Have you ever felt a sudden cold chill or seen something move out of the corner of your eye? There are those who believe that these kinds of occurrences are scientifically explainable. But according to Scientific American, 42% of Americans believe that they may be caused by ghosts or other paranormal activity. Ask a crowd of people and you are sure to find at least one person who's had a firsthand experience with the supernatural.
Here are some of Reddit ghost encounter stories so creepy that you may leave the lights on tonight. Of course, these are just for fun as we can't independently authenticate them.
"There is [the ghost of] a young boy who lives in our house that our guests have seen. We rent from the original owner and there is no bad history, but a dozen people have seen him walking around upstairs. I leave my phone on the nightstand at night and I often find hundreds of scribbles open on the notepad when I wake up." - Redditor SulliedVoice
"One night, when my daughter was 2 1/2 years old, we were home alone talking right before bed. We were playing a game where we gave all her stuffed animals silly names. Named the last one and she asks, 'What's her name?' I said something along the lines of, 'Who? Honey, we already named everyone.' She then points to the blank wall and says, 'That little girl.'
"Now I don't know if it was just an overactive imagination or something else. All I know is that it freaked me out enough to sleep with the lights on for the next few weeks." Redditor mamalanna
"I lived alone in an old house in the historic district of Memphis. I'd often get woken up in the middle of the night to country music coming from the radio. I don't listen to country music and the radio had a dial. I'd have to change the dial back to my normal station while I was getting ready for work in the morning." - Redditor hilhilbean
"One night my mom heard a crash noise in our kitchen but figured I was up and dropped something. The next morning my dad walked downstairs and thought there was ice on the kitchen floor but he said after looking at it, the 'ice' wasn't melting. It was glass shards. They cleaned up the glass which was on the floor, countertops, and even under the lip of the countertops along the top of some drawers/cabinets. It was as if someone stood back and threw a glass object at the wall or something.
"We had no idea what it was from. The glass was too thick to be any of the vases or glasses or even some bowls in the house. We had a huge family meeting in the kitchen trying to figure out what happened and where the glass came from. We still have no idea." - Redditor croyalbird13
"I'm sure there was a ghost playing tricks on me. One evening I was watching TV while sitting on the sofa. I had a rubber band in my hand and flicked it across the room in an arc behind the TV. Next thing I know it drops on my head. There wasn't enough power to bounce of walls, I have no idea how it ended up on my head." - Redditor thesatchmo
"I have memories as a young child in a certain house. Several very bizarre things happened. I have no logical explanation for them. The best I can do to explain them logically are hallucinations, but I have never experienced anything away from that home. The oddest one to me had to do with my new wallpaper. We had to change it. It had dinosaurs on it. I would see the dinosaurs marching around and killing each other. This happened during the same times several nights until we took it down.
"Items used to move and get thrown on their own accord. A particular favorite was a rocking chair. It would change positions and rock. One night when my grandparents were staying over, I awoke to find someone I didn't know in the chair who looked strange. A stuffed animal walked one time. I awoke with scratches that looked like nails. Maybe it was just my f----- up child brain, but I don't remember it that way. The scratches are really strange." - Redditor Soraka_Is_My_Saviour
"I went to a Lincoln exhibit when I was very young. There was a rocking chair, and as soon as I saw it, I saw a woman in period dress with brown hair knitting something and rocking in the chair. After like two seconds, the image vanished. I would attribute it to imagination, except the image was very vivid and clear and I've never seen anything like it since." - Redditor ihcun
"When I lived in Minnesota I would go over to my friends' house a lot. One day, I was sitting on the couch watching TV and I heard a girl screaming in my right ear. It was like she was screaming at the top of her lungs, but the volume was turned down, so it wasn't the true volume of a scream. There was nothing there (obviously) so I just wrote it off.
"Well, a week or so later, one of the guys whipped his head around, and said, 'I just heard a girl screaming.' We both knew there was no one else in the house. I didn't hear a girl screaming, but then neither did anyone else when she screamed in my ear. I don't think she was mean or bad, I think she was sad. Lonely. Wanting attention. I felt bad that I couldn't reach out to her." - Redditor em_420
"I was late-night gaming. My dog was hanging out with me and started to bark into the dark bedroom. When I went to check it out, I could hear fingernails scratching inside my bedroom closet. As I got closer, the scratching started getting quieter. The sound stopped when I was right in front of the closet - CRASH! Stuff started hitting the inside of the closet door!
"I ran straight outside! No way I was going to stay in there alone this time. 30 minutes go by and my buddy comes over to come check things out with me. I opened up the closet to find all my clothes and hangers all over the floor of the closet. We searched every wall and ceiling for any secret openings; no secret doors to be found." - Redditor tooabstract788
"When I was younger I was helping my aunt clean an office she was hired to clean, and lots of stuff happened there. The one that spooked me the most was when I was emptying trash cans while my aunt vacuumed and my brother did dishes. Suddenly a man's voice whispers in my ear, 'Cewcewcew.' Kind of like he was playing with a toy gun. We were the only people there." - Redditor WhatInTh3Nam3
"One day when my daughter was 2 we were having a typical 'terrible twos' moment. She was throwing a bit of a tantrum for about 5-10 minutes and we couldn't get her under control. At some point, she, rather suddenly, stopped and started staring at the wall. She then started lightly giggling. It was weird, one second she is crying and screaming and the next she is smiling and happy.
"Then she starts saying 'funny lady' over and over. We asked her who she saw and she pointed to the wall and again said 'the funny lady.' When we asked her to describe who she saw she described my deceased grandmother, I mean exactly described her. She had never met her, and I don't think had ever even seen a picture, not that a 2-year-old could remember a picture. I am not much a believer in the paranormal, but I know for sure that my daughter got a chance to meet my Mom and that makes me happy.
"When I told this story to my parents, they didn't seem as shocked as I was. When I tried to get a response from them, they looked at me and said 'I guess you don't remember that you met your [deceased] grandfather when you were 3. The same exact thing happened to you 30 years ago.'" - Redditor bigchallah
"Before my dad and my step mom married, she'd come over and the hangers in the front closet would rattle non-stop while she was there. The clothes would be all over the floor when she left. Taking the hangers out would do no good. We emptied the closet once, and the door would shake violently when step-mom came over." - Redditor TX_ambrosia
"I was once showering, door locked, when I heard the blinds fall down. It freaked me out so I pull back the shower curtain to investigate. I am thinking my brothers are trying to break in and play a prank on me or something, so I pull the blinds up to look out the window. The window was completely fogged over from the inside minus one large solitary hand print. I was scared as hell, finished my shower and told my family members. We all compared our handprints to that of the one on the window. No ones was as big." Redditor kevincredible22
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