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Okay, first off, I’m not nuts or anything, just another guy in this big wild world of ours. Anyways, I was walking across the MacDonald Bridge at around 11pm on Christmas night and a real spooky thing happened: I’m about halfway across the bridge towards Halifax and hear a mans laughter to my right…only thing is, there’s nobody there. Creeped out, I kept walking and—no word of a lie—a hand pushed my back! Now, I’m not into ghosts or anything. The deepest I go is what new kind of beer I’ll check out at a bar. Yet, all I know is: it bloody well happened! I guess I got a genuine spook-story to pass on. Also, I have no intention of walking that bridge again at night alone. I’ll swallow my masculinity in saying I shrieked like an old lady, stopped, let the paralysis fade and walked briskly back to Halifax. Anyone else ever had anything like that happen? —Spooked
This article appears in Dec 25-31, 2014.
Oh that? That was just Phantom 309, a hipster poltergeist who once took a good kicking for riding his fixie on the sidewalk. >; )
Thanks for your interesting take on the classic pedestrian bitch.
Sounds like schizophrenia to me. Welcome to the club!
One time I was at the grocery store and I heard someone whisper my name, but I turned around and no one was there…. then I felt a touch on my shoulder. Turns out it was just a bag of chocolate chip cookies.
bridges scare the crap out of me to begin with, thanks op.
AGORAPHOBES SHOULD AVOID LONG NARROW BRIDGES (AND TUNNELS)
“Also, I have no intention of walking that bridge again at night alone.” Spooked
I remember walking over the MacDonald Bridge from Dartmouth to Halifax with a friend during the day. We got to the center of the bridge and I was paralyzed with a nameless, mind-draining terror. There were no voices, just an oppressive feeling of being helplessly trapped. (Agoraphobla, a phobia about open spaces is the flip side of claustrophobia, a phobia about being enclosed.) My friend could normally run faster than me but not on this occasion. I beat him over the rest of the bridge to Halifax easily. And I never, ever walked across that bridge again. I didn’t even like driving over it. (It’s tough living in Montreal, which is an island.)
Let me tell you sometime about being trapped in the Baltimore Tunnel. And then, of course, there’s the Delaware Memorial Bridge.
Avatar #117: “Annie”
A pleasure as always,
Cheerio!
If you aren’t a member of the facebook group “Haunted Nova Scotia”, you should join and share your bridge experience!
Hey OB , that has happened to me in the past….
checking out a new type of beer ~;)
Speaking of phobias, I know a guy from Dartmouth who lives near the MacDonald bridge but drives all around Bedford Basin to avoid the bridges. He’s also only been on an elevator a few times in his life. He almost always takes the stairs. Sounds like he has both agoraphobia and claustrophobia at the same time.
does he fly? could be control issues. or fear of heights (plummeting to the earth/water)
damn bridges BOUNCE while you are driving over them, no stinkin’ bridge should bloody BOUNCE around! it should be stable enough to not friggin’ BOUNCE. what if it bounces so much it bounces your car right off into the void?
elevators bounce a bit too.
He also has a fear of flying so I suspect he does have control issues or some sort of generalized anxiety disorder.
Now there’s a profound analysis of phobias, No-Fool. You’ve missed your calling. You should have gone into psychiatry.
Clonazapine.
avoid bridges (no prescription needed)
Hing Frogg,
I’ll see your Clonazapine … and raise you 2 Diazepam.
If I were a shrink, Montrealman, I wouldn’t doll out meds to fix a phobia. I would try a nouveaux treatment. DO NOT AVOID BRIDGES IF YOU ARE AN AGORAPHOBIC. Instead you should purposely go to the middle of the bridge/tunnel at night, every night and stand there willing the voices until the phobia dissipates. p.s. You are only crazy if you talk back to the voices.
RSVP
: NO_FOOL 01/06, 3:22PM)
Yes, this is the standard response. It’s called going “cold turkey” but this is to misconceive the nature of phobias. Your treatment presupposes the possession of precisely that which phobias preclude. Note my previous reference to “mind-draining terror” (01/05, 9:47AM). It means that the phobic no longer possesses the power of rational thought, precisely that which you prescribe.
On the other hand, you are right. One must attempt to do exactly that about which one is phobic. By confronting my phobia(s) directly I now can drive (not walk) across long bridges with only some discomfort. And since agoraphobia and claustrophobia are related, I bit the bullet and flew by myself to Ottawa. Fear of flying is a claustrophobic response to the loss of control while in the cabin which, in my case, was moderated by focusing on breathing exercises which I learned in a fear-of-flying class but which I failed. However, building on that which I had learned, I managed to succeed. I have since gone trans-Atlantic numerous times with only slight discomfort, bolstered of course by a drink or three.
In neither case, however, have I heard voices except yours right now, for which I thank you.
A pleasure as always,
Cheerio!
Definitely not Casper.
Yours truly
P.S. He wanted you to know fear.
balderdash…
or you were baked out of your tree.
Thank frig there aren’t more utterly unfit people entering the mental health professions, is all I can say. And, if a long-time commenter can be banned for being a meany, let’s rename this site “Love The Way We Practice Mindfulness And Suck Oprah’s Udder”
i like that game, zedman. nice old school avatar, dr. ivan
Mind-draining terror, huh? A big, strong man like you, MontrealMan? There is another treatment modelity I have found successful for treating panic attacks. I cured myself of my debilitating fear of public speaking this way and even went on to be a key note speaker in front of about 300 people. Here’s what you do: When you begin to experience the panic symptoms; a person’s normal reaction is to try to calm ones self, naturally one tries to suppress all their nervous energy and uncomfortable bodily sensations. Instead, a person should invite the panic and be present and allow themselves to feel and revel in the panic. Ask for more. Ask the panic, is that the best you’ve got? Hit me, gimme more. You may even start to feel a bit more panic and the sensations might get a little worse but then guess what? They plateau and then subside. When you WILL the panic to get worse — it just stops. Fact is, nobody has ever died from a panic attack. It can’t kill you. We are mostly afraid of the unknown and that we won’t be able to handle it. Invite the terror. You will see.
No fear,
No Fool
People being banned left and right over stupid reasons. Lame. I’ll be next for referring to the bans as ‘lame’ because the term lame is obviously syxyst.
I ban people who do not recognize my supreme powers of all things internet. Womyn rule, men drool.
The real world must be a terrible place for you.
It’s only terrible because of men.
Not their fault you’re an unattractive hetero.
Yes it is.
http://davidcrew.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/feminism.jpg
Thanks Painey – a tribute to fallen heroes
hmm, can’t fool me
Rumour has it that Biscuit lives on, immortalized on a shirt in Ivan’s closet.
*invite the terror* this i like, foolish one. it’s worked for me in the past
Ivan, don’t forget the Roy Rogers holster and six shooters on the next hanger.
And my Notorious Norbert the Narc trench coat and fedora.
Did I ever tell you about the time Fat Freddy’s cat pissed on the electric typewriter?
Norbert misses his square jaw. His head now looks like a lop-sided jellied triangle and he gurgles through his left ear.
Norbert sure “digs” those big-titted hippy chicks
Someone most likely laughed to themselves on the bike pedway perpendicular to your position and the bridge swayed a moment after.
Or you just happened to be close enough to the exact size and position of someone in the exact same spot in another dimension, and your pineal gland is healthy enough for there to be enough Dimethyltryptamine in your system for there to be a quantum effect in your mind that caused a very real experience.
Or you just hallucinated.
RSVP
No_Fool (01/06, 838PM)
Thanks for the advice but not necessary. My computer crashed on January 6 and it’s been a nightmare getting back on the Internet with a new on. Wish me luck.
A pleasure as always,
Cheerio!