Caller describes a black void figure entering a childhood bedroom
A caller who gives their name as [quote withheld] tells Art Bell about something they say they saw as a child of about seven or eight, when they shared a bedroom with their sister. They describe a black head with no dimensions coming through the bedroom door at head height. Then they saw a full black figure with a round, mannequin-like head and arms ending in long tendrils. It moved like a tiptoeing burglar. They say they felt a presence of evil. They claim the thing was “from hell.” Art Bell then calls it classically like a shadow person 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 1998.mp3”, starting at 3:31:18). Is this you, or someone you know? Ask for a correction or removal.
The story as told
The caller gives their name as [quote withheld] The caller says they are calling because they heard a police officer on the show describe a “demon dog.” The caller’s own story is similar but not about a dog. The caller says they were the youngest of five and shared a bedroom with their sister, the next youngest. The caller says they were about seven or eight years old the first time they saw “this thing,” and that it is a distinctive memory. They were in bed, not quite asleep, in a dark room at night. Everyone in the house was asleep and the lights were off. Their head was closest to the door, and their sister’s bed was in the corner farthest from it. The caller reports seeing something come through the bedroom door. First, at about the height of a person’s head, came a black void that they call “blacker than black,” with no dimensions or definition. They squinted and opened their eyes again. The caller says the head poked farther through, and they saw wispy, blacker-than-black arms extending from the side of the head. The head then came farther in and looked around the room, while they wondered whether they were imagining it. The caller says the figure floated all the way through the door. It was completely black and smooth-shaped, with a round head they compare to a mannequin’s, and visible arms and torso. It moved like a burglar tiptoeing, crouched, arms up, the arms ending in long tendrils rather than hands. They watched from under their covers. The caller reports feeling [quote withheld] The caller says that even at that age they did not think it was a ghost or the spirit of someone who had come back. It was something they thought was “from hell.” The story stops there. The host responds with commentary, and the call ends.
Reported events, in order
- 0:07
The caller gives their name as [name withheld] from St. Louis and says they have a story similar to a “demon dog” story they heard from a police officer who called the show.
- 0:30
The caller says they were the youngest of five children and shared a bedroom with their sister, the next youngest.
- 0:44
The caller says they were about seven or eight years old the first time they saw “this thing.”
- 1:04
The caller describes the setting: they were in bed, not quite asleep, in a dark room at night with the lights off and everyone asleep. Their head was nearest the door, and their sister’s bed was in the far corner.
- 1:38
The caller reports seeing something come through the bedroom door: a black void with no dimensions, at about head height, “blacker than black.”
- 2:50
The caller squints and opens their eyes again. The head pokes farther through, and they see wispy black arms extending from the side of the head.
- 3:15
The head comes farther into the room and looks around. The caller wonders whether they are imagining it.
- 3:34
The figure floats all the way through the door. The caller sees a smooth, completely black form with a round, mannequin-like head and visible arms and torso.
- 4:05
The caller watches from under their covers as it moves like a tiptoeing burglar, crouched, arms raised, the arms ending in long tendrils without hands.
- 4:49
The caller reports feeling a presence of evil and concludes it was not a returning spirit but something “from hell.”
- 4:25
Art Bell says it sounds classically like a shadow person story. The call moves into host commentary and ends.
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· 1:38
The caller saw something come through the bedroom door at head height, described as a black void.
- observation· 2:13
The figure was darker than the surrounding darkness, which the caller calls “blacker than black.”
- observation· 2:22
It had no dimensions: [quote withheld]
- observation· 3:04
The caller saw wispy black arms extending from the side of the head.
- observation· 3:48
The figure came fully through the door and had a round head like a mannequin’s.
- observation· 4:22
It moved like a tiptoeing burglar, crouched, with arms raised, and the arms ended in long tendrils rather than hands.
- observation· 4:52
The caller felt a presence of evil during the sighting.
- interpretation· 5:13
The caller concluded the thing was not a returning human spirit but something from hell.
- interpretation· 5:08
The caller states they did not think it was the spirit of a person who had died.
- host statement· 4:25
Art Bell says the story sounds classically like a shadow person story.
- host statement· 5:44
Art Bell says many such things may not be human and that he leans toward stories of physical manifestations.
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.
The caller gives a clear, consistent, spatially detailed firsthand story of a single childhood episode. But the caller gives no date or checkable location beyond a first name and a city, and an explanation based on falling asleep fits easily.
Evidence for and against
- Firsthand word of the person who reports the experience.
- A detailed sequence and layout: the caller’s head closest to the door, the sister’s bed in the far corner, and the figure entering head-first before the body.
- The caller answers the host’s questions ([quote withheld]) without changing their story.
- The caller separates what they saw from what they concluded: [quote withheld] before concluding it was “from hell.”
- No date, address, or checkable detail is given for the event, only [quote withheld]
- The caller was in bed and [quote withheld] in a dark room, where images at the edge of sleep and seeing patterns in shapes are common explanations.
- No second witness. The caller’s sister was asleep.
- An adult caller in 1998 recalls the event from a childhood period they do not place in a decade.
- The caller says [quote withheld] but describes only one occasion, so it is unknown whether it happened again.
- The caller does not say how the episode ended, whether the figure left or faded, or how the night ended.
- The label showing who is speaking for one line (“Exactly. And”) is ambiguous, but it is plausibly the same caller.
- 1:04
- 0:44
- 3:15
- 4:49
What the model inferred (not said on air): Scoring by part: source proximity 19 (firsthand witness, recalling childhood decades later); specificity 12 (a strong sequence of sensory detail, but nothing checkable about when or where); internal consistency 15 (coherent, responsive to the host, no contradictions found); alternative explanations 6 (misperceiving a dark room while falling asleep fits well); calibration 8 (the caller is open about their uncertainty over what they perceived, but states the “from hell” conclusion without hedging). Total 60. No outside check was made, and no cap was applied beyond caution.
Nothing beyond the caller’s own story is offered: no date, no building, no photograph or recording, and no witness speaks on air.
Evidence for and against
- The caller gives a first name and city ([quote withheld]), which is a nominal locator but not a checkable record of the event.
- Only the caller’s word supports the story.
- The only other person said to be present was asleep and does not speak.
- No object, mark, photograph, or recording of the event itself is claimed.
- The caller and host refer to a picture of a doorway and figure on Art Bell’s website, but it is an unrelated image discussed for comparison, not evidence of the caller’s event.
- 0:07
- 3:34
What the model inferred (not said on air): A score of 0 to 10 means the caller’s word only. The first name and city are not enough to check the reported event, so I place it near the bottom of that range rather than in the 11 to 25 range for checkable details. The cap of 50 is not approached, and no outside check was performed.
A black figure intrudes into a child’s dark bedroom, enters head-first, and then stalks the room. The caller claims a presence of evil, and no resolution is described. That is an unsettling story for a listener.
Evidence for and against
- The setting is a child’s bedroom at night, with the child watching from under the covers.
- The description builds: a void at the door, then arms, then the full figure entering and looking around.
- Stalking, crouched movement like a tiptoeing burglar, and tendrils instead of hands.
- The caller reports feeling [quote withheld]
- No resolution is given. The story stops short of describing the figure leaving.
- No physical contact, injury, or threat to anyone is reported.
- The caller’s phrase “long tendrils” produces an almost stylized image, and Art Bell’s reaction puts it in a familiar category (“shadow person story”).
- Whether the figure did anything further, or was seen again, is not stated.
- 3:57
- 4:13
- 4:52
What the model inferred (not said on air): A judgment about the effect of the story, not about whether it is true. The rating is high because of the intrusion into a child’s bedroom, the threat suggested by a claimed evil presence, the escalation, and the unfinished ending. It is not higher because no harm or contact is reported.
This is a recognizable shadow-person story of a kind told to this host before. It has distinctive details: a void “blacker than black” in an already dark room, entry through a solid door head-first, and arms ending in tendrils.
Evidence for and against
- Unusual sensory description: “blacker than night,” [quote withheld] “no dimensions.”
- Unusual shape: head-first emergence, arms from the side of the head, a mannequin-like round head, and arms ending in long tendrils.
- The host classifies it right away: [quote withheld]
- The core motifs, a dark figure at night, a bedroom, a doorway, and a feeling of a presence, are stock elements of the genre.
- The novelty score compared with the rest of the archive rests on few stories in this pilot, so the published originality score is provisional.
- 2:13
- 4:25
What the model inferred (not said on air): The model’s originality score is 55: a familiar setup (a dark figure entering a bedroom at night) with distinctive details. Novelty compared with the rest of the archive is not worked out separately here. With a small pilot archive, the published value would lean heavily on the model’s score.
Scoring confidence 0.60 · analysis confidence 0.70 · checked against outside sources: no · evidence available: The caller’s firsthand word (live call, 1998).; No physical evidence claimed for this event.; No second witness on air. The caller’s sister is reported asleep and does not speak.; An unrelated photograph on the host’s website, referred to for comparison only and not examined as evidence of this event..
Ordinary explanations to consider
These are possibilities only. None is a finding about what happened.
- Images seen while falling asleep, a hallucination at the edge of sleep. · The caller says they were in bed and [quote withheld] in a dark bedroom at night.
- Misreading a dark room while the caller’s eyes adjusted, and seeing a pattern in unclear shapes at a doorway. · The caller stresses the room was dark, that they squinted and reopened their eyes ([quote withheld]), and that they repeatedly asked themselves whether they were imagining it.
- A childhood episode remembered decades later, with detail and feeling added over time. · The caller gives no date and hedges their own age ([quote withheld]) while calling in 1998.
What stands out
What stands out is a figure darker than an already dark room. It is a “black void” with no dimensions that enters head-first through a solid closed door, with arms that end in tendrils rather than hands. The caller also separates what they saw from what they concluded. The caller says they did not take it for a returning human spirit but for something they thought came “from hell.”
Related stories
Matched by shared recurring details, categories, and wording.