This Paranormal Life - #364 ROOM 217 - The REAL Hotel that Inspired the Shining

Episode Date: April 23, 2024

By the 1970's, the once beautiful 'Stanley Hotel' looked like it was headed towards total demolition... That was, until one fateful night when the hotel received an unusual guest - Stephen King. King and his wife were the final two guests of the season and after what they experienced that night... it was no surprise. This was the hotel that would go on to inspire King's next book, THE SHININGFollow 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.comEdited by Philip Shacklady Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Is an eclipse really the sun being blocked out by a UFO? How much shampoo can you steal from a hotel room before it becomes a crime? All of these questions you can find the answer to on THIS PARANORMAL LIFE! Hello listeners and welcome back to THIS PARANORMAL LIFE, the comedy paranormal podcast where every week myself and my associate Kit Grier-Malvena investigate a paranormal case and come to a conclusion at the end to decide once and for all whether or not it truly is paranormal. We are back here in the warm, comforting bosom of Northern Ireland. Ah. It has been raining, yes, almost non-stop since I arrived.

No, not true. Windy. Just most of last night. And this morning. It's actually sunny out there right now. You wouldn't know it because the blinds have been pulled for audio excellence. Right now it's quite nice. Currently.

It always seems to get nice right when we start podcasting. Completely grey. Yeah, that does tend to happen. Yeah, I'm a little disappointed because I don't get to drive my car much that I have back here. Granted, it can't drive much anymore anyway in its current condition. So I was a little disappointed because I thought it would be... Fix your car! It's not a terminally ill elderly person, just fix it. It is. I'm driving it straight into the grave.

It almost broke down yesterday! I was driving it to, admittedly, go see a motorbike. So maybe it knew I was basically about to cheat on it. So it was like trying to stop me from reaching my final destination. But this motherf*****, if I stopped the car at any point, it wouldn't start again. There wasn't enough rev in it to start moving. This is a really shit version of the movie, Speed, yeah. Yeah, it was terrifying. Where we had to stay at a lean 25 miles per hour,

the entire drive. But this has just been my luck of the week, kit car problems and also body problems. I don't, this is too much information. Wherever you are going, it is going to be too much information. I got a haircut this week. Oh, thank God. I don't know what you're going to say. I went to get my haircut at my usual place, but I accidentally booked with the wrong barber. My guy...

And you're wondering how bad could it be? Shout out to Stefan. Stefan's great. Oh, and Stefan, a name like that, you know, Stefan's got mid-length hair. Stefan's probably Portuguese. Stefan knows their way around hair. Stefan's a f***ing 10. He has hair of a Greek god. He looks incredible. He knows his way around a haircut. Unfortunately, Blanket had to fill in for Stefan. Stefan wasn't around, he was actually on holiday. So Blanket filled in.

Blanket's got one eye, an eye patch on their good eye, so you were like, how can they see anything? Unfortunately, I think me and you, it's not that we even look that similar, but I think we're both in the camp of like, you know, we're not Jason Momoa. Yeah, we're not Jason Momoa. Yeah. We're not Henry Cavill.

The haircut is make or break. You know, you don't take away the hair, put on a bald cap and then there's, you've kind of, and then everyone's like, wow, I never realized what a strong chin you have. I never realized how chiseled your cheekbones are. No, instead it kind of, it's kind of instant Hitler youth kind of vibes.

Oh yeah. I look like a Nazi. Right. I really do. Kind of like a, but a 12 year old one specifically. I didn't even realize how much I was trying to add things to my face this week until I was wearing a baseball hat, glasses and was thinking about growing my mustache back.

You look like the sketch of the Unabomber. I need more things on my face to take away from the fact that my hair looks terrible. It's tough. I'm sure everyone listening has received a haircut. Have I ever seen you wearing a beanie before? Do you wear beanies? I think some guys look good in a beanie. When I wear a beanie, I look like I'm trying to break into the house in Home Alone. I look like one of the wet bandits.

Well, I think those guys have been vindicated as time has gone on as style gurus. If you look like the burglars from Home Alone, like right now in Soho, New York or London, you're gonna get street photographed. You're gonna get asked what you're wearing. I saw one of them in GQ. Yeah. Saying the 10 things they can't live without. So, you know, I've had car problems, hair problems,

just lots of problems recently. Your life is so hard. I think everyone can agree. It's tough, it really is. But we're both about to have another problem. Because today on this podcast, we're gonna be talking about a haunted location that once you hear about it,

you may wanna go visit it yourself. Today we are investigating one of the most famous paranormal buildings in the world. A beautiful, exclusive mountain resort known as the Stanley Hotel. Once a beautiful beacon of luxury, now the hotel is famous for very different reasons. These days, if you ask any paranormal investigator or horror fan about the Stanley Hotel, they'll all tell you about the same thing. Room 217.

We are gonna find out all about the Stanley Hotel and why this room is so famous, right after a quick word from today's sponsors. And a reminder, you can get every episode of This Paranormal Life completely ad-free over on patreon.com forward slash this paranormal life. Our story today begins way back in 1909 in Estes Park Colorado. The locals had gathered on July 4th for the grand opening of a new establishment nestled in the heart of the beautiful Rocky

Mountains. A building that would soon become one of the most famous hotels in the world. Welcome everyone to the grand opening of the most luxurious accommodation in all of Colorado, the Stanley Hotel. Please help yourselves to hors d'oeuvres, if there are any, and champagne, if there is any any this part of the story is not well Documented so I'm unaware of what refreshments were available on the day weird speech the man opening the Stanley Hotel was Stanley himself an inventor an entrepreneur who would make his fortune in the automobile industry Well, this was also a double win for Stanley because just several years prior Stanley had

been struck down with tuberculosis and doctors allegedly had only given him six months to live. Damn. At the time the medical world was still a little premature. We just stopped prescribing cocaine and leeches for everything. But we hadn't quite nailed down modern medicine yet. So at this point, the most highly recommended treatment for tuberculosis was fresh air and sunlight.

They call it a prescription. That's pretty much just saying, enjoy those last six months, Chief. It's like, my prescription doc is like, take a day at the beach. Read a good book. It's like, all right, it doesn't sound like you take a day at the beach. Read a good book. It's like, all right. It doesn't sound like you have any hope of me recovering. You're, I think the best way to heal fully is to just enjoy every moment

and make sure you finish your will. Saying goodbye to loved ones is a sure way to make sure you recover. Yeah. A great way to recover from this illness is put your affairs in order. Put your, just get, make sure you got a nice life insurance policy. To help cure his tuberculosis, Stanley left his hometown and took up residence

in the Rockies, where there'd be plenty of not only sunlight, but Coors Light. Not only did living out here in the Rockies seemingly cure his tuberculosis, but his love for the area drove him to create his own hotel, the Stanley Hotel. This hotel was beautiful, designed to be a fancy exclusive mountain resort built to serve the elite. It even had full electricity, which for 1909 was very impressive. But by the 1970s, the hotel wasn't looking too great.

After years of neglect, lack of investment, and a few other paranormal problems, the hotel had fallen into disrepair. In fact, many believed it wouldn't be long before the entire building was demolished. That was until one night in the 1970s when the hotel received an unusual guest, Stephen King. Cool. During a weekend getaway, Stephen King and his wife checked into the hotel to have a relaxing few days away from their children. At this point, the Stanley Hotel was just about to close for the season, meaning that he and his wife were the only two guests staying in the entire building.

Wow, you know it's it is a really common thing this thing of the faded grandeur, right? You have hotels that were really something back in the day. But the problem with hotels is they are expensive to upkeep. Actually, we were watching like a little documentary on TV last night because I'm going to Cornwall soon. And they were talking about this beautiful old hotel there. They're fixing up. And they were like, yeah, well, hopefully we get

some customers soon because we got 250 staff we need to pay for. Right. Oh my God, can you even imagine the headache of running a place like that? And, you know. Oh my God. It sounds like my actual nightmare. Every morning, I struggle to find the energy to make my single bed. I just waking up and you're like, all right, good morning.

I'm gonna make 300 beds before serving 200 breakfasts. It's so exhausting. And then think like, if something goes wrong with one room, like you don't have like, if your roof leaks, you ain't got to put out one bucket. You need 300 buckets in 300 rooms,

catching the leaks from the roof. So a lot can go wrong. Us together have stayed in some very interesting hotels. I mean, even when we were on tour last year, we stayed at a very unique hotel in San Francisco. We did. I remember mine had fish hooks all over the wall and there was no AC, two beds in a room that could barely fit one bed.

That's not true. It had a ceiling fan, which is a kind of AC. It had a ceiling fan, which you couldn't turn it up to past half speed because it would shake in the sockets and rattle around like Godzilla was above the building. But also at this time, you know, editor Phil was with us. I think he might've had tuberculosis at this time, you know, editor Phil was with us. I think he might have had tuberculosis at the time. He was stuck in his room, hanging on for dear life. They kind of handed out an 18th century disease at the door of this 18th century hotel.

I remember peeking into check on at one point and it was like seeing the ghost of a Victorian child kind of float to the door. He was having fever dreams, no AC. It was very funny. So there's a time and a place because we when we were leaving we could look back fondly and be like that was quite a unique lovely experience. There's no romance Rory in America anymore, not least San Francisco. Right. You walk down North Beach in San Francisco, it's Bird Scooter after Lime Scooter, after Startup, after Salesforce TAR. So to stay in a, yes, dilapidated, crumbling hotel, at least you felt for a moment

like you were back in the good old days. Someone stole my MacBook. Okay. Yeah, the show was cancelled, by the way. Yeah, we didn't perform that night. Yeah, someone killed Charlie. Someone shot Charlie. He was resuscitated at the nearby hospital.

It's like, yeah, there's no recovering that trip. But this is basically what happened with Stephen King. This once beautiful hotel room, now a little rundown and completely desolate. Stephen King himself said that when they were eating in the dining hall, every other chair was set on top of the table. Oh, come on, that is not luxury, that is rude.

It's the last day of the season. They're probably furious that there's two people who have booked, otherwise they all could have wrapped early. Yeah, hope it was worth it for the like, checks notes $120 that it probably cost for them to stay. He said that music would echo down empty hallways. It was completely deserted and absolutely haunting. At the end of the night, he and his wife checked into their room.

Room 217, the room that would eventually be made infamous by a little book called The Shining. That night, King had a visceral nightmare. A nightmare that his own son was being chased down the very hallways of the hotel by a sentient fire hose. Ha ha ha ha! What? Which I thought was a little, I don't know, Hotel by a sentient fire hose Which I thought was a little I don't know a little comical for Stephen King I would have thought like in his brain his nightmares so fucked up. We can't even

Imagine what's going on inside of his head. Yeah, his dreams are my nightmares His nightmare would just explode my pea brain But in his dreams,'s basically beauty and the beast. There are teapots and clocks walking down the halls. They've come to life. I guess, you know, sometimes when some people tell you a dream story, sometimes you know they're like ironing it out or like embellishing it because let's face it dreams are pretty much nonsense 90% of the time. So I kind of appreciate this pretty realistically

nonsense dream. Yeah, pretty accurate. Maybe he's hiding a few parts of this dream. Maybe the hose had the face of his stepmother or something like that. Sure. You know, all I'm saying is Mr. King, if you want those dreams to come to life,

I've got some Singaporean nightmare shrimp you might be interested in. Things are going to start feeling a lot more real after a bowl of that. If you want those dreams to come to life, I've got some Singaporean nightmare shrimp you might be interested in. Things are going to start feeling a lot more real after a bowl of that. Hey, I mean he did hit the hotel buffet on the last day of service. If you think that's fresh shrimp, you're out of your mind if you think that's fresh shrimp on the last day of service. You know Stephen King likes a shrimp cocktail. He does, he must. You know Stephen King likes a shrimp cocktail. He does. He must.

Stephen King woke up in a jolt, went to the window, smoked a cigarette, and by the time he was done with the cigarette, he had the outline for The Shining fully formed in his head. Hell yes. How cool is that? That's what you want! That's what you wanted in your little romantic San Francisco hotel to like, oh, wake up from a bad dream, smoke a cigarette. And you're like, I know what my novel is. Unfortunately for me being a millennial, my version of that was I stared out the

window looking over San Francisco Bay and I had perfectly crafted a tweet in my mind. Conducted it on my iPhone. P is stored in the balls. Zero retweets, one like. Kit woke up from a nap, honked on his elf bar vape. By the time he was done with his sour cherry vape, he'd come up with the perfect Instagram story. Hey, I need to set the record straight, I don't vape.

Sure, sure, whatever you want to. I just wouldn't want people to think that I... that if I did, it wouldn't be sour cherry all right I'd be wicked water. I'd be huffing on that sour diesel pack all right Now of course this is the reason why the Stanley Hotel and room 217 are so famous It is the actual hotel that inspired the work ofining, Stephen King's possibly most famous piece of work. Since the book and movie, thousands of people have gone to the Stanley Hotel

to stay in room 217, to see if they experience anything otherworldly. This includes actor Jim Carrey, who reportedly got so spooked, he ran from the room half naked in the middle of the night. Wow. That's a mother****** who's been eating some nightmare shrimp. Imagine you were staying in the hotel and you see Jim Carrey do that.

Right! It's, it's, you're like, where's the cameras? Because this is a scene from The Mask. I think he was filming Dumb and Dumber at the time. Oh really? So this should, yeah, have been a scene from the movie. But that is great to call up your friends, and you're like, Jim Carrey's staying in our hotel. I'm like, oh, wow.

Cool, did you talk to him at breakfast? No, he was kind of screaming in the night, running naked through the halls. You're like, yeah, that sounds like Jim Carrey, to be fair. He was pulling his hair out into the air and saying, I'm going freaking crazy in here. But I guess the question we have to ask is, out into the air and say, I'm going freaking crazy in here. But I guess the question we have to ask is,

why would the Stanley Hotel or Room 217 be home to any actual paranormal activity? If most of its history is based around a fictional book, well, Kit, we're about to find out that maybe The Shining didn't actually inspire the stories about the hotel. But in fact, what happened in the hotel inspired the Shining. So as we know, between opening day and when Stephen King arrived, the hotel had gone from riches to ruin.

So what happened? Well it turns out, the Stanley Hotel is haunted as shit. Things probably got off to a bad start when they decided to build the hotel right beside an actual pet cemetery. Which is ironically the name of another Stephen King novel. Which I don't think was inspired by the fact he stayed at the Stanley Hotel. Since the hotel's creation, guests have reported a huge amount of paranormal activity.

Ghosts wandering in the grounds, children's laughter echoing through the halls, and even a vortex-like portal that connects to the world of the dead. Okay, we're gonna need to see some receipts for that one. It's called Stanley's Hole. Can it go straight to the underworld? But of course today let's start with room 217. Ill-fortune at the hotel began in 1911, only two years after it opened. On June 25th, there was a huge flood in the surrounding area that knocked out the hotel's power.

While the lights were out, Stanley took it upon himself to install gas lanterns in each hotel room so that service would be undisrupted. However, a gas leak caused an accidental buildup inside one of the rooms. Room 217. That evening, a chambermaid called Elizabeth Wilson entered the room with a lit candle and kablamo! Oh no. The entire room exploded, sending Elizabeth flying from the room's entrance to the dining hall. Was she okay?

Well, if you're wondering if that's a far distance, I think the dining hall was on a different floor. Yeah, a dining hall in the neighboring hotel, about two miles away. Ten percent of the hotel was destroyed in the explosion, but somehow Elizabeth survived. I knew it. And after waking up from a short coma, she returned back to work. She had lost 10% of her skull. 10% she didn't necessarily need, thankfully. She returned back to work in 1913, remaining employed at the hotel until 1950. Hey, as long

as she got that fat settlement, I mean, she could take them to the cleaners. Yeah, it'd be great if Elizabeth came back. And she was like, the lawyers said I was actually do some work compensation for my injuries. And Danly's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, of course. Uh, yeah, we actually... We have it waiting for you. We have it waiting for you in room 217.

Here's a candle and just go grab it there. It is dark. It is dark. You're gonna need a candle. Just waiting in silence. Kablamo! She's gone again. Elizabeth obviously loved working at the hotel while she was alive.

I mean, she was blown to smithereens and then came back to work there after being in a coma. Yeah. It's a bit of a different time to these days when like Google employees quit because they stopped doing like free breakfast in the cafe. Yeah, back then you mustn't have had that many job opportunities. That actually did happen when I was working at a company in London. We merged with another company that was, we were kind of like, we'd been around for a while, they were like the cool new startup where every time you came in there was like a breakfast bar, you know, the company if

you joined you got like a free MacBook and stuff so you could work remotely and everything. We absorbed them, we bought them, They came to work in our office. And I think the first week they came in and they were like, cool, so where's the breakfast bar? Like, are there snacks in any of the covers? And it's like, yeah, we don't actually do that. Most of them didn't make it to the end of the month. I think a lot of them just quit immediately. So I get it. You get used to a certain level of...

They were like, where's the breakfast bar? Rory's eating beans out of a can like a cowboy at his desk. He's got a campfire. Brother, pull up a spoon. You're looking at it. Yeah. I guess I could share. And what they pay at this company, you're going to be on the bean diet real soon. Yeah. Your colleague walks by, Rory, you hear the price of beans going up? Oh, Jesus. It's like there must be better things to eat in the office than beans.

Sometimes the boss man don't finish his sandwich. You throw it to the editing room like a pack of dogs. The boss man. Just like such serious hushed tones. Sometimes a boss man don't finish his sandwich. So dark. As I said, Elizabeth loved working there so much in her life that that could be the reason why she's still seen in room 217 after her death.

Mmm. in room 217 after her death. Guests have reported waking up in the middle of the night to strange noises inside of the room. And when they check around the place in the morning, they discover someone had cleaned their room in the middle of the night. Yeah, you're gonna notice. You're gonna notice. If you're, hey, if you're like me

and you're a serial not unpacker at a hotel room, you just kind of flop open the suitcase and just rummage around every day for what you need rather than just simply unpacking in a hotel room. You're gonna notice if that unholy mess gets tidied up in the middle of the night. That's true. Usually if you were staying at home

and you woke up and your room was tidied, that would be maybe a stronger indication that a ghost or a poltergeist did it. You are staying in the one establishment. Where they have a key to get in to tidy your room. And people do come in and tidy your room. So if you are hungover and sleeping until 1 PM and you wake up and there's new towels, I don't think it's safe to jump immediately to a ghost did it.

Depends whether you put the do not disturb sign on the door. Tell me one thing. Yep. Was Elizabeth a part-time fireman? Why did she appear as a fire hose in Steven's dream? I have no idea why. Maybe just fire explosions, something like that.

Oh shit, slaps forehead. I didn't put two and two together. Yeah. Fire hose. Got it. Got it. According to the hotel's legends, the ghost of Mrs. Wilson is also very old fashioned.

When I read that, I figured it was a polite way of saying that she's racist. But apparently, no, apparently she isn't a fan of unmarried guests sleeping in the same bed. Couples have reportedly woken up married. She'd officiated in their dreams. Apparently couples have felt a cold force come between them when they're lying together in bed and when they wake up they'll discover that the man's things have been packed

with his luggage by the door. Oh my God. Now 217 is of course the most famous room in the hotel because of the shining, but paranormal activity has been reported in all rooms, all over the building. It would be less time for me to tell you about the rooms that are safe for you to stay in. And it's not just the rooms.

We're going to hear about the dining halls, the courtyards, and probably the most suspicious and paranormal part of this entire hotel. The caves. Okay, I was starting to wonder what was weird about this hotel and that's a clue. There are caves underground and we're going to talk about them right after a quick word from today's sponsors. As women, our life stages come with unique risk factors. Like when our estrogen levels drop during menopause, causing the risk of heart disease

to go up. Know your risks. Visit heartandstroke.ca. All right, let's kick things off with room 401. This is supposedly the worst room in the entire hotel because here female guests have claimed that they were inappropriately touched by an unknown presence.

Wow, I was wondering what could be worse than dynamite, but uh, yeah, sexual harassment might be up there. I think so. Apparently, if you stand in the room's closet by yourself, someone from the spirit world will try and cop a feel. Unpopular opinion? Hotel prices are crazy enough, brother. If they're running a discount, I might just risk it for a biscuit, if you know what I'm saying. You go down to the lobby and they're like, we have a lot of rooms available tonight.

I do want to say room 401. We have a closet where if you stand there by yourself, you will get jacked off by a ghost. It's like, cool. And so how much more expensive is room 401? Like, no, no, no, it's a discount. Oh, it's cheaper. It's, of course.

Yeah, of course. Well, I suppose if it's the only room available. Side note, I'm going to extend my stay. Can I extend my stay? I think I'm going to like it here. I think I'm going to like it here just fine. I'll take breakfast in the room. I think I'll take breakfast in the room. Yeah. And what would you like for breakfast, sir? 12 bottles of LucasAid Sport. And a protein bar would be great. Just keep those electrolytes going, you know?

Can you bring me a champagne bucket of Gatorade, please? Sir, you said that your wife is going to be arriving tomorrow? She can't make it. Trips canceled. Yeah. Blizzard on the road. I'm undoing my belt already as I walk away. In room 428, some have seen the ghost of a cowboy watching them while they sleep.

You folks want some beans? God damn it. I get- does that even line up with the timeline? You said this hotel open in what was like 1909 1909 Cowboys should have been pretty much. I don't know. I don't know Not cowboy time. Yeah, but I don't know. I don't know how Western Colorado still was in 1909 Go to some places in America now. It's still cowboy time. So I don't think it's too strange to see a guy in a hat with a six shooter on his hip. Also in room 428,

people have reported hearing some strange noises. The weirdest of all being the fact that there aren't any rooms above this room. And yet individuals have claimed to hear loud footsteps and furniture being moved coming from the ceiling. Yeah, that one's tricky though, because I think a lot of people have probably heard noises, clattering footsteps in their own house,

you know, not in a hotel, just in their own home. Yeah. And the problem is, it could always just be a dude. But there is no up. That's the problem. They're hearing it in this- Yeah, there's an attic Yeah. And the problem is it could always just be a dude. But there is no up. That's the problem. They're hearing it in the- Yeah, there's an attic space. There's always an attic space.

Even if it's a crawl space. That's true, yeah. So I guess maybe the ceiling's a little thin. Maybe there is someone up there and that's what they're hearing. Now I know we've talked about the haunted rooms in the hotel, but of course the paranormal activity even spread to parts of the hotel

that were hidden from the public. As I said Kit, we're talking about the caves. Oh no. I know what you're thinking, why does a hotel have caves? That's a bit of a red flag I would say. Well this hotel was built in 1909, remember this was back at a time where it was unprofessional in establishments like this to see staff wandering around the halls with the guests. So the hotel used these underground cave systems for the staff to move around unseen.

Nah, that's f***ed up. That's so mean! It's not that unprofessional. It's like,'s so mean! It's not that unprofessional. It's like, yeah, we thought it was a little unprofessional. You'd have to have the staff walking around on their lunch break, you know, looking at their phones. So we broke all their legs. So now all the staff have to kind of crawl around with broken legs. Yeah, they're screaming, they're in agony.

But they're kind of low enough to the ground now that the other guests can't see them. We just don't want to run the risk of one of the staff accidentally looking a guest in the eyes. Because that would be so insulting for a guest to think that they could even be in the same space as one of these gentlemen. So what we're doing is we've kind of built an underground dirty cave system,

kind of similar if you've seen Lord of the Rings. Kind of similar to where the orcs would live, or the goblins, or the dirt men of dirt town. And you can kind of just... You know, you'll take your breaks down there. There's sleeping quarters. We've got some hay bales. There's mud.

You guys love mud, right? You came from it. You eat it. So there's a lot of mud down there. You guys are going to have a great time. And that's for free. We're throwing in the mud for free. They're like, we quit. Um, that tracks. You know, okay, I don't know fully the story of these caves. We have one reason for why it's needed. There are other legitimate reasons because actually you just brought up San Francisco.

When we're in San Francisco, I presented a story, which hasn't made it to the public pod, because it was live only, but it was about a kind of Victorian era baths that were built down in San Francisco's coastline. Yes. And if you remember, we visited a cave. We did, yeah. Because this was obviously like an old-timey 1900s thing

that they were like, how do we get supplies to the hotel and leisure facilities? We will dig underground caves to transport, I don't know, rice crispies and milk every morning. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was just a kind of old timey way of doing things.

Yeah. We went down there to check out this cool site, investigate a bit of paranormal history. Also, at this point in us being in San Francisco, editor Phil was so sick, we thought he might die. And we were gonna kind of Tom Ripley him out on a boat. We were gonna just get rid of the body and pretend like he caught a flight home and we thought he was home the entire time.

So we did some Elizabeth type shit to him. He's like, so what are we doing down here? We're like, there's actually a cool cafe at the end of this cave. So we thought we would all come down and get a latte. So if you want to go ahead, you go first into the cave. Go on down there. We both got oars from our boat. Whack them over the head. Staff have reportedly seen a number of shadowy figures wandering through the caves at night. One of which is believed to be the spirit of a pastry chef who used to work at the hotel.

Until his cross-on exploded. They got filled with gas somehow. Apparently during these sightings, the smell of freshly baked goods filled the caves. Wow. Do you think I'm filled with gas somehow? Apparently during these sightings, the smell of freshly baked goods filled the caves. Wow. So hey, maybe don't exercise that ghost. You know what they say?

That's dope. You smell toast, you're having a stroke. You smell a pan of chocolate, you're about to see a Victorian ghost. And that's one I wouldn't mind having around my place. I assume he looks like the stay puffed marshmallow man floating down the halls with a delicious sweet smell that fills these otherwise disgusting caves I always say this though. I feel bad for the ghosts because like we see this all the time you die on the job

Sorry, bud, but you're doing that job for eternity now Right doesn't matter if you were stocking the shelves at Curry's PC world, like Rory 2K8. You're stuck doing that. You're going to be stalking Nintendo Switches for the rest of time. There's worse jobs to do for eternity, though, than baking delicious treats. Yeah. I do love the idea of people seeing this ghost and they're like, Oh, what a lovely little ghost, a pastry chef who I assume loved baking treats for humanity so much that he just couldn't pass on to the

afterlife. So he stays here on earth. And they're like, no, no, no, no, no, no. They wouldn't let him into heaven. He ate a kid. He's a real f**ked up dude. You know, the ghost that's been jacking everyone off in room 418? That's him.

Same guy. Same guy. Same dude. Yeah. Don't eat the eclairs. He was putting kids in the pastries. As crazy as that sounds. Jeffrey, how did you get these sausage rolls to be so delectable?

Well, one of my favorite places in the entire hotel is, of course, the concert hall. If you're ever talking about a haunted hotel, you know the f***ing ballroom is going to be popping off. Yeah, like why as well? It's weird. There's always some great Gatsby shit going on. Yeah. Well, in this hotel, there is a bit of lore here.

This was a room built by Stanley as a gift to his wife Flora Hmm a gift that she loved so much that maybe she never even left guys from the 1800s We're given gifts that make men look like shit today. Yeah, like is it wasn't like the Taj Mahal a gift Some pretty impressive stuff. Yeah, it was, I believe, built for a partner. Yeah, it's not Tesco's roses and Maltesers. Right, yeah. All right, you know, building a ballroom. You know, I love my wife.

We are hopefully, according to her, as well as me, happily married. Yeah. Have been for a few years. I've got her some okay gifts, but like, you know, I think it maxed out at like an iPad one year for Christmas. You set it up for her. You linked her Apple account. If I'm being completely honest, the base model iPad,

like we didn't get crazy, it wasn't iPad Pro, it wasn't iPad Air. So a ballroom is a bit much. They actually linked the account in the store too. So I've more or less just plugged it in and turned it on. And it was already at half charge. So the charging was kind of unnecessary. She's also smashed it since and I haven't replaced it.

Refused to repair it. I haven't repaired or replaced it. So. I'm trying to think what's the most impressive thing I've built for a partner before. Maybe some furniture, an An IKEA bed or something. Yeah, which also... Lego set.

So, hey, we always think people back in the day were pieces of shit. They were given good gifts. Yeah, it's a little less romantic if one of my ex-girlfriends got home and was like, I have built for you, my love, this Lego Ninjago castle. And I have taken some creative liberties where I incorporated parts of my medieval Lego set into the Ninjago set. I've got you the limited edition Thopter Lego set from June 2. I know that you said that we should spice things up in the bedroom with some toys. So can I introduce you to the world of Bionicle?

I think you'll find I've already assembled some of the main characters. But I assure you, it won't take away from the joy of playing with them that you didn't build them. For one's imagination can create- Well, she's gone. She left. She's gone. Absolutely. Yes.

Shit. Because I was hoping we'd go 50-50 on the larger Bionicle set. Toys in the bedroom, Bionicle. As I said, we're in the ballroom where visitors of the hotel have heard the sounds of the piano echoing through the halls. But when they reach the concert hall, it's empty.

There's no one on stage. Oh, that's a classic music, music echoing through a ballroom. It's kind of, you know, I think it's like, hey, me and you, we hit the nightclubs, you know, back in our youth. Oh yeah. And sometimes the energy's electric, bro. Sometimes it's electric on that dance floor.

Swedish House Mafia 1 comes on. Oh yeah. You're peaking on three Jameson and Gingers. It's a good night. And so I guess in a paranormal sense, the energy from that night gets locked onto the dance floor. Oh yeah. People visiting that venue you're talking about are probably still

hearing Kitten Rory to this day. Right. Talking about, I don't know, Ocarina of Time or some shit. We're talking nonsense. This piano playing will stretch late into the night, even while guests lie awake trying to sleep. Luckily, it's not a lonely life for the ghost of Flora because Stanley, who passed away in 1940 at the ripe old age of 91, is also still in the hotel.

Geez, I mean she hung around for a long time. Yeah, especially after being diagnosed with six months to live because of the tuberculosis. He really turned that one around. He's usually seen at the bar sipping a drink or playing in the billiard room. Which, you know, if you build a hotel while you're alive and it's named after you, I think you've earned the right to haunt it in the afterlife, you know? And honestly, not a bad way to go. As I said, I wouldn't personally want to be kind of grinding away making croissants in a kitchen for all of eternity. But if I built a cool hotel

that I loved to get to hang out there and drinking scotch and kind of reading the paper, there's worse ways to spend the afterlife. Very, very true. Yeah. This seems like not a bad place to live as a ghost. Seemingly you're having a better time than the guests are a lot of the time. Also interesting to note, you said... did you say croissant? No. Croissant? What'd you say? Sure, croissant. Croissant.

Okay, because I got roasted by my friends in London recently because I was getting coffee in the morning and I asked for a croissant and they were like, it's a croissant. And apparently everyone in mainland UK all say croissant. I guess this is the more authentic French pronunciation. Let me think. But they said it was an American thing. They were like, oh, you're so American. You say croissant. And I was like, yeah, but I don't think even my mom says croissant. I think she says croissant. Yeah.

So maybe I'm like, maybe in Ireland, they say croissant. Yeah. Let me think real quick. If I'm mentally projecting myself to a bakery, can I get two croissant? Yeah, it's an R. I think I do croissant, but I do panneau chocolat. Not a pane of chocolate? Yeah, not a chocolate croissant in it.

Right, yeah. Okay, that makes me feel a little better. But that makes, ah, but then I was gonna say that makes more sense because it is French, but they are both French. But panache is a phrase, I suppose. Okay, that makes me feel better because they were tearing me apart like a croissant.

Yeah, I'm not saying croissant. I'm not, no, no, no. That's what I was thinking. I mean, don't get me wrong, it does feel like a toss-up in the moment, and I'm sure I've done it, but nah. I'd feel like a That's what I was thinking. I mean, don't get me wrong, it does feel like a toss up in the moment, and I'm sure I've done it, but nah. I feel like a dickhead if I said it. I'm not in my home town asking for two croissants.

Yeah, because my accent as well, if I rocked up and I was like, hey, can I just get a black coffee and a croissant? They'd be like, shut up, leave. I do quite like saying shit authentically just to annoy people. Right. Just like, yeah, so me and the boys, we actually did a trip last year to Barcelona.

Yeah, yeah. Had some paella. Paella. Paella. Right. We had a baja blast. A taco bell. It's like you're trying so hard and getting it so wrong.

Yeah. Finally, of course, in this hotel, we got one last thing to talk about. You sound exhausted. I almost... I'm done. I just don't want to talk about this, because everything else is kind of cool and sexy and mysterious. And now we have to talk about the Vortex. Oh, okay.

You didn't forget about the Vortex. Oh, this is where you're about to lose me. Okay, cool. This is the point in the vortex. Oh, this is where you're about to lose me. Okay, cool. This is the point in the episode where we lose the other person. Connecting each floor of the hotel is a huge twisting staircase that's been described as a quote,

tornado of spiritual energy. Wow. Guests have reportedly become lightheaded, dizzy, and even falling down the stairs when they're in the vicinity of this tornado. The stairs are just twisting around, they're just literally getting dizzy. It's more than that though.

Apparently people have also seen ghosts, apparitions, and orbs floating around them, all while Mr. and Mrs. Stanley watch from the top of the grand staircase. Wow. Yeah. Quite. Wow. Yeah. Quite a scene. Yeah. I think the worrying thing is that apparently what's going on in real life in the Stanley Hotel is more insane than the work of fiction that was the book The Shining.

Right. Yeah, yeah. Because like, yeah, there was little kids, there was a kind of hallucinatory lift full of blood, yeah, cool stuff for sure. There wasn't orbs flying around left, right and centre. Yeah, caves, the ghosts of people who exploded years ago. Ghost croissant. Yeah, I mean, there is some weird stuff in The Shining though, the old lady in the bath. Yeah, that was terrifying.

Some pretty spooky stuff. This is kind of problematic because the stairs are the one place where you don't want people to become dizzy with paranormal energy. That's more liability because that person's gonna fall, break their neck, now you got another ghost. The last thing Stanley needs is another compensation claim. Yeah to be honest there's so much to cover at this hotel that it's, it's difficult to squeeze into just one episode. What we've described today are just the headlines, but you can see based off of

all of this, why it would only take 60 years from this hotel to go to this expensive, beautiful masterpiece to seemingly being on the edge of demolition. Right. masterpiece to seemingly being on the edge of demolition. Right. Here's my problem is, you know, all right, whenever you say energy vortex in a spiral staircase, you know, the only other time I can think of, well, aside from maybe Bridgewater triangle or something like that is I think of the energy vortexes out in the kind of Arizona desert.

Okay. You know, you have places like Antelope Canyon and there are supposedly out in the Arizona desert, these energy vortexes kind of strange place where the rock formations and whatever about the geology and the history creates strange energy fields. Right. And I've always been fascinated by that. I've always wanted to go and experience that, see what that feels like.

But that makes sense to me. You look at a photo of Antelope Canyon, it looks f***ing nuts. It looks like a magic cave from a sci-fi movie. It kind of feels like it makes sense. These rock formations are 200 million, no, like a couple billion years old, whatever. This staircase was built a hundred years ago. Yeah, I mean, it's a long enough time, but like, what is it about a staircase that makes it an energy vortex? I mean, could it have been built on top of one of these places?

Maybe. That you mentioned. I mean, as we said, this is already a very old, enchanting little corner of Colorado, built opposite a pet cemetery on top of ancient caves. You know, there's a lot of like history and lore. We've seen no ghost dogs. We've seen no ghost rabbits.

There is a, I believe cat. I think there's a ghost cat that's sometimes seen in the caves. As you can tell, there's a reason why I didn't include that. I don't think it's going to do me any favors today. Uh, but I agree. It's very, um, it's a nice mix here between quite unique paranormal entities and quite cliché ones as well, that you would just see in any kind of haunted hotel. The nice thing is, the Stanley Hotel is still currently open to the public.

Obviously after The Shining, this hotel gets so many visitors from hardcore horror fans eager to stay in room 217 and experience The accommodation that inspired Stephen King to write The Shining ironically that little period of hauntings paranormal activity and having a bit of a rundown dingy hotel has worked out quite well for them because now I believe off of the success of The Shining and this horror franchise, the hotel is seemingly doing great and you can still go and stay there now in room 217.

Or the jack-off one if you want with the ghost in the cupboard. Hey, sounds like we need to fill up a pickup truck with discounted cigarettes and hit this place for an investigation. I would love to go, not just because I've always wanted to visit Colorado, but it would be so cool to stay in this hotel. Now, I think this is obviously the actual hotel that inspired the hotel from the book, The Shining, obviously in the movie. I think it's referred to as the Outlook Hotel.

Yeah, it's rings a bell. Not the Stanley Hotel. And they obviously didn't film it at the Outlook Hotel. Yeah, that's rings a bell. Not the Stanley Hotel. And they obviously didn't film it at the actual Stanley Hotel. They filmed it at a different hotel for the movies. So if you're wondering why there's little discrepancies and you've only seen the movie version of The Shining, that is why.

Yeah, because where is the, I mean, the one they filmed at is really famous too. Where is it? Yeah, I don't know. It looks cool. It's like middle of nowhere. The Outlook Hotel filming location. Timberline Lodge.

That's where the exterior shots of the Overlook Hotel were filmed. In Oregon. Okay. Ah, well the interiors were filmed at Elstree Studios in England. Wow. Interesting. I didn't know that.

But yes, if you want to go to the actual hotel that inspired it, the actual place that Stephen King stayed in the real room, 217, that is at the Stanley hotel in Colorado. If we have to expense a trip out there to a luxurious hotel and stay the night just to figure out whether or not we have to give this case a double yes.

Sounds like something that's luxurious. That's fine. Well, I think it's nice now. I don't know actually. I don't know the current state. Hey, okay. It's better than our Steinbeck novel lodgings in San Francisco. Better than San Francisco.

We'll take it. Of course, at the end of every episode, we have to come down on a conclusion as to whether or not we think today's case really is paranormal. Do we have enough evidence to say that we really believe that this place is haunted by ghosts? You know, we obviously have one of the greatest pieces of fiction and of horror ever created that was inspired from this location. So safe to assume there's something special about it. But did that inspiration come from the paranormal activity and auras inside of the hotel? Or did it come from the fact, the kind of the circumstances in which Stephen King was there? The fact that it was run down, they were the only ones in

the hotel, it was probably a little bit spooky. You know, all of those factors. That's what we have to decide. Well, Vroar, you asked the question, is there enough evidence? No. Fair. Safe. Really, really kind of quick kind of lightning decision there. Yeah.

Kind of on the kind of paranormal front. I won't fight that. I didn't even show you a picture. I have no idea what it looks like. No, I'm being harsh. There is, of course have no idea what it looks like. No, I'm being harsh. There is of course, I mean, it sounds like substantial amount of witnesses and there should be, there really should be, because

we have not only a paranormal location here, but a paranormal destination here, somewhere where people have been now traveling to for quite a while, uh, looking for paranormal experiences, pretty much paranormal tourists primed to kind of record this stuff for themselves. So I really would hope for more of that. Yeah. Yeah. That at least just some, some guests in the last 40 years would have, uh, snapped something. Are you calling Jim Carrey a liar? Is that what you're doing?

Kind of. You're calling Jim Carrey a liar? Is that what you're doing? Kind of. You're calling Jim Carrey Star of the movie liar liar a liar. I think I don't know He was acting in that movie by the way, and he struggled because lying doesn't come to him easily I think he's a pretty weird guy. I don't know if I don't know if Jim Carrey in even a perfect world would be Like a great paranormal witness. Yeah, because he's quite exaggerated and eccentric. So I feel like even small little things would be crazy and wacky and massive. Yeah, and he kind of like, didn't he? He kind of had a comeback in recent years where he kind of made a point of kind of losing his mind.

A little bit. In a healthy way, I think. Maybe. Right on the precipice. I agree. I'll kick things off right now by saying, I think it's a no from me this week. Oh wow, okay. Look, this is one of these fantastic stories that is worth covering because of the history, because of the relevance, because it's cool,

because it's a location in the real world that inspired one of the most famous horror movies of all time. I think that's worth talking about, but I don't think we were ever going to find enough evidence to decide that this really is paranormal today. I think it's fair to say, Rory, it's a double no! Ohhhh! But hey, still a fantastic episode. I had a ton of fun researching this one. I think if you're a horror fan, or have have any interesting kind of the inspiration behind this old literature,

it's really interesting to hear about this hotel and how it inspired one of the greatest literary minds of our time. Very cool, very, hopefully you've learned a few interesting facts today that you can whip out at parties with some of your weird horror friends. I know I did. And I have a lot of lovely weird horror friends.

You know, and if you're listening to this and you are running a kind of rundown, faded grandeur hotel somewhere in a remote location, let it be a lesson. Just get kind of a generational talent to stay there. Right. And then kind of try and ensure that they have a kind of, some kind of life changing moment that really, and then that they kind of make a earth shattering piece of art.

Yeah. Part of it. That's like the earliest form of giving influencers free stays so that they tweet about your hotel. Sure. influencers free stays so that they tweet about your hotel. You would get decrepit old writers who are working on their next book to stay in your hotel, to hope that they would mention the hotel

in the next piece of work. And you kind of ensure they have such a weird time, not a good time, but a weird time. Not a good time, yeah. So, you know, if you are out there and you own a hotel that's either run down or, you down or just needs a bit of work, just invite me and Kit and we can record a podcast and decide whether or not it was haunted.

And we'll do anything. We'll do somewhere out in the sticks that's run down, basically a shack with a leaky roof. Or I've actually heard that the Hilton in Hawaii is a little spooky. Oh, do you know, I think you're getting confused. I think it was actually the Four Seasons. Oh, it was the Four Seasons.

On Maui. Yeah, for sure. Right. Yeah. I heard that it's like the buffet, someone ate something so delicious at the buffet that they had a heart attack and now they haunt the buffet. Right. So we would kind of have to try everything.

You'd have to sign up for that. Yeah. And it's like that someone took the snorkeling classes where they can teach you to get your snorkeling classes where they can teach you to get your snorkeling license. I heard that somebody did that and they saw a fish so beautiful, they died. Is that even paranormal?

It's kind of. No, now they hunt the ocean. Okay. Oh, right. Looking for the fish again. Right, right, right, right. I think something like that. Uh, so we should probably, if we feel like it,

do the snorkeling stuff. Okay. So we probably need to. Depending on how much we eat at the buffet. Like a couple of months probably to get our, earn our stripes. Honestly, I think don't even, don't even book aling stuff. Okay. So we probably need to. Depending on how much we eat at the buffet. Like a couple of months probably to get our earn our stripes. Honestly, I think don't even, don't even book a checkout date. Right.

Don't even do it because we might be there for, we might be there all year. Honestly, it's going to be a full on investigation. Okay. Word. And the closet. So there are any ghosts that. All right. Now I think you're pushing your luck here.

I don't want to make it cross because I don't think the four seasons are going to go for that. So. Uh, thank you so much everyone for listening to this week's episode of this paranormal life. Hope you enjoyed it. I know I did. We'll of course be back with some bangers

next week, hopefully heading into another double. Yes. If you do love this podcast and you want to get more, let's say you're caught up with all the episodes. Let's say you want something a little different. Or you're not. Don't go back. If you just started, hello.

Don't go back. Oh, right. Don't listen to any other episode. Well, go back. But you know, just not that far. Yeah. That's not good. You know, okay.

2022, 2021, great years, great years for this paranormal life. Award-winning years of podcasting. Some of our best. Let's not get, let's not get kooky. Let's not go to 2018. Let's not go back that far. Right, right, right, yeah. Don't go back that far.

You don't need to because there is even more recent, cool stuff over on patreon.com. Over on Patreon.com If you want to support the show, if you really enjoy it, this is the best way to do it It's a way where you can give a little bit of change every month The price of a coffee every month But that adds up, that supports the show and it's the reason why we can have cameras, have nice mics, have a studio space, work with Phil, do all of these things, continue to make this show, and as part of that five bucks a month, you also get a ton of really cool rewards.

You get bonus episodes, you can get cool merchandise. We just sent out the next round of our Night of the Commune Coins. If you've been listening to the podcast for a while, you know that we have a commune where listeners of the podcast can come, join together as one, and evade the invasive and frankly, iron-fisted governments of the world

for a smaller-fisted government. Because it's only two fists, just mine and Kit. It's small, it's cute, it's a cult, it's a kind of a hunt. No, no, no, yeah, you said it was a cult. It's a community, that's what I said, I think. A commune, a commune. I think if you check the audio transcript, I think you'll see. You're stuttering, you're sweating as well.

It's a community. It's a community, yeah, of like-minded people, no hierarchy. And we just, because, you know, a community works best when you don't have to think, you know? So we kind of tell you what to think. Everyone wears the same thing. Yeah, there's so many things you don't have to do in the commune, like you don't have to vote.

Yeah, it's so great. You don't have to kind of, yeah, like participate in any kind of processes. Yeah, you don't have to indulge in extracurricular activities or hobbies. You don't even, if you're a kid, you don't even need to go to school. Yeah. If you're in, I mean, if you're in districts six through nine,

you're pretty restricted in where you can even go. So you don't even have to worry about exploring or knowing anything about other corners of the world. You can't go on holiday. Well, obviously not. So you don't even have to worry about exploring or knowing anything about other corners of the world. You can't go on holiday. Well, obviously not. So you don't have to worry about that or save for that. Not that you could anyway, with the amount of tax we're charging people. But our point being, what was our point?

That you could join today. You can join the Commune over on Patreon. There's so many cool rewards over there. One of which is a Knight of the Commune coin, which let's just say if you're in the Commune and you have one of those coins, it opens up a lot of doors, literally. Yeah, you have one of those, you could pretty much just waltz from district nine through to, honestly, three. Yeah, you're gonna have to do a few more favors to get from three to one, but you'll get to three, which is pretty impressive. Yeah, not bad., but you'll get to three, which is pretty impressive

Yeah, not bad. It's got clean water in three Which is pretty cool. But of course one of the other amazing rewards We have over on Patreon is that you can get a shout out at the very end of the episode And that's what we're gonna do right now So thank you to Trinity Hoeym country roads Take me home So thank you to Trinity Hoeym. Country roads, take me Hoeym. Trinity, you're home because you are in the commune. Your old home, your country, which of course you can't remember anymore because we neuralize every new commune member at the door.

So hopefully you won't remember any of your past life, family, origin, birthplace that is gone. But trust us, trust us. This place is better. Trinity, get used to unity because uno, there's only one rule in this commune. And it's that only me and Kit are rulers, which I guess is duo. So this is kind of getting confused with a number of things. Yeah. We tell people about them.

This is tough. It's long winded. Well, stick around Trinity. We'll figure it out. Thank you for your support Thank you also to QCatC QCatC I can see here actually joined us on The night of the commune tier which means they received a coin recently Hopefully or about to receive one very soon So all I'm gonna say is, welcome to District 3.

And that's gonna be a step up from the districts that you're used to. There's a bit of culture shock, I think a lot of people experience. Because, you know, the houses have a bed in them, for example, and there are things like windows, animals. Yeah, and yeah, oh yeah, man, your clothes are a little fusty. You know what, why don't you put on these fresh ones

and we'll get someone from District 5 or 6 to wash those for you. So we could get you feeling nice and fresh. Welcome to the good life. Keep that coin on you tight because there's people are going to want to get that off of you. Thank you also to Kyle Strain. They call him Kyle Drain

because Kyle actually worked at the Stanley Hotel and he spent pretty much every single waking hour in the caves. Oh no. Yeah, it was kind of unfortunate because you know I think Kyle thought he was gonna be working alongside the guests, maybe playing piano, but you know when you sign up during recruitment day, they're like cave cave cave You can work in the laundry room cave cave, and they got to Kyle. They were like I Thought you were already in the caves you look like such a cave man You're so bail. You're gonna fit right in so Kyle strain. I'm so sorry hey welcome to this is a safe space

We're not gonna make you go back in the caves recruitment day cave I'm so sorry. Hey, welcome to this is a safe space. We're not gonna make you go back in the caves And Thank you finally to Candice Hobbs Candice Hobbs inventor of the hob knob. Whoa, like a hobnob for our American listeners. What what is a hobnob? It's a delicious biscuit. Yeah, it is It actually really is a hob hobnob does sound like something that the ghost in room 418 would give you in the closet, but it isn't.

A hobnob is, it's a biscuit. Has no right being as delicious as it is because it doesn't, it's nothing. There's no like chocolate on top. There's no cream in the middle. Well, they do make spinoffs, of course. I think chocolate hobnobs and things like that. Oh, they do?

I believe. Oh, okay. Cause I just do make spin-offs, of course. I think chocolate hobnobs and things like that. Oh, they do? I believe. Oh, okay, because I just eat the ones that are just weirdly salty. The regular hobnobs. Yeah, it is a pretty elite tier biscuit though. So Candice, she lives on a super yacht. Oh, shit. You know, you invent hobnobs, you make a couple dollars.

You know what I'm saying? The SS Hobnobbler. Sailing the seven seas That's incredible. Well, thank you for your support glad to hear that we have no gobbler Got to hear we have the hobnob empire supporting us listening to this podcast Thank you to everyone that supports us on patreon genuinely We couldn't make the show without you if you do want to get involved and show your support, head on over. There's so many cool rewards on so many different tiers.

It's the best way to support the show. I hope you enjoyed this week's episode. We will see you again very soon for another Paranormal Tale. Bye bye. As women, our life stages come with unique risk factors, like when our estrogen levels drop during menopause, causing the risk of heart disease to go up. Know your risks. Visit heartandstroke.ca.