A Strange Encounter While Hunting – Ep. 128

[00:00:00] Odd Trails is a true paranormal podcast. If you have a story to share, send it to stories

[00:00:05] at oddtrails.com. Enjoy the show. Forget facts. Forget logic. Forget everything that seems real.

[00:00:19] Trust. Believe. A strange encounter while bow hunting by a returning author Clyde 2003.

[00:01:06] It was September in central Idaho. Autumn had come to the mountains and with it,

[00:01:11] bow hunters came looking for mountain goats. This happened to my cousin Vern.

[00:01:17] Vern is an avid hunter. He's been all over North America hunting various game. Bears in Alaska,

[00:01:24] wild hogs in Texas, bighorn sheep in Wyoming. But his favorite hunting area was the Limhi

[00:01:31] mountain range in central Idaho. Our extended family has been hunting in those mountains for

[00:01:38] generations. We know every river bottom and mountain peak in a way that many people know

[00:01:44] their neighborhoods. Mountain goats are fascinating animals to hunt. They live well above the treeline

[00:01:51] in rocky environments. They are sure-footed and can climb nearly vertical slopes. Hunting these

[00:01:58] animals requires one to venture into dangerous areas and to be mindful in order to pursue an

[00:02:05] animal like that. One wrong step on a rocky slope or one loose rock could mean that you're not

[00:02:12] going to be returning home. That being said, Vern was an expert mountain hunter. It's just something

[00:02:19] he was born to do. Vern decided to hunt in the Hayden River area of the Limhi's. It's a familiar

[00:02:27] spot to most locals and the area is home to plenty of mountain goats. The first mile of Vern's hike

[00:02:34] was uneventful as he climbed up the canyon. The air was crisp and his breath formed in great plumes

[00:02:41] as he progressed. The sun was just peeking over the mountains when Vern came upon a small deer

[00:02:48] trail. He decided that it might be a nice shortcut from his usual route so he took it. A few hundred

[00:02:55] feet up the trail, he saw something odd pop out from behind a tree. It was a man. He was dressed

[00:03:02] in a light denim coat and jeans and he was carrying a small backpack. My cousin stopped for a second

[00:03:09] to get his bearings, unsure of where the guy came from. The man waved at him with both arms. One of

[00:03:16] them was holding an older style hunting bow. Acknowledging him, Vern waved back. Although the

[00:03:24] man looked to be physically fine, it was clear to Vern that he was emotionally distressed. The man

[00:03:30] yelled something out and then waved to my cousin who couldn't quite hear him. He was clearly indicating

[00:03:38] that he wanted my cousin to follow him. Vern didn't pick up any bad feelings from this man

[00:03:44] and he could tell that he was genuinely in need of some help. So he began to make his way up the

[00:03:50] canyon following this mystery man. The man was moving quickly so Vern could never really gain

[00:03:57] any ground on this guy. He was always just far enough away that he couldn't really talk to him.

[00:04:04] Periodically, the man would stop and turn around to make sure that Vern was still following him.

[00:04:10] Every time he looked back, Vern would see the worry on his face. My cousin did his best to

[00:04:17] remain calm and keep a smile on his face even though he was unsure of who was leading him or

[00:04:25] what he was being led to. It was peculiar, Vern thought as he hiked. He hadn't seen any other

[00:04:32] vehicles on his drive up to the trailhead. Perhaps this man came in from over another ridge.

[00:04:38] What could he possibly be leading him to? He figured that a member of his hunting party

[00:04:43] could have been hurt or needed help. Of course, he wouldn't have to speculate if the man would just

[00:04:50] stop and talk to him for five minutes. Vern lost sight of the guy just past a turn in the trail

[00:04:57] and that's when the trail opened up to an incredibly steep rocky slope. He looked in

[00:05:03] every direction but he could not locate the man. That is until he heard a whistle from above.

[00:05:09] Looking up, he saw the guy about 500 feet up the rocky slope waving at him. Vern was shocked that

[00:05:16] the man scaled the steep slope so quickly. The speed at which he did seemed inhuman. It was

[00:05:24] impossible to have gotten up that far in the short amount of time that he lost sight of him

[00:05:29] and though this was getting stranger, he still didn't feel any fear or weariness about the

[00:05:35] situation. Then the man started waving more frantically, practically begging Vern to follow

[00:05:42] him up the slope. With a sigh and a grunt, Vern started up the rocks. It was slow going. Every

[00:05:50] other step caused a mini rock slide which caused him to lose his footing continually. After climbing

[00:05:57] and huffing and puffing the cool air, my cousin eventually made it to a small landing.

[00:06:05] It had taken almost 45 minutes to get to the spot where he saw the man from below.

[00:06:12] Exhausted and out of breath, Vern sat down on the stone landing. He looked around and couldn't see

[00:06:19] the man anywhere. As he scanned his surroundings, he saw something odd poking out from behind a

[00:06:26] boulder. It was about 20 feet away from him. He walked over to it and found a weathered boot.

[00:06:34] Two boots, actually. Inside those boots and under the boulder as well were bones.

[00:06:43] Vern looked around once again for the man but he never saw him again. Instead of feeling eerie

[00:06:50] and unnerved, Vern felt a sense of relief wash over him. These emotions weren't his own. It felt like

[00:06:59] what he was feeling seemed to come from all around him. He marked the spot with his GPS and decided

[00:07:06] to make his way back down and call the authorities. The Lemme County Sheriff's Office responded

[00:07:13] and he led them up the canyon to the body. It took four grown men to push the boulder out of

[00:07:18] the way and when they did, they found the skeletonized remains of a man. On the body,

[00:07:25] they found hunting equipment and some personal effects. From a credit card in the wallet,

[00:07:32] they were able to identify the man. He was a bow hunter who had gone missing almost exactly

[00:07:37] 53 years beforehand. Vern never wanted to be identified to the public or the missing

[00:07:44] hunter's family. He didn't want recognition for this. To him, it was just one of those

[00:07:50] bizarre mountain stories. He was happy that the man's family got closure even if it was more than

[00:07:57] half a century later. He had mentioned seeing the waving man before finding the remains to the

[00:08:02] sheriff but it was brushed off. When news reports came out announcing the discovery, several photos

[00:08:10] of the man were published. Vern was absolutely shocked when he saw them and the photos was the

[00:08:18] man that he had seen waving before leading him up the mountain to these skeletal remains. It all

[00:08:26] finally made sense to him. The man's distressful look, the constant checking if Vern was following

[00:08:32] him, the sense of relief that he felt when the body was discovered. That man was desperate to

[00:08:39] get home and through Vern, he was able to be reunited with his family. The gift that keeps on

[00:09:10] giving by Amanda. So originally, I wasn't going to write in with my experiences because I didn't

[00:09:19] think that anyone would believe them since people that I tell in real life don't believe me. But

[00:09:25] after listening to this podcast, I realized that I am not alone and feel comfortable sharing.

[00:09:32] So here we go. When I was little, I had experiences that I didn't even know were strange.

[00:09:40] For example, one time I remember seeing what I call the pizza man ghost but I don't remember how

[00:09:47] old I was. All I know is that my mom talks about how I ran out of my parents' bedroom and yelled

[00:09:54] that there was a man in there. The memory I have is of me lying on their bed and looking to the

[00:10:02] foot of the bed across the room. I saw a white, almost translucent man. He was wearing a polo

[00:10:10] shirt and what my little mind registered as a pizza man hat. There wasn't any actual color,

[00:10:18] but I interpreted red and black like Pizza Hut. The whole entity had a soft white glow

[00:10:27] and he had curly hair. I don't remember what his face looked like.

[00:10:33] I freaked out and he noticed me, then kind of floated out of the window while I hid under the

[00:10:40] blankets. I don't remember anything past that, but when my parents tell the story,

[00:10:47] they say that I ran out of the room crying about a man being in there.

[00:10:52] My grandmother happened to take a picture of me that same day. A few days later,

[00:10:58] after the film got developed, my family noticed there was white fog floating over my head.

[00:11:06] They said it clearly wasn't the camera's flash. It wasn't a reflection either,

[00:11:12] because I was against the couch in the living room. Apparently my grandmother still has that photo.

[00:11:18] I'm not surprised this happened, because ever since I can remember,

[00:11:23] I have felt in touch with the other side. I am a home health aide, which means I go to houses and

[00:11:33] take care of the sick and the elderly or anyone who needs help. That's what I have done for almost

[00:11:41] ten years. The first time I remember knowing for sure that something was different about me

[00:11:48] was at a client's house. He had pancreatic cancer and it had spread to his bones.

[00:11:56] When I met him, he could still talk and communicate as well as eat and drink.

[00:12:02] He also didn't complain about being in too much pain when he'd get bathed. But within two to three

[00:12:10] weeks, he was basically a shell of the human he used to be. He couldn't communicate anymore,

[00:12:17] and any time we had to move him, all he would do is cry in pain, but he never looked at us.

[00:12:25] One day I was in his kitchen, which had a bedroom attached to it, but the door stayed shut,

[00:12:32] since it was a spare room that he never used. I walked past it to go to the fridge and came back

[00:12:39] to the table. I happened to look over at the door, and what I saw looked like a shadow of a person

[00:12:48] of a person climbing out from underneath it as it then walked past it. All of a sudden,

[00:12:56] the house felt heavy. It felt like I had 800 blankets on me in a sauna.

[00:13:03] It was hard to breathe. It was heavy. It felt dark even though it was only noon.

[00:13:11] It all just felt wrong. I was overwhelmed with the sense that I should not be in that house,

[00:13:18] so I stepped outside. I went out on the back porch and I just stood there,

[00:13:25] but the feeling of heaviness stayed. I sat by my client for a little while and just hung out with

[00:13:31] him, talking. The other caregiver working with me had woken up from a nap, and I told her about how

[00:13:40] I felt like it was too hot in the house and how I just didn't feel good. I nearly felt sick,

[00:13:48] but she had no idea what I was talking about. She was completely content after her nap and thought

[00:13:55] that I just wanted to go home. I quit that job just a few days later for unrelated reasons.

[00:14:03] About a week later, I was informed that the client had passed away. Two weeks to the day

[00:14:10] from when I started feeling that heaviness. Not long after that, I had another client.

[00:14:17] He had Alzheimer's and congestive heart failure, but the doctors said that as long as he stayed

[00:14:23] active and well cared for, they couldn't give him a life expectancy since he was in such great shape.

[00:14:30] He was almost 90 years old and still went to the gym daily. I worked with him for several months.

[00:14:40] I was there 80 hours a week, every week, for over a year. One night, I was working the 8pm to 8am

[00:14:49] shift and was in the basement watching TV. I felt that familiar heavy feeling. I looked around and

[00:15:00] remembered thinking that his deceased wife was looking for him. I didn't dwell on it too much,

[00:15:07] because he was still so healthy. I told my mom who also worked with this client,

[00:15:14] and she suggested that I just stay aware. But since he was doing so well that maybe I was just

[00:15:21] overthinking things or possibly looking for something to be uncomfortable about.

[00:15:27] Not even a week later, this client got out of the house without the present caregiver knowing.

[00:15:34] He was walking to his vehicle that he wasn't allowed to drive and forgot he had stairs

[00:15:39] leading down to it. He fell down the steps, then rolled across the road and down a hill

[00:15:47] into the woods a little bit. He laid there a few minutes before the caregiver found him.

[00:15:53] They took him to the ER and bandaged him up. They said he should be okay, but he was not.

[00:16:03] He started declining immediately after this. His Alzheimer's hit the end stage overnight.

[00:16:11] He could barely walk and we had to put his bed in the living room so we could access him with

[00:16:17] more room at all times. Two weeks after, I had a heavy feeling that he passed away at home with

[00:16:25] his daughter while she held his hand. This is exactly what happened. After all that, I realized

[00:16:34] I'm not just a dramatic overthinker. I started taking my feelings seriously. When I work at

[00:16:42] nursing homes, I can tell which resident will be the next to pass. When I work in homes, I can tell

[00:16:49] when the client is two weeks away from passing. Even in my own personal life, I had that familiar

[00:16:57] feeling about my great aunt. I knew she was going to pass soon, even though I had no basis to assume

[00:17:05] so. Two weeks later, she had a heart attack in her sleep and never woke up. I also dream about

[00:17:15] things that I shouldn't know. When I was in middle school, I attended with a girl who had seizures

[00:17:23] and it got to the point where the night before, I would know if she wasn't going to be at school

[00:17:28] the next day, merely based on a feeling or a dream that she had a seizure or got sick.

[00:17:37] We weren't even friends and this was before the days of social media.

[00:17:43] It became more random as I got older. I dreamt that a house in my neighborhood burnt down,

[00:17:50] which sure enough ended up happening. I dreamt my brother and his girlfriend were going to get

[00:17:57] hurt if they went to the lake, so I told them to avoid the lake for a while, which they did.

[00:18:04] Nothing bad happened to them, but I know something would have if they hadn't listened.

[00:18:11] About a year ago, I dreamt about this boy who was in an accident with a couple of his friends.

[00:18:18] He was injured but was steadily recovering and set to be released soon. However,

[00:18:25] I dreamt that he ended up passing away unexpectedly. I told my husband about my dream

[00:18:32] and a couple of days later, our Facebook feeds were flooded with this kid's face.

[00:18:39] Something happened and he didn't make it. His blood pressure suddenly tanked and he passed

[00:18:46] away that same day. I had a dream about my husband's ex once and the place they lived before

[00:18:55] I met him. I had never been or even seen photos of this place, but I was able to describe in detail

[00:19:03] how to get to the front door, the layout of the house, where she piled her laundry,

[00:19:10] where they had a fish tank, and the layout of their bedroom to an exact.

[00:19:16] I'm not sure why I had a dream about that other than my psyche wanting to torture me with extra

[00:19:23] information about my husband's ex that I didn't need to know.

[00:19:28] This all happens frequently, to the point where I no longer keep it secret.

[00:19:34] And if something is going to happen, I warn people. And when it does happen, at least I

[00:19:41] tried to warn them. I fully believe these gifts are the cause of my constant anxiety.

[00:19:49] I think I'm so in tune with the other side that my brain is constantly trying to rationalize

[00:19:55] everything I see or feel, even though it's not of this plane of existence.

[00:20:02] Until I learn to open up completely and fully control my gift, I'm stuck in this state of

[00:20:08] anxiety. Just moving through the motions of taking in one dream, one visit from a spirit,

[00:20:15] and one premonition of a death at a time. If you have this gift, you are not alone.

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[00:22:32] My Daughter's Other Mother by Sinead

[00:22:36] When my daughter had turned four years old, she started school and became aware for the very

[00:22:43] first time that she didn't have a grandma and everybody else in her class did. Unfortunately,

[00:22:49] she only has one grandparent, my dad. My mom died 16 years ago after a long battle with breast cancer.

[00:22:57] My husband's mom died when he was just 16 after suffering terribly from MS, and my husband's dad

[00:23:04] died of old age when our daughter was just about three months old. When my daughter asked me,

[00:23:11] why don't I have a grandma? I wanted to be honest with her. I just kept it simple and told her that

[00:23:17] she had died and that it was very sad. So your mom died? She asked. Yes, my mom died.

[00:23:27] And daddy's dad? Yes. And daddy's mom died? Yes, she did. She sat and thought about this for a

[00:23:36] moment and then got a very serious and far away look on her face and said, my mom died in a sad

[00:23:44] whisper. I laughed and said, no, she didn't. I'm your mom. I'm still here, aren't I? No, not you,

[00:23:53] my other mom. I said, I'm your mom. You only get one mom. I didn't die. Still chuckling to

[00:24:02] myself at her confusion. Suddenly she was very angry with me and shouted, no, not you, my other

[00:24:09] mom. This outburst was completely unlike her. I was a bit surprised and dumbfounded. So I decided

[00:24:17] to drop the subject altogether and move on to something else. Maybe a week later, I was laughing

[00:24:25] about the whole thing and telling a friend about it in our kitchen. I thought my daughter was

[00:24:30] probably just confused about who died as a lot of people had died. I'm midway telling my friend

[00:24:37] when my daughter overhears and comes storming into the kitchen, yelling at us. It was my other mom.

[00:24:44] My daughter is seven now and doesn't remember this. I wish I had asked more questions about

[00:24:50] this other mom, but I didn't want to keep making her so angry.

[00:25:01] Knock, knock by Matthew. This story is one that I experienced firsthand a couple of years ago.

[00:25:21] I was with my ex-girlfriend at the time, and she was into spiritual, witchy stuff,

[00:25:27] as she always told me. The house her family lived in was a decently sized three-story house,

[00:25:34] most likely built in the late nineties to early two thousands.

[00:25:39] I always felt a little uneasy being in their house, especially when I was alone pet sitting for them.

[00:25:46] I always felt like I was being watched, or as if there was something else in there with me.

[00:25:54] One night she had to stay in the house by herself and didn't want to,

[00:25:59] so she asked me to come stay the night with her. Of course I stayed with her,

[00:26:04] and the night went on as usual, nothing eventful, until we went to sleep.

[00:26:12] To add an extra layer of creepy to the story, I was sleeping with a blanket that had Ouija

[00:26:18] board patterns on it. At a seemingly random point in the night, I was suddenly awoken

[00:26:25] to the sound of loud and sharp knocks on her bedroom door. I shot up and stared at the door,

[00:26:34] waiting for someone to come in, but no one ever did.

[00:26:38] After a few moments of staring at the door, I checked the time. It was 3.01,

[00:26:46] meaning the knocking probably happened at exactly 3am. I stared at the door until I slowly faded

[00:26:56] back to sleep. I told her about it the next day, and she nonchalantly said,

[00:27:03] Fast forward to present day. About a week ago, I'm asleep in my bed, in my apartment with my wife.

[00:27:13] I suddenly awoke to knocking on our bedroom door. This one wasn't as loud or as sharp,

[00:27:20] it was actually sort of faint. I turned around and looked at the door,

[00:27:25] alarm clock to check the time. It read 3.01am, but that clock is a little fast,

[00:27:32] meaning it was actually 3am. To whoever or whatever knocks on my door at 3am, let's not meet.

[00:27:40] Time passed, and I was still asleep. I was still asleep, but I was still awake.

[00:27:46] I was still awake, but I was still asleep. I was still awake, but I was still asleep.

[00:27:53] Let's not meet.

[00:28:14] Tata's Doppelganger by Astral Anomaly

[00:28:19] This happened when I was a senior in high school. I can't remember if it was the summer before or

[00:28:25] if it was just another weekend, but my little cousin is just about to turn seven, and this

[00:28:31] happened when she was a baby. Tata is what we all call our grandmother's sister. They say it is

[00:28:38] what one of our uncles used to call her because she couldn't pronounce Tita properly.

[00:28:45] We never met him, but somehow my cousin, who is the same age as me, began calling her that as

[00:28:51] well when we were kids and the rest of us just picked it up. Tata has a daughter who has a house

[00:28:58] in the next city. At the time, it was new and they had just moved in that year. It was a two-story,

[00:29:05] modern-style home that was built from the ground up. It's big and it has two floors with three

[00:29:11] bedrooms, and all of them are on the ground floor. Upstairs is basically just a room with a tennis

[00:29:17] table, sports stuff, and a mini library. It also has a small balcony where they would hang their

[00:29:23] clothes. As the older cousins, we would hang out there watching movies and babysitting the younger

[00:29:30] cousins. It was probably around noon when we were herding the little cousins into their room to

[00:29:37] take a nap. When you walk towards the rooms in the house, you pass by a short hallway that has stairs

[00:29:44] on the left side, and a little before the stairs is a wall mirror on the right side.

[00:29:51] I was on my way to the rooms and I had just passed the mirror, and I was right next to the first step

[00:29:58] of the stairs when I saw Tata coming down with a laundry basket filled with what could be assumed

[00:30:06] fresh clothes off of the clothesline. This seemed normal, but it wasn't because as I approached my

[00:30:14] younger cousin's room, Tata came out of the master bedroom carrying my baby cousin. My head

[00:30:22] immediately turns to look back, but of course, Tata is now right in front of me. I wasn't terrified

[00:30:29] or anything, mostly confused, bewildered maybe. I assumed it was Tata because there were no other

[00:30:37] adults in the house. And then of course, I asked her if she was upstairs and my other cousin

[00:30:43] promptly answered that she and Tata had been trying to get our baby cousin to go back to sleep.

[00:30:49] And that wasn't the first time something copied Tata. Back home in our compound, next door there

[00:30:57] is a family ancestral house that belonged to my great-grandparents. The house that my grandmother

[00:31:04] Tata and their siblings grew up in. This house has a whole lot of other stories, maybe for another

[00:31:11] time. It's not haunted by ghosts, but by things unseen I guess. Anyway, because Tata now lives

[00:31:19] with her daughter in the next city and their siblings all have their own lives now, there was

[00:31:24] a time when the house would be empty on weekdays. I remember passing by the house one afternoon on

[00:31:31] my way to the store. As I passed by the area that had the kitchen and the outdoor bathroom,

[00:31:36] I heard a cough. I kid you not, it was Tata's cough. Well, when I was done with the store,

[00:31:42] I took the long way back instead of passing by there. I don't know why it's Tata that it tries

[00:31:49] to copy. In two separate houses, and with years between them, that is if it's even the same thing.

[00:31:55] Nothing like this has happened to me since, and I'm absolutely fine with that. Whatever it was

[00:32:01] that took my grandmother's form, let's not meet. In Amanda's story about seeing the pizza man ghost,

[00:32:28] she mentions a picture her grandma took of her with a film camera, and then when it got developed

[00:32:33] there was a white fog over her head. Do you remember the site ghoststudy.com?

[00:32:39] Oh yeah, that site was so cool. I love like classic early internet, like the look before everything

[00:32:47] became so polished, you know? Yeah.

[00:32:49] I remember seeing a lot of pictures like that, white fog or smoke or orbs.

[00:32:54] Yeah, I'm glad you remember it too. That's why I had to bring it up.

[00:32:58] When she mentioned that picture, so many memories came flooding in. I'd sneak out into the living

[00:33:04] room and get on the dial up hoping nobody would wake up. Then I just click through the image

[00:33:09] galleries and give myself the chills all night. It was so fun.

[00:33:13] Yeah, and since the pictures took so long to load, it added an extra layer of suspense.

[00:33:18] Yep, that is so spot on. I can see you speak from experience.

[00:33:22] Yeah, however, the computer was too close to my parents' room for me to sneak onto it at night.

[00:33:28] And as you can imagine, my computer time was pretty heavily monitored.

[00:33:33] My mom specifically told me I couldn't look at ghosts for some reason. Aliens were OK though.

[00:33:40] Weird. If I were to guess, I'd assume it's because of everything the Bible has against divination.

[00:33:47] Maybe she kind of lumped ghosts in general into that. Whereas like with aliens, maybe she just

[00:33:53] brushed it off as silly sci-fi stuff or something like ninjas or dinosaurs. I don't know.

[00:33:59] Yeah, I know what you mean. I think it was more so she just thought ghosts were evil.

[00:34:05] Remember about.com's paranormal section?

[00:34:08] Oh yeah. It didn't come off as like some afterthought either. Like that could have

[00:34:14] been its own website. They were on it. That was a good one.

[00:34:17] Yeah, it's kind of how I got around the no ghosts rule.

[00:34:21] All their sections looked the same. It didn't have like that creepy,

[00:34:24] dark look that all the other paranormal sites had at the time.

[00:34:28] So at a glance, she never really knew what I was reading.

[00:34:33] Yeah, that's awesome. I mean, obviously we believe in all that stuff, but I was like

[00:34:39] 10 or something and to me, if an article is written on a popular website that was well designed,

[00:34:45] it had to have been true. So I just remember having my mind blown thinking their articles

[00:34:51] about let's say Bigfoot confirmed without a doubt that he's real. Like I uncovered the

[00:34:58] answers to things that other people just didn't hear about yet.

[00:35:01] Yeah, we lived in a time when things weren't so easily disproven and footage was not so

[00:35:08] easily doctored, I guess. So everything felt so much more real back then. It's a magic that's

[00:35:14] totally lost now. But going back to ghoststudy.com, I was genuinely obsessed with this site. I

[00:35:21] specifically remember loving this thing that they did called calling on ghosts where they would ask

[00:35:27] mediums or even ghosts to respond to questions and they'd always share the responses on the website.

[00:35:33] I would have believed that 100%.

[00:35:35] Yeah, exactly. I really liked the medium responses. They were super genuine and interesting.

[00:35:41] One that stuck with me was when this medium asked somebody to come through and answer the

[00:35:46] questions that ghost study had posted. And the spirit that talked to her was from the Bay Area,

[00:35:52] specifically San Jose, which was a place that I lived as a kid. So it was especially cool for

[00:35:57] me at the time. And the spirit said things like she could see the past and present, but she couldn't

[00:36:02] predict the future and that ghosts can't kill people and don't have any interest in doing

[00:36:08] anything like that.

[00:36:10] Well, I guess that's a relief. I mean, the fact we don't really see any clear cut cases of

[00:36:16] paranormal causes of deaths is one of the reasons I carry a tinge of skepticism,

[00:36:21] depending on what it is, of course. But I can also accept the fact that maybe a trickster poltergeist

[00:36:28] has dropped a chandelier on somebody's head or something and we'd never know.

[00:36:33] Yeah, kind of Scooby-Doo type death.

[00:36:36] I think the exact words that they used were the ghosts don't directly cause death. Indirectly,

[00:36:44] that's another story.

[00:36:45] Yeah, quite the case of it's just a prank, bro.

[00:36:49] Yeah. Yeah, that's exactly right. They're tricky. Anyway, the medium said that there were all kinds

[00:36:55] of spirits, both good and bad, and that love and fear are the strongest powers that exist.

[00:37:00] Kind of woo-woo, you know what I mean?

[00:37:01] Yeah.

[00:37:02] Also, sage totally works for evil ghosts, but a lot of the good ones don't mind sharing the

[00:37:08] houses that they lived in with you if you're a new owner. They just don't like to be kicked out.

[00:37:15] Yeah, I mean, it's a shared space after all. I have some sage, palo santo, cedar,

[00:37:22] and a couple of crystals here in my office. And I've said it before, but I think intention

[00:37:27] carries more weight than any physical properties they might have. They're not an exact equivalent

[00:37:33] of garlic to vampires, you know what I mean?

[00:37:35] Definitely. And I need to re-up. If any of our listeners sells these items, sage, palo santo,

[00:37:42] that kind of stuff, crystals, let me know. I'd love to shop from one of our listeners. But anyway,

[00:37:48] sorry, I keep going back to ghoststudy.com, but I also have to mention that they were based out

[00:37:55] of Sacramento, California, which is just 10 minutes away from my area. And it was run by

[00:38:00] this guy named Jim Eaton. Yes, I know, I was obsessed.

[00:38:06] I mean, maybe we could get in contact with him and see if he's still in the paranormal field

[00:38:10] or have him on the show or something.

[00:38:12] Yeah, I know that he put out a couple of photo books of his ghost pictures,

[00:38:16] but I don't really know what happened to him. They were quality books from what I can see on

[00:38:21] Amazon just kind of browsing around right now. I'm definitely going to buy one. I know Reddit

[00:38:25] said that he dealt with some kind of tragedy and shut the site down, but I hope the guy's doing okay

[00:38:30] now.

[00:38:31] Yeah, hopefully it wasn't kind of like Art Bell with his Ouija board thing. But I mean,

[00:38:36] Art Bell kept doing what he was doing after the Ouija board incident. So hopefully Jim is doing

[00:38:41] all right. I did notice that the domain is parked at one of those default landing pages.

[00:38:47] So that's unfortunate.

[00:38:48] Yeah. If you are really interested in ghoststudy.com though, and you should be,

[00:38:54] I would recommend using the Wayback Machine on the Internet Archive to pull the site up.

[00:38:58] Yeah.

[00:38:59] You can browse pretty much everything on there that's been lost since the site is inactive.

[00:39:04] Yeah, that's exactly what I did a few nights ago. Archive.org is awesome. My old Pokemon site was,

[00:39:11] I guess, popular enough to make it onto the Wayback Machine, but I'd rather not.

[00:39:16] Share that URL here.

[00:39:18] No reason to broadcast your digital footprint like that.

[00:39:22] I don't want to be canceled over a fart joke I made when I was in the fifth grade.

[00:39:27] There'd be at least one person in the world who would try.

[00:39:30] There's always one.

[00:39:32] Yeah. So anyways, I had another shadow person experience.

[00:39:36] Ooh, do tell.

[00:39:38] Well, first of all, I'm pretty sure that this happened because I've been

[00:39:42] meditating a lot more than usual and I'm getting back into the gateway experience.

[00:39:47] Careful with raising those vibrations. You're gonna

[00:39:50] knock your house off its foundation if you keep it up.

[00:39:53] I know. It has its pros and its cons, but it's worth it to me because I have more lucid dreams.

[00:39:59] I'm generally a bit less stressed and life just seems more interesting when I'm doing these types

[00:40:05] of things. Anyway, it wasn't anything new. Just the normal sleep paralysis with a shadow figure

[00:40:11] standing in the corner of the room. That's how they go for me. The thing is, I was able to calm

[00:40:16] myself down this time and instead of waking up completely and moving around, I just fell right

[00:40:22] back to sleep. Just like when we talked to Timothy Renner from Strange Familiars and we had him on.

[00:40:29] Yeah, exactly. When you heard those three bangs at 3 a.m. too.

[00:40:34] Yeah, that's even more appropriate to bring up because of the knock-knock story by Matthew.

[00:40:40] Yeah, that was a pretty short story, but I'm glad you read it. I like those short

[00:40:45] ones. It was so similar to what happened to you and hey, we love corroboration.

[00:40:50] Yes, we do. Exactly why I read it. At some point at all, can't just be a coincidence. That's

[00:40:56] actually why I keep the Palo Santo and all that by my desk. I was admittedly more of a hopeful

[00:41:02] agnostic up until that happened and now I have no choice but to be a full-blown believer, for better

[00:41:08] or worse. Yeah, I think that's what it takes for a lot of people having their own personal experience.

[00:41:15] Yeah, makes sense. Oh, and back to Timothy Renner. I'm glad that you mentioned him because

[00:41:20] I've actually been listening to Strange Familiars pretty regularly and he had a guest on named

[00:41:26] brother Richard Hendrick. He's this friar from Ireland and they discussed stuff like demons,

[00:41:31] abductions, and a lot of other paranormal topics. Hmm, I'll have to check that one out. I like

[00:41:37] Timothy's energy. I can listen to him and not feel socially drained when the episode's over. I'm sure

[00:41:42] you know what I mean. There's just certain hosts that are just kind of, yeah. Yeah, that's what

[00:41:48] keeps me coming back. I know exactly what you mean. I'm so picky. It was my favorite episode

[00:41:54] of the more recent episodes though because they touched on the idea that these entities that

[00:41:59] Timothy always likes to refer to as the others. I think he did that on our show too. Whether it be

[00:42:04] aliens, ghosts, or Bigfoot, that they may be lulling us back to sleep because that's when we're most

[00:42:10] vulnerable and susceptible to spiritual attacks. See, that's affirming and nice to hear because I'm

[00:42:16] almost positive I've said something along those lines on this show before. Yeah. Being vulnerable

[00:42:22] and susceptible when we're sleeping or in that half asleep stage. Yeah, yeah, you have and that's

[00:42:28] why I mentioned it. Okay, well thank you for the additional affirmation. I'm not just going crazy.

[00:42:34] Anytime, bud. So I think it could be good-natured spirits that are putting us back to sleep to

[00:42:41] protect us as well. It's clearly a theory that's a work in progress but I found that to be interesting

[00:42:48] and they referenced how many people that have paranormal encounters... Well the stories just

[00:42:54] end with them falling back to sleep. Yeah. Anyway, nothing super interesting beyond the fact that

[00:43:00] this time I just fell back to sleep and I woke up all right. Yeah, I remember Timothy teased me a

[00:43:06] little bit about doing the same thing with the three bangs. I was definitely scared as hell but

[00:43:12] I somehow knew it wasn't a person in my house shooting at my cats or something so I just kind

[00:43:18] of laid there shaking up and had a little bit of humility in my bones and just drifted back off

[00:43:24] to sleep. Yeah, yeah well I'm glad that I woke up all right I'll say that. Well thank God you did

[00:43:30] because we have a podcast to do. Amen brother Brandon. Thanks everybody for listening. If you

[00:43:36] have a story to share make sure you send it in to stories at oddtrails.com. All the stories you heard

[00:43:41] this week were narrated and produced with the permission of their respective authors.

[00:43:45] If you want to get ad-free versions of all of our episodes at a higher bitrate head over to

[00:43:49] patreon.com forward slash odd trails to sign up and support the show today. The show is not possible

[00:43:54] without all of the wonderful patrons that support us. And finally make sure you check out my new

[00:43:58] episodes of my other podcasts like Let's Not Meet, Welcome to Paradise It Sucks, and the Old Time

[00:44:03] Radiocast all at crypticcountypodcasts.com. Everybody stay safe. Peace out.

[00:44:29] Don't let the ghosts and the ghouls disturb you, darling.