Jim Harold's Campfire - Living In A Haunted Penthouse - Jim Harold's Campfire 750

Episode Date: February 26, 2026

A haunted penthouse kicks things off, complete with strange visuals, unsettling sounds, and that creeping sense that something unseen has taken an interest. From there, we hear about a childhood encounter with what looked exactly like a parent but wasn't and a vivid dream that lined up perfectly with a family emergency miles away. These are the kinds of stories that do not just give you chills, they make you stop and think. Along the way, listeners share eerie apartment activity, a curious moment in a cemetery, an intense experience abroad, an unexplained disturbance connected to a famous rock band, and a touching sign from a beloved pet. Some of these stories are spooky, some are emotional, and all of them carry that classic Campfire mix of mystery, heart, and big question marks that linger long after the episode ends. NEWSLETTER Get Jim’s weekly free newsletter and a free Campfire ebook at the same time. Go here: ⁠https://jim-harold.kit.com/campfire-ebook⁠ VIRTUAL CAMPFIRE GROUP Join our FREE online community at ⁠⁠https://virtualcampfiregroup.com⁠⁠ EVENTS Hope to see you soon at one of Jim’s live events: ⁠https://jimharold.com/events⁠ YOUTUBE CHANNEL Be sure to subscribe to Jim’s YouTube channel at: ⁠⁠https://youtube.com/jimharold⁠⁠  J JOIN JIM’S SPOOKY STUDIO PLUS CLUB You 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! MERCH Go to ⁠⁠https://jimharold.com/merch⁠⁠ to get your Jim Harold T’s, sweatshirts, mugs, hats and more!  BOOKS Get 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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and save up to 20% to get the stay you expected. When you want savings, not surprises. It matters where you stay. Hilton for the stay. Our caller lived in a haunted penthouse. We'll find out more about it on this edition of Jim Harold's Campfire. Sit back, relax, and warm yourself by Jim Harold's Campfire. Next up on the Campfire is Jacob from Minnesota.

He's been listening since something like 2017. He said he used to get in a little trouble at work about it. But I'm so glad that he stuck with us. And his story is about something I don't think we've ever had. on the show, a haunted penthouse. And as I was telling Jacob before I hit record, I would have been more likely to be in the outhouse, not the penthouse. But I'm so glad to have him on the show. Thank you, Jacob, for your longtime listenership. And tell us about this haunted penthouse. Yes, thanks for having me on, Jim. I love Harold Media. Thank you.

Yes. So basically, I lived on the edge of downtown Minneapolis for 10 years. And for six of those years, nothing ever happened. I was in this apartment. And then due to COVID, the tent house, I'm using air quotes, opened up. So I had the opportunity to move. And I needed, you know, a change of scenery. So I thought I'll give it a shot. It was still as run down as my other place. It just happened to be on the top floor. But I was excited to go up there. So because I was just moving floors, I kind of move stuff up in stages. And one of my friends was helping me move. We were getting the bathroom all set up.

And she came out of their laughing. And she's like, where did you get that? And I'm like, get what? She's like the painting with the eyes that are moving. And I'm like, what are you talking about? And if such a thing existed, I probably would own it. But I'm like, you need to show me what you're talking about. And this particular friend is someone who doesn't joke around.

She actually worked at the Mayo Clinic, very scientific. Sure. Would never prank me or anything like that. So we went into the bathroom and what it was, someone had gone to Europe and had given me a little Mona Lisa in a gold frame. And because I'm classy, I hung it behind the toilet. I mean, where else? Exactly. She said, yeah, when she went in there, the eyes were spinning like pinwheels.

Oh gosh, that sounds like something else Scooby-Doo. It's like done. I know. And then she put away towels. She said they followed her around the room as if it was like maybe, you know, motion activated or something like that. And I, she was so serious about it. I took it out of the frame and pulled it out. It was just, you know, a piece of thin paper.

There was no electronics, nothing to it. And her reaction scared me because, you know, she saw. what she saw and there was no denying it to her. So I'm like, that's the weirdest thing. Like, nothing like that is, I've never seen anything like that. Right. So every time I went in there, I looked at it, but, you know, kind of hoping, but never saw anything. And needless to say, she never came back to visit. And then a few months goes by, I had friends over, and we were getting some food ready in the kitchen. And this apartment, building was built in 1911.

It had a built-in breakfast nook, and there was a window above the breakfast nook. And as my friend and I were standing next to one another, we saw very clearly, very solidly, legs walk by that window. And now, if you were in a basement apartment and you saw legs walk by, it wouldn't be that big of a deal, but we were on the top floor. There was nothing above, nothing below. So before I could even say anything, I saw it, but I was thinking, I just saw somebody walk by the window. My friend was like, did you, he ran to the window.

He's like, did you just see legs go by this window? And I'm like, that's crazy. Yes, I did. He's like, that is the craziest thing I have ever seen in my life. And again, there's no way that someone could even, you know, mind that or hang over the side or anything like that. It was just totally impossible. and he never came back to visit again. So if you don't want to visit here, Jacob.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. So, you know, that kind of stuck with me and I'm like, you know, two weird things have happened, but I am kind of a skeptic still. I know that's frustrating for a lot of people, but it just, I didn't have anything to put with it. It was weird. It was very weird. But the stuff that really scared me happened probably, I would say it was another.

a few months. I was just going to bed. I hadn't started even like winding down. I wasn't really tired yet. And I heard a voice clear, a very clear voice right next to the bed. And I couldn't make out what it said, which was very unnerving. But it was, you know, as if someone came into your room and said something to you when you weren't paying attention. You know, you heard it, but you didn't know what it was. My reaction was to look under the bed, look in the closet, look behind the couch for somebody of a human person that maybe somehow got in and there was no one that really shook me just because it was so clear and and then I still was a little on the fence about the whole thing until noises started happening that it was like as if something was mimicking common everyday sounds

like the sound of the dog jumping off the bed in the middle of the night I would hear that very clearly and he would be asleep. And then the thing that, it sounds so sad, but I would fall asleep with the TV on a timer like every night. And inevitably, the control would fall and hit the floor. I would pick it up in my sleep. I mean, I did this a million times for years and years.

Well, I would hear the remote fall on the floor. I'd reach down to pick it up and it wouldn't be there. And it would be, you know, on the nightstand the whole time. Oh. So it was weird. Like, and that, when that happened one of the times, I didn't feel like I was alone. And so I will admit to the listeners, I started sleeping with a little light on in the other room because I would hear dog toys fall off the bed that didn't fall off the bed, you know. And it, if that happened, I would say for a couple of months, and I mentioned it to a neighbor who I knew was into, she was a self-proclaimed something. I don't want to misidentify what she was, but she was very into the paranormal. She, before I even said anything about the mimicking sounds, she had brought that up. And she said it sounds like something was kind of creating, you know, everyday noises.

And then she said, the voice you heard could have been whatever this was trying to perfect your own voice. And that really freaked me out. Because then I thought, you know, it could have been, you know, when you hear your voice on a recording, you're like, who's that? Yeah, because of the bone conduction and everything. Yeah. Absolutely. So I thought, you know what? It could have been that.

And it was, like I said, it didn't make sense to me. But she gave me what she said was a blessed stone. It looks like a raw moonstone or something. And I honestly, I lived there for probably another year, year and a half. And nothing ever happened after that. Now, do you think it was the stone or maybe somehow your belief that the stone made a difference or both? You know, that's a good question. She had said, she thought maybe it was.

a relative who had passed, and I just said, you know, I really don't think that's, that is because I had been in that other apartment in the same building for so long and nothing ever happened. You think it was connected to that apartment? I do. And, you know, the lead mirrors that were built into the, into the apartment were original to the 1911 building. The doorknobs, the glass doornobs were all original. The sinks were original. So it's like maybe something held on to something. I never really could put it together. A lot of history there. That's a great story. Yeah. The Scooby-Doo spinning eyes of Mona Lisa, the mimicking of the sounds, also the walking of the, just a great story, Jacob.

Well, it's a mystery. And as I often say, the best campfire story sometimes end with a question mark, not a period. Jacob, thank you for joining us and sharing your story tonight on the campfire. Thank you. Stay spooky. Wow, what a story. And that's what you'll find here on Jim Harold's Campfire. I'm Jim so glad to be with you once again, whether you've been listening for years or if you're brand new. We're all about real people, real stories. That's what you've heard and that's what you'll hear. If you stick with us the rest of the 90 or so minutes that we have queued up for you today, and we appreciate it very much. Another thing we appreciate are our Plus Club members. As I have said before, we've had some changes in our ads and the way we do them, which resulted in a reduce of the income for the company. And we need your help to keep things going.

So please consider joining our Plus Club at Jimherald.com slash plus. Jimherald.com slash plus. Now, it's not a deal where it's just for us. It's for you too because you get a lot of great stuff. For example, on March 4th, we are going to be doing and ask me anything with myself and Dar just for Plus Club members. if you listen to Behind the Scenes this week, which is a plus club only show,

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We're taking out the ads from the older episodes, re-releasing them for both Campfire and the Paranormal podcast that's called Camp Fire Remastered and new episodes do not have ads new episodes do not have ads for Plus Club members if you're using Apple Podcasts or Spotify so we think it is a cool deal plus it makes our jobs possible Jimherald.com slash plus Jimherald.com slash plus I hope you join today and I hope that you enjoy the rest of these Campfire stories. Next up she's been listening for several years to the show's almost for eight or nine years.

And she started off with the paranormal podcast. If you haven't checked that out, check out that show, the paranormal podcast, wherever you get the campfire. And Jen is here from Maine to tell us a childhood story. I won't spoil it, but Jen, as I told you, this is one of my favorite kind of stories because it really makes you think. Jen, welcome to the show. Thanks for listening all these years and tell us what happened. Thanks, Jim. This is really awesome.

I'm really happy to be here. So this story takes place back when I was very young in 1980, so ish, the 1980 time frame, where I grew up in Vermont and in this small rural community and house, our house was actually relatively new. It had been built in 1973. It was one of those typical raised ranch kind of things at that time. So I was asleep one summer night and, um, and I slowly awoke. And my, and what looked like my dad was standing over me.

And I was like, dad. Dad. and whatever it was, looking like my dad walked, started to walk around my bed. And so then I was like, Daddy, and I was, and it wasn't responding to my words. And so I sat up in bed and waved my pillow at it. And my pillow went through whatever it was. Oh, man. Uh-huh, uh-huh.

And I screamed, I shrieked. And I would shriek like I did that like that, but your microphones would really hate it. So I screamed really loud. Daddy, my dad came into my bedroom. There were two of my dad. And then the one, and then my piece. pillow hit my dad and the other one disappeared. So they were there at this, you were seeing two of them, you were seeing double.

Oh, my gosh. Very briefly for a very brief. Oh, gosh. Okay, just tell us what happened from there on out. So then, so, so, so then my dad was like saying that, believing that I just had a nightmare. And he was like trying to console me and I was like crying and I was like shaking and stuff. And he's like, it was just a nightmare. It was just a nightmare.

And so I don't know. I think our parents back then didn't believe us so much. Like if my kids had said that to me, I would have handled it very differently. But yeah, I had to, you know, I think he like cuddled with me for a little. little while. But then it was just like, okay, time to go back to sleep. Time to go back to bed. So, I mean, you've had a long time to think about it. And it sounds like you've thought about it a lot over the years. What do you think it was? The only thing I can think of is, you know, like you say it, like a doppelganger. Like it was really just, it was my dad, but it wasn't my dad. And it was

kind of weird and creepy. But it was like looked so much like my dad that it was like dressed like my dad like my my dad always slept in um a t-shirt and boxers you know and it looked like that it looked like but it didn't respond to any of my my verbal speaking at all it was so creepy and i know there will be people out there and i don't believe this but there will be people out there say ah jen you were having a dream but you're utterly convinced you were awake correct the swinging of the pillow is what really nailed it for me. Because then when I swung it and it went through a couple of times and then it hit my dad, that was just, wow. That was nuts. It was so crazy. Now, have you thought about, have you thought about either a trickster type entity or have you thought about maybe some

kind of time slip where you were seeing a projection of him from another time or kind of like a multiverse layered on. Have you thought about any of those? And again, I have no idea where it is. Have you thought about any of those possibilities? Yeah. And I kind of, it could potentially be something time related, but I don't really think so. There was some trauma in our existence back then.

So it was just really odd. It was really odd. And I don't know. I have considered and kind of thought about things based on, you know, other people's stories and listening to you for, you know, all these years and stuff. But I'm really not sure. Yeah, I will tell you something. The doppelganger stories are some of my favorites and they're some of the weirdest because it's like, I don't know what it is. I mean, I have that one.

Even when I do my life talks, I talk about it, the one where the medical worker saw herself in the morning. across the hall in the elevator. And later in the day, she saw herself in reverse. Again, and to me, that's like one of the prototypical doppel gingo stories. And this one is, too, because the pillow, the pillow went through this other, whatever it was, faux dad. Yeah. Yeah. Well, Jen, like I often say, some of the best campfire stories don't end with a period or an exclamation point.

They end with a question mark. and that's what this one does. Thank you so much for being a part of the show tonight. Thank you so much, Jim. I appreciate it. Stay spooky. What's the difference between butter and butter made from real California dairy? It's the real California farm families behind it.

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Yamava Theater.com. Only a Yamava Resort and Casino, celebrating its 40th anniversary. You in? Must be 21 to enter. A return caller and a good one with a very fascinating storywork. So glad to have her back with us. We're talking about Daniela from the United Kingdom. You can tell she knows what she's doing. She's got that fancy mic there. She's all set up. So, Danielle, you have a remarkable story about your mom. Please tell us what happened. I do. Yes. So this actually. started in November of last year. So I'm going to preface it with, it started on the Thursday night in the sense that I went to bed feeling unwell. My husband brought me up like some medicine and like

water and like hot water bottle and then I just went off to sleep. And during my sleep, I had the most strangest dream on the Friday morning. And it was just, it was really strange. There was other odd bits and pieces, but the bit that sticks out in my mind is that in the dream, I was sitting in a park, overlooking the English countryside on a bench, and my mum was sat next to me. And she just turned to me and she just said, it's amazing what modern medicine can do these days. And it was just like, just kind of hit me a bit. And I remember I woke up and it was about five o'clock in the morning and I just sort of thought to myself, oh, maybe that's a sign that maybe I need to take some medicine or something, something like that. Anyway, went back to sleep.

My alarm then went off at about 7 o'clock in the morning, got up, got ready to go to work, went up into my office and started my work and then about half hour later I got a text from my dad asking me to give him a call. So I gave him a call and I was like, is there? everything all right. And he turned around and he said, well, no, your mum's had a stroke. So obviously having that sort of news, you're sort of a bit like, oh my God, what, what do you need me to do? Do you want me to come down there? Everything else, because I don't live in London anymore. So my dad's like, no, no, it's absolutely fine. I'll give you a call when we know some more information. So anyway, I spoke with my twin sister and my older sister and me and my twin sister decided that

we was going to make our way down to London to my mum and dad's house so that we were there should anything happen. My older sister was making her way to the hospital and my niece, who is a paramedic, was also making her way into London to be near as well. Anyway, after a few hours, my niece and went and got my mum and my older sister and brought them back to my dad's house and we was all having like a chat, like you do, been in England, And a cup of tea solves a lot of problems, so we're all sitting around the table, I haven't a cup of tea. And we've kind of figured out that my mum, my dad had called the ambulance, and basically that my mum had got the medication that she needed within three hours of the stroke hitting, which anyone who knows someone who's had a stroke, the early you get it. Right, exactly.

The better the recovery is. and so obviously that was kind of a bit like, okay, that was something we're like, okay, that's hope right there. We later on went to see my mum. When I saw her on the Friday afternoon, she was very, you could tell she'd had a stroke, her face was dropping, her speech, her cognitive, and everything was very, very slow and that. And obviously we left and we let her rest. 24 hours later, we've gone back to see her. She could smile.

She could speak. She still had a slight slur, but you could understand her. Her cognitive was like back at 95%. Oh, wow. And that. Yeah, it was a good recovery for 24 hours. She could lift her arm up, but the only thing she couldn't do was move her right hand.

So the only effect that was left was that of her right hand. Now, a couple of months have gone by. Obviously, my mum is still recovering. She's actually recovering to the point that she can now move all of the fingers and thumbs on her right hand, and she can slightly grip things as well. So she's made a remarkable recovery. But I then spoke to her, and I asked her, what does she remember from that day? And because she said to me that she remembers waking up and knowing that something was wrong,

but not knowing what was wrong, struggling to try and, like, get my dad's attention because she was sleeping downstairs because she'd had like a flu infection and she didn't want to disturb him because he was also recovering from the flu. She managed to call him, obviously my dad's then called an ambulance for her.

And I just mentioned to her that, like, I'd had, like, something strange happened. And she's like, oh, what was that? So I told her about my dream and I told her about the words that she'd said, to me in my dream, which is, it's amazing what modern medicine can do these days. And I also happened to tell her that I had that dream about five, quarter past five in the morning, to which her face dropped, and she said that was about the time she noticed that something was wrong.

Wow. So, yeah. So it was kind of a bit of like a shock because we sort of looked at each other and were like, whoa. Yeah. Yeah. And it's almost like, I mean, it doesn't really, it kind of defies categorization, right? Because she wasn't aware of having a communication with you, but she obviously somehow had

a communication with you in the dream state. And it was almost a communication to you at the time of the stroke, but it was a communication from future mom who had had the benefits of modern medicine communicating back to you what the benefits were of modern medicine. So it wasn't it was like her unconscious

somehow, her future unconscious after the time of the stroke communicating back to you in the dream state. Yeah, because my mom was quite shocked when I told her because she's like, oh my God, that's just like,

she's like, I'd never thought like that that would happen. Not that we're not close or anything, but you don't usually think of it. Well, the thing is, I don't think I've ever heard a story like that. Now, I'm sure that they exist. But it kind of, it goes through several different categories. It doesn't fit to one category. And it gets to, I was just doing a library talk not too long ago. And I really hit that point home. You know, we have all these different kinds of stories. I always like to share ones from different categories, not just your basic ghost story. And I said, well, what does this all mean if you tie together? It just means that the world. the universe is a lot stranger than we can understand, basically. And I think we have a lot of connections that we don't need technology for if you actually open up to it. Right.

You can communicate from miles away. I know you've been on the show before. Do you feel that you're maybe a little more open to these kind of things? I do, because I've had quite a number of experiences in the past. I've had a lot of deja vu experiences where I've dreamt of things. and then it's happened even to the point like I was reading a book in a dream and then I was reading that book in school the next day without knowing that we was going to be reading that book and I think my family as a whole have had a lot of paranormal experiences and have

had a few with people passing away as well at the time of people's death they've had experiences and things like that so it kind of wasn't much of a surprise in some ways but I think my mum sort of wasn't expecting it, just as I wasn't expecting it, when we kind of put everything together because after I had woken up, my initial thought was, oh, it's, I should take some medicine for feeling unwell. When it wasn't that at all, it was actually what was happening with my mum. And I guess I'll ask you this. Is she also someone who is very sensitive and maybe more tuned into these things? I don't know if my mum's necessarily sensitive.

I know my mum has a belief in these things and has had experiences as well. I know she's before she was even with me, dad, before me and my sister was born, my mum had like paranormal experiences in one of the houses that she lived at. There was episodes around where my granddad passed and everything with the dog and things like that. So there's always been like a lot of paranormal around my family, both my mom's side and my dad's as well.

Well, Daniel, all is great to speak with you. You always have such interesting stories. Hope you'll come back. And mom's doing well now, you were telling me, right? She's doing very, very, very well. Excellent. And then, I mean, I think that shows that there's certainly hope out there for folks because strokes, you know, people don't think about them, but they're serious business. And they happen to a lot of people.

So we wish everybody well who's dealing with that. Danielle, as always, thank you. And of course, stay spooky. Thank you. Stay spooky, Jim. Next up on the campfire is Sarah. And she's been listening since 2018. My goodness, that's quite a run.

So we appreciate it. And Sarah is going to talk to us about living in a highly haunted house and what that was like. Sarah, welcome to the show and tell us what happens. welcome to the show and tell us what happened. Thanks for having me. Okay. So this is going back to 2005 in Lincoln Park in Chicago. And it was my first apartment ever.

I was in college still. It was an old house that was converted into a two-flap. And when I moved in, there was definitely a vibe. There was a vibe immediately. It was a really old house. I think it was from the 1800s. And at the beginning, when I first moved in, I just heard footsteps and just like this constant murmuring sound.

But, you know, coming from dorms, I was like, maybe it's my neighbors. I just made excuses for it at first, even though I was on the top floor. So I wasn't going to get any of their sounds in there. But then around probably a couple days after I moved in, I started hearing this sound at 3 a.m. every single night. It was this hollow sound of like a bouncing ball against my wall in my bedroom. I'm on the second floor. There was no ball. Right. There'd be no kids up at 3 a.m.

it was every single night. The wall it was on was always the same. And I tried to debunk it a million times. It was the wall, it was an exterior wall. On the other side was like a utility closet that was connected to my rooftop deck. So that's all that was there. It was like a utility closet. And I went through it. I was like maybe some animals getting in here. What could this be? But it lasted forever. 3 a.m. ball bouncing against my wall would keep me up all night. And then one night, my boyfriend, my then-boyfriend now husband, slept over. And after that, he'll deny this if he listens to this. But after that, he refused to sleep there, but he also refused to let me sleep there. So, like, every night at like 9 p.m., I take the L. over to his apartment, two neighborhoods over and sleep at his house instead of in that apartment.

Oh, wow. Yeah. It was, it was bad. It was so scary. I never wanted to be in that apartment. So I only lasted three months. This happened every night. I was not sleeping. I had like bags under my eyes. And I was traveling by train to his house every night. So three months later, I was like, forget this. This is crazy. I'm not going to, I'm not going to stay in this house anymore. So I decided to move out. I had to pay out still like nine months of my lease and I was like, it's worth it. Yeah. See, that's like, that's when you know it was really bad. Yeah. I'm cheap. It was really bad. So this is when the real craziness happens. I decide to move out. It's January right after Christmas.

and I'm getting my last things into the car. I look up at the house trying to think, like, is there anything else that I need to do? And I see that the kitchen light is on. So I'm like, well, I'm going to be paying nine months of rent that I'm not going to stay in. I'm not paying those utilities. So I go upstairs and I go to turn off the light, but it's off. Like, it's a long day. I'm tired.

I go back down and it's back on. Oh, brother. Yes, I walk to the side of the house and I look up at that kitchen. Like, maybe it's reflecting. No, it's a light in my kitchen. So I go back up, it's off. I come back down. It's back on.

This happens three times. And by the third time, I'm like, you know what? Goodbye ghost. I see that you are acknowledging me now. I'm out. So I move out. I don't go back there again for another year. One of my friends lives in the neighborhood.

So I go back to visit her. I'm like, let's see how that old haunted house is doing. So I go down that street, Dayton Street, still haunts me. And it's demolished. There's no house there. It's flat land. And if you know anything about Lincoln Park, those houses are worth millions, even crappy ones. It was gone.

It was crazy. So do you think it was torn down as a result of the haunted? Is that your haunted piece? That's your speculation? That there was something wrong with that house. Like I'm not even getting into like the negative feelings that we would feel in the house. Like we would all, me and my best friend moved in together. We didn't, we stopped talking to each other the day we moved in.

There was so much weird negativity in that house. I wouldn't be surprised. Someone bought it right around the time that I left. So I had to just like send my rent checks to someone else. And yeah, then it was just gone out of nowhere. That was not on their plans because I talked to them. So let's say that that house were were there still. And somebody said, Sarah, you know, we'll give you a thousand dollars to stay overnight there. But you have to be by yourself and you have to stay right where all that. spookiness happened. Would you do it? Would you do it? Yes, I'm a glutton for punishment. I would go back and see if that ghost is still there. And it honestly felt like a little wink, a little nod when they kept flipping the lights on and off. I'm kind of curious. I'd go back. If you were to take it in the ball bout, then the light came back on. That really would have been something. But still, but still, very cool, very cool. Now, we don't do a lot of this anymore.

because it got to be a little too much. But since you have such a fantastic mic there, I know that you're a podcaster. Give people about 30 seconds on your podcast and where they can find it. Thank you. Yeah, it is called Tiny Marketing. It's everywhere.

And I talk about building marketing strategies and systems when you're a one-person business, mainly working with solo consultants. I need to take a listen. Sarah, thank you for joining us and stay spooky. Thank you. Oh, a little addendum. to Sarah's call. She emailed us right after we finished and said, hey, can you say stay spooky to my

son, Dean, he loves the campfire and want me to call in. So say no more, Sarah. Dean, thanks for listening and stay spooky. Your summer starts now with Memorial Day deals at the Home Depot. It's time to fire up summer cookouts with the next grill, four-burner gas grill, on special buy for only $199. and entertain all season with the Hampton Bay West Grove seven-piece outdoor dining set for only $499. This Memorial Day get low prices guaranteed at the Home Depot. While supplies last, price in valid May 14th or May 27th. U.S. only exclusions apply. See Home Depot.com slash price match for details.

Larry from Oklahoma is on the line, and I was telling him, as we were starting this, hats off to him because among other things, he's an animator and an animation director, and I shared with him, I can't draw a stick man. So anybody that can do that, any kind of artist, hats off to you, all the recognition in the world. But Larry is going to tell us a story about a very terrifying encounter. And I can't wait to hear it. Larry, thank you for joining us and tell us what happened.

Well, thanks for having me. So I've worked in film since 1990. Started out, Wonder Brothers, worked for Disney, a lot of other companies. And on this particular production, it was an independent production working on a famous toy line, which I won't mention. I was working in between Los Angeles and India. And the production was between 2008 and 2009, and I'd been out to India once already. And my second trip there, I was animation director on the project.

My assistant director came out with me, and they had a facility for us to stay in, a nice, a nice business park with a hotel rooms. But I'd been to the beach that day and got back a little bit late. And I thought, you know what, I'm going to stay at the nicest hotel. And I was in Travandrum, India, which is on the coast. And it was called the mascot hotel. And I fell asleep with the television on. The lights were on.

And about 2 o'clock-ish in the morning, India time. I kind of got a cholt in my bed and I thought, you know, oh, I just jumped in my sleep, but it felt like a shove. And I sat up and I turned the television off and I reached over to turn the light off. And when I did, I noticed that the light dimmed. And I've been in India before, as I said, and I've worked in Asia and I've experienced brownouts there. They're not too uncommon. So I thought, oh, we're having a brownout. And I looked behind me at the other lamp behind me on the other side of the bed.

It was a king-sized bed. And I thought, well, that's weird. That one's not dimming. But as I was looking at it, this darkness kind of overshadowed me. And it was like it was sucking the light out of the room. That's the best way that I can describe it. Never experienced anything like this. Now, I'm a Christian, but I'm no holy roller.

I'm not charismatic or anything like. that and never experienced anything like this before. Right. My feet are on the, my feet are on the floor and I'm fully awake. And I'm standing up at this point. And I look up and to my left, I see this black mass manifesting. And the best way that I can describe it is if you've ever been in a swimming pool wearing a diving mask, everything's really clear. Right.

Yeah. Yeah. And you look up and someone is pouring a big five-gallon bucket of black India ink down on top of you. And you're looking at it coming down at you. That was the closest thing to what I saw that I can describe that you could visualize. Wow. So as it comes down, it's blacker than the blackest black. Now, when I was working at Disney on Australia, on a production, I went spielunking.

And I'd gone caving before. That's, you know, wild caving. And in the middle of the trek in the cave, we turned all the lights out to experience what total darkness was like. Absolutely no light. Now, this is the only way I can explain it. This thing was blacker than that. And I don't know how that's possible because how can something be blacker than the absence of light? Right.

But it was. But it also had more form than I can see all of this form. And it was more real than the room was real. Hmm. At course, I've never experienced anything that was more real than reality. So again, this is the only way I can describe it. So I'm looking at this thing, and these two tendrils come down and touch my tongue, and I can't move all of a sudden. This reminds me, my dad was the major of the fire department of Oklahoma City.

And so he was always about safety. And when I was a kid, I was probably, I don't know, four years old. Don't ever stick anything into the electric outlet. So, of course, I got a house key one day and decided to find out what would have. happened and I stuck housekey under the electrical outlet and you know you can't let go immediately. And when those tendrils touched my tongue, it was like that, but not as intense. It was kind of like electrical, kind of. And I couldn't move.

And without me thinking about it, without me pondering, it was not robotic at all. The words, it was really hard to get out, came out of my mouth. The Lord is holy. It was like, oh. And finally, when I got that out, this thing that was more real than the room was real, had all this crazy volume, blacker than the black is black, suddenly flattened. It looked fake. But above me, imagine taking a droplet of ink and putting it on a microscope slide.

And then you put that other piece of glass on it to completely flatten it out. Right. It was like that kind of. And suddenly, it just shifted out of my sight. It didn't go through the wall. It was kind of like if someone, a magician that's pulling a tablecloth off of a table and everything's left there. It was like pulling that tablecloth. It just pulled away that fast.

And I got the sense that it was terrified. And you'd think at that moment, you think I'd be terrified. I wasn't. I was angry because somehow I knew that it didn't have permission to be there. And it certainly didn't have permission to touch me. Now, when I got back, there was a movie that had just been promoted called a haunting in Connecticut. And there was a movie post driver with a kid in a chair and the same. black mass coming out of his mouth. And I'd never seen that before. I'd been in India. And those

promotions weren't in India. And when I was driving by the billboard that I saw the image on, I was shocked because I was like, whoa, that is the closest thing, a photo of what I would say that evoked that same memory immediately in me when I saw that. What do you think it was? What do you think of what? I think it was a demon. Absolutely. It was demonic. Now, what a demon is, there's a lot of debate on that.

Some say they're fallen angels. Some say they're, you know, humans that are so evil. Their presence remains. Some people believe they're the dead spirit of Nephilim giants. But that wasn't the end of it. The next day. So I called some friends immediately. Like that happened and I'm immediately on the phone calling friends in Los Angeles and telling them what's happened.

And I'm like, I did not hallucinate this. I was totally awake. This is, I'm not, they know I'm not crazy. And I gave them all this explanation. And a couple of the people I called were like, yeah, you're not hallucinating. And there's some stories that go along with that at a later time. But the next day I go out to the beach again and my assistant directors there and we're having lunch. and I need to hit the can.

And it's a little outhouse. It's an open area on the beach, and there's a little outhouse. I'm going to go wash my hands. We're eating shrimp. And when I get over there, I suddenly hear this growling noise behind me, and I look over and there's a little palm tree,

maybe a foot and a half, maybe, foot and a half tall. And there are no palm fronds on it. They're all flat laying on the ground. There is nothing there but that. It's a little palm tree. It's about that big around, right? There's nothing there.

And the best way I can describe it is, if you've ever heard a recording of a Tasmanian devil, not the one I've animated, but a real one. But playing backwards, and it sounded like there was more than one. And at that moment, I was scared because I'm in the middle of the day. There's all these other people around. Nobody right there. but I mean I can look over and there's my friend you know maybe 35 feet away from me and I propped the door open and I said in the name of the in the name of Jesus Christ get out of here and it ceased I washed my hands went back to the table and said nothing

so that's that's what happened yeah why do you think it was visiting you well I can tell you one of the guys I called in California he said have you talking about Jesus and I said, well, no. I said, people have asked me about myself and they asked me if I go to church. That kind of thing was, well, yeah, you probably have, but you didn't realize it. And he said, well, you have upset the local gods. And I'm thinking when he's saying, what are you talking about? And I put it all together later. He was talking about demons specifically, but I knew innately that it didn't have permission to be there. I knew innately what it was. Of course, I'd never seen anything like this before since.

And when I got back to California, my son had an entity that came in his room. We've never had this happen before. I didn't know about it until weeks later because he was too terrified to tell me. I don't think it was the same thing, but I think they talked to each other. And he had something raised up out of his floor, a dark figure, and just stand over him, over his bed. And he was so scared, he couldn't call out for me and he just covered his head. He didn't tell me for weeks. But, of course, I put that together.

It was right after I got back. So I suspect that it was in some way, shape, or form connected. And that's, I mean, I've never seen anything, like I said, before or since like that. Wow. That would be a terrifying thing. And I know that you've actually written a book where you've incorporated some of this in that, right? Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

Tell us, give us a brief. Yeah, I released it. It's The Giant Chronicles, tip of the spear. I released it in November. So it's gotten good reviews so far. If you'd like to pick it up on Amazon or Barnes & Noble, it's out there. I've written screenplays in the past, but that's the first novel that I've written. Well, thank you for sharing.

Well, thank you for sharing your story. And folks can certainly check that out. So glad to give you the opportunity to share that. And thank you so much for being a part of the campfire. Remarkable and also remarkable I saw on your Zoom profile. file some of your artwork fantastic. So kudos, kudos to you for that. Thank you for joining us today for listening and stay spooky. Well, thanks for tuning into the show. We're going to get right back to it, but I got to talk to you about two things are very important. First one is absolutely

free. Virtual campfiregroup.com, virtual campfiregroup.com. That is our personalized, spooky studio social network. It's its own platform. It's not Facebook. It's not X. It's not Twitter. It's not blue sky. It is just for us. And people are loving it. We've got thousands of people over there sharing their campfire stories, maybe sharing their opinions on a paranormal podcast interview that we did. Sharing their own stories. Sharing their own images. Sharing so much. And you're missing out if you're not a part of it. And the best part of all, it's free. It doesn't cost you a penny.

It cost me. It costs me to pay for the platform for the community. But we kind of got tired of the social media sites. We're probably not as active as we used to be. You might notice that. And we wanted a place where he could say, hey, if you're interested in our content, what we do, our story, the story of our listeners, go to virtual campfiregroup. com.

You don't have to deal with all the AI nonsense. You don't have to deal with a bunch of spammy ads. You just get the content. People are loving it. There is no catch. The only catch is you got to sign up. Virtualcampfiregroup.com. Virtual campfire group.com.

I hope to see you there. Now, for the other part. Now, this one costs, but it's pretty inexpensive. Somebody told me that it is less than a fast food meal these days for a month of our plus club. And it's so important because you might notice I got rid of those host red ads used to hear before. We're just allowing those automated ads for those big national brands you hear, and we appreciate that opportunity.

But the nice thing now we have it set up new episodes of Camp Fire and the Paranormal podcast. For Plus members, no ads on those new episodes. That's an extra benefit. Plus, we release eight extra pieces of content exclusively for Plus Club members each and every month. And we've been doing that since the Plus Club began. Well, gosh, what's it been? 14, 15 years ago, something like that. So there's a plethora of interviews,

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And we thank you for your consideration. Back to the show and stay spooky. Alan is on the line from Missouri. We've been getting a lot of calls from Missouri. Absolutely love it. And he's a big part of our virtual campfire group over at virtual campfiregroup.com. In fact, we were playing fantasy football a week or two ago.

So that was a lot of fun. So Alan's a bit contributed over there, and I really, really appreciate it. And he has a story about something that happened to him at a graveyard, and he brought along some EVP possibly too. So, Alan, welcome to the show. Thank you for joining us and tell us what happened.

Thank you for letting me be on here. We was going to the cemetery. It's the middle of the day, and it wasn't for any, like, spooky reasons. I was just getting pictures of symbols on headstones. I was doing a little video thing on it and what they mean. And, well, the first thing we didn't realize this, tie this until later, but when we pulled into the cemetery and started to get out,

the truck kept being in like the keys were still in it. But, you know, they weren't. We had to reset it. And we, at the time, we didn't be like, well, that was weird, but we didn't think much of it. And then we're, you know, doing our thing. My wife's kind of in a different part than I was in. And we're both taking pictures of some symbols we found. And she said, hey, babe, look at this.

And I'm framing up my shot. So, be honest, that's kind of a little bit annoyed. Like, well, let me take my picture. her first and I'll what you want. And so I snap it up and I walked down to her and she was like, yeah, why is it you want me to see? I'm like, well, no, you said, hey, babe, look at this. And she's like, no, I distinctly heard you tell me, hey, babe, look at this.

So we both heard the same thing in the other person's voice. Ooh. Yeah. So I'm like, well, hold on. So I, you know, I whip out my phone, open up the recorder and do like a like a little EVP session, you know, and I'm like, hey, who is it, and what do you want me to see? And, uh, do we do the recording there. Right.

Now, do you want, uh, is now a good time? We can go ahead and we can play that clip and then you can tell us what we, we heard, okay? Okay. Sounds great. All right. Let's take a listen to what, uh, what Alan captured. So where do you, what do you want me to look at? I'll give you a few seconds to answer.

Yeah, that right there. Wow. It doesn't sound like words or anything. And it was windy out and it sounded different than the wind sounds. I've never picked that up before. So, you know. It sounded like almost like a metallic. Like bar, bra, bra, bra, bra, right.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, let's take one more listen to it real quick. So where do you, what do you want me to look at? I'll give you a few seconds to answer. The way I interpreted it was almost like a r-w-w-wrapp. Kind of like that sound. Like a growl or a moan or something.

And there was no like flagpoles or no external things to make that noise. And like I said, it didn't sound like words, but it was definitely odd. And like I said, my recorder's never made that noise before. So I, you know, I said, hey, I. What do you think of it was directing you? you to well yeah so then i said hey buddy i you know couldn't couldn't make you out there so let's try

this another way you know they they say that when you get near a spirit or whatever you you have like a cold spot so i said i'll tell you what i'll just walk a grid around this area here and if and you know kind of let me know when i'm close oh that's smart and so you know i start walking to be honest, I mean, that was a weird sound and everything, but I, I was, I kind of phoning it in. I didn't really expect anything to happen. And I'm walking and sure enough, I hit a cold spot. Not only that, the hair stood up and it was a weird feeling, not like, not like electricity, but I don't know, it was kind of a tingling that went through me. So I stopped and I immediately looked down and there was this, uh, a gravestone. It was broken, it was laying on the ground of Willie Brooks. I'm like,

okay Willie I guess this is what you wanted me to see oh wow so I mean what did you I mean was he was Willie old or could you tell from the gravestone did it have the dates that you remember or anything like that yeah when I when I looked at it then he was I thought he was I thought it's 62 1862 to 1868 so I thought he was was six years old but it was all degraded yeah yeah it's that so I took the video and you know I kind of spread it out but then we went back later with the brush like I kind of cleaned it off and see it a little better and even more he was only 14 years or 14 months old oh it turned out so that was when that was that's just tragic it you know but motor mortality rate

was pretty yeah I remember in West Virginia what my parents had gotten a place back there and when they got it We didn't know there were like across the, it was kind of like in a valley and you looked up and there was a road and there was a hill that had a road up it. But I didn't know. There was like some gas wells and stuff up there. And then like a year or two after they got, they cut the trees down, there's a graveyard right across from the. But the thing was is you went up there and it was very sad because it was all like the Spanish flu.

Oh, yeah. In 18 or whatever that was. and you saw like all these babies, like all these babies, the infant mortality rate, like you said, was just so, so great.

And that's part of the reason life expectancy is so much more now because people didn't make it to 40. They didn't make it to 10. Yeah. It's just like, oh, yeah. So sad. Yeah.

It's terrible. But then I got thinking, you know, I have no idea how it works in the spirit. But like, but a 14-month-old contact me. And I think,

well, maybe it's his parents that just wanted his, to be remembered or I mean, you know, you never know. It could have been something more nefarious too, but trying to trick me. I mean, I heard it. I heard something and it didn't sound like something that was just naturally occurring. It was just kind of this weird metallic sound very, very strange. Now, you said you went back to clean up to have you gone back and done any more EVP sessions at that graveyard or you just thought, you know, let it rest?

Yeah, we went back and cleaned it up, but I didn't, it didn't feel charge at all. I didn't feel anything whatsoever, so I didn't, I didn't bother with the EVPs. So just because, I mean, like there, you could definitely feel something was there. Yeah, yeah. Interesting, interesting. Well, Alan, a couple things. First of all, thank you for being a great part of our virtual campfire group, virtual campfire group. It's free. Everybody, go over there. That's replacing an old Facebook group. And it's great. We've got

thousands of people over there. And Alan can attest it's a good place with good folks. And like him. And we really have a good time. And secondly, you have a podcast. Give us maybe about a minute about, if you want to, about what it's about and how they can find it. Give us about a minute. Okay. It's just about anything weird, not necessarily paranormal, but generally so. It's called brilliant podcast all in word and I actually spill brilliant with a Y because it amused me to misspell brilliant and then so it's B-R-I-L-Y-A-N-T. I got a channel on YouTube and I'm on Spotify, Amazon Music, wherever you listen. Excellent.

I'm out there. Yes, I love when people are out there podcasting. It's one of, it's my favorite medium, obviously. Well, Alan, thank you so much. I'll see you in the virtual campfire and you even said something about having me on the show. I'd love to do it. And thank you so much for being a part of the campfire and stay spooky. That is my pleasure. Stay spooky.

Bonjour, compadre. It's the Price Line Negotiator. How do I negotiate so many great travel deals? My greatest gadget. The Price Line app. It's got hotel deals, flight deals, rental car deals, all of those deals in a bundle, deals, game day deals, concert trip deals.

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And this story from Dominic in Pennsylvania involves a very, very famous, iconic rock and roll band. Dominic, welcome to the program. Thank you for joining us and tell us what happened. Thanks, Jim. Appreciate you. Have me on the show. Yes. So this occurred back in 2010. I had moved into an apartment building in Jacksonville, Florida, which is where Leonard Skinner got their starts. And it was an older apartment building. And anytime I move into a place, I always like to look up the history. And I saw that the previous owner of this apartment building was Leonard Skinner, who was, the gym teacher at the high school that myself and Leonard Skinner went to, or most of the band members. Granted, I went years after they did. I'm a little younger.

So a few months after I moved into the apartment building, no issues, no paranormal anything. I remember hearing on the news, it was September of Leonard Skinner passing away, the gym coach. She passed away and I familiar with him and everything. And so that night I went to sleep and about two or three in the morning, I was awakened by regular like banging like a hammer on metal or pipes. And it was loud enough to wake me up and it sounded like it was coming from below me. And so, and I'm familiar with like water and air and pipes. So I immediately rolled that out.

And I thought the downstairs neighbor was doing something. And it was pretty consistent. And then all of a sudden, I get a knock on my front door, and it's two or three in the morning. So I don't know what's happening. So I answered the door, and it's a police officer telling me to keep the noise down. The downstairs neighbor said they called the police on me because I was making noise. So the downstairs neighbor thought the noise was coming from above, and I thought it was coming from below. And so the police officer leaves.

The banging is still happening. And at that moment, it clicked in my head that this building used to belong to Leonard Skinner. And he had just passed away that day. For lack of anything else, I said, Mr. Skinner, I'm very sorry that you passed away, but you're disturbing us in this building. Could you please keep the noise down? Immediately the noise stopped. and the rest of the time that I lived there,

there was no banging or anything in the middle of the night, never had any other issues whatsoever. That's a very cool story. I'm actually pulled up his Wikipedia page here. I was looking at it, January 11th, 1933 to September 20th, 2010. He is known in popular culture as the eponym of the rock band on Leonard Skinner. Skinner was the band member's teacher.

Yeah, it's fantastic, fantastic story. What a cool time. And the fact he answered, and no more sounds from Mr. Skinner. He kind of knew Dominic's trying to sleep, so nothing further. Absolutely. Yep. Love it, love it. Well, Dominic, thank you so much for joining us tonight on the Campfire. I appreciate it. I love these kind of stories. And it's cool when you get a little sort of a celebrity tie in there. And you gave us more than three steps, I'll say that. All right. Well, Dominic, thank you. Thank you for being a part of the campfire. Stay safe and stay spooky. Thank you, Jim. I appreciate it. Stay spooky. Next up on the campfire is Lauren, and she's going to tell us about a very special sign. Lauren, welcome to the show. Thank you for joining us. I know you've been listening for a few years, and you listen every Friday with your fiancé, Justin. So, Justin, stay spooky. And, you know,

Be like Lauren, be like Justin. Listen as a couple. Tell more people. It's all a virtuous cycle. And Lauren, please tell us your story about this very special sign. So thank you so much for having me on the show tonight, Jim. I'm going to be telling a story about my French full dog that I recently lost. Excuse me if I cry.

So a little bit of a backstory on floss. I got her back in Georgia, which is where I'm from, and I rescued her at the age of four, and I was 19. So I had her up until I was 30. So you have to imagine, like, that's a huge chunk of my life. Yeah. And, you know, we all think that our fur babies are invincible and that they'll be with us forever. But, you know, unfortunately, that's not the case. So during Christmas of 2025,

Foss, that was her name, she got really sick. And I just knew that, you know, the time was coming soon. And a few days before Christmas, I had to make the tough decision to put floss down. And it truly was the hardest thing that I've ever had to do, but it was also a very traumatic experience for me. And I had a hard time really coming to terms with it. after she was gone. Christmas was horrible for me. And I told her multiple times before the vet came to our house, you know, floss, I want you to come back and see me. I want you to send me a sign. Let me know that you're okay. And I actually learned from this through a lady that was on your show.

I can't remember the episode that it was. But it was about her for a baby that came back to see her. And she said, don't be afraid to let them know to come back and send you signs. And so that's what I did. And so fast forward a month. It really, I can't believe that it's been a month without her. But fast forward a month. And my fiance and I were grocery shopping. And I come across this aisle and I see this cotton candy. And one is pink and one is rainbow.

And the name on it is floss. And I was like, wow, like what are the odds that, that that is floss, you know, sending me a sign. Yeah, here's a, here's a picture of it, right? Yep. I took a picture of it because I was like, this is crazy. And I, you know, saw the rainbow unicorn magic cotton candy, and I was like, you know, rainbow bridge.

I just said, thank you for the sun, floss. And we continued on with our grocery shopping trip. So fast forward a week after our grocery. her shopping trip was over. And I'm sitting in my living room watching TV. And you know that saying that something hits you like a ton of bricks? Yes. So that's the only way that I could describe what I felt.

And I just felt this feeling hit me like bricks. And I was like, wait a minute. I think that I have photos of floss in a unicorn outfit whenever she was alive. because I loved taking photos of her. She was a very sassy dog. Her favorite color was pink. But I was like, I'm going to have a hard time finding this photo. I doubt I can even find it.

So after scouring through my photo album, I came across two photos of us. One was floss under a rainbow in her unicorn outfit. And then another one was her just in her unicorn outfit. And I tell you, when I saw, those photos and I put two and two together like the unicorn magic rainbow cotton candy and then you know her in her unicorn pink outfit under a rainbow I mean it was undeniable and so I was like I cannot believe that I forgot about that and I was so sad like I cried all day that day because of the sun just how clear it was that floss is okay

and that floss did make it to a better place. And part of me wanting to come on here and tell my story is because I know that there are so many pet owners that are going through the same thing that I'm going through. And if my story could offer any amount of hope for those people, like I want my story to help them. And don't be afraid to tell your fur babies to come back and see you and to send you signs because they will. I think that's a great message. I think that's a great message, Lauren. And I think when people come on the show and they share their stories, whether it's about, you know, situation like this or other stories, it can help other people because they know they're not alone. They know other people are experiencing these things. They know these other people are seeing these signs. So I salute you for coming on the show and wish you the best. And I believe they, I believe they are still with us. Lauren, all the best to you in Justin. Congratulations.

I have my... We're recording some Valentine stories tonight, so I have my pink background behind me. Oh, sweet. I don't know when this will air, but certainly congratulations to you and Justin seem to kind of appropriate. Okay.

And thank you for sharing your story and trying to help people and take care and stay spooky. Thank you, Jim. Stay spooky. A return caller, always great to have people come back and share stories. Matthew visited with us a couple of years back. And he's back to talk to us about an apartment building in San Francisco.

Matthew, welcome to the show. And thanks for coming back and tell us what happened. Yeah, thanks for having me. So I have a story that's a very San Francisco story. It really starts in February of 2020. when I moved back here for a job for a legal nonprofit. I had gone to law school here, and then after law school, I moved away for a few years. And February 2020, I got a job opportunity, and it's for a nonprofit, so I had to find

an apartment. And I ended up in a very small studio in a neighborhood called Lower Knob Hill. It's a neighborhood that has a lot of older buildings that are just post-1906. It's very dense. It's a lot of like seven-story buildings with a few apartments in each floor. And because of the time period, I moved in. So I moved in February 2020. It's very expensive. COVID hits. And literally the month after COVID hits and lockdown started, half the building moved out. And that's going to become relevant because I was used to the building being very quiet. I knew exactly the neighbors on my floor. and I knew that, you know, a lot of the building was empty. And, you know, during that time period, the city itself was very quiet. There wasn't a lot going on.

Sure. We're all kind of in our apartment for extended periods of time. And so fast forward to it would have been October of 2021. It's a year and a half later after COVID. And finally, I have, so I think I have some. above me for the first time. I started hearing the sounds of somebody moving in.

It sounded like there was a lot of furniture moving around. And then I started hearing somebody above me playing music. Huh. And I remember thinking the music was a little bit odd because it was older music. There was a mixture of like jazz and sort of older, like, spanish language's ballads.

Oh, cool. I was going to ask you what kind of music. Yeah. There was about a week or so of me hearing somebody above me, and it was honestly a little bit loud, especially with the moving in and stuff, but I figured it was just somebody new. And the music wasn't so loud that I was, like, upset about it or anything.

And it was always during the day. It was never at night. So one day I'm coming back to my building And I'm outside going towards the building And I see that there's a hazmat crew outside That they're kind of milling around the entrance And taking stuff out And I remember it was funny

Because I didn't think about this at the time But I saw one of my neighbors And my neighbor goes Kind of scold me It's like, why aren't you wearing a mask? Don't you know we just had a COVID case? I was like well I'm vaccinated And I'm outside

I thought it was weird that he said that. And honestly, when I saw the Hasbett crew, because of problems we've had with drugs in San Francisco, I thought that it was actually drug-related and that maybe somebody in the building had had a drug lab or something. So I see this crew. And I remember the timing very specifically because it was after I saw this crew, that all the noise above me stopped. And in my head, I really had this narrative of like, oh, I have these neighbors that moved in.

And then they saw the sasmat crew and like there must have been drug paraphernalia or something. And they just decided to move back out. At the time, there was a lot of vacancies. And there was other building. And so I was just like, maybe they decided to leave. Because that's, that was exactly when I remember the unit above me went quiet again.

So that's that. I don't hear any other noise for a couple more months. And fast forward to December of 2021. And my building is having a holiday party. And it was actually a really awesome party because a lot of us hadn't had the chance to really get to know each other as socialize. And our building resident manager through this holiday party with, like tamales and Mexican pastries and some alcohol.

It was a good time. And I am sitting there talking to the building manager and another neighbor of mine that I've kind of seen around. And I think my building manager had a few because he was talking with my neighbor and I about residents he's had in the past who were kind of problematic or like funny things that happened with neighbors and remember he told a story about one guy that would like get drunk and pass out on the hallway and then he had to get it back to his apartment so we're kind of joking and telling stories about things like that and then all of a sudden he goes um yeah it's too bad what would happen with Wilma and i oh and then my neighbor Pedro goes yeah i used to always help her with

their groceries and help her get in the elevator because we had one of those old elevator doors that you have to pull open. It's like a sliding thing. It's not automatic. And so Pedro was saying like, yeah, I used to always help with their groceries. And I was confused because I was like, I don't know what happened with Wilma. Who was Wilma? And they're like, you know, she was the older woman that had a walker with tennis balls on the bottom and she would always have a little grocery bag from the corner store and she would come in and out and was like oh yeah i remember her like i've seen her in the elevator and what happened because i really didn't know what they're talking about and my property manager goes well i had to i found her body oh they was like oh she died and it's like yeah

and nobody it happened in her apartment and nobody knew about it and it took a while before we found her. And my neighbor Pedro apparently lived on the floor where she had lived above me. And he was like, did you notice anything about when it happened? Because it happened in October. And we noticed a smell on our floor. And he goes, you noticed he lived right above you. And I was like, I didn't know anybody was above me because I didn't know anybody was above me because

never heard her and then I realized the timing of what they were talking about that would have been the exact period when I heard the noise above me before the people in hazbat suits came and that was when they found her body well so in other words you you heard the music after she died yeah wow wow and it would fit with the age the fact that she was older So more likely to play older music than a younger person. Hmm. Interesting. Interesting.

And I do think about that, you know, particularly people live in apartment buildings. And we see it with people who live in houses. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, and it's not, I'm not picking it on your apartment. I think it's really an issue with the whole, this country, I can speak to this country, I can't speak to other countries, is that we don't know our neighbors anymore. I mean, you can literally live next door, two or three houses down from people for years, and you don't know them. There's something that's not good about that. And I don't know how we fix that. I don't know how we fix that.

But it sounds like the people who knew her did, you know, think well of her and we're sorry to see that happen to her. So do you think that was her ghost playing the music? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it's interesting. Even though there was a fair amount of noise of things kind of moving around in the apartment during that period,

it sounded like, I mean, the music was happy music, like celebratory. So I like to think that even that sort of the energy wasn't necessarily negative. Like it wasn't like, oh, I'm so mad that nobody's noticed me yet. It was more just like I'm happy to be able to move around and party again, kind of. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Because when I, she was so quiet when she was up there that I literally had no idea she even lived there until I found out later that she'd been in the unit above me. And yeah. So she was probably physically free and felt better than she had in a long time. So she was having a little party. That's a nice thought.

Matthew, thank you for joining us today on the campfire. I appreciate. Thank you for sharing this story and stay spooky. the new best skin ever ultra slim precision concealer from Sephora Collection. It's full coverage with a matte finish and perfect for any look, whether you're building it up for a full glam moment or targeting correction for a more natural vibe. At only $12, it's great for affordable touchups on the go. Get this new must-have concealer at Sephora or at Sephora.com today. Well, there are people out there who have had multiple paranormal occurrences. And our guest tonight, Thorne is one of those people. And he has some

stories to share. Thorne, welcome to the program. Please tell us some of these paranormal occurrences. So the earliest ones I can remember are because I used to live in Ohio. So the earliest one I can remember is when I was nine sleeping on the couch. And I saw a lot of the cord of my eye, like some kind of entity made of light. Mm-hmm. And I would also, at one point of that same age, had a, like, like a dream prediction in one of those dreams that came true later. Sure.

Which was lately, this is the earliest. This is like, that's like a common thing with me these days, but it was the first time I experienced it. I thought it was weird. The biggest ones were when, so a few years ago, like five years ago, I forget which because I live in Florida now. I forget which hurricane hit, but it was one of the really bad ones where I was living. And so we had to evacuate.

And on the way out, we left Georgia, so through the mountains. And it was late at night. I was the only one awake with my aunt. My aunt was the one driving. And we, out of nowhere, there was just a wolf just standing there on the road, just not moving. And we definitely hit it. there was like evidence on the front of the van because like the cover over the headlight busted. Oh my.

The weird part was we couldn't find any fragments from the glass, but there was also, you know, clearly the animal got hurt. You know, we stopped because we wanted to make sure it wasn't like we didn't need to like put it out of its misery or something. And there was like no trace of it. There was like no, you know, drops of blood like you would expect. Right. There was just nothing like that. So it was like we were pretty convinced it was like a ghost wolf or something. Right.

But that house we lived. We've had stories before of people thinking that they hit a person, actually. And they would go, now it's a little different because in their cases there would be no damage to the car. There would be nobody in any proximity. In fact, and this was relatively recently, the one woman, she actually called the police and said, I don't want you to think, you know, I'm, you know, there's an issue going on with me, but I want to be very honest with you. I was in thus and so place and I thought I hit someone because she didn't want to get, you know, charged with leaving the scene of a crime, even though she had done everything in her power to try to see if it was an actual person. And there was no indication, including no damage to the car, that there was a person.

There was a story in England we had like that as well, someone who thought they hit someone. So I didn't mean to interrupt you, but I just want to say that is kind of a common thing. Now, the only difference here, you said there was some damage to the car. But there was evidence we hit something, but there was no evidence of it like bleeding or anything. That was the concern. Right, right. Well, go ahead with the other stories. But the house we lived at that time, for sure haunted.

At one point, I was in the bathroom in the middle of night. And when I, like, looked up in the mirror, because I was brushing my teeth before bed, and I caught a glimpse in the mirror of what looked to be, like, a decaying body. Oh, my. Staring at me. That's terrible. You know, I was in high school at the time, so that really freaked me out. There was, at one point, there was, like, knocking coming from inside. Like, it sounded like someone was knocking on the wall.

like how you knock on a door, but it was coming from inside the wall. And initially, I was like, well, maybe my brother's in the bathroom messing around, right? Because the bathroom was on the other side of that wall. And I looked, there was no one in there. But at that point in my life, I had, like, read enough, like, horror manga and, like, heard scary stories before. I was like, the best thing to do is not respond to it. Don't knock back. Don't say anything to it.

So I just, you know, did my best to ignore that. And that lasted for a couple days, but then it went away. No one else heard it, though, in the house. Like, because my brother was awake at the time. Otherwise, I wouldn't have thought that he was in there knocking on the walls, messing with me. And after a month, he came to me one night. He goes, do you hear knocking in the walls? Something keeps knocking.

I'm like, I know. But I knew what he was talking about because I figured it was like, does it sound like someone's coming for like knocking from like inside the wall? And he goes, yeah. And I go, don't talk to it. Don't knock back. Don't respond to it. Just pretend it's not not there. I don't know what it is. It's just best not to interact with it. And he listened. He listened. And then he did the same thing. It went away. And then another month later we both of us heard it again. Right. And it was much louder this time. But not. Marlisner. When we addressed it with our parents, they had no idea what we were talking about. They never heard it. So we were like, okay. So this part of the house specifically is very, it's pretty much haunted. To me that seems, to me that seems in some ways more terrifying. The idea that the, the knocks come from inside the walls.

That makes it seem a little bit scary. It freaked me pretty out, pretty out pretty good at the time. And then the other. A major thing that happened there was this was after I graduated college. I had a friend staying the night. And my door had been cracked because the dogs had been coming in and out. And I, it was like, it was late. And I had looked over.

I happened to look over near my door because I forgot my door was open. And when I looked over, it looked like there was like, you know, like the stereotypical white masks with the like the black hollowed out eyes. Yeah. It looked like that was, and it definitely wasn't one of our dogs, because we had a white dog. It definitely wasn't our dog because it was shaped like a human face. Hmm. And I just, my friend didn't see it, but I had like reached over and I was like, I'm just going to. And I like very slowly shut the door.

She's like, what's going on? And I go, don't worry about it. What happened? Don't worry about it. Just don't worry about it. Oh, that's something else. But like all of these are like, they freaked me out. But I never really felt like anything like extremely malicious.

It was just creepy. The only time I've ever felt anything inherently like, like you could tell it was aggressive was just last year. I had gone up for my sister's wedding. like just last year in October when I went for my sister's wedding stayed with my grandpa for a month and then I drove back down with him well on the way he likes you know he likes to stop and visit family members along the way so he can you know rest and you know not have to sleep in the truck or hotel and so we stayed at my aunt and it's very important that I say this mom this aunt um she lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains which is like a subrange of Appalachia

of the Appalachian Mountains And I just, the one night, I just, I couldn't, because I, I have insomnia, so I generally struggle sleeping. And I was getting tired. I was going to sleep. But all of a sudden, I felt like this is something watching me. Like from inside, this was the worst part was, you know, if it was from the window, it would be one thing. But this was coming from, like, the doorway of the bedroom I was in. And it just felt very hot, very angry. Like my life was in danger. Like I was being hunted.

And it did not subside until I put my necklace back on my necklace. It's a pentacle. So it's, you know, it's the star. It's surrounded by the circle. It's a symbol of spiritual protection. I did not feel it fade at all until after I put that back on to protect myself. And it was still there. It's just that heavy, oppressive, angry,

sensation from that is the only thing that faded. It just kind of like subsided a little bit, but I could still tell it was there. And so I didn't sleep that night. I stayed up all day because I was like, I'm not sleeping with this thing in the house watching me. I don't know what it is, but I'm not going to sleep without watching me. Interesting. Thankfully, that was the only night. I felt that. Yeah, that would not be, that would not be something that I would welcome. Do you think, Thorne, that you have, it sounds like you do, you have a sensitivity to this type of phenomena that you're able maybe to tune it in a little more than other people? Yes, most definitely.

So I tend to have what, because I grew up in the church, my mom's side of the family, my dad's side of him. They're all pretty, usually most of them are pretty religious. They call it prophetic dreams. I've learned it runs on the family. My grandmother on my dad's side specifically. She actually, so she unfortunately passed in 20. I had to be 2020 because it was when COVID hit really bad. And she, the week before, she had dreamed her own death.

Oh, my Lord. She described it. She didn't think it was of her death, though. She thought, because she described it as she dreamt she was roller skating through a town. And like she and all these other people were heading to a party, like to a big party. But she and a few others stopped at a crematorium before moving on to where they were supposed to go. And she thought that it was a dream, you know, telling her to slow down in life, you know, that if you keep rushing everywhere, you'll never enjoy the destination and such. Like you never enjoy the journey.

And so she was in a rush to go back because they like to come down here and spend the winter with us because it's warmer. And so she was rushing to get back up to Ohio because she wanted to be able to see her sisters and be there for their sister lunch for Easter. And because she was in a rush, she ended up getting exposed to COVID. because one of her sisters works at a hospital. And her sister didn't know she had it at the time. And the crematorium was significant in her dream because she had always said if she when she died, she wanted to be cremated, she didn't want to be buried. And so that was one of the big things.

But when I've talked to my grandfather and such before, you know, about, you know, sometimes I have these dreams that are really vivid and then they come true the next, like, later. and he told me, oh, yeah, your mom all had that a lot. Yeah, I've heard that. I've heard all of this very much can run in the family. If someone has the gift, then subsequent generations will have the gift. Yeah. And I've recently learned that a lot of people on that side of the family, for sure,

were people who practiced witchcraft and things with seeing ghosts and honoring spirits and such. And so that I've learned also runs in my jeans. Very interesting. Thorne, thank you for joining us. I appreciate it very, very much. No problem. Thanks for having me. Thanks so much for joining us on another edition of Jim Herald Campfire.

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