nivek
As Above So Below
Strange Paranormal Tales of People Almost Taken by the Forest
By Brent Swancer
Throughout history forests have always been places of wonder, mystery, and dark legends. These are places that have long attracted to them stories of the strange and mysterious, and they are also places often portrayed as menacing, always with the feeling that something could be lurking past the branches and brush. For a long time now there have been numerous cases of mysterious vanishings tied to forests, many of which have never been solved, and we are often left to ask what has happened. Yet what if it is the forest itself that has taken them through some means, and what if it is these places and their remote wildernesses that somehow pull people in to never return? There are certainly reports that seem to suggest this, and here we will look at cases in which people seem to have been drawn in to these wild places, only to somehow manage to escape with strange stories to tell.
Our first report of something insidious and hungry in the woods comes from Reddit user “Starlove36918,” who says this very bizarre experience actually happened to her mother when she was just a 15-year-old girl. At the time she apparently lived in a village in an isolated wooded, mountainous area, and she would often go out with her own mother or other kids to go collect wood. On this day she woke early as usual to a clear and sunny day for one such wood-fetching errand along with a group of other girls from the village. Yet, this excursion would turn out to be more ominous than most. The poster says of her mother’s experience:
Another report comes from a Reddit user called “Lola_likes_to_run,” and seems to involve some sort of forest spirits such as fairies. In fact, she says that the area where she lived had several locations that the locals called “fairy fields,” which they avoided and where people apparently got lost in places that it was impossible to get lost in. The witness claims that it was said that this was due to the fairies sowing confusion into the minds of their victims. She says she never really believed any of it growing up, but that one odd experience would change her mind, of which she explains:
From poster “RavenMysteries1331” there is a similar report, in that it seems that something was trying to lure them into another place and make sure they could not return. She says that she had gone camping with her husband to a place she calls “Deep Creek Campgrounds,” and one day as they were exploring the area they came to a secluded road and tunnel. They entered the tunnel planning to simply walk through to the other side, but a series of strange events would make that easier said than done. The witness says of all of this:
As he walked on this turned into a feeling of dread and the sense that he was not supposed to be there. At the same time, the previously bright day seemed to grow darker, and the trees seemed thicker and more impenetrable than he remembered. Oddly, he began to hear the sound of what sounded like a bell in the distance. It all conspired to deeply creep him out, and he decided to make his way back home, making note that his watch told him it was 11 AM. Yet as he turned around, he realized that he did not recognize where he was, and things would only get weirder from there. The witness tells his bizarre story as follows:
Was this some sort of ghostly forest entity? If so, what did it want? A similarly ghostly experience happened to poster “Lazuli369,” in east Tennessee. He says that when he was 15 years old he liked to walk in the woods around his home, and had never seen anything particularly strange out there until one day when he had just a short walk through an area he had been through many times before. On this day he would stumble across a very odd place nestled out among the trees that he had never seen before on all of his hikes, and which would prove to be infused with some sort of supernatural energy. He says of his otherworldly hike:
With strange phenomena like this going on in the woods, it is perhaps no surprise that hunters should have their own brushes with strange forces beyond our comprehension out there in these dark wilds, and our final case here comes from a hunter calling himself James Dalton. The strange experience began with a squirrel hunting trip with his father and brother, and on this occasion they had decided to split up and then meet back at the car just before dark. This was pretty usual for them, and there was nothing particularly strange about the day at that point.
Yet, as the witness went through one area of the forest that was very familiar to him, he says a wispy fog began to seep through the ferns around him and the usual sounds of the forest ceased. It was a bit disconcerting, and as he stood there his ears began to ring for reasons he could not understand. Unsettled by this, he began to head back towards the car when he noticed something moving through the ferns towards him. At first he took it to be a squirrel or possum, but it seemed to be headed directly for him, which was very odd behavior for a wild animal and put him immediately on edge. Things were about to get even stranger still, and he explains:
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By Brent Swancer
Throughout history forests have always been places of wonder, mystery, and dark legends. These are places that have long attracted to them stories of the strange and mysterious, and they are also places often portrayed as menacing, always with the feeling that something could be lurking past the branches and brush. For a long time now there have been numerous cases of mysterious vanishings tied to forests, many of which have never been solved, and we are often left to ask what has happened. Yet what if it is the forest itself that has taken them through some means, and what if it is these places and their remote wildernesses that somehow pull people in to never return? There are certainly reports that seem to suggest this, and here we will look at cases in which people seem to have been drawn in to these wild places, only to somehow manage to escape with strange stories to tell.
Our first report of something insidious and hungry in the woods comes from Reddit user “Starlove36918,” who says this very bizarre experience actually happened to her mother when she was just a 15-year-old girl. At the time she apparently lived in a village in an isolated wooded, mountainous area, and she would often go out with her own mother or other kids to go collect wood. On this day she woke early as usual to a clear and sunny day for one such wood-fetching errand along with a group of other girls from the village. Yet, this excursion would turn out to be more ominous than most. The poster says of her mother’s experience:
Another report comes from a Reddit user called “Lola_likes_to_run,” and seems to involve some sort of forest spirits such as fairies. In fact, she says that the area where she lived had several locations that the locals called “fairy fields,” which they avoided and where people apparently got lost in places that it was impossible to get lost in. The witness claims that it was said that this was due to the fairies sowing confusion into the minds of their victims. She says she never really believed any of it growing up, but that one odd experience would change her mind, of which she explains:
Was there some sinister force out there intentionally trying to confuse them and get them lost or keep them in, and what would have happened to them if they had not found their way out? Who knows? Similarly, we have the case of Redditor “clayvn,” who says this happened when he was 10 or 11 years old out at Big Bear Lake, California. At the time he had been visiting his grandparents, who lived in a cabin at the lake, and it was a place he says he went to several times a year. He explains that the surrounding forest had always been unsettling to him, with the constant feeling of someone or something watching him from the trees. Nevertheless, he often went hiking out there with his dad and uncle, and on this day they were on a trail they had hiked countless times before. They all knew the area extremely well, yet something odd was about to transpire. The witness explains:
From poster “RavenMysteries1331” there is a similar report, in that it seems that something was trying to lure them into another place and make sure they could not return. She says that she had gone camping with her husband to a place she calls “Deep Creek Campgrounds,” and one day as they were exploring the area they came to a secluded road and tunnel. They entered the tunnel planning to simply walk through to the other side, but a series of strange events would make that easier said than done. The witness says of all of this:
What in the world happened to them? Did they pass into some vortex perhaps, wandering over the threshold of some invisible veil to something else? Making it all the more ominous is that the witness claims that she later found that the area of Deep Creek Campground had over the years been the location of several unexplained vanishing. Was there a connection between this and what happened to her? Also featuring some sort of similarly insidious presence is the report on the Missing 411 forum from Reddit poster “that_g-eye,” and takes place in the wilds of Ontario, Canada. He says he grew up in a rural, rugged area or Southern Ontario, and knew the local woods very well from a young age. One summer he decided to go out exploring a stretch of woods he had been to hundreds of times before and knew very well, but on this day he says that he began to have the distinct feeling of being watched.
As he walked on this turned into a feeling of dread and the sense that he was not supposed to be there. At the same time, the previously bright day seemed to grow darker, and the trees seemed thicker and more impenetrable than he remembered. Oddly, he began to hear the sound of what sounded like a bell in the distance. It all conspired to deeply creep him out, and he decided to make his way back home, making note that his watch told him it was 11 AM. Yet as he turned around, he realized that he did not recognize where he was, and things would only get weirder from there. The witness tells his bizarre story as follows:
Was this some sort of ghostly forest entity? If so, what did it want? A similarly ghostly experience happened to poster “Lazuli369,” in east Tennessee. He says that when he was 15 years old he liked to walk in the woods around his home, and had never seen anything particularly strange out there until one day when he had just a short walk through an area he had been through many times before. On this day he would stumble across a very odd place nestled out among the trees that he had never seen before on all of his hikes, and which would prove to be infused with some sort of supernatural energy. He says of his otherworldly hike:
With strange phenomena like this going on in the woods, it is perhaps no surprise that hunters should have their own brushes with strange forces beyond our comprehension out there in these dark wilds, and our final case here comes from a hunter calling himself James Dalton. The strange experience began with a squirrel hunting trip with his father and brother, and on this occasion they had decided to split up and then meet back at the car just before dark. This was pretty usual for them, and there was nothing particularly strange about the day at that point.
Yet, as the witness went through one area of the forest that was very familiar to him, he says a wispy fog began to seep through the ferns around him and the usual sounds of the forest ceased. It was a bit disconcerting, and as he stood there his ears began to ring for reasons he could not understand. Unsettled by this, he began to head back towards the car when he noticed something moving through the ferns towards him. At first he took it to be a squirrel or possum, but it seemed to be headed directly for him, which was very odd behavior for a wild animal and put him immediately on edge. Things were about to get even stranger still, and he explains:
There is no way to know just how true any of these cases are, but they reside within an area of the paranormal in which there are many, many more like them. We are left to ask what is going on here? Are these instances of some sort of portals or shifts in reality? Is it the result of spirits or forest entities of some sort? Or are there even perhaps more mysterious forces at work? Do such tales have anything to do with the myriad people who go missing in forests all of the time? There is no way to really know, and such reports serve to tantalize and stoke the imagination.
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