Late-night Marketplace scrolling was a mistake.

This week on Ghost Stories & Gummies, I’m diving into some of the creepiest, weirdest, and most uncomfortable real encounters tied to Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace.

From terrifying meetups and bizarre sellers to “absolutely the fuck not” situations that sound like the beginning of a horror movie…

So grab your gummies, lock your doors, and maybe stop responding to listings that say “pickup behind abandoned warehouse.”

Have a paranormal experience, glitch story, creepy encounter, stalker situation, mimic story, haunted object experience, or complete WTF moment?

Send it to Dear Darkness:

• Email ghoststoriesandgummies@gmail.com
• DM me on Instagram/TikTok
• or submit anonymously through the form in my bio/link hub

Your story could be featured in a future episode.

Available on:

• Spotify
• Apple Podcasts
• Amazon Music
• Podbean

This week on Ghost Stories and Gummies, we’re getting into one of the wildest cult stories I’ve covered yet: the so‑called Doomsday Cat Cult. We’ll talk about pastor Sheryl Ruthven, her cat rescue Eva’s Eden, and how, according to former members and reporting, a small Washington church turned into a high‑control doomsday group where cats were believed to be divine beings carrying 144,000 souls through the apocalypse. From blood‑tinged rituals and “Divine Magdalene” claims to a cross‑country “Exodus,” family estrangements, and the Investigation Discovery episode that blew the story up, this one is part true crime, part “what the hell did I just hear.” Content warning: cult dynamics, spiritual and psychological abuse, possible animal neglect, and mentions of violence

https://www.nashvillescene.com/news/coverstory/apocalypse-meow-how-a-cult-that-believes-cats-are-divine-beings-ended-up-in-tennessee/article_78fc2367-5596-5a7a-ad8e-edae8c83a594.html

https://www.cultnews101.com/2016/09/apocalypse-meow-how-cult-that-believes.html

https://www.realclearreligion.org/2016/09/09/apocalypse_meow_a_cat_cult_in_tennessee_273944.html

https://www.getreligion.org/getreligion/2016/9/8/why-bob-smietanas-apocalypse-meow-story-on-an-end-times-cat-cult-really-is-the-cats-meow

https://catsofcapetown.com/2025/03/04/the-curious-case-of-the-doomsday-cat-cult-a-shocking-saga-of-family-faith-and-felines/

https://whatcom-news.com/evas-eden-cat-rescue-makes-news-in-tennessee_50126/

https://www.facebook.com/IsThereACultInColumbiaTN/

https://www.sportskeeda.com/us/shows/who-sheryl-ruthven-do-details-the-curious-case-of-subject-explored

Some hauntings don’t react to you.

They don’t acknowledge you, they don’t change, and they don’t seem aware that you’re even there.

They just… keep happening.

Same place. Same movement. Same sequence over and over again.

In this episode, we’re breaking down the Stone Tape Theory the idea that environments themselves can somehow “record” emotional or traumatic events and replay them later as what people describe as residual hauntings.

We get into where this theory comes from, why materials like quartz are always brought into the conversation, and the scientific reasons it doesn’t actually hold up. But even with that, people are still reporting the same kinds of experiences in the same types of places.

So if it’s not a ghost… what are people actually experiencing?

Because some places don’t feel neutral and that’s the part that sticks.

Have you experienced something like this?

Send it in:

ghoststoriesandgummies@gmail.com

We’re back with Dear Darkness Society Part 2.

After going down a Reddit rabbit hole during Episode 30, I found way more stories than I was expecting… and there was no way I was leaving some of these out.

So this episode is a continuation, more real experiences, more “that’s not right” moments, and more stories from people who were kind enough to share what they’ve gone through and let me bring it here.

Some of these are unsettling.

Some are just straight-up weird.

And some will have you sitting there like… that's a no for me dawg.

A huge thank you to everyone who shared their stories and trusted me with them, I really do appreciate it.

If you’ve ever experienced something you can’t explain, something that didn’t sit right, or something you still think about… you’re not alone.

The diary is always open. 🖤

In this Dear Darkness Society episode, I made the mistake of going on Reddit to see if anyone has experienced the same kind of creepy, unexplainable moments we talk about on here... and yeah, some of you are going THROUGH it.

I'm sharing real stories from people who were kind enough (and brave enough) to let me bring their experiences here. Some are unsettling, so are straight up weird and sine will have you sitting there like... that a no for me dawg.

Huge thank you to everyone who shared their stories and trusted me with them, I genuinely appreciate it.

If you've ever had a moment that didn't make sense, didn't sit right or still sticks with you... you're in the right place.

The diary is always open

What happens when the internet starts reinterpreting childhood cartoons through a much darker lens?

In this episode I explore some of the most infamous cartoon conspiracy theories from the Rugrats imagination theory to the mysterious Squidward creepypasta and look at the psychology behind why people create them in the first place.

https://abc7.com/spongebob-kwarantined-crab-inappropriate-episodes-removed/10462487/

https://www.wired.com/1997/10/in-his-way-john-k-will-challenge-the-world/

https://www.osti.gov/opennet/manhattan-project-history/Events/1945-present/crossroads.htm

https://www.atomicarchive.com/media/photographs/testing/us/crossroads.html

https://ahf.nuclearmuseum.org/ahf/history/operation-crossroads/

https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/usupress_pubs/35/

https://nyupress.org/9780814742815/convergence-culture/

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/spongebob-squarepants-mid-life-crustacean-episode-removed-from-paramount/1100-6489459/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC80580/

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/patternicity-finding-meaningful-patterns/

https://bmcpsychiatry.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12888-023-05360-0

https://www.history.com/articles/nuclear-bomb-tests-bikini-atoll-facts

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Crossroads

https://time.com/4446927/rugrats-chuckie-mom-nickelodeon/

https://www.teenvogue.com/story/rugrats-never-happened-theory

https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/creepypasta

https://www.washington.edu/news/2004/12/06/two-thirds-of-school-age-children-have-an-imaginary-companion-by-age-7/

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/patternicity-finding-meaningful-patterns/

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/03/050308101309.htm