Made a twat of myself last night, WIBU to leave?

[Humpfree]

Last night DH and I had booked onto a ghost hunt at a “haunted castle”. It was just a bit of Halloween fun. I’m an open minded skeptic in that I want it all to be real but I really struggle to believe it. That being said I would never take the piss or insult anyone’s beliefs, I went with the intention on taking it seriously.

Anyway the whole thing started off on the wrong foot when the guide started talking about a ghost that - due to me being a history geek - I knew never existed in real life. Still I didn’t say anything and just went along with it but I was getting more skeptical by the minute. He turned off all the lights in the dungeon so we’re all stood in pitch black darkness whilst he called out to these random “historical figures”. My back was hurting, I was so cold and I was getting restless stood in one place for so long. Should also add that I have ADHD so standing still for long periods of time is difficult but I managed to stand there for an hour with only internal struggles.

Next bit is where I caved. We had to form a circle and everyone had to hold hands whilst one person was the “receiver” stood in the middle. Half hour of stood in this position and one bloke was quietly complaining (whispering) to his wife that his legs were hurting, she kept telling him to be quiet - the whispering went back and forth until suddenly he shook off the hands at either side of him and said loudly “I’m sorry I can’t stand like this any longer” but it was so dramatic I started laughing - then I couldn’t stop laughing - everything became funny - the image of DH stood there holding hands with a random bloke - the person in the centre of the circle rocking back and forth as she’s “pushed around by a spirit”, I remembered someone tripping up earlier in the dungeon and everyone thought a ghost had pushed her … even after she said she’d tripped up … the thought of a big group of adults stood in pitch black darkness in the middle of a freezing cold castle trying to talk to Alistair Crowley …. I tried to stop laughing and I couldn’t. I tried to disguise it as coughing and DH whispered to me that it all seemed a bit devil worshipy … that set me off again. To save face I let go of both hands either side of me and apologised saying I needed to go out and get some fresh air, the guide then said “don’t break the circle!” And everyone looked terrified which made me laugh further and I ended up just walking out leaving DH stood there not knowing whether to stay or follow.

I know IWBU to go “ghost hunting” in the first place but WIBU to leave in the way that I did? I feel so guilty and I tried so hard to stop laughing but the more.i tried the worse it got. DH says it was obvious that I was laughing. I do suffer with nervous laughter so I think this is what it turned into.

WIBU to have walked out? Was this worse than stood there trying not to laugh??

It's so bad It's actually really really funny. I'm laughing at you recounting it, no wonder you laughed when you were actually there.

I do enjoy a good ghost walk, or haunted house experience myself, but this sounds really quite painful. I hate being cold and standing still too.

YANBU
I wish i had been there!
I would've been hysterically laughing myself if i had been in that group and someone had started acting like that.
"Don't break the circle!" 😂

I like to try and maintain an open mind, but I think I'd have lost my shit too OP, it sounds so fake and cringey.

And once those giggles start it's just impossible to stop them, isn't it?

@Itsnotchristmasyet nailed it

It may not have been your thing but you should have left quietly

And then started a thread to laugh at the 'gullibles' even more

Definitely a contender for classics 🙄

I laughed out loud reading this. .This is funny. 😂
Maybe im ND but not that I know of .
ocht it’s not the end of the world . It did sound like torture though .

I’d almost given up on Mumsnet as a humourless pile of …… But you have restored my faith. Thanks for the laugh.

Thanks for the laugh op!

Nu.

That’s funny - I can just picture this. 😁what a load of nonsense for you to endure especially if it’s cold and wet.

Anyone who is intrigued by this sort of thing might like to read two books by James Blish, 'Black Easter' and its sequel 'The Day After Judgement'. They deal with what sorcery would be like if it existed, and the ritual magic for summoning demons as described in grimoires actually worked. Its background was based closely on the writings of practicing magicians working in the Christian tradition from the 13th to the 18th centuries. They aren't nearly as silly as a lot of the hokum published since they were published in the 1960s.

Yanbu, although I think I've lost my sense of humour because it sounds utterly ridiculous.

Don't blame you for walking out.

Ok that’s fair enough then.

I would have probably felt the same as you.

I cannot stop laughing at this 😂 thanks OP!

Oh god, I’d have been roaring!

That’s how I felt when I read it.

She went there knowing she thought it was ridiculous, laughed at them all and then made a thread to make fun of them even more so.

OP says it wasn’t like that, which I hope is true.

I don’t believe in those sorts of things, nor do I believe in religion but I would never make fun of or disrespect anyone that does.
I don’t know everything and who’s to say I’m right and they’re wrong.

I had a similar experience at a 'seance' held by a man with a name like a shit superhero, he introduced himself to every 'spirit' he spoke to and I cried laughing.

They aren't nearly as silly as a lot of the hokum published since they were published in the 1960s

They're fantasy novels aren't they? I think 1960s fantasy novels can be just as silly as anything else. They 'deal' with sorcery in the same way as any other fiction does.

Hmmm you probably ruined the night to be honest for the other people there. You sound as though you've enjoyed mocking it. And then creating a thread about it so that loads of other people come and mock the "believers" alongside you.

YABU to be so blatantly disrespectful - sorry

I enjoy paranormal stuff and I do believe there is a spiritual world, but that doesn't mean that (in my opinion) all these ghost hunting experiences are the real deal at all. I've been on a couple and honestly even for me, who loves this kind of thing, it can get really boring.

You didn't deliberately make light of the whole thing and make yourself/others laugh, you genuinely got the giggles and I cannot say I blame you! I think in those circumstances I'd have been giggling with you, it sounds brilliant (in an accidentally hilarious way). It is a shame for those who may have been really getting into it, but I don't know, it's an intense situation and atmosphere, peoples' emotions and perceptions are getting deliberately wound up and influenced by the circumstances and what the guide is saying - I think someone giggling and having to leave is an occupational hazard of this kind of event!

I have laughed too as I don't believe in this shit. But I wouldn't have gone because I know I do this and not respect others beliefs. Also I'm a bit skeptical that you knew these historical figures didn't exist, do you know all history ever?!

So you weren't being unreasonable to leave. But it was a bit if twatty thing to do to go in the first place. Especially when you know you have nervous laughter. A bit more self awareness would probably do you good in future.

Sounds like you got possessed by the poltergeist of inappropriate and uncontrollable laughter OP 😁

Also Aleister Crowley is a very famous and very interesting occultist. If you are a big history buff look into him! Although you now seem to be dodging anyone mentioning him altogether 😉

I also really laughed at your post OP, brilliant. I can just totally get how that built up pressure became irrepressible laughter and that tickled me!

Making me chuckle just reading about it 😄

I suppose what I meant mainly was that they are 'well written'. Not like (say) Dan Brown, or the kind of thing you find at airports. Anderson was a respected science-fiction and science-fantasy author. The end of The Day After Judgment has a very long speech by the Devil, in the style of Milton's Paradise Lost, in which Satan bemoans the fact that, God having been defeated, he has to take his place, and that Man is much more evil that himself (Satan):

As ready for the Resurrection. I
Have slammed that door behind; yours is to come.
On that far future Day. I shall be there,
The burning Keys to put into your hands.
‘I, SATAN MEKRATRIG. I can no longer bear
This deepest, last and bitterest of all
My fell damnations: That at last I know
I never wanted to be God at all;
And so, by winning all, All have I lost.’

I am laughing at your post - I'd have been giggling too! Don't blame you one bit, it sounds ridiculous!

I am an enormous fan of stifling laughter in inappropriate places. My DCs and I were in a very very quiet church in Venice earlier this year and they had been so wonderfully respectful when they came upon a painting.
A painting of Jesus and Mary where Jesus just has that look of a middle aged man painted as a young child. Anyway, my oldest child just looked at me with the wide eyed look of “I have to look away otherwise I will laugh and yet I desperately want to join you in the hilarity of this painting”. The three of us just silently did everything we could to maintain our dignity. It almost hurt.

Then we walked into the main area and there was a small baby Jesus and his hands were like this 🤌 and my son just turned to me and whispered “Jesus has Italian hands”

And we had to leave pronto.