Rating: Creepy (mostly), Pleasant (at the end)

I am not sure how to start this blog so I will begin at the beginning. I trust that as I recall my early experiences with the unseen realm, it might stir your heart to do the same. When did you first become aware that there was more to this world than your eyes could see?

When I was about 7-8 years old, we moved into a new house. My parents had the house built on an empty acre of land out in the country. After we moved in, I recall being afraid to walk to the end of the hall if the light was not on at the end. The fear was very tangible – I had never felt this way in our previous homes.

The specific fear that I had was that the devil would appear to me and scare me to death. Now where does a little child get that kind of specific fearful thought? I have never heard of this concept in books or movies, have you? To this day, it amazes me that the devil was so cruel as to put that idea into my mind. Obviously, he was trying to prevent me from wanting to use the gift of discernment in the future so he made me terrified of “seeing” in the spirit before I was even a Christian. That mean ol’ devil – I hate him, don’t you?

I often saw visions in my mind in specific places in our house. The headboard of my bed had two cutouts on either side – it was carved wood, I believe. I could literally “see” in my mind’s eye, two scary looking hands come out above my head – one on each side. The arms and hands were covered with long hair, like an animal, but the hands were somewhat human and had claws or long nails – kind of like you’d see on a werewolf, I guess.

There were times I was afraid to go to sleep because the presence of these things felt so real to me. I know I avoided walking down the hall if the light was not on. And I slept with the hall light on and my door open at night, because of fear. The worst thing is to wake up in the middle of the night, feel a scary presence in your room and there’s no light. Can you relate? To this day, I always have some light in the room where I sleep and a flashlight next to the bed. It is unsettling enough to feel these things at night, but when the room is pitch black with no light – that makes it so much worse.

Anyway, I do recall one positive experience I had. One night I woke up and saw a man standing at the foot of my bed with his arms crossed. Since the hall light was on behind him, I could not see his face. But I felt safe and comforted – this was not a scary presence. In my sleepy brain, I thought maybe it was my dad. I called out to him, “Daddy?” but the figure never moved or responded. I watched him for awhile and then fell back to sleep. I think it was an angel.

How about you? What early memories of the unseen realm do you have?