The Confessionals - RELOADED | 286: It Grabbed My Soul

Episode Date: November 10, 2025

In Episode 286: It Grabbed My Soul, we speak with Seth, whose experiences with lucid dreaming seem to take him into a different, interactive realm. Over time Seth has been able to take some control over his lucid dreams and change their outcomes. He tells us of his strange dream encounters, including an eerie instance when a dark humanoid figure grabbed him as he lay on his bed. Even though the figure seemed to only grab his try toes, Seth describes how he felt as though it was pulling out his soul - all while he could hear and feel a kind of electrical charge building around him!Please pray for Tony's wife, Lindsay, as she battles breast cancer. Your prayers make a difference!If you’re able, consider helping the Merkel family with medical expenses by donating to Lindsay’s GoFundMe: https://gofund.me/b8f76890Become a member for ad-free listening, extra shows, and exclusive access to our social media app: theconfessionalspodcast.com/joinThe Confessionals Social Network App:Apple Store: https://apple.co/3UxhPrhGoogle Play: https://bit.ly/43mk8kZTony's Recommended Reads: slingshotlibrary.comIf you want to learn about Jesus and what it means to be saved: Click HereMy New YouTube ChannelMerkel IRL: @merkelIRLMy First Sermon: Unseen BattlesThe Meadow Project: Stream HereMerkel Media Apparel: merkmerch.comSPONSORSSIMPLISAFE TODAY: simplisafe.com/confessionalsGHOSTBED: GhostBed.com/tonyCONNECT WITH USWebsite: www.theconfessionalspodcast.comEmail: [e-mail] ADDRESS:Merkel Media257 N. Calderwood St., #301Alcoa, TN 37701SOCIAL MEDIASubscribe to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/2TlREaIReddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/theconfessionals/Discord: https://discord.gg/KDn4D2uw7hShow Instagram: theconfessionalspodcastTony's Instagram: tonymerkelofficialFacebook: www.facebook.com/TheConfessionalsPodcasTwitter: @TConfessionalsTony's Twitter: @tony_merkelProduced by: @jack_theproducer

Convierte your passion in a new business with Shopify and bathe records of with the form of pay with a better conversion of the world. You've heard of the best.

The best conversion of the world. The incredible system of the Pago of Shopify facilita the website on your website, in the social and in

in any place. That is music for your ears. No, you'll be more vets. Your business will be a

super-exitio with Shopify. Empezae. And then you euro at a month in shopify.com. S bar records. It's confirmed the content of the grand assault to McDonald's. It has arrived here a cargament of MacKish Nuggets and cheese truffle dip. Copied, Procedency.

We've assaulted MacDonald's of all the world to bring here his best products. Proublers all before that we get them. Merckle. I guess it's time to go back in time. Are you telling me that you built a time machine? Out of the Lorian? Time is but a stubborn illusion.

I have a lot of memories of the past. People are time traveling within themselves. Time travel is possible. This was all circulating around the base that a giant had to kill, but no one was supposed to talk about it. Each 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 up this giant.

Well, the giant moves. He's got a spear in one hand, and he's running really fast. And spears, Dan, holds him 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 small gray entities pulling it. And they're literally, I'm getting pulled off. I reached my hand into this bush and I touched air.

Couldn't breathe and I couldn't move because I know I'm seeing a monster. Okay, I reloaded. Welcome to the show, everybody. You're listening to The Confessionals. I am your host, Tony Merkel. Thank you for being here. If you have a wild story or an experience, you want to share on the show, go ahead and shoot me an email or go to the website, theconfessionalspodcast.com. Hit the contact section and you can reach me that way as well.

Either way works for me, just get a hold of me. If you want to hear more shows every week on Thursdays, we release a bonus show to members only on the website. So go to the website, the confessionalspodcast.com, hit the join button and become a member today if that interests you. Now, this week we have Seth coming on the show, and Seth has a lot of great experiences to share with us. And he starts off by talking about lucid dreaming and how he was able to control his dreams. And as his dreams were able to be controlled, the nightmares seem to stop for the most part. Let's get to Seth right now. All right, today we got Seth on the show. Seth, how you doing, man?

I'm doing great, Tony. Thanks for having me on. Awesome, man. So I'm glad you're here. And you're over there in beautiful, sunny Southern California, man. So we were just talking about how it is out there. And it does sound like a paradise to me. I've only ever heard good things out there. So no wonder why you guys are so comfortable out there, relax. I mean, why wouldn't you be? Up here in the Northeast, we're up tight, you know? We got bad weather and it sucks. Well, unfortunately, despite all the good weather, there's plenty of grumpy people out here in Southern California, man. So I don't think it's just the weather being a factor, man. I wish it was. Oh, man. All right. Well, listen, you've had lots of different experiences throughout your life.

It starts out as a kid with lucid dreaming. So if you want, just kind of start us off with your childhood and kind of walk us into these experiences. Yeah, absolutely. So I was, I was raising a... a Christian household and ever since I was a young kid, I was always plagued with nightmares. And, you know, I guess the purpose of me bringing up this dream part of my life is just to verify something I guess later on in my life. But I was always plagued with nightmares. It would be on a nightly routine that my parents would come into me screaming, coming to the the room to me screaming and just uh you know just being delirious and crying and um it got to the point to where i kind of got numb to uh morbid things because it would always be very morbid

nightmares and very vivid and i got to the point of my life when i got old or maybe in my teens late teens that um i found a way to uh wake myself up from the the dreams because it was a place I don't want to be, you know, whether it started off right away as a nightmare or something you could kind of notice creeping in like, hey, this is going to be an evil dream. I was able to force myself to wake up to the point of where it was like a rip rip cord I could just pull when I wanted to just to exit out when if I knew I was going bad. And so this got to a point to where, and even

in my early 20s, I would still have these nightmares. And it got to the point to where at the time, I didn't know that it was called lucid dreaming. I mean, I had no idea what any of this was because back then there was no, you know, podcasts and stuff as, I mean, I even have an iPhone until maybe like 2012. So I was a late bloomer, but I, uh, I, uh, I didn't know when anything was called. I thought my experiences were unique and stuff, but I found out, you know, it's called lucid dreaming

where you can control your dreams. So I got to the point of where I was starting to able to control my dreams and control the outcomes or control what I could do because I realized once I could exit the dream on command, I knew that I was in a dream. I think that's the biggest shift in your mind, knowing that you're actually in a dream state and it's almost like a consciousness inside of your dream.

But once I realized that and these nightmares are still coming, I was able to start manipulating my dreams and controlling them, not 100%, but a good majority of the time. And I remember this one dream specifically, I was in my friend's backyard. And I there was this Chinese older Chinese man maybe in some sort of monks attire And I was standing by a wall and there was this big long curtain Between me and him and it was blowing so these are ripples and the curtain Were blowing towards me and he was on the other side and he had these Wided out eyes and looked very creepy and you know you get that evil kind of feeling in your dream that's something like

something was going wrong. And as each ripple blowed in the curtain towards me and he would reappear again, he would be closer. And then another ripple would blow and he would be closer. And he kept coming until he was like face to face with me. Well, although it was frightening, I kind of realized at that point, you know, that I was in control that this is my dream and I'm going to do what I want. So what I did is I hit rewind on my dream.

and rewound him going away from me. So I pushed him back basically, rewound the dream in that segment. And I realized at that point, I'm in control. I'm no longer going to be plagued by these nightmares. And it was pretty interesting experience. And sometime, I don't know if it was after that dream or sometime after that, I stopped getting nightmares, man, really.

I mean, I still get them occasionally, but it was almost like when I conquered that my dream, I no longer, like I defeated it in a sense and I no longer was plagued by them. And which the reason why I brought in my dreams is because later on my life when I had a sleep paralysis experience, I knew for certain that it wasn't a dream because I had so much experience, I guess, if you will, in my dreams that I knew for sure when, no for sure when something is a dream or when it's not. But I just wanted to start on that because, you know, my parents were always sensitive to me because, you know, they, I grew up in a Christian household. They're always God-faring people.

And they were always sensitive to, you know, the demonic and the attacks that the demonic realm bring. So they were never shutting me down. And, you know, my dad actually just brought this up a couple months ago. when I was talking to him about, he was like, you remember all the nightmares you used to have? And I said, yeah, yeah. And, you know, I still vividly remembered some, even some reoccurring. But I guess just moving on in my life in my teens, one of my first jobs I had was, it's the first or second job. It was a dishwasher at a restaurant.

And so the dishwashers, they were usually the, um, first in and the last out. And with this shift that I had, I usually worked the later shift. And when I was raised in this private community in Southern California, it was actually, I think at the time, either the largest or the second largest private community in Southern California had a lake in it and had their own city hall and police department, fire department. And so there was at the time around 30,000 people or so in this private community.

And they had their own lodge and restaurant in there. And so I worked in this restaurant. And it wasn't really known. The rumors wasn't really known to the community, but within the staff there that the place was haunted. Because before that, I don't remember exactly when, but they renovated. They completely tore down and renovated this. whole lodge and it was a beautiful renovation but before they're kind of looked like this wooden log cabin but i think they redid it in either the late 90s or early 2000s because this took

place in like 2003 or four when i was about 16 something like that um and so 16 17 so anyways the the rumor there was the place was haunted and that a chef i believe a worker there i think was a chef, if I remember, hung himself in the basement. And so there was even the rumor that, well, hey, that's why they rebuilt the place, or maybe that was the final straw decision for them to tear down and rebuild. I don't know for certain. I actually tried Google in some stuff about it. I couldn't find anything, you know, if somebody hung themselves or not.

But that was just the word between the staff there. So anyways, some of my. my experiences there while I worked there because I always worked late. You know, they'd have weddings, and it was like a three-story building. And the middle floor had the kitchen and the majority of the restaurant, the bar, and then the top floor had more seating. And then the bottom floor was an elevator from the kitchen. And you ride the elevator down, and they had a hallway with a walk-in freezer, a walk-in fridge, a pantry with storage. It was a pretty nice facility. So anyways, one of the experiences I had there is one time I was mopping up in the kitchen, I was closing up.

We would get out of there maybe like 1, 2 a.m. depends on how busy the restaurant was that night. And I was mopping down the aisles. And as I was mopping, I saw somebody run by me. Now, it wasn't unusual for a sous chef to come back late because they were usually like the second to last Wednesday. eat besides us. So it wasn't unusual for them to forget something or come back and they would lock up the building and we didn't have keys. So once you exited, you were locked out. So they would lock it and I thought maybe, um, because I remember it was a white person or someone wearing white like chefs attire because they would wear, you know, those white coats or, you know,

how chefs do that button up. I don't know the specific name for him, but, uh, and I saw a person run by. So I was thinking, okay, it was just a chef. They ran by. Well, I went down the aisle and looked around. No one was there. I went out in the restaurant, known as there. And I checked in the parking lot, no one was there, which was a trip to me because I know for sure I saw somebody run by me as I was mopping. I mean, to the point of where I went and checked if a person was there. And there was no one there, nor even a car in the parking lot besides mine, which. trip me out, you know, and having in the back of your mind that the place is haunted, when

little things like this happen, it only adds fear to you, you know, in the moment. I wasn't trying to find hauntings there. I was just working, and if something would happen, like, okay, well, that's strange. It kind of adds to the rumors. There's another time where I was downstairs mopped in, in the hallway where they had the walk-in fridge in the refrigerator in front of the they had these big industrial locking doors on the fridge and refrigerator in the freezer and with a little window glass window in the door and then when you open the door there's these big plastic flaps that hang down probably keep flies out and such so when you walk through the flaps you know obviously they would sway back and forth well one time again

I was the only person there and I was mopping and I noticed how the corner of my eyes I saw the window of the fridge I saw the flaps swinging back and forth like as somebody just walked through it or which freaked me out because nobody just walked through the door because I was the only one there I mean even looking to the window no one was there which just being there alone and dark and a 16-year-old isn't a comfortable place to be. And another time I was out taking trash out of the back door. And when I was out taking trash, the elevator dinged back up. And because I wrote it down to throw out the trash, dumpsters are on the bottom store, dinged back up. And I'm out there listening to him thinking,

okay, who's here? And then it dinged, and I heard it go. back down and I heard the doors open while I was outside right outside and I started freaking out and I didn't want to go inside so I walked out around the building to check the parking lot because I was hoping to see one of the chef's cars there so give me some relief well there's no one there's no cars there just mine again which freaked me out so I don't know anything about elevators and I don't know if they go through some sort of check system where once a week or once a day it dings up and down. I'm sure an elevator technician could probably confirm that,

but working that shift many times and being there all the time, I never heard the elevator do that error. So it just kind of all these things, I realize that they're not big, significant things, and all these things could probably be rationalized away and justified by naturalistic means. But I think it's just an accumulation of events coupled with the rumors as long as well as other,

people's story. I had a manager there who was talking to a waitress and they told me, I knew both of them pretty well and they told me as they're sitting there in the office, they had a picture, there's a picture on the wall and it flew off the wall and it just dropped, but it flew off about three feet and both of them are standing. There was no thump or someone next door hitting the wall and both of them are looking at each other freaking out and ran out of the room. And I had another buddy who was. a server who he was working there late cleaning up and he was actually a dishwasher before he came a server so he said he was there late cleaning up and one time he was out or he was in the kitchen

and there was double swinging doors on two sides of the kitchen for the servers going and out and one side led to a tile floor hallway where there were some offices and he said he heard when he was the only one there it sounded like somebody that had a full tray of dish is drop the dishes in the hallway like a loud noise and he freaked him out so you went out there to look okay maybe a vase fell off a table or you know who knows and he went out there he went to the bar he checked her he said there's nothing there's no broken glasses nothing like that so uh you know these are just little instances of kind of accumulated together um mixed with the rumors of it being haunted already and so on hanging themselves kind of leads to me that, hey, maybe these aren't just coincidences. Maybe there's actually something there. That's probably the only, I guess, haunted house or building experience I've had that had, you know, reoccurring instances, not just by me, but other people I knew. Yeah, you know, buildings like that and stuff where you have multiple people experiencing

hauntings or whatever it is and they all work there. I don't know. I've never been through that kind of situation, but I imagine at least there's got to be some kind of comfort there knowing that you're not the only one that, you know, knows about this. Yeah, definitely comfort and confirmation, you know, but also at the same time, not because when you're the only one there and everything adds up to, hey, this place seems like it's haunted rather than just these coincidences happening or figments of your imagination. There's comfort in one end and then there's also terror at the other end. You know what mean? Yeah. So, I mean, are you saying then you're the kind of person that you're not necessarily thrilled that anything like that is happening around you? Because like some people, they ignore it.

Some people, they actually get excited about it. Some people say, oh, it's nothing. Don't worry about it. They can't hurt you. But it sounds like you're just like, if it happens around you, you notice it, you take a serious and you prefer not to be doing it. Yeah, I'm kind of in the middle. I definitely don't ignore because as a Christian, I know the spirit realm is real. I know that there is spirits and apparitions. I can't explain it all or the functions of them. I don't think they're all demonic, you know, but I also, I don't try to find a ghost around every bush.

And I also, I'm not sticking my head in the sand. So, you know, if it's there, I'll acknowledge it like, I'll try to find a rational reason first. like the majority of people probably would. But if the conclusion kind of seems like, hey, this isn't, this seems something odd, you know, then I'm going to lean more towards that because at some point it's a rational not to, you know what I mean? Oh, yeah, for sure. And I think it really comes down to how people view the experience going into it, but also in the moment, you know. So that was the cafe. But you were, I guess you were, I guess you were, smoking weed or something, you've had things happen to you while you were smoking weed.

This sounds like actually could be a funny story, but I don't know. I didn't go through it. Well, yeah, you know, I was super hesitant on telling these. I got two stories, drug-related. And I was hesitant because, one, you know, that's not me anymore. This was back in my BC days before I showed him my life to Christ. and back when I used to party pretty heavily. And another reason why is because a lot of people, they'll just instantly chalk it up as, you know, well, you were under the influence, so therefore it's not real.

And I understand the reasoning behind that because, you know, there is auditory and visual hallucinations with things that can be figments of your imagination. But I think it's a porn conversation to have, because I think there's something more there. And I think after my two scenarios, I want to bring a conclusion to you that I'm sure you're already aware of. But, you know, back in the day, even though I was raised in a Christian household, there was being a pastor's kid, I don't know if I said that, but I was a pastor's or I still am a pastor's kid. I'm actually a pastor now. but I was raised in a Christian household and I was a pastor's kid which those PKs,

those of who are pastor kids out there, you guys know the immense amount of pressure as a pastor kid, a pastor's kid has on them. You're instantly because of who your dad is or parents are, whether they're in ministry or of any sort or a pastor, you're automatically put on a pedestal and your thought to live a greater life instantly. And I understand the standard of that, but at the same time, because your parents called to ministry doesn't make you called, right? It's not a guilty by association type of scenario, if that's the right term.

But, you know, I had a lot of pressure as a kid and a lot of expectations by the church and the world. And, you know, it kind of pushed me away. My heart got hardened by all of it. And I kind of have the mentality of, I just want to figure it out myself. Like, yeah, I know my parents lived this, you know, they had a, my dad took drugs. My mom, they all had their situations in the life where they warned me against and said, hey, don't do this. You're going to just run into heartache.

But yeah, I understand that. And you're probably right, but I just want to figure out myself, you know, the stubborn, the stubborn teenager who knows everything once they're 16. So about 16, actually it's about 14, but 16, I started heavily getting into drugs, popping pills almost every day, drinking many times a week, sometimes week straight. heart alcohol while popping pills, which isn't a good idea. And smoking weed every day, you know, cigarettes. And I did other drugs as well.

And just trying to numb it all, you know, and trying to escape from who people thought I should be and who I wanted to be and try to find myself. And of course, that's not the right way of doing it, numbing yourself with a substance. But that's the path I chose for until I was, I would say, 16 until 24 but I was at the point where I was smoking weed every day and I just want to preface my first

scenario with you know I it wasn't the situation with getting high that I'm going to tell wasn't my first time smoking weed it's not like I smoked swag my whole life and then someone finally handed me something good and I was tripping out I was I was smoking good medicinal quality on on a daily basis and i and i and i did a smoked weed every way possible or i or had edibles honey oils hash however you want to do it any way possible i i i did it so it's nothing there's nothing braggadocious about there's nothing uh in my statement that i'm boasting i think it's it's nothing to boast about i just want to preface it that this scenario that isn't just like oh you're just a lightweight so therefore dot dot dot uh this one time i was at my buddy's house

and we were smoking weed and we were smoking hash which which is basically a controlled substance of weed. It's cooked down into like there's different kinds, but like a tar or a, you know, some sort of substance like that. And it's basically very potent. So smoking that and I felt different than ever before when I was smoking. I felt like, and it sounds weird that my body was resonating or something like that. Like deep within me, I felt like my being was resonating a frequency and like a low hum. And I don't know how else to explain it, but I felt that within me. And so, like, I felt just off.

It was different than any time before, even though I did it many times before. And I knew something wasn't right within me. So as the night goes on, my friend lived in this house. He just moved in. And it was like a four-bed, three bath. It was a pretty big house. And he was only one in he was waiting for roommates to come in. And so the house was pretty much empty, except for his room.

And then the room right next to his, which was a computer room. He did like computer programming and stuff. And so the rest of the house is pretty empty, stuff with still boxes, all that. So as the night went on, he was in his computer room and I walked into the room through the doorway. And as soon as I walked into the doorway, I had an out-body experience. And right when I walked through the doorway, it was like I was watching myself through like a security camera in the corner of the room. and I'm standing there and I'm watching myself. I'm like, what the heck is going on right now?

I'm just tripping out. And as soon as I stepped, I took a step back out of the room, I saw through my eyes again and my body. And I stepped back through the doorway and I saw myself through out of body again, like what a camera in the corner of a room would be. I'm looking at myself. Almost like, I don't know if you remember back in the day,

a PlayStation game called Metal Gear Solid. No. Do you remember that? No, I don't. Well, anyways, it was like a third person kind of view, a video game of this guy that's running around. But like, the point of view would be like stationary. And as you would enter a new room, the camera view would change.

But it was always stationary and you'd watch yourself running around. And that's what it felt like. And I stepped back out of the room again and I was back in my body. And I had just about enough of that so I didn't go back in the room because not necessarily a comforting experience to have. But definitely a trip, but not the worst experience of the night. And so later that night, I went home and I was laying in my bed. And I'm laying there. And all of a sudden I see this figure standing at the foot of my bed.

Mind you, this is that off of just smoking marijuana, which isn't known to be a hallucinatory drug at all. But I'm standing there at the, and I'm laying there and at the foot of my arm, laying there and at the foot of my bed, there's this humanoid figure is standing there. And this humanoid figure is solid black, blacker than black. I think I described it as the absence of light. Because even the darkest room, this thing was blacker than that. And at the time, I thought it was a unique experience. But after listening to all your podcasts, I realize that these shadow figures, that's kind of par for the course.

many people say it's blacker than black, you know. Yeah, and that's something that I actually have grown to understand more. When I first started hearing it, I wasn't exactly sure what people meant when they said blacker than black. But it really seems to be that, you know, and correct me if I'm wrong as far as what you're describing, but it really seems to be that like you could be in a black room, but the blackness that whatever this is is just almost like consuming the blackness around it. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Exactly. I mean, my room was, you know, blacked out. I can't say pitch black, but it was blacked out to the point of where you would have trouble seeing your hand in front of your face. And when you could see, when you can see a shadow figure in a black room, it's almost like in the daylight somebody casting a shadow on the ground. That's how clear you could see the contrast. Yeah. And it's it's the, it was the absence of light. That's the only way I could describe it. And so this. the humanoid silhouette shadow figure was standing to foot of my bed and this next part is super trippy man because this figure proceeded to grab my feet and the only way I could describe this thing is that it felt like it was trying to pull the soul out of my body wow yeah

And it almost, I would imagine that, you know, if someone is wearing like tights or, you know, panty hose or something, I don't know if people still wear that, but in someone who were to pull the toes of that material and pull it in this as it stretches off of your leg and you could feel it moving down your leg, that's what it felt like when this thing would pull on my. on my, you know, soul, I guess, because he wasn't pulling my body, but that's what it felt like. So every time this thing would pull on my toes, it would make the sound as I would feel like this elastic stretching over my being and make this sound like if something was charging up. And when it would let go, it would snap back into my body and would make the sound. and would make the sound all through my being super loud. And when it would make that noise from my toes, when it would snap back like an elastic snapping back into my body, from my toes to my head,

I would get this shot of this tingling sensation, almost like if your legs falling asleep, but it would shoot through my body. So when he would pull back, whoop, and it would snap back, my whole body would just rush with this team of feeling. And I'm laying there thinking what is going on right now. And this figure, this thing, can continue to do it over and over again.

And I'm sitting there thinking, you're just tripping out, dude. Like, this is all in your mind. You're making it up. And after what seemed probably about four or five minutes of this thing, continue to do it. I had enough and I just jumped out of bed, man. And I jumped out of bed. I ran downstairs and I just started pacing in the kitchen.

Like you're tripping out, man. It's on your head. And, you know, the irony is that, you know, being raised in a Christian household and I knew the power of the name of Jesus. And because of my heart and heart and reprobate lifestyle, I refuse to call on his name. because I guess I didn't want to surrender yet, you know. And, you know, I think it's in John 1. It says that the world hates the light and loves the darkness because the light shines on the sin and exposes the sin.

So therefore, they hate the light and that light that's coming to the world is Jesus. So I guess that applied to me that I love my darkness greater than the light. and I'd rather carry this burden of it than reach out for the life preserver that was tossed to me, you know? But yeah, man, that was an insane experience, man. It felt like this being was trying to pull the soul out of my body. Yeah, you know, you're not the first person to say that on the show. And what you said was almost verbatim for what the first time I ever heard of such a thing which was episode 29, David. I've referenced him a couple times. And he was laying

in bed with his wife and he felt, he saw these two gray creatures, entities that he said they were pulling them off the bed, but at the same time, it was like they were pulling something out of him. And he didn't describe the sounds that you described, though. I find that really interesting. Do you think this was all a purely spiritual experience, or do you think there was something mechanical? Because, like, way you described, it sounds, it sounds like they were using a machine to pull something out of you. I think it was, I think it was, I think it was spiritual, man, because I think the thing, the, the shadow person was pulling it. And I think maybe the noise was the sound of my soul leaving my body and coming back in. I would imagine, I don't know, I take it more as it that sound wasn't a machine,

but the sound related to the feeling in my being. So as what I would, I would, I guess, called my soul being pulled from my body, the sound matched it. and when it was released and snapped back into my body, the sound matched it as well as the tingling sensations. So I would lean more towards, yeah, this was strictly spiritual and that the being was doing the pulling and the sound was somehow related to my soul. You know, that sounds super weird of me saying that, but I don't know any other explanation. Yeah. Well, I mean, it's your experience, so you explain it the best you can.

You had another experience, though, didn't you, when you were, I guess, on drugs or something like that with voices? Yeah. The other one was related to psilocybin mushrooms, and I realized that that is a hallucinatory drug. And so people are probably just going to discredit it, which is fine. You know, I just want to have transparency here. I'm not trying to sell anything or, you know, validate my name. I just want, if people disregard the experiences, that's totally fine. But just being someone who took mushrooms a whole lot of times,

this was completely different and stood out. And then after that, I'll tell you my conclusion of why I even wanted to tell you this. One time I was on taking psilocyte of mushrooms, and I was tripping out, And I felt it coming on and increase. And I was, you know, what they call climaxing. And so I know the tracers and the tunnel vision and all these feelings that happen. And one thing that was different on this is that physically my body, I couldn't control my body. I kept my head was going around in like circles.

I probably looked like those, you know, Facebook videos where they see these people tripping on drugs and going completely crazy. I probably looked like that a psychotic person I had because my body, my head was just rolling around and I was still, there are all

these experiences, I still had a subconscious of soberness that I knew everything that was going on, but my body I couldn't really control my motor function. That's a good way of saying. My motor function. So, and as the, the high increase the less I could control to the point of where I ended up the night on the couch

squirming and kind of rubbing my body like like my arms and my legs and my head and man I don't know it wasn't it wasn't a violent convulsion it was like a slithering squirming kind of motion which I think that was related to the drugs and I'll explain because the next day, the frontal cortex of my brain, man, felt like it was on fire, like inside. And I realized that I looked up the frontal cortex involves motor function. So the shroom itself, obviously, was poisoning the front part of my brain. And I think that was related to the motor function. But the spiritual aspect of it is why I wanted to bring it up is when I was on that couch,

all of a sudden I started hearing a room full of voices. And there was no one in the house except for this guy and the girl. They're upstairs sleeping. And all of a sudden there's a room full of voices of people whispering. And I couldn't make out what they're saying, but it was just, it sounded like a room full of those, you know, 100 people that were all talking to each other, but it was just, and behind or above, whatever, all the whispering, there was one voice that stood out. and it was this very deep demonic voice and it had authority in its voice and I couldn't make out what it was saying and I don't know if it was because it was speaking a different language or because it just wasn't clear enough but it was almost like it was commanding in its tone and and and I felt a demonic presence there in the room and after waiting it out, you know, five, ten minutes, I got up and I forced myself to, you know, throw up and try to sober up. And it stopped. As soon as I got up, it stopped.

But the experience of self, the reason why I brought it up is because both of these experiences, because the Bible discusses, Paul discusses until Galatians 5, he talks about all these different acts of the flesh. He talks about sexual morality, idolatry, you know, rage, selfishness, and all this stuff. And then he talks about something, or witchcraft and all these, this list of items he brings up. He said, all these things, if you practice all these things, such things, you're not going to inherit the king of God. This is like an unrepentant practicing lifestyle of these things. One of the things is witchcraft, I'm sure you're aware of, that word witchcraft is pharmacia in the Greek. And what that means is basically it's where we get a word pharmacy, pharmacist, and it's those who administer or use drugs.

And it's interesting because you think about why is witchcraft and pharmacia, those who use drugs, tied in together. and it's not as if someone smokes a joint then they're like they're a witch or they're a Satanist or something like that but just as in somebody who dabbles in witchcraft and sorcery and Ouija boards as you probably know and all the people I'll listen to those who even as something as simple as a Hasbro Games Ouija board

that you find at Target someone who dabbles in it is innocent as may look, many times, most of the time experience some sort of demonic activity. And so when you enter into this place of willingness to witchcraft and sorcery and, you know, any kind of form of it, you're opening yourself, your spirit being up to the demonic realm. And thinning the veil from ours to theirs. and when you when you perform witchcraft obviously those who are serious into witchcraft and spells and sorcery it obviously works because they wouldn't keep doing it if it didn't work and they didn't have some sort of

experience well those who use drugs in the same sense of those who open themselves up to demonic influence and thin or even pierce the veil to the other realm so do the people who use drugs Now, obviously, there's different level of drugs on the low end. You have something like weed, which is often called the gayway drug. And on the other far end of it, you have stuff like LSD or DMT that people usually when they take it, they experience crazy things right away. And so what I'm not saying is your first time smoking a joint that you're going to be demonically possessed or something like that. But what I'm saying is that you are willingly risking and opening yourself up to demonic influence, to thinning the veil. And too many times I believe in my situations piercing the veil.

And I believe that God, even though I was running from him, he allowed me to experience these things, open up the veil to the other side to allow me to experience them without actually them harming me or doing damage or I don't know. know, or even being possessed because I was never possessed by anything. But I believe he opened the veil and allowed me to see these things. And, you know, many, many people who dabble in drugs, you know, people who dabble in and speed a lot, they say they always see shadow figures. Well, is it just a figment of your imagination or are you really seeing through the veil? People who take DMT, they say that they experience, you know, these higher entities, these spirit guides who seem to be benevolent. But as soon as someone mentions the name of Jesus Christ, they become benevolent and they turn on them. So is it just really a figment of your imagination?

Or are you really piercing the bell and seeing into the other realm? And I think there's many times where it could just be physically hallucinatory a symptom. that your brain is playing tricks on you, but I think many times it's not. And especially with my first experience, I think that was an opening up of the veil. Yeah, you know, and I tend to agree with you. I think that a lot of times people that are, you know, hallucinating on drugs and stuff and they see these types of entities, I think that, you know, a lot of times people are going to just say, oh, well, you're on drugs, you're just seeing things. But I think that there is a veil that's being thinned. And because I believe that we are very much spiritual bodies. I think we're more spiritual

than what people believe, what they can imagine. And when you go on drugs and you start thinning that veil, you're going to see things from the other side. And it's going to scare the hell out of you sometimes. Yeah, absolutely, man. And, you know, what's interesting is that just like, you know, I don't know if you heard the Sasquatch Chronicles episode, uh, Confessions of the pastor. Did you hear that one? I don't even, I'm not even sure what, what, I never heard of Sasquatch Chronicles. Well, it's the show. I mean, it's all right.

I'm playing, I'm playing, I'm playing. I'm playing, I know. That's actually how I heard about your show. Yeah, confessions of a pastor. Are you saying that's you? No, no. I'm saying, uh, I'm saying you should, uh, if you haven't listened to him, you should listen to him.

Um, dude, you should, I think there was two episodes. Do you should have, you should have this guy in your show, man. He's, he would fit in, in, um, he would fit in, in, in, well with the DNA of your show. And he's got some awesome stories, man. I could probably listen to this guy for hours, just demonic stories and casting out demons and stuff. But one thing that he said that really kind of checked a box for me was he said that the most,

I'm not exactly sure how he worded it, but some of the most people who end up being demonically possessed in his experiences are the people who have drug use in their lives, which makes sense to me because, as we just saw on, we touched on in the scripture and saw my own experience, that you're opening yourself up to the demonic, you know, when, as you said, we're spirit beings and there's ways, there's biblical ways as Christians to, you know,

know, can have contact with the other side and with the Holy Spirit and, you know, praying to Jesus. He's a mediator between us and God, but there's also a demonic aspect to it. And the wrong way doing that is through witchcraft and drugs. And I think it makes sense to what the guy was saying that the most in his experience, the people as a whole who have the most a demonic possession in their life are the ones who have a drug use, a history of drug use in their life. That was interesting. Yeah, I remember that episode. I mean, I don't remember the details like you just, you know, spit out at us, but I remember the title. I'll have to go back and check it out. Now, you became a Christian and you had, I guess, some type of

encounters with demonic entities after becoming a Christian through sleep paralysis? Is that right? Yeah. Yeah. So after, once I became a Christian man and I surrendered my life to the Lord, it was January 1st, 2012. And ever since there, man, I didn't look back. It became a new creation in Christ, man. And eventually somehow became a pastor. Although if you would have told me that, January 1st, 2012, I would have just laughed at you and said, you're crazy because I can never, never imagine myself standing in front of people and teaching the Word of God. But yeah, once I surrender to the Lord and started living a new life, I got rid of the drug use and all that stuff. And shortly after that, I would say within six months, I think maybe even closer to three

months, I had two encounters of asleep paralysis, I guess, is the only thing I would categorize it as because just judging on other people's experience that fits into it. I don't actually remember being physically paralyzed, but, you know, there's two times I was living with my roommates, and there's two times within, I would say within a couple weeks of each other where I was awoken in the middle of night by a thick evil demonic presence to the point of where the evil felt like a tangible physical thing. I mean, that's how intense this evil feeling was. And the room was dark, darkened.

And I felt this in my sleep and I woke up. And the reason why I told my first dream stories was because I knew the different, I knew I wasn't dreaming. I had lucid dreams and I understood how to control them. And I knew the difference between sleep state and awake state. And I knew that this was not a dream. And so I cracked my eyes open and I just felt this demonic presence. And at this time, as a Christian, I called on the name of Jesus. But, you know, it was hard to get out.

you know, it took four or five tries to try to get out the name of Jesus. And when I did, it immediately left in the room cleared. And this happened twice. And I don't know if I just pissed off some demons because I was living such a reprobate life. And then I finally surrendered to God. And they were coming back to give maybe a final, you know, who knows, man. But I think that's what happened.

And, yeah, man, I remember hearing your podcast about the lady who was a sleep technician, something like that. And I remember she talked about sleep paralysis and how the brain secretes some sort of paralyzing something in your body when you're sleeping so you don't actually act out your dreams while you're sleeping. Is something like that, correct? Yeah, I think the episode you're talking about was with. with Lori. And yeah, I remember that as well. Yeah. So which, so when it's when someone says this, they feel sleep paralysis, I guess a lot of it can be contributed to that because you can wake up prematurely and that that is still secreting through your body, then yeah, you can feel sleep paralysis. But what I don't understand is if that

can be a cute, if that could be, um, I guess if the demonic presence, people feel. feel can be justified by the paralysis part, right? So maybe you have paralysis without the demonic, but many people who have paralysis have some sort of whether it's an alien abduction or demonic experience like I did. I don't see how the paralysis part justifies the demonic part. You know what I'm saying? Which makes me think there's actually demonic things going on during this time. Yeah, and I also wonder if it's one of those things where maybe not everybody's, experience is the same. Maybe sleep paralysis can be the result of different things, you know, like the origin of what spawned to sleep paralysis on might, you know, be different from person to

person. Does that make sense? Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, I don't know. I've never experienced sleep paralysis. There's a lot of things that we cover on the show that I've never experienced. So, but I do think that, I think that it's something that's very interesting. And I think that there are interesting ways to look at it as far as scientifically goes. But I don't think the scientifically side of it can explain some of the people's experiences when it comes to the supernatural paranormal side of it either. But it's a big mystery, man. It's a big freaking mystery.

Maybe I need a half-sleep paralysis to understand it. I don't know. Well, maybe. I mean, I guess the paralysis without. the demonic part but yeah that's that's what i'm saying i don't know if if um science can justify the demonic part by the the paralysis part but yeah it's just a thought i know you talked to a whole lot of people and uh you got a whole lot of knowledge stored up in your in that head of yours so i just thought maybe i would maybe you could connect some dots that uh i just don't know how much they're

related you know of the two but just a thought yeah i i don't know man i think that uh like I said, I think that it can be, it can vary depending on the situation, depending on the person's experiences leading into the sleep paralysis. But I definitely do believe that, you know, sleep paralysis definitely can be a demonic attack. But like I said, I mean, I've heard so many different other people give more medical or scientific explanations to it. That makes me feel like maybe, maybe sleep paralysis is a symptom of many different things. So, um, um, so. Um, But yeah, so let me ask you this question here. I know you said that you think you might have met an angel. Please talk about that. Well, I can't say for certain men, but I'll just, I'll tell my story and my conclusion. So one time at my old church building that we had a few years ago, this was maybe like 2016-ish, 2015, maybe something like that. And so after,

after our church service, our church is located and it's not a bad neighborhood, but it's in the bad, the, not the least best part of town. It accumulates a lot of homeless people and drug users who like to camp out and stuff. So anyways, you know, after just, you know, so many times of drug users, homeless people, trashing the place, peeing on the door, crap in there, it up, you know, you get frustration and you kind of get, you kind of get a little hard into it, you know. So I kind of not, didn't for a while. I mean, I guess I'm still working it out, for a while. I didn't have the best mentality towards homeless people, you know, as Christians were supposed to be compassionate, but some God's working out, you know, for a long time, I just

didn't like people at all. And, you know, God had to really work that out of me. But this guy, after church before in our front door there we have this big kind of awning hallway type thing in front of the front door and I'm standing there after service and this huge guy starts walking towards me and he's probably like six four ish and probably like 250 two 75 this big guy and he had kind of uh homeless attire you know like uh ripped dirty jeans jacked up hair scruffy you know just kind of the homeless look that i'm used to seeing around there and i'm 6-1 and like 221 and so not too many guys make me feel small out there but this guy made me feel small and uh as he's walking

towards me and um he just passes me doesn't look at me uh doesn't acknowledge me walks right into our church through the hallway, turns right into the sanctuary. And so I book it after them because, you know, we have women in there. We've had crazy people coming to church, man. We had some guy call himself Jesus one time. And I love those people. I love those guys. Yeah, we had one guy come in and said he was Jesus. Like, I'm Jesus. I've returned. And I was like, no, you ain't, bro. Where's your stallion at, man? Where's your white horse?

And, but, you know, there's women, children there. So, like, you got to be on the defensive, man. And when you're used to the people like this that are all drugged out coming in, you have a different approach to it. So I saw him coming in past me and turn right into the sanctuary. So I just booked it after him. You know, by the time he turned right into the sanctuary, I was still by the front door.

there's a good 50 feet or so. So I booked it. Turned right in the sanctuary and he wasn't there. And looked around all around in the sanctuary and wasn't by the sound booth wasn't in the anywhere. Nobody was reacting. There's groups of people in there talking to us after service. Nobody's reacting.

No one was talking. Well, if you go to the right, back right corner of the sanctuary, there's another door to where there's a hallway in the kitchen. So like, okay, this guy booked it. to this other door. So I ran to this other door and checked in the kitchen, not in the kitchen, in the hallway, not in the back paddy, not in the back paddy. So I ran back to the parking lot where this guy first walked through, not in the parking lot. I book it to the corner of the street and looking down up and down the sidewalk all around the street.

Dude's not there. The front yard, dude's nowhere to be found. And this guy is 6-4, like I said, 250 or so. You know, he's a big guy, not obese, but like, you know, a belly on him, just a big, framed guy. You know, bigger people, they're not, he kind of walked with a, you know, kind of like a waddle. You know, he's got a lot of weight to carry. So he's not a fast guy. I'll just say that, right?

I'm a lot faster than this guy. And I booked it. As soon as he left my vision, I booked it. And I ran around this whole. place. There's no way, unless he had a Harry Potter invisible cloak, there's no way this dude could have escaped my sight. No way. And I checked every corner of this place. And I did it fast. It wasn't like, it was within a minute of me running around this place. And he's completely disappeared. And I was completely baffled by this. And I got in the car with my,

my wife, and I said, I told her the story. And in my mind, I'm thinking that verse. you know, do not forsake the entertaining of strangers for doing so you may be, uh, or do not neglect showing hospitality to strangers for doing so you could be entertaining angels, right? So that means that in a sense, uh, angels are shape-shifting, interdimensional. They can go from their dimensional to our, shape-shift in a human form and interact with us, right? We see that in the Bible and we, and there's also that verse. I'm thinking that verse is going through my mind. And when I told the story to my wife, she said the same thing confirming it. I'm like, no way. And, you know, I've told that story to my congregation, probably like over the last, I don't know

if that was five years ago, probably like three times throughout the last five years. And no one's ever came up to me and said, hey, I saw that guy too. And so in that day, nobody, when I ran in the sanctuary, right when he got out of my vision, nobody was reacting. No one said anything to a six foot four homeless-looking man walking in the sanctuary which he would have stuck out like a sore thumb so you know my conclusion was that god was trying to work some out my heart that to stop seeing every be hospitable to strangers because my first reaction to this guy was like who's this for walking up in here right like the shepherd with the staff trying to protect the sheep you know like who's this guy walking up here trying to you know because we just had experiences in the

past that didn't work out so good so that was what was in my heart to shut him out but the thing with the what was showing me, he's like, don't neglect showing this hospitality to strangers, you know, and I think he was trying to soften my heart towards that, hey, look, although these people may look certain way, they're in a certain position, not all of them have ill intent. But it was just interesting, I don't have a hundred percent proof, man, that it was an angel, but I can't explain how this guy disappeared. And there was just confirmation from my wife telling me the same verse I was thinking of mine. So I don't know, man.

What do you think about it? But that's my story. Yeah, I mean, it certainly could be something like that. I had a similar experience when I was in college, me and my wife and a bunch of other people were out in a local city doing some street ministry and got in a sticky situation. A drunk guy had a gun on him and he was being talking to us in a threatening manner. And I was the only guy in the group and I'm trying to, you know, diffuse the situation. wasn't working out well. Then all of a sudden this guy comes down and interjects into the conversation,

talks to this guy like he knew him for years, calmed him down. He turns around, the guy who was all hyped up, he left. We started walking away. I said to the guy, thanks so much, man, I appreciate that. I said, you know, and what he said to me was that he was driving by and figured he knew what we were doing and thought that we needed help. And so he came down to fuse the situation. And I said, thanks so much.

And I turned and I look to the people in our group and I say something. I turn around. It's gone. It's gone. And I'm like, where did this dude go? Like, he said he was driving down the street. He's not getting in a car anywhere or nothing. And so similar situation.

But yeah, I think that's definitely a possibility, dude. I do. I absolutely think that. I think that's a definite possibility. So you said he was talking to him like he knew him forever? Yeah, but he didn't. That's the thing. Because I asked him, I remember asking him and he said, no, I just was driving down the road.

I figured I knew what you guys were doing and he looked like you needed some help. So I stopped and pulled over. And he came in and acted like he knew the guy for years. And, you know, the guy just, I don't remember exactly how it all unfolded. I remember the guy calmed down and left and, you know, all that stuff. And I don't even know what that guy's story was as far as the guy who was being aggressive to us because I had seen him after that. And he was totally normal.

Absolutely normal. Let me rewind here. He was drunk, but he was much more normal than what he was that one night. Right. You know, people get violent when they're drunk. You know, you could say it was demonic possession or whatever. But one thing for sure is that guy who kind of got us out of that jam. You know, I always just say maybe it was an angel because I have no idea where he went.

He just like straight up disappeared on us. And like who's driving down the road at like midnight in the city sees a group of people talking to another guy and just assumes that he knows what they're doing and that they need help. Like, you know. Right. It wasn't like I was, I was wearing overalls and a country kid and, you know, sticking out like a sore thumb. Like, I mean, you know, so it's not like just by visually looking at me. He knew that I was out of place or anything. We've come across tons of people prior to that.

I mean, we did this a lot. And that was the one time that I was like, man, this might end bad. And so I was fortunate. Right. Yeah. And for the guy to talk to him like you knew him forever, like brought peace upon the guy to diffuse the situation. Yeah.

And it just disappears. Yeah, man. Strange, you know. Same thing with what I was doing with that. How can a 6-04-250-plus guy who walks slowly just disappear from me and nobody else in the whole congregation ever saw him? You know what I mean? It's just strange, man.

You never know. Absolutely. You never know. You never know when you're entertaining angels. Always be hospitable. Yeah, true. Good rule to live by. Listen, man, I appreciate you coming on a show and sharing these stories.

Hey, thank you so much, man. I've been listening for a while. I appreciate everything you do, man. and keep up to good work. Well, that's the show, everybody. I really hope you enjoyed it. And if you did enjoy it, please share the show with your friends. I don't care where you share the show or how you share the show.

Just share the show if you enjoyed it because that's the best thing you can do to help the show grow. Just share the show. And until next week, friends, stay safe. Take care and remember the truth was such a free. But first, they'll piss you off. Convierte your passion in a business with Shopify and bathe records of ventas with the form of the pay for

the better conversion of the world. Has I heard the best the best conversion of the world.

The incredible system of the shopify facilita the website on your website, in the

social and in the world. That is music for your eyes. No,

you'll be more your business will be a super-exit with Shopify.

Empeas your period of a month in Shopify pointe slash records.

What you do you do this hours, expecting that the price of the

car. Well, deja to be able to get to behees a great variety of people who have to behees

about the six,000 vehicles, of those which more of 700 are electric and hybrids,

and after three years of the guarantee and the security and the service officials officials

official. Spotikar. Pounda Centres of Gardinari Arriva to Catalan at Cabre

to Mar we've been a new commencement. This St. George the North The history

floures because the Rosa not only is a real real it's a love, emotion,

sentiment. Vine to know a fronde Cabrera of Mar to the National 2,

between Quadis and Viena where the natura will flowering the

things. The Conferfernal has has given a cargmato has assaulted

we've we've got all the world to all the world to tryer

all all before they're