S2 Ep40: The Visitor in Clothier Hall

Summary

In this Dead Letter episode of Astonishing Legends, listener Keith recounts a chilling encounter from spring 1997, when he was a Rutgers freshman living on the third floor of Clothier Hall in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Early one Saturday morning, he woke to find a figure sitting on the floor against his roommate's bed just six feet away, inside a room he had locked the night before. The hosts explore whether this was a shadow person, a supernatural visitor, or a trick of the half-awake mind.

Key takeaways

• 1Keith's encounter took place in spring 1997 on the third floor of Clothier Hall, a brick dorm at Rutgers University in downtown New Brunswick, New Jersey
• 2The figure appeared at first light, sitting against his roommate's bed about six feet away, in a room Keith says he had locked the night before
• 3The episode connects the story to shadow people, a topic covered in the show's Episode 26, and to Black Eyed Kids (Episode 87)
• 4The hosts discuss hypnagogia, the hypnopompic state, and the hypnic jerk as possible sleep-related explanations
• 5A correction notes that Benadryl's active ingredient is diphenhydramine, not pseudoephedrine as stated in the episode, which matters because diphenhydramine can cause hallucinations
• 6Further reading includes Charles Fort's 1932 book 'Wild Talents,' the Weird NJ website, and Jim Harold's Campfire

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