MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories - Healed and Hunted | Campfire Stories with MrBallen

Episode Date: May 15, 2026

Tonight at the campfire, I'm going to share one of the most credible alien abduction stories ever. Be sure to WATCH this episode on my YouTube channel on Friday, May 15th at 2:00 p.m. ET! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Tonight, I'm going to share one of the most credible alien abduction stories ever. But before we get into that story, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious, delivered in story format, then you come to the right campfire because that's all we do, and we upload two, three, even four times every week. So, if that's of interest to you, the next time you go camping with the follow button, wait until they're about to go to sleep, and then just go ahead and pour a ton of itching powder into their only sleeping bag. Also, please subscribe to our channel and turn on all notifications so you don't miss any of our weekly uploads. Okay? Let's get into tonight's story.

Around 3.30 p.m. on October 25, 1974, a 41-year-old man named Carl Higden drove his work truck along a paved road in the Medicine Bow National Forest, which was this huge nature preserve in southern Wyoming. Carl had taken off early from his job on an oil rig to go elk hunting in this preserve, and now he was a huge nature preserve. and now he was heading towards this very specific area in the National Forest called McMarty Canyon that he had heard was really good for elk hunting. As Carl drove, he found himself looking around at the evergreen trees and the snow-capped mountains in the distance and he just felt this total sense of calm come over him. He was a very rugged outdoorsman and there was really nothing he loved more than spending time out in nature all alone. And so for a little while he was just enjoying himself, driving along, until eventually the paved road he was on gave way to this

this long, rocky trail. And Carl, he didn't want to damage the truck he was driving since it actually belonged to the company he worked for. So he wound up pulling over and getting out, and then he just grabbed all his stuff and continued walking on the trail by foot. The hike along this trail was not only pretty rocky and rough, but it was also predominantly uphill. And so it didn't take long before Carl was having trouble breathing. And not just because it was physically taxing, but also because when he was younger, he had tuberculosis, which had left his lungs really riddled with scar tissue that did make it harder to breathe, especially when he was exerting himself. But, you know, Carl continued on, and every few minutes

he would just stop and bend over and catch his breath. But after about 30 minutes or so, he had hiked to the point where the trees had begun to thin out, and then he found himself standing inside what looked like a big bowl in the earth. So this was McMarty Canyon, where he was, you know, intending to go for this elk hunt. And, you know, the reason it sort of felt like a bull is because it was mostly just flat with some shrubs and grass, a few trees, and these tall hills out on the side, sort of giving this impression of a bowl. And so Carl, he sort of just stopped and took stock of the area. And wouldn't you know it, when he looked straight across the canyon, the bowl, he saw a group of just five elk grazing in the distance.

distance. Like this was unbelievably lucky. Here they are right away. And so Carl slowly began walking towards them, doing his best not to make any noise. And then when he was within shooting distance, he just stopped, raised his rifle, and he looked through his sights to aim at the first elk he saw. And then he pulled the trigger. But for some reason, when he pulled the trigger, the gun didn't go off. It didn't fire. Or at least it didn't appear to. And certainly there wasn't any kickback. It just was like nothing happened. But then he saw something that just didn't make any logical sense. And at the same time, he's experiencing this just insane phenomenon. He felt this massive wave of vertigo, and then he just sort of felt himself falling, and then he blacked out.

The next thing Carl knew, he felt himself being shaken back and forth. And he sort of slowly began to blink his eyes, feeling very confused and disoriented. His head was pounding. It was clearly dark outside. And then he realized, sort of with horror, that somehow he was back inside of his work truck. But these surroundings outside of the truck definitely looked different, like the truck was parked in a different spot than where he left it. He suddenly felt himself getting shaken again, and then he heard someone say his name. And he looked up, in the darkness, he saw there were two men that he didn't recognize who were clearly shaking him, trying to get his attention. And they tried to ask him, like, what was going on?

But Carl's mouth sort of felt numb. And when he tried to speak, it's like the words came out garbled and nonsensical. And so at some point, these two men sort of gave up trying to talk to Carl. And they just lifted him up, pulled him out of the truck, and they carried him over to their vehicle. And, you know, Carl heard them say something about a hospital. And then before long, their car was driving off. And then Carl blacked out again.

About 30 minutes later, around midnight on October 26th, so this is eight hours after Carl first blacked out. His wife, Marjorie, rushed into a hospital room at the Carbon County Memorial Hospital in Rollins, Wyoming. And inside, she saw Carl lying on the bed, hooked up to an IV, and there were a bunch of monitors with a nurse standing beside him. And she saw, you know, her husband's eyes were open, but clearly unfocused. And then as Marjorie is just standing there, taking in the initial shock, of what she's seeing, the nurse actually pointed at her, at Marjorie, and then asked Carl if he knew who she, his wife, who she was. But Carl, he turned and he looked at Marjorie, but he just kind of stared blankly and then shook his head and said no. So earlier that evening, Marjorie had been at

home, waiting for Carl to come back from his hunting trip. But when he hadn't shown up on time, she ultimately had called the Sheriff's Department and asked them to go to McMarty Canyon just to check on him. And so two deputies had gone out there and they found him and he was unconscious in his truck. So those two deputies were the ones who obviously shook him awake and took him to the hospital. But interestingly, you know, beyond the fact that the deputies had no idea what happened to him, they reported that his truck had been parked three miles away from the main road in this muddy bog. And strangely, there were no tire tracks leading to it. It was almost like it was just dropped in the bog with, you know, Carl inside of it.

despite this weirdness, the deputies and Marjorie, for that matter, were not concerned about, you know, the weirdness around the truck. They were worried about Carl, who's just laying here unconscious. And so they had rushed him to the hospital, and Marjorie had driven there as fast as she could. A doctor had already explained to Marjorie that her husband was, you know, clearly very disoriented and seemed to be suffering from a case of amnesia. He couldn't even remember his own name, let alone, you know, what had happened to him while he was out in that canyon before the deputy. showed up and found him passed out in his truck. Doctors had given Carl X-rays and brain scans and run all kinds of tests on him, but not only did they not find any evidence of some sort of

head injury, you know, that likely would have caused his amnesia, but they actually didn't find anything wrong with him at all. He seemed perfectly fine beyond him just showing up basically unconscious and disoriented. And so realistically, the staff told Marjorie that because they couldn't really find anything wrong with him. They didn't really know how to treat him. And so for now, Carl was just being kept in the hospital under constant observation. And so Marjorie just took a seat on the couch next to her husband's bed, sort of not even sure what to think of this whole situation. And she was about to ask the nurse a couple of questions. But then suddenly, Carl sort of tensed up and began frantically looking around the room. Like he really had something in mind that he was

looking for. And then he began saying, like, where are my pills? Marjorie had no idea what pills her husband was talking about. And it was clear the nurse also didn't know what he was talking about. And so Marjorie, she reached out and just tried to grab her husband's hand to try to calm him down. But the moment she did that, Carl sort of stopped what he was doing and he yanked his hand away and stared at her like she was a total stranger. Two days later, Carl still could not remember what had happened to him when he had gone hunting. But he had recovered some basic memories like his own name and also who his wife was. And so between that and the fact that realistically, Carl did not have any signs of any physical injury,

they ultimately, the hospital discharged him and just sent him home with Marjorie and basically told her that he was probably fine and that he probably just needed to be in a familiar place to sort of recover all of his memories and get back to normal. However, when the couple got back home, it very quickly became clear to Marjorie that Carl was not okay, and he was not getting better. For the most part, Carl was just unusually quiet at home, like uncharacteristically quiet. And then when he would speak, it often was in that frantic sort of nonsensical way that he had spoken in the hospital when he was, you know, looking for his pills. And in fact, when he was home, he did continue to suddenly start looking for his pills. pills. And then also he began telling Marjorie that, you know, somebody had stolen his elk. Marjorie would try to ask him, like, what do you mean? Like, what do you mean your pills?

What do you mean somebody took your elk? Like, what are you talking about? But Carl didn't even seem to know. Like, he would have moments of recognizing that it's so crazy what he's saying, but he just didn't have the memories to be filled in. It was like Carl was just as confused by his own vague memories as his wife was. However, a few days after they got home from the hospital, Carl suddenly told his wife that he'd actually remembered something really specific about what had happened when he was hunting, like a new memory had popped up in his mind. He told her that when he was in McMarty Canyon and he saw those elk and he raised his rifle and he pulled the trigger, he said there was no sound, there was no kickback. It was like nothing had happened. But then he said

something happened that like truly just didn't make logical sense. He said he realized the gun had fired, but it was like the world had slowed down and he could actually literally see the bullet leaving the rifle, but like in slow motion. Like this bullet is trickling out of the gun and slowly making its way, you know, across the canyon and he's just staring at this bullet. And then the bullet seemed to strike like an invisible wall of sorts. At which point, the bullet actually stopped and almost like flipped inside out and sort of flattened and then fell to the ground. And then also as the flattened inside out bullet fell to the ground, Carl said he too fell to the ground and he blacked out. Now, when Marjorie heard this, you know, her first thought was like, this is nonsense.

You know, this is not real. This is something maybe Carl's mind has created to fill in the gaps of his memory because it's got to be really frustrating for him that he's got all these like fragments that he can't put together. and so maybe this is just his mind filling in the gaps with this really specific and weird imagery. But not long after hearing this story, Marjorie was doing the laundry and she was finally washing the clothes. Her husband had on when this whole thing happened out in the canyon. And when she reached into the pockets of his jacket to make sure they were empty before, you know, washing the jacket, she felt something metallic. And she pulled out this round, like flat disc, this massive.

metal disc. And at first, she just had no idea what it was. But then she thought about what her husband had said about the bullet from his rifle, you know, flipping inside out and flattening and falling to the ground. She couldn't help but feel like this metallic disc that she's holding in her hand that was in her husband's jacket looks an awful lot like a bullet that has been flipped inside out and flattened. Like she couldn't believe it. Not long after this discovery of the alleged bullet, Marjorie sat next to her husband on a couch inside of an office at the University of Wisconsin. They were both sitting across from a psychology professor named Dr. Leo Sprinkle. Now, Marjorie knew this meeting was sort of a long shot, but she was hopeful that, you know,

maybe they would learn something valuable. So by this point, Carl had not recovered any other memories from his hunting trip. But after, you know, recovering the supposed flattened bullet in her husband's jacket, Marjorie became convinced that something truly strange had happened to her husband. I mean, she obviously knew something happened out in the canyon, but now it just seemed like I don't even have any theories for what could have happened, but something really weird must have happened. And so she and Carl were both very determined to try to figure out what happened. And so that's how they ended up in Dr. Sprinkle's office.

Dr. Sprinkle was not your average psychologist. He was a really big believer in hypnosis. He practiced hypnosis. And specifically, he believed that hypnosis could potentially allow people to access repressed memories, which is exactly what Marjorie and Dr. Sprinkle and Carl, for that matter, believed was going on with Carl, that he had experienced something that was being repressed. But it was in there. You just need to find a way to access it. So that day in the professor's office, Marjorie stayed very quiet and just observed while Dr. Sprinkle told Carl to close his eyes, to relax his head down towards his chest, and just focus on his breathing, in and out, in and out. And after several minutes of

this, Dr. Sprinkle told Carl to slowly lift his head back up. And Carl did, but when he looked up, his eyes were actually still closed. And at this point, Dr. Sprinkle asked Carl to tell him what happened on October 25th when he went elk hunting in McMarty Canyon. And Carl, with his eyes still shut, began to speak really fluently. And he began telling just the most insane story Marjorie or Dr. Sprinkle, for that matter, had ever heard. Carl said, again, under hypnosis here, that after he had watched that bullet leave his rifle in slow motion and hit this invisible wall and flip inside out and fall to the ground. He said that he too had fallen basically at the same speed as this bullet onto the ground,

and basically he passed out. But he only blacked out for like a second. And when he opened his eyes, he said he was still lying on the grass in the middle of this canyon. Except now, standing over him was this tall, dark figure that was wearing almost like a very tight-fitting body suit, almost like what a scuba diver would wear. And Carl said this figure was vaguely, you know, human-shaped, but it had very yellowish skin and very small eyes and no ears and no lips. And there were two antennas sticking out of, you know, its forehead. And one of its arms extended into this, this flat stump, but the other arm

seemed to have almost like a prosthetic attachment at the end of it that almost looked like a power drill. And then in perfect English, this figure sort of looked down. at Carl and just said, how are you? And Carl said he was so stunned by this thing speaking to him in perfect English that Carl just sort of blurted out, oh, pretty good, pretty good. And the figure seemed satisfied with this answer. And it went on to quickly explain that its name was Azo One, and it came from a planet 163,000 light years away from Earth. And it said it had no intention of hurting Carl. In fact, it said it wanted to help Carl. Then with the hand that sort of resembled a power drill, it reached into what looked like a pocket on its body suit, and it pulled out

this small packet containing four pills. And it told Carl that these pills would heal him. And then this thing offered Carl one of these pills. And Carl, you know, for reasons he couldn't explain, just immediately took the pill and swallowed it. And then after that, Carl said that Osso 1 asked him if he wanted to go for a ride. And Carl just said, sure. So, Osso 1 helped Carl off the ground. And then as soon as Carl was standing back up again, he saw there was this cube-shaped vehicle not far away.

And a split second later, Carl said he was somehow inside of this vehicle, along with Osso 1 and also two other vaguely humanoid figures and the five elk that he'd been out here hunting. They were behind this clear wall. like a containment pen within the vehicle. And Carl was seated in a chair, as was also one, and the two other humanoids. They were all just sort of sitting there. Then Carl said he felt this powerful force push against his body,

like the vehicle was moving so fast that it basically pushed him back into his seat. But less than a minute later, the vehicle just stopped. And also one said, we're home. At this point, Carl was just suddenly standing outside of the vehicle. And he said it felt very cold and the sky was jet black. And then around Carl, the landscape was very different from planet Earth. It was very rocky and desolate without any trees or grass or really any organic-looking life anywhere. And then in front of Carl, he said he saw this massive metallic-looking tower that sort of reminded him of the Seattle Space Needle. And there was this light on the top of it that was actually so bright that Carl said when he looked at it, it sort of hurt his eyes.

And so Azo 1 led Carl, led Carl, the two other he... humanoid figures and the elk to a door on the outside of this tower. And once they were standing outside of it, Carl said the door slid open, but instead of it sort of leading into the tower, it just led to what reminded Carl of the inside of a large elevator. And the whole group just got on board and began riding up. And then when this elevator of sorts came to a stop and the door opened again, Carl saw this small room with metal walls and a handful of what looked like platforms on the floor. Ozzo 1 led the elk onto one of those platforms and told Carl to get on one two. And so Carl just did as he was told and stood on one of these platforms. And then out of

nowhere, some kind of high-tech device emerged from these metallic walls and began sort of circling around Carl. It went from his head all the way to his toes, basically like scanning him. Carl was vaguely aware of the same process taking place to the elk as well. And then when this, the scanner was done, it made a beeping sound, and then Azo 1 looked over at Carl and told him, well, the elk are what we needed, but you're not. So we're going to take you back to Earth now. And then Carl said the next thing he knew, he was just magically back inside of his work truck, like he had somehow been transported there instantaneously. And he was being shaken awake by those two sheriff's deputies. And so back in Dr. Sprinkle's office, Marjorie is listening, just completely

shocked by what her husband is saying, not even sure what to make of it. And then Dr. Sprinkle, at the end of Carl's story, when he got to the point where he's being shaken awake by the deputies, Dr. Sprinkle snapped his finger, and Carl kind of came to. He opened his eyes and sort of refocused, clearly out of hypnosis. And then they all just kind of sat there, like in total silence, really unsure what to say to each other. But as crazy as Carl's story sounded, there were several very strange facts about Carl's case that up to this point, nobody had been able to explain. And the story that Carl told while under hypnosis, technically accounted for all of them. The first fact that this story explained was that when

Carl woke up in his work truck, like magically just appeared in his work truck, it was not just three miles away from the main road. It was actually three miles away from where he had originally parked it. And this truck was just sitting in a muddy bog with no tire tracks leading up to it. So it was just totally unclear how it got there. And so if you follow along with Carl's story, you know, perhaps when he was transported back to Earth, they, you know, this other creature and the other humanoids, maneuvered the truck with Carl in it into this bog. The second strange fact is that when Marjorie had ballistics experts analyzed that flattened, presumed bullet that she had found in Carl's jacket, they were just as baffled as she was. Like they could not come up with any

earthly explanation for how a bullet could be flattened and turned inside out. Like, this was not possible. And so again, if you follow Carl's story, perhaps this being is the one that flipped the bullet inside out. And the third and perhaps strangest fact is that when hospital doctors gave Carl X-rays, they found something that should have been medically impossible. All of the tuberculosis scar tissue in Carl's lungs that had plagued him for decades that had made it so hard to be physical and exercise. They had somehow disappeared. It was as if someone or something had healed him. Despite how unbelievable Carl's story sounded and despite the fact that hundreds of people have spent decades trying to disprove it, no one has ever found a better explanation for the

moving truck, the impossible bullet, and Carl's disappearing scar tissue. Because of that, some researchers believe that Carl Higden's account could be one of the most credible alien abduction stories ever recorded. A quick note about our stories. They are all based on true events. But we sometimes use pseudonyms to protect the people involved, and some details are fictionalized for dramatic purposes. The Mr. Bollin podcast, Strange, Dark and Mysterious Stories, is hosted and executive produced

by me, Mr. Bollin. Our head of writing is Evan Allen, produced by Jeremy Bone and Cole Ocasio. This episode was written by Karas Pash Cooper. Research and fact-checking by Shelley Shoe, Samantha Van Hoose, Evan Beamer, Abigail Shumway, Camille Callahan, Alex Paul, Ben Fasiano. Research and Fact-Checking Supervision by Stephen Ear. Audio editing and post-produced by Whit Lacasio and Jordan Stidham. Production support by Antonio Manata and Delana Corley. Artwork by Jessica Clogston Kiner, theme song, Something Wicked, by Ross Bugden.

Thank you for listening to the Mr. Ballin podcast. And just a reminder, every new and exclusive episode we put out on the Mr. Ballin podcast, you can also now watch on the Mr. Ballin YouTube channel that very same day. And trust me, some of these stories you truly have to see to believe. Again, my YouTube channel is just called Mr. Ballin. If you want to listen to episodes one week early and ad free, you can subscribe to SiriusXM Podcast Plus on Apple Podcasts or visit SiriusXM.com slash podcast plus to listen with Spotify or another

app of your choice. So that's going to do it. I really appreciate your support. Until next time, see you.