Never even entertained the thought of Satan actually existing until 1985, when I was on a carrier in the Mediterranean, and I saw something that I still question today, and see as if it happened yesterday. For years I have tried to rationalize it, to explain it away, but I know what I saw and when I tell a few people close to me [other than my wife, who truly believes me] there are those "looks." I believe every person's experience with evil is different, although it may originate from a common source.
Jan Van der Decken, aka the captain of the Flying Dutchman. Trust me, I have been considered a wing nut, and I really didn't figure out who this was until I had a dream ten years to the day of the event - I was out of the Navy and working as a telecommunications technician in a small town in Missouri. Once I put the pieces together, I consulted one of the professors at the local university where I was attending, as he was a brown water Navy vet in Vietnam. He was a pretty cool dude, and my [then] wife and I even had him over for dinner once in a while. The day I had the dream [previously that morning], he told me a story that I thought had originated from a looney bin. He escorted me to his office and closed the door. The expression on his face went from a smile to a cold, thousand-yard stare. He said in a low voice "you saw him too, didn't you?" He told me that one night when his crew was patrolling the Mekong Delta, one of his subordinates came to him and asked him "what in the name of everything holy is going on?" There was a guy, more like an apparition, standing on top of the water, staring at the boat off the port bow. So, my friend went to look, and there he was, just staring there, not standing in the water but on the water. After about a minute, he just faded away.
When I asked my friend if he was hallucinating, he said that originally he thought he had gotten bit by something and he was delirious and was seeing things, but after a few days he decided he wasn't going to tell his superiors for fear of being seen as an insane whack job. He kept it to himself for all those years. He described exactly to the last detail what I had seen from the observation deck on the carrier island. Guy was about six feet tall, wearing a long trench coat and a short-billed hat. There was a half-moon that night, it was about two in the morning and I had just gotten off watch, couldn't sleep so I went up to get some ocean air. The only other guy up there was the signalman on watch, one deck above. I'm looking out over the ocean, it was surreal with the moon hitting the water. I hear a noise from about ten feet away, so I turn and look and there is this guy standing there, exactly as my friend had described, but the only difference was this guy was smoking a pipe - black cavendish tobacco, I remember because I would occasionally smoke a pipe. His face looked a pale white and what has bothered me the most all these years is I can still see his eyes. They were as black as oil, no whites. Soul-less. He stood there for about a minute, then turned around and went around the end of the catwalk and disappeared. So, I walk over there and look, well, the catwalk ended at the bulkhead and there was a steep drop to the flight deck. I didn't hear a thud, nothing. He just wasn't there anymore.
Now, fast-forward ten years. I woke with a start after having a bad dream, got up, went to the den and picked a book off the shelf, sat down and opened it up. It was a book about naval history [I was a history major in college so I collected books]. It was about two in the morning. When I opened the book I landed on a page that talked about, you guessed it, the Flying Dutchman. I'm thinking there's no way, no way. I didn't sleep until about 1 o'clock the next morning, after I spoke with my friend that day. I felt numb. From that point on, my life was different somehow in a million different ways.
I'll take that to my grave. I know what I saw. I hope God has mercy on my soul.
Very interesting, thank you for sharing. Do you relate this ghostly figure to demonic or something of Satan? You mentioned earlier that you have never entertained the thought of Satan until that moment. Did you feel attacked in a way? Like you were being singled out?
I myself have had some very real encounters. Most before I found salvation with Jesus Christ. And one after. Which wasn’t to long ago actually. It was the most brutal. Also curious if you are a Christian? Would you say you are in love with Jesus, follow Christ?
It was an apparition, a phantasm of sorts. Demonic? I don't know. Van der Decken was condemned to sail the seas until the Day of Judgment, so he must answer to God. As far as Jesus, no, I am not a follower. My relationship, if one were to call it that, is with a superior spiritual universal force. If that were to manifest itself in the form of a being we as humans can understand, then we could move closer to a higher level of being ourselves. Likely in the minority here, but I believe that when man truly learns to accept responsibility for his actions, he will achieve more than he is presently capable of comprehending. This requires that he admits to his wrongdoing, owns up to it, and works to repair the damage he has caused. The Catholic Church, supposedly the church of Jesus Christ, did more to instill guilt in me than any other institution, and I have since dealt with what I have done and have not turned any of it over to someone who died for man's sins. I have accepted who I am and will deal with that when the times comes and I am no longer here, but I do not know when and if that will ever happen at all. Lastly, I appreciate the intent put forth by those who claimed to have found Jesus, but I choose not to travel that road myself.
Never even entertained the thought of Satan actually existing until 1985, when I was on a carrier in the Mediterranean, and I saw something that I still question today, and see as if it happened yesterday. For years I have tried to rationalize it, to explain it away, but I know what I saw and when I tell a few people close to me [other than my wife, who truly believes me] there are those "looks." I believe every person's experience with evil is different, although it may originate from a common source.
Don't leave us hanging! Please share what you experienced. We'd all benefit from hearing it.
Story time?
Jan Van der Decken, aka the captain of the Flying Dutchman. Trust me, I have been considered a wing nut, and I really didn't figure out who this was until I had a dream ten years to the day of the event - I was out of the Navy and working as a telecommunications technician in a small town in Missouri. Once I put the pieces together, I consulted one of the professors at the local university where I was attending, as he was a brown water Navy vet in Vietnam. He was a pretty cool dude, and my [then] wife and I even had him over for dinner once in a while. The day I had the dream [previously that morning], he told me a story that I thought had originated from a looney bin. He escorted me to his office and closed the door. The expression on his face went from a smile to a cold, thousand-yard stare. He said in a low voice "you saw him too, didn't you?" He told me that one night when his crew was patrolling the Mekong Delta, one of his subordinates came to him and asked him "what in the name of everything holy is going on?" There was a guy, more like an apparition, standing on top of the water, staring at the boat off the port bow. So, my friend went to look, and there he was, just staring there, not standing in the water but on the water. After about a minute, he just faded away.
When I asked my friend if he was hallucinating, he said that originally he thought he had gotten bit by something and he was delirious and was seeing things, but after a few days he decided he wasn't going to tell his superiors for fear of being seen as an insane whack job. He kept it to himself for all those years. He described exactly to the last detail what I had seen from the observation deck on the carrier island. Guy was about six feet tall, wearing a long trench coat and a short-billed hat. There was a half-moon that night, it was about two in the morning and I had just gotten off watch, couldn't sleep so I went up to get some ocean air. The only other guy up there was the signalman on watch, one deck above. I'm looking out over the ocean, it was surreal with the moon hitting the water. I hear a noise from about ten feet away, so I turn and look and there is this guy standing there, exactly as my friend had described, but the only difference was this guy was smoking a pipe - black cavendish tobacco, I remember because I would occasionally smoke a pipe. His face looked a pale white and what has bothered me the most all these years is I can still see his eyes. They were as black as oil, no whites. Soul-less. He stood there for about a minute, then turned around and went around the end of the catwalk and disappeared. So, I walk over there and look, well, the catwalk ended at the bulkhead and there was a steep drop to the flight deck. I didn't hear a thud, nothing. He just wasn't there anymore.
Now, fast-forward ten years. I woke with a start after having a bad dream, got up, went to the den and picked a book off the shelf, sat down and opened it up. It was a book about naval history [I was a history major in college so I collected books]. It was about two in the morning. When I opened the book I landed on a page that talked about, you guessed it, the Flying Dutchman. I'm thinking there's no way, no way. I didn't sleep until about 1 o'clock the next morning, after I spoke with my friend that day. I felt numb. From that point on, my life was different somehow in a million different ways.
I'll take that to my grave. I know what I saw. I hope God has mercy on my soul.
Wow that's wild. Now I am going to research this.
Very interesting, thank you for sharing. Do you relate this ghostly figure to demonic or something of Satan? You mentioned earlier that you have never entertained the thought of Satan until that moment. Did you feel attacked in a way? Like you were being singled out?
I myself have had some very real encounters. Most before I found salvation with Jesus Christ. And one after. Which wasn’t to long ago actually. It was the most brutal. Also curious if you are a Christian? Would you say you are in love with Jesus, follow Christ?
Once again thank you for sharing.
It was an apparition, a phantasm of sorts. Demonic? I don't know. Van der Decken was condemned to sail the seas until the Day of Judgment, so he must answer to God. As far as Jesus, no, I am not a follower. My relationship, if one were to call it that, is with a superior spiritual universal force. If that were to manifest itself in the form of a being we as humans can understand, then we could move closer to a higher level of being ourselves. Likely in the minority here, but I believe that when man truly learns to accept responsibility for his actions, he will achieve more than he is presently capable of comprehending. This requires that he admits to his wrongdoing, owns up to it, and works to repair the damage he has caused. The Catholic Church, supposedly the church of Jesus Christ, did more to instill guilt in me than any other institution, and I have since dealt with what I have done and have not turned any of it over to someone who died for man's sins. I have accepted who I am and will deal with that when the times comes and I am no longer here, but I do not know when and if that will ever happen at all. Lastly, I appreciate the intent put forth by those who claimed to have found Jesus, but I choose not to travel that road myself.
See something paranormal?