New Story

From:	1QWERTY [1qwerty@gte.net]
Type: Ghost
Location:
Subject: Response Anonymous in Montgomery, AL (Shadowy Figure)/New Story

Many things that are experienced are not able to be explained by science, thus they are discarded as nothing more than coincidences, good camp fire stories or pure fantasy. I believe that mankind has lost a great deal of knowledge over the centuries attributable directly to our full embrace of science. The many different tribes of the American Indians do have one overwhelming similarity, that being spirituality. I am only guessing with this suggestion, and it may be one that the author has already attempted. Research the customs and beliefs of the tribe from which the petroglyph comes from, specifically as to what it represents to them. The findings of that research may lead you to answers about what you and your wife saw that night.

Another direction you may want to explore is your own spirituality. Now I don't want you to take this as someone trying to push religion on you (I am inferring from your description of yourself as a nonreligious man who is tolerant of those with religion, that you are what is termed, an atheist.)

I am one of the last people who would attempt to impose my beliefs or the beliefs of others on anyone against their will. The reason I even bring this up is that I do not believe that there can be any understanding at any level of the "paranormal" or "supernatural" or "spirit world" without some basic foundation of religion or spirituality. Thus any attempt to make sense of any of your experiences would be futile at best with no understanding of what lies beyond pure science.

To give you a better understanding of why I am saying these things I will give you a brief summary of my beliefs and a specific example of my experience with the supernatural.

I liken myself mostly to the Disciple Thomas, better known at Doubting Thomas. At heart I believe in a Supreme Being that created the Universe, the planets and life. I believe that God has helped guide life as it evolved over the eons to what we have become and to what it has come to be elsewhere.

I believe that God sent Jesus to atone for mankinds sins and that with his sacrifice man receives Salvation through Grace alone. I do however have certain doubts as to the ways organized religion prioritizes what is important and what is not, as well as, certain basic beliefs as to how things happened and why, and on rare occasions I momentarily question whether or not the whole idea isn't some enormous scam begun centuries ago. For the most part, however, I do consider myself a Christian.

Now, as I said, are two stories, one stemming from the other, of some of my experience with the supernatural.

Late one night I was awakened suddenly, it was not due to any strange noises or lights or anything that I can put my finger on. I just came out of a deep sleep to a straight upright seated position with my eyes fixed to a bit over to the right of the foot of my bed. The street light that was positioned right outside of my bedroom window was shining in between the slats of the blinds over the window and casting a fair amount of light in my room as was usual. What was not usual was the figure of a man standing against my dresser between the two windows in my room.

Immediately my eyes focused on him. He stood about 5' 10" to 6', was of medium build, dressed in somewhat of a 1940's style with a trenchcoat and a Fedora hat. For a brief moment I sat there staring at this figure, he then came out of his leisurely leaning against the dresser, walked to my left until he was midway across the length of the footboard of my bed. I then went from the seated position directly to a crouch on my left hand and balls of my feet, I slowly leaned towards the figure reaching out my right hand. Before I could reach him he tipped the front brim of his hat, given me a sly smile out of the left corner of his mouth, winked his left eye and dissipated with a very soft chuckle. I just stared for a moment in the direction he had been standing and then laid back and went back to sleep (this had not been my first time in my life seeing this figure).

This encounter that I am describing here, (As detailed as I have gotten on this description is an amazement to me, normally I don't recall it as specifically as I did while I was writing it.) wasn't something that I was ever planning on relating to anyone, but when it happened I had a roommate that I felt compelled to tell.

So a few weeks later as we were sitting around the house talking and waiting for her boyfriend to show up (I think) I told her the whole story and about other times that I had seen this figure throughout the entirety of my life.

The rest of this story is now from third hand knowledge, my roommate told one of her friends a little about one day as they or she were on their or her way to visit a psychic. My roommates friend told her psychic that a female friend of her's roommate had seen something, she did not elaborate anything beyond that information. The psychic proceeded to tell her that "HE" should not be concerned, that the spirit has followed "HIM" all of his life and is there to watch over "HIM". The psychic did not once hesitate to accurately refer to me in the masculine even though she was being asked about this by a woman who had referred to me as her female friend's roommate. The psychic also stated that the spirit follows with me, she had not been told at all about any of the past visitations nor was she given anything specific enough to draw any conclusion of amiability or malignancy.

I am not quite sure why I decided to mention any of this, I had initially planned only on writing a very brief reply/suggestion to the teller of another of these tales, but once I got going I couldn't stop. I'm not going back over any of this to reword before I send it so if anything does not flow as well as the reader would like I apologize and ask for your understanding.