The Confessionals - 327: Legion

Episode Date: April 6, 2021

In Episode 327: Legion, we are joined by Caden, who shares stories from his childhood in his family home. Caden reveals some rather scary experiences that he believes were demonic in nature. When he went off to college, he became involved in a campus ministry, where he experienced things that changed his life and left him with no doubts that the spiritual realm is very real. He recounts the story of a demonically possessed girl who, during an exorcism, exhibited supernatural strength and revealed the names of the demons that were possessing her.BECOME A MEMBER AND GET ADDITIONAL SHOWS: https://www.theconfessionalspodcast.com/joinSPONSORS:GET FEALS: https://feals.com/tonyGET SIMPLISAFE TODAY: https://simplisafe.com/confessionalsGet Emergency Food Supplies: http://www.preparewiththeconfessionals.comGet Beard Oil: https://bit.ly/2FbOhN5CONNECT WITH US:Website: www.theconfessionalspodcast.comEmail: [e-mail] Community: Text "YUP" to 844-215-0819 Subscribe to the Newsletter: https://www.theconfessionalspodcast.com/the-newsletter SOCIAL MEDIA:Subscribe to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/2TlREaI Show Instagram: theconfessionalspodcastTony's NEW Instagram: rage_against_dystopiaMeWe: https://mewe.com/i/tonymerkel5Gab.com: https://gab.com/TonyMerkelFacebook: www.facebook.com/TheConfessionalsPodcast Twitter: @TConfessionals Tony's Twitter: @tony_merkelSHOW INTRO: Show Intro INSTRUMENTAL: www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyub39AXxUw Show Intro FREE DOWNLOAD: https://bit.ly/2HxNcw3

This was all circulating around the base that a giant had to kill, but no one was supposed to talk about it. I saw three long, bony fingers, reach up underneath the door, curl up to grab it, and then disappear. When he came over to me, dude, he slithered over to me. And this giant comes out of the cave and they're all frozen. And he starts running and firing at this giant. But the giant moves, he's got a solid. spear in one hand and he's running really fast and spears dan holds them up like this somebody else shoot him in the face shoot him in the face they basically decapitated and i look over and there are two and they're

literally i'm getting pulled off the bed it's pushed and i touch air couldn't breathe and i couldn't move because i know i'm seeing a monster welcome to the show everybody you're listening to the confessionals i am your host tony merkle thank you for being here if you've had an encounter or a story like to share with me on the show, go ahead and shoot me an email. My email address is The Confessionals at the Confessionalspodcast.com. That's The Confessionals at the Confessionalspodcast.com. Or go to the website, theconfessionalspodcast.com. Hit the contact section and you can reach me that way as well.

Either it works for me, just get a hold of me. And if you want more shows on a weekly basis, just go to the website, theconfessionalspodcast. com. Hit the join button and become a member today because we put out an extra show every week on Thursdays on the website for members only. So if you want to hear more of the show, in a weekly basis, just go ahead to the website and check it out the membership section. Now, today we have a interesting intro here because I am trying to starting something new here

as a podcaster. I am not sure if anybody's ever really done this. And it's new. It's interesting. And what we're doing is the confessionals is going on the road. And we're opening up tours through the confessions. And my brother-in-law, Creed, is here and his girlfriend, Jen and they are the owners of educated wanderer and they're helping to organize this event and basically the confessionals and educated wanderer are going to come together on these trips and it's going to be really exclusive. It's going to be awesome and Creed is here to tell us about it more and have a little bit of a conversation. Indeed. Hello. Hey man. So why don't we, why don't we start off with just telling the people what this trip is about and kind of the angle of where we're going to be going with this whole

experience because I just don't know. I've never heard of other podcasters doing this, but like you even said to me, and I don't want to put it out there too early, but I'm going to do it anyways. You even told me that, you know, if this goes well, this is something that we could go anywhere in the world with. And so I know I have an audience in other countries like the UK. And so like, who knows if this goes well, maybe we could do something similar where, you know, people come and meet at a central location. they travel with me to these haunted locations and different things like that. And then if we go to other countries and stuff, if I'm there, I might as well do some kind of event for the people that are in that country that want to come out to the show and stuff.

Definitely. Fortunately, ghosts are not exclusive to the United States. Fortunately. Yeah. There are plenty of places around the world, infinite number of possibilities to see things, you know, mystical and unexplained stories of Bigfoot-like creatures abound globally. there's, you know, numerous, in fact, one of the things that we'll see on this tour that we're putting together, the Columseal Megalith Park, is actually modeled after an island in Scotland, Iona that has megaliths and has been inhabited by sort of spiritual seeking people for so long, you know, Christians, before that the druids and, you know, sort of pre-Druid pagan culture. I love it.

It's a place where the veil between this world and the other is. purported to be thin. Yeah. So there's a zillion places like that that we could go. And that's on this trip? That's on this trip. Oh, see? I'm learning as we go.

I love it. That sounds fascinating. And that's not even the main thrust behind the trip. It's not the main thrust. But it's a great little stop on our way up, you know, to the main thrust of the trip. Yeah. Where we'll sort of, you know, dip our toes in the water. You know, of course, when you're experiencing, you know, the paranormal, it is a break in the

veil between the supernatural world and the natural world that we inhabit. So this, with its Thor's Gate and its Infinity Gate, are sort of designed modeled after this place in Scotland, but it's designed to sort of, you know, bring that thin veil here to where we're going to see that. Oh, man. We're excited. Very Celtic inspired. Yeah. Should be. So why don't we start from, let's tell people where we're going to be actually our final destination and what's all going into this.

and then we'll fill them in on, you know, the logistics of how the whole thing will operate. That sounds good. So, so this is a two-day trip. So, you know, we leave on the morning of the first day, we return on the evening of the second day. And we're headed up to a place called Burn Bray Mansion, which is in the Catskills in New York. And Burn Bray Mansion, it's a little over a century old. It was originally a mansion that, you know, people had as their home. They lived in.

And it has, you know, become a, you know, a hotel, basically. more of a bed and breakfast, I think, than a hotel. But lots of hauntings purported to be there. There are lots of stories that we could talk about, just as a, you know, sort of a little bit of a preview. There's been a lot of proportions of guests, hearing children's voices and balls bouncing, seeing doors open, apparitions of a woman in white, a man in the turn of the century clothing. Some men in overalls, an older couple died there and, you know, purported seeing them in the way. And, you know, from the outside, looking into the window, seeing them sitting there playing chess. And so lots of purported paranormal activity at this place.

And they're really set up for this. They, you know, they have contracted for us on our behalf, a professional paranormal investigation team that will come in and lead us, you know, everyone who goes on this trip will lead us, you know, sort of beginning at 8 o'clock at night into the evening to even sort of see if what we can find. Yeah. Should be, should be fascinating. This is, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this is, this, this is been actually featured on a number of, you know, sort of ghost hunter television shows, uh, where they have, in fact, found, uh, you know, floating orbs and apparitions and EVPs. And so it should be,

you know, you know, something that hopefully, you know, we will be able to experience ourselves while we're there. Yeah. It's really exciting. And, you know, one of the things that I find really cool is that, uh, so we're going to, we're going to, we're going to, place to stop for lunch. And while we're there, we're going to see if I can do maybe some interviews with people on staff to see their experiences of people on the trip will be able to, you know, kind of watch live me do what I do. And then once we leave there and we get to the mansion, we're the only ones there. Yes. We took out the entire mansion. So it, like, anybody that's on this trip, that's it. I mean, when you get there, it's just going to be TC people. And I think that's really cool too. We have exclusive run of the place, which is

awesome. It's not a huge place, but we have exclusive run of it. And yeah, you'll get to see Tony in action. And, you know, that's really exciting. And, you know, to participate and sort of have that experience, you know, I mean, ghosts are like the weather. You can't predict it, but it seems, you know, pretty paranormally. Yeah. And so we should be able to, yeah, we're stopping on the way up. We'll stop for lunch at a place called the Richmond Hotel in Bangor, Pennsylvania. And that is, that place actually dates back to the 18th century. bangers you know it's one of those old you know mining towns you know that are kind of fallen on hard times for a while but you know mining towns there's lots of stories lots of intrigue lots of

you know death and the the hotel there the richmond hotel is no no different than that so there's definitely you know hauntings that have occurred there and the woman that owns it i think she's worked there for 26 years and owned it for about half that time roughly and she's you know reported seeing you know, strange, unexplained occurrences. So, so we definitely stop on the way up and, you know, we'll find some people, at least the owner, perhaps, who have had these experiences, Tony, you'll talk to her and you'll get to see that. It's going to be a blast. It's going to be so much fun. So we're going to go to a haunted location on the way up and we're going to have fun there. And then we're going to get to the haunted location that we're trying to get to. We're

going to have complete run of the place. Then the next day, we're going to sit down and we're going to do some, you know, open conversation with people. If somebody had an experience at the mansion, we'll give them a microphone and we'll, you know, interview them and stuff. And the rest of people on the trip will be able to sit there and watch and you'll hear them in the background stuff. We're going to make this an entire episode, by the way. So once I get all the recordings, I'm going to produce and I'm going to make an entire episode so people can hear the experience from that trip. And so we'll do that. Maybe I don't know when, maybe the next morning or something. And then on the way back, we'll hit another place that is, you know, said to be haunted, right?

Yeah, yeah, we have actually two places. So we'll see that sort of megalith park on the way up as well. And on the way back, we'll actually hit two places. You know, we of course stop for lunch on the way up and the way back. So the Richmond Hotel is our sort of lunch stop, haunted lunch stop on the way up. And then on the way back, we will stop at two places. First we'll stop at the Pocono Indian Museum in the Poconos, of course. There you go.

The place is right in the name. And there we'll learn a little bit about the legend of the Meesing, which is a native of Delaware Indian tribes sort of, you know, spirit, which guards the forest. But a lot of people have associated it with the sort of Native American version of Bigfoot. Yeah. So we'll get to hear about that. And then, of course, the Pocono Indian Museum itself is a very old building. It's been a boarding house, a safe house for slaves on the Underground Railroad. It was a speakeasy during Prohibition.

And once, I'm an overnight lodging for a couple of famous gangsters, if you're familiar with old gangsters. Love it. Dutch Schultz and Legs Diamond. Yeah? I love those names. I'm going to look them up and I'm going to love them too. Sounds good.

So there's definitely some paranormal stuff hanging there. Well, you know, I don't, Dutch, I don't know where he got his name, but you know, it's like Pennsylvania Dutch world in Pennsylvania. So probably that. Where the Ws are Vs. Yeah, exactly. Vance nah. Yeah.

We're going to see and learn all about this. There's also been, you know, paranormal investigators, all of these places that we're going to. There's been, you know, sort of formal official, you know, professional paranormal investigators that have confirmed some of these stories that we'll get to hear. And then launch on the way back is at a place called Stemies 1818 in eastern Pennsylvania. Okay. Also, you know, the purported location of four different spirits. And so we'll have a look there. And hopefully we'll get to interview some people that have had those experiences as well.

So it'll be a nice couple of days Friday and Saturday that will be, you know, steeped in the paranormal of all sorts. Yeah. Yeah. And what did we decide that we're going to call the Torjan? Unexplained occurrences. That's right. Unexplained occurrences. I think that's a cool name for it.

And the fact that we're going all over the place and visiting multiple locations, with a main destination in place where we took out the entire building. We're bringing in a professional paranormal investigation team to do their thing overnight. And then the next morning we're just, and like the cool thing is, like, I get to connect with people who listen to the show and hang out and stuff. Right. And this is a very exclusive thing. Now, you know, if we do this in the future, we're really testing the waters here to see if people like it. But, you know, if we do it in the future, maybe we'll do bigger groups and stuff, depending on where we're going and things like that.

Sure. But right now, this is the test run. Yes. Now, you guys are, this is what you do full time. This is your company. You've traveled. Excuse me. You've traveled the world doing these trips.

You used to be a professor and now you do this full time. And so this is not something that we're just slapping together and we're like, oh, well, I think this would be cool. Like, you've done a lot of research. You know what you're doing. You've been doing this for a long time. This isn't your first rodeo like it is mine. Yeah.

So I just want people understand that this is a very professionally done tour. You're going to hear Creed probably talk about some things sometimes. I'll be talking about things sometimes on the way up and on the way back. It's just going to be a real cool chill session constantly visiting haunted locations multiple times over a 24 hour period. You know, it's it's really cool. But I say all that to say that it is exclusive. We're only offering 12 tickets to this. Correct. So only 12 people can go on this trip. And I'm assuming it's going to be a a first come, first served kind of basis. Exactly right.

Yeah. So let's talk about that real quick. The trip's going to be between June 25th and the 26th. Where can people go to get the information on the trip, like the PDF and, you know, the costs and who to call and all that kind of information? So I think for that information, just contact the educated wanderer directly. And you can just call us, you know, Jen and I own the company. We run the company.

We run all the tours. We organize everything. So you'll always get us on the phone. if you call, our telephone number is 973, 513-9001, or you can email us at Traveller at Educatedwanderer.com. And we'll be happy to send you the information. You can contact us for payment. You can look at our website too, which is educatedwanderer.com to see what else we're up to,

of course, but also, you know, sort of the write-up for this trip with all those details. We'll be on the website as well. So any of those ways, but first come, first serve. definitely call us to make sure there's space left. That's what we're hoping. Yeah. And, uh, and, you know, any questions that you have, um, in terms of, uh, the logistics of the trip, you know, part of what we're waiting to see is who's signing up and where they're coming from. Uh, if you're coming from, you know, further away than eastern Pennsylvania, uh, certainly we can help you. We can even make all

the arrangements for you for travel into our area. If you're coming the night before, we can, you know, find a nice place for you to stay, of course. And, and we'll work out the logistics of the pickup once we understand where everyone is coming from. Because as Tony had mentioned, this is a test case for us. We're trying this out for the first time. You know, normally we have a pretty good understanding of where people are and where we pick them up. But since this is new, we're not, we're not too sure about that. So, but as Tony said, you know, I've been, I've been writing and running trips for 16 years. So this is, you know, something that I do all the time. I've had my own company. I've had educated Warner for six years. And Jen's been with me for

almost four. So we have pretty good experience. You know, we do a lot of trips every year. If you look at our website, you'll see, you know, sort of the kinds of trips that we do. But this is really exciting. Like, we love supernatural stuff. It's really fun. We, on our own, you know, whenever we can, we go and visit haunted, you know, places. From what I understand, that's Jen's real gig. Jen in particular loves it. She's all about that life. We were down in Savannah a couple of years ago, just, you know, traveling on our own. And we, you know, Savannah is basically a city. And, built on corpses from, you know, Indian Wars, Revolution, the Civil War, you know, if you dig up a sidewalk, you basically find, you know, skeletons. And we were in, you know, these old slave quarters

in the back. And it was, you know, where a woman had hung herself in a, you know, sort of lover's triangle. And she, you know, her spirit lingered there. And, you know, Jen was like, I can't stay in this room. It was really, it was really creepy. I'm a little, you know, sort of spiritually deaf. So it didn't really affect me quite as much. man. Like, people are like, there's something happening. Like, really? Yeah.

I don't know. John's like, I can't say here. I'm like, hmm, I could take a nap on this bad, I think. I'm just checking the ESPN, you know, six or score. And everybody's like freaking out. I'm like, what? So I want to tell people that with this exclusivity of it, you, I'm also going to make a page on the website for this trip.

That page will have a PDF of the write-up of the trip. And it'll also have the links as well to Creed's website, EducatorWanderer.com. And even the phone number and email. mill will be there as well. But you can, so you can check it out on my website. You can check it on Creed's website, but you have to call to get your ticket and purchase everything. And I want to tell people, we're doing it. It's going to be $9.95. It's very exclusive. But the thing is, once you arrive and you get on that bus, because one of the things we didn't mention is that we're hiring a driver as well. That I'm like everybody knows Tony the truck driver. Tony the truck driver is not driving

your butts around. Okay. I'm going to be hanging out with you. We're hiring. We're hiring a driver for this trip. And so once you get on that bus, so everything's paid for it. Right. All your lunches, all your breakfast, all your dinners, at all the stops, everything's covered. Yeah. It's exclusive and inclusive. Everything is included in the $9.95 price. You know, access to Tony, you know, access to Jen and I for whatever that's worth. And, you know, but of course, you know, I think being able to talk to Tony is so cool. And, you know, I take it for granted because he's my brother. So I see him all the time, you know. He knew me before other people did.

Yeah, right, exactly. So, you know, but I think that's, that's pretty awesome. But, yeah, we've arranged it so that there's no need to spend a dime, you know, once you, once you meet up with us and get on that bus. Everything else is included in the cost of the truck. So if you want souvenirs or something like that, that's on you. But, you want beer, you know. Yeah. But, like, I mean, you know, lodging, all your food, all that kind of stuff is taking care of from the time you get on that bus to the time you get off and get back in your car or, you know, get shuffled to the flight if you're flying in or whatever. Yeah.

The admissions cost of the Pocono Museum is covered. You know, the professional paranormal investigators we've hired is, you know, that's also included in the price. So, yeah, I mean, you know, once you show up on the bus, you have nothing else to reach into your pockets for. Yeah. So I just think it's a really cool thing. And I hope people are excited about it. I hope that it goes well so I can do this more in the future. Because people, like, honestly, if this doesn't go, well, we're probably not going to do it again.

Right. You know, it's just the way it works, you know? Yeah. But, you know, so I'm really hoping that people think this is a cool opportunity. And like I said in beginning, I just don't, I, I've never heard any other podcasters doing this. I mean, I'm sure there's somebody out there, but you know, usually podcasters, they come together and they do a show together. So, you know, people, you're trying to sell out, you know, two, 300 tickets and stuff. And people come in, they listen to you for an hour and

then they stand in a line to meet you and then everybody goes home. And that's it. This is kind of taking that structure and flipping it on its head. And it's like, you're going to get a lot of time with me. And it's going to be exclusive where you're not sharing that time with 300 people. You're sharing it with 12 people. And so we're just taking it. that pyramid model and flipping it on its head, you know what I mean? And I think it's pretty cool. And there are, you can find, you know, sort of other tour companies that do haunted trips, you know, day trip here and there. But, you know, in our experience, typically it's with 50 people. And, you know, it's, you know, someone who's, you know, a tour guide, they've got a script and they,

you know, they read from it and they give you a little, you know, sort of, you know, two minute talk at the places. And then it's, it's on your own to experience. So, you know, Jen and I are always fans of doing smaller trips when we can manage to do them. And 12 people is a great number for a trip. It's actually, you know, between 12 and 15, in our opinion, is the ideal number for, for any trip anywhere at any time. And, you know, we do larger trips, of course, but, but that's a great number. You know, you get to really sort of interact with the people that you want to interact with,

you know, Tony, for example. Yeah. And, and, you know, it's a manageable number. And we get, you know, as Tony said, we get the whole mansion. You know, it does, you know, there are more people that it can take, but we've booked it out for the, for you guys, for the whole trip. Yeah. And so I just think it's really cool because, like, on this trip, I mean, this is something that maybe you don't have much of experience with where it's like this trip, everybody that goes on it is going to have one thing in common. They heard about it here so that they're all fans of the show. That's right.

And so it's just going to be really cool. And it gives me an opportunity to meet people more on a personal basis and not feel like rush because, you know, when I did a show in Houston, I felt like. the whole time people were waiting in line and I'm just like spend like a minute or two talking to them and then I got to go to the next person, you know? Right. And I'm a chatty guy. Like I talk, you know? Like I told you when I told you that we were going to start this recording, I said, let's shoot for about 10 minutes. We're running on 20 now. So I'm going to wrap this up. But yeah, so I'm really excited about the opportunity. Hopefully people are as well. And if it goes well, we'll do it in the future. And if it doesn't go well, well, then we have our answer. Yeah, we've tried it. Yeah, educated wanderer.com. Ask for Creed or Jen, and they'll take care of you. Now, let's get to this week's show, guys.

All right, today we got Caden on the show. Caden, how you doing, man? Hey, I'm doing well. Thanks for asking, man. How you doing? I'm doing good, man. I'm starting to lose my voice a little bit. I just took a lot of water before we started this, so hopefully it can last a little bit. I don't know what's going on, but the last few minutes, I started feeling like my voice was going. So hopefully people don't mind too much if my voice gets raspy here. but Caden, man, listen, it's really cool that you're living so close to me. We just got done talking. And you grew up, or you're living in a town that I grew up in and stuff. And I'm actually going to start going back to church up in that town.

So I don't know if you want me mentioning it or not or if you might mention it later. But anyways, man, listen, you have paranormal experiences in your life, anything from hauntings, sleep paralysis to what you described as odd encounters with demonic entities in your house. And when I read that, I was thinking to myself, odd demonic encounters. Odd encounters with demons. I was thinking myself, well, I feel like every encounter with a demon would be odd. Like, it's a little not normal, you know? So I don't know where you want to start, man, but just talk to us through this and let us know how this all started out for you, man.

Sure. I, you know, going back to that comment, I think it's kind of funny you mentioned. I didn't realize I put that in the email. But I think once you experience a level of paranormal activity, like there's some sort of. stuff that doesn't seem to phase you as much. And there really is like a tier system for weird. So that's funny. Yeah, so I'll go back to, I guess, the beginning here.

I'll start off maybe my earlier exposures and just like maybe the build up to just some recent stuff that's going on in life. I think growing up, it was kind of strange in my house because I always had this curiosity for things that are weird. If if something weird happened and I couldn't explain what it was or why it happened, I think it would bug me. And I don't know. I just, I was the outlier. Like my family, they would see something weird and they would just kind of move on and I would just kind of stay there and like really ponder and try to figure it out.

And I don't know if I had this conspiracy mind since always, but I just, it's, it's crazy stuff. And I remember my grandmother, I would go to her husband. I would go to her house probably for the holidays Easter, Christmas, Thanksgiving. And she used to tell me that there was this

ghost dog, kind of as a joke, I took it. And she would tell me that he's always watching and that we have to go find him. And it was kind of fun. Like I assume there wasn't like a dog, actually. But I remember there was this one Christmas. And this is a story, some of these stories,

they're there are ones that my family has told me and so I haven't experienced them and so I can't really give you too much detail other than what I was told but they're at this Christmas party and the way my grandmother has is set up we have all of our cousins pictures kind of on this window sill and my mom and my aunt are looking at them and you know they're cracking some jokes we had some weird smiles going on but there is this moment apparently where one of the picture frames, which was leaning back on that, like, you know, that little kick leg stand thing. I guess it leans forward and it starts like hovering in the opposite angle. And then all of a sudden it kind of fixes itself.

And the picture was actually my picture. And so my mom told me this many years later and I thought like, oh, that's kind of strange, you know. And I remember going into my grandmother's house and I would have these weird feelings. I wasn't creeped out per se. I definitely felt like I was being watched. And I don't know if that makes sense. There's kind of this, this eerie feeling. You know, it's not threatening, but you just feel like you're not alone.

And so I remember it might have been middle school. and I was, or one time I sat down on the grandmother and I just kind of like, just got a little blunt with her, you know, hey, what's the deal with this dang dog? I haven't seen it yet. But is there like a backstory I should know of? You know, it's just something that like a joke that you did with my dad growing up. And she admitted that like the dog thing was kind of a joke, but they would have this, she said it was like this woman that they would see outside of like a sliding door somewhere in the backyard and she would just. kind of stand there, like in the dark, and they would catch little glimpses of her. I was like, oh, that's whatever, that's kind of strange. Like, I don't have ghost stories. And if you haven't experienced paranormal stuff yet, that's kind of the reaction you would just have, like, oh, that's cool. And then move on.

And yet, I found myself, like, really curious with all of this ghost stuff. You know, I was into watching, like, ghost ventures and all these paranormal shows on sci-fi network growing up. And the personalities in my family are so different. Like my dad, he never talked about anything spiritual. In fact, I didn't even know if he was a Christian or like what he was. I think I was 20 years old before I actually asked him what he was, you know. There was no mention of it.

And if things were getting a little weird, he would always take like the rational route to explain it, you know. my brother is a little different in that he doesn't acknowledge too much the weird things that might happen. And when they do happen, he sees it and then he acknowledges it. But then he moves on really quick. My mom, on the other hand, was different. She was probably the first, I would say she was the first Christian I had growing up. And so her mind was always jumping to spiritual warfare and everything had like this supernatural explanation for it. and like for me

I don't know at the time if I really believed half of that stuff but I just remember feeling like this weird curiosity about it and I didn't have any activity or anything weird up until I probably would have been in no it was my first year in community college so I would have been at that time

slightly older than 19 and to kind of give the background before I go into this story, my brother had just gone off to a football camp, and he returned. And so this is the very first night that he's back from this football camp. So he has, like, all of his clothes kind of spread out, and his suitcases are still kind of, like, half-packed and off to the side. And so I don't know what I was doing.

I just remember I was up. over the summer I was up it was probably like two or three in the morning and all the floors in our house are hardwood and so if you breathe wrong

they're going to start making noises and creaking and stuff and so I'm in my bed one night and I hear these heavy footsteps coming up my staircase and I remember thinking to myself hey

my brother his name is Cameron I say like he should really calm the heck down because I know how this works, right? He's going to be stomping up the stairs and then my dad's going to come in here and he's going to ask me what's going on. So I got kind of annoyed. He stomped all over the stairs and then he walks up to my room, up to my door. And then it felt as though he was like listening to see what I was doing.

And I remember thinking like, oh, that's kind of weird because I expected him to come through the door. and then all of a sudden his door on the opposite end of the hallway flies open and he comes running out of it and for you know half a second i thought like well that's weird because how could he have come out of his room if he was standing in the hallway so he comes into my room and he said hey man did you hear that and i said yeah i thought i thought that was you coming up the stairs um i thought you were standing outside my room listening to me. And he said to me, no, I'm not, I'm not talking about that.

I had, I started hearing scratching and growling on my carpet right near my bed. You know, and we don't have, we didn't have cats or anything at that point, you know. So, so he runs over and we, we had this weird, like, blood pack thing going on where we decided that, you know what? We know we're too old to be terrified, but we are. So we're going to collect all of our pillows, everything. We're going to get it all together. We're going to go sleep and the living room with all the lights on. We're going to bring all the dogs in.

So we get all my stuff. We go over at his room and I'm waiting for him to get his stuff. And all of a sudden, all the zippers on his suitcase started rattling. And I've never been, up until this point, I've had no paranormal activity. I've never experienced anything like it. And it was so in the moment terrifying because I couldn't explain what. going on, but I'm seeing things that I have no reference point for. I was just so creeped out.

We went down to the living room, and I remember just like, I didn't sleep the whole night. I don't know if you've ever seen the movie paranormal activity. The movie kind of starts off really calm, right? They have like one or two things weird that happen. And then like towards about the midway to the film, it kind of like exponentially just explodes and they have like these crazy activity all that. time. And so that was kind of like our start to our activity, just at one event. And a few nights later, I was asleep. And it was the first time I ever experienced what I thought was sleep

paralysis. So I'm in my bed. And I remember it was a weird lead-in. It was like a weird dream I was having in the dream I was in this really like pitch black room and then all of a sudden there was a light that popped in and it was showing over like a small table with a tape recorder and I remember I walked up and I pressed play on the tape recorder and there was this voice that came out of it and it was like I don't know how to explain it other than it was like this really sinister voice and it was like fluent gibberish. And as it started talking, I remember I woke up hearing screams in my bedroom.

It was as if I had two different people, one in each ear, just screaming as loud as they could. And I woke up and I remember I initially I could move a little bit. Right. And I looked towards the end of my bed and then I froze. and I couldn't move, but I still heard this screaming. And it was like all the muscles in my body started to tighten. I actually curled into this ball, which is weird, because I feel like I didn't do it. Like, I didn't voluntarily do that.

My body just did it. And the screams continued. And then, man, a couple of seconds later, I realized that I couldn't move. The scream stopped, but the bed behind me, it sank in, right? As if someone, it didn't feel as though someone sat on the end of the bed right behind me. It felt as though someone had, was standing on it,

as if they like jumped onto it and then just stood there over me. And I remember just, I felt like, you know, this is, this is what it feels like to be seconds away from being murdered. This is crazy. I don't want to ever feel this way again. and I remember like just the different personalities I I would say I was close from my mom and how she reacted to things and so and so while I feel as though I'm paralyzed and there's someone standing on this bed over me after I hear all this screaming I just started to just say you know Jesus repeatedly and it was like seconds later the you know the impression on the bed just vanished and I could I reggae you gained all of the control in my body. And you know what?

This is the sucky part about experiencing things like this. You know, I'm almost 20 years old when this happens. And the first thing I do, once I get control of my body, I win sprint into my parents' bedroom and I wake my dad up out of a cold sleep. And I was like, dad, I don't know how to tell you this any other way. I just think I got attacked by the devil. And he was really confused. He was like, what are you talking about?

You know, my mom was really concerned, but my dad, I think he was kind of like, you know, a little annoyed thinking maybe I just had like a bad dream and I'm a 20 year old bliss cake. He's probably thinking, how did I raise this boy? Yeah, he would, yeah, I remember just feeling so crazy. I think after that because he had joked around a little bit, you know, about, you know, the devil attacks. Caden in his sleep, you know, I don't really know what was going on. I just know I woke up and I heard screaming and couldn't move and there was what I felt like someone's standing on my bed. And, you know, my brother, he kind of, he joined into, you know, just making fun of me a little bit.

But I had never heard of sleep paralysis before. Before I woke up the next morning, my mom, she was already on Google, like trying to figure out what the heck is going on. And so she was like, oh, there's like a scientific explanation for this, you know, people experience this all around the world. And, you know, I would say about three or four weeks later, my, I wake up one night and I just kind of roll over. And it's one of those weird moments where you just happen to like see something at the perfect time.

I roll over and my brother is standing there in the dark and he's looking at me and he's crying silently. And I was kind of freaked out. I was like, whoa, hey man, you do. doing okay? Like, what's, what's up with you, you know? Um, and he was kind of speechless, but he was like really shaking. And so I kind of asked him like, oh, did you have like sleep paralysis? And he kind of nodded. Uh, now my brother at the time, I am 19, so he would have been probably 16. Um, you know, we're, both of us are a little too old to, to think we're just having like weird

mystical experiences. Like at this point, you're mature enough to know that something weird is going on. So I you know, part of me felt like really good like, ha ha, I'm not alone, you know, so I told him like, you can sleep on the floor. It's okay. I know you made fun of me and now you had your own experience, but welcome to the club. So it took him probably two days to get over it before he was back to sleeping like a baby. But I remember he told me he woke up and his, the way the room was situated, he was laying on his right side. And he was. And, When he opens his eyes, his bedroom closet door has a full-length mirror on it. So he looks directly in the mirror. And behind him in the mirror is a, what he described as a black figure. He said it was darker than the actual darkness in his room. And so he started praying, I think, out of desperation, the name of Jesus. Just the first thing that kind of happened into his mind was just sort of saying the name of Jesus.

and he says that his vision goes red as if he just passes out and then he wakes up a couple minutes later. That's, you know, when he comes into my room. I just remember feeling with the weird connections in our story. Like, I also felt that sensation as if I had, you know, seen something or experienced it. And then afterwards, I'd gone unconscious for like, you know, a little bit of time. And I saw this, you know, this red that kind of washed over. before it happened. So now, you know, we're both telling our parents, like, you know,

Cameron's had sleep paralysis. Here's, you know, his story. And it's kind of eerie because it lines up with mine. And so, yeah, he gets over it real quick. He's back to just sleeping like a baby doing his own thing. And I'm freaked out thinking, you know, what are the odds I wake up again? And I'm having what I believe to be this insane experience with some invisible force. um so in the next couple weeks i was having and it felt like i was the only one who was now

having experiences after this point i uh i would i was at about every two or three nights i would have these dreams where i would in the dream i would walk over to my brother's room and it felt like there was this weird sinister thickness in the air and um i would would always wonder into the room and be really confused, like, what's going on in the dream. And then I would see this person in my dream. It was the same person every single time. And I remember this person had like a really, I just, I don't know how to explain it. The face was distorted as if it seemed like the mouth was extra, extra wide. The person of these really strange looking eyes and it, every dream.

ended the same where this person would be spewing out blasphemies. And I would be trying to invoke the name of Jesus, but having a tough time saying it. And then I would wake up like in this panic, you know? And it happened every couple of nights for a couple of weeks, maybe even months. And then I remember, and this is one of those stories. I don't even know. I kind of wrestled was bringing this one.

up because I can't really explain it. But the only reason I even mention it is because I've heard of people who have had similar experiences actually on this podcast. One night I woke up and it felt as though I was, I was continuing a conversation that I wasn't previously having, if that makes sense. So I wake up and I'm really mad for some reason and I get out of my bed and I'm walking around in my room and I'm saying, why is he here? Like he's sure. shouldn't be here. This is my house. He needs to leave. And I really mean it, right? But I don't know what I'm talking about. And I lean out of my bedroom door and I look down the hallway into my parents' room. And we used to have a golden retriever at this moment, at this moment of time.

And he always laid kind of near the door. So I look into, I peer into the hallway down to my parents' door. When I see my dog, he's just kind of laying there. But standing over my dog is a, it looks like a very black and large German shepherd, which we don't have one. So I remember the dog itself was what my brother would describe. The other person, it was, it seemed like it was darker than the actual darkness in my parents' room. And, you know, I didn't see the I have a tough time remembering if the eyes were like a shade of red or there was something about the eyes that were really strange. And the dog wasn't snarling at me, but he bore his teeth and I could see them. And I don't know if I'm having like this weird like sleepwalk experience, but I'm looking at him and I lean back into my room.

And I'm extra mad. And I'm saying he shouldn't be here. This is my house. Why is here? needs to leave. And I started, I started like kicking clothing and throwing bundles of socks and like stuff you could just, you know, really whip and it wouldn't make a sound. So I'm essentially just destroying my room out of anger. And then I go to, I, it's weird. I get back in my bed and go to sleep like almost immediately. And I wake up the next morning and I thought like, dang, that was a

strange dream. And then I look and my room is actually destroyed. You know, like everything I did in dream I actually would have done to my room. I thought, wow, that's strange. Like, I don't know what's up with that. You know, I don't hear things about black dogs and weird activities. So I remember I watched a documentary not too long after that. It was on sleep paralysis, and it's comparing all these different stories that people have. and, you know, before the documentary, I kind of just blew it off as like, this is just a natural occurrence, and people have this experience.

So the people in the documentary, they're explaining that they would see this dog from time to time. It was either a dog or this guy who would apparently wear the hat. I've never seen the hat man, but apparently that's another common visual people get. with sleep paralysis and things like that. So I saw the black dog and in the documentary they're explaining this dog. And I'm like, dang, that's the exact description of the one I'm seeing. And this person towards the end of the documentary, she's explaining that, you know, all she had to do was start praying and she never had sleep paralysis ever again.

All of her activities stopped. And I thought, dang, like, maybe I ought to try that, you know. And then me being just a dumb guy, like I said, oh, that'll be cool. I'll try that next time. And then just never get it, right? So I kept having all these crazy dreams and these run-ins where I'm waking up at two or three in the morning. And I think I'm seeing this German shepherd around the house that's that I can't explain. And, you know, kind of towards the end.

end, we had like this quick exponential explosion of activity. And so I would be, I don't know how to explain this. So we had central air in my house. And we stored kind of all the family junk up in the attic. And so I had a box of like these child's hand toys where it was kind of like whack-a-mole or something and you'd play them for, you know, a couple minutes. And then within seconds of putting it down, the game would stop playing. And somehow I had this whack-a-mole hand-held game that somehow left the box and it got into the ventilation and traveled a little bit down towards my end of the ventilation and it was just running all night.

And the game was kind of creepy itself because the little moles that would pop up or whatever, they were taunting you, right? you know like ha ha you can't catch me you can't get me and so I'd be hearing this just playing out you know all night and I mean flip the heck out like what the heck is going on so one night my brother and I decide that we're just going to get out of the house

and we're going to go and have like a game night at my my ex-girlfriend's house at the time and so So we're driving home. I was going to quick pick up this game, apples to apples. And so I walk to the front door. And no one's home. My parents, I forget where they were.

There's only me and my brother and my parents. And so they're gone. Me and my brother in the car. And I alone go into the house to get the game. And I go upstairs into my room and I pick up the game. And I start coming down the staircase. and I It's one of those moments where you perceive real quick that something crazy is happening and you just kind of act

I'm coming down the staircase and I I can hear what sounds like someone who is now sprinting out of my parents closet and coming right at me in the dark So I I just did some Olympic stuff and I just jumped from a little above halfway up the stairs They just jumped all the way down the stairs. I crash and burn and I, you know, the cards explode everywhere. There's a billion cards in these boxes. They're all over.

And I'm at the bottom of stairs and I roll over quick, right, expecting to see someone following me. And no one's there. So I packed that box up real quick and I sprint on out to the car. And my brother's like, what's up with the card box? It's all destroyed. I'm like, dude, I'm telling you someone, it sounded as someone was sprinting right at me out of just the dark closet in my parents' room on the hardwood floors. I told him I dropped this box and I just picked it up and I bounced. I wasn't worried about putting it together.

So a couple of, let's say about 30 minutes later, you know, we're picking up someone else after this. We're driving by my house and no one's home and yet now all of the lights. are on in my house. And I've never felt, I think that was the moment that I just felt so defeated because when you experience something that's super paranormal,

something even, even just a slight paranormal, there's like this helplessness that comes with it. Like, I don't know why this is happening. I don't know what's going on. I'm tired of feeling terrified, like, in my house.

And I'm tired of having all these things happening and I can't tell people because I feel like they would just think I'm absolutely nuts. Because, you know, no one else is experiencing this. This is just a Kaden thing. So the final straw, one day me and my mom and my girlfriend at the time were upstairs. I forget what we're doing, but there was a shadow that had shifted across. It wasn't as if it traveled along the wall. I mean, there was a black mass that shifted across empty space. And I have never seen anything like that in my life.

And at first, I didn't say anything. I just was going to ignore it just so I wouldn't freak everyone else out. But my then-girlfriend, she was looking at me really strange. And I said, like, did you see that? And she was like, dang, I didn't know what to say. I didn't want to say it first, you know. And my mom was there. And she's the, at the time, she was the really Christian one.

And so she said, yeah, I saw that too. I think we should pray. And I was like, oh, yeah, we should do that. I remember from like weeks ago that that was the one thing I had to do that I literally could have done at any moment. And I just didn't. So she prayed specifically that God and Jesus would set our house free from what was happening. And to this day, we have not had one weird thing going on in that house.

And I just remember being blown away. Immediately after we said that prayer, it felt as though, like, I could go to bed in peace. and I think it was I think that event really jogged my my spiritual brain a little bit because I was thinking like wait I'm putting things together right so I had my sleep paralysis

I invoked the name of Jesus my event stops and I haven't had paralysis since my brother has the same event he invokes the name of Jesus his event stops and he hasn't had it yet or since we just watched black mass shift across open space. My mom prays. And there's, there's something different about the

house, you know, and I remember that that piece that came with just having a house back. And I, I started to think, well, dang, like, maybe there is, maybe there's something going on here with this whole Christian thing, right? Because before I think I was Christian, just because I associated myself with, like, a Christian family. Like, we were moral. We didn't do bad thing. My mom was a Christian. Like I understood that Jesus was important to some degree. And so I went away to Kutztown University in Pennsylvania where I got involved with an on-campus ministry. And I remember I started learning a lot about Christianity and the core doctrines of what it taught. And, you know, I look back on those weird events and I could see this really crazy like spiritual activity

taking place. And at the time, I was just too blind to see it. And it really, really just like, for me, it was a proof that there was something about Christianity that, I don't know, there was this validity there that I just wasn't seeing with any else. So I got out of college and I went into college missions with Campus Crusade for Christ. And I still do that. I still am at Kurtzown. I still do work with crew and the students. but I remember as I got involved with crew, I started to see a little weird paranormal things happening again.

You know, surprise, surprise. You start advancing a little bit in your faith and now you have the goal to share it with people. And all of a sudden you have this flare up of, you know, what people would probably classify as little haunting things. So I remember at the time I was only dated. my girlfriend, who is now my wife. We were living in different houses. And I was living with this guy. We were friends.

And I just remember for weeks, like there was this weird depression that just kind of swept over the house. And we were, I remember we just felt like we weren't going anywhere in life and we were just wasting our time. And we were starting to fight a lot. And one night,

one night I just sat him down. I was like, hey, man, You feel like something weird's going on in the house? You know, like, I just, I feel like there's this, this heaviness here. And I haven't really thought to acknowledge it yet, but what do you think? And he agreed, you know, something was, and then he started telling me that he was seeing shadow people in the house. And I was like, dang, like, that's something you tell me weeks ago when you experience it, you know. But I can't blame him because, you know, he probably has what I was feeling.

you know, years before where I couldn't tell someone because I didn't want to be the weirdo. He's telling me that, you know, he would be in the shower or something and he would see the shadows. They would run across the curtain as if someone was in the bathroom on the other side of the curtain. Oh, that's the worst. Oh, dude, that's like my worst fear, you know? If you're going to kill me, that's the best moment to do it. And if you're a ghost, that's the worst moment to do your ghost stuff, you know? So he's telling me you seeing shadow people.

and I started praying. I decided we're going to pray, right? Because at this point, I believe in prayer. I'm down with the biblical response to the paranormal. So we start praying. And as I'm praying, I see. And this was even weirder than the first time I saw it. I saw a black mass.

And it shifted right down the center of the room, not along the walls. And this time, it walked in front of a light. And it actually, for a second, it drowned out the light and it cast a shadow on us. And I, man, I seen it and I still couldn't believe it. And I don't know if anyone of your listeners, I feel a few of you can probably like really identify with me in this. You know, we all get scared from time to time.

But sometimes you get hit with this wall of dread and it's like your brain just shuts down. You can't talk. You can't think. There's nothing other than you're just thinking about what just happened. So I'm praying and I hear, I get this reminder that we're told in the Bible, there's only one thing, one person we should ever fear, and it's God. So I finished my prayer and I didn't have any activity in that in the apartment as long as I was there. there. That night, I think he confessed he had some weird items and so he got rid of them. So, I mean, I left that apartment when I got married and, you know, I slept like a dang baby. I moved into an apartment with my wife. And I remember there were a couple of nights before I would go to

the large group and I would preach and I would have these weird things happen where like all of the drawers and my dresser would fly open, you know, or something to that effect. And the dresser one was kind of weird because there was no stops on the drawers. So if they go, they could just go until they fall out. But they all opened and they all stopped the exact same place. Coincidentally, as I'm about to go preach to the students about, you know, spiritual warfare and the fact that we do have, in Christianity, this idea of a spiritual enemy named Satan. and I was like, dang, this, like, the timing on all of these things is so incredibly weird, right?

And I remember thinking as I was getting deeper into preaching with crew and, you know, having these disciples that I was working with and teaching them how to read the Bible and, you know, things like that. I remember thinking, like, you know, it's weird how much activity that I seem to experience because no one else is experiencing. this kind of stuff, you know. And I've had staff members in various college ministries who I'm friends with. I've had other people who I went to school with who launched into ministry after college. And they're not experiencing anything supernatural, right? But we're teaching the same stuff. And it's not like I'm going home and I have like a secret idol under my bed that I'm worshipping or, you know what I mean? And so I remember thinking to myself after a few of these events like, you know, I don't know why this seems to be the pattern.

The farther I get into ministry, the closer I get to God, I get these crazier events. I remember thinking, like, I really hope this isn't the pattern going forward because, honestly, like, I'm not a very tough guy. So every time something weird happens, you know, people, sometimes, I heard people who have these experienced Christians and they act like they were just filled with this bravery and They were just like, they had to go slay this demon. I'm not like that. When something happens, it's weird.

I freeze up like a deer in headlights and I get freaked out. You know, I have anxiety. I get panic attacks sometimes. And it's a real struggle I have. I remember thinking like, man, this can't keep going on because like I'm going to, I'm going to need like a rest period at some point, you know? It's been like just off and on years and years of this stuff. And so, you know,

The following story I'm about to tell it was it caused a little bit of trauma, I think, with me and in hindsight, I should have gone to see a counselor about it. And I'll say this too. This is probably the worst-case scenario, the worst-case nightmare for anyone who gets into ministry, things that people make movies about.

And so if you have to, like, maybe skip through a little bit. I don't know. Just, I'm giving you the pre-the pre-warning because to me this freaks me out. Actually, you had a guest on a couple of weeks ago who was going through his experience with casting out a demon and, you know, some exorcism stuff. And I remember, like, even in that, like, I could feel that he was still dealing with that. And it felt so good to just know, because, you know, it's been about. two years since this event and, you know, I still have to take precautions. But anyways, I don't want to blow it up to be this huge crazy story. And some of you might not even think

it's that bad. So one night we had our students over for a Bible study. And the ministry is still kind of young. And so, you know, if we get five or seven people in a given night, like, that was a really good night. And this particular night, we probably had like 12 or 13 kids show up. And not only did they show up, like, we had a really great talk. You know, the subject was how to know if you were legitimately a born-again believer versus someone who just kind of claims it, but you're not really a Christian, you know? And it's a really heavy topic because we're dealing with people who might actually be in the study who are on both sides, people who are saved and people who just think they're kind of saved, you know? And it's good. We're having all the students are engaged in this talk. It's deep. And it's not like we're sitting around just waiting for someone to say Jesus as the answer, you know. And we're sitting next to this girl. She's our worship leader. And we're bouncing some jokes back, you know, back and forth, little here and there. And nothing really weird is going on. And so we're closing out the Bible study. And one of our student leaders decides he's going to just pray us out. which is great. That's how we usually end it. So he starts praying, and this girl who's next to me, she starts, like, shaking. And so I knew she had, like, anxiety, and once in a while she might have, like, panic attacks.

Just for her identity, I'll just refer to her as Ashley. It's not a real name, but I'll just call her Ashley. So, yeah, she starts, like, twitching and some weird stuff. and I said like, you know, I came up to her and I said, hey, man, or hey, Ashley, like, you're doing okay? You having, like, anxiety, some panic attacks, need water or anything? So she goes, no, this isn't anxiety. Like, this is something totally different. And I said, oh, well, they're you okay?

And she said, no. But she was, like, maintaining eye contact with me. And I thought, oh, come on. Like, we had such a good night. I am not a tough person. Like, I cannot be doing this crazy stuff in my own house, right? So I welcome to my wife and I tell her, hey, there's some stuff that possibly could go down, like in the next couple of seconds or minutes.

We need to start funneling these students out. Because the last thing we need is students to see some high-level crazy paranormal demonic activity and thinking that our ministry is like a cult or something weird. and then spreading that out to other students. And we don't need our ministry going down to tubes for some like this. So we're following them out. There's two guys left in the corner. And I was getting frustrated because as I go up to tell them to take their conversation outside,

one of the other student leaders who was a girl, she walks up to Ashley and she notices something's going on. So she starts talking to her. I'm like, dang it, like we've got to get everyone out because it's about to go down. And I can see Ashley, she's just getting even more fidgety and weird. And so I approached the guys and I said, hey guys, could you take this outside?

And as I asked the question, Ashley's head jerks back and her eyes roll up and she immediately like combat rolls off my couch and she starts crawling on all floors. And this is the most guy response. Without talking to each other, without looking at each other, we immediately all sprung up and we just took a limb. We just kind of pinned it down. And this girl starts screaming and she's cussing us out.

She starts like saying all these blasphemies, you know. And I'm freaked out for a couple of reasons. One, if our neighbors hear us and they call the cops, I have no way to explain why the three of us dies are panning this girl to the ground. I actually have no explanation. I could tell them the truth, hey, we thought she was demon possessed, but that's not going to fly, right? So I'm praying that no cops show up. And also, the way that the small wrestling match turned out, my buddy Rich, he somehow got a hold of both of her legs and he was hanging on for dear life and she's trying to kick him. And my other buddy Judah, who is a student leader, he takes her left arm.

And his whole body is just holding this one arm down. And somehow I ended up like on top, like sitting kind of on her stomach and holding down her right arm. And so conveniently enough, I'm the one who gets to talk to her now for the next three hours. This event takes place over three hours. And I got that upfront wall of dread. It hit me like a Mack truck. And for the first couple of seconds, I was shaking. And I couldn't believe what was happening.

And I couldn't say words. I couldn't formulate sentences. and I just felt like I was, like, every hair on me was standing up. And I finally, like, I started to, you know, process and think a little bit. And I was like, okay, well, now I'm in a situation because I have to hope the cops and show up, but also, like, if there's demonic possession happening, like, there is a biblical response. How do I lead my students through this safely?

How do I keep the ministry under control? there's so many thoughts going around and so I'm thinking through scripture like what happens when Jesus or any of the apostles meet someone who is possessed so I finally well up enough courage

and testicular fortitude and I look at her and she's screaming and I'm trying to hear our haymakers and I said in the name of Jesus come out of her and she stops she stops riding around

she stops fighting us And her head kind of slowly turns to me and she says, no. And then starts fighting us again. And I legitimately thought, oh, pack your bags because that was the only plan I had. If that doesn't work, I don't know what's going to work. I thought for sure that would work. So there were moments where just trying to keep her contained because she started trying to bite her own fingers really hard. and if she got her hand free, she was trying to pull her hair out.

So about 45 minutes to an hour, we were just trying to get her to stop screaming. We were praying. We're playing worship music. We're trying to get her to stop harming herself. And then about the second hour, right, this hour to about two hours in, when you're having this really strange dialogue, me and this girl, eventually she stopped cussing us out and she started talking to us. And it was strange because I had known this girl for a couple of years beforehand. So calm, so nice.

Everything is happening so completely opposite. You know, I'm still in the moment I'm wrestling with like, is this multiple personalities? Is it just taking on the form of like this religious speak? Is this legitimately demonic? I don't know. So, so we're, we're, we're, we're, I'm talking with this thing and I, I said, who are you?

Am I talking to Ashley? Like, what is this? Um, and I, I won't repeat the name that it gave me, but I said, my name is, uh, insert name and then followed it up with, it gave you like a demonic name? Yeah, and it was a struggle because I said, what is your name? And it would not say it. And I said, in the name of Jesus, you will tell me your name.

And then she whispered something. It was so strange, I thought it was a sound effect, to be honest. So I said, in the name of Jesus, you will tell me your name so that I can hear it. And she said it a little bit louder. And then I repeated it back just to make sure if I heard that correctly. And as soon as I said the name, she started screaming and just trying to hit us and crazy stuff. So that's when she said, my name is, says the name, and then follows it up with, there are three of us in here that you have no power over us.

And I was like, dang, this is crazy because, like, I'm supposed to be about an hour ago for work starting on Monday. That's what you're thinking about. I was really panicking because this is two hours. I thought biblically this would take like five minutes. You just cast it out in the name of God and that was it. And it wasn't happening. I freaked out. We got students here.

I'm way late to bed. I don't know how this is going to finish. So I invoked Jesus again. I said, I command you and I said the name in the name of Jesus to come out of her. and the screaming just intensified as if as if we were starting to gain some ground and it was just in pain. I don't honestly know. So at one point she wrestles my hand off of her,

she wrestles both my hands off her one arm. And she reaches up without looking and just rips the radiator shield right out of the wall. And like honestly, I'm kind of like a dirt bag, right? So she rips the radio show out of the wall. And I thought to myself, dang, that's like got to be at least $50, right? Like I'm, it's comical, but it, I, it's such a weird night. You're human. You're human, you're not like you said before.

Uh, when you go into these situations and stuff, you don't go in there with like, uh, super Christian, like superhero Christian mentality, you know, like you're a human being. And even though, you know, you're going through something pretty heavy and crazy. if somebody's damaging your house, you're like, dang it, that's going to be expensive. Right. I'm having this thought, like, dang, that's money. I don't know how to explain that to the landlord. And so we started commanding her these three individuals' personalities inside of her to come out in the name of Jesus.

And she resisted us for about another hour. So from around the second hour up until the end, right around the third hour, it was really strange. So she started to appeal to us with biblical scripture. And I forgot that demons know the Bible, right? So she starts speaking to us with scripture. She starts trying to quote things to us. And now I'm in this weird acrobatics, just trying to intellectually find, like, where's the falsity in what she's saying? What's true?

It was such a landmine. And so at one point, I was starting to freak out because I remember thinking, like, well, where is the Holy Spirit? Right. The promise is if I'm in the Bible, if I'm legitimately saved and the Holy Spirit's in me. And I'm seeing all over the Bible that the Holy Spirit is like actively waging war on the demonic realm. And yet I'm two hours in and I'm not seeing a whole lot of Holy Spirit. So I start to doubt myself now. I'm thinking, man, am I saved?

How awkward is that? I'm leading the Bible study on how to know if you're saved and I might not even be saved. Right. And it was in this moment where I started to get these really calm and direct to the Bible study. a point and short thoughts, thoughts that I wouldn't normally think in a manner that I don't actually think to myself, if that makes sense. So the person who is screaming would say something like, hand me that really thick Bible over there, or give me that track baton with all the Bible verses on it, because that'll help. And I would have this thought and would just say,

no, don't. Okay, well, we didn't give her any objects to hold. We would just, kept worshipping. We would take moments where we command the spirits to come out. And so towards the end, we're about three hours in at this point. And we made some phone calls to the other staff members, and they drove about 45 minutes in from Quaker Town. They're with us, and they're praying with us. And it's great because now we have, like, there's evidence, right?

There's evidence that what I would have told the staff members happened is happening, because one of them is actually witnessing it with me. And it was really strange. Right around three hours, it was as if she went to sleep and then woke up, totally normal. She had no memory of the last three hours, nothing had happened. And I was kind of still like in this crazy, like, defensive mindset. And so, you know, I got her some water. And then I was just, I was like the Inquisition, man.

I was like, you know, hey, you ripped a radiator shield out of my wall. how did you know to do that? You said you were, this is your name. This is, you told me this is how it found you. This is how it entered you. You know, I'm giving you all these details and she just had no idea what I was talking about. So the next night she comes over with a notepad and she wants us to recount the event to her because she doesn't remember it. And she wants to take it to her church so they can pray over her.

And as we're recounting the things back to her, she starts to go into this weird, like, trance where it's like she's staring. but she's not thinking. There's no movement. There's no blinking. I always get freaked out. Like, you know, if this happens again, now we're down manpower. It's just me and my wife, which means she gets to run out of the house while I have to fight Satan alone because that's how husbandry works. So, you know, we just kind of took her home real quick. It took a couple of weeks and months of just dialoguing her after this event.

And we realized that awkwardly enough, she wasn't saved. She had heard some words. She just was good at repeating them. She really enjoyed the Christian music, and she was good at leading people through those songs. And so she was just kind of going through the emotion. She couldn't tell you what the gospel was. And if you're listening to this and you're not a Christian, it's important. The Bible makes, and I guess it's just, it's just,

depends, right? Some people don't seem to think so. I fall into this camp. The Bible makes this argument that if you're legitimately born again and the Holy Spirit is living in you, it does not share residency with any other spirit. So you can't be possessed if you're born again. So she ended up, my wife had talked to her over the last couple months and I guess she had started learning the gospel. She started denouncing some of the new age practices. And I hate to say new age, because I don't know if I have any time to explain it.

I think we're kind of, it seems like we're kind of getting up there, but she had denounced a lot of these new age practices, and she hasn't had anything since. And I think looking back on it, I was really mad at the, after that event thinking, you know,

I feel like I'm just doubting if I'm really saved. I don't know why my prayers weren't working in that moment and just all this stuff. And I think in the last half of that, I was just seeing that, you know, how merciful of it of God to have brought something of that magnitude out, right?

Because it didn't seem like that spirit wanted to be known that it was there. How merciful was it that God drew it out? And we all got out of there completely unscathed. The cops never showed up. Um, she ended up getting saved after that, you know, uh, she was liberated. You know, the ultimate payoff that she was liberated and her sins were forgiven. And so, you know, it's such a weird event. Um, and I, I can't, I still don't know half the stuff that goes on behind the scenes, but, um, that was about two years ago. Um, since then I haven't had any sort of paranormal

activity in my new house or my old apartment. That was kind of the climactic end to it so far. But dang, yeah, I was comforted when I heard that guy a couple of weeks ago sharing about that girl. He had done something similar with than just how, you know, he had this flare up of anxiety. And it was really helping me actually because I feel like since then I've had this anxiety where I would get like nocturnal panic attacks or I would have to watch, you know, how much coffee I was drinking because then I would get anxiety and anxiety would just, you know,

morph into panic attacks and all this crazy stuff. But yeah, that was it, man. That's my experience. Wow. Well, Caden, I'll tell you one thing before I say anything else, you really laid out some great details and you actually saved my voice on this interview. So thank you so much for that. Yeah, no problem. But I would like to say this before we wrap up here. You did do really good sharing the details of your experiences. And when somebody shares such detail, it leaves a lot less questions for me anyways. Now, with what you just said, though, about, you know, the praying and nothing happening as far as the demonic stuff goes, I kind of look at that in a very similar manner as, you know, any other prayer, you know, like if you're praying for healing, like I'm

somebody who believes that, you know, to this day, God does perform miracles and heals people. It doesn't mean it happens every time. And why? I don't know why. But I know that there's a pattern here that when you pray, sometimes it doesn't seem like you're getting the answer you're hoping for. Unfortunately, sometimes, you know, the situation might be seemingly more dire than other is like, you know, an act of possession situation. But it sounds like you handled it well. And it sounds like, man, that was a, that was a, is the wrong word great? It was a great story. Yeah, it's, it's, I guess, marvelous in the classical sense, but it definitely did share great. Absolutely. Thanks for sharing, man. I appreciate it.

No problem. Thanks for having me on. Well, that's sure, but I really hope you enjoyed it. If you did enjoy it, let me know by sharing the show. I don't care where or how you share the show. Just share the show if you enjoyed it, because that's the best thing you could do to help this show grow. And if you want to go on that trip, if it's something of interest to you, then go ahead and call Creed at Educated Wander. That phone number again is 973-513-901. That's 973-513-1-9-0-0-1. It's going to be a fun trip. Over 24 hours of haunted locations and just having a ball. And I know you're going to like it. So if you want to go on that trip, go ahead and give Creed a call. And until next week, friends, stay

safe, take care, and remember. The truth was such a free, but first he'll piss you off. Bye. Oh, and follow us on YouTube. Go ahead and subscribe on YouTube. I'm going to start uploading shows there. All right, bye. I'm just feeling like you.

I'm just drifting, probably right beside you. All the abyss. I'm going to fall. What did we miss? Now we'll laugh with the scars. We love the lows, but hate the highs.

side of the sun with all this glow is hard the highest bright we love the lows but hate the heart is the other side of the song the dark is hard to find is bright everybody want to preach a happy median i see their dopamine fix come from media now your spirit getting booked on expedia so search a light long alley media um i should have been talked sleep walk through life but be Woke is an inside They should have been cut They want to slutted in fear By trying to not son the ass file We love the lobes, but hate the highs Is the other side of the sun

With all this glow It's hard to hide It is bright We love the lows But hate the hide Is the other side of the sun With all this dark It's hard

To find it's bright Masking from elites God is attaching what is frown what is free. Now we're rationing our needs for our souls. Yeah. When I fasting from belief, the smell of Sharpies, right streets, looting liabilities like it's gold. Atomic number 79, Gucci brought up Jordan high. Sip that line. It's on the house till you're solved. The ones I keep a slop for the felony time. Or the ones I find the dollars for the BLM sign. Y'all ain't really doing what you're supposed to.

Y'all just follow suit like the rest do. We love the lows, but hate the highs is the other side of the sun. With all this glow, it's hard to hide. It's bright. It's bright. We love the lows, but hate the heart. Is the other side of the sun?

The dark is hard to find. It's bright. The light is bright. The song is bright. Love the loss behind the heart is the other side of the sun