Many a times, human beings come across scary facts through events, happenings and revelations so much so that suddenly, ordinary life starts seeming bizarre after such discoveries. The following list brings to you certain unknown and unbelievable facts from all over the globe that is bound to keep you tongue-tied for a while and leave you feeling uneasy for quite some time…

1 A man in Florida heard the screams of his brother from his bedroom. On reaching there, he saw the gory sight of his brother and his entire room being swallowed by a sinkhole! The body was never found even after diligent rescue operations.

It was a usual day for two brothers in Florida, when something unfortunate happened, and changed their lives forever.

Jeremy heard the scream of his brother Jeff who was in his room. By the time Jeremy rushed in, he saw his brother being drawn into the sinkhole which had suddenly engulfed the entire room, including the furniture and Jeff, inside the womb of the Earth. Frantic efforts to save his brother did not yield any results, leaving Jeremy hapless and dismayed at the sudden tragedy that had struck the family. In total, five survived the calamity, including Jeremy and a 2-year-old child.

The sinkhole measured 20 – 30 feet wide and was around 30-feet deep as per rescuers. It was feared that due to the magnanimous size of the sinkhole, the other parts of the house would also sink. The houses of neighbors were evacuated as a safety measure. People were hoping that if there is an air hole somewhere beneath the ground where Jeff was stuck, there could have been chances of him being alive. However, experts believed that just as the past instances there were very few chances of survival in a crisis of such magnanimity. Jeff’s body could not be found despite the efforts of a large number of rescue workers. (source)

2 A Sesame Street episode in the year 1976 scared children so much, that the authorities had to pull it off air after several complaints that were made by parents, whose kids screamed in horror.

On February 10, 1976, Sesame Street Episode aired episode 847, featuring Margaret Hamilton. In the episode, Hamilton was reprising her role as the Wicked Witch of the West from the classic 1939 film, The Wizard of Oz.

In the aired episode, the central character (Witch) loses her broom while flying over Sesame Street. Following this, she keeps threatening to turn David into a basketball and the Big Bird into a feather duster.

The amount of threat on the other characters was such that the children watching the show got extremely afraid of the witch. There were a large number of complaints from parents regarding this episode and they reported that their children were screaming in fear and crying in terror of the witch when the episode was being aired.

As a result of this, some test screenings were made by the concerned authorities but despite the mixed reaction, the Children’s Television Workshop decided to never air the episode again. This decision has remained intact since the past 40 years.(source)

3 In 1994, a man, staring through the windows of old people’s houses, black-cloaked as Grim Reaper – with a scythe, was arrested by the Los Angeles police for his act.

There was a man who dressed like Grim Reaper, carrying a scythe, which made him look like the real Angel of Death. As the fable goes, Grim Reaper is a depiction of death and his presence entails that he takes the souls of human beings he comes across, resulting in their death.

The man got arrested by the Los Angeles Police as he used to stand and stare inside the windows of the elderly; making them very uncomfortable. His presence seemed as if the mythical character, had actually come to take someone’s soul, a thing not to be taken lightly, especially when the man was staring through the windows of the elderly.(source)

4 While filming the movie ‘The Exorcist’, many actors got injured, the set burned down, a Priest was brought in several times to bless the set, and the actor who played Burke, Jack MacGowran, died of Influenza.

“The Exorcist”, a supernatural horror film directed by William Friedkin, was based on the 1971 novel of the same name by William Peter Blatty, which was in turn inspired by the exorcism case of Roland Doe, a pseudonym given to the victim by the Catholic Church. The 1973 film portrays the demonic possession of a 12-year-old girl. The story revolves around how the mother of the child attempts to seek normalcy in her daughter’s life with the help of two Priests who conduct exorcism.

From its onset, the film went through troubled waters. Prestigious directors not only turned down the film, but ominous events surrounded the year-long shoot. Nearly nine people died who were associated with the production of the film and a mysterious fire destroyed the set one weekend. People started to believe that the project itself were cursed. A Priest was brought in several times on the set to bless the film, its actors and the project. However, as if all the tragedies during the filmmaking process were not enough, that just after the work was wrapped up, the actor who played Burke in the film, died of Influenza.(source)

Some projects really have bad fate, the exorcist is a befitting example of  this.

5 A syndrome that makes certain people believe of an unseen presence (i.e. of a spirit) which is there to help and provide comfort during traumatic experiences is known as the ‘third man factor’ and is considered as a good coping mechanism by experts.

Instances from real life experiences, especially those of adventurers, suggest that they believe that there has been a force in their trail that helped them come out of hardships during their testing times.

Psychologists have termed this syndrome as the ‘third-man-factor’. They have, in fact, made use of this ability to help traumatic patients – by making them feel they have an imaginary friend, to help them cope better. As per scientific explanations, the feeling to have someone around can be termed as a coping mechanism of human beings.(source)