Max [Patreon Preview]

Summary

Otherworld — “Max” [Patreon Preview] (November 5, 2025)
Host: Jack Wagner
Guest: Diana

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Overview

This bonus episode of Otherworld, hosted by Jack Wagner, dives into a listener-submitted paranormal story from Diana. As a teenager in Vermont, Diana and her friends experimented with a Ouija board seeking harmless answers about their crushes. What started as innocent fun quickly spiraled into a chilling experience: Diana finds herself haunted and stalked by an intense, persistent male entity she calls “Max.” The episode explores Diana’s escalating encounters with “Max” and her struggle to be believed and to manage her growing terror.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Ouija Board Origin

• Diana and her friends, while teenagers, use a Ouija board with the light-hearted goal of discovering information about their crushes.
• This typical teenage activity serves as the catalyst for the strange, dark events that follow.

2. The Haunting Begins

• After the Ouija session, Diana begins to experience the presence of a specific male entity.
• He initially appears at social gatherings:
  • “Then he started showing up at parties. So he would show up, like at bonfire parties…” (02:03)
  • The entity is described as a man in red shorts, a t-shirt, with dark brown shoulder-length hair — always standing near her friends, but never interacting directly.

3. Entity’s Elusiveness and Isolation

• Only Diana can see him. When she tries to point him out, her friends are unable to see anything.
  • “So Christiana and Angie were my two friends that I would talk to about this… I said, Christiana, do you see the man standing over in the corner? And she said, ‘No, what are you talking about?’” (03:09)
• The figure seems to exist on the edge of her perception, disappearing or blurring if she tries to focus on him.

4. Escalation and Stalking

• The entity becomes more aggressive, following her from public gatherings into her private life:
  • “It escalated to him visiting me in my room at night when I was going to bed.” (04:12)
  • She describes the chilling sensation of “cold breathing” near her face at night, paired with total paralysis out of fear — emphasizing that it’s not typical sleep paralysis.

5. Auditory Paranormal Encounters

• The haunting grows more intense as the man whispers her name in a terrifying, unnatural manner:
  • “He started to whisper my name into my ear. But it sounded like if you recorded something and played it backwards... it would be like, 'Diana...’” (05:20)
  • Diana relates the sensation and sound to listeners, visibly unnerved even recalling the experience: “I’m getting goosebumps just doing that. Oh, it’s so scary.” (05:35)

6. Fear of Escalation and Seeking Help

• Diana’s fear peaks as she worries about what the entity’s next step will be — possession, violence, or something worse.
  • “I was really worried about it escalating further because I thought, well, what is the next step?” (05:40)
• She confides in her open-minded parents, but their lack of firsthand experience leaves them unable to fully understand. Her mother suggests talking to the entity.
  • “My mom suggested maybe you should talk to him and ask him what he wants. And you know, in theory that sounds doable, but when you're in the moment and he’s breathing on you, you can’t do anything.” (06:06)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Entity’s Elusiveness:
  “When you go to actually look directly at them in their eyes and it blurs out or it just disappears.”
  — Diana (02:32)

• Isolated Terror:
  “I could tell that I was the only one that could see him. And I did feel a little bit like I was going crazy.”
  — Diana (02:48)

• Physical Sensation:
  “He would breathe on me, breathe in my face as if he was inches from my face… It was cold air and it was just like I couldn’t even move. I couldn’t even scream. I was so terrified.”
  — Diana (04:30)

• The Backwards Whisper:
  “He started to whisper my name into my ear. But it sounded like if you recorded something and played it backwards...”
  — Diana (05:20)

• Seeking Advice:
  “My mom suggested maybe you should talk to him and ask him what he wants… but when you’re in the moment and he’s breathing on you, you can’t do anything.”
  — Diana (06:06)

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Important Segment Timestamps

• 02:03 — Diana describes the entity appearing at parties.
• 03:09 — Diana’s attempt to validate her experience with friends.
• 04:12 — Escalation: the entity appears in Diana’s bedroom.
• 05:20 — Whispering her name in a backwards, unnatural voice.
• 06:06 — Her mother’s advice and Diana’s feeling of helplessness.

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Tone & Style

• The episode is delivered with a mixture of matter-of-fact reporting and chilling personal narrative. Diana’s honest, occasionally humorous reflections (“sort of a typical setup for a story you might hear on this show …”) contrast effectively with her raw descriptions of terror.
• Host Jack Wagner’s tone is, as usual, warm and open-minded—welcoming listeners into an earnest discussion about unexplained phenomena.

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Conclusion

This preview presents a deeply unsettling account of a haunting that moved far beyond standard Ouija board stories, marked by isolation, physical sensation, and fear of escalation. Diana’s vivid storytelling and openness lay the groundwork for a full episode that promises to delve even deeper into one of Otherworld’s most intense personal encounters.

To hear the rest of Diana’s story and access additional bonus content, listen on the Otherworld Patreon.

Transcript

[A]

Foreign.

[B]

Welcome to the Otherworld Patreon. I'm your host, Jack Wagner. This is a bonus episode that was originally going to be part of this year's Halloween episodes, but we accidentally made too many episodes this year, which I'd say is a very rare but good problem for us. So I'm not exactly complaining about it, but I thought it would be perfect to put this episode out on Patreon as a bonus. And I can't wait for you to hear it and see what you think about it. In fact, we have quite a few amazing Patreon episodes being finished up right now that will be coming out very soon, so be on the lookout. This one comes from from a person named Diana, and it takes place when they were a teenager growing up in Vermont. Her and some friends decided to play on a Ouija board to find out information about their crushes. Sort of a typical setup for a story you might hear on this show. Things, of course, turned pretty bad pretty quickly right after that. But I will say the things that ended up happening after all of this to Diana are pretty intense and quite different than other Ouija board stories I've heard recently. It involves being followed by a specific male entity, maybe even stalked. I'll let Diana explain for herself. If you want to hear the full version of this episode, you could sign up for the [e-mail] Otherworld this episode is called Max, and you're listening to the Otherworld Patreon.

[A]

Then he started showing up at parties. So he would show up, like at bonfire parties, and we'd all be standing around the bonfire in a circle, and he would just be there standing next to one of my friends. Red shorts and a T shirt. It was pretty dark, so it was almost like you're looking around at a group of people and you're focused on one person, and then you see the other person next to them. And when you go to actually look directly at them in their eyes and it blurs out or it just disappears. So if I ever tried to really focus on him, he would disappear. I mean, I was terrified when he started showing up at these parties. And I could tell that I was the only one that could see him. And I did feel a little bit like I was going crazy. And so one night I asked my friend Christiana. So Christiana and Angie were my two friends that I would talk to about this. And, you know, they were pretty into the spiritual world. So one time at this party, it was at a house party, and I saw him leaning against the wall, with his arms crossed in the corner. He looked to be about 30 and the hair was dark brown, maybe down a little, like almost to the shoulders. Straight hair and kind of sort of lean. And it was pretty dark. And he had his head down so I couldn't see his face. And Christiana was right next to me and I said, christiana, do you see the man standing over in the corner? And she said, no, what are you talking about? And I thought, oh shit, I guess I'm the only one that can see him. I was a little worried when I started seeing him at parties because I thought, oh, now he's really coming to stalk me. And I didn't think it was a person stalking me. I thought, a ghost is stalking me. So then it escalated to him visiting me in my room at night when I was going to bed. I'd be laying in bed, getting ready to go to sleep. And he would breathe on me, breathe in my face as if he was inches from my face. And it was cold air and it was just like I couldn't even move. I couldn't even scream. I was so terrified. I was just paralyzed. It was. It was definitely not sleep paralysis because it was right before I went to sleep. It wasn't like I was waking up and experiencing it, but I was paralyzed with fear and my. I could hear my heart just pounding out of my chest. It started with the breathing and then he started to whisper my name into my ear. But it sounded like if you recorded something and played it backwards, you know that sound, that like quality of sound where it feels like it's getting sucked back into itself. So it would be like, Diana, you know, like I'm getting goosebumps just doing that. Oh, it's so scary. I was really worried about it escalating further because I thought, well, what is the next step? You know, like, is it. Am I going to get possessed? Like, is he going to try to kill me? You know, I mean, I had all these fears and I ended up talking to my parents about it who, like I said, are very open minded people, but they've never experienced anything paranormal before. So I think they had a hard time believing me. And my mom suggested maybe you should talk to him and ask him what he wants. And you know, in theory that sounds doable, but when you're in the moment and he's breathing on you, you can't do anything. You just can't.

[B]

That brings us to the end of this preview. If you want to hear the full episode and many other bonus episodes. Sign up for the Otherworld Patreon and support the [e-mail] Otherworld.