SPIRIT TALES AND MAGIC

What If Time Is Not Where You Left It

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2051897/fan_mail/new] We read a mining-family story about a man who vanishes on the way to his backyard well and returns seven months later without aging a day. Then we compare it to a listener’s “missing time” drive that somehow takes four days, plus other cases that make us ask what time is really doing when we are not looking.  • mining towns that get bought out and wiped away  • the Black Ridge, Ohio legend of Thomas Hale disappearing mid-step  • a lantern that stays lit far longer than it should  • the “humming” that sounds like voices  • a modern missing time report after a short dirt-road trip  • other accounts of time displacement on trains, in flight, and in the woods  • my own near-death experience and how little time it felt like  • the idea of a world unseen that we glimpse at dusk  Check out the website, some things have changed. Send us your paranormal stories. It doesn't have to be about a ghost, it can be about anything that is unexplained, just like the stories you just heard. Give us a like, give us a share, help us keep spreading the word.  Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2051897/support]

When A Child Claims A Past Life Who Do You Believe

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2051897/fan_mail/new] A haunting story lands in our inbox: twins who speak like they’re the same daughters a family lost years earlier. They point to “impact” marks, ask for toys they’ve never seen, and run through a village like they already know the way home. It’s the kind of reincarnation story that can make your stomach drop and your skepticism wobble at the same time. So we do what we always do in Spirit Tales and Magic: we tell it straight, then we test it.  We dig into why that specific tale doesn’t hold up as literal fact, and how urban legends about past lives travel the world by changing names, dates, and tragedies while keeping the emotional punch intact. From there, we zoom out to the bigger question: what do researchers and psychologists say about child past life memories, especially ages two to five? We talk about memory construction, subconscious association, suggestion, and why many experts dismiss these claims, even as investigators continue to collect thousands of reports and look for patterns like phobias, preferences, and even birthmarks that match documented wounds.  Then we share experiences closer to home: an old safe hidden in a forgotten place, a teenager who claims it was “hers,” and the moment she opens it on the first try. We also touch the well-known case files that keep showing up in serious conversations, including Shanti Devi and James Leininger, and what makes them so difficult to wave away with a quick explanation.  If you’ve ever wondered whether reincarnation is real, why some paranormal stories feel true, or what to do when a kid says something impossible, you’ll feel right at home here. Subscribe, share this with a friend who loves the unexplained, and leave a review. Do you have a reincarnation story of your own? Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2051897/support]

A Civil War Soldier In California Is Not A Mistake

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2051897/fan_mail/new] A Civil War soldier in California sounds like a glitch in the story we learned in school until you trace the footsteps back to Drum Barracks near the Port of Los Angeles. We take a listener’s sighting seriously and use it as a doorway into a forgotten piece of American history: California’s divided loyalties, the creation of Camp San Pedro (later Drum Barracks), and how thousands of troops moved through Southern California as the Union fought to hold the Southwest. If you’ve ever wondered why certain places feel charged, this one gives you the receipts and the reason.   From there, the tone shifts from historical to personal and unsettling. Drum Barracks is now a Civil War museum in Wilmington, and it carries a long list of reported paranormal activity: chains dragging across floors, footsteps and mumbling in empty rooms, sudden smells of pipe smoke, and the repeated appearance of a woman known as “Maria,” often linked to lavender and violet perfume. We talk about why museums, former posts, and old hospital grounds can become magnets for ghost stories, especially when so many lives passed through in a short span of time.   We also share a strange Queen Mary moment that leads to an “object story” we still can’t explain: an old hairpin that appears in a jacket pocket and later vanishes, plus a Civil War bullet box that doesn’t always stay where it belongs. If you’ve had a Civil War ghost encounter, a haunted museum experience, or the kind of event that raises the hair on your neck, we want to hear it. Subscribe, share the show with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find these stories and add their own. Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2051897/support]

Hello Mr. Magpie How Is Your Wife

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2051897/fan_mail/new] A lone magpie shows up and suddenly you’re supposed to salute and ask about his wife. Someone offers you flowers and you have to count them. You glance away during a toast and now it’s seven years of bad luck. Superstitions can sound ridiculous until you realize how many of them you already follow without thinking, especially when life feels uncertain and you want a little protection on your side.  We start with the familiar: the Ohio rules I heard from my grandparents like never walking under a ladder and what to do when you spill salt, plus a Sicilian warning that you do not put a hat on a bed. From there we go global with lesser-known superstitions from the United Kingdom, Poland, Korea, Japan, India, Turkey, Spain, Greece, Russia, Romania, Kenya, Rwanda, and beyond. We dig into why the number four gets avoided in parts of Asia, why some cultures ban whistling after sunset, and how simple etiquette like eye contact during a toast turns into a high-stakes luck ritual in parts of Europe.  We also look at how new folklore forms in real time, like Argentina’s caramel candy soccer tradition, and why travel can put you face-to-face with rules you have never heard before, including graveyard customs meant to show respect and keep the unseen at bay. If you love paranormal stories, cultural history, and the psychology of belief, this one is packed with strange details and practical takeaways you will remember the next time you raise a glass or step into a cemetery.  Tell us the superstition you heard when you were young, then subscribe, share the show with a friend, and leave a review so more listeners can find Spirit Tales And Magic. Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2051897/support]

A Haunted Shipwalk On The Queen Mary Turns Personal

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2051897/fan_mail/new] A haunted tour should leave you with photos and goosebumps, not a mystery object in your pocket. After a night on the Queen Mary in Southern California, Cassandra and I join the Haunted Shipwalk tour and something genuinely strange happens during a short break: I reach into my Spirit Tales and Magic hoodie for a Kleenex and pull out a large bobby pin I do not own. Not “maybe I forgot” strange, but “there’s no access and no reason” strange. We walk through what makes this kind of paranormal experience so unsettling. My pockets are basically a checklist: phone and tissues on one side, business cards on the other, nothing else. Cassandra is handling photos, we’re not packed in with strangers, and when we work private gigs my jacket is kept out of public reach. So how does a bobby pin from a haunted place end up exactly where it should not be? I share how our guide reacts, why I gain nothing from inventing it, and why small physical details often hit harder than big ghost lore. If you’re into the Queen Mary haunted tour scene, ghost tours with real history, or the slow-burn questions behind superstitions and haunted objects, you’ll get plenty to think about. I also offer a tip for the engine room moment on the shipwalk: look behind you and a little to the left, then notice what you feel. Subscribe, share the show with a friend who loves the paranormal, and leave a review, then tell me this: what’s the strangest object that ever appeared in your life with no explanation? Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2051897/support]