from the unexplained to the mundane. Come join
us on a Journey to the Fringe. Hello and welcome
to Journey to the Fringe. Maybe just a figment
of your imagination and maybe you just forgot
to turn those headphones on. Anyhow, we are your
podcast host. We probably exist. Don't think
too much about it, Taylor and Chelsea. Here today
doing a Chelsea episode. It's probably not the
mushrooms you just ate. We're not literally talking
to you, right? It might be the mushrooms we just
ate, but who knows for sure. Anyhow, on with
the episode. Don't think too much about what
Taylor just said. This episode has been a long
time coming. I really hope nobody's done some
hallucinatories while listening to this. I'm
actually surprised - Oh no, is it a bad trip?
Yep. Coming up, turn it off right now. You know
who you are. You need to be in a better place.
I'm actually surprised we haven't covered it
yet, except for briefly once on a Halloween episode,
I believe it was. And if there was another time,
boy was I wrong. Today, I'm covering the fascinatingly
horrifying world of all that is pale crawlers.
So let's not beat around the bush and let's just
jump right in. You don't need to hear where I
came up with the episode. If I say crawler, what
are we thinking of? Well, They are almost completely
opposite of Bigfoot or Mothman, though they are
humanoids, characterized by their pale, emaciated
appearance and quadrupedal movement, crawling
for the layman person. I don't know why, Chelsea,
but I always feel that you can see their spine,
like very prominently. Yeah, me too. And it's
for a reason. It's because they're supposed to
be like hunched over. And they're emaciated.
So that would logically lead you to believe that
you can see their pointy spine. I assume it's
pointy, too, for some reason. Yep. We're on the
same page. Perfect. They have translucent skin,
pale ash gray. Some people have noted that it's
leathery looking. I don't picture it that way,
but I haven't seen one and I hope to never see
one. They're extremely tall and gangly, appearing
thin and emaciated abnormally. Yeah, we got that.
We got that. Elongated limbs, visible ribs, long
fingers with claws or talons, and always naked.
Always naked. But... Yeah? Rarely are the genitals
described. Never. And I'm sorry, it needs to
be addressed because we are that podcast. We
are that podcast. The podcast about cryptogenitals.
Yeah. That's us. But thankfully, it's not Crawlman
or Crawlerman. It is crawlers. So yeah, it has
not been gendered. So I don't think it matters
as much. Yep. I'm not going to hold it up as
a gripe compared to say a moth man. Yeah. No,
this one's completely ungendered and I'm just
putting it out there. If any of you ever see
a cryptid. Please make note of the genitals.
Please. It's all we're asking. Maybe. This is
what this live cast is for. If anything, tell
us about it. It might make the whole interaction
less scary if you just see something like dangle.
It's true. And you're like, man, I got an email
journey to the French. We're really looking for
it. And we hope the first one is about some cryptid.
We're getting put on some weird spam lists right
now. I can feel it. Okay, where was I? Always
naked. Their face is sunken in large black or
glowing eyes even. Often black, a visible nose,
no hair, totally bald with their nudity as well.
They're probably pretty cold. But for some reason
I always hear of them in like not like super
warm climates. Like they're usually, the places
I've heard of them being spotted are more like,
I don't know, northern states. From what I've...
taken in it seems like they're everywhere why
they're not in warmer areas specifically with
all their nudity no idea maybe they don't feel
cold maybe i don't know that wasn't in the notes
yeah and they don't have any fat either they
wouldn't know you made that very clear in your
description yeah except for the fact that i did
you guys know that they're emaciated Well, quadrupedal,
they're capable of bipedalism and they move hunched
or bent over frantically and quickly. They are
known to be incredibly fast as with the quickly,
stealthy, smart and move quickly. I'm really
trying to make my points here. They're generally
nocturnal, elusive, and highly observant. They
are often reported watching humans from the tree
line, rooftops, and they're typically encountered
around abandoned buildings or in forest caves,
other heavily wooded areas. Most sightings are
at dusk, night, early morning before sunrise,
so main takeaway in that is they like the darkness.
They have been reported as chattering, high -pitched
screams often associated with sightings as well.
They're even associated with mimic behavior,
impersonating someone, calling out your name,
crying children, crying babies. And a lot of
people also mentioned the overwhelming feeling
of dread. I always think of the creatures on
the descent when I think of crawlers. Yeah, I
was actually gonna say that too. Yeah, I wonder
if it's based on that. Is there a chance that
it is a Bigfoot with blight? No. Maybe? Actually,
I have a story that you might like. It might
be. I don't know. Next thing I want to spend
a little bit of time on is distinguishing between
a rake versus a crawler, which I have seen used
interchangeably sometimes. The rake. A rake.
Rake. I don't know how he likes to be called.
Yeah. Yeah. And I was saying, I said blight.
What I meant was alopecia. It's where they like
lose all their hair. No, I would think they're
different guys. Just based on how they walk around.
Okay. Because Bigfoot's not really reported as
walking around quadrupedally, right? Fair. I
think he's mostly upright. Unless he had like
a fun night, probably. So the rake, or Senor
Rake. is essentially the same thing as a crawler
however the rake was definitely created on 4chan
and is most definitely made up the history of
the rake is a perfect example of how internet
culture can manifest a modern legend which is
something that we see quite a bit now, I think.
While many people today claim to see them in
the woods, calling them crawlers, the rake actually
has a very specific documented origin story from
the mid -2000s. In late 2005, an anonymous user
on 4chan's Slash be slash board posted a thread
saying hey be let's make a new monster. I've
never used 4chan I think it's not around anymore.
I think I don't know. Oh, it's still around it
is actually Specifically listed in the Epstein
files that just came out. Oh, it is 4chan like
had a lot of stuff on there right here I don't
know what that slash be slash means. Those are
their subreddits. Okay, basically Thank you for
clearing that up. You're a 4chan expert that
means. Users brainstorm features. Pale skin,
sunken eyes, lanky limbs. The goal was to create
something so creepy it would feel like a real
urban legend. Similar to Slender Man. in the
way they're both made up, I guess. Not the same
creature, same kind of concept. One was from
Creepy Past or something like that. Both totally
made up. During the development, it was briefly
called Operation Crawler before the name The
Rake Stuck, referring to its long tool -like
claws. The 4chan creation even had made up documentation
for the rake to make the story believable and
the creators wrote several fictional historical
documents that are now core to the rake lore.
So they got the miners log written in 1691, an
English seaman claims a creature came to him
in his sleep demanding he leave the land and
never return. The Spanish Journal from 1880,
a translation of a diary from a man who was so
traumatized by the hollow black eyes watching
him that he could no longer sleep. There was
a suicide note in 1964 of a man who took his
life leaving a note for his daughter, Linnie,
claiming that he, the rake, spoke her name. And
there's a media blackout 2003 where the lore
claims that this that there was a flurry of sightings
in northeastern US in 2003, but a mysterious
blackout occurred and all local news records
were destroyed. Unlike typical monsters that
just attack, the rake is a psychological stalker.
Its most famous behavior is sitting at the foot
of a victim's bed and simply watching them while
they sleep. Seeing the rake is often considered
an ill omen. It chooses a victim and stalks them
for years, eventually driving them to madness
or suicide, which is a weird note on this one.
It is one of the very few creepypasta monsters
that speaks. It usually speaks in a shrill metallic
voice, often whispering the name of its next
victims. I'm actually pretty sold him in. He's
actually pretty cool as a made up guy. Yeah.
You know, as far as made up stuff goes, this
one, I like the videos for like people who claim
to have seen crawlers. Like they are creepy.
They do a good job. Yeah. So the rake is described
as hairless, emaciated. A specific detail from
the original 4chan thread is a mouth that hinges
open much wider than a human's, revealing rows
of small, dull teeth. Very important. It's namesake,
long, thin fingers ending in sharp, rake -like
nails used for lacerating prey. I also just picture
them raking with it. Why else would they have
them? Nature obviously wanted them to rake up
some leaves. In the original lore, it's sometimes
depicted with three neon green eyes, though modern
crawler sightings usually describe two large
glowing white or sunken black eyes. It's known
to move faster than the human eye can track,
often scuttling away the moment it's spotted.
It can hide in plain sight, often standing perfectly
still in the corner of a room or behind a thin
tree. In many stories, it seems unfazed by physical
damage or gunshots, though it usually chooses
to flee rather than fight when confronted. So
I didn't directly comment on your comment because
obviously there's a lot of crossovers between
the two, perhaps even drawing inspiration from
a crawler or perhaps a little bit of Tulpa. So
why not both or none of them? Perhaps we can't
have one without the other. It's always a fun
thought experiment that way, but they are two
totally separate things. Rake made up, crawler.
There are sightings of crawlers even before the
rake came into made up existence. Chelsea, I
do just need to ask you something at this point.
I don't know if it came up at all for your research
on this, but Is it not called the rake, that
Sacramento video of like that guy with that night
cam footage of those beings walking through his
backyard? No, that's the Fresno Nightcrawler.
Nightcrawler, okay. Yeah, totally. For some reason,
I've always thought that was called a rake. No.
But it did come up in my research because it
has crawler in it. Okay. So I know exactly what
you're talking about. but something that you
might recognize, I'm just gonna share my screen
with you. I just actually have to find the right
screen to share with you. You might recognize
this guy. This guy's a very famous rake that
you may have seen him passing. Oh, and I always
thought that one was a crawler. So it's a rake
because it's made up. It's made up. So I mean,
I would just consider really anything that is
made up. Probably a rake is what I think. I don't
know. So what I just shared was. I guess I should
tell you. It'll be included somewhere. Yeah.
Maybe it might even be the the title page of
this episode. That is the Louisiana swamp monster
which came out of this online universe and is
probably the most recognizable fake footage.
There are tons of like what are they called trail
cam footage of quote unquote crawlers, rakes,
what have you and tons of fake footage out there.
I would go as far as to say the most I have had
to sift through to find actual information for
any cryptid ever. So much made up AI crap and
stuff out there for this. It's insane. The roots
of the legend, lore, myths, and origins of the
crawler were off the rake now. Honestly, the
crawler itself doesn't go very far back, which
is something interesting to note, especially
with the advent of the rake. There are sightings
that go before the rake was made up officially,
probably going back to the early 2000s. The rake
comes in the 2005s, slightly before The thing
that does seem to come up with the crawler is
that it does seem like it could possibly be mistaken
for other entities. And while what I read for
you does seem distinct to the crawler because
you don't really hear anything else described
as that. I mean, we could be looking at something
that's a skinwalker. which I was informed crawler
did come up in the skinwalker episode actually
to my shock and disbelief. I don't know about
that. I didn't go double check the information
I got, but here we are. As well, the Windigo
could actually fall into crawler territory. Even
things like the Djinn or ghouls could potentially
fall into crawler territory, which I did get
pulled into a little bit because I haven't heard
of them before. Ghouls? And I had to read you
this because what a creepy thing. And this comes
from Arabic countries, just like the djinn. It
sounds so creepy and cool. The ghoul in popular
legend is a demonic being believed to inhabit
burial grounds and other deserted places. In
ancient Arabic folklore, ghouls belong to a diabolical
class of djinn spirits and were said to be the
offspring of Iblis. the Prince of Darkness in
Islam. Sorry for butchering that. I already know
I did. They were capable of constantly changing
form, but their presence was also recognizable
by their unalterable sign, ass as hooves, which
is super creepy. Just like the jinn. Can you
say that again? Asses, hooves? Like a donkey.
Oh, okay. Like hooves. Okay. I was in the wrong
place with that. They put it funny. Just like
the jinn are recognizable by their backwards
feet. I always found that to be such a creepy
detail. Considered female by the ancients, the
ghoul was often confused with the sea la, also
female. The sea la, however, was a witch -like
species of jinn. immutable in shape. A ghoul
stalked the desert, often in the guise of an
attractive woman, trying to distract travelers
and, when successful, killed and ate them. That
sounds like a good career. The sole defense that
one had against a ghoul was to strike it dead
in one blow. A second blow would only bring it
back to life again. That's gonna be the robots,
I bet you. The ghoul, as a vivid figure in the
Bedouin imagination, appeared in pre -Islamic
Arabic poetry, notably that of Ta 'abata, Shiran.
In North Africa, it was easily assimilated into
an ancient Berber folklore, already rich in demons
and fantastic creatures. Modern Arabs use ghoul
to designate a human or demonic cannibal, and
frequently employ the world to frighten disobedient
children. As you do. So much of this world has
demons and like scary things to scare children.
Anglicized as ghoul, the word entered English
tradition and was further identified as a grave
robbing creature that feeds on dead bodies and
on children. In the West ghouls have no specific
image and have been described by Edgar Allan
Poe. He's obviously the man to get the description
from. As neither man nor woman, neither brute
nor human. They are thought to assume disguises
to ride on dogs and hares and to set fires at
night to lure travelers away from main roads.
Pretty cool, isn't it? I couldn't not put that
in. Yeah, I mean, I know enough about ghouls
from The Witcher, the video game, not from the
show, but I'm not familiar with either. Yeah.
They are very cool and they are super like because
I've always thought of them like before knowing
what their background was as very just like generic
ghosts and ghouls like you never really know
exactly It's like the boogey but no they are
terrifying. They eat bones of dead bodies. Yeah
the graveyard Yeah, so I just think it's interesting
that they don't officially appear as a crawler
until around that time like I said there are
sightings of these creatures what they exactly
are it could be anything um with that being said
just coming recently to being identified as a
crawler So now we're onto evidence and sightings,
which is what we've all been waiting for. I already
mentioned all the fake footage, so no need to
mention that again, as I've been doing in this
podcast episode. In doing my research, there
were a fair number of pale crawler sightings
that are regurgitated throughout the community.
known as confirmed sightings. It includes law
enforcement or something around the Midwest and
Ontario. I'm not going to tell you these sightings
because if you do any bit of digging on pale
crawlers, they're the first sightings that come
up. And to be frank, the sightings suck. There's
no details, which lead me to believe that they're
also fake. Every podcast I listened to on these
pale crawlers, the podcast read these stories.
And OK, I'm just gonna read you one so you can
see. So this is from Wikikrypted, and they have
it under confirmed sightings. Like, give me a
break. Listen to it. June 14th - Is this a Deer
Man -like story? Oh, just wait. June 14th, 2008.
Near a forested area in Higgins Lake, Michigan,
in which two unnamed men were injured and one
is killed. Police passed it off as a bear attack
officially. The validity of the bear attack is
unlikely as video has since been lost and was
shown to have disproved that theory. That's it.
And all the sightings were like this. Okay, so
they'd have no first -hand account despite the
fact that somebody survived. Yeah. They have
no reason to believe that it wasn't a bear attack
other than the person telling us says it wasn't
a bear attack. Yeah. And there is a video that
has now been lost. Was there a video at all?
Who knows? Because all it just says now - We
just know a general idea from a city. Like a
forest near a city. They have no idea where that
is. No, to one named Men. No, it couldn't have
less detail. No, you know what? Dear Men was
more accurate. and more sexy just gotta say it
like i know it was so much more intriguing and
i don't get it and the amount of podcasts i listened
to that repeated these was like it was ridiculous
it was so ridiculous anyhow i just had to get
that in there how stupid it was the crawler is
an enigma and Let's get to some actual good sightings.
Sightings with a disclaimer, I did exclusively
limit myself to phantoms and monsters. And guess,
surprise guest, I know that there are some good
and creepy reddit sightings out there. even funny
and entertaining. I know that's where you got
your creepy backwards encounter. Do you remember
that one? I believe it was close to Banff. I
do. Yeah, I believe that was a Boogeyman episode
where that one came up. Oh, yeah, that was a
good one. That one was so funny. Because I think
I decided to say that the Boogeyman kind of transfers
to the crawlers in how I saw it. Yeah. Oh, and
it came up again on this one. OK, but I... the
crawler sightings reddit or the crawlers reddit
both of them there's two of them crawlers crawler
sighting it was so difficult to sift through
all the aid generated fake bullshit of crawlers
and the sightings themselves were stupid i did
not want to spend that much time looking for
like decent stories to read you guys so lon does
good work and i just want to know what I was
in for and have some good sightings for you because
that's in the end. We want good sightings. Sometimes
a funny one is good, but we're going to get some
actual creepy ones here. We're starting off with
a fucking creepy one. OK, this one's giving me
the creeps right now. I'm glad I have the lights
on. In the fall of last year, a couple traveling
through isolated back roads south of Zanesville
experienced an encounter that defies easy explanation,
I'm sorry anyone who lives in Zanesville that
is offended in the tone I took in reading that.
What initially appeared to be a forgotten Halloween
decoration turned out to be something far more
disturbing, brazen questions about an emerging
pattern of anomalous humanoid sightings in rural
Ohio. The witnesses were driving toward Colossalcon
in Sandusky, choosing a quiet one -lane route
through the dense forest south of Zanesville.
See, I said it better this time. The road was
narrow and unlit. bordered by trees on both sides,
with no houses or traffic in sight. As they rounded
a curve, their headlights illuminated what appeared
to be a human -shaped figure hanging directly
over the roadway. Their first assumption was
that it was a Halloween prop, possibly left behind
after the season. That assumption ended abruptly
when the figure turned its head towards the vehicle.
I would fucking die. The entity was suspended
in midair with arms outstretched. Its body dangling
but clearly not attached to any visible structure,
wire, or branch. The limbs were unnaturally long,
with joints that appeared twisted or misaligned.
Its skin hung loosely, described as sagging like
soaked fabric clinging unevenly to its frame.
The face was thin and drawn. The skin stretched
tightly over the skull, giving it a parchment
-like appearance. As the car passed beneath it,
the entity opened its mouth wide. No scream was
heard. The witnesses described the silence as
more unsettling than any scream. Neither spoke
until they reached Interstate 70. The route has
not been used again since the encounter. I assume
by the witnesses? Yeah, just by then, I hope.
They called the police and they said, Kate, we're
just shutting this road down. Yeah, we're shutting
this place down. That sounds fucking creepy.
We'll see if we can get them to nuke this spot.
I'm just going to read Lon's commentary and notes
that he follows it up with here. Kind of floating.
Some of them. Some witnesses describe these entities
crouching or standing unnaturally still. Others
report levitation or vertical movement inconsistent
with known biological mechanics. Possible origins
include an undiscovered biological entity adapted
to nocturnal environments, an interdimensional
manifestation temporarily intersecting physical
space, or an alterterrestrial presence using
perceptual camouflage and silence as a defensive
or observational behavior. The lack of sound
and the entity's reaction to headlights may indicate
awareness and intentional exposure rather than
accidental discovery. more gives me the creeps
than anything I've heard like some of the talk
on crawlers is like fallen angels and just like
the fact that it would be floating would be like
yeah I get where that's coming from yeah that's
true yeah I actually haven't heard I mean Mothman
will kind of suspend yeah but he's mostly flying
it's not something yeah it's not well you don't
really see like the wing but yeah he's like not
just suspended, which is interesting. He says
that there's other sightings like that gives
me the creeps. It's just one of those unnatural
things that, you know, shouldn't be happening.
So it's just like extra creepy, just like the
hoops, the asses hoops. Anyhow, you're going
to like this one. This one is from the special
guest, not Lon. but I took it from somebody that
Taylor actually turned me on to, who was Hammerson
Peters. Oh. And he took these stories from the
comments on his videos. It's actually highly
recommended. Maybe I'll link it up in this for
you to go over to. He said he was getting so
many comments on people saying that he was AI
on his videos that he does. Yeah, he's got a
very bland voice when he's speaking. So he just
wanted to do, I guess, is the topic that he did
he said he was gonna do it more podcast and actually
like do things where he's not reading off his
script so I found the the start of the video
pretty funny where he was saying that so on this
one he was reading specific encounters through
videos that he posted on these so this one comes
from user rookie mate I'm not sure where that
is maybe YouTube I don't know where he posts
I don't know if he has a podcast platform on
Spotify or something. Yeah, I don't know. He
definitely has a YouTube channel. I know that.
So let's just say from there user rookie mate
writes this one. My buddies and I, when we were
younger, we're checking out this abandoned factory.
And when we first got there, my buddy was like,
look, And we looked up and we saw an orb going
across the field in front of the factory and
then the next second we saw a seven plus foot
white humanoid being looking thing chasing the
orb. Let me tell you I've never seen such a thing
ever before or again. The way the white figure
moved was super frightening. We'll never forget
that night my buddies and I ran so fast the two
of us lost a shoe. This is all maybe a hundred
feet in front of us and the tall white thing
that for sure was no regular human being. It
was maybe 15 feet behind the orb chasing it,
but what made it so frightening was how fast
they were both moving. It was almost like they
were in fast forward. I've never seen anyone
or any other animal move that fast. The whole
experience was definitely inhuman. I think about
it often because it always raised questions for
me and it helps me keep an open mind in today's
world. End story. Doesn't that remind you of
one of those weird Bigfoot stories? The Bigfoot
gets weird stories, yeah. Yeah, doesn't it? And
you know me, I love like quote unquote Bigfoot
get weird stories that you're never going to
hear anywhere else because they just defy every
known aspect of reality outside of UFOs and stuff.
They're just so bizarre. And I love it. Like,
what the hell is going on here? Oh, yeah, no,
it's Thankfully, that's not, like, looking at
you, but that would still be horrifying. Like,
it's got its own thing it's going after, but,
like, at any moment you could be spotted. Aw.
Yeah, it's one of those things where in the end
you go, thank God it didn't see me, but I can't
get out of here fast enough. What the fuck did
I just see? But yeah, I had to include that.
I was so happy that I found this and I - I'd
be very curious because he didn't really mention
where it was, correct? Other than like what they
saw? Because like, Hammer St. Peter's really
focuses on Canadian lore, but - He did. That's
not necessarily Canadian lore because it's coming
from some comment on his stuff. No, and he -
I can't remember, but yes. I went through the
video and he kept saying, oh, where is this one
from? And one was - They were all over the place,
but when was next to Edmonton? I don't think
it was this one, though. Well, that's Dear Man.
Sorry. Yeah, that is Dear Man. Does Hammerson
Peters do Dear Man? He does not. As far as I
can tell, he does a lot, though. Maybe I should
comment that he should do a Dear Man episode.
The next encounter is Mozambique. No, I'm not
going to read you the title. Because I put the
links for the thing here for my reference. Don't
read it Chelsea Okay, so I never thought I would
find myself writing this for context I hold a
doctorate in wildlife biology reside in Mozambique
and spend a considerable amount of time in the
ocean as A result I had to process that he's
always in the ocean as a result I've encountered
a fair share of everyday yet unusual phenomena
The night before last I couldn't sleep so I went
down to the living room sofa so I wouldn't wake
my partner. Sitting on the couch I hear rustling
in the front room. We have cats and two large
dogs. We leave the front door open so they can
come and go as needed. The house complex is guarded
but the incident occurred around 3 .30am the
night before last and the guard is likely half
asleep in his hut. I mean, first of all, what
the fu - I can't possibly imagine, especially
in Mozambique, like sleeping with the door open?
I don't know about that. It's probably pretty
common. You gotta assume. What if you get like
some weird creatures in there? Like what's about
to happen? I don't want to spoil anything. I
think the wrestling is the cats and think nothing
of it, but start to feel uneasy. Some slight
movement in the mirror by the room's door catches
my eye. I smashed my head around and saw something
bipedal in the mirror. I saw a head with large
glowing eyes, shoulders, and two arms ending
in what appeared to be claws, devoid of any coloration.
The whole body seemed the same pale grey except
for the yellow eyes that seemed to glow or reflect
the light from the room I was in. This was hanging
from the roof on the other side of the door,
seemingly watching me through the mirror, our
eyes locked for about three to five seconds before
I leapt up. I can't even imagine making eye contact
with this for that long. Yeah. Yeah. Like it's
awkward with another human. Imagine this pulling
my growing in the process. I shout, nope, nope,
nope, this is not real, this is not happening
as I run out of the room. In my head, I want
to ID it sensibly so I don't go crazy. The thing
immediately moved fast, exiting the house around
the same time as I exited the room. I then see
a tremendous shape on the deck, running left
to right before it literally appears to jump
off into the night. I go upstairs and explain
what happened to my partner. My hair is standing
on end. I have constant shivers down my spine
and I end up in tears. I'm a big boy. I've chummed
water for sharks, jumped in and take them with
a spear gun, sampled whales with a crossbow off
a speedboat, been around baboons. We don't have
them here and there, much smaller than what I
saw. And I am familiar with the smaller animals
that we see rarely at night here. This terrified
me. What terrified me more was the thought of
the white cement ridge beam row of blocks on
the ceiling that it was hanging from on the roof.
And the two dirty marks I found the next morning.
No fingerprints or monkey paws. Just what is
usually marked from the bottom of the palms of
your hands are dirty. Usually animals wouldn't
dare enter the garden due to the large dogs which
were sleeping in the bedroom with the cats the
whole night again, weird as the dogs usually
are perfect guards. I've asked some locals and
they have a name for it in the local language.
They reportedly see a lot of unusual things in
these communities. They said that sometimes when
you see them running far ahead of you and then
they disappear and you turn around to find them
coming up behind you. We've never seen anything
before save for an odd blue light out at the
sea we wouldn't explain a while back but nothing
like this. There have been a spate of dog killings
in the area lately. It was terrifying, but I
didn't feel in any danger or likely wouldn't
have gotten up. As a biologist, I've always been
interested in overlooked signals. For example,
many plants that appear dull and visible light
can look quite unusual in infrared or other wavelengths
of light. Something like that, specific times
of light and light levels allow things to be
seen that usually can't be. Interesting. from
the UK originally never seen anything close to
this the guys I work with knew what it was and
had seen something similar before the only thing
I recall is that it looked caught like an animal
with a light in its eyes and froze for a second
too either that or it took a moment to figure
out if I could really see it yeah it got awkward
yeah three minutes of eye contact will make anybody
awkward Next one. I'm ready to talk. I've never
posted this anywhere, but I'm prepared to share
my story I grew up in Pennsylvania specifically
in the central Pennsylvania Appalachian region
You can probably figure out where I was as it's
the most wooded area in the middle of PA this
happened between 2014 and 2016 I can't exactly
remember when but I know I was with my ex -girlfriend
will call her Carrie I've talked about this to
maybe six people in my entire life so far and
I was around 13 or 14 at the time. I was leaving
work with my girlfriend's grandma. Being a typical
teenager, I was trying to smooth talk my girl
as we drove to her grandma's house, which wasn't
far, maybe seven or eight miles. That's a phrase
I have not had in a long time. I could look it
up, but I don't feel like it. Carrie's grandma
owned a small BBQ restaurant where I worked,
so I was used to seeing black bears and had even
encountered one with mange. But I promise you,
this wasn't what I saw. I've hunted my whole
life, not proficiently, but I'm familiar with
the local wildlife, including our scarce piebald
deer population. And once again, this creature
wasn't that. We were about 2 -3 miles from our
house and had just turned off the main road onto
a more minor side road that led directly into
the woods and farmland. We had gone maybe a quarter
mile down the road by an old pond I used to fish
at when something came out of the woods. It was
pale, off -white and slightly hunched over. It
wasn't huge, maybe five, six at the most, but
it could have been as short as four feet. It
was humanoid and I didn't see its face, but it
was definitely on two legs. It sprinted across
the road at a fast pace and jumped over a sign
that the homeowners of the lake had put up at
the end of their deeply wooded driveway. Presumably
to show off. What? Carrie's grandma quickly pulled
over to the side of the road and, excuse my language,
said, what the hell was that? And then it was
gone. I never saw it again. I didn't see giant
claws or glowing eyes or any sex organs. Wow.
Good! Good on you, buddy. He good on him! I love
- I love that, that's our first. He had the wherewithal
to check, well, he had genitals on the mind,
let's face it. Yeah, well obviously. But that's
our first, I think, that it's ever come up. This
is incredible. Mark your calendar. Just a humanoid
pale creature running on two legs and jumping
over this gate. This was the early 2010s, so
of course, I thought I'd seen the rate. It wasn't
moving at some unbelievable speed, and honestly,
if we had been going faster, I probably have
seen pictures of it wrapped around the bumper
of her Hummer. What the fuck? Grandma's driving
a Hummer? Yeah, they're teenagers. Grandma's
probably in her late 50s at most. but it was
fast like an adult man sprinting that's it i
never saw it again and never heard anything unusual
in the woods after that the coyotes disappeared
for a couple of months or at least they stopped
howling oh i was gonna take this out because
it kind of sucks but they do mention the sex
organs i'm cutting that one short because it
wasn't really going anywhere no Oh man, that's
uh, you gotta love teenage boys. They don't know
how to talk. Leave it to them that that's the
one that he comments on. Yeah. The genitals.
That's what I got. I think there are a variety
of options for what this could be, including
Tulpa. The sightings did start before the rake
was created, so maybe not. And the rake was created
out of mass consciousness pooling together, maybe.
So it could be paranormal, could be cryptid,
could be ultra -terrestrial, or extra -dimensional
being. could be Dear Man of Southern Alberta.
I think there's so many options for what the
crawler could be at this point and I think the
sightings that I included just leave so much
more openness to it because they really divide
everything I think that we've covered as a cryptid.
Or maybe all of it. Encapsulated all of it. I'm
not really sure. Yeah and in fact we got what
we've been looking for this whole time in this.
It's true. In that somebody finally looked at
their junk and told us what was there. Which
was nothing. Yeah. So, I guess we're not getting
that email anymore. No, still look at the genitals
and emails, please. Still do it. You can still,
yeah. Yeah, you can still do it. You can be the
first to tell us. Yeah. The true people who know
what's going on. We'll start polling. We'll start
a poll. Just do it. Do you have anything to add
or say? Add and say. So, Lon, he covers quite
a bit of this, Lon Strickland, or is it? Strickler.
Lon Strickler. i'm just wondering how like when
he's covering these they're coming from all over
the world for him or is he because he's mostly
just american -based right or is that just like
he is like he speaks english so you have to be
able to like it's true it's true and i think
a lot yeah he does like all of his are first
-hand accounts like he's talked to the person
who's had the sighting for the most part yeah
they try to contact them back after and do a
follow -up on it now i think there's a lot to
be said it Hopefully future episodes. We've done
a few where we look at other cultures. Cryptids
are so cultural based too, and we only have so
much understanding of our own language, right?
So much can be lost in translation. So much of
our cultural experience can be tied into these
creatures. And it's funny when they defy cultures
and stuff like that, there's really something
to it then at that point, but... Where I'm going
with this is my very next encounter that I did
have, which I think I'll save for another episode,
was France, which is not that culturally different
than North America as, say, like an Asian country,
but still different country nonetheless, to answer
your question. Okay. Well, no, that's the only
thing I've had. Like I've seen crawler sightings
before. And like I've said, there's movies out
there, people purporting to have seen crawlers
where they're the creepiest videos and I don't...
care whether or not they're real or not because
they are just creepy. I know. Like that's why
I'm watching them. They're creepy. Yeah. And
it I think it's that kind of like uncanny valley
effect where it's humanoid enough, but it's different.
And that is something that is just like, I think,
core to humans where if there's something just
off. but it looks similar to us, it's creepy.
And I think that's a big part of it. And that's
the thing about crawlers. Yeah. And the thing
about crawlers too is every single sighting is
somebody getting scared or it's creepy. There's
none that are just like awkward or they catch
it kind of dazed or like they don't know what
to think. No, it's everybody is creeped out or
scared. Yeah. And it has that overwhelming sense
of dread, which you see with some certain cryptids
or paranormal creatures for that matter which
gives it that like similar to the ghouls it's
I don't know where I'm going with that but yeah
and on the train of thought that you're on scrolling
through crawlers and rigs. So much found footage,
so much AI, just so much made up stuff. I don't
know why it goes hand in hand with this. You
virtually see none of that with the Love Lamp
Frog. It's all real footage. Why doesn't any
- I know! But to be fair, we've tried doing AI
images of the Loveland Frog, and AI just doesn't
get it. It's true. No matter how hard you try,
it just can't capture the magnifique that is
Loveland Frog. He just has such a fantastic ass.
Those thighs. I know. Anyhow. And the crawler
definitely does not. Like, it's a Macy. We don't
have to worry about that. Such a terrible ass.
Ass technology has only gone so far with the
AI we have. The Love Live Froggy's gonna win
any ass competition out there, hands down. That's
probably a good place to stop. Chelsea, thank
you for this episode. I have been Taylor, here
with Chelsea. We are Journey to the Fringe. Thank
you all for listening and we'll see you next
week. Bye. Thank you for listening to Journey
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