Jim Harold's Campfire - A Ghost Ran AT Me - Jim Harold's Campfire 772

Episode Date: August 3, 2026

A terrifying encounter during sleep paralysis opens the door to a Campfire episode filled with unsettling presences, strange figures, and moments that blur the line between the explainable and the impossible. From eerie experiences in hospitals with running ghosts to something enormous and silent moving through the night sky, these stories stay with you long after they end. But this episode is not all darkness. There are also deeply personal signs from loved ones, unexpected moments of comfort, and a few mysteries that raise more questions than answers. It is a wide-ranging collection of stories about fear, connection, coincidence, and the possibility that the unseen world may be closer than we think. --- VIRTUAL CAMPFIRE GROUPJoin our FREE online community at ⁠https://virtualcampfiregroup.com⁠EVENTSHope to see you soon at one of Jim’s live events: https://jimharold.com/eventsYOUTUBE CHANNELBe sure to subscribe to Jim’s YouTube channel at: ⁠https://youtube.com/jimharold⁠ JOIN JIM’S SPOOKY STUDIO PLUS CLUBYou can get access to Jim’s entire back catalog of Campfire and a TON of exclusive content with the Spooky Studio Plus Club. Go to https://⁠jimharold.com/plus⁠ and signup to support the show and get access to our MASSIVE library of content!MERCHGo to ⁠https://jimharold.com/merch⁠ to get your Jim Harold T’s, sweatshirts, mugs, hats and more! BOOKSGet all SIX of Jim’s Campfire books here: https://jimharold.com/campfirebooks/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Ashley is on the line from Pennsylvania. She's going to tell us about, you know, I think these sleep experiences are some of the most terrifying because that's when we let our guard down. We're like, no matter what's happened. during the day and so forth. It's a time, I think, at least when most of us try to say, okay, let's put it out all side. Let's rest.

And then something interrupts that rest. And that can be very, very traumatic, very frightening. And Ashley's going to tell us about such a situation. Ashley, welcome back to the show. Thanks for joining us again. And tell us what happened. Happy to be back. Tell us what happened.

So I would say that I started having sleep paralysis as a teenager, but I didn't know what it was called. I didn't know anything about it. I just thought I was having really weird dreams. And then as an adult in this house, I started having them again. And I would have them more like really early in the morning when I was pretty much just about waking up,

but I was still in a really calm state of mind. Right. Oftentimes when I would meditate. meditate too because I would just already be so calm and relaxed so I would meditate first thing in the morning and this was this first this one I have to give a little precursor to the really scary story but this first one that was the beginning of it being really scary for me was early in the morning it was a few years ago my husband was at work he wasn't he was working like a third shift so he wasn't home yet. So I had to have been like 5 a.m. or something and I was kind of just coming out of sleep. And I felt the paralysis takeover and I couldn't move and I was getting upset and this had happened so many times that I was just mad at this point. I was like, all right, whatever you are, show yourself to me. So I can't move my mouth during these episodes.

it's so I almost kind of like telepathically yell at it. Yeah. Because all these, all the times before when it happened, I couldn't see anything. And it was just, it just felt like you're being attacked by something invisible. Oh my goodness. It's an awful feeling. It's an awful feeling.

Sure. So I said, I can take control all the situation. So I said, show yourself to me. And I looked up on my ceiling and there was this, a human figure almost on my ceiling. Yeah. But it was kind of ripped to the ceiling like a spider.

Yeah. And its legs were bent the opposite way. Huh. And it was all black, almost like from head to toe, it was wearing a full black body suit, not shadow looking. Just it had like a very solid look to it. And then it turned its head,

like almost all the way around and looked at me. But it didn't have a face. It was just black. So as humanoid, it was like a human, but it was just no face and in this black body suit. Yeah. So I got through that. I kind of came out of that state and I was like upset and mad. I'm like, oh, I don't know if I made the right choice of asking this thing to show itself to me.

Right. You asked what you got it. But I also felt like, okay, I have a little of control here now. like I demanded it to do something and I finally did it. Now, I would say this is a few years later now, and I hadn't had too many of the experiences because it was happening so much for a while that I was like, I'm going to do anything I possibly can. So I did like a house cleansing, less to the house, all those things to try to bring a little bit of peace to the environment. Because I can say honestly that these things happen, these sleep prowess episodes happen, when I'm more under stress.

Yeah. So I feel like things were a little calmer for a little while, but then fast forward to when my daughter was like about 18 months old. And I had put her down to sleep, but I was still laying in bed next to her. And my husband was working second shift that night. So he wasn't getting home until 11 p.m. He's a very teen-oriented person. So when he comes home, he's kind of quiet.

But he always takes his boots off before he comes up the steps. So I was laying a bed and probably like only a semi-sleep state. I wouldn't say I was in a REM or anything. I know I did read that people with sleep paralysis, at least they're being told they're experiencing it in a REM. But I don't think I was in REM because I heard the door open. I heard what sounded like my husband come into the house. in his boots, closed the door, and then I heard silence at the bottom of the step.

I'm like, okay, it's him taking his boots off. Right. But then I hear him coming up the steps, still wearing his boots. I'm like, no, that's not like him. He doesn't wear his boots. And I go into a panic mode, like, there's somebody in my house. I turn and look at the clock, and it's 1032. He's not going to be home until about 1115.

So I'm like, oh, my God, there's somebody in my house. So I go to sit up, and I was a. immediately frozen. My whole body was frozen. I couldn't move. I'm like, oh, okay, this is what's happening right now. This is another sleep demon thing, paralysis thing. Right. So I'm laying or frozen in bed next to my sleeping infinite. And I'm looking the way the door, the doorway is, I could look, you know, just lay in her bed and look straight through the doorway. I had a baby gate up there. Right. So the door was the gate up. And I see my husband. or what is mimicking my husband,

standing at the doorway on the other side of the baby gate, looking at me. And I'm like looking sideways at the, you know, looking at the clock, looking at this thing. And I'm like, this isn't my husband. It's not 1115 yet.

And then they come in, but it walks through the gate, like just doesn't open it, nothing. It just walks through it like it's, you know, like a ghost or something. Yikes. Down on the edge of the bed.

and puts its hand on my leg, and it's just looking at me. Oh, gosh. And it's got the figure of my husband this time. Oh, my lord. Yeah, it doesn't, it's not this black shadow thing anymore. It looks totally like him, except it sits there, and it just kind of looks straight into my face, and I'm making eye contact with it, and I'm mad, and I'm like, I don't know why you're here.

I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want, but whatever you're. do don't harm my daughter. Now were you paralyzed at this time? Were you paralyzed at this time? Oh my gosh. I was paralyzed. I was again communicating with my minds. And I was like, whatever energy you're here to take, take it from me, don't touch my daughter. Don't take anything from her. Like I was in like protective mode. As best I could, I couldn't move. Again, I'm communicating with this thing with my mind. And it's looking at me. And then it just smiles at me. But it wasn't my husband's smile. It was a very, like, sinister, almost kind of like, are you sorry that you

asked for this kind of thing because I asked to see this, you know? I asked for it just show me its face at one point. Nice. And it finally showed me a face, but it showed me my husband's face. But with not his smile. It just was like, I don't know, like it was playing a cruel trick on me. So you I was just going to say you had kind of a tufer. You know, you had the sleep paralysis with strange things appearing, but then you had the doppelganger experience on top of that. Yeah. Ew. Go ahead.

I'm sorry. This thing, eventually, it just kind of, I just was kind of yelling at it in my mind. Like, get out of here, get out of this room. This is a safe room. You don't belong here. And then finally, it just got up and walked away and just left the room and disappeared. And then I was released. I wasn't paralyzed.

my turn to look at the clock. It was only 10.38. So it had been a couple minutes. And then I stood up and walked downstairs and was walking around my house. Like, I don't know what just happened. Like, I felt like I needed to check my home for an intruder, even though I know what just happened wasn't an actual, like, human intruder. And I, and because I had looked at the clock at 1032 and again at 1038,

there's no way that I was in like a REM sleep for this to have happened. So I was baffled by that. And then has anything, so it just ended. So has anything else like that happened subsequently or was that kind of like? I cleansed in the house and I came in hard after that. And I put all kinds of things like protective things in my daughter's room because I didn't want nothing coming in there again. Sure, sure. Now let me ask you this.

Let me ask you this now. People are going to ask this. So I've got to ask it now. we know that sometimes sleep paralysis can have a biological or a medical component. And I don't want to ask you anything personal about your medical history or anything. But do you think that has anything to do with this or you just think this is solely supernatural in your case? I don't know if it would be a medical related thing. I don't, I mean, I've had a lot of issues. Like I have an autoimmune. I have psoriotic arthritis. I've had lots of blood work done, all kinds of things like that. And I've never had any look. like issues like psychological things or sleep disorders or anything like that. Or apnea or something. Because I was thinking more apnea because I know they talk about apnea. Yeah. Yeah, I don't have apnea. I did. I actually did recently because my sleep was really

bad recently and I checked, wore like a monitor thing and checked my sleep and my breathing was fine. So I know it's not that. There you go. And I do think that's one of those things where it can, to me, I don't want to discount the medical piece. I'm always very respectful to medicine and I think you need to do what your doctor says and all that good stuff. So I do think sometimes it can have a medical cause. But I also think there might be a supernatural aspect to it too, sometimes for some people. And that sounds kind of like the direction it's going for you. Yeah. I almost, I guess, egged it on, you know, because I kept saying. Well, you said show yourself, so it showed itself. Yeah. So after the time it came back, it came back a little bit more scary and more realistic.

That whole doppelganger thing, particularly with someone you love and trust and is very close to you. And we had a very kind of similar thing. I don't know if you remember it. It's been a few years ago. A woman, I think her husband was military in Germany, the Air Force or something. And the same kind of thing. She was in bed. And he usually would get up and go for a jog or whatever.

And this particular morning, I don't. think he had gone for the jog, which she thought was unusual when she woke up. And this thing was spooning her. And she realized it was something that looked very much like her husband, very close, but not exact. And it's so interesting because when you talk about things like the gin, for example, I remember Rose, there were late Rosemary Ellen Giley saying this, that they can mimic somebody very closely, but it's not 100%. It's not 100%. It's very close. It's not 100% It was not 100% my husband

Like I said it looked like him It moved like him When it was coming up the steps and everything But when it smiled it was not him And I want to think it's all happened In like a five minute span Scary stuff Well thank you so much

I appreciate it Thank you for being on the show I'm glad things have calmed down But boy that's a scary one Ashley Thank you for being on the show stay safe and stay spooky. Stay spooky.

Welcome to the Campfire. I am Jim Herald. So glad to be with you once again. And we've got a great show. Boy, do we have some great stories today. We've been getting some good ones and keep them coming. Jimherald.com slash campfire. Share those stories.

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Behind the scenes with dark. Join our Plus club, Jimherald.com slash plus Jim Herald. dot com slash plus. It would mean a great deal to us. We would appreciate it. Because if you do that, you'll get even more great stories like this one. Well, we have another repeat caller,

and he has quite the story to tell. And I'll not spoil it, but I will say this. It involves a morgue. Michael, thank you for joining us. I know you had some incredible stories before. Please tell us about this one. Yeah, no problem. So I used to work in this warehouse that did a lot of medical records and stuff like that was more of like a storage.

And the building itself, just to give some reference, was probably like the size of an airport hanger. Oh, wow. Yeah. And then it was fairly new building. It was being built when me and my wife first moved to this neighborhood. and it had the racking on like the left side of the building on the inside, of course, but it was like about four stories tall and you could, it was like scaffolding pretty much. You could see all the way down through the floor.

And state of the art, it was kept at a certain temperature, so bugs and rodents and stuff like that would not get in there and chew away files and stuff like that. Wow. It had like a sniffer system in there, so if it smelled like smoke, or chemicals burning anything, it would let out like this little halo system kind of stuff to protect all these files. So kind of got three stories to go along with this, but we would get notifications from certain hospitals that they needed a file on a certain patient.

So we'd run up, find the file, and grab the file, and there's times that I'd be putting white boxes and stuff, and I could always feel that when this would happen, that there was somebody there, and I was the only one working. And you could always hear when somebody came into the warehouse just because of how empty it was at the time. Right. So I'd be sitting there looking through the files, and it always felt like something was running up on me.

So I, like, look up, and you could see through every single floor, that the lights are turning on, but they're motion lights. So there has to be somebody there to activate them. And I'm just watching and hearing this thing run across these metal grates all around all four floors. And it would run up to me and then stop. And I never felt like it was going to do me any harm. It felt like it wanted to kind of like play. And it noticed that I noticed it.

So then it was like, cool, somebody sees me. So there was always that person. and that guy, spirit that was there. And then there was another time that we would be getting all sorts of files from companies that we had taken over. And everything came through our warehouse first. So there was times that we'd be going through files like that. And I'd look over and this is a, you have to imagine about through four or five different doors before you can even get to the area that we were in. So not everybody could go back.

And sure enough, there'd be just somebody staring at me, looking around the corner, wondering what I was doing, and eventually they'd go away. The one with the morgue was we would also deliver some of these files to the local hospitals when the doctor needed the physical copies. So I'd jump in the delivery van. And we never went through the front door. or we usually always went through like a loading dock or in the back where everybody's working. So this wasn't possible when you walk into it. You go down this hallway and on the left are all the offices and there's the mord that you pass by and then a whole bunch of other offices and then the kitchen on the right.

And then you go around the corner and you get to medical records and that's usually where I always went. but it was always the same path. And this one time, I noticed the more door was opened. And usually that door is always closed. They don't usually leave that door open. I deliver the medical record and I'm coming back and I look over and there's a corks on the slab, I guess who would call it. Oh, boy.

I just, I look over, corner of my eye, like I said before, I've seen this like black figure there. And I always, you know, try to get full eye contact with them to make sure it's not that it's actually there. Sure enough, there's this full apparition stand there. Looking at the corpse. And I'm like, I start to get this uneasy feeling. And that's usually when I know that it's not what everybody else is seeing. I get feelings more than I get, you know, the sight.

So it looks up at me and notices that I see it and it starts to run towards me, but not like an attack mode kind of a thing, more of a you can see me help me kind of a thing. Oh, man. Right before it got to the door, the guy that was in the doctor or whatever that was in the morgue looked up at me and was just giving me this funny. Well, he's probably looking at me the whole time, wondering what the heck I was staring at. but he looks at me and then just shakes his head and shuts the door right before the spirit got to me. And I just shook it off like, this is a busy day today.

And, yeah, went upon my day. So, I mean, it's pretty obvious from your prior calls in this one. It seems like you're just very sensitive to these spirits and you see them and they see you, basically. Yeah. And usually I try to ignore them because I don't. I don't want them to kind of know that I know them or that I can see them. Right. Because I don't, besides seeing them, I don't have any way to help them.

And I don't want them to think that I could help them with whatever they need, move on or whatever it is. So I just try to act like I don't see anything. being having something run at you like that and the fact that you saw it there and then the doctor couldn't see it and just thought you were probably just gawking because it was a you know dead person but man wow wow i don't know how i deal with that probably not very well i got to say michael you're a lot braver than i am a lot braver and i'm guessing you have even more stories and more things have happened oh yeah all the time um if you have time i'm I got another story for you.

Sure, go ahead, go ahead. Okay, so I used to be on a volunteer fire department, and it was in a pretty small town. It was right off of the lake. So summertime, we used to get a lot of tourists and stuff like that. And you would think that with it being a small town and volunteer fire department, it really wasn't that much activity,

but we would get a lot during the tourist. season, usually because car wrecks or people are too drunk, partying too much. We have one that still to this day, it just shakes me completely. There was a plane crash, which we don't ever hear because there's a lake. So when that came over our pager system, I was actually at the grocery store with my family. And so plane crash comes over and I'm just, I got to go. So we went up and we get on scene and when we get there, we don't necessarily have like a boat ready to go out there and do anything.

Kind of got to wait for somebody in the community that might be alone on us a boat or something like that. Right. While we're trying to get that figured out, a boat pulls up and they had actually jumped in the water and pulled the guy from the water. Because what had happened was the guy had a seaplane. It started to have issues. So he had a friend fly over and stay with his wife. He was going to take the plane back to his house on the coast and then just leave it there and for his wife to come home.

When he was taken off, he tried to a boat crossed in front of him. So he'd hit one of the waves and it flipped the boat. and ended up sinking it. Oh, more. Yeah, we're getting him out of the boat. And at this time, he's not awake. He's unconscious. Usually, with me being on the fire department,

we would show up to EMT calls just for muscle pretty much to help, not necessarily do anything medical, but this is crazy. So I'm grabbing the guy's feet. We're getting ready to pull him into the boat and right at that moment when it pulled him out of the boat, he had passed. Like, there was nothing there.

Yeah. And I looked up at the EMT that I was helping that had him at the shoulders, and we just made the icon attack. It's like, just keep going because his wife, like everybody was there, and we didn't want to spook him. But that whole time, I had somebody right about it. Like, and I tell my wife to this day, I was like, it was either an angel or it was my guardian angel because I was just completely flush.

Like, we just lost somebody. Like, it really shook me. Just so you can repeat, you dropped out just a little bit there. You said there was someone at your shoulder? Is that what you said? Someone was at your shoulder? Yeah. Yeah, I had somebody at my shoulder and they actually, like, add a hand on my shoulder.

Oh, wow. And the second that they put their hand on my shoulder, I was just at ease. It was kind of like being completely comforted. Like, it's okay. You're going to be all right. You're going to do this. Do you ever think it could have been the person who passed?

It could have been. I never even thought of that. But it was just the, it was the honest thing. It was, I'm used to seeing spirits and stuff, you know. So when that happened, it was more of like, I almost want to say like they were not like the black spirits that I see. Like it wasn't like a shadow spirit. It was more. Positive.

Positive. Yeah. And that was the craziest thing. I wrote in the ambulance with the patient all the way, those 15 miles that we had to go to the fire station where we were. were going to meet up with the family and the coroner and all that. And I never seen anything in the back of the ambulance. And it was just that one time that it was there. There's times that I'd been at fires before and been guided out of which way to go.

And it wasn't necessarily an angel. I think it was more like a protector or something like that. That was like, yeah. Amazing stories, Michael. Amazing stories, and it goes to show you, and it's kind of the way that I feel about all of this. There is the darker, more sinister side, and I would never say that doesn't exist. That doesn't mean there's a demon around every corner, I don't think, but there are darker, more sinister energies, scarier energies.

Now, the one with the corpse, I don't know if that was a dark energy or not. Maybe that was just that person looking for help. But I think there's a whole continuum, and then I think there are these very positive energies as well. And it sounds like that, what you confronted when that poor man passed away. Well, thank you for your service to your community, Michael, and thank you for your service to us by sharing these camp virus stories. Stay spooky. Stay spooky.

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And she's going to tell us about something that happened while she was doing that very honorable job. I was telling Sandra, our nurses, our health care workers don't get enough credit, so we appreciate it very, very much. Sandra, please tell us what happened. Okay, so I was beginning my shift. And at the very beginning of the shift, we typically have a huddle. And in the huddle, we have, I'll give a little background, we kind of go over patients that are not doing very well,

that may be, you know, experiencing maybe the end of life situation. And so we kind of work as a team, especially on nights when resources may be a little bit limited. And so this particular night, we'd heard there was a gentleman that was allow natural death, which is, you know, there's no bells and whistles once someone passes. They allow to pass naturally. Very, very sick.

And so that was like early in the shift 7 p.m. And about 3 o'clock in the morning, our unit is shaped kind of like a tea. And I was working off one of the top T's and a substation. And our main nurse's station was at the top of the T. And the T, the very bottom of the T, as you call it, is a little. where the patient who was critically ill was located his room. And so I went up to the charge nurse at the top of the tee to ask the charge nurse a question, and I happened to glance to my right, and I see a gentleman standing at a locked office door,

standing there like he was trying to get into the locked office door. And I just glanced. Maybe I can tell you brown hair, about six foot tall, had a patient gown on, and I'm thinking, oh, there's a patient that probably someone's missing from the room, So I turned to my left to talk to the charge nurse, and the charge nurse was not there, but when I turned back, there was nobody there. And I said, boy, this is a super fast patient. They must have scooted off to the room. So then I was inquiring with all the nurses on the unit, are you missing?

And I gave a description. Are you missing a gentleman? You know, this is such and such a hike. It looked like this. And when I went down to middle hall, because I saved that for last, I knew they were busy down there with that critically ill patient. I stopped at the little substation before, you know, in about midway. And I said, is anybody missing a patient? And they said, well, they didn't think so.

And I gave a description. The nurse just got off the phone that had taken care of the critically ill man and said, that's the description of the man who just passed about a half hour ago. And I said, she said I was on the phone with the next of kin trying to tell them, you know, that he had passed. and to come, you know, coming to the hospital. I gave a description of him. I said he was about, you know, brown hair. And she says, wait a minute.

She says, was he missing a leg? And I'm like, what? I said, I don't remember. I glanced, but I don't remember missing a leg. She said, no one could have been standing there that looked like him because he was missing a leg. And I said, well, aren't when we pass away, we're made whole again. And she didn't know what to say at that point.

So I did find out that the patient who was used. He was in his 30s, very critically ill, had a series of chronic things going on in his lifetime. So this wasn't, you know, the first time he was in a hospital, but he had been a locksmith in his life. And that was kind of his profession. And when I kind of put two and two together and said, okay, well, he was there by the door, trying to unlock the door. But it was in just a flash that he was not there. But it kind of made us all, you know, kind of take a step back. And I never cared for the patient that was ill, so I had no idea what he looked like,

never had a description from any of the nurses. And I thought it was kind of odd that he was gone so quickly from the door when I turned one way and then turned back and he was gone. So that was kind of the story. And the nurses, while we're skeptical of things sometimes, we learn to take things kind of with, as they come, we don't question a lot because there are so many things that we kind of shake her head with, but we don't start, you know, skeptically criticizing any of the nurses for what they see. Right. Well, I got to believe that you've seen a lot, and your colleagues have seen a lot,

because I've talked to health care workers and they see things particularly at time of death. And, you know, people, I've heard that a lot of times, people were report seeing before they're ready to pass, they'll start seeing loved ones. They'll see, you know, their brother who died or their spouse who died or their mother. The mother is a very common one, I understand. Angels are also involved. Angels, I've heard a lot of folks say angels had come and visited them in their room prior to their passing. Well, your story real quick reminds me when we had years ago in a very early days of campfire

was a English gentleman who was a physician. And he was working on what they call the emergency department. We call it in the states, the ER. They call it the ED. And it was down on the ground floor. And I think he was just a resident or he was a younger doctor, was the impression I got at the time. So anyway, somebody coded and he got called up two or three flights

to go attend to this person. So he went up two or three flights. and on the way up the stairs he saw this patient and he had a gown on, but he had no pants on. So he's kind of, you know, flapping in the wind. And he called out like to the nurses on that particular floor, hey, could somebody help this patient here? He's walking around, you know, not fully clothed. And he gets up to where this patient is basically flatlining. And that was the man who was in the bed.

Wow. Yeah. That very much reminds me kind of your story. There's a lot of parallels there. There's also stories that, you know, that the younger a person is when they pass, it's almost like the bigger the rip is. And they call it the bigger the rip is in the universe or the more noise or energy they create and make as they exit.

So you like in someone who's maybe 98 years old who's lived a great life, their life kind of gets snuffed out like a little can. handle, you know, their energy is already spent on a wonderful life. But if someone say it, a teenager, you know, God forbid, a child passes, that they create such an energy, you know, a riff that a lot of folks said they have seen experience more with younger folks than older. So I don't know. That makes sense. It kind of makes sense. I, and that part you said about being made whole. I've heard that so many times people will see a relative or someone who's passed and maybe they were dealing with something like Kansas. or something that, you know, ravage them in their lifetime, but they'll look when they see them they're in the prime of life. So let's hope that we all are restored physically, mentally, spiritually, and otherwise when that day comes. Absolutely. Sandra, thank you and thank all the nurses out there. I appreciate what you do. And thanks for being on the campfire tonight. Stay spooky. Thank you. Stay spooky, Jim.

I love to hear from our international callers. We have yet another one. Natalie is on the line from the UK. I'm so glad to have her on the show. She has a story about what happened when she and her husband were in the garden. They saw something most unusual. Natalie, welcome to the show. Tell us what happened.

Thank you. Yeah, this was back in 2009. It was probably late, I think it was late summer. it was in the evening myself and my husband were sitting in our garden at the time enjoying what was probably the last

of the summer we had the dark we had the chimney here on and I just remember looking up and there was just this huge black triangle

just gliding out above us directly above us and it seemed really big but I think because it seemed to block out our view of the sky above us, that's how big it was it was either really big or really low and thinking back

I think it might have been quite low it had a white light on each corner and absolutely no sound at all. And I was, well, I was, I was terrified. Sure. Yeah.

I mean, I wish I would have been able to get my phone out and record it, but it was 2009, and I'm not even sure if my phone had a camera on it, you know. Right. So, but the first instinct was to run inside, because I felt like, I felt, like, I felt threatened and it just seemed really ominous and I think it was just because all of a sudden it was there and completely silent it just I felt it was scary. I remember we had we had two little kittens at the time that were house cats but we let them have a room in the garden and they're having a sniffing the garden. It's only a very small, small area and I'll just

in my head I kind of thought I was thought back to the Simpsons thinking that they might get beamed up so that was like get the kissing thing so that was my first thought God get the cats in quick because I honestly did not know

what was going to happen and we after that we went inside and we couldn't sleep we stayed up pretty much most of the night just like buzzing about it and talking and what on earth was and I've never

it's something I've never forgotten I'm always, like I think about it a lot. I'm always looking up at the sky when I can. And at that time, for me, it was like, it was like validation, they're here. But I sound crazy saying that. And whenever I tell the stories of people that, you know, they laugh at me and they, you know, they sound crazy. And I think if you haven't seen anything like that, it's quite hard to believe. I believe it.

And nobody's going to say that here. I mean, and I think that are people watching, the vast majority of people say they believe you saw something. Now, what was your husband's reaction? Was it similar to yours? Did it differ? What were his thoughts? He was kind of shocked, and he was just kind of looking at it. And I was like, get in, get it.

And so he kind of followed what I was saying. I think I was the one who panicked more. But he was, he's just, you know, his memory of it stayed exactly the same as mine. and he's not he's more he's a big skeptic and and all he says is I can't explain it I do not know what that was yeah I was I was telling you before I believe it was Belgium if I'm not mistaken had a big UFO flap in the 90s and I believe a considerable amount of those were these black triangles and And I've heard the same thing that you described that these black triangles are very large and they're very quiet.

Now, have you ever thought about the possibility, because I could go either way on this, have you thought about the possibility? Is it of like an extraterrestrial origin? Or is it of military experimentation? What were your thoughts on it? At the time, I was thinking it was something that didn't belong here. because the feeling I got from it, I can't explain the feeling. It was just,

I just felt like, it was just terrifying. And I felt threatened like it was, I just got this kind of vibe that it wasn't friendly. I know that might sound ridiculous. It could have just been

that I was so shocked at it and that's anyone's natural reaction. I mean, I've looked up stealth bombers, I've looked at things that it could have been. And that's, They make a noise, don't they? And they're not the same shape.

This was like an equilateral triangle. Yeah, because... Jet black. Yeah, like the stealth bombers, more like a delta wing, I guess you would describe it. It's not a true triangle. You know, and the thing is that you said, well, I seem kind of silly. Well, it's not silly at all. I mean, many people who have seen UFOs over the years have reported either a feeling of some kind of communication

or some kind of feeling from it rather than just seeing. it. So you don't think there was telepathic communication per se, but it made you feel uneasy. Yeah. Yeah. I just felt like I wouldn't be able to defend myself and I just wanted to get out of this way and get the cats in just in case they're going to be taken. It sounds really terrible. What do you make of all the news lately with all the release of the American files or some of the American files and then the movie Disclosure Day? and, you know, everything it's happened since then. Yeah, what do you think?

I was a little bit disappointed with the film, actually. It wasn't what I thought it was going to be. I enjoyed it. It wasn't what I thought it was going to be. But, yeah, it's interesting, all these, everything coming out, but it's not enough, is it? It's not answering any questions, you know, even now. because people will always say it's AI or someone's lying or it's something to cover up something else.

So, you know, unless we show an absolute proof, we'll never know. Yeah. Yeah, I, if anybody listens to our show, the paranormal report, they'll know my opinion. And my opinion is that, yeah, we'll be given some stuff, but not enough. There's no context to it. It's not being done the right way. and I fear that in a month or two, this will all be forgotten about, and we'll be right back where we were before.

That's what I'm afraid of. Because there's many people like you, Natalie, who have experienced something that is real and something's going on and we're not being told the truth about. At least that's my view. So if you want to hear more about that, check out the paranormal report, everybody. Natalie, thank you for sharing your story,

having the courage to share your story, and I, for one, believe you. So thank you for being on the program and stay spooky. Thank you very much. Stay spooky. Hear that? It's your money calling. It wants a promotion. Elevate your savings with the Scotia high-interest savings account. Always earn high regular interest rates that grow the more you save and invest.

Conditions apply. Visit scotiabank.com slash h-I-SA to learn more. Scotia Bank. You're richer than you think. I'm excited about this one because it's a head scratcher. Janelle is on the line from Canada. And we're so glad to talk to her today. Now, her husband, Trey, really doesn't listen or watch to the show. He's not quite as spooky as she is, she says. But if you do catch this, I guess I'd say instead of stay spooky, get spooky, get spooky, Trey.

All right, Janelle, I love head scratchers, so I'm waiting with baited breath. Tell us what happened. Awesome. When I was around 1819, I was approached by a child. childhood friend to join their amateur paranormal investigation group. He knew at the time that I was practicing witch since we were about 15. And it just made sense as someone that he knew to come on and join. And we did lots of great investigations. And one of the other members of the team, her aunt, was having some problems. They knew that they, or they had assumed that they had been

cursed by a witch and really felt like they needed their home cleansed. It was something that I did for others and was so happy to help them out and go in and do a cleansing for her and her home. So we did the cleansing. Everything was very normal, quite routine. And we just started chatting after the cleansing was finished. And she asked if I had any other experiences or if I was a practicing medium or anything like that. And I don't personally identify as a medium, but I have had lots of paranormal experiences, things I can't quite explain. And we just kind of started talking about childhood, how kids are a lot more in tune to some things like this. And for summary, I decided to share about my childhood. A imaginary friend, her name was Sally. She wore a pink dress very early

1900s was mostly in my backyard. In my memories, my mom has memories of her being in the house, me always having to have a space for her at dinner, space for her in the car, things like that. But she was very active for me in my, in my backyard. And I have very vivid memories of playing with her, seeing her, and spending time with her. And one day she decided that she was going to leave and that she was going to go to Hawaii. And why that was what a child's brain thought is how it was. And the woman, I'm telling her this and like, why I decide to tell her about my childhood friend, I don't know. And she just goes pale white.

And she goes, when I was on a holiday with, I don't know if it was her daughter or a niece or a young family member, a young girl, they were in Hawaii. And she met an imaginary girl who wore a pink early 1900s dress named Sally. It was from kids. Oh. Oh. I still get chills. I just thinking about it. it, yeah, just an absolute, like, how, why. You may have heard me say this a time or two over the years.

Too much of a coincidence to be a coincidence. 100%. And it almost seems like you were meant to hear that. I think so. I feel like that's kind of what brought it out is, like, why would I share a childhood imaginary friend with this stranger? And I'd just done a cleansing, like, we're trying to, you know, keep good energy in the space. Not that it's a negative energy story at all, but something I probably

had never told anyone before. And I definitely feel like I was supposed to tell her because she had experienced. I truly believe that whether it was her daughter or her niece, I unfortunately don't remember, had met Sally as well. Any theories, any thoughts or reflections on that? I really don't know. I've tried to reflect on like why Hawaii. I mean, I get it. We're in Canada. it's cold. I would also go to Hawaii if I had the choice. I would go to Hawaii, yeah. And I've sat with it a bit and I truly, I truly haven't been able to think of any anything. There wasn't any history around my home or the land of what, of like that time. And I have no connection to Hawaii. I have no, nothing personal. And this was

really a weird roundabout of like decade later finding out someone else had experienced possibly the same spirit and an entirely different continent was really surprising. That is amazing. And again, I say, you know, we don't offer any solutions on this show. I mean, and another cliche I use, which I think is true, some of the best campfire stories don't end with a period. They end with a question mark, and that certainly falls into this. So, Janelle, thank you for sharing this. It gives us something to think about and just say, huh. And you certainly did that.

Thanks for being on the show and stay spooky. Thank you for having me. Next up on the campfire is Stephanie from California, and we're so glad that she is here. And she's going to tell us there may be something hanging around, but not something that is everyday or normal. It's maybe paranormal. Stephanie, welcome to the show. Tell us what's going on. Thanks, Jim.

So this happened quite some time ago. I'll try to condense. So ever since I was a child, I want to say somewhere between 10 or 12 years old, I had this feeling of being watched, you know, really vague, just kind of creepy feeling and I'd kind of look over my shoulder, like this feeling of somebody being in the room, and I just kind of brushed it off. Things got really intense when some nights I would feel like there's like somebody breathing behind my neck or something.

So I got into the habit of like sleeping totally covered. Like I would totally like burrito myself and tuck in the edges of my blanket. And I just feel like there's somebody behind me. So sometimes I would just like deal with it on my own and just kind of sit up and read the Bible or pray till I fell asleep. And I'd just go through these periods in my life. And they'd go away and then come back. But anyway, fast forward to when I got my cat Joe when I was. was 16. He started staring off in the direction that I felt somebody was staring at me.

So I was like, okay, maybe there's something here. Maybe this isn't just in my head. So, you know, he became kind of like my little protector, you know, and sometimes I'd get that creepy feeling and he'd stare off in the same direction and kind of like do like a howl, like a and, you know, I'd just be like, oh, good Joe, you're chasing him away because after that, then, you know, the feelings kind of got better. Well, basically one evening, I had a friend over where we were watching TV late. I started dozing off, and he just said, oh, I'm going to take off. And I distinctly remember having the conversation saying, hey, I'll walk you out.

So I got to lock the door. And he said, no, I'll walk myself out and I'll lock the door. So I just laid on my side. I waited to hear his footsteps, and I heard the lock click and close the door. And I was like, okay, I'm going to go to sleep. Well, a few moments later, or I don't know, sometime during the night, I just heard like a whispering like a, hey, Stephanie, hey, hey, and like a gentle tugging on my hand. And I kind of opened my eyes and I like saw him there. And I was like, I thought you left.

And then they said, I did. And I could just hear laughter. And then the tugging on my arm got really aggressive, like trying to pull. me out of bed. Huh. Yeah, that one really shook me up. It terrified me. And I went running into the living room where my cat Joe was sleeping with my dad. And, you know, I was just so shaken up. I was in tears. And, you know, my dad woke up and he's like, okay, I'll sit up and watch after you. I told him what happened. You know, it was kind of one of those things where I was like afraid to tell, but, you know, he believed me so he said he'd stay up and watch over me um didn't have anything happen for a while after that um

but um another time i was sleeping in the same room as my mom so this is now three different locations that i've lived in so this isn't like a place specific thing so i was sleeping on my side and one night i felt like somebody was on top of me like um i was sleeping on my left shoulder and I could just feel pressure, like, on my right side, just, you know, like, somebody was on me. And I opened my eyes, and I saw Joe on the floor, like, like, staring not at me, but above me. And he was doing, though, like, a really, like, this howl that he would do, like, when he was kind of distressed. Yeah. And then I was just, you know, just so terrified feeling for,

and just seeing him stare above me was like this confirmation like, okay, there is somebody here. And finally I was like, after struggling and struggling, I was finally able to start screaming and move. And then I tried telling my mom and she was like, oh, you know, you probably just had a nightmare. So I kind of dismissed it again, you know, despite the creepy feelings that I would get continuously. Well, finally, I was dating somebody and I was. walked into their house one time and their mom said, and this was when, you know, maybe a year or so later when I was like 23 around this time, I was walking in and she said, who's that? And, you know, he and I look at each other confused, like, who's who. And she's like, no, there's somebody

with you. There's somebody there. And, you know, so he pulls me along, like, okay, you know, this is enough of that. And I'm just really confused, like, what is going on? So, she pulls me aside, you know, one morning. And she told me, she's like, you've got somebody following you. You have a man following you. Wow. And I mean, I was just like in awe. I was, you know, because I never talked to her, you know, and any time I'd try to maybe tell my mom about it or I was just, you know, dismissed. So for somebody to just come up and tell me you have somebody around you. Yeah, that's something else. Yeah.

That was something entirely. And I mean, I was like shocked. And so, you know, I started telling her, you know, I've always had these feelings, you know, for as long as I could remember throughout my adolescence. And she's like, well, you need to get rid of that because whoever that is does not want you to be in a relationship. And, as long as you have them with you, they will never want to see you happy with a man. Like, they're jealous over you. Wow. So, yeah, it was just, it was very terrifying, actually, to have, like, this confirmation.

I mean, it was a relief in a way, like, oh, my gosh, somebody has some kind of answers. So the next thing is like, okay, so what do I do about this? So she took me into, like, this, she took me into Catholic Church. And as I'm walking in, I felt like being, like I was being like kind of impeded from like walking. Like I was just feeling very slow. Like I had like this weight on me or pressure. And, you know, I was like, oh man, there's this, this is very weird. So she had me blessed by a priest and it was a very simple like two minute thing.

and she just gave me this look. She's like, that didn't do anything. She's like, you're going to need more than that. And just watch, it's going to get worse. So I'm like, okay, here we go. Great. And, yeah, I mean, it got to the point where sometimes I'd be sitting in my car and just looking in my backseat.

Like, I'd have this feeling that there is somebody in my backseat. Oh, yeah. It was just, you know, I mean, and just looking back that this was an actual chapter of my life, you know. It just sounds insane to say it, but I mean, I was sitting there one time trying to eat dinner, and I felt like somebody's hand was on top of my hand. Like, I couldn't lift the fork to my mouth. Oh, man. That's terrible. So how did this resolve and how long did this continue? Well, basically, she said, okay, we need to do more. You need to talk to your mom. You need to talk to your somebody who, do you have a church that you're close to?

So she talked to my mom and to my aunt, and they were, you know, she convinced them like there's something going on. So we went to a church and spoke to the pastor and he did a prayer. You know, I don't know how long the prayer was. But after that, it must have been an hour, two hours, I don't know. But I walked out of there feeling so light that I just, I don't know. I just had this feeling of joy and this lightness about me as I walked out of there. You know, and I don't have any explanation for who that was. I mean, sometimes I still wonder, like, why me and what was that all about?

You know, she had some theories. She thought maybe, you know, she said, you know, did you have any boyfriends that died or something? And I'm like, no, I had this feeling since I was very young. And she's like, well, maybe, you know, a past life, maybe somebody, maybe an X or something. And I'm like, I don't know about that. But, you know, it's still a mystery. And I, you know, I sometimes look back on this time of my life. And, you know, I'm still just like in this disbelief.

Like, did that really happen? You know. Well, the thing is, is I believe that there can be an attachment. I believe there can be attachments. We've had other stories of it. I definitely think it is a possibility. Sounds like you were, you know, you were right in the middle of that. And that had to be particularly distressing being young. You know, I mean, it'd be tough enough if you were 30, 40, 25, 30, 40 years old. But to deal with that with, you know, just generally being a young teenager, you know, there's a lot. You got a lot going on emotionally at that time of your life. So to have that piled on that, it had to be difficult.

Yeah, yeah, I mean, it was, and I was always a good student, you know, it's not like I really like outwardly let things show. I just kind of kept on with what I needed to do. And, you know, so I don't know, I think sometimes people have this perception and even sometimes in my own, I'm like, oh, you know, you got to be cuckoo or something's got to be wrong or something to have these, like, feelings. But, you know, listening to the podcast, I'm like, there's normal people out there who have these experiences. Absolutely. It's like just like how and why does that happen, you know? And that's the big question. But the thing is, I do one thing, and I never thought about this when we started the show way back when.

But the idea that it does provide some validation for people and says, you know, everyday people experience this. You don't have to have your head in the clouds or whatever, just strange things happen to people. you know, all the time. And what they are, that's the big question and what causes it and all of that. Those are the things that we're exploring. But thank you for being with us in exploration. Stephanie. Thank you for sharing your story and stay spooky. Absolutely, Jim. Thanks. Stay spooky. Next up on the campfire. We have a return caller. And I'm always fascinated when technology kind of intermingles with the paranormal. And I definitely think it's possible because folks, you know, we talk about poltergeist and doors coming out of cabinets and cabinet doors opening in, cups falling out and things. So if the other side can impact that, can't it impact the electronic side as well?

Erin's going to give us a case study in that. Erin, welcome back to the show. Thank you for joining us and tell us what. Yeah. Thanks so much. So, yeah, last time I called in about a message from my dad. And this time it's a message from my mom. My mom died in November of 2023 from interstitial lung disease.

So this, yeah, thanks. Not a great way to go. But this past Mother's Day marked the third Mother's Day that my sister and I had spent without her. And so we kind of come up with a tradition where we spend Mother's Day morning with our families. And then in the evening we go out to dinner, just the two of us, to honor my mom. Yeah, that's great. So that was the plan this year. We had gone to the movies before.

So I had put my phone on Do Not Disturb. We come out of the movies. I check my phone. I see I have a call from HCPS, which is the local public school system. And I had a miss call and a voicemail. So I click on the voicemail and I hear my mom. And so it's hi, sweetie. It's your mom.

And I just think, oh, I hit the wrong voicemail because I have a ton of her messages saved. So I very carefully stop it. I go to the miss call, you know, the voicemail. I hit it again. And nope, it is my mom. And I can show you actually. Okay, sure. I don't know if you can see.

You can see automated messages of some type, but I see, yeah. Yeah, that first one is H-CPS, yeah. Right. And it says a minute 25. All right. Would you like me to play it real quick? Yeah, sure. Please do. Go ahead. Hold on. Oh, waities to mom. I'm sorry we couldn't connect.

I got a phone call, like, after I texted you. And that went on for a while, and then I had to take study out. And then after we got back from my walk, I laid down and I fell asleep. Anyway, sorry. Hope we can connect. I'd like to talk. Talk to you later, sweet. Rudy, love you. Bye. So what's crazy is that message, my sister and I went back through all my old messages to see which one it was.

Right. It was from 2021, which is one of the older messages. So I think if it had been like the most recently saved message and it somehow got transposed, that would have been understandable. But the fact that it's an old one and that she's saying like, I want to connect, you know, Like, it was just really cool. And my sister actually also has a kid in the same school system, and she had gotten the same call, but it was the message, you know, that I should have received about end-of-grade testing,

but instead it's my mom. And even on the message it says it's a minute 25, but it's 28 seconds. And yeah, I just thought that was pretty cool. So this was supposed to be an automated call from the school system. And it ended up being your mom's message from the past. So you did have the message saved, but somehow it kind of cut the line and put your mom's message instead of the school message. Yes, it's crazy. And I still have the original message saved.

So now I have it twice. Yeah, it's crazy. The first thought I had was like, I got to call Jim. I mean, some people say, oh, it was some kind of software glitch. Well, yeah, maybe it was a software glitch, but who made it happen? That's the question. had anything like that happened before. Yeah.

Pretty crazy. What a neat story. Yeah. Especially on Mother's Day, you know. Yeah, exactly. So I'm assuming that's comforting to you and makes you feel that you're still out there wanting to connect. That is awesome.

Yes, absolutely. And I think she knew I was with my sister, so she was saying hi to her too. Oh, cool was that. Hey. Erin, thank you for being on the campfire and stay spooky. Yeah, stay spooky. Thank you. The first ever all-electric

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Conditions apply. Visit scotiabank.com slash h-I-S-A to learn more. Scotia Bank. You're richer than you think. One of my favorite things, return callers, and we have just such a person right here. Shania is joining us again from Illinois. And this time around, she has a story about her mom.

Shania. Thank you so much for joining us. I appreciate it. And tell us what happened. Well, my grandmother and I were always very close, like a second mom. And I never had her live here in this house. She passed at one house, and then we moved to this one. And then later on, I got married and my husband and I moved to an apartment.

My parents were still here. Then they moved. And then we moved into this house. And so since moving in, I feel my grandmother around here a lot. I feel like I'm more sensitive to a lot of things. I try to keep an open mind. And I feel like I see a lot of things through like my mind's eye or even in my peripheral. vision and things. Right, right.

So it's all about smell. So there's a longer hallway that leads from one end of the house to the other upstairs. And in that hallway, I once smelled a perfume canoe. If anybody knows that, historic perfume. I smelled it going from one part of the house. to the other, not the house, but the hallway. And that's what my grandmother used to wear. And it kind of dissipated pretty fast.

But I did smell it, although she passed like in 2009. And this was like 2020. So, and she never was in this house. But I've had dreams about her and different things like that. I'm actually wearing and have some of her stuff on me today too. Oh, how cool. Yeah, and like this embroidery that she made and things. But yeah, so this happened, I want to say six months ago.

So there's proof because my husband also smelled it. But it was a, again, it traveled from one side of the house to over here to our bedroom. And it was a different smell altogether. it felt more like some old perfume house and like of the day that they'd have like houses of this or that or something. And the smell was so strong that it made me go up the stairs to the landing and actually follow it into our bedroom. The smell was so strong that it went around the bed onto like my side of the bed. And I sat down and I'm like, wow, this smell is so strong. My husband came into the room.

He's like, what's that perfume smell? And I'm like, he smelled the tooth. Yeah, wow. That's more intense. That means that one, credibility. Yeah. And also that I'm not losing my mind. And also the fact that he's just can't place that smell.

He's like, it smells like it's like a vintage type of thing. And I'm like, yeah, that's that's, it. At that point in time, I'll just like, my bopcha's here. I call her bopcha for grandmother. So I called my mom while sitting on the bed and I said to her, listen, I have the smell again in the house, but I smell a different kind of perfume. And I feel like my grandmother actually kind of was talking to my mom and me at the same time. Oh, cool. Because I'm trying to figure out what it is because I have the smell. And then my mom was just like, I'm picturing a green box in my head.

And I'm like, okay. First off, that's interesting. Because she's not like that too much. She always hopes. But, like, this was the first time she actually, like, connected. And she's like, it's Emerald. And then she's like, Emerald. And I'm like, and so she's like, it's Emerald.

That's the word that, like, popped into my head. Like, I see the box, but I can't make it out. But then, like, the word Ammerod popped into my head. And so I was like, well, let's test it, you know? So we ordered it from, like, some perfume website. And it came faster to my parents. And then we came home after vacation. So my mom smelled it.

And she's like, this is probably the one, you know, or else, you know, I hope it is. So we come home. And of course, you know, it's older. It's not made anymore. So I have that bit of a different, like, older, vintage smell. I smelled it and it was that. It was that. Wow.

And my mom was like, she used to wear this. That's amazing. Yeah, but very long time ago. Right. It's one of those vintage scents. That's the thing is that you've got this multiple people kind of affirmation and validation. And that is extremely cool because I know there is such a thing as hallucinating smells, right? So somebody, you know, when he's debunkers, types or things, could say, oh, well, Shania, you know, you're just imagining this. You're thinking of your grandma. You're running. But multiple people are smelling it. You know, your husband smelled the same thing. Your mom smelled a different but still associated perfume. That's amazing. That's amazing. And maybe the message, again, you would know better than I would. And I just speculate. I don't know. But I'm just maybe the, maybe the,

the speculation or not speculation, the, the message is just she's around. The messages she's around. That's basically it. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I, um, and like, I haven't actually like been able to like ask to many people because I don't know to me. And I just rejoined Facebook because of my business thing, but also, well, at that time, you had a Facebook group, but now you have the other website. So now I can go on there. Yeah. Virtualcampfiregroup.com, virtual campfiregroup.com, which is a great place to ask because guess what? People actually see it. But go ahead. Yeah. But yeah, those were the two reasons why I rejoined Facebook and one of them was you. So. Oh, thank you. Thank you. But I do see her like, I guess it's the minds eye that you see it, but I also see in peripheral. She's brought two different.

dogs that have passed to the house that I've seen like their tail run from one room to another and I see her standing in like my bathroom and she's going like to the dog and he's all like trying to like keep him quiet but she and she brought also yesterday I was at my parents house again she's never been there. And the dog has never been there. But she brought an older dog that passed back in the 1990s. But it was real cool because I could feel her there too. So she visits a lot. That's very cool. Shania, thank you so much for joining us. I appreciate it and appreciate you sharing this story. And I believe they can come across in all kinds of ways. It could be sights, it could be sounds, it could be smells. Thanks for being on the show. Stay spooky.

Thank you. One of the coolest things about the campfire is that we actually get to meet our listeners, our longtime listeners or new listeners. And Jennifer is definitely in that long time listener category. Been listening, what, since 2013, something like that? I really appreciate it very much. And Jennifer has a story about house sitting. Jennifer, welcome to the show. Thanks for the long time support. I really appreciate it. I love to talk to people who have been around the shows for a long time. Great to finally meet you. Tell us, tell us what happened. Okay, Jim, it's so great. It's such an honor to meet you guys to meet you too. I'm thrilled.

Okay, so it wasn't exactly house sitting. I was staying with my brother. He has a house in Florida, and I was staying there for quite a while during COVID. And so here's how it started. So it's important that I lay out the house first so you understand how it works. So it's kind of your typical floor at a home with the Travertine floors and, you know, the whole thing. And on the first floor, my brother's suite of rooms and his office was all the way to the left. And then to the right of the home, there are some stairs that take you up to the second floor. And there's three bedrooms and a bath up there. And that's where I was living.

I was living up there at my brother's home. So that's basically how it's laid out. So there's four beats to this, four or five beats. I've lost count now, so I'll go through it really quickly. So one evening, it was still wide outside, but it was about eight o'clock. And I had my two dogs, I have two Australian shepherds, and then I had my brother's dog. He's got a, I don't even know what it is. It's a blue dog.

He's a beautiful gray dog, and his name is blue. Anyway, so I had the three dogs. My brother had just left to go out of town. So he was heading down to Miami to catch a plane to go to Costa Rica. He was gone. And he'd been gone for three or four hours at this point. And so I had just rolled up, parked in the driveway, walked into the house. And one of the dogs was out playing in the yard.

So I was just kind of standing in the doorway, the front door of my brother's house, just standing there. And I had my two dogs standing next to me. I'm our brother's dog. I was kind of waiting for my brother's dog to catch up with us. And while I was standing there, I heard this scraping noise upstairs. It was right upstairs just to my right, because remember, the stairway is right to my right. And I heard an actual really loud kind of scraping noise.

I thought, that's really weird. It didn't spook me. I didn't feel scared or anything at that moment. But I looked down and my dogs also heard it. They were also looking upstairs. So it was kind of an odd thing, but I wasn't afraid. So I go upstairs with my dogs, and I just kind of go to my bedroom, walk down the hall, go to my bedroom, take off my jacket. Car keys are in the jacket, leave it there.

And then I'm still pondering, what was that noise? So I walk back downstairs, and I'm standing in the kitchen, and I'm kind of texting my brother, well, I'm texting my brother. And I'm like, where are you? You know, I was going to tell him about the noise. And he says, oh, I'm down, and I've stopped off in Vero Beach heading to Miami to catch my plane. So he was hours away at this point because this is northeast Florida. So I'm like, okay, that was a little spooky. So then I walked back upstairs.

I'm still kind of wondering what's going on. And I stand at the end of the hallway and I look up. And you know those, you know, in the ceiling, there's an attic doorway that you have to push up and push to the side. Right. Right. Well, it was pushed up and moved to the side a little. bit. And I have a photo of it that I want to share on the virtual campfire that I looked up and I see this. I did not see it before when I walked up and took my coat off. I was just kind of focused

when I'm doing that. Now I'm kind of inspecting everything. And I see this and I'm freaked out. I'm thinking, oh my goodness, somebody's in the house. Somebody has gone up to the attic and is hiding up there and thinks we've left town and they're going to come down to Rob us or something, you know? And so this is just, so I took a picture of it with my phone. and I ran downstairs, and I called my parents who live on the beach about 30 minutes away. And I'm telling him about it. Let me just stop right there and tell you that everybody in my family does not believe in the paranormal. There's several atheists and agnostics, and it's very hard when I stuff like the talk about.

I'm not challenged. I was about to say I'm very challenged, but I'm not challenged because I'm a true believer, and I know it happened. But I do get a lot of skepticism. But anyway, I call my parents and I tell them what happened. And so then I decide, you know, I've got to call it police. There may be somebody in the house. So I jump in the car. And this is a gated community.

So I drive to the gatehouse and I show the guard there, the photo on my phone. And he's like, oh, hell no. You know, he gets very worked up. And he said, there's somebody in your house and he calls the police. Well, because it's a gated community, it's in Florida. everybody, three different policemen show up and three cop cars and they come in and they start inspecting the house and they look around in the yard and everything and I show them, they don't find anything and I show them the attic doorway and they see that and they're like, okay, so we get a ladder.

I get a ladder from the garage and we take it up and one of the policemen he walks, he goes up the ladder into the attic, he shines his flashlight around and he says, no one's up there. Everything is covered in dust except for these two tiny drag marks across the floor that are imprinted in the dust.

That's all he sees. Just like two tiny, like somebody, like you would take your finger and drag it along toward the door. That's it. Everything else is covered in dust. So I'm giving myself chills telling you this, Jim. It was so scary. And he comes down and they didn't find anything.

And I felt kind of crazy, and I was telling that the police, you know, do you think I'm a crazy hysterical woman? And they said, no, if it were my wife or daughter at home alone. And this happened, she better call the police, you know. Sure. So, yeah. So anyway, so that happened. So then I take, so I'm completely freaked out. They closed the doorway in the attic hallway.

And they leave. And here I am just sitting here going, well, what do I do? So I run over to my brother's side of the house, which remembers on the first floor, other side of the house. I locked myself into his side of the house with the dogs, and I call my parents. And while I'm on the phone with my parents again, I hear this bang in the hallway. Like, I'm sorry, not in the hallway, out in the living room area. Like somebody had dropped something. And I thought, that's it, I'm out.

So I got in the car, there was an exit, there's a doorway from my brother's bedroom, and I left there and got in the car and I drove to my parents. And I sat there and I told them the whole story and, you know, they didn't believe me. So, because they're skeptics. Anyway, that's the first thing that happened. So then about a week later, I'm home alone again. My brother has gone out of town again. I'm sitting in there. There's like a little conservatory area off of the kitchen.

I'm sitting there with all three dogs. It's about 4 o'clock on a Sunday afternoon. I'm preparing to take off to go to my parents for dinner. very quiet, we're watched in a little TV, and all of a sudden, I hear my brother's voice. Now, my brother is out of the country. He is left there. I hear my brother's voice coming in from, like, say, the garage,

you know, there's a door to the way to the garage, walking into the house. I don't know what he's saying. I can't make out what he's saying, but I hear his voice. And so do the dogs. And the dogs jump up and go running to greet him, and I get up tentatively and walk. in there and there's no one there. Nobody's there. It was so spooky, so spooky. So that was that, and I just packed up and drove to my mom's house. You know, it was just, that was it. I was out.

And so then the third time something happened, I was upstairs in the shower. I got out of the shower. I was standing there getting ready. At this point, I had named the ghost. I had decided I was being haunted by a ghost, and I named him Hamish, because that's the name. Halt into my head. I don't know why. I mean, maybe he was him, you know? But just telling me, I'm Havish. But anyway, that was the name.

So I started calling him Hamish. And I got out of the shower, and I was just going to stand in there drying off and everything. And Hamesh pokes me right in the back. It's a very obvious poke. It wasn't like a nerve twitch or anything. I literally got poked in the back. And at this point, I got really mad. I just started screaming.

I'm like, Hamish, leave me alone. And it stopped. And okay, and so the fourth piece to this, and then I'll wrap it up, was about two weeks before I moved to Washington, D.C. It was about 9 o'clock at night. And at this point, I'm sleeping with the light on every night. You know, I'm completely creeped out. There's somebody up there with me on the second floor. And there had been a floor at a storm where there's all this degree that gets thrown around, you know.

And I was lying in bed. It was about 9 o'clock. I was on my iPad just messing around, and my dog was right next to me. And I hear my brother's voice outside my window on the second story, because I'm up on the second story. And I think to myself, oh, he must be out there cleaning off some debris. And so I text, you know, so I text him. And my brother's name is Jim. I'm like, Jim, do you want me to come out and help you?

And he goes, what do you mean? And I said, well, where are you? And he says, I'm in bed. You know. It was all the way across the house in his room in bed. So, yeah, that's kind of the end of my story. But it was terrifying. And I left two weeks later.

And he sold the house and moved away. So, yeah. I like how you named the ghost Hamish. That was pretty good. That's his name. You know, Jim, I really have no idea where that Nate came from. It just popped into my head. and I just felt like it fit.

So maybe that was his name, you know. Yeah, I was about to say maybe it was his name. Well, you said you had a photo. You're going to share it to the virtual campfire group at virtual campfire group.com. And I didn't want to say this. You know, that's a great place, folks. If you want to, if you have a story

and you want to get somebody's opinion about it, you know, what do you think this is? And overall, people are very nice. We don't have a lot of snarky people in there. Hardly any. I only remember having to kind of kick out two or three people, but kick them out, we will if they are nasty. So if you want to comment on your story, share your story, talk to other people about your stories, your experiences, we want you to

always come on the campfire, Jimherald.com slash campfire. But we also want you to go over the virtual campfire group and talk with like-minded individuals about them. It's just a great place to share stories. And you don't have any of that AI flop that you get with Facebook. You don't have all the spammy ads. You don't all have that stuff. And I was just telling Jennifer, we just recently paid the bill for the year, a couple thousand dollars. So this is not cheap for us. But we wanted to have a place where people could go and know they could share their stories with like-minded individuals without a lot of nonsense. And that's what we've got at virtual campfire group.com. So I know Jennifer, when this is posted, she'll be sharing that photo. You'll be able to see it.

Well, Jennifer, thank you so much for being on the show today and sharing your experience. And listening for all these years, I appreciate it. And stay spooky. Thanks, Jim. Stay spooky. Thanks for tuning in to this edition of the Camp Fire. I appreciate it. Thanks to all of our storytellers.

We couldn't do it without you. So share your story over at Jimherald.com slash Campfire. Also a big thank you to all of our Plus Club members. Really, you make it possible to do what we do. Yes, we have ads, but the ads are nowhere near what they used to be. of supporting independent podcasters. You know, they've all gone to those big celebrity podcasts. But you're still here, and that's the most important thing. That's why we count on your support. Jimherald.com slash plus. Jimherald.com slash plus. You get a ton of great stories, all of the

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Bye-bye.