What is the strangest thing you've ever experienced?

I was walking to my car out the front of our house looking at the crystal clear pre-dawn sky.

Where the sun was rising there was a very defined but sort of uneven wavy ellipsoid boundary between night and day. The sun was still far below the horizon.

Right on this boundary line, the planet Venus was glowing very brightly, enough to cast a shadow.

I'm looking at Venus and there is this shifting effect in visual perception. It's very similar to those computer generated 3D see the hidden shape images where you if you let your vision from each of your eyes see independantly, you perceive the shape as a kind of cave in the page.

Instead of as a bright point of light, I could see Venus as a sphere, and beyond it, the most amazing thing was that space had actual depth of field rather than the more or less flat 2D view of stars that's normal. I could see how stars were placed in front of and behind in relation to each other. There were stars beyond Venus and it was as if I was seeing them in the sky for the first time, how they were moving through space at incredible speed but with a perfect silence and smoothness and accuracy according to their mass.

I think this may have been how some ancient astronomers knew that certain stars were binaries or trinaries.

reply to post by undermind


That's pretty cool. Thanks for sharing. It reminds me of a time a few years back. It was the middle of summer, about 2AM or so. I was laying on the picknick table in the back yard on a perfectly calm and clear night, just staring at the stars. After about 10 minutes, I guess my eyes adjusted to the night sky and I suddenly noticed tiny little faint lights moving across the sky. First just a couple, then several, and finally dozens. I could see satalites in orbit! I thought it was awesome. It really got me into deep thought, you know. I must have watched them for an hour or so.

All my "weird" experiences occured when I was younger, as I got older I just chalked them up to imagination or coincidence.

When I was younger(maybe 10ish), me and a few buddies use to write short stories....we wrote one about one of us being abducted, then one night we seen the exact same pair of shoes one of our friends owned on the side of the road, next day he wasn't in school, turned out to be coincidence lol odd none the less

We wrote another story about a headless santa, then one night seen a santa that had fallen off a roof and lost its head. A few more like this, but my memories not what it use to be...

the 2 more bizarre ones were, when I was about 4-5ish, i woke up in the middle of the night to go sleep in my parents bed, and as I turned the corner to the living room, a small tiny face appeared in the window and started laughing at me, actually that one still kinda freaks me out, but more than likely it was my imagination..

Another when I was 12ish, I had a old school desk in my room, i woke up one night and saw someone writing at it, they stopped and looked up at me, pretty freaky.....had another experience with a ouija board when I was younger, but kinda sketchy on the details, so I'm not gonna try to explain it, but I haven't touched one since and when a ex moved in with me, she had one, mind you it was from toys r us or some crap, but either way, i burned that ish

been a lurker for ages. fantastic thread. been sitting on my couch with a blanket all rugged up and cosy for hours reading it all!

well afew of my experiences [& i have many]...

i know that street lights switching off when you walk or drive under them is a regular occurence for a lot of people. it happens to me quite frequently, but i know it's only coincidence as it's quite common. one time though i was at this place which had a man made pond in this courtyard type thing. the pond was a perfect circle. it had 3 lamp posts around it in a circle also. as i walked around the pond in a circle and as i walked under each lamp post they all switched off one at a time. my boyfriend was with me at the time. we were both pretty amazed. he couldn't believe it, because he had been with me quite a few times when i'd walked under lights and they'd gone off & had not experienced it before. the lights did not turn back on until we were quite a distance away. i kept looking back to see if they'd go back on.

a VERY strange coincidence that happened to me while on holiday in hawaii. i was staying at a resort laying by the pool on a deck chair in the sun, look under my chair and there is a book. it was the 1st book in "the circle trilogy" by nora roberts about vampires. i decided to keep it to read later. then, a week later, on a different island, different hotel obviously, i was looking for an iron in the cupboard of my hotel room. there's a pillow in the cupboard, i lifted it up and found the 2nd book in the very same series! was absolutely crazy! such a weird & kinda creepy experience, but very amusing.

another... just before one of my best friends died back in 2002 [i was 16]. that morning i met up with him in the morning at school at our usual meeting place. chatted & then went to class. but after i saw him the worst feeling in the world came over me. i became really angry & upset. i wouldn't speak to any of my friends. i just sat there in class & the feeling became so bad that i decided i could not stay at school any longer & went home at recess. on my way home i remember seeing 3 crows in a tree. i'd heard from someone that sometimes crows signal that someone is going to die and this is what i thought to myself when i saw them, but didn't think much of it, because you see crows everywhere right [where i live anyway]? that day, in a freak accident, the best riend that i'd seen that morning died. had i not gone home when i did i would have witnessed it. so i believe i either had someone watching over me that day telling me to get out of there, because i was not strong enough to deal with that, or any psychic ability that i have came into play that day.

anyways, have written too much so that's it from me, but keep sending the stories in guys. love reading them.


[edit on 20-7-2008 by monroe]

[edit on 20-7-2008 by monroe]

reply to post by nyrie


thats my birthday too lol.

In 1953, 19 hours after I was born, weighing around three pounds, my diaphragm ruptured.

They flew in surgeons from all over the country to Norton A.F. Base Hospital to
put me back together. The surgery went into the record books, as no one
thought I would survive the operation.

When I was three, I contracted spinal meningitis after going to a clinic for a smallpox vaccination. I spent 2 months in the hospital. In 1956 meningitis was usually fatal.

When I was 17, I fell asleep with a candle burning on a small plate which overflowed onto
to the terry cloth table cloth covering my night table.

For some reason, my father was awake at 3:00 AM and for no reason he could think of
and completely out of norm, he felt the need to look in on me.

He pulled me out of bed with flames almost to the ceiling from the table only
inches away from my bed.

Conclusion, I must be here for some reason.

Good thread idea!... The strangest thing? I can name a few that are on equal footing. By the way none of these were drug-induced... I'm not into drugs. I'm noticing drug experiences as a kind of theme in this thread but I'd hardly call those 'real' experiences.

Funnily enough, similar to the OP as a kid I was VERY close to a lightning strike. Scared the absolute **** out of me and I can't tell whether my own shock/fear made it hard to move afterwards or some of the charge had passed through me. We lived out on acerage... I guess being a tall object in an otherwise mostly-flat area isn't a great idea when there's lightning about! Unlike the OP there was noise... SO loud...

I'd almost forgotten about that... Thanks for reminding me!

A second one at around a similar age and same location to the first experience was a weird occurence in my room. I was laying in my bed, which faced the door. So I'm looking at the door and on the right of it is a desk with one of those old-style globes on it.

All of a sudden, the door slams shut and the globe falls off the desk... Err...

I'm not particularly superstitious but that scared the hell out of me and I'm still uneasy about it today. This wasn't a 'gust of wind' sort of thing, or someone walking past or a hallucination, it happened because I had to pick it up and open the door again. I wish I had an explanation...

Third good one that happened to me was, again, as a child but a bit older.

I was riding the school bus home and I suddenly started REALLY thinking hard about "what would happen if the bus crashed?". I wondered if bracing myself would help, so I put my head down level with the seats, and held onto the hand rail on the back of the seat in front of me.

5 seconds later, we slam hard into a car that crossed the centre line going around a corner. A mindblowing coincidence? Well I have no other explanation for it so that's what it's been to me. A scary one but jeez...

The guy in the car was really beat up too, I felt bad because we got off the bus and walked home and I saw him but I didn't know what to do, I was a kid and had no idea what to think so I moved on with my afternoon and remarkable story. I kind of wish I'd been older and could've helped him out and everything. Once again, I swear on my life that story is true! Too bad it was in the days before mobile phones and 'proof' like that, but I guess I could never prove that I was bracing myself etc.

Other than those things I've had a fairly dull life! I see odd number combinations a lot, I see recurring words or phrases for months at a time, but neve anything significant and I think I'm just being an idiot. Oh and I was electocuted a few times by a lamp as a kid (nothing too serious!) and my mother (being into the supernatural stuff herself) used to try and get me to "use ESP" on cards, but I don't think that ever went past gueswork.

So there's my story... Time to read more of the thread!

EDIT: OH WOW!

Reading this thread reminded me of another experience I had a few times as a kid! Well, I think it was a few times.

Call me totally insane, but I was lying in my room and I either couldn't sleep or I'd been woken up, I can't remember. All of a sudden the sound in the room got more and more muffled, eventually there was no sound at all.

Then I saw, or at least I thought I saw, a cube sort of 'come out' of the ceiling. Think of it melting out of the ceiling, but the cube looked solid and had very sharp edges.

The cube fell slowly towards the floor. When it touched the ground it made no sound AFAIK, but blackness and green gridlines like those in some sort of old videogame started to come out of it and the floor/house and anything it touched turned black with those green gridlines.

I freaked out. I bolted from my room, looking behind me and as I ran the blackness/lines were spreading even faster behind me. Alarmingly at the same time, the walls started to bow inward towards me, I was feeling like I was going to be killed by it.

I think I eventually ran into my parents room and asked them for help and it stopped... The end is the part I don't remember. This experience still disturbs me today, but it could very well have been a night terror.

To add to the problem though it 'tried to' occur a couple of other times. The same deal happened with the cube, but before it hit the floor I bolted to the lounge room and turned the TV on loud and tried to snap myself out of it and calm down. It seemed to work, so maybe it was just night terrors after all but god, that doesn't make it less disturbing.

[edit on 20/7/08 by Duality]

Originally posted by Anonymous ATS
Ok i dont know if this is because i dont know enough about space or it was indeed a strange thing. You see it was a starry night and my dad came to wake me up and said come see this, to confirm his sanity. it a stary night and up in the sky was a huge ring, from the looks way far away. and in the center of this ring was the moon, the ring was same color of the moon. no stars were visible in this ring and when a cloud passed through the area where the ring was, it would disapper and reappear when it made it through. if anyone has any idea what it could be please tell. but this is my weirdest experience.

Believe it or not I actually know this is a recorded phenomenon.

I first heard about it on an AM radio program (Dr. Karl on Triple J) when somebody described a similar experience. I wish I could give you some sources, but I'm sure if you look up "Lunar Halos" or "Moon Halos" you'll find some good explanations for it and images of the event.

It's apparently pretty rare but when it does happen it's impressive. I wish I could see it myself!

Edit: Ahh what the hell here are some links.

An explanation: www.newton.dep.anl.gov...

A nice pic! media.skyandtelescope.com...

[edit on 20/7/08 by Duality]

reply to post by Anonymous ATS
i have experienced the same thing one time my parents left to the grocery store and i was in my room reading twilight(again) and i had the homephone with me in case they called and after a while it ringed i checked caller id to see who was calling and it said i was(my cell) but my cell phone was sitting on my dresser.now the weird part was wen i had put my cell down it was closed and i had turned it off,but wen i checked it again(after the housephone rang) it was on and it was indeed calling the house phone now by this time i was freaked out and i ran to my friends house and slept over!! now this happens all the time except now its wen we r out and its my moms cell calling my cell

i got my first home in 1985 after the old couple who lived there died ..the man died of a heart attack in the front hall while telephoning for an ambulance for his wife who had dyed in bed during the night and they said the stress must have triggered a heart attack ..they where both in there 80's.....now the strange bit...i was in bed sleeping when the telephone in the started ringing and it woke me up..i jumped out of bed and ran down the stairs to the phone when the living room door open and what i can only describe as a black cloud rushed me...i jumped punching and kicking like mad only to wake up in bed kicking and punching the blankets etc..at the same time i realized the telephone was ringing so i jumped out of bed and headed down the stairs , all the time thinking about what i took to be just a dream..but this time i stopped before i reached the telephone because even though the light was on the bottom of the stairs where dark and the living room door was open..being a young ta soldier at the time im not easily frightened so i carried on to the phone only to be attacked again by the dark shape\cloud..again punching and kicking i woke up in bed to the sound of the phone ringing...this time but i stayed in bed awake for the rest of the night the phone ringing and ringing ....this is true and weird...

i have more weird things if anyone is intrested..like the shadow man who appears in the corner of my eye and stays there for days at a time..first appeared after a Ouija board party went bad ...

I too have had many unusual things happen to me over the years. For about five years back in the 1980's me, my sister, my mother and my daughter lived in an apartment in Iowa that was haunted. I can't even remember all of the weird things that happened but here is a few. One time I was in the bathroom with my back turned towards the door, which was open. From behind me I heard a little childs voice saying Mama, Mama. I ran to make sure that it wasn't my child and she was sound asleep. Totally freaked my out. Another time I was laying in bed reading and in the next room I saw a child walk from the hallway into the kitchen. Well, my niece was spending the night and I just assumed it was her. I waited a few minutes and when I didn't hear anything from the kitchen I yelled out to her. When noone responded I got up and went to check. Noone was in the kitchen and when I checked the bedroom both kids were asleep.
Something else happened in the same apartment. My mother had been married and divorced to a man that my daughter thought the world of. One day he died and the night before he was buried my mom, who spept in the same bed as my daughter, says that she woke up during the middle of the night to see this man standing next to the bed wearing some kind of robe. She says that he leaned over and touched her ring finger, then touched my daughters head.She said that he said some things but that she couldn't remember what they were. Then he was gone and she went back to sleep. Ok, I would automatically think that she was dreaming all this but for the fact that that night our dog woke me up because he was just going crazy barking. I didn't think anything of it until my mom told me what had happened.
One more thing. I have a brother who died long before I was born and another who is still living. After my brother died the other one came to my mom one day and said that he had just seen Jesus who was holding my little brothers hand. He told him that his brother was fine. This all happened fifty or more years ago so I really don't remember all of the details.

Strange things hmmm I have quite a few. I'll start with the ones like many around here have. I believe that part of this may or may not be based on the paranormal or pshchic abilities but more on a global conscience scale

I skipped school the day the challenger blew up becasue I knew something incredible was going to happen with that mission. I watched it blow up from my fron yard.

I also had the same feelings about columbia when it was supposed to land. I was kayaking and a friend said to keep an eye in the sky becasue the shuttle was coming in. In florida were used to waiting for the sonic booms. I told him not to bother becasue it wasn't going to land today. When we got back to shore we heard the news reports.

I felt the earthquake in california many years ago and didnt know what it was until I turned on the news then my feelings subsided as I gained the knowledge of the event.

I was late for work on 9/11 becasue I insisted on watching the news becasue I again had the feeling something was going to happen. I didnt make it to waork that day.

I met a strange man at macdonalds one morning during a particularly troublesome time in my life he gave me advice that got me over my problem and dissaperaed without a trace. I have similar experiances as this many times

I was trying to pass a car on the way to my sisters dance recital and the other car kept speeding up preventing me from passing. A blind curve was coming up and so was an oncoming car. I drpeed the gear said a prayer and flew by the car I was attempting to pass and would have sworn I wnet right through the oncoming car.

I talked to both my uncle and grandfather in dreams the night they died. My Mother called the next morning on both occassions and I told her I already knew.

I think thats good for tonight. Keep the stories coming this is a great thread.


One more thing... The many times while driving when I sensed something was amiss only to see a massive wreck in front of or behind me. In most of those instances there were fatalities. Becasue of these instances I am now working on getting certified as an EMT maybe even a paramedic just for the knowledge to be able to assist.



[edit on 25-7-2008 by photobug]

reply to post by Static Sky


The strangest thing i have ever seen was what i believe to be a UFO. I work at a group home and was letting the residents smoke when i noticed this star that was strangly bright and a weird blue color, i pointed it out to a co-worker when the "star" shot up and over in the sky before completly vanishing.

A few friends and I were doing some ..."stuff" when me and my good friend found ourselves floating one in each corner of the room. We started talking to each other but it all came telepathically. Very awsome experience. We floated back into ourselves and started freaking out. 2 minutes later it happened again. It totally changed our perspective of life.

I was 13 years old we lived in an old two story brick farmhouse out in the country.One morning I woke up,looked around the room ,and noticed that the ceiling around the light fixture was all blackened and the fixture had been removed. I climbed out of bed and went down the stairs to the kitchen where the rest of my family was having breakfast.

I asked them what had happened. My father told me my brother whom I shared my room with had woke up smelling a electrical short smell.He woke my parents and they determined it was the light fixture.They called the volunteer fire department from the nearby town who responded with fire trucks,sirens blaring,private vehicles with blue lights flashing coming up the long lane to our house.

By this time my sisters were well awake as firemen stomped into our house in their boots and helmets carrying a ladder.They put a ladder up to the side of the house and checked the roof.They looked in the attic to ensure there was no flame.After shutting off the power to the outlet and my father talking to one of the firemen who was a electrician about coming the next day to rewire the outlet they all left.There was at one time my father said maybe twenty people in my room,talking about the situation,making a racket.

I slept through the entire incident!

They said the firemen asked him if I was alright.One, that was an EMT came by my bed took my wrist and said I had a pulse of only 30. He looked at me with a flashlight and I was lying there in a fetal position with a big smile on my face! What they didn't know, was that I was as I most usually did at night when I slept ,having an OBE. My body may have physically been there but my soul was flying high.

Here is the strangest part.These OBE"s would only happen in the summer when the windows were open and the HUGE lilac bush right outside my window was in full bloom and the smell of lilacs would just permeate the room. Talk about aromatherapy!

[edit on 29-7-2008 by calcoastseeker]

[edit on 29-7-2008 by calcoastseeker]

This happened about 2 ½ weeks ago.

I walk several times a day for about ½ mile per walk. The first ½ mile walk was at 4 pm under clear sunny skies with a moderate breeze blowing. I walked off the concrete walk over a grassy stretch coming up to an asphalt walk way that I continue on. Before nearing and stepping unto the asphalt walkway, I noticed there was a 25 by 15 inch black cloth like material laying on the grass. I had my dog monkeyboy with me and he seen it to and walked over to it, sniffed and walked on. I walked up to it and looked down seeing it looked like a black fish net material. There was a breeze but the material never moved and I kept walking and thinking no more of it.

At 10 pm I get ready to walk the same route again and do so. Its very dark and there are several sodium vapor lamps on the concrete walkways but none over the grass to the asphalt walkway. As I began to walk on the grass, I completely forgot about the black material that was there earlier. Suddenly as I walked to-wards the black asphalt, a wind came up, and a black cloud like swirling appeared in front of me.

I was shocked and became frightened looking at this black swirling smoke like mass rising up from the grass. I stopped dead in my tracks with eyes wide open as the thing came at me at shoulder level. I side stepped as it blew my me within inches. I turned as it whisked past me and watched it settle back down on the grass and turn back into that black fish net material I had seen earlier in the afternoon.

I went whew. Than let out a nervous laugh with saying out loud, "you got me that time", turned and finished my walk in the dark.

I have to ad, that these sodium vapor lights would blink out as I walked under them, stayed out till I walked back around and under them again.

Freaky

Originally posted by FallenFromTheTree

In 1953, 19 hours after I was born, weighing around three pounds, my diaphragm ruptured.

They flew in surgeons from all over the country to Norton A.F. Base Hospital to
put me back together. The surgery went into the record books, as no one
thought I would survive the operation.

When I was three, I contracted spinal meningitis after going to a clinic for a smallpox vaccination. I spent 2 months in the hospital. In 1956 meningitis was usually fatal.

When I was 17, I fell asleep with a candle burning on a small plate which overflowed onto
to the terry cloth table cloth covering my night table.

For some reason, my father was awake at 3:00 AM and for no reason he could think of
and completely out of norm, he felt the need to look in on me.

He pulled me out of bed with flames almost to the ceiling from the table only
inches away from my bed.

Conclusion, I must be here for some reason.

Whoa! That's amazing. The story about the fire sounds so familiar to me for some reason, like it's happened to me or a relative before. I totally believe in that kind of stuff, when you can sense if someone you love is in danger or something similar.

The weirdest thing that's ever happened to me is also the reason why I believe in ghosts. I think I was around 8 or 9 years old and we were staying at this hotel in a little town in Mexico.

Every night I would see the figure of a man sitting in a chair by the window. He was not terribly vivid, just the general shape of a man (solid) in a strange greenish hue. I told my family about it and none of them said they saw it. So I dismissed it after one night, but it continued to happen every night for 5 nights.

It didn't scare me, but I was really curious as to what it could be. My mom thought there was something in my eyes like chlorine and she also suggested that maybe it was a trick of light. So I moved the chair, but the figure of the man was still there every night. Pretty freaky stuff.

reply to post by Paresthesia

in a strange greenish hue

Thats the luminance of your light sphere illuminating in the ethereal/astral plane.

I've had 2 experiences
I believe that the young and the pure will see more paranormal activity
than people who have degraded their bodies and minds with alcohol
tobacco and drugs.

My first Experience happened when I was around 8 years old
I was in bed and heard my Dad come home late at night ,I called out Daddy but he was in no shape to answer me he staggered into his bedroom.
I called out again Daddy and looked towards the door way expecting hm to come see me.
I saw him on the floor crawling into my room I thought it was funny how he had a bridal gown on.
I jumped out of bed walked towards him and said Daddy
I was about a foot away from him,he had his head down looking at the floor.
I repeated Daddy!
He looked up at me and I saw his face it was not daddy
it was a face of a skeleton and dressed in a bride's gown
I turned and ran then leaped into bed and pulled the blankets over my head
and listened as frightened as can be imagined
All I could hear was my daddy snoring from his bedroom.

the other experience I had was later in life I was around 24 years old
I was sitting on the front porch with my 2 brothers talking and getting relief from the stifling heat
I noticed a streak in the sky
I don't mean a streak like a shooting star this was much bigger.
then I saw more vehicles these were big ships they seemed sort of like ghost ships, they did not seem solid, more like semi transparent
the size of a harvest moon and many of them perhaps 100 or more all over the sky
they seem to come then park as if waiting for something and then flash they would streak away and another group began to take up their positions .
I told my brothers did you see that ,which brought their attention to it
My thoughts were we are under attack it's ww3
I didn't know what to make of it I ran into the house in panic mode
wanting to say something I remember saying we are under attack
and then I became rational and realized there is nothing we can do and how silly i was sounding
that took my mind off it.both of my brothers witnessed this with me
Both of these events are true accounts
As best as I can explain them
I have faced men twice my size and have intervened and taken out multiple bullies at a time without fear or worry
these events I described are truly the only times in my life I have felt fear.








[edit on 29-7-2008 by solo1]