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Sunday, December 3, 2023

Decemystery (2023) 3: The Little Blue Man

 

Hello, dear reader, and welcome back to my little blog. This is the place where I spend thousands of words talking about weird stuff that I found while browsing the Internet (and elsewhere). Given that it’s still December, it’s time for another round of Decemystery goodness!


Today, I want to take a trip over to a website that I’ve gone to for a write-up—not that I remember, at least. It’s called Your Ghost Stories and is dedicated to—shock of all shocks—user-submitted ghost stories. The site was launched in 2006 and is host to 19,839 stories (as of October 17). Even nowadays, it’s still posting new stories. God willing, it will still be active when this goes up because if it’s not, I’ll be quite disappointed.


Anyway, today’s mystery is one that I stumbled across while I was browsing through the archives; like many stories before it, the name is what got me: The Little Blue Man. This is a rather oddball tale; although it’s on a website dedicated to ghost stories, it’s by no means a tale about a haunting or anything of that nature. Instead, it’s closer to a user reaching out to others asking for help on what their mother experienced when she was pregnant.


So come along, dear reader; let’s see if we can provide answers to this puzzling case! After over a year of being out of the game, it’s time to dive back into the world of the paranormal!

I’m Blue (Da Ba Dee, Da Ba Die)


I love that song.


This story—entitled “The Little Blue Man?”—was posted onto Your Ghost Stories on September 22, 2018, by Creepy-Crawler911 (whose real name—according to her profile, at least—is Tabitha). Tabitha’s age isn’t given, though according to a little note below her username, she is a “young adult,” or at least was at the time the story was posted. If I had to guess, this all occurred at some point in the 2000s, but without any way to confirm it, I’ll be giving this story with the “Unknown Date” tag.


Anyway, let’s get into this mystery. According to Tabitha, she’d “recently started on a painting” of a “little blue fairy” that she intended to hang over her bed. At some point, her mom saw what she’d been painting and asked what it was of. Tabitha told her, and her mother replied by saying that it “reminded her of the tiny blue creature she had seen” when she was pregnant with Tabitha; at the time, her mom resided in Maryland. The only difference between the painting and this “little blue man” was that the latter was male.


Apparently, Tabitha had heard the story before but only vaguely recalled it. So, she asked her mom to tell her again. Here’s what her mom had to say:


It was little and blue. It kind of reminded me of a troll, and it just touched my pregnant belly and smiled. I did not feel like it was going to hurt me.


Tabitha’s mom went on to say that this creature “had pointy teeth.” As one commenter later mentioned, this would mean it was carnivorous. Personally, I’d like to imagine it as being a demonic, blue Furby. It’s going to eat your stuffed animals and then require new batteries!


What happened after it touched her stomach isn’t stated—something that annoys me greatly, but whatever. This strange experience piqued Tabitha’s curiosity, and she told her friends—all of whom (along with Tabitha) have had their own paranormal experiences—about it. One of these friends was “more knowledgeable” when it came to the paranormal than Tabitha or her other friend. Unfortunately, none of them knew who or what this little blue dude was. They did, however, believe that it was “more than likely one of the nice people.” However, even then, they weren’t sure.


That didn’t stop Tabitha from continuing to investigate on her own. So, she took to the Internet, looking up “small blue creatures with pointy teeth,” “blue imps with pointy teeth,” and “imps with pointy teeth.” Alas, she was unable to find anything; nothing matched its description, nor did anything she found along the way match up.


To digress for a moment, I decided to quickly search “mythical blue creatures with sharp teeth” on Google. The first result I got was the Wikipedia page for Kobolds. I doubt that that’s what Tabitha’s mom saw, but I figured I’d try my hand at it. Now, nobody can say I didn’t try; I totally did!


Anyway, getting back on track, Tabitha stated that she believed that the thing her mom saw was an imp as opposed to a troll. While imps are often depicted as mischievous demons, it’s worth mentioning that various cultures have portrayed them in a more positive light. I like the Imps from the Warcraft universe. Their dialogue is great.


In an effort to visualize the being, Tabitha tried to draw it, but it “always comes back to this specific design.” I believe by that, she means the little blue guy with pointy teeth. If I’m wrong, then I guess I need to go back to school to learn reading comprehension.


Tabitha continued her post, saying she’d seen these creatures—and yes, she implied there to have been multiples of them—in her dreams. She described them as being “playful and not particularly harmful,” which is “part of the reason I want to call them imps.” Tabitha also said that she “would love to know if anyone else has had any experiences with these creatures, or if they have any information on them.”


Rounding things off, Tabitha said that while they didn’t appear to be harmful, not knowing what they are has proven to be “a little unsettling.” Especially since she’d been experiencing sleep paralysis more often. I can relate to that! It’s really awful and not fun.


Normally, that would be the end of the story. However, this site allows for comments (as I brought up earlier). Out of curiosity, I went through them, and there are quite a few I want to touch upon. So, without further ado, let’s dig into them in a fancy new stylized section transition.


Story Comments: The Revenge of the Return of the Rise of the Paranormal Community 


The transition is a work in progress.


The first one Tabitha received was from a user named “RSAChick.” She was the one who pointed out the sharp teeth, asking if it was carnivorous. She also asked for more details on the creature’s appearance, which Tabitha gave. Here’s her response:


My mom met it in in home in Maryland, and she said that there was no one else around. She also said that it was very tiny maybe around a foot [30 centimeters] or less.


This is the only comment Tabitha directly responded to, but fret not: there are still others that are really interesting.


The second commenter, named CuriousDee, brought up another user, Tweed, who specializes in “nature spirits.” They also linked two of her stories: Blue Brownie and Gnooooome (and yes, that’s how she spelled it). I had no idea what a “Brownie” was outside of the delicacy; it’s, apparently, a creature from Scottish folklore that, based on the picture used in the Wikipedia article, looks like a demented Pinocchio. Honestly, I had never heard of these things until Tweed’s story, so I figured it was a spirit that she had nicknamed because it looked like a brownie. 


Anyway, out of curiosity, I skimmed through them to see if there was anything that may prove to be useful for this write-up. In the case of the latter, there really wasn’t. The first one, however, actually did; Tweed apparently had the flu and saw a blue humanoid in her bedroom. I won’t linger on it for too long, but the incident sounded a fair bit like the one today. A blue humanoid appeared, though he teleported around and apparently changed his height at one point. If I’m to be honest with you all, a part of me has to wonder if she was hallucinating from a fever. I’ve done that before when I had strep throat. Though, based on what Tweed said in the story, I doubt that may be the case.


If you’re interested in stories about elementals, nature spirits, and the like, I think you’d enjoy her experiences as they’re well-written and nicely detailed. Honestly, given my atrocious knowledge of nature spirits, I might read through some of her stuff so that I have a better understanding of them. But that’s for another time.


Skipping up a bit, a guest—who went by “Sleeping-with-steve”—left a link to the Wikipedia article on Imps. I have no idea if you can edit stories on this site, but I have to wonder if Tabitha added the references to Imps after that comment. Or maybe I’m overthinking things.


Next up, a user named “ThunderBaby” asked what Tabitha’s heritage was and suggested that the little blue guy may have been “blessing” her while she was still in the womb. Unfortunately, Tabitha never gave any background information on this. So, whether or not this little fellow has some sort of ancestral connection is up for debate. I like the idea, though. It’s comforting in a way.


A comment by “AugustaM” caught my eye due to her mentioning a “local legend” from Maryland that she believes she heard. Although Augusta said she’d ask friends from Maryland, she never followed up with anything. I tried looking up stories from there about blue people, but all I got were results relating to Jim Hall, along with some stories about Baltimore—nothing about tiny blue guys. I then decided to also check a book I own for a story like this, but to no avail. My heart weeps.


After that, there’s my favorite comment. A user named “echosmithrocks” puts forth the idea that it was a Smurf. Given there’s an article on the Paranormal World Wiki (one that I’ll likely go over next year), I’m a bit hesitant to dismiss this theory outright. Let’s keep an open mind, folks. Maybe there weren’t many Smurfberries for the winter, and so Papa Smurf had to resort to sending out “Harbinger of your Child’s inevitable demise at the hands of little blue people Smurf” to instill the fear of Smurf God in the souls of us humans. That way, when the time came, we would accept defeat at the hands of our Smurf overlords. Or perhaps I am spouting nonsense.


The next comment comes to us from Tweed! Indeed, she decided to give her thoughts on the story, something that I didn’t expect. There were two things she said that caught my eye; the first was that she speculated the spirit “may have been summoned by the people in the home.” I don’t know if I’m just forgetting something or what, but I have no idea what Tweed was trying to say there. If she meant that other people living with Tabitha summoned the spirit, I feel that was poorly conveyed. If it was something else, then it went over my head.


The second was something that surprised me on a personal level. Tweed said the sleep paralysis was “likely unrelated” and was likely brought on by stress or fatigue. While I try my best to keep my opinions out of the main story, I want to say that it genuinely shocked me to see this take on a website dedicated to the paranormal. Something I tend to notice with sites like this is tunnel vision, with users often taking things without giving it a second thought. To see a user actually offer a down-to-earth answer isn’t something I expected.


Anyway, this has gone on for long enough. I considered covering the final three, but they’re not relevant. The most interesting came from a user who asked about a painting he saw on a show on the Travel Channel. I considered bringing it up, but it’s ultimately irrelevant.


With that, our story comes to an end; I wish I could say I had a blast writing about this one, but I’ll refrain from that for now. Instead, I’ll focus on the theories, of which there are a fair number. So, let’s dig in!


Theories


1. A spirit of some sort


Okay, this theory is a conglomeration of every possible spirit. I figured I’d much rather that as opposed to a dozen smaller ideas that amount to the same thing. This is something I would like to start doing going forward since I believe I get carried away from time to time when it comes to this section. It’ll become consistent starting next year since, shock of all shocks, I wrote all of this month’s articles out of order. Why did I do that? I can’t answer that for you as I lack one. That right there has to be irrefutable proof that I am a moron.


I, obviously, can’t go through a list of every possible spirit this may have been. I have no idea what Tabitha’s heritage is, nor do I know of every spirit out there from the various beliefs. In fact, I know so little that I do my best to avoid stories like this for that very reason. Unfortunately, that means a lot of paranormal stories go uncovered by yours truly.


With that said, assuming this was a spirit, I think it’s safe to say that this wasn’t a malevolent one. It didn’t cause any adverse harm to Tabitha’s mom or Tabitha herself. Unless there was more that she didn’t let us know about, I doubt this thing has been biding its time for the past, say, 15–20 years. Then again, I am no demonologist, so I won’t assume too much.


There’s the possibility it was an Imp. As I said earlier, Imps aren’t inherently evil beings—at least not when it comes to all beliefs. That’s about all I know, though. I have no idea if there are stories that speak of blue Imps or if Imps are known for poking the stomachs of pregnant women. I can’t believe I just typed that.


Okay, moving on from that, there’s the possibility it was a nature spirit. As I said earlier, I know absurdly little about them. The little I do know doesn’t match up with this story. Perhaps it’s my meager understanding, but I’ve always associated nature spirits with guardians of nature and wildlife, not beings who go around blessing unborn children. Unless I’m wrong, this seems a bit off to me.


The next candidate—or rather, candidates—we have are elementals. I know even less about these than I do with nature spirits. My understanding of elementals amounts to what I’ve seen of them in World of Warcraft, which means all I envision is Ragnaros. In other words, I know absolutely nothing about “real-life” elementals. Whatever they may be in whatever cultures or beliefs recognize them.


Another possibility is that it was some sort of guardian spirit. This is probably the most plausible when it comes to this theory. The only issue I have with it is that I’ve never heard of any guardian spirit looking like this one. However, that largely falls on me as my mental image of one is usually something a bit more akin to an angelic warrior and not a blue ankle-biter.


There’s also the possibility it was a ghost that took on the guise of an Imp-like being. I’ve heard claims of ghosts doing this, though they usually take on the appearance of an animal. The only problem I can think of is that this little blue dude sounded more physical than incorporeal.


I’m sure there are other possibilities, but again, I have no idea what Tabitha’s heritage is, and I can’t possibly go through every kind of spirit (hell, I don’t even know every type out there). So, if I missed a noteworthy candidate, let me know; I’ll try to remember it in the future if a theory like this pops up.


2. Some kind of unknown humanoid


Before I say anything else, the idea that it was a Smurf is obviously the most plausible case, but Big Smurf will never let you know about that. Just like Big Pencil won’t let your pencils ever be properly sharpened since they’re cahoots with Big Sharpener.


Right off the bat, I want to say that this theory does beg one question more than the others: was Tabitha’s mother inside or outside? I’ve heard stories about people seeing small humanoids in their homes; they are by no means a novelty. I believe they’re common in Mexico, Central America, and South America. Most are legends, but reports do exist.


Despite that, if I were to treat those accounts as truth, I would expect the little guy to have stayed in the home and not show up once and bugger off back to wherever he came from after poking Tabiths’s mom’s belly. While I guess there could be some deeper spiritual meaning that I am missing, it seems rather pointless just to do that without explanation. Or perhaps it was Gigachad energy in the form of a 1-foot-tall blue humanoid; heck if I know.


If this story occurred outdoors, however, I would get why it never showed up again. Odds are, it scurried back off into the forest (assuming this didn’t take place in a major city like Baltimore). If it did take place in Baltimore, I would put good money on it, having been shot not long after being seen. I apologize to any readers of mine who are from Baltimore.


With all of that said, I do have one question. Assuming this was some sort of humanoid cryptid, what in the world was it? No, really, I want to know. I can’t say I’ve heard of a creature like this. Perhaps I need to dig into humanoid encounters more, but this doesn’t sound like any that I’ve ever heard of. If you know of any like this one, please let me know because this has bothered me the entire time I’ve been writing this.


3. A dream


This was a theory that I thought of when writing this. I couldn’t help but wonder if Tabitha’s mom fell asleep without realizing it. I know next to nothing about pregnancy (I was never exactly great in biology class), but I cannot imagine it’s a relaxing experience. I dunno, just a hunch that I have. It may be the pregnant part that gives me that vibe.


Setting aside the hunch, I wouldn’t be surprised if Tabitha’s mother had a dream (possibly a lucid one), and it stuck with her. Especially if she didn’t realize she’d fallen asleep. I’ve had moments like this, and I imagine many others have, too.


Alternatively, she may have had an episode of sleep paralysis, and the little blue fellow was a “sleep paralysis demon.” However, I’ll concede that this is a lot less likely since I think it’d be rather odd if Tabittha’s mother didn’t realize she was experiencing sleep paralysis. Though, hey, maybe she didn’t; I can’t disprove that.


Regardless, this theory is arguably the most rational of them all. The one thing I have to wonder is if Tabitha’s mom was inside or outside. If she nodded off outside, I wouldn’t be too surprised if a small, curious animal wandered onto her, and that influenced her dream. It’s a stretch, but weirder things have happened, at least, in my opinion.


4. A hoax


It’s funny; this theory, by all accounts, should be one of the most mundane to elaborate on. However, given I’ve written all of Decemystery completely out of order (aside from the inaugural entry for 2022.3), I can’t help but roll my eyes. This is about the 40th time I’ve written about it, and I’m beginning to think that including it was a stupid idea. Common sense dictates I should stop having it in these write-ups, but I lack that; I lost it prior to birth. 


Given the rather genuine feeling from Tabitha’s post, I cannot see her having made this up of her own accord. As for her mom, I have absolutely no idea why she would do it. I would get it if her mom was prone to pulling pranks (which I’d just like to say, this would be a garbage prank) or a habitual liar, but Tabitha mentioned neither of those things. I can’t imagine she would treat this story seriously if either of those things were true.


The only way I can see this theory working is if it was a staunch nonbeliever of the paranormal who wanted to screw with a site dedicated to those who believe in it. However, why they wouldn’t try to milk it for all its worth is beyond me. Usually, there’s some point you want to make when doing something like that. With Tabitha, she replied once to a comment and—as far as I can tell—never posted anything afterward.


On one final note, I swear that by the time all 64 of these write-ups are done, I’ll never want to see the proposal that something was a hoax again. I’ll get flashbacks to the final six months of 2023; I’ll be flooded with mental images of me, sitting on my bed, explaining why something may or may not have been one.


5. James Cameron’s Avatar for kids


It’ll still find a way to make 2 billion at the box office. Bravo, Cameron. 


My Take


I’m deeply torn on this story. On one hand, I do believe in ghosts, and there isn’t anything here that strikes me as aggressively outlandish. It isn’t like Tabitha’s mother said she saw this thing cooking, and then it disappeared with a carton of milk. It appeared, touched her stomach, and then went off to do whatever.


Honestly, not knowing makes this entire thing a million times harder to draw a conclusion. Usually, I am willing to give even the most bonkers of stories a chance; I want to hear the eyewitness out and let their experience be told. But, when there are crucial details like this missing, it becomes incredibly difficult to make heads or tails of it. For all I know, it was left out because it’s a troll, and the original poster wanted people like me to go insane trying to figure out what happened.


If I had to take a guess, I’d say that Tabitha’s mom probably nodded off without realizing it. To me, that’s the most rational explanation and is the only one that explains the missing details (aside from it being made up). I have no idea if the pregnancy would have influenced her mental state (again, biology is not my strong suit), but I imagine it may have a bit.


If that, by some chance, isn’t the case, then I have no idea. To me, the story isn’t absurd enough to be a hoax; Tabitha sounded like she was really trying to get a bit of assistance. The only thing that makes me raise an eyebrow is she didn’t respond more, but it’s possible she didn’t check back after a while.


The spirit theory is, in my eyes, the second most likely, but I have no idea what kind of spirit it would be. I’ve heard of some odd, weird entities, but this one genuinely sounds like the one from Eiffel 65’s I’m Blue came to life. Which, hey, I don’t mind. That song is great.


I have nothing to say about the humanoid theory. All jokes about it being a Smurf aside, I sincerely doubt this was a physical being. Unless a garden gnome came to life and got covered in blue paint. If that’s the case, then I hate those things even more than I already did.


In the end, I just wish I had more to go off of. The fact Tabitha never said anything else, outside of saying it was a foot tall, serves only to make me lose my hair—metaphorically, anyway. Maybe if I knew what happened after it touched her mother’s stomach, I could at least feel confident in saying that I thought it was a spirit, all made up, or something else. Alas, I am not so lucky. This is one of the numerous reasons why I don’t gamble.


The only thing I can say with any level of confidence is that I agreed with Tweed when she noted that Tabitha’s sleep paralysis was likely unrelated. While I know some claim demons (and other supernatural entities) can cause it, Tabitha never described seeing or feeling anything during those episodes. As far as I can tell, she was merely suffering from regular old sleep paralysis, which is far from rare. Especially if you sleep on your back. Trust me on this; I am very prone to getting it.


Conclusion


And so, with that, another Decemystery entry comes to a close. This one was relatively tough to write on account of the lack of information and carpal tunnel syndrome, which made my arm feel like it would explode. Granted, the exposure to a new website to find material from made it all worthwhile—for the most part. It’s just that I could go without wanting to replace my arm with a robotic one. Oh well, beggars can’t be choosey; at least I’m not suffering from severe dizziness like I was in August.


Anyway, if you have any thoughts you would like to share on this story, leave a comment, and as always, stay happy, stay healthy, and thank you for reading!

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