A haunted mansion, a talking chicken and those are just the first two stories! A wild all-new Campfire. Enjoy!
TRANSCRIPT
Please note we do not guarantee 100% transcript accuracy. The below reflects a best effort. Thank you for your understanding.
Jim Harold
Could you imagine living in a haunted mansion? Well, our caller did not have to imagine. He lived in one. And that’ll be up next, on The Campfire.
Campfire Announcer
Welcome to our gathering tonight. Here we share stories of ordinary people who have experienced extraordinary things. Sit back, relax, and warm yourself by Jim Harold’s Campfire.
Jim Harold
Welcome to The Campfire. I am Jim Harold and so glad to be with you today. We’ve got a bunch of great stories for you. If you’re new here, what we do is we explore the supernatural, the paranormal. Could be ghosts, could be UFO,s could be cryptid creatures. But whatever they are, they are fascinating. And they are true stories from our everyday folks who call in who have experienced very strange things. Welcome to the show, and so glad to be with you once again. And before we get to the stories, I want to put a quick plug in for our new podcast, You Won’t Believe What Happened to Me. And we’re going to start releasing that in March. And we’ve had several people already sign up with their incredible stories. You know, for example, my house when I was a young man in my 20s, was shot up by an AK-47. That is a You Won’t Believe What Happened to Me story: a non-paranormal story that’s absolutely mind-blowing. I hope you’ll share yours. Go to wontbelieve.com. That’s wontbelieve.com to record, a little synopsis of your story. And we’ll be in touch. Thank you so much. And now on to the very paranormal and very strange stories on this edition of Campfire.
Johnny is on the line in the Midwest. We’re so glad to have him. Now the thing is, is that we get lots of calls about people who live in haunted houses, but usually they’re just kind of like, “well, the house I grew up in, we don’t know much about the house.” But this is really interesting, because Johnny lived in a historic haunted mansion in New Orleans. How cool is that? And it’s something you can actually look up on the internet and so forth. So it’s so cool. I won’t spoil it. I’ll let him tell you where it is, what it was, and his spooky stories within. Very cool indeed. Johnny, welcome to the show. Thank you for joining us in please tell us your stories of living in a historic haunted mansion.
Johnny
Hi, Jim. Thank you so much for having me. I’m very excited to be here. Um, so the property is called the Luling Mansion. That’s L-U-L-I-N-G mansion. It’s in New Orleans. The property is pretty infamous around town. If you search that, there’s an Atlas Obscura article on it. There’s lots of pictures of the outside online, so I wanted to live there for years, and I kind of just randomly ended up there, because of an ad on Craigslist that I found. And so, a little background. The house is situated pretty much across the street from a graveyard. Like, you can see the graveyard if you’re from pretty much anywhere in the house. Um, there are, in the property– I don’t know if people know what death masks are? I didn’t know before I lived there.
Jim Harold
Oh, yeah.
Johnny
Yeah, so were- were– back in like, you know, pre-1900, a lot people would take casts of a dead person’s head, and then they would cast it in plaster and normally decorate with it. And in the ballroom there, there are deaths masks of two people in pairs. There’s like 40 pairs of them as the crown molding.
Jim Harold
Wow. (Laughs).
Johnny
(Laughs).
Jim Harold
That’s creepy, because not only is a representation, it actually touched them. So if you believe in things like haunted objects, you know, a time of death kind of thing?
Johnny
Yeah.
Jim Harold
Wow.
Johnny
Absolutely. And I think the idea, just brief background, behind it is that the spirits of the family members that do that with are watching over the house, right? Um, but yeah, totally, totally crazy by, like, contemporary standards. So um, so the first story I’m gonna tell is about– so I moved from a downstairs apartment to an upstairs one, and I had nothing in the apartment yet and– except a mattress– all my furniture is still downstairs. And so I would leave all my stuff in my bedroom: like my water bottle, my phone charger, like whatever, on the fireplace mantel. And there were two doors to the bedroom. It wasn’t a big room, but there were two entrances. And so, like, I’m a night owl and awake one night at like 3am. And I was probably fiddling with my phone or something on the mantel before I went to lay down. And it’s pretty dark in the apartment. And all of a sudden, I hear just unmistakable, like, “step, step, step.” And like, where you could– it’s almost sounded like, like, someone was wearing a boot with a heel, you know. It sounded heavy, though, like a man.
Jim Harold
Right.
Johnny
And then, um, and then, all of a sudden, something slammed into the door. And like, this was– this door’s like, was probably like 11 feet tall, super heavy, solid oak. It had been painted over so many times that you had to put all your weight into closing it and opening it. And so that its just not the kind of door that can rattle in a frame at all. And so, of course, like, my first thought is that someone was in the apartment that was not supposed to be in the apartment, right? Um, so that was one– and also, it was like, right next to the fireplace mantel. That wall had been added with the door, and so the door was almost right up against, like, where I was, right. So my plan was to slip out the other door to the bedroom, and there were big doors to the veranda, to the wraparound balcony, and a fire escape. So I was like, “Okay, I’ll slip out.” But when I went out the other door to the bedroom, into the sitting room… I don’t know how to, like, describe it. It’s like, you know, when you’re in somewhere alone, especially at night, and like, it just feels quiet. Like it tasted quiet. Like I was alone, you know.
Jim Harold
Right.
Johnny
So I kind of go around the apartment, and like, you know, carefully turning on lights. And those alone, like, literally no one’s in there. And at the moment, I was like, because I thought it was a person until I was like, it’s a ghost. Like, there’s just no other– nothing else that could have been, right. And so, um, so the next night, um, you know, you kinda file it away and kind of forget about it or like, “Yeah, whatever.” And the next night, the same thing happened both times is at like 3am. So I was telling my gentleman friend about it. And he’s like, “Oh, I bet it’s a ghost who doesn’t realize that that door is there. Because that whole wall has been added, like-“
Jim Harold
Oh, my.
Johnny
And I totally, I mean, like, I totally agree. And you know what? I left– I always left the door cracked or all the way open. And it never happen again. Not only that, it’s– the door’s so heavy that even if you leave it cracked, it never was able– it can’t like move, you know. It’s too heavy to like swing around on its own. And the hinges have been painted over too many times. So that’s one story. Another story I have was, so maybe like, um, maybe like 2018, I want to say? Um, I decided not to go home for Christmas. I had just been really busy, and I was really tired. And I decided it would just, like, be easier and more peaceful to just kind of do my own thing that year. Um, and so I stayed in New Orleans, but I stayed- I stayed at the mansion. And- and I was in the downstairs apartment. I had not moved upstairs yet, right. So the downstairs apartment is down– it’s on, there’s three levels, and so it was on the first level. Um, and, um, I am not like a practicing. I’m not religious. I’m like, pretty agnostic. I was raised Catholic, though. And one thing I did always kind of like is midnight mass. Um, I like the candles, and I just kind of think it’s pretty and peaceful. And I just thought it’d be interesting. Like, I don’t think I even took the communion. I just- I just went to go hang out there. So I left a little early (unintelligible), because I was tired. And I go back to the mansion. And I knew– there were two other units on the main floor. The place has been divided up. And I knew one of the neighbors were traveling, right? Um, for sure. Just briefly, interesting to note. There weren’t a lot of people living here. There are may be like, four to five other tenants, all the time I was there. But sometimes I would– this sounds so weird. Sometimes I would go like weeks without seeing another person on the property. Even if I knew people were there; it’s a huge mansion. Right? And like, there’s multiple– and it’s gated– but there’s multiple entrances. So just, it’s not that I– I probably hadn’t seen anyone for a while, but that’s not that unusual. So um, I get home, and then I hear, like, someone else come onto the property. It sounds like multiple people. Right? They walk right by, and I had sheer curtains in my windows, but I could see he shadows moving, and it sounded like there were kids, right? Like, there were at least two, maybe three kids. And I even heard the adults shushing the kids at one point, and I was like, “Oh, they must have also gone– New Orleans is a very Catholic city. They must have also gone to midnight mass, and they’re just getting home. That’s cute or whatever. And then, on that bottom floor, there was– most of the walls are really thick, but there was one attic wall, so I could hear them having their, like, holiday thing over there. Again, multiple times I heard like an adult female, sounded like, shushing the kids, which are kids, they’re loud. It’s not like bothering me. Um, so anyway, then the owner, maybe after New Year’s, the owner of the apartment, um, comes back and she’s like, “Oh, yeah, I was traveling over the holidays and blah, blah, blah.” And I was like, “Oh, okay, that’s for New Year’s? You were- You were here on Christmas, yeah?” Um, and she was like, “No.” And I was like, “with your- with your family? Like??” She’s like– I’m like, “Okay, did you let them like use your unit next door?” They’re like– I’m, you know, like, I know, that my other two neighbors on the level were traveling, but like, I had just assumed she had a family gathering there. And she was like, “no, nope.” And so, yeah, I know, the original family who lived there. They had three small children, I think who died? Sadly. Um, and so, yeah, my perception of that is that it was it was that just like, celebrating their holidays.
Jim Harold
Wow. Wow. And I gotta tell you, the thing is, is that I mean, I love history, and I love buildings that have a lot of history. So, I mean, for you living in someplace like that, was it more- was it kind of frightening? Or was it like, “this is just neat, and I want to soak every second of it, and really have a memory of that?”
Johnny
That’s a great question. Probably more the second. Um, really, it was very interesting. Um, I’ve always loved haunted houses since I was little. We actually– my parents house up north, we rent tents every year, and like decorate with Hallo- Halloween decorations, like I love haunted houses, right. Um, and so this dimension was unusual with the ghosts, in and that, it felt like they were different ones and, like, their personalities were really strong. Like, um, I don’t know, like, it’s like, you could get a feel for the type of people that were around. Whereas in other haunted places I’ve lived, it kind of felt more just like something behind the veil, you couldn’t tell what it was at all. You just knew there was something paranormal going on, you know? So like, maybe something moves and you don’t know, like, a cup or something moves a little bit. And you know, it’s a ghost, but you don’t know if it wass like, a nice ghost or not. But at the Luling Mansion, like, I don’t know, like, it’s like, um, like the person who walked into the door. It felt masculine, right? It felt like a man to me. And it felt like he was like, not mean. He was just kind of, like, doing his thing, you know?
Jim Harold
Right.
Johnny
Or like, the kids just, like– again, I assumed they were real kids, and they just felt like normal kids, you know, like, personality-wise. Um, and then I have one more, the best story I have, if I have time.
Jim Harold
Go ahead.
Johnny
Cool. Very cool. Okay, so, um, throughout all the apartments I lived in there, there were multiple fireplaces, right. Um, the ones upstairs were- were cast- were carved in marble. And like, there’s like one in the sitting room and one in- in the bedroom. And then, like, in the downstairs apartment, same kind of deal. And so they were big fireplaces. So what I do is I put, like- like, lights in them sometimes.
Jim Harold
Sure.
Johnny
Like I had these, like, lanterns, and they have the LED bolts that flicker, and it was just like, interesting, and I liked it. So, um, so I was working in like– on one of those kind of like, flickering displays in the fireplace one day. And it took a bit of work. See, like, one thing I had to hang, and you have to figure out how to get the wiring in there. And, um, and this is actually back when I was down on the first floor. And all of a sudden, like, I got the feeling someone was there. And again, just like the other times, I assumed it was a flesh and blood person, right? Like, um, outside, like, you know, there’s, um, there’s like walkways on the main level, the balcony over it, that like wrap-around, building. So it’s just, I mean, people have to go through that to get to their apartments, you know. Um, and so I turn around. There’s like a big, tall, skinny window behind me, and no one’s out there. And I was like, “Oh, they probably just walked by, and then I turn back around and tinkering in the fireplace. And, again, I feel it, and like stronger. I’m like, something’s got to be right there, you know. And I look outside, and no one’s there. And so I turned back around, and all of a sudden I feel the moist– it was like moist and warm breath, like on my ear–
Jim Harold
Ooo!
Johnny
–and a voice goes, “Hey, you!” And then I feel a finger, and I could feel the fingernail, like on the finger, poke me in the back of that hip, right?
Jim Harold
Oh, man.
Johnny
Yeah, right? Just like, and it just, I was like, at that moment, like, it’s gotta be a ghost. It’s like, someone’s definitely there, and it’s a ghost, right? So, um, I was at dinner with the owner, maybe like the next week, and- and I tell her about- about this– what happened, the story, and she drops her fork on the floor. And she goes, this same exact thing just happened to me like, three months ago.
Jim Harold
(Laughs).
Johnny
Complete with like the poke on the back of the– same spot, poke on the back of the hip, right?
Jim Harold
Oh man.
Johnny
So then, I tell me gentlemen friend about it, the same one who I– who said the thing about the wall, like identified the added wall. So I’m telling him about it. And this is before the thing that happened with the walking into the door, right? Um, he actually, up to this point, didn’t believe in ghosts, at all. So I’m telling him about it. And he’s like, “Oh my god. Do you remember when the same thing happened to me?” And I was like, “No, what are you talking about?” And he’s like, “Oh, yeah, like you were there. But I was too scared- too scared to say anything.” So, um, it was, like, within that same month, he was working on my fireplace, cause he was super handy. I was like, um, I was maybe like 12, or between 12 and 15 feet away in bed with the blanket over my legs, reading. Right?
Jim Harold
Right.
Johnny
Yeah. And, um, and all of a sudden, you know, like, he’s just, like, working like normal, and he whips around. And like- like- kinda was like- like looking around, sees– he sees me, and suddenly looks just absolutely aghast. Right? Like he like looked totally blanched. Like, his face was pure white.
Jim Harold
Right, because he thought maybe it was you, and then he found out, “Uhh, it wasn’t Johnny.”
Johnny
Exactly. I’m still like–
Jim Harold
Wow.
Johnny
Yeah. (Laughs). And so after that, um, he did believe in ghosts. He said the same thing. He’s like, “I thought it was you. I saw how far away you were and realized it couldn’t have been. And then I was really scared.
Jim Harold
Those are just tremendous stories, Johnny. Now I know you have some other stories, and I hope you’ll come back on the show and share them. But you gotta- you gotta tough act to follow after those three. But I thank you so much for telling us about living in a haunted mansion. How cool is that? Thanks again, Johnny.
Johnny
AbsoluAbsolutely. Thank you so much, Jim.
Jim Harold
Christian is on the line from New York State. We’re so glad to have him with us. And I gotta say, Christian, the name was familiar, his last name, and I looked him up and a longtime supporter going way, way back. And- and I have a special place in my heart for my longtime supporters. I mean, I love to get our new listeners, don’t get me wrong. But the thing is, is that these are the folks that gave me the courage to say, “Hey, I’m going to try to give this a go full-time.” So Christian, we want to thank you. And he’s been on The Campfire before. And he is going to tell us a story that draws upon some of his time in the Caribbean. And so glad to have us with this- Have him with us today. Christian, welcome back to the show. Thanks for your support, and tell us your story.
Christian
Thank you so much, Jim. It’s really an honor to be back with you. So in my job, I work for a small liberal arts college in upstate New York. I’m fortunate enough to get to travel to the Caribbean and work to help preserving archives on the small island of Nevis, which is the birthplace of Alexander Hamilton, probably your listeners will know.
Jim Harold
Sure.
Christian
Nevis is, yeah, Nevis is part of a little federated country with St. Kitts. And so I’ve traveled down there a number of times, and I was just there, this past January. And of course, we all know that in the West Indies, there are various traditions of black magic, people call it Voodoo or Santeria, things like that. Well, in St. Kitts and Nevis, they call it Obe or Obeah. And so I was working with two young people in an archives. And of course, these are very Christian countries, as well. And just kind of dancing around the edges. One of them mentioned ghosts, and they call them, “jumbies.” And I said, “Oh, do you have any ghost stories?” And you could tell they were reluctant to really talk about it, but they didn’t really have any ghost stories either. So I just decided to ask them. I said, “do neither of you have any experience with Obe or Obeah?” And they definitely didn’t want to talk about that. And even though we were alone in the building, they were looking over their shoulders to see if anyone was coming in when they were telling me what little that they could about black magic down there. So the young woman of the pair that I was with, told me that one thing she had heard, was that at one time there was a talking chicken on the neighboring island of St. Kitts and somehow an Obe woman had given this chicken the power to talk, which of course terrorized people.
Jim Harold
Sure.
Christian
So I filed that away. And the talking chicken was supposed to have been in a little town called, Cayon, on the Atlantic side of St. Kitts. So I went back to St. Kitts before I left the islands, because that’s where the airport is. And I had a day, and I hired a driver to take me all around St. Kitts. And it just so happened the driver was from Cayon. Well, um, so I asked him, I said, “Have you ever heard of this talking chicken?” And he laughed. He says, “Oh, yes, yes, the talking chicken.” And so we drove up to Cayon, and to the little upper village. He said, “This is the village where the talking chicken was.” I said, “Well, so tell me more about the talking chicken.” He said, “Well, the chicken had a suitcase. And if someone had something stolen from them, they’d go to the Obe woman, she would send the talking chicken out with the suitcase to terrorize the thief, and recover the stolen goods, and bring it back in the suitcase.”
Jim Harold
Whoa.
Christian
So, you know, he was laughing about this. And obviously he didn’t really believe it. But- but it was an interesting story. So I flew back to wintery upstate New York. And the second day I was home, I was in my kitchen with my wife, cooking breakfast. And I just started telling her the story. And I was cracking eggs into a frying pan and not even thinking about, you know, that I’m talking about chickens. And I cracked three eggs. The first two are normal. The third egg was a solid mass of blood and tissue with an eyeball in it.
Ewww. Agh!
Yeah. And- and- and I said, you know, words that I can’t repeat on your program. And my wife looked at me. And we were like, “that is really friggin weird.” You know, to have– be talking about black magic and- and chickens and then have this bloody egg with an eyeball in the middle.
Jim Harold
Uh, it’s kind of like, “Don’t talk about this, and if you do, you’re going to get…” You know, I’ve had a fair amount of eggs in my day. And I’ve been around a fair amount of people cooking eggs. Never happened. Never happened.
Christian
Exactly. And that’s what my wife said to me. She said, “You shouldn’t be talking about that.” And so, I– we get our eggs from a local farm. I- I– Next time I went to get my eggs, I said to the lady what had happened. She says, “You’re kidding me.” She says, “In all my life that’s ever happened to me.” And it’s the same thing– my wife and I said the same thing. Neither one of us has ever cracked an egg that had stuff like that.
That is weird.
Yeah-
Jim Harold
Maybe there was like a standing curse if anybody talked to them, and let them get some kind of… Oh, man.
Christian
Yeah, it was really weird. And my one regret about the whole thing is that I was so shocked, I didn’t have the presence of mind to–
Jim Harold
Take a picture.
Christian
–Yell, “What the- what the cluck?!”
Jim Harold
Oh! (Laughs). No, I gotta tell you. That’s the thing I love about Campfire. And you know, this Christian, because you probably been listening since like the beginning. You know, you think you’ve heard it all. And then you hear about the talking chicken and the aftermath. I mean, that’s the thing I love about this show. There’s so many wild stories. In fact, the funny thing is, my wife just left to run an errand. And the next thing to do, as soon as I hang up, is I’m going to call and tell her this story.
Christian
Oh, it’s a bizarre one. And you’re right. I didn’t think to take a picture, because I was so startled. I took the pan right to the trash and took the whole thing–
Jim Harold
Yeah, and that’s kinda nasty too. I mean, you know, you feel–
Christian
Oh yeah.
Jim Harold
–bad for the chick, or the embryo, or whatever was, and the thing was, is that also, like, I’d never think about eggs the same way. (Shuddering noise) And I love eggs.
Christian
Exactly. And my wife said, you know, my oldest son was in the other room. He’s like, “What’s going on in here?” He- he ran in, and my wife’s like, “Don’t let him see that.” You know, so yeah.
Jim Harold
Yeah, don’t let him see that, it will ruin him.
Christian
(Laughs).
Jim Harold
So, it’s certainly not sunny side up. Well, Christian, thank you so much for sharing one of my favorite Campfire Stories in a long time. What the cluck?
Christian
My pleasure, Jim, and great work with all of your shows. I love it. My mom’s a huge fan too. So she’s gonna be thrilled I’m on again.
Jim Harold
Do you mind if I give her a shout out by first name?
Christian
Not at all. Her name is Gretchen.
Jim Harold
Gretchen, thank you for listening. Stay tuned and stay spooky. And Christian, thank you for being a part of The Campfire.
Christian
Thank you so much, Jim.
Jim Harold
Jim Harold’s Campfire is brought to you by Earnest. Let’s talk student debt. You could potentially save thousands with refinancing your student loan. Did you know Earnest was voted “Best Student Loan Refinancing Overall” by NerdWallet? And Earnest has some of the lowest rates, flexible payments, and an in-house team ready to help. With Earnest, you could change your interest rate, get a lower monthly payment, and you never pay fees: not even late fees. And by refinancing, you can reduce your loan term, save money, or combine multiple loans into a simple monthly payment. And if you have questions, you can even talk to a real life human at Earnest for help. And that’s so important. And when you pay less interest, you can put that money towards your other goals. I worked my way through school and had student loans. And this is a great solution. And with Earnest it only takes two minutes to see what your new rate could be, and there’s no credit impact. And right now Earnest is offering our listeners a $100 cash bonus. Refinance your student debt at earnest.com/campfire, not available in all states. Once again, you get a $100 cash bonus when you visit earnest.com/campfire to refinance your student loan. And we thank earnest for their support of The Campfire.
Earnest Announcer
Earnest Student Loan Refinancing made by Earnest Operations, LLC. NMLS, number 1204917. California Financing Law License Number 605-478-8535 Mission Street, San Francisco, California, 94105. Visit earnest.com/licenses for a full list of licenses.
Campfire Announcer
Keep up to date with everything at The Spooky Studio. Sign up for Jim’s free newsletter at jimharold.com/newsletter. Now, back to another great Campfire story.
Jim Harold
Oh, we have a return caller. Scott was on a while back, I think about a year ago or so, talking about an amazing synchronicity about a t-shirt. But this time, he’s going to share three quick ghost stories with us. And I’m always up for good ghost story. Scott, welcome back to the show, from California. And thank you for joining us again.
Scott
Hey, Jim, my pleasure. Love the show, regular listener.
Jim Harold
Thank you.
Scott
And yeah, I have three quick stories I’ve always wanted to call in and share, so now’s as good as any. I was born and raised in Southern California. And really the first experience I ever had with anything ghostly or paranormal was: we had friends, friends that lived in Orange County. And they had a house that had a mischievous ghost that was well-known. They may no bones about it. And they actually referred to this ghost as Charlie, because it would turn on faucets, and turn on lights, and things like that. And they would say that if it was getting particularly active, they would simply yell at- yell at it and say, “Knock it off, Charlie.”
Jim Harold
(Laughs).
Scott
And it would stop doing whatever it was doing. And so we were at their house. We were in this little den/TV room. All the parents were in the other room playing Trivial Pursuit, so that will give you the timeframe reference when occurred.
Jim Harold
Sure.
Scott
But we were all in there watching TV. Kids laid out on various couches and chairs and on the floors, kids are tend to do. And this room had a huge floor lamp, basically in the middle of the room, providing light and whatnot. And basically, we saw a shadow that looked just like a man walking from left to right in front of this floor lamp. Where the shadow would move in conjunction to where a person would walk in front of a floor lamp. It was does exactly that. But there was nobody there.
Jim Harold
Oh, man. Oh, man. So that was– that probably almost would be- be, Charlie, for sure.
Scott
Yeah. And once again, it looked just like a man walking in front of a floor lamp, the shadow moves, you know, as you walked by that lamp, but there was nobody there. And it was kind of funny, because we already knew the house was, kind of, you know, already had a ghost. It wasn’t really like anybody freaked out or screamed or anything like that. And I was always wondering, too, you know, hopefully maybe some of the- the kids, I won’t give their names, but some of the kids who lived at that house, you know, it’d be awesome if they listened to your show. And hopefully the- the Orange County ghost named, Charlie, somebody maybe knows who I’m referring to, if they could call in, because I’m sure they must have a ton of more stories.
Jim Harold
Oh that would be- that would be awesome. And you have you have another one to share.
Scott
Two quick ones for you. Most recent one. Me and my brother took a bucket list trip to the United Kingdom. We went to London, Manchester, Liverpool, Dublin and Galway, Ireland. And while we were in Galway, Ireland, we rented a VRBO. It was like a fourplex of houses, and stayed there a couple nights, nothing happened until the last night. We were upstairs in the bedroom. So there’s two bedrooms upstairs. The living room, the kitchen were all downstairs. But, anyhow, this last night. I’m hearing cupboards open close. Drawers opening and close. And I, actually, I’m hearing this all night. I’m thinking, “Maybe there’s a window open.” I go down, no windows. Go back up. I’m started hearing this stuff again, and I’m– and I was, you know, I’m trying to think, “What the heck is it?” I thought maybe there– they had a cleaning woman, because it was a VRBO. Maybe she got the dates mixed up and–
Jim Harold
Right.
Scott
–she was down cleaning or something. But go down there, there’s nobody there. Next morning, me and my brother wake up. My brother comes in the room goes, “Dude, last night, I couldn’t sleep. There was cupboards opening, and drawers closing. I went down there, thought a window was open, and nothing was open.” He basically reiterated everything that I told him, you know, that I had experienced.
Jim Harold
(Laughs).
Scott
So we kind of look at each other. We go downstairs, and there was a clothes washer and a clothes dryer that were under the counter in the kitchen. They weren’t a combo unit. So there was a dryer on the left side, washer on the right side. So they were– you could- you could work them independently.
Jim Harold
Right.
Scott
But they were both on, with no clothes in there. And quick postscript, because I was going to call your show. I talked to my brother about this, to just kind of confirm and corroborate–
Jim Harold
Sure.
Scott
— and he says, “Yeah,” and he says, “Oh, don’t you remember? The dishwasher was on as well.” And I didn’t remember that at all.
Jim Harold
Ahhhhhh.
Scott
And also, we go down to find every appliance in the kitchen was on with nothing inside them.
Jim Harold
You know, the thing is, is that struck me, and I was also, strangely enough, in the UK in 2019. Thing that struck me about the UK is, every place has so much history, you know? Something is 100 years old here: it’s a century home. But over there, you know, 100 years old, it’s basically not even broken in yet. Was this a very old place you were staying in?
Scott
No, it was a new, you know, was a fairly new like I say, it was a fourplex, you know, four, kind of, condos smashed together. And we were kind of in the middle one. So it wasn’t really particularly old. But you are absolutely correct. The the history in the UK is fascinating unto itself.
Jim Harold
Now I know you’ve got a third story. So please, tell us that one.
Scott
I will save the best for last. In roughly 2005-2006, we lived in a condominium here in Orange County. And I– my son, at that point, was like three years old. So anytime I was watching TV, I would always think I would see something kind of in the corner of my eye at the top of the stairs. And I would always think it was maybe my son who couldn’t sleep, was getting out of bed, sitting at the top of the stairs, looking down. So I would always think I saw something there. But I would look up, and I would just go, “Ehh, maybe it was me.” We did some work in the house to do some flooring, and I took a picture. Well, we– I took a picture of my wife, and this is unrelated to the work, but it was the only time I’ve actually ever seen an orb in a photo.
Jim Harold
Ooo
Scott
And I know you’re half and half on whether orbs are legit.
Jim Harold
Yeah.
Scott
But I’ve taken thousands of pictures, you know, who– or as many as anybody over their lifetime. I’ve never seen an orb. But at this place, I did, actually, see an orb. And anyways, it kind of came to a head where one morning, I went downstairs, and I was using the downstairs bathroom that was actually under the stairs that led upstairs to the bedroom. So I was down there in the restroom, doing my business on a Saturday morning. And I hear stairs, or steps, coming down from the stairs, and I just thought, “Oh well maybe it’s my wife, maybe she was up early, you know had something to do, or whatnot.”
Jim Harold
Sure.
Scott
So I didn’t think about it too much until I heard the footsteps go from the stairs into the kitchen. And it was clearly the sound of high heeled shoes on a floor, like that’s an unmistakable sound.
Jim Harold
Huh. Yeah.
Scott
So then, I’m thinking, “Why is she wearing heels?” Like I feel like my wheels started turning. Like, “Well, that makes no sense. Why would she be walked for– what?” You know, you wouldn’t walk from the stairs in heels, and you wouldn’t even be wearing heels at 7:30 or 8:00 in the morning, anyhow. And so now, I finished my– what I’m doing in the restroom, and I open up the door. Nobody in there. I walk up the stairs, I go look in the bedroom. She’s sound asleep.
Jim Harold
(Laughs).
Scott
Look in my kids’ rooms. They’re sound asleep. So now I’m absolutely puzzled about this, because I clearly heard high heel shoes on the kitchen floor, and then I didn’t ever want to tell her about that. Because, I didn’t want to scare her. But long story short, we ended up moving from that place, and after we’d finally moved out I told her the story. Said, “Hey sweetie, I never want to tell you this, but I had this experience, you know, that it was and you know, I never wanted to tell you, because I didn’t want to scare you. And she says, “Well, I have a story for you. An experience I didn’t want to share with you, about the same house.” At night she would used to do work at home things, where you know, label little electronics, and things like that. It was a work at home job that she would do at night.
Jim Harold
Sure.
Scott
She said at night, when everybody was asleep, that sound would come from the TV, even though the TV was turned off.
Jim Harold
Ah!
Scott
Kind of like in Poltergeist, when the sounds would try to go through the TV, that, “ohohohohohoh,” type of sounds.
Jim Harold
Oh man.
Scott
She said she would regularly hear sounds coming from the speaker of the TV, and the TV was turned off, because she didn’t watch TV.
Jim Harold
Oh god.
Scott
So it was funny that I didn’t want to scare her with my experience, but when I opened it up, she had an experience of her own that she shared with me, as well.
Jim Harold
The thing about your story is the clicking of the high heels. Because they’re really, I can’t think of another sound like it. If you’re talking about a rumble or a boom or door closing, even, those are all things that could be– it could be different things doing it. But the idea of the- the actual high heels. That’s a remarkable sound.
Scott
Correct. Correct. And once again, it’s like 7:45 in the morning, and I’m typically the first one up anyway. So once I heard that, I was utterly confused at what the heck was actually going on. So that was- that was definitely my story. And thanks again for all your work, Jim. Really, I love your show.
Jim Harold
Well, thank you, Scott. I appreciate it. And thank you for being a part again of The Campfire.
Jim Harold’s Campfire is brought to you by Everlywell and their at home lab tests. You know, ask yourself, “What if you could use science to discover more about your body all year long?” Give yourself more clarity and better understand your health and wellness with Everlywell at home lab tests. Everlywell’s tests give you physician-reviewed results and personalized insights so you can take action on your health and wellness all at an affordable and transparent cost. And with over 30 tests, you will be able to choose the ones that make the most sense for you. Food sensitivity, metabolism, sleep and stress, and thyroid are just a few of the many options. And here’s how it works. It’s so straightforward, so simple. Everlywell ships your at home lab test straight to you with everything needed for a simple sample collection. Using the prepaid shipping label, you mail back your test to a certified lab, and in just days, your physician-reviewed results and actionable insights are sent to your device. And you can share the results with your primary care physician to help guide next steps. And over 1 million people have trusted Everlywell with their at home lab testing. And I’m one of those people, glad to say. I’ve taken their thyroid tests and some other tests they have, and everything has turned out good and positive and so thankful for that. That’s such great peace of mind, but also I will be sharing the results with my physician. And I think that’s really important as well. But I–I’m really glad that I’ve taken their tests. I plan on taking some more of their tests. And I just think that they have a very, very interesting product, a very good product, and you need to check it out. And I love the idea of having, you know, the information because information is power. And for listeners of this show, Everlywell is offering a special discount of 20% off an at home lab test at everlywell.com/campfire. That’s everlywell.com/campfire for 20% off your at home lab test. Everlywell.com/campfire. And I’ll spell that just so you know. It’s E V E R Y W E L L.com/campfire. And we thank Everlywell for their support of Jim Harold’s Campfire.
Campfire Announcer
Follow Jim on Twitter and Instagram @thejimharold and join our virtual Campfire Facebook group at virtualcampfiregroup.com. Now back to the Campfire.
Jim Harold
Kaylee is on the line from Wales over in the UK, and we love to hear from our listeners in the UK and we get great–a great percentage of call-ins from the UK. I think our percentage of call-ins from the UK is actually greater than our percentage of listeners. So shout out to our friends in the UK, thank you so much for being so kind and calling in like Kaylee has. And she has a workplace story, and this sounds very interesting. Kaylee, welcome to the show. And please tell us what happened.
Kaylee
Oh, hi, thank you so much for having me, Jim. And so my story takes place around about 2011, I started working at a museum. My role there was a museum assistant. So it’s kind of part customer service and then part security based. And part of the security side of things was, is doing what’s known as the bomb shift. And basically, what that means is going around the museum after everybody else is left, checking to make sure that nobody’s been locked in any of the galleries. And also checking for any suspicious packaging, which is how it gets its name the bomb shift. And so I was asked to do this one Sunday evening, and I was going about the normal shift. And it does creep a lot of people out because sometimes as you go in around the building, particularly in the art galleries, all the lighting is on a timer.
Jim Harold
Right.
Kaylee
And so as you move around the building, the lights are going off in each of the rooms, but I never really felt anything, I really enjoyed working, and to be honest with you, after a long day of a lot of visitors, it was just nice to have such a beautiful building kind of all to yourself.
Jim Harold
Right.
Kaylee
There was one area that always creeped me out. And I’m not even really sure why to be honest with you. Because it wasn’t a gallery itself, it was just a corridor, that linked the contemporary art to the impressionist art, and it always just had a creepy feeling. It didn’t even smell the same as the rest of the building, which I know is weird to say, but I just hated being there. So this one particular evening, I’d done the rest of the building. I just had the contemporary art left. I’d done the bottom part, and I’d gone upstairs. And this corridor is behind a door with a glass panel. And I just happened to look through the glass panel, and stood there was a gentleman, a man. He was tall, I’d say about six foot, but he had a dark suit on, I presumed it was black, but it was dark anyway. And he had a top hat on. And so after listening to your show, I can tell it wasn’t a Shadow Man. Like, I genuinely did not think it was paranormal. I thought that there was somebody in the building. But I just got this sense of dread, this–the way he was stood, his legs slightly apart. And he was stood kind of staring down at me. I felt like I was being belittled, that I was not wanted. That was the only way I could describe it. But as I say I didn’t think it was paranormal. So I grabbed my keys, went to open the door. And I look back up, gone, completely gone. So I’ve rushed through the door to the other side, which is also locked. No, nobody there looked through the glass panel. No, no, nobody there. So on the left hand side, there’s a fire escape. But it’s one of those ones that has the safety glass you have to break if you’re a visitor to get through. So that hadn’t been broken. So I use my keys to go through and I listened because it’s a really echoey corridor, you can hear if anyone’s moving there, nothing at all. So I sprinted down the four flights of stairs to see if there was anybody there. Nothing. So at this point I’m kind of rethinking everything. And I just thought, you know what, it wasn’t a modern suit, you know, it was more of a suit kind of of the Victorian period, or maybe just the turn of the century. So I went back to the control room to make sure that there wasn’t any events taking place. And I knew there wasn’t because, of course I checked the rest of the building, there was nobody else there. And they confirmed no. And obviously because it was a weekend, none of the back office, so none of the curatorial staff were in. It was just me and the people in the control room who were behind the security cameras. So at that point, I just rushed as quick as I could, got out of the building, got in my car and drove home. But even on the drive home, that sense–that feeling that I had of kind of dread and not being wanted. It just stayed with me.
Jim Harold
Interesting.
Kaylee
Yeah, yeah. So I did–a couple of weeks later, I did pick up the courage to speak to some of the people that I knew would believe me, even if they didn’t necessarily believe in the paranormal. I knew they wouldn’t be–they’d know that I wasn’t making it up. And they said, “Oh, you’ve met the architect.” And–
Jim Harold
(Laughs)
Kaylee
–basically, the architect of the building, his–his ashes are interned in the walls of the building. But I couldn’t work out why. There’s no documentation to say he was nasty or mean, you know, why did I have this kind of sense of dread? And the only thing that I can think of was, so when I started there, there was two ladies that were coming up to retirement. And they were the first female staff, like, front of house staff is what we call them. And before that I was in a very male dominated role, you know, women were seen as not being capable of doing the job. And so I don’t–like obviously, I’m just guessing, but I was thinking is that reason that, you know, I might not be wanted? You know, because I’m a woman, you know, all of these things going through my head.
Jim Harold
Right.
Kaylee
But just–just to kind of finish off the story, if I still got time.
Jim Harold
Sure.
Kaylee
Fast forward about two or three weeks later, and I’m in the historic art gallery. And this is right at the other side of the building. And I’m just normal day shift. And one of the visitors comes up to me, and she says, “Oh, hi,” she said. We get talking. And she tells me that she’s a medium. And she said that there was a lady in purple who is following me around the building. And I was just like, “Alright, well, you know. Okay, fair enough.” And she said, “she’s doing it because she knows you’re sensitive to these kinds of things. And she said, “have you seen anything?” And I know, I have to say, because it’s kind of like an unwritten rule that we didn’t really talk about the paranormal.
Jim Harold
Right. Sure.
Kaylee
Yeah. So well, you know, me being professional, just like, “Oh, you know, no, I find it a good place to work,” you know, all of that kind of thing. And she says to me, “Well, this lady is walking around, she’s doing it to protect them.” So I kind of thought, okay, well fair enough. So anyway, we carry on the conversation. And she–just as she’s leaving, she’s kind of half in, half out of the door, and she kind of peeked back. And she says, “Oh just to let you know,” she said, “Trust your instincts, be weary of the man in the top hat.”
Jim Harold
Oooh?? (laughs)
Kaylee
And at that point, my mouth dropped open, and I think she knew all along. I honestly think–I think whoever this lady was, it was telling her that she was following me, it had told her all about the experience, because I had only told–at that point, I’d told my, my partner, who’s now my husband, my grandparents, who I lived with at the time, and I’d told those two or three work colleagues, and nobody else knew.
Jim Harold
Wow, now let me throw this out here. And I’m sure this has occurred to you.
Kaylee
Yeah.
Jim Harold
What if the lady herself was a ghost?
Kaylee
Well, that’s what this lady–this is what this lady said, because there was no lady in puprle. There was nobody, you know, there was no visitor of that–
Jim Harold
No, I mean, the lady who told you.
Kaylee
Ohhhh no, that has not crossed my mind (laughs). That has not crossed my mind. That makes it even creepier.
Jim Harold
(Laughs) Oh, no, you’re not gonna be able to sleep at all. I mean, she said she was a medium, so that implies that she’s alive. But I just thought, well, what, you know, what if?
Kaylee
And actually like, for some reason, it had been like a spate of like incidents at that time. So we actually had a lady and her child leave the museum one day, because she said that she was being followed around by a man in the gallery. And of course, like we were on high alert at that point. And when we checked all the security cameras, there was nobody following her.
Jim Harold
Wow.
Kaylee
There was no one there at all. And she actually left the building. So for some reason they seem to be a lot of activity at that point.
Jim Harold
Well, that makes sense to me, him being the architect, and you know, from a prior time, maybe he has kind of chauvinistic points of view, and those kinds of things, and doesn’t welcome outsiders, and that kind of thing. That would, you know, not that–not that it’s right, but it would make sense to me.
Kaylee
No, you’re just trying to rationalize it. And that was kind of the only–and I was thinking, am I not doing the job right? Is that what, you know, well I was a stickler for making sure I did things, like, in the way they were supposed to be done, and you just go through all of these weird things, you wouldn’t necessarily really think of.
Jim Harold
I love it. It’s a great story. It’s a great story. And I, you know, I think museums, you know, with the, you know, the history that’s involved and so forth, I would–we’ve gotten some stories in the past from some of the museums here over in the States, I do believe they would be tend to be a most haunted place. And, Kaylee, thank you for calling in all the way from Wales to tell us about your story.
Kaylee
Oh, you’re more than welcome. Thank you very much, Jim.
Jim Harold
McKayla is on the line from Maryland. And she found out about us from two of our favorite podcasts, And That’s Why We Drink and Astonishing Legends. So if you’re one of the few people who haven’t checked both of those out, go check them out. We appreciate all their support over the years. And McKayla, I love this–when someone hears a story on the show and they say, “hey,” they raise her hand and say, “hey, I had something kind of similar.” So McKayla is going to tell us which story she’s referring to. She’s going to tell us what happened to her. McKayla, thank you for joining us. And please tell us your story.
McKayla
So I heard–I believe it was episode 534. And I think her name was Britney. About hearing–she described it as reindeer walking on the roof. But then it was running.
Jim Harold
Yep.
McKayla
And as soon as I heard that, I got chills. Because I had something very similar happen to me in this apartment I was renting in college. Um, so I’m in Maryland now. But at the time, I was living in Connecticut and going to a very small art school. Um, the sum–it was my sophomore year. The summer before, I was in Austria,working as an au pair. My mom basically found this apartment for me, I didn’t even see pictures before we agreed to rent it. And as soon as I went in to, like, start moving in before the semester started, I just had an incredibly bad vibe from it.
Jim Harold
Huh.
McKayla
It wasn’t–I kind of just brushed it off because it was a new place. It was kind of dark. And it wasn’t like an ideal living situation. Had bad carpet on the floors, including in the bathroom, there was no real kitchen, I cooked on a hot plate. Well, it was kind of weird, but it was the cheapest I could find, really close to my school. And it worked. I think the first thing that I really noticed was there was some scratching on doors. And just a couple odd things here and there. But then it started ramping up, and there was a loft. I used that as my art studio.
Jim Harold
Mhmm.
McKayla
There was no attic above it. It was just the roof. And at some point I noticed that whenever I was working in there after dark–after it got like full dark, you could hear something pacing back and forth on the board.
Jim Harold
Oh boy.
McKayla
And this would happen every night.
Jim Harold
Oh boy.
McKayla
I thought it was my landlord maybe walking and the sound was echoing like, outside on the patio. Because it was written for that. I thought maybe it was like some kind of animal at some point. I tried to debunk this for the longest time. I never–I never figured out anything that it could be like realistically, but it sounded like–you could tell it was bipedal. And–but it almost sounded like hooves or something sharp. Like it wasn’t just a soft footstep. It was a sharp noise.
Jim Harold
Hmm.
McKayla
And it would just pace back and forth for hours. And then other than that, there was just some really weird things. I had a really, uh, specific set–specific sound to my car keys. I had this little bell bonnet that my friend had given me as a keychain.
Jim Harold
Right.
McKayla
So if I was walking down the hallway at school people would know it was me. My boyfriend who I was living with at the time was also using my car. And he went to work one night, I was up in the studio working in the loft. And a few hours go by. It’s about 9, 10 o’clock. And I share my keys at the front door which is directly below the loft and it’s just a sliding glass door.
Jim Harold
Right.
McKayla
And I never hear the door open.
Jim Harold
Oh boy.
McKayla
I thought maybe he just went back to the car. I go downstairs, the car’s not in the driveway. I was like, oh maybe he forgot something at work. So I call him, I was like, “Hey, why’d you leave?” He goes, “What are you talking about?” Um, he hadn’t even closed the shop yet, that he was working at.
Jim Harold
Oh, boy.
McKayla
Like I said it was a very distinct sound.
Jim Harold
Yeah, it’s–and that’s gotta be disturbing because you’re by yourself and, you know, you’re in this new, strange place and then you were hearing all these sounds. And I always point this out to people. You know, yeah, you–you think about the paranormal, but you also think about the quote normal. Intruders, whatever the case may be.
McKayla
Yeah, and that brings up another point. Um, whenever I would take a shower. It wasn’t every single time but like, often enough to where it freaked me out. Every single time this happened it scared me so bad, but I would be in the shower. And it would sound like someone walked in the door and was walking around very heavily–
Jim Harold
Oh man.
McKayla
–in the apartment. And that scared me so bad. I used to call my mom and have her talk to me while I was in the shower.
Jim Harold
Wow. But I mean, what do you think was? Do you think the–I mean, it sounds like it may have been haunted or something. Did you know anything about the history of it or anything that you later found out about it?
McKayla
The only thing I knew was that it was the in-law suite that was built for–I believe it was–it was a couple that owned it–that owned the house. I believe it was the woman’s mother. After she, like, wasn’t really able to live on her own. I know she died. I have no idea if she died in the house or not. But it was definitely something off and like bad vibes there. And I think it’s centered around their half of the house actually. Whenever I would be over there, it would just feel heavy. And we had one time where we–they were away. And we had to reset the WiFi. And we walked over there. We didn’t turn any lights on because we didn’t know where any light switches were. We just kind of walked over with our phones. It sounded like at least three people were running around in their living room. And no one was home.
Jim Harold
And there was another–there was something about bottles. Wasn’t there something about bottles?
McKayla
Oh, yes. Um, this is kind of funny. We used to have those big bottles of iced tea, like the Snapple ones.
Jim Harold
Right.
McKayla
So it’s just a big plastic bottle. And we had an empty one sitting on the table once, and it was me, and my boyfriend, and my really good friend Mackenzie. And we were all just standing around trying to figure out where to go to dinner. She was supposed to spend the night. And all of a sudden the bottle just popped off the table. Like it jumped, spun around a little bit, landed while it was still spinning. And so then it kind of tilted around on its rim a few times and then just leveled off and stopped. And we all were like three feet from it so close, but we didn’t touch it. We didn’t accidentally hit it. And we all saw it.
Jim Harold
Wow.
McKayla
It was so weird. She was terrified. She still talks about how scared, like scared she was in that apartment. And that happened two more times while I was there, although the other two times it was just me that saw it.
Jim Harold
Wow. Now you had said something, though, I’m assuming–I think you said it was an art school. So I’m assuming you’re an artist. And you told me about some artwork?
McKayla
Yeah, so um, it was my sophomore year. Freshman year was incredibly challenging. Like it was a very traditional school, like an atelier, a kind of thing. So it’s very, very, very strict, very hard critiques, everything. So I was still kind of burnt out from freshman year, I think we all were. And I had one class that gave me a little bit of freedom in what I wanted to draw or paint or whatever. And for some reason, I decided that the energy around this place was just so intriguing. And that’s how it was, I wasn’t there’s only a few things I was outright scared of. Um, the footprints, the car keys, everything. I wasn’t scared when it happened. It was just odd to me. And it would freak me out later. But it was more intriguing than anything. And so I decided to do this series of charcoal drawings. And later on oil paintings of just different odd like angles in the house. Like, I would look down this hallway, like this very specific, weird angle and paint it or draw it. And it was just all over the house. I think I also did a couple portraits in the house for portrait class. And every time I brought one of these paintings or drawings in, people were like, very, very uncomfortable looking at them, they gave them a weird feeling. Not even necessarily creepy. People just thought it was off. And it was odd. And there wasn’t to me anything really special about it. It was just a drawing of my apartment that I did for like, perspective practice. And just because it was interesting to me, but I didn’t expect such a reaction from other people that didn’t even know about the apartment.
Jim Harold
Right.
McKayla
Never been there. But to this day, everyone that has seen it or seen these painting paintings and drawings is not a fan of them, but it just–it creeps them out.
Jim Harold
Well it certainly sounds like a creepy place, McKayla, so it sounds like you got out of there obviously. And good on you for getting out of there. But I’m sure it’s even enhanced your interest in the supernatural, it sounds like.
McKayla
Oh, definitely, um, I’ve always been a fan of like horror movies and just weird stuff. I’ve had a couple other experiences, but nothing like this and nothing like that since.
Jim Harold
Well McKayla, thank you for listening, and thank you for sharing your story on the Campfire.
McKayla
No problem. Thank you so much.
Jim Harold
Jim Harold’s Campfire is brought to you by stamps.com. You know, I know from experience, it’s hard enough to keep your ecommerce business running smoothly with limited resources. So why not simplify shipping so you can worry about more important things? And I can tell you here at the Spooky Studio, there’s one full time employee and you’re listening to him. And of course, we have our great associate producer and assistant producer, Maddy, and my kids also help out with some of the editing things. But I’m the only full time employee and I know it’s difficult to keep the plates spinning. And one thing I don’t have to worry about anymore is shipping because of stamps.com. Stamps.com eliminates all your shipping stress by integrating with the most popular online shopping platforms to make labeling a breeze. Plus you get access to deeply discounted shipping options and save about 100 trips to the post office with stamps.com. Now for over 20 years, stamps.com has helped over a million businesses save time and money on shipping, including Jim Harold Media, I absolutely love it. When we have to send something out, it’s just a few simple clicks. And there you go. And it’s also very economical. Stamps.com gets you incredible discounts on shipping like 40% off USPS rates and up to 76% off UPS rates. Now, it automatically connects to your stores bringing together all your shipping info from Amazon, Etsy, Shopify, eBay, and many more. You simply print your shipping label from any standard printer, stick them to your package and then schedule a pickup or drop them off. No traffic, no lines. And with stamps.com’s tracking tools and automated delivery notification emails, you can avoid those dreaded, “where’s the package?” and “what’s my return status?” messages. And if you ever have a question, stamps.com’s award winning US-based shipping support team is ready to help. I love stamps.com. And if you’ve given an opportunity, I know you will too. Stop worrying about shipping and start saving time and money today with stamps.com, there’s no risk. And with my promo code campfire, you get a special offer that includes a four week trial, plus free postage, and a digital shipping scale. No long term commitments or contracts. Just go to stamps.com, click on the microphone at the top of the homepage, and type in campfire. That’s stamps.com, promo code campfire. Stamps.com: Easy ecommerce shipping for less. Thanks stamps.com.
Campfire Announcer
You’re listening to Jim Harold’s Campfire.
Jim Harold
Next up on the Campfire is Chris. He’s been listening to us for a couple of years. Found us via the Astonishing Legends Christmas party that we’ve been doing the last few years. So thanks to Scott and Forrest for that, and bringing Chris our way. We’re so glad to have him on the line. Now, a while back on one of our other shows, The Paranormal Podcast. By the way, check that free podcast out if you haven’t had a chance. We talked about this idea of shared death experiences. And shared death experiences–I’ll give you an example. Let’s say that you had a grandmother, and your grandmother was passing away and you’re halfway across the country. But maybe you feel a tightness in your chest, maybe you feel nausea. And there’s different kinds of shared death experiences. But that’s one of the more common ones, where you feel some kind of physical manifestation of what’s happening to your loved one, no matter how far away they are. That’s the idea of physical shared death experience. So now that we’ve set the stage, Chris is going to tell us maybe about a different kind of shared death experience. Chris, from Connecticut, thank you for joining us and tell us what happened.
Chris
All right, and thank you again for having me, Jim. First of all, I actually–after I wrote my initial submission to you, I went back and decided to make sure I wasn’t crazy and looked up and found an old news article about what I’m going to tell you about. So I actually have validated what I experienced and made sure that I wasn’t crazy. So um, but there was a morning that I woke up when I was in high school, and it was in 2001. And I woke up and I just felt off, and I don’t know that my alarm clock had gone off yet. But I woke up and I felt really nauseous, dizzy, completely disoriented, and I’m just laying in bed I’m like, I don’t know if I’m going to school today. My alarm goes off and of course, nobody wants to hear the clock radio with that annoying, blaring, beep beep beep, you know, so.
Jim Harold
Right.
Chris
Get out of bed, and try to turn the alarm I’m off, and I managed to turn it off, but at the same time stumbled and fell backwards because I was so disoriented. And at the same time, while all this was happening, I also couldn’t hear clearly. It was almost as if my ears were blocked, or almost as if I had a sensation of being underwater. And I had never, at that point felt anything like this combination of symptoms. And since then, even in the past, when I made mistakes, and got really drunk, I have never felt anything like this. So I have never felt like this in my entire life. I tripped, fell backwards, and hit my tailbone on a wooden bed post at the end of my bed. And so it was a bad morning for me. So I go downstairs, I see my mom, I’m like, “I don’t know if I’m going to school today, I don’t feel well.” She says, “Go lay down. And you know, you’ll probably feel better and then go to school.” So sure enough, I laid down on the couch, got up, went to school. Alright, so a weird illness. And you know, maybe–maybe I was just tired or something. So I go to school, get on the bus, take the trip, go into the library. And I used to check the news when I got to library because I wasn’t going to get on dial up internet first thing in the morning.
Jim Harold
Right.
Chris
Check the local news. And there was an interesting article, and it said that a dolphin at the local aquarium, which is mystic Marine Life Aquarium and Institute for Exploration, which is about an hour away from where I live, had a dolphin that died that morning, at around that time.
Jim Harold
Oh my.
Chris
And now, I’ve liked dolphins, don’t get me wrong. But I had never had a direct connection with this animal or anything like that. I hadn’t gone swimming with the dolphin. I had seen it maybe once.
Jim Harold
Yeah, that’s what I was gonna ask you. Had you been at the aquarium?
Chris
No, not recently. No. And so I’m reading this article at school. And it’s like, okay, the time of death was right around the time when I woke up. And on top of that, I found out in a more recent article that it died of a strep infection, basically, or a staph infection, something like that. But the dolphin had some kind of an inflammatory bone disease, right at the base of its tail. And if you put a human X ray up next to a dolphin X ray, that was roughly where I hit myself when I tripped and fell.
Jim Harold
Whoa.
Chris
So I–like there’s no way to me, even today, when I look at all of those factors tied together, that it was just a coincidence, because 1. I’ve never felt that way since then or before then. 2. the time of death was within three to five minutes of me waking up. And 3. where I got hurt from tripping and falling over was roughly where the dolphin had some kind of bone disease at the base of its tail. And it was unusual because not only was there nauseous in us and dizziness, but the whole disorientation because it felt like my ears were underwater. And all of that went away after I rested for a little bit and got up. So I’m presuming it was that time when the dolphin started dying and when it, you know, finally passed. That’s the only thing I can think of.
Jim Harold
Wow, wow, that’s something. That’s something. Well, why do you think you were selected for this?
Chris
I’m not sure. I do remember when I was younger than that, having some kind of dream about dolphins or something like that. But other than that, I’m not really sure. I think it was just one of those moments of connection where maybe it was just reaching out and trying to connect to someone, so that it was comforted in the time of its death. I don’t know. But it’s–it’s something that to this day, like looking at that evidence again, researching articles on this, if you look up Stormy the dolphin and January 18, 2001, There are news articles about this. I didn’t realize the dolphin had a book written about it. And they had found it after a shark attack in Texas and all this other stuff. I only found that out recently, but I did validate it. Yeah, like this actually happened. And it also validated all of the aspects of my experience in that yeah, like the–the–it mentioned again, the inflammatory bone disease and all sorts of other stuff.
Jim Harold
Wow. And this is to me, this is the ultimate head scratcher because still, the why. The why. And i get what you’re saying about the–the wanting to reach out to something to get some comfort, to share the experience that could be it, but I just, you know, why you were selected. But I mean, it’s cool. It’s a very cool story. And I mean, it’s–again, I love that–that expression, I use it almost every show. Seems like too much of a coincidence to be a coincidence.
Chris
Yeah, absolutely. I still have no idea why it would have chosen, like I said, me, but the only thing that made sense, or still, even when I think about it, now, it’s just we take for granted that we’re–we’re the only sentient creatures on the planet, and we don’t, you know, we have emotions and the ability to recognize those emotions. But some people have theorized that, you know, higher level mammals like dolphins and certain ape species, etc. do have some sense of that. And so it could be that, you know, hey, again, a sense of, there’s that intelligence there, it was scared, and somehow spiritually ended up reaching out and connecting. That’s the only thing I can think of.
Jim Harold
Very cool story, Chris, thank you for listening. And thank you for being a part of the Campfire.
Chris
Thank you, Jim.
Jim Harold
Next up on the Campfire is Adam. He’s been listening since about 2016. He’s from Washington State and we’re so glad he joins us tonight. And he’s going to talk to us about unexplained noises and a possibly haunted hotel. Adam, welcome to the show. Thank you for joining us.
Adam
Yeah, thank you.
Jim Harold
Tell us what happened.
Adam
Yeah, sure. Thank you. So the first one–I guess it’s kind of a head scratcher, or I guess since there’s no such category for just weird sounds, but this is maybe about around maybe 2017. And so my–my then girlfriend now wife, we were asleep in bed in the middle of the night, you know, going along just fine. And just out of nowhere, there’s three just really loud booms, like a BOOM, BOOM, BOOM. With like a regular rhythm to it. And so it woke us up. So I flew out of bed, she did the same, and we were kind of looking like, what was that? And so, you know, we live in a–it’s a–it’s a quiet neighborhood in a very small town. So we figured, you know, if there’s some–some this loud, you’re bound to–someone else is bound to have heard this. So we’re looking out the window where our bedroom overlooked the parking lot of our condo complex. And there was no one else seemed to have noticed that. There were no other lights came on. Where we hear, you know, police sirens or a fire truck, or something. We’re, you know, about a quarter mile away from a police station, about a quarter mile away from a fire station. So, you know, our neighbors aren’t really known for not complaining about stuff. So we figured someone would have had to have called the cops,
Jim Harold
Right.
Adam
Because it just sounded–it sounded kind of like a kind of combination between like–have you ever heard to car crash?
Jim Harold
Yeah.
Adam
Yeah, kind of like that. Or like someone like, knocked a dumpster off the Grand Canyon or something. But also sounded like a rifle shot. And especially with the the regularity of the boom, boom, boom. And it seems like we’re the only ones that heard it. And then a couple nights later, sam exact thing. About–yeah, 3:30, 4 in the morning, just boom, boom boom. You know, just because it happened once didn’t–didn’t mean that we were used to it. So same drill, we flew out of bed and just in a, you know, mild panic. And again, no one else seems to noticed, or–or heard it, or even cared and I’ve got no idea what that possibly could have been.
Jim Harold
Huh, huh. You know, that’s the thing. And when you get these weird sounds, and they just–they don’t make any sense, because, you know, there’s–we had someone on the show recently who talked about–they were in the bathroom, and there was the sound of high heels on the tile.
Adam
Oh.
Jim Harold
But it was 8am in the morning and his wife was asleep in bed. And the thing is, is that to me, it’s one thing if you hear a kind of a random bump or something, but you’re talking about a sound of a car crash. That’s–that’s pretty distinct. It’s not like it’s just like, a furnace or something making a weird thumping noise or something, you know?
Adam
Exactly yeah, it was–it was loud, too. It sounded like–it sounded like it could have been in the room. It was, you know, loud enough to send us flying out of bed with, you know, elevated heart rates, just immediately, just instant panic. Yeah, no idea. It was a, I’m just glad it’s soft because it would’ve been–it would have been disruptive–
Jim Harold
Sure.
Adam
–had it just become just kept, you know, become a regular thing.
Jim Harold
So I know you have more stories of strange occurrences.
Adam
Yeah, I got another–another quick one that’s also kind of a–I guess kind of a strange noise story too. It was–so right after my wife and I got married, we–we got married in Seattle. And we decided we’re gonna–we’re gonna take a little mini honeymoon up to Victoria, BC. We’re gonna ride a little slope up there. And, you know, we figured it’s, you know, it’s our wedding, we’re getting married one time. Let’s–let’s go big. So we booked a room at the Fairmont Empress in Victoria, which is this big, just hideously expensive, very, very saintly hotel. It was built over 100 years ago. It’s kind of the–kind of like the architectural folk of one of the inner Harvards. It’s a really cool building. And so we figured, you know, we’re getting married once, we book a room there. So we–we book a room there, it’s you know, it’s great. It’s an–it’s a nice hotel room. But that first night, I’m fast asleep. And I start having this really vivid dream, which I can’t remember the details of, but I just seem to recall feeling really uneasy. And you know when you fall asleep, like in front of the–like when you’re listening to music or in front of the TV, and like I fell asleep in front of Law and Order the other day, I had a dream where I was on trial for murder.
Jim Harold
Right.
Adam
Yeah. And in the outside world kind of–kind of permeates your dream. And at least with me, I can tell when what I’m hearing is you know, like this didn’t come from my brain. This is some sort of outside thing that’s–some sort of external stimulus that’s working its way into the dream. So I heard music in my dream and I–it had that feeling of like I’m hearing it outside of my dream space with my ears, or–it’s kind of–it’s kind of in my dream but it’s not coming from me. And just so–super uneasy in my dream that I woke up just feeling really uneasy. So I’m lying awake, kind of freaked out. And then just right next to my head there’s a–just like tapping sound right on the wall by my head. And so now I’m really awake. Not getting back to sleep anytime soon. So I’m on high alert like, what was that, you know? And then I started hearing water dripping ,but not in the bathroom, but just again, behind my head. So if I were, you know, more investigatively minded and less just like abjectly terrified I’d probably sort of roll over and at least taken a look, but I jsut–nah, nah. Let’s–I’m not gonna do that. I didn’t want to–if there was something to see, I didn’t want to see it. And so that was the first night, I’m feeling a little rough the next day ,didn’t really get much sleep. But you know, we go and do our thing. Have fun in Victoria. Night rolls around, again, fast asleep and then just out of nowhere, I’m awake. And it–I feel really uneasy. And there’s that tapping sound again by my head. And so this time I shake my wife awake because uh, you know, I told her about this and she’s curious about paranormal stuff too. And also, I just didn’t want to suffer alone. So I waited around. Like, “listen, do you hear that?” and there’s the water dripping sound, there’s that tap, tap, and then just out of nowhere it sounds like someone took a–just out in the hallway out of our room it sounds like someone took like a room service cart and just trashed it. Just this loud clattering bang, like someone took that–really someone kicked over like a full–full room server–service cart, loaded with silverware or, or maybe a housekeeping cart or something. Really, really loud, really distinctly and so that freaked us out and then, you know, the next day, we–we–I took a look out in the hall, and there was–I mean, obviously they would have had time to clean it up.We didn’t see a cart, but also it’s for what they charge for a night there, I feel like if someone just left a cart unattended in the hallway overnight, they would probably–they would probably get fired. So no idea what that was. And then the third night I took a couple Canadian Tylenol PMs cuz I just–I had to sleep at that point. And my wife was woken up and same thing. Heard that–the tapping, the water dripping sound. It was just really weird, and the second day we were there I got on my phone, and I Google, you know, “Fairmont Empress Victoria BC haunted question mark” and just lists of like 25 different articles of the most haunted place in Victoria BC. And so yeah, great. I guess we picked the haunted one but yeah, it was very strange.
Jim Harold
(Laughs) Very strange indeed. And I guess that you know it it made for a memorable honeymoon. A haunted honeymoon.
Adam
It did yeah. Yeah, I was also just very tired though, so it’s cool to have a story to tell, but it would have been–also would have been nice to just have been rested for it.
Jim Harold
(Laughs) Your haunting is nice, but I need to get some sleep.
Adam
Exactly.
Jim Harold
Adam, thank you so much for calling us tonight. Thank you for being a part of the Campfire.
Adam
Yeah, thanks for having me, Jim.
Jim Harold
I love when we get callers from Australia. And as our caller tonight Rochelle said–or this morning, she’s calling from the future. It’s about 7:30 Eastern, where I’m at, and where she’s at it is late morning, and we’re so glad to have her on the program. And she’s going to talk to us about a series of time travel dreams. I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of time travel, and also fascinated by remarkable dreams. And when you put the–that–the two together, I’m sure it will be a classic Campfire call. Rochelle, welcome to the show. And please tell us about some of these dreams.
Rochelle
Thank you for having me, Jim. Yes, it’s a bit of a head scratcher. And I’m keen to know if anyone else has had similar experiences. Just for background, I have sleep apnea and have had it for about 18 years, which means that I regularly stop breathing when I’m asleep. And as a result, I now have to wear a full face mask to ensure I get a continual flow of air. And let me tell you, Jim, it’s not very attractive bedroom attire (laughs).
Jim Harold
Yeah, but I know it’s a real–it’s–it’s a real struggle that folks have with that. And I think they–I don’t know if what you wear is the same thing, but I’ve heard it called a CPAP machine.
Rochelle
Yes, that’s exactly what it is. Yep. Yep. But before I was actually diagnosed and treated, I suffered really badly. Not only did I snore like a freight train and stop breathing, but I suffered really horrendous night sweats every night. And regardless of the season, or what I was or wasn’t wearing, I would wake up up to three times the night, shivering, because I was actually soaked.
Jim Harold
Oh my.
Rochelle
Yeah, my bed was soaked, my clothes were soaked, my hair was soaked. So I’d have to sleep on towels and have a couple of changes of clothes there every night, which was exhausting. And it would happen roughly three hours after I’d fall asleep. And a lot of the times, it was accompanied by really anxious dreams. But this particular experience happened about 15 years ago. So before I had my mask, and I fell asleep as usual. And I began to dream. And I dreamt that I was standing outside a huge building with floor to roof windows that were on an angle like a convention center or a terminal. And I was standing outside with maybe six people. And the lady was addressing us and she says, “you’re about to go on a journey. And you are to observe and record specific information.”
Jim Harold
Hm.
Rochelle
And–yeah–and so then I wake up, and I dry myself off, get changed, do all that. Fall back to sleep, don’t think anything of it, fall back to sleep. And the dream continues. And this time I’m transported to the early 1900s. I’m in what I sense is a farmhouse, and I’m watching a scene with two young boys in the bathroom. They’re six and 12. And they’re putting wood into this contraption on the wall that is to fuel the fire which will warm the bathwater. And I hear, I know that I’m the younger boy and this is my older brother. And I hear our father come home, I see him come through the door, and we run down the narrow staircase to greet him and that’s pretty much that dream. I wake up, I’m soaked. I get changed. I do all that, fall back to sleep. And the dream continues. And it would do so for the next three nights. I would–despite being repeatedly disrupted by me getting up, as well as like, waking hours during the day. So every time I went to sleep, I was immediately transported to a different life and a different time. And so one dream, I was a colonial young man, I was watching in an open cart, horse drawn cart. And he had his arm against his pregnant–heavily pregnant wife next to him, trying to protect her because he’s struggling with the reins, the horses are going too fast down this dry creek bed, and the cart is tipping. And so I wake up again, I think, gee, this is really strange. I get changed. Go back to sleep, the dream continues. I’m transported again to another colonial time where I’m a young girl, very young girl, probably 14, standing next to my much older pastor husband, who’s in the clergy. We’re looking out across the river, our sandstone cottage is behind us. Nothing much really to report there, I wake up. Again, I change I go back to sleep. And this continues for the next few nights, I’m continually transported to another time and place. And I don’t recall anything else I was dreaming during that time. And I was trying to think, you know, is it a reflection of what I’m seeing or reading or doing during the day? And I couldn’t put my finger on it. And again–so the dreams continued. One dream I was in Victorian dress, standing on a platform in the middle of nowhere, waiting for a steam train. The train came, I’ve got a bird’s eye view of it traveling through underdeveloped bush land, which I assume was Australian. Again, I wake up, I get changed, I go back to sleep. I’m immediately transported to England, in the 60s where I’m a young girl walking down the street, and I’m looking for a particular address because I’m looking for a bed set. I go in I observe it, you know, it’s all very sort of mundane sort of stuff–
Jim Harold
Right.
Rochelle
–but in different–in different time periods. And so yeah, the last two dreams are the ones that really got me. So yeah, as I said, this has been happening for a few nights at this time. And so the last two dreams that I remember, were one dream where I actually traveled to another planet. And I remember standing there looking at it an ocean scene, and everything was a really strange shade of pink. The water, the landscape, the sky, everything was really weird, like a real weird shade of pink. And I remember they were three celestial bodies in the sky. I don’t know if they were moons or suns. But they were there. And I remember looking at it over the pink ocean and saw this huge serpent-like creature breaching the water and going through the water. And I thought, Okay, this is real life. And then of course, I wake up, get changed, and all that and go back to sleep. And then the last dream I had, which is the real spooky one for me, was I went to another planet again. But this time it involved a multistory military training facility. And the weird thing was, was that we were being trained in telepathy and teleportation, which is crazy, right? And so what the idea of it was, was that we had to train ourselves to psychically reach out into the ether, to locate–locate our opponents and preempt what he’s about to do. So we could teleport us–ourselves to where he was going to be, and attack, if that makes sense. So we had to sort of reach out into the ether, figure out where this person was, preempt where they were going to be, and quickly teleport ourselves to that place so we could attack.
Jim Harold
Huh.
Rochelle
And I know it sounds like a really crazy video game. But at this time, this is you know, when I was a young mother, I wasn’t exposed to this sort of stuff at all.
Jim Harold
Sure.
Rochelle
So it was really way out there for me. And yeah–and we looked like stormtroopers, I guess in a way. It was like, armored military outfits that–that was actually what made us able to teleport, we couldn’t teleport by ourselves, but we had to develop our psychic abilities basically in this training facility. Yeah, so that’s sort of basically it. The weird thing is that this sequence of dreams just kept going over a few nights and it was only time travel dreams. And I wondered, you know, if it was because of my sleep apnea, did I have you know, like, lack of oxygen was causing me to hallucinate or? And I’ve done some studies about sleep apnea in it. And the majority of them say that people don’t really recall their dreams because they don’t actually reach that REM state–like state of sleep, to where they actually dream.
Jim Harold
Right.
Rochelle
So, yeah, I was thinking, well, maybe am I just sort of floating in between consciousness? Or have I dipped my toe into the ether and sort of took a trip or?
Jim Harold
So do you think–it sounds like what you may be thinking is, is that–and if I’m putting words in your mouth correct me. But yes, maybe the physiological biological condition that you have with sleep apnea was in a way responsible for it. But somehow it opened you up to maybe other realities or something like that?
Rochelle
Yeah, I really do think that because yeah, I know you’ve spoken about it on your show too, people like with the dream state, we’re sort of–the veil is a little bit thinner. I think we’re–our minds are a bit more open to those sort of things from the other side. And yeah, I–I kind of like to think maybe I did have a bit of a glimpse into my past lives, perhaps, or, I don’t know.
Jim Harold
That makes sense. Yeah. And the other thing is, is that you did the smart thing you, you know, you knew you had a condition and you had it addressed. So if any folks out there, you think–I’m not a doctor, don’t–this is not medical advice. Go to your physician, if you want medical advice, but if you have–you think you might have a condition, I would certainly say go to your physician and get it checked out. Because as I understand it, sleep apnea can actually be quite dangerous.
Rochelle
Yes, yeah, it can. And I did suffer very badly for quite a long time before I was officially diagnosed. So yeah, yeah.
Jim Harold
So if you think you may have this condition, please do get checked out with a physician. And Rochelle, I’m so glad you’re doing better with all of that. And I’m glad that you shared your dreams on the Campfire.
Rochelle
Thank you, Jim. Thanks so
Jim Harold
Thanks so much for tuning in to this edition of Campfire. I hope that you enjoyed it as much as I did. If you enjoy the show, please rate and review it on the podcast app of your choice. That helps us so much and elevates our profile. And we get more great stories like the ones we heard today. And if you want to delve back into the archive, and get all of the spooky stories going back to 2009–we’re approaching our lucky 13th anniversary–you can do that by going over to jimharoldplus.com. That’s jimharoldplus.com. We have a great sale going on right now for both monthly and yearly memberships. So check that out. We thank you so much. We’ll talk to you next time. Have a great week, everybody. And of course stay safe, and stay spooky. bye bye.
Campfire Announcer
You’ve been listening to Jim Harold’s Campfire. Tune in again next time for more stories of ordinary people who have experienced extraordinary things.