21

Benway

Truth Seeker
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Age
47
Location
Merry olde Englandeshire
By the time I was twenty one years old my life had changed a lot, as you might imagine. I'd had a couple of experiences with precognition, I'd been diagnosed with depression and after a battle dropped out of education. I had a career of sorts working in a wine shop, I had girlfriends, tried every drug I could lay my hands on (and that was a lot) and had been to America. I'd been kicked out of home by my step-dad a year after I gave my mum away at their wedding but had never moved far from my old home, always within a few minutes walk. I'd had a transformative epiphany after a near death experience which caused me to truly understand my place in the universe and devote myself to being a good person rather than just thinking I was. (Yes, that's a absurdly short shrift to give to a life changing experience, but the disadvantage to the every seven years way these events played out is that big things get skipped over or we'd be here forever!)

By the time I was twenty one I was also expecting a return visit from the 'aliens'. My only concern was that I no longer slept in the same house and I just had to hope they'd find me. I had not wasted my time. I was prepared this time and I had questions. I was not going to cower in fear.


Part 1

In 1998 I was living in the next street to my old family home and so it was easy enough to drop by and visit and as I got a hefty staff discount on alcoholic drinks I'd often pop over and spend time drinking with my younger brother. On this particular night in the autumn we'd been watching "From Dusk Till Dawn" with wine, beer and a bottle of tequila. By the end of the movie I was nicely on the borderline between merry and drunk but he had taken a turn into the horror of maudlin self-pity drunk. My brother had really nothing to complain about. At the age of eighteen, he was a little shorter but quite a bit stockier than beanpole human greyhound me. His grades weren't as great as mine but he was no slouch and I'd dropped out anyway! Also, while I could compete at sprinting and triple jump and never had a girlfriend till I was eighteen, he was in the school basketball and rugby teams as well as being a good academic student and being popular and having girlfriends. I never held a grudge, but this night under the spell of depressed self-pitying drunkenness, to him I had all the luck! I didn't have to live at home (I got kicked out!), I had a job (I had to pay rent and bills!) and worst of all I had a girlfriend!

How dare he! Showing great restraint, I stormed off rather than get into a fight over it.

It was a warm night for the time of year and as I walked down the road towards the church the cool breeze freshened me up and cleared my head. I didn't want to end the night on a downer and my housemates wouldn't be up for anything fun at that time of night and there just over the road from the church and spanning the distance between his street and mine was the park. Somewhere I'd always loved. Dark, beautiful quiet and starlit. I walked over there.

It was a wonderfully clear night and I walked past the sunken gardens to the field beyond, ringed by trees, with only dim street lights filtering through some way off in one direction it was dark and lit only by stars and the moon. I lay down on a grass slope (a mountain by local standards but most other people in the world would call it perfectly flat ground. You get a different scale of elevation growing up in the Fens.* )

I should point out that I have never hallucinated from drinking ever. I'd also taken actual hallucinigenic drugs and not hallucinated. It was quite frustrating. I'd only tripped once at that point by eating part of a bizarre silver unknown mushroom from somewhere in South America and it was nothing like what was about to happen. Still, I thought I should mention the drinking and past history as hallucination is an obvious explanation.

After a while of just stargazing and soaking up the atmosphere and feeling thoroughly happy and at peace with everything (in stark contrast to previous odd happenings) I noticed insects flitting past my eyes. I didn't mind. I certainly didn't lash out at them, but lay still trying to work out what they were and that became a puzzle. England in mid to late autumn is not a place for large insects, much less at night. We may see a 'huge giant moth! Like Mothman or Mothra! It was huge!' but most of the rest of the world would see 'a very small moth. I think. It was really small.' In any case this wasn't at all like moths.

It was dark. There was a distinctive buzzing whine made by the wings as they strafed me totally unlike moths and as they whizzed around my head I could catch glimpses of long translucent wings like a dragonfly with light shining through and a dark stick-like body in silhouette. But I'd only ever seen one dragonfly at a time rarely and on very hot days in mid summer. A swarm at this time of night at this time of year was impossible.

There was more though. They didn't move on, and the shape was wrong, with four spindly limbs visible as an insects wouldn't be and a head shape and the body was wrong. There was a sound and I can't describe it as it makes no sense. All I have is that it was laughter with a quality like tiny tinkling bells. It was joyous but with an edge and I knew they were laughing at me, the great clumsy non-flying lummox! The shape in silhouette was like tiny women made of twigs.

I knew they were a Victorian invention and didn't and never had existed but I was being mocked by little winged fairies!

An exclamation mark just doesn't seem to do how I felt justice and neither do emojis. Just trust that I was about 700 exclamation marks and all caps and all the emojis and I'm going to stop for a break.

*The Fens have not been marshland since they were drained over a century ago but the whole area is flat. It takes a local to discern the subtle non-flatness. We have a hundred different words for flat including flat, slope (flat by any other standard), hill, (also flat), level, mountain (still flat), bottomless abyss (flat but with a small pothole)... and so on.
 
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Fairies!

I'd read a lot about them. I knew that the Fair Folk had been a part of folklore long before the modern image of the fairy as a little winged girl arrived, that in the past they were the elves, tall beings of great physical beauty like the Nordic descriptions of 'aliens' who were to be feared rather than thought of as adorable. They stole babies and replaced them with changelings and played cruel tricks. Offerings were put out in the hope of avoiding their cruelty and people who fell asleep in fairy rings could find themselves in the Fairie realm where you should never ever eat the food and could return home after missing hours, days or years. The glamorous appearance of the fairies was said to be an illusion and their true form hideous and feeble (perhaps like the grey aliens) .I'd come to believe that fairies and 'aliens' were the same thing, but how to account for this? The idea of fairies as cute flying girls was, as I understood it the invention of Victorian artists and nothing of this sort had ever existed!
But here they were!

I tried to get a good look and they trolled me, pausing in front of my face only to dart off as I tried to focus on one to gales of that tinkling laughter and chittering calls between them. I'd estimate their height if standing (which they never did) as about 3 inches.

Could these beings have always lived here? No. That was impossible. The park was busy and in the middle of a large town and I'd spent so much time here I knew all of it, every tree and every detail. I loved this place and I or somebody would have seen them! You couldn't hide a breeding population of tiny flying people here!

Was this a fairy ring? There was no ring that I'd seen here ever, but maybe it appeared at rare times? It was dark. I stopped wondering and wondered instead. This was wonderful! I lay back and just enjoyed the time I had here with these strange people.

After a while they seemed to sense the change and seemed to accept me as much as they could. The mockery became more playful and good natured though they were still somewhat above me (a pun!) and they soon were just hanging out, flitting about laughing and joking with each other in their strange barely audible language. I had a great time. I felt privileged. They clearly didn't like humans but I was... okay. I couldn't communicate with them, but their raucous sense of fun was infectious. It was like being at a great party where you know you are accepted and it's all fun and can just relax taking it in without talking to anyone for awhile because no words are necessary. Tiny people flying about with a backdrop of stars. Can you imagine it? It didn't matter what they were. I'd never know. These moments mattered and there were many of them. An hour of them I think and then they left, the sound fading quickly. I just lay there grinning for a while but...

It had to be about 1am. Time to go home. Feeling really good I got up and headed for the nearest gate. I went out and turned right towards home and took a step. And that's it. I didn't get home for quite a while.. But this is a good point to stop for today as this is a very long story and in any case stopping here is as good a way as any to represent missing time.

Let's talk about this part. The second half is very different and has no winged people.
 
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Jeez Benway. Sounds like some party in the park.

First a quick nature tidbit for you. I live in Florida, USA and summer time is filled with dragonfly activity here. They tend to be most active at dusk and dawn but anytime there are smaller flying bugs out and about the dragonflies will be there too. It is very, very common here to see dragonflies in swarms of a dozen or so. In fact it is rare that I see a lone dragonfly except when it is just passing through the yard. Seems that they don’t hang around alone but I would assume that is because the bats come out to feed after dusk. For bugs, there is safety in numbers I guess. And the dragonflies near my home don’t seem to hum or buzz so I don’t know about the sound of laughter.

I have never seen wee folks like gnomes nor fairies outside of meditations. And an hour is a long time to be in the present of any foreign beings. Jeez, I’m just stumped for any physical explanations.

Do you think the fairies might be tied to the missing time episode you will be telling us about?

I can understand your desire to get back home - or near to it like the park area you mentioned in an earlier thread - in preparation for the next seven-year cyclic event. Do those seven-year events happen on the same day each time?
 
Benway, PLEASE continue your tale! I'm on the edge of my seat.
Yes,I too have had several fairy encounters, all of them in the Hebrides on the Isle of Iona and another on the Isle of Mull.
I can still hear the tinkling bell laughter-very high frequency buzz of their joyous laughter. Hard to explain.I found myself seated on a bench behind a well known fairy (sidhe) hill on Iona. It was mid-October and pissing down rain. I looked out at the machair (fertile low lying grassy plain found on part of the northwest coastlines of Ireland and Scotland that flows into the sand of a beach) and saw many brilliantly white seagulls.The thought suddenly came to that "What if those bird weren't birds?" I.e elementals in disguise.

Well,that's all it took... I suddenly felt myself pulled backward out of my body at a fast speed, onto the small dirt road upon which I had walked to get to the bench and before me ,were, what best can be described as 2 beings, about 15 inches high. They were male and female and frankly, looked very much like some of the garden gnome statues I have seen. Not the Disney-fied version, but rather like 2 country people with the pointed hats, woman was wearing an apron , no bright green colors, just normal folk but 15 inches high.Of particular note was that their faces were quite wizened and I remember thinking they reminded me of dried apple doll faces you see occasionally for sale at country fares.

These folks had been around a long time. What took me most by surprise was the emotion I felt from them. Like the best kind of unconditional,homey,cozy,safe grandparental love sent to me in waves. Now, I am cautious of most beings, otherworldly or not but these folk radiated such warmth ,I was immediately put at ease. Next thing I know,I am following them up to the fairy hill I mentioned previously (probably a 12 foot mound on an otherwise flat grassy area) but now I could see there was a wooden door (yes just like the Hobbit and Victorian paintings-I am a bit embarrassed to describe it as such because it seems so cliche ,but that's what I saw-) at the base of the moundl. The door opened and I peered down into what can only be described as a Fairy Ball. I felt I was looking from a vantage point approximately 30 feet up from the action. Everything was a beautiful, sparkly,twinkly golden color and the lighting was the same as if lit by a thousand candles. It seemed like there were well over a hundred well dressed, wee folk ;dancing a kind of medieval square dance, chatting in groups,meandereing ,drinking, eating and having fun. The colors and action had a light,tinkly golden vibration/tone all in a medieval setting. I will mention that this was about a week before Halloween(samhain).

Next thing I know I am at ground zero, apparently the same size as the wee ones and watching the party. I don't remember if I was speaking to anyone,I was revealing in the party atmosphere . Suddenly I saw a fairy waiter? bring up a golden tray with food and filled golden goblets. I remember clearly hearing in my head "Never accept food or drink from the Little people". I declined the invitation ,at which point,I immediately found myself sucked out of the Ball and transported back into my frozen body that was sitting on the bench .

I was understandably a bit discombobulated and exhilarated , so I headed back to my bedsit I had rented for my stay. Once I got into my room I immediately thought about warming up and getting out of my wet clothes. As I was removing my heavy jacket and shaking my head in disbelief about what had just occurred, I felt what can only be described as a giant winged something or other brush against my cheek as it fluttered out of the top of my jacket. I did not see it, but from the physical sensation,the wings must have been at least 5 inches in width each.

It's funny how quickly the brain wants to explain away anything that might not be easily explainable. My first thought was "Wow, the moths in this part of Scotland are huge!" And in that same moment I thought NO moth is that huge! So off went the jacket and I spent the next 30 minutes scouring every inch of my 8x4 foot room looking for it. There was just a bed and a sink and believe me,I crawled over every inch of that space but found nothing.

Hmmm , I thought ,and went to sleep with a smile on my face.
 
Jeez Benway. Sounds like some party in the park.

First a quick nature tidbit for you. I live in Florida, USA and summer time is filled with dragonfly activity here. They tend to be most active at dusk and dawn but anytime there are smaller flying bugs out and about the dragonflies will be there too. It is very, very common here to see dragonflies in swarms of a dozen or so. In fact it is rare that I see a lone dragonfly except when it is just passing through the yard. Seems that they don’t hang around alone but I would assume that is because the bats come out to feed after dusk. For bugs, there is safety in numbers I guess. And the dragonflies near my home don’t seem to hum or buzz so I don’t know about the sound of laughter.

I have never seen wee folks like gnomes nor fairies outside of meditations. And an hour is a long time to be in the present of any foreign beings. Jeez, I’m just stumped for any physical explanations.

Do you think the fairies might be tied to the missing time episode you will be telling us about?

I can understand your desire to get back home - or near to it like the park area you mentioned in an earlier thread - in preparation for the next seven-year cyclic event. Do those seven-year events happen on the same day each time?

It would make more sense for dragonflies to congregate near water and the fact that I've only seen lone ones may well be that I rarely spend time by the river and have only seen ones who got lost! Bats we have plenty of. I was once in a pub a short distance from the river and one of the little flying mice came in the window and preceded to fly round and round a drunk Glaswegian who sang the chorus of Bat of hell badly in a broad Scottish accent before somebody shoed it out again. Fun times!

Physical explanations... it's a puzzle. I have two ideas.

1) In old British folklore there were said to be places which acted as gateways to other realms which would open at certain times, including what is now known as Halloween. This was about that time of year each time, so perhaps that park is such a place.

2) Dryads. Tree spirits. The winged people were the spirits of the trees of the park.

I don't think they were responsible for the missing time episode that followed as that involved quite different people.

I don't know what day each of the events took place on. The first was shortly after I started at my new school and that was in early September. The second was in the latter part of the year as the nights were getting cooler. I did know the exact date of the one we are currently discussing but I deliberately chose not to write it down or remember as by the end I didn't want to make it easy for myself to go back! In any case they all seem to have been late September or October.
 
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Benway, PLEASE continue your tale! I'm on the edge of my seat.
Yes,I too have had several fairy encounters, all of them in the Hebrides on the Isle of Iona and another on the Isle of Mull.
I can still hear the tinkling bell laughter-very high frequency buzz of their joyous laughter. Hard to explain.I found myself seated on a bench behind a well known fairy (sidhe) hill on Iona. It was mid-October and pissing down rain. I looked out at the machair (fertile low lying grassy plain found on part of the northwest coastlines of Ireland and Scotland that flows into the sand of a beach) and saw many brilliantly white seagulls.The thought suddenly came to that "What if those bird weren't birds?" I.e elementals in disguise.

Well,that's all it took... I suddenly felt myself pulled backward out of my body at a fast speed, onto the small dirt road upon which I had walked to get to the bench and before me ,were, what best can be described as 2 beings, about 15 inches high. They were male and female and frankly, looked very much like some of the garden gnome statues I have seen. Not the Disney-fied version, but rather like 2 country people with the pointed hats, woman was wearing an apron , no bright green colors, just normal folk but 15 inches high.Of particular note was that their faces were quite wizened and I remember thinking they reminded me of dried apple doll faces you see occasionally for sale at country fares.

These folks had been around a long time. What took me most by surprise was the emotion I felt from them. Like the best kind of unconditional,homey,cozy,safe grandparental love sent to me in waves. Now, I am cautious of most beings, otherworldly or not but these folk radiated such warmth ,I was immediately put at ease. Next thing I know,I am following them up to the fairy hill I mentioned previously (probably a 12 foot mound on an otherwise flat grassy area) but now I could see there was a wooden door (yes just like the Hobbit and Victorian paintings-I am a bit embarrassed to describe it as such because it seems so cliche ,but that's what I saw-) at the base of the moundl. The door opened and I peered down into what can only be described as a Fairy Ball. I felt I was looking from a vantage point approximately 30 feet up from the action. Everything was a beautiful, sparkly,twinkly golden color and the lighting was the same as if lit by a thousand candles. It seemed like there were well over a hundred well dressed, wee folk ;dancing a kind of medieval square dance, chatting in groups,meandereing ,drinking, eating and having fun. The colors and action had a light,tinkly golden vibration/tone all in a medieval setting. I will mention that this was about a week before Halloween(samhain).

Next thing I know I am at ground zero, apparently the same size as the wee ones and watching the party. I don't remember if I was speaking to anyone,I was revealing in the party atmosphere . Suddenly I saw a fairy waiter? bring up a golden tray with food and filled golden goblets. I remember clearly hearing in my head "Never accept food or drink from the Little people". I declined the invitation ,at which point,I immediately found myself sucked out of the Ball and transported back into my frozen body that was sitting on the bench .

I was understandably a bit discombobulated and exhilarated , so I headed back to my bedsit I had rented for my stay. Once I got into my room I immediately thought about warming up and getting out of my wet clothes. As I was removing my heavy jacket and shaking my head in disbelief about what had just occurred, I felt what can only be described as a giant winged something or other brush against my cheek as it fluttered out of the top of my jacket. I did not see it, but from the physical sensation,the wings must have been at least 5 inches in width each.

It's funny how quickly the brain wants to explain away anything that might not be easily explainable. My first thought was "Wow, the moths in this part of Scotland are huge!" And in that same moment I thought NO moth is that huge! So off went the jacket and I spent the next 30 minutes scouring every inch of my 8x4 foot room looking for it. There was just a bed and a sink and believe me,I crawled over every inch of that space but found nothing.

Hmmm , I thought ,and went to sleep with a smile on my face.
Wow! I will have to think about all of this before I reply. It's a lot to take in. Thankyou for posting it!
 
Wow Benway, what a great experience. I can't wait to read more of your story! I keep waiting and hoping for something to happen to me. I think because I am not educated enough in how to allow these things to happen, and I need to learn more before I will have something happen to me. Same with UFO's or anything like it, I am open to it, I just don't know how to let it happen - if that makes sense. :confused:
 
Mizz Adamz, I didn't know you'd had an experience like this too! Very cool! Again, I would love to experience this, but I'm not educated enough to allow it to happen! My paternal grandmother was straight from Scotland, and I want to go there so badly! I think once I am there, I will be like, "Ah, okay, everything is right now". :sunglasses:
 
Wow Benway, what a great experience. I can't wait to read more of your story! I keep waiting and hoping for something to happen to me. I think because I am not educated enough in how to allow these things to happen, and I need to learn more before I will have something happen to me. Same with UFO's or anything like it, I am open to it, I just don't know how to let it happen - if that makes sense. :confused:
Trust me, I was a total ignoramus when I first had something weird happen to me. I was only seven! I think that it's more a case of being in the right place at the right time and in the right state of mind. Of course, there's a thin line between that and being in the right place at the wrong time and I wouldn't recommend that to anyone! I hope you get to experience something amazing but harmless some day. :)