353: Messenger Of Death & A Possessed Mask

[00:00:00] Tonight's episode is brought to you by Brianna, Donovan, Richard, and Jeffrey. Thank you so much for making the show possible. Tonight I'll be talking about a messenger of death that takes the form of a crow, an

[00:00:22] African tribal mask that carries a bizarre attachment, and a shadow figure that shows itself during sleep paralysis. Thank you for joining me and welcome back. I'm your host, Nick Ryan. Before I start tonight's show, I just want to remind you that I'm still recovering from

[00:00:57] the flu, so bear with me if I don't sound like I normally do. With that being said, tonight's first experience comes to us from Paul. And Paul's experience is called... The Crow. Paul says,

[00:01:12] Dear Nick, I just want to thank you for producing such an enigmatic and riveting show on the paranormal. I feel like I'm home now, where like-minded experiencers can share their stories of their interactions with the paranormal.

[00:01:26] I'm one of your newest contributors on Patreon, and it really is a wonderful project to be part of. I'm in post-production myself, so I know what a challenge it is putting something together like this.

[00:01:37] The story I want to tell was just after I had gotten out of the United States Navy. It was an unforgettable experience with a messenger of death. It was July in the year 2000 in Washington State. I had honorably discharged out of the United States Navy in November of 1999.

[00:01:56] I had trouble finding work, but landed a job for the summer with a whale-watching tour company that toured the gorgeous Puget Sound region. We conducted tours for the public on an 80-foot dual-hulled catamaran that had a top speed of 70 knots. It was an amazing vessel.

[00:02:13] It was a nice change from a guided missile destroyer I decommissioned before I got out of the Navy. I had arrived early in the morning as the sun was coming up to prepare the boat to get underway.

[00:02:25] There was cool ocean mist in the air, and the sound of seagulls pierced the crisp air on the dock of the marina where the boat was moored. I was in the process of removing shore power when I hear, Hey! Hello! Can we come on now?

[00:02:39] It was an aunt, uncle, and grandmother of one of the staff. They were coming along with us for the day. I turned my back just for a moment while getting the boat ready, and I hear, Somebody call 911!

[00:02:51] I turned and looked, and the grandmother had collapsed and died right there on the plank. Oh God, no! I said, and I ran over and started CPR on her. I saw that her eyes had glazed over with a milky white, and I knew that she was already gone.

[00:03:07] I kept doing CPR on her until the paramedics arrived. They then took over and got her on a stretcher, and up to the ambulance. I was shaken by the experience, but was livid at the crowd at the top of the plank waiting to get on the boat.

[00:03:22] Some of them seemed concerned, but most of them seemed apathetic that someone was laying there dead that people were trying to save. We did hear in the middle of the tour that she didn't make it, and I was saddened by that.

[00:03:34] And after we pulled in and rinsed the salt water off the boat, I headed home for the weekend. Since my car was in the shop at the time, I had to take transit from Everett, Washington to Linwood back to my apartment. It was a gorgeous and sunny day.

[00:03:49] A firm but gentle summer breeze was making the massive evergreens slowly dance and sway, framed by the crisp afternoon sunlight. Then a piercing sound cut through the air. Caw! Caw! Caw! A lone crow suddenly began cawing in one of the large evergreen trees just as I was about

[00:04:09] to turn the corner into my complex. I responded, Hey there, as I turned the corner, but the air became electric and there was a shift in the air. While I was in the navy, I was introduced to Wicca by one of my shipmates, and I was

[00:04:24] very devout at that time since it had saved my life. Now the crow began leapfrogging me to the next tree ahead of me, and the next, and the next, and caw, caw, caw all the way to my front door.

[00:04:37] I thought, well that was weird, when suddenly I realized I had forgotten to get my mail, so I decided to go back outside and get it. It was a good one hundred feet to the mailbox, and as I turned the door handle, something

[00:04:50] shifted in the air, and there was a stark stillness that was unmistakable. I thought about the crow, and that it had probably flown off by now, so I closed the door, but caw, caw, caw, there it was.

[00:05:06] It was leapfrogging me from tree to tree, cawing all the way to my mailbox, and then back. I got back inside, and I was a bit shaken as I had no idea what was happening, but I knew who would.

[00:05:19] The one thing that I couldn't help but notice was that it was the only crow there. All the other crows had left the area. It was strange since there are normally thousands of crows in Washington state at any given

[00:05:30] moment, but now there was just one, and it was going berserk over something. So I called a friend, a highly trained priestess with years of experience. Normally she never picks up the phone, but she picked up on the first ring.

[00:05:44] I told her what was happening, about the crow and about the woman dying on the plank over the water. She said, when crows come to visit you in this locality, you must take into consideration that we're on Native American land.

[00:05:58] The land is saturated with Native American lore, and the animals behave in accordance with that tradition. So when crows come to you, it's a messenger and usually to tell you that something is yet unfinished. Something is unfinished. This crow was a messenger of death.

[00:06:16] In my experience with them over the years, all the other crows leave the area except that one, and it will go ballistic until the person it's there for will hopefully get it.

[00:06:27] My fiancé at the time had gotten home and we lit up some candles and I put on my vestments. I didn't exactly know what was going to happen. The only thing I knew is that I had been drafted to help with something.

[00:06:39] It was almost sundown and we had erected our sacred space. I was sitting cross-legged on the floor. I was already in an altered state from all that had happened. I took a couple of deep breaths and then closed my eyes. And whoosh!

[00:06:53] I was sucked out of my body and was transported back to that dock right where the plank is. I looked and there was the woman that had died that day, still clinging on the rails on the plank in the exact same spot where she died.

[00:07:07] All of the shops and restaurants up above looked exactly the same except everything was empty and not a soul was there except for her. Everything had a gray hue to it so it looked rather strange. I approached her and I said, hello.

[00:07:24] She was clinging to the railing, very disoriented and afraid. She asked, where is everyone? They were all right here and now they're gone. I had no idea how to tell her so I just went for it.

[00:07:36] I said, I'm sorry to have to tell you this but you died today, right in the spot you're standing now. At this point she became very upset and very emotional and I said, no, no, don't be afraid.

[00:07:49] If you just turn around and go back up the plank, your family is right there waiting for you. At the top of the plank there was a door that opened and emitted the most magnificent light. It was almost too bright to look at.

[00:08:03] The door then closed and whoosh, I was back in my body. I was disoriented myself for a bit and felt better after eating some food. The next day seemed to go normally other than the talk about what had happened the previous day.

[00:08:18] But when I got home, as I approached my apartment door, a single crow landed atop a bush that was about eye level and it began to caw. I said, oh god, what now? But he just lingered there for a couple of seconds and then flew away.

[00:08:36] The next day on the boat I found out that her husband who was married to her for sixty years passed away that evening and the exact same team of paramedics that attended to her also attended to him. They were dumbfounded by it.

[00:08:50] They were so close for so long that they couldn't live without each other. A love like that transcends time and space. And even death itself. I will never forget it. Our next experience comes to us from David. And David's story is called, Fears from Africa.

[00:09:15] David says, Dear Nick, I am listening to you from France. As I listened to your various episodes, I thought it was time to share my story with you and your community. This all began in the late 90s, in 1998.

[00:09:30] My uncle, my mother's brother, had just returned from a trip to Africa. He brought back with him a pair of masks belonging to a warrior tribe from the region that he had visited. These masks had symbols painted on them created using the blood of their deceased enemies.

[00:09:46] The two masks were bound together so that they formed a single artifact. While visiting my parents, my uncle decided to separate the two masks, giving one to my father and keeping one for himself. Both objects were then used as decorations in their respective homes.

[00:10:03] In our house, the mask was hung in the corner of our staircase, and we passed by it daily as we went down to the living room or up to our rooms. At first, nothing seemed amiss.

[00:10:14] However, some of our guests couldn't help but feel uneasy when passing by this mask. One of them even claimed that he felt very negative energies emanating from the artifact, to the point of altering my father. However, he didn't believe it at the time because he was skeptical.

[00:10:30] We eventually forgot about the mask, as it had truly become a part of our home's decor. In 1999, my mother, who had been battling cancer that had worsened since the previous year, suddenly passed away, leaving my father and me alone in the house.

[00:10:47] My uncle, who had given us the mask, cut ties with both my father and myself, and I never saw him again after that. A year passed, and my father, who was deeply affected by my mother's death, managed to cope with his grief.

[00:11:01] He met a new partner when picking me up from preschool, and this partner had a daughter who was in my class. We were both five years old at the time. Our parents decided to move in together into my father's house, and we formed a new family,

[00:11:15] which is still my family to this day. I have a sister and a mother, and we are closer than ever. That's when the troubling events began. At first, my sister and I shared a room and had bunk beds.

[00:11:29] I slept on the bottom bunk, and she slept on the top. We used to chat in the evening and play with our flashlights before sleep. Our door was always wide open, and we could see the hallway from our beds.

[00:11:41] After some time, we started seeing shadows moving in the hallway at night, trying to enter our room. One evening, we saw the outline of a face peeking from the doorframe, as if someone was hiding on the other side of the wall and discreetly trying to spy on us.

[00:11:57] Now, we initially thought that it was our father trying to scare us, so we invited him to stop trying to frighten us. However, he was actually downstairs in the living room at that moment, and he asked why we were shouting and getting agitated while upstairs.

[00:12:11] We then realized that the shape that was watching us was not our father, and we began to scream and shout. My parents, exasperated by our cries, eventually joined us in the room and turned on the light.

[00:12:24] We told them about our experience and asked them to check behind the door for any monsters. Of course, there was nothing there, and my parents went back downstairs in front of the TV, not really believing us. I began to grow increasingly afraid of passing by this mask.

[00:12:41] Anxiety would grip me every time I found myself near it, even though I hadn't paid it any attention for two years. I used to wet the bed regularly at the time, which would wake me up around 4 AM.

[00:12:52] One night, as I wanted to get up to change, I turned my gaze toward the door, and I saw a very dark, animal-like shape staring at me in the darkness. It had reddish-orange eyes. This animal shape distinctly resembled a wolf or a hyena.

[00:13:08] I could see the outline of its fur in the darkness because the street lamps outside illuminated its silhouette through the gaps in our shutters. I panicked. I began to close my eyes, afraid to reopen them, and I screamed for my parents to come and chase the creature away.

[00:13:24] Once again, they didn't believe me and insisted that it was the lights from the postman's bike who came to deliver mail early in the morning. This phenomena continued, and my sisters' and my anxieties grew. Eventually my parents began to worry, wondering what could be causing all of this.

[00:13:44] One day, my father's friend, who had previously expressed concerns about the mask, came back to our house. His feelings were unequivocal once more. There was something with that mask. He could feel bad vibes as soon as he got near it.

[00:13:59] This friend managed to convince my parents to bring in a medium that he knew to purify the house. So a medium came to assess the situation. His judgment was unambiguous. The mask was the source of these paranormal phenomena.

[00:14:14] Not only were the souls of the people whose blood had been used to paint it attached to it, but it had not tolerated being separated from the second mask that remained with my uncle.

[00:14:23] Spells cast by shamans on this artifact had tied it to a whole regional folklore that had found its way into our house. The anger from the separation of the mask from its counterpart was so great that the medium

[00:14:36] did not rule out the possibility that the negative energies it emitted might have contributed to the worsening of my mother's cancer, which eventually led to her death. The souls attached to the artifact were not malevolent, but they lingered around it, seeking

[00:14:51] a way out of this world that they never found. They had taken refuge in our staircase, and even in our garden. But why did the phenomena only start after my sister and mother moved into our house?

[00:15:05] The medium thought that two children could be catalysts for these energies, and the spirits present around the artifact may have found it easier to manifest in the presence of two children of the same age who were still open to such phenomena.

[00:15:18] A purification ritual was performed over several days, and all activities ceased afterward. My father got in touch with my uncle again to return the mask for good. I don't know if he also experienced similar events to ours.

[00:15:35] After this experience, it took me a long time to stop being afraid of the dark, and I started sleeping with a nightlight. My sister, on the other hand, recovered better than I did. She quickly forgot about all of these events.

[00:15:48] We don't talk regularly about this story because we've moved on. My parents have always supported and encouraged me to regain confidence in myself regarding my fear of the dark. Twenty-five years later, I haven't forgotten these events, but I also don't feel any

[00:16:04] anger or sadness when I think about them. It's now just part of my history. Thank you for reading. Sincerely, David Before I continue, please consider showing your support by subscribing, sharing, and giving the podcast a positive review.

[00:16:26] You can also visit me on Patreon, buy me a coffee, or even on PayPal, where you can make a donation or become a member for as little as a dollar a month. And if you've had a paranormal experience, you can share it with me through email or

[00:16:38] voice message, and all of my support and contact information can be found at paranormalmysteriespodcast.com, as well as in the show notes. And with that being said, I'll be right back after these brief messages. Our next experience comes to us from Gemma, and Gemma's story is called

[00:17:02] Sleep Paralysis Ghost Gemma says I have always had trouble sleeping my entire life, and I was also always afraid of the dark. When I was elementary school age, I would often sleep with my parents because of it.

[00:17:18] Once I was a tween or a teenager, I became interested in watching horror movies, and this too would contribute to my poor sleep and fear of the dark. When I became an adult and moved out on my own, I was living in an apartment in a high

[00:17:31] rise in a city. This improved my sleep a lot because I was not afraid of my small apartment. There were no creepy dark corners, hallways, basements, or closets, and it never really got that dark because the city lights were always on outside.

[00:17:47] I did, however, begin to experience sleep paralysis. I don't even remember having this as a child. I would describe my experience of sleep paralysis as being half awake, not able to move my body at all, but sometimes being able to make noise.

[00:18:03] I remember some of my past boyfriends would wake up in the middle of the night because my teeth would be chattering or I would be trying to yell during some of my sleep paralysis episodes.

[00:18:12] I don't think this is something that would happen all the time, but maybe once a month or less than that. Sometimes I would feel creeped out after an episode, but oftentimes it didn't really scare me.

[00:18:24] Because I have a Chinese background, I once got the idea to move my bed to a better location according to Feng Shui, and this helped tremendously with sleep paralysis. In my early 20s, I traveled to the Philippines where I have a lot of extended family.

[00:18:40] It is a very long journey to get there. 20 plus hours. I arrived to my aunt and uncle's house late at night and was very jet lagged. They have a huge beautiful home. Homes in their area are pretty close together, but the properties are surrounded by very high walls.

[00:18:56] The area was a gated community with 24-hour security at the entrances. It was not wooded and it was densely populated. By many standards, the city they lived in was extremely safe. The inside of the house was designed to be opulent.

[00:19:12] It had a Spanish style to it, immaculately clean with high ceilings and a grand winding staircase. Each bedroom had its own full bathroom. I was very familiar with this home because my grandmother had lived here before she passed

[00:19:26] away a few years prior to my trip here, and I often stayed here during my visits. That night, I went straight to bed because I had arrived after midnight and most of my relatives were already asleep.

[00:19:39] One of my cousins was away during this time, so I stayed in her bedroom. I left the bathroom light on with the door slightly ajar so there was dim light in the bedroom.

[00:19:49] I did watch TV, but being in a foreign country, I couldn't find anything good to watch. This was before streaming services. At this point, I started to fall asleep, but kept waking up every so often. Finally, I fell asleep but woke up to sleep paralysis.

[00:20:07] I was able to open my eyes, and in the dim light, I remember staring at the air conditioning unit in the wall, not being able to move, but seeing a dark shadowy figure pass across my field of vision. A moment later, I was able to move, and nothing.

[00:20:24] I had chills and was definitely scared, but I told myself that since my grandmother used to live here, that maybe it was her. I didn't mention this to anyone. At least five more years later, I was with my cousin on a trip to California.

[00:20:40] This was the same cousin that was away during the trip to the Philippines, and the one whose bedroom I stayed in. For some reason, we got to talking about creepy things or ghosts, and I told her this story,

[00:20:51] and she said, I can't believe you never told me this story. Now in my defense, we do live in different countries, so we rarely spend time talking about things that aren't important. This was also the first time I had ever told anyone about this.

[00:21:06] She then proceeded to tell me that her sister had once seen an apparition of a woman at the top of those stairs near the bedroom entrance where I stayed. There was also another time when her sister called her mother on the intercom and had

[00:21:18] a conversation, but her mother said later that that conversation never happened. My cousin then said, whatever you saw was not grandma. As always, I hope you enjoyed tonight's episode, and before I leave you, I'd like to thank Paul, David, and Gemma for coming forward with their experiences.

[00:21:43] And if you'd like to submit your experience or learn more about supporting what I do, you can find all of my contact and support information at paranormalmysteriespodcast.com and of course in the show notes.

[00:21:57] Until next time, thank you so much for listening, and please remember, don't wait for the unknown to come to you. Get out there and find it.