Out-of-body story from a father during a stroke in a Brampton house
A caller speaking from Toronto tells Art Bell about the house they grew up in, in Brampton, Ontario. They say they, their mother, and their brother had gentle hauntings there. They focus on their father, a skeptic, who had a stroke in the living room. About a week later he told the family he had had an out-of-body experience during it. He said he watched the scene from near the ceiling and saw an elderly man and woman watching too.
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 2006.mp3”, starting at 1:24:22). Is this you, or someone you know? Ask for a correction or removal.
The story as told
The caller, who does not give their name, says they are speaking from Toronto and that they grew up in a house in Brampton, Ontario. They say they, their mother, and their brother [quote withheld] They describe these as gentle and sometimes friendly sightings, smells, and sounds. They say their father was “a big skeptic” who sometimes could not deny hearing certain things but would not discuss them.
The caller describes one time in the family living room when their father, a smoker, got up, had a coughing fit, and had a stroke. They say they were a little kid. They panicked and ran across the living room, banged their leg on the coffee table, tripped over the dog, and tripped up the steps while shouting to alert their mother and brother. They say everyone gathered and fussed over him while he was unconscious, and they called 911. He came out of it okay.
About a week later, the caller says, the family was again in the living room talking about “the ghosty stuff,” and their father did not make fun of them. They say he told them that, during the stroke, they had bumped their leg on the coffee table, tripped over the dog, and tripped up the steps while hollering. This gave them chills, they say, because they knew he had been unconscious.
The caller says he told them he had had an out-of-body experience. He viewed the room from above the mantle near the ceiling and watched the family fuss over him and the ambulance arrive. The caller says he also saw an old woman and an old man there watching and looking concerned. The caller says this matched the sound their parents had heard of velvet homemade slippers coming down the wooden stairs.
Reported events, in order
- 0:03
The caller says they grew up in a house in Brampton where they, their mother, and their brother had many experiences with haunting. They were gentle, sometimes friendly sightings, smells, and sounds.
- 0:10
The caller says their father was a big skeptic who would not discuss the events, though he sometimes could not deny hearing certain things.
- 0:36
The caller says that while they and their father were in the living room, he got up, had a coughing fit, and had a stroke.
- 0:42
The caller says they were a little kid. They panicked and ran across the living room, bumped their leg into the coffee table, tripped over the dog, and tripped up the steps while hollering to alert their mother and brother.
- 0:54
The caller says everyone gathered and fussed over their father while he was unconscious, and they called 911. He came out of it okay.
- 1:03
About a week later the family was in the living room discussing the ghosty stuff. The caller says their father did not make fun of them and seemed to want to say he had changed his mind.
- 1:19
The caller says their father told them that during the stroke they had bumped their leg on the coffee table, tripped over the dog, and tripped up the steps while hollering. This gave them chills because they knew he had been unconscious.
- 1:46
The caller says he told them he had had an out-of-body experience. He viewed the room from over the mantle near the ceiling and watched the family fuss over him and the ambulance come.
- 2:06
The caller says an old woman and an old man were also there watching everything and looked concerned.
- 2:16
The caller says this matched sounds their parents heard: the distinct sound of velvet homemade slippers the old people wore when their parents were young, always coming down the wooden stairs.
- 2:32
The caller says their father could not deny it when he and their mother were together and they heard it. The caller would see in his face that he was affected, but he would not admit it.
- 2:45
The caller says they have chills at that moment. The host replies that an out-of-body experience removes doubt.
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· 0:10
The caller says they, their mother, and their brother had many haunting experiences in the Brampton house.
- observation· 1:00
The caller says their father was unconscious after the stroke and that they called 911.
- hearsay· 1:29
The caller reports that their father described the caller's own actions after his collapse, which the caller says he could not have seen while unconscious.
- hearsay· 1:46
The caller reports their father's claim that he had an out-of-body experience during the stroke.
- hearsay· 1:54
The caller reports their father's claim to have watched the room from near the ceiling.
- hearsay· 2:06
The caller reports their father's claim that an elderly man and woman were present watching the scene.
- hearsay· 2:21
The caller reports that their parents heard the distinct sound of velvet slippers on the wooden stairs.
- host statement· 3:02
The host says that an out-of-body experience leaves no room for doubt about existence outside the body.
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 story with specific detail and no self-contradiction. But the key strange part is reported secondhand, from the caller's father, and no ordinary explanations are considered. Scored at the top of the range for secondhand stories.
Evidence for and against
- Specific, ordered detail of the collapse and the caller's own actions.
- The caller separates what they saw (their father unconscious) from what he later claimed.
- The out-of-body story and the elderly figures come only from the father's retelling a week later.
- No acknowledgment that the father might have kept some awareness during the stroke.
- Whether the father had any awareness before or during the reported period of unconsciousness is not discussed.
- 1:36
- 1:46
- 2:09
What the model inferred (not said on air): The logic is tight and the household detail is specific, which lifts the score. But the main claim is secondhand, and an ordinary explanation (partial awareness, or being told the details later) is plausible and not addressed, which holds it down.
Only the caller's word and claimed witnesses (their father and mother) support the story. Some details that could be checked are given (Brampton; a house), but nothing is documented or examined.
Evidence for and against
- Claimed second witness: the mother reportedly heard the slipper sounds too.
- A place is named (Brampton).
- No photograph, recording, or document is claimed.
- No second witness speaks on air.
- The transcript does not say whether the father could have been told the details during the week in between.
- 1:03
- 2:32
What the model inferred (not said on air): The witnesses are all claimed, not heard. The location is a town, not an address that can be checked, and no date is given. This places the story in the low range for checkable details without reaching physical evidence.
The story is mostly described as gentle ([quote withheld]), but the stroke and the two silent elderly watchers give it a mildly eerie quality.
Evidence for and against
- An elderly couple reportedly standing by, concerned, while the father is unconscious.
- A medical emergency in the family living room.
- The caller plainly calls the haunting gentle and sometimes friendly.
- No threat, contact, or harm is reported.
- The transcript is broken up in the middle section, so the tone and any missing detail are unclear.
- 0:36
- 2:06
What the model inferred (not said on air): The distressing part is a real medical emergency. The strange part is quiet and observing rather than threatening.
This is a specific, consistent story with concrete household detail. But the main strange part, the out-of-body experience, is reported secondhand from the caller's father rather than experienced by the caller. No date or record that could be checked is given, and ordinary explanations are not addressed.
Evidence for and against
- Concrete sequence of actions and objects: coffee table, dog, steps, mantle, ceiling, ambulance, velvet slippers, wooden stairs.
- The caller says they personally knew their father was unconscious: [quote withheld]
- The claim of something strange rests on the father's later memory, not on the caller's own perception.
- No date, address, or document that could be checked.
- The caller never gives their name. The host's earlier “say sharon” line is outside the story and may refer to a different caller.
- No dates are given for the stroke or for the haunting.
- 1:00
- 1:29
- 1:46
What the model inferred (not said on air): I treat the collapse and the caller's reaction as firsthand. The out-of-body content and the slipper sounds are the father's and the parents' claims, reported secondhand. I therefore applied the secondhand cap.
Scoring confidence 0.68 · analysis confidence 0.75 · checked against outside sources: no · evidence available: The caller's firsthand story about the collapse and about family experiences in the house; Secondhand report of the father's out-of-body story; Claimed witnesses (father, mother) who do not speak on air; No documents, photographs, or recordings claimed. The originality score blends the model's score (57) 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 father may have kept some awareness during the stroke, or been conscious briefly after the coughing fit, so that he saw some of what happened before losing consciousness. · The caller says they ran off to alert the others and that he was found unconscious only after they returned: [quote withheld]
- The father could have learned the details of the caller's actions from family members during the week between the stroke and his retelling. · The story is told [quote withheld] which leaves time in which the events could have been discussed.
- The recurring slipper-like sounds on the wooden stairs could be ordinary house or building noises. · The caller describes the sound as [quote withheld]
What stands out
The unusual part is the backing the caller claims. The caller says their father, whom they believed to be unconscious, later described the exact sequence of the caller's own actions after he collapsed. The father's reported out-of-body story also includes two elderly onlookers seen watching the scene from near the ceiling.
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