The UK

I am a 35 year-old lad from the UK. I was walking in the Forest of Dean and reached St. Anthony's Well - it's a spring with a well made by monks, supposed to be healing. Now, I have no unusual beliefs and no interest in the paranormal (not since childhood anyway). I saw what I could only describe as a fairy. A white human-like figure, approx. 5", had its back to me by one of the streams from the spring. I say human-like, but it had butterfly style wings and was bright white, almost translucent. It turned and saw me - I can clearly recall it's face - then flew swiftly away over the ridge, flying close to the ground like nothing I have seen before. What was that all about? Do these myths really exist? Did I have some on-off hallucination? What is going on?!!!!!!!!!!!! Just an ancient and shared mystery I suppose. Yes, do use the tale - I hope it makes normal sane people feel less insane upon a sighting! …

Fairygardens.com replies: When I started my site I had a fondness for 'fairies' I did not believe in their existence. Since the site began in 2000 a lot of seemingly sane adults have sent in their sighting experiences. So many that I now think there are occurrences that can be seen by the human or camera eye that do not yet have a definition in scientific terms. I imagine these ‘things’ are the inspiration for the fairy myths. Nature is grand and there are many more surprises to discover! 

Faye

I hope it will add to the immense joy and wonder that people feel when reading about fairy sightings. It happened when I was twelve. I was in the backyard of somebody's house. There was a tree there too, only I don't remember which one exactly. Well, I was walking across the porch, thinking that maybe I should sit down when I saw it. On one of the leaves of the tree, there was this pair of butterfly wings. They were golden-white, and gleaming. They were not fluttering. They were very still. For one wild moment I wondered if it was a fairy. The weird thing is that although I'm sure it wasn't a butterfly, it looked like one. But what confirmed my belief that it was a fairy is that I just do NOT remember what happened immediately after I set my eyes on that little creature. It's like my memory of that time's just been wiped out!! I've heard fairies can play such tricks on you!! It was magical. I know I'll never forget it. The second time it happened was with my sister. It was at night and we were both lying in bed, talking. Suddenly, my sister went quiet. When she spoke again, she said she saw a seven-inch thing pause at the window (our window had pink, nearly transparent curtains, so you could see the shadow of anyone who was outside the window). Those things spread out its hands, only they were not hands-they were wings! But then it vanished immediately!! This was around a year ago. I was eighteen then. She's not so sure about it, but I totally am. If I may add another little advice for fairy lovers-never go looking for fairies, especially in dangerous places like a forest. They'll come to you at their own time. I hope I have many encounters with fairies in the future.

Elin, Wales

About seven years ago, in my first term at university in Wales , I lived in a room right across from the promenade which led onto the beach and into the Irish sea . I’d been asleep and was woken sometime after midnight. I got out of bed and looked out of the window. I remember feeling very fuzzy headed and as though I was half not there. As I looked down I saw a man who looked about four foot high and he was dancing a jig on bench, looking up into my window. He was laughing and jumping up and down. He seemed old and had a ruddy complexion, but was so light of foot. He smiled then and waved and I swear he disappeared right in front of my eyes with a final leap straight into thin air. I went back to bed then and didn’t remember until a few days later. The memory is still fuzzy, but I think he’d been having fun with all the students in the bay who were drinking and singing so early in the term. The only way I can describe him is as a leprechaun.  

Ontario, Canada

I live in Ontario, Canada.  When I was four, we had a large backyard with three gardens.  (One for flowers, one for food, and one was a wild rhubarb patch).  My mom would plant seeds and tend to the garden only occasionally because she was otherwise very busy.  I spent most of my time in a two square-meter sandbox right beside the flower garden and played with the water hose, making sandcastles with motes to drive toy cars around or just spraying it into the air to make a rainbow.  I used to have "an imaginary friend" who I said I met near the snapdragons.  I don't remember very much from then other than going to a secret place with him behind our shed which I have never been able to find on my trips back home, and that when I asked him his name he laughed and said I could call him John.  As I got older, I rationalised all my memories of playing with John to be my own imagination.  I'm still reluctant to call him a fairy, but recent events have spurred me to let someone know about this (lord knows my friends won't believe me).  I'll start off by describing what he could do and let you decide.  When we played together, he would hide in my shadow (or behind my reflection when I let him into the house) if there were other people nearby.  I should mention that if he let me see him, he would have to "grow" into view, starting out small and undefined, but could get as big as two feet.  Playing is what brought him out, and crying would scare him away. He left me entirely when I was about eight.  He couldn't hide from me anymore, and was surprised when I could see him sneaking around.  I was even able to get to the places he showed me that no one else could find when he wasn't there.  Then he was gone, and I mostly forgot about him.

When I was 16 I met a girl in high school who claimed to be a witch.  Now I'm a scientific person for the most part (although I believe in God), but somehow I could always tell when she had performed one of her rituals.  When I asked her what she does, she said she wasn't a witch in the commonly known sense, but her "magic" was based on trying to speak to nature spirits and gain their blessings.  Needless to say she was surprised as to how I could always tell when she felt one of her spells was successful, but I never told her about my own experiences.  We weren't really in the same circle of friends so we didn't see each other often.  I visited a park when I was 18 on my way home from school.  It was a hot day, so I wanted to take the path with the shade rather than the slightly shorter walk home along the road.  I decided to stop and enjoy the air for a while, so I sat on the park bench facing a sanded area with a swingset and a slide - nothing too fancy.  There was a kid there who was maybe seven, playing alone while his mom read on a bench nearby.  The kid had that same feeling to me that the girl had that reminded me of when I was his age.  I heard him talking to himself, so I went over and sat on the top of the slide.  He spoke quieter because I was closer, but this point of vantage let me see where he was looking when he spoke, just beside his leg.  I almost fell off the slide when I saw a thin, pretty little girl half his size in a little gown right beside him!  It was hard to keep my eyes on her, and every few seconds it felt like I was telling myself I was seeing things, but in retrospect I'm certain there was a tiny girl beside that kid.  I graduated from high school and am now in my third year at university.  I live in an industrial area of the city and have a very founded understanding of the world.  I consider myself average.  But, I still see some people differently than others.  Maybe two other people I have seen out of the thousands on campus evoke that particular feeling.  Certain areas have done this too, while being otherwise perfectly normal, and make me feel like theres an extra place there I just don't have the right perspective to see.  I'm only sharing this because it feels like something relevant to get off my chest and don't want to confront anyone about it, but I hope my experiences have leant something to your own. 

Maria

I saw several fairies in the past. They are about the size of a pin head and inside what looks like a an egg shell of light. I mean they look like human beings with wings and inside a blob of light that has the shape of an egg. The colors vary from yellow, green and orange. They are quite playful and would like to atttract your attention. Last summer I got a video of some fairies in my videocam. I still have to download it to my computer. Aside from fairies I also saw dwarfs, trolls and what looks like what I can call a wind fairie. The wind fairie is like a smoke travelling around with a face, a beautiful face. The dwarfs are as big as a liter of soda, their faces are all similar and they come in groups and emit some solors like white, brown and black. Seeing a fairie is almost like seeing a ghost. The substance of their bodies are somewhat the same.

OCTOBER 11, 2007

This happened October 11, 2007, when I was 51 years old.  I was lying in bed sleeping in the morning.  I drifted into wakefulness, having that funny feeling that someone was staring at me.  That feeling is distinct, and real, that someone is watching you (ref: "Distant intentionality and the feeling of being stared at: Two meta-analyses" British Journal of Psychology (2004), 95, 235-247. q. 2004 The British Psychological Society. Stefan Schmidt1, Rainer Schneider1, Jessica Utts2, and Harald Walach1.  1 University Hospital Freiburg, Germany; 2 University of California, Davis, USA).
(http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081224210640AA6WhSZ)

I opened my eyes a crack.  Sitting on my bed, not quite two feet away from me, was a tiny person, perhaps about 10 inches tall.  I quickly shut my eyes, assuming this was some sort of sleep-induced hallucination.  I felt curiosity, but mostly disbelief. I decided to open my eyes again to get a better look at it, but not too wide, I didn’t want it to know that I was looking at it, I didn’t want to frighten it.  I was so big and it was so tiny, I was concerned that it might be afraid of me.  I purposely kept my breath slow and even, trying to feign sleep.  I opened my eyes just a bit wider this time, got a better look at it, then quickly shut my eyes again. 

The little person was still watching me intently, with an expression similar to someone observing an animal in a zoo.  It was perhaps 8 to 10 inches tall, this was not easy to estimate as it was sitting.  It was in a cross-legged position looking directly at me.

I was sure I must be sleep-hallucinating.  This little person simply wasn’t possible.  I decided I would open my eyes wide, and it would be gone.  I stopped feigning sleep.  I was wide awake, and I opened my eyes all the way.  To my amazement it was still there.  We looked at each other for a long moment.  Maybe 5 to 10 seconds.

The little person had a very human look, except its eyes were slightly large in proportion to its head size.  It had thick brown hair, in sort of a “bowl” haircut style.  It wore a dark brown jacket and dark green trousers.  There was something a little bit archaic about the cut of the jacket, it had extra large lapels with a double row of buttons.  I could not tell if it was male or female.  It was either male with a slightly effeminate facial structure, or female with a slightly masculine facial structure.

Now I was very concerned that I would frighten it.  I wanted it to know that I was a peaceful person and meant it no harm.  I wanted to try to engage it in conversation.  Could it understand English?  Where was it from?  How did it get here?  Was it from another planet, a parallel world?  My curiosity was overwhelming.  I opened my eyes a fourth time.

It was gone.

I actually searched my room for it, for several minutes.  But it had gone back to where ever it came from.  It was SO real.  It was not the product of some hallucinatory state.  I was convinced that we, the human race, have been visited by non-humans, maybe for thousands of years.  They are curious about us, and discreetly observe us.  These little people have given rise to our many legends of fairies, elves, imps, that permeate all human cultures.  My perception of the technological superiority of the human race was shattered. 

Aren’t we supreme in science? 

We have traveled in space, we have gone to the moon, how could some other race have trumped our technological accomplishments?  Does some other race of beings, a tiny race, have interdimensional travel?  The human race does not reign supreme?  How can this be?

UPDATE January, 2009

I was watching a PBS documentary on the life of astronomer George Ellery Hale, builder of the Palomar 200 inch telescope.  His discoveries and accomplishments have led to our current understanding of the structure of the universe.  Hale was nominated for the Nobel Prize in physics.  To my shock there was a mention in the documentary that Hale had been visited by an “elf.”  The next day I did an internet search and found an explanation that a biographer had misunderstood that the elf visitation was merely a metaphor.  But I wonder if this metaphor misinterpretation explanation was actually a coverup for his real elf sighting.  This is understandable, after all, it is totally inappropriate for a scientist of Hale’s caliber to have a fairytale story attached to his illustrious memory. I personally would never reveal my own elf sighting, except to VERY close friends whom I trust implicitly.

I am an old man in his late sixties but have been a believer most of my life. Well, sir a few years ago I had open heart surgery. They done a triple bypass on me and made me a lot better. However when I first came home from the hospital, I was very sick. I was so weak from the heart disease and the surgery that I caught every thing that came along. So I was sitting in my wing back chair feeling miserable and was suddenly aware that there was someone on my immediate left. I turned my head and there sat an elf on the wing of the chair I was setting in. He was dressed very smartly in a tweed type jacket with a vest and nice shirt underneath. He had short britches and long socks and black shoes. He was smiling at me. A very reassuring smile, and I felt for the first time that every thing was going to be all right. He remained for a short time, I looked away and back again and He was still there. I looked away again and back and He was gone. But the feeling of assurance remained and I got better. Now I have related this story to a chosen few and most have received it with skepticism, a few have believed me, and the rest I still am not sure of. It matters not who believes me, the tale is true.

Shannon - 37 years

37 years old and have worked with faerie magic for a long while.  There are many different types of faeries all over the desert southwest.I also make faerie dust from dried flowers from around Tucson.  The dried flowers carry the healing properties of the plants and the faeries that work with those plants. ;) http://faeriemagic.wordpress.com/. I work with faeries all of the time and made a videography of the Rose Flower Faeries where I live ... they are in Reid Park in Tucson, AZ  USA. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8DMaCWnYw4

My husband and I have lived in Missouri all of our lives and neither one of us has ever witnessed the phenomena that we experienced on June 19, 2010.

It was around 10 p.m. We had just returned home from having supper in a nearby town. We decided to sit out on our patio and relax for a while. Candles were lit and music was softly playing on the radio. There were no cars passing by. It was a quiet Saturday night. We were enjoying the warm breeze and discussing the difference in how an airplane looks in relation to a satellite in the distant sky. I then shifted my gaze to look up at the huge Oak tree that lives in the yard across the street. At that moment I noticed about half-way up the tree there was a very bright light. I was trying to focus on this and figure out if I was seeing a star through the leaves when it started to move out of the tree appearing larger as it came forward! It moved slowly as it came out of the tree, and as it cleared the leaves I could see that the "star" was actually encased in a "bubble" or "globe"! Suddenly the light went out. I kept staring trying not to blink so as not to miss anything. In the next second it came back on as it had already crossed the street and was nearing the tree in our yard. The light was such a bright sparkling silver that it was easy to see it was inside the "bubble" or "globe" because the brilliance of the light in the center projected beams of light that literally lit up all sides of the "bubble" allowing one to see iridescent pastel colors inside just like you would see when blowing bubbles from a child's bottle of bubbles. This is what I observed again in the few seconds before the light went out for the second time as it entered the smaller Redbud tree on our side of the street. I don't think I blinked as I said before so as not to miss anything that might happen next and I was mesmerized. It was so beautiful.

I asked my husband if he saw it too, and he said "Yes"! I said "What was THAT"? He said that he had no idea. If he had not been there I would have doubted that I could really have seen such a thing. It only lasted a few seconds, but it's a very profound and hard to forget experience. We kept sitting there waiting to see if anything else appeared, but saw nothing. I don't know why we did not get up and go look to investigate closer, but since it was so dark I think it would have been next to impossible to see anything. Also in thinking back it was so out-of-the-ordinary that it seemed unapproachable.

I have searched the internet over looking for what this might have been and the only website that I could find similar sightings on is about "fairy sightings". This probably sounds as silly and far out to anyone reading this as the story itself, but if one researches a little deeper into such things there is much evidence down through time of this phenomena occurring. The "fairy sightings" website has numerous stories sent in by children and adults alike and they are divided into these two categories. There are 1 or 2 stories similar to ours, although I must admit I only read the adult stories because of the possibilities of reading stories from children's imaginations. One book I read on the subject stated that most people attribute these things to extra-terrestrials, but also stated that there are many unexplained phenomena that are of this earth.

We have tried several times since that night to reproduce the exact same circumstances such as being seated in the same spot (which may have hidden us), lighting candles, and turning on music, but have seen nothing. Was it coincidence that the books say that these sightings occur right before the Summer solstice and this night happened to be that very time? There are several other things the books mention that are an attraction to this happening such as the presence of music, flowers, and large Oak trees. It even goes so far as to say people who have pets draw these things to them. We have two outside cats and one inside cat and many flowers planted in the landscape.

I do know that if we had not looked up at just the right moment that we would have never known or suspected that there was such a spectacular thing so close by, and it's obvious to me that it did not want to be seen since it went dark while crossing the street, but came back on when entering the leaves of our tree only to go back off immediately.

I can only hope that we will be privileged to view this spectacular sight again, and that we will be able to discover more people with the same experience or some knowledge of exactly what it was that we saw. We will be watching every chance we get and when Summer changes into Autumn.

In October of 1979, I was one month from my 16th birthday...I had two cousins (16 and 18 yrs old) visiting me from out of   state. The three of us along with another friend (16 yrs old), decided to hike the hills behind my house. I grew up in South Eastern Kentucky and this was a bit out in the country.  About a mile into the hike, I had a "call of nature" and stopped at a fallen log. My cousins and friend hiked on up a bit and stopped to wait on me. Just as I was about to take care of business, I noticed to my right a figure that I first thought was a small doll that someone had dropped.  Yet, this "doll" was standing upright and looking at me, and I knew right off that it was alive. I noticed he was wearing a green tunic type outfit and a green slightly pointed hat that was folded over to his right side. His left ear was showing and I could tell it was pointed. He was only about 4-5 feet from me standing on the edge of the log and smiling, then he winked at me. I had a very clear view of him and could tell he was male...He was about 5-6 inches tall. I then felt a light breeze and could smell the great fall smell of the woods and felt this incredible feeling of happiness and peace come over me. He then laid his right hand, palm on his chest and   smiled wider, I then looked up the path where my cousins and friend had gone, then I looked back and he was gone. I then heard a faint laugh. I got up without even taking care of business and ran to tell my cousins and friend...They kidded me so much about it that I eventually told them I was joking...but,  It was all true and ever since then I have looked at the world  in a different way. A better way I believe. :) folks will read  this and some will think its just all made up, well, I know what  I saw and it all happened and I consider myself one lucky guy to  have been honored by that visit from an elf.