When I was very young, I used to have this recurring nightmare about someone I apparently dubbed "The Pelican Man." He would make me wake up screaming whenever he paid a visit, and for some reason I would never tell my parents exactly what it was about him that frightened me so.

One evening, after being awakened by said visitor, I sat crying and shivering on my father's lap, and he told me, "The next time you see him, just tell him to go away. He has no power over you. Simply tell him to be gone."

At the time, of course, I didn't think I would be able to do this, but I did. He went away, and hasn't visited me since. It struck me as odd that it was so easy to make him go away, simply by telling him that he had no power over me.