Caller [name withheld] says he and his twin saw their mother’s head float down the hallway
A caller who gives his first name as [name withheld], and who says he is in Colorado Springs, tells Art Bell that as a child he and his twin brother both woke and found their mother after a suicide attempt. That night, he says, lying awake in bed, he saw his mother’s head, with nothing below the neck, move down the hallway toward him and grow larger as it came. He says he only recently learned that his twin brother saw the same thing. The transcript never states whether their mother survived.
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 2004.mp3”, starting at 1:38:56). Is this you, or someone you know? Ask for a correction or removal.
The story as told
Caller “[name withheld],” who says he is in Colorado Springs and listens on KVOR 740, tells Art Bell that his experiences began when he was a child. He says he has a twin brother and that their mother [quote withheld] while the boys were asleep at the other end of the house. According to him, both boys got up, went to the door, and saw her in there. They went to shake her, and [quote withheld] He says that, being kids, they did not know what else to do but run and tell their father. After going to family and friends that day, they came back home that night and lay in bed. Unable to sleep, he says, he was looking into the hallway when he saw the head of his mother, [quote withheld] and that [quote withheld] He describes the head as proportional to the size it would be in the hallway, coming toward him and getting [quote withheld] [name withheld] says he only learned recently that his twin brother saw the same thing. Art Bell remarks that this is about the third such story that night. The transcript does not state whether the mother survived, the boys’ ages, or any date.
Reported events, in order
- 0:24
[name withheld] says the experiences began when he was a child.
- 0:30
He says he has a twin brother.
- 0:33
He says his mother had attempted suicide while the boys slept at the other end of the house.
- 0:41
Both boys got up, went to the door, and saw their mother.
- 0:46
They went to shake her. She looked up at both of them and dropped her head.
- 0:50
Being children, they ran to tell their father.
- 0:59
After going to family and friends, they came back home and lay in bed that night.
- 1:13
While looking into the hallway, he says, he saw his mother’s head with nothing below the neck.
- 1:21
The head came directly toward him.
- 1:39
It grew larger as it approached, “encompassed” him, and passed by.
- 1:26
He says he only recently learned his twin brother saw the same thing.
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· 0:33
The caller’s mother had attempted suicide while he and his twin were asleep at the other end of the house.
- observation· 0:41
Both twins got up, went to the door, and saw their mother.
- observation· 0:46
When they tried to shake her, she looked up at both of them and dropped her head.
- observation· 1:13
That night, while lying awake in bed, he saw the head of his mother with nothing below the neck.
- observation· 1:21
The head moved directly toward him.
- observation· 1:39
The head grew larger as it approached until it “encompassed” him and passed by.
- hearsay· 1:26
His twin brother saw the same thing. The caller says he only learned this recently.
- host statement· 1:28
Art Bell says that two people seeing the same thing is roughly the third such story that night.
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, well-ordered firsthand story with one distinctive detail of what he saw. But nothing in it can be checked, and the caller does not consider ordinary explanations. It sits near the level of a [quote withheld] rather than a detailed and considered one.
Evidence for and against
- Firsthand story from a participant: [quote withheld]
- A concrete sequence: waking, finding the mother, running to the father, returning home, lying in bed, and seeing the head.
- A specific detail of what he saw that is not a stock description: the head was scaled to the hallway and grew as it approached.
- No date, ages, street, town of the event, or hospital or record detail is given. Nothing can be checked.
- Key sentences are split across mislabeled turns of speech, and one sentence is garbled (“It's sleeping”).
- The caller does not address any ordinary explanation for seeing the head while lying awake at night.
- It is implied but not stated clearly that the head was seen the same night as the suicide attempt.
- It is not stated whether the mother survived, so it is unclear whether the caller understood the head to be a dead person.
- The boys’ ages and the year of the events are not stated.
- 0:41
- 0:46
- 1:39
What the model inferred (not said on air): Component scores: closeness to the source 21 of 25 (he took part directly, but the sighting is described briefly and partly from childhood memory); specificity 12 of 20 (a town, a station, and a twin brother, but no date or ages); consistency 13 of 20 (a coherent order, but pronouns shift, labels are confused, and the mother’s outcome is left unstated); ordinary explanations 8 of 20 (an image from the edge of sleep fits the in-bed setting, and the caller does not consider it); calibration 8 of 15 (plain reporting without escalation, but little distinction between what he perceived and what it was). The total is 62, given as 60.
The story rests on the caller’s word plus a claimed second witness. The second witness does not speak on air, and nothing offered can be checked. That puts it in the low range, well under the firm cap of 50 for transcripts with no backing from anyone else.
Evidence for and against
- The caller’s own statement that he saw the head: [quote withheld]
- A second witness is claimed: [quote withheld]
- The transcript contains no documentation of any kind: no photograph, recording, letter, or record.
- No outside check was performed.
- No dates, full names, or addresses are given that could be looked up.
- It is not stated whether any record of the event exists.
- 1:13
- 1:26
What the model inferred (not said on air): The range of 11 to 25 (other witnesses claimed) is the best fit. I did not go lower because a second witness is claimed, and I did not go higher because that witness is only reported.
A child finding a parent after a suicide attempt, and a bodiless head rushing down a hallway at night to envelop the viewer, make for frightening imagery. The telling is matter-of-fact, though, and nothing is said to result in harm.
Evidence for and against
- A child finds his mother after a suicide attempt.
- A bodiless head with [quote withheld] approaches and grows until it “encompassed” the caller.
- The setting is a dark house at night, with the caller lying awake in bed.
- The story is short (about 1.7 minutes), with no escalation, threat, or physical harm attributed to the head.
- The head is identified as the caller’s mother rather than as an anonymous or malevolent figure.
- No aftermath or consequence of the sighting is stated.
- 1:17
- 1:21
- 1:09
What the model inferred (not said on air): I placed it above the “genuinely unsettling” level because of the head rushing at him and the child’s point of view. I kept it below the top of the frightening range because there is no threat, escalation, or stated consequence.
A familiar nighttime ghost story carries an unusual detail: a bodiless head whose apparent size grows with the viewer’s perspective as it passes through him. That earns a score for a distinctive detail rather than a stock one.
Evidence for and against
- The figure is specifically a head with nothing beneath the neck.
- The head is described as scaling correctly with the hallway’s perspective and growing until it “encompassed” the caller as it passed.
- The sighting is said to have happened the same night the twins found their mother after a suicide attempt.
- The frame, a figure seen at night from bed or in a hallway, is common in this genre.
- That the figure is the caller’s own mother is a familiar “known person” frame.
- How new the story is compared with the rest of the archive cannot be judged from a single transcript.
- 1:17
- 1:33
What the model inferred (not said on air): The model’s originality value is 55 ([quote withheld]). The published value is calculated relative to the rest of the archive. With the pilot archive, the model’s part dominates, so the value is provisional.
Scoring confidence 0.55 · analysis confidence 0.65 · checked against outside sources: no · evidence available: The caller’s firsthand spoken story.; A second witness, his twin brother, is claimed to have seen the same thing but does not speak on air.; No documents, photographs, recordings, or other materials are mentioned or examined..
Ordinary explanations to consider
These are possibilities only. None is a finding about what happened.
- An image from the edge of sleep, or a dream, while he lay awake in bed. · The caller says he was lying in bed unable to sleep and looking out into a hallway when he saw the head, and that its apparent size changed as it approached. These features fit an image seen while falling asleep. This is a guess about the event, not a judgment of the caller.
- Both boys woke to some noise or disturbance connected with the attempt. · The twins were asleep at the other end of the house during a suicide attempt. Both waking and going to the door could follow from a disturbance in the house rather than a shared sense that something was wrong. This is a guess about the event.
What stands out
The figure he reports is a head alone, with [quote withheld] The caller stresses that its apparent size matched the perspective of the hallway and increased until it enveloped him as it passed. Ghost stories rarely include a detail like that.
Related stories
Matched by shared recurring details, categories, and wording.