Presence in a new Escondido house, 1971; home blessed by a priest
A caller who gives their name as [quote withheld] tells Art Bell about a night in 1971, shortly after their family moved from Los Angeles to Escondido, California. The caller says something brushed past their shoulder around 1–2 a.m. while they slept on the living-room couch. They then could not move. The caller says their mother’s bedroom light came on because something had woken her too. According to the caller, a priest blessed the house a day or so later, and the family had no further problems.
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 1996.mp3”, starting at 1:58:20). Is this you, or someone you know? Ask for a correction or removal.
The story as told
A caller who gives their name as [quote withheld] tells Art that in 1971 their family had just moved from Los Angeles to Escondido, California. Their father worked the night shift as a deputy sheriff in San Diego. After about a week in the house, on a summer night, the caller, then 11 years old, says they fell asleep in the living room watching television. Around one or two in the morning, the caller says, something [quote withheld] and woke them out of a dead sleep. When they lifted the covers off their head, nothing was there. The caller says they could not move at all and felt “an eerie presence” around them. They wanted only to get back to their mother’s bedroom. About five minutes later, the light in their mother’s bedroom came on, and they ran to the back of the house. Their brother [name withheld] had been sleeping in that room with their mother because their father was at work. The caller says something had woken their mother as well. Part of the call is untranscribed. In the lines that survive, the caller refers to [quote withheld] The caller says none of the family slept the rest of that night. About a day later, after their father came home, they called a priest, who came and blessed the house. Since then, the caller says, they never had any problems with it at all. Art closes the call by saying that things do haunt places.
Reported events, in order
- 0:07
The caller says their family moved from Los Angeles to Escondido, California, in 1971.
- 0:17
The caller says their father worked the night shift as a deputy sheriff in San Diego.
- 0:22
After about a week in the house, in midsummer, the caller fell asleep in the living room watching TV.
- 0:31
Around 1–2 a.m., something whisked past the caller’s shoulder and woke them out of a dead sleep.
- 0:45
The caller lifted the covers to look. Nothing was there.
- 0:52
The caller says they could not move at all and were frightened, with an eerie presence around them.
- 1:07
The caller says they were 11 years old and wanted to get back to their mother’s bedroom.
- 1:18
About five minutes later, the light in their mother’s bedroom came on, and the caller ran to the back of the house.
- 1:25
The caller says their brother [name withheld] had been sleeping in the back bedroom with their mother while their father was at work.
- 1:44
The caller says something had woken their mother as well.
- 2:17
The caller says none of the family got any sleep for the rest of that night.
- 2:30
About a day later, after their father came home, they called a priest.
- 2:33
A priest came and blessed the house. The caller says they never had problems with it again.
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· 0:37
Something brushed past the caller’s shoulder and woke them while they slept on the living-room couch.
- observation· 0:45
When the caller looked, nothing was there.
- observation· 1:02
The caller could not move at all.
- interpretation· 1:15
The caller felt an eerie presence around them.
- observation· 1:18
The caller’s mother’s bedroom light came on about five minutes after the caller was woken.
- hearsay· 1:44
Something had also woken the caller’s mother that night. This comes from the caller, not from her on air.
- interpretation· 2:10
The caller describes efforts to keep what they call “the spirit” away from the family.
- interpretation· 2:39
After the priest blessed the house, the family had no further problems with it.
- host statement· 2:42
The host says that places are indeed haunted.
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.
This is a firsthand story with concrete details that could be checked in principle (1971, Escondido, a father who was a San Diego deputy sheriff) and a coherent sequence. But the central event is a single waking from sleep that fits a common sleep-related explanation, and no one backs it up on air.
Evidence for and against
- Firsthand: the caller describes their own waking, immobility, and fear.
- Specific place and time: a move from Los Angeles to Escondido, California, in 1971, and a father working as a deputy sheriff in San Diego.
- The sequence is coherent and answers the host’s prompts without shifting details.
- Waking suddenly, being unable to move, fear, and a sense of presence are commonly explained by a sleep-related state.
- No second witness speaks on air. The mother’s waking is secondhand.
- The caller recalls this roughly 25 years after they were 11 years old, and part of the call is untranscribed.
- A gap in the transcript leaves unclear what the mother said or did.
- The labels showing who is speaking are unreliable around the caller’s introduction, so the name is only probable.
- 0:07
- 0:17
- 1:02
- 1:44
What the model inferred (not said on air): I scored the components myself. Source proximity is 20 (firsthand, but partial and recalled decades later). Specificity is 14 (year, towns, father’s job, time of night, but no street, names of clergy, or documents). Internal consistency is 15 (coherent, though the middle is untranscribed). Alternative explanations is 8 (a sleep-related cause fits the central event well). Calibration is 9 (the caller says what they saw and felt and uses “I believe,” but does not address ordinary causes).
Nothing in the story can be checked independently from the transcript. No document, photograph, or recording is offered, and no second witness speaks on air. The only support is the caller’s word and a claimed witness who does not speak.
Evidence for and against
- The caller gives details that could be checked in principle: Escondido, California, 1971, and a father who was a deputy sheriff in San Diego.
- A second person is claimed to have been woken the same night.
- No physical evidence of any kind is claimed or examined.
- The claimed second witness does not speak on air.
- The host’s closing remark is his own assertion, not backing from someone else.
- It is unknown whether the untranscribed section held any added claim or supporting detail.
- 0:07
- 1:44
- 2:42
What the model inferred (not said on air): I placed it in the 11–25 band because checkable details and a claimed witness are present. None is verified, no object was examined, and no outside check was done.
The story is moderately unsettling. A child alone in a dark living room is woken by something brushing their shoulder, cannot move, and reports an eerie presence, and a priest then blesses the house. Three things soften it: no figure is seen, no harm follows, and the story ends in a stated resolution.
Evidence for and against
- A child is woken out of sleep by something touching them and finds nothing there.
- The caller says they could not move and were frightened while wanting to reach their mother.
- The family called a priest to bless the house.
- No figure is seen, no threat is reported, and no one is hurt.
- The story ends resolved. After the blessing, they [quote withheld]
- The missing middle of the call leaves the mother’s role and reaction unclear, which affects how the story reads.
- 0:45
- 1:15
- 2:17
What the model inferred (not said on air): This is a judgment of the story’s effect only, not of its truth. There is no visual horror or malevolence to push the score toward 70. A child in danger and the paralysis keep it in the upper-middle range.
The story is built from well-worn elements: a presence in a newly occupied house, paralysis on waking, and a house blessing. A few mild particulars set it apart, such as the brush on the shoulder rather than a figure and the paralysis on a couch rather than in bed.
Evidence for and against
- A presence felt in a house the family had lived in for about a week.
- Paralysis on waking with a sense of a presence, a very common motif.
- A priest’s blessing of the house ends the trouble.
- The first sensation is a brush past the shoulder, with nothing visible when the caller looks.
- It happens on a living-room couch after the caller fell asleep watching TV, not in a bed.
- The untranscribed middle section may have held more distinctive detail that cannot be judged.
- 0:37
- 2:33
What the model inferred (not said on air): This is my own estimate. It sits near the score for stock elements only, lifted slightly by the specific details. I could not compare it with the rest of the archive.
Scoring confidence 0.60 · analysis confidence 0.65 · checked against outside sources: no · evidence available: The caller’s firsthand story on a live call; A claimed second witness (their mother) who does not speak on air; No document, photograph, recording, or other object offered or examined. The originality score blends the model's score (32) 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.
- Waking abruptly from sleep can bring brief paralysis and fear. That could explain the paralysis and the sense of a presence, since the caller had fallen asleep on the couch and was woken suddenly. · The caller says they had [quote withheld] and were [quote withheld]
- The feeling of something whisking past the caller’s shoulder may have been a bodily sensation on waking, since the caller says they found nothing when they looked. · [quote withheld] followed by [quote withheld]
- The caller’s mother’s waking and the bedroom light could have an ordinary cause, such as a noise, her own dream, or checking on the children. Her experience is known only secondhand, and the middle of the call is untranscribed. · [quote withheld] plus the untranscribed speech in the middle of the call.
What stands out
The caller says they were paralyzed not in bed but on a living-room couch, after they fell asleep watching television. Something brushed their shoulder first, and the caller saw no figure. This is also one of the few stories here that the caller presents as closed off by a ritual: a priest’s blessing and, the caller says, no return of the problem.
Related stories
Matched by shared recurring details, categories, and wording.