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25 Mysterious Bits of Trivia That We Want to Believe

Let’s normalize the paranormal, shall we?

25 Mysterious Bits of Trivia That We Want to Believe

September 29, 2024

We’ve spewed out a ton of myth-busting lists over the years, so we clearly wouldn’t label ourselves as “gullible.” But when it comes to eerily mysterious tales, we want so badly to believe them.

Don’t get us wrong: We’ll put in the work to debunk them if there’s even a hint of a hoax. There’s just always a little part of us that wants every one of these to be true.

Now, it’s your turn. If you’re brave enough to get through this list, let us know if you think they belong in the “mysterious-but-seemingly-true” pile or in the “most-likely-a-myth” pile.

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25

Yeah, take your family of five to a creepy goopy lake, what could go wrong?

In a Queensland family photo with five people, a ghostly sixth person apparently showed up. Although the white shape looks like it might be a splash of water, nobody in the photo seems to be splashing around or waving their arms. Creepily, a 13-year-old girl drowned in that lake in 1915. CRACKED.COM — Source: 13 Eerily Convincing Paranormal Photos And Videos

24

Toyol A toyol is a small green goblin with big teeth and a sense of mischief. These Malaysian supernatural spirits are said to be those of aborted or miscarried babies. They are kept in jars and used for minor crimes like theft, where they'll leave tiny footprints behind at the scene of the crime. CRACKED.co — Source: 16 Creepy Urban Legends From Around The World

23

The Bell Witch

The Bell Witch Cave in Adams, TN is said to be haunted by the legendary Bell Witch. A long string of people have claimed to have had supernatural expe

22

Having anxiety can lead to greater levels of religious belief CRACKED.COM A recent study showed that being anxious can focus our attention and memory on supernatural beings — Source: EurekAlert!

21

EVER WONDERED ABOUT THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE CHIMNEY AS THE ENTRANCE OF CHOICE FOR JOLLY OLD SAINT NICK? CHIMNEYS WERE CONSIDERED A GATEWAY TO THE SUPERNATURAL WORLD, USED BY WITCHES & OTHER, LESS JOLLY CREATURES. CRACKED.COM — MentalFloss

20

Alligators weren't the first mythical sewer dwellers. Urban legends about sewer gators have their roots in Victorian London. Underground workers known as toshers had tales of wild pigs and supernatural rats. Similar myths go back even to ancient Rome. CRACKED.COM — Source

19

CRACKED 2 1 4 1/17 G1 1 1 1 1 12 32 3 2411 1 61 3 1 2 7 1 Wow! 2 31 11 1 1 3 1 1 ULCOMO PPW 1 1 4 113 2 1 344111 1 1/4 1/2 1 1 1 1 1 1 برب 1 2 1 1 11 1 AN ODD RADIO SIGNAL In 1977, a radio telescope in Ohio picked up an incredibly strong signal that has never been caught again. Called the Wow! Signal, it's one of the most mysterious things ever observed in astronomy, and some suspect it was sent by — Source

18

CRACKED LOTS AND LOTS OF ALMOST PERFECTLY ROUND, LARGE SPHERES Centuries ago, an unknown civilization created the mysterious Diquís Spheres of Costa Rica. Nowadays, they are mostly used as decorations in people's yards. The biggest one is huge - it's over 6'5 wide and weighs more than 16 tons. — Source

17

JFK's Brain

Things that mysteriously disappeared JFK's brain Kennedy's brain was removed and preserved during his autopsy. By 1966, it had gone missing. Theories abound, as the remains of the organ are said to hold the secret for who really shot JFK. Contemporary theories suggest it was taken by his brother Robert. CRACKED.COM — Public Domain
All That's Interesting
The Courier Mail

16

Star Trek (look obviously there's going to be a lot of Star Trek)

IN 1986, A MYSTERIOUS TIME TRAVELER REVEALED THE POSSIBLITY OF TRANSPARENT ALUMINUM. 30 YEARS LATER IT BECAME A REALITY. IT's BULLETPROOF, BLAST-RESISTANT ALON* CERAMIC THAT IS STATE AS SEE-THROUGH AS GLASS. THANKS SCOTTY. Survey CRACKED.COM — Source: 15 Things Sci-Fi Promised (And How They Worked Out)

15

The Oak Island Money Pit

CRACKED THE OAK ISLAND MONEY PIT Oak Island, which is off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada, is known for its mysterious Money Pit. People have been searching for a legendary buried treasure there for centuries, and six people have even died in the process. — Popular Mechanics

14

Alien-made 'Oumuamua'? Sure, why not.

CRACKED THIS OBJECT IN SPACE IS AN ALIEN ARTIFACT AVI LOEB Avi Loeb, a professor at Harvard and well-known astrophysicist, has suggested that the mysterious 'Oumuamua, which flew through our solar system in 2017, might be a creation of an alien civilization. — Source

13

Things that mysteriously disappeared Peking Man Peking Man is a Homo erectus subspecies from around 800,000-200,000 years ago. Fossils and artifacts from about 40 individuals were lost in 1941, when the American ships carrying them out of the Second Sino-Japanese War were attacked by Japanese forces. Other fossils still exist, but this loss just makes archaeologists ache. CRACKED.COM — Source

12

Tiredness, mood swings, and aches: West Otago’s mysterious virus.

CRACKED WEST OTAGO MYSTERY: UNIDENTIFIED VIRUS LINKED TO EPIDEMIC. An investigation into an epidemic of undiagnosed illness in a rural general practice in West Otago revealed that the most commonly experienced symptoms were tiredness, mood and sleep disturbances, headache, and joint or muscle pains. Results of the case-control study suggested that an unidentified virus was the most likely cause. DWA SURVICT — NCBI / Tapanui West Otago

11

THE SKIERS WHO MYSTERIOUSLY DIED ON DEAD MOUNTAIN. A group of skiers were hiking in the Ural Mountains of Russia when a blizzard hit. They camped out for the night, but something terrifying happened because, when all nine of their bodies were discovered, it was clear that they fled their campsite half-dressed with bare feet straight into the storm in the middle of the night. Some of them had broken bones. One had a crushed skull. What happened to the group remains the talk of a lot of conspiracy theories. CRACKED.COM — Source: 16 Real Stories That Sound Like Horror Movies

10

The White Lady

CRACKED.COM THE WHITE LADY OF WORSTEAD CHURCH In 1975, Diane Berthelot's husband took a photo of her sitting in a pew at St. Mary's Church in Worstead, UK. When they developed the picture, they noticed a mysterious ghostly figure. Diane, now in her 80's, claims the White Lady healed her and has kept her healthy through the years. — Source

9

Bram Stocker's Dracula Dracula's castle is modeled after 1903's The Black Idol, by František Kupka - a Czech painter with a keen interest for the occult. CRACKED.COM — Source

8

One popular way to see if someone was a witch was actually to weigh them. Witches were so light that they could float on water, the belief went, so suspects would get weighed. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

7

Dan Aykroyd has Tourette's and Asperger's and was born with webbed toes and two different colored eyes. CRACKED.COM His strange obsessions with law enforcement and ghosts later led to the idea for Ghostbusters and his unique line of vodka served in a crystal skull container. — Source

6

European folklore has a smelly bull cryptid called the Bonnacon. CRACKED.COM This mythological crea- ture is said to have in- ward curling horns that are useless for defense, so it sprays caustic poop from its butt to escape pursuers. — Source

5

CRACKED.COM Hamlet productions often use real skulls The 2008 production of Hamlet starring David Tennant uses composer André Tchaikowsky's skull, which he willed for that specific purpose. While not every Hamlet skull is a celebrity, stagings of the play have been using real human heads since at least 1755. — Source

4

CRACKED.COM A Yugoslavian granny was a prolific serial killer. Ana Draxin, also known as Baba Anujka, prepared potions to help women with their marital troubles -which were often of the husband is an abusive asshole variety (and the potions were carefully measured arsenic). She killed between 50 and 150 people before she was caught in 1928. — Source

3

CRACKED.COM Loggers found a mummified dog inside a tree. Back in the 1980s, a group of loggers had the scare of their lives after cutting down a chestnut oak. The nightmare sight they found is believed to be a hunting dog that got stuck while chasing a prey, and was preserved by the tree's tannins. — Source

2

CRACKED.COM Gas lamps might have contributed to Victorian ghosts. DE adidas With gas lighting being a new thing and regulations being not a thing at all, Victorian people weren't unlikely to inhale gas (not to mention the fires and explosions). Hallucinations caused by carbon monoxide poisoning might help explain the uptick in ghostly activity in the mid-1800s. — Source

1

Jimmy Carter filed a report in 1973 for a UFO sighting four years prior. CRACKED.COM Carter, as well as 10 to 12 other people who wit- nessed the same event, described the object as 'very bright chang- ing colors and about the size of the moon.' — Source

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