The Reddit Files: Ghost Dogs, Ghost Kids, I Died Already

We're anyway. Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of Scary Stories. We tell I am your host, Christash You and I am joined as always by my good friend and yours. She's a podcaster. She is a cool person in my book.

Know, does that matter? People care? I don't know, we'll care what I think is cool. I mean, I think I'm pretty cool. I think you're cool.

Emma from the Strange Beliefs podcast. Does we do you still want me to bring you up that way? Or is that sure? Yeah? No, I'm a and I'm pretty cool.

You are, You're very cool. Yeah, so so, Emma. The last time you and I talked, we talked a little bit about our slash paranormal. And that's what we're gonna do here again today is we're going to talk a little bit of our slash paranormal. So a couple things we want to get out of the way ahead of time.

If these stories are yours and you have an issue with us reading them, please do not hesitate to reach out. We will take it down immediately. No harm, no foul, not trying to piss anybody off, but hey, if you like the stories, the links are in the description of the episode. So go give them some love, Go check out the comments, because this is really what the is about. It's engaging with the person who wrote the post, not really engaging with us.

This is our yeah, this is this is this is their story. We're just regurgitating it for you because you're listening, not reading on Reddit. You may have never even been on Reddit. I don't know I don't know you. I don't know you at all.

So ye scare audience member. Yeah, so all of that aside. Let's get just all the fun stuff out of the way, all the fun things out of the way. Our slash Paranormal, for those of you who do not know, is a place on Reddit, which is essentially a giant message board, form forum, question mark where you can post things. Our slash Paranormal is a repository for all things paranormal, and they are factual stories, and they're also questions and other things.

People are asking questions and engaging with one another. But our slash paranormal great place to find paranormal stories. Another great place to find stories is our slash ghost Stories, where some of the stories may also come from So if they come from there, we'll let you know. But our slash Paranormal has a better ring to it than our slash ghost Stories. I was gonna say, you can't beat it.

No, our slish Paranormal is great. Our slash ghost Stories is a bunch of ghost stories. Nothing wrong with that, but it just doesn't have a It's not as catchy. Let's just put it that way. But both sub credits are allegedly all true stories are all true.

They say no fiction. No fiction is what they say. Obviously, we must take that with a grain of salt, for it is the Internet, correct, which we talked about on our Cursed Objects episode. We're not under the assumption that anyone is trying to sell anything on here. So I just believe everybody's stories is factual unless they are like really blatantly well and that's you know, we'll talk about that when we talk about it, because the last time we did one of these episodes, we definitely talked about some stories that we're pretty not well done.

But if that happened to you, you, I'll hope to God you're not in the house anymore. So Emma, as always, I will turn the floor over to you for the first our Slash Paranormal story of the evening. Oh, okay, I have a few. Oh great, let me see. Ah, how long is this one?

That one's pretty long? Screat We're gonna do this one, go for it. So this is by user exo Exo Kate Barlow, and the title is the ghost Encounter that made Me believe. Okay, so it goes. I am a heavy skeptic.

I don't believe orbs are real, nor do I search for vague faces and photos or thinks cemeteries are scary. I chalk most anything up to some logical explanation, the house settling or the wind. At one point I didn't believe in the paranormal at all. I'd like to share the experience that changed my mind entirely, as even to this day, it blows my mind that this happened to me, and I thought i'd be interesting to share. This happened about a decade ago.

I was eighteen. At the time, I was dating a boy for about a month. We'll call him B. B was also completely dismissive of the idea that goes are real, even more dismissive than I was. He thought the idea of religions, spirits, aliens, etc.

Were all bizarre fantasies. About a month into our relationship, he decided it was time I met his parents. I, being a Gothic teen, was extremely nervous, but I reluctantly agreed. He picked me up and drove us to his apartment to meet them. Upon walking through the front door, his mother sat on the couch with her two dogs chihuahua's one was brown and one was black, to the left of me, and his father stood in the kitchen entryway to the right of me.

He introduced me and we made pleasant small talk. I was so focused on the conversation and my nerves that I hardly noticed the dog's barking until his mother yelled quiet to stop them, which chatted out twenty minutes. Then headed out for a weekend plans. About a week later, he invited me over again. His parents were at home, and upon arriving, I noticed only one dog was there.

The dog was less him at this time, so I bent down to pet her. He told me her name and a bit of her be told me her name and a bit of her history, how they adopted her et c. I then asked him about the black dog, and he got a puzzled look on his face be says what black dog user says, the one that was here last time. It looked like this one, only it was black. B says Belle was the only dog here.

He looked at me in pure disbelief, told me that they had a dog just like that, but it died a few months ago. I told him the dog had a white stripe down its chest, a blue collar with a bow on it, and that his jaw hit the floor and then on it and his jaw hit. Oh, I do that one were time. I told him, I'm okay, we're doing this. I'm so good at this.

I told him the dog had a white stripe down his chest and a blue collar with a bow on it, and his jaw hit the floor. He led me down the hallway and showed me a photo on the wall of the two dogs together, and my description perfectly matched it, a photo that could not be seen from the front door, where I had stood during my entire last visit. We tried for a solid hour to make this make sense. I couldn't have gotten every single detail, right down to the collar. It wasn't something seen from the corner of my eye.

I stared right at this dog for twenty solid minutes. It was hardly five feet away from me, coming up occasionally to sniff my shoes and barking as any dog would at a newcomer. I undoubtedly saw this dog. To this day, I can see the scene in my mind very clearly. I don't have any history of mental illness or hallucinations.

I've never experienced anything like this. There was nothing strange about its appearance. It wasn't clear or floating or anything like that. It looked just like any dog, except somehow it wasn't there, and nobody saw it but me. During our relationship, we would often call that experience, often recall that experience and how strange it was.

Ten years later, and I still rack my brain trying to make it make sense. It just doesn't. What do you think, Well, so that's you know, honestly, this is one of these stories where I have very little to disbelieve, because I you know, my dad has been on the show before several years ago, I think it's two years ago now, and he tells a story that's very similar to this, when we were at my family's ranch and he saw a dog that was there. They were still building the house, so it attracted animals because they would leave trash. And he saw a dog, Yeah, he knows it was a dog.

It was a cat. He saw this cat that my sister kept talking about stretching itself out on the top story of the house, and he was like, hey, everybody, come and look. The cat turned back and the cat was gone. So, I mean, I believe these kinds of stories. I don't know what to chalk it up to.

I think we've talked a little bit about the kind of idea of trapped energy before, and maybe that would be it. I guess for me, it's not that I it's not that I just like outright believe this story, but as someone who has a family member with this same kind of story that I believe, like this doesn't sound too far far outside of the realm of possibility of existing. I just don't know. How do you explain it? Is the question?

Right? So I mean I feel like she, you know, hits everything on the head in terms of like She's like, I've never had a history of hallucinations. I don't have a history of mental illness. I had never seen this dog before, I had never seen the photo before. There was no way I could have even seen the photo from where I was and saying that like it wasn't out of the corner of her eyes.

She had seen it, stared at it, even came over to her, interacted with her briefly, like and she says she's a skeptic, or they say that they're a skeptic, yes, again, which I think is I think, you know, last time we did one of these episodes, I think one of us had a similar episode story like this one, right, right, And so I love the types of stories where they're like, I was a skeptic until this, And I always love hearing like what changed your mind? And like it's not often you have something so difficult to logical way like this, Like there are ways that you could potentially try to logic some stuff, you know, like the lights are flickering, Like it could just be an electrical failure. How you called your electrician, Like, you know, there's ways to speculate on a lot of things.

I don't know how to speculate on this one. I'm giving this an up vote well, and I'm giving it an up vote two. And that's I mean, that's my question to you, is so if we both say yeah, they saw something, Then what are we saying they saw? I think that they saw I'm assuming this spirit of a dog. I've heard stories of, you know, people with like a pet that had recently passed still like hanging out and playing with other pets in the house, and like, it doesn't sound that far off.

If I had to talk it up to something, I would say, it is the spirit of this unfortunately deceased family pet, right, No, I agree, But like what explains that existing in that way? Like, That's what I'm trying to figure out, because, like I agree, they probably saw this deceased pet that they could Again, this is a different kind of story because they're seeing a pet that is not theirs. They're seeing someone else's family pet, which is kind of that adds an interesting wrinkle to it. I don't know if it makes it more factual or not, but it's a different I mean, kind of a sidestep angle versus like a head on angle. It's kind of a little bit of like an eighty degrees type thing.

I would say that it strengthens the story because the family members believe this dog to have passed, they have no reason to think that this dog is in the house right, And I feel like existing under that mindset would make it very difficult to be open to seeing the spirit of this dog. Well, and like you said, I mean if it's the family member saying, oh I saw the dog, that I know what it looks like, and like it's our family dog, like, yeah, that's not surprising, like I would it's it's again, it's that whole argument of if you're going in the woods to look for Bigfoot and you find Bigfoot, should you be trusted because you went out to the woods to find Bigfoot? And in a lot of ways, my answer is yeah, if the people who find Bigfoot are out in the woods looking for Bigfoot, then if they're they're gonna be the ones if I'd bigfoot, They're gonna be the one to find the ones if I'd big Foot.

So if you're seeing a family pet, it's more than likely going to be a family member who's seeing it. It's normally not just like a random person who didn't even have any experience. I mean, you know, my friends who have come to visit us or who have stayed here or who live here, know our animals. Some of them like our animals and care about our animals more than just like, oh, it's you know, Chris and Kate's cat or dog, So like it's weird because this person doesn't even have that kind of history with this animal. So it's like why, I guess my question is like why this is the spirit showing up to them?

Is the spirit connected to the house? Like what I get it's maybe it's a house thing, because they don't say anybody else saw it, so you have to assume they're the only ones who saw it. I would say that it's probably a house thing or potentially you know, connecting to the other family pet u Usually the you know bonds between you know, pets and living under the same roof, you know, right, certain pets are absolutely inseparable. Sure, And I think honestly, what it is is that energy of that pet was probably hanging around and because the other family members were closed off to seeing it, and this person came in with zero expectations, I think that's really what did it. This person had no reason to believe that this dog should not be there, that dog to be dead, and the rest of the family did.

The rest of the family was definitely believed that this dog was fully gone. And I think that closes you off to seeing certain things. So so when this dog's energy manifested for this you know, visit, you know, I don't know exactly how it works. I don't want to pretend like I do know how it works. And that's what I don't know either.

It's like what, how does any of this work? And like that's what we I mean, that's why we're just kind of you know, grabbing, you know, shooting in the dark really like you know, right, because like again, like they're not saying like, oh, this isn't a limestone house or you know, we're on top of a deposit, a magnetic deposit or something. It's like there's just a house anywhere usay, nothing about it is special. Like I would assume if there was any of those things, they would have said something. So it's just like a house that this just happened in.

So like what why, Like I'm it's it's weird to me because like again I think it's just trapped energy, but like how and why is that energy being expelled? And is it being expelled when there aren't people around, you know, or if I'm walking, if I'm sleeping in my bedroom, is there a ghost walking up and down the hallway or do I have to be there to see it again? Just then just another question here. I think the Haunting of Blind Manner would say, no, you don't have to see it, because that goes we'll walk the halls orthless, right, And that's what I think me personally. Have you seen the Haunting of Blood Manner?

I haven't. Oh well, that's a big plot point. But like I kind of believe that anyways, because again, like I don't think that the entire interaction with ghosts is on our side. I think that there is something on the other side. I don't think we're perceiving it for ourselves.

I think there is something else going on. Does that make sense? Yeah, So I don't know this is that's it's it's interesting because again, like it's just kind of an innocuous little like, oh and then I saw this dog and then the dog ran away, and it's like okay, like and then that was their dog, all right? Sure, I think singh photoconfirmation is like, right, like imagine being her though, right, well, I mean I'm with you, Like, that's that's that moment of the story. That's the oh shit moment where it's oh my God, like Jesus Christ, like that's the dog that I saw, or you know, it's like, oh my God, like that's the moment.

That's the moment. Like the only thing that could potentially make it stronger is having her pick from you know, a bunch of arbitrary photos of dogs, like which dog did you see? I love that? Right well, and again like I have no reason to doubt this person they're posting this story on the Internet. Not that I'm saying, oh well, anybody posting a story on the Internet is reliable, but you I feel like, I don't know, there's something really to be gained by faking these stories like random internet karma.

I guess there are people who probably care so and also getting certain reactions practicing creative writing, right, workshopping stuff just to see if they can convince people, right, which like perfectly fine. But again, like they say no fiction, and we must we must take that share face value. I would like to I would hope that people would be listening when the mods say no fiction, but again, I can't speak for people on the Internet who don't listen. So because one of those ones we read last time was definitely fiction, oh, yeah, the ones that we read last time, we're definitely fiction. I read one recently while I was, you know, looking for some ones to share, and it was so it was so written for the sake of writing a story.

It was like one of the lines was like, let me set the scene, and then like towards the end, it was like, oh, it was something along the lines of like and then I found out that it all meant like this, and I found out there was this meaning behind it dot dot dot. It was like so gratuitously like a troll, and like there were a few people in the comments that were like, I believe you, because another thing was like this is one hundred percent true, but nobody believes me. Like all of the lines, Oh, they're trying way too hard. It's so hard, and like oh, people were bashing in the comments. It was like, don't don't be mean.

I don't know if anybody was like mean, but people were definitely calling it out. And it's like, listen, if you're going to post to a forum that asked for true stories specifically for the sake of either helping somebody or comparing to understand more about this like crazy world that we live in like that deserves some respect. Yeah, but I mean again, if they say don't post I mean fiction, they say don't post fiction, that's mine. Don't don't bash anybody for their creative writing. No again, I'm not bad.

I mean again, Like I'm just saying that you read one of those stories last time. That was great, it was a really well written story. The problem is if I I'm a teacher and you're submitting that as an assignment to me, you failed the assignment. That's the problem. Like it's a matter of like our slash Paranormal, just like our slash ghost Stories, is a place for people to share their stories about these kinds of things.

And it's not like there's not a place to share those kinds of stories. There are our slash No Sleep, our slash copy Pasta. I'm sure our slash creative writing. I'm sure. That's my issue.

That's my issue. That's my bigger issue, because we want to read stories from here, and people who are interacting with this community want to interact with stories with good faith behind them. And I'm not saying that someone is submitting their creative writing isn't good faith. But there are places to do that where you would get opinions from people who may actually be worth getting in regards to your creative writing ability, right, I mean, and also, you know, like I said, the biggest reason why I think it bothers me seeing you know, stories that are so like obviously, like you just wrote this for the sake of writing it in this type of setting. The reason why people post these stories one, as I said, because they're asking for advice or they're trying to rationalize something scary that happened.

But the rest of us, you know, the curiosity here is trying to understand the world around us, right, this comparing and contrasting of experiences, trying to see what you know, science can't explain, logic can't explain, And that's really important to some people. It's really important to me. I agree, Like, especially when you're somebody who doesn't have their own experiences, you rely on learning about the experiences of others, which is why I love the subreddit so much. Well, and that's why I like it as well, And that's why I kind of am you know, kind of like I was saying, a little bit of a hard ass because like I want it to stay the way that it is, because I like the way that it is now, and the way that it is now is people submitting these stories in good faith.

And you and I have both seen as well. You know, subreddits go down the tubes because everybody all of a sudden, stuff's giving a ship, which is the last thing that I would want, especially from a subreddit like this one, where it's one of the few places where I believe people are going there to share these kinds of stories because there is nowhere else so at least not this easy to access in a large scale format, because I mean, redd it's a huge website. I don't even know how many people interact with Reddit on a daily basis, but like one million people are on the r slash paranormal subreddit. I believe that's so how many people have sub to that one, So that's a lot of people. I will say that I looked it up.

The story that I mentioned that was most definitely made up has been taken down, has it? Yeah, it's been deleted, And like part of me is like, was that by the mods or was that by the original poster? Is it because they felt bad or is it because it was actually true and they were getting bullied and now I feel bad. I like how, I like how the last one is somehow you making it your fault. It's my fault somehow, like any don't blame yourself for people on the internet.

Listen, I'm allowed to feel bad. So what were the comments, like, what were the comments like? Okay, so, okay, let me bring it back up because I close to it. Okay. So comments were basically along the lines of so somebody wrote, yeah, people don't believe this for a reason.

When people are telling a true story, they use different language, and it's usually concise and pretty to the point. They don't talk about oh yeah, apparently they mentioned like details about like going to a seven to eleven, like feeling that they must go to a seven eleven to buy gatorade was a part of it or something. So this person says, they don't talk about gatorade, they don't remember buying gatorade, they don't remember being thirsty. A big, fucking weird experience makes you forget much of the surrounding crap. And there was like one person that responded that saying he was explaining why he went to seven eleven.

That's just to keep point of the story, you know. But then like other people, Yeah, people were like commenting on the fact that there was like a cliffhanger ending. I really like the the ending was like and there was a message behind it all dot dot dot. It's like there were people in the comments say, like, what was the message. I'm hugs, I want to know, Jesus, you're invested, and I mean, at least you know what again like that the story for me, like, it's simple, straight to the point, and I think it's a good one.

So yeah, so let's do let's do one of mine. So I found this one. This is posted by doctor a Yared. This one has one thousand up votes and it is from seven months ago. It is titled little Kids in Quotations running around the ICU when death comes you in hospital stories.

I know, like I've been saying in previous posts, being part of the medical community has afforded me the chance to evaluate patterns in all stages of life of people, including patterns that we see at the end of life. Some of you that work in hospitals, or have loved ones that work in hospitals, or have been close to loved ones as they took their last breaths and transition to the great unknown may have heard of what I am about to describe. There's a particular phenomenon that occurs to people in those last moments. And I'm talking about the appearance of kids running around their deathbed or just outside of their room. This is to be differentiated to the phenomenon of closed ones of close one.

This is to be differentiated to the phenomenon of loved ones that have passed away visiting in days prior to their deaths. This is different. This occurs hours, if not minutes, before their death. I experience this with greater frequency when I work in the ICU unit where people are very sick. What most patients describe as cheerful kids running about their beds in a playful manner, snickering around or just playing.

Most patients usually respond calling the nurse and asking who are these kids running around and where are their parents? And scaring the living Bejesus out of them. If they are new nurses, if they are experienced nurses, they know the time of the end. Not a native English speaker here. They are experienced nurses, they know that the time is near them.

If they are experienced nurses, they know that the end is soon to come, and they communicate properly with us doctors to let us know to be ready. Literature often chalks this phenomena up to lack of oxygen in the brain or neurochemical changes in process of death and nying, but the pattern is very recognizable and the experience is very similar across all cultural backgrounds and ages. Almost all hospitals have a story about these kids. And if you were entering the field of medicine, nursing, or any other health allied profession, you will certainly hear these stories. So if you're doing rounds in the ICU late at night and hears some snickering or some tiny feet running in the hallways, prepare because the call of code green or code read is about the SoundOff on the PA system.

Oh that is fascinating. And before you answer, the comments are essentially a bunch of people from the medical field going, yeah, this has happened to me, or yeah I heard about this, or yeah I've experienced this. So a lot of firsthand experience people putting their hands up, and I mean this has a ton of comments. It's just got like, oh my god, I don't even know how much two hundred and ninety eight comments, it's there's a lot and people and a lot of people. You know, I worked at three hospitals.

I've never heard of this. Then some people saying, you know, I've heard of this, thanks for the insight. You know, I've people have said girl scouts and boy scouts show up. Uh, you know, people saying, you know this seeing the kids they know they're gonna die. So this is like a thing.

I guess what's your what's your what's your read on this? Emma? I guess my first question is why that specifically? So why specifically kids? Like you know, you hear certain things about certain near death experiences and even uh, you know, Arthur who was my previous co host on my other podcast, had a near death experience that did not happen to him as far as I know, right, And I mean, like he was pretty pretty close to the grave at one point, so I'm not sure if he just like wasn't necessarily close enough.

But now it makes me wondered, like, so is this something that like everybody experiences, but not everybody talks about like as they're dying, Like maybe not everybody has like the wherewithal to point out the children running around, right, I'm like, and now I'm just like wondering, like is it really like does everybody see it? And then the question is why that? Is there a psychological reason? Well, and that's what I was That's what I was wondering as well, because there is this thing that they say where it's like it happens across all backgrounds and people. It's like, Okay, so if if, if how is that, how are you how are you giving us any information that that's not just physiological?

Then by essentially saying well, it could happen to anybody, well, then it could be physiological. I right, yeah, I'd like, I'm I feel like some people might say that rather than ghosts, that they are angels. I feel like that's I feel like that is something that somebody could potentially say. Maybe somebody in the comments of that post even said something similar. I feel like some people are probably going to say, like it is angels in the form of children to not scare you know, should you know, to help you transition to a peaceful afterlife.

I don't know, like, you know, obviously, the concepts of angels is a very like, you know, religiously charged one, So you could potentially think of it more as spirit guides. I think I think those are basically the same thing, just another way to talk about, you know, your spirit team. So they say, uh, but I feel like there could be a psychological reason for it, and I'm just trying to think, like, is it something evolutionary and why so? Obviously, like when you are in the process of dying, your brain does what it can to cushion the blow, right, it starts to lessen how brutal your brain turning off is on your body, and also how terrifying it is, right, like, you know, just like losing consciousness in general.

Obviously, I don't know if that's, you know, the case for every single person. I'm sure there are a lot of people that are absolutely terrified when they go, even if it is a natural death of old age. But I'm wondering if this is like something that just like a good portion of the population have hardwired into them as a hallucination towards the very tail end of your life. And I guess potentially it's something distracting, It's something cheerful, Like it's not like they're saying, like it's crying children, Like it's always right it's like kids having fun, and like to me, like that could potentially be your brain trying to rationalize, you know, the idea of death is reminding you of youth, right, you know, and a lot of people tend to feel younger when they're around children.

I don't want to say that's for everybody, but at least, like I would say, evolutionarily, so in order to take care of children, we are able to have more energy, we are able to you know, that's I think something built in for at least a good portion of the population, and so potentially also people with a strong maternal or paternal instinct, like I know my mom for a fact, loves babies, loves toddlers. We actually today had uh her friend and his and his wife. They brought over their two little girls to play in our pool. And my mom oftentimes will act, you know, like during like a normal day, she said, a lot of pain, she walks very slowly around the house, She's very low energy. And then you put her in a room with these two little girls, and she is a different person.

And so I'm wondering for people that are built like that, if that is what your brain does for you when you are dying. Well, well, and that's and that is the thing that I wonder as well, because like you said, I I guess I wonder, like, let me ask you, if this was you in the scenario, would you want to hear kids? I wouldn't. Well, That's what I'm saying, is like, because I know you're somebody that does not want kids and by all means totally, but I like kids. Oh kids.

That does surprise me, I'll because Okay, the closest person to me that does not want children, that is not you, that I've talked to at length is my sister, and she despises children and does not want children, and so I usually associate. And like, I'm not saying that like you have to despise children, don't even disliked. I don't even dislike children. I just I feel like there's an a built in adversion unless if it's like I would love to have, you know, a kid, I just know I wouldn't make the best parent, and because of that, I don't want to bring somebody into this world. Like also, some people don't like other people's kids.

That's fair too. I mean again, there is that I mean, but I would agree with you I don't know. I don't know. Okay, how about this. You're bringing up trauma, Emma, Oh my god, Okay, wait hold on.

So you're on your death set the scene. You're on your death ending for me her death. You're in the midst of dying. Great, you know you know it's coming. How did I so?

How did I die? Old age? Old age? Natural cost? You're in the ICU.

You've had a long, fulfilling life, and as you're starting to go in and out of consciousness, if you're feeling your body shut down on you, you see children that weren't there moments before. How did they get in here? But they seem to be having a great time. How do you feel? Oh?

What? What? What are these kids? What were these kids? I don't I don't know them.

I don't fucking know. I would be fucking terrified. Why is old you more Southern? I don't know. Why not?

I'm just like that. At some point it's going to become like us Southern repscallion just an angry old Southern. What are you doing in my swamp? I'm a fixing to call the police on you and turn you over to the authorities. I hate that.

I hate it too. I don't. I don't think I would want to see children. What about you, Emma, would you want to see kids? I like, I just it's fucking weird.

It is weird. I don't know if children necessarily is like something that I would want to see, but I do think it would be distracting and potentially nice, depending on like how obnoxious it is. Like if they're like running around and like screaming, then I'm like, I'm dying, can you like give me some space? Please? Thank you?

But like, you know, if they're just like some like delightful little tots drawing on the floor, you know, like on like copy paper and crayons, like it's kind of nice. I mean, I don't think it would be like my top ten, you know what, I want to see moments before I pass. I feel like there are other things potentially that are also delightful and distracting that I would prefer. Well, and that's and that's what I'm thinking, is like I don't like for me, there's like there's no just some random kids, because like that's the other thing they're not saying, like it's kids that they recognize. They're saying it's like who are these kids?

Like they're scared? Like I don't read this story in like a positive way. I read this in like a strange and like upsetting way where it's like you're dying and these random kids show up and you're just like, what the fuck is going on? I see three possible reasons, and they all come from three very different schools of thought. So the logical reason would be what I'm describing, which is the potential of this being an evolutionary tree in certain people to cushion the blow of death.

Okay, so that's let's go down that route. Well, I mean, I feel like I exhausted that I mean, but I mean, like to your point, like, if we go down that route, that's like what the most like grounded explanation. I would say that that is the most logical grounded explanation. Okay, So the next explanation would be the religious explanation, and that would be potentially angels and or spirit guides, that these are just the form of your angels helping a transition or your spirit GUIDs helping a transition. And I think the last way to view this is that those are just straight up ghosts, like these are children that have died in this hospital and they're still here, like and they're like, hey, it's not so bad.

We're having a grand time, you know, we're just we' still the crayons from the Yeah, I get right down the hall. I mean, that's that's my point. Like, if it's just random kids that you're seeing what I do, I just don't get it. I think all three reasons are equally likely depending on your belief system. If you are a total skeptic, I think it's fair to say that this is probably something psychological.

If you are very religious, I think it's fair to say that these are angels or spirit guides of some sort. And if you're just like into the paranormal shit and nothing else, then it's ghosts. I mean, like, I don't see any other thing that it potentially could be. I think those are like the only three explanations. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Can you think of anything else? No? I think I think for me, I think that they're seeing something. How or why or what they're seeing is unimportant. But I genuinely believe these people are seeing something.

But yeah, I think there's only three possible outcomes here, which I think it is I don't know. I don't think it's ghosts. I don't think it's I don't well if it's good, If it's ghosts, it is children that have died in the hospital. And so at that point, the way that you would prove it, which you can't because the person's fucking dying. But let's say that they had the wherewithal and you had the time.

They points out children and you say, here are some photographs, which were they right? Like, you know, identified the child? The ghost children that you're seeing, if they are you know, patients, Like here's a photobook of arbitrary children, some of them have been prior patients that have passed. Here, you know, which are have you been seeing? And if they point to patients that have definitely passed, these children that have definitely passed in this building, then boom, it's ghosts, hands down, no other explanation.

That's like the only way that you could prove without a doubt in my opinion, that it is ghost activity. Specifically, is you know again, like, can you identify these children? Here is a photobook of all children patients we've ever had, only some of them have died. Which ones did you see? Right?

But again, the person is fucking dying. That's the last thing they wanted to do. Well, that's the last thing they need to be bothered with exactly. And I would never expect unless if somebody is very willing and they say, I'll let you know if I see the dead kids, make sure you have the photo book handy when I'm going, right, I want to be a part of history, you know. But like other than that, I guess like in order to prove the logical side of things is have it, you know, up to like an MRI right right, and see what the brain does.

I don't know exactly what you would have to see in order to differentiate hallucinations versus the brain just like spazzing out or the brain just necessarily like seeing something as if it were actually there, you know. Like I don't know if there's a way to say, like if the brain responds differently during a hallucination versus you know, just seeing something as if it were real, right, because I can only assume that if the brain isn't lighting up the hallucination, you know, factors that it is something real in that room. But then again, like so that that's all that I would think because like, you know, if I if I showed you, you know, a picture of a tree, and you were like, yep, that there's a tree, and I had you hooked up to an MRI, like your hallucination sensors wouldn't go off.

But if I, you know, showed you a picture, you know, of a tree, and all of a sudden you see like a woman standing in front of the tree that isn't supposed to be there, and then then the hallucination markers in your MRI scan would go off, Like I don't know, I don't know, so that something MRI related. I'm no neuro scientists, but something MRI related. And then if it's religious, yeahkes that's all I can say. I don't know. I don't think that's I'm not a religious person.

I've been dabbling in the idea of spirit guides, not necessarily angels, although I think they're probably interchangeable concepts right. I've been experimenting with looking out for signs and angel numbers, which is a story that I would love to share with you on an episode. I don't know if this is the episode to do it. It's something that I've been kind of kind of experimenting with the past couple of months. For those that don't know, I am a skeptics turned semi spiritual with if you watch You Know the podcast I was in previously, which is Strange Beliefs.

I was interviewing my co host Arthur, who is a witch who's had paranormal experiences, and over the course of forty ish episodes, I slowly went from skeptic to believer, as somebody who's never had paranormal experiences are spiritual experiences, you know. The more we did tarot and the more he told me stuff that I just couldn't explain away, like, I slowly started to believe more over time. So rather than being a total skeptic, now I'm more in the boat of you know, if there is something to this world, I want to know about it, and let's say, manifestation and crystals and shit fucking do work. I want to be a part of that, because that's awesome. I wouldn't want to they wouldn't.

I want to manifest my own perfect reality. If that's something I can feasibly do, right, why wouldn't. I'm there with you? Like I agree, So I guess it's it's time for a manifestation update. Yeah, that's what it sounds like.

We have to schedule one. Find the schedule, put it on the goddamn schedule. Stop talking about your fucking our slash paranormal. Let's do a manifestation update. I will say, if this, you know, if this is maybe there's a fourth option and they're manifesting these things, could that be the fourth fourth option?

Explain how that's different from the other three they're manifesting. Yeah, well, I guess it's not any different than your brain a coping mechanic exactly. At that point, it's just a hallucination. You're you're trying to conjure the image of something. You're saying, like what I want to see before children running around my bed.

I would say that still chalks it up to a hallucination. Yeah, that's fair. And if you say, like I'm they were making them. They were making it happen, though, like hallucination is like when you say hallucination, it sounds a little bit like they're not hands on with it. I'm talking, you can induce hallucinations.

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. I guess it's like I would say, it's akin to lucid dreaming at that point, that's fair. I would say, at that point, if you're potentially in a state where you know, akin to lucid dreaming, like you know, if you're sleeping and you know you're asleep you're dying, and you know you're dying, and you're like, oh, my brain's doing wacky things. Let's just have fun this last half hour while I'm on this earth. But that would still be a hallucination.

It would just be a lucid hallucination elucidation. Yeah, I guess so you're right, a hallucidation hallucidation. I think so. I mean, I think you're right. So I am a little interesting, Pats we went down with this one.

I mean, hey, this is not my first rodeo with our slash paranormal. I've been doing this before you It's true. Hey, this is the kind of conversations I've already been having, and we do have a couple. If you like this content, you could check out my old podcast because I do have some episodes like this, except it is with somebody who's had paranormal experiences and as a witch and is kind of I would say, an expert, but definitely very knowledgeable, a lot less high energy than me too. You are the high energy one over there, not me, of course, I know, but here you're not the high energy one.

The dulcet tones of his, the dulcet British tones. Correct. But yeah, I mean, I really like this. I wish I could say it's as like cut and dry as my story that I had shared, you know, like I can't logic that away with with anything, Like you can't say that's a hallucination if she had never seen this dog before and described it perfectly, you know, right? I agree?

Well, and this is I mean, for me, this is like anything else. It's just once again it opens up a lot of questions for a rather innocuous story. Like it's just like you're hearing kids like before you die, Like okay, but then't but like if this really is that common, I want a documentary on this. Yeah, me too, I'm with you. I would watch a documentary about the ICU children.

I would. I would, hands down. It's it's interesting. It's a definitely, it's an interesting I don't know, it's it's an interesting kind of side avenue into the death question because it's it interacts with death but like not in a way that you might expect. Here's a question, does not one that you can answer, But for the sake of conversation, does this happen outside of hospitals?

Well? Probably I would think so, because if so, I think that's an even stronger point for not ghosts, Like I feel like that would knock ghosts out. Like if this happens outside of hospitals, I feel like that's not ghosts at that point. It's either religious or hallucination. Like at least we could knock one out, you know.

So I think if I think if people are seeing them outside of the hospital, then I think it's just the brain doing it. But I mean it still could be spirit guides or angels. I don't think being outside of the hospital and the gates spirit guides or angels if anything, Well now I wouldn't say makes it stronger either. I feel like location at that point is arbitrary. But at least we can knock out ghosts, because I highly doubt that you would just have like several you know, children that all look like they're of the same era exists, Like if you had like a death, you know, an at home death, you know, like you're in your bedroom, like it's like you're falling asleep, like in that kind of thing, and you're seeing children around your bed there, Well, then you have to ask yourself, like do they look like they're all from the same time period?

Because if so, how why did you know eight children, you know, all in the I can only assume two thousands all all die in this one house. Well, and that's I mean again, like that's the other question is like what do they what do they look like? Because if they look it's it's a whole thing. Yeah, but if it only happens in hospitals, I think that's a very strong case for ghosts. If it happens in hospitals and nowhere else except except in places where a lot of children have died, Like I would say, that's a very strong contender for just straight up ghost But I don't think either way knocks out the logic side of things, which is we need to hook these people up to an MRI and we need to see if they're hallucinations.

Yeah, and that would everything. Well, it's interesting as a way, because again, like the brain is the brain is a fascinating brain is a crazy organ. The brain is absolutely fascinating and like that is I think being on the fence with a lot of this stuff, like coming from the skeptic side of things and being where I am now, Like I love just talking about like how the brain can convince us of things either way, especially when you talk about manifestation, because you know, there's this idea of like, you know, if you say something enough times affirmation wise, you can convince yourself of something. And that's because the brain is really fucking cool. And then the question is if it starts to reflect in your reality, is that because now you're just more likely to notice it, right, and like are you actually making it happen?

Right? And so it's just the brain. The brain is so cool. We are our brain. We're just piloting a meat suit.

It's we're just fucking bone mex It's awesome. Brains are cool. The brain is the only organ that named itself. Yeah, I'm right, brains are cool. It's freaky shit.

So, Emma, do you have another story for us? I do? All right, drop it on me. All right, let's see what we got. I got a cup?

Well, hmm, I always forget. We're saved. Posts are on Reddit on my phone okay, okay, okay, I'm thinking. I'm thinking, I just have so many. I'm seeing if I want to do a shorter one.

You know what, the length of the story really matters because we're gonna gonna end up talking about it for twenty minutes anyways. So I don't think like we we've really One of those things we did last time was like a question and we talked about every twenty minutes. So, m these are just like that thing, those like tip conversation starters that you have on tables at Cracker Barrel. I have three that I could pick from. You pick, I'm ready, I'm waiting.

Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, we're gonna do this one. So this is by user alta eight eight titled I clearly Remember dying? Why am I still alive? And it goes okay. Honestly, I had no clue where to post this, so I thought, why I'm not here?

So please bear with me because this might sound crazy. I want to say this before I start. I'm a twenty eight year old female, healthy of body and sound of mind. I don't do drugs, I don't drink, and I'm not under any form of medication. I haven't experienced anything paranormal time.

Now that we've heard this, that is true. I do think people feel like obligated to say it just so that way. No, but you know, just like roll it all out. I agree. I don't know if it's necessary, but I agree.

I'm on lots of medication. I've never had a paranormal experience, right. But anyway, that being said, so I haven't experienced anything paranormal in my life except for that one dorm room which I lived back in when I was in college. Even then I never saw anything. I just felt something, which my roommates also experienced at the time.

With that out of the way, I'm going to tell you exactly what I went through A week ago. At about two in the afternoon, I was coming down the stairs from the second floor to the first floor in order to feed my dogg and cat. I with startling clarity, remember tripping on the way down, falling and breaking my neck. I have the recollection of that event in my brain, which is the weirdest part. Next thing I knew.

It was almost as if somebody pressed a rewe button and I was back halfway through the stairs. Only this time, I didn't trip. I walked down normally, and once I reached the first floor, I felt so weird, like I almost like I was almost outside of my own body for a moment. I freaked out for a while, and I started to question my sanity. Eventually I moved past what happened, fed my pets, and busied myself with paperwork that day.

My cat, who is usually very aloof, kept following me around the whole day, staring at me constantly. He even slept on the bed that night, and he doesn't usually do that. I have no way to way what happened? Was it a hallucination? What kind of experience?

Even? Is this? So? What do the comments say? First?

Always do let's do the people first? What do the people say? So? Here's the thing is that a lot of people bring up something called quantum immortality, which I tried to look into, and I don't think my brain can comprehend what it means. Either that or I couldn't find a good enough, just a concise definition.

Everything was like quantum mechanics. I'm like, I don't I don't have the bandwidth for this. Do you know what that sounds like? That sounds like something that Alex Jones would say on Info Wars. Quantum immortality.

Ladies and gentlemen, they're turning the frogs gay. They're putting fluoride in the water. Oh my, floride is turning the frogs gay, and gay frogs are going to take over our country with the democratic socialist agenda. Marxist Zionists are taking over this country. I'm sorry, ladies and gentlemen, this is a family show.

Are you possessed? Right now? That I'm a little longer? I thought? Sorry?

Where was I? I don't know quantum immortality? Okay, I want the fucking soul of Alex Jones left my body. Why does my room smell like Cheeto's beef jerky and axe all of a sudden horrible? Yeah, I'm trying to just find a concise what is it.

Quantum immortality usually refers to, in a classical sense, a person who was lucky enough to survive in any incident in the world. Interesting, So I think what that means is that if we're talking about like the multiverse, sure right, I'm assuming this is like the multiverse theory that in you just like you can't die from an accident, you just like you have experiences of other universes where you did die and you're just like alpha time lining it. I don't know, can you what does that mean? Do you know what that means? Can you brain for me?

You know you were giving me a hard time because I was doing Alex Jones, But like I was being serious like that that when you said when you said that phrase, it sounds fake as fuck, is my point? Like what that what they're explaining sounds more like deja vu, deja reeve. I don't know, No, dej it's not deja vou. I don't know, like overactive imagination. Like what I don't understand is like they're at there, they're like, oh, and then I felt weird at the end, Like what is that supposed to mean?

Because like what the part of the story I comprehend is they were going down the stairs. They had a vision that they ate ship down the stairs and broke their neck. Okay, you know what my wife as anxiety about going up the stairs at our best friend's apartment complex. Airs are perfectly fine, but they give my wife anxiety. I don't like those are the same thing.

I don't I don't know, but that's but I don't know either, because again, like I don't know what's going through my wife's mind we're going up those stairs, other than oh shit, I don't want to die. Yeah, But I feel like you could say that for like somebody who has like a fear of heights. You know, I don't think they're necessarily as somebody, Okay, as somebody who has a phobia. So we've been over this, but let's just say, like rachnophobia, when I see a spider, I don't imagine that spider jumping on me and biting me and I die. That would make sense and kind of rationalize my fear.

My fear is entirely, significantly less rational than that, And that's usually when you have a paranoia, paranoia, an anxiety. I don't I'm sure some people do hallucinate, but I mean, this person said that they are sound of mind, sound of body, and they like this is their home. They were going down doing something very routine. It didn't sound like they were anxious. It didn't sound like there was much forethought at all.

I think like, if you were to break this down, you could say it's a very vivid hallucination of an intrusive thought potentially right, But I don't think that that's anxiety related. Uh, I just I'm just I'm trying the only Like, so the logical thing is hallucination via intrusive thought. Your brain just reminded you, like, hey, don't be a dumbass and tripped down the stairs. But like to feel it, right, And that's what I'm saying. Like they said I felt weird, It's like, what does that mean?

I think, like you experienced this and then like they said that it felt like they were like rewind and so I mean like that you were okay, okay, okay, okay, that's what I'm saying. I'll see that you're you're struggling, you're strug well, it's it's not a struggling thing. It's just like there are multiple ways of interpreting this. My question is when they say I feel weird, what does that mean? Like they actually felt I should be what does that mean?

Like they feel like they're now existing outside of the timeline. Like I'm trying to figure out what feeling weird means because that is beyond the subjective, right, it's the I think they say it in the title I should be dead? Why am I not I feel. But it's the part that I'm getting hung up on because everything but I feel weird because I experienced dying very vividly and it was terrifying, but I'm actually okay, how did that happen? So when they made it to the bottom and the bad thing didn't happen, I also would feel weird.

I don't know if that's something you can necessarily put into words. I'm using my empathy brain and I'm imagining this happening to me, and I can very vividly feel that weirdness, at least to an approximation of just like I too would feel very weird, unsettled, unsettled. Well, and see, here's the thing. So we've talked about it before on the Halloween episode last year, the thing that happened with me in that elk when I was driving to Phoenix last year, which is a legitimate near death experience, Like if we had slammed into that thing, we would have died. I don't know, there's no two ways about it.

So I don't particularly remember feeling off afterwards. I remember a shitload of adrenaline, but like you were shaken, I was shaken, but I wasn't shaking. Does that make sense? Like I was very calm and collected outwardly. Inward it was a different story.

I think that's your problem right there, is that you experience these sorts of terrors horrible things in a calm way, because that's how you learned to cope with big scary things. You were like, I must remain level headed in order to make sure that things are okay, and that's the way that you cope with big scary things. Yeah, I guess, I don't. I don't. I don't know.

Again, Like it's my whole thing is like I have experienced what they are talking about, and it's like it is scary, but like I just want to know what they mean by it feels weird, like they feel if they feel like they should be dead. I want to And I'm not just saying I want to know what that feeling is, but like I kind of want to know what that feeling is, Like I want to know what that feels like. I think the reason why you didn't experience it during the whole ELK thing is that you didn't have the chance to. You were driving, you had a place to be, you didn't just pull off to the side of the road, put your head in your hands, and say I need twenty minutes, which is something that I would have done what I probably should.

I probably should have. You probably should if you would have made better decisions if you did rather. I mean, I'm not saying that you made bad decisions, but I'm just saying that I probably would have made really horrible driving decisions if I didn't give myself some time to process what had happened. I don't think you gave yourself a chance to process until you were finally off the road, and then by that point it was so far back you didn't really have a chance to really think through vividly would had taken place. You sort of were like, I am in a position or I cannot and I must bury this and move on.

And so when you finally had a chance to sit down and say, holy shit, I could have died, it wasn't super vivid in your brain because you all your brain already coped by pushing it down. M Yeah, maybe, I bet. I bet Kate probably feels differently because she had a lot of time to process because she wasn't driving. Yeah, but she's a she's she's a strong she's stronger than I am. So she's stronger than I am in that respect.

It probably rattled her less that it rattled me. But I would say that this person what they experienced when you ex you, I feel like you just you experienced something terrible, horrible happening. You know what? Actually you know what? Not we're gonna look at it from this lens.

You've have you ever had a dream where you died? No, we're not bringing up the memes. I thought we were doing a bit. I thought you were doing the bit. And I say a sentence genuinely the way you said it, though you cannot me.

Have you ever had a dream horrible? I saw what I saw a TikTok like that recently where I was like, so you're toward a leani. So you're telling me that the tarta toward the leanie, toward the leanie, And it was the same thing, And I was just like, am I fucking high? So No, we're not doing we're not doing the bit. We're not doing the bit.

Go ahead. Have you had a dream where you have died? Let me think about that. I've had a dream that I have died, not that I can remember. Specifically, how about a falling dream.

Yes, I've had those plenty of times. Okay, so we'll say we'll use that that feeling when you wake up and you're remembering where you are, remembering that that was not reality, and coming back into consciousness. I would say it's more akin to that moment, except imagine that drawn out because it felt much because you're able to immediately rationalize that and be like, yes, that was a dream, right, So imagine you're not able to do that, and instead you're stuck in that feeling because you can't rationalize it. So if you were just in bed you felt like you were falling, you you feel like in your soul that you were falling and you can't explain it away and you just get up and go on with your day. Interesting, did that help again?

I think that this is like this is just this. I don't know what this is because it is so weird. It's weird, And what's weird about it is they're walking down the stairs and then they see it and then it like rewinds them like that, like I don't know, like that's like straight out of final destination. That that mechanic that they're talking about it's like I would like zoom in on the eye of the character final destination, right, And that's like for me, I don't know. Like again, that's why I was trying to figure out when they said they felt weird, that's the part of the story that to me just didn't jibe because the rest of it sounds kind of fake.

I would okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. Here, like that's straining if we're gonna use final Destination as the example. So imagine that you have the Final Destination where you're like the first scene like the plane like going down or on the plane or going down, and you're like so into it's so vivid, and then you rewind, you wake up and you're still at the airport, right, And then obviously what happens is that people wind up going on You decide not to go on the plane, people go on the plane, and then the plane, you know, blows up. So in this reality and what I'm trying to say, you just sort of push that down, pretend that didn't happen. You go on the plane and the plane is fine, and it really was just a very vivid, terrifying hallucination.

And that's all it was. Imagine sitting on the plane at that point, maybe even touching down and realizing that that that horrible thing that was so vivid never happened, right, and you're just sort of stuck in this. Why am I still here? Right? I very vividly remember that I should not be here?

Hmm. Interesting, Yeah, I don't know. I think what we call that? What do you call that? Weird intrusive thoughts?

I mean, at that point, that's the only thing I could chalk it up to if we're going to logic it away. It's a very weird, like if a hallucination and like some sort of intrusive thought had a love crafty and horror baby, Like, that's like all I can think of. It's it's weird because like again I don't know how to rationalize. Like, you seeing yourself dying. I mean I think that's a good thing.

Yeah, well, and again, like it's not just seeing yourself dying, it's seeing yourself dying and feeling yourself dying. It's so strange. It's very strange. Oh you're you're finally starting to feel it. Yeah, there we go, We out there.

It only took like ten metaphors but we got there again again again. For me, this whole issue it rests on, it rests on something else I think it rests on. I think for me this rests on it sounds too good to be true in the way that they're describing it. I would say that potentially, if I can look into what the fun quantum immortality actually is, I feel like that could be a very interesting episode topic. But I feel like that would require me to do a lot of brain gymnastics, which I don't love doing if I can avoid it.

But everything everywhere, all at once. It is very Kinton to that, I would say. I would say it's very like it has basis From what I can understand, it has the basis and the multiverse theory, and I think what it means is like just in your alpha time line, no accident can kill you, and so you experience that accident happening in a separate timeline, but you yourself are quote unquote immortal. Oh okay, sure, that's I mean, hey, guys, correct me if I'm wrong, because that's me leaning off of like a Cora response. But like, that's that's what I That's why I think it means.

Why not do you have another one for us, Yeah, let's do one more. That last one is uh, I think we fertity. I think we forgot to up vote and or down. Yeah, I think I vote. But that's just I like that term quantum immortality.

I like that. I like that term. So let's let's let's finish this one out strong. So this episode or this episode, this story is from twenty seven days ago. It is written by Atomic Hip twenty nine sixty two.

For us, it's got sixty five up votes, three comments. And this is from our slash ghost Stories, not our slash Normal. So let's all of the quantitative data that you're throwing well, I mean again, they need all that information. So this is how it starts. This requires a bit of backstory.

When I was born, it was just being my mom, and because of this, I became quite clinging. She was the only one I had and the only person I really knew. Because of this, I developed extreme separation anxiety whenever I wasn't around her. So in order to sleep in my own room, I needed her to come in and say good night, and I would often sneak into her room in the middle of the night and sleep there every night. I would yell for her.

Every night. I would yell for her to come into my room. She would sit on the edge of my bed reassure me it was safe, turn off the lamp next to my bed, and close the door, having it just cracked enough where a little bit of light would shine through the hallway. Her bedroom was quite literally across the hallway from mine, so when I would wake up in the middle of the night scared, I'd slowly creak open my door and easily walk over to her room, and I'd always know she was in there because her door was cracked the same way mine was. When I was around three years old, she got remarried, which meant I couldn't sneak into her room quite as often, so her coming in and saying good night was a crucial part of me being able to sleep.

I remember this night so clearly. I was around four or five years old. I get into bed, my lamp is on, and my door is wide open. I yell for my mom. I'd like I did every night, and no response.

This wasn't necessarily unusual, because sometimes she would be in a different part of the house and I would just have to yell a few more times before she heard me. I yell and yell, but she never comes, and I start to become quite anxious. I remember my mind racing with fear. I thought something terrible must have happened to her to not hear me yelling for her. But I just kept yelling, Mom, Mom.

I just kept yelling and yelling and began to cry. And when all of a sudden, I see this woman enter my doorway. The woman is very misty, almost like a cloud, and all of a sudden, this comfort feeling fell over me and I stopped crying. She stood in my doorway and smiled at me, then became waving her hand, motioning me to come out into the hallway. I then saw her slowly disappear.

I got up and walked into the hallway and she was gone. I see my mom's door wide open and no one inside. I then started to hear noise come from our basement that I couldn't hear from inside my room. I walked down to the basement and see my mom and her husband watching a movie a little too loud, and when they see me, they pause, and I can see my mom realize she hadn't said good night to me yet. She then brings me upstairs and puts me to bed.

I never really told anyone about this, but it's always something I remembered because of how she smiled at me and made me feel less scared. It was almost as if she was trying to tell me my mom was fine, and she just couldn't hear me. It's also something I learned from a young age that not all ghosts are scary or out to harm you. And I've always appreciated that thought. That story didn't go where you thought it was going to go, did it.

No, not entirely, Although I love the wholesome twist. That's why I picked it, because that had that little it's it's a little different. It's not, it's it kind of. I think it does something that I'm not a huge fan of, which is like makes an assumption about something where it's like, oh, the ghost is friendly. It's like we all knew Casper, can't we know Casper's a nice ghost because Casper has said he's a nice ghost.

This ghost just went and disappeared. So I don't know the Cusper call himself a friendly ghost? Or was that so it was that a label that was given described friendly ghost Casper. No, No, I think that was just like because he was really bad at scaring people. So it's like his uncles or whatever the fuck.

We're like, he's a friendly ghost, and that's then friendly parentheses derogatory. I like that, like that his friend his uncles, they are his uncles. That is true. I think that's what they were calling. No, they are they're his uncles.

Yeah, can I please? Can we get on a T shirt? Friendly parentheses derogatory, friendly derogatory. The comments are just like, oh, thank you for sharing, and oh, you know, great story. What do you think of this story?

I mean, the first thing that I think is sure ghost who died in that house? Or what ancestor is attached to you that you don't know of that just wanted to let you know that your mom was downstairs. Like what what a benign, simple thing to only happen once? Right, Like it's not like other you know, paranormal activities surrounded this according to the story, like this really seemed like a one time thing. So to me, this very much says ghost potentially guardian angel if you want to get back into that.

But I'm gonna say ghost. I'm gonna say ghost. Because the whole like sea three through thing, although I mean we said in the in the Dog story that it wasn't see through. I don't know. I don't know ghost rules.

I don't I don't know ghost rules. I don't know if like it's dependent on amount of energy or some shit like I that is literally something that we can only speculate on as humans, is what it takes to make a ghost look the way a ghost does. Because if it's like I could understand, potentially like okay, it's energy related. So like a ghost with like depleted energy is see through and a ghost with more energy is solid. Right again, Like that's or is it?

Or is it more based off of how you perceive them, not necessarily how they're presenting themselves one again, that's that's the that's that's the question. That's the side of a point. But it is besides the point. I think the point here is is that whatever this thing is, it is obviously benevolent. I think that's you know, like a lot is to say how you feel when you see it, Like I would say most definitely either the spirit of a loved one, potentially an ancestor I can only assume because this person didn't seem to recognize.

So I'm not going to say like a grandparent or even a great grandparent. I would say a couple couple down the line from that, potentially one that you've just never seen a photo of, maybe, especially like if your family, you know, also three years old in this story, right, And I mean at that point, you have great facial recognition, right, and obviously just like it's hard to remember at that point. Maybe it was maybe it was like a great grandparent and they just you know, they saw they see photos of their great grandparents and it just doesn't click. But either that or somebody very kind died in that house or spirit guide. Yeah.

And again, like you know, when I was reading this story, I wasn't expecting the wholesome twist. I was expecting like there was the woman standing in with a title like the woman in the doorway, Like you know, you're expecting kind of one thing and those of their expectations. Yeah, it's something else entirely, And I do. I'm with you. I like that because again like yeah, you know, uh, three years old.

I guess I might interpret it this way. Again, I don't know, it's interpretation kind of doesn't matter really, right, right, they didn't feel threatened, and I think that's what matters, And I'm glad that they could feel comforted by this type of presence. Yeah, and again like that for me is like, you know, okay, so they weren't feeling any untoward negative emotions, so must not have been bad, all right, I could get down with that sick, right, Yeah, I love it. I love it. I am so happy for this person have such a great experience.

I feel like that is very normal with children. Like when you hear usually it's like you see the ghostly figure and they play with you, right, and you're like, mommy, mommy, there was a nice lady in my room who told me to how to play with my toys or something there, like read me a story book. Like I feel like you hear that a lot. Obviously that's not the case all the time, especially in like I think in movies, it way more often skews negative. But I feel like whenever you hear like these allegedly true stories, it's always like something relatively benevolent when it comes to a child seeing a figure.

You're right, and I guess that's I guess that's not a bad thing. No, it's only in fiction where they're mean I give it enough vote, Yeah, I give it enough vote to it. It had it had a it had a different ending to it. I love it. Yeah.

Yeah it's and it's believable to me. Yeah. Yeah, Hey, we gotta we gotta stick to a system we already forgot to, like a boot slash down there. I think I'm just trying to think, like, yeah, I agree, like, yeah, I think it's I think it's again it's not it's not doing too much. So in that it's not doing too much.

I think it's like perfect amounts of believable. Yeah, it's a very short, concise story. It makes sense that you don't have like a ton of memory about what this person looked like. It's not like they described exactly like facial features or like you know, hair color, Like it was just a woman see through rights because because you were because you were three, right exactly, Like at that point, like how much memory can you really like visual memory can you really have? Yeah, and that and again like that's kind of the things about this story that I like, or that it kind of has these weird modifiers that are like, oh, well, you know, you can't have an adult, so it's like a kid kid seeing an adult is different than like a teenager seeing an adult or an adult seeing an adult.

So yeah, I like, I like that. Yeah, I know this is a this is a good one. Definitely an up vote for sure. Hey, so they have a question for me. So I looked and like the problem with the problem with the questions is like sometimes they're like not really questions.

It's like, do you guys have a It's like people asking for scary stories and like, I don't know, like some of these you don't have any. You haven't told me you have never had an experience, so it's like you can't answer that. Are we gonna next the question? Well, I don't know. I'm just I'm looking here.

Well here's a good one. So maybe you'll have an answer for this. What is the most terrifying experience you've had in your life that you believe can only be explained as paranormal? Mm? I know you have ones?

Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah for sure too. I that could only even have anything borderline like you've never even told me anything. That's like okay, okay, okay, okay, maybe something. Okay, this will be a first I've never heard this before. If you tell if you tell this, I mean, I have a horrible memories, So I might have told you for all I know, but I definitely I don't know if I said it on the podcast.

When I was seventeen, I was working as a pseudo camp counselor for half the summer. It was actually a horrible job and I'm not going to get into that, but basically a couple of the camp counselors one night, specifically, there was like one guy who was like very he came off as like a very alternative, Like he was maybe like two years older than me, and he was like he he said that he had an Ouiji board and he wanted to like go into there was like a building that was unlocked on you know camp grounds. It was almost like, uh, you know, like a dance hall sort of like where you you know, like the big mirror and like the yeah. So it was like it was it was a big room like that, and it was nighttime. It was unlocked, so we were able to go in.

He brought his Auiji board, a couple of other things, like he brought like his lighter, he brought like a pettigram, which wasn't supposed to be seen as satanic. It was supposed to be seen as like a protection thing. Every he did like protection esque things. It wasn't like demonic. From what I could tell, he seemed very knowledgeable.

He was giving me and a couple other people pointers on like how to use it, and so we did the thing. And I mean, yeah, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little scared, right, just because I mean, we're in a dark room in a creepy at night building. Well I don't know that. Well, fucking around with an Uiji board, which I've been told many times by many people not to do correct even if you do have best practices. So I don't remember the questions that they asked.

But I was like, like if I get asked like one question, because another thing is like when I the first camp like I went to was like specific it was a sleepaway camp when I was like twelve, specifically a Jewish sleepaway camp. So I think I just like associate camps with like Judaism, even if this camp was not. And so something that was brought up to me like that I thought of was my hubrew name and I wanted to know if I lived up to my Hebrew name. In that moment, I was seventeen and very insecure. So for those that don't know, my Hebrew name is Eli Cheva Braja and the Braja part means blessing.

And the reason why I was named that is because my mom had two miscarriages before me. So you know, when you're told that you're a blessing and you try, you try to be that for other people, it's I mean, like obviously, like nobody held me to that standard, but I think I held myself to that standard, and I wanted to know. I wanted to ask the spirits in their opinion, did I live up to that? And you know, we all have our hands on the little planchet and I just say, like, I don't tell anybody in the room, you know what my Hubrew name is. I didn't give them any background on this.

I just asked the board, did I live up to my Hubrew name. They didn't know what my Hubrew name was or what it meant, like nobody else in the in the circle, I suppose, and the Planchett moved to yes, and I got very emotional, which I was not expecting, and like I came out of that as like it was a very positive experience and like it felt very tangible. It's not the first time I've ever touched n guiji board. We had one growing up here, and my sister and I would go into the basement with like a friend or something, and like I couldn't tell if they were fucking with me or not. You know, when you're when you're a little younger sibling, you believe anything, and for all you know, they could have been moving it.

But you know, you never know, especially in a dark room, it's so hard to tell. I don't think they moved it. I don't think they moved it. So let's say, suspension of disbelief, Planchet moved on its own. That's already pretty scary.

Anything moving on its own is pretty scary. Well, have you used in a wage board. I have not in a long time, and I wouldn't I know. I mean, the idea behind the wage board is micro movements. Move it around the board, and everybody is like tacitly agreeing to move it.

And then I mean that's it's essentially like mass delusion, right potentially, I mean, well, like but that's like, that's the explained away version, Like I don't necessarily believe that. I don't know, and I guess like I've been told by people to not fuck with them, people who are like I have a family member who's X, Y and Z, and they said not to fuck with it. And that has nothing to do with micro movements. I know that you know what could what I could. I'm always like, oh man, you know what I should have done, like skeptic wise, if I was there to like prove something to myself, I should have asked the board what my hubrew name was, and like really committed to not like just keeping my fingers as lightly on it as possible, not moving it and just like letting it go because like I said, nobody in that circle knew that about me.

I might have mentioned it to you, but I don't know if you even necessarily remembered it and or even how to spell it, and so like, if if an AWIGI board was able to spell out my hubrew name, maybe I even close my eyes and I ask them to read out the letters as we're doing it, like to take all of it, like all of that out just maybe then I would say I don't know if every single time you open an Ouiji board it's spiritual, but that time it was. Obviously when you open up you know, any potential gateway you welcome. You don't necessarily welcome, but you have the potential to welcome and that energy. I'd like to think that this person did all the precautions if that was the case, but you never know. I don't recommend using a Wigi board, but it was a positive experience.

I remember being scared, and I can't really explain it away other than they all just decided to move it to guests and I got emotional because I'm a big baby. I don't know, I don't think it's that. I mean again, like I weigi boards are like dowsing rods, Like it's not I don't know, Like I believe in Wigi board more than dowsing rods. But at the same time, they were easy to debunk. But I don't know, Like I, like I said, I've had people tell me don't fuck with Weiji boards, So it's like, you don't say that about something that's just I mean, like I will say that I wound up getting fired, so I mean, it was my first job.

I don't think I was doing a bad job. I did wind up getting fired for some really dumb reasons. So maybe I did open up a bad spirit to give me some shit luck. Maybe that was some really shit luck. I'll have to tell you outside.

I don't think. I don't think I have told you how terrible this job was. I don't think it's very scary stories related, although atrocious business practices are pretty fucking scary. Yeah, the scariest story of them all capitalism, right, I think for me, like obviously, I've had multiple stories of things that have happened that are paranormal. So I don't even think I can really answer the question.

It was more a question directed at you because, like we've said, like I have a couple episodes of this show, an episode on your show where I talk about the things. Yeah, so it's like I need to talk about it again. You know, there's a couple of ghosts chilling in your house, soeah, yeah, something. I think I talked about it on the last paranormal episode. We did.

Probably just talk about it every time, and just really right, that is every time. Now I'm gonna tell a story, so yeah, I didn't know that story. So I don't know what to tell you. It sounds ah do you do you upvote it? Yeah?

I think I think you're you have a You've got a good story, and I think your story is also one that again, like it's a Wiji board thing, and like people have really strong feelings about Weiji boards. So I don't recommend it. You shouldn't do it, even if you're somebody who really knows what you're doing, unless this is like something that you do for like a fucking living and you're very good about cleansing your energy or some shit. Even then, I don't know if I recommend it, but just if you're an amateur, stay away from it. Like I said, I got fired.

I don't know if that was because of the Awigi board, but I'm sure it didn't help, right, Yeah, I'm with you. Yeah, though, just don't mess with them. I mean again, they're they sound like fun and you can probably have fun with them. It was a great bonding experience, you know. Like I said, before I got fired, I got to I got to hang out with the actual camp counselors.

I was a glorified babysitter, That's really what I did. So I got to hang out with like the actual camp counselors. That was pretty cool. But like, you know, you can get that same experience going to a graveyard at night or watching a scary movie with some friends, Like you don't have to fuck with an OWIGI board to you know, to fix that. That's fair, That's very fair.

But yeah, I think I think that's all I got. Yeah, I was about to say, Emma, if another r slash paranormals in the book, So when you're not here talking about that with me, where can people find you? Floating in the universe, just sort of existing. If you guys are curious about my previous podcast that I mentioned several times in this episode, so that is strange beliefs. All of the episodes are on YouTube as well as I believe Apple, Google, potentially Spotify.

I have not checked on it in so long, but all the episodes are up if you're curious. And the episode that Chris was talking about, if you haven't heard his paranormal story, it was actually the last episode that we uploaded, So if you guys are curious all about that paranormal story, feel free to go check out that episode. It was a really fun one. Yeah, it was I remember recording it a year ago? Now yeah, more more Yeah.

Even as for mec stash dot com, cstac hiw dot com, that's my link tree. Go there for all the things that I work on, which are vast and varied. This show scary stories. We tell scary stories WT on all social media. Big thanks as always to Maggoty Dustin Rutledge for the album artwork, and to our good friend Alex Malmack of Blondo for the music for the show.

You can find him on Spotify just search Blondo. Emma, thank you for joining me. As always, our slash Paranormal is always a fun time. Yeah. I love this type of content.

It is so fun discussing and attempting to be bunk. Yeah, it is. I think it's a great time. And hey, if it gets people to go read those stories, that's the more important part. So definitely.

Yeah. And oh before we get obviously, if you guys have any stories that you want to share and you want us to you know, potentially read them on an episode, please please send them our way, whether it's a comment somewhere or you know, a DM on her Instagram, or even an email potentially just yeah, just find find a way to shove them in our faces, and we'd be more than happy to read it exactly. And speaking of reading things, we'll let our good friend, the former host of Sidings, mister Tim White, lead us out. No mystery is closed to an open mind.