 Welcome, Weirdos. I'm Darren Marlar and this is a Chamber of Comments episode where I answer emails that I've been sent recently and it has been a really long time since I've done one of these, so this might take a while. Sometimes it's just a nice complimentary email that I receive. Sometimes it's heart-wrenching. Sometimes it's asking for advice. Sometimes it's a complaint. You can email me about anything that you want and I'll probably reply to it. My email address is Darren, D-A-R-R-E-N at WeirdDarkness.com. Your emails do come directly to me. I don't have an assistant for this. I do try to read every email that comes my way. Sometimes I wait to read them live here, so I don't have any preconceived ideas about what to think. More often than not, I reply to your emails here in the Chamber of Comments, so long as they are appropriate. Again, you can email me, Darren, D-A-R-R-E-N at WeirdDarkness.com. Like I said, I've got a lot of them that I'm going to go through, but before I jump into them, I just want to share something that happened to me earlier today. I was listening to a podcast about podcasting. I was listening to a podcast about podcasting and the AI thing is terrifying. I knew it was coming in and it was going to start taking over with artwork and it's doing script writing for some people. You can tell like chat GPT, hey, I want you to write an article with so many words about when to go or something like that and it'll do it. And then, apparently, now you can take that and you can plug that script into another program and it will put it in your voice or anybody's voice, I guess, so long as you have the audio files to upload to give them a sample of what that voice sounds like. This guy, Dave Jackson, by the way, is his name. He has the school of podcasting, is the name of his podcast. And if you are a podcaster, I'd highly recommend listening to it. He has some great advice for podcasters on a very regular basis. I think it comes out with a new episode every week, every other week, something like that. But the first few seconds of one of his most recent podcasts was talking about how AI was coming in and then he cut out and then came back in saying, by the way, everything you just heard was AI and it was dead on. It was so creepy that it was so realistic and that immediately kind of put me in a bit of a panic mode because how am I supposed to compete with somebody who can just tell an AI system write this script and then voice this script and then make a thumbnail for this script. They'll probably get it to the point where they'll be able to automatically upload it to your podcast provider host. So all you'd have to do is just talk into your phone, create a podcast about such and such, and then 20 minutes later it's there in your podcast and you won't have to do anything. You can sit there and just continue on your recliner watching TV. That's some scary, scary stuff. So I want you to know, I'm not going to do that to you as realistic as that could get and it's just going to get more and more realistic as the years go by. But no, so one of the things that he mentioned that podcasters can do is tell a little bit about their own stories. Personal things. Anybody can have a chat GPT or AI write a script for them and do a voice, you know, whatever. But chat GPT is not going to talk about how your particular day went or what certain things happened. So being personal is going to be more important for podcasters going in the future. So I might start doing a bit more of that. I hope that's okay with you guys. Just just to let you know what's going on in my life right now. I I've been uploading a lot of Dark Archive episodes recently and I've not been real open about what's going on in my life just because of time constraints and everything else. I'm actually pulling back on the number of road trips I'm making because I've found that it is so hard to continue putting out new content while I'm on the road doing the road trips. The problem is I love doing both. If I could give up one and just do the other that would be fine. But I kind of need to do both. I just need to find that healthy balance now. I was I was overdoing one and and not doing enough of the other. So I got to rebalance things. But also, have you ever had a professional business ghost you? This is what has happened to me the last few months. You know, if you've been listening to the podcast for any length of time, you know that I suffer from migraines. There's a lot of things that I that I struggle with. But migraines is one of them. I also have low testosterone. So I was getting that taken care of. And I've got the depression meds that I take that I that I take. If all of that just disappeared one day, because my doctor decided he didn't want to have me as a client anymore or a patient anymore. Or if he decided to go out of business and I just didn't know about it, whatever, what would you do? That is exactly what happened to me a few months ago. My doctor just disappeared. I have no idea where he is. I have no idea how to get hold of him. I've got his text. I've got his cell phone. He never replies to that. It doesn't come back to me as errors or anything. And when I call, I do get a voicemail, but nobody ever calls me back. Nobody texts me back. I've got his email address, private and business. Don't don't hear anything from either one of those. I go to his website. I've actually he has the ability, he had it set up on his website where I could actually schedule an appointment on his website and then they would send an email confirmation saying, okay, you're confirmed for such and such a date for your appointment. I never got confirmations. I could schedule something, but that never confirmed that that they actually were going to see me. It just disappeared. And this happened a few months ago. And I thought, okay, I'll just give him a chance. You know, maybe he's on vacation. Maybe he's having a family emergency, something along those lines. I try to give people the benefit of the doubt, even when it comes to customer service. Especially even something as important as my own medications and health. I really liked this guy. I really liked this doctor. But now suddenly, I am completely out of headache medicine. So I don't have my Sumitriptan. I don't have my Doxopin, which is like I'm also relaxer because I get tension headaches really, really bad. I don't have my Angality, which is the injection each month for migraines, which I'm not too awful sad about that because I really did not like, I'm not a big fan of needles. But now I'm almost out of my depression meds. And the testosterone treatment, I haven't had that for like eight months, so I feel like crud. So all of this is coming down at the same time. And I can't get hold of my doctor. So today, I finally, well, yesterday, actually, I finally found somebody here in my area that can help me with at least some of that. But now I'm still going to have to go and find a new doctor for depression meds and for migraines and everything else is just oh my gosh. I was wondering if anybody's ever had somebody like that ghost to them. And especially somebody that important. Wow. Okay. So I do have quite a few emails, like I said, so we'll go on. This one goes all the way back to April 1st. It's actually one of my Darkness Syndicate members, Laura saying, thanks for the fun evening last night. She's referring to the Friday Frights episode about black-eyed kids. She says, these black-eyed children sound pretty terrifying, but has anyone ever heard of brown-eyed children? They scratch at your back door and if you open it up, they just let themselves in without invitation. They have extremely cold, wet noses that they promptly use to poke you in the side of the leg and hassle you for all the milk bones in your kitchen. I currently have to reside in my home that just won't leave. Every time I shoot them out the door, they always come back. Now I'm stuck feeding them on a daily basis and they slowly take over your couch in bed. Everyone else familiar with these creatures? And then a laughing emoji. That's funny. That's great, Laura. I wondered, brown-eyed kids? No, except for people who just have naturally brown eyes. But no, I've never heard of brown-eyed children. But the more you went into that, that was very clever. Nicely done, Laura. Nicely done. I do receive once in a while, I receive reviews for the podcast. And if I get those in my email, they send me notifications that I get ones. And sometimes I'll share those here with you. I got one from Laura Mer Black, gave me 4 out of 5 stars, saying, Dependable Entertainment. I enjoy this podcast and listen every day. Darren must be working his butt off to bring us so much content. My only quibble is that some stories are just him reading long, dry, pseudo-academic articles that have no emotion to them, just facts and figures. I wish those would go away. But I don't want to be too harsh. Darren delivers hours of entertainment every week and most of it's great. I don't blame him if not everything hits the mark. Thanks, Darren. Well, thank you, Laura Mer. I can't hit it out of the park every single time. Not every episode is going to be everybody's favorite. It's just the way things go. And sometimes the episodes are more documentary-style, which I think is what you're referring to. Others, like Thriller Thursday or MicroTerrors on Saturday, those are going to be the more emotion and acting stuff like that. So I try to throw in a little bit of everything for everybody. This one comes from the UK, Livy, saying, Hi Darren, I hope this finds you and yours healthy and happy. I was catching up on some of the Fireside Frights episode last night while at work as a night shift trucker and coincidence it probably was, but the last story I heard before leaving to go home was the 333 Club story about Chris, a deeply saddening story that makes you realize that time is way too fleeting and the darkness all too real for some of us. As I got home and set the alarm on my phone for the morning, I noticed the time. Yep, I lay in bed looking at the clock on my phone screen, and it was 333am. Coincidence more than likely, but I did think of Chris, although I obviously had never met him. Makes you think, though. Anyway, keep up the podcast and being our light in the dark on these long night shift roads. Best wishes from the UK. Livy, well thank you. Livy, appreciate that. I appreciate what you guys are doing on the road being a trucker like that. Whenever something like that happens to me, kind of that not really a deja vu type of thing, but the universe coming together and you just heard a story about 333am with somebody and now suddenly you look at the clock and it's 333 and you think of that person, I usually take that as an opportunity to pray for that person. I kind of use that as, I believe or assume, let me put it that way, I assume that's kind of God's way of hinting that maybe that person could use a little prayer right now, and so I'll just stop and say a short prayer for that person. Maybe you could do that too. This one comes from Kelly saying, I wrote a true story and just finished it today. I wanted to send it to you. This guy I was seeing, this guy I was seeing, okay his father died and whenever I went around this guy, weird things would happen, the TV would turn on or shut off, the power would go out, his phone would go across the room, my shirt that was sitting on a couch went across the room. I conducted a seance to try to see what his dad was saying because I really feel he has a message. I even had a dream of his dad trying to talk to me, so we did a seance and literally I heard 14 taps and knocks in a row. Then we did it again and the knocking was happening right as soon as I would say something. But I feel bad now because now the noises won't stop and the guy told me he feels like he's going insane because there is so much activity going on now. Sincerely Kelly. Well, if you would come to me first, I would have told you not to do the seance. That would be one thing. I don't mess around with that stuff and I don't recommend anybody else do it. I know it's mostly because of my faith, but even if I wasn't a born-again Christian, you're opening yourself up to the spiritual world there and you really don't know what you're going to get. How do you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that what you brought in was his dad? That it was his dad that's doing the knocking. Especially if it is a loved one that you think it is, but now they won't stop despite you asking them. Would a loved one do that? Probably not. If they truly loved you, they would probably stop. This is just an opinion, obviously. So I don't know what advice I could give you. I understand that when you're doing a Ouija board, you need to close things out officially by moving the planchette to goodbye, even asking permission to say goodbye. I don't know how it goes with a seance, but if it continues to happen, I would definitely bring in a professional, like maybe a pastor, priest, paranormal investigator, somebody along those lines to see what they could do for you. I'm really sorry that he's dealing with that because that would drive me crazy as well, especially if I was to think that's my dad the whole time knocking all the time. Speaking of my dad, that's another thing that's kind of put me behind on everything. You might remember a few years ago, like it was about six years ago, that I had to rush to Texas because my dad was in the hospital. We thought we were going to lose him. They put him into a medical coma and it was very, very close, but he got through, started healing, but he has been, he went to Vietnam and was exposed to Agent Orange. And so now a lot of things are going wrong with his body. He says it's his body that is rejecting him. His body is working against him. His mind is still there, but he's got Parkinson's to the point now that he is bedridden. He can't even leave the bedroom anymore. He can't eat without help now. He spends most of his time sleeping. He does try to listen to audio books. In fact, they contacted me, they being my dad and his wife, who is, by the way, my stepmom is awesome. It's so great that she's there because she actually has a medical background. So she knows how to take care of him. But they actually asked, hey, are there any audio books that you've narrated that your dad might like? And so I recommended some of those. But he falls asleep during the audio books. This is typically a sign that things are going down fast. So I don't know what's going to happen in the near future. So that's another reason that I'm backing off on some of the road trip stuff, because I don't know if and when something's going to happen there. And I don't want to be away on the road if something happens. And I have to immediately turn around and come back for whatever kind of emergency there is. So if you're wondering why I've canceled a couple of upcoming events, that's why. I do have one event that I still have a schedule later this month in Alton, Illinois, the Haunted America Conference. And that's because I've been trying to get to that for like the last four or five years. And things just keep making it so I can't. And the guy over there, Troy Taylor, by the way, the author has been really, really, really cool about keeping a table for me. And so this year, I think I'm finally going to make it there. I've still never met the guy. We've talked a lot on email and Facebook, but it'd be nice to actually meet the guy in person. So I'm hoping I can make it to that one. And if something were to happen while I'm there, it's about a six-hour drive, I think. So it wouldn't be too awful bad for me to turn around and come back home. It's still suck, but just kind of risking it on that one. But anyway, for those of you who are weirdos in Christ, or if you just want to throw up some good thoughts about my dad, some prayers, I'd greatly appreciate it. This one comes from Christine. She's another one of my Darkness Syndicate members. She says, Oh man, that is awesome that you have that movie. I've been looking for it everywhere. My husband, who is black, says that it's one of his favorite movies growing up. He's like me and he's tired of everyone trying to ease history. Watch it for us. She's referring to Song of the South from Disney. I did not ... You can't find it. Disney refuses to release it on DVD, video on demand anywhere because of the racist overtones that are in it. But our neighbor happened to have a DVD of it. I said, What? You won't see the word Disney anywhere on the cover. They've distanced themselves from the movie as much as they can. I think that they've even kind of canceled the song Zippity Duda because they're so paranoid about this. But my neighbor happened to have a DVD of it. And I said, Hey, can we buy that from you? I just want to have that in my collection because nobody has that. And then I found it after we bought it from them. I found it on eBay and places like that. You can buy it. It's from out of the country. I think it's in the UK or something that they were making these. But it did happen to work in an American DVD player. So that was cool. I had to buy one on the black market many, many, many, many, many, many, many years ago because that's one of my dad's favorite movies and he wanted a copy of it and he didn't know where to find it. Back then, I had to really search for it. It wasn't readily available on eBay or anywhere else online. I had to dig until I found one for him and I spent a fortune getting it. Now you can get one for like 30 bucks. Oh well. All right, let's see here. The next email comes from Colleen. She says, Hi Darren. So I've been listening to you for years here and there. Weird darkness is great. I got sick with the virus yesterday and went to take what I thought would be a short nap. I turned your podcast on and relaxed. Ended up being in and out for almost 15 hours. Your show is wonderfully relaxing. Well, this morning I woke up and you just left Oregon. You talked about giving the homeless man a hundred dollar bill. The podcasts kept playing and you were talking about demons, demon names. When did they get their names, since there were demons before man? And how do demons speak to exorcists in language that they understand? I might be off base here, but these are my thoughts. First issue to me is language and that's the easiest. Demons possess people, but they have more than one job to do. The other is to corrupt more souls. And a holy man would be a huge win for Satan, probably. And one big weapon used is language. They do their best to undermine you, which they cannot do if you don't understand them. To me, it makes sense that they would be able to speak English to an English-speaking person, Polish to a Polish speaker, etc. Speaking with a forked tongue has no effect on someone that can't comprehend and humans don't have the supernatural language abilities angels and demons have, etc. The other thing was the timing of demon's creation. And this might really be reaching, but as history unfolds and more and more humans come along and time goes by, I firmly believe more and more angelic spirits happen. So to me, it makes sense that more demonic spirits would also come about, whether they come from the life energy of people who are dedicated to good or bad or whatever. And the older the spirits are in history, the more powerful in some cases. As I said, you might think this is a little nonsense, but it is a possibility. P.S. April 5th, we are currently having a blizzard. I live on the northern edge of Minnesota, 300 miles from Minneapolis. I'd love to hit a tumbleweed. Well, yeah, I had a lot of tumbleweeds on my way back from Oregon. It was insane. So those are actually really good thoughts, Colleen. And I would probably agree with you on the language thing. That actually does make sense. And because demons and angels are supernatural, it might very well make sense that they would be able to easily pick up the human language in any language and speak it, especially since they've been around for thousands of years to learn it. The demon creation thing, I wouldn't buy into that. I'm not saying that God can't make new angels, but if he did, I can't see new demons being made. And according to the Bible, we do not become angels or demons when we die. That's a movie, TV trope type of thing. But no, we remain saints. In fact, we are just a little bit above the angels, according to the Bible. So I don't think that is it. But that being said, Father Carlos Martins from the Exorcist Files podcast that I've told you guys about in the past, he has said that there are there's a hierarchy of demons. So there are lower demons, kind of like if in the military, like your privates, and then there's your captains, and lieutenants, and generals all the way up. And I guess Satan would be the ultimate general. I guess they're commander-in-chief, for lack of better words. But yeah, there's a hierarchy of demons. And quite often somebody could actually be possessed by more than one. And if that's the case, what will happen is the lowest demon on the totem pole will be brought forth first during an exorcism. And so you've got to deal with that one first before you can get rid of him and get down to the bigger one that's still possessing the person. So interesting that you bring that up. And I got to catch up on that on that podcast now. There's like three episodes that I've yet to listen to. It's still my favorite podcast though. I usually just wait and then jump on and listen to them when I'm on the road. Okay, this one comes from Jay Bowling saying, on this week's episode of Church of the Undead, your subject concerns ghosts and dead loved ones. It's an interesting topic to say the least. According to Judaism and the Kabbalah, when the faithful die, our souls wander the earth for approximately 11 months. Ghosts are also mentioned in Jubilees and several other books in both the Bible and Divergent Doctrines. You must remember that Jesus Christ wandered the earth in spirit form for 40 days. Thank you for all you do. Thanks, signed Jay. Thank you very much. I don't know much to say on that particular one, but you've got some good thoughts there. Thanks. Crystal, send this one in. Hey, Darren, I just finished your podcast on the Heaven's Gate cult. And maybe think of two cults that happened before Heaven's Gate. I admit I remember this, if vaguely so. I don't know if you remember the cult headed by Jim Jones, who had his followers die by drinking laced Kool-Aid, the Jonestown massacre. By the way, stopping there in the email, yes, Crystal, not only do I remember that, I've done a couple of podcasts on it. Okay, moving on with the email. This was back in the 70s, I believe, and before I could remember much beyond walking to kindergarten. Also, there was David Koresh and Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas. This was in the 80s, and to me, this was more memorable as I had family in Texas and could discuss what national news didn't cover as well as their local news. That's my two cents worth. I love your show and all you do for us weirdos. The Hope in the Darkness is especially dear, as we both deal with depression, because of you, I've been using the Seven Cups app and website. Thank you, signed Crystal. Crystal, thank you. I appreciate the email, and I even more appreciate you letting me know that you've actually found some help from the Hope in the Darkness page and that the Seven Cups app is actually helping you. That's really great to hear. Listen, this one comes from Anonymous, Darren. What does one listen to on a long international flight, 13 hours to Taipei, plus five hours to Dispacer? About 14 episodes of Weird Darkness, of course. I take this route many times over the 20 years. It's my wife's homeland. It's the first time I've passed the time listening to a podcast. It really helped to pass the time, signed Anonymous. Man, that is awesome. So yeah, if you download the episodes in advance, rather than trying to stream them, you can listen to a whole bunch of stuff, but 13 hours plus, so 18 hours of Weird Darkness, back to back. I appreciate it, but man, that is some dedication. Thank you very much, Anonymous. I got another review that came in saying, longtime listener, and they gave me five stars, saying, I've listened for three years and I love it. I just don't like the ads during the show. At the beginning, they're fine, but in the meat of the show with ads, it's just kind of frustrating. Well, sorry, this is Jabeus50, who left that review. Jabeus, I'm sorry, that's the way I make my living. If I was to remove the ads, I wouldn't be able to do this every day of the week. I would be doing it like once a week, because I'd have to go and get a real job again. This one comes from Michelle saying, thank you for blessing me with your presence in this world. I'm sure all around you are happy and grateful for you. Enjoy your podcasts. Well, the two I've happened onto anyway, I'm not certain if there are others. I'm also glad that you enjoy the Exorcist files, as I do. Have you heard the Exorcist podcast? Exorcist Jeebae Haggard has a very monotone verging on boring radio voice, but you may like how he explains why particular things are done a certain way. Love, Father Martens and Ryan Bethea, I bet they're beautiful souls like you, too. That's it. Have wonderful days and evenings for however many of you may be given. Thanks again and God bless you and yours for babies included. Bye, sincerely, Michelle. But thank you, Michelle. It's too bad the Exorcist podcast is not actually a podcast, and it's only available on YouTube. I listen to the Exorcist files, that's a podcast, but the Exorcist podcast that you're referring to with Jeebae Haggard, just a YouTube video. Still though, I did find it, I subscribed, so I can give it a listen a little later on, so thanks for the suggestion and also for those incredibly kind words. I appreciate it. SS, Sarah sent me something saying, I'm a bit behind on all my podcasts. I may have too many LOL. I was listening to a roadside road trip ruminations, and when you said someone was coming towards you in your lane, I pulled over and prayed for you. Thank God, mine's time, as we understand it. That's super scary, and I'm thanking God that you're okay. Also glad you didn't hit any deer in Kill Deer, LOL. Love from your sister in Christ. All my best to your beautiful bride, Robin. I appreciate you, man. Come to Ireland and then we could pray together. Wouldn't that be lovely? All the best friend, signed Sarah. Sarah, I'd love to make it to Ireland someday, but first I would have to get a passport and I don't see that happening in the near future. But of all the places in the world that I wouldn't mind visiting, Ireland's one of them. Robin wouldn't mind seeing Scotland someday. We also wouldn't mind seeing Canada. I know, we're practically in Canada, but we've never actually gone that far north to see it and go in there again because we don't have passports. But she'd like to maybe see the parts of Canada that are beautiful during the spring time. Alaska essentially is what you'd like to do. So I guess that's the U.S. You've got to cross into Canada to get there, but still. As you're regarding your question though about the way God works in time, that's really an interesting point. And I thought about that years ago that why would you pray for somebody after a situation has already happened because it's already happened. But a few years ago, I came to the realization that God is outside of time. So even though something may have already happened for us and it doesn't make any sense for us to pray for something that's already happened in the past, like, gosh, I hope you're okay in that car accident, even though you know I'm already okay in that car accident. God's outside of time. He's the one that created time. God is an eternity. So we've got the past, we've got the future, and we've got right now. But God exists in all at the same time. Eternity is all of time together. Everything that's ever happened, everything that ever will happen, everything that's happening now, it's all instantaneous for God. And that's where we'll be someday. We'll be in eternity, whether it's heaven or hell or wherever, but it'll still be eternity. We will be in that same situation. Time will have zero meaning anymore. It's really hard to wrap your mind around it, but that's the way it is. Because before time began, there was still God. Something had to initiate time to begin. Because it's easy for us to think of forever, of going on and on and on in the future, more and more and more and more and more. But how far back can you think? You keep thinking, well, was there ever a beginning? If there was never a beginning, that means something was eternal. And the only thing that's eternal is God. I hope I'm explaining that pretty well. But the reason that I started thinking that is one of the things that used to bother me when I was a Catholic is that people would pray for the dead. And I thought, why would you pray for the dead? They're already dead. So how can you pray for the salvation of somebody that's already in the ground? They can't give their life to Christ now or they can't give their life to Jesus or come to God or whatever you want to say it because they're already dead. But that doesn't mean that somebody couldn't have reached them before they passed away. And we can pray now to God that somebody did reach them before they passed away. We may not know about it, but we can still pray about it because God is outside of time and He can affect things in the past, in the future, right now, wherever. Really hard to wrap your mind around, but I'm glad that you emailed me, Sarah, because that's something that's kind of interesting to think about. It's a nice reminder, too, that no matter what's going on in our lives, God already knows about it. We have our own free will to make the decisions that we want to make to affect our future. God already knows what those decisions are going to be. He's not pre-determining what happens to us, but He already knows what we're going to decide. And He also knows what we've already done in order for us to get to where we are. Anyway, this next one comes from Sky saying, Hello, Darren. This is Sky or Rainy, as you've referred to me. Sky slash Rainy is somebody that I've met at some of the horror conventions and expos and stuff like that. She's an artist. She's wanted to reach out for a few reasons. One, I started listening to your podcasts. I knew I'd enjoy them and I've already learned more about you and history. I also wanted to share some stories with you of things that have happened around me. I'm sure I've told at least one of them, however you asked me to email them, so I'll attach that to the email or send it separately. We'll find out what my phone prefers since I'm writing from my phone. Lastly, I wanted to thank you for taking the time with me each time I stopped by your booth. I know that you're there to spread the word about your podcast. I also feel like you're there for more than that. You connect with people well and while your show is called Weird Darkness, I feel you play an important role in that darkness you share. You're a tender candle guiding people through it, whether it's with facts, humor, science, magic. You guide people through Weird Darkness no matter what kind of darkness it is and I love and respect that about you. I also find it so refreshing that you're a man of faith talking about such things. At least I have personally found that to be rare. While I'm not Christian, I find your podcasts and our talks amazing. I keep coming back to your table because I feel a deep connection with you that I continually want to explore. So I'd love if we could become friends and have more deep conversations. I don't know if you believe in fate or destiny, but I do believe everything happens for a reason, whatever that reason is. PS, feel free to refer to me as Skye or Rainy. Either name fits well to me. Thank you again. You are so sweet, Skye slash Rainy. I would be honored to be a closer friend with you. I actually received this April 26, so it's been a while since I received this email, but since I recognized them, I went ahead and replied to her. I really enjoy talking with people, getting to know them and just shooting the breeze about anything at these cons. It doesn't have to be about the paranormal or anything else. Skye and I had great conversations, just about love in general. I think she's engaged to be married, but they haven't actually stepped into it yet. So I was just talking to them about what's helped Robin and I with our marriage and commitment and stuff like that. Something else I wanted to cover here. I don't believe in fate or destiny, but I am with you. I do believe everything happens for a reason, even if we don't understand what those reasonings are. I've heard arguments against that, but as you mentioned, I'm a man of faith, so I tend to step into faith when it comes to God. I think it's so cool though that while you don't share my faith, you still respect that I have it and you find it interesting and you want to talk more. I really, really appreciate that. That's the kind of open mind and heart that I love talking with. I've talked with atheists in the past and I show them the same respect. If they want to share their faith with me, I'll listen and I'll ask questions. And I'm not trying to argue with them. I am genuinely curious about what they believe, why they believe it. And I think that makes for some of the best conversations. You may, I won't say that works the same way with politics, because I have yet to have a political conversation with somebody that doesn't agree with me that has gone well. But when it comes to religion, for some reason, yeah, that's one of the cool things about these expos and conventions and stuff like that. Everybody is there for a different purpose. We're not there for politics or faith or sexuality or anything like that. We're there just because we like creepy stuff or because we like art or geek comic stuff or whatever. So we all got that common connection already. I think maybe that's what makes it a little bit easier. If you were to just approach me at a restaurant and say, hey, I don't believe in Christ, let's talk. And I didn't know you already. I think maybe that would actually make it a bit more difficult. I would still talk to you, obviously. I try to be pleasant to anybody that comes up. I want to be friendly. I want to be personable. But I think because we all have that same desire to consume the same content there, I think maybe that's that it's that common ground that helps us to move past that. But by the way, you used to call yourself rainy. And that was something that you said that was your name when I first met you. And now you say, actually, your name is Sky. I don't know why you said that your name was rainy in the beginning and that it's Sky now. Why would you tell me that in the beginning? It's odd that you do that. But I started thinking about rainy sky. And I think sky fits you a whole lot better. Because sky gives you the visualization of blue skies, sunny, bright, cheerful. Rainy is dark, cloudy. It's gloomy. And that does not fit your personality at all. I actually knew a rainy when I was a young man. She was a waitress at a restaurant that we went to. And she okay, she fit rainy. She had a bit of a dark attitude. She was always angry. She had I don't know what it was, but she just she had problems with people. But you are not a rainy. You are definitely a sky. So I would suggest that you just go with sky because that fits your personality. You are so bubbly. You are so fun to talk to. You have such a bright, bright smile when I talk to you. And every time I see you, I want to give you a big hug because it's so great to see you. It's like like having my niece come over and visit me, you know? So no more rainy. It's just sky. All right. I went a little too long on that one. Sorry, folks. Okay, this next one comes from Paul saying, Hey, Darren, my name is and he says what his name is. I'd like to suggest a weird at retired contest for all of us senior followers. I first found your videos on YouTube a little less than a year ago. I enjoy your work very much. And I look forward to many new videos and podcasts. Thanks for the entertainment and education signed Paul. Paul, I like the idea. I just I cannot. Where does it end at that point then? If I start doing it for the retired people, then I need to start doing it for I want to, you know, a monthly contest for moms, a monthly contest for dads, a monthly contest for kids, a monthly contest for people in the LGBTQ community. And it would just it would just go on and on and on. In fact, I'm already to the point I've got three contests now every month that I do that I already have a hard time keeping up with. In fact, I'm running late. I still need to do the drawing for this month when I was supposed to do it 10 days ago. But I've got the weird at work. And the reason I do the weird at work is because I am encouraging you to share the podcast with your co-workers. That's why I do it there. Just because you're retired doesn't mean you're sharing the podcast with anybody else. You can be listening by yourself. But the weird at work thing. I specifically say if you're listening with other co-workers, then I do that. Then, of course, I do the the deadhead truckers because I've always had a heart for truckers because my dad used to be one of the he was actually one of the top sales reps for a major trucking company for many years. And so I was kind of already surrounded by that. I've never driven a truck, never learned how to do it, never learned how to drive one. I don't think I've even ever actually been in an 18 wheeler, but my dad sold for those companies. And so I just had a heart for it. And plus I see so many of the truckers on the road. And I know that they see the weird darkness beast on the road. And I'm hoping that they'll start listening to it. And then I just started the creepy crate giveaway. I used to do a weird darkness prize pack with anybody that was a subscriber to the weird darkness newsletter. But I had a hard I don't know what it is, but I had a hard time emailing people and getting them to reply and saying, Hey, yeah, here's my email address or here's my mailing address so you can send me the stuff. Because when you sign up for the newsletter, all you're giving me is your name and your email address. You're not giving me any other contact info. And people just were not replying for some reason. I don't know why. So I thought, Okay, well, I'm just going to set that aside for a while. I'm not going to do that for a little bit. We'll see what happens. But now we're doing the creepy crate. So every other month, creepy crate is sending me a brand new one to do an unboxing video for. And then once I do the unboxing video, I put it all back together, throw in a couple of weird darkness items. And then I will give that away through to somebody who is on the email newsletter list. Again, if you actually reply to my email saying that you're the winner, if you don't reply, I can't send it to you. But that's enough contests for now. And I have no idea if those three will even continue. But I don't think I can handle doing any more at this moment because all number one, because of time, number two, just because of logistics. And number three, we just get really, really, really expensive. It's already pretty expensive as it is. Okay, this one comes from, it's a little bit longer one. This one comes from Noah. I wanted to let you know that there have been many a day and night that your podcast has literally saved my life and my mother's life. We've been homeless for almost six years now. And we listen to your podcast every night before bed because it helps us get ready for bed and forget the stress of the day we had before. And during the day because it helps us keep our stress level low. My mom and I are both chronically ill. Right now, I'm lacking healthcare because I don't have a job. Can't work one because I'm too sick and I don't have a valid ID at the moment. I also don't have any dependents. So in Texas, I don't qualify for Medicaid. I'm currently going without all of my medications for both physical and mental health and it's been hard. Especially because I am my mom's primary caregiver and I'm having a hard time doing so because of my health because my health is starting to decline. We don't even have enough money or help around here to keep food in our stomachs. We lost our vehicle because it broke down and ended up impounded. So we're unable to get most of the food shelves. My mom only gets $27 in EVT food stamps and I don't get any government assistance. If we could, we'd move to a state that has more resources to get us help that we need to get back on our feet and become independent again. But without a vehicle or money to pay someone to drive us there, we are stuck. Those days, I'm at a loss as to what to do anymore to make things better. So often, I think that the only way to make things better may be to just give up. But then we listen to your podcast and it helps us escape for just a moment. That moment allows us to re-center and refocus and keep trying. If you don't have any organizations that could possibly help us with anything at this point, I'm willing to try anything. Your help would be wonderful, but I understand that it's not your job, responsibility or even anything you should worry or care about. I feel like we know you as we've listened to almost all of your older episodes and some of your new ones. I lose track of what episodes we have and have not listened to. You've helped us with your podcast more than you'll ever know. I'm reaching out because I don't know where else to go, what else to do, and I'm hoping that this will land on someone's ears who might be able to do something other than tell me that we don't do that here or we can't help with that or we don't help with that sort of thing anymore, like so many of the organizations around here have said, including local churches. Anyways, thank you for what you do and the escape you've given us, and hopefully will continue to give us in your podcasts. Just another loyal weirdo signed Noah. P.S. prayers are always welcomed and anything you can offer us for help would be amazing. We're currently stuck in Wichita Falls, Texas and need to get out so badly. We'd like to get to California where they have a Medicaid program I qualify for until I can get disability income of my own, but have no way to get there. Again, thank you for your podcasts that have helped us in the bad times to make it through and blessed us during the good times to remind us to cherish those moments. Noah, I am so sad or so sorry that you're going through all of this. As I mentioned at the beginning of this podcast, I'm running out of medication for my physical and mental health right now as well, but at least I have some resources. I do have my health insurance, so I can go out and find somebody. I cannot imagine what kind of frustration, what kind of fear that would be, and I wish I had some suggestions for you. I would normally say go to a local church, but you're saying here that even the local churches in your area don't do that kind of thing anymore, which is really, really sad, because that's what the Christian family is supposed to be. We're supposed to help each other, help our brothers and sisters in Christ, and for a church not to do that, I know I can understand a church getting overwhelmed with people needing help, but saying that they just don't do it anymore is really kind of sad. If they were to tell you we do that, but we're so overwhelmed right now, we don't have the resources at this moment, that I can understand. That would make sense, you can give them the benefit of the doubt on that, because they only get as much money as their congregation donates to them. So that's different, but if they have a healthy congregation that is donating as they're supposed to, tithing in many cases, as I believe we should. It's not mandated, but I still think it's something important to do. They should be doing well enough to at least be able to tell you where to go. Even if they can't give you the money to do it, and they can't put you up anywhere on their own, I would hope that they would have a list where they can say, all right, look, we don't do this, but we understand your situation. We've had other people come here and ask, so we've done some research. Here's where you can go to get help for this particular issue. If you have this other issue, then there's this other place that you can go to, they should have some sort of resources like that. I'm surprised that they don't. If anybody's listening right now and you know of a resource that would be able to help somebody that's in Noah's position, where they don't have the health insurance, they're trying to take care of a relative who's also sick, but they don't have any income, where do they go to get the help that they need? If you know of that, please email me and let me know. What I can do is I'll look into it first. I won't just take somebody's word for it. I'll actually have to look at the website or wherever you send me to make sure, but I could maybe put that information on the Hope in the Darkness page. That way, there would at least be somewhere that people could go to get help. In the meantime, Noah, I will definitely be praying for you guys. Weirdos, please keep Noah and his mom in your prayers and in your thoughts. This next one comes from Ryan. I lost my nephew today in a tragic accident. I want you to know that your podcast has helped me today. This is something that I can't explain. Darren, you and your stories have helped. That's it. That's the entire email. Ryan, that's horrible. It strikes me as odd. It's humbling when people such as yourself and Noah email me saying, you don't know how important the podcast has been to you. It's been such a big blessing. It's helped me to escape whatever bad things are going on in my life. That's the whole reason that I started Weird Darkness. I wanted it just to be an escape, just to be entertaining. I didn't want it. My goal was not to make it a place for people to go for help with depression or anything like that. My goal was not to spread the word of God through the Church of the Undead. None of that was part of the original plan. My original plan was just I want to put something out there to entertain people. I've been an entertainer all my life ever since I was in grade school. I loved being on stage and acting and singing and doing all of that stuff. I liked making people smile and laugh and clap. That's just I live for that. It's in my blood. So to hear that actually is kind of giving you that escape means the world to me. I'm very, very sorry for your loss, Ryan. I wish I could say more. This one comes from C.B. saying, Darren, I asked to chat GPT to write a story about what Darren Marlar saw on Highway 69 while driving his weirdo wagon. This was the result. Oh, wow. This will be good. Especially after the way I started things talking about AI. Oh my gosh. I did not see this coming. All right. Here we go. Where did this come in? This came in May 13th. All right. So here's the story. As an AI language model, I can certainly help with the story prompt based on your request. Here's a short story based on the information you provided. Darren Marlar was driving his customized SUV, a vehicle with a long pointed snout and two large BDIs painted on the front on Highway 69. It was after midnight and Darren had been on the road for hours. He was starting to feel drowsy when he saw something in the distance that made him sit upright. It was a glowing object, something cylindrical and metallic hovering in the sky, casting an eerie light down on the road below. Darren squinted, trying to make sense of it, but it was just too abstract. Was it a UFO, a drone, a trick of the light? He tried to shake off the feeling of unease in the pit of his stomach and keep driving, but the object seemed to be following him, getting closer. He could see it with more clarity now and it looked very real. Suddenly, the object stopped following him and shot skywards at an incredible speed. Darren felt a mix of relief and fear as he realized he had just seen something he couldn't even begin to explain. He finally parked his weirdo wagon, stepping out to stretch his legs and take a deep breath in the cool night air. He knew he had seen something truly extraordinary and impossible to explain, and he wondered if anyone would ever believe his story. I'm not creative enough to write any short story like that, ScienceCB. Holy cow! See, I told you at the beginning of the podcast, I told you how scary AI is for CB to just ask ChatGPT to write a story about what Darren Marlar saw on Highway 69 while driving his weirdo wagon. That's it, and it spit out that. Now you know why I'm a little concerned about the future of podcasting, or at least about the future of Weird Darkness and the type of podcasts that we true crime and paranormal podcasters do, because holy cow, that is so realistic. That could so easily have been presented as a real story. Change it up slightly and say, this truly happened to me, and you'd probably believe it, because it's actually very, especially for somebody, for no intelligence behind that other than artificial intelligence, it's very well written. It's actually, it's better written than a lot of the emails that I get with original creepypastas that I share once in a while on Thriller Thursdays. I could take that, I could copy it and put it into another program that would spit it out in my own voice, and it would probably sound exactly like what I just read to you. That is scary stuff, man. I want to thank you CB for sending that, but I also want to slap you in the wrist for once just scaring me all over again. Goodness gracious. I could probably start a whole new podcast on just AI stories that people send me. It's AI horror or something along those lines. I'm not saying that I need to do that because I'm already too busy, but it'd be so easy to do, and I know I'm sure somebody's already doing it because it'd be so easy to put together. All right, so Joaquin said, why can't I find you on Spreaker anymore? I'm there. I don't know. If you go to Spreaker.com and do a search for Weird Darkness, you'll find me, so I'm not sure why you would not be able to find me there. If you need some help, if you go to WeirdDarkness.com slash listen, and then you can scroll down to, what that'll do is that'll give you a page of all the different apps that you can listen to Weird Darkness on. It's not a complete list, but it has most of them, and you can scroll down to find Spreaker there, and you can see if maybe that helps you. But I am on Spreaker. You said that to me May 13th, so hopefully within this last month, you've figured that out. But yeah, it's weird that you wouldn't be able to find me there. This one comes to us from Chris. Let's see here. He says, hello, Darren. My name's Chris. I'm a huge fan of yours. My wife and I will be going to the Spooky Empire event in Orlando on Saturday, May 20th, and I'm extremely excited to finally meet you. Do you know the times that you'll be on stage? I don't want to miss the events that you're talking, that you're taking part in. Thank you for taking the time to read, hopefully answer my email. Hope you have a great day. Fortunately, I did get this email from Chris before Spooky Empire took place. I was able to email him back and let him know when I was going to be on stage, what I would be doing, stuff like that. But once Spooky Empire took place, he then emailed me back. Again, he said, hey Darren, I wanted to tell you how happy my wife and I were finally able to meet you today. It was a pleasure speaking with you and I appreciate all the weird darkness swag that you gave us. I'm especially proud to say that we bought the first weird darkness shirt of the day. Chris, I actually remember that. In fact, you are still to this moment the only person to buy a weird darkness t-shirt at one of my events slash expos. I've not sold any other t-shirts except for the one that you bought. Although I'm the main listener to your podcast, since 2018 I've shared certain episodes with my wife, ones I know she would enjoy. So she knows all about weird darkness. The ride home from the convention, all we talked about was how nice and genuine you are. You really are exactly how I thought you would be as a person. That's very rare in this world. A lot of people in the spotlight or public eye are nothing like what they portray. You are the genuine article and I know how long your day was today. My wife and I both worked with the public. We owned a motel and rental properties for years. Man, I can tell you some stories. And we understand the unique position of having to put on that smile for all the customers, regardless of how we feel or how our day went or how tired we were. It shows how much you love your job and your weirdos. To be able to see you do a live reading was the highlight of the day. We both enjoyed it and you really knocked it out of the park. And the patience you have answering all the questions. Wow. Thank you again for giving all your fans that opportunity. It was a special treat. I'm sure after the long hours today, the last thing you want to do is read another email but sometimes hearing how much joy you bring into people's lives can lift spirits and make it all worthwhile. Thank you for all the thousands and thousands of hours you have entertained me. Thank you for educating me over the years about depression and the effect it can have on the people I care about. Thank you for constantly adding to the Weird Darkness platform. And finally, thank you for being the Darren Marlar that I thought you were for all these years. It was a great day and I will never forget it. I hope you and Robin and Miss Mocha have a safe and healthy future. Signed Chris and Kathy. Chris, man, it was my honor to meet you. I absolutely adored meeting you. I do remember that. Even here it is. Here it is. June 10th, you sent this to me on May 20th, but I remember meeting you and your bride. And yeah, it was great. I do try to be as genuine as I can in the podcast because that's just the way I am on stage or well, excuse me, not on stage, but in person and on stage, I guess. But you are so right about having to to put on that smile. That weekend or me in Orlando is as great of a weekend as it was. Me in Florida, I do not get along when it comes to migraines. The closer to Orlando, I drove the worse my migraines got. When I first arrived on Thursday night, Friday, Thursday night, the guy that brought me in, his name is John, great guy. In fact, I'm talking to him. He might actually become my manager someday because he really knows his stuff. But anyway, he's the one that invited me to come in and he wanted to hang out. And I said, man, I got to get some sleep. This is I'm I'm feeling horrible with my migraine and it just did not want to go away. I was fighting the migraine all weekend long. I can't tell you how much caffeine I poured into my body, hoping that would remedy it. I took my doll. I took ibuprofen. I took regular aspirin. I was because I don't again, as I mentioned at the beginning of this podcast, I'm out of my migraine meds. I don't have any left. So I had to do whatever I could to try and keep it at bay. And it was so hard. So, yeah, I had to kind of put the smile on when talking to people, but it's kind of interesting how it happened because I would start my day completely miserable. So much pain. I would be crawling into that room with all the other celebrities that were there for the autographs and stuff like that. I just happened to be a special media guest. Why they put me in that room? I don't know, but I'm so happy that they did because it was a really great experience. But I was crawling into that room and trying so hard to be friendly to the people that I met. But once everything got started, once people started coming up to the table, it was lifted. The pain was just gone. It was like as I was quote unquote performing. And I don't mean that I'm putting on an act. I mean, you really did get my true personality, but when I'm on, I guess, for lack of better words, when I'm expected to be light and shiny and be my personal self in front of somebody, suddenly all the pain just disappeared. It was gone. And then during the lulls, when there was like during Millie Bobby Brown, when she was doing her thing and so everything was just dead, I started feeling like crud again. But I knew right after Millie Bobby Brown, I had to go back up on that stage and do my own Q&A as you were talking about there with me doing the narration of Edgar Allen Poe and everything else. And once I stepped and I was feeling horrible walking into that auditorium, getting up into that stage. But as soon as I started, it all went away. I don't know if it was adrenaline or it's God, obviously. Whatever good happens, it's God. I don't know what he used in order to make that happen, but I was so thankful. And then as I was driving back home from Orlando, I started feeling better and better and better. I still feel pretty bad here in Illinois. Illinois and I don't get along well when it comes to migraines either. The best I've actually felt is going when I went to Colorado and the migraines just disappeared. I think it's because of the it's because of the elevation and also the barometric pressure. I think I think that's what's triggering it. And I think that's also why I got worse as I went to Orlando because I'm going the barometric pressure. I'm going lower the or excuse me, the elevation lower and lower and lower towards sea level. And I think maybe that's what was triggering it. But anyway, I'm really glad that you liked what I did at Spooky Empire. It was a lot of fun. I didn't have as many people in the room as I'd hoped for. But then again, I wasn't one of the big celebrities either. So it makes sense that not so many people were in there. That being said, they liked me enough. I am going back to Spooky Empire in October. And I will probably be doing what I did in May again, because there wasn't a very big crowd. I think I might just do it again. So what I'll do is I'll talk about I'll talk about voice acting, about how I create certain character voices. I'll do the Q&A. I will do the live reading of Edgar Allan Poe's The Telltale Heart. And that seemed to go over really, really well. So well, in fact, that not only are they asking me back, but they want me to do more of the celebrity panels in October. They have not told me which ones they want me to do yet, because they've not announced all the celebrities that are going to be there. They're a couple that they've told me they're working on that are going to be really hard for me to keep my composure with, one in particular. I'm almost to the point of saying, if you land this particular celebrity, please don't let me do the panel with them, because I don't think I could keep my composure. I don't normally get a starstruck, but there's this one particular person that if this person's there, it would be really hard for me to maintain my sanity and give me anybody else, anybody else in all of Hollywood. And I'm fine. You can give me Jack Nicholson or Robert De Niro or anybody. I don't care, whoever. But this one particular person would just be so hard for me to, I would be tongue tied like what I am right now. Anyway, so far, we know that Robert England is going to be there, you know, the Freddy Krueger. We know that he's going to be there. And we also know that Jason from, hold on here, let me let me look it up here real quick so I can make sure that I'm telling you to you correctly. Yeah, Jason Kane Hodder. He played Jason from Friday the 13th, part seven, the new blood. He was also in part eight. Jason takes Manhattan. Jason X. He also played Kane Hodder. He also played Victor Crowley and Hatchet Hatchet 2 and Hatchet 3. And he was on a lot of other stuff. Also, Doug Bradley from Hellraiser is going to be there. Those are the three that they've announced so far. And I believe they have not announced it yet, but I believe Velvira is going to be there in October as well. But that's not who I'm talking about. So anyway, all of that being said, I had a blast there and it's interesting that I did Spooky Empire because now after that experience, I'm being asked to do other stuff similar to that. In Baton Rouge, Louisiana in September, I'm going to be at the Colt Classic Convention. I'm going to do the same thing there. They have me going up, talking about voice acting, narrating Edgar Allen Poe. And they also have me doing a celebrity panel. I'll be doing the moderation for that. And there's actually two or three celebrities they say that they want me to run the panel on for that one. The one that I know of that they're considering me for, it's not finalized, but the one he thinks they'll probably throw me into first is C.J. Graham, who played Jason in Friday the 13th, Part 6. But that'll be one of the celebrities. And then of course, I'm doing Spooky Empire and I'm talking to other people about it possibly, possibly in Salem, Massachusetts as well. I'm already a special guest for Salem, talking with them to see if maybe they want me to do the same thing there. But interesting that none of that would actually be happening if it wasn't for Spooky Empire. All right, I've got another review. Five stars again. Thank you so much. This one comes from Reiki294 saying, Best Spooky Podcast out there. Love this podcast and the host. As a fellow Christian and lover of the paranormal and supernatural, this is the podcast I keep returning to almost every day. Naren, you're so considerate of your listeners and should be praised for all the work you do in terms of mental awareness, signposting. I love the lightheartedness at the end of the episodes, your road trip ruminations, and your outtakes, which I always have a chuckle at. Very long review, but wanted to share my love for this podcast and Mr. Marlar himself. God bless. Well, thank you very much, Reiki. I greatly appreciate that. That was very nice of you to say. Let's see here. This one comes from Max and he says, I saw Godzilla King the Monster's opening weekend. He's doing this because at Spooky Empire, one of the things they had me do aside from my own Q&A and narrating Edgar Allen Poe was that I was the one who moderated the panel for the Godzilla stuntmen actors. All the men who wore the kaiju suits, but don't speak English at all and I don't speak Japanese. So it was a bit of a challenge, but it was so much fun. It was kind of a test, I think, which is why they're bringing me back in October. It's almost like, okay, if he can handle this, then we can trust him with other stuff. But anyway, Max is saying, I saw Godzilla King and the Monster's opening weekend. I was at a theater in Knoxville that was not only equipped with IMAX, but also 4D, which meant the seats rumbled with footsteps, moved if the characters were in the air. They had a system for smells like foliage and soft smoke heat. If Mothra shot out her web, you got spritzed with a little water. It was awesome and it's still my personal favorite of the Monsterverse movies. That would have been so much fun. I've never even been to an IMAX film, I don't believe. I can't remember that I've been to one. But 4D, where you get the rumbling, the smells, the feel of wind in your face or spritz in your face like that, that would be quite the experience. That's almost like going to an amusement park and having one of those rides. This one comes from Amy, she says, semi-regular listener here. I could really use some prayer, some backstory. I grew up with a single mom who is narcissistic and highly abusive, but this is not really about her. A friend of hers attacked me when I was about seven and a half. I was alone with him for quite some time. I have very little memory, which I'll come back to. I have DID due to both him and my mother's repeated abuses. I discover he died in an accident only recently and thinks in my head have been incoherent mostly ever since. I can really use prayer that my people can deal with this quickly. I am a Christian, though me and God have been on less than good terms for several years also due to my mother. Long, long story. Amy, I understand about not being on good terms with God even as a Christian. That happens to the best of us. The great thing is he loves you anyway, just like any good parent would love their child despite bad behavior or disappointing decisions. It is never too late to return home either. My bride, she had some awful experiences in the church. She walked away from it for several years. Essentially, the way she puts it is, she told God, I love you, but your people suck. That is the problem with looking at anyone on earth and relying on them to set the perfect, godly example. It is impossible. None of us can do so. As Noah, the email that we read earlier, he tried to go to a church to get help and they let him down too because they are people. I am glad you have not abandoned your faith. You recognize that it is possible that people are the problem, God is not the problem. Your history is certainly traumatic. I wish that had never happened to you. I would never wish DID on anybody. It sounds like in your case, it has actually helped you get past what happened in some way. I do not know if that is the right way to get past something, but your brain did what it could to deal with the situation. Is that something that you are trying to fix or will DID be a part of you for the rest of your life? I am asking at a complete ignorance because I really do not know anything about DID. Either way, I will of course be praying for you that you can deal with the new impact of being bombarded with these horrible memories. I pray not only for comfort and peace, but also healing and wisdom to know what you are supposed to do moving forward. I know that cannot be easy. I have never been abused. I have had quite the sheltered life, honestly, but I have seen so, so, so many who have been and I have seen what it does to their lives and I pray that you are able to someday put all of this behind you somehow, the hurtful aspect of it, at least, possibly use what you have gone through to help others who are or who have been in similar circumstances. So, Amy, I hope that helps. I still have another podcast review saying, Absolutely Love, Weird Darkness, Five Stars. This comes from Nicky Knight. I listen to these stories at work while I work and also when I go to bed at night. I literally can't go to sleep with listening to something and I have always had an interest in dark things like paranormal stuff and the occult and alien abductions and cryptids and basically anything that is out of the ordinary and mysterious. I also am super picky about the podcast's narrator because I find it impossible to sleep listening to stories from people with high-pitched voices. I just wanted to say thank you for making these amazing podcasts. You are very welcome, Nicky. Thank you so much. Something else that I have a hard time understanding, people going to bed and listening to the scary stories and somehow that putting them to sleep and relaxing them, I go to sleep with podcasts as well, but not with scary stories. It is usually just like talk radio or something. I just need some noise in the background more than anything else. But people say that they listen specifically to Weird Darkness. I guess there is something in the timbre of my voice. I guess it is like at the right pitch or the right speed, whatever, that it is relaxing. I don't know. But anyway, I am glad that you get something out of it, Nicky. Thank you very much. Nice to be tucking you in each night to bed. Cynthia emailed me saying, I have emailed before and I always appreciate you answering, but I know you are busy keeping us entertained, so you don't have to answer this. After listening to the podcast about the tricks of war, I thought to myself, I not only enjoy the stories of the paranormal, etc. I really love the great pieces of information you pass on. Since I found you in 2020, during the pandemic, your voice is extra soothing for me. Now listen what I am cleaning, doing book work or imaginative. You bring me serenity. It must be that deep loving relationship you have with Christ coming through. Anyway, I just wanted to say thank you, signed Cynthia. Well, Cynthia, thank you. That really does mean a lot. I appreciate that. That the voice is soothing and that it actually helps you when you are agitated. That is quite a compliment. Thank you. Let's see, this next one comes from Reuben saying, Hello Darren, I have been listening to you for a few years and I can confidently say you have the best podcast running year in and year out. I hope this email finds you with no pain in your back. I know what that is like and to call it debilitating is an understatement. Well, before I continue on, actually no back pain today at all. So thank you very much Reuben. Anyway, he continues saying God bless you and your bride as well as all your journeys in regard to your story on the Malbone wreck. What few know is that many of those unfortunate who survived the wreck were killed by the electric company seeing a short circuit on that particular mile of track and turning the 600 volt electricity back on, back on not once but twice until someone was able to call the Brooklyn Electric Company and advise them to the immensity of what had occurred. In the meantime, many fatalities were from electrocution because any metal touching a third rail was instantly electrified, so one can imagine people reaching out to metal poles and debris and being instantly sent to their maker. Also, if matters could not get much worse, the morgue was quickly overrun with bodies and Brooklyn officials had to send the majority of the bodies to the round marble rotunda of Ebbett's Field, home of the then Brooklyn Dodgers. I've often wondered if that stretch of track still is home to those souls who were never able to get home. As always, great podcast and God bless you. You my friend and always warm regards. Thank you, Ruben. How horrible would that be? You are trying to get help for the people in the wreck and so you are turning on and off the electricity to the track to relay the message to somebody down the line that you need help and in the process, you are electrifying the passengers who have been injured. This one comes from Clint. He says, Hi Darren, I heard your March 28th road trip podcast and I'm reaching out to say when you were talking about the shooting in Nashville and your voice, how much it affected you. My wife has mental health issues and I know how hard it is for our family to fight an unseen foe. Your podcasts make me feel like I have a friend. To help us fight, keep up the good work, be safe. Thank you. A proud weirdo, Clint. Thank you, Clint. I appreciate that. Sometimes the news hits me right before I start recording and I have to comment on it especially on those road trip ruminations where I'll be listening to a podcast like a news feed or something and I'm never exactly sure how to respond to it. Paisley sent me an email saying, Hi, I doubt you remember me, but I was at Spooky Empire. My name is Paisley. I just wanted to tell you the books are really good. Thank you so much. You are very welcome, Paisley. I think I do remember you. Did I give those to you or did you purchase them? I don't remember. There were a couple of people that I gave the books to just because I had that tugging in my heart that I was supposed to. Either way, I'm glad that you like them. This one comes from Ney saying, Hey Darren, hope all is well. I'm listening to the episode on imaginary friends. I just wanted to share because as an adult, I've always been amused and amazed by how real immune were. Maybe it means mean, but how mean they were to him. Anyway, I'll just continue on. I don't know exactly how old I was when I started seeing them, but I must have been around 2 or 3 years old. They were two grown men called Mark and Kevin and they had a little dog called Wretchy. These are the imaginary friends that this guy is talking about. They were so real to me, I'd apparently cry for them when I was upset and even threaten people to set Wretchy on them when they annoyed me, my older brother especially. I remember saying they lived in a bush connected to a house close to where I live now and then they moved into my uncle's shed, a really old concrete building. Apparently the day I started nursery school, I didn't mention them once and when my mom asked me about it, I told her that they'd gone to help another little girl as I don't need them anymore. I'm 31 now and I can remember them, but not in detail. It's like a blurry picture where you can only really make out the outline. To this day, I am convinced they were real. I think maybe they were spirits because on earth could I make up two men and a dog with names I'd never heard before. I think now that they may have actually been a couple, which again adds to the thought of them being spirits because when I was a kid, we were Jova's witnesses and never even knew about homosexuality. I'm gay myself, so I don't care either way, but I think it just adds proof that they were not just my imagination. As I recall, I'm the only one out of four children who ever had imaginary friends. Writing this, I have a happy, warm happy feeling from thinking about Mark and Kevin and a little Wretchy. Anyway, I just wanted to share because it still interests me so much. Hope you're doing well. Me and my fiancé both listen daily and my stepson, Logan, who is nine, loves listening, even when he shouldn't be when we are. He loves learning things. He's like a little fact sponge. He absolutely loves the micro-terrorism. All the very best to you and yours, signed Nate. Nate, thank you, man. I really, really appreciate that. That is so interesting about you and your imaginary friends. So detailed. I didn't have imaginary friends growing up that I remember. It always entertains me, I guess, interests me when somebody tells me about their imaginary friend. It's so specific about what they looked like, how tall they were, how wide or like fat or thin they were, what color skin they had, the names, how they were dressed. It's so detailed and that they even remember it so many years later. Your story reminds me of the Supernatural episode, the TV show, Supernatural, about the imaginary friend. I can't remember the name of the imaginary friend, but in the end, he leaves to help out another child because this one particular child no longer needs him. That's very, very vague to the storyline and it's not exactly accurate, but it kind of revolved around that. So the idea that you would mention that, that an imaginary friend, if imaginary friends are real, that they maybe are there for a while and then they leave to go help another child once you don't need them anymore. Like they're almost like they're angels or something. I don't know about two angels with a dog. I have one final email coming in from Magnus saying, hey, it's Magnus from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. This happened around when I was 12, maybe 14 years old. I woke up early to take a bike ride. My mom was still asleep and it was just beginning to become light out. Must have been around five, maybe six in the morning. I was still kind of tired and wasn't going fast when about halfway up the block, I saw a dark shape. As I got closer, I noticed that it was a tall, black hooded figure. It, he, was holding something in one of his hands, like a staff or something. I couldn't see a face, but I got a chill looking at the hooded figure. I was paralyzed for a moment, but only just. When I was able, I pedaled as fast as I could back home. I then lost control of my bike and crashed into a neighbor's fence. I got up quickly and hauled my bike up and ran with it the rest of the way home. When I got home, I pulled my bike in through the front door and slammed it behind me. To this day, I still don't know what I saw or if I actually saw it. It could have been my tired brain playing tricks. Or maybe I actually did see that dark figure. I don't know what it was, but it didn't seem evil. Could I have seen a physical form of death? I'm way behind on making another one of those. In answer to your question, could you have seen a physical form of death? Very well. I don't see why not. As I think I've mentioned in the past, I'm not one who's had a lot of paranormal experiences. Just a couple that I've told people about the sleep paralysis thing and now since being in Oregon, giving the man the dollar or excuse me, the $100 dollar bill and walking away and suddenly that $100 dollar bill being back in my wallet later. That was definitely a god thing. Other than that though, I haven't really had much supernatural paranormal experiences. That being said though, my dad seems to be very open or very sensitive to this kind of stuff. He's not looking for it. He's not looking for the paranormal. It comes upon him the other way around. He's had encounters with ghosts of family members and also of ghosts that he's never known in the past. When he was in the hospital like six years ago, people just showed up in the hospital room and he thought they were real people. He wondered why is this woman and her children in here? I don't know these people. And only later did he find out they actually weren't there, at least not that anybody else could see. But he, while he was there six years ago in the hospital, did see death. And he described the angel of death, the form of death, however you want to call it. He described it pretty much the way contemporary society pictures him. The hood, the cloaked hood. I don't think he could see a scythe or a skeleton on the inside, but it was the dark hood. The way I picture it, I'm kind of making this up because I don't remember exactly how he described it. But in my memory, I want to say that he had described a hood, like either a dark brown or black hooded cloaked figure. And the face would just be completely black, like there's nothing there, there's just complete nothingness. So it's almost like a cloak or a hood is standing there without anything inside of it. But it still had the outline shape of it. But he said, he knew it was death and he wasn't afraid either. The angel of death or whatever it was, it didn't frighten him, he just knew what it was. And maybe because it wasn't his time, and so maybe the spirit got to let him know, hey, I'm just kind of here to look over things. I don't know. If it's not his time, why would death show up? Angels don't have foreknowledge. God does, but angels don't. So maybe they were there just in case. Maybe it's not God sending them there because God can't see why God would send you there if he knows you're not going to die. But maybe the angels see something that could potentially go wrong and they're there just in case something goes wrong. I have no idea. This is all specific. This is all stream of consciousness. I have no idea. But yes, in answer to your question, yeah, I think you could have seen a physical form of death. Why not? Why he would be there stalking you? I have no idea. But I guess it's probably a good thing that you got past it. You don't have to worry about it now. Anyway, that's the last one I have on the list. If you'd like to drop me an email and be in my future Chamber of Comments, you can do that by sending me an email, Darren, at WeirdDarkness.com. Hope you all have a great weekend and I'll see you again a little bit later on in the podcast. Hey Weirdos, be sure to click the like button and subscribe to this channel and click the notification bell so you don't miss future videos. I post videos seven days a week and while you're at it, spread the darkness by sharing this video with someone you know who loves all things strange and macabre. If you want to listen to the podcast, you can find it at WeirdDarkness.com.