From when I was a wee lad until my late teens, I would have hypnagogic and hypnopompic dreams that were so real and weird I would freak out! I was relieved when I found out what they were, because mine were so impossible to believe. I haven't haven't had any since then, so maybe it's related to how our bodies and minds develop. The most "normal" one I experienced was exactly what Margee saw. Before I looked, I sensed a presence and heard a popping noise. One time I felt like I was coming out of my body and falling through my bed. I would hear buzzing and a pop before I fell or flew out. I was astounded to learn how common this is. The term "nightmare" came from these hallucinations. Some experts think they result from the vestiges of a diver's reflex like dolphins and other mammals have. Fascinating stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dichotomy Posted July 26, 2011 Share Posted July 26, 2011 I had exactly the same thing as you two - seeing a man stood in my doorway looking at me. I remember closing my eyes and when I opened them he was closer to my bed, then he tried to beckon me to him, at which point I hid under the covers, then I shouted my mum I think. Mum found it all a bit weird. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noggy Posted July 26, 2011 Share Posted July 26, 2011 Hey as a lot of you know i was raised in a pentecostal home. A big part of the doctrine was the idea that spirits/demons and angels were prevalent. When i was a kid i remember a few instances where i "saw things" like spirits or whatever, usually around when i was waking up or falling asleep. I know about hypnopompic and hypnagognic hallucinations, but i've also read that they're that common. I was just wondering if anyone else had "seen things" that they thought were spirits when they were kids. I realize that my perception was probably heavily effected by my upbringing, but i'm just wondering if I'm the only one. I guess i was wondering if there was another explanation, or if any of the people on this forum had dealt with this stuff when they were younger EDIT: This usually happened after waking up or during the night, thus the hypnogognic hallucinations idea. Yes I used to see demons. I learned that the time when you're not alseep and not awake is when it happens. What you see depends on how you were raised. I call it the monsters hiding in the subconscious. We still understand very little about the mind and even less about what's behind it. Thats called sleep paralysis. I've gotten that a few times too. Look it up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
agnosticator Posted July 27, 2011 Share Posted July 27, 2011 I had exactly the same thing as you two - seeing a man stood in my doorway looking at me. I remember closing my eyes and when I opened them he was closer to my bed, then he tried to beckon me to him, at which point I hid under the covers, then I shouted my mum I think. You should have put the covers over yourself sooner, like I did! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Falloutdude Posted July 27, 2011 Author Share Posted July 27, 2011 I know about sleep paralysis.....i was talking about when you weren't paralyzed (i wasn't). Either way i can catgorize most of it under suggestion and fear (of the night/dark). Not to mention my heavy pentecostal upbringing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OnceConvinced Posted July 27, 2011 Share Posted July 27, 2011 Early last year I had two burglaries at my house... while I was out. ONe night I woke up and I was at that place between being asleep and being awake that you're at for a moment when you start to awaken. I saw very vividly a man standing over my bed. I swung out at him with my fist and shattered the window above my bed. Luckily I only got a very light cut. Of course there was no one there, it was just my mind playing tricks on me. It happened again a few nights later, but this time I prevented myself from swinging my fist at the last moment, realising that it was once again my mind playing tricks on me. I put it all down to the fact that I was worried about burglaries. For the first few weeks after I even had my alarm set before i went to bed. It's funny what your mind will conjure up when it's preoccupied with something. As for seeing demons as a kid, nope never did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CatBallou Posted July 27, 2011 Share Posted July 27, 2011 Hey as a lot of you know i was raised in a pentecostal home. A big part of the doctrine was the idea that spirits/demons and angels were prevalent. When i was a kid i remember a few instances where i "saw things" like spirits or whatever, usually around when i was waking up or falling asleep. I know about hypnopompic and hypnagognic hallucinations, but i've also read that they're that common. I was just wondering if anyone else had "seen things" that they thought were spirits when they were kids. I realize that my perception was probably heavily effected by my upbringing, but i'm just wondering if I'm the only one. I guess i was wondering if there was another explanation, or if any of the people on this forum had dealt with this stuff when they were younger EDIT: This usually happened after waking up or during the night, thus the hypnogognic hallucinations idea. Both my brother and I had seen apparitians and neither one of us had any religious upbringing. We had seen and experienced what we believe to be supernatural phenomena while awake during the day as well as at night. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CatBallou Posted July 27, 2011 Share Posted July 27, 2011 Both my brother and I had seen apparitians and neither one of us had any religious upbringing. We had seen and experienced what we believe to be supernatural phenomena while awake during the day as well as at night. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CatBallou Posted July 27, 2011 Share Posted July 27, 2011 "I mention all this because people do "see things" in these situations, too, and I think it's no different than people "seeing things" in a holy rollers meeting or a deliverance prayer group or whatever. It's group hysteria. It's hard to put yourself in a dark building with other people, some of whom are either True Believers ™ or afraid of the dark, who are sleep deprived, etc., and not think that when someone else gasps and thinks they've seen something, that maybe, just maybe, you did, too. At the end of the day I'm looking at this like putting yourself on a roller coaster, it's strictly self-inflicted kicks, enhanced by other people screaming." Nearly every time I've seen and experienced supernatural I was alone and completely unsuspecting. Can you please explain to me how "group hysteria" works when an individual is alone and preoccupied??? By the way, I love Ghost Adventures. Zak Bagans is hot!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DesertBob Posted July 27, 2011 Share Posted July 27, 2011 Nearly every time I've seen and experienced supernatural I was alone and completely unsuspecting. Can you please explain to me how "group hysteria" works when an individual is alone and preoccupied??? By the way, I love Ghost Adventures. Zak Bagans is hot!!! I was addressing group situations. There are situations where individuals have experiences, and not necessarily when they are looking to, and some of those are also very vivid / lucid. There are many non-supernatural explanations for that, and I even am open the the possibility, however in my view small, for explanations that could be classified as "paranormal" or even supernatural. If you enjoy Zak as eye candy or fantasy object, more power to you. I wasn't addressing his hotness or his chops as an entertainer, just his credibility as a "researcher". I may scream if I hear him say one more time, "welcome ... to ... HELL!" Even the paranormal group I'm contracting with for my stepson's experience next month, looks askance at him and hastens to say, this "lockdown" isn't going to be like what's depicted on THAT show. The message was basically, "unlike Zak, we're serious and concerned for our credibility". But then these folks have been featured on a couple of TV episodes of one of the many other such shows themselves, and while they are earnest and subdued relative to Zak I am not impressed with their "evidence" either. I'm approaching it as entertainment and a bonding experience with the family :-) My fiancee and I have a better than average ability to go with the flow with such people. Once, we stumbled on a group of people in Sedona AZ once who claimed to have experienced alien abductions and I think they thought we were True Believers because we did hear them out. The key is to recognize that they have had some kind of experience that's real to them and they're invested in a particular explanation that they're serious about. We don't point out to them the logical holes in their stories that you could drive a truck through. That's a discussion we have later between ourselves ;-) --Bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LivingLife Posted July 27, 2011 Share Posted July 27, 2011 In my teens and early 20's I too had very weird and vivid dreams. This stuff freaked me out. I still remember when I was about 8 or so, my folks had visitors and I was sent to bed early for school the next morning. I got up and went to the kitchen, switched the light on and went to the fridge to get a swig of milk. We had those old fuse boxes and as I turned to go back to my room, I saw and heard what I can only describe as two balls of light and two big bangs at the fuse boxes. I was scared shitless and wandered into the living room crying (that exhaling part where you cannot seem to start inhaling again). After bawling and explaining, on inspection, there were no burn marks and no fuses were blown. It was not raining so ball lightning was out of the question. Maybe I was simply in a transcended state of consciousness and possibly sleep walking. Nowadays my dreams all happen in that transitional state of waking and never seem to be able to recall them a day or two later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xerces Posted July 28, 2011 Share Posted July 28, 2011 Your brain can play more tricks on you than you know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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