Jo Hickey-Hall speaks to Frank Scannella about his encounter next to the river in Walton-on-Thames in 1982. His story ‘Meeting Nicola’, was published in the, “It Happened To Me…” section of The Fortean Times (Issue 350, 2017). This episode was also released as a video on YouTube.
The sense of uncanniness about this meeting has always stayed with Frank. There are many liminal aspects to consider: the proximity to water, crossing a bridge, the time of his life between studies. As well as this, various folklore motifs abound: black dog, dark man, strange stillness in the environment (Oz Factor) and the way that the beings appeared and disappeared in a mysterious manner.
Most of all, there was a sense that one cannot fully describe. But you will know, if you’ve ever had a brush with the Otherworld.
The main image is Frank’s own impression of ‘Nicola.’
⭐️ BONUS EPISODE ⭐️ In the bonus episode on Patreon I share related folklore about river-related merfolk, we hear some comparable encounters submitted to Simon Young’s Fairy Census and we end with a particularly unsettling story that was posted on Reddit. It is a strikingly similar experience of a young man who came into contact with a strange man along the river in York, England, featuring lost time and other very strange factors Both men view their experiences as near misses with beings from the Otherworld and feel lucky that they lived to tell the tale.
Warning: These are not fairytales. The Modern Fairy Sightings Podcast is designed for viewers andlisteners 16 years and older. This show is unsuitable for children or anyone who might be sensitive to creepy content.
Podcast intro music: Transmutate by Snowflake (c) copyright 2020 Licensed. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
Shownotes
Frank is the author of Sicilian Shadows – a compelling memoir of his struggle for survival in the heartland of the Mafia as a young boy.
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Contact me at: scarlettofthefae@gmail.com
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A woman in the UK describes an extended ‘conversation’ with an intelligent blue light form which appeared in her home. The experience featured lost/altered time and a sense of innate familiarity.
Just what did this Otherworldly being of consciousness come to tell her? And were previous geometric light visitors connected in some way?
In part two, (Episode 29) this conversation continues and the same woman shares a powerful fairy experience, which had a very different feel.
Have you had similar experiences with intelligent light forms? Please do contact me and let me know your thoughts on all of this.
Warning: These are not fairytales and the content is unsuitable for children. Some episodes may contain details which some may find unsettling or frightening. The Modern Fairy Sightings Podcast is designed for listeners 16 years and older.
Blue lights and Otherworldly Beings
The following share collected as part of Simon Young’s (Fairy Investigation Society) Fairy Census (2014-2017) is most intriguing. The encounter features communication and a shift in visual form:
§339) US (New York State). Female; 1990s; 31-40; in a city; on my own ‘I was walking my dog late at night on *** [New York street]. We did a once-round the parking lot as always, and a large figure stepped out of a dark corner. He said some very personal things to me, but not unkind, more advice-like, then laughed and turned and vanished, leaving a point of light blue light about the size of a lightbulb, then that winked out.’ ‘Dressed like a ‘homeless’ person, dark skinned but I couldn’t see any features, he had a hood or something around his head.’ ‘After I’d left the city I mentioned it to two ex-NYers, who said they had also had strange encounters with beings that looked like homeless people who dispensed advice and encouragement and vanished.’
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This tremendous Otherworldly experience took place in the county of Somerset (UK), in around 2003. The south west of England has a long and rich history of fairy folklore, but this is a particularly unsettling face-to-face encounter with a fascinating creature, astride a ghostly horse.
The episode kicks off with a UFO experience and goes on to cover occult practices, ghost experiences and some gorily-detailed folklore. This episode isn’t for the feint-hearted – you have been warned! 👻
If like me, you’re right at home with all things wyrd, you’ll enjoy the bonus chat available on Patreon. Our guest shares a spectacularly creepy ouija board experience, some spooky ritual happenings and his friend’s ghost or possibly time slip incident along with folklore from his local area.
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Warning: These are not fairytales. The Modern Fairy Sightings Podcast is designed for listeners 16 years and older.This episode is particularly unsettling and is unsuitable for children or anyone who might be sensitive to creepy content. Trigger warnings: discussion around occult practices, gory details featuring blood (folklore), ghosts.
Shownotes
Fairy Riders
Danse de Lune
Fairies on horseback feature from time to time in British folklore, particularly in South West, England. In William Crossing’s, Tales of the Dartmoor Pixies (1890) farmer’s horses regularly found to be exhausted come the dawn, were said to have “been ridden hard during the night” by the pixies. Though it was also said such rumours were put about by smugglers who had used the horses to run contraband in from the coast overnight.
The following nineteenth century account mentioned in, The Old Red Sandstone (Miller, 1859) has a similar feel to our guest’s encounter, especially the initial description of the creatures themselves, “….the riders stunted, misgrown, ugly creatures”.
It appears to have taken place at Black Isle, between Ross and Cromarty near Inverness, Scotland.Interestingly, there’s still a place nearby named ‘Fairy Glen’. Thank you to Dr Simon Young for sharing this story in a most timely manner this very week!
On a Sabbath morning, nearly sixty years ago, the inmates of this little hamlet had all gone to church, all except a herd-boy and a little girl, his sister, who were lounging beside one of the cottages; when, just as the shadow of the garden dial had fallen on the line of noon, they saw a long cavalcade ascending out of the ravine through the wooded hollow. It winded among the knolls and bushes, and, turning round the northern gable of the cottage beside which the sole spectators of the scene were stationed, began to ascend the eminence towards the south. The horses were shaggy diminutive things, speckled dun and gray; the riders stunted, misgrown, ugly creatures, attired in antique jerkins of plaid, long gray cloaks, and little red caps, from under which their wild, uncombed locks shot out over their cheeks and foreheads. The boy and his sister stood gazing in utter dismay and astonishment, as rider after rider, each one more uncouth and dwarfish than the one that had preceded it, passed the cottage and disappeared among the brushwood, which at that period covered the hill, until at length the entire rout, except the last rider, who lingered a few yards behind the others, had gone by. “What are ye, little mannie? And where are ye going?” inquired the boy, his curiousity getting the better of his fears and his prudence. “Not of the race of Adam,” said the creature, turning for a moment in his saddle; “the People of Peace shall never more be seen in Scotland.”
Miller, H. (1859) The Old Red Sandstone (Boston: Gould and Lincoln)
Similar sounding fairy beings
The following two modern encounters were collected as part of Dr Simon Young’s Fairy Census and possess similar descriptions to the creature seen by our guest:
Comus Arthur Rackham
§343) US (North Carolina). Female; 2010s; 31-40 ‘I was on a rock in the river reading while my husband fished on up river. I was across from a park, people walking with kids and dogs. There were two young boys walking on the trail with their dad. They began moving down towards the water, when it started coming up the river moving through the water towards them. It was pale-skinned water-logged looking with black hair and sharp serrated teeth showing in a smile. It paid me no attention, but was focused on the boys. They were pointing at it with sticks and could absolutely see it. The dad finally ushered them away from the edge of river seemingly unaware of it being feet from his kids. It watched them move up the trail away with a creepy look on its face and then moved on up river out of sight. Did not look friendly to me.’
Young, S. (2018) The Fairy Investigation Society’s Census (2014-2017)
Louis Rhead Illustrations. Grimm’s Fairy Tales: Stories and Tales of Elves, Goblins and Fairies.
§12) England (Cambridgeshire). Male; 21-30; 2010s; ‘It was a very brief encounter late one evening. My partner and I had been watching television, and had since switched the TV off and [we] were talking for some time. At one point I glanced towards the area where the television is only fleetingly as one would do while not paying any particular attention, and caught a glimpse of a small gnome-like man. Immediately I looked again but the entity had gone. From the brief glimpse I had I could see it was almost a cross between the classical description of brownies and a gnome. It can’t have been more than six inches tall judging by the furniture I glimpsed it on. It had a scruffy dark brown or black beard which seemed to be spiky and covered most of its face. No brightly coloured clothes that I remember, they were all brown/dark. It was hard to make out details. I do recall it had a pointed hat or head which was also dark in colour. There were a number of rocks that we had collected on our travels on the furniture it had been sighted on, perhaps it was drawn to them in some way. It left a feeling of being watched, but wasn’t malevolent. It’s just a shame the sighting was so fleeting. It does feel like I’ve glimpsed something that didn’t want to be seen.’
Young, S. (2018) The Fairy Investigation Society’s Census (2014-2017)
If you enjoy the show, please consider sharing your favourite episodes with friends. Don't forget to rate and subscribe wherever you listen, and if you can, please support by joining The Curious Crew on Patreon ❤️
Main Image: Edmund Joseph Sullivan (1907) Once more he began his impious praises of Gabriella's beauty (an homage to Albrecht Dürer's, The Knight, Death and the Devil).
This episode includes excerpts from The B.O.D.A.V.’s (The Books of Dreams and Visions). It’s a personal collection of fairy encounters and vivid dreams, experienced by a young man from the age of 11 to his late teens, provoked by night time forest walks with his father.
Having had some awareness and interest in the Otherworlds himself, his father had encouraged him to journal these experiences. Some of these drawings are pictured below.
It’s rare that a child or young person is encouraged to explore these realities with such depth by a parent and for that reason, I feel the collection is rare and of great importance to helping us understand our nature of being as humans. I believe that these states of deeper perception with nature are innate within us and socialised out of us from a young age.
Our guest, now in his mid-twenties and undertaking a Master’s in biological science, was able to spend lockdown reunited with his father. This provided an opportunity to re-read the journals and attempt to categorise some of the beings and events that took place.
I would love to hear your thoughts on this beautiful share.
Warning: These are not fairytales and the content is unsuitable for children. Some episodes may contain details which some may find unsettling or frightening. The Modern Fairy Sightings Podcast is designed for listeners 16 years and older.
Martin Brofman’s Anything Can Be Healed is an excellent book for describing how to shift into other realities and see the world from alternative perspectives, notably healing the body, mind and anything that is not working for you, in your life. (Note: I trained with Martin from 2005 until 2014 and his healing system completely changed my life…I will get round to talking about this someday. Let me know if you’d like to hear about it!)
Mike Clelland’s The Messengers: Owls, Synchronicity and the UFO Abductee. I would recommend this to anyone interested in reading about people’s extraordinary experiences and how dreams often tie into encounters. I’m reading this at the moment and I find it fascinating. (Note: yes it does involve UFO encounters rather than fairies but there are many similarities and if you haven’t already explored these ideas, then this is an excellent start).
Patrick Harpur’s Daimonic Reality argues that the human psyche extends beyond the confines of the physical human body, and that it may in fact be a part of our reality. It’s a core text for understanding these encounters.
Dr Jack Hunter’s Greening The Paranormal is a collection of essays on humankind’s relationship with earth and what we have come to term as ‘extraordinary experience’.
