S1 Ep7: Paralyzed with Fear

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Astonishing Legends Network. 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 the vault beneath Blanket Fortiana, which we call The Astonishing Dead Letter Office. Tonight's episode, Paralyzed with Fear. All right. This story comes to us from Melinda, who sent it in in February of 2021, about four months after we ran a two-part series called Strange Intruders with David Weatherly. Oh, yeah. That was the name of David's book, and he came on the show to talk about some of the bizarre things that people have run into out in the world. Oh, yes. We love David, love having him on, and love that book because the stories, people's anecdotes, were so unusually bizarre with such strange, specific details in it. They haunt me to this day. They've burned in my memory in a good way. But because we like to make patterns here, and one of the biggest questions we often get with people's emails is that, have you ever heard of anyone else having this done to them or experiencing this? That's right. That's part of the reason we started this show. We want to hear all the stories that sound similar. Right. But a way to anchor those together or overlap or make those connections that we like to make are the very odd, specific details. And so when you can make those patterns, and there's something that clicks when somebody says, this is a really strange thing that happened to me. It's like, well, there's another story, and this one's in print. So anyway, we recommend picking that book up. You Will Be Entertained and Thoroughly Creeped Out for Your Money. Yes. Strange Intruders with David Weatherly. Just look it up on Amazon or wherever you can find it. Any of David's books are great, and he's got a new one out. It came out on October 14th of this year, 2024, titled Badger State Monsters, Cryptids and Legends of Wisconsin. And I think it's part of his Monsters of America series. Really good. So check that out, folks. Yeah. And he had a bunch of stories that took place in North Carolina, too, including one on a road I once got lost on outside of Raleigh called Possum Track Road. Oh, really? And I had a spooky experience there myself. Wow. Which I've mentioned on the main show a while back. I think it was more that I stumbled across a drug deal or something, and then I had to turn around. Wait, it had nothing to do with a dead possum or a possum ghost? I don't know. It was a limo and a bunch of people standing outside, and they all gave me the evil eye when I pulled up at like three in the morning. Well, that happens to us all the time. You've got to be more discreet. It was a dirt road at that time. Oh, really? It might be paved now. This was a long time ago. Anyway. All right. So coming back to Melinda's story that she sent in, it is pretty terrifying. Forrest, tonight, I think it's your turn to read The Dead Letter. I have been an avid listener for quite some time, but took a break from listening due to a frightening experience of my own. To give you some background, when I had my experience, I had recently moved in with one of my sisters who had bought a house that used to be a rental. The house had a reputation for being a party house with a revolving door of renters who had been very rough on the house. It didn't start right away, but shortly after moving into her basement apartment, it was a duplex house, I started waking up terrified for no reason. This escalated to waking up and not being able to move, and then escalated further to me seeing a shadow entity. What I saw was similar to what David Weatherly saw, but my entity had horns and wide eyes. My whole body was numb, like pins and needles numb, and I couldn't move a muscle, so we just stared at each other. When I could finally get my hand to move, I flipped on the light, but the corner of my room, where it had been peeking at me, was empty. I left the room and slept on my couch with my lights on for days, but it followed me there. My next experience with this entity was truly terrifying. While I was on the couch with the lights on, I woke up terrified again, only this time the numbness started at my hips and moved outward towards my limbs. I immediately started praying, but the numbness kept spreading, and I felt something like hands at my waist begin to lift me. I actually heard my couch creaking with the shifting of my weight. I kept praying, even as the numbness spread to my lips, and the numbness finally receded again. Up until this happened, I hadn't told anyone what was happening. I finally told my sister, and we decided to have a priest bless our home. It never happened again after that. My feeling is that it was feeding on my fear and anxiety. I was so scared that if I told someone, they would think I was crazy that I kept it to myself until it got to be too much. I was so exhausted that I had to tell someone, and I no longer cared if they thought I was crazy. I was lucky. My sister did not think I was nuts, as she had friends who had similar experiences, and she encouraged me to contact the priest. When this show came up and I heard David's story, I nearly cried because it made me realize I'm not alone. I studied biology and criminal justice, so not being able to study or identify what that was is truly difficult for me. I'm a fraud investigator. I deal in fact. So this experience hit me out of left field. One upside is that I will never doubt the power of prayer again. Yeah, this is a freaky story. And actually, the first sentence in this jumped out to me because she talks about taking a break from listening to our show because she had an experience. To me, I don't know about you, man, but to me, that adds a ring of truth because that's one of those sort of mundane details that you don't add to make a story better or enhance your story. So to me, it just adds to the veracity of what she felt like she experienced. Well, again, with the horns. Why the horns? Again, with the horns. Yes. Yeah. With the horns. And people would add that detail. If you've done a lot of reading in this genre, maybe you could add that. But there's just something about, well, we just came across horns with our Lyle Blackburn Lakeworth Monster episode. Yes. Yes. That we had on a few weeks ago. Right. And here's a goat, man. Well, I guess a goat's going to have horns, but there's something significant about that. I'm not being flippant. There's something wide, again, we've talked about this since we first started talking about entities of various solid colors and all colors too. Well, the primary ones at least, purple, red, yellow, green. I'm talking about a solidly colored, like the skin and everything. Yes. Yes. Oh yeah. That's right. Yeah. Very strange. And it might be just the way we perceive them with our eyes translating it into our brains, but there's something about the colors and there's something about the horns and there's something about the dress and the hats and the capes. And it's like, it's all kind of old times story lore elements, but I believe that these people are seeing these things. And so you wonder why. And so, yeah, I'll go with you on that, that ring of truth where it's these odd little details. And again, people could be making this up, but what's the point here? What, five years later, we feature it in a podcast. So yeah, in a short podcast. Yeah. There you go. She's not making a ton of money or getting famous on this. No, I know. Yeah, no, it does add a ring of truth to me. And especially the other thing is, you know, we often encounter people that have a trauma from their paranormal experience. And some experiences, you know, people think are paranormal and they're not like what was the encephalitis case that we talked about in Sarah and the Spider Woman, or it is the argon gas or something else happened, but whatever it is, it traumatizes you because of the nature of the experience. And then you stop listening to our show for a minute. I mean, I get that. I get that. I had a hard time continuing the show after the house that shall not be named. So there's these things happen. And another thing I thought was interesting here was the progression of it. There is a buildup kind of energy for something to more fully manifest, perhaps. Or maybe it feeds off the fear, like the progression of fear. Well, that's what she was saying. Yeah. So, you know, she was saying it was feeding on her fear and anxiety. And I think there's something to that. That's a very, you know, fear is a very powerful emotional energy with some real palpable noetic types of aspects to it that I believe are translatable in this world, apparently in the next and what's on the other side. And I think it does get some energy off of that because as we've heard before, also praying seems to work, which is a form of energy or intention manifestation or demanifestation. And that seemed to have some effect, but not completely. So what you have here, though, is you have a building up as this thing's feeding and it grows maybe a little more powerful to be able to punch into our world and mess with people. And so what you see here is a similar kind of thing. But same thing with poltergeist activity. It starts off small, often knocking, scratching, tapping, and then it builds into things being moved, tossed around, and then it can get quite dramatic and violent. You know, one of the last things I'd like to point out about this is that she was worried about being labeled crazy or nuts by her friends and family. And it turns out they didn't do that. They were supportive. And that's another one of the tenets of the dead letter office. And no matter how crazy your story is, send it in to us. And if you're willing to share it, we'd love to share it. We're not going to make fun of you. In fact, we're aiming to create a supportive environment for these kind of crazy paranormal stories. Well, what about you and your reading of a lot of these stories? How common do you think the numbness happens when you start to wake up or that tingling feeling or the sensation that you can't move? That's pretty common, of course, with sleep paralysis. Yeah, but not being able to move, I've heard about, I haven't specifically heard people say numbness a lot, like just more that they're paralyzed, but not necessarily numb. And I could be misreading that. Like, I mean, everyone's woken up and their arm's asleep or they sleep in some weird way. And you're like, I've done that. I'll wake up in the morning sometimes and I'll pull my hand up and it's like, is it even there? Yeah, exactly. When you start to lose that much sensation. And I've certainly have had a, just a few episodes of my life waking up with a little bit of sleep paralysis where you can't move, but are not really focusing in or noticing a bodily sensation like that. That's nerve related so much, no tingling, no numbness, perhaps you just, you just can't move. And then you kind of realize, and there's a couple of times where you start to panic because you realize you can't move and then you start imagining things like, well, who's in the room with me? What's there? Am I vulnerable? And that sets off some anxiety and panic, but yeah, all the fight or flight stuff and evolutionary lizard brain fear. I think the lizard brain part of it is that you just, you need to move. You need to get out of there. You need to wake up. You need to open your eyes and defend yourself or just see what's there. Melinda, thank you so much for writing into us. Melinda's one of our dear friends was a fraud investigator as well, and she's had some interesting aspects to her career. And actually I've mentioned partly one of her stories, nothing that happened to her, but somebody she knew. So I've snuck that in, but she's one of our dearest friends and like yourself has a passion for research. Anyway, very cool gig. But what we like about your story is that in a textbook kind of way, you worked past your fears to conquer this thing, whatever it was. And having a fear of being labeled crazy and fear of being alone in your experience. And once you got past those things, your family and your personal beliefs helped you through it, no matter what was happening. And that's the power of support, belief, friendship, and love. So remember folks, you're not alone. 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-Wendell 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 Bolan. 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. Protein bars often feel like you're choosing between taste and nutrition. If it tastes good, you flip it over only to discover it's made with a whole paragraph of ingredients you've never heard of. Or artificial sweeteners do all the heavy lifting. It's basically dessert in disguise. You shouldn't have to choose between tasty and nutritious. And that's what makes Aloha stand out. 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