15 People Describe The Most Terrifying Paranormal Thing They Ever Experienced
1. I have never felt primal fear like I did after hearing that sound.
“I grew up in the Pine Barrens. I loved living in the woods, and South Jersey has just about no predators so I never felt unsafe walking around the neighborhood at 2am or so. Well, one night when I was 19 I left my friend’s place about 2:30-3:30 AM walking home and I hear the most ungodly sound I have ever heard in my life. In the split second your mind tries to rationalize: First I thought it was a cat being run over then by .6 seconds I thought it was a woman screaming then it sounded like a roar/shriek. This is all in the second and a half it takes me to take in the whole sound. Now let me be clear, I had lived in those woods all my life, I know what foxes sound like I know what skunks fighting sound like, it was like nothing I have ever heard.
I have never felt primal fear like I did after hearing that sound. I ran harder and faster than I ever had in my life. When I got to the front door I was already mentally prepared to smash the small glass pane in order to open the door if my sister had locked it. She didn’t and there is nothing interesting after that point, a few other weird things happened around the same time span but nothing like that.”
2. I can remember vividly seeing the dust come together in a ghost in the form of my mum.
“When I was about 6 we…had our own apartment. One morning just after we woke up my mum went to make a warm cup of milk for both of us. It was winter, and the lights were off in the room but were on in the corridor. I can remember vividly seeing the dust come together in a ghost in the form of my mum but dressed like she was from the 1800’s came together and walked out of the room following after my mum and not acknowledging me in any way. It was the most surreal thing that I’ve ever seen and I still vividly remember it.”
3. All the hairs on my body stood up and I literally felt a chill run down my spine. I quietly turned around, walked down the stairs, got in my car, and drove away.
“When I was in high school, my uncle would throw me a couple bucks to help babysit his kids with my aunt. They lived in a two-story house by the water, nice area. The kids were about 3 and 6, respectively.
One day I was sitting in their den on my phone when I started to hear a baby crying. Thinking it was the three-year-old, I headed to the bottom of the stairs to check and see if my aunt was up there dealing with it. I called for her a couple times with no response. The baby kept crying. I called for her one more time, and when I got no response I started walking up the stairs. Then I heard my cousins and aunt playing outside.
All the hairs on my body stood up and I literally felt a chill run down my spine. I quietly turned around, walked down the stairs, got in my car, and drove away. The ‘baby’ was still crying when I closed the door behind me.
A few years later I was drunk at a family party and told my uncle the story. He told me that he and his wife used to hear the baby too, and apparently the previous owners had a kid die of SIDS in that room upstairs. He’s uber Catholic and had a Mass said for the baby. He said after that it never happened again. Still gives me the willies when I talk about it though.”
4. Anonymous phone calls from the abandoned morgue.
“My colleague used to work in a hospital and would often receive phone calls around 3am but no one would speak at the other end of the receiver. The number was from an extension somewhere in the hospital and when they looked it up, it was from an old morgue nobody has used in a while.”
5. Suddenly we heard a loud crash, glass breaking, and felt the floor shake in the ceiling above us.
“My roommate and I lived in a 100+ yr old farmhouse. Many strange things happened there, but there is one story I tell the most. One day we were watching TV in the living room on the main floor. And suddenly we heard a loud crash, glass breaking, and felt the floor shake in the ceiling above us. We both ran upstairs and could not find one thing out of place.”
6. I was surrounded by about eight or nine dogs. They didn’t make a noise but they blocked my path in a half-circle.
“When I was in fifth grade I was walking to the bus and it was just breaking dawn, I had to walk about a half mile down a back road with woods lining either side. About half way down I was surrounded by about eight or nine dogs, not wolves, but like actual different breeds of domestic dogs. They didn’t make a noise but they blocked my path in a half-circle. I was terrified and ran back home and when I looked back they were gone. When I think back on it I hope maybe they were protecting me from an unknown danger down the road that morning. Who knows.”
7. I look in and there’s no one in the room.
“We had a ‘computer room’ in our house that was at the end of a hallway. So I went down the hall to use the bathroom and I could see the glow from the computer screen dimly lighting up the room. Then it looked like someone walked in front of it and cast a shadow on the wall. I jumped and then started laughing, ‘Jeez, you scared me.’ I look in and there’s no one in the room. I booked it out of there and avoided that bathroom for weeks…”
8. I hear some footsteps walk into the living room then just stop.
“I’m home alone one day….I hear my laundry room door open and slam closed. Odd, it’s only 2 PM and my parents don’t get home from work until at least 4. My sister was at school but maybe she left early. I yell ‘Hello’ and reach over and close the door so that whoever is home doesn’t have to see me shitting. I hear some footsteps walk into the living room then just stop. I yell again but no response. My dad listens to audio books a lot on his phone so I figured he walked in with earbuds in and didn’t hear me. I finish my business up and walk out to see who was home and no one was there. I kept yelling around the house but there was no answer. I walked outside and it was just my car in the driveway. I started to panic a little bit since my laundry room door is quite heavy and is very loud when it closes, so there was no way I misheard something. I searched the whole house, looked outside on the patio, side yards etc. Nothing. No one was there. I then got this huge feeling of fear and bolted back inside and just sat on the living room couch waiting for something to happen. Nothing happened. No noises, no sounds, no doors opening. Nothing. I eventually got up and went back to my room and never heard anything again. It would have scared the shit out of me had I not taken care of that problem before hand.”
9. Every so often at night at the same time you’d wake up to the intercom button being pressed and just the blank sound of static airways.
“My family moved to this standard upscale suburban home after roughing it for a couple of years to save up. We also got a deal on the home because it was a model home before it was ours, like had all the fake furniture to show off the neighborhood homes. Anyways, it had this loft area with two stairwells that go up to it, one in the front and one in the back. You could pretty much hear everything from this loft since it was so open.
One day my two best friends (guy and a girl) are hanging out in the loft. We were in HS and they were horny and always all over each other, whether I was in the room or not. We were watching TV and I get up to take a piss. When I left, they were all up on each other. When I came back, they were on different ends of the couch. I just had they had gotten into a fight, so I asked what was up.
‘Your little sister is home,’ the dude says. My face turned sheet white. ‘What’s wrong?’ the girl asked.
I asked them what made them think that. They said they heard her. I am sort of freaking out at this point. ‘No one’s here,’ I say. We check the house, and I’m right.
Well, it turns out that before it was a model home, a family lived there and a little girl had been playing in the loft but had climbed on the railing and fell to her death below. My two best friends swear (to this day) that they heard what they thought was my sister laugh and run up the stairs, hitting her hands on each step like she was running up on all fours.
I never had any encounters, other than the fact that right next to where she landed was the house’s central Intercom—we had an intercom system in every room that you could play music through, or talk to each other. Every so often at night at the same time you’d wake up to the intercom button being pressed and just the blank sound of static airways like someone was holding down the button but no one was speaking. My room was on the 3rd floor and I’d have to walk down to the bottom to the main unit and turn it off there. I always thought I’d see her.”
10. Every night, around 11 or so, I would hear footsteps walking at a fairly slow pace right down the hall.
“When I was about 12 our family moved into a new house—new to us, actually quite old. It was in our same village but down a different lane.
Part of it used to be a bungalow so my room and my sister’s room were on the ground floor, down a long hallway. All of the ground floor had walnut flooring and there was a Persian rug outside the door to my room to avoid cold toesies in the morning.
Every night, around 11 or so, I would hear footsteps walking at a fairly slow pace right down the hall, from the end guest suite up past our rooms and away down the hall to the living room.
I was always in bed when I heard them, and so was everyone else. You know how you can tell who a family member is by the way the walk up the stairs, or open a specific door? I knew it wasn’t anyone in my family. Plus, it was the sound of outdoor shoes clacking on the wood and everyone in my family wore slippers inside the house.
I would hear the footsteps start, fairly loud on the wooden floor, way down the hall, come up past my sister’s room and then there would be a pause—while whatever it was walked over the rug. You could hear the gap in the footsteps, about three seconds, then they would start again on the other side of the rug and fade out as they walked down the hall away to the living room.
Then they would come back—same footsteps, break across the rug, resumed on the other side.
I don’t remember ever feeling scared, but I never ever went out to see what it was. I would fall asleep to the sound, it would go on for a really long time.
It stopped about 3 or 4 weeks after we moved in and I never heard it again. I didn’t really think about it much after it stopped, but I’ve never forgotten it and as an adult it makes me shiver to remember it.”
11. I feel a HAND rest firmly on my shoulder.
“Sitting in my room late at night (mid/late teens, so c. 1998/99) listening to music on my computer using headphones. Nobody else is up, feel the room suddenly grow incredibly cold (it was summertime in Southern California so the nights were muggy as hell) to the point where I’m shivering. Then I feel a HAND rest firmly on my shoulder and another feels like it hits me on the back between my shoulders, so much that I physically shifted in my chair. Promptly ripped my headphones out and went and slept on the couch under more than enough blankets; I heard sweating is supposed to be good for the skin anyway.”
12. I was charged by what I believe was a cryptid called a dogman.
“I am an outdoorsman, I’m very experienced in hunting, camping, hiking, and general survival. I’m very familiar and used to wildlife, and I was charged by what I believe was a cryptid called a dogman; it charged me and my cousin, it was not a bear, a bear cannot move how it did, and it was not a normal wolf as they can’t comfortably run on 2 legs whereas what charged us seemed natural at doing. I can elaborate further if you wish.
This happened around June or July of 2007 I believe, I was around 17 years old and more cocky then, but still somewhat knowledgeable of the outdoors. My family used to own a cabin in NW Wisconsin, I basically grew up there in the summer, I knew the woods well, but at night it was wise to stay in the cabin or at least by the bonfire by the beach, because of bears, wolves, and cougars. One of the creepiest things was if you were having a bonfire, the treeline was visible from the fire pit and beach, and at night you always felt like you were being watched from that treeline. But during the day the woods always seemed normal, not so creepy, that is until this incident.
So this happened somewhere between 1200-1400. Me and my cousin were having an airsoft battle, I was in full woodland camo, he was not, I retreated onto the ATV trail into the woods for a tactical advantage and our battle took us about 200 meters in to about a third of the way up the trail. We had enough at this point and were standing at the edge of a clearing on the trail talking and he was maybe 10 feet from me, when I decided to mess with him, I shushed him and said ‘we’re being watched,’ he froze, then I realized the woods were dead quiet and I got spooked and started scanning the treeline and the other edge of the clearing from left to right when I saw it. Its teeth gave it away, it was panting and staring at my cousin, I don’t expect you to believe me, but what I saw was a wolf as big as a black bear, at least 300lbs, but it wasn’t normal, this wolf was on 2 legs crouching next to tree with its arm grasping the tree, grasping with a clawed hand, it had reddish brown fur.
I told my cousin that ‘we have to go’ and next thing I know he is sprinting and I look back at wolfy who had locked on and sprinted a few steps on two feet and then I turned and ran when it looked like wolfy was dropping to all fours, it charged us and sounded right on our asses barreling through the brush, but for whatever reason let us go when we broke out of the tree line and headed for the cabin. What stuck with me the most was the sheer size, wolfy appeared to be nearly 7′ tall when upright, and that where it should’ve had front paws it appeared to have large clawed hands. Now I’m not sure how to explain it away rationally, I have heard wolves will occasionally kind of walk upright but as far as I know they can’t sprint on 2 legs, nor do wolves get that big, and black bears more waddle on 2 legs. The closest description is silly, a werewolf or dogman. Thank you for reading.”
13. The figured touched my fiancé’s shoulder and I could see her life leave her. She went visibly limp.
“My fiancé and I used to live in a pretty old building. It was a super old apartment building, and it just had those vibes…ya know? It was just creepy all around. Here are some pictures. The apartment was tiny and all the people that lived in it were super strange. There isn’t much setup to the story besides that. We had a few other tales…but this one takes the cake. We always sleep with our bedroom door closed now no matter what. It was a normal week night and we were getting ready for bed. Got super cozy, and left the door open so the air would flow better, even though it was a tiny space with a window unit in both rooms. I felt like I woke up, and shortly after realized I was having somewhat of a lucid dream. I start looking around the room and I see something as I’m scanning. The ceiling was recessed a little higher in the excuse for a hallway we had that was right outside our bedroom door. It looked like a black figure was like, hanging from the top right corner in the hallway, just suspended and completely black. It freaked me out a little so I blinked, and when I did, the figure was standing next to my bed. It looked like the silhouette of a woman, and she was looking at my fiancé that was next to me. I started to freak out, and the figured touched my fiancé’s shoulder and I could see her life leave her. She went visibly limp. I started wigging out and reached to grab at the figure, and I grabbed what I can only imagine was its boob and squeezed as hard as I could well yelling and I woke up into that yelling becoming real. I checked to see if my fiancé was still alive, she was. I was so relieved, and when she woke up to ask me what was wrong I told her about the dream. She said she had a dream too, and it felt weird and unnatural like something was watching her sleep. We didn’t get back to sleep that night, and we left that place as soon as we possibly could. T’was quite the fright.”
14. Footsteps up on the loft.
“I was on the phone with my girlfriend while home alone. I was sitting in the family room. Upstairs was a loft that opened to the main area of the house where I was sitting. Again, I was home alone. As I’m talking to my girlfriend I hear footsteps up on the loft. I turn and look. They stopped. I turn back around and they started again. Did this for a few minutes and I decided ‘fuck it’ and went to my girlfriend’s house.”
—optimaloutcome
15. I was so fucking scared I just remember covering my face with my blanket.
“I was like seven years old and I remember laying on my cousin’s couch late at night unable to fall asleep. My eyes panned toward the center of the living room and I saw a ghost-like image of my dad. (He passed away when I was very young.) He had on a long white gown, big white wings, and a halo. He just stood there smiling at me. I was so fucking scared I just remember covering my face with my blanket. I don’t know how long I laid there, heart beating fast as fuck but eventually I fell asleep. I had a lot more creepy experiences like that all throughout my life…I still do.”
