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Mark Ristich
Mirror, mirror on the wall, pretending that you see it all. Yet if I ask when comes the storm, you only riddle but never warn. You're listening to Spooked. Stay tuned.
Eliza Smith
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Lily
How did I not know Rack has Adidas? I always find something amazing because the.
Mark Ristich
Best deals go fast.
Eliza Smith
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Chris Hambrick
Did you know that parents rank financial literacy as the number one most difficult life skill to teach? Meet Greenlight, the debit card and money app for families. With Greenlight, you can set up chores, automate allowance and keep an eye on your kids spending with real time notifications. Kids learn to earn, save, and spend wisely. And parents can rest easy knowing their kids are learning about money with guardrails in place. Sign up for Greenlight today@Greenlight.com podcast.
Mark Ristich
There's this guy. Kind of on the periphery of my social circle. A lot of my friends knew him. Oh, you two should meet. Folks would say you guys would get along so great. Okay, whatever, whatever, whatever. But finally, one Sunday morning at a backyard brunch, he comes through. And they're all smiling at this guy, acting all happy and huggy. When he spreads love, they introduce him to me. Firm handshake, eye contact, big grin, the whole charade. But I don't pay it any. Never mind. Because instantly I know. Deep down in my soul, I know that this guy is a monster. I know it. I know it. Like I know the sun's gonna rise in the morning. I know it. So, yeah, I shake his hand. Nice to meet you. I don't say anything. I don't let him know I see his truth. Cause I got all the time in the world. He's gonna slip up. True color's gonna come out. So I wait. Some people even ask me. Seems like we you don't like him? Whatever gave you that idea? I don't know what you're talking about. Then I go back to Michigan for an event, go out for pizza and beer with some old friends from high school. And I freeze when I see a man working behind the counter. And I have a flashback. This is the same kid who shoved me in a garbage can in seventh grade. The guy who literally waited in the bushes to beat me up and take my lunch money. The guy who painted the N word on my locker and jammed Pencils into my lock in high school so I couldn't get my stuff out right before a big exam. But that's not what's crazy. What's crazy is that this guy looks an awful lot like that dude back home. And now I know why I hated him. At first glance. It wasn't him. It was me. Transference based on a superficial resemblance. My certain intuition, my premonition was wrong. And it almost cost me dearly. Because since then, this guy, Cisco, has become one of my best and closest friends. One of my deepest male relationships. And I almost missed out on our friendship because he kinda looks like my childhood tormentor. And I tell you this as someone who's learned to trust his inner voice. Someone that pays attention to signs that others might discard. Intuition, Premonition. That sudden apprehension, the sixth sense. I listen to it. I heed it. Which is great until it isn't. Spook stars. Now, Sam. Signs. Wonders. We all want to know what the future holds. We all want this peak over the mountaintop. And our next storyteller has asked to remain anonymous. But let me just tell you a little bit about her. She was very close to her grandparents as she grew up. In fact, they lived right around the corner from the home she shared with her mother and father. Spoot.
Lily
My grandfather, was. He was very loving. He talked a lot to my mom because he would come over in the morning and they would sit at the kitchen table and have a cup of coffee before they started their day. Tuesdays, he would go to the local bread company because they would give away these little bread samples. And I liked cute little things. And he'd always pick me up one. So Tuesday was bread day. I was sick a lot as a kid, and I was in bed a lot. My bedroom was right off the kitchen. And he'd pop his head in to see how I was doing. He'd give me a nod and a thumbs up. We were very close. And after he passed away, I felt a huge hole was just ripped out of my life. I would hide in the closet and not talk to anybody because there was nothing to say. I was just really sad and depressed. My mom was sad. My dad was sad. The world was just sad. One night I just couldn't sleep. And then I just felt something. I can't say if it was a breeze or just a mental feeling, but I looked up, and in the doorway was my grandfather. How he had always been wearing his clothes, poking his head in. He had a smile. He gave me the thumbs up that he used to give me when he was around and he winked and then he withdrew and I ran to the doorway and there was nothing there. And then I felt better. I was still sad, but I wasn't depressed. I told my grandma. She said that she had seen him too, and she said that it was a good thing, not to worry, not to be scared by it, but it was his way of coming back to let the people who were still here know that he was okay. After my grandfather passed, my grandmother moved in with my family. I was in first grade and because we had a smaller house, she moved into my room and we shared a room together for several years. It was less an authority figure and a child and it morphed a little bit into girlfriends because at night she would talk to me, talk about host James. We kind of became just chatty. During the morning hours. She would ask me about outfits, what to wear. She would provide fashion chips. For instance, if you find a pair of shoes of one color that you like, it's better to buy all five. If you have a workhorse, it's always better to buy a backup. Or she would sit at the kitchen table and apply her makeup and always say always wear lipstick. You may not feel good on the inside, but nobody wants to see that so look good on the outside. By the time I was in my early 30s, I was already moved out of the house I had been working. I got made my husband lived in a different city, I moved to his city and I just didn't see her as much.
Annie Nguyen
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Eliza Smith
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Lily
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Lily
Your dermatologist about Cosenty.
Chris Hambrick
Did you know that parents rank financial literacy as the number one most difficult life skill to teach? Meet Greenlight, the debit card and money app for families. With Greenlight, you can set up chores, Automate allowance and keep an eye on your kids spending with real time notifications. Kids learn to earn, save and spend wisely, and parents can rest easy knowing their kids are learning about money with guardrails in place. Sign up for Greenlight today@Greenlight.com podcast we.
Lily
Flew in to spend Christmas and New Year's with my family, and it was probably a day or two after Christmas. There wasn't anything scheduled or planned. Everyone was just sitting around talking, watching television, and I was sitting on the couch with my grandmother and she was just different. Usually she's the focus of the room. She's the family matriarch. She has opinions, she gives them freely and people listen. But she was very quiet, very pale. She wasn't part of the conversation, she wasn't bubbling. So I asked her how she was feeling. What was the she says that she is tired and I said, I'm sorry to hear that. Are you sick? Have you been getting enough sleep? And she said, no, not like that. I'm just tired. I'm done, I'm alone. She named off some of her friends who had passed away. She said, I miss your grandfather and I think it's time. I'm ready to move on. So I was very taken aback by that because I didn't want her to feel that way. And I asked her, what do you mean? How do you know? She looks at me and she said, I saw myself. I had on your grandfather's watch and I pointed to it and I was happy and I know that it's Time she saw herself in another room of the house where she was alone. She saw herself standing in front of her my grandfather's watch she had it she was wearing was a watch she had given to him is what she was buried with. She just saw it as that was a gift between them and that was a symbol for her. I was very scared of what would happen next. I didn't want her to do anything to speed up or to take matters in her own hands. But I was just quiet and it sat with me because I believed her. I didn't question it because I saw myself too at the time. It's my last year of grad school. I am going to Germany to visit a friend. Part of me wished that he was a little bit more than a friend. So I was kind of excited that he had invited me to come visit him. So over the summer I had looked into flights. I had found a flight that would have taken me first to Switzerland and then to Germany. I started packing three weeks before the trip and I did some shopping and bought a new pair of shoes. I got an outfit for the plane, a pair of like those Abercrombie boyfriend jeans, this white button down shirt and this black cardigan like knit blazer. I thought it looked kind of funky but it wouldn't wrinkle and I thought it would make me a little bit more proper. Maybe I'd have a chance of getting an upgrade but if I didn't I could use it as a blanket. I kind of went about it strategic because I wanted to look good. It's two weeks before the trip. I generally went to bed 10 o' clock, 10:30. But just something was bothering me. I didn't know if I'd forgotten something for work, if I was worried about school. I was going through all the things that that potentially could be in the back of my head that would cause me to not be able to sleep and nothing. 1 o' clock, 2 o' clock in the morning I decided to get up. I left my bedroom, went into the bathroom, splashed some water on my face, had a drink of water and I felt a little bit more at ease. I didn't feel so restless. So I thought, I don't know what it was. Let it go, count sheep. It's about probably four or five steps from the bathroom door into the bedroom. And when I walk into the room and I turn I saw myself sitting on the bed was me. I was sitting on my bed. But more than that, it was a really weird, awful me because I was wearing an outfit, the one that I had bought to wear on the airplane and I had never worn it before and I was wearing it, but it was wet. There are burn marks all over it. And then me. I was wet and my hair was like all raggedy and my face was burned and I was opening my mouth as if I was trying to talk, but no sounds were coming out. It was almost like a fish, you know, Open, closed, open, closed. I was just hit by this wave of sadness and dread and regret was surreal. It was just me, every part of it. Just as if I was looking in a mirror, but a weird twisted mirror. I was scared. I didn't know if my mind was going or what is this happening? But I wasn't dreaming. I took a step back. I kind of blinked my eyes, shook my head, and then over Everything was back the way it was. It was just my bed. It was just my room. I looked all around too. I looked under the bed, looked behind the curtains as someone playing a trick on me. Was it a prank? I ran into the living room and the outfit was right where I had left it, on the edge of the couch, straightened out, tags still on it. Jane's shirt.
Chris Hambrick
Did you know that parents rank financial literacy as the number one most difficult life skill to teach? Meet Greenlight, the debit card and money app for families with Greenlight, you can set up chores, automate allowance and keep an eye on your kids spending with real time notifications. Kids learn to earn, save and spend wisely. And parents can rest easy knowing their kids are learning about money with guardrails in place. Sign up for Greenlight today@Greenlight.com podcast.
Lily
One of the first things that popped into my head was don't get on that flight. The flight I had booked. I knew that something bad would happen if I got on that plane. I thought it and then I said it to nothing, just out in the air. I am not getting on that flight. And once I said it, I felt better because then I went to bed, I went to sleep, and I felt right to sleep. When I got up in the morning, there was no indication of anything that had happened the night before. I took a shower, made some breakfast and I turned on my computer and I started to look at alternate flights and I priced out a new itinerary that had me leaving on the same day, flying pretty much the same hours. And with canceling the flight that I had rebooking this new flight, it was a $50 savings actually came out. I called my friend, said, hey, I bought a new flight I explained it to him by saying I wasn't feeling the other flight and this came up and it's a lot less expensive. He said, oh, yeah, no, totally understand. We'll work it out. That's fine. I'm happy you're still coming. I was worried that you were gonna say you weren't coming. It's weird. I didn't think Doko on the trip, My thought was, don't get on that flight. And I didn't think anything more of it. The day the trip starts, I had to take two planes. I had a layover in London. And when we got to London, you have the televisions at various spots. I noticed that there are some people who look upset, who are watching the television. The flight attendants are off to my side with their heads together, conversing. And I walk over to one of the televisions and it's a report on a plane that had gone down while our plane was in the air. And it was the flight that I was supposed to be on. There was a fire on the plane and it lost altitude and it crashed into the ocean. And that's kind of how I had looked. My clothes were burnt, but I was wet sitting on the bed. I didn't have a lot of time to stand there and process because I had to catch another flight that was in a different building. I watched as much as I could and then I just hurried on to the. The bus or shuttle. I don't even remember what it was that took me to the next terminal, got in line, got in the flight and just was tired, sad, dumbstruck. What do you do? There's nothing you can do. And then when I got to Germany, my friend picked me up. I said, did you see what happened? He said, no, what happened? I said, that flight I was on, it crashed. His response was, wow, your frugalness saved you. I think people, you know, graveyard, gallows humor, tied up, made the most of it. Once it was out in the open, there wasn't anything really left to say. Well, I'm glad you're here. I'm glad I'm here too. Nine years later, my grandma was confiding in me. She saw herself and I just understood that. I respected her privacy, that if she had wanted to tell someone, she would have talked to my mom, she would have talked to my sister. But for whatever reason, I was the person she confided in. And I kept her confidence. She had a stroke two months later. It's as if she didn't fight it. Her vitals never Got better. She was moved into hospice care. I sat down next to her bed, talked to her, said goodbye. She passed privately, which is what she wanted. I didn't tell anybody that I saw myself. They all think I was a cheapskate. I've never really, like, talked, talked about it. I told everybody it was to save $50. And that's a story that everybody knows. But it wasn't just to save $50. It was because of what I saw. And what did I see? What I saw and no one else anything, or did people see it and ignore it? So I don't really bring it up because you want to make people feel uncomfortable. And I wasn't going to say no. I was really on the flight. I saw it happen. It doesn't make any sense to anybody but me who it happened to. I like to say that in my interactions with people, it's made me a kinder person, but I don't know that it has or that I'm going to take better care of my body. My addiction to Pop Tarts probably would lead to a different conclusion. And you want to say that something like that changed you so fundamentally, but it doesn't. There's certain things you can change, certain things you can be mindful of. But life things happen. Sometimes my grandma would say stuff happens for a reason. And I always hated when she said that because what was the reason for it? I think it's more just things happen and we don't have a good explanation for it.
Mark Ristich
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much for sharing your story, folks. Today's storyteller is a spooked listener who reached out to tell us her story. We love hearing your stories. If you have one to tell. Reach out spooked@snapjudgment.org the original score for that story was by Leon Morimoto. It was produced by Chris Hambrick. Now, spooksters, we walk this path together. Spooked season six and do you yourself possess an inexplicable power? Do you have contact with forces beyond the normal realm of experience? And you can't tell anyone about it? Well, tell me because I want to know. Spooked@snapjudgment.org because there is nothing better than a spooked story from a spooked listener. Let us know. Spooked@snapjudgment.org and to tell the dark side that you spooked, best to do with some spooked gear. The T shirt of your dreams. Available right now@snapjudgment.org and remember, if you'd like your storytelling under the bright light of day, get the Amazing the Stupendous Snap Judgment podcast because it's storytelling with a beat. Spook was created by the team that knows the future is a liar. Except, of course, for Mark Ristich. He believes anything the Magic 8 Ball says. There's Anna Sussman, Chief Spookster Eliza Smith, Chris Hambrick, Annie Nguyen, Lauren Newsom, Leon Warimocho, Davey Kim, Renzo Goriot, Teo Dicott, Marissa Dodge, Zoe Fergno, Tiffany Deliza, Ann Ford, Doug Stewart, and Isaiah Sims. The Spook theme song is by Patience Washington, and you may have heard it said that not just people, but spirits, shades, specters, entities, Djinn are all attracted to a warm heart. Some go further to suggest that thoughts, feelings, memories, sensations can also travel of their own accord, with their own agendas. There are very few means we have to filter out the benign from the evil. Which is why I suggest to use the most basic tool we do have and never ever, never ever, never ever, never turn out the lights.
Chris Hambrick
Did you know 39% of teen drivers admit to texting while driving? Even scarier, those who text are more likely to speed and run red lights. Shockingly, 94% know it's dangerous, but do it anyway. As a parent, you can't always be in the car car, but you can stay connected to their safety with Greenlight Infinity's driving reports. Monitor their driving habits, see if they're using their phone, speeding, and more. These reports provide real data for meaningful conversations about safety. Plus, with weekly updates, you can track their progress over time. Help keep your teen safe. Sign up for Greenlight Infinity at greenlight. Com Podcast.
Spooked Podcast Episode Summary: "Mirror, Mirror"
Introduction
In the "Mirror, Mirror" episode of Spooked, host Glynn Washington delves into a deeply personal and supernatural experience shared by an anonymous storyteller. The narrative weaves themes of intuition, misjudgment, familial bonds, and unexplained phenomena, offering listeners a captivating exploration of how perceived instincts can lead to life-altering moments.
Encounter with the Past
The storyteller begins by recounting an uncomfortable encounter with a man named Cisco, who closely resembles a childhood tormentor. Initially, the storyteller's intuition warns them of Cisco's true nature, leading to tension in their budding friendship.
"But instantly I know. Deep down in my soul, I know that this guy is a monster. I know it. I know it. Like I know the sun's gonna rise in the morning."
— [01:31] Mark Ristich
This initial distrust stems from a superficial resemblance to someone from the storyteller's past, highlighting the power and pitfalls of intuition.
A Glimpse Beyond
Years later, while visiting Michigan, the storyteller experiences a chilling flashback triggered by Cisco's appearance behind a café counter. Memories of past bullying resurface, but the realization dawns that Cisco is not their tormentor but a friend, revealing the complexity of transference and misplaced judgments.
"At first glance. It wasn't him. It was me. Transference based on a superficial resemblance. My certain intuition, my premonition was wrong."
— [01:31] Mark Ristich
This revelation underscores the theme of misunderstood instincts and the dangers of letting past experiences cloud present relationships.
Grandfather's Return
Transitioning to a more intimate memory, the storyteller shares a poignant encounter with their deceased grandfather. Struggling with grief, they find solace when their grandfather appears in the doorway, offering a comforting presence before fading away.
"I looked up, and in the doorway was my grandfather. He had a smile. He gave me the thumbs up that he used to give me when he was around and he winked and then he withdrew."
— [06:25] Lily
This supernatural visitation provides emotional relief and a sense of closure, emphasizing the enduring bonds between loved ones beyond death.
The Ominous Flight
The narrative takes a tense turn as the storyteller recounts a vivid premonition. Preparing for a trip to Germany, they experience a disturbing vision of themselves severely burned and their flight in disaster. Acting on this intuition, they change their flight plans at the last minute, only to discover that their original flight indeed crashed.
"One of the first things that popped into my head was don't get on that flight. The flight I had booked. I knew that something bad would happen if I got on that plane."
— [24:40] Lily
This harrowing experience blurs the lines between premonition and reality, raising questions about fate, destiny, and the limits of human intuition.
Final Farewells
Nine years later, the storyteller reflects on their grandmother's passing. Having confided in her during her final moments, they honor her memory quietly, choosing not to share the supernatural aspects of their experiences to avoid unsettling others.
"Nine years later, my grandma was confiding in me. She saw herself and I just understood that. I respected her privacy."
— [24:40] Lily
This conclusion ties back to the episode's central themes of trust, understanding, and the unseen forces that guide our lives.
Conclusion
"Mirror, Mirror" masterfully intertwines personal anecdotes with supernatural elements, inviting listeners to ponder the reliability of their instincts and the mysteries that lie beyond ordinary perception. Through evocative storytelling and emotional depth, the episode exemplifies Spooked's commitment to exploring true-life supernatural tales that resonate on a deeply human level.
Notable Quotes
"Instantly I know. Deep down in my soul, I know that this guy is a monster."
— Mark Ristich [01:31]
"It wasn't him. It was me. Transference based on a superficial resemblance."
— Mark Ristich [01:31]
"She saw herself standing in front of her, wearing his watch—it was a symbol for her."
— Lily [14:06]
"Don't get on that flight. The flight I had booked. I knew that something bad would happen if I got on that plane."
— Lily [24:40]
"It's my last year of grad school. I am going to Germany to visit a friend."
— Lily [24:40]
Final Thoughts
"Mirror, Mirror" serves as a profound reminder of the unseen connections that shape our lives. Whether it's through the echoes of past relationships or the inexplicable visions that alter our paths, the episode encourages listeners to reflect on the intricate dance between intuition and reality.
For those intrigued by tales of the supernatural intertwined with personal growth, "Mirror, Mirror" is a compelling addition to Spooked's anthology of eerie yet heartfelt stories.