Ghost of a woman passing through a university sleep laboratory
A caller named [name withheld] tells Art Bell that they were working toward a degree in parapsychology and running an overnight sleep-mapping experiment with Kirlian photography at a Sacramento State sleep lab. [name withheld] reports that their assistant [name withheld], inside the anechoic chamber, said a woman walked through him. Both then watched a misty form turn solid as an older woman in a flower-print dress. She floated through walls and shelving and disappeared out an outside wall. [name withheld] says she showed herself a second time. [name withheld] half agrees with Art’s suggestion that the experiment itself may have opened a door.
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 1999.mp3”, starting at 12:44). Is this you, or someone you know? Ask for a correction or removal.
The story as told
The caller gives their name as [name withheld] in the course of the story. They say they were working toward a degree in parapsychology and running an experiment at the sleep lab at Sac State. The experiment, they say, involved mapping stages of sleep with Kirlian photography. Their assistant [name withheld] was inside the anechoic chamber with a sleeping subject, advancing film by hand when cued by a light from the experimental room. They say the work was eventually written up in the Journal for the Psychophysiological Study of Sleep and was the first time this had been done. On the night in question, at about four in the morning, they say they could hear two people snoring over the intercom and realized [name withheld] had fallen asleep. They then report hearing movement over the intercom, [name withheld] cursing, and [name withheld] calling out that a woman had walked right through him. [name withheld] opened the heavy chamber door, his footsteps came around to the experimental room, and he grabbed [name withheld]’s arm and pointed. [name withheld] describes a misty substance coming through the wall from the experimental room into the chamber. By the time it was halfway through the wall, just past the Grass Model 6 EEG, it turned solid, they say, into the ghost of a woman of roughly 60 to 65 in a flower-print dress. Her feet were not visible, and she drifted through the long, narrow experimental room without looking at them. They say both of their jaws dropped and the hair on their necks stood up. She passed through the shelving where the EEG paper was stored. The two of them then went around to the left-hand hallway of the U-shaped ground floor of the psychology building, expecting her to emerge. She did not. They went back, [name withheld] says, and saw her floating back into the sleep chamber. Then they went to the right-hand corridor, where she passed through the anechoic chamber and disappeared through the outside wall. Art asks whether the Kirlian photography caught any of it. [name withheld] says that unless an exposure was being made at that moment, they would not have known. Asked whether the experiment might have opened a door, [name withheld] says she showed herself a second time and that they would [quote withheld] with Art.
Reported events, in order
- 0:10
The caller says they were working toward a degree in parapsychology and running a sleep-mapping experiment with Kirlian photography at the sleep lab at Sac State.
- 0:49
The caller says their assistant [name withheld] stayed inside the anechoic chamber with the sleeping subject, advancing film by hand when cued by a light.
- 1:14
At about four in the morning, the caller hears two people snoring over the intercom and realizes [name withheld] has fallen asleep.
- 1:40
The caller hears movement over the intercom and [name withheld] cursing. Then [name withheld] shouts that a woman “walked right through” him.
- 2:03
[name withheld] opens the heavy chamber door, his footsteps come around to the experimental room, and he grabs the caller’s arm and points.
- 2:23
A misty substance is reported coming through the wall into the chamber and turning solid as the ghost of a woman of 60 to 65 in a flower-print dress. Her feet are not visible as she floats.
- 3:09
The woman floats through the long, narrow experimental room past the shelves holding EEG paper, never looking at them.
- 3:27
The two of them go around to the left-hand hallway expecting her to emerge. She does not.
- 3:41
They return and see her floating back into the sleep chamber. Then they watch from the right-hand corridor as she passes through the anechoic chamber and disappears through the outside wall.
- 3:55
Asked whether the Kirlian photography caught the event, the caller says they would only have known if an exposure was being made at that moment.
- 4:26
The caller says she showed herself a second time. The caller says they would tend to agree with Art that the experiment may have opened a door.
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· 2:23
A misty substance was seen coming through the wall into the chamber before turning solid.
- observation· 2:35
The form turned solid as the ghost of a woman of about 60 to 65 in a flower-print dress.
- observation· 2:51
The woman floated through the experimental room with her feet not visible.
- hearsay· 2:03
Assistant [name withheld] said the woman walked right through him.
- observation· 3:02
The hair on both men’s necks stood up during the sighting.
- observation· 3:17
The woman passed through the shelving holding EEG paper without effect.
- observation· 3:40
She did not emerge into the hallway as the two of them expected.
- observation· 0:30
The experiment was eventually written up in the Journal for the Psychophysiological Study of Sleep.
- interpretation· 4:26
The woman showed herself a second time.
- host statement· 4:09
The host suggests the experiment may have opened a door that allowed the event to occur.
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 detailed, sequenced, firsthand story with concrete equipment, times, and layout. It is consistent within itself, apart from a shift in how the experiment is described at the end. Common ordinary explanations (lack of sleep, priming, chamber mist) are plausible for parts of it but do not easily account for two people reporting the same figure.
Evidence for and against
- Firsthand, told in order by a direct witness.
- Specific concrete details: [quote withheld] anechoic chamber, Grass Model 6 EEG, EEG paper shelving, flower-print dress, approximate age.
- Describes the physical layout of the U-shaped ground floor and the routes they took.
- A named journal write-up is claimed for the underlying experiment.
- The caller considers no ordinary explanation.
- The experiment is described at the end in different terms ([quote withheld]) than the Kirlian sleep-mapping described earlier.
- The claim that [quote withheld] is left unexplained and out of sequence.
- No documentation of the event itself that could be checked is offered.
- Some words are marked low-confidence in the automatic transcript.
- The labels showing who is speaking swap around answers, so a few lines attributed to the host or the caller are uncertain.
- The ending exchange is garbled and partly unintelligible.
- 0:10
- 1:14
- 2:35
- 2:59
What the model inferred (not said on air): Component judgment: source proximity high (firsthand), specificity high, internal consistency moderate (points deducted for the shifting description of the experiment and the unexplained “second time”). Alternative explanations score moderately high because a shared visual experience is hard to explain by ordinary means. Calibration is moderate because the caller does not flag any doubt about the sighting itself.
The caller says outright that the photographs may not have captured the event. The only second witness is reported, not heard on air. A publication claim and a named research setting could be checked in principle but were not checked here.
Evidence for and against
- Specifics that could be checked are given: the Sac State sleep lab, a named journal, named equipment.
- A second witness ([name withheld]) is claimed to have had a closer experience.
- No physical evidence is produced or examined.
- The Kirlian photography is said to have caught nothing unless an exposure happened to coincide.
- The second witness does not speak on air.
- No dates, names of records, or documentation are given for the event itself.
- The caller leaves unknown whether any exposure was being made during the reported event.
- The journal reference cannot be verified from the transcript.
- 2:03
- 4:02
- 0:30
What the model inferred (not said on air): Placed in the 11–25 range for a claimed second witness and specifics that could be checked but were not. The caller says the photographic evidence may not exist, so no higher range applies.
A misty form turning solid through a wall into a visible woman, floating without visible feet and passing through solid shelving and walls, is genuinely unsettling, as is the overnight laboratory setting. The absence of threat, contact, or harm tempers it, as does the figure ignoring the witnesses entirely.
Evidence for and against
- A form is reported coming through a wall and turning solid as a figure.
- The figure is said to pass through shelving and an outside wall.
- The witnesses are described with raised neck hair and dropped jaws.
- The setting is an isolated laboratory at 4 a.m.
- No threat, attack, or physical harm to the caller is reported.
- The figure never looks at the witnesses.
- No escalation beyond the single episode is described in detail.
- The statement that she [quote withheld] is not explained, so any escalation is unknown.
- 2:23
- 3:17
- 3:02
What the model inferred (not said on air): Rated in the “genuinely unsettling” range because a figure passing through walls intrudes on a confined, isolated workplace. Lowered from higher scores because there is no threat or contact with the caller.
Ghosts that pass through walls and a floating woman in a dress are familiar ghost-story elements. But the research-laboratory setting, the mist coming through a wall near an EEG machine, and the chase through corridors give this story a distinctive shape.
Evidence for and against
- Unusual setting: a university sleep lab with Kirlian photography and an anechoic chamber.
- The ghost is described in stages (mist, halfway through the wall, turning solid) with reference to specific equipment.
- The witnesses follow the figure through a described U-shaped building.
- A floating woman in a dress who passes through solid matter is a stock motif.
- Failing to appear where expected and vanishing through an outer wall are common story beats.
- The originality score is provisional; the part compared with the rest of the archive carries little weight with so few stories.
- 2:35
- 3:27
What the model inferred (not said on air): Scored as a familiar pattern with strongly distinctive setting and staging details. No element is unique enough to place it higher.
Scoring confidence 0.70 · analysis confidence 0.75 · checked against outside sources: no · evidence available: The caller’s firsthand story; Claimed second witness ([name withheld]), who does not speak on air; Claimed journal publication of the underlying experiment, not examined; Kirlian photographs mentioned, but the caller says they would not necessarily show anything. The originality score blends the model's score (65) 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.
- Images seen while falling asleep or waking up, and mistaken perceptions after a night without sleep, in a darkened laboratory at about 4 a.m. · The caller states [quote withheld] and that [name withheld] had fallen asleep. Both men had been working an overnight sleep experiment.
- Expectation and priming: [name withheld]’s shouted warning came first and shaped what the caller reports seeing. · The caller reports [name withheld] yelling [quote withheld] before he describes seeing anything himself.
- A cold chamber mist or condensation seen in dim light, later built up into a form. · The description begins as “misty-looking stuff” coming through the wall of the anechoic chamber area before being described as turning solid.
What stands out
The setting is a university sleep laboratory rather than a home. The sighting is reported in stages: a mist comes through a wall, turns solid near an EEG machine, passes through shelving, and leaves through an outside wall. The caller also places the story inside a research program with a named journal write-up.
Related stories
Matched by shared recurring details, categories, and wording.