I think I shared this story a few years ago in some long-gone thread somewhere, but I'll share it here.
This happened in June 1988 in Taiwan. I was traveling with a then-girlfriend, and we had traveled from Taipei to Hualien on the northeastern coast, and from there traveled the central East-West Cross-Island Highway. The first part of the trip was uneventful, except for a white-knuckle bus ride on substandard unpaved mountain road. The scenery was often stunningly beautiful, though. We stopped and stayed one night in Tianhsiang and one night in Dayuling.
Approximately midway(?), going east to west, she and I decided to stop and hike up Mount Hohuan (Hohuanshan, not far from Dayuling) to spend the night. During winter it's a ski resort of sorts, but in June it was just dry, cold and windy, much different from the heat and extreme humidity of, say, Taipei. Not long after arriving, my girlfriend started saying she sensed other 'presences'. Now, I've had paranormal experiences on and off all of my life, but on that day I thought she was making stuff up to get attention, or getting spooked at the relative quiet and howling winds. Later that evening, we stayed in the resort's dorm, which had several bunk beds. We were on a bottom bunk near a dooreay. On the other side of the dorm on the upper bunks were a few Taiwanese couples, and all that was visible were their feet. Further off on a lower bunk was a lone guy who'd been staying there. As we drifted off to sleep, my last thought was, "Ghosts. Ha." I was lying on my left side, as was my girlfriend, who was in front of me.
A few hours(?) later, I snapped awake suddenly and completely. I could see my girlfriend's back and back of head, but she looked some distance away, like at the end of a tunnel(?). My ears seemed plugged, and I felt a heavy presence pressing my body down and immobilizing me while screaming into my right ear. It started out as a slow, vibrating moan like a man's that gradually became higher and higher-pitched like a woman's, and the warbling/vibration became faster and faster. This continued uninterrupted for longer than any person could vocalize without stopping to take a breath. Then, in my mind's eye, I could see from the POV of inside of a small car, looking out the front windshield as it plunged off a mountain road, went over the side, and came to a violent rest. The scream continued into my right ear, and I began a silent struggle to just move.
Suddenly, the 'spell' was broken and I suddenly pushed up from the bed. At exactly the same time, as if connected by an invisible wire, my girlfriend pushed up the same as me. Keep in mind, her back was still to me. She turned around, shaking, and said in English, "Did you hear that? I felt a pressure in the air." My ears were still ringing, but my hearing was returning to normal. I felt a single bead of sweat roll down near my temple, and the drop of sweat felt like ice water.
The whole rest of the night we didn't get any more sleep, just sat up and occasionally talking quietly. She kept praying as well. Next day we left early to continue on our journey. As we walked a ways down the road, the group of couples came by in their van(?) and picked us up, taking us down the mountain to the next bus stop to continue the rest of our trip. As I remember it, the central East-West Cross-Island Highway ended at its western end in Taichung. I'll have to check a Taiwan map again to be sure, but that's how I remember it.
Oddly enough, after that day, she and I never discussed that incident ever again. I've had paranormal experiences before and since, but that was by far the spookiest. I'm still not certain if it was a spirit/spirits, or if it was some other kind of paranormal entity(s). I do know it was not a health issue, and she and I both experienced the same thing. And to be clear, most of my "paranormal" experiences have not been "creepy" or negative at all, especially in recent years.
Anyway, I guess a revamp of the "creepy" thread is in order, this being Halloween season and all.
Jim
