Where the Strange Things Are
Oct. 12th, 2022 07:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
smokingboot*Creaks*
I slept awkwardly last night, and my whole right side feels scrunched up, concertina-like.
Been intending to write this entry for a couple of days, putting it off til some magical moment when I am 'not tired.' Huh. Seems I am never 'not tired,' so I might as well do it now.
One of our guest speakers for the afternoon was the original observer of the Silver Man, back in the 1980s. Basic story; this gent, his wife and two children, spotted a 7/8 foot tall individual sprinting at between 50 and 70 mph past their car, on a road about 2 miles from here. The being had its face turned back towardst them and was scowling. All four saw it, but his children were the ones to call it the Silver Man. He himself described it as glowing, 'like the old readybrek man'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1KUoS3mmvM
70s Britain. You had to be there.
The glow he described was white rather than the charming radiation effects demonstrated in the advert, but there you have it, the nub of the story. And as a talk it should have been great. For the first 20 minutes it was, but then he wouldn't stop. The lady acting as host couldn't close him down and he carried on for another 10 minutes. It was the only time I saw us actively lose audience, two disappearing when his story left what he saw and started down a strange but familiar track: suspected phone tapping and strange notes pushed through the door, psychic impressions and warnings and then more and more sightings. Oh, and memory regression.
The moment regression is mentioned, something in me gives up; while I'm sure there are exceptions, it often seems to be a mental portal to any jumble of reality /unreality / nightmares /phobias /wishes. I recall being present at a regression where a man was reliving supposedly suppressed memories; we wrote everything down, it was all as clear as day, directions to the place, everything. Then came the time to investigate, and there was nothing there. The area identified was not and never had been the same as he drew in his map, the place he was so sure of. There was no explanation, no way around it, all it did was confuse him and leave him downcast and unhappy. Regression may bring up some interesting stuff but it isn't a dependable way to recover physical facts. Those who cite it as proof make me uneasy.
Back with he who saw the Silver Man, I wonder how the other witnesses are these days, his wife and two children. They seem very quiet. How were they affected? Do they recall it as he does? Has it become a family embarrassment, a case of Dad turning weird and we don't talk about it?
In 1979 the Dechmont Law Encounter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Taylor_incident happened about 6 miles from here, and became a local legend. I have heard from trekkers in the hills who say they have felt the presence of something watching them of a night, or seen the glow of strange eyes. Cryptozoologists could have a field day around here while 'zip up your tent and ignore it,' seems to be the camping consensus. Given this buzz of background, and an atmosphere almost triggering in itself, with standing stones, old burial mounds, abandoned mines etc, could the Silver Man be some kind of co-delusion suffered by the family? Or an actual phenomenon, maybe reinterpreted?
As a closer, here's some art that was hanging in the exhibition hall. I'm beginning to think there's something odd about this place.
I slept awkwardly last night, and my whole right side feels scrunched up, concertina-like.
Been intending to write this entry for a couple of days, putting it off til some magical moment when I am 'not tired.' Huh. Seems I am never 'not tired,' so I might as well do it now.
One of our guest speakers for the afternoon was the original observer of the Silver Man, back in the 1980s. Basic story; this gent, his wife and two children, spotted a 7/8 foot tall individual sprinting at between 50 and 70 mph past their car, on a road about 2 miles from here. The being had its face turned back towardst them and was scowling. All four saw it, but his children were the ones to call it the Silver Man. He himself described it as glowing, 'like the old readybrek man'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1KUoS3mmvM
70s Britain. You had to be there.
The glow he described was white rather than the charming radiation effects demonstrated in the advert, but there you have it, the nub of the story. And as a talk it should have been great. For the first 20 minutes it was, but then he wouldn't stop. The lady acting as host couldn't close him down and he carried on for another 10 minutes. It was the only time I saw us actively lose audience, two disappearing when his story left what he saw and started down a strange but familiar track: suspected phone tapping and strange notes pushed through the door, psychic impressions and warnings and then more and more sightings. Oh, and memory regression.
The moment regression is mentioned, something in me gives up; while I'm sure there are exceptions, it often seems to be a mental portal to any jumble of reality /unreality / nightmares /phobias /wishes. I recall being present at a regression where a man was reliving supposedly suppressed memories; we wrote everything down, it was all as clear as day, directions to the place, everything. Then came the time to investigate, and there was nothing there. The area identified was not and never had been the same as he drew in his map, the place he was so sure of. There was no explanation, no way around it, all it did was confuse him and leave him downcast and unhappy. Regression may bring up some interesting stuff but it isn't a dependable way to recover physical facts. Those who cite it as proof make me uneasy.
Back with he who saw the Silver Man, I wonder how the other witnesses are these days, his wife and two children. They seem very quiet. How were they affected? Do they recall it as he does? Has it become a family embarrassment, a case of Dad turning weird and we don't talk about it?
In 1979 the Dechmont Law Encounter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Taylor_incident happened about 6 miles from here, and became a local legend. I have heard from trekkers in the hills who say they have felt the presence of something watching them of a night, or seen the glow of strange eyes. Cryptozoologists could have a field day around here while 'zip up your tent and ignore it,' seems to be the camping consensus. Given this buzz of background, and an atmosphere almost triggering in itself, with standing stones, old burial mounds, abandoned mines etc, could the Silver Man be some kind of co-delusion suffered by the family? Or an actual phenomenon, maybe reinterpreted?
As a closer, here's some art that was hanging in the exhibition hall. I'm beginning to think there's something odd about this place.
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no subject
Date: 2022-10-12 10:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-10-13 06:32 am (UTC)I get that the town depicted is Linlithgow itself (the lower painting is of the old Palace, and the spire of St Michael's is distinct)but beyond that, I'm lost. Having said that, I do quite like these!
no subject
Date: 2022-10-14 03:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-10-15 08:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-08-26 11:05 am (UTC)But back to the silver man (thank you for linking!) and the guy drifting off into phone tappings, etc: yeah, I agree that when things get into the phone tapping and regression that we're no longer in the realm of whatever happened and instead in the realm of someone suffering from something. I had an acquaintance with mental illness, and when it flared up it was all wiretaps etc.
I'm sure the family did see something. My thoughts go like this: it's very easy to be mistaken about size (I've exaggerated size when looking at things in the distance--you try to gauge, but it's hard) and 8 feet seems like a good exaggeration from a still striking but not that out-of-the-ordinary 6' 6' etc. A hoodie or hat can be made to look like a face, so if it's pulled up, it can look like someone's got their face on in reverse. Or a person can have a mask or even be in costume for some reason. Or maybe he took the ump at their driving and turned and scowled, who knows? I don't have an explanation for the glow, though reflective tape, like road repair crews wear on their jackets, really glows if headlights hit it.
And the whole thing doesn't even need as complete an explanation as that: a very tall person all in white, or grey with reflective white tape, running by, can be so strange that the other stuff just accretes as the family talks to each other.
Or: they did see something strange and mysterious ... and that was that, and the rest of the family shrugged and went on with life, but it played with stuff in Dad's life and mind, and he ended up the way you saw him.
That Readybrek ad though! Wowwwww. Your little ember-like darlings! My husband was a kid in England in the 70s; I wonder if he ever saw it/remembers it.
no subject
Date: 2023-08-28 11:20 am (UTC)Even with that, your explanations are plausible I would say. I've spoken to the gentleman a number of times and what seems clear to me is that
a) he believes absolutely and entirely
b) whatever happened terrified him
c)it has had a permanent and possibly deleterious effect on his world view. To my mind,he is sensitive and vulnerable, though one doesn't know if that's the result of the encounter.
I would really like to speak to other members of the family if they are up for it. Thing is, there have now been other accounts, but the ones I have come across are questionable for various reasons, though they've contibuted to local lore on the subject.
no subject
Date: 2023-08-28 12:22 pm (UTC)Even with that, your explanations are plausible I would say. --But I'm also completely willing to acknowledge it as something strange and unexplained. Strange things happen: people see strange things.
It would be very cool to hear from other family members.
I wonder why it terrified him so. One time family and I saw something odd, something ghostlike (but much more ambiguously odd than what your guy saw), and it was very unnerving--because it was strange--but not terrifying. I wonder if it's because--to your (c)-- it did shake up his worldview. Has he talked about that aspect with you? (e.g., "I always believed x,y,z, but after that day...") Or maybe he always was sensitive and vulnerable? I'd be interested in how he described himself as a kid.