Maggie
Appearances
Brooke and Jeffrey: Second Date Update
Second Date Update UPDATE: We Built This Thing Together
Yeah, let's do it. That would be great.
Brooke and Jeffrey: Second Date Update
Second Date Update UPDATE: We Built This Thing Together
Why? Yeah, well, he was trying way too hard, and I could tell he wasn't being himself.
Brooke and Jeffrey: Second Date Update
Second Date Update UPDATE: We Built This Thing Together
It's true. It's true. But honestly, I learned something about myself in that I just really don't like... Low effort guys, but I also don't like the super over-the-top cheesy high effort guys either.
Brooke and Jeffrey: Second Date Update
Second Date Update UPDATE: We Built This Thing Together
Right. Well, yes. And so I did ask, can you just be in the middle? Just be yourself and kind of meet in the middle. Okay.
Brooke and Jeffrey: Second Date Update
Second Date Update UPDATE: We Built This Thing Together
Three would have been too many. Yeah, I think it was really sweet. I liked it. It was genuine. I thought it was really cute.
Brooke and Jeffrey: Second Date Update
Second Date Update UPDATE: We Built This Thing Together
Yes, this is she.
Brooke and Jeffrey: Second Date Update
Second Date Update UPDATE: We Built This Thing Together
Okay, for what?
Brooke and Jeffrey: Second Date Update
Second Date Update UPDATE: We Built This Thing Together
Oh, yes, Rob. Okay, I see.
Brooke and Jeffrey: Second Date Update
Second Date Update UPDATE: We Built This Thing Together
I felt really good about it, too. I felt like we had this instant connection and potential to really go somewhere. I was really, really excited to keep things going with him.
Brooke and Jeffrey: Second Date Update
Second Date Update UPDATE: We Built This Thing Together
Well, I mean, I'm the type of person who wants a guy who's going to be my Prince Charming and just come in and ride in on the horse and profess his love to me and just go all out. And then we ride off into the sunset together.
Brooke and Jeffrey: Second Date Update
Second Date Update UPDATE: We Built This Thing Together
And I made that very clear on my profile.
Brooke and Jeffrey: Second Date Update
Second Date Update UPDATE: We Built This Thing Together
I want someone who's sweet. So I want you to send me messages and let me know that you appreciate me because that's my my love language is affirmations, words of affirmation. So I love giving those out and I want that back in return.
Brooke and Jeffrey: Second Date Update
Second Date Update UPDATE: We Built This Thing Together
Correct. It especially came down to where, you know, I sent him what I felt was our first love song, our potential first dance. And I just envision us already there, you know?
Brooke and Jeffrey: Second Date Update
Second Date Update UPDATE: We Built This Thing Together
I can see. I mean, it was just my favorite song, and I just, we were getting along so well.
Brooke and Jeffrey: Second Date Update
Second Date Update UPDATE: We Built This Thing Together
Well, I mean, I do appreciate that. And I felt like I was very transparent on my profile. I can't change who I am. And I would appreciate if you could try a little more.
Brooke and Jeffrey: Second Date Update
Second Date Update UPDATE: We Built This Thing Together
Rob, if you could send me kind of a love song, what would it be?
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
my stack of tarot cards, a dish that I can burn stuff in. And I brought some like red wax markers with me that I had already had at my house. I didn't buy anything for this. I just scrounged around what I had in my room that I thought would be entertaining. So I have all that sitting out in front of me. Everybody comes in and sits down and this guy turns the lights down in the room and
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
And I started just holding my head, chanting, being like, okay, like, here we go. We're going to do a seance. I told everybody, okay, we're going to try to communicate with one of the spirits that is present in this hotel. What I would like the audience to do is to... really focus in on your space, breathe, think about what's happening around you, but don't talk.
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
Everybody got really quiet and I started just doing the performance. I started taking my tarot cards and throwing them out onto the table faster and faster. I started randomly picking out a card and looking at it and being like, this one means something and putting it in a different pile. And then I would take a piece of paper and be like, I think I'm getting a message.
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
And I would write something on it with my marker and then be like, spirit, is this what you're trying to say? And then I would burn it in the dish and then took like the red paint marker stuff and I started smearing it all over my face and just chanting and being like, oh, like the spirits are contacting me. There's someone in the room. And then right when I was doing that, I just felt like,
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
This sheer, utter fear. Pure disappointment in myself and cold and shaky and out of control. And I looked up and I saw that there was a man that wasn't a human standing in the back of the room by the door. So he was pretty tall, like six feet tall. But, you know, I couldn't see him. It was like, he was just a shadow. Like a shadow that was darker than the other shadows in the back of the room.
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
I had never seen anything like that before. Where like, it's almost this... indescribable outline of a person and you know that it's there, but if you look directly at it, it's not there, but you can still like see it standing there, like darker than the rest of the room and sense it, like sense the presence of that thing. All of a sudden, very intensely, like he was staring at me.
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
You know, I can't see any eyes or face, but I can see kind of like an outline of a very tall man. And it was pretty dark in that back part of the room, but he never formed into any sort of like discernible, like human figure. He always was just like this shadow of a person. with like barely, barely discernible features. Like nothing I could even like really describe.
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
Like a little hue of brown over here as like maybe his shirt was brown or like I could tell that obviously he was tall and that it was a man. So like there was like those types of features present. I immediately got quiet. I'm realizing that I wasn't playing a game anymore, that this ghost was listening and was probably in the room the whole time.
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
And there was probably, like, more of them, but this was the only one that I was seeing. But it was, like, paying attention. And I think it was really interested in me in particular. Like, maybe it hadn't gotten spoken to in a long time, or, like, maybe... It was perceiving me as somebody who had a way for it to have a connection with living people or something.
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
It just felt very heavy and very curious. I didn't get the feeling that it was... angry or malicious or anything. I just felt like it was automatically like appearing to me as something that was very curious about what I was doing. Almost like, did you just call my name? And it really shook me. I immediately started taking what I was doing very seriously. I was like shocked.
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
But I was in front of 30 people. So I couldn't just say, oh my god, do you guys see that there's a shadow man in the back of the room? I didn't want to freak the thing out. I didn't want to scare it. I also just really wanted them to think that it was a show. I didn't want anybody in the room to think that it was real. Because that would have meant for me too much...
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
responsibility so I settled down I stopped acting crazy I stopped rubbing the paint all over my face I stopped burning stuff I stopped everything that I was doing immediately and I got really quiet and I just said I believe that there's somebody in the room with us You know, I could feel that, like, the pressure in the room just, like, drop.
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
Everybody kind of got, like, quieter than they were before. But also, like, maybe most of them were really skeptical about what was going on because I don't think I was doing a very good job of pretending to have a seance. But some of them immediately glommed on to this. They were really excited. Really just like, oh my God, really? Like, this is happening? Like, you're talking to somebody?
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
Where are they right now? Like, are they in the room? What do they look like? Like, what's their name? And just bursting out with all sorts of excitement, wanting to know what was happening, wanting to know who I saw. And I was trying to keep everybody calm, and so I just started asking it questions. Really quieting down
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
my mind and giving a lot of an attention and respect to the being in the room and not listening to what was coming from inside me or from the other people in the room. I just wanted to listen purely to him and that was difficult to do, but I wanted to just give it my best from that point out instead of like continuing to play a game. I was like, how old are you? What's your name?
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
he knew that I could see him and knew that I was communicating with him. And I just felt this overwhelming sense of curiosity coming from him. And so he just started moving towards me. And I think it was just, he was like really wanting to reach out to me, but like, For it to be coming closer to me was like starting to really terrify me. Like I didn't want it to come closer to me.
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
I was very freaked out that I was doing a fake seance and I accidentally summoned a being. And I was also just the whole time being like, am I just experiencing some sort of like psychotic episode? Like, am I just projecting this? I don't know. I've gone back and forth about that for years and years and years. I still don't know what the answer is, but I do know what I experienced and what I saw.
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
And it was very real to me at the time. The worst part of this story is that this woman who was sitting next to me, she stood up and just said, Spirit, how can we help you pass on to the next life? And I immediately got really angry. I knew that that was going to create a problem for me because I was giving this entity a lot of attention all of a sudden.
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
And it was really curious about what we were doing and really curious about me. And she had just asked how I could help it. And I didn't know how to help it. I didn't even know how to really process anything that was going on. So... I immediately said, no, no, no. We can't help you. I'm sorry. We're going to have to just go ahead and end it there. And she got pretty angry with me.
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
She was like, well, what do you mean? Like, let's talk to him more. Like, what are you doing? Let's see what we can do. And I was just like, we can't do anything, right? we need to just like accept that this entity graced us with his presence and he needs to go on his way. And like, so do we now. So, uh, basically I hope everybody had a good time.
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
Um, and I kind of just like closed it down pretty quickly. Um, As soon as I said, we can't help you, the thing in the back of the room immediately vanished, gone. But I was freaked out. I immediately knew I had made a huge mistake. I packed up my stuff and I walked over to the doorway and I shook everybody's hand as they walked out of the room.
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
And when they all left, I was really angry with myself. I knew I had made a huge mistake. this thing, even though it's not in the room with me anymore right now, it's not going to forget what happened. I feel like it's going to either seek out some sort of help or it's going to stalk me. That's what I thought pretty much immediately. This thing is going to stalk me. I hung out for a little while.
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
I waited for the rest of the festival to end. I just kind of like hung around in this back room by myself. And then Tovio was done with their performance and we drove back to Denver.
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
I got home. I don't remember driving home. I don't even remember going to sleep that night, but I know it was soon after, perhaps even the next night. My routine at that point was I would make my grandmother dinner. We would usually eat like chicken noodle soup with some saltine crackers and some hard boiled eggs. Like that's the budget we were on at the time.
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
And then we would sit in the living room and she would read The same newspaper from like 1972 that she had read every single night. We also had like basic antenna TV. So like Lawrence Welk would be on the TV sometimes and I would watch that. I'm pretty sure this night I just made dinner for my grandma and then went downstairs to go to sleep.
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
I just, you know, brushed my teeth, put my PJs on, crawled into bed, and I'm just laying there awake thinking about life in general. And then I just look over into the next room. And in my grandmother's basement, there's four rooms. And there's no doors. There's doorways, but there's no doors in between each one of the rooms. And so you can see into like all of them from where my bed was.
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
And this is a completely unfinished basement. Cement floors, but like orange shag carpeting from the 70s. dripping pipes from the ceiling. The water heater, which is like 50 years old, is like right next to where I sleep and is rattling all the time. If you think of a haunted basement, this is like the one to think about, right?
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
So I'm like laying in bed and I look over and in the room next to me, there he was. And I was like, damn it. what has happened? Like this dude followed me home. Like I knew this was going to happen. You know, I wasn't like thinking of what to do. I knew this was going to happen. I knew I made a mistake. Like, and now there's nothing I can do. I was just feeling like frozen.
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
Like I didn't want to get out of my sheets. What am I going to do? Where am I going to go? I don't think that it was there to even mess with me. I think it was there looking for some sort of like attention or help. Mostly it just felt like it was looking at me like, you saw me, you saw me. Like, can you see me now? Kind of like, so I just laid there. super uncomfortable trying not to look at it.
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
Just like being really mad at myself. Like I confused this thing. Maybe it was just like really lonely and all of a sudden saw that I was looking at it. And now it's like, well, why aren't you interacting with me more or interacting with me again? And I didn't want to interact with it. I just wanted to go away. So I just felt bad, felt like really guilty.
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
And I think it probably took me a really, really long time to go to sleep. But eventually I did. And then... In the morning, he was gone. And that was like something that continued to happen for about three months where I would go downstairs into the basement. And I knew that he was down there and he would pretty much just like hover around in the room next to me.
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
I kind of like got weirdly used to it. I didn't want to get used to it. I think I just kind of like took it as like this is the way it is. Like I live with my grandma. I live in this like creepy old basement. I'm super isolated out here. I have no internet or TV. I just have this ghost that lives in my room and And I have to just be okay with it because that's where I am at this point in my life.
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
And it's not going to change. I didn't want to go home. I didn't want to go in the basement. I didn't want to be at my grandma's house. You know, I really loved her and wanted to take care of her, but I was like inching further and further away from of spending time at the house. So I would be gone all day, come home and make her dinner, and then I would leave. And I would go out for the night.
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
Whereas before all this happened, I would just spend the night with her and make sure she was okay. Always be on top of taking care of her. And I didn't want to...
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
tried to do anything about it either because i had already gotten myself in this mess by messing around with things that i didn't know anything about like i didn't want to try to do some sort of like banishing ritual or anything because what would happen then A couple months go by, like three months.
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
I'm hanging out with my friends at this collective house called the Tea House, which is where my friend Abby lived at the time. And I would go over there a lot and just chill, you know, listen to music, drink beers on the porch, just like hang out. So I'm sitting on the porch one day of the tea house and I'm by myself. All of my other friends are inside. And this guy comes walking down the street.
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
And I knew he was probably coming up to the house because he looked like a total weirdo. You know, like long hair, raggedy, like black clothes, like big piercings, tattoos, probably like a heavy metal shirt on. He's walking down the street with this big black plastic trash bag. And I thought maybe, you know, like, oh, that's his clothes.
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
Like, oh, he's traveling with his clothes in a trash bag because that's not like a super weird thing to see. So he walks up to the house and I said, oh, hey, man, like, what's up? You coming to see people at the tea house? And he was like, yeah, hey, my name's Kevin. What's up? And I said, oh, like, what do you got in the bag? And he was like, oh, well, it's the head of a goat. I was like, no way.
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
No way. Like, why? Why would you have a goat's head in a bag? And he was like, here, you want to see it? And I was like, well, yeah. Like, of course I want to see it. I thought he was joking. And I had never met him before at this point. So he walks up the steps to where I'm sitting and he opens the bag and there's a fucking head of a goat in this bag. Okay, what are you going to do with this?
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
My name is Maggie. I am 39 years old. I grew up in San Antonio, Texas. I right now own and operate a small farm with my partner, Josh, and we just sell vegetables at the local farmers markets around San Antonio, and it's really fun. It's a five acre property in South Texas, and me and Josh run this little market garden farm.
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
Why do you have this? And he was like, oh, well, I'm going to do black magic with it.
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
Yeah, it wasn't that weird for the house to have some traveler... person who was really strange and like totally not any sort of normal to be like walking up and showing me some crazy thing like that was kind of like why I liked to hang out there because anything could happen at any time he tells me what he's gonna do with the goat head and I was just like oh okay cool I wow, interesting.
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
And he paused and just gave me this very strange look. And he said, can I read your cards? I was like, well, yeah. Like, of course I want this guy who walked off the street with a goat head and a bag to read my tarot cards. Like that sounds incredible. Yeah. I was like, Okay, yeah, let's do it. So he sets the bag down in the house, and we go down into the basement of the tea house.
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
And at the time, nobody was living down there. It was just a big, empty, like cement room. We don't really talk. I was just very curious to see where this was going, especially because of what was going on with me, with the thing living in my room. We sit down on the floor, and he pulls out his cards. I think he just had them in his pocket.
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
And he did me like a very small, like three card reading. And he was, it was very, very brief. This was not like a long drawn out thing. He basically just said, Hey, it looks like there's something dark in your life. Like something has like either attached itself to you or you let something in and it's not good for you and you need to get rid of it like immediately.
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
And I was, like, completely shocked. I was like, do you know me somehow? Like, do you know what's going on with me? And he was like, no. Like, obviously, I just met you. Somehow he saw that. And that, like, scared the shit out of me. I went upstairs. I think I... was too freaked out to talk to anybody. And I just like went home.
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
So I went home that night and, you know, did my normal routine, fed my grandmother. stayed upstairs as long as I could, probably just watched some horrible like Christian and evangelical stuff on the TV until my grandma went to sleep and I was too tired to stay up anymore. And I went into the basement, laid down in my bed and immediately felt the entity like come into my room for the first time.
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
Like it had always stayed in the other room. Like I could see it through the open doorway, but it never like came into my room. As soon as I laid down and turned the lights out, it came into my room and just started making me feel physically awful. I felt like I was going to throw up. The way that I understood it was that it was piss that I was about to try to get rid of it.
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
It was like, no, like you can't get rid of me. I don't want to go anywhere. So I felt like it was coming closer and closer to me and that if I didn't do something immediately, like it was going to try to possess me, which was ridiculous. Definitely like at this point, the scaredest I had ever been.
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
It was like this man that was pissed off, but couldn't like physically assault me, was just kind of like trapped in this like vibrational existence, kind of like static, but the static and vibrations were getting louder and louder and angrier
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
We just pretty much work all the time growing vegetables, running our small business. We make dinner a lot for our friends, but like pretty much we're working a lot of the time. So when I was young and frustrated, I wanted to get out of the place where I grew up, get away from my friends, get away from everything that I knew, get away from my parents.
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
And I had probably been like laying in my bed for like an hour at this point, just like feeling like I was going to throw up, being like, I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. Like, I'm like literally terrified that this thing's going to try to possess me or hurt me at this point because it doesn't want me to make it go away. So...
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
What I did was just like some basic meditation stuff that I had learned before, which was like, if you're afraid of something and like envision something in your life that, you know, most people would be really afraid of, but you're not. I envisioned this entity turning into a rattlesnake because I grew up in South Texas. We had rattlesnakes all over the house that I grew up in.
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
They would literally come inside the house and I would just sweep them into a bucket and go throw them out in the yard. I was never afraid of them, even though like everybody in my family was really scared of them, rightly so. So I just envisioned him turning into a rattlesnake, me sweeping him into a bucket and then taking him out into the desert in Eastern Colorado and like setting him free.
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
I can't help you move on, but I can set you free like into this place where you'll be okay. And I felt like it was just like in some sort of like stasis and not getting any closer to me, but it was obviously like giving me a lot of really bad energy, putting really bad energy out towards me, like really just like frustrated, lonely, sad energy towards me.
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
And I just kept my eyes closed and kept doing the meditation and being like as kind and loving as I possibly could and not like putting any like anger back towards it because I didn't want it to feel like I was pissed off at being there. I just wanted it to leave me alone. And so I just envisioned this meditation over and over and over again for probably like seven hours. Um,
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
Until I like finally stopped like shaking from fear and like the sun was coming up. And at that point I felt like he was gone. I didn't sleep that night. I just like kind of got out of bed when the sun came out. I opened my eyes. I felt better. I wasn't shaking. I didn't feel nauseated. I didn't see him in the room. I didn't feel like there was anything left.
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
I felt like he understood what I was saying. And it was really sad feeling. I just felt really... tired like almost as if you know you had learned that somebody had died and you were up all night crying like that kind of like exhaustion and I just went upstairs made some breakfast for my grandma and I think I just went to work that day I felt a lot of like physical relief and
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
Like I had just woken up from like a really bad nightmare and I was like still tired, but I was glad to be awake. I had like a pretty good feeling that he had moved on, like at least away from me. But I didn't know for sure until it just stopped happening. Like the pattern was broken. I just never saw him again. Turns out, I just wanted to do something silly and performative for $250.
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
And I was willing to just move to a place where I didn't know anybody, just completely start over. I had just moved in with my grandma in Denver. Well, she lived in Commerce City, which is like a little bit north of Denver. And she lived in the same house that my dad grew up in. And she was 91 when I went up there to start living with her.
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
And instead, it scared the crap out of me for four months and affected me for the rest of my life up until now. Yeah. Don't ever do something involving paranormal activities for money unless you are like a really well-trained professional. But, you know, human curiosity is an incredibly powerful thing. So I don't blame anybody if they want to do that.
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
I talked to my grandma on the phone and basically we made a deal that if I went up there and took care of her, because she was living all by herself at this point, that I could live there for free. So I took the opportunity and I went up there. I made dinner for her every night. I took her to church and just like keep the house clean and, you know, all that stuff.
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
I really enjoyed spending a lot of time with my grandmother. You know, she would pull out the photo albums every night and show me the same pictures and tell me the same stories about all of her friends and family that she grew up with over and over and over. And I really just loved it and was patient with it a lot of the time because she was such a beautiful, kind woman.
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
She was a devout Christian. Knew she was going to heaven, had no fear of dying because she couldn't wait to be reunited with my grandfather. I always felt a little jealous of that, that I wish that I felt that way, that I knew that I was going to go to heaven when I died or something. We didn't have any internet or TV at the house. And I've always been kind of a Luddite, but not to that extent.
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
So I spent a lot of my time just by myself in the basement reading, listening to records, writing postcards and stuff to people that I knew just to pass the time. I also would garden a lot in her backyard. I've always been into gardening, so I basically took over the space that she had in the backyard that she gardened at for like 50 years. And that was mostly what I did.
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
I would just like walk around at night or ride my bike and listen to my headphones and was very, very separated. So I joined this class. Denver Urban Gardens does like a master gardening class and they're a great organization. And so I went and I did their master gardening class so that I could learn more about growing food in Colorado and also to meet some people. During one of the classes,
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
I was talking to this guy and he was really nice punk dude. And he came up to me after class and he said, hey, I know that you just like don't really have any friends. You just moved here. You're living with your grandma. There's a party at this house tonight downtown. And I think you should go. And he was like, I'm not going to be there. But these people are really nice.
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
And I think you really fit in with them. And you should just go. Here's the address. So I went. I stopped at a gas station. I picked up a 12 pack of beer. And I went to this house. And when I drove up to it, there was like three guys sitting on the porch. I got out of my car, and I walked up to the porch with my six-pack of beer, and I said, is this the party?
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
And they were like, well, it's tomorrow. But they were like, well, you drove all the way down here. Just hang out with us. It's fine. And so I was like, oh, okay, cool. So I sat on this porch with these three guys, and they were really nice, all living in this community house in downtown Denver, and I hung out with them all night, and That's how I met my friend Abby.
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
She was living there at the time. And she like rode her bike up and said, Hi, I'm Abby. Who are you? And so we became like instant friends. And she was like, look, just come back tomorrow night. There's going to be a real party here. You'll meet a lot of really cool people. I'm looking forward to seeing you. I went back the next night.
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
met all of these awesome community people in Denver, hung out with Abby, and then met her partner at the time, Tovio. I started hanging out more and more with all of the people that I met in Denver, but mostly Abby and Tovio. We were starting to do a lot of creative projects together, making music videos.
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
We were trying to build some musical instruments together, reading poetry, doing street performance. It was just a lot of crazy, weird fun. Nothing was super serious. Tovio, they had gotten a call from this woman that they knew who wanted to put on a party. Like every year they would do this big like haunting festival at the Central City Opera House in Central City, Colorado. And...
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
It's really old. It's an old gold mining town. They would have magicians and crystal ball reader, tarot cards and palm reading, ghost tours, a bunch of stuff like that. Just like a big, expensive, fancy, like 20s style, you know, like martinis. Everybody was like dressed up really fancy. Cute with feather boas and glittery dresses.
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
And it was kind of like an upscale event for rich people who wanted to have a little bit of the haunted experience. And so the person who was managing all of the performers for that event contacted Tovio and said, do you know anybody that could do a seance? And Tovio thought of me and asked me if I wanted to do it. And I said no.
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
Tovio was like, well, just talk to the lady who's running this thing. And I was like, all right, give her my number. It's fine. And so she called me. But she was just like, you should really do this thing. You don't have to do anything real. Just, you know, put on a good show and just, you know, act it out. We'll pay you. And that's when I did the dumb thing. I was really poor at the time.
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
I had never gotten paid to do anything like creative, not that amount of money. They paid me $250. But to me at that time, this was 2011. That was a lot of money. I had just been working like really hard manual labor jobs my whole life. And how could I turn down $250 to just go pretend to be crazy for a couple hours, you know? So I said yes.
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
Most of the other people that were there, the performers, were just regular amateur performers. I remember I went and got a crystal ball reading from this lady, and it was very cheesy and corny. It was just all purely entertainment to sell like a $350 ticket to rich people that want to come and have like a fun weekend. I don't think that anybody that was there was a professional.
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
And even if they were, they weren't trying very hard. There was hors d'oeuvres. There was champagne. There was a full bar. Everybody that was working at the hotel that night had to dress like they were in flapper dresses. They spent a lot of money on the lighting and the carpeting and everything. just making it seem like this really decadent Hollywood haunting experience.
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
I don't think that anybody who bought a ticket to go to this thing had any expectations of having an actual ghost encounter or actually having their fortune told to them. It's just all pure entertainment. So at this point, I had resigned to accept the money because I really wanted it. And I also thought, you know, if I'm just performing, it's not a big deal.
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
I'm not trying to go up there and do magic. I did have a lot of trepidation about doing it, but I didn't think that it was going to be a very, very big deal. I just thought, hey... I'll get out my most like spooky looking clothing and I'll just spend the evening like having fun. This will really only take like half an hour. I'll get 250 bucks.
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
I can also like wander around and look at all of the other weird people at this festival and then it'll be over. So me and Tovio, drive up there in my old Jeep and the manager, a woman that I had spoken to on the phone came and got me and took me upstairs and showed me, okay, this is where you're going to do the seance.
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
You have the room all to yourself, like go ahead and set it up any way that you want to. So I went into the room, I looked around, I put all my stuff down at one end of the table and And then I went out and I watched a magic performance. And then I went and talked to the crystal ball person. And then I went back in the room and I got ready.
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
My plan was to just make this seance as extreme as possible and more of a joke and more like fun and and funny than scary. I just wanted it to be ridiculous. I was mostly in it to just get the money and get in there and have some fun and get out. So I wasn't trying at all, really. I would say if I had bought a ticket and signed up to watch me do what I did, I would have been really disappointed.
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
I will say that. So I'm sitting there. I put my black lace cloth over my head, waited for all of the people to come into the room. There was about 30 people in the room. It was upstairs at this opera house. This is a really old building.
Otherworld
Episode 109: The Fake Seance
And this room was like this long rectangular room with a long rectangular really fancy like dining table sitting right in the middle of it that almost took up the whole room. So I'm at one end of it. The door to the room is on the other far end away from me. And there's people sitting on either side of the table. In front of me, I have set up some candles.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Ask Charlie Anything 214: Picking Campus Visits? Vegas Shooting Truth? 2025's Most Crucial Election?
Good. I actually was just going to watch today, but your breaking news at the end of hour one immediately brought a question to mind. Do you think the recent activity at ActBlue is related to USAID funding being cut off to many entities?
The Charlie Kirk Show
Ask Charlie Anything 214: Picking Campus Visits? Vegas Shooting Truth? 2025's Most Crucial Election?
I know you are a big fan of Breaking Bad, so am I. And I always thought Democrats' big numbers in fundraising was suspicious because there's a party of entitlements involved. And other than their big, big money donors, I couldn't see them getting that many people to make small donations.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Ask Charlie Anything 214: Picking Campus Visits? Vegas Shooting Truth? 2025's Most Crucial Election?
Well, you remember what they did in Breaking Bad, the money laundering to make it look like random donations were sent in to pay for Walter White's cancer treatment. As soon as you said that story, I thought, oh, my gosh, that could possibly be Act Blue knows what's coming because their funding has been cut off.
The Oprah Podcast
Oprah and Dr. Ania Jastreboff on How People Treat You Differently After Weight Loss
Oh my gosh. So I kind of want to dive into when I was 27, I went to the doctor and And I had high blood pressure, high cholesterol, deep apnea. They were recommending me to be put on oxygen. And since I've been dealing with this since I was eight years old, I'm like, I can lose the weight. I can do it myself. It's my fault. You know, I'll do it. I'll do it.
The Oprah Podcast
Oprah and Dr. Ania Jastreboff on How People Treat You Differently After Weight Loss
And finally, the doctor said to me, when are you going to stop blaming yourself and let somebody help you?
The Oprah Podcast
Oprah and Dr. Ania Jastreboff on How People Treat You Differently After Weight Loss
That was the phrase that changed my life. I love that. Say it again. Yes. She said to me, when are you going to stop blaming yourself and allow someone to help you?
The Oprah Podcast
Oprah and Dr. Ania Jastreboff on How People Treat You Differently After Weight Loss
Yes. A million percent. I tried everything just like you said. And now I'm 30. I feel like how I probably should have felt when I was 17. All of my comorbidities are gone every morning. And I just get to be me. I get to live my life. I get to eat. food and enjoy it and not wonder if I'm going to gain 20 pounds at the end of the week because of what I ate. I use food as fuel.
The Oprah Podcast
Oprah and Dr. Ania Jastreboff on How People Treat You Differently After Weight Loss
Just truly get to live my life. I feel like, Oprah, that I have been completely reborn. Like I am a new person altogether.
The Oprah Podcast
Oprah and Dr. Ania Jastreboff on How People Treat You Differently After Weight Loss
It's been about two and a half years now.
The Oprah Podcast
Oprah and Dr. Ania Jastreboff on How People Treat You Differently After Weight Loss
But I've truly been funneling through these three emotions. And it's been happy, sad, and mad. And I'm happy because I'm finally who I've always wanted to be. And I finally got the help that I needed. And I'm living this amazing life. I mean, look where I am right now. I'm talking to you, Oprah. I'm also sad. I'm very sad because no one would listen to me.
The Oprah Podcast
Oprah and Dr. Ania Jastreboff on How People Treat You Differently After Weight Loss
I was constantly blamed for such a long time. And I think about the life I could have lived if somebody would have helped me. And then anger, because like you said, what is the reaction to people seeing me? I constantly get told, oh, you're so pretty. You're such this nice person. Getting invited to certain things I would never have been invited to before. Right. And it's like, why now?
The Oprah Podcast
Oprah and Dr. Ania Jastreboff on How People Treat You Differently After Weight Loss
Why do you feel like that about me now? Because I've always been Michaela. I've always been this person. But then it fell back into happy because I'm just happy I'm here now and happy I'm able to tell this story and advocate for other people just like me.
The Oprah Podcast
Oprah and Dr. Ania Jastreboff on How People Treat You Differently After Weight Loss
So I think when you say you're going to lose all this weight, people automatically assume it's because you hated yourself. And that's not the case for me. I love myself so much that I wanted to make this change and make this transition. I think that's huge.
The Oprah Podcast
Oprah and Dr. Ania Jastreboff on How People Treat You Differently After Weight Loss
I want to live life like that. That's why I did it. But when you say I'm having bariatric surgery or after having bariatric surgery, I also got on set down because I still needed help. I asked for help a second time. People are like, well, are you sure you need to? Why don't you try dieting? Why don't you try exercising? Have you tried this? Have you tried that?
The Oprah Podcast
Oprah and Dr. Ania Jastreboff on How People Treat You Differently After Weight Loss
When like we've talked about, I've done all of those things my entire life. And I think the reason I got that pushback is they thought I was going to fail like how I failed with everything else. So I didn't. I've lost the 165 pounds. And what I've noticed is a lot of the people that would invite me to things and that would show up for me, stopped.
The Oprah Podcast
Oprah and Dr. Ania Jastreboff on How People Treat You Differently After Weight Loss
And I'm not sure if they enjoyed me more as the background friend or like you said, I would have never worn this top or this dress. I would have never put on these earrings. I would have probably been dressed in all black trying to mute myself out and for no one to see me. And now I love to be seen. I love to talk. I be the center of attention in these type of situations.
The Oprah Podcast
Oprah and Dr. Ania Jastreboff on How People Treat You Differently After Weight Loss
And I have to ask myself, did they prefer me the way that I once was before? Yeah.
The Oprah Podcast
Oprah and Dr. Ania Jastreboff on How People Treat You Differently After Weight Loss
Yes.
The Oprah Podcast
Oprah and Dr. Ania Jastreboff on How People Treat You Differently After Weight Loss
a million percent a million percent and even like something like this like oh I'm going to be on Oprah's podcast I know when I say that there will be some people who will be so supportive of me and watch and then there will be people that won't just because it's me and because I lost the weight but they would have been there before when I was 350 plus pounds and living my worst life but now that I'm living my best life it's like they've disappeared so it's been very hard
The Oprah Podcast
Oprah and Dr. Ania Jastreboff on How People Treat You Differently After Weight Loss
Oprah, if I could say one thing to you, I remember being a little girl and I heard you talking earlier and I would see the magazines in the aisle when I was at the grocery store with my mom. And I remember seeing when you would have a great weight loss success story and how you did it. And then they would be another one.
The Oprah Podcast
Oprah and Dr. Ania Jastreboff on How People Treat You Differently After Weight Loss
like years later, something like, oh, she gained it back, like something so controversial. And you said earlier, you've been shamed and blamed your entire career. And I just wanted to say, I'm so sorry, because I totally understand that. And thank you so much for what you're doing and using your platform to advocate for girls like me, because I have been watching and I've seen it. I understand.
The Oprah Podcast
Oprah and Dr. Ania Jastreboff on How People Treat You Differently After Weight Loss
So just thank you. Thank you for that. Thank you for that.
The Oprah Podcast
Oprah and Dr. Ania Jastreboff on How People Treat You Differently After Weight Loss
Yeah.
The Oprah Podcast
Oprah and Dr. Ania Jastreboff on How People Treat You Differently After Weight Loss
I'm doing great. Thanks for asking. I saw the pictures of you from the prom. How was that? It was so much fun. But there was a tornado, so we had to go to the basement of the school. Oh, my. It was fun. We still got to do stuff afterwards.
The Oprah Podcast
Oprah and Dr. Ania Jastreboff on How People Treat You Differently After Weight Loss
Well, let's see. I got... A part-time job at the nursing home. And right now I don't have any cheer because we don't do basketball cheer.
The Oprah Podcast
Oprah and Dr. Ania Jastreboff on How People Treat You Differently After Weight Loss
Oh my gosh, I love them.
The Oprah Podcast
Oprah and Dr. Ania Jastreboff on How People Treat You Differently After Weight Loss
I am so glad.
The Oprah Podcast
Oprah and Dr. Ania Jastreboff on How People Treat You Differently After Weight Loss
Thank you.
The Oprah Podcast
Oprah and Dr. Ania Jastreboff on How People Treat You Differently After Weight Loss
Thank you, Erica and Maggie.
The Oprah Podcast
Oprah and Dr. Ania Jastreboff on How People Treat You Differently After Weight Loss
So I have been absolutely struggling with my weight my entire life. I remember being eight years old. and walking into the doctor's office and then telling my mom, you need to watch what she's eating, giving me a food pyramid, all of those sort of things.
The Oprah Podcast
Oprah and Dr. Ania Jastreboff on How People Treat You Differently After Weight Loss
And that was the moment I remember my struggle with eating started then from that entire time, all the way through high school, all the way through my adult life, even like during the time I was getting married, constantly thinking about how much I weighed, what I was eating, and how I was obese. So I knew from a really young age.