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?"
The good news is, the strangers online who contributed to the thread are alive to tell their creepy tales. 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 ›
Experiencing death is a fascinating and frightening idea.
Who doesn't want to know what is waiting for us on the other side?
But so many of us want to know and then come back and live a little longer.
It would be so great to be sure there is something else.
But the whole dying part is not that great, so we'll have to rely on other people's accounts.
Redditor AlaskaStiletto wanted to hear from everyone who has returned to life, so they asked:
"Redditors who have 'died' and come back to life, what did you see?"
Sensations
Happy Good Vibes GIF by Major League SoccerGiphy"My dad's heart stopped when he had a heart attack and he had to be brought back to life. He kept the paper copy of the heart monitor which shows he flatlined. He said he felt an overwhelming sensation of peace, like nothing he had felt before."
PeachesnPain
Recovery
"I had surgical complications in 2010 that caused a great deal of blood loss. As a result, I had extremely low blood pressure and could barely stay awake. I remember feeling like I was surrounded by loved ones who had passed. They were in a circle around me and I knew they were there to guide me onwards. I told them I was not ready to go because my kids needed me and I came back."
"My nurse later said she was afraid she’d find me dead every time she came into the room."
"It took months, and blood transfusions, but I recovered."
good_golly99
Take Me Back
"Overwhelming peace and happiness. A bright airy and floating feeling. I live a very stressful life. Imagine finding out the person you have had a crush on reveals they have the same feelings for you and then you win the lotto later that day - that was the feeling I had."
"I never feared death afterward and am relieved when I hear of people dying after suffering from an illness."
rayrayrayray
Free
The Light Minnie GIF by (G)I-DLEGiphy"I had a heart surgery with near-death experience, for me at least (well the possibility that those effects are caused by morphine is also there) I just saw black and nothing else but it was warm and I had such inner peace, its weird as I sometimes still think about it and wish this feeling of being so light and free again."
TooReDTooHigh
This is why I hate surgery.
You just never know.
Shocked
Giphy"More of a near-death experience. I was electrocuted. I felt like I was in a deep hole looking straight up in the sky. My life flashed before me. Felt sad for my family, but I had a deep sense of peace."
Admirable_Buyer6528
The SOB
"Nursing in the ICU, we’ve had people try to die on us many times during the years, some successfully. One guy stood out to me. His heart stopped. We called a code, are working on him, and suddenly he comes to. We hadn’t vented him yet, so he was able to talk, and he started screaming, 'Don’t let them take me, don’t let them take me, they are coming,' he was scared and yelling."
"Then he yelled a little more, as we tried to calm him down, he screamed, 'No, No,' and gestured towards the end of the bed, and died again. We didn’t get him back. It was seriously creepy. We called his son to tell him the news, and the son said basically, 'Good, he was an SOB.'”
1-cupcake-at-a-time
Colors
"My sister died and said it was extremely peaceful. She said it was very loud like a train station and lots of talking and she was stuck in this area that was like a curtain with lots of beautiful colors (colors that you don’t see in real life according to her) a man told her 'He was sorry, but she had to go back as it wasn’t her time.'"
Hannah_LL7
"I had a really similar experience except I was in an endless garden with flowers that were colors I had never seen before. It was quiet and peaceful and a woman in a dress looked at me, shook her head, and just said 'Not yet.' As I was coming back, it was extremely loud, like everyone in the world was trying to talk all at once. It was all very disorienting but it changed my perspective on life!"
huntokarrr
The Fog
"I was in a gray fog with a girl who looked a lot like a young version of my grandmother (who was still alive) but dressed like a pioneer in the 1800s she didn't say anything but kept pulling me towards an opening in the wall. I kept refusing to go because I was so tired."
"I finally got tired of her nagging and went and that's when I came to. I had bled out during a c-section and my heart could not beat without blood. They had to deliver the baby and sew up the bleeders. refill me with blood before they could restart my heart so, like, at least 12 minutes gone."
Fluffy-Hotel-5184
Through the Walls
"My spouse was dead for a couple of minutes one miserable night. She maintains that she saw nothing, but only heard people talking about her like through a wall. The only thing she remembers for absolute certain was begging an ER nurse that she didn't want to die."
"She's quite alive and well today."
Hot-Refrigerator6583
Well let's all be happy to be alive.
It seems to be all we have.
Trying to lose weight is a struggle understood by many people regardless of size.
The goal of reaching a healthy weight may seem unattainable, but with diet and exercise, it can pay off through persistence and discipline.
Seeing the pounds gradually drop off can also be a great motivator and incentivize people to stay the course.
Those who've achieved their respective weight goals shared their experiences when Redditor apprenti8455 asked:
"People who lost a lot of weight, what surprises you the most now?"
Redditors didn't see these coming.
Shiver Me Timbers
"I’m always cold now!"
– Telrom_1
"I had a coworker lose over 130 pounds five or six years ago. I’ve never seen him without a jacket on since."
– r7ndom
"140 lbs lost here starting just before COVID, I feel like that little old lady that's always cold, damn this top comment was on point lmao."
– mr_remy
Drawing Concern
"I lost 100 pounds over a year and a half but since I’m old(70’s) it seems few people comment on it because (I think) they think I’m wasting away from some terminal illness."
– dee-fondy
"Congrats on the weight loss! It’s honestly a real accomplishment 🙂"
"Working in oncology, I can never comment on someone’s weight loss unless I specifically know it was on purpose, regardless of their age. I think it kind of ruffles feathers at times, but like I don’t want to congratulate someone for having cancer or something. It’s a weird place to be in."
– LizardofDeath
Unleashing Insults
"I remember when I lost the first big chunk of weight (around 50 lbs) it was like it gave some people license to talk sh*t about the 'old' me. Old coworkers, friends, made a lot of not just negative, but harsh comments about what I used to look like. One person I met after the big loss saw a picture of me prior and said, 'Wow, we wouldn’t even be friends!'”
"It wasn’t extremely common, but I was a little alarmed by some of the attention. My weight has been up and down since then, but every time I gain a little it gets me a little down thinking about those things people said."
– alanamablamaspama
Not Everything Goes After Losing Weight
"The loose skin is a bit unexpected."
– KeltarCentauri
"I haven’t experienced it myself, but surgery to remove skin takes a long time to recover. Longer than bariatric surgery and usually isn’t covered by insurance unless you have both."
– KatMagic1977
"It definitely does take a long time to recover. My Dad dropped a little over 200 pounds a few years back and decided to go through with skin removal surgery to deal with the excess. His procedure was extensive, as in he had skin taken from just about every part of his body excluding his head, and he went through hell for weeks in recovery, and he was bedridden for a lot of it."
– Jaew96
These Redditors shared their pleasantly surprising experiences.
Shopping
"I can buy clothes in any store I want."
– WaySavvyD
"When I lost weight I was dying to go find cute, smaller clothes and I really struggled. As someone who had always been restricted to one or two stores that catered to plus-sized clothing, a full mall of shops with items in my size was daunting. Too many options and not enough knowledge of brands that were good vs cheap. I usually went home pretty frustrated."
– ganache98012
No More Symptoms
"Lost about 80 pounds in the past year and a half, biggest thing that I’ve noticed that I haven’t seen mentioned on here yet is my acid reflux and heartburn are basically gone. I used to be popping tums every couple hours and now they just sit in the medicine cabinet collecting dust."
– colleennicole93
Expanding Capabilities
"I'm all for not judging people by their appearance and I recognise that there are unhealthy, unachievable beauty standards, but one thing that is undeniable is that I can just do stuff now. Just stamina and flexibility alone are worth it, appearance is tertiary at best."
– Ramblonius
People Change Their Tune
"How much nicer people are to you."
"My feet weren't 'wide' they were 'fat.'"
– LiZZygsu
"Have to agree. Lost 220 lbs, people make eye contact and hold open doors and stuff"
"And on the foot thing, I also lost a full shoe size numerically and also wear regular width now 😅"
– awholedamngarden
It's gonna take some getting used to.
Bones Everywhere
"Having bones. Collarbones, wrist bones, knee bones, hip bones, ribs. I have so many bones sticking out everywhere and it’s weird as hell."
– Princess-Pancake-97
"I noticed the shadow of my ribs the other day and it threw me, there’s a whole skeleton in here."
– bekastrange
Knee Pillow
"Right?! And they’re so … pointy! Now I get why people sleep with pillows between their legs - the knee bones laying on top of each other (side sleeper here) is weird and jarring."
– snic2030
"I lost only 40 pounds within the last year or so. I’m struggling to relate to most of these comments as I feel like I just 'slimmed down' rather than dropped a ton. But wow, the pillow between the knees at night. YES! I can relate to this. I think a lot of my weight was in my thighs. I never needed to do this up until recently."
– Strongbad23
More Mobility
"I’ve lost 100 lbs since 2020. It’s a collection of little things that surprise me. For at least 10 years I couldn’t put on socks, or tie my shoes. I couldn’t bend over and pick something up. I couldn’t climb a ladder to fix something. Simple things like that I can do now that fascinate me."
"Edit: Some additional little things are sitting in a chair with arms, sitting in a booth in a restaurant, being able to shop in a normal store AND not needing to buy the biggest size there, being able to easily wipe my butt, and looking down and being able to see my penis."
– dma1965
People making significant changes, whether for mental or physical health, can surely find a newfound perspective on life.
But they can also discover different issues they never saw coming.
That being said, overcoming any challenge in life is laudable, especially if it leads to gaining confidence and ditching insecurities.