33 People Describe Their Personal Encounters With The Unexplainable
My wife and I were eating dinner one night when a guy walked in our house. He told us he was the angel of death and was collecting souls for the apocalypse.
Visitor
“My wife and I were eating dinner one night when a guy walked in our house. He told us he was the angel of death and was collecting souls for the apocalypse. Said there were demons outside everywhere. I thought “this is it we’re dead.” Luckily he didn’t have a weapon and didn’t attack us. I talked him into walking outside with me so I could help him out and as soon as he stepped through the door I slammed it shut, locked it, grabbed my gun and called the cops. By that time he was in the road screaming nonsense.” — DrJape
Time trap
“When my brother was about 7 yrs old, he woke up one day acting really strange and didn’t get out of bed. My mother went in to check on him and he started sobbing, it was awful and he sounded so full of despair. It wasn’t the cry of a seven year old, he was so so upset and it really worried us both. My mother kept asking “what’s wrong? you can tell me!” and after a long few minutes he finally confided in her. He told her that he had been living the same day over and over and over and that it was always the same. But that’s not what upset him. What made him cry was that today was the first day in a really long time where something had changed. We never spoke about it again, he was seemingly fine after a few days but I still have no idea what happened. I know my brother, and it’s not something he’d come up with out of the blue. Completely unexplainable from my perspective.” — BabbyBo
Seatbelt
“When I was 16 or so I would stay at my SO’s house late into the night and usually wouldn’t head home til about 2am and I was obnoxious about never wearing my seatbelt, I don’t know why, I just never did. But one night I turned on the radio to listen to 3 little birds by bob marley, and for some reason I thought you know? I should put on my seat belt, and I shit you not, not even 30 seconds later I was going through an intersection and a drunk driver came off the highway ramp, ran the red light and I t boned him going about 40 miles per hour, I would have definitely gone through the windshield.” — juice_ow
Camping alone
“Was camping in the middle of no where. Around 2 am I hear distant native drumming. I look around but can’t see anything. But it keeps getting louder and louder and LOUDER. Soon it sounds like there is a huge group of people banging on these drums all around me! I freaked the fuck out, ran in the dark towards my car, jumped in, turned the lights on, saw NO ONE, so I took off, all at around 2:30 am.” — feral_philosopher
Another drumming experience
“Years ago there was a boy fishing in a forest with his parents somewhere in the states. A man approached the boy while his parents were preoccupied and asked the boy to come over to the man’s house for dinner, the boy joined the man and lost track of time. It got late and the boy stayed the night and the next morning had breakfast at the man’s house and asked the man if he could show him the way back home because the boys parents must have gotten worried. So the man agreed and brought the boy back to the fishing spot said goodbye to the boy and left.
When the boy got back his parents and a group of other people came running to him crying because apparently the boy had been missing for a few days already, while the boy thought he had only been gone for less than a day. When they asked him where he was he wanted to turn around and point to the house where he slept and had dinner with the mysterious man but it was gone.
His parents and other people that had been searching for the boy all reported hearing native drumming the whole time while the boy was gone and the drumming stopped once they had found the boy…” — xAmylicious
“He’s ours now.”
“My mother told me when she was pregnant with my brother she used to get crazy nightmares of “shadow-figures” that kept harassing her 2-3 times a week claiming that they are coming for “him.” She never understood what it meant until she gave birth to my brother but 8 weeks pre-mature. He unfortunately didn’t make it, parents had to make the decision to pull the plug and let him rest peacefully. 2 days after that whole ordeal she had the same nightmare but instead they were taunting her saying ”We got him, he’s ours now,” and never had a single one of those nightmares again, that was 20 years ago.” — Nightimez
The fog
“I was playing with a drone with my friend at our elementary school after-hours. I went to pick up the drone, and when I did, it became incredibly foggy and quiet. I went back the way I came, since that’s where my friend was. I kept running in that direction, and it just kept getting foggier and it felt like I was being watched. Eventually, my friend just appeared, and the fog went away.
Me: “Weird how the fog went away like that.”
Friend: “Fog?”
Me: “yeah, it was foggy for nearly 10 minutes. I could barely see.”
Friend: “It hasn’t been 10 minutes.”
Me: “But I was running back here for what felt like ages.”
Friend: “No, you’ve been standing still for about 30 seconds.”
To this day, I still don’t know what happened.” — placeholderNull
Ghost on the road
“Was driving home real late one night. Buddy was asleep. I swear I saw a ghostly old lady walking down the side of the road in a nightgown looking scary af. I didn’t turn around and didn’t tell my buddy. I’m not sure if I saw her or it was just a trick. I think about it sometimes though.” — First_Uchiha
Final destination
“I work at a home improvement store and I work around powered equipment all the time.
One night I had a dream I was spotting for my coworker carrying a unit of 2×4’s, on isle 29 (this parts important) and I remember my vision went black and I thought to myself “That motherfucker actually killed me!”… then I woke up and was relieved it was only a dream.
Fast forward a couple more days. I was spotting for my coworker, and he was carrying a unit of 2×4’s, on isle 29, and something flipped in my brain, and told me to walk a little faster, next thing I know the driver of the forklift, unexpectedly floored it, and slammed into the panel saw, it would have easily crushed me if I didn’t listen to my brain… after that I remembered that dream, I freaked out on the driver and some harsh words were said… he lost his license.” — ResponsibleHippy
I predicted my brother’s death
“In 2015, I had just started a business with my brother flipping houses. He had been on a road trip with his daughter for a little over 1 week and had just gotten back home. I spoke with him on the phone and he said that he would be down to meet me at the property that we had just remodeled that friday to finish it up and get it listed. When I hung up the phone, I was walking into the kitchen when I thought to myself, ‘he isnt coming because he is going to have a heart attack and die tomorrow”.
I have been scolded in the past for being negative and so I just kept it to myself and tried to put it out of my mind. The following day I was sitting on the edge of my bed, when my phone rang. I looked at the caller id and it was my mother. I immediately knew what the phone call was going to be about. I picked up the phone and my mother said that my brother had just had a heart attack and they were trying to revive him. She said she would call me back.
I knew without a shadow of doubt that he was already gone. I walked into the kitchen and stood there in a daze. I looked up at the wall where the late afternoon sun was casting a bright spot and found my self staring at it. It seemed to get brighter and wider and in an instant it had surrounded me and was holding me. I wasn’t scared. I just stood there letting the bright light envelope me. Just as quickly as it happened, it was gone and I was brought back to reality by the sound of my phone ringing. I realized I had been holding my breath and answered it. It was my mother saying that he had died. To this day I cannot explain this.” — diamonddogday
Elf on the Shelf
“We had an Elf on the Shelf as a kid, I walked downstairs and it was in the same spot as the previous day, in a little glass candle box that had a latch on it. Being small, I assumed the poor thing was locked in there overnight, so I opened the door and went upstairs to tell my parents. They were both asleep when I got up there, and the only other person in the house was my baby brother. After I told them our elf was trapped, I walked back downstairs and it was on the chandelier.
At the time I was like ‘well duh, he’s alive.’ Now, I am terrified of the thing. I sometimes wonder if I imagined it.” — bloop_bob
It wasn’t the dogs
“I grew up in an old farm house. It was around 150 years old (must be around 175 now) located in a sparsely populated area in north central Iowa. Very rural. There were a lot of small odd occurrences over the years my family lived there, but the most frightening one for me occurred when I was a teenager. I was old enough to be home alone, but not old enough to drive. My parents and older sister were all out for the night so it was just me and the dogs at home. I settled in to watch a movie in the living room located on the first floor of the house when I heard someone walking heavily in the hallway above me. This house had plank wood flooring with nothing remotely sound insulating. These steps were distinct, heavy, and unmistakable. I knew I was the only person home and the house was miles from the closest neighbor, let alone town. My stomach was in a knot, but tried to be logical and quickly decided it must be a dog (even though the steps sounded much too heavy for our small terriers). I leaned forward in the recliner to call for them, but as I leaned forward I saw that both dogs were already sitting at my feet. And they looked terrified. I took the dogs, the wireless house phone, and ran out of the house, and locked myself in my mom’s car in the driveway. I called my parents and waited in the car for them to get home. They had both had enough experiences in the house to not doubt me.” — arnyrimmer
Screaming
“One time I was in my room trying to go to sleep when my closed laptop randomly blasted screams of what sounded like a woman in pain. I still have NO IDEA how that happened, but it scared the shit out of me.” — caitycha
Night terror
“As a kid (maybe 12) I walked in to my mums room to kiss her goodnight. I didn’t realise she was asleep and as I entered I woke her. She saw me standing in the doorway and jumped straight out of bed. She grabbed me and threw me on to the bed and tried to choke me out, while kind of clawing at my face. I grabbed a pillow to try to put it between us but she was on top of me and screaming. I remember seeing her face in the light coming from the hallway and she was crazed. I kept screaming at her “it’s me! It’s me!” But she wouldn’t stop. Somehow I got out from under her and I ran out into the loungeroom where my dad was stood up, about to see what was going on. I grabbed him and threw him between me and my mum, who was right behind me and still clawing at my face. He grabbed her and bear hugged her, while her arms reached out over his shoulders, still clawing at me. I don’t know how but she woke up, and immediately started crying, really sobbing, and apologising. She said she was stuck in some sort of not quite asleep, not quite awake state and when I stood in the doorway all she could see was that I was wearing her face, and she felt she had to get it off me. We stayed up all night crying and I still won’t walk in a room if someone is asleep.” — PiperPug
Kidnapped
“When I was 10 years old, I was abducted while my family and I were camping at a state lake. My parents had to run some errands, so all us kids were left with one of our aunts. I went to a creek next to where our camper was to go fishing, probably about ~75 yards or so. I had forgot my bait and didn’t wanna go back for it. (un)lucky for me, a man was there so I asked him for some worms. Said they were in his car just around the corner. He guided me there, and that’s when it happened. I was gagged and taken to a different part of the park grounds.
What happened next, as one could imagine, are the things my nightmares were made of for countless years to come. I’m 33 now and still recall with vivid details the things that were done. Thankfully I was found within about 2 hours of my abduction. Unlucky for him, it was my father who found us first. The man somehow managed to escape my fathers wrath and flee. He was apprehended by state troopers and local pd about 30 minutes later. Queue all the legal shenanigans, and sentencing – dude was a repeat offender and still only received like 12 years prison. My family kept tabs on him while he was in custody and were notified of his release. The second scariest thing was the day he was released, my heart dropped. He’s long been a fragment of past and I learned to not live in fear over that any longer.” — ImNotSoClutch
Seizures
“Despite having no history of epilepsy or related issues, I had a series of seizures at work back in 2018. It started with the simple “walk into a room and forget why” at the time, except I completely forgot the few seconds it took me to walk there. Then it escalated and I could feel something coming on. I didn’t have convulsions, but my body couldn’t respond to anything. I was just stuck, staring straight ahead unable to speak or move. I didn’t know what was wrong with me. EEG and vitamin deficiency tests all came back ok in the hospital, so it was written off as stress. I’m constantly worried about it happening again due to the nature of my work.” — LizaLen
Ghost in my bed
“A few nights ago, in a row, I woke up thinking someone was in bed with me. To the point where yesterday I woke up and started talking to them, but when I rolled over no one was there. Really weird sensation. I have no idea how to describe that hollow feeling.” — Extrasherman
Feeling of deep dread
“It was short lived but I thought my toddler was with his father, his father thought he was with me (I was in a room feeding the baby). We were at a relative’s property, a property with a murky water dam on it. Never felt such deep dread in my entire life. Turned out he had spotted a small horse in the meadows and that’s where I found him, near a fence watching the horse.” — [deleted]
Painkillers
“That’s sort of how my dad passed when I was around 10. My dad just had some teeth stuff done and was prescribed some painkillers. I grew up with my mom and dad being separated so I had two households. I was told that he thought he had me for the night (I was with mom) and he couldn’t find me and he went searching for me. He ended up trying to scale a fence and fell and broke some of his vertebrae which caused him to become a quadriplegic. He survived two years in hospital. Everytime i think about it, I can’t imagine how scared he was trying to find me :(” — sneaky_tiger
Encounter with Fred West
“When I was 11 I was with a group of my pals a few streets away from home. A truck drew up and a man coaxed my friend to get in the cab, saying he’d buy her an icecream. We tried to tell her no but she was a messed up kid. They drove off to ‘get ice cream’ and we anxiously waited for her to come back, which she did about 20 mins later, minus ice cream. I went home and told my parents, who told her parents, they brought me to the police station and I had to give a description of him which was circulated by local newspapers. He was never seen in the area again…but four years later on a Sunday morning his face was on every newspaper and TV channel in the UK. It was Fred West, the serial killer. To this day, I don’t believe he would have brought her back if we hadn’t made such a fuss about her getting into a vehicle with a stranger.” — lyfshyn
Lion
“I was in Africa and every evening a big male lion would walk through the camp. He would roar outside my tent and it was blood curdling. I could even smell him he was so close.Nothing separated me from him but a thin layer of canvas. He would hang around for 45 minutes to an hour at a time. You cannot imagine the horror of that sound.” — BeautifulStick5299
Ghost town
“Was in a very small town in the middle of nowhere in southeast Washington. I parked on the highway at a place Google says is a store. I heard a voice from the distance calling “you break down??” I yelled back “no” and started toward the store. The voice called out “It’s closed”. I thanked the voice. When I left, I drove by the house where the voice was coming from. Nobody was there. The curtains were open but it was dark inside, even at dusk. No cars in the driveway. Nobody.
I never saw anyone in that town. I saw a street cruiser motorcycle with passenger approach the town, but it turned off the highway onto a road that turns to gravel 1/2 mile away.
A literal ghost town.” — CharacterSample4964
Tick bite
“For many years I had the feeling my little brother wouldn’t survive childhood. I can remember actively ruminating about when he might die. I would think about the future and have feeling he wouldn’t be there. It was a strong and pervasive feeling and it’s like I was expecting it to happen anytime. When he was 16 he went hiking and was bitten by a tick. He fell ill and then dropped into coma for a week. It took about three weeks for him to get back to normal. But I realized very soon after that the feeling he was going to die had completely evaporated.” — flippenstance`
Glitch in the matrix
“Was driving down a road and someone ran a stop sign. Totaled my car. Police came and took all the info. Next day I go to get a rental car and they ask for my driver’s license. No where in Mt wallet. I think we’ll maybe its in my totaled car. I go to where they towed it and search the car, nothing. I call the officer from the accident and asked if he forgot to give it back. He says no he handed it back to me. So I take everything out of my wallet. Nothing. Even my wife went through it. So I get my information together and go to the motor vehicle center to get a replacement. Get everything done and they hand me my replacement license. Open up my wallet to put it away and there is my original license where I always keep it. But I know I check there first thing. Still can’t figure out where it was or how it got back in my wallet.” — bbk7163
The third person
“One time when I was 17 my girlfriend at the time and I were laying in bed, she was sleeping and I was just laying there cuddling her. We were facing towards my window with the bedroom door on my back, which was closed. It was pitch black I wasn’t on my phone or anything just laying there. All of a sudden I feel something touch my shoulder, not just a light touch but it felt like a physical person had touched me. It scared the shit out of me I jumped up and shot down towards the end of my bed. I looked behind me and nothing was there, I ran to turn on the light. And my girlfriend asked me what was wrong. I told her what happened and she told me right before it happened she was having a dream, in the dream she was looking at us in the third person and saw someone behind me. In her dream the person touched me. As soon as it did in the dream is when it did in reality. Up to that point I already believed in the paranormal, but that experience definitely solidified it.” — YungRylo
Reach out and touch faith
“To this day I don’t know if this actually happened, or if I dreamt it.
I experienced waking up in the middle of the night with my eyes closed and my shoulders lifted off the bed, as if I’m doing half of a sit-up. My right arm was also raised upwards and hanging in mid-air with my hand pointing towards the ceiling.
With my eyes still closed, I felt a firm grip on my hand, as if someone had it in a handshake.
I opened my eyes and looked into dark empty space. I still felt a very firm grip on my palm. I felt a male presence, but I couldn’t see anyone. After a few seconds, my arm and shoulders dropped and I went back to sleep.
I told this story to my mother (who I lived with) five years later. She said she often felt the presence of an old man in the house, and once thought she saw him in the early hours of the morning.” — messiosa
Guardian angel
“When I was little I was crawling to a dresser and playing with the bottom ( the one I can reach mostly ) before felling my legs being pulled away from it, scared the shit out of little me but now I realize the dresser could have fallen on me if I had messed with it more, and maybe the spirit just didn’t want me to get hurt really bad so it pulled on my legs away from it so nothing bad would happen.” — Ram_oftheworld202
School shooting
“I was a junior in high school and a recent transfer student who got expelled at another school started shooting in the commons. Everyone hangs out in the commons before school so it was super crowded and dangerous.
I remember hearing the first shot and thought a table collapsed. No one even batted an eye. My orchestra teacher came out of his office and was immediately suspicious and said “You guys, what was that?” Then a few seconds later, the second bang. We knew then what was happening.
I happened to be in the orchestra room right next to the commons and we had an exit that lead to the parking lot. But in school they teach you whenever there’s an emergency to hide in a corner. I remember trying to hide in a practice room but it was locked. Then my friends and I ducked under a piano and students starting swarming in the room from the commons. At that point our orchestra teacher said “Go” and had us run out the exit instead. It was a brave decision he made, and running to our cars was the longest run of my life. I remember ducking as I ran because I thought there might be other shooters aiming for us runners. As I ran I realized I didn’t even have my car keys or phone, and didn’t know where to go. Luckily we made it to the back of the parking lot and met up with a few friends and crammed 6 of us in a 4 seater.
I’ll never forget the faces of my peers around me scarred with fear. And I’ll never forget legitimately thinking I might die that day.
After aimlessly driving and making phone calls to our parents with one phone, we were able to watch the news and saw that there was no one injured. It turns out our government teacher bravely tackled the shooter to the ground. He was known throughout the state and even threw a pitch for the Mariners game!
I’m very grateful it didn’t end how most shootings do.” — emilychristine9
Almost dying
“I survived being struck by a pick-up truck that was traveling about 50 mph. Lots of broken bones, internal damage to muscle and organs including my heart and brain, and lots of pain.” — seaneboy
Horror house
“My parents have always sworn their house is haunted, but not by human ghosts, by animal ghosts. Later on we found out the guy who used to live there actually made a habit of drowning animals in the lake out back.” — DeseretRain
Living next to a haunted prison
“We bought a house in the Fairmount section of Philly; our front steps faced Eastern State Penitentiary (the first US Penitentiary, where they did crazy horrible stuff to people). Never thought much of the fact, but there were so many times unexplained shit would happen at the house. We eventually had kids, and it scared the hell out of them too. Doors closing randomly at 3am. One time our large kitchen window just fucking shattered. Ugh and so many times I would wake because I swore I heard someone walking up our long stairway. At first it was easy to ignore because I don’t believe in paranormal. However, one night a drugged up lady somehow got into our house (doors Auto locked so we never figured out how) and when I heard the noise I went down to see and this lady looked like a god damn zombie. She was screaming at me about her husband and kids – it was somewhat traumatizing. We ended up moving two years ago (after 8 years of that shit).” — FunkSiren
Haunted mansion
“I used to work as an assistant in an old mansion that was converted into an art museum in New England. The basement and old kitchen quarters were turned into the museum shop- with back wings being more smaller galleries. The servants staircase opened into a very narrow hallway that lead towards the back rooms of the basement, or to the front of the shop- all beneath ground level.
The stairs were kept locked from everyone except staff and the only way to the basement was to enter from the outside courtyard through a door that was right beside the shop counter. Infront of the counter was an old tv mounted in the upper corner that showed security cameras to the back galleries- but the camera switched only when motion was detected in the area.
It’s a late winter night- i am staying late doing homework while the owners are in New York. The only other person in the building should be the house manager who I know is working on the fourth floor.
I am hanging out at the shop counter in the basement when I hear some noise in the back galleries. I assume it’s a patron who was making their way out but no one comes out from the hallway, so I call down to the back that the museum is closed, and I’d be happy to show them out the back way. No answer- but now the security camera starts switching to different empty galleries.
Only slightly on edge, I pick up the phone to call up to my manager when- on the opposite of the ahop counter- a revolving card stand full of classic postcards starts slowly turning. I think the look on my face is more surprise than anything else. Its a heavy, old stand and it takes some force to get it going- but when the turning of the stand abruptly stopped and began going the other direction I noped right out of there.” — GinaTRex