Full disclosure: I’m an empiricist skeptic.
I don’t believe in the supernatural, and I think that most things we attribute to it can be boiled down to the uncertain nature of memory, emotional experience, and good ol’ fashioned coincidence.
BUT.
I’d be absolutely lying to you if I told you I didn’t get a few chills reading these stories.
Can Reddit make a believer out of me? Let’s find out.
1. The Passenger
When I was going to my families home I got in a suv going down the road. This was in Bangladesh at the time and after taking the suv the next two hours would be a highway going down a forest.
I was sitting shotgun and along the highway their was an old man walking down the highway. He was hitchhiking and the driver decided to pick him up. He insisted on sitting in my seat and obliged as he was an older man.
About an hour down the drive our car collided with a bus and the shotgun seat was mangled up. We all got out and we looked around but we couldn’t find the old man that insisted on taking my seat anywhere.
Stories like these aren’t rare but I didn’t believe them. We all know the man sat in my seat and we all saw him. But he was nowhere to be found.
– Leondas04
2. Things in This World Better Left Alone
I grew up in a very rural area. Mostly crop farms everywhere. About a mile from my parent’s house, there was this old abandoned farm house that all the area kids said was haunted. They would sneak into the house after dark, all the typical stupid kid crap, but I believe there are things in this world better left alone and never went.
Years pass, the house fell into disrepair and was eventually torn down, leaving an old weathered barn. Well, I make a little side money selling photos of abandoned places, so I wanted to take a picture of the barn. I parked on the road and was walking up the drive, I made it about ten feet before I just could not walk any further. My feet wouldn’t move forward, my adrenaline spiked and I burst into tears. So I turned back and ran to my car. I didn’t feel safe until I got past a nearby creek you have to cross to get there.
I let it go, but a few months later we had to drive past the property after having Christmas dinner with my parents and there was a creature standing in the drive. It reminded me of the Faun from Pan’s Labyrinth, just super tall with a wide head and horns or antlers, but the eyes were more on the side of the head.
Again adrenaline kicked in and I burst into tears, but I was trying to keep it together because I didn’t want to freak out my kids. My husband asked if I was okay, I just said “you saw that, right”
“Yep”
“Was it human”
“Nope”
I refuse to drive that road ever again.
– FreakyDarling85
3. The Dirt Clod
When i was a kid (around 6) i lived in a very arid area, and a wide field of red dirt was between my house and my bud’s. Every day, walking over there, when I got about halfway across, I’d pick up a dirt clod or a small rock, and toss it behind me over my shoulder. About 10 seconds later, it would come flying back over my head and land in front of me. I’d just grin and keep walking.
I remember this really distinctly, even trying to replicate it later in childhood after I’d moved away, and being sad that it didn’t “work” any more. Didn’t question it as a kid, but looking back, just really weird.
– CaribouMT
4. Farewell to Grandma
Not scary but still not explainable: When I was 22, I visited my Grandma in her retirement home at Christmas. She was well, nothing out of the ordinary. A few days later I travelled to my then-boyfriend across the country.
Two days after New Year’s I woke up at 2 am crying. And I just couldn’t stop. I wasn’t really sad or overly emotional, but the tears just kept streaming down my face. Nothing like that ever happened and I was kind of confused, as was my bf. I fell back asleep a few hours later.
Three days later I was informed that my Grandma had died that night at about 2 am. Due to the divorce of my parents communication was difficult and we were only informed after the funeral.
I don’t believe in anything supernatural, but it’s hard to wrap my head around, especially since nothing like this ever happened again.
– smiling_gecko
5. The Prediction
I had a dream at age 9 where I was walking through an alleyway with another boy (Who I didn’t know at the time) having a conversation about School grades or something.
2 years later I meet this boy, and turns out he’s a friend of my brother who’s a year older than me, but it still didn’t hit me yet that he was the one I was walking with in my dream.
Another 3 years pass, we are now in Highschool, and all 3 of us are walking through the usual alleyway that we passed through to get home, then a conversation about School grades pop up and I get hit with the biggest realization and feeling of Deja Vu ever.
I was reliving the dream that occurred 5 years prior and my memory of that dream became very vivid at that moment. They thought I was a mf Wizard predicting what they were gonna say a second before they speak. This happened 8 months ago, it was great.
– Seukun
6. The Future Obituary
I had a phase in my mid-teens when I would read the obituaries in the local newspaper. I saw a name that was familiar as it was the same as a family friend. It had his full first, middle, and last names. I didn’t say anything to my parents since I figured they already knew.
A few days later my mom told me he died and I said I knew since I saw his obit. She said, “He died last night in his sleep.” I went back through the newspapers (my mom kept them for a week before throwing them out) but the obit wasn’t there. When the real obit came out it had his first and last name but just his middle initial. This was almost 40 years ago and I still think about it.
– The-Old-American
7. The Protector on the Stairwell
When I was a kid (about 10-12ish) I was carrying a load of laundry upstairs home alone while mom was out doing errands. We have this weird carpet runner over our hardwood stairs that’s only really attached at the top of the flight but otherwise not fitted or secured to each individual stair, so naturally I step on an air bubble of carpet with my vision obscured by the laundry and fall backwards while bear hugging a bunch of blankets.
I specifically remember thinking “welp, guess I’m about to die” while almost airborne with just my big toe left on the carpet when I felt two hands, one on either side of my shoulder blades, give me a firm shove that launched me back up on the step and diagonally against the stair rail. I assumed mom somehow silently came back early without announcing herself and turned around to thank her while still clinging to the railing, but no one was there.
I scurried upstairs to put my things down while calling her name and walked the house afterwards to check if any doors were unlocked or if her car was there. I finally resorted to calling her cell where she told me she was hitting up a few more stores. It still feels like there’s a presence on that stairwell- like someone’s watching but in a protective way rather than sinisterly.
– blickyjayy
8. The Killing Dream
I had a dream once about my high school best friend who had moved out of state and started a family. I hadn’t seen her or spoken to her in at least 10 years and had never met her child, except seeing pictures/ posts on Facebook and commenting on them.
In my dream I was walking down a street at night and out of nowhere her little girl appears next to me and I asked her, “Where is your mama? Why are you by yourself?” I remember her taking me to some bushes near a random house on the street and finding my friend in bad shape (beaten up or something) on the ground and I remember running to the door of the random house screaming for help and to call the police. This is all I can recall from the dream but I think there may have been a little more.
The next day, I wake up and think to myself, man that was weird. Maybe I dreamt of her because we had just spoken a little in comments of a Facebook post, I should send her a message. I go on about my day, go to work, get home later that day and sit on my couch and scroll through Facebook.
BAM. 1000 posts— Rest In Peace, etc – All of them tagged my friend and her daughter. I thought WHAT IN THE ACTUAL F*CK!?!? At that point there was no information as to what had happened, so I thought it must have been a car accident or something. Over the course of the next few weeks to months, more and more information came out and it was NOT an accident. My friend and her sweet baby had been murdered by some animal (I won’t refer to them as a person).
This happened about 5 years ago. I still remember the main parts of the dream vividly. I still am a little horrified that I had this dream that night. When it was happening possibly. I haven’t been able to tell anyone else about it either because just thinking about it gives me chills.
– _bella_x0
9. The Homeless Prophet
I was out with my parents, and it was late coming back home.
At around 2:30am we were at a traffic signal, a homeless guy comes and knocks on the window of the seat where my mother was sitting. As she rolled down the window to give him money, he said “check what is happening at your brothers house” he proceeded to take the money and walked away.
Probably thinking that he was a bit crazy in the head, we didn’t bother and went home.
Next morning mom gets a call from her brother’s wife. He has had a heart attack. At 2:30am.
– par_eshan
10. Knock, Knock
Went with my brother to see an old family property my mother had inherited in a really rural area. We were just looking about, it hadn’t been lived in for decades. A bit of wind, a bit of a rainy day, and both me and my brother were inspecting the house until we started hearing a weird rhythmic knock coming from around the building.
Just a knock at regular intervals much like a clock sounds but a lot louder. We stepped out to look around, but the noise started sounding like it was getting further away from us, until it disappeared. We left shortly afterwards.
A couple of days go by, and I stopped by my mother’s. I ask her if she has any pictures of the original owner of the house which was her grandfather, so my great grandfather. She pulled it out, guess what? The man had a wooden leg as a result of a war injury. Told my mother all about it and it was like she was remembering him. She says that’s exactly how it sounded when he walked on the porch.
Weird af.
– emix75
11. The Hospital Dream
Early into my now Wife and I’s relationship I had a dream about her in childbirth. Very vivid, and long. Like I spent days in the hospital with her and everything was in a strange twilight. When it came time to deliver things went very wrong and she and baby ended up passing away.
I woke up quite shook naturally but brushed it off. I am a nurse and have had to deal with traumatic OB situations before, and I chocked it up to me dealing with that stress through a dream.
Six years later and my wife is pregnant, I have forgotten the dream by now. I get a call late into the 3rd trimester while I am on shift. Wife is going to the ER for a bad BP. I get off my shift and go to meet her.
As soon as I step into the room I remember my dream. Its the same d**n room. Which is extra spooky because the hospital we were at wasn’t even built when I had the dream.
This is last year right when lock down started, my wife is admitted they want to wait a week to deliver if possible, she will be kept in a twilight state until that time. So its me in this room eerily isolated as the world around us is frozen and my wife is incoherent mere feet away. Lingering for days in this room I brushed off my dream, trying to manage my anxiety and stress.
Come show time my wife gets ready to begin pushing and it’s exactly the same scenario as my dream. Things start going poorly, but the Dr. Thinks delivery is still possible, but at this point I finally freak out into full panic, and demand a C section for my wife. The Dr. I can tell wants to argue but I think my outburst made her step back and reassess the situation and she made the call for emergency c section.
Took 10 minutes for me to get taken back and as I’m in the OR I see my baby come out lifeless. They do everything they can and manage to resuscitate her. In the meantime my wife is doing poorly and they are scrambling to control her bleeding.
I follow the baby out knowing there’s really nothing I can do. Baby gets life flighted to another hospital, but before we go I see my wife stable and headed to the ICU.
Both my wife and baby are critical but alive.
Today they are both thriving and my baby is 16 months and just a tornado of energy.
I don’t know that they would be alive if not for that dream and it causing me to freak out and demand a change in plan.
– Jracx
12. Was it the Cat?
I have an idea of what may have happened, but I cannot definitively say how this happened.
My father died in 2000 in my parent’s house. I was over one night pretty late after my mother had gone to sleep. I swear I could feel my father’s presence, as I was right in the spot where he had died. (They believe he had a heart attack while laying on the couch, tried to get off the couch to call for help but fell on the floor and died, though no one else was home when it happened. I was on the couch when this happened.)
Anyway, I thought to myself, “This is stupid. People don’t leave essences behind, I’m not feeling anything.” So, I say out loud, “If this is really you, Dad, knock a box of cereal off the shelf onto the floor.”
I wanted to pick something I didn’t think could happen by accident. I went into the kitchen and watched the shelf with the cereal on it for a few minutes and nothing happened. Since it was almost midnight, I decided to sleep in my old bedroom.
I woke up the next morning and went downstairs and a box of cereal was laying on the floor. I say to my mother, “Did you knock that cereal onto the floor?” She said no, it was like that when she woke up.
So… what the f**k, man.
HOWEVER, my mother had a cat. I’m guessing the cat did it, but I don’t know for sure. If she’d gotten on the shelf, everything would have been knocked around and messy from her. Everything was else was in its normal position, just the box of cereal was on the floor.
I mean, regardless, it has to have been the cat, right?
– temalyen
13. Cabbage Patch Kids
I was biking down a country road I used to live on, I think I was 8 or 9, and on my way home I saw this small humanoid looking being run across the road, from one crop field into a corn field.
The only details I could make out, and I still vividly remember, was that it was completely covered in yellow, from neck to feet, and I think it has green on it’s head. I told my mom about it and all she could come up with was something about cabbage patch kids.
Never saw that thing again, but I still think about it from time to time
– RamboDash15
14. The Surprise Brother
I live in a city and my brother lives in another city that is around 1000 km away. He visits sometimes but not quite often. On an average of once every 2 years.
On one day around 7 yrs ago i was sleeping on the couch in the living room at my apartment. I woke up suddenly on my brother sitting just beside me and i was shocked/surprised started greeting him and asking him about how is he doing and what pleasant surprise it was. Next thing i realise that this was a dream as the door bell was ringing which woke me.
Went to open the door and guess what? It was my brother who came to surprise us! This literally had me speechless.
Don’t have any explanation and i think sometimes you don’t need to have one.
– DelJaralla818
15. Granddad’s Visit
My granddad died when I was 7, but, per his own words, I was his absolute favorite (partially because I am the splitting image of his mother, even into adulthood).
When I was 21, I was set to give birth to my first son. I was about to get into the elevator to L&D when a man came in saying that he a volunteer and he’d help me and my husband find our way. The elevator was slow, but we spent the time talking about what a blessing children are and how they grow up so fast. Here’s the thing: he looked and sounded exactly like my grandad – same stature, same blue-grey eyes, same faint Scottish-Canadian accent, same khakis, checked shirt, and sky blue cardigan. Even spookier is that the nurses said they don’t have any older male volunteers in that particular building.
I don’t really believe in ghosts but I am absolutely certain granddad paid me a visit that night.
– MadameBurner
16. Wishful Thinking
The only way I can explain this one is “wishful thinking.”
My mom and dad were co-dependent, and they liked it that way. They didn’t want other people (other than the kids). They were completely happy to be just wrapped up in each other. My dad died the day before his birthday in a hospice centre.
Afterwards, it was like he was still home. His touch lamp beside his recliner would go on by itself. The recliner would rock like someone was getting in it. And sometimes, my mom or my sister would hear my dad saying, “Honey, fix me a cold drink?” That was exactly how he’d ask my mom to fill up his massive mug with Sprite over ice.
My mother died less than a year and a half later. After my mother died, there was never another sign of either of them being there. They’ve been gone now for close to 14 years now.
– ClothDiaperAddicts
17. Freak Hive Mind Low-Level Telepathy
My siblings and I all had the same dream on the same night a year ago. It was exactly one year after my mum died and we all had a dream about her and she was in the same place and was speaking to us. She reassured us that she was ok and she was with her mum and my dead siblings and that her dad is in the bad place.
The next day we all realised we had the same dream, we even all independently drew a picture of the place we saw her and wrote down the name of the place it resembled. Most of my siblings took that as an actual message from my mum but my youngest sister and I like to believe that we have all developed some freaky hive mind low level telepathy lol.
– Queen_Omega
18. Cleaning Up
One night I had a dream about my Grandpa (who had died almost 20 years prior). We were in his home, and he kept telling me “we need to clean the house, we need to get the house ready.” When I asked him why, he just said “she’s coming home”.
My Grandma, his wife of 50 years, died the next day.
– dirtbikejess
19. Pop Poppy Jim
There’s a story from when I was ~4-5 years old, my grandmother was looking through old family photos and asking me who the people were.
We got to a picture of my grandfather, and she asked me who he was, and I said, “Pop poppy Jim!”. He died suddenly at home when my mother was 10, in the same house we lived in, so I never met him.
She asked me how I knew that, I told her, “oh he comes and tucks me in and tells me he loves me sometimes after you go to bed”.
– jessiker
20. The Flying Ball
Red luminescent “ball” flying on the horizon. It moved like nothing we’d ever seen. Zipping around at incredible speed that defied the laws of physics.
There were about 20 of us watching it, and some of the kids asked me what I thought it was, as I grew up living and breathing aviation with my Dad.
I had to tell them that since I couldn’t identify what it was, that it was essentially a UFO. Had to then explain that it doesn’t mean “Aliens”, just that what we saw couldn’t be identified by any knowledge I had of aircraft (not then, and not even now)
It could have been ball lighting for all I knew at the time, but it was kilometers away above the horizon in the dusk sunlight.
– BloodSteyn
Do you have any unexplained stories you’d like to share?
Talk to us in the comments!
Thanks in advance!
