Ghost Stories From Around The World

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[00:01:05] 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 spine and leave you questioning the existence of the afterlife.

[00:01:32] So grab a cozy blanket, turn down the lights. Welcome back to Tell Me a Ghost Story. Tonight we're going around the world. Seven stories, five countries, and not a single passport check. Those stories from around the world. Every place has a rule book for the dead. In Scotland, you leave out a bowl of cream for a household spirit.

[00:02:01] In Cambodia, you throw rice into the dark before dawn to feed the wandering ghosts. In the Andes, you rub an egg over the body to draw out whatever's wrong. Different countries, different rules, same instinct. Pack a bag, let's go. Gary D here in southern Ontario. You want to talk weird? Well, I'll talk weird to you.

[00:02:25] Back when I was, I don't know, about 15 or 16 years old, being young and stupid and bored, a good friend of mine, John, two of us were always trying to find something to do. A lot of times, because we were both night owls, we'd stay up late at night. We'd sneak out of the house. Your parents wouldn't know we were out. And we'd meet up. And close to where we lived, there was a large wooded area, a large park, baseball diamonds,

[00:02:55] and a lot of hiking trails, and cliffs going down to a lake. So, anyways, on one of these bored occasions, we decided we'd go for a walk at about midnight. Nobody around. And it was the dead of winter. I think it was sometime in the end of January or so. So, it was freezing cold out, snow flurries. And we were walking through the woods. I don't know why, just walking around bored.

[00:03:25] And we came upon this small, it was actually either a small lake or a very large pond. I figure it's probably about 15 feet in the middle, 15 feet deep. We knew this place had a lot of snapping turtles and frogs and that type of thing. I'm not sure if there were any fish in there. But anyways, being the dead of winter, the surface had frozen over. And while we were just walking around, one of us jumped out on the ice, said, Hey, this seems to be safe.

[00:03:54] Next thing you know, the two of us are standing in the middle of this small lake, just standing there talking. And all of a sudden, the ice gives way. We go crashing in the water and it just hits you. Your body turns to lead, you lose your breath. And we're treading water trying to get out. We figure that's probably the end of us. Stupid people do stupid things. Like I said, when you're young, you do stupid things. Luckily, there was a fallen tree close by. I was able to reach a branch, pull myself out.

[00:04:25] John grabbed my leg and somehow he crawled over top of me to get up onto the branch. We got out of the water. Okay, the first problem was solved. Second problem was that it was like well below zero, freezing cold, windy. And we're soaking wet. We're drenched. We don't have the luxury of having a sauna close by or hot towels. And, you know, it's midnight.

[00:04:51] And for us to get home, we've got about a 15-minute jog. And there's no way we're going to make it. So we thought, what can we do? We're shaking like crazy. The water is freezing now. And our hair, when we touch our hair, it's like frozen solid. Our clothes are getting very hard. So we start running and we're shaking.

[00:05:16] And we thought there is a place that we could reach probably within about five or six or seven minutes if we run. There were no houses around us. So there was no residential area. There was no gas station or any stores. The only thing that was close to us was an old abandoned dance hall from back in the 1920s or so. I know they used to have formal dances there. That's quite a history.

[00:05:45] But it had been shut down long ago. It was all boarded up. But you could still get up onto the dance floor area. But anyway, we knew by having walked by there before that down there was kind of a knee level. There were windows that were boarded up going into a basement below the dance floor, probably where they kept inventory. And we thought if we get there and we can kick the boards in because they were just nailed in.

[00:06:13] We can kick the boards and get into the basement and probably find something down there to throw over us, to warm up. Anyway, we ran like crazy. Like I say, we're a couple of popsicles running through the woods at midnight. You know, this was before there weren't any cell phones to call for help. So we get to this place, to the dance hall there. And it's called the pavilion. So we kicked and kicked and kicked. We managed to finally kick those wooden boards in.

[00:06:43] And we get inside. We lower ourselves down. Like I say, it's in the basement. And luckily, I always kept a lighter and a little plastic bag in my pocket. So when I found the water, it did not get waterlogged and soaked. So I was able to light a lighter, reach around, and I found some old newspaper, rolled it up, basically made a torch out of it. Made a couple of torches. John and I just walked around, looked around. It was really cool down there.

[00:07:08] It was like old brick walls, very musty down there, a bunch of old barrels, and really run down. Looked like nobody had been in there for a long time. So we look around, and we managed to find some, they almost looked like old potato sacks, like these potato sacks, like burlap sacks.

[00:07:30] So we kind of threw a bunch over our backs, wrapped them around our arms, and kind of, you know, sat down on top of a barrel and kind of just shook back and forth trying to warm up. And once we got a little bit warmer, we kind of investigated, walked around the basement, thought it looked pretty cool. And you have to figure, being by now, it's probably, you know, 1230 at night. And we hear nothing but the howling wind from that window we broke in.

[00:08:00] And you can hear the wind howling, dead silent, just our voices and us breathing heavily. And then the weirdest, craziest thing happened. We're sitting there, and all of a sudden, from above, we hear music, people laughing and talking. You can almost hear the clinking of glasses.

[00:08:23] And it sounded like there were people dancing on the dance floor in bubbles, like dozens and dozens of people, like a loud crowd. It almost sounded like it was New Year's Eve somewhere. And there was, like, big band music playing. You could hear the horn section and just a big, boisterous crowd. And we're thinking, what the hell is going on? It's not like just one of us heard it and we're having a mental break or something. We were both listening and saying, do you hear that? Yeah, I hear that.

[00:08:51] And then we hear somebody with a microphone talking, talking to the crowd, and they're all clapping and cheering. And then another song starts. And then the dancing starts again. So this is going for a few minutes. And then suddenly it just stops. Dead silence again. And all you hear is the wind blowing. Us breathing. And we can look at each other and say, did that really happen just now?

[00:09:18] So we went around just kind of looking in the basement some more, bored. And then another weird thing that we found down there amongst all the barrels, we found a huge pile of, we found out at first, we couldn't figure what it was. But we thought it was straw or something, but it was long. What we believed to be was human hair, long curly hair, brown hair. A huge pile of it that could have easily filled a couple of pillows. Just laying there between the barrels. No blood or scalp or anything like that. But it was just weird.

[00:09:48] Why would there be like a woman's hair or several women's hair and laying in a big pile there? So while we're there talking about trying to figure out what happened here, suddenly that music and dancing starts again up above us. So we're kind of looking at each other, eyebrows raised, going, holy crap, what's going on up there? There's no way there can actually be people up there dancing and talking and drinking. It's like close to one o'clock in the morning. And it's pitch dark, so there's nobody out there.

[00:10:18] So we hear it again. Same thing. The music, trumpets, the laughing, the clinking of glasses, and then somebody's yelling. And so we said, okay, let's, you know, can we climb out the window, try to go up there and see what's going on. But then we saw an old wooden staircase going up from the basement, going up towards the floor of the dance floor. But we went up it and banged on it, hoping somebody would open it. Nothing.

[00:10:48] And we noticed there was a big chain and padlock on it. So there was somebody walking. We could hear the creaking of the floor, the floorboards. We heard heavy shoes. We heard the dancing. And we started yelling and yelling. Nothing, nothing. And again, just, you know, suddenly it just stops. Just stop the presses. It goes from a loud, boisterous crowd dancing and music. It just, it's like someone suddenly just presses a button and it just stops. And then silence again.

[00:11:19] And again, we look at each other and say, this is really freaky, man. Like, what is going on? And then we kind of warmed up enough so that we could, you know, get home and hope that our parents didn't get up to check in our beds to see if we were there or not and call the police. But we crawled back out. We went up, looked at the dance floor area, which was right above us. We went up the little stairs around the outside. It was just pitch dark. It was just deserted. It was dirty.

[00:11:49] There was nothing there. There were no people. There was no band. There was no, no, there wasn't anything. It was just like a deserted dance floor with the wind howling through it and some snow laying on the floor. So we just kind of look at each other. We book it back home. And luckily our parents didn't find out that we were, that we'd gone over there and what had happened. They never found out that we fell through the ice, first of all, and almost died.

[00:12:15] And then we never told them about what happened with us breaking into that building, which could have gotten us into trouble. But what we did do is I can't remember if it was the next day or a few days later. We went in the middle of the day. We went back to that pavilion to check it out. And we noticed that probably the park authorities or somebody had come along, put up new boards and screwed them in this time.

[00:12:40] So extra layers of wood, lots of screws, so there would be no way anybody could break in. And again, we looked up at the dance floor and it had a heavy layer of not dust, but just like a filth. It hadn't been walked on or danced on in a long time. So again, we discussed it many times over the years just saying, remember that freaky thing that happened? We knew, you know, we joked around saying, what could it have been? Why did we hear that?

[00:13:07] Was it kind of a, you know, did we go back in time somehow? We go into some invisible time machine and we thought, well, maybe when we fell through the ice and both of us were just close to death, maybe we were in the early stages of hypothermia or something and our brains were going to mush and we're losing it. But how would the two of us both have the exact same thing happen to us at the same time and hear the same thing? But that's my story.

[00:13:39] Haven't had anything quite like that happen since then. But it was scary at the time, but really cool to think about now. Thanks for listening. Take care. Thank you, Gary D from Southern Ontario. The party they heard has a famous Ontario sound. Guy Lombardo was born in London, Ontario.

[00:14:05] Starting in 1929, his Royal Canadian's broadcast became radio's first nationwide New Year's Eve show, closing every one with Auld Lang Syne. They headlined Ontario pavilions like the one in Southampton, a horn section, a man at the microphone, a crowd clinking glasses, for nearly 50 years. That's what New Year's Eve sounded like. The hair I can't help with.

[00:14:38] Hi, Michelle. It's me again, Yvonne from the Philippines. And I'm back to share you one of my early memories of the paranormal. And coming to think of it, the situation itself could actually also be a possible glitch in the Matrix. But I'll let you decide. So I just want to set the scene. It was late 2000, around 2002, because that was the year that my brother was born, my brother Gio.

[00:15:08] And he was just a few months old. We were left home, at home, because my parents had to do their side hustle. So I was left to watch over him. So anyway, the apartment is a two-bedroom apartment located on the second floor. Both of the rooms are adjacent to each other. And in front of the room would be our living room slash dining room.

[00:15:38] And then just a few steps away from the living room slash dining room would be the kitchen. And then right next to that, to the right, will be the bathroom. So it's a small two-bedroom apartment, perfect for four people. My mom, my dad, and me, and my brother. And I was sleeping. I was taking a nap. I woke up possibly around 5 p.m., 6 p.m. to the sound of my mom's voice. And then I opened my eyes.

[00:16:06] It was a bit blurry because I just woke up. And I could actually see her. I could also hear my dad's voice. I couldn't see him. I only heard his voice. I heard him asking for change from my mom. So what I could see from when I woke up, from when I heard her, she wasn't facing me. She was facing out the door, talking to my dad. She had her hair and a braid. I think she was wearing a gray shirt or a white shirt. Floral short shorts.

[00:16:35] I know it was her because that was exactly what she wore when she left that day. It was a weekend. Anyway, she was grabbing her purse from back of the cabinet. And then like talked to my dad. So I was still waking myself up. I was waiting for them to stop talking or stop having a conversation. And then I just heard my dad walk out the front door.

[00:17:02] I could still hear the car engine in the background when this was happening. So I was like, Mom. I was whispering to her to get her attention, but I couldn't speak out loud because we were louder than that. Another kid's mother was sleeping right next to me. I didn't want to wake him up. So I decided to just get out of bed and then talk to her. She was just a few steps away from me, just a few inches away.

[00:17:32] And I was about to actually tap her on her shoulder. But she was walking too fast. So as we were walking out of my parents' room, and then by the time she got into my room, my bedroom door was closed. So instinctively, I just opened it. By the time I opened the door, the lights were off.

[00:18:01] And someone was like, why is the lights off? So I decided to turn it on. By the time I turned it on, my mom was in the room. I wasn't freaked out. I was just confused. I was like, why is she not there? I'm like, where did she go? In my head, it was logical for me to go to the front of the door and keep downstairs to check if my dad was there.

[00:18:28] Because usually if he would just smoke, he would either be outside the front door smoking or somewhere close to the stairs. So when I was checking, I couldn't hear the car engine anymore. I didn't see him. And when I took a peek at the front door, my phone started ringing. My phone was in the key at 3210.

[00:18:55] And like I told you, my baby brother was sleeping. So it was really loud. I had to run and get to it so it wouldn't wake him up. And by the time I answered, I was like, hello. It was my mom. So she said that they were going to be late. They had a couple more things to take care of. And they promised to buy takeout and have dinner together.

[00:19:21] When she explained that they were going to be late, I told her, that's weird. I followed you going to my room. And she was like, what are you saying? I thought you were home. I followed someone who looked exactly like you going from my parents or your room going to my room. And then you were gone. I heard the car. I heard dad. Everything. You were just gone.

[00:19:46] And then they were like, it could be an angel watching over you guys, you know, since you're home alone. I was like, okay, fine. And then we had dinner that night. And then she was asking me details of what happened. I told her I'm not lying. Telling the truth. That's what happened. And I heard her whisper, she's seeing stuff too.

[00:20:12] And that's when it all started for me. Seeing a lot of stuff and experiencing a lot of stuff. So, yeah, that's for me tonight. Thanks, Michelle. See you again next time. Thank you, Yvonne from the Philippines. Filipino folklore doesn't have a doppelganger by that name, but it has something close.

[00:20:39] The aswang is an umbrella term for shape-shifting creatures. And what it means depends on where you're from. Research says one of their tricks is to take the form of a relative. They're said to go after their own kin, which turns the most trusted thing you have against you. How do you tell? In one family's version, you look at your reflection in a spoon. Yours is upside down. An aswang's is right side up.

[00:21:08] Other families say to turn your clothes inside out. And the enchanted being will take on that form too. So when someone looks exactly like your mother and turns out not to be her, folklore has an old name for this possibility. And a practical piece of advice. Bring a spoon. Hi there, Michelle. My name is Hannah. And I'm calling from Dartmouth, Nova Scotia in Canada. I'm a big fan of your podcast.

[00:21:36] And for the very first time, I have a story now that I can finally share. This is about a music school that I attend nearby. And I guess I'll keep the name private just for privacy's sake. And basically, so specifically, I'll start with the thing that happened to me.

[00:22:05] So the other night, we were doing our weekly choir rehearsal around like 8 or 9 in the evening. And the house where we, the music school is, is in a, so the music school is in an old house in downtown Dartmouth. And it is, you know, originally, I don't know, built 100 years ago or who knows, you know, it's been there a long time and it used to be a hall.

[00:22:33] And now it's been converted into this space for this music school. So the room where we practice for choir is in the kitchen. And so there's a little kitchen area off to the side. So the other night, when we were in the kitchen room practicing, all of a sudden, the dishwasher turned itself on. And we were looking over and saying, wait, how did that happen? No one was over there. And so the choir teacher says, oh, no, that's just Edith.

[00:23:05] And so I leaned over to look at the dishwasher, which was next, kind of next to me. And I looked to see, like, is there any timer on this thing? Like, could it have turned on automatically based on a timer going off? And, you know, we were all wondering. I didn't see any timer buttons. And my choir teacher was saying, no, there's no timer on that dishwasher. It's just the ghost. And then as, right, and as I was leaning over looking at the buttons and she, and she was saying that. And then she said, not right now, Edith.

[00:23:35] Thank you, you know. And then right when she said, like, not right now, Edith, the dishwasher turned itself off again. I was staring right at it. And I was not touching it. It happened all by itself. We were all in the room. We all saw it. It was so eerie. And so then our choir teacher went on to tell us all these stories about Edith.

[00:23:59] So I guess it sounds like she is some kind of a matronly figure, some kind of maybe teacher type figure. Because my choir director tells us that she actually in the past has done even more, kind of making herself known and more activities. Like she has in the past been known to knock things off the shelves and cause lights to flicker.

[00:24:27] So she is quite active, as it sounds. In fact, we can sort of tell that she's some kind of a teacher type figure because she doesn't like it when the kids misbehave. Like when the kids in the music school are being rude to their teacher or, you know, acting out or whatever. She will flicker the lights and maybe knock something off the shelf to be kind of put them back in line and tell them that she doesn't appreciate misbehavior.

[00:24:56] And my choir teacher has also told us that she's definitely sensitive to, you know, protective of her space and the energy in her space. Because in the past, whenever, you know, my choir teacher was venting out some, you know, anger, playing the piano really loudly and kind of crashing down on the keys. And Edith did not like that. She did not like having that angry energy.

[00:25:24] So my choir teacher apologized and, you know, said, OK, I won't be I won't bring that into your space anymore, kind of. And the the interesting thing, though, is that Edith was in the old space as well, because this school used to be in a different building a few blocks away. And Edith was there originally in the old building. And then when they recently moved to this new house, Edith moved with them as well.

[00:25:49] So my choir teacher thinks that perhaps she's linked to an object in the in the school. She thinks maybe it's something in her room because she's quite attached to Edith. And the reason why we know that her name is Edith or why why we think that that's her name is because my choir teacher was asking different names, was saying, is this your name? Is this your name? And when she asked, is your name Edith? The room got so cold and she felt like a cold wind. So then she said, OK, I guess it's Edith.

[00:26:20] When there was a snowstorm the other day, last week or two weeks ago, there was no one at the school. It was completely empty. Everything was closed down. But the security camera kept on getting activated by motion sensor. But there was nothing there. So my choir teacher keeps getting these notifications on her phone that there's something at the school activating the camera. So she reaches out to the other co-owner of the school and says, is there anyone at the school right now?

[00:26:49] He says, no, it's completely closed. There's everyone's home from the snowstorm. And she says, well, someone keeps activating that camera, that motion sensor camera over there. And I say, you know who it is. It's got to be Edith. So, yeah, that dishwasher incident, though, that was spooky. That's the first time that I've ever experienced a real life ghost experience of my own. And I am going to continue going to choir there every week.

[00:27:16] And I am really curious if Edith is going to show herself again. I think Edith is friendly. I don't think I have anything to fear from her. She's just there to help guide the kids and keep everyone in line. So I'll keep you posted. Thank you so much, Michelle. I'm a big fan of the podcast. Keep doing what you're doing. Bye. Thank you, Hannah from Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.

[00:27:44] Nova Scotia is Latin for New Scotland. So it's only fitting that Edith kind of has a Scottish job description. A brownie is a household spirit from Scotland folklore that comes out at night while a family sleeps and does chores. The deal is simple. She helps you leave out a bowl of cream and you're polite. Criticize a brownie, laugh at it, or insult it as she leaves for good. And if she's really angered, she'll turn malicious.

[00:28:11] That makes Edith's rules sound less like a haunting and more like a house policy. Be kind, keep the kids in line, and don't bring any angry energy into her building. And the fact that she moved to the new building with the school, somebody must be doing something right.

[00:28:53] Kaffee-Vielfalt auf Knopfdruck mit Geling-Garantie. Entdecke jetzt die Cubo-Kapsel-Maschinen von Chibo. Hey, Michelle. It's Edwin from California. And whenever I think of a ghost story that has happened to me, I think of this one because it was the very first time that I ever experienced like a full-blown apparition, a full like a ghost that I actually saw.

[00:29:20] It all started when I was in Baños de Agua Santa, which is this small town, very, very small town in Ecuador in South America. The town itself is very nature-y. There's a lot of outdoor activities. It's been featured in National Geographic. And it's a very nice place. And that's where this hostel was, right? And I was in charge of running it.

[00:29:42] And I was in charge of, you know, along with my girlfriend and some other guy too, we were like in charge of like reviving the place and bringing it back up to like its former glory, like what it used to be. Because it was like the main place to stay for travelers in that town. And we were in charge of that, right? So the owner was very hands-off. He actually showed up just to fix the place and then left. So we were just kind of left there. And, you know, in trying to sort everything out, I remember trying to be cool with the employees, right?

[00:30:11] But also at the same time, knowing that they're trying to figure me out to see what I'm like, which is kind of going to play an important role in the story here because it had a lot to do with how I reacted to things. Anyway, the owner had built this thing called a Temazcal, which is like this. Imagine an igloo, right? It's a place where you would like a sweat lodge. It was a sweat lodge.

[00:30:33] He built it at the very top of the building out of like concrete just to have, you know, some type of ceremonies in there and everything. And there was always a, you know, there was a guy who would visit us and have breakfast there sometimes. And he used to be like, you know, you guys need to clean that as in we need to give that a cleanse. Because when people do ceremonies in there, even sweat lodge meditations and everything, sometimes a dark energy can stay.

[00:31:03] So you have to, you guys have to clean that. I used to just be like, okay, yeah, yeah, whatever. Sure, we'll get to it, right? Because there were so many things to do in that place that it was like adding another thing was just like, oh, I don't know. But anyway, one time I was coming into work one afternoon and as soon as I opened the door, I see some guy standing in the reception desk area.

[00:31:28] And no person should be in there, like only employees because, you know, we have sensitive info in there. We have passports and keys and, you know, files and, you know, information for like banks and stuff like that. So I go in there to try to figure out who he is. And as soon as I opened the door, I realized he's not there. Like there's only the receptionist who's sitting down at the desk.

[00:31:55] And I look around, I look behind the door and I'm like, what just happened? Right? Like, I mean, right now I say like normal. But then I remember it was so trippy. I was like, I felt like vomiting. It was like this weird sensation knowing that like reality isn't reality. It was odd. And then the receptionist, she turns around and she's like, what's wrong? Right? And I'm like leaning against the wall.

[00:32:24] Like I'm kind of slipping down towards the floor. And she's like, what happened? And I tell her, like, I just saw somebody standing here. And this man, kind of tall, small beard. He was literally just standing here looking at some papers. And she's like, oh, like that's the Chiquito. Basically, it was a nickname for a ghost that all the employees had already seen roaming the hallways of that hostel.

[00:32:51] And they had like seen them out in the back, the back area, around the hallways, up in the roof. You know, like it was this common occurrence. I remember thinking like, okay, I got to get out of here. So I went upstairs all the way up. My girlfriend Carla, by the way, she's working in, like on her computer up in the cafeteria area, which is, again, on the roof. And I tell her, like, you're not going to believe what just happened. I just saw a ghost. Like I just laid it on her.

[00:33:20] Like I just saw a ghost. And she's looking at me like, what? Like kind of like just waiting to see my reaction. Like if I'm going to laugh, am I serious? What's happening? As I'm telling her what I saw downstairs, the light above where we're sitting, because it's at that point where like the sun is setting. So like without the lights, it's too dark. But like it's at that awkward stage. Anyway, the lights were on in the cafeteria. But right above us, it was flickering.

[00:33:48] It was just turning on and off, on and off. Like it was really annoying, right? The guy in the table next to us kind of noticed and he went up to try to tighten the light bulb, but he couldn't get it to work either. So eventually we just gave up and left it like that. And it started flickering a little bit more and then it stopped. And I'm like, this is weird. But like I didn't think these two things were related, right? I kind of forget about it.

[00:34:15] And I just kind of, you know, get back to business as usual. And I needed to go back to the U.S. to get, you know, some visa stuff ready, like my work permits to work in Ecuador, get everything, you know, get everything signed and all that. So I did. I went back to California. This took about two to three weeks. And I got back, got back to Ecuador and I started, you know, catching up with how everything was.

[00:34:43] And they said, you know, while you were gone, this is one of the employees talking to me. He's like, while you were gone, we did have a small little issue, but everything's been fixed. We had this restaurant on the very first floor. And he said that one time they were getting ready for the dinner service and they couldn't turn on the lights. Like they were like customers were about to come in and lights couldn't be turned on. Like they couldn't find the problem. They searched through everything. They flicked on the switches.

[00:35:12] Everything was working. Nothing seemed to be off. They called somebody to come and check it. Something was just not working for like no reason. So eventually one of them gets the idea to like go in and check on the light bulb itself. And they realized that all of the light bulbs, a dozen of them had been unscrewed just enough so that they wouldn't turn on. For me, that's where it clicked.

[00:35:40] They, they hadn't, they already knew about, you know, what had happened with me with the thing I had seen, but nobody knew about the light bulbs. And we all found it odd, like who would go in there? Only the cook goes in and he goes into the kitchen, doesn't go into the actual restaurant. And those who do go into the restaurant, they would have no reason to unscrew every single light bulb. Plus it's really difficult to unscrew. Right. So we're thinking like, okay, there's all these changes that are happening to the hostel. This place is really old.

[00:36:09] It used to be a, I think it used to be a bank and the whole place was owned by nuns, like a convent. Um, like that wasn't the convent, but like this, this association of nuns own that place. It was very old. And we were thinking like, maybe you, maybe we do need to do something about this. Right. And one of the volunteers, um, at the time had this idea to make like an offering to the building. And I remember he burned a dollar bill.

[00:36:38] I gave up a, like a steak kebab. Uh, other people, you know, gave up other things and they went out to the backyard and they dug this hole and gave it to the building. And, you know, it was weird. I didn't believe in all this stuff. But after that, all of these things stopped. And now when I think back on it, on that experience with the hostel, I realized that the owner was also like not a very nice person.

[00:37:05] Um, he used to have these strange ideas to make money. Like, um, for example, to give ayahuasca to people and, and use a, um, a fake shaman to, to give it to them. Like these things that I wasn't okay with. Right. Because it's, when something happens, right. Plus they were trying to get the ceremonies done up on the roof. Just very dangerous stuff. Um, there was just this strange vibe that this guy gave off.

[00:37:31] And then, um, there were other things too, you know, about the place. Like, um, it turns out that the previous administrator, the guy that was running the hostel before, like not before me, but like one person before that, um, he had been caught stealing money. Like from the operations, the day-to-day operations of the hostel. And when he was caught, he had a bunch of money on him and he literally like took off from the place.

[00:37:59] And it turns out that as he was leaving, he had a car accident and died. So, um, could that be the ghost that roams around? I don't know, but I for sure saw something that day. And when I think about it now, like it's, I try to tell myself that it didn't actually happen, but all the signs point to, yes, it did.

[00:38:27] So, anyway, that's my story. Um, it's very creepy to me. So I hope you guys liked it. Thank you, Edwin. Edwin is the host of a bunch of paranormal podcasts, including Paranormal Club, Scary Stories, True Scary Stories, and more. And the founder of the podcast network, Scary FM. This story happened in Ecuador, where healing is a serious business, and apparently so are ghosts.

[00:38:57] Traditional healers called curandiras work in the stalls of Quito's downtown markets. And the limpia, a spiritual cleansing with an egg, is traditionally performed by an elderly woman folk healer with knowledge passed down from mother to daughter. There's also a documented flip side in a 2010 anthropology study of tourism in Ecuador's Amazon called Shamans and Shams,

[00:39:20] found that as tourists came looking for rituals, new shamans emerged, and some posed as traditional ones to sell to visitors. In Edwin's telling, someone at that hostel was pretending to be a healer and messing with energies that potentially he had no business messing with. But what's funny is that that building had real energy, and that energy was its own ghost.

[00:39:45] Hey Michelle, this is Rax calling from Los Angeles, and I have a ghost story for you. In my early 20s, I went to Cambodia to report for a daily national print newspaper, the Pham Penh Post. And for anyone who's been to Cambodia, the land has a deep and torturous memory of the Khmer Rouge regime,

[00:40:13] which was started in Cambodia in the 1970s. Authoritarian, totalitarian, repressive regime that targeted ethnic minorities and also any perceived political enemies of the Khmer Rouge. And these enemies were tortured and killed in killing prisons in Cambodia.

[00:40:38] And I live close to one of the most infamous and horrific of these killing prisons, Tol Slang, which was in the capital, Phnom Penh. What I know about ghosts is that ghosts might remain in the human realm because in deaths or in their dying days,

[00:41:02] there was something that wouldn't allow their soul to be at peace or at rest. And for many of the martyrs of the Khmer Rouge regime, I know that they were in extreme pain and distress in their final days, perhaps hinting at why the landscape of Cambodia feels so haunted.

[00:41:27] The first night I was there, I went out for, you know, just a classic raucous night out to see Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight. And being a lifelong stoner from Southern California, I was past a joint, which I've never said no to.

[00:41:46] And, you know, I tried the good Cambodian Kush and not sure if it didn't agree with my constitution or what, but I didn't get very good sleep that night. I'm lying in my bed just blocks away from Tol Slang and I'm lying on my back.

[00:42:08] I remember waking up and kind of cracking open my eyes and I see a woman floating on her back, suspended close to the ceiling in a long dress. And she's not moving or looking at me or doing anything. She might have been a friendly ghost, who knows? But it was enough for me to wake up from sleep screening.

[00:42:36] And kind of hard to explain to your brand new roommates who you just met that day, just moved into their place, that you've seen a ghost the first night and my roommate comes running with a baseball bat, you know, throws the door open and I'm there, not sure what to say. A few weeks later, I'm in the same room, lying in the same bed. And it's so hot.

[00:43:07] Every night I would have a fan blasting air on me and I roll over on my side to face the fan. And again, crack my eyes open slightly and a hand is coming out of the fan, reaching towards me, trying to grab me. So maybe it became less friendly.

[00:43:30] It was so interesting, like this relationship to, you know, otherworldly spirits, the divine. When I was living there, I felt like there was a compulsion to tell the stories of the people in Cambodia and tell what I knew.

[00:43:54] But I was so young, I didn't know what I wanted for my writing, for my career. And I didn't know what to make of these things. And I never resolved it. So I hope I can do some justice to these memories, to the memories of the people that I might have interacted with those nights. And hopefully this call for you, Michelle, is a little balm to the spirits that I might have interacted with.

[00:44:24] For anyone who wants to follow along with these memories and my ghost story, my Instagram handle is at BigFoodie69, F-O-O-D-I-E. I'll be writing more, sharing my writing, and hopefully coming up with some kind of narrative that puts into perspective these events I experienced. Thanks so much for listening. Thank you, Rax, for your story.

[00:44:54] According to the United States Holocaust Museum, 14.000 to 17.000 prisoners were held in Tull's slang prison during the Khmer Rouge regime, which is the size of a sold-out concert at the Hollywood Bowl. And out of that many people, only 12 prisoners are believed to have survived. Lust auf einfach guten Kaffee, wann immer du willst? Bekommst du mit den Cubo-Kapselmaschinen von Chibo.

[00:45:23] Denn das ist Kaffee in seiner besten Form. Cubo verbindet ausgewählte Kaffees aus besonderen Anbaugebieten mit innovativer Press-Brew-Technologie. Für vollmundigen Geschmack und samtige Crema. Ob Espresso, Kaffee-Creme oder Kaffee-Grande. Du hast die Wahl. Cubo liefert Kaffee-Vielfalt auf Knopfdruck mit Gelingen-Garantie. Entdecke jetzt die Cubo-Kapselmaschinen von Chibo. Hi, my name's Lisa.

[00:45:51] I'm from Gomoroe Nation and I want to share a yarn with you about the time I lived in the rainforest and a woman's spirit that lived in the community. As a young woman in my 20s, I moved with my boyfriend at the time, deep in the rainforest. The community was only accessible by forward drive and the road was hilly, windy and bumpy.

[00:46:18] We lived in a tin shack, pretty much open to the elements. But we had everything we needed except for electricity, water. But we made do cooked on the fire every day. Swam in the river. But we really didn't need too much to live in the bush. It was quite an amazing time to live up there. So we lived up there for a few months.

[00:46:44] And I'm not going to use the name of the place out of respect for the traditional owners from that place. The more I stayed there, the more I learned about country, spirits, and the more I got to hear and even see. I feel like when you're away from the distractions of the big city and you're in these quiet places in the bush,

[00:47:09] that you're open to other levels of being, you know, new levels of seeing. And so I just wanted to share this story about one spirit woman who lived in that community. The stories were that this woman, non-Indigenous woman, was murdered during the Australian Gold Rush era. That was an era that was particularly violent.

[00:47:36] A few different versions of that story I heard, but one of them was that she was down in the river, washing clothes or bathing, and was murdered at the river. The offender was a man. And so from then on, in spirit form, she continues to act out revenge or torment men.

[00:48:07] There's also a waterfall on that country. There were stories about her pushing men off the waterfall that tried to cross the waterfall, again as an act of revenge because of the way that she had died. My boyfriend experienced her as well. One night he was outside mucking around and she screamed in his ear.

[00:48:35] And that wasn't uncommon for the spirit woman to scream in men's ears and really frighten them. I get an eerie feeling just thinking about it and talking about it because she's such a strong presence. And now that I think back to a number of different incidences, I think that maybe I was being watched more than I knew.

[00:49:03] You know, the river each day that I'd go down and always felt like you were being watched. And then walking, you know, from one house to another, sometimes on my own. You'd be walking along that dirt road and you could hear the pebbles. It just seemed like super noisy, the amount of pebbles and stones that were flying up from my shoes.

[00:49:29] And when I turned around, you could still see them sort of rolling down the road. And it was almost like somebody was walking behind me, but no one was there. I was just mucking around down at our shaft there one morning. And I could hear one of the troopers, you know, Toyota Land Cruisers cruising up the road. And I looked up the top of the hill just to see who it was because, you know, there's not much going on. And you want a radar, want to see what everybody's doing.

[00:50:01] And I looked up at the top of the road. One of the other fellows that lived there, he was cruising in the tripie down to someone's house to do something. And there was a woman sitting in the passenger seat. And I just remember her hair, this long, blonde hair just flowing out the window, you know, like you're heading half out the window and your hair's blowing out while you're sitting in the car.

[00:50:29] And she sort of looked down at me and gave me a really nice warm smile. And then, you know, they passed by. Anyway, that person who was driving that car, later on, on their way back, they duped him to our camp. And I was like, oh, we were sat in the car with you. We were in the passenger seat. And we were saying, what are you talking about? It was like that woman. And I was on my own.

[00:51:01] And I was just spinning out because it's like seeing someone for real. And then afterwards finding out that they weren't real and just, you know, questioning yourself and your mind and thinking, am I going crazy? Because that looked like a real person to me. So, yeah, that was a really crazy experience for me. And even still to today, I can still see the image of that woman.

[00:51:30] And so, yeah, that was a bit of a spin out when everything's so quiet and so still. It's almost like you're able to connect with so much more than you would in the busy cities where there's all those distractions. And, you know, there was one night we were driving home in the dark and driving up this rocky road. It was a long way until we got to our camp, but we're running late. So this meant that we were driving at nighttime.

[00:51:59] I had the windows down. And then we got some music playing. We're driving up this rocky, steep, windy road. And it's taken a long time. And then, like, just real clearly and loudly, I could hear this what sounded like quarry, you know, like people dancing, singing. I could just hear it so clearly. And I remember saying to my boyfriend at the time, Hey, who's in the bush over there? Like, who would that be?

[00:52:29] Because I knew that nobody lived in that part. And he's like, yeah, no one. That's just the spirits. When it rained because we lived in this shack, you know, and it had no windows and that, you could hear lots of mumbling, talking.

[00:53:00] But no one else was there but us. You know, we'd be laying in bed just listening to people standing next to you in bed having conversation, but you can't make out what they're saying. And it was interesting because I believe, you know, that it was the old people and the ancestors talking in language. Boyfriend would say that's because they love it when it rains. It's almost like party time. And that's when them spirits come out and enjoy themselves.

[00:53:29] So that's why we could hear them. It was just such a special experience that I'll never forget. And I'll never forget the families that I was able to live with and thank them for the protections because I was a long way from home and I was a stranger to that country. The last story I'll tell you, the wet season was coming and we weren't prepared.

[00:53:56] We didn't have enough food or stores to make it through the wet season. So we made a decision to go back into town and just waited out and just packed up everything, packed up the car and took off. And we had to cross a couple of big rivers because by that time the rain had already started and the rivers were already starting to get pretty high.

[00:54:23] And I had like a Toyota 4Runner forward drive. And it was an old one but it did the job. We had to cross one river, went through real good and then the second river, it was big. Started driving through and we had some family on the other side of the river just had driven through it just before us, directing us which way to go. And we got halfway through this massive river, the water's flown. It's right up to the side of the doors, nearly to the windows. I'm freaking out.

[00:54:53] And they said, no, no, just keep coming, keep coming. And then next minute the car just stops. We're going to be swept down this river in this car, that's it, finished. And then followers yelling out, no, it just started again. Turned the ignition, turned the key one more time. The car was stored, turned the key. All of a sudden it just started up again. And then we're able to finish off driving through that river.

[00:55:20] And so I always had that feeling that being looked after by the ancestors or even, you know, my own ancestors who travel with me everywhere I go as well. Because I felt like that was a near-death experience. But it's so freaky that that car just stopped and next minute to start out and get out of there. I'm so grateful for those experiences. Thank you, Lisa.

[00:55:47] Lisa hosts Prophecyry Podcast, where First Nations people share their paranormal stories in their own words. You can find her details in the show notes. So go find her. Hello, my name is Alana. I am from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. So I have this story from when I was 16. I am now 36. I went to go visit my biological mom who was living in La Ronge, Saskatchewan. So I took the Greyhound.

[00:56:16] It took me about two days to get there from Edmonton, Alberta to La Ronge. I get there and I get there. It's a nice little white house. Just a main floor and a basement. All right. Look in the backyard. It has like a chain-length fence and on the other side of it is like a little forest of trees. And it's pretty big, like big when you're small. And it was just like, you know, a space between houses and stuff.

[00:56:46] So I ended up liking it there. I was like, all right. I was like, it's a nice little house. Anyways, so one day I was sitting downstairs. Middle of summer. It was super hot. Didn't think nothing of it. This ball comes rolling out very slowly. So I'm like, okay. All right.

[00:57:16] And I didn't think nothing of it because, you know, like no one was like, I wasn't really creeped out about stuff, you know. I don't know. A couple days go by. I was sitting on the couch, remember, down there. And I'm watching something on the TV. On the left side of my peripherals, I see someone kind of slouching down and trying to sneak by me ever so slightly. So I'm thinking, boom.

[00:57:46] This is my brothers. Because I had, it was my sister, my mom, and my two little brothers that live there and their stepdad. It was not my stepdad, but their stepdad. Anywho. So I'm like, waiting for them to like pop out and scare me. I just kind of figured it was my little brothers because, you know, we'd always pop out and scare each other in time we could. So I'm like sitting there and no one comes. I'm like bracing. Like any second they're going to go, ah. But nothing happened.

[00:58:15] So I get up and I just go look, right? And I'm like looking around and now no one's down here. So I call up to my sister and I'm like, Allie. And she's like, yeah. I'm like, Calvin and Matthew here? And she's like, no, they're outside. And oh my god, I got the chills. I was so scared.

[00:58:43] Like, you know when you have that fight or flight? I just couldn't even move at all. Like I was so scared. I took everything in me just to go upstairs because it was just creeping out so bad. Anyway, so I go upstairs and one night I am just like, I go to bed. And all of a sudden I wake up and there's this little boy leaning over me. And he's like, hey, why do you cry sometimes tonight?

[00:59:13] And the reason why I was crying is because I was lonely but no one ever seen me. So, but this little boy with like little dark brown hair, brown eyes, he was just staring at me. And I started getting, I started crying like and I was so scared that I could not move. But I was like, I could hear my sister beside me. Like she was sleeping. I could hear her snoring. I ended up closing my eyes and I was like, go away. You're not real.

[00:59:43] You're not real. Go away. And I could move again. And my sister, like, she nudged me and I was just crying. And it took me a while to console me because I was actually really scared. Anyways, the next day my mom and my sister sit me down. And she was telling me that years and years ago in the same house, there used to be a family that lived there that had a little boy.

[01:00:11] And there were these bad neighbor kids that two of them, they took him and they took him to the back of that little forest I was telling you guys about, trees. And they tortured him. They killed him. And if you search it in La Ranch, Saskatchewan on Sinat Crescent, the exact same house, that's where he stayed. And you can read about it in the paper. It was really sad. They did really bad things to him. And, yeah, he was around six or seven. He was exactly the boy that I seen.

[01:00:43] Yeah, I've just always had weird stuff happen to me like that. I guess when people say you're gifted, you know, when you can see things like that. But for a while, I was always scared to sleep because once that happened, it's like it opened up something to another time is when I was around 17 or 17 or 18. And I'm laying in my bed in my house. I go back.

[01:01:12] I'm living in Edmonton again. And I'm just laying there. And my cookum, which is grandma in Cree because I'm Native American or indigenous, she had passed away probably when I was around 12, 11, 13. I can't remember. Teenager-ish. Anyways, I'm laying in the room one day and I wasn't feeling good. So I'm just laying there on my side.

[01:01:39] I could see my mom on the phone laying on my side looking out of my bedroom. I could see her on the phone and she's talking. All of a sudden, it happens again. I realize, oh, shoot, I can't move again. The room goes just, the room just goes like lighter and brighter. All of a sudden, I put my eyes downward to end of my bed and I had a rocking chair in my room.

[01:02:06] And in the rocking chair in my room was my cookum sitting there and her flowery dresses she used to wear in two braids parted on each side. I look at her. You know, in my mind, I know she is gone. She's not here. And I got scared of her. I kind of feel bad because maybe that's not what she was like, you know? I'm still hoping for me to do.

[01:02:32] But I'm trying to wake myself up to be able to move. Although I can still hear my mom and I can still hear everything. And all of a sudden, as she's come, she gets up and she starts walking towards me. And I feel like warmth on my shoulder where she touches me with her hand. And I close my eyes and I'm just praying to wake up, like be able to move again. It wasn't a dream.

[01:03:01] I was fully like awake when it's happened. Like I wasn't half asleep. And all of a sudden, like I just, as soon as I could move again, the room just went like, you know, back to being like just how it normally was. It wasn't like all bright and goldy. It was just normal. And I went and told my mom and I was crying. I was like, mom was like, Kukum was just here. She sat in that chair right there. She was looking at me. Oh, my God. I got the chills right now. Anyways, I was like, she's not here. She came in.

[01:03:31] Well, she said something in Cree. Oh, yeah, that's right. She said something in Cree. And I don't know. I don't speak Cree. So, but that's how she spoke. She spoke very little English. So, I'm like super scared telling my mom this and she starts crying and I'm just like, you know, it was a scary thing to happen. Like I have a bunch more stories too. Some of them are really sad. Some of them are really weird. And, yeah, I'll send you in some more if you guys look. Anyways, thank you.

[01:04:03] Thank you, Alana from Edmington, Alberta. A sad child recognizing another sad child. That's what I hear when you talk about the boy. She says she matched the description of a child to one that was killed in the house. I won't guess about a real kid. But he saw she was crying and he asked. Then her grandmother, speaking softly in Cree.

[01:04:31] About 86,000 people speak it in Canada. More than any other indigenous language. But that number is shrinking. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission traces that back to residential schools. So a grandmother speaking Cree to her granddaughter is a language still holding on. One last thing before you go. We went around the world tonight and every place had its own rule book for the dead. The rules change by country.

[01:05:00] But they all say the same thing. Pay attention to who's in the room and treat them with care. Then tell me about it. Wherever you are. I believe you. That's all we have this week, folks. Do you have a ghost story? Call 701-484-2666.

[01:05:28] That's 701-484-2666. Or go to tellmeaghoststory.com and leave your story there. Thank you to all the callers who left messages this week. I'm your host, Michelle Newman. Signing off. See you next week.

[01:05:58] What's a video? Lust auf einfach guten Kaffee, wann immer du willst? Bekommst du. Mit den Cubo-Kapselmaschinen von Chibo. Denn das ist Kaffee in seiner besten Form. Cubo verbindet ausgewählte Kaffees aus besonderen Anbaugebieten mit innovativer Press-Brew-Technologie. Für vollmundigen Geschmack und samtige Crema. Ob Espresso, Kaffee-Creme oder Kaffee-Grande. Du hast die Wahl. Cubo liefert Kaffee-Vielfalt auf Knopfdruck. Mit Geling-Garantie.

[01:06:25] Entdecke jetzt die Cubo-Kapselmaschinen von Chibo.