This is one of the original Tell Me A Ghost Story calls from the early days of the show. Short, raw, and exactly where it all started. This call was later incorporated into a longer compilation episode with full host commentary, if you want the complete experience.
Hey, it's Michelle, and this early episode belongs entirely to Jasmine from New Zealand, who called in with a true ghost story that is unlike almost anything else in the early archive. Most of the callers in this show's history encountered something and then had to figure out how to live with it or leave. Jasmine decided to evict hers.
The ghost in question was an elderly figure who had taken up residence in Jasmine's closet. Not a threatening presence in the traditional sense. Not something that chased her or touched her or appeared at her bedside in the middle of the night. Just an elderly phantom, stubbornly occupying a closet in an otherwise ordinary home in New Zealand, with the specific immovable quality of someone who had been there longer than Jasmine had and saw no particular reason to acknowledge that the living arrangements had changed.
What Jasmine did about it is the heart of this episode, and it is one of the more proactive responses to a haunting that Tell Me A Ghost Story has ever aired. Most callers are on the receiving end of whatever their ghost decides to do. Jasmine took a different approach. She decided the closet was hers, and the elderly phantom was going to have to find somewhere else to be.
New Zealand has a rich and distinctive supernatural tradition rooted in Māori spiritual belief, a living Indigenous culture that understands the relationship between the living and the dead with a depth and specificity that shapes how New Zealanders across all backgrounds tend to interpret and respond to paranormal encounters. The approach Jasmine took to her closet ghost reflects a pragmatism about the supernatural that feels distinctly New Zealand in its directness and its lack of drama. There was a ghost in her closet. She dealt with it. She called in to tell us how.
One caller. One true ghost story about an elderly phantom in a closet in New Zealand and the woman who decided enough was enough. This is where Tell Me A Ghost Story began.
If you have a real ghost story of your own, a haunting experience, something you heard, something you cannot explain, I want to hear it. Call 1 (701) 484-2666 or visit tellmeaghoststory.com to share your story.
You might end up on the show.
Support us with official merch at newmanmedia.shop, catch us on YouTube at @tellmeaghoststory, and follow along on Instagram at @tellmeaghoststorypodcast.
Theme music is Sexy Sax by Cool Cascade.
Production by Newman Media.
[00:00:02] Welcome to Tell Me A Ghost Story, the late night call in podcast where we delve into the world of the supernatural and explore the eerie and unexplained. I'm your host, Michelle Newman. This podcast features true stories from our callers that will send shivers down your
[00:00:33] spine and leave you questioning the existence of the afterlife. So grab a cozy blanket, turn down the lights. Hi, my name is Jasmine. I'm calling from Portland, Oregon, but my story actually takes place
[00:00:52] in Wellington, New Zealand. This was about seven or eight years ago and I was working and living abroad. And so I moved in with a couple other travelers and we had this kind of funky
[00:01:08] apartment that was technically four stories. The first floor was the garage and then the second story was actually the entrance to the house. And it just had, it was a small skinny
[00:01:22] house, so it had just two bedrooms, which was me and my friend Liana and a shared bathroom. And then the third floor was the living space. The fourth floor was the other two bedrooms.
[00:01:35] And there was actually five of us that lived there and we became very close. We were attached at the hip. So we all went out one Friday or Saturday night. We're back home from
[00:01:47] the bars. We are at our dining room table, all just gabbing about whatever's on our minds. When Liana starts talking about different experiences that she's had with mediumship, like her friend's grandma passing away and the grandma visiting Liana in her dreams and
[00:02:14] telling her things. But it's not all in her dreams. She's woken up and had someone face to face with her body lying on top of her body, nose to nose. And she brought it up because it
[00:02:29] was happening again to her. So she was having experiences in the house that we were in. And so then this brought up other people talking about their experiences and even things that have happened in the house that we were living in. One of our friends, one of the
[00:02:48] group, Kiva was like deathly terrified. In fact, she kept telling Liana to stop telling the stories because she was so scared. We had to walk her up to the fourth floor, tuck her into bed. She had her purse still on her shoulder. So, you know, the next day,
[00:03:06] then Kiva decides she buys some sage. I was kind of like on a witchy vibe at the time. So I was like, I can cleanse this house for us. So she goes, she buys sage. Don't worry,
[00:03:18] I don't use sage anymore. I know better now. And so the next day, next evening, I go throughout the house. I start at the top floor, make my way down, planning to end with Liana's room. You know, just kind of like build up the energy,
[00:03:34] build up my own confidence as I'm trying to cleanse the house, you know, and saying things like only positive spirits may remain, stuff like that. And so I get to Liana's room last and I'm like a little nervous, but I feel confident. But I remember thinking to myself,
[00:03:52] like, should I open up her closet doors and specifically, you know, cleanse the closet? And I was like, no, Jasmine, it's smoke. It can travel. You don't need to actually open up
[00:04:03] the closet. It'll be fine. So I don't do it. Okay, this is important to the story because then we all go to sleep. It's the next day and our next evening, we're all done with work. We're
[00:04:17] sitting around the table once again, chatting, yapping it up. And someone remembers and says, oh, Liana, you know, how did you sleep last night? And she's like, I don't want to talk about it. And we're like, what? What do you mean? And she's like, I probably just, you
[00:04:33] know, I'm intolerant to milk. I'm sure I just, you know, I ate something bad and that's why I, you know, whatever happened, happened. And we're like, Liana, what happened? She said that she was
[00:04:44] woken up and terrorized in the night because there was the spirit of an old woman in the closet, trapped in her closet, screaming, you can't get rid of me. And, you know, everyone's like, oh my gosh, Liana. And I have my hands on my face. I am gobsmacked.
[00:05:07] I didn't tell anyone that I didn't do the closet because I genuinely thought, oh, the closet will be fine. It's smoke. It's air. It can get into the closet. And so, you know, when
[00:05:18] they saw my reaction, everyone was like, what, Jasmine? What? And so I told them, you know, that thought that I didn't listen to. And Liana was so mad at me. And so then who had to light
[00:05:35] the sage bundle and then go back down to Liana's haunted room, open up that closet where I know there is a spirit who yelled at her last night and sage it for her? And that was me. I did it
[00:05:48] because I am so brave. It wasn't the last of the ghost stories that we experienced there, but Liana started to get a little bit more peace and quiet for sure. There was a ghost that we
[00:06:01] named Sally that we thought lived on the stairs. And to make her happy, I would play that one. What song is it? So Sally can wait. She knows it's too late as you're walking on by whatever,
[00:06:19] you know, from the people who sing Champagne Supernova. I can't think of their names at all right now, but that's fine. So yeah, that's probably one of the more interesting ghost stories
[00:06:30] I have. But I, I do have some mediumship abilities and have experienced some other things. So maybe I'll call in and talk about that sometime. But yeah, that is my ghost story. And it is a good
[00:06:44] reminder that if you are doing any kind of cleansing, if your intuitive voice says, you should probably cleanse over in that corner, be sure to listen to it. Unless you want to be
[00:06:54] terrorized by an old lady ghost yelling at you at, you know, probably three in the morning. Thank you, Jasmine for your story. That song you were thinking of is Don't Look Back in Anger by Oasis. You know, that band with the famous feuding brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher.
[00:07:14] Weirdly enough, I found several articles, including one by the BBC talking about how Noel would go out of his way to tease and torment his brother Liam by moving furniture around
[00:07:26] and pretending to be a ghost. That's all we have this week, folks. Do you have a ghost story? Call 701-484-2666. That's 701-484-2666. Or go to TellMeAGhostory.com and leave your story there. Go ahead and leave me a five star review wherever you get your podcasts.
[00:08:01] Was something particularly scary in this episode? Or maybe you've had a similar experience? Leave your comments via our Spotify page. Thank you to all the callers who left messages this week. And as always, I'm your host, Michelle Newman. Signing off. See you next week.