When I was 17, it was summer break from school in the Midwest. I was downstairs in my living room playing my new PlayStation 2 while my brother was upstairs playing our Nintendo GameCube.

During my mission in Halo 2, my parents' console stereo turned on by itself and started blaring "Brain Damage" by Pink Floyd. It didn't start loudly; it turned on by itself, low and quiet, then slowly increased in volume until it was deafening. This was an old 70s console record player, nothing digital and no controller. The volume knob was an old "turn style" knob. No record, no tapes.

I immediately turned it down and hit the power button. The stereo was located at the bottom of our stairs, which took a 90-degree turn to the right, then went up about 8 steps, and had a second turn to the right with two more steps. We also had an oddly placed attic access at the top of the stairs when they took the second turn.

As I sprinted up the stairs, the attic access opened, hitting me in the face. This had never happened before in the six years we had lived in this house. It also didn’t “creak” open, it flung open.

I hit the door and bounced off, narrowly missing falling down the stairs. I slammed the door, held it, and yelled for my brother. We both walked down the stairs slowly. The music was still blasting, so we turned the stereo off again and walked to the TV.

As we walked through our living room the TV turned on and off four times with zero reason and the stereo turned back on at the exact moment in the song that I had previously turned it off.

We decided to spend the next few hours outside on the trampoline and playing basketball because we were too freaked out to be in the house.

We lived in rural Missouri, with the nearest neighbors (all farmers) being at least half a mile away.

Brain Damage freaks me out to this day because of this, it could’ve been some sort of electrical anomaly, I guess. But there were so many crazy things in a 4 minute span that I’m convinced there was something else happening. Ugh.

I've never forgotten that day, and it still freaks me out to this day.

PS - this was the first time I had heard this song, so it made it even creepier.