The Forest Dark

“n., v. awed, aw•ing. n.
1. an overwhelming feeling of reverence, admiration, fear, or wonder produced by that which is grand, sublime, extremely powerful, etc.
2. Archaic. power to inspire fear or reverence.
3. Obs. fear or dread.”

(From The Free Dictionary)

“Blessed is the man that senses awe always, and he that hardens his heart will fall into evil”

Aramaic Bible In Plain English

Neuropsychologist and positive psychology guru Pearsall defines awe as an “overwhelming and bewildering sense of connection with a startling universe that is usually far beyond the narrow band of our consciousness” (In Awe: The Delights and Dangers of Our Eleventh Emotion).

Awe seems to be a mix of strange and contradictionary feelings. Even there are many definitions it seems difficult to exactly express what we exactly mean by “awe”.

It’s something which obviously cannot grasped easily by the intellectual mind. Maybe it is easier to understand if we share information about “awe inspiring experiences”.

Even most of us can’t tell us what exactly a feeling of awe is it seems to be worth to think about awe. It’s not like horror or pure fear, it’s more a mix of fascination, fear and more. My impression is that if you are drawn to something beyond you know you are unconciously looking for the sensation of awe. Our drive to travel towards the most extreme points of our planet or to walk alone into the wilderness might have to do something with it. There aren’t many sufficient explanations why people are purposely looking for danger, why are they getting too close to an erupting volcano or diving into waters full of sharks.

Some mountain climbers claimed they do their exhausting and neck-breaking climbs because they want to find “themselves”. Consequently this means they don’t really know who they are.

So, awe seems about something which is connected with some sort of insight. It’s not necessarily about yourself but also an experience which leads to a new understanding of the world.

Maybe awe is a primal feeling or sensation which happens when you become aware of the otherworld. It’s happening when you stand in front of the dark gate and what is usually behind a veil becomes visible for a short moment.

We’ve heard the call and sometimes we get what we have been looking for all the time.

The connection of the feeling of awe with mind challenging experiences like sightings or near death experiences is obvious.

However, does the feeling of awe lead to true insight? Our big problem again is how to distinguish between projection, delusion and the truth.

Here is one more quote from the above mentioned book: “6. Awe results in a sense of a severe challenge to our ‘mental set,’ resulting in the need to decide between ‘accommodating’ the awe experience through creating new ways of thinking, feeling, believing, and behaving; or ‘assimilating’ what happened by briefly enjoying it and returning back to one’s prior way of thinking and being”.

Pearsall emphasizes the life changing aspect, which again is also true for otherworldly encounters. It isn’t said if the person who had the experience is becoming more joyful or more fearful. We don’t know if we have an awe inspiring experience what it could exactly mean to us. Mostly this seems to be about seeing the world in a different way. Scientists found that people who had awe inspiring experiences are experiencing time in a different way (a thesis expressed in the article “Awe Expands People’s Perception of Time, Alters Decision Making, and Enhances Well-Being” by
Melanie Rudd, Kathleen D. Vohs and Jennifer Aaker”).

The otherworldly encounters doesn’t necessarily mean some sort of enlightenment. Maybe there is a very ambiguous aspect here. One definition of awe was “Archaic. power to inspire fear or reverence”. And being blessed by sensing awe always could be also interpreted as some sort of awareness or that being alert is important, even it’s true what the scientists say that awe inspiring experience in some cases often enhance our well-being.

The phenomenon of “awe” fascinates me because of it’s not a simple feeling, it’s the ambivalence, which makes it interesting, particularly for any movie project. Stephen King wrote once that he thinks that many writers and artists working in the fantasy, science-fiction or horror genre kept a “sense of wonder”. Usually we loose our sense of wonder when we grew up. Seeking awe inspiring experiences or the attempt to create an awe inspiring experience for an audience as a writer or artist might represent our desperate and secret wish to get back childhood feelings, which had been long lost – even these feeling might have to do with primal fears and horror. It might be also a reason why people enter the dark forests of our world; sometimes we are looking for the monster which both fascinates us and terrifies us in the same moment. We want to see what’s hiding in the darkness, we’re afraid of the noises in the middle of the night in the empty house but we don’t want to go away. We could escape the storm but we follow the twister instead. We want to know what’s lurking inside the dark cave. Sometimes it’s the strange moments in life where we really feel at home.

Imagine you ended up on the other side. You might be dead in the normal world. But you still can see the living. They cannot see you. You can’t make them aware that you still exist. You see their sorrow, you see them getting into danger. You want to warn them, but you can’t. They deny that you still exist. You have become invisible. What if you could change that?

The idea of an intermediate realm is an idea, which exists in many cultures. In this realm the soul often doesn’t know what happened. The idea was used in famous Hollywood movies like “Ghost” or “Always”. In the intermediate realm of Hollywood a guide usually appears then who leads the person on his individual journey towards heaven. However in many reports and stories people are caught for a long time in the intermediate realm and help never comes. Almost every ghost story depends on the concept of an intermediate realm. I was always intrigued of the idea that there might be some people who are able to come back from this other realm of existence. It has been often discussed if this is possible. Accounts of near death experiences suggest that people returned from the intermediate realm. Some cultures believe that shamans could enter the intermediate realm and come back after they “did their job” on the other side. In ancient time this was obviously a common idea. Think of “Orpheus”. Eastern traditions offer even more distinct ideas about an intermediate realm. The Tibetan Book Of The Dead (Bardo Thodol) gives advise for appropriate preparation before entering the intermediate realm. The intermediate realm is seen as an interval between death and rebirth. The name for the realm is bardo and it is a state of consciousness.
What we also know is that some cultures had rituals and ceremonies to prevent the person who died to get caught in the intermediate realm. Sacrifices were made, if the person was a king or leader of a tribe monumental megalithic tombs were built and a set of rules was set up. There were different reasons for these traditions. Empathy for the deceased was one reason; they don’t want to live with the idea of a person caught in the intermediate realm suffering for an eternity. However there are also records of huge fears that the person would return somehow and haunt the living. This fear has become an important idea in many ghost stories. You shouldn’t wish that the person does really come back from the other realm of existence. If somebody was already too long in the other world and comes back there is imminent danger for the living – this is the lesson usually told in ghost stories – think of “Pet Sematary”.

I don’t think this is necessarily the truth.
The intermediate realm seem to represent the celtic idea of the Otherworld in a certain sense, even this kind of Otherworld is only one of many realms of existence and the Otherworld is much deeper. It’s impossible to understand what travellers who are able to return from the intermediate realm of existence have gone through. They have seen things beyond our imagination. I am dealing with that idea in my movie project from the very beginning and also that there might be souls who are special, who are more prone to travel between the worlds. These souls or people might have already developed another level of conscious and have special skills.
They aren’t helpless any longer as the person in the introduction of this post, they are powerful, but to become such a person they must master the treacherous reality both of our world and of the Otherworld. Some may fail. Traps are everywhere. The dark side will always try to stop any development. There is dangerous ground everywhere.
People with special skills who have made a journey through several states of consciousness might exist, even the ideas of super-heroes in movies are fantasy. However any fiction has some background in reality.
For example it’s remarkable that in the reports of alien-abductees or fairies in former times the victims seem sometimes to develop special skills and are more prone to telepathy and other paranormal abilities as other people after their experience. Vice versa we could speculate that these people already are born “special” and visits in the the intermediate realm or abduction episodes are part of their development.

My movie project is set against the backdrop of a haunted forest. I didn’t chose one of these well-known places around the world as a setting, which enjoy popularity on the web or in tourist guides for a good reason. I have also to admit that even I spent a lot of time in the woods I don’t have visited these famous sites during development of the feature film project nor do I plan to go to in the near future. There is a simple explanation for this: I am convinced the best possibility to “waste” a haunted site is to make it public. Of course, there is a very good chance to have some extraordinary experiences at these sites but the well-known haunted forests are also a perfect opportunity for self-deception. As soon as you are surrounded by other tourists who strongly believe that they reached a site where something weird is going on there will be something happen. But not a real supernatural thing, its often more things, which have to do with mass suggestion, maybe indeed something which has to do with a certain atmosphere. This psychic atmosphere is however created by its visitors not the haunted forest itself.

So, are there real haunted forests? Yes, I believe they exist and there are many of them. What’s mostly intriguing about the stories about haunted forests is that most of the stories about them are very similar. The mother-of-all haunted-forest-stories is certainly Hansel and Gretel and if you look at the basic elements of the story it’s the same you find both in real stories and in many modern horror-movies: 1)somebody gets lost in the forests, 2) a time of disorientation and fear for the person trapped in the forest 3)The encounter with the Otherworld or the supernatural threat. 4) Sometimes the missing gets transformed and returns. Sometimes he will never get back from the forest. Does that sound familiar? Remember “Blairwitch”?

However if the stories about a place sound too much like the “good-old-legend” we should become skeptical: either it was made up for educational reasons (not only Children should stay out of the forest, but it was a good thing to keep villagers under control in previous centuries if you make them afraid to not go secretly into the woods – maybe they would have discovered not a ghost but freedom). But what if the old legend was brought up because it’s too horrifying to tell what’s really roaming the forest at night?

Furthermore there seems to be a strong spiritual element about stories about haunted forests. James George Frazer, the famous scientist, who wrote the book “The Golden Bough” about the spiritual roots of mankind identified one particular myth, which could be basically seen as a haunted forest story.

The classic haunted forest is the large and impenetrable forest of the North. These type of forests could still be found in Northern America, Canada, the UK (Scotland), Scandinavia, Germany and it’s Eastern Neighbours. There are many well known stories about supernatural horror in the forests of Scotland, Sweden and Norway. The Mediterranean area feels different, is like another world with its own Mythology.  I can’t explain why but to me the typical haunted forest isn’t necessarily a primeval forest. I see it more or less as a forest with a damp, wet atmosphere where sunshine doesn’t reach the ground and where a lot of rain falls.  It must also not always an isolated, remote area but certain geological circumstances might play a role; my guess is that areas where there are very old mountains like the Appalachians are more likely to cultivate haunted forests. Or the endless sea of trees in Scandinavia. Writer Kerstin Ekman also mentions an original myth around the haunted forest theme – it’s the sad story of King Olof who rejected the fairy queen and died soon after he returned from the forest.

Many forests could become haunted forests. There might be sometimes very rational reasons involved, which can be explained: spending a lot of time in a forest for example during a long hike could also work as kind of a sensory deprivation. Like in meditation content from the unconscious then emerges. Disorientation happens easily particularly for people from big cities who are not used to be far away from civilisation. Even you hear many animals or the cracking of twigs it’s usually much more quiet inside a forest, which could lead to strange sensations.

However there might be haunted forests, which are closer to the other realm or work like batteries, where unexplained things might happen and foremost are Gateways To The Otherworld. ( I described my own experience with a certain place in that post). The Bavarian Forest in Middle Europe along the Czech-German border seems to me such a hotspot, where people have again and again strange visions or they are clairvoyant. There are stories about a hermit in the forest who got famous for his predictions about World War I and II.

My conclusion is that the haunted forest is a concept that exists already for a long time. We haven’t yet any final answer about what’s real going on, what’s real and what is part of the imagination. I believe a haunted forest can manifest at many places, it might even a little green in the middle of Berlin or London, which can become a very scary place if you go there at the right time. The “real and famous” haunted forests might be very interesting in many ways, but maybe the “haunted forest”, if we see it as a kind of zone or gate where the other world connects with our normal world, might have travelled long ago to another place and what you see if you go there is like an extinct volcano.

But what can become a haunted forest for YOU?  I am not so optimistic that visiting a famous (touristic) haunted forest does get you into extraordinary experiences since the Otherworld loves to hide.

However it might be possible that the haunted forest finds you.

Following the idea of the reversal of the “based on a true story” approach I remember some strange things that happened not when I was deliberately looking for motives or research for the movie project. Something happened when I coincidentally missed a bus or took the wrong direction at a crossing and ended up in interesting circumstances. You wouldn’t believe where  I found the little hut in the picture below.

Any connection with the Otherworld can’t be forced. It’s up to the other side to decide what happen. If there’s maybe one thing where the Otherworld seems closer than anywhere it’s that it likes to play tricks with the mind. This make the haunted forests a bit dangerous since they could lead you in wrong directions or even more. Furthermore a lot depends on our own attitude. If we approach a haunted forest either with arrogance or too many fears we might pay a price.

I do also believe that the “haunted forest” is a place we already know. We had been there already. It’s kind of an archetypical image we have partly forgotten. Our journeys into the dark forests of this world are attempts to remember what has been forgotten. The moment we remember might be indeed a frightening experience.

The haunted forest in my screenplay is named “Witch Mountain” and I am sure that Witch Mountain really exists and it can be found some day.

I always think of Astronaut Bowman from 2001 if I try to imagine a person who knows the answers to Edgar Allan Poe’s question “Is all what we see or seem but a dream within a dream?”

His legendary psychedelic trip beyond Jupiter is an unparalleled milestone in film history. Not even the digital age has ever produced a similar experience for the viewers.

As Kubrick doesn’t give us many clues about the nature of Bowman’s encounters at the end of the trip it is worth to take a look at the 2001 novel by Arthur C. Clarke. There is real frightening idea here, which is developed by the master storyteller. It’s basically kind of a set up. The realities, which Bowman experiences, are nothing more than a virtual reality. Everything is a lie, it’s a phony stage. The aliens or the unseen extraterrestrial intelligence works like a copycat and used images it had received via TV on Earth. It recreated this phony hotel room but something feels wrong about it. There are failures in the matrix.

This sounds like a good scary idea for a science fiction. As we know Arthur C. Clarke was in many ways right with his predictions about future technologies and developments. Today we are close to convincing virtual realities.

But again there seems to be more about fictional ideas as we think in the first place. UFO-researcher Jacques Vallee again and again claimed that the reports of UFO witnesses or abductees read like some kind of stage play. Also psychologist MACK who investigated UFO-abductee stories, had this impression. The same applies obviously to near death experiences where the visitor enters sometimes rooms, which feel similar to ordinary reality but represent something else. The otherwordly experience is always a very real one but the kind of reality, which we seem to enter, is treacherous.

Sometimes this treacherous reality is a very good imitation of our reality in normal life – there might be even a supermarket in the Otherworld but if we take a close look we would make frightening discoveries.

When I am working on the Forest Dark Movie Script as some other supernatural thriller ideas I often stop when I have to think how to imagine the Otherworld. There is endless imaginary about the Otherworld in any culture however it seems barely possible to catch its true nature or any image, which feels right when it comes to the Otherworld. The concept of Arthur C. Clarke seems really helpful in terms of imagining the Otherworld. On a lower level close to our plane of reality it might look like ours. It’s mimicking our world. As we descend deeper into the Otherworld the Otherworld might become more and more abstract and cannot be grasped any longer with the limitations of the human mind. From the endless numbers of stories we know some characteristics about the otherworld, for examples from medieval encounters with fairies. Time is different in the otherworld. Something, which is big in our world is small in the otherworld and vice versa. I would add if you have entered an altered state of mind and find yourself in one of these other planes of reality (sun)light might come from the wrong side. In 2001 is a very good example for an otherworldly picture when Bowman enters the room after the trip – light is coming from the floor instead of the ceiling.

However if the Otherworld mirrors ours, looks like kind of an altered reality, there is another big question left.

Who (or what) is creating these treacherous reality where we aren’t any longer can be sure if we are still in our plane of reality or if we have already entered some parallel universe, which we could mistake for ours till we see something is wrong?

Even the Earthlings can create more and more sophisticated cyber space where we might live in a virtual reality without even knowing it (there is a reason for the big success of the first Matrix movie).

Scientists say that it might be possible that the universe is a hologram.

Usually, a hologram can’t exist without any help from the outside. Furthermore what could be the intention? Is there a chance that demonic forces sometimes set up a virtual reality to led us into a trap? It might be not the psychedelic images, which we encounter through various ways but the treacherous reality which looks like our own everyday world, which could lead us into dangerous territory.

Further reading: An in-depth analysis of otherworldy experiences and their troubling nature could be found in German philosopher Jochen Kirchhoff’s outstanding book “Die Anderswelt”: