Skeptics Reveal What They've Seen That They Still Can't Explain

Skeptics Reveal What They've Seen That They Still Can't Explain
Public Domain/Pixabay

Life can be freaky and we all see and experience things from time to time that we have no rational explanation for.

Today's burning question from Redditor Angellic_Reaper: "Skeptics of Reddit, what's something you have seen that you cannot explain?"

Buckle up, kids. Things are about to get weird.


"I was hiking in Yosemite..."

I was hiking in Yosemite and one night while stargazing I saw a light that slowly moved across the sky in a reasonably straight line. I thought it was a satellite as those are incredibly common when you get out into place that shows the night sky clearly. The light then stopped and started moving in every direction in these erratic jumps and bursts of speed. It did this for maybe 20 minutes before it started moving in its original direction. I have never seen anything like it before or since.

Shooting stars or satellites don't just stop and zip around in random directions like that. It couldn't have been a drone because it seemed to be too high and you couldn't hear anything, and besides, most drones can't move like that anyway. Everyone in our group saw it but we didn't really talk about it much, other than my buddy referring to it as the "drunk driving alien". I don't know what it was but I have seen nothing like it before or since.

Ceoltoir74

"It wasn't seen..."

It wasn't seen, but years ago I thought of my best friend's mother, who I hadn't seen or thought of in ages, and a few minutes later my friend called to tell me her mother had just died. Still freaks me out.

GoodGriefWhatsNext

"About a week after she died..."

My mom died of cancer and during the final months, she was living with us and we took care of her until her last breath in our house. Four events have happened that were not easy to explain.

First, in her last week, I was trying to help her relax so I played a playlist I keep on my phone called "bedtime". It has some very relaxing music. Her breathing was getting loud and it was difficult to be there with her. At one point I was crying because of watching her this way. Her brother, Leo, had passed away before her so I closed my eyes and thought "Leo. Please take her. It's so hard for her. She's ready." Ten seconds later she took her last breath. It wasn't until later the next day that we realized she passed away on the exact same day that Leo did, ten years later.

About a week after she died, I was sitting on the couch and I thought to myself, "mom, if you're ok give me a sign". My phone started playing that bedtime playlist all by itself.

A few months later, we were moving out of that house. We had loaded the last box and I was doing my final walkthrough of the house. In my head, I said "mom, we're going to a new house. I hope you're coming with us." And I sh!t you not, my phones started playing that playlist again.

Two weeks ago, we were in Cancun on vacation. It's been a couple years since she's passed away. We were having a romantic dinner on the beach and I knew my mom would have really enjoyed it where we were and I thought, "mom, if you're still with me give me a sign" and about 5 seconds later a huge shooting star shot across the sky. It was actually a meteor. Like it flamed out in the sky.

sean_but_not_seen

"I have no idea what I saw."

I was 14 and vacationing with my family on a beach in Eastern Europe. Our balcony had a view of the beach and I would sit out there every night. One night, there was a man and a woman(?) walking on the beach. She would walk a few paces and then he would catch up to her. Except for she wasn't really walking like a human, but more like a horse if that makes sense. She would raise her knee, extend her leg (toes pointed), and then gracefully plop her foot down on the ground. She was super thin and looked bald. She also looked like a human mannequin made out out of fabric and stitched up. He was watching her walk and almost studying her.

She would walk 5-10 steps and then robotically turn around and walk the other way. The only plausible explanation I can fathom is that she was some sort of robot/sex doll/etc., but her movements seemed too fluid to be a robot and too robotic to be a human. Since then, I've tried researching different illnesses (maybe she was sick?) and looked at photos of the newest robots and no dice. I have no idea what I saw.

PrincessofPersuasia

"I told her that I had just been at Ida's house..."

I'm a skeptic of basically everything, but my mom actually has a story about me as a kid she always tells that scares the hell out of people.

When I was 3 her aunt died, who she was very close to, Ida. A few months later her friends took her to a psychic as a birthday gag. The psychic told her not to worry about herself or me because a woman who was like a mother to her and who had died was watching over us both. It freaked her out, but she ignored it.

A few months later she was walking to bed past my bedroom door, which was open a little. She heard talking and she looked in. I was sitting at the end of my bed staring at the wall having a conversation in the dark. She turned the light on and shook me and asked me what I was doing and who I was talking to.

I told her that I had just been at Ida's house and we were eating cheesecake and playing Hi-ho Cherry-oh (both my mom's favorite).

I've never been to Ida's house and I was 3 and didn't know what those things were. And we lived across the street from a giant cemetery. And that's where Ida was buried.

tweak0

"I didn't think anything of it..."

Giphy

Me and my girlfriend stayed at a very old Hotel in Boston recently. I was going to take a picture of the staircase as we were staying on the top floor and it looked like a cool shot. Instead I realized it was on Video and immediately stopped it after 1 second.

I didn't think anything of it, but I went to play it the other day and there is a voice that says "Are you taking a picture of me ?" No one else was in the staircase; it's neither of our voices and it absolutely freaked us out.

CountFarussi

"I went for my after work run one night..."

I went for my after work run one night around 11pm back in 2010 in my neighborhood. I was 18 and just about out of high school. I was headed home and I felt this weird buzzing electricity in my body. Ya know, that feeling when the hair on your body just stands up and you get cold chills? This weird feeling of fear draped over me and I for some reason thought I needed to stop to shake it out. Thought maybe I was just starting to feel tired or just...something. As I stood there getting my bearings straight and removing my headphones I was caught off guard by some sort of movement in front of me. I turned my eyes and I watched as a green orb, about 20 to 25ft away came up out of the ground. Almost like it had been in the Earth and just moved up out of the ground effortlessly.

It whirled around for about 5 to 6 seconds like it was getting a view of the area. I immediately became petrified. I'd never encountered anything otherworldly or supernatural-like in my life. I watched this thing shoot off like some sort of rocket, but faster. Like lightning. Idk how to describe how fast it went, but it shot into some trees a ways off. It was still out there, but was pulsating light in these trees. I ran home as fast as I humanly could. Walked in the door and parent's said "you are so flushed. It looks like you've seen a ghost or something?!" I immediately burst into tears from all the fear that was bottled up.

I'll never forget that.

Solid308

"I was out on my boat with my dad..."

I was out on my boat with my dad, coming back from an island for lunch. There's this lighthouse really far away on a huge rock that sticks out and would ruin ships, and they were getting ready to do construction on it, and to replace the current bulb with a solar powered LED one to save money. Nobody was out there at this point in time. We were close enough to it that we could see the features of the rock and lighthouse but also relatively far away. I look to the left of it and there's this dark black square. I start thinking, 'I'm so tired.' And then ask me dad if he can see that black square. He said yes. I was super confused and freaked, it was a bright sunny day, and the square was half the size of this already huge lighthouse. I thought to myself it was surely some scaffolding tarp that had been caught in the wind, but the thing didn't flap and stood perfectly still. It got thinner and thinner and then poof. Vanished. I still have no idea what it was.

euanmac369

"As he was doing it, I saw something walk out of a corridor..."

There was the time when I was young.

My parents took me into the underground city in Edinburgh for a tour. The tour guide was giving the "don't get lost or we'll never find you" spiel.

As he was doing it, I saw something walk out of a corridor behind him. I'm gonna save text here because I could go all melodramatic and wax lyrical about it for ages - it was basically what we'd now call a grim reaper - skeletal head and hands, carrying an hourglass in the hand I could see, with what looked like smoke or shadows around it for clothes.

No one else even twitched. When I was clear that no one else was seeing this thing in the corridor, I freaked out to the point my parents had to take us off the tour.

The thing that still makes my skin crawl about that - I didn't have my love of sci fi, fantasy or actual science when I was that young. I didn't really get that until I read the hobbit a year later. So I didn't know what a grim reaper was. I didn't know the anatomy of a human hand's bones or the association of the hourglass with death. Yet I saw all those things and some of my drawings from that age have details I wouldn't have known at that age (like the fact the carpus at the base of the hand being seven bones in a cluster, not a single knob of bone).

Been over 20 years and I've still not quite figured out how I knew things like that for those drawings. If I didn't know better, I'd think I'd been the victim of a practical joke, but I freaked out enough that there's no way my parents would have kept it going.

axw3555

"My friends and I camped out..."

My friends and I camped out in this abandoned island off the coast of my country once. The history is that British soldiers used to be based on this island during the age of imperialism and no one ever lived there again because they say either the souls of those British soldiers dwelled or the place is inhabited by "djinn" (Arabic for genies; sort of the Islamic ghost).

Anyway, we camped there when my friend went to go pee. He came running back freaking out saying he saw something. Keep in mind, we were the only people on the whole island as it is uninhabited. Later on, I needed to pee myself, so I went to a different secluded part and saw this shape... it was the silhouette of a very big cat. Feeling scared, I finished off and went back to my group and asked if there are any animals known to live there - everyone was adamant that nothing could survive on this island, and our region as a whole doesn't have that much wildlife.

The next morning, we went to inspect the rest of the island. It's not big... about a mile in diameter. We couldn't find any evidence of anything living there amongst the ruins. Still freaks me out to this day.

hercoffee

"An old house I rented..."

Not seen, but heard. An old house I rented was the home to a former whiskey-maker and county-wide notorious a-hole. One night, about 3-4am, I heard what sounded like an old-time radio show. Like a trio or duo of women singing old gospel style music, then an announcer speaking with them, all in that old times midwestern meter. I searched the house but could find nothing. I bailed and slept at a friends. A few nights later, several friends were over for a party, and by around 3am, it had died down, we were just vegging in the living room. One of my friends just asked "Does anyone else hear that old radio?" He described hearing practically the same thing I heard previously. I didn't stay at this house long.

scotch-0

"I came across a deer..."

Giphy

A while ago I took a road trip to the southwest US. I was in northern Arizona, near the border of new Mexico on some back roads outside a reservation looking for a place to park and camp for the night. The sun had just went down and it was getting dark quickly. There was still a band of light across the horizon from the setting sun.

I came across a deer that appeared to be hit by a large vehicle, a semi or box truck or something like that. There was flesh and bits of fur in the road and a blood stain spiraling across the road that lead to a fresh deer carcass on the shoulder. It looked gruesome. Naturally I slow down and rubberneck. The deer was still alive and looked into the headlights. As I pass it, I swear it sits up straight like someone getting out of bed and starts to stand on it's back legs.

I punch the gas and didn't slow down until I got to Flagstaff. F**k that.

PM_ME_YOUR_BEE_SYRUP

"My dad and I were in Montana..."

My dad and I were in Montana deer hunting on our friend's private property, and we came across what we believe were Sasquatch tracks in a large patch of snow. My father has been hunting his entire life- he's seen pretty much every animal and their tracks. I'll never forget the wide-eyed look on his face when he said, "That's not from a bear."

The tracks looked almost identical to a human's, but they were massive and at least 3 feet apart. I remember the toes were long and the soles wide. I don't think it could have been a person, since we were several miles into private property and our friend was out of town. I'm not sure what those tracks belonged to, but the fact that my dad was stunned and couldn't identify them leads me to believe that they were something very, very unique.

DraconicKoala

"I once had a dream where my grandmother..."

I once had a dream where my grandmother (still living) told me she was in heaven. It's unusual for me to remember any details of my dreams, but this one stuck with me. While having breakfast the next morning, my father called to tell me she had died during the night.

I don't believe in ghosts or anything like that, and I'm agnostic at best about the notion of an afterlife. I've had other people who were close to me die since, and nothing like that has ever happened again. The dream could have been triggered by simple unspoken realities; she was 93 and in the hospital, although she was not at death's door, so it wasn't like I was expecting it.

The one thing I come back to is the thought that Grandma and I were always very close. I was her first grandchild, and I think I was her favorite. So if there was any way she could reassure me from beyond the grave, she would. The logical side of me says it's all just happenstance. But the whole experience left me with a small flame of hope that I don't expect will ever get blown out.

Iggleyank

"Was home totally alone..."

Was home totally alone, doors and windows all locked and double checked. I had our two dogs in my room with me watching a movie and snuggling round 2 am or so when I very distinctly heard my mums voice yelling for me from downstairs using my nickname no one else uses. My family was in Louisiana and I was in Texas at the time and so I just assumed I was overtired and my brain was short circuiting. Pretty quickly after that I heard it a second time and that time both dogs got up with hackles raised, got in front of me on the bed and started growling like the devil himself was at the door.

Of course I totally flipped out because they won't stop and won't even look at me as I'm calling them and petting their heads trying to get them to chill out. Heard something thud pretty heavily on the landing outside my bedroom. Both dogs loose their minds and vault off the to bed and starting barking and snarling at the door; I flew across the room locked the door and then booked it back to my bed .

Just about peed my pants and the dogs didn't chill out until the sun came up. They spent the entire night growling and sitting over me facing my bedroom door. They've never done it again and in the morning everything was still locked up and I couldn't find anything that might have fallen. Still gives me goosebumps to this day.

cauldronbubblesover

"So about a year ago..."

So about a year ago, I had a dream. I was playing a board game with my dad, which was fairly normal, as both of us love board games. I had never seen this game before. In the dream, my dad moved a piece (I won't elaborate on the actual game because that's kinda boring for most people) and he said "that piece is more powerful, so I'll take it out first." A couple months later, he got a new game. It was identical to the one in the dream. No differences whatsoever. The first time we played it, this event happened, word for word. Ever since then, I've had stuff like this happen every once in a while. I'll have a dream, or just be daydreaming, and then sometime from a day to half a year later, that exact same thing happens.

I have also been in the car with my parents going home, when we see some kind of plane (maybe 30 feet long) just hovering 10 meters above the ground. It wasn't moving at all. This wasn't a hallucination - my mom saw it too.

TannenF

"This wasn't necessarily visible..."

This wasn't necessarily visible, but I still cannot explain this for the life of me

So I had a friend who lived in another town, about 1.5 hours from where I live, so we didn't talk often. At the time of this story (around 2011), we hadn't seen eachother in a good 8 months, or even conversed all that much since those 8 months. I decide it would be fun to hang out again, so I give him a call. Instead of him answering the phone, I get the message 'this person is already in a call' (paraphrased). I wait a minute and call again. Turns out on the exact moment I called him, he called me. I still don't have an explenation for this, except for chance of course.

issche

"I saw a UFO..."

I saw a UFO outside my window when I was in high school. I was perplexed, and stared until it was out of sight.

I told people about it, but eventually I kind of just forgot about it.

Several years later I came across this documentary, and the UFO i had seen in high school was featured in the film. A guy from my hometown caught it all on camera, and many people from the area reported seeing it that evening. I saw it all over again, and still can't really believe what I saw...even though there is evidence. What the f*ck was it?

SayNoMoreMonAmour

"When I was 4 years old..."

When I was 4 years old, I was asleep and my grandma came in to check on me before she went to bed. There was blood all over my blanket, sheets, and the wall. She woke me up and looked me over from head to toe but found no trace of a bloody nose or any cuts anywhere on my body.

paprikagc

"Was working as a floor nurse..."

Was working as a floor nurse on a busy med surg unit. One patient was going to have an open hysterectomy (1983 or so). Stated she had an identical twin sister living in Germany. Patient did not want to notify sister about surgery until it was over so she would not worry. On the afternoon of the surgery, about the time the patient returned from PACU, the twin sister called the patient 's home saying she had been having severe abdominal pains all day and a feeling that something was wrong with her sister. Patient in Tennessee. Sister in Germany.

Nopain59

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