Season Debut: You Can't Outrun True Darkness

The Dark Paranormal

The Dark Paranormal launches Season 26 with a deeply personal submission from a 23-year-old Norwegian man named Kevin, who recounts decades of persistent supernatural encounters.

Key takeaways

• Submitter Kevin details recurring shadow figures and oppressive dark masses in his childhood home, which he attributes to lingering energy following his father's suicide at age three.
• Kevin's mother, Sarah, a spiritual healer who practices Kabbalah, independently witnessed a stern, witch-like woman hovering over her bed in the same house.

Main topics

• Paranormal phenomena
• Childhood trauma and grief

Notable quotes

"What if the places we call haunted aren't really the important part? What if sometimes it isn't the house, the room, or the history of the land that matters at all?"

Conclusion

The episode concludes with the host validating the submitter's account t

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) For many of us, going further isn't a choice. It's a feeling we can't ignore because ambition has a way of outgrowing where it began. Speaker 1 (0:11) Turning dreams into direction. Speaker 1 (0:17) Every journey brings us closer to the life we imagine. Speaker 1 (0:23) So, where will your journey take you? Etihad. Beyond Borders. Speaker 2 (0:32) What if the places we call haunted aren't really the important part? What if sometimes it isn't the house, the room, or the history of the land that matters at all? Because if you leave that place behind and the activity continues. Speaker 2 (0:50) At what point do you have to consider the possibility that it was never attached to the place in the first place? And what if it doesn't just follow you? Speaker 2 (1:02) What if it appears around the people closest to you, changes as you grow older, and occasionally seems to know when you can see it? More unsettling still, what happens when something you've spent literally years trying to explain away simply stops making itself known and begins interacting with you? Speaker 2 (1:28) Today's experience spans childhood and different homes, different people, and eventually even open water. Whether any of these events are connected is something only our submitter can really speculate upon. And as ever, we can't guarantee you any answers to the questions asked. We can only give you what's been sent to us. As we will now, as we begin Season 26. You can make up your own mind. on today's episode of The Dark Paranormal. Speaker 2 (2:35) Welcome to Season 26 of The Dark Paranormal, and nothing, no, no rambling from here, and although I know you'd love it there, all of our Patreon plugs can wait till the end. Right now, it's time. Lower the lights, make yourself comfortable, and most important of all, leave your disbelief at the door. As we listen to our Season 26 debut... You can't outrun true darkness. Speaker 2 (3:08) Hi, Kevin. My name is also Kevin, and that's my real name. I'm 23 years old, and I live in Oslo, Norway. This is my story, the paranormal side of my life. I know that much of what I'm about to tell you may sound unbelievable, and I don't expect everyone out there to believe me. These are the events I've experienced myself. Several of them were also seen or heard by others. I've been listening to your podcast for a while, and I'm grateful that you've created a safe space like this where people can share experiences like mine without being judged. English is not my first language, so I do apologize for any mistakes. All of the other names in the story have been changed to protect the identities of the people involved. And just care as the host jumping in now, I will give a bit of a trigger warning that there are references to suicide in today's submission. My life began, like most others, with two young parents who were excited to have their first son, and they believed they had their whole lives ahead of them. I was born in 2003, and the first years of my life were safe and happy. Then, when I was three years old, the tragedy that would leave deep scars on my entire life and family occurred. My father took his own life. He'd been out one evening and was heavily intoxicated. He went to his parents' house because he knew they were out of town, and where he knew, his father kept his hunting rifle. From there, he took the weapon with him in the car, drove into the woods, and ended his life. I was only three, but I still remember the small glimpses of the funeral. They're amongst my very first memories. Think about that. My first memories are from the day we buried my father. Speaker 2 (5:17) After he died, it was only my paternal grandmother, whom I called Dolly, who drove me to what I think you would call preschool. Many years later, she told me that I used to hug her goodbye. Then I would turn towards an empty space beside her, wave and say, Bye, Dad. It didn't only happen the once. It happened several times. Speaker 2 (5:43) I remember little else from that time apart from ordinary childhood memories. My mum, who I'll call Sarah, eventually got a new boyfriend, Kenny, and together they had a daughter, my sister, Emily. But still, there was something that seemed to follow me throughout my childhood. The feeling of never being completely alone. Speaker 2 (6:09) At Dolly's, that feeling was strongest. As a child, I was certain there was a man stood behind doors or inside rooms that were actually empty. Even today, her apartment feels watched, especially in the hallways and in two of the bedrooms. Not long ago, I spoke to her about it. She still feels the same thing, as if someone is stood just around the corner, waiting for you to walk past. She's told me that sometimes she can smell perfumes, aftershaves, as if somebody's just walked past. Speaker 2 (6:52) I grew up in a small terraced house with my mum, Kenny, Emily and a dog and two cats. At the start it was relatively quiet there, at least on the surface, but there was always a sense of unease in the house. At night, the house got a darker energy. Speaker 2 (7:15) especially the area by the bathroom and the downstairs staircase. They were the worst. Both Emily and I dreaded going there at night all of our childhood. It didn't just feel as though someone was watching us. It felt as though we were disturbing something that was already there. Speaker 2 (7:37) If you dared to go to the bathroom at night, me and my sister would always fear to flush the toilet. Like it was going to get so noisy when you pressed the button, you feared you'd wake something up. And I don't mean your family. Something else. When I got older, Mum told me that she had seen a lot of things in the house too. But she's always been a very spiritual person. She's a healer. And she meditates often and studies the Kabbalah. She says that she is very sensitive of the energies in houses. She's experienced a lot of paranormal things in her life, but mostly good things. Anyway, one evening she was laying in bed, drifting off to sleep, when she got this strange sensation, as if someone was watching her. Speaker 2 (8:29) She opened up her eyes and saw this clear woman above her, dark-haired, with a face as stern and evil as an angry witch. The woman moved across the bed before disappearing. Speaker 2 (8:44) The strange thing is, is that house has no known dark history. My great-grandfather helped build it in the 1960s, and only our family has ever owned or lived in it. No one has died in the house, and as far as we know, nothing particularly traumatic has ever happened there. Speaker 2 (9:07) Even so, the atmosphere began to change when I was around 12 or 13 years old. It was as though the house gradually became darker, like something ancient, something oppressive, something I truly could not explain. I had the large bedroom downstairs. Directly across the hall was Emily's smaller room, and beside it the staircase leading up to the second floor. Speaker 2 (9:35) In my room was one corner that was always darker than the rest. Not ordinary shadows, etc., but a solid mass of darkness, as though a figure was stood there, motionless, waiting. Our dog refused to enter that room, and no matter how much I tried to get him, he would just not go onto the bed. Speaker 2 (9:59) The cats would go in there,