Signs and messages
Events taken as messages: smells, songs, animals, or objects.
Child says dead brother is present at a Guam rosary; a stuck cupboard opens
A caller reachable through Reno recounts an event they say happened to them in 1991 or 1992 while living in Guam. At a rosary for a friend's former schoolmate, the dead man's four- or five-year-old sister repeatedly said her brother was present. She finally led the household to his room. There, a sliding cupboard door that two adult men could not move slid open effortlessly for her, revealing a letter the man had written to her. The story ends there. The host thanks the caller and offers his own comments about messages from the dead and children's perception.
Dream of an emaciated creature as a message from a deceased grandmother
[name withheld], calling from Clearwater, Florida, tells Art Bell that in 1988 they were near the end of their alcoholism. They followed a friend’s suggestion and asked their deceased grandmother to visit them in a dream. They report dreaming of a skeletal, hairless creature falling onto a dusty road, then recognizing it as themselves. They took it as their grandmother’s warning that they were close to death and should do something. The story ends without a stated outcome. The host suggests it may have been “the bottom.”
Hot water turning on by itself in a Sedalia, Missouri, home after the father’s death
[name withheld], calling from Sedalia, Missouri, recounts a strange event that happened in 1967, shortly after their father died. Two weeks after the funeral, the hot water in the family bathroom began running on its own. It kept doing so even after the plumbing was replaced. The event caused significant emotional distress for the family, and they eventually sold the house.
A lost ringtone plays, then a dark figure leaves the bedroom
A caller the host introduces as [quote withheld] describes events beginning about two and a half years after a friend’s suicide. The caller reports that a ringtone they had lost from their cell phone sounded from the bathroom one night. The next morning they woke unable to move, heard a toilet flush with no one else in their apartment, and saw a dark unclothed figure apparently leaving their bedroom. The caller says they do not know whether it was their friend reassuring them. The host offers association or coincidence, and the call ends there.
A voice tells a woman to play a record after her sister’s fatal car crash
An unnamed caller continues a story she calls the premonition part. She reports that her sister [name withheld] and a friend were killed in the caller’s car by an off-duty, drunk police officer. After the funeral, she says, a voice in her head told her to play a record left untouched on the stereo. The song was Neil Young’s [quote withheld] which she says described the accident. The host calls it a coincidence and says such things do not make sense.
Nurse's faxed letter about a patient's death and alarm clocks at 11:07
A faxed letter read on air by the host, from a registered nurse in Sandy, Utah, describes a night shift in a 120-bed facility. A patient the letter calls [name withheld] was expected to die. The writer reports that [name withheld]'s breathing and heartbeat stopped at 11:07 p.m. At that same minute, six alarm clocks on the hall went off and a call light in the now-empty room came on. The letter ends with the writer's line, [quote withheld]
Letter about Scrabble tiles rearranged overnight and a stereo changing channels
The host reads a letter (or similar written message) from an unnamed writer. The writer says that in high school they stayed rent-free with a family from overseas while helping fix up another home. The writer reports that Scrabble tiles left on the floor were found rearranged into obscene words and that their stereo changed channels wildly. Family members shrugged it off. The writer later learned that the man of the house had been sent out of the Philippines for abuses against his first wife and children. The writer believes this explains [quote withheld]
A wedding ring removed before death and a ring found in a dead aunt's hands
[name withheld], calling from Stanaway, Washington, recounts the death of their 97-year-old aunt two years earlier and two strange events with rings. Their own gold ring disappeared from their finger during the death. Later, a substitute ring they placed in the aunt's pocket was found inside the aunt's clasped hands at the funeral. [name withheld] says no one knew how it got there and that they cannot explain it. The call ends with an unrelated aside about their husband and a submarine story.
Twin's grandfather reportedly announces brother alive and trapped in Vietnam
A caller who says they are a twin, on holiday in Western Canada, tells Art Bell that their brother was believed killed in Vietnam and their grandfather then died. The caller says the grandfather appeared to them twice, in their bedroom and in the den, and said their brother was alive and trapped. They say they later got a phone call from the grandfather saying the brother was alive. They found him in a Greek Orthodox mission hospital in Vietnam and brought him home. Years later, the caller says, a realtor reported that every door in the house had sealed shut.
A bell heard in the car and a puff of air in the shower after a boyfriend's death
A caller who gives their name as [name withheld] tells Art Bell that a boyfriend was killed about fifteen years earlier. After that, they say, they repeatedly heard a bell-like sound from the passenger side of their car, and a friend also reported hearing it. The caller also says they once felt a puff of air enter their ear in a locked bathroom. The caller puts both down to the dead boyfriend, partly on the advice of a psychic. The host cuts the call off at the top of the hour.
Stove glass bursts after a request for a sign; a toddler waves at an empty room
A caller from a town given as “Napomo, California,” says their brother disappeared and was later found dead. While cleaning out the brother’s desert property, the caller asked for an unmistakable sign. Within seconds, the glass front of a wood-burning stove reportedly blew out. The caller also reports that a renter’s two-year-old daughter later waved and spoke at the empty room. Art Bell cuts the call short.
Glowing faceless figure at the foot of the bed and a golf ball next morning
A caller who identifies themselves as [name withheld] of Macon, Georgia, tells Art Bell that around 1975, at about age six, they were staying in a room their late grandfather had designed and built in their grandmother's house in Macon. They say they woke at night to see a glowing, faceless white figure at the foot of the bed. They hid under the sheets, peeked and found it still there, then fell asleep. The next morning, they say, a golf ball was lying near the foot of the bed. Art proposes it was a sign from their golfer grandfather. [name withheld] says it was either that or an elaborate hoax, and that the ball may simply have been in the room already.
49 more stories
- Car dies on the Mass Turnpike and restarts after a plea to the caller's late father3 min
- Scent of carnations in a van on Highway 99 after a grandmother's death4 min
- Unplugged CD player repeating one song after a friend’s death3 min
- Deceased sister appears and grows up by a lake after an all-night ceremony3 min
- Fax: Root beer carried down stairs by itself at a 40-day memorial gathering1 min
- Dog appears to be petted at a late husband's chair, then watches the kitchen3 min
- Photograph found in a used book after asking a deceased mother for a sign3 min
- Vision of a little girl kissing the caller’s cheek during an adoption decision3 min
- Listener letter: A weekend at the Hotel del Coronado as “Kate's guest”3 min
- Letter from Canada about cats gathering in woods where a man reportedly died1 min
- Paw-print indentations appear on a bed after a dog's euthanasia4 min
- Scent of a grandfather’s breakfast and a growling dog before news of his death1 min
- Post-funeral Wienermobile coincidences read as a message from a deceased father6 min
- A watchmaker’s death and a new Concord watch that stopped3 min
- San Diego caller says a bird led them across a cemetery to a grave4 min
- Bat on the host’s porch on the day his father died53 s
- Train passenger repeats a phrase and is then reported absent3 min
- Deceased grandfather appears to mother; dream of a full lake3 min
- Lemur on the pool patio the night of the caller’s father’s visitation3 min
- A bat lands on the porch on the morning of the host’s father’s death48 s
- Black butterflies and a face image in a bedroom window after a husband’s death1 min
- Deceased friend’s voice warns a caller about a new boyfriend3 min
- Toaster oven glass shatters at the reported hour of a cremation2 min
- House-wide music heard twice in one day, once confirmed over the phone2 min