How did you guys come upon this site? Why did you come here? Why did you stay? How have your perspectives and opinions changed since you joined? etc.

Story Time!

About a year before my official registration date my step brother and had teh hobbie of discussing the paranormal and unexplained events, usually Aliens, Egyptian Pyramids, Conspiracies, and Cryptos. After we hit dead ends on those subjects my step brother started studying the secrets of physics and quantum mechanics...I'm not as smart as him so I continued to study the same subjects. After going through my libraries poor choices on the subject I went to the net. At that particular moment I think i was looking for stuff on Atlantis, after going through a dozen or so websites that where ran by crack pots i simply searched "unexplained mysteries" into google and at the top of the list was UM. I almost closed the window because my crappy comp wasnt loading it fast enough but pictures popped up so I stayed. For about six months I just read the front page articles and stuff.

Soon after I started to read the forums where I picked up a bunch of cool information. After about six months of just reading the forums I made an account and started posting a post a week. Back then I hung out in the Alternate History and Crypto forums.

Now I partake in all of the forums but mostly the religion ones. My personal views on the paranormal haven't changed much since then, i now just have more stuff that I have no idea about lol. I now post almost everday and finally figured out how to use the chatroom, make an avatar, and post pictures.

I no longer study Cryptozoology or Aliens that much anymore because I again hit another dead end on those subjects (someone just needs to find Bigfoot already).

I stayed at this site and continue posting because of the community mostly. 90% of internet message boards are filled with flaming and people who have no idea what their talking about, thats not the case here(mostly lol).

Here's mine:

How: When I got my "Weird US" for Christmas '05. I typed in places out of the book. Especially "House of The Unholy" & saw the thread for it. After a few times coming here. I joined. I just had to.

Why: Because it's my kinda of board. And after coming in here as a guest. I decided to do.

I've always been into the paranormal, I like being scared and i know that there has to more out there than we have found.

I found this place last night through About.com when I was looking up the definition of Doppelganger.

I registered right away and I've been reading alot tonight. I'm looking forward to getting into some discussions here in the future.

~V~

I happened to stumble across it a couple of months ago during a web search for something involving the paranormal.

I immediately signed up and ensconced myself within the forums.

Now I'm addicted

About a year ago, I decided to finally search up some urban legends of my town. I search for hells gate quite a few times with no hits, so I switched the keywords to witchcraft in athens, and the UM thread was the first one to pop up. I followed it for about a year reading posts, because this was the only place that addressed the issue. Everytime someone posted something to defend "wicca" on the page I got a little annoyed with it but moved right on along because there's really no harm in that, just someone not really understand the topic or didn't know what they was talking about either one will work. Some new posts had been made, so I followed up on the topic, reading where I had left off. Finally coming to the end of the thread, and seeing a complete misunderstanding of the whole topic (I'm still hopeing that it was just that.) I signed up and posted my view. From there, I started thread hoping. This is a great forum, not much bashing going on and usually if you locially state what your view, there's not problem. Unless of course someone get's offended by it, but even then.. from what I've typically been seeing, they're replied back to in an intelligent manner (for the most part ;o). So yeah, I like this forum.

Initially, it was the ball lighting I saw, which I later found out where "Orbs"... and an Outer Body Experience I had. To which I later found out was called "Astral Projection", and a very common thing. So those are the reasons I found and then joined UM. Although, I believe back in highschool I landed on this site, a friend showed these Optical Illusion photos to I that were from this UM gallery. But, what really sucks one in I must add, is the very diverse and cool community I am proud to be a part of and watch grow!

Furthermore... SaRuMaN, thanks, done good things around here brother.

I arrived just over a year ago. My husband and I were talking about ouija boards and I wanted some examples from the net. The first site I stumbled across was UM through Google and I've been here ever since although it took me a while to realise I joined on Hallowe'en LOL

Making my first ever post on here was very scary, it's the first forum I ever joined, but since then I haven't looked back and now even run my own (not very busy but it's early days) I still have a place in my heart for UM though as the community spirit here is astounding. I sometimes have a break for a few months but I always end up back here where I started.

I've learned so much from being here and I'm always re-evaluating my ideas. For instance when I arrived I classed myself as 100% Wiccan, I now realise that my beliefs are so much more eclectic than that. Conversations on here have helped me realise that what I thought was my final path in life is in actuality still evolving at a rapid speed.

I googled Bigfoot pictures because i was interested about cryptozoology at the time and i found a link to UM.

i was looking up on ghosts and stuff cause at the time i was like obsessed about it,and then i just used the website was a place to come and look at pictures and show my friends and a teacher some pictures and videos.well,since i've joined the actual forum itself,the way i look at certain ghost stories or stories about seeing weird things themselves has changed,before i would just believe it all,but now i actually ask question about it and stuff.i dunno,since i've joined i'm a different person,when i first came i was making dumb jokes and stuff,now i try not to do that.i feel like i've matured to some extent,despite the fact that i have a super heroes and spider-man thread.

I was looking up info on cryptids and got directed here. I realized skeptics were needed badly and stayed.

Gee, your stories really make interesting reading, unfortunately for you mine isn't.
I have always had an interest in the paranormal, one day whilst i was playing on
my comp, i typed in Unexplained mystery in the Google search, and it popped up.

I very much enjoy this site and the fantastic people i have met mostly through the
chat area......weird bunch in there lol, but i fit in quite well i think.

A person who I admired and despised, loved and hated, suggested that I would enjoy the UM site.
They were right as they often were and I fell in love with the people on it, its user friendly format, and the blend of topics.
I am not the most brilliant or educated of people but like porn, you know stupid when you see it, and that is more a rarity than a commonality on UM.

I typed "unexplained mysteries" into google and then I found it. Not too deep there. And considering it's only been a few weeks, I havn't really changed from UM.

I was looking for some fish related infomation, then I saw some people posting things that were just plain wrong and went grrrrrrr.

I was looking for stuff for Homework , and for no real reason it came up with this site. I read a few posts (not many) and joined immediatly, mainly because it has all the things i'm interested in, paranormal, UFO's, mythology etc etc as i have been for a while, but no one has ever listened to what i have to say about it or just dismissed me as weird, but here, i can talk and talk and people will know what i'm on about and i can join all the other weirdo's . I am also proud to say that today i have changed my homepage to this site!!

I was googling for something on sasquatch lol.

We were supposed to change? I wonder into what?
I do have to admit that I have now read the Zombie Survival Guide which I was totally unaware of before.
I am more prepared for Zombie attacks now, which can only be a good thing I imagine.

Was that the "whales and dolphins spiritually connected" topic, by any chance?

No it was fresh water shark populations and there distribution lol. I got annoyed at the cat fish known colloquially as sharks being called treated as actual sharks. The spiritual dolphins thing....... not to sound intolerant, but some people need a brain transplant.

What is this Zombie Survival Guide you speak of? I have never heard of it and would be interested in reading it.
You never know when they may attack. I like to be prepared you see

Never heard of it?! It's like a modern bible!

Click.

Thanks, it might come in useful. I have never heard of it, but i haven't looked for it either.

I came across the site when I was looking for hauntings in England when I lived there. I was looking to see if the area where I was working had any paranormal history to it and I loved this place. I registered straight away and read for a long time only posting rarely (believe it or not) and then once I got back to the States I got a job where I'm on the pc all day and I just became addicted to the site and the people.

I say I'm a bit less open-minded now than I was when I joined because then I believed in alien abduction and I was reading all kinds of books on abductions. Also I joined at a time when I was being diagnosed with bi-polar disorder and I always posted in threads where the mentally ill weren't being given a fair shake.

Anyway now I'm looney as a dustbin and I'm not going anywhere.

One day, three years ago(soon four) I was googling stuff about 'scary monsters' and found this site. This site was very young when I got to it, and you had to have permission to post in topics. You can look at my first posts, and see how I changed.

I think I was drunk when I found this site because I can't remember how I got here I'm think it was via a link from some other website. I got hooked right away as there was a very passionate and lively thread going on in the ghosts forum about a lady claiming to be possessed by her reletives. I was more of a lurker/reader for a while before I decided to join, but I'm glad I did!

I came across UM a couple of years ago through my interest in UFO's. I guess I have stayed around because of the varietyof and intelligence of the
posts and responses to them. (for the most part) Too many times you have these sorts of forums where everyone is out in left field (which isn't all bad)
and everything is believed. I guess what I'm saying is as much as they get on my nerves I am glad we have the sceptics here.

I was in MSN Gaming Zone argueing with some guy over shadow people and after a bit he gave me a link to the thread here on UM, so I clicked, it and then I signed up solely to disagree with him. Then after some investigating I found out this place is awesome so I choose to stay.

I typo'd another site and came across this site. Then I forgot about it, typo'd the site again and chose to bookmark UM and sign up~

I found UM while searching for 'unexplained mysteries' ... typed in those keywords and the link for UM was the first to pop up. I visited the site as a guest for about 3 months before I decided to register. Now I'm hooked, UM is the only site I visit quite often .. almost on a daily basis. Great place to hang out, read interesting topics and meet interesting people.

I was looking for answers to the UFO phenomena but found a great bunch of people instead.

We got the net for the first time in 05. My dad was a huge paranormal fan freak. Aanyhoo I wanted to find as many sites for him as possible about the paranormal. I found this one I was a guest for a few months clicked register one day and here i am.

Im addicted as well I get a daily fix of UM usually after work. Its great to see people just as or crazier then me in here

I don't remember why I came here, but I've been here for quite a while now - I've been here "almost" 2 years now. I love it here. It's grown to be a comfortable place... like a good friend's home where I can kick off my shoes and lounge in the corner chair with no one bothering me and without feeling nervous.

That sounds weird. Oh well.

I was googling for pictures of the "Thunderbird", (no, not the car), and got a link to U.M. I ended up spending most of the rest of the night looking at the UM Photo Gallery. Afer reading a number of comments posted by the members I started wanting to add my own two cents worth. Before I knew it, I was all over the board and found that I was making more posts in the World Events department. I'm still posting more there than anywhere else.

The reason that I stayed was because more often than not, most of the posts, even when I disagreed with them, were at least intelligently expressed.

Changed? I don't really know. I guess that I'm a little more skeptical now of things. I'm not as likely now to just take it for granted that something "Unexplained" has to be paranormal. I think more in the terms of how even I could do something similar that would look "unexplainable".
I'm perhaps a better debater now than before. I'm certainly not as impressed by orbs. I'm better informed about Islam. I type a lot faster now.I have recently begun starting new threads!

I guess the best way to answer this question is to say "Go look at my first few posts and then compare them to my most recent posts and make up your own mind on rather I have changed and if so in what way.

I have no idea how I found this site...

same here, no idea how i ended up here, could have been fate or some mystical force, or maybe its the government or nasa, maybe my computer is haunted and it brought me here to learn the truth?

but most likely i was bored at work and stumbled here after googling something odd.

I just took a stroll down memory lane and looked at all my past posts and topics(the site doesn't keep track of all of em..wanted to know my first) and it seemed back then I was still neutral to all things paranormal and such but leaned more towards the skeptical approach and it seemed I was an atheist(I forgot I was one once hehe).

So I guess I did change a lil'

About a year ago I just googled "the unexplained" and found this site by accident, I would have to say its got to be the best site of its kind.

i was just a guest for a year then built up the courage(or get more confident on my pc) to finally register a few days ago.

Well, we're glad you did!



And have fun!!