Feeling watched or not alone
A deceased man at the foot of the bed in a family funeral home
The host reads a letter from [name withheld] in Morris Plains, New Jersey, describing the writer's childhood in a family funeral home during World War II. The writer says they felt watched by an older man's body in the casket showroom, and later woke to see him standing at the foot of their bed. The letter ends with the writer's theory that the man was a child molester who could not adjust to death and their hope that he stays buried.
Reported red-eyed funnel-shaped figure at the foot of a bed
[name withheld] from Florence, Alabama, tells Art Bell that when they were about 15 or 16 they woke around 3 a.m., felt watched, and saw a pair of red eyes attached to a black, spinning, funnel-like form at the foot of their bed. They report being unable to scream or move. When the form moved around the bed, they fled to their mother’s room. With the light on, nothing was there. Their mother called it a nightmare. [name withheld] says they still believe it was real and are still scared by the memory.
Family haunting in Louisiana tied to an uncle who kept his wife's corpse
A caller from Austin, Texas, tells a family story they say took place in Louisiana about a hundred years before the broadcast and is still going on. An uncle, said to be devastated by his young wife's death, kept her corpse in an upstairs bedroom for six months while he waited for a glass coffin ordered from New Orleans. He reportedly kissed it nightly and talked to it over a Ouija board. The caller passes on servants' reports of candles that would not light, cold air, whispers, falling objects, and nighttime conversations with another voice. The caller says relatives kept avoiding the room and feeling a cold presence into the 1970s. The caller says the woman is still buried in Metairie Cemetery, that a family member holds the key to the crypt, and that they themselves would go in out of curiosity.
Childhood events in an Oregon City rental house: a hand in the bath and a laugh
A caller who gives their name as [name withheld] tells Art Bell about events in an old rented house in Oregon City, Oregon, where their family lived from about the time the caller was six until they were eleven. They describe lights switching on and off, strange sounds, chairs sliding, footsteps, and a feeling of being watched in the basement. Their parents dismissed all of it. The climax they describe is in the bathroom at about age eleven. They say they felt a hand stroking their neck and then felt snakes falling from the ceiling onto them, followed by a cackling laugh they call the most evil they have ever heard. They say they spoke to a priest about it. Art Bell ends the call because the show was short on time.
Woman in a white dress pursues a car on Monterey Highway, 1951
A caller named [name withheld], from Los Banos, California, relays a story they say their father told them about their father's cousin [name withheld]. According to [name withheld], in 1951 [name withheld] was driving north from a movie theater in Morgan Hill toward San Jose on a stretch of the Monterey Highway known as “Blood Alley.” A woman in a white dress at the roadside kept pace with the accelerating car and then appeared at the window as a skeletal face. [name withheld] says [name withheld] braked, prayed, and drove back to [name withheld]'s mother's house instead.
Ghost drums at a reenactor rendezvous at Fort Ouachita
[name withheld], calling from the Springfield, Missouri Ozarks, says they are a Cherokee historic reenactor. They describe an eleven-day rendezvous in 1994 at Fort Ouachita, Oklahoma, an old Confederate fort and cemetery. After most camps left on Sunday, the caller and their husband stayed overnight. The caller reports fear, birds screaming at midnight, ghost drums, waves of ghosts, dress jingles, a moved teepee door, and a fire that went out cold. The host closes with comments, and the story ends without resolution.
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.
Letter on deaths and reported hauntings at the Penfield Place in Illinois
The host reads a letter attributed to [name withheld] in Rockford, Illinois. It recounts the history of a house in north-central Illinois that locals call the Penfield Place. The letter tells of a series of deaths, a bride's disappearance and the later discovery of her dismembered remains, and strange events reported by later tenants. It ends by describing the house as still standing, decaying and in ruins. No document or second witness is presented on air.
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.
A sensed presence with a tail and blunted nails during an out-of-body experience
A live caller, introduced by the host as being [quote withheld] says they have been a spiritual person since the age of two. They say an “essence” came around them about twelve years ago when their sister died and has come and gone since. They say the one time this presence turned angry and violent was as they were returning from an out-of-body experience in their bed. It disappeared into “some hole,” leaving a long, heavy, grayish tail in view. They say it still visits and presses long, sharp nails into their back at night. They report feeling only blunted pressure and take that as a sign they are protected.
Voices, a shadow figure, and gray figures near Waverly Hills Sanatorium, 1993
A caller who gives their name as [name withheld], from Indianapolis, tells Art Bell that as a high-school senior in Kentucky in 1993 they took a jogging shortcut through the grounds of the abandoned Waverly Hills Sanatorium. The caller says they heard a chorus of voices that stopped when they told them to. The caller says they saw a black, shadow-like figure with red eyes in a shed window. They met a bearded man with a Rottweiler who vanished after telling them not to look back. Then they saw more than a hundred gray figures in a field. The caller says they ran to school and that nobody believed them until they later learned the site was said to be haunted.
Footsteps, a shadow at noon, and a voice saying “your brother” in an Alameda house
A caller from Alameda, California, tells Art Bell that she and her five children were hearing slamming doors, footsteps, and other disturbances in a large old house. She says each of them had kept it from the others. She reports a shadow that appeared in daylight, an unsuccessful first appeal to a priest, and a house blessing. Finally, she says, a voice said “your brother.” She then learned her brother had died about two months earlier.
135 more stories
- Storage-room door opens in an old Pittsburgh house, 19563 min
- Biological father emerges from a bedroom mirror (1970)2 min
- Transparent child figure at the bedside during inner-child therapy4 min
- Caller describes a shrine room at home where a presence is felt1 min
- Figures at a guest-room door and a blonde man who vanished, St. George2 min
- Deceased girlfriend reported in a mirror and a window at a Halloween party3 min
- Felt presence in the downstairs of a Santa Barbara church building4 min
- Feeling of a presence while camping in the ruins of the old Rainbow Lodge2 min
- Sensed presence of previous owner “[name withheld]” in a purchased house3 min
- Pink and blue human-shaped figure beside a bed in a mobile home3 min
- Teen dream of a house and pasture, later found ruined near St. Louis airport5 min
- Report of felt presence during mother's illness and subsequent improvement46 s
- A solid white figure with a knight-style helmet seen in a family home hallway4 min
- Figure in hallway and crying girl in 1800s dress2 min
- Weight, spinning sensation, and a barking dog behind a closed door2 min
- Ouija board session said to contact a grandfather in a coma4 min
- A sister reports a face at her second-floor window34 s
- Blind caller reports a warm presence guiding their dog around a country road corner2 min
- A voice and an arm on a hotel staircase, then news of a brother's death3 min
- Letter: Thrashing in bed each September in a Phoenix apartment3 min
- Hands on the shoulder and a voice in a karaoke bar4 min
- Caller on their late brother's near-death experience and a felt presence2 min
- Covers that would not come off and a scream in the ear at 3:30 a.m.3 min
- Figure at foot of bed, then a man in the laundry room five months later3 min
- Law student reports basketball-sized presence of dying mother during class4 min
- A Denver officer’s letter: A woman in a red dress at a courthouse and the elevator5 min
- A voice named Harry and charred lumber in a Washington cabin5 min
- Presences and voices reported at World War II monuments in southern Okinawa2 min
- A friend is watched by a man who vanishes from a Connecticut kitchen3 min
- Presence in a new Escondido house, 1971; home blessed by a priest3 min
- Childhood sounds and a cold presence in a Pomona house; a white figure in Ontario6 min
- A caller sees an occult-minded acquaintance appear in their locked bedroom and vanish at the kitchen light2 min
- A Waikiki dancer and a figure reported over a wife’s bed2 min
- Black figure at foot of bed in a Redlands home3 min
- Footsteps and a felt presence on a gravel path at Custer Battlefield3 min
- Furnished apartment of a deceased tenant and a door held shut7 min
- Dark cloud and disturbances at a remote lakeside recording studio in Oklahoma3 min
- Green gaseous presence over the bed in a Sedona home3 min
- Floating light over a hill during a night hike in Babler State Park3 min
- A felt presence at night and creased pants on a bedroom chair2 min
- Nighttime evil presence and a geometric screen vision in an apartment4 min
- Caller senses their late father, phone problems, photo found in hallway6 min
- Fax: Root beer carried down stairs by itself at a 40-day memorial gathering1 min
- Childhood waking, a hooded figure, and floating to the living room4 min
- Old man’s head with a stretched neck hanging in a workshop2 min
- Anonymous Border Patrol agent’s fax: shadowy figures in fog at San Diego cliffs4 min
- Usher figure falls from the balcony of the Capitol Theater, Flint4 min
- Host rejects bedside-ghost stories and recalls a loud bang on his door1 min
- Glowing figure on a rock during a moonlit hike off Mount Shasta2 min
- Students re-enact a Civil War battle in a campus auditorium said to be haunted10 min
- A foggy light aura in a hallway of a late mother-in-law’s house4 min
- Late mother-in-law appears in her former bedroom; a footprint in the carpet8 min
- Fire dispatch dormitory and a dream of an 1864 village by the Santa Ana River9 min
- Unplugged television explodes in a basement gathering; a dark man reappears4 min
- Ouija board counts six people in a room holding five5 min
- Natchez burial lore and reported noises in a New Orleans East subdivision3 min
- House lights, pounding, and a whispered encouragement in a junior high theater5 min
- 1840 Underground Railroad house: a ball slides to a child and a door latch moves5 min
- Letter: A smoky kneeling figure at a student’s bedside and a presence across the hall2 min
- Footsteps on the stairs and a cold, angry presence in a Colorado Springs house2 min
- Truck driver reports numbness and a rising sensation in a sleeper berth at a New Mexico rest area5 min
- A floating translucent man and a flying shed roof at a Fig Springs, Arizona, trailer5 min
- Caller describes a black void figure entering a childhood bedroom6 min
- 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
- Childhood “imaginary friend” Sam reported seen by family in mother’s house4 min
- Relic hunter’s companion feels something pass over him in a Civil War ditch3 min
- Two red eyes seen briefly in a dark bedroom3 min
- Cold bedroom, tall figures, and cigarette smoke in a moved mobile home4 min
- Attic noises and a presence in a family’s Victorian house4 min
- A Dutch artist paints his ghost to stop it frightening him2 min
- Disappearing objects and a front door that opened by itself in an old house6 min
- Letter: White mist in the shape of a dog appears the night the dog dies2 min
- Bed trembling, a whispered name, and shadows after a grandmother’s death6 min
- Two figures seen through sheer curtains at an old roadhouse near Prescott, Arizona3 min
- A girl named [name withheld] who vanished in a Denton, Texas graveyard7 min
- Cold spot, woman, and giant arm during a church overnight7 min
- Documentary crew films a figure at an English estate2 min
- Caller reports a felt presence in their house, later confirmed by a neighbor2 min
- Figures in a lakeside park and the same tall man in a kitchen4 min
- A presence before conception and a child’s talk of heaven3 min
- Deceased father appears beside the bed and tucks the caller in5 min
- Dark presence and being thrown in a Yosemite employee tent cabin5 min
- Caller reports seeing their living father walk through the family house6 min
- Shadow figures running past a bed and blinking clock radios in an Atlanta apartment6 min
- Near-death caller recalls watching their ER resuscitation from the ceiling4 min
- Deputy draws his pistol on a translucent elderly woman in his kitchen4 min
- Childhood closet and bedroom doors, a green light, and paralysis3 min
- Nightly object movement and a brother’s singed hair in a modern home4 min
- Vision of hellfire, a figure in the doorway, and a child-sized shape in the hallway5 min
- A figure watching from a child’s bedroom window in a rented house2 min
- Childhood near-death experience under ether after a horse wreck9 min
- Shadow figure at a bedroom window and a child found on the roof3 min
- Red eyes at 3:15 a.m. emerging from a bedroom closet3 min
- A coma, three selves, and walking with Jesus after a 1980 car crash4 min
- Body in the surf at Galveston and a figure who named himself [name withheld]12 min
- Poltergeist activity in a shared Fargo house and a butcher knife in bed4 min
- A nursing home elevator reported running by itself and attributed to a resident named [name withheld]4 min
- A woman’s figure in the bedroom corner and a simultaneous pain in the eye3 min
- Dream-guided trip, two figures in black, and a black net in a valley8 min
- A kick to the side and spit landing on a pillow in a locked bedroom2 min
- Caller reports fingers closing on their wrists and ankles after mocking a friend2 min
- Childhood unease and a ceramic sailor’s face in a family house29 s
- Broken sink handle and a matching handle found in a Hawaii hallway1 min
- Painting of a chained figure and disturbances in an 1800s San Francisco house3 min
- A 10- to 12-foot shadow with red eyes on a marsh shortcut in Freeport, New York7 min
- A felt hug from a presence, and a relative's death the same night3 min
- Children’s laughter in a church camp shower at dawn2 min
- Voices and a light on an abandoned hospital floor3 min
- Sensed presence and French windows opening by themselves in a rented Portland duplex, 19774 min
- Security guard reports a following sound and orange orbs at the Yorktown Victory Center3 min
- A woman walking up an off-ramp, later listed in the obituaries of a fatal crash1 min
- [name withheld]’s sleep-related entities, a lattice-like figure, and a claimed photograph3 min
- Army recovery hospital house, a watched feeling, and a nurse figure at a kitchen window3 min
- Felt presences and an unseen couch sitter in a Mackinac Island house3 min
- Circuit breakers flipped off in a farmhouse basement5 min
- Out-of-body story from a father during a stroke in a Brampton house3 min
- Dark figure in a hallway after a husband's remark about selling his soul2 min
- Cemetery security guard sees misty figure at office window1 min
- Figure leaning over a bed in a Calgary apartment; activity ends after a note3 min
- Old man walks through a cabin door and makes tea while a witness cannot get up9 min
- Truck driver and their wife report the same presence in a one-bedroom apartment3 min
- Voice telling a caller to leave a room in a London cathedral5 min
- Hooded shadow figure during an episode of sleep paralysis2 min
- A hooded figure at a California motel, later described by the writer’s son2 min
- Figure in trench coat and fedora at a Dallas window3 min
- A girl figure seen twice in a sister’s house; a later vision of a murder-suicide4 min
- Shadow figure behind a sapling and streetlights going out on a drive home4 min
- A colonial-dressed luminous figure in a Boston apartment doorway3 min
- Volunteer firefighter senses dead crash victim, then an unexplained phone call5 min
- A shove on a dark street and a figure in a photograph, Louisville7 min
- Sensing a deceased twin brother outside the shower curtain4 min
- Granddaughter reports two black figures at a friend's house5 min