0:04

I searched the sky for what

0:06

to see but

0:08

caught myself staring

0:11

back at me. You

0:17

listen to spooks. Stay

0:20

tuned. In

0:33

Michigan, it's your ritual. Late

0:36

fall,

0:37

early winter, ride four hours

0:39

up north.

0:40

Stop the car. Put on your

0:43

orange reflective jacket, your orange

0:45

knit cap, gloves. It's

0:47

cold boots. Maybe

0:50

even a flask of Kentucky's finest to help

0:52

you pass the time. And

0:54

your gun. Trek

1:03

over Hill and Dale to your secret spot, the

1:05

special place only you and your boys

1:07

know about. Then

1:10

you lean, likely against

1:12

your tree. Still,

1:15

silent. Wait.

1:18

Then

1:25

maybe you hear the

1:27

underbrush crackle before

1:30

you actually see the creature.

1:38

Wary, suspicious,

1:40

wild, deer, antlers,

1:43

rays, noble. I've

1:45

walked these four, these Michigan woods,

1:48

dozens of times. Sighted the

1:50

animal, raised my rifle, braced

1:52

it against my shoulder, rested my

1:54

finger on the trigger, checked to

1:57

be sure all is clear.

2:00

I've

2:12

never fired a shot. Never.

2:18

I don't know why. Don't

2:21

know why.

2:23

My friends say I'm too scared. I

2:26

don't think so. I

2:28

think instead I like the

2:31

power in these words,

2:33

the power to decide. What

2:38

if? What if? What if?

2:41

What if? What if? What

2:44

if? What if? My name is Glenn Washington.

2:46

Safety first. Spookstars.

2:49

Now. Now. Today

2:52

we've got a

2:54

story from someone who's been a

3:20

little girl who truly loves being outside.

3:23

Now,

3:26

hunting season, he stands favorite

3:29

time of the year. He and his family, they

3:31

gather at his uncle's farm. Over 800

3:34

acres of Midwestern wilderness.

3:37

And, Dan, he loves the ritual. He climbs

3:40

up to the top of a big, ancient tree, sits

3:43

in his tree stand, and

3:46

looks over the world. It's

3:48

been a cold freezing, but for Dan,

3:51

this is where he feels quiet. This

3:54

is where he feels

3:56

at peace. Spooked.

4:01

a quick note that a story

4:04

is about the darkness and the like

4:06

you evolve suicide and graphic imagery as

4:09

such sensitive listeners please

4:11

be advised

4:23

deer hunting weekend is the one week

4:25

and that's guaranteed to see these

4:27

uncles and cousins and we all

4:29

come together since

4:33

i was thirteen years old it's always been family

4:36

online

4:38

a number of years ago i we had

4:40

one non blood family member

4:43

join our group that

4:45

was my cousins husband

4:48

i his name is andy when

4:52

i was young i didn't have a lot of opinions

4:55

i felt that my opinion really didn't matter a whole

4:57

lot but i didn't really

4:59

like candy

5:05

and he came across

5:07

as an really

5:10

arrogant

5:13

he was occasionally argumentative

5:16

my uncle that owns the land

5:18

and his son my cousin are

5:20

both doctors and

5:23

and a you had no medical training he

5:25

worked in a completely different profession we

5:27

got into a conversation about prescriptions

5:30

one family member that had a specific ailment

5:32

and the to doctors were talking about the best

5:35

drug to treat them and and he

5:37

started arguing with them about that

5:41

the whole family kind of stopped and looked at my

5:43

think are you a hint

5:45

for real right now do these

5:47

are two doctors they you

5:49

know they've been doctors our whole lives we

5:52

can't argue with them on this and that that's

5:54

a that's a no brainer

6:04

Pretty early on in the relationship, I learned

6:06

to just distance myself and

6:10

not respond to comments

6:13

that he might make.

6:15

Andy wasn't a bad person, but

6:17

it changed the feeling when

6:19

we were sitting down and having dinner

6:22

after dinner when we were talking about our day.

6:25

We hunted together for roughly a decade.

6:28

So

6:33

one summer, I got a call from

6:35

family saying that

6:38

Andy had left his

6:40

home one night and

6:42

went to his work

6:44

and decided to shoot himself.

6:55

This was devastating for the family, primarily

6:57

because my cousin, his wife, was

7:00

now left with her kids

7:02

and no husband.

7:05

It was also a revelation for the family

7:08

that he was depressed and we never knew

7:10

that deer hunting.

7:14

But we learned that he had told

7:16

his wife that he was never happier

7:18

than when he was deer hunting,

7:22

that he really, really loved that experience

7:27

and that time with us. That

7:29

was a shock to me because I didn't think

7:32

that I was very nice to him and I didn't think

7:34

that some of my other relatives

7:36

were very nice to him, not

7:38

perhaps rude but not as loving

7:41

as we could have been. And

7:43

so that was a real surprise

7:44

to hear. So

7:53

after Andy died, the next deer

7:56

season came upon us and

7:58

we were...

9:58

but

10:01

i really hope

10:03

you're in a better place right now

10:10

i'm really sorry to hear that

10:13

your life was so full of pain and

10:16

i'm also sorry

10:18

that i was kind of a jerk to you when you are

10:20

alive and hunting

10:23

and years stand it's it's opening weekend

10:25

i hope you're okay with the fact that i'm in your stand

10:28

and and again i just i really

10:30

hope that year in a better spot right now as

10:40

i got done talking day eight it

10:42

was the time i'm warning you know if you've ever sat

10:45

out in the woods there comes a point in

10:47

the morning when i would say

10:49

the world as gray

10:56

and it was that point in the morning and that only last

10:58

for maybe ten minutes in my experience

11:00

but it was that time of the morning when

11:03

i felt my entire

11:05

body it was suddenly

11:08

incredibly close

11:15

it felt like a wave

11:17

had passed through the

11:20

environment and sucked energy

11:22

out of it

11:25

if you've ever broken through ice and fallen into

11:28

modern you have a better idea

11:30

what it's like for your whole body to be

11:32

cold every

11:35

hair on my body was

11:37

standing up

11:43

and his body appeared

11:47

in front of me as

11:50

though it was a movie that was fading

11:52

in and all of a sudden

11:54

was was there i

11:59

could

12:00

see through him. I

12:03

had goosebumps from head to toe. He

12:08

was hovering above the tops of

12:10

those two pine trees. So he

12:13

wasn't at ground level walking

12:15

or moving around. He was

12:18

directly in front of me and

12:20

all of a sudden was was there,

12:22

you know, 20,

12:24

25 feet up in the air.

12:29

I was creeped

12:31

out. He

12:38

was a little bit rough around the edges, like his

12:41

hands and lower legs

12:43

weren't entirely visible but definitely

12:45

the core of his body was was right

12:48

there. He was in the air and his

12:51

back was turned towards me.

12:58

One of the things that I noticed that was different about

13:00

Andy was how he was dressed. When

13:03

we get up to go out deer

13:05

hunting and come down for breakfast, most

13:08

of us are wearing our long underwear and

13:10

then we put on, you know, after breakfast put on our

13:12

winter clothes and go out. Andy was

13:16

wearing a pair of khaki

13:19

pants and

13:21

a short sleeve three

13:23

button polo shirt that

13:26

was

13:28

bluish green in color. And

13:30

so to see him appear in this outfit was

13:33

different. It was unique.

13:39

I could see his shoulders shrugging

13:42

as though he was laughing. I couldn't

13:44

see anybody else but I could kind

13:46

of hear that there

13:48

was a chatter in the background.

13:54

Somehow he communicated to me that

13:56

he was at like a cocktail party, you

13:59

know, standing around. having some hors d'oeuvres

14:01

and you're laughing and talking

14:03

with people. And

14:07

I don't know how to verbalize what

14:10

telepathy would be like

14:13

to experience, but it was

14:15

very, very clear to me that there was other

14:17

people around him. While

14:20

Andy was at this cocktail party, and

14:22

he sent some very

14:25

clear messages. One, he was with

14:27

loved ones. He was in a good place.

14:30

It was very clear from

14:33

him that he

14:35

was okay now.

14:36

He then went

14:38

on to say that he and I were okay. And

14:42

he didn't elaborate on that a whole

14:44

lot.

14:55

After he communicated those two

14:57

messages,

14:57

the other people that

15:01

I couldn't see but I could hear,

15:03

it was

15:06

as though they left the room. And

15:10

it was just Andy and myself at that point. Andy

15:21

turned around very quickly

15:24

and faced me and looked

15:27

straight at me. When

15:29

he did that, I felt that

15:31

I had been punched in the chest. The

15:34

wind was knocked out of me.

15:39

Andy had shot himself in the head and

15:43

looking at Andy, part of his head was

15:45

gone. And

15:47

I won't get into the details, but

15:50

it was clear when he turned and faced me

15:52

that he had had trauma to his head. And

15:58

at that moment, as I felt that

16:00

full body punch, he

16:03

expressed, what have I done? As

16:10

well as a message of, this

16:12

didn't fix anything.

16:22

I didn't have anything to say back

16:24

to him. My eyes were wide open

16:27

and I was just trying to process

16:29

an experience that I had never experienced before.

16:36

Andy was in front of me for maybe

16:39

two minutes. He

16:41

fades away and he's gone and

16:44

there's nothing.

16:47

There's no communication, there's

16:51

nothing visual in front of me. Being

16:56

logical, I was trying to process

16:58

what had just happened and

17:00

I really struggled with that because

17:03

I had no explanation that

17:06

was scientific or

17:10

I had no explanation that I could

17:13

really believe. I

17:19

spent the day sitting in the tree stand.

17:22

I don't know if I even was looking for deer

17:24

after that point. I

17:27

spent the next 12 hours reflecting on

17:30

what had happened,

17:31

what I saw, what I heard, and I'm

17:35

using air quotes, what Andy

17:37

communicated to me.

17:44

12 hours

17:48

later, I saw the headlights, it was dark

17:50

again, it was evening,

17:52

and when I saw the

17:54

pickup truck, I packed up my gear, climbed

17:57

down the ladder out of the tree stand.

18:00

walked a hundred yards

18:02

through the woods and made it to the pickup

18:04

truck.

18:11

When I got there, my dad was driving

18:14

and I got in the truck and I didn't

18:16

say anything.

18:30

And he looked at me and he

18:32

said, what's wrong? What's

18:35

wrong with you? And

18:37

I turned to him and I said, you

18:41

wouldn't believe me. And

18:45

he said, tell me, tell

18:48

me what happened.

18:50

So I told him the story.

18:53

And he said, oof. So

18:58

my dad says, well, it's up to you if you want to share the

19:00

story with the rest of the family

19:02

when we get back to the house.

19:07

Keep in mind that my uncle

19:09

is the patriarch of the family. He's

19:13

your

19:15

quintessential old school

19:17

doctor, just very stoic. Well,

19:22

we walked into the house and the first thing my uncle

19:25

says, Danny, what's wrong? And

19:29

I didn't say anything at first. And

19:32

my cousin, who was making

19:34

dinner, kind of chuckled. Oh,

19:37

would you see Andy's ghost or something?

19:40

And his dad immediately tells him to be

19:42

quiet. And my

19:45

uncle is looking at me.

19:47

He's very serious. And

19:49

he says, Danny,

19:51

what's wrong? And

19:54

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

20:03

was impressed with

20:05

the respect

20:08

that the rest of the family showed me as

20:10

I was telling this story. They

20:12

were very interested in hearing what had happened.

20:19

When I was done telling my story, my

20:22

uncle said, well, it's up

20:24

to you if you want to tell Susan. Susan's

20:27

my cousin who had been married to Andy

20:30

and is also my uncle's daughter. And

20:33

so he gave the choice to

20:36

me whether or not to share this with Susan.

20:39

Keep in mind this is about six months after her husband's

20:41

died.

20:44

And I decided that it was really important that

20:46

I do share this with her. And I didn't understand

20:49

at the time why I felt

20:51

it was important.

20:55

So I called Susan on

20:58

speakerphone in front of the rest of the family. Now

21:01

Susan's a state away. She

21:03

has no idea of any of this.

21:07

And I said, hey,

21:09

Susan, it's Danny. I have

21:11

to talk to you. Do

21:13

you have time to focus on me?

21:15

Did I catch you at an okay time?

21:18

And she said, yeah. I said, are you

21:20

sitting down? Because I think you need to sit down for

21:22

this. And she said, yeah, I'm sitting down.

21:26

I said, okay, before

21:28

I tell you anything, what

21:31

was Andy wearing when he died?

21:44

Susan replied, you know,

21:47

you think I would know what he was wearing

21:49

when he died, but I don't. I don't

21:52

remember. But

21:55

I'll never forget it. The outfit

21:57

I picked for him to be cremated.

22:00

It was a

22:02

pair of khaki pants and a

22:04

bluish-green short-sleeved

22:06

three-button polo shirt. Now

22:13

there's only a couple of people that know what Andy

22:16

was cremated in. Susan,

22:19

the folks that, you know, at

22:21

the funeral home, and

22:23

Andy. It

22:29

proceeded to tell Susan my experience

22:32

on the story, and she found great comfort in hearing

22:35

that he was okay. She wasn't

22:37

surprised to hear that he had shown

22:39

up.

22:54

About eight months after my

22:57

experience in Andy's stand, I

23:00

was at a cousin's wedding. And

23:04

uncle number two, that, you

23:06

know, is a disbeliever and adamant

23:09

that that never happened, and I imagined it, brought

23:12

a guy over to me. This

23:15

guy's name is Jack, and Jack's

23:17

a friend of the family, and he occasionally

23:20

will, you know, bird hunt on

23:22

our property.

23:24

And uncle number two said

23:26

to me,

23:28

you two need to talk to each other about what happened,

23:32

and turned around and walked away. I mean, he clearly wants

23:35

nothing to do with what

23:37

happened to us.

23:44

So I'm like, I was a little confused

23:47

when they turned to Jack, and I said, so what

23:50

happened to

23:52

you? And Jack said, well, I was bird hunting on

23:55

the, at the farm, and

23:57

I got done for the day, and

23:59

I unluck my phone.

24:00

my shotgun and was getting

24:02

ready to walk out and all of a sudden

24:04

there was somebody else in the woods with me

24:11

and as a okay what do you mean i

24:13

in were in the middle of

24:16

may be somewhat close to the border but you

24:18

know eight

24:19

to nine hundred acres it's not normal to run

24:21

and other people and

24:23

jax again i never saw another

24:25

person but there was somebody else in the woods

24:27

with

24:27

me and

24:34

he said it was walking out of

24:36

the words and i was right underneath and

24:39

he stand when this happened i

24:45

want wow jacket

24:52

never heard of the experience

24:54

and i had in

25:05

i think one reason that perhaps

25:07

he chose me and that time and location

25:10

to show up is because we

25:12

both found nature we find

25:14

it to be a very spiritual

25:17

place it

25:27

was there's absolute

25:29

beauty in sitting in the woods

25:32

and and it's almost like a

25:35

sound deprivation chamber that

25:37

you because you don't hear any man made sounds

25:39

all you hear is the wind if

25:41

it's blowing silence if

25:43

it's not the and knowing squirrel

25:46

that you think as a deer approaching but it's really just

25:48

a squirrel

25:51

you know you you might see a wolf but you never

25:53

hear them because they're absolutely silent

25:56

i mean it it's it's really just a powerful

25:59

place the

26:00

be and it's it's my version

26:02

of a church

26:12

and and it clearly

26:15

was for andy as well to

26:19

this day i still hunt out of his tristan

26:22

honestly he built his a lot better than i don't

26:24

mind so it's up

26:27

a lot nicer place to hang out of the

26:30

other thing that i appreciate is that my

26:35

cousins kid i

26:37

started hunting with me when he was real

26:39

young before he was old enough to hunt he would just

26:41

sit and stand with me

26:50

every opening morning he

26:52

and i speak to andy

26:56

you know we

26:59

wish that and is doing well

27:02

we ask for a successful hunt

27:04

cause if you have a connection

27:06

to the divine why not you know ask

27:08

for a little help and

27:11

that but more so thank

27:13

him for being in a stand

27:16

and in the fact that he built it

27:21

and it's really i

27:23

think a beautiful practice that has

27:26

come from and his staff and the subsequent

27:28

experiences

27:34

and that have a teenager that wants to hang

27:36

with an old fart like me you

27:38

know for twelve hours sitting

27:41

in a stand we provide thanks to the

27:43

world i think that it's just a really good practice

27:45

for both of us to express or

27:47

or thanks and and wish

27:49

andy well

28:05

thank you dan rushing as

28:07

dr spook i got a now

28:10

dan is a listener

28:12

he share this story with us and we knew

28:15

we had to share with you and if you

28:17

have your own terrifying tail tell

28:19

us best from leave want to hear

28:21

an email us spooked

28:24

at snap judgment that will watch you get spooked

28:27

at snap judgment that orgy

28:39

yes it is that time but that

28:42

there we have just set foot on

28:44

was wrong with that even the god france

28:47

season for spooked only

28:48

on woman their it dot com but

28:50

somebody now if you dare spooked

28:54

if you like a storytelling under

28:55

the heat of the new day son juggler

28:57

sister podcast snap judgment storytelling

29:00

the beat snap judgment studios spoke

29:03

was created by the t the refuses

29:06

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29:08

i don't know why was the be

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a of specially

29:13

for stranger is none other than mister

29:15

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29:17

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suffering no more new son

29:25

jacob winning the ongoing auto

29:28

rental boreal tailed cat risk

29:31

dogs going to weber from a

29:34

typically that and forward air

29:36

fernando hernandez refuses to where

29:38

the proper forest ranger uniform some

29:42

same animals

29:44

with dark would have not been

29:46

branded the power of speech people

29:49

who know this program they discovered otherwise

29:51

still bet you

29:54

no matter what those strange

29:56

voices quest no matter how desperately

29:58

they please no the what they never

30:04

ever never never

30:06

have to out

30:10

the that