Campfire Stories with Jim Harold

*SEASON 5 PREMIERE!*
To kick off season 5 we welcome veteran podcaster and the host of "The Paranormal Podcast" and "Jim Harold's Campfire" Jim Harold himself! Jim has released his latest book in the "Jim Harold's Campfire: True Ghost Stories" series of books. Bringing the total to 6 books in all. He shares some of the stories from the series and some of his own paranormal encounters and we chat about different paranormal topics. Check out Jim Harold's books and podcasts at the links below!

Jim Harold's Books
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0749S5NV2?binding=paperback&searchxofy=true&ref_=dbs_s_aps_series_rwt_tpbk&qid=1719243459&sr=8-1

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/%22Jim%20Harold%22?Ntk=P_key_Contributor_List&Ns=P_Sales_Rank&Ntx=mode+matchall

https://www.walmart.com/ip/True-Ghost-Stories-Jim-Harold-apos-s-Campfire-6-Paperback-9781945676109/5790300996?from=/search

Jim Harold's Podcast
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/jim-harolds-campfire/id310656913

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-paranormal-podcast/id78459818

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Episode Transcript

(00:03):
Join us as we dive into thehistory, hauntings, and high strangers of
the world to try to better understandthe paranormal. I will be your guide.
I am paranormal researcher and investigator EricFreeman Simms. Welcome to The Unseen
Paranormal podcast. Hey everybody, welcomeback to The Unseen Paranormal for Season five

(00:26):
premiere. I am happy to beback. It was a nice break,
and I think it's good to takebreaks every once in a while and and
just get your shit together. Idon't want to ever get out with the
podcast. Like I was telling youknow before, it took a break.
So the break was very nice,but also been very busy at the same
time, have not let off thegas, just wasn't doing the podcast.

(00:51):
Me and Austin have been filming alot of stuff for some new documentaries that
we're gonna bring out paranormal documentaries forStrangely Haunted, So if you haven't subscribed
of that, go over to theYouTube page and on Facebook Strangely Haunted,
and also if you haven't seen yet, we bought a two hundred year old
historic haunted house in Hopkinsville, Kentuckythat we've been working on to get ready

(01:14):
to rent out for paranormal teams,and also we're gonna do some historical tours
and things like that, so staytuned for all those events, and you
can check out the website and capeup to date with the house. It
is the Nighthouse ky dot com andthat is the Nighthouse is k n I
g h T. And also youcan find the Nighthouse on Facebook to keep

(01:38):
up with daily progress. But comingup here soon we will have a schedule
up on the website where you canbook your own paranormal investigation and then come
and have some fun and meet mein person and hang out. Yeah,
all that this stuff. The houseis amazing. We're gonna talk about it
in a future episode with all thehistory in the haunting and things. We've

(02:00):
had things going there since we boughtit day one. Now we're like three
months in and just had things happenyesterday. So anyway, glad to be
back. Been very busy, likeI said, but got some awesome guests
lined up for you for season five. I'm so excited about this. I
had to reignite my passion for thepodcast just to let y'all know. I
had a few moments there. Well, I was on break that I thought,

(02:24):
dude, I really want to bringthe podcasts back or not. But
I know y'all are enjoying it,and that makes me very happy. And
once I jump back into doing interviews, I'm like, oh, yeah,
this is why I enjoy it.I enjoyed talking to all these different people
and it kind of renewed my excitementfor the podcast as well. So and
also all of y'all's comments whenever youtext me or send me a message on

(02:47):
Facebook, or even your reviews,those things they keep me going, so
please keep that going as well.Reviews are important as well for other people
to find the podcast. If youcan, you know, rate and review
on Amazon, I mean on Spotifyand Apple, and then on Amazon.
If you follow or follow on anyof the podcatchers that you use to listen
to the show, I'd really reallyappreciate it helps other people find the show.

(03:08):
And if you're enjoying it, thenplease share the show too with all
your friends and family. You know, I put up post every week on
Facebook advertising that week's episode, andif you see an episode that your friends
and family would like, then pleasedo share, Please share it out.
It definitely helps you know, continuethe show. The show is not free.

(03:29):
So the more people that listen,the more we can do with the
show, and the more places Iget to go to come, you know,
into your town maybe to convention orsomething and see on in person and
do some live shows and things.But anyway, it's not all about money.
The show will always be free.Don't worry about that. So anyway,
I think that's all the housekeeping.But I happy to be back.

(03:50):
It is great to bring you ofsome more great guests. And today we
have a phenomenal guest to kick offseason five. We are talking to Jim
Harold. And Jim Harold is theOG of podcasting in the paranormal world.
He had his first show is calledThe Paranormal Podcast That Tells You Anything,
and he has another show that's hugelypopular as well, called Jim Harold's Campfire.

(04:14):
And on today's show we were talkingabout his latest book in the Campfire
series. It is book number six, and he takes all these listener stories
and compiles them into books and soit's first hand accounts from his listeners and
maybe even some of y'all out theremaybe listen to the show, maybe you've
put some stories into Jim's podcast.But Jim Harold, he was a pleasure

(04:34):
to talk to. He was actuallyan influence on me to start this podcast,
and because I wanted to talk topeople like he did. And a
very very sweet guy and very humble, and we had a great conversation.
He tells some great stories and justa good time. So sit back and
relax and enjoy this episode of TheUnseen Paranormal with mister Jim Harold, and

(04:56):
we'll talk to you next time.Have a good day, stay save out
there. Hey, Jim, thanksfor coming on the show today and joining
us on The Unseen Paranormal. Hey, thank you so much for inviting me.
I appreciate it and all is gladto connect with the podcasters I've not
had the opportunity to talk with yet, and glad to speak with you and
your audience today. Thank you forthe opportunity to talk spooky stuff. Yeah,

(05:17):
it's definitely my pleasure I have.I've been listening to the Paranormal podcast
for I don't know how many yearsnow, and anybody's not familiar with you,
you pretty much have the godfather ofparanormal podcasts, the panorm podcast that's
been going on for many, manyyears, and then you start Jim Herold's
camp Fire, which is hugely popularas well. I don't know why anybody

(05:40):
who's listened to this show with mefamiliar with what you do, but it's
very possible. You know. Thething is, I'm always amazed. I
mean, there's so many people outthere learning about podcasts all the time,
So do you get to constantly reintroduceyourself. There's plenty of people that have
no idea who I am, andthat's okay. I'm glad to meet them,
and I hope they check out theshows in the book. Yeah,

(06:01):
you were one of my inspirations forstarting a podcast with hearing and you talking
to all the different people in theparanormal, I kind of thought, I
want to do that. Like beinga paranorm investigator for twenty something years,
I've been in like, okay,let's take this to a different level and
kind of, you know, talkto people and learn more through other investigators
and authors and things like that.So I appreciate you doing the podcast because

(06:25):
of that, and not saying thatI do what you do in any way,
shape or form, but because you'redefinitely a professional and have amazing quality.
But that gives me something to aspireto. You. I guess well,
I think that you know, there'sroom for everybody. The way I
look at it is, you know. And I was talking with Dave Schrader
from the Paranormal sixty Formuly of DarknessRadio a while ago, and he made

(06:48):
the point. I think it's agood one. Everyone's got their own little
spin. I may ask a differentquestion than you or Dave, and you
might ask a different question than me. We all have a different perspective,
so we're not really doing the samething per se. Because I can't be
you, you can't be me,I can't be Dave. The idea is

(07:09):
to just be the best version ofyourself and bring your personal perspective to it.
So I think there's room for everybody. And that's why I've always tried
to be very welcoming to other podcasters. I think this is a huge mystery
and one person is not going tosolve it. It needs all of us
working together to learn more about what'sgoing what's really going on. So glad

(07:34):
to have you and all the otherpodcasters out there talking about this subject.
Yeah, yeah, I ap preachedthe same thing on the show all the
time about you know. Yeah,it takes all of us. It's all
inclusive group, and we're all thesame type of weirdos. That's right,
and I'm proud to be one.Me too, Me too. So you

(07:56):
just had your sixth edition of Trueghost Story Jim Harolds camp Fire come out
and up to volume six, andyou have a show called Jim Harolds camp
Fire. Yep, and that iswhere listeners can submit stories. Yeah,
that was my second podcast I started. That was in two thousand and nine.
If we just celebrate our fifteenth anniversaryof that show, and at this

(08:20):
point, every week we have aninety minute show where people call in and
share their supernatural stories. Now,the book is a little bit of misleading
the title because it's true ghost Stories, and it is true ghost Stories,
but there's other subjects in there aswell. And basically every week we have
nine ten callers call in and telltheir stories. It could be ghosts,

(08:43):
it could be cryptic creatures, itcould be time slips, it could be
UFOs, but a lot of ghoststories obviously. And then what we do
for the books is we go through, you know, a couple of years
and we say, what are theabsolute favorite stories. And we kind of
work together, me and my folksthat work with me, and we come

(09:05):
together on some stories. And thisone has sixty five stories in it,
and I actually believe it is thebest one we've done yet. And they
run the gamut from the terrifying toheartwarming, because I do think the paranormal
is like a continuum. Yeah,I don't think it's all terrifying, and
I don't think it's all sweetness andlight. I think it's like everyday life.

(09:26):
You know, there's good, bad, happy, sad, and we
try to get that across in thebooks, and of the ones, you
don't have to read them in anycertain order. This is the sixth book,
and I think this is by farthe best one. Is just mine
bias. Yeah, and I lovethe books. I've read the first couple.
I haven't got to dive into thisone yet, but i've read the
first few, and I love themix of stories. Like you were saying,

(09:46):
it's not just ghost stories, butit's a really good mix of kind
of a past slice of the paranormalin general, of all the different topics
and different people's views on their experiencesand things like that as well. Sure,
yeah, absolutely, And I lovebooks like this as well to get
the stories straight from the people whoit happened to. Yeah, and it's

(10:07):
very easy to dismiss stories unless youhear it straight from the person, because
I think you get more context fromthat person, and you get kind of
the atmosphere and you can kind ofhear their voice and say, Okay,
well, you know, I kindof believe them more because you know,
the paranl one general is kind ofsubjective, especially when you have personal experiences.

(10:28):
Well, the thing is with thebooks, what we try to do
is we literally take the transcript,the verbatim transcript, and then we edit
it as lightly as possible to makeit flow. You know, it's a
Q and A on the show obviously, and I'm asking questions, we kind
of take me out of it.Yeah. So if I said, you
know, that had to be terrifyingfor you and they say, yes,
it's terrifying, you know, it'sjust take me out and say it was

(10:52):
terrifying, you know. But wereally very lightly edited for you know,
flow and just to take me outof it. But we don't really change
any of the content. You know, if somebody mentions a red car in
the story in the book, it'sgoing to be a red car. We
don't change the stories. We tryto keep their voice as much as we
can. So really what you're readingis a pretty accurate representation. They said,

(11:16):
we don't add stuff. You know, we pick stories that we don't
feel that we have to make itscarier because the ones that are scary or
scary, and so we just letit stand on its own, on its
own merits. And a lot oftimes, you know, the stories are
kind of open ended, you know, in other words, what did that

(11:37):
person experience? Well, we don'tknow, And it's kind of like it
is in real life. You know, everyday life, you talk and somebody
tells you a real story, anda lot of times the answer as well,
what was it or what did itmean? Yeah, and a lot
of times there's a big question markat the end, and it reflects that.
Yeah, in my twenty some yearsdoing the paranormal, I've always found
that you think you've answered one questionand it opens the door to a thousand

(12:01):
others in the paranormal. Yeah,so yeah, it's always kind of opened
into that way, and that's whywe all continue to do what we're doing
to try to figure out those answers. Yeah, that's something people have asked
me. They said, you know, what have you learned in almost twenty
years of doing these podcasts, AndI'll say, you know, I haven't
figured it out. I mean,I do believe more so than ever that
things are really going on, thatthere's a lot to a lot of these

(12:24):
stories. But what the explanation is, I'm more confused than ever. You
know, when I first started out, I was a kid, grown up.
I watched in search of I watchedunsolved mysteries, read the books,
you know all of that, andI have very definite ideas. You know,
a ghost is a dead person,the UFO is an alien, Bigfoot
is an animal. And now afterall these years of doing it, Yeah,

(12:48):
is there something to all of thosethings? I think so, I
definitely. You know, in thecase of ghosts and UFOs, I'm absolutely
a believer Bigfoot. I'm a littlebit on the fence. I go back
back and forth. But the pointis is that I thought I had it
all figured out before I started,and I realized how much I didn't have
it figured out, that this isfar more mysterious, and who knows exactly

(13:11):
what's going on, but I amconvinced there definitely is something, and I
find you know, the vast majorityof people I talked to on Jim Harold's
Campfire that podcast, I think they'rebeing very sincere in what they're sharing.
Yeah. Yeah, I kind ofwhen I started, especially with the podcast,
because my forte has always been ghostand hauntings and investigating those things.

(13:33):
So I kind of box myself inas just like a ghost person, ghost
guy, you know, I'm aghost investigator. And now the more the
longer I've done the podcast, themore I realize, like you're saying,
that it's all connected in some way, and that you can't just box yourself
in as an investigator, researcher oreven as a podcaster if you're going to
dive into the stuff you kind ofgot a touch on, because at first,
there was a lot of things thatI was like, you know,

(13:54):
I don't want to get into UFOstoo much because it's too much like conjecture,
intenfol hat type stuff. But findingthe right guests to talk about it
is kind of the key and puttingit all together. Yeah, and like
Bigfoot and things like that, wellinformed, well opinionated people who have done
their research, and so yeah,my views have changed as well. And
I'm glad you went there because thatwas one of the questions I was going

(14:15):
to ask you how it's kind ofchanged your views on the paranormal. Yeah.
Also things like, you know,with the time slips, I think,
okay, well, you know,sometimes the haunting may just be a
time slip, or maybe bigfoot,you know, is a time slip.
We don't go up in poke abear in the butt in the woods to
make sure it's real, right,you know, so if you see a
bigfoot out there, that's a goodpoint. Yeah. So kind of changing

(14:37):
time slips is the thing that thatI've I've been fascinated with for a long
time as well. What are someof your favorite stories that you like to
put in the books that just kindof capture your attention. The ones that
get me are the head scratchers andprobably the I'll give you if you've got
some time here, I'll give youmaybe the biggest head scratcher we've ever had

(14:58):
on the show. And it's notin this book. It's I think it's
in the third book, and it'scalled The Roadhouse Saloon and the kind of
neat thing about this is I thinkthis story teller told this story back in
twenty twelve. It's my favorite alltime story. I got to meet her
in person right before the pandemic intwenty nineteen, and after meeting her,

(15:20):
I believe her story even more soI'll share it with you. Her name's
Ti, and she's from Michigan,and she was her and her family would
go up to like I guess,a camp every summer up in Wisconsin and
you know, spend some time.And her and a friend went to a

(15:41):
bar one night to see a bandplay. They wanted to see this particular
band play in Her friend's name wasBob. So a Ti and Bob went
up to this bar about hour awayfrom the camp and they went and saw
this band play, and they actuallyclosed down the place. You know.
She stayed the whole time and Boband they were actually musicians, so they

(16:03):
went in the back and talked tothe band. So they left around three
o'clock in the morning, so theyhad to drive back to camp about an
hour away. Two lane roads,very dark, you know, rural part
of the world. Anybody that's beenin the rural areas knows, you know,
it's not like the city when it'sdark. It's dark. It's like
pit's right dark. So anyway,they're driving. Picture of them driving down

(16:26):
this two lane road in the middleof the night kind of spooky anyway,
and t I tells Bob, hey, you know, I kind of got
to go to the restroom. AndBob says, well, and he kind
of looks around, and he says, pull up a bush if you want
me to pull over, But that'sabout the only thing you've got, and
she said, no, just drivefast. So anyway, they get down

(16:48):
the road a little bit and likean oasis, there's this bar that's open.
In fact, the joint appears tobe jumping lights are on, Neon
lights are on, cars are inthe parking lotch again or the fumum fum
fump of the bass of the music, and they're kind of like, hey,
this shouldn't be but let's not looka gift horse in the mouth.
Let's pull in. So anyway,Bob pulls in and he says, you

(17:11):
know, I'm really glad I camehere because, you know, in addition
to being a musician, he's apainter and artist. And he knew that
they had a mural there that peopletalked about, an old West mural,
and he was glad to be ableto finally check it out. So anyway,
they go in. Ti goes tothe restroom, Bob goes to the
bar and gets them both, I'massuming at that point a soft drink,

(17:33):
and they come back and they're talkingand all the people are kind of just
like vacantly smiling, and they're justkind of weird. So this this guy
goes to the jukebox and it's oldwoollets Er jukebox, the bubbler type,
and he puts on a song Let'sTwist Again by Chubby Checker, and then

(17:56):
after he does that, he walksback and he asks Ta she would like
to dance, and he smiles andhe has a mouthful of rotten teeth,
and t I said, and tI had a cane, and she held
it up because she used a cane. She said, I don't dance,
and she said, that's one time. She's really glad she had that cane.

(18:17):
So it was really just kind ofa strange vibe in the place.
And they started looking at this muralthat I told you about, and they
noticed that everybody in the mural wasrepresented as real people in the bar.
There was a woman standing by thebar, and it was the same woman
in the painting, except she wasdressed up as what they used to call

(18:37):
a dance hall girl. There werea couple of guys playing pool, but
in the mural the same couple ofguys were playing cards, but they were
dressed like an old West And itwas multiple people, but everybody in the
mural was actually a customer. Boy. That's weird. And they got to
talking and said, well, no, there's a perfect explanation for this.

(18:59):
These people buller regulars and whoever theartist was just included them in. This
is like kind of a tribute,you know, kind of an Easter egg.
So they kept talking. The weirdvibe continued, and they looked at
the mural again and then had anarea with swinging doors, you know like
in the old TV westerns the sheriffwould come in and say, I want

(19:22):
to see Bart, you know.So anyway, but they noticed something they
didn't notice before. They were twolike misty like columns almost one was shorter,
one was taller. I thought thatwas weird. Yeah, I said,
you didn't notice that the bob beforeAnd I didn't know. They talk
a little more, they look back, and it gets even stranger because these
columns start to like solidify or likecome into focus, like a polaroid picture,

(19:48):
an old school polaroid picture. Youknow, you would take the picture
and you have to wave it soso anyway, and it looks like there's
a shorter human figure in a tallerhuman figure. And they keep talking and
they look back, and then nowit's developed into a man and a woman,

(20:10):
and t I noticed the woman hascurly hair and TI has curly hair,
and the male figure is much taller. Bob is much taller than her.
Then they look back and she noticesthat the female figure in the doorway
there in those doors have boots.TI has cowboy boots on. And they

(20:33):
talk a little more, and theynotice that the woman figure has a cane.
Of course TI has a cane.Yeah, so they were essentially developing
into the picture at that point.Bob and TI look each other and say,
let's get that fatty here. Sothey start to head out, and
the people are like, come back, come back, come back. They

(20:56):
close the door. T I says, everything went pitch black, absolutely pitch
black. All the neon signs wereout. It was like the place was
never open. Once they closed thatdoor and they turned around to the parking
lot that had been full of cars, now it's full of car one car,

(21:18):
their car. They get in thecar and they leave, and you
would think that's a pretty wild story. Yeah, but the story is not
over. Ti is braver than Iam. A couple nights later, I
think it's with her sister. I'mnot sure if it was their sister or
a friend. They went back andTia said, we're going to see what
this is all about. And thisis the one concession she made was she

(21:42):
went earlier. She went about eighto'clock at night. She didn't wait till
three o'clock in the morning. Shewalks in, same mural is on the
wall, but there's nobody standing inthose swinging doors, but everything else is
the same on the mural. Shegoes over and looks at the jukebox.
Well, the funny thing is it'snot a bubbler jukebox, an old woolletster

(22:02):
jukebox, but it's a modern ofthe time CD jukebox. And oh,
by the way, no Chubby Checkeranywhere to be found among the selections.
She goes to the bar. There'sa woman tending bar and she's talking to
her. Hey, how you doing. I'm doing great, I said,
Oh, I was in here theother night, T I said, And
there was this big, burly dude, you know, kind of good looking

(22:25):
young, kind of farm boy lookingguy, and the woman's tending bar.
And T I said, I meanthe woman said. The bartender said,
no, that that can't be theonly two people at bartend here are me
and my elderly father. And withthat Ti decided to leave. Now,
for many years she did not return, but I think she finally did return

(22:48):
and check out the roadhouse again.And that place actually exists. I have
a picture. In fact, wehave a YouTube video that Ti retells her
story. I went and visited withher in twenty nineteen and we recorded that
and we have an actual picture ofthe mural. Place really exists. And
I got to tell you, Eric, I believed her when she called in

(23:12):
back in twenty twelve. I believedher even more once I saw her face
to face. So how do youexplain that that's not a ghost story?
What is that? Yeah? Idon't know what that is, but I
believe it's real. And I dothink it kind of hints at the fact,
I think our existence is way strangerthan we realize. It's a lot

(23:32):
more multifaceted than we realize, andI think that sometimes we get a glimpse
into it. And yeah, andI think that's what happened to Ti.
What it was, I don't know, but I believe it's true. Yeah,
that's an amazing story. Is it? Like you're saying, what is
it? Is it a interdimensional slip? Is it a tom slip? Is
a ghost? Is it? Yeah? Just kind of keep you scratching your

(23:56):
head. And the fact that shewent back there. Look, there's follow
up, because a lot of thesestories you don't get that follow up,
Like you were saying, you don'tget any kind of satisfaction of that.
But yeah, the fact that shewent back there and to check the place
out, it's pretty incredible. Yep, it is very incredible. And again
she I believe she's retired now,but a very respected profession kind of a

(24:18):
pillar of the community kind of situation. So again, very credible person,
very believable person. Yeah, andthere's a lot of people out there that
don't have anything to gain telling thesestories, especially with some of them being
really crazy and out there like that. One is almost unbelievable. But like
you said, she's very incredible.But yeah, a lot of these people
have a lot to lose and nota lot to gain. That's very true.

(24:41):
Yeah, and that's the thing Imean, it's not like, you
know, I have a moderately successfulpodcast, but I'm not Joe Rogan.
They really have nothing. Folks havenothing to gain other than to share their
story. They want to share theirstory. They want to maybe get it
off their chest. Maybe they havehaven't told anybody ever. Maybe they want

(25:02):
to share it with other people andhope that it helps them. And I
do think that happens. We getreports of that all the time where people
say I thought I was the onlyone, and yet I heard it on
the campfire that other people have experiencedthis. So, you know, I
really think the vast majority of peoplewe talk to are given it to us
straight. Yeah. How many?How many people do you have that want
to remain anonymous? Very rarely,Usually we just use people's first name on

(25:29):
occasion, I would say a fewtimes a year somebody will say I want
to use a pseudonym in which I'mglad to do. We don't use last
names as a matter of practice,but typically most people, most people have
no problem giving their giving their realfirst name, and if they don't want
to, that's no sweat. Itotally get it, and we're glad to

(25:51):
use a pseudonym. If they giveus a pseudonym they want to use,
or if they don't want their location, we usually unless they specify it,
we usually keep it in the stateshere to the state. If they specify
if they're from Philadelphia or Chicago orwherever it is, we'll mention it if
they put it in the comments,but otherwise we keep it kind of kind
of vague. Yeah, and thefifteen years have been doing the campfire stories,

(26:15):
have you found that it's easier toget people to tell you stories now
versus fifteen years ago. Yeah,I would say so. I mean we
all seem to. I mean,in fact, just it's funny mention it
because we do it through a signup, so people sign up and then
we coordinate with them for taping time. Because the show, when you hear
the nine or ten calls per show, they're not necessarily recorded on the same

(26:37):
day. We just kind of recordthem and then we kind of put them
together. I kind of liken itto putting together a model railroad. So
we don't do that particular show live, but we have sign ups right for
the campfire, and sometimes we haveto turn them off and pause for a
month because we get so many submissions. We don't want to be scheduling people

(26:57):
out three four months where they're goingto get about it or something like that,
so we have to turn them off. So yeah, I would say
it's a little easier than it wasat the beginning. Definitely. Yeah,
just the change since the you know, TV shows came out and people seem
to be a lot more forthcoming becauseyou're not looked at the same crazy way,
you know, fifteen twenty years ago. Yeah, I think particularly with

(27:18):
ghosts, and it's become much moreacceptable. I think it's tougher for people
have UFO sightings or cryptid sightings.I think those are still ostracized more so,
which is unfortunate. But I thinkwith ghost sightings it's getting to the
point where you can talk about itin quote polite company, you know,
because I think you know, thetruth is. I think even if somebody

(27:40):
is a skeptic, I think mostpeople have had an experience they don't understand.
Even a lot of times when I'llhear something like this, Wow,
I don't believe in any of thisstuff, but there was this one time,
and then I'll go on to tellyou the craziest paranormal story or potentially
paranormal story. And so I thinkeverybody has a story, and even those
who you want to kind of fightagainst it. I think almost everybody has

(28:04):
had something very strange happened to them. Yeah. Yeah, And I love
books like this as well, withthe different stories because it's not because I
get a lot of the times becauseI do public I host public ghost hunts
in a half throughout the years,and and even people ask me about going
and investigating different places like you know, Waverley Hills and all these big places.
I always want to know about them, and they're always like, welly,

(28:26):
I couldn't do that, you know, I be too scared or and
they just think all of the paranormalsscary because you have the conjuring movies and
you know, horror movies that aretrumped up. But books like yours,
you have lots of stories that arenot scary. They're very heartwarming and like
loved ones coming back to visit andthings like that, and and I think
those stories are awesome as well.I've had a few guests on that we've

(28:48):
talked about. I had a lemonA who is a she's a hospice nurse,
and she came on and told alot of story, heartwarming stories about
loved ones reconnecting right before they die, you know, this whole process.
And so I love those stories aswell to show people that a haunting doesn't
have to be scary, or anexperience doesn't have to be scary. Sometimes

(29:08):
a lot of the time they arethese amazing things that happened with passed on
loved ones or loved ones who areprocess of passing. Yeah, we had
one in the early days of Campfire. I think this is one of the
first books where this young woman,she was I think she was probably like
seventeen eighteen something like that. Shehad worked at her parents' car dealership.

(29:33):
They had, like a car dealership, and she was there in the morning
and for some reason she found abutterfly, a monarch butterfly on the ground
who was dying, and it madeher extremely sad. She started crying.
She was inconsolable. She couldn't figureout why, and her mom tried to
comfort her mom worked there too,so they were in the office or whatever,

(29:56):
and they got a call that hergrandfather was very very ill, uh
you know, maybe ready to passat the hospital. They should get over
there. So her mom went aheadand she closed everything down, and she
didn't she didn't get to the hospitalin time because she was a few just
a few minutes behind her mom,but it wasn't in time that her grandpa

(30:18):
passed. So anyway, you know, after all this happened, she's distraught.
She's just, you know, justvery upset. And she drives back
to the family house and she's thereand people are already starting to come and
bring food because this was in theSouth and that's what people do. And

(30:40):
she stayed in a room while shecouldn't she couldn't deal with it. She
said, I'm going out for adrive. So she starts driving, and
then she said she drove to aplace she had never been before. It
was like a park and she didn'tknow why she drove there, and she
again, she'd never been there before. And I think after the fact she
wasn't even sure. We're was ator how she would get back there.

(31:02):
And she went and sat on abench, and all of a sudden,
a whole flock I don't know,maybe twenty monarch butterflies came around her and
were in her hair and on herand all these things. And she took
that as a sign from her grandpa, and it tied in with what happened

(31:22):
earlier in the day, the monarchbutterfly that had passed. But the thing
was is that I think that ourloved ones have the ability to get signs
to us, and sometimes there arethings that wouldn't mean anything to anybody else,
but they mean something to us.I hadn't an experience like that.
In twenty seventeen, I was ona paranormal cruise, a paranormal themed cruise,

(31:48):
and there were multiple speakers. Iwas one of them. And anyway,
the day I was speaking, Ihad had this is pre COVID and
all that, but I had hada cold and had a little bit of
a sore throat. So before Iwas to go speak, I went to
the little cafe on the ship andgot some coffee, and to do that
to get back to the conference room, to walk through the casino and there
was one of those crane games wherethe claw goes down and grabs money,

(32:13):
and one of our attendees was playingit. Now that made a real impression
on me, and I kind ofstopped in my tracks because my late uncle,
who had passed a few years earlier, who was like a second dad
to me, loved those games.He would play those games all the time
at places like Walmart or CVS whereverthey would have where you could get the
stuff toys. Plus he liked todo like low stakes gambling, you know,

(32:36):
like football polls and stuff like that, or the lotto tickets or scratch
offs or whatever. Said he wouldlove this. Not only does he have
his beloved crane game, but hecould play for cash. He would just
he would go crazy for this.I wish you were here, and no
sooner I've had that thought. Awoman walks up next to the machine,

(32:58):
cups her hand to the mouth andsays John John. My uncle's name was
John Wow. And then her husbandor whoever was walked over to him.
Now again the skeptic would say,well, this was just a bunch of
coincidences, But man, what acoincidence. His name could have been Bill.
It could have been Steve. Itcould have been Eric, it could

(33:19):
have been Jim, it could havebeen you know whatever. But it was
John. And that falls into theold what I call too much of a
coincidence to be a coincidence. Tome, that was my uncle saying,
hey, you're thinking to me,and I am around. I might not
be able to play the crane game, but I am here, and all

(33:39):
the different things that had to happenfor me to be in that place when
that woman said that, you know, and on her end, she had
to lose track of her spouse orwhoever he was. So I mean,
it just was it was a remarkableexperience for me. Yeah, yeah,
I've had something similar. We werescued a dog from a puppy mill and

(34:04):
he was a short haired joy Russelland we had him for about ten years
and he ended up getting prostate cancerand we had to put him down,
and so we were really upset,you know, because we were in there
when they put him down, andwe're really upset, and we had him
cremated and all that. So theytook him in and so when we were
leaving the that's office, we decidedto go shopping or just go window shopping,
not really shopping, just window shopping. We thought, you know,

(34:24):
maybe our other dogs will get themsome treats, new beds, something,
because you know, their brother's gonenow. And so we just randomly picked
the store that we went in inNashville. And we're back looking at all
the dog beds and treats and toysand picking out some for our dogs,
and we hear over the intercom,Chase, will you come to the front,

(34:45):
please, Chase to the front whereour dog's name was Chase. Yeah.
And so, like you're saying,the coincidences and things to go into
us picking that particular store out ofthe thousands of stores in Nashville, and
just so happens there's a kid namedChase who's being and called from the back
to the front over the intercom systemin the ten minutes that we were in
the store. It's just beyond yeah, yeah, kind of going exactly.

(35:08):
That's that's so, that's one ofthe best corollaries to the story I have
that I've ever heard, and Ido I think from the beyond sometimes maybe
not all the time. They havethe ability to move things like chess pieces
and make those kind of things lineup. I've also heard and I just
had this yesterday. It hasn't evenaired on the show yet. Somebody called

(35:28):
in and said that it was adream, and I think the dream was
about her grandma, and her grandmahad passed and her grandma had a very
special message she wanted to get toher son, our caller's father. And
anyway, the ghost in the callwho called on the phone said I don't

(35:52):
have very much time. And I'veheard that over and over that people say
when there is some kind of contact, whether it's a dream or a voice
or wherever it is, a lotof times the person on the other side
the quote ghost will make it clearthey have a very limited time. So
that almost tells me that it's noteasy where it's not. That's why they

(36:12):
just don't show up and say hey. Yeah. Yeah, but I think
they do say hey, just ina different way. And that's what happened
with Chase, and I think that'swhat happened with my uncle. Yeah.
Yeah. And then you have peopletalk about pennies. I've known some people
tell me stories about finding pennies withcertain years on them, or even other
coins. They always find them withnineteen seventy six. And that's a oh

(36:36):
that's oh god, Oh that's asign you You just gave me chills.
I got to tell you what happenedin yesterday literally, and you said,
nineteen seventy six. Wow, thismay be a sign in itself. Get
this. So I was recording.When we record campfire calls, when might
do eight or ten in like onesession in one day. So I don't
tell people call if you've got thiskind of story, call if you've got

(36:59):
me, just say call. Onthese days where we give them choices on
the calendar, pick your time,but we don't say only UFO calls this
day, only ghost stories this day, it's whatever. But a lot of
times what will happen is I say, the show produces itself, and in
one day we'll get several calls onthe same theme. And yesterday I was

(37:20):
getting calls on signs from loved toones who passed. Well. The funny
thing is is that I just finishedthe session. I went downstairs because my
studios upstairs, went downstairs to getsome water or something, and right in
the middle in our foyer we haveour foyer, if you're fancy, we
had a like a large carpet youknow, one of those ornate kind of

(37:45):
carpets. It's not the real thing. We couldn't afford the real thing.
I think we got it from Costco. Anyway. The point is right in
the middle is a quarter and it'sflipped off to the reverse side, not
the side with Washington, the otherand it was a bi centennial corner from
nineteen seventy six. And my uncleagain was a big coin collector, and

(38:08):
one of his big things was hecollected anytime somebody had a bi centennial quarter
from nineteen seventy six, which youmentioned about us sitting this before, Yeah,
he would collect it. Now,this morning I asked my daughter is
es sex and rhymes, anybody havequarters? And she said, yeah,
it's some quarters in my book bag. And we kind of blew it off

(38:29):
and thought, oh, well,it's just it's just probably just a coincidence.
And then now you said nineteen seventysix, So I'm like, okay,
is that a sign? Maybe?Maybe? Yeah, yeah, it
could be for sure. Like Isaid, I just love those stories because
so I get so much of peoplesaying they're scared of the paranormal, they're
scared to have an experience, butit intrigues them. You know, they

(38:51):
listen to our shows and it treatsthem. They want to come out on
public go suns and things. ButI just love those shows, those stories
about about things like that, theconnections and that we have with the dead
that we don't understand, and whenthey come back and visit. I've had
quite a few dreams as well whereI've had they were very lucid, more
than dreaming where I knew I wasdreaming. Where I've had level and coming

(39:13):
back and visit me. And I'veheard people tell those stories as well.
To me, they're very comforting.We had one in this book. We
called it a Pair of Normal Message, and it was about Chris and his
wife. And his wife Susan,they had had an organic pair farm and
unfortunately she passed. She was ridinghorseback and she was the horse must have

(39:38):
gotten freaked out or something and threwher and she passed away. So anyway,
you know, she was He wasvery very sad. Chris was,
yeah, but he was. Hewould find himself in these different situations where
she would give him a sign.He was one. He was doing this

(40:00):
kind of poetry thing and in theback room after she came up. Somebody
with the organization he's with, saidhey, there's a basket back there full
of pears. And he thought itwas maybe somebody's idea of a sick joke.
And then he looked at it andthere was a card type written card,

(40:21):
eat a pair. And his wifewould always tell him eat a pair,
like to be healthy. I wouldalways tell them that. So anyway,
then he was at another place.He was at a church. I
think he was singing in the choirsomething. And again I don't have the
story in front of me, soI hope I'm getting the tails right.

(40:43):
Same thing. Lady comes to himand says, somebody left something for you
in the back. It's a basketof pears. And he went and saw
same thing. No eat a pair, And he never even because he thought
it was somebody's idea a sick joke. Finally, he's at home one night

(41:05):
to get a can of coke.He's sitting with his dog. Now,
he said, the dog he alwayskind of had a kind of love hate
relationship with the dog. The dogreally belonged to Susan. I mean he
didn't hate the dog, but youknow, I mean, it wasn't a
smooth relationship. Sometimes and he's sittingdrinking a coke, eating some chips or

(41:25):
somewhere, and they're watching TV,him and the dog, and the dog
goes over to the refrigerator and goeslike apoplectic. He goes crazy like he
wants something from the refrigerator. Chrisopens the refrigerator. What's there? A
bunch of pears and it says,eat a pear. And at that point

(41:46):
he got it because that dog lovesSusan and nobody could have gotten in his
house. He knew that Susan wasleaving that note for him eat a pear
and leaving pears for him. Andthat's why I love the name of that
one. A pair of normal.Yes, that's incredible. The aportation of

(42:10):
spirits, like hiding people's keys andthings and they found them in the freezer
and things like that. We didn'tshow on that. We did a show
on that with a woman who wrotea book called Jot j ot T just
one of those things, and unfortunatelyshe's passed. I think she was quite
elderly when we interviewed her, Ithink before the pandemic. I'm not exactly
sure. When her name was MaryRose Barrington. She talked about how things

(42:34):
go, they disappear, and theycome up very unusual places. So that's
that's it. But I mean that'snot all sweetness and light. We have.
Our first story in the book iscalled The Devil is Real, about
a young woman playing with a wageaboard. So we really did try to
mix it up and try to givea good kind of cross section of the

(42:55):
kind of stories that we have.Yeah, what are some of the top
stories that you would recommend people tokind of share with their families and friends
this summer. Well, I thinkthe Roadhouse alone is always a good Yeah,
the Devil is Real, I'll tellthat one. This is a good
one. It's kind of short,but it's kind of wild. So Mariah
and her friend Mollie, they werekind of gather maybe fourteen or fifteen years

(43:20):
old, and they used to gettogether over this summer every night and play
the wige Aboard. And they hadread somewhere that it wasspect disrespectful to put
the wige Aboard on the floor.So this particular time, this I don't
know if it was a spare roomor something, there was this broken,
unplugged taramp. So they decided tosit the wige aboard on that. Now

(43:44):
they would ask for different spirits tocome through, but almost every time they
would get one named Gail, andGale seemed harmless and there was no problem.
But one night, when they're askingfor a spirit, they're doing a
thing with the plant chet, andthe plant chet stopped moving and the room

(44:05):
got very still and spooky. Youknow when a room feels weird. That's
what Mariah said. Happened here.They have this wage board on this guitar
amp, and then they said,suddenly the amp clicked on by itself and
starting making sounds like an old radiotuner trying to find a station. Now,
think about this. It's a brokenamp and it's unplugged, and yet

(44:30):
it turns on. And it's notthe first time we've heard of something like
that on the shows. This unpluggedamp from it emanated a voice. It
sounded like a Southern preacher, andhe said, the devil is real before
the amp audibly clicked itself off.Mariah and Molly ran out of the room

(44:54):
in terror, with Mariah never usinga wage aboard in the same location again,
I think it been me. Iwould not have used it at all.
Yeah, yeah, and then Ialso wonder how much is this is
also a trickster element. I thinkthere's a trickster element to the paranormal.

(45:14):
Now. I do think there isevil. I mean some people will say
I don't believe there's evil. Ithink it's just a lower vibration. I
think there's good, but I alsothink there's evil, and maybe they tapped
into it that evening. There's someother really interesting stories here. We have
a great time slip story called theMysterious Missus Raspberry, the creepy crawling thing

(45:34):
about a weird crawling thing that oneof our callers saw work at a paper
mill and kind of a sad storybehind it. And one called this one
the Strangest school Day Ever, abouta guy who's telling a story about the
nineteen seventies about a very strange,strange school day, which is almost kind

(45:55):
of like what for their experiments goingon or just just kind of weird things.
So there's a lot of I thinkthere's a lot of good stories to
choose from in the book. Yeah. Yeah, Like I said, I
need to I need to check thisone out. I've checked out the first
few. I need to get backinto reading I mean really busy lately,
but I need to get back intoreading. But all of the all the

(46:16):
books are available on Amazon, Kindle, on your website, and of course
the podcasts are everywhere. If you'relistening to this show, you can definitely
find it. Absolutely the easiest wayto find the book if you just want
to go to Jimharreld dot com,j I. M. A j R.
O. L D dot com.There's a big green button at the
top of the page you click onthat that'll give you all the links.

(46:38):
It's available at Amazon dot com,Burnesnoble dot com, all the major players.
You can certainly search directly at thoseplaces as well. You'll find them
there. But if you want oneplace and that goes where both the Kindle
e book, just the Nook ebookor the paperback, depending if you like
the Dead Tree version or not.And then for the podcasts, you can

(47:00):
find Jim Harold's Campfire and the ParanormalPodcast Wherever you listen to this podcast,
Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any ofthe different podcast apps out there, and
we'd g love to have you listenand maybe submit your own story. We
have a good time with it.I always lead people to The Jim Harolds

(47:21):
Campfire. First. I think that'sthe show that most people gravitate too.
If you like spooky stories. Yeah, yeah, I definitely listen whenever I
get a chance to both both shows, and I'm definitely a fan of both
of them as well. Thank youso much, Jim for coming on the
show today. Really enjoyed the conversation. Well, Eric, I got to
say, I really appreciate it.Thank you so much for allowing me to

(47:42):
come on and talk spooky stuff withyou and your great audience. And I
wish you all the best and stayspooky. All right, everybody, y'all
have a safe day. We'll talkto you next time. Thank you for
listening to The Unseen Paranormal. Joinme next Wednesday with a brand new guest,
and please rate, review, share, subscribe on Apple, Spotify,

(48:04):
or wherever you're listening right now.This helps more people discover the show.
You can connect with me over onFacebook, Instagram, Twitter, or join
us in the Unseen param Lounge groupon Facebook. Until next time, remember
some of the scariest things Unseen sid