Unexplained Phenomena You’ve Probably Experienced

The world is full of unexplained phenomena from ESP to spontaneous human combustion but the chances of actually experiencing many of these is tiny.  However, there are unexplained phenomena that are so common that millions of people experience them on a day-to-day basis.  Here’s a list of 11 Strangely Common but Unexplained Phenomenon.

FLIMMERN-GEISTS

The words “Flimmern” and “Geist” are Germanic in origin and translate as Flicker-Spirits or Flicker-Guides.  This unexplained phenomenon was first described by the alchemist Jakob Bohme in the 16th Century as the ability to see shadowy figures out of the corner of your eye.  Generally, these beings flicker in-and-out of a person’s peripheral vision and appear to be humanoid, dark and agile.

The truth is that almost every person alive has at some time seen a fast-moving shadow just at the edge of their vision and turned to look but seen nothing more.  These observations are most often accompanied by shivers, chills and a sensation that something odd has happened. Scientists are quick to suggest that this phenomenon is just a “trick of the eyes” but fail to explain both how and why.

FLIMMERN-GEISTS

It is possible that these unexplained apparitions are just the hallucinations of the brain as it tries to decipher the edge of visual perception, but others believe that it is in this marginal zone that the eye and the mind is able to perceive another more paranormal dimension.  These Flickering Spirits are often described as being cloaked but those that have trained themselves to observe this phenomenon simply describe a blurred outline that can easily be mistaken for dark clothing.

The reality is that nobody really knows why or how individuals see these things but there is no doubt that many millions do.  In fact, so many humans see them that they treat them as just-one-of those-things that, you know, just happen.

VANISHING PEOPLE

Worldwide there are literally hundreds of thousands of missing persons and many more disappear every day.  One only has to search Google Images for “Missing People” to appreciate the scale of the problem.

Many of these missing people are found but a significant proportion disappears forever.  Where they went or what happened to them is a mystery in its own right but still not as strange as Vanishing People.

Unexplained Vanishing People (SSPL)

These are individuals that, for no apparent reason, simply vanish in front of witnesses who are at a complete loss to explain what happened.  It is worth noting, as with many other mysteries, that some of these cases have turned out to be hoaxes.  In general, there are a couple consistencies in the most well-known cases that are worth mentioning.

All the people involved were (or appeared to be) content with their lives. All of them were engaged in a normal activity such as running a race or walking through a field when they simply vanished. There are hundreds of well documented cases of people disappearing in mysterious circumstances but actually very few where they simply vanished in full view of other people.

MYSTERY SCRATCHES

Have you ever woken up in the morning to find strange and unexplained scratches or bruises on your body and in places you couldn’t have reached yourself?  Well … even if you haven’t, millions of others have.  In fact, there are internet forums where people describe the phenomenon and desperately appeal for explanations and help.  (Just google: “strange cuts and scratches” or “mysterious scratches on body”)

Unexplained Scratches (SSPL)

In most cases the scratches are mild and disappear in a day or two and the vast majority of these cases never get medically reported as the sufferers usually convince themselves that they are somehow self-inflicted.    Others attribute the injuries to bug bites, allergic reactions or even something that happened during the day that they failed to notice at the time.

Usually the incident is forgotten as soon as the bruises vanish or the scratches fade.  However, persistent sufferers go to great lengths to rule out these possibilities. There have been cases of sufferers wearing gloves to bed, fumigating their houses and even taking full medical allergy tests all to no avail.

In one case a woman went to the extreme length of having a friend watch her while she slept and still woke up with new bruises and scratches.  According to her friend nothing strange happened except for a period when the victim tossed and turned restlessly for about 15 minutes.

Doctors try to put forward rational explanations for this condition such as the skin disease Pityriasis Rosea but most of these thoroughly fail to convince those that have actually experienced it happening to them.  The phenomenon has persisted through the centuries and in the past has been explained by demons, having-a-devil-on-your-back, goblin fury, divine punishments and even encounters with incubi or succubae.

NATURAL INFRASOUND

Infrasound is described as any audio wave frequency that is lower than 20Hz that can be detected by the human ear.  There is no doubt that Infrasound exists, and it can be both detected and created by audio technology.  It can travel long distances and is often associated with natural phenomena such as volcanic eruptions and earthquakes.  It may be the reason that animals can anticipate such events before humans can and researchers are now using infrasound detection equipment as part of civil defence early warning systems.  Studies have shown that when humans are exposed to infrasound, they develop feelings of supernatural awe, fear, depression and anxiety that can lead to complete panic attacks.

Animals alerted by Infrasound (SSPL)

Some researchers have even claimed that the 19Hz cycle is particularly associated with paranormal events and may be a stimulus for disruption of human vision creating the illusion of ghostly perceptions.

If the source of the infrasound is powerful enough it can create vibrations in objects that make them appear to move of their own accord and even cause glass to break.  Infrasound has been used at political rallies to stimulate the crowd, as a psychological weapon to demoralise the enemy and as special effects amplifiers in films.

The effect of Infrasound on the human body is being explored in various studies but, as yet it is not illegal to expose humans to such low frequencies even though the long-term health effects are unknown.

UNEXPLAINED PHENOMENA – MYSTERIOUS LIGHTS

Strange and still-unexplained lights in the sky are a fairly common occurrence and most can be explained as either manmade objects or natural phenomena such as the Aurora Borealis or even shooting stars.

However, there are occasions when the phenomena persist and the mysterious lights that still materialise over Hessdalen in central-eastern Norway are one such case in point. According to various sources they started to appear in 1940 but it was in 1981 that the intensity of these phenomena increased dramatically and started to be recorded by everyday people.  Records show that at certain times there have been 20 reported sightings in just one week.

Unexplained Phenomena – Mysterious Lights (SSPL)

The Hessdalen Lights often appear to be balls of gas that have spontaneously ignited in the air. Due to copyright restrictions this is an accurate artists impression based on the events of 1981. (Check out this article on the Marfa Lights of Texas.)

Everyone has a theory as to what might be casing these ’lights-in-the-sky’ phenomena.  Some of the claims include UFO portals, spontaneous combustion of natural gasses, Will-o’-the-wisps, ball lightning, Scandium effects and localised Ionic discharges.

TIME SLIPS

Visual evidence of time slips often appear in old photographs such as the one above. In this case a sports car is seen parked on the side of the street in an image that is clearly taken 100 years before such a vehicle was ever produced. We think that the car is an early Porsche or perhaps a more recent Audi. It’s hard to tell.

Unexplained Phenomena – Time Slips (Can you spot it?) (C) Clint Pavenu

According to great scientists such as Albert Einstein, time is not as stable as most of us think.  As humans we’re adjusted to time and our evolution has established tricks to allow our conscious minds to deal with it but in reality, it’s a slippery concept.  Time slips occur when a current time (now) interlaces with a previous time (then) and can be experienced by the person from the more recent time.  However, the event is usually unnoticed by the people from the earlier time. What is the evidence for this phenomenon?

Well … plenty if you know where to look.  In fact it is so common that we’ve even built it into the English language.

This has given rise to expressions such as “I could have sworn that I’ve just seen” or “my eyes must be playing tricks on me” or even “you won’t believe what I just saw”.  Over the years people have claimed that they’ve seen old airplanes parked in fields that were once airports or roman soldiers marching down their road.  In almost all cases the person experiencing the time slip blinks, looks again and is startled to find that whatever they saw has now vanished.

HYPER PERCEPTIONS

Most people will experience Hyper Perception at least once or twice in their lifetime.  This phenomenon usually occurs when a person visits a place they’ve never been before and yet experiences a very strong sense of familiarity.  This should not be confused with déjà vu which is often fleeting and is really just a brief feeling of having seen or done something before.  Hyper Perception is extended when the same person may perceive things about the place that they couldn’t possibly know.  Unlike time slips or déjà vu, the feeling grows stronger the longer they stay and, in some cases, people have reported suddenly being aware of very clear memories of the place from other times often decades or even centuries in the past.

Strange Phenomena – Hyper-Perceptions (SSPL)

Tour guides in stately homes or other historic sites have become quite used to people coming up to them and say things like “wasn’t there a statue by that tree” or “didn’t this floor used to be wood?” In many cases the guides will admit that this used to be the case many years ago, but they were moved or renovated. The guides then usually ask how the visitor knew this to which the answer is almost always: “I don’t know I just seem to remember it being that way”. In certain cases people who have experienced very strong hyper perceptions find the experience quite disturbing.

UNEXPLAINED PHENOMENA – CROP CIRCLES

Crop circles – also known as crop formations – are large and often geometric patterns created when crops such as barley, wheat, rye, maize, or rapeseed are flattened creating a distinct colour and light difference in relation to the unaffected vegetation. Historical records indicate that the phenomenon dates back to at least 1686 and possibly much earlier. It has been suggested that the occurrence of these shapes in early Neolithic grasslands may have inspired the construction of the many dozens of stone circles that can still be found in Britain today. During the 1970’s the number of crop circles appearing in fields in South West England increased dramatically and subsequently started to appear around the World.

Unexplained Phenomena – Crop Circles (SSPL)

The County of Wiltshire in England is considered to be the most active region and these formations appear with regularity each year. Over the past decades the designs have become increasingly complex and still remain a mystery as to their origin. Clearly some of the formations are man-made but experts are quick to point out that it is fairly easy to identify these as their construction is often very basic and there is usually evidence of human activity ranging from footprints to vehicle tracks. However, a great many of the formations simply seem to appear as if from out of nowhere – often during the night but occasionally during broad daylight.

Crop circles in Wiltshire often appear at the centre of the county and within a 15-mile radius of the megalithic stone circles of Avebury. They tend to materialise from late April and continue to manifest throughout the summer months of June, July and August.

Mainstream science is generally of the opinion that crop formations are the work of human artists with a few formations being caused by whirlwinds. Researchers into the phenomenon disagree. They point out that while some are clearly created by humans the vast majority have a more complex and mysterious origin. They point out that over 6,000 crop formations have been recorded in Britain alone and yet less than a handful of people have ever admitted to creating them. Also, attempts to record the creation of formations using night vision and time lapse cameras have been largely unsuccessful. Finally, some crop formations have appeared during broad daylight and within a time frame simply too short for human action. The best example was a formation that appeared near Stonehenge in less than 30 minutes. The calculated time it would have taken a team of twenty people to create was six hours at the very least.

UNEXPLAINED PHENOMENA – BIZARRE SKY FALLS

The village of Acle in Norfolk experienced a downpour of frogs in such quantities that apparently the people of the village were “sorely inconvenienced”. First the frogs were swept into piles and then carried in pails to a local field for burning. It was said that all were dead when found. (Source: Michell & Rickard: Phenomena) It is worth noting that by far the most common animal sky fall is the humble frog.

Unexplained Phenomena – Rain of Fish

Gilbert White records that on 21 September 1741 he went to the nearby fields just before dawn to discover that they were covered with a strange cobweb-like substance. Prodding it with a stick he found it to be “as like cobweb but more slippery in nature and although sticking easily to the rod dissolved quickly into nothingness after it had been touched.” He further describes how his dogs became so covered with this material that they had to scrape it from their eyes with their paws.

Later at about nine in the morning Gilbert records that the sky filled with clothes of the same material that was clearly heavier than the air and while he first believed them to be cobwebs soon realised that they were not strands but densely woven and five inches on a side and one to two inches on the other. This phenomenon continued for the better part of an hour and by Gilbert’s estimate covered an area of some 32 square miles and caused much comment.

On Sunday 6th August 2000 the residents of Great Yarmouth in Norfolk discovered that it was raining … fish! Thousands of small ‘Sprats’ were dumped on the town by an unusually fierce storm. Scientists ‘believe’ that the storm of two-inch fish was just a recent example of a rare – but not unheard of – weather phenomenon.

Over the years people have recorded a vast range of bizarre falls from the sky including, cloth, star jelly, snails, nails, fish, stones, dead birds, blood, money, animal parts, beef flakes, golf balls, and even frozen iguanas.  Most of these remain unexplained!

ZERO ORIGIN HUMMING

There are places all over the world that claim to have a Zero Origin hum.  The most famous of these is Taos in New Mexico.  The humming can often be heard by many, but not all, people and cannot be traced to its origin.

Zero Origin Humming (SSPL)

A 1973 report mentions a university study of fifty cases of people complaining about a “low throbbing background noise” that others were unable to hear. The sound, always peaking between 30 and 40 Hz, was found to only be heard during cool weather with a light breeze, and often early in the morning. These noises were often confined to a 10-kilometre (6.2 mi) wide area. It’s a steady, droning reverberation that’s heard in places as dissimilar as Taos, N.M.; Bristol, England; and Largs, Scotland.

There have been many suggestions as to the cause of the hum ranging from mental illness to underground military bunkers.  One claim even suggested that it was a form of planetary nervous system.  To this day the sources of these humming noises remain a mystery.

UNEXPLAINED PHENOMENA – SHORT-TERM SIXTH SENSE

This is not clairvoyance or mystical telepathic powers limited to a few people, but a widespread phenomenon experienced at sometime by almost everybody on the planet.  An example of short-term sixth sense is when a phone rings and you just know who’s calling before you answer.  Another example is when a person will say exactly the words for a thought that had just gone through your mind – even though it might be quite complex.

Short Term Sixth Sense (SSPL)

Short-term Sixth Sense is the inexplicable experience of being able to know something is going to happen moments before it does.  There are thousands of documented cases of people suddenly doing something completely unpredictable that saved their lives or saved others.

Scientist and psychologist claim that this is caused by the brain’s ability to predict likely events at a subconscious level and to take action without the conscious mind appreciating that it has been overridden.  While this can explain some instances of STS, the sheer volume and complexity of these events suggest that something deeper is at work.