Normally, when we check in on Reddit, it’s to share some fun, light-hearted stories, like teachers talking about their students’ homework fails or people talking about the dumbest things they believed as kids. But when Redditor VANIX1450 asked, “What was the creepiest or most paranormal thing that’s ever happened to you?” we couldn’t stop scrolling through the answers.*
*Please note that the following answers have been edited and truncated for readability.
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1. The Bark Light
“One evening we are all sitting with our backs to the hallway, watching a movie. All the sudden my German Shepherd and my terrier both perk up their ears and start staring down the hallway behind where we are sitting. I notice and turn around (the light in the hall was off, it was dark) but of course don’t see anything. Five mins later, they’re still staring and now growling. This time my wife and I turn around and we both watch as the light switch on the wall gets flipped to ‘on.’ Dogs went CRAZY and so did we!” — Noisyrussinator
2. Tennis, Anyone?
“A few weeks later. Same scenario, light is off and we are watching a movie. My German Shepherd loved to play fetch and we always had a million balls around to entertain her. This time, she’s staring down the hallway and wagging her tail. This time, we all notice again and start to watch. I swear to God, a ball, single orange tennis ball came rolling down the hallway towards her. We all went white.” —Noisyrussinator
3. The Five-Alarm Nightmare
“My mom-in-law was having these dreams a few weeks after moving in about the house catching on fire and burning to the ground with us all inside.
We woke up one morning and distinctly smelled smoke coming from the house somewhere. Panicked, we all started searching and eventually came to the garage.
On a rafter, we noticed a smoke coming out from around a fluorescent light fixture. … The light was left on all night and it was clearly burning the rafter ever so slightly.
So we like to think our ghost hosts were looking out for all of us. After that, her dreams stopped.” — Noisyrussinator
4. With Friends Like These…
“I was having a tense conversation with someone that I was close to years ago. The conversation quickly devolved into a passive-aggressive fight that ended with the other person getting in the car and driving away.
As I started heading back inside, the other person came back, got out of the car, and started our conversation again. The tone of voice was totally different and the stance was different and the feeling in the air was completely off.
…the other person started saying some nasty and mean things that were completely out of character. I said, ‘This isn’t like you, Person.’ They said, ‘What makes you think that I’m Person?'” — brierpatchkid
5. A Helping Hand
“I was about 17, and was in my bedroom crying my eyes out over something.
I remember thinking, ‘ Please, someone, just help me !’ Not a prayer as such, I’m not really sure if that does any good; more sort of a mental scream into the void.
And then I felt a something on my left shoulder, as if someone was standing behind me and resting their hand on me. I could feel the weight of each individual finger, and the palm cupping my shoulder, and I could feel warmth from it. It didn’t scare me, but it was enough to stop me crying.” — BellisPer
6. Going Off the Rails
“I was driving to pick up my friend from the airport around 10 at night.
…we came upon a train yard on our left. A very spooky, very generic horror movie train yard. Nothing crazy yet, except for the fact that it went on and on and on. We probably spent 10 minutes driving at 45 miles an hour down a dark back road with a train yard on our left and a train on our right blocking the view.
Eventually we made it back into society and picked up my friend from the airport. We told him all about the spooky train yard and train and were excited to drive back and show him just how much it was like a generic horror film. We drove back down the same roads. It wasn’t there. We never passed a train yard.” — JerryVonJingles
7. It Doesn’t Matter If You’re Black and White
“My boyfriend and I woke up in separate parts of the house in hysterics, naked and covered in sweat. When we both finally calmed down and talked we realized we had the same dream of being surrounded by a group of black and white people with no mouths.” — beestingers
It’s no wonder that a fellow Redditor named MaggotStorm replied, “Whenever s*** like this happens the logical answer is: get out of the house.”
8. The Guardian Angel
Redditor TheLumpyPumpkin97 claims that they’ve been haunted all their life, and talked about their experience being stalked and ultimately attacked by a man they didn’t know. Somehow, it was their rescue that ended up being the spookiest part.
“After maybe 5 minutes of a struggle the man hit me. Next thing you know, the alarm on the window goes off, waking up my housemates and scaring off the man.
Next day the police were called. We gave them access to the CCTV footage at either end of the alley. … Later that day, my housemates and I decided to check the footage to see what caused the alarm to go off. There was nothing. No bird, cat or any other animal. The alarm just went off. This had never happened before and didn’t happen anytime after either.
I’m convinced it was my ghost. It used to freak me out but I’m kinda glad it’s around now.”
9. Dad’s Friend
“My brother and I were home alone one night watching TV.Father came home and pushed the door ajar and poked his head through to say hello, we both turn around and say hello back, father closed door.30 seconds after, another man opens the door to say hello, we both turn around and say hello back, man closes door. … about 5 minutes later I head into the kitchen where my father was … I ask my father who his friend is.My father looks at me and asks me, ‘What friend?’I reply, ‘The guy who came back with you.’Dad looks at me thinking I’m some sort of weirdo. He says, ‘I came back home on my own.’Remembering the man’s face, he was pale looking and bright white hair.” —ZPM89
10. The Lights Are On and Someone’s Home
“When I was in college I house sat for my parents. I’m a bit of a scaredy cat so I locked every door leading up to the bedroom when I went to bed at night. I had the weirdest dream that someone unlocked each door and turned on every light, I felt cold and woke up to my dog barking. All of the lights in the house were on and every door open and unlocked. My dog wouldn’t stop barking at nothing in the hallway. I sat in the shower with my dog and a phone the rest of night scared to death.” — bajashrimpwithmango
11. The Unsilent Shadow
“I got home from work very early in the morning … All of a sudden I start to hear this…buzzing/vibrating?…noise behind me off to the right. House is old so maybe just weird house noises.
…I notice that the noise is getting louder, closer, and it has risen in pitch to something like if a woman was humming loudly. … Out of the corner of my eye, I see a shadow that I thought was from light reflecting outside, move towards me creeping along the wall…that’s when I noticed the vibrating noise was also getting closer to me and it seemed to be coming in the same direction as the now moving shadow. I’m s****ing my pants trying to open this d*** door and when I finally do, the noise stops, the shadow disappears, and I’m hoping it was all in my head.” — Vern4813
12. Dad
“March 2015. My father passed a month or so earlier. I wasn’t sleeping well. I would be up later and later at night. My father used to always give me s*** for staying up so late because it’s ruining my sleep schedule and affecting my work, standard parenting stuff.It’s about 2:30 a.m. and I’m watching YouTube on my PS4. Power in the house flickers. I check the window, no rain or wind or anything. I figured somebody hit a pole somewhere.A couple minutes later, power goes out for almost a whole minute. From the couch, I can see the street light outside is still lit, as well as the other houses on the street. Power comes back on and EVERYTHING is still as it was. Video continues where it left off, clocks haven’t reset, nothing. I audibly said, ‘OK,’ and went to bed.Fast forward to January of this year, 3-year anniversary of my fathers passing, I can’t sleep. I’m upstairs of my NEW home, watching Netflix. Power flickers and goes out. I immediately said, ‘OK, I’m going to bed.’Power comes back on.Dad doesn’t like when I stay up too late.” —battlerazzle01
13. The Scent of an Old Woman
“My grandmother’s house had a very distinct smell. Nothing bad though, just a grandmother’s house smell. Anyway, when she came to visit us she always used to sit in a specific chair in the living room. Shortly after she passed away my father, my older sister and myself came home and when we walked into the living room and we all smelled her. My Dad said, ‘Hello, Ethel,’ and the smell disappeared. I would be skeptical if just one of us experienced this but it was all three of us.” — WorldWideDarts
14. Ashes to Ashes
“I don’t smoke and I don’t have many friends who do, but I keep several ashtrays at home, just in case. So, one day, about a year ago, I was looking for some papers and I found one of those ashtrays in one of the cupboards.
I was pretty busy that day, so instead of putting the ashtray back in the cupboard, I just laid it on the kitchen table and went to do some repair work in the garage.
I returned inside the house about an hour later, and the ashtray, still lying on the kitchen table, was filled with cigarette ash. No cigarette butts, just ash.” — Elementaryfan
15. You’ve Got Something on Your Face
“One afternoon in college I came back from classes and decided to sit on the couch and have a snack. After that I just passed out. I had a nightmare of some bloody-faced demon-ish thing screaming in my ear at the top of its lungs.My roommate comes back later that night … At some point he lets out this random, startled scream which leads to me running down the hall tosee what’s going on. He looks at me and goes, ‘I swear to god someone with a bloody face just walked from your bedroom into the bathroom.'” —CrispyConan
16. The House in East Saint Paul
“I used to have this reoccurring nightmare about this lizard-man type monster who could see what I could see out of my eyes. So I’d run and hide and he didn’t know where I was, but then as soon as I peeked to see if it was safe — he’d know where I was!
I once mentioned the lizard man to my dad, and he got super white in the face and his voice was all shaky and he just said, ‘This dream took place at our house in East Saint Paul? The one with the apartments right behind it?’ And I said, ‘Yes! That’s where I’d always go to hide!… How did you know that?!’ And he said, ‘Because I have the exact same dream.’ — Outrageous_Claims
