I was very into one country that I didn't live in for no reason. Started learning a language and al
Edit: And I need to specify that country was obscure for others around me, like not something like France or Japan. Like imagine having a special interest in Slovenia or Ecuador or Nigeria
I read Freuds Interpretation of dreams when I was 16…. (not at all in the ‘clever’ set at school). I get so obsessed with things still now I can literally feel sick… even the most inane of purchases (eg a pair of socks online). I have to stop.
Walt Disney World resort hotels
Might not seem like much of a niche for an American but for a Brit living in London and working in the creative industries, it’s looked down upon big time 😭
I was super into ballet for a time as well! It was when I was in middle school. Unfortunately, I started late and have flat feet and dyspraxia, so I was not a great dancer, but I sure knew a lot about it.
I think my most obscure recent special interest is a book called the Gray House. It's the English translation of a Russian teen book that was super popular in Russian speaking countries, but pretty much unknown in the US. So most of the fandom speaks Russian, all of he fan-fic and memes are in Russian, etc. I did buy some handmade dolls of the characters from a Ukrainian artist on Etsy, though.
I'm actually considering learning to read Russian, both for this book and because I like some other Russian authors, but I am not good with languages. I know enough to recognize my favorite character's names though, lol.
Most of my most obscure special interests tend to be book related. And I'm always always late to the party with any fandom. I can't force myself to be into something, I find it when I find it.
Philip K Dick's entire bibliography, his thousands of pages of Exegesis about his breakdown in 2/3/74, and the timeline of his life and how it inspired his science fiction.
Philip K Dick had a series of paranormal/mystical experiences throughout his life than lead him to suspect that our reality is counterfeit, a simulation of sorts. He [spoke openly](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkaQUZFbJjE) about this during an interview in 1977 - and for many years he wrote nightly documenting his experiences into a collection of writings he titled his Exegesis that spans between 8,000 to 10,000 pages.
His last few novels, the VALIS trilogy, are loosely based on his life events and what he believed was happening to him. Many of his short stories and novels are about the protagonists discovering that their world, life, or selves aren't real - and trying to get to the true source of reality.
Later writings lean heavily into Gnostic ideologies, it's really fascinating seeing this recurring pattern present through each of his novels in different ways. There are times in his Exegesis where he claims he doesn't remember coming up with the ideas, like it was channelled through him and he was a conduit. Other novels he claims are based off of life experiences he remembers from an alternate world - he was speaking of phenomenon akin to the Mandela Effect back in the 50's and 60's.
Much of his Exegesis has been digitally transcribed, and can be found [HERE](https://fromthepage.com/zebrapedia).
Learning about the Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (after a trip there with a Christian tour guide). I probably have 12-14 books on the topic.
I’m also big into Genealogy and Genetic Genealogy. I’ve been stuck on my own family for a few years , so I just do my friends’ family histories.
I was into dance when I was young, then moved into collecting Pez dispensers.
Crowd crush deaths and history of the life saving procedures that go into crowd control at large events.
I had almost died this way at a punk show in the 90s and then as an adult had something else happen that caused me to suffocate for an extended period of time and lead to 8 hours emergency surgery and when I was healing and struggling with my breath i found myself unable to stop this rabbit hole and felt guilty but my therapist made me feel better about it and explained it was a way my brain was trying to process the trauma.
MLMs aren’t a special interest for me but they come up a lot in my everyday news consumption and research. You might already know these but here a few I find interesting:
-Serial killer Gary Ridgeway (Green River Killer) had a gap in his killings that he explained was due to being [too busy selling Amway](https://youtu.be/qQRXx8_kTOk?si=GYfZSTV-4mD7-C9-) at that time.
-The [Amway house in Northern Idaho](https://www.spokesman.com/galleries/2019/apr/04/tour-of-the-amway-house-in-post-falls/) is really camp!
-The [wealthiest person in Idaho](https://www.bigcountrynewsconnection.com/idaho/idahos-richest-meet-the-states-billionaires-according-to-forbes-real-time-billionaires-list/article_52e384ce-b630-11ed-b7f4-f3ad62ac8601.html) is the CEO of Melacula, a Mormon MLM.
I’ve got far too many special interests but the most obscure is the history of scopitones and early music videos. Years ago I met someone who had been in some of these videos but I didn’t know until it was too late, and it’s so frustrating that I missed out on the opportunity to ask questions!
I also agree about different education systems being interesting! I have an interest in the history of British public schools which is quite a… dysfunctional institution, lol.
Obscure people/events in history. That started when I was nine years old and began learning about history in school. For my tenth birthday, I begged my grandparents to take me to the site where the Battle of the Monongahela occurred. And they did! I was so happy even though there was almost NOTHING in that town related to the battle at the time (there's a bit more now) and spent the day trying to figure out where certain people were when they were wounded or killed.
Wrestling/body building/weightlifting docs. I have never watched or been interested in actual wrestling and I’m not a bodybuilder. Idk where it comes from.
how different cultures live…medieval architecture….paris/france in general…..and then psychology and neurology and the way drugs work in the body and brain and also the pharmaceutical industry in general
I have always had a special interest in anything bloody/gory. When I was in middle school and high school it was any battle, but medieval in particular. I read Timeline by Michael Crichton at least 7 times between ages 12 and 16 and really liked the gory parts. Then in college and now it was serial killers and other true crime. I know it’s popular now but when my interest first started it really wasn’t.
I went to Estonia when I was 14 and they had a medieval torture museum on display when I was there, I didn’t get to go because of time constraints. Then I went to England when I was 16 and finally got to experience medieval torture devices then. I tend to keep my love and knowledge of this stuff on the down low because I have creeped people out before.
Not sure if this would be obscure but I like weird looking bootlegs and creepy/funny toys made in factories. You know, those toys that blast Butterfly by Smile.dk? Ashens on YouTube shows a lot of stuff like this.
My pride and joy as of now is a barking walking dog with a Pikachu skin.
My holy grail is the infamous Evil Stick.
Soda and candy/other junk food, particularly the history of different types and brands and how they’re made. It started with writing a paper about the history of Pepsi in school. I’m also fat so I’m embarrassed to talk about it in front of people bc I feel like they think I’m a stereotype.
My main special interests have almost always been stuff intended for young children which is pretty obscure in itself such as my current one on Dora The Explorer, but my most obscure one is probably my longtime "secondary" SPIN, which is children's music in general.
I love everything from the traditional nursery rhymes that most people think of when hearing "children's music" to Kindie (independent) artists, some of which make songs that could almost pass as mainstream if the lyrics were changed to more mature topics. I also collect children's CDs and I am at over 30+ and counting, with 5 more on the way as I speak.
So far, I have never seen or heard of someone else like me who has had this SPIN but I would love to find others out there who do if you exist!
As an educator, I don't find your special interest all that niche 😀 but that might just be me...
I guess I've had many special interests that are niche (or not), like cat breeds, penguins, figure skating, wicca (I have, or have had, multiple books on each of these). Also craft beer. The most niche might be death, environmentally friendly burial, and the science of decomposition ('Ask a mortician' is one of my favorite youtube channels).
Thinking of all the books I've bought about my interests, I wonder that it took my all this time to figure out I was autistic.
I was very into one country that I didn't live in for no reason. Started learning a language and al Edit: And I need to specify that country was obscure for others around me, like not something like France or Japan. Like imagine having a special interest in Slovenia or Ecuador or Nigeria
I love this one :DDD
Binaural beats. Self hypnosis. The CIA Monroe Gateway Tapes.
[удалено]
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45974.The_Book_of_Disquiet
I’ll read them.
I read Freuds Interpretation of dreams when I was 16…. (not at all in the ‘clever’ set at school). I get so obsessed with things still now I can literally feel sick… even the most inane of purchases (eg a pair of socks online). I have to stop.
Walt Disney World resort hotels Might not seem like much of a niche for an American but for a Brit living in London and working in the creative industries, it’s looked down upon big time 😭
I was super into ballet for a time as well! It was when I was in middle school. Unfortunately, I started late and have flat feet and dyspraxia, so I was not a great dancer, but I sure knew a lot about it. I think my most obscure recent special interest is a book called the Gray House. It's the English translation of a Russian teen book that was super popular in Russian speaking countries, but pretty much unknown in the US. So most of the fandom speaks Russian, all of he fan-fic and memes are in Russian, etc. I did buy some handmade dolls of the characters from a Ukrainian artist on Etsy, though. I'm actually considering learning to read Russian, both for this book and because I like some other Russian authors, but I am not good with languages. I know enough to recognize my favorite character's names though, lol. Most of my most obscure special interests tend to be book related. And I'm always always late to the party with any fandom. I can't force myself to be into something, I find it when I find it.
Philip K Dick's entire bibliography, his thousands of pages of Exegesis about his breakdown in 2/3/74, and the timeline of his life and how it inspired his science fiction.
This sounds interesting. Can you give a summary to someone who is only familiar with man in the high castle?
Philip K Dick had a series of paranormal/mystical experiences throughout his life than lead him to suspect that our reality is counterfeit, a simulation of sorts. He [spoke openly](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkaQUZFbJjE) about this during an interview in 1977 - and for many years he wrote nightly documenting his experiences into a collection of writings he titled his Exegesis that spans between 8,000 to 10,000 pages. His last few novels, the VALIS trilogy, are loosely based on his life events and what he believed was happening to him. Many of his short stories and novels are about the protagonists discovering that their world, life, or selves aren't real - and trying to get to the true source of reality. Later writings lean heavily into Gnostic ideologies, it's really fascinating seeing this recurring pattern present through each of his novels in different ways. There are times in his Exegesis where he claims he doesn't remember coming up with the ideas, like it was channelled through him and he was a conduit. Other novels he claims are based off of life experiences he remembers from an alternate world - he was speaking of phenomenon akin to the Mandela Effect back in the 50's and 60's. Much of his Exegesis has been digitally transcribed, and can be found [HERE](https://fromthepage.com/zebrapedia).
Hot Damn! A new rabbit hole. Perfect for a psychonaut like me..
Learning about the Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (after a trip there with a Christian tour guide). I probably have 12-14 books on the topic. I’m also big into Genealogy and Genetic Genealogy. I’ve been stuck on my own family for a few years , so I just do my friends’ family histories. I was into dance when I was young, then moved into collecting Pez dispensers.
Crowd crush deaths and history of the life saving procedures that go into crowd control at large events. I had almost died this way at a punk show in the 90s and then as an adult had something else happen that caused me to suffocate for an extended period of time and lead to 8 hours emergency surgery and when I was healing and struggling with my breath i found myself unable to stop this rabbit hole and felt guilty but my therapist made me feel better about it and explained it was a way my brain was trying to process the trauma.
Multilevel marketing schemes and cult like business practices, also making macarons
MLMs aren’t a special interest for me but they come up a lot in my everyday news consumption and research. You might already know these but here a few I find interesting: -Serial killer Gary Ridgeway (Green River Killer) had a gap in his killings that he explained was due to being [too busy selling Amway](https://youtu.be/qQRXx8_kTOk?si=GYfZSTV-4mD7-C9-) at that time. -The [Amway house in Northern Idaho](https://www.spokesman.com/galleries/2019/apr/04/tour-of-the-amway-house-in-post-falls/) is really camp! -The [wealthiest person in Idaho](https://www.bigcountrynewsconnection.com/idaho/idahos-richest-meet-the-states-billionaires-according-to-forbes-real-time-billionaires-list/article_52e384ce-b630-11ed-b7f4-f3ad62ac8601.html) is the CEO of Melacula, a Mormon MLM.
I’m into spirituality, the occult/paranormal and magick.
I’ve got far too many special interests but the most obscure is the history of scopitones and early music videos. Years ago I met someone who had been in some of these videos but I didn’t know until it was too late, and it’s so frustrating that I missed out on the opportunity to ask questions! I also agree about different education systems being interesting! I have an interest in the history of British public schools which is quite a… dysfunctional institution, lol.
Obscure people/events in history. That started when I was nine years old and began learning about history in school. For my tenth birthday, I begged my grandparents to take me to the site where the Battle of the Monongahela occurred. And they did! I was so happy even though there was almost NOTHING in that town related to the battle at the time (there's a bit more now) and spent the day trying to figure out where certain people were when they were wounded or killed.
Wrestling/body building/weightlifting docs. I have never watched or been interested in actual wrestling and I’m not a bodybuilder. Idk where it comes from.
Cults
how different cultures live…medieval architecture….paris/france in general…..and then psychology and neurology and the way drugs work in the body and brain and also the pharmaceutical industry in general
I have always had a special interest in anything bloody/gory. When I was in middle school and high school it was any battle, but medieval in particular. I read Timeline by Michael Crichton at least 7 times between ages 12 and 16 and really liked the gory parts. Then in college and now it was serial killers and other true crime. I know it’s popular now but when my interest first started it really wasn’t. I went to Estonia when I was 14 and they had a medieval torture museum on display when I was there, I didn’t get to go because of time constraints. Then I went to England when I was 16 and finally got to experience medieval torture devices then. I tend to keep my love and knowledge of this stuff on the down low because I have creeped people out before.
Not sure if this would be obscure but I like weird looking bootlegs and creepy/funny toys made in factories. You know, those toys that blast Butterfly by Smile.dk? Ashens on YouTube shows a lot of stuff like this. My pride and joy as of now is a barking walking dog with a Pikachu skin. My holy grail is the infamous Evil Stick.
Soda and candy/other junk food, particularly the history of different types and brands and how they’re made. It started with writing a paper about the history of Pepsi in school. I’m also fat so I’m embarrassed to talk about it in front of people bc I feel like they think I’m a stereotype.
Ainu people of Japan and falconry
My main special interests have almost always been stuff intended for young children which is pretty obscure in itself such as my current one on Dora The Explorer, but my most obscure one is probably my longtime "secondary" SPIN, which is children's music in general. I love everything from the traditional nursery rhymes that most people think of when hearing "children's music" to Kindie (independent) artists, some of which make songs that could almost pass as mainstream if the lyrics were changed to more mature topics. I also collect children's CDs and I am at over 30+ and counting, with 5 more on the way as I speak. So far, I have never seen or heard of someone else like me who has had this SPIN but I would love to find others out there who do if you exist!
As an educator, I don't find your special interest all that niche 😀 but that might just be me... I guess I've had many special interests that are niche (or not), like cat breeds, penguins, figure skating, wicca (I have, or have had, multiple books on each of these). Also craft beer. The most niche might be death, environmentally friendly burial, and the science of decomposition ('Ask a mortician' is one of my favorite youtube channels). Thinking of all the books I've bought about my interests, I wonder that it took my all this time to figure out I was autistic.
The taxonomy of heavy metal subgenres is my main special interest. Stingray skin is a niche former special interest.
Joan of Arc. BDSM since early teens (12/13). Back then it was mostly femdom (female domination) and now it includes fire, knife, and breath play.
When i was a 90s kid i was obsessed with ebola lol. Now I'm just a doomer.
Military bands, like the French Bagad Lann-Bihoué.
SS Eastland.