30 Skeptics On The Unexplainable Paranormal Activity That Turned Them Into Believers

You might be a skeptic now, but the tiniest thing could change that. Just read these stories from users on Reddit. They never believed in the paranormal… Until they had no other choice.

Elena Montemurro
Elena Montemurro

1. We were haunted by the ghost of a homicidal relative

“When I was a small child, about 8, my family moved in with my grandparents, as my grandfather suffered from Alzheimer’s. My grandmothers sister, Emily, was in a mental hospital (she used to chase family with knives amongst other hobbies) when she died. Three nights running after she passed, the whole family, including our neighbors, heard sharp rapping on our door. Each time my father and the neighbors go to see if there’s anyone there. There never is. There is nowhere to hide, it’s a terraced house on a main road. We all comment on how strange this is. Except Grandma. Grandma is very quiet. My father asks if she is alright. Her answer? ‘You know when Emily was younger, she was always strange? She used to run to my house in the middle of the night hammer on the door and run away’. Cue immediate panic. Being haunted we could deal with, but being haunted by a possibly homicidal relative? No thanks. Thank god it never happened again afterwards. But none of the family slept to well for a long time afterwards.” — Fuzzymentalist

2. An animal warned us my cousin would die

“I’m Navajo. We have a belief that if an animals comes to you in the middle of the night howling or crying it’s a bad omen and that you should chase it off. Well one night a few years ago I was up by myself and I started hearing this awful whining and crying noise coming from my front door. I decide to check it out and it’s a cat just sitting there. It’s going berserk. I shoo it away and I thought that was the end of it.

The next morning we’re getting ready to take my brother to his wrestling meet and my Auntie calls us and she’s really frantic. Come to find out after hours of waiting for her to get back to us, my cousin was killed in a car accident.” — commodity_for_all

3. My uncle killed himself and came back as a bird

“When I was 9 years old, my uncle committed suicide when he lived with us.

He had lived with us for about 6 months at the time, and I had become really close with him during that time. I remember as a kid I had a severe fear of crows because of The Stand mini-series, and he was always trying to help me realize that they were just birds like all the other birds that I loved. I couldn’t really shake that fear I had of them, and one of the last things he ever said to me was that he was proud of me for at least trying.

Anyways, after his funeral, walking to my first day back to school, a fucking crow followed me all the way there – 6 blocks. It followed me to school every day to school until we moved a month later, every day without fail. I literally started calling it Jim (my uncle’s name) and I am no longer afraid of them.”  thats-kablamo

4. We summoned a ghost to the house

“I read about the Phillip experiment and it fascinated me. My housemate and I tried to replicate it, (created a fictional character called Harry bishop and would try to contact it) we would ask him to bring the remote to us, turn the light off etc, it kind of became an ongoing joke.

Then one night I was drunk and was calling Harry names, teasing him etc, dared him to show me a sign and I kid you not the door to my hallway creaked open slowly and my cat went mental, ever since then we made a pact to never talk about him, I’ve moved since and I’ve had another few strange things happen.” — Jgatt1986

5. The gun refused to let me kill myself

“I don’t know if it would be considered paranormal, but back when I was depressed I tried to shoot myself. Well, the bullet turned out to be a dud and that ended that. Few days later, I go to the range and fire that exact bullet and it fires off. I was the only one with access to that gun so maybe something kept it from going off, or I’m just lucky as all get out.” — Storff

6. I felt a creature beside me in bed

“I would see a black form in my room all the time and would feel someone sit next to me in bed at night. Would hear someone walking in the attic above my room even though there were no floorboards up there. Would hear someone walking around the house when no one else was there. Would see them as well. Had other friends that would stay the night and report seeing the black form. It was a part of my childhood. I’d see a few other people here and there as well. Would have dreams about things before they happened.” — SilentlyCrying

7. My dead father walked through the door

“My dad died 3 years ago, about a year later I am sitting alone at home just relaxing suddenly I hear backdoor open and there he is opening the fridge like nothing was going on,

I did not fully realize at first and asked if there was anything new going on, then I walked by a picture of him and realized…

Turned around and ran back to the kitchen crying and confused because I know what I saw and I am not crazy, fridge was still open dad was not there anymore.

I haven’t told anyone this because it sounds made up, but its not.” — MrFailface

8. I watched my dead cat walk across my room

“A couple of years ago, I had to get my cat to the vet to euthanize her. She had cancer spread all over. She was 13 and she had been with me for almost half my life. Nearly every night, she slept in my bed.

Anyway, me and her were big friends. I could touch her paws, turn her on her back, etc. My parents and brother could only pet her head since that was the only thing she allowed them to do. Strangers were a big no-no to her. The weeks after her death, I would wake up every night at 1:15 AM sharp, not a minute earlier, not a minute later. I’d see her walk over my desk, feel her walk over my legs. In the beginning, I was even scared to open the light. When I started opening the light, nothing was there. After a while, it gradually stopped. I still miss her.” — cyberbeast41

9. I said goodbye to my dog before he died

I moved away from home years ago and we had a family dog named buddy. Buddy was a rotty/lab that would never hurt a fly. Around last christmas, my dad told me to come see him because he was getting old, and I never did because of finance issues. So the following summer, I went floating on the river with my boyfriend at the time and we ended our float at the dog park. My dad was in town we so we had plans to go for dinner after words. So we stop at the dog park and are waiting for a cab when I turn around and I see this rotty/lab. Same color, black, start running to me. I was making a big deal about how he looked SO MUCH like buddy. It was so exciting. I got to pet it and kiss it and brag about buddy a little to my boyfriend at the time because he’s never met buddy. So we are out for dinner with my dad, having s really great time and then my dad looks down at his phone and said “oh shit…” and I’m like, “dad! What?!” And he was silent and didn’t say anything. Replied to the text he had gotten, sat his phone down and then said,”Buddy just died.” Basically I got to give a goodbye to buddy without even knowing it. And till this day, I find it such a beautiful story. I loved that dog so much. And I’m glad I got a goodbye.” — Hangytangy

10. I heard a phantom knock at the door

“I had an experience when I was about 15 that still freaks me out. It was night, and I was in my room reading some book. My two sisters were in their shared bedroom directly across the hallway. My dad was home sleeping in the downstairs bedroom quite a ways away from the upstairs. Randomly I hear a quick one-two-three knock at my door. I say “Who is it?” No response. Get up, open my door. Nobody. Two seconds later my sisters open their door and ask if I knocked. No… Weird. I head downstairs to see if somebody knocked at the front door at like 10 at night. Nobody. Check dad’s room, he is sound asleep. Go upstairs and tell my sister’s it was nothing. No more than five minutes later, I hear the knock again. Okay, now something is fucking weird. I grab my metal baseball bat and open the door up. Nothing. Sister’s holler through the door saying they heard it too.

Now to clarify, it wasn’t my sisters pulling a prank on me. One, all the doors in our house are in desperate need of some WD40 on the hinges. I used to get away with so much because I could hear stairs creaking, doors opening, etc. Anyways, no creaking from their doors. Second, this was clearly a knock on MY door, and not them knocking on their own door. Thirdly, they looked terrified.

So I handed them a machete (I used to collect weapons….) and told them lock their door and don’t open for anything. I do the same and wedge a chair under the doorknob.

Third knock happens. Third. Fucking. Knock. No way am I opening that door. After a long sleepless night, we talked about it in the morning and had no clue what it could be. All three of us talk about it from time to time and have no idea what it could have been.” — LordFoulgrin

11. I felt a creature’s nails in my hair

“I was never really a skeptic and always had a feeling that the paranormal existed. Not only have I had many odd experiences but my whole family has. I’ll just write the one that sticks with me the most and if anyone is interested in any other stories I’ll share. Any way, a couple of years ago, my SO and I had been invited to a mutual friend’s party. Unfortunately I had fell ill and stayed home while making sure he left for the party. During this time, I was living with him at his mom’s house. His mom worked nights as a nurse and his sister was at a camping trip so I was home alone with just the dogs. I remember squinting through the nausea at the bedroom door as it clicked open (my SO had been gone for maybe half an hour at this point.) I turned on the light but no one was there. I called out and tried to get the dogs to come into the bedroom but they just coward next to the stairs and growled at me. So I just laid back down, too sick to care when I heard the door click again. This time I just ignored it. I heard shuffling and felt the bed sink down as if someone had sat at the edge. I thought maybe my SO had come home early when I felt a piece of my hair being tucked behind my ear. I felt his nails going through my hair and the nausea lifted. I opened my eyes and patted for his leg or arm but felt nothing. I shot up and turned the light on. The bed had a slight dent but quickly vanished and the door closed. I ran outside to see if anyone was home but I was alone. After that the dogs came in and laid with me until I fell back asleep. The next morning I told my boyfriend what happened and he grew pale and told me that there were a couple of entities that walked around the house at night and all of our mutual friends have seem them. So, that kind of freaked me out but I never felt any danger from the house which was nice.” — thegoatryder

12. I felt the dead passing through me

“Strangely, I didn’t start as a skeptic. I was a hopeful seeker. I sought out paranormal experiences. Ghosts, spirits, etc. for over a decade or so. I found no fairies, no ghosts, no demons or angels. Never met an alien. Never saw Bigfoot (though honestly I never went looking). In short, personal experience leads me to conclude that even if such things exist, they are useless. They don’t impact our lives, help us survive, or even cause problems for the majority.

But! (and here’s where I respond to the topic). During and after those same years I worked in health care. A significant chunk of time was in end of life care, be it geriatrics or hospice. I sat with the dying. I was with people when they died, at the very second, often holding their hand. Never saw a ghost. Never had a discernible visitation (you know, where the newly dead send a message type thing).

What I did have, many, many times, was the sensation of passage. I felt something leave. There was a person there. Their body stopped functioning. A palpable “energy” left, and the remains were different, empty. In several instances I experienced something I can only describe as that energy passing through me. A sense of contact with something I choose to describe as the soul. Side note: I’ve occasionally experienced this with animals as well.

I can’t say that the experience changes my view of ghosts/spirits having no useful or impacting point for the living, and it certainly didn’t convince me that the majority of “supernatural” things are anything but either wishful thinking or delusion.

It did, and does, however leave me unable to deny or question that there is more to us than just chemicals and meat. I neither know, nor care if I’m honest, what happens to us after death. I just feel and believe that something does.” — southsamurai

13. I spoke to the ghost of an elderly woman

“Back in the 70’s I was a kid and my mom and I visited the Winchester Mystery House. During the tour, a elderly, white haired, woman in a long dark dress w/a white lace collar beckoned me over to the side and asked if I’d like some cookies. I said yes and followed her through the door she opened and into another room. From the opposite side of that room a door opened and another woman asked me what I was doing in there. I told her this nice lady had offered me cookies and turned around to point at her. She wasn’t there. It happened. It wasn’t my imagination. She didn’t look like a ‘ghost’, she looked quite real and was talking to me. Which is why I followed her. I remember the strange looks I got from the other tourists after rejoining the group. So no, I’m not a skeptic but I certainly understand skepticism. Had I not seen with my own eyes I may not believe either. It is what it is.” — OwlPoop

14. My father’s gun had a mind of its own

“When my father died, his shotgun kept appearing where he used to leave it (inside his cupboard), no matter where I left it. It happened for a week or two after his death and scared the hell out of me.” — dmayan

15. A black creature reached its paw onto my bed

“My friend told me she had been having really bad nightmares and couldn’t sleep, and asked me to stay the night. I did, but I never fell asleep for more than a minute or so at a time. Something woke me up, and as I opened my eyes I saw a completely black creature the size and approximate shape of a mountain lion silently crawl out of the closet and to the end of the bed. It then reached it’s paw up onto the bed, almost as if feeling for whoever was on the bed. I definitely didn’t sleep that night.

The next day, I convinced myself that I was half asleep and dreaming, which I have been known to do, even with my eyes open. I jokingly asked my friend if her nightmare was about a pitch black demon cat. The blood drained from her face and she got wide eyed and started shaking. She told me that was exactly what it was, and that it wasn’t a nightmare. It would come right before she fell asleep and lay on the bed, snarling whenever she moved. She had never described it to me before that day.” — MattRyanT

16. Our locked door opened on its own

“The time I saw the front door to my house open on its own. I was doing some cleaning that day, and had gone outside to throw out a bag of trash. Came back in, and locked the top and bottom locks. Well, about half an hour later I’m sweeping this hallway that’s about 5 feet from the door, and I hear and see the top lock turn. I stop sweeping and stare at the door thinking my sister had come home. I start seeing the doorknob turn, and turn completely. The doorknob isn’t let go, and I see the door open slightly. It closes and opens again, and closes and opens a third time. By the third time I decided to check to see who was at the door. There is nobody. I was only two strides from the door, so if anybody would have left I would have been able to see them walk down my driveway. My other sister asked me who was at the door, and I told her nobody. So I locked the door, and turn to look at my sister who is shitting some serious bricks. She tells me that she lost the keys to the front door months ago, and she never bothered to make a spare. Sent a chill right down my spine.

About a week after that I had fallen asleep on the couch, and I was the only one home. I made sure all doors and windows were locked, and fell asleep. About 2 hours later my friend calls me wanting to chat at around 12 in the morning, and while I was in the middle of telling him that I was sleeping I notice my fucking front door is wide open. I freaked the fuck out. No one in my immediate family was in town, and I was the only one at home. At that point I grab a heavy chair and place it in front of the front door. That heavy chair kept that door from opening again for the next few months.

There were also some other instances, but this comment is already getting too long. I’ll post more if anyone is interested.” — MarlaHoooooch

17. My cousin and girlfriend gave me the same warning

“When I was around 20 my little cousin was sleeping over and he had been known to sleep walk but we never thought anything of it. He was about 8 years old or so and one night i’m up playing video games on the xbox around midnight. Nathan walks in the room obviously sleep walking so I say “Nathan go back to bed buddy” but he just stands there. So I say again Nathan! go to bed, and he just stands still and says “Don’t shoot the bear.” I laugh a little bit as he again but a little louder says, “Don’t shoot the bear.” I say okay Nathan and gently walk him back to bed.

Fast forward 4 years later… I’m sleeping in my room with my new girlfriend who I had only known for about a month. It’s one of the first times she is sleeping over and very early in the morning (2am?) I sense her getting out of bed. I sort of sit up in bed and watch as she walks over to the wall head sort of down and just stands there. Ok whatever she’s sleep walking nothing I haven’t experienced before. She then turns around like straight paranormal activity status and faces me. I’m still cool as a cucumber at this point though and ask her, “Hey are you okay?” Nothing… So again… “Are you okay?” Then most freaked out I had ever been in my entire life hit me like a freight train as my heart sank. Her head sort of looked up in my direction eyes closed and she says, “You have to save the bear.” I jumped out of bed, grabbed her and gently shook her, “Hey wake up! your sleep walking and talking” and hustled her back to bed. I didn’t sleep that night and to this day avoid going camping where the chances of running in to a bear and falling in to a scenario where I may have to save it are a possibility.” — Billyooo

18. The dogs refused to come out of their crates

“I’m definitely a skeptic, but one experience I had housesitting for my aunt and uncle definitely raised some questions for me. They were going out of town for a weekend and asked if I would keep an eye on the house and take care of their dogs while they were away. I was staying with my grandparents for the summer as I usually did and being a 16yr old with a brand new driver’s license, I jumped at the chance for a few days of freedom with a house to myself during my summer vacation. I packed up my PlayStation, rented some games and movies, stocked up on some snacks and headed over to their house.

The first night there was uneventful, but I remember feeling slightly uneasy being in the house. Nothing out of the ordinary was going on. I just attributed the uneasiness to being in the house alone for the first time (without my aunt and uncle there). Around 1am I decided to go to bed, and let the dogs out in the back yard to relieve themselves before bed. After they were done I made sure everything was locked, doing the deadbolt and the chain locks on the doors.

I woke up the next morning, put some coffee on, and got the dogs up to let them out. The uneasiness remained. I couldn’t help but feel like I was being watched, even though I knew no one else was around.

After breakfast I decided I was going to go for a bike ride, and meet up with some friends. I put the dogs in their crates, locked up, and headed out. I was gone for maybe four hours until mid-afternoon when I decided to head back to the house. When I walked in the dogs were FREAKING THE FUCK OUT. Not your normal “happy to see you! let me out of this crate!” excitement… full blown panic, shaking, foaming at the mouth, howling, the works. These dogs are normally very calm, and are perfectly content to spend most of the day in their crates sleeping (they go in on their own for naps), so this was really out of the ordinary.

I opened the doors to their crates, but neither of them wanted to come out. Being a little freaked out myself at this point I decided to check the house to make sure nothing had happened. All the windows were fine, everything was still locked, and the house was completely empty.

At this point I should mention how the house is laid out a bit. It’s an old house (late 1800’s), and prior to my aunt and uncle owning it was divided up as a duplex. The upstairs was a separate apartment. They mentioned that an older woman had rented the upstairs while the previous owners lived downstairs. My aunt and uncle didn’t rent the upstairs, but didn’t really do anything to convert the house back into a single family dwelling. My uncle used the upstairs apartment as his home office, with several computers and a couple of modems (early 2000’s dial-up), and most of the time the door to the upstairs (in the enclosed porch off of the kitchen) just stayed closed and locked, there really wasn’t any reason to go up there.

I decided, in an abundance of caution, since the dogs were so freaked out that I should check the whole house. I unlocked the door to the upstairs and went up to check. I noticed that one of the computers was on. This was odd, as my uncle had said in his note that he’d shut off everything upstairs and unplugged the surge protectors. Maybe he meant to do so, but got into a rush to get out the door and forgot. No big deal. We were expecting storms later, so I shut the computer down, unplugged everything and went back downstairs, locking the door behind me. By this point, the dogs had calmed down and had taken their usual spots on the couch where I joined them to play some playstation.

After dinner, around 8PM at this point, the dogs and I were still on the couch watching movies, and just chilling out. All of a sudden one of the dogs stands up on the couch, with all of the fur on his back sitting on end, and begins growling towards the direction of the door to the stairs. He continued this for the next 5-10 minutes, and nothing I did would distract him from whatever he was sensing. He eventually calmed down and laid beside me again.

A few hours later (around 11PM) he started again, and the other dog joined in this time too. That’s when I began to hear creaking coming from upstairs. Like someone stepping on a loose floorboard. It didn’t sound like footsteps, just like someone rocking back and forth on the loose board. Properly freaked out now I went to investigate. This time I noticed that the door to the upstairs was now unlocked. I had locked it when I went up there earlier. Oh fuck! Someone might be in the house! I took a few steps back into the kitchen and grabbed a knife, you know, like a horror movie cliche… I checked the porch door to the backyard, which would be where someone would come in to get to the upstairs apartment. It was still locked… Okay… weird. The creaking upstairs was still happening. I opened the door to the stairs and it immediately stopped. I turned the lights on and went upstairs. Nothing. I was freaking out over nothing, it was probably just the house settling or something, it was, after all an old house, these things creak and groan all the time. A little embarrassed with myself for getting so freaked out, I went back downstairs, again locking the door behind me.

I decided to get some sleep, popped in another movie, curled up on the couch and passed out. I was woken up a few hours later (2AM) to the dogs again in full-blown panic mode. This time I could hear the creaking again, and then something else happened. I heard a dial tone. I heard a modem upstairs dial some numbers. I heard it try to connect. WTF?!?!?!?!?!? Was I still asleep? No, I’m definitely awake. I again, grabbed the knife, went to the upstairs door, again unlocked! I opened the door and the noise again immediately cut off. I went upstairs to check, again, nothing, and everything was still off and unplugged just as I had left it. I went back downstairs, locked everything up and went to try and calm the dogs down. About 10 minutes later, I heard the modem start up again, it would dial, try to connect, stop, and then dial again, and again, and again. The creaking was back too, and this time it did sound like someone was walking around up there even though I knew I was alone, and had checked every conceivable place in the house an intruder could hide. I put up with this for another half an hour or so, and it didn’t let up. The dogs wouldn’t calm down either.

Eventually I had enough, I grabbed the dogs, loaded them in my car, locked up, and got the hell out of there! I went back to my grandparents’ place and stayed there for the rest of the night with the dogs.

The next morning my grandparents were surprised to see me there, and asked what had happened. I relayed the previous night’s events to them, feeling like a crazy person for what I had experienced. Strangely, they didn’t seem surprised at all. They then told me that wasn’t the first time something strange had happened there, and that my aunt and uncle had all kinds of stories about the place. For example, my little cousin frequently woke up screaming that a “shadow man” was looking at him in his bed, or my uncle going upstairs to work on his computers one day and discovering the gas stove turned on (but unlit) leaking gas into the house, and all kinds of things misplaced, or doors left open/unlocked.

I still don’t think I believe in the paranormal, and consider myself an agnostic atheist, but I still can’t find a reasonable explanation for what I experienced that weekend. It was all too weird…” — 606_10614w

19. I had a conversation with my mother that never happened

“One time when I was 8, I woke up around 4am. I saw my mom walking up and down the hallway so I decided go out of my room and see what’s up. She looked at me and went, “Hey, why aren’t you asleep?” And then we had a little conversation about how I should go back to bed and stuff. Finally, she goes, “Ok, well. I’ll fix you some food after I take a shower. Wait out here.” So she went into the living room bathroom and I sat on the small one person couch next to the bathroom door. I eventually drifted to sleep again to the sound of the shower. Next morning, I wake to someone shaking me. It was my mom. She goes “Greenmask, what are you doing out here and not in your room?” I go “you told me to wait here.” She goes “no I didn’t. I just woke up.” I was like “well, I heard you take a shower!” She immediately opened up the bathroom and checked every corner of the house. No sign of entry or anything. I started crying out of fear. Honestly, it was probably my mind playing tricks but it really made me question my fucking sanity. I understand if it was a dream and I was in my bed. But I fucking woke up, had a full fledged conversation and found myself in the living room. I’ve never had it happen again. This was like 14 years ago.” — greenmask

20. There was a shadow creature hiding in my mother-in-law’s house

“Years ago, I was sleeping with my fiancé at his mother’s house. I woke up in the middle of the night with the weirdest feeling that someone was watching me. I scan the room and notice someone standing at the foot of the bed, on my fiancé’s side. The figure was pitch black & featureless. I’m terrified and I think, “Oh, I must be dreaming.” Then I look over at fiancé and he’s staring at it too. It was the most horrifying moment ever. Suddenly, fiancé sits up really quickly and aggressively. In that moment, the thing disappeared. Afterward, I wanted to dig a hole in the mattress and sleep under him. I found out later that pretty much everyone in his family has seen this thing and they call it “the shadow.” It still makes my skin crawl thinking about it. That night was the most frightened I have ever been in my life.” — ciiiiig

21. Our dead dog opened up the door for us

“The time, about six months ago, when I was playing with my youngest (under two) in me and my husband’s bedroom. The door was closed but not tight and our windows were closed so no cross breeze. We have two dogs and one of which likes to paw open our bedroom door and come in. Anyway, my daughter glances over at the bedroom door and kind of smiles and at this point I can’t see the BOTTOM of the door, only mid way up to the top. Suddenly the door gently opens and I just thought Sasha had opened it (dog). I kind of froze then, jumped off the bed, went downstairs and realized that the stairs were blocked off and both dogs were asleep in the livingroom. We recently had another dog in the family have to be put down due to kidney failure, Jack, whom our youngest adored. Jack opened the door like that all the time. I’d like to think it was him.” — meeshi

22. I saw the ghost of a man in the house

“I saw a man in our house that wasn’t really there.

When I was a kid we lived out in the woods (our closest neighbor was about 3/4 of a mile away). So I’m sitting in the living room facing the hallway to the bedrooms when I see a young man walk from one bedroom across to another.

Having never seen him before I went to the porch to ask my mom and aunt who that man was. They both freaked out and said no one else was here but the 3 of us. They searched the house top to bottom and found nothing. It was the only time I ever saw him.” — SaebraK

23. I grabbed a knife in my sleep

“I had a dream, I don’t remember what it was about, but it involved crossing a bridge, like a rope bridge with wooden planks.

The whole world was yellow orange, like it was a strangely bright sunset or the world was on fire.

So I’m about to cross this bridge and suddenly everything gets bright and I wake up.

Well I woke up standing at the top of my stairs, toes hanging off the edge.

What woke me up was my muscle memory of turning the light on as I passed. So even though I was sleep walking, my hand still instinctively flipped the light switch at the top of the stairs.

I was afraid I’d do it again and break my neck from falling down the stairs, so I put my dresser in front of the door and went back to bed.

Well, when I woke up I moved the dresser back, exited my room into the hallway I had woke up in the night before, and the light was on again. But everyone was still sleeping. Not only that, but the bathroom light was on too. And in the bathroom was a large carving knife.

I had no idea what happened so I asked my mom. Apparently the same night as me, but after I went back to bed, she also started sleep walking. She said she had to get the knife to cut the bridge down. She said evil things were trying to cross the bridge and get her so she used the knife to cut the bridge so they couldn’t cross.

After she did this, she woke up in the bathroom with the knife. So she put it down and went to bed.

Really weird, and I haven’t had a sleep walking incident before or since.” — EndsInATangent

24. My grandmother helped us pack from beyond the grave

“This happened maybe about two months ago. Basically, my brother and myself were at my grandfather’s house, and we were packing up to go home. We have this bag that we carry out Xbox in, but this time it had a pair of my grandmother’s shoes in it, who had passed away about a year and a bit ago. After asking my mother what to do with them, she said that she didn’t know, because she didn’t put them there. After asking everyone else in the house, no one else had touched them. I still wonder how they got there. I know there probably a simple reason, but I couldn’t sleep for about a week I was so creeped out.” — TheNachoMan

25. I experienced dowsing for the first time

“When I was small (7 or 8), family friends in France gave me a forked branch and told me to walk while holding it outstretched. The branch started turning in my hand without any conscious activity on my part.

Years later I returned to the same place. Certain it was due to faulty memory, I tried again. In certain parts of their land, the branch turned in my hands, in others it wouldn’t. It didn’t work for everyone – the branch only turned in some people’s hands. Also got this to work with pendulums, L-shaped rods made out of coat-hangers, etc. It goes against all of my rationality, but as far as I’ve observed, there’s something to dowsing.” — asherdi

26. A book magically fell from the shelf

“Had a cookbook that was crammed tightly on an overcrowded book shelf fly off the shelf and perfectly land on its spine between two African violets on a table 3 feet away. The book didn’t open because two flower pots held it shut. It was with such force that I heard a bang as it hit the table.”  — awell8

27. I felt energy radiating from a statue

My friend is interested in some really strange, to me, spiritual things involving the energy to everything which also includes even inanimate objects. A long time ago this little plastic gold painted owl ended up in my suitcase and I had never seen it before or knew where it came from. Well for the last two weeks I’ve been in Australia for a music trip and we were rooming together. He sees the owl in the bottom of my suit case and said that it was really cool and apparently when he picked it up, he felt a strong source of energy radiating from it and asked if he could have it. I didn’t know where it came from and I’ve been too lazy to get rid of it for the last year or so and as a result I wasn’t too worried about it changing hands. He put it on his night stand then went to the restroom. When he steps out, he finds the owl on the table next to the bathroom and asks if I moved it there. At first I just assumed he moved it and forgot about it and shrugged it off but he swore that it moved on him and because the vibe he was getting from it was negative now, he decides to flush it and I watch it go down the drain. I wake up the next morning and it’s sitting on the nightstand next to my bed. While I’m still skeptical, it was either one of the most elaborate pranks I’ve been the victim of, or there was some spooky shit going on in that hotel room.” — MusicManReturns

28. We heard ghosts moving around upstairs

“I have two. I really am (was) a skeptic, but some experiences are just to real, to vivid that make you consider the possibility there are other things at work in our universe. Heck, we used to believe in spontaneous generation until microscopes were invented.

The first one is a series of events. We lived in a house that had tons of activity, in fact, our whole neighborhood experienced activity. Specifically our house we would hear people talking up stairs, foot steps up stairs, and sounds of items being moved upstairs.

The one that happened to me personally that freaked me the fuck out happened when I was in my daughters’ jack and jlll bathroom. The other bathrooms upstairs were all occupied. I sat down on the toilet to take care of my business. I was reading something and I heard a voice in my ear. It said my name directly and mentioned my daughters by name.

Previously because we had so many experiences in the house I read if I wanted to keep paranormal things from happening I needed to go into the room with the most activity, verbally express ownership of the house, and present a demand e.g. “This is my house. You are not welcome here. You must leave.” or in my case “This is my house. You are scaring my children. We can coexist peacefully, but you must cease any activity that scares my children.”

It actually worked and the activity did mellow out and nothing was really scary any longer. The freaky part was the voice while I was in the bathroom said “Imdickie, I am sorry for scaring daughter 1 and daughter 2. Please tell them I am here to protect them not hurt them.”

There were tons of things that happened in that house that I could describe for paragraphs.

The second thing happened in our new house we just moved into this last year. We had been in the house for a month and my ten year old son came into our room around 4AM and said “Oma was just in my room. She gave me a kiss on my forehead and said she loved me.” We learned later that morning that my Mom died early that morning. My son still remembers her coming into see him and my wife and I can recall exactly when our son came in our room.

The bond between my mom and my son was extremely deep and strong. My son was her only grandson (She had four granddaughters) and I am her only son. This one shook me hard. My mother’s death was a tough one for me and I want to believe she did say goodbye to her beloved grandson.” — imdickie

29. I spoke to my grandfather in a dream

“I once before had a dream where I was having a detailed conversation with my late grandfather. I told him about all the new sci-fi movies that came out (he was a huge nerd), what my dad was up to, etc. Now I’m sure these types of dreams are common, but to have such a vivid and meaningful talk with someone who passed in my life a long time before the dream gives me just a pinch of hope that he actually contacted me to give me a bit of closure (he died suddenly).” — deadly-nightshade

30. I saw a ghost at the end of the hall

“Once I woke up middle the night for no apparent reason, I glanced at the clock to see what time it was and realized someone was standing at the end the hall. They were looking down the stairs, and then turned toward me and vanished.” — MarcusDrakus Thought Catalog Logo Mark

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

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