This Paranormal Life - #333 The Cisco Grove UFO - When a Hunter Becomes the HUNTED

Episode Date: September 19, 2023

In 1964, Donald Shrum and his buddies went out hunting in the forests of California, but Donald had no idea that by the end of the night HE would be the one being hunted. This story has everything - UFO's, Aliens and even a bow and arrow showdown with a gas-leaking robot... enjoy!LIVE TOUR - https://www.thisparanormallife.com/tourFollow us on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTubeJoin our Secret Society Facebook CommunitySupport us on Patreon.com/ThisParanormalLife to get access to weekly bonus episodes!Buy Official TPL Merch! - thisparanormallife.com/storeIntro music by www.purple-planet.comResearch by Amy GrisdaleEdited by Philip Shacklady Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How can they call it hot sauce when the sauce is room temperature? Is breaking into prison a crime? I mean, I'm trying to arrest myself. All of these questions you can find the answer to on This Paranormal Life! Hey! Hello everyone and welcome to This Paranormal Life, the comedy paranormal podcast where every week, myself and my co-investigator, Kit Greer-Molvena, dive into a new paranormal tale and come to a conclusion at the end as to whether or not it truly is paranormal. Kit, how are you doing on this beautiful morning? I'm exhausted. Ooh, okay. I am barely hanging in.

I don't know if I'm going to be able to make it through the podcast. Barely make it through that sentence. I'm going Mitch McConnell mode here in minute one of the episode. I'm on dad time. You know the way there's British BSD, British summertime, Eastern time, Pacific time. I'm on dad time. So even though my child is nowhere to be seen, I still live in, there is a separate time zone for dads.

So it doesn't matter where I am on earth. I wake up at 5.30 a.m. ready to go. So this is, I am having a midday. It is first thing in the morning and I'm having a, I need a f***ing siesta because I am barely holding it together. Yeah, comparing that to me, I woke up about 45 minutes ago and I'm still a little sleepy. Kit's been up for six hours now, I believe. So, you know, bring in a little bit of different energy to the room. I've had three coffees and a gazpacho, I've been up so long. It's true.

Once you go dad mode, it's very hard to shake it off. You know, your dad mode is waking up at 5.30 impulsively. My dad mode, it's turning my phone onto airplane mode. It's even if my kids want to get in contact with me, they can try.

That's my dad mode. No, that's deadbeat dad mode. I don't know if that's dad mode. no that's deadbeat dad mode i don't know if that's i don't know that's dad mode i'm on deadbeat dad mode waking up at 11 ignoring the venmo requests from your 13 children for child support even though i left 13 years ago i still feel the need to go to the corner shop for a pack of smokes and not come back are there really fathers around the world going out for like if you are a spouse or you are children and your father says i'm going to be back in a second i'm going for a pack of smokes instant red flag because that's not a normal thing to do yeah no who goes to the shop only for a pack of smokes? I wonder if bad fathers nowadays are going to the shop for a cherry elf bar.

Right. And then they never come back. Because people don't really smoke anymore, but a lot of people vape. So they're like, oh, I'm just going to get a fucking blueberry vape. I'll be back in a second, son. And then he disappears literally in a puff of smoke. I mean, I can't really relate. Not being a father myself i can't really relate to dad time but uh i did for you know a long long period of my life own a tamagotchi oh my god i knew you were gonna bring this up and uh you know

like a kid those tamagotchis they need to be cared for around the clock so i do understand i can maybe i do understand actually i don't think you do. The grueling schedule, the late nights, the early mornings. I understood it for a week. The little thing died almost immediately. I barely looked at it. But, you know, I think as fathers, we do understand kind of the struggles. Move on. Move on. Welcome to today's podcast. I have an absolute cracker of a case this week for us to dive into. Kit, you like, uh, you like hunting, don't you? No. Shit, that's gonna really impact your opinions on this piece. I'm vegan, what the hell are you talking about?

Kit, what if the thing you were hunting, though, came from another planet? I'm listening. We're gonna find out all about what we're hunting after a few words from today's sponsors. And a reminder, you can get every single episode of This Paranormal Life ad-free on patreon.com forward slash this paranormal life. All right, let's go back to September 1964. We're in the rugged terrain of the California wilderness, an hour northeast of San Diego. 26-year-old Donald Shroom is out hunting with his buddies from work. Now, these are exactly the kind of guys that we want as paranormal witnesses, kid. They're hunters. Probably all dads. And they all

work as tech staff at the Aerojet General Corporation. I mean, these are the guys that we want in our case, right? Hunters, serious people, grown-ass men, and they all work for a company that sounds like it builds rocket ships. Okay, so what you're saying is because they are sensible men, that they are men of the earth, they're hunters, but they're also educated intellectuals with their kind of job. So these are the type of people we can trust if they do,

I don't want to get ahead of ourselves, but if they do report on something paranormal. Yeah, sometimes when we're starting our story, our protagonist is a guy named Chum who makes moonshine in his bathtub. So having a group of well-educated rocket men is uh it's a pretty good start you know i will say though that i don't know if the reputation of hunters as being like grounded people who you know only believe what's right

in front of their face i don't know if that's entirely warranted. I mean, I think the idea is good. It's like, yeah, a guy who hunts deer, he doesn't really care about the flights of fancy of UFOs and ghosts. But I think if we've learned anything from 300 plus episodes of This Paranormal Life, those motherfuckers, if they so much as see a bumblebee, they will scream, call the authorities and say they saw a 12 foot star destroyer yeah it kind of goes either way landing in the middle of the wilderness they saw the goat man with their own eyes it's a weird combo to you know work at a company that i

assume is involved in the you know the development of rockets that are capable of breaking the Earth's atmosphere, and also have bloodlust. I also on the weekend want to kill living creatures. It's a strange combination. When it comes to hunting, these guys didn't mess around. They're in full camouflage gear, complete with face paint. And they aren't even using guns, they're bow hunting. Oh wow, they really know what they're doing. Well anyway, as the night of hunting continued, the men spread out in the woods. The trees were tall and thick, and the hunters crept their way through the terrain looking for their prey.

But, getting lost in the moment, Donald realized that he strayed quite far away from the rest of his pals. Which is a scary position to be in if you've strayed away from the rest of his pals, which is a scary position to be in if you've strayed away from the group of guys with bows and arrows trying to kill anything that moves in the woods. Yeah, there's a chance you are now in the firing line. Not wanting to shout out and scare the animals away, he decided to meet them back at the car at the end of the day. But after a few hours of wandering,

it dawned on Donald that he might not be able to make it back to the car by himself. Knowing that this forest was home to bears, mountain lions, coyotes, and cougars, he decided to hike up a tree, strap in, and sleep for the night. This guy went hunting in the Californian wilderness. If he didn't want to meet mountain lions, he shouldn't have gone.

Yeah, this is a real hunter becomes the hunted type situation. Also, apparently strapping yourself to a tree to sleep for the night is a real thing that people do. It seems kind of crazy to me because half the shit he mentioned, bears, cougars, they can all climb trees. And if you wake up face to face mentioned bears cougars they can all climb trees and if you wake up face to face with a cougar the last thing you want to be is strapped to your bed like a lunatic in an insane asylum true although i think maybe it's part of the logic here that cougars don't really look up they are close to the ground and they're kind of, they're like a Roomba. They're kind of just like, animals are a lot like Roombas. They're kind of like looking around at ground level.

Right. And if you can simply get out of ground level to simply two meters above ground level in a tree, you might just evade being seen. Do you know that for sure, that cougars don't look up? Because that's what they say about pigs, right? Is pigs can't look up. So imagine the joy they would experience if you just held a piglet and tilted them up towards the sky. They can definitely look up. Really? There's no way they can't look up.

What are you talking about? I feel like, what? Isn't that an old phrase? Like piglet... If you ever showed a pig the sky... Piglets don't look up or can't look up? That's not a thing. Can pigs look up?

According to Google, it is physically impossible for pigs to look up straight into the sky. The anatomy of their neck and muscles limits the movement of their heads. They've never seen the moon before. We need some kind of pig charity where we go farm to farm, just lifting piglets into the air so they can see the moon for the first time in their sad, pathetic little lives. Now before Donald can drift off to sleep, he notices a light appear in the sky. Thinking that the guys must have asked for a rescue helicopter to find him, Donald rushed down the tree and quickly created

a small fire, hoping that the light or smoke could be spotted by the rescue team. Hey! Hey! Down here! Come on, chopper! I'm right here! But Donald can't help but notice. It's not moving like an ordinary helicopter. In fact, it's flying like no craft that he's ever seen before. It's changing speed constantly, zipping quickly from side to side, and then zooming great distances at unbelievable speed. And most terrifying of all, this thing isn't making a f***ing peep. Interesting.

How far away was this thing? I don't know. Okay. Far enough away that he thought it was a helicopter when he first saw it. Close enough that it's right beside him in three seconds. Sure. And here's a little reminder. Donald worked on advanced missile technology at

Aerojet, meaning he was very aware of the capabilities of modern science. Okay. This wasn't your normal hunter who doesn't know, you know, a Harrier from an F1 from his Apache. This is like showing a basketball to Michael Jordan. He knows what a basketball is. It's kind of his job to know. Well, that's a lie. It's his job to dunk. I mean, how long has he been in this tree? I don't want to be throwing our witnesses under the bus,

but is there any chance that on the aforementioned bee's nest that maybe he had some poisoned honey and now he's having a kind of winnie the pooh bad trip yeah all of the events of tonight all took place after he ate a handful of mystery berries which is what he calls uh dinner served by mother nature aka whatever he can grab at arm's reach that could be an option we could explore down line. There's no mention of him eating any mysterious berries or anything like that prior to these events. So we'll assume that he didn't. The scariest part of all, Kit, was that Donald's fire did exactly what he intended it to do.

All of a sudden, this light began to float in his direction. So once again, Donald scrambled up a nearby tree and strapped himself in. And this motherfucker is so well camouflaged, he's like Peter in The Hunger Games. He's basically a grey squirrel on a grey tree. He's blending in perfectly to the environment. So you're saying he's now decided he doesn't want to be seen, whatever that is, he doesn't want to be seen by it? Hell no.

Okay. From this position where he's strapped to the tree, he can get a good look at the source of the light. Ironically, this thing is dark. So dark it almost seems to be absorbing light. So just the middle of the day? It was night. Okay.

But there's like, you know at night when things are dark and then you see something that's so dark it changes you forever i've never seen anything so dark that it looks like it's absorbing light i think you're describing a black hole i think that's by definition there's plenty of things have you ever seen Vantablack in real life? Annoyingly. Well, not in real life. Have you? Yeah. I actually, weirdly, for part of the press release of one of the Call of Duty Black Ops games, they decided to paint an entire room in Vantablack so you could go in and play the game in complete nothingness. For those who don't know, Vantablack is the name of the blackest black that I think exists in kind of a paint form. And it's very trippy. You can see videos of it online.

I think it has, I don't know the stats, but essentially no reflection of light. So when you look at it, it looks fake. It looks like there's just a completely black hole painted in whatever you've put it on. It's just a completely black hole painted in whatever you you've put it on it's kind of surreal it basically looks like in looney tunes when they would uh draw a hole in the ground and then people can fall through it yeah it's very very trippy so i don't know if this is kind of what he's saying this was a black that even against darkness you could see okay it's something it's something it's not a helicopter that's what i'll something, it's something, it's not a helicopter. That's what I'll say.

And I'm not saying it's not a helicopter just because of the darkness, but also it was at least 150 feet long. What? For the record, that is the size of a commercial passenger plane. Yes, lead with that. For God's sakes, man. Of course it's not a f***ing helicopter And as far as I know, Kit

A Boeing 737 can hover in the air They kind of have to be going in a certain direction Sure, I mean, some planes can hover So it feels like a weird point to get hung up on But, yes How dark are they? Do they make a noise? Okay, but I'm just saying it's not that weird

if we did just have a plane that could hover. I feel like the other stuff... I'm trying to help you here. Tell me a bit more about your plane that you know so much about. I'm trying to help you here. I feel like there's some, maybe potentially slightly more paranormal elements to this.

Tell me, is your plane piloted by three-fe by three feet goblins yeah you haven't said that yet is that what is that what's happening it might be yeah all i'm gonna say is by the end of this story i think we'll know it's not your plane i i never said i had a plane what are you talking about donald said that there were three little windows on the side of the craft, arranged diagonally like a chessboard. The glass in the frames wasn't clear, it was shiny like aluminum foil. But before he could even take it in, the middle window opened up and a smaller craft came out of it. He described it later as some sort of module. I'm so relieved a goblin didn't come out. That is a big relief. There was a green guy on a glider

asking a lot of questions about Spider-Man. Did I forget to mention that? Okay, so this big craft is now a confirmed mothership. Yeah. I don't know what the qualifications have to be for you to be considered a mothership, but I guess just, is that what it means? The mother of the little ships that come out of it?

I think so. Okay, well then there you go. And a reminder, you know, this was the mid-1960s. This is before drones were even a thing. The only tiny flying objects that this guy had seen were baseballs and birds. Yeah. Something this size being able to fly around was unheard of before. And this little drone was the part that really worried Donald. The larger craft would never

have been able to penetrate the thick forest, but this smaller one definitely could. And it did. The smaller craft drifted through the trees and landed about half a mile away from Donald. through the trees and landed about half a mile away from Donald. As you could expect, Kit, this story was only beginning. I want to warn you, Kit, and our listeners right now, from this point onward, there's no going back. Okay. Things are about to get a little crazy. All right.

And I just want everyone to remember how reputable a source Donald is. Are you stalling? No, not stalling i just think this is an incredible case and even in these paranormal stories where we hear kind of outlandish claims we need to treat them all with the respect of any paranormal story you know there you know we got to go in with an open mind. We've got to be, you know, forgiving. We've got to be kind. We've got to be patient.

We've got to not interrupt. There's a few important things. And that's the interruption one is important. Sorry. I know. Yes. You keep making extended pauses. So I think it's okay for me to talk, but that's all right. I'm mistaken. Okay. you keep making extended pauses so i think it's okay for me to talk but that's all right i'm

mistaken okay but i just moving forward the kind of what the takeaways are patience open-mindedness and no interruptions you know i think i'll be as non-critical as the story allows me to be well why don't you say what you want to say okay because what i will say is i just you're interrupting me now and i know i didn't i wasn't saying anything but like i But I've been so close to forming a thought in my brain And then you say something and it scrambles it all up Okay, I'm going to stop talking now So you can formulate that thought Cool

Sorry, I just feel like you're going to interrupt at any second So it's like I'm so on edge Like getting ready for the thing So what did I say? Patience is what we need here Open-mindedness And no interruptions I can't stress that enough Because every time you interrupt for the thing. So what did I say? Patience is what we need here. Open-mindedness. And no interruptions.

I can't stress that enough because every time you interrupt, it throws me off my game. It throws me off my game so wildly that I feel like I almost have to start the whole episode over again. So open-mindedness. Oh my God, you gotta say that again. Don't interrupt me, brother.

Don't interrupt me because I'm getting to something big here. Jesus, man. I just know you well enough that I can tell when you are... Look, I don't want to say too invested. I don't want to say you get too invested in a given story. But, you know... I'm just worried about what's going to happen next.

It's a comedy podcast. It's par for the course that if you present a case that, you know, I'm going to push back on it. I'm going to like bring some constructive criticism, you know, maybe try and have a few jokes. Sure. I'm just so worried you're going to rip it apart. And it's like, it's kind of what we do on the show, isn't it? Right. Yeah.

Sometimes it's just, I feel like this one's an easy target. I feel like if we were hunters, this is a duck with no eyes. He doesn't even know where it is. It's a duck with no eyes and no legs. It's kind of just a ball of feathers. This case is a duck that thinks the barrel of a gun is its mama. That's how easy to hunt this thing is. I'm worried you're going to blast it away. It's fine. Look, we'll is. I'm worried you're gonna blast it away.

It's fine. Look, we'll just move on with the story with open-mindedness, with patience, and no interruptions. Okay. If we could get some

garbled alien speech in the edit right now, that would be great. Donald started to hear garbled exchanges in the distance. From his view up in the tree, he could see a figure come into view on the ground. He said it was short and stocky and dressed in a white and silver one-piece garment.

But it's not the clothes that terrify Donald. It's the figure itself. Its face is a black void. But with two even blacker eyes embedded within it. That doesn't, how could it be a void? And then some of it's blacker than the other bits. We talked about this, Vantablack, it's a real thing. Within seconds, a second identical creature arrived in the clearing.

As they walk, they both emit a noise like owls hooting in the dark. Like, hoo-hoo, hoo-hoo. I guess, yeah. Whether that's them trying to communicate with the local wildlife. Kind of reminds me of the creatures that are described in the aerial phenomenon case. Uh-huh. Which was aliens that came down, allegedly spoke to children, and the children described them as almost being like mist transparent smoky dark mist although they weren't where well it wasn't

that they weren't wearing clothes but they weren't wearing robes or like a one-piece suit like like it's being described here that's true which seemed fine when we were talking about that case in the past but now talking about these aliens it seems like the ones who were talking to the kids should have been wearing clothes. That's a bigger problem we didn't talk about. Before Donald knew it, an even larger, metallic figure emerged from the bushes. This one looks almost like a robot, and Donald described it as having glowing red eyes and a hinged jaw. It's Bender from Futurama. It's a robot. This Terminator starts walking directly towards Donald.

I'm imagining, ka-choo, ka-choo, ka-choo. Can I have some evidence? You're hearing the evidence. Is that like an understandable request? You're hearing the evidence. Is that like an understandable request? You're hearing the evidence, brother. This is it. For this kind of juncture of the podcast. I feel like you sympathize because, you know,

I've probably put you in this situation, and I'm sure most weeks. But I feel like if we're getting down to noises. Right. Anytime you're making robot noises and doing the walk in a story you've gone too far you've simply gone too far without evidence it's not the first time we've had a story where aliens organic creatures come down with robots uh there was one that we talked about that took place in russia where i think a robot came out and hit someone with a pipe and unfortunately i do remember that yeah

this is a this is a common thing is is organic creatures with kind of robotic creatures coming down and working together whether or not that's some sort of alliance or that's just their iphone you know we don't know unfortunately i assume that this robot is like predator all the camo in the world isn't going to help you this thing probably has heat vision eyes and i know look kit you're being very patient you're being very open-minded thank you you are interrupting but it's with it but it's with counterpoints that i do appreciate so that's why i'm going to do you the courtesy of saying things are going to get wilder things are about to get i thought this was it i thought i was i was worried i was extremely

worried after you've warned us all about where it was going to go but now you're telling me we haven't even hit the bit which you said was so easy to attack. The duck has climbed inside the gun. The duck has put the barrel of the gun in its quacker and is trying with its little flippers to pull the trigger. It's hunting itself. The duck grabbed the barrel, put it on its forehead and said, do it, do it.

I dare you to do it. The robot emitted a white gas that rose up the tree and knocked Donald unconscious. He woke up a few minutes later, dry heaving and struggling to breathe, and the robot gassed him again. This kept happening allegedly over and over again. He would wake up, get gassed, pass out, wake up, get gassed pass out wake up get gassed pass out i'm starting to understand why the russian aliens carried a pipe because you know it's a little bit more fail safe than this gas which is seemingly not doing the job yeah i love the idea of these aliens arriving and they're

trying to keep up the mystique of like, like, go to sleep, space traveler. And you like kind of doze off. And then you're like waking up a few minutes later being like, what the hell? And they're like, oh shit, he's awake again. Use the gas, use the gas. They wake up again five minutes later. What the fuck? Why won't he stay down? Hit him with a branch. Hit him now.

The final time that Donald woke up, he decided to fight back. So he grabbed his bow and tried firing at the robot before it could gas him again. There's no way after being gassed five to six times that that arrow was going to hit its mark. He was suddenly wishing he was just a regular hunter, not a bow hunter. Yeah, this is the equivalent of being spun around and then trying to hit a pinata. Yeah. It's not going to happen. When you've been space gassed that many times, it's not going to work.

Apparently, though, he hit the mark. Of course. Of course he did. This arrow struck the robot thing, but it wasn't enough to even take it out. In the end, more robots showed up and apparently teamed together to administer one last gas attack. Strong enough to knock out Donald for good. Kid is struggling today in the studio.

I think he's sleepy because of the dad schedule, like we said. I'm trying to be patient. I'm trying to be kind. Open-minded. And open-minded. Because you are interrupted. You're interrupted a f*** ton, honestly. At what point did we start?

I didn't realize we were accepting children's creative writing projects. I didn't realize that the ramblings of a toddler. Hey, how dare you? This is a man. Constituted an investigation here on this paranormal life. This is a man who's been gassed so many times he can't even spell his own name, okay? So the fact he's able to remember the events of this night

is actually pretty incredible. Sorry, sorry, you're right, yes. I need to be respectful of the story. So, yeah, tell me how many more robots turned up and started gassing him again for the, what, 12th time? Sometimes I have enough rum and cokes to not be able to find my way home, all right? This motherf***er's been gassed by a robot from another planet. I know, I know. So it's pretty incredible he can still talk. All I'm going to say is... He seemingly can remember the story in great detail, despite all the gassings.

All I'll remind everyone of is that this is a reputable member of society who works for a program. Let me see his employment contract. I don't believe, I don't believe, I don't believe this guy is who he says he is. And yes, these claims are quite literally out of this world, but it's an interesting story

and I think you'll be interested to see how it develops. Look, luckily we're out of the woods. Not literally, still in the woods, but the craziness is gone. When Donald woke up after the big gassing, it was morning. There was nothing in sight but trees. The next day, Donald obviously told his friends immediately about what happened that night.

And although they were skeptical, they could see that he was really shaken up about it. So they took him home to try and leave the strange trip behind him. But for Donald, that was only the beginning. You're saying he woke up the next day after the gassings. Yeah. Woke up, it was a bright new day. Yeah. No one was there.

Everyone was gone. It was as if nothing happened. Well, I wouldn't say that much. It was as if it was a dream. I wouldn't say that much. A dream? The humanoid creatures and the robots were gone. But the memories? Everything, yeah. The memories of creatures and the robots were gone. But the memories... Everything, yeah.

The memories of that f***ed up night... Was there any evidence? Any stuff left behind? Any footprints? We're going to get into that. Those robots would be really heavy, too. Like, they would leave footprints, you would think. Surprisingly light.

An army of robots. Space metal is basically like a f***ing bubble to us. It's super light. It's crazy. All right. All right. But as I said, Kit, even though the events were over, this was just the beginning of Donald's journey into the world of the paranormal.

And we're going to continue that journey right after a few words from today's sponsors. All right. Welcome back. As I said, just to, you know, catch everyone up on the story, Donald got gassed big time. Yeah, we know. It knocked him out. There's no way anyone missed,

just like no one missed your request for kindness, patience, and non-interruption. Yeah. No one missed the gassing. You don't need to recap the gassing. All I'll say is, you know, it's a good thing he was strapped to that tree. Otherwise he'd be falling out of it like a dead monkey. Over the next few days, Donald can't shift the memories from his mind. Things got so bad that eventually he decided that he had to get in touch with the U.S. Air Force

and tell them everything he witnessed that night. So Donald told the U.S. Air Force everything about the everything he witnessed that night. So Donald told the US Air Force everything about the object in the sky, the small drone, the figures, the knockout gas. He even showed them one of the arrows that he had fired at the robot creature, but they seemed less than convinced. They told Donald, we appreciate you contacting us, but what you saw was likely just some teenagers pulling a prank. Nothing out of this world. Rude, but okay. Donald was disappointed, but he understood their skepticism, and there was nothing he could do about it. So, he went to grab the arrow that he'd

brought. But before he could, the interviewing officer grabbed it first. we'll throw that arrow out for you have a good day sir even though the U.S Air Force said they didn't believe him Donald couldn't move on he actually started having nightmares about what he saw living the events over and over again in his dreams eventually Donald decided to take matters into his own hands and return to the forest where the events took place, this time bringing along some of his buddies. It's just up here, boys, on the left. What are you expecting us to find, Don? There'll be evidence everywhere. I fired off a bunch of arrows, my jacket came off, I bet I left scratch marks in the tree. But when they arrived at the scene, there was nothing.

There was less than nothing. All of the arrows were collected, and his missing clothes were double missing. It's barely even possible to tell where the fire was that he'd made up. He made up the fire as in when he made it. Right. Right, sorry, there's a little slip of the tongue there. He didn't make up the fire. No, of course it. Right. Right. Sorry. There's a little slip of the tongue there. He didn't make up the fire. No, of course not.

He made it. No, no. Up. Right. He made it up. No, he didn't. You're saying he made it up? Well, that was point three in my requests.

No interruption, sir. Sorry. He created the fire. Not in a fictional sense. He built it. He built the fire. That's the one I'm looking for. It didn't make any sense, Kit. It had only been a couple of days. How was it all gone?

It was like somebody came out there and cleared it all away. That's an option. Yep. Throughout the rest of his life, Donald claimed he was continuously tormented by the memories of that night. He said in his dreams he would have premonitions that aliens were on their way to Earth, and that he lived in fear that they would one day come back for him. Luckily, his wife Judy was extremely supportive, and even got in contact with a paranormal investigator years later to help Donald write a book about his experience. Now, I haven't read the book, but the reviews do indeed make interesting reading. They're all in agreement that the

detail is there, it's just apparently written very badly. But the fact is that this story is able to live on through the book that was written, and many people to this day do believe that the events of that night did take place. Yeah, I feel like there's a lot of, you know, books like this. You know, there's lots of people out there who, you know, I'm attacking it because obviously in this paranormal life, what we love is, you know, having multiple witnesses to an event or physical evidence or whatever. But, I mean, certainly he isn't alone here in

having a soul paranormal experience a close encounter of the third kind yeah which has only happened to him and which there's countless people over the years who have then turned to writing a novel or writing a book about their experience because because it kind of falls into this camp of like look here's my story in all of its detail. You could choose to believe me or not. But for those who know, for those who've experienced this kind of thing too, they'll appreciate and they'll learn from my story.

And for the people who won't believe me, they'll never understand anyway. You know, Kit, what I'll say is, I don't blame you for attacking this case. I feel like as humans, it's in our nature to attack that in which we don't understand. It's the same reason I tried to fight my high school math teacher in the school car park. Because the lessons were so confusing to me. It made me furious.

It made me foam at the mouth. I was so angry. I was being told something that didn't make any sense to me. It made me furious. It made me foam at the mouth. I was so angry. I was being told something that didn't make any sense to me that I said, Dr. Richardson, you, me, 4 p.m. in the car park.

Which doesn't make any sense because like, he didn't make it up. It's like, it's from a textbook. It's just his job to like get you to do the exercises.

I'm just extra bitter about the whole thing because Dr. Richardson kicked the shit out of me he really he wore a lab coat but underneath it he was buff it was incredible there's something really funny about you picking a fight with an old guy and not knowing that he's like a black belt in jujitsu or something yeah and you're like god damn I thought I'd just win on youth alone. I don't know how to fight.

I said, here's some math for you. 1v1 me. And he actually delivered a spinning roundhouse kick to my head. I woke up several days later in the car park. No one helped me, by the way. Six days of school had passed and I was passed out on the floor and no one helped me up how up is that i just want to point out if i'm attacking this case it's not because it's

human nature to attack that which we don't understand i think that's you putting words in my mouth uh i am just understandably cautious and skeptical of any case in which we are relying on a sole witness and when the witness returns to the scene of where some pretty wild claims took place it is quote scrubbed clean of it's as if nothing ever happened yeah yeah you know what i'm gonna it's important for me to uh consider both options here. And yes, a reason why there was no evidence that anything took place could potentially be it's because nothing took place. You're like, oh shit, I never thought. I hadn't actually thought about it until here.

That actually is possible, yeah. It might not have been a team of government soldiers who were deployed to the area at sundown to cover up the scene of the crime it could have just been a lie and i don't know which one is more plausible but i know which one is easier i mean to to go along with the story for a bit here is there a third option obviously we've got our paranormal situation we've got our hoax situation or that he's just mistaken and that it didn't happen at all is there a third is there a third path here where this falls into the classic camp of uh you know some kind of military stuff this is this is uh testing of vehicles of some kind this is military personnel

it was drones it was robots i mean you know for sake of argument, we are, as you say, an hour north of San Diego, one of the most famous like US military strongholds in North America. It's very true. Could the government have been testing a gas powerful enough to kill an eagle? That was their whole thing, maybe. So they were like, hey, all right, we're out in the woods now. No one's here. Oh, shit. There's a massive eagle up in

that tree let's keep gassing it and see how many times it takes to kill it essentially uh that is an option that is an option i think the craft that uh donald claimed to have seen was so otherworldly that that kind of does rule out um a military operation but it's one we have to consider uh i think as you said those are the options uh either he saw some sort of aliens he's a lying piece of shit it's possibly a military operation or as the government officials suggested maybe he was the victim of an extremely elaborate prank which doesn't explain every aspect of the story, but guys in cloaks, one dressed as a robot,

freaking people out in the woods. It's not beyond the realms of possibility. You know, these kinds of stories are really tough. I mean, a place where my head goes quite often too is, you know, again, like you mentioned, a little bit like the aerial phenomenon one, you know, aerial phenomenon, I think they also didn't have a ton of physical evidence of a craft landing. Wasn't it just like indentations in the ground?

Yeah, at most, maybe. And I remember part of the discussion becomes, at what point was this a psychological phenomenon shared by all and it was only more believable in some ways because it was shared by so many people so many children you know is that something we're toying with here that this is you know the reason it sounds wild is because it was you know not that it wasn't, but that it was on some level happening telekinetically or experientially or psychologically rather than in hard cold reality. Yeah. Frustratingly, Donald has kind of made his story a little less believable because that would be a fantastic option if this

was, as you said, kind of a psychological experience. But he very clearly states that he multiple times fired an arrow that hit the robot in the chest and seemingly didn't do anything. So unless he was, unless the gas made him so loopy that he was actually firing at a tree and it wasn't doing anything, he is implying that he had a physical interaction with the creatures that came down from the craft.

So it kind of, you can't argue the fact that they were a dream or a mirage because he hit him with an arrow. Kid, I appreciate that today's story is a wild one. As I said, anyone who's claiming to have first-hand experience and an interaction with life from another universe, it's going to be pretty wacky. I hope that Donald's credibility will carry this story further than, frankly, it deserves to be carried. But, of course, at the end of every podcast, it's up to us to decide independently

whether or not we think there's any truth to these stories, whether or not we think that this case today, the Cisco Grove UFO encounter, is really paranormal. Really tough. You know, we love UFOs. We love UFO stories, even from this corner of the world.

There are many of them. And this has a lot of hallmarks of cases which we have known and loved before. Certainly the craft and everything like that feels, I suppose these days in light of all the recent UAP and UFO sightings, maybe feels the most compelling and believable and in line with other stories we've heard. black with one piece suits and robots gassing him dozens of times and then leaving no physical evidence. That's when it becomes a little harder to swallow. It doesn't mean that it's not true, but it it's it raises the bar for the evidence required, doesn't it? Yeah, it really does. If you're making the more dramatic your claims are the more you need the evidence and in a story like today where the claims are essentially this guy went predator mode he was arnie with face paint firing arrows at a robot man you need you need a couple screws and bolts

to prove that one brother you can't just say that creatures from another universe gassed you out of a tree and not have anything to back it up. So, I think we're probably unanimous on today's decision, but it's going to be a no from me this week. I guess that makes it a double no. Balls! Man, we're on a losing streak of

no's recently. It's just been no, no, no. We need to find a case that's going to deliver that yes and who knows it could be next week's episode that's why you have to tune in every tuesday for your next episode of this paranormal life i feel like sometimes i notice a pattern in these kinds of ufo cases have you noticed this that you know whenever you tell me that's a story from the mid 1960s i am like not remotely surprised when kind of like little men show up it kind of feels like you know we've been doing this long enough now that we see established patterns and you know there's

we know that like the 50s was the beginning of like the modern UFO phenomenon. You had Roswell and everything creating a UFO kind of panic. UFO fever. UFO fever. And then it started to enter the media and the zeitgeist, which caused a flurry of sightings, some of which were maybe real, some of which, many of which probably weren't. And it feels like around this time was then the first idea of you know these things being piloted by little men yeah and it wasn't seen as so ridiculous back then as it maybe is now because

we're now it's been depicted so much in media that wouldn't be taken very seriously if you said little green men jumped out and talked to you uh that wouldn't be taken as seriously today would be seen as less scientific yeah uh so i feel like we've seen this before cases back then when you know and i don't know whether they're hoaxes or not but uh yeah it just felt like little men were showing up all the time yeah whereas uh even contemporary examples like the ufo sightings we've had recently in las vegas or all across the world even the uh descriptions of allegedly spotted creatures are very different. They're all like nine foot now. They grew up.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, the visuals have changed. Huge, tall, humanoid, lanky creatures. Yeah, the world of like tiny little big headed bug men has kind of is gone, really. Yeah. So, you know, it's interesting to see how things have changed uh whether there is any paranormal explanation behind it uh but today we didn't find it it was this wasn't it chief so unfortunately uh we need everyone to kind of

hold your phones or your laptops close to your head, we're going to administer a gas. We found a way to do it. We're going to gas you all right now. Currently, this process only works if you're listening via the Apple Podcast app, the Spotify app. Not supported with Google Podcast just yet or Stitcher of those kind of places.

So you guys are just going to have to hit yourselves on the head with a two by four. Right. If you're rocking the Android, you're going to need to bang your head off a concrete block. We'll be around your house later with a lead pipe.

Don't worry. And while we're not going to be at Cisco Grove Forest ourselves, we are going to be in the United States very, very soon in california in uh la san francisco boston chicago and new york city good news bud i just canceled the la show we could go to cisco grove now you canceled the what don't no he didn't he didn't i i mean it was

pretty important still go still't I mean it was pretty important still go still book tickets it was pretty important no it was pretty important that we play that show but after hearing this case

I think it's even more important that we go see if what Donald was saying is really true there's time there's days in between shows where we can roam about and investigate the paranormal

I don't think so the LA show is still happening it's like a good bit of a commute so I don't think I really don't think we have time for both and like we can do a show in LA anytime. We can't,

we're really locked in. It's still not a pencil. We're hard penned into this one. And like a lot of people have bought tickets and are really looking forward to it. Still come, still come. We can actually just change the date. Like the tickets could still be valid if we move the date.

The date's not moving. So like next year, end of next year. Is that fair? The date isn't moving. When is the show? I'm trying to find out when the show is. October 6th.

It was. It was. But I just cancelled it. October 6th. And we were going to be, yeah, we're going to be, we're actually, yeah, sorry guys, we're going to be on location actually investigating something. No, come to the Vermont. I know, you understand.

Come to the Vermont or come to our show in San Francisco or any of our US dates. And then we're flying back over to the UK to perform in Belfast, London, Manchester and Glasgow. When it comes to this Paranormal Life, we never know when we're going to be on tour. We never won't know when we're going to be on tour again. So if you don't want to miss this possibly once in a lifetime experience, book your tickets today to come see This Paranormal Life live. It's paranormallife.com to get your tickets. And I will say to those going to the London show, this is going to be a special one. So America is very special because we haven't been there before on tour. We couldn't be more excited. And the shows are all pretty massive. I think

we've said before, I think like maybe every show in America is like bigger than any show we've ever done before. Yeah, it's huge. But London will always occupy a special place because it is the home of TPL. It's where we've got our studio. But this one is, all I'll say is bring some friends and family because we have booked a very, very large theater.

Enormous theater. And tickets are flying and everything's amazing and it's going to be an amazing night, but it's a big theater. It's huge. We might have to call in some of these guys from the other worlds for some seats. Right.

We're going to bring in the six foot robots we just will ask them to hold off on the gas until i say a joke that doesn't land then they can then they can gas it up all they want there's something so dark about you doing a joke that doesn't land no one laughs in the whole auditorium you just go gas them gas them all knock out gas people wake up three hours later and there's just a guy on stage sweeping he's like they left hours ago yeah they thought they could just go to the next show we're like snake oil salesmen as soon as people get wise to how not funny we are live we have to move to a new state and perform all over again uh it's gonna be great pick up your tickets you don't

want to miss it it's in the middle of spooky season so get a handful of candy corn or whatever the uk equivalent is yeah we we sausage rolls we spent a lot of time and effort making sure this could happen in spooky season so every single show is in spooky it's all in october um and that that london one we we try to get it as close to i think halloween night does land like midweek this year so that's why we're doing it saturday night baby just before halloween night um so i really want people to dress up for that right come in costume that would be so cool so as i say a big theater you're gonna want to be there this is gonna be i mean this part of my life shows are always about meeting other listeners of the show and there's gonna be over a thousand yeah of other listeners to the

show if you go and i don't want to like you know the show is enough of a reason to go because it's gonna be an amazing once in a-a-lifetime experience. But Kit told me last night he's going to go loco. He said he's on tour and he's going to go nuts. He's going to be chugging beers, doing shots. He said he wouldn't leave the venue until he's personally kissed every person that came. I wouldn't do that. Why would I do that?

Which is f***ing so cool of him. It's so rockstar. I would literally never say that. I'm the one who's married. Why would I do that? Which is f***ing so cool of him. It's so rockstar. I would literally never say that. So. I'm the one who's married. Why would I kiss anyone? On the cheek. On the cheek, you sick f***.

Yeah. We don't want a kiss on the mouth. You didn't specify. God. They knew. And if they didn't, gas them. Gas them now. Sure.

I will be bringing the energy as much as I can. Oh, yeah. I don't know if loco is the word that I would use. It's the word I'm using. Let me tell you. Let me tell you. It's going to be nuts. You don't want to miss it.

Head on over to thisparanormallife.com forward slash tour. And of course, at the end of the podcast, we like to give a very special little shout out to some of the individuals who support us on patreon and that's what we're going to do right now so thank you very much to owen price the price is always rice with owen that's the only currency he accepts rice yeah he owns a rice store so but the prices are quite good so So the price isn't rice. The price is money. It's the name of the shop. The price is rice. But you pay with cash. It's barely even a good pun.

It's not a pun. It doesn't make any sense. The product is rice. The price is money. Do you want some basmati or not, motherfucker? I don't. Okay. Thank you, Owen. Thank you to Kate.

Kate is always coming to people's aid, whether they need to change a tire, whether they've fallen off their bicycle, whether they are even just in financial distress. Wow. That's really, really kind of them. Yeah, it's not. They want money in return.

So if they're helping someone with financial problems but want money in return, that's a loan shark. And that's a bad thing. Right. And if someone has burst a tire, they like come along and change the tire really quickly and then they're like,

a million pounds. Right. That's not helping the situation. That's making it so much worse. And if you don't give me a million pounds, I'm going to slash the other tires. All right.

Cade, maybe rethink your life. Thank you to Isaac Golden. Isaac, you're going to be Isaac Bronzen by the time you get to the paranormal commune. Because yes, as a formality, every individual is stripped of their valuables upon entry just to make sure that everyone's on the same level playing field. No gold, no silver, no diamonds.

And we hold on to them for you. So don't worry about that. We hold on to them and sometimes wear them just to make sure, you know, if you don't wear clothes, they go bad. Isn't that what they say? No. So you got to like wear golden necklaces and golden crowns. So Isaac Golden, if you just give us all your golden stuff. And give us your passport too.

Yeah. You're not going to want to leave. No. With the amount of gold we have in this city. That's incredible. How are you not a Bond villain? Mr. Golden? That is a cool...

I like, you know, Powers is a cool second name, but Golden is pretty cool. The Golden Boy. Thank you also to Jason Gan. Jason is going, going, Gan. Lock the doors. Don't let him go. Have we got his passport?

We do? Good. All right. We're trying to chase him down, but we're so over encumbered with gold. We can't catch him. I'm like panting. Jason's gone.

He gone. He got away. Jason, I'm going to level with you. If we've got all your value bills, you can go. We're all set. We're even. Call it even. And finally, thank you so much to Michael Garrison.

Michael Garrison is an expert in marrying sons. Have you got a son who's just hopeless? Who just is never gonna find love, let's be honest. Come on down to Michael's Married Sons. He will find your son a spouse in 72 hours or less. Money back guaranteed. Wow, how does he arrange these marriages? Mostly human trafficking.

Okay, that's enough from you, Michael. This is very illegal and bad. I shouldn't have said the last bit. He said, don't mention the trafficking. You know, Michael, I am a son. So am I allowed to sign up for this? You're a prime

candidate. Okay, Michael, I'll get in touch in a good way, not the trafficking way. I hope there's another system we can go through. Oh yeah, if you want to pay more you can go through the ethical marrying program and we'll find spouses who actually want to get married to you. Right. It's just Michael

creating you the best Tinder account possible and swiping on your behalf. Thank you Michael and thank you everyone who supported us on Patreon. we quite literally couldn't make this show every week without you so we're so thankful for your support and if you want to check out all the amazing rewards we have over there from exclusive merch to bonus episodes of the show check it out on patreon.com forward slash this paranormal life. I hope you enjoyed this week's wild and wonderful tale.

I want to say thank you to Kit for his patience, his open-mindedness, and most importantly... Limited interrupting. You interrupted! Right at the end! Right at the end

he couldn't do number three. Ah, unbelievable. You were thanking me? I'd like to thank him for not interrupting most of the story you're welcome we'll see you back here next tuesday for another paranormal tale