Under the Weather – Ep. 120

[00:00:00] Odd Trails is a true paranormal podcast if you have a story to share send it to stories at oddtrails.com. Enjoy the show.

[00:01:00] I am in my early 20s. I have always been fascinated by paranormal stuff but I have never been a believer.

[00:01:14] It was basically like an atheist studying the Bible. However, I have experienced some weird stuff. For instance, my room was haunted on two occasions.

[00:01:26] The first time was when I was 11 and my sister was 9. So when my family was slowly moving to a new house and renovating it, we basically had a set of white walls and no furniture.

[00:01:38] My sister and I on many occasions went to explore our new neighborhood. Once when we got back from one of our exploring trips, we just sat in our empty room and threw our ball to each other singing some random nursery rhymes.

[00:01:54] We were going at it for something over half an hour. When suddenly the ball stopped midway to my sister and came back to my hand.

[00:02:04] I was freaking out, she was too. And we refused to go back there for a while. For some clarification, it was like a heavier dog chewing ball. Also, all of the windows were closed so there was no wind.

[00:02:20] And since my room was empty, there was no bouncing from something else. As an adult, I actually spoke about it to my mom, suspecting that it may have been a false memory or something but she actually confirmed to me that my sister and I once really freaked out over something like that and even refused to sleep in our rooms for over a week. It made her very tired.

[00:02:46] The next haunting, if you can call it that, happened four years later. This time I wasn't present but it happened in the same room and I need to explain a bit about the room situation.

[00:02:59] I shared my room with my younger brother who was ten years old at the time of the haunting and my sister had her own room next door.

[00:03:08] So my brother and I went to my cousin's place to have a sleep over. Since our room was bigger, and we had a bigger TV and DVD player, my sister decided that she wanted to sleep in there so she goes in the room, watches a few movies and goes to sleep.

[00:03:24] In the middle of the night, my fitness slash stationary bike started running like somebody was literally on it using it.

[00:03:34] It was electric but all of the electronics were long overcooked and damaged. Besides, those were trackers and incapable of moving the bike.

[00:03:45] So my sister began to scream and then she went into my parents' room. When we got back, she was terrified and I had to move to her room for a while since she refused to sleep alone.

[00:03:58] These stories were both confirmed by our mother.

[00:04:04] The stories were already on the screen.

[00:04:17] The story was about the mother of the mother who was in the room and the sister of the mother who was in the room.

[00:04:26] I grew up in the Bronx, New York for most of my youth and adolescents.

[00:04:34] I had what most would consider a somewhat normal childhood growing up as the eldest of three in an uber religious Puerto Rican family.

[00:04:45] Being raised Catholic, some of my earliest memories consisted of my mother reciting the Lord's Prayer and the Hail Mary to me on a nightly basis.

[00:04:55] And being told stories from the Bible like David and Goliath in the story of Adam and Eve.

[00:05:02] Every room in the house had a crucifix hanging above the doorframe and talks of the miracles of Jesus were a common topic my mother loved to bring up.

[00:05:14] Discussing anything other than Catholicism was deemed a sin and forbidden by my mother.

[00:05:21] Anything from the fictitious wizarding world of Harry Potter to even saying the words hell or devil were expressly forbidden.

[00:05:32] All while my mother was allowed to cuss whenever she felt it was appropriate.

[00:05:38] Looking back, I believe she ran the house this way not only to compensate for what she felt were her own religious shortcomings but also in a strange way to protect us.

[00:05:51] Alongside my earliest religious memories are some relatively dark experiences I've had no issues recounting to others but ones I truly haven't come to terms with until writing this down.

[00:06:06] While all of these memories are unique and vastly different from one another I've always felt they were connected in some odd way.

[00:06:16] The first of these experiences happened at the age of five.

[00:06:21] I had a bedroom of my own and shortly after my younger brother was born my father, a New York City police officer was promoted to Sargent.

[00:06:33] This meant more money for a struggling household and with that change my parents bought me a brand new set of twin beds.

[00:06:43] I remember thinking these beds were the coolest since they could be stacked to create a bunk bed.

[00:06:50] Due to my inability to stay still in my sleep and my energetic nature my parents thought it was best to keep these beds side by side.

[00:07:01] On one of the first nights in my brand new bed I awoke in the middle of the night to find myself in a very peculiar position.

[00:07:11] As I opened my eyes my face was to the ceiling, I was levitating.

[00:07:19] The moment lasted for only a few seconds before I was suddenly dropped back down to my bed but the memory sticks with me to this day.

[00:07:30] I remember thinking for a second the experience was only a dream but that possibility was completely ruled out by my furious father who stormed into my room and turned on my bedroom light just a few seconds after it happened.

[00:07:48] What was that he asked are you jumping on your bed why are you awake? I wasn't dad I replied.

[00:08:00] For a moment I struggled to tell him what actually happened before uttering I was floating.

[00:08:09] My father dismissed it believing I had fallen off the bed after having a nightmare. He sternly told me to get back to sleep.

[00:08:19] I remember staying awake for hours after this trying to make sense of what just happened.

[00:08:27] For the rest of the next morning I was left trying to determine if the whole night was just a big dream.

[00:08:35] About three years later I was in the living room watching my nightly episode of Rugrats. When I heard my mother yell from the kitchen, Ruben go take a shower.

[00:08:49] I quickly jumped off the couch ran upstairs to my room and gathered a towel and my pajamas.

[00:08:58] When I walked out of my room I saw something that will forever be permanently ingrained in my memory.

[00:09:06] A man who I'd never seen before in my life stood in the doorway of my parents' room. His hair was slicked back he was wearing a black button down sure and gray dress pants.

[00:09:22] His skin was so pale he looked like he was ripped from a black and white television show but the most haunting thing I'll never forget was his face.

[00:09:35] His eyes were opened so wide with the face so demented I could feel the evil radiating off his presence. I knew I was in danger.

[00:09:48] The only thing I could think to do was drop all of my clothes and scream at the top of my lungs while I ran back downstairs.

[00:09:59] My mother reasonably alarmed asked me what happened. I struggled to catch my breath but I managed to get out that there was a man upstairs by her room.

[00:10:13] She knew we were the only ones in the house yet she believed me.

[00:10:19] She ran upstairs, Bible in hand and all I could remember next was hearing her screaming from downstairs at the top of her lungs.

[00:10:30] Get out of my house you're not welcome here you're not welcome around my children get out.

[00:10:39] I was scared of the being upstairs by myself for weeks after this. I never felt any sense of security in that house since.

[00:10:49] When we moved to the suburbs outside of New York when I was 13 I was excited about it for so many reasons.

[00:10:58] It meant a new school away from the bullying I was experiencing. It meant a fresh star but most importantly

[00:11:08] it meant being out of that house and away from the memories I had there.

[00:11:15] Six months into living in our new suburban home I was awakened at around 2.30 in the morning.

[00:11:23] In this new home my room was downstairs away from everyone else in the house so there was nothing around me to explain what I heard.

[00:11:36] What sounded like a radio tuning between channels was echoing from just outside my bedroom.

[00:11:44] Initially I dismissed it as just another noise the house was making that I wasn't used to yet.

[00:11:51] I rolled over and tried to get back to sleep and was well on my way there when the tuning noise stopped

[00:12:00] and I could hear what sounded like a crowd of people cheering. It sounded as if it was coming from a radio.

[00:12:09] Thinking it was coming from my alarm clock I slapped the snooze button but the noise continued.

[00:12:17] I slapped the snooze button again and even turned the alarm on and then off again.

[00:12:25] The cheering continued but this time with the voice. From outside my room I could hear happy new year from Times Square 1962.

[00:12:40] I was immediately freaked out. I threw the covers over my head and shut my eyes in an attempt to ignore what was going on.

[00:12:51] I covered my ears and eventually fell asleep. The next morning I told my mother and to no surprise she didn't believe me.

[00:13:03] Two years later on a random afternoon I came home from school to find my mother abnormally quiet in the kitchen.

[00:13:13] She was washing dishes and I walked over to kiss her on the cheek and let her know I was home.

[00:13:20] I didn't get the same reaction I normally got. Instead she seemed bothered. I asked her if everything was okay.

[00:13:31] Do you remember the tuning radio noise? You told me you heard a couple of years ago. She asked me.

[00:13:41] Yes, I replied confused.

[00:13:45] Well, I heard it last night. According to my mother she also heard it at around 2.30 in the morning.

[00:13:56] She said it lasted for a few seconds before abruptly stopping. Following that she heard chanting outside her bedroom.

[00:14:07] A moment later she saw what appeared to be candlelight coming from down the hallway.

[00:14:14] It grew bigger as if it was approaching her room. My mother said at this moment she grabbed her rosary and began praying in the name of the father of the son.

[00:14:29] Before she could finish the light suddenly went out and the chanting stopped.

[00:14:36] She fearfully prayed the rosary and paced around for a few hours before she could go back to sleep.

[00:14:45] I remember coming home from school that day and my room had a strong smell of roses.

[00:14:52] I asked my mom if she planted roses outside of my bedroom window or something.

[00:14:58] She immediately started tearing up and told me she had the house blessed by a priest earlier that day.

[00:15:06] She became emotional because according to scripture, the rose is the flower of the Virgin Mary.

[00:15:14] I haven't experienced any other paranormal activity since.

[00:15:19] Even now at 32 years old, I think about these events often and can't help but feel these encounters came from the same spirit that stood outside my parents door that night, utterly terrifying me when I was eight years old.

[00:15:38] That evil spirit had something to do with all of it. I'm convinced his presence followed me from one home to the other as a child.

[00:15:49] I'm not sure if I'll ever find out, but now with children of my own, I think I'm okay with that.

[00:16:08] I'm not sure if I'll ever find out.

[00:16:15] I'm not sure if I'll ever find out.

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[00:18:21] Mechanical noise by Bad Lungs McGee

[00:18:33] Over 10 years ago when I was in my 20s, I was sharing a townhouse with my partner.

[00:18:39] We were an end unit connected only on the right side of the home to the rest of the houses.

[00:18:46] We had lived there for about a year or two when this happened, and during that time never once heard a single sound coming from our neighbors who shared the other side of our wall.

[00:18:57] One night probably at 2 or 3 am, I woke up to the sound of our neighbor coughing.

[00:19:06] I immediately recognized how odd that was because we had never heard them at all through the wall.

[00:19:12] The coughing continued non-stop and appeared to get louder to the point where it no longer seemed to be coming from our neighbor, but now inside my bedroom almost as if the origin of the sound had drifted through the wall and toward me.

[00:19:30] The sound continued to drift toward me and I started to breathe heavily like I was scared out of my mind.

[00:19:38] As it came to me and settled what felt like two feet directly over me, the sound kind of morphed into this mechanical sound very similar to a scene from the matrix where Nio's scream becomes synthesized.

[00:19:53] This crescendoed above me and then suddenly stopped.

[00:19:58] My partner then woke up, not from the sound but from the feeling of me panicking and breathing heavily.

[00:20:05] I told her about what happened and she said something like definitely just a weird dream, half awake, half asleep thing, but you do seem really scared.

[00:20:17] We tried to go back to sleep, but within a few minutes the whole experience happened again. Only this time my partner could hear all of it too.

[00:20:27] We were silently gripping onto each other very tightly as it was happening and now both of us were panicking.

[00:20:35] I don't know why we didn't say anything or get out of bed but we both had a need to stay quiet and not draw attention to ourselves feeling.

[00:20:46] It happened just the same as before and when it was done, we both turned on our bedside lights and spent the rest of the night awake watching TV.

[00:20:56] I've never heard somebody else have this same kind of experience.

[00:21:01] The thought of sharing this here is to see if this rings true for anyone else out there.

[00:21:16] My great grandma's funeral by the J Walker.

[00:21:37] This happened almost 20 years ago. Why it happened and how it worked, I don't know.

[00:21:44] I don't know how to classify this story either. A dream? Yes, premonition? Maybe.

[00:21:53] Deja vu? Possibly. But here we go.

[00:21:59] My great grandmother died in 2004 at 99 years old just four months shy of her 100th birthday.

[00:22:09] Shortly after her death, but before her funeral, I had a dream. In this dream, I was at a church. It was a Mormon church.

[00:22:20] I grew up Mormon, but I'm not currently practicing. It was a building I was familiar with as my great grandfather's funeral had been there and my grandparents had their 50th wedding anniversary party at the same place.

[00:22:36] So being at this church didn't feel off or particularly a problem.

[00:22:42] I wasn't exactly sure why I was there during the dream, but again, I didn't feel off about being there either.

[00:22:51] While I'm sitting there in the chapel, I'm aware of other people around me, but I'm not paying much attention to who they are.

[00:23:00] Gentlemen then gets up and start speaking, and I listen to about five minutes of his speech.

[00:23:07] Fast forward a few days to the date of my great grandma's funeral. Maybe halfway through the service, I start to feel like I have lived or have seen the scene unfolding before me.

[00:23:21] A gentleman gets up to speak. It's the same man for my dream, who happens to be my great Uncle Jim.

[00:23:30] I had met him a handful of times, but it had been a number of years since I last saw him.

[00:23:36] I remembered his speech and thought my way through it, about four or five words ahead.

[00:23:43] His speech lasted for a few minutes beyond where my dream ended, but it was an amazing thing to have dreamed the speech.

[00:23:52] Why did it happen? Was it grandma Rivas' way of letting me know everything was okay? Just a weird premonition?

[00:24:02] Nothing like this has happened to me before or has happened since, at least not for that length of time.

[00:24:10] I never felt afraid or weird about this situation. It just felt peaceful.

[00:24:41] I saw a murder in my mind by anonymous.

[00:24:47] I've always been the kind of girl that is labeled as hypersensitive, too much, and dramatic.

[00:24:55] I feel things deeply, and I'm bothered by things that don't really bother anyone else.

[00:25:01] As an adult, I've found that I have ADHD and some sensory issues.

[00:25:07] My mind tends to raise a million miles per hour, and the creative ADHD has been both a blessing and a curse.

[00:25:14] Being ultra-sensitive helps me be better at my job as an elementary school teacher who works with students with neurodiverse brains like mine.

[00:25:23] It also helps me to be a better mother to my own children.

[00:25:27] I have always been able to understand people in a way that no one else does because I feel like I know them,

[00:25:34] and I know their life story within just a few minutes of meeting them.

[00:25:37] I'm that person that you confess your deepest, darkest secrets and trauma to when you sit by me on an airplane,

[00:25:44] because people feel weirdly comfortable around me, and as a chronic people watcher,

[00:25:50] I always thought that I was just making up narratives for people.

[00:25:54] But sometimes the narratives are perfectly accurate,

[00:25:58] and I've recently come to accept that I'm reading the energy that naturally exists around people.

[00:26:05] Unfortunately, though, what I thought was just ultra-sensitivity,

[00:26:10] and people feeling socially accepted around me,

[00:26:13] was actually a manifestation of intuitive gifts.

[00:26:18] I was raised in a very religious household where ghosts did not exist.

[00:26:24] When weird paranormal things started happening to me as a child,

[00:26:28] I would have to force myself under the covers and sleep with the lights on

[00:26:33] because I knew that nobody in my family would even entertain the idea of anything outside of our strict religious rules.

[00:26:43] There was this tall, dark shadow man with a top hat who would lean far over my bed and look directly into my face.

[00:26:52] There was also the spirit of a bear that would poke its head into my room if the door was kept ajar.

[00:26:59] I kept all of these strange things that happened to me close to my chest because I knew I would never be believed.

[00:27:07] As an adult, I guess I've found myself in a way.

[00:27:10] It turns out I'm an evidential medium and intuitive.

[00:27:14] I came to this discovery after an experience that still leaves me with the pit in my stomach when I think about it.

[00:27:21] This is because it's difficult for me to accept that it was even real.

[00:27:25] It was early spring in my father and I had drove to a nearby city with my children to take my oldest son to the dentist.

[00:27:34] We live in a very rural area, so we had to drive four hours round trip just to go to Costco, Walmart or in this case a pediatric dentist.

[00:27:45] I've always been very familiar with the drive to this nearby city because we have driven it multiple times a month for 32 years of my life.

[00:27:54] I could drive it blindfolded.

[00:27:57] For most of the drive there's nothing but fields and farms.

[00:28:02] There's also a rest stop. It's an unsuspecting rest stop and it's actually pretty luxurious but kind of creepy.

[00:28:11] It's 20 miles from any houses or towns and on a cliff overlooking the Snake River.

[00:28:18] This day we were cruising down the road when we came to that rest stop.

[00:28:23] I needed to go to the bathroom and change the baby's diaper so I asked my dad ahead of time to make a pit stop for us.

[00:28:31] As we got closer to the rest stop I could see yellow crime scene tape being unrolled by an officer and the world of lights from a police vehicle.

[00:28:42] I internally groaned because I didn't want to have to go to the bathroom on the side of the road but it looked like something had happened and the police were just getting there to investigate.

[00:28:53] It would be my luck that the one time a crime happened was today right when my bladder was about to explode.

[00:29:02] But then I suddenly forgot about my irritation and full bladder. The hair on my arms and neck stood on end.

[00:29:10] The best way I can describe it is that in my mind's eye I saw a younger man and an older man arguing in the dark and the younger man was shot by the older one.

[00:29:22] The older man had a cowboy mustache and some sort of long white hair.

[00:29:29] The man who was shot fell face down next to a maroon colored vehicle.

[00:29:34] The more I quote unquote tuned in the more information popped into my mind.

[00:29:41] In my mind I then saw the older man get into his car and drive off at high speed.

[00:29:49] My dad then broke the silence and mentioned that crime never happens around here. I wonder if it was a kidnapping or something.

[00:29:57] I shook my head.

[00:29:59] No, somebody was shot, I said.

[00:30:03] He kind of chuckled awkwardly.

[00:30:06] We were close enough to see a little more now. There was a body covered with white sheet right next to a small maroon truck.

[00:30:17] Even typing this right now, my head is starting to hurt. My chest feels tight.

[00:30:22] I could clearly picture the younger man in my head at that moment. He was short maybe 5-8 with black facial hair, a plaid shirt, a baseball hat with a work logo and work boots.

[00:30:36] I got that he was maybe a dad and that he was having some substance abuse issues.

[00:30:43] I wondered if the fight had been over drugs or money.

[00:30:46] I even had the impression that in life he loved to go hunting and be outdoors.

[00:30:52] I felt so sad for him because I could tell that he was full of regret and didn't think that it would all end this way.

[00:30:59] He had been a good person who got involved with the wrong crowd.

[00:31:03] At one time, I thought it was one of my crazy narratives again and that it couldn't possibly be true.

[00:31:11] Obviously, I had been listening to too many true crime podcasts. But I couldn't stop thinking about it. I couldn't stop thinking about him.

[00:31:20] I watched the news like a hawk and it wasn't until we were sitting at the dentist office that a news article was posted to the local news website about a shooting that had occurred during the early morning slash late night hours at the isolated rest stop.

[00:31:38] It gave the victim's name and I immediately did what anybody in my position would do. I looked up the victim on Facebook.

[00:31:45] My heart stopped. He looked exactly as I had pictured. And though there were a few pictures of him, I saw that we had a couple of friends in common and wanted to know more.

[00:31:58] My friend confirmed every single thing that I had felt about this person. He wasn't Abbot Hunter, a father to a little boy and a known drug user.

[00:32:09] My friend said that she had known him her whole life and that he was soft spoken in kind but that she could imagine that the confrontation was over drugs or money.

[00:32:20] Fast forward a few months later, there didn't seem to be any movement in this young man's case.

[00:32:26] I was starting to lose hope for him. I knew full and well that being killed in Idaho meant that your case may never be solved, at least until that mutual friend I had texted me a link to an article.

[00:32:42] There had been an arrest. The man was in his 50s, a gray molet, a white cowboy mustache.

[00:32:52] The trial is set for late July, later this year. I'm hoping for justice.

[00:32:58] I've never felt more validated in what I know are my abilities. This was just the kickstarter to exploring all the facets of spirituality that I had turned a blind eye to because of my upbringing.

[00:33:12] I'm learning that there is so much more out there than what you observe with your five senses on a day-to-day basis.

[00:33:20] When things happen now, I just smile and lean into it. Instead of letting it shock me and make me more unsettled.

[00:33:29] We all have certain amounts of intuition, and we can all tap into it if we allow ourselves to experience it.

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[00:35:22] So the other day I was streaming this really interesting point-and-click adventure game on Twitch. It's called the Blackwell Legacy.

[00:35:47] Oh, yeah. I've heard of that one. How is it? Well, I still have to finish it. It's a bit cryptic but I like the story and the voice acting. It's all really good.

[00:35:57] Anyway, it got me thinking about our past chats about an odd Trails video game. Yeah, we had a lot of good ideas for a nice story-based game.

[00:36:06] A point-and-click would be awesome especially with like the retro pixel graphics like Blackwell.

[00:36:13] Yeah, exactly. And I know that that kind of game can be relatively inexpensive to develop and comparison to action games because they can be fully designed in adventure game studio.

[00:36:23] So I just want to put the word out there. I'm willing to invest in your talent if you're currently working with or have any connection with any of those amazing studios out there like Wage at I that are putting these types of games out.

[00:36:36] Yeah, let's get the ball rolling on that. We actually have quite a bit of ideas mapped out. So if anybody out there is serious and knows the thing or two about game development, drop us a line.

[00:36:47] Stories at oddtrails.com or DMs on Instagram at oddtrails podcast. Let's make it happen.

[00:36:55] Yeah. And if you're curious about these kinds of games or just want to check out the Blackwell Legacy or just chat about ideas, I'll be finishing the game as well as the other Wage at I Games on the screen.

[00:37:05] I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:37:07] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:37:09] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:37:11] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:37:13] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:37:15] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:37:17] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:37:19] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:37:21] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:37:23] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:37:25] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:37:27] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:37:29] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:37:31] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:37:33] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:37:35] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:37:37] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:37:39] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:37:41] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:37:43] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:37:45] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:37:47] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:37:49] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:37:51] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:37:53] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:37:55] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:37:57] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:37:59] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:38:01] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:38:03] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:38:05] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:38:07] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:38:09] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:38:11] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:38:13] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:38:15] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:38:17] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:38:19] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:38:21] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:38:23] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:38:25] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:38:27] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:38:29] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:38:31] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:38:33] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:38:35] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:38:37] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:38:39] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:38:41] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:38:43] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:38:45] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:38:47] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:38:49] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:38:51] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:38:53] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:38:55] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:38:57] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:38:59] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:39:01] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:39:03] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:39:05] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:39:07] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:39:09] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:39:11] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:39:13] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:39:15] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:39:17] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:39:19] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:39:21] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:39:23] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:39:25] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:39:27] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:39:29] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:39:31] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:39:33] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:39:35] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:39:37] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:39:39] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:39:41] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:39:43] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:39:45] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:39:47] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:39:49] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:39:51] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:39:53] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:39:55] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:39:57] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:39:59] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:40:01] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:40:03] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:40:05] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:40:07] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:40:09] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:40:11] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:40:13] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:40:15] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:40:17] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:40:19] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:40:21] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:40:23] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:40:25] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:40:27] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:40:29] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:40:31] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:40:33] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:40:35] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:40:37] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:40:39] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:40:41] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:40:43] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:40:45] So I'll be finishing the game as well.

[00:40:47] I'll try not to derail too much,

[00:40:49] but I spent most of my life with untreated,

[00:40:51] inattentive type ADHD.

[00:40:53] And about a month ago,

[00:40:55] I finally found a doctor who didn't just dismiss me as being lazy or depressed.

[00:40:59] So now this medication actually has me feeling focused, motivated,

[00:41:03] and happy with my general existence.

[00:41:07] It's nice.

[00:41:09] But there's a trade-off with everything.

[00:41:11] And I sometimes get bad bouts of anxiety.

[00:41:15] Personally though,

[00:41:17] I'd rather continue dealing with that.

[00:41:19] Then go back to how I was living before being put on medication.

[00:41:23] It's overall a net gain,

[00:41:25] even if that part of it sucks.

[00:41:27] Well, we're all in it together.

[00:41:29] Anxiety, that is.

[00:41:31] I do like that you said that you have a history of anxiety.

[00:41:35] It kind of puts it in the past

[00:41:37] and hopefully creates some sort of separation from the present and future.

[00:41:41] Yeah, I'm actually glad you caught that.

[00:41:43] I've stopped saying out loud that I have chronic anxiety.

[00:41:47] I feel like it reinforces the anxious thoughts and all of the symptoms.

[00:41:51] And since I've been doing a lot better in the last few months,

[00:41:55] I've learned to speak,

[00:41:57] I guess more kindly to myself.

[00:41:59] And like you said,

[00:42:01] refer to my anxiety as something of the past.

[00:42:03] Yeah, sort of like the law of attraction in a way.

[00:42:07] Yeah, and now that I'm being more cognizant of my thoughts

[00:42:11] and the way that I talk to myself,

[00:42:13] I'm realizing just how brutal I was in the past

[00:42:15] when I would scold myself for making a mistake or doing something stupid.

[00:42:19] Oh yeah, I can definitely relate.

[00:42:21] I usually get that way over social situations.

[00:42:25] Well after the fact,

[00:42:27] I'll go so far as to replace some interaction in my mind

[00:42:31] and re-analyze the other person's tone or body language from memory

[00:42:35] and assume they hate me or something.

[00:42:37] Even though the memory of course isn't accurate at that point,

[00:42:40] but as far as work goes,

[00:42:42] it's the perfectionists in us.

[00:42:44] But I think we're getting better about knowing when it's okay to accept things

[00:42:48] as they are and not being too picky

[00:42:50] because ultimately we can't be perfect.

[00:42:54] Yeah, you always hear about perfectionism

[00:42:56] as if it's always a positive trait.

[00:43:00] But in someone with my kind of personality,

[00:43:02] it resulted in years of verbal and mental self-abuse.

[00:43:06] Yeah, well,

[00:43:08] verbal self-abuse.

[00:43:10] Yeah, words are everything.

[00:43:12] When a doctor tells you not to worry about that pain or weird sensation,

[00:43:16] they give you that reassurance

[00:43:18] and when you go home,

[00:43:20] you can feel a little bit better about it.

[00:43:22] Yeah, yeah, sometimes it just goes away.

[00:43:24] Like I've said before a million times,

[00:43:26] the placebo effect is just a form of magic.

[00:43:28] I wish we could access all of the amazing parts of our brain,

[00:43:34] like the part that controls the placebo.

[00:43:36] And that could be exactly the same kind of magic that the author was able to tap into,

[00:43:42] seeing all the details of the murderer before they even learned about it.

[00:43:46] Yeah, we're capable of a lot more than I think we know.

[00:43:50] That is true.

[00:43:52] So on to Ruben's story.

[00:43:54] It seems that his mom knew what was up all along,

[00:43:56] as far as taking precautions with the paranormal.

[00:44:00] Yeah, man, Catholics don't mess around with that kind of stuff.

[00:44:04] I think it just goes to show how real a lot of this stuff is

[00:44:08] with people of so many different backgrounds having such strong convictions about it all.

[00:44:13] Right, every culture seems to have its own variation of your everyday demon, for example.

[00:44:19] Yeah.

[00:44:20] Even Scandinavian countries which are pretty secular and grounded,

[00:44:24] they have their fair share of lore.

[00:44:26] And I don't mean like Norse gods,

[00:44:29] but there's a humanoid called a holdra

[00:44:32] that apparently just looks like a beautiful woman,

[00:44:35] but she has a cow or fox tail that she tries to hide.

[00:44:39] Yeah, I think I remember reading about that.

[00:44:41] It's like a shapeshifter or something too, right?

[00:44:44] I'm pretty sure.

[00:44:45] I just remember the tail thing

[00:44:47] and that she is apparently very seductive

[00:44:50] and lures men into forests.

[00:44:52] What happens to them after that is anybody's guess.

[00:44:56] All right, then don't go on hikes with strangers, noted.

[00:44:59] Yeah, I'm sure there's some underlying morals to her full story,

[00:45:03] but for now we can go with that.

[00:45:06] Back to Ruben's story.

[00:45:08] So before he saw that pale guy or levitated in his bed,

[00:45:12] he had mentioned how strictly religious his mom was

[00:45:16] and the fact she instinctively grabbed her Bible

[00:45:20] when he told her someone was in the house

[00:45:22] without giving any indication it wasn't entity or something

[00:45:26] tells me she probably grew up experiencing this stuff

[00:45:29] and maybe hasn't told Ruben her full-life story.

[00:45:33] Yeah, I definitely agree.

[00:45:35] She was also so strict about what they were allowed

[00:45:37] to talk about in the house.

[00:45:40] It may seem superstitious or controlling

[00:45:43] and maybe to a degree it was,

[00:45:46] but I'm getting the feeling that she was just acting

[00:45:49] from experience and being extra cautious to protect her family.

[00:45:52] Yeah, Mother knows best.

[00:45:54] I'm glad you got the same vibe from her.

[00:45:56] The way he described the man he saw really creeped me out

[00:46:00] but I'm trying to figure out the New Year's radio noise.

[00:46:04] Yeah.

[00:46:05] Why would that be playing on any day other than New Year's?

[00:46:09] I feel like he definitely would have specified

[00:46:12] and connected those dots if he and his mom both heard it on New Year's.

[00:46:17] Yeah, I'm not sure about that one either.

[00:46:19] Obviously it's really interesting that his mom heard it later on too

[00:46:23] but I can't really think of the significance.

[00:46:26] What's the significance?

[00:46:28] I don't know.

[00:46:30] Sorry, I just had to quote Pewee's Big Adventure.

[00:46:33] That's top three movie for sure.

[00:46:36] Yeah, I know.

[00:46:37] American Psycho, the shining Pewee. There we go.

[00:46:39] Anyway, I'm sure there's some deep analysis

[00:46:42] and theorizing to be had about the concept of time

[00:46:45] and alternate dimensions as far as the New Year's thing

[00:46:49] not lining up on the right day.

[00:46:51] Yeah.

[00:46:52] I mean granted it was in 1962 also, so there's that as well.

[00:46:56] But I think we can both agree

[00:46:58] that this one is just over our heads.

[00:47:00] Yeah definitely.

[00:47:02] It's a cool story regardless

[00:47:03] that levitating thing was pretty weird too.

[00:47:05] Maybe it could have just been a hip-nick jerk.

[00:47:08] You know, like when you get that feeling of falling in your sleep

[00:47:11] and you like jolt awake?

[00:47:13] Oh yeah, I've had plenty of those.

[00:47:16] But it wouldn't have been so loud to have his dad bargent right?

[00:47:21] Oh yeah, that is true.

[00:47:23] I don't know.

[00:47:24] Yeah.

[00:47:25] Well I guess that's that it's going to have to be

[00:47:28] because I need to really rest my voice.

[00:47:31] The other stories were great too.

[00:47:33] But as said, I need to give my voice a rest.

[00:47:36] Thank you for sending those in.

[00:47:38] It was a pleasure.

[00:47:39] Yeah thanks so much everyone.

[00:47:41] Make sure you send your stories into stories at oddtrails.com.

[00:47:44] All the stories you heard this week were narrated and produced

[00:47:47] with a permission of their respective authors.

[00:47:49] Make sure you sign up for our Patreon if you want to get access

[00:47:52] to all of our episodes at free at a higher bit rate.

[00:47:55] You can do that at patreon.com forward slash oddtrails

[00:47:59] and make sure you check out the new episodes of my other podcasts

[00:48:01] like Let's Not Need A True Horror Podcast

[00:48:03] and the Old Time Radiocast at crypticcountypodcasts.com.

[00:48:07] See you all next week everyone, stay safe.

[00:48:10] Peace out.