A figure dancing on a fence post on a country road in northern Alberta
Art Bell reads a letter from a listener named [name withheld]. It describes a walk home along a country road in northern Alberta about fifteen years earlier. [name withheld] writes that they and their friend [name withheld] saw a thin, emaciated human form standing on a roadside post, slowly dancing. Months later, [name withheld] was diagnosed with cancer and died. [name withheld] concluded that the figure had been [name withheld] himself.
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 2010.mp3”, starting at 1:18:26). Is this you, or someone you know? Ask for a correction or removal.
The story as told
Art Bell reads a letter attributed to a listener named [name withheld], who writes that the events happened [quote withheld] [name withheld] says they and their friend [name withheld] were walking home down a country road, heading to a pub. They kept hearing noise from the bushes and fields that sounded like someone following them. They reached a farmhouse and passed it. [name withheld] writes that they could barely make out something in the moonlight along the roadway. [name withheld] says something caught their eye, they turned and looked, and they saw a human form standing on one of the posts. [name withheld] says they grabbed [name withheld]’s arm and the two of them stopped and watched it for four or five minutes. [name withheld] describes it as a half-dead, emaciated person performing a strange, slow “shaman” dance on top of the pole, and says it seemed to be staring at them. [name withheld] says they both decided to run. They ran straight to the cottage without looking back, and [name withheld] says they were petrified. Three months later, [name withheld] writes, [name withheld] told [name withheld] he had been diagnosed with cancer and given only a few months to live. [name withheld] says they spent a lot of time with [name withheld] in his final months and that watching him die was horrible. On their last visit, [name withheld] says, it became completely clear to them that [name withheld] was the man on the pole that night. [name withheld] describes [name withheld] as thin and pale in bed, and asserts that it was [name withheld] they both saw dancing on the pole. Art closes this part of the broadcast by attributing the letter to [name withheld].
Reported events, in order
- 0:01
[name withheld] writes that about fifteen years earlier they and their friend [name withheld] were walking home down a country road in northern Alberta, toward a pub.
- 0:13
They kept hearing noises from the bushes and fields that sounded like someone following them.
- 0:20
They reached and passed a farmhouse. [name withheld] says they could barely see something in the moonlight along the roadway.
- 0:29
[name withheld] turned and saw a human form standing on one of the posts.
- 0:37
[name withheld] grabbed [name withheld]’s arm, and they stopped and watched it for about four or five minutes.
- 0:43
[name withheld] describes the figure as a half-dead, emaciated person doing a slow, shaman-like dance on the pole, apparently staring at them.
- 1:00
They both decided to run. They ran straight to the cottage without looking back, and [name withheld] says they were petrified.
- 1:07
Three months later [name withheld] told [name withheld] he had been diagnosed with cancer and given only a few months to live.
- 1:25
[name withheld] says they spent much of [name withheld]’s final months with him, and that their last visit made it “completely clear” the figure had been [name 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· 0:13
[name withheld] and [name withheld] heard noises from the bushes and fields that sounded like someone following them as they walked.
- observation· 0:31
[name withheld] saw a human form standing on one of the roadside posts.
- observation· 0:43
The figure looked like a half-dead, emaciated person.
- observation· 0:52
The figure performed a slow, shaman-like dance on top of the pole and seemed to stare at them.
- observation· 1:00
Both men ran to the cottage without looking back and were petrified.
- hearsay· 1:07
[name withheld] told [name withheld] three months later that he had been diagnosed with cancer.
- interpretation· 1:25
[name withheld] concluded that [name withheld] was the man on the pole that night.
- interpretation· 1:37
[name withheld] asserts that it was [name withheld] whom both of them saw dancing on the pole.
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 firsthand, step-by-step story from one of two stated witnesses. It has a few concrete details (northern Alberta, a country road, a farmhouse, four or five minutes, moonlight) but no precise date or place. The figure was identified only afterward, months later.
Evidence for and against
- Told as the writer’s own experience rather than as a story about someone else
- A coherent order of events: walk, noises, farmhouse, sighting, flight, later illness, identification in hindsight
- Some concrete details: region, road, farmhouse, length of the sighting, moonlight
- No exact date, road name, town, or farmhouse identified
- The link between the figure and [name withheld] rests entirely on a judgment made at [name withheld]’s deathbed
- Low light and distance (“just barely see”) make the identification of the figure weak
- The line about the pub and college is garbled in the transcript, and its exact meaning is unclear
- The phrase [quote withheld] is probably mistranscribed, and its meaning is uncertain
- 0:01
- 0:25
- 1:25
What the model inferred (not said on air): The scoring is my judgment: closeness to the events about 20 (firsthand witness), specificity about 12, internal consistency about 14, alternative explanations about 8 (misreading in low light fits easily), and calibration about 9 (the writer separates what they saw from what they concluded). No cap applies, since the story is not presented as secondhand, a legend, a joke, or fiction, and it is short but complete.
The story consists of the letter writer’s word plus a claimed second witness who does not speak on air. A few details could in principle be checked (first names, region, approximate date), but nothing was examined or verified.
Evidence for and against
- Named individuals, a stated region, and a rough date are given
- A second witness ([name withheld]) is reported to have seen the same thing
- No documents, photographs, recordings, or physical traces are mentioned
- The second witness is said to have died and never speaks on air
- No surname, road, town, farm, or exact year is supplied, so nothing can be looked up
- The transcript does not say whether the letter exists in any kept form, or whether [name withheld]’s illness can be documented
- 0:04
- 1:37
What the model inferred (not said on air): I placed this at a score of 11 to 25 only because of the claimed second witness and the minimal place and time detail. It leans toward the bottom of that range, since none of it can be checked and no physical evidence is claimed. The hard cap of 50 does not apply here.
The image of a thin, emaciated figure dancing slowly on a roadside post, apparently staring at the witnesses, followed by their flight and the later death of one of them, is truly unsettling. It ends without explanation.
Evidence for and against
- An emaciated, “half-dead” figure in moonlight on a post
- A slow, unnatural dance and apparent staring at the witnesses
- The story ends with the death of the other witness and an ominous identification in hindsight
- The sighting is brief and ends with the witnesses escaping unharmed
- No physical contact, threat, or continued activity is reported
- The description of the figure’s appearance rests on a few short, partly garbled lines in the transcript
- 0:43
- 0:52
- 1:07
What the model inferred (not said on air): This is my judgment of how the story would land on a listener. The reveal that the figure was a dying friend is what lifts it above a routine roadside-figure story.
The setting (a night walk on a country road, a figure seen at a distance) is familiar. But a figure crouched or balanced on a post, performing a slow dance, is distinctive. So is the later identification of the figure as the friend who was walking beside the writer.
Evidence for and against
- A figure reported on top of a roadside post rather than standing, walking, or floating
- The described “shaman dance” is an unusual behavior
- The figure is identified as the living companion from the sighting, who later dies of cancer
- A night encounter with an indistinct figure on a country road is a common ghost-story setup
- The [quote withheld] structure is a familiar pattern
- The published originality score is calculated against the rest of the archive and is provisional for this pilot
- 0:31
- 1:37
What the model inferred (not said on air): This is a provisional score based on content. How the story compares with the rest of the archive cannot be judged from this part of the broadcast alone.
Scoring confidence 0.60 · analysis confidence 0.70 · checked against outside sources: no · evidence available: Letter attributed to [name withheld], read on air by the host; The writer’s firsthand story as quoted in the letter; Claimed second witness ([name withheld]), who does not speak on air. The originality score blends the model's score (70) 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 animal, a roadside object, or a real person on or near the post, seen poorly in moonlight, was mistaken for a human form. · [name withheld] writes that they could “just barely see” the thing in the moonlight and that the sighting lasted four or five minutes, at a distance, from a country road.
- Looking back, [name withheld] matched the remembered image to [name withheld]’s thin, pale appearance during his illness. · The identification is made only [quote withheld] months after the sighting, when [name withheld] describes [name withheld] as “thin, pale” in bed.
- Fear stirred up by the noises in the bushes may have led them to read an unclear scene as something frightening. · The letter begins with noises that [quote withheld] and ends with “We were petrified.”
What stands out
The figure is described as dancing slowly while balanced on top of a roadside post. That does not match the usual standing, walking, or floating figures. [name withheld] identifies the figure afterward as the friend who was with them that night and who later died of cancer, rather than as a stranger or an earlier occupant of the place.
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