No guests, no gear, just ghost stories. With Halloween around the corner, this episode of Splintered Spirits is built entirely from stories sent in by you, our listeners. Five people trusted us with the strangest things that ever happened to them, and we read every word exactly as it was written before sharing what stands out based on everything our guests have taught us. You'll hear from Devin, who as a toddler pointed at the ceiling and named a sister nobody had told him about... Daniel's story includes a closet door that closed itself, dragging sounds that stopped every time he called for his mom, and a drawing of the floating shape he saw at the foot of his bed.... Trisha shares a gentle story about a series of touching moments that occurred within minutes of her mother's passing. Harley recalls a cemetery in 1997 and a pitch black figure with glowing eyes that had dad running. Lastly, Jason explains why, when a laughing purple Teletubby talks through static, removing the batteries is the wrong move. Plus, the Are You A Ghost Magnet? survey closes on Halloween. It's part of a study with Professor Brian Laythe that's headed for peer review, and more than 2,000 people have already taken it. Take it at splinteredspirits.com/survey, and send in your own ghost story at splinteredspirits.com/ghoststories.

This week we sat down with Dr. Mo Hannah, a psychologist who spent more than three decades as a full-time professor at Siena College, trained at UCLA’s Neuropsychiatric Institute, worked as a VA psychologist, and authored seven books. In April 2007, her daughter Monique took her own life at age 20. Five months later, Dr. Mo heard induced after-death communication pioneer Dr. Alan Botkin on a radio show, flew to Chicago for treatment, and experienced her own contact with Monique: a bright light in which she says she could see her daughter’s face. Dr. Mo walks us through EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing), which Francine Shapiro (no relation to Gary) stumbled onto during a walk through a park, and how Dr. Botkin noticed that veterans he treated with it began reporting contact with the dead. She explains how induced after-death communication works, why it targets the sadness at the core of grief instead of the anger or guilt, and why she calls the contact itself a side effect nobody can order up. She also shares her theory on why meditation and slowed brainwaves may make us more receptive. From there the conversation goes wide: near-death experiences, deathbed visions, the sentence that woke her one morning after Monique died, and her take on the question this show is built on, what are spirits. This conversation discusses grief, loss, and suicide. If you or someone you know is struggling, call or text 988 in the U.S. to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.

What if the dead never really left? UCLA professor Dr. David Delgado Shorter teaches a class called Aliens, Psychics, and Ghosts, and he was born into this stuff. His great-grandmother, a healer, raised him, and his father did classified work in the New Mexico desert. We dig into Día de los Muertos beyond the sugar skulls and Halloween costumes, where appreciation turns into appropriation, and why the gates between the living and the dead swing open every October. Plus, David shares personal encounters he’s never told publicly before. Grab a candle and a glass of water. Your ancestors are listening. Find David at DavidShorter.com.

Ghosts grabbed her, and Mom wanted in. Mother-daughter ghost hunters Michelle and Megan Lanham of Creepy Colorado Paranormal join Splintered Spirits for a conversation that proves the family that gets haunted together hunts together. Their story starts in Fort Carson, Colorado base housing, where the activity began within a week: pantry doors slamming open, lights flicking on and off, and three-year-old Megan serving tea to “some boy” only she could see. When the base commander dug into the history of the land, he found a past that included a POW camp, with the dead buried on the hill behind their cul-de-sac. Michelle and Megan get real about the cleansing that made everything worse, the priest’s blessing that worked until it didn’t, and the moment at Holy Cross Abbey that turned a mother-daughter outing into a full-time obsession. They share the attachment that followed them home from Kansas, a hitchhiking entity from the Conjuring house that scared one of them into swearing off investigating for good, plus the Facebook Live footage of a full-body apparition standing beside a rocking chair, and the medium who was pulled off a staircase at Whispers Estate in Indiana. It’s a rare mix of genuinely creepy stories and laugh-out-loud honesty, with Gary asking the questions you’re already thinking. Whether you love real ghost stories, haunted house encounters, ghost hunting gear and tips, or just a great story about a mom and her daughter, this episode of Splintered Spirits delivers it all. Hear their theory that hauntings are time travel and EVPs come from the future, their advice to every parent whose child says they see something, and why these fearless ghost hunters are more afraid of spiders than spirits.

Psychic medium Cindy Kaza, known for her work on Travel Channel’s The Dead Files, The Holzer Files, and Ghosts of Devil’s Perch, joins Splintered Spirits for a conversation that goes way beyond your typical ghost story. Cindy opens up about the moment she first saw a spirit at just 10 years old, the “awakening” in her early 20s that changed the course of her life, and her training both in the U.S. and at the legendary Arthur Findlay College of Intuitive Sciences in England. If you’ve ever wondered what it’s actually like behind the scenes of paranormal TV, walking into the most haunted, tragic locations looking camera-ready while everyone else is bracing for impact, this episode has the answer, and it’s funnier than you’d think. But this isn’t just paranormal investigation talk. Cindy gets real about the hardest moment of her life: losing her brother, and what that loss taught her about grief, mediumship, and the limits of her own gift. She shares the ancient burial ritual that changed how she, and maybe you, think about death, dying, and what comes after. It’s a rare mix of laugh-out-loud TV stories and genuinely moving honesty from one of the paranormal world’s most recognizable mediums. Whether you’re a longtime fan of ghost hunting shows, psychic medium readings, or just love a great story about grief, loss, and the afterlife, this episode of Splintered Spirits delivers all of it. Tune in for ghost stories, paranormal investigations, and a conversation about life, death, and everything in between that you won’t stop thinking about. @Santaparanormal

From Prison Cell to Paranormal Art: Mike “Danger” Castro What do Army military intelligence, a wrongful murder charge, and the visual identity of the paranormal world have in common? Mike “Danger” Castro. Mike served seven years in the Army, including tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, before becoming one of the most sought-after creatives in the paranormal space. He’s been the creative voice behind Beacon TV since before it launched, including the artwork for Amy Bruni’s docuseries, co-ran Ghosted magazine for nearly three years, and founded Black Frame Society, a community of artists, musicians, photographers and creators standing up for human-made art. But the road there was anything but ordinary. Mike opens up about being arrested for a murder he didn’t commit, fighting the case from jail, and ultimately winning a settlement and an apology from the State of New Jersey. He shares how that ordeal forced him to rebuild his life through art, and how his first paranormal gig, branding ghost tours at the Old Columbus Inn, led to everything that followed. Then it gets personal: the woman who died in Mike’s home, and who his whole family has seen since. He describes finding her standing on his staircase looking up at him while his young son talked to her, and a photo he took just feet from where he sat for this interview that he says doesn’t look human at all. Plus: the difference between a real investigation and an event investigation, why evidence-hoarding holds the field back, the paranormal figures Mike respects most, and his theories on residual energy and parallel dimensions. Links to Mike and Black Frame Society are in the link tree in our bio. #SplinteredSpirits #Paranormal #GhostStories #ParanormalPodcast #Haunted

What happens in the room when someone takes their last breath? Darnell Lamont Walker would know. By day he's an Emmy-nominated kids' TV writer behind Karma's World and Work It Out Wombats. The rest of the time he's a death doula, sitting with the dying and their families so nobody has to face the end alone. And he does most of it for free. In Darnell's words: "I haven't quite figured out how to ask dying people for money." Gary and John sit down with him to talk about his book Never Can Say Goodbye, hospice, grief, and what being a death doula actually looks like. Then things get weird, in the best way. Darnell describes the energy shift that can pass through a room at the moment of death, and an ayahuasca journey where he met his late grandmother again. He also takes on the big Splintered Spirits question: what are spirits? We get into why men have such a hard time talking about death, whether spirit guides help us through life's transitions, and what a death doula does when a client wasn't a good person. Stay to the very end. Darnell rewrites his own obituary every year, so Gary and John give it a try. One is heartfelt. The other is John's. 👻 (I'm kidding, they're both insane). If you're into the paranormal, the afterlife, end-of-life care, or just the strange side of death, hit play, then like, share, and subscribe. @Santaparanormal

Do ghosts have a message for the living? Paranormal investigator and empath Bianca Pierre-Louis, known as Spooky Melanin Magic (@spookymelaninmagic ) joins Gary and John for a ghost-hunting conversation that’s funny, eerie, and eye-opening. From the most haunted places in America to the feelings that follow her home, Bianca shares what it’s really like to sense the spirit world. This episode dives into empaths and psychic intuition, haunted history, paranormal evidence, and the stories that never made it into the history books. Bianca explains how she tells her own emotions apart from the energy of the dead, why some spirits are still trying to be heard, and what keeps drawing her back into the dark. Whether you’re a seasoned ghost hunter, a true believer, or just curious about the paranormal, this one has everything: real hauntings, big laughs, and the question at the heart of every episode, what are spirits? Plus, John and Bianca tease their upcoming investigation together. Grab a seat, Spirit Squad. We’re spirit maxing. @Santaparanormal