The Scoobies – Ep. 141

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER_00]: Odd Trails is a true paranormal podcast. If you have a story to share, send it to stories at oddtrails.com. Enjoy the show.

[00:00:22] [SPEAKER_01]: We are featuring one single story in this episode called The Scoobies by a listener who wishes to

[00:01:03] [SPEAKER_01]: remain anonymous. Like we've done before, we've split it up into two parts and you will pick things up in the second half. Enjoy.

[00:01:15] [SPEAKER_01]: This is a series of highly strange stories from my childhood into my early adult life. I have changed all necessary names for privacy.

[00:01:25] [SPEAKER_01]: I should probably stay anonymous as well to protect the identities of the other people in this story.

[00:01:32] [SPEAKER_01]: I grew up in Hawaii on the island of Oahu. When I was a young boy, my family was very close with another family.

[00:01:41] [SPEAKER_01]: My parents were good friends with the other set of parents. They have a daughter my age named Missy and a son named Chris who was a year younger than me.

[00:01:51] [SPEAKER_01]: I have a sister Marie who is about a year older than me so we were all very close in age and spent a lot of time together.

[00:02:00] [SPEAKER_01]: In Hawaii, it's more common for children to call adults Auntie and Uncle instead of Mr. and Mrs.

[00:02:08] [SPEAKER_01]: So to me, in addition to being my youngest sister's godparents, they were my aunt and uncle even though we weren't blood relatives.

[00:02:17] [SPEAKER_01]: The thing I remember most about my relationship with my aunt when I was little was that she let me get away with some things that my mom wouldn't.

[00:02:26] [SPEAKER_01]: Nothing too bad, just some extra junk food here and there in the occasional PG-13 movie when I was around 8 years old.

[00:02:35] [SPEAKER_01]: They would also sometimes have non-Christian music playing.

[00:02:39] [SPEAKER_01]: Again, nothing too inappropriate but I grew up in a home which allowed little to no non-Christian music.

[00:02:47] [SPEAKER_01]: I think my parents were heavily influenced by music when they were young

[00:02:51] [SPEAKER_01]: and wanted to protect us from music which didn't glorify God.

[00:02:57] [SPEAKER_01]: These issues would lead to occasional conflict between my mom and aunt, especially the time

[00:03:03] [SPEAKER_01]: my aunt let me watch Ace Ventura when I was around 9 or 10. I came home pretending to talk out of my butt.

[00:03:10] [SPEAKER_01]: My mom was not thrilled but they always worked things out and still cared for each other.

[00:03:17] [SPEAKER_01]: You can probably tell from the start of the story that I was raised in a very religious home.

[00:03:23] [SPEAKER_01]: As long as I can remember, my family was at church at least twice a week.

[00:03:29] [SPEAKER_01]: My parents didn't grow up Christian but found Jesus as young adults and have lived very faithful lives since then.

[00:03:37] [SPEAKER_01]: My dad has been an ordained minister for many years and he and my mom both worked on staff at our church.

[00:03:45] [SPEAKER_01]: My aunt and uncle were also Christians but had some different ideas about God and organized religion.

[00:03:52] [SPEAKER_01]: When I was young, mostly between the ages of 5 and 10,

[00:03:57] [SPEAKER_01]: my aunt often told us stories about what she called the Scoobies.

[00:04:01] [SPEAKER_01]: She would see shadow people, red eyes staring at her from complete darkness

[00:04:08] [SPEAKER_01]: and sometimes full body apparitions.

[00:04:11] [SPEAKER_01]: It was a normal occurrence at her house to hear strange noises coming from inside the walls

[00:04:17] [SPEAKER_01]: or for items to disappear only to reappear later in a random spot.

[00:04:23] [SPEAKER_01]: I will note that although I was aware of many of these occurrences,

[00:04:28] [SPEAKER_01]: not much happened directly to me at their house.

[00:04:32] [SPEAKER_01]: My aunt always told us not to worry. The Scoobies were there for her, not any of us.

[00:04:39] [SPEAKER_01]: One particular story she told me really stuck with me.

[00:04:44] [SPEAKER_01]: She was working on a renovation project in the detached garage on their property

[00:04:49] [SPEAKER_01]: and kept hearing scratching from inside the walls.

[00:04:53] [SPEAKER_01]: She wanted to make sure there wasn't some kind of animal hiding in there

[00:04:57] [SPEAKER_01]: and the wall was being torn down eventually anyway,

[00:05:01] [SPEAKER_01]: so she smashed a hole in the wall large enough for her to put her head in and look around.

[00:05:07] [SPEAKER_01]: What she found in the wall was a terrifying set of glowing red eyes staring at her from the

[00:05:14] [SPEAKER_01]: darkness. She was overwhelmed by a sense of pure dread.

[00:05:20] [SPEAKER_01]: She doesn't scare too easily but something about this experience terrified her in an

[00:05:26] [SPEAKER_01]: unusual way. It was as if she knew she made eye contact with something purely evil.

[00:05:33] [SPEAKER_01]: She didn't finish that project and they ended up selling their house and moving.

[00:05:38] [SPEAKER_01]: I think the move was unrelated to the strange happenings.

[00:05:42] [SPEAKER_01]: She definitely had accepted that the Scoobies were somehow attached to her

[00:05:47] [SPEAKER_01]: and they were just a part of her life.

[00:05:51] [SPEAKER_01]: When I was around 10 years old, my aunt and uncle moved their family to the Pacific Northwest.

[00:05:57] [SPEAKER_01]: A few years later, my parents followed a strong prompting from God

[00:06:02] [SPEAKER_01]: and moved our family from Hawaii to the same small town as my aunt and uncle in the Pacific

[00:06:07] [SPEAKER_01]: Northwest. My aunt had bought a second house with the intention of renovating it and renting

[00:06:14] [SPEAKER_01]: it out which was perfect for our family. God had arranged a place for us to live immediately

[00:06:20] [SPEAKER_01]: and it was on the same block across the alley from my aunt and uncle's house.

[00:06:25] [SPEAKER_01]: We lived there for several years, pretty much all of my teen years until I got married and moved

[00:06:31] [SPEAKER_01]: out at age 19. That house was the site of many of my encounters with the supernatural.

[00:06:39] [SPEAKER_01]: My room was creepy, especially at night. The closet always seemed to be darker than it should be,

[00:06:47] [SPEAKER_01]: even though my mom installed a couple of push lights on the wall.

[00:06:51] [SPEAKER_01]: With my door closed and my bedroom light off, I can only describe the level of darkness in

[00:06:57] [SPEAKER_01]: the closet as a void. I always kept the closet door closed at night,

[00:07:03] [SPEAKER_01]: but I would often wake up in the middle of the night to find it open just a crack.

[00:07:09] [SPEAKER_01]: Barely open enough that I could convince myself it must have been my mistake.

[00:07:14] [SPEAKER_01]: It seemed unnaturally dark and there would sometimes be noises coming from inside.

[00:07:21] [SPEAKER_01]: The noises were just subtle enough that I could explain them away in my head.

[00:07:25] [SPEAKER_01]: The worst part by far was the deep sense of fear I would feel when I woke up in that dark

[00:07:32] [SPEAKER_01]: room to an open closet door. One night when I woke up and the closet door was open,

[00:07:39] [SPEAKER_01]: I saw a shadowy figure peeking up over the foot of my bed. It was as if there was a person on the

[00:07:47] [SPEAKER_01]: floor, on their knees, and they were trying to poke their head up just enough to see me.

[00:07:54] [SPEAKER_01]: It seemed to raise its head up higher when I noticed it. Then it faded away.

[00:08:02] [SPEAKER_01]: Prior to this experience, I had sensed a presence at the foot of my bed and had caught brief glimpses

[00:08:08] [SPEAKER_01]: of a shadow, but it never made itself so visible before. I never shared any of these experiences

[00:08:15] [SPEAKER_01]: with my family. I didn't know if they would believe me. I started sleeping with my bedroom

[00:08:21] [SPEAKER_01]: light and TV on every night after that. When I was 16, there was a large explosion

[00:08:29] [SPEAKER_01]: at the pulp mill in our small town. Nobody was injured, but the force of the explosion

[00:08:35] [SPEAKER_01]: literally shook the whole town. A few months later, I was in my room alone and I felt a similar blast.

[00:08:44] [SPEAKER_01]: My room shook and items fell off my desk and bookshelf. I sprinted downstairs to find my older

[00:08:52] [SPEAKER_01]: sister casually sitting on the couch reading a book. She hadn't heard or felt anything.

[00:08:58] [SPEAKER_01]: My parents hadn't either. I was completely dumbfounded. I knew it had happened. How was

[00:09:06] [SPEAKER_01]: it possible that I was the only one who experienced it? Later that day, I went over to my aunt and

[00:09:13] [SPEAKER_01]: uncle's house to shoot some hoops with Chris. After we played, we were sitting at the dining

[00:09:19] [SPEAKER_01]: room table munching on some hot pockets. I told him about the explosion. He stared at me

[00:09:26] [SPEAKER_01]: in stunned silence while I recounted the experience. He told me that his dad heard an explosion while he

[00:09:34] [SPEAKER_01]: was watching TV at around the same time, but nobody else in the house had heard it or felt it.

[00:09:42] [SPEAKER_01]: I tracked down my uncle and he confirmed the story. He said he was just sitting on the

[00:09:48] [SPEAKER_01]: couch watching TV and it sounded like a cannon was fired above his head.

[00:09:54] [SPEAKER_01]: Neither of us could explain why we were the only ones who experienced that phenomenon,

[00:09:59] [SPEAKER_01]: but my aunt blamed it on the Scoobies. I haven't had many sleep paralysis experiences in my life,

[00:10:08] [SPEAKER_01]: but I did have a terrifying one at my aunt and uncle's house. I was probably around 16 when

[00:10:14] [SPEAKER_01]: this happened. I spent many nights there, despite it being a super creepy large old house with

[00:10:22] [SPEAKER_01]: a very odd layout. There were so many dark nooks and crevices, even when all the lights were on.

[00:10:30] [SPEAKER_01]: The upstairs bathroom was large and had a really old looking claw foot bathtub,

[00:10:36] [SPEAKER_01]: which was raised a step from the rest of the room. In the opposite corner of the room,

[00:10:42] [SPEAKER_01]: there was a tall dresser that you could never quite see behind or underneath because the

[00:10:47] [SPEAKER_01]: light was shielded in the corner. Again, it always seemed unnaturally dark and the feeling

[00:10:55] [SPEAKER_01]: in that bathroom was so bad that I refused to use it. I would instead make sure I used

[00:11:01] [SPEAKER_01]: the downstairs bathroom before I went to bed. One night, however, I woke up and really needed

[00:11:08] [SPEAKER_01]: to go. I didn't want to walk through the rest of the house in the dark because I was so

[00:11:14] [SPEAKER_01]: nervous about what I might encounter. So I had to choose between peeing out the window

[00:11:20] [SPEAKER_01]: or using the creepy bathroom upstairs. I'm not a barbarian, so I decided to brave the bathroom.

[00:11:29] [SPEAKER_01]: I did my business as quickly as possible without looking into the creepy corner,

[00:11:35] [SPEAKER_01]: then moved swiftly around the corner of the hallway into Chris's room.

[00:11:41] [SPEAKER_01]: I thought I caught a glimpse of some movement in the hall as I was making the turn,

[00:11:46] [SPEAKER_01]: but I didn't stick around to double check. I just closed the bedroom door and laid back down

[00:11:53] [SPEAKER_01]: on my fold-out mattress on the floor. Chris's bedroom window was uncovered and faced a street

[00:12:00] [SPEAKER_01]: light, so it was never completely dark in there. I managed to fall back asleep pretty

[00:12:06] [SPEAKER_01]: quickly, but not for long. I woke up and saw what appeared to be a shadow figure in the darkest

[00:12:14] [SPEAKER_01]: corner of the bedroom. I should say I didn't really get a great look at it, and it never

[00:12:21] [SPEAKER_01]: approached me, but I felt the presence and the fear. Then I felt my mattress start to elevate.

[00:12:32] [SPEAKER_01]: I tried to get up, but I couldn't move. I tried to call for Chris, who was snoozing just a couple

[00:12:39] [SPEAKER_01]: of feet away from me, but I couldn't make a sound. When the mattress got a few feet off the ground,

[00:12:46] [SPEAKER_01]: it suddenly dropped. I flailed and almost rolled off, but I managed to not scream.

[00:12:54] [SPEAKER_01]: I could move now, I could talk now, and the presence in the corner of the room was gone.

[00:13:01] [SPEAKER_01]: I didn't sleep the rest of that night, trying to decide if what I had experienced was real and

[00:13:07] [SPEAKER_01]: physical. I still believe that my mattress was physically elevated and dropped.

[00:13:14] [SPEAKER_01]: I only told my aunt about this experience. She felt really bad and said she was glad

[00:13:21] [SPEAKER_01]: that I was okay, and again blamed the Scoobies. I don't recall spending any more nights in

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[00:15:41] [SPEAKER_00]: When I was 18, I was engaged to the girl of my dreams in trying to save up money for our wedding.

[00:15:47] [SPEAKER_00]: As I grew up, Chris, Missy and my aunt and uncle were less a part of my life.

[00:15:54] [SPEAKER_00]: Around this time they sold their creepy house and moved about 10 minutes away to a neighboring

[00:15:59] [SPEAKER_00]: town. My parents had a falling out with my aunt and uncle. Nothing nasty, but there was serious

[00:16:05] [SPEAKER_00]: tension and they have not stayed in touch over the years. I still spend time with Chris and Missy

[00:16:12] [SPEAKER_00]: and Missy started dating one of my best friends, Bear. Around this time my uncle started behaving

[00:16:18] [SPEAKER_00]: very oddly and my aunt was having some serious medical issues. Bear was spending way

[00:16:26] [SPEAKER_00]: more time at their house than I was and he became part of their family. They all loved and trusted

[00:16:32] [SPEAKER_00]: him. He was around for several angry outbursts my uncle had. My uncle had become very verbally

[00:16:39] [SPEAKER_00]: abusive towards my aunt and occasionally got physical. One day Bear and I were hanging

[00:16:47] [SPEAKER_00]: out at his house playing Madden and discussing the situation between my aunt and uncle.

[00:16:52] [SPEAKER_00]: He was very troubled by my uncle's behavior. He described a particularly violent outburst in

[00:16:58] [SPEAKER_00]: which he had to physically restrain my uncle. Bear paused for a moment before telling me that

[00:17:04] [SPEAKER_00]: my uncle's face had changed. When Bear was restraining my uncle from behind, my uncle

[00:17:11] [SPEAKER_00]: turned around and looked at him with a face that was so distorted it didn't even look like

[00:17:17] [SPEAKER_00]: him at all. Bear said that it looked demonic and inhuman, not my uncle's face.

[00:17:24] [SPEAKER_00]: Around this time I was working as a night janitor. My job was to go to a few different businesses

[00:17:30] [SPEAKER_00]: each night when they were closed and clean the place to whatever level the client had paid for.

[00:17:36] [SPEAKER_00]: Some jobs were solo and some required multiple workers. I mostly preferred to work solo

[00:17:42] [SPEAKER_00]: and overall I didn't hate this job. It was helping me start my family with my beautiful fiancé.

[00:17:49] [SPEAKER_00]: I was however regularly seeing shadow figures in my car's rear view mirror when I was driving from

[00:17:55] [SPEAKER_00]: job to job at night. It would look like somebody was sitting in the back seat but when I turned

[00:18:01] [SPEAKER_00]: to look they were gone. I told myself I was just creeped out by everything going on with

[00:18:06] [SPEAKER_00]: my uncle and I shrugged it off. There was however one particular place I cleaned where I never felt

[00:18:16] [SPEAKER_00]: comfortable. It was a government building which was in charge of social and health services.

[00:18:22] [SPEAKER_00]: Basically people who needed state assistance for food housing and medical got it there.

[00:18:28] [SPEAKER_00]: There was a heavy feeling in that building. It hit me without fail every time I walked in

[00:18:35] [SPEAKER_00]: and it felt physical like you could cut it with a knife. It was a large space with a ton of cubicles

[00:18:43] [SPEAKER_00]: as well as some offices and meeting rooms and I constantly felt like someone was watching me

[00:18:48] [SPEAKER_00]: from behind a potted plant or through one of the many windows that looked from room to room.

[00:18:55] [SPEAKER_00]: There was a long hallway that led from the offices to the lobby area.

[00:18:59] [SPEAKER_00]: There was a door at each end of the hallway and just off the lobby there was a janitor's

[00:19:04] [SPEAKER_00]: closet with all of the cleaning supplies. It was my routine to prop both hallway doors open,

[00:19:11] [SPEAKER_00]: get my cleaning supplies, go to the back of the building and work my way toward the front,

[00:19:16] [SPEAKER_00]: then finish cleaning the lobby. One night after I was sure I had propped both hallway doors open,

[00:19:23] [SPEAKER_00]: I cleaned the office area but returned to find both hallway doors closed

[00:19:28] [SPEAKER_00]: and the triangular rubber door stoppers kicked off to the side.

[00:19:33] [SPEAKER_00]: I thought it was odd but I figured I must have forgotten to prop them open.

[00:19:38] [SPEAKER_00]: I propped them both open securely, mopped the lobby, and then vacuumed the rugs.

[00:19:44] [SPEAKER_00]: I turned back around to find both hallway doors closed and the door stops kicked off to the

[00:19:50] [SPEAKER_00]: side. I was now terrified at this point but I was so close to being done that I decided

[00:19:56] [SPEAKER_00]: I would stick it out and finish the cleaning. I propped both doors open one more time since I

[00:20:03] [SPEAKER_00]: knew I had to go back out that hallway and I cleaned the bathroom in the lobby. To my relief,

[00:20:09] [SPEAKER_00]: when I came out of the bathroom both hallway doors were still open. All I had left to do was pick

[00:20:15] [SPEAKER_00]: some stubborn garbage out of the floor mats and put my supplies away. I knelt down to pick at

[00:20:21] [SPEAKER_00]: what looked like some kind of squished gummy candy on the mat. Then I felt as if someone had

[00:20:27] [SPEAKER_00]: put their hand on my back. I completely froze in fear for what was probably just a few seconds,

[00:20:35] [SPEAKER_00]: though it felt longer. And then both of the hallway doors slammed shut with enough force

[00:20:40] [SPEAKER_00]: to shake all of the windows. I got up and I booked it out the front door,

[00:20:46] [SPEAKER_00]: which was the wrong door but luckily it didn't have an alarm. I then called my boss to explain why

[00:20:52] [SPEAKER_00]: I hadn't finished putting the cleaning supplies away. She was very understanding when I quit

[00:20:57] [SPEAKER_00]: the next day. By the time I got married at age 19, I had pretty much lost contact with Chrissy,

[00:21:05] [SPEAKER_00]: Missy and my aunt and uncle. Missy and Bear broke up but remained friends. Within the next

[00:21:11] [SPEAKER_00]: couple of years, they had all moved in different directions. I still have very little contact

[00:21:16] [SPEAKER_00]: with any of them. I'm 38 now and in case you were wondering, still married to that wonderful woman

[00:21:22] [SPEAKER_00]: God put in my life as a teen. Shortly after I got married, my younger sister Grace moved into my

[00:21:29] [SPEAKER_00]: old bedroom at my parents' house. She had been sharing my room with my older sister Marie,

[00:21:35] [SPEAKER_00]: who was away at college but still came back for the school breaks.

[00:21:40] [SPEAKER_00]: Grace was thrilled to have her own space. I had never shared my creepy experiences in that room

[00:21:46] [SPEAKER_00]: with her. I guess I had either convinced myself that I had imagined a lot of it or

[00:21:52] [SPEAKER_00]: it was about me and not the room. It didn't take long for Grace to start experiencing

[00:21:58] [SPEAKER_00]: some of the same things I had experienced. She saw shadow people, heard strange noises

[00:22:04] [SPEAKER_00]: and was terrified of the closet. She brought it up to me without any prompting. I apologized for not

[00:22:11] [SPEAKER_00]: talking to her about it before and we got my dad involved. You may remember that my dad is an ordained

[00:22:17] [SPEAKER_00]: minister so he listened to our stories and acted swiftly. I can't remember exactly what he did

[00:22:24] [SPEAKER_00]: but I know it involved multiple people praying throughout the house. He also equipped us

[00:22:30] [SPEAKER_00]: with the knowledge of what to do in those situations. In fact, I already knew what to do.

[00:22:36] [SPEAKER_00]: I had been taught my whole life that Christians have dominion over evil spirits

[00:22:41] [SPEAKER_00]: with the power of the name of Jesus. Why on earth hadn't I thought of that when I was in all those

[00:22:47] [SPEAKER_00]: situations? I still can't answer that question. I don't recall through all these experiences

[00:22:54] [SPEAKER_00]: speaking the name of Jesus one single time and I don't know how to explain why.

[00:23:00] [SPEAKER_00]: My wife and I didn't waste any time starting our family after we got married.

[00:23:04] [SPEAKER_00]: Our first son was born almost exactly one year after our wedding and our second son followed

[00:23:10] [SPEAKER_00]: three years later. When my boys were two and five years old, my wife and I wanted to save some money

[00:23:16] [SPEAKER_00]: and we weren't happy with our living situation so we decided to move back into my parents' house

[00:23:21] [SPEAKER_00]: for a little while at least. We paid them a small amount of rent to help cover additional

[00:23:27] [SPEAKER_00]: food, water, electricity, etc. My parents are amazing people and have always been there to support

[00:23:33] [SPEAKER_00]: us even as adults. This movement returning to my teenage home. We were originally supposed

[00:23:39] [SPEAKER_00]: to have both upstairs rooms but shortly after we moved in Grace returned to the nest as well

[00:23:45] [SPEAKER_00]: which meant she reclaimed her room which was my old room and my wife and sons and I shared

[00:23:51] [SPEAKER_00]: the other bedroom. It was cramped at night but it worked just fine for us for the short time we lived

[00:23:58] [SPEAKER_00]: there. One night my wife and my sons were the only ones home. The boys were in bed and my wife

[00:24:05] [SPEAKER_00]: was watching TV in the living room downstairs when she heard footsteps upstairs like somebody

[00:24:11] [SPEAKER_00]: was running back and forth between the bedrooms. She went to the bottom of the stairs and told

[00:24:15] [SPEAKER_00]: my sons to get back to bed. There was silence but my wife had an odd feeling that something

[00:24:21] [SPEAKER_00]: wasn't right. She started walking up the stairs and felt as if she were being watched.

[00:24:27] [SPEAKER_00]: The feeling intensified as she moved up the stairs and she felt a strong dark presence

[00:24:32] [SPEAKER_00]: coming from Grace's empty room. She opened our bedroom door enough to peek in and see that

[00:24:39] [SPEAKER_00]: both of our sons were sleeping peacefully. They definitely had not been running around upstairs

[00:24:44] [SPEAKER_00]: just a few moments prior. She walked towards Grace's room and felt strongly that she was

[00:24:50] [SPEAKER_00]: being watched from the closet. To this day she has a difficult time describing whether she

[00:24:56] [SPEAKER_00]: actually saw movement in the room or if she just felt it but she definitely heard the footsteps

[00:25:03] [SPEAKER_00]: and she knew that something was there. Alone and shaking in fear but fully equipped with

[00:25:10] [SPEAKER_00]: God's armor my brave wife stood in the doorway of the bedroom and protected her babies by

[00:25:16] [SPEAKER_00]: rebuking this evil spirit in the closet in the name of Jesus saying that it wasn't welcome there.

[00:25:23] [SPEAKER_00]: The presence faded and the night carried on normally. I haven't experienced anything

[00:25:29] [SPEAKER_00]: supernatural worth mentioning since moving out of my parents house more than 10 years ago.

[00:25:35] [SPEAKER_00]: Sure, there's been an occasional unexplainable noise or uncomfortable feeling or the time that

[00:25:42] [SPEAKER_00]: my dog seemed to be looking at and reacting to something in the hallway that wasn't visible

[00:25:47] [SPEAKER_00]: to my wife or me but nothing has given me the same feeling as the Scoobies. So any research that you

[00:26:21] [SPEAKER_00]: do online about shadow people is usually going to result in some kind of scientific explanation

[00:26:27] [SPEAKER_00]: stating that there's some kind of hypnagogic hallucination and in some cases I guess I

[00:26:35] [SPEAKER_01]: can accept that. Yeah in and of themselves I could see how people might be tempted to write them off

[00:26:40] [SPEAKER_01]: but then you have stories like these where in my opinion they're pretty clearly a piece of a bigger

[00:26:46] [SPEAKER_00]: puzzle. Yeah that's exactly where I was headed. We're hearing more and more stories where the

[00:26:52] [SPEAKER_00]: author sees shadow figures along with other paranormal encounters. Yeah I think both

[00:26:57] [SPEAKER_01]: can be true I've definitely seen some weird stuff out of the corner of my eye

[00:27:01] [SPEAKER_01]: but I don't think the hallucination idea applies to every situation. I mean when does it ever?

[00:27:07] [SPEAKER_01]: I was peeing in the woods once and I saw two little orbs of light that were level with where a

[00:27:12] [SPEAKER_01]: head might be and they both slowly slipped behind the trunk of the big pine tree. It was maybe like

[00:27:18] [SPEAKER_01]: 30 or 40 feet away and I was in a really isolated area but I just chuckled because I knew

[00:27:24] [SPEAKER_01]: there's there wasn't anything I could do about it even if I wanted to and maybe it was my eyes

[00:27:29] [SPEAKER_01]: just playing tricks on me or maybe like one of the taller Jawas from Star Wars wanted to play

[00:27:34] [SPEAKER_01]: peekaboo I don't know but I saw something but what can you do? Yeah I love those glowing eyes.

[00:27:41] [SPEAKER_00]: I remember you telling me about that sometimes shrugging things off really is the best response

[00:27:47] [SPEAKER_00]: especially when something is inevitable yes or you really don't have a solid reason to get

[00:27:54] [SPEAKER_01]: worked up. Yeah yeah I feel kind of bad but when my dad got COVID it was like early on during the

[00:28:01] [SPEAKER_01]: big scare and he called me at work and he was it was like some big old thing like oh son I have

[00:28:07] [SPEAKER_01]: something to tell you like oh shit what happened and I really just didn't know what to say beyond

[00:28:12] [SPEAKER_01]: the hole like oh how are you feeling and I seriously just ended up saying well good luck

[00:28:19] [SPEAKER_01]: I guess and I meant it like you know good-natured and he was so taken back because I'm usually

[00:28:25] [SPEAKER_01]: all hypersensitive and extra empathetic and I still am to a degree but sometimes when your hands are

[00:28:30] [SPEAKER_01]: completely tied and you can't actually do anything jumping straight to acceptance in the grief

[00:28:36] [SPEAKER_00]: stage it's your best option. Yeah I agree I'm kind of the same way except for some reason

[00:28:42] [SPEAKER_00]: I just kind of shut down when anything sad or emotionally charged is happening around me

[00:28:50] [SPEAKER_00]: I think it's a form of acceptance too like okay I accept this now I need to be the stoic one I

[00:28:55] [SPEAKER_01]: need you know I need to take the lead on this. Hell yeah I'm glad you're citing stoicism that's

[00:29:01] [SPEAKER_01]: perfect no reason to fret over things that we can't control it really is pointless. Yeah yeah

[00:29:06] [SPEAKER_01]: it just doesn't matter. Yeah in the grand scheme of things not a whole lot does but anyway

[00:29:13] [SPEAKER_01]: that sounded kind of depressing even though it's actually pretty empowering in my opinion.

[00:29:17] [SPEAKER_01]: No yeah it's super empowering yeah it's a good thing. But anyway back to the eyes playing tricks

[00:29:23] [SPEAKER_01]: thing I'm gonna be the one to shamelessly plug tryptic encounters here because Hailey had the

[00:29:29] [SPEAKER_01]: same idea on your first episode about shadow people yeah how it's probably a combination

[00:29:34] [SPEAKER_01]: of your brain trying to make sense of things as you're in between the dream state and being awake

[00:29:41] [SPEAKER_01]: and the fact that we're just more spiritually open to things that are beyond our physical dimension.

[00:29:46] [SPEAKER_00]: Okay so you did listen that's awesome what did you think? I liked it I liked a lot it was

[00:29:51] [SPEAKER_01]: it was cool because she was really concise and clearly knew what she was talking about

[00:29:55] [SPEAKER_01]: I was afraid you're gonna get some like whack job bozos that just kind of pretend to know

[00:30:01] [SPEAKER_01]: what they're talking about or they hopped on Wikipedia real quick and shot you an email so

[00:30:05] [SPEAKER_01]: they could talk to the andy tape but no she uh she was legit. Yeah I did some pretty in-depth

[00:30:12] [SPEAKER_00]: vetting of the people that I was having on the show I actually canceled a couple of them because

[00:30:16] [SPEAKER_00]: upon further research I was like oh no this guy's full of shit no thanks. Most people are

[00:30:22] [SPEAKER_01]: and you just got to take the ones that are the least full of shit. Yeah yeah she was a lot

[00:30:26] [SPEAKER_00]: of fun to talk to the next episode is with this archaeologist slash anthropologist slash

[00:30:32] [SPEAKER_00]: paranormal investigator named Pamela Nance we got to talking about this arcadian lay line

[00:30:38] [SPEAKER_00]: that stretches across the Appalachians which could be the cause for all of the strange and

[00:30:45] [SPEAKER_00]: paranormal activity that goes on there. We talked a bit about odd trails and all of the

[00:30:49] [SPEAKER_01]: stories that we get from that area it was funny. Oh nice nice you know we talked so much

[00:30:55] [SPEAKER_01]: about Appalachia or it's at least mentioned in a lot of the stories I figure it wouldn't hurt to

[00:31:00] [SPEAKER_01]: throw quick recommendation out there for our listeners. It's not paranormal but it's one

[00:31:06] [SPEAKER_01]: of my favorite books it's called A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson he's just some dude who

[00:31:12] [SPEAKER_01]: seemingly on a whim decided to hike the Appalachian trail with his friend. It's like the perfect

[00:31:19] [SPEAKER_01]: adventure comedy and is it's full of these neat little insights I think most people would like

[00:31:23] [SPEAKER_00]: it. It's hard to dislike. Yeah Bill Bryson is pretty tight I've been meaning to read that one

[00:31:29] [SPEAKER_00]: specifically I got really into a short history of nearly everything. Yeah that's a good one that's

[00:31:36] [SPEAKER_01]: the first one I read I listened to it for a second time just recently on my way to and from California.

[00:31:42] [SPEAKER_00]: I wish we could just plug all that knowledge into our brains like the jack plugs in the

[00:31:48] [SPEAKER_01]: matrix you know what I mean. Yes yes I'm just happy you're dropping matrix references now.

[00:31:54] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah the hype was all justified I'm super glad that I finally watched it.

[00:32:00] [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe Joaquin Phoenix's Joker will be next. Easy there I'll have to think about that one.

[00:32:07] [SPEAKER_01]: All right fair yeah oh man so I know we're kind of rushing this since you got ahead

[00:32:12] [SPEAKER_01]: of the airport soon but I just had to say that the Scoobies sound like something Tito from

[00:32:19] [SPEAKER_00]: Rocket Power would warn the kids about. Yeah yeah that's perfect Hawaiian too obviously

[00:32:26] [SPEAKER_00]: but he was always dropping some spiritual bombshells. Yeah I wonder if they could possibly be

[00:32:32] [SPEAKER_00]: a more specific entity that more people regularly experience. Right yeah or if they're just

[00:32:39] [SPEAKER_01]: something unique to the ant. Yeah whether some external force imposed itself onto her

[00:32:44] [SPEAKER_01]: or she subconsciously willed them into existence due to any number of reasons.

[00:32:50] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah power of suggestion stuff. Exactly yeah I do have to head out there soon

[00:32:56] [SPEAKER_00]: gonna have to wrap this up unfortunately busy week as usual there's always something.

[00:33:01] [SPEAKER_00]: I hear you always always always. Yeah I gotta catch a flight to Southern California for the

[00:33:07] [SPEAKER_00]: live Let's Not Meet shows. This will be coming out after those shows so hopefully they went well

[00:33:12] [SPEAKER_00]: and you guys enjoyed that but anyways thanks everybody for listening make sure you send

[00:33:17] [SPEAKER_00]: your stories into stories at oddtrails.com if you want to hear them on the show and sign

[00:33:21] [SPEAKER_00]: it for our patreon to get access to ad-free versions of all of our episodes at a higher

[00:33:25] [SPEAKER_00]: bit rate over at patreon.com forward slash odd trails and finally make sure to check

[00:33:31] [SPEAKER_00]: out the new episodes of my other podcasts like Let's Not Meet cryptic encounters and the

[00:33:35] [SPEAKER_00]: old-time radio cast at crypticcountypodcasts.com everybody stay safe peace out