239: Simply Supernatural..

Summary

Two Hot Takes – Episode 239: "Simply Supernatural.."

Date: October 23, 2025
Host: Morgan Absher (with Justin and Sam)

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Episode Overview

In this Halloween-season special, Morgan and her co-hosts plunge into the simply supernatural, sharing listener-submitted stories of paranormal encounters. The episode features eerie read-alouds, candid reactions, theories on ghosts and spiritual experiences, and thoughtful reflection on the nature of the afterlife, guardian angels, and ancestral presence. The overall tone weaves between spooky, heartfelt, and irreverently funny as the team processes both scary and comforting tales.

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Key Discussion Points & Stories

1. Kickoff: Personal Paranormal Experiences

• Justin recounts his first paranormal encounter — a violent swipe across his shins in bed, which felt different from a typical nightmare:
  • "It didn't feel like, oh, I just woke up from a nightmare. It was like that happened while I was sleeping or half asleep, and I sat up and I remember just sitting up in bed and just staring for a while. It's weird. Weird." (01:51)
• Morgan discusses strange happenings in her house — monitoring cameras that repeatedly pick up a “person” in the kitchen since acquiring furniture from a deceased Hollywood actress.

2. Listener Story 1: The Hanging Girl in the Carport

• Listener’s stepmom sees a shadowy figure resembling a girl hanging in the carport; the figure appears in a photo but never returns after the dad confronts it.
  • Notable quote: “My dad took one look at the photo, ran outside and yelled into the night, ‘You are not welcome here. I have enough women in my life.’” (08:27)
  • Group discusses whether confronting spirits makes a difference and the eerie specifics of the photo.
• Timestamp: [07:18 - 13:48]

3. Listener Story 2: Messages from a Deceased Dad

• After her father's sudden death, the listener receives several signs: a rare song playing at Dunkin’, seeing a uniquely colored Jeep, and a dashboard duck lighting up unexpectedly.
  • Video attached: Duck lights up when mentioning her dad.
  • "Like, I don't know what's happening right now. Oh my God." (18:35)
  • Discussion focuses on comforting "afterlife" signs and the emotional impact on major life events.
• Timestamp: [13:50 – 22:02]

4. Paranormal Electrical Phenomena

• Listener’s toy car in unfinished basement runs at 3am—without batteries. Parent so shaken they never discuss it again.
  • Conversation explores why so many hauntings involve basements and creepy childhood spaces.
• "My mom woke up my dad to go to the basement and see, but he refused. So my mom went down there and turned on the light as the car was going around the track... The next morning, she realized that the toy had no batteries inside for it to even work and do that." (25:40)
• Timestamp: [25:22 – 30:01]

5. The Shadow Lady in the Hallway

• Woman moves into stepdad’s condo and repeatedly sees a shadowy female figure in the hall. Family admits they’ve all seen her and she returns missing objects.
  • "They told me they'd both seen her multiple times... My stepdad even said that he's lost things before only to have them later show up, neatly placed on the end of his bed." (36:55)
  • Panel muses on why spirits linger—trauma, unfinished business, or benevolence?
• Timestamp: [34:00 – 39:23]

6. Third Man Factor & Guardian Angels

• Several stories highlight the “third man” or guardian angel phenomenon:
  • E.g., a whistle that saves a woman from alcohol poisoning; a mother sees her daughter accompanied by an ancestor in suspenders and a top hat, unseen by the daughter herself.
  • "Your guardian angel seems to have revealed himself to him... She told me that your angel will reveal itself to protect you from people that want to bring you harm." (48:18)
• Group discusses cultural perspectives on ancestor guardianship and the fading of memory over generations.

7. Hidden Gem Segment: Helpful Ghosts & Lost Objects

• Listeners recount items disappearing and reappearing in odd places, as if returned by playful or helpful spirits.
  • Notable: A wallet lost for days in a dorm, dreamt of hitting the listener’s chest, actually materializes on the listener’s chest upon waking.
  • "I wake up and there was my wallet laying on my chest." (68:40)
  • Morgan and Justin joke about wanting a Casper-like ghost to return lost objects.
• Timestamp: [61:21 – 69:52]

8. Protective Spirits in Old Houses

• New owners of a 100-year-old house see a man’s shadow whenever a door or window is left unlocked. The prior owner died in the 1980s.
  • The ghost appears to be keeping the family safe by prompting them to secure the house.
  • "Every time we see the man in our entryway, without a doubt, something has been unlocked or unclosed." (72:47)

9. First-Responder Encounters with Death

• Firefighter listener describes seeing/speaking to a recently deceased motorcycle accident victim, confirming details later in a police briefing.
  • "I finally heard and felt this man standing over his body. He was yelling at everyone, asking why nobody was answering him and what was going on. Until I saw him turn to me, point and tell me that he knew I could hear him." (81:16)
• Discussion covers "out-of-body" experiences near death and how some people, especially those with trauma, feel they leave their bodies.

10. Dark Places: Cabin in the Woods

• Family on vacation in Utah feels overwhelming dread at night in a remote cabin. Photos develop showing demonic faces in the trees and strange cursive written by their flashlight beams. The evidence was burned.
  • "There was more than we could define in this old film photo, some looking very demonic. My mom flipped out, started crying, showed my stepdad and he burned the photo and the film." (103:07)
• Timestamp: [99:08 – 106:11]

11. Paranormal Investigator Story: Sink Hollow Road

• Jake, a seasoned investigator, recounts a case where a young girl in 1960s attire warns them to leave private property. Research that night confirms her 1963 death at the hands of her father; her spirit remains to protect visitors.
  • “She calmly explained that while it was sweet to offer, we really should be going and that her father has a really bad temper... with one final warning, she said, 'please leave before daddy comes out. You may regret it.'” (111:15)
  • "In the newspaper article was a picture of the girl that we had spoken with last night. However, the clipping was dated 1963. The article went on to describe that a quick investigation revealed a family secret..." (120:16)
• Morgan discusses the intersection of tragic human history and repeat hauntings.

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• On direct confrontation & spiritual boundaries:
  "Does it actually work when you say you’re not welcome here?... Most spirits, I don’t think they’re inherently evil… I think most spirits are just lost." — Justin & Sam (11:59)
• On overlooked or slow-burn hauntings:
  “It became less scary over time, but I never got comfortable with it. That eerie feeling never really went away.” — Listener (38:02)
• Comfort through signs:
  “If you’ve lost someone close to you, I truly believe they are there with you. Or at least watching over you.” — Listener (16:37)
• Philosophizing afterlife science:
  “Can they do both? … Do you have to be on the other side and then go back and hang out? … I really hope that’s a thing because I’m so curious. I want to see what happens after I’m gone—not just the next year, but the next ten, hundred, thousand, ten million years.” — Justin (39:01)
• On missing objects and playful ghosts:
  “I feel like some of these spirits are little tricksters… I think some ghosts are a little bit mischievous.” — Morgan (69:14)

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Memorable Lighter Moments

• Naming the studio’s new skeleton dog and arguing about whose ghostly habits are worse—Justin’s unlocked doors or Morgan’s lost items.
• Justin and Morgan playfully debate the logic of chasing ghosts versus running away.
• Jokes about needing a helpful ghost for lost keys and their own Casper sidekick.
  • "If our ghost is listening, you can let Justin know and not me. Thank you." — Morgan (77:32)

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Thoughtful/Sentimental Notes

• Generational Memory & Remembrance: Reflection on family journals, ancestor stories, and the Day of the Dead tradition from Coco; the power and importance of memory in keeping loved ones "alive."
• Signs and Synchronicity: Multiple callers and Morgan herself urge listeners NOT to despair if they haven’t received a sign from a loved one, as it may come in an unexpected moment or form.
  • “If you’ve asked your family member for a sign and you haven’t gotten it yet, it doesn’t mean that you’re not gonna get one. It just might not be the right time.” — Morgan (123:06)
• Spiritual Lessons: Some spirits linger because of trauma, unfinished business, or as protectors. There are both scary and positive “supernatural” encounters, blurring realism and comfort.

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Timestamps for Major Segments

• [01:07] – Introductions and personal spooky experiences
• [07:18] – First listener story: The Hanging Girl Photo
• [13:50] – Listener story: Signs from a deceased dad
• [25:22] – Electrical hauntings and haunted toys
• [34:00] – The Shadow Lady in the Hallway
• [48:18] – Guardian angels and ancestor spirits
• [61:21] – Hidden gem segment: Ghosts returning lost objects
• [72:47] – A protective house spirit
• [81:16] – Firefighter medium encounters
• [99:08] – Cabin in the woods demonic photo
• [111:15] – Paranormal investigator: Sink Hollow Road encounter
• [129:49] – Bonus comforting “sign” stories from listeners

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The Episode’s Spirit (Tone & Community Notes)

Even as the crew and guests swap chilling tales, "Simply Supernatural.." is grounded in humor, curiosity, and warmth. The show fosters community, encouraging listeners to share their experiences without judgment and to appreciate both the spooky and comforting mysteries life's most inexplicable moments bring.

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Closing (Calls to Action)

• Share your supernatural stories in the comments or via Instagram/YouTube.
• For more stories (including those too wild or detailed for this episode), check out the Two Hot Takes Patreon.
• “Thank you so much for being here. Another spooky season. Until next time.” — Morgan (133:51)

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For more listener stories or to join the Two Hot Takes community:

• Instagram: @twohottakes
• YouTube Channel
• Bonus content: Patreon

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This summary covers all major content and significant community moments, perfect for anyone who missed the episode but loves a blend of scares, sentimentality, and signature Two Hot Takes wit.

Transcript

[Sam]

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[Justin]

Yes.

[Sam]

Like, real spooky.

[Justin]

Very.

[Sam]

Oh, these are gonna be some good stories today, my friends. All listener write ins. All paranormal encounters from you guys out there listening.

[Justin]

It's the year of my first encounter.

[Sam]

It is.

[Justin]

I think that was this year.

[Sam]

Was it this year or last?

[Justin]

I don't know. The way time's been flying.

[Sam]

I know.

[Justin]

Scary.

[Sam]

I know. I know. Do you want to tell everyone what.

[Justin]

It was I think I did on the show?

[Sam]

It was the bed one. Right. We got pulled down in bed. Well, or like you felt something like yank your feet.

[Justin]

I more felt a violent swipe across the shins.

[Sam]

That's so weird.

[Justin]

And then, yeah, maybe the pull down a little. But no, I remember feeling the motion across and then I kind of sat up. It. Whatever it was. It's the first time. Well, not the first time because sometimes you have nightmares and you wake up and you kind of have to sit in your room and look around and make sure that's not reality. But this is one where it didn't feel like, oh, I just woke up from a nightmare. It was like that happened while I was sleeping or half asleep, and I sat up and I remember just sitting up in bed and just staring for a while. It's weird. Weird.

[Sam]

It's scary. I know. I was talking to Kaelyn when she came on for our first spooky episode this season, and we were talking about, like, how our house has just kind of been acting up. And a lot of it started on the anniversary of the person who used to live there. Their death. It was like the 30th anniversary. And then I started thinking about it and our camera never acted up until I brought in the furniture from that other Hollywood actress that died. That's when our camera started really spotting someone in the kitchen.

[Justin]

Always.

[Sam]

Always. And now it won't stop. And it'll track it. Like it's following someone.

[Justin]

Well. And it doesn't feel random. It'll just be. You know, we turn on that camera most often when we're away because it's just not on all the time. Right. So it's on while we're away. There's not a lot of action at the house. The alarms are set, the cameras are set. So basically we know the second anyone would come onto the property.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Justin]

And still all of a sudden you'll get this. And at first it was kind of shocking where you'd get the notification because it comes straight to the phone.

[Sam]

Yeah. And we're like, it's never happened before. Our camera's really accurate. So it doesn't feel like it's a FALS alarm.

[Justin]

And it's not motion detected. It's. Someone's been detected.

[Sam]

Someone. It's always someone.

[Justin]

And then the camera moves like it.

[Sam]

I know. Like it's tracking someone. Which is so weird because we have this camera system. We've got Yuffie and like a lot of times when I can't tell what something is, it'll say like motion detected. But this is literally saying someone. So it is finding a person in the frame. Which is just so weird.

[Justin]

Which I'm glad it's not totally physical here right now. Person.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Justin]

Because that would be equally. Well, probably much more terrifying to have someone in your space.

[Sam]

Probably.

[Justin]

But yeah. I'm waiting for the times where it actually potentially will show an outline or something because that's what makes these stories so, so wild.

[Sam]

Yeah. And a lot of the stories today did have some serious, like, physical encounters. You guys really showed up this year. I have 576 submissions from you guys in.

[Justin]

We're going to do them all a couple weeks.

[Sam]

We're going to be doing this episode here. We're going to be doing an episode on Patreon and then we're going to be doing an episode on Father Knows. Father Knows is coming back. Just been real hard to line up a time with me, Justin. My dad. My dad's been like traveling for the past two months.

[Justin]

So we were Gone for months. Now he's gone. It's just like, can't catch a break over there. We had to get married at some point. We had to figure that out.

[Sam]

Yeah. Yeah. That had to happen.

[Justin]

Timing.

[Sam]

Crazy timing. But without further ado, let's get into these spooky stories.

[Justin]

Let's do it.

[Sam]

Let's dive in. This episode is presented by depop. Now, everyone's style evolves, but that doesn't mean your fits from last year have to hang out in the bottom drawer forever. On depop, your old clothes could make you some big bucks. With no selling fees. And thanks to AI listings and boostings to make your items pop, selling's never been easier. So go and have a look in the darkest, spookiest corners of your closet. Because even if it doesn't feel special to you, it's exactly what someone else has been looking for. Download depop to start selling today. Where taste recognizes taste, we introduce our friend. Oh, yeah, what are we calling him? He kind of looks like the demon dog from the Scooby Doo movie.

[Justin]

What's that dog's name?

[Sam]

I don't know, but I feel like we should just call him Scooby. My little sister has a dog named Scooby. Maybe you can't steal that name. I don't know.

[Justin]

We'll sort it.

[Sam]

Yeah, Bones. Blinky. He blinks.

[Justin]

Yeah, Blinky.

[Sam]

I don't know. Guys, put in the comments. What. What do we name our dog? Our skeleton dog that is joining us in the studio now?

[Justin]

He's my friend.

[Sam]

Yeah, he is. Okay, so I am going to just. We're getting into it.

[Justin]

Yeah, let's go.

[Sam]

Okay, so none of them have titles because they're coming from you guys. So every time we're just kind of getting into the story.

[Justin]

Number one.

[Sam]

Number one, my dad and his twin brother have always had what I can only describe as a spiritual connection. To what exactly, I'm not sure. My uncle has talked about seeing demonic faces, having prophetic dreams, and other strange, almost supernatural experiences. My dad believes in spirits too, though his encounters have always been less intense. Then last May, something happened that really unsettled him. Now, this is not my story. This is the information and the photo my dad sent me. Though I have lived in that house and, yeah, it's got a weird vibe. It was around 2 or 3 in the morning when my stepmom went outside for a smoke. She heard a rustling sound near the patio and thought it might be a bear. Bears are pretty common in our area, and she's not Afraid of them either. She's actually fought one off with a rake before. I know. I think she's crazy too. So she took out her phone and snapped a picture just to see what it was. What showed up in that photo wasn't a bear. When it was sent to me, I was shocked. It looked like a girl hanging a shadowy shape with what looked like a head and limp arms with an outline of a rope. She came back inside crying, visibly shaken. My dad took one look at the photo, ran outside and yelled into the night, quote, you are not welcome here. I have enough women in my life. He wanted to make sure whatever it was, knew it was not welcome and not invited into the home. Now, they haven't seen the shadowy figure since that night. But, man, does that photo freak me out.

[Justin]

Is this like probably the low light situation where when you use low light, your phone can see things that your eyes probably can't pick up?

[Sam]

It absolutely can.

[Justin]

Just like when we do the pictures of the stars.

[Sam]

I know you know stars, but I'm going to show you the picture. Oh, I have the picture. To be honest, I'm a little scared to download it on my computer because it just feels like I'm opening some dark energy.

[Justin]

No, no. That's why we got this guy.

[Sam]

This, our protector, our guard dog. This is the photo.

[Justin]

Oh, man. I guess it probably is one of those low light things.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Justin]

Because like, you, you would look over there and I'm. I'm imagining what she was seeing is just total darkness.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Justin]

Oh, I see the figure. I. I see it.

[Sam]

Okay. I see it. For those listening, it is very clearly a figure and it's hovering off the ground. So you would assume it's hanging. And like you can kind of see a rope and there's like a white long sleeve gown. Almost looks like a robe.

[Justin]

Can we zoom? Can we zoom?

[Sam]

It almost appears like you can see through it. So this looks like it's like there's a carport and it's like open. It's not like inside of a garage. It's like an outdoor carport.

[Justin]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Sam]

But you can almost like see through it. Like, it's like.

[Justin]

There's definitely trees.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Justin]

See the tall trees?

[Sam]

Trees in the back.

[Justin]

Yeah.

[Sam]

Yep.

[Justin]

Wait, so you can see through. We're not looking into a building that's out beyond. It's interesting, the structure.

[Sam]

It's almost like a carport. You know, like a carport that you drive under or through. Kind of like we have.

[Justin]

So it. The. The figure is outside.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Justin]

Just as Far back as possible or.

[Sam]

Just, like, hanging from the carport. Like, it looks like it's on this edge of the carport.

[Justin]

Yeah. I also, you know, I find it kind of wild that the first reaction to rustling noises is a bear.

[Sam]

Yeah. Like, I'm like, that's crazy.

[Justin]

Oh, it just must be a bear. Eh? Grab the rake.

[Sam]

A bear or, like, a deer or a squirrel animal. Yeah.

[Justin]

But think of all the rustling right now. Squirrels and raccoons around us.

[Sam]

Oh, God, we've got raccoons and skunks galore. You got to watch out for skunks in our neighborhood.

[Justin]

Been hiding, though.

[Sam]

Where they been? I don't know.

[Justin]

Yeah. I don't know.

[Sam]

I would freak out if I saw this. I would absolutely freak out. Because, you know, it's like, you heard this noise. You heard all this rustling. You can't see, so you take a picture and your flash goes off, and then that's when you see it. And it's like, it's almost more scary when you know something's there, but you can't see it, because then how do you protect yourself? So what do you do?

[Justin]

I have two thoughts in my mind.

[Sam]

Okay.

[Justin]

Well, first of all, I'm thinking, do you. Does it actually work when you say you're not welcome here?

[Sam]

I think some of them are respectful.

[Justin]

If something wants to come in, it doesn't. Is it really going to respond? Is that, like, forceful? Like, is that, like, a command that a spirit has to follow? Very curious.

[Sam]

I think most spirits, like, I don't think they're inherently evil.

[Justin]

Sure.

[Sam]

I think most spirits are just kind of lost.

[Justin]

But you can direct them that way.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Justin]

So I had two things. Either you close the door and you contemplate your existence for a moment, or you just run right back there towards it.

[Sam]

I'm not running anywhere near that.

[Justin]

But why not? Right. Because either you're gonna go in your house and be afraid all night, or you go after it like it's a bear with the rake.

[Sam]

Again, how can you fight something you don't see?

[Justin]

Well, if you run back there and.

[Sam]

There'S nothing there, you need spiritual, like, spiritual weapons. You need, like, a. A person to come over and cleanse space.

[Justin]

So. But if you ran back there and you're moving your arms and you're all over where it was and there's nothing there, then do you go back in your house and sleep fine that night, or. No.

[Sam]

No, I don't think you can sleep fine after seeing something like that.

[Justin]

So we would do a staycation we would go. We would go find a hotel.

[Sam]

Yeah, I don't know. That's a tough one. I It's kind of hard because it's like you want to like say something to make it not come at you or come in your house or whatever. So him being like, I have enough women in my life. Haha.

[Justin]

Hilarious. It's like joking with the. You're already becoming friends with the spirit.

[Sam]

I know, but what if that opens the door? Like directly confronting it opens the door for it to be able to like come attach itself to you. I don't know. It's super scary. I'm excited for you guys to see the photo and let us know what you think.

[Justin]

Yeah, photo's crazy.

[Sam]

Photo is crazy. But we're moving on to this next one that has a video with it. Hi tht fam. I wanted to share this story with you ever since I heard Alejandra share her experience a few years ago. I wouldn't say this is spooky, but my personal experience with the afterlife so my dad passed away in March of 2023 very unexpectedly. He was truly my best friend and we talked every day on the phone for our 2:30 phone call. My mother had recently moved out and those calls turned into our quick check in calls again. He was truly my best friend. He didn't answer my 2:30 call one day and I immediately knew something was wrong. My best friend who lived down the road went to check on him and they found him. We don't know what happened but assume he passed away from a brain aneurysm. We couldn't afford an $8,000 autopsy to find anything else out. Fast forward to July of 2023. I was back at work and normal day to day life. When I was heading into work I stopped at Dunkin. Very important to note that I am a Starbucks girl. I never drink Dunkin'. But for some reason I wanted Dunkin. That day I walk in to get my drink and a song started playing from my dad's funeral. It was not a common song at all. It was Carefree highway by Gordon Lightfoot, a Canadian folk artist. Not something you would hear in a Duncan lol. That was really weird. My dad and I both drove Jeep Wranglers. It was kind of our thing. The next day I go to meet with my boss and there beside my normal parking spot is a Jeep Wrangler the exact year and color of my dad's. His Jeep is a very unique color and I had never seen another Jeep that color. It's not common. Later that day I was driving home from work and I was telling my best friend how all of this weird stuff was happening. And out of nowhere this duck starts lighting up on my dash. I got me and my dad these ducks with fun hats for our jeeps. I had never seen it light up before. The light had been broken the whole time I had it. But while I was telling my friend this story, it starts lighting up. At this point I am so perplexed and tell my then boyfriend that it feels like my dad is trying to tell me something. Fast forward to that Saturday. I'm with my friend walking around downtown. She got a text message asking to pick something up from her job. So we start heading that way. I was talking to my mom on the way to my friend's work, telling my mom all of the weird stuff that happened that week. And she was also saying my dad was trying to tell me something. We get to my friend's work and she tells me she wants to show me around her work. She worked at a stunning venue overlooking the mountains. We start walking around and boom. My then boyfriend was proposing. We had been together for eight years at that point and he was also very close to my dad. Of course I say yes and we do the whole engagement thing. We get in the car to head home and my now husband, fiance at the time, tells me that he showed my dad the ring two weeks before he passed. When he showed my dad the ring, he said my dad teared up. My dad was one of the only people who knew my husband was going to propose. There is not a doubt in my mind that my dad wanted me to know that he was there and celebrating with me. I've had a few dreams of my dad that feel so lifelike where he was talking to me. But nothing that complex has happened since my husband and I got married 921 24. And I know my dad was with us also. Happy one year anniversary. If you've lost someone close to you, I truly believe they are there with you. Or at least watching over you. Thank you tht fam. You helped me through a very difficult time in my life. And I even got to attend the live show in Charlotte. Nice bawling. The first time I read this story, started crying again. It got cut. So here's the video though. You ready?

[Justin]

Yeah.

[Sam]

We have the video.

[Justin]

Okay.

[Guest]

And now, and now as I'm telling this story, recording myself, this is happening. Do you see this duck lighting up like this is a duck that me and my dad had matching ones of.

[Sam]

Like, I bought three. I bought four of us.

[Guest]

Those ducks. Me and my dad have that same duck, but his has a white hat.

[Sam]

This hat.

[Guest]

This duck has never lit up like this before. It obviously lights up, but the whole.

[Sam]

Time I've had it, it's never lit up like this.

[Guest]

Like, I don't know what's happening right now. Oh, my God.

[Sam]

Okay. You're so cute. I don't know what's happening right now.

[Justin]

Well, so as you were first, you know, reading the story, I was thinking, trying to tell you something.

[Sam]

Like, what could it possibly be?

[Justin]

Well, because in the past, it's been trying to warn you of, like, oh, my God, you would have been in that car accident, but you weren't. Or, blah, blah, blah. Like, bad things. That's how. That's what my mind goes to. What are you trying to warn me of? Generally, it's bad things.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Justin]

And so then my mind was like, well, no, probably won't try to warn of bad things right now. It's just I was waiting for the story to go really scary or something bad.

[Sam]

Yeah, no, we've got some of those. I mean, it happens.

[Justin]

But then I was like, well, maybe, you know, I would. My first gut reaction would be, they're just trying to show me that they're there, slash, that there's something more. Right. That this whole thing we debate our whole lives because no one knows for sure. Yes or no or what, Is there something after this? Nobody knows. But, like, the one thing my dad's always told me and Jerry got him on board now is if there's something after, they will find a way that's undeniable to let me know. Not just, like, oh, wait, that could have been my dad. Things like this, where it's like, the same car. The song, it was everything.

[Sam]

It wasn't just one thing. It wasn't just, like, the song and Duncan randomly. It was everything. It was the song. It was the same Jeep in a random color. I'm envisioning, like, a lime green or a pumpkin orange. Something that's not a common color. That. And then the duck that you've never seen light up. That's just on your dash. And, like, we. We have the video. We watch the video. It's not like she's going down a bumpy road, and it could be triggering this little duck to light up.

[Justin]

Like, I feel like it's been sitting there forever.

[Sam]

It's been sitting there forever, and it's like, that's such a Jeep thing. If you're like, why are they getting ducks for their jeep? It's such a jeep thing to do. I keep seeing people on TikTok giving ducks to Jeep owners that don't have ducks yet. It's a Jeep thing. I don't know.

[Justin]

That's cool.

[Sam]

But she's clearly like. I mean, not touching it, driving. Doesn't seem like there's anyone else in the car. Like, it really does seem like this is him sending a message. Just be like, hey, I'm here. And why that object? Well, because he had the same duck. He could have picked other objects. He could have moved something here, he could have moved something there. But like.

[Justin]

But you might not notice, right?

[Sam]

No. And to. Literally you're telling this story to your friend and then all of a sudden it starts happening as you talk about this story about. I've been noticing these things that like, only would kind of be my dad.

[Justin]

Yeah.

[Sam]

And then bam, the duck lights up. Which that to me, like, anytime a spirit can like move something or create like electrical stuff when there's no batteries or it doesn't work, that to me is like one of those like true signs. Like, I really believe in that kind of stuff.

[Justin]

See, this is the stuff I would love to experience. I don't want the dark, scary paranormal. I want the happy, blow your mind kind of paranormal where you're like, wait. Because your mind naturally will try to explain this all, every piece of this away. But when you're just hit with one after the other, because the song, right. If it had just been the song, you'd be like, oh, crazy, crazy coincidence. But you know, you could explain, you'd probably tell yourself, ah, it's a coincidence. But then you're knocked with 1, 2, 3. And then to tie it all together with the proposal, which then there's a motive, there's a reason to be ever present and do all these things to make you notice. And when you first said it was the proposal, I was like, wait, he was trying to tip her off that she was gonna get engaged. Like, he wouldn't wanna ruin that. But no, he just wanted her to know I'm there. He was there to be a part of that because he was one of the. Maybe the only person that was let in on it or one of the only. So it's just such a beautiful, you know, full circle thing. But I was like, don't blow the engagement. Like, what? Like, you wouldn't ruin that.

[Sam]

No, I, I just. It's so beautiful. Like such a beautiful way to get that sign and know he Was there with you and, like, have that support from him there. Because when you're so close with your parent and, like, they're your best friend and then they're gone for big moments like that in life, like, yeah, it can feel so heavy and like, you can almost then look at it where it's like, I'm not even excited because, like, the I want here to be excited with me is gone. Like, so to have that and, like, your day was so special because of all of that. It's really, really powerful. Really powerful.

[Justin]

I like that one. I know. We'll stay on this train. This is good.

[Sam]

Okay, Well, I have one that does talk about batteries, kind of electrical charges. So we'll.

[Justin]

Nice segue there.

[Sam]

We'll kind of keep on this little train for a minute here. This episode is brought to you by State Farm. Life is all about choices, like choosing what you're going to have for dinner, what show to watch. Are you going to take that job offer? And State Farm is here to help you make decisions you feel good about. Talk to a State Farm agent to learn how you can choose to bundle and save with a personal price plan. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Prices are based on ratings plans that vary by state. Coverage options are selected by the customer. Availability, amount of discounts, and savings and eligibility vary by state. I've read through so many of these spooky stories, and there's one that I just want to, like, talk about for two seconds before we get into this actual story. But it was from someone writing in. They were like, yeah, you know, I started investigating with some friends into this haunted place, and I can't even remember where it is again. I've read almost 500 of your stories, you guys, but they had, like, a cat ball that they would bring. And if. If you hit the cat ball, it would light up. And so they would bring that and, like, tell spirits, like, hey, move the ball if you can, because then they'd see it light up. And you had to, like, actually physically, like, hit it to get a light up.

[Justin]

Sure.

[Sam]

And so she was in a room and sure enough was like, if you're there, move the ball. And it just got batted and, like, lit up.

[Justin]

Why don't we do this great opportunity?

[Sam]

I don't want to open the door. I don't think.

[Justin]

Not open the door. It's just playing. Hit the ball.

[Sam]

I don't know. I don't know. Let's get into this next one and see what you think. Okay. When my parents first moved into our family home. We had an unfinished basement My mom was slowly renovating into a play area. My older brother was around 2 years old at the time that this took place, so we had many toys down there. One of the toys was a small motorized toy car and a small track. To make the car go around the track, it needed to be placed at the top of it. One night around 3am, my mom woke up to the sound of the toy car whirring around the track in the basement. She listened for a moment to make sure that she wasn't hearing things. But the sound of this toy car was very distinct because it also played music. When the car went down the track, My mom woke up my dad to go to the basement and see, but he refused. So my mom went down there and turned on the light as the car was going around the track. She quickly grabbed the toy and ran upstairs. The next morning, she realized that the toy had no batteries inside for it to even work and do that. She immediately took the toy out to the trash and never bought another toy like that again. She still refuses to talk about the incident 23 years later because it scared her so much. My family and I still live in the same house where other paranormal experiences would happen every now and then.

[Justin]

Yeah, that is kind of a freak out. Especially because it's in the basement, which the basement, classically is the scariest place always. You know, the basement, the shadow figure that chases you up the stairs every time you turn the light off.

[Sam]

Why is it the basement? Like, what is it about that?

[Justin]

I don't know. It's just kind of a scary place. There's big scary things down there, like big scary furnace and dark places, A lot of places to hide. And basements don't have really an escape a lot of times. So I don't know. I don't know why, but it's a lot of. Maybe it comes from movies because even when you're young, you remember the. The toaster movie and then the furnace in the basement. Super scary. That freaked me out forever. I never went in the furnace room. No chance. Uh, not as a kid. That was the worst place to go.

[Sam]

But yeah, the farm where I grew up was really. The basement was always super creepy too, because there's an old potato cellar in the barn and my cat would always go and hide in there. So I'd always have to like, go down to the basement and like, find the cat. I'm like, sweetheart, come on out, sweetheart. And like, would you ra. No. Just always just so creepy having to go in there and, like, go over the potato wall and, like, scoop her out. And it's just like. It's so dark. There was not a light in there at the time. It was scary.

[Justin]

Someone could just.

[Sam]

I know.

[Justin]

Yeah. So I think if. If we heard that.

[Sam]

Yeah, no, the fact that the dad didn't go down there too. No, you go, honey.

[Justin]

Sir.

[Sam]

That's your job. You get down there.

[Justin]

Well. Cause your mind would go, well, how could that happen? And it's either supernatural or it's someone down there. I mean, you know, just some. How creepy would that be? Someone sneaks into the house, goes downstairs and starts putting a car around a track to lure you. That's.

[Sam]

I know.

[Justin]

This is where we blur the lines between paranormal and true crime, but equally as terrifying.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Justin]

See, my reaction would not have been to throw the toy away. I would have started filming that damn thing and then I would have set it back up and see if it happens again. As scary as that might be. But are.

[Sam]

I wouldn't want that energy by getting.

[Justin]

Rid of the car. Are you saying that it's whatever. The. Whatever's making it move, is that attached to the car? Cause whatever hit the ball made the ball light up. The cat ball isn't necessarily attached to ball. So throwing the ball away doesn't get rid of whatever it is.

[Sam]

No. And clearly there were still more paranormal activities in the house. Like, experiences happened after.

[Justin]

So just leave it.

[Sam]

The car was just like the.

[Justin]

The vessel.

[Sam]

The vessel that it used to communicate. But that thing's still down there. That's still in that basement.

[Justin]

I just feel not coming over to your house. Has anyone ever tried to stake out, like, put cameras out there and put cameras all around that track downstairs? Or do the spirits get shy then? Do they only get filmed when they're not expecting it? Like that photo from the first one. You know what I mean?

[Sam]

Yeah. I feel like a lot of times, like, for me, if something like this happened, my first instinct wouldn't be to take out my phone and start recording. My first instinct would be, oh, shit, get out of there. Run. This is scary. Call Justin. Call 911.

[Justin]

We'd probably be together.

[Sam]

My ghost thing didn't happen when we were together. Yeah, that's true.

[Justin]

That's.

[Sam]

And like, I was so scared, I didn't record. I literally just, like, literally put my covers over my head and just sat there and I was like, this isn't real. This isn't real. Go to bed. Go to bed. This isn't real. It was so scary. And it's like, what do you do? Like, I like, could have called 911. Like, yeah, I hear voices and people walking up and down my hallway. And like, they would have came but like I would have then had to get out of bed to open the door for the police. And that sound, I could hear the pitter patter of the feet. Bare feet on the tile floor.

[Justin]

Bare feet?

[Sam]

Well, because it was bare feet. Cuz you. You know how bare feet sound on a tile floor. Yeah. And I could just hear him walking up and down.

[Justin]

You saw a shadow.

[Sam]

The hallway. I saw the light flicker on and off from under my door.

[Justin]

And you were the only one there?

[Sam]

Only one there. I was the only one living there. Everything was locked.

[Justin]

They didn't come back to pick up something? Your roommate?

[Sam]

Nope. No one was living there. All of the doors had bars in them.

[Justin]

It was kind of a weird time. That was a weird time?

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Justin]

Like, that was just an interesting year for us. Well, not like relationship wise, but just with you going to Palm Springs and.

[Sam]

For one of my. If you don't know, I was an OT before this and I had to go to Palm Springs for one of my internships, essentially one of my clinical rotations. And it was just the weirdest experience. Like, literally my hospital had a lockdown because there was a shooting. Like, it was. It was just chaos every day.

[Justin]

But that house, was that the one? There was more than just that. Right. That made you creeped out about that place.

[Sam]

Well, then it was like the door was unlocked, like to one of the other bedrooms. So a little while later, the landlord's nephew did move in. It was like a month after this experience happened, or weeks, I don't know. At this point, I don't even remember. But he moved in and he had his room at the far end of the hallway. And my room was like at the beginning of the hallway because I had the primary bedroom, I had the big one.

[Justin]

Okay.

[Sam]

And so I was going down to the hallway, like at the very end to do laundry. And he asked me, he's like, did you unlock that other bedroom door? And I was like, no. And he goes, weird. I got home today and it was unlocked. And after that first experience I had with hearing someone, I always checked the door handles. Like every time I would walk by the doors, I would hit the handles on the way to make sure the rooms were locked because I was so creeped out. I'm like, I don't know, I gotta make sure no one else is living in here. With me that I don't know about. Cause everyone had by that point heard stories of someone living in your walls or your attic and whatever. So I checked. I remember as I went to do the laundry, I checked that handle. Nope, it was locked.

[Justin]

It was locked.

[Sam]

So I didn't open it. He didn't open it.

[Justin]

Like within hours of same day.

[Sam]

Yeah. Cuz I'm like. I put my laundry in, I think I took a nap or got food, did something. And then like a little bit later I had to move it to the dryer and like hang some stuff. I don't want any more interactions. No more interactions. Especially.

[Justin]

What about the happy good ones?

[Sam]

We don't have any of those for a while.

[Justin]

No, I'm saying in our lives.

[Sam]

Honestly, I'm okay.

[Justin]

I don't.

[Sam]

I'm okay. I feel content having what I've had. Okay, okay. No more ghosts for me. But I'll read the stories every year here on two hot takes. Okay, so this next one. Ooh, they even give us a title. Wow, thank you. This one is titled the Shadow lady in the Hallway. I never believed in ghosts or spirits. Not seriously anyways, until something happened to me in my early 20s. At the time, I'd just moved back to Southern California from college in Hawaii. My stepdad had a spare bedroom in his condo, so I moved in. It was a two story place, kind of a loft style layout. Kitchen and living room downstairs, then a staircase leading to a hallway with three bedrooms. From that upstairs hallway you could look down into the living room and from the living room you could see anyone walking across the hall above. That layout becomes important in a second. My stepsister, 28, was already living there, renting one of the upstairs rooms. My stepdad had the other. I was 23 at the time and moved into the third room. They had been living there for five years before I showed up. Anyways, during my first week there, I came home from work one day and walked into the kitchen to drop off a few groceries. I turned on the downstairs lights and was about to head upstairs when I saw what I swear looked like a woman's shadow was walk across the upstairs hallway. It caught me off guard because the upstairs lights were off, but I could still see pretty clearly from the light downstairs. I assumed it was my stepsister, so I called up. Raeleen, is that you? No response. I went upstairs and called for her again. Still nothing. I checked all the rooms and the bathrooms. No one was home. Weird. But I brushed it off. Maybe I was just seeing things. It was my first week there. A few nights later, it was super hot and the AC vent in my room barely worked. So I started sleeping with my bedroom door open to the hallway, hoping some cooler air would flow in. Well, big mistake. That night, I was lying in bed, trying to sleep, lights off, when I saw her. A figure, the silhouette of a woman, was walking down the hallway. No details, no face, just a dark outline in the dim light from downstairs. She wasn't rushing or doing anything scary, just walking slowly past my room. Still, I was frozen like a little kid. I pulled the covers over my head and barely slept at all. Been there the next morning, I was like, nope, I need to say something. I brought it up to my stepdad and stepsister, kind of expecting them to laugh at me or tell me I imagined it. But they didn't. Instead, they both went quote, oh, you finally saw her. What? They told me they'd both seen her multiple times. According to them, she's harmless, never bothers anyone, and over the years, they just got used to her. My stepdad even said that he's lost things before only to have them later show up, neatly placed on the end of his bed. He believed she was returning them to him. I couldn't believe it. Like, I would have assumed they were messing with me, except I'd already had my own experience before I ever mentioned it. And I was completely alone at the time. After that, I started seeing her pretty regularly. Never threatening, just unsettling. It became less scary over time, but I never got comfortable with it. That eerie feeling never really went away. I ended up living there for about a year and a half, but the constant sightings and that sense that I was never truly alone was ultimately what made me move out. I didn't believe in ghosts before this. Now I definitely do.

[Justin]

So she's just chill. So Shadow Lady's just chill? She's just walking around, doing her thing. I guess she's just hanging out.

[Sam]

Hanging out. Clearly, like, tied to the place for some reason. Like, if something, a spirit and energy gets tied to a place, like, I always feel like something bad happened there. Like the trauma bound them to it.

[Justin]

Yeah.

[Sam]

Or like I feel mostly it's trauma. I'm curious what other reasons are. Like, if you are a spooky paranormal person and you're like, oh, no. Like, my grandpa's hunting around, and he's just like, friendly ghosts, like, Casper. Hey, Grandpa. Ha ha. Like, I'd be curious if you guys, like, kind of have a reason why. Like, why wouldn't Grandpa go to the other Side. Was he waiting for grandma? Like, was he keeping an eye on everyone and.

[Justin]

Or can they do both?

[Sam]

Yeah, can.

[Justin]

Ooh, right.

[Sam]

Do you have to be on the.

[Justin]

Other side and then go back and hang out?

[Sam]

Which I really can have a day pass.

[Justin]

I really hope that's a thing because I'm so curious. I think I've said this before. What happens after I'm gone? Not in like the, you know, the next year, but the next ten hundred thousand, ten million years. I want to see what happens even if it's not even humans related.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Justin]

I want to see the Earth go into the sun eventually, when the sun expands, I want to see if we get off the planet and expand beyond that. I want to see if there's any encounters with other life forms. I want to see us discover other life out there, even if it doesn't happen during my time. I want to see us solve gravity. I want to see us figure out the whole quantity.

[Sam]

Gravity can be solved.

[Justin]

Anything can be solved.

[Sam]

How would you solve it?

[Justin]

If you master something, you can always.

[Sam]

You can reverse it, turn off gravity.

[Justin]

Well, you could. You could use it to your advantage more. Just solving any of those big mysteries. Dark matter, black holes, singularities. Are we inside a black. All of those big things.

[Sam]

I'm surprised we haven't sent stuff into black holes yet.

[Justin]

Well, you'd never. You would just watch it go in. That's it. You'd never actually see it cross. It would pause at the event horizon. It would slowly fade to a deep red, and then at some point it would just disappear.

[Sam]

But where does it go? We don't know.

[Justin]

It goes right in.

[Sam]

It could be a portal somewhere.

[Justin]

Well, sure, but it goes right in past that event horizon.

[Sam]

Let's just start sending a bunch of stuff.

[Justin]

Because the time slippage, the time warping is so strong. Right. As you approach that event horizon for us, it might as well freeze in place because its time is slowing down so much that ours is speeding up comparatively. And we would never see it truly fully cross. We would just see it disappear.

[Sam]

How close is the nearest black hole? Could we get there in a spaceship that we have built today?

[Justin]

It would take, I mean, even to our nearest star neighbor, the closest star to our sun.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Justin]

With our current rockets, as powerful as they are the whole time, it would take a hundred thousand years to get there.

[Sam]

Yeah, we're not sending stuff in a black hole. Damn, I was really excited.

[Justin]

So this, that's my point, though. I want. I'm hoping that there's something more so that I can pop in and out and experience that. And maybe on the other side, you can walk up and down a hallway. Like time. Like it's a hallway.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Justin]

But yes, with this one, I don't know. I don't know if it's something bad. Are. Do ghosts. Aren't they. Can't they be invisible or. So, so does a ghost choose to have that, that. That presence that is visible and seen? Because they're clearly seeing it. It's not like she's tapping into some superhuman vision that can see ghost energy.

[Sam]

I feel like some people are more susceptible to seeing things. Like kids. Kids is a great example.

[Justin]

And dogs.

[Sam]

Dogs. I also think spirits can present themselves and I wonder if that's something they learn over time. Like they have to sit there and practice and like, they're like screaming into the void, like, why can't you hear me? And then all of a sudden they can break through. Or I wonder if, like, they inherently already know it and can only present themselves in, like, times of someone being in extreme distress like that. Oh, God. We just talked about it on the Kaelin episode. But like, the person that just like, comes out to save you where they.

[Justin]

Like, scream your name in your sleep as your house is burning down, you.

[Sam]

Hear it a lot. Like firefighters.

[Justin]

Yeah.

[Sam]

There's always like the firefighter that, like, you get taken out of your house and it's burning and like, you get taken out of your house by a firefighter and you come to and they're like, no one was on the scene yet. There's no firefighter that was there. Or like, you hear it a lot when the Coast Guard rescues people and they're like, someone was with me. Someone was floating with me. No one was there. It's just like that.

[Justin]

But does your. Well, see, if you're physically moved, that's one thing. But does your mind also create that in, you know, the most dire situation as a means of survival?

[Sam]

The third man factor. When a person is saved by a perceived unseen presence, including a ghost, it is most often referred to as the third man factor or third person syndrome.

[Justin]

Wow.

[Sam]

I just remember the umbrella of broader phenomenon. It is a very common thing. Explorers, climbers, shipwreck survivors. Yeah. Guardian angel. Ghost spirit provides comfort, guidance, encouragement during a life threatening experience.

[Justin]

Which if someone physically, the third man carries you out of a burning house, that's one thing. But if that, for lack of a better term, imaginary friend pops up just alongside of a very traumatic, crazy thing, then is that some sort of response that the brain has to Help Aid. I don't know, but I remember the one where the person screamed like they heard their name. Literally screamed at them and they woke up, sat up and it saved them from something. We had that story in the past.

[Sam]

Yes. Yeah, we did. That was on one of our earlier spooky episodes. I'm just going through my. My submission form and I'm trying to see if I do have any third man write ins. And there is one write in that does mention that. That phenomenon. It's my friend's story, but more about the third man experience. Me and my friends all live on the same street. One of my friends had a fun place. We hang out. Think pool table, bar, card games, et cetera. Well, I wasn't there. I was working. But my friends were all drinking and hanging out. Two guys we'll call Adam and Randy and one girl, Annie. Annie wasn't feeling well and went home across the street. When Annie wants to call Randy home, they're married. She'll whistle very distinctly to get Randy's attention. Adam and Randy were still hanging out and heard the whistle. Adam goes to walk Randy home. We always walk someone home, especially at night. And when they went inside, Annie was unconscious and having a seizure on the ground. Ambulances were called. Annie is okay now. She had alcohol poisoning and had a seizure because of it. She swears up and down that she did not do the whistle to bring the boys over. But they only went home because they heard the whistle. It had to have been a guardian angel.

[Justin]

Wow, that's wild.

[Sam]

Very. And that's not the only guardian angel story.

[Justin]

I have one just so off topic thing about that. So if the one guy walks the other guy home, who walks the one. The other guy?

[Sam]

Why was that my exact thought? Exact thought.

[Justin]

Because at least he's going home to someone. This guy's gonna go home alone is what I'm perceiving.

[Sam]

Yeah, I'm not sure.

[Justin]

Super random thing to take away from that.

[Sam]

Maybe he had a flashlight and the other guy didn't.

[Justin]

Oh, sure.

[Sam]

I don't know.

[Justin]

Yeah, that's.

[Sam]

I do think there's moments of guardian angels and this next story kind of touches on it a little bit.

[Justin]

It's also awesome, the whistle thing.

[Sam]

We have a family whistle as well.

[Justin]

But like the classic, you know, back in the day when parents would. There's a bunch of different things, right? A bell or certain shout or maybe a whistle. Your mom's would have been a whistle. 100%.

[Sam]

Oh yeah, she whistled.

[Justin]

Oh, she did that with the horses when we were just home right next to me.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Justin]

And I wasn't expecting it. And I turned towards her and I must have given her the worst look. And she's like, oh, I'm sorry.

[Sam]

Because she can do the whistle where it's like. And it's like with your fingers and it just like it's a blast of a whistle. Oh, yeah. You can't be next to it.

[Justin]

It went straight to the eardrum. And I just turned and I looked at her. Oh, I'm so mad.

[Sam]

Oh, I can just feel it. I can feel it. This episode is brought to you by Ollie. You know what shouldn't be? A hot take wanting great sex and a healthy hoo. Ha. Ollie gets it from loving libido so you can get yours. Or period hero for PMS support. Ollie puts women's wellness first. Find these supplements and more at any national retailer [e-mail] that's O L L Y dot com. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

[Guest]

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[Sam]

Okay, so this next one. When I was 14, I broke curfew. I was walking home alone around midnight. Ish. And the only person out was my neighbor. He sat on his stoop and when I said hi, he just looked at me in an odd way, almost confused, and just waved. I figured that the confused look was because I was out so late the following afternoon. I walked into the living room and my mom started questioning me like a crazy person. Quote, what the hell are you doing coming in so late? And who was that man that walked you home? I asked, what man? Surprised because I walked home alone and there was only one person outside when I was walking. Don't play stupid, she said. Quote mom, I swear I walked home by myself. You can ask Blank childhood friend. I begged her to believe me because I was telling the truth. She questioned me further. Quote, well, blank neighbor that was sitting on a stoop told me you were walking down the street with a white man with a top hat and suspenders on. She continued to scold me and I was not listening because she sounded absolutely insane. At that point, we lived in an almost all black neighborhood that was not the safest to outsiders. Why the hell would I be walking down the street with a white man dressed like he was from the 60s? I stopped her rant, mom, do you hear yourself? You sound crazy. I promise I was not hanging out with an old white dude. We laughed at the notion of and moved on with our day. Later that day, I was walking down the same street and the neighbor that was on his stoop asked me, who was the white dude that walked you home last night? I answered, why'd you tell my mom that? You got me yelled at, you weirdo. I snapped at him and kept walking. He yelled after me, you the weirdo. Hanging out with old white dudes and shit. I just kept walking on my way to my friend's house, not thinking anything about his nonsense anymore. I never thought of it again until years later. I was in my mid-20s and I was telling an older lady that I worked with the bizarre story. And she said, watch yourself around that man. He means to harm you. Your guardian angel seems to have revealed himself to him. I looked at her quizzically. What do you mean? I asked the older lady. She told me that your angel will reveal itself to protect you from people that want to bring you harm. If only your neighbor could see him, it was because he would have harmed you or he wanted to. I sat there frozen, scared stiff. That neighbor was always chill. She then said, a wolf in sheep's clothing. I have been terrified of that guy since that day and I avoid him the best I can. Jumping forward a few years. I was in my early 30s and my great aunt was talking about her grandfather who would have been my great great grandfather. She talked about how nice he was and showed me a picture of her very white grandfather. I was not shocked at all because our family is very much a melting pot. But what did surprise me was her next memory of him. Quote, my grandfather always wore suspenders and never left the house without his top hat. I nearly shit myself. The end.

[Justin]

I mean, all these just leave you without words. It's just so fun to hear. I mean, wow. I did not see the neighbors being the, you know, the whatever.

[Sam]

The, you know, the bad guy.

[Justin]

Yeah, the bad guy. Yeah. I was trying to think of the big term protagonist or.

[Sam]

Oh, villain.

[Justin]

Yeah, yeah. That kind of thing.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Justin]

I did not see that. This is where my mind goes instantly to. If this were only during a time of ring doorbell cameras and these types of things, but Just for them to be able to say, see, look, Mom, I was by myself.

[Sam]

I know. Do you have that proof?

[Justin]

But then, even with that, the guy. It's just so. Because then the guy went and told the mom because. Because she didn't see. She didn't see that. That they'd walk up with. With someone. It's all word of mouth.

[Sam]

It's all from that one guy, which then just bleeds into that lady's story of, like, yeah, your guardian angel revealed himself to the guy on the porch. Because if he wouldn't have, the guy on the porch might have harmed you, might have scooped you up into his house that night. I mean, just reminds me of that story. Lovely Bones. Did you ever see that movie?

[Justin]

Mm. Mm.

[Sam]

Really dark, sad movie. But this girl is, like, kidnapped and murdered, and her spirit tries to show her dad signs to help solve her murder, essentially.

[Justin]

Yeah.

[Sam]

And it's just. It's kind of like that where it's just like, she was like, doing things like. Like would kill a rose right in front of real time. Like, just kill a rose.

[Justin]

Yeah.

[Sam]

When the guy was talking to her dad, it was just like. It was a crazy movie, but it just reminds me of that where it's just, like, spirits can, like, do things in order to protect others. I need to watch the Lovely Bones again. I could be getting this totally wrong, but it's just, like. It's so crazy that, like, to think about your ancestors protecting you. And I know in a lot of, like, other religions, ancestors are a lot more not worshiped but, like, remembered. Obviously, you have Day of the Dead, where, you know, you have your ofrenda, and you have all of your family's pictures on it, and you make all of this food and pawn and bread and all this stuff for the ofrenda to remember your family. And, like, there's just kind of this, like, culture of, like, really respecting the dead and, like, having your. Your whole family watch over you. I think that's like. It's kind of like mulan and, like, I'm not that familiar with Chinese culture and, like, what is practiced with that, but, like, all of her ancestors were, like, around in the temple, and that could be a Mulan thing, but that also could be taken from some culture but not familiar. I'd love, love, love to hear about any cultures where, like, ancestors are your guardians or, like, just, like, kind of this vibe.

[Justin]

Yeah. Which is a cool thing because generally you. The generation below you, maybe three generations below you, have the opportunity to actually know you or four well, Three below you, so four total. And then after you move past kind of that fifth, sixth generation, basically what I'm saying is once the people who knew you the best start to age out, you kind of disappear into nothingness because there's no one that has direct memories of you, unless you're some famous person or there's movies that you were in or something like that.

[Sam]

And even those, it fades. I mean, it does. I think that's why Coco was so sad. Like, when I watched Coco, I made the mistake of watching it on a plane. And wow, I was crushed when he starts, like, flickering in and out because no one remembers him anymore. The last person that remembered him was losing her memory.

[Justin]

Right.

[Sam]

And then you're just forgotten.

[Justin]

Right.

[Sam]

Which is why I really love, like, the idea of an offrenda.

[Justin]

Right. That's what I'm. That's what I was leading to.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Justin]

I think it's cool.

[Sam]

So cool.

[Justin]

Just because it's.

[Sam]

I want to start doing it well.

[Justin]

And then, you know, there's such a. A curiosity of where did I come from? You know, even with just the DNA stuff.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Justin]

Where did my ancestors live?

[Sam]

Weird story.

[Justin]

Where did they. You know, all of that, and it just. You wish you would know more and you wish people would keep track of that better.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Justin]

To know, oh, this is where. Even if it's great times 10, your great, great, great, great, great all the way up. This is what your great times ten grandfather, whatever did.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Justin]

It'd be fascinating, but it's so hard to find that if someone hasn't actively kept track of it. So that's why it's so cool, you know, with that sort of remembrance and keeping track.

[Sam]

I know I was really, really, really fortunate. I got to live with my great grandma growing up until she passed, and it was just so special. So, like, I was super close with her and, like, who gets to say that? Like, they were close with their great grandma. But, like, even my memories, like, I remember her, but I don't remember any stories of her talking about her parents or anyone. So it's like that generation has already lost to me.

[Justin]

Well, and there wasn't ways to document that as easy as today. You know, photos.

[Sam]

I mean, there's some photos, but my great grandma actually kept very, very, very well kept journals. Like, she would write daily. And my grandma, her sister, my mom, my aunt. Like, a lot of people have read these journals. Yeah, I guess they're like, really? They just show, like, how tough she was and like, everything she put up with with, like, her husband, who wasn't necessarily the best and just like kept the family together and like worked so hard on the farm. And I really want to read them, but I'm like, what if I discover a secret I don't want to know?

[Justin]

No, but what's so cool about that is like the farm is such a special place, right? Imagine her writing in something. Well, we had the barn. The barn was rebuilt last week and it's going up. Imagine seeing that. It's like locked in time. It's time traveling.

[Sam]

I know.

[Justin]

To go back and read something that's specific to something that still exists and a place that still exists and is special to you, that would be incredible. Went up in Boba in the field today, planted this tree and you got. And sure enough, there's the hundred some year old tree. Can you imagine that? Crazy.

[Sam]

Wild.

[Justin]

Well, there's such a wealth of information and experience that's lost with that too. I know like when you get to an age, I don't know whether it starts in your 20s, when she hit 30s, when you start getting curious about your parents lives, when you start getting curious about your grandparents lives, when they tell stories. Now at this age, it's like the coolest thing ever.

[Sam]

I know I recorded my grandma, like I asked her a bunch of questions and recorded her. I still need to edit it and put it together.

[Justin]

I have it backed up on like five drives.

[Sam]

I know, I'm just like, it's just so important to not lose. But doing stuff like that with your family, it's so special because when you.

[Justin]

Don'T have that opportunity to regret it, you'll regret that you didn't do it.

[Sam]

Absolutely. Absolutely. So if you do get the opportunity, do it well.

[Justin]

And to show your kids who maybe didn't get the opportunity or your kids, kids who didn't get the opportunity to see that would be crazy. It's just we're on the first end of the generations that have had the capability to, to take very easily a high quality video and recording of someone in real time that then you can save and show down the road. I mean that's why I've been. This is another random thing, but it's a great tip for everyone listening. If you get a little bit into VR now that your phone can shoot it, when you shoot VR content and then you watch it back on a VR headset, it feels like you are there in that moment way more than holding your phone and videotaping in that moment because it allows you to literally sit there and you're not bound by what the person with the camera does. You can look around and they're there 3D right in front of you. To experience someone like that is way different than an old photograph or this or that. It is mind blowing. If more people understood the power of that, I think more people would take advantage of it. So if you're curious, look into it, because when you watch those videos back, you're just like, wow, I can't wait to show this to my kids one day.

[Sam]

Maybe Justin will make you guys a video on how to do that on your phone and how to do it any headset. Once you do it on your phone, I don't know what what that all entails because I'm not that tech savvy. So maybe you'll do that for everyone.

[Justin]

Sure. Maybe even a headset giveaway.

[Sam]

Oh, there you go.

[Justin]

Because I upgraded.

[Sam]

Hey. But we're gonna move on to this next story. This is gonna be a little different than the rest of the episode because it's time for a special segment called Hidden Gem, brought to you by depop. Okay, you'll see why I picked this one, and it is spooky, you guys. It fits into today's theme. Has anyone experienced missing items in their home reappearing in odd places? Last week, I was cleaning up my apartment before I had guests over for the weekend. I was in the bathroom removing all of the clutter off the sink when I saw the jewelry. I'd left a necklace and, oddly, one earring. I was upset and stressed that the other earring was missing because I know I had left a set of earrings in the corner of the counter. So I continued cleaning off the sink, assuming the missing earring must have fallen down into the sink by mistake. I took a break and looked for a solid 10 minutes in the bathroom looking for the missing earring in case it might have fallen on the floor. I looked everywhere on the floor and nothing. So I had taken the extra washcloths out of the cupboard underneath the sink and placed them on the floor to make room for the new clean towels that I was going to place in there. I left the bathroom for five minutes to go into the living room and fold the new towels. After I folded them, I went back into the bathroom, knelt down and placed them in the cupboard. I go to grab the extra washcloths. The strangest thing was the missing earring was placed perfectly on one of the extra washcloths. It looked as if someone deliberately had placed the missing earrings on the center of the cloth I was freaked out because I live alone. And it just doesn't make any sense why the earring would just appear out of nowhere, even though I searched high and low for it anyways. Anyone ever experienced something like that? I wonder if the myth of fairies or house gnomes is real. Could it have been a ghost or a glitch? In reality, it truly feels as if someone had given it back to me once they realized I was stressed out. It was lost.

[Justin]

Yeah. Especially after really searching.

[Sam]

I joke about this all the time. Like, I feel like I have a black hole that's following me. But this feels like a ghost actually helped her bring that earring back to her.

[Justin]

I mean, the problem is your stuff never comes back.

[Sam]

Yeah, that is a problem for me. But that's literally why I then go on depop and search for items that I want to get again.

[Justin]

Sure. I think, you know, it can't be a person because I'm. I'm assuming this is all happening inside your head. Like, oh, the earring's gone. Like, you live alone, you're. I mean, I guess some people might talk out loud like, my earring's gone. I'm going to search for it. Almost like, then someone would be like, ooh, I'm going to go place the earring.

[Sam]

But who would it be? Someone living in the law.

[Justin]

It wouldn't, Right? It wouldn't. I mean, but your mind instantly goes there to like, wait, how did that get there? And it kind of freaks you out, like she said. But, yeah, I mean, it looks like it was placed there, displayed not. You know, I'm trying to think logically. How could it have, like, not been seen and then fallen. But really for to have fallen on and she had just placed that there.

[Sam]

Just put it there.

[Justin]

So she would have looked at them.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Justin]

And noticed if that was there. So when she places them down, we have to assume nothing's there. And then you come back and it's like, yeah, I don't know. It's. It's like a friendly ghost.

[Sam]

I don't know. I feel like this is a ghost thing to do. Like, the story we just read about the. The girl who moved back in with her dad and stepsister or sister, and literally the dad was like, yeah, my ghost, like, brings stuff back to me. I literally. Okay. I just saw a TikTok about this. A girl was, like, getting in her shower and she took off her wedding ring and heard it bounce. Like it bounced in her shower and went down the drain. And she heard it. She starts like, trying to get it back. She can see it. She's trying to, like, scoop it out. As she scoops it out, like, she pushes it further down. They call a plumber over. Plumber tries to come and get it. Doesn't work. It ends up, like, going down. The plumber's like, it's gone. Sure enough, like, a couple days later or something, her ring is sitting there on the counter in the bathroom. And she says, I have ghosts in my house. The ghosts brought this back. Otherwise, how explain how that ring got back there.

[Justin]

See, but the problem is, it's, like, horrifying, but also really cool.

[Sam]

I would love a ghost. This is the one exception. If I could have a ghost come back into my life and find all those hidden little things that I've been missing, that would make my day.

[Justin]

A ghost sidekick make my year.

[Sam]

Like, Casper. But, like, really, honestly, I'd take Casper. Cute, cute little thing. Just happy, friendly ghost.

[Justin]

But you're like a team, you know, you got your sidekick, and they, you know, do ghost things for you.

[Sam]

Sure, if it's Casper and he's friendly and cute like that.

[Justin]

Because at first with that last one, I was gonna be, like, bouncing. Yeah, I could have. I don't know. But she saw it in the drain. And you have to assume the plumber would have seen it in the drain, otherwise they wouldn't have, like, snake gone through the whole process. So. Yeah, man, that's. I don't know. I don't know. It's ghost.

[Sam]

It's a ghost. It's ghost. It's gotta be. And I feel like I've had listener write ins, you know, with similar stories like this in the past where ghosts have turned up objects they've been missing. I'm so curious if you guys out there have had a ghost bring something back for you in your house. I've read another story from someone on the listener write ins that their ghost kept hiding things. Like a random kitchen knife would get hidden and just, like, random obscure objects. And then all of a sudden, it would just, like, turn up in the medicine cabinet.

[Justin]

See, that's weird.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Justin]

Like, that's not helpful. No, that's just messing with you.

[Sam]

Yeah, that was a little dicey of that ghost, man. Our ghost has not done anything like this so far. Our ghost does seem pretty chill. Pretty chill.

[Justin]

We're homies.

[Sam]

Yeah. Except for the leg swipe. Dude, I'll never get over that. There is another story on this that says interesting story that I probably had five years back, was living in a dorm room my freshman year of college with a couple of buddies of mine and we were planning on going to a store. So I go to grab my wallet off my nightstand where I always kept it and noticed it wasn't there. I told them to leave without me. I searched for a solid two hours while they were gone with no luck. They come back and the three of us searched for another hour in a 10 by 10 room and couldn't find it. Two days later in the middle of the night, I have a dream about my wallet falling from the ceiling and hitting me in the chest. I wake up and there was my wallet laying on my chest.

[Justin]

So it's like a dream, but it's not a dream. You know, that's what, that's what's weird about this stuff.

[Sam]

It's gotta be a helpful ghost bringing back all these little hidden items.

[Justin]

But what's funny about that one is they didn't wake up and it was just sitting on the nightstand. No, it was like.

[Sam]

Like which, like how would it get there? Like they don't mention being a sleepwalker. They don't mention anything of that sort. I don't think it was a roommate playing a trick on them. Like that is giving purely paranormal to me.

[Justin]

The roommate trick would be leaving it on the nightstand to mess with them. But like. Well, and it was also half a dream.

[Sam]

I know.

[Justin]

So if you dreamt it and it was happening in reality, we're in somewhere in between reality and I don't know, multi dimension. I don't know what it is, dude.

[Sam]

Astral projection of reality.

[Justin]

Where the ghost land is where the ghosts exist in the realm of reality. But they can do very real things.

[Sam]

Yeah, like find all the little hidden gems.

[Justin]

So that one, it's like did they find a missing. Their missing wallet or did they take it and put it back? They mess with them.

[Sam]

I'm going with option B. I think, I think some of these spirits are a little, little tricksters. But that is all for our hidden gem brought to you guys by depop. Just like these stories, sometimes the brightest treasures are the ones you don't expect. It's those kinds of hidden gems that make Depop so special. Beyond the trends and the hype, it's about sharing those unique pieces that truly stand out and deserve a second life. A chance to be worn by someone. Or you could just be on the look for an item, maybe one that went missing and you don't have a ghost to help you find it. Maybe it's on depop. So download depop. To start selling today. Where taste recognizes taste. But moving along. Thanks, depop. Okay, this next one. We live in a house that is exactly 100 years old, and we are the third owners. There were the builders and farmers in the 1920s, the second owners from 1970 to 2022, and then my husband and I from 2022 until now. We have seen our ghost and believe it is a nice spirit. Here's what we've been able to gather from the neighbors. The second owners bought the house as soon as they got married. They had seven children in the home, plus themselves. Right after their seventh baby was born, the father passed away. We've heard some conflicting stories about what exactly happened, Such as he fell off a ladder or had a stroke, but we know that it was an injury at the home, and he passed away sometime in the 1980s. Now, for our experience. Shortly after moving into the house, we got blink cameras. We would notice that the backyard and side yard cameras Would go off during the night, but we didn't have the recording feature yet. Well, we got them, and one night, we got the same backyard notification. You can clearly see a man walking from the garage to the side of the yard, which has a side door into our house. Video attached. We have had many, many experiences with our ghost. They mostly occur right before we go to sleep. Specifically, if we forget to do something before we go to sleep. Usually, as we go up the stairs, My husband and I will see a shadow or a figure of a man Standing in our downstairs entryway. Every time we see the man in our entryway, Without a doubt, something has been unlocked or unclosed. Sometimes it's the garage side door. Sometimes it's the side door for the house is left open or unlocked. Sometimes we left the window open or the front door unlocked. Anytime something is open, My husband or I will catch a glimpse of what we know as the previous owner of the home. It's sweet. Almost like he's protecting us and his home. Not scary, but comforting.

[Justin]

No way. This. This is me as a ghost. This is me.

[Sam]

Oh, my gosh.

[Justin]

The way I try and take care of things and make sure everything's set before I go to bed. I've done that my whole life. Yeah, even when I was a kid, I'd be checking the doors and things like that. Make sure the faucet. No, no water's running. Make sure, you know, anything outside is put away or off. I don't know. I've just. I've had that. And obviously I still do it every night. Some nights I'll be just about to fall asleep. I'll sit up out of bed. You know this.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Justin]

And I'll walk out. I'll go, and I'll have to lock my car. And sure enough, it would have been unlocked.

[Sam]

You know what you've been really bad at doing lately? Why don't you tell everyone what you've been really bad about?

[Justin]

Maybe we need this guy to stop by our house then.

[Sam]

Honestly, our ghost has not been helping us in this regard.

[Justin]

No.

[Sam]

Tell everyone what you've been doing, Justin. What have you been really bad at?

[Justin]

You make it sound like it's happened 100 times.

[Sam]

It has happened at least three times a week for quite some time now.

[Justin]

A week?

[Sam]

No, it's happened literally four times in the last week we've been home.

[Justin]

No, that's exaggerating. Uh, yeah.

[Sam]

Happened the night we got back from the airport from our honeymoon. Happened last night.

[Justin]

Two times in, like, the last three, four weeks.

[Sam]

No, no, no, no. It's at least three or four times. Tell everyone what you've been doing.

[Justin]

No, not after it's been so poorly, you know, represented here.

[Sam]

Justin will get home, use his keys to unlock the door, and then come in the house and shut the door. What he doesn't do is pull his keys out of the door. So just. Anyone could just walk up to the sidewalk and just turn the key and come in our house.

[Justin]

Or just take the car.

[Sam]

Take the car. Yeah. His car keys are also attached to the house key.

[Justin]

I mean, it shows we live in a pretty. Pretty safe place because, you know, they've been out there all night sometimes.

[Sam]

Yeah, we haven't been murdered yet.

[Justin]

Door doesn't open. Everything's good. It's like a test.

[Sam]

You need to stop doing this. That's bad.

[Justin]

It's like a test.

[Sam]

It's bad. Okay, so I'm gonna show you the video of this ghost. It is a little difficult to see. Okay. I had to watch a few times to get it. But watch in this left hand corner of the video.

[Justin]

Sure.

[Sam]

And you will kind of see what a. I'm gonna let you watch. Do you see it there?

[Justin]

Oh, yeah, 100%.

[Sam]

You have to, like, really? All of a sudden, it just pops up? Like just. It literally appears out of thin air.

[Justin]

Yeah.

[Sam]

And you can see legs, like walking.

[Justin]

Yeah.

[Sam]

It's just a shadow. Like an opaque. Is opaque solid? What's see through opaque?

[Justin]

Yeah. Cause it relates to opacity.

[Sam]

But opaque is solid. I thought it's clear. You can kind of see through it. Shadowy figure but you can clearly see, like, the footsteps of him, like, just walking, really.

[Justin]

Just making sure. But that's. It's just so crazy. I've never seen myself in a ghost before, and I feel like that's what I'd be doing.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Justin]

Yeah. I'd be walking around making sure everything's locked down and everything's right because it's so ingrained in me. And I feel like me and him have this. This in common.

[Sam]

Okay.

[Justin]

Because I've just done it forever.

[Sam]

Yeah, no, I mean, that is like a really nice thing. Like, oh, something's unlocked. Windows open. Like, I mean, people get kidnapped out of their houses through cut window screens. So to have a ghost that's constantly be like, hey, lock up, bitches.

[Justin]

Like, when he's kind of watching over.

[Sam]

Yeah, no, that's really nice. But it would still be really freak me out to, like, be walking up your stairs and you kind of glance down you, shadowy figure in the foyer.

[Justin]

That's nightmare. Just standing there.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Justin]

Like you forgot something. Yeah, no, the first time you'd see it, it'd be like, oh, my God, I'm gonna die. Yeah, I'm about to die.

[Sam]

Oh, yeah, someone's in my house.

[Justin]

But the second time or now that. Now when they see it, it's like they probably look at each other and be like, did you leave that door unlocked?

[Sam]

Just Fred down there.

[Justin]

Then to have that be the consistent thing that when they see him, something is off every time. The door, the lock, whatever it is. That's wild.

[Sam]

I know.

[Justin]

That's so cool. I'm kind of jealous.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Justin]

Because then I wouldn't have to run through my mind every night as I'm literally falling asleep. Are the cars locked? Is this locked? Is that. Are the keys on the door?

[Sam]

If our ghost is listening, you can let Justin know and not me. Thank you.

[Justin]

But not with the legs thing. Okay.

[Sam]

Yeah. Don't swipe his legs again. Don't do that.

[Justin]

Maybe that wasn't Argos. But it was a bad ghost and she took him out.

[Sam]

Argos took the bad ghost out. Yeah, I hope so. We definitely need to cleanse our new house. We got a new house. We're moving soon. We need to cleanse that thing because there's some energy there. Not good energy.

[Justin]

Palm Springs energy.

[Sam]

There's some dark, dark vibes in that house. No, no, it didn't. But. Okay, we're moving on to this next one.

[Justin]

Yeah.

[Sam]

Hey, everyone. I heard you wanted to hear about scary experiences for spooky season, so I figured this story was scary enough. To preface this situation, I am a 30 year old female firefighter who has been seeing spirits and the dead my whole life. It's not an uncommon thing for me to see or experience things that others can't and I usually don't react to it much anymore. Besides telling the spirits to leave me be or giving them answers so they can sort themselves out which leads to this experience. It was the final night of our entry level fire class and we were on our way home from the college campus in our trucks when we got a page for an MVA versus Motorcycle on one of our local highways. MVA Motor Vehicle Accident versus Motorcycle to save you from details know that it was a horrible accident and unfortunately the motorcyclist didn't make it, which is where my experience begins. I was told by one of my officers to stay put in the truck. After all, we had only just been checked off on entry level and we weren't equipped to handle a situation as dire as this one. So those who knew CPR were pulled forward. The rest of us stayed as told. While they were doing everything they could. I was in the back of the truck experiencing the tether to this person's life literally cut. I felt like a thread being pulled from my chest and snipped. Shortly after I felt this, we were called out of the truck and that's when things got crazy. I was standing next to the truck when I finally heard and felt this man standing over his body. He was yelling at everyone, asking why nobody was answering him and what was going on. Until I saw him turn to me, point and tell me that he knew I could hear him. So he rushed over to me and started demanding that he got answers. I started out by shaking my head for fear that I would look insane when while this horrific accident was going on, I was new. I didn't need everyone knowing I had this ability I have. But once his physical body was moved off of the street and into the ambulance, I told him what was going on, that that was his body and unfortunately he had died in this accident. He was distraught. He told me about his family, that he was only out on a ride, that this wasn't supposed to happen like this. I had to tell him that sadly it had happened, that he really needed to follow his body to the hospital, the ambulance had left by then and to be with his family so that he could say the goodbyes he needed to. But I couldn't assist any further. Then he was gone. We left the scene shortly after. Since this was now A police matter, and we were not to touch anything. And I had to continue on like nothing had happened until I got home to my now husband, who was a great help in keeping me together all these years. The following week we had a briefing where all of the information that the patient had given me was confirmed about his family, why he was out that late, etc. It made it all the more horrifying and it made me appreciate life so much more. I know that some people may have questions, and a lot of them usually pertaining to the job and how I handle it. But the upside is it's not always that frequent that a spirit will stick around or want to speak. Sometimes they move on without any fuss, sometimes they thank us for trying. And rarely is it like that first call. Many years in the service has allowed me to learn about myself and how to handle both physical and metaphysical situations individually, which is how all calls should be. Every person and case matters, of course. Feel free to reach out with anything that you may wonder. But until then, that's my story. Happy spooky season everyone.

[Justin]

The moment when is insane. The moment when you get pointed at you. I know you can hear me.

[Sam]

I know you can hear me. I wonder why. I wonder how like he was able to sense that just because like yeah, he's screaming like what's going on? Like what's happening? And like she's like kind of reacting to him. Like no one else is like looking in his direction, but maybe he caught her like glance at him.

[Justin]

So the thing I'm wondering is, did it look like him versus injury? No, no, no, no. Like does it look like him at all? Is it recognizable to be the same person? Right. That's what I'm curious about. When she was having this interaction, you know. Cause you'd see non crash pictures of this person afterward on the briefing. Did that look like the spirit you talk to or is it more of an indistinguishable but you know it's him obviously because he's referencing the situation at hand?

[Sam]

Yeah. Is it more of just like a white silhouette of a person? Like almost like a chalk out line that's talking to you? Or is it literally a person but just maybe a little more like see through? Like what are you getting here?

[Justin]

Especially even when they see the guy down at the bottom of the stairs in Last Story.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Justin]

Do you see more attributes like a jacket and pants or do you see a face? Because a lot of times you have the suspenders and you could see that he was a white guy. And you could see that he had a top hat.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Justin]

I'm imagining the guy, saw his face, he looked enough human like for the guy to think you're walking home with some dude, not that you're walking home with some glowy orb.

[Sam]

Yeah. So it's like definitely. I think it just depends on the spirit.

[Justin]

Well, sure, but it's just, I just, I. I get so curious now and then she's saying that right then this guy could have passed on to the other side easily. Or when it's a freak accident and unexpected. Or when, when I guess you die and you're very concerned, like this wasn't supposed to happen. My family and this and that.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Justin]

Then he was right there, right away, standing over his body.

[Sam]

So, like, a lot of people that have had like near death experiences though, do talk about that. How they were above their body and watching everything happening. Especially like people that die on the operating table in surgery. They talk about like hovering above their body and watching everyone like operate and do CPR and do all this stuff. So I feel like it is like that. I feel like you do maybe zone out and you see and then have to cross. I don't know. It's so interesting. And I'm like, I'm so curious what all of like the different cultures, like, what they think. Well, maybe everyone tell me what the vibe is.

[Justin]

Maybe everyone's just guessing also. Right. You know, until you really get there, you'll never know. Kind of like the black hole situation.

[Sam]

I know. Do you get reincarnated?

[Justin]

Right.

[Sam]

Like, are we in a Truman show and aliens created us in this whole galaxy as like. Or the little pet fish egg theory?

[Justin]

Absolutely terrifying.

[Sam]

I am you and you are me and I am you. But at the same time. And just like I am the same person as everyone else on this planet. Like the egg theory.

[Justin]

And you go through every single life, every single death of all existence in life to then become that supernatural being. But you have to go through all that to gain the perspective and the wisdom for it.

[Sam]

That's crazy.

[Justin]

That is crazy. But so, yeah, I just think about that. And I have friends who will have crazy anxiety and some mental health stuff and they'll say, I sometimes feel like I'm outside my body and I can look down at my body. Not a near death experience, just something going on inside their mind where they will without a doubt say, I was outside my body and I was looking at myself. I was experiencing this situation not as my body, I was experiencing it from outside, watching it as an outsider and that, to me, then starts to play on. Well, is there certain things or certain people who can tap into that without really knowing what they're tapping into? A glimpse of that other side, which then does that lend towards the reincarnation theory? That if it is kind of this back and forth, people who are not necessarily having a near death or death experience can step outside briefly and come back, but they don't know, you know, there's not enough perspective there to know. Maybe it's not as strong as when you're on the operating table and looking down at yourself. You know, I just. Oh, man.

[Sam]

I know.

[Justin]

I just get so curious. I just want to know so bad.

[Sam]

I wonder. I just, like. I don't know. I'm just. I don't want to find out anytime soon, but. Well.

[Justin]

And interesting that she hasn't really ever had the same level of that experience, aside from the first one. You know, she's had things similar, but.

[Sam]

I mean, her whole life, by the sounds of it.

[Justin]

Yeah, like. But nothing. This.

[Sam]

I've seen spirits and the dead my whole life.

[Justin]

Yeah. But this one seems to be.

[Sam]

This was intense. Yeah, this was really intense and, like, tragic, like, to come up on that scene and then, like, he's like, in shock. It's so tragic that it's just like, I have a really hard time with death. Like, all death is just, like, sad to me. But when people just have, like, these just accidents that are no fault of their own and they get taken out from someone else's actions, like drunk driving, like, that really just shakes me.

[Justin]

And that's the thing. Like, I don't. Maybe sometimes it makes you feel better if you attach meaning. But I don't think, like, it is your time. I think there's just cards dealt and wrong place, wrong time. Sure, you can up your odds or lower your odds of dying. Right. If you go skydiving or if you drive a lot versus if you're always staying home. There's different levels of risk, but since it kind of is part of this whole beyond us, we have no idea. I've never fully been convinced that, oh, it's your time. No, I think it's just your time is obviously whenever it happens, but I don't know if it's predetermined, preset thing.

[Sam]

I don't think so either.

[Justin]

You're gonna die on this day in this way, and there's meaning behind it.

[Sam]

No. And that's the thing. I don't think people get sick on purpose. And that's how they like I think there's just like the flukes of the universe and it can just like almost be the butterfly effect or domino where it's like one choice 30 years ago could have gotten you sick down the line and it's just like it. You just never know. But no, I don't like thinking negative stuff is like fate. I don't like that.

[Justin]

But all the negative stuff is what makes life and happy, healthy life so beautiful because you only get so much. You never know how much you have left. So really, really gotta just enjoy whatever it is while you're here.

[Sam]

I know. Moving on to this next story.

[Guest]

This episode is brought to you by Nordstrom oh what fun. Nordstrom has tons of gifts under a hundred dollars for all your favorite people all in one place. Like beauty and grooming sets, Ugg Gifts, jewelry and toys. Need ideas? Check out gifts from Ugg, Skims, Diptyque, Free People, Stanley and more. Plus explore their amazing gift shop in stores and online. Free gift finding help, free shipping and order pickup. Make it all easy at Nordstrom.

[Sam]

This episode is brought to you by Spotify Portal for Backstage Bet you're wondering what's Portal? Well, it's an internal developer portal built to improve developer experience and boost productivity. All software components. Components are centralized, documentation is automated and easy to maintain. New projects and components just a few clicks. With your best practices already built in, think less friction, more innovation. Ready to double your productivity? Try Spotify [e-mail] okay, so this one, the person prefaces it not really spooky, more chilling. About six or seven years ago, my grandpa passed away and my grandma put his ashes in a bowling pin. He was a bowler and in one of those bowling leagues. After his passing, my grandma didn't like being alone and one of our family friends, Melissa, needed a place for her and her kids to stay since they were in a tough situation financially. One night after my grandma had gone to bed, Melissa was watching TV in the living room. Remote was next to my grandma and grandpa's chair on the other side of the room and suddenly the TV flickered off. She didn't think much of it and got up to turn the TV back on when she noticed two footprints in the carpet facing my grandma's shut bedroom door. Another night her son was a toddler and in his room talking to someone and when my grandma asked who he was talking to, he said Grandpa. There were other instances where we would feel a chill in the air. My grandma keeps her House at 75 degrees. Anytime I stayed over, I Would have very vivid dreams of my grandpa visiting. The footprints in the carpet outside of my grandma's room happened almost nightly. If you were watching TV too late, the TV would just shut off. And no, we didn't have one of those TV timers for the TV to shut off at a certain time. After six months of little things like that happening, my grandma moved my grandpa's ashes outside of the house to a shed, and all of those things stopped.

[Justin]

Put him in the shed.

[Sam]

The shed.

[Justin]

Come on. He's having a good time. He's stuck in the shed.

[Sam]

He's stuck in the shed now. He gone. He gone. He's in the shed.

[Justin]

In 75 degrees, I'd be dying.

[Sam]

That's so hot.

[Justin]

Oh, I'd be dying. I would cool it down, put a heater in her room. But I don't know, I'm, like, just getting so lost in thought on all these.

[Sam]

But, you know, I can't believe it was such a drastic change in what was happening just from moving the ashes to the shed. And it's like, okay, you moved the ashes to the shed and everything stopped. But is your grandpa now stuck in the shed?

[Justin]

I know.

[Sam]

Like, is he somehow connected to his physical self? Even though it's changed forms, it's now ash, but, like, he's still stuck to it to the point where you brought the ashes out and it stopped. Like, what does that mean?

[Justin]

Now you're gonna make him real mad.

[Sam]

Well, what if he's just sad and lonely out there?

[Justin]

Yeah.

[Sam]

So what if you brought the ashes back in? Would it start again immediately? That's what I would want to know.

[Justin]

And these are the things we would do. These are the things we're going to do. If we ever experience these things. We're going to leave the toy on the to track in the basement. We're going to bring the ashes out. Sure. See if it stops. If it stops, bring it back in. You know, we're going to do science experiments. We're going to start to learn.

[Sam]

I wonder if my mom needs to do this in her house. Have you. You remember she called us that one night and she was like, I feel like I'm seeing shadows.

[Justin]

Yes.

[Sam]

And like, I feel like Rod is still here. So my mom's husband, partner of long time, died from colon cancer. Get checked. And after he passed, which he passed in the house, he was hospice in the house. Pretty soon after, my mom, like, would call us and was like, I'm seeing shadows. Like, I feel like someone's here in the house with Us, Like. Well, with me, it was just her, and she just kept seeing shadows and, like, feeling like there was a presence downstairs, especially in that room. We've only stayed there one time since, and, like, I can't sleep in that room.

[Justin]

Yeah.

[Sam]

I can't do it. And that used to be the room we stayed in. Now I'm like, nope, can't go in that room.

[Justin]

Yeah.

[Sam]

But, like, the ashes. She's got his ashes in the house. It's in a really nice urn. And I'm just wondering if, like, if she moved the ashes, if she would stop seeing shadow figures and stuff.

[Justin]

I feel like that house has had some energy even before that.

[Sam]

Well, because it's big, and it's just like there's. It's just kind of complicated to get around, and there's so many hidden little.

[Justin]

Things, but even still, it's got. It's got something.

[Sam]

You feel it?

[Justin]

Oh, yeah.

[Sam]

Huh.

[Justin]

Now that I'm tapped in.

[Sam]

Yeah. Oh, man, you're tapped in.

[Justin]

But I like that. I don't know. I kind of would want Grandpa to be back inside. I like the. Because it reminds me of the other guy making sure that, you know, the TV's off at a certain time, making sure to check in on his. His wife, who now he can't check in on. The footprints don't appear anymore because he's in the shed.

[Sam]

I know those. Seeing the footprints just, like, hovering outside the door, like, wanting to go in and be with her. But then someone else could be hearing this and being like, no, Morgan, that's an. That's a bad. That wasn't Grandpa. That was something a little. I don't know.

[Justin]

Well, then why the. Why the pin and the. Why the ashes in the shed? And it stops.

[Sam]

I know. Well, I also think the little boy. The little kid.

[Justin]

Kids talking.

[Sam]

They're so susceptible. The kid talking and Grandma being like, who are you talking to? And he goes, grandpa. Yeah, that was Grandpa. I'm not giving any demonic spirit credit for that one. That was definitely Grandpa. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Justin]

This is why it'll be fun to have kids, because then we can. Hopefully they're tapping in.

[Sam]

I do have a story for Patreon where someone talks about their grandma being tapped in, and they're like, I hope my son isn't tapped in and he stays protected.

[Justin]

I mean, what if. You know, on Patreon, what if you have a kid and it's like, one of Matt's kids. Ages, right?

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Justin]

Young but aware. They're starting to be, you know, when A kid goes from being young and not knowing to just slightly aware where they're like, they start asking questions. Yeah, right. In that age, what if you had a kid and they started. And they started just confidently saying, yeah, there's this person that runs around the house in the middle of night and they come in and they, they.

[Sam]

They're on the ceiling and nope, we're moving, we're moving.

[Justin]

But just confident, not scared.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Justin]

And just like, yeah, we hang out every night.

[Sam]

Kids just like that really freaks me out because it's like, you could have your kid that sees ghost, or you could get a kid that's reincarnated. Like, I watched a video from someone, I think I talked about it recently, and this lady was like, my kid is pissed that they have to go back to school again. He already did this in his other life. He's pissed he doesn't want to go to school.

[Justin]

I would be pissed.

[Sam]

She, like, kept getting details from him and he, like, remembered his family and he rode horses and bubble, like, all this crazy shit. So they were like, trying to track down his past life and all this stuff.

[Justin]

But, yeah, no, that's a nightmare. Imagine going back and starting first grade again right now. Hell no.

[Sam]

Oh, my God, I'd love to do high school over.

[Justin]

High school, sure.

[Sam]

But high school, college over.

[Justin]

All the way up 1 through 12, all the way again. All that work.

[Sam]

Billy Madison did it. He can do it. Yeah, I forget. I gotta talk to Matt and Amy, my brother and sister in law. Eloise kind of was asking questions about a spirit and there was someone that died in their house. And then when Amy's other grandma died, Eloise was like, I feel her. When she died, Eloise was like, I saw Grandma Joyce or something like that. Yes. I forget what it was. We're gonna have to ask them about it.

[Justin]

Eloise is tapped in.

[Sam]

Eloise might be tapped in.

[Justin]

Oh, all right. She, you know, one day she'll have to sit here and give her takes.

[Sam]

One day when she can consent to coming on. They always try to sneak in my shots when I'm at their house recording, and I'm like, get out of here.

[Justin]

I don't know.

[Sam]

That's an interesting thing, too. I can't decide what we'll do with, like, our kids and, like, showing faces and not showing faces and I don't.

[Justin]

Know, maybe it comes clear once they're.

[Sam]

Once you have them.

[Justin]

I think once they're here.

[Sam]

Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. We'll see. We'll see. Okay. I've got two stories for us left.

[Justin]

Yes.

[Sam]

And then we're off to Patreon, longtime listener and lurker, excited to finally have something to contribute. When I was young, 11 in 1999, my mom and soon to be stepfather decided to go to a cabin in the mountains of Cedar City, Utah for a few days. It was an end of the summer hurrah. The cabin was owned by a friend of the family, but it would only be us attending for this trip. When we arrived, it felt very alone. The trees were thick and the cabin was nice. It was fairly updated and had a small playset and swings near the fire pit in the backyard and we had our big dog with us and we all played and had fun during the day. That night we roasted hot dogs and marshmallows in the fire pit and my stepdad took a photo of us in the dark with flash on our film camera. He told us to point our flashlights at the ground so it did not distort the picture. We went to bed shortly after and that's when the unease started. My little brother, 5, and I shared a room and after we heard our parents go to bed, we felt the uneasy, sick feeling. I whispered in the dark across the room to ask him if he was okay. He said, no, I am not and don't look out the window. What? I felt it too. I kept my eyes closed and pulled the covers over my head. I felt it in my bones that if I looked out the window I I would be scared to death. Neither of us slept at all that night. As soon as the sun started rising, we quietly went to our parents room and knocked on the door. They answered and opened it immediately. They were already awake. They hadn't slept either. Silently, the whole family decided to skip breakfast and we all started loading our bags into the car. We were supposed to be there for two more nights, but I think we all felt the dread too. As soon as we got to a bigger road a few miles away, it was as if all the tension had been lifted. We all relaxed and started chatting again. As normal life goes on, we forget and nothing happened. So all was fine until we developed the camera roll. My mom looked at the pictures first, smiling and getting ready, seeing a deer on the side of the road playing on the playset during the daylight and then dusk and finally the photo that was taken at night. Me, my mom and my brother standing and smiling, our flashlights pointed at the ground where the light beam hit the dirt and then bounced above our heads in cursive gibberish. Seemingly backwards. My mom showed me the funny photo and how strange the light beams did that. I looked at the photo and started sobbing. I looked past the strange cursive at the trees behind us and in the darkness and I could see faces not quite human staring back at us, looking straight at the camera. There was more than we could define in this old film photo, some looking very demonic. My mom flipped out, started crying, showed my stepdad and he burned the photo and the film. Even now at 37 writing this out, it brings the sting of tears to my eyes. That feeling in the cabin was horrible at night and we still don't know exactly what it was. A demon. That is a demon.

[Justin]

So we don't have the photo.

[Sam]

Photo is gone. I had a little question on the form that said, do you have any photographic evidence? I wish all evidence was sadly destroyed. And honestly I don't think that's very sad.

[Justin]

I mean not for them.

[Sam]

I feel for me.

[Justin]

I want to see the photo. Are you kidding? After all that?

[Sam]

That sounds horrendous. I wouldn't want to see the photo.

[Justin]

What, what would they have seen out the window?

[Sam]

I feel like it would have been like something out there looking in the window. Like if they would have made eye contact, they would have like snatched him up or something crazy.

[Justin]

So how did the little, the little five year old say, how did he know to say don't look out the window?

[Sam]

I think he felt it.

[Justin]

That's what's the scariest.

[Sam]

Or maybe he like got really scared and like glanced up, saw it and then was.

[Justin]

What did he see? That's what I need to know. Where is he at? Because our, our writer now is 37, 36. So if they were five, that's six.

[Sam]

They're 30ish.

[Justin]

They're our age. Where are they at?

[Sam]

What'd your brother say?

[Justin]

Call us up.

[Sam]

I'm also curious if after like this whole thing, if your parents talked to their friends, the family friend, whoever's cabin this was and was like, hey, so.

[Justin]

There'S things living in the woods.

[Sam]

We experienced some demons because it wasn't just seeing the faces in the trees behind, it was the flashlights bouncing up and creating cursive, which is just giving like demon writing on a wall. Like you know when people get possessed and they write like some old ass Latin that hasn't been spoken and it's like backwards and demonic and shit. That's what that's giving with the light reflecting up.

[Justin]

And imagine how horrifying as a parent after you, you know, you And I could probably rile each other up and spend the whole night awake, scared.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Justin]

But then the next morning, your kids come and knock on your door and you've been awake.

[Sam]

Like your kids hasn't woken you up. Like, it's truly two unrelated, but they things. But everyone's feeling it.

[Justin]

Your little kids.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Justin]

Even the five. Yeah, dude. That I think is the moment of. Especially then it's reconfirmed also when you see the photo. And how terrifying to think that you were all there, happy, taking this picture, just having this fun little getaway weekend. And then there's all this in the background. Then you have that experience at night, and then you get to the next major road and you start feeling okay.

[Sam]

Yeah. Because the further you get, the less that energy can, like, get to you. It's kind of one of those things where, like, people. What is that movie? It's like Amityville Horror or something. Like, family moves into a house and, like, the dad goes crazy and kills the family or something like that. I do think places can hold such dark, just crazy energy.

[Justin]

Yeah.

[Sam]

That it. It latches onto you.

[Justin]

So I'll pose a question.

[Sam]

Okay.

[Justin]

And this is more for our friends that are listening right now.

[Sam]

Okay.

[Justin]

Maybe it's nighttime. Maybe it's a dark car, dark room.

[Sam]

The middle of the day.

[Justin]

Maybe you're listening to this, trying to fall asleep, and you're alone at home.

[Sam]

No chance. I know you guys wouldn't do that.

[Justin]

I challenge you to peek out your window.

[Sam]

Hell no. Don't do it.

[Justin]

Peek out your window. Confirm that this isn't happening to you right now. Also, is it more scary if you develop that photo and there's all these faces in the woods and they are humans, alive humans. Or does it scare you that they're not really human? And then you have this night? What is more terrifying?

[Sam]

I think either one, because you didn't see them when you took the photo. It doesn't matter if it's human or demonic. At least it wouldn't matter to me because it's like, either way, dad took the photo and did not see any of that behind him. And then the light bounced up.

[Justin]

Oh, I know, I know. But I'm just saying, you know what is scarier? Just to give everyone that little feeling of the chills.

[Guest]

This episode is brought to you by Nordstrom. Oh, what fun. Nordstrom has tons of gifts under $100 for all your favorite people all in one place. Like beauty and grooming sets. Ugg gifts, jewelry and toys. Need ideas. Check out gifts From Ugg, Skims, Diptyque, Free people, Stanley and more. Plus, explore their amazing gift shop in stores and online. Free gift finding help, free shipping and order pickup. Make it all easy at Nordstrom.

[Sam]

So good, so good, so good.

[Guest]

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[Sam]

Because I always find something amazing. Just so many good brands.

[Guest]

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[Sam]

My Nordstrom credit card Total queen treatment.

[Guest]

Join the Nordy Club at Nordstrom Rack to unlock our best deals. Big gifts, big perks. That's why you rack.

[Sam]

We're gonna have to ask the person who wrote in our final story. This is coming from our paranormal investigator, Jake. Jake shared a couple other experiences from his investigations, and I'm gonna read one of them here. The other one's gonna go on Patreon. I truly have so, so, so many good stories from you guys. Like, again, over 500. 500. And what did I say? 574 on this thread. And if I refreshed it, I'm sure There's new ones. 576. There's so, so, so many good stories. I'm gonna try to get a lot of them over on Patreon. So come over there. There's one that she kind of gives this little blip. I will preface this story by saying it has creeped out non believers. So hold tight. Like, we've got so many good stories. And there will be an episode for Father Knows. Whether it's just me and Justin, it's gonna drop on that channel. Okay. But something's coming. So if you want more spooky, that's where it's gonna be.

[Justin]

So this is like Paranormal Activity Investigator? Kind of, yeah. Or the conjuring when the. When the couple comes in and they.

[Sam]

Yeah. Jake actually did get a chance to meet Lorraine Warren. He had a conversation with her.

[Justin]

Yeah.

[Sam]

And Jake did not send me pictures last time. But I can't show everyone at home, but I can show you so you'll get an idea of who our investigators are. Okay. I'll show you a picture of Jake and his friends, the team of investigators.

[Justin]

Okay. I'm picturing Ghostbusters.

[Sam]

That's Jake.

[Justin]

Okay.

[Sam]

That's who's writing us.

[Justin]

All right.

[Sam]

So you got a face to the name now.

[Justin]

Sure.

[Sam]

Okay. Jake is also the investigator that sent us, like, one of the craziest stories I think we've read on this podcast about going to that old hotel in Chicago and Like having that time slip.

[Justin]

Yes.

[Sam]

That was Jake's investigation.

[Justin]

Yes. Where everything was, like, in the 30s or 20s.

[Sam]

They literally went to go investigate their uncle's haunted hotel because all the workers kept having haunted experiences. And then they walked in and the hotel was, like, done and remodeled and ready to go. Perfect. He walked out to call uncle, and uncle was like, what are you talking about? It's not done yet. And they turned around and everything they had just seen was, like, gone. And it was like a ruin.

[Justin]

Oh, is that different than the. Where they're driving and the time started slipping as they're going down the highway and they went into that town?

[Sam]

Yep. That's a different story. Okay, time slips are crazy. I'll make sure the first spooky one where I read Jake's original story gets linked. Crazy episode. Crazy episode. I read it to kin on one of her episodes of Heart starts Pounding. And I'm excited to see what people think of it over there. So this story from Jake, it's got a little bit of a title. It's called the Haunting of Sink Hollow Road. And Jake does give a trigger warning for this story. It does contain mentions of sa. So if you feel that you cannot handle that today, please end the episode here. Come join us over on Patreon. It's gonna be a good month over there. And thank you for being a part of this spooky episode and our spooky.

[Justin]

Season from Too Hot Takes.

[Sam]

That was good. I liked that. Okay. This particular investigation is near and dear to my heart because it illustrates that sometimes when things seem redundant or ordinary, there's a world of complexities buried beneath it. During the early days and the formation of our team, we would take pretty much any lead that we could and figured that getting out there in the field would benefit us. There was a local legend about a bridge on a road known as Sink Hollow. The local legend seemed quite gimmicky and followed a similar structure to a lot of other low effort tall tales, simple formula, but we had nothing to lose. So we figured, why not? One, drive out to the bridge. Two, park your car and turn off the engine. Three, turn your headlights on three times while everyone in the car invited something to be seen. 4. At this point in the local legend, it was stated that you would see a ghostly apparition. We couldn't find any actual accounts of anyone seeing anything other than hearsay or. And this follows a very predictable pattern with young kids going out into the country and scaring themselves. But again, for the sake of brevity we decided why not. If my memory serves correctly, it was a brisk and damp early morning at the beginning of fall. Somewhere between the hours of Saturday night and Sunday morning, we ventured out along with Derek and Eric, my teammates from the previous story that would be the base of our team moving forward from this point. We arrived at the bridge and the road itself is very difficult to get to as you have to drive through several winding gravel roads to get to the bridge that spans a small creek running through the middle of a field. As far as we can tell, the bridge was mostly used for farm field access and other locals getting from point A to point B quickly, as it is not a bridge that would be traversed, often being quite a ways away from any paved roads. We arrived at the bridge and joked about how there would be many more encounters like this to come where it would be more road trip than actual encounter. We jokingly completed the mock ritual and then sat. To absolutely no one's surprise, nothing happened. No one was disappointed, as we knew that the gimmick was just that. So instead we got out of the car, grabbed a few beverages, and sat on the hood of the car while we talked about our lives and our goals for the group. We talked about why we were drawn to things like this and why we even came out here. As strange and as unlikely as it was that anything would happen for me, I've always seen things from a young age that I couldn't comprehend, so I feel like the pull for me was obvious. My friend Derek was the thrill seeker of the group. Any chance he could get to have some sort of excitement, he would chase it. While he had never seen anything that he couldn't explain up until this point, he was a good sport about it. Lastly, we had Eric. Eric was just kind of built different. He was a staunch critic and skeptic. However, he felt the allure and draw of the possibility of seeing something that he didn't understand. He loved to put himself in circumstances that it was hard for him to justify logically. He enjoyed the mental puzzle of the investigation that went on. He was also one of the most fearless people I've ever met. When everybody was on the edge and creeped out. When he heard a noise or something that he couldn't explain, he would run to the potential danger. We'd all been friends for some time, but only previously, a week prior, had decided to embark on this journey together by forming this team. A few drinks down and we've lost sight of the investigation altogether. And we're just some Midwest kids hanging out on a Saturday night when we first heard a voice off in the distance, we thought it may be a really loud radio traveling from one of the far off roads, but we were quite a ways away. It was also very obvious to hear any types of cars or vehicles approaching due to the crunching of the gravel and there was none. The voice got louder and this time we heard was crystal clear Quote hey, what are you all doing out here? The sudden clear tone of the voice made us scramble as at the time we shouldn't have been out there doing what we were doing. Drinking. Lol. After a few seconds of jumping down off the hood and scrambling about, we heard the voice again. Hey, I'm not trying to scare you at all, I just want to know what you're doing out here. Eric turns towards the direction of the voice and said something along the lines of we're out here investigating a local legend. What about you? We all sighed a collective breath of relief when a younger girl about the age of 13 came into the view of the headlights. She had freckles all over her face and strawberry blonde pigtails comically similar to what you would picture the Wendy's logo to look like, complete with overalls. After seeing her age and seeing that we were kind of in the middle of nowhere, we asked her who she was and if she needed help as it was kind of strange for a 13 year old girl to be out there all alone. She explained that she lives not too far from here and that despite people driving through here often, this is private property. She pointed to a dark silhouette on the horizon. She had explained that she saw our headlights and after they had blinked a few times she was worried that we were in trouble so she came to check. We explained the absurdity of the local legend to her and she looked quite perplexed and thought that it was silly that we would come out here in the middle of the night to test something so far fetched. In this moment we felt quite silly ourselves. She stayed polite, but after a few moments she reiterated that it was private property and that we really should be leaving as we are technically trespassing. We started the process of packing up a few things that we had gotten out of the car and let her know that we'd be on our way and asked her if she would like a ride back to her house. She calmly explained that while it was sweet to offer, we really should be going and that her father has a really bad temper and does not take kindly to strangers on his property. She mentioned that while she had never heard the local legend. Her daddy, the exact words that she called him, would often have to chase away strangers in the middle of the night. And his patience was wearing thin. And with one final warning, she said, please leave before daddy comes out. You may regret it. We got into the car and quickly drove away, seeing her slowly walk off the side of the road near the bridge into the glow of our taillights until she was out of view. The rest of the ride home was rather uneventful. However, something about the encounter struck us all as strange. There was something weird about it that we couldn't quite put a finger on, other than the obvious fact that a 13 year old girl was out in the middle of a field by a creek at night, all by herself. We go back to the house that we were sharing. Me and Eric decided to turn in for the night. However, Derek could not let it rest and decided to do some Internet sleuthing. We woke up the next morning to see him asleep on the couch with his laptop open. After waking him up and asking him if he had found anything, he jolted awake and showed us an old newspaper clipping from an Internet archive. In the newspaper article was a picture of the girl that we had spoken with last night. However, the clipping was dated 1963. The context of the article was difficult to read. Quote, Local girl found dead in creek. The article went on to describe that a quick investigation revealed a family secret. The young girl, whose name was Emily, had been repeatedly sexually assaulted by a family member, her dad. And one night she attempted to escape, at which point her father tracked her down and drowned her while she was hiding under the bridge. As per our other stories that you've heard from us, I do believe that there is a lesson. I believe the paranormal hauntings can exist for the sake of saturation and human suffering. But I do believe that this girl's spirit watched over this bridge to warn people of her father. The trauma might have bonded her spirit to the area, but the kindness of her persevered on. And we believe that is what we interacted with that night. An act of kindness in the dark on a lonely bridge on a lonely road.

[Justin]

Holy shit.

[Sam]

Yeah. Whew. Sad. It's like so sad. I'm just like teary eyed reading it.

[Justin]

Well, it's just also just so scary. See, if I were Derek.

[Sam]

Yeah. Who found the Internet search, I would.

[Justin]

Have ran into the rooms and been.

[Sam]

Like, get your asses up.

[Justin]

Oh my God. I don't think I would have fallen asleep after finding that. But I guess you've been up all night, but still, like, it probably took him forever.

[Sam]

I mean, I tried doing a Google search, trying to find anything from, like, all the buzzwords I have in this write in, and I mean, I'm not finding anything. Like, it probably took going through that local newspaper's archives online and, like, really trying to find something. It's crazy. I can't even picture encountering such a clear apparition that way and for such a long duration. I am, like, a little jealous of Jake. Even though I don't really want to have an experience again. I am a little jealous that, like, a lot of the experiences we've read from him have been so real and, like, all encompassing. Like, the time slip to go back to that hotel in Chicago and be walking through the ballroom and to be seeing waiters and a bellhop and like all of these people in this grand hotel.

[Justin]

Yeah.

[Sam]

And then you get out and it was, it's. It's gone. You didn't. That didn't happen. But yet it did. It just was like a. It was a slip. And then for this girl to, like, present herself and you have such a clear form and she's just so focused on, like, hey, like, not trying to scare you guys, but, like, you should really just get out of here. It's private property. I don't want my dad to get mad. Like, my dad's got a temper. Like, go. You. You should be safe. Go, go. Like, she's so clear and so focused on keeping them safe.

[Justin]

Yeah.

[Sam]

So, yeah, Like, I don't know what I believe and why some spirits stay and why some are able to send signs. And I don't know, it's just, it's really interesting. And I do, I do just want to say, like, if you've asked your family member for a sign and you haven't gotten it yet, it doesn't mean that you're not gonna get one. It just might not be the right time. Or, hey, maybe they've tried to push a cup off the table and you just walked away and you didn't see it yet. Like, I do want you, if you're waiting for something, to, like, not get discouraged that it hasn't happened yet. Because I know a lot of people do, like, wait for the sign. They wait for the butterfly. They wait for, you know, something to happen. And I don't want anyone to get discouraged and sad that it hasn't happened to them.

[Justin]

Sure.

[Sam]

But back to this one. That was a blip in my head that I've wanted To say, since a story earlier and I finally got it.

[Justin]

Out, I wonder, you know, my thought, My first thought is, did you go back?

[Sam]

I know.

[Justin]

Cause I would be so curious to go back and maybe even bring someone that's not part of the three of you, bring a fourth person to say, hey, are we absolutely crazy or is this happening? Because what I would think is you go back and you hang out and you spend some time there. If she comes back out and says, why did you come back? That would be absolutely wild. And like, you know, the next time I go back, I'd have a dash cam.

[Sam]

I know. I wonder if you would even.

[Justin]

Or do they just. Not when they're. When they know there's an intention to record and whatever. Is it just.

[Sam]

I don't know.

[Justin]

I mean, it's like Paranormal Activity is a movie, right? And all these people who try to capture these things, it's movies. It's not. I mean, we've. We've had some clips.

[Sam]

We've had some clips, but, like, clips. I mean, the duck one is really like. That one for me is like very. Like, that's real. I mean, the blink camera that I.

[Justin]

Think of, the ring toss one, the ring onto the wall, and then the.

[Sam]

Girl turns, and that was recorded by someone, you know, and, like, there was no little girl in that house. Like, we've. We've talked about that video on a past episode.

[Justin]

We scroll through it so much, just.

[Sam]

It's so creepy. Like, Justin knows a girl who had some friends in New York, and they were playing, like, this ring game. And you, like, let the ring go.

[Justin]

Where it hooks on the wall.

[Sam]

It goes onto a hook. It's like the ring is on a pendulum string, and you pull it back and it hooks.

[Justin]

It's at bars.

[Sam]

Usually it's at bars. There's mini versions, and as they're playing, they're recording themselves playing. And in the background of the video, like, a little girl in a Victorian dress walks by.

[Justin]

No, she turns and goes down the hallway, and you can clearly see.

[Sam]

Yeah, you clearly see this little girl, little person.

[Justin]

This is before AI.

[Sam]

Yeah, this was well before AI was out. And granted, you know, there's technology that could have done it, but, like, there's stuff like that.

[Justin]

Why? What would the purpose have been? Right?

[Sam]

I know. And because it's someone like, you know, it's that much more believable. But I don't know. I mean, I'm kind of at a loss with all these paranormal stories. And I've got more episodes more crazy Stories. I took a sneak peek at Jake's other story we have, and it's about this haunted farm. He gave me the real name. However, I can't share the real name because the owner of the farm doesn't want any public, like, recognition anymore. Is kind of like shutting the doors. Yeah, but if you Google the name of the farm, it is like it comes up. And multiple people share experiences on this farm. So we have Jake's investigation.

[Justin]

Okay.

[Sam]

Story. So that's going over to Patreon.

[Justin]

Speaking of farms, we were just home for months setting up the wedding venue. And I spent many late, dark, foggy nights up by myself.

[Sam]

Oh, I know where.

[Justin]

Once it get dark, I'd run all the cords up to run my work lights up. And I'd be up there for hours by myself just hanging chandeliers or whatever. I was getting the tent ready, and one night I was walking up to put the lights out. And as you're walking up with the lights, they're obviously not on yet.

[Sam]

It's pitch black because you got.

[Justin]

I mean, you can barely. You gotta make sure you're not tripping.

[Sam]

You can't see anything in front of you. Like, it is pitch black.

[Justin]

And so I was just going far enough to where I could connect the next wire. And perfectly audible, because out there, unless a car's like cars combined, just like. It's white noise, but there's no other noise. You don't hear anything. And because it's kind of. It was almost misting.

[Sam]

Yeah. From the dew point, it was like.

[Justin]

So it's misting, it's cloudy and there's woods. It's silent. It's all natural soundproofing. And as clear as it could audibly be, I heard the equivalent to my left in where the trees were of a. I can only describe it as like a joker laugh.

[Sam]

Like a manic laugh. Like, it was like really, like. Like really scary laugh.

[Justin]

Like a creepy clown laugh from, like, it. And it was directly out my left ear, directly over that way. And I don't know, there was nothing. I didn't hear any other noises like that the whole time. I was out there working for hours and hours. So I don't know, but I heard it. It's so scary, so clear. Couldn't be like a mental trick because of how real it was. And I turned around, and after I got the. The lights actually up, I walked back down. I said, have you guys heard anything?

[Sam]

Yeah, because me and my mom were in the barn working.

[Justin]

You were setting up chandeliers. Or something.

[Sam]

Yeah, it wasn't us messing with you. We didn't hear anything.

[Justin]

No, it was away from you guys, so.

[Sam]

It's so, so, so scary.

[Justin]

It's like you're like, not the farm. Not the farm.

[Sam]

I know. Not my happy place. God. If you guys have any paranormal stories to share, please put them in the comments of this YouTube account or on our Instagram post for the episode. I love, love, love reading your stories. And there were so many amazing stories over on the episode I did with Kaylin. Like, I want to read so many of them. Like, they were. They were incredible. Like, they were such incredible, heartwarming comments. And I'm gonna read a few to just end this episode because there's so, so many good ones. This one is coming from Mads 2013. My grandfather died after a battle with pancreatic cancer and always said that he'd come back as a dolphin. His ashes are kept in a beautiful brass dolphin urn. Then a year later, my sister was getting married on the beach when right in the middle of the ceremony, a dolphin came into the shallows and stayed there until the ceremony was done. I have no doubt that was him. This is coming from Savannah. One of my best friends passed away March 12th. I was making some meals for his dad. Food equals comfort. And I was taking the last thing out of the oven when my husband got a call from the sheriff's office that someone had turned in his wallet from six years ago with all the money still in it. A little over $100. Same amount of money I spent on getting these meals together for Taylor's dad.

[Justin]

So crazy.

[Sam]

I firmly believe that was him saying thank you for thinking of his dad during this time.

[Justin]

See, these are the signs that feel more direct, like the dolphin thing, where it's harder to brush it off. And that's what I think we're talking about. Those are the signs that you. You kind of seek and hope for.

[Sam]

This is from EJ1709. My aunt died. And on the first year anniversary of her death, we visited her memorial. A dog comes running in and greets my mom. The owner starts yelling, nola. Which was my aunt's name. A pretty uncommon name where we live. We knew in that moment she was letting us know that she was still here, even if we couldn't always see her.

[Justin]

Just took control of the dog.

[Sam]

I know there's so many crazy comments. I mean, someone comments like that, they know that that one story with the time slip going through the bridge in that old timey town Is real. Like, they've been there. It's super haunted.

[Justin]

Okay. That one I've never forgotten. I think about all the time. I think we have to go.

[Sam]

I don't want to go to Copperton, Utah. I'm out. I'm out.

[Justin]

We'll do it for the spooky episode of 2026.

[Sam]

It's crazy. It's so crazy.

[Justin]

Take you guys on the road with us.

[Sam]

I don't know if I can do it. Like, I joked with Kaylin that I would go to this haunted sanatorium. And, like, I genuinely. I don't know if I can do it. I don't know.

[Justin]

I don't know. I'll go.

[Sam]

We've got a lot of people sharing stories about losing someone. And, like, butterflies being a sign, which I love. Like, I. I love, love, love butterflies. There's a write in here from Lady Finch. I was in a very bad domestic situation for many years and was basically held captive for days. Around the second day, I would hear a voice tell me things to pay attention to, like footsteps to count, until I heard the door, et cetera. I was in and out of consciousness due to some of the things I was being put through. But on the third, maybe fourth day, I heard, quote, open door, then take 35 steps, open front door, and run. You can do this. I was able to escape, and this voice saved my life. I always thought the voice sounded like my great grandmother, but was just something I made up in my mind to help deal with the trauma. But you guys talking about the third man gave me the chills. Thank you for the clarity.

[Justin]

Wow.

[Sam]

I know there's so, so, so many, so many good comments from you guys on this episode with Kaylin, and I've read so many of them. Someone else shared a story like that their dad had sleep apnea, didn't get a cpap, and he had a night where he was deep in sleep but knew he stopped breathing. He swears he heard my mom yell his name. She had passed a year prior.

[Justin]

Yes, the yell in the name ones. Those are.

[Sam]

There's so many good stories, and that's horrifying. I cannot share the link for my Google form unless I do some work and, like, delete emails and all this stuff. So if you've got a story, please, please, please share them in the YouTube comments. I go through all of these stories, like, I really, really, really appreciate you guys sharing, and so many of them clearly other people see because they're super liked and all of this. So share your stories if you have them, but it's all I got for this paranormal episode. It was a doozy. I feel like I'm gonna have to sleep with a nightlight on tonight.

[Justin]

Yeah, we're gonna have some interesting dreams tonight.

[Sam]

We're headed over Patreon. It's gonna be a really, really good month over there. And this will be in the middle tier. The spooky episode will be in the mid tier. So not the top tier, but it's the mid tier. So you get two episodes if you come join us. This and another one. So I'll see you guys over there, but thank you so much for being here. Another spooky season. Until next time.

[Justin]

Until next time.

[Sam]

Bye, guys.

[Justin]

Bye.

[Sam]

Sam.