THERÉSA: Hello, my haunting crew. Welcome back, Welcome back. I hope
THERÉSA: everyone had a fantastic Halloween. I spent the evening appearing
THERÉSA: to strangers and making prolonged, unsettling eye contact with only
THERÉSA: one member of a large group. Oh my god, Len Len,
THERÉSA: how did that get out of cage?
LEN: [MUMBLES]
THERÉSA: Just grab it, Merlin. No, no! So I applied for
THERÉSA: a familiar, you know, cute little animal who typically belongs
THERÉSA: to a witch and has ties to the physical and
THERÉSA: spiritual realms, thinking I'd get like a black cat or
THERÉSA: maybe a golden doodle. Well, in what I have to
THERÉSA: assume is the do of my old caseworker, Sharon, who
THERÉSA: I didn't even think wanted to see me cross over
THERÉSA: by the way, I've ended up with a great horned owl.
THERÉSA: Ugh I have to feed him four live mice a day,
THERÉSA: and he coughs up whatever he can't digest.
MERLIN: [BURP]
THERÉSA: It's like halfway between a hoot and a burp. I'm
THERÉSA: calling them hurps and no, not like Len's flaky cold sores.
THERÉSA: These are phlegmy globs of bone, teeth and fur we
THERÉSA: keep finding around the studio. It's disgusting. I mean, before Purgatory,
THERÉSA: I was a California vegan, which is essentially just a
THERÉSA: regular vegan, except when you're at Nobu, Mastro's, or blackout drunk. Merlin, down! Oh,
THERÉSA: He keeps mounting Len. We think he's trying to mate,
THERÉSA: which I can actually understand. I've always thought Len looks
THERÉSA: a little like an owl, not much of a blinker.
LEN: [MUMBLES]
THERÉSA: It's okay. Some people just aren't.
MERLIN: [HURP]
THERÉSA: Oh great, another hurp. While Len cleans that up, let's
THERÉSA: get into today's episode. This story comes to us from
THERÉSA: Steven in North Carolina, whose life took on a supernatural
THERÉSA: hue after an unexplainable encounter during a religious retreat. I
THERÉSA: once attended a religious retreat, well sort of. I tried
THERÉSA: peyote at Burning Man with a guy who referred to
THERÉSA: himself as a wisdom keeper. After the purging ended, we
THERÉSA: cried together for eight hours and then baptized ourselves in
THERÉSA: a neighboring camp's water reserves. Turns out he wasn't a
THERÉSA: wisdom keeper after all. He was just some guy who
THERÉSA: worked the Enterprise counter at the Reno Airport. But it
THERÉSA: was still pretty profound.
STEVEN: I'm Stephen, and I saw something terrifying while on a
STEVEN: religious retreat. I grew up in a small town in
STEVEN: North Carolina, just outside of Winston Salem, right in the
STEVEN: heart of the Bible Belt. And so, I grew up
STEVEN: very religious. I was the poster child for Southern Methodism.
STEVEN: I got involved in a lot of youth group activities,
STEVEN: mission trips, youth retreats, mostly with the churches that I attended,
STEVEN: but I got involved with a faith community that was
STEVEN: very secretive. Essentially, the idea of this community was weekend retreats.
STEVEN: You would sponsor people to go and they spend the
STEVEN: weekend going to worship services, listening to talks, hearing messages,
STEVEN: and at the end of the weekend, there's big celebration.
STEVEN: But we were not allowed to tell anybody what was
STEVEN: going to go on for the weekend. What they don't
STEVEN: know is the people sponsoring them are there behind the
STEVEN: scenes entire time. We're there making sure meals get cooked
STEVEN: and activities are set up, rooms are clean. The fact
STEVEN: that we weren't supposed to tell other people strikes me
STEVEN: as a lot weirder now than it did then. I
STEVEN: remember one time I was at the retreat. It was
STEVEN: a camp that was run during the summer as a camp,
STEVEN: but also was a horse farm. It was out off
STEVEN: the highway, in the middle of nowhere, not a lot
STEVEN: of people around. I was all jazzed from this worship
STEVEN: service that night. I was eighteen. I was all full
STEVEN: of bravado. I sat there and I thought, okay, I'm
STEVEN: on like a spiritual high.
STEVEN: So little Christian Steven did something you should never do.
STEVEN: I challenged the darkness. I essentially said, I feel like
STEVEN: I could take on anything spiritually right now. That was
STEVEN: a mistake. As I said that, out of the corner
STEVEN: of my eye, I saw this shape shoot across the field.
STEVEN: I thought, oh, horse ran across the field, but it
STEVEN: was too fast. This thing crossed a horse pasture in
STEVEN: one or two seconds. I turned and followed where it
STEVEN: had gone, and I saw that there were these three trees,
STEVEN: two trees kind of behind one, forming a little triangle
STEVEN: of trees. So I followed where the shadow had gone.
STEVEN: And there's this silhouette of a human being, no features,
STEVEN: no anything. It was completely shadow, just black, and it's
STEVEN: sitting on the ground, leaning against one of the trees,
STEVEN: the front one. It's sitting on the ground, knees up
STEVEN: to its chest, hands resting on its knees. I close
STEVEN: my eyes, like, that's not real. I could feel that
STEVEN: it was looking at me. I open them up, and
STEVEN: there it is. I start moving around the area. I'm like,
STEVEN: the moon's probably catching the light weird. There's shadows here
STEVEN: and there.
STEVEN: It stays that same sort of figure no matter what
STEVEN: perspective I'm looking at. And I realize as I'm moving,
STEVEN: its head is turning following me. At this point, I'm terrified.
STEVEN: I closed my eyes and I said, this isn't real.
STEVEN: I opened my eyes. Now there's three shadow fingers and
STEVEN: each of them is leaning against one of the trees. Okay,
STEVEN: three shadow figures. At this point, I'm a good little
STEVEN: religious boy, and I just start praying "Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be
STEVEN: thy name." I pray every prayer I can think of
STEVEN: because I'm terrified, but I stop because my curiosity got
STEVEN: the better of me. It sounds like a dumb thing
STEVEN: that someone would do in a horror movie. But I
STEVEN: start asking out loud, what are you doing? What are you?
STEVEN: No response, and then I rattled off a few more questions,
STEVEN: no response, and then I said, what do you want?
STEVEN: And the front shape snapped his head to the side
STEVEN: and turned and looked at the building where all of
STEVEN: the campers and retreat attendees were, and then turned its
STEVEN: head back. "Our father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name.
STEVEN: Thy kingdom come." So I turned my back on this
STEVEN: and started praying I was just terrified "and lead us
STEVEN: not into temptations, but deliver us from evil," and when
STEVEN: I opened my eyes, they were gone. About that time,
STEVEN: my friend stepped outside. He's standing over on the porch,
STEVEN: just enjoying the evening. He came over and could tell
STEVEN: I was clearly rattled, and so I'm explaining to him
STEVEN: what's happening, saying, yeah, they clearly wanted something, and he
STEVEN: looked over at the building where everyone is. About that time,
STEVEN: one of the adults comes walking up to me and
STEVEN: he said, your person that you sponsored has had a seizure.
STEVEN: She will be leaving. And I said, when did it happen?
STEVEN: He said about ten minutes ago, which was about the
STEVEN: time that figure turned and looked at that building. Later
STEVEN: that night, I was in the same room sleeping with
STEVEN: the same buddy who had stepped out, so he knew
STEVEN: the experience. I felt like somebody was taking a forearm
STEVEN: and pushing on my throat and I started freaking out.
STEVEN: We started doing the prayer thing again and it did stop.
STEVEN: I went to sleep, and I figured that was the weirdest,
STEVEN: strangest incident that has ever occurred. But that's when things
STEVEN: got weird.
THERÉSA: Oof. I do not envy Stephen. Shadow figures are nasty spirits.
THERÉSA: Carol in accounting is one, and she is extremely unpleasant, especially
THERÉSA: when she's auditing expense reports. And yes, I needed the
THERÉSA: entire collection of Rhode peptide lip tints because I can't
THERÉSA: commune with the living if my lips are chapped. Anyway,
THERÉSA: I respect Stephen's tenacity. We need to take a quick
THERÉSA: break to hear from our sponsors. But when we get back,
THERÉSA: we'll see what horrors lie in store for Stephen. Oh,
THERÉSA: good timing, Merlin, that was nice.
THERÉSA: I think you just need to stay extremely still.
LEN: [MUMBLES]
THERÉSA: Great horned owls mate for life, Len. He clearly thinks
THERÉSA: you're his partner. If you try to pull away, it's
THERÉSA: just gonna upset him more.
LEN: [MUMBLES]
THERÉSA: Len, I said don't pull away!
LEN: [MUMBLES]
THERÉSA: Well, I'm not the one who let him get out
THERÉSA: of his cage. Merlin, Merlin, you want a mouse, mousey mouse?
THERÉSA: Quick under the table now while he's distracted. Whoever thought
THERÉSA: birds should live indoors should be committed. As if we're
THERÉSA: meant to just coexist beside a living, breathing dinosaur. It's insane.
THERÉSA: Not the talons, not the talons, Oh God! I hate this fucking bird!
STEVEN: After that experience at the retreat, a lot of different
STEVEN: things happened. One of the big things that took place
STEVEN: for the next close to ten years was I experienced
STEVEN: auditory sleep paralysis at least twice a week. I didn't
STEVEN: see demons, I didn't see a man in a top
STEVEN: hat or the things a lot of people talk about.
STEVEN: I sleep on my stomach, so I would be laying
STEVEN: there and I could not open my eyes. No matter
STEVEN: how hard I tried, I couldn't get them to open.
STEVEN: All I could do was lay there and listen and feel.
STEVEN: I could feel breath on my neck, just this breathing.
STEVEN: I could feel the heat of that breath, you know
STEVEN: when someone's whispering in your ear. The only way I
STEVEN: could get it to go away wasn't falling back asleep.
STEVEN: It was saying that Lord's prayer.
STEVEN: "Our father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name,
STEVEN: thy kingdom come, thy will..." Eventually it would stop. I
STEVEN: was fully conscious and cognizant for these experiences. I one hundred percent
STEVEN: believe that I was being visited by something. Something residual
STEVEN: was sticking to me. I was scared to go to
STEVEN: sleep because in those moments, I was the most terrified
STEVEN: that I had ever been. And to this day, it's
STEVEN: still the scariest thing I've ever experienced. Over the years,
STEVEN: I graduated college, I got married. During that time, a
STEVEN: lot of one-off, strange experiences happened. I would be in
STEVEN: places that I didn't know had history. I would feel things,
STEVEN: I would be able to tell someone something about the
STEVEN: place I'm in, just a historical fact, something of that nature.
STEVEN: One time I was on a historical tour western North Carolina.
STEVEN: We're walking through this big mansion and there's this big
STEVEN: empty tile room that used to be a pool that's
STEVEN: been drained. I'm in there and I start freaking out
STEVEN: out and I have to step out because I'm hearing things.
STEVEN: I could hear splashing and screaming. It sounded like if
STEVEN: you've ever been to an apartment pool on a summer day.
STEVEN: The kids are playing and they're horsing around, they're laughing.
STEVEN: Some of them sound like they're a little unhappy. But
STEVEN: there's no water in the pool. There's no one there,
STEVEN: there's nothing there. That's when I stepped outside. I went
STEVEN: up to one of the people who worked there later
STEVEN: and I said, someone died in that pool. And they
STEVEN: said no, And I said, no, someone died in that pool.
STEVEN: So one of the guides talked to another guide and
STEVEN: turns out a young boy had drowned in that pool.
STEVEN: There's absolutely no way I would have known that. I
STEVEN: a few times heard things that weren't there. I saw
STEVEN: things that weren't there. Or at least they couldn't be explained.
STEVEN: I know, right now it all sounds like I'm talking
STEVEN: about mental illness, But I saw psychologists neurologists, and they
STEVEN: were like, nope, we've got no explanation for you. You
STEVEN: aren't experiencing any other symptoms of any known mental illness.
STEVEN: All these little one off experiences and strange things came
STEVEN: to a head in the summer of 2019. My ex-wife
STEVEN: was pregnant with our first child. She was a high
STEVEN: school drama teacher. I decided, okay, well I'll go with
STEVEN: her up to the school and I will help her
STEVEN: just organize her office for the upcoming school year. I
STEVEN: went in there, the AC's out turned on a bunch
STEVEN: of fans. I decided I was going to alphabetize all
STEVEN: the plays on the shelves that were just strewn about
STEVEN: from last school year. There were a lot. And as
STEVEN: I'm doing it, I start hearing this creak, crack, click
STEVEN: coming from out on the stage. Her office is on
STEVEN: the side of the stage. There's two dressing rooms in
STEVEN: the back of the stage and then her office, so
STEVEN: it's backstage along with everything else. I step onto the
STEVEN: stage and there's nothing out there. I'm thinking, okay, I'm
STEVEN: hearing things. You know, I'm in here by myself. The
STEVEN: AC is probably just kicking on and off. It's fine,
STEVEN: So I go back into the office. I heard a
STEVEN: loud crack, go outside, nothing there, go back in, loud crack,
STEVEN: step onto the stage. Nothing.
STEVEN: The auditorium's dark, and I am just standing there on
STEVEN: this stage looking out, unable to see the seats. I realized,
STEVEN: as I was thinking about it, it can't be the
STEVEN: AC cutting on and off because the AC is broken.
STEVEN: Got a little spooked and I decided I was going
STEVEN: to go back into the office so I step back
STEVEN: in and I'm alphabetizing plays, and I had a large
STEVEN: stack that was ready to go on the shelf. So
STEVEN: I grabbed this stack and I turned to place it
STEVEN: on the shelf. And when I do, no more than
STEVEN: twelve inches from my face, there's the face of a woman.
STEVEN: I go flying backwards into the table. Plays go everywhere.
STEVEN: I'm just laying on the ground at this point, I
STEVEN: look up and there's this woman, probably in her late twenties.
STEVEN: She has long brown hair, She's wearing a brown dress.
STEVEN: She's seen better days. She looked ragged. She didn't look angry,
STEVEN: she didn't look happy. She just kind of stared at me,
STEVEN: almost quizzically. She was there for maybe five seconds, and
STEVEN: then she was gone. I'm freaked out, and I decide
STEVEN: I'm leaving for the day. Two and a half months later,
STEVEN: my daughter's born. That is when everything stops. I had
STEVEN: never envisioned myself being a dad growing up. We went
STEVEN: through the pregnancy and I was stressed and scared. Rowan
STEVEN: was born and all of that fear went away. I
STEVEN: wasn't worried about whether or not I was going to
STEVEN: be a good dad, because if you truly love it.
STEVEN: You're going to be good at it.
STEVEN: I had been having that auditory sleep paralysis experience twice
STEVEN: a week for years. After she was born, I slept
STEVEN: through the night every night. A few years before Rowan
STEVEN: was born, I lost my father suddenly. He passed away
STEVEN: in his sleep. We were close, we were friends. He
STEVEN: was the funny guy at every party. I was an
STEVEN: only child and my parents always wanted another child. He
STEVEN: did communicate growing up. He was always little bummed he
STEVEN: never got the chance to have a little girl. He
STEVEN: told me for years that one day he was going
STEVEN: to have a granddaughter and he was going to love
STEVEN: on her, and I wasn't going to be able to
STEVEN: stop him from giving her all the candy and toys
STEVEN: and everything that she ever wanted. Unfortunately, he never got
STEVEN: a chance to meet her.
STEVEN: Rowan was born. Knowing that she never got to meet
STEVEN: her grandfather, or her Papu as he would have wanted
STEVEN: to be called. It's Greek for grandfather. A few months
STEVEN: after my dad died, I had a dream. I was
STEVEN: sitting in a restaurant in a booth with my back
STEVEN: to the door. I heard Hey, pal. That's what my
STEVEN: dad always called me growing up. I turned around and
STEVEN: I remember saying you can't be here, you're dead, and say, yeah,
STEVEN: I am dead. Let's talk. I knew it was a dream,
STEVEN: but we talked and it gave me closure, and he
STEVEN: told me at the end, I've got your back, like
STEVEN: I'm gonna look out for you and your family. After
STEVEN: Rowan was born, I thought to myself, all this stopped.
STEVEN: Maybe now that I have a family, he really does
STEVEN: have my back.
STEVEN: Weird little things would happen. She would always just kind
STEVEN: of look off into the corner and smile. I would
STEVEN: see her on the baby monitor six seven in the morning.
STEVEN: She's standing in her crib, jumping up and down, and
STEVEN: she is laughing, I mean hysterically, like she has seen
STEVEN: the funniest thing she has ever seen in her life.
STEVEN: She's two at this point she's laughing, and I walk in.
STEVEN: I say, hey, what's so funny. She points at the
STEVEN: corner and she says, Paoo, Pa-poo, funny man. There was
STEVEN: no way she would have known that he wanted to
STEVEN: be called Papu. He always loved to make kids laugh.
STEVEN: That was his thing. He would do anything, He would
STEVEN: make a fool of himself to make a kid laugh
STEVEN: and so for her to be standing there laughing her
STEVEN: ass off, it gave me the feeling that he's got
STEVEN: my back. Seeing all of that and seeing her reaction,
STEVEN: and knowing my dad, I one hundred percent believe that
STEVEN: he is there, she is seeing him, and he's got us.
THERÉSA: This had a way happier ending than I was expecting.
THERÉSA: I was sure he was done for when we got
THERÉSA: to the part about the lady in the Bookshelf, I
THERÉSA: thought the scariest thing about high school theater was realizing
THERÉSA: your drama teacher peaked as an understudy in an off-off-Broadway
THERÉSA: production of Our Town. Papu to the rescue, I guess.
THERÉSA: Let's take another quick break and we'll be right back
THERÉSA: And we're back. Merlin has finally settled a bit. Right
THERÉSA: now he's trying to preen Len. It's actually kind of sweet.
THERÉSA: I had hoped my conduit to the physical realm would
THERÉSA: be a little sexier with a smaller eye-to-skull ratio, but
THERÉSA: Merlin is really starting to grow on me. I like
THERÉSA: how his ear tuffs are purely aesthetic. And he can
THERÉSA: turn his head almost fully around like that girl in
THERÉSA: The Exorcist. Who's a spooky boy? Mamma's apex predator. Well,
THERÉSA: Len's got hurps to clean up and I need to
THERÉSA: figure out how to leash an owl. But we'll see
THERÉSA: you all next time for more Haunting. And remember, if
THERÉSA: you have a spooky story to share, email us at
THERÉSA: HauntingThePodcast@gmail.com and you could be featured on an upcoming episode.
THERÉSA: Bye for now.
CREDITS: If you have a haunting story to share, please email
CREDITS: us at HauntingThePodcast@gmail.com, and if you like what you hear,
CREDITS: please like and subscribe. You can also follow us on
CREDITS: social media by searching for Glass Podcasts or by visiting glasspodcasts.com.
CREDITS: Haunting is a production of Glass Podcasts and partnership with
CREDITS: iHeart Podcasts. Haunting is created and executive produced by Nancy Glass,
CREDITS: Andrea Gunning, Ben Fetterman, and Lauren Lapkus and it is
CREDITS: hosted by Lauren Lapkus as their character Therésa. The show
CREDITS: is directed by Aleah Welsh and produced by Trey Morgan.
CREDITS: It is written by Aleah Welsh, with additional writing by
CREDITS: Nancy Glass, Trey Morgan, and Ben Fetterman. Additional production support
CREDITS: by Curry Richman and Todd Ganz. Additional voice acting by
CREDITS: Trey Morgan as the character producer Len Walker. Editing and
CREDITS: sound design by Matt Delvecchio and mixed by Dave Saia.
CREDITS: Operations and production support by Kristen Melchiorre. Haunting's theme and
CREDITS: original compositions were composed by Oliver Baines and Dorry Macaulay
CREDITS: of Noiser. Music library provided by Mibe Music. Special thanks
CREDITS: to Speakeasy Sound Studios in Burbank, California. For more shows
CREDITS: from iHeart Podcast and Glass Podcast, visit the iHeartRadio app,
CREDITS: Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.