30 People Reveal The Strangest Thing They’ve Experienced That They Still Can’t Explain
"For at least 15 years now I will occasionally -- maybe 2 or 3 times a month -- mistakenly think I see someone I know when walking around. Then, within the next few minutes I will actually see that person."
Found on Ask Reddit
1.
I came out of a store one day and turned the corner to see a crow trying to read a paper-back novel on a park bench. He was perched on the bench, turning pages with his beak. When he noticed me staring, he hopped away like I caught him red-handed, and took flight a moment later. Ended up getting a tattoo of a crow reading a book because the incident left such an impression on me. No one really seems to believe me, but dude, corvids are fucking smart. I figure it was either imitating a person, or trying to harvest the pages for a nest, but either way, strange experience.
2.
My story isn’t nearly as strange as some of the others but its one that has stuck with me my whole life.
My friend and I used to love to go and hang out in one of the local cemeteries. I guess because we were just weird. This was an older cemetery and was no longer used so it didn’t have any new graves in it.
One day while we were hanging out and just wandering around we stumbled upon a new looking grave marker. It stuck out like crazy because all of the other markers were old and gray and crumbling. On some of them you could barely make out the names. This marker was much newer and the name and dates was clearly visible. It was also a rather neat red marble color which was really different from all of the others.
We didn’t think much of it and just continued our trip through the cemetery. We sat down under this big tree in the middle and talked and laughed and did other stupid kid things. After an hour or so we decided it was time to leave. We crossed right by where the new grave marker had been and it was gone. We both kind of freaked out a little bit and searched the whole graveyard looking for the brand new marker and it wasn’t there.
We checked for it several more times on different visits and never found it again. It was just weird and some thing neither of us could ever explain.
3.
Years ago my dad’s uncle passed away. Years before that, said uncle got my parents a fancy bottle of tequila from Mexico and it’s been on the front room display shelf with a bunch of other dust covered sculptures and glass work for at least 12 years. It’s out of reach and untouched (no one in my immediate family drinks). On the day of his passing, I’m in the front room reading and my dads doing his taxes. we get a phone call with the bad news. My dad continues his taxes while letting me know his uncle passed in a few short words. Not 30 seconds later and the tequila bottle his uncle got my parents starts playing music. This is odd to me because I thought it was just a bottle so I ask. “Do we have a music box?” My Dad continues his taxes and tells me the bottle has a music box built in, and that was the only reason he kept it. I clarify “Did you wind it recently?” And he just keeps filing and says “nope” and I was ready to leave it at that but he says still all casually occupied “I imagine uncle David wanted to say goodbye one last time.” That is the only time it has made a noise as long as I’ve been alive. Of all days and times. I never knew what to make of it. It just made me uncomfortable
4.
One time, as I was driving home from work, I turned onto the street where I live on and noticed what seemed to be more street lights than I remember being there.
I didn’t think much of it at all at first, but something in me made me do a double take. I notice that the three “additional streetlights” are not street lights at all, but lights lined up perfectly in the sky in the distance.
Literally, as soon as I notice this, the lights in the sky beginning moving slowly and getting closer together. Eventually, they were close enough and formed a triangle.
Mind you, at this point I have managed to park my car in my driveway and I’m standing there staring at them. My parents, who are fairly religious, tend not to believe in aliens, UFO’s or anything of the sort, so I decided to run inside and get them so they can see this for themselves.
We go back outside, the lights are still hovering, moving slowing in a triangle. No sound is being made by them. They do this for a few more seconds and all of a sudden, one of them speeds off super quickly. When I say quick, I mean quick.
The remaining two continue moving slowly in the sky for a few more seconds then they literally just vanish. Poof, the lights were just gone.
I’m not saying it was aliens, but yeah, those really were unidentified flying objects. To this day, we have no idea what they might possibly be.
5.
On a boat, trolling for yellowtail amidst a school of dolphin about 4 miles off San Diego (dolphin are too smart to take lures, aren’t shy near small boats, and feed on the same bait schools as yellowtail and tuna, so it’s strategic to follow them). As if cued, all ~50-75 dolphins simultaneously stopped jumping and disappeared into the depths for about 30 seconds. Immediate, unnerving quiet. With great fanfare, they all suddenly burst out of the water in a near-perfect row about a football field wide, and for a while, synchronized jumps ahead of our boat. Then they were gone. Showing off for my dad and I? Normal behavior? Who knows, but it was awesome.
6.
Once I tripped at the top of the stairs. I was worried because I knew landing would hurt and because my pup was at the bottom and I was headed right for her. Anyhow, when I landed, it was like I fell on top of an air bubble. I didn’t even touch my pup and she remained sleeping. No idea how neither of us were hurt.
7.
When I was around 10 I had just gotten home after playing outside all day..I lay down next to our wall heater and take my windbreaker off. As I lay there I was playing with the arm opening just stretching it open and close..in the middle of doing it I swear to God the jacket just quickly slid towards the wall as if someone threw it. I immediately got up and slept in between my mom and dad. Still get goosebumps and still can’t explain it.
— jbrap
8.
When I was about 10 years old we lived at my grandparents house for about a year. My grandpa uses hearing aids and usually has the TV volume really loud and his favorite things to watch are westerns. One night I woke up because he was watching TV too loud. I remember hearing glasses clanking, people chatting and faint music. So at the time I pictured it to be saloon in a western film, so I starting heading downstairs to ask him to turn it down. I get downstairs, cross the family room and kitchen and headed down the short hallway that led to the TV room. Right when I entered the TV room the noises all fell silent. I was really tired and confused. I quickly went upstairs to my room and woke up my sister, but she just brushed it off and told me to let her sleep. When I think about it now it creeps me out, but at the time I was just tired and confused.
— halpan
9.
Like other people I occasionally have very prophetic dreams. They always are about something tragic but I’ll describe my most vivid one.
About 5 years ago I had a dream I was in a horrible 3 car accident with my then-gf and my younger brother. The car was totaled, there was smoke, my gf and my brother went to the hospital and I that I died because I was pierced through the head with some sort of rod.
Fast forward 2 years later, and my brother and I get a ride from girlfriend to go to a graduation party for a mutual friend. Gf pulls out into an intersection. I immediately recognize everything from the dream and I flinch to the left. Everything goes black for me for a few seconds after that, but when I regain consciousness I look around and see the exact same scene as in my dream except I lived. The car we were in was totaled. There was smoke from the other two cars involved and a rod that went through the windshield about 6 inches to the right of my head.
It was the most intense moment of my life. Since then I have always kept track of my dreams and paid very close attention to them.
10.
Ghost legos.
I was a kid playing with legos and noticed a few were in the bucket that didn’t look like mine/ the plastic was faded/ older/ definitely of a different generation. I would build spaceships all day then when I went to bed and woke up there’d be holes in the spaceships where the old bricks would be. Being a seven year old my biggest concern was all the air getting out and my crew suffocating before they went to battle so I’d quickly pull them apart and put new bricks in where the old ones were but now that I think about it that always stuck with me as odd.
11.
I had a dream when I was a teenager.
We lived on the hillside overlooking the city. I was standing on our terrace just watching the world die. Water covered most of the city. What wasn’t drowned was burning, pillars of smoke covered the horizon. But oddly enough it was serene. You couldn’t hear screaming or choas, just tinders snapping like a campfire along the shore. It smelled like the sea too.
Then I looked to my right, and there was my dad. To his right, was my paternal grandmother. They both just smiled a sad smile which made me realize that I couldn’t move. We were stuck standing in mud.
I woke up after that.
After breakfast, I didn’t say anything until my dad and I were the only ones left at the table. I asked him if he had a dream last night. He described the exact same thing and he said he saw me too.
Later on that day, my dad, who had checked in with my grandmother, said that she had the exact same dream.
12.
So, full disclosure: I lived in Roswell, NM for years. I’m not the only person who saw this, my (now ex) husband, a friend of ours, and other people who were outside at the time saw this (the first time).
I do NOT think it was a UFO. I think it was military. After all, there are many air force bases in NM.
So it’s around 10 or 11 pm, and we’re outside at a bar. Not drunk, in fact my husband and our friend hadn’t had anything but soda. I think I’d had one margarita at this point.
There is a black, triangular object moving across the sky overhead. No lights. No sound. It looked huge, but of course, the size of objects in the sky can be deceiving. The only reason we could see it, was because it blocked out the stars. We’re all just like… wtf.
It flies off, we go inside, and are like… yep, that just happened. We file that in our mental “weird shit in the sky” bin. (I’ve seen other things too, but my memory isn’t as clear on them as it’s been many, many years now, but I can write that in a separate reply maybe.)
A few years later, my husband is outside our house, watering the lawn. It’s around 9/10 pm. He yells at me to come outside. The same object is in the sky again. We just stared. Neither of us had a smartphone yet, heck I’m not even sure we owned a digital camera at the time.
If other patrons at the bar hadn’t seen whatever that was, I’d have been like “yeah, right.” And then for us to see it twice? The lack of sound is really the part that gets me. No sound before, during, or after it passed overhead.
13.
I woke up with sleep paralysis with the understanding my uncle died. I get a phone call around 4 AM from my mom to tell me my uncle is on his death bed and that I should swing by in the morning.
Pretty sure it was just his body on the bed, breathing on automatic and that he left hours back.
14.
Me and my dad both witnessed a white figure fly across our backyard in 1999. It didn’t have arms or legs or a face, it was basically like a sheet and it flew across the yard at superhuman speed. When we saw it we both looked at each other and tried to make sense of it. We still talk about it today. I don’t believe in ghosts, but I can’t explain what this was. Looked like a ghost if you believe in that.
15.
I was at a bar with and I was talking to some dude I just met and a girl came over and started chatting us up. Mid conversation out of nowhere she puts her hand on her head and says to the other guy “You are from Brownsville” I don’t remember the city name but it is a small town of like 500 people. The dude looked completely dumbfounded and replied that indeed he was from that city. She said that is weird because once every 2 or 3 years she has these crazy flashes of information about people she is talking to but don’t know them personally. It was really weird and the guy was blown away and I was kind of in awe. I don’t believe in real psychic abilities or anything but this tested me. Also it could have just been fake and she really knew he was from there but crazy experience anyway.
— 1Doctore
16.
When I was a child, I saw what looked like a golf ball of neon blue light pass in the night sky from my bedroom. It must have been the size of the moon. There was no real tail. I can still recall the trajectory each time I look out of the window. It is a crystal clear memory.
I know I wasn’t dreaming, because I called my parents into my room immediately. They still remember it to this day. The memory is so concrete in my mind, it is unlike any other childhood memory, and I was just five or so.
17.
This is actually the weirdest thing, and call me crazy if you’d like. I went to a fair one time, for some reason my friends weren’t with me can’t recall why. I noticed there were surprisingly few people there, and an abnormal amount of clowns, didn’t think anything of it. Got on some ride, got one of those spiral cut potatoes. Took off after, went home went to sleep. Next morning my friend calls me and says where I was last night because my group of friends had a hang out and no one could get a hold of me nor did I reply. Told them I went to the fair, he asked what fair, then I couldn’t remember where it was. I just said the fair in town, he just laughed and said something to the extent of yeah whatever. Still have no idea where the fuck I went that night.
18.
I once had this dream. I woke up, did my normal stuff, then walked into the bathroom. I knew that something was off and that this was a dream, but I followed through. I look in the bathroom mirror, and the most terrifying thing is in my reflection. I scream, and wake up. It is now dark outside. I go to my bathroom to wake up and splash some water on my face, hesitantly look in the mirror, same thing happens. I wake up again, refusing to look in my mirror. It felt like hours. I waited for the dream to end. I eventually went into the bathroom, looked in the mirror, same terrifying reflection. I wake up again, walk past bathroom, go talk to mother, everything in my house was fucked. It was all very dark. Shes standing alone in kitchen, im terrified. None of this feels like a dream at all. I wake up, do my normal thing, dont look in mirror, go to school, everything is normal. I go to bed. Wake up. I finally actually wake up. I dreamt an entire school day. I ask everyone about if any of the shit i remember happening actually happened. It didnt.
I still am waiting to look in the mirror, and wake up in my bed again just to repeat the hell that that expereince was.
19.
I’m a police officer. One night we get a call about some banging noises in the wall of the bathroom in a shitty apartment building. The banging has been going on for a few hours and it’s reported to sound like someone banging on the other side of the wall. The people who live in this unit are a husband and wife and their young son, maybe 10 years old or so.
A couple of us attend this call and when we get there, we hear the banging. Its not continuous, but it happens in 4 or 5s, every few minutes or so. It sounded like how it was reported, like someone banging their fist against the wall. It’s extremely loud and forceful; I can’t remember for sure, but I think it made the mirror in the bathroom fall off. It was definitely making the items on the bathroom shelf shake.
We go out and knock on the door of the apartment next door, next to where the bathroom would be. Dude answers and lets us in. Can hear the banging still, but not nearly as loud. It’s clearly nobody in that unit banging on the wall.
We can’t figure it out. We entertained thoughts of an animal or something being stuck in the wall, but then how did it get there? Plus the forcefulness of the banging didn’t add up to an animal. A person stuck in the wall? Nope. We call the fire department.
By this time, mostly everybody on the whole floor is out in the hall, seeing what the hell is going on. Of course everyone is joking that it’s a ghost. The people who live in the unit say they’ve heard the banging before, but not to this extent. It’s never gone on as long or been as loud or forceful.
As a joke, someone shouts out “if you want us to leave, knock 3 times!” Right away, there are 3 sharp bangs. Not even joking. Everybody is freaked out by this point.
I’m walking around the unit, just seeing if anything else is out of the ordinary. I see a laundry basket on the bed of one of the bedrooms, which shares a wall with the bath. A few of the bangs are so forceful, they made the basket on the bed shake.
The kid says the banging is more frequent when he is near the bathroom. Weird shit, right?
So the firemen arrive. They think it’s a big joke, but when they hear the banging and it can’t be explained, they are puzzled as well. I can’t remember why, but it was determined that the sound wasn’t originating from the pipes or anything else in the wall. The firemen decide to cut a small hole in the wall.
Honestly, I don’t even want to be there for when they do that. I’ve never believed in ghosts or demons or anything or that sort, but I was actually scared about what may be in the wall.
So they cut a small hole in the wall. What do they find? Absolutely nothing. Nothing is in there. It’s hollow. They shined a light in there and tried to shove their phone in there to take photos, but nothing was seen. The only weird thing was that when they used a heat sensor, one part of the wall was hotter than the rest.
The banging basically died down at this point. We told the occupants to call us if it started up again, but it never did, or at least they never called us again.
On a follow-up a few days later, they said they called a medium or someone of that sort and while they were doing their thing, the banging happened again, very intensely, but just for a few minutes.
Last I heard the occupants moved out and we haven’t heard anything since.
I have no good explanation for this and neither does anyone else. Maybe it’s not ghosts, I don’t know, but I’m of the opinion it’s something supernatural and this is what made me a believer.
— Mw1229x
20.
My (ex boyfriend) and I were in Idaho vacationing with his parents and grandparents on a lake lot (that they rent every summer). We were sleeping in bed and I woke up freaking out because I saw an old lady wearing what appeared to be a blue night gown. When I quickly went to put my glasses on the figure disappeared. The next morning (keep in mind our first interaction with the family was at this point), his grandma asked “was anyone in my room last night? Who has a blue nightgown?”. Let’s just say I didn’t sleep in that room for the remainder of the trip.
— ohhhexo
21.
Once long ago. My family was in the front of the house (living room and kitchen) while I was in the back of the house (my bedroom). I went to the bathroom real quick (which was in-between both my room and the front of the house) and was in there no longer than 60 seconds. By that time all the furniture in room had been rearranged.
And I mean completely moved from one end of the room to the other. Now, this included a bed, my grandmother’s old recliner, and a heavy wooden desk and some other odds and ends.
Now the part that really makes it unexplainable was the fact that the recliner was blocking the only entrance into my room, and everyone was still in the front of the house.
Not too crazy since I don’t really remember feeling scared but man was it the weirdest.
— rcbiggin
22.
I share a room with my brother and our bedroom door will randomly open if you don’t close it a certain way. We used to get scared as kids when it would randomly open, so now every night we make sure its closed the “right way” before we go to bed. One night, my brother and I were watching TV and eventually we just got too tired, so we didn’t bother closing the door the proper way. We eventually just knocked out. Then later that night I randomly wake up. It’s dark and I see a shadowy figure of a man walk across my room. I try screaming and moving but I can’t. It was the first time I had sleep paralysis. I see the figure walk towards the window near the bed my brother was sleeping in and just stare out the window. Eventually I fall back asleep. The next morning I go to work and tell my coworker about the dream I had last night. She reassures me that I just had sleep paralysis, and it’s nothing to worry about because she gets it all the time. I’m like “yeah, I was just really tired last night so it probably was sleep paralysis.” When I get home from work, my sister’s home. I tell her “Yo, I had the craziest dream last night, I think I had sleep paralysis” But before I tell her my dream she said, “You had sleep paralysis? No you didn’t because I think I saw you randomly walk into my room last night and stare out the window.” I was tripping out because she told me exactly what I saw before I even told her! I don’t think it could’ve been a stranger or a burglar in the house because I have four dogs and they would have been barking the entire time. Probably one of the most weirdest things that happened to me.
23.
I fell asleep at my desk at work one day. I must have been very sleepy because I passed out quick. While asleep I saw my 9 year old nephew jumping on the sofa at my sister’s place. He saw me watching him, stopped and had this look of utter shock on his face. After that, I instantly woke up feeling strange and disoriented. It felt real.
Later that day, I visit some of my family at my sister’s place. My nephew comes running up to me saying that he saw a ghost while he was playing on the sofa earlier. My heart almost stopped. I havent told anyone this. They wouldnt believe me. Only my nephew & I know about it. I may have astral projected.
24.
I was driving home one night, a little under a year ago, and the sky turned completely white for about 8 seconds. Mind you it was completely clear, no clouds or any kind of moisture in the atmosphere or anything. And it wasnt just one spot either, it was the same, uniform stark white everywhere from every direction up to the horizon. But besides the sky nothing else had changed, everything else on the ground was the same exact shade, coloring and shadowing as it had before. It was as if some one had inverted the colors of the sky and only the sky. Then it just… changed back, it didn’t dim or fade, it just switched to black. Still fucks me up and actually made me go see a neurologist, he said everything was fine, no signs of a stroke or aneurysm or anything.
25.
For at least 15 years now I will occasionally — maybe 2 or 3 times a month — mistakenly think I see someone I know when walking around. Then, within the next few minutes I will actually see that person.
It’s frequent enough that I call it now; I’ll be like, “is that Jon? Nope, not Jon. But I bet I’ll see him in the next 10 minutes”; and then I do.
I don’t read into it at all. It’s just an odd little quirk in my life.
— KGB112
26.
I was walking down Commercial Avenue in Vancouver, which is like the alternative neighbourhood there. This was like 15 years ago.
Just walking down the street and it was pretty busy as usual. Out of the blue, I see a fully nude woman walking down the sidewalk toward me. I remember her so vividly because I was so surprised and also she was super hot. But the thing I remember the most is that NO ONE ELSE REACTED.
Nobody was turning their heads. I saw nobody like elbowing their friend and pointing. People were just calmly walking past her and she strolled calmly down the sidewalk. She walked right past me (insert Patrick Stewart I saw everything gif) and I spun around as she did. Again, people seemed to just be casually getting out of her way but no reactions. Conversations continued as she passed people. Not a single other head turned.
I dunno. Commercial Drive is known for hippies and alternative-lifestyle types, but I can’t explain the absolutely-zero-reaction from people.
By contract, years later, I visited Haight-Ashbury neighbourhood in San Francisco and saw a guy walking down the street with just a tiny loincloth on and everybody was pointing, laughing, spinning their heads and having big, obvious reactions.
So with the nude girl, I don’t know how to explain it, but some part of me thinks I saw a ghost. A hot, sexy nude ghost.
27.
I was sitting in my college dorm room once when the temperature suddenly started dropping like crazy. I turned the heat up as high as it would go but it just kept getting colder. I took out my winter clothes and started putting them on. This was like in late September/early October in New York so it wasn’t cold outside at all.
I was just about to go ask for maintenance when my roommate got back from hockey practice and asked why there were so many police cars and ambulances outside. I had no idea. Later that night, we were informed a girl who lived in the dorms had died. Everyone who I’ve told about this says that I felt her death. I was in that same room for 3 years and that was the only time I ever had problems with the temperature.
28.
I once went to panera with some friends. We got our food and sat down at the table. About halfway through the meal my friend says “did any of you guys notice that pole before?” I look next to the table and there is a huge floor to ceiling black pole literally almost touching me. I swear it was not there when we sat down and at this point I’m freaking out and saying we’re in an alternate universe. I get the attention of a woman who works at the panera and ask her if she’s noticed the pole before and she looks at it genuinely baffled and says she hasn’t. Went back a few weeks later and I swear to god it wasn’t there
Still one of the most bizarre things that’s ever happened to me.
29.
I heard the word “impossible” whispered into my ear one night when visiting my parents. I had just turned off lights to go to sleep, but wasn’t tired or delirious. No TV or devices were on and it was point blank range into my ear.
No explanation and hasn’t happened since.
30.
Sitting next to a friend at a camp out/canoe trip, I said “I just feel like I need to move, like I shouldn’t be sitting here.” He didn’t move so I laughed a little at myself and kept sitting there. A couple of minutes later my brain ping’d me again and I was like “you know what I’m just gonna move.”
As soon as I stood up, a ball of fire from a flow arts performer on the other side of the camp landed exactly where I was sitting.
We were both like :O
— gur_bah 