Creepy unsolved/paranormal/strange events thread

AniHawk said:
I'm a skeptic of this stuff these days, but I still like to read stories that have happened to people here. I'm also not religious.

The one thing that happened to me I cannot explain is something I've posted here a couple of times, but I like to tell it.

When I was a little kid, my parents would have me and my sister spend the weekend at our grandparents' house while they took college classes. One of the main things I remember my grandfather doing was playing with this cuckoo clock that hung on a wall he got from a friend. He could make the cuckoo work by moving the minute hand until the next our came, but the clock itself wouldn't work. The pendulum was still, even though the weights were pulled all the way up. This was in the main room with the TV, so we both saw him doing this quite a lot.

Grandpa smoked a lot, and it's what eventually killed him. Throat cancer that spread all through his body. In his last month of life, he was placed under hospice care, and put in a bed in the main room with the TV (we had tried putting him in a home and he hated it there). Even as he was dying, he kept playing with the clock, pushing the pendulum, trying to get it to work, but nothing ever came from it- the clock was broken and had been for years.

He died in that bed, and about six or eight hours later, his body was removed and the bed was taken. I went to the spot where he had died and hit the pendulum once. It still works to this day. A few days later, my mom told me that she and her dad had made an agreement: whenever he got to heaven safely, he'd give us a sign.


Lovely story, but it's just a coincidence. If dead people could communicate with the living so easily - and by changing physical objects no less, they ALL would. We wouldn't be able to walk down the street without poltergeists helping old ladies carry their bags, and beating up rapists.

You describe it as something you can't explain, but it's pretty easily explainable: his tinkering probably helped fix the clock, and for whatever reason it didn't work immediately. Haven't you ever tried fixing something that's broke - eg your computer fan making a funny noise, and nothing seems to be coming of it, and then ten minutes later the problem just goes away? We don't some to mystical conclusions about these things because there was nothing to suggest anything of the sort.

But add in a dying man into the picture, and suddenly things change, because we love the idea that after people die, they're in a happy place and they're still around in some sense, with the same interests and clothes and love they always had. So suddenly that odd event like the working clock, becomes a sign from your grandad from beyond the grave.

Many of these stories of people talking to dead people occur hours after someones death. This either means that

a) Dead people sometimes float around for a bit after they die, having conversations with family

b) The people they leave behind are in a shattered emotional state which can lead to them experiencing things that aren't there, having experiences that they'd dismiss on any other day, or seeing signs when there's only coincidences.


I feel like an absolute dipshit for saying this stuff, so don't bother pointing it out. I'm lucky enough to never have had anyone die in my life and I know if something similar happened to me after a loved one had died, it'd make me really happy to know they were still out there and alive in some sense. But your grandad clearly lived a long life and looks like he had a family who really loved him and remember him fondly, so even if he's not still floating around, it's not all bad. *wipes a tear*
 
Jake. said:
this thing creeps me out just because why it happened and that they have never found anyone responsible. why hasn't anyone attempted it since (is it that difficult)? how do you even hijack a TV broadcast back then anyway?

There was a scene in the book version of Hackers (with one with Johnny Lee Miller and Angelina Jolie) where the main character did the same thing, but with a Beach Boys video (I think) instead of that max headroom thing. The way he did it involved making a late night call to the broadcasters pretending to be a technician or engineer who was having problems with the signal frequency, getting remote control of the computer systems and simply playing his tape on the same channel.



I think in real life, it was probably just an inside job, because I don't know how connected the internet networks were back then. I know that if I was working somewhere like that I'd jump at the chance to do something really freaky for everyone sitting at home watching sitcoms.
 
neptunes said:
What about that Max Headroom incident, where some dude, wearing a masked, hacked a television broadcast for a couple of minutes. Went off on some tirade, creeping viewers in the process. I know it's not paranormal, but they haven't found the perpetrator, so it's still unsolved. :lol

Oh man, I watched the footage of this. Scared the everloving fuck out of me.

Fascinating cultural relic too. It's so '80s, and it's so cool that with a microwave and a transmitter you could basically broadcast whatever you wanted on a TV station if you were savvy enough.
 
Tonay said:
I feel like an absolute dipshit for saying this stuff, so don't bother pointing it out.
I think I will anyway. The reason why you feel like one is that you are. Everyone got your fucking point pages ago and knows exactly where you stand. Maybe you can bend that inclination for explaining things toward figuring out why you feel the need to dominate the thread by smearing your play by play rationalizations around like feces on a wall.
 
GrotesqueBeauty said:
I think I will anyway. The reason why you feel like one is that you are. Everyone got your fucking point pages ago and knows exactly where you stand. Maybe you can bend that inclination for explaining things toward figuring out why you feel the need to dominate the thread by smearing your play by play rationalizations around like feces on a wall.

Back to the crazy fantasy land with you!

If you can't take the criticism, don't post your stuff on a public message board.
 
Tonay said:
You describe it as something you can't explain, but it's pretty easily explainable: his tinkering probably helped fix the clock, and for whatever reason it didn't work immediately. Haven't you ever tried fixing something that's broke - eg your computer fan making a funny noise, and nothing seems to be coming of it, and then ten minutes later the problem just goes away? We don't some to mystical conclusions about these things because there was nothing to suggest anything of the sort.

By the time he was dying, the clock had been broken for years. And at the stage he was at, the most he could do was push the pendulum from his position where he was lying down. It was mounted on the wall and the only way he could actually tinker with any of its gears was if he took it down, and by then he was barely strong enough to sit up and eat. All he could pretty much do was play with the clock, watch TV, and die a little more each day.

a) Dead people sometimes float around for a bit after they die, having conversations with family

Which is really not what I believe. I'm a pretty big skeptic and I don't believe in god (but I don't deny the possibility such a thing might exist).

b) The people they leave behind are in a shattered emotional state which can lead to them experiencing things that aren't there, having experiences that they'd dismiss on any other day, or seeing signs when there's only coincidences.

To be honest, I had been sorta prepared for this. I turned 13 about six weeks before he died and I remember him being really down. Later that month on Halloween (which was the last time I went trick or treating), he was under hospice care and fading fast. The Sunday before he died, he fell asleep, and he never woke up.

The heaven thing is more mom's belief, to be honest, but I don't buy the "he fixed the clock while he was dying" thing either. I saw him hit the pendulum while he was in bed. I knew it didn't work. I only pushed it as a sort of remembrance. I never expected it to keep going back and forth. I remember standing there for a while because I knew it had to stop sometime. When it didn't, my grandma and my sister confirmed the clock had been broken for years and that I wasn't just making shit up.
 
GrotesqueBeauty said:
I think I will anyway. The reason why you feel like one is that you are. Everyone got your fucking point pages ago and knows exactly where you stand. Maybe you can bend that inclination for explaining things toward figuring out why you feel the need to dominate the thread by smearing your play by play rationalizations around like feces on a wall.
It is pretty annoying. Obviously we know most of these are fake/hoaxes. It doesn't stop it from being interesting. The junior scientist is very obnoxious at this point.
 
Mr_Kitty_Fantastico said:
I don't get why these thread always have to devolve into an argument on whether this shit is real or not. Who cares? These are cool stories regardless if they are true or not.


People do it to convince themselves that everything in this world has a rational explanation. It's close-mindedness at it's finest.
 
I hate ghost stories. People under (emotional) stress, tired or hungry, sleeping, outside their normal environment or expecting something weird to happen see ghosts. Colour me shocked.

Wat I love, however, are "unexplainable" things, like the alchemist manuscript in moonlanguage. Handwriting analyses suggest that the person(s) writing it did understand what tey wrote, but nobody managed to crack the code, syntax or whatever the author used to create this "language".

Or really well done fakes that "survive" the first several analyses until someone tests for something unexpected and shows how it was forged.

Shows how creative and resourceful people really are, sometimes with really limited resources.
 
Mentioning the grinning man made me think of this picture:
themanwholaughs.png

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_Who_Laughs_%281928_film%29

I didn't even notice right away that the girl above has pitch black eyes. What would cause that? I've never seen a photo like that.
 
Holepunch said:
Any chance you can find a source that doesn't read like $2 tabloid? Really? Classified Aerospace Technology in MY paperback book off amazon? This is one of those "If it's too good to be true it probably isn't" things.

By the way I like how attack my blurb on the anti-gravity and completely ignore the rest of my points on the fact this whole thing is either hasn't been proven because it isn't true but hey, pick your battles.
So you've read it, or you're literally judging a book by its cover? By the way, the author has an undergrad in physics from Johns Hopkins, an MBA from the University of Chicago, and a PhD in Astronomy from Portland State.
 
Binabik15 said:
I hate ghost stories. People under (emotional) stress, tired or hungry, sleeping, outside their normal environment or expecting something weird to happen see ghosts. Colour me shocked.

Wat I love, however, are "unexplainable" things, like the alchemist manuscript in moonlanguage. Handwriting analyses suggest that the person(s) writing it did understand what tey wrote, but nobody managed to crack the code, syntax or whatever the author used to create this "language".

Or really well done fakes that "survive" the first several analyses until someone tests for something unexpected and shows how it was forged.

Shows how creative and resourceful people really are, sometimes with really limited resources.
Or Kryptos, the sculpture on display at CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia:
Pd_cia_krypt-lg.jpg


The encryption has never been fully solved.
 
What always fascinated me about John Titor are the supposed pictures of the hardware he used and the schematics for the time machine.

It was all proven fake but it's still an interesting story.
 
Binabik15 said:
I hate ghost stories. People under (emotional) stress, tired or hungry, sleeping, outside their normal environment or expecting something weird to happen see ghosts. Colour me shocked.

Wat I love, however, are "unexplainable" things, like the alchemist manuscript in moonlanguage. Handwriting analyses suggest that the person(s) writing it did understand what tey wrote, but nobody managed to crack the code, syntax or whatever the author used to create this "language".

I share your opinion on ghost stories. I really don't get how people get scared from reading them either.

Another thing, I'm pretty sure the "Voynich manuscript" you're talking about is actually just a very elaborate hoax, as well.
 
-NeoTB1- said:
People do it to convince themselves that everything in this world has a rational explanation. It's close-mindedness at it's finest.


Close-mindedness?

No, it's the everlong struggle between smart and stupid. I'm talking about the demonisation of intellect. Intelligent thought, unencumbered, ends wars. It promotes tolerance. It eradicates bigotry. It fosters the sort of compassionate society most of us want to live in. Intelligent discussion is what's gonna help us, trying to smother it with cries of 'close-mindedness' is just driving us backwards, back to a time before the Enlightenment (look it up).

Frankly, the willfully stupid are ripe for ridicule - and persons more qualified, more intelligent, shouldn’t be afraid to say so. Look at Bush-Gore. Look at Eisenhower-Stevenson. Look at that family in Pakinstan who encouraged their daughters delusions and worsened her mental state. Hell, look at this thread. Being tagged as the smartest kid in your class turns into both a sense of arrogance and a sense of weakness.

Confusing rational scrutiny with close-mindedness is my definition of stupid. You can say you believe the planet Earth was created in six days 6,000 years ago complete with a man, a woman and a talking snake. But to deny geology, anthropology, archaeology and common sense because it's close-minded? No, that doesn't work.

Sorry if I've been impolite. But there are times when you are simply required to be impolite. There are times when condescension is called for.
 
Can't people just shut the fuck up and enjoy the paranormnal/creepy stuff in this thread? I wonder what some of you are like in a horror movie "NO THATS NOT LOGICAL ITS NOT A DEMON IN HER ITS A MENTAL DISORDER!"

I've actually had a few paranormal things happen to me and my family in this house and I can tell you, I've found no logical reasoning for any of it and I'm not a strong believer in ghosts but when that much happens, you start to.
 
skybaby said:
Tonay is the activethesmile of this thread. This has been the most obnoxious crop of juniors I've ever seen on GAF
Tonay is quickly becoming my most favourite junior from the new batch. I'm surprised, a bit amused, but most of all frightened to see how naïve some people in this thread are.
 
Darklord said:
Can't people just shut the fuck up and enjoy the paranormnal/creepy stuff in this thread? I wonder what some of you are like in a horror movie "NO THATS NOT LOGICAL ITS NOT A DEMON IN HER ITS A MENTAL DISORDER!"

Can't do that. This thread is only furthering the same ignorance that stifles the intellectual progression of mankind.
 
Tonay said:
Close-mindedness?

No, it's the everlong struggle between smart and stupid. I'm talking about the demonisation of intellect. Intelligent thought, unencumbered, ends wars. It promotes tolerance. It eradicates bigotry. It fosters the sort of compassionate society most of us want to live in. Intelligent discussion is what's gonna help us, trying to smother it with cries of 'close-mindedness' is just driving us backwards, back to a time before the Enlightenment (look it up).

Frankly, the willfully stupid are ripe for ridicule - and persons more qualified, more intelligent, shouldn’t be afraid to say so. Look at Bush-Gore. Look at Eisenhower-Stevenson. Look at that family in Pakinstan who encouraged their daughters delusions and worsened her mental state. Hell, look at this thread. Being tagged as the smartest kid in your class turns into both a sense of arrogance and a sense of weakness.

Confusing rational scrutiny with close-mindedness is my definition of stupid. You can say you believe the planet Earth was created in six days 6,000 years ago complete with a man, a woman and a talking snake. But to deny geology, anthropology, archaeology and common sense because it's close-minded? No, that doesn't work.

Sorry if I've been impolite. But there are times when you are simply required to be impolite. There are times when condescension is called for.
I think the real problem is that you see yourself as some sort of courageous defender of intellect and wisdom. Everyone else in this thread sees you as the guy who tries to ruin the fun. If we were at a magic show and we all thought it was really cool that a magician just passed a cigarette through the quarter, you'd be the guy that's like "Well, a cigarette simply can't get hot enough to burn through a quarter, so it's obviously a trick." No shit, dude. We all realize that there are probably logical explanations to most paranormal events, but that doesn't mean we can't have a thread where we appreciate the wonder and oddities of them all.

Also, it would be different if you were factually debunking any of these events. You're not. You're simply saying, "I know this can't be true; therefore, it isn't." Then you talk about birds and flashes of light and mass hysteria. You have even less answers then the people reporting the events, and you think we're not smart enough to figure out that, hey, maybe this girl that disappeared wasn't actually possessed by demons, but instead she might be mentally ill. Again, no shit, but when the guy DID give you a situation that couldn't be logically explained (her disappearing and reappearing minutes later many miles away), all you could muster was, "Uh... well... she was clearly lying and your whole family is exaggerating and suffering from mass hysteria." If we just assume everyone is lying and exaggerating, then yeah, it's pretty fucking simple to debunk anything.

In short, please shut the fuck up. You're like that 12 year old kid that just got a science set for his birthday, and now you think you know everything about science.
 
Leunam said:
Can't do that. This thread is only furthering the same ignorance that stifles the intellectual progression of mankind.

If you feel that passionate about the subject shouldn't you be making an impact in a bigger place? The intellectual progression of mankind is stifled more by a lack of education opportunities for a majority of those alive in the world today. Pick your battles right neogaf isn't the place to wage the issue as most minds have already made their choice.
 
Leunam said:
Can't do that. This thread is only furthering the same ignorance that stifles the intellectual progression of mankind.

Funny because the only ignorance here is from the people shitting on this thread who lack a bit of fun and imagination. Go back to the Star Trek thread if you want everything logical and mathematical.

And, if you want to be picky, it's the ignorant ones who brush off things like Aliens when in fact the chances of them being real are...pretty damn high.
 
Darklord said:
I've actually had a few paranormal things happen to me and my family in this house and I can tell you, I've found no logical reasoning for any of it and I'm not a strong believer in ghosts but when that much happens, you start to.

Can you tell us about what happened? We might be able to come up with some explanations if you let us discuss it (plus, I'm sure it'll be a entertaining story regardless).
 
Tonay said:
Can you tell us about what happened? We might be able to come up with some explanations if you let us discuss it (plus, I'm sure it'll be a entertaining story regardless).

TRANSLATION: I want to belittle you and call you simple-minded for not being able to explain away something that truly had an impact on you.
 
LCGeek said:
If you feel that passionate about the subject shouldn't you be making an impact in a bigger place? The intellectual progression of mankind is stifled more by a lack of education opportunities for a majority of those alive in the world today. Pick your battles right neogaf isn't the place to wage the issue as most minds have already made their choice.

Darklord said:
Funny because the only ignorance here is from the people shitting on this thread who lack a bit of fun and imagination. Go back to the Star Trek thread if you want everything logical and mathematical.

And, if you want to be picky, it's the ignorant ones who brush off things like Aliens when in fact the chances of them being real are...pretty damn high.

It's so fucking hard to pass off as sarcastic on the internet. I actually contributed on the first page.
 
Darklord said:
And, if you want to be picky, it's the ignorant ones who brush off things like Aliens when in fact the chances of them being real are...pretty damn high.

Are they? We only have one example of a planet where life's occured, and we aren't sure how it began, so how are we supposed to know the probability of it happening elsewhere?
 
Leunam said:
It's so fucking hard to pass off as sarcastic on the internet. I actually contributed on the first page.

Considering previous talks with me, I will admit I suck at reading sarcasm when it comes to text. Not your fault that was mine with crappy reading comprehension.
 
Quite an interesting thread, I love to read about this kind of stuff. (Although I'm getting a little bit annoyed at Tonay's know-it-all attitude) I've got a small story and I can't really explain it.

When we were having a family party at our house a couple years ago, we were going to sit down to dinner. My brother was off somewhere in the house and I had to go find him. I looked all around and assumed that he was in the basement, so I yelled down to him that dinner was ready. I swore that I heard him yell back that he was coming, and I went to join the others. As I came near one of the doors to the outside he came in from messing around outside. I still don't really get it, although I suppose it could have been my brain misfiring or something.
 
Hey, what happened to the fun, creepy shit thread? :(

Damn you guys, when you make your thread about more qualified, more intelligent people ridiculing the willfully stupid I'm going to spam your ass off with ghost stories.
 
Tonay said:
Can you tell us about what happened? We might be able to come up with some explanations if you let us discuss it (plus, I'm sure it'll be a entertaining story nontheless).

Fine. Well basically for about 15 years this house was, as far as I can say, haunted and the focus of it was around a single room. Everyone in the house including my parents(and we aren't religious and my parents, especially my dad are very skeptical about paranormal stuff) have seen, heard or sensed things. For years the living room was off-limits at night to me and my sister because of the feelings we got in there. It was a horrible sick feeling like you were in there with a thousand people watching you from above, you felt suffocated and wanted to scream. It was only ever in that room and we were pretty freaked out when we talked about it and found out we both experienced it.

There were several times my parents(who's door looks into the living room) claimed they saw movement at night in there. Once my Dad even jumped out of bed and rushed out there saying he was sure he saw a guy moving around and thought it was a thief.

There have been other times when we have heard things too. There are 2 I remember the most. First was when I was about 14 or 15 and I was in my room reading and all of a sudden I heard out front door slam, hard, I thought it was my Mum and wondered why she closed it so hard but a few seconds later my Mum walks in wonders why I was slamming the door. We searched the house and front yard but there wasn't a sign of anyone else and the front gate was closed too, I can't image if a robber broke in he'd leave without anything, bolt off but close the gate.

The second time was when my sister was home sick and she was waiting for my Mum to return home from dropping me off at school. She heard the door open close and lock, then heavy, slow footsteps come in and stop in the kitchen. She called out but there was no answer. She started to freak out thinking it was a robber or something, when my Mum came home she found her hiding in the backroom with our dog. After searching the house there was no sign anyone had come inside and everything was still locked.

It got so serious at one point and strange things happening so frequently that my Mum got a priest to give the room an exorcism. And yeah...that did shit all. My Mums not even religious so it was pretty weird she even did it.

It finally ended a few years ago when I started hearing voices in this room(and no, I'm not crazy). I kept hearing my name being called, random words and things front the doorway. I always thought it was my mum as the voice was clearly female. I even tested my headphones about 10 times thinking it was them. One night as I got up and went to the toilet, as I walked past the doorway I heard "goodbye" right behind me. I thought it was my Mum. I turned around expecting to see her but there was nothing, I searched everywhere but my mum was sleep like everyone else was. From that day on no one has heard, seem and felt anything in this house.

Oh and the previous owners of this house from before my parents moved in were into really weird shit, witchcraft and stuff and there son died in a car crash. Finding that out later on really didn't make me feel comforted.

Leunam said:
It's so fucking hard to pass off as sarcastic on the internet. I actually contributed on the first page.

Oh oops.:lol
 
SteelAttack said:
Hey, what happened to the fun, creepy shit thread? :(

Damn you guys, when you make your thread about more qualified, more intelligent people ridiculing the willfully stupid I'm going to spam your ass off with ghost stories.
SteelAttack, I need you to open your mind to the idea that the thread has been abducted by demons. It's hard, but, go on, try it.
 
Joe Shlabotnik said:
Or Kryptos, the sculpture on display at CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia:
Pd_cia_krypt-lg.jpg


The encryption has never been fully solved.


Reading down the left, I can plainly see the prediction, "Swat Al Qaeda Queen Fucks Shit Hard"
 
mjc said:
Quite an interesting thread, I love to read about this kind of stuff. (Although I'm getting a little bit annoyed at Tonay's know-it-all attitude) I've got a small story and I can't really explain it.

When we were having a family party at our house a couple years ago, we were going to sit down to dinner. My brother was off somewhere in the house and I had to go find him. I looked all around and assumed that he was in the basement, so I yelled down to him that dinner was ready. I swore that I heard him yell back that he was coming, and I went to join the others. As I came near one of the doors to the outside he came in from messing around outside. I still don't really get it, although I suppose it could have been my brain misfiring or something.

Auditory hallucinations. Most likely you heard someone else talk in the house, or a creak or some other aural stimulus, and because you were expecting your brother to respond, that's how your brain intepreted it.

It happens often if you listen to music really loud and you half expect someone to knock on your door or call you to put the music down, and you end up thinking you heard a knock or call - when in reality, it was just the music.
 
skybaby said:
SteelAttack, I need you to open your mind to the idea that the thread has been abducted by demons. It's hard, but, go on, try it.
:lol

OuterWorldVoice said:
Reading down the left, I can plainly see the prediction, "Swat Al Qaeda Queen Fucks Shit Hard"
:lol Now I can't unsee it!
 
Gio_CoD said:
I think the real problem is that you see yourself as some sort of courageous defender of intellect and wisdom. Everyone else in this thread sees you as the guy who tries to ruin the fun. If we were at a magic show and we all thought it was really cool that a magician just passed a cigarette through the quarter, you'd be the guy that's like "Well, a cigarette simply can't get hot enough to burn through a quarter, so it's obviously a trick." No shit, dude. We all realize that there are probably logical explanations to most paranormal events, but that doesn't mean we can't have a thread where we appreciate the wonder and oddities of them all.

Also, it would be different if you were factually debunking any of these events. You're not. You're simply saying, "I know this can't be true; therefore, it isn't." Then you talk about birds and flashes of light and mass hysteria. You have even less answers then the people reporting the events, and you think we're not smart enough to figure out that, hey, maybe this girl that disappeared wasn't actually possessed by demons, but instead she might be mentally ill. Again, no shit, but when the guy DID give you a situation that couldn't be logically explained (her disappearing and reappearing minutes later many miles away), all you could muster was, "Uh... well... she was clearly lying and your whole family is exaggerating and suffering from mass hysteria." If we just assume everyone is lying and exaggerating, then yeah, it's pretty fucking simple to debunk anything.

In short, please shut the fuck up. You're like that 12 year old kid that just got a science set for his birthday, and now you think you know everything about science.


*orsonwellesclap.gif*

damn... well said.
 
Sometimes when I was still at my mother's house, I would hear someone walk around upstairs. My room was directly underneath the dining room & kitchen, so hearing people walk around was pretty much the norm... except for those mornings when I would be drawing or reading, and I'd hear footsteps above me. Head upstairs to take a gander and no one was at home.

Never used to creep me out for some reason.
 
I don't get people who try to completely ruin threads like this. Do you guys just completely lack imagination?
 
Emerson said:
We can only hope.
Eh he'll always stick around unless he verbally abuses someone or says the wrong joke. It'll be the three amigos then; KHarvey16, Pukake4 and the new vomitron Tonay. Anything to do with the paranormal, ghostly apparitions, extraterrestrials, or whatever that defies logic, you can count on them to grab the microphone and spew with pride.

Instead of being slightly more constructive in changing people's minds and heading to far stranger places like abovetopsecret.com or calling in those nutballs on the radio, they choose to try and preach their wisdom on a gaming forum.
 
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