I Wandered Into Another Dimension – Ep. 238

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER_13] Hi, I'm Angie Hicks, co-founder of Angie. And one thing I've learned is that you buy a house, but you make it a home. Because with every fix, update and renovation, it becomes a little more your own. So you need all your jobs done well. For nearly 30 years, Angie has helped millions of homeowners hire skilled pros for the projects that matter. From plumbing to electrical, roof repair to deck upgrades. So leave it to the pros who will get your jobs done well. Angie, the one you

[00:00:25] [SPEAKER_13] trust to find the ones you trust. Find a pro for your project at Angie.com. What's up y'all? Summer's

[00:00:31] [SPEAKER_00] got a different tempo. Everything's a little looser, brighter. One plan turns into another. You hear something, you stay a little longer. Next thing you know, you're somewhere you didn't plan to be. It's those in-between moments. That's where the ideas hit. Conversations stretch out, little memories sneak up on you. Sometimes it's just about what's in your hand. That color, that chill, the new tropics, tropical butterfly refresher from Starbucks. Guava and passion fruit flavors with mango

[00:01:00] [SPEAKER_00] pineapple flavored pearls. Yeah, that feels like summer before you even taste it. Funny how one small stop becomes the best part of the day. Start your summer rhythm with Starbucks. Try the new

[00:01:13] [SPEAKER_10] tropical butterfly refresher from Starbucks. Odd Trails is a true paranormal podcast. If you have a story to share, send it to stories at oddtrails.com. Enjoy the show.

[00:01:29] [SPEAKER_14] Forget facts. Forget logic. Forget everything that seems real. You just trust. Believe.

[00:01:41] [SPEAKER_10] I wandered into another dimension by purple 2728. I know how crazy it sounds. Honestly, if I were reading

[00:02:26] [SPEAKER_10] this story, if it hadn't happened to me, I wouldn't believe it. But I haven't been able to stop thinking about it, and it's been years. I was with my mom, and we decided to take a walk on a nice day at our favorite metro park. It's in the middle of the city, so no matter where you are, you do hear cars. It was early, so we decided to take the longest path. No one knew where we were, and as we talked,

[00:02:56] [SPEAKER_10] we reached a point when we realized that we hadn't seen anyone in a long time. This was weird for this park. We couldn't even hear people. We then realized that the car sounds had vanished, even though at that point of the path we were close to a highway, or at least we should have been. We found it to be

[00:03:18] [SPEAKER_10] weird, but we didn't get scared. After walking a bit further, we saw a man who was jogging. He was tall, had shoulder-length blonde hair, and was jogging between the trees rather than on the path. After jogging behind this very thin tree, he just vanished. We looked all over the area just in

[00:03:42] [SPEAKER_10] case he was hurt, but we couldn't find him, and we couldn't find his tracks either. By this point, at the furthest part of the path, we just wanted to get out of there as soon as we could, so we quickened our pace and tried to talk about the most boring things that we could think of, just to distract ourselves from the growing fear. But then, the colors started to change. Normal,

[00:04:11] [SPEAKER_10] pretty forest colors became something that I could never have dreamed of. The green of the tree leaves looked like a stained glass window with light shining through it, not like the leaves that grow around there. The grass looked like velvet. Most often when you read that statement, it's hyperbole. But it was

[00:04:33] [SPEAKER_10] a deep, soft-looking green, and it looked like it would be soft and plush to lie down in. I wanted to touch it, but my mom wouldn't let me. This was smart of her. Next, the trees started to watch us. There were faces in the trees, not like the trees were people, but like the trees from Lord of the Rings. There were creatures or things inside of the trees,

[00:05:02] [SPEAKER_10] or a part of the trees, and they were poking their faces through the bark to watch us. They were humanoid, with some bearing a slight resemblance to the helping hands and labyrinth, with how knobby they looked. As we walked, more faces popped up, and our fear grew quickly. Not only were there no cars or sounds coming

[00:05:27] [SPEAKER_10] from outside the park, there were also no forest sounds at that point either. No birds, bugs, or even a breeze. We wanted to run, but we were afraid of what would happen if they knew we were scared, whoever they were. We thought of calling my sister just to have a familiar voice talk to us as we went to the car. However, we didn't do that, which I regret to this day.

[00:05:54] [SPEAKER_10] I wonder if we would have even had a signal. We then turned a corner, and the world rushed back. There were no more faces. The colors faded to the ordinary ones anyone can see at the metro park, and the sounds returned as if somebody were turning up a speaker. When we got to the car, we sat there for a bit. At first, we were afraid to talk.

[00:06:22] [SPEAKER_10] However, once we started, we couldn't stop. We had so many questions. Who was that man, and where did he go? Where did the sound go? What the hell was watching us from the trees? And will we ever see those colors again? We've been there many times since, and haven't experienced anything quite like that. There are areas in the park that we don't go to because we, along with my sister,

[00:06:50] [SPEAKER_10] have agreed that there's something very angry there. But my favorite park hasn't shown us what we saw that day again. As absurd as it sounds, the closest answer we've come up with is that we somehow wandered into another dimension, and the man who disappeared was possibly a fae. We still double-check that people are still there when they jog past us in the park,

[00:07:18] [SPEAKER_10] and we make sure that we're still hearing car sounds. This is the first time I've talked about what happened to someone other than my mom. I know I sound crazy, but I can't stop thinking about the colors. Like, if a tree could glow. If the grass could look like the most welcoming bed that you could have the perfect sleep on. As scared as I was that day, all I want is to go back, find those colors,

[00:07:46] [SPEAKER_10] and lie down on the velvet grass. I'm hoping that writing this will help me stop thinking about that day and those colors. I do my best not to think about the faces, though.

[00:07:58] [SPEAKER_16] The Number in the Wall by Brian About ten years ago, I was helping my brother renovate a house he had recently bought, which was built in the 70s.

[00:08:26] [SPEAKER_16] One of the rooms had water damage, so we ended up removing a section of drywall. We found a phone number written on one of the wooden studs. It didn't have a name, and nothing else was written back there. For some reason, though, the number looked familiar to me. Like, I thought that I recognized it, but I couldn't quite place it. I know that sounds strange, but most people have probably had that experience

[00:08:54] [SPEAKER_16] where a face or a place feels familiar, even when you can't place it. It felt like that. My brother joked that we should call the number, but we didn't. We were too busy tearing the room apart, and we moved on. I did take a picture of the wall, though, since I was documenting the renovation anyway. So then, a few days later, I was scrolling through the photos on my phone, and I saw the number again.

[00:09:24] [SPEAKER_16] This time, I had the bright idea to type it into my contacts. Maybe I saved it for somebody. What are the chances? But nothing came up. I also looked it up online, but I couldn't find a name attached to it. The only reason I kept trying is because it bothered me so much with how familiar it felt. I entered partial numbers and rearranged them a little, but I still couldn't find a contact in my phone that matched it close enough.

[00:09:55] [SPEAKER_16] Then, a few months after that, my brother texted me. He asked if I still had the picture of the number, or if I had it memorized. I said that I still have the picture, and as I started telling him the number, he shushed me after the second digit, and then he quickly finished the rest himself. I said, Yeah, that's it. Did you find anything out? He told me he had walked into the room one morning,

[00:10:25] [SPEAKER_16] and found himself staring at the wall, trying to remember it. He said he didn't know why. He'd been doing something else entirely, and the number had just popped into his head. And then when he recited it to himself, he was surprised by how easily he was able to recall it. He actually couldn't believe that he got it right, so that's why he called me. It's worth noting that he wasn't interested in the number at all,

[00:10:53] [SPEAKER_16] when I told him that it seemed familiar to me. During renovations, he glanced at it and shrugged. Didn't pay any more attention to it after that. I know that probably doesn't sound strange, but my brother is not a numbers guy. He only has his own number, and his wife's memorized. It doesn't make any sense why he'd be able to remember ten random digits that should have fallen off his short-term memory within seconds.

[00:11:23] [SPEAKER_16] Somehow, both of us could still remember this random number we'd seen written inside a wall. But we just laughed about it and moved on. Then something happened recently that brought the whole thing back. After my grandpa died, my mother spent a long time sorting through boxes he had accumulated over the years. One day, she asked me to go through it with her. There were receipts, books, catalogs,

[00:11:52] [SPEAKER_16] random scraps of paper, the ordinary stuff. I picked up a small address book that looked like it hadn't been opened in forever. I flipped through it, and there's no need to be dramatic about it. You already know what was in there. There was a page with only one phone number written on it. That same number written on the wooden stud behind the wall. I know how it sounds.

[00:12:22] [SPEAKER_16] If someone else told me this story, I wouldn't believe them. What's also interesting though, is that it didn't look like my grandpa's handwriting. My mom noticed this too. My grandfather also never lived anywhere near that house. As far as anybody knows, he had no relationship with the previous owners. He was also a farmer, so I don't know what he would have had in common with whoever wrote that number down.

[00:12:51] [SPEAKER_16] My brother also never touched the book. He wasn't with us, and he wouldn't have known that we were going to look through that address book. I also never mentioned the number to my mom before this, so neither my mom or my brother were messing with me. So after I was able to compose myself a little, I showed my mom the number in the address book. I asked her if it looked familiar. She shook her head.

[00:13:19] [SPEAKER_16] You can imagine her reaction when I told her about the same number being written on the wooden stud. As I was explaining things, I was going through my phone, looking for the picture. And when I finally found it and showed it to her, her exact words were, what the effing heck? So at that point, I decided to call it. Because why not? Unfortunately though, that's where the story ends.

[00:13:48] [SPEAKER_16] The number just rings and rings. I don't try calling it anymore. And I'm sorry to say, I haven't received any spooky voicemails or text messages. But seriously, what is the deal with this number?

[00:14:22] [SPEAKER_14] Why have I asked my electrician I found on Angie.com to bury my pet hamster Nibbles in our yard for me? Because I was so moved by how carefully he buried my electrical wires. I knew I could trust him to bury my sweet Nibbles after his untimely end.

[00:14:36] Huh.

[00:14:36] [SPEAKER_14] Nibbles. Gone too soon. May he scurry in peace. Hey, sorry about your pet, but I just wire stuff. Nibbles would have loved you like a brother.

[00:14:45] [SPEAKER_01] Connecting homeowners with skilled pros for over 30 years. Angie, the one you trust to find the ones you trust. Find pros for all your home projects at Angie.com.

[00:14:53] [SPEAKER_12] This is Danielle Robay from Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club. Nothing compares to the anticipation of something new. A new start, a new year, a new home, or a new car. When it's time to get a new car, where do you start? Car shopping can honestly be a little overwhelming, but it should be fun. Buying your next car should be exciting, and it can be, if you remember one thing. Cars.com. Cars.com has the tools and expert advice to help you figure out what vehicle is right for you.

[00:15:23] [SPEAKER_12] Their advanced search filters allow you to explore 2 million new and used cars so that you can find the perfect car. The site is so easy to use. Looking for an electric vehicle with a third row and leather seats for easy cleanup? Cars.com has you covered. A variety of tools and badges are used to help shoppers understand the price of a vehicle and find the best deal. And every review is written by a real person, reflecting a real life experience. So don't take any chances. Do car shopping the easy way.

[00:15:53] [SPEAKER_12] Start your search with cars.com. Where to next?

[00:15:57] [SPEAKER_09] Big transfer news today. Who's moving?

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[00:16:18] [SPEAKER_09] Prices higher for some locations. Excludes XL and specialty pizzas. Select this offer from $6.15 through $7.26. Online only. Size availability varies by crust type. Max 7 toppings. 6 for hand in New York style crust. Minimum purchase required for delivery. Prices, participation, delivery area, and charges may vary.

[00:16:32] [SPEAKER_02] Why is it always chaos when we link up? Cause nobody plans anything bro. Good thing the Rogue's ready like that. For real. Rain, dirt, whatever. Available all wheel drive. Five modes. We still outside. And they got some kick too. That turbo? Torque is crazy. The most in its class. It moves moves. Rogue doesn't mess around. And peep the space. Merch on merch. Gear. Mikes. All of it fits. Load up. We out. 2026 Nissan Rogue.

[00:16:59] [SPEAKER_18] Built for all of it.

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[00:17:11] [SPEAKER_10] A Wednesday night I'll never forget by Anonymous. It was the summer before 7th grade sometime in July. Now the evening before, my family had watched Unsolved Mysteries, the older ones. I awoke in the night, lying on my right side, awake, but my eyes were still shut. It was completely silent. None of us in the house ran fans back then.

[00:17:40] [SPEAKER_10] I was awake and basically waiting to fall back to sleep again. However, I decided to open my eyes. On the right side of my bed, there was this being. Seemingly fixated on a plush bear that I kept in bed with me. This being fit all the descriptions I had ever heard about or watched on television. Shorter, pale gray skin,

[00:18:07] [SPEAKER_10] and those awful huge black eyes, staring at my bear right by my bed. Honestly, I can't put into words how I felt right at that moment. I was just about 12 at the time. At some point, I pulled the covers over my head, and I felt this awful sensation rushing through my body. It was warm, then cool, then warm again.

[00:18:36] [SPEAKER_10] Only later in life did I understand that I was most likely feeling shock. I wasn't able to scream. I was frozen. Too scared to scream, maybe. What if I did scream? My mother, my stepfather, and my two brothers would hear me. And what the heck would they do if they came running into my room and saw this thing? What would it do? So, being such a brave 11-year-old,

[00:19:04] [SPEAKER_10] and after what felt like 12 hours, I decided to try and scare it. I went ahead and thrashed my legs up and down under the covers as hard as I could. I remained under the covers, just waiting after that, but nothing happened. So I stayed there, under the covers. This had to be at least close to two hours from when I first opened my eyes and saw this thing. As I lay there wide awake,

[00:19:33] [SPEAKER_10] I heard a noise. To this day, I still cannot explain exactly how it sounded. The sound felt as if it surrounded me and was coming from outside. It was a crisp, clean sound, maybe mechanical. It lasted only about two seconds. A sound I had definitely never heard before and definitely haven't heard since. As soon as I heard it, something in my mind told me,

[00:20:02] [SPEAKER_10] they're gone. As crazy as it sounds, I firmly believe the sound was their transportation leaving. Needless to say, I didn't sleep the rest of the night. It took me so long to confide in my family about this terribly scary incident. Of course, they didn't believe me. However, now, from time to time, my mother will mention it and suggest that maybe that's why I suffer from insomnia.

[00:20:46] [SPEAKER_16] Intuition saved my life by KS I believe that everyone has intuition, but maybe some people are more in tune with how they receive energy from the universe. It's all about what you do with the messages you get. One night a while back, I was getting off late from a closing shift at a ski resort. It was an hour-long drive down the mountain to get home, and I felt like stopping at a gas station to grab a drink.

[00:21:15] [SPEAKER_16] I pulled into a gas station and parked right up by the front doors. As I unbuckled and rummaged for my wallet, the eeriest feeling washed over me. I snapped up and looked around the empty lot. No one was at the pumps, and the only other car was the single employees, who I could see stocking candy through the big, brightly lit windows. But as I scanned to the far corner of the building,

[00:21:43] [SPEAKER_16] I saw a dark figure of a man leering around the corner, staring right at me. My gut dropped. I threw my car into reverse and noped the hell right out of there. A little freaked out, I stopped at another gas station farther down the road. There was a man buying lottery tickets at the counter. I grabbed my drinks and stood behind him. This guy stood there for probably five or ten minutes,

[00:22:13] [SPEAKER_16] buying scratchers, then immediately scratching them, and buying more. I was getting pissed off and moments away from putting my drinks back and going to yet another gas station. When suddenly, I got that cold gut feeling again. As I sat with this feeling for a second, the cashier finally told the guy he had to help me next, and I made my purchase. I got back in my car and headed towards home,

[00:22:41] [SPEAKER_16] but less than half a mile down the road, I came upon a car accident. It was very fresh, and quite honestly, one of the nastiest T-bones I have ever seen in person. As I slowed and approached the intersection, I saw the bright flashing lights of the fire truck behind me, pulling out of the station that luckily was right next to the gas station I was just in. I didn't stop to assist since the first responders

[00:23:11] [SPEAKER_16] were seconds away, but as I continued driving, the coldest realization washed over me. If I had angrily put my drinks back and sped off to the next gas station, there is every chance that I could have been the one to get T-boned. Call it intuition, anxiety, or paranoia if you want, but something told me that if my journey home had been any quicker than what it was, that would have been me

[00:23:40] [SPEAKER_16] getting pulled out of that accident. So I guess, take your time. Sometimes your path is delayed for a purpose.

[00:24:10] [SPEAKER_10] My House Mysteriously Flooded by James A. Drayton In 2018, my family bought a house outside a rural village in the Irish Midlands. After four years of living there, my dad was planning to sell the house and move to the West Coast with his partner, whereas I planned to move back to my hometown in Yorkshire, England. In the summer of 2021,

[00:24:39] [SPEAKER_10] roughly towards the end of the pandemic, my dad and his partner had gone away for a few days on the other side of the country, so it was just me, my sister, and our dog at home. Waking up early one morning, my sister and I heard the sound of gushing water coming from somewhere in the house. After some investigating, we eventually found that the source of the water was coming from the boiler, which was behind a wardrobe in my sister's room.

[00:25:09] [SPEAKER_10] For whatever reason, water was flowing out of the boiler at a very rapid pace, and although I tried my best to stop it, there was still no sign that it would. Having no idea if the boiler was broken or even how to fix it, my sister and I quickly began to panic, because now the water was moving into the living room and beginning to flood the house. Unable to solve the problem ourselves, we eventually

[00:25:38] [SPEAKER_10] called our dad and we told him what happened. Thankfully, his partner knew of a plumber who lived nearby, so she arranged for him to come and fix our boiler problem by the end of the day. By late evening, after the house had been flooded for several hours, the plumber finally came over to fix the boiler. However, when we brought him into my sister's room, he looked confused. He then turned the handle on the side of the boiler

[00:26:08] [SPEAKER_10] counterclockwise, and just like that, the water stopped running. According to the plumber, someone had turned the handle completely loose on the side of the boiler, and that's why water was gushing out the way that it was. Although my sister and I were incredibly relieved the house would no longer flood, we were now left just as confused. How could someone have turned the boiler's handle

[00:26:37] [SPEAKER_10] if it was just me and my sister in the house? Obviously, neither of us had done it. So, in that case, how the heck could that have happened when my sister and I know for a fact that no one tampered with that handle?

[00:27:08] [SPEAKER_16] The Old Black Sedan by Mark The events of this story took place in a rural New England town in the early 70s. I was probably seven or eight. I grew up next to a lake on a very quiet road. My father would always deposit grass cuttings, branches, and dead leaves from our property in the brushy, wooded area at the side of the lake, which was across the street from our house.

[00:27:37] [SPEAKER_16] Even though the lake was just across the street, it always felt like an adventure when my sister and I accompanied him on this chore, as the road was considered dangerous due to speeding cars. On this one particular beautiful summer day, we had just finished dumping all the clippings when we all heard a loud noise and turned at the same time. There was a 1940s looking sedan slowly driving by us on the road,

[00:28:07] [SPEAKER_16] followed by a small white sports car flying past it at an alarmingly high speed. It was such a quick event, and while it didn't scare me, it did startle me. My first thought was, wow, that black car is creepy. Why is it driving so slow? The next thing I remember was opening my eyes. I was laying on the ground on my back, and I looked up to see my sister standing next to me,

[00:28:38] [SPEAKER_16] emotionless and not looking at me. And my father, looking down at me and smiling. Why was he smiling? I sat up and asked, what just happened? I was utterly confused. Not injured, not winded, no dirt on me, almost as if I had blacked out. Suddenly I'm on the ground and my eyes open, and I'm completely baffled. My father said,

[00:29:08] [SPEAKER_16] when that white car passed the old black one, it hit a rock on the side of the road, and that rock hit you in the ankle, and we have to take you to the hospital. What? Those words baffled me. I don't remember a rock. I don't remember falling or losing my breath. There was zero pain, and I had no swelling, no blood, absolutely nothing at all. I was fine.

[00:29:38] [SPEAKER_16] My father went to get a bucket of water, had to take off my shoe and sock, and we drove to the hospital with my foot in the bucket in the back seat of the car. Here's another strange part. I have zero memory of actually going to a hospital. None. There was no bandage, brace, or any such thing on my ankle. I remember being in the car and was just home again, playing in the backyard. For

[00:30:07] [SPEAKER_16] clarity, there was another injury around the same time at my neighbor's house, where their daughter was riding their horse. I was sitting on the grass with my sister watching her. She rode close enough that I was struck above my left elbow by the stirrup, somersaulted backward, and ended up bleeding heavily from a gash on my face. I remember every moment of that. The impact. Everyone reacting to my white Sunday church shirt covered in blood.

[00:30:37] [SPEAKER_16] The hospital room being held down by two nurses while the surgeon stitched me up. My father carrying me back to the car, and clutching a lollipop afterward. My memory is shockingly good. So what happened at the lake will always confuse the heck out of me, and it annoys me that I will never have an answer. What

[00:31:16] [SPEAKER_10] pulled my foot that night? By blue starberry sky. About ten years ago I lived with my boyfriend in a house his family owned. From the start, the place had a heavy, weird atmosphere that I couldn't explain. His grandfather had collected various tribal artifacts, so the house was filled with masks and carved figures. One wooden doll always bothered me more than

[00:31:45] [SPEAKER_10] anything. A dark figure with a glass cavity in its stomach containing what looked like hair and nail clippings. Just looking at it made me feel uneasy. I had already been hearing strange noises around the house, footsteps on the stairs, random stuff like that, so I avoided being alone there. But one night things escalated. I woke up because I thought I heard my boyfriend gaming in the living room.

[00:32:16] [SPEAKER_10] Clicking, movement, the usual sounds. The hallway light was on so I called out to him to keep it down. The noises stopped instantly. When I turned my back, my boyfriend was sound asleep beside me. I stared at him confused, then looked toward the open door. That's when a tall, dark figure walked across the hallway. I hid under the covers and held on to my boyfriend. He checked the house, but nobody was there.

[00:32:47] [SPEAKER_10] A couple of weeks later, we moved the creepy doll into the garage because it started to freak us both out. Our new bedroom was unfortunately right beside that garage. One night while we were lying in bed watching a show, something grabbed my foot and tugged. I screamed. my boyfriend thought that I was messing with him until something touched his foot too. The look on his face said everything. We didn't

[00:33:16] [SPEAKER_10] stay much longer after that, and honestly, I believe something dark was in that house. I still get goosebumps and feel a little nauseous when I think about it.

[00:33:48] [SPEAKER_13] Hi, I'm Angie Hicks, co-founder of Angie. When you use Angie for your home projects, you know all your jobs will be done well. Roof repair, done well. Kitchen sink install, done well. Deck upgrades, done well. Electrical upgrade, done well. Angie's been connecting homeowners with skilled pros for nearly 30 years, so we know the difference between done and done well. Angie, the one you trust to find the ones you trust. Find a pro for your project at Angie.com.

[00:34:18] [SPEAKER_12] This is Danielle Robay from Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club. Nothing compares to the anticipation of something new. A new start, a new year, a new home, or a new car. When it's time to get a new car, where do you start? Car shopping can honestly be a little overwhelming, but it should be fun. Buying your next car should be exciting, and it can be, if you remember one thing, cars.com. Cars.com has the tools and expert advice to help you figure out what vehicle is right for you.

[00:34:48] [SPEAKER_12] Their advanced search filters allow you to explore 2 million new and used cars so you can find the perfect car. The site is so easy to use. Looking for an electric vehicle with a third row and leather seats for easy cleanup? Cars.com has you covered. A variety of tools and badges are used to help shoppers understand the price of a vehicle and find the best deal. And every review is written by a real person, reflecting a real life experience. So don't take any chances. Do car shopping the easy way.

[00:35:18] [SPEAKER_12] Start your search with cars.com. Where to next?

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[00:36:10] [SPEAKER_17] Bro, from the show last night to this drive, why is it never chill? Because this is our live. Backstage, on the

[00:36:16] [SPEAKER_02] road, it's loud, messy, real. And that's the best part. Whole crew, no plan, just moving. Good thing Nissan builds for that kind of chaos. Not just test tracks, real life scenes, late nights, road trips, all of it. That's why it holds up. Nissan was ranked number one in initial quality among mainstream brands by J.D. Power. Yeah, you can tell. 2026 Nissan Rogue built for what really happens.

[00:36:41] [SPEAKER_18] For J.D. Power 2025 US initial quality study award information, visit jdpower.com slash awards. Awards based on 2025 model year, newer models may be shown.

[00:36:52] [SPEAKER_10] Okay, jumping right into the feedback, Leah or Leia says, Hi Andy, sorry if you've already said this somewhere and I haven't seen it, but will there be a season two of Cryptic Encounters? And thank you both for doing another great episode of Odd Trails. The Reality Glitch stories are so fascinating to me. One, no, I won't be doing Cryptic Encounters season two. I kind of talked to everybody that I wanted to talk to. That was my excuse for doing the podcast, being able to get people on like authors and stuff that I

[00:37:22] [SPEAKER_10] wanted to talk to. And I learned what I wanted to learn. Maybe one day, but I don't have anything planned. And two, yes, glitching the Matrix stories, those Reality Glitches, those are super fascinating. In fact, that's most of what I have this week.

[00:37:36] [SPEAKER_16] So is it more of like a limited series type of thing?

[00:37:39] [SPEAKER_10] Yeah, yeah. I did eight or nine, maybe ten episodes. Yeah, I think I did ten episodes or something like that. That's solid. Yeah, it was an excuse to get people that I wanted to talk to on a call with me. And it ended up being interesting enough to, you know, do a podcast. So, yeah, it's one and done. I don't have any more questions. I know everything. There you go. It's a great feeling. So, IDK says, referencing episode 237, that bar entity thing reminds me of the still life

[00:38:08] [SPEAKER_10] entities from the Backrooms movie. And IDK is referencing the shapeshifter story from the bar from last week's episode. I agree. It's a weird liminal space type feeling as, you know, similar to the Backrooms. Have you seen that one yet, Brandon?

[00:38:22] [SPEAKER_16] Yeah, it was pretty cool. I don't really have anything to say about it, but it was worth watching.

[00:38:26] [SPEAKER_10] Yeah, I really liked it. I thought it was really great for, you know, 20-year-old director's first movie.

[00:38:31] [SPEAKER_16] Yeah, that's a dream right there. It really is.

[00:38:34] [SPEAKER_10] Yeah, you just got to get good at Blender and make waves on YouTube. Yep. On Discord, Katie says, the Zuko story reminded me of something that happened to me about seven years ago. I booked a trip to Wales in a stunning little cabin, one of those no Wi-Fi switch off from the modern world places. I arranged for my little brother to stay at my house and watch my two cats. On the drive to Wales, I saw a poor cat who had been knocked down and a thought suddenly

[00:39:04] [SPEAKER_10] bombarded my mind. I hope that's not a sign. From that moment, I had crushing anxiety about one of my babies, Muffin. I couldn't rest. I was running down to the pub at the bottom of the hill multiple times a day to get signal so that I could call my brother to make sure everything was okay. I just kept thinking, I hope Muffin is okay. Because of this anxiety, we decided to leave a day early and go home. Muffin passed away two days later from heart failure.

[00:39:32] [SPEAKER_10] We had no idea. I was convinced I had predicted the whole thing. It took me a long time to be able to go away again. I've had therapy about it and had to start really small booking trips an hour from my house. In a lighter note, dogs do indeed eat everything. My auntie's dog was rushed to the vets because he ate their concrete step, devoured it. He was fine, but not only was the vet bill

[00:40:02] [SPEAKER_10] astronomical, but they had to pay to replace the step. He just worked at it systematically and nibbled away till it was half gone. I still cannot believe this story.

[00:40:13] [SPEAKER_16] It sounds like they made the steps out of bone marrow and not cement.

[00:40:17] [SPEAKER_10] Yeah, yeah. And this was in Discord and somebody had responded and asked how did they eat the concrete? And yeah, they said there's a nibbled away at it. I mean, I've seen some dogs eat some crazy stuff like chew through some crazy stuff, but concrete is that that's a crazy dog.

[00:40:33] [SPEAKER_16] I eat a lot of pickled okra. I share the stems with my pit mix. He loves them. He'll like sit and perk his ears up and desperately want to eat some pickled okra with me.

[00:40:42] [SPEAKER_10] That sounds good. I've never had pickled okra, but I like pickled vegetables.

[00:40:45] [SPEAKER_16] You got to try it. Taka, Texas, I think is what it's called. There's only like one brand out there, but definitely grab some when you're at your local grocer down the pickle aisle.

[00:40:54] [SPEAKER_10] I want to start pickling stuff. I'm growing broccoli sprouts right now in my cupboard.

[00:40:59] [SPEAKER_16] Nice, nice. Pickled green beans are really good too.

[00:41:03] [SPEAKER_10] That sounds good too. So good. Pickle everything. Do it. Just pickle it all. Yeah.

[00:41:09] [SPEAKER_16] All right, let's get into some stories. So how about that dark figure? I don't know if that was necessarily some evil entity separate from the T-bone crash or the guy buying scratchers, but I'm thinking maybe it was intended to push her away and in turn lure her to the other gas station where that guy buying the scratcher tickets effectively could have saved her life by not getting T-boned. And I think there might be some sort of lesson in here about

[00:41:38] [SPEAKER_16] being kind and patient towards everybody because you never really know what purpose people have for entering your life and everybody has the same value in their own unique ways. So don't be so quick to judge. They could save your life.

[00:41:51] [SPEAKER_10] Yeah, I did like that part of the story, learning to be patient with people. It's something that I've been working on lately because I'm a very impatient person. You know this about me. Like, you know, when somebody takes too long to take off at a green light, usually because they're on their fucking phone or, you know, somebody can't figure out how to use the checkout line. They can't figure out the self-checkout line or they're trying to write a check. I haven't seen that one

[00:42:20] [SPEAKER_10] in a while, but you know what I'm saying? Like, I'm trying to work on that patience just to be like, hey, just stop. You've got nowhere to be. This doesn't matter.

[00:42:29] [SPEAKER_16] Stillness is key. Stillness is key.

[00:42:31] [SPEAKER_10] Just let it happen. Just let it happen. So, yeah, there could be something there. There could be a reason for that. But as humans, we always want to find connections between things. So it's only natural for us to think of the shadow figure and connect it to what was going on at the next stop and then think about how they got held up behind somebody that was taking too long. And that kept them from possibly getting

[00:43:01] [SPEAKER_10] involved in this accident down the road. So, yeah, it's natural for us to want to make connections with these kinds of things, whether or not it's true. true. But it does seem to appear that way. I'll agree.

[00:43:12] [SPEAKER_16] It sure does. So what about you? Any topics that we just discussed kind of relate to any of your stories? I don't remember how many you did.

[00:43:20] [SPEAKER_10] I did four stories this week, but there are two that I really want to talk about that kind of stayed in my mind. And this story about this other dimension that Purple had sent in. This was really interesting to me. I think it's fascinating that the author was so terrified of what happened when they were in this other dimension or wherever they were. Yet, they were so desperate to somehow go back. They were terrified of it, but they had to go back probably because

[00:43:50] [SPEAKER_10] they just wanted to find out more about what happened and what was really going on.

[00:43:54] [SPEAKER_16] Those colors, I'm telling you, those colors would have drawn me back in. I don't care how freaky it was. I would have gone back for the colors alone.

[00:44:01] [SPEAKER_10] Okay, yeah, I was going to ask you that. Would you just leave it alone or would you try to go back to this weird Alice in Wonderland?

[00:44:07] [SPEAKER_16] Easily go back. I'd go back every time. I am a seasoned psychonaut. There's nothing stopping me.

[00:44:13] [SPEAKER_10] Yeah, I'm that way too. As long as there's no drugs involved, I want to go. As long as there's no mind-altering substances involved, no matter how weird it is, I want to be involved. I want to check it out.

[00:44:26] [SPEAKER_16] Blue Lotus? I've had Blue Lotus. I'm not going to get all into it. Have you had a real Blue Lotus? But it's a thing. It's a thing how there is not any real Blue Lotus, but yeah.

[00:44:35] [SPEAKER_10] Yeah, I've had the closest you're able to get. And it mostly just kind of gave me heart palpitations.

[00:44:42] [SPEAKER_16] Okay, yeah.

[00:44:43] [SPEAKER_10] Yeah, and I didn't really have any dreams. Like it didn't really do much for me in that sense, but I know a lot of people smoke Blue Lotus flowers too. That doesn't seem healthy though.

[00:44:52] [SPEAKER_16] No, no. I've been around people that have like these little like droplets that they put on or underneath their tongue and you would think they're on LSD. For all I know, maybe they are, but yeah.

[00:45:03] [SPEAKER_10] Interesting. Yeah, it seems like the author was probably steering clear of the area for a while, but I would definitely be going back every day trying to figure out what happened. The way that they described the grass just makes me want to like fall into it and roll around like a dog.

[00:45:20] [SPEAKER_16] Yeah, I think a scene out of Bambi or Snow White, but not a sad one or a distressing one.

[00:45:25] [SPEAKER_10] Yeah.

[00:45:26] [SPEAKER_16] Just the good stuff.

[00:45:27] [SPEAKER_10] It does seem like this is some kind of geographic phenomenon though. Like not, they weren't under the influence of anything because the dimension that they, you know, they got a glimpse of had edges and borders. Like as soon as they turned this corner, they were back to reality and it stopped. It wasn't like something that faded away. It was like they stepped out of the dimension immediately and they just didn't go back. So, yeah, I think this could be some kind of weird split between the two dimensions.

[00:45:57] [SPEAKER_10] They're tethered together by this area. Maybe certain times of the year, the way things are aligned in space. I don't know. I'm trying to come up with something cool.

[00:46:06] [SPEAKER_16] It's the Bermuda Triangle of the forest is what it is.

[00:46:09] [SPEAKER_10] Yeah, there you go. Yeah. But yeah, it was an interesting story and I would definitely be going back to the back. I would recommend going back. The other one I wanted to touch on before we take off is that alien encounter story, the Wednesday night I'll never forget by the anonymous author. So, do I think watching Unsolved Mysteries gave this child an alien nightmare? If you want to go with Occam's Razor, I say yes. That's the easiest explanation.

[00:46:38] [SPEAKER_10] They watched Unsolved Mysteries like they said, went to bed, had a terrifying experience. However, odd trails, I would say, we would say, maybe not.

[00:46:48] [SPEAKER_16] No, that's no fun.

[00:46:49] [SPEAKER_10] Yeah, rather than a dream, I'd consider this more along the lines of like sleep paralysis. Yeah, that's still a skeptic answer, but it's not denying the supernatural. Right. Just saying that it's sleep paralysis. Because like after all, I'm not convinced that sleep paralysis and shadow people aren't supernatural.

[00:47:08] [SPEAKER_16] Just like NDEs, you know, it's not, it can't all just be, I mean, it could be. Yeah. Just chemicals in our brain, but there's a chance that it isn't.

[00:47:16] [SPEAKER_10] Yeah, and it could be the power suggestion that the reason people that have these NDEs are seeing similar stuff is because they keep hearing those types of things. Or the reason people keep seeing the hat person or the hat man as a shadow person is because they've heard stories of that. And then they're like, wait, you, other people see this too? So they can't really be suggestion.

[00:47:44] [SPEAKER_16] No, just like the DMT elves and the gesturing joker who flips people off. Like, yeah, way too many stories of people who don't have any exposure like, hey, you want to hit my pen? And it's DMT. And like, holy shit, I just saw these little elves or this like gesture that was flipping me off and they had no idea anything about DMT or what people experience. It's a, there's something else going on. It's so weird.

[00:48:08] [SPEAKER_10] Yeah. It's the uncanny repetition of these things like the hat man in so many of the stories. It's just too specific and weird to not be something else going on. Why would people all over the world be seeing the same unique thing? Like the same unique shadow person with the hat, you know?

[00:48:25] [SPEAKER_16] The hat is what gets me that simple detail.

[00:48:29] [SPEAKER_10] Yeah. If it were just shadow figures, yeah, sure. Makes sense. No big deal. But it's too specific. That being said, the author does describe being completely awake and lying there on their side with their eyes open. You know, they were frozen. They couldn't move until they were finally able to kick their legs and move around under the covers. This doesn't explain the weird mechanical noises that they heard from outside. Right. the craft taking off with the little alien visitor.

[00:48:54] [SPEAKER_16] It does not.

[00:48:55] [SPEAKER_10] It does not. And what I found amusing was that the little gray alien was so interested in the stuffed bear. Like they were just staring at the stuffed bear instead of like, it's like the alien was completely indifferent to the author. And it made me think of how a dog sees like a doll or a toy that's a bit too like humanoid and they freeze up trying to figure out what they're looking at.

[00:49:19] [SPEAKER_16] The stuffed dogs that people get and like stay around their house and the dogs just go crazy. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:49:25] [SPEAKER_10] I also like when people put like cucumbers next to cats. I've tried that.

[00:49:31] [SPEAKER_16] I don't know if that makes me an evil cat owner, but I've tried that. They just don't care. They just sniff at it and just look at me like, okay, and am I supposed to be impressed? And that's about it.

[00:49:40] [SPEAKER_10] I don't think it's a cucumber. I think it's them turning around and being surprised by something appearing behind them. I don't know. Maybe they think it's a snake. snake.

[00:49:47] [SPEAKER_16] Apparently they do supposedly think it's a snake, but I've tried everything to like sneak up and do it and they just never seem to care. I don't know.

[00:49:55] [SPEAKER_10] I think your cats are just too chill.

[00:49:57] [SPEAKER_16] Maybe. And that whole thing where you can go like, meow, make that noise. They supposedly come running and think it means come here or something. I've seen a lot of videos like a compilation of people making that exact sound and their cat comes running across the room. Yeah. None of mine do, but if I just like do the little or call their name, they come charging over, but that little meow doesn't work.

[00:50:17] [SPEAKER_10] Did you ever see the video of that kitten eating and he's going, wee, wee, wee. Wee, wee.

[00:50:22] [SPEAKER_16] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:50:23] [SPEAKER_10] I love that one. I think about that all the time. So precious. Yeah. Speaking of stuffed animals, like this stuffed bear, I got to thinking about this and there's a reason why I'm thinking about it. Did you have any stuffed animals as a kid?

[00:50:36] [SPEAKER_16] I was just, I could reach behind me right now. You know, let me do it. I can actually, it's a waste of time.

[00:50:41] [SPEAKER_10] Yeah.

[00:50:41] [SPEAKER_16] But I have a stuffed turtle that I've had since I was, I want to say four years old. Yeah. And it's in my closet right behind me.

[00:50:48] [SPEAKER_10] Yeah. I've got a stuffed Mickey doll that I had as a little kid and it's in my garage. Garage? Not packed away. Oh, okay. Sitting on my couch. Okay. Fair. Where I hang out every day. There you go. Yeah. I've had it forever and it's got like a little pocket that he has got a little, his own little stuffed bear that goes inside. I remember one time he has a zipper in this like fanny pack around him and I remember opening it and finding a dollar in there once and my mom swears up and down that she didn't put it in there and I, I'd never had money at this point.

[00:51:18] [SPEAKER_10] I was like five years old and we didn't know how the dollar got in there. That was weird. Wow. But yeah, I did have like one stuffed animal as a kid. It was this Mickey Mouse. That I still have. But I never, like as I got a little bit older, like six, seven or eight, I was never like into stuffed animals. Like it wasn't really a big thing for me. I didn't have a lot of stuffed animals, just that one thing. And as an adult, I see people buying stuffed animals like, what are those called?

[00:51:47] [SPEAKER_16] The marshmallow things?

[00:51:49] [SPEAKER_10] Something like that. Yeah. Squish mellows. Squish mellow. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Even my wife has some. Like I see people buying these and I'm like, what are you doing? What are you going to do with that? Just sit around the house like a doll or like a figurine? I have plenty of stuff like that. However, I just, I laid down on my wife's couch thingy in her office and I hugged her giant Pikachu stuffed animal and I just squeezed it and laid there with it. It gave me so much like comfort.

[00:52:18] [SPEAKER_16] You know what? I think you look to yourself to get one of those cat allergy shots just once and go through like, for like a month, just go to like a cat sanctuary and just cuddle a bunch of cats like a big fat one that just purrs and lets you do whatever you want and yeah, every year, take a shot going out with cats and then just be done with them. They're so curing for the soul.

[00:52:40] [SPEAKER_10] I got that. I've got, I got Gadget, man. She's the fluffiest little cat-like dog that's ever existed. That is true. She feels like Cruella de Vil's jacket. It's lush. Just lush. But yeah, I was lying there on her little couch snuggling with this stuffed animal and it was like giving me comfort and I got it. Like, I understand why people like stuffed animals. It's a weird faux affection that actually works. It's very comforting.

[00:53:07] [SPEAKER_16] It's like a weighted blanket for me as an adult that I wish I would have had as a kid.

[00:53:12] [SPEAKER_10] Yeah. Put a face on a pillow and it becomes sentient.

[00:53:16] [SPEAKER_16] It becomes a lot of things. Put a face on a pillow.

[00:53:19] [SPEAKER_10] That's a good point. Yeah, I do have a friend that has one of those. As do I. Bless their hearts. Yeah. Anyway, thanks so much everyone for sending in your stories. If you have something to share, send it to stories at oddtrails.com and make sure that you sign up for our Patreon. I almost forgot how to say Patreon at patreon.com forward slash oddtrails because you're going to get ad-free versions of all of our episodes at a higher bit rate and check out the new episodes of my other podcasts Let's Not Meet and the Old Time Radio Cast. We'll see you next week. Stay safe. Peace out.

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