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.
[00:00:06] Welcome to Tell Me A Ghost Story, the late-night call-in podcast where we delve into the world of the supernatural and explore the eerie and unexplained. I'm your host, Michelle Newman. This podcast features true stories from our callers that will send shivers down your spine and leave you questioning the existence of the afterlife.
[00:00:33] So grab a cozy blanket, turn down the lights. Tonight's show is all about what visits you in bed when the lights go out. Sleep paralysis and shadow people. Before we start, a question I couldn't stop asking myself while I was putting this episode together.
[00:00:59] Why is it always bed? A place where you should feel safe? Of all the places a ghost could show up, Why the one place you can't run? I have a couple of theories. And the first one is about a word. Nightmare. In old English, the mare was a demon that sat on the sleeper's chest. And the nightmare was the visitor, not the dream. It was never based on a horse. That visitor has had a lot of names since then. The newest one came from the radio.
[00:01:29] Modern belief in shadow people was popularized by Coast to Coast AM, which discussed them at length in 2001 and invited listeners to send in drawings. That same year, Heidi Hollis published her first book on the subject, describing shadow people as dark silhouettes that flicker in and out of peripheral vision. So the mare on your chest is now in the corner. Same visitor, different branding.
[00:01:55] And the most infamous version wears a hat. That's the hat man, and he gets his own special episode on Halloween. So mark your calendars. Another theory I have is about your brain. Every night, as you fall asleep, and again as you wake up, you spend a little time in neither one. Researchers call falling asleep a hypnagogic state. And the hallucinations that happen there, they're common.
[00:02:22] In some studies, more than a third of people get them falling asleep. The classics are hearing your own name, a doorbell, white noise, that falling feeling, and floating. They're harmless for most people, though some scientists blame them for alien abduction stories. Now, let's add paralysis. That's sleep paralysis. Your mind wakes up, and the paralysis of REM sleep hasn't let go.
[00:02:48] So you're awake, and your body is still asleep. About one in 13 people have it. And more than one in four students, which tracks because students are the least rested people alive. Researchers sort the hallucinations into three kinds during sleep paralysis. You can encounter an intruder, a sense of an evil presence in the room. Or the incubus, which has pressure on your chest.
[00:03:14] And the third is a floating or leaving your body sensation. The intruder often shows up as a shadowy shape approaching, which is the shadow person minus the radio. So why is it always bed? Because bed is where you cross from awake to asleep and back every single day. And every so often, you get caught halfway.
[00:03:41] So tonight, we have a collection of eight calls built like a staircase. We start with stories sleep paralysis explains very well, and we end with stories where I'm not so sure it can. So let's get you to bed. Hi, Michelle. This is Nellie from Clinton, Illinois. I am going to tell you one of my experiences that I had when I was 18.
[00:04:09] In Mexican culture, my grandma once told me about how if you, it's similar to sleep paralysis. But my grandma used to say this phrase that the dead will get on top of you if you sleep at a certain position.
[00:04:36] And when I was 18, I don't know if it was just me dreaming or if that happened to me with what my grandma used to tell me. But it was like almost early morning. I remember it was on the weekend. So I was just like sleeping in. And I remember I was like laying down on my stomach and just sleeping.
[00:05:03] And I felt something heavy get on top. And when I felt that I tried to like, I opened my eyes a little bit and I tried to look back to see what that was. And I, when I was looking back, it's like a dark, something dark, like a dark shadow.
[00:05:29] And in my ear, I heard this dark shadow just like growl, kind of like a growl kind of laugh. And it scared me. I like tried to like move, but I couldn't. And it lasted for about like a few seconds. And then it just went away.
[00:05:58] And that was something that really like scared me because the growl, I can barely just remember hearing the growl and the laugh. But, um, yeah, that's one of the things that my grandma used to tell me. That in Spanish it calls it the subio el muerto, the dead got on top of you. Thank you, Nelly from Illinois. And as we all know, grandma's always right. It is funny.
[00:06:28] Every culture blames someone different. In Mexico, it's se me subio el muerto. Excuse my Spanish. Which means the dead climb on me. In Brazil, it's the pisadera. Also known as the stomper. A long-nailed crone who lurks on rooftops and stomps on people's full bellies after a big meal. Then in England, it was the nightmare, which we mentioned earlier, that would climb on a sleeper's chest. The research agrees.
[00:06:56] In one or more studies, sleep paralysis patients report episodes on their backs more than any other positions combined. But Nelly was on her stomach. So the dead apparently didn't read this study. Hello, this is Yamari from Pennsylvania. So the last house that I lived in, this happened to me. And I have a witness. My boyfriend was sleeping next to me. You know, we went to bed all normal, all fine.
[00:07:27] You know, we closed the doors. I fell asleep. And in my dream, I just remember waking up and sitting in my room, I keep still. And the door opened and three black pictures came around me. Including, like, around where my boyfriend was at. But the focus was on me.
[00:07:53] I remember trying to move, trying to, you know, trying to scream, trying to wake up, trying to acknowledge, trying to get my boyfriend's attention. You know, nothing. I then closed my eyes. And I woke up and I was able to mow. I woke up in a panic attack. So I say sleep paralysis dreams because I have told people this. But the crazy part is that my door was actually open.
[00:08:23] And in my state of panic, thinking like maybe my daughter came to come wake me up or something. They were both asleep. I don't have animals. And we always sleep at the door closed. But that is where the spooky aspect comes in for me because the door was opened. And I remember shutting my door before going to sleep. It has never happened since then.
[00:08:48] But I do get chills here and there when I'm in my room alone because of that night. Thank you, Amari from Pennsylvania.
[00:09:11] Thank you, Amari from Pennsylvania. I'm going to ask Amari's case. Who opened the door? Hi, Michelle. This is David. I'm from Kansas City. I'm from Kansas City.
[00:09:36] So in my first apartment off of a big road in Kansas City, I would always have weird experiences there. I always just felt like something was watching me. And I didn't think that the apartments were that old, but apparently they were. And I was just a little kid. And I would have these sleep paralysis bouts where I knew what it was, but it didn't quite
[00:10:05] feel like a dream. It didn't quite feel like reality. But I knew something was off about them. And one morning, I went into a really bad one where I thought I was awake. But whenever I looked through the door to my bathroom or my closet, all I saw was black. I couldn't see through it and it was light outside. So that was instantly weird.
[00:10:34] And I heard someone calling my name like in a weird, in a weird whisper. Like, I couldn't exactly tell why, but it felt like it was coming towards me, like coming for me in a way. And that instantly freaked me out. And then out of nowhere, I heard three loud bangs on my door.
[00:10:58] I got mad, which normally didn't really happen. I got mad and I woke up and I said, who the **** is coming? Who the **** is knocking at my door right now? And I go up, but still in this dreamlike reality, I couldn't tell. It felt like something more. But I go to my living room and I see these two figures.
[00:11:27] And they look almost like TV static, but in a human shape. And they start attacking me. One gets on my back. I'm trying to fight them off. And my heart's pounding. I can't breathe. I'm freaking out the entire time. So I just started chanting, Jesus help me, Jesus help me, Jesus help me, Jesus help me. And I'm not the most religious person in the world. But for whatever reason, it stopped. I woke up from my bedroom.
[00:11:58] And everything was fine. So I get up to start my day. I go up, notice that my door was unlocked the whole night. My front door. So I open it. Not thinking much of it. I go outside and see about four police vehicles outside. This is probably 10 a.m. And I asked one of my neighbors, what the hell is going on over here? And he said, someone from the adjacent apartment complex apparently had murdered his girlfriend
[00:12:27] in the middle of the night and was running around naked. Thank you, Dave from Kansas City. Dave knew it was sleep paralysis. So let's talk about the thing that comes after, the false awakening. That's dreaming that you think you've woken up from. And researchers link it to disturbed REM sleep. It can look a lot like sleep paralysis, especially if you dream you're awake and can't escape the malicious presence in your room. It's a trap door.
[00:12:57] You think you've climbed down, but you've really just gone down to another floor. I'm Michelle. This is Yvonne. I'm from the Lopins. And I'm here to share you one of the scariest experiences I've ever had in my life. And I've had a few scary stories that I can't tell you about, but this one just takes the cake.
[00:13:26] So it was possibly around 2002 to 2004. I went right next door to my auntie to use her computer because I didn't have one. So I was in the living room slash dining room. And I like keeping all the lights turned off. So every light was turned off. It was in the afternoons with perfect. And the windows.
[00:13:56] And while I was browsing the internet, I just felt something weird. You see, I am not a stranger to the paranormal. I've experienced it since I was a kid. And it only stopped when I went to college. But I've been so used to it that it really didn't bother me.
[00:14:22] So when I felt something as if it was looking at the back of my head, like thinking possibly it wanted me out of there, I just felt so uncomfortable. And that's not normal because I feel and see things or at least I used to when I was living there with my parents.
[00:14:50] And when I felt that, it just felt so unusual because I never would feel uncomfortable or unwanted whenever that happens. So I just turned off the computer, packed up my stuff and then tried to exit to go upstairs. My mom's house and my auntie's house, her sister, has a balcony that's connected.
[00:15:17] So I can just walk off, walk out the door upstairs and then I can get into my house, which is our house, second floor. So I was making my way up the stairs and by the time I reached the top of the stairs, I had this feeling to look back down the stairs. I wish that I didn't have to or I wish that I didn't at all.
[00:15:47] But I did and I saw a black figure. It was weird because like I said, I could see the light coming in from outside the home. But I could clearly see a silhouette of something shaped like a human.
[00:16:11] And I think by the time it saw that I saw it, it started bolting up the stairs, which caused me to run down the hallway out the door right next to the master's bedroom. And I slammed the door behind me. My aunt at that time was freaked out. She said, why do you have to slam a door? Why do you have to run? What's happening?
[00:16:37] And then I was like screaming at her and it's like something was following me. Something ran from the bottom of the stairs to top the stairs and just started running after me. And even before I had the chance to slam the door, I could see the shadow just rushing, running towards me.
[00:16:59] And the reason why I know that it's true, aside from that I've seen a lot in my childhood and being a teen is that the next day from when it happened, I talked to my auntie and she confirmed that she saw what I saw. Only with the precaution not to acknowledge it the next time.
[00:17:27] Because apparently when I acknowledged it at the time, it actually stayed standing right next to her as she slept and she couldn't sleep because it wouldn't go away. So that's my story. See you around, Michelle. Thank you, Yvonne from the Philippines. In the Philippines, sleep paralysis needs sleep. And Yvonne was wide awake.
[00:17:57] The shadow person was already there before she even got near a bed. Most shadow people reports come from people who are sleep deprived or just waking up. But there are plenty from broad daylight. The author, who I mentioned earlier, Heidi Hollis, describes shadow people as a flickering at the edge of your vision. And she says they don't like being spotted. So here's what I want to know. How do you sleep when the shadow person was already there before you went to bed?
[00:18:26] This is Dave in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. But I grew up in Connecticut where I grew up in a house that was just not right. And, well, my earliest memory is actually having spinal meningitis and dying in the hospital and seeing a woman standing over me and then waking up. I was about a year old. And then, when I was a child, I had significantly older siblings, but a sibling my own age.
[00:18:52] And the younger two would have a babysitter and the older ones would be out doing teenager things. And it was never them babysitting us. And it was always the two of us. But I remember three times having a babysitter without her distinctly. I remember this was supposedly the younger sister of another babysitter we call CG. And, anyway, this woman, young woman. Anyway, let's just say I needed counseling because of a couple experiences with this individual.
[00:19:20] So 30 years later, I'm trying to piece together my childhood and make sense of this nightmare. And I called my siblings and my three older siblings who went to school with CG said CG didn't have a little sister. And then my sibling my own age, call her KL. She's like, David, we never had a babysitter alone. You were always with me. Whoever this was, I'm not telling you it didn't happen. It just didn't happen the way you remember.
[00:19:47] So fast forward, I never slept in the dark until I got married. Didn't know why. My father and grandmother also have never slept in the dark. And after I got married, I saw the person again, the babysitter in the shadows watching me sleep every so often. Sometimes closer, sometimes further. Never completely in the dark. And I was never paralyzed. It wasn't sleep paralysis. I could move, but she'd be just watching me sleep. Never told me why.
[00:20:17] Never said a word. Did grab my arm once. But she would go away eventually, especially if I prayed. Not that I'm religious anymore. My wife never saw her. My now former wife. Later, I learned that two of my siblings have seen her watching them sleep. All I know is that since I got divorced and I'm sleeping with the light on, I haven't seen her again. Who that was and what that was about? I don't know. All I know is the lights are staying on when I sleep.
[00:20:46] Thank you, Dave from Sioux Falls. This story has stuck with me since the first time I heard it. And it also makes me want to sleep with the lights on. Dave's in good company. Picture 10 American adults at a dinner party. Nearly three of them are still afraid of the dark. And at least one leaves a light on all night. Most people are afraid of what might be in the dark. Dave is afraid of who? Hi, my name is Hector and I'm from New Mexico.
[00:21:13] And this is more of a personal experience that I've had, which started happening in 2013. It wasn't necessarily seeing any ghosts or apparitions, but more of being physically touched or scratched or attacked. However you want to interpret that.
[00:21:36] The first time this happened to me was in 2013 and I had went to my local gym, came home, got ready for the day. And as I was getting ready, I noticed I had three long scratches on the back of my forearm. Don't know how those scratches appeared or where they came from.
[00:21:58] So I took a picture of it only because it was just one of those situations that's kind of hard to believe that something like that happens. I wasn't necessarily scared, but definitely questioned a lot of things that go on. And as far as me trying to debunk it, I just wasn't able to. And so this went on over the course of the next 10 years.
[00:22:27] There would be times where I would just be doing normal everyday things and I would get scratched. Sometimes it was two scratches. Sometimes it was three scratches. So the most intense experience I've had with that was one night.
[00:22:48] And I had a nightmare of something just kind of evil, menacing figure. They were short, maybe the height of a young adult, maybe. And they had this menacing look on their face and they were kind of laughing. And then they had approached me and then they just kind of sped off in the other direction. Like at the speed of light, it was insane. It was pretty insane.
[00:23:18] Well, I woke up and it was 333 in the morning. So the following night, I'm sleeping sound asleep. And I hear this loud bang, like just a solid bang, loud enough to wake me up. Now, my bedroom door at the time, I always kept it shut.
[00:23:44] And it was just a janky door that you had to kind of forcefully push to close it and kind of pull to open. Well, when I heard this loud bang, I woke up. I checked the time. It was 333 in the morning. And once I got my senses about me, I looked over and sure enough, my door was open.
[00:24:07] It wasn't open all the way, but it was open to where I knew that I didn't get up and open the door. And so when I got out of bed, I just felt a really bad sensation. I had the chills up and down my body. All my senses were heightened. Just something felt like it was there for a brief moment that shouldn't be there.
[00:24:34] And after those few moments, the air was a little lighter. I felt okay after that, but that was probably the most intense experience that I had with that. Now, what do these scratches mean? I have no idea. They do happen in threes a lot more than anything. Sometimes it's a single scratch. I'm at a point now where I'm kind of just used to it.
[00:25:03] It doesn't really bother me because I don't let things like that bother me. And again, you know, just open to one's own personal beliefs. You know, I don't believe that anyone's particular belief is right or wrong. Definitely. I do keep an open mind about it, but just wanted to share that story. Thanks. Thank you, Hector from New Mexico.
[00:25:31] I'll say what I said when this first aired. It sounds like you might have accidentally caught a glimpse of your scratcher. So here's the sleep scientist version. REM sleep gets longer toward morning. So by 3am, you're deep in the part of the night built for dreaming. And nightmares are more common in the second half of the night. Here's the paranormal version. The witching hour, also called devil's hour. It's usually considered midnight or 3am in folklore.
[00:26:00] It's also considered to be the boundary when the living and the dead blurs. They may be describing the exact same time. So my name is Rachel and I currently live in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. When I first started to experience paranormal things, I was about 4 years old and my family lived in South Point, Ohio.
[00:26:27] My brother said that our great grandma actually appeared at his window one night and this was after she had passed away. And I've always wondered if it was actually our great grandma or since the activity in this home appeared to be more demonic.
[00:26:54] Was it a demon portraying themselves as our great grandma? I definitely feel like something has attached itself to me and has never left me. Because 30 years later, I still have paranormal experiences happen to me.
[00:27:22] And I can almost get like a vision of who it is and it's always the same person. When I think about it, they appear in my mind. Or if something happens, this person appears in my mind.
[00:27:47] I have had a lot of experiences with sleep paralysis. My first episode of sleep paralysis. I remember being so freaked out that after it happened, I text my mom. And by this time, I'm probably about 32.
[00:28:18] I was when the first time I had my first episode of sleep paralysis. And when I realized what happened to me, I have a makeup vanity that sits right next to my bed.
[00:28:34] And once I could finally move my body, I turned over and on my makeup vanity, there were these three long scratches that were never there. So I text my mom, told her what happened. She came over.
[00:28:57] And when I was describing what happened, she... It's like her face went blank. And I stopped talking and I asked her what was wrong, what was going on. And she said that the wall behind me was turning black.
[00:29:22] And it was almost like a portal was opening up as I was talking about my experience. And I was thinking about my parents. So, um, I quickly ended the conversation. And I never spoke about it again.
[00:29:45] Um, throughout the years, I've had a few more episodes of sleep paralysis. The last one happening about three weeks ago. Um, this was probably the shortest episode, but maybe the scariest.
[00:30:08] Um, I actually woke up and a... What sounded like something very demonic was whispering into my ear. And I don't want to repeat back what it said to me.
[00:30:32] Um, I'm afraid if I do, maybe I will intrigue it, um, even more. Thank you, Rachel, for your story. Hi, Michelle. It's your friend Tyler calling in again to follow up on my other ghost story. Some people have one, but I have two. The neighborhood I live in is called Oak Cliff in Dallas. It's a, it's an old historic neighborhood.
[00:31:00] And so at the time it was a, a two story house with four units. So two upstairs and two downstairs. And then the owners had a downstairs basement. And there was a street that basically drove straight towards our house. It was a cross street. It was during the middle of the week. I was at my creative studio at the time working. And I get a message from my landlord that said, Hey, Tyler, something terrible's happened. Don't come home.
[00:31:27] And he just sent me a photo of, you know, some police tape and some stuff like that. I got the, the eyewitness account from my neighbor across the street. And this car, I think it was a, an old like Chevy trailblazer, like the old nineties SUV or something. Started about a mile down the road, picking up speed, blew through two stop signs, went through our stop sign going about, they estimate 85 to 90 miles per hour.
[00:31:56] And slams into our downstairs neighbor's parked car. So it's parked parallel with house, flips both cars into our building, kills all three people instantly, smashes the front facade of our building and literally sprays blood and guts everywhere. All over the side, all over the side, there were pools of blood on the sidewalk, just instant carnage and death.
[00:32:24] From what we've gathered, I don't have the full story, but from what we piece together from conversations and people in the neighborhood, that there was a love triangle going on between a 80 something year old man and two 60 something early 70 year old women. And whether they were aware of the slump triangle or not is unknown.
[00:32:48] All that we know is that one of the women was driving a car with him in it and this other woman. And from what we know, it was sort of, well, if I can't have you, I'm taking you all out sort of situation. So I come home to find, to see this scene of wreckage. There's still police around and they're asking me questions and all this kind of stuff. We're trying to figure it out.
[00:33:13] So of the five units in the building, mine was the only one that didn't get damaged. I think I had one cracked window or something and it was, you know, cracking the foundation. It was a whole, there were conversations about, are we going to have to demolish the building? So everyone else loses their home essentially because it was condemned as a police scene. Anything, any of the units that were damaged, they couldn't live in because of insurance and all this.
[00:33:42] So mine was, mine was deemed okay to live in, but there was no power because all the power had been knocked out. At the time I was a struggling freelance photographer. I didn't have, you know, anywhere else to go for a period of about a month. I don't know. I guess you'd call it glamping, right? Uh, camping, camping in my own apartment with no power or running water.
[00:34:10] So if I wanted to use the toilet, I'd have to go downstairs, go outside to the neighbor's house, fill up buckets with the hose, you know, fill up the back of the toilet, whatever. Um, and at this point, uh, they had boarded up the front of the house and I had caught people trying to break in a couple of times. I just, you know, continue to, to feel, you know, just, there's just like a weird vibe.
[00:34:37] I was the only one in the building at night. There's all these weird sounds. I'm still paranoid. Like it was that noise. Someone trying to break in. I came outside one night and there were three kind of teenagers, two, one younger girl who was probably like 14 or something. And then, you know, an older guy who's probably 19. Um, and you know, they, they were in the dark.
[00:35:03] I couldn't really see who they were, but they were out in the front and I came outside and I shined a light on them. And all of them ran except for this little girl. They were Hispanic and Mexican American. And I said, Hey, you know, just sorry, but obviously we've had people trying to break in and she had put flowers down and she was lighting, uh, one of those prayer candles. And she said, well, sorry, you know, I don't, you know, I'm not trying to trespass or whatever, but this was my aunt and her brother or cousin.
[00:35:31] I didn't really ask a bunch of questions, so I don't know what their exact relationship was, but they were obviously related. And he was like, come on, let's go. We need to get out of here. And she was like, no, I want to like this. And he was like, leave it. That lady was crazy anyways. And I was like, well, what do you mean? And he said, oh, she was into Leucame and she was in a Santa Rhea and all this kind of stuff. Apparently this lady was kind of into the occult. And so over the course of the next few weeks, things just started to get weir and weir.
[00:36:00] I would wake up in the middle of the night. I felt like something was just crushing my chest, just pressing down on my chest. I would wake up with my heart racing. My hair would stand up on end, but just murderous evil vibes. And, uh, you know, it started off as just that. I was like, oh no, I'm just whatever. I'm being paranoid and being scared. I'm here by myself, whatever. But I start to hear weird noises, you know, things falling off the counters, cabinets slamming.
[00:36:28] I mean, waking up feeling like, uh, I was being, I want to say like spiritually assaulted, but I don't know what else you call it. Right. It's, uh, it's not a, it's a physical sensation, but it's not one that obviously you can see. Eventually the power was turned back on just in my unit and all the other units were being renovated. And I was sitting in my living room and watching a movie or something.
[00:36:56] And I heard the cabinets in the kitchen, just opening and slamming and opening and slamming. And I, well, I, I heard the slam. I didn't know what it was. And I went in the kitchen and saw it one more time. It opened and slammed shut. And I was like, fuck this. I'm like, I'm out. And so I, you know, just started to pack my stuff up that night. I was like, I'm not going to stay here. I called a friend and, and it got to the point where I was, there was this sort of non-denominational priest.
[00:37:26] And I just said, Hey man, this is sound weird, but did you, you know, by chance do exorcisms or blessings or can we, this is like a holy water situation. There's something weird going on here. Like there's this lady that this guy pretty much said was a witch. She murdered these two other people. Her guts were splattered around the inside of my apartment. Um, and I feel like maybe she's haunting me because I'm the only one here.
[00:37:54] And, um, and he was like, yeah, man, I mean, I, we can figure something out and I'll come by whatever. And next week and next week, how about tomorrow? Anyways, I, uh, I go back the next day and it's kind of dark and, um, I pull into my driveway and like, all right, I'm going to give this one more shot. I'm going to go in and just, just see if anything happens. And as I pull into my driveway, all of the lights in the downstairs turn on, just, oof.
[00:38:22] And as I see that of like a figure walks by the window and I'm just like, holy shit. I am not going in there. And I'm like about to start my car to get out of there. And then a guy walks out the front door and then he walks up and he's like, Hey man, my name is Keith. Uh, I just moved into the place downstairs. He just wanted to come say hi. I was like, Oh, okay. So you're a human. That's good.
[00:38:52] And, uh, so I, I didn't mention to him all of this stuff. And the fact that like tomorrow, the Unitarian priest was going to show up to bathe the witch blood off my walls. Didn't mention that to him. And, and basically everything stopped. It was like, once there was another person there, uh, it, she moved on or decided, you know, hunting two men was, you know, not as good as one.
[00:39:22] I don't know, but there were no issues after that. Um, but for, you know, three to four weeks there, I was the, uh, I was the solo, uh, inhabitant and it got, it got pretty dark. And yeah, I just, I didn't, um, I didn't experience anything else. So yeah, good old, good old Keith, just the, uh, wholesome Kansas boy moved in downstairs. I mean, she was like, you know what? He's a good guy. I'm going to take off.
[00:39:51] Thank you, Tyler from Texas. Tyler never calls it sleep paralysis. He never uses the word succubus. I'm the one reaching for it because of the circumstances. Something came in with that tragic love triangle and the old names were invented for exactly what he describes in his bed. Here's my speculation, and it's only a theory in folklore.
[00:40:15] If the neighborhood version is right, a murder-suicide that Crash had everything tradition says keeps the dead from moving on. Sudden violent death, unresolved emotional conflict, no closure. But a love triangle is also a pile of desire and jealousy, and a succubus is a demon of exactly that. In old texts, repeated contact with one can wear down a person's health, their mind, even their life.
[00:40:44] I'm not excusing anything. I'm telling you what the texts say. And a succubus doesn't die with her host. She just loses her address. And the only open unit in that building was Tyler's. Incubus is the Latin word for what lies upon the sleeper. And its female counterpart, the succubus, comes from to lie under.
[00:41:11] Scholars suspect belief in them grew out of distressing nighttime experiences. Sleep paralysis being one of them. A notorious witch-hunting manual from the late 1400s listed five cures for an incubus attack. One was exorcism, and the other was moving elsewhere. Tyler tried both. But in the Middle Ages, they didn't have Keith. One last thing before you turn out the light.
[00:41:39] Every night you spend a little time in neither awake nor asleep. So if you hear your name at three in the morning, or feel a weight on your chest, or catch a shape in the corner, maybe that's just your brain caught halfway. Maybe. That's all we have this week, folks. Do you have a ghost story? Call 701-484-2666.
[00:42:10] That's 701-484-2666. Or, go to tellmeaghoststory.com and leave your story there. Thank you to all the callers who left messages this week. I'm your host, Michelle Newman. Signing off. See you next week.
[00:42:37] Let the demon.