Sightings - Bumps In The Night

Episode Date: October 13, 2025

They say sleep paralysis is harmless - just a trick of the mind. But when the lights go out and the air grows heavy, one man learns the truth: some nightmares don’t end when you open your eyes. Thanks to this episode's sponsor, THE PERFECT JEAN. Forget your khakis and get The Perfect Jean for 15% off with the code SIGHTING15 at https://theperfectjean.nyc/SIGHTINGS15 Sightings is a REVERB and QCODE Original. Find us on instagram ⁠⁠@sightingspod⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Check. Close the garage door? Yep. Installed window sensors, smoke sensors, and HD cameras with night vision? No. And you set up credit card transaction alerts at secure VPN for a private connection and continuous monitoring for our personal info on the dark web.

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Introducing the new Peloton Cross Training Tread Plus, powered by Peloton IQ. Built for breakthroughs, with personalized workout plans, real-time insights, and endless ways to move. Lift with confidence, while Peloton IQ counts reps, corrects form, and tracks your progress. Let yourself run, lift, flow, and go. Explore the new Peloton cross-training tread plus at OnePeloton.C.A. When we close our eyes at night, we expect rest, safety, the comfort of slipping into dreams. But what happens when those dreams bleed into reality? What if, in a vulnerable space between sleep and waking, something else?

is waiting. Something ancient, patient, and watching from the shadows right at the edge of your bed. Welcome to sightings, the series that takes you inside the world's most mysterious supernatural events.

Each episode brings you a thrilling story that puts you at the center of the action, followed by a discussion that dives into the accounts that inspired the story, and our takes on them. I'm McLeod. And I'm Brian, and we are in the heart of spooky seasons. So I wanted to find one of the scariest stories I possibly could for this episode. And, McLeod, what is scarier than waking up in the middle of the night,

unable to move, and realizing you're not alone in your bedroom? Nothing. I'm out. I'm not doing this episode. Sorry. If you just stay awake, McLeod, I guarantee you'll be fine. Okay. But listeners, if you're braver than me, can you survive a night full of terrors? Find out on this episode of Sightings. All right, Skeptical Geckos, before we dive into the story, we wanted to talk about our favorite pants company. I'm so excited!

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com. NYC with promo code sightings 15. And after your purchase, they will ask you where you heard about them. Please support our show. Tell them that we sent you, sightings sent you. So forget your khakis and get the perfect gene today. Do it! And now on to the story. Okay.

I've never used this voice memo app on my phone. but the little wavy forms are moving, so looks good, cool. I feel like I'm doing like a dating profile. Hi, I'm Marcus. I'm 32, a musician, recently single, new to the city, poor as dirt. And, yeah, I just sunk about everything I had into the deposit in first month's rent on this apartment. A real catch. I don't usually talk to my phone at, oh gosh, what is it?

3.47 a.m. but something weird happened just now and I don't know if it's a medical thing or a sleep thing or a screwed up dream thing or what but my buddy Jake said that he had some issues a while back kind of like this and he kept voice memos to track patterns or to process or whatever and yeah I I definitely need to process so I woke up maybe 10 minutes ago just boom wide awake but the thing was i couldn't move like at all not a finger not a toe nothing except my eyes and i'm lying there in my room has these big old windows and the moon's almost full so i mean i could see everything perfectly but again i couldn't move which was um weird so as i'm lying there

trying to will my body to do something i got this i don't know i got this overwhelming feeling i was being watched it it's hard to describe i guess i guess you could say it was like this pressure in the air or something but a definite feeling that i was very much not alone and i mean i tried to rationalize it maybe i was just dreaming or something but then there was this sound and it well it was this shuffling sound almost uh soft like fabric dragging on the floor, maybe like somebody in some bunny slippers creeping around my room. And my eyes were moving. They were still the only things that I could move, but I mean, there was nothing there, nothing I could see anyway. But then, and this is where it all gets

really messed up. I caught something in my peripheral vision. It was by the doorway to the bedroom like a like a super dark shadow i think uh but when i moved my eyes to look at it there was just an empty door kind of like you know floaters in your eyes you try and look at them but they just keep dancing away as you try to catch them that feeling though um it wasn't just fear i mean i've been scared before but this was it was like dread pure dread like it had been injected straight into my veins and then all of a sudden like there was I can move again I sat up gasping and I ran to the door check the apartment nothing everything was locked everything was fine but I still have that feeling and yeah I know it doesn't make any sense maybe it was just sleep paralysis

I've heard of that I guess Jake mentioned it once he heard about it on some podcast he said it's where your body's still in sleep mode but your brain wakes up and you hallucinate it's never happened to me before but I guess there's the first time for everything hopefully the last I don't know maybe just stress from the move or sleeping alone after years with someone next to me that's right ladies I'm a sad sack who just got dumped I bet that's it it's wait there's something there is such shuffling I don't know, nothing, I didn't see anything. Just this whole building settling, I guess.

I hope. This is stupid. Just a one-time thing. I just need to sleep, that's all. Okay, so it wasn't a one-time thing. It's... Sorry, uh... I just need to catch my breath.

It's 4.17 a.m. a couple nights since my last voice memo, and it happened again tonight. Same thing. I woke up, paralyzed with that same feeling of being watched. But this time when I heard that shuffling, and I heard it, I know I did. I tried to really listen instead of look. It wasn't footsteps. It wasn't mice or settling. Honestly, it was like nothing I could possibly identify with something else. And I was lying there trying to wheel my body to move again when I saw that same shadow out of the corner of my eye. But this time when I looked to the doorway, there was something there, a figure.

Tall standing right in my doorway, like had to be like seven feet tall, eight feet tall. I don't know. And it was dark. Not like shadows are dark. This was darker than that. Like the shape of a person made out of nothing. And even though I couldn't make anything out other than the just pure black, I knew it was watching me.

Didn't see any eyes, but I just knew I felt it watching me. And I tried to scream. I tried so hard to scream. to move, to do anything, but I had to just lay there while this thing stood there watching. And then it took one big step forward toward my bed. And then, thank the ever-loving whatever, it just vanished. And, like, snapping out of a trance, I could suddenly move again. And I sat up so fast, I almost fell out of bed.

But I've been trying to find a way to explain this. I know sleep paralysis can cause hallucinations. I looked it up. But, who, boy, this felt so real. And that thing, that shadow thing, it was so clear, like so defined, not like a dream at all. I've had dreams all my life. This was not that. I don't know.

Maybe I should just start sleeping with the lights on. or maybe I should find somewhere else to stay, but I just moved here. I have no friends, no money, holler at me, girls. Shit. Oh, I'm being ridiculous. There's nothing in my apartment. Oh, shit.

What if there is? What up? It's your boy, Marcus. It's still happening. Three more nights now. Same thing. Every time I wake up, paralyzed, but that... figure it's getting closer first night after my last memo i woke up and it was at the foot of my bed just standing there that same crazy impossible darkness same feeling of dread the second night

it was beside the bed halfway between the head and foot and foot And I could smell it. It was something so strange, like dust or opening a room that's been closed for decades. And tonight, it was right next to me, like right there, right by my head looming over me. And even though I was right next to it, I still couldn't make out any details at all, not one. And then it leaned closer to me, like it was examining. me or like it wanted to whisper or something in my ear and I felt this pressure on my chest like real physical pressure like something it just sat on me and I felt this weird like low frequency

hum that rattled through me and made my teeth ache uh and I just I couldn't breathe I and I seriously thought I was going to die and then just all of a sudden it stopped the thing vanished I could move again, and I gasped for air like I'd been drowning. So, yeah, a great new life in the city. Oh, I set up my recording mics to see if I could catch any sounds in the night, but nothing. None of that shuffling that I hear or footsteps or anything, just silence. Or, I mean, you know, normal city sounds, and then my panicked breathing when I'm I wake up.

I know how this will sound to anybody who ever listens to this, hopefully no one ever, but I found others online who have been experiencing something similar, mostly Reddit people, but I mean it when I say their stories line up almost exactly with mine, shadow figure, getting closer, except most of them say they can see the shape of a hat on the thing's head. as I don't know it's weirdly spooky a hat such a weird detail that must be why they all took to calling it the hat man I don't I don't think mine has a hat though I mean I hope mine doesn't I don't know why that it makes it so much scarier because I mean these people who who have had these encounters they start they start off confused and scared just like me but then they get more desperate it fragmented and then and then they just stopped posting like like they vanished or died

or I don't know oh what the hell that sounded like it came from under my bed but nope I'm not looking I'm not looking I'm not freaking looking I'm counting to three and then I'm running and I don't know if I'm ever coming back and I don't care so one two three bye Tim's new Cravable Raps are made for the times your boss said the what now? Or your teacher mentions that thingamabob. Need to pick me up? Snack back to reality with Tim's new Cravable Raps available in Chipotle or Ranch. Plus tax at participating restaurants in Canada for a limited time.

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Path for Mental Health Care. Testing, testing, one, two, three, hello, ladies and gentlemen, it's 3.33 a.m. And I'm in my car, just sitting in the dark in some convenience to a parking lot. And I, God, I don't even know how many days it's been three, four times all, blah, blah, blah, blah. just mushed together, blurred. You know what I mean? Like when you've just been up for so dang, dang, dang, dang long, I've been awake this whole time, I think.

Oh, my eyes are burning and they're crusty. And, um, oh, right, what happened? I left the apartment that night. Last time I talked to this, my phone, and you, whoever. And I just drove around the city until the sun came up, and then I drove some more. And as the sun started going down again, I thought about a hotel, but I can't. I've got like $47 in my checking account until my next gig Friday. If I can even play, I mean, my hands keep shaking.

So I went back to the apartment, I mean, and, uh, I went back because where else am I going to go. But I didn't let myself sleep, so I've just been pounding coffee and energy drinks, and I started watching friends from the very, very beginning. And I'm on season 8 now, so that's like three days, right? Four? Yeah, four. Oh, point is, Rachel is pregnant now and everything else is blurring, but I was awake, damn it.

I was awake, and I know I was awake because it happened again, and I wasn't even sleeping. I was on the couch, lights on, TV going, and I saw it, movement in the kitchen, just this shape, my old friend, standing there between the fridge encounter standing there watching me and I tried to get up and run but I couldn't move. I mean I couldn't move even though I was awake and yeah so I guess this wasn't sleep paralysis because it was awake and Ross was saying something about dinosaurs and I knew I was there but my body just uh stopped like uh it had been switched off and then the thing stepped out of the kitchen all slow and stuff and this time with the lights on I could see its outline better like the shape of it you know and there was definitely this ridge around the head like

like a brim. Yeah. A hat. He was wearing a hat. And it made it so much worse. I'm serious. Why? The hat.

Why does it make it so much worse? I've been awake too long. And yeah, so this thing, he just kept moving until it was right next to the couch. right next to me and I could smell that stupid same does smell but worse like rotten or old sweat just gross gross gross and then it reached out and

its arm was so long like impossible and it pointed at me and while that dread I've been feeling that wasn't just a feeling anymore it was like a message like a warning and even though it wasn't in words I knew what it was saying and it was saying buddy this is going to get worse and it was gone and I could suddenly move again and I ran I ran right to my car and I've been

here since afraid to go back I'm afraid to even close my eyes because you know What if, I mean, what if it can find me? What if running doesn't matter? I... Oh, God. I just keep thinking about those Reddit posts, the people who just stopped posting, stopped everything. Maybe.

Shit. My phone's starting to run the one battery, and I would go home and charge it, but I can't. And the dude in the convenience store doesn't have the right dongle or whatever to fit my phone. So, uh, well, I'm not going back. Maybe I'll just, uh, sleep in the car just for a few hours, just until the sun comes up. Because I should not drive like this. Oh, my God.

What if it doesn't matter? What if daylight doesn't mean anything to it? What if it's already too late? It's, uh... God, I don't even know what time it is. It only matters. My phone says 3.55 a.m. But time isn't...

Whatever. It's not working right anymore. I'm in a motel bathroom. Starlight in off Route 9 or 72, I don't know, I don't care, but yeah, I caved. The room's $42 a night, which means I have not a lot left, but after my last recording, I sat in the parking lot until security knocked on my window. And even though I know I was awake, I didn't see them coming. So I drove to another lot than another, but the exhaustion, it was just, whew.

Let's just say I wasn't in tip-top shape. So I came here, went to an ATM, pulled it all, figuring a terrible motel bed was better than my car. Oh, I was so, so wrong. I must have passed out the second I hit the mattress, slept for what hours. It was light when I went down, but stark now. So, of course, I woke up to find it standing over me,

Not across the room or at the foot of my bed, but right there, right over me. It's face or, I don't know, that void where a face should be was literally inches from mine. It was so close I could feel the cold radiating off of it like an open freezer. But this time, I wasn't paralyzed. I don't know why. Maybe its powers were stronger in the apartment. but whatever the reason I rolled sideways, fell off the bed, and ran like hell towards the nearest door.

And I knew the thing was following me faster than I'd seen it move before, but I made it through the door and slammed it shut, and I realized I hadn't gone through the main door. I'd gone through a bathroom door, stupid bathroom, and I was stuck, and I am stuck, and bang, it was pounding in the door, rattling the handle. Bang! Just bang, bang, bang!

too many to count like it was trying to break through until nothing that was 20 minutes ago maybe maybe 30 but I can still hear it out there that shuffling's down I hear you it's moving around the room and just touching all my stuff I guess and there's something else now whispers like it brought a buddy along, but I can't make out the words. Maybe it's just... Maybe it's just the sound my brain makes. I don't know. My phone was luckily in my pocket when I ran,

but its battery is at 4% and I've got no signal. These walls must be concrete or whatever's out there doesn't want me to call for help. That's crazy, isn't it? I sound crazy and I know it. Maybe I am crazy. I don't know, but I just need some help right now. I know what I saw.

I just need proof, yeah, proof. Otherwise, I'm just an insane dude laying in the bathtub talking to his phone at 4 in the morning. So I've been on video because if I can record this thing, then I know it's not in my head. um so i need a plan a plan um the plan okay okay i'm i'm um i'm gonna open the door i'm gonna point my camera at whatever's out there and then i'm just gonna run and depending on what the camera gets determines what what what happens next i don't know Wait, the whispers stopped.

It's... Is that a bad thing? Okay. I'm getting up. Here's the doorknob. Oh, God, oh God, it's right there. It's looking right at! Sightings will be back just after this.

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Welcome back to sightings, everybody. Have you not slept? I am exhausted, Brian. Just the idea of this has terrified me and exhausted me. I don't even know where to begin. There's so much because this is a thing, sleep entities, sleep paralysis that I think most of us are probably aware of or have heard something about this before. And I know there's like ancient examples of demons who haunt people. people's sleep and, but also just, I think a lot of us have probably experienced something in

the vein of this. All of us sleep, all of us dream. All of us have questioned whether we're fully awake and kind of awoken into a dream. I know I've had an experience, only once of sleep paralysis. Did anything happen during it? Like, no, I was just, I was like on a road trip. I was in middle school, I think. I was like 13 or something. And we were on a road trip and stopped at a rest stop for, I don't know, to rest. And I did. I could hear everybody returning to the car and I knew that it was time to wake up. And like I could hear everybody, but I just couldn't move. I couldn't do it. I couldn't like I couldn't control my body. Like I just. And I'm sure that's terrifying. Yeah, yeah. Wasn't great. How about you? Have you ever had a sleep paralysis experience? I've not had sleep paralysis, but I did wake up one night and there was something sitting at the foot of my bed. Oh, wow. But you could move? What did you do? I freaked out and tried to scream and I couldn't really scream. And then, you know, I think I looked away and I looked back and wasn't there anymore. So it might have been like a residual dream kind of scape happening.

Right. But it was definitely a little bit traumatizing. And, you know, I had a night light for a while. Yeah. I don't blame you. Oh, so this. Is this a real account or is it based on somebody's specific account? No.

I kind of amalgamated a whole bunch of different accounts of people who have experienced sleep paralysis, this experienced the Hatman, which we're going to talk about, and also experienced just other sleep entities, because there's a whole crowd of them out there, basically, who allegedly appear when you're asleep. Yeah. And, you know, I really wanted to make it really visceral and raw for this particular story. Well, you definitely accomplished that. So, yeah, as you mentioned already, like, sleep paralysis and these sleep entities in general are not a new thing. It's, It's very real. And it was first written about, at least that we've discovered, in the 10th century in Persia.

And then again, it was the next mention of it that we found is in 1664 by this Dutch physician who he didn't call it sleep paralysis. That didn't become a thing until like the 20th century. But he called it incubus. Okay. Which I guess means the nightmare. Not the band. Which is not the band, yes. But moving to the modern day, you know, modern day science, you know, when they first realized this was kind of a thing.

They thought it might be the side effect of narcolepsy. Right. But studies suggest that some 30% of people suffer from sleep paralysis at least once during their life. I'm in that, I'm in that, I guess, yeah. Yeah, I'm not, but I'm in the other percent that experiences an entity sleeping, sitting on their bed. Yeah, yeah. But scientifically, I guess, or sleep-wise, what's happening is this. So during sleep, we go through a bunch of different stages.

And one of those is REM sleep, which is rapid eye. movement sleep and that's the that's the sleep where our brain is most active in like producing dreams basically and during that time our body naturally paralyzes itself so that we don't act out you know what's happening in our dreams basically huh but every once in a while people can wake up and even though they're conscious their body just didn't get the memo and they get stuck in this paralysis mode basically alternately I guess you can kind of of wake up and be halfway between sleep and waking and have these wild hallucinations, which might explain what we're dealing with here. It might not. We'll see. But this is where it

gets really weird. So we've established this happens to a lot of people. But for at least a handful of them, they see shadowy figures while they're frozen in bed. And usually these figures take on no matter the culture, no matter the time period, they take on the same basic gist. They're pitch black, shadowy, almost kind of fuzzy, you can't make out the details on them. And a number of people who encounter these things also recall the same kind of smell, which is like this dusty, sweaty odor. And this experience of seeing this thing either in the corner of their vision, or it's moving closer to them, or it's sitting at the foot of their bed, or it's looming right over them, this goes on until they're able to move their body in some way, and then all of it

suddenly vanishes. So whatever this thing is, it seems to be global. It seems to be ancient. And it has a whole lot of names. When did the fedora come into play? We'll get there. That's a distinctly modern phenomena. But heading back way back in time, we've got ancient stories of the succubus and the incubus. Those are nocturnal spirits that do things to men and women that we won't go into on this show because we're a family podcast. But the old Norse spoke of a demon called the Mara, which was said to ride on people's chests in the night and cause bad dreams. And interestingly, the Mara is half of the old German word Noctmar, which means nightmare. In other kind of more Middle Eastern cultures, it's a gin. There's also a relatively more modern, famous one from Newfoundland,

Canada, which is called the Old Hag. It attacks people in their sleep, and it tries to smother them, usually by, like, people experiencing this intense pressure on their chest. They can't breathe. Or they can feel hands like clasping around their necks. Yikes. And then, of course, we have the more modern accounts, like the Hatman, which you just asked about. And if one Hatman isn't scary enough, oftentimes it is flanked by two shadow companions. Oh, good.

Yeah. Oh, good. Yeah. So the Hatman himself is a pretty modern entity. It seems like he kind of popped up in the two. thousands, kind of. So whether or not that's kind of internet lore, we might know. But it is interesting

to note that the gin that I mentioned is often described as wearing a hat. And apparently, if you can eventually move and snatch the hat away from him, you win a reward. I like the game show aspect of this horrifying tale of a sudden.

That's much nicer. I like this version. They make it fun. Yes. Yes. Let's So I guess the point is, like, these things are everywhere in human history and generally speaking they have a lot of similarities kind of dark shadowy figures generally like sitting on your chest a feeling of dread suffocating you things like that which for me raises a pretty big question which is like we have all these people isolated from one another in various points in history who all kind of have the same basic story or experience what do you

make of that? Well, I suppose one possible thing that comes to mind is if it's so universal and multiple cultures have variations on this, it's possible that indicates it's a just natural biological human phenomenon that gets described in different, through the lens of different cultures. Yes. That like, for one, it's a succubus. For one, it's a hag. For one, it's a hat man. but it all kind of gets pushed through specific cultural lenses that, like, reinforce the experience. Yeah, valid. Or, to play devil's advocate here. Please, it is the season.

Oh, yes. There is an entity that is global is, you know, it's like Santa, but for your dreams. Yeah, and the reason it manifests differently across cultures is that there's some core of this entity that is beyond our sort of sensory, ability to understand. I'm inclined aside with your version of this, which is that there's some biological process. I mean, everyone sleeps, everyone has nightmares, everyone has weird sleep experiences. And I think it's kind of natural that in the dark, you see dark, shadowy things. Especially our minds are incredibly powerful at storytelling, like at filling in the gaps. When something is wrong, your brain like just starts filling in the gaps, saying like, okay,

there must be a cause for the fact that you can't move. Yeah. And then it, you know, paints a picture. But chew on this for a moment, if you will. Sure. So in the 1980s, there was this community of Southeast Asian refugees here in America. There was a bunch of healthy men who just started dying in their sleep. And doctors had no idea what was going on, could find no common denominator among these people.

What they did find was that there was a disproportionate number of them that had some kind of syndrome that caused abnormal heart rhythms. Okay. But still, it had no explanation for why dozens and dozens and dozens of these men were just dying at night for no apparent reason. But there was this one UCLA researcher who heard about this and is like, I want to get to the bottom of this. She started talking to the surviving refugees. And all she heard were stories about an entity that was apparently killing the men, which was something called a dockout, which apparently in Hmong means night spirit. And ultimately, the CDC determined that 117 men died in the night during this one or two year period in the 1980s from completely unexplained causes. Supernatural explanations aside, that's terrifying.

It is indeed. But let's come back to, you know, our supernatural explanations here and our hat men and our old hags and things like that. Is there, I mean, like, am I, like, I would love to hear a more kind of in-depth, nuanced things. theory. I don't have any real supernatural ones that are like, this is what people posit it is other than it is the Hatman or it is the old hag or something like that. But there are some kind of cultural things that I think could be explaining what some of this, how some of this might have taken hold, at least in a modern sense. So remember how I said that the Hatman is kind of a modern phenomenon. It kind of first popped up in the late 2000s. So is this a modern

internet phenomena, I'm not sure, but it is worth noting that even though there have been reports of shadow entities and sleep paralysis and these kind of creepy bumps in the night forever and basically, it really kind of blew up, at least on the internet, starting in 2001, when there's a show on the radio called Coast to Coast AM, which was hosted by Art Bell, which explored everything from Bigfoot to aliens to things like that. And they started doing a whole bunch of episodes about shadow people in 2001 and asked people to submit their drawings of what these things look like. And I think based on all of that, it kind of took hold in public consciousness in a way that it hadn't quite as much before. And did that give birth to the Hatman? I don't

know. But the one thing about the Hatman that gives me pause is, like I mentioned earlier, that old Middle Eastern lore about it having a hat and stealing it, you know, is kind of compelling to me. But I think there is one kind of shadow looming over this whole lore. I really like what you're doing right now. The word just pour forth from me. But that shadow is the movie series, Nightmare on Elm Street. I see the connections.

Yeah. So, you know, that is a movie series about Freddie Krueger. It's pretty scary. I honestly, I have to admit, I don't think I've ever seen any of these movies. Yeah, exactly. But to my knowledge, he hunts people in their sleep or in their dreams. But it is worth noting that probably aside from the clawed hands and the face, one of the most distincting features of Freddie Kruger is the fedora that he wears.

Oh. So. The fedora. Is the Hatman kind of a translation of modern pop culture in that way? Freddie Kruger. Yeah. And then, of course, other explanation is this is a real entity. These people are seeing something real and fear for

your lives, everyone. So, you know, no matter the origins of this, whether it's natural or supernatural, I think I'm really excited to read the comments on this episode because I imagine probably a lot of our listeners have maybe had their own experiences with stuff like this, or at least know people who have had experiences like this. And again, regardless of, of, of, you know, whether it's a natural phenomenon or a supernatural phenomenon, it's terrifying. Absolutely. It's absolutely horrifying. I hope to never meet the Hatman myself.

But as McLeod mentioned, listeners, if you have seen the Hatman, if you have seen the old hag, if you have seen the Mara or any of these other things sitting on your chest, choking you in the night, standing in the corner of your room, please tell us about them because we would love to hear about that. hit us up on Instagram at SightingsPod or leave us a comment on Spotify. We have a very large flourishing community of commenters on Spotify who love chatting about this stuff. So please go there, check it out and let us know what you think or what you've experienced. All right.

Without further ado, Brian, where are we going to next in this our spooky season? Well, we are getting closer and closer to Halloween. Can I say something real quick about Halloween? and why I love it so much and why I think it's one of our best holidays is unlike, Thanksgiving is also great. You gather your family together and you all hang out, you get each other gifts.

But like Halloween is like the one holiday where you go out and you share with strangers, where you go and meet your neighbors and you experience generosity from all your neighbors all around you and you, you know, reciprocate. And that's why I love it. It's one of the most community-based holidays that we have in America, anyway.

That is so endearing and makes my reason that I like Halloween sound horrible. I like candy. I like candy. Okay, wait, wait, wait, wait, Brian, what is your, what is your favorite Halloween candy? Well, this is tough because I was lured chocolate and peanuts until I was, like, 12 or 13 or 14s. Oh, you dear, dear person, I'm so sorry. But I'm not going to lie, I really do like Reese's peanut butter. They're so good.

You know, I like the Reese's pieces, you know, the ones that were in E. They're the best. Yeah, I always just wished I was having actual Reese's peanut butter cup, though. I was like, I'd be like, okay, this can get me through the night, but I want my peanut butter cup. That's valid.

I do think those are my favorite candy. But yet, the reason I love Halloween is it's scary, you know? Like, I love the scary movies. I love the, you know, I love those kind of things. I love, you know, that feeling of apprehension that comes with this season. It makes you feel alive. Absolutely.

I think that's what it is. But for next week, we are going to tackle one of the, most infamous Halloween stories out there. We're heading to a small town in New York. Small town, like a sleepy little village. Oh, gosh. You didn't hear that, listeners. So we're heading somewhere. It's going to be a cool story with a lot of history that hopefully most of you didn't know. But it's the ultimate Halloween episode. I hope you're super excited

because I know I am. But see you next week. Same time, same place, right here on sightings. Sightings is hosted by McLeod Andrews and Brian Sigley. Produced by Brian Sigley, Chase Kinzer, and McLeod Andrews, written by Brian Sigley. Music by Mitch Bain. Mixing and mastering by Pat Kicklider of Sundial Media, artwork by Nuno Sarnatus. For a list of this episode sources, check out our website at sightingspodcast.com. Sightings is presented by reverb and cue code. the show, be sure to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform, so you're first to hear new episodes

every week. And if you know other supernatural fans, tell them about us. We'd really appreciate it.