I could never live in a mostly rural area.
The woods scare me. I'm just not that outdoorsy person.
Wild animals freak me out and I believe owls are minions of the devil.
I also need to be around other homes, we all do incase we need to be able to run for help to someone.
Don't you think we see too many stories about the creepy goings on in the dead and dark of night, along trails and in the countrysides?
It's all a perfect set up for horror films and Dateline NBC episodes. I need some city life nearby.
Redditor _-Ascendancy-_wanted to hear about all the spooks and kooks people encounter outside the city limits, by asking:
"People who live rurally, what's the scariest experience you've had that you can't explain?"
Living below a blanket of stars and a mile from the nearest person sounds serene. Until a ghost or a serial killer shows. Just keep that in mind.
Out Camping
The Lion King GIF by Walt Disney StudiosGiphy"Camping as a kid behind buddies house. Heard most God awful terrifying screech. Like 2 pieces of metal being rubbed together. Hands absolutely trembled unzipping tent and we hauled butt to the house. Honestly I was still scared in there too, thought something was going to come through window and get me. Probably a cougar/mountain lion I suppose but they aren't common here at all." ~ tbr6742
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!!!
"8 years old, in VERY (I mean very— 45 miles away from the nearest anything on top of a mountain) rural Appalachia, I was sitting on my couch with my dad at around 9pm in winter, with freshly fallen snow, watching of all things SIGHTINGS, an old 90s show about alien counters which scared the absolute crap out of me anyway, and we heard a KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK on the window."
"Keep in mind it's pitch black outside, so whatever could see us but we couldn't see them. Dad told me to sit right there with the telephone beside me, and he ran outside with a mag light to go see what it was. He locked the door behind him and he had explicit instructions that if he didn't come back in 5 minutes to call the police."
"I was terrified. He went around the house and came back in, downplayed it saying it must have been an animal, but directly after all of this, he took the (long corded) phone in the other room and called his best friend to come up and investigate. He thought I was zoned out on tv, but I was listening. He said "I'm telling you, there was a knock like someone was knocking on the window to be let in, but there was NO FOOTPRINTS." It's still scary and I'm in my late 30s now." ~ INCORRIGIBLE_*UNT
Hello Caller
"I was camping alone in the middle of the plains in North Dakota. A storm blew in and I was stuck in my tent under some trees and got a super strange feeling. I had two phones on me at the time, one had internet and was for navigating and the other was just for cell reception (2013). All of a sudden, one of the phones starting ringing and I looked at the caller ID, the call was coming from my other phone which was closed and in my hand." ~ BetterCallTim
Knives Out
"15 years ago I had a seasonal job with the US Forest Service in western Colorado for the summer. I was living in an old ranger station by myself. One night I had a dream that someone was walking around the cabin while I was in bed. When I woke up that morning the front door was wide open. For the rest of the summer I slept with a large knife close by." ~ pinus_taeda
Bullets
The Emperors New Groove Disney GIFGiphy"Semi-Rural Australia, I wouldn't say "can't explain", but I do get mighty annoyed at the amount of bullet holes I keep finding in shed iron, solar panels, p2p radio dishes and so on."
"The holes are often 'tumbled' or 'keyhole' as well, so I don't think it's dimwits shooting directly, more like shooting at a 45° angle from miles away or something. It would ruin my serenity to get beaned by a random bullet." ~ ozspook
This is why I don't camp. I have no interest in learning what that noise was. Just run, let the noise be. And shooting randomly into the woods is not the best idea.
Bucked
girl woman GIFGiphy"My mom lives in the woods with my young nephew. Totally dark at night, tiny house. She woke up in the middle of the night to a banging on the house. Eventually she worked up the courage to look out her bedroom window. She saw a buck, banging its head against the siding. Just backing up and rearing toward the house over and over." ~ Eaj1122
Obscure Opinions People Are Fully Committing To | George Takei’s Oh Myyy
We all have a set of beliefs about even the smallest of topics. Like sandwiches should have structural integrity. That's something we can all agree on, right...you know the sound...
"My mother lives alone pretty much in the woods. Completely dark at night, no street lights or lights from neighbors, only a small road leading up to the house. One time in the middle of the night she woke up to clear footsteps on the gravel (you know the sound), and three knocks on the front door."
"She called out hello and looked outside and nothing there, only silence. It might not be a spectacular story but I would freak out if it was me waking up to that in the middle of the night with no other people around." ~ ingfrior
All about the bass...
"Unfortunately it's hard to explain. I was hiking down a trail with my dog in remote Northern Wisconsin, when I just got a weird feeling. At the exact same time, the heckles on my dog went straight up and he began acting really anxious. About the same time, I came into a clearing in the woods, and got hit with what I can only describe as a sound wave. It was like someone was blasting a subwoofer right next to me but there was nothing around."
"The nearest road was maybe a mile away. Something told me to get the heck out of there. So I quickly turned around and hiked as quickly as possible the rest of the way back. I didn't hear that bass sound after I left the clearing, but I still felt like something was following me." ~ HammockDistrictOn5th
Into the Woods
"This isn't a super scary experience or anything, but at the time (I was like 10 or so) it was pretty unnerving. So I was staying with my grandparents who lived pretty much in the middle of nowhere, and a dude knocked on their door. He asked for directions to town, but they lived on a dead end road where the only way to get up there is to come from town so he obviously knew where it was."
"They then pointed in the direction he needed to go, and then he said thanks. But instead of getting back into his car, he just ran off into the woods as fast as he could. They called the cops but they never found him so we have no clue what happened. He left his car in their driveway and never came back for it." ~ Last-Bar-5633
Duck, duck, goose...
ducks no GIFGiphy"In Pennsylvania, USA. Woke up at 5:30 one morning to the sounds of WWIII starting. Shotgun pellets landing on the metal roof and falling into the gutters."
"It was apparently the first day of duck season and some hicks had set up in the stream 50 yards from our cabin. We went out and gave them an earful, they told us to screw off, we called the game commission, they got cited, it wasn't a great day for anyone." ~ NerdyRedneck45
"somebody help me"
"I live alone in the woods fifteen minutes from my town. My neighbors are near but not right next door. One summer morning I woke around 4:30am to a strange 'pounding' sound. It was still kind of dusky dawn lighting and I was in a daze from just waking up. Then I started to hear a man's voice yelling "somebody help me."
"I began to look out my windows to see if I could see anyone but couldn't from upstairs. My home has no window coverings on any windows. I went downstairs and caught a glimpse of him, naked with a thin T-shirt on, running around my house trying to jiggle windows and doors. He was very erratic, kept screaming for someone to help him, and kept running from door to window all around trying to find a way in. In any normal situation, I would gladly help someone in need."
"But this situation felt too unpredictable and dangerous for me to allow this person into my home. I was able to contact my neighbors who got my msg and quickly made their way over to help me, this is faster than any police that can get here. The guy ran away straight into the trees before they arrived. He was picked up by RCMP shortly after. No idea what happened there." ~ whoiswilds
Mushrooms...
"I walked about a mile from home to go mushroom hunting in a usual area. Walked through a field of goldenrod as high as my shoulders and was about to enter the woods when I felt something strange. I felt like I needed to go or I wouldn't get out of there alive."
"I didn't hear or see anything, but I had got goosebumps and I felt anxious when everything was fine before I reached that spot. I stood there debating and decided to go hunt somewhere else. I've gone back many times and haven't experienced that again."
"I live in an area that have bears, wolves, coyotes and bobcats, I've never had any problems with them on walks or hikes in the woods, but maybe that day would've been different or maybe there was a bad person in there. I've learned to trust this feeling I get, it's saved me many times and when I ignored it I got hurt. Whatever was in there, I did the right thing in not going in." ~ Slight-Ad-1744
The Boonies...
"When I was a teenager I went to visit my Aunt and Cousins who lived in the boonies in a town name Eager, AZ (close to the border of New Mexico and half a mile away from the town where Fire In the Sky took place). I was really into Alien abductions lore, I suffered from sleep paralysis where I'd wake up but couldn't open my eyes or move my body."
"Anyway, late at night after everyone went to bed, I put on a movie.. I can't remember the name of it.. but it was like the Blair Witch version of an Alien Abduction movie. I was really into it, and totally geeked out. All the lights in the house were off, just the TV screen."
"I heard something behind me and slowly turned around in my reclining chair only to see a G**-DAMN ALIEN staring at me. I FREAKED OUT and jumped straight into the air screaming. Guys... it was a half-inflated balloon left over from my cousin's birthday party." ~ TransRational
The Ancient Lands
freaking out snakes on a plane GIF by KAT BALLGiphy"I'm semi-rural - village with houses and shops, but surrounded by fields. There are loads of Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments, like 1000 in a 5 mile radius. Anyway, there is this one prehistoric grave which is open, the contents having been moved to the museum."
"I jumped in one time to get a photo taken and my dog, a placid old black lab suddenly started barking with full alert mode, hackles, danger, right at me, in the burial cist. Still shudder to remember the moment. Maybe it was a snake, I don't know." ~ RandomiseUsr0
"what siren?"
"My wife and I were staying at a cabin in a rural town in the mountains. Around 8pm, an air raid siren (fire maybe), rang out for quite a while. We joked that it might be a zombie apocalypse, and after a while we actually got a little nervous that we didn't know what it was for."
"So I put on my coat and pots and walked down the road to a small grocery store nearby. Went in, asked if they knew what the siren was for. They said "what siren?" And when I went back outside the siren was gone." ~ a_pope_on_a_rope
Very Odd Feeling
"I lived in Japan and went on a trip in the mountains with a friend of mine. On a night ramble with him in an unfamiliar area, we both happened upon a torii that was immediately met with an impassable rock face. This seemed strange to me as torii were symbolically passageways."
"He and I both instinctively looked up to the sky while standing before the torii and somewhere that felt close to earth a great multi-colored light appeared hovering above us, letting off light almost like a gas in the full spectrum of colors, before disappearing. He and I both felt something incredibly significant had happened, but had no idea what. Very odd feeling." ~ dayto_aus
On and on...
"I live in the country, and it is weird how BOTH my dogs will key in on something and run to a place in the yard, focused, driven, hackles up, snarling... and there is absolutely nothing there. nothing!! And they aren't looking down or digging, they look up. A few weeks later it happens again, different area of the property. On and on... been here for years now and even the new dogs do it. Something is here with us." ~ hyteck9
Howls...
"I live way way out in the country and nothing really gets to me. However, I was out walking after dark and my flashlight died. I took about five steps and heard coyotes howling right near me and it absolutely freaked me out. I mean hair standing up on neck and frozen with fear. I made it home safely, but I'll never forget that awful sound. If you've never heard coyotes howling at night, you are missing a spine tingling feeling." ~ Robby777777
Yeah see, I'm definitely content with a Walmart and Target close by.
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- Emergency Dispatchers Share The Scariest Calls They Have Ever ... ›
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- People Who Live In Rural Areas Describe The Creepiest Thing They ... ›
- People Describe The Creepiest Experiences They've Had While Camping - George Takei ›
- People Divulge The Parts Of Themselves That Genuinely Scare Them - George Takei ›
- People Describe The Most Unnerving Thing They've Ever Experienced - George Takei ›
- Emergency Dispatchers Share The Scariest Calls They Have Ever Received - George Takei ›
- People Explain What Absolutely Terrifies Them To The Core - George Takei ›
- People Describe The Scariest Thing They've Ever Witnessed Firsthand - 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.