What is THE strangest thing that's ever happened to you or that you've heard (even 2nd hand)?

Back when I was 5 or 6, based on the now hard to recall information of events...

My mother had met my father at Fort Sill, OK. Got married and lived on post housing.
They ended up running some apartment complex for single Soldiers.
Apparently the property was haunted, use to be an old gambling spot before they tore it down.
One day, I was walking around the pool area and I feel in.

Underwater, I saw them.

It was an entire ghostly apparition of some gamling bar, people were wearing old 1930-40s clothing, everything was green, just like the movie, "The Return of the King" where Aragon tries to get the Ghostly Dead Men of Dunharrow, but in the 80s.

I remember swimming, stopped in motion and staring at everything, even the subtle music.

I surfaced, looked around and went back under, NOTHING. The apparitions and green hues were gone, left instead, the bluish tint of the pool in the afternoon soon, the big underwater light, its chrom le glistening in the sun.

No ghost or angthing.

I went to tell me my mom, but she didn't believe me.

The most surreal experience ever in my life as a child and it never happened again and I'll always remember it.

I was a skeptic when I was young, but have had some paranormal experiences that led me to research the topic thoroughly.
You're left with more questions than answers.

To address your OP, probably the strangest thing I've heard [I posted the story here before] involved a mirror.
The guy who had the experience was living with his parents and his sister on an army base in Europe. He and his sister befriended some local kids, and would visit their house sometimes. The European kids had a grandmother who was
allegedly a witch. While visiting the friends' house, the American kid was sitting down with the grandmother, as she was having a cup of tea. The grandmother motioned to a large mirror that was hanging on the wall. The kid's reflection was doing things "on its own". He was just sitting there, staring straight ahead. He said "I watched myself moving my head from side to side and looking up, while I was not moving!"

He was freaked out, and told his friend (the grandson) about it. The grandson advised him not to tell anyone about it.

I've wrote of this before years back here, but hardly speak of it. The events and what unfolded turned me into a man very fast and opened my eyes to this world.

Almost 20 years ago I was 13. It was January 3 2001, first day back to school from winter break. This was no normal day as I had the most uneasy feeling all day at school. My parents where going through a divorce, my mom moved out 2 weeks before Christmas. We did somehow have Christmas as a normal family. That day as I left for school my father walked out the front door with me and gave me a huge hug and kiss on the head, told me he loved me. This was unusual and along with his depression I was very concerned, but didn't know what to do. My mom wouldn't answer when I called from my old moto.

School dragged on forever when it was over my friend decided he wanted to come over and got off the bus with me. He would end up saving my life. I still thank him to this day. When arriving home the dog was barking like crazy and no car was in the driveway. It was odd. As I entered the front door a strange smell overcame us. The dog was closed in the master bedroom so I let her out. We proceed to find the smell and ended up at the garage door. I opened it.

As I opened the door I was very surprised to see my dad's car running. The smell was overpowering. It still didn't dawn on me. I saw my dad sitting in the seat. He was a mechanic as am I, so I thought he was working on the car like usual. I said dad why are you working on the car with the garage door down. Looked through the passenger window and it hit me. Hard. My best friend in the world was dead, no hope of coming back. I ran around to his side I hugged him, cried, begged for him to wake up. I wouldn't leave his side. Darkness fell upon me very fast. I woke up in an ambulance. I passed out from the fumes and my friend pulled me out and called 911. Later found out my mom was supposed to meet him that day but she never showed. He would never have wanted me to find him like that.

Our family was in turmoil, my mom ended up leaving later that night after ems and police were done. I refused to go with her.y brother ended up going to a friend's I was supposed to go with him but I didn't. I slept on the living room couch and directly across from me was my dad's rocking chair.

I would like to add the importance of the rocking chair. I have so many memories of my dad coming home tired and with his bad back rocking in his chair. I remember being younger sitting in his lap feeling his face stubble wondering when I would grow hair on my face. Nothing but happy memories of my father in that chair.

So as I lay there sleepless and as I said the rocking chair was directly across from me. It was dark but I could barely see it. This feeling I've never felt before or ever again overcame me. The chair started rocking by itself. I could see it i could hear it. I felt my father, I wasn't scared at all. I said dad is that you? I couldn't hear a reply but I could feel it. It was him. I told him I loved him and I'll never forget him. He told me he was sorry and would always look after me. The chair rocking the whole time. I asked if I'll ever see him again and he "said" yes. The chair stopped rocking. I was 13 wide awake and this did happen I don't really ever talk about it I don't even think I ever told my mom.

I'm not spiritual or religious. I felt my father just wanted to say goodbye for my sake. I slept on that couch many more times and it never happened again. I will say I have felt protected my entire life. And no matter how bad things have got or what situation I was in when I have been at my darkest I've always felt his presence to protect me or pull me from the dark.

Overall, it was strange but I'm happy it happened I'm very lucky I got to say goodbye. He was my best friend I went to work with him on Saturdays, worked on cars with him, he had already shaped me by 13. Unfortunately a doctor put him on zoloft 1 week before his death and he had never taken a med I'm his life. I think most here know how that rollercoaster goes with ADs. I'm from 3 generations of suicide before 35. I've had the thoughts, but my son is what stops me. He's almost 10 and I would never want him to go through what I did. Ive been very happy the past 4 years anyway, but I'll never give up. I'll see him again 1 day when it's my time.

So that's my weirdest encounter/experience with the other side.

I can't tell you the story but I'll show it to you.

One weekend in 2012 I was installing a backsplash in my kitchen with my room mate Rob. I went to Home Depot or some last minutes supplies and when I got back Rob was pissed. He said I'm happy to help but it's not cool you being gone all day. I said what are you talking about I was gone 40 min tops. He said you were gone like 8 hours.
-It was about 4:30pm and he said I left at around 10 am. I looked down and my watch was stopped at 10:17. WEIRD!!

I actually have quite a few experiences of which to tell. however I'll start in chronological order.

When I was young, the ages of 5-12, I would spend the entirety of summer break at my grandparents house in north Carolina. This specific year, 1997, my younger cousin decided to come down from the mountains to accompany me for a couple weeks. I had arrived on a Saturday morning, my sister and mother as well. My cousin arrived later that day, maybe around six or so. My mom and grandma and sister were inside doing their normal family gossiping while my cousin and I were outside playing with sticks, I know sounds very exciting!

As it was early summer the sun didn't begin its decent until around 8:15 or so. I recall the time on the stove when we made our hasty retreat into the safety of my grandparents trailer read 7:45. While we were outside hitting one another with sticks, or whatever we were doing, something caught my peripheral. At first glance it seemed to be an airplane, but upon further inspection the speed at which it was traveling quickly ruled that out. This object was VERY bright, the shimmer off the side of it almost seemed to intensify the rays of the sun, it was almost painful to look at. This object slowly moved across the sky, never loosing nor gaining altitude or speed.

We stood stoically, watching as this object almost hung in the sky. The only audible noises were our heartbeats. It was dead silent. In my young mind, I remember telling my grandfather that it looked like a missile, only extremely slow moving. After about a minute of watching in silence he finally broke in with "Are you seeing what I'm seeing?" My grunt expressed that I did. We then ran into the house and straight to my grandfather. My grandfather was and to this day is a very strange character. As a self proclaimed white witch and one of the smartest people I've known, he was very much interested in the paranormal. By the time the three of us make it outside the object has gone.

This is the event in my life that got me into paranormal and extra terrestrial subjects. Honestly, this one event helped expand my young mind, the realization that the world is not black and white and certain things are will always be a mystery.


I'll post some more later. thanks!

Well, nothing is really strange if one realizes that 1: our world is an unsolid mass of ever changing energy and that mind might be primary and 2: realizes the fact that anyone (or anything) being "here" at all is ultimately as weird as it gets.

But in the spirit of the thread; I was flummoxed when my solid, staid, conservative, atheist, scientifically oriented accountant pappy showed me he could effect clouds with his mind one fine day when I was a young man. He had me pick some solid cumulus clouds and concentrated for a few seconds and holes appeared in them, one after another, until there were a handful of smoke ringed shaped clouds in the sky. As far as clouds, I also, years later, saw a cloud (with a friend) that was almost like a realistic profile photo of an older man whose mouth moved as if talking for the better part of a minute before morphing away, with no drugs involved.

But it's difficult to pick a primary "strangest" as I'm getting older and have a few to choose from. As it's Sunday and this site is going away, I'll try to list some of it out... for the fourth time or so in threads over the years.

A few months after my dad did the cloud trick, I was in a park at night with a girl and we had showers of pebbles rain on us and there was nobody visible throwing them. I then lived with "ghosts" a few times in rentals, with one being so active that my gf and I huddled in the living room while it sounded like a wild gorilla on meth was tearing the back rooms apart. Another haunt had us see a man shaped, revolving column of light sink into a kitchen floor (with a handful of other guests).

I've seen "ufos" a few times, with a highlight being a large white tube hanging at an angle in the daylight sky with no wings or obvious propulsion or anchorage and it was unmoving relative to a telephone pole for 15 minutes in strong storm winds.

I've had telepathic instances too numerous to count and aside from the daily stuff in the haunted places, a few instances of objects moving seemingly by themselves, like a bottle of rubbing alcohol rise up into the air, hover for a moment and then launch down the aisle in a drug store. I've also had weird coincidences were internal dialogue was mirrored in the world around me a moment later, like on TV, radio, online or ambient conversations.. .sometimes echoing really uncommon words and whole phrases. I once experimented with ritual magic and had my "wish" appear with a near stranger minutes later.

Away from the haunted homes, I once fell asleep in my bed with the light on and woke up a bit later, somehow knew someone else who I couldn't see was in my bedroom, felt hands on my feet and saw the bedspread depress from the pressure, then I laughed out loud, turned over on my side and went back to sleep with no conscious explanation as to why, and a year later woke to have 4 pennies, one at a time, appear (teleport?) onto my bedroom floor from nowhere.

I once was walking down an urban ally having a tiff with a girlfriend and a couch on a nearby porch rose up a foot in the air and it's frame splintered in half. Years later, with the same girl, we were walking quietly in a neighborhood in the afternoon when we heard footsteps crunching on the gravel behind us with nobody visible, smelt beer in the air and then had an old fashioned wall mounted mail box lid slam shut by itself, several yards away.

There was a morning where my phone on my desk activated without touch, bypassed the PIN (or entered it too fast to see) and went to the browser and sorted through to ATS's front page. Techs I took it to found no malware or explanation.

Then there's the little, "maybe" crap that's hard to tell if it's actually "weird" or not.

It's funny that my day to day is as banal and "normal" as most people's and I'd bet these things aren't as odd as we are mostly led to believe... and I know many, many people have much, much more strange things happen to them.

I'd love to know why "strange" happens, rather than endlessly guessing at it.

Being Born.

UFO's, samsquantch...I've seen those guys, but the first one that comes to mind is seeing a nude woman in the hallway of a motel, walking on her hands with a bottle of wine inserted in an orifice that I don't believe was designed for that.

This one still gives me chills when I think about it.

I was 8-10 and my sister was 12-14.. My parents decided to goto a movie and leave us home alone for the first time ever. Before my parents left, we decided to make popcorn and my sister and I were going to watch a movie downstairs.

My parents had been gone 30 minutes or so and I ran out of popcorn, and went back to the kitchen to get some more popcorn. Our back door was right by the popcorn bowl, and had an old squeaky screen door on the front of it. As I was filling my popcorn bowl, I heard the screen door squeak as it was opening, and I flew to the doorknob and locked it just in time, to see an emaciated older male's face through the door.

Our eyes met, and I could feel the intentional malice he had on his mind. As our eyes locked, I could see we both thought of the same thing at the same time.. The front door is still unlocked. I sprinted from the back door to the front and he did the same. I barely reached the front door before him, and again our eyes met. I ran to get the phone to call my grandma (This was waaaay before cell phones, but we did have a cordless) and he could see I was on the phone and he left sprinting on foot.

By far the strangest thing that has ever happened to me, and my sister heard the commotion so she was able to get upstairs in time to see the crazy guy at our front door before he took off running.

How did I get upstairs at the perfect time? How did a crazy guy show up at our house on the first night my parents left us home alone. For that matter, we lived in a safe rural community and how did this actually happen then?!

originally posted by: AnkhMorpork
What is THE strangest thing that's ever happened to you?

Posted a message in 2008 on the internet concerning a vision of what i assumed was Revelation 16:10 when the sky goes black; only to later receive a message from a entity named Shymhz (Shemyhaza), naturally going by an alias stating that the vision was not Revelation 16:10, but a vision of the angel / Rephaim prison called Tartarus.

a reply to: KandinskyChaos

Just wondering...if you didn't have a spare, did the stranger use his own spare? I guess it was a good thing the lug nut pattern matched his rim. Not too many people driving through death valley would give a stranger their spare.
Weird story...thanks for sharing it.

I saw my st helens, June 1979, I looked i cream cone. There was a trail going all the way to the top and I wanted to go up but I had the wrong everything. I took pictures to the North, Northwest, I started getting hot, took off my, coat and was going to take more pictures. Northwest. and the a bolt of lightning. Came up from the ground and held me there for 5 and half minutes, before letting me go. I was standing on a magma line. I had doubts until I saw the pictures, from the northwest, and there were no glaciers. I sent a picture to Davd Johnstone. Who died 1980, when it blew.

A friend that I got to know with quite sane chocolate milk in the coconut claims to have seen a gnome while camping.

Oh, goodness...

I've several to choose from.

My Bigfoot sighting, for one.

A very angry ghost/spirit while working in Alaska. He died in a crab cooking accident several years before I was born.

A "something" watching me, and a friend, while camping/backpacking near Denali. A similar experience during a huckleberry picking expedition a few years before that near Mt. Adams in Washington state. That day, I'm almost positive, I came very close to disappearing. Terrifying doesn't quite cover it...

A UFO, as a child. Many years later, another one. Almost forgot my USO sighting, also while living and working in Alaska.

It seems to run in my family. Both my dad, and grand-dad, both had encounters with Sasquatch on a couple of different occasions... My sisters, all four of them, have had ghostly type encounters. My Mom always felt kinda left out, as she never did...

Good thread and stories so far.

Strangest thing? Living in Athens, Ohio while attending Ohio University. Beautiful area but could also be very creepy in places.I'm too lazy to type up my experiences again, so I'll post my previous threads.

Haunted Ohio University 1
Haunted Ohio University 2
Haunted Ohio University 3
Haunted Ohio University 4
Haunted Theta Chi House

This thread has reminded of some other weird experiences I've had. Again, I'll just copy/paste from previous threads I made because I'm lazy.

UFO IN HILTON HEAD, SC
One night, my wife and I decided to take a stroll on the beach. As we were heading back to the beach access point, I noticed an orange glow in the sky. I stopped to take a good look at it. I can best describe it as a very dimly lit bonfire in the sky. I did not hear sound (other than the crashing waves) and it did not move. Before I could mention it to my wife, it faded away. About a minute later, there it was again, only this time, a little farther away from the first location. This time my wife also witnessed it. Two minutes later, faded away. Again, within a minute it had reappeared in a third location. As before, it slowly faded away after about 2 minutes. We stood and watched for it again, but it never reappeared.

Sadly, I had no camera or cell phone with me. I'm not asking anyone to believe my story. I just wanted to see if anyone could explain what we saw or have a similar experience. We could easily rule out fireworks, flares, Chinese lanterns or aircraft. It was well above water line to be a ship's lights. The best we could explain it was a dim fire just floating in the sky. No noise, no movement other than appearing and disappearing in 3 different locations. I'm stumped.


GHOST CAR IN SHASTA
I had a strange experience driving at night. I wanted to share to see if anyone had an explanation or anything similar happen.

On Thursday, I left work early from here in Portland to drive down to a friend’s house in Yuba City, California. It’s about an 8 hour drive, so it was pretty dark by the time I reached California.

Once I reached the Mt. Shasta area, it was about 8:00-8:30pm. I was driving the curvy I5 through the mountains, concentrating on the road ahead and the numerous 18 wheelers slowing in the right lane. The speed limit through that area is 65mph and I was driving on cruise at 70mph.

Though it was dark, the moonlight lit up the area fairly well. As I glanced up at my rearview mirror, I noticed a silhouette of something behind me in the road. I thought my mind was playing tricks on me and I glanced up again. It looked like a car following maybe 10-15ft behind me. Once I realized what it was, I freaked out and tapped my brakes a bit.

Just then, I was driving through a section of the highway that had a few street lamps. Sure enough, I could make out some sort of car following close. It was all black. No lights inside or out.

I slowed down to about 60mph and it swerved and accelerated around me. As it went past, I couldn’t make out anything. I had already past the street lamps at this point and there where no other cars on the road besides a few 18 wheelers that were quite a distance ahead. It was painted what looked like a flat black. Again, no lights. Not even light from the interior dash or anything. The windows appeared to be heavily tinted. For this reason, I had a hard time figuring out the make and model. It looked similar to the early 2000’s Chevy Lumina or Monte Carlo.

As it accelerated, I did as well. I wanted to get behind it to see what was going on. However, once I got up to about 80mph, I eased off. The black car kept accelerating away from me. After a minute or two, I could no longer see it up ahead of me. I never saw it again.

What was it? I’ve heard stories of drug runners driving at high speeds with the lights off, using night vision goggles to see the road. Could this be it? If so, why would it be following me so close until I slowed down? Once I started slowing down it was as if the driver got spooked and took off at a rate of speed much too high to sustain through the mountain curves ahead.

Very, very strange experience.

Ok, first off, I wouldn't believe this story if someone told me it happened to them. I would have thought they were lying or something. But I swear on my kids this is the truth. Ok, so one afternoon about twenty years ago, I was waiting on a bus in downtown Seattle when this old Native American guy came up to me and asked me for a cigarette. He was about 65, long straight, silver hair and was obviously drunk, and by the shape of his clothes, probably homeless. So anyways, I give him a cigarette and we're standing there bull#ting, and he says, "You know, I'm not from here."
I wasn't really in the mood to be talking to him anyways, but I try to be kind to everyone, so I say, "Oh yeah, where you from?"
He looks at me and says all serious-like, "You know where Orion is?"
"The constellation?!" I say sort of incredulously, as I start to think that I'm talking to someone with mental illness.
"Yeah," he says, "I'm from Orion, and you know what? We've been watching you your whole life!"
Now I'm thinking dude is nuts, so i just kind of nod my head and go along with it, and he puts his arm around my shoulders and says to me, "If you ever feel alone or like you got no one, just look up there and know that we're there watching you." By this time my bus shows up, so I kinda shrug him off and get on the bus, never to think of that conversation again for twelve years. So, twelve years pass, and I'm over at a buddy's in his garage and we're all drinking. It's me, my buddy, his uncle, and my best friend and his girlfriend, and my buddy and his uncle are playing ping pong while my best friend, his girlfriend and I are sitting there shooting the breeze and half-watching the ping pong game. There's a knock on the garage door. It's one of those big ass garage doors that slides horizontally to open, and we'd left it slightly open and in pops a guy's head. He's about 45 maybe, with thick glasses and wavy shoulder-length hair, and he asks if he could have a tarp that was on the ground outside of the garage we were in, as he was gonna sleep under the bridge nearby and needed a blanket. My buddy invited the guy in for a beer and although he was hesitant at first, the guy finally opened the garage door a little more and came in he was wearing jeans and a tan sport coat, the kind with the patches on the elbows, and he was carrying a six pack of tall cans in a plastic bag. He seemed very shy and soft-spoken, and the only thing he really said was something about the fact that he had been to our town once before. So after a few minutes, my buddy and his uncle are really getting into their ping pong game and my other buddy and his girl are sorta making out and so I'm just sitting on a barstool by myself when the stranger gets up and makes a beeline towards me. He comes up to me, tugs my sleeve and says, "hey, I'm back!"
And I say to him, "yeah, you mentioned you'd been to Fall City before."
Then he says to me, " No I'm from Orion, remember me? We've been watching you your whole life? And YOURE RIGHT! "
When he said that to me, the memories of that dude that I met waiting on the bus in Seattle that one day, came back to me, and I was absolutely stunned. It felt like a dream, or like a joke being played on me. I looked at him closer;it definitely was NOT the same guy. They were both native American, but this guy was much younger and had wavy hair. It felt unreal! I look at him all wide eyes, and for some reason I say to him, "what about my son?" right before I get up from my stool and walk over to the garage door and go outside. I was feeling! Scared sorta, too. I was trying to think of some logical explanation, some way to rationalize what was happening, but I couldn't. I had a huge adrenaline rush and everything felt FAKE. I walk back inside, go over to the guy and ask, "who are you?
" Let me mind-meld with you" he says and he puts his hands on my head and after about ten seconds he nods his head (as if in approval) and let's go of me. Right then my buddy's girlfriend comes over and asks us what we were doing, and it sort of snaps the guy back into the shy quiet dude he was before he came over to talk to me. Anyways, I went back outside, freaked the hell out, and when I went back in he was gone, and I have never seen either of them again.

nothing is strange, least not second hand.
totally predictable in irregularity.
the hidden hand is weird
did not expect the poisoner.
wicked pixie, little buzzing blob of death.
the angle warned me just in time.

My story is explainable but it is still a strange experience. I was around 35 ish and was jumping a ramp in my local, outdoor, free ,no pads required “ skate park” . So I’m about 4 feet in the air backwards when I realize I lost my balance and knew I was going to hit the ground hard. As I prepared for the pain I was pleasantly surprised that my mind had taken me to a warm, breezy field of golden Colored wheat where I laid on my back in peace. I was so content until a person blocked out the sun and held his hand out to help me up. I put my hand up and that’s when I came too and was laying on the ground with my hand up and no one around. The mind can be so helpful most of the time.