Are We Alone? These AskReddit users are pretty sure we’re not, and they’re sharing stories of encountering things from out of this world.
Photo Credit: Humans Are Free
1. ‘Collective Amnesia’
“Summer before 8th grade, me and two of my friends snuck out at midnight to go walk around the neighborhood and go see these girls on the next block who were having a sleepover. We turn a corner in our neighborhood and there’s this huge black blimp shaped thing in the sky. Like the pictures of the Hindenburg but bigger than that and as close if not closer. Completely silent and the size of at least four to five football fields across, no exaggeration, even though I was young. We stare at it entranced, asking each other over and over again if we see it, which we all agree that we do, standing there, frozen in one place. It’s like black polished gunmetal, no lights, no sound, no anything. It’s just hovering there. And then I don’t know what happened but time clearly jumps.
Next thing I remember is the craft/ship/government experiment/whatever the hell it is has gone and there’s a tiny glowing white barbell thing in the sky, seemingly slowly falling to earth with wisps of smoke coming off it. Then two brand new black trucks with silver gearboxes on the back, like f150s or s10’s but nicer came speeding down the street, going about seventy in a residential 25mph neighborhood. Then after that I remember walking home to one of my friend’s houses and going to bed. At that point it was like 5 or 6 am and the sun was coming up. We all made a promise to tell my dad in the morning because he worked for the city but we never did. I don’t know what happened later in life to one of my friends who was there but the other was my best friend and we sort of made an unspoken pact never to talk about it, don’t know how or why we did that. We all grew up and I sort of lost touch with him too. We did reconnect over Facebook and such over the years but it was like there was something between us neither of us wanted to touch or talk about.
Looking back on it now, there’s no way we could have been the only ones to see it. It wasn’t that late at night and it was over a heavily populated suburb of a major city. The idea of this has always scared me more than any sort of possible abduction scenario. That there were others and we’re all voluntarily suffering a sort of collective amnesia, except in how we’re not. I’ve thought about hypnosis but that scare me too plus I’m not sure if I’d trust the results, I was just a kid then and I’m not sure if I could trust the hypnotist. What I do know, again, is that there’s no way it was just the three of us who saw it. We’re talking a huge thing hovering in the sky directly above hundreds of houses just after midnight on a summer weekend night. But nothing on the news, nothing in the paper, nothing on tv, no words spoken about it again ever by anyone.”
2. Spacey Lisa
“My mom tells a story of her and her friend. Let’s call her friend Lisa.
When my mom and Lisa were teenagers, they were up on the roof of Lisa’s house, and they see a bright light in the sky. Next thing they know, the light is gone. Thing is, they think they’ve been on the roof for like 15 minutes, but something like 3 hours passed.
Mom doesn’t remember anything about what happened during that time, and Lisa simply refuses to talk about it. She would answer my mom with things like “I dunno” and “Just drop it.” for a long time.
So a couple months later, mom moves away and loses contact with Lisa for about 10 years. She finally meets up with her again and immediately notices that something is odd about Lisa.
Lisa appeared very “distant” to her, with a very “dreamy” demeanor. Like she was really happy and at peace, for no good reason. After they talk for a bit, Lisa brings up the incident on the roof. Mom says she still doesn’t really remember anything about it.
But Lisa remembers. She remembers everything. She said that at first, it was all in bits and pieces and she couldn’t remember any of it clearly. She was confused and scared and wanted to avoid discussing it. Then, as time passed, she began to remember more of it.
She remembers it all clearly, and she remembers the other 3 times she was abducted after that clearly as well. At first, they paralyzed her somehow and did all sorts of invasive experiments on her, but by the most recent time, they stopped probing her and began to talk with her. They didn’t speak English or any other human language, but she could understand everything they said, even though she can’t speak their language herself. Apparently they told her all sorts of things – stuff about space, Earth itself, and most shockingly, predicted years beforehand that she would get pregnant in a specific year and it would also be a stillborn, and that she would never be able to have children again. They also told her that it was not their fault and they even made an attempt to save her from this fate, but they were unsuccessful.
They also told her that they had abducted my mother. Another time, after that first incident. Mom says she has no recollection of any other potential abductions, but she does have recurring nightmares of being abducted, but she’s “almost sure” that they’re just that – nightmares.
Anyway, Lisa tells mom that every time she speaks with them, she comes to understand “the truth” more and more. When mom inquires what “the truth” is, Lisa just says that “you will know eventually”, and she says that once she learned of “the truth”, then “everything became wonderful”.
Mom has seen her a few more times over the years (we still live in another state from her), and she apparently has a pretty normal life, and doesn’t like, obsess over alien stuff (like some supposed alien abductees do), she only ever brings it up in passing, not like it’s a central part of her daily life.”
3. Losing Track of Time
“I can’t say for sure what happened to me that night, but here is what I know…
I was driving home for the weekend from school at Indiana University. It takes me about two hours to get home, and I left Bloomington around 10:00pm. At exactly 10:53 I am on a rural stretch of the two lane highway I take home, and I notice what appeared to be flashing lights behind me. I thought, “great, I’m getting pulled over,” so I turned onto the next country road about a quarter mile from where I noticed the lights. As the car came to a stop and I started to open my glove box to get out my registration and proof of insurance, the lights suddenly disappeared, and no car drove past.
Now here is where the story takes a turn for the weird, and I am sure you guys will think I’m just making it all up because it really does seem like something straight out of a typical UFO movie or story. The electronics in my car started to go haywire. The radio was randomly changing stations while the volume kept going up and down while the dome light and headlights start to flicker and turn off and back on. This was at 10:56 pm. I start thinking to myself that my battery must be failing, or else I have a short somewhere in the electric system of my car… so I lean down to pop the hood so I can take a look at the battery, and that is the last thing I remember doing. The next thing I know, I open my eyes and see nothing but the night sky full of bright stars – it was a cold night and it seemed like I had never seen stars that bright in my life. I sat up and looked around, and I saw absolutely nothing. Nothing at all. I was in the middle of a field, surrounded by corn stalks left over from the recent harvest. As I started to come to my senses I started to freak out. Where am I? Why the fuck am I asleep in the middle of a field? Where the fuck is my car? I got up and started walking toward the distant headlights I could see from a road about half a mile away.
When I got to the nearest intersection I looked at the signs which read 350N and 50W. I was half a mile away from my car which was just right off the main road. I started walking toward the headlights I could see on the main road. I can’t say how long it took me to walk the half mile but it couldn’t have been more than 10 or 15 minutes. When I arrived at my car all the lights were out – my battery had died, which struck me as odd because I couldn’t have been gone for that long. I looked at my phone which was sitting on the passenger seat, and the time was 2:17 AM. Over three hours had passed since I turned off onto the side road for the flashing lights behind me. I remember sitting in my car completely dumbfounded, wondering what the hell had just happened to me. After about half an hour of just sitting there I remembered that my battery was dead; so I got on the phone and called AAA to come out and give me a jump. It took about an hour for them to get out to me since I was a good distance away from the nearest town; during which time I just sat in silence, running through the possible scenarios in my head concerning what had just happened. To this day I couldn’t tell you what really happened to me that night. All I know is I can’t think of any plausible explanation as to why I woke up over half a mile away from my car in the middle of a corn field more than three hours after I had stopped. I have only shared this story with one other person – my uncle. I am sure people would either look at me like I’m crazy or they would call bullshit on the whole story. And I can’t blame them… if somebody came to me with a story like that, that so closely mirrors the stereotypical encounter story, I probably wouldn’t believe them either.”
4. Government Control
“I was on a wildfire just south of Dugway Proving Grounds in Utah. We were in fire rigs driving to the incident area, four trucks in close convoy, when we heard helicopters. Eight black military choppers escorted us in formation for like ten miles, we assumed they were just doing drills and using us for fake target practice or something.
A little while later we are parked and about to start hiking to the fire line when suddenly a thin column of smoke shoots probably about two hundred feet into the sky, it was a good mile away but the concussion was pretty significant when it hit us and the noise was still ridiculously loud. We thought it was probably no big deal, we knew we were near a strike zone.
A good five minutes later an aircraft like nothing I have ever seen flew by us at maybe five hundred feet. It was flat black and sort of rectangular but with fins and wells on the underside. It was moving pretty slow and was dead silent so I have to assume it was some sort of stealth glider. It sounds ridiculous but it immediately reminded me of a huge, flying bat mobile, Time Burton era.
After that some military personnel got on our radio frequency and instructed us to leave the area immediately, when our crew chief asked who it was and why they signed off and the Incident Commander (the guy in charge of managing the entire situation) came on the radios and said we were evacuating the area. They sent us to a completely different fire about a hundred miles to the south and never told us why except that it was higher priority which was bullshit, it was already out when we got there and we just assisted crews in the mop up operation.
The thing that confuses me about this is that if the army didn’t want us to see that shit or if it was dangerous why didn’t they keep us clear of the area in the first place? Either a communications breakdown or they had a now shit situation going down and had to get us out of there without warning.”
5. Did You See That?!
“I was traveling back home with my mom from my aunt’s house on a warm, sunny afternoon. While I was sitting in the passenger seat, an object just appeared in the sky a little to our left. We both saw it immediately. The size of it is what was shocking more than anything. It had the classic saucer shape and was shining brightly because the sun was reflecting off of it. We continue driving down the road a few seconds, just admiring this craft when all of a sudden we saw something I still don’t believe to this day. It just vanishes. Disintegrates. Disappears. Whatever you want to call it. I looked back at my mom and I could tell by her expression she had seen the same thing.
Since this sighting, I have always been interested in UFO’s and the possibility of other life in our universe. This object in the sky was definitely not a helicopter, airplane, or a flock of geese. My mom and I still talk about the sighting we had and can’t come up with a reasonable explanation as to what we saw that day. This is my UFO story and it is not a hoax or fabrication. Everyone always laughs at me when I tell this story, but that’s fine. I know what I saw.”
Photo Credit: Huffington Post
6. A Change of Direction
“Not a very spectacular story but true. I’ve always felt some encounter stories were real, but what made me truly believe was one night standing outside watching the stars. It was late, maybe 2 a.m., and out in the country so it was dark, no street lights, very little to no moon. I was watching what I thought was a satellite moving across the sky from right to left. Didn’t think twice about it as I saw them all the time. Suddenly, the “satellite” stopped and shot off FAST, totally disappeared, at a 45-degree angle from the direction it came. I have never ever seen a satellite change direction ever. It startled me so much I stood there for a bit wondering if I really saw it or not, but I did, 100% certain. It’s unfortunate no one was there with me that night.”
7. Men in Black
“So my dad was in his teens, and weird UFO shit has been happening his whole life at this point. He’s out in his driveway for whatever reason, doing whatever people do when they live in a woodsy rural area. His parents aren’t home, they’re out shopping/at work/whatever.
Suddenly, this big, black car pulls into his driveway. Tinted windows, completely black. My Dad just kind of watches it pull in, not sure what to think.
Something to remember here – not only is this a rural area, but it’s ~50 years ago. People were a lot more trusting back then. Nowadays, you’d be crazy to leave your front door unlocked, but back then it was no big deal.
So this strange black car pulls into my Dad’s driveway. It’s making no noise at all, which my Dad noticed right away. The door opens and out steps a super tall, fair-faced white man. He has blonde hair, an extremely well-tailored black suit, and black sunglasses on. Right away, my Dad could see there was something off about him. He looks too perfect. Flawless skin, a child-like smile, and very overdressed for a hot summer day. He looks distinctly out of place.
The man walks up to my Dad and asks for his name. My Dad (around 15 at the time) asks him why he wants to know. The man smiles and explains that he just wants to ask him a few questions and he means no harm. Bemused, my Dad agrees, but he’s still wary of this strange man.
First, the tall white dude asks my Dad if he lives here. My Dad says yes, and asks why he wants to know. The man has a completely relaxed, non-confrontational tone, and seems almost giddy – like he was really excited to be having this conversation. His childish, overzealous grin hadn’t faded in the least. He asks my Dad if he had seen, felt, or heard anything that he felt was outside of the ordinary. My Dad said sometimes, and again asked why he wanted to know.
The man just kept grinning, and by now my Dad was feeling pretty comfortable. He had never seen this guy before in his life. He didn’t appear to be any kind of government agent – his behavior was far too unusual.
Suddenly, the man’s demeanor completely changes. His grin disappears and he looks worried. Without so much as a goodbye, he opens his car door, gets inside and drives away – still making no noise at all. A couple minutes later, my Dad’s parents come back from shopping.
Now for the really weird part.
My Mom saw the same fucking dude. 30 fucking years later.
She was in a bookstore looking to buy something – dunno the details really – when she turned around and noticed this tall, fair-looking blonde guy in a black suit sitting at table in the cafe, 30 feet or so from my mom. He was reading a newspaper. Sitting across from him was another dude, dressed exactly the same as the blonde one. They still looked strangely out of place, somehow too perfect, too clean. Now, my Mom had heard this story from my Dad before, and she actually recognized my Dad’s description of this man – he definitely stood out. So she’s kind of taken aback, trying to figure out if it’s actually the man my Dad had seen all those years ago.
The blonde guy notices my mom looking at him. Again, his demeanor completely changes. He stands up, turns around, and quickly walks out of the bookstore with the second guy right behind him.
What the fuck right? I’m actually freaking out a bit thinking about this. I’m 22 now and I have to wonder if I’m going to run into this awkward blonde stalker. It’s like the MIB sent their most inept agent to follow around my Dad. Or the most obvious alien ever is trying to study my family in our natural habitat. I don’t fucking know.
I know this is all very vague. I’m going to bring it up to my Dad tonight and try to clarify a few details. I’ll be honest I’ve pushed this story out of my head because it weirds me out.”
8. ‘Look at That!’
“Maybe 8-10 years ago I was with my Dad and younger brother returning home to my Mums house when we were driving along this road with forest on either side.
My dad noticed it first and said ‘Look at that!’ pointing up through the sun roof and maybe 20m (21 yards) above us or less was this BIG dark grey circle and these bright white circular lights all the same size and equally spaced apart.
It wasnt moving or it wasnt moving fast and wasnt making any noise as far as I could tell although we were in a landrover, I could see all along the bottom and sides was like square pipes running all along it and although im not certain i seem to think and recall there being symbols or hieroglyphs as well.
As we passed it the top of it looked like a bowl and was a lighter grey and it remained there fixed and inplace for a good 8-10 minutes until we drove out of site.”
9. Back Roads
“One night few years back my friend (who is driving) and I were taking his girlfriend home when he decided to take the “long way home”. As we are driving along this fairly deserted back road I began to zone out and I stare at this blinking red light off in the distance and casually think to myself “I wonder when they built a cell phone tower all the way out here. ” When suddenly it blinks and is dramatically closer than it was just a moment earlier, at this point my friend points it out and stops in the road. It blinks once more and is directly in front and over top of us, the red light is so bright it floods the car in a deep scarlet hue. I lean forward so that I can see directly into the light, in that brief moment I feel a flood of negative emotions the closest description I can offer is to that of being naked under a giant microscope and having every pore examined thoroughly. I then look away from the light to my friend and ask him to drive, he barely responds apparently in a similar state. Then he snaps out of it and starts driving, as we get a little ways down the road I notice the red light isn’t fading and the interior of the car is still clearly lit by it. I look out the window and to my horror the light is following us and does so for approximately 1-2 miles. The light unexpectedly veers off to the left and comes down to ground level in a patch of trees adjacent to the road. My friend stops the car again and continues to stare at it and abruptly declares he is going to get out and look it like he is in some sort of trance. He opens the door and I grab his arm and tell him if he does I will get in the driver seat and leave him, that we had to leave that instant. He looks at me and seems to come to and punches the gas so hard the tires lose traction and spin. The light remained stationary as we rode away but I’ve never looked at the night sky the same.”
Photo Credit: Ancient Code
10. ‘Testing Aircrafts’
“Back in in Spring of 1997 a group of us neighborhood kids were looking up at the night sky observing the Hale Bopp comet. I grew up hours from any major city so the view was pretty clear. After while we started to notice a red and a white dot circling around each other making sudden movements in every direction. Like no aircraft I have ever seen or have ever seen since. At a certain point they merged into one craft then shot out three smaller crafts. Although we couldn’t tell whether it was a craft because they just appeared to be balls of light. This went on for a couple hours. Right before the lights disappeared they accelerated at lightening fast speed into the darkness. We all went home terrified of what we saw.
The next day on the front page of our small home town paper it said it received several calls, the explanation they gave was that the local airport was testing aircraft. I’m sure how much I believe that story because of what I saw. To this day whenever I see my friends that were there that night we’ll sometimes talk about it. None of us can be sure what were saw but to this day none of us have ever seen anything like it.”
11. Someone Pushed the Mute Button
“I was 8 years old, playing in the sand volleyball court at the park down the street from my house. I was engrossed in my activity – burying my collection of Happy Meal toys in the sand, and then digging them back out, repeat. I was looking down, but decided suddenly that I needed to look up because the world around me had lost all sound.
There was no longer any ambient noise. No traffic noise from the busy streets just a block over. No more dogs barking. No more birds chirping.
I looked at the street that bordered the park, and that is when I saw it.
It looked like a stealth bomber turned sideways (nose leading, one wing down toward the road and the other pointed up at the sky). Completely shiny-black in color, as tall as a house, shaped like an arrowhead. It was cruising the street at 3 MPH. Just gliding over the road….I watched it for maybe 20 seconds. As soon as it had passed behind some 2 story houses and out of my sight – I got my hearing back full force.
I ran home with my piss soaked pants and never spoke a word of it to anybody.”
12. Not an Earthquake
“I was cleaning up around my apartment when I noticed my kitchen lamp swinging and my building rocking. Obviously, earthquake. It lasted for a bit and I called my friend to make sure she was ok. As we were chatting, I was standing out on my balcony which overlooks Runyon Canyon, a popular hiking trail. I suddenly noticed this object hovering high in between the mountains.
It was way too high to be a helicopter, and too small and low to be a plane. What made it SUPER strange, was it’s shape and lack of movement. It was orb-esque, and stood stagnant for about a solid 3 minutes before moving at a SNAIL’S PACE to the west. I’m talking slower than any aircraft, blimp, kite, whatever, that I’ve ever seen. It also seemed to reflect off the sun, but only at some angles.
I grabbed my crappy digital camera and tried to capture it as best I could. After moving towards the left and then once again staying completely still, it immediately darted at what seemed like an impossible speed in the opposite direction upwards and disappeared.
Plain old man made, government, or other, it was one of the weirdest / best sightings I’ve ever experienced, especially since it was in broad daylight!”
Photo Credit: UFO Network
