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Spooked People Share Their Most Unexplainable Experiences With The Paranormal

Spooked People Share Their Most Unexplainable Experiences With The Paranormal

There's no such thing. Right...?

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Well, maybe, but, maybe not, too. The world is full of unexplained things, and the paranormal--a subject of great controversy--is so impossible to prove, aside from word of mouth stories. Even skeptics have had their fill.

Redditor u/MegaMango000 asked: Redditors who don't believe in the paranormal, what's the scariest experience you've had that you still can't rationally explain? Serious Replies Only.

Here were some of the spookiest stories.

Poltergeist

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I had a lot of weird things happen at my parents house growing up, but I still consider myself skeptical of anything paranormal.

The master bedroom has a walk-in closet where the light would constantly come on by itself, especially when I was home alone. The dogs were also weirdly obsessed with the closet. One would sit in there for hours, and the other would always stand and growl and bark. Even years after I moved out, my mom still has this happen on the regular.

The freakiest time was when I was 15 and my parents were out for the evening at a work party. I was in my room playing a computer game and listening to music. Suddenly I got a really uncomfortable feeling like someone was behind me. I turned around, and there was a black shadowy figure in the middle of the room. As soon as I saw it, it moved towards me and I could literally feel it move through me. I noped the f out of the house and sat outside until my parents came home.

The most recent time was after I moved out and was at my parents to do some laundry. As I was loading the dryer, I clearly saw somebody walk by the laundry room door and into the furnace room. I assumed it was my dad, but it turned out they were both upstairs at the time.

My mom is also a complete skeptic, but she almost wanted to come stay with me one time because she swears she saw a dark figure crawl across the kitchen floor. She also says she's seen the chandelier swinging one time during the night.

I've never had anything weird happen to me anywhere else but that house, so it's kind of freaky. I'm really not sure what to think.

Poor Puppies

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Stayed with a friend for a couple months post divorce. He had an old farm house and I bunked in the top floor room. One night as I had just gone to bed I heard creaking on the floor just in front of my bed. After a couple seconds, I rolled over and just ignored it.

After a few minutes, I hear it again. I roll over and sit up. I see what looks like a blur (mist perhaps, who knows) pass by the end of the bed. At this point I'm more confused than anything.

Suddenly, I hear what sounds like light footsteps on the stairs - about 7 in total. A small creak, possibly the door opening to the downstairs and then the dogs go ballistic. I run downstairs and now we are all awake. The dogs are focused on the stairway and bark like mad for about 3 minutes.

No real explanation, but after telling my buddy and his wife what I heard we were all creeped out for a few days. I stayed there for a few weeks and nothing else ever happened.

WTF

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I was laying in my bed sleeping one night and I woke up feeling uncomfortable. My daughter has health issues and years of worry about her condition caused us to be light sleepers. When I woke up this night I watched a white figure come down the hall from my daughters room and go by my door. At the same time my dog slid off of the bed (he didn't get up just slid) and followed the white figure.

I was freaked out so I got up and followed the dog to our front door. The dog was facing the door looking out the glass in the door down the street. The moon was lighting up his face and I noticed his eyes were completely shut. I put my hand on his neck and he jumped... He was 100% asleep.

I checked my daughters room and she was happily sleeping and in good health. I've often wondered what visited and how often its visited our home. Ive also wondered if I've ever been the one staring out the front door instead of the dog completely asleep...

NOPE

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1. On my first nursing job, I would work in a unit that served as an overflow, and that unit would close if the census was low (less patients in the hospital). The hospital was only a few years old, but there were strange things happening like the TV turning on its own in a room where one patient died and patient doors closing. I always joked that sun-downing in a hospital could might as well be someone being possesed.

2. Two of our coworkers has the bright idea of going upstairs to that unit, turning on phone video, and asking aloud to the spirits to show themselves. I didn't join them since I was busy. But to their disappointment, nothing came of it and even the possessed TV did not turn on. But later, when they reviewed the video, they turned up the volume on their phone. They started to hear audible whispers and that freaked them out.

3. Not my story but a veteran coworker. She got consent from family for a patient for a surgery who was paranoid "I'm going to die...I'm going to die...I know I am, you bring me there I die." The patient didn't have any significant medical problems, no red flags with anesthesia history, and the surgery was a simple ex-laprascopic gallbladder removal.

The dude died on the table.

Can't Explain

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Repost, not really scary just a portion of it I can't explain:

So, this was about 13 years ago. My wife and I moved into our brand new condo in July of 05. We were new to the area, and knew no one besides my dad. Fast forward to April 07. We had some "weird" things, such as the tv turning on in the middle of the night and a few glasses shattered on their own when no one was in the room. Strange... but we just explained it as new construction/wiring and perhaps the glasses were weakened by the move/age.

We joke about it, and eventually I'm due to drive back to Chicago to do my oral defense for my Masters Degree. I take showers daily, as does my wife. Don't remember the actual dates, but lets say Monday my wife and I take our showers, no worries. Tuesday, I take a shower and get out. Our bathroom has a full wall mirror over the dual sinks. In the steam, at the VERY VERY top is written, "Chicago". I'm like, "Uh... that's odd." Call to my wife and ask her, "Why did you write that?" She is just waking up and comes in, is confuse and starts to get mad at me cause SHE didn't write it. I quickly write in the steam below it without thinking... as does she. The writing doesn't match either of us. Plus, it is written at the TOP of the mirror. We have ten foot ceilings. Both of us would have had to have gotten on the counter and stood to reach it.

I run through the condo (its not very big) everything is locked. We had no people over inbetween the daily showers, and hadn't had anyone over in weeks (still didn't know many people here). My wife is not a prankster, she has never pranked me in in the two decades I've known her.

The kicker, the next night I had an incredibly realistic dream of my grandma who passed in 05. She was on my bed, rested her hand on my leg and said, "Don't worry Hyperion, that b-stard is gone." Nothing weird happened after that. I can explain away everything except that writing though.

Wormhole

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When I was in middle school, I had just come into my classroom and sat down in my desk that was directly across from the door, so I could see out in the hall. I had looked up and saw a black circle, or I guess a circular void (pitch black, no shadow or anything) perfectly centered out of the doorway. A really rough estimate, it was maybe two-three feet tall and wide?

And I do wear glasses, so you'd think it was vision spots right? But a kid out in the hall passed in FRONT of it so that freaked me out and I really don't know what it was. It was only there a few more seconds after that.

The Drink

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When I was about 9/10 years old I was with my friend and we went to my house to get something to drink. We got the drink and we heard something weird coming from upstairs even though there was nobody in the house but us (I had just opened the front door with the key myself and the door was locked).

So we went upstairs and directly on the left there is a door to the bathroom which is about where the noise seemed to be coming from. I looked at the door and realized the little marker that says if it's closed or opened was about 3/4 red and 1/4 white (so it was almost fully locked from inside). When we approached the door to knock on it since nobody was answering our calls to ask who was inside (it's about 3 meters from the end of the stairs) all of the sudden with some noise of force (it was not an easy lock to unlock, but required some power) the thing just popped to fully white like someone turned the lock fully open again from inside the bathroom.

The quickness and force of the movement caused me and my friend to both run out of the house to his house and when we told his mom about this experience she went with us to see what was up.

When we got back, there was nobody in the house nor was there anything missing in the house and there were no windows opened for someone to get away that was in there before. The strangest thing about it all to me was that there was just no way someone could have gotten in and out without a key, and the only people with keys were all away at work.

I still don't understand what happened to this day, but I'm convinced there was someone in that bathroom that day.

A Car, A Car

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I was alone in my house. When I was just about to open a door leading downstairs to my basement I heard what I swear was a person running up the stairs towards the door very quickly. Can't recall if I opened it or not but I was certainly the only person home. I noped out to my buddies place. I'm sure it was actually just something stupid but at the time I was scared af

I Do Believe In Spooks

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My ex and I were the last ones to move out of his house, so it was large and empty, no furniture, very creepy. We lived in his room in the basement. In my time living there I heard alot of unexplained minor things. I used to hear footsteps upstairs, like his dad had gotten home in his work boots and was walking around, but id go upstairs, and he wasn't home yet. In the basement, there was a door to the unfinished half of it (next to his room) and I would go out in the hall and it would be open, after we had already closed it. He had told me also, he used to hear voices and footsteps when no one was home.

This one particular time is the point where we were living there alone before moving out. I was alone, and was upstairs in the empty living room, broad daylight, midmorning. I had the laundry I was bringing to my parents house to do, and had stopped upstairs to say bye to the cat. While I was petting the cat, someone laughed. Clearly laughed out loud like they were right behind me. The cat all of a sudden bolts and runs into an empty run and i follow, looking for anyone at all who could have been there. No one was there. the cat ran again and disappeared into the basement. I grab the laundry and run.

All very minor things, I'm one to believe more if I see it, kind of thing. Those are my only stories to lead me to believe in ghosts or spirits. That story still creeps me out. But I now believe more in it than I used too.

Sudden Music

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I'm a police officer and I was working a fresh homicide (had occurred within the last hour). We'd checked the house, and it's me, 2 other patrol officers and a homicide detective standing there talking and waiting for the medical examiner. All of a sudden the stereo kicks on, playing a song I don't know the name of, but sounded like something you'd hear at a funeral. None of us were near the stereo or had the remote (it took us like 5 minutes to figure out how to turn it off).

Was very eerie to me.

Awww

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My dad died when I was 5. Was raised by my mom and I have a twin brother who I'm really close to but we aren't inseparable. I was on my second year of college bombing all my classes, had not seen family or friends in months and one of my best friends died a month earlier. Not trying to complain but it was a hard time in my life. Anyways I'm alone in my dorm on my bed trying to to homework while I'm panicking about my future. All of a sudden my blanket moves up my bed and around me while i was all alone, I hear a mans voice say "your going to be ok"

Aliens

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I was in bed one night and for no reason at all I woke up.... heard scratching going on above my head and then every single electronic in my room turned on at once.... I'm talking TV, computer, monitors, xbox, laptop.... I summed the scratching up to mice... but I still cant explain the second part....

Weeeeeeird

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Not scary exactly, but pretty weird.

My coworkers disappeared for two or three minutes one day. This was about 10 years ago, about a month/six weeks or so after I started my first office job. The company was in the top two floors of an office building, and I think the set up was a bit jury-rigged somehow because the only way up to the top floor was through the fire escape - the lifts didn't go that high. We had to keep the top fire escape door permanently open because you couldn't open it from the inside - I've got no idea how you were supposed to get up there originally.

It was the last day in that office before the company moved to a new building and we were packing our things up; boxing files and labelling computers and all that. My boss, who had a major sweet-tooth, got peckish and asked me to get some lollies from the 7-11 that was at street level in the building next door. I went down, bought something and took the lift back up. The lights were out.

I went to my office - we were on the lower floor - and it was padlocked shut. The other office on that floor, which had a glass door, was dark and empty. I knocked on the padlocked door, and when there was no answer, I went to the fire escape to check the upper level. The door was closed. I couldn't get right back to my floor, that door had closed behind me, so I walked back down to the ground floor and took the lift back up. Everything was back to normal. The lights were on, doors were open, there were people. I mentioned what had happened and no one knew what I was talking about. I thought it might have been a practical joke for a little while, but no-one ever said anything about it.

Brother//Uncle

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The first one happened when I was about 7 years old. I had my own bedroom and always slept with the door open. One night as I was laying in bed, on my side, facing the door, I saw my little brother (who would have been 2 at the time) run by my bedroom door wearing those old 90's LA Gear light up sandals (If you grew up in the 90's you know the ones, with the red lights that blink on the back heel area when you take a step). I sat up at bit when I heard/saw this as I could hear the distinctive crumple sound of a diaper being ran in and saw the lights clearly. I whispered his name and asked what he was doing. I saw him come back to my door way, sandals lighting up, and then stop at my doorway looking at me. At that point I could tell something was off, I could not make out any features on him but I chalked it up to being dark and he ran back down the hall and I went to sleep.

The next morning, I went to my Mom and asked why my brother was up running around last night. She told me that he wasn't, I said that I saw him and he even had on those sandals that light up. She looked at me funny and said, "Your brother slept in our bed all night last night, and I threw away those sandals over a month ago....

The second one, I was about 9 years old.

Our front room was a wide open space with a couch on the left wall, a couch towards the back of the room and a bay window you are able to sit in at the front. A family friend named Tom came over to stay with us. He was going to sleep on the couch in the front room, and me, wanting to hang out with my older cool "uncle" Tom (who was about 20 years older than me) asked if I could sleep on the other couch as a kind of slumber party. He of course said yes and my parents could care less.

We go to sleep and in the front room through the blinds on the bay window you could see some light filtering in from the street light outside. I woke up at some point and was by default staring at the bay window and I saw Tom casually sitting on the bay window looking out towards the street. I whispered his name, he slowly turned his head to look at me, and then slowly moved back to looking out the window. I looked at the couch and did not see him there, so I got up and walked towards him asking what he was doing. As I got closer and closer, he became more and more translucent until I got right up to him and reached out to touch him and my hand went through thin air... he was gone. I looked at the couch and he was there sound asleep.

It wasn't sleep paralysis because I was wide awake in both situations but I have no explanation for what it might have been.

Hands

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When I was still a kid I stayed with my cousin at my grandma's house, it's a very old ryad in Morocco (like 400ys+ old). My grandma left us alone and went to visit a friend of hers and she was the only one with the keys. As I was playing with my cousin we heard heavy banging on the door, we went running to the door and checked who it was but there was noone outside, so we went back playing in a room till we heard a very loud bang on the window overlooking the interior patio, and there was a huge man's hand on it, we got out of the room running to the patio but noone was there. We went hiding in another room for like 2hours super scared till my grandma came back. We told everyone the story and noone ever believed us.

A Song

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Once, i was laying in my bed and was about to sleep while listening on my ipod the song : hell awaits from Slayer for the first time. So there is a 1 minute intro to the song where the phrase "join us" is repeated backwards. When the intro was over there was the sudden drums. Right then i saw the door right against my bed turn into white as if striken by lightning. My 15yo self almost s--t my pants and straight up ran to my mom in the kitchen. My guess is that it was a near-sleep hallucination triggered by the sudden drum beat. Never heard this song again, neither am i planning to!

Mystery

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I was about 6 years old, playing with some toy soldiers out front of my house. I turned my head to the left (towards the house) and vaguely saw some man watching me. As soon as he saw that I had seen him, he looked like he quickly jolted back behind the house. I got up and followed and... he was gone. But there was no where for him to go from where he ran. He just vanished.

Strange Figures

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As a teenager I would babysit for my cousin, let's call her A. I was about 16 at the time. Her and her husband had just moved into this large house and had a newborn daughter. I never liked the vibe of that house but just thought I was being irrational. One morning I'm alone with the baby and I hear someone going down the stairs, a bang, and some murmuring, I tell myself the house is new and it's just settling and maybe the TV is on. I pick up the infant and make my way downstairs. Once you get to the bottom of the stairs it opens up to a large living room to the left with a TV on the floor, to the right is the kitchen area. I go to the kitchen to make a bottle and it feels like someone is watching me, I shake it off but start packing up a diaper bag just in case. Not 2 minutes later I hear the TV turn on, volume all the way up, to static white noise.. I. Flip. My. Sh-t! I run to the living room and turn it off. I call one of my cousins who lives near by to come get me, let's call her S, as I'm talking to S on the phone the TV turns on again. I waited for her outside after that. Later that night my cousin S, another cousin who is the sister to A, and I go back to A's house to drop off the baby and get my stuff I left there. We ring the door bell no answer. We hear them running up and down the stairs, we saw someone look at us through the window, and we can hear them talking and laughing. We have no clue what game they're playing so we ring the door bell again and start yelling at them, they're laughing at us now. All 3 of us are getting irritated and start to leave, as we get in the car, here comes A and her husband coming up the street in their car... We have no clue what the hell happened that night, I don't believe in the paranormal but I have no explanation for that.

Static

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We have an office next to our living room. One night, my wife gets up in the middle of the night and the TV in the office was turned on. Nobody had been in the office for a few days.

Two days later, I get up for work really early, 6am, and I'm in the living room putting on my shoes. I notice the TV is on again. When I walked in the office to unplug the TV, I got chills worse than I've ever had in my life.

I can explain the chills as my active imagination, but the TV turning itself on, twice, still creeps me out.

OKC Creeps

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This is really confusing and still confuses me to this day. But as i remember it, I was in kindergarten and me and my family were living in an apartment in oklahoma city. It was in the middle of the day which is what still trips me out but my mom had went out grocery shopping and had been out for about over an hour while me and my dad were at home so we had been expecting her already. We both CLEARLY hear the door being unlocked, OPENED, and keys being set on the table. Almost like a routine for whenever my parents would get home. I exclaimed "mommy's home!" while both me and my father leave the room and go into the living room. No one is there. Me and my dad are both confused and search around then as my dad calls my mom to ask where she's at, she unlocks the front door and comes in like nothing happened. We asked her if she had already been inside and went to the car or something and she said she literally just arrived for the first time. It was a really small apartment so it was pretty clear we both had obviously heard something from inside the apartment just only 15 steps away. The weirdest part to me which my dad doesn't seem to find significance in because he was the "aware adult" but that I VIVIDLY remember that happening at one apartment while my dad says he clearly remembered that happening at the apartment we had lived in previously. I was old enough to distinguish the names of the apartments and we've talked about it to clear any confusion but it's just odd to me that we both have the exact same story with exact details but remember it as two different places

People Reveal The Weirdest Thing About Themselves

Reddit user Isitjustmedownhere asked: 'Give an example; how weird are you really?'

Let's get one thing straight: no one is normal. We're all weird in our own ways, and that is actually normal.

Of course, that doesn't mean we don't all have that one strange trait or quirk that outweighs all the other weirdness we possess.

For me, it's the fact that I'm almost 30 years old, and I still have an imaginary friend. Her name is Sarah, she has red hair and green eyes, and I strongly believe that, since I lived in India when I created her and there were no actual people with red hair around, she was based on Daphne Blake from Scooby-Doo.

I also didn't know the name Sarah when I created her, so that came later. I know she's not really there, hence the term 'imaginary friend,' but she's kind of always been around. We all have conversations in our heads; mine are with Sarah. She keeps me on task and efficient.

My mom thinks I'm crazy that I still have an imaginary friend, and writing about her like this makes me think I may actually be crazy, but I don't mind. As I said, we're all weird, and we all have that one trait that outweighs all the other weirdness.

Redditors know this all too well and are eager to share their weird traits.

It all started when Redditor Isitjustmedownhere asked:

"Give an example; how weird are you really?"

Monsters Under My Bed

"My bed doesn't touch any wall."

"Edit: I guess i should clarify im not rich."

– Practical_Eye_3600

"Gosh the monsters can get you from any angle then."

– bikergirlr7

"At first I thought this was a flex on how big your bedroom is, but then I realized you're just a psycho 😁"

– zenOFiniquity8

Can You See Why?

"I bought one of those super-powerful fans to dry a basement carpet. Afterwards, I realized that it can point straight up and that it would be amazing to use on myself post-shower. Now I squeegee my body with my hands, step out of the shower and get blasted by a wide jet of room-temp air. I barely use my towel at all. Wife thinks I'm weird."

– KingBooRadley

Remember

"In 1990 when I was 8 years old and bored on a field trip, I saw a black Oldsmobile Cutlass driving down the street on a hot day to where you could see that mirage like distortion from the heat on the road. I took a “snapshot” by blinking my eyes and told myself “I wonder how long I can remember this image” ….well."

– AquamarineCheetah

"Even before smartphones, I always take "snapshots" by blinking my eyes hoping I'll remember every detail so I can draw it when I get home. Unfortunately, I may have taken so much snapshots that I can no longer remember every detail I want to draw."

"Makes me think my "memory is full.""

– Reasonable-Pirate902

Same, Same

"I have eaten the same lunch every day for the past 4 years and I'm not bored yet."

– OhhGoood

"How f**king big was this lunch when you started?"

– notmyrealnam3

Not Sure Who Was Weirder

"Had a line cook that worked for us for 6 months never said much. My sous chef once told him with no context, "Baw wit da baw daw bang daw bang diggy diggy." The guy smiled, left, and never came back."

– Frostygrunt

Imagination

"I pace around my house for hours listening to music imagining that I have done all the things I simply lack the brain capacity to do, or in some really bizarre scenarios, I can really get immersed in these imaginations sometimes I don't know if this is some form of schizophrenia or what."

– RandomSharinganUser

"I do the same exact thing, sometimes for hours. When I was young it would be a ridiculous amount of time and many years later it’s sort of trickled off into almost nothing (almost). It’s weird but I just thought it’s how my brain processes sh*t."

– Kolkeia

If Only

"Even as an adult I still think that if you are in a car that goes over a cliff; and right as you are about to hit the ground if you jump up you can avoid the damage and will land safely. I know I'm wrong. You shut up. I'm not crying."

– ShotCompetition2593

Pet Food

"As a kid I would snack on my dog's Milkbones."

– drummerskillit

"Haha, I have a clear memory of myself doing this as well. I was around 3 y/o. Needless to say no one was supervising me."

– Isitjustmedownhere

"When I was younger, one of my responsibilities was to feed the pet fish every day. Instead, I would hide under the futon in the spare bedroom and eat the fish food."

– -GateKeep-

My Favorite Subject

"I'm autistic and have always had a thing for insects. My neurotypical best friend and I used to hang out at this local bar to talk to girls, back in the late 90s. One time he claimed that my tendency to circle conversations back to insects was hurting my game. The next time we went to that bar (with a few other friends), he turned and said sternly "No talking about bugs. Or space, or statistics or other bullsh*t but mainly no bugs." I felt like he was losing his mind over nothing."

"It was summer, the bar had its windows open. Our group hit it off with a group of young ladies, We were all chatting and having a good time. I was talking to one of these girls, my buddy was behind her facing away from me talking to a few other people."

"A cloudless sulphur flies in and lands on little thing that holds coasters."

"Cue Jordan Peele sweating gif."

"The girl notices my tension, and asks if I am looking at the leaf. "Actually, that's a lepidoptera called..." I looked at the back of my friend's head, he wasn't looking, "I mean a butterfly..." I poked it and it spread its wings the girl says "oh that's a BUG?!" and I still remember my friend turning around slowly to look at me with chastisement. The ONE thing he told me not to do."

"I was 21, and was completely not aware that I already had a rep for being an oddball. It got worse from there."

– Phormicidae

*Teeth Chatter*

"I bite ice cream sometimes."

RedditbOiiiiiiiiii

"That's how I am with popsicles. My wife shudders every single time."

monobarreller

Never Speak Of This

"I put ice in my milk."

– GTFOakaFOD

"You should keep that kind of thing to yourself. Even when asked."

– We-R-Doomed

"There's some disturbing sh*t in this thread, but this one takes the cake."

– RatonaMuffin

More Than Super Hearing

"I can hear the television while it's on mute."

– Tira13e

"What does it say to you, child?"

– Mama_Skip

Yikes!

"I put mustard on my omelettes."

– Deleted User

"Oh."

– NotCrustOr-filling

Evened Up

"Whenever I say a word and feel like I used a half of my mouth more than the other half, I have to even it out by saying the word again using the other half of my mouth more. If I don't do it correctly, that can go on forever until I feel it's ok."

"I do it silently so I don't creep people out."

– LesPaltaX

"That sounds like a symptom of OCD (I have it myself). Some people with OCD feel like certain actions have to be balanced (like counting or making sure physical movements are even). You should find a therapist who specializes in OCD, because they can help you."

– MoonlightKayla

I totally have the same need for things to be balanced! Guess I'm weird and a little OCD!

Close up face of a woman in bed, staring into the camera
Photo by Jen Theodore

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.

Man's waist line
Santhosh Vaithiyanathan/Unsplash

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.