Somewhere in the Skies - HALLOWEEN SERIES: True Ghost Stories with Jim Harold

Episode Date: October 17, 2020

Welcome to our special Halloween series, SOMEWHERE IN THE SPOOKY SKIES! For the month of October, Ryan will be bringing you guests and topics that truly raise the hair on your neck and send chills down your spine. And on this first episode, Ryan sits down at the virtual campfire with podcasting legend, Jim Harold. Jim will be sharing some of his strangest and spookiest ghost and paranormal stories he's come across with his highly popular series, Jim Harold's Campfire, and we'll hear about some of his favorite guests both past and future on the highly acclaimed Paranormal Podcast. Feel free to join us LIVE to interact and ask questions. And hey, if you have a spooky story you'd like to share, we just may invite you on! So pull up a log, get cozy, and join us at the campfire for true ghost stories with Jim Harold! Visit Jim Harold at: www.jimharold.com Acast One-Time Supporter: https://supporter.acast.com/somewhere-in-the-skies  Patreon: www.patreon.com/somewhereskies Website: www.somewhereintheskies.com YouTube Channel: CLICK HERE Official Store: CLICK HERE Order Ryan's Book by CLICKING HERE Twitter: @SomewhereSkies Instagram: @SomewhereSkiesPod Watch Mysteries Decoded for free at www.CWseed.com Episode edited by Jane Palomera Moore Opening Theme Song, "Ephemeral Reign" by Per Kiilstofte SOMEWHERE IN THE SKIES is part of the eOne podcast network. To learn more, CLICK HERE 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

Welcome to our special bonus Halloween series this month. Somewhere in the spooky skies. We're going to set aside UFOs and talk all about the other strange things in our world and in our nightmares. We'll be talking to paranormal researchers, witches, ghost storytellers, and horror movie directors. Expect a couple more surprises as well. But for today, we're going to be talking to podcasting legend. Jim Harold. Having begun podcasting on the paranormal in 2005, Jim Harold is among a handful of pioneers of the medium of podcasting. His programs have stood the test of time, and the paranormal

podcast and Jim Harold's campfire remain among the most popular in the genre. Jim has developed a loyal following that spans the globe. In addition to his free podcasts at Jimherald.com, Jim also hosts a series of premium podcasts on the supernatural and other related subjects. Those can all be found at Jim Haroldplus.com. Collectively, his shows have racked up over 50 million downloads. And today, we hear some of his favorite true ghost stories from those podcasts. So, pull up a log, join us at the virtual campfire, and let's get spooky with Jim Harold. Jim, how are you doing, my man?

I'm doing well, and I'm glad to be here with you, Ryan, and your audience to discuss some spooky stuff. This is kind of my Super Bowl time of the year, so it's always great to talk to different people about the supernatural. And to me, so you know, and folks know, I'm also interested in UFOs. I'm also interested in cryptic creatures. When I talk about the paranormal, I kind of have that big tent philosophy. And but certainly this time of the year, I think, Many of us, our attention really hones in on ghosts and just weird happenstances. And we've got a lot of them over at my neck of the woods.

And it's always a lot of fun to talk about. Absolutely. I mean, every time I turn around, you know, there's something new in one of your feeds, whether it's the paranormal podcast, Campfire, all the paranormal plus shows, which we will definitely get to. Okay. So Halloween season, I've got my, uh, My creature from the Black Lagoon T-shirt on.

I like it. I tried to decorate as best I could with what I have in my remote headquarters right now. But, man, look at that studio behind you. I mean, that is just as professional as it gets. Tell us a little about some of those things in the background there. Well, the typewriter to my left, which is overheat. See, I don't know my right to my left, but if you're looking at it to your left, that typewriter used to belong to my mom.

But above that, one of my listeners in the UK makes these great masks. That's a mask of Frankenstein with a ghost host cap on it. And then I love old radios. So directly behind me, the one with the green glow to it. That's a legitimate old time radio. And then you've got some more over on the right side. Some of those are replicas, but I'm not telling. And then you've got the, if you see behind that green radio on my, on, I always get this wrong.

On this side here, I'm trying to, that side. right there. Those, those are the ghost hunters right there. Oh, nice. Love it. So, and then, I don't know, can you see it now? Somewhere I've got, no, up, let's see, right here, that is a role of alien toilet paper right there. But you can't see it's cut off. In a little box, it's kind of cute with a little alien kind of gray kind of guy on it. But I love old radios. I love spooky stuff. So I kind of try to, I've heard people say expert say like if you have a set it should reflect your personality so i try to do that and it just makes it more fun absolutely man i know back in new york where my actual someone this guy's headquarters

is i've got the typewriter as well i've got an old smith corona um bought it from a girl in brooklyn a hipster for like 25 bucks she had no idea what she was letting go of man but um i'm just like you i love all the old timey stuff i uh i've got one of those old radios as well that actually unfortunately had to get rid of recently but you know what it went to a guy he had to be in probably his late 70s early 80s his daughter bought it off a Craigslist from me and the minute I brought it down he was in the car and I showed it to him and he was like this is the same radio I had growing up so that was just like how cool is that he was just like I could always see tears in his eyes he couldn't wait to bring it home and get it cranking again so you know if that's what I could do. I think that's amazing. But my set, not as elaborate. This is compliments of Target and a little bit of... You're lean and mean. You're remote. I mean, you know, you're, I mean, it's amazing. You know, the thing is, I'm, you know, quite a bit older than you. But to do what we're doing now used to take like a satellite truck. So I'm always amazed by the technology that we can

put on a credible broadcast just through our browsers. It's amazing. It's amazing, man. I mean, you're in Ohio. I'm in a remote island somewhere in the Pacific. I won't get too specific. Specific Pacific, but there we go. Anyways, there's our banter. Let's get to it, my man. Halloween, first and foremost, you got any plans? I mean, I know things are a lot different this year. We've heard a lot of people aren't going to be out trick-or-treating, which is really unfortunate, but understandable in some ways. So, things are going to be really different this year, man. What do you got going on over at jimharald.com and in the shows? Can we expect anything unique this year? Well, I think the biggest thing we're doing around Halloween is our virtual party. We do a virtual party. It's funny because having done this job, I've been podcasting for five years and full time for

eight years. And this has been a situation where everybody has gone virtual and I've kind of been virtual for the last eight years. So we instituted several years ago, going back, if anybody remembers something called Blab, which was kind of an early precursor of Streamyard and all these great platforms that we have now. And we've been doing virtual Halloween parties

since I would say probably 2014-2015, so we're going to be doing it on Halloween night. Everyone is welcome to come and join along. It'll be on Streamyard like this. And I'll be in costume. every year I pick out a different costume. One year I was a gangster. Next year I was a vampire. My favorite, though, was when I was in full goth gear.

And I had to share that picture with you. People thought I looked like Robert Smith from the Q. That's a different. But this year, I have a surprise. I'm not going to say what it is. But we'll be doing it and we'll have some giveaways and people can come on with their costumes and we'll have some discussions about spooky stuff.

And then in terms of the spooky studios, what I call this place, in our podcast, really, it's almost Halloween for us 24-7-365. I do the campfire every week, which is my compendium of supernatural stories, everything from ghosts and cryptic creatures. And yes, sometimes UFOs, we'd love to have more UFO stories. And then my paranormal podcast where I interview people like you in every kind of subcategory of the Fortiana and the unexplained. and we're just keeping on with that. And then getting more into YouTube. And I was telling you, we just posted something over at my YouTube channel, YouTube.com slash Jim Harold,

which is our best campfire story of all time, I think. And it's really something worthy of the Twilight Zone. And we did a little more elaborate treatment. I was actually pre-pandemic, able to go out and visit with a storyteller and get her story in person. And we actually got pictures of the story. about a mural that kind of came to life. We actually got actual pictures via Chad Lewis, the kind of cryptozoology researcher and author. He went to the place. He got us some pictures,

and we're actually able to incorporate these pictures into the video. So it really was kind of like an expansion of what we do on the campfire. So I'd suggest people check that video out, because that's the all-time great campfire story, I think. And we've really, at this point, we probably have thousands of stories. Yeah. And that is, I would agree, one of the all-star stories. I believe I was going back in my archives, and I had John in episode 78. We're up to about 180 now.

Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. It's nowhere near what you got going on or a lot of other people out there, but we're trying. And I remember episode 78, you came on and told that story about the saloon. It blew my mind for anyone listening. I highly suggest going back. back and listening to that. And even before that, go watch this video on Jim's YouTube.

That's what's important is hearing the story from the people who've experienced it. That you know, Jim, that's what I'm all about. I mean, witnesses, without them, we have nothing in the UFO field. We can have data. We can have photos. But there's no context until we hear the witness tell the story. So I love that that's the way you're kind of heading with these stories. I think it's so important to hear it from the voice of those who experienced it. I mean, I have a series called Witness accounts where I have people call in and tell

their stories similar to some of the things you do. And look, nothing I say could ever convey what they were feeling. That's right. Exactly how they would describe it. So I love it. I love that that's what you had going on. And then you also had some really

interesting synchronicities happen right before we got on the air here. Oh, yeah. I record. Yeah, I record my calls for campfire in batches. So people, we set, somebody signs up and says, I want to be on campfire. We send them a link and say, here's the calendar. Pick your time.

And we have windows of time that are available and it's all very automated and very slick. So we had a slot, two hours worth of calls this afternoon. And these are supposedly random, right? So I had a story, three stories in a row. that all, well, first of all, the first story was about a synchronicity involving the show. In other words, somebody listened to a story and the story itself was mirroring everything in their life up to the name of their aunt, okay, that they were seeking a sign from. Then we get three stories in the row that incorporate music and music as a sign from a deceased loved one. And then, and I'm not going to give this part away because it is too good.

I got to wait for the show. I can't give it away. But two of the calls, there was a reference to a specific artist, a very precise artist. And again, these were all, quote, at random. And this is something, and this was the biggest example of it that I've had in 11 years, because I've been doing the Camp Fire podcast since 2009. But I often say the shows produce themselves. And what I mean by that is, again, we have these random slots that people can sign up for.

And the thing is, is that we don't tell people, oh, if you've got a UFO story sign up on this day, or if you've got a ghost story sign up on this day, or if you have a shadow person story sign up on that day. We say, just sign up and we'll sort them out. And four calls in a row were directly related to the next call. one call was from California. The next call was from Australia. The next call was from the UK and the final call was from Guam. So, I mean, it kind of gets to my feeling, Ryan, and I've built this over the years,

that sometimes there is a universal force that is pulling the strings and putting things in place. I don't know about you, but I've had issues in my life where I've felt that I've had contact with people from beyond. Not where I'm speaking to them necessarily or I personally don't see a full body apparition, but I have these weird series of coincidences where I would have to be in a certain place in a certain time. I'll give you an example. I don't know if I told this on the show before.

I was on a paranormal cruise a few years ago with our mutual friend, Micah Hanks and the late great Rosemary Ellen Giley, who in my life. mind is one of the greatest people to have ever covered any of these topics. And I was supposed to speak and, yeah, a little bit of a cold. And I ran to the cafe in between sessions. In this cruise, they had a little conference room. And we had a day at C. So that was the day we were going to do all our paranormal stuff and do our presentations

and things. So the people who paid to be in the cruise of our group were there. We took a break. I went to go get some coffee and it was right next to a casino. And I should mention before we start this, I had an uncle who passed in 2013 who was like a second dad to me. So that'll become important in a moment. So anyway, we break. I go to get that coffee and I see one of the group playing this crane machine, like the claw that comes down and grabs stuff.

And they're playing this crane machine in the casino. And his thought struck me relating to my uncle who had passed in 2013, who was like my second dad. Boy, I wish he were here because, you know, he loved to play these crane machines when he would go to a store. He would, like, put 10, it'd be nothing to put 10 bucks in a machine and try to catch one of these little stuffed toys. He played it for the sport of it.

And then, like, if a kid came around or something, he'd give him the stuffed toys. That was his motorist operandi. So anyway, I'm like, man, he would love being here, this crane, and there's cash. He could actually win cash. He probably wouldn't, but he would love the sport of it. God, I wish he were here so he could experience it because he loved those machines. I even at one point, I bought him a little toy one. He loved him so much.

It was like associated with him. It was like a trademark of it. So anyway, no sooner I had that thought, a woman walks up next to this machine and she cups her hand to her mouth. And she says, John, John. Ryan, guess what my uncle's name was? Let me take a wild guess. Yes. Wow. Somebody said that to somebody on a show and he said, Steve. But it was John. And that seems like maybe, and again, somebody walked up to, I assume it was

her husband or significant other. And she was calling out for him like she had got. gotten separated from him. Now again, that could have been a coincidence. But I think it was someone who or something that said, okay, we're going to give him a sign. He's thinking of John. Maybe it was John himself. He's thinking of me. And we're going to give a sign that we acknowledge that. And we say yes. And we think about you too. And I think that John or somebody helping him out moved all those chest pieces and made all that happen. I believe that that's possible. I believe it's real. I've had other experiences like that. Other people, like a person we had call in today, we haven't aired this yet, but she said she had a story from when she was 15 years old.

She was with her grandmother. This was down in Kentucky. And her aunt had passed away recently. And she was showing off her cheers to her grandmother. Her grandmother said she was a cheerleader. said, show me your tears. And all of a sudden, now the corner of the high, she looks around and she sees a woman walk through the room. That woman was her deceased aunt. And she looks at her grandmother and she has this quizzical look. And her grandmother says, oh, you saw her too. So I believe different people experience the supernatural differently. Some people see a full-body apparition like my caller from Kentucky. Some people have these weird coincidences.

I think it varies for different people, but I think it's real. I do believe it's real. Does that believe, does that, you know, every time you have a leaky faucet or a light that blinks, does that mean it's a ghost? No, I don't believe that. But I believe there's some connection and I believe it exists. That's such a good point. I really do think it's such a subjective thing and it means something different to

everyone, no matter what you're, you know, if you're a spiritual person, it might be a spirit. If you're, if you're more scientific base, it might be just some sort of energy that's left in a house or in an object or what have you. I'd love to get your opinion on this, Jim, before we, you share a couple more stories here with us. The idea of ghost stories in general, Do you personally feel after reporting on this and sharing thousands of stories at this point? Does this story empower the spirit? I mean, a lot of people look at history or even art. You look at art as a moment in time, an interpretation of an individual or an event.

And it strengthens our memory of an event, but also, If we're saying something's haunted or that a spirit is left behind and we continue to remember them, we continue to talk about them and keep them alive in a way, how powerful can a story be when we're actually dealing with spirits? Do you have any thoughts or opinions on that? Well, I think it's a form of acknowledgement in the other sense. I've got to believe that if spirits are real and they hear people recounting these stories, they have to feel honored by it. I also think, you know, a little bit of a twist on that, though, is I also, see, the thing is that I think that, and this is not a nice thing to say, but I think that when you think about the supernatural and so forth, it's such a cluster blank. In this sense, in this sense, I think it's a lot of different things. I think it's totally possible that its loved ones trying to communicate with us.

I also think it's totally possible than in some cases, it's a residual haunting. It's known as the stone tape theory. Not stone tape, but stone tape theory, like the walls hold or different materials hold a memory of something.

And then I also wonder about the trickster element of all this. Sometimes I think it's something playing a colossal trick on us. Like today, you know, maybe some, something else

out there said, you know, I'm going to F with Jim. And I'm going to set up all these calls or something. Because honestly, I was joking with my, I have a virtual assistant up in Canada. She works for me part-time. She helps me immensely. Her name is Maddie. And I'm like, people are going to think I'm making this up. Because it's call after call after call after call.

And there's a twist I'm not bringing here today that is like incredible. That is so weird that it totally sounds scripted. it's too on the nose. So did some kind of whatever get up today and say, okay, we're going to F with Jim, we're going to make this person sign up at this time and this person this time and kind of give them a wink and a nudge. So I often wonder about a trickster element in all this.

And maybe I'm just paranoid after all these years, but I do wonder about that. And this kind of extends to your field of expertise, you do see from time to time a co-incidence, not a coincidence, but a co-incidence. of paranormal activity and UFO activity. What's that all about? I guess that all is to say is that after over 15 years of doing this shows,

after having done over 2,000 episodes, I'm more convinced than ever that something is going on. Now ask me what that is, and my opinion will probably change from day to day, and I don't really know what it is. I think there's multiple things going on. Absolutely. and agree more. And, you know, a prime example of the coincidence. I have in my most recent book,

which I think you can see right there, had to plug it at some point. Absolutely. Absolutely. Early and often. Yes, yes. That's what we do, man. We are hustlers. And a story of a woman named Patty in Michigan who had a UFO sighting that was directly followed up by poltergeist activity in her house, shadow people, everything you can possibly think of this woman Patty and her daughters were experiencing. I'll let the readers take a look at that. But right now, I want to get some of the best moments from Campfire, maybe recent ones, or they can be ones you've digged up from the memory banks of the past, ones that really shook you, Jim. Stories that really stood out to you. Are there any off the top

of your mind that you'd be willing to share? Just in the last couple of weeks. Okay, great. And it It involves a real-life tragedy, actually. One of our listeners from Texas, I believe his name was Alan. He talked about this time when he was with several members of his family. And they were on a road trip. And there was a horrible car crash. And anyway, people are severely injured. Actually, his brother ends up dying in the car crash.

And Alan, I believe, was thrown clear. and he kind of grogily wakes up and he sees a white tractor trailer, a white semi, pure white, look like it was brand new. This guy gets out of it and walks up to him, asks him if he's okay, kind of dust him off, helps pick him up.

And Alan says, how's my brother? How's my brother doing? He's like, don't worry about your brother. He'll be fine. And, uh, then, you know, Alan kind of shakes the cobwebs off and the guy's gone. And I think it was Alan's sister, I think, that was there.

And he talks to his sister. He says, what about that guy in the white semi? What about him? And she said, what guy in the white semi? What are you talking about? And Alan said that he felt that this was his guardian angel. and by way of him telling him that his brother would be okay, that didn't mean that he would physically be okay,

but that he would spiritually be okay. And Alan even thinks it's possible. Maybe it was his actual brother in a different form, but the fact is an angel pulling up in a gleaming white, brand new semi. And that's the thing about the stories that we cover on the campfire. There's some terrifying ones. There's some very spooky ones. But there's also ones that have a reassuring tone.

And I think it's like everyday life, right? I mean, we can look, regardless of your political beliefs or whatever it might be, we can look out in the world and we can find a lot of bad things. And I think it's true with the supernatural. There's some very frightening things. There are some very scary things. But then we can look at it. And sometimes in the world, we see some very beautiful things.

maybe somebody spending their time to help somebody who's disadvantaged, maybe in a picture of a beautiful flower, maybe in a great artwork, whatever it is, a beautiful piece of music, a great film, a great stage play. So to me, the paranormal is like a continuum, just like real life. That mirrors real life.

There's some very beautiful things, and there's some very scary things. That's a really good way to put it, Jim, because, you know, even in the UFO field when we were dealing with those who claim close encounters or alien abductions, some see it as a very positive experience and some see it as the most traumatizing, intrusive, traumatic thing in their lives. So I think you're right.

I think there are probably spirits who have accepted what, who they are and are here to hell and some that aren't. And I'm sure there's some of those stories out there. So I got to ask, are you willing to share one of the dark, stories in the past from Camp Fire. Well, this goes way back, but this is one about Ouija Borts. Oh, yes. Please, yes.

I'm not allowed to have them in this house. That's right. Leanne from Utah was the caller. This was actually, I think this was the first story in the first book that I did for Campfire. And it was about this teenager in Utah by the name of Leanne. And, you know, as young people are want to do, they have parties at their houses or sleepovers and things. And it was her and her best friend. They're like, well, what are we going to do

for fun? I've got a Ouija board. Let's pull it out. And to make it more spooky, they had some candles and they had a lava lamp. If anybody remembers lava lamps, it's like had that liquid inside of it and the gloopy stuff in the middle. And anyway, they've got the Ouija board out and they're doing the various incantations and things. And then, uh, The one girl says, if you're real, because it was supposedly giving messages and so forth, if you're real, show us a sign. And they keep going along. And they start to know, Leanne starts to notice the globy stuff in the middle of the lava

lamp. It's like a, you know, it's like a ball of wax usually. And it's starting to form into something. And they go on and it's starting to form. And it's getting more form and it looks like a face. And it's red. and all of a sudden Leanne says,

oh my God, it's the face of the devil. And basically, they shut the Ouija board up. He said all the lights went out, all the candles went out. Everything went out. And then the lava lamp turned out, turned out normal and everything. And Leanne said she's never messed with a Ouija board ever since.

So the thing is, is that I got to tell you, Ouija boards are always an interesting topic. I had another guy who said, I think this was in Texas, who said that he had like an older lady or an older woman who was serving as a spiritual mentor. And she literally showed him a Ouija board that, and again, this is his story, not mine, that walked inchworm style across the floor. And then she threw the board into the fire. the board burned, but she took the planchette, the little piece that you float around, said she put it in velvet and threw it in a fire, it wouldn't burn. Then she took it out, took it out of the velvet, which was like a protective thing spiritually, I guess, and then it burned. I mean, again, not my story. But to me, Ryan, I don't know how you feel about the Ouija board. You said you're not allowed them. And some people say they're a tool. And I would say that that's true, but so is a chainsaw. Now, Now, if you look at a chainsaw, some people can take a chainsaw and make a beautiful wooden structure, even people who can men and women who can make like ice sculptures and things. If you hand me a chainsaw, I'm just as likely to saw my arm off.

So spiritually speaking, I think that maybe something like that, if you don't know what you're doing, could hold some danger. I think you're right. And I mean, I'm recalling an event I had, Jim, I'll make this sort of brief. I was at a birthday party once at my grandmother's house. And she had 25, you know, grandchildren or so. So we were always doing something, getting up to some mischief when we'd have these big family get-togeth. And I remember we found a Ouija board in the attic, of course.

So here we go, setting up the movie already. I wasn't familiar with it. I didn't know. My older cousin, Chris, was somewhat familiar with what it. did what it was. And we decided to get it out and play a little trick on my younger cousin. So what we did is we set the board out. We got, if my memory serves me right, we got some really heavy paper clips, metal paper clips. We put them on top of the Ouija board. And underneath, we put a really thin magnet with a string, you know. So you got the metal,

on top, magnet on bottom. The planchette, we just tossed it aside and we brought my younger cousin in this room, turned all the lights off. And my grandfather had passed away about a year prior to that. And we thought, grandpa would like this. This will be funny. It'll be hilarious. Let's do it. So we bring my little cousin in the room. Lights are off and we say, okay, I'll call him M. I don't want to say his name here because I don't know how he feels about me. in this story. But M sits down and we explain, if Grandpa's here with us, he's going to move these paper clips on this board by itself. He's like, uh, okay, okay. And we start asking questions. Like, Grandpa, are you here with us? If you're here, give us a sign, move these, these paper clips that

we found, you know, just just do anything, do anything. And ever so slightly, my older cousin, he's got the string and he's just subtly pulling it and the paper clips start to move. And immediately my younger cousin, M, he flips out, he flips the board up. He runs out of the room, screaming, crying. And, you know, we were pretty young. So we were scared about the ramifications of this. And he went until this mom and she was so mad at us, Jim. She said, how could you do that?

You scared him to death. you know, that's so disrespectful to your grandfather. And of course, we were kids. We weren't really thinking about the implication. But the implication for us, Jim, came when my aunt made us go upstairs, get rid of everything, and she wanted us to throw the board out, get rid of it completely.

My older cousin and I go up in the room, and mind you, this is two stories up. No one had been up there. All the lights were off on the second story, except where we were. We go in, we flip it, the light on and there's the board sitting there the string the paper clips nowhere to be found the planchette that we had moved somewhere else was now on the board right on the word no

guess the joke was on you right oh my god i don't know if somehow my aunt had made this happen to scare us from scaring her her son or i don't know jane or maybe it was my grandfather's saying, yeah, very funny. This is how you're going to try to contact me. Here's a taste of your own medicine, yeah. I don't think so. He was a broker like that. I miss him dearly.

But, you know, I've had experiences throughout my personal life where I feel I have communicated with those on the other side. I'll share one of those maybe towards the end here. But are there any other... I love stories that are told by people of science. Okay. And we have one from a UK doctor because I've been rack of my brain trying to think of some good stories for here. I think sometimes I have story overload. So it's like, okay, okay.

Oh, that was a good one. Well, this was a great one. This guy was a doctor in England. I assume he still is several years ago. And he was working in what they call their – it's not ER, but ED, emergency department. And he was down on the lower level, you know, dealing with cases coming in and so forth. And anyway, he was on the ground floor and they called, I think, a code blue for somebody up on, like, the fourth floor. And he was called in to deal with it.

So he's running up the stairs. And I believe this was on the fourth floor. And on the third floor, as he's coming up, he looks and he sees an elderly. man naked from the waist down. He has a gown on and he's basically naked from the waist down. And the doctor kind of calls out and goes on the floor and just kind of yells at the nurses. Can somebody take care of this gentleman? And then he goes up to the fourth floor where this gentleman is flatlining.

And they go to attend to the gentleman and the gentleman dies. The only catch in the story, Ryan, is when he got up to the fourth floor, one thing, now he got right to his business, one thing that struck him as rather odd. The man on the table was the man who had been on the third floor. And the man died. And after this was all over, he's like, oh, my gosh, what happened? He went down to the third floor and he talked to the nurses and he said, I yelled out of it. to you to check on this man who was here naked, standing naked with the robe. And I said, no, there was no man there.

We didn't know what you were talking about. And this guy died, and he too was in this hospital gown. So, you know, one wonders if he actually saw this man's like soul to part his body and saw it. And that's a guy of science. You know, he's a doctor. He has nothing to gain by this. And there's some great studies of doctors who have. seen strange things. I think of bedside visitations when people are dying and those kind of things.

But again, I love those stories from people of science, very serious people who've said, you know, I'm not given the flights of fancy. But it's similar to me in your line of work when you find military pilots and things who have seen strange things. They're pretty serious people. But they say, I know what I saw, just like this doctor did. That's such a good point. And, you know, I, recently, no, maybe not so recently, but I had Leslie Kain on who is known specifically, usually for her UFO work, but she seems to have taken this sort of turn in her own life after a relative of hers passed away looking into the topic of life after death.

And she's done some incredible research and spoken to so many scientists and doctors and people in the parapsychological fields about this. idea of what happens after we die. And, you know, a lot of us are terrified to even think of the topic. It's understandable. I personally, I can't even fathom what comes after. It keeps me up at night. It gives me a really weird feeling in my stomach. And then I just try to think of something else. But with someone like Leslie, who's looking at this scientifically, and we're discovering more and more evidence that there possibly could be something after or that the consciousness can move on out of the body once the body ceases to be, that's almost comforting in a way, you know, to think,

oh, this is just me right now. Like, I'm going to go on. Everything I remember, everything I've experienced is going to go on somewhere else. And then I'm just going to build off of that. So I think there's something beautiful to that and comforting for anyone who is afraid of death. And these stories themselves, the fact that so many people have experienced these things, it makes me think, wow, I can. I can come back or I can somehow show those still here that I'm alive, remember me. Yeah. You remind me of a story we had from the UK that touches on reincarnation.

It was a woman probably, I'm guessing, in her 40s who told a story about her son. And when her son was four or five years old, they had had all the windows open. It was a particularly warm, I think, spring day. And they were hearing biplanes go by. And biplanes, or if people aren't familiar, like the ones, picture what the Red Baron would have been flying with the two wings, kind of the World War I era airplanes. have a very distinctive sound. And her little boy all of a sudden now the blue says

that sounds like the plane that killed me. And he goes on to say, you know, you remember when my name was Stephen and I lived in such and such a place and he used to always go to the pub. And our caller, her name is Michelle, she said, he was four years old. He never went to a pub.

And then he wanted to tell the story. He said, yeah, and we were with my mom. and we were listening to the radio and there was this big explosion and there was blood all over and he's like doing this, you know, motioning with his hands and things.

And Michelle, the caller, was just, as they say, in Britain gobsmacked because she was like, oh my gosh, where is he getting this from? And in retrospect, she said, I wish I would have asked him, you know, XYZ, a bunch of questions, but I didn't want to lead him

down any particular road. And to me, that was great. I mean, what a great story. And it kind of mirrors, to your point, many stories about consciousness, surviving death, and reincarnation is one of those very interesting areas.

I have interviewed Leslie, not only your UFO stuff, but also I think the book, I just saw it the other day. It's on my shelf. Surviving Death, I think, is the book that she did on it. And then I've also had a chance

to talk to some reincarnation experts, including one gentleman and I haven't spoken to him for a few years, so I don't know his status now, but he's, his name's Jim B. Tucker. And he's a full-blown professor at the University of Virginia, and his work was the successor of somebody by the name of Ian Stevenson, who's probably the foremost historical researcher of the reincarnation genre. And really, when I think about, and it's just having this conversation with somebody today,

when I think about things like virtuosos, you know, some. year old kid that can sit down a piano and figure it out like that and play these great pieces, or people who show an aptitude, or people who have memories that they shouldn't have. Like one example, and I'm sure you've heard of this one, James Lininger was like an eight-year-old boy who told all of these stories about serving in World War II on a bomber, and he described the people that were on the crew and all of these things. It does really make you think, is there something to reincarnation? And certainly near-death experiences, we haven't even talked about those, where people have these experiences where they say, a lot of times they'll say they go through a ton of light, they go to a certain point, and then they have a decision to make, and then they come back.

But many times, and this has been done by, and Leslie probably mentioned this, Dr. Sam Parnea, is a doctor who's done a lot of research on this. and people know things they shouldn't know. They know what the medical team was doing when they were flatlining. Like they'll be able to say they were administering this, this and this. And somebody without medical knowledge wouldn't know that to begin with.

And secondly, they could see stuff they shouldn't see. So I don't know exactly what happens after we died. But actually, these shows and these stories have increased my faith that there is something beyond just our physical presence. Yeah, yeah, same here, man. You know, growing up Roman Catholic, we were, you know, that's a strict dogma. But the older you get, the more you start to sort of formulate your own beliefs and everything like that, it's liberating to, you know, think that there is something beyond.

Maybe it's heaven. Maybe it's something else. Or maybe it's another life. And I think that's incredible. I'm going to ask you right here on the spot, Jim. who or what would you like to come back as if you had the opportunity? Let's get a little, a little Buddhist on you here. Man, oh, maybe doing something similar to what I'm doing now.

I'm very happy doing it. That or being a singer. I studied music for a while in school was a minor for a bit, so maybe a singer, but I'm not a singer. Maybe when I'm doing now, I really enjoy what I do. So I have no complaints. That is the perfect answer. That's how you should live your life.

Never, no regrets, man. I as well would like to be a singer. I've done a couple musicals in my day and my acting, my acting days. But, yeah, carrying a tune wasn't really for me. I do want to go back here. One of our people here, Itlings T said, I saw a full body operation walk through my yard in 2018. Please reach out to Jim with that story.

I'm sure he would love to hear about that. Just go to Jimherald.com slash campfire to sign up to tell your story. We have a submission page there, but we close it from time to time, because honestly, we get so many stories, which is great. I'm not complaining. I love it. We have to shut it down for two or three weeks. Catch up. Then we open it back up. But right now it's open, Jimherald.com slash campfire. Perfect. Perfect. All right. Well, I got a couple of questions here, Jim, before we kind of head towards the past halftime here. Following on from Zignol, one of the comments earlier about UFOs and the trickster,

do you and Jim consider that there is a real overlap of different paranormal phenomena? I think we sort of touched on this, but yeah, I think there is some sort of string theory between all of these things. I mean, we've heard so many stories about Bigfoot being cited and then completely dissipating almost as if interdimensional and why have we never found a body. And then like I mentioned earlier,

there seems to be weird, strangeness occurring in homes where UFOs were cited over and things like that. So my opinion is, yes, I think it's all connected. I think we should all be sharing information. No more of these ghost hunter camps and UFO people and this and that. What do you think, Jim? Well, two things. First of all, I'll say, ditto.

And the other thing, it is really funny because, you know, there's different camps and all this stuff is siloed or it used to be a lot. and you know you talk to the cryptic people all those UFO people are crazy and the ghost people oh yeah yeah ghosts I believe in but UFOs come on and it's interesting and maybe you can come in on this run

I think that it has become and I think it's changing slowly but I think that it's become very vogue or very accepted to say I saw a ghost I'm like nobody you know if you say you saw a ghost most people are not going to look at you're funny. If you say I saw an UFO or you say I had an alien encounter,

that's a different story. There's like this stigma. Do you agree with that? Yeah. And, you know, I mean, I think it ebbs and flows, to be honest. I think once pop culture gets its, you know, its claws on these things every now and again or Hollywood, it really does have been flowing. I mean, we're living in the age of UFOs right now with everything that Tom DeLong. is doing and all these New York Times articles and, you know, James Fox coming out with a new documentary, The Phenomeno. Yes, and Harry Reid. Yeah, I know you just reported on that the other day.

He kind of amplified it. Harry Reid, the former Senate, I think, majority leader saying, yeah, the government's holding back evidence. And the thing is that Harry Reid is not like some county commissioner. He was one of the most powerful people in the United States government for years. and whether you're a Republican or Democrat or whatever, what percentage does he have in making that up? What is the benefit to him?

I can't think of one other than ridicule. Absolutely. That is the perfect way to put it. I couldn't think of another reason as to why, other than a keen interest and knowing that there is something to this. And I think the same could be said about the paranormal. And I do think, you know, pop culture plays such a large role in this and probably feeding the energy of these phenomena as well.

I mean, we have all these ghost movies and the conjuring universe and this and that, and especially right now when Halloween thrives and we're all thinking about the supernatural, you have to wonder, is it just amplifying that and that door or that veil is coming up a little more or opening up during this Halloween season? So, yeah, I think, again, things like what you and I are doing,

people going to haunted houses and all this stuff, it does. I think it feeds off of this. And I think that plays a large role in it as well. Yeah, I think, you know, to me, and I think that you got to separate that. In this sense, I think it's fine to watch spooky movies and enjoy horror movies and enjoy that kind of thing, Black Mirror, the Twilight Zone, and then the slasher movies or whatever it might be. I mean, I think that's good to enjoy. I love that kind of stuff, particularly this coming of year.

Me and my oldest daughter had been watching a lot of classic horror movies and it's a lot of fun this time of year. I think we should separate that, though, from the legitimate discussion and study of that in a sense. We have to be careful that we're not assuming that every possession is like the exorcist. Now, again, I believe there might be something too. possession. And certainly the Catholic Church believes there's something to it because they have a whole group in the Vatican dedicated to exorcism. But we have to kind of, it's like, I don't know, I used to love the show House of Cards on Netflix. So the thing is that you have to realize, though, there may be aspects of that that has in common of what really goes on in Washington, D.C.

I don't doubt that it doesn't. But it's not the same as the actual thing. So just to be able to intellectually create that space, you know, there are two different things. You can enjoy both. You can enjoy the fun, spooky stuff and all the great stuff that goes with Halloween. And certainly we can have fun with it and tell stories. But we also need to realize that there's also a serious side to this, too. I don't know if that makes sense. Oh, absolutely.

And I mean, I'm going to be having a witch practitioner on the show in the coming weeks as well. And, you know, I think I've watched hocus pocus about 10. times already in the past 10 days. Once in night, I'm pretty much watching it. And we get this idea that witches are bad and they're here to snatch our children and cast spells and all this. But I think we have to understand where this folklore came from in the history of these things. So I'm having this woman come on to explain the history of witches to us. What is witchcraft? When did it start? What was the impetus for it all? Up until today. in our current landscape, whether in America or around the world,

and why are we seeing this explosion of people getting involved with witchcraft? And it goes down a lot of roads that I never even imagined. So I'm excited for that conversation. And I think you're right. There's a reality to each of these things, ghosts, witches, monsters, everything that says so much more about us, I think, than even the final. phenomena or the things we're looking at. It's always a social commentary on something. And we see that most prevalent, I think, in film, like you said. When Frankenstein, Dracula, Wolfman, all these,

you know, the OGs of the universal monsters, they were all created from stories of the past, but they took on new meaning when these movies came out. They were a commentary on things going on at the time. So yeah, what role do you think horror movies play in this whole schism of weird and this scary? And like you said, you're watching all these classic movies with their daughter. I'm doing the same right now. I don't have a daughter, but I'm watching them with my partner and just trying to understand and dissect these movies for more than just, boom, you know? Well, I think you can enjoy them on a couple of different levels. I think on one level you can have that, ooh, it's like a ride at an amusement park. We can have this, on the comfort of our sofa,

we can have this scary ride and we know that we're going to land safely. So I think that's part of it. But on the other hand, I think it can serve to open our minds to broader questions and then do the research on the actual things. I mean, big part of Campfire is campfire, I think, kind of serves both purposes. On one hand, I think it's kind of fun to have a scary ride and hear about something spooky, but never to the extent that we kind of, I don't know, caricature, the experiences of the people. And then also to know, oh, there's something serious here we need to be looking into. But I don't think there's a thing in the word wrong with horror movies. For example, watching something or even things along those lines like a Twilight Zone.

I mean, watching Twilight Zone, I think, can be an education in opening your mind to other possibilities or even to some extent, social commentary that Serling did so well. So I think it can be good and I think it can also be cathartic. So I don't think there's a thing in the world wrong with horror movies. As long as we realize when we talk about real experiences, that not every real experience is going to be hit you over the head, you know, creep show, you know, kind of thing. Because I believe the supernatural sometimes tends to be a little more subtle.

it's just like a romantic comedy right there are real love stories in real life but you know we were finishing watching um the office uh which is a great show i love absolutely and you know every line that came out of jim's mouth it's like well why we didn't why don't i think to say that was because i don't have a room of 12 writers yes yeah i mean this is a story now that doesn't mean that in real life, there aren't some elements in love stories that are like Jim and Pam. But everybody's not going to be as dashing and able to come up with, you know, the perfect thing to say like Jim is, because, again, you don't have a room of 12 writers. So we just need to understand that dichotomy. That's such a good comparison. Yeah, I'm rewatching the office probably for the 50th time right now,

like the rest of the world. But there's also this new sort of trend gym of elevated horror. You know, we've gotten these movies in the past few years, whether it's hereditary or get out or the most current one I could think of is that movie Antebellum. These movies that take the horror genre and kind of, as the term says, elevate it and put something a huge social commentary on it as well. So I do wonder, is that sort of where we're heading? We'll always have the slasher films and the ghost films. and everything. But we're starting to see this trend where horror seems to be taking on a more humanistic and, I guess, in your face sociological approach, where like you said, I think it was a lot more subtle back in the day, which I actually enjoy much, much more, where you can think for

yourself. And you don't need the movie to spoon feed it to you. Well, honestly, I try to keep politics out of my shows. And I'll tell you why. Um, there is, is no place that you can go today, basically, that politics right wrong or indifferent, regardless of your views, right left in the middle, where somebody is going to be telling you what they think. And to me, the supernatural and the paranormal is one of those things that is 100% common to the human experience. Today, I think I shared with you.

I had a call from California. I had a call from Australia. I had a call from the UK. I had a call from Guam. Okay. It's a universal human experience. And what I like to do is say, hey, let's put the politics aside. Now, of course, you know, I want everybody to be treated equally and respectfully.

We don't have any place on our shows for any kind of disparagement of anybody based on their ethnicity or sexual preference, whatever it might be. But the point is everybody is treated equally. Atheist is treated equally as somebody who's a born-again Christian, as is somebody who's a Buddhist or a Muslim or whatever it might be. So we want to treat everybody fairly and we want to treat everybody equally. But beyond that, I want to create a space and oasis where people say, I can tune in and hear about these experiences. I'm not going to say, I'm not going to hear what people think of Donald Trump or Joe Biden or Kamala Harris or Mike Pence or whether they think the Supreme Court. nomination process is fair or unconstitutional. There's a lot of places to go for that.

In fact, that's pretty much everywhere. So I want to create a place where people can feel safe to share their stories. And I bet you if we have 10 callers on a campfire show when we got them in a room talking about their political beliefs, we could stir up an argument real quickly. And again, you know, you know, I'm reminded of Johnny Carson, and obviously I'm quite a bit older than you.

And actually, Carson in his private beliefs, was a strong Democrat and contributed to many democratic causes, which is fine. But you wouldn't have known it because he saw himself as the kind of hearth of America. And he certainly supported those causes he believed in and backed them vigorously. with his money and so forth, and that's great. But when he came to do his job, it's like, I'm going to be funny for, I think the show was the first two hours than 90 minutes.

The more popular, you got the shorter the show became. And then eventually 60 minutes. He said, you know what, I'm going to appeal to everybody. I'm going to make fun of the Republicans. I'm going to make fun of the Democrats. I'm going to make this place where America can come and have fun and wind down after a long day. And obviously, I'm not comparing myself to Johnny Carson,

and my audiences like that compared to Johnny Carson. But I love that thought where this is a place where people can share their thoughts, their experiences about the supernatural. And they don't have to worry if you're a Republican or you're a Democrat. That, I think, kind of makes me old-fashioned. And that's okay. That's the way I want to do it. And if someone has a problem with it, then there's thousands of podcasts out there.

Yeah, and there's millions of political podcasts they can turn to for sure. That's such a good point, though, Jim, because I feel the same about the UFO field as well. I think aliens, if they are visiting our planet, have will someday, who knows, they don't care about our leaders. They don't care about our president, our prime ministers, our kings, our law enforcement, or even our military. They will go where they want. They will cross borders. They will not. They don't understand the sovereignty of what we have created here.

on this planet. And I think you're right. I think these topics of the paranormal and UFOs, they break, they break down and they rebel against everything we have conditioned ourselves to do. And that's to label ourselves and to build walls, I think, instead of bridges between one another. So I love the idea that we can come together and talk about this stuff. That wasn't accepted, you know, for many, many generations throughout time and find a common ground. I mean, whether Democrat, Republican, independent, everything in between, I can have civil conversations with individuals that I know don't have the same political beliefs or values as I do. And that's okay.

And I think, you know, as someone from a younger generation, not as young as some people would think, but from a younger generation, I guess. At this point, Ryan, pretty much everybody's younger than me. Oh, stop, stop. It's hard, Jim. I'll tell you, when you grow up with this social media and a 24-hour news cycle like I have to not get politics involved and not get angry and tribalistic with people. So I think I'm learning as the years go on and I get deeper into these topics that it's something that brings us together than pushes us apart. So I think that's what's most important.

I believe in your private life or whatever. I mean, personally for me, if you have a strong political belief, pardon the phrase, but fight like hell to support that and, you know, vote and volunteer and contribute your money and contribute your time. I mean, I'm all for a strong political discourse. Just for me, I don't want to bring my political beliefs. And again, this is for me. I'm only speaking for myself.

I want to have a place where people can go and enjoy these things that we, you know, all have in common. Because you know what? I often say, not all of us, Ryan, are all going to see a UFO. We're not going to see a big foot. In fact, we're not going to see a ghost. But we're all going to die. And so that's one question. What happens after we die? And I don't care if you're the, you know, the rightest Republican around there or the leftist Democrat. You're still going to die. And that's a question we all have. Now, some people think, hey, it's the big dirt nap. That's it. And that's okay. Some people think we go to a glorious heaven, and that's okay too. And then there's a lot of people in between. But let's have those discussions and let's have them together and not tribal. I like that word, not break into tribes when it comes to these big questions.

Absolutely. And I think, again, that's what the supernatural teaches us is that there is something out there. Open your minds. Open your hearts. And it might come in. Or, you know, yeah, it might happen. happen. And I think that's, that's awesome. And I, this, hey, man, this conversation took a turn that I was not expecting, but I would expect nothing less from you and from me when we get together and start

talking about this stuff, Jim. But I got to ask you, there's some really cool stuff you're doing right now over on YouTube. So let us know what the YouTube channel is. And tell us a little about paranormal quiz. This is so much fun. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. We've been doing something. We're going to do another one in November, and we're going to go to monthly on that. We've been doing almost, I guess you call it a Jeopardy-style quiz. My wife is my co-host, and we have three contestants from around the world. We had a contestant last week from China, and I was shocked that we got through the great firewall of China, but we did it, and they basically answer questions about their

paranormal knowledge. Now, again, when I talk about paranormal, it's that big-tem philosophy. So we've had quite a few UFO questions, Ryan. And it's a lot of fun. It's just a lot of fun to see people compete. And then we have our group of commenters, just like you do. We call ours the spook taters. And they chime in.

If the contestants don't know an answer to a question, they will chime in with their answers. And that's a lot of fun. So that's a lot of fun. That's something we've been doing. We thought we would do something fun. Don't make a penny off of it. In fact, it's more of a cost center than anything else.

But just fun, something we wanted to do during the pandemic, just to say, hey, let's have a, let's have 45 minutes of fun. And people, I think we've done 15 of them so forth. Oh, wow. And that's over on YouTube.com slash Jim Herald. That's YouTube.com slash Jim Herald. And again, my main thing is the podcasts, the paranormal podcast where I talk to people like you and other great experts in all areas of,

And that is at Jim Herald.com. And also Jim Herald's Campfire, which is my true supernatural experience show. And that's Jim Herald.com. And again, anywhere you listen to podcast, you just type in Jim Herald, just as it's spelled there on the screen. And I should pop up with those two shows. And I would love for people to tune in and check them out and see if they're their cup of tea. Absolutely. And, you know, I sort of stole my subtitle here, True Ghost Stories, from a book series that you have as well.

I know a lot of the Campfire stories are available. I was looking for it. I had one here a while ago. I have five books out. True Ghost Stories. They're from Jim Herald's Camp Fire. Each one has about 70 stories in it. So it's a pretty good-sized book.

And these are basically the stories just kind of slightly rewritten just to flow on the page. And it's the best stories we've had. I'm working on book six. I wanted to get that by Halloween, but it's not happening. But, yeah, and those are available on Kindle. Kindle Unlimited, they're free. And if you don't have Kindle unlimited, I think they're like three bucks a piece, cheap, or, of course, you can get the paperback copy as well.

But we have five of those, and they've done very well. Each one of them at various times have been number one on the supernatural list for Kindle. And just people seem to enjoy them. They usually get about a four and a half star rating and have a couple hundred reviews each. So people seem to like them. So you can check that out too. But I always direct people first to the free stuff.

And if people are interested in spooky stories, the first stop should be go to your favorite podcast app and listen to Jim Herald's Campfire. Because once they listen to Campfire, Ryan, if they're interested in spooky stories, I got it. Oh, yeah. You got them. That is the gateway. That's how you got me, man. I've been listening from the very start. Thank you. And it's been amazing to see you grow and to proliferate and to build this community where it's okay to talk about these things.

Oh, one more thing. Another free thing that people can join, and we have over 20,000 members now it's totally free, is our virtual campfire group. And you can go to the URL virtual campfire group.com. Virtual campfire group.com. Now, what's neat about that is we have some great admins on that. So we keep it very clean. There's not a lot, no politics. You know, if something goes up that's not supposed to have to take it right down.

It's basically kind of an extension at the Campfire Show where people just share their personal stories. And it's a great place to trade ideas. And we're very, what's what's word I'm looking for? We're very kind of strict on, you know, being supporting. You know, if you don't believe somebody, that's fine. but kind of our motto on that side is if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all, so people can feel very safe in sharing their stories. So virtual campfiregroup.com, virtual campfiregroup.com, that'll forward your right to the group,

and you can check it out. And I apologize. I feel like I've taken a lot of time here. Oh, my gosh, no, man. But of course, we were, before we got on here, we're like, yeah, we'll do 30 minutes or so, but we both knew that wasn't right. Once I start talking, forget about it. Same here, man.

No, this has been such a pleasure. It was the perfect way to kick off my Halloween series here on Somewhere in the Skies. But everyone, please go subscribe to the paranormal podcast, Campfire. That's the way I got involved with Jim and all this. And trust me, there's endless content that'll keep you busy for years. So check that all out. But first and foremost, Jim, I want to wish you a very happy Halloween season. I will definitely be there on Halloween for the party, the virtual party you're doing.

I suggest everyone do the same. And of course, thank you so much for joining me on Summer in the Skies. Well, thank you, Ryan. I appreciate it. I always love having you on my show. And likewise, I love to see your growth and everything that you're doing. The TV shows and this show and the book, it's like I always say, I got to, I can't keep growing because Ryan here, he's going to, he's going to leave me in the dust. So I'm like, no, it's good.

It's good. You're keeping me young, man. You're keeping me young. Competition is always good. That's right. That's right. Friendly competition. But you're great at what you do.

I think you are, you know, I think UFO, euphology needed somebody like you. And I'm so glad. We've talked about this numerous times. So I'm so glad to see everything you've done. And I'm so privileged to have had a chance to spend some time with your audience. And to you and your audience, happy Halloween. Somewhere in the Skies is produced by Third Kind Productions.

association with the Entertainment One podcast network.