"Ghost" drums heard in a forest at night

[Nathan815]

So I live in middle Europe, and literally live just a few minutes of walking next to a forest. My friend and I are pretty crazy - considering that we seek fear and excitement from the unknown, and that's what we did in this experience as well. Basically, we set out to venture into the forest after sunset, determined to experience something exciting - paranormal or not. I mean, we'd be happy if we just saw a wild boar or something.

Description of the event: We walked quite a bit in the forest, finding a nice spot to smoke some tobacco. No mind-altering substances that would even slightly mess up our perception were used that day. After a while of just chatting and getting scared of random natural forest sounds, we decided to go home - and had 2 options. Either we get out of the forest right now and walk around (much less spooky), or we go straight through the dark forest and of course we went with the latter.

Fast forward 10 minutes of walking, we are halfway through  when I notice a very weak, faint sound in the back - drums. And I mean drums as in actual, real drums with no other musical instrument (no guitar, no violin, just drums). So at first, of course we got a bit spooked, but waved our hands at it and kept walking - it was far away and probably just some people having a night in the forest or whatever. The forest is frequented by young people having all kinds of meetings and parties, alcohol and drugs included of course, so it did not surprise me that someone might be having a drum-session.

But the drums got closer. As we walked trying to not talk about it as to not freak out, we couldn't but notice that the sound was getting closer. Or was it? So we finally stopped, listening, in complete silence. In the next 5 seconds, we came to the horrifying realization that the drums are indeed getting closer, and they were coming from a specific direction. So at first we were "nailed" to the ground, unable to move out of fear. We were both expecting to see some people walk out from behind the trees with drums and lights - but since there was absolutely no light at all, the situation was that much scarier. Especially considering this was an area of the forest with nothing - no benches,

I mean okay, drums and all, this can all be explained - we are not alone on this planet, obviously. But then, as we waited for something to happen and the sound kept getting closer (perhaps even more "violent" - it seemed as if the drumming was intensifying the closer it got) we came to another terrifying realization. If there are other people in the 10 meter radius around us right now, why don't they have any lights or don't make any (human) sounds, voices etc? Why just the drumming, nothing else, no footsteps, no voice, absolutely nothing? The drumming kept getting closer every second. So we started running and we were so scared we literally held each others clothes - just to make sure that the other one doesn't suddenly disappear like in a bad horror movie. Yes, that's how scared we were.

Nothing happened though. We ran away from it and as we ran, the sound got weaker and more distant. Since then, we did not return to the forest after sunset, even though it was our favorite place for the last 10 years. We have been through many "mysterious" events in this forest in the past - weird shapes, movements, animals, sounds, feelings, whatever, you name it. But all of these could always be explained very simply - see a weird shaped animal? Darkness and fear messing with your mind. Hear voices? There are probably people! But this time, we really do not know.

To this day, we only talk about this during daylight, and we only discuss it very briefly because we always get scared the moment we imagine this experience. We do not know what happened and honestly, we are kind of scared to find out.

PS: No religious rituals or any other human or animal activity can explain this, due to how close the drumming was and we still didn't see any light, or hear any other sound (and we are pretty sure it was, like I said, closer than 10 meters to us at the last moment).

 

Can anyone provide a plausible explanation for this, or should I remain in the blissful ignorance and believe this was a paranormal experience?

[Myles]

2 hours ago, Nathan815 said:

So I live in middle Europe, and literally live just a few minutes of walking next to a forest. My friend and I are pretty crazy - considering that we seek fear and excitement from the unknown, and that's what we did in this experience as well. Basically, we set out to venture into the forest after sunset, determined to experience something exciting - paranormal or not. I mean, we'd be happy if we just saw a wild boar or something.

Description of the event: We walked quite a bit in the forest, finding a nice spot to smoke some tobacco. No mind-altering substances that would even slightly mess up our perception were used that day. After a while of just chatting and getting scared of random natural forest sounds, we decided to go home - and had 2 options. Either we get out of the forest right now and walk around (much less spooky), or we go straight through the dark forest and of course we went with the latter.

Fast forward 10 minutes of walking, we are halfway through  when I notice a very weak, faint sound in the back - drums. And I mean drums as in actual, real drums with no other musical instrument (no guitar, no violin, just drums). So at first, of course we got a bit spooked, but waved our hands at it and kept walking - it was far away and probably just some people having a night in the forest or whatever. The forest is frequented by young people having all kinds of meetings and parties, alcohol and drugs included of course, so it did not surprise me that someone might be having a drum-session.

But the drums got closer. As we walked trying to not talk about it as to not freak out, we couldn't but notice that the sound was getting closer. Or was it? So we finally stopped, listening, in complete silence. In the next 5 seconds, we came to the horrifying realization that the drums are indeed getting closer, and they were coming from a specific direction. So at first we were "nailed" to the ground, unable to move out of fear. We were both expecting to see some people walk out from behind the trees with drums and lights - but since there was absolutely no light at all, the situation was that much scarier. Especially considering this was an area of the forest with nothing - no benches,

I mean okay, drums and all, this can all be explained - we are not alone on this planet, obviously. But then, as we waited for something to happen and the sound kept getting closer (perhaps even more "violent" - it seemed as if the drumming was intensifying the closer it got) we came to another terrifying realization. If there are other people in the 10 meter radius around us right now, why don't they have any lights or don't make any (human) sounds, voices etc? Why just the drumming, nothing else, no footsteps, no voice, absolutely nothing? The drumming kept getting closer every second. So we started running and we were so scared we literally held each others clothes - just to make sure that the other one doesn't suddenly disappear like in a bad horror movie. Yes, that's how scared we were.

Nothing happened though. We ran away from it and as we ran, the sound got weaker and more distant. Since then, we did not return to the forest after sunset, even though it was our favorite place for the last 10 years. We have been through many "mysterious" events in this forest in the past - weird shapes, movements, animals, sounds, feelings, whatever, you name it. But all of these could always be explained very simply - see a weird shaped animal? Darkness and fear messing with your mind. Hear voices? There are probably people! But this time, we really do not know.

To this day, we only talk about this during daylight, and we only discuss it very briefly because we always get scared the moment we imagine this experience. We do not know what happened and honestly, we are kind of scared to find out.

PS: No religious rituals or any other human or animal activity can explain this, due to how close the drumming was and we still didn't see any light, or hear any other sound (and we are pretty sure it was, like I said, closer than 10 meters to us at the last moment).

 

Can anyone provide a plausible explanation for this, or should I remain in the blissful ignorance and believe this was a paranormal experience?

Perhaps someone messing with you kids.   

Your statement - "PS: No religious rituals or any other human or animal activity can explain this"  is not accurate.   It can be explained by human behavior.   Maybe a recording.   Maybe not as close as you think, because you were in a panicked state.  

 

Neat story though.

[Nathan815]

6 hours ago, Myles said:

Perhaps someone messing with you kids.   

Your statement - "PS: No religious rituals or any other human or animal activity can explain this"  is not accurate.   It can be explained by human behavior.   Maybe a recording.   Maybe not as close as you think, because you were in a panicked state.  

 

Neat story though.

I agree - I went through this many times, but can't believe there would be a person or people at such a late time, and especially trying to mess with us with a recording or something. But yes of course, it is a possibility. But there were two of us, and we both panicked like insane, so at least I know I am not hearing things.

[kartikg]

why the hell did you panic since you and your friend went into forest looking exactly for this. Since you went to look for paranormal I am hoping you carried  camera, recording equipment etc, do you have a recording of drums? I have a feeling that you are making this up. 

[Nathan815]

58 minutes ago, kartikg said:

why the hell did you panic since you and your friend went into forest looking exactly for this. Since you went to look for paranormal I am hoping you carried  camera, recording equipment etc, do you have a recording of drums? I have a feeling that you are making this up. 

Well we did, but not in the way you mean. We do not care for "proving" anything, we only really care for the experience itself - since we actually do not believe in the paranormal, we try to prove ourselves wrong. We've been through a lot of stuff - from hearing voices all the way to a fireplace lighting itself up in minus 5 degrees Celsius. But this was different and way too unexplainable. I am only writing here because of how intense the experience was. We are no ghost hunters. We do hunt for paranormal, but like I said, only to get the chills ourselves, since deep inside we know that most of the 'paranormal' is probably not paranormal at all. Similar to why do people watch horror movies - simply to get scared while feeling safe at the same time because it's "just a movie".

 

I understand it may seem like I am making this up, but why on earth would I? I mean, come on.. I am a student. I have better things to do than make up stories on UE forums. What would I gain? I am merely seeking an explanation. I am even okay with saying that this was "ghosts", but well, what kind of ghosts? Why did we only experience audio, no physical contact or visual? Why drums? Why not during the day?

But most of all, the question that keeps me from sleeping at night is: what would happen if we had stayed on the spot as the drums got closer?

 

I even resorted to asking a bunch of random local people if there has been any deaths or missing people or anything. Only two people told me about this "legend" or a story or whatever, about a bunch of teenagers that went into the forest to summon ghosts, using the empty paper glass method (you draw YES/NO on a paper and then put a plastic glass on top of it. Then you summon the ghost and it is supposed to move the glass to yes or no) and supposedly upon asking whether the ghost is evil, it replied YES and killed all of them one by one, except for one kid that ended up on medications and with all kinds of mental issues. This is probably as fake as it can get since both of the people heard the story from the same person and anyway, there is no official record of this. But it's all I got. I mean the area itself is pretty young, most of the buildings aren't older than 25 years.

 

Of course I also looked at the "official" events and things that go on in the forest. Nothing at all, there is a touristic expedition from time to time (like once in a year), but it only concerns a small part of the area as the forest isn't that big and is cut in half by a highway. And other than that, it's just a standard forest with a small animal population - only boars and deers and smaller animals.

Is there any kind of an animal that, when running or walking (or perhaps walking in a group) makes a sound that could, under some circumstances, be mistaken for drumming? I was also considering it could simply have been a bunch of wild boars running around, in our direction even - but due to the darkness (and foliage, trees etc) we did not see them and their heavy "clops" on the ground would sound like drums.

 

I also forgot to mention that, we heard the drums before (during the same evening/night). But only for about 3 seconds and very far away, so we barely noticed it, but I do remember saying something like "do you hear that? Who the **** is drumming at this hour wow..". Then we went the opposite direction, just to be safe - you never know, it could be a bunch of very drunk violent teenagers or a psychopath or, hey, even an angry ghost right? So that was also another scary part - since we went the other direction, why do we hear the drums again? Is it following us?

In that moment all I could think of is that maybe there's a group of hippies that are marching around the forest with drums, lol.

Edited July 8, 2017 by Nathan815

[Mr.United_Nations]

Where was this?

[Nathan815]

23 minutes ago, Mr.United_Nations said:

Where was this?

East of Slovakia (a small country neighboring Poland, Hungary...)

[Mr.United_Nations]

Wouldn't call Slovakia a small country. Anyway do you know any battles of that happened? 

[Nathan815]

On 7/9/2017 at 8:02 PM, Mr.United_Nations said:

Wouldn't call Slovakia a small country. Anyway do you know any battles of that happened? 

No, certainly not in this area at least. Of course, we had our fair share of WW2 and the like, but not much has happened around here. Or I am simply not aware of it..

Edited July 11, 2017 by Nathan815

[LockON]

Hello, I know I'm too late but what you're explaining is true. I wanna say that I haven't experienced this myself but my close relatives have. I live in Albania, a lot of paranormal stuff have happened in the past at my fathers village, screams, strange lights and of course the drums. I'm not an idiot but the last time I was there I was standing near some graves during the night with this cousin of mine because that was the only place where we could get some 4G connection. I mean, who would do that?!

Anyway, this cousin of mine decides to go hunting with my uncle, during the night, they hunt for rabbits. After some walk the cousin decides to stop and eat some grape that can be randomly found around the village. They start hearing the drums, my uncle is older than 55 and has gone through a lot of paranormal activity before but that's what you get if you decide you wanna walk for hours through the forest during the night. He says to the cousin that they should leave because the "dont know what to call these noise makers in english" are approaching them. My cousin then says it may be a bear and his cubs, uncle gets angry, of course, bears can't use drums. I have to mention it wasn't only drums, music too, like a flute or something. Oh and, it was a valley, with the river in between the mountains, the scary part starts here, at first they were hearing the drums on the other side of the river, you would need at least 30 minutes to come where they were from where the drums were heard, but, then, they hear them 15 meters in front of them. My cousin explains it like this: "There was this green flash, I saw some starts, there were stars in front of us, moving slowly, then some heat was following them, like when you run and you create that wind behind you, but this was so warm, and then, a bad smell, it was so bad, like when you kill an animal and skin it and open it's stomach, it was so weird". Now, can someone explain this, he has also seen a red light in the sky moving in a circle and then leaving super fast, but this is another story. About the drums, my other uncle and his wife have heard the same thing, other people too, but no one can explain this. I once thought maybe someone was having a party and the sound was coming down the valley and then it was heard like it was at a specific location near the "victims" but it is a small village with no other village nearby and the word is spread quickly, so, no party or anything like that. I strongly believe this is alien activity, my grandmother says these kinda stuff used to happen a lot in the past.

[Sakari]

On 7/7/2017 at 4:15 AM, Nathan815 said:

So I live in middle Europe, and literally live just a few minutes of walking next to a forest. My friend and I are pretty crazy - considering that we seek fear and excitement from the unknown, and that's what we did in this experience as well. Basically, we set out to venture into the forest after sunset, determined to experience something exciting - paranormal or not. I mean, we'd be happy if we just saw a wild boar or something.

Description of the event: We walked quite a bit in the forest, finding a nice spot to smoke some tobacco. No mind-altering substances that would even slightly mess up our perception were used that day. After a while of just chatting and getting scared of random natural forest sounds, we decided to go home - and had 2 options. Either we get out of the forest right now and walk around (much less spooky), or we go straight through the dark forest and of course we went with the latter.

Fast forward 10 minutes of walking, we are halfway through  when I notice a very weak, faint sound in the back - drums. And I mean drums as in actual, real drums with no other musical instrument (no guitar, no violin, just drums). So at first, of course we got a bit spooked, but waved our hands at it and kept walking - it was far away and probably just some people having a night in the forest or whatever. The forest is frequented by young people having all kinds of meetings and parties, alcohol and drugs included of course, so it did not surprise me that someone might be having a drum-session.

But the drums got closer. As we walked trying to not talk about it as to not freak out, we couldn't but notice that the sound was getting closer. Or was it? So we finally stopped, listening, in complete silence. In the next 5 seconds, we came to the horrifying realization that the drums are indeed getting closer, and they were coming from a specific direction. So at first we were "nailed" to the ground, unable to move out of fear. We were both expecting to see some people walk out from behind the trees with drums and lights - but since there was absolutely no light at all, the situation was that much scarier. Especially considering this was an area of the forest with nothing - no benches,

I mean okay, drums and all, this can all be explained - we are not alone on this planet, obviously. But then, as we waited for something to happen and the sound kept getting closer (perhaps even more "violent" - it seemed as if the drumming was intensifying the closer it got) we came to another terrifying realization. If there are other people in the 10 meter radius around us right now, why don't they have any lights or don't make any (human) sounds, voices etc? Why just the drumming, nothing else, no footsteps, no voice, absolutely nothing? The drumming kept getting closer every second. So we started running and we were so scared we literally held each others clothes - just to make sure that the other one doesn't suddenly disappear like in a bad horror movie. Yes, that's how scared we were.

Nothing happened though. We ran away from it and as we ran, the sound got weaker and more distant. Since then, we did not return to the forest after sunset, even though it was our favorite place for the last 10 years. We have been through many "mysterious" events in this forest in the past - weird shapes, movements, animals, sounds, feelings, whatever, you name it. But all of these could always be explained very simply - see a weird shaped animal? Darkness and fear messing with your mind. Hear voices? There are probably people! But this time, we really do not know.

To this day, we only talk about this during daylight, and we only discuss it very briefly because we always get scared the moment we imagine this experience. We do not know what happened and honestly, we are kind of scared to find out.

PS: No religious rituals or any other human or animal activity can explain this, due to how close the drumming was and we still didn't see any light, or hear any other sound (and we are pretty sure it was, like I said, closer than 10 meters to us at the last moment).

 

Can anyone provide a plausible explanation for this, or should I remain in the blissful ignorance and believe this was a paranormal experience?

There are people who live out in the woods, part time, and full time. I am sure it can be fun to mess with people.

 

 

[AnaWr]

LockON, thanks for reinforcing what I had already suspected: ritual practitioners. The equivalent of skinwalkers. That explains the lights, the smell, the flute (maybe similar to a whistle), screams and not to forget the proximity of a river valley (which serves as a portal). Wouldn't be surprised if there was Bigfoot activity around there as well. That goes for you too, Nathan815. You mentioned weird animal shapes at night in the forest, but dismissed them as mind tricks from fear and darkness. Well, you never know .......

[openozy]

Your talking about not smoking drugs but tobacco.Probably getting thumping from your head spins.Give up the ciggies,worst thing you could smoke.

[Piney]

On 11/4/2018 at 12:41 AM, AnaWr said:

LockON, thanks for reinforcing what I had already suspected: ritual practitioners. The equivalent of skinwalkers. That explains the lights, the smell, the flute (maybe similar to a whistle), screams and not to forget the proximity of a river valley (which serves as a portal). Wouldn't be surprised if there was Bigfoot activity around there as well. That goes for you too, Nathan815. You mentioned weird animal shapes at night in the forest, but dismissed them as mind tricks from fear and darkness. Well, you never know .......

What is your thoughts on "Skinwalkers"?  

[AnaWr]

Being from Europe, all I can say is that I believe they're highly-skilled magic practitioners, I think every continent has their own version of "skinwalkers", some bad some good.. For example, gypsies here can do some amazing stuff... Also, I think these powers are passed hereditary. As for the drums, I have heard and read throughout the years that some rituals require drumming. The whole vibe of the story gave me a feeling of "skinwalkers", that's all. Especially coupled with screams, lights and strong smells.

[XenoFish]

So there's absolutely no possible way it could've been a group of teens/college kids out in the woods, listening to music, getting drunk and high while possibly having sex? 

['Walt' E. Kurtz]

Sounds like hearing hallusination 

[Piney]

13 hours ago, AnaWr said:

Being from Europe, all I can say is that I believe they're highly-skilled magic practitioners, I think every continent has their own version of "skinwalkers", some bad some good.. For example, gypsies here can do some amazing stuff... Also, I think these powers are passed hereditary. As for the drums, I have heard and read throughout the years that some rituals require drumming. The whole vibe of the story gave me a feeling of "skinwalkers", that's all. Especially coupled with screams, lights and strong smells.

I'm a "Kiimochnii" a "Night Walker" what you call a "Skinwalker" and you don't know anything about us. It's nothing more than a acrobatic "puppet show" and screams, lights and strong smells have nothing to do with it.

........except if somebody farts next to the fire. 

[AnaWr]

13 hours ago, XenoFish said:

So there's absolutely no possible way it could've been a group of teens/college kids out in the woods, listening to music, getting drunk and high while possibly having sex? 

Yes, of course. If they were invisible, sure. why not.

[Piney]

13 hours ago, XenoFish said:

So there's absolutely no possible way it could've been a group of teens/college kids out in the woods, listening to music, getting drunk and high while possibly having sex? 

Both my boys were conceived on the back of my IT 250 near a bonfire. 

[AnaWr]

31 minutes ago, Piney said:

I'm a "Kiimochnii" a "Night Walker" what you call a "Skinwalker" and you don't know anything about us. It's nothing more than a acrobatic "puppet show" and screams, lights and strong smells have nothing to do with it.

........except if somebody farts next to the fire. 

I replied to your inquiry with a good will, so to speak. If I knew you have superiority issues and trying to prove me something, I would have refrained to talk to you in the first place.

Frankly, I don't give a damn what you're called in your tribe/culture, nightwalker or daywalker or fishdancing or anything. And neither do I intend to find out, because I don't have an interest in what you people believe you may be.

So please, go back to farting now, kid. Bye.

[Piney]

5 minutes ago, AnaWr said:

Frankly, I don't give a damn what you're called in your tribe/culture, nightwalker or daywalker or fishdancing or anything. And neither do I intend to find out, because I don't have an interest in what you people believe you may be.

 

I carved the masks too..

[AnaWr]

Interesting. So, you're saying you're not a kid.

Well, then please have the maturity of accepting cultural differences between two separate continents. If I offered you my idea of what skinwalkers are, please take it as it is, or better yet try to explain to me where I am wrong. This would be a healthy communication, instead of telling me that I know nothing of your people. Which I never denied, anyway.

[XenoFish]

46 minutes ago, AnaWr said:

Yes, of course. If they were invisible, sure. why not.

Sound travels.

[XenoFish]

32 minutes ago, AnaWr said:

Interesting. So, you're saying you're not a kid.

Well, then please have the maturity of accepting cultural differences between two separate continents. If I offered you my idea of what skinwalkers are, please take it as it is, or better yet try to explain to me where I am wrong. This would be a healthy communication, instead of telling me that I know nothing of your people. Which I never denied, anyway.

So you're basically saying that no matter what anyone says, you are right.