Ask Lemmy

This just recently happened.

Last year, we had a smoke detector with a 10-year built-in battery that was giving false positives. The manufacturer replaced it under warranty, but because I still needed to dispose of it properly, I just put it in the basement until I had time to get rid of it.

Since that time, it had not beeped once.

Two weeks ago, it started beeping, but only a few seconds and maybe once a day. Annoying, but whatever, it was going to be thrown out anyway.

But then it did it more often, until finally, it was going nuts one morning last week, and I had to permanently disable it.

As it turns out, that evening, a house on our block went up in flames. A total loss. None of the other smoke detectors, CO2 detectors, CO detectors, or even air quality meters picked up on anything that day.

Coincidence? Perhaps. I can't explain it at all.

Me and my brother shared a room one time and right outside our door to the right was a bathroom that was always left open with the light on. One night I woke up and noticed the light to the bathroom was being blocked out by 2 large dark figures that seemed to be holding hands and walking towards my bed. My bed was opposite the door and my brothers was to the right of the door. I quickly decided to get up and run to my brothers bed instead of waiting for them to reach me and my brother complained that I had kneed him in the back and told me to fuck off. I turned around and saw them still going towards my bed until they hit the wall behind it and disappeared. Idk what that was, probably my brain messing with me, but it was terrifying.

I used to work in a theater where the main director had recently died. It was cancer, and was a relatively long battle. The entire cast and crew watched the slow attrition, and her loss hit everyone pretty hard. She always sat in a specific seat during rehearsals. When she died, the theater even had an embroidered ribbon with “Reserved for [Director]” made, to hang on the seat.

About a week after she died, one of the audience lights started acting up. It was the one directly over her favorite seat. It would just randomly come on during rehearsals when the rest of the audience was dark. We all very quickly started calling it “the [director’s name] light.”

Those of you familiar with theatrical lighting may know that this “randomly decides to turn on” phenomenon is colloquially called ghosting. It happens often enough with older lighting systems, so it’s not unheard of. But the fact that it was directly over her seat, (and only ever during rehearsals, never during shows when an audience would have been bothered by it) fueled a lot of superstition. Needless to say, there were a lot of other “this theater is fucking haunted” things that started popping up.

The most memorable one for me happened after a rehearsal. The rehearsal had already ended, and most people had already left for the night. The lighting tech and I were in the booth, going over some of our notes and updating lighting cues. The director’s light was ghosting, but we didn’t think too much of it. Then the wall phone in the booth rang.

The phone ringing was notable for a few reasons... First, it was like 11:30 at night; Who the hell calls that late? Second, to the best of our knowledge, the phone didn’t fucking work. As far as anyone knew, it was just left over from when the theater had a landline patched into the booth. But normally it didn’t have a dial tone or anything, so you couldn’t dial out with it. And nobody knew the phone number for it, so it never got any calls.

The lighting tech and I swap confused/concerned looks, and I reach over to answer it. On the other end is just pure static. Like straight white noise. And no, I know what a fax sounds like. This wasn’t a fax. After answering and a few seconds of trying to hear a response through the static, the line goes dead. Okay, whatever. I hang up.

The very moment the phone returns to the wall hook, the director’s light in the audience flickers out. The lighting tech and I swap another confused/concerned look. She starts to worriedly say “so I think we’re done for now“, and I’m already shutting down my gear and grabbing my bag to leave by the third word in.

I've seen two UFOs, both with several other people there who also saw them.

The first one was when I was a kid (around 12) with my mom and other random people on the street, we saw two blue lines of light that went parallel across the whole sky, and purple spotlights in a line between them that turned on and off after each other. I'd have said it was just my child's mind making things up if it weren't for my mom, who still tells this story often, and everyone else who saw it.

The second one was when I was about 23, my then girlfriend and me were waiting on a tram during sunset with about 10 other people, the sky was fully covered in clouds and there were these two orbs, one black and one white, that zoomed around incredibly quickly then stopped on a dime and then went another direction, very erratic movement. They went up and disappeared into the clouds then came back down in a different place. After a couple of minutes, they stopped kinda close to each other then slowly flew closer to one another and when they were so close they became one they lit up brightly with a blue shine and shot up into the clouds, the light from them was so strong that we saw it through the clouds for several seconds as they seemed to exit earth's atmosphere and become smaller and smaller from our point of view.

To be clear, I'm very much a skeptic of stuff like this and I'm very scientifically minded. I still have no idea what any of them were, nothing even close to a logical explanation. But to me it's not much more than "dang, that was cool as fuck and weird, wonder what it was?", I don't want or need to think they were aliens, something form the future, classified military stuff or whatever. I'll never know what they were and I've just accepted that.
Nothing else I've seen, both in person and in video, photographs etc. is good enough to convince me there are beings or tech here that isn't from us, or is some military or any other way secret high-tech or "different-tech".

I was working a pub late one night. Around 11pm or so I was down in the cellar getting all the empty kegs ready to be picked up. I put down a keg and as I turned to grab the next one I saw like a black cloud/shadow/ misty thing rush at me.

At first I didn't think anything of it and kept going. After a minute or so I thought about it and if freaked me out so I legged it back up to the bar haha.

Another one I saw when I was a kid. We were at my cousins place playing inside. We had a family friend there as well who was out in the backyard by herself. As we were playing we heard her come running into the house and straight into the bedroom.

We heard her ripping toys out of this big chest and launching them all over the room. We asked her what she was doing because she was making a mess and aunty is going to kill her. She looked up and said the little boy she was paying with ran and hid in the chest.

Now normally we wouldn't have believed her but the is mentally slow and didn't know how to lie or make up stories like that. My cousin who's house it was would always tell us weird stuff happened in that house but we never believed her.

Not saying I saw anything or that ghost are real or anything. Just weird things I have experienced.

One of my kids once emptied the dishwasher without bitching about it. I have no fucking clue what was going on there.

I am a paramedic and have seen a fair share of trauma. But around 15 years ago I saw someone take a fall that by all accounts and all probability should have killed said person. And I mean I literally saw that guy faceplant 15 meters directly onto the pavement, hitting the pavement with his skull first.

And I don't mean something like "in a rush of Adrenaline he walked it off for two minutes and then died". Nope. We took him in as a full trauma call. Besides the laceration on the forehead there was zero injury. The hospital did a full body CT scan, did MRIs of the most endangered areas. Nothing. Absolutely fucking nothing.

I have no idea, to this day, how that happened.

Nothing major, but I have two stories that have stuck with me. I'm not superstitious or anything, and obviously these are just coincidences, but it's interesting how the human mind loves finding connections between things even when there aren't any.

One morning in 2020, during the covid lockdowns, I woke up to the sound of a small bird pecking at my bedroom window. It was really going at it and wouldn't fly away even after opening the blinds. For some reason, I wanted to take a picture of it, and just as I grabbed my phone, it rang and I got the news that my grandmother had passed away during the night. Right then, I noticed the bird flying away. My partner at the time insisted it was my grandma saying her final goodbyes. While I don't believe that, the memory of that moment has stuck with me, and it still makes my eyes water a bit.

The second incident also involves a bird, funnily enough. A friend and I were driving to a national park for an overnight hiking trip when we accidentally drove over something on a small forest road. I didn't see it, but my friend said it looked like a small bird. I wanted to stop and check, but my friend, who was driving, just kept going. I jokingly said something like "Now we have bad karma, and the whole trip will get ruined somehow.” And would you know it, that very same day an unexpected heatwave hit the area, making the entire hike pretty miserable. This has become a running joke between us, every time we go hiking, we joke about how everything will go fine, as long as we can get there without running over anything on the way.

I have deja-vues surprisingly often. Every once in a while, I'm talking to somebody about a certain topic, or doing a specific thing in a specific location, and I get this memory that I've seen this exact thing happen in a dream some time ago. The weird thing about that is that I usually forget my dreams right after waking up. I know I have vivid dreams, but their contents is usually gone from my mind within seconds of waking up. It's probably just my brain doing things. But some irrational part of me believes that I have some weak form of cassandras curse, where I am allowed to see the future, but not allowed to remember it.

Was visiting Boston with an old friend and we walked past the Granary Burying Ground (a cemetery where many prominent American Revolutionary war figures are buried). As we're walking by I see a young girl in Colonial style dress walk out of one of the buildings carrying an armload of flowers and she starts placing one on each grave. I turned to my friend and asked her when they started doing reenactment stuff at this site, and she was like "What are you talking about?" I go to point to the girl and she's gone, no flowers on any of the graves at all. This happened in broad daylight.

Recently lost my childhood cat and I am sure that he found a way to say goodbye. I knew that his health was bad for a long time and actually thought that my mother already took him to the vet, because we talked about the date and time and everything. Sadly I was not able to say my final goodbye, as I already had plans to travel to my grandma, who is also healthwise in a bad shape. Was not sure how long she would be around, so I priorized her. A sunny morning came along, 600km away from home and my childhood cat and I decided to go for a walk in the forest. Upon entering I was LOUDLY greeted by a black cat, looking similar to my childhood cat. You see, this is unusual. Went for so many walks there already and no cat ever greeted me. Normally people there do not let them outside because of foxes and a notoroiusly bad road with speedy drivers. But this cat obviously belonged to one of the houses bordering the forest. She was im dire need of love and I gave all the scritches I had. After a few minutes it had enough and playfully wandered off into the forest, looking back one more time. I had the feeling that there were adventures waiting for this cat, but it was nevertheless thankful for my love. Phoned my mom later that day, she told me the vet appointment got postponed to this exact morning. :(

A droplet of rain once passed through a completely closed car window and hit me on the cheek.

Leaving a house party with my mate once early morning. Walking up a hill outside and he’s on the phone to my cousin. He paused, sniffed, and went ‘are you eating bacon?!’

My cousin was in fact eating bacon.

Idk what would even prompt him to ask such a question it’s like he was connected to that bacon on a quantum level.

Many years ago, I had a dream where I was in a church, talking to my ex, who was wearing a wedding dress. It was just a chat about why things didn't work out, how it was a horrible break up but we both accepted we were young and stupid and we wished the best for each other's future - it was a very calm and positive dream. We hadn't spoken in 5 or so years and were in no way connected on any social media platform or had any friends in common at this point.

A couple of weeks later after the dream she emailed my old email out of the blue saying she'd found some pictures of my dog from when we were together. I thanked her and asked how life was going. Shed moved to America and had got married recently. I congratulated her and wished her the best, but never stayed in touch after then.

I'm sure there is a grounded explanation to it, but I also like to think that there could be something more universal/spiritual to it.

Literally last weekend I was camping and everyone in our camp saw dozens of starlike dots in the sky moving faster than planes, slower than shooting stars, and were way higher elevation than planes.

The dots would move in different directions, some followed each other.

I would say they were satellites, but they changed speed, and some even stopped and then moved again.

Shit was weird man

When me and my sister were 6 and 4 our dad came in to our room to tell us a bedtime story. He lied down with us on the bed and started telling the story.

It was just before Christmas and because our flat was small we had the Christmas tree with lights on in our room by the door, and we were on the other side of the room on the bed by the window, ca. 3 m away

Once he was done withe the story suddenly in the same moment the Christmas light turned off. That was in Poland in the 80's so no home automation or anything.

He told us the Jesus baby turned it off because it was sleeping time. Even as a 6years old I was suspicious about that answer because it was a one time thing. But I never figured out how he did it.

I believe I have been subjected to some form of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hum, but the way I remember it is substantially higher pitch than what is described in the article.

I saw "Bigfoot" once about 20 years ago when I lived in the southern interior of British Columbia. My friend and I were walking along a dirt road that ran through a large field near the edge of a forest, roughly around the size of a football field. The area was mostly level with little foliage, and he was probably 50 feet away from us so we got a pretty good look at him - at least 7 feet tall, covered in dark fur. He was almost exactly like I had seen in illustrations.

He was walking perpendicular to us through the field and seemed to slow down, while we came to a stop as all three noticed each other at the same time. He probably only watched us for a few seconds, then snapped into a run and disappeared into the forest almost instantly. The speed that he moved at was insane, and on top of that as soon as he crossed the treeline, there was no sound of rustling branches or anything you would expect from a human running through the forest, he was completely silent.

My friend and I wordlessly watched the spot where he disappeared for maybe half a minute before turning to each other and bursting out, "what the fuck was that!?". We were more than a little stunned, "did we really just see fucking Bigfoot?".

We told a few of our friends, and some had similar experiences or had friends or relatives share stories with them. The area is known for a high amount of sightings, and a few people we told were completely unphased, as if it was totally normal.

I definitely kept more of an eye out after our encounter, but unfortunately I never saw him again.

Nothing of that nature has happened to me yet, but, for instance, my wife dreamed about my dad (first time) and told me about it some hours before my mom called me to tell me he had died.

This actually happened earlier this year.

I was driving with my partner in a somewhat rural area. We were driving on the interstate. It was a sunny, bright winter morning. There was not all that much snow on the ground.

I notice on the side of the road, what appears to be a bear sitting in the shoulder next to the freeway, its back is turned to us, so we see its ears. It is completely black. Not black like a black bear, but black like those character locked memes.

I literally think it's a wooden cutout. People sometimes make those for wild animals around where we were. Although as we pass this thing, it's clear to me it is in fact a three-dimensional bear. I get a quick glimpse of its face. It is a fully, jet-black bear. The only details I can make out are small glints from its eye and the wetness of its nose. Apart from that, it looked like a void in space.

My partner and I sit in silence, and I eventually say "did you see that?" And they say "yep". We've talked about this since, and my partner stands by the fact that they think it was a 2d cutout. They didn't see the front side, which is making me think I somehow imagined it.

There are a few logical explanations, but it's certainly the weirdest thing ive ever come across while driving.

I'm convinced my old car was haunted. Flickering lights, unexplained movements, the muffled screams of the damned from the glove compartment.

Yes but actually i'd sound like a lunatic

Often i "dream" but then a year or a few months later everything happens exactly 1:1

So i sometimes weird out others by knowing exactly when something happens since i now always try to look for a date and time or other indications on when this vision takes place, and then write it down. It is really scary because i have also foreseen a fire, a flood that happened last year in my area, and someone falling down the stairs.

My boyfriend and i can also sometimes see how places looked like in the past. Its like a flashback.

Was walking in a city on a school trip, blinked and suddenly i saw the battle of the city in ww2. But i couldnt have known what that looked like or what english sounded like because i was 7.

My boyfriend also says he can feel, hear and see multiple universes at once. They showed me the movie "everything all at once" and said exactly that is what i experience. I can see and hear multiple parallel happening events.

They also often know how i originally wanted to phrase something when i decided to say it differently or dont say it at all. And its defenetly not "because they know me". How could you predict how i original wanted to phrase a whole poem??? Oh yeah they can also do quantum math in their head.

Yes we are both autistic. Them higher than me. I am way into ADHD.

My wife has not kissed me this morning, and there is no explanation... wait...

Honestly, nothing.