We asked members of the BuzzFeed Community to tell us about a personal paranormal experience that transformed them from a supernatural skeptic to a true believer. Here are the most terrifying responses:
1. The plus one.
I was 13, home alone with a friend who was visiting from out-of-state. She told me about an "imaginary friend" she had and how she would use a Ouija board to speak to it. I told her it was fake, but she insisted that she prove it to me. She took out her Ouija board and asked the entity if it could give us a sign. The board spelled out "L-O-O-K-A-T-T-H-E-W-I-N-D-O-W." When we looked up, three birds crashed into my bedroom window all at once. Let's just say she and her "friend" weren't invited back to my house.
2. The reunion.
My childhood best friend and I got into a huge fight and lost contact. When I turned twenty, I had a dream that she walked up to me, arms outstretched, and said "I miss you, I'm sorry." The next day, I was home with my then-boyfriend and we heard a knock at the door. There my old friend stood, arms outstretched, and the first thing she said was "I miss you, I'm sorry." I just hugged her without a word and all was forgiven. The next week my boyfriend left me for another girl, and that friend was the only reason I got through it.
I believe the universe gave me what I needed.
3. The succubus.
When I was a kid, my cousin and I were playing around with some ghost-summoning stuff and we recorded it, thinking it was all just silliness. However, once we watched the video back, I stopped mid-summoning and randomly said, "SUCCUBUS" out loud. I have absolutely no memory of saying that.
4. The corner.
I have a friend who lives in a VERY old house. My son is 1 year old and her daughter is two years old, and whenever they're upstairs, they'll suddenly stop playing and stare intensely at this specific corner without speaking. We have another friend who brought her 2-year-old daughter over recently for a play date, and she stopped and stared into the corner as well.
5. The regular resident.
I was 14, sitting on the couch at my mom's house, home alone, at night. My dog started to growl out of nowhere. I looked up from my laptop and saw a woman walking across my kitchen. This was a solid-ass person I saw, like, I legit thought someone broke into the house, so I ran out the front door. Two years later my brother had a friend sleeping on the couch and the next morning he asked me why I "kept walking around the kitchen all night." I wasn’t.
6. The guardian grandpa.
I’ve had weird things happen to me all of my life, but I've always been a skeptic. That is, until May 13th, 2014 when I had a dream that my grandfather (who died when I was seven-months-old) told me I was going to "become very sick tomorrow, but would be alright." That afternoon, I had a seizure...my first seizure ever. I had another seizure the next day, and then another after that. We still don’t have answers to what’s going on with me, but even when I’ve been the most scared, I think back to that dream, and it’s oddly calming (though, still kind of creepy).
7. The musical mom.
My mother passed away October of 2010. About six months after her death, I was up at 3 a.m. watching TV when, out of nowhere, I heard my mother’s music box start playing from the dining room. I ran upstairs, woke up my dad, and tried my best to explain what I had just heard. We went back downstairs to find the dining room impossibly cold. After inspecting the music box I tried everything I could to get it to play again, but it wouldn't.
8. The name game.
9. The devil's touch.
My family has always claimed to have paranormal experiences, but I never really believed them until two years ago. We were all in our respective rooms asleep when my mother, my sister, and I all woke up at the EXACT SAME TIME screaming bloody murder. I had woken up because I felt a sudden excruciating pain. I ran out of my room to find the rest of my family freaking out, too. It turned out my mother and sister had had the same experience. We were even more unsettled later when my 5-year-old sister kept saying, “The devil touched us,” because no one had ever explained the concept of "the devil" to her.
10. The not-so-imaginary friend.
As a little girl I had an imaginary friend named David. He had olive skin with dark hair and dark eyes. One day, while playing with my landlord's nephews, I told them about David. The oldest boy was very confused and called his aunt, my landlord's wife, over to talk to me. She asked me to describe David to her. As I did, she started to cry. Apparently, long before my family moved into her home, she had a baby boy who passed away from SIDS. His name was David, and he too had black hair and brown eyes and olive skin.
11. The self-summoning Ouija board.
I was having a sleepover with my friends and someone brought a Ouija board. A few girls left the room, but most stayed. I always thought it was fake and people were moving it, but we all lifted our fingers off and it kept moving. We asked the spirit if it knew anybody with us. It moved to "Yes," so we asked for the initials of that person. It went to "E," then to "K." There was nobody with those initials, so we said "Goodbye." The next day we told the girls who left the room what happened. One of them turned red and said, “Oh my God, those are my initials!” Her middle name started with "K" and none of us knew. I am now a firm believer.
12. The restroom resident.
A couple years ago I visited Savannah, Georgia and went to a restaurant called the Olde Pink House. While I was using the women’s rest room on the top floor, I started to feel uneasy. I looked in the mirror while washing my hands and I saw a woman standing right behind me, but only for a split second. Later that night we went on a ghost tour and, as we were driving past the house, the guide explained how in the 18th century an elite family lived in that mansion and a woman hung herself in the closet, which is now the women’s restroom. Ever since then I haven’t questioned the existence of the paranormal.
13. The lease-breaker.
I’ve never believed in ghosts until I moved into a VERY old house this year. The weird activity started with intact lights suddenly switching off, then escalated to people hearing loud music. I once woke up in my room to find all of my posters hung upside down and my things scattered on the floor. It got to the point where I had a camera installed, since I was worried someone was breaking into my home, but the shadowy figures and bizarre high pitched screeches on the tapes were enough to make me terminate my lease.
14. The bro ghost.
Nothing paranormal happened to me and I didn't believe any of it. Then, I met my boyfriend. There was a corner of his room that always had a strange energy. We were watching a movie one night and it felt like someone was watching me. I kept looking up at that spot, so my boyfriend finally asked what was wrong. I told him and he responded nonchalantly, "Oh yeah, that's where my ghost likes to hang out." Apparently, his family is sensitive to the paranormal. They have a ghost that follows the men in the family. When he moved into his own house, it followed him. We hear voices and footsteps, feel hands touch us, and see shadowy figures. I can't explain it. But hey, seven years later and I'm still with my boyfriend, ghost and all.
15. The phantom phone.
When I was in high school my friends and I were playing with a Ouija board. We were SUPER skeptical about the paranormal, so my friend asked the “spirit” to call her phone. The planchette was unmoving, so I jokingly suggested we say her phone number out loud for the "spirit." Not even a full second after she said the final digit, her phone began to ring. We all freaked out and ran. After we composed ourselves, we went back to check her phone. It was turned off. We turned it back on and saw she had a single missed call from a restricted number. Later that night, several of her contacts texted her, claiming they had multiple missed calls from her number during the time frame her phone was off. I never touched a Ouija board again.
16. The missing mom.
I met my college roommate on move-in day. There were four people with her: her father, her stepmom, her aunt, and another woman who kept walking around the car, avoiding me. After everyone was gone I asked my roommate, “Who was the third woman with you?” She said, “Well, there was my stepmom, Lori, and my aunt, Carol.” I said “No, she had curly hair and blue top." My roommate shrugged and assured me that the woman must have been with another group. Later that night, she put up some pictures and I recognized the woman. "That's the woman! What’s her name?” I felt vindicated, but my roommate just looked at me and said, “That’s my mom, she died when I was 7.” Both of us were very freaked out.
17. The visiting uncle.
My husband's brother died unexpectedly. He was the best uncle ever to our daughter, who had just turned two when he passed. She attended the funeral, but we told her that he was "sleeping for a long time, and we would see him later." Fast forward one full year, and she randomly started talking about him. "He's with Jesus in the real church! It's beautiful! He's happy. We will go later!" We have never discussed the concept of heaven with her, and we aren't very religious.
18. And, finally, the Ouija magician.
My best friend and I used Ouija boards a lot growing-up. I never fully believed it was real until one night. We asked if anyone was there. "Yes." It was a twelve-year-old girl. My friend suggested playing a guessing game, so I asked the girl if she wanted to play. "Yes." I got a deck of cards, picked a random card, and left it face down. I said, “Okay, tell me what is on the card?” The planchette moved around a bit, as if confused. Finally, it moved to “7,” then “R-E-D-7." I turned the card over and it was the seven of diamonds.
We both haven’t used a Ouija board since then, December 2012.
