Episode 187: Mantis Aliens

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[00:01:03] [SPEAKER_02] Odd Trails is a true paranormal podcast. If you have a story to share, send it to stories at oddtrails.com. Enjoy the show.

[00:01:14] [SPEAKER_00] Forget facts. Forget logic. Forget everything that seems real. Just trust.

[00:01:25] Believe.

[00:02:02] [SPEAKER_03] Drowned by Ghost Kids by Mia. I can't remember the exact year, but it was Memorial Day weekend, probably around 2010. I was about 8 or 9 years old, and it was my first time being invited to my family's annual beach trip. That year, I went with my aunt, uncle, and cousin. We all crammed into my aunt's car and drove about two hours to Seaside, a small beach town on the Oregon coast.

[00:02:32] [SPEAKER_03] We were staying in a really nice hotel, with a complete ocean view. Most of that trip is a blur now, but one thing happened that will forever haunt my memory. Something I've never been able to explain. At the time, I wasn't tall enough to stand in the 5-foot section of the pool, the deepest part. But I was a decent swimmer, and it had never been a problem before. That day, though, it would turn out to be a pretty big one.

[00:03:02] [SPEAKER_03] It was around midday. My uncle, cousin, and I were playing in the pool, which was nearly empty except for a few scattered people lounging nearby. One of our favorite games was giving each other piggyback rides in the water. My uncle was the base, my cousin was in the middle, and I was on top. We were laughing and wobbling, trying not to tip over as we moved around. My uncle started walking us toward the deep end so we could have more room to splash and goof around.

[00:03:31] [SPEAKER_03] All of a sudden, though, a boy with sandy blonde hair, and, oddly enough, a black peg leg, jumped off the side of the pool in the deep end, accompanied by a girl with matching blonde pigtails. Before I could react, they landed on top of me. It felt intentional, like they aimed straight for my back.

[00:03:54] [SPEAKER_03] They seemed to be struggling to stay afloat and used my body to push themselves upward, shoving me down in the process. I was screaming, thrashing, trying to break free, but I couldn't get air. I remember the water burning in my nose and throat, the sound of muffled splashing, and then... nothing. My vision went black.

[00:04:20] [SPEAKER_03] The next thing I knew, my uncle was pulling me up from the bottom of the pool and setting me on the steps. I was coughing, gasping, disoriented. My family was surrounding me, wide-eyed, asking what had happened. Between sobs, I told them about the kids, the boy and the girl who had jumped on me and wouldn't let me come up. But then came the part that made my blood run cold. No one had seen them.

[00:04:49] [SPEAKER_03] Not a single person. My cousin thought I was joking at first, until she realized I had stopped moving. She said I'd gone completely still for a terrifying amount of time. To this day, I still don't know what happened. I thought about it more times than I can count, replaying every detail, trying to make sense of those kids, the way they appeared out of nowhere, and how no one else saw them.

[00:05:18] [SPEAKER_03] I've never seen them again, and I've never had any other experiences like it. Something about that moment felt... wrong, though. It felt real, but I wonder if those kids were just some form of residual energy. Maybe they drowned there. Maybe they were looking for someone to join them. The scariest part, my cousin, who was right there with me, says that she fully believes me.

[00:05:46] [SPEAKER_03] She remembers the look on my face when I was pulled out of the water. She said it wasn't the look of a prank. It was pure panic. So honestly, I'm not surprised she believes me. No matter how much time passes, I'll always remember the crushing blows of their feet, striking me on my back, head, and chest. And how I didn't think they'd ever let me go.

[00:06:34] [SPEAKER_02] The Girl Under the Piano by Anonymous Z Growing up, I never lived in a haunted house, but my mother did as a teen. Other houses on her street had strange things going on as well. A few homes away from her lived a family. One night, her aunt went to bed with a bad headache. The next day, she was dead. She had passed away from an aneurysm.

[00:07:01] [SPEAKER_02] At her funeral, the family went away to get their minds off of the tragedy, and my father asked my uncle, my mom's brother, to check on their pets. My mom and dad, who were dating at the time, went with him. My mother had heard that there was a grand piano, and she really wanted to play it. My dad was studying to be a veterinarian. After entering the house, my uncle said that my father headed to the basement to see the animals,

[00:07:31] [SPEAKER_02] and my mother went to the piano on the ground floor. She was playing it when she felt something brush her ankles. She thought that a cat must have left the basement and walked past her. She just kept playing, and then she felt it again. She looked under the piano and didn't see anything. When she started again, she felt two hands clasp her legs tightly.

[00:07:58] [SPEAKER_02] She dashed to the basement, called my uncle and father, and waited for them. Outside, my uncle could tell that my mom was rattled and asked her what was wrong. She told him about what happened, and he turned white. He said that her daughter, who had died, used to play a game with her father. When he would play the piano, she would crawl underneath it, grab his ankles, and push his feet up and down on the pedals.

[00:08:28] [SPEAKER_02] Now, I would have loved to meet you, my cousin, but please, stay in heaven.

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[00:10:37] [SPEAKER_03] My Recurring Dream by Emma I believe there's a ghost attached to me, but it can only interact with me when I'm alone. When I was 16, I shared a room with my little sister, Ella, who was just a few years younger. I'm the middle child of seven, and by then our two oldest siblings had already moved out. Ella was always out with friends, which meant I often had the room to myself at night.

[00:11:05] [SPEAKER_03] One of those nights, I fell asleep quickly. I'd been sick and exhausted all day. That night, I had a dream where everything in my room looked exactly as it did before I went to bed. But I felt something cold grip my ankles. It started dragging me slowly out of bed. I tried to kick, but I couldn't. The thing pulled me all the way to the floor. I couldn't believe it when I actually woke up there.

[00:11:35] [SPEAKER_03] I've never had a history of sleepwalking or sleep paralysis, so it was completely out of the ordinary. I ran to tell my mom. She was making breakfast for all of us. But she just brushed it off as a fever dream. I forgot about it until the next weekend when Ella went out again. I was happy to have the room to myself. It was around one in the morning. All my siblings were either out or asleep.

[00:12:03] [SPEAKER_03] I was sitting there texting friends about boys or whatever was going on at school, when the light in my room flicked on for a few seconds, then started flickering rapidly. I got scared and decided to just go to sleep. And it happened again. Same dream. Same cold grip around my ankles. I woke up on the floor. My mom found me that morning and asked why I was sleeping there.

[00:12:32] [SPEAKER_03] I started crying. I told her it only happens when Ella is gone. She didn't seem to care. From then on, the dream happened every single time I was left alone in that room. I'm married now and live in my own house. My husband is a missionary and leaves for weeks at a time. And every night he's gone, the dream returns. Worse, I've started to see things in the house.

[00:13:01] [SPEAKER_03] There's a tall figure with long arms, massive hands, and unnaturally long fingers. I only see it when my husband is away. But I know. It's the same thing that's been attached to me all these years. I honestly have no idea what it is. But I'm sure it's not just sleep paralysis. Because it doesn't just happen when I'm dreaming. I've gotten used to it over time.

[00:13:28] [SPEAKER_03] But sometimes, when I really stop to think about it, it still scares me.

[00:13:49] [SPEAKER_02] What I've Learned from the Mantis Aliens by Eugenia Lully I grew up in Greece. I saw a UFO around 1989 at about 7pm as a teenager. I was with my school friend at the time, walking in our small town. And she saw it too. The UFO was silent, hovering above my religious studies high school teacher's house. He had a 4-year-old kid at the time.

[00:14:17] [SPEAKER_02] My guess, based on what I know about them, it was there for the kid. After it disappeared from our view, I felt the UFO flying above us. And I saw it out of the corner of my eye. Upon looking directly at it, I couldn't see anything. A bunch of other teenage kids saw the UFO that night as well. And reported it to the police. I confronted one of the kids a few days later at school, but he refused to talk about it.

[00:14:47] [SPEAKER_02] Fast forward to 2000. I was living in Guilford, Surrey, UK. I was working as a programmer. I was renting a room at a woman's house. One night I was sleeping, and the door was locked from the inside. I woke up to at least two grey aliens on my bed. When they realized that I was fully awake, one of them used a rod in the back of my head, which put me back to sleep, as if nothing even happened.

[00:15:15] [SPEAKER_02] In the morning, I woke up sore and in pain. The pain lasted for days. I had PTSD from that experience. It took months to get over it. Soon after, I started having health problems. My celiac disease wasn't properly diagnosed for another 10 years after that. The illness eventually left me childless due to various complications.

[00:15:41] [SPEAKER_02] May 2013, on my 40th birthday in the Bay Area, US, a friend started talking about DMT, and I wanted to tell him to get off drugs. Now, I was very anti-drug, but I thought, why don't I first research the damn thing before I open my mouth and sound like a fool? My research on the topic opened the floodgates of information, and soon after, I was lucid dreaming.

[00:16:10] [SPEAKER_02] Now, I had never taken DMT, but I did meet my higher self, who called itself Hiva, and later on, my spirit guide, who called herself Esther. For all I know, they could be the same alien role-playing for my convenience. It didn't take me too long to figure out that I was dealing with a mantis alien instead. The first time I met Hiva, he had an iPad-like device

[00:16:39] [SPEAKER_02] where all my metrics were written, physical and psychological evaluations. When I tried to take a look at it, two voices from invisible people were heard telling Hiva to stop. Because I might not be ready. Hiva said that I was ready. From 2013 to 2018, I would suddenly have a whole bunch of lucid dreams, as many as two to three times a week. These guys opened the floodgates for me.

[00:17:09] [SPEAKER_02] They would put me through various VR tests. These are dreams, but they score you at the end. And they would talk to me about retro casualty and other such things. One time I refused to play along and the dream abruptly stopped. I found myself in the void. Two higher-ups appeared and started questioning me as to why I didn't participate. Esther promised me that it would be good for me to do so, so I agreed.

[00:17:39] [SPEAKER_02] The dream restarted from the beginning, as if it were a computer program or something. In another lucid dream, Esther was angry at me, showing me on the iPad device what I had promised to do, but did not. She dropped her pretenses and looked like the mantis that she was. In fact, in that lucid dream, she hit me near the liver. I felt the pain, and when I woke up,

[00:18:08] [SPEAKER_02] the pain continued. Esther went on to tell me the future three times. Twice, she was spot on. For example, in 2014, she told me that my business Instagram account would be hacked, and it was. Two days later, out of the blue. The third time, she was half right. She had stressed that the future is ever-changing, and our decisions shape it. A decision can change a prediction.

[00:18:38] [SPEAKER_02] That third time, she correctly predicted the exact date something would happen, and it did. However, she didn't know the outcome, because that depended on my actions. That third time put a huge strain on our relationship because it was about something important to me, but she wasn't allowed to help any further, not even to advise me. I obviously messed it up. That pissed me off,

[00:19:06] [SPEAKER_02] and while I don't consciously remember it, I'm pretty sure that I raised hell. My lucid dreaming stopped abruptly in March of 2018. They closed the door. It now only happens two to three times a year when she wants to tell me something important. One week before that third prediction was to happen, the Greys revisited me. I have the conscious memory of them bringing me back only.

[00:19:36] [SPEAKER_02] I couldn't move, but I managed to move my arm with great effort and told them that I wasn't scared of them anymore and to let me move. To no avail, they just put me back to sleep. The last time I talked to Esther, she told me that I needed to take care of Star and that it was a gift to beat my loneliness. Now, I had no idea what she meant. However, a week later,

[00:20:05] [SPEAKER_02] I got a new neighbor named Star. Star was an artist like me. We became close friends. Now, here are some things that I was told or concluded during that time. The mantis aliens are often seen wearing a purple cloak and a medallion. I asked them about it and they said the medallion is actually a device, not a symbol of status. They consider themselves neutral, or at least they strive for that.

[00:20:36] [SPEAKER_02] The mantis are the so-called spirit guides people experience in between lives and they take care of reincarnations. According to Michael Newton, PhD's book Journey of Souls, The spirit guides have a purple aura and wear a medallion. Now, this was written before the mantis aliens became as known as they are today and even now, most people only see the greys. In other words, UFOs are not people from other planets per se.

[00:21:06] [SPEAKER_02] I've surmised, the phenomenon is a control and support system for reincarnation. The planet belongs to them and we're renting the place while we incarnate here. They are behind social engineering via religious creation and folk myths. They're driving our evolution via intellectual, social, and of course genetic methods. And please note that despite speaking about reincarnation here, I still consider myself an atheist.

[00:21:36] [SPEAKER_02] I don't see reincarnation as a religious thing, but rather a system that can happen either naturally or through technology. Lately, I lean towards the latter. The mantis is the most common alien seen on DMT, ayahuasca, and mushrooms. They're called insectoids in the psychedelic space. When I asked a mantis, not Esther, as to why it's usually them that we bump into

[00:22:05] [SPEAKER_02] in hyperspace, he replied, we intersect. Now, abductions mostly happen in the astral, a fourth spatial dimension where time and consciousness are more interwoven than in 3D. I believe that 100% of humans get abducted over time. Physical abductions are extremely rare and typically for genetic purposes, but the rest of us are interacting with aliens. We just don't realize it because these experiences

[00:22:35] [SPEAKER_02] are masked as dreams. In these interactions, the incarnated person usually undergoes tests or gets advice from their guides. In one of my astral abductions, I was dreaming a normal dream, but a tooth was hurting me in this weird way inside the dream. I managed to wake up inside the dream or become lucid, only to see a gray above me drilling. It quickly placed me back into the dream.

[00:23:04] [SPEAKER_02] They basically serve VR experiences while they're doing work on you, in addition to planting screen memories. Now, many people have experienced a grid in the sky around the earth. It's easy to see under mushrooms or LSD, but some have seen it sober. I experienced it in one of my lucid dreams. I've been told that the grid is artificial and operates via AI. It has a dual function

[00:23:33] [SPEAKER_02] to manage humans who might astral project or lucid dream by mistake and to stop other races from interfering. The grid is what people on DMT call the waiting room. The AI decides if one is ready to experience hyperspace or not. It is a control system. I haven't decided whether this is a good thing or a bad thing. It might interfere with our ability to evolve in the astral as well as in the physical.

[00:24:03] [SPEAKER_02] In another lucid dream, I was outside of a US military facility and couldn't enter. The more I tried to push my way in, the more I was gently pushed back as if trying to walk through a sponge. An entity next to me told me that I could not enter because the US now has technology to repel consciousness from remote viewing. I know there are a lot of people who say the greys have no souls, etc., but I'm not sure if that's correct. When asked,

[00:24:33] [SPEAKER_02] the greys said, we are you. It is my understanding that the greys are the next step for human souls in their evolutionary process. Grey artificial cloned bodies are powered by souls, not AI, unless, of course, our souls are just glorified AI as well. After we're done incarnating on Earth, it's our turn to serve the souls that still incarnate. I believe that's the greys' function

[00:25:02] [SPEAKER_02] in service of us, foot soldiers for the mantis and the overall system. Why is this whole industrial reincarnation operation going on across several planets and not just Earth? Well, it's my understanding in my speculation that in the dimension we and they come from, the 5D, there is no casuality. There is no time with a before and after. Everything happens at the same time.

[00:25:31] [SPEAKER_02] There is only the eternal now. That's the physics of their dimension. To create change or a future in their dimensional reality, they must create change first in the third and fourth dimensions. Free will changes propagate naturally, since we're part of the same universe. Hence the 3D incarnations or humans and the 4D support system or aliens. Notice how the elders

[00:26:00] [SPEAKER_02] speak to incarnating souls in near-death experiences or in-between lives hypnosis sessions? You are creator beings and you have a mission to do on Earth. Now, as for the mantis, they call our incarnations our duty. In other words, we're agents for change for everyone's benefit. We're workers. The elders set the plan regarding the future that they want to experience

[00:26:30] [SPEAKER_02] and they send us to realize it. Through it, we evolve. You could call all of this symbiotic or you could call it a prison. It's probably a point of view or this could be way off. I don't know. The end game is something that they don't want to share with clarity.

[00:27:08] [SPEAKER_03] The Sinister Monk by Bree This story takes place around the summer of 2005 when my grandfather passed away. I was only five years old then. My parents and I had traveled for the services and were all sleeping in the same bed in my dad's childhood home. Sometime during the night, my mom woke up suddenly. She opened her eyes and saw a black hooded figure with no face standing over her.

[00:27:38] [SPEAKER_03] She couldn't talk or move much, but she managed to bless herself, making the sign of the cross, and the dark figure vanished. The next morning, she told my dad about what happened, assuming it was a dream. My dad went quiet. He admitted a hooded monk in all black had haunted the house for years. My grandmother then opened up about all the times she had seen it and how she felt its energy was sinister.

[00:28:09] [SPEAKER_03] It used to pace back and forth on the top floor and then just stare at whoever was in the house. Even without any features, they could feel it staring at them before it would disappear. Fast forward a night or two later, the entire family was over at the house and I was upstairs with my cousin playing. For some reason, I ran to the closed bathroom door and yanked it open. Standing in the doorway was that figure.

[00:28:39] [SPEAKER_03] I just remember seeing all black. My cousin and I looked at it and then at each other and then flew down the steps screaming. My parents obviously came running to see what happened. When I explained what we saw, my mom said, Oh honey, someone was probably just coming out from using the bathroom. So we waited and waited to see who it was. But no one ever came down and when my parents checked upstairs,

[00:29:09] [SPEAKER_03] no one was there. My cousin, only three years old at the time, has this memory, although we don't bring it up often. This next part is less scary and actually a really cool moment my family had together. The night of my grandfather's funeral, the whole family was gathered around in the living room. My grandmother had a piano room off the living room, which housed all of her music equipment, books, and sheet music. As the family

[00:29:39] [SPEAKER_03] was sitting around talking, a paper floated in from the piano room. This wasn't just a piece of paper getting blown in from the wind or a draft. According to my family, as I was too little to really remember, the paper slowly floated through the air, gliding across the room to land very delicately at my dad's feet. He picked it up. It was sheet music to a song called If I Love You.

[00:30:09] [SPEAKER_03] My grandfather used to ask my grandma to play it all the time, as it was his favorite song. My dad handed my grandma the music, and she said, I have never ripped any music out of my books. I guess he wants me to play. So she went into the piano room to honor my grandfather with his favorite song. Throughout the years, my family and I had numerous encounters with all things supernatural, seeing shadows, hearing voices,

[00:30:38] [SPEAKER_03] and finding things that were missing suddenly showing up in the most obvious places. My father has always warned me about all of this, as his side of the family had a lot of experiences and used to practice witchcraft. His aunt used to read cards, not tarot, but actual playing cards. And when she found out that the bad things she was seeing were actually coming true, she stopped and warned the family not to mess with this stuff.

[00:31:08] [SPEAKER_03] My dad even has his ancestor's name on the accused witches list in the Salem, Massachusetts, famous witch museum. She had been accused of witchcraft. The trials ended before she could be executed. And afterwards, she admitted to being a witch and fortune teller. At every family event, it seems like someone tells a paranormal story I've never heard before. It's so fascinating to hear about our history and everyone's experiences,

[00:31:37] [SPEAKER_03] as we're all believers. Two Experiences with Ball of Light by OKN1904 I had two strange experiences with spheres

[00:32:07] [SPEAKER_03] of floating light. I was about 11 the first time and around 15 the second time. I'm 24 now, and I was completely sober when this happened. During my first experience, I was camping with my cousins. I walked down to the pond about 10 to 15 yards away from my tent to go pee. I looked to my right and saw what I thought was a very bright lightning bug about 30 yards away. As it slowly approached me, I realized

[00:32:37] [SPEAKER_03] it was not a lightning bug, and it was actually the size of a baseball. It passed right by me, maybe 5 or 6 feet in front of me, and moved all the way across the pond. I remember seeing its reflection over the water as it moved. It never stopped, just eventually disappeared into the woods. Now for my second experience. I was on a traveling soccer team and was staying in a hotel with my dad. I've always been

[00:33:06] [SPEAKER_03] really big on having complete darkness in the rooms I sleep in, so I closed the hotel's thick blackout curtains. I woke up in the middle of the night and went to the bathroom. Weird coincidence, maybe. I finished up and laid back down in bed. I didn't fall right to sleep because something up at the ceiling quickly grabbed my attention. I saw a shadow and a faint light. At first, I thought it was a light from the smoke detector, but something

[00:33:36] [SPEAKER_03] felt very off about it. I was very awake at this point, very focused, and scared. The shadow then moved, as if something was casting it from around the curtains, but it moved like something with intelligence. as it continued to glide along the ceiling, I watched it move around the curtain and slip out of the room. Then, the small light moved and navigated behind the curtain as well.

[00:34:06] [SPEAKER_03] Both happened pretty slowly. Each took about three to four seconds to move out of the room. I interpreted them as two separate entities. I don't necessarily believe in aliens or whatever. I do, however, believe in the spiritual realm, and I am now a Christian.

[00:34:47] [SPEAKER_03] I am back. Back in action.

[00:34:50] [SPEAKER_02] Yeah, I got a little bit lonely without our interaction last week. Aww. Tell me about your trip. How was it?

[00:34:57] [SPEAKER_03] It was cool. It was pretty much everything you would expect with a Burning Man type of event, but I say that in the best way possible. It was really cool, really cool. It's nice being part of a community of people who are all there for the same sort of thing, which is a lot more than appears to be on the surface. Building and tearing down and wholeness and oneness with everybody and helping out your neighbor and looking up for each other and singing kumbaya underneath the desert stars.

[00:35:26] [SPEAKER_03] It's a pretty magical thing. It's one of those things where you have to experience it for yourself, but it's also not for everybody. I could get all woo-woo about it, but ultimately, it's a subjective experience for each person, but I would recommend it if it's calling anybody's name to give it a shot.

[00:35:43] [SPEAKER_02] Yeah, definitely. Originally, I thought it was just like a family camping trip. I actually had no idea where you were going, what was going on. You probably told me about it, and it went one ear and out the other, just like everything my wife tells me. I promise I don't do it on purpose. I'm just really bad about retaining information.

[00:36:01] [SPEAKER_03] It just means that you love me, because the more you love somebody, the more you can discount what they have to say. So, that's all it is. Definitely using that one with my wife.

[00:36:10] I don't know.

[00:36:12] [SPEAKER_02] It was funny, we were sitting and watching TV while having dinner the other night, and she said something to me, and I remember, I could recall the first part of what she said, but I was so wrapped up in the episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm that I've seen 100 times before, that whatever she said in full didn't really register, and I guess she asked me a question, and a few minutes go by and I look at her and there's a look on her face, and I'm like, nothing. I was like, no, really, what's wrong? She's like, I just asked you two different questions

[00:36:42] [SPEAKER_02] and you ignored me the whole time. It didn't even go in the ear. I didn't even hear it or register it. Sometimes I think that my brain shuts down and I can only focus on one thing at a time.

[00:36:57] [SPEAKER_03] It's like a computer firewall, like, preemptively blocking a connection. Like, no, no, no, I wanted to use that. I wanted to open that program, but no, the antivirus says you can't. I think that's what it is. Maybe your wife was talking about the wives of Salt Lake, wherever that show is, the true lives of, you know, that reality show. She was probably watching a reality show and it just didn't register in your head. Your

[00:37:31] [SPEAKER_02] kids. Yeah, yeah, definitely. But it was the episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm where they're like sitting at the dinner table and Larry just talked about how he was getting a divorce and Jeff says like, hey, when we get a divorce, you can take half of everything. I'm not going to fight you about anything. And she's like, I'm taking you for every single thing you have if we're getting divorced. Are you kidding me? And she said something about how people stay together when they're miserable and they just never divorce and they probably

[00:38:01] [SPEAKER_02] Yeah, and I was just it just didn't register and I was like, that's probably something I should have picked up on. I wonder if she's sending me signals.

[00:38:09] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah, that's a yeah. Might want to revisit that one. Give her some reassurances.

[00:38:14] [SPEAKER_02] Yeah, definitely. No, I think we're good. Anyways, really creepy stories this week. Drowned by ghost kids is the one that really got me.

[00:38:24] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah, you and me both. I almost went swimming in a watering hole over the weekend. I'm glad I didn't because if there's one place that might have some ghost kids with a peg leg, it might be a Burning Man type of situation. So whether real or not, I don't know, but I think it would be equally as terrifying just like it was for Maya in this story. The peg leg, I think we could probably talk about the elephant in the room. I don't understand why the peg leg. That's not to

[00:38:54] [SPEAKER_03] say kids can't have prosthetic legs, but it's such a specific detail. I wonder if there's some way to maybe track down who this kid was. Maybe he may have drowned there in the past or maybe he's from years long ago, back when peg legs were more of a thing, like an actual peg.

[00:39:15] [SPEAKER_02] Exactly, because that's what went through my head, like a wooden leg, like a literal pirate peg leg. Yes, like in the Lego set. Exactly, you would say prosthetic leg or something like that. Right. You wouldn't say peg leg. It's such a very specific pirate-y type thing. I've never heard that outside of a pirate reference. You're not into pegging? I'm not into pegging, not

[00:39:40] [SPEAKER_03] yet. We'll see what happens. Yeah, no. Yeah, I've got to try it once or twice, but you know, whatever.

[00:39:48] [SPEAKER_02] Yeah, but this was creepy in the sense that it sounded exactly like this played out exactly like I've seen in a horror movie in my head. I could hear the music, I could see the camera angles and everything. It was such a great story.

[00:40:05] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah, it was nice. I liked the piggyback rides in the pool. I'm sure you've done that before, like seeing how many people can fit on one person's shoulders. Oh, yeah. Or like stacking on the top, get as vertical as you possibly can. That's always fun. And water, that's always scary. I don't know what it is about water. Actually, no, I do because I almost drowned a tragic death in the deep, violent waters of Guam, but I think I've told that story a thousand times already.

[00:40:32] [SPEAKER_02] While I'm terrified of the woods and camping, I'm a little uneasy about the water. Not terrified, but for some reason I've always just been a little uneasy and not too comfortable in deep water. Yeah, I could

[00:40:45] [SPEAKER_03] see that. I would say I'm more afraid of open water than I am a dense forest, definitely.

[00:40:51] [SPEAKER_02] Yeah. Yeah, it's probably because when I was a kid, I had this peg-leg pirate kid that tried to drown me in the pool. Hey, there you go. That's what did it for me. Did he have

[00:41:03] [SPEAKER_03] sandy blonde hair?

[00:41:05] [SPEAKER_02] Yeah, I did. I had really blonde hair as a kid. I looked like

[00:41:08] [SPEAKER_03] Macaulay Culkin when I was really little. I think I looked like the kid from the Crossfire commercial. Remember that game? Crossfire! Who you gonna call? Crossfire! I like that you

[00:41:20] [SPEAKER_02] added who you gonna call in there and that's pretty good. I don't think that was in the lyrics but that sounds good.

[00:41:25] [SPEAKER_03] It was something on the same tempo.

[00:41:29] [SPEAKER_02] Yeah, you're telling me you had like fingerless gloves and like a leather jacket with the sleeves cut off and stuff? Yeah, that's one of those things.

[00:41:35] [SPEAKER_03] I used to tell people I was the kid in that commercial when I was like 12.

[00:41:40] [SPEAKER_02] Yeah.

[00:41:41] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah, you know those little white lies that you tell as a kid. I think one kid said that he had a Nintendo 64 cartridge that had every single Nintendo 64 game on it and back then I actually believed him. I remember you telling me this. But like the funny thing is today that's a reality with the Everdrives. That's so funny. That kid was probably a time traveler.

[00:42:02] [SPEAKER_02] Oh wow, I hadn't thought of that because you're correct. I have Everdrives for almost all of my systems because it's such a great way to play the games on your original hardware if you're snobs like we are. But you're right. It totally exists now. He probably took it back in time.

[00:42:19] [SPEAKER_03] For whatever it's worth and I'm like not even making light of things but he was in special ed so I think maybe like literally like could have been like a very special mind who just knew some shit and he knew that we were going to get Nintendo 64s with every single game on one cartridge. He just knew what was up. He just yeah he

[00:42:38] [SPEAKER_02] knew the future he tapped into it. Yeah. But yeah that that story definitely was just like a scene from a horror movie and you know speaking of scenes from horror movies I started reading The Exorcist the book from the 70s that the movie was based on.

[00:42:55] [SPEAKER_03] Good good good.

[00:42:56] [SPEAKER_02] It's really good. It's very graphic way more disturbing. I like it a lot but I noticed that the writer writes very similar to what you would how you would describe a scene from a movie like he writes and it translates in your head just like a movie. It's really good. He does a great job. It's like a script

[00:43:17] [SPEAKER_03] almost.

[00:43:18] [SPEAKER_02] Yeah. Yeah. It's almost like a script but in novel form in prose but I found out I guess I forgot about this but I guess he directed the author of the book directed the third Exorcist movie which is a great movie if you haven't seen it.

[00:43:34] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah. Yeah. I think that one was Dahmer's favorite not that his opinion is his opinion carries any weight but it is what it is.

[00:43:41] [SPEAKER_02] Oh don't compare me to Dahmer in some way. Yeah. It is one of my favorite movies though. It's a great movie and I guess he directed that one and it makes sense because the pacing is so fast. I'm getting somewhere I promise. Anyway the story about the haunted piano kid. also read exactly like a scene from a horror movie like it was something from the others which we referenced in one of our recent episodes. I really loved the stories this week they were so creepy and vivid.

[00:44:09] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah no I think anything with a piano is an automatic win you get that creepy I don't know something about the tonality with it you can always reference and fall back on a piano because it's comforting it's always going to be a little familiar we all know what a piano sounds like that goes without saying but you can capture a lot on there and plus like let's see with the Silent Hill games you know there's that that puzzle with the piano. Yeah. I think they're like a good a good outlet to express some sort of haunted energy you have to play things out. Yeah.

[00:44:39] [SPEAKER_03] Whether you're listening or participating and making the music there's a yeah there's a lot to be said about the tones and melodies and sequences of things. Legend of Zelda you got to play the tones on the the ocarina mocarina probably didn't say that right but yeah I think there's a big connection with with musicality and reality.

[00:45:00] [SPEAKER_02] Yeah I agree and one thing that actually I thought about the ghosts like repeat something that was going on in their life when they were alive over and over again like they you know a haunted hotel they'll say oh yeah there was a doorman that used to work here and you can see him walk by and sit by the door or you can see his reflection in this mirror all the time just like when he was working here. It's almost like the

[00:45:29] [SPEAKER_02] ghost doesn't know that they're a ghost and they're just kind of stuck in that loop just like this little girl stuck sitting around to the piano waiting for somebody to play it so she can grab their ankles and play the game that she played when she was a kid. It's like she doesn't even know that she's a ghost and that she's she's there just repeating the same thing over and over again. It's kind of a sad and scary

[00:45:48] [SPEAKER_03] thought. Going back to Curb Your Enthusiasm and I promise it makes sense. It's a lot like when Larry David in real life quit Seinfeld or you know he quit SNL and then he was like oh no I made a big mistake and then just got the advice to show up the next day like nothing happened. It's like the ghosts are doing that. They don't they maybe they died and now I don't I don't accept that I don't accept that fate for myself so they're just reliving life. We're going through the motions as if it never happened.

[00:46:17] [SPEAKER_02] Yeah I remember him telling that story about how he wrote that episode of Seinfeld where George quits then goes back to work the next day and pretends like he didn't quit or that he was joking or something. He's like yeah I actually did that Saturday in life. That's so funny. Yeah good stuff good good wrap around.

[00:46:34] [SPEAKER_03] Good wrap around as I turn off my thermostat for my phone momentarily holding no off. So would you have sat back down and kept playing or figured something out. I would have probably doubled down and try to do some really cool melodies or something played some few release. I think that's about all I know how to play that anybody can recognize. Yeah. Are you vaping or sucking on a USB drive? What's going on there?

[00:47:00] [SPEAKER_02] I'm not vaping. It's not a USB drive. It's a bloodstone that I got from

[00:47:05] [SPEAKER_01] Oh wow wow wow wow. Look.

[00:47:08] [SPEAKER_02] No.

[00:47:09] [SPEAKER_03] No. Check this out. Bloodstone baby. A sphere. Here. Wow. I got this recently. It just called it called out to me. I'm like I gotta have that and bloodstones like my latest fixation.

[00:47:21] [SPEAKER_02] And you know what's crazy is I bought this a long time ago but I lost it and found it today. Wow. So I was like I'm gonna keep this right by my desk while I'm working because it's so smooth it's all polished and stuff and I just sit here and play with it while I'm talking kind of put it in my mouth like I like it. Play with it just a

[00:47:42] [SPEAKER_03] and you just bought more. Maybe I'll make a lifestyle change who knows. Hey who knows as long as it's polished lots and lots of polish. That is pretty cool though I like that. So what about it spoke to you specifically or like when you initially got it how did you end up with it and what about it drew you to the bloodstone.

[00:48:00] [SPEAKER_02] It was one of those things where I was in old Sacramento going through all the shops and I went to that I forget what it's called mystical little shop where you get incense and books on witchcraft and stuff like that and I remember before going in there just googling like stones or crystals I could get just a they're supposed to help with stress and you know just supposed to be good for you or whatever and it was one of the ones that popped up and I

[00:48:29] [SPEAKER_02] grabbed it looked at it and I thought this is a really nice it's got a nice little indention for my thumb to rub on I really like it and it definitely calms me down. It's probably placebo but that doesn't matter because placebo is magic just like just like crystals and rocks and stones.

[00:48:44] [SPEAKER_03] Well I agree. I agree. I think the placebo maybe initially it doesn't have the effect I guess then technically it wouldn't be a placebo but yeah that's all to say there is something to be said about it. I know bloodstone itself supposedly provides like mental clarity and gives you some resilience and confidence but I think most descriptive words for crystals or stones or whatever can kind of be applied across the board. maybe just some have certain properties more than others. Physically it supposedly helps

[00:49:14] [SPEAKER_03] boost circulation detoxifies you a little bit but I personally don't think it necessarily does that like on a physical level however nah. Yeah the mental emotional spiritual stuff there's a lot to be said with that it does it grounds me a bit I like keeping something by my desk as do you.

[00:49:33] [SPEAKER_02] Yeah I've got a few over here yeah. Yeah plus they're just cool. They're very cool I mean everything's vibrating at some kind of frequency that's how matter exists so they have vibrations and maybe they maybe it's some good vibrations rest in peace Brian Wilson dear lord.

[00:49:49] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah that's the that's always cool to reflect on the fact that everything has some sort of vibration and just the fact that everything only exists within our mind's ability to perceive it if the human brain can't perceive it it's like it doesn't exist or at least acknowledge it which if you really really sit and think about that it's kind of kind of unsettling like what do animals notice and perceive and think of or what does the universe know that we don't like where are our blind spots we think we have

[00:50:18] [SPEAKER_03] blind spots we do have blind spots but we think we've identified our blind spots but there are questions that our brain can't even conceive of to start asking and oh yeah getting all deep here but it's I love thinking about that.

[00:50:31] [SPEAKER_02] No no it's good it reminds me of like how people and I think I'm pretty sure the author of the mantis story was talking about this either was yeah it was they were talking about DMT and how you can see like the grid up in the sky everybody who takes DMT or a number of people that have taken DMT see like this grid over earth in the sky and it's something you can't see unless you're on DMT and it just like opens your perception to seeing those things sure maybe you're hallucinating but it is

[00:51:00] [SPEAKER_02] weird how on drugs certain things substances people will have hallucinations that line up with other people's hallucinations they'll see the machine elves they'll see the grid up in the sky they'll see fractals they always see like very similar things and that's just very interesting to me.

[00:51:18] [SPEAKER_03] Extremely interesting and I wish there were some sort of way to really dial in and figure out what is going on because it'd be one thing if there were like widely reported experiences but you have Joe Schmo from middle of nowhere give him some DMT and he sees one of those machine elves you can't really explain that like that is just beyond I don't know I'm at a complete loss of words for it. Exactly. I think it's just really boils down to ask and you shall receive the mysteries of the universe are out there you just got to

[00:51:48] [SPEAKER_03] knock on the right door.

[00:51:50] [SPEAKER_02] Yeah I get it some people just can't see certain things and some other people can absolutely see things they can see spiritual attachments they can see all kinds of stuff and for instance I used to work at a theater and I remember getting a very weird feeling when I would go up into the attic that was above the projection room in the tower. And I remember seeing somebody walk by and then I looked around asked who was there nobody was there.

[00:52:19] [SPEAKER_02] There was a woman who worked with me there who was a ghost hunter and I asked her about the ghost in the attic and she described the person that I saw walk by or at least I saw him like kind of out of the corner of my eye but as far as I can make out it was very similar to the person that she described it was just somebody who worked there years ago and she had picked up on that because they allowed her to do ghost hunts at night in the theater which was very cool. Very cool old landmark haunted theater.

[00:52:50] [SPEAKER_02] I wish I could go back there and get my old job back but you know anyway yeah people can just pick up on things and see things that other people can't see and you're right I wonder what we see that dogs don't see you know what I mean?

[00:53:03] [SPEAKER_03] Right right yeah yeah vice versa everything or even like insects praying mantis fun fact they can see like they have a 3d stereoscopic field so maybe they can see something else too or I know like yeah praying mantis their vision alone exceeds that of other insects and makes them unique so yeah I don't know there's a lot out there obviously.

[00:53:26] [SPEAKER_02] Yeah I mean dogs can't see certain colors maybe there are colors that don't exist to us that exist in reality just not in our view you

[00:53:34] [SPEAKER_03] know what I like about dogs with their scent is how like you can mix a bunch of things together and it's not just going to smell like a collage of things they're going to be able to smell each individual thing that you put in there.

[00:53:46] [SPEAKER_02] Yeah is it real or is it myth the dogs that can sniff out cancers and tumors is that real?

[00:53:55] [SPEAKER_03] They do have medical detection dogs that are being used they have like pilot programs that are out there so I do know that there's some.

[00:54:03] [SPEAKER_02] Here's the thing let's ask the audience I'm not even going to Google it I don't want to rely on Google I want the audience to tell me I want there to be an expert who's listening to the podcast let us know in the comments on Spotify or in the discord or on Patreon however you can get a hold of us just send us an email I want to know about this I know somebody that we have so many listeners I know there's somebody out there that knows about cancer sniffing dogs because I remember hearing about this as a kid and being like that's that's a little that's a little woo woo even for

[00:54:32] [SPEAKER_02] me but getting back to the mantis alien that is one of my favorite bugs I think yours too right we had a conversation about that a while back way up there mantis moths are really cool I love moths yeah both happen to exist in the cryptid space mothman and mantis aliens yeah how about that I love the mantis alien stories because they're very creepy and cool but when you think of them as life size or like human size or even larger that's a very scary visual

[00:55:02] [SPEAKER_02] because they already look like aliens they look just like an alien yeah the alien head the almond

[00:55:08] [SPEAKER_03] eyes and everything and they can flip their heads 180 degrees like they're a they're like owls almost wise creepy little things

[00:55:15] [SPEAKER_02] well that was a great story loved it it was all over the place it's kind of hard to even talk about this story because it's presented as this is what these beings told me what reality is and it's just like their explanation and it's like wow okay I believe you that's your

[00:55:31] [SPEAKER_03] truth yeah mantis are cool and all that but I was looking through these story titles again and I have to mention the sinister monk story because there was a point in my trip where there was somebody walking through my tent they just got the wrong tent and they were wearing like a type of hooded monk type of attire and it was a little frightening dear lord that would terrify me yeah yes yes and normally it would but you know I quickly shined a flashlight on

[00:56:01] [SPEAKER_03] the individual and then it was like oh hey my bad and I knew the person and it was like a true mistake but in the moment yeah it was a little unsettling and it was very similar to that sinister monk story I just see like this baseless black hooded figure standing right by my cot and it was so terrifying

[00:56:20] [SPEAKER_02] yeah that is scary I'm wondering what was their explanation for coming

[00:56:23] [SPEAKER_03] into your tent just wrong tent and not in the right state of mind you know what I mean okay oh gotcha gotcha but it was harmless and we had a good laugh about it but I don't know that's that's all I really have and there's no like paranormal thing I did think I saw I did at one point think I was looking at a UFO but then I quickly realized oh wait a minute a blinking green light in that steady succession that's probably a drone and sure enough it was yeah drones

[00:56:51] [SPEAKER_02] have ruined UFO sightings for

[00:56:53] [SPEAKER_03] sure man just like AI has ruined any sort of like credible paranormal video that we could hope to come across

[00:57:01] [SPEAKER_02] in the future it's over

[00:57:02] [SPEAKER_03] yeah as soon as we get like 4k security cameras and everything else or we start seeing some like actual footage of things we have a like Google VO or whatever it is like producing the most convincing videos ever which yeah it's cool as a novelty and it's fun to play around with and have a good chuckle and keep swiping but we don't got to keep talking about AI it's getting kind of stale but whatever moving on yeah

[00:57:29] [SPEAKER_02] totally I hate it I've been spending so much time offline yes just trying to keep occupied with real life stuff because online just becomes so lame it's such a time sink when it used to it used to be great we've talked about this a million times yes the internet was way better when we were young but it's so bad now that I'm finding myself like just actively resisting it right yeah actively like I can't it's almost like my body's revolting as I get my phone to look at something and I just grab a

[00:57:58] [SPEAKER_02] book or go outside or you know do the dishes paint I've picked

[00:58:02] [SPEAKER_03] up painting recently and it's a lot of fun my brother's a genius painter and inspired me to get get into it highly

[00:58:09] [SPEAKER_02] recommend it no way yeah I love your brother's work by the way but I literally just asked my wife like do you know if there's like a painting class or group around town because I would love to get into painting it's visual arts is something that I never got into I was always making music or doing stuff like this I never did visual arts and I would love to learn how to do it we should

[00:58:29] [SPEAKER_03] like really commit to it together and just kind of like compare each other's work and style and you know the blind leading the blind I think that'd

[00:58:35] [SPEAKER_02] be fun yeah you're gonna

[00:58:37] [SPEAKER_03] surpass me I'm terrible with visual arts you're gonna surpass me I I'm not I'm not I'm good with like photography and like conceptualizing but like pen on paper or like paint on canvas I've never ever been good at that that's why I want

[00:58:51] [SPEAKER_02] to learn the basics and see if I if there is something in there who knows maybe I do have a creative bone in there hey hey hey hey hey all right let's let's do it we'll report back next week and see how things

[00:59:02] [SPEAKER_03] are going yeah I like it I like it end of summer we should have a good collection of paintings and we can like auction it off for charity and by charity I mean nobody's gonna want that crap

[00:59:12] [SPEAKER_02] nobody nobody anyways thanks everybody so much for listening send your stories to stories at odd trails.com to hear them on the show sign up for a patreon at patreon.com forward slash odd trails to get ad-free versions of all the episodes best way to listen and finally check out the new episodes of my other podcasts like let's not meet and the old-time radio cast we'll see you all next week everybody stay safe peace out

[00:59:54] [SPEAKER_00] ghosts and the ghouls disturb you thanks