A Fae Encounter

When I was 6-7 years old, I went to my best friend's house (which was across a country road) to spend night with her. Just to mention that nobody was at home because her parents went to a wedding, so we're all alone in the house. Now, I don't remember what we were doing before but we both fall asleep with lights on... and in the middle of the night I just found myself sitting bolt upright in bed staring at 3 gnomes coming towards me with a really creepy sideways walk. They wore red pointy hats and funny clothes and had white beards, bulbous noses just like how garden gnomes are portrayed. They were about 4 feet tall so they weren't really that tiny. But let me tell you... they actually scared the hell out of me and didn't give me a good vibe at all.

Last thing I remember is that I tried to wake up my friend by shaking her and she didn't respond at all (like she was hypnotized or something). And I don't remember how I got out either, only that I was running back home in the middle of the night to tell my parents that I saw 3 little people. So yeah, sorry if my encounter creeps you out but I have no idea what it was even today. Everybody told me back then that it was just a dream, so I stopped thinking about it since I couldn't find any logical explanation :neutral:

PS. There isn't much difference between this photo and what I saw:
There are some similarities to abduction accounts in your experience. Have you considered the possibility ? Your mind may have seen what it could handle or make sense of at such a young age.
 
There is a video on YouTube that purports to show a gnome in South America. Image quality is terrible. But, the gnome is shown walking sideways as in Monolith's encounter which I thought was interesting. Search YT for 'creepy gnome' and you can find it.

Maybe they walk sideways so they can travel through narrower tunnels?
 
Fascinating! I've been undergoing kind of a study of what I've been calling North American Fae for awhile now, and you aren't the only one who tells about the weird sideways walk that you see in the Argentina video. I've heard from some people who refer to what we classically call gnomes, (the Scandinavian gnomes that garden gnomes are based on) as well as Native American "little people", specifically legends from the northern Candadian First Nations people, having that sideways walk. I also recently heard a story where the teller talks about the 'little person' walking sideways until it realized it had been spotted, and then jumping into the bushes. (That story comes out of the Great Lakes area.)

As with any trauma, our mind can try to cover memories with things we know and recognize... but sideways walking garden gnomes are a pretty creepy substitute! I mean, if my brain tried that, I'd be wondering why it didn't just go for the creepy clown doll from Poltergeist!
 
I've read all kinds of ideas on it. Native tribes even have different ideas between tribes, and even within branches of tribes. Everything from evil spirits that play tricks, do harm, steal children, etc, to magical creatures who bless those who see them with good fortune. I've recently been reading a treatise on the Celtic fae written at the turn of the century and it seems that even within the Celtic countries, (Normandy, Wales, Ireland, Scotland) there are differing opinions on what it means to see a gnome.
Personally, I think they make mistakes and get seen, and I think children are more open to seeing them and recognizing what they've seen. Adults find it easier to rationalize- "Oh, it was a weird moonlight shadow on a rock." -or whatever we can tell ourselves.
 
This is a great discussion. Lots of good ideas on this topic. My father who is a very smart and practical guy (82 years old now ), saw what he describes as little people while helping a friend bring in the corn harvest when he was a teen. He said they were under the wagon they were using and when they ran out he saw the movement through the corn stalks. The glimpse was brief but he describes some type of small person.
It makes me wonder if these are real flesh and blood beings, elementals like Fae or leprechauns, Djinn, interdimensional creatures ? Interaction with them seems to report a trickster and fickle nature. This makes me wonder if they are all coming from the same source. What that is, is the question.
 
My guess is that our brains might not be able to perceive many things in plain sight and from time to time there could be some spooky interactions between a person's body and environment? Just an attempt to explain this rationally, though this could be a silly concept. Recently I saw a theory that aliens could live among us but we're not able to detect them because our brain isn't that evolved. I've suspected this for a long time... it would be really crazy if that's possible.
Our eyes only see a very small amount of what is actually out there. There are light spectrums we cannot perceive with the unaided eye, and even with some extra help we can't see everything that makes up this world. I've wondered if possibly these creatures sometimes "shift" into something we can, for a short moment, see from a different spectrum.
 
There are many known animals that can change their color which is just different wavelengths of light. So, they are controlling light to some degree. Maybe there are creatures/beings that can go a step further and bend light so as to appear invisible.

There are reports of encounters with beings who appear to be doing something like this, much like in the “Predator” movies.