
(782)   Sun 29 Dec 96  1:05
By: Richard Smith
Re: Unsettling religious training . . .

 Hello All!

 Just when you think you've finally seen just about the oddest
 person there is, you run into something new.  The following
 two posts (by the same person) seem to indicate to me that
 not only is someone tremendously unbalanced, but that
 religion seems to play a major part in it.  This is quirky
 stuff, prepare to be unsettled . . .

 The following two bits were related by someone else on an
 InterNet newsgroup devoted to ghost stories.  To my mind,
 this person needs professional help, but I wanted others to
 look at this material and see for themselves and tell me if
 I'm probably safe suggesting that she receive it.

 ------------------------------------------------------------

 This is a true story, but I haven't told it too many times,
 it makes me cry every time I tell it.

 This happened to me when I was like four years old.  I lived
 on an apartment and my mother came to tuck me in.  I had a
 feeling that something was not right.  Behind her I could see
 that something very evil was standing by the open door and
 staring at me.  To reinforce what I believed, the corner of
 the door bent.  I pointed that to her, she was facing me and
 couldn't see it, but when she turned, there was nothing
 there.  I pleaded to sleep with them tht night, with no
 avail.  I was left alone.

 I couldn't sleep.  I was looking at the door, more curious
 than anything.  The same thing happened to me, only this
 time, my name was called from the livingroom.  I related it
 to the Bible stories I had been read about Samuel being
 called.  My name was called many times and finally I stepped
 out of my bed and went to the living room.  I saw a big black
 figure there, darker than the night.  I was scared.  I
 shouted: "Why are you after me?".  He answered: "You have
 been selected by our god".  I started crying and he chased me
 around the room and finally to the bedroom.  Somehow I was
 left with a knife and I was with my stuffed animals.  He
 asked me to kill them with that knife at first I refused, but
 he grew more assertive and angry and I had to stab them with
 the knife.  I felt awful looking at their kind faces, but I
 had to stab them, he forced me to.

 My parents found me sobbing from the closet in the morning.
 They never believed my story, but they admitted something
 happened that night that changed my life.

 Well, this was just practice.  Later this happened with real
 people.  The voice told me to kill them.  I refused, I laid
 on the ground and struggled against their will and they
 finally left me there shaking.

 After my experiences I was tested in psychological tests and
 while they showed that I had had a very strong trauma, I was
 tested totally sane in all respects.

 ------------------------------------------------------------

 I lived in a haunted house.  It was, however, newly built
 (1979-1980) and there had not been any buildings before,
 therefore I blamed my imagination.  I am not septic (pun
 intented), but my parents were.  Anyhow I took to finding out
 what was behind the nightly voices and I found natural
 explanations, hedgehogs were having fun on the yard.  Birds
 made screechy noises.  Other noises could have been carried
 over the lake.  Then I started noticing that things weren't
 that simple.  The local history tells about military activity
 in that area during Napoleonic wars and I started becoming
 familiar with the natural noises around the house.  Therefore
 I could tell it when people were walking the stairs up.
 Well, at night, someone was!  I heard someone walking
 upstairs and then stopping were the stairs ended.  (I, by the
 way, saw a ghost when writing this, but that is a different
 story)

 I have a multitude of ghost stories from that house, but
 little did I know that the septics were on a ghost-hunt, too!
 This happened when I went AWOL at night and came back and was
 too noisy and slipped into my bed and the septics went up and
 wondered if "the ghost" was there.  Anyhow, I saw the dark
 folks about every night.  Just dark shapes of humans,
 "radiating" gloom strongly.  They weren't friendly either,
 they pulled my pillow off and paralyzed me.  Every night.
 Therefore I got to the habit of working through the nights
 instead of sleeping.  Anyhow, once I made some tea and left
 some of it for the morning.  My sister said what was in the
 tea-kettle was not tea, she attempted to drink it and it made
 her ill.

 Now, does anyone have an idea what I should do with the pale
 faced-woman that was hovering over my bed tonight?

 -------------------------------------------------------------

 See what I mean?  This person is obviouisly needy of some
 serious medical attention . . . and these `memories' sure
 sound like False Memory Syndrome material.  Note how there
 seems to have been a pushing of religion at an early age.
 Anyone got any insights?

 Quid, Me Anxius Sum?

  Richard
   Smith

--- timEd 1.01
 * Origin: Syr Undry BBS  ):>  Bendigaid  };>  (916) 922-9046 (1:203/9046)

