Paranormal activity in woods and forests

General Conspiracy and Paranormal Forum
21

Predator theory

One theory is that there’s a highly evolved species that is a natural predator of humans, that lures, traps and consumes its prey, remaining hidden and undetected for as long as humans have been here.

This theory was suggested and explained by reddit user thelords_cheeps. To recap, his first comment was made in response to Part 2:

I’m a trail guide and backpacker. Years & miles. Seen lots of shit. I can’t explain everything I’ve seen in the wild but I can tell you this: you will see things out there that defy explanation &, you’ll spend the rest of your life wondering about them.

If you ever take word of caution, take this like your life depends on it: Don’t go into the wild alone. Don’t stray from your camp at night. Don’t answer or seek out anything that calls you mysteriously in the night. DO NOT believe everything you see with your own eyes.

I need to repeat that, Like your life depends on it: Do not believe things, especially ‘out of place’ ‘people’, voices, or suspicious things that you see, even with your own eyes, especially when your gut & instincts are warning you.

There’s something out there, something that scares grown men even like me, something we won’t talk about but it’s real, has no consistent form, and it lures you.

If you are a wild thing & a hunter of human beings, there’s no better hunting ground than our busiest national & state parks. Note I said busisest. If you are a hunter of opportunity, then there’s no better prey than the young, the weak, the old, the alone.

There’s something out there, so old, so skilled, so clever & cunning, not just a being but a species, that has or have developed a specialized survival skill: luring & preying on lost or solitary humans.

Can a predator in the natural world lure, trap, summon or even hypnotize their prey? A quick google search should yield you hundreds of examples of such species in the animal, fish, bird, and insect kingdoms.

What I submit, if exist such a species, old as man, who’s success depended on the successful hunting of humans, not only would it be very clever and good at it by now, but we’d have no record or memory of it in our history, just as no insect has probably ever survived an encounter with a trapdoor spider.

I submit their hunting approach is case by case. They’re lure different depending on their human prey’s age, strength and size, but what I submit is that our oldest natural predator, an undiscovered predator, is still opperating due to it’s skill of being able to read us like a book, hit us with lure (a lure I’ve distinctly recognized several times, particularly at night, just beyond the glow of the campfire) lead us into a trap, to never be seen or heard from again.

People I submit a thing exists, something’s out there, a species, that’s not too unlike Stephen King’s “It”.

I’ve felt the lure, tasted it, smelled it. It’s the smell of food when you’re hungry, company when you’re lonely, music where there should be none, beauty where there’s danger. Nothing can explain the sensations, but deep down you’ll feel it, in your gut. Something’s not right. Something’s waiting. Something’s watching. Ask any man who’s survived long enough alone in the wild. There’s a Siren like hunter out there. It’ll own you dead to rights, if you don’t listen to your gut.

Having said that. I have questions. These stairs, do they move? There one minute, gone the next? Do others always see them? Or are they visible only to ‘targets’? Do they see stairs? Or for them are the stairs another lure, like an apple pie, a warm bed, something to surrender to?

What I’m getting at are these stairs def sound like the work of the It. A cave or door might be to scary to enter, but stairs, a perfect lure for the “Search” & rescue mindset. Perhaps the vison of stairs are perfectlyt taylored to what’s on ‘your’ frame of mind. “If I could only find some higher ground to spot that lost kid. If only I had a ladder or a…”

See what I mean?
Source

He then elaborated a bit in response to Part 5:

Here’s how It operates. The Vet at the training op (story 2) followed the lure alone (faceless backpacker) in the middle of the night a mile from camp? My god what an unfortunate choice. Don’t do that. Don’t ever, ever do that. Lucky to be alive. Balls the likes of which can be seen from space tho.

I’m going to speak this in clear English, explain It like you’re five. This creature is a predator, a meat eater & a trapper. It hunts, watches, waits, lures, pounces, you’re dead.

Don’t go into the woods at night. Don’t stray from your camp fire. Don’t take your eyes off each other. Stay away from wild berry patches and boulder fields. Don’t trek too loud. Remain steadfast. Never wear red (unless you’re trying to match the butcher aisle). Tallest man is the anchor, hikes at the back of the line, second tallest, front. Don’t take small children into the forest or the weak, elderly or limping. Hide your wounds. Keep your injuries, wounds, and blood covered. Burn bloody field dressings. Blood will only excite it.

You’re being stalked & lured into a trap. It’ll probably be death by suffocation or broken neck. Those that have felt like they were being followed, circled, watched, were being hunted. It deploys a remarkable and segmented method of capture. That ‘know they’re watching’ sensation’s Stage One.

Stage Two, somebody’s calling you.

Been trackin this thing at night, solo for years. Night affords me sensory advantages, improved hearing, smell, situational awareness. This has allowed me to counter-creep on it, triangulate it. Without light, I could only ever make out it’s shape, hieght. It’s never where I’ve positioned it, however. It’s moved. Invariably to reaquire it, all one has to do is turn around.
Source

A while later, he replies to someone’s account of being stalked, possibly by a “Skinwalker”:

The term skinwalker’s a regional understanding of truly a global phenomenon really. In fact it’s an organism indiginous in most corners of the globe, a predator, a trapper actually. Not hard to understand. It needs to eat, and tho quite efficient and deadly, it’s not looking for a fight & that’s where it relies heavily on deception. Tho apparently it has trouble rendering faces (there’s a reason for that too)

You don’t have to be in Navajo country, the US, the forest or North America for that matter or even at night to be at risk of encountering one. I call them the It. Think of it not as a shape-shifting person or entity or of an imaginary species or something wiser than man *tho more cunning for sure. Realize mankind’s always anthropomorphized, or personified faculties of nature for lack of an understanding. So let me be clear there are things that just are, that most can not quantify, like the oldest language of all life, a relationship, predator & prey a talk that begins and ends in the hunter’s digestive track *from when it’s stomach first growls with hunger, to the time it’s prey’s (it’s meal) is changing from solid (living) to warm food, fuel for the next hunt.

There are no rules to this engagement, the predator eats & the challenge is how. Spider’s catch their food with a hidden trap, a web. The owl, swoops down silently from above in the night. Dolphins and other marine mammals blast their prey with directed energy from behind, invisible shockwaves of sound. The It, gets inside your mind.
Source

He wrote the following in response to someone’s account of being stalked when alone in the woods:

You had a run-in with the It. The fact you’re alive means it had recently eaten or deemed you too large for the kill. It’s looking for food not a fight. The It lures those into exactly the type of setting you found yourself in when you experienced Contact. Contact is typically the final phase of it’s designs for it’s kill before the reveal. The Reveal is usually an attack from behind. There is no escaping the It once it has you by the mind. This is what I refer to as ‘the Grip’. Without knowing, we all seek to behold that which we can’t put our finger on, solitude with creation, our own proverbial burning bush, Contact. Contact is what we seek without realizing when we venture off the trail or away camp & from others, away from the campfire or as you stated, where no one else would go. The Grip makes this seem like a choice when in fact it’s our delivery. The grip delivers you to the It. Why would one do this? Seek something unidentified, dangerous & intangible. Why does the pizza man deliver his pizza. For the same reason: someone’s hungry and like him, you were summoned. Mankind has his role in the natural world. Man’s not prepared to know it’s to feed something. The good news is you’re not crazy. I am the hunter of this thing.
Source

In response to being asked if it would follow you home, he wrote:

Lots of predators in the animal, fish, & insect kingdoms, lure or trick their prey. Feeding is ambush not a chase or a fight. Humans have forgotten they too can be compelled, lured into a killing box for the purpose of the simple, natural feeding behavior of a meat eating predator. There is no good or evil about it. It is a basic primordial relationship, predator & prey. In my hunt for this thing that compels us to the forest, away from safety and alone, I discovered certain death at the end of this goal & an exploit in the constitution of man that allows the hijacking of his senses. This does not follow you home and would have nothing to do with a discovery of a dead body. This is something that lures to feed. And humans aren’t It’s only prey.
Source

More details:

The It has evolved so that it’s prey is delivered dazed, willing & compliant to it’s lap. It’s prey is often delivered, lured by triggers, wether it is hungry, ready to eat or not. The It is always either hiding or on the move. It is constantly pursued …by it’s own prey, pursued by adoration. To it’s prey It emits a haze by which they feel they are destined to either mate or experience an audience with god. It is the Burning Bush of all that it attracts. It can not turn this off. It can only hide & move & when it wants to… feed.
Source

Replying to someone who is energy sensitive who feels drawn to revisit the place of previous mild paranormal activity:

I’m going to state this to you in plain English for the sake of your safety & well being: you have a precondition that could kill you. You are a sensitive. You can see, feel & detect things that others can not. Yay, great for you, but here’s the hard part. I hope you’re sitting because this something few are aware of that I totally understand is going to sound shocking to you but… here goes: there are things, predators, in the animal kingdoms, that exploit, depend on, this predisposition of yours, ours, the lost & “the missing”, as a means of luring prey. This is a very old, very unfair but very natural relationship. In simpler terms, you are gifted, a sixth sense. The bad news: nature’s hacked this long ago as a means of predation. Example you detect things other people can not, hidden events and things, danger in the treeline, ect… you’re alerted, aware, frightened. The bad part: inexplicably you’re drawn to it.

We all share this danger. You: more so. It’s important you resist all self destructive impulses. Got it?
Source

Explaining the events of that paranormal encounter:

Her partner in her childhood disappearance/encounter. They were both not only targeted, lured & seperated from the “herd” (such as how large, land-based mammal predation is executed) but (in a component few are aware of) they were caught in what’s known as the “grip”. *Consider it like a halucenatory state or hypnosis triggered by proximity (most likely scent of) the predator. This ia a predatory ability that’s been until very recently misunderstood. I’m going to tell you something you will not believe. We as humans are prey. And there is an exploit in our constitution that allows for an overide of our basic faculties in the proximity of a certain yet difficult to describe land predator that has evaded human detection since before we came down from the trees. In our hubris we’ve indulged ourselves as the apex, designed in the image of in fact god. And yet why would god have in it’s design, the forward set eyes of the predator & yet the rearward facing ears of the prey? What could sneak up on and snatch god from behind? Something’s been doing this to man since before we traded our own fur for the pelts & skins of other beasts. It’s why we fear the night. Why the treeline is revered. Why we did not invent fire but fled to it while the rest from. It’s why we run! run well & in fact can run longer than most species. We are not only hunted, but we have flourished, livestock, the earth: a game preserve. That’s why, how you or I could disappear without a trace & for the rest, life goes on. The nature of this predator / prey relationship is deeply engrained in our construction. It’s in our software, the basis of our coding. We are not only meant to be it’s food, we designed not to know or even ask. But oh well, you asked…

They survived because they were together. It would appear their hunter had designs for just one & when they couldn’t be separated one was turned against the other. Hence the sudden anger her companion deflected against her. Op your friend’s mind was hacked, both were actually, & she was involuntarily trying to leave you behind, sacrifice you, because she was being driven remotely to do so. (This same friend would later take her own life btw…) Op you’re very luck to be alive. Go ahead, say the name. You said it was right then she called you a name.
Source

Expanding upon it further:

There exists on the land a predator that, when close, can hijack a man’s will. It can literally call you, you’re drawn to it, so it may eat. Natives, tribal people around the globe know of this. Geographically, culturally, it has many names. It is so in control of our faculties, we’re not even permitted to accept or even rationalize it’s existence. Modern people simply reject it. We watch our friends, family, & relations even the famous or the wealthy fall prey to harmful influences, like drugs, gambling, cults, hypnotism, religion & fakery & yet, we can’t accept the science, the physiology that makes this possible. We. Are. Hackable. The human mind is perforated with exploits. We are easily lured to our doom. And yet, we don’t embrace the reality that nature exploited this long ago, before tools, before even language, as a means of an easy meal. Our biology is so in fact wired for this relationship, it’s even in our fiber not to discuss it. Consider it like an exploit, protected by a firewall. That firewall is ignorance. Awareness is our only way of dealing with this situational danger.
Source

We’re just another food source for old nocturnal, species of meat eating land predator. Meat-eating land predators are scary enough without realizing some can hypnotize by means of a biological exploit into an ambush & subsequentially kill & feed. I have to remind many have lost loved ones to this process & want to declare my break-down of what’s taking place as not cold-hearted or insensitive but objective. I’m here to report a science & beg apologies in advance I’m not a scientist. I am a nuturalist: an enthusiest & protector of nature & student of natural history. My heart goes out to all the missing & to theirs survived-by & their friends. But I regret to report to you they all most likely have been slain. There’s a hunter out there, not a sigular or individual but a species, that’s well… couldn’t possibly be more dangerous. You see, it possesses the ability to take over the mind & exact directional control of it’s victims & That is why, to my obsevations, it is what I refer to as North America’s Real It.

The closest thing in behavior in modern terms would be the antogonist/species from Stephen Kings It, but… that work of Stephen King is fiction.

The fictional It, could render faces & fed on fear. The real McCoy i’m reporting to you about does not share it’s fictional counterpart’s complexities or designs for it’s prey. North America’s It is a relatively dumb yet efficiently designed meat eater. In fact none of It’s “supernatural-seeming” abilities are either calculated, deliberate, or even super or extra natural. It’s lure is as automatic & instictual (triggered by proximity) as a venus fly trap, mindless snapping closed on it’s dinner. There is no evil or paranormal or demonic or mystical happening here. It can perform this lure by remote command action simply with the tools, (and a little understood exploit) nature has always provided.

We, members of the plant, insect, fish & animal kingdoms do a great many things we have zero control over. Especially in the wild. These actions are overrides, and when compromised, these core duties, or apptitudes for basic movement or motion can yes, lead you off a cliff.

I had a run-in with one of these. My heart is pounding thinking back on that event. I’m very lucky to be alive. And now I have a story, these findings, that nobody will believe. Because everyone whoever experienced that same being is now dead.

The secret of what’s happening to people disappearing in the forest is hidden in plain sight by it’s own seeming impossibilty.

I really think science needs to catch up in order for humankind to be ready to accept what’s already been happening for thousands of years.
Source

22

A strange missing person and death/murder case that may be related to this phenomena:

6/15/05: Todd Geib, 22, Casnovia, MI

Todd Geib , 22, was last seen at a keg party and bonfire in the early morning hours of Sunday, June 12, 2005. The party of 100 people was held behind an apple orchard in a rural part of Casnovia, Michigan, a marshy area containing 6 miles of hip-high grass. Geib apparently left the party to walk to his cousin’s home at 291 Moon Court, where he rented a room. He lived near Half Moon Lake, about a mile and a half southeast of the party site and may have been seen walking along Moon Road.

Geib was last heard from during a series of cell phone calls between 12:47 a.m. and 12:57 a.m. on Sunday. At 12:47 a.m., he called the friend who had driven him to the party to say that he’d “had enough” and was walking home. He then called a friend at 12:51 a.m., but all he said was, “I’m in a field,” before the phone call cut off. The friend called back and heard only what she thought was either breathing or the wind before the call ended. The phone was then used twice over the next few minutes in an attempt to call the friend back with the last attempt ending at 12:57 a.m. Geib’s phone was not used again after that. Neither were his credit cards.

The area where Geib was last seen was thoroughly searched three times. During one of the searches, an estimated 1,500 volunteers as well as aircraft searched the area around the party site. Nothing was found.

Three weeks later, on July 2, 2005, Todd Geib’s body was discovered in a remote pond near the party. It was reported, “according to the couple who found Todd, he was standing upright in Obenhall Lake. They remember it distinctly because his head and shoulders were sticking out of the water. With a blood alcohol content of .12, the cause of death was ruled “drowning.” The manner of death was ruled “undetermined.” The Michigan State Police closed Todd’s case.” (Piehl, 6/12/09).

One police officer initially provided speculation to Geib’s mother, Kathy, that her son had gone for a swim. But it didn’t make sense. Geib was found fully clothed with his wallet in his pocket. (Piehl, 6/12/09).

Geib’s family does not believe the official ruling. They believe Todd Geib died as the result of a homicide.

In 2009, Geib’s autopsy report and recovery photos were reviewed by Dr. Michael Sikirica, a board certified Forensic Pathologist and CEO of Forensic Identification and Profiling Labratory. He showed the file to his team, other investigators and also shared the data at an international convention of Medical Examiners. All agreed with Dr. Sikirica’s conclusion–that Todd Geib who had been missing for three weeks, had been dead 2 – 5 days. (Piehl, 3/3/10).

Despite these new findings, the Michigan State Police refused to reopen Todd Geib’s case.

In March 2010, Kathy Geib told WZZM13, “We can’t bring him back with an investigation, but Todd deserves justice,” said Kathy Geib. “It’s almost like saying Todd’s life is worth nothing when we have all this evidence and no one turn back to see what happened.” (Brenzing, 3/18/10).

Kathy Geib is still fighting to get the case reopened. A small rally–Justice for Todd–was held June 10, 2012 in Ravenna, Mich. to help urge police to change their minds.

“There was no water in his lungs,” she elaborated in an interview with Heather Lynn Peters of MLiv e on June 6, 2012. “From what we have found from the professionals is that he had been placed in the water after he was dead. They are 100 percent in agreement that in this case there were clues missed.”

She hopes it will be enough for police to open a case.

Case Details

Name/age: Todd Geib, 22
Hometown: Ravenna, Mich.
Last seen: 6/15/05 Casnovia, Mich.
Recovered: 07/02/05 Obenhall Lake
Investigating Agency: Michigan State Police

Source: Footprints at The River's Edge: 6/15/05: Todd Geib, 22, Casnovia, MI

23

This report comes from Brent Swancer, an author and crypto expert living in Japan:

This happened to me when I had just turned 18 years old, just before I was to head off to college, and I had decided to take a road trip from my home town in California to Denver, Colorado to visit a friend of mine there. I did not have much money, and my parents thought it was a bit of a whimsical idea, but they let me go through with it anyway. I thought at the time that I could handle myself, and at 6’3″ and pretty muscular I suppose I have a somewhat intimidating enough presence, even then, that I foolishly thought I would not run into too many problems along the way, that no one would mess with me. Anyway, it was just to be a drive out there, after which I would stay two days and then come back. Simple. There was no real reason to think it was a particularly bad idea at the time.

Along the way, somewhere in the wilds of Nevada, it became obvious that the drive was to be a lot longer than I had expected, I had left my home too late, and I was getting tired and sleepy. If you have ever taken this drive then you might know that there are vast swaths where there is not a soul in sight for miles around. It might as well be the surface of the moon. There was really not much to see along this route, it was dark and empty, and with the endless, monotonous road ahead and the hypnotizing lane lines flickering by I caught myself nodding off at the wheel on several occasions. I did not really have the money for a hotel to stay at, I barely had enough money for food and gas, and so I decided to pull over at a highway rest area off the highway and take a nap in my car. I only planned to sleep for a couple of hours and then head off along that dark, desolate highway once more. The area was actually rather remote, with nothing around, and at the time there were no other vehicles there at that rest stop, giving it all a rather bleak and imposing atmosphere that made me wonder if it was a good idea to be there or not, but I ended up parking, putting my chair back, and falling asleep even as I turned over the idea of just continuing on my way in my head.

I awoke to a tapping on my car window. I jumped awake, and it was light enough that I at first thought it was early morning. I was somewhat startled to see a young man standing there peering in at me. He was a skinny young man who looked to be perhaps in his early twenties or late teens, not much older than myself at the time, and he was dressed normally, certainly not a vagrant or appearing particularly threatening in any noticeable way, although I immediately wondered why he was out there in the middle of nowhere and what he wanted. He then simply and calmly said “Open the door.” At this I immediately had a distinct sense of palpable menace, some undefinable feeling of threat, and was glad that I had locked the doors of my vehicle. I simply said no. He demanded again, “Open the door,” this time in almost a growl, and I soon noticed that there were two others with him lurking in the background, and that there was also a pick-up truck nearby, which I assumed to be theirs. Upon this truck was mounted a spotlight that was turned on and pointed at the ground, which was why the whole area seemed to be surprisingly illuminated. In actuality it was still the middle of the night.

This is where things get bizarre indeed. Thinking that it was just some kids screwing around, I took out a knife I had brought with me and just held it there where he could see it, which I guess was pretty stupid in retrospect, but remember I was just a dumb teenager and I thought this would maybe scare them away. It in fact had quite the opposite effect. The young man became absolutely infuriated , and let out what I can only describe as an animalistic howl or wail, quite chillingly inhuman in its intensity, as he violently shoved my car to send the vehicle quaking, and I actually felt it lift from the ground a bit. It was breathtakingly horrifying, totally out of nowhere, and was a jarring, frightening display of strength I never would have expected from a person, let alone someone with such a slim frame. It is hard to describe just the amount of alarm I felt at that moment.

This is when I noticed that the two other people with him in the background had something quite off about them. I could see that their eyes were either glowing or reflecting light like those of a cat, I don’t know which, which either way you might recognize as something that human eyes do not do. It also seemed that they were, I don’t know how to describe it, blurry? Fuzzy? Do you know how when you are watching a TV program with bad transmission and the people on the screen look jumpy and distorted? Can you imagine that? It was like that. They seemed distorted, broken, and vague, as if infused with some sort of static. It was almost as if they were tenuous, having trouble with staying in focus, staying in reality, having difficulty existing, or that they were quivering or moving to and fro at great speed. It was really very strange and although I suppose I am a decent writer I find it quite hard to fully describe in words. The next thing I knew, one of them, a girl around the same age as the man, who was now panting and scowling like a rabid dog, his visage twisted and contorted beyond the thin pane of window separating us, was suddenly just there beside him. One moment she was standing in the background some distance away, and then she just was right there in the blink of an eye. It was abrupt and disorienting to say the least. Then she also said “Open the door now.”

This is when I snapped out of my shock and started my car. I didn’t honestly didn’t think it would start, thinking that surely they must have done something to it to cripple it, and that I would be stuck there in its metal prison until they smashed their way in or someone came along to help, which was a slim possibility considering the sheer emptiness of the road and the fact that the chance that few vehicles passing by in the night would even know something was wrong was a remote possibility at best. To my genuine surprise the car did start, and I tore out of there as fast as I could. As I did so, the spotlight on the pick-up truck immediately sprung to life and swung up to home in on me, blinding in its brightness and following my car with perfect precision.

I stepped on the gas, and as I did I was shocked to see that one of them, not the original man or woman, probably the other one or even another hiding in the shadows who I had not seen, was running along side my car. I think it is important to mention that at this point I was almost to the actual highway and steadily picking up speed, perhaps going 40 miles an hour at that moment, yet there this person was, another young man, easily pacing me as the spotlight pierced forward to track me. As he ran, barely even looking tired, he reached out to knock on my window, and it was all so totally strange and frightening that I remember I let out a scream, something that I usually do not do and which I can probably count on one hand how many times I’ve done it. As I reached the highway and picked up speed he tried to keep up with me, banging on my window the whole time with increasing force, and probably made it up to around 50 miles per hour before he finally fell behind and faded into the distance. It was all absolutely mind boggling.

I just drove off as fast as I could, my foot heavy on the pedal, and although that persistent spotlight stayed on me until I was out of sight, the truck oddly did not give chase. I hauled ass until I reached an off-ramp into a populated place, and I must have sat there at a diner for about 3 hours, shaking and trembling at the whim of the adrenaline that was coursing through me. I could not keep my hands still, I must have looked a mess, and I remember the waitress asking if I was alright on numerous occasions, but I lied and said that I was just frightened because I had almost crashed out on the road. I don’t know why I didn’t tell anyone or call the police. It is probably because I didn’t think they would believe me, hell I barely believed it, and also the fact that I was eager to reach my destination and did not want to deal with the hassle, especially since I was in one piece despite my rattled state.

I never did tell my friend in Colorado about it, and indeed I have never told anyone at all about it until now. I was terrified to tell anyone about what really happened. This may all sound very dramatic, but I assure you it did happen, I am not exaggerating, and to this day it is rather traumatic to think about. I truly feel that I was not meant to make it out of there alive, and that I should have died or even worse at that rest area. My life was surely in some form of danger. I often find myself wondering how many other travelers along that desolate stretch of highway were confronted by those odd strangers, and what would have happened to me if I had opened my door as they had demanded. To this day, it gives me duress just to bring up these memories.

Adding to this is that I have never been able to figure out just what exactly happened there on that highway or just who or what it is that I encountered. It is so bizarre and inexplicable, and doesn’t even clearly fit any strange phenomena I know of. Who were those people? Were they even people at all? If not, what were they? Were they wraiths of some sort? Black Eyed Kids? Shadow people? Vampires, for Pete’s sake? What? I mean, what in the world was going on there? Who were they? I have no answers for it, and the whole incident leaves me baffled and not a little frightened to this day. Now, I like to think of myself as a reasonably intelligent and rational person, I was not drinking at the time, and I was not doing drugs. I would really like there to be a pat, mundane explanation for it all, but I can find none. I can’t even really find any known phenomenon out there in Forteana and the world of the weird that really fits in with what I saw. It is all completely and utterly bizarre and confounding to me.

Source: https://mysteriousuniverse.org/2017/06/on-my-personal-brushes-with-the-unexplained/

24

My wife has roots in Arctic Village that has a native population of about 150 residents that live a mostly subsistence lifestyle located within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. This village is about as far north as one can get in North America without visiting the northern coastal villages of Alaska. The nearest hub city is Fairbanks, about a 2 hour plane ride south, where we live. So obviously, this is very rural Alaska, but the Gwichin Athabaskan people have lived in this area for thousands of years and have adapted well to the land and animals for sustenance.

Arctic Village kind of sits on a plateau in a valley surrounded by vast areas of lakes, marsh and then beautiful rolling mountains. It is freaking beautiful region, especially in the summer. And the village has beautiful foliage, bushes, and tundra growth throughout it.

But my wife’s story actually came from one of her cousins that has two boys there. The story her cousin shared went like this:

It was Fall time up in Arctic Village in 2017. Her cousins boys were playing outside around the house as they usually would be in the afternoon. I believe she called out to the boys to head in, and her three year old started up towards the house while her teenager started up shortly after. When her teen reached the home she asked where his little brother was, and he said that he thought he had already reached the house as he just saw him walking up just a minute or so before. So they started to call out to him and looking around, retracing the path the older boy thought he took.

Minutes turned to ten minutes, and so on. Now, everyone has a CB radio in Arctic Village, so she got on the radio and started asking around. More and more people started getting involved. Her older boy was even driving around on the four-wheeler by this time frantically looking for him.

After about an hour or so, my wife’s cousin was scanning around the lakes and marshes with binoculars and finally saw something far off in the distance across one of the lakes. Must have been about a mile to the other side of this lake through very rough, wet, marshy terrain.

She had her teen drive the four-wheeler over to check. After about 30 minutes, her two boys returned on the four-wheeler. She just received the scare of a lifetime for any parent.

Now her cousin mentioned a few things that didn’t quite make sense to her. The three year old was perfectly fine and didn’t have a drop of mud or debris on him if he had trecked his way through the marsh to get there. It was also strange that he had traveled so far in such a short amount of time and without getting at all dirty. And he was missing his shoes for some reason and they couldn’t be found.

But what was most troubling, is when she asked her boy what had happened, he simply said, that a ‘big man’ had taken him. This was about all she could get from him, as he wasn’t a big talker at this age.

Why he was taken, and why he was spared, and by what is very perplexing. But following David Paulides work really does show some similarities to my wife’s cousin’s story.

As a final note, the Gwichin people in this region believe in the ‘Na’in’ or ‘woodsman’. Seems like every native culture has one. An entity that lives in the wild and is known to take children from time to time. But thanks for reading and please ask any questions if you have any. This subject is fascinating, albeit a bit scary as I have young kids myself.

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Talking with my Dad, who is Koyukon Athabascan from interior Alaska said the elders in his region would call these beings ‘woodsmen’ and would take children from time to time.

Sometimes the old timers would leave food out on the trails at night so they wouldn’t try and take the kids.

My Dad’s mom once said her friend in Old Kokrines, Alaska was once taken from the village one evening by one of these woodsman. The whole village was looking for her that night and calling out for her. She said she was like in a dream-state, she could here the people calling her but she couldn’t move or react. Finally, the woodsman let her go and she escaped to the river and was picked up by an older man the next morning paddling up the Yukon River.

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Btw the trance idea seems very likely to me as it relates to many missing 411 cases.

As u/OddEdges

puts it—

Victims are selected, that suggests stalked, and then ambushed… It seems that as the ambush occurs any number of things happen, including but not limited to:

i. Victims are hypnotized or lured ii. They are abducted via an extremely fine or unknown form of locomotion, either natural of technical iii. They are outright teleported iv. Victims are skillfully camouflaged by their assailants so well that the rest of the group remains unaware of the attack (“Invisibility cloak”) v. Otherwise undetermined

I am especially interested in that one case of the young man who was rafting and on the phone while he was being or under the impression of being pursued, and apparently said to the person on the other line that he was going to take off his clothes.

Ive also read accounts on this sub where people are drawn to a certain location/perform a certain action (like enter a body of water)…and I believe this carries through in some particular cases where people have demonstrated/apperently done something unprecedented and illogical, perhaps under the influence of something else.

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I started my adventure this year by biking the Arizona Trail. I was riding an Amtrak to get to AZ and met a Navajo man in the viewing car. He was in his mid 30s and day drunk. He said he was headed back to his reservation for a few weeks and hadn’t seen his kids in 5 years.

He told me about his life on the res. Fascinating. He went on a rite of passage at 13 and when he came back he was presented with his wife. At 13!

Anyway I told him I’d be hiking through NM on the CDT later that year and he became adamant that I should know how to protect myself against skinwalkers.

He said that he’d seen one when he was hunting as a teenager with his cousins. He said he watched a huge jackrabbit(head was waist high) walk behind a tree about 150yds away and from the other side of the tree came a humanoid with a tail.

He was visibly nervous when relating this story.

He said skinwalkers live on the reservation lands, usually in caves and gulches and other “bad” lands where people don’t like to go. I took this to mean difficult terrain.

I asked him what they were and he said they were very evil medicine men.

He said to never be alone out there. He said the skinwalkers will try to influence your thoughts and emotions. I.e. make you have bad thoughts and want to hurt yourself or others. They’ll make you depressed and suicidal according to him.

They’ll also try to lure you off trail. He said never ever follow one. That they’ll try to get you away from your group and lost in the wilderness. Now this is really interesting to me because again it’s the element of choice and it seems like they don’t just grab you, you have to go to them.

He said if I saw one I could identify it from the fact that it will look like an animal but not quite right. It’ll have some characteristic that is off, like a rabbit with human feet or eyes. Again very interesting and makes me think of the men in black scenario where they look almost human but are just off a little bit and not quite right.

He said the only way to kill one was you coat arrowheads or bullets in the ash of I think an Ash tree but I’m not positive what type of tree he said. Also if you saw one to rub yourself down in the ashes of that same tree and that would protect you.

I don’t think the guy was trying to screw with me. He seemed very genuine and genuinely shaken when he was telling me this stuff. I asked if I could get his story on video but he really didn’t like that idea.

I think it’s really interesting how all these native cultures have stories about entities in the wild that will try to take you in some fashion. It can’t all be myths.

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I was lucky enough to talk with a Navajo Ranger last December before I visited the Navajo and Hopi reservations. He recommended the following, in case you haven’t hit the trail yet and you’re interested:

> carrying turquoise for protection, the more the better.

Note: Turquoise is included in our pendants with exposed gemstones, and I have real, genuine turquoise (most turquoise sold is not really turquoise) that I can add to towerbusters, cones, etc. for custom orders - @Adam

> salt helps. He said his grandmother threw salt over her shoulder. Salt around the door to your tent might not be a bad idea, silly as it sounds.

> Would probably be tough to find, but he said some Navajos put cedar ash on their foreheads for protection.

> He also said corn pollen is used for protection. If you’re near Gallup at any point, there’s a big flea market there every Saturday where you can find people who sell corn pollen and other protective stuff.

> I asked if my grandfather’s rosary would do any good, and he said anything good that had belief/juju in it might be a help. I took the rosary.

> This guy said you were good so long as it was daytime. I realize you’ll be there at night, so I guess be more careful then.

> I was driving, so he recommended staying to the main roads. Not sure if that would translate to the main trails.

> He wouldn’t even say the word, and instead referred to them as “sw’s.” He recommended I do the same.

> He said that people don’t quite understand how powerful their voices are. If you’re firm and vocal and tell, say, a ghost to leave, that’s powerful. Don’t know if that would work on an sw, but just in case, if you’re that unlucky, who knows…

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This reminds me of the same requirements in the fae lore. You have to make a conscious decision to go with them. Also in the same vein vampires can’t just walk in to your house, they have to be invited.

My theory is that it’s to do with intent. They can’t take you but can trick you in to making the decision and then it’s all your fault.

There’s an interesting parallel with the idea of “predictive programming” which maintains that the ‘elite’ announce their actions in advance so they feel that you have been warned and passively accept whatever happens.

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Skinwalkers are definitely real, and you will definitely know when you come across one lol I am not Navajo, from a different tribe located in North America, and we have the same thing on our Rez, of course along with other tribes. Mainly located on in or around our Rez. This is because there is thick history, evil ugly history mainly located at or around these sites, some are sacred sites. We also have people within our tribes that can, and WILL, put bad medicine on you. That is, if they greatly despise you, fueled by jealousy and hatred. Can attract skinwalkers and evil entities alike, and worse case they can kill you. But I do believe these things also exist OUTSIDE of our reservations. There are a lot of people filled with hatred and bitterness and that energy can definitely be spewed at the ones they are jealous of. Went a little off subject lol but yes skinwalkers are real be careful and maybe get some sage from a native and “clean” yourself before going on your journey and even when you exit, if you believe in something pray for safety even if it is just from bad weather.

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My grandparents owned a trailer near Sacramento, NM (in the Lincoln National Forest) in the mid-90s and my mother, two siblings and I visited on a weekend sometime during that era. I had two teenage male cousins that were also visiting the same weekend. While there, my two cousins offered to take my mother, siblings and I on a hike. We left shortly after sunrise our first morning of the trip.

The first couple of hours of the hike were normal enough, nothing worth noting. However, as the day wore on, I remember my mother became worried that we were getting lost. She expressed her concern to my two cousins who were leading us. I remember them assuring us they knew where we were and we continued on. They wanted to take a different return route because they wanted to show us a river, which is a rare thing for folks from southern New Mexico. But as we kept going, there was no river in sight and my mother became convinced that we were lost. My cousins assured us once again that we were not lost and told us about a road a short distance away that we could wait at while they went back to my grandparents’ trailer to get a vehicle to give us a ride back in. Once we reached the road, my cousins and my family split up.

We literally waited for hours without a single sign of my cousins or any other sign of human life for that matter. None of us was carrying a watch and this was (obviously) before cell phones so we were stranded. Eventually, a red SUV type vehicle (I don’t recall the make or model) came around the mountain. We were partially relieved but also somewhat apprehensive because we didn’t recognize the vehicle. The vehicle slowed down when it came closer to us without us having to flag it down. We didn’t recognize the driver but he rolled down the window and asked us if everything was okay. When my mother walked closer to the window to speak to him she noticed a middle aged woman in the front seat whom she didn’t recognize and, to her surprise, my two cousins in the back seat. My mom ignored the man’s question and immediately started asking my two cousins where they had been. She told them we were hungry and tired and wanted to get back to my grandparents’. Amidst her concern, they both ignored my mom. They just stared blankly ahead and remained silent. Initially, my mom thought they were joking. But the more she tried to get a word out of them, the more awkward the situation became. They remained completely silent and expressionless, staring straight ahead throughout the entire conversation. At this point, I remember my mother becoming visibly alarmed. The man and woman then asked us again if we needed help. They were both EXTREMELY friendly and never stopped smiling. My mother, visibly shaken, declined their offer for help and motioned all of us to return to the side of the road. As we walked away, the man said, “Be careful. It’s easy to disappear out here.” and sped off.

Literally moments later we noticed my grandpas van turn a corner going the opposite direction as the red SUV. Needless to say, we were immensely relieved. My grandpa stopped the vehicle right next to us and we walked around to get in. When the door opened we noticed my two cousins were in the back seat. My mom then started shouting a mixture of anger and amusement exclaiming what a mean prank that was. My siblings and I joined in.

However, my cousins then said they had no idea what we were talking about. They said they had spent all day walking to the trailer and as soon as they got there, hopped in the van with my grandpa to come and pick us up. My grandpa and cousins looked shocked at our accusations and it eventually turned into an very serious discussion with everyone recalling their exact actions along with a timeline of events.

Even after all these years, my cousins swear they are telling the truth.

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I’m Aboriginal. We have our own name for them where I am (Central Australian Desert), Kradatye (pronounced Kra-da-cha). Skin-walkers in the Native American folklore are eerily similar to Aboriginal folkore. My great-nan used to tell me stories, one was when she’d gone picking berries and looking for witchetty grubs, honey-ants and bush-bananas with her sister back when she was younger, one had followed them to where they were camping. During the evening as the sun was going down they’d heard something crying, it sounded near. (When hearing sounds it has the opposite effect - if it was near it would sound far away but if it were far way, it was definitely right there).

They (great nan and her sister) stayed where they were and acted as if they were asleep, alert but paying no attention to it. The dogs they took with them were barking but didn’t move. It was on the outskirts of their camp, just out of the light of the fire, crying. It was there, by the far-away cries it was near and was trying to lure them away from the light. She had told her sister to not look at it or try to speak to it. It sounded like a child crying. She said it didn’t move away until the sun had started coming up. Guess it got bored. As soon as the sun was up they made it home as fast as they could.

This story has always stuck with me. In my culture, whistling at night can draw them, talking about them by word of mouth. Thankfully I’ve never seen one but I do believe they’re out there.

I’ve always known the Kradatye as an evil spirit, it could very well differ between tribes. Even tribes so close together. It could even be derived from the “Kadachi/kurdaitcha man”, but looking back on the stories told to me the latter is also described as the “Feather Foot man”.

From the stories told to me growing up as well, they can make you sick or crazy. I’ve heard of kids going missing out bush when staying out too long (could just be from natural occurrences, but we’re a superstitious people XD), they can supposedly make you see things that aren’t there, eg; you walking thinking it’s a normal path then you walk straight off a cliff to your death. Paying attention to them gives them that power and fear strengthens them.

If you ever see one, ignore!! Ignore!! Don’t pay attention to them, don’t speak to them and DON’T GO LOOKING FOR THEM!!! Don’t be the hero that goes looking for one. They’re not fun.

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In my tribe (Pacific Northwest) we call them the grogus. They are exactly as you described. We burn sage to ward them off. They also hate the sound of laughter. We don’t feel comfortable talking about them out loud.

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Former police officer David Paulides has been investigating and documenting unsolved cases of people who have gone missing in national parks and elsewhere, cases he refers to as missing 411.

The profile for a missing 411 case includes:

  1. People who go missing usually do so in National Parks, around large bodies of water, or near boulder fields.

  2. People from both ends of the intellectual spectrum go missing (e.g. people who have intellectual divergencies or disabilities go missing, as well as individuals who work careers as scientists, etc).

  3. People from both ends of the physical spectrum go missing (e.g. people who are physically disabled and cannot walk long distances, as well as individuals who live extremely active lives and are very fit).

  4. If the missing individual is found alive, they usually have memory loss about the entire event. Children sometimes tell weird stories about how they went missing. I recall one where a toddler went missing on a rather cold night and somehow survived; She claimed a wolf fed her berries from the palm of it’s hand and that’s how she survived.

  5. If the missing individual is found deceased, the cause of death is almost never determined. Often seeming as though they died without a cause at all. Medical examiners usually write that they died from, “exposure” if they do not have a better answer to give.

  6. The missing are found in areas that seem difficult - if not impossible - to reach by foot, or in the time that has lapsed. Such as a child being found 12 miles away in just a matter of a few hours. A common example is children as young as 2-3 going missing and being found in high elevations, such as mountains, 2,000ft in the air. Sometimes the children have their clothes on backwards or inside out, and their parents claim that they can’t even dress themselves yet.

  7. The missing are found in an area that’s been searched by Search and Rescue teams numerous times over a period of days (usually a week or longer). Sometimes they’re even found on the trail that’s used to access the area they’re searching. Almost as if they’re placed there intentionally in order to surely be found by SAR. Search and Rescue teams are meticulous about their searches.

  8. A lot of cases involve people who go missing for a week, but only died a day or two prior to being found, which begs the question of where they were during their time missing as well as what happened to them.

  9. The shoes tend to go missing, either just one or both. Many people are found in bizarre places at high altitudes or in tough terrain, and their socks or the soles of their feet don’t have a spec of dirt or wear on them. This is true for children too.

  10. Search ans Rescue dogs will be unable to pick up a scent, or if they are, they’ll follow it a few feet and then begin acting bizarrely. They’ll circle and then sit down. This is not common behavior for SAR canines.

  11. Investigators do not find any tracks nine times out of ten. If they do, they seem to stop inexplicably and lead nowhere, as if the person just vanished into thin air. Animal attacks are rules out by experts.

  12. Paulides will not investigate a case where an individual has a known history of mental illness. He usually won’t investigate cases where there’s a likelihood that this person left and disappeared by their own accord.

His first book on the subject was published in 2012, and he continues investigating and publishing to this day.
So far he has published 8 books and three films:

Missing 411 Series (books)

  • Missing 411 — Eastern United States: Unexplained Disappearances of North Americans That Have Never Been Solved (2012)
  • Missing 411 — Western United States & Canada: Unexplained Disappearances of North Americans that have never been solved (2012)
  • Missing 411 — North America and Beyond (2013)
  • Missing 411 — The Devil’s in the Details (2014)
  • Missing 411 — A Sobering Coincidence (2015)
  • Missing 411 — Hunters (2016)
  • Missing 411 — Off the Grid (2017)
  • Missing 411 — Law (2018)

Missing 411 Series (films)

Missing 411 (2016)

Vanished (2019)

Missing 411: The Hunted (2019)

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“These accounts were posted on Reddit in 8 parts, from August to December 2015. It’s not only the original posts that are so intriguing, but the large volume of replies from all over the world containing similar accounts.”

r/nosleep that you linked to is a fictional creepypasta sub.

From their rules:

“NoSleep is a place for authors to share their original horror stories. [For a more detailed explanation of the subreddit, click here: http://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/wiki/nosleep]. Suspension of disbelief is key here. Everything is true here, even if it’s not.”

I’ve personally written some stories for NoSleep. It’s a great sub, but the idea is that everyone plays along with confirmed fiction. I’m not saying that they’re not inspired by or similar to actual events, but the accounts are not truly presented as fact in themselves.

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One thing I know is to NEVER run from a mountain lion. It turns you into a prey animal tantalizing to cat hunter instincts. If they;re deliberately coming toward you like a predator you’re supposed to make yourself bigger arms up stretched out and scream at them, like cats do when they’re squaring off to fight. Bears are another matter- especially if it’s a sow with a cub! Stories I’ve heard from friends in Washington state who had sasquatch living on back edge of their property were more benign. Mostly when they went for walks in their woods the big guy threw mud balls at them

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I’m surprised the Navajo man told you, a stranger, about the SW and Navajo witches. They don’t usually do that because you might be one too… I watched my Navajo friend, who I considered "little brother, get tangled up with a male Navajo witch living near us on Apache Rez, and little brother started drinking again, lost everything in his life, including his life. Also traditional is not to say dead person’s name. Same with talking about bad witches-- it draws their attention and brings them to you. In same vein, quite a few Apaches warned me not to go by the river near the school where I was teaching…