A listener writes “My encounter happened in Davidson County, Tennessee during the day where we lived. I was around 7yrs old, it happened in the fall and I was with my cousin.
He came to play one day so we decided to go play in the woods behind my house. These woods were vast and it had a large cave on the left side of the ridge and several smaller caves on the right side of the ridge. The area on top of the ridge had several strange piles of rocks on top of the ground that looked like the length of a person was buried there like a really old graveyard. We use to call these strange rocks Indian graves but we never really knew what they actually were.
One day we hiked back to this site and explored the smaller caves on the right side of the ridge.
We brought a flashlight and found a small cave we could explore. The cave entrance was like a hallway that you had to crawl through in order to explore. I was leading my cousin who was directly behind me.
When after a while we reached the end of this corridor because a large rock blocked us going any further. There was an area around 6 to 8inches at the ceiling that was open so I shined my flashlight into this area and you could see a room on the other side of the rock, about that time a dog looking animal popped up and looked straight into my flashlight. The eyes were red and it had pointed ears. I screamed bumped my head on the ceiling of the cave and told my cousin to back up and get out. We ran back home and we never went back to those caves exploring.
In Maury County, Tennessee several years later as an adult. I was visiting my son and granddaughter and returned home around 930pm.
I was never usually out past night time so I hurried to get home and into the house. I parked my vehicle underneath the carport and had a little walk to get to my back door.
I got out of my vehicle and quickly headed towards the back door, no lights were turned on outside.
Suddenly behind me and above me I heard a deep guttural growl that instantly froze me. The growl was super deep, and lasted awhile, it sounded like a tiger growl. I remember thinking the animal must be really big and had to have an enormous set of lungs. Instantly I couldn’t move an inch and I felt like I was going to be eaten by whatever this was. A primal fear came over me and the hair on the back of my neck stood up. I wanted to turn around to see what it was but a voice inside my head instantly said don’t turn and don’t run but instead walk quickly to the back door. That’s when I snapped out of my frozen state of mind and did just that. I got inside and locked the door behind me quickly and from that moment on I experienced PTSD for months afterwards.
I didn’t want to go hiking or biking something I did with my son regularly. I told my son what happened and he kept bugging me to go with him hiking and biking, so I did. At first it was so hard to get back hiking and riding bikes but looking back it helped me to face my fear which helped me to overcome a lot of the PTSD.
My head is still on a swivel constantly checking out my surroundings but nothing else like this has happened again.”
Ron S
For as much as encounters with the unexplained can have an emotional effect on people which can “cattle dog” or change patterns in their previous thoughts, lifestyle or activities drastic ways, I believe there are also more subtle events that happen to people on a much more regular basis that are equally strange but oftentimes overlooked or brushed off as happenstance.
For instance… Just yesterday I met up with my older brother to go fishing the river. I’ve caught a few keepers so far this year which made me thankful, considering my brother so far hasn’t even gotten a bite from a single decent fish yet. I look up to him and he’s the one I learned much about the finer points of fishing from over the years.
We parted ways at the river out of each others view to fish different areas. Within the first half hour I already bagged 4 out of the 5 trout limit, and each were about two pounds, I honestly was having an amazing time, usually you can even see these fish in the water and drift your spawn bag by their nose 100 times and not get them to bite. Yesterday the fish were searching my bait out, but some days and times are like that where they simply “turn on”.
I had it in my head that I was going to catch my fifth trout soon and then find my brother to show him who was the better fisherman that day.
The fish didn’t behave any differently after the fourth catch as I was still seeing them come out to take the bait, but every single time I set the hook they would simply strip the bait or I would have them on for just a second before they came off…it was getting a little frustrating and I was finding it hard to believe how my luck had seemingly turned around.
After an hour or so my brother came and found me and asked how I was doing. I told him I had 4 so far, which caused his mouth to look flat and frog-like and his brow to furrow. He still hadn’t gotten that first decent bite of the year.
He plunked down to fish closer to where I was and I moved further up to fish where he just was, at that point upon getting to his spot I immediately saw another nice one come out and bite, but I missed that one as well, ripping my bait open on its teeth.
At some point shortly after that he went home I imagine (still unbitten). I stayed roughly another 2 hours and missed two more in the meantime… It was just so ridiculous that I had to say “this just isn’t meant to be”, and went home. I gave one of the fish to my gals parents for supper and the rest I filleted for the freezer.
Sitting here having my coffee this morning is when all this dawned on me about the strangeness of the missing 5th fish yesterday. I believe It was simply a life lesson from beyond the physical world.
The moment I stopped just enjoying the fishing/catching and turned it into a goal of fulfilling something within my ego or pride is when everything changed.
Did I need that 5th one? No I didn’t… I would’ve been happier and gotten more done if I had left with 4 in the first 30 minutes, while also getting just as much or likely more respect from my brother in doing so. Instead I tried to be a “game hog” and take advantage of the situation.
I’m telling you right now, these lessons and connections to something greater than ourselves is right in front of us to witness all the time. You simply have to learn how to notice them and take them seriously… It’s going to take some self reflection, belief and faith… And in the modern world a peaceful amount of time to do that is hard to find sometimes… It can be as elusive as that 5th fish
. I’m going to continue looking more at life this way going forward, waiting for things to “turn on”
, they almost always will at some point. 
Have a positively aimed direction in your day everyone!