Jim Harold's Campfire - The Entity Attacked Me - Jim Harold's Campfire 764

Episode Date: June 4, 2026

A former military intelligence officer shares a chilling childhood encounter from Guam, where island folklore, a moonlit night, and something unseen but deeply sinister came together in a way he has never forgotten. Also on Campfire episode, we hear strange accounts of departed loved ones, unsettling figures in the home, bizarre roadside encounters, shadowy visitors, and old houses that seem to hold on to more than memories. It’s an eerie mix of stories about warnings, watchers, haunted places, and moments when the ordinary world suddenly feels anything but ordinary. --VIRTUAL CAMPFIRE GROUPJoin our FREE online community at ⁠https://virtualcampfiregroup.com⁠YOUTUBE 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

Our storyteller was attacked by an evil entity. Up next on the campfire. Sit back, relax, and warm yourself by Jim Harold's campfire. Next up is Steve from Hawaii, and he has quite a story that goes back to his childhood. I believe when he was 13 years old. He has many stories, he says, but this one is one that stood out for him. He'd like to share tonight in the campfire.

He's new listener just found out about us a couple months ago, and here he is. And we appreciate it very much. Steve, welcome to the program and tell us what happened. Jim, thanks for having me. As with a lot of your viewers, they kind of give their background first, and then they go into their story. So for my case, I did 23 years in the Air Force. I was an intelligence officer for those 23 years, counterterrorism at first, and then I worked what we call strategic competition. I have multiple master's degrees.

So kind of doing the argument from authority here that I have this background that doesn't really match the experiences that I have had, primarily when I was a youth, but I've had a couple of things that happened while I was in the Air Force as well. And let me interject, let me interject, and I told you all fair, but thank you for your service to the country. I appreciate it. And I do think that's really interesting. You have that background.

So, you know, sometimes the debunkers and skeptics will say, ah, you know, these people aren't stable and things, which is, you know, just a red herring they throw in there. Obviously, you are the picture of credibility, stability, all those things. So, yes, please proceed. And thank you again for your service. Yeah, I thank you again. And let's start where this all began was I'm from the island of Guam. And Guam has, it's steeped in superstition. and there's a lot of folklore there, a lot of ghost stories, primarily with what are known as the Taatamona.

Tatamona are the indigenous spirits of the Chamoros that live on the island, the natives to the island. And while I'm not Chamorro, I'm a howley, that's where I'm from. So being raised on Guam, I knew the ghost stories, and my brother is married to a Chamorro, and I learned a lot of it from her. And she's kind of pivotal in this story, this main one that happened. This happened around 1984. I know the exact month and year. It was May of 1984.

And I was at my brother's house. My sister-in-law was with me. And we were watching a movie called Trading Places, Dan Aymeard, Eddie Murphy. Yeah. Good movie. And that came out in May in 1984. So that's how I could piece the timeline as to when this actually occurred. I remembered it just because of that movie.

And I remember the exact scene that was going on. Eddie Murphy was in this trolley cart pretending he was handicapped. And then the two police officers pick him up. And it was at that scene where all of this happened. So the house is situated about 10 feet above Marine Corps Drive. I'm going to refer to it as Marine Drive because that's how I knew it as I was growing up. Off of the distance about two miles away is Mount Santa Rosa. and it has a ray dome on top of it.

It's a big golf ball type of thing that protects the radar dish that you use by Anderson Air Force Base. And I can look over the jungle canopy. And something caught my attention during that scene of treating places out the window. And it was a full moon,

so you could see the jungle canopy, and then on top of that, it was just past twilight, so we still had a little bit of light. But I saw something come from behind the mountain and start skirting over the jungle canopy. Now, I couldn't see it, but I could sense it. And it rapidly came across the jungle canopy, got to the road, and then it stopped.

Now, kind of the scenes that are here inside the house. My sister-in-law is sitting on a different seat, and I have a big rotweiler in front of me. His name's Kuma. Kuma means bear in Japanese. And he's sound asleep. When that thing got to the road, Kuma woke up. and as soon as Kuma barked, whatever it was shot from across the road and into the house.

Whoa. And it, it tackled me. It grabbed onto me. Now, a lot of Neosar is going to say, yeah, sleep paralysis.

No, I was watching a movie. My sister-in-law was right next to me in the next chair over in a lazy boy recliner. And I'm on a sofa. My dog is asleep in front of me. when that dog sensed it as well, he barked, whatever this thing was, jumped through across the road and into the window in less than a second, and grabbed me and was physically holding me down. And I couldn't do anything except move my eyes. Couldn't speak. Couldn't move any of my limbs. Couldn't get my sister-in-law's attention.

But she knew because she could see it. And she described it later on. I'll go into what she described later on. But all this time now, the dog is biting at air. My dog is biting at air in front of me. And all I felt was this oppressive evil. And it was just a solid strength. And mind you, I'm 14 years old. Whatever this thing was, was more than enough power to hold me down and just keep me there.

And it was not more than 30 seconds that this occurred. And then it released me. And I jumped up and I remember being furious, just so furious at this thing for holding me down. And so I yell at my dog, Kuma, to kill it. And Kuma is actively biting at air as this thing starts to walk down the hallway to my brother and sister-in-law's bedroom. And the dog is biting at air. And once it gets into the bedroom, the dog stops.

and then kind of backs away and looks at me and then stands as ground and growls again. And when it growled again, I knew that it was coming out. So I jumped to the side and whatever this thing was, went right to near where the dog was, shot into the ground. And then the dog was furiously trying to get into the ground at that exact point where this thing went into the ground. So my sister-in-law was there, and she had dropped her book, and she had one of those cliplights on. So people would also say, well, how was she reading a book if it was kind of dark? And I was like, well, it was a full moon for one. She had a cliplight on her book.

And she says, she saw this black kind of an amorphous mass that was holding me down, and she could see it undulating, moving. but it was huge. She said it was like seven feet tall and was just bent over you holding you. Wow. She couldn't see limbs, but she definitely could see kind of

a form taking place and then it released and then it was just a black mass again. And then it came back and it shot into the ground. I couldn't see it, but I definitely felt just this ominous

essentially evil. I don't know why it attached to me. I don't know what it did, what the purpose behind it was, but it's not the only encounter I have with this thing. But this is by far the most dramatic encounter. So there were other encounters in the future, and we'll want to hear about this, hopefully, and another call.

Now, let me ask you this. When you said it came over the mountain, you said, I think you said that. Came around the mountain. It didn't go over the radar. It went around it. So was it like a fireball or was a humanoid figure? What did it look like when it came around the mountain?

See, I can't tell. I don't know what it looked like. I could just feel where it was at. I never saw the presence. I never saw what this thing was. I just felt it. And as soon as it came around that mountain, I knew something was coming and I could track it.

I could visually track this. speed, but I could not for the life of me see what this thing was. Because what I was going to point out is, is that, you know, there's so much talk about the UFO, UAP subject. In between the time we record this and the time it's released, who knows what's going to come out. Things are changing very quickly. But my point is that a lot of people are now saying they believe the UFO phenomenon is more spiritual than it is necessarily maybe aliens from some other planet.

or maybe their beings that are already here. So what I was wondering is it almost seemed like a UFO that turned into some kind of demonic figure. But that's not what you're saying. That's not what you're saying. You didn't say they did not come like a firebossom. So I just wanted to, that was the line of questioning I was trying to pursue. But that's not what happened. Okay.

Yeah. And also for clarification, I have time at the range. Most people call it area 51. We hate that it's called area 51. That's just a demarcation on a map. It's the range or groom lake. And one of my assignments was there. I've worked with, the whole reason for the range is we test against adversary equipment, and that's all I'm going to say.

I don't necessarily believe that there are aliens coming down. I do believe Drake equation, Fermi paradox, all of that explains a lot. and just mathematically, sure, I absolutely believe that there's intelligent life. This was not that. This was an actual presence of evil. That's what this was. Do you think that it was coming after you specifically because you have follow-on examples or were you just the unlucky recipient?

I know. This thing's been around since that time. It makes itself known every couple of years. And it's tied itself to my daughter. Oh, my. So, and, yeah, so she's had experiences as well. And she had no idea what this was. I never told her.

And then she started telling me some of the things that had been happening to her. And they were very similar. And the last thing I'll ask, and then hopefully we can set another. time for you to come back and tell us more experiences. Are you a little concerned about sharing the story that it might kind of wake it up? Oh, yeah.

No, when I discussed this that I was going to do this with my daughter, and she said, good, it'll leave my house. Oh. So when we do bring it up, it tends to come around. Wow. Well, all the best. We're certainly not hoping for that. And I hope that you'll come back and share more. I mean, afterwards, to wrap up, what was your feeling about this afterwards

and how did you come to reconcile it? What happened? I was angry that it was picking on a 14-year-old. And the two things occurred. One is it definitely made me stronger in terms of, okay, I need to be able to tech myself. And the second one is that I wanted to learn as much as possible. So hence the multiple master's degrees and lots of rank in the Air Force. And so it actually had an added benefit. But it really doesn't mess with me now simply because I'm angry at it. And I let it know that you

can't do anything to me. So that's interesting. I'm not fearful of it. I am upset with it. Well, one thing we're not upset about is the fact you decide to share with us. Thank you very much for that. And thank you for being on the campfire tonight. Thank you, Jim.

Really appreciate it. Wow, what a story. Welcome to Jim Harold's campfire. And that's what we specialize in. We specialize in true stories of the, strange and we've been doing it since gosh i lose track sometimes what year was it in 2009 2009 that's what it was wow that is amazing thank you for being with us uh for those of you have been with us for a long time if you're brand new we love to have you as well and thanks to all of our

storytellers it is a great thing and the only thing that i can think of in terms of my podcast that have lasted longer than the campfire is the paranormal podcast That is the show where I interview folks about ghosts, cryptic creatures, UFOs, just strange stuff. So on this show, I talk to regular folks about their real world experiences. And I've got to say it's my favorite. But my second favorite is the paranormal podcast. That is the show. It's been around since 2005.

You can find it wherever you find this podcast. And again, it is The Paranormal Podcast. There's a little bit of confusion because I do the paranormal report with Dar, but the paranormal podcast, the paranormal podcast. Make sure to check it out. I think that you will enjoy it. And we've had some great guests over the years. Oh, my.

It reads like a who's who of the paranormal world. TV stars, legendary researchers. It's been a great ride. And we continue to do it each and every week. And you can find it again, wherever you watch. or listen to the campfire. The show is called The Paranormal Podcast. The Paranormal Podcast.

Please check it out if you have not done so. And now let's check out this next great campfire story. Megan is on the line from Oregon. She's been listening since 2018. She was on the show several years ago. And it's a caller. We appreciate that. And we're so glad to welcome her back.

She has a story that revolves around her grandmother. and her sister. And we're so glad to have her back, as I said. Megan, welcome back. Thank you for joining us. Thanks for staying with us and tell us what happened. Yeah. I'm definitely excited to be back. I'll just jump right in. This story happened over the span of several years, starting around 2022, I think. My grandmother had been sick for a while. and she passed and my sister and uncle were cleaning out her house doing all that fun stuff that, you know, has to be done when someone passes away, unfortunately. And so one night my sister was there. It was pretty late. My uncle had already left and she was

just finishing up whatever she was doing and she was in the kitchen. And the kitchen is somewhere that we all of us always spent a lot of time in there. And she looked up and my grandmother was just standing right in front of her. Wow. Yeah, it's wild. She was wearing a jean jacket that she had always worn when she was alive. And she told my sister, you know, I came to warn you. You're going to get really sick just like I did. And you're going to go through a lot of the same stuff that I go through. Yeah. And so they had that conversation. And my sister, she didn't know what to do. You know, she freaked out. She walked, she ran out of the house. She locked the door. She called me and told me, you know, I saw my grand, you know, I saw her grandmother. And she didn't give me.

me a ton of the specifics at the time. I didn't really find out what she had been told until later. But unfortunately, my sister did become really, really sick about a year later. And it was, it was really, really difficult. And something that has really stuck with me is the night before they had to intubate her. It was a really, it was a really rough thing that happened. And I'm going to do my best to not start crying when I tell the story. Okay.

But the night before they did that, I had a dream where I saw our grandmother. And she said to me, I didn't get a chance to tell her, but make sure she knows that she lives. And I woke up. Wow. And I, yeah, yeah.

And I woke up and it was like I had this, I had to tell her. And so by the time I had woken up, she had already been intubated. And I remember I went to the hospital and I whispered in her ear, you know, she said that you're going to make it. You're going to make it. And two weeks later, she woke up. And she was not necessarily like healed or anything, but she was, she was awake and was able to recover.

And we talked for a while, and I told her my part of the story, and she filled me in on her part of the story. And, you know, we kind of left it at that for a while. Unfortunately, she became really sick again, about two years later. She broke her shoulder.

And, And she also had a stroke. And in those two things together, you know, it was a little too much. You know, she had already been weakened from the other illness. And she had to go into the hospital. And, you know, they were doing everything that they could. And she sent me a text message. And she said, my, our grandmother.

I saw her. I saw her in the hospital room. She's, you know, waiting. She's waiting to take me. And, you know, I freaked out. I was like, well, wait a minute, wait a minute. And I spoke with her doctors. And they were like, oh, no, no, no, no, she's okay. You know, we're going to get her, we're going to get her back to baseline. She'll be okay. but I couldn't shake that feeling that she had seen my grandmother that night. And so, you know, I FaceTime her a couple more times, and then two days later, she did pass away. And so there's just like this thread for that period of time with my grandmother just kind of being there, even though she wasn't on this earth anymore. and they were really, really close.

And I think it just, you know, to me really speaks of the people that love us, you know, never really leave us. And they're always, you know, kind of there. But that's pretty much, there are other things that happen. But I think those are the main thing. Well, let me ask you this. The dream that you had where your grandmother said, she lives where your grandmother said she lives you have that dream now it seems you know pretty

straightforward that the meaning in the short term was she was going to survive that that specific crisis but um i guess the question is do you think that maybe the dream had two meanings that she would survive that crisis and ultimately live do you do you think that's possible in other words on the other side that this is not the end. Did you ever think about that? You know, I hadn't thought about that, but that is, that's really interesting to think about that, you know, maybe she did have, maybe there were two meanings to that message, but I had never really looked at it that way before. I think that's really interesting. Yeah, because initially what I thought you were going to tell me was tell her she lived.

she passed away here and then she lived on was the message. But then, you know, when she said you got okay, I'm like, oh, I wonder if there's two meanings to that. I wonder if there's two meanings to it. Maybe not. But again, the fact that your mother was, your grandmother was coming through tells me we live on. So either way, you know, your sister lives on as I believe all our loved ones do. And I'm sure, I mean, as difficult it is, and I'm very sorry that you've had to deal with

this. And everybody who's dealt with loss, I'm sorry. Sorry. But I have to believe this provides, while it's sad on one hand, it has to provide some kind of comfort, right? Right. Absolutely. Since my sister's passed, I've actually seen her at least twice in my dreams. One time she was just walking towards me.

There was another time where I don't remember our conversation. I definitely think that even though they're not here, they're always with us in some way. Yeah. And I think you broke up there a little bit, but I think you were saying that you were talking and in this dream, your sister was healthy and looked much better, you know, than she did when everything came down. And they do say that many times that when folks are seen after their death, that they look like they're in the prime of life. And maybe if they had an illness or something at the end there that really hit him hard, they don't look like that. They look like they did when they were happy and well. Well, Megan, my sympathies, but I do believe they live on. Thank you so much for joining us tonight on the campfire.

We have Lisa on the line to talk about a very special person and something that was seen. But first, we have a shout-out for a couple of very special people. Lisa, you had a couple of shout-outs. Do you want to go ahead and do those shout-outs real quick? My best friend, Steph, and my son, Connor. Well, Connor, I know you love the show. Thank you for listening. And Steph, a big stay spooky to you too and a stay spooky to Connor, of course, because without Steph, we wouldn't have Lisa here because Steph is the one that told Lisa about the campfire. And see how that works. You tell your friends, you tell your family. And not only do they become listeners, they become storytellers. And then we have more great stories. We have more great shows. See how that works. It's to everybody's benefits. So tell a friend or family members. today. Way to go. Steph and thanks again, Connor. Lisa, tell us about this situation. Sounds very interesting. So it started right after my grandfather-in-law passed away. We weren't living in the same cities. So when he passed away, we came and stayed in his house and we slept on the couch. And

all of a sudden I woke up to his shadow. Like it was darker than dark, but like I could tell it was him. It was the shape of him. And it freaked me out. And it's not the first time like this kind of stuff has happened to me. But he was very persistent. And he would just hover me. So I just rolled over and I tried to go to sleep.

But he just had this intense energy. I don't know if it's like because he's like newly dead, but it was very, very intense. A couple of nights later, he would, this was after the funeral, a couple of nights after the funeral, we stayed at his house and he kept waking me up. Oh, man. Yeah. he um it was just i don't even know how to explain it was this strong energy and it was just so intense and my poor husband he probably thought i was crazy because i would wake up and i would sit up and um i would tell him to stop touching me because he would just like touch me but and like again

the energy was super intense um and then around so we moved into the house that he passed him about probably three months later and he he would give us clues that he was there so like we would find these wet spots on the floor nowhere near like a water source we looked under the house to make sure there was no leaks but there would just be random wet spots um and then when I got my new job, and I kind of credit him for this because I feel like he helped me because I kept praying for a new job and a good thing job. The day before I was supposed to start that job, I was frying bacon in the kitchen. And I turned around with the bacon pan.

And he was just standing there clear as day with his hands in his pocket. and he was smiling at me. And I thought I was just like, and it didn't scare me, but I was just like, holy crap, like you're there. And then I blinked and he was gone. And it was just so weird. So do you think it's, I mean, friendly ghost and overly friendly ghost? What do you think was going on with him?

I would say friendly for sure. But I think in the beginning it was, Confusion in like wanting somebody to know he was there still. I don't feel his presence anymore. After that day, I haven't, I haven't felt him or seen him. Everyone wants to all my husband says that my husband works from home. So sometimes he'll be in his office after work and he'll doze off in his chair and he says that his grandpa will like wake him up. So did you

Did you say that he built the house? Yes, he did build the house. Wow, wow. So he put a lot of a sweat and the blood into the house. And why do you think he chose you? I think because I'm sensitive to that stuff. Me and my, I have a twin sister. Me and her have always been sensitive to that kind of stuff.

She's got crazy stories. she should call into your shell. Absolutely. Yes. Please have her do that. Jimherald.com slash campfire to sign up. Now, let me ask you this. Since you mentioned your twin sister,

I've always heard that people believe, and it seems like there's really something to it that there's almost a supernatural bond between twins. Do you agree with that? I do. I think. So we're, we are not identical twins. She's got blonde hair and green eyes.

I clearly do not have that. But she gets like these crazy dreams where she knows when people are going to have babies. So she had a dream about one of her close friends and her, a gal that. and her, a gal that she went to church with, and she knew that they were going to have a baby. They hadn't said a word. She knew the sex of the baby. Sometimes she can pick up on a name, but not all the time.

Wow. Now, back to the grandfather. So you feel that he's at peace now and you feel everything's cool? I think so I think so I think sometimes he might come and check in on us to make sure

you know we're taking care of the house good yeah hey I built this house take care of me I could totally see that I mean for example my father-in-law after he passed

my wife sold his house because you know we didn't need two houses and you know the people made some changes. And I could just see those would not be changes he would have approved of. He liked things where they were.

Yes. We got the house in 1965 or whenever it was. So I could just see some of the things like, what the hell they do? Well, I do have a quick story about his wife that kind of relates to it. Yeah. Yeah. Go ahead. Go ahead.

So she never like, I feel like she's visited me in dreams because I've, I just remember every detail. They were always silent. We never had a conversation. But usually, so when we would come to visit, she would welcome us in. But in my dream, I was welcoming her in. And I was feeling really anxious about making changes to the house. And like, is it respectful?

Because it's not my house. You know what I mean? Even though it is our house. but it was like her telling me it's okay to make it your house. It's like she gave me permission. And I kind of felt better about it after kind of seeing her. Yeah. And it is a time.

Even I remember when we got the house that we have now, we've been in it five years now, at first I didn't feel like my house. It felt like I was staying in somebody else's house. And it takes a while. And that was when we were taking it over from strangers and people that were still living. So, I mean, even more so when you've got a family house and you're kind of the next generation coming up and you're taking it over, there's got to be that transitory time when you're like it's grandpa's house. And it'll always be grandpa's house on some end, but it's your house now too. So I could totally get that.

Well, Lisa, thank you so much for sharing this story. Let's think. I want to get with the names right. Steph for telling Lisa about the show, stay spooky. And Connor for listening. I'm so glad you like the show. You stay spooky too. honor. And you stay spooky too, Lisa.

Thanks for being a part of the campfire tonight. Thanks for having me. Visit BetMGM Casino and check out the newest exclusive. The Price is Right Fortune Pick. BetMDM and Game Sense remind you to play responsibly. 19 plus to wager. Ontario

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I am talking about Donna from Massachusetts. It's funny because you see the lower third down there, Massachusetts. Every time I spell Massachusetts, I have to double-check myself because it always looks wrong. But I think we pass the test, I hope. I don't want to be like Dan Quail with the E at the end of potato, which maybe some of you might remember out there from years gone by. Anyway, Donna is here, and she's going to talk to us about a very strange drive. Donna, welcome to the program I appreciated and tell us what happened on this bizarre road trip. Oh, well, great.

So just to help you with the spelling of Massachusetts, by the way, there is only one E in Massachusetts, just like in taxes. Oh, there you go. There you go. There you go. Very good. Well, anyway. when I was working at this insurance company about six years ago in Glastonbury, as a new hire, you had to work the last shift,

which meant that you left the building at 11 o'clock at night, which is fine, but I lived in Springfield, and that's about an hour away. And I had some very unusual things that happened to me, oddly enough, by the time that I started working there, I'm sure you remember you know New England Legends podcast with Jeff. Of course, Jeff Ballanger. Yeah.

Absolutely. Yeah. So it was kind of synchronousitous that by the time I started working there, they had a post about unusual things that were happening in Glastonbury, including a cryptid called the Glacchus, which was recounted. several articles in the local newspaper in about the late 1800s, I believe. It was just, of course, nothing really came of it, but it was just an interesting local lore.

But when I started to drive from Glastonbury to my home late at night, I actually encountered several weird creatures, not even thinking about the Glockus, because I'm tired. You're binding policies. You're talking to people about add-ons and writers. The last thing you want to think about is the Glockis or anything else. But the first time that I noticed something unusual, I was driving home late in October. And as you well know, in New England, just like in Ohio, that's the time of the year that the weather starts turning sharp and cold. And the wind was kicking up.

markedly. And it was, I was driving north, go back to Springfield, and the wind was on our left. So if I remember correctly, that means it was coming from the west. Well, while I was driving on Route 83, I can see in front of me, you know, basically, I guess perpendicular to the blowing leaves that were going from west to east, a pile, what looked like a undulating pile of light brown, wet leaves like it came from an oak tree but this pile of undulating leaves was right in the middle of the lane that i was driving on so it was in the right lane right in the middle of the right lane and it almost looked like um i don't know if you ever seen those heraldous cats it looked like that but without any appendages oh man yeah and of course i'm a nice

person. So even if it's a creature, I don't want to run over it. So I don't know if it's leaves. I don't know what it is. So I position my car perfectly that my left wheels are on one side of it. The right wheels are on the other side of it because I don't know what kind of karma that's going to bring you, you know, kill a cryptid by your car. You don't want to intentionally kill something on the road, no. No. Evil cryptid or not. It's still bad karma. So when I had enough time, probably about two or three seconds after I drove over it, I looked at my rearview mirror, and it was gone. I knew it. Wow.

And the wind was blowing from west to east, and this was going in my direction north. So how could I disappear so quickly? Because it was a solid mass. Well, that's why you say you definitely had the feeling this was not something that was deceased, but it was a living. You didn't think it was a thing. You thought it was an it, right? Yes, exactly. It was sentient. It was not leaves. It wasn't vegetation. It was, it was not vegetable. It was not mineral. It was definitely animal. But it was, it just moved very quickly. And I thought, oh my God, I don't know what that is, but I live in 30 at night. Now you have

another 40 minutes to go. You just keep on driving. So that was the first weird, perhaps scripted encounter. Then the second one, probably about three, four weeks after that, I'm on Thanksgiving. I am driving by a bend in the road to get to the main road, which is Route 83. And I'm driving by a closed medical facility on my left. This is a very rural area. Glastonbury is a lovely colonial town founded in the early 1700s.

so there's not a lot of development. It's colonial, Victorians, farms, basically pretty much that and just lots of woods. And as I'm like taking my time going over this bend, I'm looking on the left, and I notice on top of the utility box what looked like a very large bird. And I thought, that's weird, you know?

Most birds that are like nocturnal would be an owl. And I know owls can get that big. So I'm wondering, well, what kind of bird is that? And as I'm driving by it, it rises up, spreads its wings, and it starts to fly. And that's when I noticed the body of the bird is totally square. Whoa. That's not what I was expecting. No, that's not what I was expecting either.

It almost looked like a breadbox, a breadbox, excuse me, that had sprouted wings, had a long neck, and then just maybe a few feet over my head in front of the car, not over it, but it just went up a few feet. Because it obviously was almost like a dodo. You know, that's what it kind of sort of looked like. And it rose itself high enough to go across the street and perch. and the lowest branch of a birch tree on the other side. And it just stayed there. I don't know what it was.

Yeah. I almost felt like Allison Wonderland for a second there. Can I throw something out there? I just want to throw an idea out there. And I'm not saying, and when I do this on the show, folks, I'm not saying I have a solution. I might put out something there that I've heard with an interview of an author or guest as a possible explanation.

But like in search, I've used to say back, And this is just one of many possible explanations. Yes. Have you ever thought of the idea of a screen memory? Are you familiar with screen memories? No. Screen memory is the idea, and the theory a lot of times goes with people who think there's like an alien visitation or something like that, that something will be shown to a person that is not the actual thing they saw, but it's something that their mind can come. comprehend. And it's projected by whatever's really visiting. And the fact that you've had multiple

ones of these, could it be something as throwing off those screen memories? Again, this is just one possible explanation. I'm not saying as the explanation. I was just wondering is if it's something you had considered. We've talked about this a number of times over the years. And I just wondered if it was something you ever thought of. No, but that is interesting. So it's kind of like glamour. Like when the Faye, when they want to present themselves as something different, they put on a guise or possibly angels or aliens. What they probably look like, it would freak us out. We probably would go insane. Right, exactly.

That's exactly what it is. One guy that talks about a lot is Mike Clelland. A lot of people report seeing owls. And there's a couple of books he's come out with at least. The Messengers, I think, is the name of the first. first one, and then the second one is like something or other, the messenger's part two or something like that. Okay.

But he talks specifically about Al's. But go ahead with your story. I'm sorry. Okay. So those are the two weirdo crypto encounters. The last one probably was the most disturbing because it was just beyond inexplicable. The first two, you could, you know, chalk up to I was tired. I was driving quickly, you know, the trick of the light, the lay of the shadow, you just don't know what it was.

So you can always say there was always a possibility of misinterpretation. This one, I just don't know what to make of it. It is still profoundly disturbing to me to this day. And I like driving at night. I used to be a tour bus trolley driver in Boston and the Cape. I have no problem driving late at night over bridges. I love it. It's a great way of just listening and relaxing.

That's how I was listening to you for a while driving home at night because it was very apt. Human Darkness Radio. So this last one, I'll try to wrap it up, but it is very disturbing. I am heading towards the intersection of the main rural roads leaving this office. and it is the intersection of Route 83 and 94, both beautiful, kind of like windy country roads. And as I'm getting towards the intersection, I notice something very unusual.

On the right about, I don't know, I'm terrible distance, maybe a few yards away, is this gas station. It closes at 10 o'clock, but even when it's closed, even that late at night, It will have security lights on inside the building, as well as there is a street light close by as you're trying to drive into their driveway. Well, it was pitch black. In fact, everywhere in this area was pitch black.

The traffic light was not working. There was no lights either beyond the intersection. or in retrospect were actually behind me that were not working. It was darker than anything. And I had to put my high beams on. And as I'm getting closer to the gas station, I noticed positioned very, very oddly, a black sedan, four-door, the tinted windows that had its flashers on.

And the way that the sedan was positioned, It was facing towards Route 94. So it was actually facing if I was going, so I was facing east to take a left to go north. This car was actually positioned facing south. And it wasn't exactly in the middle of the intersection. It looked like it just stopped about a few feet into it, turned its wheels so that it was facing.

east and then it was abandoned. As you're going towards it, you don't see anyone in the car. There's no lights on, just the flashers. There is nobody anywhere around this car, you know, on a cell phone. There's no tow truck around. There's no one like walking towards anywhere to get help. It looks like it was just dropped. right in the middle of the intersection.

And as I'm getting closer to it to see, is there any way I can figure out, like, is there someone in there that needs help? I got the, I'm getting chills just thinking about it. I'm getting the most terrible feeling that I don't belong there, that I stumbled on something that I should not have seen. Now, at this point, I've been an investigator

for about 15 years. I've been to the Whaley House. I've been to the Queen Mary. I slept overnight at the Richardson Arnold House, which is also called the Conjuring House. I'm not scared of anything, okay? I was frightened. I felt like I shouldn't belong there. This is something that I do not need to encounter, see, whatever. I have no idea what this was all about. And I wasn't going to be sticking around. So I white-knuckled around the car, took a sharp left. to get onto Route 83, excuse me, to continue on Route 83, excuse me. At this point, I don't know. Oh, it was 94, and it was going on to 83, excuse me. And I kept my head down until I reached the next town of Manchester,

which was probably about 10 minutes away. And as soon as I got past that intersection, about five minutes in, I could see that there were houses with lights on, there were street lights. It was just in that, almost a void of an area. So you had developed over the years doing what you did with the various investigations,

kind of a spidey sense. So this one just flashed red lights and said, hey, I faced the conjuring house. I faced all these haunted places. But this is something that's at such a level and something may be different than other things you've encountered. You didn't want to mess with it at all. You just wanted to get past it and go on with your life.

Nope, it was not right. There was just something wrong, wrong, wrong. So I just left. So do you think it was that, do you think it was more you that you had a sensitivity or do you think it was that area at that time of night? Maybe it was kind of a portal or something like that. What are your thoughts as we wrap up here? I think it's a little bit of both. I am a very sensitive person. I've had premonitions on my life. I'm pretty good with just the rudimentally materials of investigating houses. I don't need all that kind of equipment. I'm very good assessing situations. So I think I was just at the wrong top. The right person was at the wrong place, so to speak.

I think if there was someone that was driving behind me, maybe they wouldn't have seen it. Or I would like to propose a challenge as we're wrapping this up. A few weeks ago, you spoke with a woman who had an unusual encounter while she was hiking, I believe was in Kentucky. She was going down to the trailhead and someone was coming up, or I should say, a group of people. And it looked very, these people looked very kind of like off, you know, they were not communicating. They just seemed very kind of like odd, not, just there was just something about them that just did not really seem right. When they got to the trailhead, there were all these lights and vehicles and she felt like she was, she didn't know what she was

encountering. I'm wondering if that was perhaps a time slip. And I wonder if other people have had those kind of experience as well. Excellent point. I hope if they do that call in. Donna, thank you for calling in. Once again, we appreciate it. We appreciate all your support. And stay spooky. Stay spooky, Jim. You're wonderful. You're great. Just a quick word before we get back to the great campfire stories and really have enjoyed the show this week. week. But if you want to get the full catalog going back all the way to 2009, there's one way to do it. Jimherald.com slash plus. Jimherald.com slash plus. And there you can go back and listen to all of

the great episodes that we've done over the years. And something we're doing now is we're doing our remastered series. So we're going back with the Campfire and the paranormal podcast. We're re-editing them to take out any external ads. We're cleaning up the audio so they sound better than ever. And the only way you can get those remastered episodes is through the Plus Club. Another thing we're doing brand new. It's called the Spooky Studio Net and is for Plus members only. Dar and I do this kind of networking meeting with our members.

And we've done two of them, one in the morning, one in the evening. And we're going to kind of alternate like that. where you come on and you just say, hey, I'm so-and-so from thus-and-so place to weather's like this. This is what I've got going on. We'll have trivia. We'll have maybe a question of the day. It's a lot of fun, and people are really enjoying it, and you can only get access to it if you are a plus club member. And we actually release the super secret URL on our behind-the-scenes podcast, which is also a plus club exclusive behind-the-scenes.

if you're not listening to it and your Plus Club member, make sure to check it out. It's behind the scenes with Jim and Dar, where we just talk about life. It's not necessarily paranormal. Just what goes on and running a little family-based media operation, just things going on in our lives,

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If you go with them, they have a free trial. If you go with our supporting cast version, we have these big discounts, you know, $5 off your first month, or, what is it, is it, $30 off your first year if you decide to go with the year. So I'm telling you, they're great deals. They're available. If you have never checked out the Plus Club,

please do go check it out because I got to tell you, yeah, we have some ads on these shows, but they don't do anything near what they used to do for us. We only can continue to do this as our full-time pursuit because of our Plus Club members. So first, thank you Plus Club members. And secondly, if you're not one and you can afford it and you love our content and want to see it going, that's the biggest way you can support us by joining our Plus Club at Jimherald.com slash plus. I thank you so much for your consideration. And now next story up.

Oh, I love to hear from our international callers. That's the one cool thing about doing it. You think about the broadcasters of old, you know, the biggest names, but they were usually restricted to one country. You know, Americans would know Johnny Carson or Walter Cronkite, but they didn't have an international scope. Or Britain would have, well, Benny Hill, but that's a different thing. But anyway, the point is that, but Benny Hill, strangely enough, was international. But the point is, is that podcasting is truly international. And you see that with Amanda.

You see her on the screen there. And it looks like she's just next door. And she's probably about 10,000 miles away. But we're so glad to talk with her. And we appreciate it. It's about 922 here in the States as I record this in for Amanda. she's in the future, it's 11, 22 in the morning. So that's amazing.

But even more amazing is the story she's going to tell us. She lived on a house in a small farm. And that's how the story starts. And I'll let her finish it. Amanda, welcome to the show. Thanks for doing this and tell us what happened. Thank you very much for having me, Jim. I really appreciate it.

So this story is about 20 years ago when my husband and I, now husband and I, were just dating and we were thinking about taking the next step to kind of move in together and see if it was going to work. So we were looking at, he's a farmer and I'm an accountant and we were just trying to find somewhere to live and I'm not sure if you're aware, but most vacant farmhouses are vacant because they're in need, they're in great disrepair. Disrepair, yeah. Yeah, so we were trying to find somewhere and none of the farmhouses on any of his farms

were suitable. So we were looking around and just so happy. and he mentioned that there was a farmhouse on a little farm, and it was relatively new. The lady had been trying to sell it, and she hadn't had any buyers. It'd been vacant for about six months, and it boarded on one of his farms, with the irrigation farm, which was a big job, anything to do with irrigation is a lot of work. So it was convenient for him. So we got the keys off the agent, went and had a look at it, and it was this, it was not,

it built in the 80s, so at that stage it was probably, you know, 20. 20, 25, 30 years old, had the 80s decor. But it was neat. It was tidy. But there was a few quirks about it. When you first walked in, you noticed the ceilings were quite low. It was like they decided that they could save a bit of money by not building the full height ceilings.

And when you walked in, you've had your living in, well, kitchen, everything up one end. And then you went down a hallway to the other end of the house where all the bedrooms and all the amenities were. And when you first walked in, there was no feeling. There was nothing. It was just a nice, tidy house that was empty. And I had a dog that was my first child before my first child, and she was an inside dog.

And so she followed me everywhere. And she normally would just walk in and take charge of the house and decide which was her spot. And in this house when she walked in, she was happy to walk around the lounge, dining kitchen, but she would never go down the hallway by herself. She always stayed behind me, which probably should have been a bit of an indication. So that was fine.

We said, you know, we'll take it. It's handy, convenient. It was a really good condition for an old house. So we moved in and got the keys and moved in straight away. So everything was exactly perfect, exactly what we wanted. The very first night we were there, we're lying in bed, all excited. We're taking this new step in our lives. And we're lying there.

All the lights go out. and next minute there is a sound in the ceiling. Like something's rolling around. Like I instantly thought curtain rods or, you know, and because the house had been vacant for so long, we thought, okay, maybe there's bush rats or possums in the ceiling. That's fine. But the other thing, the first thing I thought of wasn't anything paranormal.

I was like, oh, there's no insulation in the ceiling because we could hear, you know, scurrying in bits and pieces. And I'm like, well, that means we regularly get 40, 45 degrees, which I think is, you know, 113 in summer. So I was like, well, they've taken a shortcut, putting insulation in the ceiling. And it's just going to get really, really hot. So that's the first cross, you know, on the property, which was fine. We were there seemingly, you know, there was no other issues. There was just this noise in the roof that happened, you know, quite regularly.

Anyway, about six months in, my husband, there was a storm and something happened with the TV aerial and the booster was in the ceiling. So he had to fix it. And I said, well, while you're up there, why don't you grab those curtain rods that keep rolling around in the ceiling and waking us up during the night? And he goes, OK, no dramas. So he gets up in the ceiling and does what he has to do with the aerial booster and comes back down. And I said, the curtain rods. You forgot the curtain rods. And he said, there's nothing up there.

And I said, no, no, I mean the cut. And he said, there is nothing up there. Go and have a look for yourself. So I get up in the roof space and there is literally nothing in that roof space. There is nothing that could be making that noise. So that kind of, I kind of put that aside and didn't worry about it. But things got to the stage where I wouldn't walk, I could never walk down the hallway or be in the bedroom by myself.

I would always make sure the lights are on. My husband was doing a lot of hours because he's a farmer. He was, you know, often I was home by myself. Sure. So I would always leave the lights on in the hallway. My dog would never leave my side. She always would sleep on the bed or under the bed, but she would never ever go and sleep by herself.

And then they had built-in robes. So as you're lying in bed looking at the end of the bed, you saw the built-in robes. And they were four, and they had those 80-style slats. So if you kind of see in them, I refuse to look at them when I walk past them because I just gave me this really eerie feeling that something was looking back at me. Anyway, the thing that really did it for me, my husband was home by himself.

He never told me this happened whilst we live there because he knew if he did, I wouldn't want to pack up and move out straight away. So he was home for this particular reason. He was home by himself. It was in the middle of what we call sewing or planting. And it was so it was winter in July. it was really cold. He'd done some really big hours because they had quite a fair bit of ground. And he got home one nine and it was 2 a.m or something like that in the morning. He was exhausted.

I was because he wasn't home. So he grabbed himself a bowl of cereal, went down to the bedroom, turned the electric blanket on, had a nice hot shower, got into bed. And he said he fell instantly into a deep sleep. But then something woke him up. And as he's coming back into consciousness, his brain's telling him there's something wrong. And what told him was the fan is going, the ceiling fan in the bedroom is going, and it's going flat out. And he knew he didn't turn it on because it's winter.

It's freezing cold. He's got the electric blanket on. So then he opened his eyes and the lights are on. And then he looks at the cupboards and all the cupboard doors are wide open. And he's just sitting there thinking to himself, what on earth has happened? and he was so tired and so cranky.

He sat up in bed and he said, look, I'm tired, I'm cranky, I just want to have a good night sleep. Would you please just leave me alone and cut it out for tonight? He shut the cupboard doors, turn the light off, turn the fan off, went back to bed and it never happened again. But, and that's pretty much the rolling around, the noises in the ceiling. Now the thing was, I knew there had been a tragedy involved with that house. I didn't know what.

I don't even think I knew when I moved in. All I knew is the lady that I did, her husband had passed away and moved to another town not far away, about an hour away. And it turns out that what had happened is that she had gone to Sydney with one of their children, had flown to Sydney from a town not far away, and her husband and her son were travelling from this town we lived in to the airport an hour away to pick her up. And just out of town, it was a very busy area because there was a couple of major highways cross through.

It was a farming area, so lots of stock and cattle truck and sheep trucks. And this particular day, the husband was traveling to Wogga Wogga to pick up his wife with his son. And it was very foggy. And there was these quite dangerous S-bens. And you can tell the story, the truck went too fast and ended up on its side. And when the truck tipped over, the husband and the son in their vehicle crashed into the truck and were both killed.

So, and the lady who was left at the airport met by police, her and her small child, and she was also pregnant with another child, were met by the police to say that both her husband and her son were dead. So I believe because, yeah, so, and that's the tragedy it was involved. And I just, I get this feeling that it was perhaps the husband coming through because it was only the main bedroom. and like I said it was nothing I don't think there was anything nasty but he just made let us know that he was there but and that that that that noise is in the ceiling whatever never stopped but as far as I'm aware

there was no other incidents with the doors opening and and the lights coming on and off after my husband got cranky so you don't think it was nefarious but it just was maybe some kind of reaction due to the circumstances I think so. Like I said, I didn't like being in the house. I grew up next to a cemetery. So I've had a lot of experience. I've never actually seen anything, but I've a lot of experiences.

So you know when you get a feeling. People tell you get a feeling. Sure. And like I said, there was just a feeling about that house. Where the house I'm living in now, the minute I walked into it, I felt you feel nothing. And I've had people just say to you, you can feel it when you walk into a house. something there or there's something, you know, that. I believe that.

It's different. Very much so. I just think he was there and he just was letting us know he was there. But yeah, I don't think there was anything malicious at all. So, yeah, that's my story. Very interesting. Amanda, thank you for calling in all the way from Australia. I'd sound like the ugly American if I say, good day.

Or put another trip on a... You're probably so since Crocodile Dundee. You guys are probably so sick of people like me saying that. You know, all those catchphrases. It's got to be really annoying, I'm sure. No, it's fun. Regardless, we love Australia. Thank you so much for joining us and being a part of the campfire.

And stay spooky. Stay spooky, Jim. Thank you very much for having me. Next up on the Campfire, longtime listener, Susie. She's been listening from 2018, 20, we appreciate it very much. And I'll talk about more, but this kind of story is the kind of story that surprised me, maybe the most since I've started the campfire.

I didn't think we would get this many of this type of stories. I didn't know if we'd get any of these type of stories, but this is a thing. And it happened to Susie. Susie, welcome to the show and tell us what happened. Hi. Yeah, this happened just in January, the beginning. My kids were at school. It's the first day going back after Christmas break, so nobody's home.

It's morning. I'm laying in my bedroom, trying to go to sleep, and I have my door closed. And there's no vet by the door. It's over on the other side of the room. Right. Completely waiting the door. And my bed is on the same wall as the door. So I'm lying on my side, and I'm facing the door.

door and I had my eyes closed but I'm still awake. Right. So I still know what's going on. I'm still aware. And I hear my door squeak. Mm-hmm. And I thought, what is that? Why would that open?

I don't have any pets. Nobody's home. I'm alone. Did I lock the front door after dropping the kids off at the bus stop? Like what, you know. So I pop up a little bit, kind of peek. and I see what I think is the top of somebody's head peaking around the corner. So right away, I freak out because I'm thinking somebody broke in.

Oh, my God, I'm grabbing for my cell phone. And this is a good point. I just interrupt you for a second. This is a good point because a lot of times when things happen to people, the first thing they don't think of is something paranormal. They think, oh, my God, is somebody broken into my house or hotel room or whatever it is. But go ahead. I'm sorry.

Right, right. And I'm thinking, oh, they knew the door was closed. They're peeking to see somebody in there, you know, is what my thought was. Right. So I'm kind of, I'm trying to peek. I'm not getting out of my bag because I'm too chicken. But I've got my phone and I'm like, okay, you know, I'm looking. And all of a sudden I see it come into view. And I thought, that's a kid. And I thought, that looks like my son. I'm not going to say my son's name, but I thought that looks like my son. And then I'm thinking, did he skip class and come home thinking I was here? You know, that's my first thought. Oh, you're so busted. But then I'm looking at his eyes. Yeah. Oh, I thought, oh, you're so grounded.

And I'm looking and the eyes are pitch black like holes. Oh, so like a black eye kid. Like a black eye kid. Kind of, yeah. And then I'm looking at the clothes and I'm like, my son doesn't own any of those clothes. And earlier I had the first of the month I always do like salt barriers and like stage my house and everything. And I had done that the first. Well, it would not go over the door, the threshold.

It just stayed there. It was looking down at first and then it looked up when it saw me. that's when I noticed the eyes. And it was just looking at me like, what did you do? What is this? It was so weird. The door slams shut and I stayed in my room the rest of the day until I had to go and get my daughter. You know, so what do you think it was actually?

What do you think it was? I don't know. I don't know if it was a doppelganger. I don't know if it was a demon. I don't know what it was. I really don't. This is one that I'm afraid to even mention because it's so scary is the gin. But I remember one time I was at an event with Rosemary, Ellen Geiley, the late great writer on the supernatural and the paranormal.

If you haven't checked out her books, you really should. They're all on Amazon, I believe, still. Rosemary, Ellen Gehley. And she was talking about the gin. And sometimes they, for example, it is said that they would serve as a doppelganger for something. But the thing was that they could never get it 100% right. something would be off. Something would be off.

It also reminds me of the black-eyed kids stories where the black, I don't know if you're familiar, where they knock on your door and they have totally solid black eyes. I am. That reminds me that. With them, they'll say something

that almost makes sense, but doesn't make sense. For example, can I come in? I'd like some mayonnaise for my hot dog. You know, that kind of stuff. It's something weird. Yeah. That's kind of what this reminds me of, wow. Wow.

Yeah, especially with the black eyes. And I mean, it really bothered me so much. I didn't tell my son because I thought that would freak him out so much. But I did tell my husband. And he goes, that's so creepy. Didn't you have a dream one time about somebody with black eyes, but it was somebody you didn't know? Right. And I said, yeah, I did several years ago.

So it's just strange. It's so odd. It is crazy. Yeah. It makes you think these, what are these doppelganger stories? I don't know the answer, Susie, but I appreciate each and every one who calls in with their story. Susie, thank you for calling us and telling us and being a part of the show for so long. And hopefully we'll keep going for many more years to come.

Thank you so much. Stay spookers. There you go. Thanks, Jim. Bye. Christy is on the line from California. She listens to the show. along with her son Leif, and we're so glad that they both listen and Leif, stay spooky, stay spooky.

And thank you so much for listening to the show. We appreciate it. And by the way, Misha, who was a caller not too long gone on the show, I think got Christy into the show or is friends with Christy and I think that's very cool. So see how this works. We tell everybody. We share. We hear great story. So please do what Misha did and do what Christy did and sign up to tell your story. at Jimherald.com. Now, Christy, Shadowman, you've had some experiences. You're going to tell us about it. These sound quite chilling. Please go ahead. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. So yeah, my son and I have been listening for quite a while, so thank you for that. And it was actually the show that inspired me to start telling the story because it's, well, I was like, oh, it must just be me. So when Leif's dad still lived with us,

he actually had a lot of shadow figures that would gather around him. And I remember some nights just kind of waking up in the middle of the night. And I remember one night in particular, there was this chorus of, or like this choir of shadow people kind of over his side of the bed. And I woke up and I looked at them and they looked at me and then they started wandering off. And I thought, maybe I'm still kind of half asleep and not seeing this, right? But, you know, they would just like keep coming in different ways and in different places in the house. And there was this one particular time where it was daylight. It was broad daylight.

It was probably around lunchtime. And I was sitting, well, I was kind of right where I am now in the house. And I'm going to switch the screen over just while it's blurred. So you won't really be able to see. But you can see that way just a little bit. You can see that there's windows there. And so in the bathroom here is the door behind me. And so I was walking into the bathroom.

And I saw this shadow figure over by the window. windows and it looked at me and I looked at it and it saw me looking at it and then it came towards me and I went into the bathroom just because that's where I was headed to begin with and I was sitting there like I had something in my eye trying to get it out and I remember it just sitting at the door there watching me and I was like talking to it I'm like yes can I help you with something and it's kind of sat there and looked at me and you know just like curious and I talk to it a little bit more. And I was like, yes. Can I, like, is there something that you need? And so then I turn my head to look at it. And it's, you know, and then my little son, he was three

years old at the time. He ended up coming towards us. And then it wandered off, back over by the window, through the window, and off I poked my head out. And my son came up to me. Again, three years old at the time. And he said to me, mommy, I don't like that black man. He's scary. And I was like, oh, huh. I guess it's not just in my head. He saw it too. And that was like, that for me was a lot of validation because I, of course, I hadn't said anything to anybody. I hadn't said anything to him, of course, because he's three years old. Sure. And yeah, and he's, I don't like that guy. He's scary. I'm like, okay. Well, huh. Interesting. Very interesting. Yeah, that's that story there.

So what do you think it was representative of? Do you have any sense of that? Well, you know, it's interesting because when my ex moved out, they stopped coming around. And so I'm not sure entirely what it was indicative of, but I know that they really liked him and they hung out with him. And there was more than one of them, like I said, because there was that whole, like panoply of them, just sitting. on his side of the bed. Yikes. And they always were surprised that I saw them. Like when they'd seen me noticing them.

Yeah. They'd look at me like, yeah, curious. I don't want to say anything negative towards your ex in any way. But I guess what I was thinking was if there's strife or there's angst or there's, you know, issues, my understanding over the years and talking to people who are experts, because I'm not an expert, I'm just a guy on a podcast, is that that is more fertile ground for some kind of these more sinister kind of energies. At least that's what I've been told. And maybe if there was something in connection with your ex that was along these lines, perhaps maybe that was part of it.

What do you think? I think that's very possible. I have a saying that X's are X's for a reason. And there was definitely. Pardon? I said that's a good one. I like it. Oh, thanks.

But yeah, so there were definitely issues there, especially at that time. And I think that that might have had something to do with it. I don't know if it's cleared up for him since them. He never saw them. But it seemed like the further he would spiral into the things that he was getting into, like the more would show up. And I'm just like, ooh, no good. Well, I think it's totally possible for somebody to be impacted like that

and maybe not be aware of it themselves. Seems possible. Well, Christy, thank you so much for being on the show. I appreciate it and stay spooky. Thank you, Jim, stay spooky. Well, up next we have a great supporter. She's been listening for years. She's a fan.

She's a member of a Plus club. She's been on the campfire multiple times. And yet again, she's there for us once again. And we appreciate it very much. We're talking about Colleen. from Pennsylvania. And Colleen's going to take us back a few years and tell us one of those head scratcher's stories like, what in the world was that all about?

So, Colleen, welcome back to the show. Thank you so much for joining us. And I was running a few minutes late. So, Colleen, thank you for your patience. I appreciate it. And all your support over the years. Certainly. I love your podcast.

I tell everybody that I can about it. A lot of people like it during spooky season. but I tell them it's a year-long thing. They can listen to stories about all different things, paranormal, spooky stories, the unexplained, time lapses, all of those things. So hopefully I've shouted out to enough people that they continue to watch. Well, you just said it better than I say it. So thank you so much for that.

You kind of put it all in a nutshell there. So tell us about this story. Okay, to begin, it was at my parents' house. I was in elementary school. my parents' house, which is still our house. My mom lives in. My dad had passed away. It's probably close to 200 years old. We do live in an urban area. It is not in a suburban area. It's an urban area where the houses are right next to each other. It is definitely from the coal mining town of Wilkesbury, Pennsylvania, and it has a lot of history. Many people have lived there. Only our family,

meaning going back to grandparents, parents' parents, cousins, people have died in the house, all good. So I am laying in bed in my grandfather's room. My grandfather had passed away already. And I'm sleeping in his room. And I'm awoken to something downstairs in the living room. And I can hear just this pounding, pound noise. And, of course, I sit up.

I am still only in elementary school. and I'm sitting up and all of a sudden I realized it's someone taking, remember old-fashioned phones back then, the receiver off the phone and hitting it off the dial off the base of the phone over and over. And you could actually hear like the dinging, dinging and the pounding sound of it. So I'm terrified. And what do terrified children do? They hide under the covers because we think that this cover is a force field that is going to protect us from, God only knows what, but that's how our our, our mom's, minds because they're not developed yet, our brains, think that we're protected. So I hide. I cannot move. I am still, I can't get my body to get up to leave the room. My parents' room is straight down the hallway. But that means if I get out of the room, I'll be at the top of the steps. And at the bottom of those steps is where the phone is and whomever that is. So I sit up again and it's just going

on and on. Finally, I know, I know I have to run for it. I get out of the bed. I run all the way into my parents' room. I literally cannot speak. I am shaking from head to toe. I jump in their bed. They're asking me, what's wrong? What's wrong? I have no verbal ability. My body is profusely shaking as if I'm having a seizure, but no seizure, just terror. And eventually, I get it out. And I said, There's someone downstairs or someone downstairs. I can hear them down there. Of course, my dad goes down, my fearless father, and he checks all downstairs.

He checks the basement. We had four floors. The basement, every room. The phone is on the hook. There's nothing wrong with the phone. And he comes back up and he's saying there, there's nothing there. And I'm telling them over and over. Someone was hitting the phone, the receiver on the phone over and over and over.

Okay, were you asleep? No, I was sitting up. I was so much sitting up that I actually threw the covers over my head then. And then I sat up again and I made my way build up the courage and ran to you. I heard it. It was happening. So whatever, they probably didn't believe me, of course. Right. So I slept with the night. Nothing else occurred. But as time went on, I had other experiences in the house. And I know I had told you about one of those experiences. But since I was was young, that may have been one of the first experiences. I've seen people that have passed. I've had people in my bedroom on the third floor. I've had so many experience. I've been in the house and I could hear people calling my name from upstairs. So many things have happened. So I knew that this really happened. I don't know if it was something trying to scare me, something trying to get my attention. I have absolutely no idea. But I do know what happened. I do know what was real and it was terrifying about other instances that weren't terrifying,

that were fine. I was just at my mom's house yesterday. There are days that I will go see my mom and there are days that I won't. When I get to her house and I enter through the kitchen, there are times where I can feel absolutely something in the house does not want me there and then I will, you know, say hello, whatever, and I will leave. And then there's other times that I'll stay for a few days and nothing will bother me. So I don't know.

I don't know what it is, but there's definitely things in her house. My children all believe me because I've had so many experiences. Well, I have a little surprise for you. What? Hello, hello, hello? Can you see that what that is? That's the phone. That is the phone.

That is it. That is it. If you're, if you're, if you're, it's a little dusty. If you're, uh, uh, listening, I'm holding up like an old telephone probably from circa the 1970s with a dial on it. And it's very, by the way, it's extremely heavy. Yeah. Wow.

Yeah. This is, this is an oldie. From a, I had the hand set hitting it over and over. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. My mom still has a phone. That.

My mom. She still has a phone. Wow. Wow. And it still works? Does it still work? No, she just has it upstairs. Yeah, we have.

Everyone is a knick neck, yeah. Western Electric. Yeah, these things, uh, yeah, these were, uh, something else. Made in the USA. Made in the USA. You don't see that anymore. But, uh, I guess, but, uh, but yeah, I, when you were saying that, I'm like, oh, I'm going to give Colleen a little surprise here.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's, I mean, for people who grew up with those bones and I grew up with those We had a black one that was wall phone that hung in our kitchen for years, most of my childhood. And those things were sturdy. And if you had somebody hitting the receiver against where the dial was, or I mean, you would, you would hear that.

You would hear that. It would be very, very distinct and very loud. So, yeah, sounds like you were in a very, very haunted place there. Well, Colleen, thank you so much. I appreciate. Thank you for all the support. I mean, the fact you're in the Plus Club, you've told all these people, you come on a show multiple times. You know, you're at the top level of you've kind of leveled up in terms of all the different badges, I guess you would call it.

So thank you so much for being a part of the campfire. And I know you will, but I'll say it again, stay spooky. Thank you so much. You too. Stay spooky, Jim. Thank you for joining us in this edition of the Campfire. I appreciate it. And I hope that you will share the show with a friend.

In fact, text them a link to this very episode in this very app, maybe. If you're watching on YouTube, send them a YouTube link. If they're a YouTube person, if they're a Spotify person, send them a Spotify link. If they're Apple Podcast person, send them an Apple podcast link. You get the idea. You get the drift. You know what to do. You know the people who you like, no, trust, love the people who are into the spooky,

but they've not sampled the campfire yet. And that's a big reason we're on YouTube. You know, we don't really make hardly any money on YouTube. Certainly not enough to cover all the cost of lights and cameras and stuff and the extra work that goes into editing a video show. But it's a great way for discovery because a lot of people will say, well, I'm not going to a podcast. That sounds too complicated.

which seems kind of silly to me in 2026, but there's still people who feel that way. But a YouTube video. Oh, I know YouTube. Send me a YouTube link. So I think it's a great way for discovery of the shows. That's the main reason we're there. We don't have those huge numbers on YouTube like a lot of people. I don't understand why I think it's a great show, but I'm biased, right?

But the people who are finding it on YouTube are enjoying it. And there are a lot of people who are saying, people who are saying, that, you know, they discovered on YouTube had no idea existed. So yay for YouTube in that regard. So please share a link. We thank you so much. We'll talk to you next time.

Have a great week, everybody. Stay safe. And as always, stay spooky. Bye-bye.