Video of the Week: 5 Mysterious Photographs & The Unexplained Stories Behind Them (by Top5s)

Nowadays it’s easier than ever to modify an existing photograph or create a believable scenario altogether. There are so many photos out there that have captured the unexplained, and whilst the famous ones have been through rigorous testing to see if they are genuine or faked, it still can be difficult to believe what you are seeing is real inside the photo. Ghosts, strange creatures, mysterious objects in the sky, weird and wonderful moments that defy all logic captured on camera.

When I chose this video to talk about, I knew that there really wasn’t anything extraordinary that I could add. I have no photo that no one has seen before, but the photos presented in the video are different. Whenever you see videos that showcases the strange, nearly all of them contains either at least one or more photos that everyone has seen before, and after a while, the shock value, the stories behind each photo starts to become repetitive, until you’ve essentially become desensitised to them. With so many photos that have been taken and uploaded, why are there so little that have made it into mainstream documentation?

It was both refreshing and exciting to see new photos for a change. Watching this video, I was captivated by the unknown for the first time in ages. New and fascinating stories accompanied these truly incredibly pieces of our world. My eyes were finally able to open and drink in new, undiscovered weird once more.

So you can imagine how I felt when I realised that these have also been plastered all over the internet as well. I, in no way declaring that Top5s are jumping on the bandwagon because that’s not my point at all. Top5s style of showing us what this world has to offer, either via being faked or completely genuine has kept me watching his videos for the past couple of years. My point is that I was a bit disappointed that the photos in the video, whilst I haven’t seen them before, are fairly popular, which brings me back round to asking; why are there so few weird photos when so many photos are taking all around the world at the same time?

Maybe there are more weird, or indeed weirder photos than we’ve ever seen before out there, they just haven’t been noticed by the majority yet. Maybe those photos are so weird that whenever they are seen by people, they are automatically and instantly dismissed to be faked, when they really could be genuine. And because more are dismissing than accepting the possibility that it really is real, the photos haven’t been shared among the masses. Or, maybe they are being noticed by the masses, but I just haven’t been in the right place at the right time to see them, and it’s not as if I actively go looking for them. The photos Top5s share with us, I haven’t seen before, so it does seem logical.

When we see a strange photo with our own eyes, our minds do one of two things: They either except the possibility that this strange phenomenon could be true, or outright dismisses it entirely. The famous photos that we see all the time – the spaceman in the background, the strange upside down hanging person that suddenly appeared when looking through the photos are being developed, a strange figure lurking behind some bushes seemingly looking directly at the camera as if it’s watching you – we have no way of truly knowing their authenticity unless we travel back in time and to the places where the photos were taken. If they are real, what must have gone through those people’s minds the moment they discover that “thing” standing in the background, or the ghost poking its head round the doorframe. We all would like that mystery solved, but maybe we don’t. Maybe the thrill of knowing that there could be something beyond the normal out there that if we were to discover that it’s nothing by a mirage, or cleverly placed sticks, or just someone who has great skills at Photoshop, the sense of fun quickly goes away. If we are able to discover the truth about one photo, then logically, we would have found a way to discover the truth about all the photos, and maybe we just have to admit to ourselves that we find the unknown fun instead of scary.

But then what would happen if we discovered that what you see in the photo actually happened? Would we be truly scared? Would we have wanted to keep it a mystery? Are we ready to comprehend what may essentially be another world? Ghosts, creatures, even aliens, I think we all need to sit down and think about if we really want to know the truth and if we do, what should we do if the truth really is the truth. For some people, they don’t need to think about that because they’ve already come up with their answers. For me, I haven’t.

I do believe in ghosts, and whilst this world is getting smaller every day with all the technology we have at our fingertips, we forget that the world is as big as it’s always been, and there’s so much to see and discover. This world will constantly and increasingly shrink as the years pass on by, yet continuing to contradict itself by remaining the same size.

In the meantime, the Top5s YouTube channel will remain a great source of everything that’s weird. Whilst I do not have a photo to show you, I do have a story that I haven’t told anyone until now.

when I was walking through the woods one late night a few years ago, when all I could see was nothing but darkness – I couldn’t even see my hands in front of my face. All I had to help me see something was the light on my phone, but due to it not being a smartphone at the time, all I had was the screen which I had to keep maintaining just so I didn’t plunge into total darkness once more. I chose this route as a shortcut, and I immediately regretted my decision the moment the wall of nothing hit succumbed me. I was running late. I had to get to my destination fast. I couldn’t go the long way round, and to do so now would mean turning back and heading back the way I had come, wasting more time. I decided to swallow my fears and press on forwards…

Being in the dark, my imagination was racing. I was told that an active imagination in this particular scenario was dangerous as I could see anything and/or hear anything, and all it would be was nothing but an ordinary set of circumstances made extraordinary by my imagination. All I was doing was looking ahead, not turning my head and kept walking forward, putting one foot in front of the other, knowing that with each step I take I’m that much closer to my destination and the more I take, the closer I will be, and soon I will be out of the woods, and I can relax and laugh about how scared I was with my friends – all whilst vowing never to enter the woods at night ever again; but I was younger at the time, so that would have been a relatively common reaction.

Then, from out of the darkness, I hear someone laughing. It was only for a split second and I never heard it again. It was a woman and she was reacting as if she had heard a very funny joke, such as me walking through the woods by myself at such a godly hour. I have never run so fast for such a great distance before or since.

After seeing all these photos on the Internet, I found myself asking – what if I had a camera, with a flash, pointed it at the darkness where the laugh came from and pressed the button? What would I see? Nothing? Something? I will never know, but there is one thing that I do know and that is, there is a house – not an abandoned house, but one that is being lived in by ordinary people who maintain a small piece of farm land just off to the side of the woods. Because I couldn’t see anything, I didn’t see the woman who was there and she couldn’t see me because I was shrouded in darkness.

Why weren’t the lights on?

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)