Jim Harold's Campfire - More Signs From Above - Jim Harold's Campfire 771

Episode Date: July 27, 2026

Ordinary places turn strange without warning. A passing glance, a familiar room, or a quiet street suddenly feels like a doorway into something else. The stories in this episode leave behind the same uneasy question: did these people encounter a ghost, a piece of the past, or something we do not yet have a name for? There is a gentler side to the mystery, too, as loved ones seem to reach back through dreams, songs, and deeply personal signs. Some of these moments are eerie, some are comforting, and a few are unexpectedly funny. Taken together, they suggest that the unexplained is not always about fear. Sometimes it is about connection. VIRTUAL CAMPFIRE GROUPJoin our FREE online community at ⁠https://virtualcampfiregroup.com⁠Hope to see you on Saturday, August 1st! Go to https://clevelandhauntclub.com for more info!YOUTUBE 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

My day kicks off with a refreshing Celsius energy drink. Pre-K drop off. Then straight to the gin. Back home to meal prep before heading to the fire station for my shift. When the three alarm comes in, I'm ready. Celsius. Live, fit, go. Grab a cold, refreshing Celsius energy drink at your local retailer. Or locate now at celsius.c.

Enjoy Celsius responsibly. Designed for occasional energy boost, not as part of your daily diet. Please adhere to recommended serving limits. Signs from Beyond on this week's edition of Jim Harold's Campfire. Sit back, relax, and warm yourself by Jim Harold's Campfire. Well, you remember a few weeks ago we talked to Cynthia. It just seemed like a few moments ago. But a few weeks ago, we talked to Cynthia from North Carolina,

one of our greatest supporters. And she said, just recently, Jim, I had another ghostly experience. And it was a strange one. She's going to tell us about it right now. Cynthia, welcome to the program. Welcome back, I should say. And tell us about this because you told me offline. It's a strange one.

It is. This is a good one. So I had stopped at one of our little country grocery store chop marks and needed a soda. Stopped at the gas station, I get out. Next to this gas station is like a mechanic shop. So there's vehicles sitting around. And I happen to notice this one truck in it. was sitting there. And I thought, wow, it needs a lot of work. So I went in, I got my soda,

I come back, I get into my truck, and I shut the door and I look up. And in that truck that was sitting there was this young girl and she's waving at me like, hey! And I go to wave. And one side of my brain's going, you're not seeing what you think you're seeing. And the other side's and you need to wave. The kids waving at you. And as I went to react, and I blaked, and she was gone. Huh. Yeah. Yeah. We've heard of these kind of stories before, particularly around, you know, side of the road, that kind of thing. Now, what do you think it was? Do you think it was a time slip? Do you think it was a ghost? What do you think it was? So it was one of two. So it either was a time slip. And in, in, whatever she was sitting in may have not been that vehicle, but that's what presented. Or that particular intersection is kind of a dangerous one, and there's been some bad deaths just because of where it is.

And so the young girl could have been hanging out at the intersection and then decided to get into the truck, or the truck was part of the accident. Maybe that was just the last place she was. and she, it was familiar to her, so she was in there. What caught me off, like, really made my brain go, this isn't right, is she was dressed like for winter. So we're not talking just, you know, teenagers in a hoodie, even though we had 101 degrees. Yeah, it was, it was hot.

But she was dressed in a hoodie and she had like the heavier coat on. So when she was waving, you could see the weight of the weight of the clothes. clothing she had on. Like I said, I blinked and she wasn't there. She was gone. And it, you know, the part that makes it both even more creepy and more sad is that she was smiling. Yeah. You know? What if it was like a replaying? She was smiling when whatever

happened happened. Could be. Oh, wow. Yeah. And somebody is just like, you were hard. I always think when I see a lot of times you go by the highway. And sometimes it's like in what looked to be like the most normal places and you see the crosses. And it's just like, oh, it's like somebody died there. I never, until I was older, I never, I was so I was a kid. And I thought it was like an over, a religious person putting it, putting it up as a thing. But no, I, you know, after I learned the significance of it as I grew up, I'm like, oh, that's so sad. And sometimes it's like on a perfect part of road you, like, how can anything happen here? And a truth is anything can happen anywhere. Anything can happen. Yeah. Yeah. Well,

bless her whoever she is or was. And yeah, again, like your story with your house, the haunted farm home of this, we live in a very mysterious universe, a very mysterious universe. Thank you for joining us and exploring. Cynthia's great. She's in our virtual campfire group. She's in our plus club. She supports everything we do. Cynthia, thank you again and stay spooky. Thank you, Jim. Welcome to the campfire. I am Jim Harold. So glad to be with you once again. This is. is the show where we have real people, tell real stories, have real paranormal experiences. And welcome to the program, whether you're brand new, where you've been listening or watching for years. And I've got my Cleveland jersey on because I am in a Cleveland mood. We have the Cleveland Hont Club sponsoring the Haunted Garage Sale and Hearst Cruise Inn coming up this Saturday, August 1st, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. It's a massively popular event last year. They backed up traffic three miles on the interstate. It's worth your while.

I think they have something like over 140 vendors there. It's going to be amazing. A lot more details later in the show. But look it up at Clevelandhauntclub.com. Clevelandhauntclub.com. And at 1.30 p.m. We'll be doing a live campfire recording. So come tell your story.

I'd be glad to meet you and shake your hand. It's going to be a good time. Hope to see you there this Saturday, August 1st, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Stay tuned for more details a little later on in the episode. But first, let's get to these great campfire stories. Well, Becky has been with us as a listener since 2020, and I got to tell you she has one of my favorite kind of stories ahead scratcher. I love these kind of twilight-zoney kind of stories,

and that's what we've got with Becky here. Becky, welcome to the show. I can't wait to hear this one. It sounds really good. Tell us what happened. Okay. Well, I was in St. Augustine, Florida, with my then husband. And we just decided to take a little bike ride around the area that wasn't right and near where the fort is and, like, kind of away from things.

So we were riding down this one little neighborhood street right outside of where everybody hangs out in St. Augustine. And all of the sudden, we hear this piano music. And at first I thought it was just me hearing it. So I asked my husband, I said, are you hearing that? And he goes, yeah, I'm hearing it as well. And I was like, that's, okay, let's find out where it is. And so we were riding along and all of a sudden we see this shell of a house. It was like what I want to say, a cinder block house just and all it was was the outside walls.

It had no glass windows, but there were window openings. The door opening was there. but all it was was just the outside walls of this house. And as we're passing by, we both kind of peeked into the door area. And there are these two women dressed in like period clothing of like the 1800s. Right. And one of them is playing an upright piano. And the other one is leaning on the piano.

And she turns to us and she looks directly at us. and smiles and then turns back around to her friend to listen to her playing the piano. So we kind of go a little further and I look at my husband and I said, did you just see and hear what I just did? Like what did you see? And he described exactly that. He's like, that's so weird, you know? And we didn't want to turn around and go back because we were a little freaked out.

I guess. So the next day we were leaving. And we were both like, you know, let's go down that street again. Let's drive down that street and see if we can see what we can see. So we drive down that street and we're looking around. And that shell of a house is nowhere. It is a blank locked, an empty lock. Now, what's weird, too, is like a cinder block.

house wouldn't be around the 1800s, I don't think. Like, I don't think they were building them then, especially in St. Augustine. They build everything out of the look, the coquina shells that stick together. But, yeah, it was so strange because it was not there. And we both saw it. If it was just me, I would be like, okay. But we both saw it. So it was just weird.

I don't know if you remember this, but it reminds me of a story we had where a woman basically, long story short, she had broken down. This is back in the 80s. She had broken down. She ended up walking to this gas station. The owner was there kind of appeared out of nowhere, helped her, gave her a toe and everything. And this was before cell phones and stuff. So she was in a bad way and it was cold, you know, nighttime by herself. So it really was like a lifeline. And this guy was so nice and drove her home. It's a longer. story, but that was the basics of it. So anyway, a day or two later, her and her mom and her sister were going to go to town to shop, and usually had one way they went, but she said, let's go this other way, because I want to show you that gas station where that guy was so nice. They drive by. The gas station is there, but it's bordered up, and it looks like it's been closed for 20 years. Oh, I hadn't heard that story, but it sounds, yes, very, very similar. And I've heard other stories, the, the, the podcaster Jimmy Church, radio personnel. Jimmy Church has a similar story that happened to him, that there was this house and then all of a sudden a day or two later or something I wasn't there.

So I think I'm remembering right if I'm not apologies to Jimmy. So I guess my point being that it is really pretty cool. It's pretty cool that we have these stories of people and that have these kind of situations. And it tells me, as I told you earlier, before we hit record, The universe is way stranger than we understand. And once in a while, it pulls away the curtain and gives us a glimpse that something weird's going on. I think you got one of those glimpses. That's, yes, absolutely. Absolutely.

Yeah. Becky, thank you for giving us a peek behind the curtain of the weirdness of the universe. Stay spooky. Stay spooky, Jim. Thank you. Eric from Colorado joins us. Eric says he's been listening on and off for about 10 years. We really appreciate that very much.

We really appreciate our longtime listeners. And Eric has a story. When I read the description, the best way I could describe it is disturbing. And he's going to tell us what happened. Eric, welcome to the show and tell us what happened. And thank you for joining us in your longtime listenership. Go ahead. Thank you.

It's a pleasure to be here. So I want to preface this by saying I've never had an experience with a spirit or ghost before. This was my first and so-core only experience. It was around Thanksgiving 2025, so seven, eight months ago. I was in a place called Bisbee, Arizona with my son. and Bisbee is this quirky, touristy old copper mining town that's about 10 miles north of the Mexico border. It's got a lot of the, many of the old original buildings from the turn of the century are still there, so Victorian-style buildings, vintage hotels, lots of antique stores, art galleries, nice restaurants. So we were, you know, walking down Broadway one evening at dusk.

And we walked by this three-story building with these large storefront windows. And I later figured out that this was called the Bisbee Restoration Museum, where they restore antiques and textiles and different artwork, things like that nature. But in the storefront was some artwork hanging, showing off their restoration abilities, and there was a desk. In front of this desk was a boy.

Boy was standing there. His back was to me and my son. So I saw the back of his head and his arms were outstretched. He was holding a painting, a small painting and he turned around almost immediately. And I saw that his mouth was taped shut. It looked like duct tape, but I'm not sure. It was some kind of tape. And he was crying or he had been crying.

His eyes were, you know, red and full of tears. And he was trying to say something. I don't know what. And I couldn't see what the painting was. It was not facing me right way, even when he turned around. But, you know, I turned to my son, like, kind of in awe or, I don't know, horror. Like, do you, should we help that kid? Who's that kid?

and my son said he kind of looked at me like he didn't know what I was talking about so I it just pointed at the boy like you know kind of in fear or I'm not really even sure what I said oh my God look at that boy

but whatever whatever was I said he he didn't acknowledge that he had seen anything and like finally I said do you see that boy there that boy standing there he's just standing there with his mouth tape and my son thought I was nuts

he didn't see any. So I wanted to get out of there pretty quickly. We left, you know, and I couldn't stop thinking about it, and he asked me all about it. I repeated what I saw probably a half dozen times over the next, you know, half hour. And we went back. It was darker at that point, but there were lights on. And there was, he wasn't there. The desk was still there.

The paintings were there that were hanging. but he wasn't there. And, and Bisby, I mean, I don't know if you know Bisby, but it's apparently, I didn't really know this at the time, but it's known for ghosts and hauntings. It's been on several of these TV shows. I don't want to name them on it. Right. I mean, it's fine to name them, but you don't have to.

It doesn't matter. In hindsight, I mean, I looked this up afterwards. I didn't know this at the time, but it's been on, you know, haunted towns and ghost adventures and probably some others. And I reached out to the business that occupies this building now, the Bisbee Restoration Museum, sent them a lengthy email about what happened and said, you know, do you have any information about what I saw? Do you, does this make any sense to you?

And they wrote back after a few days. And they said, they said, first of all, that they've seen. They've had people report sightings there, but never on the brown floor. This is a three-story building. It's always been the top floor and it's always been adults, never a child. So they didn't know what to make of it, but they did say there was a child living in the store. I think that his parents, it wasn't clear to me of his parents own the store, they managed it. It had been like a department store many years before.

And they lived somewhere in the building, maybe the basement. I don't know. They had an apartment there. And there was a boy living there. They didn't know how old he was. The boy I saw was probably about my son's age at the time, seven, maybe eight, maybe six. But that's all they could tell me. And, you know, we have plans to go back there again this Thanksgiving to see.

what comes of it. Maybe we'll do a ghost tour this time, but that's my story. Now, the thing is, is that, I mean, my first reaction would be even though it's a haunted town, and we've actually had, I can't remember her name. I don't know if it's Renee, something or other, who has or had, I don't know if she's still there, a business in Busby, Arizona. So we've talked about on the shows in the past. My first concern, if I see that, is that, is this a real child in distress. But the fact that you saw it and your son didn't see it made it pretty clear, pretty fast. This was not a living human, correct? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, something was off. Oh, I even remember what he was wearing. He had a red checkered shirt. But yeah, something was off.

I mean, the moment I knew, the moment I saw my son was not reacting, he didn't have to answer me. I saw he didn't have any kind of reaction looking in the window that I did. I knew there's just something off here. This wasn't really either I was hallucinating or I was seeing something that, you know, that he wasn't seeing for whatever reason. And you don't see current kids running around with red checkered shirts anymore. So did the, did the clothing look dated, did it look like it was from the past? As best you can remember. And his haircut, too. His haircut was not a modern And, you know, it looked like I would, if I had a guess, I would say like Cirque World War II, 1940-ish kind of look. Yeah.

But that's just a guess. Yeah. It's something else. I mean, and it's interesting that they had not known that, but you trace back that history. And that is interesting. You know, these little towns, they were all so vibrant and they had these little department stores and things. And, you know, now a lot of these towns have gone out of necessity. They've gone to things like tourism and so forth.

But, you know, I remember I used to go to my family was born in West Virginia. My dad grew up in a coal town. The next town over, when I was real little in the 70s, you kind of saw the end of that. They had a little department store that went out of business in a few years. And they had, you know, a few different little stores. and I kind of saw like that very, very tail end of that when I was little. And then now it's a very vibrant tourist area, same kind of thing. But you forget how vibrant these towns were and the ghosts that they left behind.

Interesting story, Eric. Interesting story. Thank you so much for joining us. I appreciate it and for your loyal listenership. Thank you again and stay spooky. And please report back. Please report back if you get any more stories from business. be or anywhere else. Stay spooky.

Next up on the campfire, we have a return caller. Jody is with us once again, and I think these kind of stories are so important. She has a story about her dad. Jody, welcome back to the show. Please tell us what happened. Okay. Thank you. I'm happy to be here. My father died of a brain tumor, primary brain tumor, and he had been in the hospital a few days. We were no longer able to care for him at home.

home and I was visiting my mother. I lived in a different town. None of my other three sisters were there. They all lived out of state at that time. And I dreamed that I went to the hospital to visit him and I got to his room but his bed was empty and it was made and the room had been cleaned. So in my dream I thought, uh oh and I turned around to go to the nurses station to ask where he was, but I saw him in the doorway in my dream. Looking at the, I thought, oh, oh, and I turned around to go to the nurse's station to ask where he was, but I saw him in the doorway in my dream, looking the way he did when he was in his 40s. I've seen pictures,

and I think that was probably a very happy decade of his life. And he was smiling and waving and said, I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm so happy. I just came to say goodbye. And right then, as I sort of took all that in, the telephone rang in the room where I was sleeping, and I picked it up, and it was the nurse's station at the hospital, telling me that he had just passed right before they called.

Wow. So my job was to call my sister Kirsten to tell her that he had died. We had set up a phone tree when he went into the hospital. This was 5.30 in the morning Eastern time, and my sister and I were in the same time zone, different states. So I called her and told her what had happened, and she listened very patiently, and she said, Jody, you woke me up out of what was virtually the same dream. Wow. The exact same dream.

So we were both comforted by it and amazed by it. It was one of the most remarkable thing that's ever happened to me, and it was also quite comforting. I think that's amazing. And I think it would be an amazing story if it were just half of the story. But the fact that it was a fact that it that you both had the same dream, that's amazing to me. And we were talking a little bit off air. I really do believe there's some connection our brain makes in the dream state. And I'm not saying I don't know enough to know if it's every night, but I know sometimes we make a connection to the supernatural. And the other thing that rings so true in this story is, is the description of your father. So many times we hear when people see a vision of a love.

loved one who's passed. And let's say they're 80, 90 years old and poor health or maybe someone younger, but extremely stricken with some terrible illness and they're very ill when they die. Many times when they're seen, that's not the way they're seen. They're seen healthy in the prime of life, probably the healthiest they ever were during their living years. And that rings so, so true. That story rings so, so true. And to me, it's just another affirmation. All of this goes on. We all go on where or how or what. I don't know.

But I fully believe that we go on. And that dream is a perfect illustration of why I believe that too many people have told me too many stories of too many things that are remarkable. Like, this is remarkable. And I just believe it's the way it is. Yeah. I think so too. It was a blessing. Yeah.

And again, it's one of those short but very good. sweet stories. And again, I'm sorry for the loss of your father, but what an affirmation. What an affirmation. Jody, I think these kind of stories help a lot of people. Thank you for sharing it tonight on the campfire. You're very

welcome, and thank you for having me. Next up on the show is Tammy. She's a returning caller, and last time she talked about her mom, this time she's going to tell us about her dad. And we're so glad to have her with us, Tammy. Welcome back to the show. Thanks for taking time and tell us

What happened? Hi, thanks. It's nice to be back. Yeah, so my stories are often. They come from loved ones. I have a few. Last time I talked about my mom, but this time I leave on my dad. So I lost my mom first, and it was funny.

I had a lot of signs, and I talked about that last time. And I used to ask my dad, you know, what sign are you going to give me? Because he was very sick and he knew he was dying. But he was good with it. He had accepted his fate, and it was a lung condition. So he'd say, oh, I don't know. I don't know what I mean. So we never did complete that conversation.

You'd always say, I don't know what I'll do. And I'd say, well, make sure you give me a good sock. So and we would chuckle, right? Because my mom would come in in my car or whatever else. So my dad was getting more ill. He ended up in the hospital permanently. He had to give up his apartment. And I ended up getting sick, like with a cold or something.

It was January. My son had a hockey thing, so I told my dad, I said, I'm not going to come for a couple days. I'm not feeling well. So I said to him, I said, and then got hockey, and I said, and I'll be in on the Tuesday. So he was okay with it. So it was on the Sunday night. It was still not the best, but I was still going to take, I was getting better, but I was still going to take that extra day. Right.

I, that night, and I want to specify this because I hear a lot of your callers say this, I had a dream that it was so real. It was just, it was different than a dream. And my dad was a truck driver all his life, and he had always said his biggest regret was that he didn't spend time with us, enough time with us kids. And I'd always reassured him and said, you know, you taught all of us. had to be good, hardworking, you know, humans. Right.

So he, and he, I think he was okay with my answer. So I had that dream one night, and he was playing with us, and he was in, he was in his 30s, and he looked good. And he, I was little, and my sister and my brother were little. We had just, it was just weird. So I woke up that morning, and I looked at my husband, and I said, my dad is crossing over. And I was in a panic and I got to go.

And then I was on my way to the hospital and I called my sister and my sister, she's a big skeptic. I said, I don't know what you're doing today. Keep your phone ready or come now. I said, I had this dream. I said, dad is passing over. So I had to run and do a few things. I got to the hospital and within 20 minutes of me going there, my dad passed. Huh.

I just knew. So, but as my dad passed, because we never did come up with a sign. We never did come up with that sign. So as he's passing, I sang him a song. I sang him a song that he used to sing all the time when I was little. I don't want to sing, but you know that old song, Oh, my darling, Clementine? Oh, yeah. Oh, my darling, oh, my darling, Clementine.

I'll let you sing it. My dad, I have this vivid memory of my dad. always humming that as he worked on his transport. It's not a song you hear anywhere. So as my dad was passing, I was singing that to him. And I said, Dad, make that song play when I know you're around. Right. So that's a hard challenge, I think, for the other side. Yeah, it's not like some top 40 hit. Right. I don't know that I've ever heard that in the radio or anything. No, I know. So that's bad. Well, it probably will never happen. But anyway, That was what came to mind and that was what happened.

So a couple months later, unfortunately, then my brother passed. And then I don't think I fully had grieved. Like I just, everything was just such a process. And so one day in November, I woke up one morning and I said to my husband, I said, I'm sad today. I miss my dad. I think things were just catching up to me. So I had a very sad day and I wore his t-shirt and whatever else.

The day went on it. It just didn't get better. I was lonely for him. So my husband and I were watching TV, and we were watching this crazy movie. I don't even know what it's called. But lo and behold, on the day that I think I was the most sad, these young teenagers on this show started to sing. Oh, my daughter.

They started to sing that song. And my husband, like, my husband, like, we both, I said, did they just sing that song? And he's like, oh, my God. damn me yes they did like we were both kind of in shock because it came on a day when I was so sad about my father so um I didn't get a lot of signs from my dad like I did my mom but I to me that sign was came through strong um it's a very rare thing and it was just it and it was weird because of the way I felt that day and how much I missed him that day and it was like eight months past his passing date

So that was, I thought. Yeah, I mean, I'm also struck by the fact that it was teenagers. Most teenagers would not even know of the existence of that song or any show that's geared to. I don't know what show it was you were watching. It was a crazy show. But regardless, the point is that, you know, I don't think that I don't know if I've ever heard that like in popular entertainment, certainly not in the last 30 years. So, wow. Wow, wow, wow, wow. That's pretty cool. And I think that was a sign. I think that was a sign.

Yeah. I think you said he didn't send a lot of signs, but that was a really meaningful one. That's the one you asked for. I felt like it was a very strong sign because it's just not something you hear ever. That's right. That's right. So, yeah, that's my story about when my dad came to visit me. Well, they're still out there, Tammy. They're still out there. And they sing or they show an object or whatever is, but that got their way of getting through. And thank you for getting through and sharing this next story on the Campfire. I appreciate it very much. Stay spooky. Okay, thanks.

Stay spooky. Next up on the Campfire is Nicole from Wisconsin. She's been with us since, oh, about COVID times. Like so many folks out there found many podcasts, including ours during that time. And she's going to tell us about a renovation project that had a supernatural twist. Nicole, welcome to the show. Thank you for joining us. I know your Plus Club member. Thank you for that. Plus Club members, Nicole and all of you out there, you make it possible for us to do this without you. There would be no campfire. So I thank you for that. Nicole, please tell us what happened. Yes, I'm excited to share this story. So it happened just like a month ago. So my late brother-in-law, he passed away. It's been quite a few years now. It was a very sudden, unexpected death with a car accident.

And his, he had bought a house. He lived there for, you know, a few years before he had passed away. And my sister-in-law and her husband had moved in for a few years. And then, you know, then they had moved out. So the house had sat empty for about maybe three to four years. So my husband and I bought the house this past April. So it'll be, yeah, it'll be almost a year now, okay? And we had started renovations on it last summer.

And, you know, moving really, really slow on renovations, didn't really do anything over the winter. We're not in a rush to finish this house at all. It needs a lot of work. It's a little bit of an older home, so, you know, we were taking our time doing things very carefully, doing them the right way. Sure, yeah. You know, and my brother-in-law, he was, he was a, he loved hunting. He loved, you know, being outside, you know, very outdoorsy type of person. and so in the house, I'll kind of explain it.

It's like an open floor plan. It's out in the country. It's the south-facing wall. It's a big gabled, like a big, like a gabled roof kind of thing. I hope I'm using the right terminology. I'm not a construction person. So it had a big deck, and then there was big, sliding glass doors so that whole facing wall was like just windows with you know the doors and the

the gable part of the roof um and on so there was this little section of the wall between the big sliding glass doors where he had um a head mount of one of the largest deer that he's ever harvested harvested is that a word harvest um if not the largest buck that he's hard harvest. And the head mount has been off there ever since he had this done. Okay, it's never moved off the wall. So my husband and I, you know, we're cleaning out the whole house and, you know, getting ready to, you know, rip the flooring out, replace the windows, you know, replace those sliding glass doors, et cetera, et cetera. And my husband was in the back of the house. He was in the master bedroom when this happened. And I was standing.

standing in this, you know, looking up at this head mount, you know, in this open area where the living room, dining room, kitchen are, et cetera, et cetera. And it was just him and I in the house. And I yelled back to him in the, you know, the back bedroom. I said, hey, Dan, you know, what are we going to do with this head mount? And at that time, my husband and I were talking about maybe possibly renting the house out. You know, we own our house in another town and, you know, we weren't quite sure what we're doing with this property. So at that time, we thought about renting it.

This might be pertinent to the story. I don't know yet. But, you know, so I'm standing there looking at this headmount. I yell back to my husband. What are we going to do with this? It doesn't feel right to take it off the wall because it's, you know, it's been there forever. But I didn't want to leave it up if we were going to rent the house out. I just didn't want it to be there with renters, okay?

Right, right. So I, he yells that to me. He says, he says, he's like, well, I can, he's like, maybe I'll take it. You know, we can hang in our house, which he didn't really want us hanging in our house. You know, I'm like, well, you know, maybe you can put it in your garage. And he said, well, maybe I'll ask my dad if he wants it because, you know, his parents are still alive. and we're kind of talking back and forth about what are we going to do with this and I'm just standing there staring at this and all of a sudden I was hit

and I'm going to say hit because I don't know what other word to use to describe this feeling but it happened so suddenly like it was like this wave of like crushing just the the most sad feeling that I've ever had in my entire life. I, like, even just talking about I get the chills, and I cannot, I wish I had the right words to describe this so you could understand what it felt like, but it was just like this such a heavy weight of despair, and like it just felt like it was crushing me into the floor.

Like, it literally felt like my body was just being pushed down, like I wanted to lay on the floor in the fetal position. fetal position. And I just, like, I instantly was like choked up, like, wanted to cry the hardest I've ever cried in my entire life. And as soon as it hit me, it was gone. It just, like, moved in and out again. It was so strange.

And I stood there for a moment. You know, I didn't fall to the ground. I didn't, you know, lay on the ground. floor in the fetal position like I felt like I needed to. But, you know, I stood there. I just, I was like, just so dumbfounded. I don't, I couldn't like process what had happened to me. And I stood there and I was just like, holy cow, what on earth was that? And I yelled back to my husband. I was like, Dan, I was like, something just happened. I need to tell you. about this.

And, you know, I told him what happened. And he was like, oh, I don't, he's like, I don't know what that would have been, you know. And at the time, I didn't think that it was his brother. I feel like it was because I, you know, after, after this all happened, I was talking to, you know, my mother-in-law, his mom. And, you know, and she was telling me that, you know, some things that she feels like Jason is still there. That's my brother-in-law, Jason. And we kind of chalk it up to maybe it was him. And we're not quite sure if it was sadness about us talking about taking that mount down off the wall.

It's still there right now. We're not going to rent a house out. We don't know if it was because they didn't want the house to be rented. I don't know. we're going to keep the house. It's going to stand, you know, we're going to live there. I have to tell you, it was the strangest thing. I have never experienced that before. It was very intense from when I take it, extremely intense. Oh, intense. Just absolutely intense.

Just, yeah. I'd never know anything like that. Some people would have different feelings about it, even though it was made. be a little disconcerting at the time. Did you feel positively about it? I mean, are you glad to know that he's still hanging around? You know, that is a, I've asked myself that so many times, and I'm not quite sure because his death was very sudden, very tragic. And, you know, I don't, I would have hoped that he wouldn't be hanging around, that, like, you know, like, you know, like, What is there something for him in the next life? I don't know.

I don't know. I wouldn't want him to be hanging around and be sad. You know? Right. Yeah. No, I could get that. I could totally get that. I understand what you're saying there.

Great point. Great point. Well, I got to tell you, you know, I believe that our loved ones go on. And I believe, you know, sometimes maybe they come back to visit, whether it's just to say, hey, or maybe it's. to get a point across. But I do believe it happens. And we've actually...

He was trying to get that point across. Yeah, for sure. For sure. Yeah. Hey, don't change this. I do believe that happens. And it's really interesting today in our series of calls with folks. And we don't say, you know, this day call on UFOs that they call on Bigfoot.

This day call on ghosts. A lot of similar themes have been coming up. It's just really interesting. Nicole, thank you for joining us and stay spooky. Thank you. Stay spooky. There's a huge event in Northeastern Ohio about this time every year, and I've always wanted to be a part of it. And finally, I'm going to be a part of the Haunted Garage sailing cruise in.

And we have it on the line today with the man who makes it all happen. He's the chief cook and bottle washer. Jeff Hartz, he is the president of the Cleveland Haunt Club. And, Jeff, this event, the haunted garage sale has just grown by leaps and bounds so popular that a baseball stadium couldn't hold it. Tell us about the event and what's coming up this year, and I'm so glad to be a part. Yeah, this will be our 11th annual haunted garage sale and Hearst Cruze in, and we started out with humble beginnings in Bay Village and a park. and we've outgrown three different locations. As you mentioned last year, we headed at a minor league baseball stadium.

But we had such a large crowd that we had a three-mile backup on the highway, I-90, that runs right by it. And so we basically decided we needed to move it to a bigger location. And fortunately, in August, they opened the Ross Expo Center at the Lorraine County Fairgrounds in Wellington, Ohio. And so we got the date of August 1st, and we're really excited to have the event there. And it's all going to be indoors this year. We're not going to fight the heat or the rain or the wind. And so it's going to be a wonderful day. And we're really excited to be here to talk to you about it.

Now, in addition to the Campfire recording that we're going to be doing there, what else can people expect what kind of vendors? I know the hurses are a big part of it. You've got a band. Tell us a little bit about what people can expect. Well, we have 145 different vendor spots, and we've got some really unique, amazing vendors that come from points all over, from several states around us, and there will be custom artwork. There'll be classic Halloween pieces.

There will be music. There will be, you know, such a wide variety. it's hard to really put your finger on it, but you just got to come out and check it out. And it's going to be one of these things where you're going to want to look at every single booth because you never know what you're going to find. And the beauty of it is it's like a Halloween flea market,

so you're going to find things at like garage sale prices, things that you won't be able to find anywhere, or maybe that one piece you've been looking for for years. And you may just find it here at the haunted garage sale and hers cruise in. Yeah, and I think it's a great kickoff for the Halloween season. You know, it's one of those things where you really, you know, people like us, spooky people love this time of year because it's starting to get into the mind. You're starting to see the stuff in the stores and no better place to kick it off at the haunted garage sale. And for folks who aren't familiar, it's west of Cleveland.

I think it's about 40 miles west of Cleveland or so. But it's an easy driving distance. in the whole region. And you were telling me, you get people as far away as New England to be at this, right? Yeah, we have attendees that come from all over. As I had mentioned before to you, when we're off the air, we've had some people came in from Connecticut for it. And so, you know, they're so passionate about it that they came in that far. And it's just to find a unique thing like this where you can come in for a very affordable price. It's only $5 to get in. And there's a wide variety of vendors.

We're going to have themed vehicles from different movies like the Scooby-Doo van and the supernatural car. We're even going to have the Green Goblin head from the movie Maximum Overdrive is going to be there for the Green Goblins Mobile Museum, which is amazing for fans of that movie. And, you know, we're going to have these unique hearses in our Hearst Car Show outside. And we even have our host band called the, Erie Invaders and they're amazing. They play a rockabilly kind of surfer music, which is a great background for our event that provides the move for our 14 food trucks that we're going to have

outside. So everybody loves food trucks. Here you're going to have a nice variety. They're all unique, all different types of food. And so we've really tried to create a unique event that has grown every year. And I know you're very proud of your support of St. Druid and Proce proceeds of the ticket sales going towards to help St. Jude, and I think that's a great thing. Yeah, the $5 is to go to charity. And we've benefited a few charities over the years, but we really latched onto the skeletons for St. Jude's because of their Halloween theme and the fact that it goes to children and 100% of their money goes to the charity. It's, you don't wonder where it's going at. And so a couple years ago in 2022, we were the number one fundraising group in the country. We

raised more money than any other group. And so we're very proud to do this. And we're looking to raise over $25,000 for St. Jude's this year for the Cleveland Horn Club. That is awesome. So, Saturday, August 1st, be there. Tell folks the details where they can go on the web to find more and how we can be a part of the Haunted Garage sale. Yes, this goes on from 10 to 4, as you mentioned, at the Ross Expo Center. And so if you'd like to find more information, you can go to ClevelandHantClub.com or check us out on Facebook. If you go to the groups and look for a Cleveland Haunt Club, you'll find us, and you can find more information about our club, our various activities.

And we're busy throughout the year doing things like ghost tours and, like, last month or a couple weeks ago, we were actually at the Mansfield Reformitory for a movie and a ghost tour. And then we have field trips and different things. So I know you're going to want to check us out for this event, but follow us throughout the year to see the different things that we do. Very good. Well, it's taken us a little while to get connected, but I'm so glad we did. I'm so honored to be a part of it. I hope everybody joins us at the Honogarov Sail on Saturday, August. Yeah, we finally got you, Jim. We finally got you. save you. And thank you guys and make sure that you're there. We want to see you. We want to see you. And stay spooky.

You know, over the years that we've been doing these shows, you have certain listeners and viewers who are, you know, they're repeat storytellers. They come on the show. And they just feel like they're part of the family. And Russ is one of those people. And he's going to tell us today about strange. haunted goings on at a home that was once the home of a celebrity or tied to a celebrity. Russ, welcome to the show. I really appreciate it. Good to see you again. Looking great and tell us what happened. Oh, great. Thank you, Jim. Well, you know, I, the only time that I've been on the show is you won't believe this happened to me. Right. Because I've never really, I've never had a supernatural experience, but I finally had one. I guess you would call it a head scratcher. I have a friend from college. His name is Brian.

I've known him since 1971. And he's done very, very well. He and his wife have done very, very well for themselves. They were in corporate America. She owns her own business. But they got into real estate investing. And I think they own 15 or 20 homes now. Wow.

Yeah. They have a place on a beach in Florida. And they bought. this home that is a very elaborate home that was built by a celebrity couple that was known for television shows, producing shows

very, very famous in the 70s and 80s. He couldn't turn on the TV without seeing one of their shows, you know? Right. He wants to be obviously to keep them confidential, so he remains confidential. My friend does.

Sure. But I wait to visit him at one property they has, and this is where these celebrities had built a home for the parents of one of them, and it was a huge, I don't know, it's probably five, six thousand square foot home, all on one level because the parents were elderly. And there was a very, very large deck area. There was a pool behind it. And there was a separate townhouse behind it. So I went to visit my friend, Brian. Again, we've been friends that we stayed in touch since college and stayed there overnight for a couple of nights. And he took me out a tour of the townhouse. And he said, let me show you

the townhouse. So you walk in and there are two bedrooms and there's a full kitchen. And then there's a like the living room in the back with windows overlooking, you know, an area. And then you walk down a spiral staircase and it have all types of stuff that in there. They got foosball games. They have pinball machines. They have, you know, giant screen TV. It's really meant for like a party, you know? And he also had some eclectic things in there, too, Jim.

They had things like a stuffed alligator, they had a phone booth. Big stuffed alien. They had a phone booth from the UK, one of those red phone booths. all antiques, all types of stuff, you know, stuff birds, I mean, just very eclectic down there, you know. And so I thought, wow, this is great. And I, you know, he congratulated him many times on his success and all that, very happy for both of them and her kids. So anyhow, we did some tours. He took me around some of the sites in the area that his wife was in another

state. I went over to visit without my wife, just, you know, reminiscent. listen about college and things like that. And I said, okay, you know, you guys at your big house. Where am I staying? He said, well, you're going to stay in the townhouse. And I said, oh, okay, great, you know. So I want to tell you something about Brian, too. He was always the very conservative one in college. He was the one that would be at the study hall. We'd be at the fraternity party. He was a business major. I was a liberal arts major. You know what I mean? And he also is He's a very strict Christian, and he tithes to his church. Now, I've heard people of tithing 5%, 10%.

He ties 50% of his income to his church, but he also doesn't tithe his net income. It's his gross income. Oh, wow. So this is the type of guy he is. He's straight arrow. He's never been a joker. I mean, he's funny. You know, he could tell some good jokes.

and he's a great guy, but he's not a practical joker. He's a serious guy, you know. So, so in any event, he goes, you know, townhouse is yours, you know, play foosball, play pinball, watch TV, whatever you want to do, you know, so, so I went in there and I grew up just outside of New York City, and I am a little concerned about security. We had a break in years ago, and I experienced that. So I always check everything, you know. So I went in, you know, second night, I locked the door. And then I went through the house. You know, I checked at the doors, make sure everything was locked.

The windows were locked. It may seem a little obsessive, but, you know, when you have someone break into your house and threaten you it, so it's, you know, it sticks with you. So I checked everything out. And I went downstairs. It's a little creepy because, you know, when you, you know, It's 12 o'clock at night and you're alone. You're looking at that six-foot alligator looking at you, you know. Yeah.

So anyhow, I went upstairs. I watched a little TV, and I took one of the two bedrooms. And when I went in, I locked the door, okay, and they have a lot of antiques. They said they love antiques. It's a very eclectic house. So they had this antique cast iron boot scrape. you know, the streets, as you know, used to be muddy. Yeah.

In the 19th century. And people would take, you know, their boots had scraped them before they came to someone's house to get the manure off or whatever. So I put that up against a door. That may sound extreme to some people, but as I said, I'm a little nervous, you know. So I had a door locked. I had to scrape her there, you know, went to sleep. there was a bathroom in you know right there in the room so um i didn't have to go anywhere he didn't even need to go out that door and the next morning i woke up and uh the door was

wide open and a boot scraper was pushed away oh man yeah i mean it was really it was really weird and you know you're probably thinking not a ghost you're thinking a person a human person yeah a person and um i just thought brian wouldn't do something like that i mean what i and if he came in to talk to me he would have woken me up you know i went to bed like midnight and he went to bed probably at nine o'clock you know that's that's our different personalities you know so um we're having breakfast and i told him about it and he's he was laughing he goes oh you know he goes you know he goes i don't know he goes maybe uh the former resident was checking up on you.

He said, I have no idea how that happened. He said, there is nobody in that townhouse. So, and the original furniture is there. They haven't changed the furniture to townhouse. So it's like 1970s vintage. You know, it's still perfectly good, but they, you know, they haven't updated it. So I was using the furniture that the original people used.

If that has anything to do with, you know, with the situation. So I told him about it. You know, I brushed it off. The next day, you know, about 9 o'clock, he goes, okay, I'm going to hit the hay. And I said, okay, you know, I'm going back. And he said, you know, lock your doors, you know, of course, and all that. So I locked the doors.

But this time, I searched that townhouse from the top to the bottom. I looked under all the beds. I looked in all the cabinets, even in the kids. kitchen, okay. I looked in the washer and dryer downstairs. I checked every window. That place was locked up. There was not a soul in there. And I locked my door, put the lock on the, on the, on the, um, the handle op, put the cast iron boot scraper again against the door. When I woke up the next morning, the door was wide open and the boot scraper was pushed to the side. I have no, I talked to Brian, I grilled him.

I said, are you playing a practical joke? He said, absolutely not. I would never do anything like that. And he just, he brushed it off and he said it must be the previous people checking in on you. So do you, so you feel that, you know, he knew this place had stuff that went on, right? He told me that he had never heard any comments like that, Jim. So, I mean, yeah, he'd never. I don't think many people sleep back there.

Yeah. They always sleep because it's a big main house, but he was trying to be nice. You go, say, just take the townhouse. You know, stay up as late as you want. You won't keep me awake, whatever, you know. Well, you think, and this is not saying anything bad about them, but celebrities being a celebrity type, probably when they were around, that was a very energy-filled place.

They probably have big parties, had a lot of fun, you know, especially if it was set up that way. And I'm guessing that maybe, maybe that was that energy left over. It wasn't a negative thing per se. But, you know, there's a lot of emotion, a lot of partying. Right. You know, maybe there's more spirits. Yeah.

Yeah. And he, as we were talking before you turn on the camera, he validated that. They had the cast of some TV shows there visiting, you know, for weekend parties. the parents were very, very nice. The celebrities were flying a helicopter and then take a black car over to, you know, where the house was and everything. So I have no explanation,

but it was really creepy, but I'm going to see if I can maybe get a motion detect your camera the next time I go to visit and set it up in that room pointed toward the door. I mean... Well, that boot scraper, if I remember correctly, Those are not light. Oh, it's very heavy.

It's cast iron. It must have been this big. I mean, it was, it was on the side of the door and it was bolted in, you know what I mean? So it's a big heavy scraper. It probably weighed, honestly, probably weighed 10 pounds. I haven't been from the door. Brushes or spikes on the end of them or something like that to get the stuff off? Is that way?

It just had a, it had a flat. bottom and had holes so it could be drilled in, you know, to, uh, and then it had the, uh, the spot where you could scrape the boot, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. I have no explanation, but it's pretty creepy, though. I didn't, I told my wife and, you know, I said, I'm glad I wasn't here for a third night, you know? There you go. Well, if you go back, please report back and let us know if you find any more, uh, uh, unexpected guests. Russ, always, always great to talk to you. Always great to talk to you. Always great to talk. you. Thanks for sharing your story on Camp Fire and stay spooky.

Stay spooky, Jim. And thanks for having me and give my best of the door, huh? Reese is on the line from the great state of Texas. We're so glad to have him on the show. And he found out about us from our great friends, Christine and M from End. That's why we drink. Very cool folks and always are raising the flag high for the Camp Fire. We appreciate it very much. And I told Reese, you know, when these stories come across, some of them strike a court immediately. I can't wait to hear this story. This sounds so cool. And that's the category that Reese's story is in.

Reese, thanks for joining us and tell us what happened. Well, thanks for having me. Yeah, so my mom, which growing up, my mom and her family were always into, like, kind of the spooky stuff. And we always heard, like, really cool stories from my great-grandmother, my mom's grandmother. But, you know, I'd never really had a spooky experience before this. But unfortunately, we found out in the summer of 2022 that my mom had cancer. And, yeah, and unfortunately, she passed away. So we found out in like August, September, and she passed away in November of 2022.

So it was pretty quick. But after she had passed, so my mom's birthday is on November 1st. and she passed on November 3rd. And I didn't have any experiences or anything like that. But that Christmas, my mom was always into Christmas. My dad had given my fiance and I a box of Christmas stuff to celebrate to kind of put it in out around the house. And in there, there was a container that looks like it's a big Hershey kiss. And my mom notoriously loved Hershey kisses.

And when you opened it, it would sing clips of something. songs that had the word kiss in it. So I set it out on the counter and our nieces and nephews would come over and they, of course, love to get the Hershey's kisses out of it. But they got them out so frequently that the batteries died. And I just took the batteries out and never replaced them because I don't have AAA batteries just sitting around the house. Right.

And so we have like a little credenza. And next to it is a water cooler. And the following year, so in 2023, I was getting ready to go to work on my mom's birthday. It was on a Friday. And I was filling up my water bottle at the water cooler. And next to the credenza, and on the credenza, this Hershey's Kiss that doesn't have batteries in it that was not open, just started playing the clips of songs from the container. Like I said, it had no batteries in it.

and it wasn't opened, right? So, I mean, even if it had batteries in it, it wouldn't play unless it was opened. I don't know, it was just really weird. It was on her birthday, and I was thinking about her that day because it was her first birthday after she had passed, and I was kind of sad,

and I was filling in my water bottle, and it just started playing, and I immediately, like, stood up and looked at it, and I was like, happy birthday, Mom, because I just felt like that with her sign to me. And then occasionally, because it still sits on the counter. Occasionally we will, my fiance and I will be sitting at the table and we'll be talking or whatever.

And if we start talking about my mom, not every time, but occasionally it'll just start playing songs and it's really weird. But I feel like it's my mom communicating to me through a Hershey's Kiss, which is kind of awesome. I think that is awesome. And that's why I said it was cool. I mean, obviously it's so sad your mom passed and had to go through all of that. and you and your family's lost. That's a horrible thing. But it's cool to know that she's still around,

and she came back in a way and gave you this sign in a way that's very indicative of her personality, something she really enjoyed. And I'm guessing that she was probably a really fun person and kind of come back and show it in a fun way. I think that is so awesome. We had, and you mentioned to me off-air,

your plus member, thank you for that, because that's how we can do this show. If we didn't have the Plus Club, we couldn't do this show. And there's a story back in the Camp Fire Archive, and I might not get the exact details right, but it reminds me of your story. There was this gentleman, and I think he had like an outdoor construction

or home improvement type job where he worked outdoors, and he had this one radio that wasn't working or it was broken or something. I think that's the case. Either it was turned off or it was broken. And this probably, dates were like 15 years ago we took this story and it was his I think it might have been his sister's birthday or there was some significance and the radio which shouldn't have worked

started playing the Carol King song so far away I think that was the song well that's the song well that's one thing but his sister who passed was a very accomplished musician and she loved to play Carol King songs, including So Far Away. It just played. So it reminded me a lot of that story. You know, it kind of ties in with the timing, something that, you know, when the batteries are out, it shouldn't work, but it does. Right. That means a lot.

And I'm sure, Reese, that that's your mom getting back in touch with you. Well, I like to think so. I think so. I think so. And I think a lot of people out there think so, too. And as I was telling another storyteller, when we have these stories of signs, I think, I think it's so helpful to other people and it gives them hope and they hear these other stories. I think it's great.

Reese, thank you for your support. Thank you for your story. Stay spooky. You too, sir. Stay spooky. Next up, we have a long time listener and a return caller. Ryan is on the line from the great state of California and he has a story about his grandma. Ryan, thank you for joining us and please tell us what happened.

Hey, Jim. Thanks for having me back. happy to share another story with the with the crowd. So this, this story happens in 2012. Both my grandparents on my dad's side live back in on the East Coast. They were in Atlanta. And they passed away within about a year of each other. And my grandfather had passed away in 2011. and my grandmother spent her last year really struggling with some dementia and not in her greatest shape. And when she was very close to her time, I felt really conflicted about not flying back east to go see her. And my dad tried to comfort me by telling me, you know, it's okay.

Like your memories, keep your memories the way they are because she's really, the way she is now is really hard to see. and I'd rather you could be left with the good memories of her. So I felt bad because I didn't get to see that my grandfather passed either or go to his funeral. And so this was around December of 2012 that this happened. And my spouse at the time, she had been, she didn't grow up with any grandparents. And so she had been fairly close with my grandparents when we used to live on the East Coast and had very fond interactions with them. And they were very supportive.

They almost kind of looked at her as surrogate granddaughter. But we really didn't see them much after we moved out to California. And so when my grandmother passed, I was very sad. And I remember talking about it with my den spouse. But I was really busy at work. It was a really busy time coming up at the end of the year. and I'm so busy that I was doing a lot of work at night. And, like, late into the night.

So late, in fact, sometimes I would just go to bed pretty much wearing the same t-shirt and everything else that I was wearing when I was working. And in the morning, get up. You know, it was kind of dark already because it's that time of year, and I would just throw on a new set of clothes and get back to go to the office.

So one morning, my then-spouse says to me, You know, I had a crazy dream last night and your grandparents were in there. And she said, and my spouse was not, although she was very spiritual, she was not somebody that typically had these types of interactions or these types of woo-woo type of occurrences other than believing strongly in being able to manifest thing with energy. But she said, both your grandparents were there and I just saw them. They were kind of on the other side of her room and they were holding. hands and they were smiling and your grandmother waved at me. And she said, hi, sweetie. And I said,

hi. And she said, tell Ryan we love you and tell Ryan we love him too. And she said, it was just kind of confused. Like, okay, yeah, I will. And she said, and tell Ryan to change his socks. And she's like, isn't that funky? Like, that's the part that. She's like, I don't know why she said that. And I said, well, that is odd. And so this was like in the evening that, that I guess that she told me that. And I said, the funny thing is I actually have been wearing the same pair of socks for a couple of days now because it was winter. And I was just going to bed late and I didn't change my socks. And yes, like, I suppose it means I also didn't shower for a couple of days.

And she was like, what are you kidding me? And it was just, I was like, no, look, I'm wearing the same dark socks. She's like, I don't know. I can't tell. It's dark socks. And I was like, yeah, I have it. And I believe her. She wouldn't have known, and she's not the kind of person

that would have pulled that kind of prank. I can't explain it. You know, maybe because she's the more kind of spiritual, the two of us, she was able to connect with my grandmother. And she said my grandfather didn't say anything, but he smiled and waved. But the socks thing really gussed me. I totally believe that.

And that's great affirmation and confirmation to me. It's like, what a random thing to say, right? I mean, they could have said almost anything. And the change your socks, which was very applicable in this case, not that I have ever done that. But joke, joke. I've been there, been there. I think it's probably been three days. Oh, boy.

But anyway, the point is that I think that that is a great affirmation. That's a beautiful thing. That had to make you feel good, I would think. It did. It really did. I mean, it gave me a laugh. I, you know, she didn't really believe me at first. She thought my then spouse thought I was pulling her leg.

It's not something I generally did. And I was like, no, really, I haven't. I am wearing the same socks for a few days ago. That's cool. So, you know, it made me feel a little better that everybody, even though I didn't get to see them at the end of their life on this earth, was they were together and doing well. And still watching over you, watching over you.

Yeah, apparently. And the thing is, is that I just think it's such an affirming thing. to know that they're still there. And the thing is, is that, and I see this time and time again with these stories, they pick something that will lock into the person and that will give them validation and they'll give them confirmation, something that wouldn't mean anything applicable to anybody else, but something that locks into that person they want to get a message to. And I think the message was, Ryan, change your socks, and oh, we're still around.

We're watching you. Be good. Ryan, thank you for being on the show tonight. We appreciate it. Good to talk to you once again. Thanks for the longtime loyalty and support. Stay spooky. Thanks, Jim. You too.

You know, return callers are one of my favorite things. We have just such a person here. Elizabeth is back from Minnesota. And she's going to talk about one of the subjects I find fascinating. And I'm interested in what happened to her. Out-of-body experiences. Elizabeth, this is something. you're familiar with you've experienced it.

Please tell us more. Welcome back. Thanks. So the first time it happened, I was 19, and I was taking a nap before I had to go to work. I happened to be taking nap with my boyfriend. And it happened really kind of out of the blue. I just was sleeping and I woke up. I was still in my body at the moment.

And then, like, this one I remember less the details, but I definitely remember suddenly being in my body and then suddenly being above my body. It was just kind of quick. I was in my body. And then I was looking down and I could see the two of us and in the position we were in. And it kind of freaked me out. And so I suddenly went back into my body. And the thing that was also significant about that experience was that when I woke up, the colors. of the world look super bright afterwards. I felt like something had changed. I remember it was April

and it was like the sky was bluer, the flowers were brighter, and I felt incredibly refreshed. And although I did not want to go to work, I had a new pep in my step, as they say, after that experience. It was very strange. And then that was that. So then the next one that happened was maybe a year later. And at that point, I had moved out of my parents' home and I was living with three roommates in a duplex. So I had my own room on the second floor. And it was afternoon. It was winter, December, Minnesota, probably around 2 o'clock, 3 o'clock. And so I mentioned this because the lighting changes through this experience. And I, so I laid down to take my nap. And And then I woke up and I went downstairs.

And when I went down, when I first started my nap, no one was home. I knew that. But when I went downstairs, I saw my roommate Holly and she was playing the guitar. And I said, hey, Holly, how's it going? And she just ignored me. And I thought that was weird. But all of a sudden, I was back up in my body. And I realized, God, Elizabeth, you must have just been dreaming.

oh, you're still asleep. Ha, ha, ha. Well, that's annoying. So I just, I let myself doze a little bit more. And then I got up. And I was like, okay, now you're awake. Now go back downstairs. And so when I went back to stairs,

Christine was back, and the two of them were sitting there. And I remember specifically Christine had a diet poke. And they were visiting with each other. And I, again, I announced my presence. I said, hey, how's it going? no response. I was like, what is going on? And again, I go back up into my, suddenly, bam, I'm in my body again.

And I'm like, oh. So this is like, have you ever had that situation where you're sleeping and you've got to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night and you just keep dreaming that you've gone to the bathroom and then you wake up and you realize you haven't gone? This is what that was like. So then a third time, and now, by the way, it's getting darker. And the third time I go down there and to say, hey, how are you guys doing? and now I notice that a light has been turned on, and they're still visiting.

And again, I am still not really awake, and bam, I'm back in my body. Finally, I just, and it was like all the strength that I could take. I physically just had to just push myself out of my body, and it was dark in my room, absolutely dark, and I realized, okay, I am now physically awake, and I felt exhausted, very much unlike the other time. I felt like I was just, my arms were just lead, and I was just exhausted. And I walked down there, and there they were,

exactly like I had seen them. Polly was playing with her guitar. Christine was sitting there with a Diet Coke. There was a lamp on, and the lamp that I had envisioned. And I walked down there, and they said, oh, hey, Elizabeth, how's it going? And I said, have you guys, Have I been down here before? Because I still wondered if maybe I'd been sleepwalking. And they said, no.

And I said, well, I saw everything you guys were doing and I saw it. And so it just was, it was very strange. So that for me was like one of the first times that I really thought this was for real. I had, and then maybe a few more times like that, but not that specific where I could like really track what was happening. after that, a couple more where I just sort of could feel myself, like, moving between walls and stuff, like, out of a corner. But then it kind of went away. And then recently, and I don't know if it's because I'm doing more meditating, if I'm learning more about it or what, because I have been, you know, listening to your podcast and others, I've been having more of them. I've been suddenly recently having these naps where I wake up and I feel like that body paralysis, but I'm aware of the fact that if I want, I can float out.

And I do. And I've been floating out, but I don't have the visual. I just have the sensation of floating out of my body. And then just the other, like about three weeks ago, I had one where I floated out of my body. And I felt like I was skimming along my studio floor. and I could see bread crumbs and stuff, you know, sort of messy, as you can see behind me. And I floated through the floor. There's a garage below us, and I could see what was going on there.

I floated back up. I floated above through the roof. And then I thought, you know what, I better get back in my body, and I did. So, and again, it seems to always end with this really different sensation in my body. Like, I've had a different kind of sleep. It's just like, it is restorative. It feels much more restorative than regular sleep, and I feel much more exhausted. And I don't know how we're doing with time, and I'd love to get your interjections before I tell my last one, because the last one was really weird.

I will just say this. You know, this is something that's interested me a long time for a couple reasons. One, because kind of the coincidence with near-death experiences. We hear these stories where somebody flatlines they're basically dead for a short period of time, and then they can come back and explain in great detail what medical teams have done to them during the time that they were dead. And these are things ostensibly they would have no way of knowing other than the out-of-body experience. So that also makes me think what is the out-of-body experience? is that our soul, is that our consciousness? What is that? And then, as I mentioned to you briefly,

before the recording, my wife Dar had this experience when she was a child. She was very ill, you know, very ill. I mean, she had a fever. She was sick. I mean, she wasn't, I don't think that she was on death store or anything, but she was sick and she had a fever and so forth. And she specifically recalls floating above her body and seeing herself lying on the couch. I think it was. And the thing was is that she told me the story before podcasting even existed. So it's not because Jim does a paranormal podcast or several paranormal podcasts. So to me, this has always been a fascination. I recently did an interview with a skeptic, which probably will be out by the time that this episode airs. And I talked to her about the near-death experience and out-of-body experiences. And I said,

how do you explain that one? And that was one where, I mean, she just, try to give up a half-hearted excuse, but, and she was very nice. Let me say that. She was very nice person. And I think she said she wants to believe. She wants to believe. But I kind of got around that one. She's like, ah. So it was kind of funny. So I think it's a fascinating area. But go ahead. Tell the rest of your story. Well, the last one was kind of strange because it, it was like an out-of-body experience that happened within a dream. So I was, I dreamt that I was, of all places, at a group gathering at the White House, and we were being greeted by extraterrestrials.

Wow. And, yeah, and they were going to land on top of the White House. And I was staring at the window, looking out, and all of a sudden, I felt myself in my body being pulled out of my own body, and I was in orbit outside of the lawn of the White House. And I was in the position that I was actually sleeping in. I was in literally the same position, but I was floating in an orbit. And these, quote, extraterrestrials were, I knew they were talking to me and they were going to,

they wanted to talk to me and they wanted to meet me. And this is so psychotic, like I'm telling you, it was like the weirdest thing. So I'm floating around and I knew and I said to myself, don't be scared. Just don't be scared. And then suddenly I started funneling down into what was a huge, looked like a huge, porous, very porous skull, human skull. And I was, but it was so porous that the holes were so big that my body could actually fit through them. And I was floating down into the skull.

And I could see there was like hieroglyphic language written all over the bones of the skull. Huh. And I loaded down in there and I heard this voice saying, Hi, we wanted to meet you first because we know you're ready to meet us. And we're going to be coming soon to meet us. Whoa. Whoa. Yeah. Yeah. And I, and I, and I, I, I, I, I, I, and then they let me get back up, get out of the skull and float back. And then when I woke up, woke up, I, I, I just was paralyzed in that same position I'd been sleeping in. And I, and I probably laid there for about 10 minutes before I could move. I'm really literally, was like, I cannot move. So that's, that was a different one. That was very different. But I got the. the sense that they felt that I, Elizabeth, was more prepared than other people to meet these

extraterrestrials. And they wanted to meet me first. They wanted to say hi to me. They want to introduce themselves to me. Okay, so that sounds, and it could have been just a totally whacked out dream, willing to accept it. But it was just very strict. That's all I can say. You know, the thing is, is that, you know, maybe if you told me that dream 10 years ago, I'd say, Oh, it was just a crazy dream. I'm not so sure anymore because I'll tell you, the more that we look into these different areas, UFOs, ghosts, cryptic creatures, there seems to be some kind of relation.

And you get into the work of people like Jacques Valet and John Keel and people like that. You know, I used to be of the belief, you know, UFOs or UFOs. Okay, they're probably little green men coming down from craft. Ghost are dead people. Bigfoot is a flesh and blood creature. And although I think some of those things sometimes, still, I'm more able, more willing to blur the lines and say maybe there's something an overarching phenomenon that we're not, that we're not familiar with and we don't understand because we have such little pea brains. So, yeah, it's just, you know, it's all a mystery. Elizabeth, thank you for exploring the mystery with us and stay spooky. You too, stay spooky.

You too, stay spooky. Thanks for joining us today around the Campfire. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. And tell your story. Go over to Jimherald.com slash campfire and sign up. We'd love to hear it and share it with folks. And another place we'd love to hear it is on our virtual campfire group, virtual campfire group.com.

One of our callers made a good point recently. You know, the idea that you can go there and you can bounce ideas off of other people about your story, different theories, different opinions, and pretty much everybody's very kind. Very kind over there. And if they're not, we kick them out. That's our little secret, how we maintain a great community. And it has been fantastic. I hope you'll join us. It's absolutely free to you. It costs me a bundle. But it's free to you. It's at virtual campfiregroup.com. Virtual campfiregroup.com. And we hope to see over there. And we hope to see you at the haunted garage sale, and it's going to be a great time. That is Saturday, August 1st,

as we said earlier in the episode, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. with that live recording at 1.30 p.m. of the campfire. Hope to see you there and shake your hand, and maybe hear your story. We'll talk to you next time. Have a great week, everybody. Stay safe and stay spooky. Bye-bye.