[SPEAKER_00]: Paranormal experiences don't really work to a time scale, and therefore we invite you to listen to a dark miniser.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hello everyone and welcome to this week's Dark mini-sode.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now before we head into the mini-sode, one quick announcement which is more and address of SumiMel's we've received, quite rightly, stating that they can't find the video additions of the dark paranormal main episode on YouTube.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now that's quite right at the moment you can't see them, as I've not yet released them.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're released to our patrons as it stands, but there are only two of those episodes also, because Episode 3 of Season 25, I chose to do an audio instead, as I didn't think we were at the capable stage, to do that sort of experience just from a video level.
[SPEAKER_00]: However, our goal is to have both of those videoed episodes out and we have all the runoff from that of course, the shorts, the things which is shared to different social medias, all the dull boring stuff, that will also all be done by the end of this weekend.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now of course our patrons do get to look at the first because of their patrons and I appreciate their feedback as I've mentioned before.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our patrons are more like co-producers as opposed to standard patrons.
[SPEAKER_00]: And by the way, a quick plug on that, if you wish to become a patron gain access to ad free episodes, moving up until you get to ad free early releases for both debuts and finale's, and of course, two additional patron only shows each and every week of the year.
[SPEAKER_00]: One Dark Bites, with a back catalogue also, of several hundred hours of stories only heard by our patrons, and the other called After Dark, where I take a part one of our recent episodes, and you get to see my thinking process, a much more raw, unedited version.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the links for that for the Patreon, how to submit your experience, etc, are all in the show notes underneath this episode.
[SPEAKER_00]: And speaking of this episode, let's crack right in with this week's dark mini-sode.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hello Kevin, my name is Renee.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm a 31 year old female from British Columbia, Canada.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've been listening to your podcast for about three years now, and I've decided it was time to share my story.
[SPEAKER_00]: I will start by saying, I've only ever told my mom and my current boyfriend, now fiance of 10 years, about this story.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't usually trust people enough to tell them this, because I don't want people to look at me weirdly and think I'm bananas, but I feel like I can tell my story here.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's Kev here, just interjecting to say, thank you Renee, that really means the well to me.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is the point of this show.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the place where people who don't feel like they have anywhere else they can explain what happened to them in a dark paranormal sense without fearing they will look or sound ridiculous.
[SPEAKER_00]: So if you're listening and you're one of those people, click the link in the show notes and send us your experience like Renee has been brave enough to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: But back to Renee's mini-sode.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not religious, but I did grow up in a Christian home.
[SPEAKER_00]: We went to church, et cetera.
[SPEAKER_00]: When I was around 15 or 16, I stopped believing.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just couldn't believe any more what was being pushed onto me my whole life.
[SPEAKER_00]: I started at that point getting more and more into paranormal things.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'd read and watch paranormal and occult stuff because it was so interesting and intriguing.
[SPEAKER_00]: It had never affected me before, until I started dating my boyfriend at the time, and shortly after, I began having these nightmares.
[SPEAKER_00]: In these nightmares, there would start out with me being at normal places like school or my parent's music studio where I'd go every day after school.
[SPEAKER_00]: But in these nightmares I'd be writing a test in school or practicing piano at the studio and I'd glimpse these shadow figures watching me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I could never really get a good glimpse at them but I could feel them watching me and
[SPEAKER_00]: And when I turned to look, of course, they weren't there.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it started getting worse.
[SPEAKER_00]: These nightmares became nightly.
[SPEAKER_00]: Eventually one day, I'm sat in class, and my hers stand up on my arms and the back of my neck.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I get that familiar feeling from my dreams of being watched, but in reality.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then out of the corner of my eye, out of the window,
[SPEAKER_00]: I catch it glimpse of a dark figure.
[SPEAKER_00]: I tried to play it off, because then it could be explained.
[SPEAKER_00]: School was a busy place.
[SPEAKER_00]: It could have been a teacher, a student, a parent even, so I dismissed it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then it began happening whilst I was at the music studio too.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'd been practicing piano, and out of the window of the studio into an inside hallway, I'd see a dark figure go by.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thinking I just wasn't seeing it clearly because I was focused on practicing, again, I dismissed it.
[SPEAKER_00]: but this would continue until it was again a daily thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: After seeing it so many times now, and in particular the times I simply couldn't explain it away, it really began to wear on me.
[SPEAKER_00]: And by this stage, I was in a constant state of fear.
[SPEAKER_00]: Always feeling watched, but never fully being able to see exactly what or who was watching me.
[SPEAKER_00]: this all led up to this one particular day, everywhere I went on that day, I could feel them watching me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'd go to the bathroom and out of the corner of my eye whilst washing my hands, I'd see them.
[SPEAKER_00]: It felt like on that day I was just trying to move constantly so they didn't have time to find me.
[SPEAKER_00]: But that didn't work.
[SPEAKER_00]: It came to the evening and my mum had noticed that I'd been on edge, withdrawn, and rather quiet of late, and I couldn't hold it in anymore.
[SPEAKER_00]: I knew my mother wasn't a fan of anything a cult or paranormal.
[SPEAKER_00]: But she'd also told me some stories of her close cousin, and the unexplained things that they'd experienced whilst volunteering in Africa.
[SPEAKER_00]: And she did admit to me, there are things in this world we simply cannot explain.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I felt that maybe she wouldn't judge.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe she wouldn't admit me to hospital thinking I'd had a breakdown.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I told her.
[SPEAKER_00]: And she seemed concerned, but she told me to pray, and said she would pray for me.
[SPEAKER_00]: But this didn't comfort me much, because I was no longer practicing Christianity.
[SPEAKER_00]: My boyfriend at the time drove me home, and I was able to be alone until my parents had finished at the studio, maybe two hours time.
[SPEAKER_00]: I tried to make dinner and finish my homework, but soon I began feeling very uneasy.
[SPEAKER_00]: That feeling that I was being watched again.
[SPEAKER_00]: I closed all the blinds and curtains in the apartment, but that did very little to comfort me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I couldn't see them, but I could feel them all around me, watching me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I broke down.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was so scared.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was crank at this point, absolutely unsure what to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: I called my mom in hysterics, and she told me to grab her Bible, turn on every light in the house, to pray, and that she was on her way home of course.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not knowing what else to do, I did exactly what my mom told me to.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, very carefully, trying to make as little noise as possible, I manage to turn on all of the lights, go into her room to grab her Bible, and I wrap myself in a blanket on that couch in the living room, open brackets, you know the extra security a blanket gives you, close brackets, and I began to pray.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when I say pray, I mean I prayed and I prayed
[SPEAKER_00]: And as soon as she did so, it instantly felt lighter.
[SPEAKER_00]: I no longer felt watched.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is until years later.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was 20, going through a divorce, in brackets, from the same partner I was with when all of this started, close brackets.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I was at a very low point in my life.
[SPEAKER_00]: And those nightmares started up all over again.
[SPEAKER_00]: And again, the feeling of being watched by something that isn't there started happening in real life.
[SPEAKER_00]: I had moved back home with my parents following the divorce, and my mom and I weren't really in a good place at that time, so I didn't feel like I could go to her with this
[SPEAKER_00]: It came to a point where it was happening all throughout the day.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was too scared to be alone, I was too scared to be anywhere in the dark.
[SPEAKER_00]: I had a coworker at that time who was ridiculously religious, but she was a nice girl.
[SPEAKER_00]: And therefore we became friends whilst working together.
[SPEAKER_00]: I knew she was of the mind set of, if God and good exists, then the opposite must also be true.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I knew she believed in the existence of dark spirits and the like.
[SPEAKER_00]: This watching being and seeing dark figures out of the corner of my eye got so bad again, I had nowhere else to turn, but for this co-worker.
[SPEAKER_00]: She very matter a factly asked me if they were here now, to which I replied, yes, outside that window, and they're watching me.
[SPEAKER_00]: She asked if she could pray over me, so I said, yes, unbeknownst to me, halfway through, she
[SPEAKER_00]: At first, as you'd expect, I found that rather weird, but I also wasn't in the place to turn down any help with this.
[SPEAKER_00]: When she stopped speaking in tongues, I started crying.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have no idea why, I just felt so overwhelmed with emotion.
[SPEAKER_00]: We went back to work and the atmosphere felt lighter.
[SPEAKER_00]: the next day, my ex and I finalized the divorce papers.
[SPEAKER_00]: And after that day, I have had not one single rear carons of those nightmares, and I haven't even got close to the feeling of being watched by something from the shadows.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have no idea what this thing could have been.
[SPEAKER_00]: could it have been something that was attached to him, open brackets, he was a very troubled person himself, close brackets, or maybe it was something that he summoned which attached itself to me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll never truly know.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for reading my experience, and thank you to all the listeners who have shared their stories and experiences for making me feel comfortable enough in this community to share my own.
[SPEAKER_00]: best wishes René.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well René, again I'm saying this sentence unbelievably for the second time in two days because I did say this sentence on dog bites for patrons yesterday, but I completely can care with your remarks regarding how wonderful this community sincerely is.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I do class us as a community.
[SPEAKER_00]: not just merely fans of the paranormal, people who were engaged in wanting to know more, to learn more, but all undaligned by the love of a good paranormal experience.
[SPEAKER_00]: And, yes, I can catch some flag for that, because we cover the darker side of the paranormal.
[SPEAKER_00]: So when I say a fabulous experience, I mean through the perspective of somebody specifically looking for the darker experiences that can be validated, even if that validation comes, through a little one of things like...
[SPEAKER_00]: phrases that are put into an email that I simply don't think a creator of a fabricated story would include.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now Renee, what your experience has, which I truly love, and reminds me, or should I say it's very reminiscent of some of the experiences we get for dark bites, is it's so beautifully vague.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now you cannot help how vague or how much detail goes into your experience
[SPEAKER_00]: But there are so many almost skimmed topics of conversation.
[SPEAKER_00]: First of all, go away from this episode and think about.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I do think when that happens, I eat, when your experience is ambiguous enough, even when you recollect it to the best of your ability, that that very vagueness, for me, should say you're good instinct on that particular situation, hold more weight.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think you've been rather careful in how you phrased talking about your ex-partner and kudos to you because many people wouldn't.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the way you phrased it and simply put, they had troubles of their own.
[SPEAKER_00]: For you to then suggest perhaps they, conjured something which either attached to them, or in turn to you, that would be the path I would go down, given the vagueness of your recollection of the entire incident.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying you're an entire experience, held nothing you could grab onto.
[SPEAKER_00]: It most definitely did, but I do believe there is something to be said that when an experience is so vague even for the experience that their hunch about what may have taken place, is more than likely either bang on the nose or is exceptionally close to said nose.
[SPEAKER_00]: But Renee, thank you so much for sending in your experience, and to anybody listening who thinks my experience just isn't scary enough to send through.
[SPEAKER_00]: Believe me, even if you're thinking about it, it is.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now you know the rules by now.
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't want experiences which are solely based in dreams, we don't want experiences about amazing people we know in life coming to say goodbye in a sweet way.
[SPEAKER_00]: And even as ambiguous and vague as René's experience was, that does not make it any less credible, and from a personal perspective, I have a soft spot for these vague ambiguous sort of entries.
[SPEAKER_00]: Simply because they allow my brain to go down many paths, my hand was never held through a story or a narrative.
[SPEAKER_00]: and, as I've said before, our brains are often much more terrifying than anything anyone could ever write.
[SPEAKER_00]: So for me, this was a great and terrifying experience.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the middle of the day here, and three times I believed I had my name being shouted from outside.
[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't, and that's down to you René.
[SPEAKER_00]: So thank you Renee, and thank you all for joining me on this week's Dark MiniSode.
[SPEAKER_00]: Until next time, stay safe and take care.