Otherworld - Episode 42: Eilish Poe Pt 5

Episode Date: July 31, 2023

In the final episode of the series, Eilish Poe discusses some of the strange things that have been happening to her since touching death, and what it's been like to come back to life. Thank you so much to Eilish Poe for sharing her story with Otherworld. If you would like to contribute to Eilish's GoFundMe I am including the link below! https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-for-stabbing-survivor 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 episode is part of a series we're doing. If you're just tuning in for the first time, you should go back and start from the beginning. When Ilish first emailed me, the subject's line was, I survived a murder attempt, and now I see ghosts. In this episode, we're finally going to be talking about that, the seeing ghosts part. This is a paranormal show after all. But this story is so big and intense that I think sometimes the paranormal aspect

end up getting swept away in all of the chaos taking place in the physical world. And I think that happens a lot, actually. And that's what fascinates me the most in talking to people. Sometimes paranormal experience is sandwiched between so many other things that it's almost a minor detail in a larger story to the person who lived through it. For Eilish, she was shown this vivid slideshow of people in her life on what she described as a floating screen in her vision. I've asked her about this a lot,

and what it sounds like to me is similar to the Apple Vision Pro, if you want a visual reference. And by the way, that specifically is something I've heard described a lot, especially with people who had near-death experiences. Then, shortly after, three people from her life appeared before her one at a time, and all three of them are people that had passed away. And the last one that appeared before her

was a person she hardly knew that was murdered by her partner. And this girl that she saw physically helped Eilish sit up and find her phone which she was able to use to call 911. And that's very amazing for so many reasons. I imagine for listeners there are two main reasons. reactions to this. There are people who just fully believe it. And then there are the skeptical people who are probably sitting there thinking to themselves something along the lines of. That's a really wild story. And I'm sure it was really helpful to her, but her brain was probably randomly

firing off or she was hallucinating or maybe she died or that was her subconscious. It was probably something like that. And let me lightly push back on that line of thinking really quick. That's just basically using scientific-sounding words to completely speculate, just making stuff up, essentially. Brain randomly firing or subconscious showing her stuff is not a medical diagnosis. In fact, that doesn't even mean anything. We don't even understand human consciousness, let alone the subconsciousness. So even if it was her subconscious showing her things, what does that mean? This is not something. that commonly happens to people. And as of now, cannot be replicated. People ask me all the time

if I've started to believe more in the paranormal since starting the show. Honestly, the answer is no. But what I have noticed is how nonsensical some of the explanations people use to write this stuff off is. And I've also noticed that we know a lot less about our world and how it works than most people believe we do. And if her brain was randomly firing, as some would say, these are not the first three people she would probably be thinking of in her final moments. In fact, one was a girl from her middle school in Texas that she barely knew. I'd say it would also be an interesting coincidence that her brain randomly showed her three people who were all dead. I think if her brain was just showing her things in these final moments,

she would probably be thinking of her direct family or her closest friends, or even her roommate that she lived with, the person that she was trying to get a hold of desperately on the phone. If she was hallucinating, I imagine the hallucination would be something like that. This, on the other hand, was very random, very random. And when she saw these people, her first thought was complete confusion. Why is Grandma Jeannie here? That really sticks out to me,

and I just want to drive that home in case it wasn't clear enough in the episodes. Listen, we know so little about human consciousness, and I really do dream of one day having answers to things like this. But as of right now, we do not. So, no matter which side you're on, we still do not know what happened to Elish. And I don't think she does either.

Near-death experiences are still a mischief. history. And Ilish did not die, but she certainly came close. And I think she would know if she did. She's seen a lot of doctors since then. In fact, she's had 10 surgeries from all of this, and she's still dealing with complications of this attack to this day. But I do think Eilish came as close to death as a person can get. She experienced having her life taken from her, but was able to come back. And how she did that is pretty amazing to me. And ever since she came back, some very strange things have been happening to her that has made her think that maybe part of her is still touching the other side.

This is episode 42, Ilish Poe Part 5, and you're listening to Otherworld. Hello? Is this Bobby? Yes, it is. At its core of the science, you can't argue with it. I'm sorry about all the science. Up in the sky. It's almost frustrating that it's happening.

I'm going to die. I'm like, it's slim. We're just like wrong. Everybody moves back into the light, even if it takes them in. Before everything happened, I was always open to the idea of something paranormal, something else out there after death. But I think after almost dying and the way that I almost died, I think that I'm even more open to it now.

And for me, you know, I don't necessarily have all of the words. I think I have definitely not, definitely don't have everything figured out. But I feel like actually seeing two of my like favorite people in the entire world, Vicki and then my grandma Jeannie. I think seeing them in that really, really dire moment, really to me, opened up everything even more. It made me feel like people and souls and things like that out there that are there for us in ways that we don't even know or understand. I grew up in a really religious household, so I've always heard, like, oh, this person is. It's your guardian angel or this person's watching over you now and people die. But I had never, ever felt that before.

Even with my genie dying in 2014, I had never felt like she was there until I was dying, dying. And then I felt like, oh, shit, she is actually here. A lot of strange things, not just paranormal, have happened since being attacked, since almost dying, having an NDE. For example, I sometimes feel very strong urges or, like, sensations of something happening. And the biggest example, I was in the shower and I was just having like a, you know, taking a shower. And all of a sudden I felt just like I got punched in the stomach, like that feeling when the wind is just completely knocked out of you. But it felt literally like somebody punched me in my lower abdomen.

And I fell over and I was sitting down in the shower. And I just felt like, oh, my friend is pregnant. For the sick, I'll call her Katie. Oh, Katie is pregnant. I get up, I get out of the shower, and I'm just still thinking about it. I'm like, that was bizarre. And I get out and I tell my boyfriend Tim, like, I think Katie is pregnant. and I think that she is 10 weeks pregnant, specifically 10 weeks pregnant.

And then maybe three days, it might have been two days at work. I'm talking to her at lunch. She is like upset that some of her family wasn't going to be able to come down for the holidays because she had something she really wanted to share with them. And I was like, oh, you're pregnant. And she was just like, what makes you say that? And I told her and she just starts like cackling, like losing it. And she was like, I wasn't going to tell you yet.

But yeah, I'm pregnant. And I was like, and you're 10 weeks pregnant, right? 10 weeks. And she's like, no, actually I'm around seven or eight weeks pregnant. And I was just like, okay, I guess I was like half right. A couple of weeks later, we meet up for lunch, her and I and another coworker of mine. and she shows us like some sonogram pictures. And she was like, so I'm actually 12 weeks pregnant today.

And I was like 12, right? Not 10. If you were 8, two weeks ago, you'd be 10 weeks pregnant. But you're 12 weeks pregnant? And she was like, so you're not going to believe this. But when you and I talked, I was actually 10 weeks pregnant. like you thought. And I was just like, that is strange. Like it was just this overpowering feeling. It was just bizarre. A lot of times things like that happen to me where I'll be talking to somebody

and I can just kind of sense what they're about to tell me. And it feels just kind of like a cloud over me. I don't know. I don't know necessarily if I would want to call myself a psychic or necessarily that I could ever do a reading of some sort of someone because it's not something that I can control. It just kind of happens. Like if I walk into like an antique store, I can feel like the energy of an object. Sometimes it feels very dark. and disturbing and extremely uncomfortable. Like there have been times where I have almost thrown up in an antique store or a thrift store when I'm near something because it is just so disturbing and uncomfortable

to the point where I've almost thrown up. And then there are some items where I'll go near it. And it's the opposite. It like feels very nostalgic or feels like a sense of relief. washes over me. And that's what happening since everything happened, since almost dying, but going into a store and literally feeling like a darkness about an item, that's new. But in the like months following me getting released from the hospital, post-attack, things like that, probably around, I would say, three to four months, give or take, after I started seeing

these shadowy figures. They used to only be in the corner of my eye. I've read a lot about that online. A lot of people say they see things in the corner of their eye. I even had a student tell me that before that she sees that. Then it kind of started escalating to seeing them in front of me as clear as could be, but also not clear because it was like a static-y type person figure, always in the shape of a human. And it was like this black and gray static-y, like fuzzy-looking figure. year and I've seen them, I mean, probably at least, probably between 50 and 100 times, I would say,

yeah, like a lot. And it's not an every single day thing. I actually haven't seen one in a month or two. They never, like, approach me except for one specific time. They're just at a distance. And then the second I start to like walk towards it or acknowledge it at all, it is just like gone within, like as if it were not there. One time I was in my school parking lot and I had left for the day and then had to come back because I forgot something at school. And so I exit the building and I'm walking to my car and then just like behind my car, near my trunk, I just saw, like, the shadow figure of a person just standing there behind my trunk.

And then I kind of just, like, looked at it, puzzled for a minute, and, like, unlocked my car. And then when I looked back, the shadow figure was gone. But it was there for a long enough time to where I saw it, recognized that the same, like, static-y, figure was there and then I just didn't make eye contact for a couple of seconds to unlock my car and then when I looked back, it was gone. There have been several instances where I have people with me and I see them. I've been with my boyfriend and we've been like in the grocery store parking lot and we're walking to the car and I'm just like I just saw a shadow person and now it's gone and every single time he's like what the fuck like how did I not see it and nobody around

me seems to notice anything different I always bring it up because most of the time it is kind of startling to see and I think that I wear my heart on my sleeve so much that people can notice the change in my demeanor. I've seen them in my work, like at school, pretty much anywhere that you could think of. I've probably seen them there. I've even spoken with my therapist about it a little bit. I told her like, I've never talked to them, tried to talk to them. and she actually encouraged me to talk to them and try to say something. And so I've only since talking to her about that once I've tried to say something. I just said hello.

And then again, it was gone. It was like any sort of acknowledgement disappear. Like they did not want to be seen. We actually did an exercise and my therapist and I. And she had me relive a scene where I'd seen one of these shadow figures. And it was probably the most prominent shadow figure. That's what I call it, shadow person experience that I had, where I'm sitting in my car.

I had just left a coffee shop in, the downtown area where I live. And I get in my car. I'm just sitting there. I hadn't even turned the car on. And I just hear three loud knocks on the window. Clear as day. Loud knocks on the window. And of course, I freaked out. I'm alone and nobody's there. And then when I look over next to me is like a shadow figure in my car. That had never happened before. They have always been at a very safe distance, at least, probably six feet away. But then it's in my car.

I freak out and I just opened the door. And when I opened the door, it was gone. And later that day, I actually saw my therapist the same day. And I told her about it. Like, I felt just, so strange, so freaked out by that entire experience. And she said that, like, in the coming weeks, we would try to relive that and see if we could get anything out of it. And so probably, like, three weeks later, because she did not want to do it same day. She wanted

some time to settle in. And probably three weeks or so later, we went over it. And, and, And when I was telling her about it, eyes closed, everything, I just could see, instead of a shadow figure next to me, I saw like a middle-aged woman with like black hair. And I had never seen this person before. Straight black hair, probably just past her collarbone in length, dark, dark, dark, brown eyes. and she was just staring at me and then smiling at me and then she was gone. And that's all I could get

from the situation with my therapist. So it was almost like I was seeing all of these shadows figures at a really far distance and then they would get closer like six feet or so away and then so close that they're in my car actually seeing them

and then now it's like hard, an issue. When you saw it in real life versus reliving it in the therapist office, was the scene exactly the same, or were there any differences? When it was in my car, it didn't look like it was looking at me.

It was the same black, staticy figure sitting in the car seat in front with me, like the passenger's seat. And it didn't look like it was looking at me. It looked like it was looking forward as if we were just going on a trip along for the ride. In the moment, that's what it was like. But when I actually spoke with my

therapist about it and I saw like a woman, she was looking like at me, at me. And again, that was only for like maybe five to ten seconds. And then I was talking with my therapist and it was, she was gone. What does this feel connected to for you? Because I feel like a lot of people would jump to say things like, oh, you've experienced trauma. Do you think that these are occurring in moments of stress? Or it does not seem like it? I don't feel like they're moments of stress.

Again, it's like walking out of the grocery store and things like that. So I really don't think that I know I have like obviously PTSD and things like that. I think it has more so to do with having a near-death experience and having been like literally tasting death, being right there to the point of like seeing. seeing loved ones and things like we've talked about. But I think it has more so to do with that. I've even read, I mean, I've done a lot of reading and stuff, but a lot of people with near-death experiences have had paranormal encounters of various sorts. So I personally think it has more to do with that. And as time has gone on, I've been having them like less and less. And I kind of have like a little theory of maybe now that I'm like farther away from the incident and farther away

from when I almost died. Maybe I'm like getting farther away from... Like further from the veil. Yeah, exactly. Like I think because I almost, I don't know if crossed over is the right thing to say because I don't really know. But because it was so close. And I've read some theories about that. Maybe those shadow people are people who are kind of in the in between of crossing over, not crossing over, and they're kind of like in the middle somewhere.

And that's why like I can still see them. Maybe now that I am farther away from myself crossing over, maybe it has something to do with that. But I truly believe that it's something to do with the near-death experience because I had never had anything like that at all until almost dying. I think before everything, I really wasn't sure, like if there was an afterlife or anything of that nature at all. I mean, I was taught like there was a heaven and a hell and stuff like that growing up. But I mean, I wasn't like fully sold on it kind of thing.

I really, I don't know. I wasn't ever sure. I definitely feel like now that there is something, somewhere, a place. I don't know. I feel like I have evidence that something happened. And I don't know if it's like the different types of like heaven or reincarnation or anything. Like I don't know. I have no opinion on that.

But I really do think that something happens. I'm just not sure what. Okay, we have to take a quick break, but we will be right back. One thing that I've learned is that when people have no idea what to say to you, they're going to throw around cliches constantly. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Everything happens for a reason and stuff like that. I think when people don't know what to say,

they say things like that that sometimes make it worse. Yeah, there's been a lot of times where I just sometimes don't know at all what to say. do you think he's in heaven? Do you think he's still gone into heaven? Do you think he's in hell? Do you think he knows you're alive today? Do you think that he actually knew that you were alive when he left? Do you think he heard you?

Like, there's a lot of, like, people have a lot of questions. A lot of questions. I never know what to say to those. I'm like, I don't know if he did hear. me, I'm glad he didn't come back up. Or like, if he does know that I'm still here, like, I hope it haunts him every day kind of thing. Like, I don't know the answer to that. I think I've learned to be more open with what I'm feeling. I've always worn my heart on my sleeve, but now I think I kind of, I have to tell people how I feel if they, if you, if you,

upset me, you're going to know. I'm going to tell you in a respectful way, but you will know. I don't hide things from people because there's no point. And I think when you almost die, you kind of realize there's no point and not saying what you feel unless it's going to like really hurt somebody. I think you should say what you feel. Hurt somebody for no reason, I guess would be the caveat because sometimes people need to hear things that might be hurtful to them. Bystander effect is a serious issue, not just with like what happened to me, where his friends should have told me about his previous relationships. But I mean, there's a million examples of bystander effect. I do think that people need to be able to recognize signs in a

relationship that are toxic, not just, it's not always going to be physical violence. I have gotten questions from a lot of people, a lot of women, like, who just really don't know who to talk to and have talked to me about, like, situations like, do you think that this was just some, like, normal misunderstanding, or do you think that this is a red flag? And my answer is always like if you're questioning it, it's probably a red flag. If you are feeling like you have to seek somebody else's advice out or if you would be embarrassed to talk about this like with your mom or somebody that like a loved one, then it's probably not okay.

What I think I want from other people is just to really. trust your gut, trust what your, not even mind, like what your body, like listen to that stuff, listen to what things are telling you because it's there for a reason, your instincts are there for a reason. And just to not be afraid of talking about your experiences, somebody will listen and there's a whole world of people who are there rooting you on that you probably wouldn't know. So I went back to work around four months later because, I mean, truly, like, they're in my world at that point.

They're basically family to me. So I was just ready to be back in the classroom. So in February, I started like easing back in and going in once a week. I mean, it was really strange. The day I got back, I found out that, like, there was a child psychologist or psychiatrist or something, somebody who would come in and talk to my class. I don't know if they had, like, a slip-up in words,

but essentially they told my class that I had been in an accident. And that word accident is very powerful because an accident implies, not on purpose. And what happened to me was very much on purpose. Also, that word accident, I mean, what's the first thing we think of when somebody's like, accident? What's the first thing you think of? Car wreck. So a lot of the kids were writing me these letters that was like, Miss Po, I hope your leg isn't broken from your car crash. Miss Po, I hope you're doing better after being in a car wreck. things like that. And at first I was like, where are they getting this information? And then when I got

back, that's when I found out that somebody had used that word accident. And basically with like the parents' permission, I had a conversation with them and I answered a lot of questions. So many of them already knew like all of the details, like way too many details to the point where I didn't have to explain the parents were kind of like encouraged to have their own conversations with the kids. And I know that they did. They don't know everything, obviously. They know that somebody hurt me and that it was in my house and things like that. And a lot of them already knew that. One of them had a cousin who like works in the coroner's office and was like, Miss Po, my cousin was there when they got the body off of the mountain in front of my whole class.

And I was just like, okay. And just like kind of shut that down. But of course, some of the kids were like, the mountain. Like, what is she talking about? I've told that kid's mom. She was mortified. And then I ended up looping, which is when you move up a grade and stay with like the same kids. So I ended up moving to fourth grade and having most of the kids in my class again,

which was great, which was amazing because I didn't get that time with them. I mean, that's just like kind of a taste of how my life, like, has not and probably will not ever return to quote unquote normalcy again. Like I think right now it's at its most normal. even though I had a surgery two months ago and I'm doing a paranormal podcast, I think it's at its most normal that it's been in a really long time. And I think that's pretty much as normal as it's going to get.

If you ever hear that thunder, put your eye to the sky boy and wonder, maybe there's a kingdom of, Of the weather, oh, and whether you're going to get on in is up to heat. All right, I want to thank Eilish Poe one more time for telling her story and letting me tell it. This is the first time I've done anything close to this scale, and I'm so grateful she gave me the chance. Eilish has had 10 surgeries and counting since the attack, and she still deals with all sorts of complications from it. Her co-worker set up a GoFundMe, and I'm going to put a link to it in the description of this episode,

anyone would like to chip in. I know I didn't get into the details too much, but there's an update in Alyssa's case. The ex-boyfriend that murdered her was recently sentenced in Texas. He'll be serving 43 years in federal prison. He was originally facing up to two life sentences, but took a plea deal.

The police also just discovered that his fiancé was involved in the planning of this, and she was recently arrested and charged as well. It's estimated that one in three women worldwide will experience physical or sexual violence, in their lifetime. Gender-based violence is one of the biggest human rights violations in the entire world. I want to throw in at the end of this episode is the number for the National Domestic Abuse

Hotline. If you or anyone you know ever needs it, that number is 1-800-799 safe. 1-800-799-7-233. If you are a loved one are experiencing domestic violence and need assistance, you can use that number, call them, and they'll help you find resources in your area. This is episode 42, Ilish Poe Part 5, and you've been listening to Otherworld. Otherworld is hosted and executive produced by myself, Jack Wagner. Our theme song is by Cobra Man.

The song you're hearing right now is Beautiful Strangers by Kevin Morby. The soundtrack of this episode is by Juice Jackal and North Americans. This episode was edited by myself and engineered by Theo Schaefer. Our work for our show is by Coldestack Studios. Please show us your support by subscribing, leaving a five-star review, and telling your friends about Otherworld. If you want to hear more episodes of this show, you can become a patron at patreon.com slash Otherworld.

We have tons of stuff up there, including a recent bonus episode of today with Eilish. Our social media is at Otherworld Pod on Instagram and Twitter. Thank you to the team at Odyssey. J.D. Crowley, Jenna Weiss-Berman, Learreece Dennis, Rob Morandi, Eric Donnelly, Matt Casey, Casey Klauser, Moira Curran,

Josephina Frances, and Hillary Schuff. Follow and listen to Otherworld now for free on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast. And finally, if you or somebody you know has experienced something paranormal, supernatural, or unexplained, you could send us to your story at Stories at Otherworldpod.com.