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- [00:00]
Wit Misseldine
Wonder plus subscribers can listen to exclusive episodes of this Is Actually Happening by joining Wonder in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. This Is Actually Happening features real experiences that often include traumatic events. Please consult the Show Notes for specific content warnings on each episode and for more information about support services. Hi listeners, we're thrilled to bring you a special episode today that was produced in collaboration with PRX and Echo Verse, a next generation studio that creates premium sci fi, supernatural and fantasy audio content. If you'd like to find out more about Echeverse and check out their slate of amazing scripted and non scripted podcasts, Please go to echeverse.com A special thanks to Mark Stern and the PRX team for helping bring us today's story. And now on to our episode what if you opened a portal to the world next Door?
- [01:00]
Emily Lemire
The thought of speaking to this being to whatever it was absolutely terrified me. And on top of that, this thought of speaking to a quiet room in the middle of the night, I could not muster up the courage to do that because I was so afraid of what if it speaks back.
- [01:29]
Wit Misseldine
From Wondery? I'm Wit Misseldine. You're listening to this Is actually Happening episode 381. What if you opened a portal to the world next Door?
- [01:56]
Emily Lemire
Why choose a Sleep number Smart bed? Can I make my site softer?
- [02:00]
Nick Cannon
Can I make my site firmer?
- [02:01]
Wit Misseldine
Can we sleep cooler?
- [02:03]
Emily Lemire
Sleep number does that cools up to eight times faster and lets you choose your ideal comfort on either side your sleep number setting. Enjoy personalized comfort for better sleep night after night. And now max out your savings. The more you buy, the more you.
- [02:16]
Nick Cannon
Save on beds, bases and more.
- [02:18]
Emily Lemire
Plus get free home delivery on any smart bed with base limited time. Check it out at a Sleep Number store near you or@sleepnumber.com today it's your.
- [02:27]
Nick Cannon
Man Nick Cannon and I'm here to bring you my new podcast, Nick Cannon at Night. Every week I'm bringing out some of my celebrity friends and the best experts in the business to answer your most intimate relationship questions. So don't be shy, join the conversation and head over to YouTube to watch Nick Cannon at Night or subscribe on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcast.
- [03:01]
Emily Lemire
My parents have three children. I am the baby. I have two older brothers. They are four and five years older than me and I think I was a little bit of a surprise. I lived in a cute cul de sac in San Diego. Very safe, quiet. I did cheer and dance and loved being active and loved playing outside and being adventurous My mom was very, very involved in my life. My dad worked a bit more, was a bit more removed from all of that. But it was a very typical suburban upbringing. I'm very lucky to have such a normal childhood. I was extremely shy. I had my good friends, but it was really hard for me to make new friends. I felt very intimidated. I was like what you'd call a goody two shoes. People would make fun of me for it because I was very much a rule follower. I did feel pressure and I'm not sure if I put that pressure on myself. It didn't feel like my parents really expected us to be perfect. I was just terrified of getting in trouble at all times. But it still was a very loving and supportive environment. When I was 10 or 11 years old, I would hang out with one friend, specifically that we would play the Ouija board. Both of us were very interested in it. And one of the first memories I have is us being in my childhood bedroom and playing it late at night at a sleepover with my door closed. We started moving the planchette, the thing that you move around with your fingers that highlights all of the letters. And we were getting movement from it. We were getting answers. We were asking it questions like, is someone there? Or what's your name? How'd you die? Are you friendly? You know, curious questions that we had about connecting to a supposed spirit from the other side. I can remember one of the experiences being a little creepier, getting a lot of like, yes, no, yes, no, and then like a Z and just really random words and letters. And it didn't feel as light hearted as some of our other experiences. It just changed the whole mood in the room. I definitely got scared and anxious. I just felt wrong. Like it was wrong at that point and I wanted to stop. I was like, I think we need to be done with this tonight. Then I remember someone telling us that it's best not to play in an enclosed space because if you don't close out your session correctly that you can trap spirits. That memory sticks with me. And I've thought about it a lot, about how the next events came about in my life. My junior year of high school, I started dating a guy that was very different than any guy I had dated before. He was a really great guy. And we had dated for almost a year when we had been planning to go to Disneyland for my birthday. We were 17. I think at the time I was going to be turning 18. It felt like one of the first big things you get to do without your parents and you feel more of like an adult, just a little mini trip on your own with your boyfriend.
- [07:17]
Wit Misseldine
Today's episode is brought to you by Quince Even though the dog days of summer are still hot here in the Bay Area, I know cooler days will soon roll in like clockwork, right along with the thick morning fog. When it's time to switch over my wardrobe, I want pieces that layer easily, hold up over time and are actually built to last. The Mongolian cashmere button sweater is the perfect layer for colder months. A hybrid of classic button down and a soft cashmere sweater, it's relaxed, versatile and easy to style. Fall is my favorite season and I've also got my eyes on the Mongolian cashmere shawl collar cardigan and I can picture sitting by a roaring fire with a good book while the wind howls outside my window. Layer up this fall with pieces that feel as good as they Look. Go to quints.com happening for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada too. That's Q-U-I-N-C-E.com happening free shipping and 365 day returns. Quints.com happening not great with finances.
- [08:23]
Emily Lemire
That's okay. Experian is your big financial friend. Explore credit card offers, some labeled no ding decline, which means if you're not approved, they won't hurt your credit scores. See experian.com for details. Applying for no Ding decline cards won't hurt your credit scores if you aren't initially approved. 2025 Experian Experian the Night before that trip it was really early in the morning in the 3 o' clock or 4 o' clock hour, just laying there in bed, laying on my side. The way my room was set up I had a twin bed and it was along the back wall of my bedroom. Towards the foot of my bed was my desk. They kind of met at a corner so the only way for me to get into my bed was from that side. Nothing could get on the bed from the bottom of my bed, but I remember laying in bed, had just woken up, I'm facing the room and there's a little bit of space in the bed behind me and then I suddenly feel some pressure, some kind of movement at the end of the bed, like something was crawling up onto the mattress behind me. I had a dog at the time and thought like oh that's really weird. She just sleeps on the couch or in my parents bed. Like why would she be getting up into bed with me and then I thought, but there's no way for her to get up on the bed. From where I was feeling this pressure. I just continued to feel this pressure, this movement crawling up behind me, closer and closer and closer to my head. I could feel once this pressure got up to behind my back, I could feel it just sitting there. And then I. I heard sniffing. Like it was sniffing me, sniffing my body. And I again was like, is this like. So confused. I just laid there frozen, couldn't move. It took me what felt like an eternity to be able to move. I could feel this pressure behind me, the sniffing continuing. Finally I was able to turned myself over onto my back to see what it was and there was nothing there. I mentioned it to my boyfriend, like this really weird thing happened to me this morning and he was a very logical person. And I remember him just telling me, oh, you were, yeah, you were just dreaming. That doesn't happen. Like there wasn't anything there. Don't think anything of it. Let's just move on and have fun today. I think that's what I did. I didn't dwell on it. We got to Disneyland early. We just had a really awesome, awesome day together and just enjoyed our time away. It felt like the first kind of glimpse of adulthood. About eight, nine months after this birthday trip, we both wanted to just explore more and meet new people. So we ended the relationship and I moved up to San Francisco in 2012 to start a nursing program. Throughout it, I was working 20 plus hours a week as a waitress at a little restaurant in downtown San Francisco. There was a coffee shop right next door and I remember seeing one of the baristas and thinking he was really cute. We started dating and I also started a new semester in nursing school. And they're all difficult, but this one was especially difficult. I remember being overwhelmed with that, but having so much fun in my new relationship and continuing to work full time. And everything was pretty normal. So this one night I remember going to sleep like any other night, putting my earplugs in, falling asleep. And then I woke up really early in the morning, I think around 3am because I thought I heard something calling my name or someone calling my name. Thought that was weird and kind of was half asleep. And like I must have just dreamt that I should just go back to sleep. I then heard it again. It was so faint though, because it was wearing earplugs. I couldn't hear it super clearly or tell who was saying it. Then suddenly I felt two knees, like lean into the mattress behind me and Heard something speaking to me above my ear in a language that I couldn't understand. I knew it was trying to say something to me, to tell me something, but I really had no idea what it was trying to say. I didn't know why it was there, what it was trying to communicate to me. I have thought about it again and again and again, trying to remember what actually it was saying to me. But it was such a foreign language that I couldn't understand any of it. I could see a face out of the corner of my eye. And it was this really pale, pale face, gaunt looking, with dark, dark eyes. I couldn't actually see, like an eyeball. It was just like these dark, deep circles and had this crazy, unkempt black hair. And I could just hear it saying something to me in a different language. I could see it sniff from by my ear, my shoulder down my entire body and back up. I remember being able to see its body as well, and it was just dark and lanky, just a very gaunt looking figure. I just remember not being able to move my body, like not being able to turn over, not being able to say anything. It took what felt like forever to be able to move in reality was probably a couple seconds, but it took every ounce of energy in my body to be able to turn onto my back to look at this thing. Finally, once I was able to turn onto my back, it was gone. I was just laying there absolutely terrified and thinking that this is my worst nightmare. Waking up to something or someone being in my bedroom. I turned my light on the lamp next to my bed and I just laid there until the sun came up and I was able to leave my room and go talk to my roommate and my best friend that I lived with. I just immediately like ran into her bed and told her everything. She believed me. And I think I slept in her bed for the next three or four nights. I felt kind of like a burden to be in her bed for that long. And like it was time for me to go try and sleep in my room by myself. Thinking to myself, like, you're fine. Nothing's gonna happen to you. You just. You had a bad dream. It's gonna be okay. You can go back to sleep. You're. That night I slept with the light on all night long. And when I say sleep, I think I laid there the whole night until the sun started to come up. I was like, okay, I can turn the. My lamp off now and like, try and get a couple hours of sleep. And immediately as I pulled the cord to Turn the light off. The face flashed. It just was reminding me that it was there. Is how that felt like, no, you don't get to forget about me, and you don't get to sleep normally and feel safe. I'm here. I had just started dating my boyfriend a couple months prior, and I didn't want him to think that I was crazy. So it took me a couple of days to tell him what had happened. Once I did, he shared with me that he had had his own paranormal experiences. That he came from a family that claimed to communicate with the other side. Like some of his aunts had the ability to communicate with spirits. They had taught him a lot of things. Just about the spirit world and how to handle that. That was a relief. So my boyfriend starts sleeping over almost every night. I remember waking up one morning and looking at him and he just had this blank look on his face. And he was just staring at the ceiling. It just felt off. And I asked him what was wrong, and it took him a really long time to share with me what had happened. He told me that he had had a dream that night. We had been fighting in it, like, screaming at each other, which is something we had never done. And we're there just in this dream, yelling at each other. And he looks behind me in it and way off in the distance, can see this figure. He describes to me what it looked like, that it was laughing maniacally. I hadn't actually described to him what I had seen previously, but what he saw in his dream was the exact same thing that had been kneeling behind me. He just continued staying over. I was not able to sleep on the outside of the bed anymore. I had to sleep on the inside against the wall. He had to be on the outside. I woke up to him on the outside of the bed, sitting up with his arm across me, protecting me, repeating some sort of protective prayer over and over and over again. Then I, like, looked up at the ceiling and I just saw this, like, black ball of a black orb of sorts. Like some just like a black, dense form of energy, like, floating in the corner of my room. I remember talking about it the next day and him just saying, like, he woke up and he just felt the negative energy. And he saw the same black orb that I had seen and just knew that he needed to say protective prayer over us and try and get this spirit or being or whatever it was to leave us alone. Now that he has seen what I've seen and is starting to experience what I've been going through, we understood Each other and what we were feeling. And that this was terrifying and that something negative was haunting to us, attached to us. Of course, I didn't want anything bad to happen to him. And I didn't want him to be as afraid as I was or have this, whatever this was, harm him. But it was a source of comfort for me that someone else was experiencing what I was experiencing. And that we were able to comfort each other. I could talk to someone about it that didn't think that I was crazy or making it up or just dreaming. That was really helpful because I wasn't sleeping and my mental health was greatly suffering. During this time, I became like a shell of myself. Things started happening more often, and I think every couple weeks or so. The next couple of things that happened actually weren't overnight. One time, I was home alone in my apartment, and I had left all the lights off to the rest of the apartment besides my room. I needed to go use the restroom, and it was down, like, a long hallway that was pitch black. I opened up my room door and left the door open so that it would illuminate the hallway. I walked out of my room and was walking down the hallway. And it was like something walked in front of my door. Like, the light dimmed and then came back. Like something had walked in front of the light and no one else was home. I knew immediately that it was there with me. And I always felt a heaviness there as well. Like, I. Like it was always there, but there were just these times that it wanted to make itself known to me. It didn't want me to forget its presence. We went to visit his family in Las Vegas, and we were going to go stay with his aunt, the one that connects with spirits. I remember walking into her house and meeting her and, what's going on? I can feel something with you. We explained to her a little bit about what had been going on. And he was like, auntie, can you tell us who this is? Like, who is here? Who's stalking us? She tried to connect with it or communicate with it. And I could tell, like, she was looking, like, right next to me. Like, it was right there, right behind me. She was looking at it and told us that it is a negative presence, but it's not going to hurt me. But she didn't want to communicate with it anymore and give it any more power. She didn't want to ask its name because that can make their energy stronger. I just remember standing there, tears just, like, streaming down my face, but also feeling validated again. Like, even more so that both of us aren't crazy. Like, this is something that's actually happening to me. And being also completely horrified. On Boxing Day 2018, 20 year old Joy Morgan was last seen at her church, Israel United in Christ, or iuic. I just went on my Snapchat and I just see her face plastered everywhere. This is the missing sister, the true story of a woman betrayed by those she trusted most. IUIC is my family and like the best family that I've ever had. But IUIC isn't like most churches. This is a devilish cult. You know when you get that feeling like you just, I don't want to be here, I want to get out. It's like that feeling of like, I want to go hang out. I'm Charlie Brent Coast Cloth, and after years of investigating Joy's case, I need to know what really happened to Joy. Binge all episodes of the Missing Sister exclusively and ad free right now on Wondery. Start your free trial of Wondery on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or in the Wondery app.
- [25:02]
Nick Cannon
It's your man, Nick Cannon, and I'm here to bring you my new podcast, Nick Cannon at Night. I've heard y' all been needing some advice in the love department, so who better to help than yours truly? Nah, I'm serious. Every week I'm bringing out some of my celebrity friends and the best experts in the business to answer your most intimate relationship questions. Having problems with your man? We got you catching feelings for your sneaky link. Let's make sure it's the real deal first. Ready to bring toys into the bedroom? Let's talk about it. Consider this a non judgment zone to ask your questions when it comes to sex and modern dating in relationships, friendships, situationships, and everything in between, it's gonna be sexy, freaky, messy, and you know what? You'll just have to watch the show. So don't be shy, join the conversation and head over to YouTube to watch Nick Cannon at night or subscribe on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcast. Wanna watch episodes early and ad free? Join Wondery.
- [26:06]
Emily Lemire
In nursing school. I mean in science in general, I feel like everything is very cut and dry. Like these are the symptoms you're having. This leads to this. And everything has a reason. Everything you know is backed by some sort of physiology that's going on in your body or something that is going wrong in your body. Me experiencing something that I can't explain scientifically or am trying to explain scientifically by thinking like, oh, this is a night terror. Like, I'm having sleep paralysis. Like that's what this is. But then that being completely contraindicated by my boyfriend experiencing it as well, and his aunt seeing something attached to me. All of that being just then thrown out the window. Like, everything that I've learned in school, like we were learning about mental health and psychology and how your brain works and chemical imbalances and what that does to your mental health and to your body and thinking, okay, well, yeah, am I having some kind of breakdown? Is there some disconnect in my mind? Is there something wrong with me? I wanted to be able to explain it away scientifically. I would make it something that I could fix. There is a reason for everything, but for this, there wasn't. The next thing that I can remember happening was when I flew home and stayed in my childhood bedroom again. And I woke up one night just looking at the ceiling and seeing shadows just, like, circling around and around and around, like, within the fan. Not shadows of the fan, but like, they were circling around at that speed. And I just remember waking up to that and just feeling like, wow, I really can't get away from this thing. It follows me everywhere I go. It felt like my life was just anxiety and constant fear. But then I also started to feel complacent, indifferent, and, like, not have any feelings. It was very strange, this shift that happened from being scared all the time to just kind of existing. Like, I turned into a shell of myself and who I was. Even though I had someone going through this with me, I started to feel alone. And I think that that is what it was trying to do to me. I was feeling negative about my boyfriend. It's like I was questioning our relationship. And we went from being very happy and excited about being together to me just not having any feeling at all. My boyfriend kept telling me what I needed to do to get rid of this thing. But the thought of speaking to this being to whatever it was absolutely terrified me. And on top of that, this thought of speaking to a quiet room in the middle of the night, I could not muster up the courage to do that because I was so afraid of what if it speaks back? If I'm telling it to leave me alone, is it going to make it angry? Is it to make it act out? Is it going to respond to me? But as time went on and I continued to just not be able to sleep, and it just felt like it was slowly ruining my life, I got more and more just fed up with it. The first time, I remember Trying to tell it to leave me alone. I sat up in my bed and really softly said, almost as in a whisper, you need to leave me alone and you are not welcome here. It was almost comical, like, how soft I was saying it, but I was just so afraid to speak out loud. Over time, every time I would wake up and have that sense that it was there, I would say it a little louder. Finally, the tipping point for me was when I flew back home and was staying in my childhood bedroom. And I saw the shadows on the ceiling. And I was just done with it following me everywhere with it, ruining my life and my mental health and my physical health and just every aspect. And so I remember at that point, I was able to very sternly tell it to leave me alone, that it was not welcome in my life anymore and that it needed to leave. I just said it again and again and again until I felt a shift in the energy. Like, I. I feel like I felt it lessen. I don't know if it. I felt it leave completely, but I could tell that I did something from that point on. Once I got back to my apartment in San Francisco, I can't remember any other specific experiences happening. I ended up moving out of that apartment and with my roommate and best friend that I had shared the bed with. Immediately after this had happened, we moved into an apartment down a couple blocks away from where we had been living. And one of our roommates had stayed. And I had forgotten a couple things at the apartment and was able, luckily, to go back and grab them one night. And I met the new people that had moved in with her. We were not close. I wasn't really friends with her. I never told her anything about what was going on with me. And I just started chatting with the new guy. She had actually moved into my bedroom, and this guy had moved into my roommate's old room. I was just chatting with him about how he was liking the apartment and liking living in San Francisco. Casual chitchat. And then he asks me, I just have a really random question for you. Have you ever felt a spiritual presence here or had any kind of experience with the paranormal living in this apartment? I looked at him and I kind of laughed because I was like, are you kidding? You must be joking, right? Like, you're just messing with me? He said, no. He was like, no, I. I feel a presence here. And I was just curious if you had felt the same. At that moment, a wave of, like, cold came over me. It was like fight or flight. I needed to get out of that apartment as quickly as I possibly could. I just grabbed the stuff I came to get really quickly and ran out of there. And I never went back. From then on, I really just tried to repair the damage that this thing had done and tried to just sleep again and be happy again. And it took me as long as time to be able to sleep through the night. My happiness came back. I think my mental health really started to improve and things did get back to normal for the most part. It's taken me a really long time to be able to talk about it normally, to come to terms with what happened and accept it. But I still can't sleep with my back to the room. I still like. Anytime I turn that way, it feels like something's watching me. I think the more I started talking about this experience, although I was really afraid of talking about it, it has helped me work through it, and it's helped me work through that fear. I do sometimes get afraid that it'll come back. But I think at this point, I will be able to deal with it if something ever happens much better than I did in the past. Because I know that I was able to get it to leave me alone before. I have a theory that the times that it showed itself to me that I had these experiences, I was dating my high school boyfriend and I was dating my college boyfriend. And those are the two times that it showed itself to me. I have kind of twisted the narrative in a positive one that it was trying to protect me from being in those relationships. Like those were not the person I was supposed to be with. And that's what it was trying to tell me. I have no idea if that's the actual case, but that's kind of what I have told myself because since I've met and married my husband, I haven't had any of those experiences. It was a shock to realize I don't know the reality of the spiritual world and how thin that veil is between the two, between our world and their world. And I fully believe in it now. I think this happened to me because of that door that I opened playing the Ouija board when I was younger. And I don't think I closed it. And I think it somehow got attached to me. But I fully, wholeheartedly believe in the spirit world and that we need to be careful with interacting and we need to be smart about it. I think going through this experience has just opened my eyes to all the different things that people can be going through or have gone through and has made me just a much more compassionate, empathetic person. And I really want to get to know the people that I'm caring for and understand where they're coming from. I've worked with a lot of difficult families. I worked in neonatal nursing for seven years and you're working in high stress environment with parents that are dealing with the toughest thing that they will ever go through. There's a lot of heightened emotions that come with that and sometimes it can be really, really difficult. But I think I try to just kind of understand where people are coming from and give them more compassion and more benefit of the doubt. I just think this has really made me much more open and understanding of.
- [37:20]
Wit Misseldine
Today's Episode featured Emily Lemire. If you'd like to reach out to Emily, you can find her socials in the show Notes from Wondery you're listening to this Is Actually Happening. If you love what we do, please rate and review the show. You can subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music or on the Wondery app to listen ad free and get access to the entire back catalog. In the Episode Notes you'll find some links and offers from our sponsors. By supporting them, you help us bring you our show for free. I'm your host Wit Misseldine. Today's episode was co produced by me and Andrew Waitz with special thanks to the this Is Actually Happening team including Ellen Westberg. The opening music features the song Sleep Paralysis by Scott Velasquez. You can join the community on the this Is Actually Happening discussion group on Facebook or follow us on Instagram Actually Happening on the show's website thisisactually happening.com you can find out more about the podcast. Contact us with any questions, submit your own story or visit the store where you can find this Is Actually Happening designs on stickers, T shirts, wall art, hoodies and more. That's thisisactuallyhappening.com and finally, if you'd like to become an ongoing supporter of what we do, go to patreon.com happening even 2 to $5 a month goes a long way to support our vision. Thank you for listening. If you like this Is Actually Happening, you can listen to every episode ad free right now by joining Wondery plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts prime members can listen ad free on Amazon Music. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery. Com Survey.