When I was a little girl, I used to believe
that the sound of the pulse in my ear was caused by a little man climbing up my pillow to get me. Sometimes that sound still catches me off gaurd just before dozing off.

Racheal

When i was a kid i knew there were monsters under the bed. i grew up in california, and one night when i was around five, i was lying in bed when an earthquake hit, shaking my bed.

I yelled to my mom, who was in bed in the next room, "I told you so! I told you so! There are monsters under the bed!" She yelled back, "Don't come in here!" She thought she her bed was possessed by demons ala The Exorcist. That was comforting.

Anon

When I was about 4 or 5 i thought that gremlins would come and get me when I was a sleep in bed. I thought that the only way for them to stop them kidnapping me was to surround my self with all my teddy bears as I thought they would protect me from harm.

Anon

i used to believe in Wee WIlly Winkie who used to come round and see if I was in bed yet. I even heard him talking to my dad downstairs (it was my dad using two voices but it convinced me at 5). There was also the threat of Willy's brother Big Winkie (who i think had horns) if i continued not to go to bed.

Bob - Kent

This is a very strange belief... I believed that if I was alone for too long that everybody in the world would somehow be turned into living skeletons. I would obviously be terrified of them, but they would also be disgusted and scared of me because I was all fleshy and muscley. So whenever I felt I was alone for too long I would get very nervous and run around trying to find someone. I guess that's why I'm such a social butterfly now! I have no idea where this came from, but it may have had something to do with the animated skeletons in The Clash of the Titans or The Seven Voyages of Sinbad or something.

Freddy M., Seattle

when I was little and visiting my grandpa Paul's farm, there was an old outhouse that was dilapitated and unsafe to go near, he would always tell us younger kids that there was an untamed unicorn in there, that kept all of us away for years. I believed that until about sixth grade.

liz

When I was little I used to believe that there was an invisible monster under my bed. Since I was afraid it would eat me, I had to feed it socks, but ONLY left ones. For a a year or two I was stuck with one of each sock...

Laurel

When i was little my dad told me goblins lived in our house, i thought they had a control centre behind the couch so that they could see all round the house and when i went upstairs they would be playing with myn things and the control centre would warn them tht i was coming, one day me and my friend got wise and getting some toy guns we stormed the couch thinking we had got rid of the control centre we went upstairs in the dark checking every room and cupboard tht was scary to us and we thought we were really brave

Ryan

when i was young, my mother and my much older sisters would tell me that if i played with my shadow against the wall, that while i was sleeping at night, the shadow would come alive and wreak havoc in the house. for many years, i was scared to even look at my shadow. many of the young children in my family believed this.

boo radley

I used to think there was a monster that lived at the end of the hall during the night and was mortified to go anywhere near the hallway. I later found out that the noises I was hearing that caused me to believe that, was my dad snoring.

Amanda

I put a poster of a tiger on my front door so the monsters would get scared then run away from my room when i was little.

Spencer Solda

When I was 4 or 5 I believed a big growling monster lived in my parents bedroom. Later on I found out that my Dad just always had explosive gas.

Jebulon

When I was five, my dad tried to convince me that not only did the boogie man live in the air vents in our ceiling, but that he had two servants named Frita [a Hispanic woman with a fruit bowl on her head, similar to the Chiquita banana woman] and Mr. Peebles [a very nondescript man wearing a trench coat and a bowler hat]. Frita, I guess, was sort of the boogie man's mistress and they both worked for him.

Aimee

I lived in Ireland when I was young and my older cousins used to visit from England. One of them told me that the lion statues on the gates to Buckingham Palace came to life during a full moon and ran around England eating people. Imagine my reaction when a few months later my Mum told me we were moving to England - I was so scared and begged her not to send me to my death!

Clare

When I got scared at night as a little kid I would pull the sheet over my head to hide from whatever it was that was frightening me. But one night it was so hot I consciously decided that to have protection from evil creatures I only needed to cover 10% of my body. I so completely convinced myself of this that to this day when I read a scary book or see a scary movie I cover myself up to the shins and have full peace of mind.

Derek

When I was a kid, if I was being mischevious or bad in some way, my mom would (rather theatrically) pick up the phone and pretend to call "The Woman". Now, "The Woman" was a bogeyman figure who worked for child services. By all accounts, she had curly teeth, greasy hair, and if called upon would take you away to live with her in a grotty house with itchy blankets and nothing to eat but moldy bread. I used to believe she was real. I remember being so traumatised i'd have nightmares about her, standing 100 feet tall somewhere in the distance, tearing roofs from houses searching for me. Frankly, I think its a wonder I'm not petrified of all women these days...

Cosmopanda

I used to beleive that a "cathedral" was a type of monster.

My mother would sometimes sing me a lullaby called "Green Cathedral" . . . I would lay awake for hours, afraid, because of it.

Anon

When I was a considerably younger I would see the giant oil drills on road trips. When I inquired to what they were my father informed me that they were giant Grasshoppers that ate cars.

I am 19 now and I still cant look at an oil drill without feeling afraid. Thanks Dad.

Megan

i thougt that mongols were green monsters that suck your eyes out.

danai

I used to believe that my Dad's snoring was a tiger in my parent's room. I was too afraid to get up and walk down the hall because I knew it would get me. I had some tough nights sitting on the edge of the bed having to pee but too afraid to go to the bathroom.

Joyce