This Paranormal Life - “They’re Not Men” - The Zanfretta Incident

Episode Date: July 7, 2026

In 1978, a night watchman was patrolling the mountains of northern Italy when he noticed something unusual… several strange figures had broken into one of the houses nearby. He didn’t know where they’d come from or what they wanted but he did know one thing for sure - they weren't men. Tickets for London Live show!⁠ ⁠https://www.tickettailor.com/events/cheerfulearful/2084541 Become a commune member to get access to bonus episodes: ⁠https://thisparanormallife.com⁠ Follow us on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Join our Secret Society Facebook Community⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Buy Official TPL Merch!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Edited by Philip Shacklady Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In 1978, a night watchman was patrolling a remote villa in the mountains of northern Italy, when he noticed something strange in the garden. Bizarre figures walking around in one of the houses. He didn't know where they'd come from or what they wanted, but he did know one thing for sure. They weren't men. The next time he was seen, he was waking up in a field nearby with no memory of how he got there. So what happened to the security guard on that night? Who were these strange figures breaking into the house?

And can a ghost still walk around on really windy days? Or would that f*** him up? All these questions you can find the answer to on this paranormal life. Hello everybody and welcome back to This Paranormal Life. The comedy paranormal podcasts where every week we dissect a brand new paranormal tale. We lay it on the operating table and we go, Kip, scalpel, scalpel, we open it up. We look inside and we decide whether or not it is paranormal. Are you excited today, Kit, to be back with another paranormal case?

Absolutely. Okay, I like the analogy. We're dissecting the truth. Well, I got a great case for us today. A real interesting one I couldn't believe I hadn't heard of before. There is some video evidence and it might be a little bit graphic, but we're going to get on to that later. Don't worry.

But this is a family show and... I don't think it is a family show. It's a family show. I don't think so. We don't, we bleep the f***. So it's a family show. And so we're obviously going to blur anything that would be really graphic. I shouldn't have this then if it's a family show.

Oh, right. For God's sake. Do I have to, do we have to blur this? Blur that. Obviously blur that. We're going to get, well, sorry. You should have known that was there. You should have told them off. Why'd I have to tell him off on air? Listen, just because it's a family show doesn't mean you can't pull out a gun on stage

You threaten your co-hosts if they don't give it a double yes. A toy gun. Toy gun. Right. And beep every time we say gun. Because we can't. This company is hemorrhaging cash. And we can't afford to not get demonetized everywhere, all right?

Yeah. So just so everyone knows we're not getting demonetized. It's not a real. Oh my Jesus. Oh, shit. Oh, okay. Oh. Can we start over?

Can we start? Don't throw it. Don't throw it. That's a real gun. Are not a good... Sorry, don't, I keep saying the word. Beep it every time. Blur it every time.

That's crazy. Is that why that was so expensive on the internet? I just thought it was like a really good replica for like $6,000. It's a real gun. This is a train wreck. Yeah, sorry about that. I thought, um, as I said, this, this episode is intense. There's a lot going on, all right?

And it's graphic and we're going to get into it because we need to. Because guess what, guys, sometimes paranormal cases. It's not a little pile of goo comes down and gives you a little kiss on the cheek. Sometimes it's terrifying. Sometimes it's scary. Sometimes something goes up your butt. That's most of the time, to be honest with you. And that's what we need to talk about today on the podcast. The butt stuff.

But before we do, did I nick you there? Scalpel. Okay, sorry. All right, we're going to take a quick break because I actually think that toy weapon. I won't say what it is. I think that toy weapon actually clipped Kit in the side. So just a reminder before we go into the episode, you can go to patreon.com to join the commune.

He's bleeding out. Not bleeding out. He's feeling a little bit sleepy. My co-host is feeling a little bit sleepy. So we're going to go to a quick break. Sign up on Patreon, guys. And we would really appreciate that. Thank you.

Our story today begins on December 6th, 1916. 78 in northern Italy. Doing okay, buddy? He's doing great. Now, when we think of Italy, we usually think about the beautiful cities, delicious food, and Hillary Duff riding around on a moped in the Lizzie McGuire movie.

But that's not the Italy that we're exploring today. Today, we are 30 kilometers northeast of the city of Genoa, location of one of the Holy Grails, as we learned from one of our previous episodes. I was gonna say, I thought I was having a strew. No. On top of my bullet wound. We're...

Yeah, we're back in Genoa. Close to Genoa, yeah. But today, we're in a small village surrounded by narrow twisting roads and thick mountain forest. In this village, a man named Pierre Zanfretta was working as a private security guard, driving around at night and checking that none of the fancy houses in the village had been broken into. Usually a pretty quiet gig, but on this particular night, something will be a very quiet gig. something went very wrong. While driving from home to home, Pierre spotted something strange by the villa known as

Casa Nostra. He grabbed his radio. This is Pierre. I've arrived at Casa Nostra and the gate is open. It looks like the front door is open too. Then a crash! Pierre whipped his head towards the front of the home just in time to spot strange lights from inside the Casa. Pierre obviously believed

he was dealing with a break-in. So he hopped out of his patrol car and slowly entered the property through the garden. Okay, Pierre, you can do this. Just ask them to leave. Maybe they'll be cool and just... As Pierre rounded a corner, he froze on the spot. Right outside the house was a large red oval object

faintly glowing in the darkness. While Pierre was busy studying this bizarre shape, He heard a shuffling noise by the front of the house. He slowly turned around to face the noise. And this is where our story really begins. Standing there in the darkness were the beings. Pierre stumbled back, panicking. He radioed his supervisor.

This is Pierre Zenfretta. I need help immediately. Pierre, Pierre, what's happening? The next thing that comes through the radio is shouting, scuffling. and heavy breathing. Pierre, are you being attacked? In that moment, Pierre could only reply with one simple sentence.

They're not men. After that, the radio went silent. They're women. Crazy stuff. Or children. Today. I don't believe they are women or children. I believe they're not mankind.

Man, mankind. These are not, they're not humans. Dogs. I don't think so. Okay, well, Alcum's Razor, you know, I'm just saying. Yeah, well, when you see the giant floating, glowing orb outside, I think you're right to consider aliens in this case. That has to be probably one of the scariest things.

I think a security guard could radio in. They're not mad. On a night call with no context. Instead of just being like, hey, something weird is happening, or I think I heard a sound if you just hear. They're not men! And then the radio goes dead. Yeah.

Yeah, for some reason, his radio broadcast really, to me, gave, like, crew of the Erebus, a kind of intergalactic alien movie world spacecraft. It's like, this is Pierre of the Erebus 622 spacecraft. We have been boarded by strange creatures. There's explosions in the background of the video call. Please, we have 25% oxygen.

Yeah, yeah. And then feed lost Feed lost And then it like Comes back later And they're like Oh there is It was like

I was wrong There was no problem Why don't you open the air lock And let me in You're just screaming like two seconds ago No everything's fine now Knock knock it's Pierre Were Pierre's eyes

Always completely black I mean like All of it The whites, the pupils. Let me in to your delicious human spacecraft. Sorry, do you mean the spacecraft is delicious or do you mean delicious humans are in the spacecraft? Right, the first one.

Yeah, it's terrifying. I mean, experiencing a burglary has got to be a terrifying enough experience. I can't imagine the situation if they're also not human. That's a lot. to consider. Well, I, you know, always wondered what I would personally do in a burglary situation. I mean, my childhood home was burglared many times. Was it really? Almost once a week. That's a slight exaggeration, but several times. So I know what it's like to return home. And they never caught the guy.

It was Rory. I waved at the camera. It was a kind of a white lotus situation. I was giving Rory the keys every time we went on holiday. The thief was only stealing Nintendo 64 games and Doritos. And after the holiday, I'd like talk to Roy, I'd be like, I give you the keys. Why'd you smash every window? For God's sake, man. Well, after that incredibly disturbing call,

Zanfretta's colleagues rushed to the villa for help. But when they arrived, he was nowhere to be seen. When they did eventually find him, he was unconscious, lying in a field near the property. The other guard said that that... Sorry. The other guard said that when they woke him up, he was allegedly so disorientated that he pulled his gun and had to be disarmed by his colleagues.

So what the hell happened to Pierre that night? Who were the beings? Quote unquote. Well luckily, because Pierre was a pretty no-nonsense kind of guy, people took his story seriously. The incident was reported to the police, and because this involved a rich person's house, They actually cared, and it wasn't long before they quickly arrived at the scene to investigate. And immediately, they were met with some interesting questions. To start, the investigators on site discovered a flattened semi-circular impression in the grass near the villa, right by where Pierre had claimed to see the large object.

But aside from that, there was really no evidence that anyone had visited the home, which meant that might sound like a lack of evidence in today's case. But when I say they found nothing, they found nothing. The wealthy home had been broken into, but nothing was taken. Nothing was broken. Whoever was in the house, they weren't there for a smash and grab. Which I understand is maybe not enough proof to say that whoever was in the house was extraterrestrial. But I do find it interesting because if I went to another planet and visited an alien's house, I'd be grabbing some shit on the way out. Well, would you though?

I mean, I'd be worried if I touch something, my skin falls off. There's a risk for sure. It's a little bit like a kid in, you know, it's a little bit like taking a kid to an antique store. It's just like, don't touch anything. I said don't touch anything, all right? Because it'll probably be fine, but really no good can come from it. Right, yeah.

You're just like, you're just like, oh, guys, thank you so much for having me. Honestly, like, I didn't know if I was going to like alien food, but dinner was delicious. What's that over there? You just go grab a glowing orb on the countertop, and it just gives you diarrhea immediately. And you're like, oh, God, they're like, why would you touch that? That's the diarrhea orb. I just wanted to steal something. I thought it would be worth a lot of money.

Why would you have that? Were you even constipated? That's why we have it. Yeah, we keep it in the bathroom. It's the poo button. You push it, you poo. That's how it works. What kind of, like, alien version of Meet the Parents is this Ben Stiller on another planet?

Alien Robert De Niro being like, he touched the constipate. He took the diarrhea or what do you do that for? Were you constipated for? No, then I don't understand why you would touch the orb. All right. I can tell that today a lack of evidence isn't going to be enough to convince Kit that this is truly paranormal. There's just a lot happening. There's a lot happening quite early.

How about we take a pause then? Because I appreciate that there is a lot happening. So, let's rewind a little bit. Pierre, who's supposed to be a security guard, guarding a house, saw some figures moving inside of a house and a strange object outside it in the garden. He went to the house to see what was going on, and when he did, there were beings outside of the house. Not men. Not men. They're not men.

His memory ends there, and he wakes up in a field. Now, there's a lot of missing time, obviously, but right now, the police cannot find evidence that the people inside were there to smash or steal anything. They don't even know how they got into the house. It's very strange, very suspicious. But without any clues from the house itself, investigators decided to turn their attention to Pierre. Pierre, we just want to understand what you experienced on the night. Tell us what you saw.

And let me tell you, he did not hold back. Pierre said the beings were around three meters tall. Three meters? Yeah, we're really getting into this. Whoa. Their skin looked strange and wrinkled, almost like it was folded over. They had yellow, triangular eyes and sharp clawed feet. Now, obviously, the police don't really know what to do with that information.

I think they were hoping for more of like a, what color were his eyes? Yeah. How tall were they in jeans? Yeah. Instead of saying it looks like their skin, their leathery green skin had been folded over. Yeah. Question two was what was their car registration? So we're a little off base for sure.

Yeah, I'd like to think there was like a police sketch artist on the scene. And it's like, Pierre, don't worry, I've done this a hundred times. You'd be surprised with how much we can get out of just very basic details. Can you tell me a little bit about the individual's nose? They didn't really have a nose. Per se? It kind of went into their face, creating sort of a vortex. text in which no light escaped.

He just puts the pencil down. He's like, I'm going to take lunch. You guys shouldn't have brought me here before we asked him about what he saw. Listen, I obviously don't have photos of these creatures, but what I do have is an artist illustration. So if you'll give me one second.

Phil, can we bring up the first piece of evidence today, please? Okay. Whoa, geez. Yep. It's kind of predator. Is it? Yeah, a little bit. Because they got like the spikes coming out of the side of their head

or reminding me almost of Predators' kind of signature Dreadlock style hair. Yeah. I mean, for those of you who are listening, this is a photo of Pierre presumably in his uniform with a flashlight pointed straight up because that's how tall these motherfuck are. It's twice the height of him. I would say... Motherf is 4'11, so everybody's three meters tall.

to him. You don't know how tall he is. He could be six foot. Well, in this little largest interpretation, he looks short, but that's because they're three meters tall. Yeah, they look enormous. Yeah, they're essentially tiring over him almost double his height. I can see what he means about that it looks like their skin is folded over because it looks like they got that goddamn crocodile belly. I was going to say, yeah, it's kind of predator meets Michelin Man. Yeah, yeah, like layers to the skin. Yeah. And there's a lot of weird stuff going on with the face. We got some like, those big lips, triangle eyes.

I know. I don't know why I can't quite pin down what it is. It's predator about it. But the head, to me, is giving a little bit of predator. Yeah. Yeah, it's pretty hideous. Guys, it is safe to say, they're not men. I think he was bang on the money with that one.

Yeah. You know the way we've got not deer? These are not men. Yeah. Now, the police do close the case. but Pierre's story has already spread, and within days, it's front-page news. There are a lot of news broadcasts on the internet talking about the incident. It's hard for me to kind of play them in any meaningful way because they're all in Italian,

but it's still very cool to see how widespread this story became in such a short period of time. I didn't know this, but Italy in 1978 was already in the middle of a wave of UFO sightings. Interesting. So there was already some buzz in the media. whether or not the population was kind of whipped up into hysteria, or if this was just a time where the country was experiencing a UFO flap, as they're called, where there's kind of just a lot of sightings in a short period of time. Of course, all of these UFOs popping around the place also meant that there were already UFOologists in Italy hunting for the next big case.

And many believe that with Pierre, they had found it. So, investigators and paranormal researchers made contact with Pierre and convinced him to undergo hypnosis. To see if he could undercover some of the details of what happened to him that night. Now, usually when I say the word hypnosis on the podcast, ironically, like he's been hypnotized, Kit takes his phone out and I've lost him for the rest of the episode. And you know what? He has every right to do so. because this becomes a difficult part in a UFO case where the next piece of evidence becomes

what someone is talking about in a dream, essentially. Correct me if I'm wrong if you feel about it differently, but yeah, it can be tough. Yes, the technique we're describing is the controversial technique known as regression hypnosis. Yeah. Which is for someone who has missing memories, The technique alleges to bypass some whatever processes have happened that have blocked out those memories and and almost like a hard drive that is damaged in some way that we can go in there and recover the files that deep in your brain somewhere is the experience of what happened.

And sometimes this gets used in movies. It's like it's like a trope. It's a way of someone accessing missing memories, realizing what actually happened to them. very, very popular in UFO circles. The problem is, from what I understand, this is a very similar technique to what is used for people to explore their past lives. Oh, right.

It's really kind of the same thing. It's like people, you know, have it going into hypnotic state and trying to access something that doesn't happen to them. But anyway, no, but trying to go back into a former life or project. To me, it blends a little bit.

it becomes for better or worse, almost entwined with the likes of projecting your consciousness, astral projection, you know, some kind of telekinetic extrasensory perception that we can place our consciousness back in time somehow. Right. You lose yourself a little bit in the process. It's like, I don't even know, do regressive hypnosis people, do they even really believe that the memories are just in there and we have to get to them? Or do they kind of believe we're a little bit going back in time to view it all again. I don't know. I mean, we'll get onto it a little bit,

but yeah, it's a very weird and interesting thing. Listen, I think this method, this technology is going to become very popular because in a world where online security is starting to fail with deep fakes and AI, people being able to access all of your stuff, I think the only way people are going to be able to protect their passwords and their sensitive.

sensitive data is to get hit over the head with a baseball bat so they don't remember it anymore. And then anytime you get like locked out of your Gmail account, you're like, oh, fuck. It's like, all right, I'm going to go to the hypnotist and he can like get it back out of me, you know? Interesting. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, because it's almost like encrypted messaging. But it's in my head. Yeah, there's like an encryption code. So that I don't have for some reason. Domit security. I don't even know my own password. I have to pay a wizard to dangle a pocket watch in front of me.

So I can remember how to log into my Facebook. Which is kind of all already how it works though. Because like if if the if the password manager I use goes down, I'm eating a bullet for lunch. It's over. What am I supposed to do with the rest of my life? You almost ate a bullet at the start of this podcast. It went straight to my gut. I didn't even have to eat it. It'd be funny if you did this where you were like, I need. to remember my login information for my online banking. So I went to the wizard and he robbed me. He just got the password and then I woke up and he'd moved. He'd left the building. He was like, oh, shit. Unbelievable.

I think it's interesting to talk about because, yeah, this has come up on a lot of podcasts before, but let me tell you something, Kit. This case might be the one that has changed my mind on regressive hip-hypict. therapy. Okay. You know, I think I've been down on it in the past before. And don't get it twisted. I was not hypnotized into saying this. Right. This is my opinion. It's funny how that works. Like, I just feel like if I was bringing this to the table, it would be horseshit. It would be just, what are you doing? Why are you wasting my time? Well, we're going to, you know, you most of the case it's about a regressive hypnosis. And it's like, you know what? I'm actually

starting to come wrong at all this regret. You know what? Seeing is it'll be embarrassing. thing for me if no one believes this shit. Actually, I think everyone's been a little hard. I think everyone's been a little hard of aggressive hypnosis. Y'all mind if I die on this hill? You'll, you're gonna understand why in just a moment, okay? But to continue on with the story, on December 23rd, so close to Christmas.

Guys, do it later. 1978. Is Pierre Bottis Pett's Presence yet? Pierre underwent regressive hypnosis with a psycho-theworthy-old. with a psychotherapist and a medical hypnotist named Mauro Moretti. For the sake of clarity and complete honesty, I want to also let you know that during the session, there were also paranormal investigators and UFOologists.

Well, probably for the best. Which I do love is they're like, listen, we need this to be an unbiased experience. This is a delicate procedure. We're going to be adventuring through the human psyche, and we need absolute professionalism. I mean, it's like, okay, Pierre, you're entering a state of sleep. Ask him if the aliens have a queen.

So get him out of here. As he's grabbing Pierre by their shoulders. Pierre, wake up. Wake up and tell me what color their face was. Don't get him out. Because I think it is that deli. I think like when someone's under in the state of hypnosis, you have to be very careful. Isn't that what they say about like waking up sleepwalkers?

Right. I don't know what they say about it, but I think they're like, you shouldn't do it. If you do it, they stay in Jumanji. Yeah, yeah, yeah, they get stuck in the dream. Low key. Yeah, so I think it's like, take that with a pinch of salt. Yes, they were trying to do this from a non-biased standpoint, but there were guys in tinfoil hats in the room.

Believe it or not, through the hypnosis process, try saying that five times fast, Pierre began recalling what happened to him that night during his blackout. Now Kit, this is why my perception of this certain technique has changed because somehow, for some reason, the entire hypnosis session was filmed and uploaded onto the internet. Interesting. It is over an hour long. You can watch the entire thing from start to finish. And it's genuinely quite scary.

It's quite scary footage because it was filmed in. 1978, so it's black and white, grainy footage. The audio's kind of like crackly. It's all in Italian, so it's translated. And you're essentially watching this person being put under and communicating with like a room full of people in lab coats. It feels like something from stranger things, they would find in an old monitor in a lab underground.

Dope. It's very crazy. So this guy, he basically puts Pierre in a trance. I don't know why we're still talking. All right, cue the footage. No, no, not yet. Not yet, because this is the part I need to warn people about before we to get the footage. You just said we got, we got an hour of footage? We, I watched almost the entire hour of footage.

And I am going to bring some of that on the podcast today. Great. You would not think. Dude, do you know how, how f***ing nuts this is? I assumed it would be, I assumed before I watched this video that the way this went down was, there was, yeah, a guy in a purple suit with a pocket watch spinning it back and forth until someone starts talking about... Yeah, the abduction or like looking at one of those pinwheels where it's the black and white

swirls going round. Fair warning, if you do want to find this video and watch it for yourself, the hypnotist essentially puts Pierre in a trance while he's lying flat on the bed and he starts off by convincing him that his hand is ice-cold and none. to the touch. So it starts off with him like kind of like flicking it, touching it. And he's asking Pierre, who is now under, he's like, can you feel anything on your hand? And he's like, no. It's like, can you feel anything? No, they flick it. On camera, they put a needle through his skin. They're like, okay, this is going great. Can you feel anything? They pinch his skin and put a needle through the

flesh while he's lying on the bed and he does not even flinch. He's completely out. It was one of the creepiest things I've ever seen. I cannot believe this is just on YouTube as a public video. I just want to quickly say that I think I once brought up that Chris Angel did this and you had to go at me and said that that was a trick of television magic and Hollywood magic. And I was like, no, I'm pretty sure they actually did put, they pierced his hand with some shit. And you were like, no, no, they didn't. I mean, he's a magician. He's a TV magician, though.

I'm telling you that this show is real. I'm telling you, it's possible. And now you're telling, what I'm saying is now you're trying to tell me that it's possible. And I'm like, yes, I know, because I saw Chris Angel do it. Okay. And I'm not saying that this is exactly the same thing. The hand starts bleeding. Pretty bad.

Well, they have to like. Well, Chris is a trained individual, so maybe, I don't know. It's so funny because they're like, okay, that. It's like, I see your hand is numb. That is great. Pull it out. Okay, he is bleeding. Can we get someone, please?

I actually, I think I nick the vein here. Yeah. What's happening, doctor? Nothing. Stay in the state. Calm down. Stay there. I'm getting a little bit of feeling back in my hand.

If I'm being honest. If I'm being honest with you. No, no. Wait. Rock a bye baby. Let's get it back under. Come on. Doctor, get a doctor in here.

It's like, I think he has about five minutes before his heart pops. Feeling a little bit stressed, doctor, I thought I was supposed to be under. You are. Shh, it's everything's going to be okay. It's going to be okay. Here we go. Someone's already claiming this is our year. Someone else said that last year, too.

A round of James and ginger and lime arrives at the table. Smooth enough for kickoff, smooth enough for extra time. New friends pulling up a stool. Debates about whether that was a handball. Cheers rising like a roar around the room. Because match days are about the shared moments. How did Jameson to your match day lineup? Jameson, it's what you bring.

Please enjoy our products responsibly. Listen, I say all of this because Kit is in the studio with me. Some of you will be watching the video podcast. I do have video evidence of the hypnosis, and the video evidence does start with the needle in the hand thing. Okay. Which I think we might blur if you're watching this on YouTube, so don't worry, because it's pretty.

But if you're comfortable kit, I will let you opt out if you want. But if you are, we can watch it in the studio now and react so that our audience at least understand kind of how insane this is to see. And if you don't want to, that actually is also fine and we can skip ahead. Let's watch it. And if I'm emotionally damaged, I'll just sue you. It's fine. Okay. Deal. Phil, can we bring up the video evidence? Now this video is also in... in Italian with subtitles.

So during this, I will also be reading out some of the dialogue that's been translated that's coming from Pierre in bed. I'm going to keep my sunglasses nearby. Sainty what's asking, do you feel something with the needle? Oh my God. EO! So the doctor is telling him your hand is completely numb. Cannot feel anything. And the needle is like through his skin.

It's really rough. So now he's lying in bed and he says, I'm sleepy. I can't get my eyes open. What's wrong? What do you want from me? Leave me alone. I didn't look for you. No. Don't put the helmet on my head.

No, I beg you, it's hurting. Ouch, the head. Stop that light, it's bothering me. I don't want to be quiet, no. You will not manage to take me away again. I will never come here again. I don't know, but it sounds like they're in control of the situation. And after all, you are not human beings.

You are horrible. Why just me? No, I don't want. This helmet, it's hurting me. Ow, stop it. I beg you, stop it. Stop with this helmet. Put it off. I can't stand it anymore. And then after an hour, they snap him back out of his state of hypnosis. He's like, oh, my f*** band! God! That was way worse than the helmet! So here they are.

You can see the room where they kind of had him in with a microphone pointing down to him in bed. Some guys in lab coats just off to the side. Yeah, imagine if he was put under. Yeah, he just started being way too honest. He's like, oh, finally I'm out of that. God damn doctor's waiting room. God, that guy was an ugly piece of shit. And he smelled bad, too.

Yikes. I just started laughing because as Rory's reading the subtitles, which I do believe were what was being said at some point. It's just all, because all I could hear from Pierre himself was just like,

no, please, no. And Rory's like, get the helmet off me, damn it, you piece of shit alien goons. Yeah, he's like, no, please. No, no, no. Still weak. Yeah, the way he speaks is like very mumbly quiet

and one sentence can go on for like 20 seconds. So obviously I'm reading off the subtitles which is not matching with the sync. And those clips that we saw, those are just some of the kind of the scariest quotes in the hour-long hypnosis session, which is really, really terrifying stuff. Like it feels like he's speaking as himself

when he was abducted. He's like almost really, living the experience. He's asking to be let go. He's calling them horrible creatures. He keeps talking about a helmet saying, stop putting the helmet on me. The helmet hurts. I don't want the helmet. Really? Like, I don't know. There's something I find genuinely very creepy about that. What do you think the helmet is? Well, he does go on basically in the last part of the hypnosis session, instead of getting him to relive the moments, they start asking him questions about what happened.

And through that period, they are actually able to like garner a better picture of what he was experiencing when he was delivering those quotes. I was going to show you this in a little bit, but now is a great time. Phil, can you bring up our next picture? Let's show kit the helmet. So there we go.

So this is another artist-sillic. basically based off of Pierre's description of what happened to him on the craft. And in this drawing, he is kind of strapped to what looks like some sort of medical bed, but it's vertical. And he is strapped standing up to the bed, surrounded by these creatures, these alien dudes. And on top of him, it looks like there's a jellyfish on his head. Yeah, it's giving jellyfish It's giving head massager

It's giving Old school like hair dryer From like the 70s It's giving pasta strainer Collander Yeah, something's going on his head And then there's kind of That's connected to a kind of halo thing

That goes around that Yeah Probably the best example Is probably the old school like hair thing With the big dome Yeah A big dome comes on top of your head. And there's something in front of him, some weird kind of like

cannon-looking heater that's pointed at him? Yeah, it kind of looks as if they're going to shoot a cannon at him at point-blank range. Yeah. But it's not a cannon. It's something else. Looks like a Donkey Kong barrel. Very much Donkey Konga for GameCube. This, seeing this artist illustration, I don't know what Pierre thinks of this. I don't know if this is, was commissioned. signer? Yeah, yeah. I don't know if he agrees with this. But if I had read out those quotes while we looked at this image, you'd be like 100%. This makes total sense. Like, I'm scared your monsters. Don't put the helmet on me. This hurts. I don't like the helmet. That sounds exactly like what this person will be saying in that situation. Oh, and by the way, the aliens are like the

Pokemon Electabuzz or something. Like it's... They look like, uh, is it? Is it a, is it? I'm not really good with the old school horror creatures, but is it like a swamp thing or creature of the Blue Lagoon? The Blue Lagoon with a webbed kind of... Philis Googling. The Black Lagoon? Yeah. That's what these guys look like. The Black Lagoon, is that it?

Yeah. Real creepy, creepy, creepy vibes. Now, as I said, in the second half, Pierre talked more about being inside the craft, seeing a strange bright room being examined by silhouetted face. and as you can tell from our drawing, during the hypnosis he was actually able to give a better detail about the creatures themselves. He said, They are green with triangular yellow eyes, with big horns. They have green flesh and their skin is full of wrinkles, as if they were old. Their mouths look like they're made of iron.

They have red veins on their heads, pointed ears, and arms with fingernails. fingernails with round things. They come from the third galaxy. All right, well, where'd that last bit come from? Because the rest was a visual description. I don't know. What does that even mean the third galaxy? Maybe one of them had like a t-shirt on. It's like, third galaxy university. Well, I went to a third galaxy and all the goal is the little t-shirt.

Yeah, I don't know what that. That feels like however they were communicating and sharing information with each other, it wasn't speech. Also, what's the, what's the logic of that? They come. from the third galaxy is like yeah we're from the third galaxy so you guys come from one of them and you guys named it not the first one you guys were like now that one's the first one then that's probably second give or take and i think we're third yeah i don't really i don't know about that maybe they're like we come from the third galaxy from the star from the yeah the black hole in the center of the milky way yeah i don't know that's that is a weird yeah ask him more about that But anyway, yeah.

But yeah, they sound absolutely hideous. They sound like mingers. They sound desperate. I like that the scientists in the room are just like, it's like interesting, the third galaxy. It's like, and tell us, Pierre, do you know more about? And Pierre's like, well, let me tell you about the helmet. Oh, to be honest with you, because this thing was crazy.

It's like, Pierre, look, I know we understand like the helmet was nuts. You talked about it was most of the record. I know you were out, but it was. was like 55 minutes of helmet talk, and then you just mentioned the guys at the end that they're from the Third Galaxy. It's like, Pierre, we didn't want to break it to you, but whenever you passed out in the garden, a coconut fell in your head and half of the coconuts. You thought it was a helmet, it was a whole thing. That wasn't part of the experience, bro. You just fell face first into a bucket.

Get those f***ing off me! You beast! You beast! I can't get it off! It's like the handles hooked on you. chin Pierre. He's running into walls. What kind of sick technology is this? Unfortunately, whatever was happening to Pierre, it wasn't over.

Because four days after that hypnosis session, on the night of December 27th, 1978, it happened again. Pierre was back at work patrolling the area like usual. The weather was rough. Fog and rain rolled in from the hills. Definitely not the kind of vibes you want on your first day back after being abducted by aliens. I was going to say, give the guy a couple weeks off sick leave. Yeah. They were like, oh no, that's so crazy.

What, aliens, and they broke in? That's horrible. So are you okay for the double shift starting tomorrow? I just wouldn't like, because the rhoda is set. So, and you know, Ashley, she's trying to take a bit of time off. So I would hate to ask her to do over time, you know? Yeah, so if you could, we're going to switch around the Rhoda a little bit. You're doing the night watch at Hallowed Peak, which is sort of in, it's kind of at the edge of Death Valley and Nightmare Rock, if you've been down that way.

And yeah, just while you're off, we changed up the uniforms a little bit, so everyone now wears helmets. Yeah, yeah. No! Yeah, he went back to work, and at some point during his show, he. shift, Pierre radioed headquarters again and delivered another frantic message. His car had stopped in the middle of the road and he could feel that something was wrong. Then his radio went quiet once again. And he disappeared.

Just like the first abduction, his colleagues and police headed out in the night to begin searching for him. They scoured the village for hours until they eventually find his Fiat 127 in the middle. middle of the road, and Pierre is nowhere to be found. Oh-oh. Pierre! Pierre! Can you hear us? Where are you, Pierre?

Are you okay? Pierre. Pierre! Then, one of the men cried out, He's here! We have him! When the search party reached Pierre, he's in a state of absolute shock. To make matters more confusing, despite the heavy fog and rain, Pierre was completely dry and his heart.

body was unusually worn. Maybe most terrifying of all, beside his body, police discovered large marks that were later described by some as giant footprints. Phil, bring up our final piece of evidence, please. Here is a photo of, I guess, one of the investigators on the scene who took a photo of his foot next to the big foot. Which has been colorized to. I assume for us to see it. It's been highlighted and colorized to the point where I can't even tell if there is a footprint under there. I'm a little worried about that. Yeah, it's, yeah, it's so overwhelming.

I can see a little bit of overline in that kind of bottom of the image here. Yeah. But yeah, it does make you worry if the color wasn't there, would we be able to see the outline? I want to show this because it is evidence in the case, even though I don't think it's very good evidence. Okay. So they're rocking, you know, size 15 Jordans. These are big feet. And I will say, um, pretty relatively human shaped feet. I don't know if Pierre got to look at those dogs on the UFO. But like, um, if the dogs were out. If the dogs were barking, I don't know if they were. These guys could have had some sort of space shoes on. So, yeah. It's funny earlier you mentioned about the, you know, sometimes evidence being the absence of evidence. It is a little funny that.

the weirdest thing that had happened to Pierre was he wasn't wet and he was quote unusually warm okay well that's not the weird the weirdest thing was the helmet okay I think you'll find yeah but okay but it doesn't have a helmet this time no it's not gonna let him keep it you don't even get to keep the helmet it's not like graduation but like how warm are we talking

unusually warm Like, would they give him 30 seconds in the intergalactic microwave? No. I think the implication and why that's relevant. He was still cold in the middle. It's because it's like he wasn't outside. Uh-huh. It's like he'd just been put back in the field from somewhere else.

A little warm. Yeah. I mean, his car? I mean, was he? He also had hat hair. He was the place he was inside his car? I just... Oh, right.

Okay. This is not going well for me. Hey, I'm here. I'm on board, kind of, sort of. As you can imagine, Pierre believes he's been abducted a second time. Whatever these strange creatures wanted... Pierre has narcolepsy. Pierre...

What are these strange creatures wanted? They clearly weren't finished with him. So as you can imagine, this is where his employer seemed to realize that maybe sending Pierre up into the mountains alone at night is not a good idea. Something has to change. So, the security company reportedly relocated him to another area and replaced his car with a Vespa scooter. Wow, I love Italy.

How about it? He can work at head office. Answering phones or something. You don't want him on the phones. No, please. No. What? I'm trying to organize for a job tomorrow.

No, please. I love that the answer to him getting abducted nonstop was to essentially remove the roof to his vehicle. They're like, it's going to happen. I give him a helmet as well. They're like, let's just make it easy for him. Take the roof off and put the helmet on already. At least that way, he'll be back on Earth to finish his shift really quick. Oh, poor Pierre.

Poor Pierre. I really feel for this guy. Yeah, it's hard. It's hard, man. It's something so funny. This guy just can't quit his job. He has to keep getting abducted. He just has to keep getting abducted.

Just seeing a Vespa floating to the air. No, please. No, please. No. Why are the employers just fine with this? They're like, well, he does keep getting abducted, but he's only gone for like 45 minutes at a time. We just call it his lunch break. Yeah.

As long as he's back and he's working the next day, it's fine. They're like, should we give him another hypnosis section? It's like, at this point, it's basically acupuncture. There's so many needles in this, dude. We don't can't poke him anymore. Pierre got abducted off the scooter. Great. Of course, he disappeared for a third time.

On July 30th, 1979, he was abducted from his scooter and then found about two kilometers from the vehicle, disorientated and running in the darkness. Right, but he was found a distance that you... He was found running a distance that you could run in the space of about 15 minutes. It's not far. There needs help. He needs help.

Because he's not, he's not even confused anymore. He's just, I don't know why in my mind he's naked, too. I don't know if he wasn't yours. But he's naked at mine. I disappointed firing him would be the best thing you could do for the guy. For everyone involved, I think. In the end, Pierre would claim that he had been abducted 11 times between 1978 and 1981. That's what is that?

That's three, the spawn of three years getting abducted 11 times. So that's at least three to four times a year. At a certain point, your boy's probably craving the helmet. Like, maybe you start to, like, get a kick out of the helmet. It's like how no one likes their first beer or cigarette. And then after, like, three or four, you're like, you know, let me get a hit of that helmet. Well, it's kind of like, you know, we see this a lot that UFOs allegedly abducted

to seeing people again and again. And it reminds me of, like, in, you know, MMA and boxing, people talk about someone's chin and losing their chin, which is like... You're they? Essentially, it's like your Pokemon-style resistance

to getting knocked out. Oh. So you might start off your career with a really good chin, but you could take lots of hits. And then, I'm not an expert because I don't care to follow

MMA or anything, but I kind of gather that it's like the more you get knocked out, the weaker your chin gets. And then so it's like, you get that glass jaw. It just gets to the point that every time

you get you get a leaf looks at you're wrong and you just hit the deck right so it's as if there's like a chin of abduction where it's like you know that first time they got to work hard to get you yeah and then it's like that's why they keep almost going for the same people because they're just like oh we got an easy in over here this guy's this guy's he's susceptible he's this guy loves the helmet or also if you're just like you need a if i mean based off the pictures in the stories. They're doing some kind of like tests on the dude. It's like if that's your like sample size and you need some consistency, unfortunately, if you want to like have any measurements, you need to abduct the same dude. Yeah. You know? That's the scientific method. That's it.

abducting the same guy over and over. We're going to call it alien abduction. But it, what? That's when you get abducted so many times that you said it's your chin. Oh, abducting. We'll call it abducting. I wasn't clear to me. Okay. So his abduction is made of glass. He's, he needs just a helmet also on earth. But at a certain point, why don't they just take you forever? Why do the aliens never take you forever? I don't know. I think if we've learned anything from a lot of these cases is that they're actually kind of chill. They go through huge amounts of efforts to not be seen, not to interact with us and to put people back on Earth. Yeah, when you think it will be like no witnesses.

Well, also, there's a reason we don't hear about the people they don't bring back. They just left. They didn't dump them in a field somewhere. They're probably still in the helmet right now. Right. Yeah, it's the famous illustration of the airplane with the bullet holes in it. The survivor bias. The survivor bias.

It's like, why do they always bring them back? It's like, they don't. We just only hear about the stories where they bring them people back. That's very true. Well, guys, do you see that? We're winning him over. We're getting him. Well, that's...

When we were to a completely different story and point, but yeah. Phil, can we isolate Kit's sentence? That's very true. And we can clip that in when I say, what do you think about today's case? That would be great. Thank you. And I really liked the part earlier

when you said that Rory's your best friend. That's very true. Let's also get a clean take of this is horseshit. Because I think we might need that a little more going forward than the other one. Yeah, we'll save that for next week's episode, am I right? That's very true. All right, listen, I just realized that we're at the end of the story.

Oh! So, luckily, that's so true. Kind of was the way we were heading into our conclusions. Great. You know, at the end of the podcast, we do like to talk about our logical conclusions. When did he die? Did he live the rest of his life? Was he normal?

Did he develop helmet cancer? I don't know. I could try to look it up if you want. Or Phil, if you can look. Look it up. You can have a little check. It's called the Zanfretta UFO. Pierre Zanfretta. You might be able to find the guy and figure out when he died. It's like he... I mean, look. It's like he died in 1998 and his last words were, I made it all up. Brilliant.

Not true. His last words were probably no. Here's something that will say. People have done a lot less than this to get out of work. Did you notice something I noticed? What? Got abducted before Christmas. had to take Christmas off and then after Christmas 27th he was like yeah I'm ready to go back to work actually

Chief whenever you are and then they're like nice one get you on the next couple of days and then can you work New Year's? Uh-oh! Oh! Please no! Had to take New Year's off two days later

and then just every two months he gets abducted for a few days has to take some time off work. Yeah, how many major holidays? I won't know if you're trying to run away off the best. Major holidays are there in a year. That's around the times he was getting abducted. I think he was late 20s, early 30s,

when he got abducted in 1930. So he might still be alive. Oh, interesting. He's probably just old now. But for the record, this is a case where an individual did not in any way really try and seek publicity from this or try and turn this into a big thing. He's always stood by his story. He was always considered to be quite a like salt of the earth trustworthy individual. I didn't write a book hire him.

Getting abducted every six minutes. Yeah, but if they don't abduct him, they're just going to start abducting the other guys. You've got to think about that. Phil's completely silent over there. Phil put a sort of a misery. Can't find this guy. I haven't found when

already died, but on his IMB page it says that he was born in Lombardi, Italy. Oh, there you go. Born in Lombardi. Wow. Now that That's a nice piece of trivia.

Listen, if you're the security firm, maybe this is like a cool selling point for your rich clients. It's like, listen, we offer top-notch security, 24-hour surveillance in the area. We can protect you from burglars, robbers, criminals, thugs, gangs. And it's like, oh, and you want to go even bigger? You're not going to get abducted by aliens, all right? We have one guy on our staff who they love. They can't get enough of this, dude. If aliens come anywhere near your villas, they're going for this guy.

I don't know if that's the flex they think it is. You know? We can't even keep our people safe, you know? No, it just means like we essentially have this guy who's going to be, he's the target. Don't worry about it. Yeah, but that's like saying, welcome to Jurassic Park. Don't worry, we've tied a goat to a post. So if anything, the dinosaurs will go for that.

It's like, well, what happens whenever they abduct Pierre and he doesn't come back? We have a problem. We have a problem. He usually comes back, though. Also, as an aside, I don't want my security guard to arrive on a Vespa. In Italy, though, I think that's fine. When's this guy going to get here? Beep!

Hello! Oh, God. Come on, this guy's not threatening at all. There's not a lot of debunking that goes into today's case, because I think a lot of it is so otherworldly. Pierre stands by his claims. They never found out who was in the house originally. They don't know about the footprints and things like that.

The only thing that is maybe the part where the skeptics chime in in this case is I said when the investigators went to the house, they found a large kind of indent in the grass where Pierre said the craft was. And apparently some people theorized that that could have been caused by a horse tied up in the air. area, like tied to a post. So the horse kind of circling the post over time flatten the ground. That's the only explanation they have for that very specific thing. Everything else is so fantastical. It's like, well, of course we can't explain it.

Did we just accidentally explain all crop circles? I think a lot of them. That or hoaxes as we talked about. Oh, my God. That would perfectly flatten an area of grass over time. Into a certain. You remove the post and then suddenly there's no evidence of, how that happened.

Uh, yeah. So there you go. That's, that's kind of the case. Okay. Um, from start to finish. Let's discuss.

Let's dissect. Let's analyze. Scalpel. I, I feel bad always doing this at the case, but I do want to throw it to you, Kit. I want to know what you think about where we are right now. Well, look,

this is a tricky one because I've been shot. So I don't have a lot of time or energy here, but, um, yeah, he died. There's, there's, but if I could say one thing, drops head down on the desk

but um but look there is there is something compelling to the immediacy of this case the immediacy of a man struck down in the middle of his work shift and then found fighting for his life nearby it does have something going for it in the way of a little bit of physical evidence in the grass hopefully that's not just a horse one thing marking it down no other witnesses to

what happens. This is too early for CCTV, of course, or anything like that. But ideally, especially with UFO cases, often we would be lucky to have, you know, but there was a couple one time over who reported to the police that night that they saw lights in the sky, you know, there'd be something. If we're saying that there is a craft that someone else might have seen it. So that's unfortunate. Yeah, just so no one crucifies me. who's familiar with this case. There were other UFO sightings in the surrounding area at this time.

That's kind of what I meant by like, in this time in Italy, there was like a huge wave of UFO sightings in the night sky. I just don't think in this case there were any that, like, took place on the same nights that Pierre was getting abducted. I think there was a general buzz of people being like, oh, I, like, this guy got abducted, that's crazy. I did see lights in the sky last week.

But yeah, no, I don't think anyone saw any craft in the sky around the same place at the same time he was abducted. So I'll be completely honest. I think what kind of appeals me about this type of case is like, you know, we've talked about stories before that the legendary psychologist John Mack investigated himself. This is the famed Harvard psychologist who wrote a lot about UFO abduction experience. and he was fascinated by the psychological phenomenon of abduction because it wasn't that he didn't believe abduction was physically real. He was just like, look, I come to it from the world of psychology. He's basically like, I don't know for a fact that the craft landed,

but I know for a fact that they had the experience of being abducted. And that to me is what's probably most interesting about this. about Pierre, you know, I don't think he's a hoaxer. I think something's going on in his noggin, thanks to the helmet, that he has experienced, I'm not even just going to say he believes he's had, happened. I think he has experienced 11 abductions. What does that mean? Right.

How do we, how do we decide whether or not that is paranormal or not? Yeah. If a human being believes 100% that they have been abducted, maybe that abduction takes place on some sort of psychic level. some level that is outside our physical world. Is that a stretch? I mean, he, at least during the times he was allegedly abducted, physically moved in our world.

He went from like one place to another. Except for the time with a scooter, he was found running. They found him running. Yeah. Because at least with some of those other cases that the likes of John Mack would have worked on, it's like, okay, he thinks it's psychological, but also there's dozens of witnesses,

but also there's physical evidence. So it's a gentle way of saying there's not a ton of physical evidence here. What's most interesting about it is the psychological phenomenon. And this is a still, as of yet, unproven untested theory. Like this is all the chat at the moment with all the current UFO files and everything.

People testifying to Congress. People, there are people right now talking. in government to congressmen and congresswoman in America being like the entities are interdimensional they are not of this physical realm right so people still haven't worked this out but let me tell you guys after you've been in the helmet twice you'd be running the third time as well that's what i'm gonna say when you start to feel yourself lifting off the floor i'm i'm gonna start running too i don't want to go back in the helmet let me tell you where's your head on it it's in the hell out it's in the My head is in the helmet.

No. My head is in the helmet. I actually, I flip flop a lot with this one. I think, I'll be straight up honest with you. I think it's a no from me. It's so close. It's so close. I think it's an, I think I have to, out of principle, give it a no,

because it doesn't tick so many of my boxes that I usually require for a case on this podcast to be a yes. I think I'd have to physically restrain you if you did give it a yes. Okay, I didn't realize you were so far into the no realm. I thought we were both coming. kind of like teetering on the edge of either one, but you are. I'm more just saying to a cynic like you, this is missing a few of the essential pieces of the puzzle. I like the helmet, okay?

Sue me. I think the helmet is cool. I need him to have a cigarette burn on each side of his head. You can see through and he's still talking. I need to have some singed sideburns at the least. I think I'm gonna give it a no. this week. But I do think if you are interested in this case and you want to come down on your own conclusion. As I said, you can find the entire hypnosis video on YouTube. It took a little while for me

to search the right words for it to come up. Man needle hand, you alien helmet, but it did come up and you can watch it. And I would say at the end of that hour long video, that's the closest I've got to saying that this is a yes. It's very, it's very bizarre to why. watch. And I think you're right. I think like at the end of the day where whether it happened or not, you're watching a man, you're looking at a man who is absolutely convinced that it did happen. Sure. But that doesn't mean that I can say that I believe it truly did happen. Getting abducted 11 times more and still having no evidence is that does become problematic. So it is going to be a no for me this week. A huge blow for the third galaxy community. It's a double note.

Oh, sorry, Phil, we missed that. Can we just cut the in now? That's very true. Thank you. So, one no, one yes. No, two nos. I'm going to keep saying it, and then you just won't be able to keep up with the editing. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Kit, do you hate me?

Phil, can we cut in the... No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Stop remixing me. I'm not a daft punk song, all right? Kit, do you have a working penis? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no you done? I think I think let us know what you guys think. I think this could go either way in the commune. There will be some people who genuinely believe this case and some people who just, it won't be enough for them.

So let us know in the comments on Spotify, on YouTube, wherever you're listening to this podcast. And especially let us know if you're listening. on Patreon, which you can access by visiting this paranormal life.com. Guys, over on this paranormal life.com, that is where you sign up to join the commune. That is where you sign up. I'll be honest with you. It's where you get the helmet. It's where you get the helmet put on.

And I know that we talked a lot today about the helmet being like a bad thing. We heard the quotes being like, don't put the helmet on. The helmet hurts. It's too tight. It's taking all of my brain power, all this kind of stuff. just try it on just try it on and if you can still speak by the end of the helmet session

then you can tell us whether or not you did or didn't like it and we won't do it again and don't worry because the helmet you get that at any tier even the free tier you can sign up for free on patreon.com and you still get the helmet but if you want some extra cool stuff you can get that too

on the $5 tier $20 tier even more you can get bonus episodes of the podcast weekly episodes And loads of awesome bonus content. So go check it out. Unfortunately, a double note. I honestly thought today might be,

it'd be close to a yes. I did think that. I think kids actually dead. I forgot that I shot him at the start of this podcast. And then I just realized he hasn't said a word in two minutes. Sorry, I'm trying to... The helmet is quite draining. I'm trying to conserve my energy over here.

Thank you so much for listening to this week's episode of the podcast. We'll be back, of course. Tuesday with a paranormal tale. Ciao! Spotify, it's Jay Shetty. Are you one of those media strategy people? Scrolling through spreadsheets, searching for an audience that pays twice as much attention

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