In today's edition of ACPOTI (Anyone Can Post On The Internet), I decide to explore the world of the paranormal on the forums of The Fortean Times -- The Journal Of Strange Phenomena. While there were more than a few scary people on these message boards, to be fair not everyone was lapping this stuff up with a spoon. On the other hand, "war for oil" doesn't look like such a big leap compared to some of the people who believe their stereos are haunted or who think they're "slipping through dimensions." Prepare yourself for another strange edition of ACPOTI...

Look out for the elemental, gremlin, green trash bag, Yoda action figure, head of lettuce, or whatever this may be a picture of...

Kevin Dean: I pressed the snap button on my camera by mistake when taking it out of my green carrier bag. I was sitting on a tram at the time, you can just make out the seat. Anyway, a gremlin or elemental seems to have got in on the picture. I still have the original photo and negative...

I know that the first thing I think of when I mix up a phone number is that I'm "slipping through dimensions"...uh wait, no it isn't...

Elisheva: "Slipping through dimensions? Anyone notice that details about their lives or environments have changed recently in small but notable ways?

For example, I wanted to phone someone whose number I know quite well but instead of ending with 6, her phone number now ends with 5! She hasn't changed numbers, and she only has one phone line. Anyway, the her phone number was exactly as I remembered it except for that last digit (I've always had a knack for remembering phone numbers, so I don't think I forgot it.)

Also, while working at my computer, I found a completed and finialized version of a rather complicated bit of programming that I was just sitting down to write.

Other things have changed, too, although I don't remember exactly what they were right now. It's as if I was slipping through dimensions that are very close to each other but not entirely identical.

Anyone else?"

"Slipping through dimensions?" PLEASE...it's obviously a, "Paradigm Shift."

Niles Calder: "Sounds like a Paradigm Shift. I've experienced more than a few myself. When did you notice this had happened and are there any other large-scale changes you noticed?

You have to realise that we're not shuffling through continuua; you've arrived in ours

I used to conciously shift paradigms looking for a particular type of coninuua but I intentionally stopped last year. I found someone I didn't want to leave behind

Anyway most people slip back eventually, or off somewhere else. Of course sometime the whole continuum changes but that's something entirely different and more than you'd notice...

This guy is being asked if fairies exist -- he says, "yes" and seems to be quite serious about it. I'm not sure that there is a lot I can add to that...

Oracle: "1) A Fairy, is an Ethereal being with, like has already been said, the ability to communicate with all aspects of nature and their surroundings. Using animals and insects to transport them like we use horses, and ostriches in Africa, and such like.

2) Yes, their existence is yet to be confirmed by science and never will be, but they DO exist. A childhood story has a basis in reality, Dragons, Unicorns, Goblins, Ogres and Trolls. All have once existed, but adults can't believe in something that they have been told is fantasy by their parents before them, once a child has absorbed all the fantasy, his or her parents wait until the child is 5 or 6 years of age and then, they say " sorry, they never existed". From that point the child's "Fantasy" slips away and blends in to the fact...The child loses their ability to connect with their world, the world of Fantasy, magic, Dragons, knights and Ogres. Their are things in heaven and earth that are stranger than our own imaginations. Imagination, the ruin of our once incredible childhood world...Imaginary Friends?"

Question: If a ghost started playing songs on your stereo, what music would it play? Something it liked when it was alive or cheesy Halloween music like, "The Monster Mash?"

Dirtybob "Haunted electrical equipment. Anybody else ever had stereos turn themselves on and start playing stuff? If they have, any ideas how it happens, and if it is ghosts how do they know how it works?"

The Beast has a similar problem although the obvious cause might not be a ghost...

The Beast: "My Ex's kettle kept turning itself on with a very audible click.

She also had haunted pot plants. They used to shiver as if they were in a draught, but no draught was evident."

You will soon quake in terror as you contemplate the mystery of -- the "minigolfers!"

J Bardet: "One evening during May of 1994, I was walking across Pike Hills golf course, near York, from Askham Bog nature reserve. The sun was still shining behind me so visibility was reasonably clear. My attention was drawn to some figures roughly 100 yards ahead of me, apparently putting a ball around on an otherwise deserted golf course.

There were five or six very small figures, which I presumed to be children, quite engrossed in their game and I continued to walk in their direction until I was about fifty yards from them.

It was then that they appeared to become aware of me and I could see that they were not children but very small adults, of about four feet high. At this moment one of them appeared to prepare to strike the ball hard in my direction. Not intending to come into contact with a fast - moving, hard ball, I, to my shame and regret, ducked for a few seconds behind a nearby tree for a few seconds. Still curious as to who these little people could be, I immediately re- emerged from my temporary shelter to find an empty green and fairway ahead of me.

They could not have run away to hide any where in so short a time and my search of the nearby area revealed no sign of them. I resumed my homeward journey, completely unable to explain to myself or anyone else just who these little people were."

© Copyright 2001-2009 John Hawkins
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