Reply #11: I had a curious experience, once.

[sofa king]

I was being an ugly American tourist somewhere along the west coast of the South Island of New Zealand, where the "bush" is a jungle denser than any I've ever seen (and I've seen South America). There is shit growing off of shit that's growing off of shit that's growing itself, and visibility in this dense, 3-dimensional undergrowth is less than five to ten feet. Even in fenced-off areas highly trafficked by tourists, we were warned not to wander off into the bush, because so many people get lost every year.

So naturally, I did wander off into the bush, at my first opportunity. Within just a few minutes I was all alone, with no sense of direction and nothing to see but moss, bush, vine, and tree in every direction, including straight above. I stood still in one spot for a couple of minutes, watching and listening.

All of a sudden, I had the strangest feeling pass over me, a little like fear, but different, and in my own mind a phrase suddenly began to repeat itself: you shouldn't be here. I got scared and called out to my friends, who it turned out were only about 50 feet away on the path.

That incident can easily be chalked up to my own fears, compounded by the strident warnings I was given before I set off to do exactly what I shouldn't have done. But if it wasn't just that, then I may have experienced something like that which you describe. Perhaps I was the recipient of a chemical message from the plants which I had just disturbed.

Anyway, it was a strange enough experience that I still remember it quite clearly over a decade later.