Episode #2: "Alien Encounter" with Podcasting Legend Jim Harold

00:00:03:28 - 00:00:33:02
Lovely
You come to me when I'm lonely or I take you and we go home. You cover me with your you with my love.

00:00:33:04 - 00:01:05:15
Sasha
What happens when a couple runs off for a romantic parking rendezvous and winds up with an alien encounter? Will punching a ghost protect you when it appears at the end of your bed? Today's guest, Jim Harrold, is an epic podcaster whose shows have been downloaded over 65 million times. His paranormal podcast and Jim Harold's Campfire and so many others are beloved by millions.

00:01:05:17 - 00:01:36:27
Sasha
And if this is your first time listening to Jim, you are about to find out exactly why he's so popular. Jim's listened to thousands of ghost stories on his podcasts, and he's about to share his favorites, along with a slew of personal paranormal and synchronistic happenings. Roadhouse Saloon is a Twilight Zone of a true ghost story about a late-night emergency road stop where things inside the bar are not what they seem.

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Sasha
Things are about to get out of this world because I'm your host, Sasha Graham. And this is Ghost Stories.

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Lovely
By the Fire company. Lovely by.

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Sasha
Jim Harold. Welcome to my Ghost Stories by the Fire.

00:02:04:06 - 00:02:19:28
Jim
Well, thank you so much, Sasha, for having me on as a part of the show. I appreciate it. Always great to have you on my shows. And now kind of being on the other side of it and congratulations on the show and in glad to talk about spooky stories and the paranormal and all that good stuff.

00:02:20:01 - 00:02:36:22
Sasha
Thank you. I'm so excited to talk to you tonight. So first thing I'm dying to ask, did you grow up in a household that told ghost stories, believed in ghosts and spirits? Do you have a history of this as a kid with your family?

00:02:36:25 - 00:02:58:15
Jim
Well, we didn't grow up in a haunted house, but we did grow up in a house of stories. And there were a couple of supernatural stories that happened that maybe it's what kind of set me on this path, along with Leonard Nimoy and in search of But. But there were two stories. So you got to understand, my my folks were working class folks.

00:02:58:17 - 00:03:21:18
Jim
They were not in touch with the oneness of the universe or particularly, you know, spiritually in tune. But they had two stories that they told that always stuck with me and my dad, who is 88, currently, thankfully, still with us and doing well. He still tells those same two stories exactly the same way. Not not a detail has changed.

00:03:21:20 - 00:03:42:08
Jim
The first story goes back to probably about 1960 or so, somewhere around there. I'm from the Cleveland, Ohio area and he and my uncle were living up over a bar. They were young guys, you know, in their twenties, you know, like up for a cheap apartment or whatever. And they lived up over this bar and they worked in the steel mill.

00:03:42:09 - 00:04:11:05
Jim
My dad ended up working 35 years in that steel mill. So anyway, the one day, the one evening, they're both asleep. It's a little two bedroom, very modest place. And my dad wakes up and there's this older gentleman standing over him and, like, laughing and smiling. Now, my dad was a big guy, six foot tall. You know, he a former football player, strong and he swings as hard as he can.

00:04:11:05 - 00:04:32:00
Jim
A couple of times he comes up there and he says, John, that was my uncle's name. Hey, John, you know, there's somebody in here. There's somebody in here. Look, maybe he's in your room. Where's he at? And my uncle. Like it was a little bit of sir, back inside. You're just dreaming. You just go back and used a couple of choice words.

00:04:32:03 - 00:04:55:29
Jim
You're just dreaming is silly. About two weeks later, my dad and my uncle are asleep. All of a sudden, my dad is awakened by my uncle. The same man was standing over his bed and he died. And he was six two. He was a bigger guy. And he swung a couple of times and came up with air and he's like, There's somebody in here, Jim, Because my dad is.

00:04:55:29 - 00:05:16:14
Jim
Jim seeing somebody in here? Jim Somebody is in here, nobody there. And my dad always had fun with my uncle up until he passed about that story because he said, I told you there was somebody in there come to find out. They started talking about and he realized that it may have been a patron in the bar who had passed away and they used to buy drinks for him.

00:05:16:16 - 00:05:40:28
Jim
But yeah, that's story I heard since I was a little kid. And then another one that I heard involved my mom and my dad. My family was originally from West Virginia. I was born and raised in Ohio, but we would go down and visit, you know, the grandparents well, about when I was probably about one years old, they decided to leave me with grandma and my dad.

00:05:40:28 - 00:06:04:04
Jim
My mom went and drove to a secluded spot. Now, I don't know. I want to know Sasha. I don't know what was going on there. I don't want to know. I'm sure they were just going to study the stars. But anyway, the point is what happened was they're sitting there contemplating the mysteries of the universe, staring at the stars in my dad's old 68 Buick.

00:06:04:06 - 00:06:26:09
Jim
And he said, and my mom, who's passed as well, my dad's still here. My mom's passed, told exactly same story. The sky lit up for 30 to 60 seconds like daylight. And if anybody's been in a rural area like that, there's no streetlights, there's no light pollution. It is when it's dark, it is pitch black. Dark. Everything lights up.

00:06:26:12 - 00:06:56:20
Jim
My dad now, my mom did not see this. My dad turns to his left and sees what he says was a man with a welding mask holding his hand up. Now, at that point, my dad and my mom decide, Let's get out of here and so he pulls out and he's going down this dirt road or whatever. And then my mom in her West Virginia accent said, Then, Jimmy, I seen a bunch of the biggest birds I ever seen in my life, and there were birds up along the bank.

00:06:56:20 - 00:07:22:27
Jim
They had these huge wingspans in later years and doing interviews for my shows where we talked to people about alien encounters and different things. There's such a thing called a screen memory where the theory goes that sometimes when people encounter aliens, maybe they present themselves as something else. My dad and mom fully expected to see something in the news about a big explosion or something that would light up the sky like that.

00:07:23:00 - 00:07:46:11
Jim
Never saw anything. Both of them told the same story. All my growing up years until my mom passed on. My dad tells us seeing both stories today and again, they were not. My dad would would watch UFO store shows and would have an interest and my mom had no interest in it. My uncle had no interest in ghosts, you know, and they told exactly the same story.

00:07:46:14 - 00:08:06:26
Jim
And to me it was like, yeah, there's more to the you know, I'm a big respecter of science. We couldn't I mean, look, we're doing something now that 20 years ago would have taken a satellite to do. So I respect science. I believe in science, but I also believe there's another side. And you have these experiences, like my parents, like my uncle, and like the people that come on my show.

00:08:06:28 - 00:08:33:07
Jim
Jim heralds a campfire. Whoo! And we've been doing that since 2009. That particular show, people who come on the show and share their experiences. And I think there's a lot of good people out there who have something really strange have happened to me. I guess to your point, and I know it's a long answer, but to your point, that kind of informed what I do today, because it made me realize that that these stories are real.

00:08:33:09 - 00:08:55:21
Sasha
And there and it's you know, it's a lot for people, people who aren't necessarily fascinated by this stuff. And I would say that it's actually quite a great service that that you do with your shows, because often if people are saddled with something that an experience that they don't understand, that they didn't necessarily go out looking for, do you know.

00:08:55:23 - 00:09:01:23
Sasha
Right. Be a burden that they're carrying with them not understanding what happened to them.

00:09:01:23 - 00:09:18:18
Jim
Right. And to be honest with you, you know, that wasn't something when I started, I thought, you know, because I thought, campfire Jim Heroes. Campfire makes sense. They'll be fun little show so people can share their spooky stories. And there is a fun aspect to it. I want to say it's all serious all the time, but there's a fun aspect to it.

00:09:18:18 - 00:09:40:23
Jim
But also people have said much what you're saying and they've been shows before mine that did this, their radio coast to coast and does coast to coast every Halloween. You know, it's not an original. The storytelling is not an original concept. But the point is, is that just for my little show, people will say, hey, you know, I thought I was the only one who ever experienced this.

00:09:40:25 - 00:09:52:19
Jim
And I listen to your show and I saw a lot of people have X happen, and it made me feel better about that experience and know that I'm not alone. And if I could do that for a few people in my own little way, I think that's kind of cool.

00:09:52:25 - 00:10:04:18
Sasha
Yeah, I think that's very cool. I've also noticed in in just a handful of episodes that I've recorded in live events that I've done, that there tend to be the same themes recurring among ghosts.

00:10:04:18 - 00:10:05:11
Jim
Yes.

00:10:05:13 - 00:10:22:20
Sasha
Interesting. When you talk about your parents story that I just love to go back to that really quick because I think that's really fascinating that they saw winged creatures. In other words, the aliens present or whatever it was presented itself as a winged creature. Is that.

00:10:22:23 - 00:10:40:27
Jim
Well, I mean, that's just one theory that I had that was not their theory at all. They just thought they were big birds. But I actually did an episode, a couple of episodes by a gentleman by the name of Mike Cleland, and he's written a couple of books. The first book, I think, was called The Messengers, and then there was a sequel to it.

00:10:41:00 - 00:11:02:29
Jim
And basically he talked about owls and how many people see owls as potential screen memories. And that's when it clicked for me. It's like, wait a minute, that could have been what happened with my parents. I'm not saying it's absolutely what happened, but there seem to be, you know, the man with the welding mask in the hand that, well, maybe that wasn't a man at all.

00:11:02:29 - 00:11:22:13
Jim
It was some kind of humanoid figure in the way my dad you know, who you know, back in 1970 or 71 or whatever it was, was not steeped in the UFO literature. You know, that's the way he interpreted it. Maybe he saw something other than a man in a welding mask. Maybe it was something else, and maybe the birds weren't birds.

00:11:22:17 - 00:11:47:01
Jim
That's just me kind of kind of thinking outside the box on it. They didn't describe it as anything but birds. They felt it was birds. Yes, but I just wondered, after interviewing Mike and hearing these ideas about screen memories or the idea that, let's say they were aliens, they might present themselves in a way people could understand is wouldn't totally freak them out.

00:11:47:03 - 00:11:55:03
Jim
Maybe they were presenting themselves in different ways. I don't know. Or it may have just been really big birds and it was a weird coincidence or it.

00:11:55:06 - 00:12:02:28
Sasha
Or perhaps it's just the way that people can kind of understand what it is that they're looking at.

00:12:03:00 - 00:12:04:26
Jim
Right. How they interpret it. Yes.

00:12:04:28 - 00:12:29:25
Sasha
Yeah. About how how they interpret it through their own cultural or personal reference of what they're used to looking at. Right. Is it can be, of course, disconcerting to some to suddenly of course, you've never seen it. You've never ever seen before my helmet. I mean you must have at this point in your career, listen to thousands upon thousands of stories.

00:12:29:28 - 00:12:59:28
Jim
Yes, that's true. Because I think today, as we record this, I just released the 834th or was it 600? I got to look and I don't want to lie. It's something 34th. I might have been 634. Yeah. 634th Paranormal podcast is 800 something. That's why I got confused. But the Campfire 634th episode released today as we record. So every show has between five and ten stories.

00:12:59:28 - 00:13:06:29
Jim
So that gives you an idea of how many stories that I've got to hear over the years. So yeah, there would be thousands.

00:13:07:06 - 00:13:14:12
Sasha
That's incredible. Are there any stories that Honshu to this day that still that when.

00:13:14:12 - 00:13:35:12
Jim
Yeah yeah there's multiple ones but the one that stands out even so much so that actually pre-pandemic I got with a friend of mine who we went to school together and did broadcasting stuff together. And he went on to become a successful videographer for one of our local one of our local network affiliates. It's been with them for 25 years.

00:13:35:12 - 00:13:52:29
Jim
I basically hired him and said, Do you want to take a ride up to Michigan and meet this person? And we actually did a segment it's on YouTube on my YouTube channel. Jim Harrell, Dcoms, last year, too. And it was such a great story that I felt compelled to do that. And that's the only story I've ever done that with you with.

00:13:53:02 - 00:14:10:20
Jim
So you can figure out that I really thought highly of the storyteller in this story. And it's a little long, but it really is worthy of the Twilight Zone and I call it the Roadhouse Saloon. And I've told on many shows, so if people have heard me on other shows, they may have heard this story, but it's worth it.

00:14:10:23 - 00:14:43:15
Jim
Basically, our caller lived in Michigan, but she I think she went up to Wisconsin every year for like, I don't know, one of these campground kind of places, you know, where people go for holidays and stuff. And she was up there. She's a teacher. So I guess it got the summers off. So they would go up to this camping area and her and a friend of hers by the name of Bob, her name is Ty, and we still stay in touch.

00:14:43:17 - 00:15:02:18
Jim
They were both musicians and they decided to go to this place, to this bar, to see this band. So they go see the band, the band plays, and then they go backstage after the show and like they go the place at 230 in the morning because they're musicians and they're talking about shop and talking gigs and all that stuff.

00:15:02:18 - 00:15:22:06
Jim
So they're driving back and it's like 230 and it's getting towards 3:00 in the morning. All the bars are closed and everything and it's her and Bob and they've got about an hour to go before they get back to the campground. And this is like rural, dark two-lane roads. So they get partway there maybe 10 minutes down the road.

00:15:22:06 - 00:15:47:14
Jim
And Ty says, Bob, we have a situation. I have to go to the restroom. And he said, Well, looking around here, you don't have many choices. There's some bushes over there. And she said, No, drive fast, drive fast. So anyway, they're driving and maybe 10 minutes later they come upon this bar and the joint is jumping. The neon signs are on.

00:15:47:14 - 00:16:08:02
Jim
There's cars in the parking lot. And you know, like when you go past a place that's blasting music and you can hear it and stuff, well, it could hear that there's music, there's people in there and say, hey, they probably shouldn't be open now. It's after closing time, but let's not let's not look a gift horse in the mouth.

00:16:08:02 - 00:16:30:09
Jim
Let's go in. So they go in. Bob goes to the bar to get them both something because they don't want to just go and use the restroom. They get something from the bar and Ty goes to the restroom, comes back, they're talking. And Bob says, And really and by the way, this place exists. I've got pictures of I'm really glad we came here.

00:16:30:09 - 00:16:52:20
Jim
Bob was an artist as well as a musician, and he said, there's this big mural, this old West mural I've heard about, but I've never seen it. And on the wall and there is this does exist. There was this mural of the Old West, like a saloon, and there was what they used to call, you know, probably not the most politically correct term, but a dance hall girl.

00:16:52:23 - 00:17:15:21
Jim
There were some cowboys, there was a bartender, you know, that kind of thing. And they started looking at and they started talking about and it was a kind of I don't know, it wasn't a friendly it wasn't a warm picture. It was kind of sinister looking. But the weird thing was he started looking around the people actually in the bar who are just kind of blankly smiling and not talking a lot.

00:17:15:24 - 00:17:21:00
Jim
And they noticed, Wait, there's some guys playing pool over there. They look just like the people in the.

00:17:21:00 - 00:17:21:18
Sasha
Painting.

00:17:21:18 - 00:17:42:25
Jim
Who were playing cards. And that woman over there, she looks just like the dance hall girl. And this one looks like that. And they're like, That's weird. They all look like they're from the painting. And then they thought, Wait, wait, let's be logical here. And it's like, you get freaked out. Obviously, these people are regulars and the artist came in and as an homage, they included them in the painting.

00:17:42:25 - 00:18:14:04
Jim
Makes perfect sense, right? So they go about it then. Anyway, this guy walks up to t.I and he smiles a big smile. Ty said he had these rotten teeth and he said and he had put on, I should say they had this old Wolitzer beautiful bubbler jukebox like the old style ones with vinyl. And at the time this happened, I think it was in the nineties, maybe or early 2000s, you know, vinyl had gone totally out of style.

00:18:14:04 - 00:18:40:19
Jim
Everything was CDs, right? But this was the old school like not a reproduction. This was like an old bubbler type jukebox. And I was playing Chubby Checker's Let's Twist again. So that guy had put that on. He walked over to I said, Smile with that rotten teeth smile and said, Want to dance? And he uses a cane. So she held up her cane and she said, Now I don't do much dancing, but thanks so much.

00:18:40:24 - 00:19:04:24
Jim
She said she was never so glad to have a cane in her life. So anyway, you know, the place just has a weird vibe. I think. At one point she went and asked the bartender about the people in the painting, and he just kind of smiled and didn't say anything, you know? So anyway, their continued to talk and this story, there's more detail to this story in a YouTube video.

00:19:04:24 - 00:19:23:01
Jim
And when we had a campfire, they noticed something they didn't know originally. They had noticed that there were these double swinging doors like are and saloons. You know, in the old Westerns, the guy would come in and he'd say, I want to see so-and-so for a showdown. Well, they had the swinging doors, but they didn't notice. But they did notice.

00:19:23:01 - 00:19:47:09
Jim
Now. There were two misty figures in front of the door and one was taller. One was shorter. Look, we don't remember seeing that. And then they talk a little morning look again. It's like, wait a minute, though. Those are developing into something like an old school Polaroid picture. And like, they could pretty plainly make out with a man and a woman and they talk some more.

00:19:47:09 - 00:20:01:23
Jim
Now, look again, there's a woman with curly hair. Ty has curly hair, the woman has boots, cowboy boots. t.I has complement.

00:20:01:25 - 00:20:03:21
Sasha
No.

00:20:03:23 - 00:20:07:27
Jim
The woman has a cane and Ty has a cane.

00:20:07:29 - 00:20:09:18
Sasha
My God.

00:20:09:20 - 00:20:31:17
Jim
They were developing into the picture right then they looked at each other and they said, okay, let's get out of here. They start to go out and all the people are like smiling and beckoning. Mike, come back, come back, and they leave, Ty said. When they close the door, everything went pitch black like had never been open. And remember I said there were cars in the parking lot.

00:20:31:19 - 00:20:56:15
Jim
There was a car in the parking lot. Now their car, they went out and it was pitch black. T I had a hard time seeing. It was so dark. And you know, with cane, she then my fall or anything finally made her way back to the car they left. Now, you would think that's a pretty wild story and it's the end of the story, but it is not the end of the story.

00:20:56:18 - 00:21:17:12
Jim
Maybe a few days later she had told this story to her friends and family. And, you know, they try to explain way and I think it was her sister, I think, said, let's go back. Let's go back. And she went with her friend or her sister. I can't remember which, you know, but they didn't wait till 2:00 in the morning.

00:21:17:12 - 00:21:41:24
Jim
They went like 8:00 at night, 7:00, 7:00 night. She walks in. She goes up to the bartender. At this point is a woman, a young woman, and says, hey, how's it going? I was in here the other night. He was a big, strapping, good looking guy bartending. And it's like nobody bartender here that fits that description. The only two bartenders here are me and my elderly father.

00:21:41:26 - 00:22:16:00
Jim
Then she went over to the jukebox. There was a jukebox, all right. It wasn't a bubbler. It wasn't the classic type. It was for the time, a modern CD jukebox. Right? And no Chubby Checker series in it. And with that, she left. Now, at that point she told me, and I've never been back, but recently she texted me and she did go back and look around, by the way, in the painting, when she went to go back, the painting was there, but her and Bob were not in it, thankfully.

00:22:16:02 - 00:22:40:24
Jim
Thank goodness so I mean, to me and the thing about this is Ty was an educator. She's written books very down to earth, very intelligent, very sincere. I believe her that full stop. I believe the place exists. I believe it. Well, it is still in business. She was there not too long ago. And in that video there's actual pictures of that place.

00:22:40:24 - 00:22:48:15
Jim
And to me, that that sets such a bar for campfire stories. It's a tough one to top. We've got some great ones over the years, but it's a tough one to top.

00:22:48:18 - 00:23:12:25
Sasha
That's incredible. That's incredible. That and again, stories where it's there's two people corroborating right like that that that yeah that that is just the most eerily horrifying Amazing. I mean wow wow.

00:23:12:25 - 00:23:46:21
Jim
Yeah. It was pretty crazy. It was a pretty crazy story. And, you know, maybe coming from somebody else, I wouldn't have necessarily believed it. But I was really struck by Ty sincerity and just I mean, I think over time you can develop and I believe the vast majority of people who call in to Jim Herald's campfire, and I just say that because there's other shows out there named Ken's that I love to see my name, but I'm very clear it's Jim Harold's campfire that the vast majority of people are very sincere.

00:23:46:21 - 00:24:07:29
Jim
Now, occasionally I think I'll get somebody trying to pull my leg. I think I got one the other day, and we won't air those stories. But I mean, I can count on one hand the stories I've not aired because there might be reasons like audio quality and stuff, but the reasons for people, I think trying to pull one on me, I could count on one hand the time that's happened in the fourth.

00:24:08:02 - 00:24:19:26
Jim
Well, what next year will be? Jeez, next year I'll be next and next spring will be 15 years. We've been doing that show and I can count on one hand the times that I've not aired a story because I thought somebody was snowing me.

00:24:19:28 - 00:25:00:09
Sasha
Right. Wow. Now, how often? So this is something interesting that comes up at my live event where I'm crowdsourcing from the audience that people people show up to hear ghost stories but don't necessarily know or plan that they're going to get up and share something, but maybe they're inspired by what they hear. Yeah, yeah. But quite often in an open forum like that where I'm just kind of pulling anybody out because there's this big line, I would say, between, you know, that line in the creative imagination or people who are sensitive.

00:25:00:09 - 00:25:18:08
Sasha
Often every now and then we'll get people, not not people who are trying to pull our leg, but, but, but people who definitely I don't know. There's clearly like a mental situation going on.

00:25:18:08 - 00:25:20:18
Jim
Like, yeah, that can happen. Certainly.

00:25:20:22 - 00:25:23:00
Sasha
Does that ever happen to you?

00:25:23:03 - 00:25:46:17
Jim
Not often. I think. You know, any time something like that would happen, I try to point people to resources and those kind of things. But occasionally, I mean, I think that that can be part of it. I think there's people who are perfectly have no no mental issue, but they want to believe everything is a ghost or everything is an alien or everything.

00:25:46:24 - 00:26:12:00
Jim
I do think sometimes the the wants to believe kind of outweighs common sense in people might think, you know, every drippy faucet or flickering light is a ghost, and sometimes it's just a dripping faucet and a flickering light. So I think that's more I think that's more what you run into, is that people it's kind of like, you know, it's like X-Files, right?

00:26:12:00 - 00:26:35:02
Jim
I want to believe and they want to believe so strongly that they tend to think everything is supernatural. And, you know, I've often said this on many shows that I appeared on, people say, Well, do you believe I think if you look at me on like a gas gauge, I mean, some people say gas bag, but a gas gauge and I'm about three quarters full in terms of belief.

00:26:35:04 - 00:26:58:13
Jim
In other words, I do believe these things exist. I don't know what they are necessarily all the time. I do believe the thing that I've learned over the last 18 years of doing podcasts, next year I'll be 19 is that the world is a far stranger place, and we think it's a lot simpler than it is. But there's so many things we don't understand, so many things that we can't see.

00:26:58:15 - 00:27:23:04
Jim
And some of them may even be the science of the 25th century because Arthur C Clarke said technology advanced enough is indistinguishable from magic. So what I'm saying is, is that there's, you know, DNA has always existed. Right? But we didn't know that until the last 50 years or whatever, 60, 70 years. So so the point is, is just because we don't understand something now doesn't mean that doesn't exist.

00:27:23:06 - 00:27:43:25
Jim
And I just believe there's such mystery to our universe. And we only understand as smart as we are, we only understand a small part of what's going on. And I definitely think it's real. And that does that mean if somebody says, I have tea with the aliens every third Thursday of the month, do I necessarily buy into that?

00:27:43:27 - 00:28:04:26
Jim
Maybe not. But I do believe, for example, people have had alien contact. And I do believe that people see ghosts. I think people some of the most amazing stories, people do experience time slips. I think that's a real thing. People see doppelgangers, which is something we hear all the time on the show, which I never expected all the time.

00:28:04:26 - 00:28:24:12
Jim
People see doppelgangers and often associated with other kind of supernatural slash paranormal type activity. So the world is a weird place. I totally believe. I totally believe and I believe the vast majority of our listeners and callers are being totally sincere and totally straight when they share their experiences.

00:28:24:15 - 00:28:36:04
Sasha
Do you ever feel as if a story that someone has shared with you has opened up a gateway or a door to something that you then experience? Does that make.

00:28:36:04 - 00:29:00:22
Jim
Sense? Well, I will say this is that since I I've had a couple of experiences that are not like traditional ghost experiences, but I have had some synchronicities that had happened that maybe in the past I would have chalked up to just, you know, happenstance. And now I believe it really was something. I'll share one with you quickly.

00:29:00:25 - 00:29:23:11
Jim
I talked about my uncle before. My uncle was actually like a second dad to me, and I don't think my dad would be angry at me saying that it's true. And he passed in 2013. So in 2017 I was doing Paranormal Cruise where I was one of the speakers with Rosemary, the great Rosemary Allen Guy Lee, who was the greatest.

00:29:23:11 - 00:29:25:25
Jim
She was literally on my shows 20 times.

00:29:25:27 - 00:29:30:23
Sasha
Well, she I met her I met her at a book signing once.

00:29:30:23 - 00:29:54:25
Jim
She was a special person. She was a special person. Probably my favorite all time guest. And then other than Sasha Graham. And then and then Micah, Hank's who is, you know, big into UFOs and now is the editor in chief of Debrief, which has been the debrief which has been breaking all kinds of UFO news this year. So anyway, we were on there.

00:29:54:25 - 00:30:18:20
Jim
I was one of the speakers, and I came down with a little bit of a cold. So we have a day of tea and we were in this little conference room where we were giving our presentations on various aspects of the paranormal, and my turn was coming up. We had a break, I went to get some coffee and you had to walk through the ship's casino to get to the place that had the coffee.

00:30:18:22 - 00:30:36:15
Jim
So anyway, I'm walking through and I'm stopped dead in my tracks because they have one of these big crane games, you know, like when you go to the store and they have the crane game that comes down and gets the teddy bear and brings it up and, you know, and it usually slips off in you, you lose your money once they had that.

00:30:36:15 - 00:30:54:10
Jim
But for money. And the thing was, is that normally I wouldn't care. But my it was a thing in my family that my uncle my late uncle because this was 2017, he passed in 2013, loved to play those crane games. He like dropped ten bucks on one to try to win. And then he just gave the toy away to some kid.

00:30:54:12 - 00:31:14:15
Jim
He just like for the sport to play the game. Plus, he liked to play low stakes gambling like he buy lotto tickets or play the football pool were them. I'm like, he would love this because his beloved crane game and it's for money he probably wouldn't win, but he would just love it. I wish he were here very specific thought about him.

00:31:14:15 - 00:31:37:27
Jim
Very specific, very intense thought about him. And the reason I really noticed is one of the members of our group was playing the game and I kind of befriended them because when you have these cruises, you kind of rotate between the tables every night and talk with different attendees and so forth. So and I like this guy was a nice guy and he's playing this game.

00:31:38:00 - 00:32:10:16
Jim
So anyway, all of I have this intense thought in my ankle. Then this woman walks up to right next to him, keeps her hand to her mouth and says, John, John and her husband comes over and as I said before, my uncle's name was John. To me, What that was, was I was having a loving, intense thought about my uncle and he was basically saying right back at you.

00:32:10:18 - 00:32:24:29
Jim
That's the way I interpret it. Now, again, the skeptic would say, totally coincidence, a wild coincidence. But I coincidence nonetheless. And that's okay. They're entitled to believe that. I like I like my version better.

00:32:25:01 - 00:32:56:18
Sasha
I love that. I love that. I, I think I always say synchronicities are kind of the universe's way of knowing that you chose well or you're moving well. You know, I just it feels it's just like a pattern because there is so much that's mysterious. yes. And especially, you know, especially when it's about like in your case, somebody that's passed over on the other side, you know, how else are you know, are they going to communicate with you like but doing doing that.

00:32:56:18 - 00:32:59:26
Sasha
So wonder if you have any other.

00:32:59:29 - 00:33:22:15
Jim
Well, I'll just tell another thing about my uncle. A little thing that I do for fun. He left a bunch of tools which I ended up with, and I do a little things around the house. I mean, I'm kind of like, you know, a man has to know is limitations. If something's too big, I'll call in the professionals, but I'll do a minor change in out with, you know, maybe change a basic light sex or basic stuff.

00:33:22:15 - 00:33:41:03
Jim
Nothing, nothing intense. I'm not like Bob Vila. And, you know, with a, you know, sign, I mean, you know, woodworking. But anyway, I do little things around the house. And then I don't know if you've ever had the experience when you're trying to do something like that slash and you can't find the I can't find the right size screw or you can't find the right size screwdriver, something you're fumbling around.

00:33:41:03 - 00:33:49:24
Jim
So now I just go, okay, John, help me out. And within a few, within 30 seconds, I'll find it.

00:33:49:27 - 00:33:59:01
Sasha
Yeah, That's amazing. I love it. I love it. It's also a nice way to continue your relationship with him as well. You know, like.

00:33:59:08 - 00:34:18:09
Jim
Yeah, I've heard somebody say one time, maybe it was somebody I interviewed, maybe it was something I read. He said, Just because somebody passes, that doesn't mean that your relationship with them ends. And I once had somebody come on to the show and they were saying how they regretted not saying things to people when they were here. And then they passed.

00:34:18:09 - 00:34:37:25
Jim
And I'd have I think anybody who's been on the plane at any time at all and has lost someone feels that way. Even if you had a great relationship with someone, there's something that you wanted to tell them. And again, I don't people will say my house is haunted, Jim, how do I fix it? Or ask me all these deep questions?

00:34:37:25 - 00:34:58:27
Jim
I'm like, I don't know. I'm just a podcaster. But in this case, I offered a little bit of advice because I saw absolutely no downside to it. I said, Well, first of all, don't feel guilty about that because anybody it's lost. Someone feels that way. And secondly, you can still tell them. You can still say the words out loud.

00:34:59:00 - 00:35:17:16
Jim
If you said, I want to say I love you, you can say that. If you want to say I'm sorry for something, you can say that there's nothing in the world preventing you from saying it out loud. And if you believe, as I do, that they live on and they keep tabs on us, they'll hear it. And I didn't see any downside to that.

00:35:17:16 - 00:35:22:02
Jim
So that was a piece of advice. I felt very comfortable, very comfortable offering.

00:35:22:05 - 00:35:44:18
Sasha
In love that I love that. So that brings me on. I have to ask you and this is kind of my favorite question to ask people, but based on all of your experiences and my goodness, my goodness, you had a lot what is your hunch? No right or wrong. But what is your hunch about where you were before you came into this world?

00:35:44:18 - 00:35:55:06
Sasha
And where do you think where do you think we go? Where do you think you'll go after you cross back over before?

00:35:55:08 - 00:36:19:01
Jim
I do wonder about that, because I hate to do this to to put another story into the kitty, but I'll just throw it in real quick. I do wonder about things like reincarnation and so forth, and I do wonder if we and I in my case, I mean, I've always had a love of music, a love of broadcasting certain things that I just like immediately as a kid, I was drawn to broadcasting and it's like, where did that come from?

00:36:19:01 - 00:36:44:06
Jim
Was I broadcaster in another life? Was that involved in communication in another life? I don't know. But an interesting quick story along those lines is there was this young woman who called up on campfire and said, you know, I had this memory is a small child being somewhere and being my my my mom having me there. And she had this polka dotted dress by never remembered her wearing it as a child.

00:36:44:09 - 00:37:13:21
Jim
And this is maybe when she was 18, 20 years old, and she mentioned it to her mom and she's like, You had a polka dot dress like that. But I never wore it after you were born. And but she said, I'll tell you, when I did wear it, when I found out I was pregnant with you and I went to the carnival and I was wearing that polka dotted dress, you know, I don't you know, I don't know.

00:37:13:24 - 00:37:33:20
Jim
I mean, it's kind of wild. But anyway, to where I'm going, I don't know where I'm going. I mean, there's someone bigger than me then who's going to make that judgment? I do believe we live on. I'll tell you where I'd like to go. A lot of people like to tell me where to go, but I'll tell you where I'd like to go.

00:37:33:22 - 00:37:51:24
Jim
I would like to start off with, you know, you have the life revue and many people say you see what you did, things you did, and maybe some things that you could have improved upon. And you see it from what I've always heard as you see it from the point of view of other people, how things you did good and bad.

00:37:51:24 - 00:38:08:22
Jim
If you open the door for somebody, maybe that made him feel great, that made their day. On the other hand, if you close the door in somebody's face, it made them really feel really bad or, you know, and it could get better and could get worse from there. I think there'd be a lot of value to that to grow as a person.

00:38:08:24 - 00:38:37:00
Jim
Then I I'd love to have about a hundred year old family or a 100 year family reunion. And I'd love to be able and this is going to be a many years from now, Sasha. So I'd love to be in a place where for a while, for a time where you have this big family picnic and everybody you knew and you liked and you loved from all different times, your life was there.

00:38:37:03 - 00:39:03:21
Jim
And I could say to my mom, I'm like, And again, keep in mind, it's 100 years from now, Mom, did you ever meet Sasha? You didn't meet Sasha? I used to do podcast with Sasha. She's always so great. Here's Sasha, mom on Sasha. And the same idea with everybody who is important to you in your life and just sit down and talk about old times and things that happened, just like the family reunion and friends reunion on steroids.

00:39:03:23 - 00:40:03:00
Jim
And then maybe after that, a really nice journey of understanding what all this is about. That's that's I think maybe that's where I'd like to go, where I'm going. That's somebody else's decision. But I do believe we're all going somewhere That's. Yeah, yeah. Now. And we've all done it. I mean, we've all there's a saying in the Bible, it may not be a direct quote, but all have sinned and come short of the glory of the Lord.

00:40:03:00 - 00:40:19:26
Jim
We've all, we've all not done the best thing at all times. But I think that's part of being human. Yeah. I don't think we can expect to be perfect. We can just try to be the best we can be. But we've all I mean, I can look back on things that I've regretted doing nothing more. I mean, I never killed anybody.

00:40:19:26 - 00:40:23:28
Jim
I never stole or, you know, did anything horrible.

00:40:24:05 - 00:40:52:09
Sasha
But I think to your point but I think to your point about about people who say, I wish I had said so and, you know, said something to someone they like, Good point. I think if anybody out there feels genuine remorse about something that they did as a kid or a teenager or one or whatever, and and feel sad, can can state that even if they can't find that person, even if they can't make.

00:40:52:12 - 00:41:10:04
Jim
And it's little things, it's not like, you know, I stole of course you know, I tried to be as honest as the day is long. I follow the rules, I pay my taxes. But even if you live a pretty decent life, you can look back and say, I did something to somebody that wasn't right. I slighted them.

00:41:10:06 - 00:41:14:02
Jim
And I think about those things and I think about those things.

00:41:14:04 - 00:41:34:00
Sasha
It's so interesting. Yeah, life is mysterious. I love it. I love it. And and that's why I love doing show. I love I love conversations like this amazing gem. Thank you so much for being here. And I do hope that you'll return at some point in the future.

00:41:34:03 - 00:41:38:24
Jim
I would be honored and happy holidays to you and your fine audience.

00:41:38:27 - 00:42:16:23
Sasha
Thank you, Jim. Coming up, thank you so much for being part of Ghost Stories by the Fire. Do you have a spooky story, near-death experience or supernatural happening you'd like to share? I'd love to hear it. Submit your story to Sasha Grammy.com with ghost stories by the fire in the subject line. You might just wind up on this podcast, and if you want to support it and keep the ghost stories coming, head on over to Sasha Grammy.com to check out my books and tarot decks which are available for purchase at your favorite bookseller.

00:42:16:25 - 00:42:39:15
Sasha
The Ghost stories by the Fire theme song is titled Lovely from the original picture score of The Deeper You Dig, a film about the lengths a mother will go to to find her daughter's killer, even if that means accepting a curse from beyond the grave. The film and song were created by The Addams Family with lead vocals by Zelda Adams.

00:42:39:18 - 00:42:49:13
Sasha
Stream The Deeper You Dig on Amazon Prime or Tube. Thanks again for listening. And until next time, I'm saving you a seat at the fire.