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Posted: 04-03-2006 02:32 Post subject: IHTM-a-likes

OK we are the original (probably) and best (defo) for strange stories from ordinary folk but there are other around so I thought I'd get a thread going for other places doing similar things in case you need even more.

Traces From Beyond
True Ghost Stories @ Obiwan's UFO-free paranormal Page
Your True tales @ about.com

Posted: 04-03-2006 06:02 Post subject:

In terms of high-strangeness, I think Obiwan's site is tied with IHTM in first place. Burp monsters, bubble people, one-eyed armadillos, dancing cows, Mr. Kangaroo, and of course the infamous black-eyed kids and evil muppets are just some of the crazy characters you'll encounter on that site's story section: http://www.ghosts.org/stories/stories.html

There are some pretty decent short stories there too:
http://www.ghosts.org/shorts/shorts.html

Posted: 04-03-2006 09:44 Post subject:

About.com has some superb categorised archives of IHTM reports (they even have a separate category for Hooded Beings!):

Your True Tales: Index

Alternatively they're indexed by month here;

Your True Tales: 2006

Posted: 06-03-2006 04:13 Post subject:

Brad Steiger has been collecting reports via his site as part of his broader paranormal questionnaire:

www.bradandsherry.com/TheBradSteigerQuestionnaire.htm

and results:
www.bradandsherry.com/question.htm

Which has appeared in this book:

Out of the Dark: The Complete Guide to Beings from Beyond (2001)
by Brad Steiger

Posted: 06-03-2006 19:09 Post subject: About.com

About. com does have a wide collection of paranormal stories, but in my experience, many of them are obviously fakes. I realise that on any site of that nature, there are going to be some (as there are occassionally) which are falsified, but I sometimes find that in any given month, up to 60% of the stuff on there is utter and complete BS.

The articles section on the paranormal bit is quite good though..........

Posted: 06-03-2006 19:38 Post subject:

I agree that many of them don't ring true - although I think sometimes that's simply because the correspondents are rather poor writers. It may well be that we'd say the same about many 'classic' cases of ghosts/Ufos/Bigfeet etc if we were able to read the story in the witnesses own unedited words - rather than as retold by a professional writer/investigator.

Logically speaking, it's more plausible that any particular witness is lying rather than they really have seen Mothman or the Virgin Mary. And generally, we judge the credibility of their story is by comparing it to stories told by previous witnesses - who we assume (rightly or wrongly) weren't lying. Hardly an ideal state of affairs.

Posted: 07-03-2006 05:02 Post subject:

I really like some of the about .com tales,there was one somewhat bizzare one about a fellows Dad who swore off porn because he saw the devil in the form of a donkey wearing a tuxedo sitting in the lounge area of the porn store looking at a magazine.
I tried to find it again but was unable to.

Posted: 14-03-2006 04:04 Post subject:

There's a seemingly infinite number stories here: http://theshadowlands.net/ghost/#real

More here, although the only stories I particularly like on this site all seem to take place in Asia.

I just thought I'd add there's a search engine on both of those sites as well as obiwan's so you can look up words like, oh say, "gnomes" or "vampire" or "Malaysia".

Posted: 14-03-2006 05:25 Post subject: Nothern California Basement Pixie

"Basement Pixie," posted at TracesFromBeyond.Com (it's the only item under "Photos") strikes me as one of those "fairy photographs" (like the Cottlingley images) which is simply too good to be true. The "pixie" very much resembles the little jointed, poseable humanoid figure which sat for years atop my late Dad's drawing table (when my brother or I or the cat weren't off playing with it), thinking its wooden thoughts.

But maybe I'm wrong. I'd appreciate other opinions.

Posted: 14-03-2006 06:28 Post subject:

But if Pixies are shapeshifters then that means they can take the form of a small, wooden toy.

Posted: 22-03-2006 12:48 Post subject: Re: Nothern California Basement Pixie

Posted: 23-03-2006 01:48 Post subject: Re: Nothern California Basement Pixie

Posted: 04-04-2006 20:44 Post subject: Re: IHTM-a-likes

Posted: 12-05-2006 10:04 Post subject:

The most frustrating thing about other sites for me is the high incidence of "OMG i am 14 yrs old an me n some friends were playing with a weejee board and like omg my friend got totally possessed and then the lights flickered and it was totally haunted n stuf!". GAH!

Shadowlands is notorious for that, which makes hunting for truly compelling stories on there a bit frustrating. Sometimes they have some good stuff though.

Archive X used to have some great stories, but when the hysterical adolescent factor became to great I sort of abandoned it. It might be worth checking out though.

http://www.wirenot.net/X/Indices/Ghostindex.shtml

Posted: 12-05-2006 17:37 Post subject:

Yeah, when I read through the shadowlands I just skim down the page until something weird catches my eye. Obiwan's site has done the best job of weeding out those kinds of stories you describe.