Episode 136: An Encounter at Camp

[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. Forget facts. Forget logic. Forget everything that seems real. Just trust. Believe.

[00:00:58] What's in my Grandparent's House? by Samantha My grandmother recently passed away, and amidst all the who-gets-the-house drama, I couldn't help but remember the odd things that always happened to me there. Also, hearing Brandon share his story about the three loud bangs inspired me to share mine.

[00:01:22] I don't think I ever had a good night's sleep at my grandparents' house. To set the scene, they lived in an old duplex row home in a former logging town in central Pennsylvania. This was the home my dad and his siblings grew up in,

[00:01:38] so it's been in the family for a very long time. I spent many weekends there and always loved going there for sleepovers, except for the actual sleeping part. I'm sure some of the sounds I heard were just from the house settling,

[00:01:54] but I remember often hearing footsteps in the attic above the bedrooms. I always remember my dad telling me it was probably squirrels or the neighbors in the duplex next to us. Well, the neighbors obviously didn't live above my grandparents,

[00:02:10] and I've never heard a squirrel with the gait of a grown human. This would happen any time I stayed there, but as I got older, the activity seemed to ramp up. I was probably 13 or 14 when one of these incidents first occurred.

[00:02:28] Every morning, my grandma would give my grandpa a bath due to his mobility issues, so I remember waiting in the back bedroom with the ceiling light and TV on to distract myself

[00:02:40] from how badly I had to go to the bathroom since it was going to be occupied for a bit. All of a sudden, the light went out, which I just shrugged off, but my gut was telling me

[00:02:54] to look over at the light switch, so I listened to it, and as I turned my head, I saw the light switch flip up, and the lights came back on. I was on the bed, and there was no

[00:03:08] one else in that room to flip the switch back up. I honestly almost peed myself from how freaked out I was. The next incident is probably the biggest of the paranormal experiences I had there.

[00:03:23] This time, my sister and I were staying over. She was in the front bedroom, and I was in the back bedroom again. I had just turned the TV off to brace myself for another sleepless night.

[00:03:37] As I was settling in, I heard the floor creaking right outside the door, like someone had just walked up to it. Then I heard it. Three soft knocks. Thinking it was my younger sister, I quietly called out, come in. Nothing. Then the three knocks happened again.

[00:04:02] I repeated my invitation to my sister. Still no response. Then, for a third time, three knocks on the door, and louder this time. I got out of bed to open the door and tell my

[00:04:17] sister she could come in and sleep with me. But when I opened it, no one was there. My sister wouldn't have had the time to make it back to her bedroom, and I definitely would have hurt her. Remember, it's an old house, you can hear everything.

[00:04:34] I was unnerved, to say the least. I crawled back into bed and grabbed my iPod. I hoped this would calm my nerves a little bit, and drown out any more of the noises.

[00:04:47] I was only able to listen to two or three songs before my iPod shut off mid-song. I desperately tried to turn it back on, but was met with a black screen. I had just fully charged

[00:05:02] it, too. I was beyond unnerved at this point, and pulled the blanket up over my ears to try and drown anything out. Then, I heard three loud knocks on the screen of the old TV I had just turned off.

[00:05:19] And then, three loud knocks on the window. Three more knocks on the wall. Over and over. I tried praying. I kept repeating, In the name of Jesus, I rebuke you. To no avail. At some point, I fell asleep,

[00:05:38] and when I woke up, I was thankful I made it through the night. Of course, no one believed me. My uncle even asked me if I was on drugs. The last of the notable occurrences happened a few years later,

[00:05:53] after my grandfather had passed away. I was there to visit a nearby university, and my grandma was watching my aunt's dog at the time. After my grandpa had passed, I shared a bed with my grandma whenever I stayed there.

[00:06:10] I remember thinking, maybe if I'm not alone, I'll be okay. Nope. I was wrong. I heard footsteps in the hall, outside the door. Just pacing back and forth. I didn't like it, but still figured everything would be fine.

[00:06:32] Then my aunt's dog got up, went to the bedroom door, and quietly growled. They say animals are sensitive to the supernatural, and I fully believe this. She wouldn't go back to her bed that night, opting to stand guard at the door.

[00:06:49] But that night, I finally felt validated that I wasn't just hearing things. The only other person in my family who ever experienced anything strange was my cousin, who also heard the footsteps in the attic. We all just came to the conclusion that I must be

[00:07:07] more sensitive to these things. The house is staying in the family, but I don't think I'll ever sleep there again if I can help it. But I'm happy my grandma passed away peacefully in that

[00:07:19] home, surrounded by family. Thank you for taking the time to read my ramblings. I don't often tell people these experiences, but I just can't shake the three knocks. Spirits Communicating Through Dreams by Kayden

[00:08:01] I've been listening for a few weeks now and the stories about relatives who have passed on communicating through dreams sparked an interest and reminded me of two specific stories. Growing up, my family was never religious, but we were spiritual, especially my mom.

[00:08:19] When I was eight, my grandma passed away after fighting for years with a heap of different illnesses. She was my main caretaker, so I was left pretty much alone. After her funeral, I remember having a dream, and I'll describe it to the best of my abilities here.

[00:08:38] I was in a hallway. It was similar to that of a hotel. There were endless amounts of rooms, but I knew where I was going somehow. I ended up walking forever. Eventually, I came to a stop

[00:08:53] at a room that drew me in as if there were magnets. I opened the door, and it was my grandma in what looked like a backyard with sunflowers. She came and hugged me and told me that she was

[00:09:07] happy and she was safe. I don't remember much after that, and I woke up. Years later, as I was going through her old photo albums, I saw a picture of my grandma from when my mom was young

[00:09:22] in the same yard. Apparently, it was their old house that got torn down. When I told my mom, she gave me at least 10 stories from my grandma who was very spiritual. I can share those stories

[00:09:35] at another time if you're interested. Here's my second story. I was 13 this time. I had been incredibly sick with the flu, but I was still completely conscious. I woke up in my mom's

[00:09:49] bed. I was hyperventilating and sobbing to the point that I couldn't speak or breathe, which I now know as a panic attack. I couldn't tell anyone why I was feeling this way, so my mom started

[00:10:02] listing reasons. After many tries, she figured out it was about a family member. Then she figured out it was about my uncle's family and that someone was about to die. I hated my uncle, so everybody

[00:10:17] chalked it up to me being dramatic. Then, less than two weeks later, my little cousin started having seizures and died 20 hours after his first one. Obviously, no one, not even me, connected the

[00:10:33] two events until much later. When they connected it, it was because it happened again with my uncle when he was in a fatal car crash the year after. I truthfully think that my grandma was letting me

[00:10:47] know to prepare. I've been around death my whole life, so I feel like I'm very in tune with it and it affects me differently than most people. Also, one more story that I remember while writing this.

[00:11:03] When I was eight, my great-grandma on the other side of my family died. She was in hospice care and my grandma would take me every day to see her. Now, I was never close to her, but I would go

[00:11:18] because it made everybody happy to see me. For the rest of this story, I need to explain something. She lived in a three-bedroom house and it was just her and her husband. You walk into the living room

[00:11:32] and a little den and then you walk straight between those two rooms and into the kitchen. To the left is a hallway with the bathroom and the bedrooms and straight ahead was the back door.

[00:11:45] You need to go around the cabinets to get to the rest of the kitchen. It was a very closed-off area. After you're in the kitchen, there are two doors, one to the garage and one to a room behind the

[00:11:57] garage with a fridge and a deep freezer. It was like a walk-in pantry. There was a back door in this room that was sealed off. Now, one day my grandmother told me to grab her and myself a soda

[00:12:11] or a juice from the fridge in that weird little room. So I trotted in and got the drinks, but I saw some of those zebra cake things which I wasn't allowed to have. So I stopped and opened one to

[00:12:24] eat before I went back out, but as soon as I took a bite, it sounded like a screen door got slammed at the little back door, which did not have one. And then I heard four loud, very clear knocks.

[00:12:39] So I dropped everything and ran out. I collided with the hospice nurse who told me I looked pale and asked if I was sick. I told her and the rest of the family what happened,

[00:12:51] minus the zebra cakes. They all told me it was my imagination. The next day, she passed away and I swear on everything, it was her telling me not to eat it. I have type 1 diabetes,

[00:13:07] so everyone was always on me about sugar. She scared the shit out of me, but it probably kept me from needing medical intervention. A Call From Home by Danielle It was 2016 and I was 17 years old. Like most teenagers, I would often be in my room upstairs

[00:13:55] to avoid everyone else in the house. My mom would sometimes call me using the landline phone to get my attention instead of yelling through the house. I appreciated that. However, my family took

[00:14:09] advantage of this and often called just to bug me. I sometimes think this was the only reason they kept the landlines. When I got my driver's license, my parents would ask me to pick up my

[00:14:22] brother from school while they were at work. I didn't mind since I often had early dismissal and my brother would get out later. It would give me some time to get home and unwind for a bit before leaving for school and waiting for him in the pickup line.

[00:14:39] One afternoon, I got home at my usual time and went upstairs to put my school stuff in my room. I went to the bathroom and as I was washing my hands, my cell phone started ringing. It was a

[00:14:53] call from home. I had no hesitation picking up with a, what do you want? Silence. What is it? I asked. Still nothing. I hung up and walked out of the bathroom. I screamed towards the living room.

[00:15:13] What do you want? Expecting to hear my mom respond. But after yelling, I immediately felt sick to my stomach. I realized the time and thought about my normal routine. I was home alone. How

[00:15:30] could I be getting a call on my cell phone from the home phone when no one else was in the house? My house landline system consisted of three phones, two wireless phones that each had a

[00:15:42] charging dock and the other was corded and hung up on the wall in the kitchen. I didn't want to think too irrationally at first. The wireless phones had a redial button that would dial the most recent call out. Logically, I thought maybe one of my cats

[00:16:01] had jumped on a phone and hit the redial button, which just so happened to be my cell phone. I walked downstairs to locate all three phones. The corded phone was hung up on the wall.

[00:16:15] Nothing out of the ordinary. I started to search around for the other two phones, which to my horror were both sitting perfectly on their charging docks, untouched. A few seconds later, my cell phone rings. Another call from home. I was now standing

[00:16:34] in my living room with sight of all three phones in my proximity. I picked up. Silence. I wasn't going to mess around and find out. I booked it to the car. I called my mom really

[00:16:52] freaking out and explained to her what was going on. She was working and was pretty short with me, but reassured me that she wasn't playing a prank and told me to just calm down.

[00:17:05] I sat in my car for another minute when once again my cell phone started ringing. This was the third call. I picked up one last time. This time, though, instead of silence, I heard a ticking sound. The only thing I can think of

[00:17:24] comparing this to would be the sound of a wind-up kitchen timer. It only lasted a few seconds until the call dropped. Goosebumps ran up and down my body. I had the primal urge to flee. I pulled out of my driveway and sped to my brother's school.

[00:17:45] My brother was shocked that I was first in line that day. Shortly after, my parents agreed to get rid of the landline. Nothing ever came of the incident, but I still have no explanation. None of my friends have

[00:18:00] acknowledged the incident, and my parents just simply weren't technical enough to pull off a prank like that. Maybe it could have been a telemarketer scam, but those three calls and the sound of the ticking will always replay in my mind.

[00:18:33] Ancestor by Plum In the middle of my sewing day, I was binge-listening to podcasts. I try to learn as much as possible while I'm designing and constructing underwear. It keeps me half-focused on what I'm doing, so it isn't always the smartest

[00:18:52] thing to engage in, but I get bored very easily, and multitasking comes naturally to me. I'm a bit of a skeptic, but I'm fascinated by your podcast, and it's been really entertaining

[00:19:05] for me. I was listening to an episode of a psychic podcast, and a Meditation to Meet Your Guides episode came on. I decided to drop everything I was doing and follow along. Due to war, poverty,

[00:19:20] and the threat of violence, there has been a lot of immigration in my past. My grandparents on both sides of my family were incredibly tight-lipped about where they were from and preferred to look towards the future to assimilate as much as possible to Western culture and to become

[00:19:38] as white as possible. Even their names have been changed, and to this day, my last name isn't even my original one. As a consequence, I've always felt really empty of culture and curious about

[00:19:54] my lineage, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to try this meditation to meet my guides. So I sat on the floor with my back against the couch and I closed my eyes.

[00:20:05] Immediately, out of nowhere, I felt a presence in the room with me. I opened my eyes and all was calm. The yellow sunlight was filtering through the various objects that I had sitting on the

[00:20:16] windowsill, my box of crafts, books, and a pair of scissors. All felt warm and still. But as soon as I closed my eyes, a jarring feeling pierced through all of this and came straight up into my face.

[00:20:33] I tried to imagine the physicality of the feeling. At least, that's what I must have done, imagined it. But I know that as soon as I closed my eyes for the second time, I saw a face. It was a familiar

[00:20:49] face that I had been seeing in my bedroom each night while I tried to drift off to sleep. I had been grappling with this energy for weeks. Every night, I could feel a feminine form

[00:21:01] standing close by, intently watching me and trying to get my attention. But it or she had never come up this far to my face before. Her face was filthy and her hair was matted, caked with dirt. She was pale, but this thin film of grime covered her skin.

[00:21:24] She had dark, sad, insistent eyes full of this urgent energy behind them. It was unnerving, but I tried to push through the meditation, not really feeling sure if anything was working. It was relaxing, but ultimately, I don't think I met any spirit guides.

[00:21:46] I finished the meditation and I decided to try to do it again in the future because it was an entertaining way to meditate and I do have trouble with calming exercises. They're always so boring.

[00:21:58] That night, I had completely forgotten about my experience with the meditation earlier that day until I closed my eyes to sleep. I had been sitting up against my pillow, reading happily. I switched off my light, lay down, and there she was. This face was more urgent than ever,

[00:22:17] pushed right up next to mine. I tried to visualize flinging this figure, this force out of my aura. Out of my aura, then out of my bedroom and out of my house. I flung her mentally all the way down

[00:22:33] the street where she collapsed outside on one of the houses across the road with a big bang. Dust flew. To my surprise, she wasn't mad. I started visualizing her standing up, shaking

[00:22:51] herself off, and with determined purpose, making her way back up to my house. All of a sudden, there she was again. But instead of right up in front of my face, we stood together

[00:23:07] in a blank slate place in my mind. There was nothing in this room except us and all was white around us. She looked so sad and defeated. Then we started to communicate without words.

[00:23:22] Standing there in front of her, I realized that I simply had to take care of this woman. It was unnerving to see a person so beaten down and so filthy. I knew that she was Russian immediately, and I started to internally freak out, and the words, Cannibal Island,

[00:23:41] started repeating in my head. Now, if you know any of Stalin's history, you know what I mean. But I tried to ignore this as totally insane and hyperbolic nonsense. It was almost a bit of dark

[00:23:55] humor to lighten the intense moment. I decided there was no truth to this, and I just pushed it out of my mind. Even if she had been on Cannibal Island, I wouldn't have exactly judged

[00:24:08] her, but the stigma of it would have troubled me. It's just so incredibly dark. I started with her hands. A small black cauldron with clear water appeared between us, and I took her hands in mine

[00:24:23] and squeezed them gently. I placed them into the water and started washing them. All of this black gunk and grime came off, yet the water remained clear. Her hands were pale and beautiful. They

[00:24:38] were small and delicate, and I remember noticing a faint freckle next to a vein on the back of her hand. So human. I tore off the rags from her arms and revealed bare skin, which I washed.

[00:24:54] Then I washed her face. She was beautiful. I was pouring out as much care and love and positive energy through my hands and into her as I could. I massaged her cheeks and her eyebrows.

[00:25:09] I cleansed her completely. She then started to cry. She shook with violent tears, shuddering, sobbing with this inward gasping sadness. I saw that her eyes had lightened slightly to reveal a dark, almost royal blue color. They looked at me with this loving intensity and recognition.

[00:25:33] It was so beautiful and not scary at all. I started to wash her matted, filthy, straggly hair. It untangled before my eyes, and I realized it was curly and long and dark brown. She told me,

[00:25:49] without actually speaking, that she was Russian. She said that she felt that she wasn't beautiful like me and said that I had gained beauty that she didn't because of my Palestinian bloodline

[00:26:02] coming into the mix with the Russian. I told her how that was nonsense and that she was extremely beautiful and that I was lucky to be related to her. I don't know why this came into our

[00:26:14] communication, the comparison of beauty or how or why one would be more beautiful due to where they're from. I'd hate for a skeptical psychologist to assess this. I'd be so embarrassed. I asked her

[00:26:29] if I could oil her hair for her because I thought that it was clean now. It was so dry and broken from all of the time it had been covered in dirt. She declined and broke away from me. She said that

[00:26:41] she felt like it was too much, too soon. But as soon as I accepted this, she came back to face me and decided that I should oil her hair. So, she lay in my lap while I dipped my hands into

[00:26:56] the cauldron and gently started massaging the oil I found in there over her scalp and gave her head a good massage. I could feel all of this tension, sadness, and turmoil leave her body and she relaxed

[00:27:10] completely. I worked through her whole head right into the tips of her worn out hair and ran a comb through it. I put my arms around her and we held each other for a while. I looked at her properly

[00:27:26] and noticed that everything about her had changed. Her energy, the way that she stood, the features on her face. She told me that she would watch over me now and stepped away into

[00:27:37] a bright light that appeared behind her. I was sad to let her go but I knew that I had done all that I could to help her. I realized that gold jewelry had appeared on her, rings on her fingers,

[00:27:51] and necklaces around her neck. She had a light blue, almost uniform-like dress that reached the floor with long arms that buttoned at the wrists. A light red cap was atop her head and she had a

[00:28:05] white apron on. Her hair was shining now. Her eyes were deep and bright. Her eyelashes and eyebrows were a deep brown against her pale skin. And off she went. In a second she was gone and I was left

[00:28:20] alone in the white room. When I opened my eyes in the darkness, only a faint glimmer of gentle feminine energy remained in there with me. For a while afterward, sometimes when I closed my eyes,

[00:28:34] I would look for the mangled, dirty figure that once haunted me to find that state of being simply was not there. So instead, I looked for her after I cleaned her and I found her easily.

[00:28:49] I think of her from time to time but I haven't looked inside myself too much or tried to find answers. I'm just leaving her be. An Encounter at Camp by Choriqueso Dulce

[00:29:24] I'm from Paraguay and this story is about an experience I had while at camp as a teenager. I attended a religious school at the time and every year we would go to this sort of spiritual

[00:29:36] getaway, which was a camp situated in an open field next to a small river and forested mountain area. The whole area is beautiful but something about the vibe is just off. It almost seems lost in time,

[00:29:55] maybe due to how old and dated some of the nearby infrastructure is, I don't know. But because of this, the place has been shrouded in mystery and horror stories. It doesn't help

[00:30:09] that the whole town once burnt to the ground during a very gruesome war in the 1800s that nearly wiped my country off the map. So here's what happened. It was my last year in school,

[00:30:22] so therefore also my last year at camp. After a very long day of hiking out in the forest, my entire class was dead tired. So after dinner and a short gathering at the campfire,

[00:30:36] we went off to bed. There were only six of us boys in the entire class, so we had a whole dorm building to ourselves. We were in a long hall that was lined with bunk beds on each side of the room. It could have fit at least 40 people.

[00:30:53] We all decided to sleep on the top bunks. Three of us slept in beds next to each other, and the other three slept directly across from us. It was about midnight and we were just lying there, talking, joking, and laughing in the dark.

[00:31:10] I eventually fell asleep, but suddenly woke up at what I assume was between 2 and 3 AM. I lifted my head up from the pillow and made eye contact with my best friend.

[00:31:24] He was sleeping in the bunk in front of me, but at this point was also raising his head. Then he motioned to our classmate sleeping in the bunk next to him, nodding in his direction.

[00:31:37] I looked over and saw the silhouette of my classmate. He was just standing there, staring at his bed. I thought it was hilarious, but I laughed quietly and tried signaling to my

[00:31:51] friend that we should prank him or something. But before we could do anything, we both saw him crouch down to the floor. Confused, I tried to get a better look, and then I saw him. He was actually in bed, fully asleep and under the covers.

[00:32:15] My friend and I looked at each other wide-eyed, practically at the same time. We pulled our blankets over our heads and desperately tried to fall asleep, which we somehow managed to do.

[00:32:30] The next morning I went straight to my friend, and before I could even finish asking if he saw what I saw, he just interrupted me with a yes. He told me exactly what he saw,

[00:32:42] and explained it exactly as I just did. We approached this classmate and told him everything that happened, but of course he thought we were just joking around. However, my friend and I both vividly remember that event to this day,

[00:32:59] still talking about it every now and then, almost 8 years after it happened. It'd be one thing if I was the only person to have seen whatever this was, but the fact that my friend saw the exact same thing still gives me the chills.

[00:33:35] Did you ever go to youth camp as a kid? Like with school or church or anything? Oh boy, did I. Was it nice? Did you like it? I don't really want to get into it. Yeah, that's fair. I went in the 6th grade. It was okay.

[00:33:50] Oh, I think I know which one you're talking about. The one that every 6th grader in our town went to? That's the one. Yeah. I did go to camp, but I was not allowed to go to that one. My parents,

[00:34:03] I guess, didn't trust the other kids or something. I don't know. I always had to go to camp that was connected to our religion, so it was very midsummer. Bummer. Scientologists, they at least get that cruise ship.

[00:34:16] But the camp situation was the opposite for me. I didn't want to go, but my parents forced me. Did you see any spooky silhouettes in your cabin? I didn't, sadly. Must be a Paraguay thing.

[00:34:30] I did have fun on the midnight hike we went on though with the counselors. That could mean anything. You either did something harmless or something you hope your mom never finds out about.

[00:34:42] It was virtually harmless. There were 20 or 30 of us in the group hiking through the middle of the woods with two counselors, one in the front, one in the back. They had flashlights, but weren't using them so they could demonstrate how our eyes adjust to the moonlight or something.

[00:34:58] There really isn't much to this story, but whatever. I put a bunch of rocks in my pocket, and I would occasionally fling them off into the brush or against the trees that were 10 feet away.

[00:35:09] So many kids got legitimately scared as it went on. The counselors had no idea, and they just had to keep everybody calm the entire time. I stopped because one girl started crying. That's a bit too much, but it was fun. I enjoyed myself, yes. I'm horrible.

[00:35:26] You're such a trickster. Sixth graders are what? 11 years old? Yeah, 11 or 12. Plus being hours away from home, out in the dark in some woods they'd never been in before. As an adult, I totally get why they were so scared, but at the time,

[00:35:43] it was the funniest thing in the world. You were 12 too, so you're in the clear. Now, if you were a counselor doing this, I'd probably be mildly disappointed. Yeah. Oh man, remember those daycare workers who filmed themselves scaring those toddlers

[00:36:03] wearing a ghost face mask? Yeah, I say that so casually, but I kind of wish I didn't even bring it up. Yeah, that one made my blood pressure just go through the roof and tears welled up in my eyes.

[00:36:16] I think those pieces of shit got fired too. Yeah, I would definitely hope so. Yeah. I can stomach and process basically everything you throw at me, but anything visual involving kids or animals just completely incapacitates me. Yeah, I'm the same way. Yeah.

[00:36:33] Well, I guess my most memorable event of my camp days was when I had an out-of-body experience after a night full of nightmares. I woke up to find that I crapped my pants and then I tiptoed

[00:36:46] outside and threw my filthy underwear into the woods. Nice, nice. I feel like you've told this before. Was it on here? Was that somewhere else in person? Probably. I feel like I talk about it all

[00:36:56] the time, but it was pretty traumatic. It was at a Pentecostal church camp and everything is traumatic when you're at a Pentecostal church camp. Yeah, you're not allowed to poop when you're Pentecostal. Exactly. It was essentially the same exact experience that you would see if you watched

[00:37:12] the documentary Jesus Camp verbatim. Speaking of blood pressure rising, yeah, all that extreme religious stuff makes me so mad for obvious reasons. Doesn't matter which religion it is, but I also look at it like let's assume there is one path to God or enlightenment and

[00:37:32] religion X has all the answers, but you end up in some abusive twisted church that calls itself religion X. Now you're rightfully left with this really bad taste in your mouth, no pun intended, and might think, oh, that's how the religion is. Generalizations get made about it,

[00:37:51] its followers and so on. It's just not good. Yeah, I see where you're going. Now people are not only left with trauma, which is bad enough, but now in theory they could forever miss out on experiencing potential spiritual truths. Yeah, exactly. That's pretty much where I was

[00:38:10] going with it. Assuming the religion is the truth, now you have these culty people, abusive people who just steer people away. Maybe it's just the devil doing his magic. I don't know. People suck. Yeah, yeah, definitely. I've talked with a lot of people about spiritual and

[00:38:26] supernatural stuff recently just because of the new show, but one subject that has been at the forefront for me is dreams, both dreams and consciousness. Excellent stuff. Love it, love it, love it. Seems to be a frequent topic of story submissions here too. Yeah, I think that's just

[00:38:44] because it's a phenomenon that we don't know enough about, but that we all experience. I recently talked with Nancy Trevillato. She's a consciousness researcher, someone who spent over like 30 years in the field. She's also a founding member of the International Academy of Consciousness in Portugal.

[00:39:03] Fancy, fancy. It does sound like she really knows her stuff though. Oh yeah, she's definitely dedicated her entire life to it. Anyway, she's pretty confident in the assessment that dreams are more than just stuff that goes on in our heads. We do interface

[00:39:20] with other astral realms and we can be contacted by spirit guides and dreams. I've spoken with other people who are also experienced in the same field who disagree. However, I'm way more inclined to

[00:39:33] side with Nancy on this one. With all of my personal experiences with dreams and with all of the amazing stories about clairvoyance and dreams that we get on the show, I just can't

[00:39:44] accept that the dreamscape is just something that's in our heads. I think that Caden was very clearly visited by either a spirit guide or a family member in their dreams in that story.

[00:39:58] Yeah, I'm so on the fence about all of that. Part of me thinks dreams are just a portal into our subconscious and everything comes from within. We just try our best to make sense of it.

[00:40:09] Or maybe it's like how our immune system fights off colds. Dreams, even nightmares, could be our mind or soul's way of cleansing things, I guess. But then there are certain things that are just beyond explanation, especially some of the precognitive stuff.

[00:40:26] Yeah, I don't completely disagree with you. I think it can be both. Yeah. I just think that dreams are just way more spiritual than we're made to believe. Without a doubt. I love the quote, we are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings

[00:40:42] having a human experience. And I think the dreamscape is where we go when the human part of us powers down when we go to sleep. And I just think that experience opens us up to these messages like in Caden's story.

[00:40:57] Yeah, there is no spoon. As cool as it is to dream about the most surreal and random things, I'm hoping that our state of consciousness gets like some sort of upgrade when we make it out to the dreamscape. So things actually make more sense.

[00:41:13] Yeah, I'm sure it will. Remember how cable TV used to scramble the premium channels? That's how dreams feel now. Like we have an idea of what's going on, but it's not entirely clear.

[00:41:24] That's a really good way to put it. Yeah, my cousins and I used to watch those all the time. Yeah, same. Me and my friend did too. You guys know what we're talking about. Yeah.

[00:41:34] Yeah, it'll all work out. Death will just be our spiritual subscription to stars and Cinemax and everything will finally make perfect sense. HBO. How about that outro? Get it? Haha, nice. Well, thanks everybody so much for listening.

[00:41:52] Make sure to send your stories into stories at oddtrails.com to hear them on the show. All the stories you heard this week were narrated and produced with the permission of their

[00:42:00] respective authors. Make sure you sign up for our Patreon if you want to get access to ad-free versions of all of our episodes at a higher bit rate. You can do that at patreon.com forward slash

[00:42:10] odd trails. And finally, make sure to check out the new episodes of my other podcasts like Let's Not Meet and the Old Time Radiocast at crypticcountypodcasts.com. Everybody stay safe. Peace out. Don't let the ghosts and the ghouls disturb you.