People Describe The Absolute Scariest Moment They've Ever Experienced In Their Life

Fear is something that is nearly inescapable. It creeps up on us all at some point whether it's in the form of a traumatic event or something slower and more insidious. Sometimes the thing that jump scares you the most is actually also the cutest thing you ever saw... like your kids.
At least that's the case for this writer. A sweet pigtailed three year old tucked away in her bed, I hear a sound so I roll over and turn my phone flashlight on. As I swing it around to scan the room before I get up it illuminates her little face just a few over mine donning a huge crazy smile and wide bulging eyes. As soon as the light hit she let out this giant scream…
Just about fell out of the bed. Why are toddlers so creepy?
Deep-Television9794 asked the Reddit community:
"What's the scariest moment you've encountered in your whole life?"
“about 10+ officers were rushing to my location…”
“I was conducting a cell search and three cartel members ‘trapped’ me inside the cell by blocking the entrance. One of them held an improvised knife (shiv) and the other two proceeded to try to interrogate me on what I was taking.”
“I took off my utility belt as a show that I wasn't going to back down from a fight, an in doing so slyly triggered the panic alarm on my radio while simultaneously making it look like I was shutting the radio off. When the three saw that I was willing to fight to get out, they actually backed down and let me pass... of course by the moment, about 10+ officers were rushing to my location because I wasn't responding to my panic alarm.”
“Far as I know, they believed my reinforcements showed up because the bubble officer (camera watcher) called the emergency after not being able to contact me on my radio and never knew I had secretly summoned a small army to rescue me in the event of being jumped.”
“They even told me they thought it was ‘pretty gutsy’ that I didn't back down while in the cell, and from that day onward I never had any problems with them or their group.” TheRavingRaccoon
Racist, armed, and insane…he definitely wasn’t voting blue…
“Some lunatic put gun in my face while I was camping in an extremely isolated spot in The Olympic National forest. I listened to his xenophobic rant. It was mental chess. He was especially focused on race and orientation and luckily I am white and was able to playcate him. Had I been black or gay I'm convinced he would have buried my me out there. As soon as he was out of sight I packed my sh*t. Before he left he told me that nobody knew who he was or where he was. I bailed." Accomplished-Ad595
Children are terrifying.
“My younger brother sleepwalks. He would just stand by my bed, silently, until I'd snap awake and see his silhouette looming over me. Sometimes, he turns on the lights when he's sleepwalking. I woke up one night, and he was standing there, turning the lights on and off ... on and off ...”
“I get him back to bed, and I went downstairs to sleep for the rest of the night. Around 4:00 a.m. I woke up to see all of the lights downstairs were switched on.” __Dawn__Amber __
At night!?
“Oxygen tank cut off air while on a scuba dive 15m under water at NIGHT. To this day no one knows how the oxygen tank closed. It wasn't malfunctioning cause I realized the problem 20 mins into the dive. For 20 mins there was absolutely no problem.” Laelaps_d_paradox
In flight terror…
“I was on final approach to a local airport and had chosen runway 26 to land because that's what you are supposed to do at this particular airport, unless the wind favors another runway. There was a 3 knot tailwind and I should have landed the opposite direction on runway 8 but I thought 'what the hell, I can basically fly straight in and it's only 3 knots.'”
“I'm running low on fuel and I'm a student pilot flying solo so I don't want to fly around the airport, I just want to get down and fill up. I get down to about 20ft from the runway and all of a sudden I feel a gust of wind pick me up from behind and the nose immediately points down. My lift is gone so I'm basically falling to the ground.”
“I instinctively yank back on the yoke but there's no air flowing over the elevator so I hit nose wheel first (and I thought the propeller hit too but somehow it didn't) and sort of bounce forward into a precarious position where the left side wheel and nose wheel are touching the ground and my right wheel is still 2 feet in the air.”
“It looked like the left wing might drag on the ground if I didn't just front flip onto the runway. Not really sure how that ended up settling, I guess the wind just died down”
“Next thing you know I'm stopped on the runway and the airplane is violently shaking (I'm thinking I bent the prop shaft) and I'm violently shaking (adrenaline) and I rev up the engine a little to get going and get off the runway. The engine ended up running smoothly after a few seconds and the shaking stopped.”
“Unsure about what just happened and how the airplane could possibly be okay, I taxied to the fuel pump and shutdown. It took me a few hours after I refueled, calming myself down and then building up the courage to get back in the airplane and fly home.”
“It is a 15 minute flight back to my home airport and I did the whole thing white knuckled and quivering. But I'm glad I did. I ended up having a great landing and had I not gotten back on the horse that day I may have never got my license.”
“Still though, that moment when I lost control and all I could see out of the windshield was runway… scariest moment of my entire life.” migwell28
The Best Questions To Ask During A Job Interview | George Takei’s Oh Myyy
"This was the moment I thought an man died in my hands…”
“I used to live near a large open stormwater drain with no fencing around it. Three drunk guys drove their car straight into it. I went out and found the driver trying to get his friend's foot out of the windshield."
“On the field on other side of the drain, I saw the third passenger who was covered in blood. I asked if they were ok and my neighbor called the ambulance/police. The blood-covered friend passed out and was twitching so I ran to the car, grabbed a towel from the back seat and ran to help him."
“I found a large, deep cut on the back of his neck/head. I rolled him to his back and used the weight of his head to put pressure on the wound. I was talking to him, trying to keep him awake and he went into shock, twitching and unresponsive."
“This was the moment I thought a man died in my hands. I was able to wake him and the ambulance took over from there. That was the most harrowing moment of my life" Dargroth-soul-taker
“This just brought back a memory. My dad, sister, best friend and I drove to San Felipe for a little get away for spring break. We would often go there for family vacations but this time we invited my best friend. Had an amazing week and started the drive home.”
“It was maybe 2 or 3 in the morning, pitch black in the middle of the desert when we got stopped at a random check point by a bunch of men carrying machine guns. They made us get out and stand on the side of the road so they could search our car and were asking us all a bunch of questions.”
“It was one of the most terrifying experiences of my life. Didn't help that my sister (probably 16 at the time) turns to look at my friend and I and very seriously says ‘I hope you know that they can easily murder us all right now and no one would ever know.’ Great, thanks a**hole.”
“Pretty sure my dad slipped them as much cash as he could and they let us go on our way. That was the last time we went to San Felipe” pineyruacarajoo
Internet predators…
“So, 14 year old girl living in Northern UK at the time. (I'm now 27 happily married mum of one). MSN messenger was all the rage back then and every day was a race to rush home from school and log onto the family PC.”
“I probably should mention that my parents were teenage parents (mum 16 at my birth and dad 17), so I grew up in a really relaxed environment where sex, drugs and alcohol were regularly talked about openly to ensure I made informed choices in my teenage years. One night after logging into MSN, I got chatting to a really cute 15 year old lad (let's call him Luke) from the town next to me (10 minute bus ride).”
“We spoke daily for weeks and weeks turned into months of messaging, swapping pics and eventually we started talking on the phone. After around 3 month, Luke suggested we meet up, great idea I thought, I couldn't wait for my friends to meet him.”
“But Luke didn't want any of my friends to come and specifically states it should be just me and him on our first meeting (he's really shy). Ok no problem! So we arrange to meet at a local hang out spot for teenagers in my town, but Luke can't get there until 6pm - no issues - my parents were happy so long as I was home by 11pm on a weekend.”
“So the big Friday night comes! I race home from school, texting with ‘Luke’, both super excited. I've spent the whole day planning my outfit with my friends and they know where we are meeting up. 5.30pm turns around so I leave the house - now as I'm leaving the house USUALLY, I would always shout to my parents ‘Bye!’”
“But something in my head made me tell them where I was going and asked if my dad could pick me up at around 8pm - I still to this day do not know why I asked this - very rare that I ever asked my dad or mum to pick me up and never told them where I was.”
“So I arrive at the 'spot' and sit on a bench waiting. The time ticks by and Luke still hasn't turned up. By 6.30 I was getting a little prickly so I try to call him and get voicemail. I get up to leave - obviously heartbroken and a little confused - and start leaving the park to head home."
“As I get to the main gate to leave, a man approaches me. Now let me just say, this man was very clearly in his 40's. He had sleeve tattoos and really long hair which was tied into a pony, with full facial hair. He was dressed smartly in black jeans and a black shirt."
“He called my name and I just felt instant icy fear through my veins. I looked behind me as though to pretend that wasn't my name, but this guys seen multiple pictures of me and my friends, he knows it's me. I put my head down and rushed past him but he grabbed my arm and started to shout 'wait, wait, I need to explain'."
"By this time i was Absolutely terrified and started to run. Sheer panic and terror just totally put me into flight mode. There was a taxi parked up at the side of the park, I pounded on his window and he unlocked the door. The taxi driver knew something was wrong and started to drive while I was bawling my eyes out."
"Taxi driver takes me home where my mum and dad are waiting at the front door - again something they never ever did. My mum still to this day says that she knew something wasn't right that night and they were about to come looking for me. Visit to the police station that night and handed over my devices, but because this guy, (turns out to be a reputable 43 year old businessman with a wife and 2kids from the next town over), never spoke sexually or indicated any sexual desires, nothing ever came of it."
"My folks obviously ramped up the Internet security from that point and it's something I hammer home to my 4 year old already. So yeah, I don't know what his intentions were but, he posed as a 15 year old boy to get me to meet him, and I'm just thankful every day for that taxi driver who took me home no questions asked and to my own tuition for telling me something isn't right here and leaving." daningham101
Don’t let these harrowing stories keep you up too late at night and stay safe out there friends!
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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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