Demons in the dark: The terrifying experience that permanently ended a radio show’s horror series
Ghost stories are all fun and games until they’re not.
Years ago, when Calvin “Speedy” Wilburn, Rick Burgess’ longtime co-host and producer, traveled around the country visiting haunted sites for a popular October series on the now-retired “Rick and Bubba Show,” he had no idea he’d encounter actual demons.
Dubbed “13 Days of Horror,” the well-intentioned Halloween series was supposed to be a lighthearted way to enjoy October festivities. Rick describes it as a “Scooby-Doo ... Ghostbusters kind of thing.”
But it wasn’t long before the crew discovered that there’s no such thing as lighthearted horror.
On this episode of “Strange Encounters,” Speedy shares the harrowing story of a demonic encounter that shook him so deeply, the team shut down the series forever.
“13 Days of Horror” focused primarily on visiting purportedly haunted historical landmarks. Speedy and the camera crew often teamed up with paranormal groups armed with infrared cameras and EMF meters to venture into the country’s dark corners.
However, one “very cold Alabama night,” the team broke with tradition when, instead of visiting another landmark, they met up with a lady and her young daughter at their house, which they claimed was haunted.
The crew immediately knew they were dealing with something different when the child showed them bloody scratches on her body where a demon had allegedly attacked her in her sleep. The mother told bone-chilling stories of her daughter waking up with braids in her hair that weren’t there before she went to sleep and candles being blown out en masse around the house.
Speedy recounts how upon entering the home, he could feel that “the vibe was different.” There was a “heaviness” and a “darkness” that “weighted on [his] shoulders.”
The paranormal hunters they were with then began “asking questions for the spirit to appear.” They even had the young girl, who was “horrified,” ask her spiritual tormentor questions about why it was attacking her.
That’s when Speedy and the team shut it down and left the house, knowing that what they were involved with was no laughing matter.
On the car ride back, one of the staff members who had been taking pictures in the home pulled out his camera to look over the images.
The photos he had taken were completely black except for numerous “orbs” hovering everywhere.
That’s when the crew knew for certain that what they had experienced was “not a spooky, funny, let's go have a good time, Mystery Machine, Scooby-Doo, bring back a funny bit for the show” situation.
“This was a demonic heaviness, a serious situation we were in, and looking back on it and knowing what we were doing and what we were asking, you just feel so foolish,” Speedy tells Rick.
While that experience shut down the series permanently, there had already been other experiences that had made the crew wary about their “13 Days of Horror” segment. There was another time when the crew was left quaking in their boots after visiting the children’s wing of an abandoned mental institution.
Speedy also shares wild stories from his dad’s days of going door-to-door sharing the gospel that will make your blood run cold. From a woman who “roared like a lion” at the sound of Jesus’ name to a sick patient who spoke in a voice that was not her own, these moments confronted Speedy with a spiritual reality far beyond the playful scares the crew had set out to chase.
To hear the details of each harrowing demonic encounter and Rick’s biblical response, watch the episode above.
Want more from Rick Burgess?
To enjoy more bold talk and big laughs, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.
From fiery seraphim to masked demons: The true faces of spiritual beings
For centuries, artists have depicted angels through paintings and sculptures. They usually have giant wings, placid, ethereal visages, and flowing robes. Sometimes they are male, other times female.
But is that how scripture describes them?
What we see in art is a far cry from biblical angels, says Rick Burgess, host of “The Rick Burgess Show” and "Strange Encounters."
Angels, he says, aren’t these haloed, feel-good spirits. They’re “a supernatural military.”
“There are different types of angels; there's different ranks of angels,” he explains. “There are times where they look like humans,” specifically “like males. … We never see anywhere in scripture that they appear in what we would call human female form.”
He points to Daniel 10, in which an angel appears before Daniel. The being has “the appearance of a man” and likely is the angel Gabriel, based on context from earlier chapters. Verse 6 tells us, “His body was like topaz, his face like lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and his voice like the sound of a multitude.”
The angel tells Daniel that he would have come sooner if not for a spiritual battle with the "prince of the Persian kingdom” — most likely referring to the demonic entity influencing the Persian realm — that waylaid him for 21 days. He tells Daniel that the archangel Michael, who he describes as "one of the chief princes," had to assist him to overcome this demonic opposition.
“Apparently in the ranking of the angels, this particular demon outranked the messenger angel,” Rick speculates.
Further evidence of supernatural hierarchy occurs in the book of Jude, when Michael and Satan have a dispute over the body of Moses. Unlike the battle mentioned in Daniel, Michael does not engage in direct confrontation with Satan but instead says, “The Lord rebuke you.”
As far as looks go, the appearance angels take in scripture is as varied as their rankings.
Many angels are so visually stunning that they have to remind humans not to worship them. Others appear as normal-looking human beings. In fact, in Hebrews 13, we are told to be hospitable to strangers because we can unknowingly entertain angels.
Other angelic beings, however, are very strange in appearance. The seraphim are described as having six wings and a fiery essence. The cherubim have four wings covered in eyes, and they move with wheels (also covered in eyes) that operate in perfect harmony.
If angels are this diverse in appearance, does that mean demons are too? Might they walk among us undetected? Or are they the red-skinned, horned fiends of legend?
“If it's possible that we've entertained angels and we did not know it, is it also possible that we've entertained demons and we did not know it?” asks Rick.
There’s a good possibility that they too are varied in appearance.
Rick has seen one variety himself. At a men’s conference a few years ago, he was mocked by a group of demons while telling the story of his son’s tragic death. To hear his harrowing tale, watch the episode above.
Want more from Rick Burgess?
To enjoy more bold talk and big laughs, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.
Dad tells story of how his 9-year-old daughter was attacked by a demon: 'What I was looking at was not my baby girl'
Rick Burgess just launched a new podcast called “Strange Encounters.” The show aims to educate viewers about the reality of spiritual warfare and equip them with the tools needed to live well in this world that is inhabited by both angels and demons.
In this episode, Rick is joined by Blake Prime, who tells a tale equal parts harrowing and incredible about how the name of Jesus saved his daughter, who was suffering from a demonic attack.
After the death of a family member, Prime’s 9-year-old daughter, Lane, started experiencing “crippling” anxiety attacks. When her older sister was then diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, the fear worsened.
“I started noticing that there was something very dark in just the conversations that I was having with her around this topic of anxiety,” Prime tells Rick, noting that Lane was saying things like “it’s like it’s not me” when she was crushed with anxious thoughts.
Prime’s suspicion that this issue was spiritual in nature was confirmed when one day Lane said, “When I'm at school and I'm on the playground, it's like I look out and all my friends are in the light and I'm stuck in the dark."
One day, Prime was driving her to school when a “12 out of 10” panic attack hit.
“We're in the the truck driving to school, and she is hysterical. … Then all of a sudden, she puts one hand on the console, one hand on the door, and it's like something takes over her body, and she pushes back into the seat and her eyes are looking up, and they essentially roll in the back of her head, and she starts screaming, ‘Why is God abandoning me?"’ Prime recounts. “What I was looking at was not my baby girl.”
“So I just started speaking scripture over her. I was reciting Joshua 1:9 over and over again. I was speaking life, and I was not jokingly saying, ‘Not today, Satan,”’ he continues.
But it wasn’t working. Lane’s hysteria continued, as she screamed, “God doesn’t love me.”
“I said, ‘I rebuke you evil spirit from this car; leave my daughter right now; she is no child of yours; she is a child of the King; she's a child of Jesus, and he is in control of this situation, not you. You have no authority here,’ and it was in that instant that it went from hurricane gale force wind to complete calm,” says Prime. “It was like a movie scene. She sat straight up, and she looked at me. She said, ‘Are we going to school?"’
“All of it was gone. She was breathing normally; the tears stopped; her heart rate calmed down; and she was speaking to me like she had just been resting,” he adds, noting that Lane seemed to have no recollection of the exorcism that had just occurred
Today, she still struggles with anxiety, but the name of Jesus continues to be a shield.
“It's not that the anxiety has gone away. It's just that we know how to battle it now,” says Price.
To hear more, check out the episode above.
Want more 'Strange Encounters'?
To enjoy more bold talk and big laughs, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.
Premiering ‘Strange Encounters’: Your guide to angels, demons, and biblical truth
There’s been a stunning increase in recent years of people interested in the supernatural. Anyone truly looking can see that the materialist worldview has failed us. There are cracks in it — too many unanswered questions, too little hope.
What’s peering through those cracks on the other side has become the crux of many podcasts. People want to know what’s out there lurking beyond our sensory perception, pulling invisible strings and influencing reality in ways we can't fathom.
But while the secular world grasps for answers, Christians are standing strong in biblical truth, offering real answers about this mysterious unseen world.
One of them is Rick Burgess.
His new podcast, “Strange Encounters,” isn’t about Bigfoot, space aliens, or the Loch Ness Monster. It’s a deep dive into the supernatural fabric of God’s spoken cosmos — an exploration of angels and demons and the spiritual warfare that impacts us all.
But what does it look like to live among these spiritual beings? How do we approach their existence?
Scripture has the answers.
Join us for the debut episode of “Strange Encounters”: “Angels & Demons: What Does the Bible Say?” as we search for the truth, hear spine-chilling stories from people with firsthand experience, and win the spiritual war raging around us. Watch it below.
Want more from 'Strange Encounters'?
To enjoy more bold talk and big laughs, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.
Biden's first speech flops: Gaffes and a suspicious noise go VIRAL
After Donald Trump’s inauguration, Joe Biden disappeared from the scene for a while. Most assumed he would bow out of politics completely and spend his days puttering around his Rehoboth Beach retreat.
But apparently he’s still got a little gas left in the tank — literally.
On April 15 at the 2025 national Conference of Advocates, Counselors, and Representatives for the Disabled in Chicago, Biden delivered his first speech since leaving the White House. In it, he defended Social Security, condemned President Trump for making cuts to the program, and claimed the damage to Social Security is “breathtaking.”
But that’s not all he did. Rick Burgess of “The Rick Burgess Show” plays the most cringeworthy clips from the speech.
The blundering began immediately. Before his walk-out song was finished playing, Biden launched into his speech. The video shows him yammering away while the music completely drowns out his voice.
“He's not just saying, ‘Hey, good to be here.’ He goes into the speech,” laughs Rick.
“Completely oblivious,” sighs Greg Burgess.
Once the music was cut and people could actually hear him, Biden told a story about Scranton, Pennsylvania, claiming that when he was a child, he’d “never seen hardly any black people in Scranton” but that changed in the fourth grade when he saw “colored kids on a bus.”
Rick suspects that this story was not on the teleprompter.
Biden went on to stumble through a few lines about the Americans with Disabilities Act before the most embarrassing moment perhaps in his career happened.
Mid-speech, a noise that can only be described as a farting sound suddenly rang out over the microphone. There are a lot of theories about it. Some claim a chair scooting off camera was responsible for the sound; others believe a troll added the noise before circulating the video; and then there are those who believe that Biden indeed farted during his speech.
The panel watches several versions of the clip, including the one aired by ABC News, and the sound is almost undeniable.
Regardless of the truth, Rick, Greg, and Calvin Wilburn can’t help but howl in laughter.
“I tried a little cheek sneak there and it had a little more volume than I thought,” Rick mocks.
To see the footage and hear more of the panel’s hilarious commentary, watch the clip above.
Want more from Rick Burgess?
To enjoy more bold talk and big laughs, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.
You won’t believe what happened to Joe Exotic’s tigers ...
For those who need a quick refresher: Joseph Maldonado, a.k.a. Joe Exotic, became a national sensation in 2020 when the documentary “Tiger King” soared to the top of Netflix’s charts. As an eccentric-dressing, gay polygamist and exotic cat owner with lofty political aspirations, it’s no wonder everyone couldn’t stop talking about him.
However, Joe Exotic’s name fell out of public consciousness when he went to jail for a murder-for-hire plot aimed at his big cat arch nemesis Carol Baskin. Today, he remains in jail serving a 21-year prison sentence after he was convicted on 21 counts, including two counts of murder-for-hire, eight counts of violating the Lacey Act for falsifying wildlife records, and nine counts of violating the Endangered Species Act.
Since his arrest, Exotic’s name has surfaced here and there, especially when he’s pleaded with Donald Trump to pardon him. However, his name has come up again, but this time for a story involving another big cat enthusiast who allegedly purchased six of Exotic’s tigers following his arrest.
On April 2, Karl Mitchell, a 71-year-old exotic animal handler with a history of legal issues, had his seven tigers seized from his Nevada home due to lacking the permits required to keep exotic animals. Mitchell argued that the tigers were “emotional support animals” for his PTSD.
Rick Burgess of the “Rick Burgess Show” discusses this strange story.
“They relieve his stress — seven tigers!” says Burgess in disbelief. “This thing with animals — these therapy animals — is getting out of control.”
Greg Burgess agrees, adding, “I’ll give you dogs, cats, maybe a rabbit, but once you get into peacocks and all that ...”
The panel wonders what would happen had any of these tigers gotten loose and roamed into the surrounding communities. The idea isn’t far-fetched when you consider that the sheriff’s office closest to Mitchell’s property received several reports that he had been seen “walking the tigers loose around the property” as well as “off the property.” On top of that, Mitchell had posted social media videos showing his tigers interacting with random people.
While he may claim that his tigers “rescue him” from PTSD, Greg says these animals are probably the ones "begging to be rescued.”
To hear more of the conversation and see footage of Mitchell explaining his dependence on his emotional support tigers, watch the clip above.
Want more from Rick Burgess?
To enjoy more bold talk and big laughs, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.
www.theblaze.com
thefederalist.com