The Strangest Internet Rabbit Holes 

There is no conspiracy theory with Ryan’s case, he needs mental health treatment and to log off reddit.

“Yes I am diagnosed with schizophrenia but that’s not why I’m hearing voices.” Yeah Ryan that’s exactly what a schizophrenic person would say lmao.

A good creepypasta would be someone going to a "vintage" arcade place, like those arcade bars and such, and seeing his/her own face on one of the machines. Then going into why their face with a different name appeared, not trusting who they thought were their parents, etc

The prank explanation is really likely for the shadow man. With a bit of prep time and knowing where the camera is and that it takes a photo exactly every hour it shouldn't be a hard stunt to pull off. My theory is that it's a cardboard standee of some sort. It's not uncommon for Japanese people to do pranks like this. There's some like that around Google Maps in general, like people wearing masks in a circle etc.

Textbook psychosis. I’ve experienced everything he described, been a diagnosed schizophrenic for a number of years now.

I don't even know why you included Ryan's story. He opens with I'm a diagnosed schizophrenic with bipolar disorder and recently took drugs. Anything said after that sort of becomes a moot point. Playing into his delusion is kind of in poor taste. Where's the rabbit hole? There's a ton of other actually strange posts on Reddit. I enjoyed the video overall just kind of lost me a bit towards the end with the paranoid ramblings of a mentally ill man

Ryan was me basically. Went to a festival in 2013 and ate way too much nbome laced acid. I went through psychosis on and off for years and it was absolutely terrifying. I hope he’s doing better.

My brother is schizophrenic and he would put newspapers over the vents in the house because there were ghosts in the walls. He would also see faces in piles of leaves, and on tree bark. It’s sad more than anything.

I worked as a call director at a mental health facility. Ryan is 100% have a schizophrenic episode. And it’s very real to the person experiencing and very terrifying. I hope he got the help he needs

If you have a predisposition for psychosis unfortunately psychedelics can trigger a full blown psychotic break. It feels very real to them and they usually display main character syndrome. I really hope he gets the help he needs and that he can get his life back on track

I recognize the shot from 21:43. It’s from a short indie horror film on RU-vid called 'No Through Road'. Hope this helps!

20:59 That animation is called "Francka" by Ana Čigon, originating from Slovenia It's based on one of the most famous and important slovenian novels, Na klancu by Ivan Cankar and the scene that is animated is one of the key moments from the novel, where Francka, a little girl from a very poor family, is trying to catch a wagon thats going to a church fair, but the people on the wagon refuse to stop to pick her up as they find her struggling and running behind them amusing. This event scars Francka for life and symbolizes her struggles to find a better life with no avail throughout the novel. (we just had this in school so I immediately recognised it lmao)

Buddy the female dancing in the hallway with the strange slowed down and sped up “edits” got me bro. I was just coming out of the bathroom and then I saw that. I almost threw my laptop out the window my guy.

Good, I was afraid the first one was going to be another Polybius video.

I truly felt for Ryan's story. As someone who struggles with mental health and has also been hospitalized for it, I've been pretty low as a result... I truly hope he finds a community to support him. Edit: thank you for the kind words. I'm in a much better place. I wish the same for you all ❤

The "neurological harassment" guy sounds exactly like my cousin, he developed schizophrenia after highschool, same story with the drugs. The first time I remember someone saying something incredibly bizarre was my mom. She said he had deeply scared her one day. She was driving him somewhere, just the two of them, and he started mumbling towards the backseat. He was twisting the way he was sitting and trying to adjust the mirrors. Getting increasingly agitated. Then he turned in his seat and started yelling and freaking out at the empty backseat. She asked him, "Who are you talking to???" And he snapped his head to look at her suspiciously and said something along the lines of, "So. You're in on it too, are you??? I can't believe this!! I trusted you!!" And she was like "WHAT??" And he lost it on her, screaming at her to stop pretending like the people in the backseat weren't there, saying everyone else was pretending they weren't there too, he couldn't believe she was in on it though, everyone is in on it. She said he was so scary. Like she was his favorite auntie. He had never been anything but kind and polite to her. She asked him what "it" was and he launched into this whole conspiracy. It was muddled but basically, there was this plot to make him look crazy, so everyone would think he's crazy, and the plot was to have these people constantly in the same room or car, any space, and they would taunt him and torture him and say he's crazy, and that everyone in his life had been made a part of the plot and so their part was to pretend those people weren't even there. It was such a dangerous delusion because the more you said there's no one there and he needs to see a doctor, the more he bought into the delusion and it like reaffirmed that the conspiracy was real. Unfortunately he passed away. My mom at the time did get him on meds and he actually went back to school and met a girl and they had a baby. But his delusions were very strong and he started to think the meds were swapped with pills to make him crazy and he stopped taking them. Got into drugs really bad and overdosed in his late 20s. Really tragic. That's not even the whole story, that was a rough time for my family, because his brother died that same summer. Schizophrenia is such a tough illness because one of the symptoms can be delusions about meds being fake or poison or mind control pills and the more you talk to them about schizophrenia the more they believe in their delusions.

I DO NOT LIKE that chick in the hallway. The way she jumps about....scares the hell outta me. Just so disturbing 16:16

I’m gonna look into that shadow man image more. Plan to translate more sites and blogs discussing it. Japanese is my college minor, so I hope to find more information

Virtual editing style is such a vibe 🧙‍♀️ please make these a series!

I’m sure this has probably been addressed, but sadly Ryan sounds as if he’s exhibiting all of the textbook behaviors of someone having a psychotic break and subsequently learning that they are schizophrenic with paranoia. I’m no psychiatrist, but worked many years as an ER nurse. The communities I worked in had an “over-abundance” (at least, according to our physicians, there were more than average) of clientele with psychiatric complaints. My older brother was/is a difficult to treat paranoid schizophrenic, as well, so I spent 12+ years inundated with a multitude of his incredibly scary behaviors when I was little. Because of this, I have heard first hand, helped to treat, and dealt directly with similar issues to Ryan’s several times over the years. The age Ryan is during his initial breakdown is pretty typical, from what I understand: usually late teens to young adulthood. A primary source of anxiety is often a perceived campaign of information gathering and/or telepathic communication (or sometimes subliminal targeting) aimed at the client. These stories also seem to follow common themes - the big three being religion, politics, and paranormally related elements. Since absolutely nobody would ever want the real life nightmare of being forever intertwined with delusions of running from a ruthless cabal of personalized antagonists, hell bent on spying on (or generally fucking with) your mind, you would think that more people would try to push our elected officials toward bringing back desperately needed funds for mental health care treatment - but: I digress... (clearly I’m an American, btw, so I have no ‘delusions’ about that ever happening soon) Schizophrenics can not be convinced that their hallucinatory experience isn’t real. To them, it is absolutely real. You won’t ever “talk them out of it”. However, it’s also not a good idea to pretend to be able to see, hear, or innately understand any hallucination or delusion that they experience. The best I was ever able to do for them was to be emotionally supportive and provide a safe living environment for them. I hope someday soon science is better able to decipher the pathophysiology of schizophrenia (my apologies if referring to it as a pathology is not PC, I’m not sure how else to phrase that) and provide effective, affordable treatment options. It’s fascinating and terrifying all at once: it has the ability to take creative, articulate, goal-driven, and intelligent people and leave them trapped inside a crippling maze of delusion and anxiety. Hopefully this young man has resources and a strong support system, because he will likely need both. Sorry this was so rambling, I’m way overtired and over-caffeinated. Great video! Thanks

Great video! Several years ago at my job we had this one repeat caller who I talked to 3-4 times. She was convinced she was being gang-stalked. As rude as she was, it was heartbreaking to know she'd been going through this for so long. I hope she's sought out therapy or mental health assistance since. I'll never forget her quizzing me to make sure I had notated the license plates of everyone she thought was part of it, saying it would be on us if she got murdered. Never figured out why she thought that, but man. Again. I just hope she's on the road to recovery.

Can we stop taking people's mental health struggles and be like "oOoOOh so spooky!!"? I get into these mystery videos for a good old spook and just end up feeling bad for these people and how their struggles are treated. There's ways to bring awareness to this kind of issues, this just ain't it.

The Ryan guy is one of two scenarios: either a very elaborate prankster / someone trying to create a weird ARG, or a guy who is experiencing very intense schizophrenia. Just a related side note: schizophrenia can develop in people who were otherwise showing no signs of mental illness in their childhood and young adolescence. It can also be potentiated by usage of certain drugs like psychidelics and other substances; in other words, individuals can develop schizophrenia or schizophrenia-like disorders from usage of drugs, even limited usage of these substances.

Oh, you had 4k sub when I subbed As I remember. Time is fast... Finally, you got the hype you deserved!

for the shadow man,, is it possible it’s a VERY underweight sun bear standing up? the fact that the “shadow person” clearly doesn’t have shoulders and has a very small head and is objectively long and lanky looking. That part of japan is rural as hell and obviously we know there’s no cars around or people walking, so it could have just kinda came into frame and stood there a little bit lmao

Another great vid, love the ambience and the way you present your videos! You're getting huge soon 👀

Well written script to this, which is unusual for YT Horror videos. Great work.

The Shadow Man picture seems even creepier knowing that whatever that was was either standing there for long enough for the camera to take a picture of it or that it somehow knew that the camera would take a picture then

Even though I'm 99% sure the shadow figure one was just photoshoped (other 1% being faked or staged in some other way) it still sorta freaks me out for some reason. Something about shadow figures creeps me out for some reason.

As is schizophrenic and has had similar delusions to Ryan’s, I think covering stories like his and presenting them in this context is dangerous. To the general public, it’s clear what he is experiencing is not actually happening, but when you talk about what he says as “so what is *actually* happening to Ryan? Is this psychosis brought upon by substance use?” that is way more than enough to trigger someone who has similar delusions to say “Aha, I knew there was more to these voices than what the doctors say!” etc. Delusions are incredibly serious and shouldn’t be used as “mysterious” content for videos like this. I know that a lot of psychotic symptoms are very interesting to people who do not suffer from them. But I urge RU-vid creators to either take much more care when talking about delusional people or just respectfully not cover them at all. It keeps viewers who are watching who are also predisposed to psychosis much safer. All said, I do really love your channel, I’ve been subbed for quite a while and love to watch your videos as soon as I see them in my feed. I just wanted to offer this perspective to you as I think the message you sent when covering Ryan’s case comes across differently to people who have genuine delusions.

Ryan's delusion (people controlling your mind, seeing through your eyes, controlling your thoughts etc.) is, in reality, pretty common.

Ryan is clearly schizophrenic as diagnosed and it is incredibly sad that he isnt receiving the treatment he needs to be well. I have a close friend who is schizophrenic and have also known a few others with the disorder throughout my life and while all have had slightly different delusions, they still have the same hallmarks. Ryan's story seems to be a textbook case and it shouldn't be included as a rabbit hole mystery for people to gawk at.

This channel deserves way more subs. Literally all other internet mystery channels cover the same reddit post. Your choice of topics is spot on pls don't stop uploading

18:24 is from Escape Game: Inn by Goro Sato. It’s a cellphone game.

something about 16:19 terrified me so much. idek why

My dude you probably dont realize how weird the internet is because you grew up in Web 2.0. Back in Web 1.0 a random pizza cafe in new brunswick could get famous. Now we are corraled.

That second one is pissing me OFF it's so obviously fake ???

that japan shadow man really solved itself, we cant find the set of photos taken that day by the pref, the only one archived is in the tweet by whoever first tweeted it, guy has no shadow, is 7 feet tall, obviously just a silly photoshop joke.

I really couldn't tell you why 16:24 scares me so much. Well I mean I guess I can try. When I was like 6 years old I had a dream where I woke up at night to see a lot of my family members were in my room. The only thing illuminating my room was a nightlight, because I was a massive scaredy cat as a kid. I don't remember if my family spoke, but if they did I couldn't understand or perceive it, but it looked like they were communicating. But it was them going from looking at me to them looking at the other and repeatedly nodding their head five times as if conversing like normal with typical gestures and then suddenly looking at me, all the while stone faced, expressionless. Looking back at it now, I think this might have been some sort of sleep paralysis because after a while this weird behavior turned into my family acting normal and I could actually understand them, and despite it being the middle of the night my mom got me up to watch a movie, the Tom and Jerry one where they talk. It had to be real because I remember these cartoons talking was more impressionable to me at the time as a dumb kid than the peculiar mannerisms my family had just displayed, yet I can't think of one without remembering the other. So perhaps I was still semi-asleep and reality bleed into my mind. Like I could see the waking world but my brain was still doing the unconscious stuff. And like I said, I was a massive coward, yet this occurrence didn't scare me. Sure, I was confused, but I think because it was my family I wasn't spooked. Regardless if it was or it wasn't, I've never experienced sleep paralysis again. tl;dr I had a dream with a rapid, repeating motion and the timestamped part just triggered the memory of it.

The last story that you covered is a guy that has meth toxicity and he's having auditory and visual hallucinations.

Great video! Seems like you never fail to provide with great content

Washintonian here, Lacy isn't on the outskirts of Seattle. It's actually about an hour south of Seattle on the outskirts of Olympia, the state capital. Minor thing but something that jumped out at me.

ok the guard one made me get up and close my door, it sent chills down my spine. I hate intruder like beings

Happy to see a channel covering stories I haven't heard of before :)

Had to stop the video to say that to say Lacey is on the "outskirts" of Seattle is ABSURD. Lacey is on the outskirts of the capitol which is Olympia and it a good hour to two hours from Seattle depending on the traffic. People who aren't from Washington always amaze me with their proximity comparisons to Seattle when most of the time, unless it's actually in the Seattle area, it's nowhere near Seattle

Amazing video as always! No doubts when it comes to your stuff. ...Also, your voice is serenading. Love it 😭

Your videos are legit. You always seem to have content others don't and are not afraid to get into details. Cheers.

11:15 If I knew how the cameras worked I would 100% buy a black morph suit and some cheap LEDs to mess with the people who watch the cameras. 30 bucks to start some local rumors, and legends? You bet.I’m short though, I’d need some MEAN platform boots or stilts.

from someone who has used LSD before, i think thats likely what happened to the guy in the last story, you dont need to be diagnosed to have a mental health issue, schizophrenia can lay dormant till your early to mid 20s. i honestly think thats what happened, him using psycho-active drugs, caused his already exsisting mental health issues to become much more worse.

Found this vid randomly and I'm really impressed! It's all stuff I've never heard abt and the editing and narration was good and detailed ^^ I'll def be checkin out some of your other stuff later :D

Last story really isn’t a rabbit hole, he’s just severely and obviously mentally ill. That part kinda left a bad taste in my mouth.

9:57 "AI Upscaled" a.k.a "trust me bro it looked like this"

The Japan Shadow man really reminds me of the mysterious figures in Super Mario Galaxy without the eyes though, the Mysterious figures were given the name 'Hell Valley Sky Trees' but it's definitely an intriguing mystery! Who knows if he's real or fake and honestly that's the fun of it

just stumbled across this account and i’m loving it so far! you actually post unique content that i haven’t seen on other channels, immediately subscribed

Dudee your narration and video editing quality is insane!! Keep going 💯🔥 And I can’t forget about the music as well!

*Love your work, Virtual Carbon!*

Always a pleasure to have a hand in your journey to the top my boy. Insane work as always 😤

Ylenia in the hallway made me panic for some reason. Does anyone have an explanation for this?

Yo this dude is really boutta blow!Love your videos pls keep it up!

id argue that the shadow man does leave a cast shadow. Its just super subtle because of the lighting.

Japans shadow man one is kinda funny. It looks like a dude in one of those full body morph suits

For the second story, you can't ask " Why would this person be doing x right now at x location?!" Because people are weird. We do weird shit. A guy walking on a highway isn't strange, sorry lad.

bro how do u not have like a million subscribers yet??

As soon as you started doing your own verifications, I hit like and subscribe. Too many channels only regurgitate the same stories and style. Thanks for respecting the audience and putting in that effort!

16:37 this is horrifying to me

Virtual: I’m sure this is a dark period for him and his family that, hopefully, will pass by and be just a small dot in the dark corners of the internet. Me: Right, a small dot you’re enlarging by providing a platform that ensures more people see it than saw his original posts. Not sure how I feel about that…

That last story doesn't sound like a bad acid or DMT trip. It sounds more like a damaging datura or salvia trip.

Good video as always

8:14 anyone who has traveled around the US has seen billboards long forgotten featuring everything from breakfast cereals to hair products to missing children. When companies become defunct or sell it is (regrettably) standard practice to abandon costly tear-downs unless they are forced to comply by authorities who have purview over said issues /regions/ad spaces. Don’t kill the messenger but I don’t see any mystery here.

this was so well made was the first rabbit hole that scared me especially the User9472 section starting at 16:10 and because its the most replayed part I'm guessing everyone else found it creepy to

everytime i see your channel in my recommended i think that im getting recomended videos from "virtual cobson" this is becoming a isssue

Great channel brother.

Its interesting that the creator of the golf game wasnt 100% sure

Nice detective work on the Japan photo!

Very well edited !

All they forgot was a hockey mask on the dark dude in Japan All this stuff is hilarious.

Your videos are really well made dude keep it up!🔥

That Izuskyline pic, cant it be one of those optical illusion sticker plastered on the road? I mean, whoever did this had 1 hour time to plaster it on a remote road, go behind the cam and take it off within the next hour. Their car could also just be parked behind the cam so its possible. The setting would make it super easy to pull this of.

There's nothing "creepy" or "mysterious" about someone with a mental health condition. Someone exhibiting symptoms shouldn't be paraded around as a curiosity, they're just another person like you or me that happens to be currently struggling with their condition and in need of treatment. Treating this like it's some internet creepypasta is distasteful at best and potentially harmful at worst

As for user9472, that's not his/her actual RU-vid ID; if you look close, it's "user-zs6ht". "ZS6HT" is the amateur radio call sign of a person who lives in Johannesburg, South Africa. Being a ham radio operator myself, it was easy for me to obtain the name and address of that person, but I'm not going to post that information here, because only a "lid" (as we hams say) would do that. Leave the person alone; they just like to yak on the radio and make funky videos (probably inspired by Kane Pixels), neither of which harms anyone. Besides, this person is very old (80s or 90s) because they got their license in 1946.

Excellent video!

The first frame of the Ylenia video made me laugh, because it looks exactly like a photo you might take of your friend while playing the hallway cryptid game. You know, the one where you stand with your back to the hallway while your friend tries to sneak toward you from the other end, and your objective is to spin around and grab a photo of them being a cryptid before they get to you?

That Psychic Connections dude is definitely developing schizophrenia that was super duper exacerbated by drug use.

No way in hell am I NOT subscribed after this video. You're awesome bro, hope you're well.

this channel is so underrated

My eyes are so bad, I could have sworn this was a video of Shrouded Hand until I heard the voice lol.

that first one gives me Joanna Lopez vibes

Great video. Struggling to find the tune that begins at 22.25, tried looking ror slowed&reverb and not getting anything for those last 2 tracklists mentioned. Thanks for listing thr music too. Subbed.

10:00 I'd like to point out that it *does* seem to me that the shadow man has a shadow. Of course, the image was very low-quality to begin with and was then AI upscaled on top of that, meaning it might just be artifacting, as other things in the image do seem to have some form of artifact "aura" around them as well. And, hell, it may just be that the low quality of the image is the only reason it has "no shadow" to begin with. The yellow street sign doesn't have one either.

Great Video!

I feel like Ryan needs more support. I realize he has to participate in his own care but someone in his life needs to step in

Honestly, the one about the japan shadow man, the thing that bothers me is if the rest of the photos that were shown were from the 18th of november, then how were those photos shown when you clicked the link? Isnt it impossible for that to happen?

Love this content so much that I binged so much of your content. I would love to see you analyse Simon Stalenhagg

10:00 shadow bastard has been found in Japanese road

User-9472 is my favorite channel now lol. Ylenia in the hallway made me a little uneasy at first, call me a psyco but i love things that make me feel uneasy like that lol

I’ve seen one of those winners don’t do drugs ads. I have no idea how old the machine is, but it must be old because I think I saw it this year. It was at an arcade/bar place.

Where can I learn more about the japanese shadow man?

Was here 💯 More videos on our spot

17:48 I appreciate you using this clip, that video was and still is hilarious. What a spooky guy!

Great video and great voice!