Knocking or rapping
Knocking doors and a bony-handed presence in a relative’s house near Sparta
[name withheld], calling from New York, New York, tells Art Bell about a night in the mid-1980s at their uncle’s and grandmother’s house in southern Greece, near Sparta. They report knocking and violently shaking doors. They then woke to what they call an entity on their back and bony hands holding them face-down. It ended when they screamed and pushed up. A cousin later implied he had a similar experience.
Sounds, a voice, and a horned face in a school dormitory room at night
[name withheld], calling from Brighton, Colorado, says that as a 16- or 17-year-old student at a School for the Visually Impaired in Louisiana, they heard kicking and scratching outside their dormitory window. Then they heard a voice telling them to sleep. Then they woke to their bed shaking and an orange-red, horned face at their closet door. They say they felt frozen, prayed, and were carried out of the room, their feet not touching the floor, to their best friend’s room, where they stayed the rest of the night. Asked for their present view, they say they never figured out what it was. They agreed with the host’s suggestion that they may have a guardian angel.
Tall shadow figure in woods linked by caller to neighbors’ candles
[name withheld], calling from Atlanta, Georgia, tells Art Bell a story they say began years earlier at their own house. It involves their wife and the neighbors of her ex-husband, who they say were practicing an occult tradition. The caller reports orbs and nighttime footsteps on the nights the neighbors’ candles were lit. Then came a bang on the roof and a large shadowy figure in the woods across the street. The caller and their wife finally watched it run into the light and seem to vanish, while its footsteps stayed audible. The story ends with the caller praying over the property and the activity stopping. Art comments that people who dabble in such things live to regret it.
Disturbances in a rented upstairs apartment above an old store
A caller who gives their name as [name withheld], from Portland, Oregon, describes living with their wife and mother in an upstairs apartment above a store they call the Liberal Store, north of a town they pronounce Malala. The caller reports a room that stayed cool in extreme summer heat, their mother being touched and smelling lilac, dishes found dumped in the sink, a dog refusing to enter a bathroom, Bibles found on the floor open to passages about King David, and knocking on the upstairs door and windows. The caller says the family moved out and that their wife and mother still will not enter the store.
Screaming, shaking, and red eyes at an Alabama plantation slave cabin
A first-time caller who identifies themselves as [quote withheld] tells of a trip they say they and some friends made in about 1988 or 1989 to a decrepit old plantation house and its fallen-down slave quarters in Alabama. The caller had heard the site was the scene of a mass killing. They say that when they touched the door of one cabin, screaming and banging broke out and the whole shack shook “like an earthquake.” The noise seemed to stay right over their heads as they ran, and the caller saw big bright red eyes looking out the cabin window at them. They say the group drove off and never returned to the area.
A paper Ouija board, a spirit called Tommy, and wall scratches
A first-time caller who gives their name as [name withheld] says they have been sensitive to spirits since childhood. They say a hostile spirit that gave its name as Tommy attached itself to them after a session with a homemade Ouija board about ten years earlier. They describe objects moving, a shadow figure, and their name being called. They also describe a shadow seen in a car and on a porch, and scratches that appeared on their girlfriend’s bedroom wall. They say the activity has largely stopped as long as they do not engage with it. The host tells the caller the spirit is still with them and advises them to get help.
Metallic sounds, a figure by the partition, and a moving bed in a Taiwan apartment
A caller who says they once lived in Taiwan tells Art Bell about a night in a one-bedroom apartment they shared with a friend, divided by a wood partition. The caller reports metallic noises like BBs thrown at a refrigerator. They also report a figure they took to be their friend moving around the partition in the dark. Then, they say, after they realized their friend was in bed, their own bed seemed to move [quote withheld] The story ends with the friend checking the door and windows and finding no one.
Flying boxes, voices behind a bolted hatch, and a spinning compass at sea
A caller who says they were a Navy cook describes events during temporary duty aboard the USS Independence in the mid-1980s. They report music with no source and boxes flying in a galley storage void. They report muffled banging and voices pleading [quote withheld] behind a bolted hatch. They report instruments blanking and a compass spinning on the bridge. They say a shipmate told them the voices were those of sailors drowned when a torpedo hit a jet fuel tank in wartime. The host remarks that electromagnetic disturbance is fairly common, and the call ends.
Letter: A smoky kneeling figure at a student’s bedside and a presence across the hall
In a listener letter read on air by the host, an unnamed student describes waking twice in the night to a smoky, almost transparent, man-shaped figure at the bedside. The second time, the writer felt something grab and hold their arm. The writer says they told only two close friends. Then, at a school function, they heard a classmate report a presence in the apartment the classmate shares with a roommate. The letter ends with the writer noting that those two students live directly across the hall.
Dream of a grandmother at the door saying “There is no heaven,” and a father’s parallel dream
A caller named [name withheld], from Philadelphia, recounts a dream from about ten years earlier, three days after their grandmother’s death. In the dream, the grandmother stands at their door barefoot in the snow, scratches the glass, and asks to be let in. The caller refuses and tells her [quote withheld] and she answers [quote withheld] After waking they tell their family, and their father describes a parallel dream from years before about a neighbor, [name withheld], who died shortly afterward. The caller says they do not believe it was the actual spirit.
Knocking doors and a shadow figure in an Alaska church residence
A caller who gives their name as [name withheld], from Oregon, tells Art Bell about events when they were about 14. Their family had moved to an Alaskan town so their father could be caretaker of a large church, and the family lived in an apartment attached to it. They report repeated knocking at the church doors with no one there. They also report a dark crouched figure they saw many times in the youth pastor’s office. Later came nights of furniture being thrown and a doorknob rattling in a room built for them off an upstairs classroom. This lasted until they were sent to live with an uncle in Wisconsin in September 1984. The caller states no cause, and the story ends with their departure from the household.
Pounding on doors and a cold sensation at a friend’s new Houston house
[quote withheld] tells Art Bell about a night, several years earlier, that the caller spent at a friend’s newly bought house in an exclusive part of Houston while their husbands were away hunting. The caller reports waking to the caller’s daughter and the friend’s daughter screaming. A cold sensation spread through the caller’s body while they were briefly unable to move. Then came loud pounding that moved between the doors and patio doors with nobody visible. The police the caller called reportedly heard the pounding and found no footprints in the rain. The story ends with the friend’s account that a previous owner had hanged herself in the kitchen and that her husband shot himself in the backyard. The caller says they think this explains the pounding.
34 more stories
- Cold spots, footsteps, and a bang in an attic at a friend’s house in Oswego2 min
- Motel night clerk takes a call from an empty room5 min
- Loud bang on the host's studio door during a broadcast1 min
- Host reports loud pounding on his studio door during a broadcast3 min
- A woman’s head and shoulders emerging from an attic closet in an old converted home3 min
- Host rejects bedside-ghost stories and recalls a loud bang on his door1 min
- Missing items and a refilled coffee cup in a former funeral home in Providence3 min
- Late mother-in-law appears in her former bedroom; a footprint in the carpet8 min
- Knocking, pulled covers, and a figure in 1920s dress on a hotel's fifth floor3 min
- Natchez burial lore and reported noises in a New Orleans East subdivision3 min
- 1840 Underground Railroad house: a ball slides to a child and a door latch moves5 min
- A figure in period flying gear in the cockpit of a parked F-4 at an Air Force hangar3 min
- Shadowy figure at the door of a Nebraska church parsonage bedroom3 min
- Windows, doors, lights, and pounding in a previous house15 s
- Host recalls a loud boom on his studio door with nothing outside2 min
- Retired officer hears thumping in empty condo above where a man died4 min
- Banging, moved objects, and a statue’s eyes at an abandoned courthouse10 min
- Deceased truck driver reportedly visits a Colorado ranch and leaves Pepsi cans4 min
- Voices in the basement and a touch in the shower of a rental home3 min
- Whistling, flying knives and a figure in a TV reflection in an 1860s Stillwater house4 min
- Haunted house bought in Ohio: closet racket, knocks on a bedroom door, a bouncing cat cage, and growling6 min
- Recurring evening thump at the door and a cat watching something in the room2 min
- Footsteps and grunting in an abandoned 1920s building in Lake Elsinore6 min
- Weights restacked in a lighthouse exercise room5 min