Episode 175: It Wasn't My Dad

[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. You just trust. Believe.

[00:00:58] Ghost Kid by AppropriatePiano447 When I was growing up, my dad lived in a house that was built in the early 1900s. I had tons of paranormal experiences in this house, but this one really freaked me out the most because it was the only time I had physically seen something in the house.

[00:01:23] I was about 14 years old. My dad and his girlfriend had just switched the house from cable TV to fire sticks, and I didn't have one in my room yet. So I would watch TV in my little brother's room while he wasn't there. This night, he was sleeping downstairs in his grandma's room. He was only four at the time. So I was in his room watching TV, when suddenly, out of the corner of my eye,

[00:01:51] I saw a dark figure about the height of my brother standing in the doorway. Thinking that it was him, I said, Why are you still awake? And as I went to look toward the door, the figure quickly turned and ran down the stairs. I heard the sound of the running. Thinking that he was just playing around, I looked at my phone and saw that it was 1am, so I decided to go to bed.

[00:02:20] I shut off his TV and lights and headed back to my room. As I walked into my room, I heard soft footsteps creeping back up the stairs, so I turned toward the stairs, still in my room, and watched as the figure peered around the wall toward me. As I watched it, it quickly jumped back and went running down the stairs. This time, I heard a faint child's laughter.

[00:02:51] Still thinking that it was my brother, I went downstairs to try and get him to bed. When I got downstairs and went into the room that he was supposed to be in, he was already sound asleep in bed. It was at that point that I heard the faint laughter in the kitchen near the stairs to the basement. Deciding that I wasn't going to check it out, because at this point I was scared, I went back up to my room.

[00:03:18] I plugged my phone in and laid down on the bed. But then, I looked up and I saw that same dark figure that I had seen the other two times peer into my room right at me. I quickly turned my bedside lamp on, and as I did, it ran back downstairs, still laughing. I shut my door and slept with my lamp on that night. My dad no longer lives in that house, but to this day,

[00:03:45] both my dad and my stepmom do not believe me when I tell them that story. They push it off as my imagination, even though my stepmom and her mom both experienced things in that house with me.

[00:03:59] It wasn't my dad, by Lauren.

[00:04:28] I'm a recent listener, but I'm absolutely hooked, and I've been working my way through the entire library. I figured it was time to contribute my own story. Bear with me, because my experience happened over a number of years. I live in a suburb of the Twin Cities in Minnesota, and have lived in my childhood home my entire life, save a few years in my youth. According to records, there's never been another house on our property

[00:04:56] prior to my parents building our home in 1992. When I was a child, my mom worked late shifts, leaving my brothers to help look after me. The odd experiences go back as far as I can remember. When I was around four or five, I have a distinct memory of telling my middle brother, a couple of years older than me, that I kept seeing shadows moving out of the corner of my eye, or darting across the ceiling, with no explanation.

[00:05:26] He would tell me it was guardian angels watching over me, just to get me to sleep. I never slept without a nightlight, and my entire life, I've never been able to sleep with my feet sticking out, for fear of them being touched for some reason. I adamantly told my parents that my closet was a portal, at one point when I was four or five, and I remember freaking out when they hung a mirror on the back of my door facing my bed.

[00:05:54] We had your typical creepy, unfinished basement that we only used for storage. I would always hate walking down into it. I remember one day having to go grab something for my mom, and upon descending the stairs, every single hair stood straight up, and I could feel the electricity in the air. I remember leaving the light on and bolting back up the stairs as fast as I could, pretending I couldn't find whatever my mom had asked me to grab.

[00:06:24] On another occasion, I approached the basement door and watched the handle start rapidly shaking and moving up and down. It was a doorknob, with a metal handle sticking out to the side, as if someone was on the other side of the dark basement door, trying to get it open. I remember flinging the door open, but nothing was there. Nothing else particularly strange happened until I was a teenager.

[00:06:53] Like many other teens my age, we spent a lot of time getting into mischief and just trying to pass the time. I met a new group of friends and went over to their house for a bonfire. There were a lot of us who would regularly hang out there. They had a full cupboard full of kids' board games we would play. And one night, we found a Ouija board. Most of those present were diehard skeptics, at least when it came to Ouija boards working,

[00:07:23] me included. We played around with it for a while, asking the usual stupid questions with nothing happening, until most of us got bored and went back to the bonfire. A few of us continued playing, and that's when we all saw it. Next to us, in the grass, was an outline of someone sitting down, as if we just couldn't see them. The grass seemed to shift as whoever, or whatever,

[00:07:53] moved while we asked questions. Although that was all that happened that night, my experiences weren't over yet. The same group of friends jokingly got me a glow-in-the-dark Ouija board, because I kept insisting that me and the three others who were still playing had witnessed something. One of the people who had played with me ended up becoming a good friend. And we spent a lot of time discussing ghosts and spirits.

[00:08:22] She warned me, though, to not take the Ouija board lightly, and never to play with it alone. In my home life, I was dealing with some things that only catapulted me deeper into all things paranormal. When I was 14, my parents divorced, and my dad moved out. He ended up passing away only two months later, unexpectedly. I became obsessed with trying to contact him,

[00:08:51] to get any sort of sign that he was still with me. Nothing. Time passed, and as I grew older, I forgot about the Ouija board, which was now buried in a drawer, believing it was nothing to take seriously. One day, after school, it was the middle of a bright, sunny day, and I was home alone. A rare thing. We had cats and dogs, and I remember sitting on the end of my bed.

[00:09:20] My bedroom was now in the family room, the same room with the basement door, the one with the handle I saw shake furiously. The entire house was silent. Strange, considering we had multiple pets, usually running all around causing trouble. I looked up from my bed, and absolutely froze. Let me preface this by saying, after my dad passed, I moved my room downstairs,

[00:09:49] into the family room, and we all set up a fake wall with wardrobes to give me some privacy. I never liked sharing a room with the door to the basement. Now, on this day, in the middle of a sunny afternoon, I looked up from my bed and saw it. Peeking around the corner by my doorway, less than eight feet away, stood a shadow person. I had never seen anything like it, and I haven't since.

[00:10:20] The best way I can describe it is, if someone stood peeking around the corner, but took the darkest black you could imagine, and completely colored in the outline. The figure was at least six or seven feet tall. It had no eyes, no face, no hairline, no distinguishing features whatsoever. The window behind the shadow figure had sunlight pouring through it, but whatever it was,

[00:10:50] it completely blocked it out. I froze. I couldn't process what to do fast enough. That moment felt like it lasted forever, but in just a few seconds, whoever or whatever it was darted back around the corner without a single sound and disappeared. I finally froze and leapt up, somehow not feeling any fear, and immediately followed it. But the minute

[00:11:20] I rounded the corner, there was nothing. It had darted back toward the basement door from what I could tell, but there was no sign of anything or anyone now. I searched the house, minus the basement, and came up with nothing. With work and school the next few days, I forgot about it, until that weekend when I was alone once again in that same room. I don't know what I was thinking looking back,

[00:11:49] but teenage me remembered the Ouija board I had tucked away in the drawer. I pulled it out again, determined to get some answers. Was this my dad finally coming back to check on me after over a year? Was this something I had let in, or was it something that was always there? I played with the board alone that night, and I'll never forget the answers. I only asked three questions.

[00:12:19] Is whoever showed themselves to me here now? Yes. The person who was in my doorway, are you my dad? No. The planchette moved without me pushing anything, and a wave of fear washed over me. Do I know you? I asked. No. I panicked. I broke the circle, demanded whoever or whatever it was

[00:12:48] leave there immediately, and I burnt the Ouija board that very night. I never understood why this thing came through. All I know is that it wasn't my dad. That was my last experience in the family room, but it made me a lifelong believer. That's not my last experience in this house. I moved out, went to college, did all the things that normally happen before I met my husband.

[00:13:17] We shared an apartment and excitedly welcomed our first child into the world, a healthy baby boy. Shortly after, we moved back home with my mom to ease the financial strain of being new parents with no maternity leave. As time passed, little things would happen. One night, my husband and I left our now one-year-old son at home to go see the new It movie. While we were gone,

[00:13:47] my mom had put my son to bed and was sitting in the living room watching TV when an ad came on for the movie that we were seeing. My son had one of those walkers in the corner. You had to manually switch it on to make it play music by sliding the power button. My mom said it started lighting up and playing music all on its own, even with the power button turned off. She quickly turned off the TV and went upstairs to bed.

[00:14:16] Over the next couple of years, we would swear we could hear sounds coming from my son's room over the video baby monitor, but we always dismissed it. A few years passed. My son learned to walk and talk and gained independence. Now he was four with a room full of toys and things that made noise. One summer night, after putting him to bed, he called out loudly, Mom? Dad?

[00:14:46] Come in here, quick! At first, we dismissed it, thinking he was just trying to delay bedtime. But when I walked into his room, he was almost crying, and I immediately knew something serious had happened. What he told me next will stick with me for the rest of my life. Let me know. I have never been religious, and my son has never been to church. He said, in his own words,

[00:15:16] Grandpa Rick came down from heaven and told me a secret. Puzzled, my son was suddenly bringing up my dad, whom he had never met, and we hadn't talked about. I pushed for answers and told him he could tell me anything. He said Grandpa Rick told him to keep it a secret, but then told me that he looked like a black shadow that came out of his wall, and that Grandpa Rick told him he loved and missed him

[00:15:46] so much before disappearing back into the wall. Skeptical, I asked more questions. Just then, a toy electric guitar leaning against my son's wall activated and played a guitar riff all on its own. The toy has never gone off like that, and it never has happened again after that night. Startled, but also tearing up, now believing my son, I started to talk to him

[00:16:16] about my dad and how much I missed him. The guitar went off again. My son has never brought up seeing Shadows or Grandpa Rick since that night, and we haven't had any other experiences in the house since. Now that I'm in my late 30s, I still have so many questions. What did I see as a kid? What the heck was scaring me in my bedroom as a teenager in the middle of the day if it wasn't my dad?

[00:16:45] Was my son seeing my dad? Was it my dad's way of making sure nothing else came through? I'm left with more questions than answers, and I know I'll spend most of my adult life poring over other stories, hoping I'm not the only one who has experienced things like this. Sorry if this is too long, but it feels great to get it down in writing, because it still bothers me to this day.

[00:17:35] Do you say data or data? I say data, it just sounds cooler, but for years I thought paying buckets of cash every month for cell phone data was just how it all worked, until I switched to Mint Mobile. Same great coverage, faster speeds, and crystal clear calls, all for just 15 bucks a month. Now I'm saving over 500 bucks a year without sacrificing quality. Say goodbye to overpriced bills and hello to Mint Mobile's

[00:18:04] premium wireless plans, all with high-speed data and unlimited talk and text on the nation's largest 5G network. Keep your phone, your number, your contacts, just pay less. Get three months of premium wireless service for only 15 bucks a month with Mint Mobile. No matter how you say it, don't overpay for it. Shop data plans at mintmobile.com slash trails. That's mintmobile.com

[00:18:33] slash trails. Upfront payment of $45 for three-month five-gigabyte plan required, equivalent to $15 a month. New customer offer for first three months only, then full-price plan options available. Taxes and fees extra. See Mint Mobile for details. The day a falcon saved my life in the desert

[00:19:02] by freak like me. I was on a 10-mile hike on Christmas Day through southeastern New Mexico. It was a region I had never visited. After finding a safe route down into the river valley, I began to have a severe, allergic reaction to a plant that was down there that I had never been exposed to. I immediately popped some Benadryl that I had in my pocket and quickly began to climb back out

[00:19:32] of the valley. In case I began to go into anaphylactic shock, I wanted to be somewhere medical personnel could reach me easily. My throat was nearly swollen shut by the time that we reached the precipice, and I was nearly passing out from the lack of oxygen and the strenuous climb out of that valley. Suddenly, a falcon fluttered onto a branch no more than 10 feet from us.

[00:20:01] We heard it coming because it surprisingly had a jingling bell around its neck. We paid little mind to it and started hiking to the trailhead. The problem was, I had been the one keeping track of the route that we came in on, and in my days, I took a wrong turn. It was beginning to feel like I had very little time to make that kind of mistake as my throat began to close. As that began

[00:20:31] to dawn on me, the falcon flew right back up to us, flapping its wings and hopping around on the branch. I don't know why, but my brain told me to follow that falcon. As soon as we did, it fluttered from tree to tree and acted distressed as if we were lingering too long. Long story short, this falcon brought us right back to our car very quickly and then flew off immediately after.

[00:21:02] My friend drove me to the clinic, and I got there just in time to receive epinephrine. That falcon had to be somebody's pet, but how did it know how to find distressed hikers and help them? Honestly, it warms my heart, so thank you, falcon.

[00:21:38] Experience from a skeptic by Nico This might seem like a small, unimportant story, but it certainly made an impact on me earlier today. I'd lost my regular, daily, reader pair of glasses last night and was frantically looking all over my house for them until I had to leave for work. I have two pairs, a nicer, more expensive pair and a flexible, nylon-framed pair that I consider my house glasses.

[00:22:08] I fall asleep in them sometimes and don't worry about damaging them. These are the ones that mysteriously went missing after I woke up. I pulled the covers off my bed and lifted up my mattress, thinking they might have fallen underneath the bed while I was asleep. No luck. I started retracing my steps and looking in other rooms, thinking that maybe there was some chance I took them off and left them somewhere else while I was half asleep. Eventually, I accepted

[00:22:38] that I simply must have lost them and probably would never find them again. I went as far as ordering a replacement pair. Well, today as I got dressed and ready to leave for work, I looked down to see, you guessed it, the pair of glasses. They were just sitting on my bathroom floor, folded closed, with the lenses facing up. There's no way I would have gotten in and out of the shower without noticing them.

[00:23:07] It was shocking and even amusing. I've had an on and off relationship with the paranormal throughout my life. I've gone through periods of believing and not believing and have finally settled on a healthy, skeptical approach in recent years. But this is one event I simply can't explain. I laughed it off and verbally thanked whoever was responsible for giving them back.

[00:23:53] The Premonition by Sandy As you get older, you forget and store memories away to make room for new memories. But there are some memories that are front and center all the time, like your wedding day or the birth of your child. Unbelievably good things or something even more painful. I was 27 or 28 when a deadly premonition came to me in the form

[00:24:23] of a nightly dream. I believe with every fiber of my being that this dream saved my life. I need to set the stage, so to speak, so it will make sense how many things came into play. At the time, I was living in a fourplex, two apartments upstairs and two downstairs. It was on a large lot, which it shared with another fourplex with a large grassy backyard.

[00:24:52] There were garages behind that, facing the alley, and above several of the garages were two studio apartments that had a wooden staircase leading to the landing. All the apartments of my building had a front and back door. In my fourplex, we were all single ladies, three of us in our twenties, and the fourth about fifty. We all worked and pretty much had similar hours. We were friendly and shared cookies

[00:25:22] and sometimes borrowed a jacket, etc. Not best friends, but neighborly. The managing couple of the two buildings lived in the other fourplex, and they had a Doberman that was trained to attack on command. The two garage apartments were empty at the time. I lived downstairs, away from the open area between the two buildings. I had a cat named Charlie, who was an indoor-outdoor cat.

[00:25:51] Next to my back door was a window that I left open so that she could come and go during the day. At night she was in and the window was closed. I had locks on all of my windows so they could only be opened a few inches for air. My bedroom was at the back of the apartment, looking out at the grassy area and the garages. I had my clothes hamper in front of the window that faced the backyard so Charlie could still sit there

[00:26:21] and look outside. Again, with a lock and only open a few inches. I had been dating a man named John on and off for a couple of years. He sold pageant and wedding gowns and his territory covered the western states so he traveled half of every month. He wasn't a cat person so I usually spent my time at his condo when he was not on the road. It was spring when I had the nightmare.

[00:26:50] I was tied to one of my dining room chairs in the dining room with a gag in my mouth. The guy was standing over me with a knife. He had dirty blonde shaggy hair. He was wearing blue mechanic overalls, the one piece kind with the buttons down the front and a collar and sleeves. the features of his face weren't clear but he definitely emanated evil and I knew that he was going to hurt me.

[00:27:21] I woke myself up with my screams drenched in sweat. I scared Charlie and grabbed her to calm myself down. I remember thinking that it was just a scary dream. I fell back to sleep and pretty much forgot about it all day at work. The nightmare came again that night though. It was exactly the same and the next night and the next night probably ten nights in a row. I was now

[00:27:50] afraid to fall asleep and I was worn out. The dream was always the same. It never showed how he got into my place or what he ended up doing with me. I told Ruth about the dream and she told me not to worry about it. I couldn't tell John because he was away and on a long buying trip. He called me when he returned and we went out for dinner and back to his place where I spent the night. Now I still hadn't told him

[00:28:19] about my recurring dream and I remember thinking that I surely wouldn't have the dream that night with John lying right next to me. But I did and I woke up screaming with John shaking me awake. I babbled about the dream, how I was tied up and all of the details. John went rigid and then quietly told me that he had dreamt about me a couple of times where I was tied up in the dining room. Then he told me what the guy

[00:28:49] looked like and what he was wearing. These were details I hadn't told him. It was identical. The only difference was that in John's dream the guy killed me. Talk about both of us being freaked out, right? Well, it was the weekend and John insisted that I stay at his place. We went back to my apartment to pick up some things and make sure that Charlie had enough food. To my relief,

[00:29:18] I didn't have the dream all weekend. In fact, I never had the dream again. Several days later, John had to leave for a week. Now, even though neither of us had the dream again, the memory was still there. John wanted me to bring Charlie to his place and for me to stay there while he was gone. I refused. I promised him I would be super careful, not going to my usual dance and exercise classes in the evening, double-checking

[00:29:48] the doors and locks, and keeping Charlie inside all week, too. Nothing out of the ordinary happened. A couple of weeks went by. turned to normal. Then, I awoke suddenly, sensing something was wrong. The sun was starting to come up, and I turned right, and my clock said 6.30 a.m., almost time to get ready for work. I heard

[00:30:18] a low growl, and when I turned my head left, Charlie was crouched low on the hamper, looking into the backyard. She was all puffed up and growling, a cat that never growled. Out loud, I said, thanks for waking me up. But she didn't turn away from the window. Curious, I got out of bed and bent down to see what she was looking at, thinking it was probably a strange cat or a dog.

[00:30:48] Walking toward my building from the alleyway was the man from my nightmares. I was frozen in terror, moving away from the window so that he couldn't see me. As I waited, he came straight to my back door and knocked loudly. He then tried the doorknob and then tried to open Charlie's window, but thankfully it was locked. Charlie's growling

[00:31:17] turned to hissing. She knew that this man was evil. After a moment, I heard him walking away, and I bent down again and watched as he walked back to the garages and then walked up the stairs into one of the garage apartments. He tried both doors, looked inside, and saw that they were empty. He then walked back down into my door again. Finally,

[00:31:47] I was able to run to the phone that was in the living room, and I called the managers and told them that someone was in the backyard trying to break in. They released the Doberman, and she came out barking like crazy, but the guy had already left the alley. The manager called the police to report the incident, but the guy was never found. I never had the dream again, nor did the guy ever return. So, while the dream had warned me of danger, it was actually Charlie who saved

[00:32:17] my life. If she hadn't growled, I would not have known that there was a stranger at the door. I would have thought it was one of my neighbors needing to borrow something before work, like they had done before, and just opened the door without asking who it was. The guy would have been able to force his way in. The fact that both John and I had the same dream, and the man's appearance was exact,

[00:32:46] still blows my mind. My guardian angels worked overtime to send the message to me, John, and especially to Charlie. It's been about 45 years, and it still gives me shivers to think about it. To the man in my premonition, let's not meet.

[00:33:27] So there's this really specific line in this story, the premonition one that stuck with me. They said it never showed how he got into my place or what he ended up doing with me, and that's such like a common thread in documented premonition cases. They don't really unfold like a movie. There's no beginning, no middle, no end. It's just like a warning, like a sensory flash. The emotion comes first, and then I guess all the

[00:33:56] information second. Yeah, and we're talking about two people independently having the same warning about the same threat. Yeah, yeah, there have been documented cases of like dream sharing and premonition in the public eye, but researchers, I say that in air quotes, they always chalk it up to like shared stress response or I guess exposure to similar stimuli, but when the details line up so precisely,

[00:34:26] the skeptics, they're the ones who look like they're reaching, you know what I mean? They're trying to find an explanation even though the explanation doesn't make sense. Yeah, it actually makes me wonder if Charlie the cat had the same dream. I thought of that too. Yeah, like also animals reacting to people or situations before we understand what's going on. That's not really a superstition type of thing. It's very real. Yeah, like that's why they're able to, you know, detect cancer or even be used

[00:34:56] and seizure prediction. Yeah, my friend's cat knew when his wife was pregnant before they had any idea. Like it started acting completely different, like meowing excessively. Normally it was a pretty quiet cat and it would like rub up against her belly and just be extra affectionate and like biscuit on her stomach and all this stuff. And it was really sweet and they had no idea. And then eventually they sure enough found out she was pregnant. Oh, but yeah, just more proof that animals are better than humans.

[00:35:26] Yeah, that's sweet. You know, her growls were probably her responding to the heightened adrenaline or maybe like the aggression before the guy even made his move. More than likely. Yeah. Protective things. I love them. Unfortunately, my pets seem to sense those things in every single person that enters the house. Yeah, for better or worse, but I guess in this case it's just for the worse. Maybe it's a chihuahua thing being overly protective, but I mean,

[00:35:55] at least they're super sweet and loyal when they're raised right or properly exposed. I don't know. I never thought I'd be a small dog kind of guy. My wife brought Chip home like on a whim. She just kind of felt a connection when she saw his picture on the adoption website and I fell in love immediately. I thought we were just going to foster him and now I couldn't imagine having any other breed of dog. Bigger dogs just, I love them to death. They just drive me nuts. Yeah, he's a good boy. I'm the same way with most pets. I would say when they're

[00:36:25] not clawing up the couch or barking and waking me up at the worst times or when I'm trying to record, they're great. Or when I'm not trying to go on a long trip and need a pet sitter, they're okay. The list goes on when they're not okay but all in all, they're worth it. I think Chip definitely, he'll let you know if a serious killer from your dreams was going to be coming at the door anytime soon. Good point. That's true. You know, the scary part was

[00:36:54] that he didn't just give up. He circled back and like tried the door again then just vanished when the Doberman was released, the bigger dog. Yeah, yeah. He didn't seem like some random guy just trying to get through the doors. It's like he knew the layout and went straight to her door. He was probably watching for a while. And that makes sense that it feels even more like she wasn't just getting a psychic echo. She was truly getting some kind

[00:37:24] of heads up. It just makes you think about what sort of mechanisms are really behind the warnings like guardian angels maybe. Shared unconsciousness is always a fun one or something quantum that could probably be an episode on its own. Yeah, we probably won't really understand it until the next life. I think it's less about belief and more about patterns that keep showing up when we bother to pay attention. Yeah, especially when we look for patterns, we're

[00:37:53] more prone to see it. I have a friend who always notices the overhead streetlights going out whenever she walks right by them without fail. It's every single night. And you would think these bulbs wouldn't be going out so often, you know what I mean? But it's a very regular occurrence throughout the weeks. It just happens. Just in general though, all of that, the pattern recognition and the stories that we have, it has me paying a lot more attention to my surroundings and just the things I feel and all

[00:38:22] that, which I'll probably get in a little bit later. There was something about Lauren's story that kind of stuck with me. Yeah, the whole world just becomes feeling a bit more supernatural. Naturally. That's a great way to put it. I think you're right. This was actually a really cool episode for Animals as Guardians. We had Grandpas. We've had lots of dogs before, like recently, but I think we're back to Animals. Maybe we'll get Grandmas next time. Hopefully. I love Grandmas. Animals as Guardians. That's a decent band name.

[00:38:52] I like that. Oh, wait, yeah. Animals as Leaders, right? Ah, yeah. Okay, that's why it sounded so good. Those guys rule. Yeah, Modest Mouse. But yeah, I think the hawk and the cat this week were the real heroes. Yeah, I love that the hawk had a bell around its neck, which is classic falconry. Yeah, it was definitely someone's bird. But, I mean, what are the odds of it being there exactly when this person needed help and

[00:39:22] then acting like some kind of rescue drone? I can't imagine that's trained behavior for a falcon. I wouldn't be surprised, but then again, I don't really know falconry. I'm like an intermediate falconeer, so who am I to say? Yeah. I guess from what little I do know, they're pretty solitary. I don't think they hang out with people unless they've been trained to, but even then, I don't think I've ever heard a story about one leading someone out of the desert. Yeah, yeah, this one was really interesting. I loved it. Yeah.

[00:39:52] I immediately thought about you when they mentioned Benadryl, I just gotta say. Yeah, yeah, I really related to this one, and I've had so many allergic reactions like this, primarily around you and your damn cats. Hey, the Benadryl king, I like how we lay out the red carpet for you whenever you come over to my mom's house with, actually she only has one cat now. Oh, good. Rip, but yeah, no, it's all right. I mean, I guess good. It just shows, yeah, I mean, in its own way. Yeah.

[00:40:22] It just goes to show how much you're willing to sacrifice to be within the household of my family. I don't know what I'm trying to say, I'm a little tired. It's okay, that's fine. Yeah, it's been a long week. I've actually switched to Zyrtec. You were right, it's amazing. Oh, nice, nice. That's so cool that it works for you. Yeah. You know, before when it wasn't working, we talked about that it had to have been a fluke or some bad generic bottle, but I got a bottle of the Costco stuff and it worked immediately. Normally, I'm like in rough shape this time of

[00:40:52] year during the spring, but I've actually been able to enjoy the spring and if I miss a day, I can really feel it, so it definitely works. Nice. I think the active, I don't know how to pronounce it, but I think the active ingredient is citrazine. So band name, we can be like the citrazine serpents. I like that. Yeah. Get off the Benadryl though. It shrinks your brain anyway. Yeah, yeah, technically it does. I read about that increased dementia risk, which I'm terrified of. So for better

[00:41:22] or worse, I saw like some thing online, it's like a screenshot I have on my phone that I didn't send you because I didn't want to like freak you out because it was probably just like any other study, quote unquote study, but it was like the caption said Benadryl causes dementia. Like number three, some fun fact with some, who knows who this person was is some dude in scrubs with like a stethoscope around his neck. So I didn't want to like doctors hate him. Yeah, yeah. But whatever, stay alert. It's good info for everybody. Yeah, yeah,

[00:41:52] of course. Just be aware that it could shrink your brain. It could give you dementia, but hey, at least you won't have any allergies. Yeah, I mean, it's been shown in studies, yes, but we all know that that's not necessarily conclusive evidence these days. Right, right. Or even like in marketing, dentists agree that blah, blah, blah. Okay, what dentists are we talking about? Like, are we talking about three dentists who graduated at the bottom of their class? We need more to start me here.

[00:42:21] But yeah, there are studies that will prove yes and no for so many different things. You just kind of have to navigate with your gut, use your wits. Totally. I still keep Benadryl in my fanny pack for the big bad attacks, like when I'm in the desert around new plants. Yeah, that'll do it. That's my Benadryl boy. Yeah, I did sadly abuse it a lot in my younger days, but that's in the past. Daddy's straight edge these days. Well, there you go. You've gotten with the times

[00:42:51] and now you're a Zyrtex zaddy. That's good. That's a good one. Yeah, it's a fun role to play. I actually took too much Benadryl once as a teenager, but never again. I saw these weird black blobs crawling all around my bedroom and later on, I found out that it's actually pretty common to see all sorts of shadow people, including the infamous hat man. Oh yeah, the Benadryl hat man. Yeah. Yep. Luckily, I never had the honors of meeting him face-to-face,

[00:43:21] hat-to-hat. Yeah, you're probably not missing out. I also wouldn't recommend taking too much Robitussin. You don't need to get all itchy and feeling like you're walking with your feet inside of pizza boxes. So I hear. Oh damn, I guess I'll have to change my plans for Tuesday night. Perfect. Yeah. Oh yeah, so Lauren's story, lots of cool things to touch on. It's always the simple things though. For me, it was the mirror on the back of her door and the electric feeling

[00:43:50] that she felt walking down the stairs into her basement. Yeah, yeah, they were just mentioned in passing, but they were definitely cool details. We've talked about mirrors before, but it was interesting that she mentioned feeling like her closet was some sort of portal. Exactly, yeah, like she tells her parents about that fear and their response was to put up a mirror. Of all things, just deliberately trying to amplify her portal complex,

[00:44:20] I guess. Yeah, yeah, I guess she could just get into mirror gazing, that's something I've been doing some research on lately. Ooh, wow, I bet Albert Hoffman would probably have some things to say about that, but whatever, anyway. Yeah, yeah, and the mirror was facing her bed too, which is creepy, of course, but I'll just say I wouldn't want to watch myself in bed, that's weird. Yeah, that's not my cup of tea either, not into it, but I guess as for the electric feeling

[00:44:50] that she felt going down into the basement, that was perfect, that's kind of what I wanted to touch on that I brought up a bit earlier, because I've been doing a lot of reading up on Frisson, and reading that kind of made things feel full circle. Yeah, Frisson, that's basically like ASMR, right? Sort of, yeah, it's, I've personally associated ASMR more in line with like getting goosebumps, whatever the reason might be, a five senses type of thing, but Frisson to me is more

[00:45:20] like a lightning strike hitting your music, not just from watching somebody tap their nails on a tube of eye shadow. Yeah, that makes sense. Sensing energies and all that sixth sense type of stuff. Yeah, a bit more profound and unexpected, the body just short circuits, but in the best way possible. Yeah, I definitely feel that with certain pieces of music, not necessarily something with deep emotional meaning,

[00:45:49] it can be a song that I've never heard, with lyrics I don't understand, and it just hits me. Yeah, it could definitely be along the same lines. So it's got to be like a dopamine thing, right? Yeah, and it's also like the release of anticipation, the brain loves patterns, like we talked about. So when it thinks it knows what's coming, and then something slightly different happens, but in a really satisfying way, it's just like, boom. It's not the greatest explanation, but... No, no,

[00:46:19] that makes sense. If you feel it, you feel it. Yeah, it's just like a sweet spot that triggers the frisson. I've also felt it just from conversations before, like when someone says something that just kind of hits a nerve in a good way. I think that pastors and preachers are really good at that. Oh, that's actually a perfect example because maybe the message itself incites some sort of frisson response, but the way they deliver would be ASMR even.

[00:46:49] Mm-hmm. Um, it's like when people whisper something or just carry themselves a certain way, it can happen. Yeah. It's when it's so unexpected, like not from, oh, I really like this person's voice or they said something I really like. It could be like the most mundane thing, just passing somebody in the street, just something that you feel radiated off of them. It's really, really strange. Mm-hmm. But yeah, that's my favorite kind, like when somebody just says something that hits a nerve. And that's why I started looking more into it because

[00:47:19] that Reiki session from a while back, I'm sure most of you remember. Mm-hmm. Um, it opened up a lot at the time, but I kind of fell off. But lately I've been feeling it a lot more just around people who I wouldn't expect in the most random scenarios. So I've been going on more of a deep dive and it's really interesting stuff. Like when a soft-spoken teacher would hunch over the desk and turn the pages in your book? Oh, Mrs. Sun in the fourth grade. Yep. Yep. Yeah. Oh, man. Yeah.

[00:47:48] I know that's ASMR, but still, I feel bad for anybody who hasn't experienced that. Yeah. Like I thought I had some weird superpowers as a kid when that would happen to me. Same. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's cool when you're talking to someone and then they say something that just slices right through the noise and hits you deep and suddenly your body is just like, why did I just react to that? It's so strange. Yeah. Yeah. I felt that at least a couple of times. Yeah. There's like a couple of

[00:48:18] different theories out there, but a simple one if we're keeping it supernatural is just having similar energy wavelengths or whatever. It could be like an energy exchange, maybe even a soul contract or somebody you were connected with in a past life. Yeah. When I was talking to Reiki healer, she said that I was clairsentient, which is basically just picking up on energy and emotions without the five senses tipping you off, like entirely intuitive, no sort of visual, audible,

[00:48:49] nothing. It's just there. Yeah, it's really cool stuff. It's neat how our bodies can pick up on things like that or I guess rather our souls do that. Our bodies just kind of transmit it. like an input-output type of thing, call and response. They're all that similar electric feeling. I know it's been said that fristen is what people feel during prayer, speaking of pastors, but maybe in some or even most cases that is what it is, but I'm sure you can attest to this. Having a

[00:49:19] profound spiritual experience is completely different. The feeling isn't the same. Yeah, 100%. ASMR with some sort of audible or visual stimuli is one thing, but experiencing that connectedness with greater power than yourself or whatever you

[00:50:00] know. I feel bad about that. I mean, thank you for sending it in though. Definitely carried a lot over the years. Yeah, and it sparked a lot of genuine thoughts and theories from us, so it did its job. Exactly. Don't play with too many Ouija boards and listen to it when it tells you that it wasn't your father. It could have just been a shadow person lurking around. Or just get yourself a chihuahua. Well, thanks everybody for listening. Make sure to send your stories in to stories at oddtrails.com. If you want to get ad-free versions of

[00:50:30] all of our episodes, go to patreon.com forward slash oddtrails to sign up and support the show today. Make sure to check out the new episodes of my other podcasts like Let's Not Meet, Cryptic Encounters and the Old Time Radio Cast at crypticcountypodcasts.com. We'll see all you creeps next week. Everybody stay safe. Peace out.

[00:51:07] Ghosts and the ghouls disturb you, done.