To ask what's the weirdest/strangest/creepiest thing that has ever happened to you?

[fruitysmoothie]

As the title says...

I have a UFO one. When me and exDH were in our 20s we were sitting on a wide beach in Devon after the pub, having a bit of a snog in the sand dunes and stargazing.

I noticed at one end of the beach that there were 3 stars in a perfect equilateral triangle, quite close to the horizon, moving very slowly, and as it did so the black shape of the triangle between the stars blocked or the stars behind it. I couldn't make sense of what I was seeing and couldn't get my depth perception of it straight in my mind. I wondered whether it might be a yacht a long way out with an unfeasibly large sail and a light on each sail point, when suddenly it shot right across the full length of the horizon, maintaining its upright position, and stopped at the other end of the beach, again near the horizon. ExDH breathed "what the..." (I hadn't pointed it out to him, it wasn't really that noticeable but the movement of black space across the starry sky seemed to catch his eye, and it all happened very quickly) - anyway just as I was about to say "can you see it too?" it sort of folded over on itself and vanished, revealing the stars behind it, and exDH shouted "FUCK THAT!"

The eeriest thing about it was its total and utter silence, that and the strange depth perception thing. I couldn't tell whether it had been 50 or 500 metres away from where we were sitting.

We are still good friends some 25 years later and we still talk about it!

Night terrors are horrendous. I suffered for years but had no idea what they were until ages later. I was so sure I was awake, couldn't move, couldn't speak, always a dark figure or shadow of a man, very threatening leaning over the bed. It took me years to work out that I was trying to process a DV marriage and abuse and this was one way of doing it. I just wish it had been less scary!

My cousin committed suicide 10 days after my DS was born. We had been very close as kids, but drifted as we got older. He loved kids, and was broken hearted as his ex wouldnt allow him to see his son.
Anyway, as my DS got more alert, he seemed to be fixated / entertained by thin air!

One day, he was about 6 month old and i had him in the high chair. I left the kitchen to get something and when i came back in, he was full on giggling at nothing in the corner of the room... it was like he was engaging and responding to someone!!

I called DH discreetly indicating him to video it. It continued for a short time after he started recording. I've looked back on the recording to see if there is anything... there isnt, but I like to think my beautiful baby cousin was visiting my son, having a goof around and making him laugh.

SoTheySentMeA
I could listen to stories about Joe all day.. he sounds like a good guy!

Glad to hear that I'm not the only one who suffers from it

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BlasianFashionista have you seen The entity ? It's a channel 4 documentary about sleep paralysis. It's very interesting.

Caipira no I haven't I'll see if they have it on YouTube... Thanks

Just found another one on YouTube called The Nightmare I haven't seen it. I'm going to watch it now. It says 1in 5 suffer the hallucinations with sleep paralysis, which is what I had and I assume what you had. So you're not alone

the problem with the mirror story is that I am terrified that by telling it I draw whatever it was to me again - sounds ridiculous doesn't it?. The friend who went through it with me is now in Australia - we have referred to it a fewtimes but both won't discuss it really.

I spent many nights sitting in the porch of our local church (it was locked so couldn't actually go inside). It involved faces the mirror, things flying round the house and being thrown upstairs towards the mirror by some sort of force. The most terrified I have ever been in my life and I really thought it wanted to kill me.

It wasn't helped by a 'friend' who reckoned he was a spiritualist who could sort it - just made it madder. Finally got the local vicar in and we had a cleansing - we were offered an exorcism but turned it down - we didn't want to enrage it any more, just for it to leave me alone. It was very very old and very very angry. And I always felt it wanted me.

Turns out the new house we rented was built on an old ancient roman burial ground - and the company we worked for was also built on ground that really should have been excavated, but was built on instead.

Original friend moved out and a new renter moved in - went out one night and left new renter at home alone. Halfway through the evening I said I have to go, renter is alone and something's not right. Got home, she was in bed. Next morning she asked me if I had sat on the stairs crying, I said no and she said I didn't think it was you as I didn't think you had come home by then, she was so scared she hid under the quilt and prayed. We both moved out shortly after.

Sounds ridiculous now, but I still can't watch horror stuff of that nature as I really think it attracts badness.

Now live in a house with a cottage in the garden that neither of the grown up studying kids will move into because they think it is haunted - it is very very still when you go in. Keep saying I will sleep there one night but not done it yet.

Sorry that was a lot longer than I thought it would be.

I get regular sleep paralysis too. I can sometimes feel my spirit body floating around outside my physical body, which is why it stops breathing or moving or speaking, and I have to work hard to get my spirit body to align back to my physical body - sometimes they won't click and I drift straight through my body and the bed. Then suddenly they will click back into place and I wake up gasping for air.

Other times I am in my body awake, but it won't move, I can't call out or move my arms. It happens so often that I have learned to practice different approaches in the middle of it. Lately I find myself saying "okay, this again... Just relax, it will pass..."

There is probably a good neurological explanation but it also convinces me that there is so much we don't understand about the spark of life that we carry around inside us, what drives it, what contains it, where it comes from and where it goes.

Loving this thread!

One summer when I was about 8, we were driving through France on holiday heading south. We came off the main motorway to find somewhere pretty to have a picnic lunch. After about 20 minutes following a winding country road in the middle of absolute nowhere, we decided to stop at a wide grassy verge next to a little chapel, which was locked. Behind a row of quite dense trees were fields stretching for miles. It was very cool and damp there on a very hot day.

My father laid down the picnic rug and my mum starting getting all the food out of the car. I remember skipping down towards the hedgerow. I heard English voices behind the trees shouting "run, run, get out of there," the sound of dogs barking. And then people shouting in foreign language ~ not French. It sounded utterly as though it was happening that moment. It was so much frightening, as a feeling a real oddness.

I ran over to find my parents, and found my mum rapidly packing the car with my Dad, who was looking very white and shaky. Around the same moment I heard the voices, he'd had a look into the windows of the locked chapel and had seen something really horrible. We piled into the car and screeched off as fast as we could, not looking back. He would never tell us what he saw in the chapel and we didn't push.

Later, we found out that there been lots of Resistance activity around there towards the end of the War and the story we imagined was that it was perhaps ghosts of English fighters running towards the chapel and being shot there. It was the only cover for miles. I don't know ~ it still gives me the creeps thinking about it. All very strange indeed and my father passed away a number of years ago, so I can't ask him what he saw....

Sorry about the typos ~ trying to get the story down whilst feeding scores of small children breakfast!

I have got to share this one. Have name changed though, as it's current and quite public.

My dad was killed in a car crash about 15 years ago. I kept seeing rainbows at significant moments after he died... Getting positive pregnancy tests, new job, that sort of thing. I knew it was nonsense really as everyone in the area would see the same rainbows, but it always made me chuckle and smile, and I thought well, if it comforts me, why not? I would get into the habit of saying "Thanks, Dad" when I saw one at a significant moment.

This last year my partner has been very poorly with depression, more than I was able to cope with. He would talk a lot about "eleven eleven" - we once stayed in a hotel room with that number and he took a photo of it. I know lots of people are obsessed with conspiracies surrounding this number; I thought it was a bit daft but he was lovely so I didn't mind.

He moved out during the summer to live back with his family to try and get better and also give me some respite. One afternoon a few days after he'd gone I became very sleepy out of nowhere and had a short nap on the sofa. When I woke up I took DC to the shops. On the way across the park it suddenly started to pour down and a huge, strong double rainbow appeared. Me and DC stood under a tree just goggling at it, and I took some photos. I said my usual "thanks Dad."

I would later that night find out that my partner had taken an overdose and died that afternoon. I spent the next day with his family consoling one another, piecing it all together, and starting to make arrangements.

On the way back to my house that night I popped to the same local shop for essentials. I was in a daze and buying weird, snacky things that I wouldn't usually pick up according to what I thought I might fancy to eat (my stomach was queasy with shock still). Standing in the queue with my basket of random items, I suddenly remembered the double rainbow, and that it would have happened around the same time that my partner had passed away. As the cashier was ringing my shopping up, I remembered that it was a double rainbow, and the thought popped into my head that it might have been my Dad and my partner together giving me a rainbow each, to tell me that there was another side and they were going to look out for me.

No sooner was I shaking off the thought as being sentimental, than I heard someone say, "That's eleven eleven, my love."

I stared dumbstruck at the cashier and asked her why she'd said that. She smiled patiently (perhaps sensing I was not quite myself) and said "Because that's what it is..." and pointed at the display.

Yes, my shopping had come to £11.11.

A magical and soothing feeling came over me as I suddenly felt myself switch from a skeptic to a believer.

I took a photo of the receipt - I will see if I can find it.

I have got to share this one. Have name changed though, as it's current and quite public.

My dad was killed in a car crash about 15 years ago. I kept seeing rainbows at significant moments after he died... Getting positive pregnancy tests, new job, that sort of thing. I knew it was nonsense really as everyone in the area would see the same rainbows, but it always made me chuckle and smile, and I thought well, if it comforts me, why not? I would get into the habit of saying "Thanks, Dad" when I saw one at a significant moment.

This last year my partner has been very poorly with depression, more than I was able to cope with. He would talk a lot about "eleven eleven" - we once stayed in a hotel room with that number and he took a photo of it. I know lots of people are obsessed with conspiracies surrounding this number; I thought it was a bit daft but he was lovely so I didn't mind.

He moved out during the summer to live back with his family to try and get better and also give me some respite. One afternoon a few days after he'd gone I became very sleepy out of nowhere and had a short nap on the sofa. When I woke up I took DC to the shops. On the way across the park it suddenly started to pour down and a huge, strong double rainbow appeared. Me and DC stood under a tree just goggling at it, and I took some photos. I said my usual "thanks Dad."

I would later that night find out that my partner had taken an overdose and died that afternoon. I spent the next day with his family consoling one another, piecing it all together, and starting to make arrangements.

On the way back to my house that night I popped to the same local shop for essentials. I was in a daze and buying weird, snacky things that I wouldn't usually pick up according to what I thought I might fancy to eat (my stomach was queasy with shock still). Standing in the queue with my basket of random items, I suddenly remembered the double rainbow, and that it would have happened around the same time that my partner had passed away. As the cashier was ringing my shopping up, I remembered that it was a double rainbow, and the thought popped into my head that it might have been my Dad and my partner together giving me a rainbow each, to tell me that there was another side and they were going to look out for me.

No sooner was I shaking off the thought as being sentimental, than I heard someone say, "That's eleven eleven, my love."

I stared dumbstruck at the cashier and asked her why she'd said that. She smiled patiently (perhaps sensing I was not quite myself) and said "Because that's what it is..." and pointed at the display.

Yes, my shopping had come to £11.11.

A magical and soothing feeling came over me as I suddenly felt myself switch from a skeptic to a believer.

I took a photo of the receipt - I will see if I can find it.

I have just looked for the receipt photo on my PC and it's gone..!

Oh found it! I had sent it to my brother on Facebook asking him what he made of it! (Have trimmed out the branch & date, obvs)

OneOneOneOne I'm so sorry for all the pain you've been through, what a beautiful story. I'm glad it gave you some comfort. My best friend had "Look for me in Rainbows" read at her funeral, and at times when I've really been struggling there always seems to be a beautiful, bright rainbow in the sky. It's a great source of comfort.

"There is probably a good neurological explanation but it also convinces me that there is so much we don't understand about the spark of life that we carry around inside us, what drives it, what contains it, where it comes from and where it goes."

I've had visits from someone who died nearly two decades ago now (I know who it is). What the visits and this person's actions have shown me is that this person can still hear and see everything - what I'm saying to them, what I'm doing etc, and they can respond to something I say. And this is someone whose brain, ears, eyes etc don't exist any more. So where do neurons come into it? Obviously they don't. We must consist of more than our physical bodies, or what I've witnessed and experienced wouldn't be possible, and yet it has happened. It's left me in no doubt that this mortal human life is just a temporary part of our existence. It's all fascinating, intriguing stuff.

My husband had terminal cancer, and we both knew he didn't have too much longer to live. We were at home when the phone rang, but before I could answer it, my husband said "That's your mother. Your uncle has died".

I answered the phone. It was my mother calling to tell me that my uncle had died that morning. He hadn't been unwell - a heart attack while fishing.

I came the phone. My husband said "He told me." He died a few months later himself.

Thanks aye. It's amazing because also running through my head were things like "this is going to break me" and it did feel as though it came especially to show me that I am not alone down here on earth.