People Are Telling Creepy Stories Of Unexplainable Paranormal Things That Happened To Them, And Now I Am Sleeping With The Lights On
It's now more than halfway through September, which means only one thing: Spook Season is in full effect.
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And to celebrate the arrival of Halloween time, I decided to see if I could find some spooky stories. This lead me to stumbling across this old Reddit post where the redditor asked: "[Serious] What paranormal experiences have you actually had that you cannot explain?"
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The thread had thousands of replies with people sharing paranormal things that happened to them. Here are some of the top-voted and best stories:
1."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."
2."When I was 2, I used to tell my parents about an 'Invisible Man' who lived in our house and was from Cincinnati; he'd murdered his wife there and murdered his son in our house, whom I also talked to. I also knew the jail he went to, etc. (Keep in mind, I'd never heard of Cincinnati before this.) We researched it years later and found out he was a real person."
3."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 it's definitely odd."
4."I live in northern Georgia, US. Behind our house, there is dense forest that goes on 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. I've 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 looked at me, and it looked shocked, and the hair on its shoulders stood up. It backed up quickly, then turned around and sprinted. I've 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."
5."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 five or six hours straight without wearing my seatbelt. I then had a sudden urge to buckle my seatbelt. Less than two 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."
6."My grandmother died of brain cancer about 20 years ago. About two weeks after she died, I was hanging out over at my parents' place, and my mom got a call with no number, no unknown number, just blank caller ID. She answered it, got quiet, hung up, and went to her room without saying anything. When I finally got her to talk about it, she said it was her mother, saying she was trapped and please come get her because they wouldn't let her leave, over and over again, and then the phone disconnected.
"I asked her about it a few years ago, and she denied that it happened for a bit, and then admitted that it had happened two more times that year and then stopped, but she didn't want to discuss it any more."
7."I was in basic training at Fort Knox, and we were on a very long road march when out of nowhere this beautiful yellow lab with no collar 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 they 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."
8."When I was in high school, the days before cellphones were common, my friends were going 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 7 p.m. 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 not to come. They came to my house at 7 p.m. and called the house phone. No one answered. There was four 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 person's 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, who's staying in your room?' I told them no one. So, they asked, 'Who's...home at your house right now?' Again, I told them, no one. Their 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 their eyes wouldn't be playing tricks on them. To this day, none of us can make sense of the situation."
9."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 lab 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 toward 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."
10."My freshman year of college, I bought an Ouija board. I had had one through high school and always had really awesome experiences with it. I went down to the woods with three of my friends, and we started playing with it. About 15 minutes into it, shit was getting scary. The dial was darting across the board, and one of the guys I was with started recording with his phone. A minutes after he started recording, the board flew up (with no intervention of any of us) about four feet in the air and slammed down.
"I burst out in tears, ran toward the school, and all my friends followed. I was handed the board and someone else had the box. When I went to go put the board in the box, it was yanked out of my hands by whatever spirit girl we were 'talking' to.
"No one has ever believed that story besides the people I was with. I don't really care, because I know that it happened. I haven't touched a board since and never will."
11."When I was about 6, I had a dream that I was alone and scared on a plane. I was looking around the plane for my parents, and instead saw my grandmother. She was sitting a few rows ahead and across the aisle. In the dream, I got up and went to her. She gave me a big hug, and told me to go back and sit down, and said that I couldn't come with her where she was going. In the morning, my parents sat me down to tell me that she had passed away in the night."
12."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 and 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."
13."Let me tell you about Evelyn! She was an 80-year-old, possessive old women who burned to death in my old house. She died before making it to the hospital. In 'her' house, I experienced: objects being thrown out of cupboards, doors slamming shut and opening, 'things' sitting in chairs, shadows stalking through the house, something playing my guitar, footsteps walking from the basement to my bedroom door and never leaving, picture frames swinging around in circles on my walls, I could go on. The worst part was that for the most part, this haunting was focused around me for some God forsaken reason. In short, I had an exorcism performed on the house last summer, nothing happened after."
14."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 boyfriend's house, and we're all hanging out and chilling when they ask me to get my cards. 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.
"Then, the DEEPEST, 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."
15."When I was a young child, me and my family moved around a lot (Coast Guard). We always drove, so we stayed in a lot of hotels. Practically every time I stayed in a hotel, after my family had fallen asleep, I would see a creature moving back and forth between the walls and the ceiling. The creature looked like a spider monkey, with its tail curled around its body. It moved back and forth not smoothly but in small jolts, almost like what you see while using a flip book. I was a bit intimidated by it, but was never stricken with fear. I saw it from as young as I can remember until about age 10. After that, it just stopped. My rational adult mind tells me that my imagination as a child ran wild. I tell myself that I expected to see the creature, and that's why I did so often. In the back of my head, I know what I saw."
16."In 2000, my wife and I had just purchased a large, old Victorian-style home to have room for our three kids, ages 2, 5, and 7. Early one beautiful spring morning, with the sun shining bright, half asleep, I opened my eyes to see a woman in an early 1900s yellow dress with little flowers smiling down at me. She said, 'Don't worry, the children will be safe here.' Still mostly asleep, I thought, OK, good, and dozed off again for a few seconds. Then, the realization hit me of what I just saw, and I sat straight up in bed fully awake. The woman in yellow wasn't there, of course. But that's not the creepy part...
"Fast-forward to the next spring. I was teaching at the local middle school. I was in the break room with a number of people. All of them filtered out, except one older lady who was a teacher's aid at the school. She had been close friends with the previous owners of the home, another family with young kids who had moved away for job opportunities. She asked me how I liked the house. I said it was great to have room for the kids. Then, she looked around to make sure we were alone, and asked, 'Have you seen the woman in yellow yet?' I nearly crapped my pants on the spot, and by the look on my face, she knew I had. I told her my story, and she said one of the little girls who had lived there before talked about the yellow lady keeping her from getting hurt."
17."My parents rented this beautiful historical house that was built around the Underground Railroad-era. It had small hideouts and doors where slaves would hide out in. But as soon as soon as we moved in, we got uncomfortable vibes from it. We'd hear footsteps coming from the upstairs when everyone was downstairs, the TV would turn off and 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 at 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 also began sleepwalking 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, and when he ran out past the living room (where my little brother liked to sleep because of his sleepwalking), he noticed that my brother wasn't there. So, he ran upstairs where he met my older brother who had heard the screaming as well, and they both saw that 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 the 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 brother 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 sleepwalking as soon as 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."
You can read the full thread of responses on Reddit.
Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.
