Struck by a hearse at six, an out-of-body experience, and later night visitations
A caller who gives her name as [quote withheld] tells Art Bell that at about age six she was hit by a hearse while crossing a street. She then found herself floating above her own body, looking down at herself on the ground. She says this was the start of recurring nighttime “visitations by ghosts” that came before a close friend or relative in her family died. She describes one night when she felt fingers crawling up her neck and grabbing her hair while she lay in bed beside her sleeping husband. The story ends with her reporting later visitations in which she saw shadows moving on the wall. The host then comments generally on near-death experiences and the events that follow them.
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 2005.mp3”, starting at 2:10:48). Is this you, or someone you know? Ask for a correction or removal.
The story as told
A caller identifies herself as [quote withheld] and says her story begins when she was about six years old. She reports that she was walking to school, stopped at a red light, looked both ways, saw nothing coming, and started across the street. She was hit by [quote withheld] who was driving a hearse. She says the next thing she knew she was floating above her body. She looked down and saw a group of people in the street, floated over out of curiosity, and was startled to see herself lying on the ground. She says that is the last thing she remembers before being [quote withheld] and she calls it [quote withheld]
She then describes what she calls “visitations” at night. She says that before a close friend or a relative in her family would die, she would have visitations by ghosts, and that there would always be more than one night of it. She says she would be terrified because she could not fall asleep and knew it would keep happening and happening. On the night she describes, she says, the bed was pushed up against the wall and her husband was sleeping on the outside. Lying there in bed, she could feel fingers going up the nape of her neck and grabbing her hair. She says she knew within herself that if it was able to grab her hair it would pull her somewhere, though she did not know where and did not want to go there. She says she started screaming and woke her husband, and that she had later visitations in which she would see [quote withheld] The host then comments that many people who have had near-death experiences report follow-on experiences, and links this to precognitive experiences and visitations.
Reported events, in order
- 0:19
The caller says her story begins when she was about six years old.
- 0:30
She reports walking to school, stopping at a red light, looking both ways, starting across the street, and being hit by a hearse driven by a drunken funeral director.
- 0:45
She reports finding herself floating above her body.
- 0:49
She reports looking down and seeing a group of people on the street.
- 1:09
She reports hovering above the ground, floating over to the group, and being startled to see herself lying on the ground.
- 1:25
She says that is the last thing she remembers and that she was sucked back into her body.
- 1:32
She says this was the beginning of everything that started happening to her.
- 1:44
She reports nighttime “visitations by ghosts” before a close friend or relative in the family would die.
- 1:57
She says the visitations always lasted more than one night and that she was terrified and could not fall asleep.
- 2:08
She describes a night when a visitation had started and she expected another, with the bed against the wall and her husband sleeping on the outside.
- 2:25
She reports feeling fingers going up the nape of her neck and grabbing her hair.
- 2:38
She says she believed it would pull her somewhere if it grabbed her hair, and that she did not want to go there.
- 2:47
She says she started screaming and woke her husband.
- 2:57
She reports later visitations in which she saw shadows marching up against the wall.
- 3:17
The host comments generally that people who have had near-death experiences report follow-on events and precognitive experiences.
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· 0:30
While walking to school at about age six, she was struck by a hearse driven by a drunken funeral director.
- observation· 0:45
After the collision she was floating above her own body.
- observation· 1:12
She looked down at the scene and was startled to see her own body lying on the ground.
- observation· 1:29
She was drawn back into her body, which she calls the start of everything that happened to her afterward.
- interpretation· 1:49
She would have nighttime “visitations by ghosts” before a close friend or a relative in her family would die.
- observation· 2:25
While lying in bed she felt fingers moving up the nape of her neck and grabbing her hair.
- interpretation· 2:38
She concluded that if whatever it was could grab her hair it would pull her somewhere she did not want to go.
- observation· 2:57
In later visitations she saw shadows moving along the wall.
- host statement· 3:28
The host says that a connection made with the other side during a near-death experience is kept afterward.
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 story is firsthand and fairly consistent. But it gives almost no particulars that could be checked (no date, no street, no name for the funeral director), and both episodes rest on sensations that ordinary explanations fit easily. The caller does separate some of what she perceived from what she concluded, which lifts it above a bare assertion.
Evidence for and against
- Firsthand telling of both episodes: [quote withheld] and [quote withheld]
- A concrete sequence in the street episode: red light, looked both ways, floating above her body, seeing herself on the ground.
- The caller marks her uncertainty about where she would be taken: [quote withheld]
- No dates, street names, hospital, or record details are given. The only named place is her residence.
- A long gap separates the childhood event from the adult bed episode, with no account of how the two are linked beyond her own word.
- The bed experience is described as happening while she could not fall asleep, which the caller does not address.
- The labels showing who is speaking are unreliable inside the story. Several of the caller’s own sentences are labeled as the host, and there is an apparent break and reconnection in the middle of the telling.
- A line near the end describes her as “that young lady,” which does not confirm her age at the time of the interview.
- 0:30
- 1:12
- 2:25
What the model inferred (not said on air): Scores by part: closeness to the source 21 (a direct witness to both episodes, but the childhood event is remembered from about age six and described briefly); detail 11 (vivid local detail but nothing that could be checked); consistency 15 (the sequence holds, with a deduction for the abrupt mid-story reconnection and the unstated link between the two episodes); ordinary explanations 7 (a sleep-related experience and ordinary shadows fit the night episode easily); calibration of claims 8 (she flags uncertainty about where she would be taken, but also states a death-linked pattern without qualification). The total is 62.
There is only the caller’s own word plus a claimed second person present in the room. No document, recording, photograph, or other physical evidence is offered, and nothing is examined on air.
Evidence for and against
- A named town is given: [quote withheld] which could in principle be checked.
- A second person is claimed to have been present during the bed episode: she says she woke her husband.
- No dates, times, names of the dying relatives, hospital records, or news reports are given.
- The husband does not speak on air, and the transcript contains no statement from him.
- No photograph, recording, or document is mentioned, let alone examined.
- It is not stated whether the childhood accident was documented or whether anyone else ever described it.
- The apparent call break and reconnection mean parts of the exchange may be missing.
- 0:09
- 2:47
What the model inferred (not said on air): This is placed in the 11 to 25 range because a place name and a claimed second person present are given, but nothing was checked. With no physical evidence and no witness on air, it falls well below the 26 to 40 range.
The story has a genuinely unsettling centerpiece: lying in bed unable to sleep while something she describes as fingers crawls up her neck and takes hold of her hair, with her stated fear of being pulled away to an unknown place. It is set inside a pattern of night visitations that she says come before family deaths.
Evidence for and against
- A bedroom setting with the bed pushed against the wall and her husband asleep on the outside.
- The feeling of fingers on the nape of the neck grabbing her hair.
- Her stated fear of being pulled somewhere unknown.
- Later shadows moving on the wall and a repeated link to coming family deaths.
- The childhood episode is described briefly and without dwelling on injury, and no harm from the bed episode is reported beyond fright.
- No threatening figure is described. The shadows are described with the word “like.”
- The story stops rather than escalating to violence or pursuit.
- It is not stated whether the visitations continued to the present or over what period.
- The angle of a vulnerable child (age six, hit by traffic) is present, but the caller does not describe it in frightening terms.
- 2:25
- 2:38
- 2:57
What the model inferred (not said on air): It is rated above the “mildly eerie” mark because of the physical contact in bed and the intrusion into the caller’s sleep. It is below the “frightening” mark because the story is short, has no described consequences, and names no ill-willed presence.
Near-death and out-of-body stories and bedtime “visitation” stories are common. But the specific hook, being struck by a hearse driven by a funeral director and presenting it as the origin of a lifelong pattern of sensing deaths in advance, is a distinctive detail. The score is provisional because the weight given to novelty compared with the archive is minimal at pilot scale.
Evidence for and against
- The hearse and drunken funeral director detail: [quote withheld]
- Visitations reported as coming before the deaths of friends or family rather than after a known death: [quote withheld]
- Floating above the body and looking down at oneself are stock features of near-death stories.
- Fingers at the neck in bed and shadows on a wall are familiar motifs.
- No comparison with the rest of the archive was done for this story, and no outside check was done.
- Confusion in the labels showing who is speaking makes it hard to be sure all of the caller’s details are captured.
- 0:30
- 1:49
What the model inferred (not said on air): The model score is set at 55: a familiar near-death and bedroom-visitation story carrying one distinctive personal detail. The published originality score will be recomputed compared with the archive and should be treated as provisional.
Scoring confidence 0.55 · analysis confidence 0.60 · checked against outside sources: no · evidence available: The caller’s firsthand story (a childhood collision and out-of-body description, a nighttime bed experience, and later shadows on the wall); A claimed second person present (her husband, asleep in the same bed, woken by her screaming) who does not speak on air; No photographs, recordings, documents, medical records, or news reports mentioned or examined. The originality score blends the model's score (55) 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 feeling of leaving the body can happen during a severe physical injury or shock. The transcript gives no sign that the caller considers or rules this out. · She reports floating above her body right after being struck by a vehicle at about age six. No medical or hospital detail is given in this part of the broadcast.
- The bed episode (not being able to fall asleep, terror, feeling fingers at the neck while lying down, being woken from the edge of sleep) is consistent with experiences while falling asleep or waking up, which the caller does not address. · She says she was lying in bed, was terrified and could not fall asleep, and that the experience ended when she screamed and woke her husband.
- The [quote withheld] could be ordinary shadows cast in a dark room. The caller herself describes them with the word “like.” · [quote withheld] No light source, shape, or movement detail is given.
What stands out
The starting point is unusual: a childhood out-of-body experience said to have followed being struck by a hearse driven by a funeral director. The caller presents it as the origin of a lifelong pattern of nighttime visitations before deaths in her circle. The story pairs a near-death experience with a claimed pattern that comes before deaths, rather than with a single haunting.
Related stories
Matched by shared recurring details, categories, and wording.