On a regular basis most of us will have the most insane realizations and feel the need to share them. Unless they’re incredibly creepy of course. Most of the time, these realizations hit us when we’re in the shower or lying awake at night. Sometimes, you wake up the next morning and realize how…stupid…your realizations were and how meager its significance was. But other times, you realize that you just discovered something rather profound in your half-awake slumber.





Here, we have a few of those realizations that will absolutely shock you and make you question life, love, and your own existence. How can social norms, culture, thoughts, opinions, and customs do such odd things to our brains? Take a look at these realizations for an even bigger headache that will last you for days

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15- WORDS ARE JUST A COMPILATION OF NOISES

The way we communicate is a strange thing. As humans, we create languages. In these languages, we grunt, moan, and make strange noises with our mouths, tongues, and throats in order to get our point across. We can use these grunts to hurt others. We can use them to heal others. At birth, we are each given a series of noises that we will respond to for the rest of our lives.





Language is one of the craziest, useful, and weirdest inventions humans have ever created. Most likely, when being created, humans had no idea that so many combinations were possible. They had no idea that there would one day be over one million combinations in one language that had a solid meaning. Even though many people only agree on there being about a quarter of that. That there is even a combination of over 189,819 characters (letters) that is recognized by distinct people.





Next time you talk, pay attention to the way your mouth moves, your throat, your lips. Listen to the way you’re really just making weird noises.

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14-BALLOONS ARE RUBBER SACKS OF BREATH





Balloons are so weird... "Happy birthday, here's a plastic sack of my breath." — Bill Murray (@BiIIMurray) May 31, 2013

So, let’s just admit that most of us really like balloons. They are every kid’s favorite party accessory. But have you ever realized how creepy they are. They are full of your breath. You literally buy a piece of latex or rubber, you fill it with your breath, and maybe some saliva, and you give it away.





If you did this to a jar or plastic baggie, no one would want it. But when you make it colorful and “fun” everyone sees it as a sweet, thoughtful gift. Like, hey, I just met you and this is crazy, but here’s my breath, so enjoy it…it’s like a whisper. Only silent…and full of germs.

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13-MONEY IS WORTHLESS

Take a second to come to the realization that those pieces of paper that you hold so high are actually worthless on many levels. But on one level, it is everything! Humans created money to use as a currency. This paper would decide who gets to live and die. Who gets to eat and who gets to starve. Who gets to be warm and who gets to freeze. This money, this paper, became a god. When, in reality, it has no value aside from the value we as humans give it.





But the value we give it causes us to murder, steal, and commit the most heinous crimes. But without it…there would be no order. This is more than a realization, it’s a scary fact that you’ll wish you never knew.

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12-THE CHUM BUCKET IS FOR CANNIBALS





This one is a little creepy and it involves one of the most beloved cartoons of all time. Let’s start with the definition of “chum”. So, fishermen probably already know what it is, but most of the rest of us have no clue. So, “chum” is actually “chopped fish, fish fluids, and other material thrown overboard as angling bait” or even “refuse from fish, especially that remaining after expressing oil”.





If this isn’t scary, I don’t know what is. The fact that the reason the Chum Bucket doesn’t get any business is probably because the food they make there is made from fish. Plankton uses fish to make food. For him, he is cooking the predator, but for other fish, he’s cooking one of their kind.

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11-YOU’RE STILL IT





How many games of tag did you play as a kid? Probably a lot! Well, do you remember the last one? Probably not, but chances are, with one group of friends, you were the last one tagged. This could have been ten years ago, twenty…fifty…it doesn’t matter. We all know how this game works. If you get tagged while playing…you’re it. So, that means to this day, you’re still it if you were ever the last one tagged in any game.





The more you think about it, the crazier it is. Now, you go tag either Sally, Jimmy, or Little Ben and let them spend the rest of their lives as “It” cause you want no part of it. No, when you shook Jimmy’s hand last year at the Christmas party it didn’t count.

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10-PETS ALL HAVE STOCKHOLM SYNDROME





The definition of Stockholm Syndrome is “feelings of trust or affection felt in certain cases of kidnapping or hostage-taking by a victim toward a captor”. This happens when someone is kidnapped and eventually start to love or care for the person who kidnapped them. Eg. Beauty and the Beast. But in actuality, this happens every day.





We get pets. We force these pets to live with us, obey us, sleep where we tell them, eat what we tell them, and constrain them to one house or room or cage. Then, eventually, these pets start to care for us. They will feel protective, affectionate, and feel as if we own them, having every right to. So when it comes down to it, nearly every pet in the world will eventually come down with Stockholm Syndrome.

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9-CATS ARE POPULAR ONLINE CAUSE DOG PEOPLE ARE OUTSIDE





Studies show that as a whole, more people prefer dogs to cats. But when you look online, you don’t see nearly as many dog memes or fan pages as cat ones. Why is this? Well, there are a few reasons. One: kids like dogs and kids aren’t online much. Meaning, little kids who don’t go on the computer or have a smart phone. But the bigger reason is because “cat people” like the internet whereas “dog people” are spending their time actually doing something.





So the people who like cats are more likely to have online jobs, multiple social media accounts, time to make memes, manage cat-based websites, and more. That’s also why more dogs are rescued than cats. Because dog people are out there with them.

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8-BRAINS CAN’T UNDERSTAND THEMSELVES





This one is a never-ending circle. Everything we know about our brains were discovered or invented by our brains. Everything we know was actually discovered or invented by our brains. Like, the study of the brain takes place by the brain. Scientists believe that the brain is the most complex subject in the entire universe. But it is the brain that thinks this. So the brain believes it is complex.





If the brain is doing the thinking, how come it can’t understand itself? How come there are parts of it that isn’t unlocked? Why is the brain so complicated if it is the one that knows everything? In reality, our brain is the least self-aware thing imaginable. But…isn’t that my brain making that assumption. Isn’t that my brain imagining these things?

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7-THE ALPHABET DOESN’T NEED TO BE IN ORDER





There is no reason that the alphabet needs to be in order. Okay, there is one reason. So kids can learn the alphabet. But, past that…what is there? We spend our whole lives making fun of people who have to say the alphabet in their head in order to remember which letter comes next. But how important is it really?





We know the letters, we can form words. These words are used to communicate our thoughts into each other’s brains. But the original order in which we learned these letters is so irrelevant. Although the idea of planting thoughts into each other’s heads with simple squiggles is truly fascinating. Listen to me…a purple platypus went to Jupiter with three garden gnomes to save the planet from plant-eating stapler. I created a visionary story in your head with nothing but a few little lines.

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6-CATERPILLARS ARE AMAZING





We see caterpillars as caterpillars and butterflies as butterflies. But it isn’t often that we dwell on the process that the transformation requires. You may be surprised to know that in the cocoon, the caterpillar dissolves its body into a gooey substance. So, while inside, they are nothing like they were before or after the process. They are actually a mess that will soon become a beauty. Although they are nothing but goo that doesn’t resemble anything alive, they have memories of their life as a caterpillar.





This may give you hope for yourself. The caterpillar is just a larva. No one realizes it isn’t even an adult, but just a baby. Does the caterpillar knows it will soon be a butterfly when it's building its cocoon or do instincts kick in and it says “I have no idea what I’m doing with my sorry, worthless life”. Pretty deep, right?

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5-PEOPLE CAN BE THE EXACT SAME AGE WITH DIFFERENT BIRTHDAYS





Let’s say you were born on May 30, 2017 at 12:58 PM. You had a cousin who was born at the exact moment that you were. But…you have different birthdays. How is this possible? Hmmm…obviously you were born in different time zones. You were born in Napari, Kiribati and in your time it was May 30, 2017 at 12:58 PM. But they were born in American Samoa. There, it is 11:58 AM and it’s May 29, 2017. Your mothers are sisters and they were excited to announce that they had children born at the same moment. But…were confused when the birthdays would be celebrated a day apart.





When one sister moves back to Samoa, the children will still be the exact same age. But the one born in Napari will not be considered a year older until a day after the child born in Samoa.

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4-WE’RE ALIENS





What is an alien? Someone from a different country, yes. But it can also be someone from a different planet as we see in so many sci-fi movies. So, when we travel to outer space, we are invading other planets. We are aliens. If there were life on those planets, they would probably have some name similar to “extraterrestrial” for us.





In 1969, Neil Armstrong actually landed as an alien. Did you know that Neil A, which could be an appropriate name for the astronaut, has a revolutionary meaning when spelled backwards? Yes. Look at it now Neil A is actually Alien. This is so creepy! That means Neil Armstrong is an alien twice. This is the reason people wonder…did we send a man to outer space or back to outer space?

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3-EGGS ARE MISCARRIAGES





This is rather sad and twisted…but true. You may not wish to know it, but every egg you eat is a child that was never born. A chick, that is. That egg…which is sick in its own rights, think about it…you’re eating an egg. Well, that egg is an unborn chicken. A chick that never hatched. A chick that was never born.





If chickens had feelings comparable to humans, that egg would be what would haunt it for the rest of its life. That egg would be every bad memory that it ever had. Think about that next time you eat an egg. Bonus is that when you batter chicken in eggwash, you’re literally bathing a dead chicken in its unborn child too. You sick, twisted human.

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2-BLIND PEOPLE AND DEAF PEOPLE DREAM DIFFERENTLY





If you’ve never heard a sound, you can’t really imagine what it would “sound” like. If you’ve never seen, you can’t imagine what sight is. So, when someone is deaf, they don’t “hear” thoughts in their head. When someone is blind they don’t “see” pictures in their head. So, if this is the case, their dreams are no exception. You can’t just invent sight and sound in your mind if you’ve never experienced it. So, imagine you’re blind and all of your dreams are full of sounds, voices, the feel of the ground beneath your feet, the touch of someone’s hand.





When you have bad dreams, you don’t’ see monsters, you feel them. The hot breath of the demon, the bite of the snake, however…falling is pretty much the same.

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1-EVERYONE IS THEIR OWN MAIN CHARACTER





This sounds obvious at first, but really think about it. You see hundreds…thousands of people a day. Each of those people has their own life…their own loves, likes, dislikes, thoughts, and perception of you. Every thought you have, there is an equivalent a thought that they have. We judge ourselves on our intentions and others on their actions because we feel that we are pure, main characters. When actually everyone is a main character in their own rights. In someone’s life, you’re the love interest, in another, the antagonist, in another just an NPC. But never the main character.



