It is amazing that people can make a bucket load of cash from being in pursuit of things in life. Sure you have bounty hunters who chase the bail jumpers and criminals. And then there are all those nutty weather people who chase tornadoes, and twisters. But chasing ghosts? Now that is special. Ghost hunting isn't just an A&E special; it has become a profession and serious passion. Proving the afterlife is a serious task. So let's hear about the progress.
Redditor u/MaxBuddyRoo wanted to hear why it may not be the best idea to chase the spirits by asking.... Ghosthunters of Reddit, what was your scariest experience yet and why?Dial tone...
dial tone goodbye GIFGiphyThey ain't gonna reply now. This is prime ghost hunting time.
Red Seeker
Not scary, more funny but my wife is an aspiring (extremely) amateur ghost hunter and she once thought it a great idea to download a thermal camera app on her phone to maybe locate cold spots of a spirit she's convinced inhabits our residence. She was super excited to see how intensely cold our dark closet was and that's where it must reside, no amount of argument could convince her a smart phone, no matter how smart, will not read heat signature. until I told her to turn off the lights and suddenly everything, including us read just as cold as the dark closet.
8 years old living in the hills of Appalachia....
Since there are no true ghost hunter responses, here is my ghost story (if you even call it that).
I was roughly 8 years old living in the hills of Appalachia in Tennessee, near Norris Lake. We had a two story house: the basement with garage, fireplace/wood storage, utility room with laundry. Second story had the kitchen, living room, 3 bedrooms and one bath. My dad was a single parent working at the metal factory. My sister was 3 years older than me and at a different school. We were the only 3 people living in the house. One day near summer time, she had school and I didn't. I unfortunately had to stay home by myself.
I was in the living room. I just made and ate some microwave food and walked into the living room to watch cartoons. As I lay on the couch, I notice this... for lack of better description, formless... semi transparent white thing enter the room from the basement. It moved fast and it noiseless. It did not interact with anything in the room. I froze and couldn't move. It circled around the ceiling 5-6 times before retreating to the back hallway.
I told my sister when she came home but she didn't believe me. I don't remember bringing it up with dad. That was the only time I've had anything close of an encounter with a ghost. Even then, I still blame my alone child mind. It could have been anything. It wasn't enough of an experience to make me believe. I still don't believe. I want to, but nothing has given solid proof that they do. I have even been into some pretty interesting places.
As a police officer, I was called to an abandoned psychiatric facility. Two kids were seen going in and never came out. Went inside. All the equipment had been removed and it was just graffiti and vandalized doorways left. Never found those kids, but also never found a ghost.
Had a 911 call from abandoned house oncd, which happens apparently. No phone line, no power, nothing set up, and the address was correct. Could have been a dispatcher messing with me but I believe it was just a disturbance in the existing taps to the property.
A Police Story
The only rationalization I can come with is police officers deal with a lot more than any normal person would: people hyped up on drugs, deaths, murders, car chases, shootouts, and they have access to places that are usually off limits. One day it could be reassuring an old lady that the mail man is not spying on her and the next you could be going to a call where a 16 year old daughter is sitting criss cross applesauce, in the middle of the her bedroom in the dark dressed in her mother's wedding gown where she reaches into her own eye socket and plucks her eye out, putting the dangling orb in her hand and squishing it like Korean popping boba. So it's no doubt always being on edge, always expecting this could be the day you die could easily create a higher experience for the paranormal.
"We are watching you"
My team was investigating the Burlington County Prison in NJ. Unnerving place. Has a huge painted eye over the door into the cells that says "We are watching you" over it. Has mannequins in cells. Very weird vibe. We are science and IT and photography types. I battle myself and everyone, despite having had paranormal experiences personally, that it is impossible to capture evidence of these events. I don't think we have any means to adequately measure these experiences in science and think they're purely personal.
Anyway, we had everything. Sound recorders everywhere. We had full spectrum cameras. We had an X-BOX laser grid that accurately mapped any moving, dense matter in a room in a 3D comp program. We had a ambulance, the Black Betty, that we ran everything into and converted into a home base. Pretty cool stuff. Anyway, we spent hours investigating the location and there was nothing. No experiences. It was dead.
So we decide to pack up. We are split up. I'm on the first floor with another member. Two members are on the middle floor. And another member is going into the basement to turn on the lights. We collect everything before we turn the lights on. Right as I turn off the last audio recorder, my friend gives the okay to switch on the power.
RIGHT as the lights go on, and we no longer have any recording or listening abilities, we hear a massive, earth shaking crash. This place is a museum. Huge cases filled with objects from when the prison was active. This crash shook the floor. It sounded like a huge display case was pushed over and smashed. I could feel it in the ground below me. I could hear glass smashing and scattering across the ground. I could feel the physics of it all. The sound of broken objects filled the whole prison. It came from below us. "F**K. Someone just broke something really expensive.
We are never going to get to come back here." As we went down, the two people in the middle floor were rushing up. "What happened up there?" "Nothing. What did you guys do?" They couldn't understand why we thought it came from the middle floor. But that is where we heard and felt it. They heard and felt it come from our floor. They searched our floor, we searched their floor. The guy in the basement came upstairs in a rush, having heard the massive crash come from the middle like us.
For whatever reason, we all felt this happen on different floors. We all were certain we heard/felt the crash from the floor below/above us. We looked EVERYWHERE. There was nothing. Not a broken case. Glass. Window. Nothing outside. I searched for an additional hour just because I couldn't imagine something that massive sounding, that physical, just not leaving a trace. Really broke my brain. I cannot for the life of me understand how this happened.
And left no evidence. I personally think the Prison was f**king with us. Because right before this happened, when were finalizing the investigation and saying things like "If you have something to say, now is your chance. We are going to leave soon." I joked to everyone and said "Watch. Once we shut everything off something crazy will happen." Well... I was right. It was utterly perplexing. The park rangers came in and looked too. Found nothing. They called a week later to confirm nothing was broken. WTF.
So Vanilla....
One time a few friends and I were camping out overnight in a local campground and started telling scary stories. It was like 3 am and we were pretty tired so as we were about to go to bed but out of nowhere a bunch of crows started cawing like crazy for 10 minutes and we had no idea what was going on. We decided to try moving our tent to a different location but the noise seemed to be everywhere. Eventually, we just said whatever and tried to go to sleep. The noise quieted down but then around 4 am I heard this really strange whisper in my ear.
I assumed it was one of my friends but everyone looked asleep. I saw that our tent entrance was unzipped and when I went to close it I looked out and just saw this slightly glowing figure way out in the distance above the lake. I swear it was like some lady in a wedding dress but I barely got a look. I was so terrified that I just zipped up the tent as fast as possible and went to back bed. It sounds pretty vanilla but I am so scared to look out of a window or something in the middle of the night and just see her again hovering all still like.
Be Seen....
max von sydow priest GIFGiphyWhy on every ghost hunting show are the hosts so hostile like they're gonna whip some ghost butt? "Show yourself! I know you're here!" Like every ghost is some malevolent super force instead of the guy who worked at the deli and just got stuck in this dimension.
Out of the Graveyard.....
I go Ghost hunting with my dad and neighbor, one time we went to my great nan's grave, I had never met her. As soon as we arrived, all 3 of us started to feel pretty weird so we sat down for the investigation by the grave. We set up all the voice recorders and EMF meters and started talking.
Once my dad introduced me I felt like something was touching me. My dad jokingly said "why not give him a hug?" But when he said that I felt arms around my waist, my whole waist went cold and tight but after a few seconds it stopped. We decided to leave after that although we kept hearing someone walking behind us, until we left the graveyard.
Queen Mary
GiphyMy family and I like to go to haunted places and ghost hunt. We mostly do EVPs and sometimes we'll take pictures.
Mostly the scariest thing is actually catching voices of ghosts answering back. We've gone to places like The Queen Mary in Long Beach, The Cosmopolitan (and all of Old Town in general) in San Diego, and The Menger Hotel in San Antonio and have caught some really interesting things.
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- Police Officers Share Their Strangest Experiences With The Paranormal - George Takei ›
- People Describe The Scariest Thing They've Ever Experienced In Their Life - George Takei ›
- People Describe The Most Unnerving Thing They've Ever Experienced - George Takei ›
- People Describe The Scariest Thing They've Ever Experienced In Their Life - 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.