Otherworld - Episode 29: Fight or Flight

Episode Date: April 17, 2023

Eikeland is a forest firefighter who experiences two unsettling incidents where he is awoken in the middle of the night by a strange and terrifying creature that appears to be a frightening hybrid of human and beast. During the first encounter, Eike decides to confront the creature, but during the second encounter, he is overcome with fear as the entity makes physical contact and reveals his strange nature. To see photos related to this episode, click here Subscribe to Otherworld on Patreon for exclusive content and bonus interviews Check out our Merch Follow us on: Instagram, TikTok, Twitter  If you have experienced something paranormal or unexplained, email us your full story at [e-mail] To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to Otherworld. I'm your host Jack Wagner. This story comes from a man named Eichland, who was actually a forest firefighter at the time, which I'm sure comes with many strange experiences. But, oddly enough, the forest firefighting has nothing to do with this story. Eichland emailed me with two experiences he's had, seeing something strange at night. And of course, I've heard a lot of stories of people seeing something strange at night. But honestly, once I read these, I realized that I have never heard anything exactly

like this before. And I think you'll see why. The stories aren't particularly long. In fact, they're quite brief. But there's something really disturbing about them, especially the second one. In fact, I should probably put a trigger warning on this. The second one does briefly mention

sexual assault. And it's also just generally horrifying for a few brief moments. If that's not something you want to hear, you can totally skip over it. I think it'll be pretty obvious when the time to skip comes around. But yeah, like I said, I've never heard anything exactly like this. And I'll let Eichland explain for himself. Let's get this episode started. This is episode 29. The title is fight or flight, and you're listening to Otherworld. My name is Ike. I live in the Pacific Northwest. Right now, I work a swing shift doing metal fabrication. I've also done wildland firefighting, door-to-door canvassing, a bunch of different stuff.

My life's pretty good out here, I think. I'm married. I have a nice little apartment. You know, when it comes to the supernatural, I've always been really interested, but like for the longest time, it was just kind of stories to me. it's kind of like, oh, well, maybe, but maybe not. You know, sort of like how like an urban legend gets started, like somebody sees a barrier in the woods and becomes Sasquatch or something like that.

But, you know, after a couple different things happened, it kind of became a little bit more real for me. I guess to preface both of these stories, I've had sleep paralysis since I was maybe 13 or 14. But, you know, once I figured out what it was that and kind of how it worked and that it was your body trying to wake up from sleep, but kind of getting stuck between, you know, that's kind of been my experience of it since,

as you know, it's like, okay, my body is trying to wake up. I'm getting all these distress signals. I'm getting this weird ringing in my ears. It's, but it's stressful, but it's more, like, annoying than anything. I don't typically see even, like, the room that I'm in all that much, and I definitely don't usually see things in the room with me. So I just want to throw that out there that I'm, You know, I know what sleep paralysis is and I understand that experience. So these two things that happened to me, these were, I think, very clearly different than that. And I'm not even sure if they were really in a state that is sleep paralysis or if it was something similar to that. But that's how they started.

So the first one, I was living in this really old house in North Carolina. with a couple of my friends. So I'm not originally from the Pacific Northwest. I used to live in New England, but while I was finishing up college, my folks moved to North Carolina. And after college, I didn't really have anything going on where I went to school. So I moved down to North Carolina. And I eventually, I moved out after a couple months. And some of my friends moved in with me. We rented this big house together. It was this really old house. I think it was built in like the 1840. or something like that. Really weird place. Yeah, at the time, actually, I had a lot going on. I was actually under a lot of stress at the time because I was working two different part-time jobs and also

going to trade school at the same time. So I had a very busy schedule. I wasn't really getting a lot of sleep. As for the people I was living with, actually two of them were friends that I've had since high school, like really close friends. Anyway, at the time, I was, yeah, under a lot of So the way that my room was set up was that my bed was set up where it was facing a window and then directly behind my bed was just like maybe like 10 feet of space of the room and then there's the door to John's room. I had been having sleep paralysis again because of like I've mentioned stress issues, sleep issues for a little bit. So it wasn't that unusual for me this particular night to kind of wake up into sleep paralysis. But, and I was like, oh, well, here we go again. this was different because I was able to actually make out the room that I was in,

like not perfectly clearly, but it was like, it was kind of like everything was like really like blurry. It almost sort of seemed like there was like trails to everything. But I got, I could see the room and I was looking straight at the window. And I start to see this black smoke, start to pour in from the crack between where the, the window unit, air conditioner is and the, like, window. and it starts to pour onto the ground, like it can move on its own.

Like it's not like can't fire smoke or something like that. It's like thick, thick black smoke. And it starts to pour and it starts to collect into this shape. And it eventually resolves into something that it's like human shape. But it was made out of thick black smoke. It wasn't really tall or really broad. It wasn't like huge, like a really big person. It was maybe about average,

maybe a little bit stockier, but the head was a ram's head. Like I could see the horns of smoke like curling on the sides of its head, and it looked like there were two coals where the eyes were. Like that's like the coals were where the smoke was coming from. But you could see them blazing as like the eyes. It just sort of like collected from this smoke that was pouring into my room and was just sort of standing at my window. And it's in the room with me, you know, across from my bed.

You know, when they talk about like a flight or fight response, well, my response was to fight. I just remember, like, thinking really hard in my head, like, you need to get up, get up, get up. It was really surprising to me that that was my reaction and that it worked and that it didn't really, like, fight back at all. Like, it was just kind of like, I don't know, like a dumb instinct.

I almost felt like I was, like, gliding to work. It was just kind of like this blur of energy as I was moving towards it and then I remember hitting it as hard and as fast as I could because I don't know that there's any belief system where something that looks like that is something that you want in your room. I don't remember, I feel like I must have gotten like the head and like like the body a lot. I remember hitting the body a lot and that's kind of where I felt like it just sort of like crumple. It wasn't like a fully solid thing. it was just sort of like this sack of, I don't know, or like a scarecrow or something that was like stuffed,

I guess with like cloth or rags or something like that. And that also really surprised me that I was actually making contact with something because I thought that, like, you would think something made out of smoke wouldn't, you wouldn't be able to punch it. And that's why it's also looking back like why that would, that's such a strange response to something like this because you can't punch smoke. But it worked and it sort of like crumpled to the ground. And then that's when it sprang back up and sort of like, you know,

turned back into smoke and like shut out the window. Like almost like it was a vacuum that like sucked all the smoke back out. And then I woke up or came back into consciousness and I was just in my bed. I made a note of the time. I was like, how much longer do I have to sleep? and it was like 2.40 in the morning or so. And so the next day, I talked to my friend John, and I say, I had the weirdest dream last night.

And he said, yeah, I had a pretty weird night last night too. And I said, what do you mean? And he said, I was staring at the door between our room. I woke up in the middle of the night and I was staring at it. And there was this black smoke that was pouring into my room. And I said, was it like a thick black smoke? And he said, yes. It was not like something was on fire.

but the smoke was like moving, like it was living. And he said that it started to like pour down into the room and started to pool at the base of his door. And it was starting to form something. But then it shot back up out the door. I asked him what time it was. And he said, you know, the same time was around 2.30 to 240 and that he was just in his bed, just like afraid,

just watching this smoke pour into his room and then watching it shoot back up out of it. So, yeah, I mean, I mean, the thing is, like, if he hadn't told me that whole thing, it would have just been a weird dream to me. It would have been like, wow, that was one of the weirder nightmares I've ever had. That's like one of the weirder ways that I've ever had sleep paralysis. But because he experienced something very similar to me at the same time that I experienced it, that made it clear to me that there was something that was in our house that I didn't want to. want there that probably wasn't supposed to be there.

You know, it was, it was really freaky, but there was also this sort of sense where like, it left. I wanted it to leave and I got it to leave. And that was kind of satisfying in a way. And yeah, you know, I told some people about it because it was really crazy. But, you know, I just kind of moved on. And, you know, whenever somebody would tell me kind of a crazy story, you know, I was, you know, maybe a little bit less skeptical.

It kind of made more sense to me that something like this is possible, if not necessarily common. Okay, we have to take a quick break, but we will be right back. So, yeah, a few years passed, and I moved out to the Pacific Northwest, where I live now.

And at the time, was also another very stressful time in my life. I think even more stressful. The girl that I was, dating who I'd later married and who I'm married to now. She tore her hamstring and needed surgery to reattach where the hamstring had torn. But it was also right in the middle of wildfire season. And I was working dispatch at the time, which meant that I was stuck at a desk for like somewhere between like 12 to 14 hours a day, back to back, you know, dealing with

calls and coordinating stuff. So she had to, you know, stay with me where I was living. But I lived on the second floor of an apartment. So she obviously couldn't walk up that after the surgery. And so I asked the doctors if I could just carry her up the stairs to our room. You know, I'd only have to do it the one time. And they said, no, that that would also potentially damage the hamstring right after the surgery. Like, it's really, you know, sensitive, really delicate right after that. So I ended up having to get us a motel room, just like the cheapest motel room I could find that was on the first floor. So that way it would be easier to help her into the room and I wouldn't have to carry her. So after the surgery, I get us set up in the motel room. It's been a long day. I have to go to

work the next day. I was only able to get one day off for the surgery. I fall asleep. And I'm having a completely unrelated dream. And all of a sudden, it's like it gets interrupted. You know, typical, like, pretty vivid dream imagery going on, then all of a sudden everything goes black. And then I see this sort of like whiteish, yellowy light. And out of this light steps this really bizarre looking thing. It looks like a part human, part bird, but it's like molting. So it's kind of like this, it's got this big beak,

big watery eyes and kind of like a yellow tuft of feathers on its head. But the rest of it looks like human shaped, but like, kind of like the hands are shaped a little bit weird, like kind of like the fingers are too big. If you remember the covers to those animorph books, right, where it shows there's like a

person and they're partway between turning into a person and then like a tiger or something like that and there's like a little like changes to their face into their body. If you can imagine that the person at the start of this is like sort of this like schlubby balding

middle aged man and what he's transforming to is like a molting cockatoo. There's not a lot of feathers there's really just one big yellow tuft of feathers on the head where hair

would normally be. It was sort of like big watery eyes. Like I remember the eyes being really watery. And like this big beak that takes up most of the face. And the skin is like, kind of looks like like a bird's skin, but again, no feathers. So it's like molted and kind of wrinkly, kind of saggy. The arms and the hands are kind of like thick, I guess, for sort of, sort of

like they're partway between being an arm and everything kind of like like melding together to become like a wing basically and I hear it start to like speak to me but I don't see the beak move or anything so it's like almost like telepathy I guess and it starts to tell me this story as it's like sort of like gliding closer and closer to me. And I'm sure you're going to put some sort of disclaimer in this episode about this because it gets very real and very disturbing. So it says that when it was young, it went to a movie theater and it sat next to something that it thought was a kid like itself. But it was actually like a dwarf, like a little person. And that the dwarf had had, had,

had molested them basically. And as they said that, I felt the hand, like, grab my penis. And it said, and that's the reason I am the way I am now. Then I wake up, and my wife kind of has, like, stirred next to me. And I'm, like, really freaked out because that's, like, a really gross, upsetting dream. yeah that's that's not something you really want to think about ever and it just sort of like like showed up and interrupted the middle of my dream but like i said i had noticed that my my wife had stirred and so i thought you know maybe like maybe she accidentally like groped me in in the night like in her sleep

or something like that and you know it's something that happens when you're in a relationship sometimes i don't know so you know the next day i asked her like did you like in the middle of of the night like like reach out and and touch me and she said no but i think we were both sort of woken up around the same time and i was like yeah i i woke up and you were up too and she said i woke up because there was something in our room and i'm like oh no not again um and she i asked her what it was and she said i i think it was a spirit because there was this this person who had this sort of like this like glowing white light around him walking in our room, like walk through our room.

And she said that she just got like the worst feeling from him, like, the sense that like in life this person had been like a, like a predator, like just like a really like gross, on savory person. And I asked her if she could describe what he looked like. And she said that he was short and kind of balding, kind of slubby. She said that she just got like the worst, worst, impression just looking at him. And I said,

okay, well, almost exactly like the last one, like you're never going to believe what my dream was like last night. And so I described it to her. It was, yeah, it was really upsetting. It was a lot more upsetting than the first one because in the first one, it's just like,

okay, well, this is something, you know, just like supernatural. Like maybe, I mean, I don't want to say, I mean, it sounds kind of demonic when you describe it, but it's like I can like wrap my head around something like that as just something like that's something outside of our world that kind of like stepped in for a second and then, or like that I was able to see for a second and then was gone. And I wanted it gone and it left. But this thing, I was like completely paralyzed.

Like I couldn't do anything like while it like basically assaulted me. and it told me this really upsetting story. Like, I couldn't get it to leave. And it was also so much closer to earth to, like, an actual part of somebody's life. Like, that's what it sounded like. Was somebody telling me part of their life? Yeah, and I couldn't get it to leave. So, yeah, that was...

So the first story I've told people about, but I don't really tell people about the second story so much just because of, I think that aside from my wife and maybe one or two other people, like this is the only time that I've ever really told that story out loud. I think that both of these experiences made me more open-minded to the possibility of, you know, something like a spirit or a demon or even, you know, I wish it was something nice like it, like an angel or something like that that had visited me. but I think that it's just kind of something that I keep in the back of my mind,

and, you know, especially when I, you know, listen to somebody tell a story, I kind of, you know, like I said, it seems more real to me. It seems more plausible. And like there's, I believe people now when they tell me, you know, and I've heard people tell me some really wild stories. And now I'm like, you know, before this happened to me, I would have been like, okay, like you're just, you're just kind of showing off as like a party trick or whatever. Like maybe something happened and maybe you're exaggerating. But now it's like, no, that there's, I could see that. It's like I can, I can picture something like that happening a lot more. But again, this is, this is not like my, my day-to-day life. Like people's lives typically aren't, you know, run by apparitions and premonitions and stuff like that. That's, that's not really who I

interact with. That's not really what my life is like. So it's just, it's just kind of something that I keep in the back of my mind. You know, after this happened, though, I did, you know, try to spend some time researching more about sleep paralysis and trying to wrap my head around what happened. And I think the closest that I can think of is, so what I've read is that sleep paralysis is in some ways similar to lucid dreaming, right? So it's a state that your brain is in where your brain is in, where your brain is. brain waves are different. And I think that something about that, about being in that state,

allowed me to see those things that were in the room with me. Right. And so my wife and my friend, like, they were just able to see it by virtue of being awake, like for whatever reason, they were just able to see that. But for me, I have to be in that half asleep, half awake, altered state basically and then I'm able to see that to see those apparitions whatever you want to call them that's the closest I can figure out

it hasn't happened since I hope if it happens again it's something nice that wants to come and give me some nice advice or maybe tell me I'm doing a good job or something like that and not something that's out to terrify and harassing. me. I think that that would be a nice change of face.

All right. Thank you, Eichland, for telling us those stories. I should mention that I did ask if his wife would be down to talk to me and give me her side of the story. Eichlin said that she is not interested and I do not blame her. It sounds like the surgeries were hard enough, let alone dealing with seeing these horrible things in the motel where they are staying during that time. And after we spoke, I did look up the motel that they are staying at. And I'm not sure exactly what I was looking for. Maybe just to see if any crimes had occurred there.

And after a quick glance, I realized that I'm pretty sure many crimes have occurred at this motel and probably continue to occur at the motel to this day. In fact, based on the vibes, I would say that there's probably crimes occurring as I'm recording this right now. probably not a super fun place to stay in the first place, not to mention the fact that you're seeing something completely terrifying in the middle of the night. You know, I'm not here to categorize or diagnose

the things that happen to the people in these stories. But even if I was, I really haven't heard anything exactly like what happened to Eichland. And it's such a specific thing, not to mention the fact that his wife saw something too, which felt the same but looked quite different. You know, the topics that we touched on in the Gateway Process episode and the Wendy Black Widow series as a whole

really changed the way I look at things. As humans, when we see and hear, that's just our brain processing and interpreting light and sound waves the best it possibly can. And when that data is incomplete or confusing, our brain does its best to process it. And sometimes that can cause two people to perceive the same thing completely differently.

I mean, just look at optical illusions. That's essentially what's happening. Your brain is getting tricked by confusing data. And so if it is possible for us to briefly perceive something that we normally can't, I'd imagine our brains would be working overtime to try to make sense of it. And the results would probably be quite strange. They might vary greatly from person to person.

So when I hear a story like Eichland and his wife, seeing two very different visual images, but getting the same meaning from them both, I find that very interesting, especially after noticing some of the patterns in the episodes that I've made on this show. Very interesting. So thank you Eichland for telling us that story.

By the way, it sounds like you kicked that first thing's ass pretty bad. So I doubt he's coming back anytime soon, and I'm very grateful for that. Very funny detail, and I do love to hear that. I hope that if I ever see something similar in my room, And that fight or flight instincts kicks in. I hope that I am brave enough to get up and fight the same way you did. So thank you so much once again for telling us that story.

And thank you for listening. This has been episode 29. The title is Fight or Flight. And you've been listening to Otherworld. Otherworld is executive produced and hosted by myself, Jack Wagner. Our theme song is by Cobberman. The soundtrack of this episode is by Juice Jackal and North America. Americans. Editing for this episode by Theo Krantz. Engineering by Theo Schaefer. We got both

Theo's on this one. The artwork for our show is by Coltysack Studios. This is an independent show, so please show us your support by subscribing, leaving a five-star review, and telling your friends. If you want to support this show and get bonus episodes, you can do that on our Patreon. That's patreon.com slash otherworld. We have a lot of good stuff up there right now. The Discord is live. highly suggest you get back there. Patreon.com slash Otherworld. If you want to follow us on social media, we're at OtherworldPod on Instagram and Twitter.

Also, if you or somebody you know has experienced something paranormal, supernatural, or unexplained, you could send us that story at Stories at otherworldpod.com.