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30 Of The Scariest Things People Believed When They Were Younger, As Shared By The Bored Panda Community

People are weird. But really. We tend to get some bizarre and random ideas in our heads, believing they are legit. The more imaginative we are, the stranger our thoughts are. And it starts with childhood. Kids are masters at coming up with something out of this world. Literally.

Thinking about that, I asked our pandas to share the scariest thing they believed when they were younger and received a lot of funny answers! What are your memories from your early years on this planet?

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30 Of The Scariest Things People Believed When They Were Younger, As Shared By The Bored Panda Community When I was younger I thought the rhythmical thumping under the bedroom floor was the ghost of a long-dead slave beating a drum. I later found a dirty, broken chain in the yard and freaked out, convinced that it had belonged to the aforementioned dead slave. My mother had to sit me down and tell me that the thumping was actually the heating pipes, and that the chain had come from an attempt to secure our trampoline to the ground during a wind storm. I had a very active imagination as a child.

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Final score:

133points

ChariotLee

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30 Of The Scariest Things People Believed When They Were Younger, As Shared By The Bored Panda Community When I was a child, I was convinced that there were skeletons under my bed and was terrified that they'd come out at night and get me. I guess I must have seen something scary on TV involving skeletons or something. One night, I got so sick and tired of being scared of them that I decided to change the narrative. They didn't want to kill me at all. In fact, they were madly in love, and they just happened to live under my bed. They were so madly in love that they only had eyes for each other. To this day, they regularly go on cute dates, and they actually just got back from their 30th Honeymoon. I now have a deep fondness for skeletons. :)

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Final score:

122points

Kitsune Nocturne

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30 Of The Scariest Things People Believed When They Were Younger, As Shared By The Bored Panda Community When I was a first-grader I was told that there was a secret bunker near my school where they did all kinds of stuff to people. I obviously thought it was true and was afraid to walk alone around that area.

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Final score:

82points

Gabrielė Malukaitė

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30 Of The Scariest Things People Believed When They Were Younger, As Shared By The Bored Panda Community Also, I had a fear that mirrors might steal my soul. It was very unnerving to look at them at night.

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Final score:

80points

Titas Burinskas

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30 Of The Scariest Things People Believed When They Were Younger, As Shared By The Bored Panda Community I was misdiagnosed as bipolar and prescribed medication to treat it. The meds made me incredibly paranoid, to the point that I thought the people in magazines and movies were watching me.

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Final score:

77points

Terilee Bruyere

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30 Of The Scariest Things People Believed When They Were Younger, As Shared By The Bored Panda Community When I was 8 (until I was 12ish), whenever there was lightning without rain at night or the local radio station would go offline unexpectedly, I assumed it was a nuclear blast or EMP and that I only had 1 to 2 minutes to live before the blast wave would hit. This was in the early 70s.

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Final score:

68points

Patrick Day

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30 Of The Scariest Things People Believed When They Were Younger, As Shared By The Bored Panda Community I'm 64 and in 7th grade we read 1984 in our English class and I was petrified for 1984 to come.

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66points

Zoe's Mom

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30 Of The Scariest Things People Believed When They Were Younger, As Shared By The Bored Panda Community I was terrified I was going to fall into quicksand.

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Final score:

66points

Jessica Bewsee

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30 Of The Scariest Things People Believed When They Were Younger, As Shared By The Bored Panda Community When I was a little kid, I somehow got this idea that the toilet was a monster. I was scared it would eat me, so I always went pee super fast and was scared to poo because it took too long... To combat this fear I started randomly flushing toilet paper throughout the day thinking if I "fed" it enough TP snacks then I would be safe because it wouldn't eat me if it wasn't hungry!!

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Final score:

64points

Catherine Patterson

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#10

30 Of The Scariest Things People Believed When They Were Younger, As Shared By The Bored Panda Community I was scared that a watermelon tree would grow on top of my head because I swallowed watermelon seeds while eating it.

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Final score:

59points

Johnnie Walker

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#11

30 Of The Scariest Things People Believed When They Were Younger, As Shared By The Bored Panda Community I was paranoid that if not in bed, a monster would get me in the dark, unless there was a light on.

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Final score:

56points

Percy the Band Rat

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#12

30 Of The Scariest Things People Believed When They Were Younger, As Shared By The Bored Panda Community I'm terrified of demon possession. I'm 51 years old and I should know better!

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Final score:

55points

AnnaBanana

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#13

30 Of The Scariest Things People Believed When They Were Younger, As Shared By The Bored Panda Community When I was young I had an abnormal fear of being abducted by aliens in the middle of the night. Also, after learning from a fireman in school that most house fires happen between 2-4 am, I became deathly afraid and paranoid that my house would catch on fire in the middle of the night while i was asleep.

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Final score:

54points

TheDivineMsM

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#14

30 Of The Scariest Things People Believed When They Were Younger, As Shared By The Bored Panda Community I had a crippling fear of the upstairs of my house as a child. It started slowly, I was normally a very brave child, but I had read a Goosebumps book about a dummy that just got to me for some reasons. I became afraid of attics first. I would avoid going into the bathroom where the attic was at night by myself. Slowly I became more and more terrified. Eventually I would refuse to go upstairs alone at all. For three years every time I went to my father's house I would sleep on the couch. I showered only in the mornings since the only shower was upstairs. Sometimes I would sleep in the clothes I'd worn all day because I was to scared to go upstairs and change. So yeah, I guess the scariest thing would be that I thought a murderous dummy and a couple ghost lived in my attic and upstairs of my house.

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Final score:

50points

The Catfish

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#15

30 Of The Scariest Things People Believed When They Were Younger, As Shared By The Bored Panda Community I had a phase where I believed I had snakes under my bed.

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Final score:

49points

Titas Burinskas

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#16

30 Of The Scariest Things People Believed When They Were Younger, As Shared By The Bored Panda Community i used to think that i would get sucked up by a black hole

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49points

Bisexual_idiot

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#17

30 Of The Scariest Things People Believed When They Were Younger, As Shared By The Bored Panda Community That hell was a real thing.

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49points

Rench

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#18

30 Of The Scariest Things People Believed When They Were Younger, As Shared By The Bored Panda Community When I was about 3 my aunt tells me the story of how I had this belief that the vacuum cleaner was alive. (Probably because it made such a loud noise) One day I tripped over the vacuum and apologized profusely to it “Sorry Vacuum!” Still one of my family's favourite stories.

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Final score:

44points

Sabs

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#19

30 Of The Scariest Things People Believed When They Were Younger, As Shared By The Bored Panda Community I was told that if I were bad, a monkey would climb down from our back yard tree and attack me. Scared the heck out of me.

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Final score:

44points

Honey Slime

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#20

30 Of The Scariest Things People Believed When They Were Younger, As Shared By The Bored Panda Community When I was like 5 I watched the Thriller music video and for a good 4 years I would have to sleep with my legs tucked towards me in fear that all the creepy things I believed in would put a wart on my foot and turn me into one of them. I'm 12 right now and to this day I'm scared of so many things, I think I'll be scared for life. So a great tip is to never watch creepy movies and absolutely stay off TikTok and YouTube, that stuff is messed up.

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Final score:

44points

Alexandra

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#21

30 Of The Scariest Things People Believed When They Were Younger, As Shared By The Bored Panda Community I believed that if you are stuck in a lift, you would either die or get trapped in there forever. I heard the lift beeping and I thought it would break down and I would be stuck there, but it was actually because the doors were open for too long. Our sensor thing was broken and I stuck out my hand, and my hand was stuck. There is still a scar from that time. I am 12 now, and that incident happened when I was 3. Still brings tears of joy to my sisters and parents when they recall the memory

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Final score:

42points

Kasey Lee Bao Ting

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#22

30 Of The Scariest Things People Believed When They Were Younger, As Shared By The Bored Panda Community 1st grade, I learned that the sun was going to explode one day and on that day I swore I would never go outside again. Broke that promise in like 20 minutes.

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Final score:

42points

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#23

30 Of The Scariest Things People Believed When They Were Younger, As Shared By The Bored Panda Community I saw a Tales From the Darkside movie (I think?) when I was a little kid and there was a part about this monster that lived under the bed and would reach out and grab your ankle. So for a few years I would get a running jump onto my bed to avoid getting nabbed.

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Final score:

41points

Thorfin Wolfsbane

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VeninTheNonBinaryRogue 2 years ago

Imma be totally honest, I think everyone did that as a kid

36points

Me Oh My 2 years ago

I did it just for fun.

4points

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the engineer 🇺🇦 2 years ago

yeaaaaah i did that too lol

0points

Thorfin Wolfsbane (Submission author) 2 years ago

Really!?!?!? It’s common for kids to think there’s a monster under their bed!?!?! Wooooooow, I definitely learned something new today absolutely for sure! Thank you for pointing that out to me! It was so kind of you.

0points

Kylie Leanne 2 years ago

Add that horrible clown doll from Poltergeist to the mix...

5points

Heather Menard 2 years ago

I'm 52 and my cat does this lol

2points

Ghostsauce 2 years ago

Omg, at first, I thought you meant your cat runs and jumps on the bed to protects its beans.

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Laci Fuller 2 years ago

Same :)

1point

Eliza Thomas 2 years ago

Yep

0points

UpQuarkDownQuark 2 years ago

I still resent that my mom wouldn’t let me sleep with the light on. I literally believed that the monster under my bed was going to murder and eat me, and I laid there every night, utterly terrified until I fell asleep. It was kinda stressful.

0points

Astor.exe 2 years ago

i did tooo

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Mira Heiman 2 years ago

Yep

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Tony Gong 2 years ago

I thought huggy wuggy was under my bed :0

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#24

30 Of The Scariest Things People Believed When They Were Younger, As Shared By The Bored Panda Community Santa. Think about it, he slides down your chimney, techically committing a crime, and leaves you a "present"

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Final score:

41points

Micheal Jordan

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#25

30 Of The Scariest Things People Believed When They Were Younger, As Shared By The Bored Panda Community when I was young I thought the gateway to Hell was under my sidewalk...I was terrified of it

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Final score:

40points

Jose Jones

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#26

30 Of The Scariest Things People Believed When They Were Younger, As Shared By The Bored Panda Community I believed that Earth was going to be hit with an asteroid and I used to stay up wondering if I was going to die by space rock

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Final score:

38points

*me*

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#27

When my brothers and I were little my father told us that the devil kissed our eyes when we slept. That’s why we have dry tears around our eyes when we woke up. Let’s just say we were always so scared to sleep and also rushed to wash our faces in the morning.

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Final score:

38points

Nana

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#28

30 Of The Scariest Things People Believed When They Were Younger, As Shared By The Bored Panda Community I believed when I was 3 or 4 that if I got hungry and didn't eat right away, I'd start to disappear. (Thanks, Dad and Uncle John!)

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Final score:

37points

Madre_Dr4gnZFly

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#29

30 Of The Scariest Things People Believed When They Were Younger, As Shared By The Bored Panda Community I was terrified of Yoda and if I faced the wall whilst in bed, he wouldn't attack me.

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Final score:

36points

Fiona Shaw

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#30

Two things. The first was that when I looked into the mirror there would be something behind me that I couldn't see, sometimes a monster, and sometimes the creepy mom from Coraline. The other is that something was in the toilet or bathtub when I was using them, like a hand coming out of the drain, or a dead floating head in the toilet that would come to life if I looked at it.

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Final score:

35points

Llama King

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Note: this post originally had 81 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.

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Hi there! I'm Gabrielė, but you can also catch me responding to Gab, Gabi, Gabert, or Gabe – take your pick. Professionally, I'm the senior community manager over at Bored Panda, helping people share their awesome work and connecting artists with a worldwide audience. Beyond work, you'll catch me traveling, listening to vinyl and diving into movies, art exhibitions, and concerts. I'm a culture buff at heart, always eager to explore and embrace the richness of the human experience.

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What do you think ?

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Lovin' Life 2 years ago

I lived to stay with my aunt in the summer, until her girls told me there was a witch in the attic that ate little girls that they didnt like. They went as far as to make it look bloody on the attic door which was just above my head since I slept on the top bunk. At 43, I am still terrified of attics. I found my dream house and didn't buy it because it had an attic. Traumatized for life.

8points

Ritchat 2 years ago

That's so sad! You should just have bought it and remodeled the attic into your personal relaxing room, your own secret hideout!.... Was what I wanted to suggest but then I remembered my own fear of dark cellars and realized that this is much easier said than done. I'm very sorry it kept you from buying your dream house and I totally get it.

3points

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Fiona Hunter 2 years ago

The local children would play in a rosehip community garden which acted like a maze, with our routes creating passages ways between the thorns. When it was getting darker, we were told the wolf was coming, in my mind this was a hybrid man wolf in tweed and dead set in feeding on the children. I would run home as fast as my legs could carry me.

6points

Zeke White 2 years ago

i have this fear ( still do ) that if i go to the bathroom a snake would have crawled up the pipes and into the toilet and bite me

3points

Alan Green 2 years ago

I used to believe there was some invisible guy looking over all of us and you had to believe in him despite the lack of evidence or you are tortured for eternity in hell and you have to abide by his commandments or you meet the same fate. Thankfully I'm over it.

3points

K Witmer 2 years ago

Me too. I remember the fairy tales that caused massive amounts of guilt and fear. So glad I got away from all the lies too. Organized religion is a monster.

1point

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Ghostsauce 2 years ago

At 7 or 8, I began wondering if the world would be different if you went somewhere different and didn't come back. Not just doorways, but like if you were able to leap over a shower curtain repeatedly and then fell into a part of the world where no one was.

2points

jknbt jknbt 2 years ago (edited)

Scary seduction of riches story: for a while, I actually believed you could win the PCH big prize enough to waste huge amounts of time doing all the extra stuff they require to get on the final candidates to win list... The reality is that the odds of winning $7,000 a week for life are 1 in 7.2 billion. To put that in perspective, line up all the 1.6 million residents of Manhattan Island four thousand times and pick one winner.

2points

Jasam Nitko 2 years ago

I thought people could read my mind if they touched me. I knew better by the time I met my husband, but it still freaked me out to spoon at night when I was half a sleep and could not control what I was thinking.

2points

Kar Red Roses 2 years ago

I was terrified of my stomach making loud noises in class. Of course being nervous about something like that doesn’t help keep your tum to stay quieter tho

2points

John Carr 2 years ago

I refused to use a knife for ages because I thought that I would split atoms and cause a nuclear explosion.

2points

Juliette Deroulede 2 years ago

My brother used to think the green light on the smoke alarm was the eye of the "little green man" watching him. Actually, it was my fault he thought that... Later on, he started to make up really scary stories about the green man and scared me back!! Also, my grandpa told me the boogie man lived in a closet in the cabin in his back yard. I was beyond terrified.

1point

UpQuarkDownQuark 2 years ago

I had a very specific monster under my bed. It was humanlike, but blue-skinned, bald, had yellow reptilian eyes, and sharp fangs—and it was going to rip me to shreds and eat me. I was nearly ten before I stopped believing him. Then one night I caught the end of a Star Trek rerun and the exact same face I’d been imagining was one of the aliens pictured (minus the fangs). That’s where I’d gotten the image years earlier! It pretty much cured that particular fear.

1point

J Ikonic 2 years ago

My fear as a child was some creature wandering the house. In a quiet bedroom, I would start to hear light thumps. As I got more and more scared, the thumps would get louder and faster. My thoughts of something getting closer, faster. I was hearing my heartbeat in my ears. I can't sleep in a pindrop quiet setting.

1point

Mad McQueen 2 years ago

I used to fear insects at night crawling on me so it made me sleepwalk. I'd go into the bathroom and curl up on the small fuzzy bath mat under the nightlight because the light would keep the bugs away. Parents would find me on a trip to the toilet an put me back in bed. Well one night I got up to use the bathroom and tons of ants were pouring out from around the drain hole in the wall under the sink. Hurricane Gloria a few weeks earlier took a tree down across the street and the carpenter ants came to our basement and up the pipes in the walls. I freaked out an poured hair conditioner in the hole and then ran back to my bedroom and make a line of it under my door and added a towel to "keep" them out. Parents were not happy of my ant dams but glad to know we had to get rid of them. They prob would have seen them in the morning without my freak out but it did come true. I was 5-6 sleepwalking and about 12-13 when the ants came long after I grew out of that.

1point

E Sylvester 2 years ago

Was told by my ( Irish catholic ) cousins that nuns have no eyes, only empty eye sockets, which they use to suck up the souls of protestants. Was about 23 years old before I realised that probably isn't true.....

1point

K Witmer 2 years ago

I believed you could be possessed by the devil bc if my Catholic upbringing. I really thought exorcisms were necessary. Around the age of 14 I started to move away from religion. Now science and reality and truth is all I'm interested in and if someone thinks they are possessed or someone thinks others are possessed please please please seek a mental health professional. You are 100% not possessed by a mythical creature.

1point

Leo Domitrix 2 years ago

Strang things happen that science can't yet explain. That doesn't mean I'm running off to buy 100 crystals or soemthing, but... When science fails to provide even a chance of an explanation? ...

0points

Vasic Vercache 2 years ago

This comment has been deleted.

0points

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Lovin' Life 2 years ago

8points

Ritchat 2 years ago

3points

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Fiona Hunter 2 years ago

6points

Zeke White 2 years ago

i have this fear ( still do ) that if i go to the bathroom a snake would have crawled up the pipes and into the toilet and bite me

3points

Alan Green 2 years ago

3points

K Witmer 2 years ago

Me too. I remember the fairy tales that caused massive amounts of guilt and fear. So glad I got away from all the lies too. Organized religion is a monster.

1point

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Ghostsauce 2 years ago

2points

jknbt jknbt 2 years ago (edited)

2points

Jasam Nitko 2 years ago

2points

Kar Red Roses 2 years ago

I was terrified of my stomach making loud noises in class. Of course being nervous about something like that doesn’t help keep your tum to stay quieter tho

2points

John Carr 2 years ago

I refused to use a knife for ages because I thought that I would split atoms and cause a nuclear explosion.

2points

Juliette Deroulede 2 years ago

1point

UpQuarkDownQuark 2 years ago

1point

J Ikonic 2 years ago

1point

Mad McQueen 2 years ago

1point

E Sylvester 2 years ago

1point

K Witmer 2 years ago

1point

Leo Domitrix 2 years ago

Strang things happen that science can't yet explain. That doesn't mean I'm running off to buy 100 crystals or soemthing, but... When science fails to provide even a chance of an explanation? ...

0points

Vasic Vercache 2 years ago

This comment has been deleted.

0points

30 Of The Scariest Things People Believed When They Were Younger, As Shared By The Bored Panda Community

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Laci Fuller

Laci Fuller

Gabrielė Malukaitė

Gabrielė Malukaitė