S18 Ep47: Black shadows, black triangles and black eyed kids (Sn. 18 Ep. 47)
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Hello again, folks, and welcome back to another installment. It's a downright pleasure to be sharing calls with you here tonight. And boy, do I have some exceptional specimens to share with you this evening. A visit from the Glimmer Man, haunted graveyards, deadly negative energy, and maybe even a visit from the infamous black-eyed kids. But to kick us off tonight, a good old-fashioned ghost story, courtesy of Wendy.

Hello, this is Wendy calling from Vancouver, BC, Canada. I bought a house when I was in my late 30s and moved into it and noticed right away that there was a feeling of

not being alone, but surprisingly, not a scary feeling at all. I should note that prior to this, I'd never ever had any paranormal sightings or feelings or anything of that nature. So I moved in the house and I would leave, for example, a door open and I'd return moments later and the door would be closed. And it was absolutely silent.

The house only had one owner prior to me. It was built in the 50s and the elderly parents stayed till they were in their 90s. When they passed, the children who were then in their 60s sold it to me. It felt like, well, maybe the fellow who built it preferred to have that door closed. And there was only one time that it felt scary. So for years, small things would happen, like I would nap.

and I would faintly hear my name called until I was woken up. I would wake up with this really annoying feeling because I was just trying to have a nap, but not frightened. So this continued and sometimes there would be breaks of years. I've now been in the house over 20 years. I met someone and my spouse moved into the house

And we reno'd by putting a second story on, and the reno seemed to really change things in the house. There was a lot more activity. There were cupboards moved. I would hear voices a little bit longer. There was a very tiny bedroom in the basement. It had been a workshop when I bought the house. And my mother-in-law, who says that she is quite sensitive, said that we had a female ghost in the basement. And I'd always felt that room was...

Just a bit creepy. So then I was using this new renovated area and I heard a growl. I was very, very unnerved. That was the first time that I was frightened. And so I contacted our local paranormal society and they came in and recorded a lot of noises. They had activity like...

trouble with their cameras, whispering in their ear. And so they were very anxious to come back. They came back a few weeks later and recorded some clear EVPs, a very clear yes and no to questions.

They would go to a different floor of the house. The cupboard doors would be open when they came down or drawers. They had way more electrical issues, things actually physically becoming unplugged, etc. And then my spouse said he was not okay with them coming back. It seemed to ramp up the activity. So after that, he enlisted a psychic medium to come in and she explained that

Thank you, Wendy, for sharing.

Now of all of that activity, of which there was plenty, I think the spookiest detail for me is the disembodied growling. There's something primal about that aspect. Something unsettling. Because you see, with a human ghost, you might be able to reason with it. But a hell beast from the other side? Well, good luck with that. Now folks, I have plenty more where this one came from. And we'll get right back to the action.

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Now, I don't normally share stories about nightmares here on the program. Too easy to explain those away, I suppose. Not that I get that many in the first place anyway. But I'm making a bit of an exception for this next entry. Because although it's about nightmares, this one is a little bit different. So Jay from Texas, welcome to the show.

My name is Jay. I'm calling in from Dallas, Texas. I just wanted to call in and share about a nightmare I had when I was in junior high, so maybe about 15 to 20 years ago. And this nightmare I had, it was very vivid. I remember it feeling very real. And it was one of those typical dreams where you wake up and you feel like you're actually awake.

So in our house, from my bedroom down to where the bathroom was, I would actually walk past my parents' bedroom on the way to the bathroom. In this dream, I just remember heading towards the bathroom. I looked over into my parents' room. You know, it's the middle of the night. For some reason, I knew it was probably around like 3 a.m. So I should have been able to

keep in there and see them sleeping but they were nowhere to be found so i thought that was a little weird mind you this is still in the midst of the dream i pop my head in there and i see a woman with a long black dress long black hair and she's in front of my mom's vanity mirror and it looks like she's putting makeup on i can't get a good look at what her face looks like

So I just keep walking in to see if I can see from the reflection. And I see that she has no facial features. At this point, I wake up. This is where it gets kind of really crazy. Because the following morning, I was telling this to my brother and my cousin, who was living with us at the time. My cousin was like, you know, I don't want to hear it. She just walked away from the breakfast table. But my brother, who...

I've never heard him tell a lie, ever. He's not very talkative to begin with. I saw his eyes kind of get a little bit wide, and I asked him what's wrong, and he explained to me that he had the exact same nightmare as I did. In his rendition of The Dream, the lady was dressed in white, and when he walked in, she stopped putting on makeup and said,

Thank you, Jay. Now having a scary dream yourself, well, that's one thing. It happens to the best of us. But for others in the home to experience the exact same scary dream,

Well, that's a detail that has my full attention. And it's got me wondering, how many other people have had a similar experience? How many of you out there have shared dreams with friends or loved ones? How many of you have shared a nightmare? Now, I want to hear from you, and I'll tell you how to submit your story in just a moment. But first, shared dreams, or mutual dreaming as it's often called.

is a reported phenomena where two or more people share a dream or parts of a dream. Officially it's a fringe topic but there has been a lot of research done on the subject. For example, the University of Minnesota did a study on the phenomena. They polled 102 dreamers and according to their findings, 27% of shared dreams were between friends, 42% between relatives, and 27% significant others.

and 4% non-familiar people. And they also concluded that most mutual dreams tend to occur between two close people, and the dreams tend to be very similar in content. They also noted that mutual dreaming is more likely to occur when related dreamers are separated and not feeling very intimate. Now I admittedly know very little about this subject, but something tells me that maybe more than a few of you have had this very same experience.

And to submit that or any other true paranormal story, call our hotline at 888-608-NIGHT. That's 888-608-N-I-G-H-T. Or just record your story on the Voice Memo app on your phone and email the file to me at monstersamonguspodcast at gmail.com. And I hate to be a stickler, but this is for the best. Please don't forget the roles.

True stories only. Call from a quiet place. No moving vehicles. One story per call. Unless they're all related or tied together in some way, of course. Finish the call once you start. And if you get cut off, flustered, upset, or run out of time, just call back and pick up where you left off. We'll be sure to put it all together. It's our goal to make sure you sound as coherent as possible.

Now, one more time, that number is 888-608-KNIGHT. And that email is MonstersAmongUsPodcast at gmail.com. Now, for this next entry, we find ourselves in the state of Washington. Please welcome Austin to the program.

Hey there, this is Austin in Olympia, Washington. I was listening to season 14, episode 10 recently, where you had discussed a lot of UFO encounters within Washington state. And that reminded me of earlier this past year, where on, I believe, the transportation episode, there was a lot of discussion about triangular shaped craft that were

To me, what I experienced wasn't a UFO, but definitely seemed like maybe unknown military sort of crafts. So essentially what I experienced was in Parkland, Washington, I saw on two separate occasions a triangular-shaped craft with three lights on it.

these crafts seem to be able to hover in place. So one instance happened, this would have been at night in the summer of 2015. I was a pizza delivery driver and I was stopped at a stoplight

I happened to look up out of my windshield and see one of these crafts hovering right above me. It was extremely odd. It filled me with this very eerie feeling. That's the only way I can really describe it. It looked to me, it felt like the craft could fall out of the sky at any moment.

which was really scary considering it was right above me. So this experience, I don't really know how long it lasts, but it really only lasted until the light changed colors and I started driving again. I don't know what happened to the craft after that point. It was really odd. It just seemed like a dark triangle in the sky with lights on each end. And this also happened to me on another occasion. I'm not sure if this would have been earlier or later the same year, but it

but essentially I was walking next to my college campus in Parkland, Washington, and I saw the same sort of craft. This time it was hovering in front of one of my friend's house.

It was really, really odd. It was pointed towards their house, which was this row of small college houses. It was just floating there. It was floating, facing towards their house. I was walking down the street. I slowed down and I watched it and I watched and watched it for a few minutes, but...

At some point, I just kept walking. And I really don't know why. I don't know if I was on my way to something or what. But it just struck me as something that was odd, but it didn't seem too crazy to me. We live right near...

Louis McCord Air Force Base. So I knew that there was a possibility of being military craft. I saw them on a pretty regular basis. But this struck me as really odd. It was only until listening to your episode that it kind of sunk in for me how odd it was.

Before that point, I had kind of thought they just kind of reminded me of like Call of Duty, like stealth bomber sort of aircraft. But the way in which they kind of hover in place and how low they were to the ground, it was only years later that I kind of realized how bizarre that was. I don't really know what they were, whatever the sort of model was.

of secret craft that was mentioned on the transportation episode. That sounds right to me. I've been thinking about it a lot ever since that transportation episode. Thanks, I love the show, and have a good one. Thank you, Austin. Another black triangle UFO. Or shall I say, another top secret military aircraft. Because that has to be what these things are, right? Well, whatever they are. They've been sighted since the early 90s, so they've been around for quite some time.

And they've been seen by all walks of life in all parts of the country. And as a perfect example of both of those parameters, I was recently introduced to an episode of Art Bell's Coast to Coast from April of 2004, where he describes his very own encounter with one of these unidentified dark deltas. Now I managed to pull some of the highlights from his story in that episode.

So compare and contrast and see how closely Arts Encounter aligns with Austin's and every other black triangle UFO witness that we've heard from over the years. One night many years ago now, I worked in Las Vegas for KDWN Radio at that time. And I used to commute back and forth from here to Las Vegas every single day. Well...

Ramona and myself were on the way home and pulled over to the side of the road. And we both got out and stood and watched this incredible, incredible black triangle approaching us from the rear. It was still approaching at that point as we stood by the car.

And I'm telling you, folks, this mama was big. It was pure black. It could not have been more than, you know, I'd estimate 150 feet above us.

It was monstrous as it passed overhead the stars, and the nearly full moon at the time went away, you know, just like in the movie, closing counters or whatever. This thing couldn't have been doing more than about 30 or 40 miles an hour and maybe less. I'd say maybe 30 miles an hour. It was not flying, not as a conventional aircraft would fly. It was floating. Not only was it floating or defying gravity, however you wish it,

It was making no noise whatsoever, no apparent propulsion system whatsoever. It was so quiet you could hear crickets a quarter of a mile away, a half mile away. And it was so close, I felt like I could have thrown a rock at it. But, you know, I didn't. I was so shocked.

And so I guess I was actually, we were both actually in shock and it passed directly over our heads and kept on going in a west, northwesterly direction, roughly toward what we know as Area 51 out here, just over the mountain range from me. Now you can find a link to that full episode in tonight's show notes. And they spend the whole night talking about this strange phenomena. So there you go, Austin.

Another entry just like yours. Thank you again for calling in and thanks for reporting whatever it was that you saw.

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forward slash factor podcast to get 50% off plus free shipping on your first box. You know, sometimes it can be these subtle things that spook you out the most. Just ask Lisa out of the state of Massachusetts. Hi Derek, this is Lisa. I live in Massachusetts. I hope you get the opportunity to come and visit here sometime.

And all of our interesting places that we have, I live very close to Bridgewater Triangle. But the story I wanted to share took place in the late 90s.

I was living with my young family in Donegal, Ireland. My husband at the time played music and he would come home some nights very late or very early the following morning. My children were about two, three and four at the time. We were renting an old home from a family who the owner's parents had owned it and

The father was the sports writer for the town and his mom was the midwife for the town. So they were very popular social people. But the circumstance is that I came into the lounge room one morning, which is like the sitting room or living room.

to discover the print that hung over the fireplace in a heavy frame. The dimensions were about three foot by four foot, and it was hanging on a three inch nail. So I walk into the room and I see this lying on the floor in front of the fireplace.

face up and the glass is not broken. So it very obviously had to have been lifted off the nail, turned around and laid on the floor in front of the fireplace face up. I immediately went in to ask my husband if he had done this and why. And he said he did not. The children were too young and small to have been able to maneuver anything like that.

The circumstance at the time that I sort of attribute it to is my husband's very, very close cousin had died very suddenly of a sudden heart attack.

Thank you, Lisa.

You know, I actually owe Sarah a trip to Salem. A trip we talked about taking at some point this calendar year. So I just might be visiting sooner than you think, Lisa. And let me tell you, I'm really looking forward to it. And a huge thanks for joining us over on Patreon as well, Lisa. You guys have no idea how much supporting us over there helps us grow this little program.

And sure, we have ads and merchandise, but that steady income is what allows us to take risks like hiring team members and branching out with brand new ideas. And if you'd like to join us over there in the beyond, stay tuned to the end of this program or just visit monstersamonguspodcast.com and click the Patreon tab there at the top of the screen. Now, like I said, a picture falling off the wall isn't that spooky of a thing to have happened.

Hi Derek, my name's Chris. I'm calling from Sydney, Australia.

I have an experience that happened in about October 2013. We had just moved into a new property that was really close to the bush and we had bushfires come through the area and unfortunately our house was hit and we lost the home and all of our possessions.

In the meantime, we had just moved out of a house that was still empty and still on the market. So we decided to go back there. We'd lived there for quite a few years, like 18, thereabouts. And I was very familiar with the house. Anyway, about a night after the fire, I was in bed. It was quite late, probably one o'clock in the morning. And I was laying there with my eyes open.

and I had this massive black shadow come in right to my face and blacken everything that I could see out. I freaked out and it moved away in a big hurry. Through the light play of the window, which was of quite a bright moon I suppose, I could see what I would say was a black cloud

It was floating around the room like a... It filled the whole ceiling of the bedroom. It was like a cloud that was shifting but took no real form. I was freaking out thinking to myself that I was tired, stressed, low on blood sugar, one of or all of the above. And I just tried to comprehend what I was seeing and sort of let it go. It dissipated after probably 20 minutes.

and I didn't see it again that night. The next night, about one o'clock in the morning mark, it appeared again and I thought to myself that it was really strange. My husband was still awake and I had told him about what I'd seen. So I said to him, "Look, this thing's here again. Can you see it?" And we both laid there and watched this cloud just sort of float around, come in close to us at times and then take off.

I sort of saw it come in over my husband at one time and sort of like blanket him when he was asleep. Later on, maybe that night or another night, because it happened about four times. And at least three of those nights, we lay there together and watched this thing.

A few times after that it came, but it was more of a slimmer shadow, not really a shadow person, but I would see this shadow in the en suite that was attached to our bedroom, quite close to my side of the bed. And it almost looked like it was time to take a human form. By this point I was talking to this thing and I said to him, look, you know, you're doing a really good job. I can almost see you.

It came closer, it was almost standing at the bedside and then it kind of disappeared. It happened a few times on and off, but nothing that I could say that made contact with me. But I felt that it was a comforting thing rather than scary. When we talk about black shadow people or things, people seem to be frightened by them. I wasn't frightened, I found this thing comforting. That's my story, I was just trying to...

share that it was something strange but comforting. Thanks so much. Bye. Appreciate it, Chris. Thanks for calling in. And we're sorry to hear about the loss of your home. We nearly lost ours to a fire last September. It's a terrifying concept, and my heart goes out to you. But as for this formless, light-absorbing cloud of whatever the hell that was, the only thing I could think that could be worse than seeing something like this

Might be seeing it several nights in a row. And have your husband see it as well. That's certainly significant. But you know it doesn't seem like this mysterious figure garnered the same reaction. That most of these shadow entities do. Which makes me think that either this version of the phenomena is a little bit different. Or Chris and her husband have some serious resolve. Either way thank you again Chris for sharing this intriguing story.

yet unsettling account. Now folks, I'm almost embarrassed to admit this, but we still haven't gotten around to closing our merchandise shop for its big move. So you might as well take advantage. Everything is 20% off, at least at the moment. So visit the shop at monstersamonguspodcast.com and by clicking the shop tab. If the shop is still online, that means it's still open. So come by and pick up something nice for yourself.

And speaking of nice, this next story is nice and scary. Joining us from Canada is Kate.

Hi there, this is Kate calling from Toronto, Canada, and I'm actually calling in regards to one of the episodes I just listened to, which was season 10, episode 5. It was the one where the sorority girls could hear a child crying, and they thought it was a prankster or a predator. I have a story very similar to this that happened recently. Over the winter, I woke up in the middle of the night

because I could hear a child crying. Now, to preface this, me and my husband have a two-year-old and a three-year-old. So immediately, my worst thought is, oh my goodness, one of our children has gotten out of bed and somehow gotten outside. It was the middle of the winter, you know, in Toronto, it can be minus 40 in January with two feet of snow. So I immediately panicked. I got up, I ran to their bedroom, opened the door,

And they were both fast asleep. I could still hear this baby crying or this small child crying. And it was like a heart-wrenching, I'm in pain, help me cry. And as a mother, that makes your stomach drop. A cry like that, it makes you feel sick to your stomach. But my gut just kept telling me, do not go to the front door. Do not open the front door. Don't go to the front door.

So instead of going to the front door, I went to, you know, our second story window and I looked outside. It was snowing. It was quiet. There was no footprints. There was nothing. But I could still hear this child crying. It was quiet, but I could hear it. And I knew that if I went and opened that front door, I would have come face to face with a black eyed child. My gut, my soul was telling me, do not go to that front door again.

And I didn't. Out loud, I said, you are not welcome here. You are not coming in this house. Go away. And almost immediately, the crying stopped. And this story freaks me out so much that I am getting goosebumps talking about it. It scared me so badly. But yeah, so in regards to, you know, that episode and those girls, sure, it may have been, you know, someone with malicious intent.

However, this is something that black-eyed children do. This is how they get you to let them into your home, into your space. There was no way I was opening that front door. No way. But yeah, love the work you do. Thank you so much for the podcast. Have a great one. Bye. Thank you, Kate. Now, as many of you know, we picked up a new team member recently. Connor, the editor. He's now in charge of making sure you all sound crisp, clear, and creepy. And a wonderful job he's doing.

But we were talking about this call the other day and he mentioned that he'd experienced a sound just like what Kate was describing outside of his old apartment up in New England. And he told me that he thought it sounded like a fisher or a fisher cat, a 10-pound relative of the otter and the badger, known to live throughout most of Canada and parts of New England. Now for reference, here is what a fisher sounds like. Now for those of you that have fallen asleep,

You're in for a rude awakening. The sound that you're hearing, the screaming, this is the sound of the fisher cats in the woods behind my house. It's an awful sound. Go back to sleep. Everything's all right. Now that clip from Anna Long on YouTube. And what do you think, folks? And what do you think, Kate? Do we have a match?

Now with all due respect to Connor and his theory, I can hear a distinct difference between what I know is a baby's cry and the god-awful sound that this awesome little mammal makes. I'm not sure that I could ever confuse the two. And you know, there have been other black-eyed kid sightings in the Toronto area. Here is a creepy one from a Reddit user called TechDaddyDinosaur. I am from the Toronto area of Canada.

this was almost six to nine months ago i was traveling east on 401 and stopped at en route gas station just west of port hope the gas bar didn't have what i wanted so i walked the 100 yards to the main building the one with eight tim hortons that's when i was approached by two kids wearing t-shirts and no gloves mitts or hats and it was at least 10 below zero now my memory is fuzzy the more i try to remember the fuzzier the details

They wanted to get into my SUV to get warm. And I said I'm going to the main building and that it's very warm there. And I would even get them something to eat or a hot chocolate. They wouldn't go. So I simply left them. Now they were creepy and would never make eye contact. But when I did see their eyes, they seemed really dark. I got to the building and looked back but no one was there. And it was a huge, well-lit parking lot.

Now after I grabbed my coffee, I walked back to the Canadian Tire gas bar and asked if the kids had come in. And both young men working there said they saw me talking to them, but that they were gone. It creeped me out, big time. So maybe it was a 10-pound weasel. Or maybe it was these infamous B-E-Ks. Whatever it was, we're very pleased that you made the report to us, Kate. Thank you again for ringing in.

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Now, if you would, please welcome this anonymous caller from the Buckeye State of Ohio. Hi, I'm calling from Ohio. I just listened to the episode, Trish. She was talking about a creature that would crawl into her room after her parents were divorced. Sorry, I'm

It really kind of threw me for a loop. Something really similar happened to me growing up. My parents got divorced when I was really little, five and six. At least that's when he moved out of the house. And for years, it would look like the Glimmer Man, like how people describe it, that you can see it but not see it. Like it was invisible, but I could see the outline, and I could kind of see details, but it wasn't like a palpable appearance. It always to me looked kind of like

golem but if he was more shriveled and he would crawl into my room and he would try to crawl up my bed frame and onto my bed i know that like i was awake i would walk up to my door and i would run to my bed and leap on it because i was scared he was going to be able to grab me it was never able to grab me i don't know if it was never like palpable enough in the world or what but it'd scare me and so i would start sleeping in my mom's room across the hall

And I would be able to sleep a whole lot better because it wasn't in there. I could tell that it was just staying in my room. And there was one night that I would lay on her floor. At the time, I was like 9, 10. I didn't want to be sleeping in my mom's bed. You know, that was embarrassing. And I looked over and I could see into my bedroom. It looked at me. And it like scurried across the hall into my mom's room. Like it found me finally. From then on, I had to sleep in my mom's bed for a couple more years. She always...

said that she could feel something and she worried if my dad like got into some kind of occult belief that he could send something to our house. My older brother was there at the time. He never saw it, but he could feel something in the house. It always stayed upstairs near our bedrooms. It never went into my brother's bedroom. We don't really know why, but it didn't go away until when I was 12, we got a dog.

And we always would talk about how he's like my guardian angel. And once we got that dog, we never saw it again. And even after that dog passed away, we never saw it. But I hadn't heard another story at all like it until Trish called in. I wish I could draw it. It was very disturbing, very creepy. I've never seen anything like it again, even like in the film. Thank you for giving us a place to share our stories. I appreciate it. Thank you. Bye. Thank you, caller.

You know, you touched on something there that rang alarm bells for me. You talked about the previous caller experiencing strange activity after their parents were divorced. And you too, caller, mentioned a similar scenario. Well, I've shared this story before, so I'll keep it brief. But I had a similar experience myself.

My parents divorced right after I turned 16, and for the first few months after my mother had moved out, my dad, brother, and I would hear distinct footsteps walking up the hall toward our bedrooms. The hall ended with three doors. To the left was my dad's, straight ahead was my brother's, and to the right was mine. Almost every night, maybe 20 to 30 minutes before we went to bed, we would hear the footsteps, and they would stop right outside those three bedroom doors.

And sometimes we would all fling the door open at once, Scooby-Doo style, only to find out that there was nothing there, except for our bewildered faces. Now after a few months, the activities seemed to have faded away. But boy was it weird when it was happening. And what you brought up made me think of that story caller. And it makes me wonder if there's any correlation between recent divorces and paranormal activity.

I guess that's something we need to revisit on a later episode. But for now, caller, it sounds like you had your very own Glimmer Man experience. And given that you're from Ohio, I'd say that you're in good company. Because I can't help but notice a lot of Glimmer Man entries coming to us from the Buckeye State. I've linked to a few newer ones in tonight's show notes.

But any long-time listener of this program, or any paranormal content for that matter, can tell you that Ohio is the place to be if you're looking to experience one of these things. Now, per usual, I'll keep my ears open, and I'll be sure to revisit this topic later on as well. But until then, thank you again, caller, for taking the time to call in. Now, folks, that takes us to tonight's final entry. And you better brace yourselves for this next one.

because it just might touch on a huge phobia for many of you. Now, Todd from South Carolina, welcome to tonight's show. Hi, Derek. My name is Todd and I'm calling from South Carolina. For 15 years, I served a church in the low country of South Carolina. And this was a very historic church, one of the oldest in the city, dated back to the mid 1700s. And a couple of strange things happened when I worked there that I'd like to share.

The church itself was separated from the office buildings that were part of the church, which we called the parish hall. So you would have a brick building where the offices and the social events would be held, and then a graveyard, and then the church. And so when I would come in in the morning, usually around 7.30, I would do what I needed to do in the parish hall and then make my way over to the church through the graveyard.

Graveyard was a pretty spooky place at night, but it didn't really bother me too much during the day. Very old graves, though, a lot of them dating back to the mid-1700s, some of them still in German because the first settlers of the church were from Germany. So one morning I'm coming in. I've just come from the parish hall. I'm carrying a big stack of choir books, and I've made my way through the graveyard, and I'm just entering the church.

The alarm is beeping because I haven't disarmed it yet. Just as I'm about to start disarming the alarm, I hear a voice from behind me from the graveyard that I just walked through. It sounds like it's about 20 feet behind me. And the voice says my name. It says, Todd. Well, it sounds like one of my choir members. So I put my books down, disable the alarm, walk back through the door into the graveyard and say, yes. And there is nobody there. The graveyard is completely deserted.

Now, the church is in the middle of a city, so it's not impossible that there could be people walking by and talking at 7.30 in the morning. But the graveyard is actually surrounded by large, thick brick walls. And the nearest of these walls was a good 60, 70 feet away. And this voice sounded like it came from like 10 feet behind me. There's absolutely nobody there, and I still have no explanation for who could have been calling my name that morning. The other thing that happened to me

was also on an early morning. Again, I'm making my way through the graveyard from the parish building to the church, and I noticed that one of the graves has been vandalized overnight. It's one of these types of graves that looks like a box sitting on top of the ground. It was the style for a period in the 19th century, and it has the look as if the body is inside that brick box, but it's not. It's just a monument.

So I imagine somebody had cracked it open, I guess to look for valuables or what have you. But it was a lot of damage and I was thinking, gosh, what a shame. And I need to tell the pastor about this. So I take a look at the damage and I'm walking away and I've gotten about 10 feet away from the grave I was just looking at. And from the spot where I had just been standing, I hear a moan and it literally sounds like this. It absolutely made my blood run cold.

It was like something out of a horror movie. And it was just right behind me. And there's no way that it could have come from outside the walls of the graveyard because it was just too close. And there's absolutely nobody in there besides me. So those are the two experiences I had at my very historic church in Charleston in the middle of the graveyard. Love the podcast. Thank you for all the great work you do. Thanks so much. Bye. Thanks, Don. This call gave me the shivers.

Not because it might be a ghost that he's describing, and not because it took place in a cemetery, necessarily. But it makes me wonder if maybe someone was buried alive. Now the older I get, the more claustrophobic I get. So the thought of someone stuck in a box six feet underground absolutely gives me the chills. And that's exactly what it sounds like here. Moans and shouts from a graveyard.

It's not hard to imagine someone down there panicking, gasping, pounding and screaming. And maybe Todd here was the only one that could hear them. And yes, I know it's an older graveyard. And perhaps they don't accept new burials. But who's to say that whoever, whatever is down there isn't in spirit form as they desperately tried to reach the surface. Now, live burial is a legitimate fear.

because this exact same scenario has happened from time to time. Someone they thought was dead was accidentally buried alive. Sometimes the discovery is made long after said victim died there in the coffin, but in other occurrences, they get to them just in the nick of time. Take the case of Essie Dunbar Williams, the woman who died twice, for example.

In 1915, 33-year-old Essie Dunbar Williams suffered an epileptic seizure. Dr. D.K. Briggs of Blackville, South Carolina, treated her and declared her dead. According to the Augusta Chronicle, Essie's sister, who lived in nearby Allendale, was late for the 11 a.m. funeral. Three pastors led a ceremony, and when Essie's coffin was lowered six feet into the ground, her sister arrived just in time.

She requested to see Essie one last time and asked the pastors to open the coffin. According to the Augusta Chronicle, when they did, Essie sat straight up smiling. The three pastors were so shocked that they fell into the grave. Fracturing their ribs, mourners screamed and ran in hysterics, including Essie's sister and Essie herself. Now, Essie Williams lived for another 47 years. Passing away,

in 1962. And you know it's not lost on me that Essie's story too took place in South Carolina, for whatever that's worth. Now of course this sort of thing doesn't happen all that often anymore, mostly because of updated medical practices and the invention of the embalming process. Because if you weren't dead before an embalming, you certainly will be after. But it all still gives me the heebie-jeebies.

And Todd, it's all I could think about while listening to your story. So thank you for the freak out. Thanks for closing us out. And thanks for calling in. And a big thanks to you, dear listener, for tuning in here this evening. But don't go anywhere just yet, because I have something for you. After these credits...

Monsters Among Us podcast is written and produced by me, Derek Hayes. Copyright Red Crow Media. Additional support is provided by Sarah Carter Hayes, Delaney Bowers, and Connor Ryan. All media used in this production is done so under the protection of fair use. Please give us a like and follow on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and leave us a rate and review wherever that sort of thing is possible.

Don't forget, you can catch the show every Saturday evening at 11 p.m. Eastern on the UnX Digital Network. Just visit unxnetwork.com to tune in. And finally, tonight's score was provided by Iron Cthulhu, Apocalypse, Code at HE Music, and Carl Casey at White Bat Audio. Now watch the film Shadows in the Desert, High Strangeness in the Borrego Triangle. Just visit borregotriangle.com to tune in.

Don't forget to give us a call to share your story. 888-608-KNIGHT. And stick around for a while, because this ride ain't over yet. But until then...

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We have over 1,000 five-star reviews on Google and an A-plus with a better business deal. Mortgage rates are up, but credit card rates are way... Well, folks, it's secret story time. A bonus story for those patient enough to find it. It's here that we play some of the weirder stories that we get. And tonight's call is certainly no exception. So, from the state of Texas, please welcome Alma back to the program.

Hello, Derek. My name is Alma. I'm from Texas. I'm actually calling. It's not really a ghost story per se, but I was celebrating the autumn equinox a couple of days ago. And there's a couple of rituals that you do. And one of them is kind of a cleansing ritual that you can decide to do.

And it reminded me of something that's happened to my mother. It's a very strange situation that may have happened to her. So my parents have a house and sometimes people visit them. Parents don't get very many visitors except for family as they've gotten older.

They did have a specific person come to their house twice. And there's a reason why this person is not invited back to my parents' house. This person is just an acquaintance, not really a friend. But the first time this person went to their home, she made it to the front of the house. My mother has a very beautiful garden in the front of her house. A lot of little comments on it. They tell her how beautiful it is.

This person came to their house and she was admiring some of the plants my mother has in her front yard. And she was talking about how beautiful her plants are, all these different types of plants that she carries, a variety of plants. And all these plants were like in great condition. They were healthy. My mother takes very good care of her plants. She waters them constantly. She's a big proponent of talking to your plants. So her garden is always in bloom.

This woman was talking a lot about my mother's plants in a way that seemed like she was congratulating my mother on her garden, but my mother just took it as a good compliment. The woman came and visited with my parents and then left. The next morning, my mother wakes up to, I guess, to check the mail at the front of the house. All of her plants that that woman had talked about and commented on are dead. All of them have died.

dried, they're essentially either dead or dying at this point. And it's not just one or two plants and not in the same area of the garden. They're actually in different parts of the front garden. Some are by the front door. Some are from the front of the gate that they have. Some are by the mailbox. And all of them are dying. These are at least seven or eight plants. So it's very strange that something can happen that quickly and affect them and plants

And then...

A couple of weeks later, this person comes back to my mother's house. My mother's already replaced all her plants. She went to buy new plants, transplanted a few plants she had somewhere else, to the front of her house, to the garden. And this woman comments again. First she comments asking, like, oh, what happened to your other plants? And my mother's like, no, we just decided to replace them. This woman also comments again about my mother's plants. And she specifically names or points out different plants

And that time was actually with my mother. I was visiting my parents at the time. And so this person came in and they stayed for a few minutes talking to my mother and my father. I was just sitting there, just minding my business because it was something they were discussing among themselves. And then this woman leaves again. And I also leave. And then I come back the next day to do something with my parents or help my mom with something. And once again, all of her plants

that this woman had specifically pointed out were dead. This time they were completely dead. And these were not in the same location. They were in some of the joining areas of the original plants, the first visit. But some of these plants, they were big plants. I remember one of them took two people to move the planter because it was so huge. And that plant was completely dead. And ever since then, my mother is convinced that...

Whatever intentions this person had towards my family or my parents, they were negative intentions. And that the plants may have served as a warning or served as like a harbinger or some way of telling her, do not invite this person back. Because whatever negative energy this person has, the plants have absorbed them.

This is also one of the other reasons my mother, in our culture, I'm Mexican-American. There is a belief that specific plants draw out negative energy or protect your home from negative energy. So it's kind of similar to when you salt your doorways. That's supposed to kind of protect your home from negative energy. In my mother's belief system, there's a plant called a root plant, R-U-E,

That plant is supposed to protect your home from negative energy. So I actually have one in my front yard. I've noticed that it's not in its best condition at times because certain people may have visited and it kind of takes up all the negative energy, all the negative intentions they have towards you. That's my story. It's probably not very spooky, but I thought it was interesting because I was remembering about cleansing rituals.

I don't know how that actually is something else that probably could be akin to kind of protecting your health or protecting spiritual energy that you have. I don't think it's a coincidence that this happened twice with the same person. I'm pretty sure it maybe happened to other people. I just wanted to tell the story and let people know that if it's happened to them, I firsthand happened to people that I care about.

Thank you for keeping it spooky and for having a forum for all of us to share. And thank you. Thank you, Alma. I don't know. It's pretty spooky in my opinion. Because if someone has the ability to kill plants just by talking about them, it makes me wonder what else they might be capable of. Now, if you heard Alma's story and you thought, this one's a bit far-fetched for me, just know that there have been studies done on how receptive plants actually are.

The CIA even did some research on how well plants can perceive outside pain. Cleve Baxter, a noted CIA interrogation specialist, conducted a series of experiments relating to plant and extrasensory perception. He conducted another similar experiment where he observed a plant's response to the death of a brine shrimp in another room. His results convinced him that plants demonstrated telepathic awareness.

and he argued that plants perceive human intentions. And as he began to investigate further, he also reported finding that other human thoughts and emotions caused reactions in plants, which could be recorded by a polygraph instrument. Now he published his findings from the experiments in the International Journal of Parapsychology back in 1968.

But unfortunately, additional controlled experiments performed by other biologists and botanists failed to replicate Baxter's conclusions, and his theory was not accepted. In short, his results were not replicable. But it sure seems like Alma's mother's plants were receptive to whatever that lady was putting off. Enough so that I wouldn't want her anywhere near my plants.

And before we close this thing out, Alma also mentioned the Rue plant and its almost magic properties. Well, it just so happens that our resident researcher, Delaney Bowers, is a plant folklore nut, so she had this additional information to offer. Rue has been used for thousands of years for its medicinal properties, used to treat earaches, stomach issues, insect bites, gout, rheumatism, worms, colic, etc.,

And it was valued during the Middle Ages as a defense against witches. So go get you some rue. Unless you're a witch, of course. In that case, I feel like there could be a conflict of interest. But all jokes aside, Alma, what a wild story. And we can't thank you enough for sharing it here with us. Now, folks, we're about to go beyond the after show we do here every Thursday evening.

Hey Derek, this is Conrad.

And I have a pretty spooky story to tell you. I'm from southern Tennessee, but this isn't actually my story. This is my grandpa's story. So he was out squirrel hunting. It was early in the morning, and he was kind of just trudging through the woods. And the sun was coming up over the horizon, put a little sparkle on the dew. He couldn't see very well, but he turned this corner into this field.

And when he turned, he looked ahead of him. He was scanning the field looking for any squirrels.