Welcome back to DEAD Time, a new column where I share my own paranormal experiences, tell others’ stories, and talk with experts in the unexplained. This month, I was thrilled to have the opportunity to chat with paranormal creator extraordinaire, Sapphire Sandalo!
Sapphire is a Filipino-American host, animator, creator, and podcaster in Los Angeles. She’s responsible for creating Something Scary on the YouTube channel Snarled, she has an award-winning podcast called Stories With Sapphire, and you can catch her on Travel Channel on Paranormal Caught on Camera, Paranormal Nightshift, and the new show, Ghost Town Terror. Sapphire is also a writer, musician, director, and all-around Spooky Queen!
Sapphire Sandalo and I discussed everything from how she first got involved in the paranormal to her most horrifying personal unexplained experience, diversity in the paranormal and horror communities, and her brand-new show Ghost Town Terror.
Bloody Disgusting: What inspired you to get involved with the paranormal?
Sapphire Sandalo: I have been obsessed with the paranormal my entire life. It started at a very young age because my grandpa grew up in the Philippines, and he told me all these really cool stories of things he had seen and experienced. That was my introduction to folklore and superstition and legends. Then I found out that everyone else in my family also had their own experiences and I was like, “Hang on a second. If everyone around me has had these experiences, then surely other people do too.” So, I just became obsessed with trying to learn everything about the paranormal.
BD: Do you have a specific process you use for debunking paranormal videos or other evidence?
SS: Yes, I do! The first thing I always look for is trying to see if it was faked, what are the possible ways it could have been faked. For example, poltergeist videos are very common, but that’s an extremely rare type of haunting. If you’re trying to fake a paranormal video, maybe don’t go for that [laughs]! I look at the way the objects move and if everything is moving toward a direction off camera, someone could be pulling a string that way. I try to think of where someone could be hiding. If a chair is moving, is somebody rocking it from behind? Once I rule out every practical explanation, then I start to dive into, “Okay, if that’s not the case, what else could it be?”
BD: Can you share your most frightening personal paranormal experience and how you handled it?
SS: Sure! This actually happened very recently, maybe about a week ago. Most of my life, I have gone without experiencing anything paranormal, but again, maybe I did and didn’t realize I had. But over the last couple of years, there has been an increase in, not necessarily scary experiences, but more what I call supernatural and spiritual experiences. There have been lots of synchronicities and signs and I’ve experienced those types of things very frequently. But recently is when the unsettling, what the fuck things have been happening [laughs].
I had this dream recently where I entered a room I did not recognize and I saw what I thought was possibly a woman face down on the ground, with black hair all over the floor. I started panicking and I thought, “No, no I don’t want to see her! I don’t want to know what happened here.” When I woke up, I heard a woman humming a melody in my room. I know for a fact I was awake. I was lying in bed, and I couldn’t see because I was too afraid to take my eye mask off [laughs] because I didn’t want to see what it was. I later realized that the melody she was humming was from “Dies Irae,” which is this really old song that is associated with death.
The good thing about having a paranormal community is that there are so many people I can reach out to when something happens. So, I asked some of my friends, and because of all the different theories, I have an idea of what it could mean, but I don’t want to share it yet [laughs]. I think that the more time passes from that experience, the less scared I am and the more curious I am to have her revisit me. Now I’m like, “Well, I know you weren’t trying to harm me, so now I want to know what it actually is that you were trying to show me.” I was terrified in the moment! My heart was pounding so hard [laughs] and I could not go back to sleep. But now I’m in a state of, “Okay, it was actually a really special thing that happened to me, and I want to give this spirit, or whatever it was, some peace.”
BD: I know you’re devoted to advocating for representation of marginalized groups in the paranormal and horror communities. What are some steps you think the industry still needs to take to ensure inclusivity?
SS: I’ll start by saying that my theory is that part of the reason why we see the same stories over and over again and the same type of people telling the stories is because a lot of these stories are actually very sacred. For the Filipino community, stories may not be shared or be mainstream because people are still very afraid of sharing them or there are things that are just sacred. There are things you don’t talk about openly for entertainment. So, I feel like that is a part of the reason. For example, I know so many different types of spiritual practitioners but they’re not the type of people who are going to try to be on TV. That’s just not in their nature. So, it’s complicated for that reason. It almost seems disrespectful to share some stuff, so that’s one issue.
I’m trying to bridge the connection between empathetic storytelling and entertainment. I think a lot of paranormal entertainment focuses more on the entertainment aspect and maybe not so much the educational aspect. Sometimes the educational part takes a back seat. So, what I do with my podcast, and what I hope to do with any future shows I’m a part of, is to try to make the shows themselves coming from a more respectful place. That way people, hopefully, will be more comfortable and it will create a space where these stories can be shared because people feel more comfortable sharing them.
BD: Can you tell me more about your new Travel Channel series ‘Ghost Town Terror’?
Sapphire Sandalo: Yes! It was a really fun show to be a part of [laughs], because it was my first time ever doing an investigation like this, so I learned a lot. Basically, there is a woman named Karen Broussard, and she lives on this giant 52-acre property with her 3 children. And they have been experiencing really dark paranormal activity the entire time they’ve lived there, and they haven’t lived there that long. They called me and my co-host Tim Wood. He’s a very experienced paranormal investigator. They called us to come and help them try to figure out what’s going on. It’s such a weird, wild case because there are so many avenues that we had to explore. Is it the family themselves that’s haunted by something? Is it the buildings? Is it the land itself? There were just so many things to look at that kept it really interesting.
You can follow Sapphire Sandalo’s paranormal adventures on her official website.
Check back in next month for the next installment of DEAD Time and make sure you leave a light on. You never know what might be lurking in the dark…
The post Spooky Creator Sapphire Sandalo Shares Her Most Terrifying Supernatural Experience [Interview] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.