Jim Harold's Campfire - The Ghost Monk With No Feet - Jim Harold's Campfire 753

Episode Date: March 19, 2026

A quiet walk in the woods takes a turn into something far stranger for our Campfire caller. A long-shuttered ballroom reveals ghosts of the past, a mysterious figure appears exactly when help is neede...d and many more incredible stories on this edition of Jim Harold’s Campfire! VIRTUAL CAMPFIRE GROUP Join our FREE online community at ⁠https://virtualcampfiregroup.com⁠ YOUTUBE CHANNEL Be sure to subscribe to Jim’s YouTube channel at: ⁠https://youtube.com/jimharold⁠  JOIN JIM’S SPOOKY STUDIO PLUS CLUB You can get access to Jim’s entire back catalog of Campfire and a TON of exclusive content with the Spooky Studio Plus Club. Go to https://⁠jimharold.com/plus⁠ and signup to support the show and get access to our MASSIVE library of content! MERCH Go to ⁠https://jimharold.com/merch⁠ to get your Jim Harold T’s, sweatshirts, mugs, hats and more!  BOOKS Get all SIX of Jim’s Campfire books here: https://jimharold.com/campfirebooks/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:54 Details at Yamava.com must be 21-20. Please gamble responsibly. Monopoly is a trademark of Hasbro. Hasbro is not a sponsor of this promotion. Ghosts of the past, a cursed workplace, and maybe, just maybe a guardian angel. This and much more on today's edition of the Campfire. Sit back, relax, and warm yourself by Jim Harold's Campfire. Well, I don't know about you, but one of the things that I love this time of year is spring is burgeoning, is taking a walk in the wilderness. And when I can, when the weather allows, I try to take a walk every single day. I don't know, just getting out amongst nature.
Starting point is 00:01:39 It just clears your head, makes you feel better. Unless you run into something very strange. And then, well, it's a puzzlement. And it is a puzzlement when Anna is going to tell us about. She's a new listener. We're so glad to have her. She said she kind of stumbled on us by accident. But here she is, and she's loving the show.
Starting point is 00:01:57 And we're loving the fact that she already volunteered to tell her story. So let that be a lesson if you've been listening just for a week or two. or you've been listening for a decade or a decade and a half. Please share your story like Anna's going to do right now. Anna, welcome to the show. Thank you for joining us. I appreciate it. Now, like I said, I love to walk.
Starting point is 00:02:18 Sounds like you do too. But I don't think I've ever had a walk like this. Tell us what happened. Certainly unusual, Jim. So this happened quite a long time ago. I was 16 years old living at home with my parents. and my brother and sister. We lived in Cardiff on a housing estate, very large housing estate,
Starting point is 00:02:43 but we're very fortunate in that at the top of the hill where we live, there was a woodland, really lovely woodland, not huge but not small either, and lots and lots of footpaths through the wood. If you take one particular footpath and you walk about half an hour or so, you come to a main road, very quiet main road. If you cross the road and go down a few steps onto a pedestrian access only, you end up in a place called Greenwood Lane.
Starting point is 00:03:16 Greenwood Lane leads to the centre of a village called St Faggans. It's an access only lane. It's one single track. It's very, very quiet. And if you follow the lane down to the end, on the left-hand side, there's a church. called St. Mary's Church, which is very old, 13th century. On the right-hand side, there's a pub.
Starting point is 00:03:39 And if you cross the road, you end up in St. Faggans Museum. So this particular day, beautiful, sunny day, it was my mother's birthday, which is why I can remember the date. So it was May the 8th. We left the house, gone up to the woods, walked through the woods, and gone to St. Faggans and had a lovely day. And now we were all walking back. we're walking back home.
Starting point is 00:04:04 So we're walking back along Greenwood Lane. And we're almost at the top of the lane. And if I looked ahead and just ahead of me, I can see my brother and sister. They're messing about by the steps. So to go up the steps and back across the road and back into the woodland. To my right, just a little bit ahead.
Starting point is 00:04:26 I can see my parents. I can hear them. They're chatting away. To my immediate right, I can see the dog. and the dogs just sort of mooching, mooching about. I was just a few steps behind everybody else, not too far behind. So as I continue walking, suddenly everything just seemed a bit weird. Firstly, up to that point, you know, that I could hear the birds sing.
Starting point is 00:04:52 It's a very quiet rural lane. I could hear all the birds, you know, I could feel the breeze. I could hear the wind in the trees. I could hear all of that, but suddenly everything just seemed to stop. And it became really quiet, but not just quiet, Jim. It was like a complete absence of sound. I couldn't hear the birds singing. I couldn't hear the breeze.
Starting point is 00:05:20 I couldn't hear anything. And when I looked up, there was a tree above me, so I looked up. And actually, all the leaves had literally stopped moving. it was like I'm now I'm looking look at back looking back I'm thinking it's like you know when you press pause on your remote control and everything just stops sure that's what happened now I'm 16 and I'm thinking even in my 16 year old brain I'm thinking this is a bit odd you know yes yes rather odd so for some reason I want to look behind me but instead of just turning my head I sort of properly turn around and I'm looking back down the lane where we just walked and as I'm looking
Starting point is 00:06:05 suddenly this man appears out of nowhere like one minute there's nothing there's just the lane still all very quiet but there's this just the lane and then the next literally the next second this bloke appears um and he's just there and he appears mid run so he's running he was very close around about 20 feet away from me, so fairly close, and he's running full pelt. He was about six feet tall. He's quite broadly built. He wasn't thin, but he's not fat. He's sort of, you know, quite solid, a bit like a rugby player.
Starting point is 00:06:43 And he's wearing a long, dark robe. Sounds like a cliche. I don't know if it was black or a very dark brown. He's got sort of a belt tying it together, which looks like it's thin. I don't, it's not a modern leather belt, but it's something holding, you know, tied around his waist. It looks like a monk's robe. I can't see his hands, very wide sleeves, I can't see his hands. I can't see his face because he's got a hood pulled up and pulled forward. So it's kind of black where his face is. And also he's sort of looking just a little bit down at the road in front of him, I suppose, because he's running so fast.
Starting point is 00:07:23 The weirdest thing even weirder than the fact that a six-foot monk has appeared in front of me and he's running towards me is the fact that I actually can't see his I can't see his legs the bottom part of his legs and I can't see his feet but I can see the road moving so I know they're there
Starting point is 00:07:43 as he's facing me and tucked under his right arm so I don't know if you can see like sort of like that he's holding a bag he's got a bag under his arm I know it's so weird and it's like a Gladstone
Starting point is 00:07:57 or a messenger bag it's pretty big it's not huge but it's big enough for him to be holding it under his arm and he's obviously got something in it because you can see
Starting point is 00:08:07 it's not flat it's sort of rounded I would say it was made of a very soft leather or heavy material got it under his arm and his other arm is sort of running like that
Starting point is 00:08:19 as he's running so he's like literally running straight at me from about 20 feet. I still can't see his legs or his feet. And he literally gets to within, if I held my hand out like that, he gets to within, if I held my hand out and my fingers would touch him, that's how close he gets to me. He sort of turns slightly to the left.
Starting point is 00:08:44 And where I'm standing, there's a bit of a driveway and not much by five feet. So he turns to the left. He's running down this big. of a driveway and then there's a five bar wooden gate which is closed and in my mind I'm thinking he's running really fast what's he going to do when he reaches that gate because he's going to just bounce off it but when he reaches the gate he literally is just gone so one second he's running really fast he runs down the driveway and it's almost like he touches that gate and then he gone. And he doesn't just sort of gradually disappear or become transparent, any of that, he's just
Starting point is 00:09:27 gone. And the instant he disappeared, everything comes back to life. I can suddenly hear the birds singing. I can see the trees moving. I can feel the breeze and hear the breeze in the trees again. It's like, again, if you have a remote control and you press play, everything suddenly comes back to live. So I was literally quite stunned by this, to be honest. I was quite shocked by what I'd seen. Sure. I didn't even tell my family. I didn't tell anybody what had happened. But the only thing I would, the only thing I remember thinking is, oh my goodness. Like I know that what I saw, I didn't hallucinate. There was no electromagnetic thing going on. on, you know, there was nothing like that that could explain it.
Starting point is 00:10:24 And I also thought, if I imagined a six-foot monk running towards me at full tail carrying a messenger bag, I'm pretty sure I would have also imagined legs and feet. You know, that's a bit that like I'm not making this up. I didn't realize until much, much later that actually the road over the centuries, the roads get higher and higher, which would probably account for the fact that I couldn't see the bottom of his legs or his feet. He was probably running on the original height of the road
Starting point is 00:11:00 for whenever he was running. So I remember thinking, actually, after this kind of before that, where I was fairly 16, but I, you know, I was fairly skeptical. And then there's an afterwards where I'm thinking, well, if that was true, what else is going on? That is also true. Do you see what I mean?
Starting point is 00:11:25 I know what you mean. Here's my question. Do you think he was a ghost, or do you think you were seeing a glimpse into the past somehow? Now, you said he was carrying a bag, though. Was that a modern bag? No, it was a very old-fashioned. I don't know. It's difficult to sell.
Starting point is 00:11:42 So I'll tell you, that's a really good question, Jim. And my first thought was, I never actually thought I was seeing a ghost because it was too real. It was too solid. It was an actual person I saw. So I, but I didn't know what it was. I did a little bit of research over the years. Obviously, when I saw this, there was no internet or anything. So I couldn't.
Starting point is 00:12:04 I just thought it's a monk because of what he was wearing. And there was no monastery in St. Fagin. So I sort of set that aside for a long time. But then when I started looking into this, maybe eight, 1648 was the date of a massive battle, a huge battle of St Fagins. And then I looked up the clothing of sort of 16th century. Because our church is really old, it's 13th century, 100% was standing during the Civil War. So the clothing that an Anglican or royalist, if you like, priest would have worn,
Starting point is 00:12:40 was identical to what that guy was wearing. and so I think I was I think I was looking at something that was actually happening in his time he was absolutely terrified he was running he was running from something and it was clear to me that he was whatever he was running from he was trying to get away from with that bag whatever was in that bag was super important to him so I don't think it was was a ghost, but my, I suppose my question is, was I actually looking at 1648, something that's happening? Did I look back in time? Or was it one of these, like, you know, these sort of playback things that they say happen if something dramatic has happened? And I don't, I genuinely
Starting point is 00:13:34 don't know the answer to that. I don't, it wasn't a ghost. Whatever I saw, I don't think it was a ghost. I think it was either happening. I mean, I'm inclined to say I looked back and saw something as it was happening. What's really interesting. Yeah, sorry, go ahead, Jim. No, I'm just going to say, I think it's possible. I believe I've had people have called from the UK who thought they saw a Roman Legion and they would have no legs. They would have
Starting point is 00:14:01 no legs. And it makes sense because the height of the road is different. So that kind of makes sense. I do think, and isn't there in England and Liverpool, isn't there a legend about a street that people go out? Yes, that's right. It's suddenly the 1960s. Yeah. I think the thing is with that street, though, because I looked that up, and you're actually immersed
Starting point is 00:14:26 in that street. It's almost like you've gone back in time. But I could see everything the way it is today. Except for that month. Yeah, yeah. So that was the interesting thing. But I've done a lot of research since. and I'm going to try and
Starting point is 00:14:41 because I firmly believe it was the Anglican priest I think he was running from the Cromwell's army I think he was but my I'm now thinking I really want to know what he had in his bag and what did he do with it because he was running into that
Starting point is 00:14:59 it's a big old house there very very old it's called the old directory so it would have been used for the church even then but did he hide was he running in there to hide something from the church. I don't know, but it's really interesting. Very interesting indeed.
Starting point is 00:15:16 And the thing is, I think that is the thing, and it's actually a British scientist who had a quote, and I paraphrase this all the time, but the paraphrases, not only is the universe stranger than we understand, the universe is stranger than we can understand. Yet another example, Anna. Thank you for joining us all the way from the UK.
Starting point is 00:15:34 I appreciate it, and stay spooky. Thank you so much. You too. Bye-bye, Jim. Your summer starts now with Memorial Day deals at the Home Depot. It's time to fire up summer cookouts with the next grill, four-burner gas grill on special buy for only $199. And entertain all season with the Hampton Bay, West Grove's seven-piece outdoor dining set
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Starting point is 00:16:31 The app let you filter hotels by neighborhood, vibe, star level, and amenities like pools and spas and beach fronts. and wait, I'm not done. Stop cutting me up. Welcome to the campfire. I am Jim Harold. Very cool story to start the show out, and we have many more cool ones to come. So thank you to all of our storytellers.
Starting point is 00:16:50 And thank you for tuning in. We appreciate it. Since 2009, we have been the place to hear real paranormal stories with real people, with real experience. We don't need to add music. We don't need to boost it up. The truth is fascinating. enough and sometimes scary enough and sometimes heartwarming enough. We are all of those things and more. So welcome to the campfire. A couple of things I want to tell you about. First of all,
Starting point is 00:17:16 we ordered too many book sixes when it came out a while back and we've got boxes of the things and we want to get rid of some of them. I'm just being honest with you. And you, we pass the savings on to you. Yes, we're holding a sale at our Etsy merch store, Jimherald.com slash merch. This is only in Etsy. So make sure that you follow the Etsy link because that's where you can get the personalized book six where I sign it and put a little inscription on it if you wish. And those are on sale currently while supplies last. So again, Jimherald.com slash merch to take advantage of that. Also, if you want to see this show continue, there's one way you can help ensure that that happens. And that is by joining our Plus Club at Jimherald.com slash plus. And for your bother,
Starting point is 00:18:03 You'll get well over 2,700 episodes of all the different shows we've done over the years. This show going back all the way to 2009. And guess what? New episodes, no ads for Plus Club members. That's always a plus. But you don't know what you're missing unless you become a member at Jimherald.com slash plus. We had a big company we were working with when we switched over our Plus Club. And they said something like, you know, we work with huge companies,
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Starting point is 00:19:13 Well, our next callers from the United Kingdom, Dom is here. He heard about us from Ryan Spraggan somewhere in the skies. Make sure to check out Rang's podcast. If you haven't had a chance, Ryan does a great job covering the UFO topic. And my goodness, there's a lot to cover these days, as we talk about on our other shows as well. Dom, thank you for joining us. I know you've been listening a few years, so thank you for this. And the story's about your grandma. Tell us, if you were. Yeah, that's correct, Jim. So my grandma was a lovely little English lady who lived in a town called Kroma, which is in Norfolk and England. And it's just on the coast. And it's actually, it's a bit of a story about maybe messages from the beyond, if you believe in that sort of thing. But it just was a little bit spooky. And I thought you'd quite like. like it. Yes. So she lived by the beach and it was her happy place. She'd go to the beach as much
Starting point is 00:20:11 as she could. She would always spend a lot of time there and sit and watch the sea. And when she was younger, she'd love to swim. She was a really strong swimmer. And every time we'd go visit her in the holidays, she'd always tell us the story of when she was younger. And she was swimming in the sea and a really big seal popped up next to her. And she'd always say, oh, it'd always say, oh, it gave me the fright of my life. This seal just popped up next to me. And it just was this story that she'd always tell and tell anyone who would listen to it. And then she'd also, another thing that's relevant to the story is she always, she grew roses in her front garden. And she was so proud of these white roses. And she'd always talk to the, talk to us about the roses.
Starting point is 00:20:56 And when we'd arrive, she'd be there pruning her roses. And then was really, proud to show us these roses. And then it was a few years ago now. She passed away, sadly. She was a good age in mid-80s, and it was very sad. But it had been a little while since we'd all been to Croma, me and my brother and my dad, all there at the same time. And it was the first time in years that we'd all been together. And my grandma always liked when there was all the family together she'd like to do big events and see everyone and have everyone socializing and me and my brother and my dad we were swimming in the sea and play and catch just in the shallows of the sea and it was it was lovely and it was the first time we'd done it in so long and the first time
Starting point is 00:21:45 since she'd passed away that we'd all been there together and we had mentioned oh wouldn't grandma love this and then out of the blue really randomly jim just this thing started floating towards us. And I was like, what's that? It just was so random because the sea in Chrome is quite dark, you know. And then you see this, this white thing floating towards this. I went towards it and picked it up. And it was a, it was a beautiful pristine white rose. And we just laughed and said, that's a bit strange, it's a bit spooky. And while I was showing my brother and my dad, a seal popped up next to us. And it just seemed. I mean, it's crazy.
Starting point is 00:22:30 Obviously, these things could be just completely random. But because it all happened at the same time, and we've just been talking about Grandma and saying how nice it was all to be together, and then the white rose, like the ones that she used to grow, floated up to us, and then a seal popped up and watched us. And we all joked and laughed and said, hi, Grandma. And it was a bit, as I say, it could be nothing,
Starting point is 00:22:55 but we all felt like, oh, she's come to say hello. And then we got out of the sea and showed my mom about it. And she also said, how spooky, how strange. And it just, it was lovely. It's not a scary one, but it was, it was lovely. You know, I love those kind of stories. Campfire is not just about spooky, scary stories. It's about heartwarming stories.
Starting point is 00:23:16 I got to tell you, if it were a rose, I would say, well, that's kind of weird. And if it were a seal, I would say, well, that's kind of weird. but the fact that it was a seal and a rose at the same time and you were all together, come on, that's got to be Grandma. I think that's right. Yeah, you think so. And it stayed and watched us and then the rose together, all of it all at the same time. If we felt it and we like to believe Grandma came to say hello, so it's nice.
Starting point is 00:23:45 Well, I believe she did too. And what a neat way to do it. What a neat way to do it. I bet she was a really neat lady. Dom, thank you so much for listening. We're so happy. Nice sized audience over there in the UK. We always want to get more.
Starting point is 00:23:58 Help us out, please. But we really appreciate all our folks from the UK and appreciate you. Thanks, Jim. Tell everyone who will listen to me to give it a go. Excellent, excellent. Well, please continue to do so. And, of course, stay spooky. Stay spooky, Jim.
Starting point is 00:24:17 He's back. Gary is back from Canada and he has these fantastic, amazing stories. he talked about that unusual family he encountered when he was a little boy. Then he talked about those smiling men at airports. That one was really creepy. And now he's back for another one. And we're so glad he is. He's a great storyteller.
Starting point is 00:24:39 He has great stories. And people love his stories. And we're so glad to always talk to him. Gary from Canada is back. Gary, welcome back to the show. Thank you, Jim. I guess people are a glutton for punishment to hear some more of my creepy stories. I quite to the contrary.
Starting point is 00:24:54 I mean, I think they're glad to hear them, but they're excellent. Now, let me ask you this. You mentioned, I don't know if it's any thing you want to mention on air, you said that maybe a little update or a little added piece on one of the other stories you told. Yeah, well, real quick, I just wanted to thank you for the advice you gave me the last time we spoke. You gave me some advice at the end of the session, which was the very last thing you said was stay spooky. And I stayed spooky. And right after we spoke, a couple days later, I left town.
Starting point is 00:25:20 And I had, you know, I'm on a lot of flights. And I had to go to Kansas City. And I ended up, it's been years, but when I was young, I had a lot of strange experiences. I was almost like an idiot savant for the things that go bump in the night, creepy things that at the time didn't realize were weird. I thought everybody went through that. But as I got older, I realized, wait a minute, that wasn't normal. And now as I'm older, I don't have as many things happening that are really considered extremely creepy or spooky or ghostly. But when I went to Kansas City after our conversation,
Starting point is 00:25:51 I had a really cool experience, which maybe I'll, it's fresh in my mind, but I may call you again and do another Zoom in the future to cover that because it had to do with the Titanic that was an exhibit. And I had a ghostly encounter, which just blew me away. I couldn't sleep that night. And I ended up at some point. So the interesting thing is the story that you ran about the,
Starting point is 00:26:12 the bizarre smiling men, what I found bizarre is when all of this took place, Not that those planes were this plane that we're going to talk about, but at that time I did a lot of flights to Europe and long-haul flights on 747s. And your episode number was 747. There's a coincidence for you, and I don't believe in coincidences. And here's the second thing. If that's not bizarre enough, whether you're on Spotify, YouTube, or Apple, you go on any one of those and you listen to your episode 747. my story comes on at 747, 7.47 seconds.
Starting point is 00:26:54 Isn't that kind of quite a zonian? Oh, wow. And that was my flight of choice. I went on a lot of 747s. I love flying on the Boeing 747s. Isn't that a weird coincidence? Too much of a coincidence to be a coincidence, I think, Gary. But I'll get into my story before we run out of time.
Starting point is 00:27:11 I'm a big talker. You know, I'm a salesman so I could talk your ear off. But I'm going to talk about the original one that I had mentioned, which I was called Frozen Ghosts is what I had called it, because it's played through my head hundreds of times and not more. But back again when I was a kid, when I had a lot of these experiences, the same large park area,
Starting point is 00:27:29 which had a lot of history back to the 1910s and even before, and there was this large park close to where I lived. And a friend of mine and John, we went across there. We, both of us being in our early to mid-teens, we were night owls. We could not sleep. sleep. You know, we, what we ended up doing is we'd stay up all night. Our parents would go to bed.
Starting point is 00:27:52 We had a key. We'd sneak out of the house, locked the door, and we'd be out walking around. Like, you know, if we were like, I don't know what you would call us, but we wanted to have time out alone. So we would just walk through this park in the pitch dark. Nowadays, that would be considered crazy. Maybe even back then it was crazy. But young teenagers walked through this park. We would just chat about, you know, all kinds of events. So on this particular night, it was I think it was at the end of January, freezing cold, blowing snow, below zero temperatures, and we were all dressed up, had our hats and mitts. We walked down those trails, down these long, dark trails through the woods, nobody else around.
Starting point is 00:28:31 And at that point, it's around midnight. So we go down to this place we know, which is at the far end of the park, close to a lake, but there's a very small lake or we call it a very large pot. It's maybe 15 feet in the middle deep. It's a very skinny, long lake surrounded by trees. And we decided, let's just walk down there. And we were talking. We said, maybe it's safe.
Starting point is 00:28:54 So we went down, put her foot on it. One of the two of us walked out a little bit. Say, hey, this is pretty safe. I think we can walk on this. You're young and stupid. You do that. We walked out there. Next thing, you know, we both walk over to the same spot.
Starting point is 00:29:08 And we hear a big crack, we fall through. Oh, boy. You go into the water and not good at all. Because, first of all, sub-zero temperatures, a blowing wind, we're far from home, nobody else around. It's the middle of the night. So we go in there, your body turns to lead. You lose your breath. And it's an awful feeling.
Starting point is 00:29:28 I've fallen through the ice twice in my lifetime. Another time when I went ice fishing, and I fell through. And luckily, both times I survived. So I've used up two of my nine lives. But anyways, that night, we fell through. We were splashing around, and both of us figured, okay, we're going to be dying here. This is it. We've seen your life flash before your eyes.
Starting point is 00:29:48 But luckily, because it was such a narrow lake, there have been some fallen trees. There are a lot of dead trees there. There was one that was fairly close and I actually could reach a branch. And that's the only reason I got out because I was kicking in. The ice was breaking off. I grabbed the branch. John crawled kind of over top of me and got a whole of the branch and we pulled ourselves up. So we just basically dodged a bullet.
Starting point is 00:30:10 Yeah. The next problem is the howling winds. so freezing cold. It's so cold that we're turning into popsicles, meaning we touch our hair. It's frozen. It's frozen solid. Our clothing is all crunchy as we move. It's crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch. And we're thinking, and we're shaking. Our teeth are chattering like crazy. And we're thinking, we're thinking, we're thinking. Yeah, you're thinking that in the movies. Exactly, I was thinking, yeah. And to get home or to get to any place, whether it was a house or home was probably running probably a good 15 to 20 minutes away to get there.
Starting point is 00:30:46 And at this point, we're shaking so hard and we're kind of grabbing each other for body heat, but there is no body heap. We say, we thought of one thing we could do. We knew of a place that was a boarded up old dance hall from the 1920s that was part of this park that had been closed down long ago. So we said, we got to run like hell, get there, and we knew there were some windows down around knee level that were boarded up. But it was just like thin plywood with a few nails in it.
Starting point is 00:31:13 We knew they were loose because we'd almost broken in there before. So we'd go there, let's just rip those boards off or kick them in and get in there, out of the wind, and we'll get in there and we'll find something to throw over top of us. So that's what we did. We ran like hell. We barely made it this place. It was probably five or six minutes away. There were no other houses or gas stations or stores. We get there.
Starting point is 00:31:35 We kick in the boards. We lower ourselves down. It's pitch dark. So how do you see? But luckily, I always carried a lighter in a baggie in my pocket. So I just lit the lighter, found some old newspapers thrown around on the ground, rolled them up, made torches for John and I. And we just started looking around. And it was so cool because there were old barrels.
Starting point is 00:31:56 There was a lot of garbage and stuff on the ground as well, just everywhere. And it was out of the wind. It was quiet. All we heard was a howling wind through that window where we had broken in. So we thought, okay, we're at least out of the wind. let's find something to cover up with. We did find some old, like, burlap sacks. There was some kind of cotton sacks that we found.
Starting point is 00:32:16 We just threw them over our shoulders. We huddled together and just kind of shook and sat there and listened to the wind howl. So this is where it gets freaky. While we're sitting there, all we hear is our teeth chattering and us breathing in the wind. Suddenly, from above us, we hear, at the same time, like big band music, meaning a horn section, trumpets. And it sounded like it was New Year's Eve. This is a really ghostly experience. One of a few that have had in my life where it was really, I didn't see anything because
Starting point is 00:32:47 they were on the floorboard. You could hear people dancing, the feet shuffling. You could hear glasses clinking. You could hear someone with a microphone talking to the crowd. And the song ended. And then they'd start up again. You hear the trumpets. And it was, we were just looking.
Starting point is 00:33:02 He said, can you hear that? He goes, yeah, I hear that. What was the name of the ballroom, if you don't mind? Do you know the name of it? Yeah, it's in southern Ontario. It's called the Pavilion. Yeah, you can see. And it has a long history.
Starting point is 00:33:15 We're broadcasting live from the pavilion. Glenn Miller and his orchestra are playing the tunes as they sing, Moonlight Serenade. You're hired. That was pretty close. Maybe it was you. Maybe you time travel. But this was obviously, we said there's obviously nobody up above us.
Starting point is 00:33:33 There's no way there's somebody up above us. because by that point it's 12.30, quarter to one, I don't know, by the time we got there and we're downstairs. So this is going on and on. And we're just looking at each other eye where I was raised going, what the hell? And suddenly after, you know, a couple minutes of that maybe, just like that, it was like, someone flipped the switch,
Starting point is 00:33:53 it went dead silent. Wow. And so we're sitting there listening and we're going, you know, are we going to sneak out the door, out the window, look up there to see if there's something going on? But we were still freezing cold and sitting there with our torches and relighting them. And so we decided to kind of look around in the basement, just bored while we're trying to warm up. And there were a number of barrels.
Starting point is 00:34:17 But the weird thing that we found down there was we thought it was straw at first. But there was a big pile of the stringy stuff. We went up to it, put the torch up to it, and we discovered that it was human hair. Oh. It was maybe a foot and a half to two feet long, a little bit curly. brown hair, meaning it was obviously a woman's hair, I would think,
Starting point is 00:34:39 unless there's a guy with long hair. But there was a lot of it, meaning we figure, after we talked about it, we figured it probably could have filled a couple of pillowcases. And we were worried because we were joking,
Starting point is 00:34:51 you know, saying, hopefully there's no scalp or blood or anything, but it was been cut off. Yeah, there's no dead body, yeah. Yeah, you could see it was no dead body. We looked around, we checked all around the basement.
Starting point is 00:35:01 No, just the stone walls, the hair, the barrels. and while we're looking at this stuff, looking at the hair, all of a sudden, boom, that music starts up again above us.
Starting point is 00:35:13 There's, you know, people laughing, they're all happy. Like I say, it almost sounds like a New Year's Eve party somewhere, and you hear, you know, the trumpet's going, da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. All this stuff going on,
Starting point is 00:35:24 muffled, mind you, because it's through the floorboards and people with shuffling dancing. And it's one of the coolest things at the time, you know, we heard that again for a little while and at some point, you know, we said, we looked up, we said, okay, we're going
Starting point is 00:35:40 to jump off the window and check to see there's got to be somebody up there. And then I realized, okay, there's a bit of a small wooden staircase going up towards that bottom of the dance floor. Maybe we go up there, we just bang on it. Maybe there's somebody up there. We can hear people up there. Maybe they'll open the door. We go up there. Of course, there's a heavy chain and a padlock. It's locked. We're banging. We hear people walking right above us. Oh, man. Yeah, it's such a cool thing when I thought back about it later. At that time, we were kind of freaked out.
Starting point is 00:36:10 But it stopped again. And we waited around for a while, nothing, nothing. And finally we say, you know, we're warm enough. We can get home now. Like our body temperature had gotten up high enough that we weren't going to dive hypothermia. We crawled out, went up and looked at the dance floor, and it was just snow covered, no footprints. Nobody had been there. Nobody had used that for decades.
Starting point is 00:36:34 And that pavilion still exists today. And I think they change it. At some point, that place actually burned down. And they rebuilt it. And the only thing that remained was that basement. Everything above it went. Now they spent a lot of money to rebuild it. And now they have dinners and they throw events there.
Starting point is 00:36:53 Oh, wow. But most people don't realize the history of that place. That's amazing. So I guess we came out. Yeah, it's amazing because we walked around, looked at this floor, nothing was going on. Then we snuck back home. parents didn't know that we were out that night,
Starting point is 00:37:06 but we had wet clothes. So we had to hide those because they were so wet, damp. They never found out we fell through the ice and almost died. Well, technically almost twice. We could have died of drowning if we wouldn't have grabbed the branch. Two, if we wouldn't have been able to make it home and gotten into that pavilion, chances are we may have died of hypothermia. I don't know.
Starting point is 00:37:25 We were shaking so badly and it was so cold, so damn cold. And it gets cold in Ontario, Canada in the winter. And so they didn't find that out And they would have been mad at us For kicking in boards of this building But I'm sure they would have understood Given the situation Amazing story
Starting point is 00:37:43 And I was just having this discussion With another caller Probably he'll be on a different show But we were talking about places Holding Energy And I would think that would be a place You know Think about this
Starting point is 00:37:54 You know people of that era Loved big band music They're dancing probably A lot of young people And you know A lot of their age hormones and so forth and dancing and fun and the excited point of seeing these big bands. There are a lot of emotion there and that emotion just doesn't go away because the music stops.
Starting point is 00:38:13 So fascinating story, fascinating story. And that place had been there since it was built like 1914 or something like that. And it had been a dance hall back through the 20s, 30s, probably the 40s, and then it was shut down for decades and was not used. It was just boarded up and closed down, not used. utilized at all. So it was, yeah, it was a neat experience that, like I said, I thought about it a million times, didn't see any gory bodies or body behind the barrels, anything like that. I'm glad I didn't for a young kid or even for an adult. But it's such a cool, true story. People may say,
Starting point is 00:38:49 oh, come out, you've made that. It happened to me. I know it did. And what's bizarre is how to two people? Because we thought, what are some explanations? Because we were so cold and freezing, almost in hypothermia, stages of hypothermia, did our brains kind of go to mush and we had hallucinations, auditory hallucinations? I don't know. But not the same one,
Starting point is 00:39:11 both the people at the same time, I wouldn't think. At the same time, the same music, and it's stopping for us at the same time. So how do you... Yeah, exactly. I don't get it.
Starting point is 00:39:19 There's my explanation. It happened. Now, why it happened or what happened? Who knows? Gary, as always, you always have such great stories. Thank you so much for joining us and stay spooky, sir.
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Starting point is 00:40:16 Cayman Jack, America's number one margarita. Camden Jack is a premium malt beverage with flavors. Please drink responsibly. Camin Jack beverage company, Chicago, Illinois. Oh, I always like to hear from somebody from my neck of the woods, and I am talking about Lisa from Ohio. She's been listening for a year-ish, kind of found us stumbled on us. I'm so glad that she did and so glad that she is here today. And she has one of my favorite kind of stories.
Starting point is 00:40:50 I would put this under the category of head scratcher. And it involves a place that I've been many times. Lisa, thanks for joining us. Tell us what happened. Thanks for having me. You're welcome. Well, this happened probably in the mid-90s, I'd say. I was in my mid-20s, not to age myself, but anyway, I was going to Oklahoma City for a conference for a grant that I was working on at the time.
Starting point is 00:41:17 And it was about this time of year, March. And so when I left, it was springtime, drove to the Cleveland airport. Of course, I'd never been there, so I ended up parking on the roof. No big deal. So I did the conference. And coincidentally, the gentleman I was dating at the time was going to school. out there for a couple months for aircraft controlling. So I got to see him a little bit, but it was a little bit of a strained visit. So it wasn't the greatest reunion type of thing. So anyway,
Starting point is 00:41:49 went to my three-night conference, flew back into Cleveland. And when I got there, there had been a big snowdump, a snowstorm. And so everything was, you know, I had just a little coat on, little shoes. I wasn't really prepared. I was, you know, 24. I didn't really know to prepare. So, and we flew in about, I'm thinking it was at least 12.30 in the morning. It could have been 1.30. It was in between those hours. So I was tired, but still on high alert because I was traveling and I had to be alert. So I rode the elevator up to the roof to go into my car, got out onto the roof, and everything was covered in snow. Every car, you know, I had no idea where I had parked.
Starting point is 00:42:32 So I wandered up and down every aisle. I probably wandered around with my suitcase and no socks and the little coat in the snow. And I know what that's like when you lost. One time my wife and I lost our car at, well, I don't even know what they called them, Rocket Mortgage Veal House, which used to be the queue. And before that was Gunned Arena, the big arena in Cleveland. We lost our car. We were in totally the wrong parking garage.
Starting point is 00:42:57 Probably about right that time and it felt that cold. So I know exactly what that feels like. It's like my car's here somewhere. Where is it? Yeah, I know. I wandered around. I thought, and there's nobody around. You know, you go up to elevator and it's like a, almost a lobby, an empty lobby area, and then a whole bunch of glass windows, then you go out onto the roof. And not a soul in sight. I don't know where everybody was. You think some people would be coming in, but they weren't. So I wandered around for at least 20 minutes. I got cold, so I went back in that lobby area. And I turned around, and there's a gentleman coming from the outside towards the lobby. And I thought, oh, geez, I'm by myself, one in the morning. You know, nobody else is around. It was a little uneasy.
Starting point is 00:43:41 But he looked at me and he said, you parked on the other side of the parking lot on the roof. And I had no idea there was another side to the roof parking lot. Must have been like A and B, different sections. And he said, follow me. And I followed him. And I thought I should be really nervous. But I really wasn't. So I thought, well, maybe I should just start chatting.
Starting point is 00:44:05 So I kept talking and talking, and he did not respond at all. I didn't even see his face. He was dressed in kind of a, I would call it, like a mechanics outfit, almost like there was an old TV show called Wings. Yeah, I remember that. Yeah. I can't think of the guy's name, but he wore that all-in-one mechanics outfit. Yeah, I know what you're talking about, like cover-alls kind of thing. Yes, exactly.
Starting point is 00:44:26 So he had that on, and I think of a hood, but I never saw his face. But after he said, follow me, he picked up my suitcase. So I started chatting, never talked to me, never responded at all, never turned around. So I just followed him out there, you know, yipping and yapping and trying to engage in conversation. In case I needed to identify him in the future, I don't know. You never know. So we went to the other side of the roof top parking lot, and I would never have even thought to go over there. even though it existed.
Starting point is 00:45:01 And he led me right to my car. And I thought, how does he know? Because it was covered in snow for one. Plus, how would he know which was my car? So he set my suitcase down and I turned around to say, thank you. And he was nobody there. Nobody. Look, there's no footprints in the snow.
Starting point is 00:45:23 I looked to see maybe there's like a little, a little shelter or some type of building when he could have gone into, nothing. So I got in my car, locked the door, and I drove up and down a couple of the rows to see if I could find him because I thought, where is this guy? Because he could not have made it back to where we came from in that lobby in that in 30 seconds that it took me to turn around. So he just disappeared. That's my story. Wow. That is awesome.
Starting point is 00:45:53 Yeah, I don't know if maybe other people have had any similar experience. there, I don't know. Well, here's my speculation. It was an angel. It was a guardian angel. I mean, that's the logical explanation, right? Because if you think about it, I mean, who knows what would have happened, you know, if you would have met maybe not such a nice person.
Starting point is 00:46:21 So maybe that person was put in that place or that angel or whatever it was was put in that place to guide you to the right place. And no footprints so odd. No, I know. That's the thing that gets me is the no footprints. And we know what it's like in Cleveland in the winter when there's snow. There will be footprints. They won't be blown over in 10 seconds.
Starting point is 00:46:48 Right, right. I know. And, you know, there wasn't a whole, I mean, it was up on the roof, but there were a lot of cars around, so there wasn't a whole lot of ground wind, you know, that would have covered them right away. So, yeah, I've tried every, I've tried to think of every other explanation, like, you know, why didn't he respond? Maybe he really couldn't hear well.
Starting point is 00:47:05 I don't know. But, you know, it's trying to take more earthly logical explanations than he can. I think he's an angel. Because I really do believe, you know, people say, well, do you believe evil is real? And it's like, well, yes, I do. But then the flip side of it, I think the other side's real, too. And that's what the thing we try to do on this show. I mean, I know some shows only focus on that.
Starting point is 00:47:28 There was a demon in my house. And certainly, I do think there can be more sinister energies. And I do think there are energies out there that do not wish us well. I think they're nefarious energies. I think that's real. But it's the ying and the yang, right? I always say this shows about the good, the bad, the happy, and the sad. It all exists in our world today, here, around us.
Starting point is 00:47:53 and I believe it exists in the other world too. And I think I know what side of it you ran into. Lisa, thank you so much. Love this story. Always love hearing from a fellow buck eye, although some people in Ohio don't like when you say that because they're like, I'm not a buck eye. I went to owe you or something.
Starting point is 00:48:11 But anyway, the point is... There you go. There you go. Well, stay spooky and thanks for being on the show. Yes, thank you so much. I really believe that kids have this ability to see things that we as the old heads can't see. And we're going to talk to Susanna about a story and she's going to tell us about something her daughter seen. But at first we have an important piece of business here.
Starting point is 00:48:39 We have to give the big spooky shout out to Noah, Jonas, and Betsy who the story is actually about. So guys, thanks for listening and you guys stay spooky. And listen on, I'm going to talk to your mom a little bit. Susanna, welcome to the show. Thank you for joining us. I know Zoom was having some tech issues, so thanks for being a trooper and working with us through that. And tell us what happened. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:49:05 Hi, Jim. Thank you so much for having me on your show. Yeah, my kids and I found you when we were going on vacation one year, just driving in the car about five years ago. And it's just become a habit now for us to listen to you whenever we're going to be a good habit. That's a good habit. Thank you. So my story is about one of my children, my youngest daughter, Betsy. She is nine years old now, but when she was about three years old, we had a little bedtime routine where we would sit on her bed next to each other and we'd read a story and we'd sing a song
Starting point is 00:49:39 and then tuck her in and give her kisses and go to bed. And so one night we're sitting next to each other on her bed and we're looking down at this storybook and I'm reading along and she's following along with the pictures and I notice kind of out of the corner of my eye that her little chin kind of is going up in the air and she is I glance over at her and I realize she's fixated on this spot across the room kind of where the ceiling meets the wall and she's just kind of staring out and I don't. think too much of it. I just think, okay, maybe she's thinking about something or zoning out or whatever. So I just keep reading. And then I notice a little bit later that now her little chin is like moving
Starting point is 00:50:34 slowly to the right. So I look over at her again. And I can see like she's still fixated on something over there. And now she seems to be just following it along with her eyes. And I'm looking over, I can see, I see nothing. It looks like a normal room to me. There's not even like a fly buzzing around or a spider on the wall or anything like that. Right. So she is just slowly turning her head until she gets about to where we are on the bed, on that side of the room, and she's kind of just staring straight up.
Starting point is 00:51:12 And that's where this, whatever she's looking at seemed to kind of stop. And so I'm looking, I see nothing, and it's just very clear to me at this point, she's no longer zoning out. She is clearly seeing something. So I ask her, I stop reading, and I said, Betsy, what are you looking at? And in her sweet little toddler voice, she goes, rainbow bubbles. Huh. And yeah, so that kind of takes me back a little bit and I'm looking again and I cannot see anything remotely resembling bubbles or a rainbow, you know, not even like a prism of light reflected on the wall or anything like that. So I ask her again, I go rainbow bubbles.
Starting point is 00:52:04 You see rainbow bubbles and she goes, yeah, mama, rainbow bubbles. And I don't know what to say at that point. She doesn't seem scared. She doesn't seem upset or anxious. She just kind of is acknowledging that there are these rainbow bubbles there. And she's actually really calm. So I try not to make a big deal about it. And I just said, okay, well, let's finish our story and get back to bed.
Starting point is 00:52:37 And she agrees. And we go back to reading the story. we sing her a song and I tuck her in, give her kisses, and that's kind of it. And as I left her room that night, I'm thinking back on like what had just happened. And I figure this is probably like a one-time thing, just a fluke kind of thing. And since it didn't seem to bother her, she doesn't seem upset or scared to go to sleep, I just kind of just let it go. And for several nights, Things were pretty normal, but about a week later, almost the exact same situation occurred. And she was, yeah, we were reading the book and she saw these rainbow bubbles again.
Starting point is 00:53:26 Doesn't seem to bother her. She doesn't seem disturbed. And she just sees them. And it kind of would happen off and on for the next year or so. It usually happened at bedtime when we're going through this routine. But then eventually she started seeing them more often. She saw them in my room. She saw them at different times of the day in different areas of the house.
Starting point is 00:53:54 So we just kind of accepted them as part of her everyday life. And they never did seem to bother her. There was nothing sinister about them. But as she got older, she kind of stopped talking about them. And I hadn't really heard her mention anything about them for probably the last few years. And a couple of months ago, I asked her, and now she's nine years old. So I asked her, you know, if she remembered seeing the rainbow bubbles. And she said, oh, yeah, Mom, I still see them.
Starting point is 00:54:33 Oh, wow. Yeah, that really surprised me because she doesn't. Yeah, I thought, because usually the story goes, they didn't see it after they were four or five years old and they don't remember it. But she's still seeing them. Yeah, she still sees them. She just, they're just so normal to her. She doesn't bring them up anymore. But she says they have kind of changed over the years.
Starting point is 00:54:54 Like now they're, instead of more of like a rainbow, rainbow colors, they look more like regular bubbles. They're just kind of clear and shiny. Do you think these are the spirits of past loved ones visiting? What do you think they are? So, well, I worried maybe she had something going on with her eyes. So we had her ice check. That's a reasonable. Yeah, being a good mom, that makes a lot of sense to check out the non-supernatural things first.
Starting point is 00:55:27 Absolutely. Yeah, she's had her eyes checked multiple times over the years. She's even gone to a specialist and her eyes are perfect. There's absolutely nothing wrong with her eyes. So that was kind of ruled out. And then I had some people ask me, well, maybe she was, you know, they seem to happen towards bedtime. Maybe she was just kind of drowsy in and out of it. But that doesn't, she was always very alert every time she mentioned these to me.
Starting point is 00:55:56 So I don't feel like that's what was going on either. So kind of what I've always told her they are are her guardian angels, and they just kind of are there to protect her and look out for her and make sure she stays safe. And she seems to accept that. And we just try to see them as a positive thing. Well, Susanna, it is remarkable, and I do believe that our young children, you know, they have the ability, I think, to see things that we've tuned out. is when we're old, quote, old enough to know better, you know, kind of thing. Plus, I think there's a certain closeness to the veil. Again, what makes this kind of interesting, it seems to have gone on into her a little bit later childhood.
Starting point is 00:56:41 Very interesting. Well, again, I know I got it written down here, make sure I get right. Noah, Jonas and Betsy, stay spooky. Thanks for listening. And mom, Susanna, thank you for listening and sharing this story on the campfire. Stay spooky. Thank you, Jim. Well, thanks for tuning in to the show.
Starting point is 00:56:57 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 campfire group.com. That is our personalized, spooky studio social network. It's its own platform. It's not Facebook. It's not X. It's not Twitter.
Starting point is 00:57:21 It's not blue sky. It is just for us. And people are loving it. We've got thousands of people. over there, sharing their campfire stories, maybe sharing their opinions on a paranormal podcast interview that we did, sharing their own stories, sharing their own images, sharing so much. And you're missing out if you're not a part of it. And the best part of all, it's free.
Starting point is 00:57:46 It doesn't cost you a penny. It costs me. Cost me to pay for the platform for the community. But we kind of got tired of the social media sites. We're probably not as active as we used to be. you might notice that. And we want a place where he could say, hey, if you're interested in our content, what we do, our story, the story of our listeners, go to virtual campfiregroup.com.
Starting point is 00:58:09 You don't have to deal with all the AI nonsense. You don't have to deal with a bunch of spammy ads. You just get the content. People are loving it. There is no catch. The only catch is you got to sign up. Virtualcampfiregroup.com. Virtual campfiregroup.com.
Starting point is 00:58:25 I hope to see you there. Now, for the other part, now this one costs, but it's pretty inexpensive. Somebody told me that it is less than a fast food meal these days for a month of our plus club. And it's so important because you might notice I got rid of those host red ads you used to hear before. We're just allowing those automated ads for those big national brands you hear, and we appreciate that opportunity. But the nice thing now we have it set up new episodes of Camp Fire and the Paranormal podcast. For Plus members, no ads on those new episodes. That's an extra benefit.
Starting point is 00:59:02 Plus, we release eight extra pieces of content exclusively for Plus Club members each and every month. And we've been doing that since the Plus Club began. Well, gosh, what's it been? 14, 15 years ago, something like that. So there's a plethora of interviews, the back catalog of Campfire going all the way back to 09, the paranormal podcast going back all the way to 05, and plus your support. It's how we keep this thing rolling. And we want to keep it rolling, but we can only do it with your help.
Starting point is 00:59:37 So please join today at jimherald.com slash plus. That is jimherald.com slash plus. And we thank you for your consideration. Back to the show and stay spooky. Tim is on the line from Georgia. He has been listening for years. His dad originally introduced him to the show. And Tim was going back and forth on telling this story.
Starting point is 01:00:05 And he said, you know what? I'm going to tell it on Camp Fire. And we're so grateful that he did. Tim, welcome to the show. And this goes back. It sounds like it goes back maybe to your childhood. I'm not sure. It was at your grandparents' house.
Starting point is 01:00:19 Tell us what happened. Thank you, Jim, for having me. And yes, sir, This happened back when I was young. For the summer, we used to, after we got out of school, we'd go to my grandparents' house. We'd stay there pretty much the whole summer. And the whole time, it's a nice house. It's on a hill.
Starting point is 01:00:38 And for some reason, it's not a big house for a little context. When you walk in, you walk into the garage, and then there's the kitchen, followed by the living room and then the bedrooms. And my experience while I was there, and my brother said it, experience the same thing, but I don't think they experienced it to what I did if that makes any sense. And I'm not claiming to be sensitive or anything like that. Right. I just feel like it affected me more.
Starting point is 01:01:05 But we always felt like something was there with us when my grandparents maybe were out in the yard or, but when we were left there, you know, just to hang around with our cousins and stuff like that. We'd all feel like something was there. Like someone was watching us. They didn't feel malevolent or evil. per se. It just, you know, it just felt like someone was watching. Sure. And then along the way, gradually some things started happening. So, like, some minor things would start moving. Maybe a coffee cup would fall off the counter, no one would be near it. Um, maybe the rocking chair will start
Starting point is 01:01:40 moving. And nothing, nothing major. Something that could just be explained the way, oh, it was just the wind or, ah, my grandpa just got up, stuff like that. That's what we always talked it up to. One night, we were laying down. We were all having, fun, goofing off. And my cousin says, hey, who's that? And we noticed somebody down the hall. And we didn't know who they were. We thought maybe it was granny.
Starting point is 01:02:04 And we called to her and no, she didn't respond. And so I thought, huh, that's weird. And so one of us went out and check on them. And when my cousin came back, he said, nobody was there. He didn't see anybody. And we said, that's not possible. They were standing right there. We saw them.
Starting point is 01:02:22 And so we all got up and, checked and nobody was there and we finally found my grandparents sitting in the kitchen and they said no we've been sitting here the whole time and at that point we were a little spooked and so we went back to the bedrooms and we all decided it was bedtime and nothing really too abnormal happened from that point over the rest of that night I should say and you know and it um just continued that we always fell off and then years and years later I um we moved out of
Starting point is 01:02:58 we stopped going there because my parents moved here to Georgia with us and we had to go back and get some of their boxes and so we were cleaning it out cleaning it up making it look nice and presentable for the next homebuyers and it still had that eerie feeling years and years later and um as we were cleaning out these boxes I noticed it kept I kept seeing someone out the corner of my eye I kept saying, hey, there's someone there, and I kept turning, and there'd just be no one standing in that corner and thought, maybe I'm just paranoid.
Starting point is 01:03:30 And we ended up leaving there, and my parents, my parents don't come up very often at all. They just drop us off, say hello to my grandparents, and they leave. And, you know, that's them. But my dad said, hey, who was that in that room in that room with you? I said, what are you talking about? I was by myself. There was nobody in that room with me. And I had never known that they were there, but apparently dad said that they were helping me,
Starting point is 01:03:57 looked like they were helping me, just standing kind of off the side out of the way. So you think these were forces of positive forces of good, not negative forces. Is that right? I feel like they were always watching nervous. I don't feel like they were anything bad. Well, that's a good thing. And I do believe, I mean, I think that the people assume, you know, necessarily that anything supernatural. is evil and nasty. And I don't feel that way at all. I feel there are a continuum. And I do believe in the idea that we have protectors and angels and those kind of things. And I also think they're the bad guys too. I think it's just like, to me, I look at it as I look at everyday life. Hey, there are a lot of nice people out there. And you guys out there, you're fantastic.
Starting point is 01:04:47 I was the other night I was at one of these library events and I said 99% of the interaction we have are great and people are great. And then you get the 1% what can you do? But my point is, is that I don't know about the ratios, but I do believe on the spiritual side, you know, visits from loved ones who have passed, guardian angels, protective spirits, people being saved from things, maybe having premonitions of things that save them. I think that the love, the paranormal, and the supernatural can be positive. Now, do I think there are darker, more sinister energies? You bet you I I'm not one of those people that said, oh, everything's sweetness and light. No, I think there's some darker energy. And that's what we try to get across on the show, Tim. And that's why I appreciate when people share positive stories. We recently had a caller who talked about seeing an angel potentially in Central Park. And that was a fantastic call. I apologize. Her name slips my mind right now. But the point is, is that I think it's important that we get these positive stories out as well as maybe the scarier ones. Tim, anything else to add? Yeah, the only, I will say, the only bad interaction I had came years after.
Starting point is 01:05:59 And this is what kind of convinced me, other than my girlfriend, to put this on the show, is that it was, this is years after I'm already, that was back when I was little, I'm now 25. And we were laying there one night, you know, nothing abnormal happened. At this point, we're at the house. We don't have any unnatural occurrences, if you will. But it was a normal night, absolutely normal. And we ended up going to bed, went to sleep. And I had a dream.
Starting point is 01:06:28 And I was back in that house. And I still felt the presence. Again, it still didn't feel anything negative. It just felt like it was just someone was there. And I remembered it exactly the way it was. But the only difference was there was a mirror at the end of the hall that was never there before. At least not to my knowledge. I do not remember that mirror ever being there.
Starting point is 01:06:53 And I remembered him, I was having this dream and I, I said, huh, I don't remember that being there. I remember feeling that feeling. I went up to touch it. And I remember the room went dark. Like it got cold. It felt like it was ice. I guess you could call it like you, like you noticeable drop in temperature. And I went to touch it.
Starting point is 01:07:14 And I remember, I don't know who it was. I genuinely don't. There was someone that yelled my name and it was Chris. it was clear to this day I can still hear it in my head whoever this wasn't I would like to believe it was probably my guardian angel for some reason I feel like that's what this was but I remember them yelling at me to stop and I woke up instantly
Starting point is 01:07:37 and I was drenched in sweat and I it was a cold like it was not like it was hot in the room the fans were on but I was just covered in sweat and my girlfriend said she was trying to wake me up that whole time she could wake me and I I woke, my heart was racing and I was, I was up. It was weird and I was panicking. And I still, to this day, don't know what that was.
Starting point is 01:08:01 And I still want to say that that was, that voice was my guardian angel. Interesting, interesting. Well, Tim, if you ever have any more experiences, I hope that you will come back on the show and share them. I thank you for sharing this. And thanks for taking time from Georgia. Stay spooky. Next up on the campfire is Jen from Pennsylvania. We're so glad to have her here.
Starting point is 01:08:29 And she's going to tell us about the tale of Green Grandma. Green Grandma. What could that be about? What we're going to find out in the minute. Jen, thank you so much and tell us what happened. So my nephew was just starting to talk. So he was like a little, like two and a half, three years old. and he started telling me and my sister stories about Green Grandma.
Starting point is 01:08:55 And he would say, you know, Green Grandma came to me and said she loves me. You know, Green Grandma said this. Green Grandma said that. And he was just always chattering about this Green Grandma. We had no idea where this came from or, you know, what he was talking about. We thought maybe he had seen something on television or... You know what I think of. Yeah, you know, I'm thinking of.
Starting point is 01:09:18 I'm dating. Oh, ho, ho, ho, ho, green giant. Yeah, yeah. You know, something like that. We were thinking, you know, he saw something on TV, and that was what he was talking about. But, I mean, he talked about it an awful lot. So one day, my sister and I had gotten a portrait or a picture framed for my grandmother as a gift.
Starting point is 01:09:41 And in that picture was my late mother and her siblings. so my grandmother's children. And my mother died when I was 10. So, you know, my little nephew had never really seen a picture of her. There were no pictures of her in the house. You know, he had never seen her face. So he could not have possibly known. But he came home from school that day and he noticed the picture that we had hung on the wall in my grandmother's house to, you know, surprise her. And he got really excited and started pointing up at the picture. And he said, that's great. grandma. And we were like, what? And he, my sister picked him up and she said, show me grand grandma. And he pointed to the picture of my late mother, who would have been his, you know, his grandmother that he had never seen or met because she had died years before. And he just kept pointing and saying, that, that's her. That's grand grandma. And so then we started really thinking back on what he had said. And I mean, she was visiting him at night, according to him. I mean, you know, and I guess, you know, the best that we could figure was that she had some
Starting point is 01:10:52 sort of, you know, missed or something around her that made her appear green to him. But, I mean, he was just as certain as he could be that that was, you know, I mean, he pointed her right out and said that. So, you know, I just, I believe it, 100%. Me too. Me too. We've had other, Yeah. And I can't remember exactly. We have a very similar story about, I think it was, it may have been a woman's mother. And the mother looked like one of the sisters, like it was a little child and she had siblings. And then there was the mom.
Starting point is 01:11:35 And then I think there was the grandma. and they would, she saw a picture and she said something like, and I might be getting this slightly off, but the gist is it's a relative, it's a female relative. And she said, oh, that's, that's sissy, that's sissy. And somebody said, well, that's not your sister. And she said, no, my other sissy. And it was a picture of the late grandmother or whatever,
Starting point is 01:12:03 aunt or whatever it was. Very similar. I totally believe it. I feel like I remember hearing that story, actually. Yeah. I remember the other sissy, my other sissy. And again, I'm getting the tough thing about doing this show, I've heard thousands of stories. So sometimes you get the details a little jumble when you're just trying to get them from my peat little brain here.
Starting point is 01:12:24 But the point being, these kids, they're closer to the veil. I think they have an expanded ability to see things. And then you have relatives who unfortunately passed. and I'm so sorry about your mom. But you have relatives who passed. So I think you got that combination. You've got the child who's more open to it. It's not been, you know, they've not learned it's not possible.
Starting point is 01:12:47 Plus they're like closer to the, you know, being on the other side of the veil, as it were. I think that's part of it. The other part is you've got these relatives who really want to communicate with them. And that's a great combination. And then you get green grandma and the other sissy. Right. Yeah. I mean, I just always thought it was, you know, just a wonderful thought that, you know, that this, you know, had happened to him.
Starting point is 01:13:14 And, you know, of course, as he grew up, he did not remember that. That's what I was going to ask you. At a child, he was here. Yeah. He doesn't remember it. But, you know, the fact that he was so adamant about it, you know, at that age, I mean, he just was certain, you know, this was somebody he was talking with. And where would you get the whole thing about Green Grandma? Where would that come from?
Starting point is 01:13:35 Yeah, exactly. Well, I mean, and we didn't even call our grandmother, you know, his great-grandmother was the one that, you know, we gave the picture to. And he, we didn't even call her grandmother. So, I mean, really, at that age, like, how many times did he even heard that word, you know, because it wasn't something that we called any, we didn't call anyone else that. So it just the fact that he could identify her as his grandmother. in that picture, you know, and use that word was just crazy. You know, I mean, there's definitely something to it for sure. Absolutely.
Starting point is 01:14:13 I believe it 110%. Jen, thank you for sharing this story. I appreciate it very much. Again, that bond exists and even death. It doesn't stop it. Thank you for being on the show and stay spooky. Yes. Thank you so much.
Starting point is 01:14:29 Stay spooky, Jim. Thank you. 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.
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Starting point is 01:15:01 When you need to build up your team to handle the growing chaos at work, use Indeed sponsored jobs. It gives your job post the boost it needs to be seen and helps reach people with the right skills, certifications, and more. Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Listeners of this shell will get a $75 sponsored job credit at Indeed.com slash podcast. That's Indeed.com slash podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Need a hiring hero? This is a job for Indeed sponsored job. Stephen is on the line from the West Coast, and one of the most fascinating phenomena, I think, is that of the near-death experience. I think it's one of the most important experiences that we can talk about because, let's face it, many years from now, hopefully, we're headed in that direction, you know, what they say, death in taxes.
Starting point is 01:15:51 And Stephen has seen something most of us have never had the opportunity to see, so he's going to tell us about it. Stephen, thank you for joining us, particularly about something so personal. Tell us what happened. We're welcome. So about 19 years ago, I was roughly, I'm going to say 15, 16 years old. My friend and I went out for a mountain bike ride. And at the time, I really don't know what made me do this, but I went off a semi-truck loading dock. And I smashed my face. And I died right afterwards. Wow. And my friend Josh, he called, kind of funny, he called our youth pastor right away. And the youth pastor was like, oh, no, no, you need to call 9-1-1.
Starting point is 01:16:43 So he called 9-1-1, and the fire department came. And then by then I was already, like, you know, bleeding on the ground and everything else. Wow. And then they came and tried to resuscitate me or bring me back, and I came back. And then from there, they brought me to three different hospitals into a different town, and that's pretty much what happened to me on that end. So now on my, what do you want to call it, your near-death experience side, what I saw was the moment I hit the ground, I actually don't remember even touching the ground at all. Right. So what I saw was, I was, I'm going to call it like the void area. So when I hit the ground, I felt super, super hot. Like, my whole body just felt like on fire.
Starting point is 01:17:45 And when I looked down, I was like standing in a puddle of blood up to my ankles. I'm not sure if like the environment was moving toward me or I was walking in. this environment. And from all my, yeah, it's a little weird, but after all my PTSD attacks from 19 years, I think I was in this like bloody black void for about two days, if that makes sense. Okay.
Starting point is 01:18:11 And then what happened was while I was inside this void area, an angel touched my shoulder and told me, you're going to be okay. And then instantly my body completely like, I didn't like, I don't know how to explain it. It was like completely like healed. And then as I looked up, the whole sky kind of like ripped open. And then I saw God's light and another angel.
Starting point is 01:18:39 And she, and this angel just kept saying, you're going to be okay. And then God was like, do you want a second chance or do you want to go? And at the time, while this was going on, my brother-in-law was in the hospital. with me and he said he and I were praying that I would get a second chance inside the hospital and I don't remember praying with him in the hospital because I wasn't in this like void area and he said that oh go ahead no no finish finish what you're going to say I'll ask my question later okay so while I was in this blackout void area um we were per he and I were praying and he vindicated that I got my second chance.
Starting point is 01:19:27 It was written that I was supposed to die, but I got my second chance, if that makes sense. Sure, sure. Now, let me ask you, how long were you unconscious? That I was pretty much unconscious for quite a while, for over a year. I wasn't necessarily in a coma, but I was unconscious for...
Starting point is 01:19:46 Oh, that long? Yes. Oh, my, okay. So it's kind of confused. because I'll just continue talking and then I'll get into that that unconscious phase later. Okay, go ahead. Yeah, so while I was inside that weird black void and then God gave me my second chance, after that I didn't wake up per se.
Starting point is 01:20:13 I went into this like weird black environment for a really long time and it lasted for about a year. And then by then, after that year, like, I don't remember anything for about a year. And then everything started to turn like gray and black, gray and black. And then all of a sudden, I started to see cherry blossom trees. And it was like really, really bright. And then I woke up inside the classroom and I had no idea where I was at all. What classroom are you referring to? When I was in high school, I woke up inside my high school classroom during history class.
Starting point is 01:20:59 I woke up. And I had no idea that I had the bike accident. I had no idea where I was at. So in other words, you were kind of existing on two different levels. And the one level in everyday life, you were doing things, but you were not conscious of what you were doing. Correct. Okay. Okay.
Starting point is 01:21:18 So do you have any concept of how long you were doing? in the hospital and incapacitated? I was in the hospital for a week, and then I got released, and then I was at home, and then I went back to school within the next year, if that makes sense. So, in other words, for a part of that time, after your accident, you were in the hospital, you were out of the hospital. Yes. You were actually, Stephen, the person, your parents doing everything, you were functioning,
Starting point is 01:21:47 you were doing things, but you were not aware of it. You were in this other space. You were. Correct. And then you snapped back to your Stephen back into one. Locked back in about a year later. Yeah. Wow.
Starting point is 01:22:01 A year later. Yeah. And ever since then, yeah. And ever since then I've been having like, I've been having PTSD attacks of that event for 19 years now. Frankly, that would be understandable. That would make total sense. That would be a very traumatic thing. Let me ask you.
Starting point is 01:22:18 Yeah. Did you ever, one thing that interests me about near-death experiences, and to me, it's very much like the proof to me, is, and I don't know if you experienced this or not. Did you see yourself from above when you were injured? In other words, when you had the accident, did you, like, float over your body and see your body on the ground in distress? This is kind of interesting, too. I only see that when I have my PTSD attacks, not during the real event. Which is very interesting because it's just kind of interesting because when I have my PTSD events, I see myself in third person floating around during those events.
Starting point is 01:23:01 And then, but when I actually experienced, I didn't even see myself at all. Everything just turned into that black, bloody area, and then that was it. And then I saw God come and tell me, do you want to have a second chance or do you want to go? And I was like, I want to have my second chance. And he's like, okay, you can go back pretty much. Do you feel things have improved for you, though, over the years? Um, yes and no. Sometimes the PTSD attacks are pretty severe.
Starting point is 01:23:34 Like, I feel like it's like a slow, it's like, it's like kind of like a breadcrumb trail when I have my PTSD attacks. And like, every time I have them, like, I see a new revelation of like what actually happens. when I was in that void area, if that makes sense. It's, it's, it's interesting. Well, Stephen, I wish you the best. That had to be an extremely, extremely traumatic situation. I'm obviously glad that you made it. Yes, me too. Definitely.
Starting point is 01:24:04 I wish you the best, I wish you the best going forward, everything, and in trying to process that because that is a lot to process. And thank you. And again, I'm a great respecter of people. people with NDE's. I think it's such an important human experience, something that I hope that I know they're scientists like Dr. Samparnia. Yes. I guess we've had on the show. They've done a lot of PMH at water and different people have done a lot of work on. I hope they continue to do it because I think that it's one of the most important things in the human experience.
Starting point is 01:24:39 And thank you for sharing your very personal experience with us. Yes. And I have other stories. I can come and tell you. tell you too as well. Sounds great. Other spookier stories. We like those too. Stephen, thanks for joining us tonight on the campfire. You're welcome.
Starting point is 01:24:56 Thank you. Long time listener, Leah, is on the line from New York City. The city, so nice, they named it twice. She's been listening for 10 years, 10 years. That is awesome. She was just commenting on how fast time goes, and that it does. But a great spooky story is timeless, and I think she has one. for us. Leah, welcome to the show. Thank you for joining us and tell us what happened.
Starting point is 01:25:21 Thanks for having me. So I started at this new workplace. I used to be a classroom teacher. I got burned out. I started at this new workplace a couple years ago. And recently, things have just been weird. A couple of months ago, especially, I had brought in some chocolate from like a local, a specialty local place. It's really good. And I was really excited to share it with my coworkers. And there are only five of us
Starting point is 01:25:52 in the office full time. And so I brought it in on a Monday, or a Tuesday rather. Everyone else happened to be remote that day except for my boss. And I gave her one. She tried it.
Starting point is 01:26:09 And then she left. Our cleaning lady came and I shared one with her. She left. And I was the last one in the office. And I brought this chop. It was like a little baggy of some chocolates wrapped in like foil to make it look like Santa Claus. And I walk them over to our little pantry and our little kitchenette with a couple of other snacks that I was like,
Starting point is 01:26:35 okay, well, I'll share this tomorrow when everyone's in the office. So I put them all in the pantry. I go home I come back the next morning I'm the first one in the build last one out first one in and I was like okay I'm gonna set this all out
Starting point is 01:26:50 for all my co-workers to enjoy and they're gone chocolate thief yeah we were all I had texted them I was like oh I brought in this chocolate everyone was looking forward to it
Starting point is 01:27:02 and I was just I was like where could it like did I really bring it there um where could have gone. There was no evidence of like mice stealing it or anything like that. And the other snacks I put in there were there. And it just was driving me crazy. And then my other co-workers started to stream in. And I was like, this is so weird. I put them there. I was the last one out. I locked
Starting point is 01:27:29 the building, set the alarms. And now it's not there. And one of my coworkers was like, okay, let's check the security footage, just in case, I don't know. Um, and we couldn't, there was no one in that area. And what was weird, though, is that our cameras are like motion sensitive. So they start recording if they sense motion. And it didn't even show me walking to the pantry. But, and if it weren't for the other snacks I brought in there being there, I would have thought I was completely losing my mind.
Starting point is 01:28:12 Right. But those snacks are still there, but the chocolate was gone. And it's like there's a little chocolate elf or something. Yeah. It's just unexplainable. And I mean, someone could have, but I don't know, there's no evidence of anyone being in that area. So is that that workplace? Does that have a reputation for strange things happening?
Starting point is 01:28:39 So not that I know of. I know it's an old firehouse. It used to be a fire station. But beyond that, I don't really know the history of it. But that was like the start of a string of a few weird things that were happening. So the chocolate goes missing, disappears without explanation. And then the next week, a few of my coworkers went to an event. And afterward, it was only like 5 p.m.
Starting point is 01:29:15 They went out to this bar. And they, unfortunately, they were drugged at this bar. And we found out the next, like a couple of days later, they were actually found. This was like end of January when it was so cold. they were found outside unconscious, separate from each other. Thankfully, someone saw each of them and called 911, and they woke up in a hospital. Oh, my Lord. And really scary.
Starting point is 01:29:51 They just remember they got to the bar, had maybe two drinks, and then they woke up in a hospital. Oh, my Lord. and that was just weird. And then the next day, this is a week later now, our cleaning ladies back, and she's just working. And all of a sudden she calls for my coworker, and she has this headache that's so bad we have to call 911.
Starting point is 01:30:19 And she ends up going to the emergency room. My co-worker goes with her. And then while they're gone, I get stuck in the elevator. Oh my. It just seems like this confluence of events. Yeah, exactly. So, and like they could all just totally be, I mean, they are just happening, but it's just so weird to me that they all kind of happened in a row like that. Right. And well, I mean, I could see maybe firefighters being mischievous.
Starting point is 01:31:03 Maybe that's it. I don't know. Yeah, maybe. But it felt a bit like some sort of curse. Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. Interesting.
Starting point is 01:31:17 Well, I do believe these old buildings, they carry energy. I really do believe that. I mean, you can walk in a place and you feel it. I mean, it's, I can't describe it. And I don't know about you, but when you walk into, for example, I think of a place, I haven't been there for a few years, which is kind of sad because it's a fantastic library. But Cleveland has a huge public library. And it's very old and it's very ornate. You know, there's marble staircases and all this stuff because Cleveland at one time was a very affluent city. Rockefeller was here and one of the industrialists around the beginning of the 1900s. And you go in there and you just feel it. You just, I can't describe it, but you feel this energy. I'm not saying it's haunted, but you feel like the weight of the past is there with you, that it's not just today. I don't know if that makes sense.
Starting point is 01:32:09 And it's funny because, excuse me, they have an adjoining building that has, you know, their business department and things. And you go in there and you don't feel any of that. But when you go in that old building, and maybe it's just psychological or something on my part. But I feel something when I go in there. And I think these old buildings, I think they carry energy. It's not necessarily, I don't think it's always bad. I don't think it's always sinister. Sometimes it could be.
Starting point is 01:32:35 But I definitely believe these old buildings carry an energy. I think so, too. Well, Leah, thank you so much for joining us. I appreciate it. You have a great day. And I hope that we'll keep doing the shows another 10 years if you keep listening. Sounds great, Jim. Thanks for having me.
Starting point is 01:32:55 Stay spooky. Thanks so much for joining us today on The Campfire. I appreciate it very much. And please tell a friend today about the Campfire. Text them a link if you think they're a YouTube person. Text them the YouTube link. If you think they're an Apple podcast person, send them the Apple Podcast link. If they're a Spotify person, send them that link as well.
Starting point is 01:33:18 Wherever they go, we are. So please tune them into the show. We would appreciate it very much. And speaking of YouTube, if you're watching on YouTube, not following our channel, not subscribing to the channel, you're disrespecting the family. We get very upset when you disrespect the family. Anyway, seriously, if you're watching on YouTube, make sure you subscribe because we do this every week and you can't enjoy it if you're subscribed to our YouTube channel at Jim Herald.com
Starting point is 01:33:48 at YouTube.com slash Jim Herald. And the thing I love about the video version that we do on YouTube, and we're we also do the video version on Spotify, is I do think it is nice. Most of the storytellers do share their video, and I do think it's kind of fun to see them tell the story and get the expression on their faces. I think our show absolutely as it has where all these years works as an audio show, but I do think the video aspect, you know, if you're not driving or you're not multitasking and you just want to sit down and lean back, I do think the video piece had something. You got to look at me, unfortunately, but, you know, into each life, a little rain must fall.
Starting point is 01:34:29 Anyway, thank you so much for joining us today. I certainly appreciate it. We'll talk to you next time. Have a great week. Stay safe. And of course, as always, stay spooky. Bye-bye.

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