Young and old ghosts headline the spooky stories on this episode of Jim Harold’s Campfire!
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TRANSCRIPT
Jim Harold (00:00:00):
Ghosts. Today, we have stories on both ends of the spectrum: ghost children, a ghost grandpa. It’s on today’s edition of Jim Harold’s Campfire.
Announcer (00:00:24):
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 (00:00:36):
Welcome to the Campfire. I am Jim Harold. So glad to be with you once again. And if you’re new around these parts, what we do is we share true stories, real stories from real people telling their stories in their own words. We don’t add spooky music, we don’t make stuff up. We just let ’em tell it like it is, and they’re incredible stories and I think you’re going to love them. So welcome to the party and if you’ve been around for a long time, thanks for coming back. One quick note before we get started with these great Campfire stories, there’s someplace you can find even more great Campfire stories, and that’s in my new book, Jim Harold’s Campfire True Ghost Stories Volume Six, and you can buy it now at amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, a variety of outlets both nationally and internationally, also available in ebook and paperback.
(00:01:31):
And we’re even doing a limited number of autographed paperback books. You can get all of that information over at Jim Harold dot com. Go there and click on the green button at the top of the page and it’ll take you right to our page for books and you can go from there. And it’s very easy to navigate. We tried to really make it easy this time. And the great thing about the books is that you can read my Campfire series in any order. So you can start with book six and work your way backwards. And I would start with book six because I do believe it is the best one we’ve done yet. We’re getting really good reviews on Amazon. And again, you can search at those places directly, but we put a link for your convenience right at JimHarold.com. So you can just click on the green button and find the book and I’d appreciate it very much.
(00:02:20):
Also, if you get the book and you like it, please rate and review it. It means so much. And that really encourages other people to get in on the Campfire love. And maybe they’ll read a book and then they’ll say, I’ve got a story. I’m going to tell it on the Campfire. And you might just get a great Campfire story like this one. Next up on the Campfire is Beo from Kentucky, and he’s going to take us back to the nineties to Oregon and some strangeness that ensued. Bo, welcome to the show. Thanks for joining us. We had a little tech issues on my side, one of my pieces of equipment decided to implode before we started, but luckily Bo has been very kind and stuck with us and here we are. We made it Bo, tell us what happened.
Bo (KY) (00:03:03):
Okay, Jim. So this story takes place back in ‘92, ‘93. I was about eight or nine years old and we lived on the shores of Fern Ridge Lake in Elmira, Oregon. I was a latchkey kid and my grandma, she would pick me up after school some days and we had moved in with her around, I’m sorry, 1991. My mom remarried, we lived in Lexington, Kentucky, moved out there, stayed with my grandma. All of us lived in a trailer on the shores of Fern Ridge Lake there. And she was a very devout Christian woman. And I grew up in the church as well, but when I was a kid and the days that she would pick me up from school, she would always tell me how when she would be in the house alone and she’d be reading her novels, that she could feel the presence of her husband there with her.
(00:03:58):
Now, her husband, Alfred, he passed away at the age of 61 and I believe it was colon cancer that had taken him. Yes, very unfortunate. I know that’s one thing that, it’s tough for a lot of people. So she would just tell me. We shared a lot. We were very close, her and, and she would just tell me how she could feel his presence in the house. And that was something that just blew my mind at that age. I was very into that kind of paranormal at that time and still am. And so of all the things that they had kept, he had a leather rocking chair and she kept this rocking chair next to her loveseat. And that was the only item that I knew was that he loved the most of everything that they had. So my brother and I, we shared a room.
(00:04:57):
This trailer was a single wide, but there was a built on addition on the back side, and that’s where my mom stayed. My brother and I stayed and that too. And then, so I had to use the bathroom. It was about, I don’t know, we’ll just say it was around the witching hour. So I woke up physically had to use the restroom. So when I woke up, I knew I was awake and I had the top bunk. So I had to be careful to not wake up my older brother getting down. I don’t know if you have any siblings, Jim, but you know how older siblings can be. They’re a little, I don’t want to say mean, but they’re like, what do you do and sit still lay down up there. So I’m trying my best to crawl down out of the top bunk and not wake him up.
(00:05:43):
So I’m very much awake, and as I get to the door, I open the door and the bathroom is right across from our bedroom. And so I opened the door. I look to the right where my grandma stayed, my grandma, she stayed to the right of us in a room door was closed. And so then I look back down to the left through the hallway, through the kitchen, into the den. When I’m looking down through there, Jim, I see this glowing light, brilliant kind of a bluish white light. And I would compare it to if there’s any Harry, Harry Potter fans out there that’s familiar with the, um, I guess it’s – I’ve never watched Harry Potter, but I came to the, looking this u. I figured out this is more an expression, a description of how to express this, but I guess it’s Harry Potter’s patronus. It was a very kind of like a neon sign, right?
(00:06:44):
So it was a figure, head, shoulders, waist, and it was this blue, brilliant, blue, white glowing light, but it didn’t light up the room, it lit up just what was around him. The residual light was very, so it was kind of a muted brilliance. I don’t know if that makes any sense, but it is unmistakable. So I’m looking down through the hallway and I’m seeing this, I see this figure and this light in this chair and this rocking chair is moving back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. And then it stops on a forward lean. And I see this figure head shoulders turn, and he’s looking at me and I’m looking at him and the outline of his body were the same as his eyes. So there was no real, I know there’s a lot of people that have said that they’ve seen apparitions and the finite details are like, well, I could tell he was wearing a 1960s coat and a top hat and this, that, the other.
(00:07:47):
I didn’t see that. I just saw the outline of this figure and this very blue, brilliant kind of whitish light, almost angelic. And so I’m standing there looking at, we’re in eye contact, eye to eye. I watched him rock back and forth five or Six times, stops on a forward lean. He turns and he’s looking at me and I’m looking at him. Oh my gosh. And I’m eight, nine years old. And you would think there would be some kind of fear or trepidation there? I felt nothing. I mean, I know what I’m seeing, right? I’m not half asleep or sleep walking. I know what I’m looking at. I watch for a little bit. I go on into the bathroom, I do my business, I come back out, I look back through the hallway, pitch black, nothing there. So I go on to bed. I don’t think much about it.
(00:08:41):
It’s about a couple so weeks later and it, it’s just been playing in my mind, playing in my mind, playing in my mind, going through that. And then everything that my grandma had been telling me. So I told her, I said, Hey, grandma. I said, I want to tell you something. I think I saw Grandpa Alfred. And so I told her the situation which had happened, and she had told me that it was some years ago. My brother, my older brother, Jake, had seen him the exact same way. He had a sleepover with some friends. He was on a foldout bed couch, foldout bed. And he woke up around the same time, looked over, and there he was in his rocking chair.
Jim Harold (00:09:22):
Oh my God. So there was this glowing outline and did you say it was blue? Was it a bluish?
Bo (KY) (00:09:30):
Yes, yes. So it was like a tinge of white in there, but it was very blue. I would almost kind of like a muted North Carolina baby blue, something like that.
Jim Harold (00:09:42):
Oh yeah, yeah, I know the color.
Bo (KY) (00:09:43):
Yeah. Yeah. It was really kind like a neon sign, but not as vibrant. It was kind of muted. It was a very soft glow, but the light itself was angelic in its kind of brilliance. And so I’m seeing this, and so it’s not lighting up the entire room, but it was enough to light up just what was residually around him. The chair, I could see the chair, the wall that it was next to. I could see the wall was kind of lit up, but this chair was moving back and forth, back and forth. And I think at that time I was in such maybe a state of shock. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, but I know what I was seeing.
Jim Harold (00:10:33):
Do you think that this figure, there’s a couple of different kinds of hauntings people talk about, more sentient hauntings where the person knows the surroundings and they’re interacting with it or interacting with the people, or there’s kind of a residual kind of a replay, haunting. Do you have a feel of which one this was?
Bo (KY) (00:10:52):
I’m going to have to say it’s probably going to be the sentient. They lived there, so he passed away there. So that was his home. I had never felt anything personally being there to say like, oh, well, maybe I can feel his presence or his spirit. That was the only thing that I experienced the whole time that we were there. But it seemed to me that the action of just like everybody’s asleep, so he gets to be there as protector. He’s in his chair that he loved, that leather rocking chair, that was his chair. From everything that I’d ever heard, that’s where he always sat. And just the motion that he was in, I mean, it just seemed like it was a natural thing. If you were to come home to your grandparents’ house and your pawpaw was in his rocking chair, just maybe sleeping or napping or reading the paper. That’s kind of the feel that it was.
Jim Harold (00:11:49):
Oh, that’s so cool. Was your grandma happy about it? Were you happy about it? Was it something where you say, boy, that was cool. I’m glad that happened. Yeah,
Bo (KY) (00:11:59):
It was something we shared because I could see how emotional that was for her, for me able to experience that because her herself, outside of just the spiritual connection and the feeling of him being there with her, a lot of people, they go to a haunted house and they say, the energy is so heavy, you can feel what is there. That’s how she always described it. She had never seen him post-death. So for me to share that, I could see how emotional that was for her and then for her to tell me that my older brother saw him the same way. So the connection behind that. And the other thing is Jim, he passed away. So I never knew him. And my older brother, he passed away before my older brother was born. So the connection behind all of that I think is very, it’s special.
Jim Harold (00:12:54):
I think it’s very special. I think that is a very cool story and I love it very much. And the thing is, is that it’s nice to think that our loved ones are still around. And it’s particularly nice when they pay a little visit like that. It wasn’t like he was scaring you or anything. He’s just like, I’m here. Yeah, no,
Bo (KY) (00:13:12):
Certainly. So yeah, it was
Jim Harold (00:13:15):
So neat. Well, thank you so much. I appreciate it. And thank you for being a part of the Campfire today.
Bo (KY) (00:13:22):
Thank you very much, Jim. And as always, stay spooky,
Jim Harold (00:13:24):
Stay spooky.
(00:13:26):
Ian is on the line from Glasgow, Scotland, and we’re so glad to have him. We’d love to hear from all of our listeners from across the pond, and he heard about us from, of course, Scott and Forest over at Astonishing Legends are always so kind to spread the word about the Campfire. So I’ll spread the word about them a little bit. Make sure to check them out in their great show. And today, Ian is going to tell us, I love this title, the Wee Boy and the Mouse. Ian, welcome to the show. Thanks for joining us. And tell us about the Wee Boy and the Mouse.
Ian (SCOT) (00:13:57):
Thanks for having me on, Jim. So this happened around 25 years ago in Glasgow, and that’s where I live now, but not at the time then. And I was visiting a friend who lived in a Victorian townhouse, so about three stories. And this is in the west end of Glasgow. And he lived there with his dad and his dad’s fiance. So in Glasgow you can roughly age the buildings based on the color of the stone that they used to build them. Blonde sandstone was pre 1900 and post 1900, they generally switched to using a red sandstone. They changed the quarry that they used to get the sandstone from. So my own house is blonde sandstone built around 1890. Nothing’s ever happened here, but I would pitch this one to be built around then. So in and around 1890. So anyways, I was visiting from Edinburgh and I was staying the night in this townhouse in the west, in the Glasgow.
(00:15:01):
And I was staying in this basement room, and I got to bed somewhere between 12 to 1:00 AM and the room had these blinds, slaty blinds, wooden blinds. I woke up somewhere around 5:00 AM which is around, this was the summer, coming into the summer. So that’s when dawn hit and the pale light had, dawn had woken me up and it was coming in through these blinds and it was behind my head. And then I became aware of somebody else in the room and I looked down and standing about a foot or two to the left of the bed, and it was a single bed and there was a wee boy. And he looked roughly about nine or 10, and he was looking at me, and then he was looking back down to his hands, which were cupped like this in front of him. And he kept on doing this and laughing.
(00:16:00):
So he would look at me, look down at his hands, look at me, mischievous smile on his face and laughing. And I could hear the laughter and see him laughing. So he was in this kind of pale light coming in through the window, but he looked solid and to describe on, he had this white shirt on, dark shorts, sort of knee-high, white socks, no shoes, and this kind of blonde mop of hair. And the styles were old fashioned, but I wasn’t really thinking about that at the time. I was just thinking, who’s this wee boy in this room? This is the first time I’ve stayed here. I don’t really know the fiance, I know the dad, but is there another kid that lives here?
(00:16:50):
As I say, he was solid. So I sat up and I said hello, and I could move, Jim. I’ve had sleep paralysis before. I’ve had lucid dreams before and this definitely wasn’t it, but I wasn’t scared at all or frightened or anything like that. So I said, hello, hello. And he didn’t answer and he just laughed and he smiled mischievously again, and then opened the cupped hands. And in the cupped hands there was this little mouse moving around twitching its nose. I kind of back like that in the bed. As I said, I was sitting up, I was looking over at him. He was probably about, as I say, he was one or two feet left of the bed. He was probably about six foot away from me, something like that.
(00:17:43):
So he is looking at this mouse, he’s looking at me, and then he moves down and he puts under the bed. So the mouse is in his hands and he moves it under the bed. So the mouse is now loose under my bed. So I twisted round in the bog as you do, and I looked under the bed and there was no mouse there. And then I looked up and there was no wee boy there, nothing at all there, no door had all opened. There was just nothing there at all. So no mouse, no wee boy. But the room felt cold. The room felt cold. So I kind of shook it off as some mad dream and I managed to fall back asleep. So in the morning, I think it was probably, I dunno, nine or 10 or something. We’re all sitting around having breakfast.
(00:18:41):
I cooked breakfast. You having Scotland sometimes at the weekend. And my pal’s dad’s fiance, she was dishing out of a pan to each of us. There was another one of my friends staying at the time, and he was staying in the room upstairs with my mother pal. And somebody said something about a rat. And I said, oh my God. I had this mad dream last night and it was really realistic. And there was this wee boy and there was this mouse. And then my pal’s, dad’s fiance just stopped dishing out the bacon in midair over.
Jim Harold (00:19:20):
Oh, you got their attention?
Ian (SCOT) (00:19:22):
Yeah, yeah. And she said, did he have blonde hair, a wee white shirt, socks and no shoes? And I said, yes. And she said, well, you’ve just seen the wee boy that lives here too. Other people have seen him as well. And Jim, it was like I got a shiver up my spine and I just knew that I had, I’d seen something that I couldn’t explain, and I’d seen somebody that lived there from another time. When I think back, I would say Victorian
Jim Harold (00:20:01):
Did, well, that’s what I was going to ask you. So there’s no specificity on exactly who it was, but you kind of got it pinned down to a boy ghost and he keeps being seen and he’s probably dates from Victorian times. Did the other people say they saw the mouse too?
Ian (SCOT) (00:20:21):
No, she never said anything about the mouse. But she said some of her friends that had stayed over had seen him. I can’t remember if it was specifically in that room. Funnily enough, I met her a few years later with someone else that had seen him and she brought it up. I met her by chance and they brought it up together. We shared an experience, but other things happened in that house as well. I only stayed one more night. I stayed in my friend’s room, not in the downstairs room. And nothing happened at night. But something strange did occur when we were there, we were in the living room, we heard the front door go. We heard someone walking past, and then we heard this almighty crash in the kitchen. So it was the living room, front door, hallway and the kitchen beyond. And we heard this crash and we went into myself and my pal, and there was a pineapple that somehow got out of a big fruit bowl that was on our breakfast bar and was on the floor.
Jim Harold (00:21:25):
Oh, wow.
Ian (SCOT) (00:21:28):
Very strange. So we thought an intruder had come in, we were saying, hello, hello. Nobody else was in the house. My pal grabbed a golf club. I grabbed a baseball bar and we went around the house looking for people in the house under beds, in cupboards, no one there. So that was really strange.
Jim Harold (00:21:44):
Now back the we boy, did you have a feeling, and maybe you said this, I missed it. Did you have a feeling he was aware of your presence or was it just like a replay?
Ian (SCOT) (00:21:57):
That’s funny. I think he was aware because he could see he was laughing. He was laughing and looking down and looking at me. He didn’t speak, but he was laughing and he let the mouse down under me. That’s good. In bed. So I think he was aware. So this is where I think it could be a time slip or something. I don’t know. I don’t know. But I get a feeling he was aware.
Jim Harold (00:22:21):
I love it. That’s a great story. Ian, thank you so much for being a part of the Campfire all the way from Scotland. We’d love to hear from our international callers, and I thank you for being a part of the program today to tell us about the wee boy and the mouse.
Ian (SCOT) (00:22:36):
Thanks very much, Jim. Thanks for having me on the show,
Jim Harold (00:22:39):
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JIM:
Ariana is on the line from Texas. Now I want to say hi to somebody very special. Her daughter Rebecca was very excited to hear she was going to be on the Campfire. Ariana, that is. So Rebecca, thank you and stay spooky. And Ariana, thank you. You’re going to take us back to about eight years ago and some terrifying things that happened. Tell us what did happen. And welcome to the Campfire.
Ariana (TX) (00:25:17):
Yes, thank you, Jim. Thank you for your time and for having me Now, this happened when I was pregnant with my daughter, with Rebecca, so she just turned eight. So I was maybe a couple months pregnant. I was still able to lay on my stomach. So me and her dad had some relationship problems. We kind of just weren’t working out at the time. So I was by myself and my dad had actually been staying with me, but he had been staying in the living room. So at first I was asleep and I remember, it’s crazy, I remember my sleeping position. So I was on my stomach and I kind of had my arms folded in front of me with my head to the side. And I had a huge king size bed. And I remember waking up because I felt something sit at the end of the bed.
(00:26:10):
I felt the depression, I felt the weight. It kind of jolted me out of bed or out of bed. I woke up. So I remember opening my eyes and I kind of laid there, what’s going on? What is that? And then it’s weird because I felt it shift. It moved as if from a sitting position to where it was kind of like a blanket, I felt where the line was of where the weight was coming over me, it kind of started laying on top of me. Somebody laid a blanket on me and yes, yes, it was heavy. I could not move. I couldn’t move my feet, my head, my legs. I was stuck in my position. And I remember, I mean I immediately start panicking in my head. I’m kind of like, oh my God, what is this? It was so heavy. And I remember actually feeling and hearing something breathe on my neck and it was like a hot breath. It so weird because as that happened, it was like I took a third party, maybe a bird’s eye view. It’s like it pulled me out of where my view was and I could feel like where my neck was, how when metal gets really hot, it turns red.
(00:27:39):
I remember seeing my neck get like that. Whatever was breathing on me, it was hot, warm breath.
Jim Harold (00:27:50):
So were you out of your body then you were having out of body experience that time?
Ariana (TX) (00:27:55):
Yes. Not the whole time. It was weird because as soon as it started breathing on my neck, I saw it’s like it showed me what it was doing. I didn’t see it. I just felt a really heavy, large presence on me. And it let me know that it was not nice. I didn’t get good impressions, definitely got negative feelings from it and I was terrified.
Jim Harold (00:28:24):
Wow. Wow.
Ariana (TX) (00:28:26):
It let me know that it was there and I had a dog in that apartment and she would kind of bark in that bedroom, certain areas, she’d look at the corner where the ceiling and the wall met. And so there was kind of uneasiness in there. I dunno if that kind of contributed to the way me and her father kind of fell out. But that was very scary. It was negative. Definitely.
Jim Harold (00:28:52):
Wow, that is frightening. That is frightening. So you think maybe it was just the negative energy between the stress and the relationship problems and all of that? Is that what you’re thinking?
Ariana (TX) (00:29:08):
Yes, and I think it was letting me know it was there. It was sending me a message because after that I was already in the process of moving out. So I didn’t stay there very long after that. Good things didn’t happen. It didn’t have a good energy there in the apartment with the past and everything that had gone on. So I felt like it was kind of showing itself to me. And I’m very headstrong. I was raised Catholic, very strong on my faith in that really it.
Jim Harold (00:29:41):
Well, there you have it, what it was. I know that you have another story, we’re going to catch that one another time. But I’d like to thank you for being a part of the Campfire. Also a big stay spooky to Rebecca and thank you both and thank you Arianna for sharing your story today.
Ariana (TX) (00:29:59):
You’re awesome. Thanks Jim. It’s been a pleasure.
Jim Harold (00:30:02):
Josie is on the line from Oklahoma. She went studying abroad a while back and had a very, very interesting experience and she’s going to share it with us now. Her sister Grace told her about the show. So Grace, thank you. And a big stay spooky and be like Grace everybody and tell your friends and family so you can hear great stories like this one. Josie, tell us what happened.
Josie (OK) (00:30:29):
Yeah, thank you so much for having me, Jim. I’m a huge fan. This was a crazy thing that happened to me about a year ago. I was studying abroad in Italy last June, and there’s about a seven hour time difference between here in Oklahoma City and Orzo, Italy where I was staying. So it was pretty common for me to wake up at 8:00 AM Italy time. And my friend Omar would still be awake and we’d talk a little bit just because the time difference. He would stay up really late and we’d talk. So one morning we woke up or I woke up and he was still awake, so we were texting a little bit and it was about four o’clock in the morning, Oklahoma City time. And I was in class that morning in Italy and he eventually decided to go to bed. So about 30 minutes later after he said he was going to bed, he texted me kind of in a panic and he said that he just had an out of body experience.
(00:31:41):
And yeah, I was super interested. I was like, what are you talking about? And he basically explained to me that he was laying down in his bed trying to fall asleep when all of a sudden he realized just out of nowhere that he was on the ceiling above his bed, looking down at his sleeping body. And he said he was instantly freaked out, really confused what was happening, that he was literally looking at his himself in his bed and he realized he didn’t really have control of himself and he was bouncing around the ceiling of his bedroom. And he felt this energy that if he had left his bedroom, something really terrible would happen to him. He would not be able, that he would not be able to get back to his body. And that there was some dark energy. He kind of described it later as almost like a demon that was outside of his bedroom and that his bedroom was a safe space and if he floated out of his bedroom, something horrible would happen.
(00:32:50):
And he’s kind of described that he has a really bad energy at his house and he always has a difficult time sleeping and we kind of think that it has something to do with this dark energy. But this went on for a few minutes. He was just floating around his room, terrified, trying to get back in his body, and suddenly he felt his physical body in the bed clenching his fist. And somehow that kind of brought his astral projection self back into his body. And he woke up and he texted me, and it was terrifying for him. Obviously he was alone, the only one awake 4:00 AM 4:30 AM time in Oklahoma City. I was the only one awake. So we were just discussing this. I was kind of helping him calm down. But it was really interesting because we discussed how he had never astral projected.
(00:33:49):
Neither have I, we’ve never had lucid dreams where you can control your dreams or anything. And I was just obviously super interested because I love all these really unexplainable, supernatural things. But he was obviously very scared. And eventually he calmed down and he went back to bed. And I went along with my day. It was morning in Italy time when this happened, and I thought it was super interesting. I was kind of telling some of my friends in class about it and the rest of the day was normal. And he woke up and we were like, that was crazy. Later in the day and just thought it was super interesting. He was still pretty scared about going to bed the next night, but it kind of seemed like it was concluded. And he fell asleep fine the rest of the night. So now it was my time to go to bed Italy time and everything was normal.
(00:34:47):
I fell asleep. And that’s when I started dreaming. And in my dream, I was at an airport outside in California trying to get home, typical weird dream stuff. And there was hundreds of people in line. It was kind of stressful. And I was like, Ooh, I hope I make my flight. And all of a sudden this tornado started forming a few hundred feet ahead of me and I was terrified. I was like, oh my God, I’m going to die. And I run and grab onto this pillar and it’s really chaotic for a second, and then all of a sudden it stops and it’s nighttime. There’s no people around. And that’s when I realized this doesn’t make any sense. I’m dreaming. I’m like, I realize that I am in a dream. And it was awesome. I had never experienced aware of myself dreaming and being in control, and I wasn’t thinking about my friend Omar’s astral projection at all.
(00:35:45):
I was just really enjoying being in control of my dream. And I started flying. And so I’m flying around in my dream and I’m over these neighborhoods and it’s really honestly positive and I’m just having a lot of fun and I don’t really remember what happened in between that. But I end up sitting under a tree with a bunch of older black men, which is very random, and we’re all sitting in lawn chairs and telling each other’s stories and laughing and we’re just having a really great time. And it was really good energy. And I just kind of decide to ask them a question out of the blue. I’m like, Hey, do y’all realize you’re in my dream right now? And that is when there is a complete tone shift, they all start freaking out. I had just told them that they don’t exist and that their lives aren’t real.
(00:36:47):
And I felt horrible because there’s all these men freaking out being like, no, no, no, this can’t be real. Please tell me you’re lying. This can’t be your dream. Yeah, it was very stressful, existential panic attack that all these men were having. And obviously I felt like I had just ruined their life and I was kind of being really hard on myself and being like, what do I do? Kind of panicking. And there was one man in particular that was the first to freak out, and he was screaming prior to this crying. And I’m kind of looking around and I see him turned away from me standing completely still, and I can see a sliver of the side of his face, maybe a quarter of his face. And while all these men are panicking, I look at him and I see the side of his face and he is smiling, maniacally a smile all the way across his face, eyes staring straight ahead, terrifying smile like I had never seen anything like it before.
(00:38:01):
And in my heart, I knew that they were messing with me. All of them knew they were in my dream and they wanted to lay with me and scare me as much as possible. Just a horribly evil dread fell upon me and I was terrified. And somehow I backed away and I said, I have to wake up. I have to wake up. And suddenly I was awake in my bed in Italy and I opened my eyes and I verified that I was safe in my bedroom and fell back asleep a minute later. And the next morning woke up and was just absolutely freaked out that that happened. And obviously I immediately told Omar and I said, you will not believe what just happened. I just had a lucid dream and I don’t know what it means that he had that really scary astral projection. And then that same night I had this really scary lucid dream, but I had never experienced that before and I have never had a lucid dream since. And Omar has never had an Asheville projection since. But needless to say, we were both pretty terrified to sleep for a while.
Jim Harold (00:39:27):
Do you feel that yours and Omar’s experiences were somehow linked?
Josie (OK) (00:39:34):
I do, because I don’t really have an explanation for why they happened in the span of like 12 hours. And we both had this completely evil energy we felt in both of our experiences, even though we were on opposite sides of the world, and we had never experienced anything like that before. But I have to assume that they’re related because what are the odds?
Jim Harold (00:40:03):
That’s a good point. That’s a good point. Now here’s the question. Some people, if they encounter something supernatural, they run towards it. Some people run away from it. I am in the latter category. I would run away from it. My question to you is, if somebody said Josie, you could push a button and have another lucid dream. No guarantees. If it’s good, bad, happy, sad, but that’s something you can do, would you push that button?
Josie (OK) (00:40:32):
Absolutely not. Because after I had that lucid dream, I told every single other student on my study abroad trip, I was utterly terrified. And I was like, I ended up crying eventually. It could have been that night the next day, but I was like, I do not want to dream ever again. That was, I cannot explain the feeling I felt when I saw his face and I knew that they were messing with me and that they wanted to scare me. It was, I feel like some unexplainable power, almost supernatural energy. They wanted to feed off my fear.
Jim Harold (00:41:17):
Well, it’s quite a story. Thank you so much for sharing it, and thank you for being a part of the Campfire. And stay spooky,
Josie (OK) (00:41:25):
Stay spooky, Jim.
Jim Harold (00:41:27):
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Tara from Colorado is on the line. Her and her son Crispin, faithfully listened to the show. And Crispin, I know you recently had a birthday, a fifth birthday, so thank you for listening and stay spooky. And Tara is going to tell us about a very interesting story. This is unique. I don’t think we’ve heard anything like it in the almost 15 years of the Campfire. Tara, tell us what happened and thank you for joining us and thanks to Crispin too.
Tara (CO) (00:44:30):
Well, thank you very much. So this story took place when I was about 19 years old, and at the time I had a friend named Teresa who was doing in-Home Care for a 20-something guy named Sean who had special needs. And I would go over there a lot. And because it ended up being her house too, she did round the clock care and I ended up getting pretty close to Sean. I would say we hit it off pretty well. And Sean was nonverbal, but he used a device to communicate, right?
Jim Harold (00:45:14):
It’s called an assistive device, isn’t it?
Tara (CO) (00:45:17):
Yes, yes. And he was actually a really amazing writer. He wrote really beautiful poetry about kind of his experience in the world. So he was just a really, really interesting guy and I really hit it off with him. I would say I got pretty close with him while I was visiting my friend Theresa. So at the time that this story takes place, I was back at my apartment in college and my mom was back in Texas. My grandfather was doing really bad, and he was actually in a coma and it was looking like any day now going to be him passing. So we had called to say goodbye while he was in the coma, and we were just kind of waiting to hear the news that he had passed. So she ended up calling me to let me know that he had died, and I didn’t even tell my roommates.
(00:46:25):
I just went out to, it wasn’t really a back porch, it was like a stoop. I was sitting back there and just crying and I got a phone call from Teresa and she heard me crying and asked what was wrong. And I told her that I had just found out my grandfather had died. And she said, I was sitting on the couch with Sean, this is Theresa was sitting on the couch with Sean and he got kind of agitated and started pointing towards his device, kind of I indicating that he wanted to tell her something. So he brought his device over and he starts typing out Sad Day for Tara, and I’m Tara, and he starts typing out, sad day for Tara, sad day for Tara over and over. So Teresa says, should I give Tara a call? And he says yes. So she called me and she probably called me within five to 10 minutes of me finding out that my grandfather had passed away. I was very powerful. I had appreciated her calling and I really appreciated Sean letting her know that I needed some support.
Jim Harold (00:47:43):
I’m wondering if this might play into it, and I want to get your opinion when somebody has a physical challenge or whatever it might be like, let’s say someone who has a hearing issue, they’re deaf, but they have a really great eyesight or vice versa. Somebody is blind, but they have incredible hearing. Do you think it’s possible that Sean’s situation, and I know my brother was autistic, for example, I know people talk about this with autistic people at times, people with autism, that they have greater gifts in certain areas. Do you think that maybe he was somehow dialed in and the fact that he had these other challenges kind of facilitated that tuned-in-ness? Do you think that’s a possibility?
Tara (CO) (00:48:35):
Yeah, that’s what I was thinking at the time. He gave the impression that maybe it was connected to something that the rest of us have a harder time accessing. Yeah, that was my thought too.
Jim Harold (00:48:55):
Yeah, yeah, exactly. Exactly. And I mean, what other explanation is there? Come on. There is no other explanation. So he had to be tuned in. He had to be tuned in. Wow. That is a neat story and it’s very unique. And that’s the thing I love about the Campfire. As much as you think, oh, we’ve heard it all and every story’s the same, which is not true, or something like that, then someone calls. We’ve had back to back calls earlier today, I had another call from something I’ve never heard before. And the thing is that that’s what I love about the Campfire. There’s so many interesting experiences out there. So do you have any final thoughts on the experience?
Tara (CO) (00:49:37):
Just that, yeah, I was blown away by the timing of the call and I was very appreciative that they had both reached out at that time. It can feel really lonely when you hear somebody pass and your family’s with them. It meant so much to me that they had called.
Jim Harold (00:50:02):
Well, Tara. Tara, thank you so much. I know you have a bit of a head scratcher for us, and we’ll get that next time we talk, but I appreciate you being a part of the Campfire.
Tara (CO) (00:50:13):
Thank you so much, Jim.
Jim Harold (00:50:15):
Danielle is on the line from Michigan and she has a story that, wow, I think it’s a great one. Can’t wait to hear it. Danielle, thank you for joining us and please tell us your story.
Danielle (MI) (00:50:28):
Hi. So basically it starts December of 2022. My mom passed away suddenly and very unexpectedly,
Jim Harold (00:50:36):
I’m sorry.
Danielle (MI) (00:50:38):
And so my son at the time, he was two, so he couldn’t really talk yet or anything. He was a little speech delayed in the beginning, so he didn’t really understand that my mother died because I didn’t talk about it for a few months. That was the easiest thing for me at the time. Sure. And so later, earlier this year in January, my son started bringing up my mom. We talk about her now and stuff, but in very weird ways. At first, I think the first thing it was me and him were just playing in his room and all of a sudden he fake coughs, falls to the ground and tells me I’m Grandma Jane. And my mother died of complications of COPD and pneumonia, but it was very oddly correct, my mother had a really bad cough and she did smoke cigarettes and stuff, so that made it even worse.
(00:51:38):
So I was like, okay. It was a little weird, gave me kind of goosebumps. And the next thing was a couple weeks later, he was downstairs in our dining room getting ready to eat breakfast, and he says to my boyfriend at the time, say hi to Grandma Jane and motions to his little table. And so that freaked my boyfriend out and he’s like, Hey, he just said this. I was like, oh, okay. And so the last thing, which happened very, very recently, he was at his dad’s house and he tells his dad that Grandma Jane lives in my bedroom. And so they asked some follow up questions like at Mama’s House or here, and he goes, oh, at Mama’s house. And so I was like, oh, well, I guess we definitely know my mom’s still around and I’m kind of watching over us and stuff. So
Jim Harold (00:52:42):
Yeah, I mean that to me is amazing that the situation where he said, I’m Grandma Jane, and he coughed and he fell, and then he’s pointing out say hi to Grandma Jane. I mean, that’s amazing with me.
Danielle (MI) (00:52:56):
Oh yeah. And I told him, oh, she was sick and she died. And I never really explained to him what caused her to die. So it gave me goosebumps. And I was like, oh, my mom would’ve thought this was just the coolest thing. And when the first thing started, I was like, man, I know I’m going to have to call in if he continues because this is going to be the greatest thing.
Jim Harold (00:53:21):
Yeah, absolutely. So it does give you a sense of comfort, right?
Danielle (MI) (00:53:27):
Oh, definitely. Yeah. My son is now almost four, and then we have a new baby who turned to one. So it’s very comforting to know that my mom’s still around even though I can’t see her or talk to her anymore
Jim Harold (00:53:43):
Now. And I will say one thing, and again, I’m not expert in these areas, but I’ve talked to psychics and so forth, and just because they may not directly talk back, you can still talk with them, you can still talk to them, you can still talk with them. Now, does he continue to this day or do you think that maybe that’s something that he was experiencing and seeing because he was very, very young? Because I’ve heard that said, kids when they’re extremely young, they’ll have these sensitivities and for lack of a better phrase, they eventually grow out of it. Do you think he’s grown out of it or do you think there might be more coming?
Danielle (MI) (00:54:19):
I think there’s probably definitely more coming because the last thing that happened was only a few weeks ago, so I’m patiently waiting to see what else he has to say.
Jim Harold (00:54:31):
Well, Danielle, thank you so much for joining us today and sharing this very special story with us about Grandma Jake.
Danielle (MI) (00:54:40):
Oh yeah. Thanks for having me.
Jim Harold (00:54:42):
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Next up on the Campfire is Patti from Alberta, Canada. We’re finding a lot more Canadian callers, keep ’em coming. We appreciate our Canadian listeners, and Patti is going to tell us a story about when she moved in with a friend and her terminally ill mother and some unique happenings that ensued. Patti, thank you for joining us and tell us what happened.
Patti (CAN) (00:57:58):
Well, thank you. Well, in October of 2022, I was having a rough time, not a great time, and my friend’s mother gave me an offer that I should move into her basement. She was actually just diagnosed the month before with terminal cancer. She had maybe a year to 18 months was the prognosis.
(00:58:30):
So I moved in and things were just quite normal for a while, for a week or so. And the first thing I noticed was actually my cat. We were downstairs where I had my little room and he was sleeping by my head. And then he jumped up and he went to the, he just ran to the headboard or the the foot of the bed, and he was looking up at something and then kept looking back at me, really scared. I tried to get his attention and he followed something around the entire bed, including the headboard behind me in the wall and went around again. And then that stopped, and then he was normal again. A couple days later, he was watching something, come down the stairs, go past him and then come towards me. So those two things I wasn’t crazy about. Later, another caregiver and I were upstairs after we had, her mother had gone to bed and we heard actually scratching down the hallway towards the, down the hallway. It was a small place, but to the left was an office and a laundry room bathroom, and it was all very close together, and that seemed to be where most of the happenings were happening.
(01:00:03):
Geez, what’s next? Sorry, I’m a little nervous.
Jim Harold:
It’s all right. It’s alright. It’s just us. Don’t worry about it.
Patti (CAN):
We used to hear her cane come down the hall all the time when she was in bed, whether that was morning and we’d be waiting for her to get up or just after we had settled her down for bed. The reason that we were caregiving too is that she shouldn’t be walking without assistance. She had been hospitalized previously twice for bad falls. And yeah, it was pretty serious. And every once in a while she would try to do things by herself, so we really had to keep our eyes open for that and our ears obviously. So maybe that’s why we were hearing these things. We heard her cat meow down the hallway when she was with us one night. Even her cat heard it. She was very confused.
(01:01:01):
But later I was cleaning the kitchen one day about 2:30 in the afternoon on a Monday. And while I was, to the right of me was a kitchen door, and I could see everything in the hallway just from a side profile. Just very quickly I saw a woman run past that doorway just a few feet from me, and I just assumed it was the caregiver. Sometimes we’d have to run if we had to do something very quick because her mommy get up when we’re gone. So thing about it is my friend was asking me what she looked like and I didn’t want to tell her that it looked a lot like her with her hair down. She used to always wear this red sweatshirt there and she had a red shirt. Her hair was down, but it was quick running. And of course I looked and there was nobody there. So you think you might have been seeing a doppelganger of her. There was a lot of mimicry in this. The cat that we heard, I mean, she had a very distinct meow. She’d been choked when she was a kitten by a previous owner. She’d been abused. So for me, I was very distinct and yeah, so Andrew came coming down the hallway, that kind of thing. I did hear a male coughing one night down the hallway when we were watching tv.
(01:02:36):
And I also heard a male one morning call my friend’s name down the hallway when her and her mother were sleeping. The second time I saw somebody, I was making dessert in the kitchen. And when I came home, I’d always checked the laundry and everything to make sure it was all done. The caregiver was going to be off at Six, and then I was going to be watching her caring for her from Six to nine. And we just had to make sure everything’s done and her bed was ready because she could go to bed at any time.
(01:03:16):
So I checked the laundry and they were both completely empty and open and went back to the kitchen to make the dessert. And then I heard that distinct, the clink of the washing machine when it was done, the door would unlock. So I heard that clink, and I guess that’s what made me turn around. I’m not sure, or if I sensed something was there because from where I was in the kitchen, I could see out the doorway and I saw a woman standing there and she was just standing there and it almost looked like she was waiting for me to see her. And then she started walking. She just kind of quickly shimmied into the laundry room, even had to go kind of sideways to go because the door wasn’t even completely open.
(01:04:09):
I assumed actually at first that it was the caregiver. I didn’t even think I just turned around and started making the dessert again. I just thought I must be crazy. I thought the washer and dryer was empty, so I thought she was going in there to do that. Not even thinking that it was a completely different woman. It didn’t look like her at all. And actually it looked a lot like my friend with a ponytail, and she was wearing a shirt I have, one of my shirts. Yeah, it’s a gray shirt with these leaves and flowers on it. I never wear it. Well, I wear it now. It reminded me that I have it. But yeah, it looked a lot like the back of her, but not her is the only way I can explain it. She was a little bigger, taller, but it looked like her.
(01:05:06):
There was a few other things that happened before she passed and mostly sounds and that kind of thing. And the other caregivers had, before I moved in, they had a few experiences too, like the cane, the wrestling there was wrestling in that office all the time. So after she passed actually, or the morning before she passed on Mother’s Day on the Sunday, a blue bird started showing up. It showed up for a week after and I would only show up when I was talking to my friend on the phone and then it disappeared. A strange thing that showed up after was we used to have these bookshelves with books on them, and I knew all those books because when I had lots of time to go through all these books, a couple weeks after she passed this book showed up called, it was a Steve Harvey book actually.
(01:06:13):
And I was just wondering because it was on top of the books that I pretty much had memorized and we used to watch hours and hours and hours of Steve Harvey and Family Feud in the evening. They both really loved it. So I asked my friend a few weeks later where she got the book and she had no idea what I was talking about. I showed it to her. I actually just called the caregivers a week ago just to make sure that they didn’t bring it in and we have no idea how it showed up and it wasn’t a book they had before. So I don’t know how that happened.
Jim Harold (01:06:52):
Wow. Wow. Now there was something, since we’re running a little short on time, there was something, when she passed, there was some very interesting technological things going on, right?
Patti (CAN) (01:07:04):
Yeah. Sorry about that. Yep. The most interesting thing that happened that I can’t explain was there was a cell phone text from her mom, her mom’s phone. My friend was actually there. Her cell had just been shut off two days prior and she was actually crying to me about it. She was really upset. She was worried that some texts might’ve gotten deleted. She was just worried.
Jim Harold (01:07:31):
Sure.
Patti (CAN) (01:07:32):
So yeah, she was talking to me and crying and then we stopped talking for a minute and she went into her purse, got her phone out and yeah, she said, oh my god, Patti, what’s this? And there’s a cell phone text from mom and it was just a text. And inside of that was an empty text,
Jim Harold (01:07:57):
An empty bubble
Patti (CAN) (01:07:58):
Basically. Text icon. Yeah, text icon inside of that. So that was at 4 36. Here we are finding this at 4:42, the minute she took her phone out of her purse, we went to go check her mom’s phone. That was still on. And somehow while we were talking and the phone was in her purse, my friend’s phone had sent her mom’s phone a picture of herself laughing. So that was what brought the text, I guess she got a text back, that empty text. She did send a few texts back, I miss you. I love you. To see if it would happen again. And it didn’t happen again.
Jim Harold (01:08:41):
Now did she interpret it that laughing as a positive thing? Her mother was happy and the peace?
Patti (CAN) (01:08:48):
Well, it was actually, yeah, it was a picture of my friend laughing.
Jim Harold (01:08:52):
Oh, the friend left and okay.
Patti (CAN) (01:08:53):
She had been, it was her daughter, so she had gone out for a night, I guess, and she showed, sent a picture months before to her mom, I’m having a good time. So that was the picture that had gotten sent to her mother’s phone. So that must have prompted the text back, I guess. Yeah, she interpreted as,
Jim Harold (01:09:13):
How did she interpret again? I’m sorry, I didn’t catch that.
Patti (CAN) (01:09:17):
Stop your crying.
Jim Harold (01:09:20):
Yeah,
Patti (CAN) (01:09:21):
She laughed about it.
Jim Harold (01:09:22):
Smile again. Well, Patti, very touching story and I certainly think that loved ones do get their message across and we’ve talked to quite a few medical professionals. When people are ready to pass, they’ll see different things. In our recent book, Campfire Six, there was a story where it was at, I think it was a nursing home or a care facility of some type. Every time somebody was about to pass, a little girl would be seen going in the room. I think a lot of paranormal stuff surrounds people when they’re in their last days. Certainly. Thank you so much for sharing your story today on the Campfire.
Patti (CAN) (01:10:05):
Thank you.
Jim Harold (01:10:06):
Randy is on the line from Chicago and I’ve just got to say, when you finally get to talk to one of the longtime supporters of the show, it’s so gratifying. I appreciate it very much. Actually, Randy has a podcast himself, Chicago Taco Talk, and the thing is, is that I love the idea that someone’s listened and maybe a little bit of inspiration start their own thing. I think that’s so cool. But Randy today is not going to talk about tacos. He is going to talk about sleep paralysis. Randy, thank you for your long time support and welcome to the show and tell us what happened.
Randy (IL) (01:10:46):
Hey Jim, thanks for having me on the show. So I didn’t start having sleep paralysis episodes until my mid thirties and I’m in about my mid forties now. And it was really strange because I’ve only had about four in the last 10 years and I’m just going to kind of roll through them because they kind of get weirder and weirder as I got older. The first one was at my ex-girlfriend’s house, and it was kind of a typical one. There was a hat man. I woke up frozen on the bed, sleep on my side, and then there was a hat man who was a shadow man standing at the door, but he didn’t have a hat. And he was walking towards me on my side of the bed chanting something really strange. I couldn’t understand the language. And then on the side of the bed that I was facing, my girlfriend wasn’t there. And then there was this weird hand puppet that started coming up and it had kind of like a Beetlejuice, a clown type arm sleeve with the puppet was an elephant with Six trunks.
Jim Harold (01:11:54):
Oh my Lord.
Randy (IL) (01:11:56):
And he had a top hat. And while this has happened, I’m watching this hand come up and then the shadow guy’s walking around the corner and he’s chanting and I have this evil presence like feeling. And it was really terrifying. And I remember I started calling my girlfriend’s name out and trying to get up and I couldn’t get up and I was trying so hard. He eventually was standing right next to me and I was just yelling so hard, trying so hard to get up. I finally woke up and fell out the bed and I was so scared I went and slept on the couch. I was too scared to go back to the bed and sleep that night.
Jim Harold (01:12:35):
Wow. Now let me ask you this, and sleep paralysis is such a tough one, right? Because I do firmly believe that sometimes there’s medical reasons, there’s physiological reasons that have nothing to do with the paranormal, but then again, kind of like dreams. I believe they’re dreams that are, like Scrooge said in a Christmas Carol, a bit of undigested gruel. You’re more gravy than the grave I think is the line. But the point is I think sometimes a dream is just a dream and then sometimes I think a dream can be a conduit to maybe a different realm. I think that people can definitely communicate with their loved ones through dreams. I think that’s real. I think both can be true. I kind of think that about, and again, I’m not a medical person, don’t claim to be, but I kind of think both can be true of sleep paralysis. I think sometimes it could just be apnea or whatever the situation is. And then sometimes maybe it does have more significance and maybe you’re in a different state and it does open you up to things. What do you think about that? Do you think this was physiological? Do you think this is paranormal? Do you think It’s a little bit of both?
Randy (IL) (01:13:49):
I think it’s a little bit of both. But what’s strange is the other sleep paralysis incidences really kind of don’t follow that typical pattern that I just explained with everybody. A lot of people see the hat man or a shadow man and then have weird hallucinations. But this other one, if I can go into the second one now.
Jim Harold (01:14:10):
Sure, go ahead.
Randy (IL) (01:14:12):
I was sleeping at my parents’ house and I was sleeping on the couch kind of sitting up. And then I remember, it’s weird, it cut from a dream straight to the street in the middle of my dream. It cut to the sleep paralysis and then the covers I had on my lap started to kind of float. And then this weird geometric shape appeared in front of my face and it was in the shape of a diamond, but it was an outline and it was black and it started to spin really fast and I could feel the wind on my face from it. And I had that same evil presence feeling that I had had before. And even though there was no shadow man, nothing evil there, I just felt it. And I was just so terrified again. And I started, I was yelling for my parents, I was like, what’s happening? And after about 30 seconds I woke up. But it really struck me that I could, the physical component of it, feeling the wind that my brain is telling me it’s weird to kind of have a dream and then things happen, but for my brain to conjure something that bizarre and then for it to actually think, oh, you should feel wind from this thing in front of you as well. I thought that that was kind of odd.
Jim Harold (01:15:31):
Yeah, definitely. Definitely. And that’s one of those things that’s the challenge about a lot of this sometimes and I feel badly sometimes people come on the show and sometimes I think people want answers. Unfortunately I don’t have the answers. But I do think it’s useful to share with people because I know a lot of people out there have experienced, for example, sleep paralysis and they have these same questions. So it is a very difficult thing to try to figure out.
Randy (IL) (01:15:58):
Yeah, definitely. And I got a couple more, I don’t want to take up too much of your time, so I’ll try to kind of roll through them here. Okay.
(01:16:08):
The other one, this one’s a little quicker. I was in my apartment again this time. I was sleeping on the couch sitting up and I had woken into a sleep episode. I heard a door slam. And then it’s weird, I didn’t necessarily see anything, but I felt the presence of a little creature in the room and it was kind of like a goblin type creature. I knew it was there and I heard it scurrying next to the couch and then go to the back into the hallway into one of my spare bedrooms and I could see the shadow of it too moving. And I had that same evil presence feeling that was really, I was like, something evil is here. And it was short, it was small people like two feet tall, just like a little creature. And then I woke up and going into the last one, there’s kind of a similar I guess thing happening where, so the weird thing about this last sleep press episode, it was actually just a couple months ago here in my house.
(01:17:19):
I was sleeping on my bed and I woke up and a sleep paralysis. But the thing is I didn’t really try to move, so I didn’t really feel like I was paralyzed. But when you wake up in sleep paralysis, you’re right where you are. Went to bed and everything looks the same. And I felt like there was a presence again in the end of the bed, but it was, I couldn’t see anything. And this was the only time where I did not have that evil feeling. I felt like whatever was there was friendly. And as a matter of fact, I almost felt like I knew who it was, but there was nobody there. That was the really weird thing. And I remember talking to them and being like, Hey, who’s there? Why are you standing over there? Why don’t you come over here and talk to me?
(01:18:12):
Come closer so I can see who you are. And I wasn’t frightened, I wasn’t afraid of them, and I think they came over, but by the time they had come over, I had woken up. But it just really struck me that this was the only time. And I had talked to other people about sleep paralysis, and I told them I always have this evil presence feeling. And other people are like, oh, I don’t have that. And so it makes me wonder, well, what is that? You know what I mean? Then how is my brain conjuring invisible people? I don’t really understand it.
Jim Harold (01:18:47):
Yeah, it’s really one of those things, it kind of leaves you at a loss. It’s like, what does this all mean? What does it all mean? It’s a big question. Don’t know that we can answer it. But Randy, I thank you for sharing your experiences today on the Campfire, and I know you’ve got more stories. We’ll get that on a future call. But thank you again for all your support over the years.
Randy (IL) (01:19:09):
Thanks for having me on. Jen.
Jim Harold (01:19:11):
Jessica from Main was told about the show by her boyfriend, Jacob. Thank you Jacob. Be like Jacob and tell everybody because we get lots of great stories that way and can’t wait to hear Jessica’s story about visitation dreams. Jessica, welcome to the show. Tell us what happened.
Jessica (ME) (01:19:30):
Hi Jim. Thanks for having me. So my story is about visitation dreams. I had started listening to your show and I was talking with my boyfriend Jacob about how I wish that I could have my own experience and I think I kind of spoken into the universe. So I had a dream about my grandmother in the dream. I was with my cousin and we were speaking with her on the phone, but it was like I could see her, I could see everything. She was sitting on her stool by the kitchen sink, how she always used to, and looking out at her lake. And it was just a really good time. We were all joking around and laughing a lot, and she looked a lot healthier, like how she did when I was younger. And I don’t really remember specific details about the conversation, but it was really sweet and it felt like her presence was really there.
(01:20:35):
And so I woke up and it felt very emotional and I was crying as I already was waking up. I was already crying. And it just felt really nice. And then the next day I was telling Jacob about it. We usually listen in the car and chat about your show. And so I was just saying how I was surprised that I had received the visitation dream from my grandmother and not my friend of 20 years that had also passed away. And then we just kind of moved on with conversation. I didn’t think about it again. And then a few nights later, my friend Taylor actually appeared in my dreams too. So we were really close as kids and young adults, but we had kind of grown apart.
(01:21:24):
We would get together and hang out with friends a lot and kind of go to parties and things of that sort when you’re like 21 and whatnot. And so basically in the dream it was that it was almost like going back in time. It felt like we were really there and we were at a party at friend’s houses and we went to the bathroom together as girls do, and we were in there and we were just having a great time and basically having our own little party in the bathroom. And it felt like we were in there all night. And then I woke up and same thing, just so emotional, already crying when I woke up. And it just really felt like her presence was there, but I was kind of doubting myself. And so I was talking with Jacob about it the next day and just saying I wasn’t really sure if that was just a really nice dream or if it was actually a visitation.
(01:22:30):
Started talking about that for a little while and then conversation moved on, whatever, and Jacob is singing in the car or whatever. And then he starts joking around singing at me, and he says this word that my friend, her name was Taylor, she would always say it, and it was a specific silly word when we grew up together, we would always say it to each other. And my dad would joke around, we could have had our own secret language basically just because the things we would say would make no sense to outside people, which is what Jacob had said. And he’s never said this word before or anything like that. And it just kind of came out of nowhere. And it just really felt like it was my friend Taylor and kind of her way of popping in and saying that she really was coming to say hi. And it wasn’t my imagination.
Jim Harold (01:23:21):
Well, I believe our loved ones reach out to us in ways that we will understand and mean something and are meaningful to us. I absolutely believe that. And it seems like that’s what happened to you, Jessica.
Jessica (ME) (01:23:35):
I think so too.
Jim Harold (01:23:37):
Well, thank you for sharing this story. I think these kind of stories are just every bit as important to share these as the real spooky scary ones, and I appreciate it very much. Thank you. And thank Jacob, and stay spooky.
Jessica (ME) (01:23:54):
Thank you. Stay spooky.
Jim Harold (01:23:56):
Next up on the Campfire is Sam from Minnesota and she was introduced to the program as many are by Christine and Em over at And That’s Why We Drink and we always appreciate them flying the Campfire banner high. So thank you Christine and Em, and thank you Sam for tuning in and sharing these stories about your mom. Please tell us what happened.
Sam (MN) (01:24:21):
Yeah, thanks for having me. So these stories are just a series of little things that happened after my mom had passed away. So she passed away in May of 2021. The first experience probably happened about a month or so after she had left. I was at my dad’s now my dad’s house, helping take care of some things. They have a rambler style house, and I was staying in the living room area and there’s a dining room that separates the rest of the bedrooms. I was staying on a pullout in the living room. Everyone’s supposed to be going to bed, and I hear something like running across the dining room area floor because it’s hardwood floor. And I thought at first maybe it was their dog, which was a little schnauzer, but definitely way too fast. That dog was 12 years old. So I just hear something just running across and it just stopped.
(01:25:18):
I didn’t hear anything else running, didn’t feel anything going to my bed, just nothing. Eventually, after a few seconds, I finally got the courage to go check to see what it was. Nothing. Nothing was there. In the morning. I had asked my dad even, did you come check on me for some reason? Are you, is something going on? He goes, no, it wasn’t me. So that was the first experience. The next time I was, again, same pullout couch I was sleeping on, and this time I didn’t hear anything. I just felt something slowly crawl up into my bed, kind of like one hand on one end of my legs, the other hand on the other end of my legs and something start to push their body up. But that’s it. And again, there’s dogs in the house, so I figured maybe it was one of them. So I look and nope, nothing’s there at all. I didn’t feel any pressure after that. Just a whole bunch of empty weight after that.
(01:26:14):
And then the last story, this was about a year after that. So this would’ve been really 2023. I decided to try my luck at sleeping in a different bedroom because obviously the pullout couch, there’s stuff wanting to come visit me there. So I go into my old bedroom and it’s a little twin bed, and I have three dogs sleeping in the bedroom with me, so I figured I’d be safe in case something happens. And I wake up and I just see the door slowly shutting in a hand like the wrist and the hand part shutting the door. And I even had the wherewithal to look to see what time it was. It was like 4:30 in the morning. My dad, again, usually is up around that time the dogs looked, but they didn’t bark, they didn’t growl. They just were like, what is going on?
(01:27:06):
So in the morning I asked my dad again, Hey, did you come check on me for some reason again or did you let the dogs out? Did you do anything? He said, Nope. I thought you were laying the dogs out, because I heard the door open and shut. And at that time it was just my dad and myself there and then the dogs. So nope, definitely wasn’t me. And then when I think back at it, it definitely was a very light colored hand. My dad is very tan, so was a very pale colored hand, and it was a lot smaller, more feminine looking. So the only thing I can chuck it up to is it could have been my mom at that point just kind of checking on me because that door itself is also very hard to shut and stay shut. It doesn’t like to stay shut unless you pull it hard. So that’s kind of my three experiences. My dad still continues to hear running down the halls
Jim Harold (01:28:01):
Now, how does that make you feel? How do you feel about that? Does that make you feel, kind of consoles you to some extent, to think, Hey, your mom is still around, kind of just checking in? What are your thoughts on it?
Sam (MN) (01:28:17):
The two first experiences in the pullout or on the pullout bed, definitely do not think that was my mom. I think lots of things are attracted by grief. So that one, I definitely did a couple of blessings after that at my parents’ house just to make sure whatever it was that was attracted to all the grief that we were around left. I don’t feel anything after that regarding the door shutting, that one definitely was just more like a, oh, this is going on. Okay, rollover back to bed. I definitely didn’t feel nearly as uneasy as I did the other times. And then when I reflect on it, it is kind of comforting knowing, one that she allowed herself to be seen by me, and then two, that the dogs didn’t even care. They were just like, okay, whatever this ghost hand is shutting the door. Can you let us out next time to go outside?
Jim Harold (01:29:10):
They do have their priorities. Well, that’s cool that you have that experience with your mom and it’s very cool, I think, when people share these experiences on the Campfire. And I thank you for doing that today, Sam, thank you for being a part of the show. And of course, stay spooky.
Sam (MN) (01:29:26):
Stay spooky. Jim, thank you.
Jim Harold (01:29:28):
Thanks so much for joining us today on the Campfire. I appreciate it and I hope that you enjoyed the show as much as I did. Please tell a friend today one of the easiest ways to do it, you could do it right now, the show’s basically over, is just hit that share button in your podcast app and send it along. Now, assuming you’re at a safe place to do so, don’t do it while you’re driving. Don’t do that. Wait until you’re pulled over safely and at your destination, but hit that share button and share the show right from your podcast app. That’s probably the easiest way to do it. We like to get the words out so we can get more listeners and more great Campfire stories. We thank you so much. We’ll talk to you next time. Have a great week, everybody. Stay safe and stay spooky. Bye-Bye.
Announcer (01:30:14):
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.
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