Someone Asked, “What Do You Strongly Suspect But Have No Proof Of?”, And 30 People Spilled Their Thought-Provoking Theories (New Answers)
Intuition is a funny thing. It appears in our consciousness without obvious deliberation and often doesn't even require any evidence.
However, psychologists don't think our gut feeling is magical, but rather a faculty in which hunches are generated by the unconscious mind rapidly sifting through past experience and cumulative knowledge.
Sounds interesting, but rather vague, no? So to find out more about the ways our psyche manifests itself, we at Bored Panda put together a new list of stories where people suspect something to be true but can't actually prove it.
From government conspiracies to rigged sports games, continue scrolling to check them out and if you want more similar observations, fire up our older publication on the same topic.
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My smartphone is listening to me and pushes advertisements based on what I say.
I can prove this. This is not a conspiracy or anything like that. It's true.
Ancient civilisations were far more advanced than we're led to believe
Donald Trump's behavior makes me believe he's in the early stages of dementia.
Well I remember savage beatings at the hands of my parents and siblings but now that I’m an adult everyone denies it they say it never happened and I feel my mind slowly slipping away, I think I’m crazy.
Gaslighting. I feel for this person. My friend has undeniable evidence of mistreatment, is trying currently to face their family, and bring met with flat denial. It is horrible.
That I got my job as charity and therapy. I came back from a combat tour a total wreck. I stayed at my uncle's home for a month and I was already drinking too much and couldn't sleep without nightmares, the kind where you wake the house up from yelling and punching air. My uncle owned 4 restaurants and soon had me working in two of his kitchens 70 hours a week. I threw myself into the work because I had no social life; in six months, I was kitchen manager at his busy 24/7 restaurant. I did an excellent job but unc paid me 50% over the local scale. I think he hired me initially just to keep me out of trouble.
I once started a small bar in the city. We were doing really well. Then in a matter of months I got absolutely distroyed by the police. Every day they were there looking for the smallest infrigment of any code. If some one was smoking less then 6 meters from my door I would hear about it. If some one had an open beer within a mile, i would hear about it. We were constantly told to keep the live music down even though there are literally no residential neighbours, NONE. Eventually we closed down.
Within a few weeks of this happening I realized that the other people that owned a bar near by had had a serious decrease in sales since we opened and since they had been a long time contributor to the local political scene I think they got the cops to shut us down.
No proof. Just a hunch.
Apple is sabotaging my phone so I buy the new iPhone. The same day the iPhone X dropped my phone started have minor problems.
They did get done for that at some point didn't they? Got found out to be slowing older Apple phones deliberately?
World leaders and the world’s richest people have hidden bunkers all over the world they can hide in if things go tits up. It’s a secret club and we ain’t in it.
Again. Not conspiracy, but fact. If end of days or similar happened, world leaders are ready
I'm convinced there are definitely "sea monsters" out there. The ocean's so big I'm sure there's at least one large, undiscovered, sea creature out there.
That the NSA has stopped several terror attacks.
They told Congress they never have, but I believe it's actually a cover-up. Can you imagine if they admitted they stopped, say, 5 major terror acts in the last 6 months?
Woud that make you feel safer? Of course not. It would scare the shit out of us and destroy tourism to major cities.
I think Men In Black put it best:
"Man, we ain't got no time for this cover-up BULLSHIT! There's an alien battlecruiser about to---"
"There's always an alien battlecruiser! Or a Korillian Deathray! Or an intergalactic plague that will wipe out life on this planet. The only way these people get on with their happy little lives is they do not know about it!"
You are correct. My cousins husband was in the the CIA and he can’t say much but what he would tell me is: for every one we know about them stopping, there were at least 10 we don’t know about. So we know of about 1/10 of the attempts at terrorism. He also said, he knows the stuff we don’t want to know about. He promised we’d know more upon his death.
So I worked at a certain venue for a while, and the owners liked me, so they kept me around despite me being a slow learner on the job (waitstaff).
The venue got brought a few months ago, and the new owners have a totally different vision for it. Some of the old staff stuck around, including myself, but many left.
I strongly suspect that I was given a job at the new venue as a request of the old owners. I don't fit the mould of the people they hire at all, and I really got the impression that they weren't sure what to do with me at the start.
I may never know, but I'm pretty thankful to the old owners regardless.
Astronomer here! I very strongly suspect there is life beyond Earth in the universe, and there’s a good chance it exists elsewhere even in our solar system. I can’t prove it however, but would be astounded if it wasn’t the case- life is just a chemical process when you get down to it, so why would that process be so unique as to happen only once when we see all the ones we can measure repeat all over?
I also suspect though it will be nowhere near as exciting as most people think it will be, due to Hollywood films. Rather, it will be like finding water on Mars- speculating it’s there, finding the first evidence that it may have existed at one point, and after a ton of intermediate steps concluding there is definitely water on Mars. First we will probably find a chemical signature from an exoplanet that may be from life or have another explanation, then something more solid, and then with all the steps on the way after years a conclusion that life exists elsewhere in the universe. Not very Hollywood, but very in line with how science works!
I just remember someone saying that if Earth was the only life in the entire Universe, what an incredible waste of space it would be.
I seriously suspect that people get more reckless and angry when the weather is hotter. I just can't find a way to prove it without being Mr Burns and blocking out the sun.
This is absolutely true. Good weather brings more assholes out onto the streets or public areas. They never come out when it rains. This is why I always hate sunny weather and love rain
Life doesn't end when we die. Everything else in this world is recycled, why wouldn't our consciousness also be?
I like this one. Science says that energy never disappears, it just changes form. So what happens to the energy that is our consciousness when we die?
Well, it depends if you believe that the consciousness is some kind of magic energy, or if it's the sum of the information stored physically in the brain, like in a computer hard drive. If it's the latter it's just molecules that change through the chemical reactions during decomposition.
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No, just like a campfire. Lots of energy and warmth and light then gone. I think most people just have trouble imagining a universe without themselves in it.
I had a nice long reply which had the same conclusion, sadly someone called me and the site dropped the whole thing. You summarized it much better.
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How did you feel 200 years ago? That's how you will feel in 200 years.
By the same notion I always say "we weren't bothered by being nothing before our birth and we won't be bothered by being nothing after death.
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I don't believe in 'afterlife. Energy does not dissapear, but our consciousness? No, once you die, you're just gone. No ego.
it was demonstrated millenia ago that consciousness is just brain activity. Think of the explanation offered by the ancient greeks (I can't remember which one, but it wasn't one of the big two). You hit someone on his foot, and he feels pain. You hit someone on his head, and he loses consciousness. Therefore, consciousness is in the head. Numerous MRI scans etc have shown this to be true. e.g. google Kamitani lab mind reading. Once you have done that, and accepted mind = brain activity, then the next thing is to realise there's this thing called 2nd law of thermodynamics. Once you die, the energy in your brain disperses, taking your consciousness with it.
Hm i think they are now discovering that this view of consciousness is not entirely correct. It is explained quite clearly in this article: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2011/jun/17/human-consciousness-brain-activity Personally I think there is more and more research that suggests that memories and consciousness do exist outside the brain. For example: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/think-well/201906/does-consciousness-exist-outside-the-brain or https://pimvanlommel.nl/en/
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We are energy. The first law of thermodynamics stated that energy can't be destroyed nor created, it can only be transformed (like a lightbulb changes electricity to light and warmth). Our energy is recycled back into the universe. Our molecules are taken apart and used to build new things.
yess but the second law of thermodynamics states that enegy will disapate, e.i. turn into a less structured form, which usually mean that it will make molucules move in a more random fashion, which is what we usually calls heating up stuff. I don't think what we call conscience is as much heat, as it is just what the brain does when it is functioning as "intended" due to all the parts constituting it being in their right place. I therefore do not see the big difference between when you die and when your computer "dies". In both cases I think it is just the conditions needed to maintain a certain process which is no longer sustained, while a lot of the infrastructure remains intact. The difference between a live and a dead computer can be something as simple as a broken wire, and the difference between a living and a dead person can be an intact artery.
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Consciousness is so much different from energy. Its a complex chemichal/biological system but just assuming its something magical like a soul is not understanding and wishful thinking of people who are just afraid life will end some day.
Sorry this is ridiculous. Only the fear of death or narcissism can sustain such a belief. Any sort of pattern tends to disorder. Why someone would think an entire complex consciousness would survive in any meaningful way speaks to what someone wants or fears rather than to any remotely rational mechanism.
Most of the universe is dead matter floating in space with no purpose other than simply existing
I never understood why everything has to has a purpose, I have observed, at a young age, that most things, that are not made, have no purpose period. The only thing that gives purpose to things are us humans and we are so used to it that some natural thing without any clear purpose causes cognitive dissonance, and that's the point where some ppl invented religion...
Load More Replies... New research suggests that consciousness could exist outside the brain. To say that your brain is just the hard drive of your body is a bit too simplistic. It is explained quite clearly in this article: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2011/jun/17/human-consciousness-brain-activity Personally I think there is more and more research that suggests that memories and consciousness do exist outside the brain. For example: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/think-well/201906/does-consciousness-exist-outside-the-brain or https://pimvanlommel.nl/en/
Unless those who theorise that we are living in a programmed virtual world are right... then we are just bits of information that will be recycled into another program later.
This is so depressing to me. The world is just getting worse and you want me my consciousness to be recycled so i have to suffer more? Gross. No thanks.
Because consciousness is not an object. It's a process. There is literally no reason to think that we continue after death, other than it would be nice. The idea goes against literally everything we know about biology and neurology.
Plus when I die, instead of my body being buried or cremated it will be collected by the university research team and used for research purposes. So my death will benefit the university and possibly other people if they discover a cure for one of my illnesses. Other plus is that my adult kids won't have to pay for a funeral. Win win. So if you are worried about affording funeral costs go online and find a research place and donate your body. No bills. Big relief for your offspring or spouse
We are all made of matter. Can only be converted, not destroyed.
It's gets recycled and washed out before being sent back into circulation I think. Thus some people recalling parts of old lives and others not.
Logic fail? When we die, every molecule in our body is "recycled" in the sense that we decompose and are essentially reabsorbed into the environment and eventually to become part of new things - another person, a plant, a mountain, whatever. Like a soda bottle, we don't continue in "spirit," we're just taken apart and used as parts for other things.
I’ve been thinking this for years. “Life flashed before your eyes” is just you starting to relive your life again. So this could be the first time through or the 50th you will have no idea
Read the trilogy "Remember Me" by Christopher Pike. It's got some interesting theories about life after death.
I read somewhere (I cannot remember where, sorry) that Native populations have had their DNA show up in plants/trees/other beings in their traditional territories. If I remember correctly it is bc the humans would be buried (air/dirt/water methods) and their DNA would become part of ecosystem over the years. I love this idea. I love that I could live on as a part of a tree, a bird, and a plant all at the same time. (note, this is different than being consumed by those things ie. a bird eating my eyeballs. This is becoming part of their DNA that they pass on to their offspring.) Living in our world and taking care of it becomes much more important when viewed through that lens.
One of my friends recently said he hopes when he dies his conciousness leaves him and he's just stuck in pitch black with no thoughts for the rest of eternity, and I think he's insane. That thought freaks me out so much because I don't want to lose my conciousness and I have literal existential crises over it. I would much rather have a heaven like I think there is
You would't have existential crises over loosing consciense once it has happened, as it takes a conscience to have an existential crisis. I think the "pitch black" part is kind of a misnomer. Black is a colour, and in order to sense it, there need to be a conscience, which I do not think is the case. We can see that some of what we normally call conscience disappears for people who have some sort of brain defficiency, so I think it is reasonable conclution to say that once the brain stops functioning completely conscience vanishes to. As for everybody else, I can only guess at what being dead feels like, but I know that I have experienced it before, namely the last time I did not exist, e.i. before I was born. Was that scary? Was it painful? What did I see, and how did it feel? The answer is no, I did not registerer anything, did not feel anything, I did not even think anything, as there simply was not a system in place that could sense anything. So why worry about being in that state?
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Public Schools purposely don't teach finance to most of their students. If they did, very few would agree to the conditions of their student loan notes, which would lead to a decline in college matriculation and in general make the school look bad.
Retired business teacher, high school here. Do you know how many times I tried to teach budgeting, or savings accounts for future needs, 401K's, interest rates, credit cards........? Most of the time it was met with "I don't need those things till I'm old." I tried to relate how they would need all these things the minute they walk out of their childhood home. "Daddy will help me if I need it." Yes, it was an affluent section of Connecticut. Even the parents say they don't need to know this right now. WHEN??????????!!!!!!!!!! I have had a few come back and thank me. That is what kept me going.
Jennifer Lawrence faked her trip walking up on the Oscar stage, and faked her trip again the next year on the orange cone in order to sell her crafted quirky, girl-next-door persona
Nope, for several reasons: 1) On the first trip, she was wearing a sponsored dress (Dior). It would be a bad advertisement for Dior. 2) In an interview Liam Hemsworth said that J-Law had been tripped on multiple occasions behind the camera during their Hunger Games promotion. He said those trips were genuine, she was a very very clumsy girl. 3) There was a story of J-Law tripped again on a pre-shoot talk show. She forced the studio to delete it, but the studio crew talked 😂
That my coworker is deliberately trying to drive me insane.
I bring lunch with me to work most days, and Every day,without fail and no matter what I have for lunch, she comes into the staff room at lunch and says in her nasaly voice "oohh that smells good! Can I have some??"
Same joke, every single workday.
So finally, one day, I brought in one of my normal lunch staples, and also brought a little extra for her to try. She came into the staff room and said her normal "oohh that smells good! Can I have some??" to which I pulled out a pyrex dish and offered her some. She seemed to recoil a bit, like she was simultaneously surprised and disgusted. She paused for a minute and said "oh...no thanks I'm heading out for lunch" and quickly walked away
Next day at lunch she was right back to "oohh that smells good! Can I have some??"
"That smells good, can I ha..." No b***h, get your own damn food"
That my sister is my half sister.
There's a bunch of s**t that makes me think she resembles and has habits like somebody my mother "knew".
Get dna tests for both of you for Christmas. On second thoughts, don't.
That I got fired from my job because the boss was friends with a family I had a falling out with. Guess when their son sexually assaulted me it was suppose to be my fault. But I can't prove it and they won't say.
I believe my father might have been killed by his wife. We had no real proof other than the words of that lady's former friend. Once he died we realized everything had been taken out of my name and left to her.
That the "shuffle" feature on my iPhone isn't random at all. Far too often I'll get the same artist back-to-back, or even two songs from the same album right after the other. I suspect Apple pushes some bands that either have new albums, or are touring in my area soon, to subliminally promote the artists.
Starbucks is burning the s**t out of their black coffee in a plot to make us all pay more for sugared up and flavored drinks.
There's bleeding edge technology not available to the public and perhaps only available to a selected bunch. I mean, touch screens were invented in the 70s, but didn't become popular until the 00s. Yes, they were more expensive to make back then but still. F**k knows what they've invented now.
This has always been the case with technology. Some things just never get cheap enough to commercialize before some other solution/work around is found. IBM created mass holographic storage systems decades ago, but they never met the markets needs or prove points. Laser discs/cd-roms were invented by the military decades before commercial application and costs allowed thier use.
That the NBA is rigged. I don't think they want specific winners per se, but I think they want to ensure that there are superstars to drum up business. To that end refs always favor the big name athletes.
Yeah just look up videos of king baby taking 5+ steps yet no travel call, or while dribbling carry the f**k outta the ball.
That the heads of organizations like the FBI and CIA are not the real heads and the real ones are way more secretive
You have to understand that the "heads" of most government agencies, state and federal, are basically politicians. Few know little, if anything, about the actual functioning of the agency. Yes, other people are actually running things...not because they are clandestine, but because it is just their job to do the business of the agency.
I believe two of my coworkers are having an affair, based on the way they act around each other, and they keep it secret because one of them is married.
That the milk corporations really want dominance over the breakfast beverage market.
1. I once read that the dairy companies petitioned/bribed/lobbied whoever made/remade the food pyramid to have a significantly noticeable portion dedicated solely to "Dairy".
2. I once saw a "got milk" ad that was pretty much a personal attack against almond milk. I always wondered why they would spend resources just to reduce the name of a minor competitor
That there is no difference in the effect from different alcohols. Saying "whiskey makes me sad" "red wine makes girls angry" "tequila makes clothes come off" etc is all (I believe) Pavlovian.
If you are at a crazy party, people tend to do tequila shots. SO, you assume that tequila shots make you crazy. If you got in a fight with someone while drunk on gin, you will associate gin with anger. Same goes for the rest of them.
Yeah this has been studied and is correct. Alcohol depresses higher brain function, so your brain stops inhibiting your emotions. Therefore alcohol acts as an emotional amplifier, it doesn't give you the emotion to start with. Probably a confusion of cause and effect - sad people drink "sad" drinks, get sadder &c
Note: this post originally had 51 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
Ah, thanks for letting me know before I waste time trying to get the stupid post to load! Hope you have a good day!
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I’m sure my ex-stepdad made a half-assed attempt to kill me when I was thirteen. We never liked each other. One day he asked for help looking at something in my mom’s car, a little Toyota Corona wagon. It was parked on an angled driveway. He asked me to stand behind it and keep it from rolling back while he checked something on the brakes, and then he released the parking brake and put it in neutral. It took everything I had to keep the car from rolling over me, and I was screaming at him to put the brakes back on. He was yelling back that I just needed to hold it a little longer. I think he came to his senses when I started to slip, and he put the car back in gear and pulled the parking brake. Then he chastised me for being too weak to hold “such a little car” back and walked away.
I think Covid lockdown has made people more selfish. So many poeple now seem to give zero phooks than before it all.
I don't think it made them more selfish as such; it just made them more likely to act like it. Like Trump didn't make more racists, he just made it okay to be be overtly racist.
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I have a sweet story where I'm 100% sure of something, but will never be able to corroborate it. When I was a small child, I gathered & planted a bunch of seeds/weeds/twigs/etc in the hope of growing something. I watered the area morning & night for several days until I woke up one day to find a beautiful flower "sprouting" from my little dirt pile. Even at 6yrs old, I knew a flower can't grow 6" and fully bloom overnight, but my Dad will never admit to putting it there & will surely take his "secret" to the grave, lol. All to make me feel special — best Dad ever! ❤
This is going to sound so farfetched and I promise I'm actually a smart and logical person, but I personally think dragons used to exist for real and possibly still could. I mean, I feel like coming up with that sort of thing is hard to do and there were creatures similar to them. Idk, maybe I just love dragons a lot, but I really do think they were real at some point (and maybe still are).
The Department for Work and Pensions (the UK agency that handles unemployment benefits etc.) secretly has a computer program that spits out random names and addresses, and if yours comes up they'll mess with your benefit claim and make you jump through a few hoops, just on the off-chance that you're trying to cheat the system.
Beyonce was never pregnant with blue ivy; she used a surrogate. There I said it.
That the government poison-pills conspiracy theories, adding absurd, easily falsifiable elements to them so no-one believes conspiracy theories that the government doesn't want people to believe in.
Probably should add: just because the government doesn't want you to beleive in a conspiracy theory, doesn't make it true.
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Tech Companies in the early 2000's: - Engeneer: Hey, we have the technology to build a very cheap 2Tb usb drive. -CEO: release a 16mb drive and we'll upgrade a few mb per year.
Donny T does not have alzheimers, he is just a serial liar, cheat and gets away with it. That's why he has daily "big baby" tantrums. If someone could get to the bottom of things, they would find out the only reason he had power is because he has dirt on every single Republican candidate (so they will do his bidding). Also pertains to WORLD LEADERS.
I think the FBI has a media division that posts stories just like this one.
This may seem a little random, but I strongly think that Miles Moralas will be in the MCU with Tom Hardy's Venom
Ah, thanks for letting me know before I waste time trying to get the stupid post to load! Hope you have a good day!
Load More Replies... I’m sure my ex-stepdad made a half-assed attempt to kill me when I was thirteen. We never liked each other. One day he asked for help looking at something in my mom’s car, a little Toyota Corona wagon. It was parked on an angled driveway. He asked me to stand behind it and keep it from rolling back while he checked something on the brakes, and then he released the parking brake and put it in neutral. It took everything I had to keep the car from rolling over me, and I was screaming at him to put the brakes back on. He was yelling back that I just needed to hold it a little longer. I think he came to his senses when I started to slip, and he put the car back in gear and pulled the parking brake. Then he chastised me for being too weak to hold “such a little car” back and walked away.
I think Covid lockdown has made people more selfish. So many poeple now seem to give zero phooks than before it all.
I don't think it made them more selfish as such; it just made them more likely to act like it. Like Trump didn't make more racists, he just made it okay to be be overtly racist.
Load More Replies... I have a sweet story where I'm 100% sure of something, but will never be able to corroborate it. When I was a small child, I gathered & planted a bunch of seeds/weeds/twigs/etc in the hope of growing something. I watered the area morning & night for several days until I woke up one day to find a beautiful flower "sprouting" from my little dirt pile. Even at 6yrs old, I knew a flower can't grow 6" and fully bloom overnight, but my Dad will never admit to putting it there & will surely take his "secret" to the grave, lol. All to make me feel special — best Dad ever! ❤
This is going to sound so farfetched and I promise I'm actually a smart and logical person, but I personally think dragons used to exist for real and possibly still could. I mean, I feel like coming up with that sort of thing is hard to do and there were creatures similar to them. Idk, maybe I just love dragons a lot, but I really do think they were real at some point (and maybe still are).
The Department for Work and Pensions (the UK agency that handles unemployment benefits etc.) secretly has a computer program that spits out random names and addresses, and if yours comes up they'll mess with your benefit claim and make you jump through a few hoops, just on the off-chance that you're trying to cheat the system.
Beyonce was never pregnant with blue ivy; she used a surrogate. There I said it.
That the government poison-pills conspiracy theories, adding absurd, easily falsifiable elements to them so no-one believes conspiracy theories that the government doesn't want people to believe in.
Probably should add: just because the government doesn't want you to beleive in a conspiracy theory, doesn't make it true.
Load More Replies... Tech Companies in the early 2000's: - Engeneer: Hey, we have the technology to build a very cheap 2Tb usb drive. -CEO: release a 16mb drive and we'll upgrade a few mb per year.
Donny T does not have alzheimers, he is just a serial liar, cheat and gets away with it. That's why he has daily "big baby" tantrums. If someone could get to the bottom of things, they would find out the only reason he had power is because he has dirt on every single Republican candidate (so they will do his bidding). Also pertains to WORLD LEADERS.
I think the FBI has a media division that posts stories just like this one.
This may seem a little random, but I strongly think that Miles Moralas will be in the MCU with Tom Hardy's Venom
