The NoSleep Podcast – Season 23, Episode 21

Release Date: November 30, 2025
Host: David Cummings (Creative Reason Media Inc.)
Theme: Surreal Journeys, Twisted Realities, and the Cost of Letting Go

Episode Overview

This episode takes listeners on a mind-bending journey through original horror stories exploring altered perceptions, surreal trips, and the blurred boundary between reality and hallucination. Rich with atmospheric music and immersive performances, the show delivers chilling tales centered on states of mind, loss, the supernatural, and the ways horror creeps into the unconscious. David Cummings weaves these stories together with thoughtful commentary about the meaning and history behind such psychological horror, inviting listeners to “trip the light fandango” and let reality slip away.

Key Stories and Discussion Points

1. Introduction & The Swamp Mystery (00:00–02:34)

• David Cummings opens with a local legend about a swamp in Cryptid Valley, which has turned “swirly black” and started giving visitors psychedelic experiences.
  • “One person said they stared at the swamp for a long time and had what they referred to as a psychedelic experience.” (00:46)
• Sets the theme for the episode: strange, reality-bending happenings—both literal and psychological.

Notable Moment:

Zenia: “Stay out of the swamp.” (01:24)

2. Story One: "Ptolemy – The Slain Lamb Shall Triumph"

By Aurora Ulvenkuana
(07:10–24:15)

Summary

A woman, reluctantly attending a hardcore party on acid, finds herself losing grip on reality. As the trip intensifies, her paranoia grows—everyone around her transforms into hunters and prey in a ritualistic, nightmarish dance. The story builds to a feverish, violent climax where hallucination and horror become indistinguishable, leaving the listener to question what is real.

Key Points & Quotes

• Sensory Overload & Paranoia:

  “The music is too loud, the room too hot and too dark... The feeling of my skin moving across my body is back.” (07:10)

• Dread and Predation:

  “He makes me uncomfortable in a way I cannot put my finger on. Perhaps it is the way he looks at me. Like he is hungry...” (07:56) “Eyes like black holes stare at me. A mouth spread a bit too wide.” (08:32)

• Slipping into Hallucination:

  “The music behind me explodes into a cacophony of drums and flutes… The longer I look, the stranger it becomes. They circle each other like hunters cornering prey...” (13:10)

• Mirrors and Dissociation:

  “There's me in the mirror, except different and wrong. Too much. It is too much. What is too much? What did I take?” (16:56)

• Climactic Horror:

  “There sits a lamb before me, back turned, perched on a bench. And the slain lamb shall triumph... I stab and stab and stab and the noise won’t shut up... My skin is bathing and the world is red.” (21:38)

• Sinister Revelation:

  Man with No Shadow: “All shepherds eat their sheep in the end.” (23:39)

• Memorable Closing:

  The story ends with ambiguity—did she hallucinate the violence, or did something monstrous possess her?

3. Story Two: "Stop and Smell the Roses"

By Jess Gofton
(27:34–44:55)

Summary

Zenia grieves her partner Pearl, who died by suicide. A mysterious rose bush grows from her grave, blooming with unnatural rapidity. As Zenia interacts with the bush (pricking herself, talking to it), she hears voices and is drawn into a supernatural confrontation with her grief, ultimately reuniting with a transformed vision of Pearl.

Key Points & Quotes

• On Grief and Inexplicable Growth:

  “I didn't know a rose bush would grow from the grief-tilled earth, though—so quickly that the space where I'd imagined a headstone became a fairytale thicket...” (28:29)

• The Bush Speaks:

  Pearl’s Voice: “I was six years old the first time I noticed another girl was pretty and I pinched myself so hard I left a bruise.” (30:18)

• Mother’s Folk Wisdom:

  Mother: “You eat the Tepiti Witch…” (30:57)

• Supernatural Encounter:

  Zenia visits Audrey, the local “witch,” who diagnoses: “It’s you. You ain’t let her go.” (37:07)

• Emotional Catharsis:

  “Turns out I can't even keep Pearl when she's imaginary. I brush hair I didn’t bother tying up out of my face... In a couple of months my skin cells will regenerate, and there’ll no longer be any part of me left that she touched.” (31:50)

• Roses, Blood, and Reunion:

  “I scream and the roses bloom. The rose bush is gone when I come to in Pearl's arms.” (42:41)

• Bittersweet Farewell:

  Pearl: “You can’t love me like this, Zenia.” (44:06)

4. Story Three: "Incorruptible"

By Tim McGregor
(47:50–72:33)

Summary

In a medieval setting, monks and villagers become obsessed with a preserved young woman’s corpse found after a harsh winter. As debate rages—miracle or blasphemy—greed, worship, and perversion consume the community. Ultimately, the townsfolk desecrate the body in their hunger for relics and miracles, forcing a horrifying reckoning.

Key Points & Quotes

• The Miracle Corpse:

  “The dead woman was not a recent deceased—she had perished six months ago before the first snow fell... but she looked as if she had expired within the hour.” (49:45)

• Suspicion and Hysteria:

  Brother Chiran: “This is some joke the gravedigger is having. There is nothing special here.” (48:39)

• Descent into Obsession:

  Brother Paulus: “Her flesh is so soft, don’t you think?” (59:29)

• Mob Madness:

  “Her hair came away in handfuls, and when that was gone, they went for her fingers, her toes. Her eyelids were peeled away. Those precious lips bitten off... Her sacred blood ran to the flagstone floor where old women soaked their garments...” (67:08)

• Loss and Ruin:

  “My beloved was gone... The fish were eating her, swarming in the river water and pecking her to pieces... I clawed my eyes and tried to drown myself...” (71:00)

• Notable Quote:

  “How filth drags us all down.” (60:38)

5. Goat Valley Campgrounds – Season 2, Chapter 9

By Bonnie Quinn
(74:21–96:57)

Summary

The long-running serialized story nears its climactic end. Kate, beset by supernatural entities (notably the Man with No Shadow and the “buyer”), is forced to sign over her family’s cursed property. After a desperate gambit fails, she unleashes an even darker supernatural force—the “crying little girl”—by opening her window, triggering chaos, murder, and a chase through the woods, culminating in her and her enemy being swallowed by the Thing in the Dark.

Key Points & Quotes

• Tension and Coercion:

  Man with No Shadow: “Let’s get this all signed. I normally don’t work this late.” (77:07) “Like a hand was over my own, guiding my motions. I wanted to scream, I wanted to weep, but I only stared stupidly at the papers...” (77:31)

• Desperate Negotiation:

  “I’m gonna make tea. You want some tea?” (78:52) “Perhaps if you hadn’t been so difficult, I would have given you a quick death…” (80:00)

• Rebellion and Tragedy:

  “I did not close the drapes. I opened the window instead... I let the little girl in.” (86:53) “Her family's entire purpose is to keep us in check, and they can barely do that. You. You're nothing.” (84:35)

• Cat-and-Mouse in the Woods:

  “Where to go? Our bargain was impossible now, so it wouldn’t stop me if I tried to kill him one more time, if I had the strength…” (91:44)

• Finale in the Darkness:

  “Something was coming, something that consumed all light as it passed by, and I knew exactly what it was... We were inside the thing in the dark.” (95:29/96:57)

• Memorable Exchange:

  Man with No Shadow: “No, this is much worse.” (95:47)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

| Timestamp | Speaker | Quote | |---|---|---| | 01:24 | Zenia | “Stay out of the swamp.” | | 08:32 | Unnamed Woman at Party | “Eyes like black holes stare at me. A mouth spread a bit too wide.” | | 13:10 | Unnamed Woman at Party | “The way their bodies move together… they circle each other like hunters cornering prey.” | | 23:39 | Man with No Shadow | “All shepherds eat their sheep in the end.” | | 28:29 | Zenia | “I didn't know a rose bush would grow from the grief-tilled earth... a fairytale thicket...” | | 42:41 | Zenia | “I scream and the roses bloom. The rose bush is gone when I come to in Pearl's arms.” | | 59:29 | Brother Paulus | “Her flesh is so soft, don’t you think?” | | 67:08 | Brother Gwilym | “Her hair came away in handfuls… her sacred blood ran to the flagstone floor...” | | 84:59 | Kate | “It's kind of a family tradition.” | | 95:47 | Man with No Shadow | “No, this is much worse.” |

Major Timestamps

• 00:00–02:34: Introduction, local legend, and show theme
• 07:10–24:15: "Ptolemy – The Slain Lamb Shall Triumph"
• 27:34–44:55: "Stop and Smell the Roses"
• 47:50–72:33: "Incorruptible"
• 74:21–96:57: "Goat Valley Campgrounds – Chapter 9"
• 96:57+: Closing credits

Episode Tone & Takeaways

David Cummings’s narration is thoughtful yet playful, gently warning and guiding listeners through stories where reality and perception are constantly undermined. The tales are dark, atmospheric, and often tragic, but all are threaded by the tension between what is real and what the mind conjures. Recurring motifs include grief, the lure of forbidden knowledge, supernatural bargains, and the primal need to retain control when chaos beckons.

“Let’s trip the light fandango and let reality melt away as we journey to the center of the mind…” (04:28)

For New Listeners

This episode is an excellent showcase of The NoSleep Podcast’s strengths: intense performances, literary horror with psychological depth, and stories that leave you questioning your own senses. If you enjoy horror that lingers and stories that tip you into nightmares while you're awake, this is not to be missed.

Next week: The final chapter of Goat Valley Campgrounds Season 2! Stay sleepless.