There may be no substantial evidence to back what people believe to be emphatically true, like, say, the afterlife or the existence of a higher power.
But who are we to deny them their faith in the existence of something?
Curious to hear what some of these beliefs might be, Redditor btsao1 asked:
"What is something you strongly believe in but don't have evidence for?"
How well do you know your relatives? These people had gut instincts they couldn't shake off.
Grandpa's Double Life
"My grandpa had a second family. I never knew him as he died before I was born, but my mom would talk about how he'd occasionally disappear for up to a month at a time and my grandma never once asked why because he said it wasn't her business (this was like the 50s and 60s). My mom told me that she'd occasionally have this dream where he had a second family and I think it's because deep down she suspected it."
– Fournote
It Can Never Be Revealed
"My wife's cousin's husband is an undercover CIA agent."
– tecg
Family History
"Kind of related but my mum thought she wasn’t related to her brothers as she didn’t look anything like them. Obviously my grandparents told her she was just paranoid."
"Years later we find out that my gran had an affair (my grandpa knew) and my mother was the result. This came out many years after my grandpa and grandma had died and that my mother and my siblings all had another family, her dad had died but we were living 10 doors away from one of her new siblings."
– ItchyPlatypus
People propose the idea of living creatures still out there among us.
They're Out There Somewhere
"That the Tasmanian Tiger is not extinct. Great swathes of Tasmania are largely uninhabited and still heavily forested . People wander a few metres off a track and are never seen again so dense is the bush. So my old romantic heart hopes that Tigers are still out there."
– 1999falcon
How We Came To Imagine Dragons
"I'm convinced that the myth of dragons in the middle ages originates from early findings of dinosaur fossils. It simply seems like a logical explanation to me, but I have not the slightest evidence for this theory."
– Mission-Access6314 ·
Otherworldly Beings
"That there's aliens out there. There's millions of galaxies, planet and we only discovered 1 and not even fully with the oceans being 10% or something. Even if we are the only ones (super unlikely) that would be even scarier if its just us. I wouldnt doubt advanced aliens would avoid the ghetto planet or be able to disguise perfectly as a human (and human eyes are limited there could be layers of life forms that isnt visable to our eyes)."
– AccomplishedCandy325
The Fungus Among Us
"That mushrooms are fully conscious. They help forests, they can communicate, they take over bugs brains and have them walk to a place the fungus wants and then kill it, they are older than any other plants/animals, and not to mention the insane effects of psilocybin!"
– chazmosaur
Dopplegangers
"There are clones, specifically human clones, alive right now. With the advances we made in that field in the 90’s with dolly the sheep and all that stuff there’s no way that some group of people didn’t take it a step further and create a clone human."
– Tornlinftw
If you know, you know.
The Sense Of Void
"I had an identical twin who never made it to be visible on ultrasounds. There's no evidence, just the subjective experience of the hole in the world where someone isn't."
– vewltage
We're All In This Together
"Everyone is delusional, some people just to a higher degree."
– coastermarioguy
For Good
"Being a good person is worth the trouble."
– DiarrheaButtSauce
Every Jekyll Has Their Hyde
"i believe that every single person in existence is capable of doing unspeakable things even if they don’t know it themselves and even if they never actually do."
– liteAvvikande
Graduation Theory
"that U.S universities lie about their graduation rates (the percentage of students that actually finish and graduate with a degree)"
– wayne8827
What We Eat
"Cambell’s Chunky brand soups and stews are really just dog food with extra spices."
– OrchidBest
I believe in ghosts. I believe that the departed exist on another plane.
But as much as I believe in the fact that there are apparitions and spooky specters out there, I really hope I never see evidence of their existence.
Because who has time for that?
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For me, the knowledge that we all have spiders crawling around our faces keeps me up at night. Yes, we all have face mites.
I cannot go on with the rest of my life being aware of the phenomena without sharing this with you all lovely readers. So, you're welcome.
Curious to hear about other dreadful information from strangers, Redditor jo_exotic asked:
"What is a disturbing fact you wish you could un-learn?"
Natural Phenomenon
Let's face it, organisms are downright creepy...or gross
Constant Nibbling
"There's a type of crayfish that farms sea stars by cutting all their water legs off and eating it's arms all the way to the center, but leaving the center intact. it then feeds the sea star with kelp to keep it alive so it regenerates, and then repeats the process."
When Comes A Parasite
"In most cases when a parasite gets into the brain, they don't remove it. They just kill it with some sort of acid or something with a similar effect, then just let the body calcify it. It's weird cause you'd think that the parasite could still do something."
Mouth To Toilet Paper
"If you have an intestinal blockage you can burp up farts and have fecal vomit which is basically just throwing up your poop."
In Your Blood
"My biology teacher had a Q&A session before Christmas and one student asked if its possible to be allergic to your own blood. Unfortunately you can. Just imagine your own immune system destroying your red blood cells, constant hemorrhaging, constantly feeling cold and out of breath. When we got back from winter break we saw a new face in class, a former student of my bio teacher who just so happened to have this disease and we spent the whole class asking questions. I feel so bad for the guy but thankfully the medicine available to suppress the immune system has made his life bearable."
Horrific Facts
The following are more disturbing than fiction.
Cause Of Death
"When the Challenger exploded in 1986, the astronauts didn't die from the explosion. Nor did they die from depressurisation as NASA has initially claimed. (There is some evidence they turned on their personal oxygen supply.) They died from impact when they hit the surface of the Atlantic Ocean."
"They were in free fall for two and a half minutes."
"Jeffrey Dahmer drilled a hole into some victims' skulls and tried pouring different toxic liquids into the hole. He was trying to make a sex slave that could eat and drink but could in no way fight back or escape. The worst fact is that victims might survive the first hole with all brain function intact and live long enough to be fully aware they were going to get a second or third hole drilled."
Animals
If you could get inside the mind of an animal, you might want to make an immediate about-face after discovering the following:
Deep Bond
"Parrots often bond with a keeper, from their perspective, as a lifelong romantic partner. If the person dies, or the parrot is displaced, they can go into massive depression and pluck out their own feathers."
Pecked To Death
"I learned on Reddit that a woodpecker will tap enough to break into a baby bird's skull and slurp up their brains."
Shriek Of Terror
"The fact that dogs like squeaky toys because it sounds like their prey crying out in pain."
Most of us have a thirst for knowledge out of genuine curiosity about how things work or why certain events occurred in history.
But Google searches will inevitably lead you down the proverbial rabbit hole where you uncover a lot more than you could ever bargain for.
This is exactly what happened to me when I looked up what might be the cause of my face itching. I may not have found the most accurate information about my ailment, but that was when I was introduced to the existence of Demodex or eyelash mites.
They're basically arachnids that spend most of the time burrowed in your hair follicles and come crawling out on the skin's surface while you're asleep at night to mate and head back to lay eggs.
Did you just feel something on the side of your nose? It's probably nothing.
