S3E146 The 7 Stairways To Hell

What if Hell wasn’t just a myth… but a place you could visit?
In this immersive and spine-tingling episode, Beck and Rachel descend into the dark folklore, chilling testimonies, and metaphysical truths behind the Seven Stairways to Hell, bothphysical and symbolic.

From cursed cemeteries and bottomless castle pits to sealed tunnels and ancient volcanic gates, we explore seven locations around the world believed to be literal portals to the underworld. Alongside these places, we uncover the internal “stairways” we walk in shadow...desire, illusion, betrayal, despair, and how each descent might just be a step toward remembering.

Expect:
•Real stories of those who dared to descend
• Forgotten folklore and TikTok testimonies
• A chilling original short story ("The Eighth Stair")
• Channeling from Thorne on descent as divine invitation
• And Rachel’s attempt to survive the stairway she definitelydidn’t choose voluntarily

Whether you're a seeker of strange places, a student of the soul, or just someone who avoids staircases altogether, this episode dares you to look down… and take one more step.

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Help us keep the static spooky and the strange stories flowing.

📚 Rebecca’s Books:

-⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Look Up: The Journey of a Soul Satellite⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠– A spiritual memoir for seekers, skeptics, and the soul-weary.

-⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Galaxy Code⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠– A cosmic tale of awakening and remembrance, channeled through the veil.

Available now- perfect for deep divers of the metaphysical and mysterious.

Disclaimer:The content of this episode is for entertainment purposes only. The views and opinions shared by the hosts and guests are personal and do not necessarily reflect the beliefs or views of any organizations, sponsors, or affiliates. Listener discretion is advised.

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Episode Transcript

(00:09):
You're listening to to the Spirit Podcast.
Not all stairways to Heaven, to heaven to Heaven.
Some, some some take you somewhere else entirely.

(00:33):
Welcome back, friends of the strange and seekers of the
shadows. I'm back, and tonight we're
stepping Into Darkness 1 Stare at a time as we explore the
Legends locations, an inner descent of what some call the
Seven Stairways to Hell. These aren't just metaphors

(01:00):
whispered in old religions or cautionary tales.
These are real places, real stories, real footsteps taken
into the unknown. And with me tonight, as always,
is the only person brave enough to keep descending, Even if it's
just to check the snack bar. Rachel.

(01:20):
I'll always hold the Lantern to the snack.
Bar, I know you will. If you had to guess, how many
hell staircases do you think you've tripped on just trying to
get through everyday life? Maybe about 3 1/2.
Well, tonight we're going to walk through 7 physical places
that some say are actual portalsto hell, and then we'll descend

(01:43):
inward to talk about the metaphysical 7 stairways of the
soul. So stay close, keep the
flashlight on, and whatever you do, don't look back.
Let's talk about the first stairway to Hell.
Stull Cemetery, Kansas abandonedchurch rumored to have the

(02:07):
stairway to Hell in its basement.
The Pope reportedly won't fly over it.
In 1990, a University of Kansas student claimed they camped
there and heard growls from beneath the ground.
In 1984, a janitor saw a man enter the ruined church near
midnight. He never came out.

(02:28):
Police later found hoofprints instead of footprints.
Yeah. What's your take on why
cemeteries are always the go to portals?
Is it the bones or is it just good real estate for the undead?
I mean, it's where all the dead folks are, where their bodies
are, and on top of it, people gothere and honor them and keep

(02:53):
them even though they're dead. They're keeping them alive at
the same time. So it's the perfect portal,
yeah. And you know, there's some
people, I'm not going to name names that like to go and do EVP
sessions and off roading, but you know.
Guilty as charged #2 Huska Castle in the Czech Republic,

(03:21):
built with no fortification in the middle of nowhere.
Purpose to seal a bottomless pit.
Locals claimed demonic winged creatures flew out of the hole.
Prisoners lowered into the pit came out aged and babbling.
In 2006, a psychic brought by a Czech documentary crew collapsed

(03:43):
during a seance, screaming. It's not empty, it's watching.
I don't know if that's an accentor not, but she left.
It was an accent. Yeah, it was something she left
and refused to speak about it again.
If someone offered to lower you into a medieval demon pit for
science, what would you need in return?

(04:04):
Lots of cash. Come on, you got to give us a
price. Give me $1,000,000 a million.
A million would be pretty decenttax free.
I'm with you. I'm not going in for anything
under a mill. No. #3 Mount Osore, Japan

(04:27):
Volcanic sulfurous sight tied toBuddhist believes entrance to
the afterlife. River Sanzu Like the River Styx,
children's spirits are said to build towers of stones.
There, mediums known as Itaco channel spirits of the dead.
Here, a woman claimed her daughter's voice spoke through

(04:49):
an Itaco, revealing things only the family knew #4 Hellam
Township, Pennsylvania. Legend says a series of gates in
the woods become visible at night.
Those who pass through all sevenare never seen again.
One tick Tocker tried to film themselves walking through.

(05:12):
Their footage ends abruptly after gate five with a scream
and a glitch. Why is it always the fifth gate?
I mean that's, that's when people always go missing.
Gate 1 vibes. Skate 2 Mildly cursed Skate 5
Doom. My personal favorite is The 9th
Gate starring Johnny Depp. #5 octoon tuna chill mukhnaal

(05:41):
Belize. I am so sorry Belizeans.
This is a cave filled with Mayanartifacts and skeletal remains.
The Crystal Maiden, a fully calcified sacrificial skeleton,
lies at the end, said to be a physical and spiritual descent
into the Mayan underworld. Would you rather explore a

(06:03):
haunted house or an ancient sacrificial cave?
Like for one night only and no snacks, No snacks, no snacks.
That's the true horror. I'll take haunted house for 100.
Bucks OK, you know, I'm with youon that.
I'm not a big fan of those cavesbecause.
You know, the booby traps, the poison.

(06:24):
Darts and right. Whatever juju's in there like I
I think I can deal with the haunted house.
Yeah, plus the descent just screwed me all up.
And no snack. And you know, when you're in
that psychic energy, you get hungry.
Yes you do. You should hear me right now.
My stomach should have a microphone.
It surprise you number six Plutonian and Heropolis Turkey,

(06:51):
a Greco Roman temple to Pluto, God of the underworld.
Animals that entered died from toxic fumes.
Birds still drop dead over it. Priests were said to be immune,
hinting at some lost knowledge or spiritual protection.
Rach, are we talking holy immunity or ancient gas masks?

(07:13):
Maybe they knew a special practice to protect themselves,
or they were protected purely bythe divine.
I'm thinking there had to been some sort of toxic gas in there.
Yeah #7 Paris Catacombs, France.Oh I love this.

(07:37):
Me too. 6,000,000 dead A literalstaircase into the bones of the
city. In 2004, police found a secret
cinema inside the catacombs. Would you go to see movies in
there? It's.
Tempting, I know. Urban explorers say there are
deeper tunnels with strange sounds.

(07:58):
A man's camcorder was found deepinside, with footage of him
getting lost and panicking. He was never found.
In 2012, a Redditor claimed theyheard footsteps and weeping from
inside the stone. His flashlight died at 3:33 AM
and he blacked out. He awoke near the surface,

(08:19):
scratched and disoriented. Oh.
I swear if you ever find me filming in the catacombs it's
because I thought I saw a ghost offering me cheese.
You know our our boy Zacky Baggins went down there in a
special. Of course he did.
Where hasn't he been? I don't know, it's, it's crazy

(08:40):
down there though, because they have like they have communities
down there, I've heard. And if you go down there, they
don't like outsiders entering. Weird place.
France has got to have some crazy energy though if they're
just on top of all of that. I think so.
I think it does. Hi, I'm Rachel, still not

(09:07):
possessed despite what Beck says.
If you're digging this episode, don't forget to like, subscribe
and leave us a review. It lets the algorithm know we're
worth haunting. You can also support us on
coffee. It helps with editing costs,
spirit snacks, and Beck's ever expanding pile of haunted tech.

(09:28):
And if you haven't checked it out yet, our Beyond Files on
YouTube is full of strange videos.
We find and react to paranormal,conspiratorial, and delightfully
unexplainable. Got your own strange tale?
Send it to to [e-mail] and if it

(09:49):
gives us chills, we might just share it.
Well I have a little bonus segment.
It's the unbuilt gates and sealed portals.

(10:09):
The devil stairs in San Antonio,TX.
A stone staircase in the woods said to be used for ritual.
Dogs refuse to go near it. Bulldozed in 1998.
It's always a bad sign if the dogs won't mess with.
It. Yeah, and.
Dogs are nosy. And staircases in the woods?
That's just odd, man. I mean, we need to do an episode

(10:31):
just about the staircases in thewoods.
Yeah, 'cause there's a lot of them.
Yeah, there are. And what are they about?
We need to dig into that. Yeah.
And there's the Well of Barhout in Yemen called the Well of
Hell. Strange lights seen rising.
A-Team explored it in 2021 and found no oxygen beyond a certain
depth. And a lot of dead animals erta

(10:55):
El volcano in Ethiopia, active lava lake.
Local tribes say it's a breathing underworld gate.
Explorers report hearing low humming like a voice.
Now let's step beyond the headlines and into the mouths of
those who claim to have walked too far, who may have gone down

(11:16):
stairways not meant to be found.A woman on TikTok described a
story passed down from her grandfather, a retired Carpenter
who worked on an old rural church in Ohio.
He was hired to seal off a spiral stairwell that led
beneath the Chapel floor. He said he heard screaming from
beneath while working alone and left it unfinished for weeks.

(11:39):
One day, curiosity won out. He descended part way and
returned days later, barefoot, disoriented and temporarily
deaf. Holy crap.
He told no one what he saw, but immediately sealed it shut and
warned her. If you ever feel something
pulling you downward, walk away.Don't listen, it's not your

(12:01):
voice. Heard.
Tunnel 23 in the Ural Mountains in Russia, 1987.
During Soviet mining operations.A-Team uncovered what they
described as a spiral shaft carved into Blackstone.
The equipment failed. Temperature dropped unnaturally.
One worker went into shock afterclaiming he heard his mother's

(12:22):
voice calling from the inside. He kept repeating they've been
waiting. The site was dynamited.
The miners were reassigned, the shaft forgotten.
Psych Ward Basement, Missouri A former psychiatric nurse shared
a thread about her old workplaceand abandoned ward from the

(12:42):
1950s. There was a sealed stairwell in
the basement, half covered in Ivy and concrete.
Nurses dared each other to descend it.
Of course. Uh huh.
But they'd only ever make it to Step 6 at six, she said.
You'd hear someone say your fullname behind you even when you
were alone. She left that job after her 6th

(13:05):
descent. Maybe some stairways stay sealed
for a reason. Yeah, you think holy.
Which of these would you be least likely to survive, Rach?
And don't say all of them. The the stairway going down and

(13:27):
hearing your name at that 6 because like, do you turn
around? Do you look?
Plus it's a psychiatric ward. Those are just, those are other
levels in themselves, right? That'd be.
Such a psychic attack, holy crap.
All right, Rachel, you've got topick one.
It's 3:00 in the morning. You're holding a flashlight and
a granola bar. That sounds about on point with

(13:49):
you. You must ascend 1 stairway from
tonight's list. No turning back.
I think the cemetery, the first one we covered, was it in
Kentucky? OK.
What do you bring with you and what's your last text message
before you vanish? OK, so obviously I have what,
the flashlight and the granola? Part.

(14:09):
Well, that wasn't another scenario, but if you want to
bring that, you can. OK so I'll have my phone so I
can do probably like a voice recorder.
The phone is a flashlight too, but I think my night vision
camera OK. And the last thing I text, yeah,

(14:31):
if I'm not back and you don't hear from me in like, I don't
know, 30 minutes. Call Zach Baggins.
Yeah, call Zachy Baggins. Well, I'm bringing a rosary,
sage spray, and a copy of Chicken Soup for the damn Soul.
Let's go. The 8th stair.

(14:53):
He inherited the house. No will, no warning.
In the cellar was a stairwell made of stone.
Only 7 steps, but each night another appeared.
The 8th 1 didn't feel like stone.
It pulsed. He placed his foot on it and the
world above fell away. Now his reflection stares up in

(15:18):
the mirror, mouthing words no one can hear.
He never made it to the 9th. Spooky.
But what if the real stairways to hell are emotional,
dimensional, energetic? Let's talk about the symbolic
descent, the staircases we walk in our own minds and spirits.
Desire the entry point. Want becomes need.

(15:40):
Need becomes obsession, Illusion.
You believe the lie that this isall there is.
Control. You start playing God in others
lives. Betrayal.
You betray your own soul, contract apathy, the heart grows
cold, despair, hope flickers out, soul forgetting you no

(16:01):
longer remember you are divine. What do you think is the hardest
one to climb back from? And have you ever felt like you
were on one of those staircases?I think depending on the type of
person, say somebody is more. Of a narcissist.
Control is probably their main their main stair.

(16:22):
What about you? What do you think the hardest 1
is? I would think, I think I have
been stuck on the despair beforeand that was a really hard step
to get off of. But you can get yourself off of
it if you stay on them steps. Like you'll just keep descending

(16:43):
and you'll descend into madness,really.
Think the hardest one for me hasbeen betrayal because I have
many times portrayed my own soulin service of others or by peer
pressure. The stairways are not
punishments, they are reflections.
Each descent is an invitation toreclaim what you left behind.

(17:06):
Even in hell, a spark remembers the flame.
Here's a channel message. To descend is not to fail, it is
to remember. Each stair you step carries the
imprint of choices forgotten. Despair is not the end, it is
the veil. You are not cast out, you are

(17:28):
being called back. Even in shadow your soul speaks.
Even in the pit the flame remembers the shape of the
match, and in that memory is your return.
Rach, what do you hear in that warning or truth?
Little bit of both, like know where you can go, but also like

(17:49):
what the reality of it is too once you head in that direction.
Are these places aligned along Ley lines?
Could they be ancient ritual sites or Geo spiritual vortexes?
The Pope's avoidance of stall? The priest immunity in
Haropolis? TikTok glitches?

(18:11):
Do you think people accidentallystumble into these places for
reason like Chosen by the land? I just wonder more if the people
themselves like is it the area or did the people themselves
create that with their own energy?
That's a good theory too. Yeah, yeah.
You decide, understand step, step by step, step.

(18:33):
The stone tone your feet is worms.
Breathing, breathing. The air turns.
The you hear breathing, breathing, but it isn't yours,
yours. You turn, turn.
No one is there, only the echo of your own fear.
A voice whispers from below. Keep going.

(18:56):
You're almost almost. Whether you believe in the
physical stairway to hell or theemotional ones carved into our
souls, there's something to be said for dissent.
It makes us all ask, what am I really afraid of, and what waits
for me at the bottom? Thanks for stepping down with us

(19:19):
tonight. And if you've ever felt the pull
of a stairwell in a dream, a hallway that shouldn't exist, a
place that knew your name beforeyou arrived, we want to hear it.
Have you felt a staircase beneath your sleep?
Have you heard footsteps that didn't echo your own?
Have you seen a doorway that didn't belong?

(19:42):
Send us your story. Maybe next time we'll take
another step together. Until then, keep your light
close and whatever you do. Don't linger too long on the 5th
Step to the Spirit podcast Supernatural.

(20:03):
Society. I'm ghosting.
Ghosting. Ghost I could missed it.
Spirit, Divine Source in heaven,the dead.
Magic, magic, magic magic magic.