Recurring over many years
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Rented split-entry house: orbs, mist, whispers and a white figure on the stairs
[name withheld], a caller from New Hampshire, tells Art Bell about strange events the caller says began on the first night their family moved into a rented split-entry house about twenty-three years earlier, when they were sixteen. The caller reports a dream of an old man with hollowed-out eyes, then waking to balls of light zigzagging through their room. Later came a mist and cold in the hallway, whispering and footsteps at night, a face staring over their shoulder at the computer, and a white figure with bulging eyes on the stairs. The caller says their brother [name withheld] reported the same experiences. The host ends this part of the broadcast by telling the caller they are haunted.
Childhood sounds and a cold presence in a Pomona house; a white figure in Ontario
An unnamed caller to Ghost to Ghost 1996 describes strange events in two childhood homes. In a house in Pomona, California, from about age five or six, they heard sounds after their mother left for a graveyard shift. They were repeatedly woken by an extremely cold presence over their bed, and they saw the family dogs escape weekly. In a later house in Ontario, California, around fourth grade, they saw a short, powdery-white glowing man in a navy peacoat walk up the hallway into their room, touch them, and seem to read their thoughts. The caller describes the figure’s face as blank and says the experience was impossible to describe. The host closes the segment with general remarks that children and animals sense such presences before adults do.
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.
Childhood home in Granite City, Illinois, with flying plates and slamming doors
A caller who gives their location as Granite City, Illinois, says they were raised in a house from birth to age thirteen. The caller says plates and cups flew and smashed there, cold spots and strange smells occurred, footsteps and slamming doors were heard, and a dog watched unseen things. The caller says their parents brought about four people to drive out ghosts and that someone said a man had hanged himself in the basement. The caller says the activity went on until the family moved out after thirteen years. The caller says they were a child with no choice and would not live in such a house now.
Two tomb robbers found dead in a New Orleans above-ground cemetery
[name withheld], calling from New Orleans, tells Art Bell that they and their younger son were visiting and cleaning their grandmother's tomb in an old above-ground cemetery. They found several tombs broken into. In the tomb of a girl said to have died in a scarlet fever epidemic, they found the recent bodies of two young men. The caller says the cemetery keepers called the police and that they later heard both men had died of heart attacks. The call ends with the caller saying the little girl took her revenge on the men who tried to break into her tomb.
Laughing in the basement, a woman in white, and shadow figures in a family home
A caller who gives the name “[name withheld]” and says they are on Long Island, New York, describes a series of incidents the caller attributes to their family home. They begin at age four, when the caller heard laughing from the basement while their sister was outside, and continue through their teens. The caller reports unexplained walking overhead at night and a woman in a long white gown at the edge of their parents’ bed. The caller also reports a voice and television sound in an empty house, and two small hatted shadow figures at their bedroom door followed by something grabbing their feet. The host cuts the call short and ends the segment.
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.
63 more stories
- Letter: Thrashing in bed each September in a Phoenix apartment3 min
- A voice calling the caller's name on a night shift at a Lake Stevens plant53 s
- Recurring sweet pea scent after mother's death2 min
- Recurring dream of a jeep on a desert hill, then a matching real road3 min
- Coast Guard member reports glowing three-masted ships in the Gulf of Mexico4 min
- A painting of an 18th-century lady, called Henrietta, that moves and cracks1 min
- The host's brief story of a ghost named Harold in a Nye County brothel2 min
- Ghost tracks and a truck pushed over a San Antonio rail crossing5 min
- Caller says a dead family friend brings a dollar each Halloween at noon45 s
- Annual funeral reported in the living room of a former funeral home1 min
- Previous owner’s presence, baked smell and rearranged dishes in an estate-sale house4 min
- A woman’s head and shoulders emerging from an attic closet in an old converted home3 min
- Vancouver house with reported voodoo history and a priest who would not enter6 min
- Moved tables and wheelchairs in an American Legion hall in Bremerton3 min
- Ghost called Charlie reported to follow a family through moves4 min
- Usher figure falls from the balcony of the Capitol Theater, Flint4 min
- Legend of a headless rider at a frontier fort in Oklahoma1 min
- Letter from Canada about cats gathering in woods where a man reportedly died1 min
- Unplugged television explodes in a basement gathering; a dark man reappears4 min
- A San Antonio railroad crossing where cars are reportedly pushed off the tracks2 min
- Letter read on air: USS Independence correction and a chief’s ghost aboard USS Ranger56 s
- Childhood “imaginary friend” Sam reported seen by family in mother’s house4 min
- Caller relays sister’s report of a Native American woman at foot of her bed1 min
- Child’s night visitor “[name withheld]” matched to a gravestone and a photograph5 min
- Two red eyes seen briefly in a dark bedroom3 min
- Armored figures lacking feet reported near a Japanese women’s college7 min
- Light switches moving by themselves and an exercise bike pedaling in a basement4 min
- A childhood vision of six tornadoes and the 1976 Sedalia, Missouri, storm2 min
- Deceased neighbor’s voice and rose scent reported to warn caller twice4 min
- A glowing headstone in a Byron Center, Michigan, cemetery, and a figure standing near it3 min
- Orbs, a freight-train rumble, and a shadow orb in a former chicken coop5 min
- Flickering lights, a truck radio, and birthday phone calls after a brother’s death3 min
- Feeling a cat walk on the bed when the cat was elsewhere3 min
- Shadow figure at a bedroom window and a child found on the roof3 min
- Woman in white in their daughter's doorway who moved with the family4 min
- Red eyes at 3:15 a.m. emerging from a bedroom closet3 min
- Bearded figure with a funny hat seen through a bedroom door5 min
- Child reports transparent man in buckle shoes in grandmother’s hallway3 min
- Deceased mother and two aunts appear in a motel room; hairstyle later matches funeral home styling4 min
- A faceless girl on a rural road near Cabot, Arkansas4 min
- Teenage boy on a headstone identified from a photo as the caller’s uncle3 min
- Border Patrol trainees and a robed group around a bonfire near the Rio Grande7 min
- Recurring evening thump at the door and a cat watching something in the room2 min
- A hospital legend of the “Gray Lady” who offers tea to dying patients4 min
- An old man in coveralls pointing at a light switch in a Western Washington cabin2 min