A floating female figure, immobility, and being carried out a bedroom window
[name withheld], calling from Medford, Oregon, tells Art Bell about events they say happened in the mid-1950s, when they were about ten or eleven, in a house on Garden Grove Avenue in California. [name withheld] reports a fear of the bedroom and a curtain moving. One night, [name withheld] says, a female, ghost-like being floated through the open window and tied something around the caller's finger, leaving them immobile. It then floated the caller out of the window toward a light, where they were poked and prodded, with a buzzing sound, before they found themself back in bed. Art Bell suggests a hypnotic regression and calls it possibly an abduction story rather than a ghost story.
This clip comes from the source recording. AI chose where it starts and ends, so it may start or end a little early or late. The word-for-word transcript is not published. You can hear the source recording on the Internet Archive (file “Ghost to Ghost 1994.mp3”, starting at 3:07:14). Is this you, or someone you know? Ask for a correction or removal.
The story as told
The caller, who gives the name [name withheld], in Medford, Oregon, says that in the mid-1950s they lived in a house in California on Garden Grove Avenue and were a child of about ten or eleven. [name withheld] says they had trouble going into the bedroom of that house and were afraid of it. One night the caller's grandparents came over for dinner. As they were leaving, [name withheld] walked past the bedroom, saw the curtain move out of the corner of an eye, and had a bad feeling. [name withheld] says it was time to go to bed, so they did. After two or three minutes on the bed, [name withheld] says, it seemed unreasonably dark and they began to panic. They noticed the window was open, with a slight breeze coming in, and it was unreasonably cold. With no warning, [name withheld] says, a ghost-like being floated through the window. [name withheld] thought it was female, with white hair that looked almost like straw. [name withheld] says they tried hard to scream, but the scream would only come out slightly. The being, [name withheld] says, floated toward the caller and grabbed their hand. As [name withheld] was starting to scream, it tied something around their finger and they became completely immobile. [name withheld] says the being then floated the caller up out of bed, to the window, and out of the window, which felt like being on a magic carpet. [name withheld] recalls being floated toward a light and being poked and prodded, with an almost tickling feeling and a buzzing sound. [name withheld] does not remember much after that, only being back in bed. Art Bell tells the caller that if they ever have the chance, they should have a hypnotist regress them. Art adds that what [name withheld] experienced may have been an abduction story rather than a ghost story.
Reported events, in order
- 0:11
The caller says that in the mid-1950s they lived in a house in California on Garden Grove Avenue.
- 0:21
The caller says they were a child of about ten or eleven at the time.
- 0:28
The caller says they had trouble going into the bedroom and were afraid of that room.
- 0:41
The caller says their grandparents came over for dinner and were leaving as the caller walked past the bedroom.
- 0:55
The caller says they saw the curtain move out of the corner of an eye and had a bad feeling.
- 1:17
The caller says they went to bed, and after two or three minutes it seemed unreasonably dark and they began to panic.
- 1:26
The caller says they noticed the open window, a slight breeze, and an unreasonable cold. Then a ghost-like being floated through the window. The caller took it to be female, with white hair like straw.
- 1:57
The caller says they tried to scream but could only partly, and the being floated toward them and grabbed their hand.
- 2:09
The caller says the being tied something around their finger and they became completely immobile.
- 2:19
The caller says they were floated up out of bed, to the window, and out of the window, with a feeling like being on a magic carpet.
- 2:30
The caller recalls being floated toward a light and poked and prodded, with a tickling feeling and a buzzing sound.
- 2:42
The caller says they do not remember much after that, only being back in bed.
- 2:47
Art Bell suggests hypnotic regression and describes the experience as possibly an abduction rather than a ghost story.
Claims
Each claim is labeled as something the person telling the story noticed (observation), what they made of it (interpretation), something others told them (hearsay), or something the host said (host statement).
- observation· 1:26
A ghost-like being came through the open bedroom window.
- interpretation· 1:45
The being appeared female, with white hair that looked almost like straw.
- observation· 1:26
The room became unreasonably dark and unreasonably cold.
- observation· 1:57
The being floated to the caller and grabbed their hand.
- observation· 2:09
Something was tied around the caller's finger and they became completely immobile.
- observation· 2:19
The caller floated up out of bed and out of the window.
- observation· 2:30
The caller was floated toward a light and poked and prodded, with a buzzing sound.
- interpretation· 1:48
The caller was awake and not dreaming.
- host statement· 2:56
The experience may have been an abduction rather than a ghost story.
Scores, with reasons
An AI model gave these scores using a fixed set of scoring rules (scoring-v1). They are editorial judgments and rough guides, not the odds that anything paranormal happened. How scoring works.
A firsthand story that hangs together, with some concrete details (street, state, decade, age). But it is a brief childhood memory, and an easy sleep-related explanation fits parts of it closely.
Evidence for and against
- Firsthand telling of an event the caller says they experienced
- Concrete anchors: Garden Grove Avenue, California, mid-1950s, age about ten or eleven
- An ordered sequence that does not contradict itself
- Immobility, being unable to get the scream out, the buzzing sound, and the return to bed all fit a sleep-related state
- No detail can be checked independently, and no other witness is named
- The story depends on memory of events roughly forty years before the call
- Some of the labels showing who is speaking are wrong in the transcript, so who says what is partly unclear
- 0:21
- 1:48
- 2:09
What the model inferred (not said on air): The parts of the score were: closeness to the source 18 (firsthand but brief and long ago), specificity 13, internal consistency 15, other explanations 5, and calibration 8, for a total of 59. No cap applies, because the story is not secondhand, not presented as fiction, and not a fragment.
The only support is the caller's own word. A few place and date details are given, but nothing was checked and no other witness speaks on air.
Evidence for and against
- A street name, a state, and a rough decade are given, which could be checked in principle
- No documentation, photograph, recording, or physical trace is offered
- No second witness speaks on air; no other witness is even named
- No outside check was performed
- The place name in the transcript (Garden Grove Avenue) comes with an unclear label for who is speaking, and no street number
- 0:11
- 2:19
What the model inferred (not said on air): Scored in the range of 11 to 25 only because checkable details (place, decade) are given but not checked. Nothing rises to claimed physical evidence or a second witness on air.
A bedroom intrusion, loss of control over body and voice, and being carried out of a window and prodded by something unknown make for a distinctly frightening story. There is no gore, and the ending is a memory gap rather than a threat.
Evidence for and against
- A figure floats into the bedroom at night
- The caller cannot get the scream out and becomes completely immobile
- The caller is carried out of the window toward a light and poked and prodded
- The caller recalls the story calmly, and it ends with them back in bed
- No injury, threat, or message is reported
- A later, more violent-sounding event (claws, closet) is treated as a separate story, so it is not counted here
- 1:57
- 2:19
What the model inferred (not said on air): Rated for the story's effect on a listener, not for whether it is true. The abduction-like carrying and helplessness raise it above a single mildly eerie event.
Bedroom figures, paralysis, and floating are familiar motifs. But the combination is rarer: something tied around the finger, being carried out of the window, a light, being poked and prodded, and then a memory gap.
Evidence for and against
- Something tied around the finger before the caller becomes immobile
- Carried out of the window toward a light, poked and prodded
- Familiar elements: a figure entering a child's bedroom at night, and immobility
- Novelty compared with the rest of the archive is provisional, with few stories archived so far
- 2:30
What the model inferred (not said on air): A model score of about 62, based on the unusual combination. Comparison with the rest of the archive carries little weight while the archive is small.
Scoring confidence 0.65 · analysis confidence 0.65 · checked against outside sources: no · evidence available: the caller's firsthand story on air; no documentation, recording, or photograph offered; no second witness on air. The originality score blends the model's score (62) with how rare the story's details are across the archive. This method is still provisional.
Ordinary explanations to consider
These are possibilities only. None is a finding about what happened.
- A sleep-related state, such as sleep paralysis or something experienced while falling asleep. In such a state a person in bed cannot move or call out, may see a figure and hear sounds, and later recalls being back in bed. · The caller says they were on the bed only two or three minutes, became completely immobile, could not get the scream out, heard a buzzing sound, and then remembered only being back in bed.
- A child's frightening experience in a room they already feared could account for the setting of the events the caller reports, with the open window and breeze as real features of the room. · The caller says they were about ten or eleven, had trouble going into the bedroom and were afraid of it, and that the window was open with a slight breeze.
What stands out
The story combines a paralysis-type encounter in bed with being physically carried out of a window toward a light and poked and prodded. The caller describes a ghost-like being, while the host recasts it as a possible abduction. The detail of something tied around the caller's finger before they become immobile is uncommon.
Related stories
Matched by shared recurring details, categories, and wording.