Episode 180: Séances and Squat Racks

[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] The Disappearing Family by Grand Illusionist. I'm a regular gym person, and I was at the gym just yesterday. Most times I see the same people as if we have the same schedule. I go to the gym, see the same people, small gym, three other people I know that go regularly.

[00:01:19] But this time, there was this family. A mom, a dad, a son, likely aged 20. And they had their child who was probably six. They were taking it easy, talking and experimenting with the weights and techniques, while the child kept interrupting their mom about this or that. Just a normal, loud, energetic kid trying to touch everything. Now here's where things get odd.

[00:01:48] I was on the cable machine, working on shoulders. Just an easy day to stretch, facing the window. Now, when I rotate, after about 10 reps, I face the gym. Then I rotate again to face the window. I had about 20 minutes left. I had my earplugs in with low music playing so that I could hear what the family was talking about and doing, since I was interested in their goals, as I had never seen them.

[00:02:16] I face the window and start my reps. One, two, three. I can hear the child scrambling, annoying his mom, and the dad talking to the mom about how to lift the dumbbells. I'm on rep seven or eight. And then, the power goes out. Lights out, fans off. It's all very noticeable. But at that exact time, the noise from the family and the child went away,

[00:02:44] as if a TV show had been playing in the background, and as soon as the power went out, the TV turned off. I thought this was odd, but I finished my last two reps, nine and ten, and in about three seconds, I turn around and immediately see why the family had all of a sudden gone quiet when the power went out. When I turned around, the family wasn't there. The weights they had on the ground were not on the ground.

[00:03:13] They were put back on the racks. I looked around, even walked to the hallway where the exit was, walked outside, and there was nothing. No one. It would take time to put the weights back on, walk to the hallway, to exit the door, and then walk out. No way in hell did they do this in three seconds. Even sprinting fast, it would take at least ten seconds to get to the exit and then close the door. But there was absolutely no family.

[00:03:42] I came back into the gym, and I looked at the other gym members to see if they were confused or in shock, but they weren't. They kept doing their normal routine as if nothing had happened. The lights were still off, and I had a very bad, strange feeling when I looked at their faces and how they were exercising. It was like everybody became robots. Or like I wasn't supposed to be there. Or they couldn't see me.

[00:04:12] I got out of there and walked home as fast as I could. This just made me feel so off. I couldn't sleep. Can somebody please tell me what happened? Did I die? Is there some kind of quantum immortality thing going on? A dimension jump? I don't know. But I've never experienced this, and it just felt very off.

[00:04:58] My Sister's Seance by Matthew I was fifteen when it happened. We lived in an old family home. My mother, my older brother, and my two older sisters. It was a house that had known years of laughter and warmth. But also, as I would come to believe, something else. Something that should have been left alone. My eldest sister, who was twenty-three at the time,

[00:05:26] developed this deep fascination with the occult. It started out as an interest, then it became an obsession. She would coax my brother, my other sister and me, into conducting seances with her, always insisting that it was just for fun. We did around ten, maybe fifteen, before everything changed. Our seance board was crude, just a rectangle of wood with letters and numbers written on it.

[00:05:54] A shot glass served as the planchette. We had been warned never to let the glass tip over. If it did, it could release whatever spirit we had contacted. That afternoon, my sister convinced us to do another session. I chose not to participate this time, watching from the sidelines as she and my siblings called upon whatever. The usual questions were asked. What is your name? Will I find love?

[00:06:23] Will I be rich? But there was something different about this spirit. It was angry. It was focused. And it wanted my brother. The messages spelled out on the board became more hostile. The shot glass started jerking and darting faster than I had ever seen. It said it would visit my brother in the night, that it would come into his room and suffocate him as he slept. I couldn't stay quiet.

[00:06:52] From the sidelines, I began shouting at it, cursing, swearing, demanding it to leave us alone. That's when it turned on me. It mocked me, telling me I was powerless to stop it. Then, in a moment that made my blood turn to ice, it revealed something no one should have known. It spelled out, you are hiding things from your family. My heart pounded. I played dumb, but it persisted.

[00:07:23] Show them what is in your wallet. I denied it again. You are hiding secrets in your wallet, it said. No one could have known. And yet, there it was, exposing me. I had been hiding a small stash of marijuana in my wallet's coin pocket, something I had kept carefully hidden from my family. The air in the room grew thick, charged.

[00:07:51] Even my sister, who had always been the confident one during those sessions, looked shaken. Then the shot glass moved faster, violently sliding from one side of the board to the other, erratic and desperate. Without warning, it tipped. The glass teetered on its edge for a split second, before toppling onto the wooden surface. We all froze. The air all around us felt heavier, charged with an unseen weight.

[00:08:21] The spirit kept speaking, its messages frenzied, refusing to leave. My sister, her voice unsteady, performed a closing chant, forcing the session to end. The glass went still. We never touched the board again. But something had changed. In the days that had followed, the house felt different. The air seemed thick, suffocating,

[00:08:49] like something unseen had settled in. We had never spoke much about what had happened, but the unease was there, lingering. And then things got worse. One night, I was sitting alone, in the dimly lit living room, the flickering glow of the television casting shifting shadows across the walls. Our house sat beside a roundabout, and I had grown used to the way headlights would sweep across the room as cars passed by.

[00:09:18] But that night, something else moved. At first, I dismissed it as another passing car. But then I noticed the movement continued, even when the street was silent. A shadow, distinct and human-shaped, slithered along the top of the walls, stretching unnaturally, growing darker. My breath caught in my throat. There were no headlights,

[00:09:46] no sound of tires on asphalt, just the silent, deliberate movement of something watching me. I turned off the TV and bolted to my room, slamming the door shut. But the feeling didn't leave. The air still felt charged with something unseen. I climbed into bed, squeezing my eyes shut, hoping it would pass. But it didn't. Minutes stretched into eternity,

[00:10:16] my skin prickling with the sensation of being watched. I couldn't take it anymore. I fled into my mother's room, slipping under a blanket at the foot of her bed. She was asleep, unaware of the terror that gripped me. I let out a shaky breath and closed my eyes. Then I woke up. A pressure weighed on me, an unbearable sense of dread crushing at my chest.

[00:10:45] My eyes fluttered open, and there, inches from my face, was a woman, elderly and partially hidden behind a dark veil. Her hollow eyes bored into mine, unblinking. I could feel the cold radiating from her, an unnatural presence in the stillness of the room. I started swatting at her and trying to scream. And then she was gone. I shot up, gasping,

[00:11:14] scrambling to wake my mother. My words tumbled out in a frantic desperation, but she simply said that I had been dreaming and told me to go back to sleep. But I knew better. I stayed awake the rest of the night, listening and waiting. The occurrences didn't stop with me. My siblings, too, felt it. Saw things. Heard whispers in the dark. Eventually, it became too much. My mom called a priest from the Catholic Church

[00:11:44] to bless the house, to rid it of whatever had latched onto us. The ritual was performed, and slowly, the disturbances faded. Years later, as we packed up to move out of that house, I stumbled upon something, hidden deep in my sister's belongings. Books, notes, and pages filled with dark rituals and spells. She had been delving deeper into the occult than we ever knew,

[00:12:12] calling for things that she shouldn't have. I haven't touched a seance board since. You know how in true crime,

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[00:13:40] Use our code TRAILS to get a free gift with your journey pack. Head to tryfume.com. That's tryfume.com. Use code TRAILS to claim this limited time offer today. It was great to hear his laugh again by Jeho. I'm not somebody who remembers their dreams.

[00:14:07] Generally, if I do remember a dream, it'll just be part of it. Also, I'm more likely to remember my dreams during my second sleep. See, I drink a lot of water so I almost always have to get up and use the bathroom in the early morning hours. I always go back to sleep after that and I refer to my sleep during that period as my second sleep. Another thing that I should share is that I lost my dad 16 years ago

[00:14:36] when I was in my mid-20s. I was so lucky to have a great relationship with him and I miss him dearly. He was the greatest and even though he's been gone for a really long time, I've never really had him make an appearance in a dream until recently. Anyway, I was in my second sleep when I had this dream. The dream started with me doing laundry. I used to live in San Francisco and the place

[00:15:06] I was doing my laundry in my dream reminded me of the last place I lived in San Francisco. I was in this downstairs garage area and I hurriedly unloaded my clothes from the dryer so that I could move what was in the washer over to the dryer. I went back upstairs after I was done shifting the laundry around. The stairs from the laundry area led up to the main house into the kitchen. Then the kitchen opened up

[00:15:35] into a dining room which then opened up into a living room. From the living room there was a hallway that had two bathrooms on the left and then there was a staircase presumably leading up to the bedrooms at the end of the hallway. Honestly, what was interesting about this home was that it was a mix of the house in San Francisco that I lived in and my childhood home in Oakland. So I walked my way through the kitchen, through the dining room and the living room

[00:16:04] to get to the hallway to go upstairs. When I was walking by one of the bathrooms I turned to talk to whoever was in there. The door was just open so I assumed they were just standing at the sink in there or something. I remember turning to them and saying, hey, I'm almost done with my laundry I promise. Why is it always us waiting until the last minute to do laundry? I never saw who I was speaking to in my dream but it turned out to be my dad because he laughed

[00:16:34] in response to my question. He then started to say something else to me and I remember we had a chat but none of the dialogue was clear to me so I don't know what we talked about. But I do remember I was smiling and laughing so the conversation we were having was a good one. The dream kind of ended there though. I never got to see him and I'm unclear on the specifics of what he said but I remember hearing his laugh and hearing his voice clear as day in the dream.

[00:17:04] It's very interesting that in 16 years I've never had any dreams with him in it but it was great to hear his laugh again. The Hole in the East River by Mark

[00:17:33] This happened a couple of years ago. I live in Brooklyn, New York and take the train into Manhattan regularly which happens to cross the East River on its journey into the city. The morning commute is usually busy and stressful with each subway car usually packed full of 9-5ers. On this one day I was standing in the doorway as there were no seats available. The day was overcast and the water was quite still. There are usually boats mostly barges cruising up and down

[00:18:03] the East River and from the elevated view of the train it's always fun to scan the water the boats and the surrounding buildings on the other side of the river. It's pretty calming to be honest. Anyway I'm standing there looking around and my eye suddenly goes to a spot in the water. I take a beat focus my eyes again and get a good look at what looks exactly like a dark spot on top of the river. Just a second later I realize it's not a shadow

[00:18:33] and not the chop of the water. It was a hole a literal hole in the water. It wasn't spinning around like a whirlpool either. You could actually look down into it. My jaw dropped open and I looked at the woman standing next to me also looking looking at the exact same thing I was with the same incredulous and confused look on her face. She looked at me and asked what the hell is that? You see it too? I responded.

[00:19:03] She just nodded and then turned her back to me and buried her face back into her phone. The most convincing aspect of this whole experience was the fact that I was on a moving train when I saw it. The angle of the hole changed as the train moved ahead. It totally tracked with how I should have been seeing it from a circle to a more elliptical shape and then it was gone and the train went underground as it approached Manhattan. At no point did I see anything

[00:19:31] enter or exit it nor were there any boats near it. The actual diameter of the hole was probably 80 to 100 feet from my best estimate. As I stated earlier the water was very calm that day and the sky was overcast. What I was looking at was definitely not an optical illusion. The fact that I could look down into this open space gave me the proof that I needed. The entire experience was probably 60 seconds

[00:20:00] which can actually seem like an eternity when something intense is going on. I wish I had more info and I also wish I had taken my damn phone out and gotten a picture. But in all honesty I didn't even think about getting a picture. I was so fixated on examining the details of what I was looking at I totally spaced out on it. What did I see? That question is going to haunt me forever.

[00:20:46] Not There by Rexy May I'm a 24 year old female and I worked at a summer camp in upstate New York. I'm a nurse and the infirmary is right across a little golf cart path from an open sided shed called the Milk Station. The Milk Station is a roof held up by 7 foot tall 4x4s in each corner. There is no obstruction of view from any side.

[00:21:16] The Health Center parks our golf cart on the little gravel spot next to the stairs to the clinic. It's loud crunchy gravel and it's definitely noticeable when someone parks there. This space is directly across a 5 foot wide golf cart path from the Milk Station. Just so everyone can picture this, the area where this story takes place is about 20 feet of linear space from the Milk Station to the parking spot. You can't be looking toward

[00:21:46] the clinic and the golf cart parking from the Milk Station and not see it. There are absolutely no obstructions to the view. It's just an open path, no bushes or plantings on either side. One day, near the end of summer in 2019, I left the clinic with a co-worker to go across to the other side of the camp. We walked down the steps to the clinic and got into the golf cart to drive to the other side. There were two other staff

[00:22:16] members eating lunch and talking while sitting at the Milk Station. We waved, made small talk, and then left. Ten minutes later, we got back to the clinic, parked the cart, and as I exited the cart, my butt hit the bike bell that we had mounted on the side rails. I laughed at myself for making such an obnoxious exit to the golf cart. As I walked around the golf cart, I looked over at the Milk Station to make a

[00:22:45] self-deprecating joke about the bell, but noted that the other staff members had gone. I went inside the clinic, dropped off my things, and then walked back outside about five minutes later to walk down to the cabin. As I walked down the steps, I noted that the other two staff members had come back to the Milk Station and were seated where they had previously been when I first left. They looked surprised to see me and asked when I had come back.

[00:23:15] I said a few minutes before and then asked them where they had gone. They genuinely looked confused and said that they hadn't gone anywhere. They hadn't left the Milk Station the entire time and hadn't seen us come back to the clinic. I was bewildered to say the least. I told them about hitting the bell with my butt and checking the station for them when we returned and that they were definitely not there.

[00:23:45] They were equally bewildered because they had not seen or heard us drive back up or get out and pass within 10 feet of them to go into the clinic. I wanted to verify all of this with my friend so I called her out of the clinic and without any explanation we asked her if she had seen them when we returned to the clinic. She said no they hadn't been there. That she had looked over to make a joke about them taking an extra long break but they weren't there.

[00:24:14] None of the four of us were ever able to explain why we hadn't been able to see or hear the other pair in our return to the clinic. I work at this camp every summer and nothing like this has ever happened. This is as close to a glitch in the matrix as I have ever come in my life.

[00:24:51] I saved my dad from his dream by Lisa. I sent in a story a while ago telling how my dad saved my life in a dream but I wanted to tell you about how it all started when I saved my dad from a dream where he may have not woken up. It was around 2020 when I was still living with my parents. Me and my dad never really talked about dreams or the paranormal. That was more of a bond I shared with my mom. I remember listening to

[00:25:21] this podcast talking about astral projection and how it can be fun but dangerous. The woman on the show talked about seeing her tether line from her astral form to her physical body. But the more she did it, the more she felt something trying to overtake it. I was super intrigued but hearing her words made me a little scared to try. I kept wondering though, what did she mean by something wanted to take over? That night I

[00:25:51] was playing a game with my then boyfriend, now fiancé. My dad came in and told me I should wrap up. He wanted me to take my mom to work in the morning since he had a doctor's appointment. I said okay and after the game I told my boyfriend I'd just text him until I fell asleep. I was relaxing in my bed and I heard my mom and dad sleeping. We all snore so it's easy to tell when someone's in deep sleep. But when me or my dad has a nightmare, we make what my

[00:26:21] mom calls squirrel noises. I started texting my boyfriend goodnight when I heard my dad making those squirrel noises so I hit the wall a couple of times to wake my mom so she could tap him awake and get him out of his nightmare. I heard them wake up, make the exchange and then head back to Snore City. I laughed and went to sleep. That's when I had the dream. I dreamt I was driving down a dark road in an old pickup truck

[00:26:50] that wasn't mine. It was just me on this foggy road, trees stretching in front and behind. I felt this instant fear, like something was wrong, as if something was watching me from the high trees. I kept driving, glancing in the rearview mirror, not knowing what I was looking for. Suddenly, I saw a burst of light ahead breaking through the darkness. I felt relieved, but then the truck stopped.

[00:27:20] I started hearing noises behind me. I looked around. Nothing. The noises grew louder and louder. When I looked back toward the light, I saw creatures made of black mass moving toward it. I tried to start the truck, but it wouldn't turn over. The light dimmed as the creatures got closer. And then I realized, the noises I was hearing sounded just like my dad making those squirrel noises.

[00:27:49] I instantly woke up in a sweat and heard my dad, clear as day, making those same noises. I started pounding on the wall, but something came over me to just go physically wake him. I jumped out of bed and ran into his room. It took him a while to come to, but when he did, it was like he was struggling to breathe. My mom came in, wondering what was going on. I thought she was in bed, but she had been downstairs getting water.

[00:28:19] I realized if I had just knocked on the wall like before, he would have still been in his nightmare. The next day, I took my mom to work, but all I could think about was the dream I'd had. Why did I feel like I needed to wake up? What were those creatures? When I got home, I realized my dad never left for his appointment. He was just sitting in his chair, looking shaken. I asked, don't you

[00:28:49] have somewhere to be? He looked up and said, I rescheduled. I didn't want to push him, but then he asked if he could tell me about his dream. This was huge. We never talked about this kind of stuff. He said he had dreamed that he could see himself lying in bed, like he was out of his body. He saw me sleeping soundly. He could see the house, the neighborhood, the world. Then he saw a glowing line attached to him,

[00:29:18] but it was dimming as dark, faceless creatures came closer. He said they wanted him and that he just couldn't wake up. And then he said something that made me freeze. If you didn't wake me up, I don't know what would have happened. I thought back to the podcast I'd been listening to. Is this what she meant? Was my dream connected to this somehow? My dad also told me something else.

[00:29:49] After his terrible motorcycle accident years ago, when he'd been dead for a few seconds on the operating table, he remembered seeing only darkness. Until he saw a glowing line behind him. He felt like something was luring him around, but he never saw it because they brought him back. I can definitely say this was one of the most chilling conversations and dreams we've ever shared. And I'm just glad I woke him up that night.

[00:30:39] Something may have followed us home by that crystal witch. I'm a 25-year-old female living with my aunt and uncle and their two kids, 15 and 3. I was here a few months back after an unknown entity scared our 3-year-old. A few nights ago, my aunt and I were coming home from Target with the 3-year-old in the back seat. We were stopped at a red light when my

[00:31:09] aunt and I happened to look outside my window and for a split second, we thought we saw what looked like a person crossing the main road without the crosswalk. But in that second, they were gone. My aunt and I both agreed that we saw something paranormal because we've both spent the majority of our lives in haunted houses. After that, it was an uneventful drive home. We unloaded the

[00:31:39] groceries and let the little one play with his new car set until bedtime. We both went to sleep at around 1130 or midnight, thinking of none of the earlier events. Then, at about 2 o'clock in the morning, my aunt woke me up, asking me why I called 911. If I did, I had to have done it by accident by lying on my phone because a patrol car was outside and they were telling my aunt and uncle that

[00:32:08] someone on or near our address called 911. I said no and checked the call logs. The last two calls I made were to my bank and my stepfather. The cops ended up leaving as there was nothing else to go off of and an hour later, at around 3 a.m., the power went out for nearly two hours. The next day, we went over the strange supposed 911 call and the sudden power outage, both of which

[00:32:37] happened the same night that we saw this entity in the road. We think that whatever we saw might have followed us, leading me to consider contacting my friend's fiancée, who has experience dealing with hauntings and hexes, to see if she can rid the house of a possible negative energy. I'm hoping that whatever it is can be gotten rid of before things potentially escalate.

[00:33:24] So I can't help but think that the disappearing family from Grand Illusionist, that they just never existed, you know what I mean? So I think the family in the gym, they very well could have been just a regular glitch in the Matrix or some sort of like time-lapse sort of thing. But what if, what if, the author is the one that is the Matrix or representation or is stuck in the Matrix? No offense, I'm sure most of us are. But what if the author is like the equivalent of the girl in the red

[00:33:53] dress in the Matrix and the family is just Neo walking through New York City with Morpheus, learning the truth, and this guy just ruins it for them. How's that? Yeah, it always makes me think of all those awesome movies that I, here's the thing, movies like Donnie Darko or Butterfly Effect, two of my favorite movies. Perfect, perfect. Every time I think of those movies, I always Google movies similar to Donnie Darko or Butterfly Effect. Every time. And it's the same list of

[00:34:22] movies every single time. Like, I've seen these all and there's always like one or two that I've always put off for years because I'm like, that doesn't really look similar. And then I'll put it on and it's good and I love it and it becomes one of my favorites. Yeah. But I digress. I feel like, because we all have kind of have a main character syndrome going through life. We always think that everything's happening around us to us. Right. And it's our experience, which you know, it is in a sense, but it makes me wonder if everybody really is living

[00:34:51] their own story and it can be molded in their own way based on their perception of reality. And maybe things happen different for certain people. We see colors. I've always had this theory that we all see colors differently. Yeah. Let me tell you that is peach, not salmon. We call blue blue, but when you look at it, maybe it looks like completely different color than it does to me. You just call it blue because you've been told it's blue. You know what I mean? I always imagined that dogs would probably think we're

[00:35:19] absolutely off our rocker if they could speak English for a day and heard us talk about all these colors that don't exist or apparently all look the same. Yeah, that'd be an interesting conversation to have. Sorry, pup. You're just not as well equipped. But hey, good sense of smell. You got that going for you? Yeah. Yeah. And I'm getting to something here. I believe it. I believe it. The end story is you ended up watching Jacob's Ladder because it was recommended to you, right? Yeah, that's exactly what I was getting at. It's always on the same list. Psychological thriller.

[00:35:50] That movie scares me, man. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, no, we're listening. We're listening. Edge of our seats here. So what I'm getting at is we're all living our own story and our perception of reality is completely different from everybody else's. We're all just describing things similarly because we're told certain things are certain ways. I think that sometimes people just see things that other people can't see. Not that they're seeing things, quote unquote, as in there's a mental disability or something like that. But some of us are actually able to just see different things

[00:36:19] because we're living a different playthrough of this matrix of this game. I know I'm getting way out there. I'm sorry. You asked for it. You got it. You're good. You got this. You got this. When people see things like this, like this family that was there, I think that that family only existed for the author. I don't think the other people saw them. I think they were from some different dimensions, some different reality. They glitched in, glitched out for whatever reason. I don't know. Maybe they needed to leave the gym early and something bad was going to happen at the gym.

[00:36:49] And that was the universe's way of scaring them out of the gym. I don't know. But I think that what happened here is the author saw these people and they were there for the author to see, but for nobody else to see. They disappeared for the author to see and nobody else to see. I like that. So sort of like a guardian angel type of situation, except angels. We got some angels in the outfield. Now we got angels in the squat rack. Let's go. Yeah, I'd buy that movie. Yeah, that's, that's a good, like a naughty little sequel.

[00:37:21] The adult version. Angels in the squat rack. And now you're playing with fire, buddy. Part two. It reminds me of that story of the woman who, I think it was at their church. There was another family that had a kid that just disappeared and nobody knew what kid they were talking about. They're like, I saw this kid a million times in like the nursery and you know, the, I think the dad was like with it or talking to it, but all of a sudden the

[00:37:50] kid just disappeared and didn't even exist. Yeah. These stories are my favorite, man. I love this stuff. Where are these creatures coming from? It's hard to even call them people or angels or what, but I guess this, some sort of human figure can just exist and cross against time, do whatever their thing, like the time shifters or whatever. What's that movie that we talked about before? The clock stoppers, time watchers. I think it was clock stoppers possibly. Yeah, that sounds about right.

[00:38:20] Maybe these people, it was a family of clock stoppers who just really had to get the hell out of there. I'm not too sure. Maybe they were like some federal agents of some whatever country in the future and they were time traveling to change some sort of past event. And I know like we talked about the butterfly effect, but to kind of go off of that, let's say like they're altering the past. However, they're knowingly doing so with the realization

[00:38:50] that they are going to change some things like the weights being racked, for example. They knew like, okay, we can go in here, we can change this future event, but this one person, this one grand illusionist, he's going to notice that the weights are racked, the family's gone, but it was all for a higher purpose and it was a greater cover-up. Don't ask why, it doesn't have to make sense, but it's just how it played out in the time travel scheme. Yeah, and it, you know, coincided perfectly with the power outage and,

[00:39:19] you know, that silence. It's super chilling. It's like a scene cutting mid-play. That's terrifying. Yeah, that was like the ultimate bass drop right there. Just silence, darkness, grand reveal. That's like, yeah, right on beat. Very well done, whatever, whoever orchestrated this. Yeah, and you know, was it a cue, like an intentional cue or just pure coincidence? Was it part of the whole appearance? And also, why did they show up and just like move weights around,

[00:39:49] re-rack them and disappear instead of like going over to the person and being like, hey, this is why we're here? Maybe it was a case of gang stalking. That's very common for them to show up at gyms and just kind of like hover around people. Actually, why am I saying that? That is going to, that's dangerous waters to suggest. Let's just pretend I didn't say that. I'm just speaking figuratively. Yeah. Well, you know, people always talk about the NPC thing. Like that's a new, that's, there's always like conspiracy theories or ideas like this

[00:40:18] that become widely popular, like simulation theory or glitches in the matrix. Like it becomes part of our vernacular. Yeah. And NPC is one of those things that's become pretty popular. And what if these NPCs that we see walking around and, you know, I swear to God, some people are NPCs. They just function on the most basic level of human interaction. It's like, yes, no, have a good day, goodbye, like robotic, weird. There's nothing to them. You can even get to

[00:40:48] know them and there's just nothing there. It's weird. It's like they're soulless, but they're there. I wonder if these people are maybe coming in from another reality into ours as these NPCs that are there for us to interact with in our simulation. And maybe the squat rack people, I know we keep calling them squat rack people. Squat rack angels. Squat rack angels. That's what it was.

[00:41:18] Maybe these squat rack angels were NPCs that weren't fully rendered. You know what I mean? They're like, they glitched them in. And then that wasn't quite right. Yeah, I think they just didn't like what they saw. You know, a bunch of people probably doing some half reps and I don't want to say pussing out, but let's just face it. A lot of people puss out when it comes to some of those curls, you know, like the range of motion isn't there. Yeah. And the squat rack angels are going to enforce that. You got to go ass to grass. Uh-huh. You don't have to break 90, but try to at least hit parallel. I don't know what I'm

[00:41:48] talking about, but you know, it is what it is. I know some people have some limitations. They can't do a full deep squat. I totally get that. But the people that are able to, that I see doing those half squats, there's that very cynical part of my brain that sees that and goes, wimp. I don't want to hurt my knees. Well, buddy, you're going to do that by stopping prematurely before you drop all the way down. Like, you can't be doing that. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, yeah. Jim. Jim. Jims are cool.

[00:42:18] Yeah, gems are awesome, man. Especially haunted gems with NPCs. You know what isn't cool, though, would be a seance with your siblings. Tsk, tsk, Matthew. Yeah. I guess it could have been worse, though. All things considered, I kind of blame your sister for this one. I think that she's at fault for introducing all these dark occult materials behind the family's back. However, maybe you can forgive and forget what do you think they could do for the situation? I just think it's wild that the sister

[00:42:48] had been practicing these dark rituals, you know, beyond seances. Yeah. You know, in the background of what was already going on, it was like they were doubling down on the dark arts, man. I kind of think that teen experimentation should usually have its limits of, you know, do whatever you got to do to have your fun, but sometimes it has these real consequences. They may be haunting. Not always fun, but it is what it is. Yeah. And how did the entity know about the hidden marijuana?

[00:43:17] That was cracking me up. That was probably just like a power play. Just, I know something nobody else knows that you don't want them to know. Want me to tell them? I'm going to tell them. I'm going to tell them. And then he just blew up his spot just like that. Not cool. Yeah. Well, we always hear about how dark entities feed off of our negative thoughts and feelings. So they probably have a way to access those parts of our minds. minds. Maybe they were just revealing these secrets to create an emotional vulnerability in the person. Yes.

[00:43:47] Exactly. That's what I was trying to say. But yeah. Yeah. Good job. Well done. Or maybe like the family members snooped. Maybe somebody in the house wanted to steal a dollar for some ice cream and found a nickel bag or something of some swag. I can't say that didn't happen to me growing up. Oh, sorry. Yeah. I like the elderly veiled woman. Such a cliche, but yeah, it's always so nice to see. It makes me wonder why so many similar entities appear across like different timelines,

[00:44:17] I guess, or cultures for that matter. Even like the petroglyphs that you see out here, the rock carvings, there's some real like alien looking figures that the natives, the indigenous people would write on these rocks. I really wonder what they're trying to convey. I mean, it could just be like a really fancy basket and I could just be looking into it wrong, but it's impressive. I think it's cool to see similar shapes and all that. This is going off topic a little bit, but how flying saucers are always described as

[00:44:46] cigar shaped. Like why is a cigar the standard for like a long oval type of thing? Like it's just a thought. Well, ancient astronaut theorists say yes. Yeah, buddy, ancient aliens. But referring to present time blessings, the priest visiting the house. I kind of do wonder though, like if those blessings, if they always help, I know they don't always help, but like if time just things fade with time, you know?

[00:45:15] So what if a priest does a blessing, but it was just also happened to be that time for the haunting to go away. So it creates like a placebo effect. You know what I mean? Or like a false attribution. A lot of different moving parts, I guess, to this sort of thing. We just have so many accounts of people experiencing dark energies like shadow people. And when they invoke, just invoke the name of Jesus, we were talking about this in the discord. You don't even have to be religious, just invoking the power of

[00:45:45] the name of Jesus. It works for them. The things just go away. That's just something that's been around for ages and ages. Things that I, something I've been told growing up plenty of times. And in fact, it's worked for me even, even just to help me with being fearful. Like if I'm walking alone in the street, downtown LA, downtown Sacramento, and I'm feeling not so safe, I just kind of like invoke the name of Jesus. Like, Jesus, please protect me. And I usually feel better.

[00:46:13] I'm not saying like it necessarily works in the sense that it has power, but maybe it's just the intention that's there, you know? Yeah, for sure. I mean, like anything else, you know, like I guess since we're on the topic of Christianity, people will say like, oh, why are you worshiping that mural or whatever? Like Catholics, the iconography. Yeah. And this isn't like a defense or anything for anybody, anything blah, blah, blah. I hate disclaimers, but. I know, I know. You have to in these days. You gotta do.

[00:46:43] I always offend somebody. Blah, blah, blah. In defense of Catholics, I'm not Catholic, but they would say that the icons are just, they're meant to be as like a reminder to make you feel a certain way and to meditate on this saintly individual's actions or something like that. It's not like this physical cross or this physical whatever, but it can cross into the territory of idolatry. Some can argue. Some do argue. Yeah. It's all about

[00:47:13] intention. Intention. Exactly. I think that it's intention. Okay. So I had to use Mark's story. I had to feature that one about the hole in the East River. Yeah. Because of course, yes, I just got back from that short, very short trip to New York City one day, but like three days to D.C., that was a lot of fun. Right. It's not a traveling show, so I won't get into all of that, but I will say I finally did get to tour a lot of New York City's pizza offerings. I will say about a

[00:47:42] quarter of the time it lived up to the hype and it was like mind blowingly good. But I think my theory is is this, that there are so many tourists that come through there, there are places that can get away with, I don't want to say half-assing it, but they don't really have to put a lot of TLC into what they do. But occasionally you come across just a random place you wouldn't really expect it, but you can just tell that they take a lot of pride and joy in their craft of pizza making. And yeah, the simplicity, it's a, yeah, it's a beautiful thing with a

[00:48:12] good New York slice. That definitely makes me think of Michael Scott on that episode of The Office when he goes to New York and he's like, you're going to get a real traditional New York slice or something like that. My favorite place. And if camera pans over it, it's Sbarro in New York. Yeah, I love it. I wonder how many people go to New York and get Sbarro thinking this is a New York slice. Like this is real New York pizza. Probably a lot. Yeah. That Olive Garden is still in business, so I wouldn't be surprised at all. Yeah.

[00:48:42] Good point. Good point, man. I never thought of that. Oh, yeah. Whatever. It was cool though. Great city. Yeah. Great city. Yeah. I want to visit one day. It's worth it. If for no reason than to see Ground Zero, that was literally why I wanted to go. Just because obviously 9-11 is etched into a lot of our minds, but seeing that I knew like, damn, I didn't even get to see those things in real life. And I was what? Like 11, 12, whatever it was. So that was like a really, really nice moment to be able to go there and kind of go

[00:49:12] full circle over two decades later. Yeah. I guess this transition is natural because the memorial itself is like a large waterfall, like a cratered waterfall. Mark didn't quite see a waterfall in the middle of a river, but trying to make out what it could be. Maybe some sort of temporary portal or like a dimensional rift. Hmm. I don't know. Makes you wonder what could be on the other side. Could be something else entirely. What's crazy is that the other woman acknowledged it, but then like just immediately disengaged.

[00:49:41] Yeah. Probably some like psychological defense mechanism shutting down in the face of things that you don't want to see or deal with. Yeah. Yeah. Kind of like when the parents and some of those past stories we've had will pretend that nothing happened so that the kids will get scared. And yeah, they're just kind of protecting the kids and themselves at the same time. They're like, let's pretend it's not there and move on with our life because my brain cannot handle something beyond our reality. And that is how credit card companies are also in

[00:50:11] business alongside Olive Garden with that mentality. Get some salad and breadsticks. Yep. Charge it to the card. That tour of Italy. That place is so like not good, but it's really good when you want some bad carbs. You know what I mean? We just want to pig out on. I know. Yeah. Yeah. It's kind of the same way as In-N-Out or McDonald's. It's like, yeah, obviously this isn't quality American food. You can make a really good cheeseburger at home. Oh, thank you. Yeah.

[00:50:41] Sometimes just want that crap. You want that nasty goodness. And, you know, you can look at I don't know where I'm going with this. You want that juicy junk is what you're saying. You want that juicy junk in the trunk. Exactly. You want the juicy junk in the trunk. I used to work with this guy at a movie theater. He would always talk about how you shouldn't get Panda Express because it's fast food. It's not real Chinese food. And I was like, I know it's not real Chinese food. I've had really good Chinese food, but I go to Panda Express because

[00:51:10] I want the crap. I want the fast food crap. I'm not saying I'm eating. I'm not tricking myself into thinking that I'm eating real good Chinese food. You dummy. It's just really tasty. I've never heard anybody else say that about like nobody's told me, hey, don't go to Taco Bell. It's not real Mexican food. It's just like not said. Exactly. No, I know. Exactly. We all know. We all agree. Taco Bell's not Mexican food. It's just fast food. It's a specific thing. It's its own thing. How's that crazy bastard doing these days?

[00:51:40] I don't know anything about him, really. Ah, so invested. Uh, he's been around town for years. He rides his bike everywhere. His little scooter sometimes. Sometimes. Let's get him on the show. Yeah, maybe I can get him on the show. We can. Yeah. He's got stories to tell, man. I tell you what. Oh, yeah. He believes he is a master at everything. He is a true Kenny Powers, man. Whoa. He's a character. I love him. Whoa. He's great. Yeah. I don't want to say his name. I don't want to call him out,

[00:52:09] but this guy rules. It's funny. It's funny because I remember coming in one time to work at the theater and he was just like standing next to one of the pillars, just kind of lightly punching it, like shadowboxing with it. And then he would like kind of hit it with his elbow, like trying to do some like ongbok boobs on it or something. And I was like, hey, man, what are you doing? He's like, just keeping in shape, just practicing, man. And it was such a Steven Seagal moment. Like, what are you doing, man? There's customers here. Pour the popcorn, dude.

[00:52:39] Or you scoop popcorn, but whatever. I mean, besides like the horrible work ethic, I would say that I like that guy because I'm one to do karate moves all day, every day. I'm all for that. Like work and play, do some kata as you may need to. It works out. Yeah. He always wanted to talk when I didn't want to talk. Like closing shift, it's nice and quiet. I'm reading a book. Comes over to the box office. What are you doing? Reading a book, man. Oh yeah? I used to read a lot. I don't read anymore.

[00:53:08] And you just go off on some tangent and be like, okay, cool, dude. That is beyond, beyond triggering. I will be like elbow deep with some like Excel macro, like really just jamming out. And then just somebody will poke in and be like, hey, how's your day going? Good. Yours? Good. And then just linger and keep telling me about the horrible recipe that they tried to make over the weekend and then ask me if I have any recipes and it's no, I don't. I don't have any time either. So a ta-ta there. Yeah. Kindly.

[00:53:38] Energy vampires, man. Yes. Yes. That's like my favorite term. NPCs. NPCs. Yeah. Full circle. I know. Full circle. They just don't, they can't, they're there to suck our energy and that's all they exist for. The funny thing is our operators are probably looking at our code right now and they're like, oh, ha ha ha. Look at this AI getting so more advanced. They think it's superior. They have no idea. I don't know what I'm trying to say. We're not much more better than these NPCs. We're being laughed at

[00:54:08] by the true gods above us. I had this really funny thought years ago when I was playing The Sims because that's around, around the time when I started playing The Sims, the original one or maybe it's The Sims 2 is when I started to kind of think about simulation theory. It kind of opened my mind to it. Be like, we created all of these little Sims in this game and they're all living a life independently of us. They go do things. They go to the bathroom. They go to sleep. But unknowing that we're controlling them, maybe they do have some form of sentient consciousness

[00:54:37] like we do and we created that just like a more primitive form of it. Yeah, plausible. And that made me think, you know, maybe there are people that are doing the same thing with us and we're just a little bit more aware than those Sims in the video game. We have a little bit more free will. We don't know when the computer powers down. We go to sleep, you know? We just don't know. And that's a really funny thought because they came out with mods for the Sims where you could make them naked. Oh yeah, I'm aware.

[00:55:07] Take out like the pixelation. Have sex and stuff like that. Whoa, I didn't know you could do all that. I think so. I don't know for sure. I just assumed because they made the naked ones. Why wouldn't they go that far? Oh, okay. Yeah, we'll figure that out. And I would imagine what's the reason for making them naked because you want to get turned on by some weirdos getting turned on by some naked Sims walking around in their house that they built. And who knows what they're doing while they're playing and watching that. That's their own business.

[00:55:36] But it made me wonder like the people that are controlling us as our Sims in our reality are like hey man, how are your Sims going? Well, they created their own Sims. It's really primitive. Oh really? So how are they doing with that? Well, they made them naked and they have sex and stuff and they're doing things while they're watching it. It's kind of gross. And I just imagine those people up there, the ones controlling us are like oh yeah, that's weird man. You want to make our Sims get naked and have sex

[00:56:06] and watch them? Like yeah, sure, why not? And it just continues. It keeps going up higher and higher and higher. A fractal. A fractal of like higher elevated beings just laughing at the others for silly things. Exactly. Being perverted and we're all just perverts. At the end of the day, that's all we all pretend not to be. Exactly. That's the goal in life. Pretend not to be a pervert. Yeah, go through life without other people knowing that you're thinking about sex is what the whole goal is. Yeah. Anyways, getting back to the hole.

[00:56:39] Well done, well done. Funny destination. Yeah, so could these holes be gateways, traps, or natural anomalies? Because I've heard of this. Like, it's almost like a portal appears. Yeah, I mean, I really don't know what to make of it. I kind of planned on doing some more research into like some sort of like actual like natural occurrence where a whirlpool like this could happen of that size but through a river and... That doesn't happen, right? That big and I don't know.

[00:57:08] That's how my kid brain thought the Bermuda Triangle worked so I don't know. Black hole whirlpool. I thought that's what the Bermuda Triangle was. Yeah, same. Yeah, I remember reading something about it being like, oh yeah, there's nothing supernatural about it at all. It's actually kind of a boring thing. I know, it's no fun. Which kind of ruined it for me. I don't remember the specifics but I hate when things get ruined. Yeah, just how it goes. But yeah, this is actually really weird. I wonder if urban areas have more paranormal activity

[00:57:37] or maybe just more witnesses. Could it be like some like electromagnetic thing? There's a lot of stuff going on in the city, I'm sure. Hmm. But it could also just be like, like you said, like more witnesses, but maybe underreporting or maybe there's some sort of like bystander effect that could explain why other people didn't take out their phone immediately to start filming or to call it in or anything like that. Yeah. And not only that, it's not like we have some centralized official agency to report these things, you know, like if you have a bone

[00:58:07] to pick with Red 40 or MSG, you could hit up the FDA. They won't care, but I mean, you could still talk to them. Hmm. Yeah. We'll hear you out. Yeah, we'll hear you out. And we've decided now we got this. We got this. This is safe for you. I feel like there's not really much recourse to like thoroughly document everything either. So a lot goes underreported. Mm hmm. As speaking of reporting things, that story from Crystal Witch where they apparently

[00:58:36] called 911 but nobody called them, that was the weirdest thing in that story for me. How did that get reported? Because nobody called, yet they got a call on file that somebody called them right after seeing this weird being in the street and then the, you know, the power going out. It's too much. It's not a coincidence, right? Yeah. See, that's, that was really weird at first. Like I, my instinct was to think stalker, straight up, just a stalker sending the police to your house, kind of like a weird

[00:59:05] like swatting thing. Mm hmm. It's hard to say without having seen the figure myself or being there through the whole thing as it played out. Yeah. Maybe the fake 911 call was just some sort of way to cause panic, get attention, nothing too serious about it. I mean, not to say it's not serious, it's obviously serious, but like, just like a way, like a subtle way, but a very effective way to get inside the author's head. Really, really, really scary stuff, especially wondering

[00:59:35] if spirits actually can just follow people home like that. Yeah, and spirits can interact with electronics. We know that. They control light switches, TVs, toy guitars. Mm hmm. And different. Say it. Say toy guitar. Toy guitar. Thank you. All right. Okay. Well, because I said toy guitars and I was expecting you to be like, oh yeah, toy guitars. Oh yeah, definitely toy guitars. Yeah, yeah. That's exactly what I was thinking of. Yeah, I had a thought. I had a feeling. I'm glad we're on the same wavelength.

[01:00:05] Yeah, we almost had to start the outro all over. But if they can control electronics like that, why couldn't they make a 911 call? Or a triple nine call, depending on which part of the globe that they're in. Yeah. Well, what do you say? Speaking of the globe, you want to run around the house and get some chores done? Oh my God, I've got so much to do. Same. I'm dreading this. I'm glad we got started early, knocked this out. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Well, thanks everybody so much for listening and thank you for your stories. Make sure you send them into stories at oddtrails.com to hear them on

[01:00:35] the show and to hear us trail off at the end of these episodes on completely unrelated topics. And if you want to hear ad-free versions of all of our episodes, go to patreon.com forward slash oddtrails to support the show today. Finally, be sure to check out the new episodes of my other podcasts like Let's Not Meet, Cryptic Encounters, and the Old Time Radio Cast. We'll see y'all next week. Everybody stay safe. Peace out. Peace out. We'll see you next