Encounters x351 - Sleep Paralysis | Demons, Entities & Alternate Realities

Sleep paralysis is terrifying, but what if the nightmare doesn’t end when you wake up? This week, we’re diving into chilling encounters with shadow figures, mysterious voices, sinister entities, cursed games, and a mind-bending journey through alternate realities. And if you’ve ever considered playing Red Door, Yellow Door, this might be the episode that changes your mind. Sleep paralysis experiences include: A recurring sleep paralysis demon appears to swallow the storyteller’s loved ones, only to disappear after a death occurs in the family. A terrifying sleep paralysis episode leads to a black figure in the corner, a mysterious voice, and a bizarre journey through multiple versions of reality. A shadowy figure named Fred follows one listener through dreams, sleep paralysis, and eventually waking life. A frightening episode of sleep paralysis leaves one listener convinced that two mysterious men were planning to hide a body on a mountain. Watch the video version here. Have ghost stories of your own? E-mail them to us at [email protected] New Episodes are released every Thursday and Sunday at 12am PST/3am EST (the witching hour, of course). Corinne and Sabrina hand select a couple of paranormal encounters from our inbox to read in each episode, from demons, to cryptids, to aliens, to creepy kids... the list goes on and on. If you have a story of your own that you'd like us to share on an upcoming episode, we invite you to email them to us! If you enjoy our show, please consider joining our Patreon, rating and reviewing on iTunes & Spotify and following us on social media! Youtube, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Discord. Edited and produced by Jaimi Ryan. Original music by Arms Akimbo! Disclaimer: the use of white sage and smudging is a closed practice. If you’re looking to cleanse your space, here are some great alternatives! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

• 0:00Speaker 00

  This episode is brought to you by Americans United for Separation of Church and State. Hey, everyone. This is Jonathan Van Ness from Getting Better. You know what you believe. Maybe your faith is at the center of your life. Maybe you're still figuring it out. Maybe religion just isn't your thing. Those choices are personal, and in America, they should stay personal. That's why Americans United for Separation of Church and State is fighting for something that affects all of us. The freedom to live as yourself and believe as you choose, so long as you don't harm others. Because religious freedom isn't just about protecting your right to practice or not. And it surely isn't about having one forced government sanctioned religion. It's about protecting your right to say, this is what I believe, while your neighbor says,

• 0:44Speaker 00

  I believe something completely different. And honestly, that's the whole point. If that sounds like the kind of America you want, learn more at au.org/gettingbetter. Because your beliefs are yours, and theirs are theirs.

• 1:01Speaker 01

  When fall comes back around, there's a sense of a reset. And new pieces from Lululemon's Fall Drop are an inspiration to push your goals and elevate your routines. As your calendar fills, easy-to-layer styles meet the demands of your day. And as you challenge yourself to try even more, versatile sets transition with you. The Lululemon Fall Lineup brings new levels of comfort and confidence, whether you're starting something fresh or starting something over. Check out the latest arrivals in store and on lululemon.com now.

• 1:59Speaker 02

  Step inside and find out what your future is.

• 2:02Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  It's probably looking pretty grim.

• 2:05Speaker 02

  Pretty bleak. The death card being pulled.

• 2:09Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Oh.

• 2:09Speaker 02

  Poor soul. Your poor unfortunate soul.

• 2:13Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Just sing every creepy song we can think of. Hello.

• 2:17Corinne Vien?

  Hi, this is Two Girls, One Ghost.

• 2:18Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Two Girls, One Ghost. We are your ghostesses. That is Corinne.

• 2:22Corinne Vien?

  Hello.

• 2:23Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  I'm Sabrina, and if you're watching on video, welcome to our circus, you freaks.

• 2:29Corinne Vien?

  You little freaks. So much for phantoms. You're freaks now. And we have some

• 2:34Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  It's a freak show.

• 2:36Corinne Vien?

  Fun encounters to share this October.

• 2:38Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Oh, it's October, and you know, we are getting spooky, scary, haunted, freaky. Should I go first?

• 2:45Corinne Vien?

  Yes.

• 2:46Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Okay, we picked a theme.

• 2:47Corinne Vien?

  As we usually do.

• 2:48Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  And this week is sleep paralysis.

• 2:53Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  So as you lay there in your slumber, preparing for your slumber, just remember, you're not alone. And there are entities that like to sit on your chest.

• 3:02Corinne Vien?

  Like the old hag. Now I'm thinking of Widows Bay. It's like, how does she get you? And they're like, she sits on your face.

• 3:09Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Oh, my God, yes. Honestly, that's a fun version of it. I don't think these stories will be as fun.

• 3:16Corinne Vien?

  I've never had sleep paralysis in my own house, but my mom has, and that is when she saw me. A version, an entity version of me just standing over her creepily.

• 3:27Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  So delightful.

• 3:29Corinne Vien?

  Lovely. Let's get into it.

• 3:30Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Okay, I have one that is called, I watched my sleep paralysis demon kill my aunt.

• 3:34Corinne Vien?

  Okay, yeah. See, this seems more appropriate for what sleep paralysis typically brings.

• 3:38Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  My one and only experience was horrifying, and I wish it upon no one.

• 3:41Corinne Vien?

  Yep.

• 3:42Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Hello, y'all ghostly ghouls. My name is Odd. Okay, that's just

• 3:47Corinne Vien?

  That's just your name? That's really cool.

• 3:49Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Oh, it is. Oh, I thought she was saying my name is Odd, like unusual, but it is actually Odd.

• 3:53Corinne Vien?

  Odd. Was it capital O?

• 3:55Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Well, it spelt A U E D, and then she wrote Odd, so.

• 3:59Corinne Vien?

  Nice.

• 4:00Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yeah, that, how perfect for the freak show today. I've always found witchcraft interesting, but I'm a skeptic at heart. I can never fully believe something to be not of this world. But as I listen to each of y'all's episode, I can't help but wonder, what if all the things that I've experienced aren't just weird things? They probably aren't. So to the story. I have suffered from sleep paralysis my whole life. And as a child, I had a wild imagination, which in turn made my dreams and nightmares feel like I was stepping into a reality that was not mine. So one day, I had just gotten off work, and I worked graveyard, so I got off at 9:00 AM. And I had been battling sleep paralysis every night for about six days at this point.

• 4:42Corinne Vien?

  Oh, my God, that's, how do you even, you're not even getting sleep at that point.

• 4:45Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yeah. And I don't actually dream anymore. At least I don't remember them at all. So when I get sleep paralysis, it's a very distressing experience. Usually it lasts maybe 30 minutes, and then if I do get back to sleep, it's not good, restful sleep. So at this point, after six days, it felt like my sanity was slipping. My house was about 45 minutes from work, and I felt the exhaustion wash over me as I started clenching the steering wheel. I wouldn't last 45 minutes. So I called my aunt, who was about 10 minutes from where I was, and she said, come on over, come sleep in my guest room. As I got there, we chatted for a minute, and then I retired to the guest room. I laid down, I closed my eyes, and as I started to slip into blissful peace, my body started vibrating, and I knew what that meant.

• 5:30Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Dread fell over me, and as I started panicking, I heard a crackle. My eyes shifted to the door and landed alarmingly as I faced my sleep paralysis demon, the top hat man. At first, nothing happened. I couldn't move. I couldn't even shift my eyes off of him. They were just stuck, glued to him. But this time, as I continued to study the familiar figure, I realized he was almost personified, like I could see the features of him. As I started panicking, looking closer, a knock at the door sent me into a dark hole of fear. My aunt opened the door, and as she did, the demon started to get small, nestling into the corner behind the door.

• 6:08Corinne Vien?

  Ew, where it cannot be seen by anyone coming in to try to save you.

• 6:14Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  My aunt steps in. She starts to close the door, and that demon starts to swell. His shadow deepens as if leading to somewhere, and once the door clicked shut, he engulfed her. Her screams were muffled until I flew awake and I fell to the floor. As I scrambled onto my feet, shuffling up the stairs to realize everything was fine. My aunt was fine, the demon didn't engulf her, but I did not go back to sleep that day. And I continued to witness this sleep paralysis demon engulf my loved ones. It happened for a month.

• 6:44Corinne Vien?

  Oh, my God.

• 6:45Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Until every single person I loved had been swallowed by this demon. And then, by the end of that month, a loved one of mine did pass away.

• 6:55Corinne Vien?

  No.

• 6:56Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  And then the sleep paralysis demon left.

• 6:59Corinne Vien?

  What in the world? I feel like this is kind of unique for a sleep paralysis experience, because it's almost like blending the Grim Reaper sightings with a sleep paralysis demon. Like, it's like a very strange way to have a premonition, basically.

• 7:15Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yeah, but it's so horrifying. Like, I'd rather just a Grim Reaper lurking in a corner rather than swallowing up, eating all of your loved ones.

• 7:24Corinne Vien?

  That's the thing, too, going through every single loved one, instead of just

• 7:27Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  And then you don't know who it's gonna be.

• 7:28Corinne Vien?

  Giving the understanding of like, oh, something's wrong with this one person. Like, there's something that's gonna happen tragically.

• 7:34Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yeah.

• 7:34Corinne Vien?

  It does feel like it's feeding, like it knows what's already gonna come, and it's not there to deliver the news. It's there to feed on the fear.

• 7:41Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yep.

• 7:42Corinne Vien?

  Set up what's about to happen so that it can return after and be like, oh, next time I need a good, good meal.

• 7:48Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Good dose, good hit. Yeah, no, Odd says, I realize now that this continuously occurs more than once, only when someone is going to pass soon.

• 7:59Corinne Vien?

  Wow.

• 7:59Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Anyway, yeah. I'd die if you read this. Stay spooky, stay you, stay safe from Odd.

• 8:05Corinne Vien?

  Please don't die.

• 8:07Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yeah, definitely don't die and be gone, sleep paralysis demon. How rude.

• 8:11Corinne Vien?

  Yeah.

• 8:12Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  How dare it.

• 8:12Corinne Vien?

  It does kind of make me wonder, like, what is this? Because if it keeps happening before someone dies, is this the sleep paralysis demon doing what it wants to do to use Odd's, like, fear and anxiety? Or is this just some strange way that Odd takes in

• 8:29Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Oh.

• 8:29Corinne Vien?

  information and like processes it? Is this like a weird psychic?

• 8:34Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Maybe it's a combination, but I do feel like it's something feeding off negative energy.

• 8:40Corinne Vien?

  I'm curious. This is not an experience I would wish to share. Oops. Sorry about that.

• 8:46Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Oh, my God, how unprofessional of us. Our lighter.

• 8:50Corinne Vien?

  Did they not have Bic lighters back in 1927?

• 8:55Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  I actually really love this set.

• 8:57Corinne Vien?

  Yeah, this is, I can't believe

• 9:00Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Whoops. You can only really see it. Oh, you can see it in all the shots.

• 9:03Corinne Vien?

  You can see it in all of the shots. Here's the thing, we're time travelers. We tell you we're doing it because otherwise there's a continuity problem. We can't just have it disappear.

• 9:13Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  It's like the Starbucks in Game of Thrones.

• 9:16Corinne Vien?

  Yeah.

• 9:17Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  That was a little Easter egg for you.

• 9:20Corinne Vien?

  Yeah. Oh, find the Bic lighter in every single episode.

• 9:25Corinne Vien?

  This episode is sponsored by Bic.

• 9:27Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  How cool would that be?

• 9:28Corinne Vien?

  They should. We like candles every single day. Every day, because we record every day. Okay, I have a story to share that was shared on Campfire Stories.

• 9:37Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Ooh.

• 9:38Corinne Vien?

  So we're gonna reshare it here.

• 9:39Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Okay.

• 9:39Corinne Vien?

  Which you often don't get, usually Campfire Stories.

• 9:42Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Oh, that's exclusive.

• 9:44Corinne Vien?

  Just for the group that's there.

• 9:45Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yeah.

• 9:46Corinne Vien?

  Okay.

• 9:46Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Do you drink pinkies up?

• 9:47Corinne Vien?

  I feel like I can't not. Like, it's almost like...

• 9:50Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Something feels wrong when you don't.

• 9:51Corinne Vien?

  I have to really focus on putting my pinky down. This is from Isabella. I was so nervous during Campfire Stories, I literally was shaking in my boots. Hi, spooky ladies. It's Isabella. I've been listening to you for a few years, and I usually put you all on when I'm driving, but my favorite time to listen is right before bed. And you definitely usually help me sleep at night. And yes, I also fall asleep watching spooky shows, and something about it just puts me to sleep. This story's gonna be kind of long, but well worth it. I don't really know how to start, so I'm just gonna get into it. I have been having sleep paralysis since I was 12 years old, and I'm 22 now. So I've been dealing with this for quite some time, and I've taught myself how to get out of sleep paralysis. I know when it's gonna start. That is a skill...

• 10:36Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  That's impressive.

• 10:37Corinne Vien?

  Many of us don't have.

• 10:38Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yeah. I heard wiggling your toes is the key.

• 10:40Corinne Vien?

  To like, yeah.

• 10:41Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  If you can get your toes to wiggle, you can get out of it.

• 10:43Corinne Vien?

  Get out of it. Well, if Isabella knows when it's about to start, I'm sure there's some other things too, to make sure you don't even fall into it. It usually happens when I fall asleep on my back and not having something under my back. It starts with static, like TV static, and then I can hear familiar voices talking to me. Sometimes I feel wind over my face, like there's a fan just straight pointed at my face. And I kind of just wake myself or wait for it to fade off because I've become so accustomed to it. But there are two instances that will forever stick with me, both sleep paralysis. My very first time experiencing sleep paralysis literally had me in tears. I remember waking up and hearing a whoosh, whoosh, wind and sound go all over my body,

• 11:27Corinne Vien?

  feeling like there were bricks on my chest. I couldn't move. I was trying so hard to scream for my dad. I remember the bed was spinning, and I was stuck. I could hear bits of voices, and I couldn't really make out the words, but I knew this was supposed to be something. I felt like I was floating and I was spinning, but I was stuck, all while trying to scream for my dad.

• 11:46Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Oh.

• 11:46Corinne Vien?

  And what felt like forever, it probably was 10 seconds, but my bed falls to the ground, and I wake up on my hands and knees.

• 11:55Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Wait, that's a second story where someone fell off the bed coming out of the sleep paralysis.

• 12:00Corinne Vien?

  That's so weird. I used to have a mirror across my bed, not really knowing at 12 that this was a big no-no. And I looked into the mirror, but my vision was completely blurry. I could make out the shape of me, but it wasn't a completely dark room, and outside of the window was a streetlight. On the left of me was the side of the closet door, and right there, I could also make out some sort of black figure that was in the corner. I don't know why I didn't move right away. I was just crying and hysterical because of what just happened. And then after a few minutes of sitting on my hands and my knees, I booked it to my parents' room. I tried to explain to my dad what had happened, but I think him being kind of half asleep, he kind of mistook what I was saying, because I was also crying.

• 12:46Corinne Vien?

  And his response was, spiders won't hurt you. So I slept in my parents' bed for the next few weeks because I was absolutely terrified.

• 12:54Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Fair.

• 12:54Corinne Vien?

  So now, flash forward to 2021. I'm living in my own apartment, and I've come to terms with having encounters with spirits and with my sleep paralysis. We had a ghost named Norma. She was quite nice.

• 13:04Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Love her.

• 13:05Corinne Vien?

  She would help me decorate by knocking pictures down that she didn't like repeatedly.

• 13:10Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  This does not belong here. No.

• 13:12Corinne Vien?

  If we were to move the same picture to a different location, she would still knock it down.

• 13:16Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Oh, maybe she just didn't like that picture?

• 13:18Corinne Vien?

  She didn't like the picture.

• 13:19Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  It was a picture of you.

• 13:22Corinne Vien?

  And then when we would put up a different picture in the place of the one that she would knock down, and she liked it, it would stay up. She also liked to open the washer for us. She would throw my dog's toys around for him. She sounds great.

• 13:34Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yeah.

• 13:35Corinne Vien?

  She's just helping you be the best version of yourself.

• 13:38Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  That's all you could ask for from a ghost.

• 13:40Corinne Vien?

  Anyway, back to sleep paralysis. As I was falling asleep one night, I remember getting that static feeling of sleep paralysis. I heard an unknown woman's voice repeat to me, stay, don't go. Stay, don't go. Before the actual sleep paralysis was going to happen, I knew I needed to flip onto my side or onto my stomach, so I did. And it woke me up just enough to realize that my closet door was open. I never sleep with it open because, oh, scary. So I got up and I closed my closet door. After I drifted off to sleep and I was dreaming, I woke up in my dream. And what happens next is a dream, I think, but I was floating through realities and different universes.

• 14:19Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Whoa, what? Wait, these kind of sound like interesting sleep paralysis experiences.

• 14:24Corinne Vien?

  It's not just like one...

• 14:26Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Bordering lucid dreaming.

• 14:27Corinne Vien?

  Mm-hmm.

• 14:28Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Okay.

• 14:28Corinne Vien?

  It kind of reminds me of when, yeah, when you were...

• 14:31Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  The gateway tapes?

• 14:32Corinne Vien?

  Astral projecting somewhere, and then someone yelled at you to...

• 14:35Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Get back. Wake up.

• 14:37Corinne Vien?

  Wake up. I woke up and I was at my parents' house. I was in my childhood bedroom, and this room was in the basement. I was very confused because I knew I had fallen asleep at my apartment, and all of my toys and stuff in my room had been gone years ago, but this was still my room. I knew my parents had got rid of it all, but there I was in this room. My dad comes running down the stairs, tells me I need to go because the galaxy was looking for me. And I was so confused, but he reiterated that important people were looking for me.

• 15:05Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  The men in black? You saw something you weren't supposed to see?

• 15:09Corinne Vien?

  Ooh, I have chills. Like, run. This is so scary. He showed me a doggy door type thing in my closet, which was under the stairs, and told me to keep going until I made it home. How very Coraline.

• 15:18Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  There's a girl on TikTok and Instagram who does these like crazy creepy videos where she'll like open the oven, and then like someone's head is in it, and then it like cuts really quickly to her like running down a hallway.

• 15:29Corinne Vien?

  Ooh.

• 15:30Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  It's super, I mean, it's so cinematic, but it reminds me of this, where it feels dreamlike.

• 15:35Corinne Vien?

  Unsettling.

• 15:36Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yeah.

• 15:36Corinne Vien?

  Where you like can't really predict what's coming next.

• 15:38Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yeah.

• 15:38Corinne Vien?

  I vividly remember feeling the carpet changing as I crawled through the door into the next room, which was literally the same room, but now everything was opposite. The closet was on the right instead of the left, the door was on the right instead of the left, et cetera. And as I walked up the stairs, two guys who from behind looked like my brother and my dad were sitting in my family's living room. Keep in mind, the whole house was opposite than normal. So they're sitting there, they're watching TV, but on the TV was a baseball game. It had eight batters and eight pitchers that all went at once. The two guys did not notice me, but this lady who looked similar enough to my mom did notice me.

• 16:13Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  It is very Coraline.

• 16:15Corinne Vien?

  Yeah. The others, the other mother, the other brother, of her father. She came up to me and said, honey, you're not supposed to be here, in the exact same voice as when I had my sleep paralysis. She led me back into my room and told me to keep going until I reached home. So I went through the doggy door once again, and I came to another version of my childhood home. But this time, everything was different. It was very modern, it was very minimal. The walls had texture to them that I'd never felt, but I can't remember. They're kind of like similar to popcorn ceilings, but not as flaky. Anyway, again, I saw two men who resembled my dad and my brother and a lady. No one but the lady was able to see me or talk to me.

• 16:58Corinne Vien?

  And this time, she said, stay, don't go. Exactly how the sleep paralysis lady had said it to me. I remember running from her, running back to the closet because I did not feel safe at all. It really almost felt like Coraline and the other mother. She agrees. The last time I went through the closet, I came out into my apartment closet, and I just remember seeing my bed frame. And then I actually woke up. I woke up and my knees had red marks all over them, like I had been crawling on carpet and on my hands and knees. My hands and my knees felt so odd. I look over, my closet door is open, even though I vividly remember closing it before I fell asleep.

• 17:41Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  The heck.

• 17:42Corinne Vien?

  Anyway, I have a ton of other spooky stories from a peekaboo doll going off in the middle of the night, seeing a young girl in the mirror, my friend's dead hamster haunting us, and more Norma stories. But I'll send those in later. And I'd say, see you on the other side, but I don't really believe in other sides exactly. So I hope we meet in this lifetime or another.

• 18:00Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  You don't believe on other sides when you just crawled through 20 of them?

• 18:04Corinne Vien?

  Many different versions of reality. Perhaps we've met in other universes, from Isabella.

• 18:10Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Okay, so you don't believe on other side, but you believe in other universes.

• 18:13Corinne Vien?

  Specific other side.

• 18:15Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Okay. There's not just like one singular flip side?

• 18:17Corinne Vien?

  Not one place that we all go.

• 18:19Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Fair. I do agree with that.

• 18:21Corinne Vien?

  Ooh, I hate that. I hate waking up and having evidence on your physical body of what you were just doing.

• 18:27Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  It reminds me of, is it Nikita's story?

• 18:28Corinne Vien?

  Nikita.

• 18:29Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Where she felt like she was dragged down the hallway?

• 18:32Corinne Vien?

  My, my dear friend Nikita, she, in her, she's in, ma, I won't say the actual town. I was about to like give like her, her home address.

• 18:40Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Her social security number.

• 18:42Corinne Vien?

  She's from Orange County, and she, one night, got up to go to the bathroom, and then remembers just being like ripped and dragged down the hallway, like down the carpet, and screaming and crying and like clawing to try to keep herself from being dragged by this like unseen entity. And then she woke up in the morning and was like, oh my God, that was a horrific nightmare. That came out of nowhere. Took the covers off, looks at her legs, rug burns all down her body, the front of her body where she was...

• 19:10Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  It wasn't a nightmare.

• 19:11Corinne Vien?

  Dragged across the floor.

• 19:13Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Horrifying.

• 19:14Corinne Vien?

  Yeah, very, very scary.

• 19:16Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Aside from that part, I do feel like it was a cool, what a cool dream. And be able to like crawl through different versions of reality.

• 19:24Corinne Vien?

  It is weird, though, that it's like this other mother seems to be both her guardian and her captor, depending on which version she crawls through, you know, saying like, stay, don't go. Or like, don't let them take you, don't fall asleep. You have to go back home. And then she gets a little too deep into this very like Alice in Wonderland type thing, too, like crawling through or falling through.

• 19:47Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Our set has a little Alice in Wonderland vibe.

• 19:48Corinne Vien?

  Yeah.

• 19:49Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yeah.

• 19:49Corinne Vien?

  I feel like you look very Queen of Hearts.

• 19:51Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Thank you.

• 19:52Corinne Vien?

  Yes, the, what, what's her name?

• 19:54Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  I forget.

• 19:55Corinne Vien?

  Whatever.

• 19:55Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  The Queen.

• 19:56Corinne Vien?

  The Queen. The Queen of Hearts.

• 19:58Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  But I laughed because, so coming in to Corinne's house today, I was texting Corinne and you said something about like not wanting to do makeup because you have to do clown makeup. And then I got nervous. I was like, I feel like our clowns might be very different.

• 20:13Corinne Vien?

  They still are decently different.

• 20:15Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  But they're the same vibe.

• 20:16Corinne Vien?

  Similar vibe. I had some stronger limitations in terms of what I could wear.

• 20:20Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  As in being nine months pregnant?

• 20:22Corinne Vien?

  Yeah. I feel like you actually went with like Victorian clown costume.

• 20:28Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  I went Pinterest Victorian clown.

• 20:30Corinne Vien?

  Yes. Mine, I knew what our vision was, but I couldn't fit most of the stuff. So I just went like vintage clown.

• 20:38Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yeah. We, we did the same colors.

• 20:40Corinne Vien?

  Technically, this is a pirate costume skirt, but I did what I could.

• 20:44Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  You look great.

• 20:45Corinne Vien?

  And this is it.

• 20:45Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  I actually really like these costumes.

• 20:47Corinne Vien?

  Yeah.

• 20:47Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  I'm a fan.

• 20:48Corinne Vien?

  There's a chance my top is different next time because I'm starting to sweat. I might need my armpits exposed.

• 20:52Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Free them, free the pit.

• 20:53Corinne Vien?

  A little bit.

• 20:54Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Free the pit. This episode of Two Girls, One Ghost is sponsored by BetterHelp because then there are plenty of reasons why we put off getting support. And for a lot of people, cost is one of them. But with BetterHelp, insurance options may now be available nationwide with an average copay for eligible members of just $23 per session. And while we're reconsidering old assumptions, maybe there are a few others worth questioning, too. Like, I don't know how, as a woman, we inherit a lot of unwritten rules, like be ambitious, but not intimidating, be there for everyone, but also still make time for yourself. Is that not an impossible conundrum and task to do? I also feel a lot of other things because I'm human and it's so helpful to have someone

• 21:37Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  to talk through everyday issues. So if you've been wanting to start therapy, BetterHelp works with more than 125 health plan networks and eligible members have an average copay of just $23 with insurance. If you don't have insurance or live outside the US, you can still get 10% off your first month. Visit betterhelp.com/tgog to explore your payment options. That's better H E L P dot com slash T G O G.

• 22:08Speaker 00

  This episode is brought to you by Americans United for Separation of Church and State. Hey, everyone. This is Jonathan Van Ness from Getting Better. You know what you believe. Maybe your faith is at the center of your life. Maybe you're still figuring it out. Maybe religion just isn't your thing. Those choices are personal and in America, they should stay personal. That's why Americans United for Separation of Church and State is fighting for something that affects all of us. The freedom to live as yourself and believe as you choose, so long as you don't harm others. Because religious freedom isn't just about protecting your right to practice or not. And it surely isn't about having one forced government sanctioned religion. It's about protecting your right to say, this is what I believe, while your neighbor says,

• 22:53Speaker 00

  I believe something completely different. And honestly, that's the whole point. If that sounds like the kind of America you want, learn more at au.org/gettingbetter. Because your beliefs are yours and theirs are theirs.

• 23:09Speaker 05

  Whenever fall comes back around, it always feels like a fresh start. This year, I've been layering in some styles from the new Lululemon fall drop because the weather is shifting and I find I have to be ready for the entire day and not just one part of it. Lululemon's fall line has some really versatile transitional pieces. So I can just wake up, throw on a matching set, add a jacket or a fleece and head out, knowing that I'll feel comfortable enough to go wherever the day takes me. Check out the new fall arrivals in store and online now at lululemon.com.

• 23:40Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  I have another one that is called The Entity That Follows Me. Red Door, Yellow Door, and more.

• 23:46Corinne Vien?

  Red Door, Yellow Door.

• 23:47Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  This is from our listener, Dino. Now, I feel it's fair to say before the whole story, a little introduction. You can call me Dino. I'm Muslim, so most of the things I see or experience make me feel a certain way, knowing I don't know what to believe. Is it the gin or something else? I don't know. I'm not as in tune with religion as I'd like to be. So if anyone has answers, please let me know.

• 24:09Corinne Vien?

  I will say, I feel like being Muslim and there's a bunch of other like religions and cultures and stuff where it does seem scary because there's more options. Like there's more creatures.

• 24:20Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  It could be anything.

• 24:21Corinne Vien?

  Yeah. Where it's like, how do you even differentiate between some of the entities that come forward?

• 24:25Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Did I tell you my dad called me recently? I know, shocking in it, in it of itself.

• 24:30Corinne Vien?

  Oh, the horror.

• 24:31Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  He called me? No, but the reason he called me, because he doesn't call me otherwise, was he met up with a friend who's like terribly plagued by entities. And he was asking if I had advice and I was like, I don't know. I'm not a professional. I just talk about ghosts.

• 24:46Corinne Vien?

  Should have advice, it should be your dad since he

• 24:49Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yeah.

• 24:49Corinne Vien?

  like has gone through so much and seen so many things.

• 24:52Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  But he like, this guy built a ha- brand new house on brand new property. I mean, no property is brand new, but like on land. And ever since then, he like feels like this entity has literally like climbed on his back and suffocating him.

• 25:04Corinne Vien?

  Holy crap.

• 25:05Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yeah.

• 25:06Corinne Vien?

  Now I want him to take pictures of himself and see if he can see the thing.

• 25:10Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Like on him?

• 25:10Corinne Vien?

  Latched onto him.

• 25:11Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  I told my dad to go help, but then I was also like, I don't know. I don't want that getting attached to you because you seem like a prime victim.

• 25:18Corinne Vien?

  I was like, it'll help the guy because it'll be like, ooh, this guy.

• 25:22Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Fresh meat.

• 25:23Corinne Vien?

  This guy and his 12 other demons that are already here.

• 25:25Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yeah.

• 25:26Corinne Vien?

  Camp out.

• 25:27Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Leech, leech on. Okay. So Dino says, you will notice a bunch of my experiences include my best friend, who we will call Emma. This poor girl has been dragged along by my oversized ass into so much creepy spooky shit. I'm surprised she's still my friend. So here's the story about the weird shit I did in my apartment and the entity that followed me. I was always a spooky kid. I loved weird and creepy stuff. Think Life of Luxury, Sam and Colby, horror movies, creepy documentaries, et cetera. And my poor best friend was forced to play with me. Like I said, her name is Emma. And Emma was interested in similar stuff, but to a much smaller extent. And also never actually excitedly went to play those cursed games with me, more begrudgingly.

• 26:09Corinne Vien?

  Sounds kind of like our dynamic.

• 26:11Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Can you guess?

• 26:12Corinne Vien?

  I'm excited by topic.

• 26:13Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Dragging who?

• 26:14Corinne Vien?

  But when it comes to actually being asked to play certain things.

• 26:18Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  I'm the bad influence.

• 26:21Corinne Vien?

  It's fun to talk about. It's not always fun to do.

• 26:23Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  I want to do both.

• 26:26Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  I'm Dino in this situation. You're Emma. Okay, let's role play.

• 26:30Corinne Vien?

  We don't need to. It's our real life.

• 26:31Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  It's true. Okay, so now these games, there was Freddy, Freddy, hide and seek. And all of those had minor experiences that I don't think are worth mentioning. But there is one that we played that I vividly remember to this day. It is when me and Emma played Red Door, Yellow Door. Yes, I totally forced her ass to play with me. And obviously she did not want to be the one laying down and experiencing it all. So she was the medium that channeled me. And we talked about Red Door, Yellow Door, I think in two encounters ago. Just as context, basically one person lays with their like eyes closed. And then the other person is the guide who puts the person laying down in like a meditative state to a point where you're like seeing hallways. And then the guide's like, okay, what do you see? And then guides you through what you're seeing.

• 27:15Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  So Dino's laying down. Emma's the medium. I put the pillow in Emma's lap. I laid down. I closed my eyes and I waited while she recited, red door, yellow door, any other color door, et cetera. I don't genuinely remember all the other chant, but I got to a place where I was sort of lucid dreaming and I saw a big warehouse with a bunch of doors. Picture a very wide and tall concrete hallway with doors down both sides of the walls. Emma guides me door by door. Can you touch it? Can you open it? Is it locked? I was able to open some doors where the rooms were empty. Other doors were locked. I also feel like it's worth mentioning that the doors were very tightly packed while the rooms behind the door were huge. So the space of it all didn't make sense.

• 27:57Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Eventually I go past all the boring gray doors and I find a yellow door. I open it and there is a surgical table, very abandoned looking, by the way. And I go to check it out and I find one of those old style key loops with a ton of rusty keys on it. And on this key loop was one shiny, plastic looking red key amongst the rusty keys. So I leave the room, holding this key loop and I keep going door by door until I find a red door, which just so happens to be locked. So Emma tells me to use the red key. She's guiding me through this all. I insert the red key into the door and it unlocks. I open the door and in this room is an overly tall man crouching in the corner.

• 28:41Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  And if I remember the rules of the game, if you see anything or anyone alive, you should immediately stop the game. Don't count on me for that, though. I, I might be misremembering the rules. But anyway, Emma, for some reason, tells me to approach the man, which I very stupidly do. I touch him on the shoulder when he lifts his long bald head and he looks at me and stares for what feels like minutes. And then, all of a sudden, in that silence, while staring at me, his jaw drops and he screams bloody murder.

• 29:13Corinne Vien?

  Oh, that is so freaky. I feel like any entity just screaming at you is terrifying because I'm like, it feels like it precedes a chase.

• 29:22Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  And it feels inhuman.

• 29:23Corinne Vien?

  Yes.

• 29:24Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Obviously, I was terrified and I start running my dumb ass out of there. In my head, I'm begging Emma for, to tell me what to do, but I hear nothing. All of a sudden, Emma is silent. So I'm running down this weird abandoned infinite warehouse as this giant tall man. I say man, but hey, it was more humanoid. No clothing, no body parts, just a smooth skin body. It's chasing the living hell out of me. I'm screaming, basically crying, running down the infinite hallway until I find an open, pure white door, which I saw as a sign to go inside. I go in, I close the door and I cry. I have only but a second before the bald man is pounding on the outside of the door. And he starts randomly screeching.

• 30:03Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  And then I wake up. Apparently, I had passed out after opening the red door and I stopped responding to Emma, even though I thought I was screaming and talking, trying to talk to her. When I came to, my head was not on Emma's lap anymore. It was on the floor with Emma crying on top of me, shaking me, screaming at me to wake up.

• 30:20Corinne Vien?

  This is so, it's horrifying. Like, when a game actually works and all of this is happening.

• 30:26Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Who wants to play red door, yellow door after listening to this?

• 30:28Corinne Vien?

  And it's also like, what's scarier, being the one that goes through all of this? Or being the friend who's like, watching?

• 30:34Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  They're both pretty terrifying. Not being able to wake your friend up, yeah.

• 30:38Corinne Vien?

  Yeah.

• 30:39Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  So needless to say, that was the last cursed game we played, but I have a lot of other experiences that have happened since. And I'm not sure if they're connected, or if this man has followed me. But here's my next story. I'm calling it "The Weird Creepy Antler Man." So again, it's me and Emma. And we were having a sleepover at Emma's house. We decided to have some snacks, and that would make the night so much more fun. It was like 8:00 PM. And we felt awkward asking her parents to drive us, so we decided to go for a little walk to the nearest store to get our snacks. And now, something you should know is her house is in a very rural place. She has this giant highway bridge, almost right above her house. And tragically, there are a lot of suicides that take place on this bridge.

• 31:18Corinne Vien?

  So sad.

• 31:19Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  And since it's a rural place, there were a lot of abandoned houses, and full-on abandoned buildings, etc. There was this large abandoned three-story house with an oddly pointy gable roof. And I mention this because right under the gable roof peak, there was a window, or, well, a hole where there should be a window. And as we were walking by, I look up to the window. And now, keep in mind, the room behind the window is dark, black, but not pitch black. And I see this lanky, little, skinny figure. It's holding its hands up over by its head. And these hands have insanely long fingers, pointed, that almost look like antlers. I genuinely don't know how to explain it. Imagine the K-pop group Itzy's hand crown sign, but with insanely long, pointy fingers,

• 32:02Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  and just red dots for eyes. Not really glowing, but just there. Now, I mentioned the room being dark, but not pitch black, because this creature, this was pitch black. I mean, zero definition. It was the absence of light, so dark, with tiny red eyes. I point at it, and I assume Emma saw it too, because seconds later, we are sprinting back home, where we told Emma's mom what had happened. And she just goes pale, and says, "Okay, um, do you guys wanna go eat dinner now?" I never found out why she went so pale, or if there really is any backstory. But yeah, now for the sleep paralysis story. This is called Fred, the Sleep Paralysis Demon. So I'm not sure when this started happening.

• 32:44Corinne Vien?

  Fred is also just such an unassuming name.

• 32:46Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Maybe that's what you call the demon to make it less scary?

• 32:50Corinne Vien?

  Yeah, I guess. I'm assuming that it didn't announce itself as Fred.

• 32:55Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  It's like, crouching on your chest. "I am Fred. I am Fred. Come here, Fred. I am your friend now."

• 33:02Corinne Vien?

  Oh, now I feel bad for it. Now I will be its friend.

• 33:04Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  You won't feel bad in a second.

• 33:06Corinne Vien?

  Okay.

• 33:06Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Okay. So I'm not sure when this started happening. At least six or seven years ago at this point, probably after one of my many butchered cursed game attempts. You know, I did a lot of DIY Ouija boards, playing with no rules, by myself, etc. Yeah, we get the point, Dino. You've done a lot. You've tempted fate.

• 33:22Corinne Vien?

  Fred is after you.

• 33:23Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  So I started seeing this really tall, dark, skinny, lanky, and pointy shadow figure appear. First, in my dreams. And these dreams always started the same. It was very vivid, and I was running down an infinite staircase while he walked behind me, playing the flute. I don't know what the flute symbolizes, or if it has any meaning, since I never saw it outside of the dreams. But now, these dreams kept repeating over and over for weeks, until everything went back to normal, except it didn't. Sure, my dreams were fine for a little bit, but then, there he was, sleep paralysis. And again, this skinny, lanky, tall dude just walking up to me, me snapping awake, and all of a sudden, it was morning. The time where my sleep paralysis was happening, it was pitch dark, middle of the night.

• 34:07Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yet, all of a sudden, I snap awake and it's morning? So what's happening in those hours? And now, I see my boy Fred randomly, at night, behind my door, next to my bed, in the hallway, peeking behind doors. He even followed me to my new house, that me and my family moved to. He's just there, standing, staring, rarely moving in my vision, though I've seen that before too. And before I get more into what Fred is and how he acts, I do think it's fair to mention why I call him Fred. Considering it was three different ways of seeing him, first of all, I get the same vibe from all apparitions. So it feels like it's the same thing. His intentions feel the same, and it feels like one entity. And also, isn't it some sort of natural progression from dreams to sleep paralysis, to now just a part of my everyday life, waking life?

• 34:48Corinne Vien?

  Yeah, the progression of being stalked by an entity.

• 34:50Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yeah. And Dino says, "I don't know, he just feels like a Fred. He's a chill dude. He's never hurt me or anything." And second, he used to appear randomly back when he was in dreams or sleep paralysis. But now that he's a shadow figure, an apparition of sorts, he only appears when my mental health is poor. So let's say I have poor mental health this week, and then I lay down, and I'll see Fred. So I'll wave, and sometimes I'll say, "Hey," and sometimes he'll move his head, or even open his mouth, and I'll look away, and then look back, and he's gone. But I kind of feel better in those moments?

• 35:21Corinne Vien?

  Oh, okay, wait. This is making me think back to a listener's story we read a few years ago, where there was that demon that would-

• 35:28Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  That eats the negative energy?

• 35:29Corinne Vien?

  Yes, eat negative emotions. So I wonder if maybe that's what he's there for?

• 35:34Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Or that's what he wants you to think, and he is trying to befriend you and make you think that he's cool and comfortable and a chill dude.

• 35:40Corinne Vien?

  Trying to take away somebody with a bad-

• 35:42Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yeah, look, I can help you.

• 35:45Corinne Vien?

  "Oh, you're sad. Let me snack on it."

• 35:48Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  But Dino says, "I know I can do stuff to get rid of Fred, but I don't really want to."

• 35:54Corinne Vien?

  Okay. Who is haunting who?

• 35:57Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  I know, right? Okay, beneath I have attached a photo sketch I did of Fred. I was around 14 when I drew it. He's pretty much still the same. The blue eyes are very fake, and most definitely an artistic decision. Although, it's not looting. Fred, doth you want to appear for us? I'm really glad neither of us are psychics. Could you imagine us reading these stories, and then entities just coming at us all the time?

• 36:22Corinne Vien?

  No, I don't think we'd get as far as we have.

• 36:25Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yeah, I think we've been able to do it because we are closed off.

• 36:28Corinne Vien?

  Yeah. It's funny, because we have this discussion here. Is this the photo?

• 36:32Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yeah. Oh, that looks horrifying, Dino!

• 36:37Corinne Vien?

  It really does. The mouth open, like, fangs coming out, sharp teeth. But we had this discussion more recently at House Witch, which we go every month to get our aura photographed. And I feel like we were talking about how different our auras looked when we first started going, and how much more purple we had, which is more like psychically in tune, or a little more open to like, some spirit activity happening. And now, it's, sometimes that comes up, but like, for me especially, I was so purple for so long. And now, I'm like, lucky if I get like, the tiniest little dot of purple.

• 37:12Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yeah.

• 37:12Corinne Vien?

  It's like, we have to close ourselves off at some point to be able to do this, so we do it.

• 37:19Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Instead of us receiving all the ghosts, we send them your way.

• 37:22Corinne Vien?

  We do. But sometimes, something happens, and-

• 37:26Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Something creeps through.

• 37:27Corinne Vien?

  Something creeps through. Something will come for you. Something that maybe, or maybe it'll come for them.

• 37:34Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  This episode of Two Girls, One Ghost is brought to you by Alloy Health. And let's be honest, aging can come with some unwelcome changes, like sleep disruptions, hot flashes, brain fog, weight gain. Menopause is inevitable, but it's also treatable, which is where Alloy comes in. Alloy is a digital health platform that connects you with a menopause-specialized doctor to help you feel and look your best in midlife. So here's how it works. Alloy solutions are available by prescription, so you complete an intake form, and you'll be matched with a menopause-specialized physician, who will create a personalized treatment plan tailored to your specific needs. Plus, you'll have unlimited access to your doctor, so you can message them anytime. And once approved, Alloy ships your prescription directly to your door with automatic refills.

• 38:18Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  I personally was looking to try retinol creams, and their physician helped personalize a skincare routine for me. Join the 95% of women who tried HRT through Alloy and saw relief in the first two weeks. Head to myalloy.com and use the code T G O G, and tell them all about your symptoms. And you'll get a fully customized treatment plan and unlimited messaging with your doctor. Plus, you'll get 20% off your first order today. Head to M Y A L L O Y dot com and use code T G O G to get 20% off your first order. This code is valid on products only.

• 38:53Speaker 00

  This episode is brought to you by Americans United for Separation of Church and State. Hey, everyone, this is Jonathan Van Ness from Getting Better. You know what you believe. Maybe your faith is at the center of your life. Maybe you're still figuring it out. Maybe religion just isn't your thing. Those choices are personal, and in America, they should stay personal. That's why Americans United for Separation of Church and State is fighting for something that affects all of us. The freedom to live as yourself and believe as you choose, so long as you don't harm others. Because religious freedom isn't just about protecting your right to practice or not. And it surely isn't about having one forced, government-sanctioned religion. It's about protecting your right to say, "This is what I believe,"

• 39:36Speaker 00

  while your neighbor says, "I believe something completely different." And honestly, that's the whole point. If that sounds like the kind of America you want, learn more at au.org/gettingbetter. Because your beliefs are yours, and theirs are theirs.

• 39:54Speaker 05

  Whenever fall comes back around, it always feels like a fresh start. This year, I've been layering in some styles from the new Lululemon fall drop, because the weather is shifting, and I find I have to be ready for the entire day, and not just one part of it. Lululemon's fall line has some really versatile transitional pieces, so I can just wake up, throw on a matching set, add a jacket or a fleece, and head out, knowing that I'll feel comfortable enough to go wherever the day takes me. Check out the new fall arrivals in store and online now at lululemon.com.

• 40:25Corinne Vien?

  Because this story is called "The Hat Man Owe Me Money."

• 40:29Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Why do I feel like this is like the ghost mob?

• 40:33Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  You're gonna go break some knees.

• 40:35Corinne Vien?

  This is like the best intro too. "Hi, my witchy spooky one-brained-celled bitches."

• 40:42Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  One-brained cell.

• 40:44Corinne Vien?

  "My name is MJ, please feel free to use it so I can feel famous."

• 40:48Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Hi MJ.

• 40:49Corinne Vien?

  "I find out about you guys through the weird bitches on Morbid

• 40:53Corinne Vien?

  and have binged from episode one to encounters 262 in the past six months."

• 40:58Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Snaps for you.

• 40:59Corinne Vien?

  Oh my gosh. I'm a stay-at-home mom with three boys. Blessings to you. So you guys help me stay sane or feel sane while my feral-ass kids have me on the verge of changing my name and fleeing the country. Corinne, welcome to motherhood.

• 41:16Corinne Vien?

  And I'm about to have two boys, so I'm on that journey.

• 41:18Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Catching up.

• 41:19Corinne Vien?

  "Sabrina, I've sent you a heartfelt DM on Instagram."

• 41:22Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Oh, thank you.

• 41:22Corinne Vien?

  "I love you both immensely. You're kicking ass on the podcast." "I don't have too much in terms of spooky stories against my will, but a story you just read about sleep paralysis finally motivated me to send in this story. It is one of the most terrifying things that has ever happened to me."

• 41:36Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Oh gosh.

• 41:37Corinne Vien?

  "I'm from a smaller suburb outside of Sacramento, California. When I was 15, I started dating a man in his twenties, truly the most horrifying part of all of this, and he became controlling and manipulative and abusive."

• 41:49Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Boo. Let's send the hat man after him.

• 41:52Corinne Vien?

  Yes.

• 41:52Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  See, that I do wish.

• 41:53Corinne Vien?

  Have the hat man steal all of his money.

• 41:55Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  I wish I had control over who got haunted.

• 41:57Corinne Vien?

  Right.

• 41:58Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Where we have no control, and I think that has been proven over the years.

• 42:01Corinne Vien?

  Yes. But it's frustrating. It's like, why are all these... I was gonna say, why are all the bad people not plagued? Like, perhaps they are and it's contributing to things.

• 42:10Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yeah.

• 42:11Corinne Vien?

  I don't know. Okay, so I came from a toxic childhood, a lot of bullying, so this kind of felt normal. It wasn't a red flag to me. Not anymore, though. I'm now known for being pretty outspoken and standing up for myself and for others. But when I was about 17, so this was 2013, I moved to Wyoming to get away from this abusive relationship and from my alcoholic dad. Until my ex found out about my move and followed me there.

• 42:38Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  My gosh.

• 42:39Corinne Vien?

  So we're back together. We're living in an apartment. And on this day, I was off from work and I still woke up early to make him his coffee and his breakfast and to say goodbye. And after he left, I cleaned up the kitchen and sat on the couch to watch some TV and I started to doze off. After however long, I hear a sharp whisper saying, "Wake up!" right in my ear. I felt the breath. I felt everything. And as I startled awake, I realized I could not move anything except for my eyes. I'm looking around the best my eyes can and I hear two male voices whispering in my apartment. If you're sitting on the couch facing the TV, to the right of the couch is a sliding glass door to our balcony. And our couch was not pushed against the back wall, but far away enough that you could walk behind the couch

• 43:23Corinne Vien?

  to get to the sliding glass door, if that makes sense. Okay, so you had a couple of feet between the couch and the doors. But the way that this was set up, if someone walked behind the couch, you could see their shadow on the wall due to the way that the sun would come in through the sliding glass door. So I can see these men's shadows. They're on the wall. They're pacing back and forth. I'm laying there. I'm unable to move. I'm listening to their whispers. I start trying to figure out what they're saying and immediately I'm thinking, if I can't move, they must have injected me with something, right?

• 43:51Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  I think that's one of the scariest parts is that you can have such conscious thoughts during sleep paralysis.

• 43:56Corinne Vien?

  Yeah. Right. And then it's like, in this scenario, paranormal hasn't crossed

• 44:01Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Right. Her mind.

• 44:02Corinne Vien?

  Yeah. She's thinking, there's an intruder.

• 44:04Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Intruders.

• 44:05Corinne Vien?

  And I'm about to be like, taken. So I'm thinking they injected me with something, right? So how do I get out of it? Am I getting robbed? Am I about to get kidnapped? How the fuck did they get in here? And then I hear it. One of them said, "Body," and it hit me. Are they about to... And I will say, I've been fascinated with true crime and therefore I have a lot of extra cautious thoughts about locking doors and going anywhere alone and all this, but I start to think about the possibility that they are about to assault me.

• 44:34Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Oh, so scary.

• 44:36Corinne Vien?

  I hear them say, "We'll hide her body on the mountain." Excuse me? Murder? Well, okay, now I'm panicking. I'm scared that I'm about to get kidnapped from my own home. I'm about to be raped and murdered, left on some random-ass mountain in a state far away from my friends, my family, and I can't fight, I can't speak, I can't even flip them off while they're doing any of this to me. So I close my eyes. I'm trying to calm myself down so I can think more clearly, come up with a plan. And then suddenly, I gasp and I wake back up. I'm in my apartment. I'm on the couch, sitting there with the TV still on, but where did these people go?

• 45:12Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  What the hell?

• 45:13Corinne Vien?

  I have no marks on my body. There's no sign that anyone had been there. I checked the whole apartment and nothing. I tried to calm myself down. I tried to not think about it, but what kind of weird-ass dream was that? And why? When my shit-stained ex came home from work that night, I told him the whole thing. I'm on the verge of tears because it was so scary. And his response? "You let men inside our home?"

• 45:37Corinne Vien?

  The rage?

• 45:39Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yeah.

• 45:39Corinne Vien?

  I feel.

• 45:42Corinne Vien?

  "No, you insecure absolute walnut brain of a man. I did not let random men off the street and into our apartment. It was a horrible dream that scared the shit out of me." Of course, this ended in an argument. I told my mom about it on the phone the next day and she told me about sleep paralysis. And that is when I figured, okay, well, that must have been what I had. Everyone else talks about seeing the hat man, but clearly he was too busy to even haunt me during this experience. And now I think I'm owed some compensation. I want a refund.

• 46:15Corinne Vien?

  Keep it up, ladies, MJ.

• 46:16Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  We're just picturing like Google reviews for the hat man experiences. He didn't even bother to show up.

• 46:21Corinne Vien?

  Only saw the shadow.

• 46:23Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Okay, well, here's a alternative little spin on this story. Yes, it's scary and I don't really have an answer for what they were saying in terms of hiding her body on the mountain, but you've got a shit-stained of a boyfriend.

• 46:35Corinne Vien?

  Yep.

• 46:35Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Could these be some spiritual protectors, guardians of some kind? And they're plotting how to get you away from him.

• 46:42Corinne Vien?

  Oh, yeah.

• 46:43Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Let's take her to the mountain.

• 46:44Corinne Vien?

  Are you sure they said "her"? Or was it his body in the mountain?

• 46:47Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  His body in the mountain.

• 46:48Corinne Vien?

  Yes. Were they about to possess you and have you just go through the motions of eliminating the threat?

• 46:57Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  I'm glad that that didn't happen, but I am glad that you got away from shit-stain.

• 47:02Corinne Vien?

  Mr. Shits.

• 47:02Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Mr. Shits. I hope he shit his pants.

• 47:05Corinne Vien?

  He pisses me off. He's the worst part of this story.

• 47:07Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  I know. Humans are worse than spirits.

• 47:09Corinne Vien?

  Yeah.

• 47:10Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  And demons. I'd take a demon any day.

• 47:12Corinne Vien?

  The threat of a demon trying to kill you, way less scary than a man.

• 47:15Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Man or bear? Man or demon? Demon every day.

• 47:17Corinne Vien?

  Demon.

• 47:18Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  All day, every day.

• 47:19Corinne Vien?

  Demon, bear, killer whale.

• 47:20Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Killer whale.

• 47:22Corinne Vien?

  Pretty much anything.

• 47:23Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Aliens? Yeah. Duh. Sorry, I just had to make it about me.

• 47:26Corinne Vien?

  Aliens.

• 47:27Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Aliens. Please come get me.

• 47:30Corinne Vien?

  Bigfoots really need to start using their power to help our species. They're in the woods. Bad things happen on the trails. See something, do something, Bigfoot.

• 47:39Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  I know.

• 47:39Corinne Vien?

  Your new rule of living.

• 47:40Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Bigfoot, you're welcome to come into my life anytime and take away shitty men.

• 47:46Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  You decide.

• 47:46Corinne Vien?

  What would you do with them, Bigfoot?

• 47:48Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  A little snacky?

• 47:49Corinne Vien?

  It's like, are they snack? Are they being kept like little pets?

• 47:52Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Oh my gosh.

• 47:53Corinne Vien?

  In a cage?

• 47:54Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  I love that idea.

• 47:55Corinne Vien?

  Like, what happens? Because in Bigfoot, we think of the strength and you just automatically think, okay, they're gonna like murder and eat.

• 48:01Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Right.

• 48:02Corinne Vien?

  Or dismember.

• 48:03Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  But maybe they need a pet.

• 48:04Corinne Vien?

  But maybe they're like, mm, this is exactly what I need.

• 48:07Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  A little house cat. Meow, meow. Meow, bitch.

• 48:10Corinne Vien?

  Meow, meow, meow.

• 48:11Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Okay, I have one more to end us on. It is from our listener Lauren, or Lo, whichever one we want to use.

• 48:18Corinne Vien?

  Lo, just, I can't hear Lo without thinking of...

• 48:21Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Our friend Lauren?

• 48:22Corinne Vien?

  No, Laguna Beach in the hills.

• 48:26Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Okay, this is called "Sleep Paralysis and a Dark Entity." "I've been listening to your podcast for just about a month now and I am so happy I have several years' worth of episodes to catch up on because I'm addicted to binging these encounters episodes. This is my first email submission."

• 48:40Corinne Vien?

  I forgot that I had black makeup here and I started rubbing my eyes, so, sorry.

• 48:44Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  You have a little smudge. It's okay.

• 48:45Corinne Vien?

  It's nothing I can do about it now.

• 48:47Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  More authentic, because I feel like clowns like in the circus tent.

• 48:50Corinne Vien?

  Sweating.

• 48:51Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yeah.

• 48:51Corinne Vien?

  There's hay everywhere. I'm sneezing.

• 48:53Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  And it's a little scary, like, ah, are they gonna be friendly or are they gonna scare me?

• 48:58Corinne Vien?

  Or do they suffer from seasonal allergies?

• 49:01Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Okay, so this is a story about a sleep paralysis demon, and it is not my first experience with the paranormal, but definitely one of the most memorable. For background, I grew up in a small town in Kansas and I lived there for the first 20 years of my life. I'm now 22 and I live in Florida with my boyfriend. For Christmas of 2025, I returned home to visit my parents and my one younger brother at home in Kansas. We lived in a newer suburban neighborhood just outside of Wichita, which is not a place you typically assume to be haunted, although I feel like Kansas haunted. Anywhere haunted.

• 49:32Corinne Vien?

  Yes.

• 49:32Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Okay, so anyway, in previous years, my biological but now estranged grandfather had at one point been staying in the guest bedroom that I was now staying at while visiting this Christmas. But my grandfather, who we have since found out is not a good man, hence why he's estranged, brought a lot of negative energy into this house. And my mom, who's also sensitive to negative entities and energies, has felt it too. And now here I am, staying in the room he spent a lot of time in. And I'm a person who has experienced sleep paralysis probably hundreds of times, but I have never experienced anything like this. So I'm sleeping in the guest bedroom of my parents' home. It's about 4:00 AM. I'm laying on my stomach with my head turned to the left and I wake up to find myself suddenly in a state of sleep paralysis.

• 50:17Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  And then I feel the weight of someone who is probably 200 pounds at least pushing me down deeper and deeper into the mattress. And I feel the warmth of what feels like human hands on my shoulders pushing me down. As I lay there completely paralyzed, I am able to see a black, dark, smoky, human-esque figure hovering above my body. In my paralyzed state, I try to scream for my parents, but no sound comes out except for a slightly breathy moan.

• 50:46Corinne Vien?

  Suddenly I feel choked by my costume.

• 50:49Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yeah.

• 50:49Corinne Vien?

  Ugh, these stories are horrifying.

• 50:51Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  "Since I have experienced sleep paralysis before, I knew how to escape. I take a breath. I calm myself. I slowly urge myself to wiggle my fingertips and my toes. And finally, eventually, I'm able to and able to fully wake myself up. As I wake up, as the paralysis ends, that figure dissipates and I watched it dissipate. At this point now, it's the early hours of the morning and I'm too tired to go wake anyone else up to tell them about my experience, so I just decide to go back to sleep. But I am fully convinced that this was some sort of negative entity that my grandfather brought with him into the house. And I have not experienced anything like it since. Stay spooky and see you on the other side. Lauren/Low."

• 51:33Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  The hands, because it's one thing feeling weight.

• 51:36Corinne Vien?

  Yeah.

• 51:36Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  That's scary, don't get me wrong, but feeling actual hands.

• 51:41Corinne Vien?

  Well, and it's like, it's beyond weight. It feels like the hands are physically pushing her down. Like, where are you trying to?

• 51:48Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Push me to?

• 51:49Corinne Vien?

  And also, it makes me wonder, because in astral projection, it does sometimes feel like you're falling because you're like so.

• 51:56Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Like get out.

• 51:57Corinne Vien?

  Ripped from your body.

• 51:58Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yeah.

• 51:59Corinne Vien?

  And it makes me wonder if like, that was happening too, in a way where like, the astral body was being.

• 52:05Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Forced out of your body because he was trying to take over your physical body?

• 52:08Corinne Vien?

  Yeah, very insidious. One of the best horror movies ever.

• 52:12Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  If an entity has that much strength and you can feel their hands on you, what's stopping them from putting their hands around your neck?

• 52:19Corinne Vien?

  Sometimes they do.

• 52:20Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yeah.

• 52:20Corinne Vien?

  We've definitely gotten, received some emails of people being attempted murder from ghosts.

• 52:25Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  You know what I would really like to cover again, or another version of it, is I think, what, there was one movie that had a really bad curse where multiple people died from watching it?

• 52:36Corinne Vien?

  Oh.

• 52:37Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  I mean, I think there were a couple of them.

• 52:38Corinne Vien?

  Oh, like a real, like a real life?

• 52:40Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  There were like four people who like died within the week of it.

• 52:43Corinne Vien?

  Watching it?

• 52:44Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  After watching it. And it reminds me a little bit of The Ring.

• 52:47Corinne Vien?

  I can't, yeah, I can't remember, because we have covered so many, not so many, but like, a decent amount.

• 52:53Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  The like, very common, popular ones, like Poltergeist and.

• 52:56Corinne Vien?

  Was it The Exorcist or something?

• 52:57Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yeah, something like that. But now I can't remember. There was one specifically.

• 53:01Corinne Vien?

  Haunted movie sets, haunted movies.

• 53:03Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  And just, I, I mean, I, I think I'm fascinated, this is why The Ring is such a good movie, but I'm so fascinated by this concept of you watch something.

• 53:11Corinne Vien?

  Mm-hmm.

• 53:11Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  And something follows you.

• 53:12Corinne Vien?

  And then kills you. It follows.

• 53:15Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  It follows is a good one. Um, I keep wanting to call it, I think it's Undertone. That was the 824 movie that came out. You need to watch it.

• 53:23Corinne Vien?

  I know.

• 53:23Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Because it very much was our job.

• 53:25Corinne Vien?

  Okay, that is definitely on my list.

• 53:27Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  It's scary.

• 53:28Corinne Vien?

  I will watch the full movie of Obsession because Springer got really upset with me. Although, I will say this one thing in my defense.

• 53:35Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Yeah.

• 53:36Corinne Vien?

  While I think you're right in that I miss a lot when I watch clips on TikTok, my brother went and saw Obsession. We talked about it on the phone. There wasn't a single scene or moment that he brought up, like, well, did you see this? Did you see that? Did you see this? I saw it all. I, I, that actually, I think I might have seen 85% of the movie.

• 53:54Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Wow.

• 53:55Corinne Vien?

  By watching TikTok clips. Anyway, Obsession is on my list.

• 53:58Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Backrooms.

• 53:59Corinne Vien?

  Backrooms.

• 54:01Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  A lot of good horror movies.

• 54:02Corinne Vien?

  So many good ones coming out this year.

• 54:04Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Um.

• 54:05Corinne Vien?

  And Widows by, number one.

• 54:06Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  And so many good creepy paranormal stories coming to you this month.

• 54:11Corinne Vien?

  Mm-hmm.

• 54:11Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Because it's October, we get spooky as can be, so stay tuned. You got lots of great horrifying content coming up this month.

• 54:19Corinne Vien?

  Mm-hmm.

• 54:19Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  And we hope you keep stepping into our circus tent to get some terrifying tales.

• 54:25Corinne Vien?

  Yes.

• 54:25Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  And maybe sleep paralysis for yourself.

• 54:28Corinne Vien?

  Boo.

• 54:29Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  You're welcome.

• 54:31Corinne Vien?

  Congratulations. The veil is thinning.

• 54:33Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  You won sleep paralysis.

• 54:35Corinne Vien?

  The dead are coming. And we'll see you next week.

• 54:39Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  Until then, if you have any paranormal experiences, please email them to us at [email protected]. If you would like episodes one week early and ad-free, you can get all of that, plus bonus content, plus witch class, plus campfire stories, plus book club, a free sticker, all on Patreon. And tell all your friends, tell all your family and strangers all about us.

• 55:01Corinne Vien?

  Thank you to Jamie Ryan, who edits and produces our podcasts. We couldn't do it without you.

• 55:05Sabrina Deana-Roga?

  And thank you to all of you.

• 55:07Corinne Vien?

  And we will. See you on the other side.

• 55:17Speaker 01

  When fall comes back around, there's a sense of a reset. And new pieces from Lululemon's Fall Drop are an inspiration to push your goals and elevate your routines. As your calendar fills, easy-to-layer styles meet the demands of your day. And as you challenge yourself to try even more, versatile sets transition with you. The Lululemon Fall lineup brings new levels of comfort and confidence, whether you're starting something fresh or starting something over. Check out the latest arrivals in store and on lululemon.com now.