November 13, 2024 • 29 mins
Join Madame Strangeways for true spooky ghost stories in Indianapolis and at a cozy but haunted flower shop.
Thank you to Financial_Mission259 and Ted for giving me permission to read their true strange stories. Do you want to hear your own true spooky story narrated on the show? Email me at madamestrangewaysmail.com.
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Produced by: Madame Strangeways
♫ Theme Music by: Marina Ryan at marinamakes.coCover artwork by: Andrea Giselle Roldán at @cultofteddy
If you have a true ghost story or paranormal story you’d like to hear narrated on the podcast, you can submit it on madamestrangeways.com or email it to madamestrangewaysmail.com. Anything unexplained or supernatural is welcome, or just odd stories you can’t explain with reason or logic.
Relax with some true spooky stories read to you by Madame Strangeways in a soothing, calm, female voice. Rain sounds accompany the stories for a bit of eerie atmosphere. And between the true scary stories, she shares her thoughts and commentary on each creepy story, but never in third person.
So dim the lights, get cozy, and let Madame Strangeways guide you through these true strange stories. Who knows? You might just discover a new perspective on the supernatural. Don't miss out on this thrilling episode—listen now and join the conversation about the unexplained!
Every true strange story narrated in this podcast was read with permission from the original author.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
If you have a true strange storyyou'd like to hear narrated on
the show, submit it now on madamstrangeways.com or e-mail
it to madamstrangeways@gmail.com.
That's MAD. AM E Well, hello, my little
strange Ling. It's me Madam Strange Ways, with
(00:23):
two new true strange stories of the unexplained paranormal.
Or just kind of spooky. And as always, solicited or not,
usually not, I share my insightsand observations after each
spooky tale. Now it's time to dim the lights
(00:46):
and get cozy while I read you these true strange stories here
on Madam Strange Ways Breaking strange news.
(01:08):
You can now support me on patreon@patreon.com/madam
Strange Ways. And when you sign up for the
Certifiably Strange tier, this is where you'll hear me give you
a special shout out. In every episode, you'll also
get exclusive access to polls and help me decide which strange
(01:32):
topics I'll discuss on future episodes.
Your support means so much to me.
Thank you. And now on to the Strange
stories. The floral shop by Financial
Mission 259. I used to work in a floral shop
(01:57):
in my late teens to early 20's. The shop was in an old one story
plus attic house. It was a small company and I was
very close to my Co workers who were women in their mid 50s.
I was alone in the shop one afternoon walking through the
retail waiting area to the frontdisplay cooler.
(02:20):
The retail area had a seating nook with a couch and armchair
plus a coffee table for bridal consultations.
On my way back from the cooler, as I was turning I saw a man
sitting in the armchair. He was elderly, in a dark suit
(02:40):
and had a full head of white hair.
Upon turning to face him directly, he was no longer
there. I was creeped out but didn't
want to react because it felt wrong to do so for some reason.
So I just went back to work and kind of put it out of my head
(03:03):
for the day. Over the course of a few months,
I kept seeing him always when I was alone in the shop and always
in that chair. One day I got the courage to
bring it up to my boss. I asked her, Have you ever felt
(03:25):
or seen anything weird in the shop?
Her eyes went wide and she askednot the guy in the chair.
I accepted him as very real after that, would casually
acknowledge him when I would seehim and it was kind of a no big
deal at all. One afternoon I was again alone
(03:48):
in the shop doing some chores. Flower shops always have a lot
of buckets to wash and that was my Saturday chore.
As the shop was a converted old house, there was a utility sink
in what used to be the laundry room.
It was a cramped space. Standing at the sink, I turned
(04:08):
to grab another bucket from the stack behind me.
He was right there, standing just to the right of the bucket
stack, not 2 feet behind me. I jumped, did a startled AH, and
dropped the bucket. I composed myself quickly,
(04:29):
turned the utility sink off and did the thing I have never
stopped feeling bad about. I yelled at him and cussed and
said he absolutely could not go creeping around right behind me.
After that day he was gone. Never saw him again.
(05:04):
Oh no, never saw him again. Oh, that's so sad.
Like your flower shop ghost buddy.
Although OK, I don't think this is your fault.
I don't think this. I'll tell you why, because he
kind of overreacted. I mean, what are you expecting?
If you're a ghost, you're creeping around, you scare the
(05:27):
shit out of someone, of course they're going to scream and cuss
and tell you to stop being a creep.
So, you know, maybe if he wasn'tbeing a creep, you wouldn't have
had that reaction. So I think I think that you
didn't do anything wrong or although, OK, hold, hear me out.
What if because you know, ghostshave unfinished business, right?
(05:49):
What if his unfinished business was that he needed to be yelled
at and put in his place and called a creep?
What if that was his unfinished business and you provided that
for him and now he was able to move on and that's why you never
saw him again so actually has a happy ending.
(06:12):
What I love most about this story is how cozy it is.
You know, there's like cozy games and, you know, cozy cozy
books and then there's cozy ghost stories apparently,
because that's how this kind of reads to me is sort of 90s whims
of goth. That's the vibe.
It's it's like this is a cozy, but this is a cozy Halloween
(06:35):
ghost story movie and there's a romance in it.
And like the the ladies that work at the shop that are in
their mid 50s, they're kind of playing matchmaker and the house
is kind of in disrepair, but notunloved, not like neglected
disrepair. It's it's just a well loved
(06:57):
house that's seen a lot of stuff.
So I I'm fully green light this movie, green light this movie.
I want to watch this movie. I think it needs to have Stevie
Nicks needs to do some music. This is basically just sort of
like the 2024 practical magic reboot is really what the story
is giving me. I don't know, I'm just loving
(07:19):
it. I think it's this is a great
story. I was so drawn to the story
because of just the just the vibes that I got from it, but
also then also very scary because you look over and you
see a man in an armchair sittingin an armchair.
You see him not just like, did Isee someone?
You're like, I saw this old man,dark suit, head full of white
(07:39):
hair, sitting in a chair. And then when I look again, he's
gone. There's no old man.
There's no old man with the fullhead of white hair in a dark
suit sitting in a chair. No, it the chair is empty.
I do what I also love so much. Maybe love is not the word of
what I find really fascinating is that in so many of these
(08:01):
ghost stories, everyone just sort of agrees silently to just
not talk about this stuff. Like, I'm not going to think
about it. I'm not going to talk about it.
I'm just going to act like nothing happened.
And then of course, everyone is experiencing the same thing.
It's just everybody's in deep denial, like fingers in their
(08:21):
ears. La, la, la, la.
There's no ghosts here. There's nobody here but as
chickens, definitely no ghosts. Of course your boss.
Of course your boss has seen theguy in the chair.
That's what's crazy is it's not even like, oh, you've seen the
old man or like, oh, you've seenthe shadow figure.
They specifically say not the guy in the chair, which is
(08:45):
exactly what you saw after you saw it and you didn't even talk
about it. Oh, goosebumps.
Now this author did tell me thatthere are more details about
this story and there are other stories, but I was too
impatient. I was too impatient to wait and
I really wanted to share this story.
So I will give an update if I get an update and I will share
(09:08):
future stories if I get those. But love this story.
I'm ready to watch the movie. Tell me who you think should
star in it. Who are the love interests?
What's going on? Is there a plot twist?
Is the old man in the chair the love interest?
Is this a ghost? Capital G Ghost the movie?
(09:30):
Is this a ghost situation? Let me know what you think.
Indianapolis by Ted I will preface this story with me
(09:54):
experiencing paranormal events in the past, but rarely seeing
apparitions. I've seen them maybe twice in my
adult life before this, So what happened here is extraordinary.
We went to Indianapolis to attend a cousin's wedding.
It was a large group of us including everyone in my
(10:17):
immediate family and some other cousins.
We booked a large multi room house on Airbnb to stay in.
The first thing I noticed when Ipulled up was how Victorian and
old the house looked. It was in a historic part of
Indianapolis and I figured the owner is smart to turn an older
(10:39):
building into an investment opportunity.
We stayed in the house and got ready for a few days of
activities. On one night.
I went to sleep pretty late and was tired from a day of driving
and attending events. My wife was in the bathroom
getting ready for sleep. I got on the bed.
(11:01):
The bright white light was on when I closed my eyes.
I felt the room getting darker through my closed eyelids.
When I opened them what seemed like a second later, the room
had a flickering yellow hue, seemingly from candle lights.
Standing at the foot of the bed was an older white man in a
(11:25):
colonial outfit, and he seemed like an officer because he had a
Saber by his side. I looked over to my right and
there stood an older white womanwith salt and pepper hair and a
white nightgown. The older woman was looking into
the distance while the older manin the colonial outfit was
(11:47):
looking at me. I figured I'm hallucinating from
sleep paralysis, except I could feel my limbs, albeit a little
bit tingling. I pushed myself to sit up and
the older woman turned to look at me.
I realized I am awake and this is not sleep paralysis.
(12:11):
I closed my eyes to avoid their stairs.
When I did I saw myself standingon the sidewalk and an
intersection. I looked up and saw the signs
for the cross streets Pennsylvania and 22nd.
A sedan was speeding and crossedthe intersection.
(12:34):
It hit a pedestrian. The pedestrians face zoomed into
mine. I saw her, an older black woman
with a short buzz cut hair. A name appeared in my head.
Wendell. I jolted awake yelling help but
only whimpered. My wife came out of the bathroom
(12:57):
asking what happened. I told her what I've seen and
she said let's just go to sleep.So we did.
In the morning I looked on the map and Penn versus 22nd is one
street over where we stayed on 21st.
I rationalized that I must have seen Penn and 22nd on the drive
(13:22):
over and incorporated the location into what I saw.
The Colonial officer, an older woman, However, I had no
explanation for, nor the name Wendell or the pedestrian
getting hit by the sedan. A couple of nights later, I
stayed up late in the kitchen totalk to an uncle.
(13:43):
We've had a few beers, but not drunk or inebriated.
It was early in the morning. I sat across the table from him.
Behind his head on the wall was an Oval vanity mirror, angled
downward so I could see his reflection and mine.
(14:05):
I glanced up at the mirror in the middle of the conversation
and saw a dark shadow figure moving on the wall behind me.
It stopped, waved its right hand, and continued moving out
of view. I turned around and of course
(14:28):
there was nothing there. I kept it to myself until before
we departed home and told my wife of the experience.
Overall, it was an extraordinarytrip to Indianapolis.
I've learned that from now on, whenever I travelled to historic
places, I'm keen to expect something to happen, maybe just
(14:53):
a bit mundane, or maybe up to and including seeing
apparitions. Ted, thank you so much for
(15:17):
another one of your eerie stories.
Your stories always tend to have.
If anyone hasn't, if anyone hasn't listened to previous
episodes, Ted has had a couple stories and he has some more.
So what I what I tend to find inTed stories is that there is
usually an aspect of some sort of dreamscape where you know,
(15:43):
are you, are you seeing the future?
Are you seeing the past? Are you, what's going on?
Who are these people that you'reseeing?
So really scary, really scary tothink about.
Is there are you being Ted? Are you being communicated with
in your dreams? You know, I've mentioned before
in previous episodes that a dream state is typically when
(16:07):
you hear people saying, well, you know, the fae like to
communicate through dreams, the dead communicate through dreams.
Like our minds are just more open, open to different
possibilities and you know, frequencies and etcetera.
Kind of similar to the reason why children are more
susceptible, probably because their brains are not filled with
(16:31):
spreadsheets and doctor's appointments times and to do
lists and oh, I've got to exercise and how am I going to
fit that in when I got to take the dry cleaning?
I don't know. I've never taken anything dry
cleaning. But these are just adult
thoughts that people have that that kids don't.
Kids don't have those thoughts. So it's easier to get in there.
(16:53):
They're less jaded. And when we're asleep, you know,
maybe we're a little bit more open to that sort of stuff.
Also, some people just just dream really vividly and lucidly
a lot. They're just naturally good at
it. So it sounds like Ted, it sounds
like maybe you wish you weren't good at it, but whatever the
reason, you have a lot of you have a lot of eerie dreams.
(17:15):
They're kind of like David Lynchsort of vibe dreams to me.
Like they're, I'm never like, oh, that's a nice dream.
I'm always thinking that's a creepy dream.
And this one is no different. Now I did do some research, and
by research I mean Googling. I did do some Googling for
(17:36):
accidents or deaths near Pennsylvania and 22nd in
Indianapolis. I looked for anything, any news
happening on those cross streets.
I couldn't come up with anything.
I also searched for Wendell, Wendell death, Indianapolis,
Wendell Pennsylvania 22nd accident Pennsylvania 22nd.
(17:58):
Oh I I couldn't find anything but you know what?
Here's what I'll say. Google.
I don't know at the time of thisrecording.
So 11/10/2024. Google sucks now.
Google sucks now. I don't know if anyone else is
noticing it. The the AI stuff that they're
(18:20):
using in Google makes it impossible to search for things.
I used to be so good at Googlingnow Google thinks it knows what
I want and so it gives me those results, but actually it doesn't
have any idea what I want it's wrong and so it's giving me
completely unrelated results even if I put things in quotes
you guys saying this sorry we'regoing on this.
This is the rant that we're going on right now I'm sorry Ted
pause. I need everyone to tell me are
(18:43):
they experiencing this with Google?
I even looked into like, how canwe roll this back?
Can we access a good version of Google?
Still Nope, not that I can find.So if, if, if you know of one,
let me know. But I did search for it.
But you know what? Maybe I should have binged it.
Maybe I should have binged it orlike Duckduckgoed it.
(19:03):
Or is Ask Jeeves still a thing? I'm going to need to expand my
searches because this is not tenable for my research.
So I couldn't find anything. That doesn't necessarily mean
that nothing happened at that cross street.
Or, you know, you could argue that this is something that
hasn't happened yet, that there will be something that happens
(19:25):
there. Although if it's if it's
important of upcoming death thatyou've experienced, you know,
you're you're having some clairvoyance, you're seeing into
the future, then what is that figure that's lurking around the
kitchen while you guys are just sitting and hanging out having a
(19:47):
having a nephew to uncle Convo and there's this shadow lurking
around the shadow creature. And so what's that?
Who's that, you know, is the dark shadow figure connected to
the name Wendell that you dreamtabout?
Or is the shadow unrelated to Wendell?
Is that Wendell? I also keep thinking about the
(20:10):
song, Mr. Wendell. Mr. Wendell?
Yeah. Oh, Mr. Wendell.
I hope it doesn't get taken downbecause I did that little bit of
a song. But it's a great song.
It's a it's a really good song. I bet it's got a really good
message. Thinking back, I can't really
remember a lot of the lyrics, but I don't know, you know, what
pause we're going to see. Does that song have anything to
(20:32):
do with Indianapolis? Unfortunately, there does not
seem to be any connection between the 1992 Arrested
Development song Mr. Wendell andWendell from Your Dream.
First of all, they're spelled differently, so doesn't seem to
(20:56):
be any sort of connection there.But it is still a bop, so I
still recommend listening to it.But in your bedroom, you had the
the old Colonial soldier officerand then the old woman look in
her nightgown, which is so weirdand scary.
(21:18):
But you've got these two people that you're seeing in the house.
Are they related to the we're going to, we're going back a
little bit. Are they related to the shadow
figure? Is the shadow figure related to
them? Are they related to the
accident? But when you see these, when you
see these apparitions, even if it's, you know, and even if it's
in a dream, when you see these apparitions, what a lot of
(21:40):
people attribute this to is whatthey call stone tape theory.
If you're unfamiliar with the stone tape theory, it's more or
less that places have memories. And that's a that's a massive
oversimplification, but anywherethat things are happening, which
is a lot all over the place, that that place where that thing
(22:03):
is happening, may you know, quote UN quote, record it in the
energy that's around the area. And so if something happens
enough times, it can be recorded, quote UN quote, and
then it will just play back. So it's sort of related to
psychometry, which is, you know,if you've ever seen content
(22:25):
where someone touches something and then they get a memory from
it and they can read this, they can read the item by touching
it. Like it's sort of related to
that. Apparently it was popularized in
the 1961 book Ghost and Ghoul written by TC Lethbridge who was
an archaeologist turned paranormal researcher, which I
(22:49):
didn't know until just now is what I want to do when I grow
up. I want to become an
archaeologist and then I want toturn into a paranormal
researcher who writes books called Ghost and Ghoul.
So apparently he popularized theidea and in the book he does not
call it the Stone Tape. But then it inspires this 1972
(23:16):
BBC Christmas ghost story play that they named the Stone Tape.
And so then that's why we have the term stone tape theory is
they learned it from this TC Lethbridge, who did not call it
the Stone Tape, but because theywere inspired by it and the
story they wrote is called the Stone Tape.
(23:38):
It's called the Stone Tape theory.
So sort of cyclical. Also, by the way, if you're not,
if you're not hugely into British media, you know, man,
they love a Christmas special and they love ghost story
Christmas specials. And I guess that's why in all
the Christmas songs, the old timey Christmas songs you hear
they talk about like telling ghost stories at Christmas.
Apparently that's we have the Brits to thank for that.
(24:00):
So thank you, yes, yes, very good.
Thank you, appreciate that. So that's the stone tape theory
is, is basically that places have memories and you know, it's
it's why do they, I don't know why the things that they
remember are played on loop. I don't know why they remember.
(24:20):
They the places remember the things that they remember.
I don't know why it's just little clips.
You know, I don't, I don't know,I don't know the psycho pseudo
scientific. I don't know the full
explanation of it, but I do knowthat Charles Babbage was into
(24:43):
this. And I realize and I say that
probably not everybody has heardof Babbage.
In the 90s, there were computer stores called Babbages, and it
was a reference to Charles Babbage, who was an inventor who
came up with the idea for the first programmable computer.
Except I'm sorry, we've gone on,we've gone on too many tangents
(25:07):
here, but I'm sorry, I can't letthis stand.
Ada Lovelace, who is the the actual first computer programmer
and who is a woman, was corresponding with Babbage
during his development of his analytical engine.
And just FYI, she developed the algorithm that would enable his
(25:28):
engine to calculate some kind ofcomplicated number sequence that
I don't understand and would never claim to.
But even though, even though herletters are in her own
handwriting where she is giving him this information, some
scholars still argue they're just not sure if this is
actually her idea, even though it's in her handwriting and it's
(25:52):
documented. Interesting.
So Babbage who may have I guess invented the first programmable
computer, but could not have done so without Ada Lovelace,
who Yes, by the way, is Lord Byron's daughter.
We're not getting into another, we're not doing this.
We're not getting into another tangent.
(26:12):
I just thought everybody should know, yes, Charles Babbage, that
Charles Babbage also bought intothe Stone Tape theory.
A lot of people just consider itas as fact these days, but at
the time it was, it was kind of novel and the spiritualist
movement and etcetera. So Stone Tape theory would
neatly explain why you saw a colonial soldier and then some
(26:37):
strange old woman in a bed, in her bedclothes, in her
nightgown, hanging out in your bedroom.
Yeah. If it's a historical building,
which you said it was, it I mean, it stands to reason that
both of them have been in that space, occupied that space over
time, probably not at the same time.
(26:57):
And Stone Tape theory just happened to take a little, take
a little snapshot at both of them and played it back for you
when you were most open to seeing it.
And that was when you were asleep.
Because you see a lot of stuff when you're asleep, Ted.
You see a whole lot of stuff. I see a lot of stuff too, but it
doesn't make any sense. Like one time I had a dream that
(27:20):
I adopted a baby pig and then suddenly, just in the blink of
an eye, she was walking out the door and had turned into more of
a little girl than a little pig.And she turned around and she
said, I'll be back Thursday. And I was like, wait, what?
They grow up so fast. So I don't have the sorts of
(27:41):
dreams that Ted has. Ted's dreams are like a a
shortcut beyond the veil is all I can figure out at this point.
And you'll be hearing more of Ted's stories.
And if you have one or more stories that you would like to
share with me, you can just shoot me an e-mail over at
(28:01):
madamstrangeways@gmail.com. Thank you so much for joining me
for such a lovely spooky time. Remember, you can feel afraid
and not be in danger. If you've enjoyed yourself,
(28:25):
please follow the podcast so youcan get alerts when new episodes
come out. And if you've really enjoyed
yourself, it would mean a lot tome if you would tell a friend
about the podcast and follow me on Instagram at Madam
Strangeways or leave me a ratingor review on Spotify or Apple
Podcasts. Or I mean, just send me an
(28:48):
e-mail at madamstrangeways@gmail.com to
just say hello. I'd appreciate it.
Madam Strange Ways is produced and narrated by me.
Madam Strange Ways theme music is by
marina.ryan@marinamakes.co. You can submit your own strange
(29:09):
story at madamstrangeways.com orsend in your thoughts or
theories on the stories in this episode to
madamstrangeways@gmail.com. Thank you for listening.
Until next time.
If you have a true strange storyyou'd like to hear narrated on
the show, submit it now on madamstrangeways.com or e-mail
it to madamstrangeways@gmail.com.
That's MAD. AM E Well, hello, my little
strange Ling. It's me Madam Strange Ways, with
(00:23):
two new true strange stories of the unexplained paranormal.
Or just kind of spooky. And as always, solicited or not,
usually not, I share my insightsand observations after each
spooky tale. Now it's time to dim the lights
(00:46):
and get cozy while I read you these true strange stories here
on Madam Strange Ways Breaking strange news.
(01:08):
You can now support me on patreon@patreon.com/madam
Strange Ways. And when you sign up for the
Certifiably Strange tier, this is where you'll hear me give you
a special shout out. In every episode, you'll also
get exclusive access to polls and help me decide which strange
(01:32):
topics I'll discuss on future episodes.
Your support means so much to me.
Thank you. And now on to the Strange
stories. The floral shop by Financial
Mission 259. I used to work in a floral shop
(01:57):
in my late teens to early 20's. The shop was in an old one story
plus attic house. It was a small company and I was
very close to my Co workers who were women in their mid 50s.
I was alone in the shop one afternoon walking through the
retail waiting area to the frontdisplay cooler.
(02:20):
The retail area had a seating nook with a couch and armchair
plus a coffee table for bridal consultations.
On my way back from the cooler, as I was turning I saw a man
sitting in the armchair. He was elderly, in a dark suit
(02:40):
and had a full head of white hair.
Upon turning to face him directly, he was no longer
there. I was creeped out but didn't
want to react because it felt wrong to do so for some reason.
So I just went back to work and kind of put it out of my head
(03:03):
for the day. Over the course of a few months,
I kept seeing him always when I was alone in the shop and always
in that chair. One day I got the courage to
bring it up to my boss. I asked her, Have you ever felt
(03:25):
or seen anything weird in the shop?
Her eyes went wide and she askednot the guy in the chair.
I accepted him as very real after that, would casually
acknowledge him when I would seehim and it was kind of a no big
deal at all. One afternoon I was again alone
(03:48):
in the shop doing some chores. Flower shops always have a lot
of buckets to wash and that was my Saturday chore.
As the shop was a converted old house, there was a utility sink
in what used to be the laundry room.
It was a cramped space. Standing at the sink, I turned
(04:08):
to grab another bucket from the stack behind me.
He was right there, standing just to the right of the bucket
stack, not 2 feet behind me. I jumped, did a startled AH, and
dropped the bucket. I composed myself quickly,
(04:29):
turned the utility sink off and did the thing I have never
stopped feeling bad about. I yelled at him and cussed and
said he absolutely could not go creeping around right behind me.
After that day he was gone. Never saw him again.
(05:04):
Oh no, never saw him again. Oh, that's so sad.
Like your flower shop ghost buddy.
Although OK, I don't think this is your fault.
I don't think this. I'll tell you why, because he
kind of overreacted. I mean, what are you expecting?
If you're a ghost, you're creeping around, you scare the
(05:27):
shit out of someone, of course they're going to scream and cuss
and tell you to stop being a creep.
So, you know, maybe if he wasn'tbeing a creep, you wouldn't have
had that reaction. So I think I think that you
didn't do anything wrong or although, OK, hold, hear me out.
What if because you know, ghostshave unfinished business, right?
(05:49):
What if his unfinished business was that he needed to be yelled
at and put in his place and called a creep?
What if that was his unfinished business and you provided that
for him and now he was able to move on and that's why you never
saw him again so actually has a happy ending.
(06:12):
What I love most about this story is how cozy it is.
You know, there's like cozy games and, you know, cozy cozy
books and then there's cozy ghost stories apparently,
because that's how this kind of reads to me is sort of 90s whims
of goth. That's the vibe.
It's it's like this is a cozy, but this is a cozy Halloween
(06:35):
ghost story movie and there's a romance in it.
And like the the ladies that work at the shop that are in
their mid 50s, they're kind of playing matchmaker and the house
is kind of in disrepair, but notunloved, not like neglected
disrepair. It's it's just a well loved
(06:57):
house that's seen a lot of stuff.
So I I'm fully green light this movie, green light this movie.
I want to watch this movie. I think it needs to have Stevie
Nicks needs to do some music. This is basically just sort of
like the 2024 practical magic reboot is really what the story
is giving me. I don't know, I'm just loving
(07:19):
it. I think it's this is a great
story. I was so drawn to the story
because of just the just the vibes that I got from it, but
also then also very scary because you look over and you
see a man in an armchair sittingin an armchair.
You see him not just like, did Isee someone?
You're like, I saw this old man,dark suit, head full of white
(07:39):
hair, sitting in a chair. And then when I look again, he's
gone. There's no old man.
There's no old man with the fullhead of white hair in a dark
suit sitting in a chair. No, it the chair is empty.
I do what I also love so much. Maybe love is not the word of
what I find really fascinating is that in so many of these
(08:01):
ghost stories, everyone just sort of agrees silently to just
not talk about this stuff. Like, I'm not going to think
about it. I'm not going to talk about it.
I'm just going to act like nothing happened.
And then of course, everyone is experiencing the same thing.
It's just everybody's in deep denial, like fingers in their
(08:21):
ears. La, la, la, la.
There's no ghosts here. There's nobody here but as
chickens, definitely no ghosts. Of course your boss.
Of course your boss has seen theguy in the chair.
That's what's crazy is it's not even like, oh, you've seen the
old man or like, oh, you've seenthe shadow figure.
They specifically say not the guy in the chair, which is
(08:45):
exactly what you saw after you saw it and you didn't even talk
about it. Oh, goosebumps.
Now this author did tell me thatthere are more details about
this story and there are other stories, but I was too
impatient. I was too impatient to wait and
I really wanted to share this story.
So I will give an update if I get an update and I will share
(09:08):
future stories if I get those. But love this story.
I'm ready to watch the movie. Tell me who you think should
star in it. Who are the love interests?
What's going on? Is there a plot twist?
Is the old man in the chair the love interest?
Is this a ghost? Capital G Ghost the movie?
(09:30):
Is this a ghost situation? Let me know what you think.
Indianapolis by Ted I will preface this story with me
(09:54):
experiencing paranormal events in the past, but rarely seeing
apparitions. I've seen them maybe twice in my
adult life before this, So what happened here is extraordinary.
We went to Indianapolis to attend a cousin's wedding.
It was a large group of us including everyone in my
(10:17):
immediate family and some other cousins.
We booked a large multi room house on Airbnb to stay in.
The first thing I noticed when Ipulled up was how Victorian and
old the house looked. It was in a historic part of
Indianapolis and I figured the owner is smart to turn an older
(10:39):
building into an investment opportunity.
We stayed in the house and got ready for a few days of
activities. On one night.
I went to sleep pretty late and was tired from a day of driving
and attending events. My wife was in the bathroom
getting ready for sleep. I got on the bed.
(11:01):
The bright white light was on when I closed my eyes.
I felt the room getting darker through my closed eyelids.
When I opened them what seemed like a second later, the room
had a flickering yellow hue, seemingly from candle lights.
Standing at the foot of the bed was an older white man in a
(11:25):
colonial outfit, and he seemed like an officer because he had a
Saber by his side. I looked over to my right and
there stood an older white womanwith salt and pepper hair and a
white nightgown. The older woman was looking into
the distance while the older manin the colonial outfit was
(11:47):
looking at me. I figured I'm hallucinating from
sleep paralysis, except I could feel my limbs, albeit a little
bit tingling. I pushed myself to sit up and
the older woman turned to look at me.
I realized I am awake and this is not sleep paralysis.
(12:11):
I closed my eyes to avoid their stairs.
When I did I saw myself standingon the sidewalk and an
intersection. I looked up and saw the signs
for the cross streets Pennsylvania and 22nd.
A sedan was speeding and crossedthe intersection.
(12:34):
It hit a pedestrian. The pedestrians face zoomed into
mine. I saw her, an older black woman
with a short buzz cut hair. A name appeared in my head.
Wendell. I jolted awake yelling help but
only whimpered. My wife came out of the bathroom
(12:57):
asking what happened. I told her what I've seen and
she said let's just go to sleep.So we did.
In the morning I looked on the map and Penn versus 22nd is one
street over where we stayed on 21st.
I rationalized that I must have seen Penn and 22nd on the drive
(13:22):
over and incorporated the location into what I saw.
The Colonial officer, an older woman, However, I had no
explanation for, nor the name Wendell or the pedestrian
getting hit by the sedan. A couple of nights later, I
stayed up late in the kitchen totalk to an uncle.
(13:43):
We've had a few beers, but not drunk or inebriated.
It was early in the morning. I sat across the table from him.
Behind his head on the wall was an Oval vanity mirror, angled
downward so I could see his reflection and mine.
(14:05):
I glanced up at the mirror in the middle of the conversation
and saw a dark shadow figure moving on the wall behind me.
It stopped, waved its right hand, and continued moving out
of view. I turned around and of course
(14:28):
there was nothing there. I kept it to myself until before
we departed home and told my wife of the experience.
Overall, it was an extraordinarytrip to Indianapolis.
I've learned that from now on, whenever I travelled to historic
places, I'm keen to expect something to happen, maybe just
(14:53):
a bit mundane, or maybe up to and including seeing
apparitions. Ted, thank you so much for
(15:17):
another one of your eerie stories.
Your stories always tend to have.
If anyone hasn't, if anyone hasn't listened to previous
episodes, Ted has had a couple stories and he has some more.
So what I what I tend to find inTed stories is that there is
usually an aspect of some sort of dreamscape where you know,
(15:43):
are you, are you seeing the future?
Are you seeing the past? Are you, what's going on?
Who are these people that you'reseeing?
So really scary, really scary tothink about.
Is there are you being Ted? Are you being communicated with
in your dreams? You know, I've mentioned before
in previous episodes that a dream state is typically when
(16:07):
you hear people saying, well, you know, the fae like to
communicate through dreams, the dead communicate through dreams.
Like our minds are just more open, open to different
possibilities and you know, frequencies and etcetera.
Kind of similar to the reason why children are more
susceptible, probably because their brains are not filled with
(16:31):
spreadsheets and doctor's appointments times and to do
lists and oh, I've got to exercise and how am I going to
fit that in when I got to take the dry cleaning?
I don't know. I've never taken anything dry
cleaning. But these are just adult
thoughts that people have that that kids don't.
Kids don't have those thoughts. So it's easier to get in there.
(16:53):
They're less jaded. And when we're asleep, you know,
maybe we're a little bit more open to that sort of stuff.
Also, some people just just dream really vividly and lucidly
a lot. They're just naturally good at
it. So it sounds like Ted, it sounds
like maybe you wish you weren't good at it, but whatever the
reason, you have a lot of you have a lot of eerie dreams.
(17:15):
They're kind of like David Lynchsort of vibe dreams to me.
Like they're, I'm never like, oh, that's a nice dream.
I'm always thinking that's a creepy dream.
And this one is no different. Now I did do some research, and
by research I mean Googling. I did do some Googling for
(17:36):
accidents or deaths near Pennsylvania and 22nd in
Indianapolis. I looked for anything, any news
happening on those cross streets.
I couldn't come up with anything.
I also searched for Wendell, Wendell death, Indianapolis,
Wendell Pennsylvania 22nd accident Pennsylvania 22nd.
(17:58):
Oh I I couldn't find anything but you know what?
Here's what I'll say. Google.
I don't know at the time of thisrecording.
So 11/10/2024. Google sucks now.
Google sucks now. I don't know if anyone else is
noticing it. The the AI stuff that they're
(18:20):
using in Google makes it impossible to search for things.
I used to be so good at Googlingnow Google thinks it knows what
I want and so it gives me those results, but actually it doesn't
have any idea what I want it's wrong and so it's giving me
completely unrelated results even if I put things in quotes
you guys saying this sorry we'regoing on this.
This is the rant that we're going on right now I'm sorry Ted
pause. I need everyone to tell me are
(18:43):
they experiencing this with Google?
I even looked into like, how canwe roll this back?
Can we access a good version of Google?
Still Nope, not that I can find.So if, if, if you know of one,
let me know. But I did search for it.
But you know what? Maybe I should have binged it.
Maybe I should have binged it orlike Duckduckgoed it.
(19:03):
Or is Ask Jeeves still a thing? I'm going to need to expand my
searches because this is not tenable for my research.
So I couldn't find anything. That doesn't necessarily mean
that nothing happened at that cross street.
Or, you know, you could argue that this is something that
hasn't happened yet, that there will be something that happens
(19:25):
there. Although if it's if it's
important of upcoming death thatyou've experienced, you know,
you're you're having some clairvoyance, you're seeing into
the future, then what is that figure that's lurking around the
kitchen while you guys are just sitting and hanging out having a
(19:47):
having a nephew to uncle Convo and there's this shadow lurking
around the shadow creature. And so what's that?
Who's that, you know, is the dark shadow figure connected to
the name Wendell that you dreamtabout?
Or is the shadow unrelated to Wendell?
Is that Wendell? I also keep thinking about the
(20:10):
song, Mr. Wendell. Mr. Wendell?
Yeah. Oh, Mr. Wendell.
I hope it doesn't get taken downbecause I did that little bit of
a song. But it's a great song.
It's a it's a really good song. I bet it's got a really good
message. Thinking back, I can't really
remember a lot of the lyrics, but I don't know, you know, what
pause we're going to see. Does that song have anything to
(20:32):
do with Indianapolis? Unfortunately, there does not
seem to be any connection between the 1992 Arrested
Development song Mr. Wendell andWendell from Your Dream.
First of all, they're spelled differently, so doesn't seem to
(20:56):
be any sort of connection there.But it is still a bop, so I
still recommend listening to it.But in your bedroom, you had the
the old Colonial soldier officerand then the old woman look in
her nightgown, which is so weirdand scary.
(21:18):
But you've got these two people that you're seeing in the house.
Are they related to the we're going to, we're going back a
little bit. Are they related to the shadow
figure? Is the shadow figure related to
them? Are they related to the
accident? But when you see these, when you
see these apparitions, even if it's, you know, and even if it's
in a dream, when you see these apparitions, what a lot of
(21:40):
people attribute this to is whatthey call stone tape theory.
If you're unfamiliar with the stone tape theory, it's more or
less that places have memories. And that's a that's a massive
oversimplification, but anywherethat things are happening, which
is a lot all over the place, that that place where that thing
(22:03):
is happening, may you know, quote UN quote, record it in the
energy that's around the area. And so if something happens
enough times, it can be recorded, quote UN quote, and
then it will just play back. So it's sort of related to
psychometry, which is, you know,if you've ever seen content
(22:25):
where someone touches something and then they get a memory from
it and they can read this, they can read the item by touching
it. Like it's sort of related to
that. Apparently it was popularized in
the 1961 book Ghost and Ghoul written by TC Lethbridge who was
an archaeologist turned paranormal researcher, which I
(22:49):
didn't know until just now is what I want to do when I grow
up. I want to become an
archaeologist and then I want toturn into a paranormal
researcher who writes books called Ghost and Ghoul.
So apparently he popularized theidea and in the book he does not
call it the Stone Tape. But then it inspires this 1972
(23:16):
BBC Christmas ghost story play that they named the Stone Tape.
And so then that's why we have the term stone tape theory is
they learned it from this TC Lethbridge, who did not call it
the Stone Tape, but because theywere inspired by it and the
story they wrote is called the Stone Tape.
(23:38):
It's called the Stone Tape theory.
So sort of cyclical. Also, by the way, if you're not,
if you're not hugely into British media, you know, man,
they love a Christmas special and they love ghost story
Christmas specials. And I guess that's why in all
the Christmas songs, the old timey Christmas songs you hear
they talk about like telling ghost stories at Christmas.
Apparently that's we have the Brits to thank for that.
(24:00):
So thank you, yes, yes, very good.
Thank you, appreciate that. So that's the stone tape theory
is, is basically that places have memories and you know, it's
it's why do they, I don't know why the things that they
remember are played on loop. I don't know why they remember.
(24:20):
They the places remember the things that they remember.
I don't know why it's just little clips.
You know, I don't, I don't know,I don't know the psycho pseudo
scientific. I don't know the full
explanation of it, but I do knowthat Charles Babbage was into
(24:43):
this. And I realize and I say that
probably not everybody has heardof Babbage.
In the 90s, there were computer stores called Babbages, and it
was a reference to Charles Babbage, who was an inventor who
came up with the idea for the first programmable computer.
Except I'm sorry, we've gone on,we've gone on too many tangents
(25:07):
here, but I'm sorry, I can't letthis stand.
Ada Lovelace, who is the the actual first computer programmer
and who is a woman, was corresponding with Babbage
during his development of his analytical engine.
And just FYI, she developed the algorithm that would enable his
(25:28):
engine to calculate some kind ofcomplicated number sequence that
I don't understand and would never claim to.
But even though, even though herletters are in her own
handwriting where she is giving him this information, some
scholars still argue they're just not sure if this is
actually her idea, even though it's in her handwriting and it's
(25:52):
documented. Interesting.
So Babbage who may have I guess invented the first programmable
computer, but could not have done so without Ada Lovelace,
who Yes, by the way, is Lord Byron's daughter.
We're not getting into another, we're not doing this.
We're not getting into another tangent.
(26:12):
I just thought everybody should know, yes, Charles Babbage, that
Charles Babbage also bought intothe Stone Tape theory.
A lot of people just consider itas as fact these days, but at
the time it was, it was kind of novel and the spiritualist
movement and etcetera. So Stone Tape theory would
neatly explain why you saw a colonial soldier and then some
(26:37):
strange old woman in a bed, in her bedclothes, in her
nightgown, hanging out in your bedroom.
Yeah. If it's a historical building,
which you said it was, it I mean, it stands to reason that
both of them have been in that space, occupied that space over
time, probably not at the same time.
(26:57):
And Stone Tape theory just happened to take a little, take
a little snapshot at both of them and played it back for you
when you were most open to seeing it.
And that was when you were asleep.
Because you see a lot of stuff when you're asleep, Ted.
You see a whole lot of stuff. I see a lot of stuff too, but it
doesn't make any sense. Like one time I had a dream that
(27:20):
I adopted a baby pig and then suddenly, just in the blink of
an eye, she was walking out the door and had turned into more of
a little girl than a little pig.And she turned around and she
said, I'll be back Thursday. And I was like, wait, what?
They grow up so fast. So I don't have the sorts of
(27:41):
dreams that Ted has. Ted's dreams are like a a
shortcut beyond the veil is all I can figure out at this point.
And you'll be hearing more of Ted's stories.
And if you have one or more stories that you would like to
share with me, you can just shoot me an e-mail over at
(28:01):
madamstrangeways@gmail.com. Thank you so much for joining me
for such a lovely spooky time. Remember, you can feel afraid
and not be in danger. If you've enjoyed yourself,
(28:25):
please follow the podcast so youcan get alerts when new episodes
come out. And if you've really enjoyed
yourself, it would mean a lot tome if you would tell a friend
about the podcast and follow me on Instagram at Madam
Strangeways or leave me a ratingor review on Spotify or Apple
Podcasts. Or I mean, just send me an
(28:48):
e-mail at madamstrangeways@gmail.com to
just say hello. I'd appreciate it.
Madam Strange Ways is produced and narrated by me.
Madam Strange Ways theme music is by
marina.ryan@marinamakes.co. You can submit your own strange
(29:09):
story at madamstrangeways.com orsend in your thoughts or
theories on the stories in this episode to
madamstrangeways@gmail.com. Thank you for listening.
Until next time.
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