Hey all, I was wondering if any of you had ever had an experience where you were somewhere there should have been a lot of people, but it was utterly deserted. I, personally, haven't had any of these experiences, but I have heard of them, and they intrigue me. So have any of you had one of those experiences? Maybe it was only a dream, or maybe it was real.

I found this story strangely enough on IMDb, under The Twilight Zone forums. Here is the link, and then the story: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052520/board/...p;p=1#100047823

"Bear with me. This actually happened and I offer no explanations. In the mid '80s I was working as a field investigator for Southland Corp., the company that owned among other things, the 7-11 stores. My main job was to pose as a customer and purchase an item and then write a report on the service, cleanliness of store, any safety/health concerns etc. There were over 300 stores in our division, and every month I visited most of 'em. But there were a few districts that didn't get visited very often because of their distance from the main office. So I had been working for over a month before I hit the store in Reading Pa, a city of about 75,000. The directions I had for this store were a bit confusing so I decided to see if there were someone to ask. I figured they must know where the only 7-11 in town was. However, it was about 2 AM and there was nothing open, and no one to ask. But I saw 3 fire trucks and a fire car parked in a cluster of buildings just in from the main road. So I stopped to ask directions. All the engines of the vehicles were running, their emergency flashers were on, the hoses were hooked up to a hydrant and there were streams of water honeycombing the asphalt, but no one was in sight. After walking around the vehicles vainly searching for someone, I decided to follow one of the firehoses away from the pumper truck . After walking about 70 or 80 feet, I found the end of the hose. Turned off and lying in a puddle! I was VERY creeped out and I felt JUST like Earl Holliman! I didn't get panicked, but I couldn't waste any more time looking for the end of another hose, so I walked back to my Chevy pick-up and left. Still not seeing anyone on my way back to my vehicle. When I got to my 7-11 store the parking lot was empty and I got sort of worried, thinking that if the store was open, and EMPTY...... But, there was the clerk. Whew! I mentioned the scene I had just left, and he shrugged his shoulders. As I said, no explanations, no claims. I tell this story only because it happened the way I described and it left me feeling like I was in the Twilight Zone."

That's a neat story, but I live in Mississauga and at 2AM things can be deader than dead out there. It's odd that there were no firemen attending the truck, but the lights are always on throughout the duration of an emergency and they might have been out of view somewhere inside the truck. I don't think such situations are paranormal, but your senses and fear response would be quite active, heightening the experience.

Interesting, it's not my story, but someone elses, have you had any of these types of experiences?

Yes, definitely. My friend and I have come across some eerie situations, random abandoned things, scenes where you think there should be people, but there're none around. I'm sure I'll think of some specific ones sooner or later.

I remember being in residence at my university just before Christmas; I had one of the latest exams and no one was around; only the girl beside me was supposedly left, but I didn't actually see her. The caf wasn't open, and the building is old so many of the hallway lights are out at a given time and the ceiling panels taken off for the repairs. To make it worse, the caf was also closed and the desk clerk isn't always at their station. I basically ran anywhere if I had to leave my room after dark, hehe. Not many cars in Kingston, especially at night, and the abandoned penitentiary across the road was having the walls and stuff torn down but the equipment was there without the workers. I definitely had 28 Days Later in mind, lol.

Creepy, I wonder where the workers were, probably lunch break, or maybe they weren't working that day. Just tell me when you think of some more! So you were pretty much alone in the uni, just you and sometimes the desk clerk? And, of course, the girl beside you. That definitely would have been creepy!

Well, constructions workers don't usually work late. Since this was winter, night came relatively early. And I'm about to go through the same thing tonight, I'll bet, though the caf workers say it's open until tomorrow. All the people beside me are moving out, and some left the doors to their empty rooms open. ;_; It's really weird not to hear people moving about upstairs and on my floor and such. My parents don't love me so they're not coming until tomorrow, which is the second last day we're allowed to be here.

My mother used to wake up and experience these "visions" she called them. Almost all of them were apocalyptic in nature.
In all of her experiences something called her to the window out of sleep, she would open the window and see these things happening. She told me that it was an experience for her and not just dreams...
She would see horrifying weather- mega storms across the earth, people starving everywhere, the entire earth & even the clouds on fire.. etc..

not sure if this is what you meant Karzid- but It was the first thing that popped into my head.

One time I called-out of work for my friend's party with the promise of 3 kegs and when I got there it kind of resembled a scene you're talking about.

-Pol

LOL

Wow, the uni must feel really strange when there's no one there! They left their doors open? That would be pretty wierd, looking in at the empty rooms!

Those visions sound creepy, it's be hard watching the human race die out over and over again.

LOL, I guess your friend wasn't very popular!

I guess it would be... come to think about it.

Yeah, it would be sad, even if you knew it was just a dream, or a vision.

She seen these as experiences, she said "not dreams." That's how she explained the reality of what she saw...
My father would have to grab & shake her to get her "out of it."

I guess the "experiences" were very powerful then.

listening to her talk about it, yes it was. Sleeping disorders run in our family.. she would sleep walk too a lot.. but this would happen ever so often..

Did it eventually stop happening?

O no. She was still going thru this when she was dying of cancer. My brother stayed with her then.. when he would hear her yell out, or make "weird cries" he would get her and put her back in the bed. She always suffered with this. The most bizarre thing is her pattern of visions/nightmares.. always seemed to be apocalyptic in nature.

Can't say I have.

I'm not sure if this is what you're looking for. It's not paranormal in any way, just something that happened to me years ago. I was in the middle of a big city, with skyscrapers all around, and it suddenly occured to me that one day every stone of it would be gone. Pictures came to mind of a landscape that must have been 30,000+ years in the future. It was a peaceful savanah, with birds singing. Birds that looked familiar, but wouldn't be found in any books we have today. The bison had some back, and there were nomadic herdsman moving among them. Here and there some odd rocks were poking out of the grass. They were concrete, and were all that was left of the enormous buildings that once stood there. No one paid them any mind. So grand and important today, but in the end they didn't really matter at all and no one wanted them to. Not far away were rows of smaller stones, white as snow. An ancient cemetery, but the marble was dissolved away by millenia of rain, leaving only little nubs in the grass.

I wouldn't call it a vision, just a flash of insight. Maybe there's not really a difference.

I don't know, but that place sounds pretty darn great to me--

Oh, I feel sorry for her, having to see the human race die out so much.

Wow, that place sounds great! It sounds like some sort of paradise on Earth in the future, where there aren't big buildings disguising the ever-changing world today. I guess that could be classified as a vision, because it just came into your mind.

I had one of these, it was down at my local shopping centre at around 5ish, to go and pick some things up from the supermarket for mum. Usually, (considering it was daylight savings) there were people everywhere. But today, something weird happened. I went into the supermarket... and there was just no one there. At all, except for the clerks. I bought the stuff and headed back out, and there wasn't anyone here anymore, either. Then I headed back into the supermarket and it was bustling as per usual!

Needless to say, I was a little freaked about this. When I got back home I gave the shopping to mum and didn't mention a word about it.

Wow, that would have been freaky! Did you ask any of the clerks why there wasn't anyone there?

When I came back and everything was bustling again, I asked a clerk and she said that it was always like that. When I asked another (a man, this time) he gave me basically the same reply.

Weird, huh? I've always wondered about that.

So people just appear, all at the same time? That is definitely weird.

Pretty much, it was like they weren't there one second and then BANG they're there in the space of thirty seconds.

It never happened again.

Then I wonder why the clerks said it happened all the time...

This may not be exactly what you are looking for, as it is more of a pre-apocalyptic scene if you will, but I'll share it nonetheless, because it is one of the most vivid dreams I have ever had. A few years ago, I was taking a nap on my couch. I remember standing up; the dream was so vivid I thought I had actually woken up. For some reason I felt strongly compelled to go outside, so I went out the front door onto the lawn. It was night time, and I could actually feel the dew underneath my bare feet on the grass. All of the neighbors were outside looking up at the sky, and I wondered what they were all looking at, what they were doing out there, so I too looked up, when I heard the distinct sound of what appeared to be an air raid siren. It only lasted for a few moments, and then everything was quiet. Now this next part is hard to describe, so bear with me....there was a deafening roar, yet it was utterly soundless, like I heard it and felt it internally, as though it were some sort of vibration. I was trembling like I was wearing a t-shirt in 10 below weather. I saw what looked like smoke up in the sky, and then suddenly there was this blinding flash of white light.

That was it. When I woke up I was shaking uncontrollably, and I could still feel that deafening roar.......crazy dream, I'll never forget it.

Wow, that must have been a freaky dream! I understand what you mean about the deafening roar. So at the end there was a flash of white light, and that was it? Interesting...

Actually I meant that they said it was always bustling like that, as if they didn't know what I saw happened. Well... maybe it didn't happen. Who knows?

Wierd, I guess that you must have entered...



The Twilight Zone...

I must sound clueless, but what exactly is The Twilight Zone? I've heard of it somewhere before...

On the other hand, I just had a weird thought; (that probably isn't true) maybe these things have something to do with a shift out of phase? I doubt it, but it's a guess, right? I put in my two cents.

You don't know what the Twilight Zone is? You disgust me...

Just kidding! Here is some info on The Twilight Zone, one of the best TV shows ever, even though it's old.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052520/

You might think only old people would like the Twilight Zone, as it was made in 1959, but I like it and I'm 13!

Maybe they do, maybe there really is a "twilight zone" sort of thing that people sometimes enter, and in that place strange things really do happen, but that's just my 2 cents!

Sounds good, but I've always been a fan of Doctor Who. If it ever pops up on television again I'll watch it. I'm only fourteen and don't watch a lot of television so that's probably why I knew nothing about it.

The reason I thought it might be something like a shift out of phase was because I saw a documentary a year ago on the Discovery Channel (I think) and it had some things similar to what happened to me. Then they explained a theory (from what I can remember) about how this might happen, like suppose that there's a whole lot of dimensions to the same universe piled on top of one another. Usually, everything that we know of (like people, plants, animals, items etc.) will be found on one dimension, but for some reason (they didn't give an explanation why) they can unbalance and leave people temporarily on different levels, like the ones on higher ones can see everything, and ones who get temporarily trapped in the lower ones can't see anything on the higher ones.

Although, that doesn't explain why the clerks were still there and never thought anything was different.

I'm officially confused.

That is pretty confusing, but that other universes theory was great! It does make sense too.

Yes... that sequence of words I made up made perfect sense... kidding!

There was an example too, that I feel might be worth mentioning. A (Japanese, I think) woman was walking in the middle of a city, when suddenly she started to realise that she had to move out of the way of other people instead of them. Eventually, she crashed into an older woman who looked around with confusion, and then continued. A couple of minutes later everything was fine again.

My guess (since I can't remember a lot on that show) is that when that happened, that her exact position something happened where she was shifted up to a somewhat higher dimension, because she could see the people but they couldn't see her.

Heh, maybe people will really understand this for sure one day.

Interesting, I think I would have liked to watch that show! That experience is very wierd, and if that theory is correct then yes, she was on a higher dimension, and that is why she could see people but they couldn't see her.

Yeah, maybe we will understand it one day.

This topic is beginning to interest me more and more lately. I'm going to google for a bit to see what I can dig up.

EDIT: Google didn't help me a lot. Although when I started looking at stuff like the planes of existence (dimensions as I was calling them earlier) I got a fair bit about astral projection (that part was irrelevant) and then, the astral plane.

And it got me thinking that, supposing that AP is true, when people do manage to do it, no one can see them, because they are on the astral plane. Right?

So what if (again, supposing AP and the astral plane are true) when something like people 'disappearing' happens, do they go to the Astral plane for a little bit without realizing it?

So... I was thinking. If we combine this;

Astral Plane: Shoppers and everyone else.
Stuck in between Astral Plane and the Normal Plane: (so they could not only see the shoppers, but I could see them) the clerks.
Normal Plane: Me


That kindasortamaybe sheds a little light.

This has happened to me quite a bit actually. Three specific times that really stand out were after natural disasters.

First time it happened was in 93 when California was hit by the big earthquake. I was probably 10 at the time. We had went through about a day or two of consistent aftershocks already and went to the grocery store to get food. When we got there although open the place was deserted, I think as we left I remember seeing maybe two workers. The aisles were trashed with fallen/broken goods that were swept into huge piles and kept to the side as best as possible. Definitely an odd experience.

The second time was in Greentown, Indiana just outside Kokomo. We had just been hit by massive tornado (they show it a lot on the natural disaster shows.) The whole town was under Marshall Law due to looters so you had to show ID to get back in. We had fled to a family friend's house when the tornado hit (drove within two blocks of it) as we didn't have a basement. After it was over we immediately went back into town. After making it past the police roadblock it was the craziest thing. I had grown up in this town the majority of my life, although small it was NEVER dead. However when we got there every light in the town was off, not a car or person on the streets. As we came down one of the final roads leading to my house I saw two people both covered from their feet to their waist in mud, they didn't even look to the car as we passed, eyes were straight forward and they looked lost. Found out later they were one of the ones who's house was leveled.

The last time happened in New Orleans, right after they opened the city up again due to Katrina. I go to New Orleans atleast 5-6 times a year and many before and since Katrina, however it was the first visit back that stands out the most. I think my mood may have been set by the trip into the city, as around us there was just utter destruction. Everything was gone and what was left was long abandoned. We arrived in the French Quarter and I decided that before I got drunk I was going to take a stroll by the river. At this point the French Quarter was actually pretty well cleaned up (or as good as it was going to get considering the place,) they needed it to bring money back to the City. That said it was still very fresh and lots of businesses remained closed and the streets were as dead as I had ever seen them. When I got down to the river it was one of the creepiest feelings I have ever had. There is a mall down by the Aquarium and it was completely shut down and the outside walking area which was squares of concrete had all broken down and sunk downwards into the ground. I have vivid memory of walking down through it and remembering how creeped out I was. The whole time I walked along the riverwalk I didn't see a single soul.

I recently spent six months living in downtown Atlanta, for those familiar with the area I literally stayed directly above the Underground Mall. My Girlfriend would get off late nights and I would have to meet her at the parking lot which was about a 3/4 of a mile away (walked it twice a day.) Now you would think that deep into such a city that you would never feel alone. However I can recall numerous nights (especially with the really bad winds) that I would walk down to meet her and never encounter a car or a person. Those were strange nights and I actually somewhat enjoyed them.

You actually bring up a good point about the ones on the lower level not being able to see as much as the ones on the higher level.

When you think of the self as multi-dimensonial, you view your conscious reality as a perception from this physical level. There is also the more aware self at that higher all seeing level.

The experience you described could well have been a glimps into another reality that you can see clearly at that higher level. It could have been like a time travel moment to the store just before it opened that day or the next day. That would account for the reason there were no shoppers.

John

I havnt had a dream like one i had a long time ago for while, but for some period in time i had a dream that replayed in my mind. I was outside a city wall, (i dont know why one was up) and i was standing on a bridge, i looked around and didnt see anyone, there were homes standing perfectly fine, and some destroyed, what was wierd though i turned and looked at a forest and saw the trees moving, then a machine appeared out of no where. I quickly stumbled to hide under the bridge, well the machine jumped on the bridge and started to walk on it as it began to collapse, (it was one them bridges built on land with a small open tunnel area below it), i saw the bridge giving way and quickly got up under the side of the bridge, for about a minute nothing happened. Then i thought everything was ok it peered over the edge and saw me. I quickly ran and made my way inside the city. When i turned to look back i didnt see the machine following me, now it didnt look like any kind of regular machine it was quiet large, moved on four legs, kinda looked like a giant bug. I ran under it quickly got by as it continued to chase me, i ran inside a house thinking it didnt see me. I walked to a window and saw it passed over as it began to crush homes. Then as i sat down the house i was hidding in began to collapse as it had found me, i picked up a metal pipe and threw it at it hoping to distract it. I ran out of the house and as i ran by a large metal door it swung open and i was quickly pulled in, there were survivors hidding underground. Then i woke up as soon as i went to look at them. Since then off and on i've had the same dream re-occur.

Definitely the most intriguing!

Funny I found this topic today, because I just had a dream lastnight about the End of The World!
I Had found this underground bunker outside in the yard, and was trying to get food and water and clothes and all that stuffed into it...apparently I wanted to be ready!
But just as I was arguing with my mom to let me put some food inside, the ground just started this mad shaking that was just immense! My parents suddenly realise I had the right idea , they fetch my brother and sister from the house and I save the cats!
Never got to see what happened next though.

That dream was unusual for me in that it didn't follow the usual sequence of events of all my other 'End of World', disaster type dreams,
and I do have many of late.

it'd be interesting if i had my same dream again.

Very interesting, that Astral Plane is an interesting topic. If the AP is real then what you said would be right, because you couldn't feel or see the other shoppers and the clerks could, and you could see the clerks. But I reckon it's more likely that you were on the AP and the shoppers weren't, cause you're only one person (as far as I know anyway... ) and there were tons of shoppers.

Very interesting, you've definitely experienced these a lot! None of them seem very paranormal, but still very wierd. That last one is very, very wierd, I thought that in places like Atlanta there would be numerous cars there all the time, and people walking around even in the dead of night. Very wierd indeed...

Great point, I just had another thought as well! Maybe ghosts are seen by people when they are on a higher level, when they can see more. We might live on the middle level, and ghosts may live on one or two higher than us. But this makes me wonder, if things like ghosts are on higher levels, then what would be on the highest? Would we even want to know what horrors are on those high levels? And if you descend far enough, what would you see? Would it just be nothing, floating through an unimaginable expanse of nothing, not seeing black and not seeing white, just nothing?

This has really got me thinking...