Astonishing Legends

In tonight’s dead letter, we hear a story from a listener who along with her husband encountered something bizarre hovering low near their land down in the southernmost part of the Australian mainland. They struggle to understand what they’re looking at and how it could even exist. Somehow it seems to control the outcome of their day in ways that they can’t quite remember. The guys branch out to explore similar phenomena throughout the episode, touching on the famous Frederick Valentich disappearance over the nearby Bass Strait, the mechanics of space-time warp bubbles, and the strange nature of screen memories.NOTE: File needed a revision so this is the 2nd posting to replace the first deleted one.REFERENCE LINKSWilsons Promontory National ParkAstonishing Legends: The Disappearance of Frederic Valentich Part 1Astonishing Legends: Abduction at Devil's Den (Terry Lovelace)Astonishing Legends: Devil’s Den the Reckoning Part 1Remote Viewing (TransDimensional Mapping) the Calvine UFO Part 1We're looking for more stories! Send your Dead Letter to [email protected]!

In tonight’s dead letter, a routine room cleaning following a patient's passing turns into a puzzling technological glitch. A sensor alarm designed to protect patients from hurting themselves keeps going off. The solution to silencing the machine isn't found in a manual, but in a centuries-old tradition regarding the departure of the human soul.REFERENCE LINKSAppalachian Superstitions About DeathThe Custom of the Soul Window (Seelenfenster) (Requires translation)Why Do Nurses Hear Phantom Call Bells?We're looking for more stories! Send your Dead Letter to [email protected]

In the lonely New Mexico desert, police discover an abandoned Volkswagen Beetle containing a 12-string guitar, a wallet, clothes, and a box of unsold records. Things a working musician would never willingly leave behind. The car belongs to Jim Sullivan, a talented singer-songwriter who had just made a strange call to his wife saying he’d been pulled over and that she “wouldn’t believe” what happened, before promising to call again from Nashville. He never did. What makes the story unforgettable is that those unsold records were his album called U.F.O., filled with songs about driving into the desert, leaving his life behind, and encountering something in the sky. In this episode, we dive into the eerie disappearance of a man who may have unknowingly written the soundtrack to his own vanishing.Visit our website for a lot more information on this episode.

In tonight’s Dead Letter, Forrest and Scott read a submission from Stacey, which delves into the "Uncanny Valley" phenomenon in a true-life scenario. In a coastal town already known for its dark past and unusual coastal events, a silent, out-of-place stranger pays an unexpected visit to a college apartment. Sometimes the most chilling stories are those where the door remains locked and whatever was on the other side…is still out there somewhere.REFERENCE LINKSHistory of Bellingham, WashingtonThe Salish Sea Severed Feet PhenomenonKenneth Bianchi and Western Washington UniversityThe Uncanny Valley in PsychologyWe're looking for more stories! Send your Dead Letter to [email protected]!

Tonight, Forrest and I are sitting down with Jeremiah Byron for an exclusive live video interview about the unprecedented, real-time flap of Bigfoot sightings currently moving through Northeast Ohio. This special broadcast is completely private and only available to Astonishing Legends Patreon members and Bigfoot Society Supercast subscribers. Grab your drinks and join us in the chat tonight at 9:30 PM Eastern, 8:30 PM Central, and 6:30 PM Pacific for all the breaking updates!

In tonight’s dead letter from listener Amanda, the boundary between an adorable trusted holiday icon and nocturnal terror is tested in the deep woods near the Allegheny National Forest. A massive silhouette of something that shouldn’t exist peering over the hood of a car sparks a lifelong mystery. Amanda may have been a child when she saw this, but her mom and grandmother were both also eyewitnesses.References and Links:The History of Warren, PennsylvaniaThe Folklore of the Celtic PúcaFlemish Giant Rabbits: Facts and SizeThe Psychology of Childhood Memory and TraumaWe're looking for more stories! Send your Dead Letter to [email protected]!

This episode dives into one of the strangest modern consciousness experiments ever proposed. Starting with cognitive scientist Donald Hoffman’s provocative idea that reality may function like a computer desktop interface — an evolutionary illusion designed for survival rather than truth. We’ll explore a bizarre experiment popularized by Danny Goler in which participants under the influence of DMT have claimed that lasers can help random patterns resolve into stable, angular symbols under the right conditions — as if making the hidden code behind reality visible. Are these visions simply the brain’s hyper-connected visual cortex generating patterns, or could they represent the possibility that our everyday reality may be a carefully rendered illusion?Visit our website for a lot more information on this episode.

In tonight’s dead letter… we travel back to 2010 to a hotel in the heart of Camden in the UK. Two brothers looking to soak up some local punk history find themselves sharing a room with something entirely unexpected. Sometimes the most mundane late-night activities—like eating pizza and watching TV—are the perfect backdrop for the impossible to slip through.Reference Links: Historical Hauntings of North LondonCamden's historyWe're looking for more stories! Send your Dead Letter to [email protected]!

In tonight’s dead letter, we dive into a bizarre encounter that proves the unexplained doesn't always wait for a dark and stormy night on boot hill. Sometimes just an ordinary walk home from a university class can transform into an unforgettable and unsettling experience. Could a seemingly mundane moment on a city sidewalk be the cover for a highly advanced technological test, or is it something far more supernatural? Join us as we explore the invisible boundaries of our own minds and discuss what happens when an unseen force aggressively demands to cross them.Göbekli Tepe - BritannicaNoveto Systems 'SoundBeaming' - AP NewsHavana Syndrome - WikipediaNina Kulagina - WikipediaWeird or What? with William Shatner: Mind Control (Season 3, Episode 10) - IMDbWe're looking for more stories! Send your Dead Letter to [email protected]

In the final chapter of our Scole series, the story stops looking like a séance and starts feeling like science fiction. What began with classic Spiritualist phenomena — messages from the dead and movement in the dark—escalates into self-developing film, unexplained voices on sealed recorders, and a crystal device built for two-way contact. Then a black-eyed, Grey-like figure appears on video, and the entities claim to be inter-dimensional beings and time travelers. With ominous warnings and a sudden end to the experiment, we’re left with the question: did they prove life after death… or open something they couldn’t control?Visit our website for a lot more information on this episode.

In tonight’s dead letter, a routine hike along a converted railroad bed transforms into a standoff with the inexplicable for Patron and Listener Zed. Standing in an open clearing along the path is a solitary, towering object that seems to possibly be a tree, but for some reason it’s hard to tell. When Zed and his hiking partner attempt to rationalize the sight, they are met not with answers, but with a wave of paralyzing dread and the distinct impression that the object is aware of them.Reference LinksWadhams to Avoca Trail | Michigan TrailsThe Van Meter Monster - Astonishing LegendsMantis Men - Astonishing LegendsIndrid Cold (The Smiling Man) - Cryptid WikiCommunion (1989) - IMDbWe're looking for more stories! Send your Dead Letter to [email protected]

This week, we return to the pitch-black depths of the Scole Experiment, where a sealed room in rural Norfolk became the testing ground for an impossible claim: that voices from beyond could speak through a crude, powerless device that shouldn’t have worked at all. What began as a strange experiment in energy and communication quickly drew the attention of the Society for Psychical Research — seasoned skeptics, scientists, and even magicians determined to expose any trickery. Instead, they found themselves confronting an event that challenged physics, belief, and their own assumptions. Was this the realization of a long-dreamed-of “spirit phone,” or a masterclass in deception?Visit our website for a lot more information on this episode.

In tonight’s dead letter… we explore the unsettling possibility that our children are not the blank slates conventional psychology suggests. Listener, Tim, recounts the evening his toddler, Mason, claimed he "wasn't always" his kid before describing a past life that ended in a tragic house fire. It is a quiet reflection on the "old soul" phenomenon and whether our children bring a bit of luggage with them when they enter this world.Reference LinksThe University of Virginia: Division of Perceptual StudiesThe Work of Dr. Ian StevensonMonarch Butterfly Migration and Genetics - National GeographicAltered States (1980) - IMDBDefending Your Life (1991) - IMDBPLAINTEXTThe University of Virginia: Division of Perceptual Studies: https://med.virginia.edu/perceptual-studies/The Work of Dr. Ian Stevenson:https://a.co/d/0fMu7zrxMonarch Butterfly Migration and Genetics - National Geographic: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/invertebrates/facts/monarch-butterfly/Altered States (1980) - IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080360/Defending Your Life (1991) - IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101694/We're looking for more stories! Send your Dead Letter to [email protected]!

In a quiet Norfolk village, in the early 1990s, a seventeenth-century farmhouse became the setting for one of the most controversial paranormal investigations ever conducted. In the cellar of Street Farmhouse in Scole, a small group known as the Scole Experimental Group claimed they weren’t just contacting spirits — they were working with them. Over five years, under strict controls, they reported blue lights with apparent intelligence, physical phenomena, voices broadcast through powerless devices, and even photographic images appearing on sealed film, all allegedly guided by a collective of discarnate scientists calling themselves “The Team of Many Minds.” This episode kicks off a three-part deep dive into the Scole Experiment, beginning with the Norfolk Protocol and the impossible technology said to be designed from beyond the grave.BibliographyBooks & Reports Foy, Robin P. Witnessing the Impossible: The Diary of the Scole Experiment. Diss: Campion Books, 2008. Keen, Montague, Arthur Ellison, and David Fontana. "The Scole Report: An Account of an Investigation into the Genuineness of a Range of Physical Phenomena Associated with a Mediumistic Group in Norfolk, England." Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research 58, no. 220 (November 1999): 147–455. Solomon, Grant, and Jane Solomon. The Scole Experiment: Scientific Evidence for Life After Death. Diss: Campion Books, 1999 (Updated 2006). MultimediaDrasin, Dan. "SCOLE: THE AFTERLIFE EXPERIMENT." YouTube video of Original Documentary. Uploaded by Dan Drasin.Visit our website for a lot more information on this episode.

In tonight’s dead letter… Scott and Forrest explore the intersection of the safety of the suburbs and the primeval woods of the greater Akron area. Long before "Ohio" became modern slang for the weird, it was already earning that reputation through sightings of glowing red eyes that radiated their own light, but if you listen to Astonishing Legends, you already know that. Michael’s account details a terrifying standoff where when he was only 5 years old, he and his sister found themselves locked in the sanctuary of a childhood bedroom with something peering at them from outside. Reference LinksSmall Town MonstersVillage of Mogador - Official HistoryMinerva Monster - Encyclopedia ArcticaThe Ohio Valley UFO Flap of 1973Mogador, Ohio - WikipediaWe're looking for more stories! Send your Dead Letter to [email protected]!

In tonight’s dead letter, a simple move to a quiet farmhouse turns into a bit of an accidental science experiment between two roommates who didn't want to sound "crazy" to each other. They both lived with the same unsettling experiences for months in total silence until a conversation on their final day changed everything. It’s a fascinating look at how our surroundings—and even the very ground beneath us—might be playing tricks on our senses, either organically or spiritually.Reference LinksRecommended Reading & ResourcesAncient Aliens: The Alien Frequency (Season 12, Episode 8)The Maltese Falcon (1941) - IMDBDead Mountain by Donnie EicharNASA Technical Reports: Human Response to VibrationVic Tandy: The Ghost in the MachineGeographic LandmarksGgantija Temples, GozoHal Saflieni HypogeumTarxien TemplesGozo IslandSend your Dead Letter to [email protected]!

In tonight’s dead letter, listener Chris and his wife venture to the highest point east of the Rockies for a night of stargazing under the Milky Way. While lying on the summit of Black Elk Peak, Chris decides to put out a silent, mental invitation to the universe to see if anything might respond. The atmosphere shifts dramatically during their descent, leading to an incident in the dark woods that leaves the couple questioning the nature of the "entities" Chris had called upon. Scott and Forrest discuss the spiritual history of this sacred Lakota location and whether Chris unintentionally followed a protocol that opened a door to the unexplained. Reference Links Black Elk Speaks: The Complete Edition BFRO - Bigfoot Legends UFO Reality by Jenny Randalls In the Spirit of Crazy Horse by Peter Matthiessen CE5 Protocols The Oz Factor Thunderheart (1992 Film) The Age of Disclosure

This week, we revisit one of the most compelling and unsettling UFO cases on record: the Shag Harbor Incident. Often called Canada’s Roswell, but with one crucial difference — the government openly admitted it didn’t know what happened. On October 4, 1967, airline crews, fishermen, and first responders all witnessed a strange craft descend into the waters off Nova Scotia, leaving behind no wreckage, no survivors, but a thick, sulfur-smelling foam that defied explanation. Every aircraft was accounted for, and the Royal Canadian Air Force officially classified the event as a “UFO Report,” not a meteor or misidentified plane. But the mystery deepens when decades of research uncover a buried military history tied to underwater encounters and secret NATO exercises. With fresh context from our recent USO investigation, and groundbreaking research by eyewitness and investigator Chris Styles, this episode explores the possibility that Shag Harbor wasn’t just a crash, but a coordinated recovery involving technology not of this world.Visit our website for a lot more information on this episode.

In tonight’s dead letter… listener Kevin, an overnight security officer at the time, faces an unsettling experience in the silent, abandoned wing of a psychiatric hospital. He encounters an entity that isn't misty or formless, but a shimmering, blue-lit figure. The encounter takes a turn when the presence seems to pause, acknowledge him, and continue its inexplicable journey. This is not your typical haunting.Episode References & Further Reading:Waverly Hills Sanatorium:Official Site: Waverly Hills SanatoriumWikipedia: Waverly Hills Sanatorium - WikipediaTrans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum:Official Site: Trans-Allegheny Lunatic AsylumWikipedia: Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum - WikipediaKecksburg UFO Incident:Wikipedia: Kecksburg UFO incident - WikipediaThe Backrooms:Know Your Meme: Know Your Memes: The Back RoomsCorpse Candles:Wikipedia: Corpse road - WikipediaWill-o'-the-wisps:Wikipedia: Will-o'-the-wisp - WikipediaFata Morgana (Mirage):Wikipedia: Fata Morgana - WikipediaWikipedia (General Mirages): Mirage - Wikipedia"Skinwalkers at the Pentagon" by George Knapp and Colm Kelleher:Amazon Link: George Knapp & Colm Kelleher: Skinwalkers at the Pentagon (Amazon)Astonishing Legends EpisodeSynesthesia:Wikipedia: Synesthesia - WikipediaJim Harold's Campfire Podcast:Official Site: Jim Harold's CampfireColor Symbolism in Esotericism (regarding light colors):Wikipedia: Color symbolism - Wikipedia

Humans have always scanned the skies for the unknown, from Galileo’s first telescopic observations to modern instruments peering 13 billion years into the past, always assuming that if contact ever came, it would come from space. Yet while we obsess over the heavens, we largely ignore the vast, uncharted world covering 71% of our own planet. The deep ocean, less mapped than Mars, and hostile to human exploration, has long inspired reports from sailors of strange lights and massive, fast-moving shapes beneath the waters. Today, advanced sensors, radar, and military testimony describe objects that plunge from the sky into the sea without impact, maneuver underwater at extreme speeds, and defy conventional explanation. Known as Unidentified Submerged Objects (USOs), or “Fast Movers,” these verified encounters challenge our assumptions, raising an unsettling possibility: while we search the cosmos for visitors, something unknown may have been here all along.Visit our website for a lot more information on this episode.

In tonight’s dead letter, we head to Athens, Ohio, home of the Astonishing Legends Merch headquarters — Athens is a town steeped in history and according to some accounts, one of the most haunted places in America. When an anthropology student moves into an apartment inside a renovated church, mysterious knocks soon give way to the sighting of a bizarre, tiny entity that refuses to leave. This one is outside the paranormal box, and with the benefit of history, it would appear that whatever was there…refuses to leave.LINKS:The Athens Lunatic Asylumhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athens_Lunatic_AsylumThe Ridges - Ohio University History & Architecturehttps://www.ohio.edu/ridgesArticles detailing the tragic story of Margaret Schilling and the stain she left behind, which Scott and Forrest discussed in detail.https://2020.soulofathens.com/lore-of-appalachia/stain.htmlhttps://factschology.com/mmm-podcast-articles/lost-lady-athens-asylum-ohioWilson Hall & Room 428: Information on the infamous "sealed" dorm room that the university supposedly closed off due to paranormal activity.https://shopathensohio.com/blog/wilson-hall-and-room-428/https://www.reddit.com/r/ohiouniversity/comments/11ntl8b/haunted_wilson_hall_room_428_ohio_university/The Athens Pentagram Theory: A look at the theory mentioned by Scott regarding the five cemeteries that supposedly form a pentagram around the city (with Wilson Hall at the center).https://www.athensnews.com/news/pentagram-theory-conjures-up-haunted-athens/article_f0c189c8-728e-11ee-bf6c-dbb66e699980.htmlThe Koons Spirit Room: Context on the historical spiritualism connection near Athens (Mt. Nebo) that Scott brought up.https://www.americanhauntingsink.com/koonsKirkbride Buildings Historyhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirkbride_Planhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Story_Kirkbride

SPECIAL PRESENTATION: They Knew Too Much about Flying Saucers“The Saucers don’t interest me anymore. When Barker asked is that because you found out they were too ordinary to be interesting? Or because what you discovered about them is too painful for you to think about?”—They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers by Gray BarkerListen: https://www.richardhatemsparanormalbookshelf.com/Support RHPB on Patreon here! https://patreon.com/RichardHatem?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink Get RHPB merch here! https://richardhatem-shop.fourthwall.com/?