(A) Satanic Rituals, Time Slips & a Predator-like Entity | Archive Ep122

[00:00:14] Welcome to Midweek Mysteries, and thank you all for tuning in. I'm your host, Nic Ryan. If you're new to the show, Midweek Mysteries is a shorter version of our regular Sunday episodes where we like to give a personal shout-out to our newest supporters, so please

[00:00:30] be sure to tune in. If you're interested in supporting us, please consider sharing, reviewing, and subscribing to the show, and if you'd like to take the next step, please visit us at patreon.com or at buymeacoffee.com where you can make a one-time donation.

[00:00:49] Your support in any form makes the show possible. And if you've encountered the paranormal and you'd like to share your story, please email me at paranormalmysteriespodcast at gmail.com. All experiences, no matter how big or small, are always welcome. Now let's see what today's storytellers have to say.

[00:01:10] Today's first Midweek Mystery comes to us from Hugh. Hugh's story is called, Satanic Panic or Why I Don't Drink Jack Daniels Anymore. Hugh says, Hi Nic. I really enjoy listening to your podcast and thought you would be perfect to help tell

[00:01:27] this episode in my lifelong story with the paranormal. This story takes place in my hometown of Gulfport, Florida. It was Christmas break from my senior year of high school in 1987. My friends and I had just left a Christmas party at our friend's house just outside

[00:01:43] the city limits in St. Petersburg. It was around midnight, and my friend R was driving myself and my friend D the 10 minute drive back to our homes in Gulfport. We had managed to score a bottle of Jack Daniels for the party, and we had all had some high

[00:01:58] school-sized drinks at the house party, and we were eager to get home and into bed. The road back to Gulfport has two large cemeteries on either side of the road that run for many blocks.

[00:02:11] The vast cemetery on our left had a small road that ran through the middle of the thousands of graves. The road led around a small lake in the center of the cemetery, and has large family crypts and mausoleums on both sides.

[00:02:24] We knew the cemetery well, having explored its acres during the day, and quite a few times at night, trying to scare whatever girls had been hanging out with us that weekend. This night however was different.

[00:02:36] We were about halfway through the stretch of road between the cemeteries when a flash of light caught all of our attentions. The flash had come from the middle of the cemetery. Again and again we saw the bright flash of light bounce out between the walls of the mausoleums

[00:02:52] and over the graves out to the street where we were driving. We quickly looked at each other. We had to find out exactly what was going on in there. We pulled a quick U-turn on the empty street and headed toward the entrance to the cemetery.

[00:03:05] While driving in we tried to guess what could be happening. Our best guess was that some other high school kids were messing around with flashlights and doing some ghost hunting. We drove close to where the flashlights were still coming from with our headlights off,

[00:03:19] hoping to safely get close to whoever or whatever was causing these weird flashes. We jumped out of the car, no doubt fueled with liquid courage, and made our way slowly between the family mausoleums and tombs.

[00:03:32] I strained my eyes in the dark to try to make out any figures when the flash went off again, illuminating an area to the right of where I could see shapes moving in a circle. My brain seemed to be stuck, trying to identify what my eyes were seeing.

[00:03:48] There in front of us were roughly twenty black-robed figures. Some were standing and chanting while some were dancing around a six-foot circle on the ground that had what looked like professional strobe lights spiked into the ground at five points.

[00:04:02] The strobes kept firing off as the robed figures kept dancing, and each moment the flash exploded, the figures would be illuminated in what looked like some crazy still photography of dancing monks. At this moment, Jack Daniels whispered to me that this was an abomination.

[00:04:19] I was suddenly personally offended that these people thought that it was okay to perform some sort of Saturday night satanic potluck ceremony in my hometown's only cemetery. I jumped out from behind our hiding spot, behind the mausoleum, and made a dead run

[00:04:34] straight at the heart of the robed figures, and I started screaming at them to get the hell out of my town. At once the party seemed to stop like we had unplugged the stereo. The figures all turned towards me, and a group of three began to approach me.

[00:04:49] The flashing lights at the circle continued to pop and flash as these three came into my field of vision. Shockingly to me, the first one who spoke to me was an attractive blonde girl in her mid-twenties.

[00:05:01] I guess I was expecting a witch or maybe an angry man from a Scooby-Doo episode or something. The girls seemed to be holding the other two back for the moment. I quickly looked at the other two figures, and they looked to be white males in their

[00:05:14] thirties with unfriendly facial expressions. The girl leaned in closer to me and said that it was not what we thought. They were just college students doing a project. I decided after checking out the crowd that these were probably not college kids from

[00:05:30] anywhere that I knew, unless the University of South Florida had a satanic studies course for adult learners. I began to scream a few more obscenities and threats at the group before the blonde girl

[00:05:41] grabbed me and said that I better get out of there right now, unless I wanted to get hurt bad. At this exact moment, my larger, older, and wiser friend R grabbed me by the back of my shirt and yanked me four feet backwards.

[00:05:56] It's time to leave, R yelled at me and motioned me back to the car, and the three of us ran with all of our strength. Safely in the getaway vehicle, we floored it towards the only exit, worried beyond anything

[00:06:09] that one of these robed men would beat us back and block our escape. We sped back downtown, taking another, longer way back to avoid running into anyone. We made it home to my friend D's house. What the hell did we just see? How was that possible?

[00:06:26] We live in a small town with three main roads in and out of town. We also have a pretty large police force that surely would have seen those flashes on the road that they love to endlessly drive up and down.

[00:06:37] We slept a few hours and got up early the next morning. We grabbed our 35mm camera and drove back to the cemetery, looking for evidence. It was not too hard to find. We took pictures of the 6-foot pentagram in the circle, all made out of a white chalky

[00:06:52] substance. The holes in the ground from the strobe lights that were spiked in at the five points were visible in the ground. There also were remains of melted black candles on several graves, along with some markings

[00:07:04] on the side of a few crypts, and a burnt patch on the ground about 12 feet from the pentagram circle. Evidence in hand, we put this away and enjoyed the rest of our Christmas break. We really didn't talk about that night very much.

[00:07:19] We hadn't gone to the police that night for fear of getting in trouble for underage drinking, and we really weren't sure who we could trust with this information. Two weeks later I'm back in school and sitting in my classroom when a police officer walks

[00:07:32] in and asks if anyone has seen anything strange in the graveyard over Christmas break. My blood ran cold. I tried to keep a poker face and just shook my head no. The officer looked around at all the students.

[00:07:46] He then said that if we thought of anything, to get in touch with them. I went to a very large high school that several townskids attended. The odds of him randomly picking my class seemed far-fetched. How far did this actually go? Was that a warning?

[00:08:02] We decided that keeping this thing to ourselves was the best way to not have any unpleasant visits in the middle of the night, or a random police pullover in our small town for that matter.

[00:08:12] I know this story is strictly speaking not paranormal, but I will also tell you that it opened my eyes and changed my life forever. We still keep in touch, and occasionally we'll talk about that night.

[00:08:24] We still have the photos, and they still make my blood run cold now as they did the next day. It just goes to show you that you never know what you might run into at midnight in a cemetery. Keep your eyes open.

[00:08:38] Thanks for reading my story, and I hope that you are staying well and safe. Hugh. Our next story of the night comes from Chris. Chris says, Hi! I've enjoyed the podcast thoroughly since finding it on Spotify earlier this year.

[00:08:56] I have an encounter that I'd like to share with you and your listeners. Many years ago, my family moved into a new house, and there was a lake across the street from my house.

[00:09:06] We mostly avoided it because I was so young at the time, and it wasn't uncommon for black bears to come out of the surrounding forest area and to root through people's trash. One evening, it was especially still and the sky was dark orange.

[00:09:19] There was barely any noise, and I felt strongly that I should look out the window of my room and down at the street. What I saw, I believe was a ghost or a spirit apparition. It was the form of a man with glowing eyes.

[00:09:33] You could partially see through him. His features weren't really clear. It was more like a humanoid shape. No fingers or feet. They were just obscured. It's not like they were missing. The figure floated down the street slowly, as if at a walking pace.

[00:09:49] After a few moments, he vanished. I didn't feel anything bad. It was just as if I was watching somebody walking down the street. A few years later, we found out that a man had died and was found in the lake across the street.

[00:10:03] I think it might have been him. I've had a lot of strange things happen at that house and in that area, but I felt as if this would be the best to share. Thanks for all the great content. I really enjoy the podcast. Kindly, Chris

[00:10:21] Our next listener story comes to us from TJ. TJ's story is called, Time Slip. TJ says, Hi Nick. Maybe I am just not as sensitive as some people, but I don't have many experiences that I can't explain. But I do have this one.

[00:10:37] I wanted to share it with you as I heard some other listeners' stories that reminded me of it. When I was about 10 years old, my family moved to the rural area of Wisconsin where my mom is originally from.

[00:10:49] We lived out in the country with about a 20 minute drive to the nearest small city. This was probably one of my first times that I had taken the trip and I was mostly unfamiliar

[00:10:58] with the landmarks on it, so I was avidly looking out the window and observing this new place. Not too far from our house we came upon a solitary barn. Anyone who is from rural Wisconsin knows that the countryside is dotted with many old barns

[00:11:12] in various states of disrepair or use, so it was not unusual to see. I took more interest in this particular one though because there were many people who seemed to be working on it.

[00:11:23] It was a crowd of men in white shirts and suspenders, and it seemed as though they were raising the barn or building it. I remember young men straddling big beams that would be in the hayloft, hammering in nails, and teams of horses hoisting those beams up.

[00:11:38] There was no heavy machinery, just teams of horses and men doing the heavy lifting. It looked as though they were doing it in the old-fashioned way. I did not think this was odd either, as this particular area is home to many Amish families

[00:11:52] who dress similar to what I saw and shun most modern machinery. It made sense to me that the Amish would be building their barn like this. My mother, who was driving, didn't mention it, so I just watched them until we passed it.

[00:12:06] I thought nothing more about it until a few days later when we were going back into town. I remembered the men working on the barn and wondered how much progress they had made since I had seen them.

[00:12:16] However, when we got to the spot that I knew the barn was, I was shocked. The barn was now completely collapsed on itself with rotting wood and vines growing up around the stone part.

[00:12:27] There were young trees and bushes growing next to it and inside, though I clearly remember the dusty area around where the men had cleared the work area. It had obviously been abandoned for decades.

[00:12:39] I turned to my mom and asked her how long the barn had been like that. She seemed very confused and didn't know which barn I was talking about until I pointed it out. She was then even more confused and said that it had always been that way.

[00:12:52] It was not far from the road, and I am certain that my mom would have seen what I saw and remembered it. From living in that area in the years afterward, I have never seen a sight like that again,

[00:13:03] so I know that it would have been unusual enough for my mom to take note of it. I am also confident that it was the same barn due to an easily recognizable landmark right next to it.

[00:13:14] The barn is completely gone now as someone bulldozed its remains for a new driveway, but I always think about this experience when passing by where it used to be. I do not think these are ghosts in the traditional sense.

[00:13:26] To me it seemed more like an echo of the past, or just a moment where time got thin and I glimpsed what it was. Some kind of latent energy taking form for just a second. Thank you for listening to my story.

[00:13:43] Our next listener story comes to us from Vincent. Vincent's story is called, Saved by an Invisible Entity. Vincent says, So I started listening to your podcast about a week ago, and I heard the one about the

[00:13:57] cloaked predator-looking creature, and I nearly lost it when I heard these people's stories. It also made me very happy to hear that I am not the only one who has had an encounter with this entity.

[00:14:09] I've never told anyone about this before in fear of being thrown into the loony bin, and just that no one would ever believe me. I'm also not really sure what it is that I saw. I just know that it saved my life that day.

[00:14:22] It was in Keene, New Hampshire, in early December of 2014. It's a small town that looks like it's smack dab in the center of a crater because it has hilly mountains on all sides, except for the southern side.

[00:14:35] There is a place there called Sunset Rock, and it's a short hike that's kind of steep until you get close to the top. At the very top there is a cell tower or radio tower, but just before that is a trail that leads out to Sunset Rock.

[00:14:49] As you can guess at sunset, you can see the whole town of Keene, and it turns a beautiful yellow-orange. However, my encounter happened in the morning. I woke up at 7.30 in the morning to a breakup text from my then girlfriend, and she was

[00:15:02] breaking things off to go back to her ex. I was a little upset, and decided to hike up to Sunset Rock, as that place always cheers me up. It was cold that morning while I was heading up the mountain, and I noticed the tops of

[00:15:15] the trees moving, but I couldn't feel any wind, and I assumed it just hadn't reached the bottom of the trail yet, and that I'd feel it as I got higher up the path.

[00:15:25] It was the clicking that I thought was really odd at first, and it sounded like a woodpecker off in the distance, but it continued to follow me, and thinking back about it now, the movement of the tops of the trees followed me as well.

[00:15:38] As I reached the small clearing, the clicking noises stopped, and I walked up to the edge of the cliff on a big rock that pops up from the ground, and I gazed out. Half the town was covered in mist, and it was cloudy and beautiful as always.

[00:15:51] I then got startled by the clicking noise again, only it sounded like it was right behind me, and I tried to turn around quickly to see what was making the sound, and that's when I slipped off the rock.

[00:16:01] My immediate thought was, crap, I'm going to die, but just then something grabbed my arm and stopped my fall. I'm 6'4", and at the time I was about 300 pounds, so I looked over to see who grabbed

[00:16:14] me, and all I could see was a shimmer, like when heat radiates off the pavement. The best way to describe it is when predator is cloaked. It was very similar, and this shimmer was in the shape of a human. It had me by my arm.

[00:16:28] It clicked again, and pulled me like a rag doll up onto the top of the cliff. We stared at each other for about 15 or 20 seconds. I said thank you, and it clicked again, and before I could ask what it wanted or what

[00:16:40] it was, it jumped over my head and into the trees, and that's when I lost sight of it. It was almost as tall as I was, but had an average build from what I could tell.

[00:16:51] I continued looking for it for another 30 minutes, before I started to notice how cold I was getting. I decided to head back down the mountain, and I thought I noticed it watching me from the treetops as I made my way back down.

[00:17:03] I was blown away about what had happened to me, and I couldn't believe it. I was afraid no one would ever believe me, or they'd just laugh at me, so I kept it to myself all these years.

[00:17:13] Hearing your podcast and these people's testimonies brought the whole encounter back to me, and I'm thrilled that I'm not the only one who has encountered this being. Thank you so much for listening.

[00:17:24] It feels great to have a place where I can finally get this off of my chest. Our last story of the night comes from Eddie May. Eddie May's story is called Ye Olde Ghost. Eddie May says,

[00:17:39] I am a big believer in the paranormal because of the experiences I've had in my life. I used to work at a living history museum. There were many old houses you could go in and watch costumed historians reenacting the past.

[00:17:52] When I was still new to the job, I was assigned to a house that I had never worked in. In the basement of the house there was a kitchen, so me and the other girl I was working with

[00:18:01] built a fire in the fireplace and began cooking like they did in the 1830s. As I got to talking to this girl who I had just met, she told me that the house we were

[00:18:11] in used to be a morgue and they would cremate bodies in the basement, and the oven they put the bodies in was still there. We were in the basement, and the oven was behind a locked door in the other room.

[00:18:23] But in this other room, we kept extra things that we needed, and it had a sink, so we regularly had to go in. It constantly felt cold in the room, even though we had a roaring fire in the kitchen, although the roaring fire was because of another ghost.

[00:18:38] That day, outside the house that we were in, there was a demonstration of old-fashioned instruments. This happened often, and the girl I was working with said that every time they had this demonstration

[00:18:48] and were playing old songs, the fire would start roaring, as if the ghost in the house liked the music. And I saw it happen. The fire was small at first, but it immediately picked up as the girl began singing a tune from the 1800s.

[00:19:03] The house is just creepy in general, always having dark shadowy figures in the corners and never bright, even with the lights on. One woman who is a medium and works at the museum refuses to work in that house because

[00:19:16] she has had her dress pulled and she has felt a hand on her arm and voices coming from the cremation oven. Although when she is in her 1830s costume, she has many more experiences than she does when she is in her normal modern clothing.

[00:19:30] I think the ghosts feel more attached to you when you look like them. I feel lucky to not have experienced anything as scary as her. It is a very creepy old house, and I am glad to have been able to share it with you. Thanks for reading.

[00:19:45] Eddie May As we come to the end of this edition of Midweek Mysteries, I'd like to say thank you to all of you for tuning in and supporting the podcast. And a special thank you goes out to Hugh, Chris, TJ, Vincent, and Eddie May for writing

[00:20:02] in and sharing their experiences with all of us. If you'd like to share your thoughts or a similar experience with one of tonight's storytellers, please email me and I'll be sure to forward your message on to them.

[00:20:15] If you've witnessed something unexplainable and you'd like to have your story shared on the podcast, please contact me at paranormalmysteriespodcast at gmail.com or visit us at paranormalmysteriespodcast.com and click on the Tell Your Story link. All of our contact information can be found in the show notes.

[00:20:33] From all of us at Paranormal Mysteries, thank you for listening and remember, don't wait for the unknown to come to you. Get out there and find it.