[LaTortue]

Hello.

I joined this group today because I experienced a very weird ghost encounter about 2 weeks ago in an empty field, and I don't know what to think of it. It happened in broad daylight.

I was walking across a field looking at the ground 6 feet ahead of me. I never saw anything in view in the corner of my eyes. Yet when I looked up, two teenagers appeared in front of me! Folks, this is an empty field where I can detect motion 50 feet around easily even if I don't pay attention and looking on the ground. I know because I often cross that field, and when someone is that distance away, I easily and almost immediately spot them even if I look at the ground. Yet these two teenagers appeared from nowhere in front of me less than 20 feet ahead of me. Also they never made any noise. You'd think that I would have heard their footsteps into the thick 6-inch to 8-inch grass. Nope! No noise, even after their appearance in front of me! I never heard them converge toward me. The encounter got weirder, but I keep the rest of the story for later.

A few days later, with the help of my son, we tested if it was possible to cross that field where the apparition happened without being noticed. My son played the role of the 'ghost'. Result: it's totally impossible. One has to be blind and deaf not to see or hear someone coming in front of you.

I do realize that knowing that my son was there produced a psychological advantage to being able to see him in the corner of my eyes from a far distance. However these two teens were dressed entirely in black. That color makes a body stands out so easily during the day. For instance, the other day, I entered that field and I immediately noticed a woman dressed in black resting on the ground in the middle of the field-- that's 200 feet away according to Google Earth. Moreover she was resting surrounded by thin trees in the middle of the field. Despite being partly hidden, I saw her easily even though I never expected to see someone there. I have very good pheripheral vision. If something moves even the slightest, I'll see it even if it is far away and on my side. For instance, the other day, I was walking on the sidewalk back from work. That sidewalk is across the street adjacent to the field. I was looking straight ahead not having the field in mind at all. Then in the corner of my eyes , I detected something moving in the distance. It was a man dressed in dark red. He was completed way out there across the field. Using Google Earth, I determined that he was 700 feet from where I was!!!! Yet I detected his presence instantly. This is how easy it is to see somone in that empty field.

I mentioned that there are trees in the middle field. Most likely, these trees prevented me to see these 'ghost' teens approaching. True, but using Google Earth, I determined that these teens would have come out of those trees about 60 feet away from me and about 45-55 degrees in front of me. So they would have been at about 45-55 degrees from my center vision. I would think that I would have seen them rather quickly considering that I can see a man 700 feet away and not even in front of me.

Note that this body apparition (3-dimensional, by the way) didn't occur at night; it happened in the afternoon! I didn't think that ghosts show up during the day. So did I see two ghosts? Or, am I loosing my mind? Moreover it was on a very quiet day because it was a holiday, so very little noise from cars for instance. Also there was no wind at all.

Now, I know what you're thinking... I must have been under the influence of drugs or alcohol or that I'm just a nut case. Not so.

Do you know of anyone who encountered a full body apparition?

Jean

[Jerry Only]

I think you're reading too much into this. Perhaps you didn't notice them come up because you were concentrating thinking about something. I do it all the time. I'll be thinking about something, walking kind of looking down, and will be surprised as someone passes by me. And what makes you think 2 people you noticed walking were ghosts?? Did they vanish as quickly as they appeared? Or simply walk by?

[PhenomInvestigator]

What you report is quite similar to many stories in the 1888 Census of Hallucinations, a study conducted by the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) in England. I cite this study as opposed to later ones because it was done at a time when communications were nothing like they are today. So the probability of collusion was quite low. In fact, many of the reporters were not even contemporaries.

It is a modern myth that apparitions always appear luminous and in the dark. While this can happen in the vast majority of well-documented cases they in fact appear in daylight or in well-lit rooms. They block lighting and appear to reflect light. So what you experienced is really more mainstream that not.

To directly answer your question, btw, yes I have experienced many apparitional events and they are indeed quite remarkable.

[Thorn]

LaTortue, on 02 November 2009 - 09:52 PM, said:

Hello.

Do you know of anyone who encountered a full body apparition?

Jean

No I do not and I myself have not.

[Paul Noise]

Yes, I have seen a full body apparition. Not like your story, but it does happen.

[Moonie2012]

It seems an obvious point has been overlooked - who says they weren't laying down and stood up as you approached? The grass would have been tall enough to hide them at 6" - 8".

[LaTortue]

Jerry Only, on 02 November 2009 - 10:49 PM, said:

I think you're reading too much into this. Perhaps you didn't notice them come up because you were concentrating thinking about something. I do it all the time. I'll be thinking about something, walking kind of looking down, and will be surprised as someone passes by me. And what makes you think 2 people you noticed walking were ghosts?? Did they vanish as quickly as they appeared? Or simply walk by?

It's a possibility that I'm reading too much into this. Ok, suppose that I was concentrated thinking about something, so much so that I never saw them converging toward me. Surely, I would have heard their footsteps into the thick grass though. Moreover, this was october the 12th. Up here, leaves fall off the trees. I would have heard leaves cracking. I cannot conceive the notion that I would have been so absorbed into my thoughts as to fail to hear something. Also even after I saw them, their footsteps still weren't making any noise. How to explain that?

Actuallty, they did disappear some 25 seconds after seeing them! I was looking at them climbing over a guardrail that leads to an empty parking lot. After they had jumped, I saw them turning toward the parking lot. At that same time, I lost interest in them for a few seconds, and looked down at the ground. Then when I looked up, there were no longer there. The parking lot was easily visible: I should have been able to see them there. I thought that perhaps I was too far from the parking lot. So when it was my turn to jump the guardrail, the parking was in full view, and I was expecting to see them in the parking lot. They were not there. I immediately looked to the right where there was a dumpster to the right of to the guardrail. I thought that maybe they went hiding there. Nope! I looked all around and could not see them. It's a fairly big parking lot. They couldn't have had time to walk off the parking lot without me seeing them. The only place that they could have hidden was some 40 feet to the right of the guardrail. But when I saw them jump the guardrail, they didn't turn to the right. I recall seeing them heading for the parking lot. Perhaps they changed direction, and went to the right where the dumpster is. There are two other dumpsters farther to the right. If they went that way then they would have bene out of my view. But I tested that path, and it would have required them at least 25 seconds to hide there. But I reached the guardrail between 5 to 10 seconds before that time span, and I looked toward the dumpsters within a few seconds. Is it possible that they had time to go past those dumpsters before me looking there? Perhaps. Maybe I missed them by a mere second or two.

You would gain a better feel for the events if you were in the field with me to show you what happened. Like I said in my previous message, I spent a lot of time analysing the situation with my son. I also analysed the geometry of the field to obtain the probable angle that the two teens would have converged toward me. They would have been in my view range for at least 25 seconds before they appeared. How can one miss seeing that on a quiet windless day in an empty field where there's nothing around to distract attention except those two teens? I can accept that I could have missed seeing them approach if they had come from behind me. But that's not the way that they converged toward me.

I don't want to waste your time any more. It suffices to say that what I experienced doesn't add up, especially the apparition.

Thanks for your reading my story.

Jean

[LaTortue]

Moonie2012, on 03 November 2009 - 12:45 PM, said:

It seems an obvious point has been overlooked - who says they weren't laying down and stood up as you approached? The grass would have been tall enough to hide them at 6" - 8".

Good idea. A better idea is that they might have been hidden from view by a small island of trees in the middle of the field. However that island is about 60 feet away from where they appeared to me. That means that they would have been in my view for 60 feet. It's probably more like 80 feet because they were about 20 feet ahead of me when they appeared. That's about 20 seconds walking time. How likely is it that I could have missed seeing them? According to the geometric construction I made, they would have been converging toward me while being ahead of me at some angle the whole time. Moreover they were both dressed entirely in black. Two black bodies stick out easily in an empty field. It's beyond me that I would have missed seeing these two teens come in front of me (and never hearing their footsteps). Keep in mind that they didn't come from behind me. If I did indeed miss seeing these teens, then it's time to give up my driver's license! :-)


Jean

[G3N0M3]

Yes I've experienced a couple apperitions that looked as though they were people, once in the back of the bus, where I was talking to them about their family, and how there was a fire... As I left the bus I looked back and the person was gone... My first time was when I was very young, and both me and a friend seen the same man, when he looked up right to my window, we hid down, and when we looked up he was not in sight... The next day my friend and I had went across the tracks to see if he was a bumb who lived near there (figure had ragged clothes, and looked dirty) meanwhile we seen nothing but an old jacket covered with dirt and leaves (same one he was waring) so that was creepy. Well thats the short version of the story so I'll leave it at that.

Otherwise even if it was a couple of teenagers dead or alive, this seemed to really get you going, have you ever experienced the paranormal before?

[LaTortue]

G3N0M3, on 04 November 2009 - 02:11 PM, said:

Yes I've experienced a couple apperitions that looked as though they were people, once in the back of the bus, where I was talking to them about their family, and how there was a fire... As I left the bus I looked back and the person was gone... My first time was when I was very young, and both me and a friend seen the same man, when he looked up right to my window, we hid down, and when we looked up he was not in sight... The next day my friend and I had went across the tracks to see if he was a bumb who lived near there (figure had ragged clothes, and looked dirty) meanwhile we seen nothing but an old jacket covered with dirt and leaves (same one he was waring) so that was creepy. Well thats the short version of the story so I'll leave it at that.

Otherwise even if it was a couple of teenagers dead or alive, this seemed to really get you going, have you ever experienced the paranormal before?

Thanks for your story. I've never experienced the paranormal before. So, yes, this encounter got me going. Most people say that I simply was absent-minded and missed to see these teens. I've spent numerous hours testing the field where the encounter took place. I used Google Earth also to help me for distances and angles. I wrote a detailed document describing the event and includes my analysis. My conclusion is that it's impossible that I could have missed seeing these teens approach me, unless I was legally blind and deaf, which I'm not. As for when I saw them disappear 25 seconds later, there's a possibility that they went hidding behind dumspters. First, why would they do that? Second, if they did, I determined by testing differents paths that I would probably have seen them hide. However there remains a possibility that I could have missed seeing them hide. As I said before, the real mystery is their appearance from nowhere.

Jean

[Sir_Quack_The_Wack]

Jerry Only, on 03 November 2009 - 12:49 PM, said:

I think you're reading too much into this. Perhaps you didn't notice them come up because you were concentrating thinking about something. I do it all the time. I'll be thinking about something, walking kind of looking down, and will be surprised as someone passes by me. And what makes you think 2 people you noticed walking were ghosts?? Did they vanish as quickly as they appeared? Or simply walk by?

EXACTLY. I thought it was a common thing to turn your head and get a heart attack as someone is BOOM right there. And it is a common thing. Not only that, but running into people.

The same thing causes so many car accidents each year, not realising a car is there until you've hit it.

[Sir_Quack_The_Wack]

G3N0M3, on 05 November 2009 - 04:11 AM, said:

both me and a friend seen the same man, when he looked up right to my window, we hid down, and when we looked up he was not in sight...

Laurie Strode, is that you? Still living in Haddonfield?

[LaTortue]

Sir_Quack_The_Wack, on 06 November 2009 - 09:25 AM, said:

EXACTLY. I thought it was a common thing to turn your head and get a heart attack as someone is BOOM right there. And it is a common thing. Not only that, but running into people.

The same thing causes so many car accidents each year, not realising a car is there until you've hit it.

Yes, indeed. Perhaps, I turned my head for a couple of seconds, then boom, two people appeared in front of me. I remind you that I was in an open field, except for an island of thin trees at the center of the field and there was nothing or nobody around to distract me. It has to be that these two teens came from behind those trees, and I never saw that. But using Google Earth and some geometric calculations, once these teens were out of the trees and in the wide open field, I calculated that they were in full view 90 feet ahead at about 35 degrees to my left then converging to 25 feet ahead. This is well within the view range of the human eye.

Furthermore, my calculations indicate that no less than 10 seconds after coming out of the trees, they reached the pathway. Assuming that I saw them at the exact moment that they reached that path, they were in the open for at least those 10 seconds. It's possible that they were in the open a little longer than that. How likely is it that I would have completely missed seeing two teens dressed in black (a color that sticks out so easily in the daytime) walking in front of me within that 10 seconds or more? It's so unlikely, but--I admit-- not impossible.

I often walk across that field. In fact two days ago, an almost identical scenario happened. I was walking aimlessly and somewhat absent-minded, then in the corner of my eyes, I saw a father and son walk past those very trees. They were about 50 feet from me. I wasn't even looking ahead. My eyes were fixed to the ground in front of me, and I saw them right away in my view. I also heard their steps. How come that I never heard those two teens' footsteps in the thick grass? How likely is it that I never saw them, and never heard them in a quiet empty field? How absent-minded can one be?

By the way, these two teens did disppear from sight some 40 seconds later after they jumped a 2-foot tall guardrail. They were no where to be seen. Mind you, they might have gone behind a store nearby, but that store is a good 80 feet away. You'd think that I would have had time to see them go and hide since I was just 25 feet behind them.

You could be correct--they might have been just real live humans. Or they could have been an actual ghost apparition. I spent at least 20 hours analyzing the event, trying to recreate the encounter on site and doing a lot of calculations. My results are not conclusive. Sadly, I'll never know what happened for sure.

I'm done with this story. Thanks for reading.

Jean

[minuteman]

personally i think you're overreacting to it.

wake me up when we get some full frontal apparitions!

[LaTortue]

minuteman, on 10 November 2009 - 11:43 AM, said:

personally i think you're overreacting to it.

wake me up when we get some full frontal apparitions!

What's the requirement or definition of a full frontal apparition? How can one tell the difference?

What I saw sure felt like a full frontal apparition. You might have misunderstood my logic and intent. In my analysis, I made the assumption that the teens were real living humans. If so, then I estimated that they approached my view range at about 35 degrees. This implies that I should have seen them coming. Since I never saw them, it follows that my assumption just mentioned might be false, that is, the teens might have been just that: a full frontal apparition.

I'm not overreacting. I'm just having fun investigating, doing an analysis, some geometric constructions and calculations. I can't help doing all this due to my educational background in mathematics and my profession in computer science.

Jean