October 24, 2025 • 58 mins
Josh Hughes is a filmmaker and paranormal historian based out of Waukesha, Wisconsin. From a young age he started to experience things he couldn't quite explain and that's led him on a life long journey to further experience and explain the supernatural. He has investigated haunted locations all across the midwest and as far as Ireland, but has made a name of himself as the paranormal expert of Waukesha.
Josh's brand new book GHOSTS OF WAUKESHA is available here:
https://www.amazon.com/Ghosts-Waukesha-American-Ghost-Books-ebook/dp/B0FWP2VZ4P
Find Josh on Instagram: / waukeshaghosts
Josh's video's on Vimeo: vimeo.com/yourpaljosh
Josh returns to Talking Weird for our special month of spooky episodes in the lead up to Halloween. He talks about his brand new book GHOSTS OF WAUKESHA, as well as other seasonally appropriate real life stories of spooks and sprites, and shares some of his own experiences and investigations into the paranormal.
This is a spooky and fascinating episode, that you do not want to miss!
Josh's brand new book GHOSTS OF WAUKESHA is available here:
https://www.amazon.com/Ghosts-Waukesha-American-Ghost-Books-ebook/dp/B0FWP2VZ4P
Find Josh on Instagram: / waukeshaghosts
Josh's video's on Vimeo: vimeo.com/yourpaljosh
Josh returns to Talking Weird for our special month of spooky episodes in the lead up to Halloween. He talks about his brand new book GHOSTS OF WAUKESHA, as well as other seasonally appropriate real life stories of spooks and sprites, and shares some of his own experiences and investigations into the paranormal.
This is a spooky and fascinating episode, that you do not want to miss!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
The paranormal UFOs Mongstairs Mysteries. As you're listening to Talking
Weird and Know from a Kevin deep in the northwards,
your host, Doctor Dean.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Bertram Greetings of my fellow weirdos and widows, Welcome to
(00:46):
Talking Weird on the Untold Radio Network. I'm your host,
Dean Bertraman. I'm delighted you're going to spend the next
hour or so of your life with me. I hope
whether you're watching us live on YouTube or x or
Facebook when it goes out every Thursday night at nine pm,
or perhaps you are watching the show archive for one
of those platforms after that date, or listening to the
(01:06):
audio only version which drops every Friday. Greetings wherever you
are in this wonderful weird world. Again, I'm very grateful
to have you with me, as many of you know
regularly this as I'm in the north woods of Wisconsin
and it's a dreary, cold night up here. For has
really savagely hit now it feels that way, so it's
actually a perfect nice for what we have install as
(01:29):
our creepy month continues in the lead up to Halloween
next week being the final Halloween episode of course, but
tonight's guest is Amazing. He's a filmmaker and paranormal historian
based out of Walkershaw, Wisconsin. From a young age, he
started to experience things he couldn't quite explain, and that's
led him on a lifelong journey to further experience and
(01:50):
explain the supernatural. He's investigated haunted locations all across the
Midwest and as far afield as Island, but has made
a name for himself as the paranormal exit but of
walk Ashore. Indeed, his brand new book. It's just dropped
cold Ti. It's called The Ghost of walk Ashore or
just Ghosts of walk Ashore, and I haven't even had
a chance to read it just because it came out,
but I'm going to hop on over to Amazon and
(02:12):
order it after the show because it would be great
spooky reading for the Halloween season. I always like to
have something spooky to read it this time of year,
and this book sounds perfect. So I'm delighted to welcome
back to Talking Weird my friend Josh Ues.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Sorry I was I mute there, but yeah, that's brand
new book right there.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
I love the cover. It's just a great cover.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
Custom artwork by Anna Huffman, who works for American ghost Walk. So, yeah,
that's the cover art is one of my favorite stories.
It's featured in the book and the inn the back
is actually a how set of investigated a couple of times.
So yeah, it's crazy. I just got the copies on
(02:59):
Saturday and it's on Amazon, like you said, So it's
it's exciting. The process is finally over. It's here, and
now it's time to market the book. You know.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Yeah, you need to get out there and do a
bunch of shows like this. Funnily enough, I booked you
before I even knew the show was coming out. I
knew you'd be the perfect guy to talk to do
a ghosty kind of show for Hallowin. I'm like, hey,
would you do a ghosty show? And You're like, yeah, sure, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
It's I got a free pass. You know this time
of the year, because it's like so many things are
going on. I just tell my wife, you know, these
are the busiest two weeks of the year. Just let
me do it.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
You know, you're on the TV news, like a news
like a network news channel recently.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
Yeah, so I was on if your local Milwaukee Fox
six news. I was on last night, so they did
a story about the book, some of the stories, and yeah,
I had a lot of family and friends reaching out
to me because it was just like on and they
didn't know what was going to be there, so it
was It's pretty exciting to talk to some people i'ven't
spoken to in a while.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
No, it's I'm just glad to see you have a
book out, because I remember I first met you and
we were both speakers at Milwaukee Para Con last year,
because I know the most recent one just happened like
last weekend and I missed it, which was I was
bummed out about. As I was mentioning before the show too,
I really wanted to get down there because it's such
a great con. I had so much fun, and so
to my girlfriend Sam. We both loved it there. It
(04:14):
was amazing. But yeah, I remember you doing a fascinating
presentation about a kind of a documentary ish thing you'd
been working on and you'd been tracking this really bizarre
and we did it on the last show. People can
go back and look at the pace when you were
last on talking with about this kind of cursed farm
and this family, and it was just such a creepy presentation.
I'm like, I've got diet this guy on and just
before I knew you, I'm like, I got to get
(04:35):
this gun talking with So do you do you look
into some of that stuff in the book? Is that
part of the Yes.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
This is the cursed farm right here, that's actually the farm.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
And so that's why when Anna was like, what do
you want on the cover? I said, It's been my
favorite story for five years. I've done the perra Con
forty five minute talk about it, I visited the farm,
I've talked to people that have lived there, that experienced
the story. I said, if the cover art is going
to be anything, it's got to be the Hill Farm
because that's what's impacted me the most in my time
(05:09):
as the tour guide for Waukesha, but also, you know,
just a lover of history, paranormal history, it's been that property.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Have you done much or rather, have you done any
further investigations on that farm or has there been any
new updates to it, because I seem to think it
was still kind of ongoing a little when we talked about.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
All it was that was about a year ago. Not
much new development. Honestly, you know, it's I think there
was a lot of frustration on my end because there's
no photos that exist of the Hill family. The people
that lived there for quite some time died, There had
lots of tragedy there. You know, you heard that in
(05:51):
my speech at the para con. I was so frustrated
I couldn't find a single photo of this family. But
then giving all that information at the paricn you know,
that was weeks year's worth of research and preparing for that,
I finally like maybe just kind of like let it
go a little bit because it's like, I know, I'm
not going to like keep digging and digging in fine
finally find something. It's gonna have to come to me eventually.
(06:13):
So after the para con, I kind of put that
to bed and then focused on the book shortly after that,
because that was last October, so like November, December, January,
I was writing the book. And yeah, so I'm always
open to more investigations, more research on the property, but
for now, it's like, I think I've done all that
(06:33):
I can.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
You know, that makes that makes sense. What are some
of the other stories in the book that you you
find particularly fascinating or that you're really drawn to.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
Yeah, so again back to the back cover here, this
is the house that's over on Rosemary Street in Waukesha,
and I'll just kind of bring that up again. You know,
it's not as creepy in real life, but there was
the rumors in the fifties and sixties that this property
was a witch was living there, and actually the reality
(07:07):
was that it was a woman that had a brain
disease and she was losing her mind, so she was
just acting very erratically, and it became the house that
no kid wanted to go a trick or treating at,
and up until the witch passed away and her son
passed away, nobody else wanted to live there afterwards because
(07:27):
they all believed it was haunted by this witch. I
actually got to make pretty good friends with the current
owners of the property. They allowed me to come investigate twice.
They allowed me to do some further research on there.
Friday the thirteenth urban legend that surrounds the property, and
hearing their stories, having my own time in the house,
(07:50):
I've discovered that actually is haunted by the people that
used to live there. It was a family that was
there from the early nineteen hundreds up until the nineteen eighties,
and those spirits are still lingering. So that's probably one
of the other properties I've greatly connected with, just because
I've been able to be there experience it for myself.
(08:10):
And it's not just like random walking into a haunted house.
Who is this? Who are you? What's your name? What
are you doing here? It's like I can go there,
know who it is, know who I'm talking to, and
know the experiences they've been through, so I can have
like a more of like a in depth investigation with
these spirits.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
It must be interesting if you kind of it almost
feels like it's relationship building.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
You're I mean, they were actual people at one point
in time. And I was on a radio show I
think about two weeks ago, and this woman she asked me, like,
don't you get afraid. I'm like, Well, in this instance, no,
because I know their entire backstory. I know who they were,
what they did, how long they're in waker show, where
(08:55):
they worked, who they were friends with, photos of the house,
photos of them, I know. I know so much. It's
like they're almost like friends in a very creepy sense.
But I can go in there and I know so
much that I'm not afraid when I get a response,
I know exactly who I'm talking to.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Do you ever feel when you're investigating that any of
these entities have a tricksterish element or they're lying to
you and might be what they're presenting as.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
That's a good question. I would say in some of
the places I've been in Waukesha, maybe a bit, not
as much as other places I've been to. I have
been to a few spots where you don't know what
you're talking to, and I do feel like I'm either
being manipulated or lied to. So I haven't been able
(09:50):
to investigate all the stories in the book, but a
handful of them. Yes, And there's never been that element
of manipulation where it feels like I need to get
out of here right now. It has felt like somebody
truly does want to interact and speak, let you know
that this is who you're talking to. So if it
(10:14):
is manipulation, it's been very good. But I haven't had
that red flag that Spidey's dense pop up where it's
like you need to get out of here and not
talk to this thing ever again, which I've had that
happen in other cases where other haunted places I've been to.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Yeah, I often wonder across the whole gamut of whether
it's whether it's specters, or whether it's UFOs, or whether
it's you know, cryptids or anything in the paranormal space.
So often wonder how many of these things present to
something they aren't, you know what I mean? Like I'm
always maybe just I'm paranoid or I'm super suspicious or
something that I always wonder. I wonder if I wonder
(10:53):
if Great aren't Gertrude, might be something wearing a mask
of great Aunt Gotrude, you know. But that's I think
that does happen sometimes when you've done too is have
been have there been any times where people you've taken
with you have been particularly scared or susceptible, or have
they felt well, have you ever had somebody with you
go this is really bad or feeling gotten particularly scared
(11:17):
or particularly uneasy at the location?
Speaker 3 (11:20):
Right?
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (11:20):
So I usually start every tour just saying like, this
isn't going to be like a haunted house where things
are jumping out at you. I don't promise that you're
going to experience something paranormal. But in the five years
that I've been doing this, there is one story that
I tell about an exorcism that took place in Waukesha,
and I tell it in front of the Catholic church
(11:44):
where the priests that used to be at that church
actually perform the exorcism. And every time I tell that story,
something bizarre happens, like fireworks will go off, or a
white rabbit will want across the front yard, or one
time a car actually crashed into the stoplight right next
to us. So it's like with an extracism, it's like,
(12:06):
it's just interesting how whenever I tell that story something
weird happens.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
And when I skip that story sometimes you don't have time.
It's like, the rest of the tour is fine. But
I did do a we do a pub crawl version
of the tour. Oh wow, And yeah, it's it's a
lot of fun because you also get to have beer
during So I met last summer a woman who is
(12:31):
legally blind. I think the way she described it is
that she can like in the center of her vision,
it's like a black like a black circle, but she
can see around that. But she the way she said
it is that when she sees spirits, they're clear as day.
So if she was looking at Dean or myself, be blurry.
(12:55):
But when spirits come to her, it's it's there, clear
as day. And that's how she can differ in she
ate the two. So when I took her into one
of the locations without telling her anything, she started to
give me information about the spot that she really couldn't
have known without ever being there or doing research before.
(13:17):
So to have somebody with what we would consider a
disability then have to have somewhat of a you know,
a superability I guess you could call it, was like, Wow,
I haven't told this person a single thing yet, and
she's already telling me details that I'm about to tell
her in about ten minutes, you know. So on the tours,
(13:39):
I've certainly met a lot of interesting people, for better
or worse, But I would say the better outweighs the
worse because I'm I'm learning more about Waukesha, the paranorormal,
you know, how people perceive the paranormal and see it,
and it's just been really interesting. I think that's what
(13:59):
keeps me going with the two were in addition to
like making it more interesting for myself. Every year, I'm
always eating. I'm sorry, I always meeting more and more
interesting people as well.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
You'd be doing the Jeffrey Dahmer and the Ad Game
two of you, right, yes, yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
We're not We're not eating. Yeah, it's it's it's like
little little Waukesha. You think, you know, what are you
gonna learn? But it's like every time I do it,
I'm learning something new, either about myself, about the tour,
the history, or the people and their you know abilities.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Sam and I have to come down. My girlfriend, Samantha
and I have come down and do one of these
tours with you at one stage. It's funny. I've never
been to Walkershaw, but Walkershaw has always had a very
special place in my heart because when I was a
kid living in Australia, Sydney, so far from Wisconsin, never
knowing that I would live here. This is a non
haunted story, but it's still a funny story. Well it's
(14:49):
a story I like. Man, maybe nobody else will. I
Oh my favorite Happy Days episode other than the Halloween
episode where Potsy I think pot was a Potsy or Richie.
One of them was wearing a skeletons, suits and my
very one of my very first Halloween cost But the
Christmas episode, the one where Phonsie says, you know, he's
going to visit his arnt in Walker Show, and he
(15:10):
kept saying, you know, they knew he wasn't really going
to walk Ashore, you know, and they were trying Richie
and mister Cunningham were trying, do I think, you know,
get him to come to the Fair Family Christmas, and
he was always going, no, I've got to get to
the last bus to walk A show is coming. So
when i'd visited Wisconsin and when I was back in Australia,
(15:33):
back in Sydney that Christmas, and I'd only been here
a week or so before, it's before i'd moved here,
I just made a I just made a joking reference
saying on just Facebook it's stupid just Facebook coments. So
I guess I missed the last bust to Walker Shore
because I was so far from Wisconsin. And my very
good friend Wayne Klingman, who's been on the show multiple times.
You might have met him at a Milwaukee power con
because he's a local down there. Well he's in Racine.
(15:54):
A great guy. I have known him for many years
when one of my films played at his festival again
before I ever lived here, it was like probably fifteen
years ago. Anyway, he saw that post, he said, I'm
not very far from Walkershaw. Do you want me to come?
And like, I could pick you up and I can
drive you to walk a short and I was like,
it's just to have your day's reference. So but anyway,
that's my silly little walker show story. We have a
(16:16):
question for you from Horace Smith, who is Professor Emeris
of Astronomy and Physics at Michigan State University, also a
very good friend of the show, and he's been on
the show before. He says, does Josh find that different
types of hauntings are reported at different times? Meaning are
the hauntings reported in say the nineteen tens different from
those reported in the nineteen seventies.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
That's a very good question. I'm glad you asked it
because I actually just made a video about this today
on my social channels. So the house that you're in
right now, or that I am in, was built in
nineteen eighteen, and there was actually a woman that passed
away here in the nineteen forties, and I didn't know
(16:59):
about this until living here for about three or four years.
And the only reason I found out is because I
was my wife and I were experiencing just weird things
around the house, right like we'd see something under the
corner of our eye. We are here, footsteps, voices, just
like weird little items. And I did research and found
(17:20):
out that again a woman had passed away here, And
in doing more research and having more things happen, I
finally reached out to the person that actually lived here
in the nineteen eighties, and I called him and I
asked about all the renovations that have been done in
the house, and just curious about other little odds and
(17:42):
ends in the property. And then the last question I
asked was do you know what room that the woman
passed away in? And he kind of like chuckled a
little bit, and as we kind of talked about it further,
he said that their family experienced pretty much the exact
same thing that we were experiencing, saying in twenty twenty
(18:03):
one that would have been as they were experiencing in
like nineteen eighty five, same exact thing. So I guess
in my personal experience with this place and other places
that I've investigated, it really does seem that things almost
seem to be on like a loop, you could say,
(18:23):
like a vinyl record or a cassette tape or even
a DVD. A lot of the things that I've experienced
do seem to be like residual like that, where it's
like you could be here in nineteen hundred versus twenty
fifty and you'd experience the same thing. It's been very
rare where it's like things that are actually interacting with you,
(18:47):
calling you by name, calling out pieces of furniture in
the room, or knowing like modern day things to interact
with you. So based off of like very very personal
experience and other little places I've investigated across my career,
is that it pretty much is the same as nineteen
seventy versus like twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Yeah, that's fascinating. I've always been interested in residual type stuff,
which we talked about in the last episode when we
talked at length about stone type theory.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
Of course, that's basically what I just gave you was
a very slim down version of the stone tape theory.
Is like, I think that a lot of these spirits
that have people that have passed their spirits still lingers
because that the natural elements in the house has absorbed
that energy and is keeping that here, not keeping it,
(19:45):
but allowing it to remain here and replay whenever it
wants to. So yeah, I could go into another hour
and a half episode about that. But yeah, yeah, we
got the ghost here and she's his friend, Lias Casper,
so there's no real cause for a lotarm.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
That's yeah, that's that's very very interesting. We had Horrace.
Thanks you for responding, and I wanted to ask you
if Sam's made his presence felt and if if he's
still mad at Jeff.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
God.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
Um, Jeff asked that, of course, but.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
God, that's a really good one.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
Of course, Jeff likes to ask that Bedlin legends.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
For those who don't know who Sam is, he actually
passed away about a year ago in this house, and
it was probably around this time last year. I think
it was a Sunday morning. I was up in my
office working and all of a sudden, a smoke detector
goes off, and then another one, and then another one
(20:47):
another one, So within a matter of a few minutes,
the entire house has every single smoke detector going off,
and eventually my wife got worried and she said, is
this like carbon monoxide? So we go outside, should call
the fire department. And so I did call the fire department,
and all the alarms are still going off, and they
get here and everything just shuts down. It was like
(21:12):
the fire truck showed up, gone. All the firefighters come in,
they search the whole house, they do with their gadgets,
and they said, no carbon monoxide, the wiring doesn't look faulty.
They just said, we don't know what happened, but keep
an eye on it. And that hasn't happened since. So
it was just like it was just for a house
(21:34):
with a previous like haunted experience to know that like
maybe somebody very close to us, you know, even if
it's an animal perhaps could have caused something that extreme.
It was like it makes it even more confusing, like
how communication works on the other side, you know.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Yeah, that's it's a great question. There's been, of course,
throughout history, there's been all kinds of weird and different
attempts to contact the other side, everything from from from
seance type things to Wiji boards to using electrical equipment
to obviously there's all EVP recordings now it's just such
a it's it's like it seems to be that we're
(22:16):
always trying to find a new way to to communicate
with the other side. Speaking of your home, though, is
it is it Is it something that for example, your
other family members, like, are they how do they deal
with with these things? Like you're obviously very you know,
used to it, You're interested into it, you investigate it,
you tour it, you write about it. But but is
(22:38):
it is it more frightening for them than it is
for you?
Speaker 3 (22:41):
Or I don't think so. I have my in laws
are very religious, and I don't think they I don't
think they've ever had experiences, which is fine. I know
my side has had a few, but we've also had
(23:01):
a lot of like tragic death in the family, so
it has been maybe a little more eye opening to
what the other side potentially could offer. But no, I mean,
for some reason, I've just had the most experiences. I've
taken the most interest in it. But I think that's
because I also love history. So it's the way I
(23:24):
look at all of this is almost like time traveling,
Like I can essentially talk to somebody who passed away
in nineteen forty, or I can go to Ireland and
talk to a king that passed away in nineteen or sorry,
fifteen fifty, you know, like you can you can be
communicating with people from hundreds of years ago or twenty
(23:44):
years ago, get a small glimpse into maybe like what
was going on in their life at that time. So
I think I have just a very different outlook on
all of this, and it's it's never anything that's like exploitative,
you know. I don't want to like make it seem
like it's a gimmick or it's fake. I don't like
to make up ghost stories. I just like to like
(24:04):
experience it because it's it's just so exhilarating, you know,
and there's so much you can learn.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
Is there a difference when you're attempting to communicate or
communicating with somebody who's passed within the last you know, ten,
twenty thirty, forty fifty hundred years as opposed to talking
to somebody in an island who passed, you know, several
hundred years ago.
Speaker 3 (24:26):
Yeah, I'd probably recommend you learn Gaelic if you're going
to do that. But like when I have like my devices.
You know, if I have like a like a ghost
box orus, this is just my cell phone. But if
I have a device, I just like to make it
easy to understand for anybody, because if I'm talking to
somebody who passed away in nineteen forty, they don't know
(24:48):
what a cell phone is, you know, they don't know
what a computer is. So I just say, like, talk
to this box and it will allow us to communicate.
I don't I like to make as easy to understand
as possible because if you start to use modern day
language in terms they're not going to know, you know,
(25:08):
essentially you could theorize that they passed away nineteen forty
they don't know what modern day technology is, and then
essentially you could make them afraid or turn them off,
and they're not going to want to open that line
of communication any further.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
Yeah, I would imagine those kind of things would be
difficult to understand from anybody from an historical period. I'm
also I mean, I'm a skeptic, not in the way
that I don't think there's a spiritual world and that
I don't think the world's far more mysterious than it is.
I have complete distrust in science, I just truy science
far more that I distrust most other things, as anybody
(25:47):
who listens to the show regularly knows. But I'm always
I'm always I try to approach things while having an
open mind, still being to a degree critical of the approaches,
And I often wonder if there's I don't know, if
there's an ability for us to trick ourselves, if we're
(26:08):
trying to communicate with something like a spirit box or
do you know what I mean, do you do you
think sometimes that week or any other device do I mean,
or any other method. Do you think sometimes some of
it is us wanting this communication so badly that where
you know, where we're searching, whether it's listening to you know,
radio cycling through a spirit box type thing, or whether
(26:30):
it's you know, subconsciously pushing the plachette at a Ouiji
board party, or do you think sometimes it's and maybe
even maybe even more strange than that, like could we
be manifesting some of this stuff ourselves? You know, like
do you think some of it come could could come
from us?
Speaker 3 (26:51):
Okay, those are two heavy questions, but yeah, I think
one of the big you know, I've had a few
people ask me over the years, what's the how do
I become a professional paranormal investigator? And I'm like, I
don't really know if there is a difference, you know,
because I started off as a kid who wanted to
(27:12):
do this and grew up into somebody who maybe could
consider themselves a professional. But I think the difference between
professional and amateur is that you're able to let yourself
know that that photo, there's no ghost in that photo,
that's just dust, or that's my imagination, or it's a
(27:35):
distorted photo, or in that EVP that's maybe somebody outside,
or that's the radio, or that's somebody whispering. I think
when you can kind of like allow your ego to
go by the wayside and understand that like genuine evidence
versus evidence that you want to be genuine, that's when
(27:58):
it becomes a difference between profess and non professional. So
there's been plenty of times where it's like I hear
something on an EVP and I'm like, I really want
this to be evidence, but I know deep down it's not,
So then you have to just put it away and
make sure that you don't consider that evidence. There's been
plenty of times when people show me photos and they
(28:19):
it's dark, it's distorted, they've edited to all hell, so
it's like you don't actually know what you're looking at
because it's all mucked up. It's like you have to
like circle spots in the dark. I'm like, that's not evidence.
You need to learn that you paid eighty bucks to
go to this asylum. You want evidence because you paid money,
you didn't experience anything, and you're like grabbing onto that
(28:41):
because either you paid money, or you drove two hours
or you spent eight hours in a dark basement. Sometimes
you're so desperate for evidence that you just want to
almost like trick people into believing that what you experienced
was real. So I don't even know what the beginning
question was, but that's what myall little rant about, Like,
(29:02):
you know, yeah, I've ran into a lot of people
over the years where it's like they just are desperate
to have a piece of evidence that or an experience
that they don't actually start to like pay attention to
the real experiences that they're having.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
No, you answered very well. I think that goes across
all of these different realms in the broader space of Fortyara.
Like I think you're talking about people circling things. The
cryptozoological world is rife with people saying, look at this,
here is a big Footnes's like, you can't even tell
what it is, you know what I mean, the blob
squatches they call. And I think in euphology, people are,
(29:40):
you know, obsessed with something which might just be a drone.
Literally we had the whole drone thing. I mean, that's
a whole other story. But a light in the sky
is instantly transformed into extraterrestrial visitation. You know, people who
want to believe are going to believe and going to
(30:00):
find the things that sometimes help stoke their their particular belief.
Something I'm really interested in, and I'll ask you because
it's a very appropriate time of the year to ask this,
And I know you get busier with the tours at
this time of the year, But do you think there's
a difference in the number of hauntings or the strength
of them, or things coming through at this period of
(30:23):
the year, like the idea of Halloween being a period
where you know, the veil is thinner, or the walls
come down between this world and the other. Do you
think there's any potential reality to that.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
I think there is because we have the changing of
the seasons, we have the changing of time, we have
delated savings. If you look back into like Irish history.
You know, Sam, I'm going to butcher this name, Sam hen.
Speaker 2 (30:53):
So, Yeah, well read Sam Hayne. But I said some
for years. But it's meant to be sour and suppos right.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
You know when you look at this time of year,
like that culture goes back centuries, so there has to
be some truth to that. So I think it's amped
up because you know, I want to watch scary movies
this time of year more than other parts of the year.
I think people just like kind of juice themselves up this.
They want to like go on a tour, they want
(31:22):
to go to a haunted house, they want to see
a ghost, they want to do all these things. It's like,
I think you might even be setting yourself up for
the mindset more than other parts of the year. But
you know, I've had experiences in summerfall, spring, winter, ten am,
three am, twelve pm, you know, all times of the day,
(31:46):
full moon, no moon, raining sun. You know, it's you
can't ever plan to have an experience. It's going to
happen when it wants to versus when you want it
to interesting.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
Interesting, I mean I like to scare myself, not the
right term. That's what some people might say. Maybe that's
the case with some people. But I like the romanticism
of Halloween, like I love carving the pumpkin and put
it before I go to bed, making sure it's, you know,
out on the porch or facing the window, the idea
that it's either lighting the path of you know, the
(32:22):
path of the dead, or keeping the evil away. I
love being part of that traditional culture, which goes back
to you know, where I'm from the electry, because I
have a lot of I have a lot of Celtic
blood in me. Not that even means anything, but romantically
it means a lot to me, do you know what
I mean? We had a question. I asked it a
different way because I but this is squatch MoMA, and
(32:45):
maybe maybe just dropped in squatch MoMA because I answered something.
I asked something similar to this, But she asked, you,
just when you're communicating with a spirit, how do you
know it's what it claims it is?
Speaker 3 (32:56):
Man, Squatch Mama, that's a big one. I guess you know.
The short answer is you don't. You don't always know
that what you're communicating with is genuine. What I like
to do is arm myself with enough knowledge to know
(33:17):
this person as well as they know themselves. You know,
I guess in a spirit sense, so I know that
if the answers that are coming back are maybe a
little bit different than what I know about this person's
history when they are alive, then I could potentially know that, hey,
this is maybe somebody that's faking to be this spirit.
(33:39):
I fortunately enough, have not had anything overly malicious in
the time that I've been doing this. There have been
things that have been a little bit clingy that have
followed me home and thankfully left after giving them a
very stern warning. But in a short answer, you don't know,
So you just had to protect yourself, you know, if
(34:01):
you say, if you say prayers, if you have protection
from spirit guides, don't use a Ouiji board, make sure
you always close off investigations. When communication is done and
you're done for the night or the day, just make
that known to the room or the space. So you
(34:22):
don't always know that what you're communicating with is genuine.
But I will say that in my experience, my instances.
It's not like ghost Hunters where everything is evil and
trying to kill you. Things are genuinely as you know,
as happy as genuine as we are in life. So I,
(34:46):
in another short answer, I would not be worried that
with what you're communicating with is something that has an
ulterior motive and wants to maybe be a dangerous entity
towards you.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
I asked before, and yeah, that is that's really interesting.
I asked before if this time of the year things
are different, and you said you can see things all
the year, you know, daylight, moonlight, whatever. But do you
do you think there's any acceleration historically, Like I know
there are people who think that we're in crazier times
(35:20):
and there's an escalation in supernatural involvement and things. Have
you in your time you've been looking at it. Have
you have you felt that there's any there's any increase
in the pace or any increase in the manifestations.
Speaker 3 (35:37):
Do you want the marketing answer or the real answer,
Give me the real answer. The real answer is no,
I don't think there is an actual escalation of things happening.
I just think people are paying attention to it more
at this time of year because they want to be scared.
(35:58):
So what you know, if October didn't actually exist with Halloween,
I think you would have the same amount of interactions
with spirits as you see the rest of the year.
But I think people this time of year are just
looking for it, so they're paying attention to it more.
And that goes for me too. I am paying attention
to it more because this is my money month, you know, so,
(36:23):
But no, I think if you're trying to push harder
to get that experience this month, maybe see what you
can get in February or June, you know, just like
kind of open your mind more to just letting the
experience come to you or just seeking it out and
almost like hunting it. You know.
Speaker 2 (36:45):
Yes, sam my girlfriend just said something similar. She said,
when you want to looking for experiences and they happen,
you don't want them my opinion, So yes, they just
But I met both now, but I also met in
the broader historical term, do you know what I mean? Like,
let me rephrase it. Since you've been looking into this,
(37:05):
have you seen there are more people reporting it, like
over the course of however many years you've been Oh yeah,
it does seem to be more things happening since you.
Speaker 3 (37:15):
Yeah, but there's also a lot more fake So when
I started this, I was we started like focusing on
this in college around twenty two thousand and eight, there
was Ghost Hunters and Ghost Paranormal State. Those are the
two TV shows that were out. Two TV shows, and
(37:37):
now you've got YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, all the different networks.
Ghost Adventures on its twentieth season. So back then it
was a smaller market, smaller community, so you just had
a lot less going on. It was a bit more taboo,
and now it's almost like, if you have a ghost story,
(37:58):
you're going to get a million view was on TikTok.
So while I think the activity in the amount of
spirits is the same, I think people are seeing that
they can make money off of it, and there's more
reportings that are coming out.
Speaker 2 (38:18):
Yeah, I think that's probably pretty accurate for my limited
understanding of the space. Another wonderful question from Horace Smith,
how old is the oldest ghost that you have encountered? Josh?
Is there an established dek rate over time for haunting?
It's like did they become less or you know?
Speaker 3 (38:36):
That question a variation of that question is how I
start off the book. It's actually in the introduction because
somebody had asked me how long does a haunting last?
Can actually see it, like right there, how long does
a haunting last? And somebody asked me that two years ago,
(38:59):
and I was like, I have no answer for this
because I haven't actually thought about it at that point
in time. And it got me thinking, like, you know,
how long does do these things last? You know, they
can't go on forever? Right, But and again, this is
another thing we could talk about for a couple of hours.
(39:21):
But I think as long as like a story is active,
people are still visiting locations. As long as like the
space that's entwined with this spirit is still kind of
like an active entity in itself, I think that spirit
(39:41):
will still have energy and be able to manifest, communicate
and do all those sorts of things. You know, a
lot of people try to visit like ed Dean's farm
that's been burned down for quite some time, and I
know you're trying to like pay some sort of homage
to whatever ed Geane did for some creepy sort of way,
(40:03):
but you're not going to experience a ghost there because
that property has been gone for over probably seventy years,
so how long does the spirit last? I can't exactly
answer that question, but I think as long as the
building that it is associated with, whether that be a
castle that's in ruins or a brick house like mine,
(40:24):
I think as long as you have those like natural
elements that can kind of like contain that energy and
keep it like in housed in a sense, I think
you'll still have some sort of inkling of what we
might call it haunting.
Speaker 2 (40:39):
I saw a question from squatch mom or and I've
just fiddled with the controls here so collapsed. But she
was asking, is there a difference between ghosts and residual energy?
Like what's the difference?
Speaker 3 (40:55):
So I think residual is just here. It's like just
like a footprint and being left over in the mud.
It's here. You aren't exactly going to be able to
interact with it the way that you want to. You're
not going to be able to ask it questions and
get answers back. It's almost as if like a tape again,
(41:19):
a vinyl, like a record, it's kind of has a
finite loop, right, So it'll be here, it'll have some
sort of interaction with you. But it's almost as if
like the spirit is here just living still. They're going
through the daily motions. Maybe they'll check on you from
time to time, but for the most part, they're kind
(41:40):
of living their separate world and you're living your own.
I would say that's probably like seventy five percent of
what I've encountered, either twenty five percent definitely has been
entities that know that their spirits, they know that they're dead,
and they can pick up on information that you're putting
out into the environment, such as your name, a date, whatever,
(42:02):
like the you know, if the building are in as
like a piece of place or a movie theater or
a house, they can relay that information back to you.
So there is a small percentage of spirits that do
know how to interact a lot more, but I would
say for a majority of what I've encountered, and it's
been residual.
Speaker 2 (42:21):
Yeah, I'm always interested in, Like, I don't know what
the difference is. I think it's that's interesting as somebody
who has as much experience as you to make that
kind of the differentiation, because I haven't had that amount
of experiences and and I really I really don't know,
like I mean, but you know far more about all
(42:42):
this stuff obviously than I do. The hauntings do you?
While ghosts might and as you said, they appear all
the year around and they probably isn't a difference unless
you want the markets you want to give me the
marketing spin to make people jump on the two is more.
But you're booked out anyway, so it doesn't make any difference.
But you yourself, at this time of the year, does
(43:03):
Halloween have any particular significance for you at the kind
of level of somebody who's dedicated so much of their
life to the supernatural and the paranormal and searching for
answers to this stuff.
Speaker 3 (43:17):
It does, you know? Halloween for me growing up was
always a special time of year. I always had the
best costumes on the block, so I always just loved
kind of like putting on a show that time of year,
being able to dress up and go trick or treating
and just have this special time with your friends and
your family. So you know, Halloween is up there with
(43:38):
like Thanksgiving and Christmas and Groundhog Day for me because
you really just get to like do something really different
than you do the rest of the year. Even though
I'm kind of doing this stuff year round, I'm excited
to like do the tours and bring in people to
really like experience that super creepiness that I have come
(44:00):
accustomed to knowing h throughout the entire year. So making
like a special moment for other people the next two
weeks and telling them about Wakash's history and showing them around,
you know, haunted locations and showing them photos, it's like
they get a small glimpse into what I get to
experience pretty much all year. And and you know that's
(44:22):
what makes it a holiday, is not just like creepy,
but uh, you get to like bring happiness to Like
this does bring happiness to people. They get happy seeing
this and they have the emotion, they have the interaction,
they have the reaction. So it's yeah, it's just it's
it's fun. You know, it's just a lot of fun
this time of year.
Speaker 2 (44:43):
If you if you didn't do the twos, but if
you were still interested in the supernatural, as I assume
you would be, what was your what was your Halloween
highlight bay? Like what would be that the parts of
the season you would love the most?
Speaker 3 (44:57):
You know, my wife and I used to go on
anniversary trips this time of year, so we have a
little one now, so maybe not as much, but you know,
we went to New England. We had to go to
Salem and see some spooky stuff there. Ireland trip was amazing.
We've been to a handful by their locations across the
(45:17):
US and just done tours and such like Savannah. So
while it wasn't the sole focus it was, we still
included my interest into those vacations. So yeah, you know,
it's it's that that's cemented in in my life now,
is that it's not just Halloween, it's anniversary time. So
(45:40):
like this time of year really has a lot of
great emotion, energy and things going on, and that's you know,
not something that everybody else is going to have, but
you know, that's what I got.
Speaker 2 (45:51):
Sam just commented that spirits and energy are two different things,
she thinks, and I think that may very well may
be the case. Squortch Mama has another question for you,
and that's in response to the last one. She says,
do spirits evolve over time or are they frozen in
the moment they died? What do you think about that, Josh.
Speaker 3 (46:10):
I think it's both honestly, I think when you know
when somebody is abruptly murdered, like you think about like
the Lizzie Borden House, if somebody were to come into
your living room and kill you with an axe, you
went from reading the newspaper to dead in twenty seconds, right.
(46:32):
So I think in those instances where you die very
abruptly and very traumatically, you're going to be frozen in time.
You might understand that you're passed away for a while, right.
Maybe I don't know, five ten, two hundred years. I'm
not sure what the answer is to that, but I
do think when people like know it's coming, maybe it's cancer,
(46:56):
maybe it's old age, those sorts of things. I think
you or spirit can interact a lot differently than somebody
who passes away very abruptly. It's all about that slow
release of energy versus the very very quick release of energy,
where you kind of have those two different types of spirits.
Speaker 2 (47:17):
Interesting do you think, and this is totally hypothetical, I
just what you said that made me think this. Do
you think people who are more aware of or more
in tuned with the supernatural and the paranormal and think
more about this when they're alive, behave differently when they
(47:39):
pass over, Like is there do you think there's a
different interaction then with people who have that kind of
mindset when they were here.
Speaker 3 (47:47):
I don't know. I don't want to get people that
kind of hope, you know. I don't want to tell
somebody like you believe in spirits, when you die you
can do whatever you want as a spirit. I think
we like just truly don't fully stand and never will
what happens. So you can't kind of like set yourself
up for like I'm passing away, I'm gonna be a
(48:07):
super cool ghost. I'm gonna hang out with this place
and haunt it and be the fun ghost that like
people want to hang out with. Like, I think it
really has to do with the character of person that
you are. I think if you're a loving person who's
you know, maybe a great grandma and loves being around
(48:30):
people and making food and doing holidays and that sort
of thing, maybe your spirit will linger in a very
happy way when you pass. But I did have somebody
message me on Instagram who they lived in a house
where the energy was terrible and they heard that before
they lived there. It was an abusive husband situation, there
was a suicide attempt. I think the person beat their kids.
(48:54):
So when you have that terrible energy, that also clings
onto a space. So it really does go both ways.
But I don't ever want someone to believe that, like
I'm going to be the good ghost who people you
know want to communicate with, because you I don't think
you really have a say in that when you pass.
Speaker 2 (49:13):
Do you think there's a heaven and a hell?
Speaker 3 (49:15):
I'm sorry, what was that?
Speaker 2 (49:17):
Do you think there's a heaven and a hell? Yes?
Do do you think they can? Do you think spirits
from either place can interact? Or is there are there
rules to who can and who can't interact?
Speaker 3 (49:30):
Or I think this is my belief. Don't crucify me
for it. But I think hell is eternal and there
are reasons you go there and you're never ever getting out.
But I think that heaven you get rewarded, and that's
when you see like Grandpa and Grandma coming back and
visiting you and having those well wishes because they they
(49:56):
they got to that reward for being good people and
now they're able to share that with you. But I
think the other side, I think it really is very real.
And it's people. And I don't really like when people
believe in heaven but not hell, because I think that
there is evil in the world and that's where that
comes from. So you have to respect both sides of
(50:19):
the point, you know.
Speaker 2 (50:21):
No, I mean, I do believe in a heaven and
I do believe in a hell like Ia, I'm certainly
not going to crucify you. I think some of my
approaches to the paranormal is my suspicion that the other side,
the underside, the underworld, hell, whatever we want to call it,
that some of these manifestations might come from there and
might be deceitful. But anybody who watches this show regularly
(50:43):
he knows my suspicions of all of these kind of things.
We have a question here from from Doug, what is
the newest building in which you have encountered spirits?
Speaker 3 (50:56):
It would probably be my house. I'm not going to
say where, but it was a new build and we
were in Waukesha when I was a kid, moved to
a new build I think two thousand and one. It
was built, and it seemed all the things I experienced
at my house here in Waukesha, not not this one,
(51:18):
but the one I grew up in as a kid
carried over. But also there was different experiences. So up
until probably high school, I was still experiencing things in
a brand new house. Maybe it was the land, the woods,
I don't know what it was, but there were still
things that were happening that terrified me. So yeah, that
(51:41):
house was built in one, So that was that. But
besides that, you know, most of the houses I would
say are a little bit older, you know, maybe seventies.
I think the the actual other oldest house I've been
in that I've experienced something was built in like nineteen
seventy five, but you know, I'm in a house that
(52:03):
was built in nineteen eighteen, which I still don't even
consider that old. Now I'm looking at like nineteen hundred
and before as like old old properties. But it has
been rare for like properties like nineties two thousands for
where I've experienced something. But I know people certainly have
because built next to graveyards, built on Indian burial property,
(52:28):
that sort of thing where it's like the land is
cursed and then that transfers to the house.
Speaker 2 (52:36):
The chess active Tonight, we have another question for you
and that's from Angel Gourver, and that is if you
talk about spirits you experienced, is inviting them into your life?
Speaker 3 (52:46):
Again, No, that's sorry, that's easy. But I've felt again
this is all my experience, that you can talk about
something as much as you want, but especially on that
side that realm they are going to interact with you
(53:07):
on their schedule and we don't even have a perception
of how time works on the other side. So, like
I mentioned earlier in this discussion that we lived here
for about three or four years before we had the
first interaction. There was nothing for three or four years,
and it was like a light switch turned on. So
(53:28):
that's where time comes into play of like you can
be like, come out, where are you interact with me?
But they're on their own time. It's not going to
happen when you want. It's going to happen when they
wanted to. So no talking about it, trying to manifest it,
in my experience, is not going to make it happen
when you wanted to, or invite it back into your life.
Speaker 2 (53:51):
There was an interesting back and forth in the chat
between Sam and Matt rock and flat Rockland. Also Matt
Auckland who's been a guest on the show, Samos people
want energy or spirits for closure or comfort, and flat
Rockland said he thinks about that a lot. Could it
be a longing or pain that causes some phenomenon. What
(54:11):
do you think about that?
Speaker 3 (54:14):
Well, we got about four minutes left, but I will
say we did experience a death in our family in
this house and then started to experience things not associated
with this house or that person. So I do think
when you experience tragedy or things that are very painful,
(54:36):
whether it be a death or something else in your
life that's very tragic, you do kind of like open
up a door or a window for that energy to
come in and interact with you. So yeah, I'm not
going to go too much into detail about that, but
I will say that, yes, it is possible to invite
things in that aren't associated with the place that you're
(54:59):
currently at, whether you like.
Speaker 2 (55:02):
It or not, I think that's that's very possible as well.
Tell me or tell all of this, We'll go through
a few of you things. If people want to come
down to walk Ashore or they're in the area and
they want to do a tour with you, what's what's
the best way they can.
Speaker 3 (55:17):
They can do that, Okay, American Ghostwalks dot Com that's
the the parent company. American Ghostwalks does all the ghost
walks throughout the the world. And then yeah, thank you.
I agree with Flat Yes, definitely trauma definitely opens doors. Yeah,
American ghost Walks. You can live Waukesham, Milwaukee, Chicago, different cities,
(55:40):
lots of ghostwalks to do. If you want to follow
me on social media Instagram, dot Com, slash Walkisha Ghosts
if you prefer TikTok It's weird Wisconsin. So I've got
two different names, but the same content is a little
bit different on TikTok because kids. But yeah, it's tomorrow's night.
(56:02):
Tour is pretty much sold out. I've got a private
tour for Carroll University on Saturday, and then next weekend
is pretty wide open. So if you want to come
down or come up or come over, lots of opportunity
to do so.
Speaker 2 (56:17):
Like I said, I'm going to get down there some time,
hopefully with me and Sam can both come down and
do the tour with you. Now, tell us just give
give us a little more plug, one more time for
a Ghosts of Walkers. Sure, not only where they can
get it, but but why folks should read it, Because
I'm going to read it. You've already sold me.
Speaker 3 (56:33):
But yeah, I mean, so it's not just a book
about ghost stories. It's my person. It's a lot of
my personal interactions with these stories. So you're not just
getting research, you're getting actual investigations, experience talking to the owners.
It's relatively affordable. I would say twelve ninety nine is
(56:53):
an affordable book. You've got good photos, most of them
taken by me. It feels nice, it's got a nice
feel on the fingers. You know, it's good paper, so
I think you might enjoy turning the pages. But you know,
Wakasha is a unique little place, and I think this
book really just kind of like talks about those stories
(57:14):
in a good way. Because I wrote most of it.
Mike helped out a little bit with some additional things
because he did grow up very nearby to Waukesha. So
it's just like a good read for a place you
wouldn't expect these sorts of things.
Speaker 2 (57:27):
And that's my company. Is that how you pronounced his
lost clame.
Speaker 3 (57:30):
Mike Huberty yea. Mike Huberty owns American Ghost Walks and
then again Wakasha Ghost Walks is a child of the company.
Speaker 2 (57:37):
I'd say, well, man, it was it was great having
you on the show. I really appreciate talking to you,
and there was there were so many other super weird
paths that we could have kept.
Speaker 3 (57:50):
Going down on that show where three hours will work.
Speaker 2 (57:54):
Well that that's that's great because it means I can
I can get you back on and we can talk
about more more weird. Thank you so much man for
coming on. I have happy Halloween as.
Speaker 3 (58:02):
Yes, thank you you too, everybody else. Thank you for
coming up and having good questions tonight.
Speaker 2 (58:07):
Well man, until I talk to you again, which hopefully
will be sooner than later, and until I talk to
everybody else, which will be same weird time, same weird network.
The Untold Radio Network for our final spooky show, the
Halloween Special next Thursday, October thirty, which is all Hello's Eve.
Speaker 1 (58:26):
Eve.
Speaker 2 (58:27):
Please keep it spooky and keep it weird.
The paranormal UFOs Mongstairs Mysteries. As you're listening to Talking
Weird and Know from a Kevin deep in the northwards,
your host, Doctor Dean.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Bertram Greetings of my fellow weirdos and widows, Welcome to
(00:46):
Talking Weird on the Untold Radio Network. I'm your host,
Dean Bertraman. I'm delighted you're going to spend the next
hour or so of your life with me. I hope
whether you're watching us live on YouTube or x or
Facebook when it goes out every Thursday night at nine pm,
or perhaps you are watching the show archive for one
of those platforms after that date, or listening to the
(01:06):
audio only version which drops every Friday. Greetings wherever you
are in this wonderful weird world. Again, I'm very grateful
to have you with me, as many of you know
regularly this as I'm in the north woods of Wisconsin
and it's a dreary, cold night up here. For has
really savagely hit now it feels that way, so it's
actually a perfect nice for what we have install as
(01:29):
our creepy month continues in the lead up to Halloween
next week being the final Halloween episode of course, but
tonight's guest is Amazing. He's a filmmaker and paranormal historian
based out of Walkershaw, Wisconsin. From a young age, he
started to experience things he couldn't quite explain, and that's
led him on a lifelong journey to further experience and
(01:50):
explain the supernatural. He's investigated haunted locations all across the
Midwest and as far afield as Island, but has made
a name for himself as the paranormal exit but of
walk Ashore. Indeed, his brand new book. It's just dropped
cold Ti. It's called The Ghost of walk Ashore or
just Ghosts of walk Ashore, and I haven't even had
a chance to read it just because it came out,
but I'm going to hop on over to Amazon and
(02:12):
order it after the show because it would be great
spooky reading for the Halloween season. I always like to
have something spooky to read it this time of year,
and this book sounds perfect. So I'm delighted to welcome
back to Talking Weird my friend Josh Ues.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Sorry I was I mute there, but yeah, that's brand
new book right there.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
I love the cover. It's just a great cover.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
Custom artwork by Anna Huffman, who works for American ghost Walk. So, yeah,
that's the cover art is one of my favorite stories.
It's featured in the book and the inn the back
is actually a how set of investigated a couple of times.
So yeah, it's crazy. I just got the copies on
(02:59):
Saturday and it's on Amazon, like you said, So it's
it's exciting. The process is finally over. It's here, and
now it's time to market the book. You know.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Yeah, you need to get out there and do a
bunch of shows like this. Funnily enough, I booked you
before I even knew the show was coming out. I
knew you'd be the perfect guy to talk to do
a ghosty kind of show for Hallowin. I'm like, hey,
would you do a ghosty show? And You're like, yeah, sure, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
It's I got a free pass. You know this time
of the year, because it's like so many things are
going on. I just tell my wife, you know, these
are the busiest two weeks of the year. Just let
me do it.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
You know, you're on the TV news, like a news
like a network news channel recently.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
Yeah, so I was on if your local Milwaukee Fox
six news. I was on last night, so they did
a story about the book, some of the stories, and yeah,
I had a lot of family and friends reaching out
to me because it was just like on and they
didn't know what was going to be there, so it
was It's pretty exciting to talk to some people i'ven't
spoken to in a while.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
No, it's I'm just glad to see you have a
book out, because I remember I first met you and
we were both speakers at Milwaukee Para Con last year,
because I know the most recent one just happened like
last weekend and I missed it, which was I was
bummed out about. As I was mentioning before the show too,
I really wanted to get down there because it's such
a great con. I had so much fun, and so
to my girlfriend Sam. We both loved it there. It
(04:14):
was amazing. But yeah, I remember you doing a fascinating
presentation about a kind of a documentary ish thing you'd
been working on and you'd been tracking this really bizarre
and we did it on the last show. People can
go back and look at the pace when you were
last on talking with about this kind of cursed farm
and this family, and it was just such a creepy presentation.
I'm like, I've got diet this guy on and just
before I knew you, I'm like, I got to get
(04:35):
this gun talking with So do you do you look
into some of that stuff in the book? Is that
part of the Yes.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
This is the cursed farm right here, that's actually the farm.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
And so that's why when Anna was like, what do
you want on the cover? I said, It's been my
favorite story for five years. I've done the perra Con
forty five minute talk about it, I visited the farm,
I've talked to people that have lived there, that experienced
the story. I said, if the cover art is going
to be anything, it's got to be the Hill Farm
because that's what's impacted me the most in my time
(05:09):
as the tour guide for Waukesha, but also, you know,
just a lover of history, paranormal history, it's been that property.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Have you done much or rather, have you done any
further investigations on that farm or has there been any
new updates to it, because I seem to think it
was still kind of ongoing a little when we talked about.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
All it was that was about a year ago. Not
much new development. Honestly, you know, it's I think there
was a lot of frustration on my end because there's
no photos that exist of the Hill family. The people
that lived there for quite some time died, There had
lots of tragedy there. You know, you heard that in
(05:51):
my speech at the para con. I was so frustrated
I couldn't find a single photo of this family. But
then giving all that information at the paricn you know,
that was weeks year's worth of research and preparing for that,
I finally like maybe just kind of like let it
go a little bit because it's like, I know, I'm
not going to like keep digging and digging in fine
finally find something. It's gonna have to come to me eventually.
(06:13):
So after the para con, I kind of put that
to bed and then focused on the book shortly after that,
because that was last October, so like November, December, January,
I was writing the book. And yeah, so I'm always
open to more investigations, more research on the property, but
for now, it's like, I think I've done all that
(06:33):
I can.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
You know, that makes that makes sense. What are some
of the other stories in the book that you you
find particularly fascinating or that you're really drawn to.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
Yeah, so again back to the back cover here, this
is the house that's over on Rosemary Street in Waukesha,
and I'll just kind of bring that up again. You know,
it's not as creepy in real life, but there was
the rumors in the fifties and sixties that this property
was a witch was living there, and actually the reality
(07:07):
was that it was a woman that had a brain
disease and she was losing her mind, so she was
just acting very erratically, and it became the house that
no kid wanted to go a trick or treating at,
and up until the witch passed away and her son
passed away, nobody else wanted to live there afterwards because
(07:27):
they all believed it was haunted by this witch. I
actually got to make pretty good friends with the current
owners of the property. They allowed me to come investigate twice.
They allowed me to do some further research on there.
Friday the thirteenth urban legend that surrounds the property, and
hearing their stories, having my own time in the house,
(07:50):
I've discovered that actually is haunted by the people that
used to live there. It was a family that was
there from the early nineteen hundreds up until the nineteen eighties,
and those spirits are still lingering. So that's probably one
of the other properties I've greatly connected with, just because
I've been able to be there experience it for myself.
(08:10):
And it's not just like random walking into a haunted house.
Who is this? Who are you? What's your name? What
are you doing here? It's like I can go there,
know who it is, know who I'm talking to, and
know the experiences they've been through, so I can have
like a more of like a in depth investigation with
these spirits.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
It must be interesting if you kind of it almost
feels like it's relationship building.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
You're I mean, they were actual people at one point
in time. And I was on a radio show I
think about two weeks ago, and this woman she asked me, like,
don't you get afraid. I'm like, Well, in this instance, no,
because I know their entire backstory. I know who they were,
what they did, how long they're in waker show, where
(08:55):
they worked, who they were friends with, photos of the house,
photos of them, I know. I know so much. It's
like they're almost like friends in a very creepy sense.
But I can go in there and I know so
much that I'm not afraid when I get a response,
I know exactly who I'm talking to.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Do you ever feel when you're investigating that any of
these entities have a tricksterish element or they're lying to
you and might be what they're presenting as.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
That's a good question. I would say in some of
the places I've been in Waukesha, maybe a bit, not
as much as other places I've been to. I have
been to a few spots where you don't know what
you're talking to, and I do feel like I'm either
being manipulated or lied to. So I haven't been able
(09:50):
to investigate all the stories in the book, but a
handful of them. Yes, And there's never been that element
of manipulation where it feels like I need to get
out of here right now. It has felt like somebody
truly does want to interact and speak, let you know
that this is who you're talking to. So if it
(10:14):
is manipulation, it's been very good. But I haven't had
that red flag that Spidey's dense pop up where it's
like you need to get out of here and not
talk to this thing ever again, which I've had that
happen in other cases where other haunted places I've been to.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Yeah, I often wonder across the whole gamut of whether
it's whether it's specters, or whether it's UFOs, or whether
it's you know, cryptids or anything in the paranormal space.
So often wonder how many of these things present to
something they aren't, you know what I mean? Like I'm
always maybe just I'm paranoid or I'm super suspicious or
something that I always wonder. I wonder if I wonder
(10:53):
if Great aren't Gertrude, might be something wearing a mask
of great Aunt Gotrude, you know. But that's I think
that does happen sometimes when you've done too is have
been have there been any times where people you've taken
with you have been particularly scared or susceptible, or have
they felt well, have you ever had somebody with you
go this is really bad or feeling gotten particularly scared
(11:17):
or particularly uneasy at the location?
Speaker 3 (11:20):
Right?
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (11:20):
So I usually start every tour just saying like, this
isn't going to be like a haunted house where things
are jumping out at you. I don't promise that you're
going to experience something paranormal. But in the five years
that I've been doing this, there is one story that
I tell about an exorcism that took place in Waukesha,
and I tell it in front of the Catholic church
(11:44):
where the priests that used to be at that church
actually perform the exorcism. And every time I tell that story,
something bizarre happens, like fireworks will go off, or a
white rabbit will want across the front yard, or one
time a car actually crashed into the stoplight right next
to us. So it's like with an extracism, it's like,
(12:06):
it's just interesting how whenever I tell that story something
weird happens.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
And when I skip that story sometimes you don't have time.
It's like, the rest of the tour is fine. But
I did do a we do a pub crawl version
of the tour. Oh wow, And yeah, it's it's a
lot of fun because you also get to have beer
during So I met last summer a woman who is
(12:31):
legally blind. I think the way she described it is
that she can like in the center of her vision,
it's like a black like a black circle, but she
can see around that. But she the way she said
it is that when she sees spirits, they're clear as day.
So if she was looking at Dean or myself, be blurry.
(12:55):
But when spirits come to her, it's it's there, clear
as day. And that's how she can differ in she
ate the two. So when I took her into one
of the locations without telling her anything, she started to
give me information about the spot that she really couldn't
have known without ever being there or doing research before.
(13:17):
So to have somebody with what we would consider a
disability then have to have somewhat of a you know,
a superability I guess you could call it, was like, Wow,
I haven't told this person a single thing yet, and
she's already telling me details that I'm about to tell
her in about ten minutes, you know. So on the tours,
(13:39):
I've certainly met a lot of interesting people, for better
or worse, But I would say the better outweighs the
worse because I'm I'm learning more about Waukesha, the paranorormal,
you know, how people perceive the paranormal and see it,
and it's just been really interesting. I think that's what
(13:59):
keeps me going with the two were in addition to
like making it more interesting for myself. Every year, I'm
always eating. I'm sorry, I always meeting more and more
interesting people as well.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
You'd be doing the Jeffrey Dahmer and the Ad Game
two of you, right, yes, yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
We're not We're not eating. Yeah, it's it's it's like
little little Waukesha. You think, you know, what are you
gonna learn? But it's like every time I do it,
I'm learning something new, either about myself, about the tour,
the history, or the people and their you know abilities.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Sam and I have to come down. My girlfriend, Samantha
and I have come down and do one of these
tours with you at one stage. It's funny. I've never
been to Walkershaw, but Walkershaw has always had a very
special place in my heart because when I was a
kid living in Australia, Sydney, so far from Wisconsin, never
knowing that I would live here. This is a non
haunted story, but it's still a funny story. Well it's
(14:49):
a story I like. Man, maybe nobody else will. I
Oh my favorite Happy Days episode other than the Halloween
episode where Potsy I think pot was a Potsy or Richie.
One of them was wearing a skeletons, suits and my
very one of my very first Halloween cost But the
Christmas episode, the one where Phonsie says, you know, he's
going to visit his arnt in Walker Show, and he
(15:10):
kept saying, you know, they knew he wasn't really going
to walk Ashore, you know, and they were trying Richie
and mister Cunningham were trying, do I think, you know,
get him to come to the Fair Family Christmas, and
he was always going, no, I've got to get to
the last bus to walk A show is coming. So
when i'd visited Wisconsin and when I was back in Australia,
(15:33):
back in Sydney that Christmas, and I'd only been here
a week or so before, it's before i'd moved here,
I just made a I just made a joking reference
saying on just Facebook it's stupid just Facebook coments. So
I guess I missed the last bust to Walker Shore
because I was so far from Wisconsin. And my very
good friend Wayne Klingman, who's been on the show multiple times.
You might have met him at a Milwaukee power con
because he's a local down there. Well he's in Racine.
(15:54):
A great guy. I have known him for many years
when one of my films played at his festival again
before I ever lived here, it was like probably fifteen
years ago. Anyway, he saw that post, he said, I'm
not very far from Walkershaw. Do you want me to come?
And like, I could pick you up and I can
drive you to walk a short and I was like,
it's just to have your day's reference. So but anyway,
that's my silly little walker show story. We have a
(16:16):
question for you from Horace Smith, who is Professor Emeris
of Astronomy and Physics at Michigan State University, also a
very good friend of the show, and he's been on
the show before. He says, does Josh find that different
types of hauntings are reported at different times? Meaning are
the hauntings reported in say the nineteen tens different from
those reported in the nineteen seventies.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
That's a very good question. I'm glad you asked it
because I actually just made a video about this today
on my social channels. So the house that you're in
right now, or that I am in, was built in
nineteen eighteen, and there was actually a woman that passed
away here in the nineteen forties, and I didn't know
(16:59):
about this until living here for about three or four years.
And the only reason I found out is because I
was my wife and I were experiencing just weird things
around the house, right like we'd see something under the
corner of our eye. We are here, footsteps, voices, just
like weird little items. And I did research and found
(17:20):
out that again a woman had passed away here, And
in doing more research and having more things happen, I
finally reached out to the person that actually lived here
in the nineteen eighties, and I called him and I
asked about all the renovations that have been done in
the house, and just curious about other little odds and
(17:42):
ends in the property. And then the last question I
asked was do you know what room that the woman
passed away in? And he kind of like chuckled a
little bit, and as we kind of talked about it further,
he said that their family experienced pretty much the exact
same thing that we were experiencing, saying in twenty twenty
(18:03):
one that would have been as they were experiencing in
like nineteen eighty five, same exact thing. So I guess
in my personal experience with this place and other places
that I've investigated, it really does seem that things almost
seem to be on like a loop, you could say,
(18:23):
like a vinyl record or a cassette tape or even
a DVD. A lot of the things that I've experienced
do seem to be like residual like that, where it's
like you could be here in nineteen hundred versus twenty
fifty and you'd experience the same thing. It's been very
rare where it's like things that are actually interacting with you,
(18:47):
calling you by name, calling out pieces of furniture in
the room, or knowing like modern day things to interact
with you. So based off of like very very personal
experience and other little places I've investigated across my career,
is that it pretty much is the same as nineteen
seventy versus like twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Yeah, that's fascinating. I've always been interested in residual type stuff,
which we talked about in the last episode when we
talked at length about stone type theory.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
Of course, that's basically what I just gave you was
a very slim down version of the stone tape theory.
Is like, I think that a lot of these spirits
that have people that have passed their spirits still lingers
because that the natural elements in the house has absorbed
that energy and is keeping that here, not keeping it,
(19:45):
but allowing it to remain here and replay whenever it
wants to. So yeah, I could go into another hour
and a half episode about that. But yeah, yeah, we
got the ghost here and she's his friend, Lias Casper,
so there's no real cause for a lotarm.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
That's yeah, that's that's very very interesting. We had Horrace.
Thanks you for responding, and I wanted to ask you
if Sam's made his presence felt and if if he's
still mad at Jeff.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
God.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
Um, Jeff asked that, of course, but.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
God, that's a really good one.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
Of course, Jeff likes to ask that Bedlin legends.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
For those who don't know who Sam is, he actually
passed away about a year ago in this house, and
it was probably around this time last year. I think
it was a Sunday morning. I was up in my
office working and all of a sudden, a smoke detector
goes off, and then another one, and then another one
(20:47):
another one, So within a matter of a few minutes,
the entire house has every single smoke detector going off,
and eventually my wife got worried and she said, is
this like carbon monoxide? So we go outside, should call
the fire department. And so I did call the fire department,
and all the alarms are still going off, and they
get here and everything just shuts down. It was like
(21:12):
the fire truck showed up, gone. All the firefighters come in,
they search the whole house, they do with their gadgets,
and they said, no carbon monoxide, the wiring doesn't look faulty.
They just said, we don't know what happened, but keep
an eye on it. And that hasn't happened since. So
it was just like it was just for a house
(21:34):
with a previous like haunted experience to know that like
maybe somebody very close to us, you know, even if
it's an animal perhaps could have caused something that extreme.
It was like it makes it even more confusing, like
how communication works on the other side, you know.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Yeah, that's it's a great question. There's been, of course,
throughout history, there's been all kinds of weird and different
attempts to contact the other side, everything from from from
seance type things to Wiji boards to using electrical equipment
to obviously there's all EVP recordings now it's just such
a it's it's like it seems to be that we're
(22:16):
always trying to find a new way to to communicate
with the other side. Speaking of your home, though, is
it is it Is it something that for example, your
other family members, like, are they how do they deal
with with these things? Like you're obviously very you know,
used to it, You're interested into it, you investigate it,
you tour it, you write about it. But but is
(22:38):
it is it more frightening for them than it is
for you?
Speaker 3 (22:41):
Or I don't think so. I have my in laws
are very religious, and I don't think they I don't
think they've ever had experiences, which is fine. I know
my side has had a few, but we've also had
(23:01):
a lot of like tragic death in the family, so
it has been maybe a little more eye opening to
what the other side potentially could offer. But no, I mean,
for some reason, I've just had the most experiences. I've
taken the most interest in it. But I think that's
because I also love history. So it's the way I
(23:24):
look at all of this is almost like time traveling,
Like I can essentially talk to somebody who passed away
in nineteen forty, or I can go to Ireland and
talk to a king that passed away in nineteen or sorry,
fifteen fifty, you know, like you can you can be
communicating with people from hundreds of years ago or twenty
(23:44):
years ago, get a small glimpse into maybe like what
was going on in their life at that time. So
I think I have just a very different outlook on
all of this, and it's it's never anything that's like exploitative,
you know. I don't want to like make it seem
like it's a gimmick or it's fake. I don't like
to make up ghost stories. I just like to like
(24:04):
experience it because it's it's just so exhilarating, you know,
and there's so much you can learn.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
Is there a difference when you're attempting to communicate or
communicating with somebody who's passed within the last you know, ten,
twenty thirty, forty fifty hundred years as opposed to talking
to somebody in an island who passed, you know, several
hundred years ago.
Speaker 3 (24:26):
Yeah, I'd probably recommend you learn Gaelic if you're going
to do that. But like when I have like my devices.
You know, if I have like a like a ghost
box orus, this is just my cell phone. But if
I have a device, I just like to make it
easy to understand for anybody, because if I'm talking to
somebody who passed away in nineteen forty, they don't know
(24:48):
what a cell phone is, you know, they don't know
what a computer is. So I just say, like, talk
to this box and it will allow us to communicate.
I don't I like to make as easy to understand
as possible because if you start to use modern day
language in terms they're not going to know, you know,
(25:08):
essentially you could theorize that they passed away nineteen forty
they don't know what modern day technology is, and then
essentially you could make them afraid or turn them off,
and they're not going to want to open that line
of communication any further.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
Yeah, I would imagine those kind of things would be
difficult to understand from anybody from an historical period. I'm
also I mean, I'm a skeptic, not in the way
that I don't think there's a spiritual world and that
I don't think the world's far more mysterious than it is.
I have complete distrust in science, I just truy science
far more that I distrust most other things, as anybody
(25:47):
who listens to the show regularly knows. But I'm always
I'm always I try to approach things while having an
open mind, still being to a degree critical of the approaches,
And I often wonder if there's I don't know, if
there's an ability for us to trick ourselves, if we're
(26:08):
trying to communicate with something like a spirit box or
do you know what I mean, do you do you
think sometimes that week or any other device do I mean,
or any other method. Do you think sometimes some of
it is us wanting this communication so badly that where
you know, where we're searching, whether it's listening to you know,
radio cycling through a spirit box type thing, or whether
(26:30):
it's you know, subconsciously pushing the plachette at a Ouiji
board party, or do you think sometimes it's and maybe
even maybe even more strange than that, like could we
be manifesting some of this stuff ourselves? You know, like
do you think some of it come could could come
from us?
Speaker 3 (26:51):
Okay, those are two heavy questions, but yeah, I think
one of the big you know, I've had a few
people ask me over the years, what's the how do
I become a professional paranormal investigator? And I'm like, I
don't really know if there is a difference, you know,
because I started off as a kid who wanted to
(27:12):
do this and grew up into somebody who maybe could
consider themselves a professional. But I think the difference between
professional and amateur is that you're able to let yourself
know that that photo, there's no ghost in that photo,
that's just dust, or that's my imagination, or it's a
(27:35):
distorted photo, or in that EVP that's maybe somebody outside,
or that's the radio, or that's somebody whispering. I think
when you can kind of like allow your ego to
go by the wayside and understand that like genuine evidence
versus evidence that you want to be genuine, that's when
(27:58):
it becomes a difference between profess and non professional. So
there's been plenty of times where it's like I hear
something on an EVP and I'm like, I really want
this to be evidence, but I know deep down it's not,
So then you have to just put it away and
make sure that you don't consider that evidence. There's been
plenty of times when people show me photos and they
(28:19):
it's dark, it's distorted, they've edited to all hell, so
it's like you don't actually know what you're looking at
because it's all mucked up. It's like you have to
like circle spots in the dark. I'm like, that's not evidence.
You need to learn that you paid eighty bucks to
go to this asylum. You want evidence because you paid money,
you didn't experience anything, and you're like grabbing onto that
(28:41):
because either you paid money, or you drove two hours
or you spent eight hours in a dark basement. Sometimes
you're so desperate for evidence that you just want to
almost like trick people into believing that what you experienced
was real. So I don't even know what the beginning
question was, but that's what myall little rant about, Like,
(29:02):
you know, yeah, I've ran into a lot of people
over the years where it's like they just are desperate
to have a piece of evidence that or an experience
that they don't actually start to like pay attention to
the real experiences that they're having.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
No, you answered very well. I think that goes across
all of these different realms in the broader space of Fortyara.
Like I think you're talking about people circling things. The
cryptozoological world is rife with people saying, look at this,
here is a big Footnes's like, you can't even tell
what it is, you know what I mean, the blob
squatches they call. And I think in euphology, people are,
(29:40):
you know, obsessed with something which might just be a drone.
Literally we had the whole drone thing. I mean, that's
a whole other story. But a light in the sky
is instantly transformed into extraterrestrial visitation. You know, people who
want to believe are going to believe and going to
(30:00):
find the things that sometimes help stoke their their particular belief.
Something I'm really interested in, and I'll ask you because
it's a very appropriate time of the year to ask this,
And I know you get busier with the tours at
this time of the year, But do you think there's
a difference in the number of hauntings or the strength
of them, or things coming through at this period of
(30:23):
the year, like the idea of Halloween being a period
where you know, the veil is thinner, or the walls
come down between this world and the other. Do you
think there's any potential reality to that.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
I think there is because we have the changing of
the seasons, we have the changing of time, we have
delated savings. If you look back into like Irish history.
You know, Sam, I'm going to butcher this name, Sam hen.
Speaker 2 (30:53):
So, Yeah, well read Sam Hayne. But I said some
for years. But it's meant to be sour and suppos right.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
You know when you look at this time of year,
like that culture goes back centuries, so there has to
be some truth to that. So I think it's amped
up because you know, I want to watch scary movies
this time of year more than other parts of the year.
I think people just like kind of juice themselves up this.
They want to like go on a tour, they want
(31:22):
to go to a haunted house, they want to see
a ghost, they want to do all these things. It's like,
I think you might even be setting yourself up for
the mindset more than other parts of the year. But
you know, I've had experiences in summerfall, spring, winter, ten am,
three am, twelve pm, you know, all times of the day,
(31:46):
full moon, no moon, raining sun. You know, it's you
can't ever plan to have an experience. It's going to
happen when it wants to versus when you want it
to interesting.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
Interesting, I mean I like to scare myself, not the
right term. That's what some people might say. Maybe that's
the case with some people. But I like the romanticism
of Halloween, like I love carving the pumpkin and put
it before I go to bed, making sure it's, you know,
out on the porch or facing the window, the idea
that it's either lighting the path of you know, the
(32:22):
path of the dead, or keeping the evil away. I
love being part of that traditional culture, which goes back
to you know, where I'm from the electry, because I
have a lot of I have a lot of Celtic
blood in me. Not that even means anything, but romantically
it means a lot to me, do you know what
I mean? We had a question. I asked it a
different way because I but this is squatch MoMA, and
(32:45):
maybe maybe just dropped in squatch MoMA because I answered something.
I asked something similar to this, But she asked, you,
just when you're communicating with a spirit, how do you
know it's what it claims it is?
Speaker 3 (32:56):
Man, Squatch Mama, that's a big one. I guess you know.
The short answer is you don't. You don't always know
that what you're communicating with is genuine. What I like
to do is arm myself with enough knowledge to know
(33:17):
this person as well as they know themselves. You know,
I guess in a spirit sense, so I know that
if the answers that are coming back are maybe a
little bit different than what I know about this person's
history when they are alive, then I could potentially know that, hey,
this is maybe somebody that's faking to be this spirit.
(33:39):
I fortunately enough, have not had anything overly malicious in
the time that I've been doing this. There have been
things that have been a little bit clingy that have
followed me home and thankfully left after giving them a
very stern warning. But in a short answer, you don't know,
So you just had to protect yourself, you know, if
(34:01):
you say, if you say prayers, if you have protection
from spirit guides, don't use a Ouiji board, make sure
you always close off investigations. When communication is done and
you're done for the night or the day, just make
that known to the room or the space. So you
(34:22):
don't always know that what you're communicating with is genuine.
But I will say that in my experience, my instances.
It's not like ghost Hunters where everything is evil and
trying to kill you. Things are genuinely as you know,
as happy as genuine as we are in life. So I,
(34:46):
in another short answer, I would not be worried that
with what you're communicating with is something that has an
ulterior motive and wants to maybe be a dangerous entity
towards you.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
I asked before, and yeah, that is that's really interesting.
I asked before if this time of the year things
are different, and you said you can see things all
the year, you know, daylight, moonlight, whatever. But do you
do you think there's any acceleration historically, Like I know
there are people who think that we're in crazier times
(35:20):
and there's an escalation in supernatural involvement and things. Have
you in your time you've been looking at it. Have
you have you felt that there's any there's any increase
in the pace or any increase in the manifestations.
Speaker 3 (35:37):
Do you want the marketing answer or the real answer,
Give me the real answer. The real answer is no,
I don't think there is an actual escalation of things happening.
I just think people are paying attention to it more
at this time of year because they want to be scared.
(35:58):
So what you know, if October didn't actually exist with Halloween,
I think you would have the same amount of interactions
with spirits as you see the rest of the year.
But I think people this time of year are just
looking for it, so they're paying attention to it more.
And that goes for me too. I am paying attention
to it more because this is my money month, you know, so,
(36:23):
But no, I think if you're trying to push harder
to get that experience this month, maybe see what you
can get in February or June, you know, just like
kind of open your mind more to just letting the
experience come to you or just seeking it out and
almost like hunting it. You know.
Speaker 2 (36:45):
Yes, sam my girlfriend just said something similar. She said,
when you want to looking for experiences and they happen,
you don't want them my opinion, So yes, they just
But I met both now, but I also met in
the broader historical term, do you know what I mean? Like,
let me rephrase it. Since you've been looking into this,
(37:05):
have you seen there are more people reporting it, like
over the course of however many years you've been Oh yeah,
it does seem to be more things happening since you.
Speaker 3 (37:15):
Yeah, but there's also a lot more fake So when
I started this, I was we started like focusing on
this in college around twenty two thousand and eight, there
was Ghost Hunters and Ghost Paranormal State. Those are the
two TV shows that were out. Two TV shows, and
(37:37):
now you've got YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, all the different networks.
Ghost Adventures on its twentieth season. So back then it
was a smaller market, smaller community, so you just had
a lot less going on. It was a bit more taboo,
and now it's almost like, if you have a ghost story,
(37:58):
you're going to get a million view was on TikTok.
So while I think the activity in the amount of
spirits is the same, I think people are seeing that
they can make money off of it, and there's more
reportings that are coming out.
Speaker 2 (38:18):
Yeah, I think that's probably pretty accurate for my limited
understanding of the space. Another wonderful question from Horace Smith,
how old is the oldest ghost that you have encountered? Josh?
Is there an established dek rate over time for haunting?
It's like did they become less or you know?
Speaker 3 (38:36):
That question a variation of that question is how I
start off the book. It's actually in the introduction because
somebody had asked me how long does a haunting last?
Can actually see it, like right there, how long does
a haunting last? And somebody asked me that two years ago,
(38:59):
and I was like, I have no answer for this
because I haven't actually thought about it at that point
in time. And it got me thinking, like, you know,
how long does do these things last? You know, they
can't go on forever? Right, But and again, this is
another thing we could talk about for a couple of hours.
(39:21):
But I think as long as like a story is active,
people are still visiting locations. As long as like the
space that's entwined with this spirit is still kind of
like an active entity in itself, I think that spirit
(39:41):
will still have energy and be able to manifest, communicate
and do all those sorts of things. You know, a
lot of people try to visit like ed Dean's farm
that's been burned down for quite some time, and I
know you're trying to like pay some sort of homage
to whatever ed Geane did for some creepy sort of way,
(40:03):
but you're not going to experience a ghost there because
that property has been gone for over probably seventy years,
so how long does the spirit last? I can't exactly
answer that question, but I think as long as the
building that it is associated with, whether that be a
castle that's in ruins or a brick house like mine,
(40:24):
I think as long as you have those like natural
elements that can kind of like contain that energy and
keep it like in housed in a sense, I think
you'll still have some sort of inkling of what we
might call it haunting.
Speaker 2 (40:39):
I saw a question from squatch mom or and I've
just fiddled with the controls here so collapsed. But she
was asking, is there a difference between ghosts and residual energy?
Like what's the difference?
Speaker 3 (40:55):
So I think residual is just here. It's like just
like a footprint and being left over in the mud.
It's here. You aren't exactly going to be able to
interact with it the way that you want to. You're
not going to be able to ask it questions and
get answers back. It's almost as if like a tape again,
(41:19):
a vinyl, like a record, it's kind of has a
finite loop, right, So it'll be here, it'll have some
sort of interaction with you. But it's almost as if
like the spirit is here just living still. They're going
through the daily motions. Maybe they'll check on you from
time to time, but for the most part, they're kind
(41:40):
of living their separate world and you're living your own.
I would say that's probably like seventy five percent of
what I've encountered, either twenty five percent definitely has been
entities that know that their spirits, they know that they're dead,
and they can pick up on information that you're putting
out into the environment, such as your name, a date, whatever,
(42:02):
like the you know, if the building are in as
like a piece of place or a movie theater or
a house, they can relay that information back to you.
So there is a small percentage of spirits that do
know how to interact a lot more, but I would
say for a majority of what I've encountered, and it's
been residual.
Speaker 2 (42:21):
Yeah, I'm always interested in, Like, I don't know what
the difference is. I think it's that's interesting as somebody
who has as much experience as you to make that
kind of the differentiation, because I haven't had that amount
of experiences and and I really I really don't know,
like I mean, but you know far more about all
(42:42):
this stuff obviously than I do. The hauntings do you?
While ghosts might and as you said, they appear all
the year around and they probably isn't a difference unless
you want the markets you want to give me the
marketing spin to make people jump on the two is more.
But you're booked out anyway, so it doesn't make any difference.
But you yourself, at this time of the year, does
(43:03):
Halloween have any particular significance for you at the kind
of level of somebody who's dedicated so much of their
life to the supernatural and the paranormal and searching for
answers to this stuff.
Speaker 3 (43:17):
It does, you know? Halloween for me growing up was
always a special time of year. I always had the
best costumes on the block, so I always just loved
kind of like putting on a show that time of year,
being able to dress up and go trick or treating
and just have this special time with your friends and
your family. So you know, Halloween is up there with
(43:38):
like Thanksgiving and Christmas and Groundhog Day for me because
you really just get to like do something really different
than you do the rest of the year. Even though
I'm kind of doing this stuff year round, I'm excited
to like do the tours and bring in people to
really like experience that super creepiness that I have come
(44:00):
accustomed to knowing h throughout the entire year. So making
like a special moment for other people the next two
weeks and telling them about Wakash's history and showing them around,
you know, haunted locations and showing them photos, it's like
they get a small glimpse into what I get to
experience pretty much all year. And and you know that's
(44:22):
what makes it a holiday, is not just like creepy,
but uh, you get to like bring happiness to Like
this does bring happiness to people. They get happy seeing
this and they have the emotion, they have the interaction,
they have the reaction. So it's yeah, it's just it's
it's fun. You know, it's just a lot of fun
this time of year.
Speaker 2 (44:43):
If you if you didn't do the twos, but if
you were still interested in the supernatural, as I assume
you would be, what was your what was your Halloween
highlight bay? Like what would be that the parts of
the season you would love the most?
Speaker 3 (44:57):
You know, my wife and I used to go on
anniversary trips this time of year, so we have a
little one now, so maybe not as much, but you know,
we went to New England. We had to go to
Salem and see some spooky stuff there. Ireland trip was amazing.
We've been to a handful by their locations across the
(45:17):
US and just done tours and such like Savannah. So
while it wasn't the sole focus it was, we still
included my interest into those vacations. So yeah, you know,
it's it's that that's cemented in in my life now,
is that it's not just Halloween, it's anniversary time. So
(45:40):
like this time of year really has a lot of
great emotion, energy and things going on, and that's you know,
not something that everybody else is going to have, but
you know, that's what I got.
Speaker 2 (45:51):
Sam just commented that spirits and energy are two different things,
she thinks, and I think that may very well may
be the case. Squortch Mama has another question for you,
and that's in response to the last one. She says,
do spirits evolve over time or are they frozen in
the moment they died? What do you think about that, Josh.
Speaker 3 (46:10):
I think it's both honestly, I think when you know
when somebody is abruptly murdered, like you think about like
the Lizzie Borden House, if somebody were to come into
your living room and kill you with an axe, you
went from reading the newspaper to dead in twenty seconds, right.
(46:32):
So I think in those instances where you die very
abruptly and very traumatically, you're going to be frozen in time.
You might understand that you're passed away for a while, right.
Maybe I don't know, five ten, two hundred years. I'm
not sure what the answer is to that, but I
do think when people like know it's coming, maybe it's cancer,
(46:56):
maybe it's old age, those sorts of things. I think
you or spirit can interact a lot differently than somebody
who passes away very abruptly. It's all about that slow
release of energy versus the very very quick release of energy,
where you kind of have those two different types of spirits.
Speaker 2 (47:17):
Interesting do you think, and this is totally hypothetical, I
just what you said that made me think this. Do
you think people who are more aware of or more
in tuned with the supernatural and the paranormal and think
more about this when they're alive, behave differently when they
(47:39):
pass over, Like is there do you think there's a
different interaction then with people who have that kind of
mindset when they were here.
Speaker 3 (47:47):
I don't know. I don't want to get people that
kind of hope, you know. I don't want to tell
somebody like you believe in spirits, when you die you
can do whatever you want as a spirit. I think
we like just truly don't fully stand and never will
what happens. So you can't kind of like set yourself
up for like I'm passing away, I'm gonna be a
(48:07):
super cool ghost. I'm gonna hang out with this place
and haunt it and be the fun ghost that like
people want to hang out with. Like, I think it
really has to do with the character of person that
you are. I think if you're a loving person who's
you know, maybe a great grandma and loves being around
(48:30):
people and making food and doing holidays and that sort
of thing, maybe your spirit will linger in a very
happy way when you pass. But I did have somebody
message me on Instagram who they lived in a house
where the energy was terrible and they heard that before
they lived there. It was an abusive husband situation, there
was a suicide attempt. I think the person beat their kids.
(48:54):
So when you have that terrible energy, that also clings
onto a space. So it really does go both ways.
But I don't ever want someone to believe that, like
I'm going to be the good ghost who people you
know want to communicate with, because you I don't think
you really have a say in that when you pass.
Speaker 2 (49:13):
Do you think there's a heaven and a hell?
Speaker 3 (49:15):
I'm sorry, what was that?
Speaker 2 (49:17):
Do you think there's a heaven and a hell? Yes?
Do do you think they can? Do you think spirits
from either place can interact? Or is there are there
rules to who can and who can't interact?
Speaker 3 (49:30):
Or I think this is my belief. Don't crucify me
for it. But I think hell is eternal and there
are reasons you go there and you're never ever getting out.
But I think that heaven you get rewarded, and that's
when you see like Grandpa and Grandma coming back and
visiting you and having those well wishes because they they
(49:56):
they got to that reward for being good people and
now they're able to share that with you. But I
think the other side, I think it really is very real.
And it's people. And I don't really like when people
believe in heaven but not hell, because I think that
there is evil in the world and that's where that
comes from. So you have to respect both sides of
(50:19):
the point, you know.
Speaker 2 (50:21):
No, I mean, I do believe in a heaven and
I do believe in a hell like Ia, I'm certainly
not going to crucify you. I think some of my
approaches to the paranormal is my suspicion that the other side,
the underside, the underworld, hell, whatever we want to call it,
that some of these manifestations might come from there and
might be deceitful. But anybody who watches this show regularly
(50:43):
he knows my suspicions of all of these kind of things.
We have a question here from from Doug, what is
the newest building in which you have encountered spirits?
Speaker 3 (50:56):
It would probably be my house. I'm not going to
say where, but it was a new build and we
were in Waukesha when I was a kid, moved to
a new build I think two thousand and one. It
was built, and it seemed all the things I experienced
at my house here in Waukesha, not not this one,
(51:18):
but the one I grew up in as a kid
carried over. But also there was different experiences. So up
until probably high school, I was still experiencing things in
a brand new house. Maybe it was the land, the woods,
I don't know what it was, but there were still
things that were happening that terrified me. So yeah, that
(51:41):
house was built in one, So that was that. But
besides that, you know, most of the houses I would
say are a little bit older, you know, maybe seventies.
I think the the actual other oldest house I've been
in that I've experienced something was built in like nineteen
seventy five, but you know, I'm in a house that
(52:03):
was built in nineteen eighteen, which I still don't even
consider that old. Now I'm looking at like nineteen hundred
and before as like old old properties. But it has
been rare for like properties like nineties two thousands for
where I've experienced something. But I know people certainly have
because built next to graveyards, built on Indian burial property,
(52:28):
that sort of thing where it's like the land is
cursed and then that transfers to the house.
Speaker 2 (52:36):
The chess active Tonight, we have another question for you
and that's from Angel Gourver, and that is if you
talk about spirits you experienced, is inviting them into your life?
Speaker 3 (52:46):
Again, No, that's sorry, that's easy. But I've felt again
this is all my experience, that you can talk about
something as much as you want, but especially on that
side that realm they are going to interact with you
(53:07):
on their schedule and we don't even have a perception
of how time works on the other side. So, like
I mentioned earlier in this discussion that we lived here
for about three or four years before we had the
first interaction. There was nothing for three or four years,
and it was like a light switch turned on. So
(53:28):
that's where time comes into play of like you can
be like, come out, where are you interact with me?
But they're on their own time. It's not going to
happen when you want. It's going to happen when they
wanted to. So no talking about it, trying to manifest it,
in my experience, is not going to make it happen
when you wanted to, or invite it back into your life.
Speaker 2 (53:51):
There was an interesting back and forth in the chat
between Sam and Matt rock and flat Rockland. Also Matt
Auckland who's been a guest on the show, Samos people
want energy or spirits for closure or comfort, and flat
Rockland said he thinks about that a lot. Could it
be a longing or pain that causes some phenomenon. What
(54:11):
do you think about that?
Speaker 3 (54:14):
Well, we got about four minutes left, but I will
say we did experience a death in our family in
this house and then started to experience things not associated
with this house or that person. So I do think
when you experience tragedy or things that are very painful,
(54:36):
whether it be a death or something else in your
life that's very tragic, you do kind of like open
up a door or a window for that energy to
come in and interact with you. So yeah, I'm not
going to go too much into detail about that, but
I will say that, yes, it is possible to invite
things in that aren't associated with the place that you're
(54:59):
currently at, whether you like.
Speaker 2 (55:02):
It or not, I think that's that's very possible as well.
Tell me or tell all of this, We'll go through
a few of you things. If people want to come
down to walk Ashore or they're in the area and
they want to do a tour with you, what's what's
the best way they can.
Speaker 3 (55:17):
They can do that, Okay, American Ghostwalks dot Com that's
the the parent company. American Ghostwalks does all the ghost
walks throughout the the world. And then yeah, thank you.
I agree with Flat Yes, definitely trauma definitely opens doors. Yeah,
American ghost Walks. You can live Waukesham, Milwaukee, Chicago, different cities,
(55:40):
lots of ghostwalks to do. If you want to follow
me on social media Instagram, dot Com, slash Walkisha Ghosts
if you prefer TikTok It's weird Wisconsin. So I've got
two different names, but the same content is a little
bit different on TikTok because kids. But yeah, it's tomorrow's night.
(56:02):
Tour is pretty much sold out. I've got a private
tour for Carroll University on Saturday, and then next weekend
is pretty wide open. So if you want to come
down or come up or come over, lots of opportunity
to do so.
Speaker 2 (56:17):
Like I said, I'm going to get down there some time,
hopefully with me and Sam can both come down and
do the tour with you. Now, tell us just give
give us a little more plug, one more time for
a Ghosts of Walkers. Sure, not only where they can
get it, but but why folks should read it, Because
I'm going to read it. You've already sold me.
Speaker 3 (56:33):
But yeah, I mean, so it's not just a book
about ghost stories. It's my person. It's a lot of
my personal interactions with these stories. So you're not just
getting research, you're getting actual investigations, experience talking to the owners.
It's relatively affordable. I would say twelve ninety nine is
(56:53):
an affordable book. You've got good photos, most of them
taken by me. It feels nice, it's got a nice
feel on the fingers. You know, it's good paper, so
I think you might enjoy turning the pages. But you know,
Wakasha is a unique little place, and I think this
book really just kind of like talks about those stories
(57:14):
in a good way. Because I wrote most of it.
Mike helped out a little bit with some additional things
because he did grow up very nearby to Waukesha. So
it's just like a good read for a place you
wouldn't expect these sorts of things.
Speaker 2 (57:27):
And that's my company. Is that how you pronounced his
lost clame.
Speaker 3 (57:30):
Mike Huberty yea. Mike Huberty owns American Ghost Walks and
then again Wakasha Ghost Walks is a child of the company.
Speaker 2 (57:37):
I'd say, well, man, it was it was great having
you on the show. I really appreciate talking to you,
and there was there were so many other super weird
paths that we could have kept.
Speaker 3 (57:50):
Going down on that show where three hours will work.
Speaker 2 (57:54):
Well that that's that's great because it means I can
I can get you back on and we can talk
about more more weird. Thank you so much man for
coming on. I have happy Halloween as.
Speaker 3 (58:02):
Yes, thank you you too, everybody else. Thank you for
coming up and having good questions tonight.
Speaker 2 (58:07):
Well man, until I talk to you again, which hopefully
will be sooner than later, and until I talk to
everybody else, which will be same weird time, same weird network.
The Untold Radio Network for our final spooky show, the
Halloween Special next Thursday, October thirty, which is all Hello's Eve.
Speaker 1 (58:26):
Eve.
Speaker 2 (58:27):
Please keep it spooky and keep it weird.
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