Some things are easy to explain, while others leave you staring into the darkness, wondering if your brain is playing tricks on you. It could be a strange shadow in the hallway, footsteps coming from an empty room, or a voice calling your name when nobody else is home might sound like the beginning of a horror movie, but for some people, these experiences are anything but fiction.
Recently, people online were asked to share the most paranormal things they had ever experienced, and their answers went from chilling to so creepy that they sound almost impossible. From unexplained encounters to moments that made people question what they thought they knew about the world, these stories prove that sometimes, reality can be much stranger than any ghost story.
#1
One night when I was around 12 years old something under my bed kept tugging on my sheets and eventually fully pulled them under my bed. I sat up all night terrified . I checked under the bed in the morning and my sheets were balled up under the foot of my bed.
Image source: llfmatrix, AnnaStills
#2
Experienced sleep paralysis once. Could not move anything but my eyes and I could see movement in the corner of them.
Was likely just my mind playing tricks on me but it was definately thee most creeped out I have been in my life.
It’s hard to describe the helplessness of not being able to move.
Image source: WorkMode, Jen Theodore
#3
A friend of mine tends to wake up in the middle of the night and then go to sleep a few moments after. The weird thing is that (almost) every night, he wakes up at 3:38 am PRECISELY and shortly after a gruesome howl (like a very powerfull scream, but at low volume), will appear for approx 10 seconds, and then just…nothing. I wish i could say he was crazy, but after i crashed at his place one night, he woke me up just after he himself had woken up (at 3:38 am again) and he said “now! listen”. i heard the scream too. I have never felt such an intense fear in my life.
Image source: l33ttux, mediaphotos
Fear has a curious way of making ordinary situations feel anything but ordinary. According to Scientific American, the human brain is wired to detect possible danger, even when there is not enough information to determine whether something is actually threatening.
This instinct developed as a survival mechanism, encouraging people to be cautious rather than risk overlooking something dangerous. An unfamiliar figure in a dark hallway, an unexplained noise coming from an empty room, or a face that looks almost human can all trigger this response. The brain does not need proof that something is dangerous; the possibility alone can be enough to put someone on edge.
#4
I’m sure this won’t be seen since this thread is at over 500 comments. Apparently this is being seen. Neat.
My grandparents went to a party being thrown by a friend of theirs when they were just married. It was a few other couples, and as they were sitting around, the hostess mentioned she just got a Ouija Board but hadn’t tried it out yet. So my Grandma, and a few of the other ladies set it up and started asking questions. There was nothing too spooky the first few rounds of questions being asked. Eventually one of the women asked a question and the board spelled out ‘Go Home’ thinking it was the hostess making a joke everyone laughed it off. Everyone else asked their questions without much of a response until it got to the same woman, again the board spelled out ‘Go Home’. The next two questions she asked all she would see was ‘Go Home’. Everyone swore they weren’t moving the piece so the woman being scared got her husband and they left. When they got home they found the babysitter passed out on their couch and their baby’s crib had collapsed.
The baby only had a couple scratches and was fine.
Edit for clarity. Nothing was wrong with the babysitter, she had just fallen asleep and was apparently a heavy sleeper.
Image source: Tijuanatim, Colton Sturgeon
#5
Right after my husband passed, I was walking into our home office. As I walked in the door, I felt like I walked through a wall of molasses. Time slowed down, I moved slower, everything went foggy for a second. Then I was through. The best explanation I have is that I walked through my husband’s ghost. Never had anything like that before or since.
Image source: knitwasabi, Artur Aldyrkhanov
#6
Graduated high school, moved in with best friend, bought a Ouija board. We mostly asked it stupid questions, like when would we meet the loves of our lives. Once we asked it if it was friendly and it said no. Then we asked if it liked us and it said no. We didn’t really play with it much after that, but it stayed in the apartment. I started seeing cats out of the corner of my eyes several times a day. When I looked, there was nothing there. It scared me, but I didn’t say anything. After weeks of this, my friend told me she was seeing cats, and her boyfriend (who occasionally played with the board with us) immediately said he had, too. We ended up giving the board to a friend and the cats disappeared. Not very scary, but VERY weird.
Image source: tannysaurusrex, Lennon Cheng
This reaction is closely connected to how the brain processes familiar patterns and expectations. People constantly make predictions about how their surroundings should look and sound, as well as how other people and objects should behave. When something contradicts those expectations, it can create an uncomfortable sense that something is wrong.
The amygdala helps activate the body’s fight-or-flight response, increasing heart rate, tightening muscles, and sharpening attention. This is also why something obviously threatening, such as an aggressive animal, can produce a different kind of fear from an unexplained figure standing motionless in the distance.
The uncertainty surrounding the latter can make it particularly unsettling, especially when the brain cannot determine whether what it is seeing is harmless or dangerous.
#7
Playing vids in my basement, 18-month-old daughter plays down there so a few of her toys are strewn about. For no apparent reason, this toy, turns on. “I see you! Let’s play!”
I noped out of there and pulled the batteries. I’ve had high blood pressure ever since.
Image source: nohopeleftforanyone, Jay Openiano
#8
My grandmother was pregnant with her second child, and was rushed to the hospital to give birth. She didn’t know the gender of the child and decided she would make it a surprise.
My mom, about 5, waited for her at home. When my grandma returned, my mom said something similar to, “Don’t worry mom, she said she is going to be okay” before my grandma can say a thing.
“Who?”
“My sister! She came here, and she told me she couldn’t come here with you but that I needed to take care of you from now on.”
My grandma was pretty thrown by this, seeing as she had lost the baby girl she was pregnant with while gone.
To this day my mom still remembers seeing her. She isn’t afraid of ghosts because of this, instead she finds them fascinating.
Image source: nicecreamcone, revengestudio
#9
When I was in the second grade I had this plug in, stand up Happy Days pinball machine. (yep.. I am feelin’ old) If you left it plugged in it would eventually start making sounds as if it was being played. One night I went to bed and it started making the sounds. I reached for the plug and could not find it. I jumped out of bed and turned on the light.
When I did… I noticed two things simultaneously… it was not plugged in AND a ball rolled between the two flippers.
I did not sleep in my bed for a week.
Image source: Flynn71, PewPewPlatta05
There are also several psychological and physical phenomena that can make ordinary experiences seem supernatural. Smithsonian Magazine explores how sleep-related disturbances, including sleep paralysis, can cause people to wake up temporarily unable to move while experiencing intense fear or sensing another presence nearby. This happens when the brain transitions between REM sleep and wakefulness, leaving the body briefly unable to respond to movement commands.
People may also experience vivid hallucinations while falling asleep or waking up, sometimes involving footsteps, whispers, shadowy figures, or familiar voices. Because these sensations can feel remarkably real, it is understandable that someone might struggle to distinguish a sleep-related experience from an actual encounter.
#10
A bit late to the creepy party, but I think I’ve got a good story to tell.
One weekend I was walking through my old grade school to get into town (small town maybe 1200 people) when I turn a corner of the building into the parking lot. In the parking lot was one black sedan, nothing notable, no identifying marks… but nothing too unusual. I’m maybe 20m away.
Except the passengers.
There was four completely white, definitely Albino looking men. Bald, black eyes looking straight ahead. A moment after noticing them they all turn and look at me in unison. Their heads snapped instantly and all four of them met my eyes.
I jolted back around the corner then slowly looked back around to make sure I wasn’t seeing things. Nope there was the car and the men still looking at me.
Then I blinked and the car was empty.
I leave the way I came… take the long road into town, all the while feeling as if I was followed.
I’ll never forget that day, hallucination or not, it’s burned into that part of my brain that helps you frequently remember all the scary stuff that’s ever happened to you.
Image source: 24fps, Allison Saeng
#11
Pretty simple story. I was an early riser as a kid, and since I walked to school that meant I was often the first person there. Sometimes I’d talk to my teachers in the morning about homework or even doing extra work.
Well one day I got to class, first one there and all, and my teacher leaves to get something from the printer. She says she’s not supposed to leave me alone in the room, but since she’s gotten to know me and trusts me she’ll just lock the door behind her and will be back in two minutes.
She leaves, I hear the door lock, and not ten seconds later one of the chairs of a desk in front of me SLAMS itself into the desk. I practically wet my pants, unlocked the door and bolted for the front office. Never went to school early again.
Image source: thinkbeforeyoupost, Ahmed
#12
I work in a nursing home so we have weird things happen all the time (socks traveling across the hall by themselves, cupboards opening and stuff flying out, lights turning off and on, washing machines just sitting all full of ice water for no reason, etc.) but our alzheimer unit has the most activity.
All of our alzheimer rooms have special sensors so we know if a resident is getting out of bed or leaving their room. It is to assure we know where they are and that they don’t fall.
One particular night a call light kept going off promptly followed by that room’s bathroom sensor being tripped. This room’s resident had passed away three days before and we didn’t have anyone else in there yet. We turned it off about four times in three hours and were pretty creeped. Then, at 10pm, just an hr before I got to leave, we heard a lady screaming for help. We ran back to the source and it turned out to be in that same room. The bathroom sensors started going off again right when we got there. We had to check in case some other resident had gone in, but there was no one. The sink and shower were both running full blast with ice cold water though. I turned everything off and reset the switch, and gently pulled the door closed as I left. Halfway through closing it, someone/thing SLAMMED it closed for me. I almost had my shoe caught.
I refused to go back in the rest of the night.
Image source: perpetual_wanderlust, Curated Lifestyle
The brain’s tendency to recognize familiar patterns can also contribute to seemingly unexplained sightings. Pareidolia, for example, is the phenomenon that causes people to perceive faces, figures, or animals in random shapes such as clouds, reflections, and shadows. Another process, known as apophenia, involves identifying meaningful connections between unrelated events, making coincidences or repeated patterns seem like deliberate messages.
Meanwhile, unexplained knocking, creaking floors, whispers, and footsteps can sometimes have ordinary environmental or psychological explanations. Fatigue, stress, and grief may influence how people interpret sounds, while old buildings naturally produce noises through shifting materials, drafts, and electrical systems. Dark, unfamiliar surroundings can heighten alertness even further, making otherwise harmless details seem much more threatening.
#13
This happened recently. My grandma came over to visit, it was just her and me in the house, she was sitting on the couch reading a book, I was sitting next to the couch on a chair, when all of a sudden I hear my name, clear as day so I turn to my grandma and she turns to me and asks “Did you say something?”…”No, I thought you called me that’s why I turned”. She says “I heard someone say your name”. Then I was like….what the hell?.
Image source: Totesmcgotes702, Pablo Merchán Montes
#14
Just happened last week. No explanation for this one.
I live in Stuttgart and was walking across an open area that used to be a parade area I guess. Just kind of a wide open field. My head was down and I was looking at some of the leaves on the ground when off to my left I heard, “how are you doing?”
I looked over assuming I was going to see someone I knew, but it wasn’t. Now keep in mind, I’m an atheist and have no belief in anything outside of that which can be proved. Just was worth mentioning. When I looked over I saw a small person about four feet tall. I say person because I still don’t know if it was a man or woman, child or adult. But more than anything, the clothes are what really threw me. The clothes looked as though they were made by someone who had never seen clothes before. As if some made what were supposed to be clothes. That’s the only way i can describe it.
Well, I answered, but quickly looked away. I started to walk away, but reason got the best of me and I thought,”you are mistaken, turn around and figure this out”. Well, I turned around to an empty field. I have no idea where this person went, since I only walked about ten steps.
I have no idea what I saw and actually thought that I had a full on hallucination. Nothing like that has ever happened to me before, but it was definitely an odd feeling.
Image source: IronOmen, Jose P. Ortiz
#15
OK, I’ll write a few down.
So when I was around 18-21 I had a friend who’s house was from the 1920’s. I lived down the street from him in suburban WI. I thought I would share some experiences we had in the house. Some good some bad. All true. I will try to go in order here.
Incident 1: The Willow Tree.
We had gathered for a BBQ, late that night we had been watching movies (Baraka) discussing the universe. We ended up reading about the Celtic beliefs in the spiritual aspects of Willow Trees. There was one in my friends backyard. so around 3 AM we went outside and just sat and asked questions. At one point a friend who was standing with us just yelled “What the f**k!?” and ran inside. We all followed suit (three others, including myself). I asked him what happened. Before he said I asked everyone if they heard anything outside. People nodded. I asked that they write down what they heard, instead of saying it aloud. I unfolded all four pieces of paper.
They all had written on them…”Hello Smithster”…The last name of the friend that ran inside was Smith. It was a nickname his grandfather called him. We never heard it before.
Incident 2: The late stay.
Same house. We had a party, and as it got late, my friend and I asked everyone to leave and we retired to his room upstairs. We were tired, we had been drinking a bit, but were not influenced. (think 2 beers at most). He laid in his bed and I took an air mattress on the floor. After a few minutes, he said to me, “Do you hear Joe and John downstairs..what the f**k man..either they need to be quiet or leave.” I replied that I heard them saying something about going to get pizza, and I agreed it was annoying as I was trying to sleep as well. He said he heard the pizza discussion, and after hearing them argue for ten more minutes we had enough. I asked him to call Johns phone and tell them to shut the f**k up and go home.
so my friend calls Johns phone. John answers and I hear my friend say, “Oh, sorry man.” and hangs up. He just turns over in his bed. I asked him what was going on, if they were leaving or what. He says,” I don’t want to tell you…”. I tell him to just spill it. He says,”OK that was John. Him and Joe have been asleep at Joe’s house for the last two hours. They left man.”…We hear their voices downstairs again discussing s**t…neither of us go down to the kitchen. The next day they show up with pizza.
Incident 3: The Phantom Grillmaster.
Same place again. I am standing in the kitchen with 6 others. My friends front door opens by itself and closes…then 20 seconds later his back door to the grill opens (screen door, then storm door) and shuts, and the grill starts up. We all watched it happen. No one talks about it. I go check the front door, and it’s locked.
That’s it. I can go into specifics as requested. Thanks for reading!
Image source: damngifs, stephansuehling
However, not every unusual experience involves something frightening. The British Psychological Society explains that sensing the presence of someone who has passed away can be a relatively common part of the grieving process. Researchers describe this emotional connection as a continuing bond, meaning that although a relationship changes after death, the attachment itself can remain.
Some bereaved people report dreaming about deceased relatives, hearing their voices, briefly seeing them, or feeling as though they are nearby. Others find meaning in familiar songs, unexpected coincidences, or objects that remind them of the person they lost. These experiences are often described as sensory or quasi-sensory experiences of the deceased, and they do not automatically indicate that someone is experiencing a mental health problem.
#16
When I was 11 I was hanging out in a classroom alone with a teacher who happened to be the son of my recently gone grandad’s best friend.
Anyways I had this overwhelming urge to warn him that he needed to get his heart tested because there was something wrong with it and he would be gone in 3 years if he did not.
I remember sitting there for about an hour inwardly battling with myself over whether to tell him or not. It was just such a powerful urge I never forgot it.
Eventually I convinced myself I was crazy and if I did he would just think I was mental.
Three years later he passed away because of a sudden cardiac incident at age 33. I still feel kind of guilty.
I’m an atheist and not one for believing in the “supernatural” etc. I still cannot explain this one to myself.
I have “predicted” a few other small things but this was the weirdest.
Image source: susannahmia, Curated Lifestyle
#17
A friend picked up some weird stuff from a yard sale. Some things with weird symbols and such, but it still looked cool. He placed it on his dresser and we left for pizza. We come back 1 hour later. The room is destroyed. Everything had been thrown around, dresser drawers pulled out, clothes on the floor, closet doors torn down, and the stuff he bought sitting in the same place. It was completely undisturbed.
Image source: xencosti, magnific
#18
I was probably around five years old, and I was in my grandparents’ house for the Thanksgiving holiday. The entire family was there. Anyway, my grandparents had a toy closet with leftover toys that my mom and her siblings used to play with. I was playing with an old doll – one with a pull string in its back that talked. I was pretending to give it a bath, and I would talk to the doll and pull the string to hear its response. My uncle, Chris, was standing in the doorway, watching me play and talking about something or other. I removed the doll from its pretend bath and said, “OK, it’s time for bed now.” I pulled the string, and the doll said, “But I’m not dry yet.” It remember being confused and stunned. Chris stopped talking and looked at me and said, “Did you say that?” When I shook my head, he repeated, “I’ve never heard the doll say that before.” I never played with it again.
Image source: celeryseed, svittlana
One reason these experiences can feel so convincing is that close relationships become deeply woven into everyday routines and expectations. Someone who has spent years speaking to a particular person might instinctively reach for their phone to call them or expect to see them in a familiar place, even after that person is gone.
Grief can also influence attention, sleep, memory, and emotional processing, particularly while someone is still adjusting to the loss. For some, sensing a deceased loved one’s presence can be comforting, especially shortly after their passing or around meaningful anniversaries.
However, experiences that become frightening, uncontrollable, or significantly interfere with daily life may warrant professional support. The emotional connection people maintain with those they have lost can be powerful, and not every unusual sensation needs to be interpreted as something alarming.
#19
This event happened to my younger cousin. It is a bit long but worth the read. My cousin Kim is about six years younger than me. She has since birth, the ability to see spirits. They appear whole and like a normal person and not like a wispy apparition. When Kim was around five her family moved to a valley on the eastern side of O’ahu, a place known to contain Hawaiian burial grounds. Kim became the perfect child. Going to bed on time, eating her veggies and cleaning her room without having to be asked. My aunt asked her: “Kim. Why are you such a good girl?” to which she replied: “The Green Man told me to.” My aunt figured it was a childhood imaginary friend and left it at that. Kim’s brother Shane who is three years older than Kim would often tell his mom that Kim was crazy because she would spend time in her room talking to herself. My aunt took Kim to an O-Daisan, a Japanese medium who told her that Kim was communicating with a Hawaiian spirit and that she called him the “Green Man” because that was the color of his malo (loin cloth). The O-Daisan advised the family that the spirit was benevolent as if he was going to do something evil, it would have already happened. The O-Daisan instructed the family to put a bottle of gin as an offering in the corner of Kim’s room where she saw the Green Man as a show of respect. They did this. About six months after visiting the O-Daisan my aunt, my grandmother and Kim were in a four car accident, their car being in the middle. My aunt was then pregnant with Kim’s younger sister at the time. My aunt, my grandmother and Kim were all in the front bench seat of the family’s station wagon without wearing their seat belts when my aunt heard tires screeching. She looked in her rear view mirror and saw a young Hawaiian man sitting in the back seat smiling. At the moment of impact the front bench seat reclined so that when the cars hit they were in a prone position. The station wagon was totaled, smashed like an aluminum can yet no one including the baby was injured. My aunt knew the junk yard operator and she asked him about the seat claiming it must have broken right before impact. The operator checked and told her the seat worked fine. That the lever was tripped. My aunt visited the O-Daisan and told her what happened. The O-Daisan explained that the Green Man was Kim’s guardian angel and that he had to perform a good deed before he could be released from the spirit world. Kim never saw the Green Man after the accident but 30 years later we still talk about the incident in hushed and reverent tones. This is one of many true paranormal experiences that has happened to me and or my family.
Image source: Gear2Fly, Brett Jordan
#20
I was sleeping at my inlaws house. At around 1am I awoke and D***H was by my bed (Hooded Skeleton, the whole bit). I could not breathe and I felt the most profound sense of peace. I spoke to D***H telepathically and said, “I am ready to go” and I was truly unafraid and I was ready to d*e. D***H said, “I have you, but not yet”, and vanished.
I went back to sleep and tried to recapture that dream…that sense of peace. I had stupid cartoon d***h dreams for the rest of the night. Nothing like the first one.
Woke up at 6:30 to hear my Father-in-law screaming. His wife had d**d in her sleep. Time of d***h: 1am.
I am an atheist and lifelong skeptic. This experience shook me. I can accept that I had a dream, but that sense of peace, that resignation to my own d***h, I have no experience or believe to base that on. Then there’s the coincidence of my mother-in-laws d***h at precisely that moment. Sure, it can all be explained as coincidence. My story isn’t proof of anything, but it shook me.
I can honestly say my life changed that day. I live better and care less about things.
Image source: General_Specific, Imkara Visual
#21
Just an incredible coincidence but 2 weeks ago I was grocery shopping and I thought about a girl who hadn’t come to mind in years (over a decade). We were middleschool sweethearts for about a minute and then I just forgot about her until that moment. When I got home I googled her to see what she was up to (was she still hot?) and I found a blog posting about an hour old from her current SO announcing that she had just passed away from cancer.
Image source: Joy_Behar, Getty Images
Another reason certain encounters remain so memorable is the way fear influences memory formation. The BBC explains that frightening experiences can activate the brain’s survival mechanisms, prompting the release of stress hormones such as adrenaline, cortisol, and norepinephrine. These chemicals influence how memories are created, helping the brain prioritize emotionally significant details.
The amygdala, which processes emotional reactions and potential threats, works closely with the hippocampus, which is responsible for forming and storing memories. Together, they help preserve information that might be useful if a similar situation occurs again. This is why even a single frightening encounter can leave such a strong impression, sometimes remaining memorable long after the original event has passed.
#22
When I was around 13, there was a night where my friend and I were in his room, home alone and playing video games late at night. All of a sudden, there was a great thumping coming from the living room and his dog started whining hysterically. We ran out to the kitchen to see the dog standing at the door of the living room, barking and just totally going nuts, and the thumping continued. Eventually, after what seemed to be an eternity of us being totally silent, we worked up the nerve to enter the living room.
Turns out the string from a balloon got wrapped around the ceiling fan and was being battered around at a great speed. The dog, who was freaked out by balloons in the first place, didn’t like it one bit.
Image source: NightOnTheSun, lazy_bear
#23
I should preface this by saying it was, by far, the scariest experience of my life and it’s bringing tears to my eyes typing about it.
Basically, on the hill above the city I live, there are a string of rather large defensive forts. My grandfather was the curator and lead tour guide of one of these forts. They date back to Napoleonic times when the British were afraid of a French attack on the city, because of it’s importance to supplies and the navy.
They’re not incredibly creepy places – maybe that’s because I’d spend every weekend roaming the tunnels or doing errands there – but this one event left me shocked and incapable of going back down there alone, even 12 years later.
As I mentioned, under the forts are a network of tunnels that descend, in places, up to 100 feet below the chalk. Some of them are to access the defensive trenches that form the fort’s outer boundary, some of them contain gun emplacements. All of them are gently sloping, hewn from rough chalk and lit dimly by the only kind of lights that work so far underground – those dim mining ones that rely on the weakest electrical current.
All of the tunnels were familiar from me – they could all be accessed from a radial ‘hub’ that was right in the depths of the fort – except for one. I had always been forbidden to walk down it. The tunnel was of rougher construction than the rest, unlit, and never used. Other than that, from the top end, it was fairly unassuming – just something I was never allowed to see.
That was until I pestered my grandfather so much he decided to show me it. He grabbed a torch and we started down the tunnel. Immediately I regretted my decision – I wish I had photographs of it – but the smooth chalk walls I was used to in the other tunnels were replaced with this jagged texture that threatened to draw blood if you scraped them with an unlucky limb. My grandfather, curiously, was aiming the torch beam at the left wall of the tunnel, searching for something. He found it, perhaps halfway down. There, inscribed in the chalk, was a rough cross and a date that was nigh illegible.
“This is why you’re not supposed to come down here,” he said. “This tunnel was supposed to be condemed. Someone was crushed right here.”
A chill ran through me and I asked to leave. My grandfather chuckled and carried on, saying that there was nothing to worry about.
I started to get a bad feeling from then on, as if someone was following us. Eventually we reached the bottom – a fairly regular gun emplacement met us. Then we turned to leave.
The nature of the tunnels meant you could see all the way up to the other end, where a door-shaped piece of light meant the security of the radial hub.
What me and my grandfather saw chills my bones and, like I said, means I can’t go down there any more.
We were 100% sure we were the only people there – it was out of hours, and my grandfather always locked the main gate behind us when we entered the tunnel system to stop people trespassing and stealing the cannons or old munitions.
I swear to you Reddit, we saw the silhouette of a man slowly walk across the top of the tunnel, turn to face down to us, and then carry on. My grandfather is a brave man but he looked visibly aggrieved. What was worse – we knew we had to run UP the tunnel to get out, or be stuck in a 100 foot trench in the middle of winter. We had to pass the cross of that crushed tunnel worker.
I’ll end my story here – obviously I made it out alive – but when someone tells me they don’t believe in ghosts I tell them this story. Sorry for my verbosity. I have tears in my eyes right now.
TL;DR: Saw the ghost of a crushed tunnel worker, had to run past it to get out.
Image source: Crowbrick
#24
The most paranormal thing i’ve experienced was probably the time when a friend of mine and my brother tried to communicate with ‘ghosts’.
Me and my friend were having a drink downstairs and i came out of the kitchen and turned of the light that was shining outside and after i sat down he said that the light just blinked and after a couple of minutes we decided we should try to make contact with ‘ghosts’ to see if there are any in my house. (At this point my Grandfather (3 years d**d) at that time and my dog (Less then a year) were the only things i knew of that d**d nearby)
So after we made the ouija board my brother came downstairs and joined us. We decided that we were going to give it around 3 tries, the first time nothing really happend except for a little bit of moving of the glass but that could’ve been easily one of us. The second try went basically the same but my brother felt some chills down his spine and i thought that i saw a weird kind of mist walking past the couch he was sitting on.
On the third time, we didn’t something would happen since nothing really happend the first two times but as soon as we wanted to leave, we heard a extremely loud BANG from the side. At that time i thought the f***ng wall collapsed or something in that nature. But it scared the living s**t out of everyone after that happend my brother quickly turned on the light and we saw what happend. A portrait of my dog was RIPPED of the wall. (on a side note; it was impossible to get that off with bare hands even) After that we rushed upstairs and tried to sleep. I didn’t have so much trouble with it because if it’s my dog that would be awesome but i’ve heard other things in the house aswell which makes me consider it. that was my story.
Image source: Renekill
However, remembering an experience vividly does not necessarily mean remembering every detail accurately. Fear can make certain moments feel incredibly clear while leaving gaps in the actual sequence of events.
Someone who witnesses something frightening might remember a strange figure’s appearance, the sound of footsteps, or the expression on another person’s face but struggle to recall precisely what happened before or afterward. The brain tends to prioritize details it considers important for survival rather than recording every aspect of an experience perfectly.
In more severe cases, particularly following trauma, these memories can resurface as nightmares, intrusive thoughts, or flashbacks, with certain reminders triggering intense fear even when the person is no longer in danger. This helps explain why unusual or frightening encounters can stay with people for years, becoming memories they find difficult to forget even when they cannot fully explain what happened.
#25
Several years ago, while I was a freshman in high school, my dog d**d of an inoperable tumor in his liver. Fast forward six or eight months, I’m home alone. My brother was just hospitalized, beginning his two year, one month journey of near d***h, surgeries, and recovering.) My parents were at work, so I was home by myself after I had got off from rehearsal.
I went to the kitchen to find some food and took it to my room to eat. When I was just outside my door, I had a strange feeling that someone was behind me, and that I wasn’t alone in the house. Turning around, I saw nobody was there. Before I entered my room, I caught a glimpse of a misty figure about knee level. I was slightly creeped out but just brushed it off as nothing. I go into my room and sit on my bed, with the door closing behind me, but not completely shut. I was on my bed, staring at the door, still in disbelief about what I had saw. Suddenly, the door pushes open gently and slightly. Just like my dog used to do.
At that point, I wasn’t scared, but more comforted in the fact he was there with me. It is a weird feeling, but if you’ve ever experienced it, you’d understand what I mean. I eventually told my mom what happened, several weeks later, and she said she had been experiencing strange things also. When we got a new dog, who was a 4 month old puppy at the time, she would also stare at things curiously. One time, she was staring at the curtains for the longest time, but staying were she was, and the curtains began gently moving, as if someone had touched them. There was no draft right there as I found out after.
I miss that sweet boy of mine. We rescued him from a life as an abandoned and mistreated dog, and was very loyal and protective of the whole family. Although this story wasn’t as creepy as many others, I feel that my experiences justify why I believe in ghosts and residual energy.
Image source: Pravana
#26
“The Strangers”
The house me and my friends are currently renting is known for being haunted, particularly in the attic. None of the tenants really bought into the whole haunted thing, so we never really tell guests about it.
We hold small parties regularly, and we keep having intoxicated people ask questions like, “who are those people in the other room?” and “whats that guy doing upstairs?”
Once a guest was freaking out about the being watched by people in the attic.
When we went up there, the was a notebook of poorly drawn people sitting on a chair that looked 50 years old. The pictures were not obvious likenesses, but going by gender and facial hair they had matched all the people who had mentioned seeing “the strangers” in our house.
The attic is connected to my room, and we have doors randomly swing open by themselves fairly regularly. I still don’t buy it.
TL;DR: Ghosts living in attic, draw house guests in creepy notebook.
Image source: ichbinpwnzilla
#27
Dude get this, I’m in band class and I pick up my trombone case. I assemble my instrument, and I go to open the flap that opens to a small space, 3×3 inches wide, 1 inch high to my mouthpiece, that usually fills most of the space, and it’s not there. First I freak out, then I assume my band buddies may have been messing with me. But for some odd reason, I decide to open the flap again, and THERE IT IS. In plain sight. With nobody in a 10 ft radius of me.
This all happened yesterday, and I’m still convinced my trombone is haunted
Image source: Al_Capownage
Perhaps the creepiest part of paranormal experiences is not always what people claim to have seen or heard, but how difficult some of these moments are to explain, even years later. While psychology and science can offer possible reasons behind unusual sights, sounds, and sensations, not every personal experience comes with a clear answer.
Sometimes, what stays with someone is the uncertainty of what happened and the feeling that they witnessed something they were never quite meant to understand. But now we’re curious. Have you ever experienced something you genuinely couldn’t explain, no matter how hard you tried? Share your strangest experiences in the comments. We’d love to hear your stories, even if they still give you goosebumps!
#28
I was 12 and staying at school, in one of the largest dorm rooms, there were 8 of us in there, it was a Wednesday night and a usual one at that. We had all slept in that room for almost a year, it was our allocated room for that school year.
The school was actually a really old house that had been converted, obviously we were in the oldest part of the house and our dorm was next to a music room, with a piano in it. The only way to get to that room was to go through our room, so that was why were were so ‘on edge’ when it happened.
Like I said it was a normal Wednesday night – we all messed about til midnight after being put to bed at 9pm, but were all asleep soon after that – it wasn’t until 2am that I was woken up by the guy below me on our bunk bed who was talking rather quickly in a harsh whisper to 1 or 2 of the other guys. As I was listening to him for a second, I realised that he was talking about the noise that he could hear from the music room. It was the piano! It was being played! At 2am! I jumped and yelped – it freaked me out! Not in a scared way but a sort of – I’m creeped out cos someone is playing the piano in the middle of the night and I don’t understand as I’m only 12 sort of way.
We were now all awake, listening tot he piano and talking about it, all wanting to know who was playing, so we all got out of bed and got near the door – it was so clear that it was the piano at this point, we were more scared of being told off by the master that would be playing it because we were all out of bed at such a late hour, but we as a group decided we needed to know who it was, so very slowly we all pushed the door open…
The light was off??!! So someone flicked the switch quickly and pushed the door open so that we could confront who was playing the piano.. No one! The piano wasn’t being played by anyone – the cover wasn’t even open. WHAT THE ACTUAL F**K? We didn’t understand… we ran and woke up the Matron screaming what had happened, she didn’t believe us so we all eventually got detention and sent back to bed.
I can safely say none of us slept well in that room for the rest of the year, it was all we could talk and think about. Nothing was ever proved – but there were other weird things that happened to other kids during my school years there. A teacher who is a friend of my Mum’s left the school because of the erie sounds that she kept hearing and the glimpses of ‘figures’ but I dunno about all of that. What I do know is that I was really freaked out that night and can’t explain what it was.
Notes: I don’t actually believe in ghosts etc…even after this incident, I guess I was too young to have been fully affected + Sorry this is rushed – I’m at work.
Image source: Wilax
#29
From an earlier thread….
This isn’t my own story, but my atheist, non-spiritual, cynical best friend’s afterlife story. To know this kid, and to have him tell me this story while he’s visibly trembling, scared the f*ck out of me, and still does. He moved into his grandfather’s house a few years ago, so that he could take care of him, since his grandfather was frail and d***g from cancer. One night, after his grandfather had taken a turn for the worse, my friend was sitting in the living room, watching whatever comes on basic cable at 2am (he didn’t get home from work until around midnight every night). He heard a loud crash come from his grandfather’s bedroom. Thinking that his grandfather had fallen out of bed again, he ran down the hall, opened the door, and saw his grandfather still in bed, but with his back towards the door, and his right arm reaching for something in the far corner of the bedroom. That’s when my friend saw “sparks” floating in and out of the wall and ceiling. He watched it for about 3 or 4 minutes. His grandfather’s arm went back down and the “sparks” disappeared through the far wall. My friend closed the bedroom door, thinking that he was completely losing his mind and hallucinating, and sat back down in the living room. The next morning he was sitting at the kitchen table, eating breakfast, when his grandfather sat down with his oatmeal, or whatever, and they both just sat there eating in silence. My friend said, “Hey Pop… I heard some loud crashing noise come from your room last night. Is everything alright?” His grandfather immediately said, “You saw them!”, then went on about how his d**d brother, cousin, and some other d**d family members came to take him away, and he was telling them that he wasn’t ready to go and that they need to go away, and some other stuff that I can’t remember. His grandfather d**d about a month later. He told me this story a couple of days after it happened, and I’ve heard him tell it a few times since, and it never changes.
Image source: Spaghetti-Bender
#30
With 2000+ comments, it’s unlikely anyone’s going to see this, and it’s not necessarily super creepy, but it was….weird. And I swear this is totally true.
When I was about 11, I went through this really bizarre period in my life where I was exhausted all the time because I had started having really vivid, involved dreams, so it felt like I never slept.
The dreams were linear, and I was the star of them, but I was someone else: a girl named Cheryl who was sixteen years old, living in Texas in the eighties. There was nothing weird about the dreams in general; it was just that, for the entire time I was asleep, I was another person in a different body with a different family, doing perfectly ordinary things.
And the dreams always started out the same way: I would go to sleep as me, and “wake up” as Cheryl (but not really Cheryl, I knew I wasn’t her, but couldn’t convince anyone else I wasn’t). I would go eat breakfast with her family, go to school, take her classes, talk to her friends, and then go back to sleep in her bed and wake up as me again.
This lasted for months (started off slowly, maybe one or two dreams a week, until finally they were every single night). In the real world, I started falling asleep in classes, had an overabundance of migraines (prone to them anyway), was constantly anemic and just generally sickly.
Nothing super awful happened in the dreams, except for the pressure of taking high-school classes with stuff I’d never learned before (because I was actually 11), and trying to pass courses based on material that was way above my age-range. Also, trying to fit in with her family and friends (because I was still me, just in her body, I didn’t actually recognize them or remember them or our supposed in-jokes/family history).
I could pass it all off as just stress and say it was totally unremarkable if it weren’t for the fact that I actually did learn s**t from the classes I took at her high school; stuff that I couldn’t have known, hadn’t studied, and wouldn’t learn until I was in high school myself.
Image source: heartbreakcity
#31
I moved into a new house in March 2011. The house was built in 1920.
My dog came with me when we got the house inspected. She was running up and down the stairs and seemed healthy and happy.
I was working in the house prior to moving in one day and was by myself in the basement. Around 5pm I heard a door close at the top the stairs. I then heard footsteps on the floor above. I then mistakenly started talking to whatever was there. I said they could stay if they didn’t scare my wife or my pets. I went upstairs and found the front and back doors locked. I was inside the house alone. I then got a really intense feeling all over my body that felt like pins and needles to the tenth power.
The next day I was once again in the basement. I was rooting around in a toolbox when I saw a roll of sandpaper unraveling by itself. I was alone this time too. A short while later I was looking in another toolbox
and a case that was four feet away slammed violently on the ground. I then mistakenly spoke to the spirits again and told them to get out. I then heard a loud thud at the top of the stairs.
Shortly after this we moved into the basement and started to renovate the top two floors. I have never seen the kind of problems with a renovation that this house presented.
My daughter visited the house and said the master bedroom was haunted. She said the spirit comes and goes but shouldn’t be a problem.
The problems continued. My dog also started to decline physically.
When we cleaned out the attic we found a voodoo love potion and spell book and a VD handbook together in a box. Unbeknownst to me my wife dug up a wheelbarrow full of trolls and other dolls in our backyard.
We took the dog to the vet a number of times and they could not find anything wrong with her. She would just lie under our bed day and night. Finally we took her to another vet in August. The vet told me she was full of cancer. We put her down the next day. We were devastated. I thought that whatever was in our house had harmed our dog. My wife and daughter disagreed.
I was also having nightmares regularly. They would almost always be some type of force holding me down. I would awake in terror after I couldn’t get the force away from me.
We finally called in a guy who dealt with our type of problem. He said his cell phone just went blank as he walked up to our house. He said he could feel the energy coming from the house standing on the sidewalk in front of the house. He came inside the house and immediately went to the areas where I heard the noises and saw the sandpaper unravel. He said that someone had been practicing voodoo in the house and the core of the house was affected. He did a few things and drew a few symbols and you could feel an immediate difference in the house.
He explained that the spirits were trying to attack me. When I didn’t back down or show fear they went after the dog. He said the dog sensed this and put herself in harm’s way to protect me. He said the dog and I shared the purest form of love between us. This is making me cry as I write this.
Everything seemed fine inside the house for a short while. I started getting the intense pins and needles feelings again. This time there was no bad feelings associated with the sensation. I called the guy who cleared the house and he told me to call him back after 5 days. When I called back he told me that the dog was returning to the house to check up on us. I had a few more feelings like this after that. I also heard a knock at our basement door after I stepped inside the door. When I opened the door no one was there. I think it was my dog again.
We finished our reno and moved upstairs and there have been no incidents since.
Image source: mrsschwingin
#32
When I was a kid my sister and I shared a room and when I turned five I moved across the hall. The two of us always had horrible night terrors and would get in bed with each other whenever it happened. My first night in my new room I surprisingly fell asleep pretty easily but in the middle of the night I woke up to this coming from the hall:
“No turn it the other way!”
“Shhh! Shut up you’ll wake the girl up!”
The voices were loud-whispering and sounded really gruff and angry but I never heard any footsteps. They just went away. I was so scared I laid in bed until the sun came up and then ran to my sister’s room. It still kind of creeps me out to think about it because of the idea that children can sense spirits more easily. I know what I heard and I know it wasn’t a dream. Plus, my parents’ house was owned by some really sketchy people before we lived there and it’s a pretty old house, to boot.
Image source: pestoguzzler
#33
This happened about 5 years ago. I had just come home from seeing the Rockettes, and I immediately got into bed, I don’t even think I bothered turning on any lights. Was falling asleep when I heard a voice. It sounded very very similar to my stepfather’s, and it sounded like he was on the other side of my bedroom door. Both my parents were asleep in the next room, but it was very likely that my stepdad had woken and for whatever reason needed to wake me up.
I sat up in my bed and asked him to repeat himself. Right as I did, the voice seemed to “fly” at me… like from the door, then get louder and louder as it approached my ears. It still sounded like my stepdad but there was something very odd about it. Twisted, almost. It kept repeating itself, I have no idea what it was saying, it definitely wasn’t english. The voice was no longer coming from the inside of the door, it was coming from different directions all over my room.
I freaked out and screamed “leave me alone” and it immediately stopped.
I’ve heard similar voices at night a couple times since then, but nothing that intense. And I swear I’m not crazy.
Image source: kyndle
#34
After my grandmother passed away, everyone in my family had the same dream of sitting down with her at a restaurant talking about her will.
Image source: LExxias1
#35
My grandmother d**d when I was very young, maybe four or five. She was a concert pianist who played with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra – really an incredibly talented woman. She owned a Steinway baby grand from the 1920s that was passed onto us after her d***h and currently sits in my parents’ living room.
On more than one occasion, nearly everyone in my family has heard the tinkling of the keys when no one is playing. I thought I saw her playing it one time as well, but I think it was just a shadow.
Image source: Philip_Marlowe
#36
Once, when I was kid, my parents left me alone. It was fairly cold, not overly so, but it was a chilly night. As the evening wore on and the sun went down, it got windy. Again, I didn’t really pay much attention at first. Around 8 o’clock, I heard some thunder and lightning off in the distance. All of the sudden, out of no where, I heard something like someone punching the wall upstairs. I went up there and a picture fell off the wall right in front of me. A second later, a another punching/loud thump sound in my sisters room, and another picture fell. I slowly went back downstairs and a bolt of lightning hit NEXT DOOR. It rattled so loud, a large serving bowl vibrated and fell right off the counter. At that point, I went outside and sat under a street light in the wind and thunder, waiting for my parents to come home.
Image source: JediChris1138
#37
I was never a believer in ghosts/spirits the paranormal, ufo’s n stuff.
About 2 years ago me and buddy decided to go on a drive. It was a hot summers night and we were bored out of our minds, so we picked up some cigarettes and went on a late night drive. We decided to drive to the top of the mountain, the base of the mountain is about an hours drive from where i lived and it takes about another hour to drive all the way to the top where they have a restaurant/bar. This is in Norway by the way.
It was pretty late, around 3 am in morning, we knew the bar would be closed but we thought we would just chill on the benches, have a smoke and take in the view at first light.
So, we get to the base of the mountain and start driving up and round, the road twists round the mountain untill you get to the top, so when you reach a turn you can barely see round the corner. It was pitch black darkness, only the road was visible due to the street lights, but apart from the road, the edges and mountain side were barely visible.
We had been driving for about half an hour, everything was pretty enojyable, absolutely empty roads (guess all the sane ones were asleep in bed ready to wake up and go to work in the morning), complete silence, it was just relaxing.
As we turn one of the bends, i get this very uneasy feeling as i see something, definately a person, sitting on a boulder at the edge of the road. My friend see’s this as well, but keeps driving, and im thinking, w*f bro, but i realise that he is turning the car round and going back because its pretty treacherous to reverse on that road.
So we head back, slowly, and i realise that he is fine! He’s not getting any bad feelings, he is in his normal mood. So i convinced myself that im acting weird and that its probably just some crazy hiker.
We park the car right opposite this figure, engine still running, and my friend calls out, “hi there, are you ok” (i have to admit i was still pretty scared so i didnt say anything). No response.
The figure then looks up in our direction and we get the f*****g s**t scared out of us. We saw that it was a woman, wearing a plain white dress, with very long, beautiful hair, but her face was three time the length of a normal persons face, her eyes were completely blank and she had a smile on her face.
I swear to god we both felt so fearful that we were completely paralyzed. We couldnt yell, or even communicate, not even a single word, it felt like we couldnt move.
I dont know how he found the courage to press the gas and get the hell out of there. But i do remember that when we both got home we had a very high fever and we were like that for a couple more days afterwards.
Image source: TonberryKing26
#38
My best friend dreamed about my stepfather getting stabbed.
My family was pretty white trash, and on one particular evening my uncle and stepfather got into an altercation outside of our house wherein my stepfather got stabbed in the back. He fell on me coming back inside and in the process I got coated in blood. The cops were called and he was taken away in an ambulance as my mother and myself drove to the hospital. This was about 1am.
This is before the internet and cell phones and all that jazz, so there was no way anyone beyond our next door neighbors knew about this. When we returned back to the house at about 4 or 5 in the morning, there was a message on the answering machine from my best friend crying, apologizing for calling so late, but asking me to call her right away because she had dreamed of me being covered in blood. The message was time stamped as the same time the incident occurred, about 1am. We had missed her call because we were outside with the paramedics.
Image source: morgueanna
#39
This might get long, sorry. A dorm at a local university had a student d*e of alcohol po*****ng on his 21st birthday and there have been lots of reports of creepy things happening in the room he d**d in. Students reported tapping from the inside of the window, shoes being rearranged while they were out, and a loud scraping noise that came from upstairs (people upstairs thought it was coming from downstairs.
Anyways, there is a youth sports camp that uses this dorm for a summer residence and I was a counselor so I stayed in the dorm with the kids. I was assigned to stay in the room that the aforementioned student d**d in. I grew up in the same town as this college, so I knew all about the “ghost” and didn’t think anything of it, there’s no such thing as ghosts, right? I moved in and the only thing that looked different about the room (compared to others in the dorm) was that there was a crucifix.
During my week s**t got weird. Several times I heard loud tapping from the inside of my window. One night, I poked my head outside of my door late one night and yelled “lights out” to some kids running down the hall – my lights promptly turned out inside my room.
Finally, during a break at the end of the week I went back to my room for a nap. I found my TV was on and the volume was extremely loud. I didn’t think much of it, maybe the kids had been playing ps2 in my room and forgot to turn it off. I grabbed the remote, laid on the bed, and hit the power button…the TV stayed on. I took the batteries out, tried again, and still the TV was on. I picked my lazy a*s up, walked to the TV, and pressed the power button. Nothing. I turned the volume down. Nothing. I finally unplugged the TV and… Nothing. Totally freaking out, I unplugged the cable cord thinking maybe some weird surge through that was keeping the TV on. Nope. I sat there holding the TV power cord, cable cord, and remote and was watching my TV continue to play. I ran from the room, got another counselor, and showed them. He promptly freaked the f**k out and we left the building to get the camp director – and when he got to my room the TV was off. F**k.
TL;DR: Ghosts really wanted to watch Jerry Springer in my dorm room.
Image source: andyn0133
#40
House-sitting and taking care of the dogs for my aunt. It was an old farm house. Old as in the kitchen and bathroom were added on to the house when working plumbing became a common thing. I played some video games, watched a little tv, just winding down to go to sleep. Just laying there in the dark trying starting to doze off and I hear something. Something coming from upstairs.
The upstairs was an attic turned into bedrooms for my cousins. The best way I could describe it was like a pipe or a bottle, the sound of some kind of hollow object rolling back and forth across the floor in the room directly above me. I just sat there wide eyed and scared. Finally, I worked up the courage to get up and turn the lights back on. The rolling sound continued. I told myself it was just something in the walls, trying to come up with any rational explanation. I got up to turn the tv back on and just kinda drown out the sound. With the lights on I noticed the dogs, two big rottweilers, were sitting silently in the kitchen hair bristling and staring right at me. I backed away, honestly afraid they were going to attack me for some reason, but I realized they weren’t staring at me. They were looking past me at the door that goes upstairs.
Well, s**t. That did nothing to settle my nerves, but there was no way in hell I was going up to investigate. I cranked up the tv, eventually coaxed the dogs into the living room, and after a while I was tired again. I left the tv on, just turned it down, laid back down on the couch and got some shut-eye. I don’t know how long I was asleep, just that when I woke up it was still pitch black outside. What woke me up was the door. My feet were hanging over the arm of the couch I was sleeping on and the door that led upstairs had come open and hit my feet. If you’ve ever lived in an old house you will know this kind of door. It’s an old door. The kind that’s been warped from too many winters and rubs the frame when you shut it. The kind you would have to put your shoulder into to close it all the way and would have to really pull to open it again. Yet there it was, wide open to a pitch black staircase, the hinges creaking as it bumped against my dangling feet. I was up and out in seconds, the dogs right behind me. Put my shoes on in the car, put the dogs in their kennel, and was off to sweet sweet civilization. I didn’t care about using all the gas to drive out and feed the dogs every day, I wasn’t spending another night in that house.
Image source: fansypants
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