The Deer Stand - Classic

Dan is a hunter. His favorite place in the world is his deer stand: a platform 20 feet up in an ancient tree. One day, Dan is sitting up in the tree when he sees something that changes his life forever.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:04Speaker 00

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• 0:26Glynn Washington?

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  He's tapping, tap, tap, tap. He's tapping on the door. He wants us to open the door.

• 1:28Speaker 03

  Then their light turns on, and then their light turns on in the shape of a triangle. And I'd say it's probably about the length of a school bus, you know, right above my head.

• 1:36Speaker 04

  She had long, ratted hair. She was wearing a dress. Her ribs were showing, her fingers were long. She looked shriveled, partially decayed. I'm starting to freak out a little bit. I'm pleading with them to just please let me out.

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• 2:14Glynn Washington?

  In Michigan, it's a ritual. Late fall, early winter, ride four hours up north. Stop the car, put on your orange reflective jacket, your orange knit cap gloves. It's cold, boots. Maybe even a flask of Kentucky's finest to help you pass the time. And you're gone. Trek over hill and dale to your secret spot, the special place only you and your boys know about.

• 2:51Glynn Washington?

  Then you lean, right there against your tree, still, silent, wait. Then maybe you hear the underbrush crackle before you actually see the creature. Wary, suspicious, wild, deer, antlers, raised, noble. I've walked these forests, these Michigan woods, dozens of times, sighted the animal,

• 3:31Glynn Washington?

  raised my rifle, braced it against my shoulder, rested my finger on the trigger, checked to be sure all is clear still.

• 3:53Glynn Washington?

  I've never fired a shot. Never. I don't know why. Don't know why. Friends say I'm too scared. I don't think so. I think instead I like the power in these woods, the power to decide what if.

• 4:25Glynn Washington?

  My name is Glynn Washington. Safety first. Spook starts. Now.

• 4:58Glynn Washington?

  Now, today, we've got a story from someone who truly loves being outside.

• 5:07Glynn Washington?

  Hunting season, it's Dan's favorite time of the year. He and his family, they gather at his uncle's farm. Over 800 acres of Midwestern wilderness. And Dan, he loves the ritual. He climbs up to the top of a big ancient tree, sits in his tree stand, and looks over the world. It's bitter cold, freezing, but for Dan, this is where he feels quiet. This is where he feels at peace.

• 5:39Glynn Washington?

  Spooked.

• 5:43Glynn Washington?

  A quick note. Today's story is about the darkness and the light. It involves suicide and graphic imagery. As such, sensitive listeners, please be advised.

• 6:04Speaker 06

  Deer hunting weekend is the one weekend that's guaranteed to see these uncles and cousins, and we all come together.

• 6:14Speaker 06

  Since I was 13 years old, it's always been family only.

• 6:19Speaker 06

  A number of years ago, we had one non-blood family member join our group. That was my cousin's husband. His name is Andy.

• 6:34Speaker 06

  When I was young, I didn't have a lot of opinions. I felt that my opinion really didn't matter a whole lot. But I didn't really like Andy.

• 6:47Speaker 06

  Andy came across as really arrogant. He was occasionally argumentative. My uncle that owns the land and his son, my cousin, are both doctors. And Andy had no medical training. He worked in a completely different profession. We got into a conversation about prescriptions. One family member that had a specific ailment and the two doctors were talking about the best drug to treat them. And Andy started arguing with them about that. The whole family kind of stopped and looked at him like, are you, are you for real right now? These are two doctors.

• 7:30Speaker 06

  They've, you know, they've been doctors their whole lives. We can't argue with them on this. And that's a, that's a no brainer.

• 7:45Speaker 06

  Pretty early on in the relationship, I learned to just distance myself and not respond to comments that he might make. Andy wasn't a bad person, but it changed the feeling when we were sitting down and having dinner or after dinner when we were talking about our day. We hunted together for roughly a decade. So one summer I got a call from family saying that Andy had left his home one night and went to his work and decided to shoot himself.

• 8:36Speaker 06

  This was devastating for the family primarily because my cousin, his wife, you know, was now left with her kids and no husband. It was also a revelation for the family that he was depressed and we never knew that deer hunting.

• 8:56Speaker 06

  But we learned that he had told his wife that he was never happier than when he was deer hunting.

• 9:04Speaker 06

  That he really, really loved that experience and that time with us. That was a shock to me because I didn't think that I was very nice to him and I didn't think that some of my other relatives were very nice to him. Not perhaps rude, but not as loving as we could have been. And so that was a real surprise to hear.

• 9:34Speaker 06

  So after Andy died, the next deer season came upon us. And we were sitting in the farmhouse, talking about who was gonna hunt out of which stand. And Andy's stand, having always been productive, was offered to me by the group that I could hunt out of his stand on the following day.

• 10:04Speaker 06

  You know, tree stands are just very personal. It's a very spiritual place. It's kind of like your own altar, your own church. In the sense that it's your space and he was happy there. Half of his ashes were buried underneath his tree stand. It seemed very appropriate to hear that, given how happy he was in his tree stand.

• 10:35Speaker 06

  We go to bed, wake up very early the next morning.

• 10:43Speaker 06

  And we have a truck and one person drives and we do a route and drop people off. So I get dropped off, it's pit blackout.

• 11:00Speaker 06

  I walk through the woods to the stand. I climb up roughly 20 feet up a tree to sit in.

• 11:12Speaker 06

  There's not a lot of space. It's about a four foot by four foot platform that you sit on. And get all my gear situated in the stand and I'm sitting there. And I decided, well, so I felt it would be appropriate for me to speak to him about how I had treated him.

• 11:34Speaker 06

  I started off and I said, Andy, I don't know if you can hear me. I don't know what happens after death, but I really hope you're in a better place right now.

• 11:51Speaker 06

  I'm really sorry to hear that your life was so full of pain. And I'm also sorry that I was kind of a jerk to you when you were alive. I'm hunting in your stand. It's, it's opening weekend. I hope you're okay with the fact that I'm in your stand. And, and again, I just, I really hope that you're in a better spot right now.

• 12:21Glynn Washington?

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• 13:04Glynn Washington?

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• 13:34Speaker 06

  As I got done talking to Andy, it was the time of morning. And if you've ever sat out in the woods, there comes a point in the morning when I would say the world is gray.

• 13:50Speaker 06

  And it was that point in the morning, and that only lasts for maybe 10 minutes in my experience, but it was that time of the morning when I felt my entire body was suddenly incredibly cold.

• 14:10Speaker 06

  It felt like a wave had passed through the environment and sucked energy out of it.

• 14:20Speaker 06

  If you've ever broken through ice and fallen into water, you have a better idea of what it's like for your whole body to be cold.

• 14:29Speaker 06

  Every hair on my body was standing up.

• 14:38Speaker 06

  Andy's body appeared in front of me as though it was a movie that was fading in and all of a sudden was there.

• 14:54Speaker 06

  I could see through him.

• 14:57Speaker 06

  I had goosebumps from head to toe.

• 15:02Speaker 06

  He was hovering above the tops of those two pine trees. So he wasn't at ground level, walking or moving around. He was directly in front of me and all of a sudden was there. You know, 20, 25 feet up in the air.

• 15:25Speaker 06

  I was creeped out.

• 15:33Speaker 06

  He was a little bit rough around the edges, like his hands and lower legs weren't entirely visible, but definitely the core of his body was, was right there. He was in the air and his back was turned towards me.

• 15:52Speaker 06

  One of the things that I noticed that was different about Andy was how he was dressed. When we get up to go out deer hunting and come down for breakfast, most of us are wearing our long underwear. And then we put on, you know, after breakfast, put on our winter clothes and, and go out. Andy was wearing a pair of khaki pants and a short sleeve, three-button polo shirt that was bluish-green in color. And so to see him appear in this outfit was, was different. It was unique.

• 16:34Speaker 06

  I could see his shoulders shrugging as though he was laughing. I couldn't see anybody else, but I could kind of hear that there was chatter in the background.

• 16:49Speaker 06

  Somehow, he communicated to me that he was at like a cocktail party, you know, standing around, having some hors d'oeuvres and you're laughing and talking with people.

• 17:01Speaker 06

  And I don't know how to verbalize what telepathy would be like to experience, but it was very, very clear to me that there was other people around him. While Andy was at this cocktail party, and he, he sent some very clear messages. One, he was with loved ones. He was in a good place. It was very clear from him that he was okay now. He then went on to say that it was that he and I were okay. And he didn't elaborate that on that a whole lot.

• 17:43Speaker 06

  After he communicated those two messages, the other people that I couldn't see but I could hear,

• 17:54Speaker 06

  it was as though they left the room.

• 17:58Speaker 06

  And it was just Andy and myself at that point.

• 18:08Speaker 06

  Andy turned around very quickly and faced me and looked straight at me.

• 18:17Speaker 06

  When he did that, I felt that I had been punched in the chest. Like, the wind was knocked out of me.

• 18:27Speaker 06

  Now, Andy had shot himself in the head. And looking at Andy, part of his head was gone. And I won't get into the details, but it was clear when he turned and faced me that he had had trauma to his head.

• 18:45Speaker 06

  And at that moment, as I felt that full-body punch, he expressed, "What have I done?"

• 18:57Speaker 06

  As well as a message of, "This didn't fix anything."

• 19:10Speaker 06

  I didn't have anything to say back to him. My eyes were wide open, and I was just trying to process an experience that I had never experienced before.

• 19:24Speaker 06

  Andy was in front of me for maybe two minutes. He fades away, and he's gone. And there's nothing.

• 19:35Speaker 06

  There's no communication. There's nothing visual in front of me.

• 19:43Speaker 06

  Being logical, I was trying to process what had just happened. And I really struggled with that.

• 19:51Speaker 06

  Because I had no explanation that was scientific or I had no explanation that I could really believe.

• 20:07Speaker 06

  I spent the day sitting in the tree stand. I don't know if I even was looking for deer after that point.

• 20:14Speaker 06

  I spent the next 12 hours reflecting on what had happened, what I saw, what I heard, and I'm using air quotes, what Andy communicated to me.

• 20:32Speaker 06

  And 12 hours later, I saw the headlights. It was dark again. It was evening, and when I saw the pickup truck, I packed up my gear, climbed down the ladder out of the tree stand, walked 100 yards through the woods, and made it to the pickup truck.

• 20:59Speaker 06

  When I got there, my dad was driving, and I got in the truck, and I didn't say anything.

• 21:18Speaker 06

  And he looked at me, and he said, "What's wrong? What's wrong with you?" And I turned to him, and I said, "You wouldn't believe me."

• 21:32Speaker 06

  And he said, "Tell me. Tell me what happened."

• 21:38Speaker 06

  So I told him the story. And he said, "Oof."

• 21:45Speaker 06

  So my dad says, "Well, it's up to you if you want to share the story with the rest of the family when we get back to the house."

• 21:55Speaker 06

  Keep in mind that my uncle is the patriarch of the family. He's your quintessential old-school doctor, just very stoic.

• 22:10Speaker 06

  Well, we walked into the house and the first thing my uncle says, "Danny, what's wrong?" And I, I didn't say anything at first and my cousin, who was making dinner, kind of chuckled. "Oh, would you see Andy's ghost or something?" And his dad immediately tells him to be quiet. And, uh, my uncle's looking at me, he's very serious. And he says, "Danny, what's wrong?"

• 22:42Speaker 06

  And so I tell the rest of the family the story.

• 23:04Speaker 06

  I was impressed with the respect that the rest of the family showed me as I was telling this story. They were very interested in hearing what had happened.

• 23:20Speaker 06

  When I was done telling my story, my uncle said, "Well, it's up to you if you want to tell Susan." Susan's my cousin, who had been married to Andy and is also my uncle's daughter. And so he, he gave the choice to me whether or not to share this with, with Susan. Keep in mind, this is about six months after her husband's died.

• 23:45Speaker 06

  And I decided that it was really important that I do share this with her. And I didn't understand at the time why I felt it was important.

• 23:56Speaker 06

  So I called Susan on speakerphone in front of the rest of the family. Now Susan's a state away and she has no idea of any of this.

• 24:09Speaker 06

  And I said, "Hey, Susan, it's Danny. I have to talk to you. Do you have time to focus on me? You know, did I catch you at an okay time?" And she said, "Yeah." I said, "Are you sitting down? Because I think you need to sit down for this." And she said, "Yeah, I'm sitting down." And I said, "Okay. Before I tell you anything, what was Andy wearing when he died?"

• 24:45Speaker 06

  Susan replied, "You know, you'd think I would know what he was wearing when he died, but I don't. I don't remember.

• 24:56Speaker 06

  But I'll never forget the outfit I picked for him to be cremated in.

• 25:03Speaker 06

  It was a pair of khaki pants and a bluish-green, short-sleeved, three-button polo shirt.

• 25:14Speaker 06

  Now, there's only a couple of people that know what Andy was cremated in. Susan, the folks that, you know, at the funeral home, and Andy.

• 25:30Speaker 06

  I proceeded to tell Susan my experience and the story, and she found great comfort in hearing that he was okay. She wasn't surprised to hear that he had shown up.

• 25:56Speaker 06

  About eight months after my experience in Andy's stand, I was at a cousin's wedding.

• 26:04Speaker 06

  And Uncle Number Two, that, you know, is a disbeliever and adamant that that never happened, and I imagined it, brought a guy over to me. This guy's name is Jack, and Jack's a friend of the family, and he occasionally will, you know, bird hunt on our property. And Uncle Number Two said to me, "You two need to talk to each other about what happened." And turned around and walked away. I mean, he clearly wants nothing to do with what happened to us.

• 26:46Speaker 06

  So I'm like, I was a little confused when I turned to Jack and I said, so what, what happened to you? And Jack said, well, I was bird hunting on, on the, at the farm and I got done for the day and I unloaded my shotgun and was getting ready to walk out and all of a sudden there was somebody else in the woods with me.

• 27:12Speaker 06

  And I said, okay, what do you mean? I mean, we're in the middle of, well, maybe somewhat close to the border, but you know, eight to 900 acres, it's not normal to run into other people. And Jack said, yeah, I never saw another person, but there was somebody else in the woods with me.

• 27:36Speaker 06

  And he said, I was walking out of the woods and I was right underneath Andy's stand when this happened.

• 27:47Speaker 06

  And I went, wow.

• 27:53Speaker 06

  Jack had never heard of the experience that I had.

• 28:06Speaker 06

  You know, I think one reason that perhaps he chose me and that time and location to show up is because we both found nature, we find it to be a very spiritual place.

• 28:28Speaker 06

  There's absolute beauty in sitting in the woods. And it's almost like a sound deprivation chamber. Because you don't hear any man-made sounds. All you hear is the wind, if it's blowing, silence if it's not, the annoying squirrel that you think is a deer approaching, but it's really just a squirrel. You know, you might see a wolf, but you never hear them because they're absolutely silent. I mean, it's really just a powerful place to be. And it's my version of a church.

• 29:13Speaker 06

  And it clearly was for Andy as well. To this day, I still hunt out of his tree stand. Honestly, he built his a lot better than I built mine, so it's a lot nicer place to hunt out of. The other thing that I appreciate is that my cousin's kid started hunting with me when he was real young, before he was old enough to hunt. He would just sit in the stand with me. Every opening morning, he and I speak to Andy.

• 29:58Speaker 06

  You know, we wish that Andy is doing well. We ask for a successful hunt, because if you have a connection to the divine, why not, you know, ask for a little help? And, but more so, thank him for being in a stand and the fact that he built it. And it's really, I think, a beautiful practice that has come from Andy's death and the subsequent experiences.

• 30:35Speaker 06

  And that I have a teenager that wants to hang with an old fart like me, you know, for 12 hours, uh, sitting in the stand. We provide thanks to the world. I think that it's just a really good practice for both of us to express our, our thanks and, and wish Andy well.

• 31:06Glynn Washington?

  Thank you, Dan, for sharing your story with Spooked. Now you gotta know, Dan is a listener. He shared this story with us and we knew we had to share it with you. And if you have your own terrifying tale to tell us, best believe you want to hear it. Email us, [email protected]. That's [email protected].

• 31:40Glynn Washington?

  Yes, it is that time, but not to fear. We have just set foot on this road. We've not even begun. Let somebody know if you dare, Spooked. If you like your storytelling under the heat of the noonday sun, check out our sister podcast, Snap Judgment. Storytelling with a Beat, Snap Judgment Studios. Spook was created by the team that refuses to climb any tree in any forest. I don't know why, what's to be afraid of? Especially when the forest ranger is none other than Mr. Mark Ristich. Anna Sussman, our chief spookster is Eliza Smith, Chris Hanbrich, Annie Nguyen, Aliyah Yates, Zoe Fregno, Lauren Newsom, Jacob Winnick,

• 32:23Glynn Washington?

  Leon Morimoto, Renzo Gorial, Taylor DeCott, Risa Dodge, Greta Weber, Sonny Khan, Tiffany Deliza, Ann Ford, and Fernando Hernandez refuses to wear the proper forest ranger uniform. Some say the animals of the dark wood have not been granted the power of speech. People who know this program may have discovered otherwise. Still, I beg you, no matter what those strange voices request, no matter how desperately they plead, no matter what they promise.

• 32:59Glynn Washington?

  Never, ever, never, ever, never, ever,

• 33:05Glynn Washington?

  turn out the lights.