The Hatman standing in the corner. A shadow sitting on your chest. An intruder, a creature, a demon, whispers, breathing, footsteps into a room you know is empty.

It feels like a demonic presence. It's a phenomenon that many people experience in their life and some of us throughout our life.

I know some of you listening right now are nodding, and that shared pattern makes it harder to dismiss

trauma and love and loss leave fingerprints and ghosts are how we explain those fingerprints

and so in that way ghosts remind us that history isn't over it breathes into our present

and it shapes the air we live in a A ghost can also be personal, a regret, a grief, something you haven't let go of.

And when we say we're haunted, we often don't mean by spirits.

We mean by ourselves.

Oh. Hello, hello, magical friends. My name is Raquel, and welcome to your own magic, a podcast for the creative and the curious soul. And I'm so excited for Yom's very first freaky Friday

where we're going to lean into fun and random ideas. The strange, the shivery, and the quietly

sacred. Now, I spooked myself out so much when writing this yesterday that I was like, I need to

record this in the morning because I'm not trying to call anything in right now. And rereading some of

this and making some edits still spooked myself out. Again, not inviting this energy. I love to envision a white protective beam around me when

talking about this stuff. And yet I find it so fascinating. I find the paranormal so fascinating.

Perhaps it's because I've had some of my own, but also sometimes I'm like, isn't my mind playing tricks

on me? Why do we love to tell ghost stories so much? And why do ghost stories keep getting told?

Why do shadow figures chase us in our sleep? And why do people stand in creaky theaters at midnight

hoping to feel chill? I don't understand that last part

because I'll tell you what, every single time I've had a ghost encounter. It's been involuntary.

Though sometimes I wonder if I psych myself out because I feel a certain energy or something

feels weird about a place. And then I feel that cold breeze where I see something in my peripheral vision or at night

my mind just is inviting a crazy nightmare or is it real regardless I'm still drawn to the paranormal

...