One of my associates recently informed me of an incident which he believes to have been a genuine encounter with a Forest Daemon. I myself always remain skeptical about such reports, but I also try to keep an open mind. I’ll present the facts below, so you can be the judge.
Jack (not his real name) is an assistant professor in the physics department of a university in Canada. A few months ago, in late summer, he was hiking by himself in the St. John River Valley, near the border of Maine and New Brunswick, Canada.
He had made camp for the night and had fallen asleep. In his own words:
“I had fallen asleep beneath a rock shelter, in a position I felt was pretty secure. I’m an experienced hiker and I’ve spent countless hours on the Appalachian and International Appalachian trails. In other words, I’m not the sort of person who spooks easily. But this night, something woke me up. I can’t say exactly what, but the first thing I noticed was the silence. Absolutely dead silence. No sound from the late summer insects that are usually pretty noisy. No animals rustling through the underbrush. It was creepy.
“As I was lying there, I suddenly noticed the movement of several large and shadowy figures in the trees beyond. The moon was almost full, and in the light that streamed down through the canopy of the trees I could clearly see these cloaked figures moving about in utter silence. I had not been drinking. I do not use drugs of any sort. And I was definitely wide awake. I am not by nature a superstitious person.
“Of course, I remained still the entire time, and I was–honestly–terrified. What the hell are these things, I kept asking myself?
“The figures kept moving, back and forth, in a kind of regular pattern, almost as if they were dancing. This went on for an hour, maybe two. And then suddenly they were gone. It was as if they had been lifted up into the darkness of the trees.
“I didn’t move an inch until the first light of morning began to filter down into the forest. I can honestly say I have never been so happy to see the dawn. I crawled out of my sleeping bag and tied on my hiking boots, and then went to the area where I had seen the cloaked figures.
“There I found that stones had been arranged in a very precise formation–so intricate that it boggled my mind. I cursed myself for not having brought my phone. It’s a stupid thing, I know, but when I go into the woods, my whole purpose is to escape completely from the modern world. I only want the isolation of nature.
“This time, I got that isolation, and something more. The experience has really made me re-consider what I have long taken for granted about the nature of reality. There are other, stranger worlds out there. And we deny them at our own peril.”
“Jack” mailed me a sketch of the stone pattern that he drew as best as he could remember it. Essentially, it was a central circle with eight radiating arrows. Quite simple, it seemed to me, but Jack insists there were other details that he was unable to render in his sketch.
