The Croft State Park Encounter

Summary

Cam Hale and Kyle Filson read listener encounters, led by Lewis's account of an orange orb, small gray beings and missing time at Croft State Park, South Carolina, in the 1970s. Other stories include a skinless 'flayed man' ghost in a Louisiana swamp, a giant owl-like creature that confronted three teenage runaways in Vermont in 1977, and 'not deer' sightings in Idaho and Sleepy Hollow, New York. The episode closes with a Texas family who say a La Lechuza witch-owl haunted them for seven years.

Key takeaways

• 1Lewis from Whitmire, South Carolina, says an orange spinning orb hovered over Lake Craig at Croft State Park near Spartanburg before small hairless beings with black almond eyes touched his forehead with a wand.
• 2Lewis woke at 1:15 PM, 1 to 1.5 miles from camp, with no shoes and his shirt inside out and on backwards. He has refused hypnotic regression for more than 40 years.
• 3A Louisiana hunter's friend saw a skinless man in the palmettos, which was later linked to a local Native American legend of tribes flaying criminals alive as punishment.
• 4In April 1977, three youths who escaped a juvenile detention center in Vergennes, Vermont, reported an owl-like creature with an estimated 10-foot wingspan and glowing orange-red eyes. The writer compared it to the 'Big Hoots' of Native owl legends and to the Mothman, and said one companion, Jim, took his own life months later.
• 5A Hells Canyon, Idaho, hunter saw an eight-point buck with muscular, human-like front arms ending in hooves, and it left no tracks in soft ground. In Sleepy Hollow, New York, a screaming, tailless 'not deer' chased paintball players.
• 6A listener named Kurt woke unable to breathe with his arms crossed, and saw a woman trying to revive him while an angry man said 'just let me die.' He noticed an ozone smell afterward.
• 7A woman in Ozona, Texas (2015) reported a La Lechuza with wing flapping, laughter and scratching on the ceiling, and said it followed her family for seven years and garbled their recordings.

Glossary terms

Source

Transcript excerpt

There's more to these sounds than meet the ear. It isn't always easy recognizing that everyday feelings like stress, anxiety, or trouble sleeping could be signs of something more. At Cigna Healthcare, we help you recognize the mental health warning signs and support you with expert care, personalized guidance, and proactive outreach. So caring for your mental health can be part of your everyday. That's better by design. Learn more at Cigna.com slash better. Thank you again so very much for taking time out of your busy day or your late evening or your early mornings to spend it here on Expanded Perspectives with me, Cam Hale. And as always, the man, the world, well, I wouldn't say the world because he's not allowed out of the United States, but the national traveler, Kyle Filson. How's it going, everybody? Yes, I'm here in Skellicon Studios. For now. What do you mean I can't leave the United States? Well, you know what I'm talking about. No, I don't. I don't know what you're talking about. Everybody else does. Quick Google search. I've been out of the United States multiple times. I've been to Puerto Rico. Yeah. How recent was it? Oh, yeah. Exactly. It was after the crime. So anyway, we're going to move forward. I like how you're putting this out here. People are going to be like, what crime? What crime? Nothing. Here was the crime that Kyle would have committed. He may have left his house earlier than normal. Kyle doesn't. He's like, we don't go anywhere. I don't. But we did just get back from Florida. Oh, yeah, man. It was a good trip. It was. Probably the best one we've had yet. We had. It was. It was so much fun. ...

Excerpt from Expanded Perspectives, Sep 7, 2026. Rights remain with the original creators. Hear the full episode at the source.