Where is Cerro Gordo?

Somewhere about 200 miles north of Los Angeles, 400 miles southeast of San Francisco and 200 miles west of Las Vegas sits Cerro Gordo – “Fat Hill.” A remote town (it’s about 25 miles from the nearest grocery store), it is nestled on the edge of the Inyo Mountains overlooking Death Valley National Park.

The town is appropriately creepy for a ghost town, and definitely haunted. Back in its heyday, Cerro Gordo averaged a murder per week, and they even built tunnels to allow for escape during labor disputes. Because, obviously things like that are necessary when you’re in a tiny town and someone is being killed off every week. With bullet holes in the walls of the saloon and blood stains on the floor, it’s not hard to imagine what went down. Cerro Gordo ghosts have some epic stories to tell.

For some wild stories, watch this:

That’s right, guys. Ghosts AND aliens, and a pretty badass back story. You can get the entire episode here.

Why would someone buy it?

So what would possess someone to buy a creepy old town full of 150+ year old buildings set on top of a mountain in the middle of nowhere? Jon Bier and Brent Underwood, two young entrepreneurs, knew that the place was special. Over the past year, they have been working to revamp it into a retreat/conference space/film set/generally amazing little hideaway.

Then, when the pandemic hit, Brent decided to lock himself up in the little town to ride out quarantine with the ghosts of Cerro Gordo. He had no idea that he’d immediately be buried under 4 ft. of snow. It made for some pretty great Insta shots, which is probably enough of a reason to buy a $2 million dollar ghost town.

The ghost stories are wild

When they purchased the town, they were warned that some visitors may be hanging around. Apparently, the town’s brothel owner (it’s always the brothel owner), and another who was murdered in a card game gone bad are still setting up shop. Now, Brent is an admitted skeptic, but even he came clean that he had an encounter that left him pretty uneasy.

If you can’t watch the video, here’s a recap. As he was walking toward the bunk house he looked at the window, the curtain pulled to the side, and a little face poked out. Under the assumption that the contractors were staying in the bunk house, he asked when they were leaving and was told that they’re been gone for two weeks. So, a little uneasy, he locked up the door and went for a hike. By the time he got back, the kitchen light was on, even with a lock still on the door.

“Ghosts? I don’t know.”

If you want to follow along with Brent’s Cerro Gordo quarantine, you can find him on Instagram. It’s a fun ride.

And if you need more creepy ghost town stories, check out this week’s Homespun Haints episode.

Image pictured: Artist unknown. Untitled (Group Portrait of Miners). 1870. The Art Institute of Chicago.

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Episode Summary

If you saw a diminutive rotting corpse eating out of a brown paper bag on your nightstand, how would you react? Would you attack a snake ghost in your buddy’s house? And would your girlfriend’s grandfather’s ghost be enough reason for you to consider breaking up?

Find out how Jonas reacted to all of these crazy situations in our Season 2 premier.

Episode Show Notes

Be sure to listen to the episode above to know what the hell we’re talking about with these show notes (cause this episode’s pretty weird).

Snakes and the trope of temptation

The ghost snake in our episode appeared to be going after Jonas’s friend, who was working through his own demons of addiction at the time. Was the snake representative of the ancient associations with temptation and vice?

In Judaism and Christianity, Genesis tells the story of a snake approaching Eve and tempts her to eat from the Tree of Knowledge. But the association is not only in the Bible; Hinduism also has its own associations between snakes and vice.

Insomnia and Sleepwalking

Jonas isn’t our first guest to suffer from sleep disorders. In fact, we’re starting to see a common theme between people who suffer from insomnia and the ability to see ghosts. One would almost attribute these sightings to sleep-deprivation-induced hallucinations were it not for others seeing these things as well.

Jonas in particular links his sleep issues to excessive work, and he’s not alone. This is actually a thing and it’s been studied at length. But working too much isn’t the only way sleep interferes with his life. Sleep deprivation can lead to other things, such as sleep walking. Jonas talks at length about how he dreams and how his body stays awake while his mind is asleep, leading to some very interesting, scary experiences.

Our strangest episode yet

This is, by far, the strangest episode we’ve put out yet. And we’ve got some very odd ones already in Season 1 (such as Dennis the Demon and The Woman Who Lived in a Cemetery) in addition to scary ones (like Have you Seen the Hat Man?). Do you agree? If not, what would you say has been the oddest episode yet on our increasingly strange paranormal podcast? Please let us know in our Facebook group, and we can all have a spooky day!

The post Sidetable man, don’t eat me! appeared first on Homespun Haints.

In this episode, we crank it up to 11!

Listen to this hilarious story about the time a demon named Dennis possessed an amp right here:

Demonic Music

We’ve discussed several aspects of music that have to do with demonic possession or influence. Here are some of our favorite episodes that meet at the crossroads of demons and music.

• What is the Devil’s Instrument?
• The Most Demonic Music Ever

TLDR; watch Becky’s short demonstration of the Devil’s interval on YouTube.

Let the music be your master

Becky had the opportunity to see Tim perform and meet Marjorie in person a few months ago in Stockbridge, Georgia.

The style of music played was straight out of the early ’80s hardcore punk scene. There were lots of skulls and moshing. It wasn’t demonic music, fortunately, but it almost sent us into a satanic panic…in a good way. Glad I wore earplugs!

Meth Gators

Alligators in the sewer. Flushing drugs down the toilet. Add the two together, and what you get is worse than the Toilet Monster.

That’s right, long before Cocaine Bear, there were meth gators.

It’s a real thing! And it’s not just in Alabama. Nothing good can come from meth, but when it starts to affect the alligators living in the sewers, things are going to get ugly.

Don’t believe me? Check out this article. Or this one.

Until next time, have a spooky day!

The post Dennis the Demon and the Meth Gators appeared first on Homespun Haints.

Or listen right here:

Episode Show Notes

A (Potentially Haunted) Shinto Shrine in America

Did you know there was a Shinto shrine in Washington state? It’s really quite stunning. Tim provided us with some nice photos that he took while he was there.

Are Japanese Kami like Spirits?

The strange ethereal forms Tim saw may be ghosts, they may be Kami. So, what are Kami? The term “kami” can refer to beings or spiritual essences that reside in natural elements, like mountains, rivers, trees, and animals, as well as ancestors and mythological figures. Kami have an influence on both the natural world and people’s individual lives. They exist in our Earthly realm, yet they are deities of a sort, but they’re not omnipotent, nor are they perfect. Kami are neither benevolent or malevolent, but are seen as having their own distinct natures.

The concept of kami is central to Shinto practice, and people often perform rituals, offerings, and festivals to honor them and seek their blessings. Individual kami are often associated with specific shrines where they are worshipped. So, maybe it’s possible they could haunt this Shinto shrine by rolling up in a tan Cadillac. Who are we mortals to attempt to understand these things?

Bananas!

We learned a ton about bananas from Tim. A lot of stuff we couldn’t include in the episode. But, Tim isn’t the only banana expert out there. Have you ever considered writing cute notes to your kids on bananas? This hilarious article outlines exactly how to do just that.

And, if you’d like to know what else is possible with fruit, check out this awkward fruit basket request.

Have You Ever Visited A Haunted Shinto Shrine?

Hainted Loves, what do you think? If you have a personal ghost story, please submit it here, and your story could be featured on a future episode of Homespun Haints true paranormal podcast. Until next time, have a spooky day!

The post Kami Maybe? (This Episode’s Bananas) appeared first on Homespun Haints.

Listen to the interview here:

Or, listen on YouTube:

Who is the Top Hat Man?

This has been documented all over the world, yet they remain a complete mystery.

This uninvited shadow stranger even appears in Netflix’s series The Haunting of Hill House. Or, at least, he’s referenced. Want to learn more? Of course you do. Check out this article (if you dare).

For some images of this phenomenon caught on camera, and for information about support groups for those who have encountered this traumatizing evil entity, check out the Hatman Project.

What is the Hat Man?

Several theories exist. The Hat Man could be a ghost, a shadow person, an evil spirit, a sleep paralysis demon, or even the Devil. One favorite theory of ours was inspired by our interview with April the Psychic Housewife, when she was teaching us about the different types of ghosts. One of the entities she described was a kind of evil soul wrangler, who collects lost spirits, turning them away from the light and making them into shadow people. This could very well mean that the shadow man we call the Hat Man might in fact be multiple entities of this nature.

Is the Hat Man a Shadow Person?

It’s hard to answer this question, considering there’s no universal definition of shadow people, either. We’ve heard that shadow people are the earthbound spirits of the deceased, but also that they’re evil shadow entities that never were people to begin with. Shadow people tend to be more ephemeral than descriptions of the Hat Man, who has a relatively strong energy, a more well-defined (albeit dark) face and form, and causes more fear.

You can also find some interesting information and pictures at the older site of Shadow People archives.

There’s something different about this tall shadow figure.

Many paranormal enthusiasts believe that shadow people are a type of spirit. We hear terms like “shadows of the deceased” and “shadows of the dead,” implying that these shadow people are just another way some folks observe ghosts.

Is the Hat Man a living person?

What people see is probably not a physically-present body of a living human person, dressed in an actual hat and coat. They’re probably not even seeing an actual living person casting a real shadow. Hat Man sightings definitely seem to be paranormal phenomena, based on accounts.

However, we’ve heard the theory that the Hat Man is the astral projection of a living person. In other words, at the very moment one person is seeing the shadowy figure of the Hat Man, somewhere else, perhaps in a totally different corner of the world, is practicing astral projection, sending their consciousness out into the world to…do what?

What does he want?

There’s no real consensus to what the Hat Man wants, or what is the main purpose of him appearing to someone. Examining his behavior hardly helps. Most of the time, witnesses describe his actions as pretty banal, even when they come with strong feelings of fear or doom. The Hat Man is known mainly for basically standing still in the same place for a while, at a bit of a distance (like in the corner of a dark room, just outside the bedroom door, or across a street) and silently observing people.

In at least one account we’ve heard, he approached someone’s bed without waking them from sleep (we know because his sister was watching from her bed in the other corner of the room). Is it possible nobody has managed to catch the Hat Man acting out his true intentions because he already did so while they were still asleep?

What does the Hat Man look like?

This notorious shadow man can appear in different ways, from purely physical to pure shadow. He is, however, always dressed basically the same way: a very tall shadowy figure wearing a black brimmed hat like a top hat, and a long trench coat-style garment. People describe him as similar to a shadow: ill-defined, and hard to focus on, but not usually transparent. We’ve heard that even when he’s standing under a bright light, the light does not really illuminate him, almost as if he’s actually made of shadow. The scariest thing we’ve heard about the Hat Man’s appearance from our true paranormal story interviews is that you can’t quite see the facial features of the shadow man, but you just know he is smiling. That just feels soooooo wrong.

Depending on the witness, he may even be wearing various hats. Most people see him wearing a top hat, but others report a fedora, a southwestern cowboy hat, or even a gaucho hat. Also, depending on the popular culture of the time period when he’s spotted, that trench coat he’s wearing could be the solid outline of more old-timey clothes, like a duster, or a cloak, or a cape.

Does the Hat Man always appear as a dark shadow?

Some reports include an unusual detail that feels out of place on a shadow, like a gold pocket watch, or glowing red eyes, but those are less common. To be honest, these inconsistencies sound like embellishments. The rare sightings of the Hat Man having red eyes and a golden pocket watch feel more likely to be dreams or hallucinations or even false accounts, but I suppose these could be explained by a secondary source of red light or golden reflection showing through the shadow from behind or something. Or, perhaps what we think is just one shadow man in a hat is actually multiple shadow people who dress and act alike?

A true story about seeing the Hat Man

In her story, our guest speaker Marjorie says the Hat Man looks a little like Nosferatu to her. That’s not particularly comforting to us. After all, the iconic vampire villain, played by Max Schreck in the 1921 silent film, is still surrounded in dark mystery and intrigue. Where did these legends come from? Was Max Schreck really a vampire himself, and Nosferatu is his personal story? Why were most original copies of the movie burned? Find these answers and more in this Mental Floss article.

Our guest Marjorie also says the Hat Man looks like a cross between Max Schreck and Gabriel Byrne from Miller’s Crossing. We’ll let you mentally put that one together yourself. Listen to Marjorie’s personal story about the Hat Man’s visit to her childhood home.

How to see the Hat Man

You might want to reconsider your desire to see the Hat Man for yourself. Many encounters are described as incredibly scary, ominous, and dark. Many who have a story about seeing the Hat Man in real life believe he had evil intentions, or attempted to cause some sort of harm. There are some reports of the Hat Man actually attacking people.

Two other common methods of seeing the Hat Man are in dreams and during sleep paralysis.

What does it mean to see this shadow figure in a Nightmare?

Depending on your beliefs, dreams might be complete fanciful imagination, or they could be an important message to the asleep person, either from the subconscious or an external entity. Therefore, a nightmare about the Hat Man could mean anything, couldn’t it?

When we picture having a nightmare of the Hat Man, we have to wonder: was Freddy Krueger inspired by a real sighting of the Hat Man? After all, both get you while you sleep, and neither is ever without their signature brimmed hat.

Is the Hat Man a sleep paralysis demon?

The crazy thing about sleep paralysis is that during this phenomenon, one is kind of both awake and asleep at the same time. When we go into REM sleep, our brain turns down our ability to move our body; that’s why most people don’t sleepwalk or roll off their bed every night while they dream, like they might do during night terrors.

Sleep paralysis is a phenomenon that happens when a person is in the process of waking up (or sometimes falling asleep. The part of the brain with our consciousness wakes up, and the eyes open, but the part of the brain that shuts down movement in sleep is still somewhat active. The result being, one feels fully awake and paralyzed Also, that person can see the room or the dark world in shadow around them, but may also see…other things. The nature of these other things is debatable…are they seeing ghosts, demons, hallucinations, or dreams?

What is a sleep paralysis demon?

Dreams would be the most likely explanation, given that the person experiencing the phenomenon is only half awake, half stuck in REM sleep. The timeless nature of dreams would also explain why it seems to go on for a while after coming out of full sleep, when in reality it probably only lasts a few seconds. Yet we know of at least one true sleep paralysis demon story where multiple people seemed to be seeing the same black figure in the room during sleep paralysis. And many people who report seeing a dark shadow entity during sleep paralysis describe that shadow person as evil, or even demonic.

Another crazy phenomenon people experience during sleep paralysis is the feeling of something—or someone—sitting or standing on their chest, pinning their body down to their bed. This is usually explained away as just their body trying to fight the sleep paralysis, but in the moment it can seem to correlate with seeing a shadow person sitting on their chest, so the fear is real.

While it’s probably not a good idea, it is possible to intentionally induce sleep paralysis through sleep deprivation.

Is the Hat Man real?

We aren’t convinced that the Hat Man is so easily explained as sleep paralysis. After all, at least one of our guests saw the Hat Man out in the world while completely awake, not in their bed room or in any way close to falling asleep.

Thoroughly spooked yet? So are we!

Have you seen the Hat Man, or other Shadow People?

Here at Homespun Haints Podcast, we interview people who have true first-hand stories about shadow people, ghosts, paranormal activity, cryptids, not-so-mythical monsters from folk lore, and the like. If you feel like it’s about time you finally told your story, we would love to have you as a guest on our podcast. Just submit your story here, and we’ll be in touch soon.

Until then, have a spooky day!

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