May 6, 2024 • 44 mins
With special guests, Stephanie and Dawn, Abbey takes a peek into the supernatural world with a fresh lens. In a profoundly spirited discussion, this episode explores the intriguing world of paranormal investigations and empathic abilities. Our guests recount eerie, paranormal experiences beginning at childhood. Stephanie sheds light on her personal journey developing mediumship skills, and brings forth the crucial aspect of drawing boundaries between “normal” life and the distracting unseen world. This conversation, for skeptics and believers alike, is sure to widen your perspective and evoke curiosity about the unexplained.
Music: Blue Dot Sessions
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Music.
(00:36):
When I was little, I used to play Barbies with this girl down the street from us.
And we would play in her grandmother's room where her grandmother was in like a hospice bed.
We'd always play on the floor and stuff. The grandmother would tell us to be
quiet. And then the grandmother passed away.
But we were still playing in the room. The bed was still there.
But no grandma. No grandma was in the bed. And I remember the grandmother in
(00:59):
the doorway telling us to be quiet.
And she always did the same thing. She girls need to be quiet.
Yeah. Finger to lips. Yes.
The girl's name is Ricky. And I said something to her and I was like,
oh, your grandma just told us to be quiet. She was like.
And she must have said something to her mom because my mom was there like 10
minutes later to pick me up.
(01:21):
Did you talk to your mom about that? Yeah, I told her straight up what happened.
And my mom said, I was wondering which one would who would get this.
And then apparently it's like in the family on my mom's side.
And she just told me that it's okay to talk about that stuff at home,
but it's not okay to talk about that stuff outside of the house because people
will think you're weird and don't want to be around you.
(01:43):
And she was very, very right.
That little creeper is Stephanie, who's here to talk about what we'll call the paranormal.
Wait, should I turn the lights down for like a ghost, a spooky time conversation?
For like the vibe? Nothing like a sexy paranormal moment. I'm gonna try it just to see how we feel.
(02:08):
Stephanie's not the only child who showed some abilities as a tiny tot. Dawn's here too.
I tend to whisper a lot when I talk on the microphone in the mall. And then this happens.
I don't know why I do that. You do. I like it. I like it though.
When Dawn was four and five, she would write songs. But she couldn't actually
write, so she would recite them and have her mom write them down.
(02:31):
And she found one of them a couple years ago and she was like,
this is the kind of stuff that you would write that dad, your dad would come
home and I'd be like, how is a five-year-old writing this?
I want to read you guys this one thing if I can make it out.
It's reporting, right? Yeah. That's our friend Liz in the background.
Dawn is holding in her hand a note covered in her mom's chicken scratch.
(02:54):
I remember this particular instance because I had this burning desire to write down this song.
And she said that I was insistent. She was like, you were weird about it.
She was like, usually you'd be like, I have a song. Can you write it down?
But this time you're like, no, you have to write this down. I'm like scared now.
And my mom was like, why do I have to write it down? You're like, it's very important.
(03:15):
I remember she was laying on the couch and she was writing it in shorthand.
And I walked over and I was like, those aren't letters.
You're not even writing this down. Like I got super upset. She's like,
no, it's shorthand. It's really, I'll be able to read it back to you.
Anyways, never saw it again. Okay, start again. I said goodbye to you.
You started to be in tears when I said goodbye to you.
(03:38):
I said, I don't like this house. It's got a
bad purview i don't like
the way you sound and because of your bad lung like
what the fuck five-year-old says that you i
wish i could read my mom's writing yeah we
need her translation you tried me off i said no as
(04:01):
long as i was gonna stay it was
the end of me to you but it wasn't
really true and if it were not no that you said to me i would have been as sad
as you've been i had left you and you had left me that after you told me the sick of you.
(04:26):
That wasn't something, I can't read that. And you wanted something,
I can't read her writing.
Okay. Anyways. It's so long, too. Like, a five-year-old thinks in,
like, one sentence. I know. But also, what is it?
Were it not that you said no to me. Like, what, like, five-year-old says?
I feel like I was channeling some lady who's married to some dude who,
(04:47):
like, has some sort of lung condition after being in the war or something.
Thing like but there's a whole other part that i missed
that's actually really romantic let me see if i can find that it's like
really pretty that is the only explanation it
really is even that it's the only explanation exactly i know my mom was like
(05:09):
you used to sustain words did you here you go yeah she said she was scared of
me all the time she actually told me you used to scare me all All the time,
your dad would come home and be like, she scared me in a day.
I don't know what her deal is.
Okay, it may be true to you, but it's really a lie to me.
If you see what I mean, you'll stop crying.
(05:32):
Your lips are as pretty as rose petals.
Your eyes are as blue as a blue something petal.
Your something is as orange as fall leaves Your skin is as white as snow on
(05:53):
the trees You loved me truly,
but I didn't do my best love to you.
Wow. I was like, I wish we had these other songs.
Like maybe there was a whole lady that i was at some point that i haven't been able to right,
(06:13):
creepy yeah but the purview thing yeah i said i don't like this house it hasn't
got a good purview like right yeah yeah right so,
For real, what five-year-old uses words or a cadence like that? I mean, purview?
(06:38):
Okay, we're talking about ghosts and the supernatural. Do you want ghost adventure
stories or do you want, like, I see dead people stories?
I see dead people stories first. Yes.
On that note, we're jumping in. So this is your trigger warning.
Death is inherent to this conversation, and we will mention suicide.
(07:02):
I know nothing of this world and seem to be void of any extra physical abilities.
But I figure if I believe in a supreme spiritual being that I can talk to through
my mind, aka prayer, then none of this is too far a jump for me.
But in preparation for this conversation, I did watch a couple of those paranormal
shows, including Psychic Kids.
(07:24):
Oh, yeah. I love that. It's great. You've both seen the show.
So what are you one of those psychic kids then do you think?
I want to say yes and no. I feel like I could be if I really worked on it and
really practiced and did all of the meditations and all the stuff you're supposed
to do to really get in tune with that stuff.
(07:45):
So I think if I were better about that, I would say yes, absolutely.
But there's a part of me who just doesn't want to deal with it sometimes.
I used to be very much too in tune to that kind of stuff.
And I would go to like antique stores when Jeremy and I were looking at wedding
venues. There was a couple incidents there.
(08:05):
I had some incidents at like some estate sales.
And I was like, it's like walking into a room with hundreds of people.
Oh, you can hear me. You can see me. I've, you know, just, it was very bizarre.
So I've had to really learn to turn that radio dial way down or off.
Yeah. I mean, that's what they kind of are telling the kids on the the show.
It's like figuring out how you can kind of remove yourself or quiet it or whatever
(08:29):
so you can live your life.
And the best analogy they told me was like a radio.
Pretend you're like a radio and all these things are coming out,
but you have the power to turn the dial down, the volume down.
So who, if anybody, like has given you advice about this or like helped you
work through it or you've just figured it out on your own? No, I sought out.
(08:52):
So how I got into the world that I enjoy doing.
So on meetup.com, and this was like 2000 and, I want to say 16, maybe 17.
There was a bunch of, you know, this is like right at the height of all the
paranormal series and stuff.
And then there was a meetup that popped up that was like private investigation of the Hornet.
(09:14):
And I signed up for it. She messaged me that same day, like two hours before
and said hey somebody it's a no-show can you can you come and I said yeah I'm
like eight minutes away I'm like drove my car down there and I did investigation with them.
The USS Hornet in Alameda, California, is a decommissioned aircraft carrier.
It's been all around the world, part of World War II. Now it's a floating museum.
(09:38):
They do tours and haunted history mystery tours for public and private groups.
So there in where the Hornet is, is actually, it's called the Pan Am Terminal.
And it really is a real air terminal that was there during the war.
And it was specifically the planes of land. they'd pick up the sailors and then
(09:59):
they would, you know, they'd go fly off somewhere else.
So we've gone to that terminal a couple times.
And for me, I always hear conversations while I'm in there as if I'm sitting right next to a person.
So for me, I'm very audio really, like I really can hear stuff.
And so every time I'm in that building, I'm like, did you say something?
That's all I hear is just chatter. And same thing with the Hornet.
(10:22):
I always hear conversations.
I've heard whistling. I've heard people talking.
One EVP that one of our group has, I asked a question like, you know,
there wasn't a lot of women on the ship.
So I said, you know, are women allowed to be in this room? And you hear a very clear, no, get out.
We were like, okay, we'll pack up our stuff now. Because we try to be respectful.
(10:45):
If someone tells you to leave, Like we literally pack up our stuff and leave.
Now, how frequently does the whole group hear a thing versus like a couple people hear it?
No, I would say not everybody hears it at the time it's happening.
But some of the people in the group will play back the recordings.
Some of it to me just sounds like garbled noise and your brain is trying to make a pattern out of it.
(11:10):
So your brain's putting together words. But there's times where it's so clear
that there's no reason for your brain to try to process a pattern out of it.
So those are the ones I find to be more plausible and logical versus the garbled
noise where your brain is like trying to make up words to fit the pattern.
So I try really hard to kind of separate that stuff out.
(11:32):
So and very rarely do you get good quality EVPs. What's an EVP?
Electronic voice phenomenon.
So that's where you pick up the noises and voices on your recorder. Okay.
After that first investigation, Stephanie made a crucial connection who could
help her understand her abilities better.
The woman who was in charge of the investigation, so she's a practicing medium.
(11:56):
As soon as we were leaving, she's like, hey, can I talk to you for a minute?
And so she was the one who told me like, hey, you know, if you need help or
anything, like, let me know.
I'm a practicing medium if there's any questions you have let me know so I started
talking to her and hanging out with her having coffee cocktails and doing activities
and just kind of went from there.
She started doing in-person mediumship classes, and I would say 2018.
(12:21):
So I was going once a month, you know, there's like 10 other people who have
very similar skills, abilities, whatever you want to call them,
as you, and you kind of all just practice with each other.
I feel like the terminology is kind of confusing, like even the psychic kids thing.
I'm like, are we using psychic like in the right term? And then you used medium,
like, so how do you just define all those terms and more?
(12:45):
I feel like I don't ever really use the word psychic because to me that always
conjures up, not to use that word conjure, but conjures up like,
you know, Madame Leota and the crystal ball, like that kind of stuff.
And I think of like future, like telling the future, which isn't what you're
doing, you know. No, like, you know, to me, I was like, oh, it's,
you know, seems like a hokey term.
So medium is the ability to basically communicate between the living and the
(13:08):
dead, as well as be able to like sense and see and feel things.
So that's kind of where I put myself I don't do
anything for for other people I don't do
anything for money I just like being in the world and
immersed in it and I do it more for I get a
lot of enjoyment out of it what do you like about it um the first and foremost
(13:30):
thing I love is the history yeah so we do a lot of locations historical places
are usually super hot um military stuff is usually really active so for me it's
a lot of the history like what happened like what was the building used for?
Was there anything pre there before the building was there?
Like what happened on the thing? And when I do investigations with my group,
(13:51):
I don't read anything about the place.
I know the address. I know what it looks like from a Google image.
And then I just show up there and I kind of just feel things out when I get there.
When she does these trips in the Bay Area, she tries to go in blind.
And she said that there are mixed results.
Stuff that is just quiet. Oh, okay. And you get like very little noise, like anything.
(14:15):
Okay. And we've done stuff that is just constantly pinging with like activity.
She also has a mixed opinion on the tools that they use.
And then, you know, there's all the tools and stuff that you see on like all the paranormal shows.
I don't put a lot of value into a lot of them because I think a lot of them
are, you know, reacting to your phone, your watch, what have you.
(14:38):
So i really try to you know
like a voice recorder you can use your phone and it's
pretty much it for me like a cam i use a i have a
camera with like an ir on it infrared and that's that's pretty
much it that's that's all i usually use i do love the stick figure one though
that one oh yeah the sls one yeah the sls they'll like focus it and then they'll
(14:59):
be all there's a guy over there and he's all doobly-doo and then like sometimes
they'll be like two guys fighting or like they'll be trying They're trying to
like slap you or something.
It just kills me because it looks so hilarious.
It looks like a child drew these like a stick figure. And they all have like
these triangle shaped heads. And they're always like.
(15:20):
But sometimes they're tiny. They're like a little kid. But they always move like this.
It's really cute.
So what, if anything, do you hear on your recording or see with your camera?
I have never picked up anything visually on the cameras.
(15:44):
I have picked up a couple of voices, noises, whatever you want to call them.
And then like usually when we're on the investigation, there's like anywhere
from eight to ten people. So everybody's got the recorders running.
So to be honest, I have not gone back and listened to a lot of the stuff because
it's hours and hours and hours.
And you have to figure out when you're listening to it.
(16:06):
Is that somebody coughing? coughing is there somebody whispering
is somebody moving around in their chair you really have to like
try to go through it so i just honestly don't have the patience for
it no yeah i mean according to ghost hunters you're supposed to be i just coughed
yeah we are supposed to so that's because they call it tagging oh okay so if
you're an investigation and you call just cough yeah exactly i just cough stomach
(16:28):
grumbled moving shuffling like i'm really i i have a hard time I'm standing perfectly still.
So I shift a lot. So I just have to go shifting, shifting.
Oh my God. I never even thought about how much everyone would hate me just from
fidgeting. Yeah. That's my problem. So I always get in trouble for wearing.
So I've been told numerous times that I can only wear cotton clothing because
(16:49):
I shift and fidget too much. And so you can hear the rustling of the jacket.
And you do wear loud clothing sometimes.
So sometimes I'll like, if I'm wearing something loud, I'll just stick my arms
out like this. Yeah. Your puffer jacket is like.
So she doesn't actually know if there's anything that she's caught on her recordings.
But I get the feeling that it doesn't matter to her as much as it might to me.
(17:12):
She can feel or hear things during her investigations.
Proof for us five-sensed people really isn't the goal.
Music.
Now, Dawn has been listening patiently, and she is now bursting to explore what they have in common.
Especially with Stephanie having some education under her belt.
(17:33):
I have so many questions about so many things. First of all,
did you turn it off a lot in high school and then it kind of came back?
Yes. And that was like a conscious thing or do you think that was a hormonal thing or both?
I actually don't know. I feel like for me, it was conscious that I just kind
of pushed it all down because I didn't want people to think I was weird and stuff.
I didn't really, none of it really came back until I would say after college.
(17:58):
College, probably my mid-20s, maybe late 20s.
And it was weird because it was just like someone flipped on a light switch and I was like, oh, okay.
Was it scary? Like at any point, was it scary?
No, to me, it was always normal. It was just something I've always lived with my entire life.
And when I talked to my mom about it, she told me that her father was like that.
(18:21):
He was very sensitive. He picked up on a lot, a lot of things.
Dawn has a similar experience, but she hasn't opened herself up to it in the way that Stephanie has.
And that's because she has big questions around the why and what for.
Because one of my friends is always kind of trying to convince me,
like, you need to open yourself up to this stuff again, blah, blah, blah.
(18:43):
But my question I keep grappling with, so I'm curious what you think,
is like, what is the purpose?
Like, what is the point? Like, how am I supposed to help?
And what I've found is you can do an exhaustive search of, like, abilities.
But you try to find out, like, how can I use these to help other people for no money?
(19:05):
And nothing comes up. Like, I try to find people's, like, stories,
you know, or, like, try to understand what they think this came into their particular life for.
So I'm kind of curious, like, what do you think the purpose of having this is?
Like, what do you think you're supposed to be doing with it?
Shit, that was a big one. That was a good question, and I don't have a good answer.
(19:26):
I don't really know what the purpose is for me. I think it's just something
that's there, and I just, something I've been, you know, it just happens.
Yeah, I don't. I don't really have a good answer. You know, as far as why I
see things or hear things or feel things, you know, I just, you know,
sometimes I'll ask, like, do you need help?
Because I, you know, whatever you're feeling is, or whatever's there is like
(19:49):
really sad or it's heavy.
And those to me are the ones like, well, you can't do something about that because
you can ask them if they need help. Mm-hmm. Do they ever answer you?
Because that's the thing. I get frustrated watching all the shows.
They act like they want to have these conversations, but the second they hear
something, they're like, whoa!
And I'm like, why aren't you having a conversation about... That's why I like
the one with the girl with the red hair that used to be on Ghost Hunters.
(20:13):
Oh, Kindred Spirits. Yes, kinder spirits.
Because they're actually usually trying to like help, you know,
like, but there's very little like stuff that you see broadcast that has anything
to do with that. So I was just curious.
It's not good TV. Like, if they're going to places and trying to cross people
over or trying to like, you know, send a message to somebody so somebody can cross over.
(20:33):
It's not good TV. I think it's good TV.
Music.
I mean, the reason I'm curious about your relationship with it is because,
like, there were definitely times in my life where I was like,
I'm too open to all this picking at people's pain from, like, far away.
(20:55):
It's too much. I can't deal with it. And it's like you said,
like, there's no, like, thing where you're, like, shutting down.
You just kind of subconsciously put that in the room and lock the door.
But you don't even consciously, like, feel like you're doing it.
It and then if you want to unlock it again at some point you kind of feel a
little bit of fear sometimes i do and like do i really want to go down that
(21:19):
and what if it's more than last time and you know so i'm curious like how you
feel about all that i so i think you're an empath,
because you pick up people's energy i do the same thing like we could be in
a restaurant and i could be like those people all the way on the other side
of the restaurant are fighting and i don't like it like that's the kind of stuff
that i can do but it's taking me a really long time too Because I don't want
(21:39):
to shut it off completely.
Like, I don't want to just be like that. I shield.
Yeah, because you're like, you have this crazy job and this crazy life.
And like, where are you going to find the time to be a medium who can deal with
life in the middle of all of that, you know?
Which, when you said the restaurant, it reminded me of, I had this other Gemini guy friend.
(22:02):
We were like besties, drinking besties.
We would sometimes play this game that I was like we have to stop we played
this game called make it happen so when we'd be at like a party and you're bored
we would take turns trying to make something specific happen.
But it would be something kind of predictable and it would eventually happen.
(22:24):
And I remember one time I was like, all right, the next person that walks in
that door is going to trip and fall on their face.
And this girl instantly walked in and fell on her face. And I felt so guilty.
I was like, did I make that happen or did I just know it was going to happen?
And there's been so many times like I remember one time I was driving in the
city and this guy was riding his bike really recklessly.
(22:48):
Like he like blew the stop sign in front
of me and then I turned right and I was like riding behind
him forever because I couldn't safely pass him and then I finally had the chance
to pass him but I was thinking in my head after I passed him it's so dangerous
to ride a bike in the city I hope my friends that ride bikes everywhere are
(23:10):
more careful and then I hear boom boom,
and I see him like flying through the air because he's rode right into a car
door and like it's thrown him back, you know?
And I went home and I was like, did I make that happen? Or did I just like kind
of know that was going to happen, you know?
Or is it just like the synchronicity of the universe?
And my roommates were like, it was probability, you know?
(23:33):
You saw him writing in a stupid way and the probability is that something bad's going to happen.
But But I love that you can never be sure.
Music.
Dawn recently had a friend cleanse her chakras. We're not going to get into all the details of that.
(23:55):
But Dawn clarifies a bit of her hesitancy around fully opening herself up to her abilities.
I wasn't sure what she was going to do, but she really believes in it.
And I'm not a non-believer.
I just kind of shy away from witchy stuff.
And the reason that I take that stance is that there's just a deep feeling in
(24:15):
my heart that what we're supposed to do here is not try to circumvent the universe
by forcing things our way, even if they're good things.
You have to work with the universe. Does that make any sense?
So I you know she does a lot more stuff like
burying things in the ground and setting it on fire and like I'm
not comfortable like it just doesn't make any sense
(24:38):
to me but I was like I'm gonna be super open she had
me at one point hold this crystal in my
hand and say like I give
permission to release the negativity and then
she started like wicking it out so she had figured out what
was there by using like a pendulum over my different
chakras and she basically said the ones that were
(24:59):
messed up it would like spin frantically but
the ones that were fine it would like wouldn't move at all so then
she would take this little thing and like wave it
over me to like wick it out and then she was doing some like mexican
tradition where you like take the thing that the energy and you put it into
a little piece of a crystal like a little shard a tiny one for each of the chakras
(25:24):
that you do and then she pushed it into this clay that when it hardens i'm I'm
supposed to bury it in the backyard on the waning moon.
But I already blew that because the waning moon just passed and I keep forgetting.
Wait, so do you have these negative shards in your possession?
Yeah, they're in my house right now. No, they're not in your house.
Okay, good. They're in my laundry room.
But it wasn't too stressed out about that part because to me, again, it's symbolic.
(25:47):
Exactly. It's symbolic, yeah. Yeah, it's just a symbolic thing that for her,
symbolism, and I think growing up super Catholic symbolism is stronger for those
people than like my more like sedate Jesus.
No, it's grape juice, you know.
Music.
(26:09):
So in general, she enjoyed the chakra thing and exploring something that her
friend believes to be valuable.
Yet she's had some negative experiences that seem to be from the spiritual realm.
So she's got barriers that Stephanie doesn't.
The chakra convo led us into something that I know nothing about, spirit guides.
(26:29):
Afterwards, we talked for a couple of hours and I was like asking her about
like, Like, hey, have you ever done spirit guides, trying to find out about that at all?
So I've been on the precipice of that for a couple years, but very scared that
after all the negative stuff that happened to me, that I wouldn't be safe,
you know? What's spirit guide mean?
(26:51):
Everybody has their own versions of things, but the consensus that I've read
seems to be that you have, everybody has like two or three at least,
like one that's with you all the time from birth.
And it's that little maybe sometimes voice on your
shoulder that's like like helping you make a
good decision or like telling you oh let's not drive
that way today or whatever it is you know like and then maybe there's other
(27:14):
ones that are there for more like important things but since you've done it
like what what's i took an entire eight week course on spirit okay i would love
to learn about this it was a weird concept for me because i do have a hard time
trying to be like Like, oh,
I have these eight people, and they call it your spirit guide roundtable.
So, you know, I'm like, I feel like that's, like, I had a really hard time connecting
(27:37):
with that, like, thought and that symbolism.
Like, I just couldn't grasp it. But by the end of the class,
I do feel like I made some connections, but they weren't.
Everything and I felt like my spirit guides were honestly relatives like I had
some grandmothers and stuff in there and to me that's also you know guardian
angel spirit guide kind of situation.
(28:01):
This is a foreign concept for me as a white protestant in general we don't put
a lot of emphasis on ancestral connection or spiritual support and our idea
of a guardian angel is very much in the style of a cartoon cupid so I bet that
other cultures more easily comprehend the spirit guide concept.
(28:24):
Don's brain has been bebopping around this conversation, wondering about telekinetic
powers, even PK poltergeist manifestations, and malevolent beings.
So I wanted to ground us a bit and see if Stephanie is confident about what she experiences.
I mean, do you think that like, what you have interacted with is dead people?
(28:46):
Like, what do you think it is? What's your theory?
I do think that there are people that have passed on.
I have never been in a situation where I've encountered anything like negative
or malicious or to use the word demonic ever.
But I do know people that have and I don't ever want to be in that situation.
But I also don't put a lot of weight into that, if that makes sense.
(29:09):
But yeah, everybody that I've encountered has been somebody that's been deceased
and And they're either there because that's some place that they genuinely enjoyed
being at or there's that unfinished business or it's where they lived.
Do you think they're really there there? Yeah.
I feel like some people are trapped somewhere and they don't have a way to get out.
(29:30):
Either it's just they're stuck there because they're in a repeat pattern or
something or they have unfinished business. Yeah.
Here's an example of how she came to that conclusion. We went to an estate sale
up in Piedmont and we walked in the house and I was like looking around at stuff.
And then all of a sudden this guy appears next to me in a flight suit and he
(29:51):
looks at me and he's like, why is everybody, what's going on?
Why is everybody here? Why are they going through my stuff?
What's going on? And I was like, like this kind of thing.
And I turn around and I look and there's a photo
of the guy sitting on a dresser
or a desk or something and the guy was a pilot and I literally was like like
this is the guy and he kept in my ear why are they here what's going on why
(30:16):
are they here and I finally was like I don't know you are dead this isn't a
state sale they're selling off all your stuff so do you think he
didn't know he was dead he did not know yeah he did not know what was going on at all.
Yeah so there's an example of somebody who didn't know that they were they were gone Weird.
So, and I, as soon as that happened, I looked at Jeremy and I was like, we are out now. Yeah.
(30:40):
But like, this was a long time ago before I had taken any of the mediumship classes.
If I had to do it all over again and I had like the education and understanding,
I would have said, let me help you. Do you need help to move on from here?
Like, here's what's going on. Because that's usually what you do.
You tell somebody that they are deceased and that, you know,
do you want to get out of here? Let me help you move on.
But yeah. I literally was like, wow. Some people's addictions keep them here.
(31:04):
People, this is a theory.
Like if you're an alcoholic or a drug addict, like you don't want to pass on
because people that are ashamed or afraid of people seeing.
Who they are, want to stay here. But I read something that I feel like we've
all seen this in real life, where like alcoholics like to hang out and stay
(31:24):
around bars because when a person gets drunk enough that their protection of themselves shifts,
they can jump you and they can like act out and like participate in being a drunk like they used to.
And the theory is that when you see someone like switch on a dime like that
when they're drunk, it's because a ghost, a drunk goes jump them like a drug
(31:46):
addict or something like that.
Well, they do talk about on that like psychic kids show. Again,
I'm a newbie to all this, right?
But that like that's a possibility that like the possession thing is a possibility. Do you think it is?
I don't know. I don't know any of this stuff. I only know stuff that I've seen in my own.
Could that airman have gotten in your body with you?
(32:06):
I don't know how much I believe that people can possess stuff like that.
And if I did believe that I wouldn't have let him do that.
So I set up pretty, like now I set up really specific boundaries.
Okay, this seems somehow important. So if you're concerned about a drunk ghost
(32:26):
hijacking your bod, tune back in now.
How do you do that? That's something I want to learn. Yeah, how do you do it?
Like when we, like in regular life, like if I'm going somewhere where I know
like it's like an estate sale or like an antique store, I really quickly before
I go in and just shield myself, like, you know, kind of situation.
So I don't want to interact with anything. You just, you set boundaries basically,
(32:47):
even if it's as verbal as like in your head, not out loud, walking into this
place, nothing here is allowed to touch me, talk to me or interact with me.
Like just, you know, leave me alone kind of situation. Like it's as easy as that.
So I don't have a lot, any experience with possession and stuff.
I don't know much about it.
So I can't speak to it. But for me, I, you know, I don't know what I believe
(33:12):
about it, I guess. Me either.
What's actually kind of fascinating here is that growing up in the evangelical
church, we talked a lot about spiritual warfare and spiritual protection,
most of which I have deconstructed.
But this is where the superstition, which I don't mean in a derogatory way, intersects.
(33:33):
Because basically what Stephanie is saying is that she prays for protection.
I mean, I don't know who or what she's speaking to, perhaps to herself.
But regardless, saying the words has the power to prevent any spirits from speaking
to her or otherwise doing something she has not approved of.
Music.
(33:56):
Stephanie and Jeremy bought a house recently. So I asked her,
is there chatter in her new house?
Quiet. Okay, good. Very quiet. Now, was that a thing you kind of assessed like before you bought?
Yes, when we looked at like, I have a spreadsheet, I think we looked at over 100 places.
And some of them were walk right in and walk right out.
(34:16):
There was a house we looked at up in Richmond and the house was cool.
It was really nice. And nobody died there because I didn't feel that,
but I felt such like heavy sadness.
And finally I was like, what's going on with this house? And our agents were
like, so it's a single dad and they're selling the home in a divorce.
And I was like, because I could feel that just heavy, just sadness.
(34:39):
And I'm like, I can't live in a place like that. And we looked at two,
only two other houses stick out.
One in Oakland Hills. We walked in there and I turned around and I looked and
I was like, there's a woman with a beehive and a really fun Mrs.
Roper dress, like full on party, like, but very much like the house was like
(34:59):
a party house, like they entertained a lot.
Yeah and so it was just jeremy and i in the house and i
said something to him and i was like oh there's somebody following me from
room to room and i said you know she's very much like an entertainer she
wants to make sure like do you have cocktail are you okay like nothing
bad but also like very observant like why are all these people in
the house yeah and i said something about her following
me and the listing agent goes can i
(35:22):
ask you a question i said yes she goes so you see
the person too and i was like and i
described the person and she said yes that's exactly what
I see she's like I thought I was losing my mind I don't know
what to do and I was like set a boundary just tell her like
tell her what you're doing here basically and then set a boundary and she's
like I really thought I was losing my mind and I was like oh no there's somebody
(35:45):
here and like we left and I told Jeremy I can't live in a house like no like
it would drive me up the wall yeah I'm super dying to know where does Jeremy
fall on the spectrum of all this he's not interested.
It's very much like not at all when I come home from the ghost investigations
and I'm like wanting to talk about it does not want to hear a single I will,
(36:07):
He does not want to hear a single word, nothing. Wow.
Does he believe that you have these? Yes, because he experienced,
I'll tell one more story before I- Stephanie's husband, Jeremy,
doesn't want to hear about it, but he does believe that she has abilities.
Back when they were dating, he was skeptical until he started looking at homes and took her with him.
(36:27):
He was actually thinking about buying a house. He'd gotten in touch with a real
estate agent and they said, there's this great house for you.
It's got a really big basement.
You'll love it. it it's perfect for you so we
go to the open house we look at it walk around the house and i'm
like i don't think i can live here this was
like right when the stuff started ramping back up again and i was like you
know i'm not really interested in this house this house is really like there's something
(36:49):
that's not right here we go down in the basement and i
just remember like this kind of weird just
uncomfortable sick feeling and i looked up
and in the basement i could see somebody had hung
themselves and I could see a like almost like a not a I never saw a body I could
see like this kind of like white mist kind of like hanging and like light coming
(37:10):
from it and I was like I looked at him and I said somebody killed themselves
in this basement I can't go back through this house and so I walked out the
backyard and went out the front.
Coincidentally a couple weeks later he's talking to a friend and the friend
grew up in the house next door to the house that we saw. So Jeremy goes,
I have to ask you a question.
(37:31):
My girlfriend, you know, was really creeped out. She said somebody killed themselves
in the basement. And the friend turns to Jeremy and says, yeah, absolutely.
There was a teacher there and he killed himself in the basement.
And I was like,
that's the one thing that made Jeremy realize that I had something going on.
(37:54):
So not until then did he really, really believe you. Yes, that's basically what
turned him around to me, but he doesn't want to know.
And I've never outright asked him, but I get the feeling that he doesn't want
to know because he doesn't want it to happen in our house or doesn't want me
to bring something home.
Because every time I go to investigation, he goes, you're not going to,
(38:14):
don't bring anything home with you.
That's the first thing he says. And I said, I always say my thank yous and my
goodbyes. And I set a very clear boundary.
Like, this is the end of the road.
Music.
Not live in new developments. All of our homes have history and interesting quirks.
(38:35):
To get to this cozy little podcast room, you walk in the front door,
make a quick left, go down dark stairs into the garage, make another left,
through a door into a room that makes no sense why it exists.
On the back wall is a door that doesn't open and would lead nowhere,
covered on the other side by some kind of wall.
So I'm curious, how does it feel in here right now?
(38:58):
How does this weird ass plunge feel i mean we're
in a basement right now it doesn't feel it's pretty
quiet in here feels like your energy yeah which
is good right yeah okay and i also believe that too i
also believe that like you know it feels quiet like i don't feel like there's
anything at all at all here and there's probably been tons and tons of people
coming you know have lived in here and i also do believe like you know if you
(39:20):
come in with a kind and loving family and a loving heart i feel like it kind
of clears the space out too to changes the whole energy and the whole feel Technically,
this should be like, it's a Winchester mystery.
It really is. It doesn't feel like that at all. It really doesn't.
I usually feel very at home in houses like this.
(39:42):
I don't know. I just picture the lives people lived here. Yeah.
The happiness and the tears. Yeah.
We won the war, World War II, whatever it is, you know.
I mean, I think if this didn't feel good to you, I wouldn't even want you to tell me.
I probably shouldn't have even asked that question. And I wouldn't tell you.
Really? Yeah, I absolutely, I don't tell, if I go to someone's house and I sense
(40:07):
something either uncomfortable or just like your house, it's a happy place.
I don't say anything to anybody. It's not my, not my position to,
I'm not, you asked me. I would actually 100% want to know. Okay,
I'm going to pause right here, because in playing back this conversation,
here's what I heard on the recording.
It doesn't feel... It's pretty quiet in here. Feels like your energy.
(40:30):
Usually when there's weird audio noises, I can identify them,
like a bracelet hitting a mic stand or the shuffle of a foot.
But what was that glitch at the end? Here it is louder.
I don't know, maybe I'm tripping after an hour of talking about ghosts,
but it was a strange moment for an unknown noise, which I didn't hear in person.
(40:54):
Okay, back to Dawn, who really wants Stephanie to be honest about how she feels in her house.
If you felt something bad that I was hiding from myself or couldn't pick up
on, I would want to know so that I could do something about it.
And I would, if something there was, shouldn't be there, I would tell you,
you need to have somebody come in and sweep the place.
But you also asked me if I felt anything there. I would never offer up the information if someone asked.
(41:19):
I feel like that's like a violation of like, you know, mediumship 101.
Like I would never, ever do that to anybody. Interesting.
That's probably a good practice. I feel comfy and happy in my house.
So if there is a ghost walking around, we're cohabitating well.
And it would not really do me any good if Stephanie told me about it.
(41:40):
But Dawn has asked the question. She definitely feels things at her house and
wants Stephanie to check it out.
I feel there is somebody at Don's. I don't know if they are from the house or
the property or the house next door, behind, what have you, because,
you know, people can travel.
But there is somebody there to me that is more of a caretaker.
(42:01):
Well, I may have only been there twice in a very, very short time.
Like, it was not somebody that I interacted with.
It was just more like, there's a person here. They're just kind of watching
and observing and, like, making sure everything's okay.
Like reminded me of somebody going you're not using a coaster like that kind
of exactly the feeling like that's the feeling yes but nothing malicious or
(42:22):
angry it's more just like,
like that kind of situation i know i do
feel pressure sometimes where i'm like there's a lot of stuff that we're
not taking care of in the house that we should be taking care of
are they mad like is he are they i always think
it's a day though i don't know why i never think it's just a one person yeah
and there could be multiple the two times that i've been there i was an older
gentleman but like i said i don't know if he's from there he's from the neighborhood
(42:46):
or i totally think it but i don't want to talk anymore about the history of
the house because i want to hear what you have to say but like when you talked
about it there was a part of me that was like,
as long as we don't accidentally open up anything no no i'll make sure we don't
we don't do any of that part of me wants to like i don't know like i just never
feel comfortable in my bedroom like Like,
(43:07):
and I'd like to feel like my bedroom is my bedroom,
you know, like, so part of me is like, maybe it's time to, like,
help this person. Yeah. I mean, maybe they need a crossover.
But at the same time, like, but if they're helping protect us, like.
Yeah, but if you don't feel comfortable. Yeah, exactly. And it's always,
to me, all of this stuff to be always centers around boundaries.
(43:27):
Yeah. If you want to cohabitate peacefully with the person, you just set a boundary,
like, this room is off limits, you don't come over here, or that kind of stuff.
I mean, I think I'm fine with boundaries, you know?
I think I just have tried to struggle to figure out what is that boundary,
like trying to figure out what that thing, what this thing is,
and like what the intentions are.
But again, never felt negative. Never once.
(43:49):
In fact, just last night I was staying there, and like the house was making
all these weird noises because Chad wasn't home again, and I was like, you guys.
Sometimes it happens so many kind of silly things at once that I'm like, you guys, seriously.
Like, and then it'll stop. Yeah, everyone calls. And that's part of it,
too. You just, hey, knock it off. Yeah, yeah.
(44:10):
Dawn never feels scared at her house, but she does feel like she's not alone.
So next episode, we're going to do a semi-professional paranormal investigation
in her house with a medium, Stephanie, and our recording devices.
So tune in for part two at the house on Fernside.
Music.
Music.
(00:36):
When I was little, I used to play Barbies with this girl down the street from us.
And we would play in her grandmother's room where her grandmother was in like a hospice bed.
We'd always play on the floor and stuff. The grandmother would tell us to be
quiet. And then the grandmother passed away.
But we were still playing in the room. The bed was still there.
But no grandma. No grandma was in the bed. And I remember the grandmother in
(00:59):
the doorway telling us to be quiet.
And she always did the same thing. She girls need to be quiet.
Yeah. Finger to lips. Yes.
The girl's name is Ricky. And I said something to her and I was like,
oh, your grandma just told us to be quiet. She was like.
And she must have said something to her mom because my mom was there like 10
minutes later to pick me up.
(01:21):
Did you talk to your mom about that? Yeah, I told her straight up what happened.
And my mom said, I was wondering which one would who would get this.
And then apparently it's like in the family on my mom's side.
And she just told me that it's okay to talk about that stuff at home,
but it's not okay to talk about that stuff outside of the house because people
will think you're weird and don't want to be around you.
(01:43):
And she was very, very right.
That little creeper is Stephanie, who's here to talk about what we'll call the paranormal.
Wait, should I turn the lights down for like a ghost, a spooky time conversation?
For like the vibe? Nothing like a sexy paranormal moment. I'm gonna try it just to see how we feel.
(02:08):
Stephanie's not the only child who showed some abilities as a tiny tot. Dawn's here too.
I tend to whisper a lot when I talk on the microphone in the mall. And then this happens.
I don't know why I do that. You do. I like it. I like it though.
When Dawn was four and five, she would write songs. But she couldn't actually
write, so she would recite them and have her mom write them down.
(02:31):
And she found one of them a couple years ago and she was like,
this is the kind of stuff that you would write that dad, your dad would come
home and I'd be like, how is a five-year-old writing this?
I want to read you guys this one thing if I can make it out.
It's reporting, right? Yeah. That's our friend Liz in the background.
Dawn is holding in her hand a note covered in her mom's chicken scratch.
(02:54):
I remember this particular instance because I had this burning desire to write down this song.
And she said that I was insistent. She was like, you were weird about it.
She was like, usually you'd be like, I have a song. Can you write it down?
But this time you're like, no, you have to write this down. I'm like scared now.
And my mom was like, why do I have to write it down? You're like, it's very important.
(03:15):
I remember she was laying on the couch and she was writing it in shorthand.
And I walked over and I was like, those aren't letters.
You're not even writing this down. Like I got super upset. She's like,
no, it's shorthand. It's really, I'll be able to read it back to you.
Anyways, never saw it again. Okay, start again. I said goodbye to you.
You started to be in tears when I said goodbye to you.
(03:38):
I said, I don't like this house. It's got a
bad purview i don't like
the way you sound and because of your bad lung like
what the fuck five-year-old says that you i
wish i could read my mom's writing yeah we
need her translation you tried me off i said no as
(04:01):
long as i was gonna stay it was
the end of me to you but it wasn't
really true and if it were not no that you said to me i would have been as sad
as you've been i had left you and you had left me that after you told me the sick of you.
(04:26):
That wasn't something, I can't read that. And you wanted something,
I can't read her writing.
Okay. Anyways. It's so long, too. Like, a five-year-old thinks in,
like, one sentence. I know. But also, what is it?
Were it not that you said no to me. Like, what, like, five-year-old says?
I feel like I was channeling some lady who's married to some dude who,
(04:47):
like, has some sort of lung condition after being in the war or something.
Thing like but there's a whole other part that i missed
that's actually really romantic let me see if i can find that it's like
really pretty that is the only explanation it
really is even that it's the only explanation exactly i know my mom was like
(05:09):
you used to sustain words did you here you go yeah she said she was scared of
me all the time she actually told me you used to scare me all All the time,
your dad would come home and be like, she scared me in a day.
I don't know what her deal is.
Okay, it may be true to you, but it's really a lie to me.
If you see what I mean, you'll stop crying.
(05:32):
Your lips are as pretty as rose petals.
Your eyes are as blue as a blue something petal.
Your something is as orange as fall leaves Your skin is as white as snow on
(05:53):
the trees You loved me truly,
but I didn't do my best love to you.
Wow. I was like, I wish we had these other songs.
Like maybe there was a whole lady that i was at some point that i haven't been able to right,
(06:13):
creepy yeah but the purview thing yeah i said i don't like this house it hasn't
got a good purview like right yeah yeah right so,
For real, what five-year-old uses words or a cadence like that? I mean, purview?
(06:38):
Okay, we're talking about ghosts and the supernatural. Do you want ghost adventure
stories or do you want, like, I see dead people stories?
I see dead people stories first. Yes.
On that note, we're jumping in. So this is your trigger warning.
Death is inherent to this conversation, and we will mention suicide.
(07:02):
I know nothing of this world and seem to be void of any extra physical abilities.
But I figure if I believe in a supreme spiritual being that I can talk to through
my mind, aka prayer, then none of this is too far a jump for me.
But in preparation for this conversation, I did watch a couple of those paranormal
shows, including Psychic Kids.
(07:24):
Oh, yeah. I love that. It's great. You've both seen the show.
So what are you one of those psychic kids then do you think?
I want to say yes and no. I feel like I could be if I really worked on it and
really practiced and did all of the meditations and all the stuff you're supposed
to do to really get in tune with that stuff.
(07:45):
So I think if I were better about that, I would say yes, absolutely.
But there's a part of me who just doesn't want to deal with it sometimes.
I used to be very much too in tune to that kind of stuff.
And I would go to like antique stores when Jeremy and I were looking at wedding
venues. There was a couple incidents there.
(08:05):
I had some incidents at like some estate sales.
And I was like, it's like walking into a room with hundreds of people.
Oh, you can hear me. You can see me. I've, you know, just, it was very bizarre.
So I've had to really learn to turn that radio dial way down or off.
Yeah. I mean, that's what they kind of are telling the kids on the the show.
It's like figuring out how you can kind of remove yourself or quiet it or whatever
(08:29):
so you can live your life.
And the best analogy they told me was like a radio.
Pretend you're like a radio and all these things are coming out,
but you have the power to turn the dial down, the volume down.
So who, if anybody, like has given you advice about this or like helped you
work through it or you've just figured it out on your own? No, I sought out.
(08:52):
So how I got into the world that I enjoy doing.
So on meetup.com, and this was like 2000 and, I want to say 16, maybe 17.
There was a bunch of, you know, this is like right at the height of all the
paranormal series and stuff.
And then there was a meetup that popped up that was like private investigation of the Hornet.
(09:14):
And I signed up for it. She messaged me that same day, like two hours before
and said hey somebody it's a no-show can you can you come and I said yeah I'm
like eight minutes away I'm like drove my car down there and I did investigation with them.
The USS Hornet in Alameda, California, is a decommissioned aircraft carrier.
It's been all around the world, part of World War II. Now it's a floating museum.
(09:38):
They do tours and haunted history mystery tours for public and private groups.
So there in where the Hornet is, is actually, it's called the Pan Am Terminal.
And it really is a real air terminal that was there during the war.
And it was specifically the planes of land. they'd pick up the sailors and then
(09:59):
they would, you know, they'd go fly off somewhere else.
So we've gone to that terminal a couple times.
And for me, I always hear conversations while I'm in there as if I'm sitting right next to a person.
So for me, I'm very audio really, like I really can hear stuff.
And so every time I'm in that building, I'm like, did you say something?
That's all I hear is just chatter. And same thing with the Hornet.
(10:22):
I always hear conversations.
I've heard whistling. I've heard people talking.
One EVP that one of our group has, I asked a question like, you know,
there wasn't a lot of women on the ship.
So I said, you know, are women allowed to be in this room? And you hear a very clear, no, get out.
We were like, okay, we'll pack up our stuff now. Because we try to be respectful.
(10:45):
If someone tells you to leave, Like we literally pack up our stuff and leave.
Now, how frequently does the whole group hear a thing versus like a couple people hear it?
No, I would say not everybody hears it at the time it's happening.
But some of the people in the group will play back the recordings.
Some of it to me just sounds like garbled noise and your brain is trying to make a pattern out of it.
(11:10):
So your brain's putting together words. But there's times where it's so clear
that there's no reason for your brain to try to process a pattern out of it.
So those are the ones I find to be more plausible and logical versus the garbled
noise where your brain is like trying to make up words to fit the pattern.
So I try really hard to kind of separate that stuff out.
(11:32):
So and very rarely do you get good quality EVPs. What's an EVP?
Electronic voice phenomenon.
So that's where you pick up the noises and voices on your recorder. Okay.
After that first investigation, Stephanie made a crucial connection who could
help her understand her abilities better.
The woman who was in charge of the investigation, so she's a practicing medium.
(11:56):
As soon as we were leaving, she's like, hey, can I talk to you for a minute?
And so she was the one who told me like, hey, you know, if you need help or
anything, like, let me know.
I'm a practicing medium if there's any questions you have let me know so I started
talking to her and hanging out with her having coffee cocktails and doing activities
and just kind of went from there.
She started doing in-person mediumship classes, and I would say 2018.
(12:21):
So I was going once a month, you know, there's like 10 other people who have
very similar skills, abilities, whatever you want to call them,
as you, and you kind of all just practice with each other.
I feel like the terminology is kind of confusing, like even the psychic kids thing.
I'm like, are we using psychic like in the right term? And then you used medium,
like, so how do you just define all those terms and more?
(12:45):
I feel like I don't ever really use the word psychic because to me that always
conjures up, not to use that word conjure, but conjures up like,
you know, Madame Leota and the crystal ball, like that kind of stuff.
And I think of like future, like telling the future, which isn't what you're
doing, you know. No, like, you know, to me, I was like, oh, it's,
you know, seems like a hokey term.
So medium is the ability to basically communicate between the living and the
(13:08):
dead, as well as be able to like sense and see and feel things.
So that's kind of where I put myself I don't do
anything for for other people I don't do
anything for money I just like being in the world and
immersed in it and I do it more for I get a
lot of enjoyment out of it what do you like about it um the first and foremost
(13:30):
thing I love is the history yeah so we do a lot of locations historical places
are usually super hot um military stuff is usually really active so for me it's
a lot of the history like what happened like what was the building used for?
Was there anything pre there before the building was there?
Like what happened on the thing? And when I do investigations with my group,
(13:51):
I don't read anything about the place.
I know the address. I know what it looks like from a Google image.
And then I just show up there and I kind of just feel things out when I get there.
When she does these trips in the Bay Area, she tries to go in blind.
And she said that there are mixed results.
Stuff that is just quiet. Oh, okay. And you get like very little noise, like anything.
(14:15):
Okay. And we've done stuff that is just constantly pinging with like activity.
She also has a mixed opinion on the tools that they use.
And then, you know, there's all the tools and stuff that you see on like all the paranormal shows.
I don't put a lot of value into a lot of them because I think a lot of them
are, you know, reacting to your phone, your watch, what have you.
(14:38):
So i really try to you know
like a voice recorder you can use your phone and it's
pretty much it for me like a cam i use a i have a
camera with like an ir on it infrared and that's that's pretty
much it that's that's all i usually use i do love the stick figure one though
that one oh yeah the sls one yeah the sls they'll like focus it and then they'll
(14:59):
be all there's a guy over there and he's all doobly-doo and then like sometimes
they'll be like two guys fighting or like they'll be trying They're trying to
like slap you or something.
It just kills me because it looks so hilarious.
It looks like a child drew these like a stick figure. And they all have like
these triangle shaped heads. And they're always like.
(15:20):
But sometimes they're tiny. They're like a little kid. But they always move like this.
It's really cute.
So what, if anything, do you hear on your recording or see with your camera?
I have never picked up anything visually on the cameras.
(15:44):
I have picked up a couple of voices, noises, whatever you want to call them.
And then like usually when we're on the investigation, there's like anywhere
from eight to ten people. So everybody's got the recorders running.
So to be honest, I have not gone back and listened to a lot of the stuff because
it's hours and hours and hours.
And you have to figure out when you're listening to it.
(16:06):
Is that somebody coughing? coughing is there somebody whispering
is somebody moving around in their chair you really have to like
try to go through it so i just honestly don't have the patience for
it no yeah i mean according to ghost hunters you're supposed to be i just coughed
yeah we are supposed to so that's because they call it tagging oh okay so if
you're an investigation and you call just cough yeah exactly i just cough stomach
(16:28):
grumbled moving shuffling like i'm really i i have a hard time I'm standing perfectly still.
So I shift a lot. So I just have to go shifting, shifting.
Oh my God. I never even thought about how much everyone would hate me just from
fidgeting. Yeah. That's my problem. So I always get in trouble for wearing.
So I've been told numerous times that I can only wear cotton clothing because
(16:49):
I shift and fidget too much. And so you can hear the rustling of the jacket.
And you do wear loud clothing sometimes.
So sometimes I'll like, if I'm wearing something loud, I'll just stick my arms
out like this. Yeah. Your puffer jacket is like.
So she doesn't actually know if there's anything that she's caught on her recordings.
But I get the feeling that it doesn't matter to her as much as it might to me.
(17:12):
She can feel or hear things during her investigations.
Proof for us five-sensed people really isn't the goal.
Music.
Now, Dawn has been listening patiently, and she is now bursting to explore what they have in common.
Especially with Stephanie having some education under her belt.
(17:33):
I have so many questions about so many things. First of all,
did you turn it off a lot in high school and then it kind of came back?
Yes. And that was like a conscious thing or do you think that was a hormonal thing or both?
I actually don't know. I feel like for me, it was conscious that I just kind
of pushed it all down because I didn't want people to think I was weird and stuff.
I didn't really, none of it really came back until I would say after college.
(17:58):
College, probably my mid-20s, maybe late 20s.
And it was weird because it was just like someone flipped on a light switch and I was like, oh, okay.
Was it scary? Like at any point, was it scary?
No, to me, it was always normal. It was just something I've always lived with my entire life.
And when I talked to my mom about it, she told me that her father was like that.
(18:21):
He was very sensitive. He picked up on a lot, a lot of things.
Dawn has a similar experience, but she hasn't opened herself up to it in the way that Stephanie has.
And that's because she has big questions around the why and what for.
Because one of my friends is always kind of trying to convince me,
like, you need to open yourself up to this stuff again, blah, blah, blah.
(18:43):
But my question I keep grappling with, so I'm curious what you think,
is like, what is the purpose?
Like, what is the point? Like, how am I supposed to help?
And what I've found is you can do an exhaustive search of, like, abilities.
But you try to find out, like, how can I use these to help other people for no money?
(19:05):
And nothing comes up. Like, I try to find people's, like, stories,
you know, or, like, try to understand what they think this came into their particular life for.
So I'm kind of curious, like, what do you think the purpose of having this is?
Like, what do you think you're supposed to be doing with it?
Shit, that was a big one. That was a good question, and I don't have a good answer.
(19:26):
I don't really know what the purpose is for me. I think it's just something
that's there, and I just, something I've been, you know, it just happens.
Yeah, I don't. I don't really have a good answer. You know, as far as why I
see things or hear things or feel things, you know, I just, you know,
sometimes I'll ask, like, do you need help?
Because I, you know, whatever you're feeling is, or whatever's there is like
(19:49):
really sad or it's heavy.
And those to me are the ones like, well, you can't do something about that because
you can ask them if they need help. Mm-hmm. Do they ever answer you?
Because that's the thing. I get frustrated watching all the shows.
They act like they want to have these conversations, but the second they hear
something, they're like, whoa!
And I'm like, why aren't you having a conversation about... That's why I like
the one with the girl with the red hair that used to be on Ghost Hunters.
(20:13):
Oh, Kindred Spirits. Yes, kinder spirits.
Because they're actually usually trying to like help, you know,
like, but there's very little like stuff that you see broadcast that has anything
to do with that. So I was just curious.
It's not good TV. Like, if they're going to places and trying to cross people
over or trying to like, you know, send a message to somebody so somebody can cross over.
(20:33):
It's not good TV. I think it's good TV.
Music.
I mean, the reason I'm curious about your relationship with it is because,
like, there were definitely times in my life where I was like,
I'm too open to all this picking at people's pain from, like, far away.
(20:55):
It's too much. I can't deal with it. And it's like you said,
like, there's no, like, thing where you're, like, shutting down.
You just kind of subconsciously put that in the room and lock the door.
But you don't even consciously, like, feel like you're doing it.
It and then if you want to unlock it again at some point you kind of feel a
little bit of fear sometimes i do and like do i really want to go down that
(21:19):
and what if it's more than last time and you know so i'm curious like how you
feel about all that i so i think you're an empath,
because you pick up people's energy i do the same thing like we could be in
a restaurant and i could be like those people all the way on the other side
of the restaurant are fighting and i don't like it like that's the kind of stuff
that i can do but it's taking me a really long time too Because I don't want
(21:39):
to shut it off completely.
Like, I don't want to just be like that. I shield.
Yeah, because you're like, you have this crazy job and this crazy life.
And like, where are you going to find the time to be a medium who can deal with
life in the middle of all of that, you know?
Which, when you said the restaurant, it reminded me of, I had this other Gemini guy friend.
(22:02):
We were like besties, drinking besties.
We would sometimes play this game that I was like we have to stop we played
this game called make it happen so when we'd be at like a party and you're bored
we would take turns trying to make something specific happen.
But it would be something kind of predictable and it would eventually happen.
(22:24):
And I remember one time I was like, all right, the next person that walks in
that door is going to trip and fall on their face.
And this girl instantly walked in and fell on her face. And I felt so guilty.
I was like, did I make that happen or did I just know it was going to happen?
And there's been so many times like I remember one time I was driving in the
city and this guy was riding his bike really recklessly.
(22:48):
Like he like blew the stop sign in front
of me and then I turned right and I was like riding behind
him forever because I couldn't safely pass him and then I finally had the chance
to pass him but I was thinking in my head after I passed him it's so dangerous
to ride a bike in the city I hope my friends that ride bikes everywhere are
(23:10):
more careful and then I hear boom boom,
and I see him like flying through the air because he's rode right into a car
door and like it's thrown him back, you know?
And I went home and I was like, did I make that happen? Or did I just like kind
of know that was going to happen, you know?
Or is it just like the synchronicity of the universe?
And my roommates were like, it was probability, you know?
(23:33):
You saw him writing in a stupid way and the probability is that something bad's going to happen.
But But I love that you can never be sure.
Music.
Dawn recently had a friend cleanse her chakras. We're not going to get into all the details of that.
(23:55):
But Dawn clarifies a bit of her hesitancy around fully opening herself up to her abilities.
I wasn't sure what she was going to do, but she really believes in it.
And I'm not a non-believer.
I just kind of shy away from witchy stuff.
And the reason that I take that stance is that there's just a deep feeling in
(24:15):
my heart that what we're supposed to do here is not try to circumvent the universe
by forcing things our way, even if they're good things.
You have to work with the universe. Does that make any sense?
So I you know she does a lot more stuff like
burying things in the ground and setting it on fire and like I'm
not comfortable like it just doesn't make any sense
(24:38):
to me but I was like I'm gonna be super open she had
me at one point hold this crystal in my
hand and say like I give
permission to release the negativity and then
she started like wicking it out so she had figured out what
was there by using like a pendulum over my different
chakras and she basically said the ones that were
(24:59):
messed up it would like spin frantically but
the ones that were fine it would like wouldn't move at all so then
she would take this little thing and like wave it
over me to like wick it out and then she was doing some like mexican
tradition where you like take the thing that the energy and you put it into
a little piece of a crystal like a little shard a tiny one for each of the chakras
(25:24):
that you do and then she pushed it into this clay that when it hardens i'm I'm
supposed to bury it in the backyard on the waning moon.
But I already blew that because the waning moon just passed and I keep forgetting.
Wait, so do you have these negative shards in your possession?
Yeah, they're in my house right now. No, they're not in your house.
Okay, good. They're in my laundry room.
But it wasn't too stressed out about that part because to me, again, it's symbolic.
(25:47):
Exactly. It's symbolic, yeah. Yeah, it's just a symbolic thing that for her,
symbolism, and I think growing up super Catholic symbolism is stronger for those
people than like my more like sedate Jesus.
No, it's grape juice, you know.
Music.
(26:09):
So in general, she enjoyed the chakra thing and exploring something that her
friend believes to be valuable.
Yet she's had some negative experiences that seem to be from the spiritual realm.
So she's got barriers that Stephanie doesn't.
The chakra convo led us into something that I know nothing about, spirit guides.
(26:29):
Afterwards, we talked for a couple of hours and I was like asking her about
like, Like, hey, have you ever done spirit guides, trying to find out about that at all?
So I've been on the precipice of that for a couple years, but very scared that
after all the negative stuff that happened to me, that I wouldn't be safe,
you know? What's spirit guide mean?
(26:51):
Everybody has their own versions of things, but the consensus that I've read
seems to be that you have, everybody has like two or three at least,
like one that's with you all the time from birth.
And it's that little maybe sometimes voice on your
shoulder that's like like helping you make a
good decision or like telling you oh let's not drive
that way today or whatever it is you know like and then maybe there's other
(27:14):
ones that are there for more like important things but since you've done it
like what what's i took an entire eight week course on spirit okay i would love
to learn about this it was a weird concept for me because i do have a hard time
trying to be like Like, oh,
I have these eight people, and they call it your spirit guide roundtable.
So, you know, I'm like, I feel like that's, like, I had a really hard time connecting
(27:37):
with that, like, thought and that symbolism.
Like, I just couldn't grasp it. But by the end of the class,
I do feel like I made some connections, but they weren't.
Everything and I felt like my spirit guides were honestly relatives like I had
some grandmothers and stuff in there and to me that's also you know guardian
angel spirit guide kind of situation.
(28:01):
This is a foreign concept for me as a white protestant in general we don't put
a lot of emphasis on ancestral connection or spiritual support and our idea
of a guardian angel is very much in the style of a cartoon cupid so I bet that
other cultures more easily comprehend the spirit guide concept.
(28:24):
Don's brain has been bebopping around this conversation, wondering about telekinetic
powers, even PK poltergeist manifestations, and malevolent beings.
So I wanted to ground us a bit and see if Stephanie is confident about what she experiences.
I mean, do you think that like, what you have interacted with is dead people?
(28:46):
Like, what do you think it is? What's your theory?
I do think that there are people that have passed on.
I have never been in a situation where I've encountered anything like negative
or malicious or to use the word demonic ever.
But I do know people that have and I don't ever want to be in that situation.
But I also don't put a lot of weight into that, if that makes sense.
(29:09):
But yeah, everybody that I've encountered has been somebody that's been deceased
and And they're either there because that's some place that they genuinely enjoyed
being at or there's that unfinished business or it's where they lived.
Do you think they're really there there? Yeah.
I feel like some people are trapped somewhere and they don't have a way to get out.
(29:30):
Either it's just they're stuck there because they're in a repeat pattern or
something or they have unfinished business. Yeah.
Here's an example of how she came to that conclusion. We went to an estate sale
up in Piedmont and we walked in the house and I was like looking around at stuff.
And then all of a sudden this guy appears next to me in a flight suit and he
(29:51):
looks at me and he's like, why is everybody, what's going on?
Why is everybody here? Why are they going through my stuff?
What's going on? And I was like, like this kind of thing.
And I turn around and I look and there's a photo
of the guy sitting on a dresser
or a desk or something and the guy was a pilot and I literally was like like
this is the guy and he kept in my ear why are they here what's going on why
(30:16):
are they here and I finally was like I don't know you are dead this isn't a
state sale they're selling off all your stuff so do you think he
didn't know he was dead he did not know yeah he did not know what was going on at all.
Yeah so there's an example of somebody who didn't know that they were they were gone Weird.
So, and I, as soon as that happened, I looked at Jeremy and I was like, we are out now. Yeah.
(30:40):
But like, this was a long time ago before I had taken any of the mediumship classes.
If I had to do it all over again and I had like the education and understanding,
I would have said, let me help you. Do you need help to move on from here?
Like, here's what's going on. Because that's usually what you do.
You tell somebody that they are deceased and that, you know,
do you want to get out of here? Let me help you move on.
But yeah. I literally was like, wow. Some people's addictions keep them here.
(31:04):
People, this is a theory.
Like if you're an alcoholic or a drug addict, like you don't want to pass on
because people that are ashamed or afraid of people seeing.
Who they are, want to stay here. But I read something that I feel like we've
all seen this in real life, where like alcoholics like to hang out and stay
(31:24):
around bars because when a person gets drunk enough that their protection of themselves shifts,
they can jump you and they can like act out and like participate in being a drunk like they used to.
And the theory is that when you see someone like switch on a dime like that
when they're drunk, it's because a ghost, a drunk goes jump them like a drug
(31:46):
addict or something like that.
Well, they do talk about on that like psychic kids show. Again,
I'm a newbie to all this, right?
But that like that's a possibility that like the possession thing is a possibility. Do you think it is?
I don't know. I don't know any of this stuff. I only know stuff that I've seen in my own.
Could that airman have gotten in your body with you?
(32:06):
I don't know how much I believe that people can possess stuff like that.
And if I did believe that I wouldn't have let him do that.
So I set up pretty, like now I set up really specific boundaries.
Okay, this seems somehow important. So if you're concerned about a drunk ghost
(32:26):
hijacking your bod, tune back in now.
How do you do that? That's something I want to learn. Yeah, how do you do it?
Like when we, like in regular life, like if I'm going somewhere where I know
like it's like an estate sale or like an antique store, I really quickly before
I go in and just shield myself, like, you know, kind of situation.
So I don't want to interact with anything. You just, you set boundaries basically,
(32:47):
even if it's as verbal as like in your head, not out loud, walking into this
place, nothing here is allowed to touch me, talk to me or interact with me.
Like just, you know, leave me alone kind of situation. Like it's as easy as that.
So I don't have a lot, any experience with possession and stuff.
I don't know much about it.
So I can't speak to it. But for me, I, you know, I don't know what I believe
(33:12):
about it, I guess. Me either.
What's actually kind of fascinating here is that growing up in the evangelical
church, we talked a lot about spiritual warfare and spiritual protection,
most of which I have deconstructed.
But this is where the superstition, which I don't mean in a derogatory way, intersects.
(33:33):
Because basically what Stephanie is saying is that she prays for protection.
I mean, I don't know who or what she's speaking to, perhaps to herself.
But regardless, saying the words has the power to prevent any spirits from speaking
to her or otherwise doing something she has not approved of.
Music.
(33:56):
Stephanie and Jeremy bought a house recently. So I asked her,
is there chatter in her new house?
Quiet. Okay, good. Very quiet. Now, was that a thing you kind of assessed like before you bought?
Yes, when we looked at like, I have a spreadsheet, I think we looked at over 100 places.
And some of them were walk right in and walk right out.
(34:16):
There was a house we looked at up in Richmond and the house was cool.
It was really nice. And nobody died there because I didn't feel that,
but I felt such like heavy sadness.
And finally I was like, what's going on with this house? And our agents were
like, so it's a single dad and they're selling the home in a divorce.
And I was like, because I could feel that just heavy, just sadness.
(34:39):
And I'm like, I can't live in a place like that. And we looked at two,
only two other houses stick out.
One in Oakland Hills. We walked in there and I turned around and I looked and
I was like, there's a woman with a beehive and a really fun Mrs.
Roper dress, like full on party, like, but very much like the house was like
(34:59):
a party house, like they entertained a lot.
Yeah and so it was just jeremy and i in the house and i
said something to him and i was like oh there's somebody following me from
room to room and i said you know she's very much like an entertainer she
wants to make sure like do you have cocktail are you okay like nothing
bad but also like very observant like why are all these people in
the house yeah and i said something about her following
me and the listing agent goes can i
(35:22):
ask you a question i said yes she goes so you see
the person too and i was like and i
described the person and she said yes that's exactly what
I see she's like I thought I was losing my mind I don't know
what to do and I was like set a boundary just tell her like
tell her what you're doing here basically and then set a boundary and she's
like I really thought I was losing my mind and I was like oh no there's somebody
(35:45):
here and like we left and I told Jeremy I can't live in a house like no like
it would drive me up the wall yeah I'm super dying to know where does Jeremy
fall on the spectrum of all this he's not interested.
It's very much like not at all when I come home from the ghost investigations
and I'm like wanting to talk about it does not want to hear a single I will,
(36:07):
He does not want to hear a single word, nothing. Wow.
Does he believe that you have these? Yes, because he experienced,
I'll tell one more story before I- Stephanie's husband, Jeremy,
doesn't want to hear about it, but he does believe that she has abilities.
Back when they were dating, he was skeptical until he started looking at homes and took her with him.
(36:27):
He was actually thinking about buying a house. He'd gotten in touch with a real
estate agent and they said, there's this great house for you.
It's got a really big basement.
You'll love it. it it's perfect for you so we
go to the open house we look at it walk around the house and i'm
like i don't think i can live here this was
like right when the stuff started ramping back up again and i was like you
know i'm not really interested in this house this house is really like there's something
(36:49):
that's not right here we go down in the basement and i
just remember like this kind of weird just
uncomfortable sick feeling and i looked up
and in the basement i could see somebody had hung
themselves and I could see a like almost like a not a I never saw a body I could
see like this kind of like white mist kind of like hanging and like light coming
(37:10):
from it and I was like I looked at him and I said somebody killed themselves
in this basement I can't go back through this house and so I walked out the
backyard and went out the front.
Coincidentally a couple weeks later he's talking to a friend and the friend
grew up in the house next door to the house that we saw. So Jeremy goes,
I have to ask you a question.
(37:31):
My girlfriend, you know, was really creeped out. She said somebody killed themselves
in the basement. And the friend turns to Jeremy and says, yeah, absolutely.
There was a teacher there and he killed himself in the basement.
And I was like,
that's the one thing that made Jeremy realize that I had something going on.
(37:54):
So not until then did he really, really believe you. Yes, that's basically what
turned him around to me, but he doesn't want to know.
And I've never outright asked him, but I get the feeling that he doesn't want
to know because he doesn't want it to happen in our house or doesn't want me
to bring something home.
Because every time I go to investigation, he goes, you're not going to,
(38:14):
don't bring anything home with you.
That's the first thing he says. And I said, I always say my thank yous and my
goodbyes. And I set a very clear boundary.
Like, this is the end of the road.
Music.
Not live in new developments. All of our homes have history and interesting quirks.
(38:35):
To get to this cozy little podcast room, you walk in the front door,
make a quick left, go down dark stairs into the garage, make another left,
through a door into a room that makes no sense why it exists.
On the back wall is a door that doesn't open and would lead nowhere,
covered on the other side by some kind of wall.
So I'm curious, how does it feel in here right now?
(38:58):
How does this weird ass plunge feel i mean we're
in a basement right now it doesn't feel it's pretty
quiet in here feels like your energy yeah which
is good right yeah okay and i also believe that too i
also believe that like you know it feels quiet like i don't feel like there's
anything at all at all here and there's probably been tons and tons of people
coming you know have lived in here and i also do believe like you know if you
(39:20):
come in with a kind and loving family and a loving heart i feel like it kind
of clears the space out too to changes the whole energy and the whole feel Technically,
this should be like, it's a Winchester mystery.
It really is. It doesn't feel like that at all. It really doesn't.
I usually feel very at home in houses like this.
(39:42):
I don't know. I just picture the lives people lived here. Yeah.
The happiness and the tears. Yeah.
We won the war, World War II, whatever it is, you know.
I mean, I think if this didn't feel good to you, I wouldn't even want you to tell me.
I probably shouldn't have even asked that question. And I wouldn't tell you.
Really? Yeah, I absolutely, I don't tell, if I go to someone's house and I sense
(40:07):
something either uncomfortable or just like your house, it's a happy place.
I don't say anything to anybody. It's not my, not my position to,
I'm not, you asked me. I would actually 100% want to know. Okay,
I'm going to pause right here, because in playing back this conversation,
here's what I heard on the recording.
It doesn't feel... It's pretty quiet in here. Feels like your energy.
(40:30):
Usually when there's weird audio noises, I can identify them,
like a bracelet hitting a mic stand or the shuffle of a foot.
But what was that glitch at the end? Here it is louder.
I don't know, maybe I'm tripping after an hour of talking about ghosts,
but it was a strange moment for an unknown noise, which I didn't hear in person.
(40:54):
Okay, back to Dawn, who really wants Stephanie to be honest about how she feels in her house.
If you felt something bad that I was hiding from myself or couldn't pick up
on, I would want to know so that I could do something about it.
And I would, if something there was, shouldn't be there, I would tell you,
you need to have somebody come in and sweep the place.
But you also asked me if I felt anything there. I would never offer up the information if someone asked.
(41:19):
I feel like that's like a violation of like, you know, mediumship 101.
Like I would never, ever do that to anybody. Interesting.
That's probably a good practice. I feel comfy and happy in my house.
So if there is a ghost walking around, we're cohabitating well.
And it would not really do me any good if Stephanie told me about it.
(41:40):
But Dawn has asked the question. She definitely feels things at her house and
wants Stephanie to check it out.
I feel there is somebody at Don's. I don't know if they are from the house or
the property or the house next door, behind, what have you, because,
you know, people can travel.
But there is somebody there to me that is more of a caretaker.
(42:01):
Well, I may have only been there twice in a very, very short time.
Like, it was not somebody that I interacted with.
It was just more like, there's a person here. They're just kind of watching
and observing and, like, making sure everything's okay.
Like reminded me of somebody going you're not using a coaster like that kind
of exactly the feeling like that's the feeling yes but nothing malicious or
(42:22):
angry it's more just like,
like that kind of situation i know i do
feel pressure sometimes where i'm like there's a lot of stuff that we're
not taking care of in the house that we should be taking care of
are they mad like is he are they i always think
it's a day though i don't know why i never think it's just a one person yeah
and there could be multiple the two times that i've been there i was an older
gentleman but like i said i don't know if he's from there he's from the neighborhood
(42:46):
or i totally think it but i don't want to talk anymore about the history of
the house because i want to hear what you have to say but like when you talked
about it there was a part of me that was like,
as long as we don't accidentally open up anything no no i'll make sure we don't
we don't do any of that part of me wants to like i don't know like i just never
feel comfortable in my bedroom like Like,
(43:07):
and I'd like to feel like my bedroom is my bedroom,
you know, like, so part of me is like, maybe it's time to, like,
help this person. Yeah. I mean, maybe they need a crossover.
But at the same time, like, but if they're helping protect us, like.
Yeah, but if you don't feel comfortable. Yeah, exactly. And it's always,
to me, all of this stuff to be always centers around boundaries.
(43:27):
Yeah. If you want to cohabitate peacefully with the person, you just set a boundary,
like, this room is off limits, you don't come over here, or that kind of stuff.
I mean, I think I'm fine with boundaries, you know?
I think I just have tried to struggle to figure out what is that boundary,
like trying to figure out what that thing, what this thing is,
and like what the intentions are.
But again, never felt negative. Never once.
(43:49):
In fact, just last night I was staying there, and like the house was making
all these weird noises because Chad wasn't home again, and I was like, you guys.
Sometimes it happens so many kind of silly things at once that I'm like, you guys, seriously.
Like, and then it'll stop. Yeah, everyone calls. And that's part of it,
too. You just, hey, knock it off. Yeah, yeah.
(44:10):
Dawn never feels scared at her house, but she does feel like she's not alone.
So next episode, we're going to do a semi-professional paranormal investigation
in her house with a medium, Stephanie, and our recording devices.
So tune in for part two at the house on Fernside.
Music.
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