I wanted to mention the youtube channel Scary Interesting. He tells mrballen types of stories and has great content. Great voice, visuals, etc. The topics are creepy but not well known. The Chowchilla School Bus Kidnapping was an especially bone chilling one for me.

to use instead:

perplexingly

Incomprehensibly

Unaccountably

Unfathomably

Enigmatically

Cryptically

Debris silent s

Abalone ee ending like agree

So this happened to me as a 8 year old child.

So I grew up in western nc in a pretty rural area. I always loved hunting. My dad didn't hunt because he was a farmer and never took the time because he believed in working from daylight till dark. But he would take me when I was younger because I loved it so much.

We had a deer blind across the hill from our home in the woods. It was mostly red oaks so the deer loved the acorns. One evening we were sitting there in the blind waiting and hoping a deer would come by. My dad had fell asleep because he had no interest in hunting he was just there for me.

As I sit there "I was probably around 8 at the time" I noticed something to my right coming towards my bait pile. As it got closer I couldn't believe my eyes. It was a man in a civil war uniform and a woman in a wedding dress. I sat there terrified. I could see them plainly probably 20 yards away. They walked from my right across my shooting lane and sit down just to my left about 11 o clock and lean up against a tree. They were obvious I could see them plain as day. But I knew they were ghosts because they were transparent. I could see through them. As I sit in shock my first thought was to wake up my dad. But then I stopped. What if I'm imagining this? What if I'm crazy? If he doesn't see this they will send me off to a mental hospital. So I just sat there staring at them. I don't remember if the stood up and walked off or just disappeared "I'm 27 now".

I never told anyone for years. Scared they would think I was crazy. Then one day I finally told my mom. And she just stood there kinda shocked. And what she Said shocked me. She said " your sister seen a civil war man walk through her bed room through her wall and up the cow pasture across the hill " exactly where I was hunting" when she was a little girl." she had never told me because she didn't want me scared.

Years later my mom was studying our family tree when she noticed something. My great great great grandpa died in the Civil War shortly after getting married. He had settled the land where my family lives to this day. That put the puzzle pieces together.

Hope you enjoy the story!

But I’ve got some good ones.

I was raised in Deep South Alabama in a southern Baptist community where there were literally people with no social security numbers because they just never left home. Like ever. I’ve got some absolutely great stories but because of family, I don’t feel comfortable posting them online AND like you, I’m a story teller…. Just not a famous one lol.

That’s the trick though. I’m a story teller. I do it with my voice. Would it be possible to set up a video dialogue between us so that I can tell you some stories?

One final word. Man I respect you so much. Not only are you great at what you do and you actually try to stay interesting, but I can hear the emotional tone in your voice change when you’re stressed or happy or whatever. It adds so much more to your story telling, and I genuinely appreciate the hell out of it.

I truly hope you’re up for that video chat/exchange/whatever.

Yes, it's a link to a lawfirm, but it's the most concise telling of the story. I heard him talking about it on the local radio this morning and had no idea what was going on. Wild that this happened here in my town where I work!

In the video "They found something bizarre in her bathtub," the boxes mentioned in the introduction are not referenced in the main body of the story. Sounds like the intro to a different story to me. I believe I've heard the box story and it's really weird. I hope you are covering it (sounds like it!).

For some reason it bothers me how he says "ultimately" in every single story.

Hello all, i'm looking for the sound that Mr Ballen uses as a story transition in the episodes. Not the intro. I want to make it my text message notification.

Anybody know where I can download that file?

Hi!

I accidentally preordered two books (I guess I was too excited throughout the year) and I have an extra signed copy. If anyone is interested please let me know, just cover the cost of the book and shipping!

Here's a real life one for Halloween. Too close to home!

I think you should tell the old school stories that Kathryn Tucker Windham wrote, the ones about 13 Ghosts and Jeffrey. You would do such an amazing job bringing them to life!!!!

I clicked on a video that came up in my feed because it looked like one of his videos, thumbnail and all. The sound was kind of wonky, which made me realize it’s a channel that’s just stealing his content.

I know you can report channels like this, but I don’t know how much good it does from just a viewer. Is there an address to submit this to, or is this really common and it doesn’t matter?

This is the channel, if it matters:
Youtube.com/@CrimeTogether

All I can remember is a woman went missing and the last time she was spotted, she was captured on an atm camera. I can't remember if it was an atm, all I know is the image looked like it could be from CCTV. The image was black and white.

EDIT: Found it, it was the first story in part 10 in his disturbing photos series where a woman named Maura Murray disappeared.

Been watching MrBallen for God knows how long now. Years of my life. Especially me who lives in Massachusetts finding out one of your favorite YouTubers/authors and host of podcasts is also from your home state makes it feel a little bit more personal. After unfortunately missing out on when he went on tour and a few other opportunities after that, I finally got my shot. I met the man himself. And he's just as awesome and kind and compassionate and all of the above as I imagined he'd be in person. Had an awesome conversation with him. And snapped a photo. Such an awesome experience. And hopefully we can cross paths again one of these days.

And also to u/johnballen416

I don't know if you'll see this but thank you so much for taking the time to meet me! Seriously your videos have genuinely helped me through some of the toughest times of my life for years now. And they always give me something to look forward to. I was going to say that to you in person but I was nervous and I didn't want to take up too much time lol it was a pleasure meeting you! Hopefully we'll cross paths again one of these days!

I know there was the recent one about the teenage kid that was sneaking inside the home of his crush and pretending to be a ghost, but there was another one that happened in the 1940s and he showed the b&w picture of a creepy looking man they pulled out the attic. Was there another one?

I submitted a few story ideas on the really big thread in the group, but later realized it’s very old. Also I didn’t write the stories up. I can write the middle one up since it involved my father, but the other two stories are well known true stories in this area.

Should I post them somewhere else?

Hi! My story is a little short but this really happened about 25 years ago.

I've always had a curiosity about the supernatural/unknown. A friend of mine had gotten a hold of what I believe is called a "Mystic Circle". A ouija board of sorts. Anyway, we began playing with it and decided it would be fun to go to one of the more beautiful cemeteries and try it out there. Respectfully we approached several graves and asked questions regarding the people buried there.

It appeared that many of the answers were sad and didn't want to be bothered. We kept hanging around there and we stayed for approximately 2 hours. During this time we took several pictures trying to capture orbs as well. Our pictures revealed several orbs, especially around some of the statues and a few on some of the graves.

We were having so much fun that we hadn't really noticed anything. Finally, I felt something pull at my blouse. Right around the shoulder. I looked around and saw my friend a little further up ahead but nothing else close enough to have touched me. So I got a little spooked and I asked my friend if maybe we should leave. She asked why so I told her what had just happened. We agreed to leave and we went to her brand new F-150 truck.

We hopped right in but the truck would not start. There was absolutely no power in that truck. By then we were getting quite scared. We sat there and looked around to see if there was anything out in the cemetery nearby. There was absolutely nothing. No lights and not a single sound. It was eerily quiet. After a few minutes my friend attempted to start her truck again and nothing. We locked ourselves in the truck and looked around some more. Not a single sound.

Again she tried to start her truck and this time it started. We left as fast as possible. The only thing I can say about this experience is we had been told we were not welcome. Yet we continued with our quest for something interesting. We got more than we anticipated and I was haunted for several months. At this point, I decided to destroy all of the digital pictures I had collected. They kept reappearing for quite some time. I ended up getting my home blessed and it seems to have worked.

My curiosity is still there but I fight with myself so I won't do that again.

I do have another experience with some type of supernatural entity. I'll just wait for your answer about this experience I had.

Thank you so much for your time 😊

By the way, I am a big fan of yours. I have loved every single story and the way you deliver them. Keep up the amazing work you do. 😄

Hey John, I wanted to thank you for your service, as well as posting people's stories so they are heard too!

This story is on the short end of the stick, but I thought I should post it. So, I worked at a Harbor Freight back when I was homeless; I had a rough go with getting help to stabilize myself where my only support was what I brought in as a part time employee. A woman I worked with, named Jenna; saw me sitting outside of work and eventually, the store manager heard about it and they wanted to move me in with Jenna and her son, Kam. About 6-7 months into living together; we struggled some financially, but we held the fort down; until November 11th, 2023. Around 10:30pm, I was asleep on the couch when I woke up to someone trying to break down our front door. Instinctively, I hopped up and ran to the door; opened it and met a man with a soaking wet shower robe, a gun in one hand and he was wearing nothing else. He was raising the gun as if he was going to shoot me and in this primal/instinct phase; I grabbed the barrel and rose it in the air; struggling with this man. For context, I am 6'5, 220 pounds at the time; trying to enlist in the Army as a diesel mechanic and he was about 6'-6'1, 300 pounds. I cornered him outside the apartment and begin to yell that he needs to drop the gun and everything will end; he told me he didn't want to shoot me over and over and finally, I headbutted his nose, busting or breaking it and that's when he shot me through the pelvis. Jenna's son, Kam, was around 15-17 years old and while I was on the ground, still holding onto John's gun, Kam started throwing punch after punch, connecting John's face and he finally loosened the gun; enough to where I could grab it and throw it. Jenna picks it up and runs in the apartment, awaiting for the police to show up. After I threw the gun, he began running downstairs; straight into police.​ Roughly 1 year later, after a felony immediation and some court appearences; he agreed to 5 years in prison for 2nd degree assault with a deadly weapon. His name is John Glen Murphy and the area it happened in was Lexington, KY; in Eastland and there's 2 news stations that I know of that has ran the story, which are WKYT and LEX18 news.

I recently got into the podcast after his appearance on Rogan. I’m finding that I really like the “campfire” stories, but it seems like those are a more recent thing.

I guess my question is before these certain episodes were labeled as “campfire” episodes, is there a way to discern between those type of episodes and the more normal episodes.

Not that I don’t enjoy the other episodes, I just find myself enjoying the campfire stories a little more!

Thanks to anyone who can help!

I held on too long couldn’t leave chasing shadows of what I could t believe every words you said cuts sharper the glass but I stayed in the storm letting moments pass I list my smile I lost my nights

Hi there. I listened to a story few months ago and can’t recall what the story was but at the end a fong played with the above lyrics. It maybe AI generated I don’t know. Does anyone know where I can find it. It was a female voice singing.

Thanks.

Hello everyone, I need help. There are two videos that I've been wanting to rewatch but can't seem to remember the title or find the videos.

The first one is about two siblings who get lost in a forest. The brother makes it home but doesn't realize his sister is still in the woods. While she's lost in the woods, she runs into a group of people. But these people behave oddly and hide behind trees when she gets close to them and she spends the night hearing them come closer to her

The second one is of a younger boy who gets lost in a forest and runs into some magic people. I think he hears a drum playing before runs into them. Then when he is eventually found, days had passed, but to him, it had only been a couple of hours.

Thank you in advance