# The Little People **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 27, 2004, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-little-people/242347 "2004-04-27T20:56:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ghuff1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/0ea827/32.png) [@ghuff1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ghuff1)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2004, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-little-people/242347/1 "2004-04-27T20:56:07Z")
I know this sounds strange but here goes. A couple years ago I was falling asleep at the wheel on a rural highway. All of the sudden this little guy dressed like a gnome runs across the road. I became more alert needless to say. I then saw 3 more of these little people standing on the side of the road. They were not standing together they were probably about a mile apart. The next morning I mentioned it to my father and he said he’s seen them many times. I’ve spoken to quite a few people claiming to have seen them. My question is this: If I saw them with no prior knowledge of others seeing them and others have seen the exact same thing as me does this mean they are real? I mean why would people have the exact same hallucinations? ---
**Author:** ![Ross](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e274bd/32.png) [@Ross](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ross)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2004, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-little-people/242347/2 "2004-04-27T21:45:01Z")
_ianad_, but it’s not unknown for people to share delusions. If you and your father are very close, or live together in an isolated area, or are otherwise isolated (say because of unusual cultural barriers), then his psychosis could “transfer”, particularly if you’re very emotionally dependent on or subserviant to him. [The page I found](http://www.allexperts.com/previousqv.asp?QuestionID=2493018) calls it induced delusional disorder. Here are the other possibilities: (a) you’re winding us up (b) your father is winding you up © there really is a gnome race up there, or a bunch of little guys who like dressing as gnomes, and by some startlingly unhelpful coincidence humans are really only likely to see them if they’re in a highly unreliable hypnopompic state like falling asleep at the wheel of a moving vehicle However I’d appreciate it if you didn’t mention my scepticism to the gnomes. ---
**Author:** ![Ross](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e274bd/32.png) [@Ross](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ross)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2004, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-little-people/242347/3 "2004-04-27T21:48:11Z")
ps: you would have to have prior knowledge of someone seeing them but your apparent lack of such knowledge could be explained by further psychological trickery, like you forgot, or you were told about it at a time of extreme stress, or as a child, or something. ---
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2004, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-little-people/242347/4 "2004-04-27T22:06:32Z")
I’m glad to see people are seeing the ‘little’ people again. I thought they had been completely surplanted by the aliens (Greys and what not). There is quite a history behind the ‘little’ people especially in Northern Europe. Of course they don’t exist, but I’d avoid angering them just in case I’m wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Jojo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecd19e/32.png) [@Jojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jojo)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2004, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-little-people/242347/5 "2004-04-27T22:17:32Z")
If you ever meet a leprechaun then this is what you must do (this is absolutely true, by the way): Approach him _very_ slowly maintaining eye contact all the time. If you lose eye contact even for a second then he will disappear. When you get right up to him, untie his boots and take them off. He will then tell you where the gold is hidden. ---
**Author:** ![moriah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@moriah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moriah)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2004, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-little-people/242347/6 "2004-04-27T22:19:46Z")
If I ever saw a gnome on the side of the road, I’d want to prove it to others by shooting it with a camera or a gun. And since pictures can be doctored… ---
**Author:** ![Ross](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e274bd/32.png) [@Ross](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ross)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2004, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-little-people/242347/7 "2004-04-27T22:29:46Z")
> [@Jojo](#): > > If you ever meet a leprechaun then this is what you must do (this is absolutely true, by the way): > > Approach him _very_ slowly maintaining eye contact all the time. If you lose eye contact even for a second then he will disappear. When you get right up to him, untie his boots and take them off. He will then tell you where the gold is hidden. Ha! Typical gnomey disinformation! That’s what they want you to do! In my experience there’s no gold, anyway, once you get to the faerie kingdom you just get given a three-hour hardsell for a timeshare on a toadstool, and if you resist that for long enough they grudgingly bung you a couple of old 5ps and some extremely cheap-tasting rum, and then you wake up back where you started but with your underwear on inside out. ---
**Author:** ![GLWasteful](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f05b48/32.png) [@GLWasteful](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GLWasteful)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2004, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-little-people/242347/8 "2004-04-27T22:33:42Z")
**Ross** > [@](#): > > Ha! Typical gnomey disinformation! That’s what they want you to do! In my experience there’s no gold, anyway, once you get to the faerie kingdom you just get given a three-hour hardsell for a timeshare on a toadstool, and if you resist that for long enough they grudgingly bung you a couple of old 5ps and some extremely cheap-tasting rum, and then you wake up back where you started but with your underwear on inside out. You’ve no idea how lucky you were that you were **wearing** underwear. Let’s just say that they get pretty peeved when you have an unfurnished basement. Waste ---
**Author:** ![badbadrubberpiggy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/57b2e6/32.png) [@badbadrubberpiggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/badbadrubberpiggy)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2004, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-little-people/242347/9 "2004-04-27T22:45:42Z")
heheh…might you be open to the suggestion that the “gnomes” are part of a huge practical joke? A friend of mine dressed up as a garden gnome for halloween a few years ago, as she’s only 4’11". Fantastic costume, that also got a few strange looks. Our newest plan is to have her dress up like that, go to a bar, and have her sit next to the drunkest person there. We, of course, will deny that there is a gnome at all, and that said drunk is seeing things. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2004, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-little-people/242347/10 "2004-04-27T22:49:19Z")
> [@ghuff1](#): > > My question is this: If I saw them with no prior knowledge of others seeing them and others have seen the exact same thing as me does this mean they are real? I mean why would people have the exact same hallucinations? Wasn’t there an entire thread in MPSIMS relatively recently about a whole lot of people who imagined little figure running alongside the cars they were in? Which was explained as a common mental pattern amongst us. (I can’t find the thread, but then I wasn’t one of those involved. I’m terribly dull.) ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2004, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-little-people/242347/11 "2004-04-27T23:18:47Z")
There is a race of smallish humans known as ‘children’; perhaps it was one or more of these that you say. ---
**Author:** ![Jojo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecd19e/32.png) [@Jojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jojo)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2004, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-little-people/242347/12 "2004-04-27T23:33:02Z")
> [@](#): > > If I ever saw a gnome on the side of the road, I’d want to prove it to others by shooting it with a camera or a gun. And since pictures can be doctored… I just want to say that this is REALLY bad advice. Since this is GQ, only FACTUAL answers are acceptable. Never, repeat, NEVER kill a gnome or a leprechaun. You will bring down a curse upon your whole family line. The OP was driving tired and could possibly have veered off and run him down. Jesus, I don’t want to even think about the consequences. NEVER kill a gnome or a leprechaun. Although I think you are allowed to mildly peeve a pixie. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2004, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-little-people/242347/13 "2004-04-27T23:43:57Z")
> [@](#): > > All of the sudden this little guy dressed like a gnome runs across the road. I became more alert needless to say. I then saw 3 more of these little people standing on the side of the road. They were not standing together they were probably about a mile apart. AGAIN with your “I saw little leople” shenanigans, eh O’Gill? ---
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2004, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-little-people/242347/14 "2004-04-27T23:47:15Z")
…But, they were in DC riding on the Metro. I think they were Metro-gnomes! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Amberlei](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e56c9b/32.png) [@Amberlei](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amberlei)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2004, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-little-people/242347/15 "2004-04-27T23:56:15Z")
Several years ago, I was trying to drive straight through from Anaheim to Spokane, a distance of about 1300 miles (all of this with only 3 hours of sleep in the past 24). About 15 hours or so into the trip I saw a giant sitting in the middle of the road a few miles outside of Biggs, OR. I stopped, stared at him a good three minutes or so, and then he suddenly just faded out. He looked very real to me, while he was there, and he was HUGE! He was sitting cross legged in the road, but his legs were higher than the truck I was driving. Needless to say, I was more than a little freaked out. After finally getting some sleep and reflecting on the situation, I concluded that I’d had a hallucination due to fatigue, and hallucinated a giant because I knew that the next town to come up was Biggs. My guess would be that you experienced something similar to this. ---
**Author:** ![William\_Ashbless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a87d85/32.png) [@William\_Ashbless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/William_Ashbless)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2004, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-little-people/242347/16 "2004-04-27T23:58:55Z")
> [@Jinx](#): > > …But, they were in DC riding on the Metro. I think they were Metro-gnomes! 😃 I’m pretty sure they’d be ticked to hear you tocking about this train of thought. ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2004, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-little-people/242347/17 "2004-04-28T00:12:46Z")
**Amberlie,** I once stopped on a county gravel road to allow an 18 wheel tractor-trailer to pull out of a cotton field. I was seriously sleep-deprived at the time, and it all seemed completly real. Strange. ---
**Author:** ![xvxdarkknightxvx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/34f0e0/32.png) [@xvxdarkknightxvx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xvxdarkknightxvx)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2004, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-little-people/242347/18 "2004-04-28T01:24:00Z")
Was this on the day before November 1st? ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2004, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-little-people/242347/19 "2004-04-28T02:56:39Z")
> [@ghuff1](#): > > I know this sounds strange but here goes. A couple years ago I was falling asleep at the wheel on a rural highway. All of the sudden this little guy dressed like a gnome runs across the road. How little? About the size of a rabbit, perhaps? That small? how do gnomes dress, exactly? Brown coats and long ears, maybe? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![cornflakes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@cornflakes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cornflakes)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2004, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-little-people/242347/20 "2004-04-28T03:29:41Z")
> [@ghuff1](#): > > …I then saw 3 more of these little people standing on the side of the road. They were not standing together they were probably about a mile apart. Did they look anything like [these little people](http://www.firehydrant.org/pictures/southbend-decorated.html)? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-little-people/242347.md?page=2)