Jim Harold's Campfire - Paranormal Investigation Gone Wrong - Jim Harold's Campfire 749

Episode Date: February 20, 2026

What happens when the paranormal shows up uninvited? This week: an investigation in the woods takes a frightening turn. A neighbor may have been seen in two places at once. A powerful dream arrives at a very eerie time. These and many more stories on this edition of Jim Harold's Campfire. Real people. Real experiences. The kind that stay with you. -- NEWSLETTERGet Jim’s weekly free newsletter and a free Campfire ebook at the same time. Go here: https://jim-harold.kit.com/campfire-ebookVIRTUAL CAMPFIRE GROUPJoin our FREE online community at ⁠https://virtualcampfiregroup.com⁠EVENTSHope to see you soon at one of Jim’s live events: https://jimharold.com/eventsYOUTUBE CHANNELBe sure to subscribe to Jim’s YouTube channel at: ⁠https://youtube.com/jimharold⁠ JOIN JIM’S SPOOKY STUDIO PLUS CLUBYou can get access to Jim’s entire back catalog of Campfire and a TON of exclusive content with the Spooky Studio Plus Club. Go to https://⁠jimharold.com/plus⁠ and signup to support the show and get access to our MASSIVE library of content!MERCHGo to ⁠https://jimharold.com/merch⁠ to get your Jim Harold T’s, sweatshirts, mugs, hats and more! BOOKSGet all SIX of Jim’s Campfire books here: https://jimharold.com/campfirebooks/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Sit back, relax, and warm yourself by Jim Harold's Campfire. Kira is on the line from Louisiana and she's a brand new listener. I said, how long have you been listening? I thought three years, five years. Maybe some people 10, 15 years. Kira has been listening two weeks. So be like Kira and sign up today to the campfire. And may I also say this?

If you sign up, please follow through. Dar was telling me just the other day, we have a whole slew of people who have signed up and they've never signed up for a time slot. Well, that doesn't work. So please, if you signed up, please do sign up for a time slot. That's the only way it works. And then you can be like Kira and be cool and tell your story. Like she's going to tell us now.

And she's going to tell us about what happened when she was paranormal investigating with a friend. Kira, welcome to the show. thank you for joining us and tell us what happened. Yes, sir. Thank you for having me. Thank you. So just to give a little bit of background, when I was a teenager, I thought for sure I was going to be the next big paranormal like investigator in the paranormal investigative world.

Anytime there was something to investigate, I had my camera, I was ready to go. And so I had a friend that in junior high we met and we stayed friends. We're still friends today. So we've known each other for a really long time. So in junior high, she lived with her grandparents and she would always tell me about their house and how haunted it was. And so she had all these stories and I was the kind of person and still am. that if there's something going on, like, I want to see it for myself. Sure.

So, you know, I feel like we got into a lot of trouble that way, messing with things that we really didn't understand. So this particular story, we were older out of junior high. I was about 16. And her name is Sarah. She would, she called me one night and she was telling me about how she would walk. to a neighboring yard, which was, I think her aunt owned it. And she was telling me, every night at 7.31 p.m., I walk over there, and I see an orb floating across a pond that they have through the tree. Yeah.

And she says it's been three nights in a row, and I see it every night. 7.31 p.m. Of course, I say, I don't believe you. I want to see it coming over. So my friend Sarah lived out in Killian, Louisiana. And if you know Killian, it's the closest Walmart is like 30, 40 minutes away. You're in the woods. Gotcha.

So it's the kind of place that if you're coming, bring everything you need for the weekend because we're not leaving again. So I pack my stuff. I go over there. I get there midday. So we spend most of the day just hanging out, playing on the computer, playing the video game. and about 7, 15 rolls around. It's getting dark outside. Still not quite dark, dark.

And we start walking. So the layout, we get to the road. It's her grandmother's house, a row of separating trees, and then it's an abandoned property, another row of separating trees with a driveway that kind of went nowhere and then this long, huge yard, just square yard outlined by trees.

And the house on that property is set way, way, way back. This is the kind of driveway that I would not want to wake up in the morning and go check my mail. It's a mile long. There's no trees in the yard itself. So we started a grandparents house and we walk all the way to, it's not. that far, but it's not that close either. We walk to the abandoned property of her aunt, which is the big square yard. By this time, we get there, it's like 725. It's getting dark. And there's just this kind of overwhelming feeling of just it's heavy. And we both notice a

four-wheeler humming sound kind of often. the distance. We acknowledged it. You know, someone must be riding a four-wheeler. So we get to the edge of the property. We're still on the road. We're looking at the line of trees where the pond is. And I think both of us just in that moment decided something feels wrong. I don't really want to walk over there. It's really dark. We're getting freaked out. The humming sound of the four-wheelers It's getting louder. And I think at this point, it's like 730, 731 rolls around. We haven't moved.

We both chickened out. And so we're like, you know, we'll just, we'll do it tomorrow night. I'm going to be here all weekend. Let's just go back. Yeah. Something, it just doesn't feel right. So we start walking back. And we're halfway in front of the big.

property abandoned property. Yeah. And we hear a car coming. So we turn back and look. And so we're looking behind us. There's no street lamps on this road. It's just dark all the way down. And we see the headlights of the car about a mile away.

And as we're looking, the car's coming. We both acknowledge this, what we thought was the tree. and or a bush at first because I remember looking at Sarah and saying I don't remember that bush being there and her saying yeah me either and so the car's getting closer and the headlights you know come behind what we thought was a bush and as it's coming behind and the headlights are illuminating it this bush has grown into an like eight foot nine foot swirling mass of energy. Smoke mist. We see it like, you know, the smoke swirling and it's, it's got mass to it. It was tangible is how thick it was. And it's getting bigger and bigger.

And the car keeps coming. We acknowledge that, you know, we had this telepathic communication between us all these years. And I knew we were both thinking at the same time, that is not a bush. That is not a tree. The buzzing that we thought was a four-willer is suddenly so loud. And it's static. You could feel it. And in that moment, we both, okay, that's not a tree. That's not a bush. That's not something we really want to mess with. And so we turn. to walk away at the same time and we book it. We book it back to the grandparents' house.

The car ends up, you know, passing this thing, and it passes us. It never stops. I don't even know if they in the car saw it because they didn't stop. So we run. We get back to the grandmother's house and we are just, oh, my God, did you see that? What was that? That's so amazing, you know. But we really don't want to go back over there.

So we're going to sit. We're going to sit in the middle of the road in the dark. We're teenagers. Like, don't do that, guys. It's not smart. But that's what we did. Yes. So we sat in the middle of the road in the dark.

She laid down with her head in my lap. And we just sat there kind of filling out the moment. I think both just taking in what just happened. We want to experience more, but we don't want to go back over there. And I think about five minutes go by. And I'm sitting, her heads in my lap, and I look toward the property we had been at, down the road. It's pitch black. The moon's not even out.

And as I'm staring, this apparition of a woman. levitating off the ground. Oh my. She had to be about three feet off the ground. I could see her. I could see she was wearing a dress. Her arms were out by her side. And she had long, long hair.

And she was coming straight at us. It was like a scene out of the horror movie. And I'm shaking just like remembering it. And I said, nothing. I jumped up so fast that my friend had no time to comprehend what happened and her head hit the ground. And I was already gone back toward the grandparents down the driveway into the house. And we didn't investigate anymore that night. I don't blame you. What do you think you ran into there? Definitely something powerful, like energy was. And I think in front of the grandparents' house, I think it was manifesting as we were, not in front of the grandparents,

that abandoned property when we were walking to go to the pond and we were hearing that four-wheeler. I really feel like it was starting to manifest then. Now, you said that you didn't investigate anymore that night, but did you investigate any more after that, Kira? Oh, yes. I have many stories to call back and tell. We did end up seeing that orb that she was talking about. So I do want to call back and tell you about the orb. It's a separate, separate time.

Well, Kira, thank you so much for joining us, and you're way braver than I am. And be like Kira. sign up jim herald.com slash campfire and follow through and if you said you're going to sign up get in touch let's let's get a book kara thank you again for sharing your story look forward to talking with you again welcome as a new listener a new storyteller and of course stay spooky stay spooky jim thank you welcome to the campfire i am jim harold so glad to be with you once again and boy who that first story you know, when you go out looking, you may just find something paranormal, something supernatural. But that's what we're about here. We share real stories about real paranormal happenings.

And a note about that, you know, last year we instituted a policy of no promotion. When somebody comes on, it's solely to tell their stories. We're not going to promote a podcast or other projects. and I have to look myself in the mirror because I started violating my own policy and kind of putting forward the opportunity for people to do those things. And some of those people I like very much. In fact, I like all of our storytellers. But the point being that when you lay out a policy, you need to stick to the policy. And since I didn't stick to the policy, we got an influx of people who wanted to talk about their books and their podcasts and everything else they do. So we've made the decision going forward as of this day.

We are not going to allow any more of that for new submissions. Now, we record ahead, and there are a number of submissions that we've received, and we will go ahead and allow those because we did at the time of recording. And this is nothing against those folks at all. But I need to stick to my policy, because this really is about the stories. It's not about anybody. podcast or anybody's book or whatever it is. So going forward, no new recordings will we promote any podcasts or any books. Again, you will see some in the coming weeks that have those features because

we already recorded them. So if you have, I think it's a small percentage, but some people say, ah, I'm going to get on the campfire and tell a story so I can promote my podcast. A small percentage. Well, if that's you, that's not going to work anymore. If you happen to have a podcast and you have a story and you want to come on the campfire to share the story, we'd love to have you. Can't talk about your podcast, but we'd love to have you on the show. So anyway, totally my bad, totally my fault. Mia Culpah will do better going forward to keep it all about the stories. And another place that's about the stories is the paranormal report.

That is the weekly show that I do with the lovely Dar, my wife, and we go over paranormal stories. and this week we had some doozies. And that's the paranormal report wherever you get the campfire. And now we move on to these great campfire stories. Next up on the campfire, a return caller, Jose is back from Germany. We're so glad to have him.

We were talking a bit before, and Jose I'd asked him if he was connected to the service and he said he is a former member of the United States Army. So, Jose, thank you in all of the United States Army. So, Jose, thank you in all. of your compatriots were your service to our country. I don't think that is said enough. So let me say what I can and thank you very much. And only did he serve the country, he's serving the campfire because he's going to bring forth one of my favorite kind of stories. You know I love

those doppelganger stories. You know I love them. And Jose's got one. Jose, welcome back to the show. Thank you again for your service. And tell us what happened. No, thank you, Jim, for letting me be on this podcast. Once again, yeah. It happened actually. I think a few weeks ago between December, between Christmas and New Year's, I actually had a starting job and was going to work between the holidays. And one of my neighbors who lived down the road, a few houses down, he was going, he always leaves around the same time. We see each other, we say hello, hey.

How you doing? How's the day? Monday, yeah, typical, yeah. And he goes through his job. I go to mine this day. I had to walk by him to go throw away my trash. And I saw him standing in the middle of the parking lot. I thought it was a little weird.

I came up to him and said, hey, everything okay. He still asleep. He didn't react to me. He just kind of stared into the void. I said, okay, he must be in his little dream world. And I said, okay, I'll go, kept moving. throw away with my trash. And then as I turn around

to go to the tram, to catch the tram, he happened to drive by in his car like he usually does. He didn't work in those few seconds when he drove by. He had a really close it was him,

but his face looked different. It was deep, deep, deep, dark eyes, and he had the big old grin, like the cat from Alice in Wonderland that really creepy green. We've heard about that recently. A couple of stories have incorporated that, yes.

Yeah, and it was so abnormal. It's like, you hear stories about it. Like you said, I heard it a few times in your show. And I'm like, yeah, yeah. But it's different when I saw it. Like, as soon as I saw that and he drove by, I had this like really cold chill go to run down me. And it's one of those chills I never had it before.

And it's one of the, like it really scared me to my bone. It's one of those, I can't explain it. And he drove by and yeah, I was there for a few minutes. I'm like, oh, wow, I couldn't hurry up and catch my tram. But it ended up staying in my head in the back of my head. And I kept thinking about it the whole time. And then after New Year's Eve, I saw him. again and I asked him, hey, I saw you a few days ago. What happened? And she's just like, why? I wasn't,

it wasn't me. I'm like, yeah, I saw you. I saw you. You were driving your car. You're like, no, we actually weren't here. We went to the wife's to her family for the holidays to spend New Year's. I was like, no, I saw you. I saw your car. You were driving around and like, no, really, we were and his wife came on. No, we were at my mom's over for New Year's. And they actually were not anywhere in the vicinity they had to drive like five or six hours to visit her family so they wasn't like he drove back in like 20 minutes and he forgot something it was like really far away that yeah and then yeah and then i told my wife about it my wife's like that was weird and his wife is all into the paranormal normal too so we started talking about it and he also told me

that she heard stories like this before and but yeah It was really weird. I don't know if it was a mimic or, like I said, a doppelganger. Right. Yeah. The whole doppelganger thing fascinates me. And we've had some great stories over the years. And sometimes what you're saying is true is that they're the same, but they're like slightly off.

Something isn't quite right with the Cheshire cat grin. And again, we've had three, this is the third story in the last, I'd say, three or four months. of we've had about the Cheshire grin. We've certainly had doppelganger stories before. I don't know what it is. I don't know if it's a trickster. I don't know if it's some kind of glitch in the matrix with time, the alternate universe. I don't know.

But it is weird. And it is a thing and it exists and I believe in it. Now, what is it, Jose? I have absolutely no idea. But folks, if you have a doppelganger story, please do sign up and tell it to us at jimherald.com slash campfire plus any of your other stories but Jose uh thank you do you have any final thoughts on this experience no not it's one of those really how do you say it's cool to hear the stories but it's scary when

it happens to you you know i always wanted something scary to happen to me and it and yeah just kind of, and I wish that's the last thing that happens to me and nothing else. That's enough, once is enough. Well, Jose, or twice. Jose, thank you so much. I appreciate it. Thank you for your service to the country. Thank you for your service to the campfire and telling this story and stay spooky.

You too, Jim, and keep doing the great work that you're doing. Bonjour, compadre. It's the price line negotiator. How do I negotiate so many great travel deals? My greatest gadget. The Priceline 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. No one deals more deals than Priceline. Hold your horses. There's more. The app lets you filter hotels by neighborhood, vibe, star level, and amenities like pools and spas and beach fronts.

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LinkedIn delivers the highest return on ad spend of major ad networks. Advertise on LinkedIn. Spend $250 on your first campaign and get a $250 credit. Go to LinkedIn.com slash campaign, turnsick additions apply. You know, dreams, I think that they really do tap into something, and we can get messages from loved ones, them. And maybe we can get notifications of a sort from them. And I think that is a real thing. Mike from Michigan joins us. And before we get started, he deserves a special award. I don't really have one lying around. But if I had one, he would get it because he said he listened to the first episode of the Camp Fire way back when and he's never missed one since. So I think that's some kind of record. So Mike, thank you so much for that. And thank you for sharing your story today. This is a very powerful one. Thank you and tell us what happened.

Well, yeah, like Jim said, I have listened to each episode. I've enjoyed each episode. I would say over the time, it's probably changed my views on the things that happen to people, the things that people have said have happened to them. But the thing that I've always kind of been more skeptical of our dreams, because I've kind of had the view that they're what happened when we sleep, there, what our brain kind of does when it's taking a break at night. So I never really put a lot of stock into stories of dream visitations. And so this story, it's a little background. It's about a friend of mine that I knew probably 25 to 30 years ago.

He was a pastor at a church that I attended back then. Very kind, caring guy. cared about everybody that he met. One thing about him that's also kind of interesting, he was six feet, 10 inches tall. Whoa, big guy. Yes, very noticeable in a crowd, which kind of ties into this dream.

So he and his family moved around a bit. And I eventually got married, moved to this side of the state. And at some point, you know, you keep track of people through social media and he had been diagnosed with cancer, kind of an aggressive form of cancer, and was undergoing treatment. And about the time of the early days of COVID is when this dream experience happened. I went to bed one night and had this dream that my wife and I were at a very fancy party, the kind that we don't usually go to, very opulent venue.

Everybody was dressed up fancy. I was in a suit and a tie, which is extremely rare. But we're standing in this crowded place. place. I'm with this little circle of people talking. And I've got ADHD, so crowds for me are really difficult. I have to focus in hard to pay attention to what people are saying. So as I'm trying to listen to these people talking, I look off off to the side and I see Jim. This friend's name was Jim. He's kind of circling this group. and he had this kind of expression that he would give with this little smile that kind of looked like he was in on the joke and was about to tell you.

And so he's given me this little smile kind of walking in a circle around us. And he's wearing the kind of a black flannel shirt, black and white flannel shirt and jeans. so not fitting the wardrobe but he's walking in a circle around us and he is just locked eyes with me and he's giving me this look and in the dream I'm thinking he looks so young and healthy and it just struck me and the other thing about him that struck me was he looked so real which It sounds like a strange thing to say, but, you know, how in a dream, things are dreamlike. They don't always make sense. He seemed like a real person looking at me.

And just, it struck me. And I'm looking at this crowd I'm with, I'm thinking, I've got to go say hi to Jim. So I turn to them and think, how am I going to get out of this conversation? And then I turn back and Jim's gone. And I wake up. And it was, I don't know exactly the time. It was about 3.15, 3.30 right around that time. And I thought to myself, huh, that was a really interesting dream.

And I went back to sleep. And completely forgot about the dream. Woke up the next morning. It was the early days of COVID. My wife and I were both home from work. It was a relaxed morning during breakfast. I got a text from my mom from the other side of the state. And it was very simple.

She said, did you hear that Jim passed away in the night? And I saw that and it was like a scene from a movie. You know, everything stopped. And that dream came right back to me. And just the reality of seeing him, just how hard that hit me, came back. And I thought, I think Jim came and visited me. And I thought, you know, all of those times I thought to myself, well, that story of a dream visitation, that person was obviously just dreaming.

Right. I thought, well, I guess the joke's on me. because it really seemed like he came and said goodbye. And I have thought about that a lot since then. That was five, almost six years ago. Well, that's something. That's something that would lead you to think about. I don't think there's any question to that.

And do you think the significance of being at the really fancy party? Do you think that was the other side that he was going to? the other side, or have you thought about that symbolism at all? I did not think of that. That is a really interesting thought. Yeah. Yeah, you're going to something very special. Yes.

In other words. And you may have mentioned I may have missed it, but were you guys in continual contact all the time, or was this? No, I had not seen him for a few years. I had visited him a couple of times after he and his family had moved away, but it had been a few years since I'd seen him. You know, you keep track on social media, so I had known about his illness. And so that was one of the things that struck me was I had the thought,

you know, why would he have visited me? But then another thought I've had since then is he was somebody who had he had a long reach, not just because he was so tall and had long arms, but he had a long reach. And I wonder if he had maybe visited other people. Yeah, you know, that is very, I was just talking to another storyteller about this, Dr. Raymond Moody, who is the gentleman who invented the term near-death experience and has done a ton of work. also written on shared deaf experiences. And people will report that when a loved one passes, they'll have some type of visitation, whether it's physically in front of them, whether it's a dream.

And multiple people will report similar things at the same time. Like they can visit multiple people at the same time, so I wouldn't be surprised at all. It makes me wonder if other people had similar dreams. Yeah. Yeah. It's just the look on his face made me think that he, the little smile, he knew more that he was able to convey at that point. Kind of like a little Mona Lisa kind of smile, it sounds like a knowing smile.

And the other thing that you said that really resonates with what other people say when they see a loved one who has passed is he looked like he was in the prime of life and great health. Yes. At his best. And I don't hear a lot of people when they have these visitation stories saying, well, the person looks sickly. the person, let's say it somebody had cancer or something, they look like they did at their most severe. No, it's like they look like they were when they were young, vibrant, you know, the most

vibrant state that they were in at the prime of life. It seems to be a repeated thing. And to me, that ain't just a coincidence, too much of a coincidence to be a coincidence, as you've heard me say a time or two. Mike, thank you for your longtime support and thank you for sharing. this very powerful story today on the campfire. Well, thank you, Jim. I appreciate it. Another new listener, Haley, is on the line from my home state of Ohio,

and I could tell you one thing right now. I don't know much about Haley, but I can tell you she's a lot braver than I am. Because she used to live over a funeral home, of all things, and she's going to tell us what happened. Hold on to your hats. Haley, welcome to the program. Tell us what happened when you lived over. funeral home.

Thank you. So I think it was a little over 10 years ago. My mom and my stepdad lived above the funeral home, and it was still, they were still using it every now and then. It wasn't a small town, so it wasn't super busy. But when we did have, my mom would call them visitors when there was a funeral. They were getting set up the day. before she would just tell she would text me and warn me they're just getting some r and r downstairs just

to let you know so um the first thing is what happened to my mom she worked in assisted living at the time and she unfortunately had one of the people pass away and the funeral was actually at our house so oh wow yeah the the day of she said she was getting ready for work and a perfum you She opened the closet door and a perfume bottle flew out, like right in front of her. Yeah. So it just didn't fall. It like flew out. Correct.

Yes. Flew out of the, yeah, of the closet there. And she said, okay, I can't remember the woman's name. She's like, I'm assuming it's you. I know you're down there. I need to get ready for work. And then we have to separate the kitchen. from the hallway, we had this like plastic sliding door that would magnet to the wall.

Yeah. Just in case there was a funeral, we would all hide in the kitchen and just be really quiet. That actually flew open in front of her while she was trying to leave. Oh, man. Yeah, she said, I will come down and visit you. Please stop doing this. You're freaking me out. So that was with that. And then I was working third shift at the time.

So I would come home early in the morning and eat my dinner and then get ready for bed. And so my stepdad and my mom will both be gone at work. And there was one time we had a little Shih Tzu. Her name was Paisley. She for some reason would always go under the bed and dig. I'm not really sure why. So it was really, it looked like she was just having fun. I'm not sure.

But I was almost asleep one morning. And I thought she was digging right beside the bed. And I said, Paisley, stop. She kept going, kept going. And Paisley, stop. And I look up and she is in bed with me. Hmm. So that was not my dog.

I don't know what. Yeah. So that was kind of freaky. And then one more thing that happened was I was trying to sleep. And there would be people in and out a lot. So I just kind of ignored it, getting ready for funerals and stuff. And there was music playing really, really loud, like abnormally loud. And I texted my stepdad.

I said, is there people here downstairs for some reason? And he said there shouldn't be. I said, well, there's piano music playing like really, really loudly. And I'm kind of, I mean, I'm not complaining. I'm just, I'm kind of freaked out. And he came home and asked me about it. I said, yeah, it sounded like people were down there and there was piano music playing. And he said, there shouldn't have been anybody here.

And I'm pretty sure we don't own any piano music. Huh. Wow. Now, as far as you know, had this been a funeral home for a long? time? Yes. Yeah. Yeah, I kind of figured from your description. You worked for them for about 15, 20 years, I think. Yeah, I figured it had been there a long time because I'm thinking of those old style funeral homes because now they're all modern and things and they're like standalone structures. But if you see some of the older ones, you can see where they have apartments

and stuff at the top. Yeah, and those are kind of the older ones. And I always wondered about that. What would that be like living in a funeral home? I would be. And again, I've heard the saying, you have a lot more to fear from the living than you do the dead. But it would just be kind of weird to me. And that's not to cast aspersions on the folks who have passed. It's not to cast aspersions on to funeral workers or anybody who lives in a funeral home. But I just wouldn't be for me. No.

Yeah. It was kind of weird at first, but I guess it wasn't my mom's first experience. I guess when she was younger, she had lived above one. before, but she never really told me any weird stories except that one when one of her residence was there and trying to get her attention. Did you know from the people who ran the funeral home? I mean, did you have any, did you interface with the people who worked in the people owned a funeral home at all?

Did you talk to them all ever? My stepdad worked for them. Yeah, you said that, like I was wondering if the workers, I mean, like the people owned it said it was haunted? I never did ask them because they did run by the same owner. There were two other funeral homes and like close by and other towns that they ran. Right. Yeah, because I was thinking the other people, because I know you said your stepdad worked for them.

I think you said 15 or 20 years. Now, it's interesting because years ago on this show, a long time because this show's been gone 16 years, probably like year two or three, we had a woman call in who worked at a funeral home and she talked about some of the weird stuff. And one of my favorites was at the time that like a floor lamp was on, but it wasn't plugged in. Wow. That's cool. It's like, that's a little strange. That's a little strange. That's a little strange. Now let's say that an opportunity came to live over a funeral home again and it was a beautiful, nice apartment and it was a really good price and those kind of

things. Would that be something you'd do again or you swore off the funeral homes, living above the funeral homes? I'd do it again. There you go. There you go. Again, Haley is a far braver person than I am. Haley, thank you for joining us today on the campfire and stay spooky. Thanks. Stay spooky. We'll be to our next story soon. but I have two big announcements here. First of all, we just had on the show a great caller, and I am talking about Haley from Ohio, and we wanted to make sure to mention Haley's son, Dean.

So, Dean, thanks for listening and stay spooky. And we have one from last week. Kalina was on our Valentine's Day show, and, you know, she forgot to mention her daughter, and we want to make sure we rectify that. Alice, thank you for listening and watching and stay spooky. And if you want to get your own video personalized shoutout, check out my cameo page, camio.com slash the Jim Herald. That's cameo.com slash the Jim Herald. You can get your own video shout out. Personalized just for you or your loved one. And now back to the rest of the campfire.

We have another return caller. Kayla is on the line from Indiana, but this time she brought audio evidence. And we're going to get to listen to it. It's pretty cool. Kayla, welcome to the show. Welcome back. I should say, I think this might be your first time on video, but glad to have you back on the show. So kind of set up what happened and what we're going to hear.

Sure. Thanks for having me, Jim. I love the campfire. Thank you. So I'm going to take you back to last fall. In 2024, Springfield, Missouri. It was my 30th birthday trip. I wanted to go see the Kansas City Chiefs play.

And I thought what better to top that off than to go to a haunted castle. So on the way home, we stopped at the Pithian Castle in Springfield, Missouri, to have a ghost tour there. I thought that would be fun. I want to do everything when it comes to a tour. So they had an EMF meter there for people to rent. And I, of course, grabbed one as fast as I could. So once the tour actually began, I wasn't getting any, I had the meter on the entire time. And it wasn't until we were being spoken to in a group by the tour guide that I had, the EMF detector was going off.

It was going off about child heights, if you, my nephew's six. So I kind of think in comparison to how tall he is, it was going off right next to me. And if I went up, it would stop going off. If I went back down, it would start going off again. I tried a few different things to debunk it, if you will. And it was pretty consistent. I don't know. I felt like it was a little boy, but nothing told me that.

I just had a feeling. But it's almost like he was standing there listening to the tour guide with us. He was being a good little feller. But it didn't really go off anywhere else except for once down the steps. They were actually talking about an entity. pushing someone down the steps. So I'm glad nothing happened there. It must have just been walking beside me.

It was a nice one, I think. But more interestingly, I wanted to go forward. And nothing was really happening in the tour as far as weird feelings or anything like that. We got upstairs to this sort of, look like a theater where maybe they had plays in the past or something. And I'm a teacher's pet. I want to always be up front where I can hear.

the tour guide and everything. And my husband, he had his phone setting on a little ledge right next to us. And we were at the front of the room. It was pretty large room. But in the, they were playing recorded evidence that they had captured from previous investigations or previous tours. I can't really recall exactly what recording they were talking about. But they were talking about an entity that they would capture

whistling and it was very clear in the recording that they were playing for the whole room to hear. And after that recording stopped, the tour guide began to, you know, continue on with the story. And then I heard what sounded like the recording. I heard a whistle, but it came from in the, what sounded like out in the kind of landing area behind the room. And at first I thought I was the only one to hear it, but thankfully, I was not. I had a corroborating witness. I'll tell you what. You have the clip here.

We're going to take a listen to the clip and then explain what we've heard. And here we go. We had a 9-year-old woman came in Mildred. She informed us this was her place growing up. This was her home. Well, I heard it. I heard it. I heard that whistle.

So explain to people if they did miss it because it's always possible because it was a little bit faint, but I could hear it. Explain to people what you heard and what I heard and we'll play it one more time. Okay, sounds good. So the recording that they were playing for the whole room ended and the tour guide began talking and she said something like, it's whistling. Most people can do it. And then she begins to start speaking about a person named Mildred. When she's saying Mildred, you can hear the whistle in the background, as if someone was just kind of, you know, in the background doing their own thing while she was chatting about Mildred.

I heard it. Let's listen to it one more time. We had a 9-year-old woman came in Mildred. She informed us this was her place growing up. This was her home. Well, I definitely heard it. How did the tour guide react to this? What did she say?

Well, there was actually, they were actually two tour guides, and the main tour guide was in the front of the room. Her sister and helper tour guide was off to Caddy Corp, catty corner to me in the back corner of the room. And she, the second tour guide was actually the person who also heard it. And she seemed a bit not scared, but she was taken it back. She was not expecting to hear it, but she also had stated she didn't want to be the one to bring it up to make it seem like it's part of it's part of the show right um if it came from the tour guide it may not be as credible so she was relieved that i also heard it on the other side of the room but it was it was very clear i was surprised that the recording um captured it because we

were so far away from where it seemingly came from now the thing is is that i'm pretty much assuming and i could be wrong but i'm assuming you went into this believing in this sort of thing did it like enhance your belief in the supernatural? Or is it just like I knew it was real all the time? This is just another, this is just another brick in the wall. I have never captured anything. I've never had any proof. I've always believed for as long as I can remember.

I've always been a believer. But I've never actually experienced anything paranormal. I've never been able to capture anything especially. So I was really excited to actually have something to show people because, you know, everyone wants to doubt the person who always believes. So I was excited to have some evidence, especially that I didn't capture. My husband's a little more skeptical than me as well. And he was the one to capture it.

I don't recall if I knew he had his phone recording or not. But when we listened to it after the tour concluded, I was so excited to have caught that and to feel validated that I heard that. And what did the skeptic your husband have to say? Oh, he was very excited. He was very excited. He's a little more skeptical than me, but not quite a true skeptic. He wants to believe as well. Yeah, you're working on him. You're working on him. You're breaking down his defenses. Good job. Good job. So here's the question. Would you go back, just normally like you would, or would you go back alone? Would you do both of those things if you had the opportunity? Oh, certainly. I would. There was no part of the Pithian Castle that I felt uncomfortable.

I would love to go back. It was a beautiful location. It has a lot of history there. It's unfortunate history, but then there's some, you know, redeeming history as well. So I would definitely go back. I didn't feel unsafe. Even in the weird creepy shoot thing that you had to like go lights out, I probably wouldn't go down that by myself. But it's funny because after we were dismissed from the room where I had heard the recording, I had, I had, I swear, and I didn't get any evidence of this, but it's like I heard a woman talking downstairs, and she had just like the sweetest, most direct sound, almost as if someone were like giving you your instructions for the day, but in a nice way, right? Like, I couldn't make out what she was saying,

but you could just kind of hear a woman chatting downstairs or talking downstairs. So I asked the tour guys, like, is there anyone else on this premise? Is there anyone else in this premises? And they're like, yeah, there's this one lady. I said, okay, what does she sound like? And they were like, well, she's a little rough sounding. And she was a smoker. And her voice was nothing like the woman I heard. So I didn't make a big fuss out of that one. So I didn't think anyone else heard it. Maybe you found a new spirit there. Well, please keep us up to date on your paranormal travels. And I'm assuming this place has regular tours and stuff. People can check out what's it called again? It's Pithian Castle in Springfield, Missouri.

Okay, well, I hope we throw a little bit of business there away. And Kayla, thanks. Please go. And Kayla, I notice you're wearing it. And that's why we drink T-shirt. And Christine and them are always great supporters of the show and have always, for years now, told people about their massive audience. So we thank them.

And we thank you for sharing your story on the camp buyer. Stay spooky. Stay spooky, Jim. Have you ever rearranged your furniture and discovered the carpet underneath looks brand new, while the rest of it looks, well, not so new? It's time for a carpet upgrade. At the Home Depot, we have stylish choices at simple prices from all the top brands. Best of all, we can install it for you, starting at only 49 cents per square foot. So all you have to do is pick your perfect floor.

Start your carpet project today at the Home Depot. How doers get more done. Exclusions apply for licenses, see Home Depot.com slash license numbers. Well, thanks for tuning in to the show. And 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.

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That is jimherald.com slash plus. And we thank you for your consideration. Back to the show and stay spooky. I love to hear from international callers. Peru. I think our first caller ever from Peru, Natasha. She's a big supporter. She has been a plus club member.

She has listened to several years' worth of the shows. We really appreciate it. She's going to tell us about a story that her and her friend had some strange experiences in Spain. Natasha, welcome to the show. Thanks for listening all these years. I know you listen pre-COVID. and so you've been around for a while. Tell us what happened.

Okay, nice to be here, Jim. I'm a big fan of the show, so thanks for having me. So, yeah, I'm British. I currently live in Peru. I'm between around 2011 to 2013. I lived in Spain, mainly in Madrid, the capital. So whilst I was there, so this would have been around, I don't know, November 2011, and one of my friends from the UK came to visit me in Madrid.

So one of the evenings we went for dinner. We hadn't booked anywhere. We just sort of went to an area called Seoul where there's a lot of bars and restaurants. And, you know, I'm quite familiar with that area because by this point I've been living there probably about seven months. So we just sort of wandered around that area, wandered into a restaurant.

It was more or less on Kaye, if anyone knows Madrid, just in case you know it, or you can Google. locator, Kaye Esposimina, which is like very, very central Madrid near Seoul. So we were in this restaurant. It's a very old restaurant. It's a tavern-style restaurant. And like I said, we hadn't pre-booked, which is pretty normal. It was a weekday, a weekday in Spain.

I mean, it was busy, but not busy enough that, you know, they didn't have any tables. However, the upstairs part, very busy. so they seated us downstairs. So at this point when we went downstairs, it was probably like a quarterful and they put us on a two-person table right in the sort of the corner downstairs. Now, this is like a kind of cavern style.

It's like very old downstairs. Like it looks like, and I'll come back to this later on, but it looks like it used to be part of maybe like a monastery or even like a crypt, like very old sort of arched, decor, you know, like stone wall. But this isn't like recreated. This is all original. Because this is Europe.

You know, Europe's very old. Right. It's not like here. It's like Epcot. Yeah. This is this is all original and often recreated. So, you know, from the get go, I felt a little bit off there. I'm not saying that I'm like super psychic or anything like that. You know, I'm, I would say I'm probably slightly more sensitive than the average person. but I'm certainly like not seeing ghosts anywhere or anything like that.

But I felt a little bit, a little bit strange down there. And I noticed that in the corner, it's sort of, it's hard to explain. But the corner, because you've got to remember the roof as well in this part, the ceiling, you know, it's kind of, you know, it's not all uniform. There's certain parts that are much lower than others. So in the corner next to us, the roof kind of lowered down. So it kind of, yeah, kind of, yeah, you know what I mean. And in the corner on the floor, there was a hole.

I was like, it's weird. There's a hole. And it was kind of cordons off. So you couldn't sort of go there, but you could clearly tell that there was a hole in the floor there. So I remember asking the waiter, like, what's with the hole? Like, what's that about? And he said, oh, like, this place is really old. And underneath all this part of Madrid, there are, like, really old tunnels that date back, like, hundreds of hundreds of years.

Oh, man. Yeah, he said like that's that's an entrance to some of the tunnels and I'm like, oh, do you use them? It's kind of like, can you go into the hole? Does that lead to somewhere? And he's like, oh, we do use like part of the tunnels to keep wine. He said, but that's not the entrance that we use. He said that's just another entrance to kind of other tunnels. And he says it actually when we were renovating this place, like when the restaurant was first sort of put here, I think the restaurant by this point was like obviously the actual original fittings were very old, but the actual restaurant. I think at this point, it was about 10 years old. So he said like when we, when the restaurant was

like, you know, like first renovated, he said that they found soldiers uniforms and things in that hole. And he said that it was probably used during the Spanish Civil War, which was in the 1930s. He said, or it might have even been the Napoleonic War. That was, um, why when Spanish, yeah, were, that was like, I think that was 15th century. Don't quote me on that. And when they were fighting. the French. So I was like, okay. So we were sat there and we felt quite cold and we didn't feel very comfortable. So there seemed to be like drops in temperature randomly as well. I mean, that's not super unusual because it is very old building and it's like a cavern style place. But we decided at this point because it cleared out down there and we were more or less the only

people left down there. We decided to move further into the restaurant. So we were still parallel to this hole, but we moved about five meters sort of to the left, basically. So we were sat there by this point, you know, another half an hour goes by. We were eating. By this point, we weren't thinking anymore about the whole. We were just sort of chatting about random things. Me and my friend both liked to talk, so we were just like engrossed in conversation. And I do remember at this point as well about the restaurant that I had a massive steak. It's probably the biggest steak of everything in my life. that's the other thing I remember about this place.

So literally it was taking me like forever to eat the state because they covered the whole place. So we'd been down there at this point for at least an hour, probably longer. And I wasn't feeling weird at this point. We were just literally normal at this point, just talking, eating, whatever. And to imagine it. So at this point, I'm sat facing the wall. So my friends and I sat facing each other at two-seater table. ball. So I'm facing my friends. Behind my friend is the wall. Okay? This is important. Behind me, so she's

facing me, behind me is the stairs to lead to the upstairs of the restaurant. So I can see my friends and I can see the ball behind it. And we're both just eating. And I think there was like a lulling conversation for a minute or so. And then I noticed that there was a shadow behind my friend. So this shadow kind of, I'm looking sort of towards my friends and then I just sort of noticed this shadow on the wall behind it, but the shadow was moving behind me. So it wasn't stationary, it was literally moving along the wall behind it. So from my point of view, it was almost like there was somebody behind me and somehow their shadow was showing on the wall behind my friend. In my head, that's what I was thinking.

It was almost like a silhouette, if you see what I mean. So it was almost like somebody had walked behind me from the right hand side of me behind me to the left hand side of me and then like out of my. vision and towards the hole because the hole was to the left of me. So it was walking basically behind me towards the hole. But obviously I can't see behind me. So I'm seeing this silhouetted behind my friend on the wall because it was a white wall, like a whitewashed wall. Gotcha. I'm like this is really strange. Like what was that? So I kind of stopped looking at my friend momentarily because obviously I'm distracted by this weird silhouette on the wall and I'm literally following it with my eyes, like going behind it. And I'm like, what's that? That's strange. And it wasn't the complete

shape of a person. It was kind of human shaped, but not exactly like a, you know, for me and it's hard to explain it. Humanoid, but not a human. Humanoid but not a human. It wasn't perfectly like shadow shaped. It was kind of like the edges went completely sort of perfectly, you know, like rounds or anything. It was kind of a bit sort of blared, if you know what, but it was definitely a shadow and it definitely moved the way I sent behind my friends. So at the exact same moment that I'm noticing the shadow and I'm momentarily like distracted from looking at my friend's face, she's looking at me, obviously. And I'm not scared at this moment. I'm just sort of confused because I'm like, there's definitely nobody behind me. What is this shadow? And we were at this point like

the only people down there. There's no waiter. There's no other, there's no other restaurant people like eating or anything. Just like, then my, my, my face. focus goes back to my friend's face. And I'm about to say, that's weird and explains her what has happened. When I noticed her face, and her face literally, like, I've never seen such horror on anyone's face since,

or, like, before this or since this. Like, her face was just horrified, literally, like, aghast. She was absolutely petrified. Like, I could see the terror in her face. Wow. She was just staring at me, like, like, she'd never seen anything like before. So then that completely freaked me out. So I wasn't freaked out by the shadow. I was

freaked up by the expression on her face, like abject terror. And before, before, like, I knew what was happening before I could even say or do anything else, she literally just left up from the table. She was clutching onto this, like, religious pendant. And she's Sikh, my friend, her name's money. She was clutching onto this religion, like Sikh pendant that she had around her neck. and she just started reciting, like, religious prayers out loud. Wow. Just repeatedly. And I'm saying, what's going on?

What's going on? I thought she must have seen something behind me. That's what I thought. Right. So I'm looking behind me. I'm thinking, oh, my God, what's happening? But she wouldn't say anything. She literally just grabbed it.

And then she just ran up the stairs. She just left me and ran up the stairs. You and your steak. And then we both stood halfway up the stairs to the top of the restaurant, when she finally, she stopped halfway up the stairs. And she's just stood there, like trying to catch her breath, still grabbing the pen and still, like, reciting the prayers. So it took me probably like about three minutes or so

to actually manage to calm her down and get any other words out of her. And I'm like, what's going on? What's going on? What's going on? And she's like, I can't go back down there. I can't go back down there. I'm like, okay, fine, let's go upstairs then. So we both went upstairs, you know,

asked the waiter to go and get our food from downstairs. And then we sat upstairs. And then I managed to kind of calm her down. And I was like, what's going on? Like, why are you so freaked out? And she said that I turned yellow. Oh, wow. Really weird.

So she said that we were just sat there normally and she said she was looking at my face and I turned yellow. Now, I to this day still don't completely understand what she means by that. I've tried, we are still friends, but because we live in completely different hemispheres now, we don't see each other very often.

And whenever I bring this up, She's kind of like, oh, yeah, it was weird, but she doesn't really want to talk about it in detail. She just kind of says, yeah, that was really strange. But she doesn't really sort of answer my questions in detail when I ask her. So I said, what do you mean? I turned yellow, but she couldn't really explain. So I don't know if she means I look jaundiced. I don't know if she means like I was emitting like a yellow light or a glow.

It sounds like it was pretty dramatic. It wasn't like a subtle like shift. It sounds like if she was like, what, like I said, did that happen like gradually? She said no. one minute you were completely normal and then all of a sudden you turned yellow for about like 30 seconds or something like that. But this was exactly simultaneously to the moment when something passed behind me that I saw silhouetted behind her on the wall. So it's almost like it must have passed through me or something like that going towards the hole in the corner that I talked about earlier.

This reminds me. This reminds me of a story and you may have heard it because I know you were a plus club member and you've listened to many episodes. Very early in, We had this caller, I think it was from Australia. And he said he was with a female friend and they were sitting in his apartment and they were drinking tea and there were no substances evolved. They weren't using drugs or anything like that. And it was very calm and it was serene and they were looking at each other as they were drinking tea. And she said to the man, your face is changing. and the man said to her, I think your face is changing too.

And the way that you're probably too young to remember this. You're probably too young to remember this. But that old video with Michael Jackson, Black or White, the song, where the face is kind of more. Yeah, yeah, I think so, yeah. That's what he basically described. One looked like a Native American, another one looked like someone from Africa, another one looked like somebody from Egypt. And their faces, both of them were seeing their faces changed. change to people from different cultures.

And he swore, we were not, you know, we weren't, you know, taking advantage of any substances. We were not drugged. We were stone cold, sober. We were drinking just regular tea, nothing in it. And then we saw our faces changing. It kind of reminded me of that story a little bit. So just quickly to add, because I know, obviously, we're running out of time in other colors, but just quickly.

So I'd just like to say there weren't any substances involved here. either like my friends and I, neither of us take drugs or anything like that. And we both, um, we're completely sober. We weren't drinking. In fact, I don't really like to drink with food. Um, so I always just stick to water or like a soft drink when I'm eating. So I know that like, we were completely sober. The also, the other thing I'd like to say is, um, I have done some research into this area and this area, um, there used to be a convent for friars. So around 1500s to the 1800s. Um, it was a convent. So I've found different kinds of information online about where the restaurant exactly is situated,

like what it's situated on type of thing. So one bit of information says that this would have been the gardens or the orchards. Another actually says that this might have actually been the entrance itself to the convent somewhere along this particular road. But anyway, all of this used to be the convent's land. and that convent had crips and it had like a graveyard attached to it and this is all original from that time period as well so the convent used to use the underground passageways for storage of like wine but also potentially bodies also obviously Spain suffered from the plague

so I know all of this area would have been used as overflow for bodies that couldn't be buried in graveyards because there were so many. So there's that link. Also, during the time of the Napoleonic War between France and Spain, the French actually took over the convent for about, I don't know how many years exactly,

but for quite a few years. So this was actually run by the French during this period. Also, it has links to the Spanish Civil War in the 30s with Franco, the dictator. And this, all of these, like underground passages during that period, the subterranean passages under Madrid back then were used as like the equivalent of like air raid shelters.

Spanish wasn't involved in World War II. So there was a lot of, there were a lot of energy and a lot of history in these places, and this could have drawn from many of them or multiples? Yeah. And also just the last thing, a couple of houses up the road from here in the 1960s, so literally on the same street, there was a horrible tragedy where, a Taylor murdered his wife and their five children and himself. Oh, my Lord.

A bit further up the road. And also there's rumors that about two minutes from here walking, Franco had a secret prison as well. And also... So this place was ripe for this kind of stuff. About six minutes walk from here under Tessa de Molina Metro Station. That was part of another convent. And when they were renovating that to make it into a metro station,

they found bodies of monks there. And they actually just left the skeletons in the walls of the metro station. And some people say that you can still hear like the monks in the metro station. Again, that's literally just up the row from here. It's literally like. What a place. What a place one of these TV shows need to go over there. Wow.

Well, Natasha, thank you so much. Please spread the word down in Peru and stay spooky. Yeah. You too, stay spooky gym. Thanks a lot. I'll call back. Thank you so much. You said this place was steps from the water. We just haven't found the steps yet. How much did we save? Enough.

Enough to get lost. Or you could book a stay with Hilton. Welcome to your ocean front room. Just steps from the water. The Hilton sale is on now. Book on Hilton.com or the Hilton app and save up to 20% to get the stay you expected. When you want savings, not surprises. It matters where you stay. Hilton, for this day.

Next up on the campfire is Taylor from Tennessee. And I'm not going to spoil it, but boy, I think I'm going to get chills on this one. Taylor, welcome to the show and tell us what happened. Hey, so I recently, about two months ago, started a new job at a primary care office. And within the building, there are about five or six other offices. different specialties. And this office, the current position had been in there about maybe two months prior to me starting there. And the office had been empty for about five years prior to that. And there's several people that worked there at the same time in different offices. So it had been

empty. People refused to have this particular office. So it had been about five years ago, shortly after the pandemic, it had been a sleep center. And so as a, as a, a small, sleep studies, you know, they have to monitor audio, visuals, all of that. So they were monitoring all of that. And the doctor and the staff on call that were watching all of this happen, they were able to see on the camera what looked like an orb and it slowly like morphed into something a little bit more of substance. And nobody can describe exactly what it looked like because the people quit.

So it moved across the room where the sleep study was being done and into the patient who was having like severe insomnia and just different things going on, moved into the patient. And at the same time, you can hear these growls. And the patient, like, became super agitated as this thing moved into his body. And apparently, yeah. And apparently the doctor on call, like, it was severe enough that, and, you know, doctors are usually, like, all about logic and not really into that type of stuff. He quit the very next day.

Like, that night, he was like, all right. He was like, this is over. You can go. And a bunch of the staff quit. And within that month, everybody had moved out of that office, including the other physicians. And that isn't like quitting, you know, a fast food job. That's a major commitment to quit a health care job. Wow. Exactly. Yeah. And to spend all that time in medical school and stuff. And I don't think he's, I think he's still a doctor, but I think he switched out of like the sleep study practices. Because after that, he just, I guess, started kind of questioning things. So it's, it was pretty severe. And there's been multiple people who were there. at the time, and they were like, we don't talk about it. And of course, we talk about it.

So essentially what happened was this person was being monitored, audio and visually. And I've, you know, I've had that done in the sleep study done before. And during this, the people saw an orb basically appear to enter his body. And then once it happened, he started like acting out and growling and all this wild stuff. Yeah. Yeah, they said it started from an orb. And then as it got. closer to him, it got a little bit bigger, and then just went into him. And once it got to him, you could hear the growls. And it just, the patient became very agitated. I'll tell you, there are just things, Taylor, you know this. And I think most of the people listening and watching know this. There's some things we just can't explain. You know, they don't necessarily make, quote, logical sense. But yet they happen. Absolutely. And it reminds me another health care story was one of my favorites that we've had on the show. And this was years ago. It was a gentleman who was a doctor

over in England. And he was down at the emergency, the ED, as they called the emergency department, and tending to someone, he got called up to like the third or fourth floor. And like a code, is a code blue, I think, when somebody is, you know, coding or whatever. So he's running up the stairwell and he sees this older man come down. He has like, his top on, he doesn't have his bottoms on. And he calls out in the hallway, hey, could somebody take care of this gentleman? Because he seemed kind of aimless and kind of like he was out of it. So he continues to go up the steps. He goes into the room to address and work with the patient who's coding.

And that man is lying in the bed. And the man died. That's wild. Yeah. And none of it seems too shocking. Yeah. And the thing is, is that kind of like your situation, these are people of science. These are people who, you know, have spent how many years in schooling and things, but yet these things happen.

Just today, and this will be, by the time this airs, I had a great discussion. And if you haven't seen it or heard it, check out the paranormal podcast of January 13th because we released an episode with Hospice Nurse Julie. Oh. And she's a woman who is an RN and has been a hospice nurse for a number of years now. She's a best-selling author and a big YouTuber. And she talked about the experiences of seeing, you know, things and so forth during that process that really make you really make you think. So Taylor, thank you so much. I appreciate thank you for being a part of the campfire.

I know you're also over on our virtual campfire group. Everybody should check that out at Virtual Campfire. Firegroup.com. And thank you for being a part of the show and stay spooky. You too, Jim. Stay spooky. She's relatively new on the show, but we're so glad to have her been listening for a few months now. Bobby from Indiana.

And I got to say this, I won't spoil it, but this kind of story is actually one of the more frightening ones to me that could happen, maybe more so than a traditional kind of ghost story. Very, very scary indeed. Bobby, welcome to the show. Tell us what happened. Hey, Jim. They give her happy me. To give you a little bit of a backdrop or like back history, this is probably around 2002 when I was living in San Antonio, Texas. I was a zookeeper there. And I was coming home. It's kind of like around dusk time in September.

So it was sort of like the sun was going down. It wasn't quite dark yet. but it was coming off the highway, went onto a frontage road that was not very far from my apartment complex. And as I was rounding a corner, there was like a little bit of fog that actually ended up appearing. So I was thinking, okay, it was just fog coming in. It's that time of year. The weather's changing. No big deal. But pretty much as soon as that happened, all of a sudden,

within maybe I would say five feet of the front of my bumper, like in the middle of the road or the lane that I was driving in, all of a sudden I saw this woman that just appeared out of nowhere. And she had like longer blonde hair. I could only see from like maybe her mouth or jawline down to like just about her hip. So I could see that she was wearing. wearing like a long sleeve denim top. Um, she was wearing a pair of jeans.

Um, so I mean, she was pretty, I couldn't really distinguish her features on her face, but I knew enough to know that it looked like a woman. And, um, so it startled me,

obviously. It's right there. I'm going maybe 35 a mile an hour. Um, so I had to swerve my car. So left really quickly because I was afraid I was, afraid I was actually going to run into her. Sure.

And when I swerved to the left, it wasn't enough. And I heard on the right front side of my car a loud bang. Oh, boy. And it, I mean, when you hear that, your heart just stops. Of course. So automatically, I just pull over. I mean, it was super quick. I slammed on my brakes, pulled over, got out of my car because I was expecting to see somebody

on the road or in the ditch or somewhere, I thought I was going to see somebody that had been injured somewhere. Right. Right. And I got out and looked around. And there was a pretty much good space between, there was like a dollar theater, maybe about three, 400 yards to one side and like maybe a restaurant and like an apartment complex, maybe about the same distance on the other.

So there was enough space that I could. I should have been able to see somebody when I got out of my car. I should have been able to see no matter if they just continue walking on, like nothing happened or something. And there was nobody around. And I was so afraid that, you know, maybe somebody just walked off and they're hurt and they're disoriented. My apartment complex was basically right there at the top of the hill.

Right. So I ended up calling. I end up calling the police department and had them come to my apartment so I can give them a statement and report the accident. Right. Because I was afraid that, you know, leaving the scene of an accident. And so I was just telling the officer, I'm like, look, I'm like, I've not been drinking. I'm not on drugs. Right.

But this is what happened. And, you know, he was nice. He's like, I don't be crazy. So it was good. But I just wanted them, I just told him, I'm like, I don't know. I'm like, this is what I saw. And there was no damage, Jim, on the front of my car, nothing. There was no, nothing that would even, you would have even seen, you know, that would have made signs that you made contact with something.

Right. I'm not sure if, you know, it was hitting her or when I, when I swerved, if the, you know, whoever it was, like slammed the hood of my car and with her hand or what it was. But, yeah, it was just, like, super, like, quick and it was gone. Or was it some kind of a ghost? Yeah, I mean, I mean, that's, that's, for lack of a better explanation, because there was just no way somebody could have made it from any of the other locations without me getting out of the car and seeing them.

like walking away, running away, or anything like that. So, I mean, I had no, it's kind of like one of those things. Like once you see that, you're like, what was that? And the thing is, I think most people, if they're almost hit by a car, they would have some kind of a reaction, even if it was unfair. They might say, what are you doing? You almost hit me, you know? Exactly.

And none of that happened. Wow. Not at all. I've never had anything like, you know, like that happened since, but I can still remember, like, what her hair looked like, what she was wearing, you know, and just swerving the car and seeing her, like, off to, you know, and then a car hitting something. And it was crazy. And this isn't the first time we've heard this kind of thing because we have one person, I think, called in from England and said that this happened to his uncle, I think. And again, this is up top of my head, so maybe I'm getting it wrong. But his uncle, and this happened decades ago, and the guy was terrified.

He thought he hit somebody, and he got out and he looked everywhere and looked around nothing. And he called the police, and they said, don't worry about it. It happens all the time right in that same spot. And then another woman who I think called, and very similar to your story, and thought for sure she hit someone. And there was nothing there. So I don't know what these phantom ghosts are. But that would scare, I think that would scare me more than outright just seeing a ghost appear right over there. Because then you've always thought, oh, did I hurt somebody?

You know, that kind of thing, which is, you know, a very human, decent reaction that a decent person would have. And probably, I'm guessing, you replayed that in your head for years, I'm guessing, but go ahead. Oh, yeah, absolutely. I mean, I even tried, like, just looking, I mean, this is the time where iPhone, weren't really around much yet, an early cell phone. So, you know, we didn't have like the really good searching tools we have today. Right. But even after that, I mean, I've looked for years to see if, you know,

there are any particular hauntings or incidences that other people had or anything like that, you know, pertaining to what I encountered. And I still to this day have found nothing. Well, there you have it. Bobby, thank you so much. I appreciate you being part of the campfire today and stay spooky. Thank you, Jim. Stay spooky. Donna is on the line from Illinois. She's been listening. Well, I think for years she said either she found out about me from astonishing legends or vice versa. Either way, it's a virtuous circle. It's all good. So we thank them for reference. furring folks our way. Donnie, you had a story about, well, someone very special, right?

Yes, yes. So many years ago, I was living with two roommates, and one of the roommates had two senior cats. One was like 15, and the other one was probably about 20. And the 20-year-old, I lovingly called the furry digestive system because all she ever did was eat and use the litter box and sleep. So my bright idea was to bring a kitten into the apartment, which, you know, I was young. I didn't know that wasn't, that was pretty cruel to do to two old cats, but it seemed to work out. They all got along well. And I had the kitten for about nine months when I found out that she had a deathly illness. There was nothing that could be done.

She was in the veterinary hospital for quite some time, and then they finally told me that the best thing to do would be to put her to sleep. And as, yeah, and as somebody who was pretty young, I couldn't handle being there at the time. I couldn't deal with it. So, and my vet was wonderful, and I trusted them to take care of everything. So I went home that day, the day I knew, I went and said goodbye to her, and then I went home that day and, you know, tried to take my mind off of it by watching TV with one of my roommates. And all of a sudden, the 20-something, she was like 20 or 21, the 20-year-old cat who really

honestly never did anything, gets up in the room that we were watching TV and starts playing. and there were still toys around the house from the kitten. And she was playing with a couple of the toys, which I had known her for a year and a half-ish and never saw her play because she was usually sleeping. So she's playing with the toys for honestly it was minutes. It could have been even up to five minutes. And then all of a sudden she just stops and goes back to sleep. And my roommate looks at me And the kitten's name was Alex

My roommate looks at me And she's like, that was Alex came to say goodbye to us And that was the exact same thing I was thinking Wow A little bit later, the vet calls to give her condolences And just, you know, tell us that everything went well And I said, I asked her, I said, Do you know what time this happened?

And she said it was about two and when the old cat started playing for five minutes, I made a point of looking at the time, and it was 2 o'clock. So I'm sure that was her coming to say goodbye and maybe letting me know that, you know, I felt really guilty about not being there, but, you know, kind of her way of letting me know, it was okay. I do think that these animals have a spiritual component,

and they have a great bond. So it makes sense to me. It makes sense to me. definitely, that that somehow was both of the cats interacting from the spiritual side. And it's interesting, you and your friend both had the same reaction independently and then the timing lining up. It all seems to line up. Yeah, yeah. And I was half afraid it was going to hurt the old cats, but she was fine. So you had another story, another brief story you wanted to share.

Yes, so years later, different cat. I know, you know, you shouldn't have favorites, but he was my favorite cat. And anybody who came to my house, who met him, who spent any time at all with him, wanted to take him home. He very much had the personality of a golden retriever puppy even up. He really was. He was sweet like that. He would come meet me at the door. And even up to the time he got old.

He was, I think, 18 when he started to slow down. And he pretty quickly took a turn for the worst. And took him to the vet, and the vet said he had a little bit of time, but not very much, maybe weeks. But he wasn't in any pain. So I brought him home and, you know, just wanted to spend some time with him. And anybody who's ever had a pet that had to be put to sleep knows the agony of trying to weigh. what I want versus what's what's right for the pet and what's, you know, the best thing to do. So I had made an appointment with somebody who communicates with animals, which I was a little

skeptical about, I mean, I believe animals have souls and, you know, no doubt that they go on like I believe we do. But the thing that always didn't make sense to me was how do you communicate with a different species, you know, have a conversation. But I thought, you know, I was pretty desperate at the time. I wanted to do the right thing. So I called her, and she asked me some questions about the cap before. Like when I made the appointment, she wanted a description and wanted to know what was going on a little bit. So when she was talking to me, she started out by saying things that she could have gotten from what I said before or just some very basic things.

But then she said to me that he wanted me to know that he appreciates it when I whispered to him, which nobody ever saw me doing. I didn't say I was doing. And then sometimes I would just sit with him and imagine like a golden healing light around him, just trying anything to make him feel better. And she said he really likes when you put the light around him. I'm like, oh. There's no way she could have known that. So through this reading, I said, well, do animals come back? And if they do, would he come back?

Would he consider coming back to me? And she said, definitely, he would love that. And I said, well, how will I know? It's him. How will I be able to connect with him again? And she said, she described what he's going to look like. She's like, you'll find him, don't worry. The description she gave me was the exact description.

It was a little more detailed, but it was pretty much the description I gave her of him. It was what he looked like. So I was a little leery of that. Right. Okay. Oh, and then another thing, I asked her, I said, how I know when it's time to, you know, take him to be put to sleep? And she said, he'll let you know. And I don't know anybody else who's had like a cat, especially in the final stages.

And this is, I've had other cats like this. They just kind of lay in the couch. His eyes were open a little bit, but you could tell he was not there. Like he wasn't responding to you anything. And then one of the last days, I just went up to him and I was talking to him. I said, you know, if you need to go, it's fine. You have to let me know. And then his eyes kind of came back.

Like his eyes were open, but you could tell he wasn't there. And then all of a sudden you could see him there. And I swear, Jim, there were tears coming out of his eyes. I'm like, oh, okay. Or his eyes were watering or whatever. it is that cats do. But I'm like, okay, okay, I know it's time. So we had him put to sleep, and there was another old cat in the house, and I was not going to bring new kittens until that cat passed. I didn't think it was fair to her. And she was the kind of cat who wanted to be

an only cat, so I figured I'm going to let her enjoy that for a while. So she lived for almost another a year. And at different times during that year, I would talk out loud to my cat who passed saying, you know, it's not time yet. And I told him that if he wanted to bring one of his friends with him, because I wanted to get two kittens, I said, yo, feel free to pick out one of the cats that we had with him to come back. And I kept saying this. And then the other cat passed. And it was a couple months later, and I started thinking maybe about getting a kitten. And one day, I opened my iPhone, and on the lock screen, there are widgets. And on one widget, there was a picture. And just, my daughter used to like taking pictures of my parents, like random pictures when they were eating

or when they were talking, or it was pretty funny for a while. There was a picture of my mom with her mouth open and she was pointing down because she probably got her mid-sentence or something. And what she was pointing to was PetFinder. It was another widget that brought up, I think, random apps, and PetFinder was there. I don't know if you know what that is, but shelters can list pets they have for adoption,

and it's pretty cool. So all the local shelters will have their listings on there. So I'm like, okay. So I opened PetFinder, and the first kitten I come to was it looked exactly like him, exactly like him. And then with him was his sibling, and they were a bonded pair. And the sibling was a gray-brown tabby, which 90% of my other cats have been gray-brown

tabbies. So it could have been, you know, one of the other cats that he had been with. So I went and adopted them right away, went and filled out the paperwork and got those two. And I swear to you, this cat, this new cat has the exact same personality as the other cat looks the same as the other cat. And another funny thing is I have a parrot who learns all the cat's names. Learn the new, not the cat that looks like the other cat, but learn the other cat's new name, but is calling the cat that looks like my old cat by the old name, refuses to learn the new name. So I figure he must know something. Very good, very good. Well, I got to tell you,

It's one of those things I do believe that our animals, they do have this spiritual component. I do believe that they have this connection with us, and I think that that goes beyond. I think that is a real thing. I really do. Donnet, thank you so much for sharing these very personal stories with us tonight on the campfire and stay spooky. Stay spooky, Jim. Bye. Thank you so much for joining us on the camp.

fire today. I appreciate it. If you're watching on YouTube, please subscribe to the channel. YouTube.com slash Jim Herald. We're trying to get those numbers up as kind of a social proof to kind of increase our profile on YouTube because what that does is so many people discover the show through YouTube. That's become maybe our number one discovery engine. People who would never open up a podcast app, but they say, I watch on YouTube. And that helps a lot because the more subscribers we have, the more interaction we have over there, the more the YouTube algorithm pushes us, and it's a virtuous circle. And of course, we're on the other great places we're on. We love Apple Podcasts. We love Spotify. They're fantastic. But YouTube reaches

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