As a child, Claudia Alvarado was so used to seeing ghosts in the corner of her room, she thought it was normal. While attending college and grieving from the sudden death of a relative, whatever spirit has stalked her since childhood begins to attack.
As a child, Claudia Alvarado was so used to seeing ghosts in the corner of her room, she thought it was normal. While attending college and grieving from the sudden death of a relative, whatever spirit has stalked her since childhood begins to attack. If she has any hope of stopping the horrific and increasingly harmful encounters, Claudia must learn the truth of this terrifying entity’s origins and find out just how far back this curse really goes.
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Find episode transcript here: https://a-ghost-ruined-my-life-with-eli-roth.simplecast.com/episodes/demons-curse
Eli Roth [00:00:01] I'm Eli Roth. When I think about curses, it's one of those subjects that I realize has been addressed by every culture going back to ancient times, and yet we still don't know anything about them. We don't really understand them at all. And that's what makes this next story you're going to hear so truly terrifying.
Claudia [00:00:24] I saw my body drenched in blood. You could see a lot of stab wounds. And I was bleeding out and that freaked me out. I didn't want to go into the psych ward. The doctor said it was psychosomatic because of all the stress I was going through, but no, this is actually something beyond my understanding.
Eli Roth [00:00:52] As you'll soon hear, Claudia's story is so incredible, because this isn't just a matter of seeing an apparition in the corner of some room. Instead, Claudia became the victim of a violent and terrifying curse that took a real physical toll on her. Think about what would happen to you if you suddenly fell victim to a curse. Where would you even begin? What would you do if some spirit suddenly wanted to destroy you? Where would you even turn? It's terrifying to even think about and when we sat down with Claudia. We could tell she'd been terrified by this for a long, long time.
Claudia [00:01:28] When you're dealing with things that are paranormal, it's a whole different beast, and it comes with so much more trauma that like like PTSD, insomnia, anxiety, hyper vigilance. I'm worried about people thinking I'm crazy, but I know I'm not. My name is Claudia Alvarado, and A GhostRuined My Life.
Eli Roth [00:02:00] Welcome to my podcast, A Ghost Ruined My Life with Eli Roth. This episode is called The Demon's Curse. We've gone through hundreds of truly terrifying real life accounts to find the ones we're telling you in this series. What you're about to hear is the story as told to us by the actual victim, along with audio segments from recreations we did for my TV series, A Ghost Ruined My Life. Now, most people know Claudia from following her on social media, on her Instagram handle @extrahaute, but you would never know from her bubbly and beautiful photos how dark things really, really got for her.
Crew Member [00:02:37] You me know whenever you're good on your end.
Claudia [00:02:39] OK, let me just get some of these tears out. Sometimes things just can't be explained. It's a constant battle that I live with.
Eli Roth [00:02:56] It's no surprise that getting through it all was a real challenge for her. There's a lot of terrifying things about this story, but one detail that still haunts me is that we can't really track where this all began or exactly how many people were or continue to be affected by what I can only describe as a purely evil force. You'll understand what I mean as we get a bit deeper. To start, Carrie's situation embodies a version of what some people might call the American dream. She's the daughter of Mexican immigrants who came to America in search of a better life. The year is 1997, and she's just a little girl. But what Claudia doesn't know yet is that she's living in a paranormal nightmare.
Claudia [00:03:44] Most of the activity happens in my bedroom. I'm always woken up by like like steps around the house, which is really scary. And also, this didn't start happening till this year. I've been hearing like a "mama" and I don't have any children. To be honest, I thought it was normal, I thought every kid was scared at a young age.
Eli Roth [00:04:13] Can you imagine being so used to seeing ghosts every night at such a young age that you actually think it's normal that this is what's supposed to happen? I mean, that must have been so much for her to handle. I can't imagine constantly living in fear like that as an adult, let alone a little kid.
Claudia [00:04:32] I was a really scared child when I was young. I didn't exactly know what I was seeing or what I was hearing, but I remember that I was always really nervous, always really scared. I didn't want to sleep alone. I always had to have the TV on the light on. I literally would grab my pillow and run into my parent's bedroom because I didn't want to sleep alone. There was always like tapping, tapping and tapping at my window, and there was no trees in my window. It wasn't raining. It wasn't anything, so I would like screaming because it was an aggressive tap, and I would call my mom and I would tell her, there's a monster, there's an alien. I saw a figure and she would be like, No, you're it's your imagination. No, you're stressed out. No, it's because you saw that scary movie. So but it was like a tapping noise. It was- it was just an aggressive tapping.
Claudia's Mom [00:05:51] Claudia. What are you doing?
Young Claudia [00:05:53] There's something behind the curtain.
Claudia's Mom [00:05:56] It's bedtime, go brush your teeth.
Eli Roth [00:06:00] Claudia's parents refused to discuss it.
Claudia [00:06:03] They would get frustrated that I wanted to sleep in their bedroom again. But more than anything, they would just blame it on stop reading your scary books, which were not scary. Stop watching too much television. Your imagination is running wild. You're stressed out like you need more stuff to do. Like Clean the House and you'll get out those things from your mind. They would just literally not get it. I would see a dark shadow. I was always in fear, always nervous, always hearing things. There was like something inside the house. My parents would always tell us your only dreaming.
Eli Roth [00:06:57] There is one family member, Claudia can confide in her elderly grandmother, who has a bedroom across the hall from her.
Claudia [00:07:06] My grandma always understood that there was always something there. She literally had the Bible with her everywhere and like would be reading the Bible, her rosary and was always praying was always praying for protection.
Eli Roth [00:07:25] Up to this point, this sounds like a typical haunted house story. Maybe an artifact story, but there is a twist. Time goes on. Claudia gets older and moves away to go to college. You'd think the story is over, but it really was just the beginning.
Claudia [00:07:41] This is a really important time for me, but I still want to have a life just to have good fun. I don't want to remember the past.
Claudia's Dad [00:07:56] You're going to miss the train again if you don't hurry up.
Young Claudia [00:07:59] I'm coming.
Claudia's Mom [00:08:01] *Speaking Spanish*. Stay safe, Claudia.
Young Claudia [00:08:10] It's just college mom, I'll be fine.
Claudia's Dad [00:08:13] OK, let's go.
Claudia [00:08:17] But deep down inside, I never forgot that memory. I should have taken it a little bit more seriously then. I studied sociology in Spanish. I was so excited living alone and being independent. I'm studying psychology. I just wanted to help people.
Eli Roth [00:08:43] But before she leaves for college, her grandmother has a warning for her.
Claudia [00:08:47] My grandma would tell us, You know, you guys have to find a way to protect yourself, to pray. She would light candles and pray with me for protection.
Claudia's Grandmother [00:09:00] *speaking Spanish*.
Young Claudia [00:09:00] Abuela.
Claudia's Grandmother [00:09:06] You have to protect yourself.
Young Claudia [00:09:09] From what what do you mean?
Claudia's Grandmother [00:09:13] We don't speak of it. It makes it strong.
Young Claudia [00:09:17] Grandma.
Claudia's Grandmother [00:09:20] Never be afraid. Always take control. That's how you protect yourself. Be careful. It knows you.
Claudia [00:09:37] I didn't know what's going on. My family didn't want to talk about this.
Eli Roth [00:09:45] Shortly after she leaves for school, Claudia gets a heartbreaking call in the middle of the night.
Young Claudia [00:09:52] Hello,?
Claudia's Mom [00:09:54] Claudia. Honey, I have some bad news for you. Your grandmother passed away.
Young Claudia [00:10:01] No No.
Claudia [00:10:07] I had so much faith in my grandma and I felt like she really took care of us. My grandma was probably one of the strongest people I knew when I feel lonely or when I feel sad. I always think about her. She was the one who I felt, believed me never questioned me, never doubted me and I really, truly believe she protected me in every sort of way. Once she passed away, that's when the worst came. Things started happening. What happened was I was standing in the room and we had our books. There's no drafts in the room. So what happened was I was studying and all my books were really closed in together with a little book ends. And as I was studying, just one of the books fell, which I thought was so odd. The thing is that after I heard, like I had two little twin that just moved not so much where it's like, Oh my god, that's crazy. But, but it moved. It made a loud sound because it was in a rug. It's always in a corner of the room. I wouldn't say, it looks like a ghost. It looks more like a man but like floating, but also kind of like, I don't want to see like Spider-Man, but like, sort of like Spider-Man, like imagine he's holding like the web like this. But that's what it looks like. So I literally ran out of the room. It scared the hell out of me to the point where I ran out. Something's happening to me, and only I can see it. Why? To me, it's unbelievable what they've gone through, because I I literally could not explain it if I could. That makes no sense, and that's more scary to know that you don't know what it is. I was nervous about what was going to happen next, and that's when it all went downhill. I didn't know what to do. I felt conflicted whether or not I was believing this. If I believe in this, I'm a quack. Like, there's no way.
Eli Roth [00:12:58] So now, regardless of whether Claudia is at home or at school, these things are happening. That's horrifying. And without the living presence of her grandmother, she's basically defenseless. But it's only getting started.
Claudia [00:13:13] And that's when the hell really began. I literally was doing my makeup and the door was locked, so I heard somebody trying to open the door, but it was really rough. Like, like if someone was trying to break in and I thought, Oh, it's from my sister joking, My dad just got here. He's joking because they're both really big pranksters. So all of a sudden I heard like, oh, like someone went boom! And they and the door literally, broke. Like, there was cracks in the door like cracks and like. For whatever reason, it literally was like locked like or like was jabbed, and I didn't even get how it would get jammed, like there were dense cracks in the door and the door was jammed. And because I unlocked the door and I started pulling at it and it would not open. I always felt something haunting the house. But now it's just attacking me. I would get the burning sensation. And it's completely connected. Because I like I mean, my face was always on fire was burning, half of my face was searing hot. It felt like I had battery car acid being poured into my face. It was scary not to know what was happening. Like, it literally felt like I had. Four claws digging into the right side of my face, I thought, Oh my God, this is this is how I'm going to die, that's it. I'm done for,.
Eli Roth [00:15:22] Up to this point, the easy for anyone to dismiss Claudia's experience as her mind playing tricks on her. I mean, think of how fragile we are, especially after grief. But now it's taking a real physical toll on her, and that cannot be denied. Claudia starts fearing for her life and is rushed to the hospital, but the doctors can't find anything wrong with her.
Claudia [00:15:44] For three days. I was crying. They gave me painkillers. The doctors said it was stress, but I knew it was something more.
Eli Roth [00:15:59] And still, the attacks continue. She has absolutely no explanation, no one to turn to and nobody believes her. I feel for Claudia. It is not easy to talk about this and we can tell for her to go back to this moment in her life is really, really difficult. And the room doesn't feel like the room we stepped into at the beginning of the interview. I'm not sure if there's something in there with us, but I'm not sure there isn't. But we all agree something feels different now.
Claudia [00:16:28] This experience alone has been very, for the most part, very lonely, very isolating, as much as I have reached out have talked to people because they haven't met another person that has experienced this other than my grandmother. There was a connection between what's going on and my grandma. There was something no one wanted to talk about. My anxiety's worse it just was misery the whole time. I was absolutely terrified of everything that was happening. I just keep asking myself, why me? I never told friends ever I worried about people thinking, I'm crazy. I was afraid that no one was going to believe what was happening to me. Then came the worst of the. That's when the real scary thing started happening.
Eli Roth [00:17:41] We'll hear more from Claudia when we're back from the break.
Claudia [00:17:59] No one could hear me, and that's when I was like, I'm done, I'm done.
Eli Roth [00:18:06] That's Claudia Alvarado, and at this point in her story, she doesn't know what's terrorizing her, but the attacks are relentless and they're escalating.
Claudia [00:18:17] I would be crying every day looking for forums, looking for answers. I want to make it stop. I had big hopes in the future, but this was threatening to get in the way. I went to see six neurologists. I saw three psychiatrists four pain management doctors, and none of them could tell me what was happening to me.
Eli Roth [00:18:44] Traditional scientific and psychological treatments can untangle a lot of issues, but this is different. There's no conventional textbook for this. There's no precedent to refer to here. So Claudia turns to an alternative kind of expert.
Claudia [00:19:00] I went to a medium and she gave me some candles. My grandma was always burning candles, and I really believed it would work. My first psychic helped a little like a week later, everything is gone. It's stopped, and I was so surprised it actually worked.
Eli Roth [00:19:25] Sadly, though, that respite didn't last long. Part of what makes this whole story so scary is the pain. It's one thing to think you're interacting with something supernatural, but it's another when you're actually in excruciating physical pain. All she wants is a normal college experience, but she's in mental and physical agony.
Claudia [00:19:45] I should be having the time of my life going out dancing, but instead I'm bedridden in pain. This was making my life very difficult. I was in a lot of pain and I was suffering so much, I think this had to be probably the worst part of the whole experience. I mean, my face was always on fire was burning. It made me so desperate to find an answer. And that's when I actually decided I don't care that people think I'm insane for going to mediums because I know there might be a chance that it might work. Because I already went to every doctor out there, and no one could help me. I did not find the reason as to why this is happening to me. I mean, at this point, I would do anything. I would open up my skull just to see any relief experiencing these encounters as a student, we're making my studies really difficult. I had insomnia from I'm not sure the complex PTSD caused it or which came first, so I wouldn't sleep well at night. My grades did suffer for a long time.
Eli Roth [00:21:13] It's not just a great stuff. Not only does Claudia suffer academically, she completely misses out on social life on campus. She never gets the college experience.
Claudia [00:21:24] This experience alone has been very, for the most part, very lonely, very isolating. Being the only one on campus going through this paranormal experience is. terrifying. Not knowing what's going to happen next, then I feel fear, loneliness and. Possibly, I think the most thing I feel sometimes is anger as to why it's happening to me. I lost a lot of friends. I was doing really bad at school. I felt so alone on campus. I just wanted so badly to have a normal student life,
Eli Roth [00:22:13] so this goes on and the terror escalates. And eventually, Claudia needs to return home looking for a safe place to live and some answers. But she doesn't find either.
Claudia's Mom [00:22:25] Claudia.
Young Claudia [00:22:26] You don't understand. OK, no one understands.
Claudia's Mom [00:22:28] You can't just run home every time you have a little problem.
Young Claudia [00:22:31] I just need to come home and take a break once in a while. Don't you want me here?
Claudia's Mom [00:22:35] It's not that-
Young Claudia [00:22:36] Well whatever, then.
Claudia's Mom [00:22:39] *sigh*.
Claudia [00:22:40] My grandma, her passing away was a really scary thing for me because I felt like I had no one to tell this kind of thing to.
Eli Roth [00:22:55] We talked about the physical pain and the psychological distress, but now this mysterious entity starts to invade Claudia's mind with horrific visions.
Claudia [00:23:09] I saw my body drenched in blood. You could see a lot of stab wounds. And I was bleeding out and that freaked me out. I didn't want to go into the psych ward. The doctor said it was psychosomatic because of all the stress I was going through, but no, this is actually something beyond my understanding.
Eli Roth [00:23:36] And although her family stands by her, they still refuse to discuss it.
Claudia's Mom [00:23:42] Be patient.
Young Claudia [00:23:42] It's been years already. I hate it, I have no life.
Claudia's Mom [00:23:47] It will get better.
Young Claudia [00:23:48] How can you know that?
Claudia's Mom [00:23:51] I don't want to talk about this anymore.
Young Claudia [00:23:53] About what though? I know there's something you're not telling me.
Claudia [00:24:03] There was something no one wanted to talk about, that there was something going on, but our family's very hush hush. Let's not talk about this. It was coming for me. I didn't know what to do, but I needed answers.
Eli Roth [00:24:20] In her quest for answers, Claudia turns to the one family member willing to reveal the truth. An aunt who seldom visits but is the keeper of secrets.
Young Claudia [00:24:30] Tia. Please tell me.
Claudia's Aunt [00:24:37] Maybe it's time, you knew.
Claudia [00:24:39] My aunt looked at me and she, like looked scared, and that's when I learned everything.
Eli Roth [00:24:47] Her and reveals the chilling story her family has been hiding. It turns out this nightmare started 72 years ago in a small Mexican village with something that happened to Claudia's grandmother.
Claudia [00:25:01] Years ago, when my grandmother was a little girl, there was a witch. My grandma kept seeing stuff that, like you would see at a witch's house, like chickens without their heads blood. She was insane, and we're torturing children. She was burning children and bring them alive. She would sacrifice babies to the devil. You would always hear babies crying and screaming, but the one time that my grandma actually stepped in was when she saw the witch put a baby in the fire. It was starting to burn. And so my grandmother took the baby away from her.
Eli Roth [00:26:01] The witch is taken from the village and thrown into prison. In her fury, the witch exacts revenge. She curses the little girl, Claudia's grandmother, and summons a demon to stalk her family and all future generations.
Claudia [00:26:17] There's a curse in my family. It attached to my grandmother.
Claudia's Mom [00:26:22] Be careful. It knows you.
Claudia [00:26:26] And now to me. When I found out what it was this secret, everything clicked.
Claudia's Aunt [00:26:36] It's passed down from your grandmother to you, it wants you you're the youngest.
Young Claudia [00:26:44] Why didn't you ever tell me?
Claudia's Aunt [00:26:47] You give it strength when you speak of it.
Young Claudia [00:26:52] What do I do?
Claudia's Aunt [00:26:53] You fight
Eli Roth [00:27:00] Imagine the courage needed to take a stand against all this, especially after you've just been told that acknowledging the spirit. And speaking about it only makes it stronger. How could you not just run and hide? And yet, now that she knows what she's up against, Claudia decides to make her stand. What you're about to hear is incredible.
Claudia [00:27:23] It ends today. This was a huge turning point for me. I decided to start fighting back my aunt told me, you can heal yourself. You can protect yourself. And she said that I'm going to give you the tools so you can protect yourself. She would light candles and pray with me for protection. She literally gave me all of these oils, and she actually taught me how to use them and how to do the ritual. And she said, You can protect yourself.
Young Claudia [00:28:19] I am safe. I am protected. My higher spirits are always with me an guiding me towards a place of abundance and love and joy. Nobody can steal my peace. I am protected. I am loved. My higher spirits are always with me, guiding me towards a place of abundance and love and joy. Nobody can steal my peace.
Young Claudia [00:28:45] Claudia protects herself with prayers, oils and sage, and she fights every day to ward off the demon that continues to stalk her.
Claudia [00:28:55] This is when I need protection and guidance, I'll take my protection and guidance oil. I just dropped like tow or one droplets and then I put it in a pen and I say, I honor you. I value you. I love you. I protect you. And that's it.
Eli Roth [00:29:17] Ultimately, it seems there is no real escape from the curse. And if this entity was operating at this level of evil, who knows how long that force had been gaining strength even before it latched on to Claudia's grandmother? How many other people did it torment?
Claudia [00:29:32] When you're dealing with things that are paranormal, it's a whole different beast. They come with so much more trauma. I have constant PTSD, constant anxiety, sleep with night lights. I do the rituals every day. My family is very supportive of me. They can see the difference now than I was, like a few years back.
Eli Roth [00:29:59] Claudia is truly an amazing person. She fights back to continue her studies. She graduates,
Claudia [00:30:05] if I see anything happening, I just know how to deal with in a much better way than I used to.
Eli Roth [00:30:11] Claudia goes on to earn a Ph.D. in psychology. But the battle never ends.
Claudia [00:30:17] I think I've become a better psychologist because of this experience. I never know if it's going to get worse. How long this is going to last. And what else is to come it attached to my grandmother and now to me and I'm worried. Who's who it's going to attach to next? I'm scared of attaching it to my child. I think it's a generational thing, to be honest with. So that's the only thing I'm scared of. I'm hoping it just dies with me, but that's just too bleak. That's so dark. But it's true. That's what I'm hope. I'm hoping it just dies with me. If that's what it is. Getting my story out there is really important because whatever the world wants to think about me, I don't care because I don't let this entity feed off my fear and I'm hoping others will learn that as well.
Eli Roth [00:31:30] If you want to hear more real, terrifying stories like this, go to Discovery Plus and check out my TV series. Eli Roth presents a Ghost Ruined My Life. And check us out at Travel Channel Dot Com Slash a ghost ruined my life to learn more about the podcast TV show and what we're up to. A Ghost Ruined My Life with Eli Roth is produced by Cream Productions for Discovery Plus. For Discovery Plus, our executive producer is Marissa Lucy for Cream Productions our executive producers are Eli Roth, Johnny Kalangis, Kate Harrison, and David Brady. See you on the other side.