Tucker Carlson said that he was “physically mauled” by a demon a year and a half ago that left him bleeding and with still-visible scars on his body from “claw marks” in a clip posted by the “Christianities?” YouTube channel on Thursday.

Asked by his interlocutor, John Heers, if he thought “the presence of evil is kickstarting people to wonder about the good?” Carlson answered “That’s what happened to me,” before recounting the story.

“I had a direct experience with it,” said Carlson.

“In the milieu of journalism?” asked Heers.

“No, in my bed at night,” replied Carlson. “And I got attacked while I was asleep with my wife and four dogs and mauled, physically mauled.”

“In a spiritual attack by a demon?” inquired Heers.

“Yeah, by a demon,” affirmed Carlson. “Or by something unseen that left claw marks on my sides.”

The pair continued:

HEERS: So it left physical marks?

CARLSON: Oh, they’re still there. Yeah, yeah, year and a half ago.

HEERS: Was your wife terrified? I know you were.

CARLSON: I wasn’t. I was totally confused, I woke up, and I couldn’t breathe, and I thought I was going to suffocate. And I walked around outside and then I walked in and my wife and dogs had not woken up. And they’re very light sleepers. And then I had these terrible pains on my rib cage and on my shoulder, and I was just in my boxer shorts and I went and flipped on the light in the bathroom, and I had four claw marks on either side underneath my arms and on my left shoulder. And they’re bleeding.

HEERS: Wait, they were bleeding?

CARLSON: They were bleeding, yeah — No, actual claw marks! And I sleep on my side, so I wasn’t clawing myself. I don’t have long nails and they didn’t fit my hands anyway. But yeah, that happened.

Carlson went on to say that he consulted his assistant, an evangelical Christian, because he had “never heard of anything like that happening before,” and that she told him, “That happens, people are attacked in their bed by demons.”

“What are you even talking about!” exclaimed Carlson while laughing an recalling the conversation.

The former Fox News host said that after the attack, he was “seized with this very intense desire to read the Bible.” He said that reading and then beginning to reread it had been a “transformative experience.”

“Do you think God allowed the demon?” asked Heers.

“I have no idea what happened,” replied Carlson. “No one has to believe me, I don’t care, but that happened to me.”

On X, formerly Twitter, conservative writer Rod Dreher corroborated Carlson’s claim, saying that he had told Dreher about it “about a year ago.”