#21

Well one day I got to class, first one there and all, and my teacher leaves to get something from the printer. She says she's not supposed to leave me alone in the room, but since she's gotten to know me and trusts me she'll just lock the door behind her and will be back in two minutes.
She leaves, I hear the door lock, and not ten seconds later one of the chairs of a desk in front of me SLAMS itself into the desk. I practically wet my pants, unlocked the door and bolted for the front office. Never went to school early again.
Another reason certain encounters remain so memorable is the way fear influences memory formation. The BBC explains that frightening experiences can activate the brain's survival mechanisms, prompting the release of stress hormones such as adrenaline, cortisol, and norepinephrine. These chemicals influence how memories are created, helping the brain prioritize emotionally significant details.
The amygdala, which processes emotional reactions and potential threats, works closely with the hippocampus, which is responsible for forming and storing memories. Together, they help preserve information that might be useful if a similar situation occurs again. This is why even a single frightening encounter can leave such a strong impression, sometimes remaining memorable long after the original event has passed.
#22

#23
Basically, on the hill above the city I live, there are a string of rather large defensive forts. My grandfather was the curator and lead tour guide of one of these forts. They date back to Napoleonic times when the British were afraid of a French attack on the city, because of it's importance to supplies and the navy.
They're not incredibly creepy places - maybe that's because I'd spend every weekend roaming the tunnels or doing errands there - but this one event left me shocked and incapable of going back down there alone, even 12 years later.
As I mentioned, under the forts are a network of tunnels that descend, in places, up to 100 feet below the chalk. Some of them are to access the defensive trenches that form the fort's outer boundary, some of them contain gun emplacements. All of them are gently sloping, hewn from rough chalk and lit dimly by the only kind of lights that work so far underground - those dim mining ones that rely on the weakest electrical current.
All of the tunnels were familiar from me - they could all be accessed from a radial 'hub' that was right in the depths of the fort - except for one. I had always been forbidden to walk down it. The tunnel was of rougher construction than the rest, unlit, and never used. Other than that, from the top end, it was fairly unassuming - just something I was never allowed to see.
That was until I pestered my grandfather so much he decided to show me it. He grabbed a torch and we started down the tunnel. Immediately I regretted my decision - I wish I had photographs of it - but the smooth chalk walls I was used to in the other tunnels were replaced with this jagged texture that threatened to draw blood if you scraped them with an unlucky limb. My grandfather, curiously, was aiming the torch beam at the left wall of the tunnel, searching for something. He found it, perhaps halfway down. There, inscribed in the chalk, was a rough cross and a date that was nigh illegible.
"This is why you're not supposed to come down here," he said. "This tunnel was supposed to be condemed. Someone was crushed right here."
A chill ran through me and I asked to leave. My grandfather chuckled and carried on, saying that there was nothing to worry about.
I started to get a bad feeling from then on, as if someone was following us. Eventually we reached the bottom - a fairly regular gun emplacement met us. Then we turned to leave.
The nature of the tunnels meant you could see all the way up to the other end, where a door-shaped piece of light meant the security of the radial hub.
What me and my grandfather saw chills my bones and, like I said, means I can't go down there any more.
We were 100% sure we were the only people there - it was out of hours, and my grandfather always locked the main gate behind us when we entered the tunnel system to stop people trespassing and stealing the cannons or old munitions.
I swear to you Reddit, we saw the silhouette of a man slowly walk across the top of the tunnel, turn to face down to us, and then carry on. My grandfather is a brave man but he looked visibly aggrieved. What was worse - we knew we had to run UP the tunnel to get out, or be stuck in a 100 foot trench in the middle of winter. We had to pass the cross of that crushed tunnel worker.
I'll end my story here - obviously I made it out alive - but when someone tells me they don't believe in ghosts I tell them this story. Sorry for my verbosity. I have tears in my eyes right now.
TL;DR: Saw the ghost of a crushed tunnel worker, had to run past it to get out.
#24
I went to the kitchen to find some food and took it to my room to eat. When I was just outside my door, I had a strange feeling that someone was behind me, and that I wasn't alone in the house. Turning around, I saw nobody was there. Before I entered my room, I caught a glimpse of a misty figure about knee level. I was slightly creeped out but just brushed it off as nothing. I go into my room and sit on my bed, with the door closing behind me, but not completely shut. I was on my bed, staring at the door, still in disbelief about what I had saw. Suddenly, the door pushes open gently and slightly. Just like my dog used to do.
At that point, I wasn't scared, but more comforted in the fact he was there with me. It is a weird feeling, but if you've ever experienced it, you'd understand what I mean. I eventually told my mom what happened, several weeks later, and she said she had been experiencing strange things also. When we got a new dog, who was a 4 month old puppy at the time, she would also stare at things curiously. One time, she was staring at the curtains for the longest time, but staying were she was, and the curtains began gently moving, as if someone had touched them. There was no draft right there as I found out after.
I miss that sweet boy of mine. We rescued him from a life as an abandoned and mistreated dog, and was very loyal and protective of the whole family. Although this story wasn't as creepy as many others, I feel that my experiences justify why I believe in ghosts and residual energy.
However, remembering an experience vividly does not necessarily mean remembering every detail accurately. Fear can make certain moments feel incredibly clear while leaving gaps in the actual sequence of events.
Someone who witnesses something frightening might remember a strange figure's appearance, the sound of footsteps, or the expression on another person's face but struggle to recall precisely what happened before or afterward. The brain tends to prioritize details it considers important for survival rather than recording every aspect of an experience perfectly.
In more severe cases, particularly following trauma, these memories can resurface as nightmares, intrusive thoughts, or flashbacks, with certain reminders triggering intense fear even when the person is no longer in danger. This helps explain why unusual or frightening encounters can stay with people for years, becoming memories they find difficult to forget even when they cannot fully explain what happened.
#25
Me and my friend were having a drink downstairs and i came out of the kitchen and turned of the light that was shining outside and after i sat down he said that the light just blinked and after a couple of minutes we decided we should try to make contact with 'ghosts' to see if there are any in my house. (At this point my Grandfather (3 years d**d) at that time and my dog (Less then a year) were the only things i knew of that d**d nearby)
So after we made the ouija board my brother came downstairs and joined us. We decided that we were going to give it around 3 tries, the first time nothing really happend except for a little bit of moving of the glass but that could've been easily one of us. The second try went basically the same but my brother felt some chills down his spine and i thought that i saw a weird kind of mist walking past the couch he was sitting on.
On the third time, we didn't something would happen since nothing really happend the first two times but as soon as we wanted to leave, we heard a extremely loud BANG from the side. At that time i thought the f***ng wall collapsed or something in that nature. But it scared the living s**t out of everyone after that happend my brother quickly turned on the light and we saw what happend. A portrait of my dog was RIPPED of the wall. (on a side note; it was impossible to get that off with bare hands even) After that we rushed upstairs and tried to sleep. I didn't have so much trouble with it because if it's my dog that would be awesome but i've heard other things in the house aswell which makes me consider it. that was my story.
#26
The house me and my friends are currently renting is known for being haunted, particularly in the attic. None of the tenants really bought into the whole haunted thing, so we never really tell guests about it.
We hold small parties regularly, and we keep having intoxicated people ask questions like, "who are those people in the other room?" and "whats that guy doing upstairs?"
Once a guest was freaking out about the being watched by people in the attic.
When we went up there, the was a notebook of poorly drawn people sitting on a chair that looked 50 years old. The pictures were not obvious likenesses, but going by gender and facial hair they had matched all the people who had mentioned seeing "the strangers" in our house.
The attic is connected to my room, and we have doors randomly swing open by themselves fairly regularly. I still don't buy it.
TL;DR: Ghosts living in attic, draw house guests in creepy notebook.
#27
This all happened yesterday, and I'm still convinced my trombone is haunted
Perhaps the creepiest part of paranormal experiences is not always what people claim to have seen or heard, but how difficult some of these moments are to explain, even years later. While psychology and science can offer possible reasons behind unusual sights, sounds, and sensations, not every personal experience comes with a clear answer.
Sometimes, what stays with someone is the uncertainty of what happened and the feeling that they witnessed something they were never quite meant to understand. But now we're curious. Have you ever experienced something you genuinely couldn't explain, no matter how hard you tried? Share your strangest experiences in the comments. We'd love to hear your stories, even if they still give you goosebumps!
#28
The school was actually a really old house that had been converted, obviously we were in the oldest part of the house and our dorm was next to a music room, with a piano in it. The only way to get to that room was to go through our room, so that was why were were so 'on edge' when it happened.
Like I said it was a normal Wednesday night - we all messed about til midnight after being put to bed at 9pm, but were all asleep soon after that - it wasn't until 2am that I was woken up by the guy below me on our bunk bed who was talking rather quickly in a harsh whisper to 1 or 2 of the other guys. As I was listening to him for a second, I realised that he was talking about the noise that he could hear from the music room. It was the piano! It was being played! At 2am! I jumped and yelped - it freaked me out! Not in a scared way but a sort of - I'm creeped out cos someone is playing the piano in the middle of the night and I don't understand as I'm only 12 sort of way.
We were now all awake, listening tot he piano and talking about it, all wanting to know who was playing, so we all got out of bed and got near the door - it was so clear that it was the piano at this point, we were more scared of being told off by the master that would be playing it because we were all out of bed at such a late hour, but we as a group decided we needed to know who it was, so very slowly we all pushed the door open...
The light was off??!! So someone flicked the switch quickly and pushed the door open so that we could confront who was playing the piano.. No one! The piano wasn't being played by anyone - the cover wasn't even open. WHAT THE ACTUAL F**K? We didn't understand... we ran and woke up the Matron screaming what had happened, she didn't believe us so we all eventually got detention and sent back to bed.
I can safely say none of us slept well in that room for the rest of the year, it was all we could talk and think about. Nothing was ever proved - but there were other weird things that happened to other kids during my school years there. A teacher who is a friend of my Mum's left the school because of the erie sounds that she kept hearing and the glimpses of 'figures' but I dunno about all of that. What I do know is that I was really freaked out that night and can't explain what it was.
Notes: I don't actually believe in ghosts etc...even after this incident, I guess I was too young to have been fully affected + Sorry this is rushed - I'm at work.
#29
This isn't my own story, but my atheist, non-spiritual, cynical best friend's afterlife story. To know this kid, and to have him tell me this story while he's visibly trembling, scared the f*ck out of me, and still does. He moved into his grandfather's house a few years ago, so that he could take care of him, since his grandfather was frail and d***g from cancer. One night, after his grandfather had taken a turn for the worse, my friend was sitting in the living room, watching whatever comes on basic cable at 2am (he didn't get home from work until around midnight every night). He heard a loud crash come from his grandfather's bedroom. Thinking that his grandfather had fallen out of bed again, he ran down the hall, opened the door, and saw his grandfather still in bed, but with his back towards the door, and his right arm reaching for something in the far corner of the bedroom. That's when my friend saw "sparks" floating in and out of the wall and ceiling. He watched it for about 3 or 4 minutes. His grandfather's arm went back down and the "sparks" disappeared through the far wall. My friend closed the bedroom door, thinking that he was completely losing his mind and hallucinating, and sat back down in the living room. The next morning he was sitting at the kitchen table, eating breakfast, when his grandfather sat down with his oatmeal, or whatever, and they both just sat there eating in silence. My friend said, "Hey Pop... I heard some loud crashing noise come from your room last night. Is everything alright?" His grandfather immediately said, "You saw them!", then went on about how his d**d brother, cousin, and some other d**d family members came to take him away, and he was telling them that he wasn't ready to go and that they need to go away, and some other stuff that I can't remember. His grandfather d**d about a month later. He told me this story a couple of days after it happened, and I've heard him tell it a few times since, and it never changes.
#30
When I was about 11, I went through this really bizarre period in my life where I was exhausted all the time because I had started having really vivid, involved dreams, so it felt like I never slept.
The dreams were linear, and I was the star of them, but I was someone else: a girl named Cheryl who was sixteen years old, living in Texas in the eighties. There was nothing weird about the dreams in general; it was just that, for the entire time I was asleep, I was another person in a different body with a different family, doing perfectly ordinary things.
And the dreams always started out the same way: I would go to sleep as me, and "wake up" as Cheryl (but not really Cheryl, I knew I wasn't her, but couldn't convince anyone else I wasn't). I would go eat breakfast with her family, go to school, take her classes, talk to her friends, and then go back to sleep in her bed and wake up as me again.
This lasted for months (started off slowly, maybe one or two dreams a week, until finally they were every single night). In the real world, I started falling asleep in classes, had an overabundance of migraines (prone to them anyway), was constantly anemic and just generally sickly.
Nothing super awful happened in the dreams, except for the pressure of taking high-school classes with stuff I'd never learned before (because I was actually 11), and trying to pass courses based on material that was way above my age-range. Also, trying to fit in with her family and friends (because I was still me, just in her body, I didn't actually recognize them or remember them or our supposed in-jokes/family history).
I could pass it all off as just stress and say it was totally unremarkable if it weren't for the fact that I actually did learn s**t from the classes I took at her high school; stuff that I couldn't have known, hadn't studied, and wouldn't learn until I was in high school myself.
#31
My dog came with me when we got the house inspected. She was running up and down the stairs and seemed healthy and happy.
I was working in the house prior to moving in one day and was by myself in the basement. Around 5pm I heard a door close at the top the stairs. I then heard footsteps on the floor above. I then mistakenly started talking to whatever was there. I said they could stay if they didn't scare my wife or my pets. I went upstairs and found the front and back doors locked. I was inside the house alone. I then got a really intense feeling all over my body that felt like pins and needles to the tenth power.
The next day I was once again in the basement. I was rooting around in a toolbox when I saw a roll of sandpaper unraveling by itself. I was alone this time too. A short while later I was looking in another toolbox
and a case that was four feet away slammed violently on the ground. I then mistakenly spoke to the spirits again and told them to get out. I then heard a loud thud at the top of the stairs.
Shortly after this we moved into the basement and started to renovate the top two floors. I have never seen the kind of problems with a renovation that this house presented.
My daughter visited the house and said the master bedroom was haunted. She said the spirit comes and goes but shouldn't be a problem.
The problems continued. My dog also started to decline physically.
When we cleaned out the attic we found a voodoo love potion and spell book and a VD handbook together in a box. Unbeknownst to me my wife dug up a wheelbarrow full of trolls and other dolls in our backyard.
We took the dog to the vet a number of times and they could not find anything wrong with her. She would just lie under our bed day and night. Finally we took her to another vet in August. The vet told me she was full of cancer. We put her down the next day. We were devastated. I thought that whatever was in our house had harmed our dog. My wife and daughter disagreed.
I was also having nightmares regularly. They would almost always be some type of force holding me down. I would awake in terror after I couldn't get the force away from me.
We finally called in a guy who dealt with our type of problem. He said his cell phone just went blank as he walked up to our house. He said he could feel the energy coming from the house standing on the sidewalk in front of the house. He came inside the house and immediately went to the areas where I heard the noises and saw the sandpaper unravel. He said that someone had been practicing voodoo in the house and the core of the house was affected. He did a few things and drew a few symbols and you could feel an immediate difference in the house.
He explained that the spirits were trying to attack me. When I didn't back down or show fear they went after the dog. He said the dog sensed this and put herself in harm's way to protect me. He said the dog and I shared the purest form of love between us. This is making me cry as I write this.
Everything seemed fine inside the house for a short while. I started getting the intense pins and needles feelings again. This time there was no bad feelings associated with the sensation. I called the guy who cleared the house and he told me to call him back after 5 days. When I called back he told me that the dog was returning to the house to check up on us. I had a few more feelings like this after that. I also heard a knock at our basement door after I stepped inside the door. When I opened the door no one was there. I think it was my dog again.
We finished our reno and moved upstairs and there have been no incidents since.
#32
"No turn it the other way!"
"Shhh! Shut up you'll wake the girl up!"
The voices were loud-whispering and sounded really gruff and angry but I never heard any footsteps. They just went away. I was so scared I laid in bed until the sun came up and then ran to my sister's room. It still kind of creeps me out to think about it because of the idea that children can sense spirits more easily. I know what I heard and I know it wasn't a dream. Plus, my parents' house was owned by some really sketchy people before we lived there and it's a pretty old house, to boot.
#33
I sat up in my bed and asked him to repeat himself. Right as I did, the voice seemed to "fly" at me... like from the door, then get louder and louder as it approached my ears. It still sounded like my stepdad but there was something very odd about it. Twisted, almost. It kept repeating itself, I have no idea what it was saying, it definitely wasn't english. The voice was no longer coming from the inside of the door, it was coming from different directions all over my room.
I freaked out and screamed "leave me alone" and it immediately stopped.
I've heard similar voices at night a couple times since then, but nothing that intense. And I swear I'm not crazy.
#34
#35
On more than one occasion, nearly everyone in my family has heard the tinkling of the keys when no one is playing. I thought I saw her playing it one time as well, but I think it was just a shadow.
#36
#37
About 2 years ago me and buddy decided to go on a drive. It was a hot summers night and we were bored out of our minds, so we picked up some cigarettes and went on a late night drive. We decided to drive to the top of the mountain, the base of the mountain is about an hours drive from where i lived and it takes about another hour to drive all the way to the top where they have a restaurant/bar. This is in Norway by the way.
It was pretty late, around 3 am in morning, we knew the bar would be closed but we thought we would just chill on the benches, have a smoke and take in the view at first light.
So, we get to the base of the mountain and start driving up and round, the road twists round the mountain untill you get to the top, so when you reach a turn you can barely see round the corner. It was pitch black darkness, only the road was visible due to the street lights, but apart from the road, the edges and mountain side were barely visible.
We had been driving for about half an hour, everything was pretty enojyable, absolutely empty roads (guess all the sane ones were asleep in bed ready to wake up and go to work in the morning), complete silence, it was just relaxing.
As we turn one of the bends, i get this very uneasy feeling as i see something, definately a person, sitting on a boulder at the edge of the road. My friend see's this as well, but keeps driving, and im thinking, w*f bro, but i realise that he is turning the car round and going back because its pretty treacherous to reverse on that road.
So we head back, slowly, and i realise that he is fine! He's not getting any bad feelings, he is in his normal mood. So i convinced myself that im acting weird and that its probably just some crazy hiker.
We park the car right opposite this figure, engine still running, and my friend calls out, "hi there, are you ok" (i have to admit i was still pretty scared so i didnt say anything). No response.
The figure then looks up in our direction and we get the f*****g s**t scared out of us. We saw that it was a woman, wearing a plain white dress, with very long, beautiful hair, but her face was three time the length of a normal persons face, her eyes were completely blank and she had a smile on her face.
I swear to god we both felt so fearful that we were completely paralyzed. We couldnt yell, or even communicate, not even a single word, it felt like we couldnt move.
I dont know how he found the courage to press the gas and get the hell out of there. But i do remember that when we both got home we had a very high fever and we were like that for a couple more days afterwards.
#38
My family was pretty white trash, and on one particular evening my uncle and stepfather got into an altercation outside of our house wherein my stepfather got stabbed in the back. He fell on me coming back inside and in the process I got coated in blood. The cops were called and he was taken away in an ambulance as my mother and myself drove to the hospital. This was about 1am.
This is before the internet and cell phones and all that jazz, so there was no way anyone beyond our next door neighbors knew about this. When we returned back to the house at about 4 or 5 in the morning, there was a message on the answering machine from my best friend crying, apologizing for calling so late, but asking me to call her right away because she had dreamed of me being covered in blood. The message was time stamped as the same time the incident occurred, about 1am. We had missed her call because we were outside with the paramedics.
#39
Anyways, there is a youth sports camp that uses this dorm for a summer residence and I was a counselor so I stayed in the dorm with the kids. I was assigned to stay in the room that the aforementioned student d**d in. I grew up in the same town as this college, so I knew all about the "ghost" and didn't think anything of it, there's no such thing as ghosts, right? I moved in and the only thing that looked different about the room (compared to others in the dorm) was that there was a crucifix.
During my week s**t got weird. Several times I heard loud tapping from the inside of my window. One night, I poked my head outside of my door late one night and yelled "lights out" to some kids running down the hall - my lights promptly turned out inside my room.
Finally, during a break at the end of the week I went back to my room for a nap. I found my TV was on and the volume was extremely loud. I didn't think much of it, maybe the kids had been playing ps2 in my room and forgot to turn it off. I grabbed the remote, laid on the bed, and hit the power button...the TV stayed on. I took the batteries out, tried again, and still the TV was on. I picked my lazy a*s up, walked to the TV, and pressed the power button. Nothing. I turned the volume down. Nothing. I finally unplugged the TV and... Nothing. Totally freaking out, I unplugged the cable cord thinking maybe some weird surge through that was keeping the TV on. Nope. I sat there holding the TV power cord, cable cord, and remote and was watching my TV continue to play. I ran from the room, got another counselor, and showed them. He promptly freaked the f**k out and we left the building to get the camp director - and when he got to my room the TV was off. F**k.
TL;DR: Ghosts really wanted to watch Jerry Springer in my dorm room.
#40
The upstairs was an attic turned into bedrooms for my cousins. The best way I could describe it was like a pipe or a bottle, the sound of some kind of hollow object rolling back and forth across the floor in the room directly above me. I just sat there wide eyed and scared. Finally, I worked up the courage to get up and turn the lights back on. The rolling sound continued. I told myself it was just something in the walls, trying to come up with any rational explanation. I got up to turn the tv back on and just kinda drown out the sound. With the lights on I noticed the dogs, two big rottweilers, were sitting silently in the kitchen hair bristling and staring right at me. I backed away, honestly afraid they were going to attack me for some reason, but I realized they weren't staring at me. They were looking past me at the door that goes upstairs.
Well, s**t. That did nothing to settle my nerves, but there was no way in hell I was going up to investigate. I cranked up the tv, eventually coaxed the dogs into the living room, and after a while I was tired again. I left the tv on, just turned it down, laid back down on the couch and got some shut-eye. I don't know how long I was asleep, just that when I woke up it was still pitch black outside. What woke me up was the door. My feet were hanging over the arm of the couch I was sleeping on and the door that led upstairs had come open and hit my feet. If you've ever lived in an old house you will know this kind of door. It's an old door. The kind that's been warped from too many winters and rubs the frame when you shut it. The kind you would have to put your shoulder into to close it all the way and would have to really pull to open it again. Yet there it was, wide open to a pitch black staircase, the hinges creaking as it bumped against my dangling feet. I was up and out in seconds, the dogs right behind me. Put my shoes on in the car, put the dogs in their kennel, and was off to sweet sweet civilization. I didn't care about using all the gas to drive out and feed the dogs every day, I wasn't spending another night in that house.


