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Cross-Cultural Psychology
Weird Things Just Happen to Me
I share two bizarre but true stories that transpired while I was camping.
Posted July 21, 2023 Reviewed by Tyler Woods
Recently a friend of mine commented, after hearing one of my stories, “So many weird things have happened to you that you should start writing them down.”
When I think back on some of the unusual situations and encounters I've experienced, I realize that most of them happened in my youth. Perhaps some of them occurred because of a general lack of knowledge, experience, and well... common sense. Here are two of them. What do you think? I'll share my analysis at the end.
When I was 18 years old, during the summer between high school and college, my buddy Billy and I went on a two-week camping trip in the mountains of Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee. We camped in a different spot every night. We revisited old favorites and discovered new places, some of which were not official campgrounds.
A Woodland Chapel
One day, as we were driving through the mountains of North Carolina, we saw a tiny white clapboard church with its own little steeple nestled in the woods. It was so precious it would’ve made a perfect picture postcard. As we stopped to gaze at it, we thought that any church that beautiful surely must inspire the most uplifting sermons; we decided right then and there to return on Sunday and attend their morning service. There were no signs on the church; nothing to indicate denomination or operating hours, so we assumed from our own churches back in Atlanta that services would begin at 11:00 a.m.
We Thought We Were Early
On Sunday, thinking that we were arriving early, we showed up at 10:30, but as we entered the building we saw the service had already begun, so we quickly and quietly slipped into a pew near the back. The minister, who had been giving his sermon, immediately stopped speaking and stared at us. The two dozen or so people in the congregation all turned around in their seats and stared at us, too. No one said a word, nor did the minister greet us. After a few moments, he gestured for everyone to stand, so we rose along with everyone else thinking that perhaps it was time for a hymn, but then the minister left his pulpit and started walking down the center aisle toward the front door. As he passed each row the pew would empty and the people followed him as he walked to the door, opened it, and walked out.
Rejected by a House of Worship
We followed everyone outside but saw that the congregation clustered tightly together over to the left of the building opposite where all the cars were parked. They were all staring at us, and again, no one said a word to us. We felt extremely awkward so we decided to leave and started walking back to our car. As we did, the congregation, led by their minister, walked back into the church; the door closed and we heard it audibly lock.
We were dumbfounded; we arrived expecting to meet friendly people but left feeling shunned and confused. We pondered that perhaps they were venomous serpent handlers and our ill-timed arrival coincided just as they were about to bring out the rattlesnakes.
A Movie to Parody Our Experience
Later that week, we went to see the movie Race with the Devil, a horror movie about two couples who were camping in a recreational vehicle when they accidentally came across a Satan-worshiping cult just as they were making a human sacrifice. Spotted by the cultists, they fled and the rest of the movie was a long, terrifying chase scene.
Beware of Dead-End Roads in the Middle of Nowhere
A couple of days later, we were driving in the mountains outside of Chattanooga, Tennessee. It was late in the afternoon and we hadn’t yet picked a spot to camp for the night when we saw a dirt road that went off into the forest. On a lark, we turned down it and drove about half a mile through thick woods to the end.
A Chance Encounter with the Devil's Playground
There we found a wide, well-built stone staircase with at least 20 steps that rose up a steep hill into the trees. Curious, we climbed to the top. At the summit, a broad, level field opened up before us; directly behind it was the sheer cliff of a carved rock wall that was shaped like a curved panoramic movie screen. At the top of each end of the cliff was a huge six-to-eight-foot tall sculpted stone eagle with wide-spread wings, much like those seen on the reverse of a traditional U.S. quarter.
In the center of the field was a sunken circle, approximately 12 feet in diameter and three feet deep. It was lined by a masonry stone wall with four sets of two-step stairs leading down into the pit. The steps were spaced at 12, 3, 6, and 9 o’clock. In the center of the circle were several large, flat boulders pressed close together upon which many fires had been burnt. It looked like an Old Testament altar for burning sacrifices. As we gazed upon this mysterious site, the movie we’d watched came flooding back into our minds.
“This place is creepy!”
“Yeah, looks like something out of that movie we saw.”
“Satanic cults probably practice their rituals out here.”
“Or the KKK holds their cross burnings.”
“Wanna get out here?”
“Sorta, but I dunna know; it’s already too late to find another place, and it’s nice and level for pitching our tent.”
The Irony of Finding a Place as Horrible as the Movie
We stayed, pitched our tent close to the top of the stairs, built a small fire (not on the altar), and cooked some dinner. Afterwards, we went for a walk down the road we came in on. At the end of the road by the highway, we ran into a couple walking their dog. We asked them what they knew about the place. They said they didn’t know much, but that occasionally they’d find goat heads nailed to trees along the dirt road.
We Acted Like Goofy Teenagers—Which We Were
Perhaps it's needless to say, but that creeped us out even more. We talked again about leaving, but it was nearly dark and we had no idea where to go, so we stayed. Then, throughout the night, we teased each other by urgently saying things like, “What was that?” or, “Did you hear that?” just to watch the other jump, and then laugh at him. But we were really scared and barely slept that night. As soon as the dawn broke, we packed up our stuff and got out of there.
Looking back on those events, I recognize that in my youth I lacked a proper sense of boundaries, including an understanding of trespassing laws. Fewer strange incidences have come my way as I've gotten older. Today, I would be wary of a church—or any building for that matter—with no signage before I would enter it.
Now, even I'm astonished that I wasn't more fearful after hearing about goat heads nailed to trees. Which makes me think my temerity may have been indicative of the prefrontal cortex of my brain—the area which gives us our sense of mortality—not yet being fully formed (and the reason car insurance is more expensive for people under age 25). There's an old saying, "Age and wisdom trump youth and beauty" which makes me appreciate (despite some of my youthful foolhardiness) still being alive in my 60s.
What weird things have happened to you?
