Hello everyone. I thought today I would explore some rather spooky territory from my own experiences. These are not ghostly episodes as such although they could be seen in this light. I am going to take a look at two different incidents or events which have taken place in the past which have really made me wonder about the strangeness of these occurrences and how they rebound on me. What are they trying to tell me? Is it really a simple case of my imagination running wild, of me dreaming up scenes in my sleeping hours which I then took as part of my own reality? Or is there something decidedly otherworldly going on? These are all enticing questions. I don’t believe I will be able to answer them with any degree of success but I will hopefully open people’s minds up to the possibility of a world which exists outside of our own consciousnesses. I know this is weird, very weird indeed: but then I am a horror writer so what else could one expect to be resting inside my mind?

So what is it I am talking about here? Simply that I have experienced two different situations split up by a number of years which cannot be easily explained away. In each instance I remember being with my family in particular locations and yet they have no recollection of ever being there. One might easily conclude from this that I simply dreamt up these experiences or imagined them in some way. This is an interesting theory but I believe it falls down quite sharply when viewed in the cool light of day. These memories are simply too far embedded in my mind to be either dreamt up or imagined. They are extremely vivid to me and as such they are very real to me.

So, let’s examine the two incidents in detail. The first occurred when I was a child. I would have been around twelve or thirteen. We were on our summer holidays and had travelled up from our home in the South West of Scotland to a campsite further to the north. The weather was particularly bad during the two weeks we were there. Scotland is known to have a rather bad climate with a lot of rain and it certainly played up to that reputation on this holiday. Almost all of the fortnight seemed to be spent by us in our caravan looking at the rain coming down! One day we went for a walk and ended up at a sort of stately home which had been converted into a restaurant. It had a lovely historical feel to it. For some reason we were shown into a room by ourselves. We sat at a grand dining table which seemed to hark back to medieval times with coats of arms on the walls. Everything seemed to be made of oak and there was an altogether regal look to the place. I loved the feeling that I had almost been transported to a much earlier time. The dinner was great but the sense of child-like wonder I experienced when sitting at this grand dining table was my most striking memory of the evening.

Over the years I mentioned this wonderful occasion to my family and received nothing but blank looks and confused expressions for my trouble. Phrases like “What on earth are you on about?” and “It must be all in your mind” rebounded on me by my parents and my brothers. It may have been a vivid memory from childhood for myself, a never to be forgotten occasion, but to them it never happened. Whether this really was just a figment of my imagination or a particularly clear-sighted dream or whatever else it might have been is not the important point, at least I don’t think so. At the very least it provides extra detail for future horror works from my pen. The idea of finding oneself in a situation which cannot be easily explained away with a historical feel to it is illuminating in the extreme from my perspective especially as I often write about historical settings in my fiction.

So, let’s move on to the other otherworldly experiences shall we? This occurred many years later. It was a sad time as my Dad was coming to the end of his life. We were visiting friends and they had recently moved into a new home on the other side of town to their former residence. I recall quite clearly my Dad falling asleep in a chair in the corner of the living room. It was not usual for him to do so in the middle of the day, especially when visiting friends but the severe illness which had taken a grip of him was taking its toll by this stage. I can remember my family commenting on this and our friends telling us not to worry as it was good to see him and the rest would be good for him.

Let’s move the time on several months. My Dad had since passed away and my Mum drew up to the block of flats where our friends lived which brought back memories to me of the last time we had been there. When we were shown in I looked around the living room and took a look at the chair in the corner, the one where my Dad had fallen asleep. As can be imagined a tear or two was not far removed from my eyes as I did so. I then made a remark to our friends about the chair and about my Dad and received only bewildered glances in return. It was so similar to the reactions of my family when I had brought up the subject of our visit to the stately home turned restaurant that I felt a chill go through me. I believe sentiments such as ‘You’re kidding me? Not again!’ went through my mind at this stage. Sure enough back came the same sort of comments. “What do you mean?” they asked. “We only moved in last week.” I looked at our friends as if they must have made a mistake. I insisted I recalled the occasion well of visiting their home before. “It was several months ago, when Dad was still alive,” I told them. “He fell asleep in that chair in the corner.” However, it did not matter how many times I told them they had it wrong they were equally adamant that I was seriously deluded. “You must have had a dream about it,” my Mum told me “or else imagined the whole thing. Dad’s death was a shock to everyone so maybe that’s why your mind is playing tricks on you.”

Since experiencing this second unexplained incident I have started to wonder if this was some sort of paranormal communication from my Dad. Did he give me a sort of pre-sentiment of visiting our friends house before I had actually been there? This is an especially spooky idea but it makes me realise how comforted some people can be when they receive a message from ‘the other side’ from a recently departed relative. It certainly could again prove to be a source of ideas for future horror fiction moving forward. However, this doesn’t alter the fact that once again this was an especially vivid memory for me. I can picture my Dad sitting in that chair in the corner as he fell asleep. It seems so weird to me that at the time I pictured him in that chair our friends had not even moved from their old house. This is something which gives me much pause for thought.

Categories:My Horror Blogs

Tags: #Pre-sentiment, #Spookiness, #Unexplained, Dreams or reality?, Historical setting, Weird Experiences