S19 Ep8: Homemade Ouija, river monsters and tall, white aliens (Sn. 19 Ep. 8)
01:07:51 Share

When you think about businesses that are selling through the roof, Allbirds, Skims, sure, you think about a great product, a cool brand, and brilliant marketing. But an often overlooked secret is actually the businesses behind the business making selling, and for the shoppers buying, simple. For millions of businesses, that business is Shopify. Nobody does selling better than Shopify.

home of the number one checkout on the planet. And the not-so-secret secret, with ShopPay, that boosts conversions up to 50%, meaning way less carts going abandoned and way more sales going...

So if you're into growing your business, your commerce platform better be ready to sell wherever your customers are scrolling or strolling on the web, in your store, in their feed, and everywhere in between. Businesses that sell more sell on Shopify. Upgrade your business and get the same checkout Skims uses. Sign up for your $1 per month trial period at shopify.com slash audioboom, all lowercase.

Go to shopify.com slash audioboom to upgrade your selling today. Shopify.com slash audioboom. Join me and follow the podcast Conspiracy Theories, where we explore what's really going on behind the official narrative. Like, what if the Loch Ness Monster isn't a monster at all, but an elephant? What do the richest 1% know that we don't know?

Why are they building all those bunkers? And really, what the heck is going on with the Denver airport? Join me every week to see just how high up this goes on the Spotify podcast, Conspiracy Theories. Listen on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Good evening and welcome to Monsters Among Us. I am your guide.

Derek Hayes. Now, who wants to hear something spooky? Well, you came to the right place. Because I have spooky in spades. And I can't wait to share it with you here this evening. Now, we've had some new visitors recently, so I figured now would be a good time to recap what it is that we do here at MAU. Well, I collect stories. Stories left as voicemail recordings from my hotline.

You'll hear more on that here in a little bit. But these are stories that we then share with you here on the program. And sometimes we discuss the calls and look for mundane and paranormal explanations. But we always keep it spooky. Now these stories come to us from all walks of life, all locations around the globe. Each story is claimed to be true and most importantly...

Each call features some sort of paranormal phenomena we can't quite explain. So join me, if you dare, as I run down this week's offering. Beginning with this entry from Becky in the state of Colorado. Hi Derek, this is Becky. I lived in Colorado with my husband and we had some hard times and we had to move into a camper in Missouri. And...

We were bored one day and we decided to make a Ouija board and we played with it. I don't remember if we had anything happen from that time. But after that, there started to be little noises in the camper and I was there with my stepson. My husband was working nights. I also worked nights, but our shifts were different. When I was home, I'd hear things.

I have the little EMF thing and it would go to red. I'd try to talk to it. I was talking on the phone FaceTime with two of my daughters. They saw that and they got really worried about it. Well, one night I went to bed when I was home and my husband was at work and I felt somebody come into the room in the middle of the night. I thought it was my husband coming home. Didn't realize what time it was. And I said, oh, hi, Bear. And he didn't say anything. And I looked and

And it was just this dark, not real tall, but not real small, dark darkness, just like a void, darker than the night. I still thought it was him, you know, rolled over. He sat down and then I sat up and he wouldn't talk to me. He turned his face and I couldn't tell if it was a he or she, I'm just saying he, but there were yellow eyes, just yellow eyes.

this black shape of a person and then yellow eyes looked at me and I started to hurry and turn on my light but then I had thought, "Nope, I'm gonna ask it what it wants." You know, so I did ask it what it wanted and it just stared at me. Didn't do anything, it just, out there it stared at me. Well, finally I got scared and I turned on the light and I looked and it was gone. So, I don't know, I mean there were lots of little noises. Like I said, my EMF was going off crazy.

So finally, I just took holy water and said the St. Michael all throughout and seemed like it felt better, like we got rid of whatever it was. But I don't know. I just thought it was really weird. We lived in a camper in the woods and it was pretty creepy because it happened shortly after Ouija board. And I've done a Ouija board a few times. And every time I do it, something happens in my family or in our home or

My husband said he never believed in that kind of stuff until me, and we got together late in life. Then he realized there's more out there than what he thought. So, I don't know. They seem to attach themselves to me, so I have a lot of other stories, but love your show. We'd love to listen to it, and thanks. Have a great day. Bye. Thank you, Becky. That certainly sounds like a shadow entity to me, whatever those things are.

The dark silhouette and the glowing yellow eyes were a dead giveaway. And let's talk about those glowing yellow eyes. Those are the eyes of a predator. Think about the animals that traditionally have yellow eyes. Cats, wolves, coyotes, snakes, owls and most birds of prey. And what's the one thing that they all have in common? They're all killers.

And could this entity's yellow eyes suggest the exact same thing? But I don't know of any correlation between these shadow entities and the Ouija board. Not that they don't exist, they very well may, I just don't recall hearing about them. So it's difficult for me to make a connection here between the shadow entity and the homemade Ouija board. But what I do know about these shadowy figures is that they seem to show up randomly.

So encountering one in the middle of the woods doesn't seem all that out of the ordinary to me. And the last thing I'll say about this entry is that a camper is too small of a place to share with one of these infamous shadow figures. There's simply nowhere to run. So thank you again, Becky, for taking the time to share the call. That story is something we'll all be thinking about as we lie in our bed tonight.

Now folks, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Wait until you see what I have in store for you next. But first, it's time for a quick break.

Sort of, or at least maximize. This episode is sponsored by IQ Bar, our exclusive snack sponsor. IQ Bar is the better for you plant protein-based snack made with brain-boosting nutrients to refuel, nourish, and satisfy hunger without the sugar crash.

IQ bars plant protein bars are packed with high quality ingredients to keep you physically and mentally fit and they're totally free from gluten soy GMOs and artificial sweeteners they have nine delicious flavors including peanut butter chip chocolate sea salt banana nut toasted coconut chip lemon blueberry and my personal favorite mint chocolate chip

With over 20,000 five-star reviews and counting, more people than ever are starting their days on the right foot with IQ Bars, brain and body boosting bars, hydration mixes, and mushroom coffees.

Now I've been looking for a go-to protein bar without artificial sweeteners. So when IQ Bar sent me their Ultimate Sampler Pack, I was excited to try them and I'm happy to report that not only are they delicious, they're a satisfying snack that keeps me from getting hangry between meals. They're great to take on hikes, running errands, or just down to my basement studio for when I need a little boost of energy to finish an episode.

And right now, IQ Bar is offering our listeners 20% off all IQ Bar products, plus free shipping. To get your 20% off, text MAU to 64000. Text MAU to 64000 for 20% off, plus free shipping. Again, text MAU to 64000. Message and data rates may apply. See terms for details. Now at 800-427-

Did you sleep at night? Now of all the disembodied sounds that you can hear at night, chanting might be one of the scariest. Maybe that's just how I see it. Well, me and Andrew from Parts Unknown. Hello, my name is Andrew. The reason why I was calling is, you know, that incident happened to me a couple years ago, and I wanted to get your take on it. So I was sleeping in bed, woke up for the morning,

and I was sitting still. And as I was sitting still, I could hear chanting. I'm going to do my best to mimic it, but it sounded something like this. But it was a real chant, like something that you'd have at like a church or something like that. When I moved at all,

Thank you, Andrew. You know, chanting of any kind can be pretty intimidating.

And if that chanting is paranormal in nature, well that's when I bow out of the situation. But as far as chanting ghosts are concerned, there may not be a story more well known than the chanting ghosts of La Baccaria Market. What's that you say? You've never heard of the ghosts of La Baccaria Market? Well according to an article from the website Moon Mausoleum, this is the legend. Today the building is a marketplace.

a good spot to find lunch or get vegetables for dinner. But back in the day, it used to be a place of worship in a convent. But the haunting incident happened in Barcelona, Spain in 1835, and according to the stories, the monks had become too relaxed in their ways of worship. One night, the monks in the convent woke up by the chanting and went to the church where the sound came from. They found a choir of skeletal monks singing a sinister psalm.

The skeleton monks chanting to them were all dead brothers of the order that used to live in the convent. The living monks waited in terrified silence until the singing was over before they lit up the candles and led the ghosts back to their tombs in the convent cemetery. It turns out the tombs of the skeleton monks were already open and didn't close until the chanting skeleton monks returned from their nightly choir session.

So I guess as terrifying as your experience was, Andrew, at least you didn't have animated skeletons to deal with. But I'll keep my ears open for more chanting spirits. Where there's a few, there's probably more. But until then, thank you again, Andrew, for sharing the story.

And folks, if you have a story you would like to share here on the program, just give the hotline a call at 888-608-NIGHT. That's 888-608-N-I-G-H-T. Or you can record your story on the voice memo app found on your phone and email the file to me at monstersamonguspodcast at gmail.com. And folks, don't forget about these simple rules. Call from a quiet place. No moving vehicles, please.

The sound is terrible. One story per call. You can tell as many stories as you want, but please submit them separately. It just makes things easier on us, as far as editing goes. And be sure to finish your call, even if you have to call back in and pick up where you left off. That's why our editor Connor makes the big bucks. He'll splice them together and no one will be the wiser. And the last few rolls...

True stories only. No fibs, no creepypastas. And lastly, always keep them spooky. And if you have a monster story, I would love to hear that. That phone number once again is 888-608-NIG-HT. Now, this next one is not a monster story. Though I do have a few of those coming up. Now this next one is about a phone call from the other side.

Please welcome Taylor from Virginia to tonight's airwaves. Hey Derek, this is Taylor from Richmond. So my story is really my dad's story. So my grandpa died six months before I was born and he never got to meet me. So once I'm born, my parents bring me home from the hospital and my dad is watching me this day.

I'm sitting in the living room in one of the little baby bouncers and my dad said the phone rang. He walks to the phone, he picks it up. There was nobody on it, it was just static. And so he thought, "That's weird." Hung the phone up. He came back into the living room with me and then the phone rang again and he went back into the kitchen, he picked it up. Same thing, just static. Nobody was on the phone.

And so now he's like really confused, doesn't know what's going on. Thinks somebody's like prank calling him. And he said he went back into the room with me and the phone rang one more time. He went back to pick it up and it was static. But this time when he picked it up, he looked back at me in the living room. And as he had the phone to his ear was static looking back.

My rocker was rocking on its own. So he hung the phone up and he came back in there with me and he stopped it with his hand and didn't think anything of it. I was asleep at the time and a baby, so I wasn't rocking myself. And he went and sat on the couch. He said he looked back at me and I just started rocking again. And he had this feeling come over him where he could just feel his dad and

He knew that was him saying that he was there meeting me and seeing me. Yeah. Love the podcast. Thanks. Thank you, Taylor, for that touching tale. I'm a sucker for a good paranormal phone story. And I'm also a sucker for a good sentimental ghost story as well, Taylor. And it seems that your story had elements of both. Now, I certainly can't say that your grandfather did stop by for a visit, Taylor.

But I certainly can't say that he didn't either. So I'll just say thank you again for taking the time to call in that amazing story. Now folks, we love to offer variety here at MAU. We cover all the paranormal and supernatural bases, including glitch in the matrix stories, like the following from Chris from up in Canada.

This was about three or four years ago.

and I was going to go fishing. I was driving on one of our highways and then turned off the highway onto a Forest Service Road. Now, this is a major Forest Service Road. It's wide enough for two cars all the way. It's got really good bridges, like all that kind of stuff. But it's still a Forest Service Road.

and I needed to travel on it for a few kilometers, then I'm just going to take a left-hand turn onto another Forest Service Road, and that would take me to the creek that I was going to go fishing at. So as I'm driving along this Forest Service Road, I'm driving probably for about 25 to 30 minutes, and I realize that I have

long since passed my left turn that would take me to the other forest service road that led to the creek. And I thought to myself, well now, how in the heck did I miss it? Truth be told, I was probably listening to Monsters Among Us, because that's what I do. I either listen to music or Monsters Among Us when I'm driving. But here's the thing.

This isn't like some janky little left turn, you can barely see it, forest service road. This is a huge, huge intersection and I'll try to describe it. Basically how it is, if you're driving the direction that I am, you would take a left onto a curve that would then take you onto the forest service road. So the roads are perpendicular to one another.

If you were driving the opposite direction to me and you wanted to take the turn to go to the Forest Service Road, which would be a right, you would also take a long kind of curved turn to the right. And so if you can picture this,

You've got two forest service roads that meet perpendicularly, but it's not a T-intersection. It's these two curves essentially create a large triangle of land. I mean, it's large. Like, you could have, like, a house and a yard on this triangle of land. Like, all the trees are cut down in the area for the roads, like it's not some overhanging forest service road kind of thing.

It's a huge swathe of land that forms this intersection. So I was like, I don't think I missed it. I didn't see it. It's just though it wasn't there. And so I stopped and I pulled out my back roads maps and I looked and I was like, okay, well, judging from where I am now, I was near a ridge and it had a creek name and I looked at it

And yeah, I was about five kilometers past where I should have turned left. And I thought, okay, this is super weird. So I did a UE and I headed the other direction. So now when I got to the forest service road that I wanted, I would have been taking a right. And I drove and I drove and I drove. And again, now I'm very much paying attention.

And I got to another bridge that I had already driven over that I knew was on the other side of my left turn. Somehow, that Forest Service Road turn wasn't there. And I had that, you know, when the little hairs on your neck stand up feeling feeling.

I mean, there was this moment of like, I even felt my heart rate increase. I was like, what the hell is going on here? That wasn't actually the verbiage that I used, but that's what I'll say that I used. What the hell is going on here? So what I did was I second guessed myself a little bit. I drove even further back towards town to be absolutely sure that I hadn't

just not made it to it yet and I got to another bridge that I again knew absolutely was on the other side of the intersection and I was like well I still want to go fishing so I whipped another U-turn and I drove back and this time this huge intersection of the Forest Service Road was there I took my left turn

I drove up that road, I went fishing, caught some trout, it was great, and then went home completely without incident. I hunt and I fish in that area all the time and I've never had that happen to me again. And it was so easy for me in retrospect to go, "Oh, I must have just missed it. I just must not have been paying attention." That's not it. I know it wasn't there. I absolutely 100% know it wasn't there.

And there are no other roads in the area. I mean, we're talking like this is like rural British Columbia in the mountains. A Forest Service road is like, you know where they are. Like there's no other road. I wasn't on the wrong road. I have been there so many times, countless times. The road wasn't there. Anyway, thanks, Ben. Thanks for calling in, Chris. And thanks for tuning in while you're trucking down the road. I'm glad we can keep you company.

Now I asked Delaney if she could find any stories similar to what Chris just described. An experience with a time slip or a glitch in time while driving. And per usual, Delaney delivered. The following story appeared in the Spring 1988 edition of Strange Magazine 2 and goes as follows. Louisiana, 1969

The story follows two men who on an early afternoon encountered a vehicle from the past. While driving on a highway, the duo glimpsed an older vehicle. Upon drawing closer, they saw the slow-moving car's license plate, which had the year 1940 on it. Inside, they saw a woman dressed in 40s attire and a child who appeared to be scared and confused.

After gesturing to her to pull over to see if she needed help, the two men were astonished to see that the car had completely vanished. Another driver who witnessed the event also supported their claims. Now that's certainly similar to what Chris had experienced, but not exactly. But both were great stories, and we really appreciate you submitting yours, Chris. So thank you again for calling in.

Now I have to take another quick break, but when I return, I have a river monster story to share. So don't go anywhere.

When you think about businesses that are selling through the roof, Allbirds, Skims, sure, you think about a great product, a cool brand, and brilliant marketing. But an often overlooked secret is actually the businesses behind the business making selling, and for the shoppers buying, simple. For millions of businesses, that business is Shopify. Nobody does selling better than Shopify.

home of the number one checkout on the planet. And the not-so-secret secret, with ShopPay, that boosts conversions up to 50%, meaning way less carts going abandoned and way more sales going...

So if you're into growing your business, your commerce platform better be ready to sell wherever your customers are scrolling or strolling on the web, in your store, in their feed, and everywhere in between. Businesses that sell more sell on Shopify. Upgrade your business and get the same checkout Skims uses.

Sign up for your $1 per month trial period at shopify.com slash audioboom, all lowercase. Go to shopify.com slash audioboom to upgrade your selling today. shopify.com slash audioboom. Now before the break, I promised a water monster story, and I aim to deliver. All the way from Idaho, please welcome Dre to tonight's program.

Hi Derek, this is Dre out of Idaho. This is the first time I've ever called in, but I've been listening to the show for a couple of years now. And I was listening to season 18, episode 42 with the monster catfish. And it reminded me of a weird, I don't really know what thing it was. It was a fish of some form. It was at a place along the Snake River called Sinker Creek.

I live in the Boise Valley, so I'll go down to the Snake River every once in a while and go fishing. But I was down there, and I was cast out into the water. I was fishing for flathead catfish and white sturgeon, which can be found there. And I feel something brush up against my leg, and I look down, and I don't see anything. So I'm like, okay, it must have just been, like, a little plant or a piece of fishing line.

and I feel it again, like almost on my waders, on my big waterproof boots. And it's just this big mat almost sitting in the water. I was like, is there like big trash bag in the water? And I move and it swims off. It doesn't like float off. It just swims off. So my initial thought was, was that a stingray?

But this is a freshwater river several hundred miles inland with really no way for a stingray of any kind to get in there. Especially not any of the freshwater kinds unless someone was insane enough to introduce one in there. Which I don't even know if it would survive because of how cold the river is. I don't know if I'm like the only person to have ever experienced something like this.

in Idaho, but I still have no clue what it was because I don't think it was just a piece of trash that I mistook because I've been fishing since I can hold a fishing rod. So I know my fish fairly well. I don't think that it was any kind of trash. I think this was some sort of fish or some other weird aquatic animal that I don't know about. Not really spooky, just kind of a weird creature that I encountered down there.

If anybody else has experienced something like this or could possibly explain what this was, I'd appreciate it because I still have no idea what it was and I just kind of want to know. But I also may have an explanation for the monster catfish that have been seen in Ohio. They could be one of two things. They could be monster flatheads because flathead catfish do get longer than blue catfish on average, not as heavy, but they do get longer than blue catfish.

Or it could be a Wells catfish, as there have been reports of them in the Great Lakes. None of them truly confirmed, and they have not been considered established there yet. But there have been a few reports that I've heard of Wells catfish in the Great Lakes, and they can get over 7 feet long, over 300 pounds. So a monster of a catfish, and...

They can survive in fairly small ponds for that size. So, who knows? But I just wanted to call in my story and possibly have an explanation for that story. Bye. I disagree, Dre. A mystery creature of that size under the water is very much spooky. I'd be spooked, at least. So thank you for calling in.

Now when Dre mentioned he was in a tributary of the Snake River, I immediately suspected the sturgeon. A massive fish that can grow up to at least 10 feet. The largest ever caught in the Snake River was a whopping 10 foot 4 inches. And you better believe they get bigger than that. But they're shaped like fish. Long and slender. Nothing like what Dre just described. So I guess I'm at a loss here.

But maybe this story will reach the right person, and they'll have some sort of explanation for us. Because I sure don't. And as for the Wells catfish invasion that Dre mentioned, I certainly hope those things haven't invaded. They too can grow up to 10 feet long. And unlike the gentle bottom-feeding giant sturgeon, the Wells catfish is an active predator. And yes, before you ask, they do attack swimmers.

What exactly did you do when you came down that day? Maybe two or three months ago. I was swimming 10 or 20 seconds out of the lake. Suddenly, something big bit me. I don't know what it was, but it was a very big shock for me. Pain and shock. It hurts very much, of course. In a freshwater lake so far from the sea, the last thing you would expect is to get attacked by a fish. It's just not supposed to happen.

Being bitten by a wells is to experience the power of two hard plates packed with hundreds of needle sharp teeth. Huge jaw muscles create a crushing force. A bite is like being grabbed by a vice covered in coarse sandpaper. Before this happened, you used to quite enjoy coming here? Of course, every day we swim again. But after that, yeah, I don't swim again. Now that clip from the television program River Monsters. So there you go.

As if you needed another reason to fear the water, Dre just gave you a couple more. So thank you again, Dre, for the phone call and the nightmare fuel. Well, folks, I told you we were into variety here at MAU, and I wasn't kidding. From river monsters to space aliens, please welcome Leanne from Illinois.

Hi, my name's Leanne. I am from central Illinois. My story is from when I was working at a home decor store called Jeffrey Allen. During the summer, we would have a garden center and it was outside, like in the parking lot. Anyway, when we had the garden center, I was outside all day, every day. I loved it. It was a beautiful day, like just a regular, you know, summer day.

nothing out of the ordinary. And I'm standing there in the booth where people would come and pay. I see this man just perusing the flowers. He was very, very tall, more of a gaunt kind of body type. And from the moment I saw him, I just kind of kept my eye on him. Just something about him maybe just freaked me out a little bit. Anyway, I start working on something and somebody taps me on the shoulder.

I turn around and it's this man and he is standing in front of me. And when I say he is towering over me, I mean, I was looking up, up at him. I'm about five, five. He had to have been six, five plus. And the feeling that washed over me and threw out my whole body and nervous system. It's like my skin went cold. I don't think I've ever truly had the hairs on the back of my neck stand up the way that they did when this man just simply tapped me on the shoulder and

And I turned around and looked at him. I got through the moment. I kept thinking, thank God this guy has sunglasses on. I didn't want to see his eyes. I didn't want to. I didn't know why. He had like a blue reflective lens on. And I just kept thinking, oh my God, I don't even want to look at his face.

I hope that he doesn't take his glasses off. I tried to answer his question as quickly as I could, and I walked away. And then I had to go, like, recover from the situation. I had to go sit and breathe and be like, what? Why am I having this reaction to this person? And I start thinking, was he a demon? I don't know. But then I start Googling demons.

I don't know a lot about paranormal stuff or cryptids, but I stumble across information about tall whites. And I'm not convinced that that isn't what I encountered that day. A feeling of total dread came over me, which is what I've read is a common feeling that people report having after encountering tall whites. It's really the only paranormal experience I've ever had.

So that's, I guess, why it stands out to me so much and why I think it might have been an actual encounter. Like I said, I was extremely terrified. All I remember was looking up at his glasses and thinking, please do not take those off. And I guess because I grew up in church, I don't know if that's why demon was the first thing that popped in my head.

I don't know what it was, but it is something that I will never forget. I remember how it made me feel. I remember every little detail I remember. But yeah, that's my story. I don't know if you agree with me that maybe it was a tall white. I'd love to hear some input because it's something that crosses my mind from time to time. And as soon as I started listening to your podcast, I knew I was like, if I call in, that's got to be what I talk about. So yeah, thank you. Thank you, Leigh-Anne.

You have me at a loss for words. I have no idea what made this man so intimidating to you. Was it his physical prowess? Was it the strange glasses that he wore? His height? His gauntness? Or just his overall vibe? Or was there more to this encounter? Was this man indeed one of the Tall Whites that Leanne spoke of? Now I'd heard of the Tall Whites, a suspected race of alien beings.

But I admittedly don't know a whole lot about them. So I did what everybody else does when they want to learn something quickly. I looked them up online. And according to the Wikipedia entry, Nordics, Nordic aliens or Tall Whites as they're sometimes called, are a purported humanoid race hailing from the Pleiades star cluster. And they get that name because they reportedly share superficial similarities with Nordic, Germanic or Scandinavian humans.

Allegedly, contactees describe Nordics as being somewhat taller than the average human, standing roughly 6 to 7 foot tall, and showing stereotypically European or white features, such as long, straight, blonde hair, blue eyes, and fair skin. The skin tone has also been reported at various times as being a pale blue-gray or lightly pastel purple shade.

now legend claims that these alien entities are working with our government and are currently here on earth doing who knows what so i guess that legend makes leanne's story at the very least possible but like so many other alien stories that we share here on the program i don't have any answers for this one either but i am open to outside information so if you've had an experience with these ets reach out and fill us in on what you know

We thank you again, Leanne, for sharing the entry. Okay, gang, I'm going to sneak in one more entry before our next scheduled break. So make room for Nicole Marie as she's calling in from the state of Georgia. Hi, Derek. This is Nicole Marie calling from Atlanta, Georgia. I'm calling with something that just happened to me maybe a month or two ago. It was probably 11 at night, maybe midnight yesterday.

and we had just put our kids to bed. I was laying in bed scrolling on my phone, and the bed faces the doorway, so I can see sort of into the hallway, and a light came on in the hallway. And I thought maybe one of my kids got up and was coming into the room to talk to me or something, but it wasn't very bright. I knew it wasn't the hallway light. It wasn't bright enough to do that, so I thought, okay, it's their cell phone flashlight.

And I'm watching the light come towards me, and the light comes into the room, but there's no kid. There's just a ball of light. And I'm looking at this light. There's no flashlight. There's no person. And I don't know what to make of it. And then it just zips into the bathroom. And I turn to my husband, and I go, are you awake? And he goes, yep. And I say, did you see that? And he goes, yep.

And we both get out of bed and run into the bathroom, and I'm expecting to see scorch marks. Like, this ball of light was... I don't know how to explain it. I thought maybe it was ball lightning. I'm not sure. So I was expecting to see scorch marks or something, but there was nothing. Nothing was amiss, but the room smelled funny. It was like maybe an ozone smell. So yeah, I don't... Maybe it was ball lightning, but I'm not sure because...

The light seemed to be navigating the room. It had to take a sharp right and then a sharp left to get into the bathroom. It wasn't moving through walls or anything like that. So I don't know, but I would love to hear if anybody else has experienced that or any thoughts on what it could be. Thanks. Bye. Thank you, Nicole Marie. Now, we haven't talked about ball lightning in quite a while. There was a time when a lot of the calls that came in sounded like instances of this rare phenomenon.

But those reports have seemed to slow down over the years. But that is what this story sounds like it's describing to me. A ball of lightning that passed through Nicole Marie's house. Now in my readings on this subject, I've learned that there's typically no discernible heat production. No burning or singeing. Although one recorded observation did report a wooden plank that was lightly singed. So for the most part that coincides with what Nicole Marie claimed.

And another aspect that aligned with her sighting is that several people have also reported the smell of ozone and nitrogen oxides with ball lightning. Exactly like Nicole Marie. So if it walks like a duck, and it quacks like a duck, it's gotta be ball lightning. At least that's what it sounds like to me. And lucky you, Nicole Marie. Not too many people get to see that. So thank you again for sharing the experience.

Here with us. Because we had two things in common. Number one, we like to argue.

When you think about businesses that are selling through the roof, Allbirds, Skims, sure, you think about a great product, a cool brand, and brilliant marketing. But an often overlooked secret is actually the businesses behind the business making selling, and for the shoppers buying, simple. For millions of businesses, that business is Shopify. Nobody does selling better than Shopify.

home of the number one checkout on the planet. And the not-so-secret secret, with ShopPay, that boosts conversions up to 50%, meaning way less carts going abandoned and way more sales going...

So if you're into growing your business, your commerce platform better be ready to sell wherever your customers are scrolling or strolling on the web, in your store, in their feed, and everywhere in between. Businesses that sell more sell on Shopify. Upgrade your business and get the same checkout Skims uses. Sign up for your $1 per month trial period at shopify.com slash audioboom, all lowercase.

Go to shopify.com slash audioboom to upgrade your selling today. Shopify.com slash audioboom. Driving food, music, and audio. Now, up next is a call that'll make you spider haters a little bit queasy. Please welcome Nick from my state of California. Hey, Derek. This is Nick from California.

I got a real kind of interesting one. Maybe like 12, 13 years ago, I was working as a cable technician and I went to lunch a Carl's Jr. I'm sitting in there eating lunch. I look out the window and I notice all these people are just kind of standing around looking up. Well, I go outside and there's these long,

spiderweb-like things everywhere. They just look like giant spiderwebs or silly string, and I could see them falling from the sky, and they're literally everywhere, all over everybody's car, all over telephone lines, all over buildings, all over the ground, everywhere. And I remember...

Hearing like an old episode of Unsolved Mysteries where there was some goo falling out of the sky. People were touching it, getting sick. Well, I remember it was like a mom and a daughter and they were right next to me. And they went and they started touching. I was like, you know, I wouldn't touch that. You don't know what it is. The strangest thing is I happen to be probably...

I don't know, 65 miles north of Vandenberg Air Force Base and about 25 to 30 miles south of an Army base, Fort Hunter Liggett. So, yeah, I mean, we're in prime location for some kind of top-secret military test or whatever. I don't know. But, I mean, this stuff was...

And some of the clumps and strands are four or five feet, six feet long. The even weirder thing was that evening on the news, they addressed it saying that it was ballooning spiders, something like that. Like basically these certain type of spiders. It would be like mating season, breeding season, and they would basically have like a parachute attached.

Oh, come on, Nick. Touch that mysterious substance that fell from the sky.

What's the worst that can possibly happen? Now let's start this off with the spider ballooning phenomena that Nick was talking about. Here is a similar news story to what Nick might have seen right after his strange encounter. Courtesy of KSBW. Action News 8 out of Monterey.

Long spider web looking strands, many in the shape of upside down balloons. Hundreds seen falling from the sky over the Central Coast Wednesday. I've never seen anything like this. Waking up this morning, I go out to the back deck drinking a cup of coffee and I look at the moon and in the moon there is a strand of white going across it.

And I'm thinking that is weird. A spooky site seemingly appropriate for the start of October. But are spiders really falling from the sky? Kind of is spiders falling out of the sky. What it is is there are these little spiderlings, baby spiders. And when the conditions are right, they will release a bunch of silk and they will fly off to new locations. Kirsten Pearsons, an entomologist farm advisor for Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Benito County, says this is called ballooning.

common in the month of October all around the country. But you know, it sounds like Nick is pretty convinced that what he saw fall from the sky was not spider babies. So we should probably explore other possibilities as well. And Nick mentioned an Unsolved Mysteries segment on Oakville, Washington and the mysterious illness-causing blobs that fell from the sky there in the mid-1990s.

Now I've linked that full episode of Unsolved Mysteries in the show notes, if you would like to take a look. But reminding me of that segment also reminded me of other strange things that have reportedly fallen from the sky. So for kicks and giggles, we assembled a punctuated list of some of the more well-known mystery rain occurrences.

beginning with the Kentucky Meat Shower. Mysterious, gelatinous chunks of strange red meat fall from the skies for several minutes in Olympia Springs, Kentucky, back in 1876. It has rained fish in Euro-Honduras at least once a year over the last century. Up to four times a year, a deluge of fish will rain down from the skies on the capital city below.

there was the treasure tornado on june 16 1940 a shower of 16th century coins fell on the russian town of meshkara archaeologists suppose the currency belonged to an undiscovered buried trove that had been exposed by soil erosion before being scooped up and redeposited by the storm then there was the time that it rained candy

According to the book History of Napa and Lake Counties of 1881, Lake County in Northern California experienced candy falling from the sky not once, but twice. On September 2nd, 1857, lumps of crystals or sugar, described as one-eighth to one-fourth of an inch in length and the size of a goose quill, fell over the town. The same event took place just a few days later on September 11th.

Hi Derek, this is Matt from New Jersey.

which is also where my story takes place in the early 90s. I believe I was about seven years old when this happened. And where I grew up, it was pretty heavily wooded back then. And I had spent most of my childhood outdoors in the woods or on a brook that ran up the street that I grew up on. My grandmother lived just up the street from us. And instead of walking on the road, I'd often walk

in the woods between our houses to get back and forth. And it was one of these times that I was passing through a clearing in the woods that I'd passed through many times before and many times after this. When I was passing through, I suddenly had the feeling like of being exposed or like I was being watched enough so that it drew my attention off to my side and about 15, 20 feet away,

I saw an odd creature at the edge of this clearing, and it was being perfectly still. From my child's perspective, I'd have guessed it to be about five feet tall, maybe a little taller than that. Its body was pure white, and I mean that. No streaks or blotches of other colors, and it looked to have a feathery body. I couldn't discern wings or legs. It was roughly 1.5, 2 feet wide.

Its eyes were entirely black, round, about quarter-sized. Extremely dark, though emotive in a way. It had a very tiny and flat-looking triangular beak that was a dark mustard color. The eyes and the beak were the only facial features that I could make out. And this whole time, it remained perfectly still. It never threatened me, and it didn't try and flee.

When our eyes met, I froze, stunned. It felt like several minutes, but I'm sure it was probably more like 10 or so seconds that we were staring at each other. I had this sense that it was as startled to see me as I was to see it. And I felt an intelligence coming from those eyes. After that, I just remember bolting in the direction of home at that point.

I don't have a specific recollection of what happened immediately before or after the encounter. It was only because of the direction that I was coming from that I know I was going home from my grandmother's house, and I make the assumption that I bolted home and slammed through the front screen door of my parents' house. I can fill in the blanks because it's a journey that I'd made many times, but like I said, I'm just filling in the spaces around that encounter.

I do recall in the weeks following that I had been doing all kinds of research trying to figure out what I'd seen in the woods. None of the local animals really fit. The beak width, flat face didn't match a heron. The sheer size didn't match an owl. It was clearly feathered and couldn't have been an albino deer. Could rule out black bears for obvious reasons.

It stretched my imagination and left me without any real answers. So over time, I just kind of pushed it to the back of my mind as just something that was unexplainable and would always be unexplainable. I'll cap this off by saying that now I'm a veterinary nurse and I've worked with a pretty wide range of animals. And even now, I can't think of anything that resembles what I saw. The closest thing in my mind is an extremely large owl.

And even if I could forgive the size, I don't know of any owls that are pure white like what I saw. Or as huge. So, since listening to your show, other ideas have hit me, but I don't want to pollute your thoughts on what my experience was. Thanks again, Derek, for the podcast and everything that you do. Be safe. Thank you, Matt. Now, Matt already covered a lot of the suggestions I would have had. Various birds, deer, bear...

Maybe even something exotic that escaped a breeder. But since he dismissed all those, let's break this down further. A white, five-foot-tall creature, possibly donning feathers, black eyes, and a flat beak. Believe it or not, that sort of describes an infamous East Coast cryptid. A cryptid that's famously known to be a New Jersey native. The notorious Jersey Devil.

Eyewitness descriptions of the Jersey Devil vary, from a winged half-bird, half-horse, standing upright on hoof feet with a reptilian tail, to a hairy creature walking on all fours, resembling a cross between a monkey and a dog. Now that short clip from the television series, MonsterQuest.

And it does sound as if he's describing this menace encrypted. All except for the part about it being stark white. That's not a detail shared by many Jersey Devil witnesses as far as I know. But given how close you are to the Atlantic coast Matt, I wonder if this just wasn't some large seabird that you weren't familiar with. Blown a little off course. Maybe a little worse for wear. A large pelican perhaps.

They're all white sometimes. But then again, Matt sounded pretty confident that it wasn't any kind of bird he'd ever seen before. And as someone that works in the field of veterinary medicine, I think we have to believe him. So I throw my hands in the air on this one. I have no idea what this thing was. But if you do, and you'd like to share those thoughts with us, hit up our social media, or shoot me an email at monstersamonguspodcast at gmail dot com. For now, I'll just say...

Great story, Matt. I love one-off sightings like this. The weird ones. The oddballs. The creatures that don't really fit neatly within the confines of an existing monster legend. So thank you again, Matt, for calling in and sending us out with a bang. And that's gonna do it for tonight, folks. A big thanks for swinging by. But before I go...

Monsters Among Us podcast was 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 support our social media pages. Please support us on YouTube. And please give us a rate and review wherever that sort of thing is possible.

Now, don't forget you can catch Monsters Among Us podcast every Saturday evening at 10 p.m. Eastern on the UnX Digital Network. Just visit unxnetwork.com to learn how. And finally, tonight's score was provided by Iron Cthulhu, Apocalypse, Co.agmusic, and Carl Casey at White Bat Audio.

Now folks, we made a film, Shadows in the Desert High Strangeness in the Borrego Triangle. Go to borregotriangle.com to see where you can tune in. And don't forget about the shop. It's still on sale. Bostersamonguspodcast.com and click that shop tab. Now I'll catch you all back here on Tuesday for a brand new themed episode. But until then, stick around for more free MAU and a goodbye for now.

... ... ... ... ...

When you think about businesses that are selling through the roof, Allbirds, Skims, sure, you think about a great product, a cool brand, and brilliant marketing. But an often overlooked secret is actually the businesses behind the business making selling, and for the shoppers buying, simple. For millions of businesses, that business is Shopify. Nobody does selling better than Shopify.

home of the number one checkout on the planet. And the not-so-secret secret, with ShopPay, that boosts conversions up to 50%, meaning way less carts going abandoned and way more sales going...

So if you're into growing your business, your commerce platform better be ready to sell wherever your customers are scrolling or strolling on the web, in your store, in their feed, and everywhere in between. Businesses that sell more sell on Shopify. Upgrade your business and get the same checkout Skims uses.

Hi there. You found our secret story. Each Thursday, we add on one more story to the end of the main program.

Hi Derek.

This is something that happened to me when I was about 18 years old. I think this was around 1998. I was young and my sisters and I started playing with a Ouija board. We thought it was so interesting. So we just made one up with, you know, a piece of paper and a cup.

So we would flip it upside down. And the only thing that we knew we had to do was pray ahead of time, pray for protection. And then when we decided to close it, just to say goodbye and blow into the cup, like blow it out. So the spirit would go away. So we did that a couple of times. It kind of, you know, it was, we got gibberish. It was fun, but nothing much.

One day I got anxious. My sisters thought that I was possessed because I started laughing uncontrollably and I just couldn't stop. I just couldn't stop. It was so weird. But anyway, you know, a few more times I played with my friends from school. It was the five of us sitting at the table. So we started using it and it was working kind of slowly, but the words were making sense.

And all of a sudden, like in the middle of a conversation, it started saying unprompted, "Hello?" to spell hello. So we all looked at each other like, "Why would you say that?" And as we're looking at each other wondering why, there comes the sister of my friend whose house we were at. She was bringing her neighbor's baby. She was babysitting the baby. So she was just getting the baby out of the nap.

It's like the Spirit said, "Hello," because He knew she was coming before all of us knew. The final experience that I had was by myself, and I was in my bedroom. I just, you know, made the letters up. I put them all around on a table, and I prayed, you know, real quick, didn't bother much, and I started asking questions. And this thing

was moving. I mean, it moves by itself. It was just me barely touching the cup and it was going and it started to say really bad words, insulting me. It started to push everything away off the table like it was mad. And I got so scared. So I got out of there. I ran to find my sister and

She came over to the bedroom and, you know, we blew the cup, we said prayers, you know, tried to clear space. And that was it. That was the last time I ever played the Ouija board. And that's the last time that I ever will. I don't know for sure that anything good can come from it, but I feel like definitely something bad can come through and you don't know what kind of portals you're opening. You just don't know.

Those words were not in my mind. They were not the kind of language that I used. It was something else. It was not me. So yeah, I will stay away, just in case. Thank you so much. We'll talk to you soon. Bye. Thank you, caller. It sounds like you got more than you bargained for. And you're not the only one to sound off with this sort of warning. Countless previous Ouija board users have swore off the device and suggested that others do the same.

And I don't know if making your own divination device is a good idea or not. I've heard rumors that that sort of thing can add power to the Ouija board. I believe I heard that somewhere. But if it does, that could explain why both this caller and Becky from earlier had such gnarly experiences. Well, it's spooky stuff for sure, caller. And we can't thank you enough for sharing it here with us. All right, folks, you know what time it is.

It's time to go beyond the after show found only on Patreon and Apple subscriptions. To join us this evening, just go to MonstersAmongUsPodcast.com and click the Patreon tab or hunt us out on either platform and join our $5 level. Not only will that give you access to the rest of this episode, but days worth of past content and ad-free content as well.

And don't tell anyone, but you can do it all for free for seven full days using the free trial. So you have nothing to lose. And if you become a member, you can hear calls like this one from Marcus discussing possible Monsters Among Us membership cards. Something we've been discussing here in the beyond for a couple of weeks now. So for those of you that get off here, have a pleasant evening. But for everyone else, please welcome Marcus.

from the state of Minnesota. Hey, Derek. This is Marcus out of Minnesota. I don't have a story in this call, but a response to something you had mentioned in the latest episode, season 19, episode 4. You had mentioned jokingly, I think, about Patreon members having a carrying card. I think that would be an awesome idea. I would personally pay up to $5 for one

I'm sure a lot of other people would do. No other platform, podcast, things like that, does something like that. And I think it would be really cool to have a physical card, like way back in the day, just to have on your person. I think that'd be pretty cool. So I know you're kind of saying it in jest, but you might maybe want to consider doing a poll, see if people would be willing to

When you think about businesses that are selling through the roof, Allbirds, Skims, sure, you think about a great product, a cool brand, and brilliant marketing. But an often overlooked secret is actually the businesses behind the business making selling, and for the shoppers buying, simple. For millions of businesses, that business is Shopify. Nobody does selling better than Shopify.

home of the number one checkout on the planet. And the not-so-secret secret, with ShopPay, that boosts conversions up to 50%, meaning way less carts going abandoned and way more sales going...

So if you're into growing your business, your commerce platform better be ready to sell wherever your customers are scrolling or strolling on the web, in your store, in their feed, and everywhere in between. Businesses that sell more sell on Shopify. Upgrade your business and get the same checkout Skims uses.

Sign up for your $1 per month trial period at shopify.com slash audioboom, all lowercase. Go to shopify.com slash audioboom to upgrade your selling today. shopify.com slash audioboom.