S1 Ep49: The Return of Evil Yoda

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For whatever happens next, grab Kleenex. The views and opinions expressed by hosts and listeners on the Astonishing Dead Letter office are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Astonishing Legends Productions, the Astonishing Legends Network, or any affiliated entities or guests. When something unexplainable happens to you, it can make you feel isolated or alone. But trust us, you're not. For over a decade, you've been sending your strange stories to Astonishing Legends. And now it's time for our fellow legenders to hear them, too. Join us weekly in Blanket Fortiana as we dig through your intriguing messages to the Astonishing Dead Letter office. Tonight's episode, The Return of Evil Yoda. Just a quick reminder, folks, as the announcement at the top of the Dead Letter office says, the views and opinions expressed by our listeners who send the letters in are their own. Tonight's Dead Letter mentions drug use, and while it can be easy to say that's the source of a paranormal experience, we feel like the story deserves to be told either way. We are not endorsing drug use any more than we're telling you definitely what happened when these folks had their experience. We're simply sharing their story. Tonight's Dead Letter comes to us from Trevor, who had an encounter with something that he might have been quick to write off if he hadn't heard a story on Astonishing Legends from a listener who saw what sounded like the same being. Yes, you'll hear how that came about in Trevor's story, and it's up to you to decide what you think is at play here. As we've heard in other episodes of our show and over the years, a lot of times it turns out many people are seeing the same beings in these events. They just don't know it because they've never shared their story. Listening to the 2022 special, Your True Halloween Stories Part 3, I realized that now is the time for me to share mine. Your first caller, Mallory, described an encounter with a being similar to one with which I was very familiar, the evil Yoda. Though brief, my encounter with it has had a lasting impression on me to this day. I was in my early 20s, 21 or 22 at the time, and some friends and I had plans to go to a large house party. As I was not the designated driver for the evening, I took a small amount of mescaline before going to the party. Mescaline is a psychedelic substance derived from the peyote cactus. As I stated, I didn't take much, and though I definitely felt its effects, I would not say that I had a particularly strong psychedelic experience by any means. My friends and I stayed at the party for the better part of the evening and after. Later, we returned to the house at which we had all previously met. We hung out there for a while, but the night wound down and people left for home. As I was still feeling a bit of a body buzz from the mescaline, and I lived about a 30-minute drive away, I decided I was going to crash on my friend's couch. I laid down for a bit, but could not fall asleep. No doubt a side effect from the mescaline, or the night, or both. My friend was asleep in his room. I was all alone in his living room, on the couch. So, I just sat there, looking out the picture window into the backyard, which butted up to a wooded area about 100 yards or so from the house. The moonlight lit up the backyard that night. As my eyes were adjusting, a figure appeared seemingly out of thin air. There, in the backyard, I saw what I thought to be a large, bald man sitting cross-legged in the grass and meditating, eyes closed. From his apparent position, he looked to be about 20 yards from the house. Right away, I realized that he looked very strange. His head was oval-shaped, but sideways, almost like that of a Muppet. He had long, pointed ears on the side of his face, and his mouth seemed very wide from ear to ear. However, he didn't have much of a nose, and the distance between us and the dark night made it impossible to see the texture and color of his skin. He wore ragged, archaic-looking clothes, a loose tunic-style shirt, and loose pants. Of course, my first thought was, Oh man, I am getting visuals from the mescaline. However, I looked away, and then back at the figure, and it was still there. I blinked my eyes a few times, and moved closer to the window. The figure did not move from its position. I stared for a minute or two in disbelief. I was very shaken up by what I saw. Finally, I managed to speak, and I said, I see you, very softly to the figure on the other side of the glass. As if it heard me, from outside the house, the being opened its eyes and looked right at me. Its lips stretched wide across its face in a hateful grin. It then smiled at me, revealing pointed teeth, like that of a jack-o-lantern. I was struck with fear. Then, it uncrossed its legs and hopped down to the ground, as if it had been levitating. Now, finally, seeing it on the ground for the first time, I realized that it was much smaller, and much closer than I had originally thought. 10 to 15 feet away, and the size of a small woman. It opened its wide mouth, and sort of a laugh. Then turned, and ran into the trees in back of the yard. Now, I don't know that all of this wasn't drug-induced. I don't know if I didn't just hallucinate the whole thing, or if the mescaline lifted some sort of veil and allowed me to see a real being. The whole situation brings up more questions than answers for me, especially after hearing that another listener has had an encounter with something that sounds so similar to what I witnessed. I do know, however, in all the times I've done hallucinogenic drugs, never have I ever experienced any sort of hallucination that acknowledged me. I've even done DMT a couple of times, and have not seen the people of light, or elves, or whatever beings it is that others have stated to see, and even interact with, on heavy doses of the stuff. I've had other paranormal experiences, but nothing like this. I grew up in a, quote-unquote, haunted house, and later bought a house in which I, and my wife, also believed to be haunted. Love the show. Keep it up. After these messages, we'll be right back. Astonishing Legends is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Fiscally responsible. Financial geniuses. Monetary magicians. These are things that people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to Progressive and save hundreds. Because Progressive offers discounts for paying in full, owning a home, and more. Plus, you can count on their great customer service to help you when you need it, so your dollar goes a long way. Visit Progressive.com to see if you can save on car insurance. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states or situations. And now, we return to the shadows of this dead letter. All right, so before we start talking about this one, Forrest, I think we should share with our audience the clip from the story that Mallory told on that episode that Trevor's talking about here. So, Sarah, if you would, please roll the audio clip from Mallory's encounter from Your True Halloween Stories Part 3 that we aired on our main feed in 2022. So, I'm rolled over at this point, and I kind of squint my eyes open again, and it is like right in my face. Its nose is like an inch from my nose. And that's when I could really see details and stuff. When I described it to my friend, I said it looked like Evil Yoda. It was like a Yoda-Cheshire Cat cross. So, picture Yoda's head shape with the ears, but the ears were definitely a little bit further up on the head, not totally on the side, between top and middle of the head. They were a little longer and pointier, and it had this big Cheshire Cat smile, and it was smiling, and its eyes were huge, and it was insanely creepy. Pointy teeth, the caricature of a horror movie monster. It had orangish reptilian skin, a little scaly, and just these big, huge, gold, luminous eyes. All righty, then. Well, I think when you lead off with, by the way, I was on DMT, that's the eye roll moment, where people are like, okay, there we go. And I know it's easy to dismiss it because of that, but if you've been listening to our show, and I think what I love is, we have such an eclectic audience, in a way, with people from all different backgrounds and experiences in their lifetimes, and some of the extraordinary, extraordinary, and there's a few folks I know who have experimented with those types of medicinals and have had odd visual experiences, but it didn't get to this point. You know what I'm saying? There's visuals, and there's feelings, and it went on for a very long time with colors and flashing lights and things like that, but this seems like something else. And again, to this person, and the way they described it, this is something outside of the realm from somebody who is experienced with these types of trips, quote-unquote. Yeah, so what's interesting here is there are, first of all, there are similarities between what Mallory saw and what Trevor saw, for sure. The evil Yoda, the idea of the evil Yoda, just with these long, pointy ears. There are some differences, but by the same token, what Trevor saw was out in the dark in the backyard. And one of the things that I loved about his description, too, was he thought it was just sitting there. It was almost like it was meditating. You always think about that story you tell about the yogi or the guru who could appear anywhere in the world or for a minute and then come back or something. I mean, it's like the Luke Skywalker situation. But the other thing is, when it decides to move, it steps down off the air it's sitting on. So it's like it's not even sitting on the ground. It's like it was levitating, and then it decides to stand up. That's an aspect of meditation, transcendental meditation or other yogis, it has been claimed that they could levitate while meditating as part of it. I knew somebody who claimed that and didn't prove it. Well, this is a breakfast meeting, but you're not going to be like, okay, let's see it, smart guy. Let's see it levitate off the chair here at the cafe table. Well, I've seen those ones that say they're levitating and they're just bouncing around with their legs crossed. That's one thing. There is another, there's a magician's trick that you can do, you can perform, or it looks like you're sitting on an air chair. Yes. People have seen that. Or stand up, like take a step, and it looks like you're in midair. Yeah, well, street performers do that in like New York. Right, so there's visual tricks, but I don't think that's what was hamping. It was like a personal performance in the backyard to a guy tripping. Right, no, no. Okay, hey, get a load of this. Plus you have a whole rig, you've got to freak this guy out. Yeah, and there's some differences, I guess in terms of the detail, but by the same token, what Trevor saw was out in the dark in the backyard, and what Mallory saw was pretty up close, and she got a lot more detail about the texture, the color of its skin, and whatever else. So what Trevor was describing as well that I noticed is that he makes this connection with Mallory's story, and we have some similarities. So you have this character, which is possibly an interdimensional being suddenly popping up in your bedroom, and yes, I've called it the Gorn before, but that's just the pointy teeth. Which is the Star Trek villain. That's right, again, talking about Star Trek again, but with no tunic here, as far as a leopard print tunic, as far as I can tell, but- With Mallory's, right. With Mallory's, right, but you have the same Yoda thing. So in my mind, you know, I was picturing, yeah, just the mouth, the reptilian look of it, the mouth full of sharp, jagged fangs. Yeah, that's not as Yoda-esque though. No, no, no, that's what I'm saying. That's more like a T-Rex reptile or reptilian alien type, yeah. Right, so as far as reptilians go, this is something else. So they both think of Yoda or Stewie from Family Guy. Yeah, right, with the sideways football head. Right, the sideways football head, interesting creative choice. But it's so descriptive, I think, or distinct, perhaps, of this character. And so we have here what Mallory described. I'm not sure, did you just describe this? I will do it again. So what Mallory says here, you know, you can picture Yoda's head, the shape with the ears, not the cute Grogu from The Mandalorian. We're talking something kind of grotesque and more evil here. You know, the ears, not totally on the side, but up and kind of at the top. But the Cheshire Cat's smile, which indicates to me the acknowledgement that you know, it knows you're watching it. Right, it knows. And that's always the scary thing in a lot of these stories. It knows you know, if you know, you know. And the eyes being huge, insanely creepy, pointy teeth, movie monster stuff, orangish reptilian skin, and the gold luminous eyes. So you have this creature here. But then you do wonder, and I'm sure Trevor did too, is that, is this the same creature? Now, I have heard an interesting aspect that we've talked about before, maybe even with Mallory's story. People who have studied DMT, and I think there is a documentary. So Terrence McKenna was somebody who, you know, believed that DMT could unlock not only visions, but access to non-human intelligence. He didn't have anything to do with this, Terrence McKenna, although his research influenced the film by Rick Strassman, called DMT, the spirit molecule. And so the idea here is that, yeah, through the use of this drug, which acts like a gateway to a consciousness realm of other, let's say, planes of existence and other beings, that these are evolutionary and spiritual experiences that DMT gives you access to for a short period of time. Hopefully short. But yeah, so it's, again, it's a psychiatrist, Dr. Rick Strassman did some studies on this. And then Terrence McKenna had, and I think his brother as well, were doing research into the types of experiences and documenting them. And from what I remember, there is a, I didn't prepare a little thesis on this, I apologize, but there is an idea that a lot of people see the same beings while on these trips. And why is that? And they end up, if you paint or draw or describe the visuals, they are a lot of similarities with sacred geometry and colors and patterns and designs and the way it unfolds. So that's a very curious thing. Is that something that's tapping into the under the hood hardwiring of our brains? Or is it something from another plane that everybody who uses this DMT experiences the same thing and the same beings that come across to communicate with you and interact with you? That's a good question. That is a good question. Just a little side note, possibly a tangent here. I was listening to a hypnosis session about astral projection by Dr. Steve G. Jones. What he described, and I found this fascinating, because you can look up a lot of YouTube meditations, sleep hypnosis on astral travel and trying to achieve that. But in his hour-long kind of sleep hypnosis recording, he says, basically, you're going to come across different beings. It just sounds a little unsettling because there are beings that can help you out on your journeys with astral travel, and they want to guide you and be helpful and beneficial. There are some that are neutral. They're just on this astral plane doing their own thing, and there are other dimensional characters that are just there doing their own thing. There's objects and structures. It's like, hey, I'm new to the upside down. Can you tell me where the 7-Eleven is? Yeah, there's something like that. It's like, sorry, buddy, I'm doing my own thing. I can't help you. And then there are some that, as he describes, do not have your best interests in mind, and they will try to harm you. And basically, his explanation is, hey, that could be walking down the street, okay? Didn't he also say that you would see pets in there? Pets? No, you're thinking about somebody else. I think you're talking about- No, I thought sometimes there was this idea that maybe the family dogs could astral project while they're sleeping or something and they might be in there. I don't know what you're listening to, sir, but no, there could be- That is something else. I don't know what you're taking either or what's actually in your iced tea tumbler. I don't know any of these exotic substances, so I can't claim to know. From what has been described to me, they're a bit intense and not for everyone. I'd be excited if I saw my dog, though. If I did do this and my dog was there, I'd be like, awesome, let's go. Well, how do you know it's your dog? What if it starts talking to you? Well, it talks to me. Again, that's not natural. It already talks to me with its eyes. Yes, now you're in son of Sam territory, so I would avoid all that. Oh, my God. Now we're off on that. But what I'm talking about is just these different beings because that is relevant to our story here is who are you seeing? Who is in the backyard? Is it the same people that is a relevant character? And again, I think on some other level, there's maybe an infinite number of beings and characters and creatures that are just roaming around, but some make more contact than the others to maybe just our listeners. I don't know. But people are describing seeing similar things. Not in this realm here, but I've read a couple of stories where they saw something that was very tall by the side of the road dressed in some kind of native blanket with antlers. And somebody else describing seeing that same or similar being or creature. One was out near a, I think a garage, you know, with one of the, that had the do-it-yourself street lamps attached to it or just under the light. Yeah. And then another one was these other guys driving to Helltown. Was it Ohio? Like this place called Helltown. And so then they saw that by the other side of the road and then just had a string of misfortunes that followed them home after that encounter. So is that the same being that we're talking about? Here, this is, we're talking about something psychedelic of sorts. And again, is it the same creatures? But getting back to Steve G. Jones, he's saying that they are out to do you harm. But it, you know, that could be the case, again, walking downtown. You walk down the wrong street and you get mugged or worse because there are beings that are just human but not very good ones and they want to do you harm. And there are others that will be helpful and there's others that, like, you know, don't bother me. That's great what you're doing. I don't have time for you right now. And they're just neutral. And so that's like any encounter here, but what does this thing want? Why did it show up? And did the DMT indeed open some kind of door or gateway where it made this interaction possible? The other thing to remember about Trevor was that he said he grew up in a haunted house and was, you know, and now he and his wife live in a haunted house which begs the question is something following him around? And, you know, regardless of what he was doing that night, is that part of that? And the other thing was I loved was the, you know, I see you. You know, he said that and that's what brought it to life. It's almost like it was just meditating until he said that and that's when it sprang into action. But then it also turned and ran back into the woods. Well, that's how I was going to mention that in that it's just it didn't really end up doing him much harm unless it's haunting him later. It was just a part of the panoply of characters that haunt him in some way. But he's now the size of a small woman. He said, it opens its mouth wide in a sort of laugh. Again, there's always the humor. The dark evil. Yeah. There's always a humorous aspect to it. So you got to credit for that. It's like they got a sense of humor. It's evil and it's malicious and it's directed at your expense but there is that sense of humor. And then it turned and ran into the trees in the back of the yard he said. It's very trickstery. It has a trickster component to it. It knows it's freaking you out in some way and maybe that's just the point. And it seems to be getting pleasure from that. Yeah, it gets a little right. It got your attention. It freaked you out. You rang. It answered. I have such sights to show you. And so it's just like well, here I am and then good luck sleeping after that. And I would say that that taunt is a lot of folks again with the paranormal apathy get right back to sleep. Yeah. I don't know how good that sleep is after that but they a lot of them have no trouble sleeping. So anyway, it's just but it's just a horrible thing to see in your backyard and frightening because as he describes it too the grin stretched wide across its face so we have the grinning man aspect and a hateful grin it's described like a jack-o'-lantern revealing pointed teeth. I don't know if Trevor's still experimenting with this but those kinds of experiences I don't know do you keep pushing forward and try to find an answer through that although I would say it's probably not a good idea because you can seem to alter your brain chemistry and the effects are irreversible. You sent me that clip of the guy that was an artist who was making drawings and artwork experiencing every type of drug and now he has some form of brain cancer or something. Yeah, he couldn't come back. Yeah, he got into trouble with that. Yeah, it was a fascinating project but yeah, not good, not good. Well, Trevor, we appreciate your courage in sending this story in for everyone to hear. It's pretty fascinating that's for sure. There's definitely common ground between what you saw and what Mallory saw so does that make it a type of being that lots of people are encountering? If you believe any of this at all or one might wonder if it's a singular being appearing to many people from many places or is this just a coincidence? It is interesting that while you had recently ingested a mind-altering substance, Mallory and her story had done nothing of the sort. So again, as you said, was the mesclun responsible for what you saw or was it simply lifting a veil and showing you something that's always there but rarely seen. If you have a story like this or any other paranormal encounter befitting Blanket Fortiana, send it to deadletteroffice at astonishinglegends.com. We'll see you next week. The Astonishing Dead Letter Office is hosted by Scott Philbrook and Forrest Burgess and is executive produced by Tess Feifel. The show is edited and mixed by Sarah Voorhees-Wendel at VW Sound. The theme is based on the Astonishing Legends theme by Judson Crane at Founder Music arranged by Alan Carissia who composes all the other music in the show. Tommy Beaver Design created the logo. The announcer is John Boler. That's me. Stories are lightly edited for length, content, and readability but otherwise presented as they're sent to us. We're always looking for more dead letters so if you have a story of your own you'd like to share, email it to deadletteroffice at astonishinglegends.com. Please include how you would like to be credited. First name only? First name last initial? Anonymous? A pseudonym? Let us know. Due to the number of emails coming in, we often cannot respond but we do read them all. No part of this show may be reproduced anywhere without permission. Copyright Astonishing Legends Productions. Astonishing Legends is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Fiscally responsible, financial geniuses, monetary magicians. These are things that people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to Progressive and save hundreds. Because Progressive offers discounts for paying in full, owning a home, and more. Plus, you can count on their great customer service to help you when you need it. So your dollar goes a long way. Visit Progressive.com to see if you can save on car insurance. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states or situations. Hello, hello. I'm Malcolm Gladwell, host of Smart Talks with IBM. I recently spoke with IBM's new director of research, Jay Gambetta. We discussed his vision for the future of quantum computing. At IBM Research, what we always do is answer what is the future of computing. Whether it's coming up with new algorithms, coming up with better AI, coming up with quantum, or coming up with just how do different accelerators go together. 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