Original subtitles

A NETFLIX ORIGINAL SERIES

My name is Harvey Althaus.

My life was profoundly changed by the�spirits of three dead children.

THE FOLLOWING IS A TRUE STORY.

As you know, I was born in South Dakota, 1962.

When I was five, we moved to Iowa. And that house...

If I had to�put it on a creep factor of one to ten, it would be a 12.

There was an old well in the basement.

This is something very typical�back in those days the farmhouses would do.

They would dig a well, build a house over it.

That scared me to no end.

My mom and dad

were extremely religious people.

Everything was about God. Everything was�about the nature of God.

And if it wasn't in the Bible, then it didn't exist.

My dad was a pretty hard hitter.

He was a truck driver, so...

he wasn't home much.

My mom was a stay-at-home mom,

but she had�six kids to take care of.

She was very cold to us.

I never heard either one of them say they loved us.

JULIE HARVEY'S OLDEST SISTER

Nope.

And as much of a religious person she was,

I feel that she used the Bible as psychological warfare on us.

"Revelation 21:8.

But the fearful,

and unbelieving,

and the abominable,

and murderers, and whoremongers,

and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all the liars

shall have their part in the lake,

which burneth with fire and brimstone...

which is the second death."

It just seems like whenever she read parts about the paranormal,

it sounded�like she said�it directly to me.

I remember that.

It was bad enough I had to deal with my mom�and dad, you know?

CLARA HARVEY'S DAUGHTER

But the house itself had a problem.

There was some kind of energy in that�house

that only afflicted me.

It started with footsteps.

Mother?

There was nobody there.

That happened almost every night.

ELLEN HARVEY'S FRIEND

I was too afraid to leave my room.

And whatever it was became a little more aggressive with me.

I mean, I felt like it was trying to get�my attention.

Come down and play with us.

Come play with us.

Harvey!

What's happening?

d Harvey, come play with us d

Come down!

Come down to the basement.

- Come down and play with us. - d Come to the basement d

Harvey, why won't you play with us?

Aaah!

Yoo-hoo!

Every hair on my neck stood up.

Every fiber of my body, it was frozen with fear.

I was petrified.

PAULA HARVEY'S YOUNGEST SISTER

Even though I was scared to death

of my mom and dad, I had to...

tell them.

And Mom, she looked at me

and she said, "What?"

Now, she knew I was scared to death of the dark.

And where's�the dark place in our house?

Our basement.

Mother!

Please, Mom! Please, let me out!

Harvey... come play with us.

It was horrific.

For some reason, I felt like they were connected to that well somehow.

Maybe they drowned in the�well.

After I�calmed down, I told Mom about the children being in the basement.

Stand up.

"And the soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits

and after wizards

to go a-whoring after them,

I will even set my face against that soul,

and will cut�him off from amongst his people."

I have no memory of anything.

And it makes me sick to know

that the person that gave me life and gave me more love than any of you

could be such a monster.

I think she truly believed

that there was some kind of demon possession in me.

When I think, what really made her angry

was because I came from her.

And she couldn't have that.

She wouldn�t love me.

She couldn't love me.

I'm like this...

bad seed.

I knew you didn't have a great upbringing and I knew you were kind of poor,

but I didn't know that you went through all of this stuff.

It's hard to process the fact that my dad had to go through that.

It's heartbreaking.

You know, it's really hard, when you're eight, nine years old,

not to have any hope whatsoever.

None.

I couldn't take it anymore.

I'm nine�years old, I wanted to off myself.

But then, all of a sudden...

there was�nothing, just fog.

Don't worry, Harvey.

Everything is gonna be okay.

We'll take�care of your mother.

I didn't know what it meant at the time.

They told me,

"We'll take�care of your mom."

Two days later, I found this little, tiny... it was an old porcelain doll.

In our backyard.�It�was all beat up and it looked like it had been burnt,

but it was... you know, you could still make out the head, the arms, and the legs.

And something hit me, something struck me

that I needed to give this as an offering

to those children downstairs.

Now my mother, she was finally gone.

She was 36.

- She wasn't�sick when she died. - No.

She died suddenly.

And everybody else was sad and depressed, and...

and I was happy.

I was absolutely... happy.

I felt the same way.

It's horrible to say.

I know.

These...

spirit children told me, "We'll take care of your mom."

- That's what�they did. - Yep.

I really felt that they were trying to�protect me.

That night, I was actually able to sleep,

because I didn't have to worry about anything.

And I saw my mother's spirit.

I'll be with�you forever.

I felt like the weight of the world had been lifted off my shoulders.

It's like she was apologizing for how she hurt me.

My pain was being put to rest.

I felt at peace.

From that time on, I didn't hear from the spirit children anymore.

My teen years, it was kind of a journey, a unique journey for me.

I could know things

before they happened.

I could hear things that nobody else could hear.

I could feel things nobody else did.

At... at one point, I was like,

"Wow, this is like being Superman or something."

But what good is being Superman if you can't help anybody?

So I joined the Navy in 1981,

went to my first station,

uh, USS Enterprise, Station Alameda, California.

Two days later, I get a message

down to my division that one of the chaplains wanted to see me, and...

he said, "Your mother Dolores wants me to talk to you.

- Really? - Yep.

Never met this guy,�except a couple days ago, never talked to him.

He says, "You have no idea your potential with your abilities that you�have."

He called it being awake.

"You can use it to help people in need."

I think it was that following

spring.

Julie...

You and your husband Mike had been having some issues,

and he was in a bad way.

And you went into the kitchen and you said that, "Something doesn't look right."

There was�paper on the table in nice little stacks and...

All of his things were laid out on the buffet.

- Yeah. - Keys labeled.

- I thought he was cleaning. - Right.

- I didn't even think. - Right.

And he went into the old barn.

You had called me. I mean, you're...

hysterical, and all you said is, "Mike shot himself.

Mike shot himself. Oh, my God, Mike shot himself."

I thought, "How do I help you?"

I remember�that.

And then I went back one summer,

down at your�house, and I brought my RadioShack hack, you know, spirit box.

It was unreal.

Who's there?

Who's there?

Harvey?

Mike?

Julie, dear...

I'm sorry.

Mike's spirit was in that house.

And actually hearing his voice

and standing there, it was like a relief

that... he was sorry.

And I really never thought that

he did that to hurt us.

- He was trying to end his pain. - Right.

God, it was... I mean, just seeing you feel that,

like, you know, weight lifted off you,

I realized this is what the chaplain was talking about.

How and why

I can do what I do.

And then it validated that my brother actually

has a pretty decent gift to offer people�and to help them.

I feel that my place on this Earth,

after going through that maelstrom that I went through,

there was a reason for it.

And that reason, I believe, is that I'm meant to help people

connect with the departed.

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