Episode 139: Ball Lightning

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER_02]: Odd Trails is a true paranormal podcast. If you have a story to share, send it to stories at oddtrails.com. Enjoy the show.

[00:00:57] [SPEAKER_02]: Intelligent Ball Lightning by Lexter

[00:01:02] [SPEAKER_02]: My grandma died from cancer, but before she passed away, she spent quite a few days telling us and the

[00:01:09] [SPEAKER_02]: grandchildren stories of her past. She had a few supernatural experiences, but this one intrigued

[00:01:16] [SPEAKER_02]: me the most. When she was a 12-year-old girl, she said she experienced a ball lightning shoot

[00:01:24] [SPEAKER_02]: through her small adobe house in the middle of rural Mexico. Her house was made of two rooms

[00:01:31] [SPEAKER_02]: with a dirt floor. One was the kitchen slash living room and the other was a bedroom.

[00:01:36] [SPEAKER_02]: There was a hallway connecting both rooms, and the only doors were the front screen door and

[00:01:42] [SPEAKER_02]: the back door. Back then they didn't have any glass windows in their houses, just square holes

[00:01:49] [SPEAKER_02]: with curtains covering them. My grandma always made sure to tell us how beautiful the sky would be

[00:01:55] [SPEAKER_02]: at all hours. She lived on a ranch far from any cities or a lot of light pollution.

[00:02:03] [SPEAKER_02]: She went on to say that on a strong stormy night, she and her mother were lying in bed

[00:02:09] [SPEAKER_02]: in the bedroom. The bed was on the floor and a window hole was about three feet above

[00:02:15] [SPEAKER_02]: their heads. She remembers wiggling her toes and talking to her mother about the baby chicks that

[00:02:22] [SPEAKER_02]: had just hatched. All of a sudden it went very quiet, almost scary when it had been thundering

[00:02:29] [SPEAKER_02]: before. Then the room that she and her mom were in suddenly got so bright that all she saw was

[00:02:37] [SPEAKER_02]: white for a second. Then a blue static ball of lightning shot through the window above their

[00:02:43] [SPEAKER_02]: heads, burned their toes, made a sharp right turn, then a left, then went down the hall,

[00:02:49] [SPEAKER_02]: turned left and shot through the screen door. My grandma ran through that back door and

[00:02:56] [SPEAKER_02]: witnessed the blue ball of lightning move around the outdoor bathroom, then sink slowly into the

[00:03:02] [SPEAKER_02]: ground. As soon as the ball dispersed into the ground, the storm raged with rain and lightning.

[00:03:10] [SPEAKER_02]: My grandmother and her mother could not sleep that night.

[00:03:14] [SPEAKER_02]: Does anyone else have any experience with ball lightning or something similar?

[00:03:44] [SPEAKER_00]: Lighting Candles by Anonymous

[00:03:48] [SPEAKER_00]: I grew up in a small three-bedroom home, but I at least had my own room. However,

[00:03:55] [SPEAKER_00]: something weird would often happen, especially whenever I was in distress.

[00:04:00] [SPEAKER_00]: I would sleepwalk and wake up in this spare bedroom. About a year after my grandpa passed away,

[00:04:07] [SPEAKER_00]: I got really upset when I realized I couldn't remember what his voice sounded like.

[00:04:12] [SPEAKER_00]: I cried myself to sleep, and at some point, a strange noise suddenly woke me.

[00:04:18] [SPEAKER_00]: Then I once again woke up in the spare bedroom.

[00:04:22] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't even remember what the noise was from, but what really alerted me

[00:04:27] [SPEAKER_00]: was when I then felt someone sitting on my bed. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up,

[00:04:33] [SPEAKER_00]: and I completely froze. Strangely though, I wasn't scared, just hyper-aware that

[00:04:41] [SPEAKER_00]: something was happening. Then, miraculously, I heard the now unmistakable sound of my

[00:04:49] [SPEAKER_00]: grandpa's voice. He said, It's only me you daft bugger, you're fine.

[00:04:56] [SPEAKER_00]: I can't describe the feeling that followed. It was like the air suddenly changed,

[00:05:02] [SPEAKER_00]: and my hyper-awareness confirmed that I wasn't alone. And just like that,

[00:05:08] [SPEAKER_00]: the energy in the room returned to normal, and I drifted back off to sleep,

[00:05:13] [SPEAKER_00]: feeling loved and at peace. But when I woke up the next morning,

[00:05:19] [SPEAKER_00]: I told myself it all must have just been a dream, that I noticed something.

[00:05:24] [SPEAKER_00]: My grandpa's trademark walking stick was propped up against the door.

[00:05:29] [SPEAKER_00]: The door opened into the room. There was no way my parents could have positioned it where it was.

[00:05:36] [SPEAKER_00]: But still, I asked them about it, and they were genuinely confused.

[00:05:41] [SPEAKER_00]: The walking stick had been in another room storage closet for a while.

[00:05:45] [SPEAKER_00]: We'd all forgotten it was even in there. I believe my grandpa visited me that night,

[00:05:50] [SPEAKER_00]: and it was his way of letting me know that he's still with us.

[00:05:55] [SPEAKER_00]: Even if it was just a dream, or if I sleepwalked and got the walking stick myself,

[00:06:01] [SPEAKER_00]: I was at least able to hear his voice again, and nothing can take that away from me.

[00:06:06] [SPEAKER_00]: I won't forget what it sounds like again.

[00:06:10] [SPEAKER_00]: Now for some experiences as an adult. Shortly before I gave birth to my first son,

[00:06:16] [SPEAKER_00]: we moved into our first home. Odd things started to happen in the house,

[00:06:21] [SPEAKER_00]: and I genuinely thought I was losing my mind. As most parents know, trying to clean and tidy

[00:06:28] [SPEAKER_00]: a house with a toddler in tow is like cleaning your teeth with Oreos, so it became a routine

[00:06:34] [SPEAKER_00]: after my baby went to sleep. I'd usually stay up getting everything done, only to start all

[00:06:41] [SPEAKER_00]: over again the next day. At the time we had a border collie named Theo. Theo started to act

[00:06:48] [SPEAKER_00]: strangely whenever he was anywhere near the stairs. He would only go upstairs if someone else was with

[00:06:54] [SPEAKER_00]: him, and would always avoid the middle part of the first few steps. It got worse. He started

[00:07:02] [SPEAKER_00]: running as close to the wall as he could, and then eventually outright refused to go upstairs

[00:07:07] [SPEAKER_00]: at all. He would still howl all night if I left him downstairs, so I had to get used to carrying him.

[00:07:15] [SPEAKER_00]: I figured he was just getting adjusted to the new house where it was just one of his quirks.

[00:07:21] [SPEAKER_00]: He adored his new baby brother though, and usually wanted to sleep next to his cot.

[00:07:27] [SPEAKER_00]: At first I didn't allow it, because I didn't want him to disturb my baby,

[00:07:32] [SPEAKER_00]: but he would spend so much time pacing up and down outside his room that I let him.

[00:07:39] [SPEAKER_00]: After that, there were no more issues with Theo. Other strange stuff would happen,

[00:07:45] [SPEAKER_00]: and I really thought I was losing my mind. Keys would go missing. I kept finding the

[00:07:51] [SPEAKER_00]: toiletries on the bathroom shelf upside down. I meticulously cleaned and tidied the kitchen

[00:07:58] [SPEAKER_00]: before bed every evening, and would often find several cabinet doors wide open the next morning.

[00:08:06] [SPEAKER_00]: I chalked it up to sleep deprivation. I'd sometimes wake up to find small,

[00:08:12] [SPEAKER_00]: tidy little pieces of salt or sugar next to the sink. I never tasted it to find out.

[00:08:19] [SPEAKER_00]: My son's toys would make noises, even after I confirmed I had turned off the bottom switch

[00:08:25] [SPEAKER_00]: or removed the batteries. I started to realize that there must be a paranormal reason for all of this.

[00:08:33] [SPEAKER_00]: Here's the thing though, I didn't feel frightened or threatened in any way,

[00:08:39] [SPEAKER_00]: and I didn't get that goosebumps feeling I had years before when my grandpa visited me.

[00:08:45] [SPEAKER_00]: I was just getting frustrated because my husband thought I was losing it,

[00:08:50] [SPEAKER_00]: either doing all these things myself or making it up in my head.

[00:08:54] [SPEAKER_00]: But things only started to happen more frequently. Faucets would turn on,

[00:09:00] [SPEAKER_00]: even though I remember twisting them tightly shut. The chairs in the dining room would be

[00:09:06] [SPEAKER_00]: pulled away from the table every morning, but only by a few inches. And day by day,

[00:09:12] [SPEAKER_00]: if I didn't push them back in, they'd gradually move farther back until eventually

[00:09:18] [SPEAKER_00]: ending up in the middle of the room. I was worried even more now about my son and Theo.

[00:09:25] [SPEAKER_00]: My son was around a year old. I watched him over the video monitors many times,

[00:09:31] [SPEAKER_00]: as he'd stand up in his crib and hold onto the bars, staring silently at the wall for hours.

[00:09:39] [SPEAKER_00]: This freaked me out so much. Theo must have known something was up,

[00:09:45] [SPEAKER_00]: because he refused to leave his baby brother alone at night, and would get really stressed if I asked

[00:09:50] [SPEAKER_00]: him to come to our room instead. Then the footsteps started, and that's what really scared me.

[00:09:58] [SPEAKER_00]: Everybody would be asleep, and I'd hear heavy, clomping footsteps going up and down the stairs.

[00:10:05] [SPEAKER_00]: Theo was getting more stressed, and had now even started to growl at the spots on the stairs

[00:10:11] [SPEAKER_00]: he would avoid. One night there was a huge crash downstairs, like the TV had fallen off the stand,

[00:10:19] [SPEAKER_00]: where a bookcase had tipped over or something. But when my husband went downstairs,

[00:10:25] [SPEAKER_00]: nothing was amiss at all. Since he had heard the noise too, he finally started to believe me.

[00:10:32] [SPEAKER_00]: The morning after that loud crash, I talked to my stepdad about everything.

[00:10:37] [SPEAKER_00]: He's an extremely sensible person, and rather skeptical about these kinds of things.

[00:10:43] [SPEAKER_00]: I figured he'd put my mind at ease. But to my surprise, he got very quiet.

[00:10:51] [SPEAKER_00]: He suggested I go to the part of the house with the most activity,

[00:10:55] [SPEAKER_00]: then talk to whoever or whatever was there, and politely ask it to stop.

[00:11:01] [SPEAKER_00]: I was very surprised by his reaction and response. He even looked a little embarrassed,

[00:11:08] [SPEAKER_00]: and before I could ask him more about it, he muttered something about his mother having

[00:11:13] [SPEAKER_00]: a similar problem years ago, and he changed the subject.

[00:11:18] [SPEAKER_00]: So that night, feeling really silly, I went to the stairs and sat on the steps that Theo would

[00:11:25] [SPEAKER_00]: avoid. I just started talking to thin air, something like,

[00:11:30] [SPEAKER_00]: hi, I know you're here and I want you to know that you're welcome,

[00:11:34] [SPEAKER_00]: and I hope we're welcome too. But I'm starting to get a bit frightened and so is my dog.

[00:11:41] [SPEAKER_00]: As I was just chatting away, my husband walked out to the top of the stairs,

[00:11:46] [SPEAKER_00]: and asked who I was talking to. I just casually told him, I'm talking with the ghost.

[00:11:53] [SPEAKER_00]: The alarm on his face, as if it was the most normal thing in the world to be having a conversation

[00:12:00] [SPEAKER_00]: with thin air. I thought he'd be fitting me for a straight jacket soon.

[00:12:05] [SPEAKER_00]: I wrapped things up by telling the ghosts that they were very welcome,

[00:12:09] [SPEAKER_00]: and that I'd light a candle in the kitchen to let them know they're on my mind,

[00:12:13] [SPEAKER_00]: and they're not forgotten.

[00:12:16] [SPEAKER_00]: Everything stopped. No more noises or piles of salt.

[00:12:21] [SPEAKER_00]: Things stopped going missing, and the chairs stayed where I left them.

[00:12:26] [SPEAKER_00]: No more open cabinets, no more loud footsteps on the stairs.

[00:12:31] [SPEAKER_00]: Then the shocker. When I came home the next day, Theo was sitting on the stairs, happily waiting to

[00:12:38] [SPEAKER_00]: greet me. The same spot he would always so fearfully avoid. He's been fine around the

[00:12:44] [SPEAKER_00]: stairs ever since. I stuck to my promise with the candle, lighting it most nights.

[00:12:52] [SPEAKER_00]: It became a habit, and sometimes I'd find myself chatting out loud when I lit them.

[00:12:57] [SPEAKER_00]: I told the ghost I didn't mind the little salt piles if they ever want to say hi.

[00:13:03] [SPEAKER_00]: I'd get a little pile once every few weeks. We moved out about a year after,

[00:13:09] [SPEAKER_00]: and I always wonder if the new owners ever had similar experiences.

[00:13:15] [SPEAKER_00]: Both experiences have taught me that not all paranormal activity has to be scary.

[00:13:21] [SPEAKER_00]: The unknown can be frightening, but I never truly felt threatened, at least not until the

[00:13:27] [SPEAKER_00]: night of the big crash. But even then, it felt like whatever it was was just getting

[00:13:34] [SPEAKER_00]: angry about not being acknowledged. It's been 11 years, nothing strange has happened in our new home,

[00:13:42] [SPEAKER_00]: but I still light a candle for my old friend every now and then.

[00:14:10] [SPEAKER_02]: So for the past week, I've been drinking one magic mind shot every morning,

[00:14:16] [SPEAKER_02]: and the difference in my mental clarity and focus has been incredible.

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[00:15:44] [SPEAKER_02]: or follow the link in the show notes. The following story contains references to hunting

[00:16:09] [SPEAKER_02]: and animal death. Listener discretion is advised.

[00:16:13] [SPEAKER_02]: Green Eyes by Eugene

[00:16:16] [SPEAKER_02]: I have a story from my youth that only my two friends have ever believed, which I would like to share.

[00:16:24] [SPEAKER_02]: I can send you the exact locations of where this incident occurred. I was very familiar with

[00:16:29] [SPEAKER_02]: the area having grown up in Grants, New Mexico near a dormant volcano named Mount Taylor.

[00:16:36] [SPEAKER_02]: One of my best friends, Chad, lived up in the mountains. After we all got our driver's license,

[00:16:42] [SPEAKER_02]: I became close with my friends Chad and Chris. It was the fall of 1998. I remember because it

[00:16:49] [SPEAKER_02]: was during football season, and this incident led me to eventually move in with my father.

[00:16:56] [SPEAKER_02]: The day prior, Chris had installed a radio in Chad's truck, an old green Ford monster.

[00:17:02] [SPEAKER_02]: I believe it was from the 1960s. The fenders were always rusting off,

[00:17:08] [SPEAKER_02]: and we had made many repairs over the years. Apparently Chris messed up the installation

[00:17:13] [SPEAKER_02]: in the truck caught fire. It wasn't too bad, but it wasn't drivable.

[00:17:19] [SPEAKER_02]: We planned on going what we called bunny thumping. There were hundreds of jackrabbits,

[00:17:26] [SPEAKER_02]: and we would go spotlighting and shooting them. We would usually meet up at Chad's house

[00:17:31] [SPEAKER_02]: because it was near the area that we would go to. I rode with Chris because the road up to Chad's

[00:17:37] [SPEAKER_02]: house was rough, and I had a 1985 Camaro that I had just washed. I didn't want to get it dirty

[00:17:43] [SPEAKER_02]: in the gravel and on the dirt roads. When we got to Chad's, he was there but was borrowing

[00:17:49] [SPEAKER_02]: his Aunt Sherry's truck and didn't have a key to his house to get the guns. Chad had a cell

[00:17:56] [SPEAKER_02]: phone, so we called Chad's friend David to come and bring some guns. He had loads of them,

[00:18:03] [SPEAKER_02]: so a half hour later, David shows up with his cousin, whose name I don't remember.

[00:18:09] [SPEAKER_02]: The sun was still up when we left. We decided to go to David's old OJ Simpson Look-alike

[00:18:14] [SPEAKER_02]: Bronco. I grabbed a 12 gauge, but I don't remember what gun Chris grabbed. I think it

[00:18:20] [SPEAKER_02]: was a .22 rifle. As we started down the road that hand railed the Mesa north of town,

[00:18:27] [SPEAKER_02]: a rattle snake was in the middle of the road and David and his cousin jumped out to shoot it.

[00:18:33] [SPEAKER_02]: Part of the snake flew up about 10 feet into a tree. Chris and I were concerned with how

[00:18:38] [SPEAKER_02]: reckless these new guys were. We rode with them for another five minutes or so.

[00:18:44] [SPEAKER_02]: Chris and I decided to get out and walk down the road that went up the side of the Mesa

[00:18:48] [SPEAKER_02]: on the backside of an old mine away from those crazy guys. We told them that once it got dark,

[00:18:55] [SPEAKER_02]: we would walk back to the road and we would shoot the guns if we needed them.

[00:18:59] [SPEAKER_02]: Chris and I walked for over an hour or so before we decided to start walking back.

[00:19:05] [SPEAKER_02]: I had to be home by 10. I remember we started shooting for them to come and get us later,

[00:19:10] [SPEAKER_02]: but we could tell that they were chasing rabbits by how the truck was moving through

[00:19:14] [SPEAKER_02]: the open plain where they were. We had walked up some roads on the side of the Mesa and we could see

[00:19:20] [SPEAKER_02]: them now. My time to be home was getting closer and Chris and I decided to just walk back to Chads.

[00:19:28] [SPEAKER_02]: They were ignoring our shots. We were walking for a few minutes and the sun was down,

[00:19:34] [SPEAKER_02]: but the moon was pretty bright that night. As we were walking on the south side of the road,

[00:19:39] [SPEAKER_02]: about 15 to 20 meters away from the tree line, I saw these small green eyes about one foot or so off

[00:19:47] [SPEAKER_02]: of the ground. Chris saw them too. I don't remember what exactly he said to me, but he obviously saw

[00:19:54] [SPEAKER_02]: it. We both took off running as fast as we could. We ran for a good half mile or so.

[00:20:01] [SPEAKER_02]: We then started giving each other crap for being scared, trying to act tough.

[00:20:06] [SPEAKER_02]: I said something to the effect of, if we saw them again, I would blast it with the shotgun.

[00:20:13] [SPEAKER_02]: I still regret those words. Not too far away, we got to an area known as the oaks.

[00:20:20] [SPEAKER_02]: It was a party spot for high schoolers in previous generations.

[00:20:24] [SPEAKER_02]: It's distinguishable from other areas due to the thick oaks that grow there in contrast

[00:20:30] [SPEAKER_02]: to the spine and pinion trees that dominate the region.

[00:20:35] [SPEAKER_02]: Sure as shit, we saw those eyes again. I don't remember his exact words,

[00:20:41] [SPEAKER_02]: but he called my bluff and his phrase was something like, go shoot it tough guy.

[00:20:48] [SPEAKER_02]: I was focused on those damn eyes as I slowly approached, staring down the barrel of the pump

[00:20:54] [SPEAKER_02]: action shotgun. They were small and again about one foot off of the ground.

[00:21:01] [SPEAKER_02]: They were about two inches apart and about the size of a fingernail.

[00:21:06] [SPEAKER_02]: I couldn't make out the shapes too well because they glowed so much, like when a laser hits

[00:21:12] [SPEAKER_02]: something metallic and it scatters and breaks it up. I slowly approached as I walked through

[00:21:18] [SPEAKER_02]: the sand just off the dirt road. I got about 10 feet away and I was trying to see what it was

[00:21:24] [SPEAKER_02]: before I squeezed the trigger. We were in the thick oaks and the moonlight was non-existent.

[00:21:31] [SPEAKER_02]: I couldn't make out an outline whatsoever. I knew that it was something alive,

[00:21:36] [SPEAKER_02]: I could see the eyes begin to squint. Then the eyes started to close and I squeezed the trigger

[00:21:43] [SPEAKER_02]: at that exact instant. When a shotgun blast hits an animal, it usually makes a hollow sound.

[00:21:50] [SPEAKER_02]: I didn't hear it hit anything but the ground through the ringing in my ears.

[00:21:56] [SPEAKER_02]: As soon as I shot, I swear that the object moved like it teleported four feet to the left.

[00:22:04] [SPEAKER_02]: We sprinted for about a mile and we were already on the main road back to Chad's house to retrieve

[00:22:09] [SPEAKER_02]: Chris's car when Chad and the other two caught up with us. We tried to tell them about it on the

[00:22:14] [SPEAKER_02]: three-minute ride back to Chad's house but they didn't believe us. At this point,

[00:22:19] [SPEAKER_02]: I was already going to be late for curfew. I told Chris to take me home because my

[00:22:24] [SPEAKER_02]: mom was very strict and I was going to be in deep trouble but instead Chris drove back to the oaks.

[00:22:31] [SPEAKER_02]: Chad, David, and his cousin followed us. We put the headlights in the spot where we saw the eyes.

[00:22:37] [SPEAKER_02]: You could see my footprints in the sand where I walked towards it.

[00:22:41] [SPEAKER_02]: You could also see where my round impacted. What none of us could see were any footprints

[00:22:47] [SPEAKER_02]: from the creature. There was no blood. It was like it was never there.

[00:22:54] [SPEAKER_02]: I chugged a Gatorade and ate Doritos on the ride home. I had bought them at Alsup's on the way up.

[00:23:00] [SPEAKER_02]: We had bought them for the ride. When I got home, my mom was pissed. She was convinced that we were

[00:23:05] [SPEAKER_02]: out drinking and that I ate Doritos to hide the smell. I know it makes no sense. Doritos

[00:23:11] [SPEAKER_02]: wouldn't hide the smell of beer or liquor. We hadn't drunk alcohol or done any drugs.

[00:23:18] [SPEAKER_02]: She took my car away and grounded me. Two days later, I moved in with my dad because

[00:23:23] [SPEAKER_02]: she still didn't believe me or Chris. Chad eventually came to believe us after a while.

[00:23:28] [SPEAKER_02]: We continued bunny thumping in that area for another four years or so

[00:23:31] [SPEAKER_02]: until I left to join the army full time. We never saw anything like it again.

[00:23:37] [SPEAKER_02]: We also never split the group up again. I know I mentioned it looked like a laser,

[00:23:43] [SPEAKER_02]: but green ones were not something that you could easily buy at the time.

[00:23:48] [SPEAKER_02]: I saw it walk or move behind trees before our initial sprint though. That would have been

[00:23:54] [SPEAKER_02]: impossible because of the trees in that area. I could also see the eyes squint when I got closer.

[00:24:01] [SPEAKER_02]: They were almond shaped for the most part. I hope you enjoyed the story. Chad and I

[00:24:07] [SPEAKER_02]: aren't as close as we used to be, but he can verify most of it. Chris and I haven't seen

[00:24:12] [SPEAKER_02]: each other since 2007, but I still text him on his birthdays.

[00:24:34] [SPEAKER_00]: I saw a ghost in my house by Louie 808. This happened quite a few years ago,

[00:24:43] [SPEAKER_00]: but I can still remember it like it was yesterday. This wasn't something I saw out of the corner

[00:24:49] [SPEAKER_00]: of my eye for a split second or from super far away. I actually saw a ghost up close and personal

[00:24:56] [SPEAKER_00]: for a solid five to six seconds, which when you're seeing a ghost seems like an eternity.

[00:25:03] [SPEAKER_00]: I was lying on my couch at night when all of a sudden I saw a spectral male figure made

[00:25:10] [SPEAKER_00]: of blue light emerge from around the corner of my hallway and start walking toward me.

[00:25:17] [SPEAKER_00]: He also appeared transparent. He couldn't have been more than 10 to 15 feet away from me.

[00:25:25] [SPEAKER_00]: I was completely floored, perplexed, amazed, shocked all at the same time.

[00:25:32] [SPEAKER_00]: He appeared in such great detail that I could even tell what type of clothing he was wearing.

[00:25:37] [SPEAKER_00]: It was some type of military garment. He was a young Asian male in his 20s.

[00:25:43] [SPEAKER_00]: He had a stoic, somber look on his face. Almost sad.

[00:25:49] [SPEAKER_00]: As he walked towards me, he left a trail of undulating blue light behind him that kind of

[00:25:56] [SPEAKER_00]: waved up and down. This lasted for a solid five or six seconds. The entire time my eyes were

[00:26:04] [SPEAKER_00]: completely wide open and I could feel my heart starting to race. And as quickly as he appeared,

[00:26:11] [SPEAKER_00]: he slowly vanished into thin air as he stepped closer to me.

[00:26:16] [SPEAKER_00]: I've never seen anything like it before in my life and I doubt I'll ever see anything like it

[00:26:22] [SPEAKER_00]: ever again. My family brushes off my experience as just having a vivid imagination,

[00:26:28] [SPEAKER_00]: but it's like no, I know what I saw. There's no way what I saw wasn't real.

[00:26:35] [SPEAKER_00]: I've never believed in ghosts before thinking that anyone who does has to be certified crazy.

[00:26:41] [SPEAKER_00]: But after that night, I truly believe in ghosts and some sort of afterlife.

[00:26:47] [SPEAKER_00]: For some reason, I didn't feel scared when I saw him or even after. The primary emotion I felt

[00:26:55] [SPEAKER_00]: was pure amazement. I was absolutely bewildered. Am I crazy? Has anyone seen anything similar?

[00:27:23] [SPEAKER_02]: World War II era singing soldiers by William.

[00:27:29] [SPEAKER_02]: I just want to start off by saying that I was not a firm believer in the paranormal until now.

[00:27:35] [SPEAKER_02]: A few weeks ago, we were in Belgium taking a battle tour of the Battle of Bulge.

[00:27:41] [SPEAKER_02]: Note that this was very deep in the forest. I was with my girlfriend, Alyssa at the time,

[00:27:47] [SPEAKER_02]: and we were with our tour guide named Liam. We were deep in the forest when we came across a large

[00:27:54] [SPEAKER_02]: crater, most likely caused by a huge mortar attack. When we approached the crater excited,

[00:28:02] [SPEAKER_02]: I started talking with the tour guide to find out what type of mortars were used

[00:28:06] [SPEAKER_02]: when Alyssa told me to shut up and listen. When I stopped talking, I heard it.

[00:28:13] [SPEAKER_02]: Singing. It was deep singing and it was in German.

[00:28:18] [SPEAKER_02]: It was so many voices singing together. It sounded like a choir. I immediately started

[00:28:24] [SPEAKER_02]: recording on my phone, but it didn't capture the sound due to how faint and quiet it was.

[00:28:31] [SPEAKER_02]: After about two minutes of this deep singing, it stopped.

[00:28:37] [SPEAKER_02]: I was flabbergasted at what I had just heard. Our tour guide, however, wasn't surprised.

[00:28:43] [SPEAKER_02]: He said that the soldiers used to sing a song named Erika and it was very popular for the morale

[00:28:49] [SPEAKER_02]: back then in World War II. I immediately had goosebumps all over and we decided to leave

[00:28:56] [SPEAKER_02]: since this was so deep in the woods. On our way back to Belgium, I did some research on the

[00:29:02] [SPEAKER_02]: song and its relation to the Battle of Bulge. I found out that there was a German outpost right

[00:29:08] [SPEAKER_02]: near the crater where we were and at that German outpost, every day and night, the soldiers would

[00:29:14] [SPEAKER_02]: sing the song Erika to boost morale and keep brave during the cold winters. Maybe the soldiers

[00:29:21] [SPEAKER_02]: just wanted to be remembered or stand out from the others.

[00:29:46] [SPEAKER_00]: A Creepy Story by Sue Linda Lee

[00:29:50] [SPEAKER_00]: Back when I was a kid, my family and I lived in a pretty old house in Tennessee.

[00:29:55] [SPEAKER_00]: It was built in the 1920s, I believe. I used to have recurring sleep paralysis experiences,

[00:30:03] [SPEAKER_00]: featuring a tall man with a hat walking down the hallway to my bedroom door,

[00:30:08] [SPEAKER_00]: but I would always wake up by the time he got to my room.

[00:30:12] [SPEAKER_00]: Textbook Sleep Prolices Story

[00:30:15] [SPEAKER_00]: There was a lot more to that house though. During the summer, my mom would leave me and

[00:30:20] [SPEAKER_00]: my three siblings home alone while she worked. She would come home tired and didn't like us

[00:30:26] [SPEAKER_00]: immediately stampeding her when she arrived. One day my siblings and I were all watching

[00:30:32] [SPEAKER_00]: TV in the living room, just doing the usual. We heard our mom getting home early and

[00:30:38] [SPEAKER_00]: we were really happy about that. We heard the back door open as usual,

[00:30:43] [SPEAKER_00]: and then she walked in while talking on the phone with her friend.

[00:30:47] [SPEAKER_00]: She always wore these black leather boots, and we could hear their familiar clunking on the floor

[00:30:53] [SPEAKER_00]: while she walked and talked towards us. She was finally almost to the living room,

[00:30:59] [SPEAKER_00]: we could hear her at the end of the hallway, actually in the same spot I'd always see that

[00:31:04] [SPEAKER_00]: tall man. When we got up to greet her though, she wasn't there. We were all stunned.

[00:31:12] [SPEAKER_00]: My sister called her and you guessed it, she was still at work. I didn't tell my brother about

[00:31:19] [SPEAKER_00]: the shadow man before, but when I did he said he had seen him in the bathroom,

[00:31:25] [SPEAKER_00]: which was in that same hallway. Even my mom said she used to hear my little brother

[00:31:30] [SPEAKER_00]: calling her name when he wasn't home. I hated that house.

[00:31:52] [SPEAKER_02]: You know, I can remember hearing about ball lightning for the first time on this episode

[00:31:57] [SPEAKER_02]: of Mysterious Universe like 15 years ago. And I remember thinking why do they keep

[00:32:02] [SPEAKER_02]: saying it like that? Is this some kind of regional thing exclusive to Australia? Why is it?

[00:32:09] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, whatever it is. I've heard similar stories. One was sent to us a while ago,

[00:32:14] [SPEAKER_00]: but it was only like five sentences long so it didn't make it onto the show.

[00:32:18] [SPEAKER_00]: I'll have to try to find it now, but you're right, that's so weird.

[00:32:21] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that's true. We do get a lot of like five sentence stories that we can't

[00:32:25] [SPEAKER_02]: really include. But please do look for it.

[00:32:29] [SPEAKER_00]: For sure. You're right though. The wording doesn't sound right. It seems

[00:32:34] [SPEAKER_00]: like it should be ball of lightning or even just lightning ball. That sounds cool.

[00:32:39] [SPEAKER_02]: Lightning ball is perfect, yeah. It seems like some weird glitch in the simulation

[00:32:43] [SPEAKER_02]: and we all just accepted it. Yeah, ball lightning, that's what it is.

[00:32:47] [SPEAKER_00]: You know what it reminds me of? It's like how the abbreviation for the GameCube is GCN

[00:32:53] [SPEAKER_00]: instead of NGC. What? That's real?

[00:32:58] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, you probably didn't realize that. No, I'm thinking about it.

[00:33:02] [SPEAKER_02]: And we just went along with it. We just accepted that. That's so weird, yeah.

[00:33:09] [SPEAKER_00]: Huh? Just like we accept Walt Disney's D isn't a backwards G.

[00:33:14] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that always bothered me.

[00:33:18] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, for any listeners who aren't familiar or were just

[00:33:22] [SPEAKER_00]: asking the same question about ball lightning, it's similar to how it was described in the

[00:33:27] [SPEAKER_02]: story this week. Yeah, and science has absolutely no definitive explanation of ball

[00:33:33] [SPEAKER_02]: lightning or if it actually exists. Yeah, what is love? Does love exist?

[00:33:40] [SPEAKER_00]: But I mean like how would science even account for an intelligent ball lightning

[00:33:45] [SPEAKER_00]: like what we heard about in the story? It basically respected the rules of physics

[00:33:50] [SPEAKER_00]: and just came through the window and then silently went out through the door,

[00:33:54] [SPEAKER_00]: not to mention burning their toes in the process. It sounded like a real thing.

[00:34:00] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. You know I learned recently that you do not want to sleep near a window during

[00:34:05] [SPEAKER_00]: a lightning storm. Why is that? Was there a account not too far out there? Can lightning just

[00:34:11] [SPEAKER_02]: zigzag at an angle and get you through the window? Yes, there are like multiple instances of lightning

[00:34:18] [SPEAKER_02]: just swooping into someone's room and striking them. I was talking with my friend K-DRA from

[00:34:23] [SPEAKER_02]: the Perplexity podcast recently and she was telling me about this person named Greta Alexander.

[00:34:29] [SPEAKER_02]: They're a well-known psychic and they got their X-Men powers from when she was struck by lightning

[00:34:36] [SPEAKER_02]: and it came through her window. She ended up surviving along with the baby that she was

[00:34:40] [SPEAKER_00]: pregnant with and they were perfectly fine. So I know it's not lightning obviously because

[00:34:46] [SPEAKER_00]: it's a beanstalk but when I have the visual of lightning bolts navigating through a window

[00:34:52] [SPEAKER_00]: and into somebody's bedroom, I think of Mickey and the Beanstalk when the Beanstalk just

[00:34:56] [SPEAKER_00]: overtakes that house and it just consumes it like thorns. But that's the visual I got when

[00:35:02] [SPEAKER_00]: I was thinking of the ball lightning creeping through the house. Yeah, I remember watching

[00:35:07] [SPEAKER_02]: that. I loved that era when they were just... They would have actual Disney movies with the

[00:35:13] [SPEAKER_02]: Disney characters like Mickey and Goofy and stuff. The core members? Yeah, the core members.

[00:35:18] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, like what was it? The three musketeers or whatever it was called?

[00:35:22] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I'm Prince and the Poppers. My favorite personally.

[00:35:25] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I missed that era. That was fun. But yeah, they were perfectly fine. They got

[00:35:30] [SPEAKER_02]: struck by lightning. There was fire on the bed that burned a hole into it. It was crazy.

[00:35:35] [SPEAKER_00]: Yikes. Yikes. So it's a full-blown documented story, eh?

[00:35:39] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah. It was pretty amazing. Shortly after that she was shocked while plugging

[00:35:42] [SPEAKER_02]: a refrigerator into a faulty outlet as well. See, I need to get ahold of her. Maybe she can fix

[00:35:48] [SPEAKER_00]: the outlet in my garage because my grass has been dead for a while now all summer because the outlet

[00:35:54] [SPEAKER_00]: to my sprinkler box just isn't working and I've been too lazy to try to see if I could fix it.

[00:36:00] [SPEAKER_00]: So if anybody out there has been struck by lightning, by all means swing by and come fix

[00:36:04] [SPEAKER_02]: this outlet for me. Yeah, totally. Maybe they'll earn some psychic abilities in the process. But

[00:36:09] [SPEAKER_00]: yeah, these were the events that gave her her psychic abilities. Pretty crazy.

[00:36:14] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean she wasn't harmed so it seems like a win-win get to become an X-man,

[00:36:19] [SPEAKER_02]: X person in the process. Yeah, and then she went on to help police solve cases

[00:36:24] [SPEAKER_02]: with her abilities and it was all very well documented. There are so many cases similar

[00:36:29] [SPEAKER_02]: to hers where someone experiences some kind of trauma or accident and then they come out of

[00:36:34] [SPEAKER_02]: with these amazing abilities, whether it be like speaking a different language,

[00:36:40] [SPEAKER_02]: being able to play a new instrument out of seemingly nowhere or developing psychic powers

[00:36:45] [SPEAKER_00]: like Greta. The language and instrument mastery is the most mind-blowing for sure as far as weird

[00:36:52] [SPEAKER_00]: unexplained stuff directly observable in other humans. Yeah. For example, like the past lives

[00:36:59] [SPEAKER_00]: in psychic stuff. It's definitely cool, don't get me wrong. But there's always that what if.

[00:37:05] [SPEAKER_00]: What if they just happen to say the right thing by whatever means they arrived at it?

[00:37:10] [SPEAKER_00]: Because at the end of the day, that's all it really amounts to is saying the right thing.

[00:37:14] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. But learning a language or an instrument and I guess to be fair,

[00:37:18] [SPEAKER_00]: a language is just saying the right thing. But those are so much harder for people to dismiss

[00:37:24] [SPEAKER_00]: as luck or coincidence. But I guess that only really works if you actually know the person.

[00:37:30] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, otherwise so many people would just say I never spoke Spanish in my life,

[00:37:34] [SPEAKER_02]: but God visited me in my dream last night and made me into a bilingual prophet.

[00:37:40] [SPEAKER_00]: So you would think Joseph Smith would be able to speak Cherokee or...

[00:37:45] [SPEAKER_00]: I digress. I love Utah. Moving on, the story about the author who heard her grandpa's

[00:37:53] [SPEAKER_00]: voice got me thinking just in general. We hear a lot about people encountering different types

[00:37:58] [SPEAKER_00]: of signs from the deceased, but it seems like we aren't so sure whether or not that's a good thing.

[00:38:05] [SPEAKER_00]: Not a good thing as in the signs themselves? I'm sure it's contextual and not some rigid

[00:38:11] [SPEAKER_00]: thing kind of like what we were talking about with time travel in the last episode.

[00:38:16] [SPEAKER_00]: I just mean like sometimes the presence of a ghost or spirit might suggest that the

[00:38:22] [SPEAKER_00]: deceased hasn't moved on and it's seen as this unfortunate state of existence where they need

[00:38:27] [SPEAKER_02]: our help to fully crossover. I see what you mean. Yeah, and in other times we get excited about it

[00:38:34] [SPEAKER_02]: like our loved ones are still looking after us from the other side and we're all just

[00:38:38] [SPEAKER_00]: happily coexisting in some way. Yes, thank you. That's what I was trying to get at. There's

[00:38:44] [SPEAKER_00]: just so much gray area. It can't always be a bad thing when there's a lingering spirit

[00:38:49] [SPEAKER_00]: somewhere, especially with all the happy haunts we've covered. I don't think every spirit needs to be

[00:38:55] [SPEAKER_00]: banished to the supernatural realm by do-gooder humans. Yeah, everybody has a different purpose

[00:39:01] [SPEAKER_02]: and some people just need to stick around a bit longer for one reason or another. Exactly, it

[00:39:07] [SPEAKER_00]: can't just be some one size fits all thing. And like I was saying about the do-gooder people,

[00:39:13] [SPEAKER_00]: it's like they think they're being helpful and wholesome, kind of like

[00:39:19] [SPEAKER_00]: feeding a bunch of stale bread to ducks. It's one of those things where maybe you're just

[00:39:24] [SPEAKER_00]: better off staying away from the pond entirely. Yeah, leave the ducks alone or at least feed them

[00:39:30] [SPEAKER_02]: something that won't make them nutritionally deficient. I know I feel so bad our parents

[00:39:35] [SPEAKER_00]: didn't really steer us in that direction correctly. There was this time when my wife

[00:39:40] [SPEAKER_02]: and I were at Disneyland years and years ago when we first started dating and we were just tossing

[00:39:46] [SPEAKER_02]: some food to the ducks because they're, I mean, they have the luckiest ducks in the world at

[00:39:50] [SPEAKER_02]: Disneyland. And I think she tossed like a Dorito or something at the duck. Oh no. Which yeah,

[00:39:56] [SPEAKER_02]: we probably shouldn't have done that. But some employee came by and looked at us and he goes,

[00:40:01] [SPEAKER_02]: please don't throw the ducks Doritos. It's the worst thing for them.

[00:40:05] [SPEAKER_02]: The worst. Like a very serious tone. It just made eye contact with us the whole time.

[00:40:13] [SPEAKER_02]: He's like, it's the worst thing for them. That guy's going to be in a world of pain when

[00:40:18] [SPEAKER_00]: Disneyland's duck community gets affected by the opioid crisis. Doritos are no longer the

[00:40:27] [SPEAKER_01]: worst thing for the ducks. And they never were to begin with. They were just kind of really

[00:40:32] [SPEAKER_02]: up there. Yeah, well what if there isn't a gray area though? So every spirit that makes its presence

[00:40:41] [SPEAKER_02]: known really is in some weird state of purgatory and desperately needs help crossing over.

[00:40:48] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that could be a really good or really bad thing. Good because we at least know what

[00:40:54] [SPEAKER_00]: needs to happen. And lots of people are sad about never receiving a sign from a dead relative

[00:40:59] [SPEAKER_00]: or whoever. But that could be a good thing. Maybe you haven't heard from the person you want to

[00:41:05] [SPEAKER_00]: because they're fully resting at peace, patiently waiting for you to join them.

[00:41:10] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that's an optimistic way of looking at it. As much as I'd love to hear my grandpa

[00:41:15] [SPEAKER_02]: ramble on about baseball again, I can at least be happy knowing that he's at rest.

[00:41:22] [SPEAKER_00]: Exactly. And I feel like there's some sort of wholesome angels in the outfield

[00:41:26] [SPEAKER_00]: reference to be made here, but I'll spare you from that.

[00:41:29] [SPEAKER_02]: That movie was pretty decent actually. I watched it recently.

[00:41:33] [SPEAKER_02]: Not bad for coming out from the shadows of the sandlot either.

[00:41:38] [SPEAKER_00]: I know right? It came out like the following year. I'm actually walking distance from Smalls House.

[00:41:43] [SPEAKER_00]: We can pencil that onto our list when he come out to Utah.

[00:41:47] [SPEAKER_00]: Oh yeah, I'll be out there in September.

[00:41:49] [SPEAKER_00]: All right, we got to do it. But yeah, the good old 90s, the last decade where people

[00:41:54] [SPEAKER_00]: still pretended to like baseball.

[00:41:57] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yep. Baseball is that one band where all your friends are just like,

[00:42:03] [SPEAKER_02]: I know their songs just sound like noise, but trust me, you got to see them live.

[00:42:10] [SPEAKER_00]: As a very casual baseball fan and diehard lightning bolt fan,

[00:42:14] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know how I feel about that analogy, but I don't disagree.

[00:42:18] [SPEAKER_00]: Not even a little bit. That's very fair.

[00:42:21] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I'm glad you got that. Analogies aside though, we were talking about whether or not

[00:42:26] [SPEAKER_02]: all lingering spirits need help crossing over and whether or not that would be a good thing or a bad

[00:42:34] [SPEAKER_00]: thing. Yeah, I mentioned the good, but I honestly don't remember where I was going with the bad,

[00:42:39] [SPEAKER_00]: so it just helped me out and finish my thought if you will.

[00:42:43] [SPEAKER_02]: Okay, I guess the bad part of that is just the obvious. There are a lot of spirits out

[00:42:49] [SPEAKER_00]: there and it could be us someday. Okay, yeah, that's a good point. And that would mean all the

[00:42:55] [SPEAKER_00]: things we've considered to be happy haunts have actually been cries for help. That puts a dark

[00:43:00] [SPEAKER_02]: twist on things. Or even trickster spirits who for whatever reason couldn't make it to the

[00:43:06] [SPEAKER_02]: spirit realm, so they disguised themselves to get our assistance like the little rascals in the

[00:43:12] [SPEAKER_00]: trench coats. Whether it's getting a bank loan or sneaking past the pearly gates,

[00:43:17] [SPEAKER_02]: the trench coat is always worth a shot. Yeah, we won't really know how it all works until

[00:43:23] [SPEAKER_00]: it's our time I guess. Yeah, it's fun to speculate and there's definitely no rush.

[00:43:28] [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, we should put up a poll and see what the listeners think. Oh, that's right. Yeah,

[00:43:32] [SPEAKER_02]: people listening on Spotify can like vote and leave comments. We'll put something up and

[00:43:37] [SPEAKER_02]: see what the consensus is. And you're free to leave a rating while you're there.

[00:43:41] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not asking you to just saying you have the freedom to do so. Yeah, you almost sound like that

[00:43:49] [SPEAKER_02]: old orientation tape from the Church of Scientology.

[00:43:55] [SPEAKER_00]: Where he's like, you have the option to walk out of the door, but you could also shoot yourself

[00:44:00] [SPEAKER_00]: or something like that. So ridiculous. Yeah, that's the one. Yeah, keep your options open

[00:44:05] [SPEAKER_00]: people, but stay safe. That's right. Only a sith yields an absolutes. Peace out. Yep, that works.

[00:44:12] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. Yeah. Thanks everybody for listening. Make sure you check out our Patreon. You can do that

[00:44:18] [SPEAKER_02]: at patreon.com forward slash odd trails. If you sign up, you'll get access to ad free versions

[00:44:23] [SPEAKER_02]: of all of our episodes at a higher bit rate and make sure to send your stories in to

[00:44:28] [SPEAKER_02]: stories at odd trails.com if you want to hear them on the show. Finally, check out the new

[00:44:33] [SPEAKER_02]: episodes of my other podcasts like let's not meet and the old time radio cast at crypticcountypodcast.com.

[00:44:39] [SPEAKER_02]: Everybody again, stay safe. Peace out.

[00:45:01] [SPEAKER_03]: Don't let the ghosts and the ghouls disturb you,