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Derek Hayes
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Jack Wagner
My name's Jack Wagner, host of Otherworld, a podcast featuring real people who experience something paranormal, supernatural or unexplained.
Corey
I have no idea how I got there.
Morgan
I don't think I've ever seen anything that looks like this.
Sean
It felt like electric stars on fire.
Jack Wagner
I started Otherworld to take a grounded approach to the paranormal. Help people tell their own stories and encourage more to come forward. I certainly don't have the answers, but.
Alex
Maybe one day we will.
Jack Wagner
Join me as we explore our world's greatest mysteries. Listen to Otherworld now for free on.
Alex
The Odysee app or wherever you get your podcasts.
Derek Hayes
Good evening and welcome to Monsters Among Us. I am your guide, Derek Hayes. Folks, humans, people, whatever it is you want to call yourselves, I'm so glad that you're here with us this evening because I have some gnarly calls slated for tonight. You want multi colored UFOs, we got them. You want faceless entities? Well, we've got those too. Unidentified creatures in abandoned hospitals. Well, we have that as well. And we get a rare treat this evening. A lake monster story, complete with video. But first, we kick things off tonight in Texas, where Morgan has a tale to regale you with.
Kylie
Hi, Derek. My name is Morgan. I live around Houston, Texas. It's a paranormal experience of mine and my mom's. When I was about 10 years old, my parents decided to build a home on the property that we've been living in. And once we moved in, I had my own room for the first time. Every time I went to sleep, I would hear heavy breathing just like it was floating on top of me. It was almost kind of suffocating feeling, but all I could hear is something breathing on top of me. So I would just put my radio on and try to go to sleep to a loud radio and put the coverings over my head. And then I'll just try to say it was something else, like my brother snoring or just trying not to freak myself out. And then my brother started coming in there and turning my radio down. And I started getting all scared again. But I was still trying to feel like I wasn't scared. But then I had a friend that stayed over and I was in the restroom. And then when I came out of the restroom, my friend was standing out in the hall with her hands on her hips and she looked frightened. When she saw me come out of the restroom, she goes, I thought you were hiding behind a door. I heard heavy breathing in your room. And then that kind of confirmed like, I am not crazy. There is heavy breathing, something breathing heavily in my room at night. But I just told her, oh, it's my brother. He's snoring in another room. My brother wasn't even home. But I just had to think of something quick so I wouldn't scare her. And that lasted for about, I guess for about eight years. I just heard it every night. There was nothing else. I just kind of started getting accustomed to it and I just kind of started ignoring it and not getting freaked out by it anymore because all it did was just breathe above me. So I finally told my mom about what was going on when I graduated high school. So I was about 18. And she told me about her and my aunt's experience when they were younger. They shared a room and there was a week to two week thing going on in their room that every time, like they would wake up in the middle of the night and they would see a man in the corner holding a knife. And then every night it would just get closer and closer. Then the last night she said that she saw was above her with the knife. And that's when my aunt and my mom screamed on top of their lungs. And my two uncles ran into the room because they were right next door to see what was going on. And they said when they ra. Ran in, the man just dissipated and she never saw him again. So I don't know. I love your show. I just felt like I needed to share my experience. So there you go. Thank you.
Derek Hayes
Thank you, Morgan, for calling in. It sounds pretty creepy to me, whatever it was. And could you imagine being the friend that was sleeping over that night? Probably not what the friend was expecting from her sleepover. A while back, I'd mentioned that my step grandmother had reported a similar experience in her apartment back in Ohio. She claims it first started when she received a couch from a friend of our family's. She said the couch itself seemed to be breathing heavily. Now. I'd given her some advice on what she could try to do to get rid of whatever it was. And apparently it worked. Or at least I thought it did. The last I heard, the activity hasn't stopped. In fact, it's only grown more alarming. Apparently the heavy breathing now also occurs in her bedroom as well. She'd only told the rest of my family that it quieted down because she wanted to avoid the attention. Well, apparently things got bad enough that she started talking about it again. Now I'll be back in Ohio sometime this summer, so I'll be able to look into her troubles just a little bit closer. Something tells me that her saga is not over, but thankfully, at least the breathing sounds she experienced weren't accompanied by strange man with a knife. Details like that take an experience like this to a whole new level. Thank you again, Morgan, for taking the time to share your spooky experiences. Now folks, like I said, tonight's episode is chock full of all kinds of spookiness. But before we can get to all of that, we have to get through this short ad break first. So don't touch that dial. I'll be right back with more Nightmare Fuel right after this. Now this might come as a surprise, but I'm not a big clothes shopper, so when I find something that works like quints, it's a game changer. I ordered a few things for this time of year and suddenly I have outfits that just work. No stress or overthinking. Quince has all the things you actually want to wear, like organic cotton T shirts, European linen beach shorts, and comfortable pants that work for everything from backyard hangouts to a nice dinner. Now the best part? Everything with quints is priced 50 to 80% less than what you'd find at a similar brand. By working directly with top artisans and cutting out the metalman, Quint's gives you luxury pieces without the crazy markups, and Quinn's only works with factories that use safe, ethical, responsible manufacturing practices and premium fabrics and finishes, which makes me feel good about shopping there. Most of the time. I dress pretty casual, so lately I've been living in Quince's performance tech shorts. I also love the fit of their tees. They're nice and breathable for hot summer days. Elevate your closet with quince. Go to quince.com forward/MAU for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. That's Q-U-I-N-C-E.com forward slash MAU to get free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com forward slash maui now for this next entry, we make our way To Colorado, Sean. Welcome to tonight's program.
Alex
Hey Derek, it's your friend Sean in Colorado. I just wanted to share one story of the house that I lived at when I was a kid. I have no idea what it is. I don't know how to explain it. I don't think it's really paranormal. It's just a weird weather phenomena that happened because this is another blue sky day at my house on the west side of Colorado Springs. And the only thing I remember is that me and my best friend were outside playing and both my neighbors across the street were around our same age. And again, I'm around 10 or 11, came across the street and we're all playing together. But the adults had stopped what they were doing in the neighborhood and just started staring at this thing. Me and my brother, my friends, we all look over like, what are they looking at? What are you, what are you guys doing? And there was just this cloud, this weird cloud, probably the size of. Oh man, it had to be. Think about something half the size of a mid sized car floating in the air about 30ft as it's floating pretty much in the middle of the street in our neighborhood. And it's got weird colors, like it's going red, it's going blue, just weird little lightning strikes that are different colors, but it's a cloud just going super, super slow. And this thing is drifting along. Takes it about 15 minutes to cross our street and we're all looking at it as it's floating down the neighborhood. Eventually it just floats out of sight because, I mean, I was too young to chase it. I had restrictions on how far I could go and my parents didn't want to go chase it down. But yeah, it was just one of those weird things like why is there a random small cloud floating in the middle of nowhere with these weird colors? Yeah, it just floated out of sight. I didn't think about it for a long time until I started listening to this. I was like, oh yeah, that did happen. But I'll be listening to see if anybody has a similar experience because yeah, it's just a really weird phenomena for weather that I've never seen after. But anyways guys, keep it spooky. I'll talk to you later, bye.
Derek Hayes
Thank you, Sean for the phone call. Now what do you make of this one, folks? It seems that Sean has it pegged as some strange weather phenomena. But I've never heard of a naturally occurring weather phenomena that aligns with what Sean just reported. But I have heard of UFOs that seemingly cloak themselves inside of clouds. I think someone should tell the pilots of that craft that the effect doesn't work if they have a bunch of flashing lights turned on. But given the location of this experience, I can't help but wonder if our very own military might have a hand in this strange anomaly after all. With Petersen Air Force Base, Shriver Air Force Base, and the Air Force Academy nearby, the military certainly has a presence there in the area. And as we will learn a little later in the episode, the military is capable of some gruesome activity. So for now, I'll leave it up to the listeners. Anyone out there know what Sean and his neighbors saw that day? If so, you know how to reach me. And if you don't, give us a call on our toll free hotline at 888-608-night. That's 888608, Nig888. Or you can record your story as a voice memo on your cell phone and email the file to me at monsters among us podcastmail.com now there are a few rules, but they're only there to make you sound as good as possible. So call from a quiet place. Don't call from a running or moving vehicle. One story per call. You can call in as many times as you want. Just one story per phone call. If you get cut off or run out of time, just call back and pick up where you left off. We will take care of the rest. And true stories only. No fibs, creepypastas, or creative writing projects, please. The truth is spooky enough. We don't need all that stuff. So Again, that number is 888608, Knight and that email is monsters among us podcastmail.com and we can't wait to hear from you. And we can't wait to hear from this next caller either. From the state of California, please welcome Corey to the program.
Jack Wagner
Hi Derek. My name is Corey. I'm calling from Los Angeles, where I currently live, but I grew up in East Tennessee in a rural community called Hartford. It's in the Great Smoky Mountains national park, like right on the North Carolina border. And I'm calling with an experience that's a little bit different, I think, than most calls that you get. But it's kind of like the one major brush with the paranormal that I've ever experienced in my life. I was in the eighth grade. It was kind of like the final few weeks of the eighth grade. It's like school's wrapping up. You know, summer's about to start and then we would go on to high school after that. Well, I was in this program for talented and gifted students where if you were really good at the standardized testing, you really excelled. You could go to this local community college to take classes for high school credit that would carry over to your high school career. And it was around this time that I started this program that I kept having this recurring dream. And this dream was happening for me literally about every night for about a month. And in my dream, I was in an open field. The sky was like brilliant blue. I remember there being wheat or like tall grass that was swaying gently. And it was sort of like a serene scene until I look up into the sky and I see this, like, great fireball streaking across the sky. And it just seemed, you know, larger than life. Like it was really popping out of the super, super clear blue sky. And whenever I would see the fireball in my dream, it just filled me with a sense of dread. Like, I just felt fear looking at it. And it didn't feel like it was coming at me or about to crash down, but I just remember just feeling immense fear looking at it. So cut to around a month later. I'd been having this dream. I hadn't really told anyone about my dream, but we were at lunch at the community college for this talented and gifting program. And we were in the dining hall. And in the dining hall, you know, this was the early 2000s. So, you know, there was a big screen TV on one side of the dining hall. And it was still one of the really large, bulky, you know, cathode ray tube, rear projection, wooden, giant big screen, no flat screens like we have today. So that was sort of like behind me on one side of the cafeteria, and on the other side there was like, you know, the line where you'd go to get your food. And so I went to go get my food. I was stacking it up on my plate. I grabbed my tray and I turn around to go move towards the table. And then I just completely froze in my tracks. And that's because, like, on that giant big screen tv, I saw a fireball that looked identical to the one that I had seen in my dream for weeks now. And what it was is it was on the national news, it was on cnn, and it was actually the space shuttle Columbia disaster when that craft unfortunately burned up on reentry and the astronauts lost their life in that accident. So that really freaked me out. It really chilled me to the bone. I didn't know what to make of this. I'm a very skeptical person, even though it's like such a crazy coincidence. Like I still just think that even though it's not explained. I don't know if I necessarily believe in precognition or anything, but I do know that I experience deja vu quite often, but never have I had a vision that was so like one to one, something that would happen in reality. But anyway, thank you so much. I've recently discovered your show. I loved it. I listened to it at work. Keep up the great work. Keep it spooky.
Derek Hayes
Thank you Corey. Now the bad part about this sort of premonition is knowing that there's pretty much nothing you could have done with the information you had. Now typically the message being sent is so vague that the receiver only puts the pieces together after the event occurs. Again, not very helpful, but let's say he did put two and two together. What does he do then? Does he call up NASA and tell them that there's going to be an issue with Columbia's RE entry? Good luck with that. They'll probably put you on some sort of watch list or something. But this type of premonition continues to happen despite how frustrating it can be. So thank you again Corey for sharing your experience. It's too bad it didn't help avert a disaster, but it did make for a great story. So thank you again for calling in. Summer is just around the corner and the folks at Mint Mobile have a hot take. Getting a summer bot is out and getting your savings bot is in. This spring and summer we want skimpy wireless bills and fat wallets. And with premium wireless plans for just 15 bucks a month, you can have both without breaking any sweat or the bank. With Mint Mobile, you can say goodbye to your overpriced wireless plans, jaw dropping monthly bills and unexpected overages. All plans come with high speed data and unlimited talk and text delivered on the nation's largest 5G network. Even in our rural mountain location, we have great coverage. We've been using our Mint Mobile plan to contact callers whose calls ended up in our Foobar folder for being incomplete or too unclear to share on the air. I was shocked by the quality and price of Mint Mobile compared to our hold provider. Who knew we could have been saving so much money all this time? You can even use your own phone with any Mint Mobile plan and bring your phone number along with your existing contacts. So ditch the overpriced wireless and get three months of premium wireless service from Mint mobile for just 15 bucks a month this year. Skip breaking A sweat and breaking the bank. Get your summer savings at Shop Premium Premium Wireless plans@mintmobile.com MAU that's mintmobile.com MAU Upfront payment of $45 for a 3 month 5 gigabyte plan is required, equivalent to $15 a month New customer offer for first 3 months only. Then full price plan options are available, taxes and fees extra. See Mint Mobile for details. With cash in hand. All right, for this next entry we head north. Please welcome Anonymous from up in Canada.
Sean
Hi, I'd like to remain anonymous, but I'm calling from Saskatchewan, Canada, the northern part of Saskatchewan. I worked at a CN Rail hotel about 17, 18 years ago. They're hotels that are throughout Canada. They were built in the early 1900s, all similar style. They just look like big old castles. Lots of cool history. The particular one I worked at, they would do tours around Halloween. Lots of stories I would hear from guests and employees about things happening. Up until that point, nothing of note happened to me personally. However, one night I was working and there was nothing going on in the hotel. It was a large hotel. Usually we had banquets or functions going on, but it was around like 8 o' clock at night. There were no functions going on. So our banquet teams were was down to skeleton staff. There were just, I think two staff members working, one of which was a manager. I'm at reception, it was quiet and then I get a phone call from a number that I didn't recognize this point. I was working at the hotel for a couple years already and knew most of the extensions but didn't think anything of it. The person on the other line was a young woman about my age at the time, I think I was 19, 20 when I was working there. And she just said, I'm locked in, can somebody let me out? And hung up. So the way we communicated from staff to staff, department to department, was through walkie talkie. So I grabbed the walkie talkie. I messaged the banquet manager. I said, hey, someone's locked in, called from this extension. Can you guys go let her out? It's an old building. This might have happened. I don't know if that was a regular occurrence. It didn't happen at that point, but I didn't think anything of it. It was an old building. They didn't even respond on the walkie talkie. They both came down to the reception area to talk to me and they said, who's locked in? I said, I don't know. I didn't get her name. She's climbed from this extension. And they looked at each other and they go, well, that number doesn't work. The phone from where that extension is doesn't work. He said, well, I got a number. And they looked at each other again and at me kind of like I was crazy. And they said, we're the only banquet workers tonight. There's nobody else in the building. And I just. I don't know. Just go check. And while they're standing there telling me this, the phone rang again from the same extension. I said, there you go. Here she is calling back. I grabbed the phone. When I grabbed the phone, it sounded like a recording. She sounded the exact same. So before she could hang up, I said, wait. Wait a minute. Who are you? What's your name? Can I get your name? And just hung up. Like it was just like a recording of the call was the exact same conversation that I had with her previously. Which is kind of odd. Like if someone was phoning back and say, hey, like, I'm still locked in here, or some kind of conversation, but it was the exact same conversation. And I know if it was another person, she would have heard me ask, what's your name? Not just hung up immediately, but anyways, you know, now they're spooked, and the bellman's into it, too. So he said, well, I'm gonna go up there and check. So the three of them went up there and check. And I don't know if it's because, you know, they were already kind of creeped out or thinking something was going on, but they went in that room. There was no one in there. They confirmed the line didn't work. It was just dead. And when they opened the door, there was a rush of cold air, which. It's a hot, musty part of the building. It is old. Maybe, you know, that wasn't related, but I just thought it was kind of an eerie point. But, yeah, it was kind of creepy. There's lots of stories from that hotel, Hearing people, seeing people, things like that. But up until then, that was my first experience. So thank you very much. I love the show. Keep it going.
Derek Hayes
Thank you, caller. Well, what do you suppose that was? It seems that the call was coming from inside the house where the hotel in this situation. And that has to be an unsettling thing to realize. Now, we don't know the exact hotel that our caller was working in. So we were not able to investigate to see if someone died after being locked in a room or a closet or something. Nor were we able to investigate existing stories that could coincide with the story. Our caller just left us. But obviously something weird was going on. Something creepy if you ask me. And we appreciate that you took the time to tell us about it. Caller freaky phone calls are sort of a way of life around here. So thank you again for taking the time to call in. Now next up is a terrifying tale about an entity in a basement. Please welcome Jay to tonight's show.
Corey
Hey, Derek. I'd like to be referred to as just Jay to maintain some anonymity. So my family and I moved to a new city in southern Ontario, Canada in 1987. We moved into a townhouse at the time. When I was about eight, I was playing alone in the rec room of our basement. The door to the laundry room in the back was usually always open while I was playing. I was getting this weird feeling of being watched. So eventually I look up and in the doorway of the laundry room, I see someone staring at me. But there were no discernible features to them beyond. Basically a silhouette. It was like it was leaning out from behind the door. I could only see from about maybe the chest up if it were leaning out the side there. I remember being scared, but I was just staring at it. And from what I could tell, it was staring back at me. It looked mostly human except for what appeared to be two small horns or bumps on the top of its head. It seemed to last forever for what I am sure is probably just a few seconds. But then it just came out from behind the door and walked back into the laundry room. I've had multiple instances of sleep paralysis over the years, but in this instance I am 100% certain I was already awake playing, as I said, in the basement. After seeing this shadow person for the first time, I started having like just terrifying recurring nightmares of these shadow people. I could often hear them speaking to each other, but I could never quite make out what they were saying. I would often wake up from these dreams and I could still see them. I would try to run from my room to my parents room or call out for my parents, but the people would stay for a few minutes after I was already awake. I could see them moving along the walls and the ceiling and in the closet. My younger sister and I had several toys and games that took batteries and sometimes they would just turn on by themselves. My parents eventually bought a house and we moved again in 1994. All of the shadow people incidents stopped when we moved. I'll still occasionally have a bout of sleep paralysis, but it's pretty status quo stuff. Once I manage to snap myself out of it. I'm fine. Anyways, that's pretty much it. Thanks for listening. I'm a big fan of the podcast. Thanks for all the hard work that you put into it and I look forward to many more to come. Thanks.
Derek Hayes
Thank you Jay for calling in. Now, did we just stumble upon another shadowman encounter that seems to detail horns or bumps on the top of the head? Now, we did hear a report about a horned shadow entity on a somewhat recent episode. And what makes this really weird is that I've probably heard thousands of shadow people reports by now and this is only the second or possibly third time I've heard that detail mentioned. And I do have a theory, a silly theory, but it's a theory nonetheless. You know, that there are basically two versions of this entity, hatted and not had it. So perhaps the ones that do wear the hats do so to cover their horns. And on those rare occasions when one of these beings are seen with horns or other strange appendages on the head, well, those are just hat men without hats exposing their horns or whatever they are. Now again, I didn't say that this was an earth shattering theory, but that is just how my mind works. So whatever it was that was haunting your basement, scaring you and your sister and bringing run down toys back to life, Jay, it sounds like it was pretty damn scary. And around here we appreciate things like that. So thank you again J for calling in. Now at long last, we've reached the call that I'm most excited about tonight. A lake monster story. And here to fill us in is Alex from the state of Florida.
Alex
Hi, my name is Alex and I'm out of Miami, Florida. I have a lake behind my apartment complex or a body of water that connects to the ocean about maybe eight miles out. And I was in my living room when I looked outside and I was looking at the water and I saw something like moving towards me maybe like 150ft out in the water. And then when I went outside with my foam, it made a left and it breached out of the water. It seemed to be quite large and it didn't seem like anything I've ever seen before. So I recorded for maybe 20 seconds or so. And towards like the end of the video it looked really long and it was quite shocking to see. And towards the end of the video it looked like on the left side of the video its head breached like out of the water and it was like looking at me. It didn't look like anything I've ever seen. Before, it didn't look like a dolphin. It looks like a shark. Nothing.
Derek Hayes
Thank you, Alex. Short, sweet and unsettling. Now imagine yourself out there paddle boarding or, God forbid, swimming when this thing came bobbing by. That is exactly why I'm not a big fan of water. Who really knows what's down there? And the fact that this body of water connects to the ocean means any number of things could be swimming around in there. Bull sharks love to go up tributaries. Out here in Los Angeles, we have humongous green sea turtles that were recently photographed swimming up the San Gabriel River, a river that spills out into the Pacific Ocean. And on our most recent installment of our Hometown Legends ending special, we discussed manatee that were known to swim up the Cape Fear River. The point here is that any number of ocean dwelling creatures could find themselves, if only momentarily, in bodies of fresh water, just like the area behind Alex's apartment. But another thing that we must consider here is that the sighting took place in the state of Florida, the land of invasive animals. People releasing pets, hurricanes, flattening pet stores and a bustling illegal animal trade has left the Sunshine State covered with other continents. Critters. Now, I asked Delaney to compile a short list of some of the bigger invasive species that call Florida home now. And you might be shocked by the size of some of these animals. The Burmese python can grow up to 23ft. The reticulated python up to 16ft. As with the rock python as well, the boa constrictor can grow up to 10ft. And the green anaconda a whopping 20ft. Then you have the yellow anaconda at 12ft. The spectacled caiman, the western spiny tailed iguana, 4ft. The Argentine tegu lizard, and the Nile monitor lizard, which grows to a whopping seven foot. Now, I promise, if you see any of these creatures in the wild, you too will think you saw a monster. And in addition to all of this, Florida has long been home to countless sea monster stories. The St. Augustine Blob. The trident tailed monster made famous by Monster quest. The infamous St. John's River Monster. And there are a few lesser known sightings that also include video video that I've linked to in tonight's show notes. And the creatures in those videos look very similar to what Alex captured. And I guess I should point out that he did. Send us the video. And you can find it in our show notes at monsters among us podcast.com and under the Show Notes Notes tab. Or I'll make sure that Sarah puts it up on her social media. It certainly shows something large with what looks like a flipper undulating in the water. Again, go to monsters among us podcast.com and check it out. And big props to you, Alex, for catching this thing on camera. That's no easy feat when faced with the excitement of seeing your very own water monster. So thank you again for calling in. Now, if you don't mind, let's field one more call before our next break. Zach from Texas, the airwaves are yours.
Alex
Hey, Derek, My name is Zach and I'm from Dallas. And I've been sitting on a story I've been debating calling in about for a really long time, until last night where I heard Jay, also from Dallas, from season 18, episode 47, call in with a story about a shared dream involving a woman without a face. And that's also my story. So all of this took place back in 2012. I was off in college, so I missed all of this. But my dad got a job opportunity that was too good to pass up. The only problem is it would require moving the family to a new town. And my little sister was just about to start her senior year of place. So after much conversation and deliberation, my mom and dad decided that rather than uproot her, they would split up. Mom and my sister would stay in the hometown and dad would go off on his own to the new town, buy a house, get established, start his job. All of that, which sounded great and reasonable at the time, but it turned out to be much, much more difficult than any of them could have anticipated. I think most of all for my dad. He's not a complainer, but at one point he confided in me that he had to be at work before the sun rose and he didn't get home until after the sun had set. So he was in this strange, perpetual darkness and isolation. He lost a ton of weight, his hair went shock white like no man in my family's ever has. It was clear a lot of things were weighing on him. When I would call, all they would talk about is, you know, they would admit that there had been fights and struggles and there was negativity and resentment, which is not my family. It was clear that there was a lot of darkness, a lot of bad energy. So cut to Christmas time. I think this was one of the first times that I was a family of four. We all got together in that house. I drove down from college, I brought some of my college buddies, and we had a great time. We all showed up on a Friday and dad was happy. He was cooking. We were all up late telling stories, and it was a really lovely time. And I promise, this is a scary story. It didn't happen that night. It was the next morning. I woke up to the sound of breakfast being prepared in the kitchen. When I walked in, just about everybody was up and around the kitchen island. And I walk in on kind of a tense moment between my parents. My mom is struggling to explain something, and my dad's nodding intently. Everybody else is just listening. And my dad kind of interrupts my mom, and he says, no, you were absolutely having a nightmare. You were rising in your sleep. You were groaning and mumbling. I mean, you were having a hard time. The weird part is that the dog was simultaneously having a nightmare at the end of the bed, too. Rolling around, groaning, moaning, doing the same stuff you were. But maybe the weirdest part is that the fire alarm was beeping at weird intervals, which it hadn't done before and hasn't done since. So I look at Mom. She's like, yeah, yeah. She's nodding and she's like, no, no. I had a horrible nightmare. I'm in our room, and in the dream, everything looks exactly like it does in life. You're asleep next to me. The dog's asleep at the foot of the bed. I'm lying there, and I suddenly feel a tug at my feet. And I look at the foot of the bed, and very slowly, a very old woman, all white, long scraggly hair, tattered clothing, starts crawling up my body. And she said she tried to scream. She tried to move. She tried to do anything. She couldn't. And this woman is just climbing further and further up, one handful at a time. And about the time this woman gets to my mom's stomach, she looks out. And that's when my mom realizes this woman has no facial features whatsoever. And that was the fever pitch of it. She screams as hard as she can. She wakes herself up, breaks free of the nightmare. And we're all watching mom tell this story in the kitchen. And I look over at my dad, and my dad is ashen faced, his jaws hung open. Well, first, this is 10 out of 10. Textbook sleep paralysis. I've been listening to this show long enough to know exactly what that is. It's part of why I never called this in. It is what my dad said that really makes this different. He said, I've been having that dream over and over again, alone in this house for the last year. And I don't know how we didn't all just run out of the house screaming. But somehow we had breakfast together. And we even spent the next night in that house. And they continued to live in it for years after that. My college buddies never came back. I myself only went back to that house a handful more times. We were always nervous of who was going to be visited by the White witch next. I had been thinking about calling in for a while, so last time I saw my parents, I asked about this. You know, they've since moved out of the house, but I was like, did y' all ever have any occurrences like that again? Did you ever have that same dream? Did she ever revisit? And they said they never experienced any of that. Huge fan of the show. Thanks for everything. Keep it spooky.
Derek Hayes
Thanks, Zach. Oh, yeah, I'd say that's weird enough to qualify. The dream alone is suspect. The fact that they both shared the same dream is unsettling. But the fact that jay from season 18, episode 47 told an awfully similar story, complete with the faceless woman, well, that just makes all this downright uncanny. And I encourage you to visit season 18, episode 47 just so you can hear Jay's entry. It really does help put Zach's story into perspective. So thank you again, Zach, for sharing the submission. Now, I have a pair of calls I would like to share with you, so please welcome Jake from Utah and Kylie from the state of Virginia.
Zach
Hey, Eric, it's Jake again. So I'm calling about a pretty cool story. It's not necessarily a cryptic story, but there is a little bit of a mystery behind it, and I figured this would be a good one to bring on the show with you guys, especially with the announcement from the US Navy that UFOs and aliens do exist. So this one's about Dugway out in Utah's west desert, which I believe is Area 52 for most people. This one's actually pretty cool because a lot of people have been skeptic saying, oh, you can't access it, and blah, blah, blah. Well, just so happens my grandpa actually was raised during the 1900s and he was a sheep herder. And so my family did sheep herding out all over that west desert out there. Well, at that time you could actually just go up to the gate and they would let you through because my grandpa had that permission stuff to go get a sheep and whatnot. And from what my dad said, and my grandpa said, they were actually pretty cool with you just driving through, as long as you didn't stop and didn't pick up anything. Obviously or my dad had some pretty bizarre stories, especially driving through Dugway. My dad actually has a picture of it, too, about halfway through the training grounds, because it's a missile test portion where I'm talking about. And there's 25 to 30 foot missiles sticking out of the ground that haven't gone off yet. And my dad and my grandpa and the rest of his sheep herding party, they're just driving through, just right past all these missiles as they're just lobbed into the ground. Or one of them in particular hit a spring and there's about 10ft of the missile sticking out of the ground, and God knows how much more is embedded into the ground. It's pretty bizarre to actually hear people, oh, that's Area 52 out there. You can't access it, but my family did. My family used to go out there all the time. It wasn't up until the 80s when obviously it was getting more hectic and more crazy and more bizarre. They just were like, you know, it's just best if we just not let people access this anymore. However, my grandpa does swear up and down that during World War II, because my grandpa couldn't fight in the war, he actually had polio. So when he would go out to the desert and whatnot and go buy the testing ground, he swears up and down that he seen some shit that would just blow you away. But actually, another cool story about that is when my grandpa and my dad were herding the sheep and from the canyons and stuff, my dad and grandpa got buzzed by a B52 bomber doing his training run and going through the canyons and just barreled past my dad and my grandpa on their horse, probably about 100ft off the ground, just zipping through the canyons. So, yeah, that's not necessarily a cryptic story, but it's a pretty cool story to tell because a lot of skeptics think that you can't access Area 52. But, hey, my family did. Hope you have a great day.
Morgan
Hi, Derek, this is Kylie calling from Virginia Beach. I'm originally from Utah. I was listening to your podcast on Dugway Proving ground, or Area 52, as they call it. My dad works there for about 35 years. He just recently retired, maybe about five or six years ago. And he's a big believer in UFOs, Bigfoot, any kind of cryptid, basically. He loves your show and so do I. I wanted to call and kind of clear up some things that people were talking about. They claim that there's no craters or anything. Like that at the explosion site. The explosions that my father was doing, he was on the explosives team. Wouldn't have created the type of craters. And I know that they use the facility. I don't know if I'm supposed to be telling you this, but I've been out there, and some of their tests they do in a big wind turbine type of barn, I guess you could call it a big metal barn tunnel. He has seen some weird things out there, but some of the tests they do out there actually kind of look like UFOs, even though they're definitely not. I've been out there myself and seen a couple of weird things, but he is a big believer. I definitely will say that. So maybe he knows something that I don't. Anyway, thanks so much. Have a great one. Bye.
Derek Hayes
Thank you both for the phone call. Now, there's all sorts of rumors surrounding dugway, or Area 52, as it's often called. Rumors of biological weapon testing, chemical weaponry development, testing on unknown civilians and their livestock, and even reverse engineering of alien tech. Those are all rumors that have swirled around the base for decades. And I decided to play these calls in hopes of inspiring other experiencers to call in with their Dugway Proving ground stories. I know there has to be a few of you out there. I recently ran into a guy in the wild that claimed to have worked at a secret base somewhere out in the desert, as he put it. He didn't say which one, but he sort of implied that it wasn't Area 51, which made me assume it was Dugway. Anyway, he told me at night, groups of people would come down from the hills and raid the base for basic necessities. Water, food, some creature comforts. I'm sure he didn't refer to them as people, though. He sort of danced around that word. He said his orders were to ignore them and to just do their best to keep them out. In other words, they had a no violence policy with whatever these things were. And when this guy neglected to tell me exactly who these individuals were that were raiding the base, he would simply refer to them as them. But finally, after some prying, I got him to say they were victims of fallout from all the nuclear testing that went on back in the 40s and 50s, disfigured, malnourished, and hiding in the base's shadow. Now, do I believe the story? I don't know that I do. But I do hope to sit down with him again and have him tell me the story in more detail. Maybe he'll let me get an audio recorder going. If that's the case, you know, I will share it. But I do find the story riveting. A real Hills have Eyes situation. So that's me casting a net here. Who has a good dugway proving ground story for me to share. Until then, thank you, Kylie and Jake, for helping me make my request. Let's just hope it bears fruit. Now, if you would imagine yourself in an abandoned, purportedly haunted hospital, that's where we join Shane from that state up north.
Shane
Hey, Derek. This is Shane from inquiries of our reality podcast. I am calling in from the Detroit area of Michigan, and I've been a longtime listener of the show, and I thought I would finally call in and share the main experience that actually led me down the path of researching that. I do. I'll leave my research out of it so that you can kind of get your ideas on this one. But back in, I believe it was around 2013, I used to go urban exploring. And for anybody that's not familiar with what that is, that's when you go into these old abandoned buildings. We got this huge fascination with this place called Northwest Psychiatric Hospital, which is in Northville, Michigan. And we used to go there almost every single weekend. We got to the point where we had this entire place mapped out. You know, we had, of course, a few little paranormal things happen, orbs, all that kind of stuff, but that was nothing compared to the main experience that I'd had there. I don't know if this actually plays in with the main experience, but I'm gonna leave it in here because maybe it plays a tie in depending on who you ask, ask. But there was one day that we were there and we were looking off of. I believe it was the third story into the back courtyard area where there was just like a wooded area. We saw a cougar walk out of that area and look up at us. And, you know, coming from the Detroit area of Michigan, you know, that's not something that you typically see in this area. If you look up some articles, actually, there's a few articles talking. Talking about these random cougar sightings that were happening near Northville, Michigan, at the time. But that might play a piece, and I'm not 100% sure, but leading into the main encounter, like I said, we had gotten to a point where we had been through this place so many times that we almost got bored of it just because of. You know, we've already seen everything a million times. So up underneath this place, there was something called the Northville Tunnels, which Were these, like, access tunnels that lit all through the city of Northville underneath the town. We knew one of the access points was down through the basement of the hospital that we used to go and check out. So one day we decided that we were going to go and check that out. So it's me and my girlfriend and I have one other friend with us. And we go down the stairs down into the basement. And as we're coming down the stairs, there's this wall to the right, right? And there's a bunch of bricks removed out of it, almost creating like a doorway. And so I come down the stairs and I go to turn into that room. And when I turn into that room, I hear this disembodied voice to the right of me just whisper in my ear and it says, run. And as I hear that, I look forward. There's this metal hospital, like, dirty cart sitting there. And from behind that, this thing stands up. And it's tall, it's lanky, it's not shaped like a normal person. It has this decaying, skinny color. It's got like this bluish, grayish tone to it. It's got this greasy black hair on the top of its head. It's really decrepit looking. And it stands up and it's just this tall, lanky creature. As that happens, I take off and I take my girlfriend and her friend with us. I take off like a bat out of hell out of this building. As we're taking off out of this building, my girlfriend ends up taking pictures back behind us. And this is where it gets kind of weird, is I can email you these pictures. I'll send you the untouched one and one that we just lightened up so you can see it a bit more. But what I'd seen down in this basement was very physical. But what we had captured pictures of. You can definitely see it in there, but it's almost transparent, almost kind of like an apparition. And I know a lot of people have kind of suggested and talked about this whole idea of, you know, rakes or pale crawlers. I don't know. I think there's a lot more to that phenomenon than what people expect that there is to it. I'll kind of let you put your views and ideas on this one and let you do your thing, because that's why I called in in the first place, is because I wanted your thoughts on this encounter. But same as everybody says, I really appreciate you doing the show. Keep up the great work. Thank you, Derek.
Derek Hayes
Thank you, Shane. Yikes. Not what you want to run into while exploring a rundown hospital. Now, I too had the same thoughts that Shane did. Could this be one of the pale crawlers that so many people talk about, especially back east? Those tall, hairless, pale white humanoid figures people see crawling around at night? A creature that some researchers suspect may spend a majority of its time living underground? But I'm with you in your skepticism, though, Shane. The description you gave does not match most of what we know as a pale crawler report. Similar but not quite the same. And I should point out that I do have the photo referenced in the story, and you can find both the original and the lightened version over in the show notes. But I'm not real sure what we're looking at here in the photo, but it sure does seem like someone or something is crouching down there at the end of the hall. Again, the show notes will get you there. Monsters among us podcast.com now, given the location of this experience, it very well could be something paranormal. We've heard enough scary hospital calls to determine that, but I can't help but think it might have been a human. Some of these abandoned buildings have secret residents, reclusive squatters that hide in the shadows in hopes that no one will notice that they're living there. And perhaps the Northville Psychiatric Hospital is one such place. And you know, if I were someone secretly living in this building and I heard some punks approaching with ghost hunting equipment and flashlights, I'd probably do all I could to scare them out of there as well. And I can't help but wonder if that's not exactly what happened to Shane and his girlfriend. And before you start thinking, oh, I'll just go to the Northville Psych Hospital and check it out for myself, you might want to think twice. At least. So says WXYZ, ABC News 7 out of Detroit and the Northville Township Police Department.
Alex
People trespass here all year long, and.
Derek Hayes
It'S enforced all year long. When Halloween starts to howl, hundreds want to hover.
Alex
So far this year, we've arrested right.
Derek Hayes
Around 400 people for trespassing here. I wouldn't go. It's a $500 fine. You get six months to a year of probation and community Service.
Alex
That's a 90 day misdemeanor in the state.
Derek Hayes
Yes, tis the season for scares and dares, but you best beware. We don't want anybody coming onto this property. Northville Township Police Lt. Michael Burrow is not making a suggestion. He's laying down the law.
Alex
We'll have increased patrols out here.
Derek Hayes
It is not worth the risk, the thrill, the chills.
Alex
That building is not safe. There's debris, there's broken glass all over there and probably most importantly, there's asbestos in the air there and we don't want anybody breathing that in.
Derek Hayes
There is no trick, there is no treat. So don't try to sneak a peek. So thank you again Shane for sharing that incredible account. And a little side note here. For the first time in over a century, mountain lion cubs have been confirmed in the state of Michigan. They were discovered back in March of this year. Of course, more info on that is available in tonight's show notes. And that's going to do it for tonight folks. A big thanks for swinging by. The more the merrier. So tell a friend or share the show with a weirdo that you know will love it. We sure would appreciate it. Now, Monsters Among Us Podcast is written and produced by me, Derek Hayes, copyright Red Crow Media. Additional support is provided by Sarah Carter Hayes, Delaney Bowers and Connor Ryan. All media used in this production is done so under the protection of fair use. Be sure to follow us on our social media accounts, give us a like and follow over at YouTube. And while you're at it, leave us a rate and review, wherever that sort of thing is possible. Don't forget that you can catch the show every Saturday evening at 10pm Eastern on the Unex digital network. Just visit unexnetwork.com to tune in. And finally, tonight's score was provided by Iron Cthulhu, Apocalypse Co Ag Music and Carl Casey at White Bat Audio. Now don't forget to watch our film. Find out how@borregotriangle.com buy a shirt before we close the shop for a few weeks and do it while it's on sale. Monsters among us podcast.com and click the Shop tab. And don't forget to join us in the beyond. Five bucks a month gets you literally days worth of bonus MAU content. Visit our website and click the Patreon tab to learn more. Alright, I'll catch you all when I catch you. Hopefully sooner than later. Until then.
Jack Wagner
Lessons learned behind the scenes of celebrity estates.
Derek Hayes
Well, you've stumbled upon our secret story and I often save the weirdest for last year on the program and tonight's offering is no different. What Bethany in New Mexico experienced is certainly weird.
Morgan
Hello, this is Bethany calling from Carson, New Mexico. So about 3:30 in the morning I woke up and did kind of usual midnight routine of letting the dogs out. I, you know, laid in bed Did a wordle, was just about to go to bed or sleep, you know, lights out kind of a thing. And as I'm laying there looking out the window, all of a sudden the room kind of lit up on my left side and it was like a sparkle, sparkling of light. Like sparklers or truly just like little sparkles. And then the best way to describe it would be be something moving, almost like a worm. Or if you were to have a sparkler and move it very quickly, how it creates a light line. It was like that, but in slow motion, kind of moving next to me. It all happened very fast. By the time I was seeing the light on my left side and seeing the wall kind of glowing and I'm looking up through the window to see if something is shining down, except it's clearly illuminating from within the room, it was gone. It all just took place within a matter of truly just a couple of seconds. And then I'm lying there and I'm kind of giddy, which is how strange that was. But it was very, you know, benign. It didn't feel bad or dangerous or scary at all, even though it was so close to me. I started to text somebody about it and suddenly the door starts to rattle or like around the door of my house. I'm in a pretty remote area, it's a non traditional house set up and it was almost like a bunch of things were hitting the walls and under the floor all at the same time. I got the distinct impression that it was like irritated that I was telling somebody. It's almost like I feel bad telling anybody, but here we are. I'm almost just reaching out because of the strange things that I've experienced in the last couple of months here. If anybody has any relevant experience to share. Alright, thank you, have a great day.
Derek Hayes
Thank you, Bethany. You know, this sounds like ibadas. Unidentified Aerial Biological Entities Floating, glowing worms, in other words. Now typically these things have been spotted way up in the sky at higher altitudes, almost behaving as if it were an animal cruising the sky, eating sky plankton or whatever. But it's not common to see these things indoors, if that is in fact what it was. But regardless of the explanation, the story was incredible and we can't thank you enough for sharing it here with us. Bethany, thanks again for calling in. Now folks, you know what time it is, it's time to go beyond. And I'll meet you on the other side of this call from Debbie in New York. Now let's monsters among us podcast.com and click that Patreon tab for full access.
Jack Wagner
Hi, Derek. My name is Debbie, and I'm calling from near Rochester, New York. I'm going to tell you and your listeners something that happened to me long before most of you were even born. This is going into the Way Back machine here. In 1964, I was a middle school kid and a big fan of a new group from England called the Beatles. And their movie A Hard Day's Night had just been released in the United States and was playing in a nearby town. So a friend and I went to see it. Had a wonderful time, screaming and yelling and jumping up and down and not really listening to the movie. And when the movie was over and the lights came on again, we started talking to some girls behind us. And they were from a small town in Pennsylvania. We were near the Pennsylvania border at that time, and they'd come up just to see the movie. And we started talking about how much we liked the group. And we decided to be pen pals or phone call pals. We started corresponding, we became very friendly. And my friend Alice and I started traveling back and forth to each other's houses on weekends now and then to visit and have fun. We did things like ripping up teen magazines and putting pictures on the wall and all that. But when we ran out of doing that, we got out a Ouija board and started to play with a Ouija board.
Monsters Among Us: Episode S19 Ep12 Summary
Title: Lake Monsters, Hospital Monsters, and a Horned Entity in the Basement
Host: Derek Hayes
Release Date: May 22, 2025
Introduction
In this chilling episode of Monsters Among Us, host Derek Hayes delves into a series of spine-tingling paranormal encounters shared by listeners from across North America. From eerie manifestations in bedrooms to mysterious lake creatures, each story is meticulously explored, offering listeners a deep dive into the unexplained.
Caller: Morgan (@02:45)
Morgan from Houston, Texas, recounts a haunting experience from her childhood. At ten years old, after her family built a new home, Morgan began hearing heavy breathing every night while trying to sleep in her own room. This unnerving sound persisted for eight years, only ceasing after she shared her experience with her mother upon graduating high school.
Morgan (@02:45): "Every time I went to sleep, I would hear heavy breathing just like it was floating on top of me. It was almost a suffocating feeling."
Derek Hayes relates Morgan's experience to a similar haunting reported by his step-grandmother in Ohio, who described a mysterious breathing couch. Despite attempts to mitigate the presence, the disturbances in his grandmother's home intensified, suggesting a persistent supernatural entity.
Caller: Sean (@10:07)
Sean from Colorado shares a bewildering encounter from his childhood in Colorado Springs. At around ten years old, he and his friends witnessed an unusually colored cloud hovering and moving slowly across their neighborhood streets, exhibiting strange lightning-like bursts in various colors.
Sean (@10:07): "There was just this cloud, this weird cloud... it's got weird colors, like it's going red, it's going blue, just weird little lightning strikes."
Derek speculates on possible explanations, including cloaked UFOs or military activities, especially given the proximity to multiple Air Force bases. He invites listeners to share their insights, highlighting the unexplained nature of such phenomena.
Caller: Corey (@15:12)
Corey from Los Angeles recounts a haunting premonition experienced during his eighth-grade year. For about a month, he dreamed of a large fireball streaking across a serene sky, filling him with dread. This vision eerily mirrored the tragic Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, which Corey unwittingly foresaw in his dream.
Corey (@15:12): "And whenever I would see the fireball in my dream, it just filled me with a sense of dread."
Derek discusses the unsettling nature of premonitions, emphasizing their often vague messages and the frustration of their inability to alter impending events. He reflects on the coincidence and the emotional impact it had on Corey and his family.
Caller: Alex (@32:49)
Alex from Miami, Florida, shares a startling video capturing a large, unidentified creature breaching near his apartment's adjacent lake. Describing the creature as reminiscent of a shark yet unlike anything he has seen before, Alex's footage sparks intrigue and concern.
Alex (@32:49): "It looked really long and it was quite shocking to see. It didn't look like anything I've ever seen before. It looks like a shark. Nothing."
Derek analyzes the sighting, considering natural explanations such as invasive species prevalent in Florida, like Burmese pythons and green anacondas, which can grow to formidable sizes. He connects Alex's video to similar lake monster sightings and encourages listeners to view the footage available in the show notes.
Callers: Jake and Kylie (@37:44)
Jake (@37:44):
Jake from Dallas recounts his family's unique access to Dugway Proving Ground (often referred to as Area 52) in Utah's west desert. His grandfather, a sheep herder, shared experiences of witnessing missile tests and even encountering B-52 bombers flying unusually low over the canyons.
Jake (@37:44): "My grandpa swears up and down that during World War II... he actually had polio. So when he would go out to the desert and whatnot, he actually saw some shit that would just blow you away."
Kylie (@47:44):
Kylie from Virginia Beach clarifies misconceptions about Dugway's operations. Her father, a long-time employee, dispels rumors about crater formations from explosions and confirms witnessing phenomena resembling UFOs within the facility's testing areas.
Kylie (@47:44): "Some of the tests they do out there actually kind of look like UFOs, even though they're definitely not."
Derek highlights the enigmatic nature of military testing sites and the allure of hidden truths, urging listeners to share their own experiences related to Dugway Proving Ground.
Caller: Shane (@51:51)
Shane from Detroit describes his unsettling experiences while urban exploring the abandoned Northwest Psychiatric Hospital in Northville, Michigan. Alongside his girlfriend and friend, Shane encounters a tall, lanky entity in the basement tunnels, leading to terrifying photographs capturing what appears to be a semi-transparent apparition.
Shane (@51:51): "I hear this disembodied voice to the right of me just whisper in my ear and it says, run."
Derek debates the nature of the encounter—questioning whether it was a paranormal entity or possibly a reclusive human inhabitant. He emphasizes the dangers of exploring such abandoned structures, advising caution to listeners.
Caller: Bethany (@62:05)
Bethany from Carson, New Mexico, shares a bizarre nighttime occurrence where sparkling, worm-like lights moved rapidly across her room. The phenomenon, lasting mere seconds, was followed by disturbances inside her home, such as rattling doors and objects moving seemingly on their own.
Bethany (@62:05): "It was almost like a bunch of things were hitting the walls and under the floor all at the same time."
Derek suggests these could be ibadas (Unidentified Aerial Biological Entities Floating), typically seen at high altitudes, but notes the peculiarity of such entities manifesting indoors. He appreciates Bethany's detailed account and its contribution to the episode's diverse paranormal narratives.
Caller: Debbie (@66:17)
Debbie from near Rochester, New York, begins sharing a nostalgic yet eerie story from 1964 involving a shared nightmare about a faceless woman encountered during the aftermath of a Beatles movie screening. While the transcript cuts off before the full story unfolds, the setup hints at a profound and unsettling paranormal experience tied to childhood memories.
Conclusion
Derek Hayes wraps up the episode by weaving together the diverse tales of hauntings, unexplained phenomena, and eerie coincidences. Each story not only entertains but also fuels the ongoing mystery surrounding the paranormal. Hayes encourages listeners to share their own experiences, fostering a community intrigued by the unknown.
Derek Hayes (@62:05): "Monsters Among Us Podcast is written and produced by me, Derek Hayes... Join us in the beyond."
Additional Notes
Notable Moments: Throughout the episode, Derek interjects with personal anecdotes, such as his step-grandmother's similar haunting experiences and his skepticism regarding certain phenomena.
Listener Engagement: The episode emphasizes community involvement, urging listeners to call in their stories and engage through various platforms, including voice memos and emails.
References: For visual references and additional context, listeners are directed to the podcast's show notes, where videos and related content are available.
Stay Connected
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Disclaimer: All accounts and experiences shared in this summary are based on listener submissions and are presented without verification. Viewer discretion is advised.