To be absolutely terrified after watching latest episode of Uncanny

[Notafraidofthedark]

Been catching up on iPlayer with final episode of Uncanny- the latest one about the shadow man in Crofton.

AIBU to be completely freaked out by this one? At first I thought it was the most easily explained until we found out his friends and family had all seen the shadow man around him.

don’t want to put any spoiler alerts in, but the post mortem podcast has seem even more scary revelations which could explain it, but are not reassuring in the slightest.

Can Anyone shed any light on what this shadow man can be? ( no pun intended!)

Here is Stephen Novella, a neuroscientist, talking about "I know what I saw". theness.com/neurologicablog/sleep-and-false-memory/

I think it’s the fact that this thing actively c caused him harm.

Take ‘George’ in the previous episode- even if you believe in ghosts, you’d think that maybe he was just lonely/ trying to connect/ didn’t know he had passed.

But in this one, the creature was actively trying to make him scared and terrorise him.

also scary that this thing was able to follow him- at least in other stories, the haunting stopped when they left the house. People weren’t being followed around!

Yes! The getting in the car thing was horrible. I drive in isolated areas at night, and a while ago convinced myself I could hear breathing from the back seat. This episode didn't help! We've had lights on all night since last Friday. Danny Robbins needs to help pay my electricity bill ;-).

Because of their professions. That's nothing to do with the paranormal by the way.

Ah - are they in caring professions? Mental health?

It’s good to know.

I did think Julian was psychologically vulnerable like many others who experience paranormal events.

But I’m not sure if that explains events as purely psychological, or whether it is something other worldly that feeds off strong emotions- like grief. Or it could be that the paranormal activity ( however you want to explain it) causes mental distress because it is unexplained

I was also fascinated by the ghost busting grannies!

Does that mean there are lots of psychic people who know exactly what these things are?

I do think Julian’s house should have been investigated for sources of infrasound.

Spontaneous human combustion was a biggie as well when I was a teenager. Everyone had a copy of that Reader's Digest 'Strange Stories, Amazing Facts'. Great fun but 99% stories. If you rely on the "we can't explain everything" get out, you're admitting you're suggestible. Anyone playing with a ouija board and believing it operates on its own is already suggestible and buying into believing whatever they want to believe.

Uncanny could be so good, but for some reason (well, obvious reasons) instead of playing it as a balanced investigation Robins goes for the faux drama approach. He is forever failing to pick or misinterpret things that witnesses say and repeat them as facts,while the listener is shouting "...but he didn't say that...!". When he deliberately gets facts wrong about places or buildings (one of his programmes was about a local place) its obvious that its all scripted for effect. Also as other posters have said, the "witnesses" sound like they've been coached.

I'm actually open minded but BBC tat like Uncanny could be done so much better. IMO, of course.

I don’t think it’s only ever ‘suggestible’ (or open minded) people who see ghosts, though. I’m pretty sure it’s a question the presenter asks quite early on in each show and I don’t recall any one of them saying ‘oh yes, I believed in ghosts before this experience.’ I think (if I remember correctly) that in every show I’ve watched they have all said that they didn’t believe in this kind of thing beforehand.

Completely agree that it could and should be better. But it is an entertainment programme, not a serious investigation as each show wouldn't last an hour otherwise 😄

No idea if they've all said that. Would be quite unusual to have 100% track record for all guests to be non-believers (as opposed to "never really thought about its") though.

Exactly. I remember a thread on here where a poster told a story about a ghostly regiment of silent mounted figures appearing on Oxford St., and she was completely resistant to the obvious non-supernatural explanation, which was that the Household Cavalry regiments exercised at dawn in Hyde Park and returned to barracks along Oxford St.

You’re often dealing with people who desperately want their experience to have been supernatural.

Bridget Christie on the Julian/Shadow Man episode was entirely skeptical about her own clearly-described experiences of seeing disembodied hands and having a loud sighing noise made in her ear in an otherwise empty room. She said ‘These appeared to happen, but I don’t for a moment believe they were supernatural.’

Generally speaking, people taking part in programmes like this are predisposed to belief. I haven't listened to it (I got half way through Danny Baker's book before I gave up) but I am delighted that Bridget Christie took the "this thing I currently can't explain happened to me. I don't know what it was, but the one thing I do know is that it was not paranormal" stand.

@PixieandDelilahsmum you appear to
be saying that "suggestible" and "open minded" are synonyms. They aren't.

I think what was really meant by suggestible actually was vulnerable.

Most of the alleged cases of SHC had two things in common, cigarettes and alcohol.

Well, you'd need to watch it so you post on the subject with some knowledge but I don't think any of them said they believed beforehand. Plenty of people see ghosts that previously did not believe in that kind of thing.

It might be that they filter out people who say things like "oh yes, totally believe in ghosts, I live with 12 of them!" as they would be less convincing or maybe less scared themselves, which wouldn't really work for the format.

But I would like to hear from some of the people who work in places where there are renowned ghosts, like the Drury Lane Theatre ghost which lots of people are supposed to have seen. There are lots of stories/anecdotes where someone sees something and people who work there are all "Oh yeah, that's the ghost, you've seen him then" and unbothered. I'd like Danny to have a delve into one of those situations.

@PixieandDelilahsmum "I think what was really meant by suggestible actually was vulnerable."

Really? Why do you think that? Those two words aren't synonyms either!

Ooo yes, I remember that

Also the one about the woman who was went into the woods chasing after a runaway dog and got menaced by evil disembodied voices.

I enjoyed the TV show but the podcasts is better. Luilebet is the best.

Just watched S2 and I enjoyed it. Where do I find his podcast? The George episode gave me goosebumps in the post mortem section

@Xmasxrackers

Great show isn't it? I haven't listened to the podcast yet ...but here is link on BBC Sounds

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/m0010x7c