Uncanny Encounters

[paranoid marvin]

Has anyone had one of these? Supernatural experiences, UFOs etc?

Over the course of my life, I've had 3 or 4. Nothing very exciting, but I think most are probably mundane at the time, until you start to think about them later.

 

[JunkMonkey]

Nothing that couldn't be easily explained / rationalised with a few minutes thought and re-examination.

I own a copy book once owned by my wife's father. (It has his name and address inside.) I bought it in a second hand shop some 20 or so years before I met her.

That's about as spooky and synchronicitous as it gets for me. Does that count?

 

[CupofJoe]

Not Supernatural but probably not normal either.
It was Surrey in the mid 80s and at dusk I was out for a walk with my girlfriend.
We were walking down a track that was wide enough for a Landrover [it was and still is an Army training range open to the public, all the tracks are Landrover sized].
The track was a little sunken with small banks [2-3 ft high] either side and trees fern etc. beyond that.
Something dark, four legged and with a body long enough to stretch across the 5-6 ft wide track loped down one bank across the track and up into the trees on the other side.
It's head was low on a level with it shoulders and had a tail almost as long as it was. It moved without a sound that I could hear.
It wasn't a deer, or a large fox or a wild boar [all possible in the area]. It moved differently and was the wrong shape for any of them
I don't know what it was but I was scared enough to turn us around and find a bit more light.
I didn't want to meet anything that big in the gloom of the track.
From the late 70s on there have always been reports and rumours of a big cat in the area, sometimes called the "Surrey Puma".
I will never know but I feel I met it that evening.

 

[paranoid marvin]

One instance I had was in Edinburgh Castle , in the Great Hall. There was a speech of some sort going on that I had missed the start of, and where all the crowd was gathered, so I went over to a different part of the Hall where it was quiet and noone around.

For various reasons I wasn't in the best of spirits, but as I stood reading a placard, there was a quick tug on the cuff of my coat. My arms were at my side at the time. I whirled round to see why someone had done it, and there was still no-one anywhere near me.

Another instance was after I'd visited an old Tudor era house. I'd come out, and crossed the road. Apart from the house in the other side, there was open countryside on my house, and very few homes in the area. The pavement I was stood in was only wide enough for one person, and it was a busy carriageway with cars flying past either way.

Anyway, I walked for about 5 minutes down this narrow pavement and then stopped to look at my phone. Normally I would look behind me to make sure I wasn't hindering anyone, but as there was no-one about I didn't bother.

Almost immediately someone came up behind me walking several dogs on leads. I moved to let her passed me more surprised than anything else. When I stopped to think about it later, I had absolutely no idea where she could have come from.

 

[Orcadian]

... The track was a little sunken with small banks [2-3 ft high] either side and trees fern etc. beyond that. Something dark, four legged and with a body long enough to stretch across the 5-6 ft wide track loped down one bank across the track and up into the trees on the other side.
It's head was low on a level with it shoulders and had a tail almost as long as it was. It moved without a sound that I could hear.

My then husband saw something almost exactly as you describe, while driving to the airport around 5am one summer morning. As this was Scotland it was broad daylight but there were very few cars around so early. The road was the dual carriageway (divided highway) A92 near Kirkcaldy. Around 50 metres in front of him "a large black cat with a very long tail" trotted across the road and effortlessly scaled the 2 metre fence at the edge of the road. It then disappeared.

 

[JunkMonkey]

Not Supernatural but probably not normal either.
It was Surrey in the mid 80s and at dusk I was out for a walk with my girlfriend.
We were walking down a track that was wide enough for a Landrover [it was and still is an Army training range open to the public, all the tracks are Landrover sized].
The track was a little sunken with small banks [2-3 ft high] either side and trees fern etc. beyond that.
Something dark, four legged and with a body long enough to stretch across the 5-6 ft wide track loped down one bank across the track and up into the trees on the other side.
It's head was low on a level with it shoulders and had a tail almost as long as it was. It moved without a sound that I could hear.
It wasn't a deer, or a large fox or a wild boar [all possible in the area]. It moved differently and was the wrong shape for any of them
I don't know what it was but I was scared enough to turn us around and find a bit more light.
I didn't want to meet anything that big in the gloom of the track.
From the late 70s on there have always been reports and rumours of a big cat in the area, sometimes called the "Surrey Puma".
I will never know but I feel I met it that evening.

I've been fascinated by ABCs (Anomalous Big Cats) for a while now and have a theory or two. Could I ask you two: CupofJoe and Orcadian, are you 'cat' people or 'dog' people?

I have noticed over the years that in a lot (if not most) reports of ABCs the observer always describe them as being 'the size of a small Labrador'. A lot of the people reporting these sightings over the years spotted their ABCs while walking their dogs at night, or dusk, in less than ideal observer conditions.

I am a cat person. I seriously dislike dogs. They scare the crap out of me but I have had cats around all my life. I know cats. I know how they move. I know how they react. I can place them in context. I can scale them in their environment without blinking. I have no idea what size "a small Labrador" is. All dogs over the size of the sort of yapping abomination you can step on look terrifyingly huge to me.

I suspect that most ABCs are normal sized cats, seen in unusual lighting conditions, or situations where surroundings lead to the cat appearing further away (and therefore larger) than it actually is. Like this:

 

[CupofJoe]

Not a cat or dog person. I don't like pets at all. They may be for others, but I view them like children. I'm happy to have my grand nieces and nephews for a few hours but I want to hand them back at the end of the day. Someone else can look after them.
Yes, there may be a scaling issue with what I saw but for it to be an even large but other wise normal cat it would have to have been almost at my feet, at most a few feet away. What ever I saw was more like 10 - 20 yards.
From my memories, it moved big and heavy. And we all know how reliable memories can be.
When the Dangerous Wild Animals Act came in [mid70s?] there were dozens of stories of lions, tigers and bears [oh my!] and well of lots of other animals that are said to have disappeared and not been registered.
I don't think there is a breeding population of ABC [I like the acronym] out in the countryside.

 

[Orcadian]

I've been fascinated by ABCs (Anomalous Big Cats) for a while now and have a theory or two. Could I ask you two: CupofJoe and Orcadian, are you 'cat' people or 'dog' people?

Well, the person who saw the creature was my ex, not me, alas. I'm a retired observational scientist and would have killed to see something like this! He said the creature was cat-like and that it scaled the 2-metre (6' 6") fence "effortlessly". To do that I imagined it would have jumped say halfway up, clung onto the mesh, then got all four paws onto the top and dropped down the other side. Ex said the whole thing look a couple of seconds. But I wasn't there.

For the record I dislike cats and would not choose to own a dog either, as I'd find it too much of a tie. I find myself admiring the large, working breeds such as the Belgian Shepherd and wolf dog.

 

[Matteo]

Not Supernatural but probably not normal either.
It was Surrey in the mid 80s and at dusk I was out for a walk with my girlfriend.
We were walking down a track that was wide enough for a Landrover [it was and still is an Army training range open to the public, all the tracks are Landrover sized].
The track was a little sunken with small banks [2-3 ft high] either side and trees fern etc. beyond that.
Something dark, four legged and with a body long enough to stretch across the 5-6 ft wide track loped down one bank across the track and up into the trees on the other side.
It's head was low on a level with it shoulders and had a tail almost as long as it was. It moved without a sound that I could hear.
It wasn't a deer, or a large fox or a wild boar [all possible in the area]. It moved differently and was the wrong shape for any of them
I don't know what it was but I was scared enough to turn us around and find a bit more light.
I didn't want to meet anything that big in the gloom of the track.
From the late 70s on there have always been reports and rumours of a big cat in the area, sometimes called the "Surrey Puma".
I will never know but I feel I met it that evening.

Was that a "shuck"?

 

[paranoid marvin]

I've been fascinated by ABCs (Anomalous Big Cats) for a while now and have a theory or two. Could I ask you two: CupofJoe and Orcadian, are you 'cat' people or 'dog' people?

I have noticed over the years that in a lot (if not most) reports of ABCs the observer always describe them as being 'the size of a small Labrador'. A lot of the people reporting these sightings over the years spotted their ABCs while walking their dogs at night, or dusk, in less than ideal observer conditions.

I am a cat person. I seriously dislike dogs. They scare the crap out of me but I have had cats around all my life. I know cats. I know how they move. I know how they react. I can place them in context. I can scale them in their environment without blinking. I have no idea what size "a small Labrador" is. All dogs over the size of the sort of yapping abomination you can step on look terrifyingly huge to me.

I suspect that most ABCs are normal sized cats, seen in unusual lighting conditions, or situations where surroundings lead to the cat appearing further away (and therefore larger) than it actually is. Like this:

I think it depends on what size your talking about. I simply can't imagine mistaking a house cat for a puma or leopard sized animal, regardless if distance or light.

Hardly ABC related, but I do remember being shocked to see a wild deer in a local park around dusk one night.

BTW I do believe that there are many wild cats and other similar sized creatures living closer than we would like to think. Fortunately they are much more scared of us than we are of them.

 

[CrazyKB]

I've had a few encounters that I can't explain. However, I'll hold on to the prosaic explanations before I reach for the prolific ones, anyway ...

I was in a band mid 90s, we played a lot of heavy, dark music (Old Metallica, Slayer, etc.), we were quite good. We rented an old school house (built in the 1800s) located on a country road. We set up a P.A and rehearsed there on the weekends. The atmosphere was creepy, thus it was perfect for the music we played. One night our guitar player ( I was the other guitar player) couldn't get to rehearsal and my car broke down, so we were stuck there for the night. I was bashing away on my drummer's kit when he said, "I get the feeling the presence doesn't like you bashing, stop it". He was a bit of an eccentric, hence I payed no attention to him. Then I heard something kick the front doors hard, my drummer (Tom) didn't hear it, so I got up and walked over to check it out. There was a set of wooden doors that you opened from outside, which lead to a set of steal glass doors that you opened to gain entrance to the building. I thought one of our friends picked the lock of the wooden doors and kicked the interior ones to get our attention, however the wooden ones were closed, I said nothing to my drummer, it was a long night. The other encounters (same location) were of the same phenomenon. When I played a solo, I'd look away from the band (get into my own space) and looked at the window, a few times I saw what looked like a kid wearing a potato sack (like the photos of poor children from the 1800s) which would quickly turn away from the window when I looked at him. I thought it was a kid who snuck outside to come listen to us, however he looked odd, also we had the lights on and there were no lights outside, thus I shouldn't have been able to see him, it looked like he was reflecting from inside the room. The last night we were there (we were relocating) I told my drummer about what I'd seen, I said, "Every time I look at the window I see ...". He finished my sentence, saying, "a kid in a potato sack that darts around the corner when you look at him". My jaw dropped to the floor.

My second encounter was when I was outside and saw an egg shaped craft. It was evening (winter in Canada), it was clear except for two clouds that were spaced far apart, however occupying the same layer of sky (from my perspective). I only saw it because it was black and the clouds white (it was a full moon). I saw it as it traversed the first cloud, followed its trajectory to the second cloud and seen it pass in front. Since it was night I had no depth perception, thus couldn't tell if it was close and travelling relatively slow or far away travelling at a high rate of speed. I've been interested in UFOs for a long time, egg shaped craft are popular.

Happy New Year everybody!!

 

[JunkMonkey]

I think it depends on what size your talking about. I simply can't imagine mistaking a house cat for a puma or leopard sized animal, regardless if distance or light.

Hardly ABC related, but I do remember being shocked to see a wild deer in a local park around dusk one night.

BTW I do believe that there are many wild cats and other similar sized creatures living closer than we would like to think. Fortunately they are much more scared of us than we are of them.

You would be surprised at how easily people misread things. I remember being in a group when one exited person posted a picture of some 'big cat' she had glimpsed in her garden. She had seen it out of her upper story window dragging off a seagull it had downed and had managed to snap it with her phone. It was only when it was pointed out that 'the seagull' it was eating was in fact (and very obviously) a pigeon that she got the sizes into context and saw that it was just a normal sized cat.

You will also be surprised (and as an observational scientist, Orcadian would be dismayed) at the number of times people posted fuzzy, zoomed in, contextless pictures of cats which they claimed were 'large' while admitting they'd never bothered to do any simple checks to confirm their initial assumptions. No one ever did obvious things like go to the place where the cat had been, place a familiar everyday object where the cat had been standing and, from the same place they took the original photo, take another picture for comparison. Never. (Or maybe the ones that did looked at the results, thought - "Oh. it was just a cat", deleted the photos and forgot all about it. )

BTW the 'ABC' thing is not mine it's pretty standard Fortean speak. Though I did once invent the 'ABCD' - which was the Anomalous Big Cat Detector. It is a truth universally acknowledged by all that if you put a cardboard box down anywhere near a cat the animal will go and sit in it. My plan was to litter sites where ABCs had been spotted with various sized boxes fitted with automatic cameras and scales marked down the side so we could measure the buggers.

 

[paranoid marvin]

Some great posts so far, thanks.

For anyone interested, on BBC Sounds there is a podcast show called 'Uncanny' which is well worth a listen. There is another called 'Yeti' which is a documentary about two guys in search of one. Well worth a listen also.

 

[CrazyKB]

Some great posts so far, thanks.

For anyone interested, on BBC Sounds there is a podcast show called 'Uncanny' which is well worth a listen. There is another called 'Yeti' which is a documentary about two guys in search of one. Well worth a listen also.

If 'Yeti' is anything like 'finding Bigfoot' ... I find those programs insulting. There purpose isn't to give a well balanced examination of the phenomenon, they're designed to appeal to the lowest common denominator in an effort to get views. I've been interested in the paranormal for a very long time, albeit I approach the subject as a skeptic. Where can you find the documentary on the Yeti?

 

[paranoid marvin]

If 'Yeti' is anything like 'finding Bigfoot' ... I find those programs insulting. There purpose isn't to give a well balanced examination of the phenomenon, they're designed to appeal to the lowest common denominator in an effort to get views. I've been interested in the paranormal for a very long time, albeit I approach the subject as a skeptic. Where can you find the documentary on the Yeti?

I've not seen (or heard) 'Finding Bigfoot', but 'Yeti' is about as deferential to the subject as a documentary could me. No sensationalism, just honest and considered journalism, and very respectful to the peoples whose lands they traverse.

It's available on the BBC Sounds player; eleven 30 minute episodes.

 

[KGeo777]

Nothing as exciting as what others have cited.



I once saw what I thought was an Archaeopteryx scaling a tree.
I would like to think it was anyway--but more likely it was a Steller's Jay that changed shape thanks to my poor eyesight.


I once saw a Steller's Jay sitting on a high branch with a squirrel sitting about 1 foot away from each other while a cat was roaming the yard.
Were they in conference? It sure looked like it.

One more Steller's Jay story....one was sitting on the balcony and I tossed a peanut wildly at an angle and it hurdled right for the bird's head--and the bird with perfect poise and cool, not moving an inch, just opened the beak to receive it as if it was planned by celestial forces.

 

[paranoid marvin]

There was another incidence I recall when I was helping clear out a room, and came across an old newspaper. About 30 or 40 years old, but it was the same date as the day I found. Some minutes after finding this, something else quite unexplained occurred.

It seems to me that unlikely coincidences, odd/unusual occurrences and 'chance in a million' happenings occur far more often than they should. And that sightings of things that shouldn't or aren't supposed to exist are far more frequent than we think.

I haven't ever seen a UFO, and although I'd like to think that I'd like to see one, I'm not sure that I actually would. As a sci fi and fantasy enthusiast, I know that such encounters are rarely beneficial.

But I do think that we live in a weird and wonderful universe, and that we have barely scratched the surface of what is sitting right under our noses.

 

[CupofJoe]

Was that a "shuck"?

What is a "shuck"?

 

[THX1138]

What is a "shuck"?

'Shuck' can mean either regret (Ah-shucks!) or he's pulling our legs: cause (someone) to believe something that is not true; fool or tease:
"they have enough psychology to know whether you're shucking them or whether you're being honest"

I'm not sure, but that's what I think Matteo is asking.

 

[Matteo]

Just checked this - in case I remembered it wrong from a story I read as a kid (many years ago) that really stuck with me.

Black Shuck - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org