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Next on Paranormal Caught on Camera...

Two friends explore a haunted church.

Is anybody here with me?

And reap the consequences.

What the.

I couldn't believe it. I thought I was dreaming, to be honest.

Explorers in Chernobyl

come face-to-face with a mutant ghost.

It looks like something out of the depths of a science fiction movie,

is the best way I can describe it.

A woman on a walk in the Colorado woods

spots a rare cryptid.

As soon as I saw it, I was like, "Oh, my God. What is that?"

What invisible force is manipulating these two leaves?

Every now and then, a video comes along that completely baffles me.

I don't know what to make of this.

And even more paranormal footage you have to see...

Look Calvin, your first UFO!

...to believe.

Have you ever heard of the gugwe?

It's a large, hairy, bi-pedal cryptid,

similar to Bigfoot, except for two key differences.

Its dog-like face... and its attitude.

And though the gugwe might not be quite as well known

as its more famous cousin,

it's no less thrilling to see one in the wild.

Just ask one woman in Colorado,

who believes she may have caught a gugwe on camera,

in the woods near her home.

September 2019, in Jefferson County, Colorado.

Christine Kirkwood is exploring the woods around her home,

with her camera.

Keeping an eye out for a creature

she's caught a few glimpses of in the past.

Sasquatch.

My name is Christine and I recorded this video.

Autumn is my favorite time to squatch.

I go out squatching, um, quite a bit.

I go down with my camera and I look for structures that they build out of wood.

And that's where you can tell where they're at.

But when she reviews her footage from this day,

she realizes, she caught something much more extraordinary

than a possible Bigfoot structure.

Watch as Christine's camera scans the area.

There, by a tree.

A figure.

Massive, immobile.

And staring directly at Christine.

You can see the face here.

And the hand, here.

As soon as I saw it, I was like, "Oh, my God. What is that?"

And I screen shot it and then I zoom in.

And make sure that it's really a cryptid and not a tree branch or anything.

And after analyzing the image,

Christine believes what she caught, is most certainly a cryptid.

But, what kind of cryptid?

This is like classic Bigfoot footage,

in the sense that we have classic Bigfoot behavior,

a creature peeking out from the side of a tree.

And again, a real ambivalence about what we might be seeing.

Visually, to me, it has that size and stature of a sasquatch.

But the face resembles something

that's more of, uh, like a baboon or, uh, a wolf.

It looks like it has very good camouflage from humans.

Uh, if you weren't really looking for it,

you wouldn't have seen anything.

We can identify the facial features.

We can identify one hand on the tree.

If I saw this footage, free of anything,

I would say possible Bigfoot sighting.

So, maybe Bigfoot.

Or maybe, as Christine believes,

something similar, but much more rare.

A Bigfoot has more of an ape, kind of a face.

And this one, its facial features are different,

with a short snout. You know, more like a dog-type face.

Which sounds an awful lot... like a gugwe.

When it comes to the gugwe,

they seem to look and resemble a Bigfoot, where they're bipedal.

They're covered in hair or fur, but their face is much different.

They have a longer elongated snout.

Uh, canine-like teeth.

The gugwe is sometimes described

as a more aggressive cousin... to Bigfoot.

Um, also, somewhat more canine,

which, uh, brings to mind the legends

from, um, northern United States of, uh, dogmen.

They're not the benevolent Bigfoot

that people claim to have seen and known.

The gugwe is something to fear if you were to come across it,

because of their aggressive nature.

Their large canines.

A cryptid similar to Bigfoot,

but much more aggressive,

with teeth to back it up.

Sounds terrifying.

If the gugwe is out there,

and it is a creature entirely separate

from a sasquatch or undiscovered primate,

how mind blowing is that?

It makes you wonder what other bipedal cryptids do exist,

such as lizard man.

And it makes me wonder where we fit on the food chain?

But, as harrowing as that thought might be, Christine isn't afraid.

Because according to her,

it's all dependent on how you approach them.

You have to go in with love.

And if you go in with love, they're not gonna bother you.

And bringing a few gifts, doesn't hurt either.

I'll put special rocks in my backpack, that I'll leave for gifts.

And then they know, it comes from my heart and comes from love.

If people go out there and look for them,

you will be amazed at what you find.

Coming up. Find out what happens, when a nuclear meltdown

meets the paranormal.

On April 26, 1986,

the Chernobyl nuclear power plant melted down,

leaving in its wake, enough radiation to ensure that the surrounding area

will not be livable for at least 20,000 years.

As a result of the disaster, the Soviet Union created the Chernobyl exclusion zone,

restricting access to the affected area,

in order to ensure the safety of the general public.

But sometimes, the general public still wanders into that zone.

And when they do, weird, terrifying stuff happens.

Just ask one intrepid explorer in Ukraine,

who attempted to bunk for the night in an abandoned home in Chernobyl...

...and paid the price.

2016, in Chernobyl, Ukraine.

Vlad Reznov and two others, Vadim and Mark,

are hiking in the Chernobyl exclusion zone,

on the way back from visiting the duga radar antenna,

when they begin to feel some fatigue.

Hello! My name is Vlad Reznov, and we shot the video.

The ramifications of the Chernobyl nuclear accident

continue to be felt, and that is especially true

within the nuclear exclusion zone, which is about a thousand square miles.

And within this zone, there is dense forest, as well as ghost towns.

You're seeing books left on tables.

Food left on stoves.

Uh, the schools in the area, people just got up and left.

So they're kind of preserved the way they were at that moment.

And as Vlad checks out the outside of the house they've chosen to camp in,

the surreal Chernobyl environment, starts to freak him out.

Something is out there,

so they run back to the house for cover.

Watch closely.

Did you catch it?

Watch again, in slow motion,

as a face suddenly appears in the window.

The face that you see in that window,

and especially the fact that you realize

there's no glass separating them from this creature.

Immediately it doesn't look human.

It looks like something out of the depths of a science fiction movie,

is the best way I can describe it.

It's distorted, it's pale.

It doesn't look just like a friendly neighbor

looking in the window, by any stretch of the imagination.

You can make out, um, all of the features.

You can see that it seems to be a young girl.

Or a young woman.

She's got these, uh, sort of pinkish eyes, as if, um, uh, she's sick.

The odd thing is, that she seems as if she's almost got this sly smile

on her face, like, she's toying with these guys or something.

This is the kind of footage that freaks the hell out of me.

Because we aren't talking about activity

experienced in your run-of-the-mill haunted house.

Rather, this is Chernobyl.

A location that presents a very real-world threat to the living.

But, what kind of real-world threat are we talking about here?

Ever since the meltdown of Chernobyl,

uh, there have been rumors of, um, these sort of atomic mutants

that have, uh, taken up residence there.

Add to that, that these potential mutants are expanding,

migrating outside of the exclusion zone

and are going to be breeding with a larger animal population.

That is crazy stuff to think about,

because who knows what monsters are being unleashed amongst us.

And that's just with the living creatures in the area.

Chernobyl is a place of sickness and death.

So it certainly wouldn't be out of the realm of possibilities

to think that if this is a spirit,

uh, this is a person who became sick and died there.

We could be mutating creatures, animals, people,

but what does it do to spirit?

Are ghosts immune to radioactive isotopes?

Just imagine how scary that would be.

Yes, ghosts can scare us now as they are,

but what about a mutant ghost?

That's unsettling.

But whether this was a mutant, a mutant ghost, or something else,

given the location, Vlad has, somehow, taken the experience in stride.

Coming up...

Who or what is controlling these two leaves?

As we all know,

the paranormal is often terrifying.

But, it doesn't have to be.

After all, paranormal merely indicates an inability

to be explained by known science.

Which can just as easily inspire wonder, rather than fear.

Which is why, when one man walking on a trail in the woods

in New Hampshire, saw this...

...he only wanted to get closer.

October 2021.

In Newport, New Hampshire,

Mike Mahoney is walking in the woods, with his young son, Owen,

when he spots something truly strange.

Two leaves slowly floating down to the earth.

And then somehow...

...stopping before they reach the ground.

Fascinated, Mike gets as close as he can.

But finds no logical explanation.

The leaves then simply continue on their way,

leaving Mike completely baffled.

Hi, my name is Mike Mahoney, and I filmed this video.

I've seen plenty of leaves falling from the trees

and maybe the wind's blowing it slightly in one direction,

but this leaf was just standing still in spots, spinning around.

I wanted to get up close, so you could clearly see

that there was nothing attached to it.

I definitely thought it was very odd for sure.

Every now and then, a video comes along that completely baffles me.

I don't know what to make of this.

I watched this video over and over and over again.

Hoping to like, catch a glimpse

of the person with the marionette strings

in the canopy above in the forest.

I mean, this is just weird.

It seems very unnatural,

the way these leaves are floating,

yet really suspended in the air.

They don't seem to be carried on the breeze in any manner.

They seem to almost have a determination

to fly around this area.

I think you could tell he was really perplexed

by the way he tried to get a 360 angle on this whole thing.

There's no strings. There's no spider webs.

You can clearly see there's nothing else attached.

It's not the wind. It's something else.

Something else that Mike believes is quite possibly... otherworldly.

To me, this definitely seemed paranormal

because I can't explain why this leaf was floating around the way it was.

If these leaves are being manipulated by an unseen force,

my first thought is maybe there is the ghost of a human,

trying to interact with these people.

I do know that spirits tend to gravitate

towards manipulating items that are lighter,

because it takes less energy for them to manipulate lighter objects.

I think there's also a distinct possibility of some sort of nature spirit.

An elemental spirit, something in the leaves themselves

that is conscious, that is behaving differently,

that is manifesting in some way and moving these around.

Where my mind goes is the stories of the cloaking Bigfoot.

The invisible Bigfoot, where they can,

kind of, disguise themselves right in front of our eyes.

There's legends in the Pacific Northwest,

where adolescents have to do a certain ritual to become an adult.

And one of those is to cloak, and go in front of a human being,

and wave their arms, their hands,

in front of their face without being seen.

And here you have this human, going down the trail.

And you have these leaves, kind of floating around.

It's almost as if there's someone that we can't see,

invisible, holding these leaves, floating it around,

almost luring this guy to go down the trail.

It's one of the most amazing videos I've seen,

because there's no real explanation of what we're looking at.

Which may be the most important thing to remember.

Even if this isn't a ghost, an elemental, or a cloaked Bigfoot.

As a folklorist, my definition of paranormal or supernatural

is fairly straightforward.

It's outside what we know about the natural world.

And that's a pretty open explanation.

It's also a sliding definition because we are constantly learning more and more

about the natural world and how it works.

And sometimes that takes things that were once supernatural

and makes them natural.

So something like this, whether it's geomagnetic,

whether it is a spiritual entity or another dimension,

it is, by definition, supernatural.

And by that logic, the supernatural...

...is everywhere.

This backs up something that I'm always saying.

Everywhere is haunted.

This isn't an abandoned asylum.

This isn't a haunted bed and breakfast.

This is just a trail out in the middle of the woods.

And as he's walking with his son, he's not investigating,

he's not thinking, "Let me touch the spirit world."

But yet the spirit world comes out to touch him.

Coming up.

Two investigators are confronted by a strange presence

at a South Carolina church.

Dude, it's a candle.

Oh, God.

When you're dealing with the paranormal,

being scared is par for the course.

And for some, that thrill is what keeps them coming back for more.

But be warned.

If you push the paranormal envelope again and again and again,

you're gonna start to get noticed.

And that's when things...

...get really scary.

Just ask two friends from South Carolina,

who kept looking into the same church,

until someone, or something,

forced them to stop.

Dude, it's a candle.

Oh, God. Go.

Summer 2021, in Chester, South Carolina.

Friends Dell Williams and David Brantley are driving by a church,

that, for Dell, has a particularly strange history.

- I'm Dell. - I'm David. And we recorded the video.

Back when I was younger,

we had one of the hurricanes coming through.

And it was hitting our town hard.

So my mom and grandparents thought that, like,

"Hey, we should just go on up to the church and take refuge in there."

And I'm just laying there, trying to go to sleep.

And I just feel, like, a foot or something,

like, push down right next to my head.

So I immediately just kind of thought, like, you know,

"Hey, my brother's trying to mess with me."

So I just immediately just swiped, you know, at his leg.

But my arm just goes through nothing, and just hits the wall.

And I immediately just, kind of, like, back up and panic,

and look for my little flashlight, and I look around.

And there's, like, nothing there at all.

Dell shakes it off after a moment.

But ever since, it's been in the back of his head.

There were rumors from other kids at the church

during Sunday school and stuff.

Like, "Hey, my parents said that there was, like, rituals that went on here

when they were younger, and before them." And stuff like that.

Which is why, on this night,

as David and Dell are driving by the church and spot something peculiar,

they feel compelled to stop.

We know there's not supposed to be a light on at the church.

So we decide, "Okay, we need to get out and investigate."

And when they do...

Dude, it's a candle.

Oh, God. Oh,, go! What the hell was that?

No, no, no, no.

Watch again,

as a black figure swiftly crosses the window.

Oh, God. Oh,, go!

Sending Dell and David scrambling back to their car.

Dude, it's a candle.

Oh, God. Oh,, go! What the hell was that?

No, no, no, no.

At first, I thought it was a ghost.

But then it kind of looked like a person.

It kind of looked like somebody was wearing a hood.

I was, like, "Let's go."

And I'm glad he just put the car out of park, and we gone, baby.

Oh, God. Oh,, go!

We definitely see a shadowy form

that seems to be about the right size and shape of a human figure.

And it's not standing still.

It's moving around in that exact same space where the light is.

It looked like it was hiding for some reason.

Like it didn't want to be seen.

And if you ask Dell and David, given what they've heard,

there might be a reason for that.

I feel like what we saw through the window,

I'm pretty sure was just a person.

'Cause with the rumor mill over there,

talking about the rituals that happened there,

you know, maybe that's just somebody that's still been doing it for a while.

You know, they're still conjuring something there.

Can't be good.

Nah, whatever it is, it's definitely not good.

Weeks later, Dell goes inside the church, alone this time,

to check things out.

And that's when things get really weird.

Watch the chair in the back room.

Is anybody here with me?

Man, what the?

chair.

From the angle of this video,

it does indeed look like this chair is being violently slid aside.

And it's doing it in response to the investigator's question.

To see that chair move on its own, backwards,

almost inviting the investigator to come into the room

right then and there, you know, this thing was on.

Somebody in here messing with me?

You kind of just freeze up. I think there's, like, the fight or flight.

And, in the moment, you're, like, pretty freaked out.

And it scares you and everything.

And you're kind of, like, "I ain't never coming back here."

But then you're kind of, like, "Hey, that was kind of fun."

Fun enough to go back another time, a few weeks later.

With David in tow yet again.

At that point, we knew that there was something there.

So, we started being more persistent in asking it to show itself.

We know that you're in here.

You know that we know that you're in here.

You're messing with us. We're not leaving.

Watch the back door on the right.

Did you catch it?

Watch again, as another dark figure

seems to cross the doorway,

only minutes after Dell and David ask it to show itself.

You see the shadow go across the back right there.

We didn't see it till afterwards, when we were editing it.

Both of the captures we see on video, are really clear.

The one taken from outside is undeniable.

Some figure has moved past that window.

We can see it, plain as day.

But, whether we're seeing a person hiding out in the space,

perhaps for the purpose of conducting some sort of dark ritual,

or an actual paranormal presence, a shadow figure or some sort of apparition,

it's almost 50-50 in my mind.

Man, we had been up and down that place.

That's normally the first thing we do when we go to a location,

is we go through the whole thing. Every corner.

Even if we've been there tons of times.

And, uh, yeah. I could say that that probably was not a person at all.

Whatever it was, the guys stopped trying to find out.

Because, eventually...

...they believe it followed them home.

It went from, like, bangs and stuff like that,

which, it got to where I thought people were breaking into my house.

You know, I was getting really kind of, like,

nervous about the safety of my family and stuff.

And then I started to realize,

like, this is something probably going on from the church.

For every action, there's a reaction.

So if you're starting to go into a place,

and you're stirring it up, where spirits are usually left alone.

But you're coming in, and you're antagonizing,

you're gonna see this type of activity,

especially if you're giving them energy through your fear.

They're gonna attach themselves and come back and follow through.

And this is another instance that tells you,

that whatever they're encountering is not a positive thing.

Thankfully, once Dell and David stop going to the church,

the activity at their homes, for the most part, stops too.

Meanwhile, the overall experience

led them to one unequivocal conclusion.

It's haunted as, that's what I think.

I think it's haunted as.

That's a good enough summary for me.

Oh, God. Oh,, go!

Coming up...

A strange, immobile UFO stops a family party in its tracks.

It's not moving enough!

There's no doubt that some people

seem to have a predisposition toward encountering paranormal entities.

Almost like they are supernatural magnets.

And though it's impossible to know what makes these people

attract these otherworldly beings,

some believe that it could be a part of their makeup.

Maybe even at a genetic level.

Just ask two sisters in Florida,

who have a history of inexplicable encounters together.

Including this spectacular UFO capture,

witnessed not just by the sisters,

but by their whole family.

Look Calvin, your first UFO. - Doesn't that look

- like it's got a tail? - Yeah.

What do you think that is?

December 29, 2003, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Sisters Allison Wickey and Gina Schellhase

are with the rest of their family,

getting some fresh air on the back porch of Gina's house

when, in the skies above,

they suddenly spot something...

...unfamiliar.

- Where is it? - See it?

There it is!

- God, that's high. - And these low clouds.

And you know what's weird about it,

it's got a, like, a ring around it, it looks like.

An asymmetrically shaped object,

floating, almost completely motionless.

Oh.

Look Calvin, your first UFO. - Doesn't that look

- like it's got a tail? - Yeah.

And confusing the entire family, watching below.

It's a kite.

It's not a kite.

But boy, it sure isn't moving much.

- It's weird. - It's so high.

It's up in the stratosphere.

Kite, my ass, there's martians in there.

I'm Allison, and this is Gina, my sister, and we filmed the video.

I had my video camera out, getting everyone filmed.

And we all kind of noticed this black dot in the sky

and I'm zooming in on it, it's constantly morphing.

It did sit there a long time,

and then she noticed a ring around it.

And then everyone did notice that part of it, kind of, extended out

and it looks like it does it a couple of times.

We never saw it drop lower or go higher.

It just, kind of, seemed to stay there and, kind of, stay in the sky.

That's pretty high and pretty big for a kite. - Yeah.

It's not moving enough!

I think everyone knew it wasn't a kite.

But nobody wanted to admit.

It's just one of those things, unexplainable.

- Look, Calvin. - What do you think that is, 500 feet?

- Doesn't it? - Oh, yeah.

- Easily. - It doesn't look anything like a kite.

So, if it isn't a kite...

...then what are we looking at here?

The fact that this thing is just motionless, hovering up there,

tells me that we're looking at something else entirely.

And I do think this is a UFO.

There doesn't appear to be any source of propulsion.

There's no smoke, you don't see any flame, you see nothing lit up.

There's no lights.

It's not a drone.

You don't hear any noise.

It just seems to be hovering there.

It looks like it's got a tail, though.

It's your first UFO, Calvin. - I think that's one

of the alien's necks sticking out. -

I think people joke about and react to things

when they're uneasy or nervous.

It's not them trying to rationalize what they're seeing.

It's them trying to subdue, using humor,

probably a bit of anxiety or fear.

Kite my ass, there's martians in there. -

I absolutely love that this family

is putting their heads together and trying to determine

whatever this thing is in the sky.

You know, they say that you shouldn't talk about politics

or religion at family gatherings.

But UFOs? That's fair game.

And in this family, the topic comes up a lot.

Because for Allison and Gina, this is not their first paranormal experience.

Not even close.

We're the closest out of everyone,

so we have been sharing our stories our whole life.

- But we have witnessed-- - We've seen a lot of things as kids.

Yeah. We've seen so many things throughout our lives,

and then in our family, we seem to have a long history with UFOs.

We had a grandparent that clearly saw one.

Our grandpa was, you know, a World War II vet,

you know, not monkeying around at all.

And he saw a UFO.

And, we still see a lot of supernatural things to this day.

We both do, it's just weird.

And so the fact that the whole family was there,

it was the first time we had all been together since my son was born.

And, in our supernatural minds, we were, like,

someone was checking in on the whole family.

What do you think that is?

Whatever it was they saw in the skies

above Baton Rouge that day,

Allison and Gina are just grateful for yet another shared experience.

It ties in our whole family.

Pretty much everyone was there.

Even though it was a long time ago.

- So it's kind of neat-- - Yeah.

'Cause it's clear and everyone saw it together.

So, that's what makes it kind of, unique for us.

Look Calvin, your first UFO. - Doesn't that look

- like it's got a tail? - Yeah.

It's your first UFO, Calvin. - I think that's one

of the alien's necks sticking out.

Coming up.

A man in an abandoned Japanese building is surveilled...

...by an unknown figure.

You've probably heard

that intelligent spirits can follow you home from a haunted location,

wreaking havoc at the place you feel safest.

But, even more frightening,

is that in some cases...

...those spirits can call you...

...back to them.

That's what may have happened to one man in Japan,

who brought his camera to explore an abandoned village

and accidentally captured something

that was both terrifying and somehow...

...irresistible.

2015, in the Kanto region of Japan.

A man named Takeda

is exploring a home within an abandoned village.

And although the broken-down nature of the place fascinates him...

...he doesn't see much that truly alarms him.

That is, until he gets home,

and reviews his footage.

Watch closely.

Did you catch it?

Watch again, in slow motion,

as Takeda's camera pans by a nearby window.

A pale face, staring directly at him.

This is creepy with emphasis on eep!

The image that we see here,

especially when it's freeze framed,

is just chilling.

It's hard to describe.

It's incredibly uncanny feeling.

I don't know, it gave me goosebumps.

It's a face that looks as human and alive as anybody's.

But the place where it is, would be impossible for a living person to be.

It seems to be almost trapped between walls.

It looks to be in some kind of turmoil.

Like, it looks, like, it's maybe crying out for help or something.

It doesn't really have a happy look on its face.

Whatever it was doing,

when Takeda sees it, he is intrigued.

So much so, that he goes back to the village

again, and again, and again.

Almost as If possessed.

I've seen stuff like this happen throughout my career.

And it has even happened to me where you go to a location that grabs you.

And you become so enamored slash obsessed.

You can't help but think about it, wanna go back to it.

And it, like, becomes a part of you.

There are energies there that resonate

between you and the spirits at this place.

They start calling you back because they try to live vicariously through you.

But why would this entity want to live vicariously through Takeda,

or anyone, for that matter?

Perhaps the location of the sighting gives us a clue.

In sort of a broad Asian context,

the belief in the supernatural sometimes doesn't work in the same logical ways

that people expect it to in the west,

where, if there's a spirit or a specter,

there's probably some unfinished business,

or something that needs to be resolved.

When someone dies in Japanese culture,

they do believe that spirit, once out of the body, craves a space.

And so they give these altars

and ghost pagodas that they put in front of all their homes,

so that they could house the spirits of their ancestors

and revere them and honor them.

For spirits that don't necessarily have a location

to inhabit after their bodies,

they become these oni-type energies.

Demonic forces, these malevolent entities.

These energies will come and harness the living,

so that they can feel honor again,

so that they can feel life again.

Terrifying.

Thankfully, Takeda eventually does stop visiting the village,

after receiving purification from a local shrine,

which is almost certainly, for the best.

What should you do in the event you witness something paranormal?

It's not moving enough!

Here are some tips to get it all on camera.

Investigate as much as possible.

But know when to stop.

Oh, God.

Be aware of your surroundings.

Get as up close and personal as you can.

And, if you do catch something,

Or connect with us on social media.

Your footage could be seen right here, on...