Figure in an old Portland house points to the door and says “get out of my house”
A caller who gives their name as [name withheld], from Eugene, Oregon, and originally from Portland, tells Art Bell about visiting a century-old house in what they call the Selwood District of Portland. A chiropractor friend named Art had invited them. The caller reports that while walking through an upstairs room they saw a large bald man in a brown suit and white shirt. He was translucent and had no feet. He pointed at the door and said [quote withheld] The caller says they fled downstairs and their friend then wanted to meditate for the spirit to leave. During the meditation, the caller says, they both heard footsteps leave the room and come down the stairs, and they ran out. The caller says they never went back in.
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 2001-2.mp3”, starting at 1:45:58). Is this you, or someone you know? Ask for a correction or removal.
The story as told
The caller, who gives their name as [name withheld] and says they are from Eugene, Oregon, and originally from Portland, tells Art Bell they have had several experiences with the paranormal, always with an unexplained “spine-gripping” cold. Their scariest story, the caller says, is [quote withheld] The caller says a friend and former roommate, a chiropractor also named Art, invited them to a 100-year-old house the friend wanted them to see because they love antiques. The caller places it in what they call the Selwood District of Portland. They describe the house’s base as [quote withheld] and its archways as shaped like huge skeleton keyholes. The caller says the friend’s roommate was a woman with children whose room was decorated in antique lace, and that one room was left empty. The friend told them the children had been in it but did not like it and moved out. The caller says they went upstairs to use the restroom and walked into a room to see the stained glass windows. Halfway through the room a figure appeared in front of them: a large, bald man in a brown suit and white shirt. The caller says they knew he was a ghost because they could see the wall through him and he had no feet, stopping at the ankles. The caller reports that he raised a finger, pointed at the door, and said [quote withheld] and that they ran down the stairs so fast they tore the carpet runner off. The caller says they told their friend, who immediately wanted to meditate for the spirit to leave. They wanted to leave but agreed to sit and meditate. Then they heard footsteps walk out of the room they had been in and come down the stairs, and they both ran out. The caller says they would not go back inside and had their friend retrieve their purse.
Reported events, in order
- 0:07
The caller gives their name as [name withheld], from Eugene, Oregon, originally from Portland.
- 0:38
They say their friend and former roommate Art, a chiropractor, invited them to see a 100-year-old house because they love antiques.
- 0:49
They place the house in what they call the Selwood District of Portland.
- 0:56
They describe the house: a base [quote withheld] and archways shaped like huge skeleton keyholes.
- 1:39
They say they went upstairs to use the restroom, walked into a room to see the stained glass windows, and a figure appeared in front of them.
- 1:47
They describe the figure as a large bald man in a brown suit and white shirt, translucent, with no feet below the ankles.
- 2:03
They say he pointed at the door and said [quote withheld]
- 2:08
They say they fled down the stairs so fast they tore the carpet runner off.
- 2:20
Their friend wanted to meditate for the spirit to leave. The caller wanted to leave but agreed to sit and meditate.
- 2:28
During or after the meditation, the caller says, they heard footsteps leave the upstairs room and come down the stairs, and both ran out.
- 2:43
The caller says they would not go back in and had their friend retrieve their purse. The host closes the call.
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· 0:13
The caller says they have had several paranormal experiences, each accompanied by an unexplained “spine-gripping” cold.
- observation· 1:39
The caller says a figure they call a ghost appeared in front of them halfway across an upstairs room.
- observation· 1:49
The caller says the figure was translucent, because they could see the wall behind him, and had no feet below the ankles.
- observation· 2:03
The caller says the figure raised a finger, pointed at the door, and told the caller to get out of his house.
- observation· 2:08
The caller says they ran down the stairs so fast that they tore the carpet runner off.
- observation· 2:28
After the caller and their friend meditated for the spirit to leave, the caller says, they heard footsteps walk out of the upstairs room and come down the stairs.
- interpretation· 1:49
The caller concludes that the man they saw was the ghost of a dead person, tied to that house.
- hearsay· 1:27
The caller’s friend told them the children had been in the empty room but moved out because they did not like it.
- host statement· 3:00
The host says that when a ghost yells at you and shakes its finger, you get out of the house rather than meditate.
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 clear, coherent firsthand story with some concrete descriptive detail. But it is brief, undated, not backed up by any witness on the air, and does not consider ordinary alternatives.
Evidence for and against
- A firsthand story by the person who says they experienced it ([quote withheld]).
- Concrete detail of what the caller saw and heard: the house’s skirt-like base and keyhole archways, and the figure’s brown suit, white shirt, and lack of feet.
- A coherent sequence from invitation to flight, with answers to the host’s questions that fit the story.
- Nothing is checkable: no date, no year, no street address, and the friend does not speak on the air.
- The caller makes no attempt to test ordinary explanations for the figure or the footsteps.
- No date or time frame is given for the events, so the story cannot be placed or checked.
- The labels showing who is speaking shift in this part of the broadcast, making it slightly unclear who says one closing line.
- 1:39
- 1:49
What the model inferred (not said on air): The component scores are my judgment of the content of the caller’s story only. I have not used the caller’s tone or emotion, and I treat the claimed second witness as an assertion, not backing from someone else.
Everything rests on the caller’s own story plus a claimed but silent second witness. No physical evidence is produced or inspected, so this falls in the range for [quote withheld]
Evidence for and against
- A second person is claimed to have been present and to have fled with the caller.
- Some specifics that might be checked: a described house in a named district of Portland and a named friend.
- No photograph, recording, document, or physical trace is offered or examined.
- The claimed second witness, the friend Art, does not speak on the air, so the friend’s part is assertion only.
- No address, year, or house name is given, so nothing here can actually be located or checked.
- “Selwood District” may be a transcription error, which would further reduce how checkable it is.
- 2:40
- 2:46
What the model inferred (not said on air): Under the scoring guide, a claimed witness is not independent backing, and without an outside check the score is capped well below the ranges for examined evidence.
The sudden appearance, the spoken command to leave, and the footsteps that followed make for a genuinely unsettling story. It is short, though, and ends mainly in flight rather than sustained dread.
Evidence for and against
- A figure appears suddenly in an upstairs room and orders the caller out of the house ([quote withheld]).
- The figure is described as translucent and footless, an inherently unsettling image.
- The footsteps coming down the stairs after the meditation suggest the presence moving toward them, and the ending is unresolved.
- The encounter is brief and the caller escapes unharmed. There is no sustained escalation or physical harm beyond tearing a carpet runner.
- The host’s closing remarks are jokey ([quote withheld]), which somewhat deflates the mood.
- There is no information about lighting, time of day, or how long the figure was visible, which affects how vivid the scene is.
- 2:03
- 2:28
What the model inferred (not said on air): This rating is about how the story plays to a listener, not about whether anything happened.
The story uses a familiar haunted-house setup but gains some individuality from the described architecture and the twist of meditation followed by footsteps.
Evidence for and against
- The distinctive architectural details: the skirt-like base and archways shaped like giant skeleton keyholes.
- The unusual sequence of responding to the encounter by meditating for the spirit, only to hear footsteps come down the stairs.
- A translucent figure in an old house, footsteps on a staircase, and fleeing in fright are all familiar ghost-story elements.
- The [quote withheld] beat recurs in the genre.
- Scored provisionally, without comparison to the rest of the archive.
- 1:01
- 2:20
What the model inferred (not said on air): This is a provisional estimate from the content. How new the story is compared with the rest of the archive is not worked out here.
Scoring confidence 0.68 · analysis confidence 0.75 · checked against outside sources: no · evidence available: The caller’s firsthand word; A second participant (the friend Art) is reported to have fled with the caller and later retrieved the caller’s purse, but does not speak on the air; No photograph, recording, document, or physical trace offered or examined. The originality score blends the model's score (52) 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.
- The footsteps heard during the meditation could have an ordinary source, such as an old house settling or another occupant of the shared house moving about. The transcript gives no attempt to check. · The caller and their friend are in an old, unfamiliar, multistory house. The sound is reported after they sit in silence, and no check of the building is described.
- A figure seen while moving through a dim, unfamiliar room could be a misread shadow, reflection, or object. The transcript offers no way to test this. · The caller says they walked into an upstairs room specifically to look at stained glass windows, and reports the figure appearing [quote withheld]
What stands out
The story pairs a pointed, spoken eviction by the figure with an attempt to meditate the spirit away, followed by reported footsteps coming down the stairs. The caller says the meditation is what came before their flight. The description of archways shaped like skeleton keyholes is also a distinctive detail.
Related stories
Matched by shared recurring details, categories, and wording.