Hi friends! Happy Friday! #FreakyFridayFiles #asheycakes #creepy #unsettlingtruths
Welcome to this week's Freaky Friday Files!
Quick surprise before I get into this week's Freaky Friday Files! I've released another YouTube video this morning - ALL about The Sociology of "The Backrooms" - I'll link it for you below:
And check out the blog post I wrote too
And a quick life update for those who aren't subscribed to the weekly Friday newsletters (I would love it if you would subscribe): I had my third dentist appointment for my root canal, and they just added more medicine to it, so my last (fingers crossed) appointment to put the crown on will be in another three weeks, just to give my tooth time to heal a bit more. I haven't had much pain so far since Wednesday, so hopefully, it stays that way.
Anyway, with that out of the way, let's get into this week's Freaky Friday Files! This week, I'm sharing with you a list of all the creepy things I've been learning about recently—because why not? Who doesn't love learning about morbid and disturbing things? Well, I'm sure some people do, but it's still interesting nonetheless. Yep, I'm already on a tangent, so shut up, Ashy!
A list of Creepy Things I've learned about recently
I know this one has been debunked already - but it's stuff I find fascinating nonetheless. Is nonetheless my new word of the month? Anyway, that alien "sound" that the stuck astronauts heard on the Starliner. You can hear the sound "here." When we first heard this on the news, I said to Luke - it's OBVIOUSLY not aliens - either the astronauts are messing with the media and bored, or they're going a bit crazy up there - but there's no way it's an alien. And yep, the sound has been confirmed to have been - "The feedback from the speaker was the result of an audio configuration between the space station and Starliner."
Dear David - and yep, I know, I'm REALLY late to the party on this one but I always heard spooky YouTubers talking about it and I was like must be some sort of creepypasta and I never looked into it, until now. I recently watched a YT video that analyses the whole thing and debunked it as fake - you can watch that video "here". Basically, an illustrator created an ARG/Twitter horror story that is terrifying - like I'd love to know how he did some of it - where a small child called David is haunting his apartment (who happens to have his head caved in). It's A LOT to explain so make sure you check out some of the deep dives if you're interested in horror. Also, the reason that most people have debunked this story is the fact that it was turned into a movie - you can check out the Wiki for that "here".
Obviously I have to say The Backrooms! Check out my video at the start of this blog + this cool AF horror from Kane Pixels (it's so spooky).
The World's Loneliest House - photos have emerged on Instagram of a house in Ellidaey, a remote island south of Iceland (see below). Because this photo has gone somewhat "viral" online, many theories are emerging about it - I mean it's just kinda creepy a house on an island with literally no way to get to it. Weird right? Theories emerged that it was built by a billionaire who was going to use it should there ever be a zombie apocalypse, it is owned by famous singer Bjork, or a hermit (maybe, a religious one). But, there's an explanation for this "Today, the island is deserted, but it was once inhabited by five families. The last of these families left in the 1930s and the island has been uninhabited since then". NDTV (2024) says "In reality, the house does stand on the island of Ellidaey and is owned by the Ellidaey Hunting Association. Built in the 1950s, it serves as a hunting cabin and sauna for members of the association, which hunts puffins." Poor, puffins (I'm not sure if it's bird scientists so hopefully that's the case and no one is actually hurting the puffins)! I think this house has been popular before 2024, as YouTuber Ryan Trahan has actually been to this island. I will link that below too!
Donald Trump has said he'd have no problem releasing classified files about Jeffrey Epstein and JFK's assassination. Now, I kinda get why he'd want to release such files - because he wants to relate to the conspiracy theorists of the world. I mean, I'm sure there are A LOT of famous people on Epstein's list and I'd probably wanna read these files myself, but something doesn't sit right with me about the whole thing - why is Trump saying this now? Is it because of Kamala? Does he just want more conspiracies in the world? Like, what's the deal? Okay, I know this one isn't specifically "creepy" per se. But I find it odd.
The Time Capsule - This one doesn't have much information TBH - but the other day (I think, maybe, Tuesday) I watched a video where ghost hunters visited a time capsule house - I assume it was abandoned but everything was left how it was as if someone lived in it - there was still power, the fridge worked, dishes and washing hadn't been put away - it was like the person living there had something happen to him (we know it's a him from the video) and no one came to clean up the stuff. I think the ghost hunters also know that this man is in fact deceased - but wouldn't it be interesting if he went on the run? Or if something more sinister happened to him? It's very unlikely, but it does give off that sort of vibe. The ghost hunters are really respectful and don't over-hyper anything like many yt ghost hunters do. I highly suggest checking it out!
Lucid Dreams - Radugg, Shashkov and Vanin (2024) took 12 subjects (people who were able to lucid dream) and were training them to control a virtual car from their dream - "The 12 dreamers in the experiment made slight muscle twitches, which sent a signal to a computer to make the virtual vehicle move forwards or turn. Signals were sent back to the dreamer to inform them of obstacles to try and avoid. Some could move the car well, but others, no matter how hard they tried, could not." This was built on from a 2021 study that showed that the researcher and the lucid dreamer can communicate inside a controlled environment. I'd super interested to see what happens for the future of lucid dreaming.
Why Do We Dream? I don't know if we will ever find the answer to this particular question, but sharing one's dream is seen to be associated with empathy (well, increased empathy between the sharer and the listeners). You can check out that study "here".
Insights from Long Dream Studies - These studies show that our dreams are often influenced by our concerns and events happening to us.
Dream Recall - It's said that some people are better at recalling their dreams than others and this is likely due to how people think about dreams i.e., having a positive attitude towards dreaming might mean you dream more. Interestingly, dream recall isn't always associated with working memory. Some participants of a dream recall study in 2022 who had low dream recall were better at ignoring distracting stimuli, and those with high dream recall, weren't as good at ignoring it. Dream recall is also a learnable skill - like having a dream journal (like me) can help with this!
A YouTube Van Lifer known as "Love Sundays" spent the night in his van near some woods but he was rudely awakened at night when he heard people outside his van. Then, he went back to SLEEP omfg and what he woke up to was freaky AF. His van doors were zip-tied together. He was able to get out and drive off in the morning BUT what? Some potential theories for this are people wanting to steal fuel (like Love Sundays thinks because his fuel cap was kinda open but they didn't realise they needed to get into the actual van to do so), break-in, steal the van, BUT I mean there's also theories of "s*x trafficking". IMO, my dude should have left that spot immediately - I sure would have.
The Theory of "Time Slips" - which, is often debunked as false memories or Mandela effects, but it's very interesting nonetheless! I watched a really intense YT video by The Why Files on it and it really broke my brain!
In 1950, West End Baptist Church in Beatrice, Nebraska was destroyed in a fire - but that's not the creepy/weird part about this. Every Wednesday night, a choir met at the church to practice and no one was EVER late - they always seemed to arrive early and the leader of the choir always liked it if they arrived at before 7:20 pm. However, this one particular night EVERY single member of the church was late. A lot of the members would arrive before 7:15 pm to ensure they weren't late. But this night was very different. One of the member's daughter's dresses had an issue and their parents had to iron a new one for her, another member was having trouble with her geometry homework, and another member's car wouldn't start so they asked another member (the one who was stuck on their geometry) to pick them up but they had to wait, and another member had put off writing an important letter but decided to do it then. And everyone else had something that made them late. I find this so weird that everyone happened to be late on this particular day.
I've also learned about the dr*g datura and how bad that can f*ck you up if you take it (please don't). But some of the stories are very scary. Also, gonna share another HannahTheHorrible video here because she does an awesome job at explaining it!
The next ones are probably more conspiracy based but I've also been seeing a lot of spooky YouTubers talk about both mimics and vampires a lot lately! I'll give more information below:
Mimics - this is someone who copies the sound of someone else's voice, behaviours, or actions (and no, not in the funny way). Such mimics are taking over TikTok by storm right now. Dee (2023) says "Mimics in the online world are paranormal entities, like doppelgangers or skinwalkers, which disguise themselves as something or someone you trust." I think some people call these dopplegangers and others call them mimics - either way, it's said to be something paranormal. I'll add in a video (but this YouTuber is a believer in all of the paranormal (spiritualist) so there may be some bias). Enjoy!
Vampires - so I'm not talking about the stereotypical vampire here, it's the vampires specifically in New Orleans right now! I've seen a few YouTube videos of reactions to TikToks, where a lot of people who live in New Orleans are talking about how they may have given vampires rides in their Uber and how one psychic believers a vampire had ill-intentions towards her and was trying to get them to work for him. I've included one of Loey Lane's video's below where you can watch! It's not all vampires, but it's mostly vampires. I've also added another compilation video from a smaller creator so check that out too!
Anyway, I think that's it from me this week! I hope you enjoyed learning about these creepy things and I'll see you all again next week! TTFN
Ash xoxo
Readings/References
Al-Snafi, A. E. (2017). Medical importance of Datura fastuosa (syn: Datura metel) and Datura stramonium-A review. IOSR Journal of Pharmacy, 7(2), 43-58.
Browning, J. E. (2015). The real vampires of New Orleans and Buffalo: A research note towards comparative ethnography. Palgrave Communications, 1(1), 1-8.
Konkoly, Karen R. et al.
Current Biology, Volume 31, Issue 7, 1417 - 1427.e6
Nursaibah, A. Z. (2020). AN ANALYSIS OF THEMATIC PROGRESSION IN DEAR DAVID'S STORY THREADS ON TWITTER (Doctoral dissertation, Universitas Jambi).
Raduga, M., Shashkov, A., & Vanin, A. (2024). Two-way control of a virtual avatar from lucid dreams. International Journal of Dream Research, 17(1), 38–54. https://doi.org/10.11588/ijodr.2024.1.100322
https://theconversation.com/four-breakthroughs-that-are-changing-our-understanding-of-dreams-236286
This post is great, i love these recs and i'll have to check them out. For Halloween this year my cousin and a few friends are going to Salem and i can not wait to go!
Backrooms are still the thing that scares me the most, I don't know why, but just the idea of them gives me the creeps. Love reading about freaky things, though. Thanks for sharing!