25 People On The Illogical Paranormal Experience They Still Can’t Find An Explanation For

Have you ever seen something unexplainable? These Ask Reddit users have, and they’re still struggling to make sense of it all.

Thought.is
Thought.is

1. An invisible spirit caused me to bleed

“A few weeks ago, I was sitting at my desk in my university room. (We think our flat’s haunted because weird stuff happens every so often – things disappear, there’s noises when nobody’s in, stuff like that…) Suddenly, I get a sharp pain in my leg, as if I’d been stabbed. I look down and there’s nothing there, and absolutely nothing that could have caused it, so I carry on with my work. Next time I look down, there’s a trail of blood going from just above my ankle and trickling down my foot.

No explanation. I cleaned off the blood and bandaged it up, and it’s healing now, but I still have no idea how I got the wound. It literally sprung from nowhere.” — Yellow_Umbrella_Girl

2. Her tarot cards were too terrifying to read

“Back in my late teens I was teaching myself to read Tarot cards, so I would do free readings for friends and family all the time for the practice. So I’m at a family BBQ at my BF’s house, and we’re all hanging out and chilling when they ask me to get my cards.

So I do a fairly boring reading for my BF’s mom, and my BF’s Sister-in-law decides she wants to be next. So I shift over to be across the table from her and set her to shuffling the cards. I throw the cards in standard Celtic cross layout.

Darkest spread I’ve ever seen in my life. Almost all Major Arcana cards, all showing their more negative aspects. So I’m sitting there looking at these cards that are basically saying this person is Not Good, and my brain is going a mile a minute trying to figure out what the hell I’m looking at at.

DEEP, wolfish, male voice I’ve never heard before or since says right into my right ear, ‘Tell her NOTHING.’ Not threatening, just giving very clear instruction.

I told her I couldn’t tell her anything, gathered up the cards and got outta there like my butt was on fire.

A few weeks later I’m over there again and it came up (have never told them about the voice). Turns out she’s had two palmists and three astrologers react the same way to divination requests.” — dsafire

3. The door completely vanished from the room

“My brother reminded me of this the other day! When we were growing up, we were best friends with a brother and sister pair who were our exact ages so we spent all our time with them and at their house. Their house was big, it even had a movie theater in the basement. My brother and I slept over often, and the four of us usually slept in the basement in the theater since it had a huge sunken couch that fit all of us.

Around the time I was about 9 or so, and brother was older so he remembers it better, our friends were really excited to have us over because they had gotten a few couch cushions in ‘the crawl room’ so it would be like camping. Brother and I both had no idea what they meant, we knew every inch of their house, so we went to see this room. In their basement around the corner from the theater there was a short door, so short that we had to crawl through to get in. Brother and I had never seen this door before even though we had practically grown up in this house.

We questioned it, but neither of us remember the answer they gave other than ‘they just found it.’ They were rich, so I guess we assumed it was new construction? Anyway, we slept on couch cushions in that short room that night and neither my brother or I can remember anything remarkable about it, and we slept in the theater again after that night.

The remarkable thing happened a few years later. It was my friends 14th or so birthday and I was keeping her busy while her brother was hiding her present, presumably in the crawl room. At the end of her birthday party, he brought up the crawl room. He said something like “you remember going in and out of there a few times, right?” I said yes. He looked confused and asked me to show him where I remember the door being. We go into the basement and lo and behold there is no door. Not even an outline where it would have been sealed. My brother kicks the wall and it’s solid, cement. We ask our friends parents and they have no idea, they’ve never done construction down there and there is no room other than the theater in the basement.

Reddit, I was in this room in the basement. All night, we sat on cushions in there and brought a small TV with Nintendo, we went in and out for a solid night. We all remember it. After our friends moved, the new neighbors had us over and my brother and I went in the basement with fresh eyes of logical adults, still nothing. No door and we realized that there would have been virtually no room for us to sit comfortably because the basement only extends about four feet past the edge of the house; the room would have been Under our friends lawn. I know it’s not outright scary, but I think it falls in the category of paranormal, because it’s just baffling.” — AlterngeusG

4. The ghost obeyed my father’s request

“When I was very young, we lived in a house that had the usual ‘ghost’ activity — hearing footsteps, hushed voices in the next room, etc. But the really cool thing was the basement door. It would open on its own, I’m not talking open an inch or two when you closed another door nearby, I mean it would swing fully open like someone was walking through it. My parents tried locking the door and it would still swing open on its own.

By the time I was learning to walk, my dad was concerned I would fall down the steps, so he went down into the basement and just said, to no one in particular, that he had a young daughter upstairs and could they please be careful with the door. Ever since then, the basement door would open, and then slowly shut on its own.” — pocket-ful-of-dildos

5. We were all yanked up by something unseen

“Camping in the desert in Utah. I was a wilderness guide and lived out of my truck, so camped nearly every night, so totally used to weird noises, twigs cracking, whatever. But one night it was extremely calm and quiet, just a weird vibe in the air. A couple friends and I were on BLM land in Utah near Moab, and we had just put out the fire and laid our bags out. Just as I was starting to fade out, something grabbed me by my wrists and jerked my arms straight up into the air. I sat up immediately and two of my friends bolted up at the same time. We all had it happen to us, and we couldn’t explain it. Nothing else happened, but still makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up when I think about it…” — HeyJohnnyUtah

6. A ghost warned me and my sister to be quiet

“When I was about 12 and started getting left alone at home, something used to shush me. I’d be pouring cereal, singing along to the TV and suddenly, ‘shhhhhhh!’ First time it happened I absolutely crapped myself and didn’t say a word until someone came home. I didn’t tell anyone because I didn’t think anyone would believe me. I’d even start to convince myself it was just my imagination but then it would happen again. I think it happened about 5 or 6 times.

One Saturday morning I was in my top bunk, the beds were super noisy and the slightest of moves would result in them creaking.

‘Shhhhhhh!’

I thought it was my younger sister and decided to annoy her further. I started rocking about in my bunk making as much noise as I possibly could and suddenly

‘SHHHHHH!!’

I chuckled, still thinking it was my sister, and then she whispered nervously from below, ‘Was that you? The shushing, was that you?’

I popped my head down and said, “No, it was you.” She looked terrified, her eyes welled up with tears and she said, “No it wasn’t.” She ran out of the room crying and wouldn’t come back in for a long time. I realized it must have been the shushy ghost and was overcome with relief that I wasn’t crazy, because someone else had actually bloody heard it.” — DentalNylon

7. I heard footsteps running toward me

“I just started working in a lab in August. Since I started, my coworkers have told me about all sorts of paranormal activity that has happened in the lab. I listened to their stories but never put much stock in them.

One day about three months into the job, I was late setting up a specimen and ended up staying behind while everyone else left. The hood I was using is in a corner, and I couldn’t really see anything except what was right in front of me without turning my chair. Out of nowhere, I heard and felt footsteps rushing towards me (the lab is on the third floor of a four-story building, and the rest of the building is completely unoccupied) and a gust blew past me. I turned to look, and there was nothing/nobody there.” — cdrchandler

8. My nephew saw the ghosts of children

“A few years ago,my sister was married to a solider in the British Army and he was stationed in Germany. We all visited her and she knew I was interested in history so for a day out, we visited Belsen Bergen, the former Nazi concentration camp. As we were walking around, my sister was pushing the pram with my nephew in it, he was 1or 2 years old at the time. The thing about Belsen Bergen is that after the way, it was burnt to the ground so it’s more or less blank fields. As we walked, we passed a tree when my nephew asked my sister who the kids were behind us. We all turned around and no one was there. My sister asked which kids, and he replied ‘the ones in the pajamas.’ Yet again,no kids anywhere to seen. We all knew for a fact that he has no idea what country he was in, yet alone know about the horrible events which occurred at that camp.” — funkybub

9. A ghost was hidden in my house

“Told this story on reddit a while ago, but my friends and I still talk about it years later.

When I was in high-school, the days before cellphones were common, my friends were to come over to pick me up from my house one night. We had made plans at school for them to pick me up at 7pm. At 6, my parents said I had to come with them to do something, and I totally forgot to call my friends and tell them. They came to my house at 7pm, and called the house phone. No one answered. There was 4 of them in the car. They all told us the exact same story. They said that they were about to pull out of my driveway, but they saw someone peak through the blinds from the bedroom on the top floor right. That was my room, so they assumed that I was fucking around. five more times, they said that someone would peak through the blinds, and a couple of them said they even saw the persons eyes.

We got home at probably 7:10-7:15, and they were still in our driveway. One of my friends came over and said they thought I was messing with them. Then they asked me, “So, whose staying in your room?” I told them that no one. So they asked, “Whose…home at your house right now?” Again, I told them, no one. There stone cold faces then told me what they had seen repeatedly over the last 15 minutes. At first, we all thought there was a burglar in the house or something, so we called the cops.

They came over and inspected the house. There was zero signs of break in, nothing was touched and nothing was stolen. Our house had an alarm on it, so there is no way someone could have come into the house without setting off the alarm.

My family, my friends, and the cop all kind of stood around for a few minutes, trying to make sense of the situation. My friends swore up and down(and still do) that they couldn’t have imagined what they saw. All four of them saw the same things, and it wasn’t particularly a dark night so there eyes wouldn’t be playing tricks on them. To this day, none of us can make sense of the situation.” — Yoinkie2013

10. My dog said goodbye to me before he died

“I was in basic training at Ft. Knox and we were on a very long road march when out of nowhere this beautiful yellow lab with no coller that looked exactly like my dog at home comes up to me and walks beside me of all people for a few minutes before running back into the woods. This was a big boost to me because you needed to finish the march as one of the requirements to graduate and I was dragging ass due to stress fractures in my feet. I was able to finish and we earned some phone time to call home where my mom informed me that had to put my dog down. She was sick before I left and they were hoping she could hold on another week but she just got too bad. When that dog came up to me it was literally out of nowhere, there wasn’t any houses around for miles. One of the things her and I loved to do was to go on runs together so I like to think that was her coming up to me to say goodbye.” — Dr_Bukkakee

11. The movie theater I worked at was haunted

“I worked in a really old movie theater for my first job. It was a small theater, 6 screens, and all in a line so you could see from one end of the building to the other essentially. Eventually I got promoted to manager so I had to start the movies, we had film still so it was a fairly complicated process of threading the projectors and then watching over them because they fuck up easily. We always joked about ghosts, lotta weird shit happened around there like things falling over, doors shutting, and hearing voices.

Well one day I was there with like 1 employee, slow midweek day, and I walked out of the office up in the projection booth and out of habit looked both ways (ya know, the ole left-right-left). To my right there was a woman in a whitish dress and brown hair about 4ft away just standing there. I only caught a glimpse before doing a double take and she was gone.

I wasn’t the only person to see her, several other employees claim they’ve seen a similar woman around the theater but I never saw her again so I’m not sure if I just imagined seeing a person or if I did.

Stupid ghosts.” — neonchinchilla

12. Three of us had identical dreams about a murderer

“My first apartment after college was the upper half of an old house. My new roommate had just recently graduated, so he was in no rush to move in. I’d been living with my parents for the past year or so an needed out as soon as possible, so I brought a sleeping bag over with my last load of stuff on day one. No utilities, just camping out by myself in the living room.

At some point during the night I had a vivid dream that a killer with a knife was coming down the main hall toward the door to the living room. Just as he was about to open the door, I woke up terrified. Shook it off, went back to sleep.

I was talking to my roommate one morning a few months later. He told me about a weird dream he had the previous night. Seems he had fallen asleep in the living room (for the first time) and had a dream that killer with a knife was coming down the main hall toward the door to the living room. Just as the killer was about to open the door my friend woke up. He spent the rest of the night in his own room. I told him about my dream from the first night. We both thought it was weird

Couple months later a friend needed a place to crash, asked to stay on the couch for a night. Next morning he mentions he had an odd dream. ‘Killer with a knife was coming down the main hall toward the door to the living room,” I asked. ‘Just as he was about to open the door, you woke up?’ added my roommate. Look of pure terror on our friend’s face was astounding.” — Deitaphobia

13. I had nightmares until the exorcism

“So, this technically happened to me, but I was a baby and don’t remember. My mom told me this once when we were talking about paranormal activity and whether she believed. She had a couple of incidents, but the one with me went thusly:

Mom was at home waiting for the HVAC man to come do something – I do not recall what. My dad was at work, and she was alone with me. I wasn’t more than two. The HVAC man had a reputation of being a weirdo; he was weirdly religious and very superstitious and all the other women in the neighborhood didn’t like being alone with him. My mom figured he was just misunderstood, and she said he was odd but never made her uncomfortable.

Now, I was having screaming nightmares every night. No one knew why. I was in my own room, which was the first room a child had slept in, since the house was built after my sister was born. Mom didn’t tell the guy any of this.

So he is checking all the rooms for whatever he’s there to do, and he walks into my room and stops dead. He asked my mom if I had nightmares. She said yes, and he told her that the house was built on an Indian burial ground, and we had angered the spirits. They were upset, and that was upsetting me.

My mom said she didn’t really know what to say, and he asked her if she wanted him to perform an exorcism. Mom told him sure — wouldn’t hurt, right? He went to his truck, got his Bible, and wandered around my room muttering — she didn’t know what — waving the Bible, that sort of thing. After a few minutes, he turned to her and said that the spirits were calmed and everything should be fine. He finished his work and went in his merry way.

Mom said I didn’t have another nightmare after that. She has no idea how to explain it.” — soletaNCC26517

14. We saw shadow people in the forest

“You guys know what shadow people are, right? The name kind of gives it away. They’re shadows and also people, look like a silhouette, you get the idea.

Anyway, this was back when I was maybe 10 or 11 years old. I’m over at a friend’s place and we go out back in the forest behind his house. We walking through some tall brush, when out of the corner of my eye, I see what looks like the silhouette of a head and shoulders rise over the brush. I ignore it, thinking I was just seeing things. A short while later, we’re out on a wide trail, when something darts across the path in front of us. It looked like the silhouette of a man, hunched over, running from one side to the other, somehow leaving the plants on either side were perfectly intact. My friend turns to me and goes, ‘Holy shit, did you see that?’ I did, and we got out of that forest as fast as we could. We sat in his house, terrified, and I mentioned the head and shoulders I initially saw. Turns out he saw them too, and just ignored them like I did. What we saw still freaks me out to this day, nearly 10 years later, because we never really knew what we saw.” — ZombieDonkey96

15. We rented a historical (haunted) house

“My family and I had just rent this beautiful historical house that was built around the underground railroad era. It had small hideouts and doors where slaves would hideout in. As soon as soon as we moved it, we got uncomfortable vibes from it. We’d here footsteps coming from the upstairs when everyone was downstairs, the tv would turn off/ on by itself and doors would open and close by themselves. We eventually accepted the fact that we had a ghost and it seemed harmless, so we called “her” Claudia. Each of my family members had a least seen Claudia once, she was a tall dark figure who would move fast. Most of the hauntings would come from my bedroom, it was always cold and had an unpleasant smell. My little brother began sleep walking and would have terrible nightmares. One night became the final straw for my family and our relationship with Claudia. My sister and I were away at our friends while my parents and brothers were at home. The whole house was asleep when my dad woke up from screaming coming from my bedroom, when he ran out past the living room (where my little brother like to sleep because of his sleep walking) he noticed that my brother wasn’t there. So he ran up stairs where he met my older brother who had heard the screaming as well and they both saw the my bedroom door was shut and they realized that it was my little brother screaming in my room. They both went to open the door but it was like something was blocking it, so finally my dad busted door down and as the door flew open, a black shadow ran right past him and my brother. He then entered my room that was so cold, that he could see his own breath. He looked over at my little brother, who was laying on my bed and covered in sweat and tears, and started yelling his name to wake him up. But my little just pointed (still ‘asleep’) at the corner of the room and started yelling ‘get her daddy, get her!!’ My dad looked over but saw nothing but pitch black, that was enough for him, he quickly grabbed my brother who was as stiff as a board and ran the hell out of there. When my brother woke up the next day, he had no memory of what had happened that night and still doesn’t remember when he talk about it almost five years later. We moved out of that house a few weeks after the incident and my brother stopped sleep walking as soon has we did. We’ve heard a few other stories from the people who currently own the house, but nothing quite as terrifying as what happened to my brother or my dad. The house has a great history behind it, but it was too creepy for my family.” — Ray_ofsunshine

16. We saw a spaceship in the sky

“Probably about 9 years ago, some friends and I were hanging out in a field near my house. It was close to midnight and two of us were standing around looking at the stars. He pointed one out, almost directly above us, that was especially bright. At first I thought it was Vega, but it was sort of next to it. Not 3 seconds after he pointed it out, it just blinked out. We both freaked out and left.” — MrSlim

17. I saw an unexplainable creature

“I live in northern Georgia, United States. Behind our house there is dense forest for about 60 miles. One summer I was walking along this river for a few hours that goes deeper into the woods. I was about to cross the river at a shallow part when I heard this loud whistle maybe about 40 meters to the right of where I would end up after I crossed the water. Iv’e never seen or heard any sign of anyone here before. I whistled back. After about 30 seconds I heard it again but from behind me. At this point I was confused. Then I can smell this terrible stench. It was so pungent I started gagging. I stop in the center of the river and that’s when I saw it. A large, hairy, bipedal creature walking through a clearing about 15 meters from me. It look at me and it looked shocked and the hair on its shoulders stood up. It backed up quickly then turned around and sprinted. Iv’e only told my Dad about this and he told me that he had seen them before and not to tell anyone else about them. I never believed in Sasquatch or anything like that before that day. But there is no other explanation for what I saw.” — JamaicanFlav0r

18. The cat disappeared into thin air

“When I was much younger, I was sitting with my cousin in our grandparents’ kitchen talking when I saw a white cat walk from the basement into the bathroom. My cousin, who’d been spinning around in her swivel chair, turned back to face me, absolutely shocked.

‘Did you see that?’

‘The cat?’

‘Yeah.’

We got up and checked the bathroom but there was nothing there. The basement door had been closed (and latched) the whole time. I always try to think of an explanation but I can’t.” — Scoozie

19. The video didn’t record the phantom I saw

“I was working a night shift at a call center and it was a slow night so I was watching Netflix or youtube or something. We have a camera that looks at the back door and I saw someone walking down the hall (towards where I am working). Didn’t recognize him, but not wanting to get in shit I quickly close Netflix/Youtube. A couple minutes go by and I don’t see anyone, but noticed a door had shut that usually stays open so I go and open it back up. I still don’t see anyone in the office, so I do a check of the entire building and nobody is around. I get back to work (data entry) and wait for my shift to end and for other people to come in (thinking somebody might pop up behind me any second). Next shift comes in and I tell my manager (they give me a look like I’m crazy) and I leave. Next night I get to work and they tell me they checked over the recording. At basically the moment I saw someone walk in the video froze on a single frame for about thirty minutes. Video starts up again just as the door closes and shortly after I go open it again.” — trudenter

20. I had the urge to buckle my seat before a massive accident

“When I was younger and dumber, I was on a road trip the summer after my freshman year in college. I had been driving for maybe 5 or 6 hours straight without wearing my seatbelt. I then had a sudden urge to buckle my seatbelt. Less than 2 minutes later a driver crossed the centerline, clipped my car, causing a massive accident. My car rolled over and I walked away with bruises and scratches. I’m certain if I hadn’t followed that urge, I wouldn’t be here today. Still can’t explain why or how that happened.” — solidcopy

21. My dead uncle spoke to me in morse code

“A few months after my uncle committed suicide, I had a dream where he was talking to me on the phone. In the dream, he was telling me to tell his daughters that he loved them and that he missed them a lot, but he talked like he was away in the military rather than dead. I also kept hearing weird clicking in the background.

When I woke up, I mentioned everything to my mom and she told me that when he was in the Navy, he did Morse code. No one had ever told me that before or even mentioned it since I was alive, so it was weird that I remembered that part of the dream so clearly and it made enough of an impression to mention to my mom.” — missmudblood

22. I had an intense feeling as my father died

“Two years ago, I woke up around 1:00 AM thinking, ‘I can never go home again.’ It was the most intense sense of homesickness I’ve ever experienced, full of panic and regret. I tried to calm myself down – logically, of course I could. My parents lived just a couple hours away, still in my childhood home. I’d fought hard to get away from the suburb I grew up in, so why this sudden intense longing?

The next day, I got a call that my dad had been hospitalized during the night and was in the ICU. He didn’t make it out. And while the house is still there, it’s not home anymore.” — RainyDayRainDear

23. My cousin’s son saw ghosts at a graveyard

“My cousin’s son was three and sitting behind my cousin in the car. When they stopped at a red light. He said to my cousin, mom can I play with those kids. They are calling me to play. She looked out her window and she was looking at a grave yard. Scary shit man.” — tomma18

24. My grandmother saw an imaginary family with me

“My grandmother has dementia and sometimes sees things that aren’t there. There’s never a rhyme or reason to these things she says she sees except when I’m around. She always sees the same man and little boy in the room with me every week.” — Flowsephine

25. A woman in white lived on our staircase

“My father said that he’s frequently seen a woman in a white dress at the top of our stairs, where the bedrooms are, between 2-4 in the morning. During that time, if I choose to go the bathroom, I have this incredibly unsettling feeling, like I shouldn’t be out in that hallway for any reason. My boyfriend and I have also seen our 7 month old son looking up the stairs watching something move around. There hasn’t been anything too terrible or truly scary, but its definitely odd.” — cutiebug63 Thought Catalog Logo Mark

Holly is the author of Severe(d): A Creepy Poetry Collection.

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