Up and Vanished - Friendly Universe | High Strange Season 2

Episode Date: May 5, 2026

From the creator of Up and Vanished, Payne Lindsey returns with a new season of High Strange. To get you ready, we're dropping the full first episode of Season 2 right here in the Up and Vanished feed.... Scientists, pilots, military witnesses, and people who saw something they can't unsee. Season 3 drops June 26th and Season 1 and 2 are available now. Listen free on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Listen ad-free with Tenderfoot+, subscribe now at www.tenderfootplus.com. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:01:02 advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. Is the government hiding proof of intelligent life beyond our planet? A new season of high strangers here. The explanation keeps changing, but the stories don't go away. Video is appearing to show UFOs flying through the air are real. My name is Payne Lindsay, and my new season of High Strange goes deeper into real encounters, firsthand accounts, and the explanations, that never seemed to stick. Images of that rotating thing captured by U.S. Navy aircraft.
Starting point is 00:01:38 I talked to scientists, military witnesses, pilots, and people who saw something they can't unsee. There was no other explanation for what we saw that day. I remembered those faces and they weren't human. High Strange, seasons one and two, are available now.
Starting point is 00:01:53 Listen for free on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Season 3 of High Strange is coming June 26. For AdFree, If you're listening, subscribe to Tenderfoot Plus at tenderfootplus.com. Hey guys, it's Payne. I know some of you are about to hear this and think, here we go, some weird conspiracy rabbit hole.
Starting point is 00:02:16 And trust me, I get it. If you've watched the news at all lately, or even just been on social media, you've probably heard these weird stories about UFOs, missing scientists, people in Congress speaking out about secret programs. And if you're at all curious like me, you might be thinking, what the hell is going on here? Like actually though. That central question is exactly why I made a show called High Strange.
Starting point is 00:02:41 And before you roll your eyes, it's not me sitting around in a tinfoil hat. It's me doing what I always do, following the story, talking to the real people involved, and trying to figure out what's actually real and what isn't. We just dropped season two of High Strange. So if you haven't heard it, there's two seasons out right now, you can go binge. If you're a fan of Up and Vanished, then I promise you, you're going to enjoy this too. So, without any further selling, I'm just going to play episode one of season two for you right here. It's called Friendly Universe.
Starting point is 00:03:10 High Strange, Season 1, and Season 2 are available right now wherever you listen to podcasts. And there's more coming soon, both here and for High Strange. All right, here we go. Nice to me here. I know you're short on time. I'll just get right to it. Can you paint a picture for me starting with that first night? I will do it.
Starting point is 00:03:40 December the 26th, 1985, I had a nice day with my family. Went to bed. And in the middle of the night, became aware of the fact that there were noises around me. It felt like I was in a room full of people, and I was supposed to be in my bedroom alone with my wife. It was just something wrong.
Starting point is 00:04:04 I couldn't get up. Couldn't rise off the bed. and then I realized I'm not on my bed. I saw these big black eyes peering at me from about two feet away. I remembered those faces and they weren't human. This morning I woke up, grabbed my phone before my eyes were even open, notifications, texts, alerts. I should just go back to sleep, but I don't.
Starting point is 00:04:37 Weather app says we're fine. The news app says we're doomed. Calendar app is already mad at me. mad at me. Internal reminder. Stand up. Drink some water. Inhale for five seconds. Exhale for seven. I need some coffee. $23 to get it delivered? Sure, why not? Time to shower. Business on top, sweatpants on the bottom. I went to my office, which is also my house, which is also just my laptop now. Zoom calls. One with cameras on. with cameras off, a few emails, a few written by me, a few written by machines,
Starting point is 00:05:19 auto reply, Instagram, TikTok. Nah, back to Instagram. Hey chat, does this sound insane? Someone's launching a podcast, someone's quitting social media, me too, I'll be back in an hour. Did she see my story? My iPhone tells me my screen time is concerning. Do not disturb stays on I'm in control of my own destiny. Lunchtime. Nothing in the fridge. I'll just eat a big dinner. Pause to reply to a message I'll forget the second I send it.
Starting point is 00:05:54 Scroll again. LOL is so funny. My algorithm is getting weird. Is anyone checking this stuff? Back to work. I have more tabs open than my brain can handle. I should really clean my desktop. This meeting should have been an email.
Starting point is 00:06:11 This email should have been the thought you kept to yourself left the office which was my couch picked up some dinner time for a phone call that bartender does make a good Manhattan though I'll have one time to go to sleep or should I browse Netflix for an hour first started a movie stopped at 12 minutes in now I'm annoyed and fully awake how is it only Tuesday I really need to go to sleep for real this time. Good night. We all have a version of this.
Starting point is 00:06:55 A routine, a pattern, a loop if you're not careful. A hamster wheel with better Wi-Fi. Work, relationships, money, health, politics, algorithms deciding what we should care about today. But I do my own research. No, you don't. There's always something. Filling the space. Always noise.
Starting point is 00:07:18 Always motion. Always something new. And always the same old thing. We're being told something insane. That the universe is massive, maybe even infinite. That there's planets like ours everywhere. That intelligent life elsewhere is statistically a fact. That pilots are seeing things they can't explain.
Starting point is 00:07:42 That the government studies UFOs. It calls them UAPs now. I like the first one better. that they don't know what they are, but they know they're not aliens. Wait, what? Disclosure didn't happen. It got pushed notifications instead. And somehow, we're just bored now.
Starting point is 00:08:04 One more headline. Just another scroll. It's not that the question isn't big enough. It's that our brains are exhausted. Even if aliens exist. Even if we're not alone. Even if the universe is crawling with something we can't see. Either way, my alarm's set for tomorrow morning.
Starting point is 00:08:27 And either way, I still have shit to do. This season isn't about asking if we're alone. That question's tired. And the answers are boring at this point. This season is about something bigger and stranger. It's about why one of the biggest revelations in human history lands like an item on a grocery list. A shrug, a big whoopty-do. Because maybe the strangest thing now isn't what's out there.
Starting point is 00:08:58 It's us. Okay. Let's do this. Welcome to season two of High Strange. The U.S. Navy has finally acknowledged that video is appearing to show UFOs flying through the air are real. Videos they're talking about were recording years ago by fighter pilots. Then in 2017, they were made public. by the New York Times.
Starting point is 00:09:48 While refreshing our feeds, something loud happened. Actually, a lot of loud things happened. Images of that rotating thing captured by U.S. Navy aircraft. Censors locking in on the target, like a 40-foot-long, tic-tac, maneuvering rapidly
Starting point is 00:10:06 and changing direction. I never thought I'd get to the place where in now. I never thought 2017 would ever happen. And I'd be part of it? Are you kidding me? This is Leslie Keen. She helped break the big New York Times story in 2017. That was nine years ago.
Starting point is 00:10:24 This interview is from 2022. At the time, it almost sounded like she was getting ahead of herself. Like she was talking things up. Listening back now, it's clear she wasn't predicting things. She was tracking it. Nothing really shifting, and then all of a sudden, major shift happens. I'm waiting for the moment. where they would be willing to say it's not from planet Earth.
Starting point is 00:10:49 It's not made by human hands. They have not been willing to shut that door. Tell the world that this is something not made by humans, which they know. There's not saying it like that. I mean, that might sound pretty weird to people, but I've been studying it for 22 years, and I've watched the whole evolution.
Starting point is 00:11:15 what people are saying, but they're not saying, I've gotten access to a lot of insiders. Legislation that's about to pass, giving protection by the Congress to whistleblowers to be able to go before Congress and tell them what they know. Protection is coming for people. If there is going to be something released regarding materials that they may have, parts of a crashed saucer or who knows what,
Starting point is 00:11:45 These people now can reveal things that they've had to keep secret in the past. In the years that followed, everything she hinted at all started happening. Legal protections were passed. Whistleblowers were cleared to testify. I don't have any evidence or proof. The government has some UFO materials in their custody, but enough people from that world, the Pentagon intelligence agencies say they've heard about this stuff.
Starting point is 00:12:20 This is Brian Bender, who also helped break the massive 2017 UFO story. I even asked the question in a Pentagon briefing. Some of us reporters were brought in. My question was, are you also looking to see whether there might have been secret programs in the past, multiple layers of secrecy, that might reveal things about UFOs, crash materials, that even people in the Pentagon today might not. have any idea about. I'm just really interested in seeing what happens.
Starting point is 00:12:57 I just want to watch it all happen. These are questions worth asking. And then something crazy happened. A public congressional hearing on unidentified anomalous phenomena. The subcommittee hearing on unidentified anomalous phenomena or UAPs will come to order. Welcome, everyone. Without objection, the chair may declare a recess at any time. I flew to the Capitol and was there in person.
Starting point is 00:13:29 Security was tight. Phones were checked. Badges everywhere. The whole vibe of the room felt heavier than it should have. Do I answer where the UFOs are? Good morning and welcome to the most exciting subcommittee in Congress this week, the Subcommittee on National Security of the Border and Foreign Affairs for discussion of unidentified anomalous phenomenon. I'd like to thank the witnesses on the panel today for,
Starting point is 00:13:58 sharing their stories on how they've engaged UAPs, which has brought attention to this matter. Mr. Chairman, ranking members and congressmen, thank you. I'm happy to be here. This is an important issue, and I'm grateful for your time. My name is David Charles Grush. Enter David Grush. This is when the tone took a sharp turn. This wasn't a podcaster. This wasn't some guy chasing attention. I was an intelligence officer for 14 years. I was my agency's co-lead and unidentified anomalous phenomena and transmedium object analysis, as well as reporting to the UAP Task Force. Through a PPD-19 urgent concern filing,
Starting point is 00:14:45 I became a whistleblower, following concerning reports from multiple esteemed and credentialed current and former military and intelligence community individuals that the U.S. government is operating with secrecy, above congressional oversight with regards to UAPs. My testimony is based on information I've been given by individuals with a long-standing track record of legitimacy and service to this country. A whistleblower who formerly worked on the Defense Department's UAP task force, David Grush, claims he was denied access to information
Starting point is 00:15:21 on a government UFO crash retrieval program. I was informed in the course of my official duties of a multi-examial. decade UAP crash retrieval and reverse engineering program. Mr. Gris, do you believe that our government is in possession of UAPs? Absolutely based on interviewing over 40 witnesses over four years. Did you have any personal knowledge of people who have been harmed or injured in efforts to cover up or conceal these extraterrestrial technology? Yes, personally. It was very brutal and very unfortunate some of the tactics they used to hurt me.
Starting point is 00:16:09 me both professionally and personally to be quite frank. Have anyone been murdered that you know of or have heard of? I have to be careful asking that question. I directed people with that knowledge to the appropriate authorities. In the last couple of years, have you had incidences that have caused you to be in fear for your life for addressing these issues? Yes, personally. I just want everyone to note that he's coming forward in fear of his life to put in
Starting point is 00:16:40 perspective, if they were really not scared about this information coming out, why would someone be intimidated like that? Have the U.S. government become aware of actual evidence of extra dress or otherwise unexplained forms of intelligence? And if so, when do you think this first occurred? I like to use the term non-human. I like to denote origin. Certainly previously 1930s. I'm pretty skeptical. I don't trust anything in this town. And I think that's because I'm from Missouri. You've got to show me. With that being said, there's been a lot of things that have been said, and so I want to get down to some specifics. At one point, you said that there has been harmful activity or progressive activity. Has any of the activity been aggressive, been hostile? I know of multiple colleagues of mine
Starting point is 00:17:35 that got physically injured. By UAPs or by people within the federal government of both? Okay. So there has been activity by alien or non-human technology and or beings that has caused harm to humans. I can't get into the specifics in an open environment. At least the activity that I personally witnessed not to be very careful here. What I personally witnessed myself and my wife is very disturbing. My view has been that we are billions of light years away from any other system. And the concept that an alien species that's technologically advanced enough to travel billions of light years gets here and somehow is incompetent enough to not survive Earth or crashes is something that I find a little bit far-fetched. You have mentioned that there's interdimensional potential.
Starting point is 00:18:44 So could you expand on that? I answer your first question, and I'm here as a fact witness, an expert, but I will give you a theoretical framework at least to work off. Regardless of your level of sentience, right, planes crash, cars crash, and number of sorties, however high, a small percentage you're going to end in mission failure pool, as we say, in the Air Force. And then in terms of multidimitiality, that kind of thing, And the framework that I'm familiar with, for example, is something called the holographic principle.
Starting point is 00:19:24 It derives itself from general relativity and so on mechanics. If you want to imagine 3D objects such as yourself casting a shadow onto a 2D surface, that's the holographic principle. So you can be projected, quasi-projected from higher dimensional space. Things showing up at certain areas in disabling our capabilities, which is disheartening. And for us, I mean, like I said, it completely disabled the radar on the aircraft when it tried to do it. And the only way we could see it is passively, which is how he got that image. So I think that's a concern on what are these doing, not only how they operate, but their capabilities inside to do things like this.
Starting point is 00:20:04 You've stated that the government is a possession of potentially non-human spacecraft. Based on your experience and extensive conversations with experts, do you believe our government has made contact with intelligence? extra trash trails. It's something I can't discuss a public setting. If you believe we have crashed craft. Do we have the bodies of the pilots who piloted this craft? As I've stated publicly already in my news station interview, biologics came with some of these recoveries.
Starting point is 00:20:40 Yeah. Were they, I guess, human or non-human biologics? Not human, and that was the assessment of people with direct knowledge on the program I talk to that are currently still in the program. This was a former intelligence officer speaking under penalty of law. Information was being hidden
Starting point is 00:21:09 above congressional oversight. When he said the words crash retrieval program, the room went quiet. And the questions shifted. Not just about what these things are, but whether people have been hurt. Congress's job is going to be to see
Starting point is 00:21:27 what it can do with the information and what it can verify. A lot of these very sensitive programs, there's no paper trail over the next year or two. How is that going to play out? How many people will come forward? And will there be repercussions against them for coming forward? Under the law, they're protected.
Starting point is 00:21:55 You know, you just don't know what might happen to them. Because certainly there are some people within the defense world who don't want people to talk about this. One of the witnesses hate trying to keep. keep this secret, right? To have to sit on this for years and years and years and it's changed your life and it's caused tension and problems for you and some people have nightmares or PTSD, I just hope it works out. The government is notorious for reinventing the wheel.
Starting point is 00:22:31 I've been a reporter long enough to come across a lot of stories where I'm like, why does this sound familiar? Where there might have been a program, there might have been a report, there might have been something, but it was 20, 30 years ago. It's because they tried the same damn thing 20, 30 years ago. You know, you can't discount some of that in this topic, too. The guy who was in charge of that retired and didn't pass it along to the next guy or gal.
Starting point is 00:22:58 It doesn't exist anymore. It's going to be really hard for anyone in the government to hide this stuff anymore. In Washington, ghost-like objects dart across the radar screen at the CAA Traffic Control Center at National Airport for several hours. General Sanford, Air Force Intelligence Director, confirms that the objects are not secret American weapons
Starting point is 00:23:26 and reiterates the Air Force's obligation to investigate. Credible observers of relatively incredible things. Even if you remove aliens altogether and just look at this objectively, if even a fraction of this is true, then something, unknown, is interacting with humans and causing actual harm. under oath David Grush claimed
Starting point is 00:23:53 people were physically injured intimidated feared for their lives this for me is when the whole thing stops being a belief debate that's not a conspiracy question that's a science problem and science
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Starting point is 00:24:57 Please play responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connects Ontario at 1866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor, free of charge. BetMGEM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. At Desjardin Insurance, we know that when you own a nail salon, everything needs to be perfect from tip to toe. That's why our agents go the extra mile to understand your business and provide tailored solutions for all its unique needs. You put your heart into your company, so we put our heart into making sure it's protected.
Starting point is 00:25:37 Get insurance that's really big on care. Find an agent today at dejerdin.com slash business coverage. Hi, my name is Lloyd Lockridge, and I'm the host of a new podcast from Odyssey called Family Lore. In this podcast, I'm going to have people on to tell unusual and sometimes far-fetched, stories about their families. I've heard my whole life that she invented the margarita. And then we're going to investigate those stories and find out how much of it is true. He gets a patent one month before the Wright brothers. Oh my God.
Starting point is 00:26:07 Please follow and listen to Family Lore, an Odyssey podcast, available now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your shows. Flying saucers have invaded our planet. The whole world is under attack. Can it survive? I knew from the moment I was thinking anything that I wanted to be assigned. before I guess I even knew what a scientist was. This is Gary Nolan. He's not a UFO guy.
Starting point is 00:26:41 He's a data guy, a real scientist, who lives in results, measurements, and what can and cannot be explained. Being able to take things and put them together in ways that people hadn't thought of before and make something new. I look for a need. I say, okay, well, that's what we can't do today,
Starting point is 00:27:00 and that's what we want to do. You see this and you see this, and you put it together and go, oh, I can make this. Tinkering. Today, retrospect, I generally call it the inevitable. If I were to take your blood, there's neutrophils, macrophages, NK cells, T cells, B cells. You could only look at a few cell types at a time. So the field was crying out for an ability to do more data.
Starting point is 00:27:33 This guy at the University of Toronto had invented this. instrument called Saitoff. His name was Scott Tanner. He was a developer of an instrument but didn't know exactly how to apply it. He came to me and said, look, I know that you're good at turning ideas into reality. Can you help me turn this into a tool for immunologists? That instrument still sits at the top of the food chain, reading multiple events per cell. But even then, I was already thinking, maybe there's another way I can do something. Get more data. So what I had done was found a way to scale up the numbers of things you can measure and tag at the same time, hundreds of proteins and thousands of genes at a time. It was literally a patent idea. I remember
Starting point is 00:28:26 just freezing and going, where the fuck did that idea just come from? Boom, like the whole idea, it felt like was just like downloaded into my head. I mean, honest to God, Who and what you think you are is a very thin sheen of consciousness across your brain, you know, the so-called executive function of what you are. Meanwhile, there's all these things going on inside of your brain that are actually running the show. As a scientist, the argument is never about the conclusion. The argument is about is the data real and was it collected correctly. When he talks about the brain, he's not speculating.
Starting point is 00:29:08 One day, many years ago, Gary's life and career would take a very bizarre turn. I'm sitting in my office, a knock on the door, and I open the door in these two guys. They were men, guys in suits and ties, military personnel. One of them presented his credentials and said, hey, we're the CIA, and we have a whole bunch of patients that are having some problems in my office. They laid out all of these MRIs. And they wanted to know whether or not I could detect in the blood any evidence of the inflammatory events. He's describing damage. The MRIs didn't lie. And the timelines didn't make sense. These injuries, whatever they were, should not exist the way they do.
Starting point is 00:30:06 They had white matter disease in the brain. Inarguable. They didn't have it one day, two weeks later they did. Something like multiple sclerosis develops over years to get to the level of what I was seeing. They didn't have it one day, two weeks later they did. What had happened was across the military, these medical events. The Army is pretty organized and the services are pretty well organized, despite what some people often think.
Starting point is 00:30:37 There is a channel for unexplained. events that go up the chain for review. There are analysts who said, okay, well, this is weird, we don't know what it is, and it went over into what was they called, the guys who came into my office, the weird bucket. When enough things in the weird bucket started adding up, actually showing similarities, that's where I got involved. They laid out all of these MRIs. They said, some of these people said that they'd gotten close to UFOs.
Starting point is 00:31:17 that they got close to a UFO. So when they told you this, did they literally say, like, they came in contact with a UFO? They said, some of these people said that they got close to a UFO, and that something about the energy generated
Starting point is 00:31:35 by the object had harmed them. I literally looked around, I thought, this is candid camera, what's going on? For him, it wasn't the fantastical stories. It was the actual data. That's what hooked him. And once you accept that the injuries are real, even if you don't know the cause, you're forced to widen the lens.
Starting point is 00:31:58 If something like this is happening now, whatever it is, how long has it been happening? Some of the stories were pretty spectacular. I said, before I get involved, you're going to have to fly me out to meet these people face-to-face. I need to see their body language. I need to read what they're saying. Here's how they explained it. The harm that had come to the vast majority of home, the ones who said that they'd been close to UFOs or beings or things, the UFO events, energy generated by the object, had harmed them.
Starting point is 00:32:42 They hooked me with the data of all of now the probably hundreds of people that I've spoken to, including so-called experiencers and even weirder things. There's a story here. that all seems to make sense. But the other thing that is pretty clear is that it's probably not one thing. There's something here that needs to be explained and that there's a level of reality we don't appreciate. People use the word paranormal, but then immediately you think of ghosts.
Starting point is 00:33:17 Immediately, yes. And I think of paranormal, all science is paranormal, explained. There's something here that is interacting with us. that's my belief Albert Einstein once said the most important decision we make is whether we believe the universe is hostile
Starting point is 00:33:57 or friendly if you believe the universe is hostile you move through it bracing for impact you assume friction means danger you read uncertainty as a warning you protect yourself first and explain it later
Starting point is 00:34:11 if you believe the universe is friendly you don't become naive you become grounded you assume that challenges are part of the terrain Not proof that you're off course. You stay open longer. You recover faster. It's not about optimism.
Starting point is 00:34:29 It's about posture. A hostile universe requires constant defense. A friendly one requires responsibility. If the universe is friendly, then what you do matters. How you show up matters. The way you treat people matters. Not because you'll be rewarded. because you're participating in something that responds.
Starting point is 00:34:52 I'd like to choose the friendly universe, not because it's comforting, but because it demands more from me. It means that when something breaks, I don't immediately assume I'm being punished. I assume there's something to learn. When things don't go my way, I don't default to blame.
Starting point is 00:35:10 I look for leverage. This belief does not guarantee good outcomes, but it keeps me in the game. In a future that's getting fast, faster, louder, and more automated by the day. Staying in the game might be the most powerful choice we have left. After making season one of High Strange, I've heard some weird stories. Some people have been telling their story for decades.
Starting point is 00:35:39 Never changed, never backed down, stuck with the same script for nearly 50 years. Whitley Streber has been telling this story since the 1980s. not once, not twice, for the rest of his life. Whatever you end up thinking about his experience, the consistency is impossible to ignore. And what makes his story different isn't what he claims happened. It's how physically real it actually was. Next thing, media.
Starting point is 00:36:17 Right over here. I know you're short on time. I'll just get right to it. Can you paint a picture for me, starting with that first night? I will do it. December the 26th, 1985, I had a nice day with my family. It was me, my wife, and our son, who was then six.
Starting point is 00:36:52 Beautiful afternoon, right after Christmas, we'd have a wonderful Christmas. Little country house we'd bought a year before, went to bed, and in the middle of the night, became aware of the fact that there were noises around me. Movement. It felt like I was in a room full of people. And I was supposed to be in my bedroom alone with my wife. It was just something wrong. Finally, I woke up, opened my eyes.
Starting point is 00:37:29 I couldn't get up. Couldn't rise off the bed. And then I realized I'm not on my bed. I'm in somewhere else. This room with an arch door and a little black window in it. It was really weird. Who the hair is that? Is there somebody there?
Starting point is 00:37:56 Is that somebody there? I don't think I like that. I saw these big black eyes peering at me from about two feet away. Something's all right. It looks me. He's got eyes out. Big eyes.
Starting point is 00:38:22 He's seven of eyes. I found myself in a room full of what looked like gigantic insights. It was horrifying. I saw something that looked like it had a hood on it, near the corner and I have bedroom. I don't want it to be there. The head of the New York State Department of Psychiatry,
Starting point is 00:39:00 Dr. Donald Klein, he had solved many criminal cases with hypnosis. the world's best forensic hypnotist, he was the real deal. The memory began to come back under hypnosis. Very deep, comfortable, the last day. So pay attention to my voice, but he remains to remain safe. They would move very slowly and then very quickly. They were not of this world at all. That was when I thought I'm having a nightmare.
Starting point is 00:39:58 They didn't go away. Thinking, God, this is real. I became crazed. I was on a little hot, and I couldn't get off of it. I couldn't move, and I kept trying to imagine my bed. I couldn't do that either. It was so vivid. It was like real life.
Starting point is 00:40:29 I remembered those faces, and they weren't human. It was sticking into my mind. It would make a noise like a voice. I don't know where it came from, but it was a mechanical voice, clearly. And it would repeat, What can we do to help you stop screaming? Why don't you like me? I'm hearing this voice.
Starting point is 00:41:00 Jesus. What can we do to help you stop screaming? I didn't help me. Oh, shit. I'm sorry. Gigantic insects. Very scary. They were not silly.
Starting point is 00:41:22 looking at all. Ever when you were a kid maybe watch a praying manus, how it creeps so gracefully and smoothly along and then whang that gets the little fly that's after? That's how they moved. One of them was about five feet tall. The others were all very small. They showed me a needle. They're going to put it in the side of my head. He touches my head with this thing. I realized then This was physical. I don't remember it ending. I don't remember when it ended. I remember waking up in the morning.
Starting point is 00:43:09 I thought I'd been assaulted criminally. I was sure I had been assaulted. As this became more clear in my mind, I was thinking, you're crazy. You've had some kind of psychotic break. I woke up. I felt awful. I wake up and I felt like I'd been beaten up.
Starting point is 00:43:44 Tired. I was unbelievably tired. I felt dirty. I took a shower. Went downstairs. My wife told me that I was acting strangely. Over the course of the next week, I really struggled with it. The memory began to come back. The more I remembered, the weirder it got. Went to my doctor.
Starting point is 00:44:12 I described what I remembered. He says, Whitley, you're telling me you think you were taking aboard a flying saucer by little men. And I thought, holy fuck, that is what I'm saying.
Starting point is 00:44:26 I've gone crazy. He said, well, why don't we do an MRI on your brain? Then we're going to do a battery of psychological tests and see where we are. By the time another week or so had passed, the pain was very significant. I want to figure out what's going on. I went back to him.
Starting point is 00:44:52 That was when he said, I had a rectal tear. Someone did this. I was scared to death. It was really painful. It was a very bad terror. Something has physically happened to me. Stuck this thing inside me.
Starting point is 00:45:13 And I fought so much. It tore my internals. Who would be creeping into my house in the middle of the night? grabbing me and doing that. The MRI scan showed that I was under a lot of stress but I was a normal person.
Starting point is 00:45:34 It was not a head trip at all. It was very physical. The physical injuries were real. I didn't tell anyone about this. I don't know what he thought. What do you think he thought? Well, I think he might have thought I had done some kind of hallucinogens.
Starting point is 00:45:56 Something has physically happened to me. I'd like to believe we live in a friendly universe, not a safe one, not a gentle one, just friendly, because darkness, hostility, and fear are all very real. In some encounters, don't leave when the night ends. They follow you, they change you, and they stay forever. About a year later, one of my neighbors came over to the house. He was a retired state, trooper. He shows up and he says, Whitley, I saw that happen. And I nearly dropped my teeth. He said to me, I'm just so embarrassed. I ashamed the fact that I ran. And I said to him, if you tried to help me, God knows what would have happened to you.
Starting point is 00:47:02 Hi Strange is a production by Tinderfoot TV in association with IHeart podcasts, created, hosted, and edited by myself, Payne Lindsay. Executive producers are myself and Donald Albright. Editing by Mike Rooney, Cooper Skinner, and myself. Original score by makeup and vanity set. Sound design, mixing, and mastering by Cooper Skinner. Additional production by Mike Rooney, Dylan Harrington, Eric Quintana, Sean Nernie, and Meredith Stedman.
Starting point is 00:47:50 Our cover art is by Polygon. Special thanks to Orrin Rosenbaum and the whole team at UTA, the Nord Group, Station 16, and Beck Media and marketing. Check out the show's website at highstrange.com. And if you're enjoying the show, please help us out by rating and reviewing the podcast and share it with your friends. Thanks for listening.

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