These 15 Skeptics Shared Their Weirdest Paranormal Encounters And I'll Now Be Sleeping With The Lights On

"I've never been so frightened in my d*mn life."

Hello to all the skeptics, the believers, and everyone else who falls somewhere in between the two! I don't know about you, but when it comes to ~paranormal activity,~ I can be a bit of a skeptic.

Fox / Via giphy.com

So, when reddit user u/LordMaboy asked, "What's the creepiest thing you've ever seen even though you are very skeptical about paranormal things?" my curiosity was piqued because apparently a lot of skeptics had some pretty weird things to share.

@Originals / Via giphy.com

So let's get to it – here are 15 eerie encounters skeptics had with the paranormal:

1. Only In the Dark

YTV/Family Channel/United StatesNickelodeon / Via giphy.com

"I had just woke up and I saw someone leaning over looking into my mirror and I immediately thought it was my sister stealing my makeup in the dark. Then I heard the shower running. Our parents had overlapping day and night shifts and no one was home except for us two. Then the damn figure straightened up and stared at me. I nearly had a heart attack and scrambled for my book light. Shined it over there and there was nothing. Turned it off and it was back and still moving. Slept with the light on for three days." 

–u/the-one-true-hobbit

2. Time to Pack Up

"Was working as an EMT in a rural small town for a few years. Was up late after a run finishing my report when I started hearing someone come down some wooden stairs in the bay about 40 ft from me. The stairs go up to a training room and it’s just me and my partner there. I go look, nothing there. I go sit back down and try to finish the report. Sound gets loud and fast down the stairs so I just get up and start walking out when the plug in for the ambulance just shoots out and crashes against the wall. Decided to finish my reports in the bunk rooms."

–u/Drake9214

3. Wake Up Call

Dimensions Films

"It was a saturday, I was taking a nap and in my dreams a girl with a white dress came to me, got near my ear, and started screaming. I instantly woke up and heard the door ringing, it was a friend that came over. The moment he comes in he asks if I'm with a girl at home. I was like, why are you asking? He said that he rang the bell and a girl answered. When he asked if i was home, she said "Yes, he's sleeping, I'll wake him up. Just a second". I was freakin traumatized." 

–u/fantik223

4. She Wasn't Hallucinating

"I worked in a memory care unit and one night this lady spent most of the evening talking to her husband, Jim. He had been dead for years. This kind of thing wasn't that unusual though, her mind wasn't sound and we figured it was just her memories and comforting for her to talk to him.

But then later that night another resident turned on her call light asked us to make the man in her room leave so she could sleep. We didn't see anything and asked her who it was. She looked over at the empty corner and said, 'What's your name?' Then a second later she said, 'His name is Jim.'" 

–u/burnallthepages

5. Sardines

Warner Bros. / Via giphy.com

"When I was 16, I went on a community service trip to Minnesota with my youth group. We were staying in this really big church while we were there. One night, the group decided to play sardines. At one point, all but one of us had been together waiting for the last guy to find us. It went on for so long, that the group eventually sent me out to go retrieve the guy, because we had heard him walking up and down the halls near us several times. They picked me because I’m pretty quick and agile, so I’d catch him quickly. I ran around for a little bit trying to hear his footsteps, because it was nearly pitch black in the building except for a few emergency lights in each hallway. I eventually heard him and ran after him, only to see him walk around the corner. I turned the corner and he wasn’t there. I started going up to the top floor because there was a stairwell at the end of the hallway. I then saw him go into the room where we were all sleeping. I walk in, yell to him, turn on the lights, and there’s nobody in the room. I booked it out of there, and eventually found the guy in a room on the first floor on the other side of the entire building, asleep on a pile of pillows. When I woke him up, he told me he’d nodded off about 45 minutes prior. I had absolutely no idea who it was I kept seeing in the halls and going into our room. After I told everyone what I saw, we all moved our sleeping bags to another part of the church and most people didn’t sleep that night. " 

–u/spooplegeist

6. A Glitch In the Matrix

"I was a manager at a pet store, and we used paper bags. This elderly lady bought a couple things, and was rang through and then continued to browse for a bit while she waited for friends/family. As I was filling out something on one of the unused tills for paper work, I noticed this woman's paper bag start to leak out of the corner. Then turned into a steady stream that did not stop. At first I was like maybe she put a bottle of water on the bag upside down, no biggie. So I went over to point out her bottle was leaking in her bag (she didn't notice) and then I looked into the bag. No bottle, nothing that could have been leaking. It was a clear bag of biscuits packaged in store, and a bully stick.

I took the bag of biscuits out and it was completely full of water, draining out of the corner, but here's the paranormal/unexplained bit: the bag never decreased in level of water. It just kept pouring water with no stopping. Me and a few customers just watched it for 10 seconds before I realized I should take it out side. So I did, customers in tow, and just sat the bag down while it continued to pour. And after 30 seconds after I put it down, the bags water level started to sudden decrease and was empty in like 5 seconds. I was fucking floored. Like what did I just witness? A bag that was magically connected to a source of water? I don't and still don't know. I watched the cameras over so many times and couldn't explain it." 

–u/Lunatik21

7. Night Visitor

@davestrick / Via giphy.com

"I was about 18 years old and this was during summertime in Texas. I was living in a little house by myself on my parents property and it was about 2 am, playing video games. Suddenly I heard a knock on the door and it wasn’t a gentle knock, it was a little loud.

I stood up kinda spooked because I didn’t have many friends, much less any that would come at that hour and especially so aggressively. I stood there in the middle of my room past midnight and asked, “who’s there?” .... no answer, the doorknob jiggled. I was trying not to panic. Again I asked, “who is it?” .... no answer, more knocks, “who’s there???” I yelled. LOUDER KNOCKS and the door knob jiggles more aggressively, still no answer.

At this point I’m freaked the fuck out, no one I know would come and mess with me like this at 2 am. I didn’t have a cell phone at the time but I had a landline so I used my home phone to call my dads cell and hoped like hell that he’d answer.... he did and I quickly explained everything. He ran to the back door of their house adjacent from my front door, and confirmed no one was there. It suddenly quieted down as soon as I called my dad and it didn’t happened again for the rest of the night. I asked that my dad keep his cell phone loud for the rest of the night and keep an ear out for it just in case, but I was scared to death, and also curious af."

–u/dawnangel89

8. Babysitting Dilemma

"The girl I was babysitting one night came running out of her room crying. Saying something was walking by her window. Now I get a lot of creepy stories and things from the kids I babysit. They have crazy imagination. So I go check not really thinking anything.

Something runs by the window as I’m checking it out. A distinctly humanoid figure. At this point I needed a diaper as much as the little girl I was babysitting. So I text the parents asking about it. And this is the response I get: ‘Omg you saw it too?!’

Yeah I cried. Called the cops too. They came by and said they didn’t see anything around. The thing is. The parents had called the cops several times before too for the same reason. One of the freakiest times I’ve ever babysat." 

–u/cleaningmeaning

9. The Feeling Was Mutual

@paramountpics / Via giphy.com

"My aunt has a story of her and her siblings sharing the same experience while in three separate rooms. My aunt and I were driving in the town she went to school in. We drove past a house and I remarked how bad it looked. She replied, 'It is worse inside. That place is haunted.' I had never heard my aunt talk of anything paranormal and I haven't since.

The story goes that the three of them rented out some sketchy house while going to school. Apparently, strange things would happen that made them feel uncomfortable but never anything crazy. They would all notice on a few occasions they would wake up in the night with the blankets off and at the foot of the bed. Nothing strange, people kick off blankets when they get too hot all the time.

One night, my aunt recounts that she had a dream she was falling and needed to grab onto something to save herself. She suddenly realized that she wasn't dreaming and she was being pulled by her ankles out of her bed. She grabbed the rails of the headboard and after a few horrifying moments she gets the strength to scream. AT THE SAME TIME she hears screams from her siblings rooms.

Just as soon as it started, the feeling ended and she ran to check on them. They all had the same feeling of being pulled out of their bed. Needless to say they moved out and didn't look back." 

–u/Great_Big__

10. Lost Cat

"Roommate lost her cat. There's an old empty house next to where we live, also owned by our landlord and we were allowed to use the space for parties etc so we were very familiar with the house and all of its rooms. Its about 1 am and she is freaking out about the cat so i propose to help. We thought perhaps the cat might be in the house so we go in there with a flashlight. My friend tells me she thought she heard meowing coming from the house earlier so we keep looking. We get to the hallway and there's a ladder in the middle of the hallway, leading upto an attic (door of the attic was a hole in the ceiling of the hallway).

Now i had been on a cruisade in this house many times and saw all of the rooms, but i had NEVER seen an attic, so this was really weird. Now listen, normally i'm intruiged by these things and i'd be like, 'Oh an attic, let's go up there, adventure!' But nonono...my stomach turned. Never ever had this ladder been down, nobody knew there was an attic there and we know it weren't squatters since the house was in the backyard of the place we lived. I had a very very bad feeling, because the ladder looked so inviting. Almost too inviting.

I told my friend that her cat probably wasn't up there and that we should go. We walk back and she tells me, 'You know, i really thought i heard meowing up there before.' But we both chickened and just went back...walk out of the door back to our place and guess who is sitting at the front door? Her cat." 

–u/churchisforbrunettes

11. Vague Intentions

Screen Gems

"I was friends with a girl who just moved into this old house. It was a house her grandma had and had been in the family for generations it was pretty old. Anyway, I went over one night shortly after she had moved in and had done some painting. She was giving me the tour of place, showing me which rooms she painted and we went upstairs where the bedrooms were. At the end of the hall was a guest room, the door was open and the room was dark with some of the hall light shining in a ways. We both stood at the top of the steps for a second admiring the nice paint job she had done in the hallway, when a man in fatigues crawled across the ceiling in the semi dark guest room at the end of the hall. I think, but am not sure he turned and looked at us as he passed the door, but can't remember exactly. He seemed very intent. Like he was going somewhere. Even just thinking about this now, my heart is racing. Neither of us said a thing, we just turned and hurried back downstairs.

I grabbed my coat and headed for the door. She followed me but then was like are you sure you don't want to stay longer, I was literally like WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK. I got in my car and left. I think I cried a little. We weren't friends much longer after that. We didn't talk about it at first then she would bring it up and I just had this creepy awful feeling that if we talked about it, it would start haunting my house or something. Anyway, I moved pretty far away not long after and I just let the friendship die. I've only told two people about this and it makes me nauseous just thinking about it now. Sometimes I wonder if we had some sort of shared hallucination, but I don't think so." 

–u/tulipz10

12. Empty House

"I went to my SO's house and was staying there for the first time ever by myself. He just moved in and didn't have furniture so his bed was just laying on the floor in the biggest room in the house. I was sleeping when out of nowhere my mind was telling me to wake up. When I snapped my eyes open there was a man laying on the floor next to me propping his head up on his bent hand. I just stared not moving for a second, like I couldn't do anything but stare back at him, taking in every detail of him and not believing what I was seeing. All of a sudden he cracked a smile and I reacted by shooting up straight and reached for my phone to shine a light at him. By the time I turned back from grabbing my phone he was gone and there was nothing in the corner of the room. I've still never told my SO this story because it sounds crazy." 

–u/shaakaakaa

13. Backyard Guest

Disney / Via giphy.com

"I was visiting my sister in TX and had fallen asleep on the living room couch. One wall of the room was floor to ceiling windows that faced the back yard. They had ten acres of woods out back and a yard that was big enough for an olympic sized pool that would come along later. I woke up that night and looked out the back window to see what my mind interpreted as the Grim Reaper hovering in the backyard. Naturally, I pulled the blanket over my head and squeezed my eyes shut, telling myself it was just my mind playing tricks on me. Opened them again and sure as shit, it was still there. I've never been so frightened in my damn life. Went back under the blankets and stayed there until morning. I didn't tell anyone about this for years and tried really hard to not even think about it, it was so scary. Cut to about ten years later, and my niece (who wasn't born at the time of my sighting) decides to be the GR for Halloween. Curious about her choice, I asked her why she wanted to go as that, and she dead ass said, 'Because my mom saw it in the backyard once.'"

–u/mdiver12

14. Spirits

"Okay, there is a story my mom hates to tell because it scares her that much. I don't believe in someone being possessed, but my mum seriously gets scared every time she tells this so I somewhat believe her... I already have goosebumps writing this...

There was a man in our village that apparently got possessed by his own dead father. And one night he went out drinking. At around 3 am he went home and on his way home he started to break every window he saw. He also walked through the cemetery. Anyways, when he got to my grandmother's house and started to do the same, break windows, my grandmother, uncle and his wife and my mom came out. They knew him and thought he was drunk, so they started to talk to him. His hands were bloody because of the broken glass and his voice was growly and low. They tried to calm him down, but he wasn't having it.

Once my mum got closer to speak to him, he told her to back off with his normal voice. He apparently said that because she was pregnant with me at the time and somehow my mum being pregnant was able to bring him out idk... My mum fainted because she got weak out of nowhere after he told her to back off with his normal voice. His voice got growly and deep again afterward. Then when my mom woke up she saw him literally crawling a palm tree my grandmother had in her garden. She said he was crawling the tall tree extremely fast and looked like an animal crawling on his fours instead of using mostly his arms like normal humans do while climbing.

I don't remember what happened next, but when the sun rose he started to speak normally again, and apparently, all his wounds from the broken windows were healed and he had not even a scar, also he could not remember anything."

–u/Pthn23

15. And lastly, Questions and Answers

MGM / Via giphy.com

"Back in 2014, I was walking back to my apartment from a smoke session I participated in at my friends' apartment. It's about a 40 minute walk, but the fresh air and brisk pace is always welcome. Since it's quite a ways to go, and I'm usually high AF when I endeavour down this path, I have a lot of time to just think about stuff. So this particular evening I felt a little sacrilegious, in thought only though. I'd think about God and about religion, and then I'd think about Heaven and Hell.

Suddenly, I had this thought rush through my mind: Does Satan exist? I then thought I'd conjure a little amusing thought exercise to test whether or not Satan actually exists. I gave the Dark Lord the benefit of the doubt, and thought out loud: "If Satan truly does exist, then they would appear to me right now, and demonstrate their presence in any way, shape, or form."

Almost IMMEDIATELY after entertaining the thought, a murder of crows flew right out from the bush I was passing, right before me and into the night sky, in a barrage of caws. I gathered myself after the immense fright, and stumbled off on my way. Surely a brilliant coincidence - some lighthearted comic relief from the Universe. The rest of the way back to my apartment, I couldn't shake that experience from my mind. What the hell just happened?

When I got to my apartment, the usual sequence played out when I get home from varsity or from a friend's place. I always peek into my bedroom to make sure that everything is safe, and that there might not be any intruders in my flat. Usually as I peak into my bedroom and flick the light switch on, I rear back out mid stride as I briefly scan the room. This time, however, I caught a fleeting glimpse of a pale countenance with its gaze fixated upon me as I peak through. Hovering in the doorway, I pause, and process what I just witnessed. Surely I did not just see a pale face floating at my bed side? Surely that was just some optical illusion with the lights and my mirrors. Wouldn't hurt to just make sure, right?

As I peer back into the room, straight to the spot where I thought to have seen this supposed specter, I am met with the intense gaze of a countenance I thought I had mistakenly seen. my whole body freezes as I stare directly back at it, petrified with immediate terror. After a couple of seconds, the pale countenance slowly starts opening its mouth far beyond the limits of what a normal jaw could accommodate. It let out a low crescendoing moan as I bolt out of my room and into my kitchen, where I am now essentially cornered and at the mercy of whatever it is I just witnessed. I grabbed a knife from my drawer, and hunkered down in the kitchen for a while, after which I fully processed what the hell just happened.

Eventually I mustered the nerves to stand up and face whatever it is, so I charged into my room only to find it empty. I ripped open every single closet and every single drawer and I tipped every piece of furniture in my apartment in an attempt to flush this specter out, all the while haunted by my audacious challenge to Satan earlier. Obviously there was nothing. My friends likely didn't believe me when I told them about my ordeal with the literal personification of evil, but that doesn't matter. All that matters is that this quaint little memory is now lodged into my mind, and it's here to stay.

TL;DR: college atheist & pothead tips his beanie too far, and challenges the existence of Satan. Subsequently has a pretty bad time." 

–u/JJ4L3

Are you a skeptic-turned-believer who's got a seriously spooky story to share? Feel free to drop 'em in the comments!