What happens when a self-described atheist builds a career investigating the darkest corners of the paranormal, and something starts following him home? Barry is a writer who tried to launch his career as a paranormal journalist back in the early 2000s and wrote one of the original deep-dive articles on Black Eyed Children for UFO Digest. He was flooded with over 250 emails from people with their own encounters and shares the stories that stuck with him most, including a woman who pulled over to help a homeless person only to lock eyes with completely black eyes, and a Georgia prison guard who was lifted off the ground by an inmate speaking in an unknown language whose eyes turned black mid-sentence. But the deeper story is Barry's own — how researching the darkest corners of the paranormal opened doors he didn't know he was opening, and how something seemed to become aware of him during that season.
Barry's journey takes a sharp turn when he gives his life to Christ, and the sleep paralysis that plagued him for years comes to a dead stop after his baptism. But the story doesn't end clean. A mission trip to Nicaragua, where his team entered brothels to share the gospel and walked into palpable spiritual darkness, brought the sleep paralysis roaring back, this time with physical hands pinning him to the bed. Barry walks through the practical tools that ultimately brought freedom: praying over his home, playing worship music through the night, the spoken name of Jesus, and the power of simply sharing his story. It's a raw, first-time-told testimony about the reality of spiritual warfare, the doors we open without realizing it, and the only name that shuts them.
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