Demons and hostile presences
Presences described as hostile, threatening, or not human.
Wife reports unseen hands holding her under bathwater
A caller tells Art Bell that their wife phoned them at work asking them to come home and that the caller found her in bed trembling. According to the caller, she said unseen hands had grabbed her shoulders and held her under bathwater. The caller reports that she has had similar episodes and claims she was sexually assaulted by “something.” The host links it to other callers’ reports. The story ends unresolved.
Hooded faceless figure in the bedroom and a return during a cardiac arrest
A caller identified on air as [name withheld] of Sacramento describes himself as a 6'9", 370-pound pastor. He says a faceless, handless, hooded figure came through his bedroom door in March of that year and threatened him. It then threw his wife off the bed by the ankles and left what he describes as bleeding hand imprints. He says the same figure appeared beside him a month later when his heart stopped during a hospital stay in San Francisco. It told him it was time to come with it. He says he refused and was revived. He ends by telling the host he believes the figure was probably following him after he once helped a Catholic pastor with an exorcism.
Entity attacks on a child in a late-1800s house in Needles, California
A first-time caller who gives their name as [name withheld] tells Art Bell about what they call an “entity attack” that began when they were about four years old, in a family house in Needles, California. He reports a presence coming through the wall at night, grabbing and dragging them, and family-wide problems with furniture moving. In a final incident, their father was trapped in the basement under a chest freezer. They say the family moved out about two weeks after that, and that they still sleep with their head under the covers.
Lifelong bedroom attacks and a black figure with red eyes
A caller who gives their name as Mary, in Hickson, Tennessee, tells Art Bell that they and their family have been attacked “all my life,” mostly in the bed or bedroom. The caller reports a night when something grabbed their hand as if to pull them out of bed. On other nights they woke unable to breathe, scream, or move, while seeing two red eyes and a black figure. They say it also happened to their husband and brothers. The call ends with the caller saying they sense things about people, believe their father was possessed, and know when people are going to die.
Hawaiian cemetery prank, a shaking car, and bite marks
A caller who gives their name as [name withheld], from Northern California, relays a story they say their former Boy Scout leader told them about ten years earlier. The leader was a Hawaiian man named [name withheld]. As a teenager in Hawaii, [name withheld] and a friend took two girls to a cemetery as a prank. The parked car they returned to was shaking violently, with the girls screaming and “red eyes” at the windows. [name withheld] is said to have found a bite mark on his ankle that night. His older brother mocked the family’s warning, and the two returned to run over graves and kick over food. The brother is said to have had more than 200 bites counted on his body and to have needed hospital stitches. The caller ends by saying they were shown [name withheld]’s lasting bite marks years later and by discussing Hawaiian cemetery customs.
Evil presence, a figure saying “I want you,” and strange events ending after a house fire
[name withheld] from Harrisburg, Oregon, calls to describe a series of experiences in their house. They include a feeling of evil in the bedroom, a touch across their feet, and a hiss around 3 a.m. The caller also reports that their husband saw a figure in the doorway and later heard it say “I want you.” The caller links the activity to witchcraft books found upstairs. After an upstairs house fire and a remodel, the caller says, nothing has happened since.
Ouija board spirits, a ball of light, and an old man with shark-like teeth
A caller named [name withheld], from Pahrump, Nevada, tells Art Bell that at about age 17 in Houston they used a Ouija board alone and spoke with spirits, including one called [name withheld] and a dark spirit called Baal. They report a ball of light appearing near a model airplane. About three days later, they say, they saw an old man in a brown leisure suit who seemed to move instantly across the street and smiled with shark-like teeth before vanishing. The story ends with Art Bell warning against casual use of the Ouija board.
Bull-headed figure over a bed, a voice from a sleeping husband, and a trailer fire
The caller, [name withheld], from Cooley, Arizona, relays a story they say a friend told them about seven years earlier. The friend woke in bed beside their Native American husband and saw a bull's-head or demon-like form hanging over the bed. The friend heard a voice they could not understand coming from their husband's mouth. The story ends with the friend's trailer burning to the ground the next day. [name withheld] mentions a newspaper report of an electrical fire, a replacement trailer, and a witch doctor being brought to the property.
Glowing green clothed skeleton in Navy housing and a stepfather’s change
A caller the host addresses as [name withheld], calling from San Diego, describes an incident in Navy housing in 1971 (later said to be 1974). They say they saw a luminescent green, fully clothed skeleton with an evil grin inside their bedcovers while they were unable to move. They say they later learned the previous tenant, a man, had died driving home from hunting, matching the hunting cap and jacket they say the figure wore. They link the sighting to a lasting change for the worse in their stepfather’s personality. The host suggests that the figure inhabited the stepfather, and the caller says they believe so. The caller ends with a brief remark that their late mother visits them.
A floating translucent man at the caller's bedside at seventeen, and a warning five years later
[name withheld], calling from Grants Pass, Oregon, tells the host that at seventeen they woke in bed to a translucent man floating about a foot above the floor, who they say had been shaking them. They fled the house, and their mother told them it was a dream. Five years later, they say, the same figure came to them in a dream and warned that their boyfriend, their son’s father, would hurt them. The following day, they report, he choked them. They end by saying they would listen to the presence next time.
Gray-eyed man on a friend’s couch after a Ouija session
A caller from Colorado says a high school friend, with whom they had once used a Ouija board, phoned them at about 3:30 a.m. in December. The friend was crying and standing outside their own house in the snow. The friend said they had come home to a smell of sulfur and found a well-kept man sitting on their couch with entirely gray eyes. The friend had broken their bedroom window to escape. The caller and their mother later entered the wrecked house and had priests bless it.
Hands pressing him down in bed; uncle later recalls a murder in the flat
A caller, reached by the host while sitting out on his porch, tells a story he says goes back to 1983. That year he moved with his wife and baby to Long Beach, California, and took a free one-bedroom apartment in his uncle's building. He reports that his baby woke screaming nightly for about a month. Some weeks after the couple switched rooms, he woke from a frightening dream to something pressing him face down into his waterbed. He could not breathe or speak until his wife woke and turned on the light. The next day, he says, his uncle told him a previous tenant, a drug dealer, had been shot to death in that same room. The caller says the experience converted him to belief in ghosts.
57 more stories
- Host's story of a witch caller who left him an old Ouija board2 min
- Ouija session: light forms in mid-air and room turns cold4 min
- Caller describes a man convulsing and speaking in multiple voices in an apartment5 min
- Two gray-skinned figures in a hospital corridor thrift store4 min
- Two tomb robbers found dead in a New Orleans above-ground cemetery3 min
- Caller relays aunt’s story of a goat-like figure and hoof prints in an Ohio cellar4 min
- Ouija board session in a box canyon and a spirit speaking through a participant4 min
- Ouija board channeling and a father’s figure in an Ohio farmhouse4 min
- [name withheld]’s secondhand story of a babysitter, a changing house, and a Ouija board4 min
- Ouija board counts six people in a room holding five5 min
- Sage burning by [name withheld]’s uncle and “evil spirits” in a house (continuation of an earlier call)2 min
- Police officer recalls a dog-headed figure entering their childhood bedroom3 min
- Fragment: Prayer to cast an unwanted presence out of a room50 s
- A push on the top bunk and handprints on a boy's chest5 min
- Circle of watching angels seen with a Job Corps friend1 min
- A horned, red-eyed figure at the foot of the bed and a friend’s matching story5 min
- Family friend's reported vision of devils and fire during clinical death2 min
- A figure watching from a child’s bedroom window in a rented house2 min
- A door, a figure on a cross, and footsteps in a rented 110-year-old house in Paw Paw, Michigan6 min
- A woman in 1800s dress, a boulder death, and a disturbed forest circle3 min
- A coma, three selves, and walking with Jesus after a 1980 car crash4 min
- A sensed presence with a tail and blunted nails during an out-of-body experience5 min
- Wartime story of a figure at a wrought iron fence and a graveyard4 min
- Caller reports fingers closing on their wrists and ankles after mocking a friend2 min
- Bedroom attack by a creature “astride” the caller, later called a succubus3 min
- Smoke-like ghosts and an aggressive figure in a Fulton, Missouri, home8 min
- Invisible force pulls caller by the arm at their grandmother's doorway5 min
- Caller recounts husband's changed state and energy transfer after suicide attempt5 min
- Sounds, a voice, and a horned face in a school dormitory room at night4 min