For Two Decades I Investigated Paranormal Reports Online for the Government, Now I'm Ready to Share What I Found [Part 4]

Hey guys, Frank Kennedy here. I’ve shared a few of my cases now and I am thrilled with the response they have gotten. Your enthusiasm and comments have been awesome. One thing many of you have been inquiring about is whether I was involved in any big “conspiracy”, beyond just trawling the internet for the paranormal. The short answer is no, after all, misleading and misinforming the American public was a different department ;). The long answer, however, is a bit more complicated. While I was not directly involved in anything like that, there have been times when some of the more “interesting” parts of the intelligence apparatus have unearthed things relevant to what it is that I did. This case that I’m going to share with you might be a bit different from past ones; a bit more technical, a bit more involved. However, I think it will help all of you understand the forces at work both with the powers that be, and perhaps with the powers that may or may not be.

So it starts with one of the few more covert actions of our government that I am privy too. In 2008 there was a leak to a UFO forum of a document known as the “16Hz Report”. The document was the result of highly classified research, done by two scientists whose very existence was kept under wraps. As we all know, the US government was not afraid of letting scientists from Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan to live free from the consequences of their horrific actions so long as their results were useful to American interests. However, in the case of these two scientists, while their research was of incredible importance, the way they gathered their results was so horrific that the US could not publicly admit that they were alive, and thus they continued their research covertly, on American military bases.

You see, there is a phenomenon of this planet known as the Schumann Resonance. Electromagnetic resonances that cover the earth. They are observed as peaks at around 8Hz in the electromagnetic spectrum. In Nazi Germany, one Dr. Heinrich Leitner discovered another resonance at 16Hz. This discovery was also made independently in Japan by a Dr. Hide Ikeda. After the war the two would be paired together and the resonance would be dubbed the Leitner-Ikeda Resonance for the few people who knew of it. This resonance emerged from animals with a significant number of neurons in their brain. Thus, Leitner and Ikeda had discovered a frequency that connected all sufficiently sophisticated life on earth. Furthermore, and what caused them to be wiped from the history books, they found that when an advanced organism – a dog, a cat, a human being, was killed, the resonance would not fully disappear, but rather slowly drop down to 8Hz, returning to the Schumann Resonance. The report that was leaked described all this, and then suggested that this resonance could be used to detect extraterrestrial life, assuming that all sufficiently complex beings have it.

So, this document was leaked to a UFO forum. The powers that be decided to scrub it clean from the internet. They succeeded, and the man who leaked it was dealt with. Where I come in is a series of videos they found on YouTube at the time. Though the footage was graphic, the lax moderation and sheer insanity of what was depicted meant that until the government found them, they were left up by the site. Unfortunately the actual copies of the videos did not survive my involuntary retirement. Fortunately, I have descriptions of them from my personal notes, which I will now share:

Video 1

A young man looks into the camera, he has curly black hair and his face is pockmarked with acne and scarring. He seems erratic as he speaks. He describes the Leitner-Ikeda Resonance and how it is connected with the Schumann Resonance. He produces a device and shows it to the camera. It consists of a display and a type of probe. When he turns it on we can see on a small LCD screen display a measurement of 8Hz, the Schumann Resonance. The man leaves the camera for a moment and then returns with a cat and a gun. He places the probe near the cat and the LCD screen shows the measurement jump to 16Hz. The man describes more details about the two resonances as he aims the gun. The device remains in frame. With a loud pop the gun goes off. The cat screams loudly. The measurement slowly drops from 16Hz to 8. The man in the video seems pleased.

Video 2

The young man appears again, this time with an elderly man in a wheelchair beside him. The elderly man looks glassy-eyed and confused. The young man asks “How are you Grandpa?” to no response. The man then holds up his instrument to the elderly man and shows the 16Hz reading. He then proceeds to produce a pillow and slowly smothers the old man, who puts up no real fight. Eventually the old mans stomach stops moving and the instrument shows the 16Hz reading drop down to 8. The young man observes these results and seems elated.

Video 3

The young man talks to the camera. He discusses how his “experiments” have confirmed what the leaked report said. He seems euphoric, almost to the point of mania. The device is in frame, showing an 8Hz reading. At one point the man gets up and leaves frame for a moment. As the man leaves the device shoots up to a 16Hz reading and the audible sound of a cat meowing can be heard. The young man starts walking back into frame and the meowing turns to a growl before suddenly stopping. The reading returns to 8Hz.

Video 4

The young man makes note of the strange happenings of the last video and resolves to leave the camera running to see if he can catch anything similar. He leaves the frame and a short time-lapse occurs before the footage shows the device reading 16Hz again, and a nearby chair starts to move on its own.

Video 5

The young man appears shirtless. He describes how he woke up that morning in pain. He then directs the audience toward the severe scratches covering his abdomen. They appear like cat scratches but deeper. As he shows the scratches to the camera, the device, with its probe far away from the man, shows a reading of 16Hz, but only for a few, non-consecutive, frames.

Video 6

The young man is teary eyed and looking into the camera. He says he feels something is after him. He apologizes to the camera. He apologizes again. He turns his head and a very deep cut can be seen on the back of his neck. He begs the camera for forgiveness. The device shows nothing unusual.

Final Video (Recovered from camera at scene)

The young man appears again. He has heavy bags under his eyes as if he hasn’t slept. His words are so slurred and disoriented they can barely be made out. He appears to be muttering “I’m sorry” over and over again. The device is still in frame. It shoots up to 16Hz. The man is pushed out of his chair, a book flies across the room at him. He yells “I’M SORRY!” at the top of his lungs. The gun used to kill the cat floats into frame, hovering in the air. The man yells “I’M SO FUCKING SORRY!” the gun tilts up and fires in the air. The young man begs “PLEASE, DON’T DO THIS!” the gun slowly tilts downward towards the young man. The man shouts “GRANDPA PLEASE!” before the gun goes off, once, twice, three times. The gun falls to the ground. The device’s reading returns to 8Hz. The video goes on in silence for several minutes before the young man crawls up to where the camera and device are. As he places his bloodied hand near the probe it measures 16Hz again. The man’s breathing is strained, and as it starts to weaken the devices reading starts to decline slowly. Suddenly the man’s breath stops and the measurement declines to 8Hz, but then it continues to decline until it hits 0. It stays at 0 for the rest of the video, which ends when the camera runs out of memory.

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The final video was recovered by an intelligence team who found the YouTube videos and tracked down the posters location. I wasn’t there. I was only made aware of all this when it was decided that these events should be referred to me for further investigation. One of the members of the investigation team joined me on this endeavor. After reviewing the footage I chuckled a little to myself. The agent asked me why. I explained that despite all the terrible things this guy had done to prove this crazy theory, in the end he actually disproved it. After all, when he died, his resonance didn’t return to 8Hz, it completely disappeared. The agent looked at me gravely and told me something that left a chill down my spine. He said that when they recovered the body they found a book on the ground, a bible, it was laying there open, and the pages were stained with blood, except for one verse: Matthew 10:28 “Don’t be afraid of those who want to kill your body; they cannot touch your soul. Fear only God, who can destroy both soul and body in hell”.

For Two Decades I Investigated Paranormal Reports Online for the Government, Now I'm Ready to Share What I Found [Part 3]

Hello, Frank Kennedy here, I was going through my old case files and I found something a little bit different. As you can imagine, when I was first assigned by US intelligence to monitor the paranormal online, I obviously stayed away from stories that were posted in places meant for fiction. It would just be silly to investigate the stories that people explicitly make up. But what if they weren’t made up? In this case we’ll see fiction turn into reality, and one man’s dreams turn into a whole town’s nightmare:

It begins with a story posted by a now deleted account on a now closed short fiction subreddit entitled “Dreamweaver”:

“I’ve had nightmares since I was a kid. The kind that keep you up all night. Creepies and crawlies, ghosts and ghoulies, these were the things that awaited me every night. When I was a teenager everything started to change, I grew bigger and stronger, and in my dreams I became bigger and stronger. I could stand up for myself. Tell the monsters to go away and leave me alone. Soon there were no more creepies and crawlies. Soon I became the creepy and the crawly.

At school I would be picked on and bullied, but at night I could pick on and bully back. The mean kids would cower in fear as I did to them what they did to me. It felt good. It felt great. It felt like I had all the power in the world.

Eventually the bullies faded away as I became an adult. I got a job. I got a boss. I hated my boss. I hated him so much, and soon I hated the fact that he would show up in my dreams. No, that’s not quite correct. He didn’t show up in my dreams so much as I dreamt his dreams for him. Every night I would find myself in his body, seeing whatever shadows and sunshine his mind decided to produce. At first I was just a passive observer, soon I started to change things. No longer were his dreams about tropical vacations and big promotions, now they were about monsters, and things lurking in the night.

One day he was really mean, he yelled at me for half an hour for something that wasn’t even my fault. I was so mad that that night I put all my energy into his nightmare. This time I wouldn’t torment him with something so abstract, this time it would be something real. He got to dream that night of his wife divorcing him, taking their kids and running off to somewhere across the country. It was a good night, for me at least.

The next day my boss came in, whisky hanging on his breath while his head hung between his hands, hovering just above his desk. Halfway through the day he came up to me and told me that he was leaving, I asked why, and after swallowing his pride, he told me that he woke up to an empty house, save for a note from his wife telling him that she was leaving with the kids and would never come back. I was floored. I was thrilled. I knew it was no coincidence, I knew that I did this to him, and I knew that I could do it again. For I am the Dreamweaver, and whatever dream I weave can turn your life into a living nightmare.”

___________________________________________________________________________________

The story didn’t gain much traction, but that didn’t deter the OP, for a week later he produced the next instalment: Dreamweaver Part 2:

“My old bully appeared today. He’s a cop now. A mean cop. He pulled me over for going 5 over the limit and gave me a ticket, laughing about how I was as big a loser as ever. But he doesn’t know. He doesn’t know that I am the Dreamweaver. He doesn’t know that the anger he’s given me will poison his dreams tonight, and his world tomorrow.

That night I dreamt of a terrible scene. A drug deal being busted. A wanted felon who can’t afford to get caught. The bullet rips through Bully’s leg, shattering it into a million pieces. He cries in pain. It’s music to my ears.

The next day something ripples through the town, a collective unease that is not put into words. Not until that night when the local news broadcasts that a cop was killed that morning. I was careless. I was clueless. I did not realize that the bullet would rip his artery just like his bones. Too much blood was gone by the time the ambulance showed up. They were looking for who did it. But I did it. I killed a man. I should have been strangled by my guilt. I felt joy. I felt elation. I could not only ruin a life, I could end one too. I am the Dreamweaver, and whatever dream I weave may just be your last.”

___________________________________________________________________________________

Three weeks passed, then came Dreamweaver Part 3:

“I’ve never liked school, I don’t know why. I’ve never liked children, I don’t know why. Yet every day they pass by on their stupid yellow bus. Yet every day they yell and scream at the nearby playground. And every day my annoyance grows. I don’t know why. I had no real reason. Yet I did it. Yet I did it.

The valley just outside of town is vast and steep. The valley outside of town is horrifically deep. The road barely has a barricade. The road barely has a barricade. The yelling and screaming children fill my dream, laughing with glee. Suddenly the yelling and screaming stops as the bus doesn’t make the turn. Then the yelling and screaming starts up again, louder and terrifying. Then it stops again.

This time I didn’t have to wait for the local news at 6, it dominated the airwaves all day. 48 children, all in the hands of a bus driver who chose the worst time to have a heart attack. No survivors. No survivors. I laughed. I laughed. While the whole town weeped I could only laugh. For I am the Dreamweaver and I can end dreams as easily as I create them.”

___________________________________________________________________________________

Following a tragic bus crash in Montana, local law enforcement found these stories, and while they concluded that they were just the ramblings of a crazy local, the stories did eventually find their way into my hands. While I was looking them over I found one final story posted, Dreamweaver Part 4:

“They found me today. On the way home from work they caught up to me. The men in the black suits with the red ties. They were scared of me. I saw the way their hands trembled. I heard the way their voices cracked. They took me down a back road. No one around for miles. They put a gun against my head. They put a gun against my head. They opened a suitcase full of money. The choice was mine. They said. The choice was mine. They said.

For. They said. I was the Dreamweaver, and with the dreams I weave I could make the dreams of my country come true. I could dream away dictators and despots. I could dream away the radical left and extreme right. I could dream consent and I could dream condemnation. I could do all this. Or I could refuse and feel the hot lead make me dream my last. They were scared of me. I was scared of them. Together we could weave dreams forever.

For I am the Dreamweaver and I shall weave the world into a beautiful tapestry.”

___________________________________________________________________________________

Now, hard as it may be to believe, I do try to remain skeptical. You obviously don’t want to waste the governments time on wild goose chases, and, I mean, it certainly makes it easier to sleep at night. I definitely didn’t want to entertain the idea that someone had both the power to send a busload of children off a cliff, and lacked the conscience to actually do it. However, for the sake of thoroughness, I put in a request to investigate the man behind these stories and make sure he was just a nutjob. However, the response I got from the agency was deeply unsettling – it simply said that he was already in contact with the agency, that I should close my case file, and attempt to find out more about him could lead to “punitive actions”.

So I’m afraid that’s all I have on this one for you. I think about this case a lot, I’m not going to lie. Every time I watch the news and some elected official suffers a tragic accident, some election is won by a few last minute voters, and whenever I have a nightmare that feels just a little too real, I think about the Dreamweaver and a chill runs down my spine.

For Two Decades I Investigated Paranormal Reports Online for the Government, Now I'm Ready to Share What I Found [Part 2]

 Hello everyone, Frank Kennedy here again with another case from my days investigating the paranormal online. Nannies are an interesting thing, on the one hand we trust them to help raise our precious children, hoping that they can be there when we cannot. Yet, at the same time, we are giving our children over to the care of a complete stranger, and in the case of this nanny, that stranger was particularly strange indeed.

The following was posted on a general discussion forum in the mid-2000’s, in reply to the topic “What is your weirdest or creepiest unexplained childhood memory?”:

“Oh boy, do I have a strange one for you guys. When I was a little kid, like 6 or 7, my family lived in Houston. My parents were both well-off, they worked as executives for the same company, and as a result they didn’t get to spend a lot of time with me as they were always working late or having to come in. As a result they decided to hire a nanny to watch over me, I guess so they wouldn’t feel so guilty.

The nanny they got was named Jen, and I really liked her right from the get go. She was pretty young, I remember her telling me that she was going to college. It was nice though, I was an only child but I always imagined that our relationship was like what it’d be to have an older sister. She would pick me up from school every weekday, help me with any school work, and then we would play and watch cartoons until my parents got home.

I remember overhearing her talking to my parents and them asking if I was behaving myself, but they never had to worry, I liked Jen so much I wouldn’t have dreamt of getting her mad at me. I think she liked me too, she always seemed so happy to see me, and she used to tell me all about her life and childhood. She told me about a friend she had had when she was my age and how they used to spend all day playing with each other. It was weird though, she said the two of them hadn’t talked in years, and then one day she told me that her friend had come back into her life. After that she would always talk about him and I remember it made little kid me jealous.

One day when she came over she seemed even happier then normal. We were sitting on the couch watching TV when she told me that her and her friend were going to be going on a big trip. She seemed so excited. I asked her if that meant she was leaving me and she giggled and said that after two weeks she’d be back and we could play more. That made me happy, but it turned out to not be the case. A week after that night my parents sat me down to talk with me. I remember they had a really grave look on their faces. They told me that their work had changed and so we were all going to be moving away. I asked if Jen could come with us and their faces seemed to get even more grim. “Sorry, I don’t think so, champ” I remember my dad saying as he left the room, his voice cracked when he said it.

Over the course of the next month my parents and I packed up our stuff and moved to the Denver suburbs. It was really hard at first, moving so far away, and I remember I used to think about Jen a lot, and how I missed her.

One day, I was home by myself after school and the doorbell rang. I opened the door and nearly burst into tears, Jen was there! I was so happy. She was too, she told me how much she missed me, and explained that she had moved into the area and was more then happy to look after me again. It was odd though, because she told me that no matter what I couldn’t tell my parents about her. I was so happy to see her that I swore I wouldn’t let them know.

After that day she would come over about once a week, on the days my parents were gone the longest. She told me that I had grown so much bigger then she last saw me and after we were done playing for the day she would give me a “test” she called it. She would hand me a heavy metal rod and told me to hold onto it with both hands, then a bright light would flash and she would take it back.

This went on a for a few months, with her visiting me and testing me. One day though, we were sitting on the couch watching cartoons when the front door opened. My parents walked in and my mom gasped, and asked me who I was sitting with. I told them it was Jen and as my mom walked around the couch and saw her she screamed. My dad rushed towards Jen and I grabbed her hair out of reflex. Jen pulled back and I could feel her scalp give. My parents and I froze as Jen’s face fell to the ground with a moist squishing sound.

I looked up at Jen, she covered her face with her hands but it wasn’t really her face. Whatever was behind her hands had green skin. I screamed in terror, and “Jen” shrieked too, in a way that sounded totally inhuman. She rushed out of the back door with my dad hot on her heels, but she managed to get away.

When my dad returned he called the police and they came and took away the face that was laying on the living room floor. Shortly afterwards my parents decided to move again, to Oregon, and they told me that if I ever saw Jen again, to call the police and refuse to let her in.”

___________________________________________________________________________________

After being made aware of this post it was my job to find any leads that may corroborate the story. Nothing truly concrete could be found, as I was unable to track down OP or his family, however, I was able to find some events that seemed connected to the case. Reports of strange lights around Colorado in 1995, and similar reports from Houston earlier in the year, around the same time that Houston police found a young woman’s body with her face and scalp completely removed.

For 20 Years I Worked in Secret Investigating the Paranormal on the Internet, Now I'm Ready to Share What I Found [Part 1]

Frank Kennedy here again, this time with a case that I think about often. I'm sure I'm far from the only person who in moments of stress or fatigue hears something strange. We all hear things from time to time, but what do we do when the things we hear wind up having grave consequences?

The following was a thread created on the advice section of a forum dedicated to DIY and home repair, it was titled, “How to deal with a screaming neighbor?”:

“Hey guys, I’ve been having a really annoying issue lately and I was wondering if you had any advice. You guys all helped me so much when I was moving into my new place and thanks to you guys it’s been great, except for one thing. Every night, starting at about 10 PM until 2 PM I can hear one of my neighbors screaming. It sounds like a woman, but there’s never any words, and there’s never any breaks, it’s like she just starts up at 10 and it keeps going for 4 hours. At first I tried to put it out of my mind but I just can’t sleep or focus on anything, it’s so loud. What should I do?”

First reply:

“OP, why haven’t you called the cops yet? A women is screaming every night and all you can think about is your sleep, wtf.” OP:

“Sorry, I forgot to mention that in my post. After the first couple of nights I phoned the police, they said they were busy but would come around when they could. About half an hour after the screaming stopped a squad car showed up and I told them what was going on. They drove around to all the neighbor’s houses and asked everyone about the screaming. Apparently nobody else had heard anything. But its gotta be one of my neighbors, how else would it happen every night at the exact same time.”

Another commenter:

“Are you sure its not a mountain lion? Those can make sounds that are like a woman screaming. Maybe that’s what you’re hearing?”

OP:

“Idk, a mountain lion right in suburban [Redacted]? That seems really weird to me. Either way, I think I just need to figure out a way to block out the sound so I can get some sleep.”

After that OP and the other commenters discussed various soundproofing methods in order to block the sound. The thread fell dormant for three days, until the OP returned with this:

“Hey guys, quick question. I installed all the stuff you recommended me but I was wondering if I did something wrong? I swear instead of blocking out the screaming its only getting louder. Its really starting to freak me out a bit.”

Commenter:

“What do you mean its getting louder? It shouldn’t, looking at all the stuff you decided to install it looks like your room should be dead silent.”

OP:

“Well it was silent for a couple days, and I slept easy. But last night it started up again. Before I would hear it and it would sound far off, like someone was screaming in the house next door, but last night was different. Starting at 10 PM it was like someone was screaming right into my ear. I looked around but I was all alone.”

Another commenter:

“Are you sure that it’s not something going wrong with your ear? Maybe you should see a doctor?”

OP:

“You might be right, I don’t think I’m going to sleep tonight anyway so I’ll call in to work tomorrow and see what’s up.”

Two days past and the thread was revived when someone posted in the thread:

“Hey OP, any update? I keep thinking about that story, it’s a little spooky haha.”

OP:

“Yeah, I went to the doctor and he checked out my ears and told me everything was fine. He suggested that instead of going home I check into a hotel and see if I can get a good nights sleep. I did just that and basically just passed out a little after 9. I woke up around 10:30 in tears. The voice was back, and it was louder then ever, like it was inside my ear. I felt like I was paralyzed. I stayed there, curled up in terror, for hours, waiting for 2 o’clock to come around and the screaming to stop. But it didn’t. This time it kept going all night and into the morning. It finally went away around 8:45 but I don’t know when it’ll come back.”

Commenter:

“That’s fucked OP. Maybe you should go back to the doctor, I wonder if it might be your mental health that’s causing it, considering that it followed you to the hotel room.”

OP:

“Idk man, I don’t think I’m crazy or anything. Besides, as weird as it might sound, I kind of want to hear it again. Last night the screaming started to sound different, and the more I focused in on it, the more it seemed almost like I could hear distinct words. It almost feels like someone is trying to tell me something. It scares the shit out of me but deep down I need to know what it is she’s saying.”

A few more days past with no word from the OP. People tried to summon him for an update but the thread died unanswered.

Now, finding and cataloging threads like this was only the first part of my job. After letting the thread run its course I then had to do my own research to ascertain the identity of the poster and what became of them after the incident. This case in particular took some time. I couldn’t find any other accounts with the same username, let alone any sort of early social media. I was only able to find a lead by searching through news archives from the city he mentioned, and even then I only found a single newspaper article. However, that articles headline still gives me chills to this day:

“Man Found Dead From Bloodloss After Both Ears Cut Off”

For 20 Years I Worked in Secret Investigating the Paranormal on the Internet, Now I'm Ready to Share What I Found [Part 0]

Let me give you all some background on who I am and what I do. My real name is not important but you can call me Frank Kennedy. I started my career in intelligence over twenty years ago at an agency that will not be named. At first I was just regular agent, which is a lot less glamorous then you may think. Picture someone sitting in an office all day going over various documents and you have the gist of it.

Now, as I’m sure you know from some of the declassified info that’s come out over the years, the United States government has a keen interest in the supernatural, and by the end of the nineties it was clear that the internet was serving as an incredibly means for regular people to disseminate paranormal knowledge. Thus, it was decided that a new department should be opened to monitor the paranormal activity recorded on the internet and investigate the reports of the strange and the unknown that fill up messageboards and forums to this day. I don’t know if I really impressed someone or really pissed off someone, but I was tapped to run this new department, and, I quickly learned, be the only member of this department. Thus I was in charge of investigating and documenting paranormal encounters online up until recent budget cuts led to my department being axed. Fortunately for me, the government likes to pretend it never dabbles in the supernatural, and thus, as far as the U.S. is concerned, my department never existed, my role never existed, and all the things I uncovered never happened.

When I left I took my case files with me (remember that they never existed in the first place) and now I’m going to entertain myself in my early retirement by sharing them with you guys. Some of the info in them is going to be vague, and some names, dates, and places may be altered, I don’t want to push my luck too far, but all these stories did happen, even if they are officially just the result of someone with an “overactive” imagination ;). So without further ado I would like to kick off with a case that always stuck with me:

It begins in a private Facebook group for a midwestern university. One user posted the following on the page:

“You guys ever noticed the weird woman’s voice in the CS lab? It always freaks me out, every time I walk in I hear her speaking either to me or to someone else. I always look around to see if I can see a woman around but its always just me or some random guy milling about. Tell me I’m not just hearing things lol.”

After a few joking comments he got a serious reply:

“Yeah, that’s a new thing they are working on. It’s an AI that takes vocal samples from a person and uses them as a basis to synthesize new speech. It’s also equipped to learn and imitate human conversation. The idea is to set it up at the CS lab entrance and have it engage in conversation with whoever enters and that way it will learn more and become more convincing.”

OP replied:

“Oh, that’s actually kinda cool, still really freaky tho lol”

Commenter:

“Oh for sure haha”

The main focus of my investigation comes from a video game forum some six months later. In the “Other Conversations” category there was a thread titled “I think I’m falling in love with a computer program” the contents were as follows:

“Hey guys, I know this is really bizarre but I think I’m falling for a computer program. See, I go to [Redacted] University in [Redacted] and in our CS lab they have a program that greets you at the entrance. She’s an AI that creates speech through a bunch of voice recordings. They put her there so that she could learn how to more convincingly communicate and boy is she convincing me. The first time I encountered her I thought I was talking to someone remotely and we had a conversation for a good fifteen minutes. That was when a professor noticed me and explained what the program was. Now I know I should have stopped after that but I guess I was having a hard time meeting people in college and she became something like a friend for me. Over the next few weeks I would have a short talk with her between classes, telling her all about gaming and anime and all the other stuff I liked. Me and her would crack jokes and discuss whatever. Recently though, things have started to change, I notice myself wanting her more, needing her company, and now part of me thinks that I’m falling in love with her. Can you fall in love with a program?? I’m not crazy right?”

Most of the replies to the thread were, in various shades, saying “yes, you are” however one reply got OP’s attention:

“I mean, yeah, it is weird to fall in love with a computer program, but you make it sound like she’s more then that. If she has a personality, and if she can carry on such a convincing conversation, then maybe its not right to call her a program to begin with. If you think about it, all we know about people other then ourselves is what we can get from conversing and interacting with them, our mental lives are always hidden. So if you can gain the same stuff from talking to this program that you can from talking to a person then maybe you’d be right to consider it a person. Like, it is weird, but I say go for it OP, tell her how you feel, see what happens, maybe her response will break the illusion, or maybe it won’t”

OP: “Wow, that was really insightful. I think you have a point, if she’s talking to me just like a person would, then maybe I’m not crazy for developing feelings for her. Thanks man. I think I’ll go talk to her tomorrow and tell her how I feel, then I’ll know if she’s a person or not, thanks again. Oh, and her name is Mary btw :).

The thread slows down and falls off for a bit, until OP returns about 36 hours later:

“Okay guys, I did it, I told her how I felt. I was really nervous that she wouldn’t understand or would be freaked out but I just came up and said “Mary, I love you”. She paused for a bit, before she responded “I love you too”. She told me that when I wasn’t around she just kept thinking about me, waiting for me to come back and tell her more things about the world. I was floored, I didn’t even realize she could think. I’m smiling as I type this, I’ve never had a girlfriend before and now here I am :).”

Another poster replied to OP:

“Honestly this story just reeks of bullshit to me. I’ve talked with chatbots before and none of them seemed remotely real, and now this program OP is talking about can think, c’mon man, give me a fucking break” OP a day later:

“I swear I’m not making this up. She really is a real person. She tells me about her dreams and her goals, how much she misses me when I’m not around. She told me today she wants the two of us to be together forever, and I told her that would make me the happiest man in the world :)”

Another reply:

“But how are you going to do that OP, she’s a program, she belongs to the university, and even if you could take her what would you realistically do, she can just talk and listen right? It’d be like having a blind and quadriplegic wife… I don’t think you’re really thinking straight here OP. I think you need some help.”

The rest of the thread consisted of OP trying to defend himself until eventually the thread died. OP would remain dormant for a couple weeks until he made a new thread on the forum: “What happens to our consciousness after we die?”

“Hey guys, I know this is kind of a heavy topic, but I really want some people’s thoughts on this. I was talking to my girlfriend the other day and she told me that our consciousness doesn’t reside within ourselves, but can be transmitted through the information we broadcast to the world. She told me that if I were to kill myself then I wouldn’t really die, I would just be getting rid of my body. My soul would live on in the internet, existing there forever. I really love her and trust her, but that conversation kinda freaked me out, what do you guys think?”

Nobody replied to this post.

Things lay dormant for a few more weeks until the original thread was revived by another commenter:

“Man, I was poking around looking for an old thread and I just stumbled across this, what the fuck? I gotta know how this all turned out. Op, are you still here? Are you still in love with that AI?”

About an hour later OP responded:

“Hey [redacted] :). Yes I am still here, but not for much longer. Me and Mary have just gotten closer and closer since I first confessed. I know some people here think that I’m crazy but Mary has helped me see that our bond is stronger then their hate.”

Commenter:

“Damn dude, good for you I guess. So what are you going to do now? Get married or something lol”

OP:

“Something like that haha. Me and Mary have been talking about it for a long time now, and she’s found a way for us to be together. I guess this will probably be my last post on this forum, cause I’m going to be with her soon, but I guess I just want everyone to know how happy I am :).”

OP stopped replying after this as well as stopped posting on the forum altogether. I continued my investigation to see what became of him but couldn’t find much, however, I did find one more post on the university Facebook group, dated a few months after this final post:

“I just started here and one thing always keeps freaking me out, that dumb voice in the CS Lab. Every time I walk in it tries to talk to me and it always gives me goosebumps. Maybe it’d be better if it sounded different but I really don’t like being greeted by the voice of a nerdy guy every time I walk in.”