Episode 189 - Spirit Belly

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Get free shipping on your order and 365-day returns, now available in Canada and the UK as well. And when Quince asks where you heard about them, let them know it was Otherworld. It's the best way to support the show. Flawless tall boots, chocolatey kicks, retro sneakers, reimagined loafers, and animal prints that drive you wild from heel to toe. The fall trends you're obsessed with at prices you love. All at Designer Shoe Warehouse. Every DSW store is a fall fashion lookbook. Come to life. So have a little fun with your style. Try something new. Find something that feels unmistakably you. Head to your DSW store or shop DSW.com today. DSW. Let us surprise you. Welcome to Otherworld. I am your host, Jack Wagner. This story, or should I say stories that you're about to hear, and the person who told them to me, completely took me by surprise. This episode was originally submitted by a woman who said that she stayed at a creepy hotel in Hollywood, Florida. And I was immediately interested. I am very familiar with the town of Hollywood, Florida. In fact, one of the sketchiest hotels I have ever stayed at in my life was in this area. Upon checking in to this hotel, the guy working at the front desk was kind enough to explain to us that the show Cops was actually created because of how much crime happened on the block and street that this hotel was built on. Later on that night, when me and my two friends went to some beachside establishments for a drink, we saw a man get stabbed during a fight. And let me tell you, there is something very surreal about seeing blood on a sandy boardwalk while Jimmy Buffett and Pitbull songs are both blasting simultaneously from nearby patios. I have not forgotten my trip to Hollywood, Florida. So I was excited to hear a scary story. That takes place in this area. Then when I first met this person, whose name, by the way, is Abby, I instantly realized that she has a very unique background and a very unique personality. Like I said, her name is Abby. She is a teacher and professional Irish dancer from Dallas, Texas. And as I got to know her, and before we even began speaking about the Hollywood, Florida incident, she ended up telling me a completely unrelated story. A story that took me by surprise. Ultimately, this episode ended up being two stories. But to me, it's really more of an episode about Abby. This one is called Spirit Belly, and you're listening to Otherworld. Hello? Is this Bobby? Yes, it is. At its core, the science you can't argue with. A story about. All of a sudden. Up in the sky. It's almost frustrating that it's happening. I'm literally. I'm going to die. It's just. Its limbs were just like. Everybody moves back into the light, even if it takes them a minute. I don't know if I'm going to die, but I'm still going to die. I'm Abby. I'm from Dallas, Texas. I'm a teacher. Pretty new. Four-year teacher, artist, Irish dancer, and big old family and theater nerd as well. So, artsy-fartsy. Excited about Dallas music. And Dallas arts. And education is where my heart is. And Irish dancing. Yes, and Irish dancing, yes. It all plays in. That is a combination that I don't think I've heard yet on this show. The stories, I have so much to share. I'll just keep. I don't know. Is there a big Irish dancing scene in Dallas? No. Actually, when we went on tour, they would laugh at us. I got to go on tour with an Irish band. Oh, you're a touring Irish dancer. Yeah, well, I was from Dallas originally, and my best friend and I got to tour around the nation with this band. And the whole time they introduced us, they would laugh that, oh, our dancer's from Dallas, and everybody would laugh, because there isn't really a scene here. So, it's kind of a funny. It's funny that that became my life. Yeah, so much of it in Dallas. What was a band? Cheda. T-E-A-D-A. They're like a folk band. I teach math and science, sixth grade and some seventh grade. So, those are my favorite. I'm such a nerd. My mom was always like, you need to be a teacher, and you always do like the opposite. You're like, no, I'm not. And so, actually, getting into the band right after college, I basically grew up in East Dallas. White Rock Lake is my area. It's my home. It's my heart. And I went to SMU, thanks to my mom, working there for 35 years. So, I got a free tuition, free ride, but I was the weird girl with the crown of Victoria. Definitely the worst car on campus. You know, faculty kid. But it was great. And it was just, the whole time I was there, I was really doing music with my brother at the end, and working and traveling to Austin for dance, because there wasn't a dance school in Dallas that was good. So, my friends and I would drive to Austin every weekend for dance. So, and then I started dancing in my brother's band, and then we started doing this workshop that became a musical that actually made it to Off-Off-Broadway. So, that was a fun thing that just took up most of my 20s, and it was such a fun thing. I just waited tables, and I was a personal trainer through that, so that I could always gig and always be open to travel. And then, in my 30s, I was like, okay, it's time to pick a big girl job. My husband and I. He's an artist as well. We both have finally nine-to-fives-ish, but I love. I finally found my big kid job, and I love it. I grew up with, like, a hippie Jesus Bible-thumping mama who raised us on her own, like, five of us, and I'm the youngest. So, I call myself, like, the richest poor kid I know. So, like, I thought us turning the water on was. Like, I thought we had the key to the city, but little did I know, we didn't have money to pay for. For water. And my dad was just severely alcoholic. He actually drank himself to the streets and passed away when I was a sophomore in high school. But through all of that, my mom raised us to really believe in God. But she didn't make us so churchy. Like, she knew church was there, but she really taught us, like, the connection. So, I don't really go to church anymore. I don't really assign myself to, like, Christian nationalism is such a turnoff, and so now when I say I'm Christian, it's, like, backed up with a not-that-kind-of-Christian, the Rachel, the Miss Rachel type of Christian. But all of that to say I grew up in a spirit-filled church where I actually. It got me more open into the spiritual side of it. So, I really took the good stuff from it, and I still, like, commune and meditate and just have my own connection with God. And through this, I've just seen so much flex. And through that world, and so now as an adult, when I think of my spirit side, I call it my spirit belly. So, when I say things in my story that's like, oh, when I felt my spirit belly, I'm referring to this spiritual connection that's very personal. I'm not really signed up to a church, but I do believe in that connection, and I've seen so much happen. That being said, my husband is an atheist who grew up in a very structured Baptist church. So, he ran far away. So, it's kind of fun to have the pH scale of sorts to check me, and then I've also opened up his eyes to things. that he may have been closed off to. And that also is helpful for the story ahead. Wait, what is the spirit belly exactly? I'm really interested in this. What is this? There's a lot of language I use that my husband calls abigies. So if there's something there that you're like, what does that mean? Yeah, spirit belly. It's like my therapist was like, wait, what are you talking about? I'm like, there's this thing. It's like when I feel that connection, that clairvoyance, I do feel gifted. I have out-of-body experiences. I left out a huge chunk of my best friend and I that have had near-death experiences. And just we had out-of-body dreams together. And we've seen each other out of our bodies on accident. There's been a lot of stuff with her after we had a near-death experience together. And it's hard that she just passed away. So it's kind of hard to talk about her experiences. But she's the best. But it's crazy, the dream. We would dream together multiple times. And she didn't grow up spirit-filled. I think everybody has it within them and they just ignite it. And it's just that connection with the universe, however it comes out. I feel like my husband taps into it when he's on stage acting or when he's in meetings. And you see people in the flow and in the moment and in that presence. That gut-belly feeling that I have always comes with that. So when my spirit-belly kicks in, it feels like a clairvoyant feeling of sorts. Kind of like tapping into that spirit realm, in a sense. Wait, you did not email me about your friend or an NDE or anything like this. I know, I'm sorry. No, no, I'm very curious about it now. Okay. I want to hear the story. Want to just tell me about this one, too, and then we'll see how it goes and maybe we'll just make some long, unusual episode. What do you think? Yeah. Yeah. Basically, my best friend Mo and I are thick as thieves, but she was in town from, and I was, of course, in Dallas from SMU. And our friend needed, she kind of had, you know, a freak out and needed our help. So I was like, you know what? We'll come get you. So we took a road trip, but we were, gosh, maybe 21 and 22 or 20 and 21. We were very young. It might've been 2007. I'm 39. So about 19 years ago of sorts. I want to say, yeah. I grab her and I'm like, let's go help Kelsey out. So we jumped in my Geo Metro and we just drove east. And Mo, prior to this, I don't think we have had any dreams together prior to this. We had had clairvoyant moments together, but like she was my, like Mo is my ride or die. She's my buddy. She's like, she's a girl. That I'm like, were we married in a past life? Were we like, we, I can't tell what we are, but she was just my beautiful friend. Yeah. So going with her, what's so funny is going with her was such a crazy thing. So we went together on that journey and it was like seven o'clock. So it was already getting dark, but east Texas gets so dark. But we were driving and I know we had to already have our direction. Cause I don't think we had, no, I didn't have a smartphone then. So we had to kind of already have them down. So we knew we were looking for this exit already. So we're on the highway and we exit, take the exit ramp and that's like a hill ramp. And usually that feeds into a service road, right? Or like you get to a stop sign and go left or right. And then there's the sign in front. That's like, Hey, left or right. There's usually some type of situation. When you exit the service road, this situation, we exited on the ramp. So we're driving a little too fast maybe for exiting. And then we see that the road dead ends into a ditch. There was no stop sign, no sign at all, no signage. So at that point I'm like, okay, cause it's an exit. Like it shouldn't be this long. So I start to slow down. But at that point we are already headed towards the ditch. The car leaving the ground feels, it's wild. It's, it doesn't feel like it projects like we are going super fast, like a flying off of a ramp, but it wasn't tipping into it. It was almost like it was in between projecting into the ditch and like, it didn't tilt. It was just kind of in the air. So we see the sign in that split second, but we see the sign. I see the sign and it's clearly has been hit and it's laying in the ditch where it didn't help us because now we're headed towards it. And it's broken at the bottom. It's just laying on the back of it itself. I think it was just so dark out there. So my lights were so dim as well. Like GeoMetro's, it was not a great problem. I don't know how it passed inspection to be honest. The lights were very dim on that car. So our car is just flying through the air. And, um, all of a sudden I feel something grab my arm, like my elbow and just push it so that the steering wheel goes to the left. I didn't get to see if it did anything. I, it moved the car steering wheel and the wheels that go with it. But I didn't feel like attraction with it. I didn't feel any traction. Like, you know, when you're parked and you feel there was no resistance with the steering wheel at all. Um, so that was kind of weird too. Cause that also in that moment confirmed we were airborne, but it was all so fast. It wasn't Mo, but if she wasn't in the right, it wouldn't make sense with how she was sitting. It just felt like someone was sitting in the back seat and they just took my arm and like pushed it, like get left. All of a sudden I looked at Mo and we just made eye contact and I just started belting and tongues just came out of me, like yelling it. And I know she heard it cause she talked about it later without me having to tell her, but she also, I heard her also doing it, but maybe it wasn't her. Who knows? I don't know. When you say tongues, like, what do you mean by that? I grew up in an assemblies of God church, but I hate man religion. I just have such a bad taste on religion. But, um, the Holy spirit, uh, is basically like the foundation of that and just like letting yourself. Almost meditate with words that aren't yours, like unraveling of things and can happen within you. Um, a lot of churches do. I know I grew up at a church where I was like, I don't know about you, like some guy yelling in tongues. It's like pushing people down and she grew up Catholic. She's not, she didn't grow up Holy roller at all. And, um, and I just started yelling in tongues and I looked at Mo and we made eye contact that was, I'll never forget that eye contact and I think I was just staring at her eyes. I think I just stared at her face. Um, and then it goes into white noise. I see like white noise, like a TV screen and it's like a sound and that's all I see. Uh, and here it was like, I think I saw white noise, like what you would see in a, when you hear the word white noise. But I heard like. Like switching, like switching something, like switching. I really feel like our spirit souls just like swapped in each other's bodies. That's one theory I have. Like we went back and forth. I don't know what happened, but it was white noise for who knows how long. And then all of a sudden we're on the road going the correct direction. Like we were placed, I guess, placed on the road. I don't know. But I know that. But I came conscious when it, when we were on the road, that just feels like something just took the car, like as if they had giant hands that could hold both sides. It felt like in my head when I'm thinking of it, that's what I feel like it didn't feel like your hands were grabbing it. But in my head, it just felt like something grabbed it and moved it. And I still don't know why I had to move the, um, I don't know why I had to move the steering wheel. And whenever. We came to my hands are straight. Like the steering wheel was straight. I wasn't in the same position. It was like a giant was like, Oh no, over here. Like you're watching a kid play and you go up a rant and everything's just like, Ooh, freeze left. It was just like, okay, there you go. We don't say anything for exactly 30 minutes. We don't say Jack shit for 30 minutes. And it was like. When we both said something, it was almost like we both were like, it was like we were still. tranced i hit that we were in shock i'm sure but we didn't say anything for exactly 30 minutes and i want to say i don't maybe it was 8 30 but it was on the half hour exactly and we both just were like wow okay we both were like all right um okay and we were just like did that just happen i know we said did that just happen like are you for real did that just happen and we both she's so funny about like let's not call it weird because then it will happen more and so we were just so shocked but we just both kind of ran it by each other we both knew she was like she was really surprised she started yelling in tongues i know that so we checked that we both checked out that we both saw white noise um and didn't hear anything we both you have a theory that we were like switching bodies but we don't really have a reason to think that we just had this feeling um after that we had so many weird paranormal like out-of-body experiences so we maybe that was part of it i don't know how it all works so i'm always wondering if we jumped a timeline jumped a dimension or something like i know when we looked at each other in the eyes i think we were like no this isn't happening i don't i i've had a lot of theories but yeah i wonder if we time hopped or a dimension parallel universe jumped or something and like we were just so dumbfounded and we're like let's go get this girl we got to our friend's apartment or she we got to her dorm room because she was a freshman at stephen f austin and when we got there she was like hey guys and we're like girl you don't know but we couldn't like explain it we couldn't even put it in words and we were like do we even talk about like how do we explain this and you know she was just like okay like no big deal and we're like yes big deal like we need to chill for a second and i don't know if i can get on the road so we stayed there for like 30 minutes or an hour i'm sure we stayed for a little while and like i think we even watched weeds or something and like watched the show calm down and then got back on the road and came home um what's funny is she was totally fine when we got there and we were like what um but her mental breakdown had ended yeah and yours began yeah and we were just like what um man there's some there's some weird stuff and i met her and we started having weird stuff i think we both the first time i had an out-of-body experience um i i i get scared i i come out of my body i don't realize i'm there and i'm out of my body and i like try to open a door and then i get in my head too much and i'll turn around and see my body and like run back in it and i'm like i'm not in it so um she's the opposite she's brave uh so she um i think meeting her really helped we intended each other i think um and then yeah so yeah just tons of crazy experiences those are just a couple of them and um but just constantly being connected in the brain without having like without having to think or talk about it all the time at our household just very hilarious roomy experience so mo left us three days before my mom left me so she passed away three days before my mom my mom had been battling uh bone cancer horribly uh and mo was a sister to me uh beyond like more than my other family at the time so mo was always there just every time i left hospice for the year or so and she was there she was there there there there there she was there um i talked to her an hour before she passed um but she really she gave me a message when she passed and she was um she was trying to tell me just to keep laughing like always laugh at stuff so mo leaving she left and she was helping me try to deal with my mom's transition and she was the only one that my mom felt very comfortable with to talk to so my mom would talk to her about dying but to us she was like nope not happening and we're like you have them you have severe you're dying um so mo helped her with the process to the point where my we're like did she help her like leave like did she come help her realize it's time to go um her mom and i laugh about that we're pretty close so actually the morning that my mom passed away at 2 30 in the morning mo's viewing was at 9 a.m that day so i went from seeing my mom pass to um going to say bye to mo but she is so alive she's she's just there she's almost like in your face like days i will go outside and cry and say hey where are you i want you and she'll send me a spotify song um that's like creepy she made me sing at her funeral um and she made it a party and so that song randomly comes on it's a sugar ray song i don't sing she made me sing sugar ray every morning that will come on randomly and i don't listen to that and so things like that uh she's constantly wait was she a fan of the band sugar ray she it was a joke she was very morbid like she would always plan her funeral like even before like she did not she was just a funny lady we would always go sing karaoke and i don't sing karaoke i would irish dance to um the devil goes down goes down to georgia or something they would sing a song and i would dance and we'd make a show but she her and my other best friend mick we were like a little trio and uh if i sang anything it was low because my voice is low so i would only sing sugar ray if they forced me to so she told me our whole friendship she was going to make me sing it at her funeral and when she died i was like oh she didn't write it down and i thought i was off the hook and then my friend came in town and his job was to look through her green notebook to make everything happen and uh she updated it last summer and initialed it like 2025 abby sings sugar ray at my funeral so he's like you're off you're not off the hook you have to sing sugar ray um so yeah it was just a funny joke and she's i truly think at her funeral she was i i started laughing in the beginning because she i know she was running around and like motorboating like she was crazy and the best hilarious most beautiful spirit ever she wasn't she had to get out of that body that body wasn't working for her anymore uh she suffered from ms um pretty harshly at the end um but so i think that helped her get into her clairvoyance and her travel and her spirit because she was confounded uh but yeah she yeah she had her 40th birthday she made it quinceañera themed and it was almost like she knew or something and a month later she passed away um but she really did it big she didn't hold back um and i remember irish dancing at her quinceañera and staring at her third sentence i know her 40th quinceañera this is such a this is such a serious story and a sad story as these sentences it's yeah i mean we i she's yeah she's like that she's so funny like that's the best part about mourning her and my mom is they're so funny that it doesn't it's not sad long but yeah it's wild that's a wild part of the story that was about yeah this last november they both passed i'm so sorry that's okay it's all good that's it now just working on it what's crazy is that this is not even what you emailed me about you know this the story you actually emailed me is very scary i think yeah yeah it is yeah well this whole thing is gonna take a turn so maybe uh maybe when this comes out i'll go to a commercial break or something yeah sounds good all right we'll be right back after this quick break this episode is sponsored by better help have you ever had a completely minor harmless thing happen during your day only to find yourself lying awake at 2 a.m over analyzing every single word if there were a button to delete those random sticky worries from my brain i would push it every single day since that button does not exist talking things out in their therapy is the best way i've found to quiet that mental noise and gain perspective better help takes the guesswork out of starting because they do the matchmaking for you based 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Sign up and get 20% off at BetterHelp.com slash Otherworld. That's BetterHelp.com slash Otherworld. The wilderness can hide a lot, but it can't hide the truth forever. I'm Delia D'Ambra, host of Park Predators, and every week I investigate true crime cases hidden in national parks, forests, and beaches. I follow every lead, every clue, and every overlooked detail. Because even when a trail seems to disappear, the truth has a way of resurfacing. Listen to Park Predators wherever you get your podcasts. A beautifully designed Squarespace website is the difference between thinking about photography school and selling your portraits online. It's the difference between giving away those cookies you just made for free and running your cookie empire. A beautifully designed Squarespace website is the difference between having a movie reviewing hobby and a movie reviewing career. Squarespace, because no matter what you're into, a website makes it real. Use offer code DIFFERENCE for 50% off select plans. Terms and conditions apply. Get ready for more of the gripping mysteries you love, because Forensic Files is back, and they're revisiting some of your favorite episodes. Come along as investigators, scientists, and experts piece together evidence, clues, and data in search of the answers behind violent crimes, unexplainable mysteries, and other strange occurrences. Listen to Forensic Files on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey everyone, I want to tell you about a head gum podcast I think you're going to love. It's called Too Scary, Didn't Watch. Have you ever read the entire plot of a horror movie on Wikipedia? Because you have to know what happens, but are terrified to actually watch it. Obviously, I do not fit that description, but I know many people who do, including a friend of mine, that had nightmares just from seeing a poster of a certain horror movie. If you are like that, Too Scary, Didn't Watch is exactly what you need. It's hosted by Sammy Smart, Emily Gonzalez, and Henley Cox. Too Scary, Didn't Watch is a horror movie recap podcast that gives you all the gory details of scary movies without you ever having to actually watch them. They've recapped almost 200 movies, from classics like The Exorcist and Rosemary's Baby, to recent horrors like Hereditary and Barbarian. Past guests, include Zack Crager, Haley Joel Osment, Alison Williams, Sarah Sherman, friend of the show, shout out, Paul F. Tompkins, and many more. So, ditch Wikipedia and join Emily, Henley, and Sammy as they face their fears and explore the wild world of horror one recap at a time. Subscribe to Too Scary, Didn't Watch on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes drop every Wednesday. Okay, welcome back. Now, we are going to be diving into the second story, the one that Abby originally emailed me about. This takes place later on in her life, when her and her husband decided to take a trip to Florida. Yeah, so January 2020, my husband and I, or my then-boyfriend, now-husband, we were turning 33 and 35 that February and March. Of course, 2020, but we didn't know it was to come. So, in January, I had a gut feeling like, I want to travel. I feel like we're not going to be able to travel. I kind of always feel like that, but it was really strong that January. So, my spirit didn't go somewhere. And so, we had been working hard. And so, we were trying to find the best deal to go somewhere in between February and March. And the best type of deal, best weather, all of that for that time period. And we ended up finding an Airbnb at a condo hotel, the Historic Hollywood Beach Resort in Hollywood Beach, Florida. So, in between Fort Lauderdale and Miami. So, we actually, we booked it. It looked just like a condo. When we booked it, it had a little window where you could see the beach. So, I was like, that's great. I don't care. I'm barely going to be in it. The reviews were fine. It was all good. Hit the budget well. And we had time off. And so, we went with it. So, we arrive on a Sunday. And when we got there, we both work really hard. And we got there, and it was Sunday. And we, they sell tequila on Sundays. So, we were very excited that they sell tequila on Sundays because they don't do that in Texas. So, we were like, ah, this is so exciting. And so, we made very strong drinks. And that was basically our night, getting settled in. But needless to say, my consciousness was altered, and I wasn't tuned in at all. And so, we had a fun early morning. The next morning, we started to really look around it. And we were like, this is old. There's like ballrooms and creepy carpet. It looks like the shining on the water. And there were weird chandeliers, and the vibe was funky. It was also 90s, like, it was redone in 99. So, there was old, like, turquoise and pink tiles and weird things like that. So, it was a hilarious combination. And we, so, but we were just like, whatever, cheap room, beach, here we go. And so, on the second night we were there, though, I went to sleep. And the door had been coming ajar a few times, and I kept going and closing it. And I was like, that's weird. That's annoying. That's our stuff. And these were actually condo hotels. So, they were privately owned condos. So, there was no reason for, like, a cleaning staff to come in. There was no deal like that. There was nobody else that was supposed to have our key, really. And so, we were like, okay, let's go. And we were like, okay. But it was an electronic doorknob. So, an electronic key, like you have. So, I don't know why it kept opening. So, I kept going to close it. I'm in bed. I wake up. And I don't know if I even hear the door, but I get up. And I don't know if I was getting up to use the restroom, but I got up. And while I got up to go that direction, I noticed the door was open a little bit. So, it took, like, three steps to see. That the door was open, because I turned the little corner. And so, I was walking to go close it. It took about three or four steps to close it. And that's when I was pushing it. I immediately felt just like a swam, like an open, like the pushback was just like a pshh. The door flies open. And my neck is grabbed by this giant man that's super tall. Six, at least six to seven feet tall. I'm short, but he was so tall, giant. He just choked me. He just choked me and carried me quickly, but step by step, and just threw me on the bed. He was wearing tattered shorts, like, tattered, maybe it used to be a shirt, but it's like very old school looking, like, 20s looking, like, back in the day, day, day. I was, like, darker top, but you can't really tell the color. It was, like, tan bottom. And dark top. And it was really dark. Like, the lights were off, but it was all torn. It was all torn up. Like, like, torn up and dirty. Very torn up and dirty. Bald, just giant. The face was just, face was just flaccid, like, dead face. Yeah, so he had chains on his arms. Like, he had handcuffs that had chains that had been, like, clipped off, right? And each wrist had, like, a handcuff with, like, a foot of chains. And they were thick, thick. Old school chains, like, definitely not today's metal. Like, they were, like, steel, old school giant chains. And he immediately grabbed my neck. He definitely grabbed my neck and just, like, picked me up, like, by that, like, no problem at all. Straight arm and stepped, just, like, no rush, not too slow, just like a normal day for him. And just, like, threw me on the bed face up. And I was, like, oh, shit. Oh, shit. There was no spirit belly arm thing. There was no, there was, it was just, like, oh, my gosh. I think I, it was interesting because I couldn't, like, something that I would do is usually start praying. And since, and I can in my head, but that was so quick. And my throat was cut off, so I couldn't say anything. Something I might have said, I rebeke you or something. Like, I don't know. And I couldn't tell. I was, like, it couldn't be true. Because, like, this is a person in this time. Like, I was, like, still thrown off by the image of him. Because I was, like, this isn't a person. Like, what is this? Like, this isn't, this is a person, but this isn't, like, of this time. And it felt like a human, you know. It didn't seem, like, translucent or anything like that. But it was so quick. It was just, and I passed out. He never let go of that chokehold all the way as he walked me to the bed and just kind of threw me on the bed with me. maintaining the chokehold and choked me until I passed out. that's all I remember. Next thing I know, I wake up. I woke up, my husband drew immediately and was like, dude, this happened. And I was like, look at my neck. Cause I was like, it was so unbelievable. But sometimes I have some pretty vivid dreams and I'm spirit, spirit girl, and he's atheist. So it's a great check. Like, Hey, did this happen? Cause he'll tell me he's evidence-based, very logical dude. So he, uh, he looked at my neck, um, and he was like, you are bruised. Uh, you have bruises on your neck. I put my hands on to see if they matched and they didn't. I said, put your hands on to see. See if they match and they didn't. And my story that I had told him before I'd even seen the bruises on my neck, I just, I didn't know. Um, I was just happy to be alive and awake and I just woke him up immediately. Um, yeah. And so we just left the room immediately and I was like, we're not doing research. I'm not looking things up on this place, but let's get out of here. And we spent the day at the beach. Um, and didn't come back till later. That was, yeah, it was, it was a weird day. I was like, we were both working two jobs at the time. Like we had a, we had a good day, but it was like in the back of my head, I was like, what the hell? Like, was that real? Did that happen? But I was bruised. I was like, trying to be like, like, do I feel different? Like, this is crazy, but like, you can't do anything when I go, like, I can't go get a rape kit or like, there wasn't a reason for like, it, it wasn't any, it wasn't a real person. So it was just, it was more like, what the hell just happened? I think I called Mo and told her, uh, but I didn't look anything up. I just was like, I guess kind of also forgetting about it. Cause I wanted to just keep up with the trip. Um, I prayed over the room. Like I was like, nothing's allowed in here. And then I felt pretty confident, like, okay, we'll go back tonight. But I was like, what the heck? Like, what was that? And I think, unfortunately, like, it's like a me too much story where you're like, yeah, I got away. And like, it's happened so much like that. That's a whole different thing. I don't remember anything that he did to me. He's choked me, but I don't like, oh, it's so sick. But like, I don't remember him doing anything. He choked me, but like, if he did anything, I don't know. And like, it, it's like, oh, somebody choked me. Stuff has happened in the real world with real That just was, seemed like it wasn't as bad. If I could, I'd rather see a ghost than a man, like the bear man thing. Like if you're out hiking, would you rather see a bear or a man? Like which one would you rather come into contact with? I would take a ghost over a man any day, like a human man. Uh, cause I can tell the ghost to fuck off, pardon my French. And then I can, the man you don't really know. So I would take the ghost over a man. So, um, so we had a night, we had just a normal night. Again, there weren't any more like tequila crazy binges the rest of the week. I think we did that the first night and everything, especially after that happened, I was like, I don't want to be out of my mind. I don't want to be drunk. So, uh, we played, laid low, but had a lot of fun, ate really good food. I made it back to the, um, hotel condo thing. And, uh, I felt better about going to sleep that night. I had prayed over the room and I was like, all right. And then, uh, we had swam pretty hard that day. So let's, you know, I was pretty good on passing out. Um, but in the middle of the night, I felt something. I just felt like, like I felt something in the room. I don't know. I woke up, I opened my eyes. I feel a presence in the room and I kind of sit up and look right at the foot of the bed and at the floor, um, right at the end of the bed. And, there was a translucent lady, um, that was in a clear bag. She was like what you would think of as a ghost would be, um, kind of iridescent-y. But the first thing I noticed is her sadness. What I felt before I even noticed her sadness was just sadness. I just felt it in the room. I felt it. I just felt sad. And I looked at the bed and I looked at the floor and she was reaching for me, but not in a scary way, which was crazy that she wasn't scary to me. I just was so sad for her. And I looked at her and just like was dumbfounded. Like just looking at her, she was in like, like a tank top underwear. I couldn't tell if what her hair color was. It looked like it could have been light. There were no colors, but she was just reaching towards me. Um, and just needing help. She was just like, she didn't say help me, but her eyes said, help me. Um, and she couldn't reach the bed or anything. She was on the ground. So she was just reaching as if it, she was sitting on the ground reaching. Like her hair, she had bangs. She was, she looked like her clothes, she barely had any clothes. She looked beat up. Um, she, everything was like off colored. It wasn't white. It was like translucent to yellow. Like there was like an off color to it. Just her hand. It wasn't skeleton-y at all. She was skinny. She was really skinny, but she wasn't like, it wasn't like she was decomposing. Like she was a lady in a bag. Early twenties, maybe she was beautiful. Like I could tell she was like a beautiful lady. Like I felt like I really met someone. Like I feel like I do. I do feel like I'm, I feel like she was someone for sure. Um, yeah, just a gorgeous twenties, early twenties. She was sitting on her butt, like feet and butt sitting down and maybe her hands would have been on her knees. But since she saw me up, she was like reaching for me. And the bag, if you had like a large trash bag and you tied it up clear, translucent, yellowy, gross, that's like a see-through. It was weird. It was like a sea, it went with the whole, everything was the same color. She was the same color as the bag. It was see-through. It was wild. And it was closed. She couldn't get out of it. She, I can't tell if we look at each other at the same time, but she's trying to get my attention as I see her. So she's starting to reach for me as I'm looking at her and realizing, oh my gosh, there's this ghost lady in a bag in my room. She starts like reaching towards me, but she's still in the bag. So the bag is still like containing her. Um, she doesn't get to get out of the bag. She doesn't get to get out of the bag. She doesn't get to get out of the bag at all. She just was reaching for a hand for help. Just like looking at her, it just felt, I just felt so sorry for her. And I just told her, I'm sorry, I can't help you. You need to go. And it just came out of my mouth like that. And she left immediately. Uh, and then I just like prayed the rest of the night and meditated. But yeah, that one, that one was rough. Cause that one, that one was just sad. Did you want to help her? Yes, I did, but I didn't know how. I think sending her off was helping her. I was like, if I send her off, like you can go, there's nothing you need to do. Uh, I can't help you. That's what I said. I said, I can't help you. You have to go. I guess going back, I wish I would have said you're good to go. You don't have to be here anymore. Um, but I said, I can't help you. You have to go. There you go. She just left. She, it was, yeah, it was all, it wasn't poof. It wasn't, it was just kind of dissolving in the air of sorts. She didn't get up and walk out or any, you know, she was in the bag, but it just kind of fizzled away. Fizzled is probably the best way to describe it. Well, yeah, well waking up, I was like, oh my gosh, but I felt okay. Cause I didn't feel like threatened by her, but I still, I think I took oil and like, I, I like anointed. I was like, okay, let me go a little bit further. I don't have sage, but let me get some besides just praying. So I like anointed the room and I was like, only beautiful things in here, only holy things in here. Like, uh, so my husband didn't, of course, never cares if I do that stuff. He's like, sure. Yeah, go for it. Um, but yeah, he was just like, when I woke up, I told him immediately and you know, he didn't discount me, make fun of me or anything. He's just like, whoa. Uh, yeah, that's a lot. And so, yeah, uh, we went about our day the next day and I'm just like, what is this place? And that's when we had a conversation about, all right, let's not look up anything. I feel safe in here. She didn't attack me. Uh, the other thing hasn't been around. So yeah, I think we're good to go and just enjoyed our next couple of days. We, I think we had two more days there. Yeah. One more night. Did you ever talk to the staff about this? Did you go and ask them about any of it? No, the staff, it was like, it was ran by kids. It was a very unhinged, like kind of hilarious. There was like a bunch of kids like summer camps doing like basketball camps there's there are a lot of kids everywhere it was kind of crazy i did tell them about the door coming open and they're like we don't have a way nobody's cleaning your room so i did tell them that but i didn't say anything else um we we walked around the hotel and it's crazy there's a video online you can youtube it and there's somebody taking you through this hotel and they'll take you through like the lobby and you'll see the turquoise pink and turquoise tiles that they tried to 99 1999 it up and yeah it's really creepy and we got vibes in there in certain areas i got vibes in there in certain areas that were just like so off and dark and uh as soon as we checked out drew and i didn't even like skip a beat we're like let's get coffee and go look this up and so we went and got coffee and looked it up immediately and luckily he had heard all of my stories uh he witnessed the bruise and um um we look it all up and there's one website that talks about the seventh floor being very haunted and the second floor as well and apparently it was al capone's home away from home in 1925 and we found out that he had like with cronies strangle uh women to death um yes and i know they were placed inside the walls with bags i think specifically room 202 there was a lot of i think i met one the second floor like you do walk around like it's more open so when we were walking around i felt like in that area i remember feeling sick like in that area so i know that yeah that was like there's some evil up in there yeah and there was signs of a choking ghost but i can't find any more any more details on a choking ghost i didn't write a review about it i thought it was going to be the craziest thing that happened in 2020 i didn't write a review about it i thought it was going to be the craziest thing that happened in quickly that it was like the not so craziest thing of 2020 um at the once we came back to reality and we got back into quarantine and this and that um uh for all the covid stuff um but yeah it was it was crazy it was a crazy crazy crazy trip i definitely feel like the first one was under the direction of someone else even like i don't know um i feel like they were like they were like under orders maybe i don't know but they were still scary dark horrible like maybe a crony maybe he was one of al capone's cronies for all i know um she was just like i'm like oh man i would have hung out with i wish i could have talked to her more i wish i would have i kind of feel like i wish i would have helped her more but i just get weird and those times i'm like am i helping some is there some kind of entity that's going to help me i don't know i don't know i don't know i don't know what's going to come through like i guess i start to get in my head about like am i dabbling is this evil like so i don't know she was she didn't feel evil he felt severely evil but i was just like i don't want any part of this i wish i could have helped her more i just felt for her and i i really truly believe i met a sex worker from the 20s and i'm just like if i could go back and be like you can be free i wish i could do that but um yeah i just felt for her did you ever consider that like maybe you were seeing from her perspective on the first night ah no i love that that's great yeah that's a wow yeah because sometimes that's crazy because i mean that place like the when i walked in the mirror vibe like this place is like a it felt like a weird portal magic spot too at the same time there was so much evil there too but there was so much like like that i could see that happening that's a really cool theory i mean cool is not the best word i don't know i mean and you could have been seeing from his perspective the next night that's that's wild yeah it's wild that it's it's not a functioning hotel condo anymore that's something i just noticed i never i also i feel like i dropped the ball i didn't uh tell anyone else about i couldn't tell nobody else had reviewed it like that i couldn't tell if i was messing with this guy's pocketbook or like if i was like there's ghosts here don't go um i just felt like leave it like i prayed over the room just leave it um yeah looking back at this story it's helped solidify like that spiritual connection um i'm lucky to have a lot of flexes uh in my life to have seen stuff so i don't i'm like i'm not gonna do it again i'm not gonna do it again i'm not gonna do it like i just know that there's more out there than we are than we can see and it's wild and it makes me want to stay true to myself and grounded and you know no matter what everything on the other side is always like from losing my favorite people besides my husband like my two favorite people um it's it's just that other side is there's so much on the other side and i'm i'm here to like help other people and i'm here to like help other people and i'm here to like help other people know like you there's nothing special i do just tap in and make sure you're walking in your truth and i think we get grounded and fogged up by so much bs that we don't get to be in our truth and then things like that like the fun magic of life doesn't get we don't get to experience it um so yeah being true to yourself is the biggest theme um in that regard i do believe that mo is here to like if i say the word like if i'm dreaming she'll take me wherever i want to go i chased her through the clouds one night that's the closest i found her um and she was running from me on her scooter which is a funny long like it was a joke in our regular life so the only time i've actually seen her beyond her life here was running after her while she was in a scooter in the clouds so i i don't doubt that she's gonna reach out i've asked her to we've had so many dreams and out-of-body experiences that her being gone feels so in our face and a lot of her close friends feel that way too and it's i i think that as in the future i think there's going to be times where i'm letting go of my fear so i can travel the galaxy with her on a dream you know and who knows if it's all dreams or if we actually did uh but i am i do think there's going to be more magic in the future i feel like since things have happened in this last year i feel stronger in those gifts as well thank you to abby for sharing both of these stories and rest in peace to her friend mo as well as her mom i don't think i have ever heard of somebody being required to sing a sugar ray song as part of someone's last will and testament and i assure you it's one of those things that i am never going to forget in regards to her first story i am personally obsessed with ones like this where there's sort of a glitch in reality missing time and an accident miraculously undoing itself these are by far the most fascinating types of stories to me but this is the first time i've heard one exactly like what she described where her and her friends are speaking in tongues feeling like their souls are sort of jumping back and forth between each other's bodies and that strange sound i know speaking in tongues is something that most people associate with pentecostal churches and like tent revival preachers but this is not something that's related to that world the other name for this is glossolalia and it's something that's been observed in pagan and shamanistic practices all over the world throughout history in fact i was just listening to a recording of terence mckenna talking about speaking in tongues while experimenting with mushrooms either way the fact that it was happening when it was happening is extremely unusual and above all else the visual of these two the visual of these two yelling in tongues face to face as their car flies through the open air into a ditch is such a vivid scene i am so glad she told me that story it took me completely by surprise she did not mention that in the original email and by the way if anybody has experienced something similar to this please send it in with a second story i looked into the history of this hotel and i actually saw multiple images of this hotel instances of people seeing the exact same thing that abby did while staying at this hotel a young woman suffocating in a clear plastic bag in my conversations with abby she told me that she saw some mentions of a choking ghost online and i think we both assumed that it was referring to the man she saw the one who choked her that is not the case apparently the choking ghosts that i've seen mentioned online were the ones that were choking her and i think that's the case refers to the woman in the bag. who is suffocating, and multiple people have seen her. As far as I know, Abby is the only person who has seen the man. And I think it's interesting that she experienced that before she saw the woman. I personally still think those two experiences are connected. I thought this was really surprising, and so did Abby. I mean, her and her husband looked this up after leaving the hotel, but they only glanced around. We just recently found this. And I would not normally take haunted history websites and old comments to be trustworthy, but this is so specific, and Abby did not know about any of this until after she saw the things that she saw. In fact, she didn't even know some of it until just a few minutes ago. That's why it's so weird. In terms of the Al Capone story, I did see mentions of that online, but I couldn't find anything beyond rumors. I did see some historical articles about organized crime in the area around that time. That being said, the Prohibition-era mafia was not exactly known for keeping detailed public records of their clandestine business operations. I didn't find anything pointing to Al Capone having stayed at the hotel, although he did die 30 minutes away from there. That being said, I think Al Capone has kind of become like a catch-all. When referring to mob activity of that era. So whether or not what Abby saw was connected to something horrible that actually happened at or near the hotel in the past, I have no idea. As of now, this hotel has closed down permanently and holds a 2.3 out of 5 star rating on TripAdvisor, along with many eerie photos. If anyone wants to go take a look, I believe the building, is set to be demolished, but I'm not sure when that's going to take place. Thank you so much to Abby. It was a real pleasure talking to her. This episode was called Spirit Belly, and you've been listening to Otherworld. 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