Has anyone experience true terror?
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Jake, I had a sleep paralysis experience similar to what auzerais described, only it wasn't any recognizable person I knew. However, it was something with a will, lying on top of me, and trying to enter my body, as in, possess it. And I woke suddenly with this and could not move or even shout. I had to exert every ounce of my will to shake that thing off, whatever it was, and I had to try maybe six or seven times to push it off and shout.
When I finally did, shook it off and yelled at the top of my lungs, I was so enraged I jumped out of bed and stomped around my apartment for maybe 20 minutes shouting "No! You do not have the right to do that! Don't ever come near me again! This is my body! This is my life! You can just fuck off! No!"
Etc.
And subsequently, while I have had a few milder episodes, I have known what to do to stop it.
And never had that sensation of something trying to occupy my body ever again. As well, now, when I recall that episode? I feel strong, and very much unafraid. I kind of enjoyed being the victor. This was in maybe 2006 or 7, that this happened, BTW.
So, it was scary at first but then, boy did it make me mad. See, that worked. So I have to recommend it. IMO we are just a little too cowed by our own unexplored minds.... or something.
When I finally did, shook it off and yelled at the top of my lungs, I was so enraged I jumped out of bed and stomped around my apartment for maybe 20 minutes shouting "No! You do not have the right to do that! Don't ever come near me again! This is my body! This is my life! You can just fuck off! No!"
Etc.
And subsequently, while I have had a few milder episodes, I have known what to do to stop it.
And never had that sensation of something trying to occupy my body ever again. As well, now, when I recall that episode? I feel strong, and very much unafraid. I kind of enjoyed being the victor. This was in maybe 2006 or 7, that this happened, BTW.So, it was scary at first but then, boy did it make me mad. See, that worked. So I have to recommend it. IMO we are just a little too cowed by our own unexplored minds.... or something.
Jake, I had a sleep paralysis experience similar to what auzerais described, only it wasn't any recognizable person I knew. However, it was something with a will, lying on top of me, and trying to enter my body, as in, possess it. And I woke suddenly with this and could not move or even shout. I had to exert every ounce of my will to shake that thing off, whatever it was, and I had to try maybe six or seven times to push it off and shout.
When I finally did, shook it off and yelled at the top of my lungs, I was so enraged I jumped out of bed and stomped around my apartment for maybe 20 minutes shouting "No! You do not have the right to do that! Don't ever come near me again! This is my body! This is my life! You can just fuck off! No!"
Etc.
And subsequently, while I have had a few milder episodes, I have known what to do to stop it.
So, it was scary at first but then, boy did it make me mad. See, that worked. So I have to recommend it. IMO we are just a little too cowed by our own unexplored minds.... or something.
That's awesome! Congrats on beating it. Mine ran for about four years a couple of times a week. It was intense and I was never really able to do anything about it, it just went away eventually. I still get the occasional feeling like something might be on the other side of the room, but now I can fall asleep and move on. It makes me curious though, how many people have the same experience but convince themselves its a bad dream and never talk about it. Or even worse, how many people does it happen to but they don't become conscious enough to know its happening.
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Over the years I've managed to make my brain realize I'm in a dream, or a half-dream state. When I'm in one of those "waking dreams" and I can see clearly, I know it's not real because I'm horribly near-sighted in real life.
Sometimes my dreams get out of control, and I would escape the "reality" of it by jumping in the air and flying. Then I know it's a dream and I'm not so scared anymore. I've been doing this since I was about seven years old or so.
Sometimes my dreams get out of control, and I would escape the "reality" of it by jumping in the air and flying. Then I know it's a dream and I'm not so scared anymore. I've been doing this since I was about seven years old or so.
It's too long a story for real detail, but from the time I was seven until I turned thirteen, my family was terrorized by people unknown. We lived on the edge of a tiny farm town, and I can't even describe some of teh things that happened. Faces suddenly pressing against our window, sometimes faces on fire. The grownups assumed it was really Halloween masks, or something similar, that were on fire. Eerie noises in the night. Chickens killed. An aunt who went out at night and had her dress ripped off, and suffered some serious bruising, before anyone could get there to help her.
We would see people standing off in the weeds, or in teh distance at night. My grandfather and a couple of my uncles chased one, and he jumped a seven foot fence and disappeared.
It was utterly, completely terrorizing. We called teh police many times, and they found plenty of evidence that stranger were out there, but never could catch anyone, or even trail them more than a few yards.
I can't tell you how afraid I was. Not scared me to death. One night I couldn't sleep because all night long I heard a distant, rhythmic tinging sound, like someone lightly tapping a huge propane tank with a hammer.
It took an hour to work up teh courage, but I finally looked out the window, and I saw a figure standing in the distance, right from where the sound seemed to be coming from.
Then, when I was almost thirteen, I decided I'd had enough. After hearing sounds, I slipped out my window one night, and took my bow with me. You have no idea how scared I was. Not long thereafter I saw a figure, down close to the chicken coop, and I shot at him.
He yelled, almost screamed, and took off.
Several months later, in January, our house caught fire in the middle of the night, and burned to the ground. We got out with nothing but what we were wearing.
No one ever found out who, what, or why those things were happening to us, but after that night when I went out with my bow, I never was scared again, let alone terrified.
I've had normal, rational fears since then, but I've never been afraid, if you understand what I mean. I think that night, facing up to what really was completely terrifying, at age twelve, taught me that I could stand up to anything.
We would see people standing off in the weeds, or in teh distance at night. My grandfather and a couple of my uncles chased one, and he jumped a seven foot fence and disappeared.
It was utterly, completely terrorizing. We called teh police many times, and they found plenty of evidence that stranger were out there, but never could catch anyone, or even trail them more than a few yards.
I can't tell you how afraid I was. Not scared me to death. One night I couldn't sleep because all night long I heard a distant, rhythmic tinging sound, like someone lightly tapping a huge propane tank with a hammer.
It took an hour to work up teh courage, but I finally looked out the window, and I saw a figure standing in the distance, right from where the sound seemed to be coming from.
Then, when I was almost thirteen, I decided I'd had enough. After hearing sounds, I slipped out my window one night, and took my bow with me. You have no idea how scared I was. Not long thereafter I saw a figure, down close to the chicken coop, and I shot at him.
He yelled, almost screamed, and took off.
Several months later, in January, our house caught fire in the middle of the night, and burned to the ground. We got out with nothing but what we were wearing.
No one ever found out who, what, or why those things were happening to us, but after that night when I went out with my bow, I never was scared again, let alone terrified.
I've had normal, rational fears since then, but I've never been afraid, if you understand what I mean. I think that night, facing up to what really was completely terrifying, at age twelve, taught me that I could stand up to anything.
Awesome story! I wish I could have lived somewhere on the edge of a town like that. I grew up in the ghetto in St. Louis. It was scary there, but for a different reason entirely. I would love to hear more, it sounds like there is a great book in there.
On a side note, if anyone is interested I wrote a short story somewhat about my experiences with my Shadow Person. I tweaked it a bit to make it a more interesting and the ending is essentially what happened. I credit my wife for saving me from those things. I posted the story in the Horror section of the SYW section. I would love it if you could all go read it and give me some critiques, Im pretty new to writing and need the help.
Jake, you can put a link to your SYW thread in your sigline. (Go to your CP and scroll down to Edit Signature....)
I've thought about turning this into a novel many times, but never have actually tried it. This is odd because I base a huge number of my stories on things I've done, things I've experienced, but never this.
I can't decide how to approach it. I should have enough distance by now, but each time I think about writing it, something stops me. Maybe it is time to try again. It's been several years since I last thought about it.
I would love to read it. It seems like it would be an awesome adventure. I look forward to the day you tell us you've done it.
I had a weird experience when I was a little kid about nine years old, that I still can't explain. I was going to bed one night after watching TV in the living room with my family, and as I got to the bottom of the staircase, on the upstairs landing I saw a big bushy tail, like you might see on a German Shepherd or a wolf, moving out of sight behind the wall, as if some big dog had just walked across the landing toward one of the upper rooms. We had two dogs in the house, but they were toy poodles with wee short poofy tails, nothing like what I saw.
Needless to say, I came perilously close to soiling myself and flat out refused to go upstairs until my folks had investigated. There was nothing there when they checked, but it seriously freaked me out and it's something I've never forgotten.
Needless to say, I came perilously close to soiling myself and flat out refused to go upstairs until my folks had investigated. There was nothing there when they checked, but it seriously freaked me out and it's something I've never forgotten.
Good thread. Nothing super natural springing to mind, but a few years ago I was driving home from work on the motor when six police cars flew by and and speed signs changed to 20 mph and the messages said "on coming vehicle".
That was pretty terrifying.
That was pretty terrifying.
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That would be scary. I think I would just have to pull over and wait that one out. Its amazing how common day driving is, but when you get to thinking about it its just a huge death trap... Lol. Thanks for sharing.
I started this thread mostly in hopes for inspiration. A lot of times the most imaginative fears and circumstances come from others brushes with disaster. There is plenty in this one thread that could be used to scare the hell out of people, either in the form of literature or on the screen.
I had one incident similar to some of the other stories shared here, it happened around 20 years ago. I was 16 and some relatives were visiting, so I gave up my bed and camped out on the back porch. There was a patch of woods close by. I woke up in the middle of the night to a figure hovering over me, it looked like a demon. My body was totally paralyzed, I couldn't yell, nothing. It's presence felt malevolent...I could feel it coming off of it in waves. All I could do was squeeze my eyes shut (they were the only thing that could move) until I could feel it leave. As soon as I could no longer feel its presence, I got up and bolted inside the house. That was the only time anything like that ever happened, but even 20 years later, you couldn't pay me to ever spend another night on that porch.
Jake, my whole life has been filled with terror. I guess when that is what you write, you end up reliving it. Or maybe I just get into my characters far too much. 
Sounds like you need to write this experience so you can get past it and turn it into a benefit for you.
Sounds like you need to write this experience so you can get past it and turn it into a benefit for you. Terror. Yes. I understand that.
Jake,
I saw tons of shadow people but they never hurt me. In fact, I saw the "hat man" shadow person several times and I just looked it.Usually, I just accept they exist and then I look away. I show no fear nor terror because I will not allow negative emotions to enter my mind. In fact, I saw tons of creepy things but I will show no fear towards these beings. Usually, they just ignore me and just disappear into the background. Plus I never had sleep paralysis or nightmares because I never feared evil. Even as a little girl, I just accepted that the world is full of both good and evil. That why horror seems so natural to me
I saw tons of shadow people but they never hurt me. In fact, I saw the "hat man" shadow person several times and I just looked it.Usually, I just accept they exist and then I look away. I show no fear nor terror because I will not allow negative emotions to enter my mind. In fact, I saw tons of creepy things but I will show no fear towards these beings. Usually, they just ignore me and just disappear into the background. Plus I never had sleep paralysis or nightmares because I never feared evil.
Even as a little girl, I just accepted that the world is full of both good and evil. That why horror seems so natural to me
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Jake,
I saw tons of shadow people but they never hurt me. In fact, I saw the "hat man" shadow person several times and I just looked it.Usually, I just accept they exist and then I look away. I show no fear nor terror because I will not allow negative emotions to enter my mind. In fact, I saw tons of creepy things but I will show no fear towards these beings. Usually, they just ignore me and just disappear into the background. Plus I never had sleep paralysis or nightmares because I never feared evil.
I never saw the "hat man", mine was the "old hag". Still never really got to see her, but I just knew that it was a really old woman. I haven't seen her in years, but when I was a teenager, that was the only thing I can remember ever being scared of. It wasn't really even her as much as the paralysis. Not being able to move is a terrifying experience.
Oh, yeah. In 1980 I was walking home from the store with my two little daughters in Adana Turkey when I noticed everyone hurrying and then running to get home. Then I saw the Askers (Turkish police) running around with AK-47's and whatever. When they zeroed in on me and my babies, I had a brief moment where my life flashed before my eyes. Then they recognized that I was an American and told me to get home. We were in the middle of a military coup where they overthrew the guv'mint. What fun!
I have always had a complicated relationship with nightmares. I will go six months without having one unpleasant dream, then I will go a week where I have one every single night. And they are always graphic, vivid, leaving waking up soaked completely through my clothes. Those dreams stay with me for hours afterwards, and when I first wake up, I am completely petrified and unable to move.
And any medication that can give you weird dreams WILL give me weird dreams. Seroquel, Ambien, those pills made for several months worth of Freddy Kruger-worthy nights.
And any medication that can give you weird dreams WILL give me weird dreams. Seroquel, Ambien, those pills made for several months worth of Freddy Kruger-worthy nights.
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I actually like nightmares! They're exciting haha And it gives me inspiration sometimes. I've had a few freaky dreams. Like once, I had a series of dreams that were so vivid and real. It was just me in my room as if I kept waking up, but I was paralyzed and I was hearing voices and seeing things. I thought a demon was trying to possess me. But I wasn't that scared. It would have given me quite the story haha
Another time I woke up and started talking to...something. I was half asleep. I'm still confused about it. It was as if I knew it, but when I woke up fully...I don't know haha It was strange. It knew when my mother was coming and disappeared. I tend to forget things when half asleep, so I wonder how long i've been seeing this thing and speaking with it without knowing...
Sometimes i'm disappointed in my nightmares. If they suck, I wake up disappointed haha I once had a sucky dream, told myself I could do better and went to sleep that night and had a terrifying nightmare haha I was impressed and very unsettled.
Another time I woke up and started talking to...something. I was half asleep. I'm still confused about it. It was as if I knew it, but when I woke up fully...I don't know haha It was strange. It knew when my mother was coming and disappeared. I tend to forget things when half asleep, so I wonder how long i've been seeing this thing and speaking with it without knowing...
Sometimes i'm disappointed in my nightmares. If they suck, I wake up disappointed haha I once had a sucky dream, told myself I could do better and went to sleep that night and had a terrifying nightmare haha I was impressed and very unsettled.
Funny how everyone here talks about nightmares, and not real-life terror. I guess because in real life, terror is often blunted by shock.
Running from a pissed-off feral pig down a South Australian desert track, in pitch darkness. That was pure fight-or-flight terror.
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Well, REAL terror is one of those things that's hard to define, and even harder to relate to. Nightmares are the closest 99% of people will ever come to real pants-pissing, gibbering, joints trembling, body-frozen-in-place terror. We all experience fear, and maybe some people will experience real horror, but true terror is a rare thing indeed.
I have had one experience, but at thetime, I did not know what it was called.
I was maybe seven or eight when it happened. My stepfather was on his way home from a business trip, but we weren't sure what time he would arrive. Like always, I was sneaking in some midnight reading. My bedroom door was cracked open about roughly six inches, so I could see down the hallway and part of my mom's bedroom door.
I remember suddenly feeling this heavy sense of dread, and I became intensely aware of the silence in the house. I looked up just in time to see a shadow pass my bedroom door. I could see it in the hallway, heading for my mom's room. I thought that maybe it could be my stepdad, so I called out to tell him hello.
With a jerk the shadow turned towards me. It paused outside my bedroom door and slowly poked its head through the crack. That's when I realized that it wasn't a shadow of my stepdad - it was just a shadow. I was in the middle of excusing why I was still awake, but immediately stopped talking.
The shadow started to enter my room. I reached over to my lamp and frantically started tapping the base (it dimmed and brightened when you touched it). I hit the light so fast that it completely cycled through the light settings, turned off, and accidentally turned back on. By this time the shadow was at the edge of my bed, so I finally stopped moving and sunk against my pillow.
The shadow came all the way around my bed and stopped at my nightstand. It leaned over me. I was frozen. If it would have had eyes, we would have had a staring content. It seemed like it took forever, but it finally straightened up and moved out my room. It went back into the hallway, walked to my mom's door, and then walked through it.
I was terrified, but I stayed in bed until I finally fell asleep.
My stepfather came home the following evening.
I didn't talk to anybody about it. My mom is a very conservative Christian. At the time, I didn't want a lecture about staying up late. As an older kid, I didn't want a lecture on how it wasn't real / evil thoughts lead to evil things / or how I needed to bring religion into my life.
Imagine my surprise when this topic came up ten years later, with the neighbors. They were talking about a TV show that saw, that talked about shadow creatures. My mom spoke up and said that she believed in them. She said that ten years prior, she was visited by one while my stepdad was away on a business trip.
She said that it would come through her door, stand in the corner, and stare at her and my newborn sister. She said that the last night that she saw it, it stood next to her bed and leaned over her. The next morning, I kept insisting that my stepfather had come home in the middle of the night. She was worried that I'd witnessed the shadow and she didn't want it to come after me. So she started praying at night and never saw it again.
I think hearing my mom confirm the story made it 100x more terrifying. I'd almost convinced myself that it was just a very vivid dream until I heard her story.
I was maybe seven or eight when it happened. My stepfather was on his way home from a business trip, but we weren't sure what time he would arrive. Like always, I was sneaking in some midnight reading. My bedroom door was cracked open about roughly six inches, so I could see down the hallway and part of my mom's bedroom door.
I remember suddenly feeling this heavy sense of dread, and I became intensely aware of the silence in the house. I looked up just in time to see a shadow pass my bedroom door. I could see it in the hallway, heading for my mom's room. I thought that maybe it could be my stepdad, so I called out to tell him hello.
With a jerk the shadow turned towards me. It paused outside my bedroom door and slowly poked its head through the crack. That's when I realized that it wasn't a shadow of my stepdad - it was just a shadow. I was in the middle of excusing why I was still awake, but immediately stopped talking.
The shadow started to enter my room. I reached over to my lamp and frantically started tapping the base (it dimmed and brightened when you touched it). I hit the light so fast that it completely cycled through the light settings, turned off, and accidentally turned back on. By this time the shadow was at the edge of my bed, so I finally stopped moving and sunk against my pillow.
The shadow came all the way around my bed and stopped at my nightstand. It leaned over me. I was frozen. If it would have had eyes, we would have had a staring content. It seemed like it took forever, but it finally straightened up and moved out my room. It went back into the hallway, walked to my mom's door, and then walked through it.
I was terrified, but I stayed in bed until I finally fell asleep.
My stepfather came home the following evening.
I didn't talk to anybody about it. My mom is a very conservative Christian. At the time, I didn't want a lecture about staying up late. As an older kid, I didn't want a lecture on how it wasn't real / evil thoughts lead to evil things / or how I needed to bring religion into my life.
Imagine my surprise when this topic came up ten years later, with the neighbors. They were talking about a TV show that saw, that talked about shadow creatures. My mom spoke up and said that she believed in them. She said that ten years prior, she was visited by one while my stepdad was away on a business trip.
She said that it would come through her door, stand in the corner, and stare at her and my newborn sister. She said that the last night that she saw it, it stood next to her bed and leaned over her. The next morning, I kept insisting that my stepfather had come home in the middle of the night. She was worried that I'd witnessed the shadow and she didn't want it to come after me. So she started praying at night and never saw it again.
I think hearing my mom confirm the story made it 100x more terrifying. I'd almost convinced myself that it was just a very vivid dream until I heard her story.
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