Somewhere in the Skies - Halloween Series | Jim Harold's Campfire

Episode Date: October 24, 2024

We begin our Halloween series with a spooky story from listener, Andrew, who encountered what he believes was demonic activity connected to a painting of The Last Supper. Then Ryan interviews the most prolific paranormal podcaster in the world, Jim Harold. We hear some of the creepiest and most bizarre stories ever submitted to his hit podcast, Jim Harold's Campfire! Subscribe to Jim Harold's Campfire: https://jimharold.com/ Patreon: www.patreon.com/somewhereskies ByMeACoffee: buymeacoffee.com/UFxzyzHOaQ PayPal: [e-mail] Website: www.somewhereintheskies.com Store: http://tee.pub/lic/ULZAy7IY12U YouTube Channel: CLICK HERE Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/somewhereskies/videos Order Ryan’s new book: https://a.co/d/4KNQnM4 Order Ryan’s older book: https://amzn.to/3PmydYC Twitter: @SomewhereSkies Read Ryan’s Articles by CLICKING HERE Opening Theme Song, "Ephemeral Reign" by Per Kiilstofte Produced by LIONSGATE Copyright © 2024. Ryan Sprague. All rights reserved. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/somewhere-in-the-skies. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everyone, Ryan Sprague here, host of Somewhere in the Skies. If you've ever thought about supporting us, we have great two easy options for you right now. If you listen to the show on Apple Podcasts, you can click the subscribe button at the top of your Apple feed. Or you can join our Patreon at patreon.com slash somewhere skies. Both of these options give you the same benefits. Early access to the main show. Bonus episodes and content and priority to ask our guests, your listener questions. So to help support Somewhere in the Skies, click that subscribe button on Apple or visit patreon.com slash somewhere skies. Thank you so much for your support and keep looking up. Today on Somewhere in the Sky's Halloween edition, we're talking to the OG of paranormal podcasting, Jim Harold. I definitely believe summer. is going on. I also believe in the definite existence of an afterlife. What form that is exactly, I don't know. And I hate to say, but the biggest revelation I've had is I don't know. I thought I had a

better handle on things in 2005 when I started. I kind of had a view of the universe and the world, and I'm like, that's what I think is going on. But now I've been challenged by so many different guests, listeners with their experiences that I know something's there, I know something's going on, but it beats me what it is, Ryan. This is Somewhere in the Skies with Ryan Sprague. Welcome to Somewhere in the Skies Halloween edition. I'm your host, Ryan Sprague. And before we get to this week's very special guest, I have to share this creepy listener story from Andrew.

Listener beware, you're in for a story. scare. My name is Andrew and I live in a house in the Highland Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. We are the third occupants in the house since it was built in 1905. Not too long after moving in, we were doing some work in the garage and a friend noticed an old frame print of the Last Supper hanging above the closet door. She's obsessed of religious iconography and end up taking the print and to hang at her apartment. A little about where she lived, her apartment was a studio on the second floor of an old building on Figueroa here in Highland Park. It was a super creepy place complete with a steep stairaway creaky old floors, and the bathroom had an

opening in the wall that I assumed was an old trash shoot. There was no door or closure of any kind on this dark, breezy shaft. I'd always joke telling her it was a portal trail and a golem creature is going to climb out one night and get her. A few months later, after hanging the last suburb print, she went out of town and I stayed there thinking it would be the perfect setting to focus on the script I was working on at the time. I soon found out that wasn't the case. It sounded like her upstairs neighbors were rearranging the apartment most tonight, and they had a toddler who ran across the floor constantly.

Following the neighbors settled down about 10, and after getting some work done, I settled down myself to get some sleep. I think this was about 2 o'clock in the morning. Around dawn, I was awakened from sleep by the bed slightly shaking, followed by what I can only describe as a deep, guttural, demonic voice coming from the wall behind my head. That kind of crazy sounding noise. I just never heard anything like it. The wall behind me is an exterior wall, the building.

I had never heard anything like it before. It totally freaked me out. After gathering my senses, I quickly packed my things up and vacated back to my house. A few days later, my friend returned. She stopped by my house to pick up her key. I told her experience I had while she was gone. As tears rolled up in her eyes, she had told me she'd heard the same voice and that she had heard strange and scary things happening.

This was happening to her on a regular basis. Often she would hear the sound of her shower curtain opening, like the shower curtain rings clinking across the bar as they were being pulled back and forth. She would hear these footsteps in the same area again back and forth. She would run and let go and see if there was anything. there and would find nothing. We decided these things started

happening after she brought the last supper print to her apartment. She went home, got the print, brought it back to my house, put it back in the garage where it was originally hanging, and where it still hangs today. We all came to the conclusion that maybe the print was

a cursed object and it needed to be just left alone. After that, it was all quiet with the exception of the noisy upstairs neighbors. My friend moved out later. later that year, several years later I was walking by the apartment and noticed it had been remodeled, but the odd thing was that all the windows in her former unit were boarded up. Seeing that instantly gave me chills. All this leads me to believe that the issue wasn't

the print itself and that maybe something in the building or in that portal's hell looking shaft in the bathroom was just not okay with the last supper of print hanging on the wall. So like most creepy stories, we'll never know what caused all those strange things to happen. But I do know that Last Supper Print will not be moved from its spot as long as I live in this house. Yeah, so I will never look at that Last Supper print over my parents' dining room the same ever again. Thanks, Andrew. Also, it really wouldn't surprise me if the portal to hell actually was in Los Angeles, in a bathroom. Just saying.

Thanks again to Andrew for sharing this creepy story with us. He's got some other stories to tell, so stay tuned for that in the very near future. And now, on to this week's guest. For everyone listening, there was a time when you first tripped upon your very first podcast. And if you're like me, you were hooked. You'd not only listen every episode, but you waited ever so unpatiently for more. And that has been the case for me with one show, for the past 13 years.

Since 2005, he has produced almost 600 episodes of the Paranormal Podcast, and I've heard every single one of them. So today, we're going to be talking to the creator and host, Jim Harold. Jim Harold has had a lifelong love affair with the strange, the supernatural, and the unexplained. The Paranormal Podcast and Jim Harold's campfire are frequently among the top podcasts in their categories on iTunes, often outraking programs from mainstream media publishers. He's also authored five books containing countless stories of the strange that he's chronicled throughout his many years of interviews and listener submissions. He has since spawned various other

podcasts, including true crime, UFOs, conspiracies, cryptids, and ancient mysteries. His favorite The pastime is terrifying his listeners with creepy campfire stories. So, pull up a log, get warm, and get spooked with our very special guest, Jim Harold. Thank you so much for joining me this Halloween season, Jim. I'm glad to be back. Thank you so much for the invite. I always enjoy talking spooky stuff with you, the UFO expert, and do something maybe a little bit different this time of year. and it's an honor to be on the program.

Absolutely, man. This is my favorite time of the year. I mean, I can talk UFOs forever, but this is the stuff I crave and that I want to bring to my audience who might not think about these topics that often, and that's ghost, supernatural, just the plain spooky.

And Jim, your show, it was the first podcast I ever listened to, and I've heard every episode since the very beginning. It was a huge inspiration in both my research and my dive into the world of podcasting. So this is a huge honor for me as well. So I'm happy to have you here, not talking about the mysteries in our skies, but the mysteries that seem to haunt us here on the ground.

So, yeah, before we get to the stories that I know everyone is here for, I always have to ask first-time guests on somewhere in the skies, their origin story. How did you get started in podcasting? and in particular with the paranormal. Let's run through that if you don't mind. Well, I had gone to school for broadcasting, and I ended up, when I graduated, I ended up working in radio, but I ended up working on the business side, the advertising side.

And about a dozen years after I started, this is in the mid-2000s, I looked up, I said, you know, my dream, my goal was to be a broadcaster, whether that was as a, producer or is on-air talent. That was kind of what my schooling was driving towards. Ended up again working behind the scenes and advertising. And it was interesting. And I got to do a lot of cool things and write copy and things. I was like, I'm never going to get to do what I really wanted to do because at that point, I was in my mid-30s. I had a wife and two kids and a mortgage and responsibilities. I couldn't very well just quit my job and say, oh, I'm going to go follow my dream, you know, it just wasn't practical. I heard people like Adam Curry and Leo Leport,

legendary broadcast professionals doing these things called podcasts. And this is in 2005. And I said, oh, I could never do that. But then I heard some of the homemade ones that people did themselves like in their basement. And I'm like, well, I might not be able to do what Leo and Adam are doing. But I can, I can do that. And I think I might even be able to do a little bit better. So anyway, just for fun, I decided I was going to start podcasting to kind of scratch my broadcasting itch. And I figured, you know, maybe I'd be lucky if 20 people listened, but heck, that would be 20 people and it'd be a lot of fun. And I said, okay, well, the next thing is, what am I going to podcast on? And Ryan, I kept going back to different interests of mine.

You know, I've always been interested in sports, music, politics. But to me, all of that stuff has been done to death. You know, I'm not going to replace, you know, the people who do that sort of thing or add anything to the conversation. But then I thought about it. I thought about all of the times that I went to a bookstore when they still had those in a library. And the first section I would go to, and it was always too small, was that of unexplained phenomena. And it would be ghosts, cryptids, UFOs. I was fascinated by that stuff.

Going back to when I was a little kid and watched Leonard Nimoy on and search of, and then later on, of course, Art Bell, listening to him on the radio. And I said, you know what? I don't see many podcasts about the paranormal. Now, to me, the paranormal is a very big tent. I include within paranormal cryptids, ghosts, head scratchers, UFOs. So I have a broader definition than most people of that. And I said, there's, there's nothing really out there for podcasts.

which were brand new. I mean, nobody knew what they were. Very few people, a few online enthusiasts. There isn't really something here for the paranormal that I would listen to. And I thought, well, I'll start a show and I'll interview these people about the paranormal. In six months, I'll have it all figured out. Big job. First mistake.

But anyway, I said, well, what could I call it? Okay, well, it's a paranormal and it's a podcast. It's the paranormal and it's a podcast. I'm like, well, I know what I would call it. but I'm sure somebody's got it. I'll call it the paranormal podcast. And I look and lo and behold, nobody has the domain name. Nobody has the name.

And I'm like, I'm going to do the paranormal podcast. So that's what I did. And it started as a hobby. And more and more people started listening. And, you know, the first couple of years, I would stop and not do a show for a few months to come back. And I kept getting all these people saying, hey, Jim, when's your next show? And then in my day job, I was like, beating my head against.

the wall because I was working for this big radio conglomerate and I'm trying to get the salespeople to sell digital, you know, internet advertising and they were like, there's nothing to this stuff. It's not going to last. And I'm trying to evangelize the internet to these people. But yet all these people online want to hear my show. And I'm like, well, wait a minute. I'm beating my head against the wall over here. Over here, people are clamoring.

So I started doing the shows really regularly in 2008, rolled out the camp byron in 2009. It kept growing and growing and growing. Eventually, it started making a little money. And then in 2012, I went to my wife and I said, you know, what if I quit my full-time job and did this full-time? And to her credit, she didn't throw me out of the house. She said, yeah, I think you should do that. And I've been doing it for over six years now full-time. Thank you so much to my audience.

And we do the paranormal podcast, the Camp Fire. I also do a true crime podcast called Jim Harold's Crime Scene. and my plus shows, which are a large part of the way that I make money, but I always steer people to the free content if they've never heard me before, the paranormal podcast, which are interviews, very kind of reminiscent of a coast-to-coast AM, to be honest. And then Jim Harold's Campfire, which is a lot of what we're going to talk about today, where real people say, Jim, this strange thing happened to me. Could be a ghost, could be a cryptic, could even be a UFO. Oh, but they're true stories, and I really enjoy speaking to people all over their world and sharing their spooky stories. So, yeah, so I mean, again, I've been listening from the very beginning. And when you started Campfire, I was like, yes, this is what I like.

I like to hear from the people having the experiences, giving them a voice. And that's kind of what you did with this. And Campfire has spawned five books at this point and a podcast that collected. contain hundreds of ghost and supernatural stories. And I thought today would be a great time, you know, this being the Halloween season, to hear some of your personal favorite stories from the books and the podcast that have really stuck with you throughout the years. So I'm going to let you take the reins here, my friend. And what is like some of the best stories you've come across throughout all of your time collecting these from your listeners

and beyond? Well, it's a cliche, but it's like asking some of the best stories you've come across throughout all of your time, collecting these from your listeners and beyond. Well, it's a cliche, but it's like asking somebody who their favorite children are. But the thing is that we always have new great stories. And there's certain tried and true ones I tell. But I'm going to share to start out one that really is like a 10 on the creepy factor. It's not a long story. But it just came in over the last couple of weeks. And it was about this woman called in.

And she said, my mom used to work at a psychiatric hospital. And there were patients at different. levels who, you know, some were, had more freedom and, and could interact with the staff and chat with the staff and things. And maybe there were people who were a little more severe where, you know, they had to be very, very careful about that kind of thing. But this one patient came down and talked to her mom who worked at the psychiatric hospital. And the offices, like the cubes and things were down in the basement of this, of this place. And the, the patient came. And the, the patient came and they were having a conversation.

And then the patient seemed disturbed. And the patient said, I have to get out of here. I smell dead skin. And the woman said, okay, okay. And the patient left. And she thought, well, that's very odd. But again, you know, we're dealing with people who have some issues here. So maybe this is just in keeping with that.

So she's having lunch or something with her colleagues. And she had been there for a while, but there have been people who have been there, you know, for a much longer time. And the woman recounted this conversation about this woman saying, I smell dead skin. And one of the people that have been there a long time, she said, well, you know, at one time, our office is down in the basement. That used to be the morgue. Of course. And again, you know, you're thinking maybe this woman is going this way because she has some issues. But no, no, she sensed something.

You know, she, she had it. So it really is very, very strange. And I'll give you one that I call one of my weirdest campfire experiences. We had a caller maybe three weeks ago. And he was telling this story about a dream he had, about his father, about his grandfather, in that he felt that his grandfather was getting a message to him. And I said, oh, well, that that reminds me of a story. And I started to recount a story that a caller had called in several years ago.

And I'll just go ahead and tell that story. Sure. The story was, is that it was a woman who I believe she was living with her mom at the time. I think she was still a teenager. And she had had to dream about her uncle the night before. And her uncle had lost his leg before she was born. So she always knew him to have, you know, the one leg was going. gone and he had the other leg. He was in some kind of car accident or something. She had this very

vivid dream of him walking across a field dressed up, I think, in a suit. And he was smiling. And he had both legs. And he was walking. And he looked back at her point of view and waved in the dream. So the next morning, she tells a story to her mom while they're talking, the phone rings. And they pick it up. And it's someone calling another family member to say he had died the night before. So that's a pretty stunning story in and of itself. And this story that this gentleman told me, I think his name is Saul, told me on the show just a couple weeks ago, was very similar to that. And I said, oh, I said, Saul, this reminds me of this story. I said, and I started to tell the story about this gentleman who passed away with the one leg.

And I said, Saul, let's say that the guy's name was Fred. And he said, my grandfather's name was Fred. And I went back and listened and the guy who was in this dream, his name wasn't Fred. I just thought I pulled Fred out of thin air. But maybe, maybe the grandfather somehow seated that into the universe. So I would say the word Fred. And that was just of all the names like Jim and, you know, kind of old school, commonplace names that Bob, Jim, George, you know, I just happened to pull Fred out of the,

out of the air, supposedly. And it was actually the name of his grandfather. which I did not know. So sometimes it's like when you look at, was it Niji, when you look into the abyss, it looks back. And sometimes I think that this stuff has a little fun with us. Yes, absolutely. You know, there are no coincidences a lot of people believe for sure. Yeah, that's funny, Jim.

It reminds me so much of when my grandfather first passed away on my mother's side, I didn't think, you know, I always wanted to see him. I wanted to experience him. And that kind of put me on that path to search for the paranormal, the supernatural. Like I wanted to talk to my grandfather. And it just wasn't happening. And I became more and more skeptical as the years went on, no matter how much I tried to communicate with him. And then one night, I just happened to fall asleep.

And in the background of my dream, not even at the forefront, he was just sitting there, sort of watching everything, you know, play out in my dream, which was like a birthday party of sorts for our family. And, you know, in the dream, I knew he was already gone, but he was just sitting there. And then he finally came up to me and said, I'm sorry it took me so long. What do you want to talk about? And what happens? I wake up. So you have to wonder, man. You have to wonder. Well, I think that, you know, I think people expect a full body apparition that's going to come up to them and say hi and, you know, dance the tango in front of it. You know, something extremely like hit you over the head. And I'm sure that kind of thing happens sometimes.

But I think that it tends to be a lot more subtle. And I'll give you something that happened to me last year that I thought was an example of that, an experience I had. I was on a paranormal cruise with our mutual friends, Micah Hanks and Rosemary, Ellen Giley. And we were, we had cruisers, attendees there. It was the mysteries cruise. And we were doing a kind of conference at sea day where they would listen to us, give presentations about different topics. And it was just as it says, like a conference at sea, that day.

The other day, we did a lot of the stuff you do on a cruise. But that day was dedicated to these presentations. So anyway, I have been battling a cold and a sore throat for the whole cruise, which was one of the sad things because it was such a good time. And Rosemary and Micah, as you know, were great people, so knowledgeable and just generally such great fun people. But anyway, I've been battling a little bit of cold and I had a sore throat. So in between presentations, I thought, oh, I'll sneak out and I'll give a cup of coffee, something to warm up the old pipes. And to do that, you had to walk through the casino because, you know, the cruise long. are very smart about that.

They put those casinos where you've got to walk through them to get to anything, so you'll maybe leave some of your money while you're there. So anyway, I'm getting ready to step out of the conference room, getting ready to walk across the casino floor, and I see one of the cruisers playing a crane game where it has the claw and it comes down and it grabs money. And the funny thing about that is that when I see one of those machines, I think of my uncle.

My uncle was like my second dad, and he grew up and he lived with us, which was kind of unconventional, but he lived with our family. And so he was like, again, it was like my two dads. So anyhow, he passed in 2013,

and I had such an overpowering feeling when I saw that crane machine. Oh my gosh, I wish my uncle were here because he loved those machines. He used to go to, and he didn't ever played one in a casino, but he would always play. them when you come out of the big box stores and they have them there and you drop in your money

and you try to win a 99 cent stuffed animal. And he would drop 10 bucks trying to win that 99 cent stuffed animal. So he always loved these things. I say, man, I wish that he could be here. He would love that so much. That would be so great. Wouldn't it be great if he were here and he could play that? I really wish you were here. It was very, I mean, it wasn't just a slight. I just had an intense feeling of that. And just then, as I was thinking that, and this gentleman, the cruiser was playing the clocking, a woman walks up next to him just to the side of him. She cups her hand to her mouth and she says, John, John. Guess what my uncle's name was. Oh, God. And again, Ryan, along the idea of there are no coincidence. Now, is it possible? And I think she was looking for a husband. her husband. But the point is, is that what are the chances that I'd be coming out of that conference room at that time? The guy would be playing the crane machine at that time. I'd have that thought at that time. And then her husband would go missing with the same name at the same

time and she would happen to say it. If it had been 30 seconds earlier, 30 seconds later, I wouldn't have heard it. I mean, to me, that was my uncle in a very indirect way saying, hey, thanks for thinking on me. I'm still around, still care for you, still looking out for you. I believe that. I do too. And I'm sure, you know, so many of the stories throughout the years that you've heard that that is the case. I mean, that sometimes that's all it takes is just a coincidence of some sort from someone here on this earthly plane to bring that through. And I've always found that very interesting as well. You know, all these ghost hunters out there on television and whatnot, they're in these houses and they've got their gadgets and they're asking these spirits, these supposed spirits, you know, move this pencil or, you know, knock once. And I always think to myself, Jim, how condescending is it that these people are on the other side and they finally found some way to tap in and talk to us or possibly communicate? and we ask them to move a pencil. I just can't imagine being on their end

to being like, seriously, I could probably, you know, knock down a whole wall in this place if I wanted to. Right. Well, the thing is, is that, again, I'm not anti-Ghost hunters and the people that do the TV shows, but people, and sometimes, you know,

if the uninitiated are people who aren't familiar with me want to interview me or something, it's like, oh, you're a ghost hunter. And it's like, no, I'm not. I mean, to me, you know, I consider myself like an old school sportscaster was. I mean, no, you know, probably 75% of sportscasters played the sport that they cover. If you turn on NFL football, you know, most of the sportscasters are going to be former football players.

But there was a time, and there's still some, but there was a time where there were people who were professional sportscasters. And they just covered the sport. And I think that was good in a way because they kind of able to look at things a little bit arm's length. And that's why, you know, and I've had opportunities, but I've never really wanted to become a, a quote, ghost hunter or a paranormal investigator. Have I been on a couple of really kind of light investigations? Yes. But for the most part, I think my greatest value is being a chronicler of the stories to facilitate

people who are investigators and researchers to get their information out, just for me, I think that that is the best place to be, is someone who is more of a facilitator than an active participant. It doesn't mean I don't believe in it, and doesn't mean that I belittle what these people do, because I think it could be very good in some cases, but it's not for me. I'm more into chronicling stories. And the thing about it, Ryan, is when we talk about people who call campfire, they have no skin in the game, as it were. No, no, they're not going to make any money from it.

You know, they're not going to get super famous because it's a popular podcast, but let's face it, it's not the tonight show. So, or even, you know, something that's so popular like Coast to Coast A.M. I mean, they're not going to be renowned for it. They're doing it. I believe this for the most part because something strange happened to them and they want to share it and they, I think they enjoy the community. and the ability to share their story in kind of, and I hate this word, but a safe space,

in a place where they're not going to be critiqued and made fun of, and that other people have experienced some things. I will put a little plug in from my virtual campfire Facebook group, which takes that same approach as the show. You can find that at virtual campfire group.com. And we have several great moderators there, so we really police it to make sure people, maintain a positive outlook, no spammers, and we're largely, mostly successful with that

98% of the time. And people come and tell their stories there. And that's the kind of community I want to create where just a person says, you know, and I say this, I don't mean to cast aspersions, but there's people who say, you know, I meet with the aliens every third Thursday of the month. And that's really not, for the most part, our storytellers. Most of our storytellers are people like, you know, maybe I have these things happen to me every once in a while. And some people say, I've never had anything weird happened to me, but there was this one time. And I love talking to those people about their one time because to me, those are really powerful when they said, this stuff doesn't happen to me, but this did. And everyone seems to have a story to tell, whether it's cryptids, UFOs, you know, ghosts, any of this.

everyone sort of had something in their life where they just, it happened and they thought to themselves that that's, that's not normal. That's, that's, that's not how life works. That's not conventional. And, and that's what I love is when I go to your, your community there, it's everyday people, you know, you kind of start Facebook stalking some of these people just to make sure they're not off their rocker or, you know, looking like you said for their 15 minutes of even. small fame and they're teachers, their scientists, their law enforcement. And it's amazing. It's amazing to know that these kind of people, you know, pillars of the community or highly respected, are having these experiences. It's no longer these days of cliches that you have to be crazy to have a supernatural or euphological experience. That's right. I love that. Actually, you just reminded me of a great story, which almost kind of And it to me almost seems like a men in black kind of thing or kind of straying into that area. Well, this was a law enforcement officer out west.

He was working, I think he became plain-closed detective, but at that time, I believe he was a patrolman. And they got a call that there was a wild man who was jumping off of an overpass and he was running around naked and just acting almost like a feral person. And they got there and they found the guy. And this guy was like he was wild, almost like a wild animal. And they were trying to subdue him and going to be a little disgusting here, but he defecated himself and all these horrible things. And they finally get him subdued and they're going to take him into the car.

And a state trooper pulls up because it's like a highway over by where this is at. And they usually like they know each other. The state patrol will know the local cops and vice versa. and they have a good working relationship. But this trooper, this patrolman had never seen him before. And the state patrol says, well, we've got this one, we'll take him. So they take him and they, you know, they start to take over. And the state patrol guy, again, he didn't know him.

He was kind of surly. That's unusual. These state trooper guys are usually really nice. And then an ambulance comes. and they take this guy away. And the officer, the patrolman, notes all of this, right? And he notes the trooper car number and also the number of the emergency. And he gets back and he's telling people about this wild guy who is, you know, he's like feral and he's, you know, disgustingly, you know, having bathroom issues and all this.

He's kind of really bizarre call. And he said, do you know a certain. state trooper by the name of so-and-so, and he asked everybody there that's been there, and he's like, we don't know him. And they check the car number. There's no such number. Then he's like, well, he calls dispatch,

and he says, well, I've got the ambulance number here that took this guy. It's such and such company. It's such and such ambulance number. No, they don't have such an ambulance number. So who took that guy and why? Did he get loose from some government experiment? I mean, what?

I don't want to know. I'm glad that didn't have. happen to me. I can say. Well, the thing is, is that the weird thing is about that are the missing ambulance numbers in the state patrol car. Yeah. I mean, that to me, that's even weirder than the Farrell guy because somebody could have mental issues. There's a lot of explanations for strange behavior. I mean, all you got to do is watch my wife watches that live PD, which I can't get into. It's too depressing. But she'll watch and you'll see some of these poor people and some of them have mental issues and they'll think all kinds of things. So you can almost see an individual

having issues and just acting in a very inappropriate and strange way. But the fact that he was picked up by cars that supposedly, you know, from authorities that don't exist. It's like, okay, is this some kind of cover for something? That's where my mind went to. But sometimes I can be a little conspiratorial. Not at all, my friend. You know, I've come across encounters that people have had where they, you know, they get lost up on a mountain. It's, it's thick fog. They don't know where they're going. They find a house to get directions, you know.

They get the directions. They leave, but they get lost again. So they come back and the house is gone. Just gone. Yeah. You know, so you do have to wonder. You really do. Well, Jim, are there any stories you've come across in all of your time doing this

where you just, you didn't want. to touch it. It was just a bit too much where you thought maybe your reality as as it is would be shifted too much and you just had to step away and be like, okay, you know, I've been doing this for this long, but this is it. This is the one where I'm like, okay, I don't want to know anything, anything like that really stick out to you. Not really. I mean, I'm still a little dicey and people would say that maybe it's an overreaction, but anything that gets into like Satanism or anything like that. I would steer clear of that, but I've not really had much of that or anything like that. I mean, some people think that's superstitious. And they talk

about the satanic panic and things like that. But that's still kind of my personal line of demarcation that I wouldn't get into. But there's not really been a lot. Now, there have been stories where if they are true, that it would change your perception of reality and really bend your mind. And I'll tell you one of my favorite ones. And I may have told this story to you before, Ryan, but it was really the, there's a category I have on the show is really my favorite category. And the last story kind of fits into it. It's the head scratcher. It's not necessarily a ghost. It's not necessarily something that we can quantify, but it's just kind of what you said earlier. The universe doesn't seem quite right. It doesn't quite make sense.

And this one really doesn't make sense. It's called the Roadhouse Saloon. Have you heard the Roadhouse Saloon before? I believe I heard it on your show, but please introduce my listeners. All right. Well, here you go. Well, this is from Ti, and this is my all-time favorite campfire story. She was up in Wisconsin, and her and a friend one evening went to see a band. And they closed down the place, her and her friend Bob.

So anyway, they were talking to the band, because I believe Ti is a singer and they were talking about future gigs and different stuff like that. So they closed down the place and the place was closed. And they were heading back home and they had about an hour to go. And about halfway there, T.I. tells Bob, I've got to go to the restroom, answer nature's call. And he says, well, there's always the bushes. And she said, no, no, just drive fast. So anyway, they go a little bit along, this kind of rural area, and they come upon this roadhouse, this bar. And now is the place open. It appears to be hopping.

There's cars in the parking lot. There's neon signs on. And they're like, hey, here we go. I don't know why it would be open this late, but let's not look at gift horse in the mouth. Let's get in there and, you know, and look around and answer the call, nature, and so forth. And Bob says, I'm really glad we came here because I'm an artist. and I heard about this great mural they have here, and I've always wanted to see it.

So it kind of works out. So anyway, they go in, T.I. goes to the restroom. Bob gets a couple of beers. She comes back. And they said it's just, the people are kind of weird. You know, they're not really talking a lot.

They seem to be in their own little world. They notice that there is the mural on the wall, like they thought it's like an old West scene, like you would have seen in the old Western movies. And it was interesting because they noticed that the people in the mural were actually physically in the bar, like the kind of young, good-looking bartender was in the mural. And then there's a couple ladies sitting at the bar, and they're in the mural. And there's a couple of guys sitting over at a table, and they're in the mural. And they just

started talking and said, well, these must be regulars. And when the artist made the mural, they just kind of were paying homage to these people. And that's why. Right. So suddenly, well, there's a jukebox, and it's an old school jukebox that plays actual vinyl. And somebody puts on chubby checkers, let's twist again. And this guy comes up to Ti and asks her to dance. Now, T.I. wasn't too crazy about this. She said this guy had gnarly kind of brown teeth and just she did not want to dance. Then she said she happens to use a cane.

And in this case, she was glad she had because she just showed him the cane and said, well, I don't really dance a lot. And she said she was glad in that case she had the cane to kind of use it to get out of that. And they'll come back in this story later. And it was just kind of an overall weird vibe. So they're sitting there talking and they're looking at this mural again and they notice where the swinging doors are. There's like two misty figures almost in the doorway. And they hadn't noticed that before.

I talk a little more. They look again. And these figures are a little more defined and like a polaroid picture. Like they're developing into the picture. And they notice one of the things. taller and one is shorter. And then it develops a little more. And it appears to be a woman and a much taller man. And then it develops a little more. And the woman has curly hair and boots and a cane. And T.I. has curly hair boots and a cane. And then the taller man is Bob, who

appears to be developing in the picture at the same time. And they say, let's get out of here. So anyway, they get up to go. The people are like beckoning back at them like, motioning, come back, come back. T.I. says they closed the door. The minute they closed the door, everything went dark like it had been closed. Never opened. Leon signs go out, everything. They look back in the parking lot.

There is a single car. Bob's car. No other cars. They peel out and leave. And that's not the end of the story, though, because T.I. is a much braver soul than I am. So she and a friend go back a couple of nights later. She said she wasn't brave enough to go back, though, in 3 o'clock in the morning.

She made it a little bit earlier. Early in the evening. There's a woman behind the bar, bartending. T.I. says, oh, I was here a couple nights ago. So where's that good-looking young guy who was the bartender? A woman says, there's no good-looking young guy. The only bartenders here are me and my elderly father. And then T.I. notices there is a jip box.

She looks. no chubby checker on the jukebox. Oh, and the jukebox plays CDs, not vinyl. And that's the story of the Roadhouse Saloon. Wow. I now know why it is your favorite. It's like a twilight zone. It's like a twilight zone.

And here is the little do no me, the little kicker. Listeners over the virtual campfire group have found this bar and taken a picture of their mural. It does exist. No way. way. Wow. So we have we have evidence that it exists you know. Again, Tia has told me this story twice, I believe. And I find her to be very credible, very sincere. The story didn't change. It is the same story. So as far as I know, it is the truth. And the only independent evidence we found corroborated. So that there is a place, there is a roadhouse saloon, and there is a mural.

And other than that, I can't tell you. But she seemed very sincere to me. To me, it's a remarkable story. Yes, it reminds me, you know, of the shining or these cases of like time warps almost. Like we're reliving a almost like a scene playing out. You know, Jim, you talked a lot about the stone tape theory in the past with some of the paranormal investigators. Like it's kind of on this loop where it's just replaying, even though someone. and the present can kind of walk in and be a part of it.

It's just this like this cycle of something going on and on. And you have to wonder, but oof. And you think about the idea of alternate realities. I'll just take a piece of popular entertainment, the book by Philip K. Dick, The Man in the High Castle, and now on Amazon, the series Man in the High Castle, the idea that there are parallel realities. And maybe, you know, if you buy,

into that, maybe T.I. crossed into one of those. It's very, very possible. And, you know, thank God that she found your show and was able to get the community involved in trying to figure that out. Yeah. And thank goodness she was able to get out. I mean, imagine if you were, and that goes back to the people who disappear. Right. Maybe some of these people disappear into an alternate reality. Now, again, I know we're going down the rabbit hole here. But, and I think like you, I think the universe is so strange and there's so much that we don't realize. I think a lot of what I do, and I'm sure what you do, is a thought experiment, kind of asking what if, not saying that it is, but what if? The point is is that

that's a big part of what I think I try to do with all my shows, the paranormal podcast, campfire and everything, is to try to talk about possible explanations, not saying this is the right one or that's the right one, but let's open our minds because I do believe that the reality, what is really going on, is so much stranger than what we might think it is. And I'm sure throughout your extensive interviews throughout the years that the answer to this is both broad and probably obvious. Have your personal thoughts, Jim, perceptions of these phenomena, have they changed? Has anything really come to the forefront where you're like, okay, this is what I want to focus on? Or this completely.

changed my beliefs religiously, sociologically, psychologically, has anything really stuck with you where you said, wow, these past years that I've been doing this for so long, this has made it worth it. Well, I'm more convinced than ever

that the strictly materialist of you, that we're just physical bodies and so much brain matter, and that's it, and we die, and there's nothing else that happens, that's really, I did not really believe that before, and I believe it even less now. I think there is so much more to us and to the universe than just the materialistic point of view. And to be clear, when I say materialistic, I don't mean materialism.

I mean materialistic in that, you know, everything can be weighed on a scale or measured in a test tube. I think to me that's out of the window. I'm a huge fan of science, and I never want people to think I'm a, disrespecter of science. What we're doing now would have been impossible 15 years ago. But now, thanks to science, it is. I definitely believe something is going on. I also believe in the definite existence of an afterlife. What form that is exactly, I don't know. And I hate to say, but the biggest revelation I've had is I don't know. I thought I had a better handle on things in 2005 when I started, I kind of had a view of the universe and the world.

And I'm like, that's what I think is going on. But now I've been challenged by so many different guests, listeners with their experiences, that there's a saying something like, the beginning of wisdom is realizing how much you don't know. I know something's there. I know something's going on. But it beats me what it is, Ryan. So I'm just going to keep on this journey and hope that I can bring. a lot of people with me of asking the questions. And maybe one day we'll get the answer.

I'm not convinced. But we'll keep asking those questions. And maybe one day we'll find it up. But regardless, I think it's part of the human quest to know more and to understand. So I think it's just a natural thing to want to ask those questions, even with when you're not sure if you're going to get the answers. On that quest, where can we expect to find campfire in the future? Well, Campfire keeps growing stronger and stronger.

We keep picking up listeners. You can listen to Jim Herald's Campfire in the Paranormal Podcast. Over at Jimherald.com are all the major podcast app, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcast, Spotify, and I'm sure wherever you listen to Ryan's show on any of the apps that he's on, we're on the same apps. So certainly you could listen to the shows there. I should mention we have another show that I think is a good show. A little bit of Farfield, but also the most recent episodes are totally free. It's called Jim Harold's Crime Scene.

Just recently got to interview last week, the host of maybe the most popular true crime podcast in the country right now, Dr. Death. And that's always fascinating. We've had great guests, Pulitzer Prize winners, just remarkable guests on that show. So if you're in a true crime, check that out. And then I always say, check that stuff out first. Listen to a ton of the free stuff first. There's plenty of free stuff to listen to. If you become a super fan and want to hear my specific shows on UFOs, cryptids, ghosts, that sort of thing.

And the backlog of all the shows I've done going back to 2005, you can check out my Plus Club at Jim Herald Plus.com. But always do the free stuff first. Always with the free stuff first. I never steer people to the paid stuff first. Also, I would highly recommend particularly this time of year, my virtual campfire group, a lot of great people. I think we have over 18,000 members over there. it's absolutely free, the virtual campfire group. And you can find the link to that at virtual campfire group.com.

So that's what we've got going on. Of course, there are the five campfire books. You can find those at jim heraldbooks.com. And Ryan, that kind of puts it all in a nutshell. And I'd like to thank you again for the opportunity. My pleasure, Jim. Thank you for joining me again. You were one of the main inspirations for me to get into this.

crazy world of podcasting, and I wouldn't have it any other way. So thank you for joining me on Somewhere in the Skies. Thank you, and keep your eye to the sky. That's it for this week's episode. Again, all of Jim's work can be found at jimherald.com. To help support the show and receive many rewards, visit our official Patreon campaign. To learn more and to contribute, visit patreon.com slash somewhere skies. All merchandise can be found at our T-Public store.

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