Man in Gray

[UM-Bot]

Image credit: iStockPhoto

Marby Noffki: I feel that it would be generally boring and lazy of me to turn this column into a retelling of spooky personal experiences that I have no way of proving to the reader, nor do I want to give the impression that I ride around in the Mystery Machine in my spare time. I could probably fill a book with spooky personal experiences, and may do so eventually, but for the purposes of this column, I am trying to keep the focus away from that with very little exception. This article is one such exception because I am writing it at my mother’s request, and one does not deny Mom.

I have mentioned previously that I have had some psychic experiences in my time, but they are sporadic, often vague, and far from extraordinary considering that there are those with more highly developed gifts out there. This gift is one that my grandmother could have harnessed and used, and one that my mother is coming into in the most morbid way imaginable.

Mom has predicted the deaths of no less than five people over the past few years. This isn’t some vague feeling. This is not something she has mentioned to others after the fact, and for this reason alone, I am sharing it with world. Mom is freaking us out, but it goes well beyond the mere prediction.

Mom was mopping her living room floor on a summer’s day a few years back when she described a moment during which she saw a man in a gray suit, wearing a bowler hat. His features were so plain that she could never recall them, even moments after her experience, and in fact, she is not entirely sure if this man was standing in her living room or simply in her mind’s eye. What she did remember was his calm, but otherwise nondescript voice informing her that her eighteen month old grand-nephew was dead. She dismissed it at first, but was disturbed enough to tell a few people about it. She also made sure to verify that this child was alive, and on that day, he was. It was two weeks later that he drowned in a swimming pool.

This was not an isolated incident. The man in gray has appeared to my mother several times since, and each time, he has delivered the news of somebody’s death. Each time, that person was dead within a few weeks. They were not always people she knew well or even cared for, though some were. My mother does not like receiving this information before it happens, and she has always said that if she thinks about it too much, it bothers her to think that she might predict the death of someone much closer to her than the grand-nephew that was a difficult enough loss to bear.

Apparently, my mother is not the only person to have encountered this prophet of doom. My sister’s mother-in-law has seen him as well, and he also informed her of an impending death in the family.

It was this revelation that prompted my mother to request this article of me.

An admittedly brief web search of legends surrounding a prophetic man in gray turned up no information, though I have heard of him from one or two people over the years. This information was as vague as the gray clad man’s face and gave me little to go on. Unfortunately, the closest I have come to actually seeing anything about him was an old Anthrax album cover, and while I am a fan of theirs, I would hardly consider them a starting point for serious research.

I’m just throwing this out there. Is this man in gray part of an elusive legend? Have others seen him? If he’s out there, wandering the earth and delivering bad news, I sure don’t want to meet him, but I would like to know if you have.

[skullbone]

Interesting. I read this article and decided to register and reply. I have never encountered anything like this. But I tried to do some quick research for you before I go to bed. And I will give you some of my advice that may help you.

First...the closest thing I could find that seemed to resemble this man is the Celtic Banshee. Though those are female. Do you think it may be some form of a banshee but in male form. Is your mother sure the figure is a man? She said he was very bland and couldn't recall what he really looked like.

Also, what cultural background is your mother? Irish, African, Indian, etc. ? Maybe you could start with the legends of the people she may be closest to in bloodlines or heredity.

TJ

[Marby]

Interesting. I read this article and decided to register and reply. I have never encountered anything like this. But I tried to do some quick research for you before I go to bed. And I will give you some of my advice that may help you.

First...the closest thing I could find that seemed to resemble this man is the Celtic Banshee. Though those are female. Do you think it may be some form of a banshee but in male form. Is your mother sure the figure is a man? She said he was very bland and couldn't recall what he really looked like.

Also, what cultural background is your mother? Irish, African, Indian, etc. ? Maybe you could start with the legends of the people she may be closest to in bloodlines or heredity.

TJ

Thank you! I hadn't thought of it, but this is much like a banshee. Mom says that all she can really recall was that it was a man in a neat, gray suit and bowler hat with features almost too plain to really make note of. His voice is male and very calm. One thing to note is that Mom speaks English and Spanish, and she can never recall which language he's spoken to her in. Her cultural background is Cuban/Spanish (Asturias region).

Anything you can find will help. Thanks again. I am looking as well.

[sjlennon]

Thank you! I hadn't thought of it, but this is much like a banshee. Mom says that all she can really recall was that it was a man in a neat, gray suit and bowler hat with features almost too plain to really make note of. His voice is male and very calm. One thing to note is that Mom speaks English and Spanish, and she can never recall which language he's spoken to her in. Her cultural background is Cuban/Spanish (Asturias region).

Anything you can find will help. Thanks again. I am looking as well.

[sjlennon]

it sounds like the man in grey is british, since he is wearing a bowler hat and a suit. i've never heard of a man in grey predicting someone's death. keep us informed about what you find out.

[Caana]

I knew my dead son in law was going to die before he was 22. And he did, exactly as i remembered he would. I don't know about any man in gray, because it is myself showing/telling me these thing's before they happen. When i had thought to tell him what i had seen so that he could prevent it, i was shown what would happen if he did'nt die when he was supposed to. And i kept silent about it, because if he had'nt died, two more people would have died by his own hands. I saw this about two years before it actually had happened.

I really liked him, because he took on my daughter, who was a bit messed up from being raised by her mother, after i had divorced her. I grieved for awhile, and even felt guilty, but was reasured that there was nothing i could have done to stop those event sequences.

I understand how your mums must feel, and i certainly understand how others feel about her, however much they may love her.

What must be understood here, is that those who see/know/understand these thing's, can't be held accountable. There is always something that will prevent them from speaking out such foreknowledge until after the fact, even if it is viewed and known, and then drifts from your memory until the event actually happens.

The same with world event's, if i know a people are going to be destroyed, i keep my mouth shut, unless i agree with the destruction, and want to crow about it, because they are enemy's.

The hidden world you are touching on has become far more active in the last several years, because hardpoint probability event's are approaching that are going to change everything, and not{thankfully}into what the religious think or want to happen, for they have been beguiled by that which we have been all warned about, and pay no heed.

Anyway, that stuff is real, the ability's that people have, only their not gift's, because you can't be gifted with what has always been yours. And can use without the use of what is called art's, which put barriers up, for arts are formed from belief, and these ability's are'nt about belief, they are from yourself.

Have a good one

[Mbyte]

So... do we have any free will? When I hear about these kind of stories is that we have no choice in what we do and a fooled into believing in that we chose it. I get depressed over the thought and depressed over the thought that It's not my choice that I'm depressed, I'm just depressed and there's nothing I can do. I have had a first had experience with this when a psychic said I would be in an accident but I would be ok and I was in a car accident a month later and I was ok. There was nothing I could do to stop the accident.

Edited March 25, 2008 by Mbyte

[skullbone]

Hello again.

I have done a little more research and think you may be dealing with a Bodach. It has roots in Scottish folklore. This taken from the Mysterious Britain website Bodach

A dark grey humanoid figure who was thought to foretell the death of members in a clan. Here is the link http://www.mysteriousbritain.co.uk/folklor...ishfolkapp.html

Also here is some more info http://www.answers.com/topic/bodach

You may be dealing with a Bodach Glas(Scottish Gaelic for Grey or pale). Because other sources for the Bodach refer to them as being inky black or shadowy.

Hope this helps. Where do you lve by the way? Do you live in or around the British Isles?

TJ

[Marby]

I would like to thank all of you for your responses.

Caana, I am sorry you have had to go through what you have. I often say I wish I had better developed ability, but my mom's experiences, as well as your own, make me glad that I don't. I don't know that there is much we can do, but there is no reason the person that sees it should be blamed. This does bring me to the free will comment from mbyte. I like to think that all we do and all that will happen is not written in stone and that if we are able to make certain decisions, we can avoid this or that. I like to think that our paths are forked and full of possibility. Are they? I'm afraid I lack the wisdom/knowledge to give a definitive answer to that. Perhaps at the time you were informed of the accident, the decisions leading up to it were already in place and at some "point of no return".

To sjlennon and skullbone: I do live in the UK, but I only moved here from America about two years ago when I married my husband, who is British. Mom has never been here, though she's due to visit at some point in the near future. The Bodach is very compelling, and I appreciate your pointing me toward this site. I am going to start my research there. Perhaps he is a modern version of the same thing? I will keep y'all posted.

Thanks again!

[Caana]

The event's that i reffered to as hardpoint probability's are what hold the sequences together. Probability event's that lead up to them, are defined by what you call chioce, and you can have different careers and friends between hardpoint's, with no worry's about changeing sequences which define the observed sequencal percieved reality. Or what is reffered to as history.

[Mbyte]

MY brother in law you is from argentena has a cousin who can also tell who is going to die but it's much stronger with her then that of your mother. She doesn't get visted by a gray guy (as ffar as I know) I do know she knows who will die and who wont. Well she knows if they are near to their time. She works in a hospital and she knows who is not going to leave the hospital alive and who will. It's upsetting for her

Edited March 25, 2008 by Mbyte

[occultus sententia]

hey!,

i was reading this article with my friend and i found it quite intriguing, it reminds me of my own mother who was able to predict things. well she predicted them a bit differently though, she knew when someone in the family was to die because she would dream of a room filled with all our deceased family members, but there would be an empty chair, and that chair was meant for the one who was to pass away. this happened with every family member except for my father. my mom sort of knew something was to happen to him a different way. she sort of sensed that something was wrong and continually bugged him asking over and over again if he was feeling alright, then the next day he was gone. anyway, i was just very intrested, paranormal activity always intriuges me.

[mouse888]

interesting, instead of a man in black its a man in a bowler at this times!

not a lot of people would wear a bowler now i thinkl

[sjlennon]

I knew my dead son in law was going to die before he was 22. And he did, exactly as i remembered he would. I don't know about any man in gray, because it is myself showing/telling me these thing's before they happen. When i had thought to tell him what i had seen so that he could prevent it, i was shown what would happen if he did'nt die when he was supposed to. And i kept silent about it, because if he had'nt died, two more people would have died by his own hands. I saw this about two years before it actually had happened.

I really liked him, because he took on my daughter, who was a bit messed up from being raised by her mother, after i had divorced her. I grieved for awhile, and even felt guilty, but was reasured that there was nothing i could have done to stop those event sequences.

I understand how your mums must feel, and i certainly understand how others feel about her, however much they may love her.

What must be understood here, is that those who see/know/understand these thing's, can't be held accountable. There is always something that will prevent them from speaking out such foreknowledge until after the fact, even if it is viewed and known, and then drifts from your memory until the event actually happens.

The same with world event's, if i know a people are going to be destroyed, i keep my mouth shut, unless i agree with the destruction, and want to crow about it, because they are enemy's.

The hidden world you are touching on has become far more active in the last several years, because hardpoint probability event's are approaching that are going to change everything, and not{thankfully}into what the religious think or want to happen, for they have been beguiled by that which we have been all warned about, and pay no heed.

Anyway, that stuff is real, the ability's that people have, only their not gift's, because you can't be gifted with what has always been yours. And can use without the use of what is called art's, which put barriers up, for arts are formed from belief, and these ability's are'nt about belief, they are from yourself.

Have a good one

[choateyj]

HECK OF A STORY ...NEVER HEARD FO A GRAY MAN BEFOR ......I HAD AN AUNT THAT COULD SEE THINGS BEFOR THEY HAPPENED....SPOKEY .SOMETIMES....THANKS AGAIN .......Ej

[LineaArlis]

Just like skinbone, I decided to register to comment this article, because I feel I have to express how I feel about it. The main word is, I am amazed, thrilled, awed, or anything along these lines.

You see, in my family, we have always had ghost stories and incredible anecdotes around, for as long as I can remember, and from way before I was born. These stories may seem unbelievable to other people, but strangely for a family of scientists like us, we have never questionned any of them, though I am quite sure some of them are made up.

What is really incredible is a story which I believe to be true, because even being sceptical by nature, I can't deny that it is too astounding to be taken lightly:

My great grandmother often told us about it. It happened about 60 years ago, when my grandmother (her daughter) was about 2 years old. My great grandmother recalled that this event happened when her husband was at work (he was a doctor). She was cooking, her daughter was asleep in her bedroom. She turned around to get some cooking device from the table behind her, and she almost screamed when she saw somebody in front of said table.

This is the part that amazed me. The description of that man fit exactly the one your mother gave you: a man in gray, wearing a bowler hat, and with a face that seemed to have been erased from her memories, only remaining the fact that it was expressionless and not particular at all. He told her about her husband's death. And, as she was turning around to cry for help, the man just disappeared.

My great grandmother waited anxiously for her husband to come back from work. She looked so relieved when he did that he asked her about it. Unable to bear it, she told him about it. He laughed and said it was nothing to worry about, that he was here and alive, and that she had stayed out in the sun for too long. One week and three days later, he died in a building that came down while he was visiting someone sick.

Mygreat grandmother, of course, didn't think too much about the man in grey, as she was overcomed by grief and sorrow, but about one month later a friend she had told the story to before the accident reminded her of that bizarre coincidence.

She never saw the man in grey again, or so we thought. But, one evening, she was in the hospital for she had fallen in her room and was getting a checkup (she was extremely old at that time, about 93 years old I think). Her daughter had been called and came as soon as possible. When they were alone in her car, my great grandmother said something along those lines:

"I don't think you should get me out of the hospital, angel." ("angel" is the nickname my great grandmother gave her daughter when she was young, and sometimes she still called her that when she was older. It's a word play, because my grandmother's name is Angele.)

My grandmother, of course, asked her why. And the reply she got was astonishing. Her mother had seen the man in grey again, for the first time for almost sixty years, and he had predicted her own death. She added that she was not scared, had lived a long life, and that she would miss her family. Of course, as I said, ghost stories are common in my family, and taken seriously, so my grandmother brought her back to the hospital and said her mom was not feeling well. She died of a heart stroke during the night. She had never suffered from any heart problems, and had never smoked or drinked in her whole life. I was 10 at the time.

I have to add, as you may have picked up from my bad English and uncertain grammar, I am not from an English-speaking country. My whole family has always been French, and considered themselves as French even during the German occupation of Lorraine. From that time period when it was not allowed to speak French, my great grandmother gained the ability to speak what we call "patois Lorrain", a mix of French and German. She never speaked English or any other language, and, like your mom, does not remember which language the grey man spoke. I myself learned English from moving to the US 2 years ago. I had lived in Paris before that.

The extreme similarity of your mom's and my great grandmother's experiences was so astounding I had to tell you about it. I hope you appreciate it and find this story interesting.

Linea Arlis.

Edited June 11, 2008 by LineaArlis

[sevendaydemon]

Ahh the man in grey, when you look at the circumstances; bland looking guy, wearing sort of depressing colours like grey, it makes you think could he be the reaper? In spiritual terms there has to be someone who oversees the passing from the physical world to the next, the unpredictable nature of the fabric of the universe would sprial out of control otherwise in many aspects and not just in this one.

Certain people have certain abilities, and for some reason, this man in grey sees fit to notify members of your family about the coming tragedies, so perhaps you should take some time to consider why this is so? why does he appear to your family? what is his reason for revealing himself to the select few when there are billions of people on the earth?

Perhaps someone in your family has been marked by the divine with the power to prevent fate taking its hold, change something that's been written into the near future, perhaps even begin the age where we're no longer controlled by fate, but where we control our own fates entirely.

I hope you find some answers during your search.

[nothingliz]

Well I have seen this man in grey.

Often times as I have heard it can be more than one.

They reside in the 4th dimension. Called the grey dimension, that is why they often times appear grey or black.

When the mind is active and thinking of other things while often times working or playing or even entering sleep mode.

The mind responsive to outside interactions with the higher and lower fields of existance.

The grey man you report has also been known as the shadow men.

They are only observers of the waking world. Yet when someone is about to die or already dead, they the shadow men await to take the dead to their new place in existance either to be judged or judgements place for them.

They often appear with red eyes. For even as much as they don't like to be seen they are seen and are often times a very scary looking entity.

I have seen this entity myself, about two times.

both times he occumpanied sleep paralysis.

I saw him reaching for my feet as I felt the room close in on my back.

It was very scary and not something I talk about much. But I do feel that when others talk about them, that they should know what they are dealing with.

Now you mom might be perceptive to their specific range of frequency when in certain range of the people she has met or close to her home.

It is only a theory though.

She needs to record everything she was doing and thinking at the time of the events. This will allow her to track what occurs when it occurs.

I hope this was helpful,

Calista