242: Gnomes, Spirits Of Loved Ones & Prophetic Dreams

[00:00:00] Thank you for joining me, and welcome to Paranormal Mysteries. I'm your host, Nic Ryan. On today's episode, I'll be talking about apparitions of past family members, prophetic dreams, and the Fae. But before we start, I'd like to thank Lubna for their support

[00:00:29] and generosity. And remember that anyone can show their support simply by sharing and reviewing the podcast. Or if you'd prefer to make a monetary contribution, you may do so through our patreon.com, buymeacoffee.com, or Paypal donation links. And if you have a paranormal experience to share,

[00:00:47] you may contact me by email at paranormalmysteriespodcast at gmail.com, through voice message at speakpipe.com slash paranormalmysteries, or on our website at paranormalmysteriespodcast.com. And all of our support and contact information can be found in the show notes.

[00:01:08] And now let's start the show with our first listener story of the night, which comes to us from Goulet. And Goulet's story is called Gnome. Goulet says, Hi Nic, thank you for sharing my

[00:01:23] story about the green man. There was another occurrence with what we call a duende, or a gnome or dwarf. This happened at the same house where I saw the green man, and this experience happened

[00:01:35] before the green man, as well as one thing that I brushed off lightly, until the green man which led to sleeping with closed doors at night. As I said in the last story, I was sleeping with my

[00:01:47] brother and sister because of the hauntings and poltergeist activity going on in the house. One night I woke up to use the restroom. I never really turned on lights, so I was walking in the

[00:01:58] dark hall to the opposite end to where the bathroom was. I did my business and walked back to my room, leaving the door open because I wasn't scared enough at this point to close them. I tossed

[00:02:10] and turned on the edge of my bed, which is where I slept. My older brother slept against the wall, and my baby sister was in the middle. I eventually decided that I was too awake to fall asleep,

[00:02:21] and decided to face towards the door. And that's when I saw it. There was a little gnome-like creature peeking into my room from the right side of the door, just watching me toss and turn.

[00:02:33] I was startled at first because I had just walked through the hall in the dark, and I didn't see or hear anything. I kept looking at it for a few seconds, thinking that I was imagining it, until

[00:02:43] it lowered its head as if to get a closer look at me. And that's when I'm assuming it realized that I knew it was there, because this little gnome took off running from the right side of the door

[00:02:54] to the left, which was physically impossible, as the doorframe met one inch of drywall, which in turn met the wall that ended the hallway, which also had a standard-sized door that opened outward.

[00:03:07] So, that means that the gnome had to run through the wall and door to disappear out of sight. I remember it being about a foot tall, with a hat that added about five to six inches to its height,

[00:03:19] making it to be about a foot and a half tall. We didn't have pets at the time, and there were no toys that were out, as our dad and stepmom at the time would make sure that all of our toys were

[00:03:29] put up before bed, because my dad was a diabetic and didn't want to step on something and get an infection. I contemplated on whether or not it was just in my mind, but it was so vivid to me

[00:03:41] that there was no way it was a trick of the mind. I didn't want to linger on the fact that I was being watched by something I didn't know at the time to be folklore. I just figured that whoever

[00:03:51] I told would laugh at me for claiming to see a garden gnome in the middle of the night. Over a decade later, I was looking up scary things on YouTube, only to see a video with

[00:04:02] gnome in the title, and that's when I looked more into it, as some call it a gnome, and some call it a duende. Both are correct, however, in Mexican folklore, these duendes are known to cause

[00:04:14] mischief, some known to take and misplace things, others say that they help people out when lost and such. I'm still not fully aware what they do, I just know that they are an entity that most won't

[00:04:26] believe in. But I know I saw one, and it saw me, and that is one thing that I'll never forget. No matter who believes what, I know that I believe in them. There are so many more stories I have to

[00:04:41] share, and with time I will tell more. Thank you for now. Guley. Our next story of the evening comes to us from Emma. And Emma says, Hi Nick, I've become obsessed with your podcast after I discovered it two months ago. I love hearing about other people's

[00:05:02] experiences just like mine. Emma's first story is called Native Spirit Encounter. My family and I traveled to Alaska on a two-week cruise for my father's birthday in 2018. This trip is when I had my first paranormal experience. We had stopped in his birthplace

[00:05:21] in order to try and find the house that he was born in. My grandfather was stationed there when he was in the military, and hadn't been back since. This was my father's first visit to Alaska,

[00:05:32] and he was undoubtedly excited. After what seemed like ages of driving slowly around neighborhoods, we gave up our search for the house. My grandmother suggested that we visit the local Native Heritage Center instead, since we had time to kill. Plus we'd be able to learn

[00:05:48] some history about that part of Alaska. My family collectively agreed to take a visit, so we went. Upon arrival to the Heritage Center, all seemed normal. We were able to witness a ceremonial

[00:06:01] Inuit dance and take a tour of the surrounding huts and buildings that the Native Americans of the area would have lived in. Upon entry into one of the dining halls that the natives would

[00:06:12] have gathered in, I immediately sensed that there were more people there than were physically present. There was a below-ground level fire pit in the middle of the floor, surrounded on all four sides

[00:06:23] by a stair-like structure for seating. Once off the stairs, the floor was ground level, with several traditional totem poles on each side of the pit supporting the ceiling and forming a sort of

[00:06:35] hallway. I was walking past the totem poles on the right side of the hall when I stopped at the middle pole. It happened so quickly I could barely gather my thoughts. I felt a tall male presence

[00:06:46] come up behind me and place a hand on my right shoulder. His hand was cold, and it sent goosebumps down my right arm. But I wasn't scared. It was a comforting feeling, and I knew immediately that

[00:06:57] this man's spirit posed no threat to me. After what seemed like forever but was just a few seconds, I felt a face draw close to my ear and whisper something to me. I couldn't understand what the

[00:07:09] man was saying because the voice did not speak to me in English, which is the only language that I'm fluent in. He had a deep voice and raised his voice at the end of his sentence as if he was

[00:07:20] asking me a question. As quickly as the spirit had approached me, I felt his hand lift from my shoulder and leave me. I spun around and said, What did you say? Rationalizing that the presence was my dad asking me a question,

[00:07:34] and me not hearing what he said. But to my dismay, my dad was standing by the entryway, admiring the woodwork of the dining hall. I stood for a minute frozen in shock, and when I was able

[00:07:46] to collect myself, I ran to my dad and tried to explain to him what had just happened to me. Being a skeptic, he chalked it up to my overactive imagination and my anxiety about being in an

[00:07:57] unfamiliar place. I've never told my family about what happened in that dining hall, but I always carry that experience with me. I wish I knew what that man had said or what he was asking me to do.

[00:08:09] Even though this experience happened almost four years ago, I still think about it almost every day. I'm not sure if he was asking me for help, asking for my name, or asking me to get out.

[00:08:21] I wish I knew, but I hope someone has helped his spirit find peace. Emma's next story is called My Grandfather's Spirit. My mother's biological father passed away when she was 16 years old from his fourth heart attack.

[00:08:39] When this happened, she was devastated and grieved for years. From her stories about him, I understand that they were very close, and he was someone that she admired and looked up to.

[00:08:50] When I see pictures of him, I see his face in my mom's, and vice versa. They have the same facial structure, specifically their nose. I've always wondered how we'd get along if he was still alive,

[00:09:02] and I think about him often. I was talking about him last December in the kitchen with my mom as I was doing dishes. She was at home that day with me and was grabbing a snack before finishing

[00:09:13] up some things for work. We were talking about her father, and she was telling me about his friendly nature and how he loved to make the people around him laugh. She reminisced over this memory for a moment before taking herself and her snack back to her office.

[00:09:29] I listened to her footsteps recede before continuing with the dishes. I heard footsteps approach the dining room, which opens into our small kitchen on the left, and into the great room

[00:09:38] at the front. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw someone walk into the great room at a hurried pace. They were heavy or sat, around 5'8", and wore jeans and a light blue long-sleeved thermal

[00:09:50] shirt with work boots. They had buzzed hair with a bald spot near the back of their head. The main thing I noticed about them was their side profile. They had a large forehead and nose like

[00:10:01] my mom's, which led me to think they were her. The person then walked quickly into our great room, out of my point of view. I muttered some smart comment to my mom about being hungry and turned

[00:10:12] to look in the direction where the footsteps stopped, which happened to be in the middle of the great room, a spot I couldn't see out of our kitchen window above the sink. Mom, I called,

[00:10:23] and turned off the water, figuring she'd return to take a picture of our Christmas tree, which we had decorated the night before. After a moment of no response, I walked into the great room,

[00:10:33] and no one was there. This gave me goosebumps, and I began to smell a familiar cologne, one which my mom told me that my grandfather wore, and that I had smelled before. At that moment, my mom walked into the dining room, asking,

[00:10:47] did you call me? I was completely pale, and she asked me what was wrong. I told her about the footsteps, the figure, and the cologne. I turned to the Christmas tree, telling her that I thought

[00:10:58] the figure was her coming back for a picture of it. At that moment, we both caught a glimpse of one of the ornaments on the tree, swinging. We both stopped talking and just watched the

[00:11:08] ornament swing back and forth. It was something that not one of the other ornaments were doing. At that moment, she confidently said to me, that's my dad. I calmed down instantly, and we both watched the ornament until it stopped swinging. After that experience,

[00:11:25] I've taken to talking to my grandfather's military portrait, which sits in our dining room. I tell him good morning and good night whenever I see his picture. He is definitely watching over my mom and our family, and that was confirmed when he visited us last December.

[00:11:42] Those are the only two major experiences that I've had so far. I apologize for the length, but I wanted to include every detail to make the experience as real to you and your listeners,

[00:11:53] as they are to me. Thank you so much for your time. I wish nothing but love, peace, and happiness to you and your listeners. Thanks, Nick. Sincerely, Emma. Our next story of the night comes to us from Jim, and Jim's story is called Nursing Home Experience.

[00:12:17] Jim says, Hey Nick, while this story isn't exactly a ghost story, I hope it fits into the format of your show. It certainly seems supernatural to me. About ten years ago I worked in a nursing home as

[00:12:31] a housekeeper. Not a glamorous job, but one that I enjoyed mainly because of my interactions with the residents who lived there, a maximum of 160 people at a time. It was like having dozens of friendly

[00:12:44] grandparents, though sadly it was also where many of them would take their last breaths, here on earth. Due to family issues of my own, I had to eventually leave the job. One Saturday night,

[00:12:57] several months after I quit, I had a very detailed dream. In the dream I was in a second floor hallway of the nursing home, which has 14 single rooms. Starting with the first room on the left,

[00:13:09] I went from door to door, left to right, all the way down the hall, checking on every resident. I saw each person in every room that I had known, all doing well, until I got to the very last room

[00:13:21] on the right. That door was closed, and I noticed their name tag was also missing from beside the door. I woke up the next morning clearly remembering the dream, but not thinking anything of it, until

[00:13:33] I did something that I very rarely do. I opened the Sunday paper and looked at the obituaries. Sure enough, Mary, the woman who I knew from that room in the dream with the closed door,

[00:13:45] had died Friday night. By the way, in our nursing home when someone died in their room, it was customary to close their door so as not to alert the other residents until the body

[00:13:57] was removed. I always enjoyed talking to Mary, who was actually one of the younger residents at the home, and not someone that I would have expected to pass so soon. Maybe this was her way of letting

[00:14:09] me know that she was gone, since I was no longer working there and might not have otherwise found out. This is just one of many odd experiences that I had from my days working at the nursing home.

[00:14:21] If you would like, I could send in more stories from my time there. It was certainly interesting. Signed, Jim in Pittsburgh. Our next few stories come to us from Miranda, and Miranda's stories are called Apparitions, Playful Ghosts, and When Things Go Bump in the Night. Miranda says,

[00:14:48] Hey Nick, I recently heard you share my story on the podcast, and although it brought back a frightful memory or two, I felt an overwhelming sense of joy and validation. Thank you for that. As I've stated in previous stories, I've had a ton of paranormal experiences throughout the

[00:15:04] course of my life, and here are a few to tell. The first story is called, Devon's Room. My youngest brother Devon was just a toddler when we moved into the blue house on Hogan Hill. His

[00:15:18] room was blue with a full-size bed and bright yellow shelving. It was so ugly, but better than the previous decor. Some vintage childhood picture frames of teddy bears and bow ties were left from

[00:15:30] the previous owners, our neighbors, and my mom left them up to hang. Devon's room had a long mirror aside the bed. A couple of times I thought I saw a full-size apparition sitting at the end

[00:15:42] of his bed. If it was an actual person you'd be able to see the reflection in the mirror, but this person never appeared in the mirror, just on the edge of the bed or standing next to

[00:15:52] the mirror. You'd only get a glimpse for a second while passing Devon's room to get to the staircase. My visions were validated when I had five to six girlfriends sleep over in high school.

[00:16:03] Devon was with my dad that weekend and four of the girls slept in his room, only to end up sleeping in my room later in the night as they claimed that they felt a sense of dread in his room

[00:16:14] and saw things in the night. As a side note, I'd like to mention that my room was just as scary. My rocking chair would rock, my closet doors would jiggle, and I'm fairly certain that extraterrestrials were visiting me often. Miranda's next story is called The Closet.

[00:16:36] My parents got divorced when I was around 10 years old. My mother and her also recently divorced friend, Megan, thought it would be fun to take all the kids to Megan's riverfront property

[00:16:46] in Dubuque, Iowa. Pretty odd of an idea because it was snowing out and the river's surface was frozen solid, but we ended up having a good time. Anyway, the younger kids slept together on an air

[00:16:57] mattress and couches in the living room, while my mom and I slept in a room with two twin beds opposite each other. Laying in my bed facing me was the doorway and at the foot of the bed was a

[00:17:09] small closet off to the left. We left the closet light on just in case we needed to use the bathroom in the middle of the night, and it was fairly dim. I've always been a light sleeper,

[00:17:20] and that night I awoke to a small clanging noise from the pull chain mechanism connected to the light bulb in the closet. It playfully swung out from the closet back and forth. I didn't think

[00:17:32] much of it, and I tried to go back to sleep, but it kept happening. When I opened my eyes, the chain would swing out back and forth or jump as if the tension was strong, and then ceased.

[00:17:43] This is where things get scary. Trying to go back to sleep again, I opened my eyes to see the chain annoyingly clanging, but this time it looked as though a shadowy figure peaked quickly around

[00:17:55] the closet frame to get a look at me. This happened multiple times. Whatever it was, it would pop its head out of the closet and then pull back inside. Over and over this thing peeked out at me and

[00:18:07] continued to play with the light bulb chain. I thought I was seeing things, so I went back to sleep and didn't wake up until morning. When I got up to use the bathroom, I looked in the closet,

[00:18:18] expecting it to be a doorway or another room that I had mistaken for a closet. But it was a closet. A storage closet, packed to the brim with board games and toys in white cages

[00:18:29] with pull-out drawers. Instantly I felt a chill run through my spine. How could a person have fit in there? That's right, they couldn't have. At breakfast I mentioned this to my mom, who

[00:18:40] mentioned it to Megan, who then said that they had seen strange things around the house all the time. She once recalled that they had left for dinner one evening and came back to all of the kitchen

[00:18:50] cabinets opened. Miranda's next story is called The Window. My mom and stepfather relocated to a new house in another town for a few years after my own parents got divorced. My stepdad has three

[00:19:06] daughters of his own, all three in college, as I was too during this period of time. The house had an upper loft living room that my parents converted into a bedroom for us girls to share when we came

[00:19:18] home from school. I spent my college summers working back home and slept in the loft room with my dog, Harley. She was getting old and would growl at nothing in the middle of the night, so I shrugged

[00:19:30] it off until my mom mentioned that she saw something on an occasion or two while pulling into the driveway, in which the loft room window faced. She saw a tall person in the window as she

[00:19:42] pulled in, knowing darn well that there was no one home and no one appeared that tall in the window, not even my six-foot-five brother. Once I was aware of this phenomena, I paid extra attention to when

[00:19:54] things went bump in the night, including the long scratching and giggling which my mom attributed to squirrels. We had the roof checked and guess what? No evidence of squirrels or any animal for that

[00:20:06] matter. There wasn't even an attic as the loft room was angled like the roof of our house. Thanks again for everything, Nick. I'll be sure to share more recent stories as they come to fruition. Our next story of the night comes to us from Clam and Clam says,

[00:20:28] Hey, I just recently started listening to your podcast and decided to join the community and share some of my own experiences. I will share two stories both involving my grandfather,

[00:20:40] who I'm beyond certain is my guardian angel. My first story is about what opened me up to my gift or curse of being able to see and feel spirits. I was probably around four years old and I believe

[00:20:53] it was around Christmas of that year. I was just sleeping in my bed and I remember waking up and to my slight right, I saw my grandfather sitting there in his favorite chair. He was smiling,

[00:21:05] happy and was waving to me. I thought nothing of it and went back to sleep. It wasn't until a few years later that I found out the night that I saw him in his chair waving to me, he was actually in

[00:21:16] the hospital, basically on his deathbed. Apparently what I saw that night was him waving goodbye to me and he passed on the same night. The second story was a few years after and I was just running around

[00:21:31] playing with a friend of mine. We had to cross the street for some reason and I live basically in a city so there's a good chance of passing vehicles. He runs first and I go to follow him. I take a few

[00:21:42] steps and suddenly I feel a hand grab my right shoulder, which makes me stop immediately. And the moment I stopped, I remember a vehicle just barely missing me. If I would have taken the next step,

[00:21:54] I most likely would have been hit by the vehicle. I truly believe that was my grandfather basically telling me, no it's not quite your time yet and protecting me from serious injuries and who knows

[00:22:07] how much worse. I have more stories and will share more from time to time. Thanks for sharing my story and I will be in touch. Best regards, Clam. Our next listener story comes to us from Molly and

[00:22:25] Molly's story is called, My Dad's Ghost. Molly says, Hi, I love your podcast. I've been binging it at work for the past few months and it's comforting to know that there are other people

[00:22:37] that have encounters with the paranormal too. Throughout my life, I have had a few encounters with the paranormal, a lot of it in my childhood home. Never evil, but still a bit spooky. In

[00:22:50] November of 2014, my dad, Kirk, passed away from cancer in our home. I took a week or so off from school since I was 16 at the time of his passing and needed some time with my family. One of the

[00:23:04] days that I was spending time at home, I was sitting in his chair in our living room watching the show Ghost Hunters. My dad and I watched this show often when I was growing up and when they saw

[00:23:14] something scary and cut straight to a commercial, my dad would try to scare me by yelling, Boo! or Oogly Boogly and he would just chuckle after getting a spook out of me. While I was sitting in

[00:23:26] his chair, the show went to commercial after they had heard a ghost. In my ear, I then heard clear as day, Boo! and it was in my dad's voice. It wasn't a yell but his normal talking voice. I didn't realize

[00:23:39] at first what I had heard, it was like I was in a moment of shock. I sat up, stood and looked behind the chair and nobody was there. I like to think that my dad was saying hello to let me know that

[00:23:53] he'll always be with me. Thank you for sharing my story if you do and take care. Molly. As we bring tonight's episode to an end, I appreciate all of you for tuning in and a special thank you goes out

[00:24:11] to Goulet, Emma, Jim, Miranda, Clam and Molly for sharing their experiences. And if you've witnessed something paranormal, I want to hear your story. You may contact me through email, voice message

[00:24:26] or on our website via the links in the show notes. Until next time, I hope you all have a great beginning to your week and I look forward to seeing you back here on Wednesday as we continue our journey into the unexplained, right here on Paranormal Mysteries.