2025 Halloween Special

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New stories intermingled with remastered stories and several poems read by Brian Prime. This episode is a gift to all autumnal souls who love Halloween. Please enjoy!

For more information about Ritual Reverb visit https://ritualreverb.com/

For more information about ESA visit https://esangp.bandcamp.com/

For more information about Ginger Khan visit https://www.instagram.com/ginger_khan_/

For more information about Mari Kattman visit https://marikattman.bandcamp.com/

Poems:

"The Haunted House" by Felicia Dorothea Hemens

"Haunted Houses" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

"Ghosts" by Elizabeth Jennings

"The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe

Void Signal Intro/Outro by Processor. 

Ambient soundtrack for this episode by Skull Cultist.

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Void Signal is ad-free and powered by people. Visit https://VoidSignal.net to support Void Signal and enjoy exclusive episodes, series, and more.

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_04 (00:39):
Hello again, and welcome to Void Signal.
This is the Halloween special,and it's gonna be a mixture of a
couple of new stories with acouple of remastered older
stories, and then a couple ofpoems read by yours truly, along
with a reading of The Raven.
So I hope that you enjoy it andthat your Halloween is enhanced

(01:00):
because of it somehow.
I wanted to say a few words if Icould, really quick, about the
stories themselves.
While I'm a skeptic myself, I'vealso experienced some things in
my life that wereextraordinarily strange.
Events that left such animpression on me that I heard
the stories of others withrenewed empathy.
I'm not here to tell you what tobelieve.

(01:22):
These stories are theexperiences of those who shared
them.
I hope you enjoy them and thatyou have a good time.
My gratitude to allcontributors.
Our first story is by Vara ofRitual Reverb.
I met Vara after becominginvolved in Glomfest and had the
pleasure of working with her,and she's a clever,
knowledgeable, and quick-wittedperson.

(01:44):
Here's Vara's story.

SPEAKER_02 (01:47):
Hi, I'm Vara Pappas, co-founder of Ritual Reverb, a
creative agency for all thingsmusic.
If you caught Glomefest, you'vealready seen my work.
I named the festival, built thebrand, designed the merch, drove
the campaigns, designed thewebsite, and ran the socials.
The whole identity was craftedby us.

(02:07):
If you dug that vibe and you'relooking for visual support on
your next album or promotion,look us up on ritualreverb.com.
Okay, so Brian asked if I hadany ghost stories, and he had no
clue what he was in for.
First, usually comes thequestion: do I believe in

(02:29):
ghosts?
Honestly, even after all thatI've seen and experienced, I
can't give a definitive answeron that.
What I can say is there arethings that happen that current
science can't explain.
I can also say from experiencethat these things can and will
react to our energy and how wedeal with those situations.

(02:52):
So, ever since I was a kid,strange things happened to me.
My earliest memory of this wasin the house that I grew up in
in Virginia Beach.
It wasn't a very old house.
It was a two-story that wasbuilt in the late 70s or the
early 80s.
When we moved in, it still hadall the 70s vibes: wood-paneled

(03:13):
walls, shag carpeting, sicklywallpaper patterns in brown,
orange, and green.
My mom did her best to brightenit up with fresh wallpaper and
linoleum with a more neutralpalette.
The first thing that happened inthat house that really shook me
was a voice in my bedroom.

(03:33):
I'd hear a little girl screamingfor help all the time.
Sometimes it sounded like it wascoming from the air ducts, and
the vent in my room was rightnext to my bed.
I pressed my ear against it,straining to hear the words, but
they were always garbled.
I could just tell they weredesperate cries for help.

(03:54):
And then the books started.
I loved reading, so my room hada big bookshelf.
More and more books would flyoff the shelf and hit me,
usually in my head.
And I do mean fly completelyacross the room.
I got really fed up at one pointand I stared down the shelf and
dared it.

(04:15):
I watched as a book inchedtowards the edge.
I narrowed my eyes and said outloud, don't you dare.
And right then it launcheditself across the room.
That was the first time I boltedout of there.
Part of me wondered if I wassomehow causing it.
My mom always brushed things offas tricks of the mind, so I

(04:37):
thought maybe if it's my mind, Ican control it.
I'd sit there staring at myalarm clock for hours, trying to
move it just a centimeter withmy mind.
But nothing ever happened.
Meanwhile, every night when thelights went out, I'd see
millions of points of lightswirling across the dark, moving

(04:59):
in patterns like birds when theymigrate in swarms.
I had asked my mom about it, andshe said it must be how eyes
adjust in the dark.
And I believed her because itwas the only thing I could
remember every time the lightswent out.
The final straw came when I wasa teenager.
By then I had a three-disc CDplayer on that same bookshelf.

(05:22):
One night the tray slid open onits own.
The changer lifted and began tospin.
I told myself it was a glitch.
The second time it happened, Iwas listening to a CD and the
drawer just slid out, carouselspinning again.
I freaked out and hit the powerbutton, and it stopped.

(05:42):
The drawer slid itself back in.
But the third time, I wassitting in the room minding my
own business when the traystarted opening and closing, the
disc carousel spinningendlessly.
I couldn't take it.
I ran up and unplugged it fromthe wall, and it didn't stop.
It kept going.

(06:04):
Watching the drawer open andclose, the CD carousel lift and
spin, it felt like it went onforever.
I could feel panic creepingacross my face, and I fled the
room.
After moving away from thathouse in Virginia Beach, I
didn't think much about whathappened there.
I wrote it off as childhoodimagination.

(06:27):
People say kids are closer topast lives or alternate
dimensions, and I figured maybethat explained it.
Then I moved to Savannah,Georgia for college.
Like most new college students,I was moving into the dorms.
My first day there, the seniors,who were resident advisors or
RAs, told us that not only wasthe city extremely haunted, but

(06:51):
so was the dorm.
I laughed them off in disbelief.
I thought, surely, they weremerely trying to scare the
freshmen.
The dorm was a retired hotel,originally built in the 1960s,
and is currently calledOglethorpe House, though the
students lovingly named it OHouse.

(07:12):
Savannah is unlike anywhere elsein the United States.
Its historic architecture hasbeen preserved by the Historic
Preservation Society tied to theart college.
Walking through the downtownfeels like stepping back into
the 17 and 1800s.
The city is dripping withsouthern Gothic charm, the kind

(07:33):
New Orleans tries to claim butcan't even match.
Its history is as colorful as itis grim.
During the AmericanRevolutionary War, the city had
become the southernmost port inthe country, which led to it
being a prosperous town into the19th century.
However, the 19th centurybrought much hardship, not only

(07:57):
through the Civil War, butthrough the spread of yellow
fever.
It hit the town in three majorwaves from 1820 to 1876, with a
combined death toll of nearly3,000.
Living there, I heard many ghosttales and had many hair-raising
experiences.
But the Piste de Resistancehappened at O house.

(08:21):
The wildest thing that everhappened to me there started one
night when I was just trying toget some rest.
My roommate loved entertainingconstantly, and I hadn't had
quiet in days.
I finally asked her to take herfriends out for the evening, and
she agreed, except instead ofleaving, she and her trio sat up

(08:41):
on the balcony right outside ourwindow, drinking and laughing.
It was noise, but at least theroom was mine.
I lay in the dark, the blindspulled tight, just a sliver of
light leaking in from outside.
I stared at the ceiling, waitingfor sleep.
That's when I noticed a smallcircle of light on the ceiling.

(09:03):
Perfectly round.
It wasn't from the window, theangle was wrong.
The light didn't seem to touchanything.
At first I thought maybe it wasjust a reflection from a watch
or something shiny, but then itbegan to grow slowly at first.

(09:23):
Then larger and larger.
By the time it had spread fivefeet across the ceiling, my
chest was tight and I had noexplanation.
And as I'm starting to panic andfight for air, suddenly the
entire room lights up.

(09:45):
Blindingly, shatteringlyblinding light.
The kind of light peopledescribe when they talk about
God.
It burned my retinas, and thenit was gone in an instant.
Darkness.
Only the weak streaks throughthe blinds remained.

(10:06):
I leapt out of bed, convinced myroommate and her friends outside
had had to have seen that.
I threw open the door and Iasked in shock, Did you guys see
the light?
They stared back at me blankly.
What are you talking about?
They retorted as they shooktheir heads, confused.
Before I could argue with them,a scream split across the other

(10:28):
side of the balcony.
Someone ran down the hall andtore down the stairs in an
absolute panic.
Later I found out who wastearing down those stairs.
They'd been in a friend's roomwhere a group was, and cliche as
it sounds, they were playingwith a Ouija board.

(10:49):
They all swore the marker movedon its own when no one was
touching it.
But that wasn't what sent myneighbors screaming.
They'd gone next door to theirroom looking for a rational
explanation with the Ouijaboard, thinking somebody was
pranking them.
They opened the door to find anempty room.
Empty.

(11:09):
Except for the silhouette of aman standing against the wall
with his hands pressed to it.
That was the sight that sentthem running.
And the timing?
It was the exact moment my roomfilled with that blinding light.
I had so many experiences atOhouse.
Sometimes I'd hear babiescrying, other times the

(11:32):
unmistakable sound of marblesrolling across the floor.
But everyone in the buildingwould hear taps.
The story the students gave herwas that she was a prostitute
back when the dorm was still ahotel.
Her presence gave itself away bythe sharp stiletto sound of
heels clicking across theceiling above your head.

(11:52):
This could even be heard on thetop floor.
Hence her name, taps.
I didn't take her seriouslyuntil one night living with a
new roommate.
My roommate felt tormentedhearing taps pace around every
night, the heels striking rightover our heads, and I tried to
reassure her.
I tried to tell her it wasprobably girls sneaking into the

(12:15):
boys' room upstairs.
One night the sound wasrelentless, my roommate was
shaking, and so I convinced herwe should go upstairs and settle
this once and for all.
We found the room directly aboveours, knocked, and a guy
answered with a soda in hishand.
His friends were sitting behindhim cross-legged on a large
carpet, playing video games.

(12:38):
The first thing I noticed wasthe carpet, thick, wall to wall.
There was no way high heelscould have made those sounds
through it.
As I stood there staring at thecarpet, trying to make sense of
it, my roommate turned pale andbolted down the hall in tears.
I just stood there with theweight of it sinking in.

(13:00):
There was no earthly reason weshould have heard heels above
our heads.
After Savannah, I had a longstretch of quiet years, no
encounters at all while I livedin California.
But then I moved to Texas, andthat changed.
I ended up in a small apartmentcomplex that I shared with my

(13:22):
best friend.
He lived in a two-story on oneend, and I had a one-bedroom on
the opposite end.
At first glance, it seemed likea sweet little place.
It had a garden out front, afenced backyard.
I dreamed it might be my firstreal home, maybe even where I'd
finally get a dog.
But the apartment itself feltcursed.

(13:44):
Sure, it had the usual apartmentcurses.
Hearing every word and everyfootstep from the upstairs
neighbor.
But then there were the not sonormal ones.
Like a plague of roaches pouringfrom the air ducts, or waking up
to find trails of blood streakson the walls left behind from

(14:06):
ticks crawling up them.
Every so often, I'd see whatpeople call a sleep paralysis
demon.
A shadowy silhouette of a man inan old-fashioned cowboy hat.
He was always in the doorway ofmy bedroom, and only when I was
falling asleep or waking up, Itold myself it was just my

(14:28):
imagination.
Until one night, all of thatchanged.
Thanks to what seemed like aharmless date.
To preserve his identity, I'llcall him Joe.
We'd met through a dating app.
After a few normal dates, hecame back to my place.
We didn't hook up, nothing likethat.

(14:49):
It was innocent.
We just liked spending timetogether.
That night we were lying in bedtalking, sharing stories until
we both got tired.
We rolled over to sleep, andthat's when I saw him.
The shadow man standing in mydoorway.
I closed my eyes, hoping he'd goaway.

(15:12):
But when I opened them again, Isaw him charge at me and split
into two.
One half rushed straight at me,the other toward Joe.
Suddenly I was being strangledby darkness.
Not metaphorically, literally.
I couldn't breathe.

(15:33):
I thrashed against it,terrified, trying to fight him
off.
I put my hands around whatseemed to be hands around my
neck, and then he was gone.
I turned toward Joe to find hewas convulsing.
His body jerked, gasping for airlike he was seizing.

(15:53):
I grabbed the blanket, wrappedhim tightly to keep him safe,
and held on until finally hetook one massive gulp of air and
went limp.
He was asleep.
I sat there shaking, notunderstanding what had happened.
The next morning, as I walkedinto his truck, Joe stopped me.

(16:14):
He said, Can we talk about whathappened last night?
My stomach dropped.
I asked him what he meant, andhe retold the exact same story.
He'd seen the man in thedoorway, watched him split into
two, and then remembered nothingexcept being strangled by

(16:35):
Shadow.
That was the first time I everexperienced validation for one
of my experiences.
I brought him back inside,thinking maybe we could find
some rational explanationonline.
While I grabbed my iPad, Joedropped to his knees and started
praying.
I'd never been religious, so Ididn't know what to do.

(16:59):
I started Googling sleepparalysis, shadow people, but my
results weren't about ghosts ortricks of the mind.
Over and over, there was onlyone word that showed up in every

search result (17:13):
demons.
I didn't know what to believe.
It felt like a storybook answer,and yet what else explained it?
Joe prayed and I read.
And I thought back oneverything.
The voices in Virginia, thelights in Savannah, the

(17:35):
footsteps in Ohhouse.
And I just thought, whateverthis is, it's gotta go.
So I tried every solution.
I even found a priest to cleansemy apartment.
I went through rituals, Iaccepted Jesus, sat through
teachings, learned every methodI could to banish it.

(17:59):
And in the end, of course, Ipacked my bags and left that
cursed apartment.
I can't tell you if it wasghosts, demons, alternate
dimensions, or a glitch in thematrix.
I will likely never know.
What I do know is choosing toembrace good and rejecting

(18:22):
whatever darkness had attacheditself to me physically and
energetically worked.
Since then, I've walked throughYork, one of the most haunted
cities in the world, and intocenturies-old ruins across
Europe, and I've been untouched.

(18:42):
No shadows, no voices, no lightshows, just history and the
lives that came before us.
And honestly, that's how I likeliving my life.
Full of stories, but without thefingerprints of something that
doesn't belong.

SPEAKER_04 (19:07):
Our next tale comes from Jamie Blacker of ESA or
Electronic Substance Abuse.
Jamie has been a friend of minefor some time, and his music has
soundtracked countless hours forme over the last 20 years.
Here's Jamie's stories,including a brand new one at the
end.

SPEAKER_00 (19:27):
Hi, this is Jamie from ESA, and I guess I'm gonna
tell you the story of where Igrew up.
Um I'm speaking to you from astudio in West Yorkshire right
now, which is near a town calledHuddersfield, um uh which is
where I was born.
And we moved as a family when Iwas around about 18 months old

(19:48):
to uh a small town calledHowden.
Now Howden is not known foranything in particular other
than the fact that it has adisproportionately large uh
minster which you can findonline, Howden Minster.
I think it was uh I think itdates back to like 1100s.

(20:09):
I don't know much about theMinster other than um it had a
couple of fires, which when Iwas a kid I was almost sure that
I heard a story that a circuscame to town and the church
didn't want them there.
So the circus people uh burntthe church half down.
Whether that's something I'vejust made up, I don't know.
But it definitely had a coupleof fires.
So it was always kind of like inrepair mode, right?

(20:33):
Um now we moved to a house thatwas called Five Church Side,
which um was as the namesuggests directly the side of
the church.
And the proximity of the houseto the church was probably about
ten to twelve feet, maybe amaybe a little wider.
Um the side door of the church.

(20:55):
So all that row of houses, uhincluding mine, was basically
built on well, you can imagineconsecrated ground.
You know, it's all there's gonnahave been, you know, users
burial area for, you know, atsome point between the eleven
hundreds and you know when wemoved in, which is like I guess
nineteen eighty-two.

(21:16):
God, that sounds old.
So Five Church Side was uh a bigtownhouse.
Um it used to be an inn.
Um I believe that was ineighteen forty-nine.
Uh as per my update discussionwith my parents yesterday, just
to get my details right.
So it probably dates back priorto that, but it was definitely

(21:36):
an inn uh at 1849 and then usesa townhouse after, maybe before
as well.
So I don't really have a lot ofmemories of that house that
don't involve the knowledge thatit was haunted or that there was
just something really weird inthat house.
There was always anaccompaniment to our family.

(21:57):
Um so I'm gonna go through uh alist of the kind of experiences
that I had, my parents had, mybrother had.
Um and I may I do apologizebecause I may flit around in a
timeline because as mydiscussion with my parents about
this last night, um, it's reallydifficult to remember when
things happened in the timelineof living there.

(22:18):
We lived there for 17 years, Ibelieve, maybe sixteen years.
Um but I think I was aroundabout eighteen when I moved out.
So around about sixteen, sixteenyears.
Um so I do apologize if I kindof like flit back and forth.
Now the early days, uh living inthe house, I don't remember a
great deal because I was veryyoung.

(22:39):
Um so a lot of the early stuffis gonna just be uh experiences
that my parents have told meabout.
One of which being that I wouldbasically sit in the middle of
the room talking to someone.
Um when my parents would ask whoam I talking to, I'd be like,
you know, the old woman or theold man.
Definitely not a Steve who'sfive years old who plays catch
from down the road or anythinglike that.

(23:00):
Um one of my earliestexperiences um of anything kind
of like weird was basicallybeing laid in bed and hearing
the piano tinkle downstairs inthe study.
Um it was then moved to thegreen room later on.
That's not backstage, it's justit was a green room, right?
Um but I would be in bed, tryingto get sleep, and you know,

(23:21):
you'd hear the piano tinklingaway.
You know, not playing back oranything, but just a couple of
notes, and you'd be like, Okay,here it goes.
No, I don't know if theexperiences were connected, but
I also remember hearing um whatsounded like somebody ascending
the stairs.
Um, and then a few minutes laterI would hear someone breathing

(23:42):
next to me.
Now, I remember the breathingfeeling like it was an old man.
That's the character that Iassociated with.
Um whoever was stood next to me.
It felt kind of old, um notthreatening, but not
particularly nice and a littlebit unhealthy.

(24:03):
And at the time, and I do I doremember this kind of brain this
kind of function of thinking I Iwas sh I was shitting myself.
Uh, but also thinking I'm justgonna get through it.
Because there's nothing I cando.
This is where I live.
Like th this is the only placeI've known, right, from being
young.
So you just gotta get throughit.

(24:24):
So yeah, there'd be um thisbreathing going on and then, you
know, it would just slowlydisappear, and I could finally
get to sleep.
In that bedroom, there wasalways um a kind of a projection
on the wall that was aprojection made out from the
street lamp outside, which wasprobably I don't know,
reflecting something from theminster, but there was always a

(24:46):
screaming face on the wall.
Every night for eighteen years.
Uh sorry, sixteen years.
Now that's very subjective.
You know, you can make, youknow, p faces out of anything if
you try hard enough.
Um but that's uh just somethingI always remember.
Just a screaming face, longnarrow mouth, and that was my
good night image.

(25:09):
Um I'm just gonna walk youthrough some of the experiences
that my parents had.
Maybe I was too young to havebeen around unconscious through
all this, but um they were inbed one night in their bedroom
and they would hear a babycrying, and my dad got up to
find where this baby is and justcouldn't find it anywhere.

(25:30):
Walked around the whole house,walked around outside, could
still hear it when he wasoutside.
And then come back in and you'relooking for all the cupboards
and wardrobes and all the littlelike uh hideaway places you get
in those old townhouses, andthere were a lot of little
hideaway places, and it wasweird.
Um, but couldn't find thiscrying baby.

(25:51):
And then obviously that justdisappeared.
Um I'm trying to work up in likeseverity and extremity, like the
impact of experiences a littlebit.
Um, but if I don't quite managethat, I I do apologize.
Um couple of other things.
Uh we in the living room wewould have a draft come in

(26:14):
through the through the room atlike ten o'clock every night.
Uh sorry, not every night, butit would be, you know, at the
same time.
You know, every few days you geta draft and the curtains moved.
And on one occasion we had abible box in front of the
window, the main window, and uhthat slowly opened up.
Uh from a dad's portrayal of it,he just thought it must have

(26:36):
been like one of our cats insidethis b Bible box, but um there
was nothing in there that heslowly closed again.
Like the draft thing you cankinda kind of explain.
Right, maybe there's anexplanation there, but um like a
bible box opening and closingvery very slowly is um probably
not as explainable.

(26:59):
Now, this happened in a livingroom, and this was uh the
location of probably the mostthreatening experience, and it
happened to my dad.
And by the way, just as acaveat, my dad is uh is a really
kind of cynical person.
He's an atheist.
Yeah, most of the experiencesdid happen to my dad.

(27:21):
Um my mom not as much, eventhough she's much more open and
I guess anxious and a aworrisome person.
Um but a lot of this happened tomy dad, and I always felt like
it was maybe either picking onhim or uh trying to like
communicate with him as like theruler of the household.
I don't know.

(27:43):
Um but uh this particularexperience, my mum was ill with
like a mild flu or a bad cold orwhatever upstairs, and my dad
came down to living room tosleep, ill on the couch, and he
woke up to have two hands roundhis neck, applying pressure, uh
basically feeling like he wasbeing strangled.

(28:03):
Obviously, you know, waking upat a cold sweat, and I don't
really know what happened, and Italked to him last night and he
um he couldn't really tell mehow long it was for.
You know, we're talking probablyabout twenty years ago here.
Um maybe longer, maybethirty-five years ago.
Um but then it released, Iguess.
He must have done, because he'sstill around.

(28:27):
Um now we had many people comeinto the house uh during the
time we were there, and my mumhad friends come round and and
all of them would or most ofthem would kind of, you know,
say it doesn't feel great in inin a polite way.
But my mum had a particularfriend called Jean who came with

(28:47):
her father.
Um and there's a couple ofstories there.
Her father couldn't stay in thehouse.
Maybe he was particularlysensitive, but he couldn't stay
within the house.
He had to leave and apparentlyhe was quite sick when he left.
And Jean I don't think it wasthe same occasion, maybe a
different occasion, but she wasin the bathroom and she saw an

(29:09):
old lady walk past um from likewe had like second bathroom.
There was a first bathroom andthen this weird little second
bathroom where my dad used toshave.
And it was horrible.
Like just gross feeling.
Now not long after I experiencedthe same thing.
I don't know how old I was, Iwant to say like twelve maybe.

(29:29):
Um, but I saw the old woman aswell.
Uh just kind of drifting throughfrom one bathroom into the next.
Which was nice.
Speaking of things that wereactually seen rather than like
heard or felt.
My mum saw uh kind of uhsomebody in armour walking down
the hallway.
I can't remember if she said ifthey were if they were walking

(29:50):
away or walking towards her.
I think walking away and thenjust disappeared down the
corridor, the hall, whatever youwant to call it.
So, I mean that was like a blastfrom the past.
I mean, that's you know, we'retalking, you know, I don't even
know when people wore armor.
I'm guessing like 1300s,whatever.

(30:12):
Um, so that was something thatmy mum actually saw.
Uh, another notable experiencewould be um when we heard my
brother coming downstairs, or wethought it was my brother, left
through the inner door.
We had two doors, like the innerdoor and the outer door, to get
outside.
Um, basically open the innerdoor, close it, open the outer

(30:32):
door, close it, and then fiveminutes later we actually heard
and saw my brother coming downthe stairs.
So whatever had come around thefirst time was not my brother,
basically.
We just kind of presumed it was,because there was nobody else in
the house at the time.
Now we decided to move from thishouse when I was around about
fifteen, I want to say.

(30:53):
And we moved to a differentproperty called uh Hailgate.
Five I think it was five aswell, five Hailgate.
And um we did that because wewanted to downsize, the house
was too big.
I don't know if we were havingfinancial problems or whatever,
but we were basically wanting todownsize.
So we left that house and it wasvirtually impossible to sell um

(31:17):
to the point where we ended upcoming back and living there
again, because we just couldn'tsell it.
But I'll come back to that in asecond.
I started to experience thingshappening at the new property
not long after moving there.
And when I say experiencingthings, kind of mild stuff, like
the um the bathroom taps wouldcome on, right?

(31:39):
The sink taps or uh the bathtaps.
And I remember seeing a pictureupside down as well.
Not particularly, you know,nothing cinematic, like in a
horror film where you see apicture of Christ upside down.
It was basically like uh like alandscape picture or something.
Now whilst we were living at theother property, my dad was doing

(31:59):
work on Five Church side.
Um, I guess just little oddjobs, making it more sellable,
things like that.
And this is one of the mostnotable uh experiences that I
think he's ever told me.
When he was there on his own, hewas basically backing up the two
flights of stairs.

(32:19):
And he was kind of rolling upthe the plastic vinyl
transparent covering that youroll up on stairs.
Um and then when he got to thetop of the second flight of
stairs, he kind of backed up andhe hit something or, you know,
something pushed against hisback, and he knew it wasn't the

(32:40):
wall, because the wall wasprobably, I don't know, another
six, eight feet away.
Um and then he realized it feltlike two hands basically
applying pressure down on him.
So he basically This is what hetold me.
He basically had a conversationand he was d you know, he

(33:03):
decided to communicate and tellthis um this thing that we would
be coming back, we can't sellthe house, um, you know, the
family's gonna be moving back toto Five Church Side And
eventually it let go.
Now, I don't know if that's justbecause we'd lived there for so
long, it didn't want more uhlike a different personnel

(33:27):
within its environment.
But it's an interesting line ofdialogue.
So we moved out of this housewhen I was about seventeen No,
about eighteen.
And um I don't know much moreabout the house afterwards other
than the fact that um two prisonwardens bought it after us, a

(33:49):
couple.
Um and my mum and dad used tohave a shop in Howden and they
came to visit my mum and dad andsaid, you know, we've got the
house now, we can't go backseas.
But uh did you ever experienceanything in that house?
And then, you know, my mum anddad had to be honest and be
like, Yep.
Um so it was obviously doingthings to the couple as well

(34:13):
afterwards.
So at least it's some sort ofvalidation that we weren't all
crazy.
Now I want to kinda come into umthe current and explain kind of
how this has impacted me ingeneral.
I think there's two things Iwant to mention.
The first one is um I I stillhave a lot of nightmares about

(34:37):
that house.
Like we lived in a lot ofhouses, you know, after that and
you know, moved around.
Lived in a lot of places.
But I don't have dreams aboutthem.
And you might suggest that, youknow, you have a lot of dreams
about your childhood house,because that's when you had most
experiences, but I dream a lotabout that house.
And they never good dreams,they're always there's something

(34:58):
ominous, there's something goingon.
Um it's always very coldfeeling, and it was a cold
house.
Like my only memories of thehouse is that it was cold, and I
never felt comfortable, and Ialways thought there was
somebody there, and I alwaysfelt like something was about to
happen.
Now I spoke to my brother aboutthis probably about two years

(35:20):
ago, and he said the same thing.
He said uh you know, that he wasalso having nightmares about the
house.
And I said to him, Is it about aparticular room?
Like are the majorities of yournightmares about a particular
room?
And I don't remember if he saidyes or no, but basically my most
of my n nightmares were based ina room in which I very, very

(35:43):
rarely went into.
Basically, the outside of thebuilding, we had a pantry, um,
you know, and we called it theoutbuildings.
And then upstairs from thatpantry um was like some more
just really uh dilapidated uhrooms with holes in the walls
and things like that.

(36:03):
And I guess when it wasn't in itwas used to kind of barrel keep
and you know bring down thebarrels, things like that.
So I rarely went into that room.
But I have a lot of nightmaresabout it.
Like even now.
Like we're talking, you know,I've been out of that house for
uh thirty no, twenty-eightyears.

(36:24):
Twenty-eight years.
I still have nightmares aboutthat room.
And it I still get a veryuncomfortable feeling whenever I
think about it.
And if my um if I allowed myimagination to go wild, I would
feel like something happened inthat room that I've kind of just
put away.
Just put in a box.
You know, something when I wasvery young, maybe.

(36:44):
I don't know, but I feel likethere's somebody in there.
That's how I feel when I thinkabout it now.
And it feels like an old woman.
But I want to just kind ofregister this in and really kind
of put across my my way ofthinking, and that is that I I
am not religious, and I would Iwould probably consider myself

(37:08):
an atheist, and I'm I'm verycynical.
I always think there's anexplanation for everything.
But I can't explain thoseexperiences.
The only the closest thing Icould do to explain it is that
you know, when you're alive,you're giving off lots of
magnetic waves from your brain,yeah.
And when you're experiencingsomething stressful, like I

(37:32):
don't know, a suicide attempt,or you know, someone's trying to
get you, or you know, justsomething that presents itself
as like a really severeemotional state, then you're
giving off more kind of energyfrom your brain, right?
And it just kind of getscaptured and it might get
replayed.
That's the only way I candescribe the things that
happened to us.
Because I I I struggle toconnect with the notion that

(37:57):
there can be an actualinteraction between like a
spirit and somebody that'scurrent.
But all I can say is it's f itwas fucking scary.
Like there was the sense that Ican't do anything about it, I've
just gotta get through it.
I we don't have anywhere else tolive.
Um you know just just hold yourbreath and and deal with it till

(38:19):
it's over.
Because it all it's alwaysthere's some it always ends,
right?
An experience.
Um But yeah, I'm not even gonnatry and pretend that it didn't
frighten me.
And I think even now, I thinkmore so now, as an older person
who's had experiences thatdeveloped fear from, um, I think

(38:42):
it would affect me a lot morenow than it did do when I was a
child.
With regards to how this hasimpacted me as a person, I don't
know.
I mean Brian asked me to kind ofcover this, and I just don't
know if it impacted me whetherwhen it comes to inspiration for
the music.
I just don't know.
I mean, it it all comes fromsomewhere, right?

(39:02):
I mean I didn't have the gr thegreatest childhood.
I was bullied, I was verydifferent, and I was I felt very
irrelevant and very ugly andvery pointless when I was a kid.
And not a lot of that was duewas due to school, basically
like uh social situations.
But living in a house that feltmildly threatening all the way

(39:26):
through my childhood, I guessit's gonna have some sort of
impact.
And as far back as I canremember, I've always liked dark
stuff.
Or I've always felt inclinedtowards dark stuff or connected
to it, whether it be movies ormusic or imagery.
Um it's just always been there.
And if that's connected to thehouse, then maybe something good

(39:49):
came out of it, 'cause I'vemanaged to make reasonably
decent music out of it.
Um but I just don't know, it's asimple answer.
So I'm gonna wrap this up uh bybringing us into the current.
About two months ago I had adentist appointment in
Howden, 'cause my dentist isstill at Howden.

(40:09):
And I wanted to go visit theproperty um and kind of like
give it a knock on and speak tothe owners and just be like, you
know, this is my child at home.
Um spent, you know, a reallylong time living here when I was
a child.
I'd love to see and reconnectwith the house.
You know, fully expecting themto be kind of like, who the hell
are you?

(40:30):
Go away.
But I just wanted to kind ofgive it a shot, even just knock
on the door, even just to seethem open the door, even just to
see like the entrance, right?
And I got there and I walked upto the door and I walked away,
and I walked up and I walkedaway, and I just couldn't do it.
Like I could not reconcile withreconciling that house.

(40:52):
And it sounds really dramatic,and it's probably more dramatic
than it needs to be, but yeah, Ijust I just didn't want to be
there.
I I I had thoughts of kind ofentering the house and having
whatever was in there kind of gouh oh hey, he's back.

(41:14):
Let's reconnect.
So I couldn't do it.
And I wish I could give a moreuh climactic ending, but uh
yeah, maybe one day.
Um but not for not for now.
So that is my story of FiveChurch Side.

(41:36):
Uh if you think it's allcomplete bullshit, I won't blame
you in the slightest.
If you're a non-believer or lessopen, um all I can tell you is
the things that Mim and thefamily experienced and uh yeah,
I guess happy Halloween.

(41:57):
So I have uh a mini story foryou, and I have a couple of
facts, um ghostly facts.
Um the story um basically it'sfrom before I was born.
It's a story that's passed downfrom my mother.
Um, it's when she worked as adental nurse um in a business in

(42:18):
Eldersfield, which is where Iwas born.
I want to say this was veryearly, no, it would have been
very late 70s, I believe.
Um so when she worked uh as areceptionist in this business,
um, they had a lot of problemswith kind of dental appliances
flying about the room angrily,um, things getting lost and then

(42:43):
turning up in the weirdest oflocations, just things being
thrown around, banging, all thatkind of like very typical
cliche, poltergeist behaviour.
So they ended up getting apriest in very Netflix
movie-like, I know, veryinsidious-like, I know.
But they did generally get apriest in to kind of bless the

(43:05):
property.
Um, and initially they sataround a table and discussed
what's been going on, andapparently the light bulb, which
was directly above them,directly above the table,
dropped out and ended up on thefloor underneath the table.
So suggesting that the lightbulb kind of went through the

(43:27):
table, um, the light bulb wasunbroken.
So it was kind of like a sign, Idon't know, I'm here or
whatever.
And so the priest went aboutkind of blessing the property.
You know, whether these thingshappen now, I have no clue, but
I think they were more common inlike the 60s, 70s, 80s,

(43:49):
whatever.
Um, so these films that are kindof like show these scenes, they
probably are built on a truthfulpremise.
Um, but when this priest um wentabout blessing the property,
apparently the door to theproperty opened wide and slammed
shut as if something wasleaving.
Um and they never heard anythingever again.

(44:13):
But upon further research, theyfound out that um a man had
killed himself on the front stepof that business um long time
ago, which kind of um does fitin with the whole poltergeist um
idea, which they're usuallyspirits that are angry because

(44:33):
they can't move on, and that'sum very connected suicide, I
believe.
I'm not an expert, but that'sthings I've heard.
So, yeah, that's my littlestory.
What a couple of little ghostlyfacts, um, just kind of uh
touching on my recent trips toAsia.

(44:54):
So in Thai culture, if you go toa hotel, uh, you should ask the
blessing of whoever's been inthat room uh before you enter.
So you open the door, uh, youask for the blessing, say, you
know, is it okay if I stay here?
I'm gonna be here for a coupleof nights.
Um and you know, you youcontinue your stay.

(45:17):
And the idea being that, youknow, a lot of these hotels,
some of them are very old, um,but also there's a lot of
history anyway from the landthat you're supposed to ask for
the blessing of the people thathave lived there, stayed there
before before you continue yourvacation.
And otherwise, there could besome weird stuff going on.

(45:42):
Now, what ties into that is thefact that apparently you should
never answer the door, somebodyknocks at it at a hotel.
Um you should always, you know,go and check through the
keyhole, spy hole, or whateveryou want to call it, see if
there's anybody there, i.e.
the staff.

(46:03):
If there's not, you should neveropen the door because apparently
that is letting whatever in in,and you know, things can go
strangely for you.
Um, and where this is weird isthe fact that when I stayed in
Thailand both times, um twohotels out of the many I stayed
there, we would have knocking atthe door, and it would be two

(46:25):
knocks, clop, clock.
Uh, and you know, you go to thespy hall, nobody there.
So obviously, didn't answer thedoor.
So that's one of my facts fromAsian ghostly culture.
The one is from VietnamVietnamese culture, is that if
anybody, if you hear anybodycalling your name um outside or

(46:49):
whatever, you should neveranswer it.
Um, or you should never turnaround, sorry I should say.
Um, because turning aroundacknowledges it, and you know,
then that's kind of a lettingin, it can attach itself to you.
Um, and this is why people stillthink things like curses exist.
Um apparently you can answer itand say, who's this?

(47:11):
Just in case it is your mateasking you, you know, where
you've been.
Um, but if nobody answers you,um, then you don't turn around,
you don't look in the direction.
Which I also found reallyinteresting.
Um whether these when it whetherany of these little legends from

(47:32):
cultural history have any uh youknow factual uh connection, I
don't know.
But it I just find it reallyinteresting how everybody um
those different cultures havedifferent kind of stories and um
perspectives on ghostlybehavior.
So there's something out therefor sure.

SPEAKER_04 (47:58):
Tom Elsberg, or Ginger Khan, is the former
frontman for Swedish synthpopact priest.
He shared some thoughts on thesubject of the supernatural or
and the otherworldly.
Tom is a thoughtful, grounded,and authentic human being.
Here's the Khan to tell you hisstory.

SPEAKER_01 (48:19):
Hi.
My name is Tom Osperi.
And this is my story.
I grew up in an old mining town.
You know, one of those townsthat's been around forever.
Just the actual mine itself isover 700 years old.
And the town that sprung uparound it was called Thalun.

(48:43):
Countless of generations ofworkers have lived there.
All of them, of course, leavingbehind their own mark, not to
mention their earthlypossessions, and of course,
their homes, which wereinherited by the next generation
of workers and the next, and soon and so on.
Now the old workers neighborhoodis where I grew up.

(49:05):
It was called Elspori.
In a way, it's almost a clicheversion of what you picture in
your head when you pictureSweden, at least nowadays.
Wooden houses, some of themreally small, all interconnected
with relatively tiny streets,and painted in that classic red
colour which you see all overSweden, that just so happens to

(49:28):
be named after my town, FallenRed.
Now, back in the old days of themine, this was not a pretty
neighborhood by any stretch.
The entire town was covered bythis thick layer of smoke
emanating from all the ovens,melting down the ore from the
mine.
Nothing could grow there.

(49:50):
Like, imagine Mordor, that's howit looked.
And those wooden houses, backthen, they were basically all
black.
Black from just the general sootin the air.
The whole neighborhood wasplagued with drunkenness.
There was a bar on every corner,a lot of random street violence.

(50:12):
Not to mention the fact thatpeople died like flies in the
actual mine.
Churning out copper to fill upSweden's war coffers during the
16th, 17th, and 18th century.
Now, with all industries, sooneror later things start slowing
down.
Either because the thing you'reproducing has become obsolete,

(50:35):
or because it's not profitableanymore.
And of course this happened toFallen and it's mine as well.
The smoke disappeared, andFallen reshaped itself into
another version, and another,and another.
By the time I came into thisworld, Fallen was a hodgepodge

(50:55):
of different historical erasbuilt on top of each other.
And growing up in such a place,a few times, both during my
childhood and even into my earlytwenties, I got to experience
firsthand just how much of apresence people that have lived

(51:18):
in such a place can leavebehind.
My earliest memory ofexperiencing something out of
the ordinary is from when I wasaround five.
I came into my room, this wasduring the middle of the day,
and I came upon an old man and aslightly younger woman just

(51:42):
standing in my room.
I don't know why, but for somereason I didn't feel any fear.
I was just confused, like, whowere these people?
Why are they in my room?
And he just stood there, lookedat me.
Now I noticed that they weren'treally in the room.

(52:04):
They were sort of a part of it.
Like the line between the wallsand the air and them.
It was just one thing.
And they flickered like light,vibrating almost.
Now the old man he had a reallystern look.

(52:26):
He looked like a principal,almost.
A stern father figure.
The woman had a softer, sweeterapproach.
She looked like she wanted tocomfort me or greet me or it's
hard to tell.

(52:49):
I'm also not entirely sure whathappened next.
Did they just disappear?
Did I leave the room?
Like I said, I was around five.
Now I understand that a storylike this, emanating from the
memory of someone who was asmall child at the time, might
be easy to dismiss as justsomething that, you know, you

(53:10):
think happened to you as a kid.
But this was not the last time Iwould see this odd pair.
They stopped appearing in themiddle of the day.
Usually when I saw them, it wasat night.
Once again, I totally understandhow anyone that hears a story

(53:32):
about someone seeing effectivelyghosts at night could easily
dismiss it as being a dream.
But I've never had reoccurringdreams.
And never any dreams as clear asthese were.

(54:01):
I rationalize things even whenthey're fantastical.
Especially when they'refantastical.
But for some reason, I didn'twant to rationalize this.
Or I couldn't rationalize it.
Sometime in my later teens, Imentioned to my mother that I

(54:24):
had been seeing things at homeoff and on during my childhood.
She later mentioned this to ourlandlord who knew exactly who
they were.
They were the old owners of thehouse.
He knew them by the description.
The description which I hadgiven to my mother.

(54:48):
I think that the reason to why Ichoose to pretend like this
didn't happen for such a longtime was because I was really,
really scared.
Because that initial fear thathad escaped me when I was a kid.
It really took hold later on.
When you see what I saw, youdon't get to choose your

(55:11):
reaction.
And my reaction was apparentlyto just decide that I was not
gonna have a reaction becausethis was not happening.
This did very little to keep mytwo house guests away.
Though as I came into mytwenties, their appearances

(55:32):
started becoming more and morerare.
And towards the end, theyweren't even figures.
They were just a vibratingshimmer in the air.
Until around when I was 24,which is the last time I saw
them.
Now, even with our landlordtelling us that they were the

(55:56):
old owners of the house, I stilldon't know what I saw.
I don't really care either, tobe quite honest.
But I do know one thing.
No matter how sure you are ofyourself regarding how you would

(56:16):
react when seeing orexperiencing something like I
did, there is nothing to prepareyou for that guttural feeling
when you know that what you'reseeing does not care if you
believe in it or not.

SPEAKER_04 (56:40):
Mary Catman is a talented, charming soul who
produces absolute bangers.
She's an inspired and driventalent who is a force to behold.
Here's a story from Mary.

SPEAKER_03 (56:53):
Hello, Void Signalians.
This is Mary Katman Shear.
And isn't it lovely the monthsbefore Halloween in September
when it starts to get a littlebit cold outside?
And we start to anticipate allthe wonderful, spooky, lovely

(57:16):
moments that we appreciate thatare about to come for us.
I especially appreciate itbecause I am very pale and I
love when the summer obligationsstart to go away and I can put
my sweatshirt on and cozy out bythe fire with my family and
enjoy all the wonderful falltreats and fall activities that

(57:40):
come.
Anyway, let's get to the ghoststory.
But before I tell you the ghoststory, I just want to preface
this by saying if you've had aparanormal experience in your
life, I don't think it was anaccident.
Personally, I had this many,many years ago, and I've had a
lot of time to reflect.
I think that paranormalexperiences are an invitation

(58:02):
for you to explore what is notseen, what is unknown, what is a
mystery of death, and where wego afterwards.
I think that all of these littleexperiences in life lead us down
chasing intrigues that areappropriate for our development
and growth as humans, as souls.

(58:22):
And I think that they are not tobe seen as scary, but maybe to
be seen as an invitation to opena door.
Michael story starts 20 yearsago in high school at the time.
Uh, we lived in a house that wasmy second house with my family.

(58:47):
And it was a three-floor house.
So we had a basement, a firstfloor, and a second floor in the
house.
And there were times, you know,throughout me living there
where, you know, I would maybefall asleep in the first floor
living room area, and I couldjust hear her like walking
downstairs at night.
And I thought, oh, that mustjust be my mind playing tricks

(59:08):
on me.
But little things that wouldhappen over the years that kind
of made me think, hmm, that's aweird sound.
I'm not sure what that is.
But this story was undeniable.
So I used to get off the busbefore I had my car and I wasn't
yet 16, maybe 15.

(59:28):
I would get off the bus and Iwould come home.
And oftentimes when I was thatage, my parents wouldn't be
home.
And they both workedentrepreneurial jobs.
So they kind of had their ownhours and they were in and out
at all hours.
Um, and I came home from schoolas normal one day.
I'd always drop my bag on thefloor and go look for something

(59:50):
to snack on, maybe popcorn orsomething.
And then I would sit on thecouch and watch an episode of
whatever was on TV.
Um, and on this day, I did just.
As I do every day from school,come in, drop my bag, get a
snack, sit down, watch a show.
So on this first floor that welived on, I was sitting in the
living room, and the room nextto the living room was a

(01:00:12):
computer room.
So my dad used to go in thereand work on stuff at night, and
very quickly became my roombecause when we finally got a
computer, it was like all therage, and I wanted to be on it
all the time.
And uh so in this room we had acomputer, one that stands on its
own, you know, computer tower,not a laptop or anything, with a

(01:00:35):
keyboard, you know, everything.
Uh and then there was a desk itwas on.
Um, and so I was watching the TVone day and I heard like typing
in the room next to the one Iwas in.
Uh and uh I was like, oh, is mydad home?
Like, is he on the computer?
Like, what is this?
So I get off the couch, go homeand look in.

(01:00:55):
Nobody's here.
Okay.
Well, I guess I must have heardtyping on the keyboard.
I don't know why I heard that.
So um I uh went back and sat onthe couch again and I was
watching the show and I heardtyping again.
I was like, okay, maybe it's myears are just playing tricks on
me.
I lower the TV down and I gointo the room where the computer

(01:01:18):
is, and again, nothing.
So I said, This is so strange.
I feel like I'm hearing thistyping.
Um so this time I wanted to be alittle more strategic about it
because my mind was reeling.
I'm like, I keep hearing thistyping and I don't know what it
is.
So I confirmed there's nothingin the computer room.
I decided to do somethingridiculous and I sort of hid

(01:01:41):
outside the doorframe.
So, you know, where the doorcloses, I kind of put my body up
against the wall.
And I was like, I'm gonna sithere for a minute and listen.
And sure enough, the typingstarted.
And I looked in the room reallyfast and it stopped when I

(01:02:02):
looked in.
Um and yeah, I had confirmed atthat moment that whatever was
typing in there was not there.
Like it was uh, I don't know.
Like it to this day, I have zeroidea.
And once I hid my body outsideof the door frame and heard the
typing and looked in and sawnothing, you had better bet I

(01:02:25):
bolted myself from the house.
And I waited uh outside on thesteps until my dad came home and
told them what had happened.
And uh yeah, I knew at thatpoint there was something in the
house that I couldn't see, andit was I don't know what it was

(01:02:47):
doing.
I don't know why I ghost metyping, and I don't know why I
had that experience.
But what I can tell you is thatfrom all the little strange
things that have happened to mein my life has led me down, you
know, many routes of researchand trying to figure out these
kind of weird things that happento people and what they may be.

(01:03:08):
I can offer you a theory.
I don't think that anything thatyou ever experience that is
paranormal or you see a UFO orsomething like that.
I don't think those things arehappening far from where we are.
I often question a human'scapability to understand space

(01:03:32):
and time.
I do think that there are manyuniverses, and I do think they
are simultaneously overlappingwith ours, whether or not we can
perceive them or not, um,whether our eyes or our ability
to perceive vibration isprobably pretty low.

(01:03:55):
And I think sometimes we havemoments where we can, and I
think that's when we observewhat we are seeing.
But I don't think those thingsare happening separately from
us.
I think we're probablysurrounded by a lot of different
energies we can't see all thetime.
Um, and sometimes we're luckyenough to catch just a beat of a

(01:04:18):
different world around us.
Anyway, I hope you liked myghost story, and I hope that you
have one of your own because itwas very enlightening for me.
And I hope that you all enjoythe fall season and all of the
mystery as the seasons changeand all the beauty of the trees,

(01:04:40):
if they're changing near you,they are changing near us now.
Uh and I hope that you enjoy thespooky mysteries of what we
don't know and how fun that is.
And yeah, happy Halloween,everyone.

SPEAKER_04 (01:04:59):
That's it for stories.
I'd like to read you a favoritepoem or two of mine, and then
close out this little programwith a reading of the Raven.
I hope that you have had a goodtime so far.
If so, please consider visitingvoidsignal.net or patreon.com
slash void signal and sign upfor the Patreon.
You get some extra stuff tolisten to, and it helps keep the

(01:05:20):
Void Signal flowing.
As little as two bucks, and allthe tiers are the same.
Thank you for listening, andhappy Halloween.
Felicia Dorothea Heemans was anEnglish poet from the Romantic
era.
She's the author of a number ofpoem collections, but I chose
her poem The Haunted House forthis episode.

(01:05:43):
Seeest thou yon gray gleaminghall, where the deep elm shadows
fall, voices that have left theearth long ago still are
murmuring round its hearth, softand low.
Ever there yet one alone hath agift to hear their tone.
Guests come thither and depart,free of step and light of heart.

(01:06:05):
Children with sweet visionsblessed, in the haunted chambers
rest, one alone on slumberinglies, when the night hath sealed
all eyes, one quick heart andwatchful ear, listening for
those whispers clear.
Seeest thou where the woodpineflowers o'er yon low porch hang
and showers, startling faces ofthe dead, pale yet sweet, one

(01:06:30):
lone woman's entering tread,there still meet.
Some with young, smoothforeheads fair, faintly shining
through bright hair, some withreverend locks of snow, all, all
buried long ago, all from underdeep sea waves, or the flowers
of foreign graves, or the oldand bannered isle, where their

(01:06:54):
high tombs gleam the while,rising, wandering, floating by,
suddenly and silently, throughtheir earthly home and place,
but amidst another race.
Wherefore, unto one alone arethose sounds and visions known.
Wherefore hath that spell ofpower, dark and dread, on her

(01:07:15):
soul a baleful dower thus beenshed?
Oh, in those deep-seeing eyes,no strange gift of mystery lies.
She is alone where once shemoved, fair and happy and
beloved.
Sunny smiles were glancing roundher, tendrils of kind hearts had
bound her.

(01:07:36):
Now those silver cords arebroken, those bright looks have
left no token, not one trace onall the earth, save her memory
of the mirth.
She is lone and lingering now,dreams have gathered o'er her
brow.
Midst gay songs and children'splay, she is dwelling far away,

(01:07:58):
seeing what none else may see.
Haunted still her place must be.

(01:08:20):
Through the open doors, theharmless phantoms on their
errands glide with feet thatmake no sound upon the floors.
We meet them at the doorway, onthe stair, along the passages
they come and go, Impalpableimpressions on the air, a sense
of something moving to and fro.
There are more guests at tablethan the hosts invited.

(01:08:42):
The illuminated hall is throngedwith quiet, inoffensive ghosts,
as silent as the pictures on thewall.
The stranger at my firesidecannot see the forms I see, nor
hear the sounds I hear.
He but perceives what is, whileunto me all that has been is
visible and clear.

(01:09:03):
We have no title deeds to houseor lands.
Owners and occupants of earlierdates from graves forgotten
stretch their dusty hands, andhold in mortmain still their old
estates.
The spirit world around thisworld of sense floats like an
atmosphere, and everywhere waftsthrough these earthly mists and

(01:09:25):
vapors dense, a vital breath ofmore ethereal air.
Our little lives are kept inequipos by opposite attractions
and desires, the struggle of theinstinct that enjoys, and the
more noble instinct thataspires.
These perturbations, thisperpetual jar of earthly wants
and aspirations high, Come fromthe influence of an unseen star,

(01:09:50):
an undiscovered planet in oursky.
And as the moon from some darkgate of cloud throws over the
sea a floating bridge of light,across whose trembling planks
our fancies crowd into the realmof mystery and night.
So from the world of spiritsthere descends a bridge of light

(01:10:10):
connecting it with this, overwhose unsteady floor that sways
and bends, wander our thoughtsabove the dark abyss.

(01:10:31):
Those houses haunt in which weleave something undone.
It is not those great words orsilence of love that spread
their echoes through a place andfill the locked up, unbreathed
gloom.
Ghosts do not haunt with anyface that we have known.
They only come with arrogance tothrust at us our own omissions
in a room.

(01:10:52):
The words we would not speakthey use.
The deeds we dared not act, theyflaunt.
Our nervous silences theybruise.
It is our helplessness theychoose, and our refusals that
they haunt.

(01:11:14):
The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe.
Once upon a midnight dreary,while I pondered weak and weary,
over many a quaint and curiousvolume of forgotten lore, while
I nodded, nearly napping,suddenly there came a tapping,
as of someone gently rapping,rapping at my chamber door.

(01:11:36):
Tis some visitor, I muttered,tapping at my chamber door, only
this and nothing more.
Ah, distinctly I remember it wasin the bleak December, and each
separate dying ember wrought itsghost upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow,vainly I had sought to borrow
from my book's Circe of Sorrow,sorrow for the lost Lenore, for

(01:11:59):
the rare and radiant maiden whomthe angels named Lenore,
nameless here forevermore.
And the silken, sad, uncertainrustling of each purple curtain
thrilled me, filled me withfantastic terrors never felt
before, so that now, to stillthe beating of my heart, I stood

repeating (01:12:19):
'Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my
chamber door, some late visitor,entreating entrance at my
chamber door.
This it is, and nothing more.
Presently my soul grew stronger,hesitating then no longer.
Sir, said I, or madam, trulyyour forgiveness I implore, but

(01:12:39):
the fact is I was napping, andso gently you came rapping, and
so faintly you came tapping,tapping at my chamber door, that
I scarce was sure I heard you.
Here I opened wide the door,darkness there, and nothing
more.
Deep into that darkness peering,long I stood there, wondering,
fearing, doubting, dreamingdreams no mortal ever dared to

(01:13:00):
dream before.
But the silence was unbroken,and the stillness gave no token,
and the only word there spokenwas the whispered word, Lenor.
This I whispered, and an echomurmured back the word, Lenore.
Merely this, and nothing more.
Back into the chamber turning,all my soul within me burning.

(01:13:23):
Soon again I heard a tappingsomewhat louder than before.
Surely, said I, surely that issomething at my window lattice.
Let me see then what thereat is,and this mystery explore.
Let my heart be still a moment,and this mystery explore. 'Tis
the wind, and nothing more.
Open here I flung the shutter,when, with many a flirt and
flutter, in there stepped astately raven of the saintly

(01:13:47):
days of yore.
Not the least obeisance made he,not a minute stopped or stayed
he, but with mine of lord orlady perched above my chamber
door, perched upon a pust apalace just above my chamber
door, perched and set, andnothing more.
Then this ebony bird beguilingmy sad fancy into smiling, by
the grave and stern decorum ofthe countenance it wore, though

(01:14:10):
thy crest be shorn is shaven,thou, I said, art sure no
craven, ghastly grim, andancient raven wandering from the
nightly shore.
Tell me what thy lordly name ison the night's plutonian shore.
Quoth the raven, nevermore.
Much I marveled this ungainlyfowl to hear discourse so
plainly, though its answerlittle meaning, little relevancy

(01:14:31):
bore, for we cannot helpagreeing that no living human
being ever yet was blessed withseeing bird above his chamber
door, bird or beast upon thesculpted bust above his chamber
door, with such name asnevermore.
But the raven, sitting lonely onthe placid bust, spoke only that
one word, as if his soul in thatone word he did outpour.

(01:14:52):
Nothing farther than he uttered,not a feather than he fluttered,
till I scarcely more thanmuttered, Other friends have
flown before.
On the morrow he will leave meas my hopes have flown before.
Then the bird said, Nevermore.
Startled at the stillness brokenby reply so aptly spoken,
doubtless, said I, what itutters is its only stock and

(01:15:16):
store, caught from some unhappymaster whom unmerciful disaster
followed fast and followedfaster, till his songs one
burden bore, till the dirges ofhis hope that melancholy burden
bore, of never, nevermore.
But the raven, still beguilingall my fancy into smiling,
straight I wheeled a cushionedseat in front of bird and bust

(01:15:36):
and door.
Then upon the velvet sinking, Ibetook myself to linking, fancy
unto fancy, thinking what thisominous bird of yore, what this
grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt,and ominous bird of yore meant
and croaking nevermore.
This I sat engaged in guessing,but no syllable expressing to
the fowl whose fiery eyes nowburned into my bosom's core.

(01:16:00):
This and more I sat defining,with my head at ease reclining
on the cushion's velvet liningthat the lamplight gloated o'er,
but whose velvet-violet liningwith the lamplight gloating
o'er, she shall press.
Ah, nevermore.
Then, methought, the air grewdenser, perfumed from an unseen
sensor, swung by Seraphim, whosefootfalls tinkled on the tufted

(01:16:23):
floor.
Wretch, I cried, thy God hathlent thee, by these angels he
hath sent thee.
Respite, respite, and Nepenthefrom thy memories of Lenore.
Quoif, O quaff this kindNepenthe, and forget this loss
Lenore.
Quoth the raven, nevermore.
Prophet, said I, thing of evil,profit still, if bird or devil,

(01:16:43):
whether tempter sent or whethertempest toss thee here ashore,
desolate yet all undaunted, onthis desert land enchanted, on
this home by horror haunted,tell me truly I implore.
Is there, is there balm inGilead?
Tell me, tell me I implore.
Quoth the raven, nevermore.
Prophet, said I, thing of evil,profit still, if bird or devil,

(01:17:06):
by that heaven that bends aboveus, by that god we both adore,
tell this soul with sorrowladen, if, within the distant
Aden, it shall clasp a saintedmaiden whom the angels name
Lenore, clasp a rare and radiantmaiden, whom the angels name
Lenor, quoth the raven.
Nevermore.
Be thou word our sign ofparting, bird or fiend, I

(01:17:28):
shrieked up starting.
Get thee back into the tempestin the night's plutonian shore,
leave no black plume as a tokenof that lie thy soul hath
spoken.
Leave my loneliness unbroken,quit the bust above my door,
take thy beak from out my heart,and take thy form from off my
door.
Quoth the raven, nevermore.

(01:17:51):
And the raven, never flitting,still is sitting, still is
sitting on the pallid bustapalace just above my chamber
door, and his eyes have all theseeming of a demon's that is
dreaming, and the lamplight o'erhim streaming throws his shadow
on the floor, and my soul fromout that shadow that lies

(01:18:15):
floating on the floor shall belifted nevermore.

(01:18:36):
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