As The Raven Dreams Podcast - 2022 Ask Me Anything - I Answer Questions YOU Sent In!

Episode Date: December 28, 2022

You had questions... I had answers...  Send a True Scary Story My Way! ➤ https://www.astheravendreams.com/submit  Or Post it to my Subreddit ➤ https://reddit.com/r/TheRavensDream  All Lofi Music in this video is appropriately licensed through ENVATO ELEMENTS. ➤ All Stories used w/ Direct permission from the Author, or under some form of CC License (where Noted). True stories are not verified and are considered 'supposedly true'.  ➤ All videos come with a content warning for language and sensitive content. Viewer Discretion is ALWAYS advised. This is considered horror content.  ➤ BlessThisMess #TrueScaryStories #AsTheRavenDreams #AskMeAnything --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/astheravendreams/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/astheravendreams/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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where your story takes off Hey there friends Today's video is what will be known as my 2020 Ask Me Anything video This video is both in celebration

of hitting whatever sub-goal we want to proclaim for the year 10K, almost 15K, whatever you want to call it, and it's also to celebrate my third anniversary doing this channel. The questions for this video were sent in by listeners just like yourself.

Now, I want to say a few things before I get into this. First thing first, I was hit with a bit of a dilemma whenever I was doing this, or separating the questions. And that is that some of you asked the same question. I wanted everybody to have their time in the spotlight, so repeated questions are answered as such. If it's a repeat, I will, I think in one of these I say, listen to the answer of this question. So, I did include every single question that was sent to me. I didn't want anybody who sent me a question to not be included, so if it's a repeat question, it is included.

Secondly, the answers to these questions, I pre-wrote them. That may sound a little weird, but I figured it would work better if I had a bit of a script and kind of kept my answers in line with what they should be, so we didn't go off on some dumb tangent that made no sense. Also, I'm not great being put on the spot, so I figured I should have them pre-typed. I won't try to read them like a script, but I'm a narrator at heart, so I may read them in my narrator-style. And if I do, sorry. And then last, all these questions are asked by my lovely other half-patients. She did the recordings for the questions, and then I'm recording my answers.

I figured having two voices would give it enough nuance to make it interesting and to keep you more engaged with what it is. That's why the female voice will be reading the questions, and then I'll be giving my answers. Now, lastly, the t-shirt drawing, the people that win the free t-shirt. That will be occurring, I think, right after Christmas, I will post to the community tab who won, and I will also be emailing everybody who wins. So, it will not be in this video, but it will be probably right after Christmas. have to do the drawing, get everything set up, contact everybody, and I don't want to do that right this close to Christmas, so I will do it right afterwards, promise. It will happen before

the end of the year, and you will be contacted. So, all of that said, my friends, this is the 2022 Ask Me Anything, and I hope that you learned something interesting about me, and thank you for your questions. Now, enjoy. Stacey asks, Hi, have you ever had an experience with a cryptid or Bigfoot? I have not ever had a cryptid or Bigfoot experience. I live in a pretty suburban area, have my whole life, and I don't really spend a lot of time in the woods or anything like that,

so I don't think that I'm in a position where I would experience anything like that. Golem's Finger asks, where do you think the soul resides in the body? That is an incredibly complex and strange question, and one that I've never really thought about. I would say personally if the soul were to exist that it would be in the brain. That's what controls our conscious, and it's the most vital organ to being alive next to the heart, so that would be my guess. Guy with chainsaw asks,

What are your feelings or messages that are important for you to convey through your near-reve? as well as the stories you wrote. What feelings do you like to awaken in your audience? The feelings are kind of all over the place. Obviously I do narrate horror stories or scary stories, so I guess fear is kind of the main feeling I try to push through, though at the same time for some of the stories it's more about education to some extent like the stalker stories. But really, I just want to entertain and have people enjoy my work.

And I've been told I have a calming voice, so I guess fear and entertainments and calmness are the three emotions I push through. Kourion asks, dude, how do you do all this? I am thinking of starting a YouTube channel like this, mainly focusing on the glitch stories and experiences from Reddit. So some pointers would help. This is a question that is actually hard to answer beyond just saying, just do it. If you want to start a channel like this, just do it. And I don't mean to get all shy a bluff on you, but just do it. If you plan to do stories from places like Reddit,

make sure you are working with the authors and getting permission to use the stories. Otherwise, if you get caught not asking permission, you could be hit with a DMCA claim and you don't want that. You don't want that mess. So on top of that, don't expect immediate success. It will not happen. You have to work hard and put a lot of time into making it work. Lori Alred asks,

What all and how long did it take you to start this channel? What got you interested in it and how long did you think about it before actually doing it? Were you very concerned about mean or rude comments, trolls in the beginning and are you now? Lastly, did you get really nervous when you first started and how long did it take to get over it and get comfortable? From the day of creation to my first video, it only took me about five days. Um, my interest in narrations came from spending a lot of time listening to other narrators back in 2016-ish and on. I will say specifically let's read. I know later in this list I mentioned other ones, they were just as important.

It's just that Joel is definitely one that's top of my list. One thing that I think made me delay doing it was really just my own thoughts as to whether or not it would be worth my time. Um, as for trolls or negative comments, of course, they do get to me to some extent. There's not a person out there that wouldn't be affected by them, but they don't slow me town or stop me. Some people go out of their way to comment negative things, and I just ignore them most of the time. I was nervous at the beginning and still am, but it's the drive to improve and make something

that people enjoy that really pushes me out of that nervousness. Merrick Wolf asks, what is it like knowing that you have so many people who listen to you? Is it overwhelming or does it give you a greater sense of community? It can be both. The fact that there are people listening all over the planet is incredibly overwhelming. But at the same time, it's genuinely inspiring that anyone listens to me at all. Corpseman asks, I must ask, why is there no K and ask, as the right? Raven Dreams? Or are you not really asking anything?

This question confuses me, but I think it was a joke. I guess I could have called this AMA Ask the Raven Dreams, and it would have worked, but it's an ask me anything, and I'm as the Raven Dreams. There are two separate concepts. Rick Vamos Jr. asked, what is your favorite stories to cover? I honestly enjoy all of the stories that I do, and it is really hard to pick a favorite. If I had to, I guess I would say dark web and glitch stories. C Forbes asks, if you were stranded on a deserted island, would someone, cannot be someone you know, who would it be, and why? I would go with someone like Robert Downey Jr. or Jack Black. I can't really think of anyone alive that I would want to spend time on an island with, though,

but at least with them, Robert Downey Jr., they're going to come looking for you, so there's that. Jack Black, it'll be entertaining. If it can be anyone dead or alive, I would probably go with like Kurt Vonnegue or someone. Anita Sharon asks, What made you start doing a YouTube channel? I know you had friends that did it, but what made you put in the constant amount of effort you do? You work on this constantly and write and do art and have so many other aspects to it. I want to know the real reason inside, because this channel is about who you are inside, not what people see.

Honestly, this one actually has an easy answer. I liked listening to narrations when I worked at my office job, and I thought, I wonder if I could do that. And I was also testing soundproofing in a closet, so it was just one of those thoughts that pushed me to do it. I know that's not as intimate an answer as you'd probably like, but it's the truth. And I actually didn't know anyone that did this prior to me doing it, not personally at least. Macy asked, why or how did you choose your channel name? Is there a meaning to it? So the original name of the channel before I put out any videos was The Raven's Dream.

After thinking on it and making all the art for the channel, I decided that I wanted the name to be active, I guess, so it became as the Raven Dreams. And it is 100% inspired by my love for Poe's work, and specifically The Raven. Anonymous asks, if you could cause a glitch in the matrix, what would it be? I would be the mischievous type that would rewrite the timelines of history to see what happened. I would remove various specific incidents from history and see what changed. And then I would select my personal favorite timeline.

Michelle Walburn asked, what got you interested in the paranormal glitches in particular? Honestly, I just like the mystery and weirdness to paranormal and glitch stories. They're intriguing to me, and that's why I cover them. Ricky D. asks, my question to you, what do you believe more, that we live in a simulation, quantum immortality, or that we were created by God, or that we were created by an alien race, and our ancestors interpreted the aliens as a god or gods? If my options are strictly those four, I would like to entertain the thought that our ancestors were influenced by an advanced society and created the imagery of gods from them. Like, an advanced society a long time ago was on the verge of extinction, and they influenced our ancestors to begin the creation of a current society?

Now, do I believe it's not really, but it would be an interesting take. Tiffany asks, just wondering, what got you interested in this kind of content? Did you have your own experience or just find it insanely interesting like myself? Much like you, I was a huge fan of the other channels that did these kinds of stories. And I think that's what really got me into the content. I don't really have any experiences that are worth sharing. I might later in the video if someone asks about the specific thing, which I can tell you right now they absolutely will.

Nikki asks, what gave you the courage to start your channel and has anyone else? ever seen you online? I pushed myself to just do it. I had to get over my anxieties with public speaking, so I just jumped in the water with both feet. And I'm assuming you mean has anyone online seen me and known it's me, in which case, other than my parents, no. Jordan Collie asks, have you ever voice acted in anything, whether it be a smaller or

large project? I have. I've been part of radio play-style video. over on the Doorway to Nightmare channel. I've been on there for a while now, and I've also done small parts in various other channels videos. Josh asks, what will your channel look like in the future? Probably very similar to how it looks now,

but with a much larger number under the name. Tamlin asks, you share all these amazing stories that people send you. Do you believe them or what experience made you decide to share these stories? stories. Please share your story with us. I absolutely believe the stories that I read. I have always said that I am not the arbiter of truth, and it's not up to me to look at a story and say this is true or this is not true. If someone writes a story and sends it my way, then I believe in their experience 100%.

Are some of them made up? Possibly. Are they embellished a bit? Sure, it's possible. But I'm not going to question that or make any. comments on whether or not they are. As for what made me share these stories with you all, I'll tackle both the general and specific fronts on this. In general, listening to other narrators that read these kind of stories and finding joy in their content made me want to give it a shot. Specifically, when someone sends me a story, they are trusting me to give that story

the respect and narrate it with the dignity that it deserves, and that actually means a lot to me. Can't remember anyway, asks. I'm sure you're asked this all the time, but have you ever had a glitch in the Matrix? If so, what happened if you want to share? Did your own glitch in the Matrix inspire you to create this series? I have had one glitch in my life, and it is the dumbest and most mundane thing that could have happened. So it did, it did. not inspire me to read other glitches. But here is what happened. Several years ago, I think back in 2018, Patience and I went to Texas to go to a concert.

While in Texas, we went to a place called What a Burger because my brother-in-law, who is from Texas, said that we had to. When we went, we got a little placard for our order that was number 42. To most people, that means nothing. But to me, it was a huge deal, because I am a huge fan of Douglas Adams and the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. So, admittedly, we stole the placard. We put it in the glove box until we got home, where it went into a drawer in the kitchen, because I didn't really have a place for it.

Well, long story short, after about a year or so, I found the placard in the drawer when I was looking for something. except now the placard says 43. This makes no sense to me, because I would not have taken a placard that says 43. 43 has literally no meaning to me, and I would have never taken it from the restaurant. It's dumb, and I am sorry to that specific Whataburger for stealing your number placard, but that's my glitch. Nicole asked, out of all the stories that you have narrated over the years, what story has stuck in your mind the most? This answer is going to show a bit of bias on my part, but I narrated a story that I wrote way back whenever I did fiction stories on my main channel called There Is No Story. It was the most emotional I have ever gotten in a story, because it is a meta-horror story and it absolutely required me to do so.

Carrie asks, I love music, so I have to ask, what is your current favorite song? I have way too many favorite songs, so it is easier for me to just name some bands that I like instead. So Parabelle, Idola, Driveways, Alkaline Trio, Knucklepock, Day Seeker, and Ten Years. There are so many more, but I think that's a good start if you want to listen to music that I listen to. Chanel F. asked, do you do YouTube, exclusively, or do you have another job? YouTube is, at this point, my job.

I do not currently have a day job. Jessa asked, what inspired you to create a channel such as Creepypastas? Did you ever consider doing a Cold Case Files channel? Thank you so much for all the great work you do. I was inspired to do this channel and my other channels by the others that I used to listen to. A good list. Let's Read, Mr. Creepypasta, Southern Cannibal, Swamp, dweller, year maker, et cetera. And I actually do have a not currently very active cold case channel called Raven Investigates.

It is a collaborative effort between myself and Curious Raven. It does exist. We have done videos. It's, if you go to my channel, there should be a section for other channels I'm associated with, I think. Should be down there. Rebecca asks, do you have a day job? If so, what is it? And bonus, how did you get into voice work?

YouTube actually is my day job. I used to work in information system security, specifically governance risk and compliance. It was a fun job, but I hated the corporate environment. I got into voice work by, as already mentioned, just doing it. I've never really wanted to be a voice actor or anything like that, but I am absolutely enjoying it. Bonina A. asks,

Do you ever feel as if you're dreaming your life from some point till now and that one day you will wake up to find yourself years younger? I can't say that I feel like it, but it is one of those really weird inner fears that I have absolutely considered. Cindy B. asks, I have felt like I have lived two lives, but in either I cannot have empathy or feel love. I'm 55, married with three kids.

My childhood was okay, and I am a... fairly smart woman. It's like I float through life, one with my kids and family, and the other just alone. Does anyone else feel this way? This sounds like you may have a bit of a detachment from things, and I am certain that there are a lot of people that feel that way. Mark asks, how do you sift through all your stories to make sure they are originals? I actually do not require that stories be original on my channel, and I have no issue with channels doing the stories that I've already done. I just care that they're interesting. Andrada Toma asks, is as the Raven Dreams your main and only job, or do you have another job too?

It would be amazing to be your main job, but unfortunately for the moment your amazing channel is small. I still don't know why. As the Raven Dreams is actually my job at this point, and I do make a decent amount of money doing it, even though I am a fairly small channel. It also helps that my other half is immensely supportive and has a day job that I think she enjoys. I think. She's nodding her head, yes, but I have to say, I think. Lauren asks, if you had to explain to an alien what consciousness was and where it came from, how would you describe it?

Consciousness is the knowledge that you exist. It is a sense of self-awareness that you are a living, breathing entity that can manipulate anything within arm's reach. It is also the knowledge that your existence is temporary. As for where it came from, I have absolutely no idea. Rebecca Hall asked, do you believe in glitches in the Matrix in the Mandela Effect? I absolutely believe in the experiences that I read here on the channel, and I do believe that there is more to existence than we can't explain. As to whether or not that means we live

in a simulation, I don't know. But reality is definitely more than meets the eye. Bella asked, how did you come up with your channel name? Is it Edgar Allan Poe inspired? Yep, it is absolutely inspired by Poe. James Armstrong asks, do you or your family have any glitch or paranormal supernatural stories? Have you done a show on those yet? I think a lot of listeners would like that, given you had a story. I don't have any interesting stories other than the one I told earlier in this video, but I do have family members that have sent me their stories, specifically my sister-in-law,

which would be Patience's sister. I am not going to point out which stories were hers, though, but they do exist. I know that my dad has had some paranormal experiences, too, but I haven't told them on the channel. Cindy asks, do you think you will ever write a novel? Oh, fun fact. I have written four novels already in my life. And that is not a joke or an exaggeration. There are four novels that are no longer available, mind you, that were self-published under my real name.

I want to republish them under my pseudonym eventually. The first three were a post-apocalyptic trilogy. And the fourth one was a 600-page thriller that was supposed to be part of a new series that I never continued yet. I'm going to say yet there. Anonymous asks, have you ever had a glitch happen to you? I have had one very minor glitch happened to me, as I mentioned earlier. Max Cohen asks, would you ever want to create a script or movie or anything in that nature to elevate these stories in unique ways? Once I've got some footing in the industry, I'd love to make these ideas and true stories into a reality through film.

That's not really something I've ever thought of, but as an author, I think it would be super neat to write an actual script if I could. I say go for it because that sounds seriously awesome. Christy Michelle asked, what's the reason you decided to become a narrator? Also, I'm really glad you did because you're great at it. Embarked and relaxes. Syrote. Bookine. Oh, so see.

And profite. Via Rae, the voice that we love. I enjoyed listening to other narrators and I thought, hey, I should try that. At first, I was terrible. And I genuinely would not recommend anyone listening to anything I put out in 2019 to 2020. Anonymous asked, What inspired you to start a podcast?

and making YouTube videos. Which creators were your biggest inspirations? Listening to the other narrators is what inspired me, as mentioned. As for who? Let's read Southern Cannibal, Swamp Dweller, Mr. Creepypasta, your maker. Those were the main ones that I listened to all the time. There were others, but I cannot remember who they were. I'd have to go look through my old, old, old playlist.

Brenda asks, are you a fan of Corvids? How did you choose your channel's name? What does the Raven dream? It's notable that you're a fine narrator, so I imagine you probably read. If so, what's your favorite book? Also, what, if you have any, are your favorite conspiracy theories? And what is your favorite crypted? I absolutely adore Corvids.

The channel's name was inspired by Poe, specifically The Raven. The Raven dreams, whatever he chooses to dream. though if you look at the supposed lore of my channel, he dreams of the horrors of the world. I do read, and I can easily answer this question. Slaughterhouse Five and Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, though I also did enjoy the Dexter novels. As for my favorite conspiracy theory, I guess Lizard People is a pretty fun one. I don't personally believe it, but it is fun to think about. there was part of this question that I didn't answer and didn't have patience read,

and I can't answer it because I don't know who Carl Jung is, and I'm not a fan of West, so I can't answer that. And then, finally, my favorite cryptid is the Mothman. Enrose Campos asks, How many personal glitch experiences have you had? Please tell us, and as an added bonus, I, and I'm sure everyone else, would love to hear. you tell us the spookiest, most disconcerting of them all.

I have had one personal glitch experience and I mentioned it earlier in the video. It was the one with the placard that changed numbers. Hopefully you all did enjoy it, but unfortunately it was not spooky in any way, shape, or form. Laura B. Fierce asked, Can you tell us about some of the biggest WTF submissions you've ever gotten? Like a story that made you think, do they even watch my channel? or that was so poorly written that you couldn't bring yourself to read it, or even one where you grew concerned because it was an ongoing situation and felt the need to intervene?

I once had a submission that was sent to me that was more or less three sentences. It wasn't supposed to be a super short story. Like it wasn't supposed to be a two or three sentence horror story. It was a legit submission. I'm paraphrasing this. This isn't what it's said, but it was basically, this happened when I'm When I was a teenager, it was late at night and I couldn't sleep for some reason, and when I opened my eyes there was a girl staring at me. It was scary because the girl had no face. It was an interesting story, sure, but it would have been like no content whatsoever.

I read at an average of 2.6 words per second, and that was around 41 words, so that would have been 15.7 seconds long in a video. Faith asked, what I want to ask is what made you want to start this channel in the first place. I used to listen to a lot of narrations to get through my day as well, and that's more or less what inspired me to do it. I didn't know if it was going to be a long-term or successful venture, but I am thankful that it has been. Laura Be Fierce asked, do you do paid voiceover work? If not currently, would you? I don't currently, but would absolutely love to someday. 242 asked, if you could tell your past self one thing, what would it be? That's easy.

Invest in something like Google or Amazon. And start a narration channel back in 2015. I would have been one of the OGs making tons of money right now. Ruggana Man asks, What is the strangest dream you have ever had while not in your own bed? That is hard to answer because I'm unsure of what dreams I've had in other beds. I could tell you one series of dreams that I still have that I genuinely hate, which is of me working at my old job again.

There's a story as to why I don't work there anymore, and I've told it in the past. I'm not going to tell it again. But I guess my mind has decided its unfinished business because I will randomly have dreams about working there and being fired or quitting or whatever. And I hate it and wish it. would stop. Spooky, ask, are you Drew Gooden? No, I am Jesse Eisenberg.

Or maybe I am Tyler Joseph. Or maybe I'm Matthew Gubler. Nico asked, when you read some of the more messed up stories, do you ever consider not posting them? Or is there any you haven't posted for various reasons? Also, how do you choose the ones you read versus the ones you don't? And finally, have you ever had anyone involved in this story reach out, not the O.P., but like, someone involved? Thanks. Surprisingly, I have never had a submission that I thought was too much.

I've gotten some interesting ones that did go into a bit further of what I would call darker territory, but nothing that's really hit I'm not reading this levels. Now, it is possible that I will in the future, absolutely, and if that happens, I will cross that bridge then. As for how I choose to read the ones versus the ones I don't read. For the most part, it is about whether or not the story is interesting to me. If I like the story, then I will read it on the channel, assuming the author gives me permission. I will also say when it comes to Reddit, sometimes I don't read the whole story. Sometimes I will skim the story and read the comments to see what people say, and if they seem to respond positively, I will request it.

And then to answer your last question, no, I haven't, not yet at least. Brian Cattelier asked, what motivated you to make glitch in paranormal stories? Glitch stories specifically happened because I stumbled upon the subreddit, and I thought that it would be interesting to cover them. I think I saw a chills video or something like that on glitches in the Matrix, and I thought it was kind of cool. And then I went and looked them up and found the subreddit. and it was an instant hit on the channel, so that worked out. Paranormal stories, they're just really fun to read, and that's actually where I started the channel.

So, yeah. So that was the 2022 Ask Me Anything, Q&A, whatever you want to call it. Thank you to each and every single one of you who sent me a question. I did these, I believe, in the order they were received. I think that's how I pulled this. data. So thank you to each one of you. And again, you're all just amazing. Um, you had several months to send me questions. So hopefully you got your chance to. And hopefully, just hopefully, you all learned something new about me today. Or maybe you didn't. And maybe you don't care.

I don't know. Maybe if you're listening to this and didn't send me a question, you didn't really care that I was doing this. I don't know. Maybe you did. I don't know. I don't know what I'm talking about. If you did, I mean, you know, if you sent me a question, thank you. If not, it's fine. I get it. If you enjoyed this, obviously, thumbs up. This video is not going to hit the numbers my normal videos do because it's not a story. So, yeah, or not a collection of stories. Leave me a comment. If you have any further questions, I will try to answer some of them in the comments if you didn't get to send me a question for this. Just know that only the people who sent

me a question will be entered into the drawing. So I will potentially answer your question still in comments, but you won't be entered in the drawing. So it is what it is. It was a time frame thing, but yeah. If you're new and you are interested in what you heard me say, I guess, subscribe. I don't know. That's a weird thing to say there, but whatever. I'm going to wrap this up. Thank you for an amazing 2022. We have two more videos with new content this year, two videos that are going to be compilations and then we're done with the year. Goodbye 2022. Hello, 2023 or 2024.

Which one will it be? Maybe we'll all skip a year and won't realize it. Until we turn on our phones on January 1st and it says 2027. We skipped five years. Oh God, what happened? Who knows? Anyways, thank y'all. Hope you have a fantastic day. Happy holidays. Merry Christmas.

Happy early new year. I love you guys. And I almost just like entered it with saying goodbye, but I'm not going to do that. So till next time, friends, sleep well.