A presence before conception and a child’s talk of heaven
Art Bell reads a letter he attributes to a woman named [name withheld] in San Francisco. She says she sensed a presence throughout two and a half years of unsuccessful attempts to conceive. She reports a small shadow or wisp passing her at a fixed height in the air. She comes to see it as her future daughter and says she conceived after giving up. The letter ends with her five-and-a-half-year-old daughter talking about heaven and saying she visited [name withheld] before being born.
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 2000-2.mp3”, starting at 2:05:05). Is this you, or someone you know? Ask for a correction or removal.
The story as told
Art Bell reads what he identifies as a letter from [name withheld] in San Francisco. According to the letter, [name withheld] tried to conceive her daughter for two and a half years. During that time she became aware of a presence that followed her at all hours. She reports a small shadow passing her, [quote withheld] which did not touch the floor and stayed about four feet in the air. She says she became aware of the presence’s personality and came to believe it was her daughter, female and stubborn. She asked aloud when it would show up and describes the answer arriving as her own thought: [quote withheld] After two and a half years, including six months of fertility drugs, she still was not pregnant. She says the presence was almost always there. A close friend and neighbor told her they had dreamt [name withheld] was pregnant. [name withheld] and her husband met a doctor to begin more aggressive fertility drugs. She had nearly given up, and she says that once she let go, she conceived. She reports that the personality she had sensed around her was now inside her and that she knew she was carrying a girl, later confirmed by amniocentesis. Recently, she writes, her five-and-a-half-year-old daughter began talking about heaven. [name withheld] says she had not raised the subject because the household is agnostic. The child pointed upward and said it was where she waited to come into [name withheld]’s body. She said she used to visit [name withheld] before birth and did not want to come when [name withheld] wanted her to, and that she chose to be with [name withheld]. [name withheld] adds that the child is “strangely comforting” and seems to mother her, and that nothing similar happened with her earlier son.
Reported events, in order
- 0:10
[name withheld] writes that she tried to conceive her daughter for two and a half years.
- 0:15
During that time, she says, she became aware of a presence following her at all hours.
- 0:22
She reports a small shadow passing by her, [quote withheld] never touching the floor and always about four feet up.
- 0:35
She says she became aware of the presence’s personality.
- 0:43
She came to believe it was her daughter, female and stubborn.
- 0:56
She asked aloud when it would show up. The reply came as a thought: [quote withheld]
- 1:07
After six months of fertility drugs she was still not pregnant. She says the presence was around almost all the time.
- 1:20
A close friend and neighbor told her they had dreamt [name withheld] was pregnant.
- 1:25
She and her husband met a doctor to start more aggressive fertility drugs. She had nearly given up.
- 1:37
Once she stopped pushing, she says, she conceived (“bingo”).
- 1:40
She says the personality she had sensed around her was now inside her.
- 1:54
She knew she was carrying a girl, later confirmed by amniocentesis, and says she knew who the child was.
- 2:00
Recently, her five-and-a-half-year-old daughter began talking about heaven.
- 2:13
She states she is agnostic and had not discussed heaven with her. Asked where heaven was, the child pointed up.
- 2:25
The child said heaven was where she waited to come into [name withheld]’s body.
- 2:35
The child said she used to visit [name withheld] before birth and did not want to come when [name withheld] wanted.
- 2:46
The child has repeatedly said she chose to be with [name withheld] and, [name withheld] writes, has a “strangely comforting ability.”
- 3:01
She notes she had a son before this daughter and nothing comparable happened with him.
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· 0:15
[name withheld] says that during the two and a half years she was trying to conceive she [quote withheld] that followed her at all hours.
- observation· 0:22
She reports repeatedly seeing a small shadow pass by her, described as [quote withheld]
- observation· 0:28
She says the shadow did not touch the floor and stayed at a constant height of about four feet in the air.
- interpretation· 0:43
She came to believe the presence was her future daughter, with a personality she describes as stubborn.
- observation· 1:01
Asked aloud when it would appear, the answer she reports came as her own thought.
- hearsay· 1:20
A close friend and neighbor told her they had dreamt that [name withheld] was pregnant, before (or without) [name withheld] knowing she was.
- interpretation· 1:40
She concluded the presence she had sensed outside her was now inside her, and that she was pregnant with a girl.
- observation· 1:55
Amniocentesis confirmed the child was a girl. [name withheld] says she already [quote withheld]
- hearsay· 2:09
Her five-and-a-half-year-old daughter began talking about heaven, which [name withheld] says she had not raised with her.
- hearsay· 2:25
The child told her that heaven was where she waited to come into [name withheld]’s body.
- hearsay· 2:35
The child said she used to visit [name withheld] before she was born and did not want to come when [name withheld] wanted her to.
- interpretation· 2:58
[name withheld] reads the child’s manner as protective or maternal toward her ([quote withheld]).
- host statement· 0:02
The host identifies the story as a letter from [name withheld] in San Francisco.
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 coherent, consistent first-person story with some concrete detail. But the core experience is subjective, and an ordinary reading (a visual artifact plus anticipation during fertility treatment) fits reasonably well. Nothing checkable is given to back it up. Components: source proximity 20/25 (firsthand witness, though the story comes through a letter read on air); specificity 11/20; internal consistency 16/20; alternative explanations 7/20; calibration 8/15 = 62.
Evidence for and against
- Firsthand story: the writer is the person who reports the experiences, in the first person ([quote withheld]).
- Concrete sensory detail: a wisp past the cheek, a shadow that never touches the floor, a consistent height of about four feet.
- A clear, ordered chronology from two and a half years of trying through six months of fertility drugs, conception, amniocentesis, and the child at five and a half.
- [quote withheld] plus [quote withheld] is the kind of brief, fixed-height visual in the air that also fits ordinary visual artifacts.
- The felt presence arises exactly during a long, medically managed attempt to conceive, a setting in which ordinary explanations are commonly offered.
- Several elements can’t be checked from the text: no dates, no names beyond “[name withheld],” no documents. The amniocentesis result is mentioned but not shown.
- One line ([quote withheld]) reads oddly and may be a transcription or reading error, so its sense is uncertain.
- A choppy passage makes part of the pregnancy announcement hard to reconstruct.
- 0:15
- 0:28
- 0:46
What the model inferred (not said on air): The 20/25 source score reflects that the writer is the one who had the experience, discounted slightly because her story reaches the audience only as a letter read by the host and she cannot be questioned. The low alternative-explanation score reflects the judgment that these events are of a kind that also occurs without anything unseen being involved. The writer does not address any alternatives.
The story rests entirely on the writer’s word, read aloud by the host. It has details that could be checked (name, city, a cited medical test), but they have not been checked, and no second witness speaks on air. This sits at a score of 11 to 25. It is well below the 50 cap that would require an outside check.
Evidence for and against
- Checkable specifics are given: a named source and place ([quote withheld]) and an approximate time frame through the child’s stated age of five and a half.
- A medical procedure (amniocentesis) is cited as confirming the child’s sex, which would in principle be documented.
- Nothing is produced or examined on air: no document, photograph, recording, or medical record.
- The neighbor’s dream and the daughter’s statements are both reported inside the letter. Neither person speaks on air.
- The identity or existence of [quote withheld] cannot be judged from the transcript.
- It is not stated whether the letter came with any documentation.
- 0:02
- 1:55
What the model inferred (not said on air): The name, the city, and the mentioned medical result lift the score out of the 0 to 10 range for word alone. But nothing was verified and no one else speaks, so the score stays toward the bottom of the 11 to 25 range.
The story is unusual and quietly strange rather than frightening. There is no menace, no physical threat, and no horror ending, and the writer describes the child as comforting. It scores in the mildly eerie range.
Evidence for and against
- A small shadow or wisp that follows the writer [quote withheld] and stays at a fixed height evokes a quietly eerie image.
- Being watched over by a presence one comes to see as an unborn child is mildly unsettling, especially the answer given [quote withheld]
- The writer frames the presence positively: [quote withheld]
- There is no threat, injury, physical contact, or escalation. The child’s talk of heaven is warm rather than menacing.
- Tone in a read letter is largely the host’s, so nothing is inferred about the writer’s feelings from how it was read.
- 0:18
- 2:58
What the model inferred (not said on air): The score gives some weight to the [quote withheld] and the shadow in the air as atmosphere. It gives less weight because the writer’s own feeling is affectionate rather than fearful.
The [quote withheld] frame is familiar. It is combined with an unusual presence before conception and the fixed-height shadow in the air. The score of about 58 is provisional, pending comparison with the rest of the archive.
Evidence for and against
- Distinctive detail: the presence is sensed for two and a half years before conception and is linked to a child not yet conceived.
- Unusual specifics: the shadow never touches the floor and holds a constant height of about four feet, and it answers a spoken question through the writer’s own thought.
- The frame of a child who remembers existing or waiting before birth is a familiar modern motif.
- A felt presence and a shadow form are stock ghost-story pieces.
- The originality score is a provisional estimate and will be recalculated against the archive.
- 0:26
- 1:40
What the model inferred (not said on air): This is a judgment based on the content, not a comparison with the archive. The score compared with the rest of the archive will be worked out separately and labeled provisional while the archive is small.
Scoring confidence 0.60 · analysis confidence 0.74 · checked against outside sources: no · evidence available: The writer’s firsthand written story (a letter) read aloud on air by the host; the writer does not speak; No photograph, recording, document, or medical record presented or examined on air; Amniocentesis mentioned as confirming the child’s sex, but not examined; No second witness speaks on air; the neighbor’s dream and the daughter’s statements are both reported secondhand through the letter. The originality score blends the model's score (58) 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 lasting sense of another presence during a long, medically managed attempt to conceive could come from anticipation and self-monitoring rather than something unseen. · [name withheld]’s own timetable (two and a half years of unsuccessful attempts, then six months of fertility drugs) frames the period in which she says she noticed the presence. People who badly want a child commonly report a felt “presence.”
- The moving “small shadow” or [quote withheld] could be a brief visual effect, such as an eye floater or a light or dark artifact at the edge of vision. It would seem to float in the air at a consistent height. · The writer describes a small dark form seen briefly, in the air, never touching the floor, at a fixed height, sometimes as a “wisp” at the edge of vision.
- A young child could pick up ideas about heaven and life before birth from sources outside her parent’s conversations, such as media, other children, relatives, or religious materials. The letter does not rule these out. · The child’s talk of heaven and of waiting to be born is reported by her mother, who says she had not discussed the subject with her because the household is agnostic.
What stands out
Instead of a dead person appearing, a woman says she sensed a child’s presence for two and a half years before conceiving her. The child is later reported to describe visiting her mother before birth and waiting in a place she calls heaven. The shadow that never touched the floor and held a constant height of about four feet is also unusual.
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