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The things we find scary differ from person to person. For some, it might be an image of a spider crawling nearby, others are spooked out by ghost stories (let’s be honest, they often sound as scary at 30 as they did at 13). Let’s not forget the variety of creatures under the bed that are waiting for you to throw that leg over the edge.

Sadly, some everyday occurrences can be as spine-chilling as The Shining itself. The online community on r/AskReddit discussed what facts scare them the most. The answers are unsurprisingly grim, but they might be worth pondering over. Warning: some might unlock a new fear.

If these scary facts weren’t horrifying enough, browse Bored Panda’s list of haunting real-life facts you might have not heard before.

#1

The most well-educated and intelligent people are also those most afflicted with issues like despair, depression, and existential crises. Reality is a nightmare of horrors lying just beneath the surface, and the more aware of how things really work you are the more truly miserable you are, generally.

Emperor_Cartagia Report

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Kate Jones
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1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That's why Eve eating from the apple tree of knowledge is considered the moment where the loss of paradise happens. I'm not religious at all but I'm fascinated by the 'story' about how everything goes to sh!t the more knowledge you have. A scary message to keep the masses uneducated and controlled, but there's truth to the idea that ignorance is bliss.

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#2

30 Creepy Facts Not For The Fainthearted, As Shared On This Online Thread I logically know I am fine, but my anxiety won’t let me accept that.

HotSpicedChai , RODNAE Productions Report

#3

30 Creepy Facts Not For The Fainthearted, As Shared On This Online Thread That my parents and grandparents are slowly getting older and it's just a matter of time before I start losing them all one by one and there's nothing I can do about it.

Kysman95 , Matt Bennett Report

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Libstak
Community Member
1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Ive lost my dad last year at 84, i cant stand it, he was always so full of life and then in 3 years he deteriorated rapidly until he could no longer swallow without aspirating.

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Fear might evoke various negative responses, from a weird feeling in the pit of the stomach to complete panic. Yet this emotion developed as a reflex crucial for humans to survive. It’s a natural reaction warning of a possible danger and the need to protect oneself.

Fear is responsible for the fight or flight instinct that arises when we’re in danger. But it's not only physical threats that can cause fear. Our thoughts might do that as well. 

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Take this list as an example. Reading the scary facts does not put you in actual danger, however, some of the posts are definitely enough to give you goosebumps. A survey from America’s top fears in 2020/2021 found that the death or illness of a loved one—a fear shared by numerous members of the online community—is in the top ten.

#4

70+ million people voted for The Orange Piece of S**t

JamesWjRose Report

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Verena
Community Member
1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

A two party system is not able to answer properly to the needs of the voters, they can only choose between two extremes and neither is fitting to the needs of the majority. The Netherlands overdo it with 21, it is impossible to make decisions and steer a country if every question needs to be discussed with everybody and every opinion needs to be evaluated. Keep it below ten and offer more than two choices. Germany learnt that lesson, google "Weimarer Republik"

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#5

30 Creepy Facts Not For The Fainthearted, As Shared On This Online Thread The amount of women and children murder every year in first world countries at the hands of their current or ex spouses. One every 11 minutes.

DependentCrew5398 , Karolina Grabowska Report

#6

30 Creepy Facts Not For The Fainthearted, As Shared On This Online Thread That since I was born the human population has doubled and the animal population has been cut in half.

sutroheights , dotshock Report

#7

30 Creepy Facts Not For The Fainthearted, As Shared On This Online Thread That the insect biomass is rapidly decreasing. This is the foundation of the food chain.

bulletmissile , Johann Piber Report

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Libstak
Community Member
1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Has anybody noticed how slow and dumb flies have become? I can swat them in legit slow motion lately and they just don't move.

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#8

30 Creepy Facts Not For The Fainthearted, As Shared On This Online Thread Melting permafrost is releasing potentially life threatening microorganisms that humans have no immunity to.

pluribusduim , U.S. Geological Survey Report

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RezFidel
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

At this point I am quite alright with humankind being wiped out by some ancient killerorganism... our species is the worst and does not deserve being here anymore.

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#9

30 Creepy Facts Not For The Fainthearted, As Shared On This Online Thread It's likely that my chronic pain is uncurable and I'll have to live with it forever. It's cost me most of my hobbies and taken a huge toll on my mental health and it seems to be steadily getting worse too. That scares me a lot. I don't want this to be my life.

Seiliko , Rawpixel Report

#10

30 Creepy Facts Not For The Fainthearted, As Shared On This Online Thread Some people buy and sell humans

puffykitty6942 , Pressmaster Report

#11

30 Creepy Facts Not For The Fainthearted, As Shared On This Online Thread There's an illness called fatal insomnia.

You stay awake until you die, There's literally no cure and can't be predicted, you lose your mind slowly and you can't do anything about it.

My grandpa died slowly from it.

LastTime-_- , cottonbro studio Report

#12

30 Creepy Facts Not For The Fainthearted, As Shared On This Online Thread That outside of our planet, zero of our achievements/history/language/currency matters. It can all be erased in a second and there would be no knowledge of us ever existing in the first place to anyone else in the universe. We are meaningless outside of this sphere.

EmergencyNoodlePack , goinyk Report

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N Miller
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

As individuals, we're pretty meaningless inside this sphere too. Unless you are (in)famous (and even then, for more than 15 minutes) you will be forgotten and have zero legacy within 100 years or so of your passing.

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#13

The amount of child abuse the catholic church got/gets away with

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Libstak
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The amount of child abuse in general, it's not a particular church issue it is a humanity issue. Entire cultures all over the planet allow child abuse, particularly those that allow child slavery, child labor and child brides.

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#14

30 Creepy Facts Not For The Fainthearted, As Shared On This Online Thread That Dopplegangers exist. They say that there are at least a couple people in the world that look exactly like you without being blood related and I met mine.

He was a f*****g criminal and got into trouble so many times with the law that I myself had been mistaken for him three times. The only difference was me having sleeves. My tattoos saved me from being mistaken for him who sexually assaulted a woman. I was brought in and put in a line up and she said herself, “that looks like him but he doesn’t have a single tattoo”. 4 hours later they found him and the sheriff’s department was dumbfounded that we weren’t twins. Like looking in a mirror. I was released and a more than needed apology was given by the chief of police and arresting officer.

TinyoneT33 , Derek Dolro Report

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N Miller
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

More than needed? Granted they had the wrong man, but putting you in a police line up is the police doing their jobs correctly, acting on all information available to them. Had you been arrested and held in cells while they waited days for DNA to exonerate you, then it would be much needed. Blame the AH doppleganger - the police were doing thing right here, it's a creepy set of coincidences that they got the wrong person originally.

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#15

30 Creepy Facts Not For The Fainthearted, As Shared On This Online Thread Any day, you could have a stroke and lose all your autonomy and become as dependant as a baby.

FrenchMaisNon , Pixabay Report

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Mrs Irish Mom
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Jesus reading all these are going to send me on the drink 2nite 🤦‍♀️

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#16

My dog is gonna die at some point...

StiffyStaff91 Report

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HelluvaHedgehogAlien
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I feel that 😨 I hope I die before my cats, turtles and dog dies, but that would be selfish to hope right

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#17

That one day will be the last of something and you have no idea until that day is over. It's surreal to me that their was a day in my life when my group of friends all hung out together having fun and then never again. There will be a last time I will see the ones I love and not even know. It's painful.

Morel3etterness Report

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#18

After 4 years of Donald Trump as President, half the country wanted more.

bigedthebad Report

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Zack Vander
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Trumphumpers are so disconnected from reality it's frightening. Since they all worship Putin they should move to Russia and volunteer to fight against the Ukraine. But the gun loving trumpers are wimpy wannabe soldiers. Pathetic losers.

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#19

That poverty, homelessness, orphans exist, yet people continue to reproduce at an alarming rate and this will only get worse and worse and worse…

Faith_loves_cake Report

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PleasantCrocodile
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Fertility rates in developed countries has actually plummetted. We just need more available and reliable contraception in developing countries. I live in Brazil, and the number of teenage pregnancies is staggering.

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CHRIS DOMRES
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

And in America a huge religious part of the population wants to make birth control harder to obtain. They mistakenly think it will stop people from having sex if they do not have access to birth control.

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John L
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I don't understand why people keep this myth alive. Perhaps it was true decades ago, but across most industrialized nations, birth rates are plummeting. In fact, India is due to soon pass China in population.

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Mickysixxx
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

And poverty doesn't only exist in 3rd world countries. In Australia there are an obscene amount of children living below the poverty line.

idrow avatar
Id row
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I'm looking at you, India. 1.4 billion people is out of control.

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Lou Cam
Community Member
1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The most effective birth control is actually education. The more educated women are in a country, the less children they have on average.

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Admiralu
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Or none at all. There are millions of women who don't have and don't want kids.

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Marion Goriak
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I cannot imagine bringing a child into the world now. I weep for my young adult children who are really getting a raw deal already.

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Candi Cabaniss
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

No it does not get worse. Poverty is going away. Please read Factfullness by Hans Rosling. Or check out his Gapminder web site.

festersixonesixonethree avatar
Fester Sixonesixonethree
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Actually the opposite is happening. Birth rates are slowing in most "developed" countries.

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Larry XK
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Tell that to Japan. and quite a few European countries where the population is decreasing in an alarming rate. In Japan they're going to run out of working age population soon.

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Sarah Lowry
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I have always loved kids and have been babysitting since I was 12 (now 32; though I don't do it as often now). When I was 20, I found out that I have endometriosis. It was, and still is really difficult to come to terms with. I always thought that I wanted to have kids of my own but as I've gotten older, I'm starting to question if I really do. I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia last year and with that along with migraine, depression, and anxiety, I have a hard enough time taking care of myself. Then, when I read things like this I tend to lean a lot more toward not having my own kids. I do hope that one day I would be in a good place physically, emotionally, and financially to adopt or foster though.

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aj B
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Admittedly the orphan issue in certain countries is an issue created by putting an insane number of insanely expensive hurdles between loving parents and orphans.

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Ivy la Sangrienta
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Birth rate is the lowest it's been for 150 years in my country. So that may be true for the planet but not every place.

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Jill Bussey
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This would be a major step in repairing the planet. I am not talking about blended families, but the ones who choose to have more than say three children. Stop glorifying them. Stop making TV series about them. Allow women to choose to be sterilised and men to have vasectomies.

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Maranatha Schraag
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

And yet rich men build penis rockets and invade countries instead of sharing their wealth.

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Carl
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

We are rapidly approaching a point where these will no longer be a problem. They will be dead. The resources and infrastructure to support this many people is dwindling. The problem will be what to do with all the dead.

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Noname
Community Member
1 year ago

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Amanda Hunter
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Because people in poverty reproduce the most. Free birth control should be available world wide.

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Mary Ballard-Johansson
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Every culture throughout time have had ways of procuring abortions. Or just resorted to infanticide. But then came religion/missionaries telling everyone to "be fruitful and multiple", and that birth control and abortion are evil. Look where that has gotten us today.

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Mandy Delaforce (PC Girl)
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Countries are starting to get worried, as the number of people being born is reducing in first world countries, which means that they will have huge numbers of elderly being supported by not enough young ones.

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Deep One
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

There is actually plenty for everyone (for now) to live a happy full life but it is being hoarded by a handful of truly evil people.

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Marilyn Russell
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Sometimes the hopelessness and the futility of this world seriously depresses me but we just have to keep living our lives and surviving as best we can.

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Alexander
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

A worldwide One- or Two-Child-Policy could be the solution for so many problems on earth (lack of food, housing prices, pollution....)

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Bruce Horton
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Get real! It's getting better and better, people live longer, worldwide poverty is being reduced, endemic diseases are being eliminated. It ain't perfect but man, get real.

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Seabeast
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Especially in Talibangelical places where they've outlawed abortion and are now going after birth control as well.

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Jonathan English
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

What about women who get pregnant from been raped and have no access to get an abortion

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Some Sort of Hyena
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Along with the very “lovely” overturn of Roe v Wade (if you live in the U.S)

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Bubs623
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Doesn't help that now the US is a forced birth country.

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Misty D
Community Member
1 year ago

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Exactly! People are so, so selfish thinking their bloodline is somehow more important than adopting a child that already exists.

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Jared Robinson
Community Member
1 year ago

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Lol so stop having children at the risk of hurting children. Did you know that all eight billion people on earth can fit in an area less than eighty square miles. We need More people in order to get logistics fixed and be able to house and feed everyone.

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#20

30 Creepy Facts Not For The Fainthearted, As Shared On This Online Thread The fact that the past 10 years of my life have flown by, and it means I got about a decade before I become the same age as my parents when I was born. Meaning that I’m just slowly going to age till it’s time for me to pass. And I still don’t even know why I’m living or what I want to do, or even feel like I’m happy.

Unhookingsnow6 , gpointstudio Report

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Mia Black
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

In view of the coming changes caused by the climate, I would like to have at least a little bit of meaning in life with my small permaculture garden project. the multiplication of people does not help us and I will definitely not contribute to that - I think many people have children because they believe that they will then fulfill a meaning in life. I believe that the proliferation of small oases can hopefully make a difference and I would like to support animals and plants - which ultimately, if many participate, can possibly also help humanity.

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#21

That something someone can do totally beyond my control, will impact me in a way I could never recover from, or my family. Accident, violence, mismanagement etc, they’re the scary things

becomingthenewme Report

#22

30 Creepy Facts Not For The Fainthearted, As Shared On This Online Thread The number of people older than me will never increase.

Vinny_Lam , photobac Report

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#23

Some states are totally okay trying to censor LGBT people. I only worry about what's to come.

Mister_Moho Report

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madbakes
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This deeply concerns me for my sister's kid. We're in Ohio, and my sister is researching and making backup plans should they need to leave the state. That kid has enough internal struggles; it scares me what can happen when the struggles are just too much. Too many kids don't make it out alive.

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#24

30 Creepy Facts Not For The Fainthearted, As Shared On This Online Thread We still don't know how exactly anesthesia works and yet every day about 60.000 people are having surgery under anesthesia. And about 1 in 1000 patients wakes up during surgery and is often traumatized for life.

HorrorHund , Ibrahim Boran Report

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King Joffrey
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

But we do know how it works. It stops the nerves from passing pain signals to the brain...

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#25

30 Creepy Facts Not For The Fainthearted, As Shared On This Online Thread How much our brains trick us "for our own good".

For instance, your brain does not record input from your eyes as they move. So if you are looking at object A and move your eyes from object A to object B, it does not record the motion blur as your eyes move.

Moreover, it accounts for this gap by taking the image you settle on and backfilling it in your memory, so you think the time your eyes spent in motion was actually spent looking at object B. The causes several optical illusions. Most notably, why a blinking light will seem to stay on or off longer when you first look at it. That's because your brain backfilled the image of it being on or off in your memory. It's easy to experience this. Just find a blinking light and look away, then look back at it. Unless it's timed just right, you will appear to observe the light being lit, or not, for just a split second longer than it should be.

The brain will also backfill details that are missing from your memories, sometimes making them up completely. It really makes you wonder just how much of what we see is actually real.

Netskimmer , kegfire Report

#27

30 Creepy Facts Not For The Fainthearted, As Shared On This Online Thread That we’re hurtling towards an ecological geological disaster the likes of which humanity has never seen at breakneck pace and a massive number of us can’t seem to do much about it.

LikeASomeBoooodie , Grigory_bruev Report

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Thomas Bentley
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That, is because global warming is a hoax, and Trump wanted to save us from the lizard people who rule over all people unless they drink a potion of bleach and rat poison that has been sanctified by a tanning bed. If you cannot tell that this is sarcasm, you are lost to me.

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#28

30 Creepy Facts Not For The Fainthearted, As Shared On This Online Thread That any of us could have a brain aneurysm right now and not even know it's coming.

becomingNope , Robina Weermeijer Report

#29

30 Creepy Facts Not For The Fainthearted, As Shared On This Online Thread When I was 17 I had been dealing with a mystery headache condition and was become "mysteriously ill". Doctors couldn't explain it.

I was told by a prolific doctor that they'd be shocked if I "lived past 30." It struck me like a train, and not much bothers me. The doctor apologized but said they couldn't lie to me.

I turn 29 soon and I've been diagnosed with an aggressive autoimmune disease, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, ADHD, and OCD.

I've never been more sick in my life, and as we speak my heart is pounding so hard it's shaking my bed. My wife who is used to me being ill is legitimately concerned, so yeah, doc may end up being right after all.

SecretlyBiPolar , Rawpixel Report

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Libstak
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

No, he is wrong. If he can't give a definitive diagnosis he is guessing and doing it badly.

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#30

30 Creepy Facts Not For The Fainthearted, As Shared On This Online Thread That we have an elderly stockpile of nuclear weapons that could erase most of life on the planet several times over. There have been some scary near misses on our history with nuclear weapons and I believe it's only a matter of time before there's a horrific accident.

Lurchie_ , Anna_Om Report

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HelluvaHedgehogAlien
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Thanks. That’s quite enough internet for me today before my rotten luck decides that since I’m aware of the possibility, why not let a huge disaster come and wipe out everyone except from me and let me die with injuries 😐

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