A survey of modern fairy experiences by Dr Simon Young

§852

Pennsylvania, US 1950s
Female: Age 0-10 occasional supernatural experiences
in open land (fields etc) 12 pm-3 pm many hours on my own
no special state reported
interested
loss of sense of time, profound silence before the experience, unusually vivid memories of the experience

‘I was seven years old. It was very early summer (the corn was maybe four feet high), a bright and sunny day in the fields of *** PA. My grandmother was visiting friends. They sent me outside to play. I walked along the railroad tracks adjacent to the house that went through a cornfield. As I walked, I saw up ahead a tiny whirlwind about eighteen inches tall by the side of the tracks. I was fascinated and approached. As I got nearer the whirlwind became a small person. Distinctly remember looking down deeply into his eyes. He was old looking, wrinkled skin, and he wore a green jacket. I had no feelings of fear, just fascination and interest. The next thing I remember I was walking on the tracks heading back toward the house. I heard my grandmother calling me. She said I had been gone for two hours or so. I never mentioned this to anyone except my husband many years later, but I think of it often. I remember his eyes so clearly. I have great reticence to speak of this experience. In looking into it I feel that it does not come from fearing the judgement of others. It’s almost like a block has been put there to keep me from speaking about it. I guess after sixty-six years or so the reticence block has faded. But I wonder if others have felt something similar.’ ‘Old and wrinkled wearing a green jacket.’ Why do you think your experience was a fairy experience, as opposed to a ghost or an alien or an angel or some other type of anomalous experience? ‘Interesting. I just always thought it was a fairy experience. Given my age and the times and my Quaker upbringing, aliens, ghosts or angels were never a possibility.’ What are fairies? ‘Earth bound nature spirits’. ‘Again, I’m really interested in others who have felt great reticence in telling their stories of fairy encounters.’