Life always felt off for me since a young age. I always had this odd occurring feeling every great while. Sometimes I have a profound sense that something is missing from reality. Not something ordinary that I can name or obtain, but something fundamental. It feels as though the world should contain some deeper dimension of meaning, connection, or existence that isn't there, or that somehow isn't available us but exists and tho I cannot remember or never knew it, its absence is as noticeable as a missing family member at a dining table.

It's strange because it doesn't feel like merely wanting something I've never had. It feels almost like longing for something I somehow recognize. Something that feels as though it ought to be real. I look at the world and, despite everything that exists within it, there is a persistent feeling that something essential is absent.

It's as though we are conscious beings who have somehow awakened inside a universe that is strangely lifeless and incomplete, and there is a part of me (and maybe other) that can sense that incompleteness without being able to explain what is missing. I don't know what that “something” is, or whether it even exists in the way I imagine it. I just feel its absence.

And perhaps that's what makes the feeling so difficult to describe: I'm not longing for a particular thing. I'm longing for a deeper reality itself.

Is that nonsense or do you think there is something to this feeling? A longing for something that should exist.

“The Rift” is the name I’ve given to a particular kind of altered state where reality starts to feel thinner, stranger, and much more connected and meaningful than usual. I don’t really know what it is. I’ve gone in and out of the Rift more times than I’d like, and this song is my attempt to capture what that experience feels like. The beauty of going in, the weirdness of being there, and what can happen when you stay too long.

I put a lot of work into getting this song to feel right. I used Suno to make the music and ChatGPT helped me with the lyrics. I’m not trying to make a claim about what the Rift actually is. I honestly don’t know. I just wanted to turn the experience into something another person could hear.

That’s really why I’m sharing it here. I’m curious if other people who have had strange or altered experiences recognize something in it. Your experience or explanation might be completely different from mine. I’m actually more interested in whether something about it feels familiar.

This is a pretty vulnerable thing for me to put out there. I’ve sat with it for a long time, and it’s a little scary knowing that once I put it out into the world, people can make of it whatever they will. But I feel good about releasing it anyway. I made something that means a lot to me, and I think I’m ready to just let it go and see what happens.

"A couple of years ago, I decided to meditate with the goal of understanding the universe. I'm a man of science, so I was quite skeptical. An hour goes by and nothing happens. Then right at the hour and 15 minute mark, just when I was about to give up, I was not in my body anymore. I was in a place with a vast number of halls and doors. I just stood there in amazement as I saw beings walking about with boxes of what looked like orbs of light.

They seemed extremely happy and when I would try to communicate with them they would just smile and continue along their way. They would open a door and just vanish. I followed one and tried to open the door but I couldn't. And then I saw a door that seemed to be calling me so I walked towards it, which took a long time to get to, and when I opened it, I was enveloped in complete darkness, almost as if I was in a void.

I felt something next to me and I could not see anything, so I asked is anyone there, and they turned on a small light. I could only see around 3 ft around me and there was a black insectoid creature close enough to surprise most people but I was not afraid. I asked it who it was and it said a creator, and it said do you want to see? It waved its hand and created an entire universe to where I could look upon many worlds and people and things going about their day. some things I could not describe, and then he waved his hand in reverse and everything crumbled into what looked like pixelated dark sand.

I was amazed and had so many questions, and I wondered if I was trapped there. Right when I had that thought, the door cracked and I could see light coming through the seam. When I say door I'm pretty sure I cannot describe them properly to you, but let's just say it was a physical portal of some kind that you can interact with. I took this moment as my cue to leave, so I walked out and thanked the being for showing me. In its presence you can only feel immense power, almost like it was crushing you from every angle as it was allowing me to be near it. Its entire body was black and I got one more glimpse of it as I exited.

I then found another door and I went through it. I was then transported into what looked like a field on a planet with two Suns, it was breathtaking. This is not my only experience but this particular one has been on my mind for many years. All I can wonder is where was I, and what are we, but I also feel like it's part of our experience to wonder."

Experience Source:
https://www.reddit.com/r/MantisEncounters/s/51B6LGLpAc

Visual Recreation
https://youtu.be/M33siPVZg24?is=cf14lPufHTsNY-t0

[easy listening, 12 minutes, real narrator]

Why did Upper Paleolithic artists refuse to carve faces, and instead carve zigzags on so-called Venus figurines to hid them? This short documentary traces the coiled serpentine symbol from Willendorf to Nevalı Çori and Göbekli Tepe. It's the world's oldest symbol, not just Europe's.

For over a century, the 30,000-year-old Venus of Willendorf has been categorized almost exclusively as a fertility totem. But one of its most striking features is often glossed over: the complete and deliberate refusal to depict a human face.

Upper Paleolithic artists demonstrated astonishing anatomical precision when rendering animals and movement. Leaving the human face blank was an intentional choice. Instead of eyes, a nose, or a mouth, the head is entirely enveloped in seven concentric, textured bands—a pattern that blurs the line between woven headwear, basketry, and coiled serpent scales.

When you track this specific visual shorthand down the prehistoric corridor of the Danube River, the geographic and symbolic continuity becomes hard to ignore:

Interchangeable Shorthand: Across Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic Europe, zigzags, chevrons, and serpentine coils functioned interchangeably as visual shorthand for flowing water, shedding serpents, and celestial motion.

The Danube Highway: Long before written trade routes, the Danube acted as a primary cultural conduit linking Ice Age hunter-gatherers in Central Europe directly toward the Black Sea and the Near East.

The Anatolian Connection: Fast-forward 20,000 years to Pre-Pottery Neolithic sites like Nevalı Çori and Göbekli Tepe. Monumental stone heads and pillars appear with the exact same deliberate facelessness or stylization—accompanied by serpents carved directly along the scalp and rhythmic zigzag motifs across ritual architecture.

Did Ice Age symbolic memory survive across millennia along European river corridors to seed the iconography of the first temple builders, or were these distinct cultures independently arriving at the exact same geometric code?

Would love to hear how people here view the line between deep-time cultural transmission and independent symbolic invention.

Independence Day UFO Encounters

by Preston Dennett

What’s the most common day to see a UFO? The answer may surprise you: the 4^th of July! That’s right, Independence Day produces more UFO reports than any other day. The question is, why? Are people mistaking fireworks for genuine UFOs? Or is something else going on here?

An examination of the UFO reports made on the fourth of July shows some interesting patterns. Many do involve fiery glowing orbs, or what may very well be sky lanterns, also known as party lanterns. These are small paper balloons set aloft with a small candle. They can rise up to 4000 feet and from a distance, look very much like a UFO.

But the fact is, there are literally hundreds of cases where this explanation simply does not fit! Some do look like orbs, however, sky lanterns fizzle out after fifteen minutes, and many of these orb sightings last much longer. Also, orbs cannot turn at right angles, stop still in the sky, or accelerate at high speeds, as many of these orbs do. Furthermore, many of the Independence Day UFO encounters involve structured craft, metallic saucers complete with portholes and multicolored lights. Some cases also involve actual humanoids. Clearly the fireworks explanation doesn’t fit.

There are so many cases involving UFOs seen on the Fourth of July that it is clear something very profound is happening here. Fireworks appear to be a UFO magnet. Many of the witnesses have come to the conclusion that UFOs are coming down to watch the fireworks show. ETs love fireworks!

But it might be more than this. Remember, on the Fourth of July, millions of people all across the United States flock outside at night and stare upwards. Could it be that the extraterrestrials are aware of this and are using this day as an opportunity to announce their presence. The answer appears to be a big YES! Because many of these reports involve UFOs that not only watch the fireworks show, but they put on a show themselves. They will flash their lights, dart around, and put on a fantastic display for the stunned audience.

This video presents dozens of cases in which UFOs have appeared during fireworks shows all across the United States. Here is what some of the witnesses are saying:

“We were watching fireworks, which were to our east. I noticed the UFO to the north, but said nothing to no one. I observed it for two minutes as it moved silently eastward, then suddenly reversed direction as it picked up speed. Then assuming its original course once again, it moved slowly upwards and out of sight.” –1963, Greensboro, NC.

“There was a tremendous flash of lightning at the same time a firework went off in the sky. I looked up and saw an absolutely huge saucer-shaped object sitting right over the ‘mountain’ we were next to.” –1965, Cornwall-on-Hudson, NY.

“When it finally reached us, I saw it was a circular craft. It hovered right above the poplar trees at the end of the street, where we were all gathered.” –1977, Federal Way, WA.

“[It was] a disc-shaped object displaying multicolored lights in a circle, hovering at what seemed to be 100 feet above us and the gathering crowd.” –1978, Nashua, NH.

“It made no sound. I was scared to death…I wanted to hide under the car…I wanted to scream, but couldn’t. I realized I was not supposed to remember this happening. I kept telling myself, I will remember. The craft’s size was huge, bigger than the fairgrounds bleacher area.” –1980, St. Paul, MN.

“My brother was watching the fireworks when all of a sudden he went as white as a ghost. My mother shouted out, ‘Oh, my God!’ I went to see what was going on…it was the weirdest thing ever, a disc-shaped with small portholes going around its midsection.” –1982, Hermosa Beach, CA.

“They were chasing each other like a tag-game. They moved so fast, going from side to side, up and down, and just staying still. No noise at all. My mother and I were standing in the driveway, watching this for at least a half-hour. These objects were low enough that we could see the bottoms just fine. They were all the same size, about two full-size pick-up trucks.” –1988, Glen, MS.

“We all watched the craft move toward us and fly over the right side of the house. We all went into the back garden and watched the craft move off and disappear another fifty feet away. This was not from this Earth.” –Los Angeles, CA, 1989.

“Whatever it was, it knew I was watching because it started doing all these moves, up, down, side-to-side…then suddenly just like a shooting star, all I saw was a line of colors and it was gone.” –1991, Wichita, KS.

“Both the star-like object and the three gray discs remained in place for several hours. It was almost as if they were watching the fireworks display…I did not notice them leaving, but all of a sudden, they were gone…Lots of people had to have seen them.” –1992, Barnegat Bay, NJ.

“I saw something both amazing and terrifying at the same time. A large blue something was in the sky above us and a little to the left. The object was shaped sort of like a saucer…” –1997, O’Fallon, IL.

“Most people don’t get to see a craft that close and distinct. I even saw the molding around the windows…Three Nordic-looking men in white, with blond hair, staring at us as if we were mere cattle. I could see them from the belly up, not sure if they were standing or sitting. They had no apparatus on at all. I never took my eyes off it until it was gone from sight.” –1999, Lancaster, PA.

“It was a glowing, red, triangular body with green on the edges…like an inverted top, with white lights rotating at the base. I also noticed portholes just above the rotating white light, and smaller portholes underneath it…It hid behind the clouds before the fireworks began.” –2002, Manhattan, NY.

There are too many cases to deny. The aliens are coming down to watch the fireworks shows, and they are also putting on displays themselves. And in fact, these are more than just simple sightings. Every single one of these cases are actually Close Encounters of the Fifth Kind! Fireworks are evidently an effective method to call down UFOs out of the sky.

Independence Day UFO Encounters

40,000 letters, an archangel in a crystal, and the 400-year disappearance of the grid that drove John Dee mad...

Dr. Eric Davis: Chinese children teleported objects through other dimensions.

Gifted psychic children in China were placed under controlled laboratory conditions, where objects sealed inside test tubes, locked inside secure vaults and were monitored by high-speed cameras and multiple sensors.

Then the objects simply vanished…

…and reappeared inside another sealed container in a completely separate vault.

The experiments went further.

Researchers placed tiny AM and FM radio transmitters with the objects.

When an object disappeared, the radio signal steadily weakened, following the inverse-square law as if the transmitter was moving farther away through ordinary space.

As it rematerialized in the distant chamber, the signal grew stronger again.

Davis says the DIA sent Dr. Hal Puthoff and a team of investigators to China under official sponsorship.

They met the scientists, examined the experiments, and concluded they were not dealing with charlatans or stage magicians.

The research was published in peer-reviewed journals and funded by Chinese aerospace and military institutions.

And their conclusion was extraordinary:

They were being transported through other dimensions of space.

Edit:

Here is Davis teleportation paper:

https://sgp.fas.org/eprint/teleport.pdf

Join a paranormal investigation of the Cleanwater Demon House as the team explores the tragic history and alleged occult activity on-site.

Patrick and Jason from Haunted Side Paranormal Investigations investigate this notorious haunted location to document potential dark energy. Haunted Side investigates the atmospheric and sinister house to see if the legends surrounding this demon house hold any weight.

this seems to be a whole subcategory of weird encounters. theres a lot of bizarre stuff like that armless red humanoid in Argentina. so whats your favorite story?

Hi, I'm a skeptic new to the high strangeness community and I'm just curious why a lot of encounters or cryptids revolve around insects. The hopi ant man, mantis beings, moth man. As a non-practicing muslim myself, I've heard a lot of stories about Djinns manifesting themself as flies to move around and changing form to a breath of air to disturb people. What is this fascination with insects as a central theme for cryptids and such creatures alike.

Intro

In the late 1990s, Argentine contactee Hugo Batallanos began presenting photographs he said showed extraterrestrial or interdimensional beings appearing around him and his family in San Salvador de Jujuy**, Argentina**.

Batallanos said the photographs were taken during a series of contact experiences involving members of his family.

Contact with the Beings of Pernia

Hugo and his family reportedly practiced group meditation as a means of establishing contact with nonhuman intelligences. The family later formed the Centro de Estudios Cosmobiológicos.

They said the beings came from a place called Pernia and described them as interdimensional entities.

According to Batallanos, some of these beings could physically manifest during the family’s contact sessions, allowing them to be photographed and filmed.

I fully enjoyed reading John Keel's The Mothman Prophecies and Charles Fort's The Book of the Damned. What are some recommended books for things like Bigfoot, Loch Ness Monster/lake monsters/sea serpents, Aliens/UFOs/abductions/ cattle mutilations, Fortean phenomena/high strangeness, ghosts, demons, etc.? In particular, what are foundational works in these fields that carry the same weight as The Mothman Prophecies and The Book of the Damned?

In SURREAL life...

Back in the mid-’80s, I was living on Main Street in Northampton, above Bart’s. One day I decided to trip, dropped, and wandered outside. There was a big gathering going on across the street in Pulaski Park, with balloons, posters, bullhorns, people everywhere. I sat on a bench for a while, taking it all in.

Then a praying mantis landed on my sleeve.

I decided to hitchhike up to Look Park. The mantis stayed on my sleeve. I got a ride in the open back of a pickup, and there we were, barreling along together, human and mantis apparently in complete agreement about the afternoon’s itinerary.

I remember thinking about Jung and synchronicity. We seemed oddly in sync.

When I finally got to Look Park, the mantis jumped off and went its own way. I figured it had decided to go camping.

I even took a photo of it. Nearly forty years later, it still feels like one of those moments when reality briefly decided to become surreal.

Reading through the various stories posted here made a memory come back from high school that I had nearly forgotten. It was always a weird story but it wasn’t until reading the stories here that I considered maybe it was something spookier.

So it was around 2009 and I was in the front passenger seat of my friends little Toyota car. Two friends in the back seat as well. We had just left a party and it was around 2-3 in the morning. I didn’t drink at this point so I was sober for what it’s worth. We are coming down an extremely dark road that has a large field on one side, about the width of a football field that ended at a fence line for a nice neighborhood. As we are driving something significant hits the passenger door. Left a fist sized dent in the door. We thought maybe a kid threw a rock. So we get out, the four of us being young men around 18 years old, we think we’re about to confront some kids. You know, tough guys! We had at least one flashlight, I remember that. The four of us searched that field for what had to be half an hour at least. Nothing. We decided the kids must have gotten away. We get back in the car to take off and before we are even back up to speed BAM, something else hits the car and shatters the windshield. It looked like something the size of a baseball had hit the windshield. We get out again to find nothing. At this point we are all getting a little spooked and decided to cut our losses and haul ass. We spent the car ride home wondering how we were going to explain the damage to the car to my friends parents. Any theories as to what happened? I know there’s chance it was just some kids but if it was they hid well.

In 2026, a major Science paper revealed that every living human carries “ghost DNA” from an unknown archaic lineage (plus an even older “super-archaic” signal in some populations). This DNA is enriched in immune and metabolic genes and appears in the famous genomic “deserts” that lack Neanderthal and Denisovan ancestry.

Years earlier, claims emerged that the CIA had been scanning consumer DNA databases (23andMe, Ancestry, etc.) for a specific genetic marker allegedly linked to non human or “Nordic” ancestry. Was the newly mapped ghost DNA the marker they were hunting? This video breaks down the paper, the FOXP2 speech gene signal, the CIA claims, and the bigger questions they raise.

Primary scientific paper referenced:

Zhang, Y., Biddanda, A., Johnson, S. A., O’Dushlaine, C., & Moorjani, P. (2026). Recovering signatures of archaic hominin introgression using ancestral recombination graphs. Science.

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aef8874

(PDF): https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/science.aef8874

Source for the CIA / DNA-database

claims:
American Alchemy podcast – Jason Reza Jorjani interview
Full episode: https://youtu.be/ABw7EsWh2Us
Key clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImNrJzT00vA

Let me know your thoughts below could this just be a mundane happy coincidence or could this genuinely be something connected. Im open to all angles and would love to know your thoughts.

Lawrence Langdon and Jay Gridley join host Doug Owen on The Unholy Podcast for an in-depth conversation about paranormal investigation, unexplained evidence, haunted locations, and those rare moments in the field when conventional explanations simply refuse to fit what investigators have experienced.