This Paranormal Life - 419 South Africas Scariest Cryptid The Tokoloshe

Episode Date: January 11, 2026

When Anthropologists were exploring the rural villages of South Africa, they noticed something strange... In every home they visited, the beds were raised from the ground on sets of bricks. When they asked the locals why this was the case, their response sent chills down their spine. Today we're investigating South Africa's scariest cryptid - The Tokoloshe. Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube Join our Secret Society Facebook Community Support us on Patreon.com/ThisParanormalLife to get access to weekly bonus episodes! Buy Official TPL Merch! - thisparanormallife.com/store Intro music by www.purple-planet.com Edited by Philip Shacklady Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Are there satellites in space tracking our every move? Do pigeons sleep? Or can I also stay awake 24-7 if I only ate bread? All of these questions you can find the answer to on This Paranormal Life. Hello everyone and welcome back to This Paranormal Life, the comedy paranormal podcast where every week, myself Rory Powers and my co-investigator Kit Greer Mulvena investigate a brand new paranormal tale

and come to a conclusion at the end as to whether or not it truly is paranormal. We are back in the studio, back again, ready to dive into the deepest, darkest corners of the paranormal world. Kit, do you feel ready? Are you ready to grab life by the horns and wrestle it into submission? What is up, my brother? Yeah, I do, I do. I was recently incapacido, uncommunicado, dead. Dead. That's a fun way. I was almost in a coma.

Recently, yeah, you were knocked out with the flu. I was knocked out with the flu. You can almost kind of still hear it in my voice. And so kind of locked in a room for four days. I almost had like an interstellar kind of style like locked in the glass Rubicon banging on the glass like, Roe! Right. Trying to communicate. Yeah. I want a podcast. I feel like I'm reborn. I feel like I'm happy to be here. Nice. I wasn't unhappy to be here before. Yeah, it does sound a little.

No, it's just that like, I give a shit again. Sorry, that's coming out wrong. I just kind of, it's like this almost matters. That's, I think, as good as we're going to get. Okay, let's stick with that. It's funny, the intro questions being about pigeons, because right before we dive into today's episode, I did have something insane happened to me just last week.

I got back to my apartment after a day of work, and upon opening the door, I thought I had been robbed. I thought someone had broken into my apartment and stolen things. My stuff was all over the floor. It had essentially been trashed my apartment. And I very confused and scared

with a baseball bat, went through and searched all my rooms because I didn't know what was going on. Eventually, I realized when I was gone, I had left my balcony sliding door open. Oh, no. Pigeons had come in and destroyed my house.

They had not only destroyed my house They had shit everywhere There was shit on the walls There was shit on the floor The sink They made it into the bathroom And shit in the bathroom But not in the toilet

Not in the toilet everywhere but the toilet The irony I couldn't believe it That I know birds understood irony And because I was filming at work I'd had my phone on Do Not Disturb I checked my phone I had like 21 alerts on my ring cam

See, I was going to bring this up. I thought they had circumvented the ring cam because they did. They went through the back door. They pecked out the lens. No, they unfortunately, devastatingly, you've got to pay for the subscription to save your footage. But I was like, I would have paid so much money

to watch these pigeons come in and fuck up my house. Do you have a camera inside? Yes, I have one. I have six in the living room so one pointing at the fridge, one pointing at the sofa, one pointing at the TV, one pointing at the desk. What are you trying to catch? The fucking hamburger?

Two inside of my lamps. I have one inside of my glasses. My glasses that I wear is also a secret camera. Because anyone that comes into my house, I need a record, all right? Because I'm pretty sure after doing this podcast that I could be assassinated at any point. So even when the pigeons came in, I thought they were drones.

Because I'm the biggest hater of the Internet of Things. Home security, locking your door, not a big fan. Doesn't this just go to prove? It's completely pointless. The one time when you needed to know your flat was being destroyed, your phone was on, do not disturb. Yeah, they should have really circumvented that. That it's like, I know you said, don't do not disturb,

but your house is being raided right now. Yeah, there's a poo alarm. The house has poo in it. So luckily, nothing was stolen. Unluckily, they did break a bite. It was remarkable the amount of damage it was done. There were objects that had gone from one room to another. So I can only assume that it was picked up by a beak.

They were trying to build a nest. Yeah. Yeah, I have no idea. And there must have been more of them. I thought your flat was a tree. Yeah. So I closed the door, tidied up. And then those motherfuck up came back.

Ironically, it would have been better if they had, if your house had just been broken into my burglars, at least you could have claimed the insurance and got your stuff back. Because if you shit in the tray of Rory's PS5, he's going to wish you had just stolen it. At that point, yeah. Unfortunately, yeah, there's not a lot you can claim if it was birds. Act of God, basically.

They came in and did it. But hey, this kind of links up nicely with today's investigation kit because we are dealing today, first hand, with a little animal that's causing trouble in people's homes. Okay. That's right, a cryptid that's taking us all the way to a place that we don't go to often enough on this podcast. South Africa.

Oh, you're right. We don't go there a lot. No. Specifically, around the Quasulu Natal province. I know it well. We're going to dive into today's paranormal case and investigate this little freak. Right after a quick word from today's sponsors and a reminder you can get every episode of this podcast ad free over on a little place called patreon.com. We're also going on tour!

Whoa. Not to South Africa. Down a couple octaves, I think, and decibels. Listen up, f***ers. Went higher and swore. We're coming to America, Canada, and other places. Just head over to This Paranormal Life.com to get your tickets. Enow.

It's our biggest ever toureroy. Yeah, it really is. And if you don't get them, we're going to be a sad. As sad. And broke and lonely. Yeah. So head on over, grab some tickets. Come see us live and hang out with your paranormal pals.

Ding! All right, we are in South Africa, Quasulu Natal. An anthropologist were visiting one of the villages in an attempt to learn about the local customs and legends. When they noticed something strange, in the households that they visited, the beds were raised above the ground, sometimes by bricks under the legs,

other times by stacked tins. But no matter what, every house was the same. Maybe it's to avoid snakes while they sleep. No, no, it's obviously in case of flooding. You don't want to get swept away in the night by a storm? When they asked the locals, their response was a little unexpected. Oh, no, we do that so the Tokoloshi can't reach us. Oh, is that some sort of jungle creature?

The man replied, Oh, it's a creature, all right. An evil creature. Created through dark rituals, fed with blood, and commanded to destroy. The anthropologists were stunned. They'd never come across this creature before, but the more houses they visited, the more they heard stories about the Tokoloshi.

By the end, they'd be putting a couple bricks under their beds too. He's like, wow, these are really interesting. and honestly a little bit silly kind of legend. Do you guys have any spare bricks, though? Just, just in care. You know, I was just thinking. One of the other politicians is just like, can you believe this nonsense?

It's a good thing that over in Britain we're sophisticated individuals. And the other guys are like, mm-hmm, yeah, no, it sounds like a crock of horseshit to me. They're like stacking their mattresses. They're so high, they're almost against the roofs. Believe it or not, Kit, this case was actually a listener submission.

Oh. Niz-Fing. Is, emailed and said, Hey, lads, big fan of the show. You legends manage to strike that perfect paranormal balance between terrifying and totally taken the piss. And I'm here for it. I wanted to pitch you an episode idea

that's a bit close to home, the Tokoloshi. It's a creepy little creature from Southern African folklore, part goblin, part nightmare fuel. It's said to terrorize people in the night, cause illnesses, and even death. This story comes from my girlfriend, Cassie or Casey. My girlfriend, Tokoloshi. She's honestly a little misunderstood.

They introduced me to this paranormal life, and they've listened to every episode to date. I'm sending this pitch in as a surprise for her, so if you do to decide to run with it, a cheeky shout out to her would make me an absolute hero. Cool. That was sent in 2017. This email is nine years old, unfortunately. And I believe his girlfriend was killed in the night by a Tokoloshi. Not enough bricks.

That's why she wanted us to investigate it. But thank you, Nick. And shout out to your lovely girlfriend. I hope we do you justice on today's episode. Let's talk about this thing. What is it? Why do the locals have to raise their beds at night? Well, I've read a lot about this creature in the last.

week, Kit, and let me tell you, this might be one of the scariest cryptids I've ever heard of. In one newspaper story from 1995, a family in the Kwa Zulu Natal province of South Africa claimed to have experienced the Tokoloshi firsthand. It was late one night, and the family settled down for the evening, ready for a good night's rest, something they needed more than ever. Seeing as the last few nights, they'd been kept up pretty late by constant scratching noises and nightmares. Jesus. That night, right before drifting off to sleep, the mother spotted something scuttle across the room. She said, we thought it was a child at first. A child? One of your children or just a random-ass child? Maybe a child, just scuttling about in the night.

That's worse. I'd rather a goblin than just a missus. Mystery child? Mystery child is a terrifying combination of words. Mystery child is a tool album, I think. Okay, well, let me describe to you what this thing actually was. And you tell me whether you would rather it be a mystery child. There's just something f***ed about just being like a single adult. And then just like you hear a knocking about your attic.

It's like, it's nothing. It's probably a child. That is such a kind of. of worms you just said that is such a kind of Do you have a child? Yeah. If you don't you shouldn't be a child. Yeah. They said we thought it was a child at first, but it was wrong. Not we were wrong. It was wrong.

It moved like it had no bones. Oh my God. This still sound better than a child. Mystery yoga child? This child's very flexible. Mystery soup. It made a sound like someone clicking their tongue, but underneath. The floor. Luckily, waking up was enough to deter the creature. It disappeared so quickly that the family wondered if they had seen anything at all. That was until the neighbor's boy burst in, a mystery child.

Is everyone all right? I heard noises, so I came over to see what the commotion was. And I saw it. It was small, like a monkey, but uglier. The boy said that the creature's eyes glowed red, Like fire. It was laughing, but no sound came out. What noise did he? I don't understand what noise did he hear? I thought he said it was glicking its tongue. He didn't hear that three houses over. Hey, you're already picking up on something really interesting kit, which is one of the reasons why I think this is one of the creepiest creatures we've ever investigated. It was laughing, but no noise was coming on. That's so scary. That's so scary. I can't remember. Imagine a scarier thing than looking at something, making a laughing gesture, but nothing coming out.

Oh, that's so terrifying. Yeah, it's giving Babaduke. Yeah, proper horror movie stuff. Yes, as you have astutely picked up, Kit, we're hearing a lot of different descriptions already of the same creature. And that is because one of the most terrifying parts about the legend of the Tokoloshi is that some people say it never takes the same form twice. Got it.

It seems like even in the same night, people seeing it, it's appearing differently. Yeah, okay, okay. I mean, shape shifting, not an utterly unique cryptid trait. However, doing it on the spot, like a little chameleon, but more extreme, that is maybe unique actually in cryptids. I don't think we've heard that. Yeah, exactly. So let's ask the big question. What the f*** is this thing? Why does it exist and what does it want? Well, the origins of this creature are a little bit blurry, I have to admit. In some versions, it's described as being a dwarf-like being, hairy and shriveled, sometimes invisible, other times only seen by the cursed. Which again is pure horror movie formula that only the first. person who's being hunted can see it.

Yeah, yeah. Or like, in it follows, only the person who's been banging can be got by it. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I mean, very paranormal, because sometimes cryptids err into the space of, you know, I sometimes say, like creatures undiscovered by science. Now, that is technically encrypted, but some of them are actually have more paranormal abilities or phenomena attached to them.

This definitely is in the latter camp. This definitely feels like it's not just like some creature from a swamp. Yeah. This thing is supernatural powers. Or an ex-monkey designed in a lab. It is hairy and shriveled. Also, I didn't like the stray that monkeys got from that boy who described this creature. He said it was like a monkey, but uglier.

Which sounds fine until you imagine someone described you that way. Someone's like, what does Roy look like? It's like, well, you know his brother? It's like that, but uglier. You'd be deeply offended. Yeah, because they're even calling my brother ugly, but I'm even uglier. Yeah. Yeah, I don't like that at all.

Other people say that the creature is actually summoned when someone commissions a witch doctor to torment or kill somebody that they hate. Okay. So he's kind of like a little paranormal hitman. Yeah, a little freak John Wick. Yeah. Imagine John Wick with no bones laughing but not making a sound. Mystery child. Surprisingly, Wikipedia actually has.

has one of the best summaries of how it all works. This is fantastic description. It says, the client, brackets, usually a jealous person, will approach an evil witch doctor to take vengeance on someone. The client has to promise the soul of a loved one,

but cannot choose who, as the Tokaloshi will choose the soul it decides to take. Wow. Bad deal, already, terrible deal. The witch doctor then locates a dead body to be possessed and become a to-docholoshi. Tokoloshi. Wow.

Then, once the Tokaloshi is ready to go, they pierce the eye sockets and brain with a hot iron rod so that the creature cannot think for itself. I'm all set on South Africa. I haven't been, I hear nothing but great things. Everyone I know loves it. They go, it's great to go on holiday. They say if you live in the UK, what a place to go on holiday because it's the same time zone. Now that is just handy because there are no jet lag.

You fly really far away, but it's exactly. I'm all set. I'm all set. Because any country that has witch doctors who are for hire. Right. And they're like, okay, so what we got to do is get the dead body and then pierce the eyes. And then we create a little mystery boy, go around eating souls. I'm all set.

Yeah, I don't need to go there. We've got a lot of f***ed up shit in Irish history and folklore. And it's in history. Yeah, not really just thing anymore. You walk around Dublin. there hasn't been anything seen since the gorilla man. Okay? Yeah.

That was the last crazy thing that happened. There are a lot of people who live in Dublin that do look like Tokoloshis, small shrivelled, hairy men that kind of run around harassing people. Yeah. But yes, they're not paranormal creatures. Yeah. Yeah. I do love this idea of that the witch doctor essentially raises someone from the dead, brings them back to life. And then it hits them over the head with a two by four to kind of make them slow enough to not be able to.

think for themselves. So they're kind of like raised up and they're like, oh, I'm back. I don't believe it. My wife, my child, you must take me to them. I can tell them with a Tory. Yeah. The doctor like hits them over the head with a hammer, cracks their skull. And they're just like, blah. And then I, oh, yeah, he's perfect. I can send him out now to do our jobs. He was too smart before. But that's all fixed. Yeah. After this, Apparently, once the piercing has been done, they sprinkle it with a special powder that shrinks the body. I was wondering how we're going from full zombie size. But yeah, fuck me, right?

Shrinking powder. Yeah, should have thought of that. Should have seen that one coming. Incredibly obvious, really. The Tokoloshi is then let loose to terrorize its target, taking its payment in the soul of the client's loved one for weeks, months, or maybe even years. Oh, oh, it's temporary. Interesting.

Yeah, well, taking the soul. soul? Yeah. Or maybe that just means within a week, a month, or a year, it will take the soul. Yeah, fair. Okay. It never knows when it's gonna, he's like, yeah, you know, between you and me, could be a week, it could be a month. Sometimes you don't, ah! Now! He jumps you and your loved one. No, I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I'm actually knackered. I'm going to go back in the grave. This shrinking powder is wearing off, so I'm going to be big any second. And now! I don't think I'd take this deal. Because I, here's the little thing about Rory, all right?

He loves more than he hates. I have many, many, many enemies on this earth. But the thought of haunting them at the cost of one of my loved ones, it's not really worth it. Yeah. You know? I know. It sounded like a very high price now when you, I have to say, when you just mentioned it. Yeah.

Yeah. The price of a mystery loved one. I remember. Can I offer, can I just be like, look, I know that you, it's like usually a lottery system type deal. for this to work, but take it. Take it. Like, because he is... Just as a suggestion.

Yeah. This is a jumping off point. Take it. Because, um... Doesn't really sound like just a jumping off point. If the direction is, take him. It sounds like a hard and fast rule. Yeah, the Tokaloshi's like, I'm going to assume he's not your loved one because he's the

guy you brought me here to haunt. Right. Yeah, but it's like a love-hate relationship. Like, like he is one of my loved ones. Please don't take his soul. Haunt him for sure. Haunt him for all the things he's done to me over the years.

But then hey, that means you don't have to like do two trips. Yeah, I like your logic. This would be a cool, in the kind of fable, this would be the way of getting around it, is you would push everyone away in your life.

Right. So you didn't have any loved ones. Yeah. And no one would understand why you're doing it, but you were doing it to save them. Yeah, exactly. That'd be very sweet. I mean, not really.

You're still trying to create a little demon. But yeah, I get it. You summon the Tokoloshi and he's like, dude, this is just sad. You don't have any loved ones for me to steal. I don't even want the job. You're like, what? Come on, no. It's like when a guy goes bankrupt because he owes someone like $7 million. Yeah.

And he's in court and he's not even gone any shoes. And everyone involved is mad. It's like, this guy doesn't even have shoes. How are we supposed to get a penny? He's like, I guess I'm bankrupt again. Like, he does this once a month. We kind of keep letting him borrow money. This is ridiculous.

I remember, like, two years ago, my bank card got denied at a Starbucks. I tried to pay for my coffee, which they'd already made, and my card got declined, which I think was just a glitch thing. I would like to hope I had four pounds in my bank account. But the guy behind the desk was like, you know what, mate, you can have it for free. And I was like, I do appreciate the gesture. but I'm not that broke. Like I do.

I think this is an error on yours. He's like, hey man, no, it's fine. It's fine. Have it for free. Hey, man. And I was like, yeah. He's like, I've been there, bro. I've been there.

Hey, stay strong. Stay strong. It's like, no, no, I can actually pay for the coffee. Hey, dude, I get it. Look, I was like you. I was a piece of shit. I had nothing. I was a low life, a degenerate, a disappointment.

Like, no, I have. I think your card reader's broken. Hey, dude, I get it. I get it. You're a little pervert. you're a little freaking you can't even afford coffee because you probably spend so much

on only fans and porn sites I'm like what are you talking about I can see it the rings under your eyes you're a gooner bro I can tell

hey real shit gooner to gooner I get it bro I've been there it's like that's not me someone in the back ice latte for guner it's like did you put my name

on that cup Goody Gooner Gooner Soon Yeah Dirty little gooner ice latte. Hey, you left your trench coat today, bud?

They're roasting your ass. I don't want the coffee. I don't want it anymore. Well, I will say one thing that this case has going for it is I kind of believe this could be a real cryptid. Because this deal

to summon one of those, it sucks. That's how I know it's probably real is because it's not a good deal. I mean, this is summoning 101, right? We've seen this with Robert Johnson and people like that who make deals with the devil, deals with demons. They're like the casino. The house always wins.

You know, they strike the deal on their terms. They're the one holding the cards. They're the one in par. And they rig the deal against you. That if you're desperate enough to want these services, you're going to pay and it's going to be a high price. It is. The cost of tormenting your enemies will come at the price of your friends.

Yeah. But let me tell you, even though it may sound like some old wives tale, people to this day in the area strongly still believe in the existence of the Tokoroshi. In fact, in 2011, a study conducted by the University of Johannesburg found that 42% of surveyed participants believed in the Tokolosha's existence. 42% of bricks were not used to build jack shit.

They were mostly propping up, you guessed it, bet. Many people even reported knowing someone who had encountered a Tokoloshi. I mean, when you change form five times an hour, anything could be a Tokoloshi is the thing.

It's like, I saw a green M&M once. I'm pretty sure. Pretty sure. I mean, it has changed appearance multiple times already in our stories. And every time it still looks like a monster from the underworld. Fair. So it's not like it's becoming a cat and walking about. It's generally described as being a small, hairy, mystery child.

What's the most rattled you've been by a creature? Probably the pigeons that f***ed up my house. Right, but like, I mean like rattled by seeing what, like a jump scare. The Dublin Gorilla Man? Yeah, I think that did a bit of permanent damage. I regret asking. I feel like my head got bonked pretty hard. I was going to say, like, for me, like, I think a water rat.

I've seen, I remember. It's not a real creature. It's like from Skyrim or something. I think it is. I'm describing a dolphin. I call the water rats, little f***. I got absolutely startled at sea world by the water rats. Yeah, it was just that, I don't know.

Well, if people talk about them, I don't know if it's actually a different type of rat. But you see a big enough rat? They're huge. It does throw you a little bit because they're also quick. So they kind of jump out, run across and you're like, yeah. Yeah, yeah. They're, they're, they're, they scurry.

I don't like the way they scurry. Although, yeah, and I did work a job. Oh, yeah. Whenever I worked in Soho in, whenever I was an audiobook editor, my last real job before becoming a paranormal investigator, there was a mouse in our office. Our office was, you guys can't see. The TPL HQ is quite small.

Pretty small. I can tell Rory, my old office was about half this. And there was a mouse locked in with us one day. And there was like six guys. And we were all going, ah! We were squealing. It sounds like one of jigsaw's traps from a saw film. And this mouse was losing it.

Jumping from side of the room to side of the room running over our feet. We were like, ah, jumping up on our seats. I've never been more of a bitch. Wow. Didn't know what to do. Didn't know what to do. Hey, sometimes it's the unexpected animals that scare you. I talked on this podcast before about the time I almost died when mid bench press, a butterfly

landed on my face. And I dropped the weights on my own throat, almost killing myself in my own garage. Yeah. I know about the butterfly effect. A hundred percent. They're pretty powerful in the right set of circumstances. Well, when talking about interactions with the Tokoloshi, a man from Limpopo who requested anonymity said, My uncle summoned one to punish a man who stole his wife.

That man went mad. He slept in the cow shed, afraid of the house, and he died laughing with his eyes open. Not the point to get hung up on. Nobody steals a wife. Your wife left you. Just a small point, but I'm... The record. For the record.

Yeah. Yeah. I just don't know how much the guy deserved, whatever happened. I'm just saying it. This is the crazy thing that freaks me out about this guy is even though we know a lot about him. Is that guy? The Tokaloshi. This little guy.

I'm referring to him as. Sure. I don't really know what he, if he catches you, I don't really know what happens. It's not like the Alp where he sits on your chest or like a normal paranormal creature where he cuts you or bites you or something. it just seems to do horrible things to people in many different ways. Yeah, in the, you know, like in a tasteful horror movie, it simply fades to black in the movie before we actually see what happens, leaving much to the imagination.

But this isn't a movie, this is real life. So it is quite disturbing, imagining what's happening here. I mean, apparently what he tells is a type five. Right. He just, he does a bit. It's so funny you die. Yeah, with your eyes open? I don't know.

I mean, that's the only case of someone laughing, though. I think other people have a pretty bad time. Yeah, okay. I mean, what's maybe most worrying is that there are multiple stories where this little guy seems to break his own rules. One time, instead of arriving at night, attacking people while they sleep, he just turned up at a school and started attacking children. That is scary that he doesn't believe his own rules.

that it's knowing he has no limits. Like he's the Joker. Right, yeah. Because usually paranormal creatures do follow some rules. And that's how we kind of understand them. Yeah, it's almost like the mafia or the yakuza. Yeah. They're almost endearing the strength of the code they live by.

Right. You almost have to respect it, the laws of the streets. Yeah. This thing doesn't have a code. Yes. Imagine you were a vampire hunter. Yeah. And you were like, cool. Well, the one thing that we know is that we're safe during the day. Because they can't come out at night. And you turn around and there's a guy like, hello there. And you're wearing board shorts. Jesus Christ. They broke their own rules. Yeah. Okay. Apparently we don't know a lot about them.

Yeah. This event in particular took place in 2004 in the small township of the city of Johannesburg. Children arrived at the primary school and began their day like it was any other. But during the morning assembly, the kids began collapsing out of nowhere. Some screaming as they fell, others dropping to the ground with eyes white in their head. When the dust had settled, the principal gathered the children to try and find out what caused them all to faint. Maybe it was too hot in the hall. Maybe it was mass hysteria.

But the children told a very different version of the story. They said, it ran into the classroom. It was under the desks. It had no feet. Only black stumps. It whispered to us. Oh, man, black stumps. This thing is terrified.

I will give it to you. It's so scary. This is scary, yeah. Laughing without making any noise while you stomp around with black peg legs. You know what this reminds me of? I've told this story on the podcast before, but I remember there was a while of like couple years. This is before I had a kid. Now that I've said it before,

now that I've a kid, I'm a bitch. I need like, I have any movie. If a TV show I watch has to be happy because I'm just mentally fragile. I'm emotionally fragile. I'm always on the edge because I'm parenting. I'm tired. I'm emotional.

But before that, I was a hard lad and I liked watching horror movies. Yeah. And there's a while when I went through watching lots of horror movies. And I was research and I was trying to push the envelope. I was trying to look up, you know, what was a scarier movie. And then there was one that I don't remember the name of. It's probably not even that scary to some people.

But it was like, it sounded really cool. People were like, hey, if you're looking for something a little different, this is like a Spanish horror movie and it's completely animated. What's it called? I want to look it up. No idea. You'd have to Google it. Animated Spanish horror movie.

And I was like, that sounds dope. I mean, animated horror movie? Like, what a novel, cool idea. I got one minute into it, and it was like all these little puppets like, and I was like, nope. I am not watching that. Because I realize that anything is possible in a drawing, anything.

And that, normally in a horror movie, there's a limit. Because you start the horror movie, it's like, all right, there's a guy, there's a woman, right? They're going to try and survive the night. Oh, there's a guy with a chainsaw. It's fine. Dung, don't, don't, do to doong. Anything's possible.

It's worrying when I Google this, a lot of very scary-looking Spanish horror animated movies came up. This is what I'm saying. Was it the wolf house or Alma or one called The Bones? Something that also. There's some scope. Look at that one. Just the man's head.

in a tree, it was going from a tree. Clicked into that. It was at the wolf house. This could be it. This looks horrifying. Yeah. You see what I mean? Because you're like, how bad could it be?

You hit play? And it's like, no. Nah, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. It looks bad, bro. For listeners of the podcast, it's like clay. It's almost like a claymation. Well, I don't know if that is the one, but it does look familiar. It looks like it could be that one.

I don't know. It looks horrible. It's so. scary. Yeah, it's that difference between like a horror movie and I almost think there's another word for it where it's like movies that are supposed to just be like elicit a really horrible disturbing feeling inside you. Like a really unsettling feeling.

To the point where there's like almost even no narrative, it's just like a series of incredibly disturbing imagery of just like, I don't know, a flower dying and an eye bleeding and someone's face melting and you're like, Oh, God. And you go, yeah, maybe the conjuring isn't that scary. It's all right, yeah. Maybe the Babadook was whatever. It was fine.

Yeah, that's horrifying. Doon, do you have no idea what the soundtrack is. Well, that's what I remember. That track's called Mystery Child. In the end, psychologists were brought in, and the school was closed for two days, while the families held a cleansing ceremony where a goat was sacrificed. That doesn't see...

Don't want to criticize. I don't know. Different world, different culture. Doesn't seem health and safety. Doesn't see... I don't know. I don't know. But this is...

I will say it is paranormal. They're treating it seriously as a paranormal case, so I like that. It's hard to say. Yeah. As you said, maybe culturally, that is something that is used in paranormal situations

in South Africa to, you know, I don't know, make us out. sacrifice, hopefully make the Tokaloshi go away. Maybe if someone loved that goat enough, they were like, look, we killed it for you. You don't have to, there's your soul. It's gone. Right. Okay. That's the beloved one. Apparently one of the teachers at the school even refused to return to work. Wow. I'm telling you, this is how seriously this thing is taken. They were trying to quit anyway. You know there was that one teacher that was like, as the whole

pandemonium is going on, they're like, this is kind of a good excuse. Yeah, this is a good time. Because I was going to have to bring up the whole like I've been working having to work weekends yeah and I got this other job offer but this is cleaner this is cleaner if I just because they'll be annoyed if I move job so just tell them is that talk a loci yeah yeah so it's like all right is everyone ready to go back to school I saw the mystery child and he told me he'd kill me if I came back so my hands are tired here got to leave got to leave now of course on this podcast we like to represent the believers and the skeptics which means having to entertain logical explanations also.

And interestingly, the Tokaloshi has a pretty good one. One of the most famous and deadly encounters with the Tokaloshi took place back in 1978. A written report recorded a string of bizarre, unexplained deaths in one village, where victims had all died in their sleep. In every case, the victim had complained days prior about a short creature sitting on their chest, stopping them from breathing, which does kind of sound like an Alp or a mare. Certainly does.

You know, seeing similar ideas here in the legend of the Tokoloshi, coming into your bed at night, trying to suffocate you or give you nightmares and inevitably kill you. Yeah, I would tack on there. Yeah, I think it's not to be overlooked that this is a, this, whilst wild in its description is a general impish small kind of mystery creature that attacks at night. This is a little bit like a sleep paralysis demon. And a mayor also, not so much the Alp, but I remember the mayor when we investigated it,

it also, I believe was a creature that was summoned by a witch that you hired to go attack someone you didn't like. So very similar, which is very, very interesting, you know, because they're coming from very, different cultures, which also makes this next point very interesting, because while looking into this famous case and many others like it, scientists felt like they may have a possible explanation. You see, in years past, the locals in these villages would have slept on the floor, on grass mats, that often circled a fire that was set to keep them warm while they slept in the middle of the room. But what they didn't realize was that the fire was depleting the oxygen levels and leaving behind carbon monoxide, which due to the fact that it's heavier than air sinks to the bottom of the room.

So essentially what was happening was without realizing it, these people were depleting the oxygen levels at the bottom of the room, where families were often sleeping at night, which is also why they kind of accidentally realized, If you raise your bed up and put it higher in the room, you start to see those symptoms go away. Okay. This would explain to some extent, as you say, the raising of the bed. It would explain the dying in the night, tragically, carbon monoxide, the silent killer.

Yeah. They say. Yeah, people complaining, they feel like they're suffering, they can't breathe, and suffocating. But despite these scientific explanations, sightings of the Tokoloshi have continued to this day and often have nothing to do with beds or sleeping at all. What? In fact, here is a photo of a newspaper from 1955 that claims a Tokoloshi interrupted a church service.

What? It's a big, that's a large number of witnesses. Yeah. I will say this is in the Bantu World newspaper. Can't miss that headline. There's actually nothing else on the front page other than the words, Tokoloshi stops church service.

It is what it is. Simple as that. I wanted to dig a little further to see if I could find any more recent sightings of a Tokoloshi than 195. And to my surprise, I stumbled across a news article from the Daily Sun in 2015. This article says, run, Tokaloshi, run. The article says, for more than a year, Susan suffered torture, trauma, and pain. at the hand of an evil Tokaloshi.

The church responded to her desperate call for divine intervention, but the creature is too strong for just one minister. Not one, not two, but six pastors came to her rescue. The Daily Sun, along with 200 residents and churchgoers, witnessed the struggle to remove the Tokaloshi from 52-year-old Susan's shack outside Joburg. Two pastors were seen rushing forward, trying to wrap up the Tokaloshi, but it was difficult to catch.

An unidentified woman allegedly left the shack earlier with a bag, but no one knew what was in it. Pastors fear it may have contained the Tokoloshi. Who's she then? I don't know. What? Isn't everyone on the same team? Aren't they all trying to... It's not certain if the evil Tokoloshi has been defeated or if it will come back again.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Why do they need the... power of multiple pastors to capture it when all they're doing is trying to put it in a bag. I didn't think you, no one thought you meant physical strength. Everyone assumed that they were doing some kind of Christian kamehameha. Write a prayer or something. And they're going to spirit bomb this beast. But no, they're just like, they're like, ah, fuck.

He's in that corner. Okay, if you, if we flank him from this side, he might run into the spare room. room, you lock the door. No. Yeah, if I was having a problem with a ghost or a spirit and I called a priest to my house to deal with it, I would not assume he would come in, drop his bag, put in a mouth mouth guard and some sparring gloves. Yeah. You know, I'm like, dude, I thought you would like banish it or throw some holy water. I don't know you were just going to throw hands. Like I probably would have hired a different guy. You're like 56 years old. There's no way she left with the Tokoloshina bag. There's no way. Susan told the

Daily Sun, for a year now, the Tokaloshi has come into my bedroom and forced itself onto me. When I refuse, it gives me hot claps. I hate this. I wake up every morning with a swollen face, she said. I hate this. The article also claims that the cruel work of the Tokaloshi isn't limited to the bedroom. Susan said, I'm sorry, we just have to address it. Is that supposed to be an innuendo? Which part? the hot claps if quote forces itself on me it gives me hot claps and then it's not limited to the

quote the bedroom I think what we're gonna hear about right at the end to be the case it just feels like they keep writing in innuendos he might be more than just a regular predator he also might be a sexual predator this little guy of course

because he doesn't limit himself to one physical form so why would he limit himself to one crime? Susan says, I used to fight with my children every day for no reason. There was always tension in the house, and I don't know what caused it. I loved my children, but sometimes I hated them.

One of the pastors from the church in Zion said that when he and the other pastors heard about Susan's problems, they fasted for four days. Do something. Asking God's power to help Susan. Do anything. You're going to be weaker because she didn't eat.

Yeah, if one, If what you're about to do in four days is try and catch a water rat with a sack, then for sure eat some sandwiches because you're going to need to be fast and, you know, juiced up. Eat a protein bar and go do something. I have a picture kit of this news report. I'm going to show you right now. This is a much, much, much, much more recent newspaper clipping. This looks very familiar.

Ten years ago. Headline. Run, Tokoloshi Run. Church is chase evil little devil off to hell exclamation mark this is mad this really is mad

because it's a full front page what shape are their newspapers it's a different shape I have to assume this is cropped I guess it was interesting because the last one was this shape too anyway

yeah and it's the full spread of the front page we have a photo here as well and there's a photo attached to it like a journalistic photo they're bagging something let me tell you there's a woman with a bag

and she's bagging something. Yeah. That guy's got a bow staff. There's at least two bow staffs in the image. And a couple of malnourished pastors in the background. There's a lot of commotion in that image. There's a huge amount of people. Yeah.

Well, they said, what did they say? Over 200 people were involved. Good Lord. Insane. As I said, this is something that has transcended folklore. Even if its origins came from these old school legends, where possibly carbon monoxide poisoning was leading to death, being blamed on a paranormal creature.

In as recent as the last couple of years, I've been able to find news reports from these areas where people still believe that they are either being haunted by Tokoloshis, they've seen one, they've been cursed, or they need help getting one kind of off of their back. Like it's attached to them. One of those was a report once again from 2015. where an individual called Roderick says that the Tokoloshi comes to his bed in the middle of the night to torment him and it has now made him a sex slave.

The Tokaloshi kicked down the door and said, Gooney, goon, goro. Roderick says, look, sometimes it's a lizard who scratches him, but mostly it's a short, beautiful woman who comes in to his room at night and says, ducks is... I fucking hate this. This is the news report. Rodreek, who lives with his parents... That's not tormenting. That's not tormenting him.

Yes, it is. It sounds like he likes it. Because Roderick says, yes, there is pleasure, but... Roderick says, there is no happy ending. Roderick, who lives with his parents at their house in El Dorado Park near Joburg. That's not a surprise. That lives with his parents. That's not a surprise.

Surprise. Said that, Oh, I got a girlfriend all right. Oh, yeah. Oh, my, my dad. Hey, yeah, I got to relax. I got a girlfriend. She sees me like every night too.

Yeah, she's hot. Sometimes she's a lizard, for sure. But most of the times, she's a beautiful woman. He said that he told his family about this ordeal. And they advised him to turn to prayer, but it doesn't help him. I don't think he's praying that hard. I think he gets down his knees and at his head. He goes, keep going.

Just keep. Keep doing what you're doing. See you tonight, baby. I love you so much. I pray this never stops. The bravery to admit that half the time it's a lizard is wild. Even if that was the case, I would not have, you couldn't torture that fact out of me.

I would have always said it's always a person. Sure. The Tokoloshi won't allow it. The Tokoloshi does something that makes the women think I'm evil and they leave me, he said. Roderick is pleading for help. He hopes there is someone in the sunland who can help him get rid of the beautiful beast and the ugly lizard that's destroying his life. He's having wet dreams. I don't know, man.

I actually had to cut a lot of stuff from that article. He goes into quite detail about some of the encounters. Every night, a magical creature comes into his room and sucks his... I bet half the time he's like, oh, here comes the creature. Oh, it's the woman. I was going to be the lizard again. Yeah, there you go. Not the place I wanted to leave this case.

It's quite disappointing that the more research I did into contemporary sightings of the creature, the more it was almost entirely about sex. Really? Yeah. That's interesting. But hey, we're not criticizing these people individually for taking it to this place because let's face it, we're seeing so many parallels here with sleep paralysis demons. And one of the most famous sleep paralysis adjacent creatures is the succubus, the incubus, the

Incubus and the succubus. Absolutely. These are demons that, like, sexually assault people. Yeah. They suck you to your bust. I believe that's where the origin of the name comes from. I think it's like a fucking Latin or something. What would the incubus be then?

I don't know about it. I'm not that kinky. Point being, these are creatures. This is a thing. Demons that attack you in the night, maybe in your f*** dreams, that have kind of sexual connotations. So, yeah, I really like the,

I prefer the origins of this creature. Some of the details about him arriving in the night that he takes multiple appearances, even bringing in this idea of like hiring a witch doctor, placing a curse on someone, him stealing the soul of a loved one. I find that very interesting, very cool. It's awesome to learn about cryptids

and other corners of the world. I could do without the sexual assault stuff, Which unfortunately, that seems like that's all he's been doing for the last 20 years. Yeah. Fascinating. It's, yeah. Have we ever had to cancel a cryptid mid-episode? Springheeled Jack, I think, who I think just turned out to be a guy throwing fire in women's faces.

Right. Which is kind of not on. Yeah, I think he threw acid. Yeah. Not cool. Yeah. Okay. What's happened a couple times then?

We should probably cancel more of them, to be fair. They're not usually good people. But yeah, but fascinating. Yeah, because as you say, we do have a pretty history encrypted here, but one that becomes increasingly hard to wrap our heads around in the modern age. Yeah, and we don't necessarily need to wrap our heads around it.

I think we can just appreciate it, learn more about it, and then put it in a box and bury it in the yard. And we do that by coming down on a conclusion at the end of our podcast. That's what we're going to do right now. Kit, where's your head at today with the Tokaloshi? Look, big fat downsides, piss all evidence.

200 people tried to get it in a bag and they didn't get shit. Yeah. Apparently. Otherwise, that would have been the headline of the newspaper. Apparently, some woman took it away in a bag and stole it. I don't. Which is fine. Like, you can claim that this is a kind of spirit, right?

Like, I don't think we expected photos when we went into this. Yeah, you know what? Right before we wrap, They do take many forms, which you'll see right now. But if you do Google the word Tokaloshi and go to image searches, you know, there is a theme. There is like a look to it. And while all of these artist's interpretations are different,

I can show you kind of the general look that the creature has. It's a short, beautiful woman. There you go. Oh, okay. It's definitely not a short, beautiful woman. No. It's like an imp, a gargoyle. It's a skyrim.

NPC. Yeah, you'd kill about 15 of these on the first few levels with your broadsword. It's a little goblin. But then you have something like this. Yeah, which is a little, more of a little wild man, almost a Yeren situation. Yeah, a tiny little Yeran.

Yeah, horrible little bastard basically. All we can do is come down on our own conclusions based on our experiences and the evidence that I managed to gather today, which was a testimony from Roderick that says a lizard woman sucked as d'it. It's going to be a no from me this week, unfortunately, but I loved this case.

It was a great one. Thank you so much, as I said, to Nick, who sent this in, and Cassie or Casey, who introduced Nick to the podcast. I hope you guys have stuck around, and you enjoyed your episode investigating the Tokoloshi. If you want to submit your own creature or tale or story or ghosts for us to investigate. You can do so easily by emailing this paranormal life podcast at gmail.com. We recently covered a case that I think someone emailed in six years ago. So you never know. It might take a little while, but we will hopefully get to your case if it's good enough. And that's what happened today. I think this was a recent submission, but it also could have been from 2017. Yeah, it does. It does happen. It really does. Like we do. We do.

whilst we take very recent submissions, we also go back through the archive, sometimes for a little bit of inspiration. Or sometimes it's the fact that someone shouts something out recently, and then it causes us to go back and see, has anyone else given a tip on that? Has anyone else given us a little angle on that story? So we're always worth sending us a lovely little suggestion.

And particularly, that's a little call out, particularly if you live in somewhere off, I would say the beaten track of where we've done a lot of cases. Of course, we're sitting here in London, England. We've done a lot of cases in this part of the world. If you're in a part of the world where you've got a special local creature, let us know. Yes, the last thing we need is to be going back to America to investigate a UFO. Going back to England. Well, hold on.

That might be next week. I might be next week. Actually, yeah, we do have some of those coming up. We actually have some big stuff coming up. I actually do a 20-part series. Yeah, don't tell them about it. about the series. Okay. So yes, more tiny, niche cryptids and paranormal stories. We love to hear it. Unless they perform moral sex, then we're good. Just kind of hold on to that one yourself.

Or just add Rory to the tag and then I'll probably see it and I'll cover it on my episode. So thank you so much to everyone for listening to this week's episode of this paranormal life. Another classic, another cryptid crossed off of our list. You think we'd be running out by now, but they just keep coming out of the woodworks. It's like Wachamol. It's like Ghostbusters too, where I think at one point the mayor of New York just frees all the ghosts.

For some reason, I think someone convinced him to free the ghosts. And then immediately he was like, ah, shit, that was a bad idea. Who are we going to call to fix this? Well, hey, speaking of New York, speaking of all of these incredible American cities, we are going to be busting ghosts at every single one of them.

Very soon because this paranormal life is going on tour back to America. Tickets are on sale now. You can pick them up, get your seats and guarantee to check out this paranormal life as we investigate ghosts all across the United States. And Toronto. Yeah, biggest tour yet coming to, I think, twice as many cities in the United States of America as last time. Yeah. As well as adding on a show for our Canadian brothers and sisters.

in Toronto. You better turn up. Apologies we couldn't do more in Canada, but great to get across the border for at least one. Exactly. Yeah, I'm very excited

about that show. Toronto being a... Tadat. A sweet spot for me. But yes, I hope you do come. If you don't, we do have the first

and last names of everyone who listens to the podcast and I will be hiring an army of Tokaloshis to hunt down every single one of your mother-

doesn't make you ever to come to a show. There we go. I just said it. There you go. So I hope you all like getting your d'I sucked by a lizard because he's coming for you tonight. ThisparnormalLife.com. This paranormal life. Right. I should probably tell people where they can get tickets. To buy tickets. That's great. Bring a friend. Bring a family member. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And if you do want to come to the show, but you also still want to get your tucked by a lizard. Stop talking about that. Okay. Yeah. I'll probably, yeah. Just give me, we can figure it out. I'll still figure it on.

Yeah, go buy some tickets. It's going to be great. It's going to be some amazing. nights all across the US. We're really looking forward to it. And of course, some of you will have already got your tickets because you got early access to those tickets. That's one of the cool rewards that you can get over on patreon.com forward slash this paranormal life. Listen up here, folks.

This show is like Santa's sleigh. It can't fly. It can't work. unless people believe in it. I think that's how it works. Sure. If people don't believe in the show, then the show doesn't exist.

It's like Tinkerbell. Okay. You know? Yeah. So, you know, okay. The show existed before Patreon, though. Yeah, but it couldn't. It wouldn't have lasted.

Yeah, exactly. It couldn't continue to exist. It couldn't continue to function. And the sled, it existed, but it wouldn't fly. Yeah. There you go. There you go. Give it to you.

This show only continues. to exist. It only continues to be possible. We can only afford to come to America and do shows and meet people and host this podcast and have this studio because of the people that support us on Patreon. It is all because of them. So if you want to be part of that army, that group, those people that support the show and make it possible, we would really appreciate it. The best place to do that is over on patreon.com where you can sign up for as little as five bucks a month and get access to we're talking hundreds, hundreds of episodes of this paranormal life, both bonus episodes released every month,

and the after party released every Friday where we go behind the scenes, talk about episodes of the podcasts, our upcoming tour, the making of, I'll probably talk more about the pigeons that shit all over my apartment, all the stories that you want to hear more of that we don't quite have time for during our regular episodes of the podcast. You can get it all over on patreon.com forward slash this paranormal life.

And of course, one of the other rewards that you can get is your own shoutout at the end of the podcast. That's what we're going to do right now. All right, kicking off with a great one. Thank you so much to The Night Bastard.

Yeah, well, that's, yeah, best friends with the Tokoloshi, I would say. I think that is a nickname for the Tokoloshi, the Night Bastard. Really appreciate... That's what he'd be called in Scotland. It wouldn't be in Scotland. They're like magical sounding a name as Tokoloshi.

Yes. The Nightbastard. The Nightbastard, I don't know how you're making money. I don't want to know, frankly. We do appreciate the support. But I think if we could say as far away from you and your business as possible, we would really appreciate that. But thank you. Also thank you to Skeleton Light.

Skeleton Light sounds like a product that would have been launched in the kind of days of Nikolai Tesla. that like some mental inventor would be like, we're going to replace light bulbs by simply standing a skeleton upright and painting it with phosphorus gas. And it will just glow in the dark and it will illuminate all the family as they read by the skeleton light.

Did you say you're going to paint the body with gas? We haven't worked it out yet. Was the man alive when he was painted and he's now a skeleton? Have you ended up with a skeleton? This guy's not going to buy one. You, sir. Would you like to buy one?

Would you like to buy one? No question. Skeleton Light? Thank you, Skeleton Light. It seems like business is booming because you're supporting us on Patreon. We couldn't be happier. So thank you so much.

Thank you also to Paddy McLeave. Paddy McLeave is another word for an Irish goodbye. I'm going to Patty McLeave. Yeah, which, of course, if you don't know, is when you're at a party. Yeah. Maybe you're feeling a little tired. You don't want to do the runs. Yeah.

So you simply take everyone's wallet when they're not looking. That's not an Irish goodbye. No, no. Oh, yeah. No, no, no. Do you think Irish people work? No, no, no. We steal.

We steal. Irish goodbye is when you raid the liquor cabinet and then leave it out saying goodbye to anyone. Yes, I believe a becleve, Patty, is a recent, recent, member of the paranormal commune. He's joined now. Paddy, please don't McLeave us. That's what I'll say, because we want morale to be high, we want to be strong, and

if people see other people just arriving and then turning around and leaving again, doesn't reflect well on the quality of the commune. So, the drawbridge is up. You can try and make leave, but I think you're going to find your McStuck. I was going to say you could Patty McStay, but, okay,

Mick Stuck works as well. Mixeduck sounds so bad. So thank you, Patty, and thank you to everyone that supports us on Patreon. Hope you guys are heading over there to check out the content. And I hope that you're clicking on the link in the description of this podcast to pick up your tickets to see this paranormal life live. Hopefully in a city or state near you very soon. Or also Toronto and also the UK. Yep.

Thanks for listening to this week's episode. We love you and we'll see you again next Tuesday. Bye! Thank you.