Dark figure beckoning from under a kitchen table in Bishop, California
A male caller on the [quote withheld] line, who does not give his name, says that while on vacation he slept in his uncle's sister's house in Bishop, California, in the living room facing the kitchen. He reports waking at three in the morning to a voice calling him from the kitchen. He saw a dark figure under the table beckoning him with its hand. The call ends with the caller saying he refused the invitation and with Art Bell explaining that he had to edit a word out of the call.
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 2007.mp3”, starting at 48:00). Is this you, or someone you know? Ask for a correction or removal.
The story as told
According to the caller, he was on vacation and sleeping in his uncle's sister's house in Bishop, California, in the living room, facing the kitchen. He says he woke at three in the morning and heard a voice he describes as “her voice” calling him from the kitchen. He reports that everyone else was asleep around the living room. He says he got up, looked into the kitchen, and could see somebody under the table calling him with his hand: “his dark figure” calling him. Art Bell asks whether the figure was actually calling out audibly or “sort of beckoning” him to come. The caller replies that the guy under the table was calling him [quote withheld] and says he refused. Art Bell then notes that the caller used language that could not go on air and that it had been eliminated. He explains to listeners that the caller [quote withheld] The caller first says he is calling about [quote withheld] then immediately restates it as a ghost in Bishop, California, under a table. No name, date, or year for the events is given, and no other person is said to have seen the figure.
Reported events, in order
- 0:04
The caller opens by saying he is calling about [quote withheld] then restates it as a ghost in Bishop, California, under a table.
- 0:22
The caller says he was sleeping in his uncle's sister's house in Bishop, California, while on vacation.
- 0:28
He says he was sleeping in the living room facing the kitchen.
- 0:35
He reports waking at three in the morning to “her voice” calling him from the kitchen.
- 0:40
He says everyone was asleep around the living room. He got up, looked into the kitchen, and saw somebody under the table beckoning him with his hand, a dark figure.
- 1:01
Answering Art Bell's question, he says the figure was calling him [quote withheld] and that he refused.
- 1:09
Art Bell says the caller used language that cannot be broadcast and that it has been edited out.
- 1:34
Art Bell tells listeners the caller [quote withheld]
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· 0:35
A voice the caller describes as female was calling him from the kitchen at three in the morning.
- observation· 0:40
The caller saw a dark figure under the kitchen table beckoning him with its hand.
- interpretation· 1:01
The caller describes the figure's beckoning as an invitation [quote withheld]
- observation· 1:01
The caller says he refused to follow the figure's invitation.
- host statement· 1:34
Art Bell describes the incident to listeners as a ghost making a suggestion the caller would not follow.
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 brief but genuinely firsthand story with a few concrete details (place, time, room arrangement). Specifics are limited, there is some pronoun confusion between “her voice” and the male figure, and there is an easy sleep-related explanation that the caller does not address.
Evidence for and against
- Firsthand report: [quote withheld]
- Concrete time and place detail: [quote withheld] and [quote withheld]
- The caller answers Art Bell's clarifying question directly: [quote withheld] followed by his answer.
- No date, no name, no year given. The location is even first given differently, [quote withheld] before being restated as Bishop.
- Pronoun inconsistency between the voice the caller calls female and the figure he calls male.
- An ordinary sleep-waking explanation fits and is not addressed.
- Whether the caller was fully awake is not stated.
- The transcript is automatic and includes an edited-out word.
- 0:22
- 0:35
- 0:40
What the model inferred (not said on air): Source proximity was scored as firsthand but brief, not fully firsthand, because the story is short, told after being woken, and contains no checkable specifics beyond a town and a relative's house. The sleep-waking part is an inference from the stated waking at 3 a.m.
The story rests entirely on the caller's own word. There is no named second witness who speaks, no document, photograph, or recording, and no outside check.
Evidence for and against
- Only the caller's word is present; no backing material is offered.
- The caller says other people were in the house but asleep: [quote withheld] No second witness is claimed.
- No photograph, recording, or physical trace is mentioned.
- It is not known whether anyone else later confirmed anything; nothing in this part of the broadcast suggests so.
- 0:40
What the model inferred (not said on air): Scored in the bottom band because the archive has no outside check. The mention of a town and a relative's house is too vague to count as checkable.
A dark figure under a table calling a sleeping guest toward it at three in the morning, in the house of relatives with family asleep nearby, is moderately unsettling. But the story is brief, the caller's refusal is blunt, and nothing physical or threatening happens.
Evidence for and against
- Intrusion into a sleeping setting away from home: [quote withheld]
- The caller frames the invitation ominously: [quote withheld]
- Nighttime and 3 a.m. timing.
- No contact, no harm, no pursuit, and the event appears to end immediately.
- The caller's reply is dismissive, not frightened.
- The caller never says what he did next or whether it happened again.
- 0:40
- 1:01
What the model inferred (not said on air): A judgment about how a listener would receive a beckoning figure under a kitchen table, not a claim about the caller's feelings.
The setup, a nighttime figure that beckons and an invitation refused, is familiar. But placing the figure beneath a kitchen table, and the mismatch between a female voice and a male figure, are distinctive details.
Evidence for and against
- Unusual setting for the figure: [quote withheld]
- Voice and figure do not match: [quote withheld] versus “his hand” and “his dark figure.”
- The core motifs (3 a.m. waking, dark figure, beckoning, invitation refused) are stock ghost-story elements.
- Novelty compared with the rest of the archive cannot be judged from a single broadcast; the published originality is provisional.
- 0:40
What the model inferred (not said on air): The score of 55 reflects a familiar setup plus distinctive detail. The published originality would be recomputed against the rest of the archive.
Scoring confidence 0.55 · analysis confidence 0.60 · checked against outside sources: no · evidence available: The caller's firsthand story in a live call.; No photograph, recording, document, or examined object.; No second witness speaks on air.. 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.
- An experience on waking from sleep: the caller had just been woken in an unfamiliar living room at three in the morning when he reports the voice and the figure. · [quote withheld] He had been sleeping in the living room facing the kitchen.
- Poor light in the kitchen: a shadow or shape under the table read as a figure, and a household noise or voice read as calling. · [quote withheld] The kitchen was viewed from a distance, at night, from the living room.
- Another person in the house moving or speaking while the caller believed everyone was asleep. · He says [quote withheld] a statement about his belief, not a verified check.
What stands out
The figure is reported beneath a kitchen table, not in a bed, doorway, or hallway. The caller describes hearing a female voice while seeing a figure he refers to as male. The call is also briefly interrupted by the host editing out language.
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