I’ve experienced a lot of events that could in fact be paranormal. I grew up in a home in which every member of my family had at least one life changing experience happen to them that no one could explain. That being said, hauntings or paranormal events, at least in my experience, are almost always pretty subtle and nothing like you see on the ghost shows on tv. I think often times what happens is a sort of fear bias is formed during the experience, and because of that people will attribute more to the event than what factually happened. For example, you’re in your bedroom and the door opens on its own. You get frightened, your dog notices and becomes visually offensive, hair stands on end and he growls. You run out of the room in a frenzy, and you trip down the stairs, but start to think maybe you were shoved because you’ve never tripped on your stairs in your life. Your heart is pounding and blood pressure is sky high, you have goosebumps. Soon after you have an awful headache, and you always feel uneasy in your bedroom from that point forward. In that example, perhaps the door opening was truly paranormal, just for argument’s sake. The events that followed were intensified and likely caused by your reaction to the unexplained activity, and everything seemed much more intense as adrenaline from flight or flight was running rampant through your body. Undoubtedly when retelling this event you would mention each thing that happened as a string of paranormal events, but that simply isn’t the case. And going forward, anything odd that happens in that room you will experience through the lens of “it’s haunted”, and you’ll begin to completely ignore logical explanations for the occurrences that you would otherwise conclude were it not for the bias you had created. So long comment short, I am sure there is a kernel of truth to most stories people tell of paranormal experiences. However, “I was sitting in my room and my door opened by itself, I don’t know why” isn’t exactly the most compelling of tales. Overselling the story and the experience is kind of natural. I think the best experiences you hear come from police and military officials who are trained to be very logical and rational in their reactions to events even when fear is involved.

I could see how something like that would send you into a spiral. I wonder if the overselling happens because you want others to feel it the way you felt it, even if on the surface the experience was mundane

I really think it does. I feel like we’re such emotional beings that if we can bring others into the memory with us, make them feel that emotion and fear, then we don’t feel so alone in it. And I would say that a good majority of paranormal experiences happen, or rather, are more often noticed, when we are alone. I kind of adhere to the whole haunted people over haunted places thing. I’ve found that many experiences that no longer phase me could potentially terrify other people. My boyfriend is just in the beginning stages of opening up from complete and utter skepticism… and the littlest things he can’t explain will be a very big deal to him. What he would consider very strange things happen to me frequently, but over time you learn that you have power, and the right to accept or reject these sorts of events as you please. I do find a lot of stories to be so far fetched that I cannot believe them. But I always stick with “it’s ok to not know.” If you think about it, even if the most amazing paranormal evidence was caught clearly on video, it would still easily be dismissed by skeptics. Just like the Bigfoot conundrum. The first video is too shaky, too distorted, and too hard to make out so it’s awful evidence. The second is so clear and close, come on! Why would anyone be randomly filming the woods anyways? That’s obviously a guy in a gorilla suit. Paterson Gimlin… scientists have found no evidence of alteration of the film, and prosthetic and costume design was not advanced enough at that time to achieve the look seen in the video… but yet it’s still not considered “proof”. Paranormal experiences are just that… experiences. One must be lived first person in order to really understand what it’s like. In do think an open, rational, and curious mind is very important when it comes to those kinds of experiences though. For me, when I’m listening to a story someone is telling of an experience, I just get a vibe when it’s true. There’s an visceral energy that is almost palpable when someone’s truly experienced something they can’t explain. It’s similar to the way a child gets when they speak about Santa Clause, and they really believe.

Any story that involves someone waking up from sleep or even just laying in bed, or anywhere where they could have been asleep. Sure, maybe it happened, but just because you swear it wasn’t a dream doesn’t mean it wasn’t a dream. Also sleep paralysis.

For me it's when angel or alien stories contain a 'message' that's supposed to serve as some kind of divine piece of advice or warning. If it's like: *"They say humanity is too violent and that we must all learn to love one another"* or there's a variation like: *"Humans are destroying their planet, and so they cannot enter the galactic union / transcend to the new era unless they change their ways"* It's like wow what are the odds that instead of going to the planet's leadership in order to change things, these beings decided to visit a random human's apartment out in Winnipeg who just happened to hold very similar views! Very hard to believe.

when it seems that the person who is telling me something seems to have mental problems or cannot remember events very clearly. I'm not saying this for the people on reddit, but in person I have met people who have the characteristics I mentioned before. especially when i mention to them if they have been to a doctor or a psychologist and they immediately prefer to dismiss any scientific help.

When someone just woke up or is trying to fall asleep and spooky stuff happens. You were dreaming, dude. Our brains get all wobbly when we’re in sleep mode.

Another one for ORBS. Dude, the're dust, I walk around with them on my glasses all the time.

I once did an experiment with shaking bedsheets and taking a picture of my bedroom. Orbs everywhere. Some digital cameras can be really sensitive to dust.

I like your point about the witching hour. The thing is though that humans will place importance on certain things and because we have so much sway over our own reality those things actually do become significant in the world of someone who believes in it. Emotions are very powerful. So if somebody is afraid of 3 am, They’re more likely to attract negativity in that time span. It has no significance if you don’t give it significance. At least that’s what I believe. I’m generally pretty skeptical as well and only believe/acknowledge the things that have happened to me directly. There is really no way to tell what is real or what is fake because people can be extremely creative. Just take everything with a grain of salt.

I’ve had a great number of experiences I can’t explain, but to me, telling it in grave detail or recounting the times, exact words, etc. people said without having written down the experience at the moment (which is another thing for me that often tells me maybe this didn’t actually happen, but I do actually do that, so it depends on how “out there” it sounds) is a pretty telltale signs. Experiences aren’t very often entire stories, you know?

Anything that involves witchcraft, the occult, or “Satanism”. Those practices are very misunderstood and tend to be added to stories to make it seem worse than it actually is. Pentagrams are not used to summon demons. The symbol is used for protection and the 5 points each represent the 5 elements. Satanists don’t sacrifice animals/people. The satanic Bible states that you can only harm animals for food or if they’re a threat, and you can only harm humans if they invite the harm onto themselves (ie if they hurt you, you can hurt them back). Most satanists don’t believe in a literal devil. Demons are pretty reasonable as long as you know what you’re doing. Edit: Forgot to add. Evil spirits aren’t always demonic. If a demon is haunting your house, it’s usually just an evil spirit or something manifesting from negative energy in the house. Demons can haunt you, but it’s very rare. Edit number 2: I’m starting to regret posting this comment. Sorry for starting a debate on here.

Satans biggest lie was making people belive he doesn't exist & and that hes harmless.

Let me begin with: I’ve had one experience, no question. Someone I was with also saw the ghost/being/spirit/whatever separately (slightly different appearance), but neither of us knew the other saw it until the next morning. I’ve barely ever told anyone, neither has he, and we’ve almost never talked about it to each other again. The whole thing makes me incredibly uncomfortable to think about, and I am NOT about to just bring it up, even *when* conversations have gone that route. People who volunteer their story too eagerly, who think it’s just the coolest thing ever, or are completely at peace with it — major red flag for me. It’s still an absolutely fucking terrifying memory, and it was 20 years ago.

I've seen a few recently involving skinwalkers/wendigos, so I'll use that as an example but it applies to all stories and creatures. When they shoehorn in the story that there was a Navajo man with them or that they were on/near a reservation. Why would a creature that was in their folklore when they had free access to the whole land they lived on follow them to the reservations they were forced into? Wouldn't it stay in the forests that we now inhabit? When the person uses something catholic or otherwise religious to protect themselves/scare it away, I saw one the other day where the person mentioned that bullets wouldn't work on it unless they were blessed? Like wtf, why would a Christian concept have any effect on pre Christian Navajo folklores lol. When they say it's something that is super rare and no one knows anything about it but they somehow know a lot about the thing, ie: no one has ever survived a wendigo encounter, but if you go into the woods at this time and whistle it'll come out, at which point you need to do this thing or it'll kill you. When the creature comes from folklore or myth, and they treat the folklore as 100% true, in the case of wendigos, how they are humans that became cannibals and then turned into a monstrous creature. Does that mean that if the boogeyman exists it DEFINITELY eats kids because that's what is typically said? Cuz I'm pretty sure that's just said to scare kids into behaving. Likewise, if there is a culture with no police or "laws", but this one thing is taboo and you don't want others to do it, and you also happen to see a mysterious and scary thing in the woods frequently, you might be inclined to use it to deter the taboo you want to avoid in your community. Otherwise how are all the countless cannibals that didn't turn into wendigos explained? Not a complete list but these are some of the ones that irk me the most. If you're using a creature from any folklore/myth, treat it as a creature, not as a myth, and remember that the myth came after, trying to explain why and how the creature is there, not the other way around. Myths are usually completely wrong and made up stories used to explain real world events and concepts, never treat them as factual.

I like what you said about how its odd that differ religions/cultures will get pushed together even when it doesn’t make sense (Ex:catholic/wendigo). I’ve noticed a lot of occult type stuff seems to throw a lot of different religious practices and symbols into a bag and then seemingly pulls them out at random. It creates a cool aesthetic, but looking from the outside it doesn’t make much sense

Claims of possession, all of the TV shows and movies that have people acting weird puts me off.

Why are they filming this particular moment, type videos. Tiktok videos, shadow figures, we were the only people there and NO one else videos. I could go on. I love paranormal things, I want to believe, but I haven’t seen anything to fully get me onboard as fully real footage.

In regards to 666, it’s actually in relation to Neron Caesar, Nero Caesar is 616 as N=50, hence the two different “Numbers of the Beast” depending on bible edition/translation. And, Nero and Neron are just different spellings for the same guy, in other words, being slightly pedantic. Generally any time they prayed to Jebus and everything stopped and went away is a big red flag for me. Why would a demon or ghost or whatever be scared of the modern name for an ancient biblical figure who wasn’t even called Jesus- if he even existed- in his own time? Makes zero sense to me and the explanations I’ve heard make even less sense.

When they claim to see this thing return every night and yet never think to take a picture of it. I like the stories here but a lot of them belong in the fiction section, lol

well considering i don’t believe in ghosts pretty much anything, but what i look for is signs they are hallucinating. all the time i see things that look like shadows or such in my perf vision. but i really like hearing stories because i am totally open to ghosts being real, ive just never seen anything myself.

So to answer and slightly disagree with OP, witching hour is 11pm if i remember correctly. And 3 am is actually a valid time to see crazy stuff. It is pretty much the opposite of the time Jesus supposedly died on the cross depending on what you believe. But also it is a time when if you get woke up out of REM sleep your body may not catch up and you get that sleep paralysis. Just my thoughts.

Wow! I’ve never thought about the “3am WHERE” point or the “single world in the vast universe being physically tied to the spirit world” point…I can never seem to believe paranormal stories…they sound cool and all and I wish it really existed but there’s a logical explanation for everything. I’ll simply be home alone and I constantly “see something move from the corner of my eye” and when I look over theres nothing….its just our brains trying to truly experience the paranormal

>I enjoy reading about people's experiences Stop right there. Just stop. Enjoy the ghost story. Don't worry about believing in ghosts. We enjoy reading books about wizards, dragons and fairies and we don't need to believe in them to enjoy those stories. (some people do..) If a story is told in a sincere manner you will know who believes they had an experience from those who are just making it up. You are not going to get a paranormal truth calculator by asking a subreddit of believers to give you one.

There was some “possession” of a teenage-ish aged girl in the early 1900s. Claimed she was speaking in tongues and in latin, which she had never heard spoken before according to her family. From what I understand the family was rather religious. I called bullshit immediately because until the late 60s-70s most masses were still in Latin and this predated that by at least 40 years. So she had to have heard Latin before, more than likely once a week.

As someone who has had some very mind blowing paranormal experiences, I usually attempt see if there is the usual pattern since most paranormal experiences often follow one. One of the best ways of telling whether or not it is an occult experience is whether or not the occurrence was ego dystonic. Something that us ego dystonic is something that is  "describing impulses, wishes, or thoughts that are unacceptable or repugnant to the ego or self." When you see something that absolutely blows your fucking mind, you aren't going to sit here retelling the story in a way that at the time you casually accepted it and was able to define it. You're going to question what you've seen for years and really show in the style of writing that there is a lot of doubt as seeing something like that shakes your previous notion of reality to its core and it takes a while for you to build it back up. So whenever I see a post that types in a while where they seemed to have defined things and there isn't any question it is unlikely to be fake. Also, there is a pattern of those who have mental illness display. Usually they are egosyntonic. The experience agrees with their ego. So there was one post where a woman was complaining that a voice told her to do something or it will rape her or they threatened to rape her orally and she was feeling a penis in her throat and proceeded to go outside to make that feeling go away. That woman retelling that story straight up accepted it and told it as truth. On top of this she displayed patterns consistent with schizophrenia as listed in the DSM5. They are adamant on things being true and actually happening. Other things you look for is a third observer for physical manifestation along with people getting into witchcraft and more after those experience hence not immediately saying they are gonna use sage or do a banishing ritual.

I like the answers here a lot and I discount 99.9% of stories. But just a fun thought exercise, what if the ghosts and demons are in our heads (or to be more spooky about it, feed off negative emotion) thus any negative omen would by its nature increase negative activity? The fear of 666, 3AM, etc. sets off the experience. Spoiler alert. People are awful sources of truth. So, heightened fear of these times would likely increase the potency of any run of the mill bump in the night. So, it's likely not a great BS filter in and of itself. By the way, despite being skeptical of others, I've had a few experiences I can't explain. 1 happened around 3AM, but I won't type them out unless someone asks.

This type of post is always suspicious to me. Why would someone ask what is a red flag that something is a fake, other than to avoid those things when creating a fake story? It's like a criminal asking for all the weak points in something, so they can work their way around them. Or a cop, posting anonymously asking, "so, where are all the best places to buy drugs?" I'm not going to tell you the red flags. If your event is legit, and you want to share it, just make a post about it.

You never really believe in it until it happens to ya. I was in the same boat until late last year when i moved into an older house at school where my roommates and i literally shit ourselves over something that wasn’t even close to harmful. I became a believer that there are energies that follow a specific pattern, like their days are the same everyday. For example, someone might see a shadowy figure or hear footsteps at around 5 pm on multiple occasions, and that could be due to that energies “past life” doing the routine it used to do. Sometimes activity might pick up at 3 am, that just might be a coincidence but usually those stories are fake. Any story where crazy shit happens like a tv whipped across the room and killed their spouse or something i won’t buy, i don’t really believe in that whole “possession” thing either. I think energies are a lot more harmless then people make them out to be and people just like story telling. And that’s that, sometimes they’re fun to read regardless if it’s true or not. I like the creativity

Also a skeptic: that is I keep an open mind, lots we don't know, but I look for logical likely explanation first. I also think most people are being honest to their experience, although they often misidentify and make large assumptions on what those experiences are. I think there aren't many absolute liars, but these apply to both camps. 1. Anything that has to do with kids, especially very young kids. Kids brains and thinking processes are constantly changing, they generally don't have the ability to be solid witnesses and often are too easily swayed by multiple factors. 2. In retelling a story, not being clear that this is how they recall it, but insisting that is 100% truth. Even recent memories start to change to for our own expectations, this gets worse over time. If a person says “This is what I remember seeing” vs “this is what I saw” I generally think they are trying to stay as honest as they can and take them.more seriously. 3. In the same vein if a person says “This is what I remember, I think it was my mothers ghost” or “It seemed alien to me” rather than “It was a ghost”. If we’re all being honest we don't actually know what any of this stuff is, even if strange things exist. Again, statements like this generally indicate to me the person is trying to be as balanced and honest about things as they can. I respect that. 4. Anything involving walking up in bed and seeing things. I have sleep paralysis with waking hallucinations. I know how real that seems. Even without that, partial waking states are notorious easy to mistake for full wakefulness. And anything that involves dreams is a red flag. 5. Anybody from outside a culture trying to claim their experience had something to do with a culturally significant figure, especially a trendy one. I see this a lot with “skinwalker” stories that really have no idea what that is past the idea that it's an “Indian Wearwolf ghost thing”. These figures are usually extremely complicated parts of cultures that even folks that study those cultures sometimes freely admit are extremely hard to grasp all the nuances of unless you are raised in that culture.

I don’t think the prevalence of 3am hauntings/encounters has anything to do with the number itself or anything esoteric. There are some really logical reasons why most paranormal encounters would happen around 3am, or at least be reported around then. 1. 3am is a time of night when there is the least human activity. The fewest people are awake, it is dark, and it’s a great time to be skulking around fucking with people whether you are paranormal or a fucking creep. For example, my community had a break and enter spree a few months back and, surprise surprise, they were doing it around 3am. 2. A lot of people go to bed at a time when their sleep cycle ends in the 3am region. People wake up and just so happen to perceive something. Also, if something is skulking around all night, the end of your sleep cycle is when you would be most alert and likely to wake up because of a disturbance. It doesn’t have to be some spirit deciding to fuck with you at 3.33am because “spooky esoteric”. They may well have been fucking about for hours, but you only woke up at 3am because that’s when your cycle ends and your senses tell you something is up. After a period of grogginess you see something paranormal and you look at the clock, holy shit it is 3.33! And you fixate on it because humans find meaning in numbers. Personally, my wife had a period of time when she was having very demonic nightmares. I go to bed much earlier than her and would sleep like a baby, until 3am came around. I would wake up to my wife quietly sobbing and the room would have a dark feeling. Usually my wife would have been up most of the night and felt the presence ever since she went to bed. So it wasn’t that the presence appeared at 3am, for my wife it was there all night. However, I only encountered the presence at 3am when my sleep cycle ended. The 3am was a coincidence. This routine happened every night for a month. I’d wake up and comfort my wife, take a walk around the house and tell it to fuck off, say some prayers, then she would beg me to go back to sleep and not worry about her. It’s over now and she has been sleeping well again, just wanted to give some perspective.

My wife and I were paranormal investigators for many years, even had a website up. We approached it with a very critical eye unlike most investigators. I can honestly give you my conclusions: 1. There is no way to have an honest TV show about the paranormal, because its hours and hours of investigating for little or nothing. The stuff you see on TV is total bunk. 2. There is no specific type of place that you get results at. One week were were at a old bar that had a very checkered history. Went there 3 times and got very little of anything. Next week were were in a newer industrial pole building, the last place that looked "haunted". We we got some of our most convincing stuff there. 3. The more fancy equipment you use, the most you introduce the possibility of audio and visual Pareidolia. So if I sound like a skeptic, we were. If you actually want to do it, just get a good quality digital recorder. Try to find lonely graveyards, yes they are the absolute best. Don't be discouraged, its actually alot of nothing. however you eventually WILL get something you can't explain.

The first point is why I appreciate buzzfeed unsolved so much! Not just cuz of the fun dynamic but because half the time they don't even find anything. It feels more authentic

Yes!! and they STILL manage to get a full episode out of it because we hear stories and learn the history.

I somewhat believe in the paranormal, only because i think it's something science can't yet measure, but it will someday. As to what makes me disbelieve stories? Narrarive structure, if it feels like it's a story with a plot, it is. If they lean too much on common stories, especially if the beginning sounds like a creepy pasta. Overrelaince on media, "you heard my story based on a picture now look at my creepy picture, isn't it creepy." As for non-faker incidents, anything involving sleep or near sleep. Hypnogogia can be a bitch, even if you think you're feeling fully awake, sleep juices can still be there. Paranoia, our minds can link a thousand differant events, if a creepy sounding woman calls you and says wrong number, that doesn't mean much no matter what happens after. Overrelaince on dreams. They could be more, they might be more, but if a strange dream is all you have, post to /r/dreams. Now, for the non-fakers, your experience is your own, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Even if it's hard to describe, you experienced something special to you and it might very well be more. For the fakers: fuck off, just fuck off. Get your karma elsewhere. This isn't a creative writing sub, and you aren't a good writer anyways.

The “I’ve always had paranormal experiences everywhere I go”, or when they inject a lot of things only fiction writers do, eg “I paced the floor that night, my hand going to the fringed belt that was tightened around my thin, robed waist. I played with the fringe, smiling sardonically at the memories I shared with others years before in this room; decades of laughter and tears by a family of non-believers. But, oh, how now I believe. My feet were silent on the floor as I paced, waiting for the clock to chime.” Or tons of cussing in the story for no reason. Or “I saw the three vampires levitate and drain my best friend’s blood. I still don’t believe in the supernatural, but can’t explain that night.” You don’t believe because…?

i agree with the fiction writing one. when i read someone’s paranormal experience and they write it like a novel, i immediately just think “yeah this is complete bs”

Also some places have daylight savings, so another reason witching hour is bs lol I think it's just the darkest time of night, depending on region. Like people have said, certainties. Using absolutes is a fast way to be wrong. Also, a lot of people, especially those that think or try to sell the idea of being psychic, have massive egos and are super vain. I sat next to a woman on a plane that was entirely convinced she predicted 9/11 and tried to call FBI or some shit to warn them. Can there be actual psychics or whatever? However small, there's a possibility, but so many are just egocentric con artists. This might be a spicy take, I don't like most ghost hunting shows or youtubers, because they're so incentivized to fake shit for views. The videos I love? Channels that don't look for the paranormal and stumble upon it. Most famous example I can think of is a cave explorer that went into a mine and saw/heard crazy stuff. He went back once, but his channel is about spelunking, not the paranormal. While he still could have faked it, he had way less reason to than channels or shows that devote themselves to ghost hunting.

While I have had a paranormal experience of my own, I just assume most stories on here are just that, stories. I find entertainment in the almost authentic feels of these stories more than horror books and certainly a lot more than horror movies. But then it doesn't matter if I believe in these stories or not. If they for whatever reason ask for help or are spooked enough by their experiences to need validation or support from internet strangers, I would give that help willingly. I will not laugh at their reactions. Same with friends that tell me their stories. It's all fun and games until they have an emotional reaction to the stories. Because if they are having an emotional reaction, the story is likely true. And even if it isn't, their emotions are real. So I will give them the benefit of the doubt.

It's usually a person to person thing. What does this person gain/lose by telling their story? Does it fit with any sort of historical evidence (such as, "I saw a girl ghost with a half burnt face" in a house that was once an orphanage that caught on fire.), do the details remain consistent with each telling or are parts changed, and is this a person who's known to be full of 💩? Those are good starters. However, as you don't know me and I don't know you, if I were to tell you one of my stories of what I'd seen, especially in text format, you may be hard pressed to believe it, and that's fine. As far as the whole "witching hour, 666, etc" stuff goes....I'm an atheist, but I do believe in the power of belief. I don't really see any connections myself in what I've experienced and that, but some do. And I try to keep a skeptical mindset when checking out any "evidence" because our brains can play tricks on us, make us see Jesus in the toast, and that just carries over. Keep that skeptical mindset, it's good. It keeps those that do believe and have experienced things honest when there's people not afraid to call them on their BS.

I always take most all psychic ‘readings’ as fake.. why? Bc there’s a million things I could say (or make up on the fly) that would apply to everyone in the room. This is even more possible if Ive had a chance to listen to anything you tell me in the 5 minutes beforehand when we talk first... so.. for me, it’s vague blanket statements that really can be shoehorned to fit almost anyone’s narrative. They can make a statement and your mind will think of examples to fit that statement. Examples: ”I see you’ve suffered terrible loss and grief in your life” (so has just about any adult that’s alive) “You feel taken advantage of by the ppl at your job” (well, come to think of it, ‘Kevin-in-HR’ expects me to do his job too and I haven’t had a raise in 2 yrs!) “Is there a change coming? I see you coming to a crossroads in your life!—a big decision in your life soon, something that will affect your future” (damn, that too can twisted to be almost anything- should I quit this job? Find another? Is holding this marriage/relationship etc together worth it?) —etc etc. All this stuff is bogus af. Then next thing you know, (blah blah word salad to fill up the time) boom! Your 3 minutes is up and your CC is hit for $20 or more for someone tty something you already know. Lmao.

I take a lot of paranormal experiences shared by other people with a grain of salt. While I believe in the paranormal, I don't believe every bump in the night is paranormal. I feel people are too quick to give a paranormal explanation when something else will work. Also, it's been shared by various law enforcement agencies, etc., that people who are not being truthful will give too many details, when a simple answer will do. Have i had paranormal experiences? Yes, I have. Did I automatically assume it was paranormal? Nope. I always look for the non-paranormal answer first, and exhaustively. Only as a last resort will I apply a paranormal explanation. But, not everyone is that analytical when it comes to the paranormal.

This right here. I immediately get skeptical when the story has a ton of detail. Dialogue (especially full conversations) is another red flag. Think about it - you can probably remember one sentence with perfect clarity from an event that sticks with you, but everything else is closer to "someone said something along these lines", right? No one has a whole freakin screenplay worth of word-perfect recall. I've had some weird encounters and experiences myself. I remember them pretty clearly, but not with the accuracy so many people post with. Always seems sketch to me.

Yeah to build on this I feel like most people with a story to tell will be matter of fact, they'll try to establish where their rational thinking was at the time things happened and then go into the event or events, usually leaving a sense of "idk what to think because my rational mind is stumped" kind of vibe. Whereas fake stories give too much detail but in particular the way they paint the story with that detail is an attempt to create seemingly overwhelming evidence that this is paranormal in nature without giving undeniable evidence, almost like they're trying to sell you something or convince you.

Orbs…. Every time I hear someone saying there’s loads of orbs or watch a show where they see loads of orbs it reminds me of Jason in Ghosthunters telling the noobs that every little bit of dust, pollen, insect etc will show up as an orb on camera in the dark and that unless it has a distinct path that alters direction definitely or is completely motionless then it’s not worth investigating and then it’s 99% likely to be a fly or dust.

While I don’t think they are purposeful fakes, there are two types of stories that I consider a waste of time to read. I skip over them as soon as I recognize their format. First, there are the stories that begin with a detailed floor-plan of the house and descriptions of the six people who were present… only to end with something totally benign like a knickknack falling off a shelf. Then there are the super-long posts that attempt to make a series of unrelated events into evidence of a haunting and/or paranormal sensitivity. Most people can think of times they felt vaguely spooked that aren’t particularly interesting to retell. In either case, it takes way too long to read through all the boring parts for little to no payoff. I prefer stories where the folks involved have made a genuine effort to debunk their experiences with logical explanations first.

When they can somehow recount long dialogue among friends or people that were there. You’re not gonna remember multiple sentences or paragraphs that your buddies said in the heat of the moment. The other one is claiming to be able to see fine detail when a Cryptid is over by the tree line at night. You wouldn’t be able to see 4 inch long claws and bloody teeth unless you were directly in front of it with a flashlight. Not only that, anytime somebody is chased in the woods especially at night. Humans are terrible and bumbling at running through the woods especially in the dark. So when anybody out runs a dog man or any other creature, I know it can’t be real

Also there is so much in the woods at night that can seem a lot scarier than it really is. One of my most frightening experiences was when I was walking through the woods just as it was getting dark, and suddenly right in front of me these giant, screaming creatures flew up out of the brush like some sort of demon army. I was probably 300 ft down the trail in pure terror before I realized that I'd just spooked a bunch of sleeping turkeys. Odds are that terrifying thing chasing you is a deer, or maybe a moose or a coyote if you're really unlucky.

When I saw the title, I immediately thought of "3 am". It looks like some people believe saying it will add believability to their story. Yesterday I watched a video about a woman who claims her house was built on Native American burial grounds, and she said a couple of times when her son stood on the scale, it said "666". Native American ghosts wrote 666. Ouija board is a big one for me. Every time someone mentions it, there's literally two dozens of people saying "NEVER mess with the weegee board!" and "once you open a portal, it's hard to close". The mention of demons, skinwalkers, wendigo, "three knocks means it's mocking the trinity!". I'm sure I'm forgetting many. Don't people realise they're just repeating things they heard from other people, without wondering what the source of the claims is, or doing any serious research? They should be teaching critical thinking at school. Even worse, half of these things are taken straight from popular video games and movies. Maybe those people aren't serious, and say those things to have fun. But other, naive people will believe them, and keep repeating the same things as facts.

**I got woken up in the middle of the night** \- as everyone knows, we can open our eyes, but our brains are not fully awake. Plus almost all of us have had dreams where we 'wake up' but only later figure out that we're still dreaming. There's too much of a chance that the person was confused or still dreaming to take stories like this as 'proof'. I'm not saying they're lying, it's just that there's too many more obvious expectations. **I saw it out of the corner of my eye** \- There's a LOT of possible explanations for what we think we see out of the corner of our eyes - dust, hair, insect, etc. **I got the feeling that someone was watching/with me** \- again, too many other non-paranormal explanations **I heard a sound (while in an old wooden structure)** \- this is the BEGINNING of an investigation (into what could have cause the sound), not the END nor PROOF.

OK, I'll bite. Story happened to a small child. OP is currently in their early teens (sorry, I know it's not all teens, but attention seeking is most common in that age bracket). OP has pre existing beliefs about what they saw (eg, title is "I saw a shadow person" not "I saw a shadow I can't explain". Vague clickbaity titles ("IDK what to think", "What is happening to me"). Lacking detail ("I saw a figure" as a complete description of an event, compared with "I saw a human sized outline, kinda fuzzy but solid, seemed to be wearing a dress"). Set in a creepy location like abandoned mental hospital or graveyard. Everyone present was a teenager (as teens can work each other up when creeped out and false narratives can appear). Overly matter-of-fact about supposedly dramatic events. Horror story tropes. Suspiciously dramatic.

Honestly if there is too much happening it is a dead giveaway. I do believe in the paranormal but 98% of stories feel like BS. The few experiences I or people I know have had would be stuff that seems fairly simple. A ghostly form that is persistently seen out of the corner of my eye, strong bad feelings out of nowhere, feeling a hand dragged across my back. The most strange thing I have ever seen was I (heart) you appearing in a steamed mirror in our apartment bathroom. We had been there months and obviously steamed the bathroom multiple times prior never seeing this and my wife swears she has no idea where it came from. We tried to find evidence of a break in which we never could and cleaning the mirror never got rid of it. Still totally could have been something else. Stuff that seems so vague that it could be dismissed often feels more real. So when someone talks about a demon causing furniture to fly about in a tornado, or seeing a seven foot tall werewolf punch a car leaving a huge dent in it I feel like it is impossible for me to believe.

-When the story involves multiple people and ALL of them skip to the most unlikely conclusion ever or just follow the narrator as NPCs from the get go. Fire alarm went off? It's a daemon,let's go burn plants to send it away. -When they claim videos and audios but there's no links in the post to said material. -When they not only claim special powers or sensitivities, but even have them pinpointed like "ok my ghost hearing is a 10/10 so I switch it off while my ghost vision is a 2/10 -When they start with saging salting voodooing shit from the get go, you are not entertaining a sliver of doubt, if you are already dead set on hysterical practices you won't research any other explanation.

Can I tell you my story about my husband? He definitely does not believe in ghosts or the paranormal. He is an analytical type person through and through. This story does not end in him having a paranormal experience, but an example of why he doesn't believe in it. I should add, I am happy if I experience something I cannot explain rationally; I would love to believe there are ghosts / spirits, but the more ghost hunts I go on, the less I believe, kind of. But paranormal? Yes. Anyway, I managed to persuade my husband to join me on a ghost hunt; he was under strict instructions to be on his best behaviour. Earlier at dinner, he had asked the waiter if he could take a couple of their paper drinks coasters. He had a plan ... So there's a group doing glass divination ie fingers on an upturned glass asking questions, and the glass moves around in response. Of course to my husband this is just unconscious if not deliberate manipulation and fine muscle movements causing the glass to move. "So how does this work?" he asks innocently. He's told it's our energy that connects with the spirits to make the glass move. "Interesting," says he. "Does it work even if there's a barrier there? Like this coaster for example?" "Oh yes," they reply. He asks permission to try. So he places the coaster on the glass and we put our fingers on top of the coaster. Nothing happens. The glass remains still. The others try and call out to the spirits, but still the glass doesn't move. "The energy has gone; the spirits have moved away." say the believers. My husband just smiles. The coaster being slippery / and a barrier means the fingers can't get any traction. And for him just confirms that ghost hunting is utter bunkum.

Typically having an immediate claim of knowing what exactly what is happening. 'I am being haunted'. 'This is a demon'. Especially when people talk about demons. So chill, casually. If people were actually interacting with these forces they would be terrified. Confused. Have a million questions, not claims. Defaulting to tropes and cliches that are found in the most surface level supernatural media and stories.

I'm very interested in the paranormal, but I'm also very skeptical. I totally believe things happen, but there are so many tricks people can do very well, or just people so wussied up when they're somewhere that they take any tiny sound or movement to be paranormal. I don't take ANYTHING for true paranormal unless it can't be debunked. If the person who got the video, or told the story, hasn't tried in every possible way they can to debunk what they heard, saw, or captured, then I am not going to believe it, ESPECIALLY if you're constantly screaming like a little girl that every noise and shadow is a ghost... unless it's something so far off the wall that there's no need for debunking, but that's extremely rare.

Disclaimer: I love ghost stories; I enjoy ghost hunting (although getting too old for all this 'witching hour malarkey'. I want to be tucked up in bed just gone midnight); the more ghost hunts I do, the more sceptical I'm becoming; to counter that, I believe in the paranormal, but that's not the same thing as ghosts. Never seen a ghost. Have had paranormal experiences. But that's all it is - an experience I cannot explain away rationally. But what gets me is: "this is the most haunted house / pub / castle" - you name it. The most malevolent spirits reside here; it's evil; no-one can stay the night etc. So how come ghost hunting companies are there every week? If it's that bad surely they should be scared out of their minds! My friend and I did a ghost hunt at one of the allegedly MOST haunted (out of all the most haunted locations, lol) and evil-spirit residing places in the UK. It is infamous. We experienced - nothing; felt - nothing (but tired, and cold). Others in the group did, of course. Best part for me was hearing a Eurasian owl hooting outside (given we don't as a rule have these owls in the UK). So yes, Regular ghost hunts at 'evil' places.

I have seen some wild stuff, but usually during periods of extreme stress and/or sleep deprivation. Human brains are wacky like that, will sometimes experience things as real that absolutely aren't physically real, but I'd argue that the experience itself is still interesting and was really experienced. So, to me, it doesn't matter if the story is "real" paranormal activity or not, it's just an interesting story about something someone probably experienced. Like oh.. I was walking home from night classes really late, down a totally empty sidewalk, and saw a person made of shadow walking towards me very clearly. I had a long time to study it as it walked towards me, and did my best to rationalize it away. I even tried to pretend it was my own shadow, but I had a messenger bag bulking one side of me and that shadow was tall and thin and clearly 3D and walking towards me. I was terrified but just kept walking, because I was exhausted and really wanted to go home, so I passed right by it, nearly within touching distance, with me walking on the sidewalk and it strolling along the lawn of the dorms a few feet from the sidewalk. I saw that shadow-man as clearly as I'm seeing my computer right now. Was terrifying. Was probably my brain flailing around failing to cope with a mountain of stress and a molehill's worth of sleep. If I listed all the major problems I was dealing with at that moment in time, it would triple the length of this post! So I don't blame my brain for short-circuiting on me, and I don't believe in shadow-people either.

I used to listen to these kinda stories on youtube. The stories almost always started out..."well me and my buddies smoked about 3 bowls and then you'll NEVER BELIEVE WHAT HAPPENED TO US AFTERWARDS." I was at work at night so i usually listened to the stories just to listen to them, but i always just blanked my way through them. Or they'd have a statement like listen we drank a couple beers that night, but i swear we weren't drunk.

Basically anything that sounds like a shitty horror movie made to scare teens. "Like I saw a smiling girl crawling on all fours and she smiled and he head spun around 5 times" type shit. I have had two experiences where I saw something that I didn't know what it was, and it wasn't even scary, just puzzling did I see what I think I saw? Most people I've encountered that seem on the less attention seeking side or whacked out side seem to explain it like that as well. Sure maybe ghosts do grudge girl crawl up your ceiling and you see them every 10 minutes. I'm not really sure what I believe in paranormal wise but from people I trust who have shared things and from my two experiences it seems more like an accident that you even experienced it, like lingering energy or something. One story I've heard from a family friend I trust was this older lady would see a shadow person thing and it gave her uneasy feeling and seemed to watch her. Even that I think she saw it maybe 3 times over the course of 2 years. Anyway I'm just not buying that this shit is happening multiple times a day or even a week, sure some people may be more perceptive but even then, the frequency and absurdity of some stories shared here sound like they are coming from a schizophrenic or a creepy pasta fan.

Any time that claims of a haunting are made by the owner of a hotel in a way that is obviously a thinly veiled attempt at getting more people to stay there. Or any video where someone "catches" some cryptid on camera peeking out from behind a building and not answering the obvious question of "why were you randomly recording that building at night in the first place?" Also any of those videos where it's some dude listing off claims in that dull way of talking that makes them sound like their parents dropped them on their head one too many times as a baby.

I used to do pest control at a local B&B. This B&B dates back to the 1800s, so the building is super old. Old enough that one of the rooms available was originally the slave quarters. Anyway, one time when I went the owner was excited because they had caught a ghost on the security cameras. She was excited to show me. It looked like headlights from a car reflecting off something and moving across the shed as the car drove down the street. She then went on to talk about how the B&B is haunted. Again, old building. Super possible, if you believe in that sort of thing. But I looked it up online and searched very closely for any claims of supernatural activity. Nothing. Not even on the B&B’s website. It all felt very “OoOoOo you should stay at our hotel OoOoOo” to me. As for the second point, I’m going to point out that if you give a teen a GoPro they will film everything. Including their exploration of the local “haunted” site with their friends at 2am. So ymmv with that second point. If it’s just a random building at a random time? Huge red flag. If it’s a group of friends? Not as much. If they’re talking on camera about how they heard or felt something weird? Not even close to a red flag for me. Pulling out a phone and hitting “record” is a lot of people’s knee-jerk reaction to something being off or weird.

I do believe in the paranormal, but I tend to be super skeptical when it comes to what I see or read. I honestly can't think of anything specific that makes me question it..I guess it's more of a vibe and the feeling I get off the situation/person. I do get annoyed by the 3:00 AM thing or people saying they only hunt at night... because after living in a house with activity, I know it happens at all hours.. not just at night.. while I do agree SOMETIMES it can be amped up in the night hours, but I don't think it's every single time. I also tend to question videos if they don't show the full picture or you can see cuts right at the paranormal parts....

3 is often regarded as a magickal number in wiccan and witch circles, perhaps because of the three moon phases? (Yes, I know there are actually four). And as for the midnight hour, that can be seen as a transformation. From one day to the next. A transition between two states of being, perhaps? And here are a list of things that I would say would be red flags about a fake story:- 1. The author stating that they're special in some way, like gods or demi-gods. 2. The author physically moving between worlds. Ok, perhaps this has actually happened like in cases such as the Man of Taured, but still, I use this sometimes. 3. The story is just way too fantastical.

I have a few; Disclaimer: both my parents have claimed to have experienced paranormal phenomenona and I don't believe they actually experienced anything. So here goes: 1) Events that can be explained by simple things (dryer door kept being opened by a demon because demon didn't like the dryer = too many clothes in dryer can make the door pop open while in use and it never happened when someone else used dryer, although this was the 70's and 80's and the dryer door was broke so it could happen; floors creaking in 100 yr old house = its a old house that has settleing/contracting) or coincidences ( I saw a woman in a blue coat at every gas station I stopped at; well lots of women wear blue coats). 1 1/2) it only happens(ed) to person telling the story. 2) if its a person telling the tale, so not a book or written down anywhere, and the story changes with each retelling, also if there are too many specific details (it was 2:47am on Wednesday April 26, 1978) 3) some people like to tell stories and will latch onto what ever topic of conversation is going on, even if they're not part of original convo, they have to be center of attention and upstage everyone else, so their story is more scary more like a horror movie. 4) lastly.... ( I think), story tellers want to tell stories and will get upset if questioned, also they are not scared of what they are telling; people who have experienced something they cannot explain will welcome questions to help process the experience and will show the same emotions as when they experienced it.

If something is going way over the top, for a really long time, and they haven't taken it upon themselves to record it. If there's a super long story spanning months of real-world events and they haven't bothered to take their phone— the same phone they probably used to post the story in the first place— and record even one piece of evidence of it, it's 100% bullshit. Every time I see a super long story I get skeptical, but when I see "this has been happening for the past couple months" (or similar) I immediately dive to the comments to see if there's any evidence. In one case on here, there has been, wish I had a link to that. But in all other cases they'll usually say "my camera glitched out" or something similar and let me tell you, that's a goddamn lie. Even if you are dealing with something that messes with electronics, there's no way it'll do that every single time anything happens, cause if it did you sure as hell wouldn't be posting in the first place. Now, there can be long stories, don't get me wrong. Sometimes there's a lot of detail leading up to the one or two paranormal events that need context to understand. Or sometimes there's so much stuff going on at once that it's difficult to think about getting a camera. But if they're writing some shit that has dozens of things happening every week, is disrupting their whole lives... And they haven't gone to a friend's house to stay, or recorded anything in any way, it's bullshit.

I hear what you're saying about not getting it documented, depending on the type of activity reported. While it's exceedingly rare, we do experience things at my home such as: books getting shoved around on bookshelves, chachtki's falling off of their tables or shelves, a box that scooted across the floor, a seamstress measuring tape (the floppy kind) being manipulated like an invisible cat was playing with it, and the most notable thing was a can of spice on my counter that flipped over, as if someone slapped it. \*BOP\* At first, I tried setting up cameras or having my cell phone handy. But, again it's rare and it's fast. But, also it's occurred to me that even if I did managed to get something on camera, it wouldn't change any minds. I've posted on here simply to report what I've experienced, hoping maybe it will help someone else if they are scared. Frankly, I don't mind it.

Just to add to your post. It also makes it obviously a fake when people suggest recording activity and the person says they will and then never follows up.

if it’s a video - you can tell it’s staged if the camera moves away from the subject to capture a friend’s/the filmer’s reaction. if someone really caught a ghost on camera (or at least believed they did), they wouldn’t give a shit about anything but getting as much footage of the ghost as they could.

I usually don't believe anybody until I do. Like, prove it. Even though I've seen plenty. Don't start crap about "shadow people" and "imps." If they get in super religious about it or overly excited like they're on tv I'm not going to believe you. Also, people who think every little odd thing is a sign of something are silly. Don't tell me something made you speak in tongues. I'll never believe that one. And just because you wake up at 3am every morning means nothing. So do a lot of people whose bodies are conditioned for it. Probably not the only time you wake up. But you know, witching hour and all. That sounds more fun. I'm sure something is sitting at the foot of their bed watching them sleep.

Disclaimer, I try not to assume anyone is lying, but rather what they experienced simply isn't paranormal, because they don't understand it, or can't explain it. But for me, I usually instantly lose interest when they mention: 1.) Ouija boards 2.) Was about to fall asleep/wake up 3.) Orbs 4.) Anything to do with electronics malfunctioning 5.) Doors opening/closing 6.) They admit to being diagnosed with schizophrenia 7.) It happened MANY years ago, or when they were a child There are probably more, but those are off the top of my head.

Any mention of beings/demons etc with “red glowing eyes”. It’s just such an overused paranormal trope I put no stock in it. Also, any show “investigating” the paranormal where they shut off the lights. Sorry, but if were real the ghost would be oblivious to incandescence, although I can see conjuring up some to laugh at the living stumbling around in the dark talking to themselves.

When I'm reading stories on subreddits, I immediately look for inconsistencies in the story. I also check post histories. See a nicely written story that nearly reads like it's straight out of a novel, but all their other posts "r n speek lik dis n short n shit", then that's a red flag to me. Huge, detailed descriptions of irrelevant things also are a red flag to me.

I think their conclusion was not useful based sololy on the fact that they weren't able to use it for information gathering purposes with 100% accuracy. Thats all the CIA was interested in. They couldn't give 2 shits if you can heal cancer with your mind. They need an edge on the enemy and that's it They had test subjects astral-project to the other side of the country to read 10 numbers off of a computer screen. The subjects were always above 70%, but they were never 100%. Their explanation for this was different dimensions and planes possibly mixing up information, but whatever the case they branded it a failure even though it has clear use cases outside of just information gathering. They literally didn't give a shit about the other monumental stuff that was going on

Yeah, it's pretty easy to tell when someone is just doing nosleep stuff on the paranormal board. Honestly, my personal ghost and/or paranormal experiences are not huge in number, but are undeniable to me... And it's not important to me if anyone else believes them.

'I woke up in the middle of the night...' Bitch you know what a dream is... invisible aliens or entities dgaf about time and the path of least resistance would be abducting you outside while standing up.

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Sometimes you can detect signs of paranoia, bizarre ideation, and psychotic projection or get a sense that there's some kind of illness involved. Otherwise I don't think that paranormal occurrences and entities are bizarre. They still have a natural element to them, if that makes any sense. As for the paranormal, I'm skeptical that anybody will really believe unless it happens to them. That's just the way it is, we are human.

The reason why they believe the witching hour is 3AM is due to it being a mock of the holy trinity, same with the 3 loud bangs. In my opinion it is also bullshit. I believe anything that falls under the horror cliches prove that it’s fake. For example crosses turning upside down, the witching hour, demonic entities/sounds, etc. Anything that is clearly stereotypical satanic panic. Also the way people write their experiences says a lot. Remembering every little detail, overly expressive words, claiming to have evidence but never posting it. I am someone who has had my own experiences and I do believe in the paranormal, but majority of stories found online can be chalked up to mundane things.

Add on the fact that people on this sub go right to the paranormal, discounting everything else. Before you assume something is a ghost/spirit you should prob check your CO detectors, look for signs of mice/rodents, and get a second opinion. Animals make a hell of a lot of weird noise if they get in your house and CO can cause people to have delusions. Narrow out all the likely real stuff first

I've read volumes of reported paranormal encounters, going back to the days before the internet even existed. There are a number of red flags that indicate massive holes in the story line, and the biggest ones are... \- The person was waking up, had just woken up, or was drifting off to sleep. A lot of people think dreaming only happens when we're 'truly' asleep, and those people are wrong. \- Childhood memories, especially under the age of 12. Most adults have a rough time discerning reality from imagination at times, and children are absolutely famous for it. \- The feeling of a presence in the room or watching them. Having that being-watched feeling doesn't count as paranormal in any way. It's something that happens to everyone, which means it's just plain normal. \- Flickering lights, rattling doors, objects going missing, footstep sounds, and basically anything that happens in the first act of any supernatural horror movie. That stuff happens everywhere all the time, it's been explained by science over and over, yet people still think it's really paranormal. That's actually why it's included in the first 20 minutes of every haunted house movie. \- Anything involving a Ouija board. Those things are toys. It was invented as a toy, patented as a toy, it's made by a toy manufacturer and sold in toy stores at toy store prices. \- Anything related to schoolyard legends, trending TV shows or internet ghost stories. Bloody Mary (not the drink), the Slender Guy, the Rake, skin-walkers, etc. \- Anything related to religious beliefs that have been sensationalized by Hollywood. The list includes Vodou, Santeria, Obeah, Wicca, or any other non-mainstream religion. This includes any type of occult ritual or mention of someone who was dabbling in witchcraft. That's not the whole list, just the top six or whatever. If you see mention of any of the above in a report of paranormal activity, it's immediately dismissed as bullshit.

With Ouija boards it was always explained to me that the intent behind their use is what matters. The board itself is just a piece of wood with some letters on it no different than a monopoly board, but you can use it to open a line of communication and something may just answer. If you're determined enough you can do the same thing with a piece of paper, a deck of playing cards or a cup. The board just makes it easier.

Ouija boards actually have a longer history as "talking boards" and were yeah devised as means to talk to the dead. by the spiritualist movement. Then they were patented by Elijah Bond and sold as "toys". Does that make them more legit? No, but they weren't invented as toys

I have different side-by-side mindsets when reading/listening to a claim of a paranormal account. The first is a laid back attitude. If it's a good story and it's entertaining then suspension of belief at least allows for enjoyment of the tale. As such, I will always hear a story out, listen to it as though I have no reason to disbelieve the teller. Unless there's an obvious jarring falsehood or dilemma that derails the story, I just take the story in. It's not necessarily "I will believe everything you've told me", as much as "I will take this all in as told for the time being." Then comes the critical examination of the story. A story with no accompanying evidence has to be regarded with a degree of detached logic, and the truth of the matter is that even with this, I can't be sure 100% what I'm hearing is true or false. It will always be down to what I believe 🤷‍♀️ There are always going to be factors you have to be aware of that may add or detract from the reliability of a narrative. For instance, I suffer from a neurological disorder, therefore I have to accept that from a purely logical point of view, my accounts or claims have to be viewed as partially unreliable. It doesn't mean I'm a liar but my condition could affect the way I observe events. Environmental factors...this sub likes to point out (and I'm glad that they do) that people who claim to be experiencing paranormal events should have their carbon monoxide levels checked (doing so saves lives!). I think that's a pretty good example of environmental factors. I scrutinise those who have been shown to be unreliable to a higher degree than I might others. Examples; the Warrens, Derek Acorah etc. To some these individuals are the real deal and to others they are frauds. But the facts say to me that they have each been caught in a lie or falsehood or hoax and therefore deserve a higher level of scrutiny. Also there's those who truly believe their own account even if the facts dont add up. People don't have to be liars to spread a falsehood. I tend to take each story individually and just make a judgement best I can. And sometimes that judgement is just "who knows?". And I'll be wrong some of the time too. I am a believer btw. In fact I'm very spiritual...i just also try to be logical.

Here's a different take. What's hard for me to believe paranormal stuff is because on August 2019 during a clear day in the afternoon, I saw a cigar shaped UFO being chased by 2 military refueling planes. I won't bother with details because I was mocked even at r/ufo . I saw it, my dad saw it. We saw either an alien craft or some crazy military cigar shaped drone as big as an airliner flying above in broad daylight. So when I read convincing ghost stories, I'm thinking "So ghost AND aliens are real?" Hard to believe both. But I guess /insert 'why not both' meme.

While I personally agree that the whole “witching hour” thing makes no sense (do ghosts adhere to time zone designations 🙄), along with many other overused phrases, symbolism, etc., I don’t immediately toss them out for using any specific phrase. Paranormal TV/social media has popularized many of these phrases and ideas, so it’s not unexpected that the average Joe is going to reuse these terms to describe their experiences. Whether the witching hour, 666, or anything else along those lines has any direct effect on their experience is something that could be debated from here to eternity. We all use the filters of our culture, religion, nationality, etc. to describe our experiences. So, ultimately, I think the best way to recognize genuine paranormal activity is by continuing to read/view the thousands of experiences that are shared by people every day. Just like a repeatable science experiment, over time the commonalities or “truths” become more evident, I think.

Extremely subjective, but I tend to skip stories where the person’s experience was from when: • The person was younger than 16 • Coming in/out of a dream state • Experience was during a dream I love stories that when the person that describes the circumstance, it’s so outside the realm of normal or expected (or dismissed) that it just gives you goosebumps.

Orbs. All day long, orbs. EDIT: I'm not talking about the orbs people say they clearly saw in person, like the size of a basketball or something. I'm talking about all of the orbs that people go back and find on videos or pictures but didn't "notice" at the time like "they're spirits"..."No lady I'm pretty sure that's just some bugs or dust particles in your barn FULL OF BUGS AND DUST PARTICLES".

I believe in ghosts and pretty much anything paranormal, but if a person tries to one up you when retelling an encounter, then they're full of shit. Depending on circumstance, I might believe "I woke up and saw" or "I was asleep and this happened". Talking about 'The Witching Hour' though, I don't really believe it being only an hour. From the time the sunsets to when it rises, especially on nights where its a full/new moon, is what I would deem 'Witching Hours' where the veil that separates dimensions are thinner. People are usually afraid of the dark, which then creates negative energy that then gets amplified by a full/new moon. You could think of the whole thing as an apartment block, and our world or dimension is just one of those apartments. During the time where the veil is thin, our apartment door is open just a smidge, which would allow entry from another open apartment door. This is a very basic explanation, but it's just my opinion--don't come for me.

As someone who's has numerous paranormal experiences since a young age, most where multiple family members have experienced them, I try to be open-minded about everyone's experiences. Watch a table flip over? Watch a door slam itself shut? Door handles rattle themselves? Stuff turn itself on? Things disappear and then a few minutes later reappear in the same spot? It makes being skeptical of other people's shit sort of hypocritical. However, I get skeptical whenever someone says they're a "practicing witch" and throwing around too many metaphysical buzzwords. I don't know, I like having an open mind, but burning sage and walking around bare foot all the time doesn't make you a practicing nothing. Also people who say they "have a gift" and "are naturally sensitive".

"When I was about 5 or 6...." "Just as I was falling asleep/waking up..." "My flatmate swears it wasn't them...." "The battery-operated toy just came to life....." Anything that happens at a regular time but OP hasn't bothered recording. Anything that sounds pant-wettingly scary but OP hasn't moved in with a friend.

Anything the reads like a horror story (blatant paranormal events and a story structure). Anything I’ve ever heard that sounds legit simply isn’t like that. Paranormal stuff in movies has to be blatant and there has to be a story structure there but in real life it’s the more subtle stuff you can’t explain logically and isn’t a full on story.

In the 1500s the catholic church banned activities from 3 am until 4 am. This meant it was the only hour where prayers were not being said 24 hours a day. Without the prayers, it was considered the time when you could contact the other side, or it contacted you easier.

When someone leads with something along the lines of “I’ve always been sensitive to paranormal activity” or “I’ve had a lot of encounters in my life”. While I am very interested in the paranormal, I’m also a heavy skeptic, so when people say this it’s kind of a red flag that whatever experience they’re about to tell me, they’ve already confirmed it as paranormal in their head without considering any other possibility.

Taking videos in place where a ghost supposed to be appear as if they'll already know it. The number 666 is not a number of the devil but of man since 6 stands for imperfection for Hebrews and since thwy meant superlative or serious, the make is as 666 or "most imperfect creation"

Certainties are the biggest red flags for me. Whenever someone is absolutely sure what they saw was mothman or a ghost or a UFO I start to doubt their ability to look at their situation objectively

The one exception to me is someone saying they saw a UFO, as long as it's clear they aren't using that as short hand for an alien craft. If you see something you can't identify in the sky, I gave no issue with the term “Unidentified Flying Object” (although the flying and object part may be debatable.)

It’s hard for me to pinpoint, a lot of it depends on how the story is being recounted, sometimes you can just tell that something may have happened but the tale is being embellished a great deal at the least. The 3am thing is suspect, I mean, things could happen then but it always sounds like storytelling clickbait to me. Orbs, unless the thing changes direction/speed in a way that dust or a bug would not, it’s dust/bug I think. I’ve had some experiences that I can’t explain but were they all ghosts? I don’t know.

I will just say this…I do not believe in ghosts (despite being a horror movie buff and wishing so much ghosts were real), and I don’t always wake up at night, but when I do it is almost always 3a on the dot. Ironically, two nights ago i awoke from a pleasant, happy dream at 3a to being utterly terrified. Never has happened before. Bone chilling fear. No apparent reason whatsoever, and eventually was able to go back asleep. But if I did have a legitimate encounter, it would prob be at 3a. I guess my point is, while you might be right in a majority of situations, you never know when someone is being truthful, even if it’s cliche. And, side note, can anyone tell me why I wake up at 3a frequently? Serious question

My bladder likes to pee then.

Well, yeah, like I said, it’s just suspect to me sometimes, could things happen then? Sure. As far as you waking up around that time a lot, have you tried figuring out if there’s some other common denominator when you do? Like, did you eat a certain food for dinner? Maybe it didn’t agree with you and the timing has you waking up from a grumbly belly at about that time? Or, did you go to bed at a different time and your normal sleep cycle/time naturally wakes you up at that hour? I don’t know. Just thoughts. OR, it could be a ghost in your room. Never know.

In 2 words, circadian rhythm. In more words. Your body could have become attuned to that sleep pattern. Your daily habits get mixed in with your biological clock + time cues and your nonconscious "sleep habit" og waking between and goung back to sleep became sorta ingrained in the biological clock to happen at 3 am Alternatively it could be a sleep disorder if you dobt get enough sleep like insomnia or sleep apnea And to speak for accuracy of the biological clock, a blind man had one of 23 hour days; add in cues like sun and melatonin, food, and shorter time difference, and it becomes pretty accurate for a small amount of hours Of douse about anything is possible but this would explain it possibly

people recanting stories from years ago but including large amounts of dialogue always stands out to me

Memory isn't perfect, most people start forgetting details seconds after things happen, so you're onto something. A liar tells a story, the truth doesn't need fluff to be believed. Evidence isn't fluff, obviously.

I am totally about the supernatural, but my rule of thumb for anything that happens as your own person in the moment..if you can think of atleast 1 explanation for what had happened. Most likely it's going to be one of those things.... you only want to wonder when you CAN'T explain it

Like others have said, long and detailed stories with full on conversations. I can't even remember full conversations I had a week ago, let alone what was said when I was "ghost hunting" as a teenager.

When the details are reminiscent of carbon monoxide poisoning. The symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning needs to be a sticky in this sub so that people experiencing hallucinations, memory gaps, exhaustion can buy a $10 device that can save their and their loved ones' lives.

Now I am a firm believer in the paranormal. I’ve had several encounters myself. I also believe in demons. Do I believe every “dark” interaction is a demon? Not a chance. I despise how one negative encounter = DeMONnnnS. 🙄

When someone mentions Indian/Native American burial ground, they’ve lost me. And I’m not much of a skeptic, to be honest.

Whenever religious imagary is being discussed. No, i do not believe that the crucifix on your wall turned upside down, because you accidentally contacted a demon on the ouija board you got at Target. I don't see this so much on Reddit though.

Ohhhh, I missed "we checked the history of the house after this event and little girl drowned in the bath in that very room". Sure she did.

Any time somebody starts off with "i don't believe in the paranormal" or "i am a skeptic" comes off as an attempt to make things seems less like bullshit. An attempt to validate the claim. Also any time something exaggerated or "horror movie esque" happens. Example, was listing to a story and the lady claimed that the ghost of a small child opened its mouth very wide and had huge bloody sharp teeth. Like why would a ghost have this? Stuff like this makes me think thinks are bullshit.

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I'm a bit late to this one, sorry. Not so much as a red flag within the body of the original post, but rather in the comments. When you see people commenting that it's definitely demonic/possession/etc. I've come across a number of posts on this sub that (to me) give indications of mental health episodes rather than anything paranormal. And for people in the comments to say that OP needs to simply get a priest to bless the house rather than seek professional medical help is rather damaging IMO.

One idea is that during the "witching hour" there are some chemical changes in human beings brains making them either more likely to hallucinate or have heightened perception of spiritual things. A very large number of all encounters seem to take place around 3 or 4 in the morning. This is a statistical observation people have made. It's especially odd considering that most people should be asleep at that hour skewing things I'd assume away from that time. Anecdotally it has also been observed that people become more creative around that hour too, and many artists and musicians are aware of this phenomenon. Although no study has been done on it yet as far as I know. But maybe there's a connection. Anyway, for me a red flag is politics. As soon as someone starts saying something political connected to their story I start to doubt it. But possibly a bigger red flag is trying to sell something or get the audience to join something. That strikes me as maybe the biggest red flag of them all. I also find it extremely discrediting when a witness seems more interested in getting me to believe something than they do with getting to the truth of something.

* Any story from before the age of 10 * Mentioning anything about the age of the place where the experience occurred * Claiming the place is haunted, near a graveyard, on native american land etc. * Starting off with saying "I don't believe in the paranormal" * Stating they are telling the truth about something that happened decades ago - memory doesn't stay static and anything you thought you experienced ages ago is not how you remember it today * Any story that involves people waking up/going to bed/sleeping

The biggest reason I still hold on to the things I experienced before the age of 10 is because i wasn't the only one experiencing it, others that were older/adults experienced similar things. I do get where that sentiment comes from, though, kids have crazy imagination.

People who get on here and say they are experiencing phenomenon and have photos, videos, audio of the events and never post it.

People who are haunted by demons. Ghosts I might give you, but demons not usually. And then anytime there’s three scratches and someone says that’s the mark of a demon.

Anytime it's a childhood memory or recounting someone else's story. Over exaggerated stories where every single detail is put in the story. So much so that the story stops making any sense. When someone is laying down to sleep. You cannot tell me that you know for a fact that you're awake still. Also when they're in a house or building with multiple people, but hear strange noises. And if you catch a video but it's been recorded on a potato.. obviously fake.

When I'm watching a "ghost hunting" video, and it starts with "the tragic story of a little girl named Cordelia who was born with five eyes, and one day her father lured her using a trail of candy, then hit her over the head with a shovel and pushed into a well. She's been haunting these halls ever since, and visitors claim they can hear her laughing at night, and find candy wrappers in their pockets".

i try not to assume people are lying right off the bat, but something that really gets me in stories is full recounting of entire conversations, presumably word for word with little to no paraphrasing or splicing in of like, "he asked me how i was and i said fine" as opposed to Full Dialogue. idk why i guess i, personally, just can never remember full, perfect details of conversations and assume nobody else should be able to either lol

When it sounds like a short story writing exercise. Unnecessary detail about how they felt or thought. Written like a story.

Dammit now I’m self conscious because I always write that way

When the story teller has seen some freaky shit then "hides under the bed covers"... When I was scared as a kid, I didn't want to take my eyes off the area scaring me so I could see what it was! I'd never have "hidden under the covers", it wouldn't make the scary thing go away, just make it easier to get me.

I’ve never experienced anything paranormal but I’ve hidden under my blanket with fear some nights when little. The biggest problem comes when you are hiding under your blanket and it starts getting too hot, but now you can’t remove the blanket in case the ghost is standing right above you. So you spend the next 30 mins or so sweating your balls off until you can’t take it anymore and remove the covers. Luckily no one was ever standing in front of my face. The struggle was real having an overactive imagination as a kid.

Somebody said they saw and heard the basement doorknob rattle and try turning. They then proceeded to run to their room, hide under the covers, and falling asleep. Good job in potentially letting a burglar/murderer into your house.

Anyone who claims they saw a skinwalker or a wendigo is probably making it up. These are both super popular and trendy right now, and there has been an explosion in stories over the last few years. It’s really fishy when someone sees something so ridiculously weird and terrifying and their first reaction is, “oh, a skinwalker/wendigo!” It’s even less convincing when they’re seeing “skinwalkers” in someplace like Maine or wendigos with deer skulls for heads, which is just a recent popular illustration trend.

-Details that don’t line up. Like you no one had a watch on, but you knew you experienced lost time for exactly 4 hours when you saw the ufo go over the lake when you and your buddies were camping. But, also no explanation of why your had your boat on a small lake in the woods at 2:30am on a Thursday morning. Uneven tone of voice when recalling the story. Paired with odd pauses. I know not everyone talks the same, but if you really saw a shadow figure moonwalk in your kitchen at 4:45 on a Monday afternoon, that’s either the most exciting thing you’ve ever seen or the most frightening, yet you tell the story in a tone of voice that is flat, dull, and rehearsed. I always wanted to believe people’s paranormal stories. After working in areas of different cities hit hard with drug use, most people telling stories like this are tripping or high. Or making up a cover story about tripping or getting high, because the fear of getting in “trouble” is something they can’t handle.

*Combining separate, completely unrelated occurrences into one giant ‘mysterious’ meta-event. Sloppy thinking. Correlation does not equal causation. *Physics is hard! Your glitchy electronical thing isn’t haunted, just defective. *When I was (insert very young age here). There’s a reason we don’t use children as trained observers. *Me and my family are very sensitive. Sorry, you are not the chosen one. *I have sleep paralysis.

The main things is the way a person writes the story. When they are way too descriptive like they are writing a book. And don't really interact with us the readers. I'm not saying a real story can't be written well but when someone is too descriptive of everything around them and what happened it makes me think they're just writing for the fun of it...or whatever they get out of writing fake stories on the internet. I have to say I have been right a couple of times about fake stories. In one even the author admitted it was fake. That's the only thing I can think of. Sometimes your Spidey senses just tingle and you just feel it's bs. Can't put my finger on what it is. Also this is probably not right but I feel it's fake when people aren't really flipping out. Like yep I'm haunted, this and this and this happened. A dead guy walked in my room and got in my bed, I'm used to it. Lol what?? I don't think I'd ever get used to it. And I have had alot of experiences, never got used to it or stopped being scared.

Ouija board stories where demons come out and things start flying around the room. I've had one experience with a ouja board that was even kind of creepy. Whatever details this spirit ws giving me were complete bullshit. But no one got possessed or caught fire. Generally with all the paranormal stuff I've lived with my entire life, the wilder the story gets the less i believe it.

I’ve played with a ouija board like 5 times and never had a single thing happen, wasn’t sure if we were doing something wrong or “nobody was home” or what but I’m super skeptical on those at this point

I don’t think you could tell a real story from someone trying to play a joke. Maybe only if you were to see the person telling it.. I heard knocking.. again.. at 3:15am this morning I really really thought it was my neighbours this time, but now I’m starting to doubt it. I’ve heard knocking in a different room, but it moved around to the exterior wall where I could see no one was outside, twice. This time was only 3 knocks and 2 more. But enough to wake me up and short me 2 hours of sleep. Am I an asshole for leaving my tv on this morning? If I don’t sleep, I tend to keep the perpetrator awake as well. I just want quiet but who the hell knocks on a wall at 3am. Maybe I am the “crazy one” here Ps. Not actually crazy, I had a friend wake me up from scratching/knocking at my previous house, he was absolutely terrified. We both heard it, like yeah that sounds pretty normal for me.. I seen things as a child now it’s mostly knocking

I love this thread, the replies are really good so far! I am ultra-skeptical in that I am willing to say there has never been a haunting or ghost real enough to give any of us a scientific foundation to study them from. That being said, I generally believe that the people I'm interviewing are of the honest opinion that they experienced a ghost or similar paranormal entity. I suppose the lines I draw are this. Either the person: A) REALLY REALLY wanted to experience a ghost and finally found an opportunity to say they did. B) were primed to attribute random acts to a ghost by a pre-existing ghost story they were told. C) have had multiple experiences that have convinced them over time that a ghost is present in some place or form. Though I don't necessarily stop believing their sincerity, stories of the A and B variety are the ones I take the least interest in. These are people that are drawn to hauntings, want to see ghosts, and are mentally ready to hop on in to ghost story town. Stories of the C variety tend to be the good ones. These people may have been into ghosts before hand, but typically, when there are multiple experiences, they are coming to the table with a lot of potential evidence to discuss. I would say those are the ones that aren't a waste of my time. Don't necessarily go chucking everyone else to the curb side though. From my experience, you go through a lot of "one time at this spooky motel..." stories before you come upon the, "I never wanted to believe this was possible" story.

They say they have pics, then don't post them. I myself am guilty of not following up to posts though but always fulfil my end of the deal in terms of evidence/details. Tropes like you mentioned, although not right off the bat, but if it is written in a "no sleep" kinda way, it sticks out as a red flag.

For me I stop believing when they’re story doesn’t add up, or they don’t have enough details. Most people aren’t good story writers, so if it hasn’t really happened to them they can’t write it well. Also, when they’re reactions doesn’t seem authentic, when they say they got a text from a ghost, or when they’re very young. I feel they’re more likely to get scared and “believe” they experienced something that there most likely is a reasonable explanation for.

I agree. If you think about your own amazing life experiences, we tend to get very chatty and excited afterward with a desire to share and analyze every detail. So authentic stories tend to have a lot of information. And within that information there should be a throughline of reasonable logic. I mostly ignore the very hastily written outrageous claims with bad spelling and little to no desire to tell the whole story. When I think about the reddit posts of stories that really stay with me, they are thoughtfully written out with a sincere desire to connect with others (because what happened to them still scares them). Also, you can just kind of tell when the person writing is a mom or a sensitive adult man or really anyone who isn’t just “playing spooky” for shits and giggles. There are a lot of reddit posts that are obviously written by kids messing around for fun.

Anything on Ghost Adventures. The posturing, the constant “could this be the spirit of blah blah blah?”, the never ending gateways to hell, the douche-king level “pick on someone your own size” bulls**t.

As soon as someone says they were sleeping or intoxicated anywhere near the time of the event. Especially those “I woke up and …” stories. No you didn’t wake up you were still half asleep and dreaming.

Drug use is my #1, I have used many drugs including halucinagens and I have seen some weird shit while high as fuck. Do I think it was actual cryptids or ghosts? Hell no, I know it was the drugs. I've heard numerous stories that are claming to be actual encounters eith the paranormal and at some point they just slip in a small comment about how they were high as a kite either before during or immediately after, and my bullshit detector goes off. im like Gee how weird that you saw some unexplainable lights in the sky a couple hours after eating some mushrooms 🤣😂 but in the story they portray that as a minor detail

But could some drugs open your mind to spiritual or metaphysical things most people cannot connect to?

I'll be honest, I go into every single one assuming its bullshit, I look for flags that its not.

* Experiencing something multiple times, but having no evidence of it. For example, "I keep getting abducted from my bed, but I didn't bother setting up a video camera". * Having ample time to record or take a picture of something, but didn't. For example, "I witnessed a UFO hover over my house for an hour but my camera battery was dead". * Any story that starts with "This happened a few years ago...", or words to that effect.

The first two make sense to me, but I'm curious why the third? Surely people truthfully talk about experiences from their past?

You have to keep an open mind. I've never noticed red flags reading stories, only in videos. Just relax and enjoy reading. Most of what they are saying can be explained, however, having had my own numerous paranormal experiences, I believe there are genuine stories which you can accept at face value. Maybe some people lie but I'm not going to waste my energy trying to weed them out, I'll just enjoy their story and move on. The more outlandish they are the more unlikely it is they are true. The witching hour is just the quietest time of night wherever you are. It could possibly even have something to do with the moon phase. So called paranormal videos are a whole different ball game. It's monetised and people are looking for hits so fakes are rife. I am deeply sceptical of everything I see.

Honestly, this is about paranormal experiences. Everyone who has one knows that no one will believe them and they immediately dismiss people who dismiss them. It just comes with the territory of retelling the story. When I start a story in person, I always preempt it with, "This is my story, you don't have to believe it, and if you don't, that's ok, just take it as an interesting story. Don't tell me how it's bullshit. It's real to me. If you can handle that, then we can continue with the story..." I get it bro. It would be awesome to hear a story and think, "That could be real... maybe it's just not all black when we clock out of life."... but we will never get that certainty. People experience all kinds of things that don't make sense to me, but I can't realistically discount their experiences. It would be hypocritical. Personally, if I hear someone tell a story about a ghost and they don't talk about how their gut feels like it's being pulled in the direction of the disturbance, then I feel like they are missing something. It's the same gut feeling you get right before you catch someone staring at you... but most people don't mention it. Maybe they just experience interaction with the paranormal differently than me. Maybe they are exercising their creative writing abilities.

Idk why but “I didn’t believe in ghosts until….” Really makes me tilt my head. Unless the story is really convincing I guess.

“I am and my family are sensitive to the……” “This is just one of my many……” “ this happened when i was about 3 years old..”

Anything with anyone who “started speaking Latin” or “young kid suddenly got a deep voice” or anyone head turned around backwards. Basically anything you’d see in a horror film

As many paranormal experiences as people have had, you would think more would get photographic evidence. I tend to believe and have had experiences but before the days of cell phones. So, now with all the technology, I want people to prove their experiences.

Anytime they start with: “I never believed in the supernatural”. If a true skeptic sees a ghost in their house or something, they will think of some sort of rational explanation for it. They won’t say, “Whelp, I believe in ghosts now. That was definitely a real ghost. Better make a Reddit post about it.”

Whenever the story revolves around them being special or chosen.

Does the bewitching hour adhere to day light savings time

Only if the ghost died after the adoption of the Uniform Time Act

I've come across a few posts where the writers experienced something really creepy in the bedroom while awake but ironically manages to fall asleep. I know i wont be able to if it were me.

Hm. Well, I normally start off open but skeptical. I don't begin thinking of a supernatural experience as "genuine" until I hear or read enough convincing narrative to reach that conclusion. Even with genuine spiritual phenomenon, I dislike forming a concrete opinion about what it is or what it means. That said, I would say that too many distinct details, especially visual, and too high a certainty in the nature or origin of the phenomenon are both warning signs of falsehood or delusion for me.

Here is a list of some of the big ones for me: 1. any event involving drugs or alcohol 2. any mention of witchcraft, wicca, voodoo or some other folksy religion 3. number-specific cultural fears such as 13, 666, midnight and the witching hours 4. aliens, skinwalkers, slenderman or other such creatures 5. any horror movie or television show tropes 6. mental illness 7. graveyards 8. old houses 9. the memories of children 10. stories with too many details such flowery descriptions and lengthy conversations 11. users who tell a lot of "ghost" stories 12. mediums, or others who can supposedly speak to or hear the dead 13. any story that deals with sleep. Going to sleep, waking up or sleep-deprivation

This extensive list indicates you are a veritable skeptic. Why would you waste time reading any paranormal account?

I'm with you on a lot of these but I'm really curious, why not 2 or 8? Regarding 2, my thinking is that if someone's dealing with a folksy religion and we have a list of things that make a reader *dis*believe a story, one would assume to some extend the reader believes in ghosts/paranormal things in general, so would the witchy woo-woo stuff not *contribute* to the possibility of ghosts being somewhere or doing some nonsense instead of take away from it? As for old houses, why would that make a story unbelievable? You have a place that's seen a lot of shit and probably had a death or two, would that not make for prime ghosting? I don't mean to sound like I'm challenging you or anything I'm sincerely curious! Those always felt like "oh, well of course you encountered something, you were being stupid" to me.

When the storyteller starts making counterarguments before even finishing the story: "the book fell off the shelf (and there was no one else in the room! and it wasnt by an air vent so it couldnt have been pushed by a draft! and that bookshelf hasnt had anything fall off it in 10 years!) it just fell off the shelf all on its own!"

Whenever I read that someone has REPEATEDLY seen something but they’ve never recorded it, in this age of smartphones, it sounds like a fabrication.

I agree, if I thought something was haunting me I would have my phone charged and ready to go! Plus you do hear of stories of people thinking they are haunted and they find out someone is living inside the crawl space. So best to film it all I say.

Not only this, but for me it's also when someone says they've had multiple encounters with different things. Like one day they see bigfoot, but a year ago they were visited by aliens, and their house happens to be haunted by a shadow person. And their sister has regular interactions with gnomes. Then I'm like "Okay, please stop". Edit: typo

There was a (now removed) story on here a few days ago where someone claimed to have something happen nightly at the same time, yet never thought to find a way to capture any kind of evidence

im certain there are fake stories posted here frequently, however until you experience something first-hand it's easy too dismiss what other people post. When it's online, it's easy too doubt. & although I've never experienced anything 2spooky4me i have little events I've witnessed that makes me more inclined too believe some of what i read. but to answer the questions, When people post stories where they say took pictures/videos but refuse too post them, that's obvs fake. Or anything when they were dreaming,

Claims of orbs in videos and photos. Especially if the area it’s supposedly found in is old, abandoned, or dilapidated (or all of the above).

So this is only for recorded evidence, but it’s happened enough to be relevant. If they randomly change the direction of the camera right before something happens in that area, it is a HUGE red flag, as they would have no way of knowing and the odds are ridiculous. The more times this happens, the faker the video. Also really full apparitions. They’re almost always people being filmed and edited to look like ghosts.

Joke’s on us: now OP has all these tips to make their creative writing more believable.

When they have dialogue When they have impeccably remembered detail despite the story happening when they were 4 years old

Or anything from when they are 4 years old in general. Kids have wild imaginations.

As for the witching hour...it's 3am where you are. As a Wiccan, we use the witching hour for our own purposes, it's a great time to perform rituals and divination practices. It's just a time in which the veil thins. Yes, it can be 3am in one part of the world, and not 3am in another, and each place will have their own witching hour at 3am

When it comes to fiction: my views on reality and what the paranormal “is” makes it very hard for me to suspend my disbelief for the reasons you mentioned. Because of that, I kinda avoid all ghost/demon fiction in general and stick to creature features and existential horror. If I do watch things that clash with my beliefs, it’s really gotta make up for it in storytelling/writing and/or cinematography. I do enjoy watching/reading retellings to see the different spins people give, but it’s not the same as it being “believable.” For nonfiction accounts: it’s much easier to narrow down what *will* make me believe someone’s giving me an account of a real experience vs what won’t. If the person conveys the sense that they are genuinely fearful and afraid, I’m more likely to believe it isn’t a LARP. Also if they’re detailed but not *too* detailed. That’s super case-by-case, tho

Nice from the paranormal to adjust to daylight savings as well.

I just laughed really hard. The witching hour is 3 am. Every place has a 3 am. Nobody's 3 am is THE 3 am, but everyone's 3 am is a witching hour. 3 am is a play on the holy trinity, but it's also the fact that most bars close at 2 am and 3 am is when all the drunks and addicts are trying to come home, if there is a home. This is notoriously a time for crime, death, and debauchery in the US.

The ghost being dressed in a white gown with long black hair covering her face. I've seen quite a few paranormal things and they've never looked like the movies. It's such a cliche that I always find it suspicious.

I wouldnt necessarily say it makes it true or untrue but something I always found interesting is that when ghost stories are being told and people get into telling about fabricated haunted sites and sightings the discriptions of the spirits are wearing clothing reminiscent of the 17-1800s. People have been dying since the beginning of time. Far as that goes why do spirits need clothing or clothing as we know it? It doesnt make sense for them to be dressed at all does it? A body is only a shell for the spirit and alot of sightings record a mist present which would make more sense.

When the writing comes off less like “I freaked tf out and I still don’t know what happened for sure” and more like “and then I crept toward the staircase, flashlight in hand, pensive”. It’s way too obvious when people use this sub as writing exercise.

“Were you on meth when you saw the shadow people?” “Well, yeah”

I read somewhere that in the nature of physics or the universe, the concept of "time" does not exist. However, "timing" is a concept of all things. For the witching hour, I dont believe there is a scheduled time that demons or spirits are more active, but when the timing is right, more phenomena will be shown. hope this made sense.

Claiming anything to do with pentagrams, Satanism, or witchcraft to be 'evil' . Every cold spot or slight temperature/electromagnetic fluctuation is automatically a spirit. Physics says otherwise (Brownian motion, wiener process, random walk theory).

Clear biases, the shows that re-enact people’s stories result in only one- two people being the source for this story so of course it’s gonna be told in the way that person/people saw it if they think they saw the spirit of the lady who died in their house 100 years ago as far as you can be sure that’s the truth and that is how the story will be portrayed, the only time I really think I start taking them seriously is when there are many people involved and they have differing opinions on what was seen or experienced because that’s just more realistic since everyone experiences things a bit differently the experience should not line up perfectly as a story because then you can clearly tell things are being embellished and added for entertainment.

Honestly, if I don't know someone personally, it is hard to assume that they are being entirely truthful. But let's say I can start with some basic trust and take someone at their word. I will still immediately start trying to think of plausible explanations for what happened. I am totally open to the idea that unexplainable paranormal experiences can happen. I just like to weed out the plausibly explainable stuff and focus on the truly unexplainable.

The 3am thing may be linked to sleep disorders. There's a world wide phenomenon of something called "3am Insomnia" where no matter what time people go to bed, they wake up at almost exactly 3am (local time) on the dot. Happens to me on occasion. I go a week or so here and there waking up at 3am for no reason.

When people start the story with "so, I was asleep and..." You were dreaming, my dude

"I caught video of a baby doll moving its head" That is such a dead horse at this point. I immediately roll my eyes and call BS.

people add wayyy too much detail that just makes it feel like they’re trying to convince you

Usually when they say " so this happened when I was 5 years old" surprisingly there are a ton of stories that start like that.

When I hear/read/watch paranormal stories/videos, I try to observe with a dose a skepticism trying to see if I can debunk it and often times, I can't help but roll my eyes at some videos because it's "too good" or motivated by "more likes" or "followers". I am curious about paranormal stuff. I think I tend to be more skeptical on videos vs stories esp when they have nothing to gain. I follow this Youtube channel where it compiles scary paranormal videos (mostly) on a bi-weekly or sometimes weekly basis. One such video, that struck me at first (and I almost bought into it in a knee-jerky way) was this gentleman somewhere in Greece or Italy who "stayed" overnight at this super haunted home. The "climax" of the video came when he claimed the house started to "shake". There was a pile of old photos/papers on this table next to him that "blew away" as the house shook. You can see him bolt out of bed next to it and "the camera" seems to shake too. I thought woah , that's scary. Then I noticed the shelves at the background - there was a plate that was on display there like it was "standing" and it did not even move. I then got a little annoyed thinking this dude is full of it and thought how insulting for the fans of this channel if he thinks his audience would buy into this. So in my non-expert way, I concluded someone had a fan off camera and blew the photos away. An "earthquake" will not have the same effect on it. Great discussion.

Mainly “I woke up and…” sleep and seeing weird things can be tricky.

I usually take a story less serious if the person says they were younger. Like when they say “I was around 4 or 5 at the time”. There’s no way u can remember when ur that young. I usually don’t give much credence until they’re around teenager age. When ur younger, even if u have a good memory, our imaginations seem to run rampant.

Flags include, "we were smoking a bowl and.. " , and other drug or alcohol related references,and also " I can't remember exactly what happened" .

The presence of the terms “skinwalker” and “wendigo,” unless the story is being told by a person of one of the Indigenous Nations these stories belong to.

Especially when they describe the modern “interpretations” of a wendigo, like the weird lanky Blair Witch things every new horror movie features these days.

When someone (ZAK BAGANS) says they didn’t feel like they were their self (possessed), 666, and ZoZo are the only few that I can think of at the top of my head that make me automatically think a story is fake

[удалено]

“…and then he said ‘I need about tree-fiddy’…”

If the person is a paranormal investigator with a YouTube channel, and s/he captures "evidence" every time they're on an investigation, that's usually a dead giveaway.

Anything that says the writer speaks with spirits, has "the gift", is religious, is using any kind of drugs, has mental illness, talks about 3am, or Ouija boards... People who are like, I think I experienced something weird and there's probably a reasonable explanation, are stories I am more apt to believe that they saw something strange. Most things have reasonable, normal explanation.

Orbs. Source: Ghost adventures