
Many of us are willing to share a joyful time in our life when our innocence saw good in everything around us.
Favorite trips during the summer, being mischievous with new friends at day camp, and playing with our first pets are all examples of the sweet memories filled with rainbows and sunshine.
But unless asked, hardly anyone would volunteer their darker recollections.
That was until Redditor ghost_haha asked:
"What is the creepiest/strangest/scariest experience you ever had in your life?"

Is it suspicious or just one's wild imagination? You decide.
The Disturbing Roadside View
"This was like 40 years ago. My mom and dad and I were driving in a very rural part of Indiana. I was about 10 years old and sitting in the back seat. As we crossed a short bridge over a stream, I looked out my window and saw a naked woman tied to a tree. I told my dad what I saw, and he reversed the car back over the bridge (to this day i am grateful to him for believing a little kid). Anyway, as we drove back over the stream, we could see that the property owner had tied a mannequin to a tree with a KEEP OUT sign over her head. Sick mofo. That haunted me for years."
Body In Chains
"Coming back from a New York Giants football game as a 12 year old, we were driving past a bunch of old abandoned factories when I saw a teenager in rags and what looked like CHAINS around his body limping away from one of the factories like he just escaped from a horror movie torture chamber. By the time I told my friends dad we were already past where I saw the kid. VERY STRANGE. I know what I saw that day and it was something serious."
Moving Shadows
"I moved into my current home 3 years ago. We originally planned to not have a TV in the bedroom and have a cool hangout spot in the main living room, and the kids had a separate den. This worked out well for maybe the first 6 months to a year."
"I started to not like watching TV at night in the living room. There was something wrong with the lighting in there and it just bothered me. It felt like the normal shadows in there were constantly moving. After a few weeks of just being quiet about that and the weird bumps and noises, I finally said something to my SO. He seemed relieved that I could see it too. It always looked like someone was walking back and forth behind us when we were on the couch, and sometimes we'd see the silhouette of something reflected on the TV."
"Now we avoid the living room at night, but have noticed a weird dark shadow in the shape of a tall person in our bedroom doorway. It never fully comes into the room, but it really creeps us out. Our pets react to it too."
There are some recollections, like from the following, you just can't shake from your memory.
Visit With Dad
"God this is terrible but I had a really messed up childhood. My parents were not together and I was being traded off every weekend. It was my dads weekend and I went over to his house. He was acting super weird the whole day but I didn't notice it much as a little kid until I looked back on it."
"I remember him taking me and my little sister to run errands with him. He ran in to different places and me and my sister played in the back seat. He stopped at a friends house and came back flustered and angry and sped out of the driveway."
"The next couple hours were normal and we were fine but our dad was super anxious. I remember it being dark outside when he told me and my little sister to get in the car. We drive to a rundown motel on a bad side of town and get out of the car."
"I asked him what we were doing there and he told me we were hanging out with some of his friends. I didn't think anything of it and we went into the motel room. It was a small room with one bed and a jacuzzi tube beside the tube. Our dad started drinking with the group of guys in the hotel and he told us we could go swimming in the hot tube."
"We didn't have bathing suits so he had us in there with just underwear and a t shirt. After a couple minutes he left without saying anything to us. I asked the guys where my dad went and he told us he would be back in a couple hours. Something in my seven year old brain didn't feel right about the situation."
"One of the guys started talking to my sister and I and acting really friendly. He told us he wanted to get in the hot tube with us and started to undress completely, exposing himself to us. He tried to get really close to us and I held my three year old sister close. This man was completely naked in a hot tube with two little girls and our dad wasn't there to stop it."
"I was really scared and acted like I was taking my sister to the bathroom and went out the front door of the motel, still wet and in our underwear. I held my sister while she cried and we walked down the hallway away from the room. Luckily there was a lady in the hall and she asked if I was lost. I asked her if I could call my mom on her phone to come and get us."
"Thankfully my mom came right away and after that my dad lost visitation rights. I'm so glad that they forced us to memorize our parent's phone number at school as well. I'm grateful that woman was in the hallway before one of those guys found us."
The Former Occupant
"Worked emptying an old house. The house was infested with cockroaches. The whole house felt depressing. When we emptied the basement it always felt like someone was right behind us. There was a cut rope hanging from the ceiling. The woman that lived there had hanged herself. We didn't find out till the last week of work. We never went down to the basement alone after that."
People Who Made A Lot Of Money From Something Totally Random | George Takei’s Oh Myyy
Not Alone
"I used to sleep in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco and we would hear things most nights. One night someone called for help and we managed to find them, but their assailant had disappeared."
"Other times we would hear loud moaning, almost sobbing, but we had no idea where it was coming and usually just tried to go back to sleep."
The Wailing In The Woods
"Was checking the cows one morning. And was watching the calf's play and counting them all. When I heard a odd sound in the woods. It sounded like a woman crying. And I walked around. That's when it started screaming at that point. So I said f'k this walked back to the utv. And went home. In all reality I knew it was a mountain lion. I didn't want no part of that crap."
The following accounts involved an assault on one of the five senses.
Olfactory Warning
"I lived way out in the country in the woods several years ago. It was a nice summer night, so I had all the windows open. I was a single female, and men's cologne came wafting through the windows so strong I could taste it. Scared the sh*t out of me. I couldn't shut/lock the windows and the doors fast enough."
A Smoker In The Vicinity
"A woman I once knew was a biologist in Louisiana. She told me that as a 20 something she was out doing field work miles and miles from any road. She had to hike to get to this place and stay awake overnight to study some newts or something. At 2 in the morning she smells cigar smoke wafting on the breeze. She said she turned off her torches and crawled away."
– liamoghh
Hiding From Danger
"I was hiking near Cundiyo NM along the Santa Cruz river when I caught a whiff of cigarette smoke and the body odor of someone sweating out alcohol. It was almost dark and my friend and I managed to hide behind a pinon tree as two guys walked by on the trail. As soon as they cross the river we run as fast as we can back to my car which has had the window shattered and been looted. As we are peeling off we see them running our direction. We didn't stop until we were back in Santa Fe. If it hadn't been for the smell we probably would have been murdered. As a kid I was always told to avoid the hills around Truchas but to be honest the entirety of the High Road gives me the creeps."
Terribly Electrifying
"I love rain and thunderstorms. My mom knew this and on rainy days she'll let me standout on our metal deck. One day when I was five, I was standing on the deck and the rain quickly became a thunderstorm. I said nothing because she would immediately pull me in. Lighting started flashing all around me. Suddenly there was a huge flash of light infront of my eyes and the loudest "boom" I've ever heard. I squatted down and closed my eyes. I could see white even though my eyes where closed, my ears where ringing and I can smell ozone. I swear lightening stuck right in front of me. After what felt like a few minutes I heard my name and open my eyes. Mom was calling for me to go inside. The weird thing is the smell of ozone was gone and everything just looked normal. The next day I went outside to the spot and found the deck deformed but it looked like it had been painted over from years ago. I'm really not sure what happened. Did I just make all of that up in my head?"
– Echo259
Children should never trust adults they've never met before and are asking for help.
Lost Puppy
"When I was like 10 or 11 my friend and I walked to the gas station to get snacks. On our way back a little red car pulled up. The guy driving rolled down his window and told us he lost his puppy and asked for our help finding it. We said we'd keep an eye out. He replied, 'Can one of you get in my car, and I'll drive around, and you look out the passenger side while I look out the driver's side?' That set off immediate red flags, especially as he only wanted one of us to get in. Why are you trying to split up two young girls walking alone? We took off running and he sped off. We told her dad when we got back to her house and he told us we were just making it up."
Stranger Danger
"When I was younger, I was riding my bike up and down the street when suddenly a car pulled up beside me. Some guy I didn't recognize leaned over and asked me for directions. I honestly didn't know how to get where he was asking, so I said that. The guy responded with 'What? I couldn't hear you, can you come closer and repeat that?' Alarm bells were ringing so I shook my head as I took off on my bike. Luckily he didn't follow me, so who knows, maybe he really was an innocent guy who couldn't hear, but I wasn't going to find out."
– Sloth143
Not all the stories shared here were creepy or scary. This was poignant.
Same Phone Number
"My freshman year in high school I was taking choir class. We were staying after school practicing for our concert later that month and one day my teacher ended up calling practice about an hour early. We all started calling our parents to let them know we were finishing practice early that day. One of the girls in my class had left her phone at home that day. She asked if she could use anyone's phone to call her mom. Of course I offered mine & she called her mom. From behind me (where she was sitting) I hear her crying. She asked me what my number was. I was confused but I recite my number back to her. She still has my phone to her ear. & tells me 'your number is my aunt's old number. She passed a year ago' when she called her mom with my cellphone her mom received an incoming call her from her sister that had passed. It was the craziest/strangest thing. Not scary or bad, but still something I think about."
Aside from being scared out of my wits and later thankful for surviving, nearly being killed in a traffic accident was a traumatic experience for me.
But in keeping with the spirit of the thread, I have not experienced anything unusually creepy or unsettling off the top of my head.
The only thing that comes close is when my fellow Japanese school classmates and I were playing dodge ball during recess, which alone was truly terrifying for me.
The ball left way out of the court and about three of us ran after it to where it eventually stopped at a building on the part of the campus that hadn't been used.
There was a basement room that could be seen from the side of the fence and there was a random rocking chair that was partially visible in the window.
We scared ourselves by making up stories about a creepy occupant that may be residing in that building. And just as we fabricated stories about dead bodies being stashed there in the unlit room, the rocking chair rocked back and forth once and just stopped.
It was probably a stray cat, or a person in peril, crawling on the floor and trying to signal to the outside world.
We didn't report it for fear of being made fun of.
Plus, maybe we were just seeing things. Who knows? I was reading a lot of Stephen King during that time, so there's that.- People Explain The Creepiest Experience They've Ever Had ... ›
- People Describe The Absolute Creepiest Thing They've Ever Experienced - George Takei ›
- People Describe The Creepiest Experiences They've Had While Driving Late At Night - George Takei ›
- People Describe The Creepiest Experiences They've Had While Camping - George Takei ›
- People Share The Creepiest Things They Don't Talk About In Their Profession - George Takei ›
- People Describe The Most Distressing Paranormal Activity They've Ever Experienced - George Takei ›
It's highly believed that it is important to learn history as a means to improve our future.
What is often overlooked is that what is taught in history class is going to be very different depending on where you went to school.
And this isn't just internationally, even different regions of the United states will likely have very different lessons on American history.
This frequently results in our learning fascinating, heartbreaking and horrifying historical facts which our middle or high school history teachers neglected to teach us.
Redditor Acherontia_atropos91 was curious to learn things people either wished they had learned, or believe they should have learned, in their school history class, leading them to ask:
What isn’t taught in history class but should be?
The Irish Troubles
"The troubles."
"Too many people in America do not understand why a wall straight through Ireland would be a BAD idea."
"I’m referring to the Brexit referendum and possible outcomes."
"If people were wondering why we were talking about walls through Ireland in the first place."- CLCVS.
Forgotten elements of World War II
"What the Japanese did to the Chinese during WW2."
"Unit 731."- CaptainMcBoogerJew.
"Japan gets off easy for their war crimes in WW2."
"They killed an estimated 16mil Chinese civilians and another 8mil soldiers"
"Also, Pol Pot."
"Didn't know who he was until I was like 25."
"Worst dictator all time (in terms of percentage of population he decimated)".
The truth about the American Revolution
"That the American Revolution was part of a wider cold war type of conflict with France."
"The American Revolution was basically the UK's equivalent of the US version of Vietnam."- vinsant7.
The Dark side of Swedish history.
"As a Swede, I'd like to know more of all the horrible sh*t my country has done throughout history."
"It's a damn shame we're trying to hide our history."
"For example, Swedes killed a metric sh*t ton of all Polish people when we were at our strongest."
"That's the kinda sh*t we don't get to learn."- mogwandayy.
Colonization
"Basically what Belgium did to the Congo."
"A lot of people are telling me that they are taught about this actually."
"I'm glad to hear it because I wasn't taught about this in the USA during my public school days (1995-2008)."- EconArch.
The truth about "heroes".
"While teaching about historical Heroes they should also tell students about the unspeakable things some of them did."
"Many famous figures throughout history who are pillars of morality actually did many terrible things." - User Deleted
Intolerance for Mental Illness
"The dark history of mental illness treatments."
"I think it's worth learning about."- 7dayexcerpt.
Slavic Mythology
"Slavic mythology in Slavic countries."
"Don't get me wrong, I love both Greek & Roman mythology and as a person from the Balkans both of those cultures are part of my country's history and had great influence over not only my region but the entirety of the continent & the western world but I wouldn't mind knowing more about Slavic mythology as well."- ShorsShezzarine.
The truth about the CIA
"How the CIA was made and all the shady things they did over the years."- ALargeChip.
There is a lot about the history of our world, not to mention our own country which shouldn't be ignored.
And it's from learning from our mistakes that we really improve our future.
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So apparently we are in the endemic phase of this nonsense.
We have light at the end of the tunnel.
So what now?
Where do we go from here?
Normal seems like an outdated word.
How do we get back to normal though?
Is it even possible?
What are reaching back to?
Life pre-Covid.
Those were the days.
If only we could bring them back.
Redditor hetravelingsong wanted to discuss our new normal in this hopeful "endemic" phase. So they asked:
"What’s something random you miss about pre-COVID times?"
I miss people being sane. Though that maybe election cycle issues not COVID. We'll never know.
I thought I was Alone...
"Being able to grocery shop after 11 pm."
Reading_Rainboner
"Hell yes. I miss the days where the Walmart across the street was open 24 hours."
Small_Tax_9432
let's just go...
"I miss spontaneity... everything now seems to have a barrier of difficulty."
iidosee
"I live very close to Disneyland so I have an annual pass. My friends and I would just go there after work and hang out and grab a bite to eat."
"Now, we have to reserve a day to go. And most of the time, the days are at 'full' capacity so we couldn't even reserve. I don't want to schedule to hang out at Disneyland for a couple hours for July. So yeah, I definitely miss the 'lets go eat at Disneyland tonight?' texts."
mymymissmai
Not til 24-25
"Functioning global supply chains. Ah, the product you want has got microchips in it? 9 month wait."
richard-king
"Minimum, I'd been saying for a while now that I wouldn't expect a true return to normalcy in terms of electronics prices till 2024-2025. Although Crypto crashing through the floor really took some of the pressure off graphics cards which I really appreciate."
statiiic
WTF?!?!
"How affordable everything was!"
Disastrous_Hour_6776
"Yep. Today I was bagging up my things at the grocery store and I heard the cashier say to the lady behind me 'thats $78.12.' She had -- 2 boxes of Kellogg's corn flakes, a carton of 12 eggs, milk, strawberries, raspberries, blue berries, a small cheese cake, English muffins, coffee, and a small whole frozen chicken that could maybe feed 3 people if the meat portioning was small."
SnowyInuk
Sushi
"My favorite sushi place. It was good quality, close by, kid-friendly, and not too expensive."
InannasPocket
All of this... it was a simpler time.
NASTY
"As a retail worker, just how f**king NASTY some people have gotten."
DmitriPetrov*itch
"They applauded you for being an essential worker but won’t vote for policies that’ll raise minimum wage while insisting a wage cap for heavily paid employees."
sketchysketchist
CHANGES your DNA...
"Some of the people closest to me became very bitter and petty over the last 2 years. So many people have the 'crazy eyes' now."
__--__7
"So true and holidays with the family is like who has the biggest tinfoil hat building contest. How many jumps does your brain have to go through to think that the Covid vaccine CHANGES your DNA into the patented DNA so that the government now controls your body."
"So like vaccinated people now have a singular DNA set. I feel like I still have a chunk of my brain just broken off due to that comment alone. I was also told by same family member that I could never donate blood again due to the vaccine. I guess it is so my patented DNA doesn't affect people?? FYI my vaccinated butt just donated today fine and multiple other times after the vaccine."
tyreka13
Homeward Bound
"House prices."
adrianinked
"I'm resigned to never thinking I have a chance on owning property where I live. I'm 30 and just can't imagine it anymore. And I don't want to live anywhere else so, whatever."
Osdab2daf
"That didn’t happen because of the pandemic. That was already happening regardless."
CH11DW
Oh Mickey
"All Day Breakfast at McDonalds."
hutch2522
"It was honestly hell to do, and not very popular. ITs margins aren't anywhere dinner and lunch specials. ON top of that, the temperatures are such that They require its own grill, meaning that if you have 2 grills in shop, you are down 50% of lunch capacity."
Freyas_Follower
Way back when...
"Hanging out with friends. And I mean waaaaaay before Covid. Like 2006 back when I had some friends."
LoocsinatasYT
I miss the old days. Maybe we'll get back there.
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What do you believe?
Is there a GOD in the sky?
Is he guiding us and helping us?
Life is really hard. Why is that is a big entity is up there loving us?
Atheists have taken a lot of heat for what feels like shunning GOD.
What if they've been right all along?
Maybe let's take a listen and see what they really think.
Redditor __Jacob______ wanted to hear from the people who don't really believe all that "God" stuff. They asked:
"Atheists, what do you believe in?"
I'm waffling between G-O-D and nothing. So please give me some education.
911
"We need to look out for each other because help isn't coming."
cknipe
Peace Out
"More than 2 decades ago, a priest was giving a sermon in my church and he said 'our faith requires you to believe without question. Why call it faith if you have to ask questions?' I haven't returned to church. Not until my wedding day but you know what I mean."
asiangontear
Delusion
"When I was young I used to think that after death you would have access to a PC that you could see absolutely anything about your life. Stats, any question you had no matter how obscure, replays of moments, perspectives of others in relation to you. No matter what you wanted to know, if it was relatable to you, you could see it. I know it's silly, but as time goes on I just want it to be real, and I don't think I'd have any issue allowing myself to fall into that delusion."
eggwardpenisglands
I think nothing happens...
"Realistically, I think nothing happens. We literally experience nothing after death. Same thing that we experience before birth. We don't exist, so it's nothing. I think the tenant that we should follow while living is to try to be happy and healthy while minimizing the damage we do to each other."
"What I would LIKE to happen after death is whatever you believe in, exists. I think Christians should get to go to heaven if they truly believe in it, Hindus and Buddhists get reincarnated, and everyone else also gets to experience what they believe they will experience."
"'I would still experience Nothing. Maybe it's one of those things where at the moment of death their brain makes them experience what feels like an infinitely long moment in time where they experience their afterlife. I just think it would be neat for everybody."
Better_Meat_
Shrug
"Best advice I received from a dear senior on their way out. 'You win some, you lose some' shrug. Nothing divine, life is that simple and wonderful, accept it and move on."
Tune_Kindly
It all sounds pretty simple. Why are people so up in arms about Atheists?
Whatever
"I believe in a universe that doesn't care, and people that do."
imCIK
Cool with Empty
"Nothing. [Serious]."
rumblingtummy29
"I feel this way about death. When I was 5, my grandfather died and my cousin simple said, he is dead, that means you are gone forever. Everything ends up dying, even plants and animals. I'm now in my 40's and still have this simplistic view of life and death. People think I'm ambivalent to life and death but it's just what it is."
thepigfish82
puppet-masters...
"I think a lot of religious people struggle with the fact that we are all just swirling units of chaos. There is no grand plan or great orchestrator. I think that’s why people who are prone to religion are also susceptible to things like Q anon and the Cabal and all that. They REALLY want to believe that there is some almighty puppet-master who determines all of humanity’s fate."
Lngtmelrker
“we’re living in a society!”
"Just be a kind and empathetic person not because you’re worried about some cosmic justice, but because it’s the right thing to do. If there is some being that created us there’s no way they actually care about believing in it or adhering to some rules from over 2000 years ago."
"Also a big thing for me is that I find the idea that you need religion or the Bible in order to have morals and ethics pretty dumb. It’s pretty f**king clear that most evangelicals have neither. But my main thing is being a good person simply because, as George Costanza once said we’re living in a society!' If you’re only a good person in order to make it to heaven you probably aren’t actually a good and moral person."
conservative_genius
That's All
"You're born. You live. You die. That's it. After you die you cease to exist, the same as before you were born."
serefina
Believe what you want. We're all here together. So let's focus there.
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The list of what irritates me is endless.
I mean... breathing too loud or dust can set me off.
I'm a bit unstable, yes.
But I'm not alone.
So let's discuss.
Redditor Aburntbagel6 wanted to hear about all the times many of us just couldn't control our disdain. They asked:
"What never fails to piss you off?"
I feel like this article can go on forever. Let's get some highlights.
Wasted Time
"Meetings that could and should have been an email."
Sirena609
Lotto People
"Getting stuck behind people playing the lottery at a corner store."
thenuggetlover
"I also used to work in a gas station and you’re SO right. I f**king hated the lottery people. Especially since my store had a small staff and there was usually only one of us working at a time, which meant that I couldn’t get any of my other work done as long as they were there."
"And you’re right, it’s also pretty sad to watch. I had one lady who used to come in every day and spent hundreds and HUNDREDS of dollars on scratch tickets. One day, she won $200 after spending probably around $600 and she was so excited and saying she can 'finally pay her bills.'"
i-am-your-god-now
Aware...
"No situational awareness. Job, home, shopping, driving. Think for one minute and go about. OBSERVE!!"
Dizzy-Foundation8122
"My mom is one of those people who leave the shopping cart in the middle of the damn aisle and proceed to walk twenty feet away. After correcting her a million times to no effect I just walk away now so people don’t know I’m with her."
OutrageousEvent
Shut Up!
"Endless barking in the middle of the night, I love animals but that sh*t I can't stand."
Acceptable-Lemon2924
"Endless barking in general drives me up a wall. One of my friends dogs was barking almost an entire gaming session the other day. I wanted to reach through the computer and smack him for letting it go on."
bangersnmash13
Kindness
"People being mean to service workers, especially if the workers are very young."'
scaryboilednoodles
All of these things. I hate them all.
Admit It
"People who never accept fault when they mess something up. Like, why blame a million people when it was clearly you who did it???"
Quirky-Area-8978
From Above
"My upstairs neighbors."
lutzow89
"I had terrible neighbors at my previous apartment. It was a one person studio for students, but her boyfriend was clearly living with her illegally and he was loud."
"One night we knocked n the door at 3 AM because of the loud music and an unknown girl opened the door. I just thought they were having a little party. But the next door I saw the girl living there come home with a suitcase after having been away for the weekend... Her BF was cheating on her in her own apartment."
Th3_Accountant
Move Away
"People who sit directly next to me at the airport, movie theater, any other place where you can choose a seat when there is PLENTY of other seating."
BacardiPardy33
"I can’t YES this enough and the ones who can’t park for crap so they park so close you can’t open doors on one side of the car or the ones who park directly behind when you pulled through so the door won’t open to load groceries."
BacardiPardy33
It's Over
"People who try to restart old drama. Like I'm done with you, just leave me alone."
Tired_Potatos
"Yep, half the reason I've basically quit playing one of my favorite online video games. People keep bringing old crap up or sh*tting on on someone who used to be our friend. I got tired of it so I just ejected the game out of me."
CaucasianHumus
AHHHHH!!!
"People walking too slow in front of me with no way to get around them. It’s even worse if it’s a couple or group taking up the whole sidewalk. HAVE SOME SPATIAL AWARENESS FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!!"
_-v0x-_
Life in general pisses me off. I'm easy.
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