The Voice Sounded Familiar...But Wrong! Mimics

What would you do if you heard someone you love calling your name… but you knew they weren’t there?

In this episode of Voices From The Attic, Terri Reid and Andrew T. Reid explore the unsettling phenomenon of mimics—accounts of voices, figures, and presences that imitate something familiar in order to draw people closer.

From modern-day encounters to traditional folklore, we examine stories of people who have heard their name called in empty places, seen loved ones where they shouldn’t be, or felt an unshakable pull to follow something just out of sight.

Finally, we explore the science behind what we hear—why the human brain is wired to recognize voices, and how easily sound can be misinterpreted in the right environment.

Whether rooted in psychology, folklore, or something we don’t fully understand, one idea remains consistent across every story:

If something calls you away from safety… you don’t go.

Astonishing Legends podcast:

https://astonishinglegends.com/al-podcasts/2018/03/10/ep-101-arcapalooza-part-2

Listverse - Doppelgangers

https://listverse.com/2013/08/30/10-disturbing-tales-of-doppelgangers/

The Night-Side of Nature; Or, Ghosts and Ghost-Seers by Catherine Crowe

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/54532

New episodes released regularly.

Join Paranormal Mystery Author Terri Reid and researcher Andrew T. Reid as they explore ghosts, cryptids, alien encounters, and other unexplained mysteries.

If you'd like to share your opinion, thoughts, or your own paranormal experience with us, please contact us at vftattic@gmail.com. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_05 0:00

One night in the late fall or early winter of 2024, a good friend of mine, who, for the story, and his anonymity, I'll name Mark, shared with me an eerie encounter he had the previous night. Mark lives in Tennessee, about a half hour away from Knoxville. And at the time his home was in a fairly suburban area. He described it as having a few trees here and there, but the neighborhood itself wasn't surrounded by woods like other neighborhoods might be in Tennessee. He had just gotten home and was getting out of his car. After he closed his car door and before he'd gotten very close to his front door, he heard what sounded exactly like his wife's voice a distance away from him. Except there were a few problems. The first problem was that he knew his wife wasn't home yet. She was still at work. The second problem was that the voice, though speaking with the perfect tone and cadence of his wife's voice, didn't say any actual words. He described it as if someone was trying to mimic English speaking patterns, but didn't understand English themselves. He rushed to the front door and closed it behind him. He doesn't know what it was. He hasn't had any experiences like it since. But he's not the only one to have inexplicably heard the voice of a loved one beckon to them from the dark shadows.

SPEAKER_04 1:25

Listen closely, the old walls still speak. Some things are hidden, not to be forgotten, but to be kept.

SPEAKER_00 1:34

The old house remembers what others forget.

SPEAKER_04 1:37

What is remembered is most truly.

SPEAKER_00 1:41

Listen closely, and you too may just hear Voices from the Attic. Dun dun dun.

SPEAKER_02 2:01

Hi. Welcome to Voices from the Attic. I'm Terry Reed.

SPEAKER_05 2:07

And I'm Andrew T. Reed. And um this is my mom. I and she also just completely undercut all of the tension that that story might have had.

SPEAKER_02 2:17

I thought I thought adding dun dun dun adds to the tension and things like that.

SPEAKER_05 2:21

Yeah, that's that's that's that's true. Look, I I think that last line was a banger of a line.

SPEAKER_02 2:25

I think that Mark had a really cool experience, and it is unexplicable. I mean, that's kind of a scary thing, having your wife call to you.

SPEAKER_05 2:37

Yeah, and and when he was talking about how it happened, it like like I said, it was he doesn't it was hard for him to describe it because it wasn't real words. It was but it it had diction. It wasn't just it was like like that kind of thing.

SPEAKER_02 2:55

So like somebody was reading when you um when you're making a poster or something and you put in those fake words, um, just to they were actually reading that.

SPEAKER_05 3:04

Yeah, yes, kind of, kind of like that. It was somebody who it seemed like to him as if there was someone or something that had been watching and observing and was able to like I like I said in the story, mimic the tone, the cadence, the the the punctuations, all those things, but just didn't have a full understanding of the purpose of it. Like an animal, you know, like like what a duck when we were doing a duck call, they that might be a similar thing, except duck calls, you know, we we know that it's just a call. It's not actually trying to communicate any specific um verbiage, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 3:47

I'm not saying it's aliens, but it's aliens.

SPEAKER_05 3:50

Ah, well we'll we'll actually it's probably not it's uh mimics.

SPEAKER_02 3:54

That's what we're gonna be talking about today.

SPEAKER_05 3:56

Yes, and so we're gonna use the term mimic, um, but so we loosely, maybe. Yeah, loosely because there is there there is an internet creature out there called the mimic, but that's not what we're talking about. Because that mimic is all about like you know, it's it's not necessarily that that version of a mimic, though I guess if that was real, it would get fall into this broad category that we're doing, which is someone or something or some event that mimics a person or an event that happens. That's kind of what we're going on with this.

SPEAKER_02 4:37

And we're gonna cover some what we consider malevolent, you know, uh mimics, and some that are just, you know, hey, we're just mimicking and passing through here kind of mimics. Yeah. I don't know if you actually put it that way, but I I didn't.

SPEAKER_05 4:52

Uh so I I I the two categories I have, and they're right here passive mimicry or passive mimics or active mimics. Also, I like this as well. This one I think is scarier to me. Uh, a residual mimic. So uh a residual mimic being a mimic of something, I guess just a residual moment, residual energies, maybe from before or after, um, or reactive mimics.

SPEAKER_02 5:18

So could a haunting be a residual mimic? Is that what you're thinking? Or are you not talking paranormal paranormal that would be a good thing?

SPEAKER_05 5:25

I don't know if a haunting, I don't know if a haunting could, but I could see a poltergeist potentially being if if a poltergeist wasn't just moving things around, because the idea of a poltergeist, right, is that it's it's a mischievous spirit. Yes. Or it's it's a um manifestation of energies usually surrounding teenage girls because they're they harbor a lot of they're nuts. I'm I didn't say it. I didn't say it. Um but uh I said it um as the mom of three girls. That's fair. Um but you know the the idea is that it it creates this energy that acts as a mischievous spirit, and if that same energy were to recreate someone's voice, that could be classified as a as a residual mimic.

SPEAKER_02 6:22

Okay. My favorite quote as I was researching this is the most terrifying monsters don't chase you, but they call you in a voice you already trust. You can do dun dun dun now.

SPEAKER_05 6:37

Dun dun dun. Very good. Okay, and that's the last time we'll be doing that.

SPEAKER_02 6:41

Maybe. Maybe because we forget. So mimics use familiarity as bait, they prefer voices over appearances.

SPEAKER_05 6:53

And we're talking about uh active memory.

SPEAKER_02 6:56

Right. They target moments of isolation, night times, woods, bedrooms, parking your car in a parking lot that nobody else is around.

SPEAKER_04 7:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:06

And you often can't fully replicate the behavior.

SPEAKER_04 7:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:12

And they want you to open something. See, and that's that um, as I was researching mimics, and I didn't put this in because we can do a whole episode, but black-eyed kids. I was thinking the same thing.

SPEAKER_05 7:26

Black-eyed kids are considered mimics. I would they be though, because I feel like a mimic is mimicking someone that you know. They're not doing it very well, but these black-eyed kids, while they're mimicking children. They're mimicking children that you've not met before. Right. And so still they're mimicking their innocence. They're mimicking innocence, but I don't know if I would classify that because they're still strangers to you. Right. It's not like somebody mimicking somebody that you are very familiar with.

SPEAKER_02 7:53

Right, like your grandchild. Right. Yes. Right. So, but they that so that came to mind, but but we were correct. We're not doing that.

SPEAKER_05 8:01

So we are not, yeah, we're not doing that.

SPEAKER_02 8:03

They want you to follow something.

SPEAKER_03 8:06

Come here. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:08

Or they want you to step outside. That's the key. They don't attack, they invite. So do you want me to start with my crazy scary?

SPEAKER_05 8:20

Or do you you go ahead? So I was thinking that we'd we'd cover the less scary one first, which is the passive mimics. Um, and I some of the some of the things that I would consider passive mimics, generally. Okay. Um, there are there are two of them that I found. Okay. Uh, one of them is the doppelganger or fetch. Um, and then the other one is the uh Vardhaker.

SPEAKER_02 8:46

Isn't there, don't they use the word fetch now like, whoa, that's fetch.

SPEAKER_05 8:51

Um stop trying to make fetch happen. Fetch isn't gonna happen.

SPEAKER_02 8:56

Is that is that how they use it?

SPEAKER_05 8:58

Well, somebody so that that is fetch is actually from I think uh Mean Girls. Um, okay. And somebody was trying to make fetch that, and then the quote is stop trying to make fetch happen. Fetch isn't gonna happen. Uh fetch before that though was an Irish version of a doppelganger.

SPEAKER_02 9:15

Okay, so going back to what we're supposed to be talking about.

SPEAKER_05 9:17

Well, I'm just saying, yeah, yeah. Because also when uh back back when I was living in Utah, um, fetch was also a way for people to um proclaim loudly their frustration without using the F-word. Oh, fetch. And I thought that was really funny. Because coming from Illinois, if you're gonna say the word, just say the word. Which I won't say the word.

SPEAKER_02 9:40

Thank you. But doesn't fetch also mean go and get something? It also means going and get something, getting something.

SPEAKER_05 9:45

Finn and I talk about fetch all the time.

SPEAKER_02 9:47

And he's a dog.

SPEAKER_05 9:49

Well, so you're talking. I I hope Finn isn't talking about if Finn is talking about fetching, then he's probably not Finn. He's probably a mimic.

SPEAKER_02 9:57

Ooh, or a doppelganger.

SPEAKER_05 9:59

Or a doppelganger.

SPEAKER_01 10:00

Getting back to doppelgangers.

SPEAKER_05 10:01

Going back to doppelgangers. So what are doppelgangers? Hold on, where did I so what most people think of with doppelgangers, um is it's gonna be found possibly in the not possibly, I know it's gonna be found, in the monster manual. This is not the true doppelgangers, but this is what like a lot of people ascribe to doppelgangers. So uh doppelgangers are supernatural beings with the ability to shape shift into any human-like form. Their mind-reading abilities aid them in creating near-perfect disguises and plucking secrets from the un from unguarded minds. Occasionally, doppelgangers use their shape-shifting ability in more overt ways, transforming into unsettling forms to frighten foes. That is what excuse me. That is what Wizards of the Coast in the Monster Manual, the Dungeons and Dragons Monster Manual, that's how they describe doppelgangers. They're wrong. Not in their fictional setting, necessarily. Um but let's be real way diplomatic about this. You're wrong. You're wrong. Well, it's it's that's not what it really is. That's not the historical and in fact. So I say fetch uh slash doppelganger because doppelganger is actually a fairly recent term in the English vernacular. Um, and it was brought to the English vernacular by what's her name? Uh Catherine. I want to say Katherine Koe or Catherine Cow. It's spelled C-O-W-E. And so I would go with Ko.

SPEAKER_02 11:36

Co. as low as L-O-W-E.

SPEAKER_05 11:39

Okay, and I don't I I wanted to avoid calling her Catherine Cow because I feel like that's very rude. Yeah, I I would go with okay. So Catherine Coe.

SPEAKER_02 11:47

I would go with Co.

SPEAKER_05 11:48

That's fair. Um, and Catherine Katherine Koe brought it to the English. Um, but before that, this term was often described as a fetch, an Irish fetch. But they're basically the same thing, just from different regions. Um, and it was actually popularized through the book The Night Side of Nature. Um and actually I have Is that like a nonfiction? It's a nonfiction. And I have a story from it, but I I want to see if you have any stories of doppelgangers first before I talk about some of the ones that I found.

SPEAKER_02 12:24

Okay. I would love to start with um I heard uh a story, um, and it was actually um from Astonishing Legends. If you haven't checked out the Astonishing Legends podcast, this is kind of ridiculous that we're pushing them because they're so well known. But Astonishing Legends podcast is We're definitely punching above our wicked last year. Way above. Anyway, they're they're amazing. So check them out. So they were having their Arcapalooza show, which is a podcast that features all the folks who do their research for them. And one of their research is, and this is older because Lauren now I think is their like executive producer. She's amazing, but she They're all amazing. Yeah. But Lauren is really kind of stepped up and moved up in the she's gone places. She's gone places. The the the Astonishing Legends podcast cast. And so anyway, so she talked about growing up in central Kentucky in the Lexington area. She said they lived in a small home. She lived in a small home with her parents and her two sisters. The first encounter she recalled was one day when she was a child. Her father walked through the back door of the house and called out that he was home. She vividly remembers that she was with her mother in the living room, and her mother turned to her, her face pale and white, and said, Don't go down there. That's not your father. He's still at least a county away. Sure enough, her father actually got home about 30 minutes later.

SPEAKER_05 13:56

That's interesting, because that sounds a little bit like a Vortiger, which we'll be talking about a little bit later.

SPEAKER_02 14:00

But I'm gonna keep going. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But Lauren's story continued with an event that had to do with her family and especially her younger sister. She remembers when she was about 13 years old, she was inside her house, and the rest of the family was out on the front porch enjoying the beautiful day. Her younger sister has vibrant red hair, and her personality is lively and fun. The sisters would often speak to each other in a teasing voice that they called the Bubby voice.

SPEAKER_05 14:28

Um, but that's I wish she described what the Bubby voice was.

SPEAKER_02 14:32

She she might have. This is my recollection of her story. Okay, that's fair. That's fair. You know, it it and but it was something that they only did between the sisters. Nobody else did that. They did the bubby voice with each other. So this that day, Lauren remembers her sister calling to her from the kitchen and asking her to play catch. She used the Bubby voice and taunted Lauren. So Lauren jumped up and chased her sister, laughing all the while. When Lauren followed her sister to the back of the house, she suddenly realized her sister was gone. The back of the house was very dark, had no doors, and the windows were too high off the ground for her seven-year-old sister to climb out. Suddenly she felt chilled to the bone and frightened, she ran back to the front of the house only to see her younger sister walk past the window on the front porch. Two things stood out to her. One, there was no way her sister could have made it from the back of the house to the front porch in that amount of time. Two, her sister was now sporting bangs. She'd forgotten that her mother had cut her sister's hair two days earlier. The entity she had just chased from the kitchen was still wearing her sister's old hairstyle. No wait, before you say it, because we had this discussion when I told you. I know, I know.

SPEAKER_05 15:57

That's why I wanted to say this. Yeah, because because there they're right now, before we go much further, because I know there's there's more to the story, but there are two, there were two thoughts that that you could have potentially. One of them is that this might have been kind of like if it was a residual thing, maybe an echo of an experience, especially if it's the Bubby voice. Right. You know, it's an echo of of something that had because she is wearing a hairstyle that she used to wear before. And so, you know, if if that's an event that happened very often, it doesn't necessarily mean that it was, you know, maybe that room feels weird and dark just because of the residual energy that's there, assuming that you believe in the idea of you know that that these things which are are verdicters are are less of a spirit and more of like an event that has happened or will happen. But that being said, if it's an entity, that means it's been observing them long enough to be able to mimic the Bubby voice perfectly, which is deeply unsettling.

SPEAKER_02 17:07

Right, right. Well, that and I was I I had read this story to Andrew earlier in the week, and and as I was going through it, he was saying, Well, it sounds passive. It sounds passive. I said, No, sounds sounds slightly malevolent to me. And and he said, Well, it's really not doing anything except and then we'll get to the third part. About a week later, a similar experience happened between the middle sister and something masquerading as the younger sister. This time the entity stood in a shadowy corner of the kitchen and spoke with the other sister, suggesting they go outside. Yeah. Then the middle sister noticed that her younger sister's hair was wrong, and she ran out of the kitchen. So um, I'm thinking whatever it was didn't have a whole lot of good in their heart. If they had a heart attack.

SPEAKER_05 18:01

Anything that is pretending to be someone else that is asking you to go outside or just stranger danger. Yes, separating you from the herd in general is never a good thing. Yes, yes. Um, because so uh a conversation that we had before, uh you know, and and and it's uh talking about entity that I don't think we'll be talking about today, um, but it made me think about the what makes the idea of of a mimic, especially an active mimic, not necessarily a passive one, and we'll get back to passive ones, but what makes an active mimic so unsettling and why it kind of drives, at least in me, why it drives the uncanny valley so far is because uh when you look at animals predator predatorily predatory animals don't do this. Right. I mean, there are some birds that can mimic things, and I'm sure there are animals out there that are have an uncanny ability to mimic voices and sounds, but they don't do it to lure prey away from the herd. Predators typically stalk because luring someone away from the herd requires not just a pattern recognition, but then forethought, a plan of action, which is something that is generally associated with human levels of intelligence. Right, premeditated.

SPEAKER_02 19:26

Yes. Yeah, usually when when a wolf or a mountain lion or whatever the predator is, it's it's they look for opportunities and they exploit those opportunities. You know, the the sickly deer or the what whatever it is, but it's not okay. Well, I know they go down this thing, I know this their mom sounds like this, and I, you know, it's not like that. It is just more instinctual, opportunity driven, and they go for it. These are studied and practiced. And then nearly perfect. And nearly perfect, it's and that's the interesting thing because there's always something just a little bit off. And sometimes I have to say it's your instinct. You know, sometimes it might even sound perfect, but that's there, there's that gut feeling that I say, always, always, always listen to the I just swallowed my own throat there.

SPEAKER_05 20:26

Um, but and also often it's the idea if it's perfect, then the person knows they're the person they're mimicking, they know that they're somewhere else at the time as well. Right. That's often that's another thing that I I see very often. I know that this person or it's passive.

SPEAKER_02 20:45

Yes.

SPEAKER_05 20:46

Because that passive things happen, at least from the stories that I've read, fairly consistently too.

SPEAKER_02 20:51

That's well, and I've got some passive, but you go ahead and read a story and then I'll go back to my story.

SPEAKER_05 20:56

So what so I'm gonna do the um I'm gonna do the story from uh Catherine Coe's Night Side of Nature. Um and this one is it's very interesting. Okay, and there's actually some similarities to the one that you just shared as well, but it's also very different. So Mr. H was one and this this is from this is an excerpt from the Night Side of Nature. Uh I highly recommend just the entire book is really cool. This is from the section called Doppelgangers and um Oh I shoot, I forget what the other We'll have a link.

SPEAKER_01 21:36

We'll have a link.

SPEAKER_05 21:37

Yeah, yeah, somewhere. Um and I I found this one on uh Gettysburg Library, I believe. Okay. Um Mr. H was one day walking along the street, apparently in perfect health, when he saw, or supposed he saw, his acquaintance, Mr. C, walking before him. He called to him aloud, but he did not seem to hear him. continued moving on. Mr. H then quickened his pace for the purpose of overtaking him, but the other increased his also, as if to keep ahead of his pursuer, and proceeded at such a rate that Mr H found it impossible to make up to him. This continued for some time till on Mr C's reaching a gate, he opened it, passed in, slamming it violently in Mr H's face. Confounded at such treatment from a friend, the latter instantly opened the gate and looked down the long lane into which it led, where, to his astonishment, no one was to be seen. Determined to unravel the mystery, he went to Mr C's house, and his surprise was great to hear that he was confined to his bed and had been so for several days. A week or two afterward these gentlemen met at the house of a common friend when Mr H related the circumstances, jocularly telling Mr C that as he had seen his right that as he had seen his wraith, which is another term for wraith, he of course could not live long. So you kind of joke, ha, you're you're not gonna live long so as that's a good joke.

SPEAKER_02 23:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 23:11

Ha ha funny funny I could see myself making that same joke with some of my friends though. I mean I won't lie um the person addressed laughed heartily as did the rest of the party but in a few days Mr. C was attacked with putrid sore throat and died. And within a short period of his death Mr. H was also in the grave. Sorry I know we promised but I yeah that you know I will say the interesting thing about doppelganger this is another Doppelgangers were also often associated as as harbingers as well. If you saw the doppelganger they were also often associated with if you see it then then there's a good chance you're gonna die later on. Now that's not always the case especially with the the you know later concept of of Orthers but um with this particular kind of doppelganger where you have interaction because the other thing that other people have you know interestingly pointed out it wasn't just like a spirit it was tangible because it ran and it moved the gate like physically so it you know it it's very interesting why did it run? Why did it do what it did?

SPEAKER_02 24:26

Yeah who knows yeah I kept picturing uh the Monty Python funny walking and they're moving faster and they're moving faster. I'm sorry I should have been more serious. I didn't laugh though. You didn't laugh this time that's that's very good.

SPEAKER_05 24:40

I will say as I was reading this story and a lot of others uh I did a lot of my research at night up here uh over in the a corner on the computer there were some moments where I had to like look over to the side I I remember one point in time I literally addressed like where the stairs are and I was like hey I don't know if you're here but if you are I'm feeling very uncomfortable please leave me alone didn't mean to scare you didn't look over and see yourself and yourself said to you everything's fine in my mind's eye not only did I see myself I saw myself looking at me like this and I was like I don't like this image with with one of mine yeah with one of yours Catherine the Great the powerful 18th century empress of Russia. Okay we're talking about a person when you said Catherine the Great I thought somebody had named a great Catherine look look at that great that's a great great this is Catherine the Great Empress of Russia was a powerful and dangerous figure.

SPEAKER_02 25:45

She was not phased by small matters such as seeing her own ghostly doppelganger take over her throne.

SPEAKER_05 25:52

That's great for her.

SPEAKER_02 25:53

It is said one night Catherine was lying in her bed when worried servants told her they'd just seen her enter the throne room when Catherine set out to investigate she found her doppelganger sitting calmly on the throne. Okay okay that's interesting that's different than where I thought that story was going Catherine immediately ordered her sentries to shoot at her ghostly counterpart I love Catherine she is she is great.

SPEAKER_05 26:24

See that's why Catherine the Great is great.

SPEAKER_02 26:27

It makes sense that she was named that the stories don't tell whether the bullet had any effect on the spectral empress however Catherine herself died soon afterwards.

SPEAKER_05 26:37

Well because she saw the doppelganger and not only that she frigging shot at it I mean I think that's cool. I I agree I I think I think there are more stories that need to look if I saw like the black eyed kids if if the black eyed kids happened to someone who is armed and ready those I I don't know there they're you know I've I feel like I would love more paranormal experiences to end with so anyway I started blasting that's what I think more people need to do. I get why I would freeze up dear listeners we are not promoting violence we're not promoting violence to your neighbors I am promoting violence to paranormal entities who are trying to kill you. You know what ghosts are just people who happen to be dead I that's why that's why I added the last caveat if if they're trying to kill you oh okay if they're trying to kill you then yes yeah or they're trying to lure you into the woods protection. Exactly exactly you know and we're in we're in America Merca so you know uh I mean if to every one person there's at least five firearms um statistically I don't know if that's true statistics or not. You know what though um walking around with sage might even be better than firearms just or or I I would love Van Helsing um the the repeater I I guess that might be outlawed here in the States because it might be considered a um uh an semi-automatic to automatic crossbow but I would love to see that um you know put some holy water on it maybe blessed somehow getting back to the podcast Percy Shelley was a brilliant poet speaking of Van Helsing and Frankenstein and other things oh that's right yeah because he was married to um Mary Shelley who was the author of Frankenstein the best science fiction the first story not technically the first oh really just there's there's uh it there's technically a story is she the first horror no she no she's not the first horror writer uh because um her her husband also I mean she wrote Frankenstein um in collaboration with her husband as well as other people not in a collaboration but they all it was a contest it was a contest yeah um but no she she's the first she's considered the first modern sci-fi horror writer but there was technically one that's not I don't know if it's considered science fiction or not but it should be where um it was a it was in the vein of like the the Greek travel logs oh okay uh but it was satirical because he traveled to the moon and he met a aliens yeah a whole but it was it was treated as if it was another country essentially uh and so anyway that's a whole other thing that's excuse me I keep tapping this going back to the podcast yeah going back to Mary Shelley or Percy Shelley so you'd assume that Mary his wife um would have been the one to see ghosts and monsters but it was in fact Percy who witnessed doppelgangers shortly before Percy drowned in a sailing accident in 1812 he confessed to Mary that he had met his doppelganger many times these confrontations included one particularly haunting experience where he walked onto a terrace only to be greeted by his doppelganger who asked him how long do you mean to be content I don't I don't like that only because I feel like look if I met my doppelganger and then he hit me with some like poetic way of of looking at my life well I mean no he didn't just say that how long do you feel like you're gonna be content what are you going to do with your life essentially he's saying it's like man like you're not only scary because you know like stop me don't yeah you're me don't taunt me too like don't hit me with some of those theoretical thoughts and questions I I uh I know I know okay so going on strangely Percy's doppelganger was also witnessed by his close friend Jane Williams who saw it passing by her window on a route frequently walked by the real Percy to a dead end but never returning the real Percy was nowhere near. That could sound closer to a Voidger than a doppelganger. I think maybe Percy and his friends especially because it seems like doppelgangers happen to people well I don't know because they both have happened to other people other onlookers but the idea that it faded away is more voideger than um describe do you want me to read one more story do you want to talk about what a voteger is well do you um is this another Shelly? No this is uh it's uh in 1906 okay the well because I've got a few more doppelganger stories as well but I keep talking about vodka so maybe I'll Why don't you take a minute and talk about yeah so and there's also a story that I will also share that will kind of relate to this a little bit better. But um so Vortiger which is a um let's see where does it it's an a it's a it's a Norway thing and it's okay it it's something it's called Vortiger in in Norway in specific parts of Norway but also it it's a concept that has different names in other places but it's a it's a northern experience. That's like European experience northern European experience that happens fairly regularly it sounds like at least according to Blackwoods magazine okay I don't know exactly when this was published but it feels like it was published in the 1800s or earlier. Okay. Um it's not like a magazine that we think of a magazine because I saw uh this was another one that I found in the um um either the Internet Archive I don't remember if it was the Internet Archive or if it was the um project Google Guggenheim uh I said it already earlier Gettysburg is what you said earlier I was not Gutenberg Gutenberg yeah Project Gutenberg so uh please go back and correct Gettysburg to I say Gettysburg before we did say I meant Gutenberg well I didn't know they had a library too oh man I meant Gutenberg project I need to write my sources down um so I don't remember if this was from Gutenberg project or if it was from pro uh internet archive but either way it it's definitely it's definitely past um the free use stuff okay and also it's it's yeah anyway it's it's wild. Uh so here's what how they describe it in the Blackwoods magazine. Okay. In Norway or at least in certain parts of it there's a well known phenomenon known locally by various names but in the east of the country commonly called Vortiger by this term is understood a certain property attaching itself to particular persons by which their arrival at a particular place most frequently their own home is announced beforehand by distinctive sounds such as are usually or naturally made by the person in question. So in other words it's a harbinger kind of of somebody showing up to a place they regularly show up usually through auditory experiences people hearing like honey I'm home before you're actually home. Before yeah and it's it's generally it's it it seems like at least in in the story it seems like it's an hour or less. Okay. So it's it's really close to when they're coming home. So here's here's a story.

SPEAKER_02 34:27

And this story Okay a thought came to my mind and and I'm gonna lose it if I don't say sure. Yeah no I get that you know how people say that uh sometimes like your dog will before your car's even in the driveway as you're coming down the road I know where you're going I hate it the the dog will like alert and and go to the door and start waiting for you. I'm I'm wondering if people have like energy fields that we've decided that's interesting that might go in front of them. I mean it's like so so you have this radius of an energy field or or maybe somebody would even call it an aura you know or something that is distinctly you that you emanate out for I don't know how how how many feet or yards or miles that sensitive like a dog would pick up like oh I sense their aura they're only a mile away.

SPEAKER_05 35:22

That's interesting. Yeah so so because I I mean I'm almost going to take it one step further you know this hype hypothetical especially in places where they are frequently right held at like where where they for they frequently stay you know if they if they make the decision to go back somewhere uh suddenly the the residual energy of that decision shows up at the house in some way or pattern I that's so are you like layering residual energy over residual energy so as you layer it it becomes stronger? Well so it's interesting because so this the way that they describe at least in Norway the way that it seems to be described as it's it's a spirit. Vortiger is a spirit because to them anyway it one or two people have a Vortiger and so it's like the Vortiger is basically manifests as an echo but like a pre-echo I guess excuse me a a pre-echo of what's going to happen. So so let me just let me tell a story to kind of clarify. So it goes on further it is nothing unusual to find people in Norway who have a Vortiger that is to say that one can hear or see them before they really come in person. Such cases are found in nearly every family but in some more frequently than others. In my own family this is this is somebody he's talking to somebody right now the the writer of this article is talking to somebody who has this experience that's why it's my own it's going to be in first person.

SPEAKER_01 36:56

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 36:57

In my own family there have been many who have had it in the cases of my father and eldest brother it happens so often that we do not think it in the least remarkable nor look upon it as anything unnatural. And going back to clarify one more thing he talks about how in in the partner that he was at he he was talking about how scientists and scholars don't find the idea of Vortiger is remarkable. By that I mean everyone has it. They think of it as casually as as everyone else does. So they they're like oh yeah vortiger I know what I I my uncle has a Vortiger or something like that. This is everyone from from the most intelligent to to you know what people might consider the most mundane kind of of um jobs everyone according to this article believes that Vortiger is just a normal occurrence. And this is from like the 1800s. Potentially okay but I I've heard it you know I've I've seen people talk about the idea of the girls on the internet and it seems to still be in certain parts of Norway is a a fairly common occurrence. So going back to the story I remember two particular instances which I shall relate. We expected my father home from a long voyage and got word that he had arrived in a little harbor on the Firth. But at the same time there came a message saying that unfortunately he could not get home for several days as the ice prevented him from coming up. We were very much disappointed because we had just then about to have had a family gathering at which we presently wished my father to be present. When we had assembled in the evening we talked about how delightful would have been if father could have come if father could have come. My mother who took a book and read aloud uh sorry my mother then took a book and read aloud while we children worked when we all heard the kitchen door open and father's well known step come in. He put down a box which he was carrying and we heard him speak to the servant who sat in a side room Oh there is papa shouted three or four of us together and rushed out to the kitchen to be the first to welcome him but there was no one there. We ran to the servant but she had heard nothing. We thought that perhaps he had gone out again but no there was no one So distinctly had we all heard him however that my youngest sister who was rather nervous burst into tears thinking it must be a warning that something had happened to him. It was the first time she had heard his verdicger, but my mother, who was well accustomed to it, said very calmly Go to bed children it was only papa's verdicger and now we know for certain that he will come home for tomorrow. Sure enough, an hour afterwards we had we had him safely home. Now since he has gotten older and especially since he gave up going to sea, we hear him much more seldom but in his youth his mother heard him constantly and sometimes even heard him knock on her window and call her by name. That I don't like sometimes it woke her by night and she would rise and go to open the door but there was no one there the first time. An hour later he would actually come home and that happened particularly when he was expected from C. And then the other experience is her elder brother. My eldest brother has inherited the Vortiger and lets himself be heard so often before he comes that it has become quite usual when the door is heard to open and no one ent uh no one comes in to say oh it's only Guy's Vortiger One night along with all the other male members of the family he went to a festival held by Sporting Club and we knew that he would that we could not expect him home till far on into the night. As we sat in our room about eight or nine o'clock in the evening we heard the door open and I went out to see who was there there was no one. I called out to ask if it had been the servant but no she was sitting quietly in her room. I went in again to the others several of whom and especially one young girl who was on a visit to us were afraid that I might be thieves or others with bad intentions who had hidden themselves somewhere in the house. The noise was repeated and we all heard it. I went out again nothing was to be seen or heard and the young girls became more frightened I said to them if it were not that guy won't be home for many hours yet I would say that it was his vortiger we have heard. But that can't be because he never comes home later than one hour after we hear him the young the young girls went off to bed and I went out to lock the outer door. This part gave me the the chills I was barely it was barely ten o'clock at the time and just as I was about to lock the door I saw a face outside and there was my brother he had forgotten something and had come home to fetch it so yeah I I definitely got the goosebumps when I saw a face and they use fetch too everything's connected guys it's all connected aliens that's that's weird and it's odd it's it's audible it's not visual it's not a visual document thing generally it's generally auditory okay but um there have been cases including some that I I I okay pulled from you know the internet from Reddit um the it is sometimes but rarely sometimes a visual experience as well um but it it is generally you know it it's it's sounds that are associated strongly with somebody entering. Right. And so that's why you know when for instance when when um Percy Shelley's friend saw him walk past the window and then he was vanished that to me sounds more like a Vortiger because unless Percy I mean but then he would have to have done it within an hour.

SPEAKER_02 43:10

That's true.

SPEAKER_05 43:10

That's true. But that's all like Catherine the Great yeah when you said when she went into their room before she walked in and shot her own doppelganger which just what a you know what a badass I gotta say um but before that part I was like oh this is a Vortiger because somebody saw her walk in and then she's gonna walk in and there's gonna be no one there.

SPEAKER_02 43:28

But she was going to bed so she wasn't gonna go into the throne room. So that's different.

SPEAKER_05 43:32

No it's not because that's a lot a lot of these are instances where people think that they're not gonna be home which is why it's it's an odd occasion. But then they do end up showing up. It's not the Vortiger doesn't happen on a schedule it happens before somebody shows up.

SPEAKER_02 43:48

Okay so that seems like one of those really weird timelines to me because the Vortiger shows up that and the only reason Catherine the Great comes in there is because the Vortiger shows up because she would be in bed in a

SPEAKER_05 44:00

But she showed up though. And it's usually about an hour or so after somebody sees the Vortiger. That it's it's a it's it's it is an interesting thing. It it does feel like a time anomaly, but it could have been a Vortiger until she walked in and then saw herself.

SPEAKER_02 44:16

Think in more doppelganger for the game. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 44:17

Well, it is definitely a doppelganger.

SPEAKER_02 44:19

I can see how you Okay. That's that's crazy.

SPEAKER_05 44:22

Let me finish with my Yeah, so we're gonna go back to doppelgangers and then maybe bounce back to Vortiger's uh before we start getting into some of the Okay the active ones. Although some of these doppelgangers are active. And that's that's also interesting because you're right. Some of these some of these.

SPEAKER_02 44:39

Vortiger's is like a a as you said, a harbinger. We could have included that in our harbinger thing.

SPEAKER_05 44:44

And actually, when I was doing my research, that's kind of why I wanted to do this whole episode about mimics because Vortiger is acting as a harbinger.

SPEAKER_02 44:52

Right. Um But it's not it is it but it's different.

SPEAKER_05 44:56

It's very passive. Yeah. Vortiger specifically are are incredibly passive. Doppelgangers generally tend to be passive. They do tend to fall up, they're they're they're preceded by death pretty often. Preceded, proceeded. Death happens often afterwards. Right. Very, very shortly afterwards. Um but yeah, go go ahead, go back. I keep I hope that every time I bump into this, it's not hurting everyone's ears. If that's the case, I apologize to you, Ash, and I apologize to you listeners at home. Um I will try to not talk as much with my hands, but I can't make that promise.

SPEAKER_02 45:34

It's impossible. Okay. In 1906, British Parliament member, Sir Gilbert Parker, was Sir Gilbert Parker, yes, quite was attending a debate.

SPEAKER_05 45:48

You just pulled out the uh the Keanu Reeves um uh British accent uh from like Dracula. Oh, okay. Love Keanu Reeves. That man in that movie could not do a British accent to save his life.

SPEAKER_02 46:05

But have we mentioned that there's a little bit of ADHD going on?

SPEAKER_05 46:09

Not yet in this episode, but I'm sure everyone can have uh figured it out by now.

SPEAKER_02 46:13

That's right. In 1906, British Parliament member Sir Gilbert Parker was attending a debate when he spotted Sir Frederick Carney Roche, a fellow parliament member sitting nearby. This greatly surprised Sir G Sir Gilbert, as Sir Frederick was severely ill with influenza at the time. Still, he politely greeted Sir Frederick and told him, I hope you are feeling better. But Carney Roche didn't react in any way. He just sat there with a stony, grim expression on his face. When Sir Gilbert soon glanced at his friend again, the seat was completely empty. Bewildered, he searched for Carney Roche in the lobby, only to find that no one had seen him pass by. When he discussed the event with fellow parliamentarians, it turned out others had seen Carly Roche too. When the real Carney Roche, who had been sick in bed all along, found out about the incident, he was quite unsurprised. He had really wanted to take part in the debate. So to him, it made sense that his spirit had sneaked a peak.

SPEAKER_05 47:27

Interesting.

SPEAKER_02 47:28

His family, however, was terrified and feared the doppelganger was a bad sign. In a small way, they were right. For quite some time, Carney Rush was annoyed by far fellow parliament members who kept poking him with their fingers to make sure he was flesh and blood.

SPEAKER_05 47:46

I think I've actually heard that.

SPEAKER_02 47:49

Is it is is that actually you, Goodson?

SPEAKER_05 47:54

No, yes, of course, quite quite it is. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 47:56

In the end, he had to write a massively sarcastic letter to a local newspaper apologizing that he didn't have the good sense to die at the time of the doppelganger signing and promising to behave better next time.

SPEAKER_05 48:10

What a what a very British thing to write.

SPEAKER_02 48:13

Okay, so let me ask you Doppelganger and psychic warriors.

SPEAKER_05 48:20

It's interesting because in my research, um, as I was looking things up, I came across a lot of those kinds of things as well, where it's like, I don't consider that a doppelganger. That to me seems more like an out-of-body situation or astral projection, those kinds of things. And that that leans more to psychic, yeah, like you, I wouldn't say psychic warrior.

SPEAKER_02 48:40

Well, that was the name of a that was a a book that was written um about the experiences of this fellow who was trained by the I'm thinking CIA, who um was actually trained to use his psychic ability to have these out-of-body experiences, and actually he could go to Russia and he could sit, his spirit could sit in a room and he could give them detail, the CIA detailed information. It's I think they might have made a a book, something about goats. Was that the men who stare at goats? Pardon? There was a movie.

SPEAKER_05 49:21

Yeah, yeah, the men who stare at maybe The Men Who Stare at Goats, which uh it sounds like maybe was based on a book. Uh I I'll I'll I'll I can do research.

SPEAKER_02 49:32

And we could do another thing about it, but it's it's the whole it was a whole thing.

SPEAKER_05 49:36

So when I was doing my research, the the two things that I came across. Let me see. I'm gonna pull up my notes, see if I can while you're doing that. Okay, we're yeah, yeah, we're we're we're both um being very talking while you're looking.

SPEAKER_02 49:49

Okay, so I've got another story that I'll read while you look it up.

SPEAKER_05 49:52

Okay, okay, that sounds good. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 49:54

Um, this is from the website Ghost and Ghouls. It says, when I was 15 or 16, I was 15 or 16 when this happened. Our whole our house was old and creepy as hell. One morning, it must have been around 6 or 7 a.m. I woke up suddenly to see my mom bent over, looking at me like she was watching me sleep. Nope. The room was very dim because it was so early. And I'm usually not a morning person. So I was very groggy. She was wearing one of her school pride shirts and black sweatpants. She was barefoot with her hands on her knees and a very curious look on her face, like she was examining me.

SPEAKER_04 50:34

I see, don't I definitely don't?

SPEAKER_02 50:35

I remember this vividly, but it happened so fast because as soon as I woke up, I fell back asleep. A few hours later, um, I got up a few hours later to find my mom watching TV in the living room, wearing a different outfit. I asked, Why did you change? She looked at me puzzled. We went back and forth for a while because she had no idea what I was talking about. Finally, it was like a light went off in her head and she said with a gasp, Oh Melissa, that wasn't me. I'm not saying it's aliens, but it's aliens.

SPEAKER_05 51:13

I don't I don't think any of these are aliens necessarily. I mean, they I guess they hypothetically could be, but yeah. The two the two sources that I found as I was looking for this that go more into that astral projection side as opposed to true doppelganger. Uh one is Phantisms, Phantasms of the Living. Um, and the other one is the Society for Psychical Research Journals. Okay, and yeah, they're so I almost feel like maybe one of these days we should do something about those kinds of experiences too. Phantasms for the Living is uh is is more of like uh they're both very dry reads. I'm not gonna lie. I was I started to read those and I'm actually glad I didn't incorporate any of them because they're they are they are they are very um medically inclined. They're yeah, very very dry, very and so it's but I still think it'd be interesting to examine those later.

SPEAKER_02 52:09

So I have this book. It's called Um Psychic Warrior, the true story of America's, and I'm gonna have to scroll down. Um it says an ex-army officer reveals his experience working for the CIA as a psychic and a spiritual transformation that led him to expose the CIA's Stargate program. Oh so um yeah, and here this is what uh is uh is Kurt Russell gonna be involved in this?

SPEAKER_05 52:45

It says Kurt Russell was in the first Stargate movie, right? Okay, I'm getting the thumbs up from Ash.

SPEAKER_02 52:50

Psychic Warrior, the true story of the CIA's paranormal espionage program.

SPEAKER_05 52:56

So which the other CIA project whose name is escaping me right now, it was MK Ultra. Yeah, MKUltra was also kind of about that, but more about making people experience that via drugs. Well, it isn't there more like the Manchurian candidate with people are it was it was it dipped its fingers into a lot of interesting things, including you know drugging certain members of the in the the higher-ups. Um the the runner of the organization had drugged all of them without their knowledge, uh just to see what would happen, you know. This looks like a fun time.

SPEAKER_02 53:39

Yeah, uh it's there are a lot of really gnarly things about that, and those are those are only from the things that we actually know about because this The Men Who Stare at Goats was a 2009 movie, and it starred George Clooney and Jeff Bridges. Nice. So a fictionalized comedy comedy drama about a reporter, Ewan McGregor, discovering a secret US Army unit aimed at developing soldiers with paranormal abilities.

SPEAKER_05 54:08

But but according to But it sounds like it's it's loosely based off of of real events. Right, right. I hope that when he sees one of them, he goes, hello there.

SPEAKER_02 54:18

I don't think they get to see him because it's just his it's an out-of-body experience. So it's just Ian McGregor. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_05 54:25

When when he sees somebody like that, he would go, hello there.

SPEAKER_02 54:29

What's that from? General Kenobi.

SPEAKER_05 54:31

That's from Star Wars.

SPEAKER_02 54:33

Oh, okay, got it. Sorry, didn't get the sorry, sorry, sorry.

SPEAKER_05 54:36

Okay. So I'm I I bet a handful of you did get that.

SPEAKER_02 54:41

Okay. The important people.

SPEAKER_05 54:44

You're all important. That's right. Even if you didn't get my reference, my super hilarious, just on point reference that I made. I think, even though I'm sure we both have a lot of more of the of the interesting, like passive ones, right? I almost feel like maybe it's a good time to shift into some more active, maybe and and maybe some of that overlap as well. Um, because there are okay.

SPEAKER_02 55:11

Let me give you a creepy overlap doppelganger story.

SPEAKER_04 55:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 55:16

Happened to me I was 13, and this is from um uh discussion on Jim Harold's virtual campfire stories Facebook page. Try to say that five times faster. I'm not going to. Happened to me when I was 13. I was sitting up reading a book. Mom came and stood in the doorway, but did not enter the room. Why is it always the mom's? Anyway, I asked, What's up? She started to give mundane answers, but I started getting a cold, sick feeling in my belly. So it's responsive. I then looked straight at her and said, You are not my mother. She laughed, some weird laughed, scared the living hell out of me. I screamed and she faded. My real mom had been sound asleep. There was no way she could have gotten back in bed without me hearing her running on her creaky bed. Worst memory ever.

SPEAKER_05 56:19

Several things are interesting. One of them is that from all the other things that I've read so far, generally speaking, when people have these kinds of paranormal encounters, I think it could just be human nature. The fight or flight reflex kicks in, but often our fight or flight reflex uh puts us into the third category of freeze, where we're just like, if I don't move or if I just kind of agree and comply, then maybe this thing will go away. Right. So I'll just pretend like we even though we both know that I know, I'm just gonna pretend like I don't know. Uh she didn't do that. She was a fighter, which is good on her. That's also how you die, but she didn't. And so you know what? I'm glad that's the good news.

SPEAKER_02 56:57

Yeah, yeah, it's just that you didn't die.

SPEAKER_05 56:59

She had the good ending where the thing laughed in her face and then faded away. And honestly, maybe maybe more of us need to be more confrontational to these kinds of dependable entities. I but I also caution against that because again, that feels to me just instinctually like that's how you die. But I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 57:15

By confronting it.

SPEAKER_05 57:16

Yeah, by c by saying, I know that you're not this thing.

SPEAKER_02 57:19

I don't know. I think confronting it helps you realistically snap out of whatever spell they're trying to get you under.

SPEAKER_05 57:28

I think I think it depends on how you confront it. Because, like, for instance, something that I've heard a lot about, you know, spirits is that you have to be very direct. For instance, if you don't want something to to be in a room, you you just very directly, not not mean, but you know, just say I don't want you around, please leave.

SPEAKER_02 57:48

That kind of so what you were describing about um working late at night having the creeps and feeling like something I had i in this house, because we all know this house is extra super haunted. Um, so I was in my office, but we had moved my office down to the second floor, and I was working, it was it was past midnight, and um, but I had my office door open into the hallway and I'm working on something, and I had that distinct feeling that somebody was just standing in the doorway watching me. You know that when someone is watching you type, then you the worst. It is, it was, and I'm trying to work and I'm trying to work, and you know, I'm looking, there's nothing visual, there's just and so I finally turned and I just said, I have got to get this chapter done. I cannot do it with you standing there staring at me. Could you please leave? And then whoosh the feeling went away.

SPEAKER_05 58:43

But that that kind of confrontation, I think, is is one thing because it's it's you know, I I do personally believe that since we have physical bodies, that we have a little bit more say in the physical world than something that's it's more spiritual. That being said, it it doesn't sound like she said go away. She just said, I know that you're not the spirit. And that that's like, okay, that's a good starting point. Then you add leave. Go away. No, no, no, no. You you tell it to go away. You don't just say, I know that you're not my mom.

SPEAKER_02 59:19

But it sounds like as soon as she's you're not my mom, the thing laughed and you're right, disappeared.

SPEAKER_05 59:24

But why did it and it could be laughing to like say face, you know, to be like, I'm still scary, but then it leaves. Or it could be like, haha, you didn't tell me to leave, so I'm just gonna vanish away, you won't see me, but I'm still here.

SPEAKER_02 59:36

Can I do my dad's story?

SPEAKER_05 59:39

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 59:39

Okay, so we're getting into now, we're getting into the creepy. I have to say, as I'm reading that story, I got chills.

SPEAKER_05 59:45

Okay, so before you do that, I do want to say I was only able to find one. I think you found more, but I was only able to find really one folklore example that I I feel comfortable saying this is this is a uh a mimic in folklore.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:04

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:04

That yeah, not just like a doppelganger or something like that, but something that that pretends to be something else, specifically with auditory things, which is the lesie. The leshy is a an another thing I think in in more like Norse mythology. I don't I don't know exactly the the region. Uh it could be Norway, it could be Sweden, somewhere on there. But um the Leshy is it it it's uh uh a forest spirit that has a lot of things associated with it.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:34

You said forest, like woods. Yes. I heard forest a little bit. Oh, oh.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:39

Forrest. Forest spirit. Okay. Um it's it it is often if somebody hears, like especially in that area, in that region, if somebody heard a voice of somebody that they knew in the woods, they would associate it with the leshy. Or if a lot of there were a lot of people who would go missing in the woods and they they would have been let off by the leshy. Um so it it did it wasn't always a malicious spirit, but it often was known to pretend to be the voice of of somebody else and would lure them. And it wouldn't, we we don't know what happened to them. Uh we assume they were lost.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:18

Um That was one of my readers asked me. Yeah. Um, and and I'm kind of I'm looking up one of my readers said, so if and we were talking more about Appalachia. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:29

And how there's a lot of weird stuff that happens in and we'll have a we probably will.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:34

We'll probably have a podcast about that. But you know, you don't whistle in the woods. If somebody calls your name in the woods, you don't follow them. And I had a I had asked that question on Facebook, and I had a lot of readers who lived in that area.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:46

See, that's interesting because I've I've seen um on certain forums, I've seen people who are upset about the the rules of being made up bigger than than they are, but it sounds like it sounds like there is it, it's not just like us othering, because that's one thing I always try to avoid. I don't I don't I want to try to find the folklore that's actually like and the stories that are are true in nature and not just like made up or you know. And I don't I don't want to other any, I don't want to other the the people of Appalachian Mountains because they're going, they're they're having experiences that are human, just as human as our our experiences. I don't want to other Native American folklore or anything like that. I don't I don't like that idea. And so I'm glad that there are people from the area who are saying, no, this is a real thing.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:31

They grew up with their parents and grandparents saying, Oh no, you're gonna do this. Interesting. And they they were saying, so the reader said, Well, how do they know? Because you know, if if you don't follow it, you know, if you don't follow it and you're safe, how do you know that if you had followed it, you would have and if you did follow it and they took you away, you can't come back and report on it.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:49

It's like that quote from Parts of the Caribbean where in the first one they're like, Nobody it said that nobody would see the black pearl and live. And then uh Captain Jack Spare was like, Well then how did the story get out?

unknown 1:03:02

That's right.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:02

How did anyone know about the black pearl? Exactly. Yeah, yeah, it's okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:06

That's so and and you know, basically it is um some people so that there's so we're gonna pause before we scare everybody with some logical stuff. Um, first of all, a lot of these don't go into the woods, don't follow if your voices are are probably cultural things to keep children from wandering into the woods or wandering away to places they, you know, to stay on the path, don't go if you hear it.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:34

Also, depending on the the time that these were brought as well, uh especially with the, and we'll probably have like like we said, probably have a whole episode about Appalachian Mountains later on, but um, it was pretty well known during the prohibition period that a lot of the caves of the haulers were used as moonshining operations. And honestly, that I could even see that being a modern day thing, but instead of moonshining, it's cartels, cartels and illegal drugs and things like that. If you're in the woods and you hear a whistle, it could very well be signals to, you know, especially back then, but even to today, signals between different gang members, and you don't want to whistle back. Yeah, you don't uh that's not a whistle, mom.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:24

And then I think that wasn't it was like it was one of those signs. Make it make it sound like an owl. I'm sure it was like in a knots movie. I'm gonna go out and make it sound like an owl when they're coming.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:43

Did I sound like an owl brig?

SPEAKER_02 1:04:45

Just like an owl. Okay, so also going back to the podcast, um, there's actually a real phenomena called auditory paridolia. It's when your brain turns random sounds, just like uh regular paridolia, when you look like at um for for me, it's it's usually like the tile on the floor. Yep. You can all of a sudden see faces in it, or you look at tree bark and you can see an old man there, or yeah, and you look at the clouds.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:16

Clouds, you can see a dinosaur. I remember one I I would often do, and I still do sometimes, uh, in our church that we go to, in our local church, uh the the carpet is a very specific kind of carpet with a lot of textures and and and patterns. I would always see different faces and different stories within within that. Um and when I tried to like focus on one of them, it often would then kind of like I couldn't find it again. Yeah. Uh just because, you know, I was something that my brain made up.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:45

No, it's it it's your brain looks for patterns. It wants patterns, it wants to organize things. So the human brain is wired to recognize speech patterns, especially your own name. So in places like the woods where sound Is irregular and distorted, your brain can misinterpret noise as someone calling you.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:07

But I'd be curious to see, kind of going back to my friend's story, I'd be curious because he didn't find a pattern. It sounded like it should have a pattern, and it sounded like if it was that, I would I don't know if this is the case or not, but I almost feel like if it was that, he would have been able to make sense of any words. Right. But he didn't.

unknown 1:06:32

No.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:32

Well, see, this is this is my, you know, like when you tell ghost stories and you can say, well, if you hear a noise that no, just blame it on your cat. Right. This is my blame it on the cat.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:41

Sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:42

So here's my Could be your brain. Could be, okay, so I have, ooh. I have the dad story, but I have the Faroe People story.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:50

I almost feel like the Faral People story, maybe we don't just do a full episode on Feral People later on.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:55

Oh, but I need to tell this Faro people story with mimics.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:58

I really so Okay, in that case, yeah, we can we can do the Faro people story first. Maybe just give a maybe just briefly explain in to like briefly introduce the idea of Pharaoh people acting at with auditory mimic.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:14

Um okay, so the idea of Faro People um is that the you know, again, we talk about the mountains, uh the Appalachian Mountains, and how they were haulers, and there was, I mean, they were deep dive, and and there was a time where the the government decided to turn that whole area into parks. And so towns were basically I I have family um from LaRay, Virginia, who had originally because we went to LaRay to find the genealogy for them, and the the people said that a lot of that genealogy was lost because way up in the mountains now there's these cemeteries where there used to be towns, but those people were told to move out because they were going to it's now a national park, so you get to move away. And and these were probably, you know, my background, Scottish and Irish, you know, these were the backwoods kind of people, and so the idea behind the Feral people um is the these people didn't move, these people were able to uh kind of stay there and and slowly become uncivilized.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:29

Yeah, and and we would like to be I I I feel like we want to be completely clear. We're not talking about people who live in the in the in the hollers or in the woods or anything like that. Because you're right, it's people who have isolated themselves from any form of civilization, right? Um, and and these are people who have become feral. I mean, these are people who have have lost touch with with their people, with their group, right. And and have gone back to their so this is not like we're not saying that there are people that that the people in the Appalachian Mountains, you know, are feral. This is this is something completely different. These people don't live in homes anymore. They don't they live in caves and they have lost touch with humanity. Yeah, I think that that would be yes, and this is this is we're not trying to other anyone in in the mountains. Right. I've I've I've only saying that because I've I've seen posts where people are like, have you guys heard about this concept of the pharaoh people? And oh yeah, people think that you know the people in the hills are are you know, the the hillbillies up there in the hills are all these crazy pharaoh people. Yeah, and no, that's not what we're saying at all. That's this is something, this is a different concept than than anyone who is you know going through any struggles within the actual mountains of Appalachia. Appalachia? Appalachia?

SPEAKER_02 1:09:44

Yes. So sure. So this is actually so I I had uh gotten into this by watching an Expedition X um program on Feral People. They actually went, they they had eyewitnesses, and it was very interesting because the eyewitnesses lived several hundred miles away from each other, but both had seen feral people, and they brought in uh a police artist and these people who had never met each other who lived hundreds of miles apart, uh, but had gone to the same area and had witnessed this. The photos, and I have it on my Freaky Friday um website. Maybe we'll put a link to that. Oh, maybe that they were remarkably the same of this this creature. And so I watched that and I thought, well, this is very interesting. So, you know, I I did the the Reddit thing and did focus, and this was this was a story that really freaked me out. I'm a hunter, I like to hunt wild boar specifically. Though I've been deer hunting and have been known to get a turkey for Thanksgiving, I mostly hunt boar. For those of you that don't know, boar are a big problem in the United States. A sow can have two litters a year, and it's not uncommon for a litter to consist of 10 or more pigs. Given that pigs eat anything and everything, it's not hard to see why the why the Department of Fish and Wildlife makes it legal to hunt them with almost no restrictions. In my state, and I think he's he's one of the Carolinas. Okay, it's illegal to hunt most large animals with night or thermal vision scopes, with the exception of boar and coyote.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:27

Here's a fun thing about boars. Uh, boars are actually not native to America. The reason why they're a problem is because some I I think English people imported them so that they could have something to hunt. Uh but then when yeah, but then when when you know economic problems started to happen, those people left. Yeah and so the population, I mean, like like they said, the the this non-native boar population became a huge problem.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:57

They're kind of apex predators.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:58

They're gnarly. I mean they're they they can because I don't I don't think they bacon. Correct me if I'm wrong, I don't think boars or pigs are naturally carnivores. Yes, they are. They are, yes. Okay. I know they eat everything. Yes, but they yes. Okay, so they they will look for any prey in the case.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:23

They are apex predators.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:24

Okay, so so they look at us and go, mmm, yes, human bacon.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:28

Well, yeah, we won't go there. It's in my new book, though, when and when I release that. So yeah, yeah. Preview sneak peek. Coming soon to a bookstore near you. That's right. Okay, so we go on. I've been saving for a year, mostly fun money. It's hard to explain to your wife that a scope that costs literally twice as much as the rifle I was mounting it on was worth it.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:51

Sounds like cameras and lunch.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:52

That's right. But I did it. I took it to a range and I sighted it in. There was an area that was peppered with bar activity that I knew would be perfect for a night hunt. It was easily accessible with my truck and easy to find spots that I could set up in that overlook that I could set up in that overlooked a large, easy to navigate clearing. The night started uneventful, mostly me tinkering with my do my my new toys, cycling through the settings. I was a little impatient. I'd spotted multiple deer, but they were out of season. And like I mentioned earlier, my current setup wasn't legal for deer. I moved to another spot I had seen days earlier that probably wasn't much better than my first, but it gave me something to do and a new angle to look around with my scope. After an hour of or so of glassing the area, it dawned on me, this spot doesn't have much animal activity at all. No rabbit or owls. The deer that I'd seen were hundreds of yards away from where I was. Why was this pocket of land so dead at night but lively in the day?

SPEAKER_04 1:14:00

Predators.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:01

I'd set up around 10 p.m. and it was about 2 a.m. when I started to think about packing up, maybe setting up a target before I left and taking some practice shots. I heard a crunch come from the direction I came from before. I panned my scope over and saw the silhouette of a small bear pushing through the bushes. It's important to note that my scope isn't exactly night vision, it's a thermal scope, kind of like a black and white version of what you see in the predator movies. I adjusted my range and zoomed in a little. I remember jolting a little when I saw that it wasn't really a bear. It was a man. Because he was so low and hunched over, I thought I was looking at a young bear. Is that a game warden? It couldn't be. I would have seen the headlights coming up the road from where I was perched. And where could he have walked in from? I was thirty miles away from anything and on public lands. I was about to call out when I adjusted my sights and noticed he was naked. No shoes, pants, or anything. Could still be a game warden. Sorry. Official apology will be posted to all game wardens in the United States.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:25

I don't apologize.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:26

From voices from the attic. I remember being disturbed by his movements, like a squirrel or something, twitchy and grabbing at the foliage, sniffing around and palming the tree. Was that my tree? The one I'd been leaning against earlier? The thought terrified me. Could he smell me? Then he did something I still have nightmares about today. He squatted and placed his hands in the dirt between his feet and stared straight up like a dog mid-howl. And I heard it. A voice coming from that direction, a very compelling female voice. Help, I'm lost. There was a long pause, but neither of us moved a muscle. The center of my sights was trained at the dirt in front of his feet. I couldn't bring myself to aim directly at another person. It went against everything I'd been taught about firearms. Were they lost? Was this some guy that had gone crazy out here? Why was his voice so feminine? Help, please, I can't walk, the voice called out. That's when I called bullcrap. Not only could he walk, but when I first saw him, he was traversing the land with ease for a naked person. So so good, I mystick him for a bear. That's a freaking trap. This guy is trying to lure me to him with a damsel in distress routine. Luckily, the lack of activity before had caused me to pack up most of my gear. I think I may have left behind a hat and a sitting pad, but I didn't give a crap at that moment. I took my eyes off him for a moment to get my pack on. I buckled my chest strapped and scrambled for my rifle. To my horror, he was in the same position, but his face was staring in my direction. And I swear I saw him smile. The thermoscope has an effect that makes animals' eyes appear white. How the hell had he heard me get up and put my gear on? He must have easily been 150 yards away. Freak off! He didn't actually say it that way, but I am. I screamed in that direction. He stood upright and it hit me how tall and skinny he was, easily six feet and very lean. He took a couple of strides, long strides, in my direction, and I instinctively sent a round sailing above his head into the tree line. He was freaky as hell, but he hadn't really threatened me. What would I tell the cops? I was unwilling and unready to shoot someone. He stopped dead in his tracks and hunched down on all fours. The next one will get you up. Go away. He stayed on all fours, and this time I had my sights trained on the center of him. His eyes were just above the grass, like a large cat or something. I was trying to stop my trembling and knew that my voice had cracked a little on that last warning. I was terrified. That standoff probably only lasted a minute or two, maybe less, but it felt like forever. In an instant he bolted left towards the tree line opposite the road. So much for not being able to walk. I could barely keep him in my scope. He was moving so fast. He disappeared into the brush, and I sent another bullet sailing high in his direction. I racked another round and tried to pocket that mag for and swap for a fresh one, but I dropped it and I didn't even bother looking for it. It wasn't far from my truck, and I wanted to get out of there. I could hear him in the distance yelling in this weird sound that could have been a laugh or a cry. I scrambled up the trail and arrived at my truck breathless. I tossed my gear into the cab, but kept the rifle in the passenger seat and sped off. For the longest time, I told that story from the perspective of having spotted some deranged crackhead living off the land like some kind of caveman. I reported it to fish and game, but all they did was scold me for hunting at night alone. And I never received an update.

SPEAKER_05 1:20:14

So it's interesting. That story.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:17

Is that freaky? I am never going into the Appalachian Mountain. At least not at night.

SPEAKER_05 1:20:25

By yourself. Don't go at night by yourself.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:27

And if somebody in a woman's voice screams, help me, I can't walk, I'm going the other way.

SPEAKER_05 1:20:32

Also, if you have a night vision or not a night vision scope, but if you have a thermal scope, right, and you see um, and I I understand, I understand the hesitation, and I'm not saying that we should, you know, murder, but also no, no, you can't even no, no, you if you see if you see a feral individual, uh a naked individual making calls just just no you might be you might need to pull the trigger. I've that's all I'm saying. That's all I'm saying.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:03

Nope, nope.

SPEAKER_05 1:21:05

You know, but also I don't know if I could say that I would be able to do that because I understood.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:11

This guy handled it perfectly.

SPEAKER_05 1:21:13

He handled it very well. And if there's ever a time to, you know, I know that we we did on the on the fly editing, if there was ever a time to drop the F bomb multiple times, that would be the time to do it. I completely understand. But it's interesting because that sounds a lot like a different experience that I've found.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:30

Okay, good.

SPEAKER_05 1:21:30

Um so I'm gonna I'm gonna do both of them. This is from R slash Paranormal. Um, the first one isn't this, but then somebody commented something that is fairly similar. So the first experience that started this thread, I guess, was by loving life in the 90s in R Paranormal. I was just outside bringing firewood up to the back porch of our wood stove. I heard what sounded like my five-year-old daughter's voice saying, Daddy, just past the fence surrounding my yard. My five-year-old daughter is with her grandmother tonight. The voice had a strange metallic sound to it. Needless to say, I'm inside now. Understandable. Yes. And it was that, it was very brief, it was very clear, and honestly, that makes it to me at least, it makes me lean towards probably happened, probably pretty believable. Um, especially since he feels the need to, you know, it's like I need to tell somebody about this story, and so it happened just recently. But here's in the in the thread in the comment section of of this post, which is where most of the good stuff is. The juicy stuff. This is from honest either honest base or honest bass. Okay. 7840. I was volunteering at a camp for teens. They have bomb fire on the weekends. The clearing is near the edge of a state park. And she doesn't say, or they don't say where um where the state park is, where this camp is. While the kids were roasting dogs on the fire, they heard a woman's voice calling for help from within the tree line. The kids called back, but the voice responded with more calls for help. It sounded odd, and kids thought it was a prank. They kept yelling at the calls for help. One one of the camp counselors made the kids calm down, and she went into the woods to hear better. She said the voice sounded far away. After walking in, she kept walking a little bit further in. The voice kept calling for help, but it said nothing more. She stopped walking and held her breath to hear better. The call for help came from right behind her. She said it sounded it's she said it had a faraway sound, but seemed to be right there close. Like as if somebody was like, Help me. Like help me. Oh it was like the faraway sound was faked. She could barely see the bomb fire through the trees. She said she kept her head down, walked toward the fire. She said she almost lost sight of the fire and was more and was and was never more afraid. She got out of the trees and told the kids someone was pranking them. They called park officials. The next day, a park ranger came to look around. He said, If you hear something like that again, don't go in the woods to look.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:50

Duh. Well, it it's human nature. No, I no, I know I told I you if you're um a mom or a dad and you hear a child calling you from the woods saying, Help, I'm lost. I mean, every part of you wants to go in there and help them.

SPEAKER_05 1:25:05

So it makes it so devious and so terrifying.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:08

Okay, so I'm gonna tell my scary dad story because it's not just in the woods. So this happened when I was about eight or nine. Not me, whoever's telling the story. We lived in a small house just outside of town, nothing isolated, but not in a neighborhood either. You could see our nearest neighbor's porch light through the trees, but that was about it. My bedroom was on the second floor, facing the front yard. I had one of those old windows that you could push up and it stuck halfway, so it you couldn't lift it all the way just right. At night I used to leave the curtains cracked so I could see the driveway. I don't know why. I just like knowing everything normal before I went to sleep. My dad worked early morning, so he usually went to bed before I did. That night wasn't any different. I remember hearing the TV downstairs, my mom moving around in the kitchen, and then everything getting quiet. At some point I woke up. I don't remember why, no noise, not a bad dream. I just woke up. The room felt strange right away. Not scary exactly, just off. Like when you wake up somewhere that isn't your bed and it takes you a second to figure it out. I rolled over and looked towards the window. And I saw my dad standing in the yard. He was maybe 20 feet from the house, just past where the grass met the driveway. He wasn't moving around, just standing there, looking up at my window. At first, it didn't seem strange. I think my brain just filled in something normal, like maybe he had gone outside to check something. But then I realized it's in the middle of the night. And he was still completely still. Then he lifted one hand and waved me down. Not a big wave, just a slow motion, like he was trying to get my attention without making noise. Then he pointed towards the front door and made a little come on motion with his fingers. I sat up in bed. I remember thinking I was in trouble. That's honestly what it felt like, like I had done something wrong, and he didn't want to make wake up my mom like you didn't take the garbage out, or you know, he didn't say that. I just said it. So I got out of bed. I made it to my bedroom door, and right before I opened it up, I stopped. Not because I was scared, just because something didn't quite line up. If he was outside, why hadn't I heard the door open? We had an old door, it always made a noise. You couldn't open it without hearing it. I stood there for a second, then turned around and looked back out the window. He was still there, still looking up. Still waiting. That's when I decided to go tell my mom I was going outside. Smart move, always tell your mom. I don't know why. Maybe I just didn't want to get in trouble for leaving the house at night.

SPEAKER_05 1:28:12

Understandably so.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:14

Smart move? Their bedroom door, their bedroom was down the hall from me. The door was cracked open and the light was off. I pushed it open a little more and whispered, Mom. She didn't answer right away.

SPEAKER_05 1:28:28

I'm just thinking of the meme of the child standing with the open door. Mom, I have food up. Mom and so I have food up.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:36

You've guys have done that to me more than that.

SPEAKER_05 1:28:38

I'm sure that's what makes it funny because it's relatable. Anyway.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:41

She didn't answer right away, but I could see the shape of her in the bed. I stepped closer and said it again. She stirred and towards turned towards me. What's wrong? I'm going outside. I said, Dad's calling me. There was a pause. Then she said very clearly, no, he's not. She reached over and turned on the bedside lamp, and my dad was right there next to her. Yep. Asleep. I remember just staring at him. Like if I looked long enough, something would change and make sense. But nothing did. He didn't wake up, he didn't move, he was just there. My mom sat up a little. What do you mean he's calling you? I didn't answer. I just turned and ran back to my room. I don't know why I did that. Every instinct should have been to stay with her, but I needed to see. I went straight to the window and he was still there. Same spot, same posture. But now he wasn't waving anymore. He was just standing there looking up at me, waiting. I remember noticing his face then, not clearly, but enough to know something wasn't right. It looked like my dad, but it wasn't arranged correctly. Like someone had copied him without understanding how expressions work. Too still, too flat. I don't remember how long I stood there. It couldn't have been for more than a few seconds. Then I heard my mom behind me. She came into the room and stood next to me. Show me. I pointed. And when I look back, there was nothing there. Just the yard, the driveway, the same way it always looked. My mom stayed in my room that night. I slept in her bed after that for a while. We never talked about it again. But here's the thing I've never been able to explain. The next morning, my dad asked me why I had been up at the window so late. I told him I hadn't been. And he said, I thought I saw you standing there.

SPEAKER_05 1:31:11

And so we placed rifles at both of the windows. And just in case something like that happened again.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:18

Suddenly. And anyway. And anyway, we started blasting.

SPEAKER_05 1:31:26

Um so it's not just the mountains or the I mean it's well So there are there are two more stories I would love to share.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:35

Go, go, please.

SPEAKER_05 1:31:36

Um because we're I know we're we're running.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:38

We always we have way too much information and not enough.

SPEAKER_05 1:31:42

I know, and it's but but there are two that I found that remind me way too much of my friend's experience. Okay. Because I I tried to categorize them into various different things.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:53

I would say these are malevolent or not. Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_05 1:31:56

I guess I I try to categorize them as like, okay, so this is this feels like a doppelganger thing. This feels like you know, a leshy or something similar to that. And and I when I categorize them, I I know fully that folklore is hard to categorize because ultimately what what the categor what the categories are trying to do is trying to explain things that are unexplainable.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:16

Right.

SPEAKER_05 1:32:16

Um, these are experiences that people have, and so we say, okay, so it's like this and this and this. That means it could be like it could be this or it could be that because we don't know. You know, it's not like we can and and even it's hard to even categorize animals, right? You know, and so it's gonna be very more it's gonna be much more difficult to categorize things that we can't physically explain. Right. Um that being said, so I I one of them I have uh I I have you know, for active mimics, the talk about the leshy, and then I on my notes I have other miscellaneous things, but then I also one of the categories I have, and it's only got one story in it, um, whatever the hell is going on in Tennessee. Okay, or anywhere near the Appalachian Mountains for that matter.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:02

Um so by the way, we love the Appalachian Mountains.

SPEAKER_05 1:33:05

I would I would love to go there. I would love to, I mean, I've been near, I don't think I've actually been able to explore the Appalachian Mountains themselves, but like uh my friend who lives near Knoxville, um I uh I've gone to visit his his house. It's gorgeous. Honestly, Tennessee is kind of the place I would love to settle down. Um, it's just it's beautiful. It's it's green, and the stuff the winters are pretty mild, yeah. Not like they are here. Very mildly. Yeah, it definitely put hair on my chest. Um, so this is from uh this is a thread asking about mimics in R slash paranormal. Um, and tree hugger93 stated, I've actually experienced this before. It was in 2017. I lived in a region near the Appalachian Mountains in Tennessee. I woke up around 9 a.m. and heard my husband's voice say my name twice. And I called back saying I was awake. I sat up and saw the time was way past the time he usually goes to work. I thought it was weird and thought I was hearing things, but I heard it again through the closed bedroom door. I opened it to see if he was home, but I was home alone. No one was there. It was eerie, but I tried not to think about it too much. There were a few unexplainable things that happened in that house. The only that that only happened once there, but though we moved and are actually still still near the Appalachian Mountains, but in a different state. Both my husband and I have had experiences like that in our new house. It wasn't until recently that I learned that this was even a thing that more people experience, or else I would have shared it in the past. So yeah, so she heard hus her husband's voice twice.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:57

I wonder if she's Norwegian or he is. And it could be their what is it called? Uh Vortiger. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:35:02

Well, no, it wasn't that because it it doesn't coming home.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:05

He left. Exactly. And confused Vortiger. Who talks to you an hour after they leave rather than an hour before they come? He just doesn't have his schedule. He's a late sleeper. I get it. He's on Norwegian time, not on Tennessee time.

SPEAKER_05 1:35:20

So here's the other one. This isn't as a lot more eerily similar, but then also it's it's a little bit worse, and I don't like it.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:28

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 1:35:28

So this is uh an R slash cryptids um from a deleted account. And the the the post is called Mimic Encounter. This happened last summer in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I went out for a walk around eight or nine. I was walking on a street with a big park on one side and a couple of baseball diamonds surrounded by forests on the other. I wasn't particularly paranoid or on high alert or anything. I stopped under a streetlight to light a cigarette, and for some reason the forest across the street caught my attention. I don't really know how to explain it. Anyway, I kept walking until the forest part I was watching was right across the street from me and stopped. I was just looking at it, and all of a sudden, I heard my girlfriend's voice come from the forest saying hi. Really happy like. So I just did what I thought was best and ignored it and kept walking. That's what a lot of people just like I didn't I didn't hear anything, I didn't see anything. Yeah, yeah. It didn't happen. It didn't happen. I was kind of creeped out, understandably so. Yeah. Um after after I got about a block or so away, excuse me, let me let me say that again. After I got about a block or so away, I turned around and saw a really tall dark silhouette stand up from behind a minivan parked down the street. I was officially scared and I ran all the way home. It was pretty creepy, but it kicked off a bunch of messed up stuff that started happening to me for the next several months. So he does go on to say uh let me see if I can find uh I always do this where I I I order all of my notes and then by the end of it I've shuffled all my notes around. Um let's see. Oh, here it is. Okay, okay, found it, found it, found it, found it. He goes on to say, I can describe it better. When I uh when I saw it coming towards me at work, um I don't know why he's saying at work, uh, it moved kind of weird. Like it was not very good at walking. It didn't move fast. Every now and then I saw its eyes, but they were different colors every time. They were red sometimes and yellow sometimes. I thought that it was so strange, so I asked a few people about it and I got a lot of responses saying it might have been a demon. I definitely felt afraid of it.

SPEAKER_00 1:38:14

Wait, might have been a demon.

SPEAKER_05 1:38:16

Might have been a demon. I mean it's could be demon, you know, could be demons. Could be mimic, could be demon, could be aliens. I'm not saying it's demon.

SPEAKER_02 1:38:28

I'm not saying it's demon. I'm not saying it's demons.

SPEAKER_05 1:38:31

But you know, probably answers a question like that. Well, it's really it's really funny because so on this post, there are a lot of people who are like, I know exactly what this entity is. It's a demon. And what you need to do is you need to pray to Christ for repentance. And the and the guy was like, you know, I'm not super religious, and so that doesn't sound like something I want to do. And and they're like, No, no, no, no, no, you don't understand. This is about your soul. And you know, and and like if it is a demon, you know, yes, you probably want to.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:02

Now we know why he has a deleted account.

SPEAKER_05 1:39:04

Honestly, probably.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:06

Yeah. Because he probably got got demons.

SPEAKER_05 1:39:08

The the demon probably took his account.

SPEAKER_04 1:39:14

Charlie, I got your account.

SPEAKER_05 1:39:17

Oh no, mom, my account got hacked by a demon. I gotta delete it. Sorry. I I do believe that demons exist. Um, so I I I poke fun, but I, you know, it uh well I'll let me keep changing eyes, demons. Those are the words kind. Uh let me keep reading and see if you please do. I definitely felt afraid of it. I quit that job for unrelated reasons and I didn't go outside much for a while. My girlfriend told me around that time that she thought something was attached to her and had been for a long time.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:50

Ooh.

SPEAKER_05 1:39:51

So I did some cleaning girlfriends. Well, it I mean it's Ghostbusters. Are you the key master? The gatekeeper, the is it the key master or the key holder? I don't remember. Key master, I was right. Yes. Um, I no, I will say if this thing originally was mimicking her voice.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:12

Yeah, it was her demon.

SPEAKER_05 1:40:14

It could very well be, it could have been siphoning characteristics from her. Right. Um, if it is uh a demon. Um so I did some cleansing stuff for both of us, and it went away for a while. Every now and then I hear weird stuff outside or our window at night, like whistling that doesn't sound like it's a person. And my girlfriend said the other day she heard my voice in the kitchen when I wasn't home. So I think it's still around. I haven't actually seen anything for a while, but we're both hearing stuff still sometimes.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:50

Time to burn the house down.

SPEAKER_05 1:40:52

Well, at this, he says, at this point, it's more just pissing me off because I have more important things to worry about and I don't like being messed with. And then he says, and this this part, you're gonna laugh. You're gonna laugh at this. Okay. But I mean, to me, it goes it to me, it's it's a clear example of why we don't mess actively with things that we don't fully understand. I've dealt with my demons, I've I've dealt with demons and stuff before, drunk Ouija board stuff. But this is my first time dealing with this kind of thing. I'll keep everyone updated. So it could very well be something that he accidentally opened himself up to or his girlfriend accidentally opened herself up to, and it's kind of, you know, it's it's they're both dealing with something that they don't understand. Um, whether it is, you know, a demon or some other kind of entity that that, you know, it it's a it's something that is mimicking their voices. Um and yeah, he's got a deleted account now. So I mean, I don't yeah, I I can't reach out to him and be like, hey, did you ever figure out what what that was?

SPEAKER_02 1:41:54

Demon thing, the changing eye demon thing.

SPEAKER_05 1:41:56

Yeah. Well, and it I mean, if it's a silhouette, a shadow person, yeah, you know, yeah. Which those things are not, you don't, those are not things you wanna you you you want to notice you.

SPEAKER_02 1:42:07

So uh I'm gonna repeat what we had said earlier. When one of my readers asked me, how do you know what's gonna happen to them? If they're taken away, no one would know what caused them to leave. If they walked away, how would they know they would be taken away? We don't actually know what would happen, and that's the point. The stories we hear aren't from the people who followed the voice, they're from the people who didn't. So the warning isn't based on proof, it's based on instinct or tradition. Whether it's something paranormal or just the very real danger of being pulled off course in the woods, the outcome is the same. You don't go towards something you can't see, especially when it already knows your name.

SPEAKER_05 1:42:57

Also, if you get the bad vibes, trust the bad vibes. Your vibes. Yeah. Okay. So if you guys have any of your own personal stories about mimics or about doppelgangers, doppelgangers, any any paranormal experience that you that you would like to share with us, please email us at vtfadic at gmail.com. Yeah. Give us chills. Yes, yeah, we would love to share them with with everyone else. We'd love to share the chills with everyone else. Also, please thank you guys for for subscribing and for uh following, for liking, for sharing this with your friends. And if you haven't, please do so. We would we would love to see you guys comment things and and you know share share what you think your ideas about some of these things could be. Um you know, let us know if if what we missed if we did miss uh things, which I'm sure that we did. We did. Yeah, absolutely. Um, I mean there are some things that we know we missed. Yeah, because we didn't but uh share like I said before, share this with your friends. Please share this with your friends. We uh we would love to see the community uh voices from the attic, bro. We would love more voices in the attic.

SPEAKER_02 1:44:12

We'd love to hear your voice. I don't know if we'd love in the attic, but well, that's fair.

SPEAKER_05 1:44:17

We would love your voices to be in your attics. That's so weird.

SPEAKER_02 1:44:21

Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_05 1:44:26

I tried with a valiant effort. It failed.

SPEAKER_02 1:44:29

And we'll see you next week.