If you're looking for some truths about the unexplainable, you might want to watch the new YouTube channel called “Anything Strange.”
This North Central Florida-based channel was created about two months ago by 29-year-old videographer Adam Barefoot, originally from Raleigh, N.C., to explore supernatural encounters occurring to people in everyday life. The channel features weekly episodes of a series called “Strange Stories.”
The episodes contain interviews with residents on topics from encounters with UFOs to ghost and and other unearthly occurrences. Once a month, Barefoot also documents ghost hunting in eerily distinguished areas.
“People may have stories they are too shy or embarrassed to tell their friends, but [I am] creating a show and a community of people interested in the unexplainable, so it gives them a chance to share their experience,” he said.
Barefoot also had his own story to share.
Once, while experimenting with a spirit box, an audio device that scans through radio channels for spirits to convert the sounds into speech, Barefoot said he heard his name spoken clearly out of the static. He bought the box out of curiosity, thinking it wouldn’t actually channel unknown voices, but when it did, he became eager to discover more.
So far, the channel features one ghost hunt, nine episodes of the “Strange Stories” segment, a short film and an introduction to ghost hunting with an explanation of equipment. Pastor Susan Smith, who was interviewed on the channel about her experience performing an exorcism, founded the Florida Paranormal Association in Ocala, Fla. Smith said that she is excited for the content created in “Anything Strange.” Barefoot’s channel is unique compared to other shows, Smith said, and he has an unbiased approach. “Adam reports what the people experience and does in no way sway anyone’s opinion or try to convince you one way or another,” she wrote in an email. “[He presents] the interview, and you can make a decision as to if it is true or not.” Since hearing tales of spirits and getting involved in his channel, Barefoot said his views have become less skeptical compared to his prior beliefs. He recalled a quote by George Noory, host of the national radio station Coast to Coast: “I don’t believe in coincidences.” Joshua Merkley, a team member of the Ocala-based Southeastern Paranormal Investigations, said the paranormal field is one people don’t usually believe until they have experienced something abnormal themselves, but that occurrences are common to those who stay aware and interested. For this reason, he believes Barefoot’s channel could open skeptics’ minds to further possibilities at a time when activity and intrigue are frequent in the region. Merkley, whose team has worked with Syfy’s “Ghost Hunters” and Chip Coffey from “Paranormal State,” has been doing ghost hunts and investigations for about 10 years since he had a strange experience during his senior year of high school. Merkley said he saw an old man at a movie theater in downtown Ocala. The man wasn’t translucent and didn’t seem out of the ordinary until he walked through a wall. Merkley said he would have questioned the unusual sight, but once he conducted research, he found identical claims at the same theater. Although not featured on the channel yet, he reached out to Barefoot to share his own story. Merkley said “Anything Strange” could silence some doubts and help the community because of its regional standpoint. “When something is local,” he said, “it makes it that much more real.” Popular TV shows have influenced viewers to be more accepting of a topic not often explored in the news, but this channel does the same on a more personal level, he said. Barefoot said viewers can expect future content to include coverage of an upcoming UFO convention in Orlando, ghost orbs, exploration of Coral Castle and more local experiences.
“As a filmmaker, I want to take people on a journey with me,” Barefoot said. “I want to see something I can’t explain… (and) try to find an answer to anything strange if I can.”
Current footage on the channel can be found at youtube.com/AnythingStrangeTV.