What If Hauntings Happen Because We Don’t Know We’re Gone

A cross-state move, a rebuilt studio, and a brush with death set the stage for a raw, curious deep dive into what the mind keeps when the heart stops. We open up about leaving Phoenix for Southern California and why starting fresh matters more after you’ve felt the floor drop out. A friend’s note about being clinically dead for sixteen minutes—no light, no voices, just a blank—collides with my own memory of business-as-usual awareness, talking to silent paramedics and watching the world slide by. Two near-death experiences, two wildly different stories, and a bigger question: is there one shape to the edge of life, or many?

From ICU reflections to a moment where I almost quit magic, the path back came from something strange and small: a closed laptop, a mysterious jump drive, and Banachek’s lecture that flipped a switch in my head. Craft beat fear. Later, standing on Banachek’s stage to share that story, I felt a kind of permission to keep going, even without a clean diagnosis and with bills stacking high. That experience leads us to a theory we can’t shake—maybe some hauntings live on because the person never realized they were gone. After not knowing I was dead, I can’t rule it out.

We’re also gearing up for a Friday the 13th ghost tour aboard the Queen Mary, a perfect place to test our curiosity where history, rumor, and atmosphere meet. Along the way, we talk about memory stitching, how the brain handles trauma, and why artists return to the stage after close calls. If you’ve had a near-death moment, a strange encounter, or a family story that won’t leave the room, we want to hear it. Subscribe, share this with a friend who loves ghost stories and psychology, and send us your tales—we’ll feature the most compelling ones in future episodes.

Transcript

New Home And Studio Update

Queen Mary Plans And October Tease

A Friend’s 16-Minute Death Note

My Death: Conscious But Unaware

Life After ICU And Doubt

The Mystery Jump Drive And Banachek

Onstage With A Hero

Did You Know You Were Dead

SPEAKER_01 0:02

Hey everybody, it's Dr. G, Spirit Tales, and Magic. Sorry it's been so long since we've been on the air, but it's been a little crazy. We are no longer in Phoenix. We are currently in SoCal, Southern California. Got a new studio which we're putting together right now. And I just wanted to get on and basically say hello, we're still alive, although we had a couple of close calls. As you know, I've already been deceased once, and we're trying not to do that again. It's 210 days to October, if you're keeping score. And I did want to mention that if you're looking for something to do on Friday the 13th, Cassandra and I will be taking a ghost tour of the Queen Mary. We are frequent flyers of the Queen Mary. And if you haven't been, you should really give it a try. Working on some new things between now and October. A lot of things from listeners, which we will cover. We just got the studio set up this evening. I did want to touch on one thing. I had uh an acquaintance of mine who passed away for about 16 minutes. And they brought him back. And he would like me not to read his name on the air, so I'm not going to. But he didn't say I couldn't read the note. Hey doc, how you doing? I'm sure you heard about what happened to me. I know that my ex-wife told you. There was nothing. I just I lost track of time, and then I was back. I didn't hear anything, see anything, do anything. That was not the way it was for you, as I understand. Any thoughts? Well, if you look back through the podcast, you'll come up to an episode that says, Did you know you were dead? So in my case, the answer is no. I didn't know. I was going on with business as usual. It was aggravated because the paramedics were not talking to me, and I was trying to help them out. I'd been a trauma medic for almost 15 years. So I went, look, you have this, this is what's going on. You know, no response. And that's that's all on the podcast. In that whole ordeal, I saw myself come out of the ambulance. Now, not from hovering above or any of that. I just like you would if you were normally conscious, and they passed the gurney out the door, you see the door of the ambulance, the roof go by, and I saw the roof of the hospital. Now that's where I kind of checked out. And the next thing I saw was Cassandra standing next to my bed with a tear in her eye. So there was about three minutes or four minutes there that I wasn't present. I have no recollection of what happened at that time, but for the entire episode, I had no clue that I was not breathing or that my heart was not beating. As far as I was concerned, I was talking to the paramedics and like I said, getting a little aggravated because they were not answering. So I guess it's going to be different for everybody who gets to go away and for whatever reason gets to come back. It does. The next question is you know, did your incident make you look at life differently? It did. My first day back, uh, you know, I didn't go straight from the emergency room home. I went to ICU for quite a while. When I got home, I was just looking around the magic studio and was really gonna hang it up. You know what? I just I don't know how long I'm gonna be here. I've gonna have to leave Cassandra behind. We're not ready. And I don't care if you have$200 million in the bank, you're never gonna be ready. But I thought that I would not devote so much time to magic and podcasting. And I had just written a new show. And of course, we had to cancel the first performance of that show because I died. So that works on your head a little bit. Laying on my laptop computer, and if you're a frequent flyer of the podcast, you've probably heard this story before. But on my laptop, which I never close my laptop, I don't use a laptop for podcasting anymore. We have the you know, thank you, Apple, for the beast. I have the biggest, fastest, wonderful computer. But back in the day when it was a Mac laptop, I never closed it. The monitor was always up. So when I come back from my little episode, the Mac is closed, and laying on the Mac is a jump drive, which I don't recall using. So let's see what's on here. So I opened the computer and I put in the jump drive, and it is Banachek's lecture from Penguin Magic. Uh Banachek, I'm a frequent flyer of the stuff that he does. I could repeat his show verbatim. Um, if you haven't seen him, you should probably go see him. I say that about two or three people in the world right now. You gotta see Banachek. You have to see us. Uh actually, you should see Lance Burton. And if you're anywhere near Bisubee, you gotta stop in and check out Kenny Bang Bang. Having said all that, I put the jump drive in and I started up. It's the it's the Penguin Magic lecture. And I watched this whole thing, it's like 40 minutes. Now, during that time, nothing else in the world is existing. Cassandra beeped up to the studio to make sure it was okay. I didn't answer her. I don't even recall hearing it. When that all comes to an end, I put the jump drive in my pocket, and I'm halfway down the stairs, and she meets me on the stairs and says, You're not really gonna hang it up, are you? Absolutely not. You know what? Banachet's still going strong, so can I. So for some reason, watching that just rewired my brain to just keep going. And through a lot, a lot of doctors, uh, about$80,000 in medical bills, and to this day, still no real good diagnosis. And I won't bother you with all the symptoms, but quite an experience. So a little later, we actually have tickets to a Manachex show, and we are Fermer Center, and you know, I can't wait. I had talked to him in the hall for just a couple minutes, and I had told him the story. So he's getting ready to start the show. Now, Cassander hasn't ever been, and so I had Catna whispered in their ear, you know, this is gonna happen and this is gonna happen. It's really cool. And uh he comes out and he just looks around, and I'm like, Well, it's not part of the show. What's he doing? So, you know, there's a guy out there with a most amazing story. He looks at me and he says, Do you care if I tell it? Caught me off guard, which very rarely ever happens. I said, No, please by all means tell it. He goes, Why don't you come up here and tell it yourself? So I did. So shortly after coming back to life, arguably one of the world's greatest mentalists allows me to use his stage, and I will be forever thankful for that. Not too long after that, we had some photos with Lance Burton, uh, Lance Burton her friends for that tour, and we've done some other things. Um Michael Lamar, and if you look in the Magic Office, one of these days I'll put the pictures out on the internet so you can see them. It's us and a whole lot of other people.

SPEAKER_00 9:28

But back to the original point, no, I didn't know I was dead.

Send Us Your Ghost Stories

SPEAKER_01 9:35

There is a theory that hauntings sometimes are caused because the person that is doing the haunting doesn't know that he's passed. I can't say that's impossible at this point because I have firsthand knowledge that I didn't know that I had. So that's where we are right now. I just wanted to mention those things. And again, Friday the 13th, we're on the Queen Mary. Should be a fun time. Many things coming up. Please send your ghost stories. You can still send them to N-I-N-P-A-Wsninpaws at yahoo.com. You can go to the website, fill out the form, and leave them there if you wish. We will be changing website providers in the near future, but that should be seamless, and you'll not know that. So tell us your stories, give us a like, give us a share. It's great to be back, and I'm glad you're still here listening. And hey, tell a ghost story. It's good for ya. Dr. Chi, good night from SoCal.