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30 Of The Scariest And Creepiest Theories Shared By People On Reddit In A Viral Thread
"I need to go to sleep but I can’t put my phone away because of this thread," someone commented in the now-viral Reddit thread. In it, hundreds of people are sharing their replies to "What is the scariest/creepiest theory you know about?" Ranging from theories about space travel to death, the answers are all sorts of intriguing.
"I came into this thread unafraid of death, I’m leaving petrified - thanks!" someone commented and we can't help but agree! More than 65k people liked the thread, prompting it to go viral on the social media platform. Therefore, as always, we encourage you to vote for the theories you found the most interesting! In addition to this, if you have a scary or creepy theory you know about, share in the comment section down below!
More info: Reddit
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#1
May or not be a “theory”, but the first thing I thought of was that feeling you get when you’re on top of a building and think “what if I jumped?” Or when you’re driving and think “what if I just swerve into traffic.”
Well it’s actually got a name: L’appel du vide. French for “The call of the void.” I always thought the idea of some ethereal presence calling you towards darkness... creepy.
Foxxy (The Original) 4 years ago
I have those kind of thoughts “what if I walked in front of a train” and stuff like that when I have suicidal thoughts. I have no intent on doing it, I just think about what if?
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#2
We’ve all pretty much heard of Uncanny Valley (the creeped out anxious feeling when you look at something that’s humanoid but there’s something clearly wrong with it. Like the wax figures at Madame Tussaud’s or that AI robot Sophia)
But my favorite theory to come out of it is that we get that strange feeling because somewhere along human evolution we’ve learned to be wary of things that look human... but aren’t.
#3
More of a story than a theory, but it correlates to some of these and makes me think some could be real. When I was younger I had this little stuffed animal dog I named rocky. One night, my younger sisters and I (who all slept in the same room so we could hangout together) were messing around, and I two handed over head tossed rocky into the wall directly in front of my bed. He hit the wall, slid down behind whatever was in front of my bed, and was NEVER seen again. I immediately went to go get him and he just wasn’t anywhere. We tore the whole entire small room apart. We all saw the event occur. Over time the room has been completely emptied out, everything in it rearranged, walls painted, everything- and no rocky. He just completely phased out of existence. Makes me think he glitched out of the system or something.
#4
If you're scuba diving above a coral reef, and you know that there SHOULD be fish all around you, but you don't see any, it's most likely that they have learned that for some reason it's important not to be seen.
And since you're a newcomer to this environment, chances are it's not you they're hiding from.
EDIT: the number of scuba divers saying they've experienced this and then noticed a shark nearby is alarming.
Foxxy (The Original) 4 years ago
Pretty much anytime your in the ocean there are sharks swimming nearby. We are no their food source so generally don’t bother coming near enough to do any harm. They are no out to get us, it’s just that sharks explore using their jaws which unfortunately has a lot of razor sharp teeth that will do a lot of damage. Very very rarely has a person been eaten by a shark, most of the time the person is let go once the shark realises we are not tasty and the person dies from drowning, shock or blood loss.
#5
Our “world” is out perception of our surroundings in our 3 dimensional life. It’s possible that we are living amongst beings, things and events that we cannot experience because we are 3 dimensions and they are not.
JessG 4 years ago
A famous Victorian school teacher wrote “Flatland: a Romance of Many Dimensions” (which Carla Sagan has cited in his docs) It illustrates how a one dimensional being would see the world, just lines. And when a 3D sphere visits, he can only see a line. I think about this often actually. I find it fascinating to think of all the other dimensions we cannot perceive. I think about insects, and how they perceive our world, like a fly with a thousand eyes. Their view of this many faceted world is not wrong, it is their 3D world. So who’s to say that our view of the world is The “correct” view, and not the way an insect sees it? I dunno, just food for thought
#6
If the human body senses trauma it is unable to combat, it will switch off metabolism, pump endorphins, and slip into a pain free dissociative state.
In essence, shutting down. Its been seen in air crashes and lots of places really.
Basically your body can switch itself off.
Ann Abdelzaher 4 years ago
my body takes it to a new level. I suffer from Neural Basal reactions. When I have sudden pain (pinch my finger, cut myself etc...) My brain shuts down and I pass out... usually resulting in some secondary injuries that I often do not feel right away or at all. I also tend to stop breathing in these episodes and wake up hyperventilating.
#7
The Gaian Bottleneck theory. Basically the reason we've never encountered or been contacted by aliens is because they're all dead. Every alien species that evolved to form advanced societies eventually outgrew their planet and destroyed themselves. Like we are.
#8
Cosmology can be disturbing.
For instance, I recently learned of dead end trips. There are some destinations that you shouldn't try for. It's possible to travel so far away from where you started, that the expansion of the universe will exceed the speed you were travelling at.
You can't return home, because home is receding faster than you can travel.
You can't reach your destination, because it too is receding faster than you can travel.
You can no longer get anywhere, only get further away from everything.
You cannot reach any destination, even if you travel forever.
#9
Humans are scared of things that mimic them too perfectly, the theory is that we developed this because there was a super predator of some sort that would mimic us and kill us. But we never knew what happened to it
#10
"There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened." - Douglas Adams
#11
That there is no secret society controlling everything, and humans by themselves are destroying humanity and themselves. And it's just easier to think that it's someone else behind all the evil .
Dynein 4 years ago
Uh... that is what I actually believe...? It seems to me that current as well as historic events make the most sense if you assume that no one has control over everything. Sure, there's people who try, but even in tight dictatorships you get rebels and unforeseen random events. I definitely think that conspiracy theorists are overwhelmed with the unpredictability of the world and hang onto whichever theory puts their "preferred enemy" into the group of control... it implies a) everything bad that happens is due to the people I already think of as bad, b) I'm definitely and always one of the good people, c) I'm so special for catching on, d) even if I don't control events now, I might in the future if I fight my enemy. I definitely think of it as lazy, both in respect to self-awareness (you don't need to question yourself) and level of intellectual difficulty (it turns highly complex issues of the world into simple black-and-white problems).
#12
The theory that we're all quantum immortals and when someone dies in our reality for them they just keep on going in a reality where they didn't
#13
That we have so little data about the deep dark parts of the ocean and don’t truly know what lurks there
Phunny Philosopher 4 years ago
It might be sunshine and rainbows and Narwhal parties! Jk, we know enough about physics to know that’s not possible. But still- why do the things in the deep ocean have to be bad? Because our imagination. That’s it.
#14
It's scary that there are thousands of serial killers out there at any 1 given time who often just blend in with the rest of society and live normal lives. Many will never be caught.
#15
If you die by being beheaded the last thing you might see is your decapitated body.
#16
That humans almost went extinct. 70,000 years ago a volcano in Indonesia erupted. There’s theories that we have a genetic bottleneck around that time. Took our population down to 10,000-3,000 (like the size of one small town). Lots of fresh genetic material died with those who were lost and the resulting inbreeding could have resulted in some genetic diseases that have made their way into humans today. Without this event, we may have advanced faster and be healthier people today.
#17
Not a theory but reality. Schizophrenia can happen to anyone, at any age, even to perfectly healthy people. Imagine being normal and then waking up one day and seeing and hearing things that aren't actually there. That is really scary and creepy.
#18
I had a professor in college who taught physics and he explained why we will likely never come across aliens. The universe is about 14 billion years old. Over the course of that time, it’s likely that intelligent life, besides life on earth, has existed. However, 14 billion years is an INSANELY long time. Other life forms have probably risen and fallen thousands of times over. Extreme dynasties with technology we can only dream of having have probably existed. Life forms could have lasted hundreds of thousands of years and still not even be close to our timeline. The chances of other intelligent life forms existing at the same time as humans, in the 14 billion years the universe has hosted a possibility for life, is really unlikely. Statistically, intelligent life to have formed, prospered, or even existed at the same time as humans is extremely small simply due to the absolute drop in a bucket that we are on terms of time. We may very well be completely alone in the universe.
Nikki Sevven 4 years ago
It's not merely time that is the issue, but also space, which is mindbogglingly huge.
#19
Ok this one is rough so please bare with me,
So the common time travel question is would you go back and kill baby hitler?
Well imagine if that was you, to us in the current timeline you would be a hero that killed someone truly evil before they had chance to corrupt or endanger anyone but to the people of that time you are a monster, a baby killer.
They couldn’t exactly explain to people, I was sent from the future to kill this baby to save hundreds of millions of lives. No-one would believe him and would just assume he was some nutcase, or maybe they’re not allowed to tell anyone as per the agreement with the future government?
It makes you wonder all the people through time that have been called monsters for killing babies, what if they were just heroes from the future saving us all? They couldn’t tell anyone either?
Truth Monster 4 years ago
Hitler was just the lightning rod. Chances are, someone else would have become the lightning rod if you murdered baby Hitler. Hitler is still a terrible human, I'm not excusing him at all.
#20
The dark forest theory. This explains the Fremi paradox, why we haven’t seen any other advanced life forms despite the vastness of the universe. Other advanced life forms don’t send out signals into the rest of the universe because they’re worried that something more advanced and dangerous is going to find them first. There’s another idea that other civilizations know there’s something out there but don’t send any signals because it has no reason to not wipeout the entire planet.
There’s a science fiction book based on this and I think this quote explains it better than I can:
“The universe is a dark forest. Every civilization is an armed hunter stalking through the trees like a ghost, gently pushing aside branches that block the path and trying to tread without sound. Even breathing is done with care. The hunter has to be careful, because everywhere in the forest are stealthy hunters like him. If he finds another life—another hunter, angel, or a demon, a delicate infant to tottering old man, a fairy or demigod—there's only one thing he can do: open fire and eliminate them”
#21
That you might be aware of everything happening to you during surgery, the anesthesia keeps you from moving and causes you to forget.
Stimpy 4 years ago
Nice creepy theory! But just as a comfort for anybody who might be taking this too seriously: we know very well that this is not the case. We can clearly show which brain regions are active when people are in pain, and they are not active when people are anesthized. Don't worry!
#22
During the Challenger accident from 1986, whenever the shuttle exploded, the ground crews had the astronauts EKG’s and vital scans....after the explosion, the astronauts were still alive. Theory has it that they were cognizant the entire time until they crashed in the ocean.
#23
The theory that scented candles starting getting poor reviews at the same time COVID hit the US. Makes you wonder how many people have mild COVID before we even knew about it, pairing the lack of taste and/or smell as one of the main symptoms associated with mild COVID cases.
Kirsten Kerkhof 4 years ago
The other option is that, because people were at home much more, the scent was less noticable (you grow used to familiar scents) so people thought the candles smelled less. Though I think the OP has the more likely idea ...
#24
Some people have had some strange NDEs (Near Death Experiences). Going through websites cataloging them can be a trip. I'm willing to attribute some of them to brain damage and some as "legit" though I'll never be able to tell which is which.
Death bed visions give me a warmer sense of security. I can't imagine how peaceful it must be to die and see your deceased loved ones there to ensure you make it safely to the other side.
#25
The universe could be dying, and we'd have no way to know until we just suddenly vanish from existence.
There could be a sort of quantum energy wave, can't remember what it's called because it's been so long since I read about it. Zero point collapse, maybe? Vacuum bubble burst? But whatever it is, it's an energy wave that starts at some point, and spreads outward at the speed of light, annihilating any matter, energy, and even spacetime in its path.
Because the wave travels at the speed of light, it is invisible. We would have no way of seeing it coming, because any light emitted by it would hit us at the exact same time that the wave itself hits us.
So, all of a sudden, the sun might just vanish from existence. We wouldn't notice because the sun's light from eight minutes ago would still be reaching us. Eight minutes later, the earth just vanishes from existence. No warning. No trace.
#26
The theory that the last moments of consciousness before death can feel like a literal eternity, and where your mind can create entire realities from blissful to horrifying. So in a way the threat of enduring a hellscape of eternal suffering is very real no matter what you believe.
#27
Spontaneous combustion. I watched a strange but true episode about this as a child and was convinced I'd randomly burst into flames one day. I'm over it now but that was my top fear for a long time.
#28
The theory that there is an infinite number of parallel universes branching out at each moment with all possible outcomes for each situation.
Let's say this is true and you play Russian roulette. Five out of six of possible "you" would live and one would die but no matter how many times you play there would always be versions of you that would survive. This would give those versions of "you" the illusion of immorality. This would mean that no matter the risks you would take, there would always be some version of you that would survive.
If this is true, it would mean that you could live your life completely free of the fear of death and take on any risk. But the only way to know if this is true is to expose yourself to high odds of deaths, repeatedly.
Also this would mean that as time passed there would always be a more decrepit and invalid version of you surviving, maybe forever...
Anyways that or lizard people.
#29
The first man in space (some Russian cosmonaut whose name I can't remember) was not the true first. The actual first was a cosmonaut whose mission was unsuccessful and he either died in orbit or on reentry. Once it became apparent that he was doomed the Russian authorities cut off communications, leaving him to die in isolation, and covered up the existence of the mission.
#30
I saw a theory that we truly live through our entire again in the moments before death, but that it's a loop. When you reach your moment of death during your moment of death, you relive it again. And again. And again. Trapped in a loop with no difference, no awareness, forever.
What do you think ?
Blinding_Darkness 4 years ago
I love these but I need to know about the lizard people lol xoxox
Vikram Bedi 4 years ago
Based on movie idiocracy... Uneducted/illiterate people generally produce multiple children quickly.. whereas smarter people spend too much time planning a future for an unborn child, that they either miss out or just have 1. So as the time would pass...the iq of the population as a collective would continue to decrease...till we are too idiotic to function.... so humans are basically going to f**k themselves into extinction...
Phunny Philosopher 4 years ago
I used to think that movie was great! Until I studied the science of Eugenics. Then the movie became terrifying.
Load More Replies...
Adam Rindegård 4 years ago
heres a video that explains that https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
Load More Replies... Blinding_Darkness 4 years ago
I love these but I need to know about the lizard people lol xoxox
Vikram Bedi 4 years ago
Based on movie idiocracy... Uneducted/illiterate people generally produce multiple children quickly.. whereas smarter people spend too much time planning a future for an unborn child, that they either miss out or just have 1. So as the time would pass...the iq of the population as a collective would continue to decrease...till we are too idiotic to function.... so humans are basically going to f**k themselves into extinction...
Phunny Philosopher 4 years ago
I used to think that movie was great! Until I studied the science of Eugenics. Then the movie became terrifying.
Load More Replies... Adam Rindegård 4 years ago
heres a video that explains that https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
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