Santa Was Cornered by a Helper Monkey, The Elves Had to Rescue Him

It’s two sentences. The first is Bloody Mary as kids still play it. The second is the 1700s mirror ritual: girls ate an apple at a candlelit mirror and watched for a face over their shoulder. It was supposed to be their future husband’s, and a skeleton’s meant they’d die before they married. It leaves out the science explanation at the end of the segment, so the episode still gets to deliver that. READ or DOWNLOAD the full transcript of this episode: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/5n88rm8a FEATURED STORIES IN THIS EPISODE: Could there be floating balls of light not only possessed of some sort of intelli­gence, but which are capable of forming a unique bond with a person and even delivering painful stings when they so choose? (Sentient Fireballs and Biting Lights) *** Cattle sometimes die suddenly on Silvies Valley Ranch’s 140,000 acres in Harney County — struck by disease or felled by a broken leg and unable to find a way out of the rugged, forested terrain. But by the time ranch hands discovered four more dead bulls within 24 hours, they knew they were likely dealing with deliberate, premeditated killings. (Oregon Cattle Mutilations) *** To quote one survivor of a near-death experience: “I know of no English words for the combination of joy, ecstasy, love, and requited longing that burned within me. It carried me to a dimension I never knew existed. In that moment, there was no pain of loss, only unity, rapture and reunion.” Is it possible that we may soon have scientific evidence for what lies beyond the veil? (New Evidence of Life After Death) *** Seeing specters in the reflection of a mirror or piece of glass is not just a cliché movie trope. There is a history that goes along with the happening. (Ghost In The Mirror) *** We’ve all heard of haunted forests – but there is one that is so disturbing it drives some people to want to commit murder! (Where The Woods Entice You To Murder) *** When it comes to ghostly apparitions, the White Lady are ubiquitous. But a theater in Sunderland, England has not just a White Lady specter, but also the haunting Grey Lady… and the ghost of a comedian. (Haunted Empire Theater) CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)… 00:00:00.000 = Show Open 00:02:34.930 = Where The Woods Entice You To Murder 00:06:00.684 = Sentient Fireballs and Biting Lights 00:18:48.818 = Ghost In The Mirror *** 00:42:17.288 = The Haunted Empire Theater *** 00:50:01.495 = Oregon Cattle Mutilations 01:00:12.085 = New Evidence of Life After Death *** 01:05:48.430 = Show Close 01:07:28.182 = “Say It Three Times” by Incorruption (SONG) *** = Begins immediately after inserted ad break SOURCES and RESOURCES: Essex Ghost Hunters FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/EssexGhostHunters “Sentient Fireballs and Biting Lights” from the Fortean Times: (link no longer available) “Oregon Cattle Mutilations” by Diana Kruzman for Oregon Live: https://tinyurl.com/y3sg3gle “New Evidence for Life After Death” by Michael Grosso for Consciousness Unbound: https://tinyurl.com/wou5am3“Ghost in the Mirror” by Micah Hanks for the Gralien Report: https://tinyurl.com/wuxunbx; Erin McCann for Graveyard Shift: https://weirddarkness.com/archives/2587; and Lyra Radford for Ranker: https://tinyurl.com/wnzk58k

A mail carrier finds a mailbox taped shut and a note on the front door that says "9-1-1 Inside". In Spain, a woman lifts the lid of her late mother's chest freezer and finds a newborn inside. A hunter in Ghana points his gun at a coffin sitting above ground in a cemetery and threatens to shoot whoever's in it. Trick-or-treaters in San Diego bring home gummies printed with the words "psilocybin mushrooms". And a woman wanted for murder since 2009 calls the DMV to ask why her driver's license won't renew. EXPANDED STORIES & SOURCES: https://weirddarkness.com/mount-holly-911-note-baby-freezer-weird-darknews WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness. More episodes, additional podcasts, books, original music, in-depth paranormal and true-crime articles, and much more at https://weirddarkness.com.

In the sleet of a Cincinnati November in 1880, a grave robber collapses in the grave he’s digging, wide awake and unable to move, and his partner can’t find a pulse. SOURCES and RESOURCES: “A Resurrectionist’s Last Delivery” by Darren Marlar, https://link.amazon/B0gU1J6fa WeirdDarkness® | Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness | Midnight In The Macabre™ More episodes, additional podcasts, books, original music, in-depth paranormal and true-crime articles, and much more at https://weirddarkness.com.

In May 1973, Judy Doraty pulled over outside Houston to watch a strange light in the sky, and years later, under hypnosis, she described a cow lifted into a chamber aboard a craft and worked on by two small beings while she watched. From Colorado's San Luis Valley to a stretch of Welsh mountains nicknamed the sheep mutilation corridor, UFO reports and dead livestock share the same ground, and when a Texas man's sheep turned up mutilated in 2013, the sheriff said, "This was too clean to be an animal." From the book “CONNECTIVE TISSUE: How Cattle Mutilations Link Bigfoot, Alien Abductions, Mind Control, And The Men In Black” by Darren Marlar at https://weirddarkness.com/ConnectiveTissue WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness. Originally aired: November 09, 2026 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HKTS19Z1 More episodes, additional podcasts, books, original music, in-depth paranormal and true-crime articles, and much more at https://weirddarkness.com.

Li Shizhen, a 16th-century Chinese apothecary, wrote of aged holy men in Arabia who ate nothing but honey until they died, then lay sealed in honey for a century to become a sugary remedy for broken bones. In Europe, King Charles II of England drank powdered human skull in alcohol, and the poor paid for cups of still-warm blood at executions. READ or DOWNLOAD the full transcript of this episode: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/mrd72v94 FEATURED STORIES IN THIS EPISODE: Of all the instances of cannibalism found in human history, no one quite practiced it like some in China used to. In these cases, cannibalism came in the form of eating mellified flesh for medicinal purposes. In 16th century China, mellification was a way for elderly people nearing the end of their lives to donate their body to science. The idea, originally derived from an Arabic recipe, was that they could turn their bodies into medicine that would be ingested by their descendants to alleviate ailments like broken bones. The process of mellification was a gruesome one. In short, it consisted of very slowly turning one’s body into a mummified human candy bar. And that’s not even the worst part — for mellification to be the most effective, the process started while the person was still alive. CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)… 00:00:00.000 = The Foreboding 00:01:10.417 = Show Open 00:02:28.924 = And Mellified Man For Dessert 00:04:27.887 = Honey, I’m Dead 00:09:57.010 = Sugar-Glazed Grandpa 00:16:02.121 = Better Health Through Cannibalism 00:27:31.137 = Self-Mummification 00:30:39.753 = Corpse Medicine 00:39:58.915 = Show Close *** = Begins immediately after inserted ad break SOURCES and RESOURCES: “And Mellified Man for Dessert” by Katie Serena: https://tinyurl.com/rjwv5cw “Honey, I’m Dead” by Paul Salopek: https://tinyurl.com/wz23h9d “Sugar-Glazed Grandpa” by Brent Swancer: https://tinyurl.com/w2mqzyp “Self-Mummification” from Stranger Remains: https://tinyurl.com/w795gxp “Better Health Through Cannibalism” by Natalie Zarrelli: https://tinyurl.com/tsqhqbl “Corpse Medicine” by Maria Dolan: https://tinyurl.com/y6spcbcb (Over time links may become invalid, disappear, or have different content. I always make sure to give authors credit for the material I use whenever possible. If I somehow overlooked doing so for a story, or if a credit is incorrect, please let me know and I will rectify it in these show notes immediately. Some links included above may benefit me financially through qualifying purchases.) WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness. *No AI Voices Are Used In The Narration Of This Podcast* EPISODE SYNOPSIS: This episode of Weird Darkness covers the legend of the mellified man, a 4,300-year-old Bronze Age tomb in Georgia filled with honey-cured offerings, the self-mummifying Buddhist monks of Japan, and the centuries Europeans spent swallowing powdered skull, human fat, and fresh blood as medicine. It opens with mellification, in which an elderly volunteer ate and bathed in nothing but honey until death, then lay in a stone coffin of honey for up to a century before the remains were sold at market to treat wounds...