M
Marianne88
Guest
Hello everyone,
I am new to CAF. First off, I am very happy to be able to get the opinions of fellow Catholics. I have been hesitant to tell very many people in my life about the following experience, because I always was afraid people would think I was crazy, even as a kid.
Starting when I was about 3 or 4, when I would be taking my bath, my mom would leave the door open and go about her business in the house and check on me periodically. Sometimes, I was left alone for a significant amount of time. I really enjoyed bath time as I always had lots of toys in the bathtub.
My family was not very religious…my mom took me to Mass and told me to believe in God but I was not raised to have any unhealthy fear of the Devil. I knew to say my nightly prayers but i did not preoccupy myself with religion.
Around this time, in the shiny reflection of the wall, I started to see the face of a man. I was very disturbed…the man was bald, with red eyes, and he had a gold earring, like a genie. This happened many times. He would grin at me in a sick way and talk to me. Many times I would completely ignore him and talk loudly to myself so I couldn’t hear him and splash the water loudly. Usually, I would get scared enough that I would scream for my mom to come. While I was screaming in fear, the man would laugh at me. By the time my mom arrived, I couldn’t see him anymore. I was always VERY frustrated that my mom couldn’t see him. But I would almost always call for her, and she never was able to see him because he always disappeared. I would always emphatically say to her “he was JUST here, he was JUST here!” My mom later remarked that this must have happened 80 times over a few years.
I grew so used to the presence of this man in the bathtub during bath time that eventually I just asked him who he was. And I just remember him looking at me and saying “I’m the Devil.”—which terrified me greatly. I’d been to church enough to understand that this was very bad and I also had the sense that it was not normal, since nobody would believe me. My mom always insisted that it was my imagination. I did not tell any of my friends at school—I ALWAYS took my mind off of it after bath time.
This man would tell me bad things–I can’t remember anything specific, but I just remember that he would suggest bad things about my family and even perhaps urge me to do bad things, but I never felt like he was influencing me. I felt strong willed. I learned many times how to press his buttons, and it was by mentioning God. Whenever he would show up and taunt me by saying that he would get me or things of that nature, I learned to say “You can’t do anything, God is stronger than you and God wins in the end”—whenever I would say something like this, his sick grin would be wiped from his face instantly, and he would look horribly angry. Usually he would leave after this.
One more thing–my best friend growing up, who is also catholic, spent the night with me often. I did not tell her the story when we were little. She says as she remembers it, she had to go pee in the middle of the night and I refused to go with her and begged her to wait to go until morning. Finally I let her go by herself. She says she heard something in the bathroom while peeing and thought I was at the door; when she got up to wash her hands she saw the face in the bathtub reflecting in the mirror. I was so surprised that she saw it too, that I kept saying “You saw it too??” in shock. We both went to my mom and brother the next morning, and they listened to our stories separately to see if they matched up. I’m assuming they did. They insisted once again that we were imagining things. My friend and I have discussed this for the first time in many years recently and we both remember things the same as we always did, even though we’ve gone years without mentioning it.
She moved away a few years later but we kept in touch. She recalled me saying to her on a phone conversation while she was coloring (We must have been about 7 at the time), that I had finally stopped seeing the man in the bathtub. She says that she saw it a few times at her house but it never spoke to her. It was always the same bald man with red eyes and gold earring. I do know that as I got older it happened less frequently. I never did tell anyone else until college.
My friend and I both had very active imaginations when we were little. The thing is, back then we were very afraid of what was going on and we did not believe it was our imagination, even when our parents insisted that it was. What was scary was realizing that it wasn’t our imagination. Now, as a 23 year old, I sometimes wonder if I was hallucinating or suffering some kind of childhood mental illness. The thing is, I really don’t feel that I was…and all these years later I still don’t feel like it was my imagination. I won’t insist that it was real, because I don’t want to sound crazy, but it seems strange to me that I would make something up without knowing I was doing it.
Opinions anyone?
I am new to CAF. First off, I am very happy to be able to get the opinions of fellow Catholics. I have been hesitant to tell very many people in my life about the following experience, because I always was afraid people would think I was crazy, even as a kid.
Starting when I was about 3 or 4, when I would be taking my bath, my mom would leave the door open and go about her business in the house and check on me periodically. Sometimes, I was left alone for a significant amount of time. I really enjoyed bath time as I always had lots of toys in the bathtub.
My family was not very religious…my mom took me to Mass and told me to believe in God but I was not raised to have any unhealthy fear of the Devil. I knew to say my nightly prayers but i did not preoccupy myself with religion.
Around this time, in the shiny reflection of the wall, I started to see the face of a man. I was very disturbed…the man was bald, with red eyes, and he had a gold earring, like a genie. This happened many times. He would grin at me in a sick way and talk to me. Many times I would completely ignore him and talk loudly to myself so I couldn’t hear him and splash the water loudly. Usually, I would get scared enough that I would scream for my mom to come. While I was screaming in fear, the man would laugh at me. By the time my mom arrived, I couldn’t see him anymore. I was always VERY frustrated that my mom couldn’t see him. But I would almost always call for her, and she never was able to see him because he always disappeared. I would always emphatically say to her “he was JUST here, he was JUST here!” My mom later remarked that this must have happened 80 times over a few years.
I grew so used to the presence of this man in the bathtub during bath time that eventually I just asked him who he was. And I just remember him looking at me and saying “I’m the Devil.”—which terrified me greatly. I’d been to church enough to understand that this was very bad and I also had the sense that it was not normal, since nobody would believe me. My mom always insisted that it was my imagination. I did not tell any of my friends at school—I ALWAYS took my mind off of it after bath time.
This man would tell me bad things–I can’t remember anything specific, but I just remember that he would suggest bad things about my family and even perhaps urge me to do bad things, but I never felt like he was influencing me. I felt strong willed. I learned many times how to press his buttons, and it was by mentioning God. Whenever he would show up and taunt me by saying that he would get me or things of that nature, I learned to say “You can’t do anything, God is stronger than you and God wins in the end”—whenever I would say something like this, his sick grin would be wiped from his face instantly, and he would look horribly angry. Usually he would leave after this.
One more thing–my best friend growing up, who is also catholic, spent the night with me often. I did not tell her the story when we were little. She says as she remembers it, she had to go pee in the middle of the night and I refused to go with her and begged her to wait to go until morning. Finally I let her go by herself. She says she heard something in the bathroom while peeing and thought I was at the door; when she got up to wash her hands she saw the face in the bathtub reflecting in the mirror. I was so surprised that she saw it too, that I kept saying “You saw it too??” in shock. We both went to my mom and brother the next morning, and they listened to our stories separately to see if they matched up. I’m assuming they did. They insisted once again that we were imagining things. My friend and I have discussed this for the first time in many years recently and we both remember things the same as we always did, even though we’ve gone years without mentioning it.
She moved away a few years later but we kept in touch. She recalled me saying to her on a phone conversation while she was coloring (We must have been about 7 at the time), that I had finally stopped seeing the man in the bathtub. She says that she saw it a few times at her house but it never spoke to her. It was always the same bald man with red eyes and gold earring. I do know that as I got older it happened less frequently. I never did tell anyone else until college.
My friend and I both had very active imaginations when we were little. The thing is, back then we were very afraid of what was going on and we did not believe it was our imagination, even when our parents insisted that it was. What was scary was realizing that it wasn’t our imagination. Now, as a 23 year old, I sometimes wonder if I was hallucinating or suffering some kind of childhood mental illness. The thing is, I really don’t feel that I was…and all these years later I still don’t feel like it was my imagination. I won’t insist that it was real, because I don’t want to sound crazy, but it seems strange to me that I would make something up without knowing I was doing it.
Opinions anyone?