Hallowed Ground, Angels Over the Cornfield & Girl in the Garden | 431

[00:00:00] This episode is brought to you by my newest supporters Makis, SAR, Charity, Lisa, and Brooke. Thank you for making the show possible.

[00:00:41] Welcome to Paranormal Mysteries, and thank you for joining me as we explore the unknown. I'm your host, Nic Ryan. Let's begin tonight's journey with Heather, who calls their experience an answer to an SOS. Hello, Nic. It's been about a year since I shared an experience with you, but I had one happen recently that still has me puzzled, and admittedly a bit in awe.

[00:01:08] This involves me, my husband, and our cat, in our humble little home on Florida's east coast. And this just happened last week. To give you a little background, this year has been insanely difficult. There have been a lot of changes in my life, and my husband had a stroke as we were planning our wedding. However, we were able to get married in December at a beautifully intimate ceremony with close family in attendance.

[00:01:33] He is doing much better now, but I had suddenly become his full-time caregiver and sole earner in the household. I was working two jobs, and I was burning the candle at both ends. Between medical and financial stress, I was on the verge of a breakdown. On top of it, we experienced two electrical fires this year, about a month apart, as my elderly cat has been targeting power strips instead of his litter box. This is part of the stress that is relevant to this story.

[00:02:01] So basically, by April 23rd, 2025, I had had enough, and I was starting to sink into a deep depression. I was sitting in our living room, working on one of my part-time jobs, and out of the blue, I pick up the unmistakable smell of ozone. You know, that strong metallic smell of electricity. Immediately, I'm freaking out, and thinking that my cat has started another electrical fire. So I stand up, and the smell becomes overwhelming.

[00:02:28] Way stronger than it should be, and stronger than it had been with the last two power strips that burned. Only this time, I wasn't smelling the burning wires. Just ozone. So now, my brain and my nose are going a mile a minute, and trying to pinpoint the source. When I say that I checked everything, I ran around sniffing and feeling every single outlet and appliance in our home. Feeling for heat. Listening for that crackling or popping sound. Looking for smoke. And even feeling the walls for heat, in case it was a hot wire.

[00:02:58] I found absolutely nothing. I opened up our breaker box. But nothing was amiss. I checked the utility closet, the laundry room, and the kitchen as I went around the entire home. But there was literally nothing wrong. I ran outside to grab my husband, and he came in to help me investigate. Also confirming that he smelled it too. He also noted, like I did, that the smell only seemed to be coming from the center of the living room.

[00:03:23] When he suggested that perhaps a neighbor was cleaning, I stepped outside, checking front and back. And I could pick up no odor outside that smelled anything like this, and that may have drifted in. I remember thinking that since the air conditioner was running, it should be dispersing the odor throughout my home. However, it remained concentrated in about an eight foot diameter of the center of the living room. This was too weird, and I sat down, trying to get my heart rate to slow. When I happened to glance up.

[00:03:52] Across from me, between the arm of the sofa and the wall where it sits in the corner. A gray blob, that's the best way I can describe it. About the size of a basketball, slowly sunk out of sight. Imagine a child peeking their head over the arm of the sofa. That's what it reminded me of. Now, this is not just something I saw out of my peripheral vision. I was looking right at it. I was not casting any shadow in that direction. The light was in front of me. And my cat was sleeping on his pillow in full view.

[00:04:22] So it wasn't him. What's even weirder is that when the shadow moved away, so did that strong, acrid smell. Now granted, I am accustomed to seeing shadows in figures. That part alone really didn't faze me. But I did initially get a little bit of an attack vibe from the whole situation. The feeling shifted because the moment the gray blob disappeared, I also felt a touch right behind my shoulder blades. It was too strong to be a stray hair tickling my back.

[00:04:51] But it was not hard enough to hurt. What it felt like was if someone took a pen and drew a straight line about three inches down the center of my back. For some odd reason, this actually gave me a psychic impression that whatever was there was not there to harm me. And the mental impression I got was that it was sorry for causing any panic. Fast forward to the next day on April 24th, I'm still trying to figure out what the heck happened. I took to Reddit, of course, where opinions varied widely.

[00:05:20] I was reminded that if this was a dark presence, the odor would have been more of a sulfur or rotten smell. Another user suggested that the event may have been a spirit leaving a host. But for some reason, that didn't feel right either. I decided to burn some Palo Santo, as I really needed to clear and reclaim my space. During this time, my thoughts could really test the edges of what all this meant, and what felt the most true.

[00:05:46] The panic I felt at the smell of ozone was indeed directly tied to the electrical fires. I truly believe this was an unintentional trauma response. I do believe the sudden, concentrated electrification of the air directly in front of me was a manifestation. Something coming to me. Something that, given its other gentle movements, like the slow shadow and the gentle touch on my back, meant to say, I'm here for you. Not, I'm going to get you.

[00:06:14] If it hadn't been for the visual and the physical cues that occurred with this manifestation of sorts, I likely would have not recognized this event as a manifestation. But whoever or whatever the entity was, it knew that their presence was needed. And honestly, ever since the entity came and left, even though nothing in the situation itself has changed, my heart has felt lighter, and things have felt less stressful. The resulting inner peace is a massive relief in itself. All in all,

[00:06:44] this was by far the strangest presence I have ever experienced. And it reminds me that we are not alone in the universe, or on this physical plane. It also serves as a reminder that when our souls are crying out for help, someone is listening. Thank you, Nick, for providing this platform. And I hope this experience helps even one other person out there to know that someone is listening to them, as well. Your longtime listener, Heather.

[00:07:17] Our next experience comes to us from Nadia. And Nadia says this. Hi, Nick. I have been listening to your podcast for a long time, and now I finally found the courage to send you my own story. I live in Denmark, and English is not my first language.

[00:08:02] I have always had a fascination with the paranormal. I think I was skeptical, especially because it didn't take long for the planchette to start moving. But the spirit could tell things that neither of the others knew. We got freaked out and stopped playing, and instead we went into the kitchen. My friend and I were sitting on the kitchen bench, and across from us was a radio, and it was plugged into the socket that was in the wall. Both of us saw the switch getting pushed down, and the radio started to play. We then left,

[00:08:31] and we never came back to his place. I don't know if this was an actual spirit, or if our heightened emotions could have manifested into this. Shortly after, my mom and her new partner bought a house, so all of us could live together. My mom, her partner, his son, and myself. I was the typical sulky 16-year-old girl who absolutely wasn't thrilled about moving or getting a stepbrother. I am only saying this because this particular phenomenon seemed to be attracted to me and my emotions

[00:09:00] in the year to come. Our first night in the house, we were all sitting around the dinner table. My new stepdad was next to me, and my mom and my stepbrother were on the other side. They were engrossed in conversation, and I was being moody. Suddenly, my stepdad's glass started sliding across the table. He noticed it too, and we just looked at each other. Within 30 seconds, it slid about a foot. When it stopped, we tried everything to recreate it, but essentially,

[00:09:30] we couldn't find an explanation. In the next few months, things seemed to go missing a lot, only to turn up in weird places. However, I can't be sure that this was paranormal, as we were two teens, and there were tons of friends at the house. We also heard lots of noises, but it was an old house. One day, a few months later though, I had an experience that left me rattled. The house is kind of built into a hill, so that when you enter from the street level, you can go down the stairs

[00:09:59] and exit into the garden. My stepbrother and I had our rooms downstairs, as well as our own bathroom and a kitchen. I came home from school, trudged down the stairs, put my gloves, scarf, and hat on the hat rack, and I bent down to untie my boots. While I'm bending down, I notice movement out of the corner of my eye, and I turn my head. There were my gloves in the middle of the floor. There was no way they could have just fallen down, as they were a good three feet to the other side of me.

[00:10:28] A few months later, I was home alone one Friday or Saturday night. My mom and her partner were gone for the weekend, and had left me in charge. My stepbrother was at a party, and I think it was perhaps the first time that he went to a party, so I was waiting up to make sure that he was okay. The living room was on street level, so I would be able to clearly hear whenever he came home. Around nine o'clock, the door opened, and heavy footsteps trudged down the stairs. I yelled out for him to close the door,

[00:10:58] but I got no answer. I thought that maybe he was drunk, so I decided to go and look. The door was open, but I was the only one in the house. Okay, I thought that was weird, but I closed the door, and I continued to watch TV. About 45 minutes later, though, the exact same thing happened again. The door swung open, footsteps came down the stairs, but still, there was no one. At this point, I decided to lock the door.

[00:11:27] Only ten minutes later, the same thing happened again. This time, however, the door was actually still closed when I went out to the hallway, but I had distinctly heard it open, and footsteps go down the stairs. When my brother finally did come home, I was sitting outside and waiting for him. I moved out shortly after this, but would sometimes spend the night if I had been with friends who lived in that area. I didn't always notify my parents, because I had a key, and I would just let myself in. So,

[00:11:57] one morning, my stepdad called me, asking why I had left so early, and why I had been in the garden in the early morning. I told him, though, that I hadn't been to the house at all. He then told me that he had been up during the night, and he happened to glance out the window, and he had seen a female figure in the garden. Now, because the house is built into a hill, there is no way to enter the garden, except through the house. Of course, you could jump the wall from the neighboring gardens, but at that time, the neighbors on all sides

[00:12:27] were older people, who were definitely not jumping any walls. I never felt at home in that house, and I still don't, even though these experiences all happened more than 20 years ago. Thank you for a great podcast. Love from Nadja in Denmark. Before I continue, please consider showing your support by subscribing, sharing, and giving the podcast

[00:12:56] a positive review. You can also visit me on Patreon, buy me a coffee, or PayPal and make a donation, or become a member starting at just a dollar a month. You can even join my Patreon membership for free and get access to all of my future updates. And of course, just listening to the show is the best support of all, and I'm grateful to have you here. Now, please stay tuned, and I'll be right back after these brief messages.

[00:13:23] Our next experience comes to us from Amelia. Amelia says, I have a good amount of stories, and permission to share them from family and friends, as I don't really have anything too significant that I have experienced myself. I will eventually share all of them. But here's just one, for now. This story was told to me by my grandmother about her grandmother, so this would have been my great-great-grandmother's experience.

[00:13:53] When my great-great-grandma was growing up, she and her family lived right outside the town of Shalit in eastern North Carolina. Keep in mind, this was like three generations ago, so it was still a very little place with not too many residents. When she was around the age of 10, there was a really bad sickness going around, and one of her friends, who also happened to be their neighbor, had gotten very sick. One day around this time, my great-great-grandma's mother made a casserole for the neighbors to help them out

[00:14:22] with meals while their daughter was so sick. She sent my great-great-grandma to take it to their house, which was right down the street. The neighbor's house had two cornfields surrounding their house and a dirt driveway, with one on the left and the other on the right. As she was walking up to the house, she stopped and looked to her left, and she saw three balls of bright light moving over the field at a good speed toward the house. She then watched as the lights flew until they were directly over the house,

[00:14:51] stopped for a moment, and then took off straight up into the sky until she couldn't see them anymore. She stood there for several minutes in shock, and then remembered why she was there in the first place, and she went inside to give them the casserole. When she got inside, she found the family really upset because the sick daughter had just died only minutes ago. This meant the girl would have passed away right as my great-great-grandma saw the lights over the house.

[00:15:27] take her to heaven. Thank you so much for reading this and for what you do for this community. I'm planning to send in more stories soon, but bye until then. Our next experience comes to us from Margie, and Margie's experience is called College Rental Haunted House. Hi Nick, I have been enjoying your podcast and hearing the stories from your listeners.

[00:15:56] Thanks for your hard work. Here are some short stories about a house I visited in college in the 1990s. Back in 1994, I was visiting my boyfriend in a rental house that housed many college students. It was like an eight-bedroom house with lots of kids coming and going at any time of the day. The house was located in a residential neighborhood in Riverside, California, which is part of the desert community, and it gets pretty hot. Normally, the houses there have AC, but this house did not. However,

[00:16:26] somehow, it was always cool, even in the hottest parts of the day. One day, my boyfriend was at class, and I was just hanging out in his room by myself, just watching some TV. I started to get hungry, but because I could hear the commotion in the kitchen downstairs, I decided to wait until everyone left to get something to eat. I kept hearing the sounds of glasses clinking, utensils dropping, and plates clashing in the sink. I even heard the water running like someone was doing the dishes. The commotion

[00:16:55] just kept going and going. Finally, though, I couldn't stand it anymore as I was so hungry. I crept down the stairs and I walked into the kitchen to find no one there. Like, the whole first floor was empty. I was shocked as I just heard so much commotion, and I could have sworn that someone already ate.

[00:17:25] Soon after they left, my boyfriend distinctly heard and felt the vibration of someone opening the door, running up the stairs, then running back down and slamming the door shut. It was as if someone forgot their wallet or something like that. When the roommates arrived with their food, my boyfriend asked which one of them had forgotten their wallet. However, the roommates looked at him with a weird look and said that no one had forgotten their wallet. Last, I visited my boyfriend a lot during the summer, and it was fun to hang out

[00:17:55] with all of his roommates. One roommate in particular had rented the room next to my boyfriend. I was looking forward to spending some time with her, and although she was partially moved in, she was never there when I visited. One day, though, I saw her on campus, and I asked her why she hadn't fully moved in yet. She looked at me wide-eyed and replied that on her first night in the house, she was sleeping when she heard a psst. Psst. She awoke to find an old man looking down at her and whispered,

[00:18:25] Hey you, what are you doing here? She said that after that, she never laid foot in the house ever again. My friend did ask the manager about the room, and it turns out that she has had a hard time renting out that room, for obvious reasons. Thank you for taking the time to read my stories, and keep up the great work. Our next experience comes to us from Justin, and Justin's story

[00:18:55] is called The Grateful Dead, but we are not talking about the band. Greetings, Nick. I have countless tales from my military career, but today, I want to share one without the need for a disclaimer. When Hurricane Katrina struck, I was among the first responders assisting with search and rescue, and spending six grueling months on duty. After that, I returned repeatedly on my own to help rebuild, driven by the pull of family and friends

[00:19:24] in the devastated area. Growing up in Appalachia, I've always had an affinity for the paranormal, steeped in the rich tapestry of local folklore. New Orleans, due to its low elevation and high water table, they don't bury their dead in the ground. Instead, the deceased rest in above-ground vaults, lest the soil cause their body to be waterlogged or displaced. So, needless to say, Katrina destroyed many of these tombs. In most cemeteries,

[00:19:53] I find a sense of peace, but there are a few where my instincts scream at me to leave, because I wouldn't be departing alone. During our extraction missions near these hallowed grounds, I felt a strong urge to bring some semblance of order to the badly destroyed tombs displaced by the hurricane. With permission, I assembled a team of six to salvage what we could. While repairing some of the vaults, a gentleman approached me, oddly dressed in a suit, his appearance striking me as peculiar, though not alarming.

[00:20:23] It was New Orleans after all. What are you doing? He inquired. I then explained that our mission was to pay our respects to the souls affected by the storm. He stood silent for a moment before saying, thank you, and you have nothing to worry about here. The comment sat ill at ease, but I brushed it off. Fast forward a few weeks, it was just my friend who was from New Orleans and myself working in another cemetery. I found myself in conversation

[00:20:52] with a rather brash lady. The air was tense, and my friend seemed increasingly uneasy. He wouldn't look at her, refused to make eye contact, and remained mute. When I articulated my desire to honor the departed souls, she echoed the exact same words that I had heard from the suited man weeks before. Thank you, and you have nothing to worry about here. But she also added, You are always welcome here. I then thanked her,

[00:21:22] and I asked her for her name, but she merely laughed, and then walked away. Confused, I turned to my friend, asking what was wrong with him. I wasn't going to say anything, he replied, but you weren't speaking to a living person. That lady you were just talking to? She is the ancient queen, believed to be none other than Mary Laveau. For those of you who aren't familiar with who Justin is referring to, Mary Catherine Laveau was a renowned Louisiana Creole

[00:21:52] practitioner of voodoo, an occultist, herbalist, nurse, and midwife. Mary passed away in Louisiana on June 15, 1881, at the age of 79. Justin goes on to say this, Years later, I returned to the same grounds, and while I didn't see anyone, I felt the unmistakable sensation of being observed by many eyes. Yet, instead of danger, I felt a profound sense of comfort.

[00:22:22] I now go to the cemeteries with coins for veteran graves, and various tokens for others laid to rest. I hope that just by speaking their names one more time, that it helps them to know that they are never forgotten. Before I bring tonight's episode to an end, I'd like to thank all of our experiencers for coming forward with their stories. And of course, I truly appreciate each and every one of you for listening

[00:22:51] and showing your support. With that being said, I hope you have a wonderful rest of your evening, and I'll be back in just a few short days with more tales of the unexplained. Until then, stay open-minded and stay safe. Because after all, the next person that comes face-to-face with a paranormal mystery might be you.