About this episode
For more than a century, doctors have been recording patients whose hands act on their own, from unbuttoning a shirt to closing around the patient's own throat. Hollywood was making movies about murderous hands by the 1930s, decades after the reality of it was discovered. EPISODE BLOG PAGE (includes sources): https://weirddarkness.com/AlienHandSyndrome READ or DOWNLOAD the full transcript of this episode: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/5aba6abc FEATURED STORIES IN THIS EPISODE: Imagine losing control of one of your hands – and that hand tries to kill you. It’s not the premise of a B-horror movie, it’s a very real condition that is just as frightening as it sounds. (Alien Hand Syndrome) *** Thanks to the film Fire In The Sky, it is one of the most famous alien abduction cases in history. But what exactly happened to Travis Walton – and is the story believable? (The Abduction of Travis Walton) *** One of the most famous and well-documented cases of poltergeist activity has a funny name, Humpty Doo. The name is an Australian slang term meaning ‘everything topsy-turvy, or turned upside down’ – a perfect description of what poltergeists do. (The Humpty Doo Poltergeist) *** A Weirdo family member used to think he was just seeing things – until he began listening to Weird Darkness and realized he might be surrounded by very real dark entities. (I See Shadow People) CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)… 00:00:00.000 = The Foreboding 00:01:00.422 = Show Open 00:02:59.286 = Alien Hand Syndrome 00:11:46.419 = The Travis Walton Abduction *** 00:33:00.084 = I See Shadow People 00:38:52.364 = The Humpty Doo Poltergeist *** 00:58:27.595 = Show Close *** = Begins immediately after inserted ad break LISTEN ON PODCAST APPS: Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.com/wdapps *No AI Voices Are Used In The Narration Of This Podcast* SOURCES and RESOURCES: “Alien Hand Syndrome” by Trilby Beresford for Graveyard Shift: http://bit.ly/2MRiT6N “The Abduction of Travis Walton” from The Scare Chamber: http://bit.ly/2W1sex6 “Humpty Doo Poltergeist” by Paul Cropper & Tony Healey for Strange Nation Australia: http://bit.ly/31nB60Y “I See Shadow People” by Weirdo family member Jack Williams for Weird Darkness. (Over time links may become invalid, disappear, or have different content. I always make sure to give authors credit for the material I use whenever possible. If I somehow overlooked doing so for a story, or if a credit is incorrect, please let me know and I will rectify it in these show notes immediately. Some links included above may benefit me financially through qualifying purchases.) WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness. LIKE WHAT YOU’RE HEARING? WEIRD DARKNESS posts episodes 7 DAYS A WEEK! Listen FREE wherever you get podcasts or visit https://weirddarkness.com/listen. • Paranormal • True Crime • Ghosts • UFOs • Cryptids • Unexplained • Want even more? Become an OFFICIAL WEIRDO for commercial-free episodes, bonus episodes, weeknight live chats, audiobooks & more at https://WeirdDarkness.com/OFFICIAL Weird Darkness moves from a neurological disorder that turns a person's own hand against them to a UFO abduction in the Arizona woods, a listener's run-ins with shadow people, and a poltergeist that pelted an Australian house with stones. It opens with alien hand syndrome, sometimes called Dr. Strangelove syndrome, in which one hand acts without its owner, unbuttoning Karen Byrne's shirt while she talked to her doctor or grabbing a bus passenger's trouser leg. Doctors tie it to brain damage from surgery, strokes, tumors, and degenerative disease. From there, it's November 5th, 1975, in Arizona's Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest, where Travis Walton left his logging crew's truck, walked toward a glowing golden disc, and was struck by a blue-green beam; he was missing for five days, and his story became the film Fire in the Sky. Next, a listener writes in about shadow figures that followed him through a stretch of depression, edging closer as he got better until he ordered them to leave, and months later one of them was sitting in his passenger seat on his way to work. The episode closes in 1998 near Humpty Doo in Australia's Northern Territory, where bone-dry pebbles fell indoors during the monsoon and messages spelled out in Scrabble tiles and gravel named a friend killed in a road accident. Three priests failed to stop the Humpty Doo poltergeist, and researchers Tony Healy and Paul Cropper had about 30 objects fall on or around them over five days.
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