Hey, it’s Michelle, and tonight’s show is about what visits you when the lights go out. Eight real callers share sleep paralysis encounters, shadow figures, and visitors that arrived with a witness, a mark, or an open door, along with the folklore and science behind them. The first half is stories sleep paralysis explains well. The second half is where I’m not sure it can. Now available as a video on Spotify and YouTube.
Nellie from Clinton, Illinois, calls in with a true ghost story from when she was eighteen, asleep on her stomach on a weekend morning, when something heavy climbed on top of her. A dark shape. A growl that sounded like a laugh. Her grandmother had warned her about exactly this. In Mexican culture, it’s called se te subió el muerto: the dead got on top of you.
Yamari from Pennsylvania woke to three black figures standing around her bed, all focused on her, while she couldn’t move or scream. She calls it a sleep paralysis dream. What she can’t explain is the bedroom door. She remembers shutting it before bed, and when she woke up, it was open.
Dave from Kansas City has had sleep paralysis since he was a kid, so he knew what was happening. Then he thought he woke up, heard three loud bangs, and found two figures made of TV static attacking him in his living room. He chanted Jesus help me until they stopped. That morning there were four police cars outside, and his front door had been unlocked all night.
Yvonne from the Philippines wasn’t asleep. In the afternoon, at her aunt’s house, she looked back down the stairs and saw a black silhouette in the shape of a person that began running up after her. The next day her aunt confirmed she’d seen it too, and she had one rule. Never acknowledge it.
Dave from Sioux Falls remembers dying of spinal meningitis in a hospital at about a year old, and a woman standing over him. He grew up in a Connecticut house that was just not right, with a babysitter no one else in his family ever saw. He says she still watches him sleep, and he sleeps with the light on.
Hector from New Mexico has been scratched for ten years with no explanation, usually three long marks. One night a nightmare of a laughing figure woke him at 3:33 AM. The next night a loud bang woke him at 3:33 again, and his bedroom door, which he always kept shut, was open.
Rachel from Myrtle Beach says something has been attached to her since she was four. After her first sleep paralysis episode, three long scratches appeared on her makeup vanity. When she described it to her mother, her mother said the wall behind her was turning black. She still won’t repeat what something whispered in her ear three weeks before she called.
Tyler from Texas closes the episode with the longest story. After a car crashed into his Oak Cliff apartment building, he spent weeks alone in the only livable unit, waking with something crushing his chest. A priest was on the way. Then a new neighbor walked out the front door, and everything stopped.
Along the way, I get into where the word nightmare comes from, how shadow people came out of a radio show, what your brain does between awake and asleep, and what medieval Europe blamed for the weight on your chest.
Eight real callers. Eight true ghost stories. The Hat Man gets his own episode on Halloween.
If you have a real ghost story of your own, a haunting experience, something you heard, something you cannot explain, I want to hear it. Call 1 (701) 484-2666 or visit tellmeaghoststory.com to share your story.
You might end up on the show.
And if this episode moved you, leave a comment on Spotify. I read every single one, and your comments help new listeners find the show.
Catch us on YouTube at @tellmeaghoststory, and follow along on Instagram at @tellmeaghoststorypodcast.
Theme music is Sexy Sax by Cool Cascade.
Production by Newman Media.