back to When the Day Turns Dark... for a second

When the Day Turns Dark ... for a second: additional stories

This page is an addendum to my article of When the Day Turn Dark ... for a second. I have found so many more stories of people who have experienced this phenomenon that would make that that article a little cumbersome.

Contents

People's Experiences

Single Person

Two or More People

A Large Group of People

Multiple Times

Black Sky but Dark Environment

 

Single Person

When I was very young, probably in 4th or 3rd grade, I was at a school fundraising event during the day when all of a sudden the sky went dark for a split second, almost as if “god” had accidentally turned off the lights of the sky and then turned them back on super quick. I looked around and no one else seemed to have noticed. At some point I just assumed I might have probably blinked but it just felt way too real to have been me blinking. To this day, I still think about that experience because it was the first time I ever felt or experienced a glitch and it was the first time I questioned reality and wondered if there might be more to this “world” than we probably know. (Reddit)

 

I talked to my friends and they all think I'm crazy so or I am having some sort of seizure. A few weeks ago I got off the bus and was on my way to school when suddenly it's like it all went pitch black for a split second. It was so fast I thought my mind was playing tricks on me. I remember thinking “wtf is going on“. I even turned around to see if someone else had felt it but nothing seemed out of the ordinary. It wasn’t me fainting because I felt completely fine and there was no weird sensations in my body. Then I thought, well maybe it’s my mind playing tricks on me and forgot about it. But then like two weeks later it happened again, and there it was like, ok I'm not imagining things. It’s not some sort of blackout or anything since I didn’t feel any pain. Has this happened to anyone else? Is it just my vision? (Reddit)

 

Two or More People

Me, my partner and daughter were just chilling in the living room. She was watching TV, my daughter playing with her toys and I was just on the Nintendo then all of a sudden for a fraction of a second everything went black. Wasn’t the lights or a blink because I’ve tried to recreate the strange phenomenon. What’s even weirder is that my partner experienced the same thing! My daughter looked confused and stopped playing. We have Carbon Monoxide detectors and it wasn’t that. I’m very open minded and would love to hear if anybody has ever had this strange occurrence happen. (Reddit)

Comments on this post from other people:

  • Yes! And what's stranger, this happened to me and several other people in the middle of the day. The sun, the tv, and all other light just went away for about a second, and then came back all at once, no flickering or slow fade like clouds moving over the sun or anything else I could use to explain it away.

  • This happened to me as I was driving about a month ago. I thought my brain shut down for half a second. Everything black, then back to normal.

  • Dude same, its happened to me while in the shower. Just shampooing my hair and everything just goes dark for a quick sec. At first I thought the power went out and came back on but that was not the case since my family never mentioned it.

  • This happened to me around 2006. I was a teenager then, and I was standing in a store looking at an item I was holding when everything went black for about 2 seconds. No idea what happened.

  • Jesus Christ. This happened to me last Sunday in University Village in Seattle. I was at a bar with a friend when it happened in there, and we all just looked around after that brief moment, it was weird! I have been at various places/work/home when the power goes out and this was a bit different.

 

This happened to me a couple of weeks ago:
I was sat down with a few friends on a field and we were eating lunch together, it was a bright sunny day with not a single cloud in the sky.
We were all talking together and having a nice time when all of a sudden everything around me went black for about half a second. Normally I would have just shaken something like this off and thought “I probably just imagined it” but that was when my friend (who was sitting next to me) turned to me and said “Did you just see that?! Everything just went black!”
This was extremely creepy, if it had been a rainy day I would have just shrugged it off, but it was sunny and cloudless, there is no reasonable explanation I can think of as to why it went black that day. (Reddit)

This post sparked several comments:

  • That’s happen to me before in similar circumstances, very strange why it happens. When it happened to me it turned PITCH black, I assume that’s what happened to you too.

  • This exact thing happened to me and my sister, we were in separate rooms of the house windows open and bright and sunny day like you. It happened and we both reacted and asked if we had experienced the same thing. The weird thing was that we weren’t alone at home and everyone else didn’t see a thing.

  • This happened to me a couple weeks ago too!
    I was sitting out in my garden, beautiful sunny day when I swear everything went dark for less than half a second! I told my SO but no one else. I’m in the U.K.

  • Same happened to me and my mother at dinner. I thought maybe the lights went out, but it was too dark for that. Like closing your eyes dark. Maybe even darker.

  • This happened to myself and my sister about 15 years ago. We freaked out so bad and called our parents and we’re waiting for the news to say something. To this day idk wtf that was.

  • I’ve experienced this about 3 times before! I’ll be doing something and suddenly there’s just blackness for a brief second. Glad to know I’m not the only one but now I wanna know what the heck is causing it.

 

My friends and I were hanging out on the track at our school during gym, we were just normally walking and talking until all of a sudden, just for a split second it went dark, not dark as in we somehow just closed our eyes at the same time but dark like it was just night time all of a sudden. Only a few of us noticed and there was nothing in the sky to block the sun this then happened again about a month or two after. (Reddit)

 

This was in the summer of 2014 and it was a beautiful sunny day so me and my cousin where talking and playing mc on mobile outside when all of a sudden everything went pitch black for a quick second like something really big flew by I remember both of us just looking up at each other and staring like did you see what I just saw so we both looked up to the sky cause we though maybe it could have been a bird of some sort but there was nothing so we both went back inside and asked if anyone seen it go dark outside and everyone said no and that we were lying and till this day we haven’t talking about it and I want to know if anyone has seen something similar. (Reddit)

 

I was out mini golfing one day with three of my friends on a very sunny day. There was not very much shade at the course and the sun was right above our heads. No clouds or anything in the sky. As we were playing our game, talking and hanging out like normal, something inexplicably odd happened. For lack of better words, I can only describe what happened is that the sun seemed to "flicker." My surroundings just went completely dark for a split second. It was as if someone turned a light switch off and on again but, of course, we were outside in the sun. I quickly thought I must have just blinked without realizing, but I soon noticed my friends immediately stopping in conversation and looking at one another. We all burst into "Did you guys see that??" and uncomfortable laughter. We tried looking around to see if there was an airplane, bird, or anything in the distance that could have possibly flew in front of the sun, but the sky was completely clear. Even so, the moment was COMPLETE darkness, that I don't think anything could have blocked the sun so greatly. This happened a few months ago and I still wonder what possibly could be the explanation. (Reddit)

 

To sum it up quickly a coworker and I were sitting in the lab where there are 2 massive windows that let in a ton of natural light. We were sitting in the room discussing work related topics when the natural light flickered for about 2 seconds. It was 3 pm and the room lights were turned off before we even got there (because of the natural light we can see everything fine). At first I thought I blinked really fast even though I didn't feel my eyes close but then he asked me if I saw the lights go out too and then we realized they had been off. I assumed a bird flew by creating a shadow but a bird or even a flock wouldn't be enough to block the light going through the windows considering the windows are about 5-6 feet in length and 4-5 feet in height. There were no clouds in sight as it was a clear day, and no sign of birds or planes. We both had our eyes checked around the same time about a month before since we both and have perfect vision. I'm more concerned about seeing if anyone else has experienced this more than hearing scepticism considering I wasn't alone and had a witness. (Reddit)

 

So I just remembered this thing that happened maybe about 5 months ago now?.. Anyway, so me and my friend were walking home from school down this path near some bushes and a forest and everything seemed fine. We kept on walking until we both suddenly automatically stopped walking and froze still, looked at each other and there was some sort of flash of darkness where we were both frozen still and couldn’t move or interact with anything it was just pure darkness for around 5-10 seconds. Then it went back to normal and my friend started walking again and I was just stood there breathing really heavily until I calmed down and started walking again. Straight after I calmed down I asked ‘so, you saw that right? Like everything go black?’ And she nodded. Like I mean I thought I went crazy but it kinda freaked me out and confirmed it when someone else experienced the exact same thing. I know this seems mental but I’m pretty sure I either blacked out but then that wouldn’t make sense seeing as someone else experienced it or something weird actually happened. But whatever it was, I’m just wondering if anyone has experienced similar things? (Reddit)

 

So, this was about 5 years ago at this point. I was at a friend's house, for the sake of the story I'll call her Veera. We were probably about 13 at the time, and we were sitting at her kitchen table. Her kitchen table faces large double windows that don't have curtains showing the backyard. Veera and I were just talking and having a tea, as it was morning, the sun was out and bright and visible out her dining room windows. We didn't have any lights on as her family wasn't in the most stable monetary position, and the natural light was enough. Anyways, we were talking, and all the sudden the sun goes out for like four seconds. I'm talking pure, utter darkness. I wouldn't have been able to see my own hand if it was straight in front of my face. No it wasn't blocked by a tree, or an airplane, we looked out the window just to be sure. I don't know if this story belongs here, it's quite short and can probably be easily explained away. (Reddit)

 

One day me and some friends were out golfing and as we are on the green and one person goes up to hit the ball into the hole, right after they hit the ball, it went completely black and went back to normal after the ball went into the hole. I thought I just blinked but it didn’t feel like it or forcefully closing my eye since it was about 5-7 seconds so I asked my friends and one of them said yes while the other two said no (one of them being the one who was hitting) and it was if the moment was erased for me and the other friend who saw that. Anyone have similar occurrences? (Reddit)

 

'm a college student, and at the time I was walking towards the bus stop after a class that finished around 7 pm. I remember it being a normal cold night and being 100 m from the bus stop while thinking of what I was going to do once I got home. Around me was some traffic, not much, maybe a car passed every 10 sec, and a few other unknown students walking away from college, the town is so flat that I could see every light in a 1 km radius...
I was crossing the road and that's where it happened. Without any warning or anything, all the lights went off, every street lamp, car light, even the natural moonlight. I was left in utter pitch blackness, I remember hearing the two female students ahead of me scream, and a car next to me blaring its claxon, yet I wasn't able to see a damn thing, I looked towards where I remembered the city was and my eyes weren't catching anything, I looked up to the sky and there was just blackness. I quickly thought that the best thing I could do was walking towards the other end of the road carefully but quickly, to avoid being hit by a car.
After maybe 5-10 seconds all the light came back, the female students were still in the middle of the road hugging each other, the car blaring the claxon quickly went to the side of the road and stopped. I went close to the driver to check how he was doing and he didn't even look at me, he was looking down with a horrified expression on his face. I looked towards the city and all the familiar lights were back, I looked at the moon and there it was.
I remember having a conversation with my girlfriend and a friend about it and being ridiculed. No one was there so they couldn't understand just how real all of it was. There was no street light that went off, it was every damn light around me! (Reddit)

 

This happened around 2008. I was working full time at an electronic store that no longer exist.
It was a small store and usually was only 2 staff members taking care of the store at all moments.
My coworker just left for lunch and I was by myself taking care of two customers. Suddenly I saw the lights from the ceiling flicker just a little bit and then everything went pitch black, this was like a whole second or maybe more.
I couldn't see anything, not even the customer who was right in front of me.
When lights came back it was sudden and the customer asked- what the hell was what?
I immediately responded that maybe lights went out and he said- No, this was pitch black, I couldn't even see my hand. He started talking to the other customer replied that he didn't saw anything.
I kept calm, because customer number 1 was starting to raise his voice and was going completely bananas. He told me that I was stupid to believe it was a normal blackout .
Customer 1 didn't purchase anything. He just left the store.
Then I proceeded to help customer 2 at the end of the transaction. He said, I didn't see anything because it was pitch black. It was not the ceiling lights. Take care. Then he left.
I tried to explain the event to my coworker but he didn't believe. We checked the security cameras but nothing was captured except customer 1 going bananas and leaving the store and the transaction of customer 2.
Weird day indeed. (Reddit)

 

A Large Group of People

This has also happened to me. About 3 times. All on the playground in southern California between 1997 - 2001. (God I'm old).
For some reason I thought this was like a well known thing? I guess idk why I thought that. Is this not a known phenomenon?
I will say that when it happened for me, everyone on the playground saw it too. (Reddit)

 

This was last year it slips my mind so much but with the right things It triggers. It was sometime in November I think. My school just finished a sports day and was announcing points. When all of a sudden they just went black for a millisecond. I thought I blinked but this was not that. I saw other kids looking up at the sky with me, all of a sudden. A couple months later I asked my friends about it only one other saw it. She explained as the sun just turned of for a second. (Reddit)

Two comments on this post:

  • This happened to me in 2001. I was also at school. It wasn't just the sky because there were no stars, moon, or sun. One other girl confirmed.

  • I've seen this myself. It's bloody black, like you've been locked into a windowless room at midnight.

 

This happened a few years back and I haven’t stopped thinking about it so I thought I’d share it here.
A few years back in 2016 it had been a relatively normal day I went to school and sat through all my classes, something I’d do every weekday. School would finish at 3:30 so the clock finally hit 3:30 and we got out of school. I was waiting by my bus stop for the bus to come pick me up so I could go home and was chatting with some friends. I think I should note that it was super sunny outside and there were no clouds in the sky. When all of the sudden it went dark like the sun had disappeared. This had lasted for like 2 - 5 seconds then everything went back to normal, the sun came back. I was obviously in shock then proceeded to ask my friends “Did you see that?” and they said they did. They were also in shock thinking it was just them and they had blinked or something. It was super creepy and we just ignored it. (Reddit

 

So this was in 2016 during the summer time. I was at my friend at the times house with her brother and another friend. It was about 10 AM I would say, and it was VERY sunny. We were all in the room, my friend and her brother shared talking. The only light in the room was from the window that has the blinds open and the light from the glass sliding door down a short hallway (no lights were on in the entire place). We were sitting there when all of a sudden everything went PITCH BLACK then light again and that happened once more. Now I would have assumed something was just wrong with me but when it happened we all screamed at the same time, and when the light was back, we talked about it kinda scared I guess and trying to laugh it off ( especially because my friends were hyper religious).
I have for years tried to figure out a logical explanation but there is none that I can see. It was broad daylight, there were no lights on, all four of us experienced it, and there is nothing i can think of that could make the whole place go pitch black all at once. (Reddit)

 

I'm not really sure if this counts as a glitch or just as something simply explained but I thought it was strange. About a month ago I was getting ready to have my boyfriend pick me up and I was taking a shower. All of a sudden it was like everything went completely black for a split second and at first I just thought I had blinked or something, but this happens to me a lot and after the first one I always make a point to keep my eyes open and stay very aware of when I DO blink so I know. And sure enough as I was taking a shower it happened again. Just a second of complete darkness. When I got out I asked my mom if the lights had flickered or something and she said she didn't notice anything. I didn't think anything of it until I got into the car with my boyfriend and I told him about it and he said the exact same thing happened to him around the exact same time right before he picked me up while he was taking a shower. I thought he was messing with me but he swore it happened. This happens to me all the time where it's almost for like a second the entire world will black out. And it's not like lights just flicker because even in a room with windows I can't see ANYTHING. I normally just chalk it up to I blinked and didn't remember but it's happened multiple times in a row when I know my eyes are open. I know most times it probably IS that I just became hyper aware of my blinking or something but this specific time seemed strange considering it happened twice in a row and someone experienced the exact same thing as me in the exact same situation. (Reddit)

Comments on this post:

  • Something similar happened to me and a friend. We were walking outside when it was dark but lights were on outside the building. We walked through a tiny spot in the foyer that was kind of dark but not really. We both walked through complete blackness for about 5 seconds. It made no sense turning around looking back at the spot. There were a lot of other people standing outside around us.

  • Back when I was in high school about 7 years ago we were in class and something like this happened but I wasn’t the only one that witnessed it. The entire class seen it and we all kinda stopped and asked like did anyone else not see anything for a split second. I’ve been trying to find out what really happened. It’s happened 3 times in my life so far.

 

Anyone else have these moments where you're just walking down the street or sitting somewhere and all of a sudden everything flickers to complete black for a split second, almost like a blink but you know it is not a blink. It is like God turned off all light for a second and turned it back on.
This has been happening on occasion for years and everyone I have asked about this say they have no idea what I am talking about but I do remember one time when I was walking with some friends and it happened. I never said anything at first but two of them asked if anyone else saw everything go black for a second.
So if two others saw this and we were outdoors, nobody was drinking and it all happened at the same time, what could it be? (Reddit)

 

Multiple Times

That is so weird. That happened to me as well a couple times. It's been awhile tho. Last time I can remember was about 20 -25 years ago. I was in my bedroom on a school night. Lights were on. TV was on. An old crappy TV, but I mostly used it to watch movies on VHS so I didn't care. I can't remember the exact moment it happened but I was in bed (I do know that) Suddenly everything turned to blackness like I was blind all of a sudden. I blinked and everything was back. This happened once or twice before that as well. (Reddit, comment on post)

 

Black Sky but Dark Environment

I didn't think this was worth posting, but a few months ago I saw a post about occasionally having their lights flicker no matter if they were at home or somewhere they had never been before and having no recollection of blinking. I have had similar experiences. Where I'll be sitting in my room and my room goes black for less than a second, but I've had my eyes open then whole time.
It's been normal and hasn't really freaked me out, until yesterday. I was sitting in my living room where all of my windows were open. It had to be around 1 PM. Everything went black except it was different this time. It was more than a second, I could still see all my furniture, like when your eyes adjust to a dark room kind of sight, but no sunlight was coming in although the curtains were open. It freaked me out, I closed my eyes and woke up in my bed around an hour later. I'm really confused and a little scared. I never take naps. I know it wasn't a dream because my phone was right where I left it in the darkness. Can this be explained somehow because I'm freaked out. (Reddit)