Drider_it

This thread has several points in it. All dealing with woods.

One of the strangest feeling I've ever had in all my life was the woods. I grew up in north louisiana/south arkansas. I spent most of my life in the outskirts of it all. Woods and lakes all around.

Even so, I still find it strange in all of this.

For instance. Ever walked your own trail you pass several trees yet nothing.. then you pass this one dead tree. Several feet in every direction there is nothing growing. You get a bad "vibe" from it. Something not natural in essence. Hair begins to stand on end.

Well for me when i get these feelings i get the "hair on end" and my eyes water. Well not crying they just water up. Ive walked beside single trees full of life, with brances full of leaves.. but devoid of all other things. No birds in them, or other animals. Thus again the "vibe" feeling.

This weekend we spent our time out in cabins at a state lake. Here in louisiana the state tree is the bald cypress. The can grow fine out in the water. You will probally remember seeing one in movies like swamp thing and such. Out in a 2 man pearow boat with my son, we came across one tree with several ringed around it. I moved the boat clear of it of over 100 ft when i got the feeling. I wasnt even looking that way. But I hit the feeling and like a homing missle i locked onto it. Strange and such I know but its me.


Another point is the time of day. At night your walking through the woods and you stumble across that one tree of all trees. This tree repels everything it seems. You stumble to a dead stop. Not sure why you did but you did. You look around like the hounds of hells have been set free and they are wearing "Im gonna get u suka" shirts on with your face in the middle.


Shameful as it is.. I had ran from the tree in the dark. I ran like the devil himself was at my heels.

Then again you can find that one tree. Its full of life.. I almost shines with a corona of light around it. You feel drawn to it. The world is at peace. All the troubles you were pondering are forgotten for at least a little while. Animals of all sorts are around and in it.

All in all I've always found it strange. I still after all these years havent gotten up the nerve to touch one of the trees that give the bad vibe to me. Maybe I will when im Old and worn out heh.

__________________
It means only one thing, and everything: Cut. Once committed to fight, Cut. Everything else is secondary. Cut. That is your duty, your purpose, your hunger. There is no rule more important, no commitment that overrides that one. Cut. The lines are a portrayal of the dance. Cut from the void, not from bewilderment. Cut the enemy as quickly and directly as possible. Cut with certainty. Cut decisively, resoultely. Cut into his strength. Flow through the gaps in his guard. Cut him. Cut him down utterly. Don't allow him a breath. Crush him. Cut him without mercy to the depth of his spirit. It is the balance to life: death. It is the dance with death. It is the law a war wizard lives by, or he dies.

The_Dunedan

Drider, I don't think there's a woodsman breathing who hasn't felt that. I know exactly the feeling you describe; like "cold heat" or something radiating outwards. You wanna feel the same thing x5, go down to N'Awlins and walk by where Marie Leveaux or that Dr. who experimented on his slaves used to live. The Caddo Indians used to have some -freakish- stories about "ghost trees," where a tree would grow on the ground where someone died (or worse, be planted over the grave of a witch, usually a "Raven Mocker."

And yeah, the lack of animals or other vegitation is really creepy. Some of the time it makes sense; a wide-canopy oak tree in a pine brank, for instance, or some other situation where a larger and more vigorous tree outcompetes the smaller ones. But I've gotten that feeling from trees that were no more than a dozen meters high. And yeah, that feeling at night will keep you awake for awhile.

There are a lot of wierd, wierd things in this old world, and not all of them are friendly. There are older and fouler things than Orcs in the deep places of the world...

ShaniFaye

I seriously thought I was the only person that felt that way sometimes...I've never told anyone for fear of them thinking Im nuts

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Drider_it

Never ever be afraid to speak truth. Above all, you cant argue the truth. But yeah you wont get me in the wild of new orleans. Sorry. Michigan when i was there was bad enough with all the snow and white outs and that damn tree leaking sap in the dead of winter.. *shudders*

__________________
It means only one thing, and everything: Cut. Once committed to fight, Cut. Everything else is secondary. Cut. That is your duty, your purpose, your hunger. There is no rule more important, no commitment that overrides that one. Cut. The lines are a portrayal of the dance. Cut from the void, not from bewilderment. Cut the enemy as quickly and directly as possible. Cut with certainty. Cut decisively, resoultely. Cut into his strength. Flow through the gaps in his guard. Cut him. Cut him down utterly. Don't allow him a breath. Crush him. Cut him without mercy to the depth of his spirit. It is the balance to life: death. It is the dance with death. It is the law a war wizard lives by, or he dies.

The Faba

The snow covered plains are quite horrid enough at night. In Minnesoata and Mid Kansas where you get the farmland that's got a few sparse groves of trees, and there's a fresh snow coating. The air is utterly still and all you can hear is your own breath.

And you can see everything you want to... save for behind the trees, and behind your back.

krwlz

No hunter alive will dispute this. Making that trek at 4:30 am into the woods in NY to get to the tree stand... Can be overly creepy at times. Add to that the odd sightings I've yet to explain in the light of day. When you see something about 2 feet tall, and appearing to be running on two legs away from you.... lets just say you stop, take a big breath, and run the other way for all you're worth. Creepy.

The_Dunedan

Never seen anything wierd like what you describe, but that pre-dawn greyness...oh yeah. Make the hair on your neck stand up at times. Got the scare of my lifetime a few seasons back when I jumped a wild boar on my way into the stand one cold silver morning...

medlar

I think I know this feeling..though I've never come face to face with anything more than a raccoon..

Where I'm from originally and just recently, there arent' alot of trees. I lived right in the city. Since living in Vancouver, I've never seen so many trees, mountains and ocean in my life and so close to the city. So maybe this might have been a factor here.

A couple of months ago, I took the dog for a walk to a stretch of dense forest not far from the house. The forest runs along the shoreline left to grow to buffer the railway that runs along below. It's actually part of the trans-Canada trail that extends from the West Coast to the East Coast..pretty amazing walk. It's a well used and maintained pathway, I've often taken a run with my uncle or gone biking along it with friends and there's generally other walkers and bike riders. But not too many so you feel like your actually miles from the city.

On this particular day when I took the dog (Wallace, a fearless Jack Russel) along this path and was making fair progress. I took a side path that led down to the railroad while Wallace took off bounding rabbit like as he does, through the bushes. I always reckoned the forests were full of life, animals, bambi, squirrels bears bird etc..but this day, there was an absence of that not even a birdcall. It was uncanny and eerie and with the canopie of trees and thick brambles and ferns it was actually starting to get clausterphobic.. Worse was the silence, even the traffic beyond was muffled. And I was starting to get that hair standing on end feeling described here, as well a bout of cold sweat and my heart was starting to really pound..like I was in a fight or flight mode, or on the onset of a full out panic attack, or worse about to wet my pants. You'd think the dog would have been set off, but he was off obliviously in the deeper part of the forest..his crashing about didn't help the affect.

I was starting to worry about stumblliing into some deranged squatters site, and then started thinking on the Indian lore of the area...something like "it that walks through the forest" but in a Stephen King take. It all got a bit too much for me and shameful as it was I took the flight option. I got seriously freaked out and I'm crashing through the bushes and sprinting along the main path, with the dog at my heels no doubt he's thinking wtfwtf?? I was having a gas here. Of course I see more people walking along the path thinking I'm off my head or I'm being chased by a bear. I think I might have discovered some kind of phobia as opposed to what other posters here were experiencing. That or I'm just a complete pussy. I'd rather think instinct kicked in and there was actually some kind of threatening presence there.

Drider_it

Maybe its the city side of some people that can only take so much. But I've spent equal time in rual and urban areas so I dont know. Then again its like i said. Ive walked the same woodland path time and time again and never once felt anything. Then you get a feeling. You turn and see this tree. And the alarm bells ring. No way to explain why. It just happens. But it can go the other way too. You pass an old house and get that feeling. A dark alleyway. Strange as it may seem it happens to us all at one point or another.

With me, i read way too much. When i get the jumps in the woods my mind pictures something horrible with wings hovering over the ground flying just outta reach of me. If i even once turn back from my flight away it will give it the distance to nab me. Even at 34 I still can picture it and feel the fear it gave me back then.

__________________
It means only one thing, and everything: Cut. Once committed to fight, Cut. Everything else is secondary. Cut. That is your duty, your purpose, your hunger. There is no rule more important, no commitment that overrides that one. Cut. The lines are a portrayal of the dance. Cut from the void, not from bewilderment. Cut the enemy as quickly and directly as possible. Cut with certainty. Cut decisively, resoultely. Cut into his strength. Flow through the gaps in his guard. Cut him. Cut him down utterly. Don't allow him a breath. Crush him. Cut him without mercy to the depth of his spirit. It is the balance to life: death. It is the dance with death. It is the law a war wizard lives by, or he dies.

warrrreagl

So great. Just great. Grancey and I will be building our new and final home deep in the woods of Alabama sometime soon and now I can look forward to being terrified of this (as if my fear of bears wasn't enough).

__________________
Living is easy with eyes closed.

Bashmeol

I spend alot of time in the woods but I've never really come into this problem.

However, one morning in the middle of the summer, around 4:30 I decided to go for a run. The earth was completely still, nothing was awake, no sound, no movement, no wind, the woods were a dark green tint. Staring down past my driveway into the woods I felt very strange. I didn't go running that morning, something about the world seemed overwelmingly dangerous and great.

Baraka_Guru

I had my own odd occurrence in the woods, except it was a bit different from what I've read here so far.

It was when I was in high school and went on a camping trip with some friends. There must have been ten or so of us. We were all around the campfire, confiding some personal things, and we got on the topic of death. My own experience with death was limited, but I was relating the time when I was young (around ten years old, I think) and I saw my grandfather for the last time before he died of bone cancer.

My older brother and I were ushered in by my mother. I was quite nervous because he was much paler and frailer than I had remembered him. He was propped up slightly and seemed unable to speak, but he managed to hold up his hand and offer a struggled wave by way of clamping his hand open and closed a couple of times. This seemed appropriate, having been told that we were there to say hello to him. In hindsight, however, I have the feeling that my mother and grandmother knew that this was a goodbye. It was a very vivid image that has been embedded in my mind.

Anyway, when I was telling the story, by the time I mentioned to my friends that he waved to us, I suddenly froze up and fell silent inexplicably. Not even a moment later my eyes welled up with tears as a shooting feeling seized my senses--a sort of panic that seemed to come from outside me, from the very depths of the trees, it seemed. It was then that the same image of my grandfather flashed in my mind as vivid as though it were a film. By the time I recovered and wiped the tears from my eyes, several of my friends were nervously saying things like "Oh my god, did you feel that?" and "What was that?" About my own experience, I had not yet said a word. I quickly confirmed that I too felt it and I told them about the image appearing so vividly. Needless to say, we were all freaked out and we broke up our talk and promptly went to bed. I have never spoken about it with anyone again.

And for the record, my friends and I were a bunch of squares: there were absolutely no drugs or alcohol involved. It is an experience I will never forget. Also, I always associate my grandfather with the woods because he was a park ranger and superintendent for Ontario Parks for many years. Some of my fondest childhood memories include the summers spent on the wooded property he bought for the family, north of my hometown.

The woods are a powerful living entity. I am convinced of that.

__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

Bashmeol

I was running the other day and I was thinking about this and then I reazlied there was more to it. For some reason I don't associate any bad feelings with trees but large boulders in the woods always seemed to intrest me, especially the oddly shaped ones. I have run into a few which I don't like being near, something about the darkness underneath them and in the cracks that I don't like.

Nimetic

You must have a different sort of tree in your part of the world.

I've never felt anything like that from a tree, dead or otherwise. But then, my grandparents had a large farm. I'm quite happy to be in bushland at night. Or else I'm completely insensitive.

Eowyn_Vala

I would agree that one can get strange feelings from trees, areas, houses, and such. It's happened to me before. Never anything like some of the stories other have mentioned. But I get vibes pretty much anywhere I go, good one and bad ones.

The vibes that bothered me the most were from when I was in high school. I grew up in very small rural community. The town is barely half a mile on each side and my house was on the very edge to the south. When I was 15 my parents finally bought me a horse, we had a small barn and a large fenced in area. Every morning I had to get up when it was still dark out to take care of my horse and then get ready for school because the bus came at an ungodly hour. I hated walking down the road to the barn. And the door opened up to the field behind me. I always got bad vibes, or felt like something was watching me. Most mornings I would run down there and run back. As long as I was in the stall with my horse I was fine, but the field just creeped me out. It was worse in the dark, but even in the daylight I stayed out of that field. I would ride my horse down about a mile and then cut through a different field.

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abaya

You have something in common with Icelanders, then. They don't have a lot of trees on this island (and thus no fears of trees, hmm!), but many people believe quite strongly in the "hidden people" who live in the large rocks around the island. The fear is so strong that sometimes, when road builders come to make a new road and have to move a large rock out of the way, and their backhoe keeps breaking down... they decide to just build the road around it. They have even called in seers of some kind to interpret the situation, and the seers say that the hidden people don't want their homes disturbed. So, there you go!

In any case, I grew up in the woods and was certainly scared of the dark and things that went bump in the night... but I wouldn't say I was scared of trees in particular. A feeling of general creepiness, yes, especially when alone. But if I had a friend or parent with me (or my dog), no problem at all. I think this is kind of a human thing... fear of the unknown, the dark, very primeval things.

I sense it even more in Iceland in the winter, when I am driving around these huge, lone mountains and the wind is whipping around and it's pitch black. Imagine people living here in the middle ages, with nothing but a sod house to "protect" them from whatever they thought was out there. Those circumstances gave birth to an incredible array of folk tales and beliefs in the supernatural... and I don't blame them. But that doesn't mean it's real.

__________________
And think not you can direct the course of Love;
for Love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.
--Khalil Gibran

warrrreagl

This thread has really been gnawing at me since I first read it.

As I mentioned above, Grancey and I are about to build a house in the woods. Along the entrance road to our house (but still on Grancey's property) is thick, thick loblolly pines, sweetgum, crape myrtle, and various shrubby thicket-like growths. The road even passes over a couple of wetland areas which are as thick as the rest of the woods. EXCEPT for one little spot. There is about a 10 by 10 area near one of the wetlands and next to the road which has nothing but a patch of green grass/moss growing with no bushes, stickerbushes, trees, vines, or anything else. And although the woods are pretty thick and dark, this one spot seems to always be bathed in bright sunlight.

And thanks to this thread, I get freaked out and can't stop staring at this spot every time we drive by.

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Living is easy with eyes closed.

Fire

I have experienced this, with the nothing else alive around it effect too- my own senses I can doubt- there was an area near our house, in my highschool years, that you could not get a dog to go near- that included a Great Dane that pretty much feared nothing on earth, except that area......

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Thought the harder, Heart the bolder,
Mood the more as our might lessens

scout

I haven't really ever felt any strange feelings from trees or rocks but I have felt strangely in some houses or other areas outside. I work in the service field and go into a several different homes a day and it's amazing the feelings you encounter when you walk through the door. Most houses feel all warm and cozy but every once in a great while you walk into one that just gives you goose bumps. No matter how long your there you can't shake the feeling someone/something is there watching you and it ain't a real friendly spirit. You have to really stifle the urge to get the hell out of there fast.

Back to the woods.

Have you ever become disoriented and come out of the woods completely opposite of where you think you should be? I have hunted the same 200 and some odd acres for the past 10 years or so and twice I have become disoriented and completely screwed up on where I was at. I know for a fact it has to at least one other person in these same woods. I was in my stationary stand a few years ago and my hunting partner since high school came strolling by my stand. I had some good fun with him that morning for a few minutes until he realized he was about 10 yards from me. He was really distraught because he thought he was on the other side of the property. Back at the truck later he described it as feeling he was in the twilight zone, exactly how I've felt both times. The first time it happened to me if I hadn't heard a car on the road I would have really freaked out because I had been wandering aimlessly for about an hour and I was starting to get worried. The second time happened to me about two weeks ago. I decided to go squirrel hunting so I loaded the Zero the fearless hunter {our Jack Russell terrier} in the car and grabbed the .22 pistol and off we go. He loves to squirrel hunt, he thinks it's his single purpose in life. All you have to do is mention the word squirrel and he's at the door raising hell. Fast forward. The woods where we hunt makes a U shape around about a 25 acre corn field I had planned just to mosey around the U and see what we jumped up. We started around and I tried to always keep the cornfield to my left which should have taken us around and back to the car. Somewhere in the middle it was like stepping into the twilight zone. The dog was even acting weird. He's usually just in sight or out about 20 yards or so in front or to the side of me. After about an hour I couldn't get him out from under my feet. I thought he was thirsty so I opened a bottle of water and tried to give him a drink but he didn't want anything to do with the water. Somewhere about this time I noticed some ditches and things I had never noticed before in the woods where I thought I was and some other landmarks didn't seem quite right. No birds or any other of the usual noises you hear when your in the woods and it then dawned on me that I hadn't heard or seen anything move for a long time. Just total silence. I got a really weird feeling that something was up, something wasn't right. Crap, better go left and find that corn field again. Left we go and after a little bit suddenly there is a cornfield on my left and I'm like ok great but the landmarks still just didn't match up. I see a barn that shouldn't be there. WTF where the hell am I at? Then after a few moments of pure mental anguish and panic I realized where I was, not far from where I entered the woods and the cornfield where I now at was the field on the other side of the woods where I entered so the car was behind me rather than to my left where it should have been. Talk about feeling weird, I got goose bumps and decided just to go to the car. I got back to the car all freaked out and looked at the time and instead of it being roughly 9-10 am like I thought, I had went in the woods about daybreak, it was now noon. I had "lost" a couple hours.

Ourcrazymodern?

The woods always comfort me - maybe I haven't run into the right trees? I grew up where there were no trees except the shelter belts. The plains also made me feel expansive and good. As far as I know, I've never had a super-natural experience, except for living.

Damnit! I was sure I was paranoid enough.

Happy camping!

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chancester

In no way to thread jack, this kind of goes along with what is being discussed.....but I have a huge fear of being lost in the woods. Have you all ever been lost in the woods? Now that is one of the worst feelings I have ever came across. While hunting in a 1000 acre deer ranch I was lost in the woods for a good 2 or 3 hours. After that, I found a great respect for the woods. It is powerful like the ocean to me.

Ustwo

You don't learn to really respect nature until it almost kills you. Being lost, while not fatal directly, will get you thinking in that direction awfully quick and you realize just how little control you really have.


As for the original idea, when I was a kid I spent a LOT of time in the woods and I came to know them pretty well. Being spooked in the woods is pretty natural I think for a lot of reasons, but just observing and examining the areas makes that fear fade pretty fast.

I do have to wonder if we are more spooked in areas with dead trees etc as a evolved reaction to an unhealthy area.

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tabykat178

When I was younger, I lived with my grandparents in this little town in Tennessee that consisted of a stop sign and a small grocery store. We lived right on the edge of the woods. I mean, our back yard was the woods. I've never really had this feeling though. Actually, when I was upset, I would run off in woods and sit by this little creek.

But, one day I went out past the creek, just out of curiousity. That was a huge mistake! I came across this big circular open spot in the woods. I swear it was a perfect circle. I kind of just stumbled into it and didn't start getting the weird feeling, like I had trespassed somewhere I wasn't supposed to go, untill I got to the center of it.

I kind of just froze and looked around. It felt like there were quite a few people just staring at me. I don't think I have ever ran so fast. But as soon as I got back to the creek, it all went away.

I don't know...water has always been a comfort to me since that day.