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From the High Desert book cover

From the High Desert

A Cultural History of Art Bell

Thumbnail for December 4, 2015: Open Lines - Inhuman Encounter Line

December 4, 2015: Open Lines - Inhuman Encounter Line

Dec 4, 2015
2h 20m
0:00 / 0:00
Art Bell opens Friday night with the latest news on the San Bernardino shooting, now confirmed as ISIS-inspired after the FBI reveals that Tashfeen Malik pledged allegiance to the Islamic State on Facebook moments before the attack. He also notes that Germany has voted to join the bombing campaign in Syria and that Britain has begun airstrikes.

The open lines bring a wide range of calls. On a special Inhuman Encounter line, a caller from Kansas describes a red-eyed humanoid that leaped between treetops and dive-bombed his car on a muddy road near an old burial ground. A woman from Michigan recalls six siblings witnessing a horned, red-faced figure clawing at their second-story farmhouse window. Other callers report orange eyes in a ceiling vortex, violent banging from an empty locked bathroom, and a glowing sphere that emerged from a firefly.

Between encounter stories, Art fields calls about gun rights, the Attorney General's remarks on anti-Muslim rhetoric, the prospect of one-world government, and the possibility of secret human cloning at an Idaho university. He also pranks his audience by pretending to eat a light bulb live on the air, inspired by guest Todd Robbins from earlier in the week.

Key Moments

  1. San Bernardino investigated as terrorism: Art opens with the FBI investigating the San Bernardino attack as terrorism and Tashfeen Malik's reported pledge to ISIS.

  2. Orange eyes in a ceiling vortex: A caller describes waking to orange eyes inside a black square vortex in the ceiling.

  3. Firefly becomes red energy sphere: A caller says a firefly expanded into a ten-inch sphere of red glowing energy.

  4. Locked bathroom presence: A caller describes someone apparently inside a bathroom despite the alarmed premises being secured.