Are you interested in angels, demons, ghosts, spirits, and monsters? Are you curious about their origins, influence, and how to protect against the unknown? If so, then welcome to Southern Demonology, the podcast that explores all of this and more.
Thank you for listening to Southern Demonology. Find us online at Southern Demonology.com, which offers links to all of our social media and episodes. Southern Demonology is solely owned, produced, and edited by myself, and the intro and outro music are composed by me as well. If you have a moment, please rate, like, and share this podcast, as it is the best way to help support my work. As always, I am JJ, and it has been a pleasure to speak to you today.
Hello, all, and welcome back to another episode of a joint release between myself, Southern Demonology, and the wonderful people over at The Wandering Road, minus Chris. Today we are all together. Well, first I'm actually celebrating the ultimate episode for season six of Southern Demonology. This will be episode lucky number 13, and we'll be closing out, and then in the new year, we will start afresh with something new.
But today, this is a topic in which I know I've touched upon slightly in my episode talking about evil, but we wanted to do a joint discussion because I feel that the more times you begin speaking openly about whether it be the preternatural, whether it be the paranormal, you attract attention. And I am definitely in good company when this particular topic is at play. Tristan Dean, how are y'all doing tonight? Doing well, sir. Doing well. Does anyone want to kick off this particular discussion?
Yeah, I'll kick us off, JJ, because I kind of brought this up to you as a topic of discussion as well. I didn't know you kind of wanted to talk about this already, so it's it just fits in perfectly. But my previous episode that I recorded, which is releasing on December 19th. So I believe when this gets released, JJ, it'll be past that date. So I had the pleasure of interviewing Tommy, the host of the Let's Get Freaky podcast. And no, it's not that type of podcast, it is a paranormal podcast. Sure. Go check out his podcast. I swear it's not bad.
And while I was talking to Tommy and he was sharing all of his paranormal experiences and how things just ramped up, even within the past year of him doing his podcast and having different people on sharing their experiences, he said this line that kind of stuck with me. And Tommy said, When you look into the paranormal, it looks back. So what does that mean? It means it's not a one-way street. When you talk about these things, you open yourself up to attract attention. So, prime example that I will give from Tommy directly.
He was interviewing this lady, and she was sharing how she grew up in a haunted house. There was potentially negative activity with negative spirits or demonic activity, and they're going through the show. And anytime they talk about a particular subject, they'll have like a specific experience. They'll start having technical issues. So they finally get to the show, to the end of the show, and the lady jokes and says, Well, I'm sending the ghost your way. So he thought nothing of it. You know, it's like, no, I don't want anything my way.
And Tommy said he had, ever since he was a child, he had this fear of the dark. He does not sleep with the lights off. Like if he is recording, every single light in the house has to be on. He said prior to that recording, he records at like 2 a.m. in the UK. So everyone in his house is asleep. So Tommy said he left all the lights on downstairs, as he does all the time. He finishes the recording, he goes downstairs and all the lights are off. He flips them back on and he hears this voice, which kinda sounds like a little girl because he has kids that says, and he like freaks the fuck out.
So what I wanted to do today, guys, if you don't mind, especially you, JJ, since you've been doing this show for almost a decade now, in about a couple years. Yeah. Yeah. Longevity, man. Shows you're dedicated and you actually enjoy doing this stuff. You've had a plethora of things happen to you. I've had weird shit happen to me. Dean, you recently, within the past year, had like weird shit happen to you. So I thought, you know, this episode would be kind of the perfect episode with that tagline to talk about that stuff.
Yeah. So it's not just a bad niche ripoff of stare into the abyss and it stares back into you. This isn't an existential crisis. This is actual weird stuff that is that has occurred to each of us. And I think that getting the three of us to share our experiences will hopefully make it more real than just one voice out in the darkness saying, Yeah, this stuff happened to me when you're probably you know, a lot of people will just make shit up nowadays. So and that's absolutely not what we're doing here. Uh who wants to share first?
Yeah, I can go first. Yeah. So I've been quiet for a while. So I don't know, it's hard to start. I don't want to just jump into stories, but actually this is a good opportunity maybe to start from like the the strategic, like higher level perspective on some similar creepy st ideas about the universe in existence because JJ, you are like like a lot of your listeners already know, like you have advanced degrees in and stuff that touches on religion and whatnot.
And I also or Chris and I you know, we went to school together and we had taken a bunch of religious courses as as part of the curriculum. And I always go back from time to time to what I remember from those courses and you know, not just Christianity, but all kinds of religions. And I came across an idea recently or or a concept that I haven't thought about in a long time, and it's Gnosticism.
And I came across uh I came across it because there was this video, someone was like someone did this really awesome cartoonish series of episodes on TikTok that was explaining the concept of like a di like like a specific because there's different different kinds of Gnosticism or different ways to pro to get after Gnosticism, but this one was getting after from the perspective of Adam and Eve in the beginning, um like the Garden of Eden or whatever.
But the reason I bring up Gnosticism is because I don't really know a lot about it, but it kind of touches on a lot of roots that we're talking about here when it comes to like, you know, supernatural things watching us all the time and acting upon us and stuff like that, and it always it it always seems to be something that's not or usually seems to be something that is not pure or good. Like usually something messing with us or, you know, like I said, demon-esque or whatever.
So my understanding of Gnosticism is that it's this idea that the material world was created by like a false god or false gods or something that are not good for the most part, I think. Is that true, JG? Like what what it can you just briefly I know you could probably write a dissertation on it, but like what is Gnosticism in a nutshell?
Yeah, so you've you've essentially at least nailed the surface level of it pretty well. And for reference, I am not a Gnostic scholar because my further up in education you go, the more you have to specialize. And because Second Temple Judaism had already kind of clinged my heart, my professors warned me against delving too deeply into Gnosticism because they might steal me away, and their department was looking at me. I'm like, okay, okay, I won't get that far. The world is evil, the material things is evil.
And once you die, if you know the correct magical incantations, then you can start to pierce into higher and higher realities or heavens in order to get to the ultimate paradise. And it really depends upon how much you know, how much magic you know in order to qualify you to then proceed upward throughout the chain.
But this idea that the world is evil is actually it pre it it goes all the way back into Second Temple Judaism because you have this idea within Zoroastrianism that the enemy in that particular religion, which is perhaps the most advanced dualistic religion to date, says that he claimed the world for himself in order to turn humanity against their creator and to make them hate Ahura Mazda, the main ultimate god.
And then Judaism kind of picked up on this, and then Christianity rolled into it, and then there are other versions of Gnosticism, like probably the most advanced and weird version is Manichaeanism, which is just absolutely fascinating. And the language is difficult as hell. But uh, yeah, you you get this all over the place, and you see it especially in like first Enoch, when you have this world is being dominated not just by uh the spirits of the watchers, but also by the spirits of the Nephilim that flow about in the atmosphere, a whole bunch of weird stuff.
So it goes super just like way way more complex than I could possibly imagine. But for the purposes of the discussion today, the reason I bring up Gnosticism is because it sets the stage for something that I've ex I've experienced pretty much my whole life. And I don't think it's anything particularly strange because I think a lot of people probably experience this sort of thing. And I personally I would lean towards chalking it up to just evolutionary leftovers from our ancestors.
But what I what I have experienced for a lot of my life is and and if you want to listen to the episode where I talk more about it, but Chris and I did an episode a couple um ago, I talk about it in more detail. But essentially, I always see faces in like walls and patterns, like you know, it could be like a carpet or a floor or it could be whatever. And most of the time, like sometimes I see nice looking things, you know, smiling or whatever, they look really parental or calm or whatever, but most of the time I see faces that just don't look fun.
They look kind of demon-esque, like kind of like uh demons or monsters or something. And I taught I said I said this in the episode that Chris and I did, but I'm like, I should take pictures of like just so people don't know I'm fucking around, I should take pictures of like if I ever see it, and then I'll put a side-by-side image, like here's the image of what I'm looking at. It's just you know the thing I'm seeing. And then next to it, I'll put up like a screenshot, I'll draw like a little, I'll scribble in it so you can like compare and say, Oh shit, I do see that.
But the reason I bring it up is because I came across this weird, creepy idea that the earth was created by these creatures or like multidimensional creatures or what are called archons, I think. And they're interdimensional beings. And some people say the entire universe was created by them.
Some people say that it was just earth itself and humans, but essentially that the way that they describe it, the situation is that these non-humans are harvesters of our pain, fear, suffering, because they can't they don't feel feelings themselves, but for some weird reason they are able to feed off of our uh negativity as humans. And that's really, I think really what that's getting after is it's just a quick jump. I mean, I'm sure it's more complex than this, but it seems to me like a quick jump way to explain why pain, fear, and suffering persist in humanity.
Like we make dumb mistakes as humans and we can go through the worst experiences of our lives, and then we'll return to that same stupid mistake. And it's it's just I think it's a way of explaining why humans keep just fucking shit up for everybody, like making for themselves.
But the scariest part to me is if you if you combine this idea that like people like me who see these faces or whatever, and if you you can even Google it, like there's even going as deep as like in technology, like people have taken screenshots from video games, like I don't know, like Modern Warfare or something like that. And these screen grabs show images of these scary reptilian or demonic faces that are in the environment around the video game.
So it's not just, you know, it's not just people like me seeing it in in the three-dimensional real space, it's like also in these programs and stuff that are created by modern technology. And it makes you wonder like, it makes sense that there would be a couple instances of that. Like, that's just part of our nature, I think, to be afraid of things that might murder us. We're literally wired to be afraid of things that uh could kill us, like things with big fangs or things with big eyes or whatever. I think that's normal.
But the thing that's creepy to me is that there's so many instances of it everywhere. And I don't know, before I go like on a rant about this, I will humbly like stop talking and just get you your guys' perspective on this. Like I think we talked about before we started the episode, neither of you guys had ever heard of Louis Farming. I had never heard of it until like last week.
But I think it's worth exploring because it's a very real concept that's tied to Gnosticism and this idea that there are these evil beings that are supernatural or multidimensional and they just love seeing our shit get fucked up, whether they feed on it or whether they get some pleasure of it. But the worst part to me about this theory and similar theories is that we it's like kind of like the matrix or like being stuck in a simulation. Like you, we can literally we can't do anything about it.
Like at least if you if you were in a realm of religion only and you didn't include this demonology sort of thing, you could at least believe like it's escapable. But if this sort of thing is possible and it like the reason it's so scary is because it seems inescapable. Like there is literally nowhere or nothing you can do, with the exception of what like you what you said, JJ, where like there there's incantations and magic and stuff and Gnosticism that might help you escape, but then that seems awfully complex.
Like we're trying to go after that ourselves, and there would there's not really anybody on the other side who cares enough to help us to that degree. So I I don't know, like what like which I'll stop there. What are your takes on this? Is it like bullshit, honestly scary or possible? What do you guys think?
Well, let me ask you this just real quick. When it comes to seeing these faces, do you see them a lot more in like wood grain patterns or tile?
Um yeah, I see what you're getting after. I I do I don't have a lot of exposure in my day-to-day life to like wood grain and stuff like that, but I do say I would say that it is much more prevalent in stuff like that. But around my house, there are like we have laminate flooring downstairs that does kind of look like real hardwood, and uh there are at least a handful of repeating images that look like demon faces or whatever that I always have. Like I look down, like, oh, there's that thing again. You know, like I'm so used to it.
But other places that don't repeat are usually in like fabrics. And I'm not talking about fabrics that have like uh patterns in them that like a s like a shirt or something I wear every day or every other day. I'm talking about like towels that I put on the rack that you know it gets ruffled up or whatever, or maybe it's like in in a wall in some place I've never been or something like that, like a like a painted wall or whatever. So it really is everywhere and anywhere, except maybe like something far away. Like I don't see it in clouds or like landscape that's really far away.
It has to be like up close. But yeah, it's it's it's a mixture, I would say.
Okay. I was just curious because I do the exact same thing. I've always seen these lovely evil faces just kind of peering out to you from it's and it's worse when it's in wood grain because once you see it, you can never unsee it.
Yeah, exactly. You just remember it all the time. It's just like a useless piece of knowledge that your brain shouldn't have to worry about, but yet it's still there.
But what you were describing with Louis farming, it it is almost like a um in a much more sadistic version of a Lovecraftian universe. Because in Lovecraft, I mean, there are these great beings that can be summoned, but they're so much greater than we are, and they don't have any particular hatred for us. We're just nothing to them, and that almost makes it worse in a way, because they inflict this uh suffering just because of the fact that they, you know, we're like ants to them or even less than ants. But anyway, have y'all seen the uh the HBO series The Outsider?
Yes, yeah, I love that. That was a I enjoyed that.
My wife and I are slowly making our way through it as we speak. I think we're on like episode five or six. It's something that's kind of similar to this. It uh these people, I'm not going to give it away to anyone that wants to watch it. And so far, it's highly recommended to go see it. It's uh this group of people that experience something completely outside the realm of the quote unquote normal, and the deeper they get into it, the weirder and more perverse the world seems to be, or the things that it can harbor, can uh it can hold.
And it is um and it brings it home in a very realistic fashion. Essentially what we're doing, because you know, our job, if we're doing it right, is not to attract fame for ourselves, but rather to grow a platform in order to help others, others that have experienced something so far out of the normal that they there are few avenues in which they can latch onto to help comfort them or just assure them that they're not going batshit crazy. And the more that you do that, the more you also invite that same kind of scrutiny.
So, JJ, ever since you started Southern Demonology, you've told me there were a few instances where your health declined randomly, you couldn't figure out what was going on, weird shit happened to you. So before I share, you know, some weird stuff of my I'm curious as to when you started noticing weird things happening to you. And did you ever consider just retiring from the podcast in general?
The really bad things began to happen to me when I started talking about the demonic. I had an early series where I began exploring the nature of evil spirits. And one day I got a really bizarre Facebook message that simply said, You have left your modalities unprotected. To this day, I still have no bloody idea what the hell that's talking about, but it freaked me out. And that's actually when the really bad things begin to occur. I actually had I randomly started getting sick. Felt like the flu and went to the doctor, they couldn't find anything. And then a month later, got sick again.
Same thing, even worse. And then the third time it happened, I not to get too graphic, but I found myself throwing up every hour on the hour and had to be checked into a hospital and had to stay there for a week because I had thrown up so much my electrolytes had completely bottomed out. And they had to put me on IEVs to refill my potassium, my magnesium, everything. I was on empty. And it was a scary ass thing.
And throughout this entire process, they then started looking at my kidney function, and they're like, Hey, you seem to have some foreign body in your urinary tract, and we want to go in and remove it and take a biopsy of it. I'm like, and a day before that surgery, the surgeon had called and we were having a quick consultation about what to expect. And he's like, Yeah, we do this pretty standard for all potential cancer diagnoses. And I went, Cancer? No one mentioned that word before. That is a brand new one to me. Scared the ever-living bejesus out of me.
They turned an exit into an entrance. I will only say it that way. Went in and removed it, biopsied it. Thank God it was it wound up to be nothing. But these are just some of the health concerns that like majorly hit me. And thankfully, there was an explanation for all of this. I found it out through my own individual research, not to sound like a crazy person that doesn't believe in science, because I absolutely do, but it was something completely different. However, I also had a lot of other weird things happen.
We were staying in a townhome complex, and on random nights, strange neighbors would like one woman attempted to throw herself out of a second story window while screaming at the top of her lungs. I don't know if this was an um a domestic violence situation, but it was while I was recording an episode, all of this shit just suddenly went down. So it could be completely coincidence, it could not, I don't know. Had massive, even worse night terrors than what I normally would do during this particular time.
And all of these kind of made me seriously sit back and think, am I attracting the wrong kind of attention? And especially when you go through a health scare that badly, you know, unless you know you're in a really negative place, you don't want your life to end. You don't even want to contemplate that. But and even in the previous time in the previous episode in which I talked about some of this stuff, the answer was, would I stop this?
And the answer is no, because A, not only is it a great way for me to leave something behind that might just might outlive me in usefulness, but B, I think that we are establishing a kind of normalcy. We are recharting what normalcy actually is with an expanded viewpoint. And if that helps other people, then I I hope to God it does, because that would at least give a lot of meaning to what we're doing.
No, that's fair. I'm of the same mind. I so with me, I'll start from the beginning, I guess. Uh started the show, started interviewing family members, had Dean on, brought him as a co-host permanently, and we started talking to people. And we started interviewing people. And some of the people that we talked to had some like crazy shit happen to them. And at a certain point when we would do these shows at night in particular, it just felt like something was watching me.
During the day when we were doing the shows, I mean, you get a little unsettled because you're listening to something creepy. It's kind of like a horror movie, right? You know, that's that's the whole point of the horror movie to make you feel uncomfortable. But once you go through those emotions, once you're done with the episode, once you're done with everything, it's not supposed to linger for days on end. You're not supposed to have this feeling like something is watching you.
You shouldn't have this feeling of laying in bed and then you just have this urge to look over at your doorway for no particular reason all the time. Or you start seeing shadows in your peripheral. And I've shared my story on here to your listeners, so they're aware. I've shared my story to my listeners and other podcasts I've been on. So I don't need to rehash that. But when I shared my stories, at first it was fun.
Laughing about it, all this other shit. The more I shared it, the more I felt uncomfortable as I was doing it. And dude, like I never had sleep paralysis in my life. In my fucking life. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to swear. I'm trying not to swear on podcasts anymore, if you could bleep that out. I start to show. We talk to a few people that have sleep paralysis a month or two later. I'm not doing anything in particular, anything different from my daily routine with working out, running, whatever. I get my first bow to pee sleep paralysis.
And the dread that I felt and fear, I it's hard to explain.
Dude, that would be terrifying. I didn't even know that you had gone through sleep paralysis. Yeah.
Yeah. I was laying on my side. It was in the middle of the summer, laying on my side, curled up, laying out like like a fucking fetus. I could hear my dog snoring. This is in 2023. That's been like summer of 2023, because that's when I had got my second dog. I could hear them both snoring. My wife's sleeping. Cats are doing whatever they do. Wake up, can't fucking move. And in my mind, I'm like, shit, I'm pretty aware, hyperaware. It's like, okay, I got sleep paralysis. Not that big of a deal. But it's like, okay, I'm aware of it. But why do I feel scared?
Why do I feel like there's something there? Why do I feel like there's something watching me? So in my mind, I'm like, you know, Jesus help me, God help me, whatever. Over and over and over until I can either my body regains its motion or that worked. And, you know, wiggle my toes, I could move around. One thing I didn't do was pick my head up. Because the angle I was in, I was just looking at the edge of my bed. And my dog was there, laying there, sleeping, and the edge of my bed. So it's kind of like, here's like my eyesight, and I could see the edge of my bed and the dog.
Something in me said, Don't look up because you're going to see something that you don't want to see. So closed my eyes. Didn't think anything of it. And that was that. Other weird shit that happened to me, I never got sick and I started getting sick frequently. Like, Dean, you've been around me for almost 16 years. I rarely get sick. I rarely got hurt when we worked out. Just started getting a plethora of issues. Now, is it due to wear and tear? Possibly. Possibly. There's always a medical explanation for it.
But when I go to the doctor and they do all these fucking scams and they're like, there's nothing wrong with you, dude. I'm like, okay, I don't know. Whatever. But I think that when it comes to like physical ailments and stuff, you know, there's there's always probably a scientific explanation. But I think what really freaks me out now is that when I talk to somebody, it just feels like whatever they're talking about knows. And it's like it's listening and it's it's waiting. I don't know like if I'm pulling this out of my ass because sometimes I do the recording solo, sometimes I'm with Dean.
I don't know if I psych myself out. So I'll throw it to you guys for analysis. I don't, I don't fucking know. I'll share the one thing that creeped me the fuck out the most to the point where I wanted to retire sharing my story. And I think you know what I'm talking about, JJ, because you helped me that particular day. Oh, yeah. But I'll toss it to you guys. Like, do you think it's all like, you know, you're talking to all these people, and as a part of talking to people and people venting about which is what it is, it's kind of like a paranormal therapy session.
They're like talking about their experiences to you. Is it because we're absorbing all of this energy from them that we feel what they feel and it's just, you know, something psychological, or is there something per natural? Is it paranormal, supernatural? I don't fuck.
I'll say this. I'm sure that there are some psychological effects that we can't appropriately categorize here. But I think it goes beyond that. I mean, we've been on shows together, I've been on shows myself, I know that you have, in which the more you try to talk about it, it's like the words get jammed in your throat. You just can't get them out. And the more it goes on, this feeling of heaviness just pervades your system. And it just keeps, like you said, it lasts for days or weeks.
And even though, you know, I've got blessed Saint Benedict medallions, I've got holy water, I have you know exercised oil, I have more protection mechanisms than I ever had in my life before, but nothing can shake that funk. It's I can't appropriately explain it, but I know what you're talking about. And I don't I could be wrong. I mean, in this world, you it's almost impossible to say with a thousand percent certainty that it is what it is, but it certainly doesn't feel anything as light as a pure psychological effect. I'll put it that way.
And if it makes you feel any better, I'll put I'll sprinkle a I'll revisit what you said about there all there always is a medical explanation, but that doesn't mean the ex that doesn't mean the explanation is true. It just means there could be an explanation that is benign. So I think there's like kind of some comfort in that, in my honest opinion. And I mean that's that's one thing. Like JJ, you're saying, like you hope you can leave something behind that helps people after you're gone for a while. And same thing, you know, Chris, you said that too, but same thing for me.
And I I think the thing I would offer is never forget in any situation you're going through, even if you're like even if you're seeing an image or like a like a figure of the most horrific, monstrous thing in front of you physically, you think you're seeing it, there's always a possibility that somebody slipped you some mushrooms, you know? Who knows, man? Who who knows? I mean, I I watch I've watched and heard stories of people who have made it into the upper echelons of like the entertainment business, say.
And I heard one story, like some rapper who's like mid-level rapper, and he was telling the story about how he was in the Hollywood Hills or something, and he was meeting with people that he never met before who were like trying to help him grow his brand or whatever. And he said that he was in this car, he was in this Maserati or, I don't know, some really uh expensive car with this dude who was supposedly like a promoter or something or had something to do with that sort of thing. And he watched this guy's face morph into like a demon face as he was talking to him.
And he was like, this rapper was so sure that these evil things are occupying those higher echelons. And but the thing that I always went to when I heard that story would be like, yeah, he could be right. It's you know, there's all kinds of crazy stories like that out there. Like you get up to the highest, darkest echelons of society where people are ultra-rich and they literally kill other people to get there and stay there. Um, but at the same time, I can't help but think, like, well, there's a lot of drugs that circulate in that realm.
And even if that kid didn't take drugs himself, who knows what those people might have slipped him to give them, like, hey man, you want to drink? You know, you never you never know like what is going on physically with you. Like you said, JJ, like it could have just been uh an issue that was explainable, but it could have also been contributed by uh the proto-natural stuff that you were focusing on. But that yeah, I'll stop talking there.
Like that's basically what I'm trying to get after is yeah, it could be negative, but if you're in that situation, man, don't forget that it could all be physical as well, and there's comfort in that, I think.
Actually, that reminds me of uh going back to Malachi and Martin with the perfectly possessed, where you you may not ever know, but there could be symptoms that will then raise their head. I mean, in dealing with that level of society, God only knows.
Yeah, let's not go down that route. We don't want to get targeted. Don't go down that road.
You're not.
Yeah, don't go down that road. Yeah.
Unless we get targeted enough to just arrive to get that's what I always thought. Like just, you know, fine. If you wanna if you want to think you're gonna get my soul, that's fine. I'll play along and then I'll get your you know, five million dollars, and then I'll always be planning the whole time to not go any deeper than that.
I mean, I think I honestly think that if that is a real thing, that that's why people like that don't make it that high, because whatever is watching you and trying to make its move to get you somehow, they know they have they they kind of play this like probability game. Well, this person's life is this, this, this, and they might fall, but like if I give them something, they could also just kind of go back and do good with it. So like maybe that's why that's an explanation for why people like like us don't ever get to that level.
I will put this out there into the universe as we as we speak. One of the things that I would love to have happen is to get my foot way into the door of Hollywood in order to be a a consultant and properly bring an educated perspective into the angelic, the demonic, whatever is being depicted to try to make it look because nothing pisses me off more when it's just bad theology or bad research that's being thrown into a particular work. It just pisses me off. Zozo, yeah. There's so many bloody examples. What is it? Denzel Washington streaming Azazel. It's not Azazel, you piece of shit.
It's Azazel. Anyway, sorry.
Yeah. Before I share like my creepy thing that JJ's familiar with, Dean, like you and I have talked quite a bit offline about like some weird shit that's like happened to you, whether like you hear things or like, you know, shit like that. So I'm curious if you don't mind sharing. Because at the beginning, it's like when we started the show, it was I never had shit. And now it's like, what the hell? And I'm not saying it's like you're hearing like demonic voices or anything. It's just like odd little knick-knack things here and there.
Yeah. I've never I mean, I mean, here's the hard thing I think about telling these stories and taking the positions up that we we take in this uh this venue of podcasting. It's like the people who are listening to us, even if they're like ad avid listeners, they don't know what our personal lives are like. And so I'll say as a starter that, you know, I've never had any significant issues in my life that would suggest that I had paranoia or schizophrenia or anything like that.
So honestly, if I heard voices, if I started hearing voices, I'm kind of like more of a grounded realist in the sense that if I that experienced that even after starting the show or doing this sort of thing, I would automatically just assume that I need to go get my brain scanned because it's probably a tumor or something that's making me hear the voices and not something supernatural.
But again, I'm I'm not also I would never discount the possibility that it is supernatural, because we've heard enough stories from people where, you know, I think, I think, like, I think we actually said this on an episode a long, long time ago, like probably more than a year ago.
But it's like if you think about the amount of people in this world who go through experiences like that across the whole spectrum of religions and thoughts and beliefs, and then you add on to that this idea that there have been what, like 14 or how many, I don't know, billions and billions and billions and billions of people who have ever lived, right? So all like if you take a probability perspective, a hundred percent of those experiences it doesn't seem likely that they would all be just explainable through evolution, science, and and um like the physical realm.
So I I will always maintain this idea that there's at least ten percent of weird shit that actually happens that is more than what it seems, whether it's alien or religious or supernatural, whatever. Ten percent to me is a lot for billions and billions and billions and people who've ever lived. I just wanted to frame that before I got into put my experiences. But I I I don't know what specific experience you're you're thinking about, Chris, that I brought up. I'm happy to to visit uh visit that in a second.
But one thing I do want to say is I also had a about of the worst sleep paralysis I've ever had in my life. And I'm not even man, I'm not exaggerating. I've had sleep paralysis so many times in my life that it it was it's been pretty normal for me. Like I've seen I've hallucinated things. I've told this story before, where I've seen giant spiders descending over me as I'm waking up, or I saw like Chucky the doll when I was like 16 or f or no fourteen when I was like, you know, waking up in my bed.
Um and Chucky is not a real thing, but but in a nutshell, like this this situation I this thing I experienced just like maybe three weeks ago was the worst thing I ever experienced with sleep paralysis. And basically what happened was I was sleeping on the couch during the day, and I woke up. I came to find out later that I woke up in my own dream, but I woke up on the couch, it felt like I woke up on the couch, it felt real and I couldn't move.
And I'm like, like, Chris, like, you know, oh, this is just another bout of sleep paralysis, just you know, either either I try to fight out of it or I just fall back asleep. So that's what I do. And then I wake up again. And I'm like, okay, this, oh, this is it. This is where I really wake up. Nope. I was still in a mode of sleep paralysis. And I don't think that's ever happened to me before where I had it and then I fell back asleep, or I fought out of it and then I woke up again. And I'm not kidding you when I say that this cycle repeated at least four times before I started freaking out.
And when I woke up the fourth time, I I couldn't move again. And uh my daughter was playing in the room somewhere I could hear her, and I remember trying to get her attention to, like, you know, shake daddy, shake daddy awake, please. But uh, you know, when you're you sleep route, you can't talk, so you're it's just coming out as like a whisper. And here's the scariest part about that experience.
I shook myself awake on the fourth time, and I stood up and I was walking through my kitchen, and then I started like I was just dazed, and then I walk up the stairs, and as I'm walking up the stairs, I wake up again on my couch. And uh, it was like this horrifying session kind of sleep paralysis experience that I've never had before. It's just the worst feeling. Around the sixth time of trying to get up, I finally really got up in real life, and I was horrified, horrified that I couldn't immediately tell the difference because the other ones were so real.
So when I was in real reality walking around, actually, I kept thinking I'm just gonna wake back up on the couch, and it literally took me four. Five minutes to shake it off and come back to full consciousness. And man, that I like, fuck, dude. That was sorry. That was the worst sleep experience I've had in a long time that I would never wish on anyone. Because that shit, like, imagine that. Like you like, you can't move, you wake up and you want to wake up, and then you just wake up, you just re-reset on the thing you were just sleeping on, and you can't get out of it.
Like I literally thought I was I had like a medical thing going on, like something with my heart or something was failing that it that wasn't allowing me to wake up. But yeah, so so that's my that's my little recent sleep paralysis experience that I had recently. But Chris, what what uh specific story that I brought up were you thinking of when you were asking about that?
I think it was one of those things where I think you heard or saw something, but you couldn't cap like it was like on your camera and like you went back and it was like too far back or like it got a mess or something. Yeah. That one.
Okay. Okay. So uh just just a caveat. I know this is creepy because a lot of people don't agree with this doing this sort of thing, but we have cameras downstairs inside. And the only reason we did that was because like we put them in there when we first had our first kid, and we had caretakers and whatever, and so we just wanted to like, you know, make sure we keep keep an eye because the caretaker was older, and if we were gone, we just wanted to be able to check and make sure that the caretaker didn't, you know, have an accident or fell fall down or something like that.
So that's why we had the we have the cameras downstairs, we just kept them down there. But this particular experience was uh about I want to say like three months ago, we had some family visiting, and it was just the two of them, young couple, cousins of of my wife. And I was downstairs, you know, I sometimes I have really bad sleep patterns. Like I wake up at three in the morning and I just go watch something, which I know is really bad.
But I was like up at three in the morning and coming downstairs in the pitch dark, and I s I go to sit on the couch, and being the fat ass I am, I kind of just plop down on the couch sometimes. I literally just like fall on the couch. And as I was falling down to hit the couch, I heard in the darkness on the other side of the room someone say, like, oh hey man, like, hey man. And I was so sure in that like it shocked me. I was like, Oh shit, like you know, I'm not wearing a shirt, like it's awkward. Um, I thought it was the male cousin.
And I'm like, I turn around and I like I respond like, oh, hey, hey man, do you need something? And I didn't hear a response. And I say, I say something and I'm like, hey, you still there? And you didn't say anything. I go to check the hallway, I go to check the stairs, there's no one there. And in my mind, I'm like, okay, you probably went back upstairs to go back to bed. He just didn't hear me. And then I just started thinking, like, wait, was that really him or did I hear something? And I check the camera that's pointing in the direction that I was, and I watch myself react and stuff.
But here's the the creepiest part about this experience is I clearly heard someone say, Hey man, it was so clear in a male voice. And I go back to watch the camera to catch to see if someone actually said that, and the camera just happened to break. Like it just happened to skip right when the sound would have occurred. Like I heard a little, like a little bit of a squeak of a sound, but it was nowhere near, hey man.
And so I thought it was so creepy the timing, the night, the the pitch black, the fact that I was half awake and I heard something, but there was still something weird physically on the camera that was captured, but there was no clarity because there was no voice to be heard. And it was so weird that it skipped at a that exact moment. So, like, just just I mean, that probably a lot of people are like, okay, that's not a big deal. But to me in that moment, I'm like, that was weird, man. Like the timing of the camera skip and stuff just made me think.
But stuff like that has been happening more often since we started the show. And I think I've gotten more used to it. There it was a lot harder to deal with when weird stuff happened earlier on because like I think JJ kind of Well, the A, that is an extremely creepy experience.
I did not know any of that. But second, I I know I've experienced it four or five times. Chris, I know you you just shared one with me today. We we have EVPs that have appeared on our podcasts. And two of them were for me, they were like demontic demonic grunts that sounded through. Whenever I found them, I would put them on the show because it freaked me the heck out. And to this day, they freak me the heck out. And yeah, could it be something else? Not saying it's not, but I I've done analysis on it and haven't found anything. I don't know.
Since y'all have both experienced sleep paralysis, and that's one thing I hopefully never have to worry about. Have y'all seen the 2015 film documentary The Nightmare?
When it yeah, when it initially came out where they like interview all those different people.
Yeah.
Where they talk about their experiences. Yeah, I did watch that.
That is a fantastic film. And it's scary, not for the things that they shared, even though that is, but it was for at least a couple of the of the individuals that were being interviewed, how absolutely messed up in the head they were, and how completely different than normal. And it's just because of the fact that they couldn't sleep because they were too afraid to. That's insane.
That is terrifying. That just creeps me out, man. Yeah, I know. AJ, you were on the phone with me when this happened. So I went on Ghost Gossip with Ashley. Great show. So if you have any paranormal experiences, Ashley's brilliant. Go ahead, reach out to her, get on the show. I actually want to go back on with Dean this time and just kind of talk some more like weird shit, just general, you know, UFOs and all that stuff. I went on there solo. Dean had I think you had to work or something, dude. Uh, you couldn't make it. And I went on to share my stories.
And while I was going through that, she has this like tab she had this tablet that was on airplane mode with kind of like this, I don't know what to call it. It's like an EVP detector or something like that. And like these words just pop up on the screen. And there were a few times where I would be telling a story and she'd be like, Hey, let me stop you for a second. Look what just popped up on the tablet. And it would be like, stop talking, don't share, like we're listening, like keep sharing weird shit like that. To the point where I got rattled.
Then as we were getting closer to the end of the show, JJ, you said something earlier where you know, you you're you start getting choked up like you can't get your words out. It was so fucking hard for me to finish sharing my story. And I it I just felt weird. I felt uncomfortable. I never felt like that before. It literally felt like something was here with me. And, you know, we got off the call. First thing I did was I called you. We did whatever we did, you know, on that call. And after that, I called my mom. And you know what the freakiest thing is?
The time the same time I called my mom, and like my mom like started like going through some psalms and stuff with me. At that same time, like my sister got home and she never done this before. She like smacks her head really hard getting out of the car to the point where there was like a huge welt on her head. Ow. Now, coincidence, I don't know. And after I get done talking with my mom, she like goes through the Psalms, like praise, whatever. My sister, like, I get off the phone with my mom and I FaceTime my sister. And my sister is like, Mom, why do you look so drained? You look so weak.
And I honestly think, like, whatever negativity I had, she like took it and like tossed it away.
I know that you were Dude, I was fucking rattled. When we spoke, you were shaken to the core. I could hear it in your voice. And the weird thing is, is that I also went on ghost gossip, and when I was telling my story in Japan, the one that still like sticks with me to this day, I could barely get the words out. I've told the story, you know, at this point like fifty times. I got freaked, I I got choked up. It was bizarre. And I actually told her, I'm like, I'm sorry, I don't know what's going on, but I just can't get the words out tonight. And she's like, No, it it happens. Yeah.
I don't know what it was. I blame Dean for not being there.
I'm the wild card that either brings the demons in like tenfold or takes them away.
Yeah, dude. So like that moment, I was like, one, do I keep podcasting? Two, if I do, do I ever talk about my story again? And if someone is interested, do I just send them a write-up and just let it be done with it, never talk about it again? I literally didn't know what to do at that point. When I tell you that that evening I was supposed we were, I think we were recording a show, JJ, were we not? I believe we were. I was fucking rattled. Like, do I record the show? I don't want to be down here by myself in the basement. Like, I don't and like that experience sits in the back of my mind.
And if anything would prove it to be true, like what I experienced to be true, because we're pushing 20 years now with all that stuff. And it's like, did I make a what do they say? Like a whatever out of an anthill. What I I forget the fucking saying. Make a mole out of an anthill, is that that the saying, or what is it? Yeah, yeah. Or they say in corporate America, let's not boil the ocean. Maybe I was boiling the ocean. It kind of proved that, like, dude, as much as you say you want people to debunk and say it wasn't real, like it was just fucking creepy, man.
I've never been so scared in my life. Never, ever. And I hate snakes, and I've like seen hundreds of snakes.
Snakes fall out of trees and in the jogging.
Snakes falling out of trees, snakes on the jogging trail. Like that shit rattles me. I've held one before, and like nothing compares to like the discomfort and fear that I felt after that show.
Man, the mother friggin' snake and the mother friggin' plane. I mean these goddamn snakes in this goddamn plane.
Right? I couldn't read the story. Would I go back on our show? Yeah, I already said I would. I love that show. It's it's fucking brilliant. Uh dude, she has a gift, and I don't know. But yeah, that's where I'll blend it. I don't know. Clearly you had a similar experience. I did.
And I've never had a problem sharing that particular story, even though I'm never happy talking about it. And yeah, it it it really it it did a number on me that night. And it stayed with me for several days after. Well, I if nothing though, I mean I will say that it's great having y'all as friends because we all kind of also serve as each other's moral support when weird stuff happens. And unfortunately it happens more than uh you would think that it would. But to everyone that's out there listening, don't feel like you're alone.
But if you are just listening because you enjoy hearing this stuff, that's fantastic. But if you're an individual who has experienced the unexplained, whether it's nightmares, creepy things in your house, or something much, much darker, you're not alone. And even though I think that we increase our risk profile a phenomenal amount by willingly speaking about this stuff loud and clear, I think it's a worthwhile endeavor.
I'm inclined to agree with you. It's fun. It's fun to do. It's fun to do. And before we end, JJ, I want to apologize for my background going haywire, like it's gone. But as you can see, I have a little Grinch figure on my Christmas tree right there.
Does it talk to you?
No, it doesn't.
Is your sleep paralysis demon really P Diddy with some baby?
Oh my gosh.
That's the only thing that has been in the back of my head ever since you mentioned.
Don't wake up, bad boy.
And on who and on that note, I think we were calling an evening. Chris and Dean, where can people find y'all?
You can find The Wandering Road on Apple and Spotify. We have full video episodes on YouTube and Spotify. So whatever avenue you would like to take to either watch or listen, we now have video and audio. If you would like to be a guest on the show and share your experiences, or if you would just like to send us your experiences, send us your thoughts or you know, creepy ideas, just shoot us an email at TWRoadpodcast at gmail.com. And if you do listen to our show, I ask that you share it with your friends.
If you follow us on YouTube, you know, just give us a like and subscribe and share it there. Helps the show grow and allows us to continue to pump out awesome content and fun content for you guys. And for my listeners, JJ, where can they get a hold of you?
Yeah, you can go to southerndemonology.com. You can get access to all of our links, but I do have video episodes now up on Spotify and YouTube. And uh you can get all of our links to our socials, but yeah, if uh you can share it with a friend. I will iterate reiterate that what Chris said, and follow us on YouTube because uh I'm trying to crack a thousand and uh I'm not I'm only a quarter of the way there. Alrighty, y'all. Well, thank y'all for joining. This was a hard topic for us to talk about, but I I think that we got some some at least some good stuff out of it. Thank you all.
Thank you for listening to Southern Demonology. Find us online at Southern Demonology.com, which offers links to all of our social media and episodes. Southern Demonology is solely owned, produced, and edited by myself. And the intro and outro music are composed by me as well. If you have a moment, please rate, like, and share this podcast, as it is the best way to help support my work. As always, I am JJ, and it has been a pleasure to speak to you today.