The voice from nowhere

[Kittens Are Jerks]

Yeah I know, my heading is a bit Twilight Zone-ish, but hey it's been one of those nights.

So get this. I'm in my condo alone, just back from a trip out to get some sparkling grapefruit juice. Went upstairs to my study, sat down, turned on my computer, and was just about to take a sip of my drink, when I heard a voice say 'get up and lock your door'. It was a male voice, loud and quite authoritative. Without giving it a second thought, I got up, tore down the stairs, drink still in hand, got to the front door, and sure enough I had left it unlocked. Only then did I take pause and go who the hell was that?

Seconds later I get a call from building security telling me that under no circumstances was I to leave my apartment, and that they were on their way up. The security in my building is fairly tight, but three guys managed to sneak past them because the doorman erroneously assumed they were guests of another resident who was coming in at the same time. Security, however, noticed they did not get off on the same floor and that the guys had instead pressed the top (my) floor. I pretty much live alone on my floor as the other three units were purchased by someone as an investment and sit empty. 

Security arrived almost immediately. The marine police, who are close by, were here in less than a few minutes, followed by the fire department (in the event of injury I guess) and then the city police. I told them about the voice and they searched my entire apartment to make sure no one was there. It couldn't have been one of those guys as the security cameras showed them on the other side of my floor, and I had locked my door before they got to my place. Interestingly, they were trying all of the doors to see if any of them were unlocked. 

As for the voice, I have no idea. It sounded as though the person was right beside me. My best guess is that I must have sensed something was amiss, and the voice was most likely my very loud, and very masculine apparently, subconscious telling me as much.

[Tatetopa]

1 hour ago, Kittens Are Jerks said:

As for the voice, I have no idea. It sounded as though the person was right beside me. My best guess is that I must have sensed something was amiss, and the voice was most likely my very loud, and very masculine apparently, subconscious telling me as much.

Yes.  I believe that.  I had a more pleasant experience with a female voice,  yet still unnerving when you hear it so clearly and you know there is no one around.  I am glad you listened.  I have one of those yuppie popular river pebbles with "Listen" carved into it.

[Kittens Are Jerks]

34 minutes ago, Tatetopa said:

Yes.  I believe that.  I had a more pleasant experience with a female voice,  yet still unnerving when you hear it so clearly and you know there is no one around.  I am glad you listened.  I have one of those yuppie popular river pebbles with "Listen" carved into it.

That's why I'm convinced it was my sub-conscience (or something along those lines) because I reacted instinctively. I was not in any way unnerved by it, just by what might have happened had I not locked my door so quickly. But I must admit I found it odd that it was a masculine voice, and a stern one at that. I wonder if we somehow create the persona we think we need given a specific situation. As for listening... always!

[papageorge1]

2 hours ago, Kittens Are Jerks said:

Yeah I know, my heading is a bit Twilight Zone-ish, but hey it's been one of those nights.

So get this. I'm in my condo alone, just back from a trip out to get some sparkling grapefruit juice. Went upstairs to my study, sat down, turned on my computer, and was just about to take a sip of my drink, when I heard a voice say 'get up and lock your door'. It was a male voice, loud and quite authoritative. Without giving it a second thought, I got up, tore down the stairs, drink still in hand, got to the front door, and sure enough I had left it unlocked. Only then did I take pause and go who the hell was that?

Seconds later I get a call from building security telling me that under no circumstances was I to leave my apartment, and that they were on their way up. The security in my building is fairly tight, but three guys managed to sneak past them because the doorman erroneously assumed they were guests of another resident who was coming in at the same time. Security, however, noticed they did not get off on the same floor and that the guys had instead pressed the top (my) floor. I pretty much live alone on my floor as the other three units were purchased by someone as an investment and sit empty. 

Security arrived almost immediately. The marine police, who are close by, were here in less than a few minutes, followed by the fire department (in the event of injury I guess) and then the city police. I told them about the voice and they searched my entire apartment to make sure no one was there. It couldn't have been one of those guys as the security cameras showed them on the other side of my floor, and I had locked my door before they got to my place. Interestingly, they were trying all of the doors to see if any of them were unlocked. 

As for the voice, I have no idea. It sounded as though the person was right beside me. My best guess is that I must have sensed something was amiss, and the voice was most likely my very loud, and very masculine apparently, subconscious telling me as much.

If it was me, I would have suspected (not jumped to or concluded) a protective non-physical presence was responsible for the voice especially with the accumulation of circumstances and as I have never heard a voice before in my life that was unexplainable.

 

Edited December 9, 2019 by papageorge1

[+Not A Rockstar]

1 hour ago, papageorge1 said:

If it was me, I would have suspected (not jumped to or concluded) a protective non-physical presence was responsible for the voice especially with the accumulation of circumstances and as I have never heard a voice before in my life that was unexplainable.

 

I would have to agree, because it is a stretch otherwise to believe that my sub-conscious, limited to my body and senses, somehow knew a threat was loose on my floor and took verbal, audible action to tell my conscious self to go lock the door. Especially if I did not believe in anything psychic or similar, and if it never had warned me about leaving doors unlocked before.

But, it was what KAJ experienced so I am not going to say what the right assumption is for someone else.

[papageorge1]

32 minutes ago, Not A Rockstar said:

But, it was what KAJ experienced so I am not going to say what the right assumption is for someone else.

HIs experience is only what happened just like for me it would only be what happened. Our difference would be later in the post-experience analysis. I would be open to more than only 'normal' possibilities.

[eight bits]

Disembodied voices, and sometimes in extreme emergencies "embodied" ones (or so it seems to the person involved), are not that uncommon. There is a not entirely disrespectable theory that in the remote past, the phenomenon was even commonplace (the phrase bicameral mind is serachable). I think there's a current thread nearby about a lost hiker receiving useful advice this way, and there are many similar stories within the hiking and climbing communities.

While I appreciate that it's spooky to be placed in touch that way with unconscious or liminal conscious content, the matter was urgent, and your whole self did what needed to be done. It was prudent of the police to make sure you were alone, and it is good to hear that you got through the crisis unharmed.

The phenomenon seems to me to be widely reported, and fully consistent with what is uncontroversial about both the natural monitoring and the occasional expressive capabilities of liminal consciousness. Thanks for a great report, and thanks especially to that usually hidden part of you that stepped up so that all of you could be here to tell us about it.

 

Edited December 9, 2019 by eight bits

[zep73]

Thanks for sharing @Kittens Are Jerks, that is a very interesting story. Most of You know my theory, so I wont bother You with it 

[+Desertrat56]

14 hours ago, Kittens Are Jerks said:

Yeah I know, my heading is a bit Twilight Zone-ish, but hey it's been one of those nights.

So get this. I'm in my condo alone, just back from a trip out to get some sparkling grapefruit juice. Went upstairs to my study, sat down, turned on my computer, and was just about to take a sip of my drink, when I heard a voice say 'get up and lock your door'. It was a male voice, loud and quite authoritative. Without giving it a second thought, I got up, tore down the stairs, drink still in hand, got to the front door, and sure enough I had left it unlocked. Only then did I take pause and go who the hell was that?

Seconds later I get a call from building security telling me that under no circumstances was I to leave my apartment, and that they were on their way up. The security in my building is fairly tight, but three guys managed to sneak past them because the doorman erroneously assumed they were guests of another resident who was coming in at the same time. Security, however, noticed they did not get off on the same floor and that the guys had instead pressed the top (my) floor. I pretty much live alone on my floor as the other three units were purchased by someone as an investment and sit empty. 

Security arrived almost immediately. The marine police, who are close by, were here in less than a few minutes, followed by the fire department (in the event of injury I guess) and then the city police. I told them about the voice and they searched my entire apartment to make sure no one was there. It couldn't have been one of those guys as the security cameras showed them on the other side of my floor, and I had locked my door before they got to my place. Interestingly, they were trying all of the doors to see if any of them were unlocked. 

As for the voice, I have no idea. It sounded as though the person was right beside me. My best guess is that I must have sensed something was amiss, and the voice was most likely my very loud, and very masculine apparently, subconscious telling me as much.

I have had a few experiences like that.  I think you are correct in your speculation that it was you somehow knowing something was amiss and the voice was just what ever you would respond to more urgently.  We do have access to information we are taught to ignore.

[zep73]

7 minutes ago, Desertrat56 said:

I have had a few experiences like that.  I think you are correct in your speculation that it was you somehow knowing something was amiss and the voice was just what ever you would respond to more urgently.  We do have access to information we are taught to ignore.

He had no clue he was in danger. He first learned that after the fact.

[papageorge1]

7 hours ago, eight bits said:

 

 and your whole self did what needed to be done. 

 

BUT, his whole self had no normal knowledge of the urgent live intrusion situation that was going on. And he doesn't have a history of hearing voices from nowhere. It just seems to me like you are trying to 'explain-away' the incident too quickly and choosing to sweep the more challenging aspects of the story under the rug. 

[Tatetopa]

1 hour ago, sci-nerd said:

He had no clue he was in danger. He first learned that after the fact.

This is KAJ's story and I am not in the best position to analyze.  I would only suggest that it is difficult to categorically deny that he was unaware, or his whole self had no knowledge. People sense a lot more than their conscious minds pay attention to normally. 

There might have been cues that most of us would ignore, most of the time. But our brains are always processing information.   Picking up tiny cues; grass moving against the wind, or a muffled footstep is how our ancestors survived predators doing their best to make a meal of us.    That processing power is the repayment for all of the energy it takes to sustain such a large organ.

A sound coming from the floor outside his apartment, very faint, but one the brain recognizes as the pattern of footsteps gets processed and becomes high priority, raised to conscious thought.  "Lock the door."

It is still a wonder.

[moonman]

Maybe you are important to the fate of the earth, and it was a message sent back in time from a timeline where the Intruders killed you.

 

[Kittens Are Jerks]

18 hours ago, papageorge1 said:

HIs experience is only what happened just like for me it would only be what happened. Our difference would be later in the post-experience analysis. I would be open to more than only 'normal' possibilities.

I should clarify that I am not a SHE not a HE, which is why the fact that the voice was male threw me for a bit of a loop.

I'm not entirely close minded when it comes to possibilities, but to be honest, I never consider paranormal explanations when weird things happen. There is a lot we don't know about ourselves and the real world, and I firmly believe that we are capable of a great many, and sometimes strange, things.

The concept of guardian angels is quite sweet actually, but I don't believe they exist. If they do, the vast majority are slackers. 

[papageorge1]

2 minutes ago, Kittens Are Jerks said:

 

The concept of guardian angels is quite sweet actually, but I don't believe they exist. If they do, the vast majority are slackers. 

If I had the experience I probably wouldn't have used the term 'guardian angel' either and left that part more open like perhaps a deceased loved or something else.

[Kittens Are Jerks]

19 hours ago, Not A Rockstar said:

I would have to agree, because it is a stretch otherwise to believe that my sub-conscious, limited to my body and senses, somehow knew a threat was loose on my floor and took verbal, audible action to tell my conscious self to go lock the door. Especially if I did not believe in anything psychic or similar, and if it never had warned me about leaving doors unlocked before.

But, it was what KAJ experienced so I am not going to say what the right assumption is for someone else.

Perhaps it is a bit of a stretch, but I don't think our sub-conscious is that limited. 

This story might interest you. It's the only other time a member of my family has heard a voice from nowhere. This time, the voice was mine.

I was in a serious boating accident when I was 7 years old. The pain was incredibly severe and I was terribly frightened. I wanted my father and and remember shutting my eyes real hard and whispering daddy daddy daddy over and over again. My father was a distance away at the cottage with my mother. They weren't aware that anything was amiss until my father heard my voice cry out DADDY! My mother who was in the same room with him did not hear it. Anyway, it terrified him and he immediately had a sick feeling that something was wrong. Long story short, in hospital I told him I had been calling him, and he said "I know sweetheart, I heard you and came right away."

How does one explain that? As an adult looking back at it, I think our senses, especially during a severe crisis become heightened, and that our minds are capable of all kinds of wild and crazy things.

[XenoFish]

My take on this, is that the voice was male due to more authoritative nature. (kinda like dad telling you to clean your room), all the information that lead to this could very well have been picked up on an unconscious level. Coupled with instinct and intuition, a little voice said, "Get up and lock the door.". 

That's my 2 cents anyway.

[Kittens Are Jerks]

15 hours ago, eight bits said:

Disembodied voices, and sometimes in extreme emergencies "embodied" ones (or so it seems to the person involved), are not that uncommon. There is a not entirely disrespectable theory that in the remote past, the phenomenon was even commonplace (the phrase bicameral mind is serachable). I think there's a current thread nearby about a lost hiker receiving useful advice this way, and there are many similar stories within the hiking and climbing communities.

While I appreciate that it's spooky to be placed in touch that way with unconscious or liminal conscious content, the matter was urgent, and your whole self did what needed to be done. It was prudent of the police to make sure you were alone, and it is good to hear that you got through the crisis unharmed.

The phenomenon seems to me to be widely reported, and fully consistent with what is uncontroversial about both the natural monitoring and the occasional expressive capabilities of liminal consciousness. Thanks for a great report, and thanks especially to that usually hidden part of you that stepped up so that all of you could be here to tell us about it.

I need to look it up again, but I believe the concept of a bicameral mind has more to do with our evolution, and if I recall correctly, the development of our consciousness. The idea being that the brain was divided into two parts where one part spoke and the other listened. My interpretation of the incident is somewhere along those lines. The other phenomenon you mention is the Third Man Factor where an unseen presence provides assistance in one way or another. That, as you mention, is indeed commonly reported in a wide variety of high stress, extreme conditions. 

When I heard the voice I immediately listened and during my what just happened? moment, I without hesitation attributed the voice to myself.

[Kittens Are Jerks]

6 hours ago, Tatetopa said:

This is KAJ's story and I am not in the best position to analyze.  I would only suggest that it is difficult to categorically deny that he was unaware, or his whole self had no knowledge. People sense a lot more than their conscious minds pay attention to normally. 

There might have been cues that most of us would ignore, most of the time. But our brains are always processing information.   Picking up tiny cues; grass moving against the wind, or a muffled footstep is how our ancestors survived predators doing their best to make a meal of us.    That processing power is the repayment for all of the energy it takes to sustain such a large organ.

A sound coming from the floor outside his apartment, very faint, but one the brain recognizes as the pattern of footsteps gets processed and becomes high priority, raised to conscious thought.  "Lock the door."

It is still a wonder.

I totally agree, but also think we are capable of even more than that, in the sense that we don't always need 'cues' to know that something's not quite right. 

[XenoFish]

2 minutes ago, Kittens Are Jerks said:

I without hesitation attributed the voice to myself.

I think we all need to listen to ourselves more often. A hunch, nudging, little "brain clicks". Sometimes going with the gut isn't that bad a thing. 

[Kittens Are Jerks]

5 hours ago, moonman said:

Maybe you are important to the fate of the earth, and it was a message sent back in time from a timeline where the Intruders killed you.

I love this! This is now my official explanation and I'm sticking to it. 

[Kittens Are Jerks]

11 minutes ago, XenoFish said:

My take on this, is that the voice was male due to more authoritative nature. (kinda like dad telling you to clean your room), all the information that lead to this could very well have been picked up on an unconscious level. Coupled with instinct and intuition, a little voice said, "Get up and lock the door.". 

That's my 2 cents anyway.

I totally agree. In a crisis situation like that a gentle voice would not have motivated me to act. I would have probably gone WTF? and then just shrugged it off.

Edited December 10, 2019 by Kittens Are Jerks
Grammatical correction.

[XenoFish]

3 minutes ago, Kittens Are Jerks said:

I totally agree. In a crisis situation like that a gentle voice would not have had have motivated me to act. I would have probably gone WTF? and then just shrugged it off.

Now that I think about it, I wonder if the voice "you heard" might have been just a distorted version of your dads voice? No clue really. 

Yeah, sticky notes. Use them. "Lock Da Door". Post them everywhere.

Edited December 10, 2019 by XenoFish
I done goofed.

[Kittens Are Jerks]

6 minutes ago, XenoFish said:

Now that I think about it, I wonder if the voice "you heard" might have been just a distorted version of your dads voice? No clue really. 

Yeah, sticky notes. Use them. "Lock Da Door". Post them everywhere.

Are you suggesting that I somehow manifested my father's voice? To be honest, for a second I wondered the same thing. But my father not once spoke to me in such a manner, he was always gentle. But he was, however, quite stern and intimidating to the outside world. So yes, it's quite possible that I combined his 'two personas' to get my butt moving.

Sticky notes for sure! Not only do I forget to lock my door, I sometimes leave my keys in the lock, and parcels/groceries out in the hallway. 

[XenoFish]

5 minutes ago, Kittens Are Jerks said:

Are you suggesting that I somehow manifested my father's voice? To be honest, for a second I wondered the same thing. But my father not once spoke to me in such a manner, he was always gentle. But he was, however, quite stern and intimidating to the outside world. So yes, it's quite possible that I combined his 'two personas' to get my butt moving.

Sticky notes for sure! Not only do I forget to lock my door, I sometimes leave my keys in the lock, and parcels/groceries out in the hallway. 

I'm saying I have no idea really. I didn't have this experience so pretty much everything I write is either just an idea or opinion, maybe both. I don't think any of us know for 100% certain the exact "How did this happen." I'll even admit that. Maybe this whole event was a wake up call for you? Have you been locking your doors ever since this happened?