Seeking understanding

I might take this opportunity to introduce myself before I begin the topic. A past lurker now finally took the initiative to join. Nice to meet you all!

I am not quite sure on how many events I will share on this thread as some definitely evolve around the idea of 'extraterrestrial entities'. Please note, I do not wish to strike arguments or negativity in the discussions nor any immature credibility of the story. I also apologise ahead if I begin to rant, you may skim through what you deem as unimportant.

The events occurred a good few years ago. I had a high school best friend in which I would spend extensive amount of time with for the period of our event-perished friendship. Our connection was as close as blood and due to him living on an open land property and having very 'lenient' parents, most of our time would be spent at his house. Saving details, our friendship lasted all through to our senior year of high school. Throughout these years, we had spent excessive amount of our spare time in the 'national park' which was directly which was located immediately behind his property. We enjoyed hiking through the forest, camping nights on end, so yeah we spent a great amount of time there; it was a spiritual serenity to the both of us and many other peers.

Now hopefully you've gotten the idea that a great deal of our youth was spent in the surrounds of this 'national park', I want to explain a bit about this forest. Situated in a fairly remote part of the city, it stretches across a lavish amount of land. It is a barely known location with the both of us barely ever come into contact with anyone besides an unmarked 4x4 in which we came across during a hike although did not approach nor really pay any attention to. It also borders an army base.

Now to the events which led to seeking any understanding you guys can help me with. From the beginning of coming across this area together we always felt a great sense of 'spiritual enlightenment' (if you will) from the place. However, we also came across numerous events which we played off as if nothing happened, yet 'till this day throws my mind into somersaults and frustration. From just the odd cracks and hisses meters away we just registered as bats or whatever animal we could relate it to. To odd 3-dotted red dots centimetres away from us and visible orange lights in distant woods rising from the ground into nothing (I will other account for UFO). You can now see we would spend a great deal of our adolescent lives in these woods. It was an attraction on every level for us. We could never explain the events, we never questioned them, we never really even processed them and we never really even talked about them... it was as if we'd enter this premise and begin our trance like state of the next 'journey'.

Now please. I DO NOT by any means promote the idea of this national park/forest/name it what you want in which the odd hiker would use as his weekends exercise, as some paranormal/supernatural portal, although the events that occurred were nothing more than out of this world.
The very last event that occurred before the end of our friendship is the one I wish to understand the most. My friend whom we will call 'Bob' had a very odd family if you will. Throughout our friendship I had learned many things about them. Father was a free-mason, alcohol problems in the family, eldest brother a drug addict, mother would awake in 'zombie' like trances in all times of the night and engage in similar activities someone would when they're sleep walking. Again please, I share this information only for the purpose to give as much as I can about the background of the events leading up. The family was 'odd', but they were great people and were also my second family in which I had enjoyed some of the most enjoyable times of my life with.

Bob never really enjoyed his second eldest brothers (drug problem/mentally unstable) company. They barely communicated besides an argument, they'd never think to enjoy each others company but nearing the end of senior school Bob and I started getting close to him for reasons that I don't wish to discuss. Through the next few weeks, Bob dramatically changed his attitude towards me. Nothing negative at all, but you know when your best friend is acting different. Now the reasoning of this I put down to is either his brother disliked me and negatively impacted our relationship, or I truly believe deep down Bob had become under the influence of a 'spiritual entity'. I felt I needed to share this information about his brother.

The night of the event we had planned to set off some fireworks deep in the forest where there was a large opening just where we would camp. It was Bob, our friend and I. Our other friend we'll call 'Ken', was fairly new the place but even with the short amount of visits to the place he was well aware of what type of things that would occasionally occur. Ken and I planned to meet Bob at our usual spot. Now Ken was a very fearless guy and had past experiences of paranormal events. The first thing he said before we left the car was that he had a "weird feeling about this (man)". Now before we never really encountered anything in the woods we could say was frightening enough of an experience that ever really caused serious fear. It was always more mind-boggling and undeniably intriguing.

At this point the three of us were well on our walk. Throughout the walk there were endless bats flying around us that it was weird. It wasn't weird for bats to be present at that time, more so the amount and how close these bats were getting. Throughout constant swooping of bats (never before encountered), we decided to stop and have a cigarette. I can say at this point I was calm but through endless processing of the event I can't deny I felt an eerie feeling. Bob seemed quiet but nothing out of the ordinary. Ken however seemed very uneasy and on high alert which all of us ignored and kept on with the current discussions.

From here we began with our walk. The next few metres of this walk is where we encountered something that I hypothesised was a 'shadow person'. As we turned a corner near where there was a small water passing in which we would always pass during this walk was where we encountered this 6-7 foot tall immensely dark almost transparent, vaguely white/red eyed figure in which was stood metres in-front of us, staring. From here I froze and without wasting another second we all ran back out of the forest. Throughout this run, numerous bats were still swooping and flying hysterically around us.

This exit had Ken and I without enough words to describe what had happened. Bob although looked like what was either scared senseless or in what I could also only put as a silent trance. It was as if my mind refused to process what had happened, and I insisted we walk somewhere to light the fireworks as we had been planning to for a while. We agreed and still with Bob not saying a word we progressed to another spot. We were not in the woods at this point, just bordering it. Walking I shared to them I felt as if something 'reeling' me back into the forest. It was a few steps after this moment, in which behind us a growl/screech like sound emitted directly behind us. At this moment Ken and I were both shaken speechless whilst Bob said "I can sense the fear" in a deeper than normal voice. Upon asking about what he was on about as both myself and Ken began to become less fearful, instead increasingly agitated, it was as if he snapped out of this trance and genuinely had no idea what we were talking about.


Over the next few months Ken and I endlessly researched and tried to investigate the woods further. Bob never really seemed interested. This was someone who before wouldn't sleep before he could find some explanation. We never stepped foot in the forest again. Our friendship deteriorated, and the events were never spoken about again, nor have I spoken to them since.

There are so many layers to the story I cannot begin to explain. I have tried my best and hope to hear any similar experiences or any knowledge or literally anything that could be of interest to me and help put some meaning and understanding to these events. I thank you for taking your time to read this.

[desert rat]

Welcome to the forum . The shadow man may of been a ghost or an astral being . The orange lights may of been a form of earth energy , maby a lot of quartz in the earth making the lights . Just my guess .

Originally Posted by desert rat

Welcome to the forum . The shadow man may of been a ghost or an astral being . The orange lights may of been a form of earth energy , maby a lot of quartz in the earth making the lights . Just my guess .

Thank you for the post desert! Do you believe that the shadow wanted something or was more of a sign? I am not sure why after such a long time it finally decided to show itself.

[Asrai]

Sounds like some kind of a portal to me. The water makes sense. If that's not it, then something evil must have taken place around this spot in the woods for this dark energy to have been created. It does sound to me like your friend Bob may have been influenced and somewhat possessed by this or another entity and from what you say about the family, it sounds as if they too were affected by it as well.

I'm glad you came out safe and all you could have done for your friend and his family was to send them love and light and call on divine protection for them. You still could do these things if you wanted to.