Glowing Figure in Nagpur India | True Paranormal Stories & Spooky Folklore | Ep #52

0:03 You're not going to find me. Listen, the only way that you're going to find me in a forest is if I'm the one doing the haunting. Welcome stranger to another episode of Madam Strange Ways where I, Madam Strange Ways, narrate your true strange stories of the unexplained. Whether you're a skeptic, A believer, or some secret third thing. Stick around after the story where I will share my strange thoughts and research about said strange story. And along the way I'll drag you down a slew of strange rabbit holes, kicking and screaming if needs most. But first, the strangest of shout outs to my Patreon patrons, TJ Hotter of the Tapes of Trepidation podcast, G Man Music, Ted, Keith and Tori, thank you so much to my Feral Fiendish 5 for supporting the show. Hear your name at the beginning of every episode, get a free sticker and get bonus Madam Strange Ways content like Madam Strange Notes episodes and a strange guided sleep meditation just for joining the Patreon at patreon.com/madam. Strange Ways.

1:19 Well, sounds like it's about to rain hellcats and hell Hounds outside, so you know what that means. Time for a true strange story here on Madam Strange Ways. Illuminated silhouette in the forest by Amaya. I was near my hometown of Nagpur, India.

2:01 I had met a really cute girl on Bumble and I had been seeing her for a couple of weeks. Nothing serious, we were just fooling around since I was going to be leaving India in a few weeks to move to Canada. She lived on the outskirts of the city and she had a research role at the law university which was located on the outskirts of the city. She lived on campus and that area had a huge forest nearby. She'd send me videos of snakes and cobras randomly sliding through her campus. I'd take my scooter about 25 or 30 kilometers away from the city to go meet her near her place, and we used to get drunk, fool around, and it was the most fun I ever had on dates in my life. To be honest, she was mad fun.

2:46 One day we were on the way back from one of those dates and I was supposed to drop her back at the law college campus where she lived. I wasn't familiar with the surroundings because I was new to this area and the outskirts of the city, and neither was she because she was new to the city as well. While I was dropping her off, we got lost because I took a wrong turn and we ended up inside the forest area I mentioned earlier. It was around 7:00 or 8:00 in the evening and it was pretty dark since the sun had set. I asked her to pull out her phone to check Google Maps so we could find a way back to the campus she lived at. She was sitting behind me on my scooter and she said that her phone wasn't getting any signal and Google Maps was offline, but she said that she knew we were going in the correct general direction towards her campus. My phone didn't have a connection either. I didn't think much of it and I just kept writing and I thought we'll eventually find our way out of here, which we did. However, this is where the most bizarre thing I have ever witnessed in my life happened to me. I was casually riding my scooter and she was sitting behind me and we were talking about how it shouldn't be too difficult to get out of there because we weren't way too far out or anything like that.

4:04 And then I saw it on the right hand side of the road, a tallish silhouette of a humanoid figure. It appeared masculine in form and it was emitting a strange glow. However, it had no features. It was just a shadow, completely black with this radiant white aura encompassing it. It was shaped like a man. Important to note that the only light around on that mud Rd. was the light from my scooter. I couldn't comprehend what I was seeing. I slowed my scooter as I got closer to it, I saw it hauntingly standing there and in the blink of an eye it just fucking disappeared. I was so mind blown I didn't say anything for a few seconds. All I remember is that I just revved on the accelerator and zoomed the fuck out of there.

5:00 I thought I was too drunk because we'd had quite a bit of rum and beer before this. I turned around and told the girl that I should stop and get off the bike for a minute because I think I am hallucinating. And I saw a shadow. And this is where I got the maddest chills I have ever had run down my spine because she replied don't fucking stop here, just go. I saw it too. This is not a made-up story. This is a true event that occurred in my life. This happened in December 2023. I moved to Canada soon after this incident. It's where I live now. I have not shared this experience with many people and I have never heard about anyone seeing anything like this before. I was hoping someone could help me get some insight into what we saw that night.

5:51 I don't really talk to her anymore because she started seriously dating someone else a couple of months after I moved away, but she holds a special place in my life because I shared this completely surreal fucking experience with her. Amaya, thank you so much for allowing me to Share your story on the show. Terrifying for so many reasons for. So first of all, you're in the cobra forest with cobras. So that's out.

6:34 First of all, any forest, you're not going to find me. Listen, the only way that you're going to find me in a forest is if I'm the one doing the haunting. I am not going to be caught dead in a forest in which there are at at all. Period, end of story. But especially not one that has cobras inside of it. You see, You see what I'm saying? No cobras. Anyway, that's before you even see something horrifying that your mind can't possibly make any sense of. Like, OK, so it's like, is it a shadow person? Well, kind of. But do shadow people glow? We'll get into it. We'll get into it. Because of course, I have done research on the story. Hello. Welcome. Welcome.

7:15 Is this your first time? If it is welcome. If it's not, welcome back. Happy to have you here. Something that we'd like to do here on Madam Strange Ways. And when I say we, I mean the royal. We the strange we. Something we like to do here on Madam Strange Ways is to talk about not just the paranormal, not just the skeptical, but a Little Mix of both. A little column A, a little column B. But before we get into it, Amaya, I need a couple more seasons of this show. I need to know what do you mean? What do you mean? This cute girl that you had such a good time with, she's seeing someone else. Hello. No, that's no. How serious can it be, really? You know, because you're thinking clearly like she's the one that got away.

8:00 You're the just the just you clearly had such a good time with her and you miss her. So maybe she's thinking the same thing. Maybe you're both. Maybe this is like 5 Will goes West and you're both. Is that the movie where that happens where you're both looking at like the North Star at night and you're thinking, I wonder if they're looking at the North Star too. Maybe that's what's happening here. I think I need a couple more seasons of the show. I need you guys to get back together. So keep me updated. Let me know, can she? Is she coming to Canada? Maybe she needs to take a visit, a little vacay. Obviously she needs to dump whoever it is that she's seeing first. So let me know, do you need help with that? Do you need help with that? Do we need? What do we, what do? What do you need from me? How can I help you? Let me know madamstrangeways@gmail.com so that we can get you guys back together. And Amaya, I can tell that you think about the story a lot like with with the detail that you shared and how vivid the memory still is.

8:53 It's clear that this is something that has stuck with you. And of course it is. Of course it's something that has stuck with you. I'm sure it's like burned into your brain, like you. You close your eyes and on the backs of your eyelids you can see this glowing shadow figure, Am I right? And so for that reason, I hope nothing like this ever happens to you again, unless you want it to, in which case, all right, I do hope that it happens again. Fine, fine. You can have it, but what I found especially compelling about the story, and is one of the main reasons that I asked permission to read it, is that two people saw the figure, not just one person. So it can't be dismissed as just a hallucination, which, you know, I love to talk about hallucinations. I think a lot of things that people mistake for the paranormal are hallucinations because as a general rule, we as humans don't understand how common it is to have hallucinations especially.

9:47 I'm not going to get on a tangent here. We do go down rabbit holes. We, the, the strange we, we do go down rabbit holes here at Madam Strange Ways, but this is not one of them. However, I do just want to mention stories that take place in bed at night during a time in which you are normally asleep, in which you are relaxed. If you see something that doesn't make sense in those settings, I'm going to say you're probably dreaming. You didn't realize you were dreaming or you had a hypnotic hallucination. You were falling asleep and you didn't think you were falling asleep. Obviously, that's not the case here. They were both awake. One of them was driving. Not that you can't. Oh, my God, I can hear. Yes, you can fall asleep while driving. This is not one of those cases. Both people awake.

10:27 Yes, there was alcohol involved. Yes, we'll get into it. We will get into it. In fact, let's get into it right now. So just quickly, we did specify that this is set in Nagpur, India. Just FYI, if you are not aware, it is in central India. The city of Nagpur is in Central India and it has a few nicknames such as Orange City because I think they grow a lot of oranges there. I took these notes a few days ago and have slept since then. So let's just let's just do a quick double check. OK, I'm back. Yes, Nagpur is known for a specific variety of Mandarin orange specifically grown in Nagpur. Sounds delicious, very tasty. So that's why it's called Orange city. Here's another thing, it's called the heart of India. And that is because literally the zero mile marker for the entire country is located in Nagpur, India. It's in the very center of India. Nagpur is also known as the Tiger capital of India and the Tiger Gateway of India.

11:24 And that's because I guess there's just a whole lot of tigers there. There's a lot of tiger sanctuaries. OK, now that we have established where we are, which is in the very literal center of India, we're going to get into our theories, both mundane slash skeptical and paranormal. And we're going to start with the mundane today. So like I said, when there's more than one witness to something, it does make it harder to explain. It becomes more unexplainable, not less, but not impossible to explain. Though, as you'll see, I don't have a lot of ideas for the mundane explanations. So if you have thought of something I haven't, after you finish listening to this section, go ahead and let me know. madamstrangeways@gmail.com. I always want to hear if y'all have thoughts on the theories on the show.

12:06 OK, mundane theories. Right away, we have to address the fact that yes, they had been drinking alcohol definitely impairs your perception and memory. Obviously that is the case. I am not arguing that. However, I feel like you're not hallucinating on alcohol as easily as other drugs. So OK, you know what? Hold, please let me check. OK, I'm back. It's definitely not as common as other drugs. However, here are two reasons why alcohol might induce hallucinations, which I think tells us that the alcohol wasn't relevant to seeing that figure at all. My client is innocent, Your Honor. Objection overruled. Wait a minute. Is my client rum and beer? Why did I take this case?

12:47 All right. From the NIH site. Alcoholic hallucinosis, which is a fun word, is a rare complication. It's not funny. Of chronic alcohol abuse characterized by predominantly auditory hallucinations, Not visual, that occur either during or after a period of heavy alcohol consumption. Usually it presents with acoustic verbal hallucinations, again, not visual. Delusions and mood disturbances are rising in clear consciousness and sometimes may progress to a chronic form mimicking schizophrenia. So yes, alcohol can cause hallucinations. However, they were both seeing the same thing and they were clearly not drunk enough to be hallucinating, and if they were, it would be auditory. So we're going to put that to rest. The rum is irrelevant, which leaves the deeply fallible nature of the human brain, which if you are not new to the show, if you have been here before, then you know, I love talking about it because it is true.

13:42 The brain is not perfect. Our brain is actually very imperfect when it comes to memory. And I mean, sure, I've talked recently at length in a couple episodes, especially in the disappearing cabin episode, if you want to go back and listen to that one after this one's done. If this is interesting to you about how terrifyingly easy it is to have your memory accidentally changed by someone else's perception without you even knowing it happened, without you even knowing that that's something that can happen, that can happen to you. But that doesn't really apply here because the two didn't have time to exchange stories. It was on the fly. And she recognized to him that she saw the figure before he even acknowledged it. Now, we'll never know.

14:24 Here's here's what we'll never know. We will never know if the two of them saw the exact same thing because, well, we, well, maybe we will know when they get back together. And then I'll have them on the show and they'll let me know when you all get together and you swap notes, We'll have you both on the show. E-mail me madamstrangeways@gmail.com, but we will not know exactly what she saw. Did she see the exact same thing? A dark shadow figure with an aura around it? Unclear. But they did both see something that scared them. Unless it's swamped gas or a weather balloon. I mean, it could be either one of those, right? All right, moving on. The paranormal and folkloric explanations for what happened.

15:07 All right, I took to Reddit and I asked a couple of the, well, a few. What do we define? Few, as you know, here's the problem with me. I always take it literally. A couple is 2, a few is 3 or more, and then several. My brain always says if I talk to you guys about this, I always think several is like 7 or more because Sev is in it. And I guess as a child I just decided those two things were related. But no, I'm out here. Apparently people are using four and they mean several. A four is a few. OK, 4 is like a a few, 3 is a few. Now I'm like not oh McKay oh Oh my God. That is not a rabbit hole we're going down right now.

15:47 I'm moving on. Anyway, the point is I posted on more than two paranormal subreddits, possibly 3, and I asked them if anyone there has heard or seen anything about this exact figure. So a shadow figure that has like an aura illuminating it. OK so the first response is from a redditor and I'm paraphrasing because I did not ask permission to read their comments. So what they said was that it sounded exactly like what they and their friend saw camping last year. Camping outdoors. I didn't say in my post. I didn't say this happened outside in a forest, I didn't say it happened in India, I didn't say anything. I just gave a physical description about what Emmaus saw and the very first person to comment said that they saw the exact same thing camping outside, presumably near a forest.

16:42 I feel like there's something there. Anyway, they go on to say that their siding was kind of shorter and that the glow was more blue white instead of pure white. And they also specified that they were both stone cold sober and that the figure just stood there for like 30 seconds and then it slowly disappeared and that they and their friend still argue about what it could have been. I can't blame them. Then another redditor commented and said yes, they had seen this exact same thing. Yes, this is. I'm going to read this verbatim because it's not that many words and it's confusing. They said, yes, it was an interactive object. Come again? I replied and I was like, could you, what does that mean? What do you mean?

17:23 Please expand. And they did not ever respond. They didn't respond. And you know, I was like, is this like a, is this a paranormal phrase that I was unaware of? Like, because you know, there's new phrases all the time or rebranded old phrases. And no, I can't find anything about what it means. So if you know, do you know in the paranormal context what an interactive object is? Let me know Madam strangeways@gmail.com. OK, so that's all that actually responded to me, but I did also search the Internet, which includes Reddit, for other sightings of people who have seen something exactly like this. And so here we go. You've heard of shadow people. Now get ready for scary light people. Is that the opposite of shadow? Shadow light?

18:06 Get ready for light, people. I don't know. So here we go. Someone woke up in the middle of the night and saw through their open door a glowing blue humanoid figure walking into their parents room. Now that the whole figure is glowing, and that's what you're going to hear in all these comments, is that it's not exactly the same. It was difficult to find a shadow figure with a glow around it. That was the struggle. I didn't find a lot of stories about that, but I thought this is interesting. Pay attention to what color all of these are. OK, It's interesting. Someone else said that they saw once during an episode of sleep paralysis this glowing figure. It was standing in their doorway and that they could see it very clearly even though they couldn't move. And they had the distinct impression that it was a male figure, just like Emmaus said, even though there weren't any features that they could make out.

18:50 It was literally an electric glowing blue human shape, normal height, and it just turned and walked down the hallway. And then yet another one, someone saw a being that looked sort of like a stick figure that was made of neon blue electricity walking towards them. Now that one is outside. That one was outside the the glowing stick figure, which by the way, I have read multiple stories over the years about stick figures, stick figures running alongside trucks or in the forest. Very scary. It's, you know what it brings to mind? Blair Witch, Blair Witch Project. Anyway, why are they all blue?

19:34 Even the first redditor who responded to me saying, Oh my God, that sounds exactly like what I saw. They're all blue. Why are all they, why are they all blue? I mean, Emmaus wasn't blue. I, I, I think that Emmaus was white. Emmaus, please correct me if I'm wrong, but why are they all blue? OK, there's like four or five more that I had on here. But honestly just note that there's a lot of them. There's a lot of people that are seeing like glowing figures. Not exactly what Emmaus saw, but close. But moving on to another theory, I have read theories that aliens and Nhis so non human intelligence, which is kind of like aliens but maybe not specifically aliens. I can't get into it now. I'm going to need to do an NHI episode.

20:16 Do you want to hear about non human intelligence? Do you want to hear about Nhis? Let me know, madamstrangeways@gmail.com. Anyway, I've heard that aliens and Nhis may just be made of energy and instead of, you know, physical bodies. So they're just made of energy. And then that would definitely be something that they could turn their bodies into different shapes. And that's why they can kind of shape shift because they don't actually have a body, they're just made of energy. In which case they will want to be something that's more familiar to us so that we don't freak out when we see them, which we definitely will be freaking out. So again, I think I said this to a ghost in a recent episode. Don't do that. Don't. You're going to scare us. So don't even try. Don't even try to soften the blow.

20:56 It's going to be really scary anyway. If they're just made of energy, they can take on human form and then they can lurk about in the woods and then they can realize that they're spooking us and then disappear. I don't know. I don't know how Nhis work. Are you an NHI? Do you have some insight into this? Were you the NHI thatemmaussawletmeknowaboutastrangeways@gmail.com All right, as you know, I love to do research on local folklore about what's going on. Like is an area known for being haunted is a known is an area known for being spooky. So I wanted to see. So here we go. Haunted places in Nagpur, India according to Reddit and also the Internet, but it pulls from Reddit. So anyway, there's a Parsi cemetery in Nagpur that I keep seeing listed as a super haunted location. But I did pull it up on Google Maps and it doesn't look like it's.

21:44 I don't know exactly where in Nagpur that they were but the cemetery doesn't really look like it was located too close to a section that they could have been. But if I'm wrong I may let me know. And I'm trying to not get too distracted here and not go down too many rabbit holes so I can focus on the story. But since I did mention Parsi cemeteries, I can't not talk about them from Encyclopedia Britannica. Parsi, member of a group of followers in India of the Persian prophet Zoroaster. The Parsis, whose name means Persians, are descended from Persian Zoroastrians. Remember, Persian Persia is Iran now, who immigrated to India to avoid religious persecution by the Muslims. So I talked about Zoroaster in the Three Greek Witches episode, which seems unrelated but I assure you that somehow it is.

22:31 So if you want to know more, go ahead and check out that episode, which is also one of my favorites. But anyway, Parsi cemeteries specifically from Wikipedia. A dachma, also known as a tower of silence, is a circular raised structure built by Zoroastrians for ex carnation, that is, the exposure of human corpses to the elements for decomposition. In order to avoid contamination of the soil and other natural elements by the dead bodies, carrion birds, usually vultures and other scavengers consume the flesh. Skeletal remains are gathered into a central pit where further weathering and continued breakdown occurs. So metal. Once the bones have been bleached by the sun in the wind, which can take as long as a year, they are collected in an ossuary pit in the center of the tower, where, assisted by lime, they gradually disintegrate in the remaining material. Along with rainwater, runoff seeps through multiple coal and sand filters before being eventually washed out to sea. However, the decline in the Vulture population in India due to poisoning has led the Parsi community to explore alternatives to standard dachmas. So here's the situation.

23:35 Not only, not only are Parsi communities really rare, but the cemetery is, does not have a, does not have a tower of silence. So there's none of that stuff going on at this Parsi cemetery. They've actually modernized and they now opt for cremations. So this cemetery is actually not as spooky as it sounds. So I think the, I think the rumors of the hauntedness of this Parsi cemetery are, you might say, greatly exaggerated. However, I did also find that there is purportedly a haunted road near Belludian. A lot of cemeteries are located along that road and it can be quite scary at night. So that's apparently also somewhere local. That is a very spooky, scary skeleton, possibly filled place, but unclear if that's where Emmea experienced the sighting. But getting more specific about Indian folklore and belief, here's what I have found along those lines. Spirits of the forests are called yakshas. So from Encyclopedia Britannica again. Which I do understand the perhaps irony of using Encyclopedia Britannica Britannica for this stuff. But you know, this is this is where the information is. So Yaksha in the mythology of India, a class of generally benevolent but sometimes mischievous, capricious, sexually rapacious or even murderous nature spirits who are the custodians of treasures that are hidden in the earth and in the roots of trees.

25:03 They are powerful magicians and shape shifters, which sounds like a great time. And now moving on to Wikipedia and Hindu. The Yakshas have a dual personality. On the one hand, a Yaksha may be an an offensive nature fairy associated with woods and mountains, but there is also a darker vision of the Yakshas, which is a kind of bhuta that haunts the wilderness and waylays and devours travellers. That could have been nemea. That could have been them getting waylaid and devoured in the wilderness because they were in the wilderness. Come on, but slightly off topic, just a really short little rabbit hole here. Yakshas are also an important element in Thai temple art. Like in Thailand.

25:44 They are common as guardians of the gates and Buddhist temples throughout the country since at least the 14th century. Yakshas are regarded as one of the ancient clans in Sri Lanka as well. They were referenced in a cave inscription written in early Brahmi script from the 3rd century BCE. So they go way back. And finally we'll close on some folklore, specifically the wonderful cow herd, otherwise known as the Shining Man. Now this is translated in 1909, but I have no idea how far back that this story goes. Anyway, I'm going to I'm going to just. So of course, Once Upon a time there was this Raja who had seven daughters and these like 7 princesses were really pretty. And in order to marry the eldest Princess, there's some kind of like fairy tale stuff where, oh, you have to figure out this this mystery about her and then you can have her hand. And then of course, the guy that does solve the mystery to get her hand is not who she would really want to marry. So he was just like a miserable cow herd is how they like. But of course, the story is called the Wonderful Cowherd. So interesting.

26:49 It's a miserable cowherd. He's like, oh, he's sick and he's like groaning and he's miserable and unhappy. But at night he would take his skin off OK and appear as a beautiful and shining man. And in this form, he would go and he would play and he would dance in the moonlight in the courtyard of the Raja's palace, and he would have a great time. And then, of course, he would come back and he would put his skin on and then be miserable and awful and terrible the rest of the day until he took his skin off again at the next night. So of course, if you've heard any amount of fairy tales, you probably know that the Princess figures out that this is happening and is like, I don't want him to get back in his skin. He sucks when he's in his skin. So she takes his skin while he's just this light creature dancing and having a great time.

27:35 She goes and he burns. She burns his skin, and then he comes back and he's like, where's my skin? I need to put my skin back on. And she's like, yeah, that's gone. You're not putting your skin back on ever again. You're going to be this cool, light guy from now on. And then he was like, OK, cool, that's fine. And so then the Princess began to live with pleasure in the company of so glorious a husband, who, however, could only go out of the house at night because during the daytime his body was too bright for his for ordinary eyes to look upon. Which I find a flaw in because I feel like it would be easier to look at him during the daytime than it would be at night. But I don't know that's I'm not the writer. I'm not the author, but people start gossiping about it and now they're whispering and they're saying, like, who is this glowing guy that's hanging out at the princess's house? Because, like, she's married and that's not her husband. So the Raja hears about it, sends a messenger, and then the messenger shows up during the day. And then of course, her glowing husband opens the door. And the messenger is like driven mad or something. And then the Raja keeps sending more messengers. And then of course, they're sending during the day, during working hours.

28:40 And of course, when they open the door, the glowing man, The glowing man turns all of them also insane. And then finally the Raja resolved to go himself. And when he saw the true form of his daughter's husband now glowing, he just faints. He doesn't go crazy, he just faints. So I don't know if he's more mental fortitude unclear. Anyway, the glowing husband revives the Raja and then dimmed his light, which I guess he could have done the whole time, but he didn't for some reason. And also, don't let anyone dim your glow. That's don't do that. Don't ever let anyone dim your glow. But this guy did dim his glow because I guess he was causing harm to people around him anyway when he dimmed his glow, which he could apparently do the entire time and didn't need to actually drive a number of people insane in the process. Anyway, finally the Rodger could actually see him and recognize him.

29:33 Oh, you're the guy that my daughter married. OK, great. Now they all lived happily ever after and everyone loved the the cow herd because now he's the wonderful cow herd. The end. Do I think that's what happened in the story? Do I think that they encountered the wonderful cow herd, AKA the shining man from folklore? Probably not. But what I wanted to mention it, the reason I wanted to mention it is that it does set a precedent, either culturally or paranormally for sightings of glowing figures. So where did they get the idea of this glowing figure who saw a glowing figure and then decided to write it into folklore?

30:15 I ask you. So Amaya, I'm going to say you are not the first nor the last person to see this figure. But it doesn't make it any less scary. I mean, I guess it makes it a little less scary because you know, you're not the only one and you know you're not crazy, but but your, your, your future wife also, she also saw it so clearly you're not crazy. Anyway, I hope it makes you feel better to know there do seem to be quite a few sightings of something similar to what you saw. I wish I had a better answer for you to explain it, but that's what makes this unexplained. So if you listening, if you have a story of the unexplained that you would love to hear read on the show, I would love to hear it.

30:56 E-mail me at madamstrangeways@gmail.com and Amaya, thank you again for allowing me to Share your story here on the show, and I expect to be invited to your wedding. Remember that you can feel afraid and not be in danger. You're safe here with me, probably. Thank you for joining me for more true strange stories of the unexplained. I'm running A1 Madam Show here, so please do me a strange solid and follow the podcast. Leave me a rating on Apple or Spotify, and maybe even join the Patreon at patreon.com/madam Strange Ways for bonus content.

31:43 Madam Strange Ways is produced and narrated by me. Madam Strange Ways theme music is by marina.ryan@marinamakes.co. Cover art is by Andrea Chisel Roldan at Cultiv Teddy. On Instagram, every strange story is shared with the permission of the author. You can submit your own true strange story to madamstrangeways@gmail.com. See you soon, she said ominously. The coin was termed.