Nov 12, 2026 · 57 min
Salem strangers share apparitions, haunted homes and impossible photographs
Encounters x357 - Real Ghost Stories from the Streets of Salem, MA
The episode turns Salem’s streets into a patchwork of firsthand accounts where grief, sleep paralysis and alleged hauntings repeatedly blur together.
- 1Witnesses describe recurring entities, shadow figures and apparitions tied to homes, family deaths and frightening childhood experiences.
- 2A trail camera captures a faceless girl in the Appalachian woods, leaving open whether the image shows a ghost or a living child.
- 3A Tennessee couple recounts eight years of activity involving unexplained figures, moving objects, strange sounds and a house marked by violence.
Don't miss
Maddie examines trail-camera images of a faceless girl repeatedly appearing in the Appalachian woods, with no clear answer about whether she is dead or alive.
The brief
Recorded on the streets of Salem, the special collects encounters from strangers whose stories range from apparitions and haunted photographs to sleep paralysis and occult experiences.
Jennifer connects homemade Ouija-board use with sleep paralysis, threatening faces and manifestations witnessed by her children and ex-husband, describing a shape-shifting entity haunting the family home.
The episode’s most unsettling puzzle comes from trail-camera images of a faceless girl in the Appalachian woods, where the evidence supports neither a clear ghost story nor a clear human explanation.
Other witnesses describe a Ring-camera image resembling a deceased grandmother, ghostly relatives, shadow figures and an abandoned house associated with occult imagery and a screaming basement.
A Tennessee couple closes the main arc with eight years of activity, including moving objects, unexplained fog, possible child apparitions and a bird that seems to interact with spirits.
Weekly email
State of the Pod, every Monday
The week's most-discussed names and stories from podcasts, with the moments behind them. Free, five minutes, unsubscribe in one click.