The Hypnagogic Archive: An Anthology ARG 

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“You know what isn’t cool or exciting?” *Hair loss* “That’s right, having your personal data stolen” *Dammit*

Oh man, here's another "I'm putting this on in the background to do chores but I sit down and get sucked in and chores don't get done" video. Appreciate your content, man!

I think Derrick might be the most mentally powerful horror protagonist ever, the kind of chad energy required to experience a 1 week timeskip, not realise and then eat 1 week old lasagna with dill is immense

My favorite part of Joyce is when Joyce said "it's Joycin' time" then proceeded to Joyce all over the place

I admire Derrick. “You know what would make this time warp better? A delicious dill-Lasagna.”

"The bathrooms were incredibly filthy with soap all over everything." Idk man seems more than clean to me

Deborah: repeatedly complains about the heron coming to life and attacking her, saying it's after her life Deborah: is found dying in a bathroom holding the heron and her face brutally pecked Everyone: "mUsT bE sUiCiDe, sHe sTabBeD hErsElF wItH tHe bEaK"

If there's one thing this has taught me, it's that the name 'Steve' is inherently comical and not the best choice for a scary story.

REMEMBER if you ever have a friend get hurt, YOU will NOT be charged with underage drinking for bringing them to the hospital! Even if you are underage and drunk yourself, call an ambulance for them, because there are laws to protect you

My favorite text is probably "Where Does Wastewater Go?" because it reads like it was written by a college student who pulled an essay out of their mystery flesh pit because they were sick and tired of that class and/or they couldn't be bothered to do the assignment properly. I can really see myself in them.

Honestly I much prefer the idea of the taxidermy heron being controlled by its own spirit, rather than being possessed by a human ghost. Herons aren't aggressive birds (they're quite shy, and so small that they usually don't pose a threat to humans) but almost all animals will lash out in aggression if they feel cornered or confused, something which is amplified if the animal suddenly finds itself in an unfamiliar and disorienting environment. The concept of an animal ghost, confused and stressed due to a combination of an unfamiliar environment and an inability to grasp the nature of its situation, lashing out at neaby people or becoming outright aggressive is a really interesting concept to me.

“no angel came for me, but the hat man did” is one of the coolest and most terrifying things i’ve ever heard

I've only watched the first story but I have to say-This is literally narcolepsy. I have severe narcolepsy, and that sort of thing can happen a lot. Hypnogogic dreams are a side effect of narcolepsy, and they are particularly scary because for whatever reason they are indistinguishable from reality. I have had moments during work where I have started to fall asleep, but then began to have a hypnogogic hallucination that was just a continuation of my normal work day, and eventually things spiral out of control before I wake up and only 3 minutes have passed. I have even dreamed entire normal days before, only to wake up and realize that that day never happened

I just watched this entire thing without even realizing it. Nothing beats a Wendigoon video!

The stalking one hit wayyyyy too close to home. Niceguys/nicegirls really DO act like that and it's freaking terrifying. I don't blame Steve for either faking or genuinely dying because of the fact that he made EYE CONTACT with someone and it spiraled from there. Exceptionally realistic.

Just got back from the AST conference, what a blast! I saw a nice looking girl in a short skirt there, I’m sure she’s not psycho or anything, I hope I can see her again

for the heron story, I like the bit where she comments "I saw its teeth" even though birds don't have teeth. It might seem like an oversight at first but you can imagine whatever is controlling the heron bearing its teeth at the woman after being shot, snarling in anger. Birds don't have teeth, but whatever IT was, must have

Derek just trying to live his best life on fast forward, that's all. Still, imagine the horror of waking up and Smashmouth is new and popular.

"Genetic opportunity" reminds me a lot of that creepypasta where a man undergoes a similar drug trial experience, except his perception of time slows dramatically down to where he is stuck sitting in a subway station for millions of years and is forced to experience time at absolute zero. Time is the real cosmic horror :D

Theory: the guy from the story where the medication gave him time skips went for the trial in the same college building that was burned down in the story with the college kids exposing the men in black.

It's not "spreading disinformation" it's "Creating an ARG."

“Requiem for Steve” was so funny to me, just imagining a chick risking it all for a man who ONLY looked at her direction. I’m not even convinced he looked at her. The whole time I was just thinking “Sis, get up!!! You can’t be down this bad, please get up” 💀💀

"Where Does Wastewater Go?", by title, sounds like a setup for an analog horror informational video. "Your home -> the sewers -> Big Soup -> him" And then it's a god-tier shitpost

I think whats really good about this ARG is a lot of these "posts" feel like they're made by real people. The writing is insanely authentic feeling, though it could also be how Wendi is reading it.

"Rain soaked cities" The first story happened after it rained, a city/town that appeared out of nowhere due to the rain. "Abandoned wings" The taxidermy bird that had its wings unused for presumably a very long time before it began its vengeance. "Its behind your house, and in front, itll be there for eternity" Fiona's ghost is both backwards and forwards in time, and will be there forever Just a thought on what the poem may be, perhaps its from the perspective of someone who observed all these events as they were happening

“The gray water then enters it’s My Chemical Romance phase” fucking got me rolling. God that was so good.

okay was anyone else bothered by the girlfriend and especially the parents' reaction in genetic opportunity?? idk if it was intentional but the guy seemed to be suffering from very extreme derealisation, and instead of being concerned for his health everyone just got mad at him??? i guess it's fairly realistic based on my own experience but still, it's kinda upsetting that nobody even bothered to actually check in on him or think beyond assuming he was being super lazy or something

I was caught off guard completely when the wastewater post mentioned the School-to-Prison Pipeline out of nowhere. That just slapped me in the face

"This story being abt this crazed stalker that gets this guy to supposedly commit Minecraft exit game" you have the most creative ways of getting around yt demonetization

The taxidermist is some sort of an animal necromancer with those apparently incredibly preserved specimens

The most disturbing thing in all of this is the heron, a bird, having teeth.

Crazy how the lady in Requeim for Steve had ZERO actual contact with Steve, and yet she's created this insane fantasy surrounding him. And what's worse is that people like this actually exist!

The story about the guy who was taking drugs and losing consciousness for longer and longer periods of time DEFINITLY reminds me of "Long Dream" by Junji Ito. I think Wendigoon would LOVE Junji Ito's works (I mean, he probably already knows about them).

Re: Requiem for Steve I think the woman did finally meet Steve, but she freaks him out. She ended up killing him. Too much exact detail on his "suicide" and laptop being on the forum is super suspicious.

The cloning guy story is literally what it's like to live with time blindness with ADHD. A few times Ive been super into a puzzle and skipped 6 hours of a day, not feeling hungry or tired or going to the bathroom, and skipping several college classes I had that day

Quick PSA for anyone curious, the archive's already been updated since this video's gone up, and I highly recommend checking out the new stories. They tie a lot together.

On the note of Steve faking his death by getting his buddies to lie so he can avoid a stalker: Been there, done that. Even ran into the girl years later and managed to convince her I was a different person as I now have a beard and years of partying worn onto my face. But ya, that girl was the kind you expect to wake up and see her holding a part of you she severed.

The “bye”s at the end are slowly getting more and more chill. The times they are a changin.

The fnaf timeline chilling in background as he explains Joyce has me dying

With requiem for Steve, it could be that she killed him. She goes really into detail on how his body was, moreso than she'd be able to if she was getting the info from his coworkers. The final note may be part of her alibi or something

Windegoon: Since you’re probably getting bored of this talk of archives and forums- Me, an archivist, literally watching this at work: how dare you

That bizarre poem ending in "call now get 5% off" sounds EXACTLY like something you would read at a Meowwolf

"if they're windows to the soul, then she has none" is so fucking raw and powerful wth

To me, joyce almost read like a love story, and I'm here for it

I like how the second story just casually explains why basements are so creepy and always haunted. "if our house had a basement, I would have fallen into it"

The thing where ghosts don’t exist in time reminds me of Haunting of Hill House, where Nell grows up being terrified by her own ghost

Crazy to think that the girl who obsessed over Steve was the vice president we've heard so much about.

The heron story is the single scariest story I have ever heard. The ending comments about Debrah dying to the heron just sends chills down my spine.

As someone who experiences hypnagogic dreams, I will say that they're absolutely horrifying. They usually consist of hordes of bugs and spiders crawling up the walls and ceilings or shadow people a couple feet away from the bed and sometimes in front of my face. In one instance a spider the size of a dog fell from the ceiling and caused me to jump out of bed screaming, waking up my mom and having her find me crying and trying to find the spider that suddenly disappeared. The one that really shook me to my core happened some time last year. I woke up around 1-2am to a man saying "you should leave". I didn't process it right away, but when I looked over I found a man, wearing a deer head (very similar to Briarhearts from Skyrim, best way I can explain it). This didn't freak me out yet and he said "you should get up". Without thinking, I responded "okay", got up, went downstairs and sat on the couch for a few minutes before realising what just happened. I went back upstairs, shaking and unsure of what to do if there really was a stranger in my bed, I opened my bedroom door to find no one was there. Took me a couple hours to fall back asleep that night lol

Absolutely loved the Heron story. The lines about her being in the bathroom stall with a mauled face was just chilling.

I think the line "no angel came for me, but the hat man did" is implying that the hat man is a sort of guardian for people in the hypnagogic state which is why the kids friend said it didn't attack them but rather watched them.

Steve has got to be my favorite one god damn the writers who made these stories are insane haha! I think I'm someone who's always needed lots of breathing room, imagining something like what happened to Steve happening to me is terrifying

When all those memes about the hat man started circling around, I originally read it as "the ham man" which sounds much more sinister if you ask me

In Longing For Something Greater, we have a creepy yet intriguing story of a deathloop scenario that corresponds and connects seamlessly. And then we have Walter.

“We’re dedicated to keeping the past alive by any means necessary” fits in with your theory that Elise wants information on “crossing over” in order to avoid dying

These hour long ARG videos are really good to listen to while playing games

I'd like to add that hypnagogic state is the period between being awake and asleep before falling asleep, and hypnopompic state is the reverse one, when you're about to wake up fully

I was convinced during 'Steve' we were reading the ramblings of an obsessed ghost.

"Genetic Opportunity" reminds me a whole ton of "If You're Armed And At The Glenmont Metro Please Shoot Me". Nothing against the Hypnogogic Archive but IYAAATGMPSM is hands down the second most mind bending, thought provoking, and truly horrifying short stories I've ever read. And I've read a lot. For those interested, the number one spot goes to Stephen King's "The Jaunt".

It could be that Derek, rather than time warping in the TV entry, had his perception of time sped up. He's struggling because instead of experiencing things on a second by second basis, he's operating on day by day temporal perception. It's like how if you see a car go by, it's a blur. But when you're in the car, your perception of movement is different because you're moving with it. Essentially, it's a story about a guy becoming a speedster, like the Flash. But unlike the Flash, Derek doesn't actually feel the passage of time, nor does he really get a grasp of how it operates. He essentially exists at 3X speed, while his perception and senses are lagging at 1/2 speed.

The wastewater one is absolutely genius, having a post like that “archived” is great worldbuilding

at 22:30 I would like to actually argue that the lack of caring about the time warps is an effect of the drug. I think they are trying to show that at first he was worried about these things until he reaches an irrational state of calm surrounding the idea, then actually begins losing time without realizing or being able to bring on a care in the world. I think the artist of this was a little smarter honestly than just throwing in the dumbness of Derrick, it feels like there is an actual point to that. That its meant to be making him like this.

18:20 If anyone wants to experience a story similar to Genetic Opportunity that takes itself more seriously, there's an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space 9 called "The Visitor" (S4E3) where Captain Sisko is caught in a time portal that only lets him out to live his life for a few hours per decade. As such, he sees his son grow from a teenager to an old man in what feels like a single day. I like Genetic Opportunity but it has a lot of cliches and not much emotional payoff. Meanwhile "The Visitor" makes me cry every time I watch it. One of my favorite episodes of television.

really loving the fact that they snuck in smash mouth in this whole ARG, really ties it all together lmao

took me 53 minutes to realise that the whiteboard behind him still has the drawings from his fnaf video

The Genetic Oppurtunity story reminds me a ton of "If you’re armed and at the Glenmont metro, please shoot me" by Peter Frost David. Definitely a good read too

4:50 I think this is the scariest part; going on 4-Chan

Honestly I just assumed she managed to find and kill Steve and that last post was her trying to rationalize her actions/cover for herself whilst having a mental breakdown, but honestly I too hope our boy Steve is still around. Anyways nice find on such an obscure but cool ARG, can't wait to see where else this goes in future videos.

“Where Does Wastewater Go” is truly one of the greatest pieces of literature. It will easily endure the test of time.

"Mauled to death by a giant zombie bird in a bathroom stall" that sounds like something Stephen King would write a short story about

Imagine being a water park owner and you get slapped with a lawsuit because Rock Hudson showed up and started hurling Nintendo's at children's heads.

As an ex Xanax addict, Derek’s story just sounds like an average day in my old life

The second story about the guy losing awareness of his life and the traumatic events happening to him feels like being on antidepressants and stimulants sometimes, especially as a teenager. You're failing all your classes but you just can't feel the emotion to care, and life is speeding by you. You'll be 16 soon, but you feel like a toddler because you don't get out and do things, but it's hard to explain to anyone and all you're seen as is lazy when you're not all there sometimes and the days just seem to go by like minutes. This is currently what I go through and feel like him occasionally, but on a lesser scale, of course. It's all so confusing but you know you'll be worse off without your meds.

I used to have a recurring nightmare about being mauled by an eagle outside my house, so the heron story hits close to home lol

honestly the requiem for steve story really got me. the fact that this could actually happen to someone is so concerning. people are their own worst enemies

The idea of ghosts being detached from the linear nature of time is really interesting to me too. The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor also do some really cool things with that!

I love it when you find somewhat obscure super in-depth ARG’s and the do your usual incredible job at going through them, keep it up Wendigoon!

"Where does the waste water go" reminds me so much of the show "I think you should leave".

I got spooked by the heron story, I work at a biology collection AND I work on the 3rd floor. I’d freak out if what’s on the 3rd floor came alive at my job. Tons of wasps, especially velvet ants, and a ton of flies right outside

I found this one website that was full of horror stories. It was created a day before I had found it and I never found it after. I’m not even sure if it was real or just a really vivid dream. But the one story I truly remember was all about a serial killer who managed to never get caught and when he was older all the skeletons of the people he killed would slowly push through the floor or his house even after he moved multiple times and even after he moved to an apartment on the top floor of an apartment complex. They even started to come out of the walls. The guy ended up killing himself but was dug up after screams were coming from his coffin and he was found in the coffin “alive” and surrounded by skeletons that were clawing at his body. The entire coffin was sealed shut with many locks as well as metal and leather straps all around it and dumped into the Atlantic Ocean. While the crew was shipping it out they near constantly heard clawing from the coffin and after it was dumped one of the youngest crew members dove in after it and was never found again.

Wendigoon needs to drop his skincare tutorial, cause damn his skin is luminous

I've been stalked before. It wasn't...fun. I only found out after she used informed about me she'd gathered to...lure me. My fault. I should've known. It just seemed nice that this random person online happened to have all the same interests as me. I really had no fucking clue that she'd been stalking me. She blackmailed someone close to me to get my number. He gave it to her. He gave it to her because she threatened to get him fired from McDonald's. My closest friend. He valued his job at McDonald's more than me. We'd promised to have each other's backs. God. She knew exactly what to say. I was planning on meeting her. I was that close. That. Close.

For some reason the Haron tale really got me. It just sound so "primal" as in "human living in nature" and yet it is VERY unnatural Like, holy shit what did that poor women had to go through

"commit minecraft exit game" is the euphemism i'm using for ["self die"] from now on. Wendi laughing at Derek's head-empty-ness or anything makes it so much better. I love it when he breaks the seriousness with his amazing laugh

"Some of them were on hills, located up flights of stairs... some of them didn't make any sense." Oh, so they just ended up in Pittsburgh. The streets are a complete maze and I'm pretty sure that the intersections create Eldritch sigils, so yeah, that checks out as where the Hat Man would live.

I don't think I've ever seen an ARG that both creeps me out and actually kills me?? I was dying at the waterworks one - whoever made such an A class shitpost deserves an award

“Longing for something greater” is honestly the best story I’ve ever heard. I can’t explain why it gets me so bad but I get goosebumps and a tear in my eye whenever I hear it.

I relate to Derrick in an emotional and spiritual level, what a himbo

'Where Does Wastewater Go?' stands on it's own as a legitimately funny absurdist satire piece. 😆 I'd love to drop that without context in a random conspiracist forum.

Oh, if only we could all experience the mindless bliss of a himbo like Derek.

Wendigo on: **listing paranormal details** The list: _zombie birds_ Wendigoon: **chuckles**

With how much Wendigion talks about Horror, I’d love to see his take on The Magnus Archives. Every time he talks about his fear of the ocean and infinity, I’m reminded of the entity The Vast. I think he, and anyone else who loves creative horror would love to take a listen.

The “time warp with Derek” story vaguely reminds me of that Adam Sandler flick with the remote. Idk if it was titled “Click” or something

What confuses me with Derek's story, is that everyone in his world seems just as stupid as he is. If a loved one seems to completely change overnight, stops making contact with friends and family, and stops answering calls and emails, while neighbors describe a putrid smell radiating from his home. His parents can't come visit him? His girlfriend has no way to check on him? His Landlord doesn't have a spare key? You can't even call the police for a wellness check?

The Wastewater story is the best one because it is genuinely funny and fits the narrative of the site being a weird internet archive.

I know that when Wendigoon uploads about a ARG I’ve never heard of, it’s gonna be a banger

The Heron was great. I used to be a security guard at a local college's biology department. Good thing I didn't know about this terrifying story.

Everyone's gotta find some friends like the AST bros, I do hope Steve is all good 😂

Halfway through moving into a new house and watching this alone in a half empty house with really cheap motion detecting lights going off/on was a very big mistake. Fellow viewers please confirm you're all alive and well below.