Prayer or command stops it
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.
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.
A bull-shaped figure at the bedroom door and a sensation of being smothered
A caller describes an event they say happened when they were about seven years old. The caller says they woke at night to see a bull, which they call a demon, standing at their open bedroom door, and then struggled in bed, unable to scream or breathe. The caller reports praying for it to be taken away, after which they say it let go and never returned. The caller says their father, who came in after they screamed, did not believe them.
A horned, red-eyed figure at the foot of the bed and a friend’s matching story
An unnamed first-time caller tells Art Bell that they woke to see a huge horned figure with bright red eyes at the foot of their bed and in their doorway. When they said “in the name” of Jesus, “be gone,” it walked back through the door and faded away. The caller reports that a friend later described the same figure, with “horns” like a Viking cap, and that the two discovered a shared ancestor in Ireland. The caller sees such figures as demonic manifestations rather than ghosts.
Red glowing figure playing a child's organ at home
A caller named [name withheld], calling from Sacramento, describes a childhood incident they say they have told few people about. They were alone at home with their grandfather one summer. They heard music coming from an old organ in their room, walked down the hallway, and report seeing a red, glowing being with yellow eyes using its fingers on the organ. They say they commanded it to leave in the name of Jesus and that it vanished. They believe it was a demon.
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.
Black figure at foot of bed in a Redlands home
A caller describes living in Redlands, California, when they were first married to a husband who flew C-141s at Norton Air Force Base. The caller reports a period of uneasiness and cold in their new home. A moving garage-door doorknob made their dog bark and led them to call police. One night they woke in bed and saw a black figure at the foot of the bed that cast no reflection in a mirror. The caller says they were paralyzed and prayed the Lord’s Prayer. The figure disappeared, and the house warmed. The caller adds that they thought they imagined it and did not share it for a while.
Furnished apartment of a deceased tenant and a door held shut
A caller who says only that they are calling from Texas tells Art Bell that at nineteen they rented a furnished apartment. The previous tenant, an elderly woman, had died with nobody to inherit her belongings. The caller reports that cleaning supplies and dirty dishes vanished whenever the phone rang, their cat went berserk, and windows and the front door were found open despite the bolts. Finally, a door would not open against two people until they spoke a phrase they had been using. They say they packed up their cat and left.
Paralysis, a shaking bed, and a smiling girl with empty eyes
A caller named [name withheld], phoning from Virginia, tells Art Bell about a night in August 2000. The caller says they woke in bed to sudden cold, total paralysis, a shaking bed, and the sight of a smiling girl of about eight or nine with “empty” eyes. The caller says they prayed and everything stopped. Their mother, their grandmother, and later their wife each told the caller the same thing had happened to them.
Invisible force pulls caller by the arm at their grandmother's doorway
A caller who gives their name as [name withheld], from San Antonio, Texas, tells Art Bell that many years earlier, at their grandmother’s house, an invisible force grabbed their arm at the doorway, burned it, and pulled them up off the ground. A dog barked and family members struggled to hold them. The caller says their mother and grandmother were drawn into the tug-of-war, and that their grandmother’s words and knife-waving made the force let go, leaving three long red marks on their arm. The caller sees the episode as demonic and says it started their ongoing search for what they call the third dimension.
A door, a figure on a cross, and footsteps in a rented 110-year-old house in Paw Paw, Michigan
[name withheld], calling from Bradley, Illinois, says that in the summer of 1989, when they were fourteen, they were living in a rented 110-year-old house in Paw Paw, Michigan, opposite a cemetery. They report that the upstairs door opened by itself and that they then saw [quote withheld] at the stairs. Later, as a depressed teenager, they asked a spirit for help and heard footsteps coming down the stairs. They then decided it was the devil and asked it to go away. The call ends with Art Bell calling the reversal a “foxhole conversion.”
Nighttime evil presence and a geometric screen vision in an apartment
A caller tells Art Bell that about two months earlier, while lying in bed in their apartment, the caller felt an evil presence watching them. Then, as the caller began to dream, they saw a black geometric pattern pulled down over their vision like a screen. They felt dread and a fear of being possessed. The caller reports that prayer, and asking God to send their angel, made the fear and the vision stop. Afterward the caller used sage and sea salt and came to regard the episode as a test of their faith.