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Some people say if you believe something strong enough, it will come to pass. Maybe, maybe. But what if the problem is you don't know what to believe? From Snap Judgment's underground lair, you're listening to Spoot. Stay tuned.
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When I was 8 years old, my brother refused to get out of bed. He lay moaning on top of our sheets, sweat pouring from his brown body. My parents had long told us that the doctors were of the devil. Instead, they called the pastor and the pastor came. My mother led him to our shared room, the open door revealing my brother contorted in pain. And then, from a small leather folder, the pastor removed a vial of olive oil and a clean white square of linen. He pressed several drops of the oil onto the cloth, then he pushed it hard onto my brother's abdomen. My brother screamed. Then the pastor and my parents knelt down to pray. They prayed to Lord Jesus to heal my brother. Heal him, Lord Jesus. Heal your servant's child. We claim your your bounty, Almighty God, in Jesus name, in Jesus name. And I became angry. So angry, because I knew they were doing it wrong. My grandmother had long told me that the more sick you are, the more power you need. My grandmother could even use her own spit, her saliva, to turn away a blister or a headache. But for bigger things. She struck matches, set fire, lit dandelion powder, burned high. John the Conqueror root, Hyssop Time Nettle. Each made their own smoke, and each smoke had power, born of fire. For things that mattered, things that had to be. My grandmother said never mess around. And that's why her fingers were lined with the cross hatches. She would take my grandfather's razor strap and slice her own skin, harvest her own blood if she had to. That's real power, baby. That's what she told me. So I was angry as a pastor, pressed into my baby brother with olive oil from a glass jar. There was no power there. No smoke, no fire and no blood. Spook starts now. Now, then, our first story comes to us from three very special women. A daughter, a mother and a grandmother. We begin with a daughter, Sarah Finnerty. Spooked.
Sarah Finnerty
It was October. I was 14, and I just started high school. And then I don't know what happened. My mom and grandma remember.
Sarah's Mother
I think it was fall. It wasn't cold enough for coats. Heavy coats. Oh, boy, it was a while ago. And I don't even like thinking about it, remembering.
Sarah's Grandmother
She didn't get out of the bed. And she was bigger girl, bigger than me. Much big. And I said, well, you don't get up. You remember who you was. You know, you don't remember that time.
Sarah Finnerty
I'm surprised I don't remember it. It's like a hole in my memory.
Sarah's Mother
Boy, I went in all the time. And sometimes she would relent a little bit and talk and sit up. But most of the time it was. Could you just let me rest? What, are you gonna scream? Pull her out of bed, dress her. You know, she's as big as I am.
Sarah's Grandmother
She had long legs, beautiful. And I said to her, look, you're strong. You can walk. I don't feel my leg. She said I pinch her with a needle. She didn't feel something strange. She was alive. She didn't feel the pinch in her leg. It's ridiculous.
Sarah's Mother
I think it was at that time that, Sarah, you even used aluminum foil to block out light. And I said, oh, my God. This is like Bobby Fischer pulling out his fillings, you know, not wanting any. I don't know what I was thinking. But she was very, very despondent.
Sarah's Grandmother
He wasn't sick, Sarah. You wasn't Sick. You acted like a bull. I'm 93 years old. I have very strong mind. I remember everything. You was possessed. Okay.
Sarah Finnerty
My grandmother thought the only thing that could explain my st was that I was possessed by a demon or someone had put a curse on me.
Sarah's Mother
We're from a very small town in Italy and we emigrated when I was a child. And they had beliefs that were primitive in a lot of cases. So anything was possible to help people save, you know, one of your own. And she came up with interesting solutions.
Sarah Finnerty
The first thing my grandma did to try to make me feel better was to get a priest to come to our house.
Sarah's Grandmother
I called. The priest was a priest from Italy, Missionary Missionario Scalabliniano Dalitala. He came over here and he went to every room. And then I bring him upstairs, Sarah's room.
Sarah Finnerty
This is one of the only things I remember is a priest standing in my bedroom door and throwing holy water around my room. My grandmother probably arranged it so the priest came while my mother was at work so she wouldn't have to tell my mom.
Sarah's Mother
She denied what she was doing. You know, when I discovered stuff, she would flat out deny it. And then when it was undeniable, she'd worm her way around it saying, it's not a big deal. I'm not paying for it. It's just a little thing. My friend told me to do it. You know, she's depressed. We have to do.
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Sarah Finnerty
But nothing changed after the priest. So my grandma contacted people in Italy who she thought could help.
Sarah's Grandmother
They were witches, of course. Somebody put a curse on you, Sarah. A healthy person, Sarah. That was the devil. The devil was. I think. So
Sarah's Mother
I absolutely demanded that you not do anything nutty. That I didn't want you even hearing anything like that. That. That would be bad. It would be damaging. No talk about witchcraft. No talk about that crap. None. I absolutely forbid it. And, you know, we fought, we argued. What could come of that? No seen person would have allowed that, and I sure the hell would. Wasn't going to allow it. But she got that Kakamini idea.
Sarah's Grandmother
Oh, yeah. I want to take you to Italy, but your mother don't let me. I want to take Serra to Italy because I want to do anything.
Sarah Finnerty
My mother says that she watched my grandma take my birth certificate out of a drawer, put it behind her back, and run down the stairs. When my mom confronted her and asked her what she was doing, they ended up getting into a big screaming match.
Sarah's Mother
I'm not gonna allow her to go there. You know, it's not like they're gonna visit the Mona Lisa there. Yeah, they're going for voodoo crap. No way. It's never gonna happen. Forget about it.
Sarah Finnerty
So the witches had wanted my grandmother to take me to Italy so they could perform an exorcism. But my mom refused. So they came up with a compromise.
Sarah's Mother
She called it a paraprofessional or I don't know what. They had all kinds of names to make it seem better, but that they contacted someone in Italy.
Sarah Finnerty
So, grandma, what exactly did the witches want to do?
Sarah's Grandmother
Is his job? I don't know what he did. I don't know nothing. I'm not a witch. I just pray God and maybe with him and me pray God. I don't know. If I help him make a miracle. I sent the money.
Sarah Finnerty
So my grandmother, without telling my mother, of course, sent the witch $3,000. In exchange, he promised to cast a spell that would break this curse that was put on me.
Sarah's Mother
I discovered it after the fact, after all this money had been sent. That was A long time ago. So that was a lot of money, you know, and here I am working on soul support, going to work every day, you know, knocking myself out. And you're doing what? You're spending what? It's preposterous. It's out of the question because, you know, we were very frugal people, I often say, you know, until I was able to get a job myself, buy my own clothes. My mother sold everything I ever wore.
Sarah Finnerty
My grandparents had the most decrepit, dirty old falling apart Buick you could ever imagine. There were parts falling off of it onto the street. The ceiling was falling onto the seats. They never spent money on anything. $3,000 was a huge amount of money for.
Sarah's Grandmother
For them, that guy. The $3,000 was a worth. Pay me 3 million.
Sarah Finnerty
So one day my grandma called the witch in Italy because she was scared the anti curse he was concocting wouldn't work.
Sarah's Grandmother
I was crying and he said, don't cry. Don't do anything. Just take care of her. I didn't know what to do with you, you know, I love you so much. I didn't know what to do with her. I didn't know what to do. And he reassured me other phone was gonna work
Sarah's Mother
anyway. Matriarch does what she wants.
Sarah Finnerty
So the witch and his coven cast a spell that would travel over the Atlantic Ocean. I think he told my grandma it would take three weeks to arrive. Meanwhile, he mailed her a card, told her to put up on my bed so the spell would know where to go.
Sarah's Mother
So they sent this card, this ridiculous card. I remember it was a gold, like a gold American Express. It looks something like that, weird. And it was placed in a strategic place to be, you know, leaning up. That would be, I guess, a channel of some kind for the spirit that they were sending over. And they said it would take three weeks. And the uncanny thing is that three weeks to the day, Sarah got up and announced she was going to school. It was a Thursday, I remember that, a Thursday morning. And I said, this is f ing unbelievable. You know, this is nuts. But she's going. So I'm ecstatic.
Sarah's Grandmother
That's why I believe she. She get up the bed the day after she went to school, she take a shower. She become like a miracle.
Sarah's Mother
It's uncanny. The timing was uncanny. And it did happen.
Sarah Finnerty
So is there a part of you that thinks the witches actually helped me?
Sarah's Mother
I won't allow myself to believe stuff like that.
Sarah Finnerty
I think the allow says it all. My mom could have said that she doesn't believe in it. But instead, she says she doesn't allow herself, like, the impulse to believe is there, but she's forcing herself not to. And I've had periods of very intense depression, but there's never been such a large chunk of time that I have no memory of whatsoever. There was some kind of dark energy that kept me in that bed. And one day it was there, and the next day it was gone. And I don't know what to call that dark energy, but I know it exists.
Host
Big love to Sarah and her family for sharing that story. In return, what you don't know can hurt, hurt you. You're listening to Spooked. Stay tun. Now, over the years of producing this show, we've learned that the supernatural doesn't just obey commands. You can't just take this stuff and make it do your bidding. But see our next storyteller, Paul. Well, Paul, he doesn't know that yet.
Paul Templar
Spooked. To this day, I'll still sit there and think of what it all meant. It was inexplicable and otherworldly. So I was a pretty active kid. In fact, an extremely active kid. But as time went by in my early teens, I started having problems with. I'd get really bad backache and I'd get really lethargic. I'd get achy and complain about just not feeling up for it, which was unusual for me because I was usually up for pretty much anything. And on a routine checkup with a doctor, they ran some tests and my blood pressure really freaked them out. It was sky high. And when I started going to the bathroom, there was a lot of protein and a lot of blood in my urine. When you grow up in Africa, you spend a lot of time in and around dams and rivers and lakes and what have you. And there's a parasite there, and just about everyone gets it. And it's fairly easy to treat. And for some reason or other, it had taken root inside of my kidneys. And so it had evolved into something that essentially my kidneys started shutting down. By that time, my urine was pretty close to pure blood, this kind of icky, brownish red color. My blood pressure was just obscenely high. We were trying to treat it, having biopsies and looking at what was going on. My condition was deteriorating pretty rapidly, and we didn't really seem to have a solution. So I was in hospital and had been for a couple of months. At this point, I was bedridden. I wasn't allowed out of bed and was so frustrated and so scared and so tired of it. All there'd been a lot of movement around me that day, that my test results, I guess weren't doing so well and what have you. And this other kid with diabetes came into my ward. It was lights out, everyone went to sleep and stuff, and myself and this buddy of mine, we had this cunning plan. So kind of like on the TV shows where you stuff sheets in your bed so it looks like you're there. We did that and then we hopped out of the window and there was this hamburger joint down the road and we went down there and we grabbed a burger and it was next to this bar. And we were 15, 16 at the time. We thought we were so clever. We thought it was awesome. We went and got some food. We were on restricted diets. When we were breaking back into the hospital, we went through the bathroom window. Sitting in the bathroom was a priest waiting for me because my test results had come back. And Sister Sally, she was one of the nurses there, was just beside herself. She was so pissed at me. I was like, what's the big deal? And she just couldn't contain herself. She goes, paul, the big deal is you're dying. And so kind of went back to my bed, got into my bed and the priest was standing there and it was time for last rites. I made it through that 24, 48 hours, I'm lying in my hospital bed and in walks this 40 something year old woman with just an incredibly peaceful demeanor about herself. She came and sat down next to my bed, introduced herself. Hi, Paul, my name's Anne. And your mom asked me to come and say hi. At this stage, I was an incredibly cranky, scared young guy and I wasn't going to be rude, but I certainly wasn't going to be friendly. But she sat there and she talked. And then she asked me if I minded if she would pray with me. Then I was a little pissed because I didn't see that God was really doing me that many favors at that time. And the beautiful thing with Ann was she asked that. And then she. I think she almost tricked me because we just started having a chat and we got to know each other a little better. We laughed a little bit and I felt myself relaxing and unwinding and connecting with her. And then she got back to did I mind if she prayed with me? She said, sure. She said, I'm going to put my hands here, if that's okay. And she kind of held her hands maybe an inch above where my kidneys were. I remember laying there being fairly skeptical, but by the same Token. There was just that little sliver of light, that little sliver of hope. As she sat there, I felt this at first, this sense of warmth. And I thought, ah, okay, it's because her hands are near. But then it started growing. And it wasn't just a superficial surface warmth. It was this warmth that was kind of growing, growing, growing from within. And I could feel where my back had been really sore that was inexplicably easing up. Not only was the pain going away, but there was a level of peace that was coming in. My chest didn't feel so constricted. I didn't feel quite so panicked. It was the most incredible sense of peace that I'd felt in a very, very long time. It was bizarre. And I've experienced. I've experienced true, deep love with a child, with a partner, with a friend. But nothing comes even close to that peace. I kind of closed my eyes because I thought that's what you're supposed to do when you're praying. And then I opened them, and I saw Ann was sitting there. Her eyes more or less closed, but she just had this look of complete peace on her. Then she opened her eyes and she smiled, and she said it was great meeting me and would it be okay if she came and saw me again? I was like, sure. That would be great. So she left. And they came. They were doing rounds on a fairly regular basis. They came, and when they did a urine test, filled the cup, it was clear there was no blood in it. So it had gone from being looked like pure blood to no blood. When they tested my blood pressure, my blood pressure was lower than it had been since I got into hospital. I remember the nurse. It was Sister Agatha. She was like. You could see on her face, this does not compute. A few hours later, sure enough, same result. So then there was this mad scurrying of doctors and nurses because they've done all these tests. I've been in hospital all this time, and I'm supposed to be, like, not good. Part of the protocol in finding out what the heck was going on was I flew to England to the fairly renowned hospital for that kind of thing. Went through a battery of tests there. They came to the same conclusion that the doctors in Zimbabwe had come up with, which was, it makes no sense. It was inexplicable and otherworldly. Couldn't explain it, but I was okay with not explaining it. Fast forward the tape. Almost 20 years later, and I've just got home from the hospital where my daughter Erin had just had Surgery for a brain tumor. She was four months old at the time, and the surgery hadn't gone well. And it was not a good time. It had been a terrible day. Erin had been in about eight hours of surgery, and it was taking bits and pieces of her brain out. And it was, would she survive the surgery? And then we get to the end of the surgery and they tell us it wasn't successful. Kerry stayed in the hospital with her overnight night at the infant icu. Kerry was my wife at the time and left her little body on all these life support systems and drove home because I had another child at home. And then I had this big pile of mail. So I went and sat at the kitchen table and I'm going through the mail and I noticed this piece from Mutamwa. It's a leper colony that I'd done some work with. There was this note, and it said, and we'd like to welcome Ann Lander to our board. I'm like, you've got to be kidding me. A day that was so filled with despair was suddenly there was a ray of light. There was an element of hope. I was like, oh, my God, this is awesome. Anne's going to heal her. Ann is totally going to heal her. She's going to fix Erin. I think Erin's going to be okay. So I reached out to Ann right away, and I'm like, hey, Ann, Just confirming you're the Ann. It's Paul Templar. Blah, blah, blah. Do you remember me? And she's like, sure, I remember you. How are you? So I give her a quick update on what's going on with Aaron. And I'm like, ann, you have to help me. You have to heal Aaron. And she's like, paul, I don't heal anyone. I remember getting really pissed. I'm like, but you did me. She goes, I didn't heal you. It felt like a cruel trick. I was very pointed and made clear as politely as I could that what I was looking for was nothing short of a miracle. But Anne wasn't budging. We had a conversation, and rather than focusing on what she couldn't do, we looked at what she could do. She proposed we form a prayer circle. Whilst less than delighted, I think I still felt a glimmer of hope. At the time, I was living in this little bungalow, and I was in this little apex. Roof was pretty low. You had to duck your head in some areas. And Erin was just laying there. My job was to sit next to Erin and to hold my hand just above her head. I remember like wiping my eyes and I had my hand there to tick, tick. And I thought I was going crazy because I could feel this incredible warmth, this energy starting to build. I do remember giggling a little because I was absolutely convinced this is gonna work, this was gonna work. But then it dissipated. And as hard as I tried, I couldn't bring it back. I'm just kind of slouching there with my hand above her and I couldn't regenerate what I had experienced. I just lay there and I watched her sleep. I thought I knew what the miracle was that we needed. And then I realized I couldn't predict the future, but I could shift the focus. I could look for a different unfolding. Erin's 13 now and my daughter has profound special needs. She medically fragile that Erin is still alive. The thing is she has this big smile and she smiles from her eyes. When I pull up at home, she will run out and give me the biggest hug and then she wants to hop into the back of my truck to go wherever I'm going. The more I try to control the supernatural, the inexplicable, the less conducive the environment I'm producing for anything to happen inside of it to me. The acceptance of what is acceptance with possibilities, that's what creates the portal if you want for the supernatural.
Host
Thank you Paul Temple, for sharing your story with Spooked. Now if you want to hear more from Paul and his life as an adventure guide on the Zambezi river. It's a story that is incredible. It involves hippos. You can got to hear it on the amazing Snap Judgment podcast storytelling with a different flavor. That's a snap judgment.org Now Paul has a memoir called what's Left of Me and I'm going to have a link@spookpodcast.org. Spooked was produced by a tiny team of intrepid researchers that goes into dark places, that walks unlit path, that asks questions other people dare not explore. And if you appreciate their sacrifice in search of this truth, let somebody know. Send holy water or incense or sage or something to help this team that always carries a flashlight. Mark Ristich, Anna Sussman, Eliza Smith, Katya Apakina, Sarah Affinity, Erica Lance, Jodie Collie Teodecott the Spoop theme song was written and performed by Pat Masini Miller and your original soundscape through this journey was created, written, performed and produced by the amazing team of Renzo Gorio, Leon Morimoto and Pat Messini Miller. And remember, creatures of the dark, they wrap themselves in illusion. They appear as brothers, sisters, lovers. All the while hiding an ulterior, unholy motive. There is only one one surefire way to expose their evil plans.
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Friends.
Host
Never, ever, no matter how much they beg and plead and weep. Never, ever turn out the light.
Podcast: Spooked by KQED & Snap Judgment
Host: Glynn Washington
Release Date: June 26, 2026
Episode Theme:
This episode of Spooked explores the blurred lines between belief, supernatural intervention, and family tradition through two riveting first-person stories. The theme centers on the mysterious power of faith, family, and the inexplicable when confronting forces—internal or external—that seem beyond rational explanation.
The narratives raise questions about the real power behind supernatural solutions—faith, ritual, coincidence, psychological shifts, or something truly otherworldly.
"My grandmother said never mess around ... She would take my grandfather's razor strap and slice her own skin, harvest her own blood if she had to. That’s real power, baby." – Host [03:44]
"This is one of the only things I remember, is a priest standing in my bedroom door and throwing holy water around my room." – Sarah [09:58]
“My grandmother, without telling my mother, of course, sent the witch $3,000. In exchange, he promised to cast a spell that would break this curse that was put on me.” – Sarah [15:30]
“The uncanny thing is that three weeks to the day, Sarah got up and announced she was going to school… I said, this is fucking unbelievable. You know, this is nuts. But she’s going.” – Sarah’s Mother [17:58]
“There was some kind of dark energy that kept me in that bed. And one day it was there, and the next day it was gone. And I don’t know what to call that dark energy, but I know it exists.” – Sarah [19:31]
“Paul, the big deal is you’re dying.” [24:56]
“Nothing comes even close to that peace.” – Paul [28:07]
“Paul, I don’t heal anyone.” – Ann [34:11]
“The more I try to control the supernatural, the inexplicable, the less conducive the environment I’m producing for anything to happen inside of it to me. The acceptance of what is—acceptance with possibilities—that’s what creates the portal…” [35:07]
“You wasn’t sick, Sarah. You wasn’t Sick. You acted like a bull…You was possessed. Okay.” – Sarah’s Grandmother [08:19]
“The impulse to believe is there, but she’s forcing herself not to.” – Sarah [19:31]
“$3,000 was a huge amount of money for them…That guy. The $3,000 was a worth. Pay me 3 million.” – Sarah’s Grandmother [16:45]
“You can’t just take this stuff and make it do your bidding.” – Host [21:25]
“I’ve experienced true, deep love with a child, with a partner, with a friend. But nothing comes even close to that peace.” – Paul [28:07]
“The acceptance of what is—acceptance with possibilities—that’s what creates the portal if you want for the supernatural.” – Paul [35:07]
| Timestamp | Segment | |:--------------:|:----------------------------------------------------:| | 02:15–05:59 | Host’s family ritual vs. religious healing | | 06:06–20:32 | The Finnerty Family’s possession & exorcism story | | 21:49–30:15 | Paul’s miraculous healing in Africa | | 30:16–35:48 | Paul seeks help for his daughter; reflection | | 35:48–36:13 | Paul’s closing thoughts on faith and acceptance |
Spooked maintains its trademark blend of eerie, personal storytelling, often with skeptical and humorous interjections among the participants. Family debates—including tough love, old country superstitions, and reluctant modern rationalism—lend authenticity and depth. Paul’s story, meanwhile, is contemplative, gently probing what it means to experience a miracle and then face the impossibility of commanding another.
This episode of Spooked underscores how true supernatural belief isn’t just about what happens but also about the stories families and individuals tell to make sense of the inexplicable. Sometimes, coincidence intermingles with ritual; sometimes, the true transformation is in the acceptance, not the healing itself.
Memorable sign-off from the host:
“Never, ever, no matter how much they beg and plead and weep. Never, ever turn out the light.” – Host [38:03]