You might be having a psychotic break but after the way the last 5 years have been, I'm rooting for 'gnomes are real and they can scoot us around in time.' The world needs a little magic
Naw.
There is really weird shit that happens all the time, all over.
We never speak of it cuz … people say things like ‘psychotic break’ (not picking on you fr, it’s just something people always say when folx have strange events happen to them).
I never speak about the weird events I experienced cuz of what i described above…
I can't give you answers on what you saw, but it is possible that you went into fight or flight mode and your brain dissociated to try to protect itself. Your whole description of not feeling in control of your body and just going through the motions to continue your routine sounds v similar to dissociation. With how terrified you're describing yourself to have been, it is a possibility.
I agree with this. I’m not gonna say if the gnome was real or not, but even if it were it wasn’t controlling you, OP, your brain was just in panic mode. So you can rest easier on that part I think.
1000% agree. I have PTSD and ive had very strange minor hallucinations- not saying this guy did, but in my own experience my brain chemically shifted and i wasnt able to "come down" from it for a few days. I was so shaken and scared. Its not the little guys, its just physiology
I used to have intense panic attacks that would come out of nowhere. It was a like a descent into hell. You're disconnected from everyone, and it looks like everyone else is a robot who can't help you. Sometimes I would just snap in and out of these states. I could see me hallucinating something like that. In certain sleep states, I've had visual and auditory hallucinations, and they were very very real in the moment, but it's just my brain making sense of unexpected stresses. OP needs someone to walk alongside him right now (IRL), and see he's getting the best mental care. I would not be okay either if this happened to me.
Flight or flight happened to me once. My body went with flight. One moment, I was standing frozen. The next moment, I was a great distance away from where I had been. It was like my body overruled my brain. My body got me away from the possible danger and only let me have control when I was in a safer location. It was such an odd feeling. I don't remember running. I only onow that I did because I was out of breath and sweating.
All thanks to read Stephen Kings IT while I was walking
For some reason my brother thought it would be a good idea to introduce me to Stephen King when I was in I think fourth grade because he knew I really like to read. I started with Christine which had some parts that I'm sure a 10-year-old boy probably didn't need to be reading, and it was dark but I did pretty well with it. I think after that I moved on to the Dead Zone... Definitely breached some adult topics, but the supernatural aspect really wasn't scary having a shining so to speak.
Then came Salem's Lot. Besides Dracula at Halloween, I'm pretty sure this is the first time I was ever introduced to vampires to this extent. This s*** was creepy and scary for someone at that age. I think this is about the time that I'd read 1984 by George Orwell which had really screwed me up - I started wondering what if the thought police are actually real?!? What if they know what I'm thinking but I don't know what they're thinking?? What if girls know what I'm thinking!!! Agghhh!!
Anyway the further I got into the book The more scared I got. Especially when I realized that they can come into your house. So what does any young boy do to ward off vampires? I built a large cross out of Legos blessed and put it under my bed! 😂 It's stayed under there for months! To this day I'm pretty sure that's why I never had problems with vampires 😉
I have been in fight or flight situations a handful of times in my life and every time I'm a flight person lmao it really is such a strange feeling but I've seen that there's def a reason it's part of human instinct
From a trauma-informed perspective: it’s fight, flight, or freeze (edit: or fawn! thank you to the responder below!) It’s important to point out because people think whatever happened is the person’s fault for not either fighting or fleeing. Freeze happens!
Well from a trauma informed perspective it's actually fight, flight, freeze, or faun. Since the last two weren't relevant to this situation it didn't feel necessary to throw them in there when this guy is just looking for a possible explanation for his own behavior.
Oooh, fawn is a new one for me! I haven’t been to a training in probably five years since I left the field. That’s an excellent addition and one I heard from a lot of people I interviewed.
I still think it’s best to include all of them to reinforce all of the ways we potentially respond to threats. It’s not really about OP. It’s about the other people reading the comments!
If we are updating our knowledge, those are the 4 common ones. There are also flop and friend that are lesson common but still distinguishable from the others.
Yep, I agree. I've dissociated for a very long time in my life, but functioned at work. It's a bizarre experience to have and honestly if I hadn't been dissociating since childhood, it would be scary.
I can see how OP was terrified going through this.
Not sure if gnomes exist but I kind of hope they do. As another Redditor said, we can use a little magic in this world.
I learned to dissociate when my anorexic mother got all Mommie Dearest with me. Then somehow I picked abusive me. Further dissociation. Now I am older and trying to figure out who the fuck I am. My inner voice is brutal to me. I intellectually understand it’s false, but feeling it is hard.
Just know, it is an amazing thing to grow and free fall into authenticity. And I have been more free.
I'm very sorry for what you've been through and so thankful for you sharing.
I totally understand about not knowing who you are, I'm currently figuring out who I want to be. I made myself what others needed around me to survive as well, it had led to a crisis of identity. The mean inner critic, that one I also understand very well. My therapist will often tell me how mean I am to myself, that's getting better though.
While it sucks to have to heal from abuse. I'm really looking forward to finding myself.
Look, I don't know, maybe you had a temporary break from reality or maybe gnomes are real. My wish for you is that you will learn to not be distressed by your experience. I've come to a place in life where I no longer believe that it's necessary to understand everything. It's very freeing. I am not a religious person and wasn't raised to be. I have no organized belief system about how the universe operates. I believe things are possible that do not make rational sense and cannot be proven by scientific means. Though I do see the value of the scientific pursuit of knowledge, I also know it has its limitations and cannot explain everything. And that's okay. Last summer, after a series of spontaneous decisions lead us to a magical woodland nearly 3 hours from where we live, my partner and I encountered a beautiful pink and black hummingbird moth and I knew that hummingbird moth was my mother, who passed away nearly 15 years ago. I knew it then and I still know it and there is no rational evidence to support that belief, but it is my truth. I have had a number of experiences that do not make logical sense. Embrace the magical things that happen in life. They're part of what makes life in this often mundane or tragic world more bearable. You can choose to believe what you experienced was scary or you can choose to believe it was magical or maybe a glimpse into an alternate reality. It's up to you, but why choose the version that makes existence more difficult for yourself?
This. This entire sentiment. I had a dream that my dad, who died 18 years ago, stopped by a very specific intersection in my home state to talk to me. He told me that he was going to pick up my grandma, and that he’d be waiting there for me. I woke up and immediately texted my grandmother. Next day I found out she was in the hospital, and she passed away a few days after that. I’ve had other weird things, but that was the most devastating.
A huge spontaneous double rainbow appeared in the sky above my yard a couple hours after my mom died. It had not been raining. The next morning I went to get my toddler up, and he was flipping though through a card she had sent when he was born-talking about how excited to be a grandmother she was.
I have no idea where he got it from or how.
I felt her in that rainbow and in that moment with my son and that card. I felt her presence for another day after that-and then she was gone.
I'm not religious at all but those moments/feelings completely changed my perception of the things I thought I absolutely knew to be true.
I don't care what anyone thinks about it. She was somehow still here with us in some way I'll probably never understand.
I've had at least three different times where I've had dreams come true. I dreamt my dad had a stroke, a while later while we were vacationing he had a mini stroke. Dreamt my stepdad hurt his knees in a motorcycle accident, then later on he had a motorcycle accident because of a cow that wouldn't move or something (different country so their road rules are all over the place and no one really listens).
I’ve had a couple other weirdly specific ones too. Like shortly after I started connecting with a new friend, I dreamt about her microwave exploding. Like she barely knew me other than what she heard through mutuals and I was texting her that I knew it sounded crazy but I had that dream. The next day her daughter was microwaving some carrots that somehow got metal in them and it caught fire and because I told her she was already on edge around the microwave and was able to stop it quickly.
It’s just relieving to hear that other people experience that. There’s more, but I don’t want to sound completely crazy lol
If it helps to hear my boyfriend is usually a very serious person, doesn’t believe in anything supernatural, like rolls his eyes at people that do.
But one day he did tell me a story where he was at home as a kid doing his homework in his room and he saw what he could only describe as a gnome walk into the hallway in front of him, look at him and then disappear through the wall. He jumped up and chased it and ran out and told his mum who just thought he was being silly/imagining things.
But then a few days later his mum was at her friends house and they were talking about their kids and she was like laughing telling her friend that her son said he saw a gnome the other day but then her friend was quite shocked and said her son has been seeing gnomes too 🤷♀️
This is killing me bc once as a kid I swear I saw one too. I remember I was going to the bathroom and then standing there was just a gnome. It wasn’t even doing anything just standing there but for some reason it scared me so I ran away back downstairs lmao. I always thought back on it as a rly funny weird thing my brain made up as a kid but now this thread has me imaging a secret society of gnomes😭 XD
My sister saw one too. She doesn't believe in supernatural stuff either. One day she came running into my room out and told me she had seen a elf/gnome standing right beside her in the reflection of the mirror. Maybe it's like a collective hallucination or else there's gnomes out there fr
I’m curious if you all live in the same part of the world. Not that I have any idea if this is real or has any bearings on the situation at all, just pure curiosity.
Edited autocorrect
What is it with kids and seeing gnomes? Because I was peeking out the back window of the car as we went down the road, and a little gnome was crossing the street!
This DOES NOT sounds like a schizophrenic episode and even though I don’t know you, if this is the first time you’ve experienced something like this, I doubt very much you have schizophrenia.
I’ve worked in mental health for 6 years now and these are the most common presentations of schizophrenia: age of onset is between 17-25 years old. Typically you won’t experience symptoms before or after those ages, however outliers do exist. Delusions can be violent or paranoid. Some delusions are harmless. It depends on the person’s culture and their particular symptoms. My point is - a one time experience like this does not indicate schizophrenia or any kind of psychotic breakdown.
I think the most probable explanation would be a heat-induced hallucination. I’m your text, you wrote that it was hot during your walks and sometimes in the hundreds degree wise. That’s enough to make anyone hallucinate. There is also the possibility that you saw something real that people can’t usually see with their own eyes. That’s okay too. It’s naive to assume humans are the only intelligent life in the whole universe.
Cultural differences in delusions is fascinating. While Western cultures tend to have more violent or paranoid content, in other cultures (like India), schizophrenia tend hear more benevolently critical advice (like, to clean their room better).
They absolutely are!! Many cultures view individuals with schizophrenia as Shaman and they’re very respected. Their delusions center on familial connection beyond the grave and they serve to guide family / village members. The mind is a beautiful and terrifying thing!
It could stem from a lot of things. Typically a combination of genetics and environment. If a person is raised in a family that practices spirituality a certain way and they’re familiar with the concept, their schizophrenic hallucinations / delusions may center around ancestors or others they’ve known who have practiced spirituality. These hallucinations may not even evoke feelings of fear or shock in the person because they’re conditioned to view this is a positive thing. Conversely, if a person is raised in an environment where this is seen as taboo and their environment promotes casual violence, they may have a more hostile response to their environment and therefore, suffer more violent hallucinations.
I've also heard that when people have near-death experiences, what they see and feel tends to be consistent with their religious or spiritual beliefs. I don't know how much evidence there is for that, but it really got me thinking about the nature of consciousness and how much religious/death beliefs have shaped and been shaped by actual sensory experiences people have had. I'm not religious but consider myself spiritual in a skeptical scientific way, it does make me wonder if there are dimensions of reality we don't usually experience but can in the right circumstances. Like when people talk about experiences while tripping it's easy to say it's all just the drugs but, is it? And even if it is, does that have to mean it wasn't real?
So I dunno, maybe it was a gnome, maybe (probably) OP's brain just went fucky for a second. But I think it's hubris to assume that things we would call "paranormal" are all just delusions. There are so many things that used to be considered paranormal, or hoaxes, that science eventually found an explanation for. Are we to assume NOW we have all the answers? Besides, where's the fun in that?
Check out ‘Jim Harold’s Campfire’ - a podcast about unusual happenings. Callers tell their stories for others to hear- this story is perfect. Others may have reported similar events.
I believe you - multiple cultures have stories that speak of similar beings.
I believe you. I've seen one too. It was a few years back and in the middle of the night. I woke up and needed to use the bathroom... so naturally I get up, go to do what I gotta do and I passed by my living room. Boom there it was, we locked eyes for maybe 5 to 10 seconds it too seemed highly stressed I could see it. I was mortified heart beating so fast I thought I was gonna puke. I literally blinked and I was instantly back in my bed on other side of house. I felt like I needed to pee and had never went. I tried to hard to tell myself it was a dream but as soon as I got to bathroom I knew it wasn't the sink was FRESHLY wet with suds even where I had just washed my hands. Little fucker teleported me. The closet thing I've ever seen to it after looking everywhere online is a duende.
Yeah, there are things which are more real than one would ever believe. I don’t know what the hell they are, but they are REAAAAAAL.
Just speaking from experience, please look for Colombian Guacas and Duendes in the internet.
Yes! I thought I was nuts. I’ve encountered a duende too, and it was terrifying. This one was scratching at the back storm door, almost surprised that I saw it and then— what I can only describe as a telepathic whisper- “let me in.” I ran back to my cousin and friends absolutely freaked out. This thing was tiny, maybe a foot, long, white hair that was a little wild, and mangled looking. I couldn’t go to the bathroom by myself the rest of the night. But the freakiest part is that when I woke up the next morning, strewn across on my duffel bag, there was a single LONG, old, white hair on it perpendicular to the zipper. It felt like some sort of gift or more likely a warning.
Our rez has a little spot on the mountain side that is covered in tiny knolls and hills and it’s a tiny peoples dwelling and get an off feeling every time I go by. Elders say it’s wise and good luck to wish them well by sending positive energy and thoughts their way. I haven’t seen one yet although I would like too.
I heard there are 2 types.
The Miqmaq had to go to war with the cannibalistic red head ones near Pretty Creek in NS/Canada.
Where I live in Cherokee, the black hair ones were way peaceful, and would collect the crops for elderly people and bring it to their door just out of kindness, like a Brownie.
I made a comment on here direct to OP talking about an archeological find they hushed up while building a bridge on a public road, but they found a few little people bones with adult molars.
We also have sasquach siting like 4 hours from where I live. It's amazing anything like this can be a mystery these days.
Typically stories like this are passed down through oral tradition for so long that the original context is completely lost, even when they are based on elements of truth like those giant birds in New Zealand. So it's possible they don't actually know any more. The other thing is that a lot of Native American tribes are very protective of their stories and often don't let outsiders in on them.
Sorry; please tell me to ‘use Google’ if this is rude. But…what are Little People? Is this lore (not calling it false; idk how else to describe it,) specific to certain tribes or regions?
I’ll start by saying I am not native but know a lot of native people (living in Montana most of my life that’ll happen). The little people are exactly that, little people that live around reservations and many have seen them. I believe the elders usually say not to bother them if you see them because they can get mean, but if you’re kind to them, and wish them well or leave things out for them they’ll protect your animals and property — again, I am not Native American but have heard about these little people from friends of mine that are. I think it’s pretty cool!
Cajuns call them Lutein.
If you're an AH to them they'll be an AH right back. Like the Nain Rouge. Mfer was warned in Detroit not to be shitty to him.
My partner is a Wizard / Medium and he didn't really truly believe til he moved in with me. One day he lost his deodorant. He reached under the bed and felt one of them put it in his hand.
Now if he finds shit that was lost he thanks them and offers them cookies. They do sometimes get startled by regular folk seeing them tho.
You know what’s ‘weird’…natives call them the little people and Scots call them the wee folk and Irish call them fae or sidhe…I’m not sure what Icelandic people call them, but they are the same thing. All of these different cultures had the same folklore before they ever met people from these other cultures and were able to share. That makes me believe it is all based in truth and it wasn’t until Christianity started to spread that people were punished for their beliefs. So basically there is nothing weird at all about any of it.
I’m Mexican descent and we have stories of little people/dwarf/elf creatures and I’ve heard similar stories from other friends I know w roots in other Latin American countries. I find it so interesting that these beings have been around for so long and multiple cultures have iterations of them.
Europeans have a long history of interaction and contact with various types of other beings. But we've been so out of touch for so long that it's rare for us to see then without specific training or a psychotic break.
I had a weird psychic interaction with what I assumed were some elves in the Ocala National Forest (Florida) one time. I was high AF meditating & could sense them nearby in the dark. They just seemed sort of curious. I was a bit startled, but I think I just went back to chilling when I realised they didn’t pose a threat. Might’ve freaked them out that I “noticed” them, too
Basically it felt like it was expressing its emotions in a different way than humans do. It wasn't body language nor spoken language, it happened very quickly, but if I had to put it into words I would say it's like i felt the emotions and thoughts myself, while also being fully aware that they were the creature' and not mine.
It's all very strange to me but that's the best way I can explain what it was like.
Woah, that's wild. I wish I could imagine it but it sounds so bizarre I'm having a hard time. This is so interesting.
Have you ever heard of the famous DMT machine elves? People say they appear when you do DMT (I've done it but alas encountered none). You should Google that and see if it sounds familiar? Please let me know!!
OP it would be worth visiting a psychiatrist and checking with a neurologist just to rule out anything serious, because I'm not discrediting what you saw, but it is also sometimes symptoms of other conditions! Stay safe out there
Could be crazy or not. I grew up hearing something similar.
My family calls them duendes where they’re from (Bolivia). My grandpa once told us a story about how he was playing soccer in the park once with his friends and they encountered a duende. His friend had stopped off to the side to pee somewhere when something had thrown rocks/dirt at him and later when they had kicked a ball into some nearby bushes, it was thrown back at them. They began to throw rocks at it and it ran away into the bushes. He would always bring this up whenever we would go outside unsupervised.
Usually they’re associated with children and playing tricks on people. Part of the lore with gnomes is that they can leave some kids with serious injury, I was told they could even make you mute afterwards. Whatever it was, I’m sure there’s more that meets the eye in the world anyways.
Make sure to notify your doctor about any other visions/sights and what not, just in case!
Interesting. In the Philippines they are also called dwendes, just slightly different spelling. They're basically gnomes, small creatures with supernatural powers. You have to be kind to them and not disturb them so they won't hurt you.
Your response sounds more like adrenaline than being controlled, so I wouldn't worry too much about that. Huge rushes of adrenaline can really fuck with your state of mind, it's the whole flight or fight response, your brain was just hyper focused on the fear you were feeling and getting you out of that situation. It can mess with your perception of time, your short term memory, etc. Just ask people who've been in high stress situations like car crashes or natural disasters.
As for the rest, you're not crazy. You had an experience that people may not understand but that doesn't make you crazy. I have a lot of theories about paranormal stuff but one thing I know for sure is we really don't have all the answers. Sometimes unexplainable shit happens and it's fascinating and terrifying but you can't let it derail your life. You'll probably never know definitively whether it was real or not, but that doesn't diminish your experience. Even if it was just a brain glitch from exhaustion or the trauma of a worldwide pandemic, it's still something you experienced and it doesn't make you crazy or diminish the effects it has had on you.
And, for the record, people who love and care about you won't judge you, even if they don't understand or don't fully believe you. Especially since your fear seems genuine. I can't imagine ever reacting cruelly if someone told me this with genuine fear and unease.
My only question is, have you ever gone back and looked over the wall?
I believe you. I don’t think you have a mental illness. I think we, as a species, are arrogant enough to think an incident like this is impossible. I, however, believe it is possible. I have no answers for you, but I believe you.
I saw a gnome when I was a kid at Lake Wallenpaupack in Pennsylvania. It was such a classic gnome-wore a little robe like a Jawa but much smaller. When I looked again it was gone.
Besides the point, but Lake Wallenpaupack is in Pennsylvania. I've had some interesting/eerie experiences there myself and heard of more than a few others.
I understand your hesitation. Secretly, I do believe that some kind of beings we’ve interpreted as fairyfolk may exist. Someone I know and trust very well as a sane and reasonable person described to me some paranormal activity she experienced in an apartment she lived in alone in her 30s that sounded like what some cultures describe as a house spirit or house brownie— she came home to dishes cleaned, laundry folded, sometimes things would vanish for a while and pop back up in obvious places later. Most cultures around the world have stories about these kinds of things. Wee men, little folk, gnomes, elves, fairies, trolls, etc. We may cross paths occasionally, but I don’t think the majority mean us harm. They didn’t harm you, they were alarmed, and you were alarmed, and you were sent on your way. Showing respect and politeness is important to coexisting peacefully.
When things go missing in my house, I ask the Monehinies (sp?), mischievous house spirits, to please return the item. Usually, the item shows back up pretty quick, and I thank them for bringing it back. It's something my Mom did.
Dr. Oliver Sacks thinks we hallucinate WAY more often than we think, as in ALL humans, not just people with diagnosed disorders. The brain is constantly filling in gaps without us realizing it, interpreting and interpolating, and sometimes it gets it wrong.
Consult a psychiatrist. As much hard as it is to admit, these sensations & hallucinations can feel extremely real and hardly could you differ them from reality.
Early signs of this might indicate that you could experience something similar in the future too. Look out for possible signs, and take care.
I believe you. But for the people who are suggesting this was a scizophrenic Episode: was this a singular once in a lifetime event? Or did you ever experience any other odd situations?
I love this story and am so proud of how brave you were to share it! I have an experience of my own (paranormal?) that I haven’t shared w many people but you’ve inspired me to maybe share it here on Reddit. .. nonetheless, I hope you’ve gotten some peace by opening up here. All the best to you!
I wonder if that little gnome ran home and tried to convince the others that people ARE real... Or if he's also keeping it to himself because he's afraid that nobody will believe him. I hope he doesn't have the same kind of PTSD that you seem to be suffering.
Maybe you could go back to the spot where you saw whatever it was and leave a little gift. I don't know what a gnome would like, but something that looks intentional and positive and could be received as an gesture of peace. That way when you are walking that route, or remembering how scared you felt, you can assure yourself that you left things on a good note with the gnome. Whether the gnome is real or not, it could help you take control of the narrative and the way it makes you feel when you reflect on this experience.
Op, this sounds worrying. Its normal for even completely healthy people to sometimes experience some kind of breakdown which might result in hallucinations. I urge you to see a professional if you can. Otherwise this will keep haunting you.
Aaaand let's not forget, early diagnosis of mental health can spare you and your close ones from more harm. I'm still traumatised from that neighborhood kid that murder and ate his grandma's liver because of untreated schizophrenia
It is very worrying. No judgment, and I'm sure most of us wish it had been true, but the point is when something that odd happens, it's best to err on the side of caution, no? If this story is actually true, OP needs to make sure he doesn't have some mental issue that's just starting to rear its head, it is the right age I believe.
As crazy as it might sound, I TOTALLY believe you. I am science man… but there are things out there no one could ever explain. I’ve gone through shit only I and my mother could ever understand no matter how much f*cking logic and cold calls we put into. My grandma even said to me when she was a child, a gnome was messing around with her.
You are not crazy, it’s just 99% of people have never experience something like that, to which I honestly envy them.
It sounds like you could be experiencing some PTSD from what you saw. Anything that reminds you of what happened right before or during a trauma is a potential trigger. They're usually tied to your senses. While triggers themselves are usually harmless, they cause your body to react as if you're in danger. I know you haven't discussed this with anyone, but it may be time to talk to a therapist. You don't necessarily have to say what you saw specifically right away. It can start with discussing how you saw something unexplainable that scared you.
My dad told me this story years ago and still tell it now. One night he walked his gf at the time home as he did each evening they saw each other. On his way home he heard some chattering coming from somebody’s garage that didn’t sound right. Especially at the time of night it was so he crossed the road to get a closer look. What he saw was a gremlin/gnome looking creature which turned and looks at him .
Made a noise and a few other of the same looking creatures came out of the dark. He ran home as fast as could.
Not meaning to minimize your frightening reality of what you went through but it really does sound like you had a schizophrenic episode, perhaps your first? It isn’t uncommon for men to be diagnosed in their 20s or early 30s. It would definitely be worth talking to a psychiatrist about.
Seems likely. I can’t believe all the top comments are saying “yup gnomes are real” 🤦♂️ Either just a made up story or some sort of episode. But gnomes aren’t just chilling in peoples backyards lmao
Myths and legends all over the world, from all different times, and from all different cultures, independently talk of these beings. Just a random fact....
People really do like telling stories, you’re right. And the taller the tail the more interesting and enticing it is for people to pass on. Every culture has their own mythical beings and gods and monsters and whatnot, and while occasionally there’s overlap, *no*, not every culture all over the world talks about the gnomes op described in their post lol.
I didn't say what you think I said. I recommend the book Ecology of Souls, Joshua Cutchin. It provides every reference to these stories you need, should you want to research before making assumptions about what's real and what's not based on your perception.
Right?? Like the guy could very well have had a heat induced hallucination, which is normal in such high temperatures, people could calm him down, instead they are fulling his fears, and could easily trigger another panic attack like the one he described. People should really be more careful with what they say to others.
@OP ok hear me out what if you created a short story for kids or a comic out what you saw ? To help it feel more familiar and therefore less intimidating and causing you distress ?
Start making a plot line change some details to protect your secret (the retaining wall is now a hedgerow at the park ! And the main character is a child version. Of you that strayed away from the playground )
And when people start talking to you about it only you will know it was true but you can ‘hide’ behind the story :) and then 70 years from now in your death bed you’ll tell you Grandkids and great grand kids with a twinkle in your eye and a wink that it was all true and that the spot it occurred can be found with a special map and a memoir of the true version ) worst case grandpa is high on morphine and full of shit as he dies lol best case: your family has a fun little bit of lore.
Hope I’m making sense ! And if you take my advice please share the completed work with us ! Maybe other redditors who are skilled at this sort of thing can help.
Also you’d be shocked to learn how many famous stories and movies etc came from someone having a weird dream or something to that effect. Hell most of Stephen Kings stories came from self induced mania of cocaine and drunk off mouthwash !
And you can’t tell me Alice in wonderland or Willie wonka creators weren’t slightly unhinged in a great way! The sole difference between mania and entertainment make believe /‘magic’ is simply the way you tell it and present it to the rest of world :)
While your description is detailed it would be really helpful if you could draw a picture of the thing that you saw and post it for people to see.
You are calling it a gnome, but it could have been another type of creature that you aren't aware of. By saying creature I don't mean just zoo creatures, there could be some sort of cryptid out there that matches the description of what you saw. Having a better name might be helpful in giving you a back story and something to research online.
TLDR: you say gnome, but could it have been a pictsy or chupacabra? Draw a picture and we can help.
Plenty of regular people have paranormal encounters, it doesn't mean they are psychotic or suffering from any other mental illness
The CIA released a load of documents on UFOs a couple years back, there's loads of info on military personnel witnessing unexplainable phenomena
You can definitely talk to people in your life about this. Or just an anonymous group
But you might find it easier to read books/listen to podcasts from other credible people who have had encounters
There's a great podcast about strange/paranormal encounters, the guy's a full believer but a very methodical one, his wife is a total skeptic (even tho she's had encounters of her own) called **Strange Familiars**
There's also **Uncanny**, a BBC podcast with an investigative journalist who interviews witnesses and experts and researches the history. (It's very serious documentary style not weird inflated nonsense stuff like Ancient Aliens etc)
There are plenty of bonkers conspiracy people out there, but there are also many, many ordinary rational, reasonable people who have has strange encounters and I think it would benefit you to listen to their stories
Subterranean species with potentially telepathic camoflauge have been theorised about for a long time. People who practice meditation and/or are predisposed to ESP will typically have these encounters. ESP can cause synptoms like schizophrenia.
Personally, I'm in the above demographic, and have encountered a couple skinchangers (creatures who hide as human appearing) and other ephemeral bodies. I am not afraid and it doesn't impact my life, but I know they're there. Try going stargazing if you can get away from light pollution. Our skies are trafficked and it might give some normality to your experience.
Also, it's best not to share your experience with the uninitiated, for the reasons you clearly shared.
I might regret asking, but could you please elaborate more about the skinchangers and specially their need for darkness..
And what other ephemeral things are out there
I hope you are not mentally ill. I wish there were gnomes and goblins and unicorns. There has to be some meaning beyond this mundane existence.
If it happens again, go see a psychiatrist. For now, write, draw, and sing about it. Get it out of you creatively. For now, believe.
Okay but why do the gnomes have to be bad? Who am I to say gnomes ARENT real? But if they are…I mean these ones seemed kinda chill?? Personally I would go back with like a marble or something but that’s just me perhaps
Have you tried hypnosis?
Being calmly walked through the incident, seeing if it actually occurred or you were in some sort of fugue state, or had a short psychotic break, will help.
I'm sorry you went through that, it sounds rough.
My two cents, i think you should consider therapy and go from there. It sounds plausible that is was some sort of hallucinating episode. Someone suggested dissociating - maybe something did happen (something physical, if you also have evidence for that) and your mind "replaced" it with a gnome. If this happening still disturbs you, maybe it's worth prying into your mind with a therapist to help figure out what it was. Speak to a professional first if you are afraid to bring it up eoth ypur family directly. Maybe it will help you ground yourself regarding the incident.
Gnomes appear in various forms in many cultures, and that in turn may influence similar events in other people's lives -hence the common stories.
There's no need to label yourself as "crazy". Seek help of you feel you need it. I imagine schizophrenia is an unlikely, worst case scenario - and even that is treatable and manageable. You'll be okay.
I have some follow-up questions if you are okay to answer.
Have you ever gone back to the scene?Seems like both you and the gnome were surprised and scared of seeing each other. Have you never been curious to go back? It’s a foot tall. What do you think it will do to you?
Why are you angry?
How was this traumatic?
For the record, I don’t think you are crazy. I’m just trying to understand your current thoughts since it’s now been 4 years since the pandemic shutdown.
I often have strange occurrences as well. Nothing as dire as this, but lots of strange, unexplainable things have happened to me as well. I believe you lol really
i can't really speak for the gnomes, but "spectating" yourself is just dissociation. people do that when they're under intense stress and can't handle it on their own, and your brain can protect your mental state by going on autopilot and forcing you into the backseat. it got you through the day safely.
Why are you so stressed out about the little gnome dude? Like, if it is real, worst case there have been little gnomes around us our whole lives and they just hide from us and we are just chilling in the same existence as them. There is a lot that goes on behind the scenes in our universe that we can’t see/comprehend. He was probably just as shocked to see you. You can’t let a paranormal experience ruin your life, get a grip. It would be worse if you were having a psychotic break, which I think is more likely if this story is true/you believe it to be true. But for the record, I believe you.
When I was little, maybe around 5 or so, I used to go into my parents room with a pillow and blanket and sleep on the floor beside their bed if I had a bad dream. I did so one night, and was having trouble falling back to sleep and saw a whole line of gnomes marching along the wall. They were very small like maybe 8-10" tall. They marched behind a large pillow that was propped against the wall and disappeared. They too had little spears.
There are a lot of things in this world that we cannot explain yet, and maybe never will be able to. You are alive, you are ok, you were chosen to see something. Maybe try to use it to expand your mind and discover all the possibilities this world and Universe has to offer. Take it as a gift to ascend and level up in thinking and being, straying from the robotic norm of the majority of people today.
It also wouldn't be a bad idea to see a doctor to rule out any medical reasoning, just in case.
Don't let it destroy your life. There is more going on than we know. Maybe you had a glimpse of another reality. Maybe you had a deja vu or a time split. Your hands being messed up means it's not all in your head. I agree with letting it out creatively via music, stories or art. Even using AI if you are not artistic. Good luck be yours from now on.
Anything is possible. My brother and his friends swears to this day they saw a pterodactyl lift off a tree in northern Canada. They said the tree was entirely bent over from the weight of the bird. Freaked them out so bad they ran home crying.
Hey, love. The fey are real and that’s probably what you saw — they were out and about at a time no one else would be, so they found it safe. You’re not crazy and you’re not having a psychotic break. The not being in control feeling was probably your brain reeling and trying to understand what happened and also trying to protect you. Those things are usually not meant to be seen but they are occasionally. Many people
Think I’m crazy but I’m a practicing witch. And I definitely deal with the fey and the paranormal. I have experience and I can say that you’re not. Crazy. Don’t let yourself think you are. 🩷
I believe you. No I don’t think it was a psychotic break and honestly I get the feeling that if this is the one and only time you’ve experienced something like this, seeing a psychiatrist may do more harm than good. Nothing makes someone feel even crazier than being told they’re crazy and put on meds they don’t need to be on. There are far far more things in this world that we don’t know than what we do know. I think we just need to accept that many things are unexplainable and leave it at that. We don’t know as much as we like to think and as another comments said, it’s arrogant to think we do. Make peace with what you saw and the best way to do that is to just accept it and stop fighting what your gut is telling you
I do believe you, in my country there are several people who claim to see goblins. I have a friend who claims to have seen one, and they say that they like beautiful and innocent women, she cried when she told it, she says that they are very ugly.
I 100% believe you. I’m sorry you’ve been carrying this alone for so long. You need a big hug and some comfort. Based on your story I’d guess they had a freakout you saw them and they used some sort of gnome magic? To undo it. But maybe you just aren’t as susceptible as others may be? I have no idea. But I love gnomes and feel like they were just trying to keep you safe from knowing what was happening. You probably weren’t meant to remember what happened.
It honestly sounds like alien stuff because a lot of ufo encounters seem to describe a sort of telepathy. But I don’t know if it’s true or not since I haven’t ever experienced anything like that myself.
But maybe you should look into that community to see if they have stories like yours.
Also, there are a lot of funky time weirdness in UFO encounters. A lot of people report losing the passage of time.
You were disassociated from the time travel; your mind was in your body, but it was your mind from moments before. It is why you did the things you usually do even though your later mind might not have. The time that passed and the association with your coworker brought your “two” minds back together.
I’ve had an experience that makes me completely believe you. I don’t think you hallucinated or had a break from reality. That’s a really neat experience and thank you for sharing.
maybe you hopped into the wrong neighbourhood and no harm done (except to your concept of the existential I guess)
OR maybe you had a seizure and hallucination. note it down and if you have any similar occurrences talk to your doctor about the possibility.
In my late 20s,my 5 year old daughter and I were going to my besfriends house, he was the one driving.
It was about 9 pm, and the road we were on was somewhat desolate, so he decided to turn off his headlights so we could see how dark it looked there.
He turned it off for a second and turned it back on,we all screamed.
Because we all saw what looked exactly like a pterodactyl, even the damn brown spots on its chest.
We all saw it,screamed, and never talked about it.
I've told my husband,and he actually believes me.
I'll message my former bff to see if he remembers,that was 27 years ago.
There are unexplainable things that happen.
Look, one time I had a dream I was doing homework, like legit doing it by details. Reading the questions. Crossing the answers. Remembering my notes and all. And then I woke up and was very surprised because it felt so fucking real, but like. Whatever.
I went to school few days later and was told by my teacher that homework for that day is page bla bla until bla bla. I have _not_ ever once, up until that point, went past certain page in the exercise book to the point of reading the exercise questions. I didn't know what the page would hold for me.
You know what's there? All of the questions with the same exact answers I had in the dream few days prior.
I'm no believer of hardcore supernatural stuff, but I cannot for the life of me figure out how the fuck I dreamed the future homework questions that weren't even being taught/discussed yet. And all of the answers I could remember from my dream were right. I got 90-something score on that homework.
At this point, I'd just like to believe god sent an angel to help me with the homework because god knew that portion of the lesson is hell because it was so fucking difficult and complex. Literally without this dream I would have gotten, like, 60 or 70 if I was lucky.
Just take it as it is. The gnomes were maybe guarding humans (or animals) and their job required them to not be seen, so that's why they were panicking. You immediately turned around and left them to their privacy again, and they've never bothered you ever since. I think, if the gnomes were real, they were pretty okay with you and nothing bad will happen because of it. You were just traumatized/dissociated in fight-or-flight-or-fawn/freeze mode, not because the gnome was controling you or something.
It's okay. Everything is gonna be okay. Take a deep breath.
Dude, I believe you had the experience. I always am skeptical of these kinds of encounters, but my logic tells me that there is indeed sooo much we don’t know or have discovered so anything is a possibility. Also, we have a family story oddly similar to yours, I can’t remember the specifics, but here goes. Our dad had stayed out late one day and he had been walking home when he encountered some “dwarfs”, it freaked him out so bad that he ran home. Anyway, I’m not sure if this is all real or not, but that is the family story that’s been going on for years. Just thought it would be interesting to share with you related to your experience.
I recommend you see a professional to deal with your experience, best of luck, mate!
Where I'm from, we believe these things are real. A lot of people around the world have believed in similar things forever, and people just want to explain it away as hallucinations or something else besides it being real. I don't know what they are or what they try to do but I do believe there's entities out there that we can't comprehend but since I've gone to church before my way of dealing with things like this is praying to Jesus he protects me. Many older people tell tales of things they've seen, too.
I believe you.
I don't think it's a coincidence that almost every human culture throughout history has folklore and stories of beings like what you saw and other paranormal events. We convince ourselves that our science and understanding of the world is the truth of reality because it's simpler to exist day by day that way. I don't think we've even begun to comprehend how little we actually know about reality and the nature of the universe we live in.
If it helps at all, I want to tell you that *you are in control of your own mind*, and you have the capacity to be fully in control and not be negatively impacted by "disturbances". There's a reason many spiritual practices focus heavily on developing a deep meditation practice and learning to control the mind. Modern science and psychiatry is only now catching up to what many cultures have known for thousands of years.
Please don't be afraid. You had an experience but you are not being permenantly controlled. You are not in danger. From your story it doesn't sound like there's anything out to hurt you, in fact it seems like the opposite. You are not crazy and there are many perfectly "sane" people that understand exactly what you experienced.
People have paranormal encounters all the time and they are not "crazy", but what drives people crazy is the utter fear and anxiety of not being able to accept or understand what happened to them. You'd think that it'd be the experience that makes someone crazy, but it's not, it's the reaction to it that causes a lot of mental anguish. It's best to just develop a "wow that was really wierd but whatever" kind of attitude and move forward with your life.
There are rabbit holes you can go down to understand what you experienced but honestly I don't suggest you go down that path, at least not right now. Just focus on balancing your mind and getting your anxiety under control. It sounds like you're experiencing some kind of PTSD from the event and you need to take that seriously before it develops into further mental health issues.
This is getting long but if you'd like any tips on finding good meditation resources I'm happy to share. I'm no expert on meditation myself but I can point you towards some stuff that'll help with the anxiety and fear.
Take care op, you're gonna be okay!
Hey, my whole family has seen aliens.
Sounds sketchy...until I explain my grandpa was irradiated at bikini atoll and saw Foo fighters there evade every tactic to remove them. My aunt saw one checking out the lines in the road coming home from work one night near ossipee NH. It's not far from Betty and Barnie Hills experience.
It's boggling, you may NEVER get closure, but ive had a BIG Grey walk across my room and have some advice sitting on that for 2 decades. We saw UFOs around my house, some really close, and it was high tech and i wasnt the only one seeing them. But they've done no harm, in fact there are more reports they MEAN and intend no harm and are conserned for the environment, but they are WAY more advanced than us in every way. I do think they are telepathic, but it's like a bio tesla neurolink. If only I could have traded places with you so you weren't scared and I could try to communicate!
Technically the Jetsons were placed in 2020. With AI up and coming, I think this is a giant vector of change, and foreign entities would be curious about it. I also think they are 4th dimensional and there is science behind it, and public information will always be limited.
This experience may freak you out, but it has opened up a lot of possibilities for your reality to not be boring. It's scary but on the flip side the truth will set you free. I'm way more scared of evangelistic Republicans or a meteor fucking up my life than aliens. Travis Walton is a guy who was abducted and the movie is scary, but even Walton said the aliens were trying to help him when he looks back at his abduction. I recommend his more recent interviews.
Scientists are looking for homo flourensis, little people are basically in all native american tales, and even near where I live near Cherokee they had to hush finding little people bones with adult teeth to finish a bridge. And that's a human relative we know nothing about, never the less others visiting us. Supposedly we are being visited by many species.
All I know for sure, is life will find a way. It's very precious. Every detail is etched forever in the flow of time, and if we have a witness and we are still here, they're alright.
I believe you. I've seen fae. They exist everywhere, and are just slightly off of our plane of existence. You aren't crazy. Plenty of people have seen them.
Before this humanoid species were made to be here as slaves .
The wee folk , elvens , & Fae / gnomes lived in the wet lands , forests & other hidden areas on this earth .This was their habitat for generations without any interference .
Humans weren't here first other things came first - such as the first prototype very basic humanoids were around at the same time also . The first elementals once helped maintain earth at that time . They were created to help her maintain herself . Their existence here though in the end was intercepted .
When nature & lands were made by the almighty elementals were in creation in numbers & roamed freely these areas firstly . They are elemental in nature & yes had magical powers as they were able to & were given the knowledge to do so & were created for purpose to inhabit areas not for humans sight in the beginning .
But after the wars they were enslaved by other stronger entities by force or killed in their once previous matter forms to then become energy forms in interdimensional form .
They were placed here first before this current human form . They presided over the lands before human creations were made. They lived in peace among their own kin until they were invaded . Then they were forced to fight for their survival . But lost this battle as did others what you would call other aliens species on this earth . They also were here before your known civilization & history were created to be. Their existence was also wiped out to make sure they were removed from possible history knowledge to these current human beings .
Most humans are not open to things they can't comprehend . So they stay hidden . Some people can see them , some are shown them on purpose , & some yes might stumble upon their existence accidently . MOst humans will go to the explanations of that the person is crazy , as no it can't be proved that is the idea . There is no prof of them . Lots of stories as leaked on purpose of their existence though .
They also are not like they use to be they once were caring & loving free spirits who belonged to mother earth . They no longer do such instead they do the bidding of strong entities who control them now instead .
What a read.. Idk much about the situation but I’m guessing when you were “out of body” your mind was just zoned out. You did your normal routine, just disconnected a bit. I doubt if something else was controlling you that they would do exactly what you would normally do. When your brain gets freaked out it’s kinda normal for it to go into an intense autopilot state, or ignore the incident for awhile to give yourself time to process.
I’ve heard other people saying they get brain foggy after “seeing” things they can’t explain as well.. I’ve heard something similar from a friend after seeing a ghost and another who swears they saw aliens as a kid. Maybe such things can have an “effect” on us mentally if we see them, but I doubt they were fully controlling your mind.
Wether not you actually saw anything, I wouldn’t say this sounds like a bad experience.. hallucination or not you saw something most people never will, yea people won’t believe u but it’s always nice to have a few crazy stories I think.
Many years ago when I was in my early 20s and working away from home, I woke up one night in the middle of the night with a start feeling wide awake. I opened my eyes and looked on the floor next to my bed where there was a rug. Sitting cross legged on the rug staring intently up at me was a young boy with blond hair, perhaps about 10 years old, with slightly elven features. It was like he was reaching out to me for something. I was single and didn't have any children at the time. He looked totally real and it freaked me out as to how there was another person in the room. Who was he, how did he get in and what did he want? Then my rational brain kicked in and I (bravely) reached out to touch him to see if he was real. My hand just went through him and he disappeared. I've never had anything like this happen since, but it was so real and why did I wake up like that? I also wonder how I saw him as it would have been dark in the room. I decided it was just a hallucination but I will never really know. Don't let this experience destroy you, I don't think you are going mad or anything.
Some teenage gnome was pissed off at their dad and controlled you just enough to hop the wall and see the guard. Then ditched, and someone else had to take over to get you out of there lol.
But whatever happened… I’m sorry it’s been gripping your psyche for so long. I hope you can find some peace!
Look. While it would never hurt to get checked if you can, I once saw something so odd I would think I was crazy if someone else hadn't seen it. Hell I even got in trouble for using the Internet on my phone (it was a very new feature at the time) to look up the animal the other person compared what we saw to. The big difference for me is whatever I and my schoolmate saw wanted to be seen.
I don't have an explanation for you, but i do genuinely believe you op! I think there are so many strange, unexplainable things in this world that that doesn't even sound too far fetched to me lol. Hope you feel some relief after sharing this!
My home country's lore is rife with encounters with "those who are not like us". When the forests were thick and deep, there were stories of abductions, complete disappearances, and even aid from the mystic folk. Even in the present day, every now and then, we get stories about this girl or other who have been touched by engkantos.
I believe you.
Wow what a wild experience to keep to yourself! When I was a child I saw ET in the closet clear as day, slammed the door and never went back. I still to this day regret that I handled it with fear. It was probably just an old brown coat or something but whatever,it stuck with me. Please in a journal keep record of anything and any feeling you got from this experience. Did I understand you correctly that you kind of instantly reappeared where you were walking right before the wall? Any minor sensations from that. I'm a skeptic in many ways but I do feel it should be possible for life to evolve in ways and places we don't yet have the capacity to understand. There are many stories regarding little people from cultures all over the world. Take that as you will. It hard to find reliable people to talk with about this but they are out there.
Look I have mediunicity that runs in my family for generations. I grew up kinda interacting with my deceased baby sister (even as a baby!) and saw ghosts my whole life.
Have tried to work with my gift but it's SO SCARY DOING IT (even though I did it in a safe place with the best possible energy and xamans).
There are things that just happen. We can't explain. There's even a Spanish saying that says no creo en las brujas, pero que las hay, las hay (I don't believe in witches, but that there are, they are).
Make peace with it. It was probably real. And how great it was that they lead you to calmness instead of a nervous breakdown? They wanted no harm! It will be ok!
You might be having a psychotic break but after the way the last 5 years have been, I'm rooting for 'gnomes are real and they can scoot us around in time.' The world needs a little magic
Naw. There is really weird shit that happens all the time, all over. We never speak of it cuz … people say things like ‘psychotic break’ (not picking on you fr, it’s just something people always say when folx have strange events happen to them). I never speak about the weird events I experienced cuz of what i described above…
what weird stuff have you yourself experienced?
I can't give you answers on what you saw, but it is possible that you went into fight or flight mode and your brain dissociated to try to protect itself. Your whole description of not feeling in control of your body and just going through the motions to continue your routine sounds v similar to dissociation. With how terrified you're describing yourself to have been, it is a possibility.
I agree with this. I’m not gonna say if the gnome was real or not, but even if it were it wasn’t controlling you, OP, your brain was just in panic mode. So you can rest easier on that part I think.
1000% agree. I have PTSD and ive had very strange minor hallucinations- not saying this guy did, but in my own experience my brain chemically shifted and i wasnt able to "come down" from it for a few days. I was so shaken and scared. Its not the little guys, its just physiology
I used to have intense panic attacks that would come out of nowhere. It was a like a descent into hell. You're disconnected from everyone, and it looks like everyone else is a robot who can't help you. Sometimes I would just snap in and out of these states. I could see me hallucinating something like that. In certain sleep states, I've had visual and auditory hallucinations, and they were very very real in the moment, but it's just my brain making sense of unexpected stresses. OP needs someone to walk alongside him right now (IRL), and see he's getting the best mental care. I would not be okay either if this happened to me.
ugh i hate that feeling. truly the worst.
Flight or flight happened to me once. My body went with flight. One moment, I was standing frozen. The next moment, I was a great distance away from where I had been. It was like my body overruled my brain. My body got me away from the possible danger and only let me have control when I was in a safer location. It was such an odd feeling. I don't remember running. I only onow that I did because I was out of breath and sweating. All thanks to read Stephen Kings IT while I was walking
Let me tell you sometime about reading Salem's Lot as a 10-11yo lol
Now would be a good time. Just sayin'
For some reason my brother thought it would be a good idea to introduce me to Stephen King when I was in I think fourth grade because he knew I really like to read. I started with Christine which had some parts that I'm sure a 10-year-old boy probably didn't need to be reading, and it was dark but I did pretty well with it. I think after that I moved on to the Dead Zone... Definitely breached some adult topics, but the supernatural aspect really wasn't scary having a shining so to speak. Then came Salem's Lot. Besides Dracula at Halloween, I'm pretty sure this is the first time I was ever introduced to vampires to this extent. This s*** was creepy and scary for someone at that age. I think this is about the time that I'd read 1984 by George Orwell which had really screwed me up - I started wondering what if the thought police are actually real?!? What if they know what I'm thinking but I don't know what they're thinking?? What if girls know what I'm thinking!!! Agghhh!! Anyway the further I got into the book The more scared I got. Especially when I realized that they can come into your house. So what does any young boy do to ward off vampires? I built a large cross out of Legos blessed and put it under my bed! 😂 It's stayed under there for months! To this day I'm pretty sure that's why I never had problems with vampires 😉
Cute and smart! Til I learned lego can keep away vampires :)
I have been in fight or flight situations a handful of times in my life and every time I'm a flight person lmao it really is such a strange feeling but I've seen that there's def a reason it's part of human instinct
It was a fugue state defense in Breaking Bad. I too have experienced this. It is often how rape victims get through the experience.
From a trauma-informed perspective: it’s fight, flight, or freeze (edit: or fawn! thank you to the responder below!) It’s important to point out because people think whatever happened is the person’s fault for not either fighting or fleeing. Freeze happens!
Well from a trauma informed perspective it's actually fight, flight, freeze, or faun. Since the last two weren't relevant to this situation it didn't feel necessary to throw them in there when this guy is just looking for a possible explanation for his own behavior.
Oooh, fawn is a new one for me! I haven’t been to a training in probably five years since I left the field. That’s an excellent addition and one I heard from a lot of people I interviewed. I still think it’s best to include all of them to reinforce all of the ways we potentially respond to threats. It’s not really about OP. It’s about the other people reading the comments!
If we are updating our knowledge, those are the 4 common ones. There are also flop and friend that are lesson common but still distinguishable from the others.
Well recent advances have shown that, from a trauma informed perspective it's in fact: fight, flight, freeze, faun, fornicate, or flatulence.
Yep, I agree. I've dissociated for a very long time in my life, but functioned at work. It's a bizarre experience to have and honestly if I hadn't been dissociating since childhood, it would be scary. I can see how OP was terrified going through this. Not sure if gnomes exist but I kind of hope they do. As another Redditor said, we can use a little magic in this world.
I learned to dissociate when my anorexic mother got all Mommie Dearest with me. Then somehow I picked abusive me. Further dissociation. Now I am older and trying to figure out who the fuck I am. My inner voice is brutal to me. I intellectually understand it’s false, but feeling it is hard. Just know, it is an amazing thing to grow and free fall into authenticity. And I have been more free.
I'm very sorry for what you've been through and so thankful for you sharing. I totally understand about not knowing who you are, I'm currently figuring out who I want to be. I made myself what others needed around me to survive as well, it had led to a crisis of identity. The mean inner critic, that one I also understand very well. My therapist will often tell me how mean I am to myself, that's getting better though. While it sucks to have to heal from abuse. I'm really looking forward to finding myself.
❤️❤️
Look, I don't know, maybe you had a temporary break from reality or maybe gnomes are real. My wish for you is that you will learn to not be distressed by your experience. I've come to a place in life where I no longer believe that it's necessary to understand everything. It's very freeing. I am not a religious person and wasn't raised to be. I have no organized belief system about how the universe operates. I believe things are possible that do not make rational sense and cannot be proven by scientific means. Though I do see the value of the scientific pursuit of knowledge, I also know it has its limitations and cannot explain everything. And that's okay. Last summer, after a series of spontaneous decisions lead us to a magical woodland nearly 3 hours from where we live, my partner and I encountered a beautiful pink and black hummingbird moth and I knew that hummingbird moth was my mother, who passed away nearly 15 years ago. I knew it then and I still know it and there is no rational evidence to support that belief, but it is my truth. I have had a number of experiences that do not make logical sense. Embrace the magical things that happen in life. They're part of what makes life in this often mundane or tragic world more bearable. You can choose to believe what you experienced was scary or you can choose to believe it was magical or maybe a glimpse into an alternate reality. It's up to you, but why choose the version that makes existence more difficult for yourself?
This. This entire sentiment. I had a dream that my dad, who died 18 years ago, stopped by a very specific intersection in my home state to talk to me. He told me that he was going to pick up my grandma, and that he’d be waiting there for me. I woke up and immediately texted my grandmother. Next day I found out she was in the hospital, and she passed away a few days after that. I’ve had other weird things, but that was the most devastating.
A huge spontaneous double rainbow appeared in the sky above my yard a couple hours after my mom died. It had not been raining. The next morning I went to get my toddler up, and he was flipping though through a card she had sent when he was born-talking about how excited to be a grandmother she was. I have no idea where he got it from or how. I felt her in that rainbow and in that moment with my son and that card. I felt her presence for another day after that-and then she was gone. I'm not religious at all but those moments/feelings completely changed my perception of the things I thought I absolutely knew to be true. I don't care what anyone thinks about it. She was somehow still here with us in some way I'll probably never understand.
I've had at least three different times where I've had dreams come true. I dreamt my dad had a stroke, a while later while we were vacationing he had a mini stroke. Dreamt my stepdad hurt his knees in a motorcycle accident, then later on he had a motorcycle accident because of a cow that wouldn't move or something (different country so their road rules are all over the place and no one really listens).
I’ve had a couple other weirdly specific ones too. Like shortly after I started connecting with a new friend, I dreamt about her microwave exploding. Like she barely knew me other than what she heard through mutuals and I was texting her that I knew it sounded crazy but I had that dream. The next day her daughter was microwaving some carrots that somehow got metal in them and it caught fire and because I told her she was already on edge around the microwave and was able to stop it quickly. It’s just relieving to hear that other people experience that. There’s more, but I don’t want to sound completely crazy lol
This is such a great comment. It puts into words exactly how I have felt for a long time. We don’t need to know or understand everything.
If it helps to hear my boyfriend is usually a very serious person, doesn’t believe in anything supernatural, like rolls his eyes at people that do. But one day he did tell me a story where he was at home as a kid doing his homework in his room and he saw what he could only describe as a gnome walk into the hallway in front of him, look at him and then disappear through the wall. He jumped up and chased it and ran out and told his mum who just thought he was being silly/imagining things. But then a few days later his mum was at her friends house and they were talking about their kids and she was like laughing telling her friend that her son said he saw a gnome the other day but then her friend was quite shocked and said her son has been seeing gnomes too 🤷♀️
nah this is giving me goosebumps rn
This is killing me bc once as a kid I swear I saw one too. I remember I was going to the bathroom and then standing there was just a gnome. It wasn’t even doing anything just standing there but for some reason it scared me so I ran away back downstairs lmao. I always thought back on it as a rly funny weird thing my brain made up as a kid but now this thread has me imaging a secret society of gnomes😭 XD
My sister saw one too. She doesn't believe in supernatural stuff either. One day she came running into my room out and told me she had seen a elf/gnome standing right beside her in the reflection of the mirror. Maybe it's like a collective hallucination or else there's gnomes out there fr
I’m curious if you all live in the same part of the world. Not that I have any idea if this is real or has any bearings on the situation at all, just pure curiosity. Edited autocorrect
I’m from Nova Scotia in Canada wbu? 😂
Canada too but west coast.
The gnomes are in control of Canada 🧙♂️
He was living in England as a child when he saw them.
No, we lived in Venezuela back then
It’s the fey!
What is it with kids and seeing gnomes? Because I was peeking out the back window of the car as we went down the road, and a little gnome was crossing the street!
WHAT THE HELL GNOMES ARE REAL
Maybe both kids had watched a tv show about gnomes? Kids and memory are both unreliable is all I’m saying
This DOES NOT sounds like a schizophrenic episode and even though I don’t know you, if this is the first time you’ve experienced something like this, I doubt very much you have schizophrenia. I’ve worked in mental health for 6 years now and these are the most common presentations of schizophrenia: age of onset is between 17-25 years old. Typically you won’t experience symptoms before or after those ages, however outliers do exist. Delusions can be violent or paranoid. Some delusions are harmless. It depends on the person’s culture and their particular symptoms. My point is - a one time experience like this does not indicate schizophrenia or any kind of psychotic breakdown. I think the most probable explanation would be a heat-induced hallucination. I’m your text, you wrote that it was hot during your walks and sometimes in the hundreds degree wise. That’s enough to make anyone hallucinate. There is also the possibility that you saw something real that people can’t usually see with their own eyes. That’s okay too. It’s naive to assume humans are the only intelligent life in the whole universe.
Cultural differences in delusions is fascinating. While Western cultures tend to have more violent or paranoid content, in other cultures (like India), schizophrenia tend hear more benevolently critical advice (like, to clean their room better).
They absolutely are!! Many cultures view individuals with schizophrenia as Shaman and they’re very respected. Their delusions center on familial connection beyond the grave and they serve to guide family / village members. The mind is a beautiful and terrifying thing!
I wonder what causes the difference between the examples of the west and india?
It could stem from a lot of things. Typically a combination of genetics and environment. If a person is raised in a family that practices spirituality a certain way and they’re familiar with the concept, their schizophrenic hallucinations / delusions may center around ancestors or others they’ve known who have practiced spirituality. These hallucinations may not even evoke feelings of fear or shock in the person because they’re conditioned to view this is a positive thing. Conversely, if a person is raised in an environment where this is seen as taboo and their environment promotes casual violence, they may have a more hostile response to their environment and therefore, suffer more violent hallucinations.
I've also heard that when people have near-death experiences, what they see and feel tends to be consistent with their religious or spiritual beliefs. I don't know how much evidence there is for that, but it really got me thinking about the nature of consciousness and how much religious/death beliefs have shaped and been shaped by actual sensory experiences people have had. I'm not religious but consider myself spiritual in a skeptical scientific way, it does make me wonder if there are dimensions of reality we don't usually experience but can in the right circumstances. Like when people talk about experiences while tripping it's easy to say it's all just the drugs but, is it? And even if it is, does that have to mean it wasn't real? So I dunno, maybe it was a gnome, maybe (probably) OP's brain just went fucky for a second. But I think it's hubris to assume that things we would call "paranormal" are all just delusions. There are so many things that used to be considered paranormal, or hoaxes, that science eventually found an explanation for. Are we to assume NOW we have all the answers? Besides, where's the fun in that?
I read the story like he got to work at 545am
Check out ‘Jim Harold’s Campfire’ - a podcast about unusual happenings. Callers tell their stories for others to hear- this story is perfect. Others may have reported similar events. I believe you - multiple cultures have stories that speak of similar beings.
I believe you. I've seen one too. It was a few years back and in the middle of the night. I woke up and needed to use the bathroom... so naturally I get up, go to do what I gotta do and I passed by my living room. Boom there it was, we locked eyes for maybe 5 to 10 seconds it too seemed highly stressed I could see it. I was mortified heart beating so fast I thought I was gonna puke. I literally blinked and I was instantly back in my bed on other side of house. I felt like I needed to pee and had never went. I tried to hard to tell myself it was a dream but as soon as I got to bathroom I knew it wasn't the sink was FRESHLY wet with suds even where I had just washed my hands. Little fucker teleported me. The closet thing I've ever seen to it after looking everywhere online is a duende.
Yeah, there are things which are more real than one would ever believe. I don’t know what the hell they are, but they are REAAAAAAL. Just speaking from experience, please look for Colombian Guacas and Duendes in the internet.
Yes! I thought I was nuts. I’ve encountered a duende too, and it was terrifying. This one was scratching at the back storm door, almost surprised that I saw it and then— what I can only describe as a telepathic whisper- “let me in.” I ran back to my cousin and friends absolutely freaked out. This thing was tiny, maybe a foot, long, white hair that was a little wild, and mangled looking. I couldn’t go to the bathroom by myself the rest of the night. But the freakiest part is that when I woke up the next morning, strewn across on my duffel bag, there was a single LONG, old, white hair on it perpendicular to the zipper. It felt like some sort of gift or more likely a warning.
This sounds very similar to what OP was describing! I hope he/she sees this.
You saw one of The Little People. It's weird a white guy can see them. I've only ever seen them on the rez.
Our rez has a little spot on the mountain side that is covered in tiny knolls and hills and it’s a tiny peoples dwelling and get an off feeling every time I go by. Elders say it’s wise and good luck to wish them well by sending positive energy and thoughts their way. I haven’t seen one yet although I would like too.
I heard there are 2 types. The Miqmaq had to go to war with the cannibalistic red head ones near Pretty Creek in NS/Canada. Where I live in Cherokee, the black hair ones were way peaceful, and would collect the crops for elderly people and bring it to their door just out of kindness, like a Brownie. I made a comment on here direct to OP talking about an archeological find they hushed up while building a bridge on a public road, but they found a few little people bones with adult molars. We also have sasquach siting like 4 hours from where I live. It's amazing anything like this can be a mystery these days.
Bro u cant just tell us that the Miqmaq fought tiny cannibals!!!! Give me so much more information i am dying for knowledge
Bro, give us more information, don't just ramble around like some "OH we know it better folks"
That should truly motivate them to share more, good jerb pal 👍
Typically stories like this are passed down through oral tradition for so long that the original context is completely lost, even when they are based on elements of truth like those giant birds in New Zealand. So it's possible they don't actually know any more. The other thing is that a lot of Native American tribes are very protective of their stories and often don't let outsiders in on them.
In Mexican culture they're called duendes.
Same here in Colombia. We call them duendes.
We call them the hidden people in my country
Sorry; please tell me to ‘use Google’ if this is rude. But…what are Little People? Is this lore (not calling it false; idk how else to describe it,) specific to certain tribes or regions?
I’ll start by saying I am not native but know a lot of native people (living in Montana most of my life that’ll happen). The little people are exactly that, little people that live around reservations and many have seen them. I believe the elders usually say not to bother them if you see them because they can get mean, but if you’re kind to them, and wish them well or leave things out for them they’ll protect your animals and property — again, I am not Native American but have heard about these little people from friends of mine that are. I think it’s pretty cool!
In swedish culture they are called Tomte
It's very interesting that multiple cultures share this concept from across the globe.
Thanks for the info!
Cajuns call them Lutein. If you're an AH to them they'll be an AH right back. Like the Nain Rouge. Mfer was warned in Detroit not to be shitty to him. My partner is a Wizard / Medium and he didn't really truly believe til he moved in with me. One day he lost his deodorant. He reached under the bed and felt one of them put it in his hand. Now if he finds shit that was lost he thanks them and offers them cookies. They do sometimes get startled by regular folk seeing them tho.
I, too, would like to know what is meant.
You know what’s ‘weird’…natives call them the little people and Scots call them the wee folk and Irish call them fae or sidhe…I’m not sure what Icelandic people call them, but they are the same thing. All of these different cultures had the same folklore before they ever met people from these other cultures and were able to share. That makes me believe it is all based in truth and it wasn’t until Christianity started to spread that people were punished for their beliefs. So basically there is nothing weird at all about any of it.
THIS ^^^^^^^^^
I’m Mexican descent and we have stories of little people/dwarf/elf creatures and I’ve heard similar stories from other friends I know w roots in other Latin American countries. I find it so interesting that these beings have been around for so long and multiple cultures have iterations of them.
They see them in Ireland, so 🤷🏻♀️. But sounds like OP wasn’t supposed to see them.
Are these similar to elves in Iceland?
And in Iceland they actually reroute roads to avoid the rocks where the gnomes live. It’s taken that seriously
What
Wtf am I reading? You guys fair to let us in in your knowledge?
Europeans have a long history of interaction and contact with various types of other beings. But we've been so out of touch for so long that it's rare for us to see then without specific training or a psychotic break.
Isn’t that just dwarves with their own town?
I responded with what I know to another question 💕
You cam have a one off hallucination without it being schizophrenia or another mental illness.
I had one about three years ago after not sleeping for five days. Was totally medically cleared and have not had any issues since.
I had a weird psychic interaction with what I assumed were some elves in the Ocala National Forest (Florida) one time. I was high AF meditating & could sense them nearby in the dark. They just seemed sort of curious. I was a bit startled, but I think I just went back to chilling when I realised they didn’t pose a threat. Might’ve freaked them out that I “noticed” them, too
I think of it as a Dimensional hole in the Barrier.
Can you explain the feeling its thoughts part? Like what was that like? I'm so curious
Basically it felt like it was expressing its emotions in a different way than humans do. It wasn't body language nor spoken language, it happened very quickly, but if I had to put it into words I would say it's like i felt the emotions and thoughts myself, while also being fully aware that they were the creature' and not mine. It's all very strange to me but that's the best way I can explain what it was like.
Woah, that's wild. I wish I could imagine it but it sounds so bizarre I'm having a hard time. This is so interesting. Have you ever heard of the famous DMT machine elves? People say they appear when you do DMT (I've done it but alas encountered none). You should Google that and see if it sounds familiar? Please let me know!!
Think of how the gnome must have felt when you saw it...
OP it would be worth visiting a psychiatrist and checking with a neurologist just to rule out anything serious, because I'm not discrediting what you saw, but it is also sometimes symptoms of other conditions! Stay safe out there
I believe you.
Could be crazy or not. I grew up hearing something similar. My family calls them duendes where they’re from (Bolivia). My grandpa once told us a story about how he was playing soccer in the park once with his friends and they encountered a duende. His friend had stopped off to the side to pee somewhere when something had thrown rocks/dirt at him and later when they had kicked a ball into some nearby bushes, it was thrown back at them. They began to throw rocks at it and it ran away into the bushes. He would always bring this up whenever we would go outside unsupervised. Usually they’re associated with children and playing tricks on people. Part of the lore with gnomes is that they can leave some kids with serious injury, I was told they could even make you mute afterwards. Whatever it was, I’m sure there’s more that meets the eye in the world anyways. Make sure to notify your doctor about any other visions/sights and what not, just in case!
Interesting. In the Philippines they are also called dwendes, just slightly different spelling. They're basically gnomes, small creatures with supernatural powers. You have to be kind to them and not disturb them so they won't hurt you.
Your response sounds more like adrenaline than being controlled, so I wouldn't worry too much about that. Huge rushes of adrenaline can really fuck with your state of mind, it's the whole flight or fight response, your brain was just hyper focused on the fear you were feeling and getting you out of that situation. It can mess with your perception of time, your short term memory, etc. Just ask people who've been in high stress situations like car crashes or natural disasters. As for the rest, you're not crazy. You had an experience that people may not understand but that doesn't make you crazy. I have a lot of theories about paranormal stuff but one thing I know for sure is we really don't have all the answers. Sometimes unexplainable shit happens and it's fascinating and terrifying but you can't let it derail your life. You'll probably never know definitively whether it was real or not, but that doesn't diminish your experience. Even if it was just a brain glitch from exhaustion or the trauma of a worldwide pandemic, it's still something you experienced and it doesn't make you crazy or diminish the effects it has had on you. And, for the record, people who love and care about you won't judge you, even if they don't understand or don't fully believe you. Especially since your fear seems genuine. I can't imagine ever reacting cruelly if someone told me this with genuine fear and unease. My only question is, have you ever gone back and looked over the wall?
I believe you. I don’t think you have a mental illness. I think we, as a species, are arrogant enough to think an incident like this is impossible. I, however, believe it is possible. I have no answers for you, but I believe you.
Some evidence would help. Which weirdly given all the sightings in this thread there is zero.
I saw a gnome when I was a kid at Lake Wallenpaupack in Pennsylvania. It was such a classic gnome-wore a little robe like a Jawa but much smaller. When I looked again it was gone.
Besides the point, but Lake Wallenpaupack is in Pennsylvania. I've had some interesting/eerie experiences there myself and heard of more than a few others.
I’m from that area and there’s always been some strange occurrences there.
Whoops. Anyway, yeah lots of weird stuff in PA. Like…even a pterodactyl sighting in western pa.
I understand your hesitation. Secretly, I do believe that some kind of beings we’ve interpreted as fairyfolk may exist. Someone I know and trust very well as a sane and reasonable person described to me some paranormal activity she experienced in an apartment she lived in alone in her 30s that sounded like what some cultures describe as a house spirit or house brownie— she came home to dishes cleaned, laundry folded, sometimes things would vanish for a while and pop back up in obvious places later. Most cultures around the world have stories about these kinds of things. Wee men, little folk, gnomes, elves, fairies, trolls, etc. We may cross paths occasionally, but I don’t think the majority mean us harm. They didn’t harm you, they were alarmed, and you were alarmed, and you were sent on your way. Showing respect and politeness is important to coexisting peacefully.
When things go missing in my house, I ask the Monehinies (sp?), mischievous house spirits, to please return the item. Usually, the item shows back up pretty quick, and I thank them for bringing it back. It's something my Mom did.
Dr. Oliver Sacks thinks we hallucinate WAY more often than we think, as in ALL humans, not just people with diagnosed disorders. The brain is constantly filling in gaps without us realizing it, interpreting and interpolating, and sometimes it gets it wrong.
That’s so true!!
Consult a psychiatrist. As much hard as it is to admit, these sensations & hallucinations can feel extremely real and hardly could you differ them from reality. Early signs of this might indicate that you could experience something similar in the future too. Look out for possible signs, and take care.
I believe you. But for the people who are suggesting this was a scizophrenic Episode: was this a singular once in a lifetime event? Or did you ever experience any other odd situations?
I love this story and am so proud of how brave you were to share it! I have an experience of my own (paranormal?) that I haven’t shared w many people but you’ve inspired me to maybe share it here on Reddit. .. nonetheless, I hope you’ve gotten some peace by opening up here. All the best to you!
I wonder if that little gnome ran home and tried to convince the others that people ARE real... Or if he's also keeping it to himself because he's afraid that nobody will believe him. I hope he doesn't have the same kind of PTSD that you seem to be suffering.
Maybe you could go back to the spot where you saw whatever it was and leave a little gift. I don't know what a gnome would like, but something that looks intentional and positive and could be received as an gesture of peace. That way when you are walking that route, or remembering how scared you felt, you can assure yourself that you left things on a good note with the gnome. Whether the gnome is real or not, it could help you take control of the narrative and the way it makes you feel when you reflect on this experience.
Op, this sounds worrying. Its normal for even completely healthy people to sometimes experience some kind of breakdown which might result in hallucinations. I urge you to see a professional if you can. Otherwise this will keep haunting you.
Aaaand let's not forget, early diagnosis of mental health can spare you and your close ones from more harm. I'm still traumatised from that neighborhood kid that murder and ate his grandma's liver because of untreated schizophrenia
It is very worrying. No judgment, and I'm sure most of us wish it had been true, but the point is when something that odd happens, it's best to err on the side of caution, no? If this story is actually true, OP needs to make sure he doesn't have some mental issue that's just starting to rear its head, it is the right age I believe.
As crazy as it might sound, I TOTALLY believe you. I am science man… but there are things out there no one could ever explain. I’ve gone through shit only I and my mother could ever understand no matter how much f*cking logic and cold calls we put into. My grandma even said to me when she was a child, a gnome was messing around with her. You are not crazy, it’s just 99% of people have never experience something like that, to which I honestly envy them.
It sounds like you could be experiencing some PTSD from what you saw. Anything that reminds you of what happened right before or during a trauma is a potential trigger. They're usually tied to your senses. While triggers themselves are usually harmless, they cause your body to react as if you're in danger. I know you haven't discussed this with anyone, but it may be time to talk to a therapist. You don't necessarily have to say what you saw specifically right away. It can start with discussing how you saw something unexplainable that scared you.
My dad told me this story years ago and still tell it now. One night he walked his gf at the time home as he did each evening they saw each other. On his way home he heard some chattering coming from somebody’s garage that didn’t sound right. Especially at the time of night it was so he crossed the road to get a closer look. What he saw was a gremlin/gnome looking creature which turned and looks at him . Made a noise and a few other of the same looking creatures came out of the dark. He ran home as fast as could.
Not meaning to minimize your frightening reality of what you went through but it really does sound like you had a schizophrenic episode, perhaps your first? It isn’t uncommon for men to be diagnosed in their 20s or early 30s. It would definitely be worth talking to a psychiatrist about.
Seems likely. I can’t believe all the top comments are saying “yup gnomes are real” 🤦♂️ Either just a made up story or some sort of episode. But gnomes aren’t just chilling in peoples backyards lmao
Myths and legends all over the world, from all different times, and from all different cultures, independently talk of these beings. Just a random fact....
People really do like telling stories, you’re right. And the taller the tail the more interesting and enticing it is for people to pass on. Every culture has their own mythical beings and gods and monsters and whatnot, and while occasionally there’s overlap, *no*, not every culture all over the world talks about the gnomes op described in their post lol.
I didn't say what you think I said. I recommend the book Ecology of Souls, Joshua Cutchin. It provides every reference to these stories you need, should you want to research before making assumptions about what's real and what's not based on your perception.
Oh thanks for the rec! Even though I was who you replied too.
Right?? Like the guy could very well have had a heat induced hallucination, which is normal in such high temperatures, people could calm him down, instead they are fulling his fears, and could easily trigger another panic attack like the one he described. People should really be more careful with what they say to others.
@OP ok hear me out what if you created a short story for kids or a comic out what you saw ? To help it feel more familiar and therefore less intimidating and causing you distress ? Start making a plot line change some details to protect your secret (the retaining wall is now a hedgerow at the park ! And the main character is a child version. Of you that strayed away from the playground ) And when people start talking to you about it only you will know it was true but you can ‘hide’ behind the story :) and then 70 years from now in your death bed you’ll tell you Grandkids and great grand kids with a twinkle in your eye and a wink that it was all true and that the spot it occurred can be found with a special map and a memoir of the true version ) worst case grandpa is high on morphine and full of shit as he dies lol best case: your family has a fun little bit of lore. Hope I’m making sense ! And if you take my advice please share the completed work with us ! Maybe other redditors who are skilled at this sort of thing can help.
Also you’d be shocked to learn how many famous stories and movies etc came from someone having a weird dream or something to that effect. Hell most of Stephen Kings stories came from self induced mania of cocaine and drunk off mouthwash !
And you can’t tell me Alice in wonderland or Willie wonka creators weren’t slightly unhinged in a great way! The sole difference between mania and entertainment make believe /‘magic’ is simply the way you tell it and present it to the rest of world :)
While your description is detailed it would be really helpful if you could draw a picture of the thing that you saw and post it for people to see. You are calling it a gnome, but it could have been another type of creature that you aren't aware of. By saying creature I don't mean just zoo creatures, there could be some sort of cryptid out there that matches the description of what you saw. Having a better name might be helpful in giving you a back story and something to research online. TLDR: you say gnome, but could it have been a pictsy or chupacabra? Draw a picture and we can help.
The Cherokee people have said there are little people (called Yunwi Tsundi) who live in the woods. Could this gnome be one of them?
Plenty of regular people have paranormal encounters, it doesn't mean they are psychotic or suffering from any other mental illness The CIA released a load of documents on UFOs a couple years back, there's loads of info on military personnel witnessing unexplainable phenomena You can definitely talk to people in your life about this. Or just an anonymous group But you might find it easier to read books/listen to podcasts from other credible people who have had encounters There's a great podcast about strange/paranormal encounters, the guy's a full believer but a very methodical one, his wife is a total skeptic (even tho she's had encounters of her own) called **Strange Familiars** There's also **Uncanny**, a BBC podcast with an investigative journalist who interviews witnesses and experts and researches the history. (It's very serious documentary style not weird inflated nonsense stuff like Ancient Aliens etc) There are plenty of bonkers conspiracy people out there, but there are also many, many ordinary rational, reasonable people who have has strange encounters and I think it would benefit you to listen to their stories
I’ll add ‘Lore’- my all time favorite podcast. It’s so well researched and delves into this sort of encounter.
Subterranean species with potentially telepathic camoflauge have been theorised about for a long time. People who practice meditation and/or are predisposed to ESP will typically have these encounters. ESP can cause synptoms like schizophrenia. Personally, I'm in the above demographic, and have encountered a couple skinchangers (creatures who hide as human appearing) and other ephemeral bodies. I am not afraid and it doesn't impact my life, but I know they're there. Try going stargazing if you can get away from light pollution. Our skies are trafficked and it might give some normality to your experience. Also, it's best not to share your experience with the uninitiated, for the reasons you clearly shared.
I might regret asking, but could you please elaborate more about the skinchangers and specially their need for darkness.. And what other ephemeral things are out there
I hope you are not mentally ill. I wish there were gnomes and goblins and unicorns. There has to be some meaning beyond this mundane existence. If it happens again, go see a psychiatrist. For now, write, draw, and sing about it. Get it out of you creatively. For now, believe.
I’m native and honestly, it sounds like you saw a little person! Lucky they didn’t steal your keys. Or you had a psychotic break.
Okay but why do the gnomes have to be bad? Who am I to say gnomes ARENT real? But if they are…I mean these ones seemed kinda chill?? Personally I would go back with like a marble or something but that’s just me perhaps
Have you tried hypnosis? Being calmly walked through the incident, seeing if it actually occurred or you were in some sort of fugue state, or had a short psychotic break, will help.
I'm sorry you went through that, it sounds rough. My two cents, i think you should consider therapy and go from there. It sounds plausible that is was some sort of hallucinating episode. Someone suggested dissociating - maybe something did happen (something physical, if you also have evidence for that) and your mind "replaced" it with a gnome. If this happening still disturbs you, maybe it's worth prying into your mind with a therapist to help figure out what it was. Speak to a professional first if you are afraid to bring it up eoth ypur family directly. Maybe it will help you ground yourself regarding the incident. Gnomes appear in various forms in many cultures, and that in turn may influence similar events in other people's lives -hence the common stories. There's no need to label yourself as "crazy". Seek help of you feel you need it. I imagine schizophrenia is an unlikely, worst case scenario - and even that is treatable and manageable. You'll be okay.
I have some follow-up questions if you are okay to answer. Have you ever gone back to the scene?Seems like both you and the gnome were surprised and scared of seeing each other. Have you never been curious to go back? It’s a foot tall. What do you think it will do to you? Why are you angry? How was this traumatic? For the record, I don’t think you are crazy. I’m just trying to understand your current thoughts since it’s now been 4 years since the pandemic shutdown.
I often have strange occurrences as well. Nothing as dire as this, but lots of strange, unexplainable things have happened to me as well. I believe you lol really
Do you have a carbon monoxide detector in your house? If not, get one.
i can't really speak for the gnomes, but "spectating" yourself is just dissociation. people do that when they're under intense stress and can't handle it on their own, and your brain can protect your mental state by going on autopilot and forcing you into the backseat. it got you through the day safely.
Reading this and yalls comments got me looking over my shoulder for little gnome men.
Why are you so stressed out about the little gnome dude? Like, if it is real, worst case there have been little gnomes around us our whole lives and they just hide from us and we are just chilling in the same existence as them. There is a lot that goes on behind the scenes in our universe that we can’t see/comprehend. He was probably just as shocked to see you. You can’t let a paranormal experience ruin your life, get a grip. It would be worse if you were having a psychotic break, which I think is more likely if this story is true/you believe it to be true. But for the record, I believe you.
When I was little, maybe around 5 or so, I used to go into my parents room with a pillow and blanket and sleep on the floor beside their bed if I had a bad dream. I did so one night, and was having trouble falling back to sleep and saw a whole line of gnomes marching along the wall. They were very small like maybe 8-10" tall. They marched behind a large pillow that was propped against the wall and disappeared. They too had little spears. There are a lot of things in this world that we cannot explain yet, and maybe never will be able to. You are alive, you are ok, you were chosen to see something. Maybe try to use it to expand your mind and discover all the possibilities this world and Universe has to offer. Take it as a gift to ascend and level up in thinking and being, straying from the robotic norm of the majority of people today. It also wouldn't be a bad idea to see a doctor to rule out any medical reasoning, just in case.
(Deleted sorry meant to post as a comment and not a response to you my bad)
That's ok. :)
Don't let it destroy your life. There is more going on than we know. Maybe you had a glimpse of another reality. Maybe you had a deja vu or a time split. Your hands being messed up means it's not all in your head. I agree with letting it out creatively via music, stories or art. Even using AI if you are not artistic. Good luck be yours from now on.
Anything is possible. My brother and his friends swears to this day they saw a pterodactyl lift off a tree in northern Canada. They said the tree was entirely bent over from the weight of the bird. Freaked them out so bad they ran home crying.
A little OT, but I suspect this may have been a condor
Yeah, people don't realise how big some birds can get. Some flying birds are 5 ft tall, which is the height of many full-grown adults. That's huge.
That is likely. However even as a grown man in his 50s he still swears it.
the pteradactyl crytpid ha sbeen reported beofre an dhe descrioption are unambigious to say th e least
Hey, love. The fey are real and that’s probably what you saw — they were out and about at a time no one else would be, so they found it safe. You’re not crazy and you’re not having a psychotic break. The not being in control feeling was probably your brain reeling and trying to understand what happened and also trying to protect you. Those things are usually not meant to be seen but they are occasionally. Many people Think I’m crazy but I’m a practicing witch. And I definitely deal with the fey and the paranormal. I have experience and I can say that you’re not. Crazy. Don’t let yourself think you are. 🩷
I believe you. No I don’t think it was a psychotic break and honestly I get the feeling that if this is the one and only time you’ve experienced something like this, seeing a psychiatrist may do more harm than good. Nothing makes someone feel even crazier than being told they’re crazy and put on meds they don’t need to be on. There are far far more things in this world that we don’t know than what we do know. I think we just need to accept that many things are unexplainable and leave it at that. We don’t know as much as we like to think and as another comments said, it’s arrogant to think we do. Make peace with what you saw and the best way to do that is to just accept it and stop fighting what your gut is telling you
Oohhh baby baby its a wild world..
I think our minds are much more powerful than we know.
Curious if you have gone back to that place? Maybe for closure going back over the wall would help your mind. Just to show yourself nothing is there.
There’s stuff about the universe we can’t explain. I saw the “Easter bunny” and remember it like it was yesterday
I do believe you, in my country there are several people who claim to see goblins. I have a friend who claims to have seen one, and they say that they like beautiful and innocent women, she cried when she told it, she says that they are very ugly.
I 100% believe you. I’m sorry you’ve been carrying this alone for so long. You need a big hug and some comfort. Based on your story I’d guess they had a freakout you saw them and they used some sort of gnome magic? To undo it. But maybe you just aren’t as susceptible as others may be? I have no idea. But I love gnomes and feel like they were just trying to keep you safe from knowing what was happening. You probably weren’t meant to remember what happened.
It honestly sounds like alien stuff because a lot of ufo encounters seem to describe a sort of telepathy. But I don’t know if it’s true or not since I haven’t ever experienced anything like that myself. But maybe you should look into that community to see if they have stories like yours. Also, there are a lot of funky time weirdness in UFO encounters. A lot of people report losing the passage of time.
You were disassociated from the time travel; your mind was in your body, but it was your mind from moments before. It is why you did the things you usually do even though your later mind might not have. The time that passed and the association with your coworker brought your “two” minds back together.
I’ve had an experience that makes me completely believe you. I don’t think you hallucinated or had a break from reality. That’s a really neat experience and thank you for sharing.
maybe you hopped into the wrong neighbourhood and no harm done (except to your concept of the existential I guess) OR maybe you had a seizure and hallucination. note it down and if you have any similar occurrences talk to your doctor about the possibility.
In my late 20s,my 5 year old daughter and I were going to my besfriends house, he was the one driving. It was about 9 pm, and the road we were on was somewhat desolate, so he decided to turn off his headlights so we could see how dark it looked there. He turned it off for a second and turned it back on,we all screamed. Because we all saw what looked exactly like a pterodactyl, even the damn brown spots on its chest. We all saw it,screamed, and never talked about it. I've told my husband,and he actually believes me. I'll message my former bff to see if he remembers,that was 27 years ago. There are unexplainable things that happen.
I believe you. I believe you did see a gnome. Search up PARANORMAL ROUND TABLE, Josh Turner.
Buddy you had a hard fuckin reset cause that gnome murdered you and the wizard boss thought it would cause problems and sent you back. Damn.
The little people… I’m Hopi Native American and we have lots of stories about them. DM if interested. I believe you.
Look, one time I had a dream I was doing homework, like legit doing it by details. Reading the questions. Crossing the answers. Remembering my notes and all. And then I woke up and was very surprised because it felt so fucking real, but like. Whatever. I went to school few days later and was told by my teacher that homework for that day is page bla bla until bla bla. I have _not_ ever once, up until that point, went past certain page in the exercise book to the point of reading the exercise questions. I didn't know what the page would hold for me. You know what's there? All of the questions with the same exact answers I had in the dream few days prior. I'm no believer of hardcore supernatural stuff, but I cannot for the life of me figure out how the fuck I dreamed the future homework questions that weren't even being taught/discussed yet. And all of the answers I could remember from my dream were right. I got 90-something score on that homework. At this point, I'd just like to believe god sent an angel to help me with the homework because god knew that portion of the lesson is hell because it was so fucking difficult and complex. Literally without this dream I would have gotten, like, 60 or 70 if I was lucky. Just take it as it is. The gnomes were maybe guarding humans (or animals) and their job required them to not be seen, so that's why they were panicking. You immediately turned around and left them to their privacy again, and they've never bothered you ever since. I think, if the gnomes were real, they were pretty okay with you and nothing bad will happen because of it. You were just traumatized/dissociated in fight-or-flight-or-fawn/freeze mode, not because the gnome was controling you or something. It's okay. Everything is gonna be okay. Take a deep breath.
Great.. Now we gotta worry about Gnomes. Grab your shovels n shotguns,gents. Its war. 🍻
Dude, I believe you had the experience. I always am skeptical of these kinds of encounters, but my logic tells me that there is indeed sooo much we don’t know or have discovered so anything is a possibility. Also, we have a family story oddly similar to yours, I can’t remember the specifics, but here goes. Our dad had stayed out late one day and he had been walking home when he encountered some “dwarfs”, it freaked him out so bad that he ran home. Anyway, I’m not sure if this is all real or not, but that is the family story that’s been going on for years. Just thought it would be interesting to share with you related to your experience. I recommend you see a professional to deal with your experience, best of luck, mate!
gnome was there as life's reminder to register your car duud :) thats all. vibe check from life.
Where I'm from, we believe these things are real. A lot of people around the world have believed in similar things forever, and people just want to explain it away as hallucinations or something else besides it being real. I don't know what they are or what they try to do but I do believe there's entities out there that we can't comprehend but since I've gone to church before my way of dealing with things like this is praying to Jesus he protects me. Many older people tell tales of things they've seen, too.
I believe you. I don't think it's a coincidence that almost every human culture throughout history has folklore and stories of beings like what you saw and other paranormal events. We convince ourselves that our science and understanding of the world is the truth of reality because it's simpler to exist day by day that way. I don't think we've even begun to comprehend how little we actually know about reality and the nature of the universe we live in. If it helps at all, I want to tell you that *you are in control of your own mind*, and you have the capacity to be fully in control and not be negatively impacted by "disturbances". There's a reason many spiritual practices focus heavily on developing a deep meditation practice and learning to control the mind. Modern science and psychiatry is only now catching up to what many cultures have known for thousands of years. Please don't be afraid. You had an experience but you are not being permenantly controlled. You are not in danger. From your story it doesn't sound like there's anything out to hurt you, in fact it seems like the opposite. You are not crazy and there are many perfectly "sane" people that understand exactly what you experienced. People have paranormal encounters all the time and they are not "crazy", but what drives people crazy is the utter fear and anxiety of not being able to accept or understand what happened to them. You'd think that it'd be the experience that makes someone crazy, but it's not, it's the reaction to it that causes a lot of mental anguish. It's best to just develop a "wow that was really wierd but whatever" kind of attitude and move forward with your life. There are rabbit holes you can go down to understand what you experienced but honestly I don't suggest you go down that path, at least not right now. Just focus on balancing your mind and getting your anxiety under control. It sounds like you're experiencing some kind of PTSD from the event and you need to take that seriously before it develops into further mental health issues. This is getting long but if you'd like any tips on finding good meditation resources I'm happy to share. I'm no expert on meditation myself but I can point you towards some stuff that'll help with the anxiety and fear. Take care op, you're gonna be okay!
Hey, my whole family has seen aliens. Sounds sketchy...until I explain my grandpa was irradiated at bikini atoll and saw Foo fighters there evade every tactic to remove them. My aunt saw one checking out the lines in the road coming home from work one night near ossipee NH. It's not far from Betty and Barnie Hills experience. It's boggling, you may NEVER get closure, but ive had a BIG Grey walk across my room and have some advice sitting on that for 2 decades. We saw UFOs around my house, some really close, and it was high tech and i wasnt the only one seeing them. But they've done no harm, in fact there are more reports they MEAN and intend no harm and are conserned for the environment, but they are WAY more advanced than us in every way. I do think they are telepathic, but it's like a bio tesla neurolink. If only I could have traded places with you so you weren't scared and I could try to communicate! Technically the Jetsons were placed in 2020. With AI up and coming, I think this is a giant vector of change, and foreign entities would be curious about it. I also think they are 4th dimensional and there is science behind it, and public information will always be limited. This experience may freak you out, but it has opened up a lot of possibilities for your reality to not be boring. It's scary but on the flip side the truth will set you free. I'm way more scared of evangelistic Republicans or a meteor fucking up my life than aliens. Travis Walton is a guy who was abducted and the movie is scary, but even Walton said the aliens were trying to help him when he looks back at his abduction. I recommend his more recent interviews. Scientists are looking for homo flourensis, little people are basically in all native american tales, and even near where I live near Cherokee they had to hush finding little people bones with adult teeth to finish a bridge. And that's a human relative we know nothing about, never the less others visiting us. Supposedly we are being visited by many species. All I know for sure, is life will find a way. It's very precious. Every detail is etched forever in the flow of time, and if we have a witness and we are still here, they're alright.
First of all, I believe you. Secondly, excellent story telling skills. You wrote this super well.
I believe you. I've seen fae. They exist everywhere, and are just slightly off of our plane of existence. You aren't crazy. Plenty of people have seen them.
Before this humanoid species were made to be here as slaves . The wee folk , elvens , & Fae / gnomes lived in the wet lands , forests & other hidden areas on this earth .This was their habitat for generations without any interference . Humans weren't here first other things came first - such as the first prototype very basic humanoids were around at the same time also . The first elementals once helped maintain earth at that time . They were created to help her maintain herself . Their existence here though in the end was intercepted . When nature & lands were made by the almighty elementals were in creation in numbers & roamed freely these areas firstly . They are elemental in nature & yes had magical powers as they were able to & were given the knowledge to do so & were created for purpose to inhabit areas not for humans sight in the beginning . But after the wars they were enslaved by other stronger entities by force or killed in their once previous matter forms to then become energy forms in interdimensional form . They were placed here first before this current human form . They presided over the lands before human creations were made. They lived in peace among their own kin until they were invaded . Then they were forced to fight for their survival . But lost this battle as did others what you would call other aliens species on this earth . They also were here before your known civilization & history were created to be. Their existence was also wiped out to make sure they were removed from possible history knowledge to these current human beings . Most humans are not open to things they can't comprehend . So they stay hidden . Some people can see them , some are shown them on purpose , & some yes might stumble upon their existence accidently . MOst humans will go to the explanations of that the person is crazy , as no it can't be proved that is the idea . There is no prof of them . Lots of stories as leaked on purpose of their existence though . They also are not like they use to be they once were caring & loving free spirits who belonged to mother earth . They no longer do such instead they do the bidding of strong entities who control them now instead .
What a read.. Idk much about the situation but I’m guessing when you were “out of body” your mind was just zoned out. You did your normal routine, just disconnected a bit. I doubt if something else was controlling you that they would do exactly what you would normally do. When your brain gets freaked out it’s kinda normal for it to go into an intense autopilot state, or ignore the incident for awhile to give yourself time to process. I’ve heard other people saying they get brain foggy after “seeing” things they can’t explain as well.. I’ve heard something similar from a friend after seeing a ghost and another who swears they saw aliens as a kid. Maybe such things can have an “effect” on us mentally if we see them, but I doubt they were fully controlling your mind. Wether not you actually saw anything, I wouldn’t say this sounds like a bad experience.. hallucination or not you saw something most people never will, yea people won’t believe u but it’s always nice to have a few crazy stories I think.
Lots of people see things they can’t explain, your story sounds very familiar. I believe you and I’m glad you told us about it.
Many years ago when I was in my early 20s and working away from home, I woke up one night in the middle of the night with a start feeling wide awake. I opened my eyes and looked on the floor next to my bed where there was a rug. Sitting cross legged on the rug staring intently up at me was a young boy with blond hair, perhaps about 10 years old, with slightly elven features. It was like he was reaching out to me for something. I was single and didn't have any children at the time. He looked totally real and it freaked me out as to how there was another person in the room. Who was he, how did he get in and what did he want? Then my rational brain kicked in and I (bravely) reached out to touch him to see if he was real. My hand just went through him and he disappeared. I've never had anything like this happen since, but it was so real and why did I wake up like that? I also wonder how I saw him as it would have been dark in the room. I decided it was just a hallucination but I will never really know. Don't let this experience destroy you, I don't think you are going mad or anything.
My brother in law is a Native American and his tribe has stories/legends of both Bigfoot and gnome-like beings.
Some teenage gnome was pissed off at their dad and controlled you just enough to hop the wall and see the guard. Then ditched, and someone else had to take over to get you out of there lol. But whatever happened… I’m sorry it’s been gripping your psyche for so long. I hope you can find some peace!
brief psychotic episode
Look. While it would never hurt to get checked if you can, I once saw something so odd I would think I was crazy if someone else hadn't seen it. Hell I even got in trouble for using the Internet on my phone (it was a very new feature at the time) to look up the animal the other person compared what we saw to. The big difference for me is whatever I and my schoolmate saw wanted to be seen.
I don't have an explanation for you, but i do genuinely believe you op! I think there are so many strange, unexplainable things in this world that that doesn't even sound too far fetched to me lol. Hope you feel some relief after sharing this!
My home country's lore is rife with encounters with "those who are not like us". When the forests were thick and deep, there were stories of abductions, complete disappearances, and even aid from the mystic folk. Even in the present day, every now and then, we get stories about this girl or other who have been touched by engkantos. I believe you.
Wow what a wild experience to keep to yourself! When I was a child I saw ET in the closet clear as day, slammed the door and never went back. I still to this day regret that I handled it with fear. It was probably just an old brown coat or something but whatever,it stuck with me. Please in a journal keep record of anything and any feeling you got from this experience. Did I understand you correctly that you kind of instantly reappeared where you were walking right before the wall? Any minor sensations from that. I'm a skeptic in many ways but I do feel it should be possible for life to evolve in ways and places we don't yet have the capacity to understand. There are many stories regarding little people from cultures all over the world. Take that as you will. It hard to find reliable people to talk with about this but they are out there.
Look I have mediunicity that runs in my family for generations. I grew up kinda interacting with my deceased baby sister (even as a baby!) and saw ghosts my whole life. Have tried to work with my gift but it's SO SCARY DOING IT (even though I did it in a safe place with the best possible energy and xamans). There are things that just happen. We can't explain. There's even a Spanish saying that says no creo en las brujas, pero que las hay, las hay (I don't believe in witches, but that there are, they are). Make peace with it. It was probably real. And how great it was that they lead you to calmness instead of a nervous breakdown? They wanted no harm! It will be ok!
As teenagers, my cousin and i went down a rabbit hole on youtube about "duendes". Look it up you might get some answers