This eerie tale comes from Toasterlad and the far north of Norway. It sounds similar to the Third Man Factor in which everyone believes there is an extra person among them. Yet the TMF occurs when people are under great stress. These folks were playing games and drinking beer. Maybe it was in the beer. A good story nonetheless.
Thanks to Jim Banholzer for alerting us.
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About two years ago, a colleague of mine invited me and some of her friends on a two day trip in a cabin for the weekend. The plan was to drink beer, eat food and play board games and Guitar Hero. A nice weekend, indeed.
We get there in the early afternoon, around 16:00, and start settling inn. Some are outside bringing in wood and tending to the fireplace, some are making the beds ready and some are cleaning the living-room or shoveling snow on the porch. In other words, we weren’t all in the same room at the same time for the first hour or two.
At around 19:00, we settle down for dinner. There was taco on the menu, so it was a collective effort to make it ready with people cutting up vegetables, cooking the meat and setting the table. Because we all had a few beers during the time at the cabin, people were constantly going to the outhouse. This meant that the first time we’re all together in the same room for a good period of time was during dinner.
When we ate, the mood was good and we were all chatty. Talking about what we were going to play afterwards and just generally getting to know each other. Because we were so many, we had to use some chairs from the kitchen area and eat in the living room. There was a couch with room for three people, one with room for two, a chair plus two chairs from the kitchen. The seating arrangements made it possible for seven people to sit comfortably, without anyone having to use the middle seat in the three-seater.
After the feast of cheese, meat and salsa we were all sitting around the table chatting and playing a board game. Suddenly, my colleague asked “Hey, where is…uh… Who sat there?” pointing at the empty living room chair. “Oh, that was….uh… I’m not sure.” one of the guys said. “It was that guy from… uh.” My colleague answered.
We all swore that there were seven of us on the trip, but we couldn’t remember who the last person was. There wasn’t a dinner plate for that seating, and it didn’t look like anyone had been there. We started to count who came here in what car, and the number we came up with added up to six. At the same time, we had brought in the two chairs from the kitchen because there wasn’t room enough in the living room, and we had said no to some people wanting to go on the trip because the cabin only had seven beds.
We were quite sure that there were seven of us, but there was no evidence of us being more than six people. There was no seventh plate, seventh backpack or anything. Still, we had bought enough food for seven people, had made seven beds and were damn sure that someone had been sitting in the empty seat. We had no recollection of this person, but all agreed it was a man, not a woman.
This happened during spring in the far north of Norway, and if it wasn’t for the longer hours of daylight and how close the cabin was to our city, we would have been totally freaked out.
I still have no idea of who the seventh person should be, but I still find it odd that all of us were sure of there being a seventh person – a man – on this trip. I guess he went out of the matrix, and the matrix adjusted itself.
Six people was staying in a cabin, but we swore we were seven when we came.
what neat stories, all of them – and even neater, all the possibilities of who “they” are and for what reason they come among us – like momwithwings, i have had experiences of being sure someone else was with me on an elevator, for example, and holding the door – or seeing someone in a hallway – that kind of thing – perhaps it’s all the coming together of – rubbing elbows with – one of our parallel worlds –
I like that phrase – rubbing elbows with a parallel self!
Wow, what a story. It reminds me of something I heard in an interview with Dolores Cannon the other day – she said her last book has something about people in the periphery of our lives – the people passing us on the street, etc., being “stand ins” and not really “alive” people. I thought it was really out there and dismissed the idea until reading this post. Here is the interview:
https://www.liloumace.com/Dolores-Cannon-s-vision-of-a-New-Earth_a1763.html
Megan used to call them the shadow people.
Thanks for the links!
That is so eerie. Angels amongst us? I hope so.
Now THAT would be great.
I can’t say I’ve ever had such an experience. Trish and I used to lead adventure tours to South America in the ’80s, and if anything, the problem was the opposite. We sometimes wished that one or two traveling with us would disappear. Travel, it seems, brings out the good and bad aspects of our personalities.
LOL! So true! This trip was a small group and we all really got along well!
Well first a laugh…I thought it said Toasterland! My eyes “jumping” again!! LOL!
This was such a weird and creepy story yet I have experienced something like this before. I was responsible for a group of kids on a field trip and I “knew” I had one more than what everyone else was telling me. I actually went looking for this boy into the restroom. He had been very sweet and quiet, and I always kept counting heads until I was one less. I went to the other teachers and they verified that I had the right number of kids and that overall we had everyone. It was very unsettling.
I have also had this happen on a tour in Italy except that several of us were looking for this extra person whom others had no recollectin of. The tour guide even did a roll call and we were all there. It was a small group yet only half of us seemed to notice this other person.
I have no explanation, although I’ve many times held an elevator for someone who I thought was right behind me, or I’ve seen someone down a hallway only to look away and back again and they are gone.
Of course I am used to seeing beings that others cannot see, but the school one gave me shivers, and the tour bus I wasn’t the only one to see the person.
Great story!
Strange stories, Vicki! Maybe this issuing person thing from a group is an evolving archetype?
Could and would you please expand on this thought from your perspective?
This posting won’t leave me.
I’ll ask Rob to do it! It’s his post….
Momwithwings, you should Google the Third Man Factor. There’s a book about it that came out a couple of years ago. Some very interesting cases of people in stressed situations believing they are accompanied by an extra person. There was one case where a 9-11 survivor was helped by such a being who disappeared.
This story is awesome! It’s funny because I am just getting ready to write a blog post on whether or not a person can be in two places at once. (Hint: my feeling is yes- but it’s complicated). I think I agree with the author’s supposation of the “matrix adjusting” although I don’t know if that is what I would call it. Fractal times indeed! 🙂
Quite a story, wonder how many there were when they arrived back. Don’t think I’ve ever experienced anything like that – even after a few beers.
Wow, what a story! Thanks!