Clyde Lewis opens Ghost Week 2011 with Black-Eyed Children sightings in Portland, a dead uncle's phone clicks, and EVP voices from a 150,000 watt experiment.
At a glance
Guest: None; call-in and monologue episode
Topics: Black-Eyed Children sightings · EVP experiments · the Mason call · listener ghost stories · Halloween broadcast plans
Also discussed: Brian Bethel · Alistair Crowley and the Babylon Working · Reed McClintock · the Bloody Mary ritual · Skinwalker channeling
The door of his father's place opened on its own while Clyde Lewis was getting up to pay the check, and Janine looked over and said, well, that guy was short. They had spent breakfast talking about the Rose and Raindrop across the street and how it is haunted. That was Lewis's Monday, and he carried it into the KXL studio for the first night of Ghost Week, October 24, 2011, promising a week of ghosts and strangeness before Halloween. He had a stack of electronic voice phenomena recordings from the previous year's experiment, a phone bank of people waiting to testify, and one story he kept circling back to all night: the children with black eyes, and what Portland keeps doing to produce them.
Children at the Car Window
Lewis told the audience the first widely circulated account came from journalist Brian Bethel in Abilene, Texas, dated January 16, 1998: two children at his car window after dark, asking for a ride, their eyes black from edge to edge. Then he brought the story home. A man on Northwest Gleason in Portland, he said, met a boy in a misty rain, heard a young voice say "hey mister," and froze. Lewis argues Portland has become a hotbed for these sightings, and the phones backed him up.
Adam called in days after his release from McLaren, the state youth correctional facility, and claimed some of the juveniles inside had black eyes. They were quiet, he said, and creepy to be around. Lauren described a church chili feed under the Broadway Bridge years earlier, when a man came up asking for a blanket. Her pastor felt wrong about him. Her mother shoved the kids under the table, and peeking out, Lauren says she watched his face change, his hands lengthen, his body crouch like a wolf. Lewis matched her story with one of his own: a guest on his program who channeled an Indian warrior, he claims, shape-shifted in the studio while producers watched his eyes go black. Lewis rules out drugs and dilated pupils in the accounts he accepts, describing eyes that sit in the sockets pure black. He connects the sightings to the Babylon Working, a ritual he attributes to Alistair Crowley, through which, he claims, something came through the door: gray skin, sinewy body, big dark eyes, looking like a child.
A Dead Man Works the Phones
The hour's centerpiece was a call from the archive. The previous year, Mason from Vancouver had phoned the show hoping his deceased uncle might reach him, and Lewis says the uncle did, repeatedly, while the experiment ran live. It started with clicks in the telephone line. Then the studio computers went down. The room, Lewis says, went cold, and there were witnesses everywhere. "Something is in this room now manipulating our electronics," he told the audience at the time. Another voice in the studio put it to Mason directly: your uncle is in this room, dude, you brought him up and now it is cold in here.
People called in during that broadcast to describe the uncle. Lewis says the clicks sounded like Morse code, deliberate and intelligent. "Whoever was trying to contact us that night, they contacted us," he said, and he admitted the show held the tape back for a while out of fear that replaying it would start the interference again. A listener in Idaho reportedly saw a white truck with a dead man inside, and then did not see it.
Voices From Last Halloween
Lewis frames EVP as his show's laboratory work. He told listeners the program had pushed a sound barrage into the sky the previous Halloween with a 150,000 watt transmitter and hacked radios, then recorded what came back. He played the captures. Asked whether anyone else wanted to speak, a voice under the static answered, "if they speak, they speak." Another, dark and slow, said, "now you dream the dream," with something screaming behind it. A third gave "the smoke," followed by laughter. The last, pulled out of the noise just before co-host Reed McClintock shut the session down over a bad vibe, joined a man's voice and a woman's: "take me back, please."
Lewis is careful about how he sells this. He insists the work is science, provable and repeatable, a matter of iron oxide moving across tape heads, and he pushed back on callers who worry the program invites possession. His theory is broader than tape: he argues electromagnetic fields from ordinary devices alter perception and balance, and that many hauntings come from within the person experiencing them. He promised to run the experiment again on Sunday the 30th at the Jack London bar and again on Halloween night, and he told the story of a session where a medium kept repeating the name Looney Tunes, which turned out, he claims, to be the nickname of the gang member who shot the murdered girl they were trying to reach.
A Racquetball Picks Its Target
The callers carried the back half of the show. Kyle described playing video games at his friend Jimmy's rented place when a racquetball rolled out of the next room and stopped on the hardwood in front of the television. He blamed the cat. Then the ball rolled back, traced a figure eight three times, and, as Jimmy shouted from the couch that he was leaving if it moved again, went straight at him and bounced off the furniture. They ran without shutting off the lights or closing the door. "It was the creepiest thing ever," Kyle said, and he still cannot explain it, because nobody close to him has died. Lewis answered that the phenomenon may come from Kyle himself, or from the house.
Greg reported a door that shut on its own and an energy moving through the house while he sat with his mother. A caller from orchard country above Hood River said a former resident who loved their rose garden left a lawn chair in his exact spot four months after his death, in midwinter, the furniture locked in a shed. Joe, who grew up near the old Camp Baker ground, swore off Ouija boards after a planchette moved on its own and a storm lantern answered a question by going out. Lewis also recounted a Skype call received by a skeptic named Brian, a voice he called unearthly, repeating his name.
The Road Home Stayed Wrong
Lewis closed the night on the road he drives after sign-off, out past McMinnville and Forest Grove, where the roundabouts sit in the middle of nowhere and the mist creeps along the asphalt. "There is nothing out there except you see the clouds hovering with the lights coming up from the cities," he said. A caller had used the same words for that stretch: eerie, scary, haunted. Lewis agreed. Whatever opened the door at his father's place, whatever clicked down the phone line at Mason, whatever said take me back, please into a microphone a year earlier, none of it got resolved in two hours of radio. It got scheduled. The experiments were set for Sunday and Halloween, and the phones stayed open.
Questions this episode answers
What are Black-Eyed Children, and where have they been seen in Portland?
Lewis describes Black-Eyed Children as beings with entirely black eyes who approach people asking for help, and he claims Portland is a hotbed for sightings.
Lewis cites the account credited to journalist Brian Bethel from Abilene, Texas, dated January 16, 1998, in which two children at his car window asked for a ride and showed eyes with no whites at all. Lewis says the encounters produce a fight-or-flight response and that the beings may be something else presenting as children to gain trust.
For Portland, he points to reports on Northwest Gleason and near the Broadway Bridge. Two callers added their own: Adam claimed juveniles inside the McLaren youth correctional facility had black eyes, and Lauren described a man at a church chili feed under the Broadway Bridge whose eyes were black before, she says, his body shifted toward something wolf-like. Lewis rules out drugs and dilated pupils in the accounts he accepts, describing eyes that sit pure black in the sockets. No evidence beyond testimony was offered, and the sightings remain unverified claims.
What happened during Mason's call about his deceased uncle?
Lewis says a call from Mason of Vancouver during a previous broadcast triggered clicks on the phone line, studio computer failures, and a cold room, which he attributes to Mason's deceased uncle.
Lewis claims the interference began with clicks in the telephone line while the show attempted contact, followed by the studio computers going down and a cold breeze moving through the room, all in front of multiple witnesses. "Something is in this room now manipulating our electronics," he said during that broadcast.
Listeners reportedly called in describing the uncle's appearance. Lewis argues the clicks resembled Morse code and were intelligent, saying, "Whoever was trying to contact us that night, they contacted us." He admitted the program initially held back the recording out of concern that replaying it would restart the interference. The events are his account of a live radio show; no independent confirmation exists.
What EVPs did Ground Zero capture in its Halloween radio experiments?
Lewis played several captures from the previous Halloween's 150,000 watt broadcast experiment, including voices saying "if they speak, they speak" and "take me back, please."
He described using a 150,000 watt transmitter and hacked radios broadcasting across frequencies, then recording what came back down. In one clip, asked whether anyone else wished to speak, a voice under the static replied, "if they speak, they speak."
Other captures included "now you dream the dream," spoken in what Lewis called a darker voice with screaming behind it, "the smoke" followed by laughter, and a final clip of a man and woman together saying, "take me back, please," recorded just before co-host Reed McClintock ended the session over a bad vibe. Lewis says callers complained of feeling sick during that second night, which is why the experiment stopped midway.
Is EVP real, and how does Clyde Lewis say it works?
Lewis argues EVP is provable science, captured through tape and radio frequencies, and he rejects the idea that it is supernatural or dangerous.
He told listeners the process is mechanical: cassette tape records by moving iron oxide across the heads, and he claims spirit voices come through with the signal. He described the Halloween experiment as a repeatable demonstration and promised to recreate it on October 30 at the Jack London bar and again on Halloween night.
Lewis also argues the phenomenon is partly internal. He claims electromagnetic fields from household devices alter human perception and balance, making people more likely to sense a presence, and that telekinesis can occur under pressure without a person knowing. Mainstream science does not accept EVP as evidence of the dead; researchers attribute such captures to interference and auditory pareidolia, and Lewis's demonstrations were conducted for radio, not under controlled conditions.
What did callers report during the October 24, 2011 broadcast?
Callers described moving objects, apparitions, and a Ouija session, including Kyle's account of a racquetball that rolled in figure eights and came at his friend.
Kyle said the ball rolled out of an empty room onto the hardwood while he and his friend Jimmy played video games, rolled back, traced a figure eight three times, then went straight at Jimmy and bounced off the couch. They fled without shutting off the lights. "It was the creepiest thing ever," Kyle said.
Greg reported feeling spirits daily and watching a door shut on its own. A caller from orchard country above Hood River said a deceased former resident's lawn chair appeared in his favorite spot four months after his death. Joe described a Ouija board near the old Camp Baker ground where the planchette moved by itself and a storm lantern went out mid-question. Lewis also recounted a Skype call in which a voice repeated the name of a skeptic named Brian.
What is the Babylon Working, and how does Lewis connect it to black-eyed beings?
Lewis describes the Babylon Working as a ritual attributed to Alistair Crowley and claims it let something through that matches descriptions of black-eyed beings.
He characterized it as a sexual ritual intended to bring spirits through a door, and he claims those who used it reported something with big dark eyes, gray skin, and a sinewy body, something that could pass for a child or be mistaken for an alien.
Lewis uses the story to argue that Black-Eyed Children encounters may involve shape-shifting entities rather than actual children, and he tied it to childhood conjuring games such as the Bloody Mary mirror ritual, which he says children can use to pull things out of the ether. This connection is Lewis's own theory, drawn from occult lore, and he presented no evidence linking any Portland sighting to any ritual.
What experiments did Lewis plan for Halloween 2011?
Lewis announced live EVP experiments for Sunday, October 30 at the Jack London bar and for Halloween night, October 31, recreating the previous year's broadcast.
He said the show would again use high-powered transmission to send sound into the sky and record the return, mentioning work on 101.1 FM and K-Bear Utah frequencies in past sessions and new electromagnetic generators as tools for contact.
He also planned to replay the previous year's captures, including the session ended early over what Reed McClintock felt was a bad vibe. Lewis framed the events as open to listeners, arguing the phenomenon is demonstrable rather than occult, and invited the audience to participate during Ghost Week.
Frequently asked questions
What are Black-Eyed Children?
In the lore discussed on the show, Black-Eyed Children are figures resembling children whose eyes are entirely black, with no whites or irises. The typical account involves them approaching people at night, often at a car or door, and asking for help or a ride. Clyde Lewis claims Portland has produced repeated sightings; the phenomenon remains a matter of testimony and folklore, with no verified physical evidence.
Who reported the first Black-Eyed Children encounter?
Lewis credits journalist Brian Bethel with the first widely circulated account, dated January 16, 1998, in Abilene, Texas. Bethel's story describes two children at his car window asking for a ride home, their eyes entirely black. The Bethel account circulated online and became the template for later reports.
What is EVP?
EVP, or electronic voice phenomena, refers to voice-like sounds captured on audio recordings that believers attribute to the dead. Lewis argues the process is scientific and repeatable, citing tape mechanics and radio-frequency experiments. Mainstream researchers explain EVP through radio interference, ambient noise, and the brain's tendency to find speech in random sound.
Why did Ground Zero stop one of its experiments early?
Lewis says the second night of the previous year's Halloween experiment was ended midway because co-host Reed McClintock felt a bad vibe in the studio. He also says listeners called in complaining they felt sick while it aired. The final capture from that session, he claims, was a combined male and female voice saying, "take me back, please."
Who's on this episode
Host: Clyde Lewis, live on FM News 101 KXL, Portland.
Callers: Adam, Lauren, Mason from Vancouver, Greg, Kyle, Joe, Bob from Hillsboro, as they identified on air.
