I’ve been experiencing strange things for years—could there be an explanation?
As far back as my early teens, when I was living in the Middle East, I’ve had experiences where I would hear movements, voices, or other sounds that nobody else seemed to hear. There were times when I couldn’t fall asleep in my room because I had this overwhelming feeling that I was being watched.
One experience in particular happened when I was in college. I was staying at a retreat house when I heard what sounded like a girl crying. I started praying to St. Benedict, and shortly afterward, the crying seemed to turn into laughter. What made the experience even more unsettling was finding out later that the retreat house had a reputation for being haunted.
Since then, I’ve always considered myself unusually hypervigilant. I tend to notice patterns in people and situations very quickly, often feeling like I’m several steps ahead of what’s happening. My wife even jokes that I have a strange habit of saying something is going to happen—and then it does.
Over the past few years, I’ve had several more experiences that I would describe as paranormal. Most of them involve hearing things, rather than actually seeing anything.
Something else that has become increasingly strange is my dreaming. I’ve been having extremely vivid dreams involving what feel like parallel timelines or alternate versions of reality. I remember many of these dreams in unusually clear detail, and sometimes I wake up feeling completely drained, almost as though I had actually experienced everything rather than simply dreamed it.
I’ve also experienced what I would describe as Mandela-effect-like moments, where I distinctly remember something being one way, only to discover that everyone else remembers it differently. I realize that memory can be unreliable, so I’m not necessarily claiming these are literally changes to reality—but the experiences have been strange enough to make me question them.
I also have a few friends who consider themselves spiritually gifted, and they’ve told me they think I might be as well, although I’ve never really known what to make of that.
Lately, I’ve had this persistent feeling that I should get a Tarot reading or some other kind of spiritual reading. About a year ago, I had a Reiki session, and the practitioner told me I was “walking on a spiral path” and was approaching the end of it.
My dreams have also become increasingly symbolic. I’ve dreamed about objects such as a stone seemingly reaching toward me, and about a tree covered in markings that seemed to be telling me to enter it to “awaken.” There have also been a few occasions where I dreamed about particular places or events, only for friends to later describe those same places or events to me.
Last night, something happened that stood out to me even more. Out of the blue, I mentally said, “spirit guides, make yourselves known to me.” Almost immediately after that, I fell asleep.
In the dream that followed, I saw a creature that reminded me of Toothless from How to Train Your Dragon, but it didn’t have wings. Instead, it had spikes along its back and head, and it was a yellow-orange color. I remember feeling uneasy when I saw it, and I think I either ran away from it or it ran away from me—I’m not entirely sure which.
I’m aware there could be psychological explanations for some or even all of this—pattern recognition, hypervigilance, vivid dreaming, false memories, coincidence, etc. I’m not trying to convince anyone that these experiences prove anything supernatural.
I’m genuinely curious, though: what do you think might be happening to me? Has anyone experienced something similar, particularly the combination of vivid dreams, unusual auditory experiences, strong intuition/pattern recognition, and seemingly coincidental dreams?
I’d especially appreciate perspectives from people who have experienced this themselves, whether you interpret it spiritually, psychologically, or somewhere in between.