[SPEAKER_00]: Live from Liverpool, the dog, Paranormal, season 22.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hello everyone and welcome back to the Dark Paranormal Season 22 episode 3, and firstly, as always thank you for the amazing feedback you've sent so far regarding this season, the changes we've made, and how everyone seems to be fingers crossed enjoying it thus far.

[SPEAKER_00]: A quick shoutout to our wonderful community over at Patreon, who allowed this show to exist.

[SPEAKER_00]: And of course, if you want to become one of our wonderful Patreon members, head over to patreon.com forward slash the dark paranormal.

[SPEAKER_00]: In my humble opinion, albeit slightly biased, I do believe it's genuinely the most harmonious paranormal community out there.

[SPEAKER_00]: And to be crystal clear with some price changes regarding Patreon, there will be a change in fees for the first time since its inception five years ago.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't like discussing price increases it makes me uncomfortable, but I think after five years of the same price, each pound spent by you wonderful guys keeping the show of float is actually worth less than value as the years go on.

[SPEAKER_00]: Believe me, I've put off this change as long as I could, last year Apple took 30% out of anyone signing up through their app for reasons I don't understand, and we were told by Patron to either absorb the cost or pass it on to you guys, and for the full year we absorbed the cost because we did not want to pass that to us.

[SPEAKER_00]: Pointless fee onto you guys.

[SPEAKER_00]: but we have reached that break point what we do need to make this small change and as I say that should mean we can keep it at that price maybe for another 5 years.

[SPEAKER_00]: So our tiers were £2 for an entry level per month and that literally was supporting the show.

[SPEAKER_00]: three pounds per month got you early at free access and five pounds per month got you access to dark bites, early access, at free etc.

[SPEAKER_00]: From the start of December instead of two three and five it will be three, four and six, however there will be some additions to those tiers.

[SPEAKER_00]: So in line with the fact, every podcaster out there, during the Christmas and Thanksgiving in whole holiday season will be rammed with adverts, for that entry-level 3-pound tier, which I personally spend more on coffee's each day, the dark paranormal episodes on the main feed will still be released on the same day on Patreon, but you will get them ad-free.

[SPEAKER_00]: For the full-pound tier, which used to have the perk of early ad-free access, you will also [SPEAKER_00]: And for our six-pound tier, you of course get early at free access to everything on the main feed, full access to the Dark Bites back catalog of 155 plus hours of content, a new Dark Bites episode every week, and I'm so excited to announce that for that tier, we will be creating a new series of episodes where I'll be taking a much more informal and conversational, almost a stream of consciousness type episode regarding the topics we've covered in recent weeks.

[SPEAKER_00]: In addition, hopefully during December, but definitely from January onwards, we'll have found a perfect forum just for that teas members to discuss episode conversations and get to know each other as the community we truly are.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now Patreon and advertisers are the two main ways that we keep this show afloat.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now there's an unfortunate trade-off when advertising especially around this period of the year becomes overly saturated.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, for £3 a month, you can get rid of all of those adverts and just enjoy the stories.

[SPEAKER_00]: We also offer a week free trial in the link in the show notes.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now I appreciate the whole point of not reading Patreon's names was to get to the story's earlier, but also hopefully you'll appreciate as we make changes I need to be clear about they are.

[SPEAKER_00]: So from here, moving forward, we will be doing what we promise to do.

[SPEAKER_00]: I just needed to be clear and transparent that the price increases also come with increases to what you get on those tiers, and I'm sincerely thankful for your understanding in this.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now for today's episode before we even begin the story, I need to give a bit of a back story in how this episode came about.

[SPEAKER_00]: I received this intriguing email.

[SPEAKER_00]: That goes, those.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hi Kevin, I've only been listening to the podcast for a relatively short time, and I'm actually only on season 9.

[SPEAKER_00]: However, for some reason, it skipped direct to the season 21 finale, and it filled me with Tara.

[SPEAKER_00]: So much I had to actually listen again, in case the first time was a horrible nightmare.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not sure if I should even reach out, even now as I'm typing this, I'm not convinced I'm braving off to press send.

[SPEAKER_00]: Obviously if you're reading this, I did, but I've managed to stay under the entity's radar for four years and I wanted to stay that way.

[SPEAKER_00]: However, I wanted Alex to know they're not alone, and to let her know that although I don't think I'll ever be totally free of it, and more specifically, Mira, it.

[SPEAKER_00]: I have developed a system to keep out of it's attention.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you think this is the sort of help she might be looking for, then I'll tell you my story.

[SPEAKER_00]: I am genuinely afraid to type it out, in case it's not what you want, and I unintentionally risk a drawing attention to myself for nothing.

[SPEAKER_00]: Just know my story starts also, with a three-pay mirror and a darkness that no one believed, and mirror me, warmest regards, anonymous.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is Kev here, I'll also say the experience we are about to hear.

[SPEAKER_00]: That email I've just read had an attachment which was a photograph which for me validates the entire experience 100% however I will not share that as I've been asked not to.

[SPEAKER_00]: Of course we replied saying we would love to hear the experience but only on the basis that they felt secure and comfortable in sending it.

[SPEAKER_00]: The last thing this show would ever want to do is make somebody feel threatened in their own home just to provide us with an experience.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thankfully anonymous or as we will know her within this experience, M did send forward her experience.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so please, love with the lights, make yourself comfortable and of course leave your disbelief at the door.

[SPEAKER_00]: as we hear all about demonic reflections.

[SPEAKER_00]: High-Cath, I know you know my real name due to our correspondence, both for the purposes of my experience, please refer to me as M.

[SPEAKER_00]: As you know, I've listened to Alex's story so many times now, and I can't quite get over the similarities to my experiences.

[SPEAKER_00]: From the mirror to the dolls, the dark tall figure, but not quite in proportion and the entity in the mirror itself.

[SPEAKER_00]: Please excuse me if I ramble a bit, but it's very hard to put this down because I keep remembering other parts, or things that now suddenly seem to make a bit more sense.

[SPEAKER_00]: I live on the east coast of Scotland.

[SPEAKER_00]: When I was young, we stayed in a medium-sized town on the coast.

[SPEAKER_00]: My mom always said I was a weird child, preferring my own company with my books and [SPEAKER_00]: I was brought up in a staunch Catholic family, which I feel does have bearing on my parent's attitude towards the paranormal.

[SPEAKER_00]: We stayed in the bottom flat of a tenement building.

[SPEAKER_00]: The bedroom was at the front of the house to the left when you came through the main door.

[SPEAKER_00]: Then there was a long hallway which was always dark as there were no windows.

[SPEAKER_00]: Straight ahead was the toilet and to the left was the living area and small kitchenette.

[SPEAKER_00]: Excuse me if this sounds like rambling, but I think it's important that you understand the layout of this small home.

[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't have a bedroom as such.

[SPEAKER_00]: A corner of my parent's room was sectioned off by a wall, which didn't reach the ceiling and didn't have a door.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thinking about it now, my bedroom was basically a cupboard in my parent's room, but I'm rambling again, I apologize.

[SPEAKER_00]: There was enough room in there for a small bunk bed, and a small set of drawers.

[SPEAKER_00]: As I said, the toilet was at the other end of that long hallway, and again there was no windows apart from the one in the toilet.

[SPEAKER_00]: I was terrified to go to the toilet during the night, because something waited for me up beside that toilet.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was very tall, but out of proportion, with glowing eyes.

[SPEAKER_00]: As usual, my parents were put it down to an overactive imagination.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I used to sleep in the top bunk of my bed.

[SPEAKER_00]: Pressed up against that wall with every soft toy I had in front of me to try and protect me from it.

[SPEAKER_00]: I knew the fear was real because I would rather wet my bed and get into trouble than go up that hole in the dark to use the toilet.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's more than an overactive imagination.

[SPEAKER_00]: Even now, 50 years later, I still remember that thing, that terror, and it still makes my skin crawl.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think that thing came from the tri-fold mirror Mom and Dad had.

[SPEAKER_00]: This one was attached to a very ordinary dressing table.

[SPEAKER_00]: dark world with carvings.

[SPEAKER_00]: I believe my mum opened some sort of portal, or whatever it was, that let it come through.

[SPEAKER_00]: Not deliberately, she was an absolute clean freak, and she would move those mirrors forward to clean behind them.

[SPEAKER_00]: So on a regular schedule, those mirrors would be facing each other, creating that infinite image, while she got into all the nooks and crannies.

[SPEAKER_00]: I used to play in my parent's bedroom as mine was so small, and I frequently got into trouble for moving those mirrors.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I never did.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, I pranced about in front of it, fascinated by the three different images of me, but I never touched it.

[SPEAKER_00]: At this point, the mirror didn't scare me, but the monster at the end of the hallway did.

[SPEAKER_00]: I was five, and when we moved out and the thing at the end of the hallway was there until the end, still being described as a figment of my imagination, that dressing table moved house with us.

[SPEAKER_00]: Our next house was amazing at flat.

[SPEAKER_00]: It had an upstairs and downstairs, but was a second floor flat with a communal stairwell.

[SPEAKER_00]: This time, however, I had my own room right next to my parents.

[SPEAKER_00]: and I'd have to pass their bedroom to go to the bathroom at night.

[SPEAKER_00]: Again, because the hallway both upstairs and downstairs were internal, there were no windows.

[SPEAKER_00]: The dresser, in my parent's room, had the mirror facing the doorway.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I would see three meas, every time I went to the toilet during the night.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I started to feel uncomfortable with that reflection in the mirror.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was me, but not me, if you know what I mean.

[SPEAKER_00]: To add to the creepiness, I was given a set of lucky dolls.

[SPEAKER_00]: These were China dolls, which sat on a glass shelf just staring at me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Eyes that would follow you, staring.

[SPEAKER_00]: Blue dresses, pretty bows, pink lips, but really, really dark eyes.

[SPEAKER_00]: Always just staring.

[SPEAKER_00]: I asked my mom to move them because their eyes were following me, but again, she said I was imagining it.

[SPEAKER_00]: They were just dolls, just like the thing at the end of the hallway was just my imagination.

[SPEAKER_00]: It seems to me now that the majority of my childhood was lived in fear of the dark.

[SPEAKER_00]: I wasn't afraid of being alone in the dark.

[SPEAKER_00]: I was afraid of not being alone in the dark.

[SPEAKER_00]: At night, I would insist my curtains were closed completely with no gaps.

[SPEAKER_00]: My door had to be closed completely too.

[SPEAKER_00]: And after the incident, the cupboard door had to be shut tightly.

[SPEAKER_00]: The incident I refer to went like this.

[SPEAKER_00]: I had gotten into trouble, yet again, for moving the mirrors on the dresser.

[SPEAKER_00]: By this point, I'd realized it was useless to argue the point that it wasn't me.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was that monster who did it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because that would get me into even more trouble for allegedly telling lies.

[SPEAKER_00]: As I mentioned previously, my parents were rarely strict Catholics, so telling lies brought with it a severe punishment.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, I was in my room, crying, telling myself how horrible my moon was, how she never believed anything I said that was a bit different.

[SPEAKER_00]: How she believed my head was in the cloud and my imagination needed to be rained in.

[SPEAKER_00]: I heard her shouting at me for dinner, but instead of going downstairs, I decided to hide in my cupboard.

[SPEAKER_00]: The cupboard was a built-in cupboard, which extended on either side and had a full-length mirror hung inside the door.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'd actually made a confiliated corner in the cupboard, where I could hide when things were a bit too much.

[SPEAKER_00]: Anyway, I crouch down under the hanging clothes and I crawled into my safe space.

[SPEAKER_00]: This time, however, I did something I'd never done before.

[SPEAKER_00]: I closed that cupboard door completely.

[SPEAKER_00]: The doors were so tightly fitted that not even a weak crack of light that sometimes shined in was visible.

[SPEAKER_00]: I heard my mum shout their usual threats, get down here now, or I'll smack you so hard you won't sit down for a week.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you're up there crying like a baby, I'll give you something to cry about.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not sure if these were UK-wide threats, but in Scotland they were probably high in the top 10.

[SPEAKER_00]: I heard her coming up the stairs, her slippers blacking every time she lifted her foot.

[SPEAKER_00]: She stormed into the room, yanked over the cupboard and… nothing.

[SPEAKER_00]: Her eyes scanned the space, but she didn't appear to see me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Instead of as I expected, dragging me out, she slammed the door shut and left the room.

[SPEAKER_00]: Why hadn't she seen me?

[SPEAKER_00]: I guessed with the hanging clothes and my wee comfy corner behind, she just hadn't noticed me.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, that would be the logical explanation, wouldn't it?

[SPEAKER_00]: As I sat there in the dark wondering what was going on, I began to hear a low whisper.

[SPEAKER_00]: still not loud enough to hear where it was saying, but it was there, then came a feeling of something behind me.

[SPEAKER_00]: My back was against the Kubit war, but the whispering came from behind me.

[SPEAKER_00]: I tried picking between the clothes straight forward to the mirror, and in the darkness I saw [SPEAKER_00]: The same eyes the monster had had in the toilet of the old home.

[SPEAKER_00]: I panicked, I threw myself forward towards the door, but it didn't budge.

[SPEAKER_00]: I tried again and again, but nothing there was no movement in these doors.

[SPEAKER_00]: I started hammering on the door, screaming to be let out.

[SPEAKER_00]: I was sobbing in between the screeching with my breath hitching.

[SPEAKER_00]: I banged and banged on the door for what felt like an eternity, and then the door was pulled on pin and I tumbleed out a sobbing mess.

[SPEAKER_00]: After calming down and explaining what had happened, I got into more trouble for both hiding and frightening mum and telling a stupid tale when I did get out.

[SPEAKER_00]: There are no monsters in the cupboard.

[SPEAKER_00]: We stayed there for a couple of years and the next move the dresser thankfully didn't come with us.

[SPEAKER_00]: Our next house was a lovely semi-tatts house, so even at night there was light coming from outside in the hallway.

[SPEAKER_00]: Unfortunately those lucky dolls did come with us.

[SPEAKER_00]: This time they sat on their glass shelf directly opposite a large round mirror.

[SPEAKER_00]: I really don't know what my [SPEAKER_00]: an all-nate round one in the hall, which you'd see a reflection in each time you came downstairs.

[SPEAKER_00]: One in the living room above the fireplace that you had to pass to get to the kitchen.

[SPEAKER_00]: Apologies I'm rambling again, but mirrors were everywhere.

[SPEAKER_00]: Back to my room, lying in bed, I could see the reflection of the dolled in the mirror.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I swear, during the night, their heads moved, ever so slightly, to stare at me with those dark eyes.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is where things start to get a bit weirder.

[SPEAKER_00]: As if dark figures waiting outside toilets and creepy mirror images aren't weird enough.

[SPEAKER_00]: But things started to go missing about the house, keys, jewelry.

[SPEAKER_00]: They'd just disappear, and then show up in odd places a while later.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's when I first saw the slight difference in my own reflection.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was me, but at night it wasn't.

[SPEAKER_00]: There was a lapse between my movement and the reflection.

[SPEAKER_00]: Her eyes were black.

[SPEAKER_00]: Only for a moment, but I knew that the thing from the hall, the thing that moved the heads of the lucky dolls was still here.

[SPEAKER_00]: For ten to plus years, it had been lingering in the background, in mirrors in the darkness, but now it was getting bold, and it wanted me.

[SPEAKER_00]: I took the mirror down in my room, I packed the dolls up in boxes and put them at the bottom of my wardrobe.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's when the knocking started.

[SPEAKER_00]: A tap tap tapping on the window like fingernails.

[SPEAKER_00]: I can't say I was brave and got up to look at what was knocking.

[SPEAKER_00]: The window reflected my image and I wasn't going to risk seeing her mirror me during the dark hours.

[SPEAKER_00]: If I went to the toilet during the night, I went downstairs with my eyes closed so I [SPEAKER_00]: The bathroom light was turned on quickly with a swift turn around, so not to see again into a mirror.

[SPEAKER_00]: I became so afraid of the dark.

[SPEAKER_00]: I tried sleeping with my bedside light on, but then I'd get into trouble from my mom.

[SPEAKER_00]: I was too old to be afraid of the dark, there was nothing there, I was imagining it all.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is what I had to deal with.

[SPEAKER_00]: No one to believe me.

[SPEAKER_00]: all the while the trauma of hiding from it was becoming deeper and grained in my psyche.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm at high school, sitting exams and haunted for 10 plus years.

[SPEAKER_00]: I had few friends.

[SPEAKER_00]: I was a dedicated student, top of most of my classes, but teachers soon began to notice a different [SPEAKER_00]: But what could I tell them?

[SPEAKER_00]: Sorry, there's a monster haunting me.

[SPEAKER_00]: A being in the mirror that looks like me but isn't me and it wants to find a way to come out.

[SPEAKER_00]: I would have been sent to a psych ward if I came up with that.

[SPEAKER_00]: But things were getting worse since I removed the mirror in my room.

[SPEAKER_00]: The tapping on the window, the rustling under the bed, the feeling of being watched when I was alone in those whispers, not quite loud enough to hear, but loud enough to catch my attention.

[SPEAKER_00]: I became more religious, I attended mass and prayer groups, both at my local church and school.

[SPEAKER_00]: I tried to find a solution in religion.

[SPEAKER_00]: I studied the Bible, I interrogated the parish priest on the Book of Revelation, on demons and witches in the Bible.

[SPEAKER_00]: On curses, but apparently the demons of the Bible weren't real beings.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was a battle between the good and evil of men.

[SPEAKER_00]: So what was tormenting me?

[SPEAKER_00]: was I really just imagining everything.

[SPEAKER_00]: Did I actually just have an overactive imagination?

[SPEAKER_00]: And had had for as long as I could remember.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is Kev now a quick trigger warning around the next 30 seconds will have mentions of self-harm.

[SPEAKER_00]: So if you're with young ones, or that is a very sensitive topic to you, please skip ahead by about 30 seconds.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, I masked.

[SPEAKER_00]: I pretend nothing was wrong, while I cried myself to sleep and tried sleeping with the light on, I started self-harming.

[SPEAKER_00]: I wasn't a cutter, I was a burn.

[SPEAKER_00]: I used to put my arms on the element of the grill, just to be in control of something.

[SPEAKER_00]: I still have those scars to this day.

[SPEAKER_00]: I've actually been writing this story for over a week now.

[SPEAKER_00]: I can't believe [SPEAKER_00]: Neither of my parents noticed myself harming, as long as I got good grades at school, all was well in the household.

[SPEAKER_00]: But things didn't improve in the house.

[SPEAKER_00]: But they didn't get anywhere, either.

[SPEAKER_00]: I took those lucky dolls down when I was redecorating my room, and they never went up again.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I learned somehow to live with the whispers and the knocks.

[SPEAKER_00]: but the mirrors were still my greatest fear.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm 21 at this point.

[SPEAKER_00]: I get married and I move away from home.

[SPEAKER_00]: On new house was a lovely little house, and in the daytime it was perfect.

[SPEAKER_00]: During the hours of darkness though, it took on a different vibe.

[SPEAKER_00]: Against my better judgment, the bedroom had mirrored doors, which were in fashion then.

[SPEAKER_00]: Unfortunately, they were directly opposite the window, so in certain lights they created the eternal image.

[SPEAKER_00]: I kept the curtains closed most of the time and, luckily, my side of the bed did not directly face the mirrors.

[SPEAKER_00]: However, one night when I went to the toilet, I had to pass the top of the stairs which ran down then carved into the living room, and I felt it.

[SPEAKER_00]: the darkness which had waited at the top of the hall when I was a child.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was waiting just around the corner.

[SPEAKER_00]: I cannot describe the terror I felt that night.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I almost wet myself with terror.

[SPEAKER_00]: I had two choices.

[SPEAKER_00]: I the past the top of the stairs or go back to my room and wet the bed like I did as a child.

[SPEAKER_00]: I needed to go to the bathroom so I ran my handle along the wall to find a light switch which was directly across from the opening and I flipped it on.

[SPEAKER_00]: Light illuminated the hall and the top of the stairs down towards the turn towards the living room.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I swear I saw a dark mass recede around that corner.

[SPEAKER_00]: I began to hate my house.

[SPEAKER_00]: I tried my best not to be left alone after dark.

[SPEAKER_00]: I became my husband's shadow, going out with him whenever possible, even if it meant sitting in the car waiting for him.

[SPEAKER_00]: I got a lamp which I put on the corner of the stairs so the darkness wouldn't come up, and I put a nightlight on the top of the landing.

[SPEAKER_00]: I really wanted to get rid of the mirrored wardrobe, but we were a young couple.

[SPEAKER_00]: Our first baby on the way and money was tight.

[SPEAKER_00]: In 1997, our first daughter was born.

[SPEAKER_00]: She was a gorgeous little thing, but she didn't like sleeping anywhere, which was not beside us.

[SPEAKER_00]: My husband literally held her for the first half the night, and I would take over around 2am.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because of this, I found I was awake more and more in the dark hours.

[SPEAKER_00]: Plus, I was no longer able to shadow my husband when he went out of [SPEAKER_00]: My solution was just not to let the house go into darkness.

[SPEAKER_00]: Nightlights, lamps, even leaving the TV on mute were all solutions to my problems.

[SPEAKER_00]: Around this time, things start going missing again.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'd put the babies dummy down, turn around, and it's gone.

[SPEAKER_00]: Keys would move, but it would just be inconvenient things, [SPEAKER_00]: One day, I just shouted, put it back now, please.

[SPEAKER_00]: I turned round and the dummy was there.

[SPEAKER_00]: As she grew older, my daughter started chattering and smiling into the corner of the room.

[SPEAKER_00]: And about the same time, the house started to feel a little lighter.

[SPEAKER_00]: I asked her one day who she was speaking to, and she said, [SPEAKER_00]: and you better than to write it off as an imaginary friend, but whoever it was seemed to have dispel the darkness in the house.

[SPEAKER_00]: One day, when we were at my mother-in-laws, we were looking through old photos, my daughter, point at a lady in a photograph and says, that's her, that's Modra.

[SPEAKER_00]: It turned out it was my husband and Moira, who'd passed away just before we got married.

[SPEAKER_00]: I now knew who to thank for protecting my little family.

[SPEAKER_00]: I wish I could say that was the happy ending.

[SPEAKER_00]: The story doesn't end as happy ever after though.

[SPEAKER_00]: I grew complacent in relation to mirrors and darkness.

[SPEAKER_00]: One night I'm moisturising my face, gazing into the bathroom mirror.

[SPEAKER_00]: and I see her again, mirror me, staring back at me with her black eyes and giving me a sliced smile.

[SPEAKER_00]: As if to say, I'm still here.

[SPEAKER_00]: I've just been waiting for you.

[SPEAKER_00]: I was frightened and I mean really frightened.

[SPEAKER_00]: What if she escaped?

[SPEAKER_00]: What if she became me?

[SPEAKER_00]: I now had two little girls [SPEAKER_00]: Now to the reason I decided to tell you my story, in an aim to help Alex.

[SPEAKER_00]: I was listening to that podcast again, and I get the feeling there are separate entities involved there.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think the one which covered all her mirrors was trying to help.

[SPEAKER_00]: I really don't get the impression that was malevolent.

[SPEAKER_00]: Why?

[SPEAKER_00]: Because it's what I do.

[SPEAKER_00]: I basically live without mirrors.

[SPEAKER_00]: one in the bathroom which I'll look in quickly to brush my hair during daylight.

[SPEAKER_00]: At night I go to that bathroom with my eyes closed.

[SPEAKER_00]: If we go in holiday, I cover any mirrors in the hotel room or apartment.

[SPEAKER_00]: I make sure any reflective surfaces in the house don't face each other.

[SPEAKER_00]: Such is a TV in a window.

[SPEAKER_00]: The hairdressers is a whole novel level of panic.

[SPEAKER_00]: But they know me now and they face me away from the mirrors to get my herd on.

[SPEAKER_00]: I know some people will think I'm completely bonkers, but they have never looked into a mirror and saw something other than their own reflection.

[SPEAKER_00]: I've managed to fly under the radar for the past few years, but my house is never dark.

[SPEAKER_00]: I have nightlights and salt lamps all over the place.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm comfortable enough with myself not to have to check my reflection on a frequent basis.

[SPEAKER_00]: I know Alex is a lot younger than me and at her age, I was experiencing the same sort of thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's taken me years to work out my defense, no facing reflective surfaces, no looking in mirrors after dark, and no real darkness in the house.

[SPEAKER_00]: I've had a few other instances with the dark entity which terrorized me when I was small, but they are stories for another time.

[SPEAKER_00]: I hope my story helps, keep up the brilliant podcast care, best wishes, M.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, em, thank you for your braveness to send that email through.

[SPEAKER_00]: I know with our correspondence, just how terrified you were to send that through on the basis that it may stir something back up.

[SPEAKER_00]: I genuinely pray for you that it doesn't, and normally I would say if it does, pick back up, please let us know.

[SPEAKER_00]: In this case, I'm not going to say that.

[SPEAKER_00]: simply because if, in sending this email, it does call something to happen in your home.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't want to play any part in that being antagonized.

[SPEAKER_00]: At the same time, if you feel like you wish to, by all means do.

[SPEAKER_00]: But thank you so much for your courage in sending us such an amazing and terrifying tale.

[SPEAKER_00]: I feel we've been really lucky or there's probably a better word than that to use in receiving both this week's mini-sode and M's email.

[SPEAKER_00]: because for me at least this has been a really terrifying week in regards to the experiences we've covered.

[SPEAKER_00]: Coincidentally, just this week I went on a bit of a YouTube rabbit hole in terms of weird scientific things and ended up watching our discussion between four scientists about what they believed would be found out in the future.

[SPEAKER_00]: and they all kind of agreed were around maybe 30% of our eventual knowledge of how the wild works.

[SPEAKER_00]: One of the topics they covered was indeed mirrors.

[SPEAKER_00]: But they were talking more about space mirrors, telescopes, etc, although they did touch on the interesting phenomena that mirror show our reflection, however mirror ring or the people results in them being calmer around your presence, and that turned into a discussion about reflecting, so not necessarily a physical mirror, but what it represents.

[SPEAKER_00]: and how mirroring in the quantum world and in the real waking physical world that we experience is still something that we don't fully understand.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it made me realize that there are certain things where when science cannot answer it, we as humans tend to apply some sort of magical connotation to it.

[SPEAKER_00]: So scientists may theorize about how the universe began.

[SPEAKER_00]: but they're not 100% sure, for example, what would be for that?

[SPEAKER_00]: And when there's a mystery, we often place magic or supernatural things.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, I got, for example, but isn't it strange that everyone accepts that Amirah is Amirah?

[SPEAKER_00]: But since record began, Amirahs have always held some sort of magical or spiritual significance.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's almost like our subconscious is saying, you do not fully understand the power of this object.

[SPEAKER_00]: and maybe we don't.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe we never will.

[SPEAKER_00]: And maybe like M, we never want to find out.

[SPEAKER_00]: But until next week, I want to thank each and every one of you for joining me on this week's episode and remember, when you're discussing the paranormal, always try and leave some of your disbelief at the door and I'll see you next time.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right here, on the dark, paranormal.