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People Describe Their Spookiest Paranormal Experience

People Describe Their Spookiest Paranormal Experience
Image by Peter H from Pixabay

Haunted houses, looming ghosts in darkened corners, and unexplained sights and sounds of fallen loved ones are all usually the fodder of movies and books.

And yet they populate real life from time to time.


Thanks to the internet, a wide net can be cast to find all those people out there with their own stories of paranormal activity. Those palpable rarities are just begging to be shared to all who will listen.

A recent Reddit post rounded up those folks sitting on stories of their own.

One theme carried through nearly all of the posts: an experience like that sticks with you.

SalzyJ asked, "What was YOUR paranormal experience?"

Meeting Grandpa

"I was at work one night and my mom was visiting my newborn son and wife."

"I get home and my mom tells me she heard my dad talking to my son. My dad died 8 years prior but she swears up and down it was his voice."

"My wife heard it too but never met my dad, so she couldn't say much about it. Just that it was a man's voice."

"Then it happened again when my daughter was born."

"I really want to believe my dad is watching the kids grow up but I'll never know."

-- cantuseasingleone

Confirmation

"I was visiting family and staying in a hotel with my boyfriend (husband now). The first night there we went to bed and I woke up in the middle of the night facing the window."

"I noticed there was a dark shadow in the corner of the room that looked human shaped."

"After staring a while I realized it must have been a floor lamp since that corner was kind of bare and that's the logical choice."

"I rolled over and went back to bed."

"The following morning I remembered this and turned to look into the corner where the lamp was and... There isn't a floor lamp there. The corner is bare."

"I mentioned it to my boyfriend and he went white."

"He told me that he woke up in the middle of the night because he felt like he was being watched and had to get up out of bed to go to the bathroom (I vaguely remember him getting up) to try and shake the feeling."

"It still sticks with me in dark rooms."

-- Lexocracy

Help From Beyond

"My father died less than 6 months after my daughter was born. She was not a good sleeper for her first year or so. Waking up screaming and crying at all hours of the night."

"My wife and I would trade times getting up to soothe her."

"One evening not too long after my father past I was having a dream that my daughter was screaming in her bedroom."

"In the dream I got up and went to her room, but before I got there my dad came out of the room and just said, she'll be ok' and kept walking away and the crying stopped."

"I shot up and and saw the baby monitor screen was on. It was on sound activated mode, so the screen only comes on when a sound it's over 60dB and goes off after 3mins of quiet. I get up and check and she's fine and sleeping."

"A little shaken, it took me a bit to get back to sleep."

"I tell my wife about the dream in the morning. She told me she heard her crying, but thought I'd gotten up to calm her."

"Still a vivid memory in my mind nearly 3 years later seeing my younger looking Dad coming out of her room."

-- Midtenn86

Truth in Dreams

"I had a friend who was very sick at the hospital this past Spring."

"I went to bed, and in that in-between stage where you're not awake and not quite asleep, I could sense him standing by the side of my bed. We said a few words to each other, and then he hugged me."

"When I woke up the next morning, I found out that he'd passed not long after I'd gone to bed."

"Many people would say it was just a dream, but I know better in my heart. I felt that he was actually there, and I felt the hug."

"He was one of the most caring and inspiring people that I'd known, and it was just like him to say goodbye to the people who loved him."

-- UltraRunner42

Former Residents

"Back when I lived in my very first apartment I would hear what sounded like a little child calling for their parent."

"Now at first I thought it was genuinely some kid who was lost because the complex was big enough for a kid to wander off from their parents."

"But the voice seemed to always be right next to me. It wasn't until I moved out that I found out a little girl was killed by her abusive father in the 80s."

-- DemandParticular

Culinary Spooks

"I don't know if this qualifies as paranormal per se, but I was home alone one weekend, and decided to make myself scrambled eggs for breakfast."

"Took a full carton out of the fridge. Grabbed an egg, cracked it. Went to a grab a second egg, only to notice the carton was...fulI. Again."

"I just stood there and stared at the full carton for a few seconds (expecting one to disappear maybe? Idk), then I just threw them all out. Wasn't gonna f**k around with phantom eggs."

"There is probably a rational explanation but I know what I saw."

-- -AboveAverageJoe

What Was Out There

"I once was laying in my bed with my dog at the foot of it. I was on the cusp of sleep when suddenly my dogs pop her head up and locks on to something in the middle of my room. Her head then slowly turns and follows something I can't see."

"Her head stops again and my backpack gets knocked over, after having been in the same spot for hours."

"Then all of the sudden a loud BANG on my bedroom window (I was on the second floor of the house). I ran out of that room so quick without daring to look at that window."

-- SalzyJ

A Tough Sell

"I am a real estate broker and flip houses. We buy old beat up houses, some of them are the worst of the worst as you could imagine."

"Anyway we bought one and went to see it today. It had been vacant for 10 years and when we went inside there was a blood stain on the floor."

"Come to find out that somebody killed someone in that house 10 years ago. Pretty creepy."

"My partner and I were taking walk through videos to share with our contractors and get rehab estimates."

"Both of us independently took videos, and both of our phones shut off when we panned over the area with the blood stain where the man died. This is going to be a weird rehab.."

-- MartytheeParty

The Fuzzy Middle Ground

"I was asleep and experiencing sleep paralysis so dreaming/hallucinating. A boy at the end of the bed was taunting me with poking my foot he hadn't quite touched my foot yet but was going to."

"It carried on for a while I couldn't move then he hit my foot and at that exact moment my partner kicked me in the foot in her sleep."

"I've never been able to figure out how my hallucinating matched up with a real life real time moment."

"I consider it to be paranormal."

-- Zkn0t

Was it a Casper?

"Got a second hand mattress when I turned 5/6, started having the same dream every night of a lady coming out of a house in the woods and screaming at some kids playing in a sandpit out the front."

"For two years I had the same dream and could even hear the woman screaming while I was awake."

"Mum ended up giving the mattress away to her skeptic friend who needed it for her son. I stop having the dreams and the friend's son started waking up with night terrors."

-- Aquadire

Parting Wisdom

"My grandma fell very sick with cancer. She fought and fought but it was too much for her. For the last few months she was bedridden in my room. I was about 14 at the time."

"One night she had passed. I woke up at about 1 am with a strange feeling. I felt a weird presence and at that moment I heard somebody speak. She said 'stay true' which was what she always told me."

"I didn't know it at the time but she has passed away and had spoken to me, her last few ghostly words before she left to go to heaven. To this day I still cry about it. Even while writing it."

-- nic24_ryan

Visionary Glimpses

"I can see the future sometimes. It's f***ing weird as shit. Not like deja vu, but also exactly like deja vu at the same time."

"I'll have a dream and not think much about it except 'oh that was pretty realistic' then what happened in the dream will actually happen. It's usually like 10 seconds."

"I don't really talk about it though because people will think I'm insane or exaggerating. It's f***ing weird. Happens like once or twice a month."

-- girls-pmmeyournudes

Just Taking a Look

"I was hanging out on a friend's back porch in a suburban neighborhood with a few people, maybe three other people, it was about dusk. This was during high school so before 2005."

"The back porch faced our over a small creek valley of open space. A blue green ball of light came zooming in over the open space from the left and stopped about 100 feet away, maybe 40 feet off the ground. It was maybe the size of a soft ball."

"Then it zoomed over to about 15 feet away and 15 feet up in the air and stopped for about two breaths. Then it shot straight up in to the sky and was gone in less than a second."

"The way it moved was weird too, it didn't hover or drift at all it just went from one point in space to another and then stopped. Not like it vanished and reappeared, I mean it moved so fast it kind of looked like that."

"But there was not slowing down or speeding up it just went. All four of us saw it, we talked about it a little bit not much, just kind of sat with the realization we'd been inspected by aliens."

-- Ahnamal

Ghost's Can't Handle Zippers

"I was hiking on a mountain that is supposedly sacred and haunted(Its in Indonesia). One of the rules there are no swearing on the way up and nothing we wear can be colored green."

"I didn't believe any of it so I just wore a green hiking bag and my friend swore all the way from bottom to top."

"During our first night camping, we started to hear unintelligible human whispering from around our tent. Afterwards something that looks like a human hand pressed against the tent and repeatedly tried to claw its way into the tent."

"It continued for hours and we could not sleep. The next morning, all of our shoes which were supposed to be neatly are arranged are everywhere around our tent."

"Never going there again."

-- jakartaboi18

Roadside Assistance

"I often question in my head if this was a dream or not, keep in mind I'm not a religious person. When I was about 3 or 4 years old my mom had fallen asleep at the wheel on a major highway and, being a toddler, I had no idea that was a bad thing."

"I didn't scream, or shout, or anything, but I remember looking out the window to my right and I saw the strangest thing: a school bus I think? filled with what looked like angels..."

"...but not angels like you see in paintings, glowing, skeletal figures with large wings, and they were staring back at me and I remember getting very happy and pointing and telling my mom what I saw."

"We made it home safely that day."

-- jakemistakes

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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.