People seeing Fictional Characters in real life

KosherDill

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Hello everyone!
:D
This is a topic I'm interested in trying to make some sense of, so I'd appreciate your thoughts and theories.
;)


On the Wikipedia page for the comic character John Constantine, there is a section entitled 'real life' which documents real life sightings of John Constantine. Several writers from Hellblazer have claimed to have seen John Constantine;

John Constantine - Wikipedia

There have also been sightings of Slenderman, Disney characters, The Shadow (Novel character) and Hanna Barbera characters. They weren't people in costumes.. Some of these sightings weren't even humanoid in nature. They were (to the witnesses) the actual characters themselves. This page documents a sighting of Slenderman by a woman who didn't even know he was a fictional character..

2012, November (ca.): A Disquieting Encounter

Bizarre Cases of Fictional Characters Who Stepped Off the Page Into Reality | Mysterious Universe

What was unusual about these sightings is they (the characters/entities) could interact with the physical world, and everyone else could see them, so it wasn't just one person who could see them at the same time. In one case that happened decades ago, which I can vaguely recall right now, some people were even killed, leaving one witness, who was disturbed for the rest of his life because of what he had seen. At first, it was a creepy looking silhouette out of some fog, then, when they became scared of it and correctly guessed what it was, that's when it started to fully appear and give chase, and it started to eat each of his friends, one by one, with only him surviving the encounter. When he gave a detailed description of what he saw and some drawings, it matched that of a character from a then-recently released cartoon show, except instead of being friendly, it was aggressive. It was as if they were flesh and blood entities, capable of talking, eating, opening doors, etc. From what I can recall right now, there was a search for bodies, but they could never be found, so it would seem as if something had eaten them, hence why no bodies could be recovered.

These entities don't seem to stick around for too long; with the John Constantine sightings, one of the writers decided to follow him around a corner, only to find that he'd disappeared!

Sometimes, these characters behave in a manner consistent with their source material. In other cases, they act out of character compared to their source material (ie, a friendly character being violent, or threatening).

I'm not sure if this is related to ghosts, but I was thinking about it earlier and just wondered what people's thoughts are on this phenomenon.
 
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Hello everyone!
:D
This is a topic I'm interested in trying to make some sense of, so I'd appreciate your thoughts and theories.
;)


On the Wikipedia page for the comic character John Constantine, there is a section entitled 'real life' which documents real life sightings of John Constantine. Several writers from Hellblazer have claimed to have seen John Constantine;

John Constantine - Wikipedia

There have also been sightings of Slenderman, Disney characters, The Shadow (Novel character) and Hanna Barbera characters. They weren't people in costumes.. Some of these sightings weren't even humanoid in nature. They were (to the witnesses) the actual characters themselves. This page documents a sighting of Slenderman by a woman who didn't even know he was a fictional character..

2012, November (ca.): A Disquieting Encounter

Bizarre Cases of Fictional Characters Who Stepped Off the Page Into Reality | Mysterious Universe

What was unusual about these sightings is they (the characters/entities) could interact with the physical world, and everyone else could see them, so it wasn't just one person who could see them at the same time. In one case that happened decades ago, which I can vaguely recall right now, some people were even killed, leaving one witness, who was disturbed for the rest of his life because of what he had seen. At first, it was a creepy looking silhouette out of some fog, then, when they became scared of it and correctly guessed what it was, that's when it started to fully appear and give chase, and it started to eat each of his friends, one by one, with only him surviving the encounter. When he gave a detailed description of what he saw and some drawings, it matched that of a character from a then-recently released cartoon show, except instead of being friendly, it was aggressive. It was as if they were flesh and blood entities, capable of talking, eating, opening doors, etc. From what I can recall right now, there was a search for bodies, but they could never be found, so it would seem as if something had eaten them, hence why no bodies could be recovered.

These entities don't seem to stick around for too long; with the John Constantine sightings, one of the writers decided to follow him around a corner, only to find that he'd disappeared!

Sometimes, these characters behave in a manner consistent with their source material. In other cases, they act out of character compared to their source material (ie, a friendly character being violent, or threatening).

I'm not sure if this is related to ghosts, but I was thinking about it earlier and just wondered what people's thoughts are on this phenomenon.
Hi KosherDill, and welcome to the PNF. I have a possible answer to at least a portion of your question. We tend to see in others the characteristics (looks, mannerisms, build, body language etc.) of individuals, even fictional ones, we know or are familiar with. For example, in the 90s I worked with a guy who reminded me (and many others) of the "Butthead" cartoon character. Similarly, when I was a youngster, one of our parish priests looked like the "Minnesota Fats" character played by Jackie Gleason in the classic film, "The Hustler." He was known around our house as "Father Fats."

Had neither of those fictional characters existed, or had I/we been unfamiliar with those characters, neither of those individuals would have made much of an impression just based on their physical appearance or characteristics. I realize the question you raised also deals with deeper, more complex issues, but as I said, I think this may account for a portion of the phenomena.
 
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'm not sure if this is related to ghosts, but I was thinking about it earlier and just wondered what people's thoughts are on this phenomenon.
Maybe some type of entity appearing as a recognizable character to give itself more impact for whatever reason? Welcome to the forum KD.
 
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I may have a few theories here. First, let me say don't believe every story out there about these things. Most are just creepypasta stories. Especially the one about the kid eating entity. However, with that said...

Tulpas and thought forms are becoming more accepted, and actually have some proof to go with them. The Phillip Experiment is a good source for this type of thing.


Recently, it was also found that some hauntings may actually be of a tulpa type or thought form. Whether these things can actually become physical matter is something we have not seen yet but there may be enough energy with them to at least "appear" for short periods of time to be visible briefly. Manifesting and staying in form would require major amounts of energy no matter how you look at the physics.

Back to my original thought on most of these, I would not believe every story out there.

And welcome to the forum!
 
Welcome to the forum. An interesting topic. Three of the possibilities have been mentioned already: A miss identification , an energetic thought form (Tulpa), or an entity of some sort taking a form of something to serve their own purpose. This could also be a form of mind control. The last one I can think of is that some people are mistaken or having psychological problems. Of course some people just make stuff up.
 
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I may have a few theories here. First, let me say don't believe every story out there about these things. Most are just creepypasta stories. Especially the one about the kid eating entity. However, with that said...

Tulpas and thought forms are becoming more accepted, and actually have some proof to go with them. The Phillip Experiment is a good source for this type of thing.


Recently, it was also found that some hauntings may actually be of a tulpa type or thought form. Whether these things can actually become physical matter is something we have not seen yet but there may be enough energy with them to at least "appear" for short periods of time to be visible briefly. Manifesting and staying in form would require major amounts of energy no matter how you look at the physics.

Back to my original thought on most of these, I would not believe every story out there.

And welcome to the forum!
With the case involving a bunch of kids being eaten, at first, I thought it was a creepypasta, because it certainly read like one. But I later found that this was an actual historical event, and it was covered by newspapers back in the day, and the sole surviving witness stuck to his story for the rest of his life. The bodies of the other four people were never recovered, despite the area being a place where bodies are quickly found/recovered if anyone dies there.

Apparently, the authorities believed his testimony and let him go back to his parents, but the journalists told him that their stories would omit the parts about the character appearing, and the newspapers don't mention it. If I recall correctly he submitted his story at length in a paranormal magazine.

It's been a few years since I read about it, so I'll try and dig some more info up later. That's just what I remember and it was definitely an actual event because I remember looking up historical death records to help verify it. The character was from a very recently released show, pretty sure it was a Hanna Barbara cartoon. I'm not certain if the witness directly said it was the character but the description and the sketch was bang on and several readers had pointed this out.
 
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Another possibility is an entity which people perceive according to their own imaginations. Something outside our usual experience and perception, where our imaginations fill in the perceptual gaps. Sometimes with outlandish results.
 
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With the case involving a bunch of kids being eaten, at first, I thought it was a creepypasta, because it certainly read like one. But I later found that this was an actual historical event, and it was covered by newspapers back in the day, and the sole surviving witness stuck to his story for the rest of his life. The bodies of the other four people were never recovered, despite the area being a place where bodies are quickly found/recovered if anyone dies there.
Whether it was true or not something obviously scared the boy enough to stick to his story.