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From the High Desert

A cultural history of Art Bell and the world he broadcast into being.

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Shadow People

Episodes and caller accounts about shadow people, Hat Man reports, dark figures at the edge of sleep, out-of-body overlaps, and the witnesses who brought the phenomenon into Art Bell lore.

Showing 36 selected episodes
Episode thumbnail for April 5, 2001: The Shadow People, OBEs - Dr. Albert Taylor
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April 5, 2001: The Shadow People, OBEs - Dr. Albert Taylor

Apr 5, 2001
2h 40m
Art Bell welcomes Albert Taylor, aerospace engineer turned consciousness researcher, to discuss out-of-body experiences and their possible connection to the shadow people phenomenon. Taylor, who worked on the Lockheed U-2, SR-71, the F-117 stealth fighter design team, and the B-1 bomber program, describes how childh...
Episode thumbnail for May 31, 2001: Shadow People - Morgan Spence
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May 31, 2001: Shadow People - Morgan Spence

May 31, 2001
2h 54m
Art Bell reads a detailed letter from a military technology worker who began seeing shadow beings after prolonged exposure to laser scanning displays and DVD players. The man describes a small, robed figure that appeared in his office, locked eyes with him for twenty seconds, then sprinted along the wall and vanishe...
Episode thumbnail for August 3, 2015: Open Lines - Shadow People Stories
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August 3, 2015: Open Lines - Shadow People Stories

Aug 3, 2015
2h 39m
Art Bell shares his own shadow person encounter before opening the phones for one of Midnight in the Desert's most compelling nights. Sitting in his ham shack, Art Bell saw a partially transparent being appear to his right, vanish, reappear behind him, then shift left. He fled and grabbed a gun but found nothing.Cal...
Episode thumbnail for September 16, 2015: Shadow People - David Weatherly
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September 16, 2015: Shadow People - David Weatherly

Sep 16, 2015
2h 15m
Art Bell welcomes paranormal investigator David Weatherly to discuss the deeply unsettling phenomenon of shadow people. Art opens the show by sharing his own terrifying encounter with a shadow being in his ham radio room, describing a semi-transparent human-shaped figure that appeared on his right, then behind him,...
Episode thumbnail for September 28, 2015: Unsolved Mysteries - Nick Redfern
7

September 28, 2015: Unsolved Mysteries - Nick Redfern

Sep 28, 2015
2h 23m
Art Bell welcomes British-born author and journalist Nick Redfern to discuss the real Men in Black, a phenomenon far stranger than its Hollywood portrayal. Redfern traces the mystery back to Albert Bender, a 1950s UFO researcher in Connecticut whose International Flying Saucer Bureau was thriving until three pale, s...
Episode thumbnail for March 11, 2016: Open Lines - Art's Final Show
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March 11, 2016: Open Lines - Art's Final Show

Mar 11, 2016
2h 25m
Art Bell returns to the microphone one last time, filling in for Heather Wade on a Friday night for what would become his final broadcast. He opens with reflections on the discovery of gravity waves, the Apple encryption battle, and his love of drone technology before diving into the 2016 presidential race.Callers f...
Episode thumbnail for September 25, 2015: Open Lines - Anything Goes & I'm Losing My Mind Line
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September 25, 2015: Open Lines - Anything Goes & I'm Losing My Mind Line

Sep 25, 2015
2h 21m
Art Bell opens the phone lines for an anything-goes Friday night, introducing a special segment he calls the "I'm Losing My Mind" line for listeners who feel pushed to the edge by modern life. Callers share their frustrations with society, from anxiety attacks to political absurdity, while others recount deeply pers...
Episode thumbnail for July 29, 2015: UFOs & the Paranormal - Preston Dennett
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July 29, 2015: UFOs & the Paranormal - Preston Dennett

Jul 29, 2015
2h 29m
Preston Dennett, MUFON field investigator and author of 17 books on UFOs and the paranormal, joins Art Bell for a detailed exploration of out-of-body experiences drawn from thousands of his own conscious astral travels. Dennett describes passing through solid objects with startling specificity: brick feels grainy ac...
Episode thumbnail for October 31, 2013: Spooky Matter | Ghost Stories
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October 31, 2013: Spooky Matter | Ghost Stories

Oct 31, 2013
3h 8m
Art Bell hosts his annual Halloween special, Spooky Matter, opening with ghost photo contest winner Rebecca O'Donnell for her entry, Babushka. The night unfolds as a marathon of listener ghost stories submitted in advance and called in live, with no guests and no barriers between Art and his audience.Callers share a...
Episode thumbnail for October 31, 2010: Ghost to Ghost 2010
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October 31, 2010: Ghost to Ghost 2010

Oct 31, 2010
2h 35m
Art Bell hosts the annual Ghost to Ghost Halloween special, opening the phone lines for listeners to share their most frightening true ghost stories. Broadcasting from Manila on All Saints Day, Art begins by reading a Philippine news story about a real-life exorcist priest who describes demons making possessed peopl...
Episode thumbnail for October 31, 2007: Ghost to Ghost 2007
14

October 31, 2007: Ghost to Ghost 2007

Oct 31, 2007
2h 35m
Art Bell hosts his annual Ghost to Ghost Halloween special, opening the phone lines for unscreened callers to share their scariest true ghost stories. He establishes clear ground rules: one story per caller, first-person accounts preferred, and no cell phones unless necessary. Art also reads select ghost stories ema...
Episode thumbnail for February 25, 2007: Alien and Military Encounters - Jim Sparks
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February 25, 2007: Alien and Military Encounters - Jim Sparks

Feb 25, 2007
2h 38m
Art Bell interviews Jim Sparks, a multiple abductee whose experiences began in 1988 and transformed him from a terrified resistor into a cooperator with his alien captors. Sparks provides detailed accounts of being transported aboard craft, describing the physical sensations of acceleration, paralysis upon arrival,...
Episode thumbnail for February 24, 2007: UFO and Alien Accounts - Dick Criswell
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February 24, 2007: UFO and Alien Accounts - Dick Criswell

Feb 24, 2007
2h 37m
Art Bell interviews Dick Criswell, a lifelong UFO researcher whose first encounter with Grey aliens occurred at age six on a farm in Wheeling, West Virginia. Criswell describes how two three-and-a-half-foot beings communicated telepathically, passing through walls effortlessly and telling him he would one day serve...
Episode thumbnail for February 17, 2007: UFO Activity - James Gilliland
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February 17, 2007: UFO Activity - James Gilliland

Feb 17, 2007
2h 37m
Art Bell welcomes James Gilliland, director of the Self Mastery Earth Institute and a contactee who claims ongoing communication with extraterrestrial beings following a near-death experience. Gilliland describes the massive UFO activity at his ranch near Mount Adams in Washington State, where dozens of aerospace en...
Episode thumbnail for January 14, 2007: UFOs and Crop Circles - Ed Sherwood & Kris Sherwood
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January 14, 2007: UFOs and Crop Circles - Ed Sherwood & Kris Sherwood

Jan 14, 2007
2h 34m
Art Bell is joined by crop circle researchers Ed Sherwood and Kris Sherwood, who bring more than 30 years of combined experience studying the worldwide crop circle phenomenon. The couple, based in Santa Monica, California, report having videotaped over 40 daylight UFO sightings above their apartment since June of th...
Episode thumbnail for March 5, 2005: Debunking 9/11 Myths - Ben Chertoff
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March 5, 2005: Debunking 9/11 Myths - Ben Chertoff

Mar 5, 2005
2h 53m
Art Bell speaks with Ben Chertoff, a researcher for Popular Mechanics magazine, about the publication's investigation into the most persistent conspiracy theories surrounding the September 11 attacks. Chertoff describes the methodology behind the article, which assembled a team of engineers, scientists, and aviation...
Episode thumbnail for January 8, 2005: Parallel Worlds - Dr. Michio Kaku
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January 8, 2005: Parallel Worlds - Dr. Michio Kaku

Jan 8, 2005
2h 53m
Art Bell welcomes theoretical physicist Dr. Michio Kaku for a wide-ranging exploration of parallel universes, dark matter, and the future of civilization. Kaku explains that string theory predicts millions of possible universes, and that gravity may be the one force capable of traveling between them. He describes da...
Episode thumbnail for October 31, 2004: Ghost to Ghost 2004
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October 31, 2004: Ghost to Ghost 2004

Oct 31, 2004
2h 53m
Art Bell opens the annual Ghost to Ghost broadcast on Halloween night by presenting the complete Spiricom recordings, a historic series of two-way voice communications between living researchers and deceased individuals conducted by George Meek and William O'Neill between 1977 and 1982. The audio documents the evolu...
Episode thumbnail for August 29, 2004: Varginha UFO Case - Dr. Roger Leir
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August 29, 2004: Varginha UFO Case - Dr. Roger Leir

Aug 29, 2004
2h 51m
Dr. Roger Leir, author of Aliens and the Scalpel, joins Art Bell to discuss alleged alien implants and the Varginha UFO case after Art's long-delayed echo demonstration. Art plays audio recordings captured by operators in Washington and Arizona, walks through the science of radio propagation, and invites listeners t...
Episode thumbnail for August 21, 2004: Nuclear 9-11 - Howard Bloom
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August 21, 2004: Nuclear 9-11 - Howard Bloom

Aug 21, 2004
2h 52m
Art Bell sits down with polymath Howard Bloom, author of Global Brain, for a wide-ranging discussion that connects Michael Jackson's genius to Osama bin Laden's apocalyptic ideology. Bloom, who managed Jackson's public image in the mid-1980s, describes the pop star as the most astonishing person he has ever met, pos...
Episode thumbnail for April 18, 2004: Fossils on Mars - Sir Charles Shults III
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April 18, 2004: Fossils on Mars - Sir Charles Shults III

Apr 18, 2004
2h 53m
Art Bell interviews Sir Charles Shults III, a former Martin Marietta aerospace engineer and weapons systems specialist, about his analysis of Mars rover images that he believes reveal fossilized marine organisms. Shults describes finding structures resembling sand dollars, sea urchins, crinoids, shark teeth, and eve...
Episode thumbnail for March 21, 2004: UFOs - John Lear
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March 21, 2004: UFOs - John Lear

Mar 21, 2004
2h 53m
Art Bell welcomes back John Lear, son of Learjet inventor Bill Lear, for a wide-ranging conversation about his decades in ufology. Lear recounts his aviation career, including setting a world speed record in a Learjet and racing at Reno, before describing how Bud Hopkins' book Missing Time launched his UFO research...
Episode thumbnail for March 7, 2004: The Billy Meier UFO Contacts - Michael Horn
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March 7, 2004: The Billy Meier UFO Contacts - Michael Horn

Mar 7, 2004
2h 53m
Art Bell speaks with Michael Horn, the authorized American media representative for Swiss contactee Billy Meier, about what many consider the most significant and controversial UFO case in history. Horn traces Meier's story from his first alleged encounter at age five in 1942 through decades of reported face-to-face...
Episode thumbnail for February 29, 2004: Future Technology - Jan Newcomb Hodges
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February 29, 2004: Future Technology - Jan Newcomb Hodges

Feb 29, 2004
2h 52m
Art Bell welcomes Professor Jan Newcomb Hodges, a robotics pioneer who built the first mobile robot to enter the damaged Three Mile Island reactor in 1979. Hodges explains how his decades of work in robotics, including systems for bomb squads, space exploration, and the stealth B-2 bomber program, led him into parti...
Episode thumbnail for February 15, 2004: Luciferian Thought Remote Viewing - Aaron Donahue
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February 15, 2004: Luciferian Thought Remote Viewing - Aaron Donahue

Feb 15, 2004
2h 52m
Aaron Donahue, a remote viewer trained by Major Ed Dames who identifies as a Luciferian, joins Art Bell to discuss Luciferian thought, remote viewing, lottery predictions, and peak oil. Art begins with open lines covering a purported classified CIA document about biological immortality, spontaneous fires erupting in...
Episode thumbnail for February 14, 2004: Out of Body Experiences - William Buhlman
32

February 14, 2004: Out of Body Experiences - William Buhlman

Feb 14, 2004
2h 52m
Author and researcher William Buhlman joins Art Bell to discuss out-of-body experiences, OBE survey findings, sleep paralysis, and consciousness after an impromptu vampire interview. Art opens with a self-proclaimed vampire named Morgan from Kentucky, who describes his coven of over 50 members, his casket sleeping h...
Episode thumbnail for January 25, 2004: Open Lines
33

January 25, 2004: Open Lines

Jan 25, 2004
2h 52m
Art Bell opens the program visibly shaken by a breaking story from The Independent reporting that the North Atlantic current is already slowing, threatening to shut down the Gulf Stream within decades. He reads extensively from the article, which quotes the U.S. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute describing the deve...
Episode thumbnail for January 24, 2004: Mass Consciousness - Dr. Garland Landrith
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January 24, 2004: Mass Consciousness - Dr. Garland Landrith

Jan 24, 2004
2h 51m
Art Bell welcomes Dr. Garland Landrith, the first researcher to publish peer-reviewed findings on how collective human thought can influence real-world variables like crime rates and automobile accidents. The conversation opens with an hour of open lines covering the Opportunity rover's successful Mars landing, the...
Episode thumbnail for October 25, 2003: Skycars & Vampires - Paul Moller
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October 25, 2003: Skycars & Vampires - Paul Moller

Oct 25, 2003
3h 34m
Art Bell speaks with Dr. Paul Moller, inventor of the M400 Skycar, a vertical takeoff and landing vehicle designed to combine the capabilities of helicopters and airplanes at automobile-level costs. Moller describes a four-passenger craft that fits in a single-car garage, flies at 325 miles per hour, reaches altitud...