Scary Album?

[holy reality]

So I was listening to it last night after finally buying the CD (before I just had mp3s) and I started getting freaked out. I saw all these shadows and stuff moving around in my room, and this red thing under my door, but whenever I looked at it it went away, but when I turned away it came back....
This all happened somewhere between track #2-4

I've never really been scared or freaked out while listening to TOOL with the exception of faaip de oiad.

So what do you all think, is this kind of a freaky album? Or was I just really tired?

[Windowlicker]

I think you were really tired ;-)

[cradled]

Either that, or something else was coming after you.

I wouldn't blame that on the CD, though.

[Scratch]

I don't know, this is a pretty scary album.

[Penguin]

The only song that's ever scared me is Tubular Bells!

[Big_D]

Well, I've heard about a phenomenon called the "Shadow People" that was mentioned on the Art Bell program (known for the Faaip de Oiad clip, now known as Coast to Coast AM because of a different host). I don't know what your beliefs are in the paranormal, hell I don't even know my beliefs on it, but I would have to say that what you're experiencing sounds very similar. Nobody knows what they are, but many have theorized that they are either ghosts or extradimensional beings of some kind.

[seeker]

That's odd because I've written about "shadow people" and I never heard the term coined anywhere else. Hmm... really is hard to be the only original nowadays.

Oh, and to be relevant, it's circumstantial. I freaked myself out because I listened to Ticks & Leeches backwards (sehceeL & skciT?) and didn't mean to. My volume was cranked up and it comes into the song in a reverse scream "ekohc uoy epoh I" that builds volume way too quickly to get used to. Anyway, after that jolt, I was seeing shadow people, faces on the wall, lights through my little window, you name it. Lasted for a couple of songs before it faded away.

[Convoy_X]

if you lay off the drugs you wont see things that are not there... is what some would say but its just you mind running wiled, a normal thing whan you listen to Tool. and if you tired the lines start to bluer, making whatever Tool does for you seem more real that it is.

[feej]

no offense, really, but I think you just got swept up in it. Tthat's not what their music is about. Just relax and let it take you...but not to the point where invisible shadow beings are after you.

Your perception determines your reality.

[Aeturnus]

The shadows were shadows. The music was tool. Because Choice B happens Choice A does not necessarily happen. Humans in the absence of light are known to hallucinate, some more than others in various percentages of light present. So all i can say is, ya.

[holy reality]

seeker: how do you accidently play a song backwards? i don't think you can play cds backwards with a cd player, at least not a standard one....

everyone else, i'm not on drugs, and wasn't at that time either, and really i do think that opiate and undertow have a rather eery sound to them, and i do know that these hallucinations were influenced by the music, as they were much more intense than normal "i'm tired and it's dark and i'm seeing things" hallucinations

i'm not too big on the paranormal, but i guess it's possible they could have been ghosts or some kind of other beings, though i don't think so

[seeker]

well, i recorded the songs backwards onto the cd (my cd player is mp3 compatible, so i have a disc with all of tool's albums on it). anyway, i intended to record ticks and leeches and third eye at the end of the cd, but because of how i organized it before recording, they wound up being the first tracks. i put the disc in and hit play expecting to hear sweat, and all of a sudden, loud and fierce, ticks and leeches backwards screams into my ears. the volume was too loud and it freaked me out. hence, an accident. hope that clarifies things.

[Zinnia]

Originally posted by seeker
That's odd because I've written about "shadow people" and I never heard the term coined anywhere else. Hmm... really is hard to be the only original nowadays.

Oh, and to be relevant, it's circumstantial. I freaked myself out because I listened to Ticks & Leeches backwards (sehceeL & skciT?) and didn't mean to. My volume was cranked up and it comes into the song in a reverse scream "ekohc uoy epoh I" that builds volume way too quickly to get used to. Anyway, after that jolt, I was seeing shadow people, faces on the wall, lights through my little window, you name it. Lasted for a couple of songs before it faded away.

it put you into the right fram of mind to realize all the things around you. happens to me all the time when i listen to the queen of the damned soundtrack.

[ignore-reality]

be afraid.......be very afraid...... :>)

[eulogy508]

Originally posted by holy reality
So I was listening to it last night after finally buying the CD (before I just had mp3s) and I started getting freaked out. I saw all these shadows and stuff moving around in my room, and this red thing under my door, but whenever I looked at it it went away, but when I turned away it came back....
This all happened somewhere between track #2-4

I've never really been scared or freaked out while listening to TOOL with the exception of faaip de oiad.

So what do you all think, is this kind of a freaky album? Or was I just really tired?

it comes down to this: either you were on drugs and hallucinating as a result, or, you may have been (somehow purposely or unpurposely) going through a psychological process that also may produce what people call "ghosts". That's what could've happened....

[eulogy508]

Originally posted by Big_D
Well, I've heard about a phenomenon called the "Shadow People" that was mentioned on the Art Bell program (known for the Faaip de Oiad clip, now known as Coast to Coast AM because of a different host). I don't know what your beliefs are in the paranormal, hell I don't even know my beliefs on it, but I would have to say that what you're experiencing sounds very similar. Nobody knows what they are, but many have theorized that they are either ghosts or extradimensional beings of some kind.

there are no real 'shadow people', but if you want them to be real, go right ahead. they're figments of the human brain, not reality...

[abefrohmn]

Originally posted by eulogy508
there are no real 'shadow people', but if you want them to be real, go right ahead. they're figments of the human brain, not reality...

How do you know that?

I've heard skeptics try and use sleep paralysis as a panacea explanation for UFO abduction phenomenon. Take it from someone who suffered from sleep paralysis, what those people talk about ain't sleep paralysis! It's a very frightening experience, your muscles being frozen, you have to literally hyper-ventilate yourself out of sleep (for some odd reason you can still control your breathing). But trust me, there's a big difference between that and people describing having probes stuck up their asses.

I totally appreciate the skeptical/materialist approach to paranormal pheonomena, honestly, I've used to it to explain a lot of weird shit I've seen. Example, I used to see shadows flickering on my walls and it scared the hell out of me. But I put my mind to it, and I realized that it was the little pulsing light on my iBook lid barely raising the light level in my room (I sleep with the curtains drawn shut, sensory depravation for me, baby!) making the shadows appear to grow. Sometimes if I wake up at night and see the shit, it creeps me out a little still. But I know what it is, at least.

Sure, there's been logical/materialist explanations for things going on like that. But there isn't always a logical/maaterialist explanation for everything. Sometimes thery're real weak, and it seems like something you're just expected to take on faith
; )

[abefrohmn]

Also, it's no secret Tool band members, esp. Danny Carey in the group, has a penchant for the occult. He recommends casting a clensing ceremony of a room before listening to the album. Maybe he's joking. Maybe because everyone knows the band is into shit like this, some people's imagination creates figments that are the result of suggestion. Robert Anton Wilsons tenet of - What the thinker thinks, the prover provers.

Or maybe there's a Hieddegerian phenomological aspect of opening oneself up to the possibility, more specificically making Alethia ( a clearing) in one's mind, and it just happened to creep on a couple of you poor SOBs

You never know : )

[eulogy508]

Originally posted by abefrohmn
How do you know that?
; )

I've read theories in books about it that are heavily suppoerted... I'm just very interested in the whole thing, but I believe that these shadows and apparitions appear to people who undergo a complicated psychic process... there are many different possibilities. And discussing all of them wouldn't be on topic with the opiate board, so maybe i'll post something about it in the Socialize section.....

[holy reality]

I've heard skeptics try and use sleep paralysis as a panacea explanation for UFO abduction phenomenon. Take it from someone who suffered from sleep paralysis, what those people talk about ain't sleep paralysis! It's a very frightening experience, your muscles being frozen, you have to literally hyper-ventilate yourself out of sleep (for some odd reason you can still control your breathing). But trust me, there's a big difference between that and people describing having probes stuck up their asses.

I cannot control my breathing, which is why I have almost died twice as a result of sleep paralysis. Okay maybe I wouldn't have died, but once I woke up paralyzed face down on my pillow and it was smothering me and I could hardly breathe at all and couldn't roll over, I guess I fell back asleep and my body rolled itself over.

Then once I was in a car and leaning up against the window and a good amount of drool had collected in my mouth and was slowly rolling back toward my throat and I was just breathing in and out rhythmically and couldn't hold my breath, so was about to watch myself drown, but I managed after much mental anguish to slant my head far enough downward to get it to roll the other way.

Now say I had inhaled the stuff, would that have viloently woken me up coughing and hacking? Or would I have died? I'm not sure.

Anyway about this insanely old topic and my experience, I was not on drugs, and have never done drugs.

[PearlForum]

well i think that the album could have possessed emotions inside you that made you see such things..i know what your talking about, Iv seen that too..where you see a red dot or 2 that look like eyes but you turn to face it and they disappear but then you see them in the cornor of your eye again. Faaip de Oaid scares me, I dont like listening to it. Opiate isnt my favorite either. But i think thats all.

[abefrohmn]

Originally posted by holy reality
I cannot control my breathing, which is why I have almost died twice as a result of sleep paralysis. Okay maybe I wouldn't have died, but once I woke up paralyzed face down on my pillow and it was smothering me and I could hardly breathe at all and couldn't roll over, I guess I fell back asleep and my body rolled itself over.

Then once I was in a car and leaning up against the window and a good amount of drool had collected in my mouth and was slowly rolling back toward my throat and I was just breathing in and out rhythmically and couldn't hold my breath, so was about to watch myself drown, but I managed after much mental anguish to slant my head far enough downward to get it to roll the other way.

Now say I had inhaled the stuff, would that have viloently woken me up coughing and hacking? Or would I have died? I'm not sure.

Anyway about this insanely old topic and my experience, I was not on drugs, and have never done drugs.

I know what your saying, I used to linger so long that state, not knowing what to do do. It was like, you can't move anything, you can't open your eyes, it just really sucks. So anyhow, just finally figured out a way to get in contact with the part of me that breathes. I gleaned upon this after learning in health class about it being both a voluntary/involuntary action. If you still get it, work on it while your sleeping. Just trhink about consciously making an effort to breathe. and you should figure it out from there.