"What is the scariest/creepiest theory you know about?"
How It All Began...
"This isn’t a theory, but I just think it’s cool."
"Y’know how movies and shows always have this ‘ancient alien race’ that came way before us, and we’re the new species?"
"Well technically, most likely thats wrong."
"We are near the beginning of the universe, if the universe was a person, we would literally barely be a cell, not even formed
In reality, we are the ancient species, we are the ones that come before, we are the ones some future civilization may see."
"Just a crazy thing to think about."- Podomus
A Whole Other Life
"I have a sleep disorder that causes nightmares and dreams that are often indistinguishable from reality."
"I live whole lives with partners and kids or work jobs in strange places for decades in full technicolour details and reach old age before waking."
"Sometimes it’s so intense that I sob and grieve for the lost relationships as if my real life partner has died."
"I am confused to be my own age and be here, now."
"The theory that this life is a dream/simulation type thing feels pretty real to me."
"My brain seems to create whole viable realities anyway."- Isolampg
Tired Season 4 GIF by The SimpsonsGiphyIt Just Doesn't Add Up...
"I find numbers stations to be pretty creepy."
"Their purpose is technically a theory, as the groups that broadcast them won't officially confirm even their existence for the most part."
"Essentially, spying is still a very real thing for most world governments."
"One of the most foolproof ways of delivering a coded message is through a one-time code, a code used just once before being discarded."
"Your spy has the key, you have the message, and once the key is used it is discarded and the next message is sent using a different key."
"Additionally, shortwave radio is an extremely secure way of sending these messages."
"It sounds weird, that a radio station anyone with a shortwave radio can listen to, would be considered 'secure'."
"But the beauty of the method is that shortwave radios are ubiquitous, cheap technology throughout most of the world."
"What looks more suspicious, a person traveling with a radio, or a person traveling with a sophisticated computer or satellite phone?"
"While the signal can be received by anyone, it leaves no record of who received it and can't be intercepted and traced by a middleman."
"They don't care if you listen, because the stream of numbers is nothing without the code, and because you're using a one-time code, it can't be cracked as it's randomly generated and used once."
"The only time a one-time code has ever been broken was an instance where the code was re-used."
"So your spy just tunes in to the radio at a specific time on a specific day, writes down the numbers."
"Decodes the message, discards the key, and no one is any the wiser."
"Most stations are identified by a call sign or little jingle, and these can range from kind of cute and cheerful to pretty eerie sounding."
"If you listen in frequently, you'll hear messages repeated over and over until one day they change up - it's believed they'll repeat the message until their spy can communicate they've received it."
"Essentially, if you have a shortwave radio, you can listen in on highly secret spy communications from countries all over the world."
"You can also listen in on countries jamming the communication, either by broadcasting state radio on the same signal, or trying to jam it with noise or static."
"You'd think the frequency of these transmissions would have gone down after the Cold War, but they're still going strong!"
"The very first numbers stations appeared in the very early days of radio, during World War I."
"I find it fascinating, but also super creepy, that all of this secret communication is happening right out in the open, for us to tune in to at any time, without any way of knowing who it is intended for or what is being transmitted."- Tintinabulation
loop numbers GIFGiphyBefore There Were Even Dinosaurs...
"Not much of a 'theory', more of a conjecture but:
"Fossilization is actually quite rare."
"It takes extremely specific set of circumstances for a dead organism even to become fossilized let alone survive intact to the modern day to be found by humans."
"Because of this, there are likely millions of species we will simply never know about because none of them ever fossilized."
"For all we know, we might not even be the first intelligent species to evolve here on Earth."
"There could’ve been a species that formed a civilization at some point and then went extinct later on, but we’ll possibly never know that because there are no fossils that formed/survive today."
"It probably wouldn’t have been an advanced, industrialized civilization like the kind we have today as we would’ve surely found evidence for it by now, but I could easily see something on par with Ancient Egypt disappear completely after millions of years."- DannyBright
"How Can I Remember Things That Never Happened?"
"Telling this story makes me feel uncomfortable, even today, so I will tell it here."
"I don't know how much this story fits into this thread, but I've never had a platform that seemed appropriate to share it, so here we go.'
"When I was 20 (14 years ago), I moved from Iowa to Boulder, Colorado with my best friend Cory."
"We moved there during the month of August, and shortly thereafter I got a phone call from a number I didn't know."
"I answered it, and it turned out to be this girl that had attended the same high school as us, Ashley."
"Ashley had heard that Cory and I had just moved to Boulder, and she was calling because she, too, had just moved to Boulder to attend CU."
"She wanted to know if we wanted to get together some time and hang out / party."
"Ashley was a couple years younger than us and we didn't run in the same crowds, so we didn't hang out much."
"But I remember her coming over to our apartment to smoke and chill once, then I remember asking her to get us weed--she did."
"She came with us to a party once, and I also remember us asking her for weed a second time, and her texting me back saying 'You guys just message me when you want weed, so no'."
"After that I don't think we talked to her again."
"Fast forward 3-4 years, Cory and I are living back in Iowa."
"One night, I was out with a couple of people I'd gone to high school with, and we went to this dive bar called Thumbs.'
"In the back of Thumbs there is a single pool table, which is where my group went because we had planned on playing."
"We got to the pool table, and there's Ashley, racking a set of pool balls."
"I was super surprised to see her there, so I walked right up to her and said something like 'Ashley, long time no see! What are you doing here? Did you move back from Boulder?'"
"Ashley just stared at me for a second and then said 'What?'"
"So I repeat myself and say 'Did you move back from Colorado? I haven't seen you since we hung out in Boulder!'"
"She looked truly confused, and then she said 'Um.. what are you talking about? I never lived in Boulder'."
"At this point I thought she was f*cking with me because I specifically remembered hanging out with her more than once. So I laughed and was like 'You're f*cking with me, right?""
"She shook her head no, and one of the girls I was with, who knew both of us, actually overheard it and butted in to confirm that 'Ashley had lived in [our hometown] the whole time'."
"I completely dropped the subject to save face, but the experience was so unsettling that I made a bee-line for the front door."
"I walked out onto the sidewalk, pulled my phone out of my pocket, and called Cory."
"I said 'Cory, do you remember when we lived together in Boulder and Ashley came over and hung out with us?'"
"And Cory said 'No man, that never happened'."
"He was my best friend so I knew he wasn't f*cking with me, plus there was a zero percent chance he and Ashley had ever talked to set something like this up."
"When I pressed the issue, he insisted that no one we had gone to high school with had ever moved out to Boulder, and that we certainly hadn't hung out with them."
"Since then, I've brought this up to Cory several times, and his position has never changed."
"To this day, I don't know what happened."
"I specifically remember hanging out with her."
"She wore a tie-dye t-shirt when she came over the first time."
"And we hung out with her multiple times, I remember it so clearly."
"I still have those memories, but apparently they never happened."
"Even though the timeline matches exactly; she would have graduated high school that year and moved to Colorado in August for school."
"I know that the human memory is super unreliable, and I'm sure that's all this is, but that doesn't change that I am absolutely 100% sure that this happened."
"14 years later and I still stand by my story, wrong as it may be." - morbowillcrushyou
black and white love GIFGiphyThey Can Hear Us From Beyond The Grave...
"The last neuron in the brain can fire up to 72 hours after clinical death."
"What is classed as still being alive?"
"Your heart stops or your brain activity stopping?"
"As a nurse this plays on my mind, I always talk to the recently deceased as I would usually do."
"Hearing is the last sense to go anyway so chances are people can still hear for a short time after death."
"I have to confirm death on a daily basis, we check heart sounds, breathing, eye response, and pain response, but part of me knows that electrical activity is still going on in there."
"I’m a hospice nurse and morbid thoughts are what I do best."- jowiejojo
Life Goes On...
"Some smart people I know say life extension tech will exponentially explode in the next century, transforming adult life spans the same way antibiotics, vaccines, and sanitation irrevocably transformed childhood survival rates."
"If we hadn’t blocked stem cell research, we could be the ones living youthful, nearly disease-free lives but we’ve missed our chance by one or two generations."- Lemontreelumur
What The Government Doesn't Want Us To Know
"The Vela Incident."
"September 1979, a US Vela satellite detected a double flash of light over an area of the ocean between South Africa and Antarctica."
"The prior 41 double flashes observed by the satellite were from nuclear explosions as this is what they were designed to observe."
"There also happened to be a typhoon happening in the area at the time so it seemed like someone wanted to detonate it without being caught."
"Carter administration reported that it was a natural occurrence due to a small meteorite hitting the satellite."
"However many other independent sources and even other countries have reported that they did indeed find traces of fallout and radiation."
"Because of the geopolitical climate of the times, there’s very strong evidence that it was in fact a joint nuclear weapon test carried out by South Africa and Israel, and the US scrubbed the information regarding it because they didn’t want to paint their allies in Israel in a bad light for working with apartheid-era South Africa."
"Strangely enough, Israel and South Africa have never denied having nuclear weapons programs, nor have they ever denied a joint test being responsible for the Vela Incident."- DJCJ42
nuclear explosion bomb GIFGiphyWas He Ever Really There?
"The man from Taured."
"He was going through an airport and when asked for his passport he gave the people a fully legitimate passport."
"Except the country he was from didn’t exist."
"He argued that it was right between France and Spain and had been there over 200 years."
"Since the passport was legitimate but the country wasn’t on the map they put him up in a hotel for the night with guards outside his 4 story room."
"He was gone, along with all his things the next morning."
"Not a trace."- 1122Sl110
When The Stars Align...
"Not a theory but a matter of fact."
"The Milky Way and many other nearby galaxies are hurtling towards the same point in space, being attracted by something."
"We don't know what because our view in blocked, but it's pulling GALAXIES towards itself."
"Big ones too, the Milky Way is a rather large galaxy."
"Whatever this 'Great Attractor"'(as it's been dubbed) is, it's insanely massive."- Lui_Le_Diamond
Surely, none of these things ever happened, right?
Depending on who you ask, who knows...
Through the lens of an angsty teenager, unrequited love, a cheating boyfriend or girlfriend, academic pressures, and not making an athletic team, are all big problems that make for compelling viewing pleasure.
And through it all, gossip is the accelerant that fuels the drama, regardless of whether or not rumors are true.
Curious to hear about the real-life rumors that ran rampant in school halls, Redditor Le_Bayou_Cochon asked former students:
"What high school conspiracy turned out to be true at your school?"
The following recollections sound as though the scenarios were right out of something from Riverdale.
Mental High
"I attended a newly opened high school that apparently used to be a school for troubled kids. Someone told me there were padded rooms somewhere in the school so I skipped lunch with a friend one day to walk the halls and find them!"
"They did exist, but by next year they were renovated into offices and storage rooms. I thought that was pretty interesting and seriously wondered what went on there before it was turned into a 'normal' high school."
– E-macularius
Ex-Staff Member
"It was rumored a staff member helped a student run away and slept with him. Unfortunately it was true."
"Unfortunately this same staff member after she was fired, had a graduated student at 19 ask to be her roommate. The then ex-staff member agreed and ended up getting into legal trouble."
– clinicskeleton
Something Sinister
"There was a girl freshman year who went missing. She ended up being found dead in the river. There were rumors that she was seen on a bridge with her boyfriend the day she went missing. Nothing was ever found and they assumed it was suicide/ an accident."
"Fast forward 25 years and the boyfriend murdered his best friend of several decades, set a fire to cover it up, and went on the run. Couple days later he killed a woman at a rest stop in the bathroom to steal her car. They reopened the case about the high school girlfriend. That rumor was correct all along. He will be in prison the rest of his life."
– pomegranatepants99
Forbidden romance seemed to be a recurring topic.
Racy Romance
"That one of the cheerleaders was dating one of the teachers (in his 40s). A year after graduation, they got married and had a baby. Still together 11 years later."
– Trailmix99
The Music Teacher
"There were rumors about a music teacher and a student, but they were both pretty dramatic people and did very little to dismiss the talk. So half the school wanted to believe it for the salacious thrill and half just waved it off as attention seeking and sh*t-talking."
"Teacher got canned without explanation. Most of us just figured it was budget-related. A math teacher filled in on his music/theater roles."
"Years later I randomly caught up with the student and she said the rumors were true, she freaked out and tried to end things to shake off the reputation, and eventually the teacher showed up trashed and naked on her family's front lawn, in the rain, yelling out for her."
"Like a really f'ked-up version of John Cusack from Say Anything but with less boombox and more drenched wang."
– Dangercakes13
These Actors Were Perfectly Cast In Their Roles | George Takei’s Oh Myyy
Sometimes an actor comes along that is able to reach the audience on a deeper level. The actor that immediately comes to mind is Robin Williams. Although it ...Worse Than The Presumption
"We had a Student Teacher, so a reasonably attractive guy who was about 22 or 23. The rumor was that he was dating a girl in our class, a senior who was nearly 18. It turned out the rumor was wrong, he was dating her younger sister who was in 8th grade."
– Drulock
These troubled adults were former educators for our future leaders.
The Dealer
"For years before I got to my high school there was a rumor that the Admin Assistant (guy you went to when you got in trouble) was doing drugs, selling drugs, and confiscating from students without turning over to the police. Well about five years or so after I graduated he got busted a couple towns away for possession of cocaine with intent to distribute."
– TheBuschels
Conditional Promises
"There were stories about the music teacher having sex with some of his students, in exchange for solos, better grades, prestige, or jobs after graduation."
"They later turned out to be true. He was found guilty in 2018, and was given a six month prison sentence. He's barred from teaching, and lost his pension. The news his my dad rather hard, since they studied together at college, and were good friends. Dad had no idea."
– TedMeister88
The Trusted Role Model
"A good family friend of ours (knew him for over 10 years), went to tons of BBQ, painted our walls alot, did some housework, had tons of other mutual friends with my Dad and their work friends; ended up getting into drugs or something. He kidnapped a woman and murdered her."
"It was a huge deal in my hometown, and when they said they finally found the guy and the mugshot and name came up, we all were in shock and just couldn't believe it. We trusted him, I shook his hand a few times as a kid too, im sure my parents and everyone else would've trusted him with thier kids or family members or what have you."
"We still have no idea what led him down that path, but the mugshot looked brutal and its like his whole soul was drained from his face, it wasn't the same smiling happy face I remembered."
"Just goes to show how much you really know someone, and how close all humans are from a breakdown, anyone can change, It surprisingly doesn't take much."
– PandaCatGunner
The Inebriate
"That my high school history teacher was putting whiskey in the 2-liter bottle of Pepsi he carried around everyday. He was caught trying to buy liquor for some senior girls and it resulted in a car chase we all watched. The police had to pull out the spike strips to catch him."
– Tylerurby
Speculations and hunches were confirmed, and it didn't involve criminal activity for a change.
A Double Life
"My old math teacher was a WWF wrestler, i recognized him from my childhood days channel surfing and couldn't find anything about him on google, but i was so sure it was him I just asked. I was right lmao."
– TheTastySpoonicorn
Secret Underground
"That there were tunnels under the school that led to a hidden pool."
"Confirmed by my father who was a maintenance man for the school district. The tunnels were just utility tunnels, the pool is below the gym floor and was abandoned due to financial reasons."
– pondcypress
It's a wonder how students are able to focus on their studies when there's a lot of whispering going on about who did or said what.
Gossip and academic conspiracies can be distracting. But don't let those keep you from receiving your diplomas.
Stay focused, kids.
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Redditor Superfrogboy wanted to discuss some ideas floating about that just don't add up by asking:
What is the worst and dumbest conspiracy theory?
The things I read on the daily scare me. Then I turn on the tv and see that members of our government believe the Easter Bunny is real and science is lies. And then I get frantic. Deep breaths....
Creative Writing
"The one that states that Middle Age never happened and that 800yrs of history were just invented by the Vatican. It is actually funny how much work was done to prove this theory."
- ThatOtherFrenchGuy
GiphyBeatlemania...
"Paul McCartney dying in a bicycle accident in 1966 and being replaced by a lookalike, and that the Beatles left clues on their albums.
Agents of the Pope
"In the new Irish exiles, however, many Protestants saw a papal plot at work. According to "Conspiracy Theories in American History: An Encyclopedia," some Protestants feared the pope and his army would land in the United States, overthrow the government and establish a new Vatican in Cincinnati."
"They believed the Irish would impose the Catholic canon as the law of the land. History The idea that Irish immigrants were agents of the Pope working to establish a Third Rome in Cincinnati is just hilarious to me."
- BohemondIV
Tartaria...
"Similarly, that there was a lost, technologically advanced global empire called Tartaria that collapsed in the mid-1800s, and for some reason it's been entirely wiped from history except for its architecture. Examples of "Tartarian" architecture include the Arc de Triomphe, old Chicago, and most late middle ages castles."
"At its core, it's similar to the Graham Hancock-style "history is lying to us" but unlike the Younger Dryas theories, which are still dumb but mostly hinge on "yeah, but we don't have evidence it's NOT true," the conspiracy requires significantly more heavy lifting to explain how none of this society survives except for a very specific and visible aspect. Check out r/Tartaria for the wildest rabbit hole you will go down today."
- blisteringchristmas
Silence
"Any of those which require an exceptionally large number of people to remain completely silent over the course of decades."
- ByzantineBasileus
GiphySilence is part of the problem. And religion is really feeling like a hostage taker, I grew up Catholic. But there is a lot to explain.
Endings
"Every "End of the World" conspiracy. It has been said so many times, yet the world hasn't ended."
- SumthnUnreal
GiphyIt's a Circle!
"Flat Earth."
- CorbuloDIY
"The one thing about flat-earth theories that has never been successfully articulated to me is: Why? What is the point of it all? Why are NASA and all the world's governments, astronauts, physicists, astronomers, cartographers, pilots, and sailors trying to trick people into believing the world is round? What do they gain from maintaining this charade, or what would they lose from its exposure? Just, why?"
- Dahhhkness
Watered Down
"As the womb is filled by water. Everyone is technically born at sea therefore only maritime law applies to them. I don't get it either."
- DucoNdona
"So they would claim a gallon of water is a sea? If I stand in a puddle I'm at sea? When I take a bath I'm at sea? I think if it can't float a vessel the size of a cargo ship, then it ain't a sea."
Oh the Q...
"The holocaust didn't happen. Like how are you gonna deny something with loads of witnesses, pictures, survivors etc?"
- PokerP*rn
"My sister is a hardcore QAnon type. She is adamant that the Holocaust never happened, all the pictures are fabricated, videos are all fake, etc."
- feed_me_churros
Nirvana
"Kurt Cobain faked his death and assumed the identity of Rivers Cuomo."
- morgance_lavellan
Giphy"they"
"Chemtrails. Doesn't matter what pilots, meteorologists, scientists, etc, tell them - they just think every contrail is a chemical spray 'they' use to... do something or other to us. Nutjobs."
ActiniumNugget
"They don't understand how much 'Chemical' would be necessary to get the dispersal patterns of contrails. There wouldn't be any room for passengers or fuel. I honestly thing the plane would be too heavy to take off."
Celica_Lover
"lizard people"
"Celebrities are reptiles wearing a disguise. A few years ago a lot of conspiracy theorists believed that celebrities and world leaders were a part of an organisation of 'lizard people' disguised as humans with plans to take over the world. There were so many videos of people analysing eye and tongue movements of famous people as proof that there were lizards."
RandomVampireUnicorn
'false flag operation'
"That Sandy Hook (or any other mass shooting or tragedy for that matter) was a 'false flag operation' designed so the 'government can come take your guns.' You had f**king lunatics writing books called 'Nobody Died at Sandy Hook,' which was a total slap in the face to all of the family members who lost loved ones (especially the ones who lost their little children)."
DJHJR86
Bad Egg
"Humpty Dumpty didn't fall - he was pushed.."
Back2Bach
"And they did everything not to help him! I mean, they gave the first shot at putting him back together again to the frickin' horses!"
GuardPerson
im dead humpty dumpty GIF by TRULY SOCIALGiphy???
"Vaccine has a tracking device in it lmao. posts rant about how vaccine has a tracking device on Facebook using tracking device."
aaronsacunt
"It baffles me. Microchips that are small enough to fit through the needle of a vaccine and transmit your locations simply don’t exist yet, they do have them for dogs but the needles are much bigger. Why spend billions inventing new technology when people willingly spend hundreds buying handheld devices that do just that?"
XxsquirrelxX
Andy Tales
"Andy Kaufman faked his death in the 80s and assumed the identity of then-eccentric billionaire Donald Trump. Donald Trump was at the peak of his career and wanting to retire, and they conspired for him to vanish from public view so Kaufman could take on what he would consider his magnum opus. Kaufman (as Trump) began saying more and more outlandish things, his business ventures went sideways, he started a television show where he fired people with 'his' kids, and the real estate mogul even began selling steaks. Andy Kaufman is truly a master of acting."
IZ3820
Not Again...
"Well apparently Trump is going to take back the presidency in August. I thought it was supposed to happen this month, and the month before that, and the month before that, and the month before that, and the month before that... it's probably nothing to worry about I'm sure it'll happen this time."
Interesting_Winter52
It's real
"My dad is convinced that coronavirus doesn’t exist. Like all the people that died from it would’ve died anyways and there isn’t a virus involved."
ImSoTiredLmfao
Omicron GIF by GIPHY Studios OriginalsGiphy"hints"
"That somewhere in Trump's government there was an operative releasing 'hints' to the public about ongoing investigations in to his political opponents, in an effort to prepare certain people for 'the storm' and... I can't keep this crap up. Q. Q is the dumbest crap ever, because anyone with an IQ above room temperature can figure out it's fake with a few seconds of effort."
EvidentlyEmpirical
2024
"My cousin was one of those people who thought Trump was going to become president again in March. It seems like that didn’t happen but according to her Trump actually is currently president and Biden is just there to keep the people happy. I’m curious to what she is going to say when a law she doesn’t like get passed. Or if Trump runs again in 2024."
OrangeTree81
I understand wanting to find truth and deciphering difficult questions, but some facts are just fact. How in 2021are we still debating this rotting ball's shape? The Earth is round. Period.
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