Fear, Paranormal, and the Stories We Carry

 

Wit & Reason with alex and DR. Alexis

Fear is universal—but the way we experience it tells powerful stories about our minds, bodies, and cultures. In this episode of Wit and Reason, licensed clinical social worker Alex and community psychologist Dr. Alexis dive into the psychology of fear through real and unexplainable encounters.

From childhood trauma misdiagnosed as ghost sightings to Tesla glitches mistaken for hauntings, and from cultural folklore to chilling TikTok stories, Alex and Dr. Alexis explore how fear shapes memory, perception, and resilience. They break down the science of why some people chase horror for the adrenaline rush, while others struggle to shake the memories of terrifying experiences.

As mental health professionals, their goal isn’t to prove or disprove the paranormal—it’s to help you process fear in ways that protect your safety, validate your experience, and keep curiosity alive without letting fear take over your life.

Disclaimer: This episode discusses trauma, hallucinations, psychosis, and suicide. Listener discretion is advised. If you or someone you know is in immediate danger or needs urgent support, please contact local emergency services or use one of the following 24/7 crisis resources:

U.S.: Call or text 988 for the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline

Outside the U.S.: Visit www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlines for international crisis hotlines

💻 To connect with a therapist or explore non-emergency mental health services, visit us at witandreason.com

Resources from the Show

  • Access Mental Health Therapy and Coaching

  • Keep on Actively Learning and Growing: Trainings & On-Demand Courses

  • Listen to Dr. Alexis’ Mental Health Lessons & Meditations: Aura Health Guest Pass

  • Reviewed Content - Creator Credits:

    Seanly- @6seanly on TikTok

    NeedyNovemberGirl- @needynovembergirl on TikTok

    Italiano Mexicano- @14davyd510follow on TikTok

    Mother_Melanin- @mother_melanin on TikTok

    Gerald- @thynameisgerald on TikTok

    Dupree- @dupreetheartist on TikTok

Host

Dr. Alexis Moreno - Wit & Reason

ALEXIS MORENO, PSYD, MA, MS - SHE/HER

PSYCHOLOGIST, HEALTH CORRESPONDENT, Speaker, & Founder

Dr. Alexis (she/her) utilizes the powerful impact awareness, education, & opportunity have on mental health. She mindfully creates fun & supportive experiences for her speaking and media audience and private clients to safely explore their true values, learn new healthy practices, & take action steps toward living authentically.

She has a Doctorate in Clinical Community Psychology, a Master of Arts in Marriage & Family Therapy, & a Bachelor of Science in both Television Broadcasting & Psychology. With over 16 years of experience in media & psychology, she aims to make mental health relatable & accessible for all through her coaching, consultation, & media outreach.

Dr. Alexis provides media, speaking, & mental health consultation services.

Alex Honigman - Wit & Reason

Alex Honigman, LICSW, MA- HE/ HIM

Clinical Director, Speaker, Therapist, & Executive Coach

Alex (he/him) enjoys the relationship between the psyche and society. Having never wanted to pick a side in the nature versus nurture debate, he pursued degrees in both Psychology and Sociology and finally a Master’s of Social Work with an emphasis on clinical interventions. He has worked as an educator for non-profits and lecturer for Universities. Starting as a therapist for survivors of trauma, moving on to perpetrators, and spending significant time as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker at a Forensic State Hospital. Alex continues to emphasize culture as a key component to effective therapy and the changing of systems (organizations and businesses). Whether this be through music, film, tv, art, comics, games, memes or other aspects of popular (or sometimes unpopular) culture. Utilizing an individual’s cultural values to make for a more meaningful individualized therapeutic intervention.

Airing Weekdays on 96.3 HD4 DC Radio

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Episode Transcription

Alexis: You are listening to Wit and Reason with Alex and Dr. Alexis. Fear is universal, but what we fear and how we respond to it tells us a lot about who we are. Some fears are rooted in biology, others in culture, and sometimes in experiences that don't fit neatly into. Any explanation

Alex: In this episode, we're opening the door to the strange and the unexplainable.

We'll explore how fear sharpens our senses, how uncertainty can twist memory, and why stories of the Paranormals carry such weight across generations. You'll hear firsthand accounts from creators who've lived through chilling encounters, and together we'll examine not just what happened, but how fear.

Shapes the human experience

Wit and reason with Alex and Dr. Alexis, where real talk meets real growth. Diving deep into relationships and breakthroughs, live insights, expert advice, and your voice in the mix. Let's build better lives together. We're

Alexis: diving into fear today. I'm, are you ready for this?

Alex: I'm so ready for this.

Alexis: Would you say that this is one of your favorite areas?

Alex: I love talking about of psychology

Alexis: and sociology. I love talking about

Alex: perception, fear, all sorts of versions of the like realities. Yeah, like people's experiences. I love to engage with. It's a lot of fun.

Alexis: And for those of you who dunno, a personally.

You're big into like horror and intense, really intense, intense, I would you even call it like entertainment at that point. Film and shows.

Alex: So to be fair,

Alexis: to be fair,

Alex: I love all film, television, media. I love the things ever that come to any genre of suspense, willer, horror, mystery, all sorts of versions of the occult.

Serial killer type of stuff as well. I love all of those things. I love all of those things because they're creative and they have no bounds.

Alexis: Yeah.

Alex: There is zero bounds when it comes to this stuff and you get to wonderful things you concern. That's

Alexis: what really concerns me. Like when I see something really fucked up, I'm like, who wrote this?

Yeah. And are you okay? So we're gonna be diving into. Fear both from like entertainment perspectives. Yes. We'll touch very lightly on that. And then also really get into the unexplained, yeah, the real life experiences or so people say that. These are real life experiences and how our brain and body try to make sense of that, how that impacts us emotionally, psychologically.

Mm-hmm. Physiologically, and dive into some videos.

Alex: Well, yeah. Can I say how I first got started in this thing?

Alexis: Yeah. Like

Alex: how I really liked this stuff. Well, okay. I first came out into the idea of fear and psychology when it came to working with patients who suffered from schizophrenia. A lot of paranoid delusions, but visual hallucinations were fairly fascinating to me.

Alexis: Yeah,

Alex: because how does your brain reconcile something that isn't there?

Alexis: Yeah.

Alex: Alright. How does it come to be? Does it happen over time? Does it happen? Like little bits and pieces, and there was a couple of films that kind of went through that experience of a schizophrenic person, a person who had schizophrenia, and one being like, there's a phone called clean shaven.

Really disturbing. Really sad. Really scary and on edge. He had an auditory hallucination that ran through the whole thing, ran through the whole thing, and it was just a static and you could hear it through the whole film. And you got on edge, the whole film. And as it went on, it turned up in volley a little bit and started actually becoming worse and worse as far as like the, it actually started having voices and had other things there.

You had this hallucination that escalated over time.

Alexis: Yeah.

Alex: And so when I was talking to a lot of patients, their visual hallucinations had escalated over time. Their auditory hallucinations had escalated over time. And so then I thought about how does your brain atte to that level of fear?

Alexis: Yeah.

Alex: And so we talked a lot about that.

And so I, those things, there's a lot of ways in which looking at how do you perceive the world, that unexplainable is really cool.

Alexis: And I think that's a lot of people's fear go to fear or meta fear, is that if they experience something that's unexplainable or even if they come to the conclusion that this is like paranormal, extraterrestrial, or whatever, that that people's automatic conclusions are gonna be like.

Or you're clearly hallucinating and you should go get treatment for psychosis.

Alex: Well, and one of my favorite, there was a patient in the hospital that was there for, they considered a delusional disorder of some sort, and it came to be that somebody was actually messing with. See, like in the real world, was constantly messing with him and doing things in the house and scroll with him.

Oh my gosh. To try and show that he was, that they were trying to put him as a scapegoat. That he was actually insane.

Alexis: That is actual gaslighting

Alex: you. Oh. You know, like even burn marks and things like that. Oh my gosh. And that was real. Nobody believed him. Yeah. And we sat around and picked apart the story and the story held, and you're like, this doesn't usually happen where the story holds.

Alexis: Right. And so just because you, you're out there living your life and then you experience something unusual or unexplained, doesn't automatically mean that you're experiencing like a psychotic break.

Alex: Yeah.

Alexis: Or that what you're experiencing is a hallucination, auditory visual. Whole factory tile.

Alex: And how often have you maybe smelled something that may not have been around, like maybe like a perfume.

Like a perfume or something that was lingering around from someone who's passed or how often had you looked in the dark and thought you saw something and it may have been something may not. You don't know. I just got chill. I know, right? We do this all the time. Time. And that has a lot to do with fear.

Other random synapses, but.

Alexis: Our brains are coming that

Alex: way.

Alexis: We're, we're gonna dive into all of it and even more of our experiences, I think moving forward as well. What got me into fear and psychology professionally, not even fear, just like unexplained experiences or

phenomenal

Alexis: phenomenon, actually started early on when I was working as a children's therapist and I had this case where this kid was brought in, man.

They were already gonna start pumping this kid up with antipsychotics. They were gonna, they were going to jump to the conclusion that based on what this kid is saying, that they're experiencing that this kid is hallucinating.

Alex: Okay.

Alexis: The kid was saying young kid, like this year is old.

Alex: This year's old. So six.

Okay.

Alexis: Actually that's like pretty random.

Alex: You, I'm good at your head. You are.

Alexis: So the kid had been reporting that they've been seeing ghost. Like some man. Mm-hmm. Kept on walking down the hall.

Okay. And

Alexis: then coming to their bedroom and. They would tell their parent about this and the parent was religious and said, oh, that's a ghost, or that's a spirit and, and you need to pray and this is what you do.

Yeah. But it kept it getting worse and the kid wasn't able to sleep and was freaking out. Yeah. And yelling and crying every single night. And so they eventually brought them in for therapy. Mm-hmm. And then on my intake, it's like they're already. Getting ready to just pass this kid on just to psychiatric care for medication.

Yeah.

Alexis: And the processes. I was just supposed to do the intake, but while sitting with this kid and learning more about them and their experiences, the kid had experienced really severe childhood trauma.

Alex: Yeah.

Alexis: That was very similar to what they were describing as like ghosts.

Alex: Yeah.

Alexis: And as we're working through it, we come to find that this kid is having what we call in our profession.

As flashbacks. Oh, yes.

Oh,

Alexis: but the kid and then the mom, they didn't have the language to describe, to even connect it to trauma or to describe it as this kid's experiencing flashbacks.

Yeah.

Alexis: It just felt so real to the kid. Yeah,

Alex: of course.

Alexis: And so through their cultural lens, they're describing this as, this kid is seeing ghosts, this kid is seeing ghosts, and then through.

Through the almost failures of the healthcare system, they were gonna write it off as hallucinations. This young kid, which you do not diagnose children with psychosis, and they're ready just to put a bandaid on it and pump 'em to the system and then have this label tied to them for forever. I got in there and advocated, no, this kid needs trauma treatment.

Yeah. And, and so I stopped all that from happening so that, in that moment, that was mostly important to me because I, we need to advocate for accurate assessments and understanding, especially children and diagnosis. Yeah. In order to have an informed, appropriate treatment. 'cause God forbid, like you send a kid down this path of you're schizophrenic.

It's like, no dude, it's had a horrific trauma and experiencing flashbacks on the regular.

Alex: Thank you for sharing that story. You've never told me that story. That's brand new to me as well. Oh, I thought I not, no, but that's so cool. But that's why

Alexis: I get so annoyed when people misdiagnose because that's,

Alex: it's so dismissive.

Alexis: Oh, there's so many things wrong. It's so dangerous. It's okay. So before. Before we dive more into to fear and, and the unexplained and making sense of it, we wanna hear from you all, what's the most unexplainable, scary, or confusing experience you've had that you still can't shake? I have those stories as well.

Alex: All of you, feel free to DM us or email us at wit reason, and we would love to hear your story.

Alexis: Yes, or now you can go ahead and just put it in the comments. Yes. As we always request that you do, let us know, engage with us, share with us, we are alive to hear what your thoughts are, what your experiences are.

If you're down to, just leave us a little comment and tell us what's the most unexplainable. Scary or confusing experience you've had that you still can't shake.

Alex: All right, so give us all, all you good mind, and I'm thinking our feature

Alexis: shows we'll share as I have my list of experiences in my head. You have one that we shared together in New Orleans.

Should I like.

Alex: Okay.

Alexis: Do you have any others outside of that?

Alex: I got some things that I could talk about.

Alexis: Yeah.

Alex: Some things in the world in life that I could tell you about, but yeah. Okay. No

Alexis: pressure now. But for those of you who are, especially if you're watching or listening to us live, leave it in the comments.

If you're catching us through DC Radio or via podcast, you could leave a comment in our wherever you find your podcast or on wit and reason.com. Slash DC Radio can find a show there and then leave us a comment there as well.

Alex: Wonderful.

Alexis: Yes. Keep that, keep that in mind. We, we wanna hear from you as well as mental health professionals and even as wellness designers because we go into.

Homes and spaces and curate them to make sure that they're safe and well For the people who are living or existing in those spaces, our role isn't to investigate or to prove what happened. We believe you. Our goal is to help you process the experience in ways that support your psychological, physical, and cultural safety.

That means giving you tools to calm your body. When fear spikes practices to protect your space and environment, language that validates your perspective. Without shame,

Alex: we don't reduce your experience to a glitch or dismiss it as all in your head. Instead, we recognize that fear. Whether it's caused by something explainable or unexplainable, can leave lasting imprints on memory, sleep, and wellbeing.

By grounding, journaling and connecting with supportive communities, you can reclaim a sense of agency and if the experience continues to unsettle you. Our work is about creating safety plans, not. Proving or disproving the paranormal.

Alexis: I love that about us.

Alex: I do too,

Alexis: because at the heart of it, unexplained experiences show us how powerful the human mind and environment are.

Our goal is to help you live with curiosity, resilience. And respect for the unknown without letting fear overwhelm your daily life. Sounds good to you.

Alex: I love it. I love it.

Alexis: So we talked a bit about like our interests or restrictions. I can't watch the shows on Alex watch. I watch a lot of stuff. I've been into Dexter recently.

Alex: Yeah. And that's pretty boring for me,

Alexis: but that's more because there's a lot of character development there that I find interesting. Yeah. Fascinating. So, and doesn't even been into his psyche, but he's a lovable character, so.

Alex: You,

Alexis: but there's some really intense ones where I'm like, no, I don't wanna use my free time.

I don't find this entertaining.

Alex: That is fair

Alexis: to go into that state of mind of things that are gonna horrify me.

Alex: Your knowledge in like human centipede in between?

Alexis: Yeah. I'm just even imagining like a regular centipede, like

Alex: the in mean sessions you don't stream, you know, the terror.

Alexis: Don't even know. I don't know what.

Alex: For those out there have seen that. So if

Alexis: we're talking about like the science of fear, why would you say that some people chase fear, like in horror films, haunted houses. What's your take on that?

Alex: Some of the most straightforward answer yeah, is there are plenty of, and dopamine and endorphins you get from watching something that.

Thrills you, gets you a little bit more excited and gets you. Yeah. And it gives you that jump scare.

Alexis: Yeah.

Alex: Get locked in. A lot of that has to do with the anticipation.

Alexis: Yeah.

Alex: Sometimes the reward, when reward and whatever that looks like, whether it's like they get away or depending on who you like, it's

Alexis: a bit of an adrenaline rush.

Alex: Yeah.

Alexis: I won't do super intense gory films or horror. Yeah, because I just don't want those images in my head. But I can do something light and I like, I like not scary farm.

Alex: If some haunted, that's even more drawn, spiking

Alexis: because it's IIRL, but. I used to, I don't know if I do that anymore today.

Alex: And I think people love the unexplainable or like trying to pathologize something too.

So like you look at like characters, okay, why did they do what they were doing or what's the reason behind it? What's their, what's the ultimate reason why Freddie Kruger became the nightmare on Elm Street Uhhuh? What does that mean? And they're fascinated by. A really dark, deep story that all of the true crime ever, right?

Yeah. People love true crime because they wanna know,

Alexis: no, I don't get, they wanna know why. They

Alex: wanna know why so and if it resolves and what happens with it. And so I feel like people delve into these stories because not only are they dark and creepy and eerie, but there's also like. A lot of storytelling in it that people get fascinated by.

Alexis: That's true. I feel when it comes to like true crime stuff, there's some other pieces to it. People seem to value that or believe that they're able to gain this kinda like preparedness to prevent some kind of crime happening to them. So that's one piece. And then the other piece, it gives people a.

Downward comparison so they feel better. Oh, well, life's whatever for me, but at least we're alive. No one's been, no one's been murdered. Yeah. So there's like those two components when it comes to the two crime stuff that I find people gain from

Alex: that. Yeah. Yeah. That and anticipatory anxiety where they go, oh, if something happened me, I would do this.

I would do that. I would do this thing. I would know by this I, here's what I'm looking to look out for. Taking

Alexis: notes while

Alex: as if they're pumping, watching the show. Yeah. No, that's fine.

That's

a really good point and

Alexis: I, I say all this, I can't get into true crime and I don't understand it as a form of entertainment.

Even like CSI, stuff like that. Just I say this while also knowing that I like specialized in forensic psychology. Yeah. Where actual real, like true crimes that were very fresh. Yeah. Were part of my career path for a bit there. You know, where I was working in U2. One-on-one in front of someone, sometimes alone in a room together in locked facilities with people who have done really horrific things.

Yeah. To other people. Yeah.

And so there was that e enough intrigue in my mind to say like. And ability to say, I could face this. Yeah. Head on. And I could study it. I could prepare, I could become specialized in this very dark area of psychology and I could work at it and work with it. And there was the, of course, the, with the motivation with the motivational factor of, and I could try to be part of the recovery process.

Yeah. And prevention of future crimes.

Alex: Yes.

Definitely

Alexis: part of the rehabilitation process there.

Alex: Yeah, definitely give that. Decade of working in last, when I was, I used to work at Acomb. People usually get that shorthand and that's, yeah.

Alexis: So I could, I get the intellectual stimulation from it, but mm-hmm. I, my boundary is out.

This is not entertaining to me. That's, it's definitely, it's stimulating, it's intellectually stimulating and interesting. But

Alex: well see. And, but here's the thing, you, you like watching, you'll watch paranormal, you'll watch ghost things. Yeah. You'll watch anything regarding the undead of some sort. You'll watch zombie stuff.

Alexis: Yeah.

Alex: You just don't like sadistic. You don't like the sadistic killing type of slasher film. Yeah. And so there's, you do enjoy a horror. It's just, there's a subset. It's a huge genre.

Alexis: Yeah, it's

Alex: a huge genre.

Alexis: That's true. And

Alex: that's okay. You don't have to like, you don't have to like slasher films. You don't have to like.

Some of them are just like torture and things like, like you would get saw like, nah,

Alexis: American Horror Story could not get through very much. That couldn't creep all

Alex: enough that you can't do it. But then when it comes to watching something about ghosts, you're like all in

Alexis: or UFOs, or you would probably know UAPs

Alex: or in

terms of, or

Alexis: Cryptics and stuff.

And so when we talk about bad genre of fear, where it's more kinda like cult cultural or

Alex: there are similar culture musical. Yeah.

Alexis: The part that I experienced from that, that you all may be relating to as well, is that when we watch that kind of stuff or when we think we've experienced that kind of stuff, it's exciting in a different way.

It's exciting and uh, there's more to life than what is our current state of affairs.

Alex: Well then, then what we think is real. Folklore is wonderful that way. Folklore tells a story, it gives explanation. People love kinda weaving in both the scary and the mystical and the wonderful and the magical, and there's a lot of wonderful stories from every single group of people Yeah.

That go into something magical. They all have versions of, it's a

Alexis: little more meaning making

Alex: evil. They have something evil. They have so many versions of good. It's interesting that we tell these tales evil and good and all these dynamics in every culture.

Alexis: Yeah.

Alex: And it's wonderful and they, there's great stories like

Alexis: even though some of them, the creatures are like horrible, like it would be, yeah, horrible.

These creatures were among us and just eating us for plate. I mean,

Alex: you go like Southeast Asia, you go on some of those, they have wonderful stories about all sorts of different types of demons and wonderful creatures. Japan has amazing storytelling there. Yeah. Everywhere has amazing storytelling, every culture, and I love, love.

If you have a story that you, in particular is war. Yeah. Put it in a common state because I'll, I'll go through all of those ever. Right. I love all the stories of our indigenous folks and like everything that they have to say about that.

Alexis: Yeah.

Alex: There's a lot of misinformation out there in the world because people like to co-opt some of the indigenous folks though.

Yeah,

Alexis: there's a lot of complaints on. TikTok right now where people are trying to, to claim that they're experiencing these types of Cryptics and Appalachian Mountains or something like that, and they're like, you don't know what you're talking about. You're just like

Alex: hopefully appropriating something some way.

Yeah.

Alexis: But they're now culturally appropriating people's scary stories.

Alex: Yeah, fair. Fair.

Alexis: As they, and so there's a lot that actually goes into the science of fear, and there's so much more that we could talk about, including the psychology of the unexplainable, our stress hormones. What our mind does when we're filling in the gaps, how our mind works, even post an experience, like after an experience, how it processes and kind of reconstructions.

There's a lot of research around memory and how faulty that is, especially in trauma

Alex: in memory. Fascinating.

Alexis: Oh, memories fun. And

Alex: then if you get two people seeing something, Ooh, right. Weird.

Alexis: And so there's more to talk about, even our brain and how it works. And we're gonna be dedicating more shows. To this coming up.

We have more announcements to make, but we'll be diving into more around the science of fear 'cause there's just so much more to just

join us and sort of speak just so

much more to, to talk about. Yeah. But let's go ahead and hear some experiences from some people online. I don't think we're gonna do like a whole determining if it's therapy or trash.

Maybe like the way that they are processing it. Can be therapeutic or problematic. We could do it that way.

Alex: I don't know what these are, so we'll see. How do you, yeah, you're going

Alexis: into this fresh. I'm fresh. Get ready for our videos. Buckle up people. This first one is, is coming to you from, at the number six, John Lee, S-E-A-N-L-Y, from TikTok.

Let's start with a light story that blends humor, denial, and just enough panic. To make you wonder, when does a spooky moment cross into genuine fear? This creator thought the haunting was creepy enough until friends, aka the comment section suggested it might not just be a ghost at all. And the real kegger, they've been playing with the Ouija board.

So this is where curiosity meets. Pretty immediate regret.

I thought it was only right for me to film just a brief follow up to my haunting last night. People keep commenting, oh, it's probably somebody squatting in your house. Can we not do that? Hey, so I'm cool with Casper. I can handle that. Can we not put that idea in my head?

Now, if you've been following me, you know how I feel about the killer. One of my friends texted me. She's just like, Hey, if you need somebody to reach out to, to have your house inspected, where are we going with this? House inspected? I was like, like ghost? She's like, no heat. Right. I learned what the word frogging means today.

I thought somebody was talking about something else, and that's where my mind went. I would like to point out that I do have an Ouija board, and I'm gonna insert a clip of me using it fairly recently, the clip of you using the Ouija board, so I'm gonna get rid of that. My coworker said that you have to rip it up in seven pieces and burn it and throw holy water on it Don't have holy water, but I do have fire.

I will be disposing of the alleg blur. Also, I follow a psychic on TikTok and I can't believe her, and she said Sage doesn't do anything. Does what? Can we dip? I do feel like this is my moment. I'm finally becoming a medium, even though I've always been a large, I don't keep you guys posted. I don't post like this.

I don't post ghost videos. Do I love spooky? Sure.

Alexis: So this person heard something in their home and they had posted a video about it while it was happening, and then of course a comment section blows up with all of these. Like potentials of what this could be. I like

Alex: how people actually immediately go into a lot of different camps, right?

Yeah. So do they believe him? Do they not believe him? Think, oh no. The practical solution, which is there's somebody in your house, which is also. Terrifying as well.

Alexis: Yes,

Alex: but like also equally terrifying that ghosts would be a thing. It just depends. And flogging, that's

Alexis: what is that

Alex: people hiding in your, that's what I thought.

Hanging out. No, there's a movie on it. I want to say. It's called I See You or something like that. No, it's really creepy. It's a murdery one. It's good.

Alexis: Oh no. And so what I appreciate about his process is that he posted about it and you could find his original post on TikTok and then, and since he didn't consider it, it is.

Incredibly useful that you first rule out actual safety risks.

Alex: Yes.

Alexis: And environmental risks like that noise might be coming from someone actually inside your home.

Alex: Yeah. That you wouldn't wanna rule that one out. Right.

Alexis: I don't want you all to hear something and then jump to some kind of conclusion that will skip safety steps for you.

Alex: That's fair.

Alexis: Right?

Alex: I like that.

Alexis: And that's something I'm gonna keep on pushing for. Okay. At the very least.

Alex: All right,

Alexis: so yes, we believe you experienced this.

Alex: Check all the boxes first.

Alexis: Let's go check all these other possible reasons for why this might be happening, particularly 'cause we wanna make sure that you're freaking safe, you know?

Yeah, that

Alex: makes sense. Okay. I'm with you on this,

Alexis: right? Yeah, definitely. And so I'm glad that someone, or someone, it seems like multiple people were like. Do that sound like there's a person in your wherever attic basement wall, go get that looked at for reels before we start jumping to Ouija board conclusions.

Yeah.

Alexis: And then all of the different opinions that they're getting from people about what to do with the Ouija board and um, yeah, what works, what doesn't work. And then it's gonna depend on your. Cultural beliefs and that's, it's difficult to navigate when there's not like a hard set rule on best presses.

Alex: Yeah. There is no Ouija board best practices thing. Okay.

Alexis: Some people think that they have it, but then none. The people argue and some people say burn it. Some people say, oh, don't, that releases stuff. Some people say bury it

Alex: like chemicals in a very

Alexis: specific way, like

Alex: chemicals. It's like

Alexis: the lead.

Alex: It's plastic.

So it was a plastic you don't want. Right. Okay,

Alexis: so we got another one. Okay. Chucky nerds out there

Alex: from Laughter two. UN Lee's, our next storyteller isn't just dealing with creaky doors. Imagine your smart car telling you someone standing next to it, but no one's there. This clip dives into how technology collides with the paranormal and why validation from the past owners makes everything 10 times scarier.

I've heard a lot of him really. This comes from, from my talented, my property. My front door just swung wide open. It does that excuse you once a week and it's completely shut when it happens. And I also have a Tesla that tells me when there's like people around my car that terrifies me, my house.

Property is like haunted. The previous owner said it was, and there's no one standing right there by my car. Or wait, he, but he's standing right here like watching me. They're showing his LA Tesla and this on medium psychic. Everyone in the neighborhood said she was crazy, but she claims his property haunted.

I think the first owner of the full neighborhood, I think he like, oh, hung himself, I think possibly on this property.

Alexis: Oh boy. Sorry, I didn't give you that warning. No, no.

Alex: Well, suicide warning, I think what's interesting about this is like you have multiple things that are happening all over the place.

That's always hard. Like when you talk about going through and like kind of processing safety.

Alexis: Yeah. Like

Alex: how do you feel comfortable when all these weird little things keep happening?

Alexis: Yeah.

Alex: And eventually does confirmation bias kick in because you're like, oh, of course this is gonna happen because these are all related.

Right.

Alex: You know what I mean? So something rattles over there. Something rattles over here. So you could have weird pressure in the house, and then that's what's opening or closing the door. Mm. You could have like terrible wires, which is what's making some weird rattling or noise. Mm-hmm. Or some air AC duct that wasn't installed correctly, but also.

If you have all of those altogether, that's really creepy and weird.

Alexis: Yeah. And then the really creepy part now as, as technology is advancing, we have cameras all over the place now. Yeah. So people are capturing more things like on their ring cameras. There was a recent footage that the LA News actually picked up in Los Angeles about someone saying that they saw an extra dress being walking outside their front curve from the ring camera.

You're in

Alex: daunting. Yeah.

Alexis: And so technology is advancing, so we have more abilities to try to capture things on video footage. Yeah, we do. If that kind of stuff is able to be captured via video and then the Tesla.

Yeah,

Alexis: the Tesla. Like people sensor thing. I see a lot of those complaints where there's like on the Tesla screen, it's showing a little avatar of a person, and then there's no one there particularly around cemeteries.

Alex: Ooh,

Alexis: yes.

Alex: Interesting.

Alexis: That's my first question to any Tesla owners. Well, second, and then it goes back to the same

Alex: thing, which is confirmation bias. Are you looking because you feel like this would be the creepy, weird place where there'd be a ghost, so therefore you're looking for it? Mm-hmm. And so you notice more often that it's glitching there versus somewhere else.

Alexis: And then that's the thing like is it glitches?

Alex: Is it glitching?

Alexis: Has Tesla. Tesla glitches all this. They've, they've so many recalls.

Alex: Sure.

Alexis: Is it just happening in cemeteries? No. Apparently it's happening at people's homes. Yeah. While they're diving around. And so what is that about? I'm not, that's out of my scope of competency.

I don't know. Oh,

Alex: for sure. And I think the other thing that I think about is now you then are looking for a story about what happened here. Yeah. Right. And so we get then this person going into finding out that possibly the original owner had died.

Alexis: Right.

Alex: And had died violent. Right. And so that's even more interesting because like how do you

Alexis: in that space?

Alex: Yeah,

Alexis: yeah. And how do you even process all that? And

Alex: is it even true because they're like, it could have happened. Yeah. There's too

Alexis: many like kind of question marks on that one. Exactly.

Alex: Well, but that's the thing is there, can there always then be a story?

Alexis: What do you mean?

Alex: I heard from somebody that this thing that, that thing, something else happened there like.

People trying to justify something or explain something. Mm-hmm. Explain the unexplainable or that phenomenon.

Right.

Alex: We always want to explain the un unexplainable with whatever else there is. We've been doing that forever.

Alexis: Yeah.

Alex: So is that part of our human nature?

Alexis: Oh, for sure.

Alex: Well, is that what's happening when we run into these stories?

Alexis: It seems like it. The big question is, is that accurate?

Alex: Yeah. Well, and even regardless, is it, and

Alexis: even if it is accurate, does do those two facts equal? Is there any kind of correlation or causation there?

Alex: Yeah, exactly.

Alexis: So lots of question marks there. I, with her, I would wonder like how in the world are you navigating all of this?

Yes. With all of these different examples of things happening. How are you processing that? How do you feel in your home? Do you feel safe? Yeah. How Are there any kind of safety measures that you take? Mm-hmm. Everyone has different experiences with this, and so now we're moving into a heavier space.

Ooh, heavy.

Alexis: Literally now this creator is alone in a locked fire, damaged building when he discovers small footprints that shouldn't exist. The mix of grief, innocence. And the unexplained shows why child haunting strike us as deeper than most of his storm. Okay?

Okay, so my last video wasn't too long that I press a 10 minute icon.

It, anyways, I, this didn't even work, right? Nobody in this unit, I'm the only one besides the owner and with the key and the owner lives all the way in New York. I'm in California, so I wish Junior had a fire for years. Bad. This was a little girl's room. This was a room, and I, I'm like raw forward right now.

Sorry, there Pass by shields when you're standing up on my arms. But the girl that happened to task for unit was three years old. Nigga would down, down or not. This is a renovated building

Alexis: and there's

one hits the wall. This is where try wall goes to. I talked to the owner, veto called and everything and I've been here and little kids laughing.

I just thought it was coming from outside. It's like a little, I found something like this to my ear and yeah, I hear all the activity. Perfect. I closet it and right here, but this really daff, that's nobody else housing the keys, that there's no keys in there. Lock of everything. Four unit contracts.

Nobody's in here. Nobody. Is an alarm system. So we got printed on my, these little fee we little cute little fee. You hear ghosts on Uncle Dad, common Uncle, dad six, then Y Ghost, if you have anything turned on, share on Gulf. Man. Oof. I work, I'll work within every environment, even if this or whatever. Tesla goes like to this shit, man, pen, peace out, grab his, uh, shoot later.

Alexis: This was from what his TikTok name, actually, www dot TikTok Dave 84. He seems so sincere. He

Alex: does, right. I don't doubt that he, that's the experience that he is having at all. It's just when, when I first

Alexis: saw that the footprints, and if you're listening to us on podcast or DC radio, visit us at YouTube. Com slash At what reason?

'cause he could see our videos there. The footprints though, in that video are like so defined.

Alex: Yeah, they're very pronounced.

Alexis: Yeah. And when I first came across that video, I was like, I thought like at the end he is be like, eh. Gotcha. Just kidding.

Yeah.

Alexis: But throughout the video he seems very sincere. He's trying to explain everything.

Yeah. And then

Alexis: I looked at the rest of his page. That's not his. That's not his genres, his deal. That's not his deal. Like it's all just in the life of just regular, almost like Instagram kind of stuff where it's just like update from what he is doing.

Yeah.

Alexis: And he's a contractor. And what this video has me thinking about are like the particular occupations that people are working in and and report experiencing unexplainable.

Alex: Yeah. I'm wondering who gets reports.

Alexis: So we have, so he was like a what kind of contractor?

He was just a general contractor. Like a

Alexis: general contractor for homes. Like renovating damaged homes and things. Yeah. I've also heard from realtors,

Alex: realtors would make sense

Alexis: because they're, you're in an empty house.

Especially if it's an old house. Yeah. So you got some realtors out there kind of sharing those stories. Night shift, workers

Alex: night shift. Yeah. But where

Alexis: Security. Oh, night shift. Everywhere. Yeah.

Alex: I was thinking hospitals. Hospitals. I was thinking hospitals.

Alexis: Both medical and psychiatric. Yeah. And then even just night shift workers.

I don't know, like at shops and stuff.

Oh, okay.

Alexis: Commercial buildings. Sure. Security guards. I've heard directly from police officers.

Yeah.

Alexis: And so, yeah, healthcare workers, doctors, surgeons. And so what's interesting is that you start hearing people's stories from like across demographics.

Yes.

Alexis: Across.

Education and experience and background, and that's where things start getting like really interesting.

Alex: Yeah, no, I'm with you. That's, it's fascinating. I think the idea is that like where do you see this the most often? Sure. But a lot of times it's those places that are empty, quiet night. And it makes sense because there you are, you're set up in a place or space.

Is already fear-based.

Alexis: Yeah.

Alex: Now if you believe, but it,

Alexis: listen, unless you don't, and that's just, you're just doing your whatever job, you don't get it. You're just trying to make a paycheck. Especially if you like a doctor or something like that. You don't have any proclivity

Alex: for it. If you don't believe in any of those things, would you then, are you more likely to hear it or not?

And then we talk about receptivity to other things that may be real or not. Are the unexplainable and let's say it's all

Alexis: No.

Alex: Yeah.

Alexis: They don't give a shit. They don't have a proclivity for it, and yet they're still experiencing things that they cannot explain. Yeah.

Alex: See, that's always, those are the people that I'm always interested,

Alexis: those people I wanna talk to.

Alex: Yeah, definitely. Definitely. So if you were one of those people, yeah. Please get ahold of us. If you've experienced me and you're a skeptic and you're like, no, these don't exist, except I can't explain this thing except

Alexis: this happened to me. I can't freaking explain it. It's obnoxious. Come, come and find us.

And fricking terrifying.

Alex: Alright, so from Erie Holmes to the terrifying world of sleep paralysis. The next story Indu introduces one of the most chilling figures people worldwide report seeing. Hat, man. What makes this clip powerful is how trauma environment and culture converge. If you guess with an experience that's as psychological as it is paranormal.

Alexis: Have you heard of the Hat Man?

Alex: Yes. That,

Alexis: yeah, of course. I think they watched that movie.

Alex: Of course. No, that was Ook.

Alexis: He was wearing a hat and he was, man, he was,

Alex: yeah, but it was a thing. It was a thing. It's not really bad.

Alexis: Yeah, so different from the half, man. Appreciate that.

Since we talking paranormal activities taking place in the hood, I wanna share my experience grew up going to my grandmother and grandfather's house on 63rd and Kenwood, just to give you some context.

So not super hood, but not super safe semi hood. It was a little bit rougher back in the day before gentrification started taking place on that block specifically. Yeah. And also my grandfather was a struggling addict, so there were moments when he would with strangers while my dad was asleep, and I didn't know until I put two and two together as I got older.

He would be like, do not come out this room for the rest of the night. Go use the bathroom now. Yeah. That happened a few times in my childhood. Mind you, this apartment we all stayed in. It always had an eerie vibe to me, and I thought it was just because on the weekdays I would spend times with my mom. I would live with my mom and my grandma in the suburbs.

So going from that contrast, we a suburban lifestyle to a city, to my hood, lifestyle, but just be like, okay, this is different. But it just felt off and it never felt off. When we moved outta that apartment. I know now that was haunted. And like I had my first paranormal experience there and it was very scary.

So I'll fall asleep. I wake up. Mind you, there's no cable. It's only satellite television. You know, there's only about seven channels. So I usually go to sleep with the TV on. I wake up, the TV is on like channel 32 1, and it's just a black screen. There's no signal. For some reason, also, I cannot move, I'm, I now know that this sleep a.

And it's not my last time I ever sleep paralysis, but it's my first. So I'm like, oh, I'm seven years old. I can't move. And the room is a tinted red. I kid you not, the room was a tinted red. I thought I died a bunch of hell and I can't move. I can't scream, I can't do anything here. A man opens the door and it's the handman, not the handman child, the tall man with the hat.

The hat man. Yeah, I seen him. He had no eyes, no face, but he was there. Clear as day. I just can't just take people to the story 'cause people think I'm crazy, but I kid you not. After that I could not sleep in that room by myself anymore. My little sister had to sleep in a room with me. I used to sleep in my room with my dad and my stepmom.

I used to be like, uh, I'm going somewhere else. Like I used to skip out on weekends when my dad felt do consistent time as a kid and I was too scared to tell anybody 'cause it was so traumatized. Mm-hmm. And I don't know, like. My grandfather bringing all those different types of energies into that apartment.

Who knows what spiritual attachment were with these strangers he was doing D-R-U-G-G-S with, he could have been having some spirits following him. You just never know. But yeah, that's something I would love to see. Like I would love to see another horror movie taking place in the hood because the hood is a hood for trap spirits.

It's a hub for negative energy. Sometimes it's just a hub for spiritual activity to take place. And I don't wanna sound like one of the moan crystal. But there's definitely some spiritual works in a place with a lot of these games and stuff.

Alexis: I have my list of thoughts. I was ticking notes 'cause he had a lot to say.

He had a lot to con contribute. And that was from at

Alex: Dupree, the artist.

Alexis: Yes. Thank you. Yeah. And TikTok.

Alex: Yeah. I think the thing that I like about that is, is like first experience in sleep paralysis is very bizarre. Yeah. The sleep paralysis. Have you

Alexis: experienced that?

Alex: No.

Alexis: I have. And the timing of it was up.

I'll tell the story later.

Alex: Okay, cool. All right. You need to leave it there. But I think sleep paralysis in and of itself as a 7-year-old is really terrifying. I think the thing is, the circumstances you're in are like feeling like negative and painful and fearful, all these different things. If you're gonna have a terror night terror thing leave out here, like priming yourself for those things anyway, and then to feel like eerie throughout this like place all the time.

I always wonder about that when people feel that eerie kind of presence or something just feels off. Yes. All the time in a particular place or space. I wonder what intuition that is for people, because a lot of times they're right. Something happened there, something else is not okay there.

Alexis: Yeah. And I

Alex: don't know where that comes from

Alexis: and I always wonder, and I noted that part, and I appreciate the creator.

Trying to differentiate between this feels, this new space feels eerie to me, but is it feeling eerie vibes just 'cause it's different from what you used to, or is it because there's like legitimate reason for it to be eerie or regardless of it being different, the environment itself. Is, I don't know, disheveled or dark or neglected.

Yes. That environment. If, if the environment was like cleaned up and then well lit and all that stuff, would it still feely what's committing to this experience? And

Alex: he talked about some of the aspects of the hood where you feel like there's a lot of trauma, a lot of pain, a lot of sorrow. Mm-hmm. A lot of violence.

How that would then affect what. I would show up in a given place or space. Yeah. And he, he brought up like movies and other things like that, that Candyman. Candy Man's a great one.

Alexis: Yeah.

Alex: You see Candyman, if you haven't seen it, it's a really wonderful one. There's a couple of other ones that are a little more urban environment where you could see there is some Yeah, different.

It's great.

Alexis: And that's what I appreciate about this creator as well, is that like when, whenever we think about paranormal experiences, a lot of people refer to like. Basically white people. Yeah. Who are making these types of claims.

Yeah.

Alexis: And really, if we all just start talking about the odd or unexplainable experiences Yeah.

That we have, you will see more diversity. Yeah, for sure. And you're starting to see more diversity in these experiences. It paranormal or those unusual experiences that people are concluding to be paranormal isn't just a white experience.

Alex: He didn't like, I mean, he didn't, he went through what he experienced, period.

Yeah. He didn't think about whether Believes in it, not believed in it. It just, it was his experience. He didn't, well, he

Alexis: identified it as the hat man.

Alex: Yeah. But like he

Alexis: put, he put in a name to what he. Experience. Yeah.

Alex: He didn't sit around and be like, the hat man is a real character, which or is a real thing that blah, blah.

He was like, no, this is exactly what I experienced. This is what it looked like. This is what it was. Yeah. There you are. It wasn't sitting around going, well, I believe in this stuff or not believe that. No, it's just this is my experience.

Alexis: Yeah. Period. And what I'm wondering is I like, like you mentioned and like the creator mentioned.

He was exposed to drugs in the home at a young age. Yeah. Strangers coming in with drug use in the home. I'm wondering, is there some trauma there that's contributing to his experiences?

Alex: Yeah, that's my immediate fear too.

Alexis: Yes. Just like my past client patient, yeah.

Alex: Yeah.

Alexis: That I had worked with and then particularly because he was experiencing that sleep paralysis.

You may feel like you're awake, but you're not sure if. But you may not actually be awake.

Yeah.

Alexis: And so you might still be asleep and very lucid and having like weird experiences.

True.

Alexis: And then even if you are awake and you're saying like, no, I am awake and I'm seeing this thing, I'm also wondering, you identified the strangers.

Coming in and outta the home.

Yeah.

Alexis: Was this just a stranger and it's dark at night, dark shadows, you can't see their eyes or face.

May have been wearing a hair or were

Alexis: they wearing a mask

or a hat? I

Alexis: don't know. And I'm sure that these are all the questions that this person has been like wondering as a

7-year-old, how do you, since seven

Alexis: and this person looks like what, into their twenties now?

Yeah. Still, like still their mind is still, it's not only fresh in their memory, but still trying to understand it well and and come to terms with it. Well, it's interesting,

Alex: like our brains see the most intense moments Yeah. Into our breath. Yeah. Doesn't mean you remember it accurately. Do you remember the feeling?

Alexis: Yeah.

Alex: And so if it's the worst fear you've ever had, if it's the worst guilt, the loss, well loss. That's why people are, for example, chase the first time they've ever used because they can't achieve that same level of high. I wish they felt that first time, right? Like a lot of times that's where we chase that moment because that's when our brain goes, whoa.

And so it's interesting that it seems like that first moment for him is something that he's continued to think about. They're on after.

Alexis: Yeah. And that's just very natural for us to do as humans. Okay, so let's come up for air with a story that shifts the tone from terror to coexistence. What happens when you treat a ghost like a noisy roommate?

This creator's approach shows us that fear isn't always about panic. It can also be about setting. Healthy boundaries with the unseen.

Oh, I think I know this. It was a ghost in my apartment. It's been a ghost. I've been through it. I felt that the day I moved in his, but the energy not malignant. So I don't bother him.

He don't bother me. T we coexist. That's the homie. He the roommate last night, he bothered me, so I put him in punishment, right? It's three o'clock in the morning. I wake up to hear all this ling with a music, so I wakes up. I'm like, Hey bro. Usually I let you do your thing. It's three in the morning. You make it too much noise.

Go get in the corner. I immediately stopped hearing the noise and I have not heard nolie since I wakes up and go to the bathroom. This w laying in the, my trash can is in the middle of the mother floor. If you know me, you know I didn't do it. I'm clumsy. That said right in the corner outta my foot. Mother, you tried to.

Cool. You ain't coming out that corner for the day. I'm irked. He playing too much. I don't got time. He getting too comfortable. I love that. Which

Alexis: is interesting because again, there's different cultural beliefs on whether or not you even acknowledge Yeah. That something unexplainable or odd is happening and so that's to some cultures.

Talking to it and acknowledging it is risky in and of itself, and yet this creator seems to have found something that generally works for them.

Alex: Yeah.

Alexis: In their space.

Alex: Bring

Alexis: it.

Alex: They said bring it. They just said bring it. Okay. I'm gonna, I'm gonna talk to you like I'm gonna talk to you like a roommate and we are gonna chat about this and there's gonna be boundaries.

I like the boundaries, right? There's behaviors that you're not gonna set, settle for. I like it. I appreciate that. Again, what What's gonna happen like by diving in something that's not fearful, you're gonna feel like we have more agency, you're gonna feel more powerful. Yeah. Even if it's, even if there's no ghost, it's still something that allows you to feel like you're not bothered by something versus what is

Alexis: when you're having objects like moved and you live alone.

Alex: Yeah.

Alexis: Again, rule out that there's no one else in your home, or breaking into your home. Yeah. Or messing with you or rodent. Yeah. Yeah. Trash bandas. Trash band. That's what scared me in the mountains. Fricking raccoons at 3:00 AM raccoons. 3:00 AM Yeah. Thank There. Raccoons

2:43 AM That's what the light shown up at.

2 43

Alexis: at witching hour.

Yeah.

Alexis: And this is another creator too, where I felt it, since I moved in, I felt this kind of like energy. And then it's always, I'm always so curious about what are the factors that go into that. If the environment was different or if your mood or state, or how you were feeling or whatever was different, would that have changed things for you and just.

We'll never know.

Alex: Never know.

Alexis: We could do, we do renovations and we update places and it feels a lot better for people.

Alex: Yeah.

Alexis: When we do that through our wellness design, that that first experience is, there's only something you could control there.

Alex: Yeah. It's about bringing, that's about like also them bringing yourself to a space so that doesn't feel as if it's been co-opted by something else.

Alexis: Yeah. That feels more familiar and homey to you. That's important. Well.

Alex: So we close this lineup with a story that feels straight out of a horror film, a hostile worker called by a coworker who shouldn't even be there. Voices apparitions at the sun, realization that the familiar has turned impossible. This clip leaves us with a lingering question.

What happens? The people we trust the most appear where they can't be.

Alexis: What happens is they piss your pants. No judgment.

You guys are not gonna believe what happened this morning. Holy. So I work at a hospital, right? And I'm here at two 30 in the morning and its me and another lady that are always here at two 30 in the morning.

So I'm doing my regular thing. So I'm breaking down the boxes. I'm getting everything ready before everybody comes into work. While I'm doing all this, mind you, I'm really sleepy. I am dead tired. I am just like, I wanna go to bed. I'm so tired. So I'm setting everything up. And I hear my coworker, she's a sweet little lady, right?

She says, my name's Terry. Mind you in English is like, Hey, can you come over here and help me? Um, it's really, so then I was like, yeah, I'll be there right now. But I was tripping out 'cause like I hear her voice. Down the hall where the dish machine's at. And I was like, what are you doing over there? I'm only tripping out 'cause I never see her over there.

So I'm just like, oh, maybe she wanna go get something. Right. And so before I go, I tell her like, hold on, I'm just, I'm getting this finished. And she keeps calling me and asking me to come and help her. And I was like, why? Why is she being so, he. Why she be so, so mind you, I am walking to where I hear her and then I have this sudden memory of, wait, she's on vacation.

So I stopped halfway according to the dish. I was like, hold up. So I ignored it. I was like, maybe he's just in my head. Maybe, and then my, let me just continue what I was doing. And then I go into this office where I have to get the keys to open up all the locks and all the fridges and everything. So I go and grab the keys from the corner of my eye.

Every time I see a lady standing by the door and she was just staring at me and I was just. A rose and just holding the keys, looking down, telling myself like, well, this is it. This is it. Like I, I don't know what's going on, but this is it. And then I just closed my eyes. Take a deep breath. There was nothing there.

And I was like, okay. But if anything like that has ever happened to you guys, please comment, talk to me about it. See, I'm not the only crazy one here. I think sky later.

Alexis: Oh

my God. Oh my goodness.

Alex: That's ridiculous. That is, that's rough.

Alexis: Oh boy.

Alex: So not only is this person not there that you're hearing, which I mean could be your senses memory or something else, like remembering and telling me what you're doing that but like not multiple times and not in a place that it shouldn't be.

That's odd.

Alexis: And that's the thing. There's this distinction that, I'm not saying this person is experiencing hallucinations, but for those who are, there's a distinction that we make is, are you hearing, are the voices that you're experiencing or hearing, are they like inside your own mind or are you hearing them like outside of you?

Outside of your mind? Yeah. And in, in this case, it's not just a thought or a memory that he is having of this person. Yeah. It sounds like, no, I'm hearing this voice

from a specific location,

Alexis: from a very specific location.

That's a good point.

Alexis: And it seemed like that person's or the voices positioning was different than what, how they would usually be.

And so it's not even like a recall of a memory that he has of this person or something usual or familiar with this person. It

Alex: was, they were questioning it.

Alexis: Right. But it was something like unusual about it. What is the cryptic that mimics voices? Crypt,

Alex: cryptic. Alright. So the mimic, there's a couple of different types of mimic.

There are things that people are familiarly calling skin walkers. That is not exactly what that necessarily is. Mm-hmm. But there is a mi, there are lots of mimics out there. Mm-hmm.

There

Alex: are lots of things that mimic, there are a lot of. Believe in the pandemic.

Yeah. That

Alex: people believe in. People have been familiarly calling some of these skin walkers that I feel like has a different connotation.

There's things from indigenous folks that like are tied to that and they don't really go into that detail. And they're in oral history, not that necessarily written history as much, so like it's passed verbally so they don't even speak the name. And so there's a lot of really cool things around that history and story.

I do not know if that's. Mimicking that is the same thing. But familiarly, you look at Appalachian TikTok, they're gonna talk about yes. Skin walkers and mimics

Alexis: that. That's what it reminded me of is that an apple, when people are talking about the Appalachian Mountains, they're like, don't whistle at night in the forest and or in the mountains.

And then if you hear someone call your name, no, they didn't. Yeah. And then in more severe cases, people would say or warn others about. If there's someone who's even familiar to you looks like them, sounds like them approaching your window or your door trying to get in. That's not them.

Alex: Yeah. At night, and then they're staring at you and especially they're telling you to come outside or something like that.

It's, yeah, there's a lot of stories like that. There's a lot of creators who make creative content.

Alexis: Yeah. And fictional content doing that,

Alex: which is also really great. Yeah. So it, there's a lot of stories around mimics and mimicking and pretending Yeah. To meet, like to try and lure you in some light shape or form.

Yes.

Alexis: And I don't know if this person is familiar with Yeah. Those what we call like legends or

Alex: folklore folk stories. Folklore, yeah. Urban legends.

Alexis: But it seemed familiar to me that experience, and it happened around 2:30 AM Of course, which is where everyone reports, theses happening around week two. Yep.

Two or three. And there is some kinda like psychological aspect to that is that if we have something set in our mind, then we can look out for it more. Yeah. Around that time. Sure. But then the argument could be like, Hey, I had this experience. I looked at the clock. That was the time.

Alex: That was the time. The time is the time.

Alexis: And then the double counter argument to that is that like your brain can get so fixated on habits.

Alex: Ooh, that's, yeah.

Alexis: That even your sleep could be interrupted at a certain time because when you wake up, you look at the clock, you're almost programming your mind to Yeah. To wake up at that certain time.

And so that, that's interesting.

Alex: Yeah, though,

Alexis: and then when he was talking, I was like, well, what if she just wasn't on vacation anymore?

Alex: I, poor lady. Like doing it job. I, she's just like

Alexis: trying, she's

Alex: not on vacation. My flight

Alexis: got canceled. Dude, come help me.

Alex: That could be a thing, dude, but the corner of the eye.

Oh. When you see something under the corner of your eye, that's also interesting because it's a different aspect of the peripheral vision is a different aspect of like kind of cognition and thought of the things and perception even. So if you're looking at some over here. Like in the corner of your eye, there's a lot of ways in which your brain is actually filling in gaps.

Your brain, like processes, there's stuff over here that makes sense that it would be there, and so it fills in some gaps.

Alexis: Yeah. And

Alex: I'm wondering if it fills in gaps with real things or sometimes something a little more creative.

Alexis: Yeah, and

Alex: I think maybe we've all been there where we thought

Alexis: we saw something and then we looked at it or turned on the lights and then realized.

I terrified. I terrified myself when we had that coat hanger thing. Oh yeah,

Alex: you hated the coat hanger. Oh man. Put my coats on it.

Alexis: And then if you ever wanna see, I'd always take off my baseball cap and put it on top of the coat.

Alex: If you ever would wanna see Alexis's job, just leave a coat hanger. It was right

Alexis: by the door.

Just leave a coat hanger like the mirrors. She's

Alex: terrified of coat hangers. Done a dark

Alexis: hallway. There's the hat and then like a coat hat racks it,

Alex: hat rack. Can you put it umbrella on it in the hat? She'll jump. I, I dress it up

Alexis: throughout the day and then by night it scare scares, scare, scares the crap out of,

Alex: it's pretty funny.

It's pretty entertaining. So if you ever want to terrify Alexis.

Alexis: Don't, no, I'm not inviting this fine, not inviting. I'm not inviting Franks or any kind of like unnecessary experiences. Fair

Alex: enough. Well,

Alexis: I just wanna hear your experiences

Alex: also fair.

Alexis: Yeah.

Alex: So fear doesn't just rattle the mind, it affects the body, our environment, and the way we interpret reality.

Here's how you can approach unexplainable fear in six, healthier, safer weights.

Alexis: I gotcha.

Alex: You got me. We're

Alexis: gonna do, we're gonna do a mix match. I'll do some and then you do some. All right, cool. I added these six. Step number one, protect your mind and your memory. So our psychological recommendation is that ambiguity magnifies fear because the brain is gonna try to fill in those missing details.

And so. Journaling the event soon after it happens. Dude, if you could start recording while it's happening even better, it's gonna help you separate what was experienced from what might later be contaminated by other kind of input or conclusions that you might be coming up or that other people are telling you.

And so this is gonna reduce memory. Distortion and grounds the story in observable facts.

Alex: Nice.

Alexis: And so when we experience these types of things just in general, even when we're in conflict or whatever, I always encourage people to just stick to the facts of what's happening. Yes. Be as descriptive as possible.

And instead of saying words like, like he was angry, I mean like what was it about this person that that is, how did you

Alex: perceive it as anger?

Alexis: Yes. Be more specific. Like forwarded furrowed brow. Clenched fist.

Alex: Shouting,

Alexis: lunging towards you. Yeah. Raise voice, get, just get the facts down of what you're experiencing.

Yes. Trash move.

Alex: Exactly.

Alexis: And that's gonna really help the memory aspect of it, particularly when your stress is heightened and fear is heightened.

Alex: Perfect. Well next. You want to safeguard your body. So medical recommendation always rule out medical explanations for frightening or confusing experiences.

Many symptoms people interpret as paranormal hearing voices feeling touched. Sudden dizziness or waking unable to move can also be linked to medical conditions like sleep paralysis, PGIC, hallucinations, it. It's one of the ones that I don't, I never deal with. Yeah, hallucinations, seizures, migraines, inner ear disturbances, or even blood sugar fluctuations.

Also urinary tract infections. Yeah, especially for the elderly. Before labeling an experience as supernatural, it's essential to check with a healthcare provider to make sure it's not your body signaling and medical issue.

Alexis: Please, even before we jump to psychological, we rule out medical conditions. Yes.

We do not wanna jump to these types of conclusions, rule out medical and then. Let's also rule out environmental.

Ooh,

Alexis: okay. Secure your space. The environmental recommendation. If events repeatedly un settle, you rule out natural or even a first occurrence. Rule out natural causes before concluding to any kind of like paranormal or alien, or any other kind of reason.

Check your door seals, electrical wiring, carbon monoxide levels, or smart tech. Glitches. Many huntings or what are the alien words called? Abduction. It's abduction overlap with safety hazards. Okay, so medical check, environmental check. So you're doing your safety check. Then let's check your mental health as well.

Alex: Yeah.

Alexis: Some of these experience could even be like brain tumors.

Alex: It's just well. And then you have to keep in, keep Anu around your cultural context, right? So you have to keep this into the forefront of your mind. So beer is interpreted through personal and cultural frameworks. Some communities frame unexplained events as spiritual visitations, others as warnings, others as sign of imbalance.

Validating these perspectives can reduce shame or stigma about sharing them. So what's your belief system? Make sure you understand it. Make sure you know it. You know where it's coming from.

Yeah.

Alex: Did this experience then align to that idea or not? Where else is those things coming from for you?

Alexis: Yeah, and then I find that in some of my experiences too, my default, because of the way I was raised Catholic, went to spiritual explanations for the.

Ambiguity that I was experiencing. And then as I started to just focus on the facts of it and then just approach it more with curiosity was, I don't know what this is.

Yeah.

Alexis: And that makes me feel this type of certain way.

Yeah.

Alexis: Keep those in mind as you're out there experiencing and processing. Yeah.

Things where some of those conclusions that you might be, might be coming up with are coming from. 'cause we wanna make sure that you're also not limited just to that as well. Definitely

true.

Alexis: And then set safe boundaries with fear. Mm-hmm. Have pretty hardcore boundaries with this stuff. Don't engage with spiritual, cultural, or even like technological items that you don't really understand, including like Ouija boards or some of those like paranormal.

Yeah.

Alexis: Tools that you could now buy on Amazon? Yes. Unless you've prepared for even just a psychological weight that can follow. Yeah. Given playing with these things, just open that

Alex: door and like what you experienced.

Alexis: Even if that were just, even if we just mean mentally open the door.

Alex: Exactly.

Alexis: Even if nothing paranormal or alien or cryptic happens, the suggestion alone can reinforce anxiety and obsession.

Yeah.

Alex: As

Alexis: well. So you wanna Yeah. Be careful with that.

Alex: And another big piece is you wanna reframe the experience, okay? Mm-hmm. So shift from why me to, what can I learn? What did I notice? What do I learn and can I take away from this? Whether it's stress management, home safety checks, or exploring cultural identity, unexplained experiences can servee as a catalyst for growth and connection.

So take. Utilize it and go, what can I learn from this experience and see what you do with it.

Alexis: And you notice from like a lot of the creators, they ended their videos with, if this has happened to you, leave it in my common, tell me because I don't wanna feel alone. Yeah. Or, or I don wanna feel crazy. Yeah.

Or

Alex: a lot of 'em like saw not just validation, but like a supportive

Alexis: community. Yeah. And so now with social media, people are starting to utilize it for that purpose. And fear becomes more manageable when we treat it as a signal instead of a verdict. Yeah. So by combining psychological, grounding, medical and environmental checks and cultural respect, we can stay curious without letting fear take the wheel.

That's great. Right.

 
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