👻 Spooky English Lesson 😱 Advanced Listening Practice - British English Podcast

This is the English Like a Native Podcast, a listening resource for

lovers and learners of English.

I'm your host, Anna, and today things are getting a little bit spooky.

This particular episode is better suited to advanced students, though

intermediate level students, I believe that you will benefit from jumping in

at the deep end and going with the flow.

For information on how to access transcripts, take

a look at the show notes.

Let's go!

Hello, all you seekers of the supernatural and brave souls

unafraid to confront the unknown.

Welcome to a spine-tingling journey into the realm of the unexplained.

I'm Anna English and you are listening to "Seven Hauntings".

I invite you to join me on an odyssey through the darkest corridors of

history and the depths of human fear, as we delve into the chilling

stories that have left indelible marks on the fabric of reality itself.

An indelible mark.

An indelible mark is a mark that cannot be removed.

To be indelible is unremovable.

Children have a talent for finding indelible marker pens and drawing

on the otherwise pristine walls.

Indelible.

Listen out for that word again later in the episode.

You'll also hear the word malevolent, meaning to have or to show a wish

to do evil or harm to others.

Malevolent.

And the third word to listen out for is sinister.

Sinister.

Sinister means evil, or giving the impression that something

bad is going to happen.

Indelible.

Malevolent.

Sinister.

But don't worry if you can't remember these words, you can get your

hands on the complete vocabulary list for this episode for free.

Links are in the show notes.

So the title of this episode is "Seven Hauntings".

To haunt is to repeatedly appear or to cause repeated suffering or anxiety.

This refers to memories, images, or experiences that can't be forgotten.

If you hear a blood-curdling scream,

"Ahhhh!"

That was a terrible scream.

Then that may haunt you for months, you'll continue to hear

or remember the feeling associated with that moment when you heard it.

Ghosts haunt people or places.

This means they repeatedly appear or torment.

Now, did you know that there are actually many different types of hauntings?

It's not just wailing coming from the basement, or books

falling out of bookcases.

There are many spooky things that you should know about from phantom

apparitions to malevolent spirits, from haunted houses to cursed objects.

Today I will be your guide through the shadows that dance at the edge of our

understanding, we will explore the mystery and macabre tales that have haunted

the minds of the living for centuries.

Our journey will take us from the ghostly echoes of Raynham Hall in

Norfolk, England, where "The Brown Lady" endlessly descends the grand staircase,

to the Enfield Entity's evil minded wit that left an entire family in terror.

We'll traverse the chilling realm of shadow people, those sinister

figures that lurk just out of sight, and then examine the infamous

Amityville Horror where demonic forces unleashed unspeakable horrors in a

seemingly ordinary house in New York.

And if that's not enough to send shivers down your spine,

we'll unlock the mysteries of the Dybbuk Box, and investigate

the enigmatic Skinwalker Ranch.

Finally, dear listeners, we'll venture beyond the confines of time with

the perplexing Versailles Time Warp.

So, gather round my fellow thrill seekers and prepare to

be enthralled and terrified.

Our journey into the world of hauntings is about to begin

and there's no turning back.

Brace yourself for the chilling tales that will haunt your dreams

and awaken your deepest fears.

Listen on, if you dare...mwahaha!

Okay, let's begin with a residual haunting.

This means that the same events or actions are repeated over and

over again, like a recording.

These events are often not interactive with the living, and they may

be associated with traumatic or highly emotional past events.

Witnesses may report seeing apparitions or hearing sounds related to these events.

Introducing the Brown Lady's Eerie Descent.

Deep within the heart of Norfolk, England, a chilling spectre haunts

the centuries-old Raynham Hall.

The dreaded "Brown Lady."

Lady Dorothy Walpole, a tragic figure from the 17th century, perpetually

descends the grand staircase.

Her disheveled brown dress, once elegant, now hangs in tatters.

Witnesses have been terrorised by her apparition, captured in

photographs with bone-chilling clarity.

The Brown Lady, a tortured soul, does not simply haunt; she torments.

Ethereal yet hauntingly real.

As she descends her mournful gaze pierces through the living

imprinting a feeling of dread that lingers long after she's vanished.

Her tragic tale of sorrow and despair replayed in perpetuity, the

endless nightmare of Raynham Hall.

So what happened to this poor lady, I hear you ask?

Well, according to legend, Dorothy, who was born in 1686, was the

second wife of Charles Townsend.

Whatever happened to his first wife, I wonder?

Well, Charles was well known for having a bit of a temper.

We could say that he was notorious for his violent tendencies,

and it's thought that Charles discovered his wife cheating on him.

She was committing adultery with Lord Wharton.

And so he punished her by locking her in her room, never allowing her to

leave, not even to see her children.

And so she remained at Raynham Hall until she died from smallpox in 1726.

Very tragic.

Now our second horror is an intelligent haunting, in which

the entity is believed to be a conscious and interactive presence.

This type of haunting may involve communication with the living

through various means, such as EVP, which is Electric Voice Phenomena,

apparitions trying to convey messages, or objects being moved.

Maybe you've seen films about this type of "noisy ghost".

In German, they say: Poltergeist.

That instantly brings back awful memories of seeing Poltergeist as a young

child, I never should have watched it.

Anyway, introducing The Enfield Poltergeist's Malicious Wit.

In the cold dim corners of an unassuming council house in

Enfield, London, malevolence lurks.

The Hodgson family in the tumultuous 1970s was ensnared in the grip

of an entity known as "Bill".

This malevolent force orchestrated a sinister symphony of terror, commanding

furniture to levitate, objects to hurl themselves through the air,

and a chilling male voice, Bill's voice, to resonate from the mouth of

an 11-year-old girl, at one point, giving a graphic account of his death.

"Just before I died, I went blind and then I had a haemorrhage and

I fell asleep, and I died in the chair in the corner downstairs."

Bill delighted in tormenting the family and investigators alike.

Conversations with the entity revealed a terrifying depth of

knowledge about the family's secrets and a sadistic sense of humour.

Bill's presence was suffocating, an oppressive weight that crushed the

family's sense of safety and sanity.

Sсeptics could not silence the sinister whispers that echoed through the

house's walls, nor could they dispel the palpable malevolence that filled the air.

The Enfield Poltergeist remains a chilling testament to the sinister

intelligence that can manifest from the depths of the supernatural.

For haunting number three, we have to step into the world of the Shadow People.

Shadow people are often described as dark, shadowy figures that are typically

seen out of the corner of one's eye.

They are usually humanoid, but devoid of distinct facial features.

Witnessing shadow people can be a frightening experience.

Introducing The Phantom Shadows.

In the eerie realm between reality and nightmare, mysterious entities

lurk - shadow people who manifest with an unsettling, suddenness,

vanishing just as swiftly.

An encounter with these spectral beings is a disquieting descent into

the unknown, a dance with darkness.

Witnesses recount sensations of oppressive dread and an

overwhelming sense of malevolence.

These apparitions exist on the fringes of perception, leaving

an indelible mark on the psyche.

Shadow people transcend time and culture, their sinister presence

woven into the tapestry of human fear.

Some believe them to be interdimensional beings, while

others perceive them as evil spirits.

They emerge in the darkest hours, during sleep paralysis or in the shivering

moments between wakefulness and slumber.

Regardless of the explanation, the enigma of shadow people endures,

casting long and eerie shadows upon those who dare to confront the unknown.

Are you still there?

Then prepare for the shocking story of the demonic haunting of Amityville.

The entities involved in demonic hauntings are thought to be particularly

dangerous and may exhibit aggressive and harmful behaviour toward the living.

Introducing The Amityville Horror Unleashed.

In the cursed confines of Amityville, New York, the Lutz family unwittingly

unleashed a demonic maelstrom in 1974.

Their new home, tainted by a gruesome mass murder the previous

year, became a nightmarish crucible of supernatural horrors.

The Lutz family's accounts read like a descent into madness: walls,

weeping with oozing slime, swarms of malevolent flies in the heart

of winter, and furniture defying gravity in acts of unholy defiance.

George Lutz, the patriarch, bore witness to red, glowing eyes

that leered at him from the inky blackness beyond the windows.

The sinister entity's relentless onslaught forced the Lutz family to abandon their

sanctuary, fleeing for their lives.

Their harrowing tale would be etched into the annals of horror history,

recounted in the terrifying pages of "The Amityville Horror" and later

immortalised in spine-chilling films.

Inexplicable by rational means, the sinister aura of Amityville lingers, a

haunting reminder of the insidious grip of demonic forces on the human soul.

Now let's get into the realm of haunted objects.

These objects, often referred to as cursed objects, are thought to carry negative

energy or be a vessel for a spirit.

Introducing the The Dybbuk Box's Cursed Relic.

The Dybbuk Box, a seemingly innocuous wine cabinet harbours a

malevolence that defies comprehension.

Its dark history dates back to a Holocaust survivor who believed it to be

cursed; a vessel of unimaginable horror.

Sold and passed from owner to owner, the box brought misfortune,

despair, and unspeakable dread.

The term "dybbuk" originates from Jewish folklore - a possessing spirit that

hungers for the souls of the living.

Within the confines of this cursed relic, it lies dormant, waiting to strike.

Owners have recounted night terrors that leave them gasping for breath,

inexplicable odours that claw at their senses, and physical injuries

that bear no rational explanation.

The Dybbuk Box's notoriety skyrocketed when it found its way onto an online

auction site, ensnaring unwitting buyers into its malevolent grasp.

Its grim legend was further propagated through books and films,

solidifying its position as an enduring symbol of cursed objects.

The evil presence lurking within the Dybbuk Box serves as a dire warning

- the dark forces that can infest the mundane are both real and relentless.

Some locations are believed to be portals and gateways to the spirit world,

where entities can enter our realm.

These locations may experience frequent paranormal activity and a high level

of interaction with the spirit world.

So let's visit one of these portal hauntings.

The Enigmatic Skinwalker Ranch.

Skinwalker Ranch, shrouded in the inky darkness of Utah, beckons

the curious with promises of the unknown and the unexplained.

It is a place where the boundaries between reality and the supernatural

blur, where the mundane world yields to unfathomable horrors.

Witness accounts are a litany of terror: strange lights that dance in

the heavens, bizarre creatures with eyes that gleam like malevolent stars,

and electromagnetic disturbances that twist the very fabric of reality.

Some speak of time itself warping, of missing hours stolen by enigmatic beings

from realms beyond our comprehension.

The ranch has become a siren's song for researchers, conspiracy

theorists, and paranormal investigators alike, all drawn to the allure

of its unfathomable mysteries.

The sinister forces that dwell within its boundaries show no mercy, leaving a

trail of madness and dread in their wake.

Sceptics often scoff, but the legends of Skinwalker Ranch persist, casting a pall

of fear over those who dare to venture into the heart of its enigmatic darkness.

Haunted objects, haunted places, and now finally, haunted time: Time Slips.

These hauntings involve individuals experiencing glimpses or travel

into different time periods.

In the shadowy recesses of history, a disconcerting event unfolded — a

temporal rift of the Palace of Versailles, France, in 1901.

Anne Moberly and Eleanor Jourdain, two English women, stumbled upon a

nightmarish tear in the fabric of time.

As they wandered through the opulent gardens, they encountered figures clad

in 18th-century attire, their eyes gleaming with an otherworldly possession.

Moberly and Jourdain, trapped in the throes of this temporal abyss,

recounted intricate details of a bygone era - details that had no

place in their present reality.

Their nightmarish journey into the past became a chilling enigma, and unsettling

testament to the fragility of time itself.

While many have sought to dismiss their account as mere fantasy, The Versailles

Time Warp remains a haunting tale, a glimpse into the sinister possibilities

lurking beyond the veil of the known.

That's all I can tell you for now.

Seven hauntings about which you might well be sceptical.

Or maybe you are a believer.

Either way, one thing is certain – the stories of hauntings will continue

to captivate our imaginations and keep us wondering what lies beyond.

After all, how can we explain the apparitions, the encounters,

the visions, and the screams?

Have a happy, not a harrowing, Halloween!

Thank you for joining me today.

Until next time, take very good care and goodbye.