25 Extremely Disturbing Facts You Probably Don’t Know

Posted by , Updated on November 21, 2023

Extremely disturbing facts can be jarring, but you’re about to dive into a long list. So, get your courage on because this world can be a scary place. It’s not enough that we have to deal with wars, disease, fear, and the ever-increasing threat of climate change; we also have to deal with everyday creepiness!

The idea of being creeped out by something can also be amplified if there appears to be an unknown entity involved. For example, stories about ghosts or hauntings can increase the fear because they suggest the presence of a hidden force at work – one which cannot be seen but still has the potential to cause harm or distress.

There are little things in this world that we would all be better off not knowing. And we’re going to tell you all about them! Here are 25 disturbing facts you probably didn’t know.

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25

A mortgage is a death pledge

A mortgage is a death pledge

Mortgage can be a death trap if taken lightly. The amount of money you owe when taking out a mortgage can be overwhelming, and it might seem like a good idea to borrow as much money as possible to purchase the home of your dreams.

But when payments become too much to bear, it’s easy to slip into debt and default on monthly payments. This can lead to foreclosure and the loss of one’s home.

In addition, when taking out a mortgage, people are often enticed by low initial interest rates that are sometimes adjustable.

These rates can shift significantly over time, eventually leading to an increased monthly payment that could potentially become unaffordable for the homeowner. Furthermore, if homeowners don’t shop around for competitive mortgage terms and fail to stay up-to-date on changing regulations in the industry, they may end up with too high an interest rate or fees that are more than necessary.

This can result in an overly expensive loan that becomes difficult or impossible to afford on a limited income. Finally, there is always the risk of predatory lenders targeting individuals who have poor credit scores or limited financial knowledge.

By offering mortgages with excessive fees and interest rates while also failing to properly explain all aspects of the loan agreement.

Such practices have unfortunately caused many individuals who have taken out mortgages to get caught in a cycle of debt from which they never escape, ultimately resulting in disastrous financial conditions and even bankruptcy in some cases.

For these reasons, it is essential for potential borrowers to use extreme caution when considering taking out a mortgage so as not to be ensnared in such dangerous traps.

24

A mortgage is a death pledge

Polar bears hunt humans

Bears are scary. If you see one in the wild, using caution is a must. If you see a black bear, once it realizes that you are a much more dangerous threat than it believed, it will generally back off and leave.

Just don’t climb a tree to get away because they are great climbers and may climb up after you.

For grizzly or brown bears, climbing a tree would be a good thing to do because, while they may shake the tree, they aren’t able to climb. If there are no trees around, play dead, and they will leave you alone.

Polar bears, however, are the only bear species that will actively hunt humans for food. Polar bears are the largest of their species and are what are called ambush predators.

A polar bear will follow and lie in wait for you until it is ready to strike. Essentially, if one comes at you, you are already as good as dead.

And don’t think, “It’s a polar bear.” “I’m never going to Antarctica, so why should I worry?” What you should know is that due to climate change, polar bears’ primary food sources are disappearing, forcing them to move into unfrozen, more populated areas.

23

Everyone eats snot

snot

Every day, you sniff. Your sinuses get clogged up, or you feel that glob of mucus in the back of your throat and instinctively swallow.

Well, that stuff you sniffed and swallowed is basically snot. Left to drain, it will either exit through the nose as a runny nose or down your throat.

Let me ask you this: Would you ever blow your nose and then lick it up? That’s kind of what we all do. The truth is humans swallow between one and two cups of snot each day. It’s gross to think about, but it’s completely normal.

22

A nuke is pointed at you if you live in a major city

A nuke is pointed at you if you live in a major city

It would take far too long to list all of the cities that have nuclear weapons aimed at them. At this moment, if you live in or near any major city around the world, you are in the crosshairs of a nuclear blast.

And by near, I mean within a five-mile radius.

Within one mile, a person would be incinerated immediately. From one to three miles, you’re looking at third-degree burns over much of your body.

Outside of that, it would be radiation poisoning that would cause the most harm. That isn’t even taking into account the long-term environmental and technological damage it would do as well.

The most likely cities to be targets are New York, Los Angeles, Houston, Chicago, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, London, Bristol, Cardiff, Paris, Berlin, Rome, and many, many others.

21

SADS. Sudden arrhythmic death syndrome

Sudden arrhythmic death syndrome

Sudden arrhythmic death syndrome Sounds creepy. And it is. Trust me. If you or someone you know dies of SADS, it means that your (or their) death just sort of happened.

There was no big event or anything like that. Just, one second you’re alive, the next one you aren’t. 

There are no warning signs, no symptoms, and nothing really physically wrong with you. Except, you know, the “Dead” part.

Officially, a coroner will put “cardiac arrest” on the death certificate. I would assume this is because your heart decided to take a nap and forgot to wake up. This is a segue into the creepiest part of horror: nearly every time it happens, the victim is asleep.

 

Related: 25 Close Call Gifs That Might Give You A Heart Attack

20

The face of a CPR dummy is a real face

The face of a CPR dummy is a real face

This is an extremely disturbing fact- sometime in 1880 in Paris, it is believed that a young woman, about 16 years old, walked into the river Seine and committed suicide by drowning. Her body was fished out of the sand a day or two later.

There was such a look of peace and calmness on her face that the coroner became fascinated by it. Before she was laid to rest, he made a death mask of her. This nameless girl became a sensation, first in Paris and then around the world.

Copies of the mask were even hanging in a vast number of French homes. She was compared to the Mona Lisa. The two men who made the first CPR procedure doll were among those who saw the beauty in death.

Needless to say, they decided to use her iconic visage for their invention. And now, everyone who learns CPR kisses the lips of a long-dead, 16-year-old French girl.

19

There is no "Real you"

Real you

Have you ever thought, “Nobody knows the real me?” We all have. But ask yourself this: Is there a real you? Not really. Stay with me here…

You have a certain perception of “you.” Your mind has created an image of who you are, and often, the way you see yourself is not how others see you.

You have created an ideal you. But how others see you also plays into how you see yourself. This means “you” are an ever-changing entity.

Now, each person that comes in contact with you also has a concept of who “you” are. And those concepts are just as important as yours because they work their way into your self-identity.

If there are dozens, maybe hundreds, of different versions of you that are alive in each person who “knows” you, Not all of them are correct, of course, but that does mean there are dozens and maybe even hundreds different “Yous” alive.

So if you have a skewed, ever-changing concept of self and everyone has a concept of who you are that affects how you see yourself, does a “real you” even exist?

18

Slavery is still big business

Slavery

While most of us believe that slavery has been wiped from the earth. The truth is that slavery is still alive and continues to thrive. The UN has said that there are currently over 40 million slaves being exploited for profit.

Clothing, shoes, and Christmas decorations from China have a real chance of being produced by slave labor.

These decorations have been traced back to a factory where 12-year-olds are forced to work 100-hour weeks. Actually, a large portion of what is made in China is produced using forced and child labor.

Among others, bricks are also one of the products mostly produced by slave labor. Cocoa is another one, so chocolate products are tainted with human exploitation as well.

and it gets worse. In Russia, peddling is produced primarily through slave labor.

 

Related: 25 Shocking Facts About Slave Trade

17

Einstein's brain is a museum attraction

Einstein's brain

Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely considered to be one of the greatest scientific minds ever.

A Nobel Prize winner who garnered many other awards, Einstein is best known for e=mc squared, also known as the theory of relativity.

When Einstein passed away in 1955, the coroner doing the autopsy removed the brain and began dissecting it.

Many scientific agencies wanted to study the brain to better understand how it worked, so pieces were sent to those organizations as well. And the coroner kept a bunch of it for himself.

Today, due to a series of strange events, you can go to the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia and see the remaining pieces of his brain on display.

16

Vanilla beaver juice

Vanilla

If you go to the grocery store and decide to buy something vanilla flavored (or that has vanilla in it) be sure to check the list of ingredients.

Look to see if it contains “castoreum.” If it does, that means that it contains anal secretions from beavers.

Apparently, the brown, slimy stuff that is excreted from a beaver’s scent glands, usually called the castor sack and located just outside the anus, smells great.

So great in fact that companies have used it not only as a food additive but also in perfumes. And if you want to avoid eating beaver butt juice, it also goes by another name: “natural flavoring.”

15

There is a disease that will make you a walking corpse

Cotard's syndrome

There is a rare disease known as Cotard’s syndrome. Anyone who has it believes that they are missing limbs and vital organs and that they are actually dead. A variance to this can be that they believe they, or possibly everything, simply doesn’t exist. 

 Dr’s are not sure what causes the sickness but it is believed to have something to do with either a mental illness such as depression, anxiety, or something along those lines.

They also believe there could be a correlation between COTAD and other illnesses like dementia or Parkinson’s. There is also a connection to severe brain injuries as well.

People who have this condition often stop eating, bathing, and speaking because if they’re dead or don’t exist, what’s the point? Luckily, it is a treatable condition, and most people can recover, but it must be horrifying to have.

 

Related: 25 Dangerous Situations And How To Escape Them

14

There are rat hairs in peanut butter

Peanut butter

I love peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. They’re easy to make and always take the edge off when you’re really hungry.

I think the attraction is the mix of salty peanut butter and sweet jam or jelly. I’m pretty sure it isn’t the rat hairs and insect fragments that we love.

The FDA has lots of rules and regulations for what can be in our food. For peanut butter, the regulation states that per every 100 grams of peanut butter, there can be one or more rat hairs and around 30 or so insect fragments.

If you have a 12-ounce jar of peanut butter, there can be four or more rat hairs and as many as 120 or more insect fragments.

13

If you contract rabies, you're already dead

Dog bite

If you ever get bit by a dog, a bat, or pretty much any wild animal, you may want to just go ahead and get a rabies shot.

Rabies is a deadly disease. so deadly, in fact, that it is incredibly rare to recover from it. The disease can lie dormant in the human body for months. By the time someone shows any symptoms of rabies, they are already dead. They just don’t know it yet.

12

Spiders shed

Spider

Are you one of those people who are intensely afraid of spiders, or do they fascinate you? You could also be someone who couldn’t care less about them. However you feel about arachnids, always be aware of one thing.

If you see a dead spider in your house, there is a good chance it isn’t dead. Spiders shed their exoskeletons from time to time, and when they do, it looks like a dead spider on the ground. which means the real, alive spider is probably still around somewhere.

Bonus fact: spiders can live in space.

11

Mosquitoes were used for torture

Mosquitoes

You know how every summer you go outside to have some fun and it all goes bad because there are mosquitoes everywhere? It happens to all of us. And since I am in Florida, it’s pretty much a year-round thing.

One of the things people always say is something like, “These mosquitoes are driving me crazy!” or “These mosquitoes are eating me alive!” Be glad they really aren’t.

In ancient times, when someone was going to be tortured, one of the methods used was called scaphism. This method of torture involved binding someone and putting them in a box or two small boats, one on top of the other, with plenty of space for bugs.

And by bugs, mostly mosquitoes.  They would then cover the sentenced prisoner with a mixture of milk and honey, and there they would leave him with only his head and feet extending past the end of the enclosure.

Within minutes, their faces would be covered with flies and all manner of insects. Especially mosquitoes. After days passed and they were sure the condemned was dead, they would remove the top section of the enclosure to find a body mostly consumed by mosquitoes as well as various other bugs.

10

Crows can remember you

Crow

The crows are brilliant. I’m not sure how many of you know this, but it is a fact. During studies on the corvid species, researchers have discovered how brilliant they are.

Not only are crows able to solve puzzles, understand the concept of cause and effect, plan for the future, and use tools such as sticks and twigs to dig for food, but they also understand how to use separate items to create tools of their own.

They are pretty amazing creatures. But don’t bother them because they will remember you. And they carry grudges. Crows are capable of remembering the faces and actions of humans they have come into contact with.

If you are kind to them, they will be fine being around you, and they will return your kindness.

If you are unkind to them, they will remember that as well. They will also communicate it to other crows and their offspring.

People who have caused crows stress have been known to be swarmed and sometimes attacked by them. So, bottom line – keep your distance!

9

The chainsaw was invented for childbirth

Chainsaw

The chainsaw, you know, that thing that cuts through trees and anything else it comes in contact with, was originally invented to be used during childbirth. I’m not kidding.

I get it. You have questions. Let me explain. This is perhaps one of the most extremely disturbing facts around.

In 1780, two doctors from Scotland created what they called the “Osteotome,” which was a small chain-powered cutting tool.

If the mother was having a difficult birth and a c-section was no longer possible, they would use the osteotome to saw through the woman’s pelvis.

As most women are awake and alert during childbirth, and the device was used in the 18th century, I would imagine the pain was excruciatingly unbearable.

8

Red foods contain insects

Red food

Do you like strawberry milkshakes or ice cream? How about a nice red velvet cake? Just like vanilla, check the ingredients. See if it contains “carmine” or “natural red #4.”

These ingredients are essentially used in most red foods and drinks as a form of food coloring. But guess what? Get ready for an extremely disturbing fact.

So disturbing that you will probably change your eating habits once you find out the ingredient behind “carmine.”

They are bugs. Millions of Cochineal bugs, which are a type of beetle in particular, are ground into beetle goo. Then, that goo is boiled, and the result is a blood-red coloring called natural red #4.  

7

Chimps prefer to maul instead of kill

Chimps

Many people have owned chimpanzees as pets and treated them like children. But it is important to remember that, although they may sometimes act like people, they can be extremely unpredictable. Anyone who saw Nope knows exactly what I’m talking about.

It is a really bad idea to own a chimp and treat it like a pet or even a child. Chimps live an average of 45 years, and they go through life changes just as humans do.

Do you know how teenagers can get confrontational sometimes? Yeah, put that aggression in a teenage chimp that has far greater strength and attacks when it feels it has been treated unfairly.

All. Of course, this is scary enough, but here’s the truly disturbing part: when chimps attack, they don’t go for the kill. When a chimp attacks, it tries to disable and maim its target.

A chimp usually goes for the face, the hands, and the genitals. Most people who get attacked by a chimpanzee need face transplants and reconstructive hand surgery.

And it’s best not to think about the people who have died (or nearly died) as a result of having their junk ripped off. 

6

Sleep paralysis is a real thing

Disturbing Facts

If you’ve ever been in a pre-or post-sleep state where you are aware of everything around you but are unable to move or react in any way, you have experienced sleep paralysis.

If you are like most people, this can be terrifying and cause panic attacks while you are still unable to move or speak.

But it gets worse. The extremely disturbing fact is many people who experience sleep paralysis will also have hallucinations.

These frequently include visions of demonic apparitions or seeing a dark presence standing next to or over you. It’s like having night terrors while you are awake.

5

Locked-in syndrome is a real thing

Disturbing Facts

Like sleep paralysis, locked-in syndrome results in the person being fully conscious and aware of everything around them, but unable to move or speak.

But there is a major difference between the two. Locked-in syndrome is actually a neurological disease usually caused by a brain stroke or some other form of head injury.

While sleep paralysis is something a person simply wakes up from, LIS is something you usually do not. Lis can leave you essentially in a coma while your mind stays completely normal and functioning.

Related: 25 Truly Bizarre Diseases Science Can’t Explain

4

Right now your government is doing things you think only other governments do.

Government Conspiracy

Everyone wants to believe that their country holds some sort of moral high ground over the other countries in the world. And it would be nice if that were true. But it’s not. the fact is your government, right now, is doing things you could only believe other governments do.

Prepare yourself for some extremely disturbing facts.

In the United States, we probably believe this more than in any other country. But our government has a long history of preaching against things that we are actually doing ourselves.

The CIA alone has done morally reprehensible things on our behalf. Some examples are:

Assassination attempts on Castro and various other leaders. Through Operation Chaos, the government employed shady tactics to subdue dissent against racial injustice and war.

Mental stressors as well as chemical warfare techniques were used on military personnel in an attempt to keep their views quiet.

Operation Mockingbird was a shadowy government program that spread misinformation and propaganda to the American public through various media channels.

While it has been exposed, its reach is still felt today as we grapple with understanding truth from falsity in our digital landscape.

Operation Charley saw the US government use its influence to back right-wing dictatorships and upend resistance in Central America. This controversial endeavor had a lasting effect on the region’s politics.

Operation Condor saw the US covertly assist dictatorships across South America in their mission to silence and terrorize political opponents. Brutal assassinations of activists, journalists, and intellectuals were carried out with American support.

And these are just a few examples of just the CIA. And yes, these are all extremely disturbing facts!

3

X-rays revealed child abuse

Xray

Talk about extremely disturbing facts, this one hits the mark.

In the 1940s, the use of x-rays became more commonplace. When pediatricians started using the science, they were alarmed at the amount of old, improperly healed fractures they saw in their young patients.

They began to wonder if there was some sort of bone disease affecting children that had previously gone unnoticed.

After doing studies and tests during the 1940s through the 1970s, they realized that what they were actually seeing in babies, toddlers, and elementary school-aged children was the result of years of child abuse. Talk about an extremely disturbing fact!

Parents’ stories were finally being questioned and abusers were confronted. And it took 40 years to reach this conclusion?

2

Babies feel pain

Crying baby

If you are a parent, this is going to be tough because these are extremely disturbing facts. For years, doctors thought that babies couldn’t feel pain. And why would they think that?

Why wouldn’t babies feel pain? They have nerve endings and working brains. Of course, they feel pain.

Up until the early 1980s, doctors would perform surgeries, including things like open heart surgery and reconstructive surgeries due to birth defects, etc., with no anesthesia.

The biggest problem for the doctors was that they couldn’t stop the babies from thrashing around. Their solution?

Muscle relaxers. I wish I were kidding. And yes, these are extremely disturbing facts!

Did no one ever think that the reason they were thrashing around might be because they were in incredible, torturous pain? It doesn’t seem like too much of a stretch, does it?

1

Dogs haven't lost their wolf instincts

Dog

Dogs are the best. Your dog loves you more than it loves itself, and it would lay its life down and sacrifice itself to save you. It’s true that some can be aggressive, but in almost every case, the way a dog is treated determines the kind of dog it will be.

Your pet pooch may have a friendly disposition, but don’t be fooled! Lurking beneath the surface lies their inner wolf instincts – and one of these is why your pup loves squeaky toys.

Believe it or not, those delightfully annoying sounds are reminiscent of Fido of small animals in distress as they’re being attacked and killed by predators. It is a disturbing fact, but read on – there are more shockers ahead.

Also, if your life comes to an end in a lonely place with only your dog, it won’t be easy for them. They may try their best by licking and nudging you until the skin becomes raw. Even then, they will keep trying.

Unfortunately for some, primal instincts take over, and the canine will resort to consuming what’s left of their human companion: as tragic and disturbing as that might seem.

But they love you beyond anything else. Always remember that.

If you enjoyed learning about extremely disturbing facts, you’ll definitely enjoy learning about “Incredibly Disturbing Science Experiments”