Chris’s Ghostly Rules – Beyond Beyond Belief

#40 Leafing the witness [S4E8]

By Mark Walberg | December 11, 2018

We’ve returned with the back half of our fourth and final season. And if something feels oddly familiar about this week’s batch of stories… it’s because we watched this episode in the past and recorded an unreleased episode as a test pilot. And as a bonus, we will be releasing the pilot episode this Thursday in all it’s horrifying, awkward glory. Thankfully, we can barely remember what happened in last week’s episode, so this should be pretty fresh for us.

Story 1: Caitlin’s Candle – After being saved from a mugger by a candle with seemingly supernatural powers, a woman brings it home only to find out that it once belonged to her deceased mother.

Why would the mom hide jewelry in a candle? And WHY would a robber steal a candle?
Everyone thinks this is a ghost making elaborate plans. Kyle thinks maybe the mom did this all to teach the daughter to believe in herself.

Story 2: The Flower Jury – When a man is murdered in a flower shop, a detective uses an unconventional approach to solve the crime.

Chris and Mark have heard about plants being affected by positive and negative emotions.
Kyle thinks it’s ridiculous that we could believe in ghosts and spirits but not a plant.
Jesse thinks the detective made up the plant thing to trick the suspect into confessing.

Story 3: The Mentor – Magician brothers living in the shadows of Houdini attempt a new death-defying trick.

Jesse loved the unnecessary backflips in their routine.
Are these magicians real? No one knows. Maybe David Blaine was inspired by them?
The curse makes everyone feel like it could be written.

Story 4: The Old Bike – two brothers find an old bike and discover something mysterious inside the handlebar.

Everyone agrees hiding a note inside a handlebar is ludicrous.
Jesse thinks it’s mainly coincidental with some convoluted stuff added on.

Story 5: The Music Teacher – A renowned pianist has a creative block until he meets with his first piano teacher.

This is a classic dead the whole time story.
Everyone thinks the chocolate was added by the writers. Maybe he just had a mental block and the teacher used the chocolate to snap him out of it.

In lieu of a fake ad, for the remainder of the season, we’re asking the audience to be part of our show. Call or submit online your beyond belief stories. Or if you have any questions for us, ask away. Or just call and tell us you hate us. Anything goes! Leave us a voicemail at 818-254-9876, email us at info@beyondbeyondbelief.com, or send us a DM on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook @beyondbeliefpod.

The story results are revealed.

Chris gets an interesting score. The results are controversial.
To find out which stories are fact and which are fiction… you must listen to the podcast, or check out the full episode below or on Amazon Prime.

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6rj1ur

#38 Black belt ghost [S4E6 with Jamie Gaul & Joe Dolce]

By Jesse Chapman | October 16, 2018

This episode we welcome two guest hosts: comedian Jamie Gaul from Upright Citizens Brigade and friend-of-the-podcast Joe Dolce. Regarding the world of supernatural, Joe is a skeptic while Jamie is a “boo-liever.” That’s not actually said in the show. I just thought of that right now.

Story 1: The Dorm – A girl in college finds that her dorm protects her in mysterious ways.

Tiff doesn’t understand why the girl didn’t inform the mom that her daughter’s spirit helped her.
Jamie doesn’t understand why the mom came back to the dorm at all.
No one understands why a woman can’t just defend herself. Nope, she has to be possessed.
Chris has never heard of a ghost giving someone a superhuman skill.

Story 2: The Child Artist – A child with an antique chalkboard scribbles a strange message.

Chris thinks the mom projected her ideas onto the chalkboard.
Jesse thought (hoped?) the mom was just sleeping with the neighbor.
Chris remembers his grandma telling a similar story.

Story 3: The Weatherman – A weatherman’s tries to boost ratings in a way that comes back to haunt him.

Jesse can see it being told, but not it actually happening.
Jamie thinks this all checks out.
Chris thinks, yet again, that he would have heard of this story.

Story 4: Sit-Down Comedian – A comedian who bullies his manager gets karmic retribution after a freak accident.

Tiffany thinks it ties up way too nicely.
No one believes that the manager would give up a profession as a successful comedian.

Story 5: Room 245 – A woman staying at a hotel with her sick mother stumbles into one of the strangest conspiracies ever.

Chris thinks that if this is fact, this is the craziest story Beyond Belief has ever told.
Jesse thinks maybe the woman just mixed up which hotel she was staying at. Jamie thinks maybe the woman just murdered her mother?
Tiffany thinks this could be an urban legend.

Part 6 of our Ouija experience:

On this week’s episode Mark, Jesse, and Kyle finally use set up the Ouija board and begin to reach out to spirits…

The story results are revealed.

Chris gets a surprising score. Joe gets an even more surprising score.
To find out which stories are fact and which are fiction… you must listen to the podcast, or check out the full episode below or on Amazon Prime.

#32 The anomaly [S3E13]

By Mark Walberg | August 7, 2018

This is the season 3 finale! Will Mark win season three as he has with the previous two seasons? Will Chris get all five stories correct, as he’s never done in the history of this show?

Story 1: The Dealer—a shady blackjack dealer discovers the cards are stacked against him when a soldier sits down at his table.

Jesse doesn’t understand why the ghost would go through with this elaborate plan #GMEP
Chris doesn’t buy that the ghost would wait decades to come back and seek his revenge.

Story 2: Gratuity—a cab driver installs an insult machine for people who do not tip well, but fate steps in alongside a particular passenger.

The group discusses the pros and cons of tipping.
Everyone is surprised why this man isn’t fired.

Story 3: The Cake—a baker witnesses a frightening premonition after a mobster orders him to bake a special cake.

It’s very possible that this is just based on a mob hit.
Kyle thinks the baker is just stressed due to his dealings with the mob.

Story 4: 1st Time Offender—when a boy is arrested for theft, the judge lets him off with a warning, but only until a moment that’s beyond belief changes his mind.

This could just be a coincidence-based story.
Kyle thinks maybe this happened a long time ago.

Story 5: The Mirror of Truth—a beautician curses a vain woman, causing her to appear hideous.

Could be a psychological issue.
Could be a story that takes place in a different time.
Could be ripped off from The Twilight Zone.

The story results are revealed.

Chris is a statistical anomaly.
To find out which stories are fact and which are fiction… you must listen to the podcast, or check out the full episode below or on Amazon Prime.

The Season 3 results are revealed.

Chris wins season 3! And the coin is a close second.

#28 Don’t let your ghost cat on the counter [S3E9]

By Mark Walberg | July 10, 2018

The group talks about how great it would be to interview Jonathan Frakes and James Brolin for the show. Would Frakes play along and would his predictions be correct? Did he record all of his material in a single day? Would Josh Brolin be a good host for the reboot?

Story 1: For the Record—Lauren and her fiancé, born on the same day, search for the truth of their birth.

The group points out how strange the voices of the actors are.
Chris points out that the daughter’s blood type has to match her parent’s. Turns out Jesse doesn’t know his blood type.

Story 2: Halloween—old man Harold Ratcher hates Halloween, scaring away the kids each year, but someone is about to scare him back.

The group agrees this is one of the spookiest stories on Beyond Belief.
Chris doesn’t think there was anything supernatural or ghostly going on. The props get in the way of his believability.
Kyle thinks the tropey-ness makes it feel fiction. There were a lot of slasher films in the ’90s.

Story 3: Precious—A child psychiatrist is called in to help a little girl who spends a too much time with her cat. Her dead cat.

The group thinks there was just an old picture on the roll of film.
Chris tells us that his psychic heard a passing dog say “my butt hurts.” Turns out the dog had hemorrhoids; ergo animals could have psychic abilities.

Story 4: Get your kicks at Motel 66—a police officer suspended for a teen beating stops at a motel with his wife, only to be haunted by vengeful ghost.

The group thinks the kernel is that a cop killed himself in this motel.
Kyle thinks they put in the Billy the Kid element to make us think its fact.

Story 5: Phantom Drifter—on a road trip, a bickering couple pick up a hitchhiker who ends up having some sage advice.

Kyle thinks the couple actually went to a marriage/couples counseling retreat.
Jesse thinks the drifter just sounded like he was reading fortune cookies.
Chris said this segment gave him chills.

The story results are revealed.

Will Chris finally get all of the stories correct? Nope.
To find out which stories are fact and which are fiction… you must listen to the podcast, or check out the full episode below or on Amazon Prime.

#27 The Help Me Help Me Ghost [S3E8]

By Jesse Chapman | July 3, 2018

Chris talks about his recent psychic reading with Marla Frees, where she explained that there are frequencies all around us that she can tap into to download info from beyond.

Story 1: Creepy Comics—after a publisher verbally abuses his comic book artist, he discovers his own fate illustrated before his very eyes.

Chris thinks he would have heard of this story if it happened. Kyle thinks this “would have heard about it” argument doesn’t fly with Beyond Belief.
Tiffany doesn’t know who told this story because both the characters died.
The group doesn’t understand why the police would have the deceased’s boss identify the body.
Paul Gleason played the mean boss.

Story 2: Louie The Dip—a pickpocket swipes a winning lottery ticket only to discover it has mysteriously vanished.

Kyle researches the term dip. Can’t find anything, but assumes it means a pick-pocketer.
Kyle then does find the term dip and it does mean pick-pocketer.
Everyone thinks this is easily fact. Yes, you could definitely lose a piece of paper.
No one understands why the lottery winner went to the bar before cashing his ticket. Just go cash it you idiot I mean come on.

Story 3: The Wailing—when a mystery writer moves into an old house, he soon discovers an eerie wail sounding from the walls.

What’s in the safe?! Everyone wanted to know what was in the safe. Turns out, we’ll never know.
Jesse points out how horrible the wig on the corpse is.
Chris, using the ghostly rules, buys that a traumatic death could cause the spirit to be trapped in the room.
Mark Moses from Desperate Housewives and Mad Men is in this segment. No one can play unconscious like Mark Moses.

Story 4: The Landlady—a wicked landlady is haunted by an old tenant.

Jesse reminds us that spirits can haunt people in addition to places.
The practical effects of a ghost trudging through mud were pretty good.
From a ghostly rules vantage point, Chris has an issue: why would a kind tenant spend his afterlife haunting the mean old lady.
No one understands what makes this story special, and where’s the evidence?
Chris and Jesse reenact the old lady shouting match.

Story 5: Curse—a young girl dabbling in witchcraft puts a hex on her psychologist and then joins a coven… a coven in which the tables are about to get turned.

Chris thinks the psychologist put on this whole witch thing as a scam to trick the girl into letting go of being a bad witch.
Tiffany thinks it’s so crazy it has to be fiction.

The story results are revealed.

To find out which stories are fact and which are fiction… you must listen to the podcast, or check out the full episode below or on Amazon Prime.

#26 You had me at haunted barbecue [S3E7]

By Jesse Chapman | May 15, 2018

Tiffany is back from her vacation to India. She didn’t see any ghosts though. Also she may have an infectious rash on her hand or just a henna tattoo.

Story 1: Connie—a dead woman’s spirit or essence lives on in her husband’s new wives.

Jesse wonders what happened to the other women’s spirits. Did they just get booted out? Tiffany thinks the man was murdering his wives.
Who told this story? There are no witnesses.
Jesse thinks all the women are dying from some bird disease.

Story 2: Positive I.D.—a man is accused of a robbery that he didn’t commit, only to make a shocking discovery.

This is a perfectly reasonable story. But maybe too reasonable?
Tiffany sees it as an interesting example of nature vs. nurture.
Chris tries to utilize The Southern Rule.

Story 3: Trucker—a hitchhiker gets help from a mysterious truck driver.

Kyle is a fan of stories where people get super human strength in dire moments.
Kyle points out that this story is similar to another Beyond Belief story called The Tractor (which was fiction).
Tiffany thought Big Joe was the hitchhiker’s future self trying to teach him a lesson.
Chris dives into the ghostly rules: he doesn’t think a ghost can drive a vehicle. “Sounds like angel territory.”

Story 4: Cook Out—a dead relative’s grill saves lives at a family bbq.

Everyone agrees this is now the craziest story of Beyond Belief.
This could be a case of TFTBF.
Maybe the writers just elaborated the BBQ going crazy moment.

Story 5: The New House—a spirit intervenes when a fire starts in a new family’s home.

Tiffany thought it was a story about a mother’s instinct, but then it went in a wildly different direction.
Jesse thinks the info dump at the end could be the writer’s way of explaining all the factual details.
Kyle hoped the woman in the painting would have been moving around, Harry Potter style.

The story results are revealed:

The group plans on taking a mid season break, but agree thus far season 3 has been one wild ride.
To find out which stories are fact and which are fiction… you must listen to the podcast, or check out the full episode below or on Amazon Prime

#25 The Beyond Belief Cinematic Universe [S3E6 with Mohamad el Masri]

By Jesse Chapman | May 8, 2018

Chris is out for this episode, but in his place we have guest host Mohamad el Masri, who is a writer on HBO’s Here And Now. Mohamad wants to believe in the supernatural but ultimately comes at things with a scientific approach.

Story 1: Red Line—a reckless race car driver gets a warning from beyond the grave.

Mohamad wonders if the speedway is haunted. Jesse believes that ghosts can haunt people in addition to places. If only Chris were he to answer that question…
Maybe the heat and the fumes caused the driver to hallucinate.

Story 2: Two Sisters—a woman marries her dead sister’s husband, only to discover something strange with the wedding dress.

It’s a logistical nightmare for the sister to switch clothes with her dead sister in the middle of the funeral floor.
The dress may have been un-wearable after the morticians fixed it to the dead body.

Story 3: Eclipse—on the eve of a full moon, a prisoner believing he is a werewolf asks to be placed in a room with no windows.

Jesse believes this one is a bottle episode.
Kyle points out that the vampire segment was true.

Story 4: The Ice Box—when a man suffers from heat stroke outside an antique store, a large block of ice appears at just the right moment.

Mohamad points out that the character in the Little Giants was named The Ice Box.
Mohamad doesn’t buy the initials carved into the icebox. Kyle thinks this detail was just added by writers.
Jesse thinks it was just a hot day in the writer’s room.

Story 5: The Gathering—a burglar attempts to rob four elderly women, but discovers he may be outmatched when strange things start to happen.

The group loves this one so much… but does that make it fiction?
Mohamad thinks it felt too silly to be fact.

The story results are revealed:

Tiffany gets a ZERO.
Mohamad points out the relevance of Beyond Beyond Belief in today’s culture.
To find out which stories are fact and which are fiction… you must listen to the podcast, or check out the full episode below or on Amazon Prime!

#21 Stop saying Willem Dafoe [S3E2]

By Jesse Chapman | April 10, 2018

Turns out no one knows know how pawn shops work. Jesse points out that in season 3, Jonathan Frakes doesn’t do intro lines before the opening credits. No one else seems to care.

Story 1: One For The Road—a truck driver meets a friend at their usual spot, only to later make a chilling discovery.

Jesse points out that if this was pre-Sixth Sense, we would have all been blown away.
Mark thought all the set-ups revealing Hal was a ghost could have just been due to production issues.
Chris dives into the ghostly rules and wonders when exactly did Hal die?
Mark decides to go with a strategy this episode: supernatural = fiction/coincidence = fact.

Story 2: The Music Box—a woman wanting to buy a music box discovers something even more unexpected in the shop.

The group agrees this story doesn’t handle women well.
Tiffany thinks the story probably originated from a wedding announcement or engagement story that gets passed around.
If the friend Gale set the whole thing up, then it’s not a beyond belief story at all.
Jesse points out that Frakes is more aggressive with potential realistic possibilities in season 3.

Story 3: Two to One—a man strapped for cash has a dream of a robbery gone wrong at a pawn shop he frequents.

The group discusses how pawn shops work.
Chris believes in premonition. Mark believes we can dream the future.
Tiffany doesn’t know who can corroborate the man’s story. But what else is new?

Story 4: Damsel—when a woman visits a fortune teller in the search for Mr. Right, she learns that appearances can be deceiving.

Jesse and Mark believe this is all a scam set up by the psychic.
Tiffany doesn’t understand why someone would want to start a relationship after a violent encounter. Kyle points out the movie Speed as an obvious counter argument.
After talking about Willem Dafoe, Kyle cannot stop laughing for some reason.

Story 5: The Horn—a mortician visits an antique dealer and discovers a special item called a death horn, which may just save one of their lives.

Jonathan Frakes thinks the horn could have been blown by air from the AC. Really, Jonathan?
Chris points out old coffins that had bells attached for accidental deaths.
The group wonders if there was sexual tensions between the two leads.

Break: This week Chris tries to tell Mark about his fascinating experience with a psychic, but is interrupted by a mysterious sound.

The story results are revealed.

Turns out Mark’s coincidence theory worked!
To find out which stories are fact and which are fiction… you must listen to the podcast, or check out the full episode below or on Amazon Prime!

#19 I’m Robert Tralins and I approve this message [S2E13]

By Mark Walberg | February 27, 2018

“Take your escalators and the get the fuck out.”

Today we review Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction season 2, episode 13. This is our podcast season 2 finale! We get excited for our season finale statistics and talk about the impact the podcast is having on the Beyond Belief universe. The show is now on Amazon Prime! Just saying.

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#16 A crow, a raven, and a Brazilian [S2E10]

By Jesse Chapman | February 6, 2018

“I’m on the fence that those guys blew right through.”

Today we review Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction season 2, episode 10. Chris thinks Jesse sounds like Omac from The Legend Of The Hidden Temple. Chris decides to go noteless for this episode. And we have our second themed episode – Animals!

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