|
By: Johnny Wilson
I was on a paranormal investigation a few weeks ago in which a family was having ghostly occurences in their home on a daily basis. When they called me I asked them what their claims of activity were and what I my team should expect to encounter on our visit. It sounded like it was going to be a very exciting night for me and the Northern Lights Paranormal Society (NLPS) and we were excited to go. After loading up all of our equipment into the vehicles we headed out to the case. It was an old house built in the early 1800's and it had a very long and somewhat tragic history behind it including 7 deaths inside the house or on the property. The house seemed peaceful but it did have that feeling to it that there might be something there. The homeowners almost guaranteed to us that the spirits would make themselves known in one way or another. Now I am a firm believer in spirits and ghostly phenomenon but I need proof before I will deem a place haunted and I need visual or audio evidence before I will put my reputation on the line and I don't mean stupid little orbs or dust particles floating around, I'm alot more professional than that!!! Anyway after setting up our equipment we jumped right into the all night investigation. To make a long story short, we had no personal experiences, nothing on any of our 5 DVR cameras, nothing on mini DV cameras, no audio from our digital recorders or wireless audio system and no EMF readings. We came out with absolutely nothing!!! After 2 days of reviewing the evidence we went back for the reveal to the homeowners. Needless to say they were very upset and could not understand how we could not have caught anything. I told them that ghosts don't always work on cue when you want them to. Then I told them that we had debunked a few of their claims and we managed to recreate some of their ghostly activity but they quickly shot down our debunking findings. I consoled them and thanked them for letting us into their home. As we were leaving the lady of the house stopped me and said, "I know they are here, I have seen them!!!" She asked me if we would please try again sometime when we got a chance and I said we would. After I got home I tried to get a little sleep after the long week but I couldn't get that case out of my head. A few nights later I had a dream about strange looking men breaking into our house and disturbing my family and our home with wierd gadgets that we had never seen before. After waking up in a cold sweat I went out and sat at the kitchen table and thought about the experiences I had in my dream. After sitting there for awhile it finally dawned on me that my dream was the answer to the question I had been asking myself all week. If ghosts are people from the past and if they still see their surroundings as they once were, why should they want to make themselves known to strange looking modern society people walking around with EMF detectors and night vision cameras? To them we must look like aliens from another planet invading their home. Then I thought about it a little deeper, If it was happening to me like it did in my dream and I realized that they were not going to leave and that they weren't really doing me or my family any harm I might get a little curious and see what they were up to, maybe even try to communicate with them a little. The next day I called the homeowners back and asked them if we could do another investigation and they gladly obliged, and told me the activity started up again shortly after we left, which I must say left a little smile on my face. I told them I would like to extend the investigation out over 3 days, they said that would also be fine with them. After getting nothing on our first investigation and upon our return, the first night we got 3 E.V.P's and some E.M.F fluctuations, the second night we caught shadows peeking around the corners and moving across hallways from room to room, and on day 3 we caught on film what appears to be a human shaped mist on a stairway about 5 feet away from me and one of my guys, we also caught 4 more E.V.P's that night that sounded like they were trying to communicate intelligently with us!!! Ghosts were people too, and they may still have human emotions and react the same way we would if we were put in their situation. We may never know all the answers to the paranormal world but I believe sharing our experiences and findings is a step in the right direction. Sorry this was so long but I really wanted to share this with everyone who is interested!!! Thank you to all who took the time to read this!!! ~Johnny
The Future Of Paranormal Research
By: Johnny Wilson
One night as my wife and I were sitting on the couch watching an old C.S.I. rerun on tv. Something happened on the show that got my mind racing. Now I know it is just a tv show but most of the cases they use for the show are based on real investigations by real crime scene investigators. The episode we were watching was about a homicide where a woman was found stabbed to death in her bed. As they were examining her body and the surrounding area for evidence, one of the investigators felt a cold chill next to her and she became very uneasy as she sensed the presence of the young womans spirit in the room with her. She said "she died so tragically that she must be having trouble crossing over to the other side. If only she could use that energy to tell us who did this to her it would make our job alot easier." That comment she made is the one that stuck in my head. Could it be that maybe someday the field of paranormal research will advance and become a trusted science in the world of forensic study? As investigators we dedicate alot of time and money to this field and we have made believers out of many skeptics with our findings. Our professional and scientific approach has provided tangible visual,data, and audio evidence that skeptics have a harder time dismissing like they did when the paranormal field was ruled by mostly psychics and mediums. The field of paranormal research has evolved from being mocked and scrutinized by society to becoming a highly technical science recognized by millions of people world wide. Nobody knows what the future will hold, but the day may come when paranormal investigators will be called in with crime scene investigators to find out the truth from the victims themselves and maybe, just maybe... a simple little E.V.P. along with voice analysis or a video of a residual homicide could put a murderer behind bars. Thank you for reading this, ~Johnny
I See Dead People
By: Johnny Wilson
Anyone in the field of Paranormal Research will agree that we tend to meet our share of psychics and mediums who claim that they can see things that most people can't see. Now don't get me wrong, it's not that I don't believe in a sixth sense by any means, I believe we all have a psychic ability to some capacity but we may not know how to make it work on demand like some people do. I know a lady who claims that she can see the spirits of people who have passed on. It kinda took me by surprise when she told me she was psychic because I have known her for some time and she never mentioned it to me before. I decided that this would be a good time to ask a few questions about psychic abilities that I normally wouldn't ask of someone I didn't know. I asked all the what, when, where, how, and why questions anyone in my position would ask then I took it to the next level. I asked her if she ever used her ability to help people in any way. She responded with a yes and that she has gone into houses that people claim to be haunted and has made contact with the entities of the homes. I asked her if she ever took any video footage or pictures of her encounters with the spirits. she said she has taken cameras with her many times but never caught anything on film nor has she ever captured an EVP on her audio recorder. To me this doesn't make alot of sense. I'm a paranormal investigator and I have caught many anomalies and EVP's on cameras and recording devices. Is she making the whole thing up? Or is it possible that the difference is because I am not psychic enough for them to communicate with me on a one on one basis and no matter how hard they try to make themselves known to me, all I get are fragments of what could be a real eye opening psychic experience that could blow the doors right off the field of Paranormal Research and the skepticism attached to it? There is still a lot for us investigators to learn about when it comes to paranormal phenomenon. Maybe we can someday bridge the gap between hard scientific study and the use of psychic ability to bring us closer, and maybe eventually to the truth! Thank you all for reading this ~Johnny
History of Haunted Lighthouses
Lighthouses decorate our seashores and quietly have existed for centuries. Many haunted lighthouses have seen multiple lifetimes of sea-faring history. Much of that history is good, such as saving the lives of sailors through aid of the lighthouses' beacons. Other lighthouse history is tragic, such as when ships were not able to find the life-saving lamps only to be found broken up on rocks, unaware of their impending doom.
Lighthouses are typically a tower or tall building that emits light from lamps amplified by reflectors. They mark hazardous coastlines, shoals and direct ships unto safe passage into harbors. Early lighthouses used fire as the torch or lamp, by burning candles or oil. The earliest known lighthouse was built in 280 BC in Alexandria, and was considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
How can lighthouses be haunted? Lighthouses can be haunted due to the tragedies of ships, horrible pirate attacks from both land and sea, and other hardships keepers and their families endured. The life of a lighthouse keeper and the importance of their task created an environment of dangerous duty and prolonged isolation from civilization for weeks or maybe months. Many people believe the lighthouses are haunted primarily by former keepers in many of the cases. Stories of lighthouse keepers and their families drowning, falling and failing during rescue attempts illustrate tragically how lighthouses and their grounds may at times become haunted. Some of what these brave souls witnessed and suffered most likely haunted them personally for their lifetimes.
Lighthouses tend to be located in isolated areas, and as such, sort of lend themselves to appearing haunted - whether they are or not. Just being on-site, allows the imagination to take over regarding storms, pirates, old sailing vessels, and more! Of the most haunted, many believe the Point Lookout Lighthouse built in 1830 on Chesapeake Bay to be the most active. It was built in close proximity to what would become a Civil War prison camp which housed up to 20,000 soldiers, many of whom died there. Reports of ghosts appearing in Civil War dress are widely reported at this lighthouse.
In 1939, the US Lighthouse Service was replaced by the US Coastguard, with most civilian lighthouse keeper's jobs coming to an end. Today, almost all lighthouses are automated, but the Guardsmen who maintain them all seem to have stories of haunted lighthouses. Legends and lore have been passed down by not only Coast Guardsmen, but by mariners and former lighthouse keeper's descendents.
Today, many of the haunted lighthouses offer tours where one can learn of the history, as well as help fund the upkeep of such historical monuments. The monies earned by tours and events help to fund marine education and of course the preservation of our rich lighthouse history.
The Christian and the Paranormal
By Oswin Craton
GHOSTS, APPARITIONS, AND POLTERGEISTS
Scripture tells us in Hebrews 9:27 that “it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment.” Christians do believe in life after death, and that is in fact a cornerstone of our faith. It is our firm conviction in the Resurrection of our Lord that serves as the foundation of our entire way of life, as St. Paul wrote in I Corinthians 15:12-20 and 32.
But what becomes of the spirit or soul between death and judgment? Various Christian doctrines hold differing opinions on the matter. Some believe that the soul sleeps from the time of death until the resurrection, being dormant and unaware during this time. Others believe the soul goes directly to heaven or hell (or to paradise or tautorus) where it awaits the judgment. Of those who hold to the latter belief, some maintain that the dead are unaware of the happenings on earth while others (the Orthodox and Roman Catholic) go so far as to offer prayers to the departed saints, asking them to pray for us in the conviction that they are both aware of and active in the affairs of this life. Whatever the Christian’s belief, no major Christian doctrine appears to allow for a suspension of the souls of the dead to wander the earth for an indeterminate period. What then are we to make of the numerous reports of encounters with “disembodied spirits”?
Tales of ghosts and hauntings have been a part of human lore since time immemorial. Stemming apparently from a common belief in life after death, many world religions freely allow for the possibility of a spirit’s remaining on earth and interacting with the living. Christianity, however, does not. Yet many Christians report experiences that have led them to believe they have encountered spirits of the dead, and these often are experienced by people who otherwise disallow such a possibility. If one firmly maintains that the spirit passes directly from this life to another plane of existence upon death, such encounters frequently lead to a great crisis of faith, casting doubt on other beliefs as well — not to mention often being disconcerting or even terrifying in and of themselves. For these reasons alone, I believe it important to investigate such claims in order to resolve the crisis of faith these events sometimes cause and to help allay the fears and discomfort such encounters engender.
The fact is, nearly all people of whatever faith or disposition are intrigued by tales of ghosts and hauntings. As Christians, since we believe in life after death, such stories (even when they conflict with our traditional views of the state of the dead) lend credence to that belief. Even among non-Christians, there is a strong desire to believe that life goes on beyond the grave. There is a certain comfort to be found is such knowledge. Perhaps because of this, many unusual events that we experience are readily accepted as paranormal occurrences involving spirits of the dead.
In a great number of these cases, however, it seems to be a matter of believing what we want to be true. An encounter with a spirit presence is thrilling and exciting, despite also being perhaps terrifying. How many teenagers have spent time in a supposed haunted house hoping to be scared out of their wits? Most who do so come away convinced of the validity of their harrowing experience, though in point of fact the source of their fright may have been more likely a scurrying animal or the wind brushing a tree limb against the house. In many cases these youngsters have only engaged in self-perpetuating beliefs. And this same psychological phenomenon is common among adults as well. Spend any time talking with professional paranormal investigators who have been called to private residences and they will singularly affirm that many clients become angry when it is determined that their “ghost” is a rat in the attic or faulty plumbing. Many people want to believe in ghosts and will reject clearly obvious logical explanations for what they have experienced.
Yet there remain some encounters that thus far defy all logical explanations. Research them as thoroughly as you like, some events simply cannot be explained away with our present store of scientific knowledge. The number of these unexplainable events is too large to be ignored, and reconciliation of these phenomena with our Christian beliefs must be accommodated.
A number of theories abound as to what these phenomena are, and I believe it important when investigating them to consider all possibilities that do not conflict directly with our religious tenets. While not holding to any particular theory myself, I present below five possible explanations for these events:
1. It is possible that there is yet a fully natural explanation for these phenomena, but our current knowledge of science is, at this point, too limited to ascertain their exact cause. Until such time as we are able to determine what that cause is, such events must be labeled paranormal but with an anticipated normal explanation at some future date.
2. Some have proposed that these “spirits” are actually not spirits but something termed a “life force” which retains a memory of the last life they inhabited. While there is neither biblical nor scientific evidence for this life force, it has been proposed that this force is the “spark” which animates otherwise purely inanimate physical matter and gives it life. Being neither flesh nor spirit or soul, it is an otherwise “natural” part of the universe, crudely analogous to a battery used to bring an electronic device to “life.” This force is reusable and may be found providing the life energy for more than one being over the course of time. If valid, this theory may also explain why some people have memories of past lives and why some believe in reincarnation (a doctrine denied by Christianity). It also could explain why spirits of animals are sometimes reported, since most Christians believe animals do not possess souls. The theory would not, however, explain the reason why the force would not be reused for centuries, though admittedly it would not necessarily follow that it would be reused immediately upon the cessation of its current life. (Curiously, most reported “ghosts” are of people who lived only within the last few hundred years and rarely are of people from more ancient times.) This theory, while only marginally tenable, does not directly contradict any Christian beliefs, though it would require an acceptance of a significant aspect of the mystery of life not mentioned in Scripture.
3. As Christianity does teach that demons exist, some have posited that all such spirit manifestations are actually the work of demons. Demons are credited with being able to disguise themselves even as things of beauty, but always lie, and as such they are able to present themselves as the spirit of a loved one or even as an innocent child or “spirit of light.” It is understandable why those who would hold to this theory would view any attempts to investigate paranormal events involving spirit presences as forbidden activities.
4. The fourth theory is that all such “spirit manifestations” are entirely spurious and can be attributed to deliberate hoaxes or overactive imaginations. While certainly plausible (and very true in a number of cases), this theory does not account for the increased electromagnetic activity, rapid drastic changes in temperature, and a host of other measurable physical anomalies that often accompany such phenomena.
5. Finally, there is the theory that these are in fact spirits of the dead who have not “passed over” for whatever reason God has determined. While we must not rule out this possibility from a scientific viewpoint, it does appear to contradict the view of the dead as established in Scripture and maintained by the Church.
Let us then examine some of the commonly reported phenomena in this area. As we’ve done in the past, we will begin with some definitions.
Ghost, apparition, phantom, wraith, or specter. These are all synonymous terms used to describe the appearance or manifestation of what is believed by many to be a disembodied spirit.
Poltergeist. A poltergeist is not believed to be the spirit of someone who has died but is rather some sort of mischievous entity that is not yet fully understood.
Haunt or haunting. Sometimes referring to the spirit itself, these terms more commonly refer to the visitation, usually on a regular or semi-regular basis, of a disembodied spirit to a certain location (hence the term “haunted house”).
Necromancy. Necromancy is a form of magic used to attempt communication with, or in some instances the bodily resurrection of, the dead. This practice is roundly condemned in Scripture.
Séance. A séance is a spiritualistic gathering at which people attempt to communicate with the dead, usually through a medium or Ouija board. This differs from necromancy in form and method but is, for religious purposes, the same.
Medium. A medium is a person through whom disembodied spirits are believed to speak.
Ectoplasm. Ectoplasm is a supposed “physical” emanation of a spiritual substance, usually from the body of a medium. Most early reports of ectoplasm have been shown to be bogus and the “ectoplasm” typically made of cheesecloth.
Which of these would be acceptable for the Christian to utilize in his investigations of spirit phenomena? Clearly, any form of necromancy is forbidden to the Christian. King Saul was condemned in I Samuel 28:7 for employing the witch of Endor to seek advice from the spirit of the deceased Samuel. Sorcerers (with whom necromancers are associated) are to be thrown along with other evil-doers into the lake of fire (Revelation 21:8 and 22:15). It seems abundantly clear that Christians are forbidden to seek out spirits of the dead in order to communicate with or seek advice from them.
But these condemnations are directed toward those who seek to establish communication with the dead. What of a circumstance in which the dead are alleged to have begun interaction with our world against our will? Any goal of such encounters must be to cease such interaction rather than (as with many paranormal research groups) to encourage it. Encouraging communication would appear to be only another form of necromancy. Whether minimal communication with these entities in order to abolish them is permissible remains an open and serious question. I believe that any such efforts should be done carefully and prayerfully and with the constant aim in mind to end it as soon as possible. In order to ascertain what a presence might be and to determine how best to expunge it, it might be necessary to engage in some limited form of communication, but I do not believe this should be initiated by the investigator. Whenever possible, the investigator should engage only in gathering evidence which he then can analyze later rather than attempting any kind of give-and-take conversation. When dealing with the unknown, we are by definition dealing with something we do not know, and we cannot rule out the possibility that we could be interacting with an evil and lying spirit. And in no case should the investigator allow the entity to inhabit and speak through him. It is best only to listen and observe and then determine how best to eliminate whatever presence there might be.
So is there really a need for Christians to involve themselves in the study of supposed spirit events? I personally believe there is, and I further believe that Christians are best able to do this in the correct manner. Many investigative groups are non-Christian and have as their primary goal the desire to establish contact with these entities in an effort to prove preconceived notions about what they are. While some of these researchers are scientifically objective, at least up to a point, many seem to be rather quick to classify an event as paranormal when only the most obvious logical explanations fail. The Christian must remain skeptical even when the exact cause of a given phenomenon cannot be readily ascertained.
Additionally, we also believe that the incursion of the spirit world into our own (if it is really happening) is an anomaly that should be corrected. No one should have to be tormented by events that cause great distress and fear, and our ability to discover the causes of such events should be viewed as very beneficial. In most cases this means taking the time to help someone discover faulty plumbing or other physical problems with their residence. Sometimes people become so overwrought by the fear that their house is haunted they lose the ability to discover what the real source of strange events might be. But even if we are unable to discover the source of some traumatic event and must resort to classifying it as possibly paranormal, we nonetheless can offer them the services of priests or clergymen to bless their houses and put their minds more at ease. Non-Christian groups usually cannot offer such alternatives and, if indeed they are dealing with some kind of sinister force, may be opening the door to even more malevolent phenomena.
But should a Christian decide to engage in such study, I also believe he must do so for the correct reasons. Simply to investigate strange phenomena out of curiosity I believe to be selfish, immoral, and possibly dangerous. There is no need for us to “prove” there is life after death — that is an established tenet of our faith. When we engage in paranormal research, it should be for no other reason than that of helping people. That is why I believe most paranormal research in these areas should be limited to residences and workplaces. Going out to abandoned “haunted houses” and cemeteries seems unnecessary to my mind since whatever might be happening in those places will not disturb anyone. I could see perhaps investigating an abandoned house that is causing neighborhood concerns or cemeteries in which people have reported being disturbed while visiting, but as a matter of pure curiosity I believe it best to leave well enough alone. Until we know more about what we’re dealing with, it seems folly to inject ourselves into such questionable circumstances.
So how would one go about researching these types of phenomena without resorting to the occult? Clearly, some investigative techniques used by non-Christians groups would be beyond our purview. We must eschew anything that smacks of necromancy or the occult, and the use of mediums or Ouija boards and similar devices must be avoided. But there are a number of purely scientific instruments that can be used for paranormal research. Not all are reliable and perhaps not all should be used (as will be explained below). Among the types of equipment currently employed by many groups are the following:
EMF meters. EMF (electromagnetic frequency) meters are among the most commonly used scientific devices in paranormal research. These instruments measure electromagnetic activity at various frequencies and help identify problems with wiring and stray electromagnetic radiation which is believed to cause hallucinations in some people. Theoretically, spirits also emit electromagnetic radiation while materializing, but this is only a theory and the researcher’s objective must be simply to record the data rather than assuming that unusual EMF readings prove paranormal activity.
Thermometers. Highly sensitive scientific thermometers are used to measure small changes in ambient temperature. Many believe that “cold spots” are indicators of paranormal activity. They also may be the result of ventilation problems, and thermometers help track down any possible physical causes.
Motion sensors. Motion sensors tell the investigator when something is moving in an area even when he cannot see it. They also allow the investigator to monitor a room while not being physically present. It is not unusual for these sensors to help discover small rodents or other animals or insects that may be determined to be the ultimate source of some disturbance.
Infrared night-vision oculars. Since some investigations are conducted at night, these are helpful in allowing the investigator to scan an area in darkness. They also detect infrared radiation such as that produced by the heat of a living body and have allowed researchers to find rodents and other animals who quickly hide when light is present.
Cameras and video recorders. Most groups use these devices to try to capture images of ghosts and other phenomena. Images purported to be photographs of spirit forms are, however, highly suspect as many natural factors also can cause similar or even identical images on film or digital pictures. Stray light or reflections off dust particles, snowflakes, or even the breath of the investigators have been found to be the cause of many such images. In today’s era of advanced Photoshop techniques, it is possible to make almost anything appear on a photographic image through either deliberate or accidental manipulation. Cameras are best used in research to record the research session so that all experiments can be carefully documented. Should they also capture a suspected paranormal event, they allow the researcher to study the data more carefully at a later date in order to better ascertain its cause.
EVPs. Various types of audio recorders are often used to record EVPs (electronic voice phenomena). Placing a tape recorder virtually anyplace and recording for an hour or two will almost invariably result in capturing a few voices, even in otherwise quiet areas, which many believe are the voices of ghosts or other entities. However, I believe recording for the purpose of capturing EVPs should be avoided. In the first place, the results are highly unreliable as there are simply too many stray radio waves to rule out the possibility that these voices are not merely radio signals picked up by the electronic circuitry. Radio waves are highly unpredictable and often bleed through onto various electronic equipment. (As a child, I once remember hearing a local radio station come through the tap on our bathtub!) Secondly, the interpretation of any data gathered by such means has to be evaluated subjectively rather than objectively. Books have been written about such communications with the dead, and one example should suffice to demonstrate its subjectivity. In one EVP recording a voice is heard uttering the phrase “oo ekki shema.” The researcher concluded that the speaker was speaking in three different languages in one sentence: oo (Russian), ekki (Icelandic), and shema (Hebrew). To me such a conclusion appears ludicrous. In the least it is highly questionable. Thirdly, recording for the purpose of establishing communication with the dead borders on necromancy. Recording unidentified sounds is reasonable in that it allows the researcher to try to determine what the sounds are, but beyond that I believe it quite tenuous to use recording devices to communicate with whatever forces may be present.
Geiger counters. These devices measure alpha, beta, gamma, and X-ray radiation. They are used primarily for gathering data, but they provide little concrete evidence for paranormal activity.
Talcum powder. Powder is sometimes spread on floors to show footprints. This should be used only in conjunction with video recording to rule out the likelihood that someone in the household walks through the area leaving “evidence.”
Ouija boards, dowsing rods, etc. I personally do not believe these items are suitable for use by Christian researchers as they generally involve the occult. Furthermore they are scientifically unreliable, highly subjective, and lend themselves easily to fraud. Allowing an unknown entity to take control of one’s person is also very dangerous, and for that reason I believe techniques such as automatic writing too should be avoided.
Researchers also generally carry items like flashlights and two-way radios when conducting investigations and use computers to help analyze the data they have recorded. Data gathering with the object of helping someone identify the source of their discomfort is a worthwhile and benevolent activity, and when done for that purpose is not, I believe, something prohibited to the Christian researcher. One must exercise caution, however, when involved with such research since in some cases we do not in fact know exactly what the source for the disturbance may be. I believe it imperative that Christian researchers maintain genuine objectivity in their investigations and seek the counsel of knowledgeable clergy whenever the exact cause of some suspected paranormal activity cannot be ascertained.
In conclusion, what are we to say of these types of paranormal events? My own opinion is that most can be attributed to natural causes. Strange noises often can be traced to animals in the walls or attic, tree limbs brushing against the side of a house, expanding/contracting heating pipes, defective plumbing or wiring, houses settling, and a host of other mundane causes. Strange lights have been found to be car lights reflecting off sheets of ice or water puddles, distortions caused by atmospheric conditions, and other similar sources. Voices and apparitions have sometimes been heard or seen by people on certain medications or with certain medical conditions. And, sadly, in some instances there is also occasionally the element of deliberate fraud. It is my belief that the vast majority of alleged abnormal events typically attributed to the paranormal have normal explanations, though they can at times be very hard to track down. There are instances, however, when no logical explanations can be found. I do not believe this necessarily proves they have a genuine paranormal basis, but I also cannot rule out that possibility without abandoning objectivity. For the present, it is my position that we must simply say that their causes are inconclusive. Since we cannot categorically prove the paranormal (it is, after all, only a theory), we must report unexplained events only as being of a “possible paranormal origin.” Exactly what that origin might be — spirit, “life force,” or other as yet undiscovered phenomenon — we must leave for future researchers to determine.
Copyright © 2007 by Oswin Craton. All rights reserved.
Scene Of Grisly Mob Slaying Has A Haunted Past
By COLLEEN LONG
NEW YORK (AP) — It is a fitting backdrop for a ghost story: An old mansion on a secluded hilltop sits empty, save for a caretaker who lives upstairs. A no-trespassing sign is staked near the locked metal gates, and the stately grounds are covered in thistles. Over the years, visitors to the Victorian-style home on Staten Island told of strange happenings, odd clanging noises and weeping sounds late at night, supposedly conjured by the spirits of people who died on the land long ago. But the most ghastly tale surrounding the home happens to be true: Two years ago, federal investigators discovered that the Kreischer mansion had become a mafia slaying site. Then-caretaker Joseph Young was charged with luring Robert McKelvey to the deserted grounds in April 2005, then stabbing, strangling and drowning the man before sawing the body to pieces and tossing them into the furnace. Young, who was reportedly paid $8,000 for the killing by a reputed member of the Bonnano crime family, is in federal prison and was set to go on trial Tuesday on several charges, including murder. Investigators think the grounds may still hold mysteries. FBI officials returned to the mansion this summer to search for additional bodies, though none have been found. Historians say the lore of the home on Arthur Kill Road has fascinated residents even before the details emerged about the slaying. "Staten Island is an old community, full of history, but everyone is always interested in this house," said Tina Kaasmann-Dunn of the nearby Tottenville Historical Society. "They always want to know if the ghost stories are true." Dozens of tales are told: You can hear scratching noises near a closet where children were supposedly kept when they were bad. It was also said to be haunted by a man and a woman, with ghosts appearing and doors slamming. Legend has it that a cook who killed himself in the kitchen haunts the halls. The real history of the mansion, though, is a bit less spooky. Around 1885, a prosperous German bricklayer named Balthasar Kreischer built mirror-image homes for his sons on the hilltop — one later burned in the 1930s and the remaining home is now known as the Kreischer mansion. The sons, Edward and Charles, lived side-by-side and worked at the family brick factory — one of the city's best-known businesses at the time. Balthasar Kreischer died in 1886. A few years later, the brick factory burned to the ground and was rebuilt, though business suffered. Then, in 1894, Edward Kreischer shot himself in the head at the factory, reportedly because of trouble with employees. His weeping, distraught wife is among the ghosts people claim to hear at the mansion, even though theirs was one that burned down. By 1899, the final member of the family had retired and the once-thriving business passed out of the family and eventually closed. After passing hands over the years, the mansion became a restaurant and eventually fell into disrepair until it was purchased about a decade ago by Ohio developer Isaac Yomtovian. Yomtovian has taken great care in restoring the home from a dilapidated white monstrosity to a stately, colorful Victorian, similar to what it looked like when it was designated a landmark in 1968. Yomtovian said people often come to him with color photos of supposed ghosts, and regale him with tales of things that go bump in the night. "Precisely because of that, I thought, it's a good idea to renovate and preserve and bring back this house to its original shape," he said. He planned to create housing for seniors in the acres around the home and use the mansion as a clubhouse. But he's been unable to secure funding for the senior center, even before the grisly 2006 mob discovery. Yomtovian said he's also tossing around the idea of making the home an antique shop, and eventually wants to turn it over to the city as a museum. "In my opinion, it's a beautiful place to have a home," Yomtovian said. For now, the home remains empty. As Halloween approaches, gawkers will likely flock to the street outside the home to try and catch a glimpse of something creepy.
Spirits Spook At Dean College
Even after a century, members of the philanthropic Ray family may still be hanging around their old haunts, according to staff at Dean College. Workers at Ray House, which serves as the school's admissions office, and several staff members, including Vice President of Enrollment Jay Leiendecker, have reported encounters with spirits they believe are Ray family members. The house was their former home, built in the 1800s. Sensing a spirit, or seeing a shadow flash by is not rare at Ray House, Leiendecker said. "It's not once every so many years - there's definitely a spirit living in the house," he said, adding, "Nothing bad has happened." In fact, if the otherworldly inhabitants are members of the Ray family, he said they're probably quite friendly ghosts, because they were incredibly charitable people in life. Although encounters are common, they can still be startling. "We had window-washing crews come here on weekends, and a man was washing the window inside and out one Saturday," Leiendecker said, pointing to his tall office window overlooking the campus, "and he apparently went screaming for the hills after he saw ... something." "He ran from the building and never came back again, never came back for his equipment," Leiendecker said. Another staff member noted the window washer, eyes bulging, did try to explain he had seen a ghost and then bolted. Jeanne Remillard, an administrative assistant who works at Ray House, recalled going about her business one morning when she heard a loud thud that sounded like a car crashing, coming from below. "The mirror simply slid down the wall - that thing weighs more than you can imagine, at least a ton. It is a huge mirror," said Leiendecker, estimating the mirror measures at least 6-feet by 6-feet. Shockingly, after the a crash, the mirror did not break, the frame did not crack - there was not even a scratch, said Leiendecker and Patricia Samson, public relations director for the college. "It went straight down the wall, landed on the floor and didn't break," Leiendecker said, shaking his head. The sitings have been pervasive enough that history professor R. A. Lawson, head of the Dean History Project which focuses on the college's history, has included the phenomena in his upcoming book. Lawson writes in his manuscript's introduction about "the students' ubiquitous and persistent questions about ghosts in (almost all of) the campus buildings." The book, which does not yet have a title, will come out in the spring. There have been times, after the sun goes down, when Leiendecker is working in his first-floor office, and the hair on his arms inexplicably begins to rise, and he just feels - something - nearby, he said. "You feel like somebody's in the room with you. ... You're sitting here at night and some of that stuff happens - you want to log off and go home," Leiendecker said, laughing. Employees have also reported faucets turning on by themselves, seeing shadows race across the room, and hearing commotions in the house despite being alone. Remillard had a particularly big scare early one morning, again working quietly at her desk, when she heard someone making noise in an adjacent room, and assumed it must have been a co-worker. When she called out to her colleague, however, no one answered. She checked the entire floor to find no one. To this day, Samson said she always makes sure to announce herself with a loud, "Good morning!" while coming up the stairs to let Remillard know it's someone in the flesh. The Ray family donated money for the school's science building, the Ray Building, which houses a domed theater, and eventually, they gave then-Dean Academy preparatory school their home, Ray House, Samson said. "They were very philanthropic and generous to Franklin," Leiendecker said. And the Rays were not the only philanthropic Franklin family of the 1800s to haunt the college, many believe; there have been numerous sightings of a little girl ghost at Thayer House, which burnt down in the mid-1990s, Samson said. The property, a lot on the corner of Rte. 140 and Emmons Street, has been empty since the fire, she said.
"Before it burnt down, students reported seeing the face of a young girl in one of the windows. I don't know if a spirit is tied to a location, or object," Samson said. There is some speculation that the top floor of Dean Hall, built in 1868, is also haunted, but it is closed, Samson said.
Joyce Kelly can be reached at 508-634-7582 or jkelly@cnc.com. This story and others about Franklin can be found at www.milforddailynews.com.
The Dangers of the Ouija Board
By: Dan Corner
Permission to reproduce this article is hereby granted, but only in its entirety, including author's name and ministry address at the end of the article, and without any alterations.
One of the chief tools used in divination is the Ouija Board. Though Parker Brothers (those who manufacture it) would suggest that this is merely a game used for entertainment purposes, this occultic tool leads to spiritual darkness. It is described as such:
A board and pointer used for divination and by some as a means to contact spirits or entities. The name comes from the French and German words for "yes," oui and ja (ja is mispronounced with a hard "j"). Critics of the Ouija, who include authorities in most denominations of Christianity, say it is dangerous and a tool of the Devil. Advocates say that it, like other forms of divination, is a legitimate means to discover insight, wisdom, and self-truths and to communicate with discarnate beings.
The board includes letters of the alphabet, numerals 0 through 9, the words "yes" and "no," and a heart-shaped pointer on three felt-tipped legs. One or two people place their fingertips on the pointer, which moves to answer questions. In most cases answers probably rise up from the subconsciousness of the users, even when "spirits" identify themselves and give messages. However, Ouija pointers have been known to fly off the board and spin out of control, as though being directed by unseen forces, and some users claim to be harassed by external agents contacted through the board.
Precursors to the Ouija date back to ancient times. In China before the birth of Confucius (c. 551 B.C.), similar instruments were used to communicate with the dead. In Greece during the time of Pythagoras (c. 540 B.C.) divination was done with a table that moved on wheels to point to signs, which were interpreted as revelations from the "unseen world." The rolling table was used through the nineteenth century. Other such devices were used by the ancient Romans as early as the third century A.D., and in the thirteenth century by the Mongols. Some Native Americans used "squdilatc boards" to find missing objects and persons, and obtain spiritual information. In 1853 the planchette came into use in Europe. It consisted of a triangular or heart-shaped platform on three legs, one of which was a pencil. The medium or user moved the device over paper to draw pictures and spell out messages.(1)
NOTE: The Ouija board, like other forms of divination, has been used in an attempt to contact the dead (necromancy), which is clearly condemned by the Bible:
Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD, and because of these detestable practices the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you. You must be blameless before the LORD your God. The nations you will dispossess listen to those who practice sorcery or divination. But as for you, the LORD your God has not permitted you to do so (Deut. 18:10-14).
All other forms of sorcery are clearly denounced in Scripture as well. Those that refuse to listen to God regarding this command are mentioned in the follow Scripture:
But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death (Rev. 21:8).
Their only hope is to find forgiveness by turning from this form of wickedness to the true and living God through Jesus Christ. See Acts 20:21.
Ouija Popularity Around WW I
The Ouija enjoyed enormous popularity during and after World War I, when many people were desperate to communicate with loved ones killed in the war and Spiritualism was in a revival. In 1966 Fuld sold his patent to Parker Brothers game company of Beverly, Massachusetts. Interest in the Ouija picked up again in the 1960s and 1970s, along with renewed interest in the occult and supernatural. Parker Brothers stresses that the Ouija is a game for entertainment purposes.(2)
Demon Possession and The Ouija Board
People know not what they do when they dabble in the occult, even innocently. By doing such they open themselves up to many spiritual dangers that normally would never occur, one of which is demon possession. Such has been linked to the Ouija board:
Some demonologists say the Ouija opens the door to possession by evil spirits ....(3)
Some evil spirits first contacted by the Ouija board has led to a deeper involvement and bondage in the occult.
Jane Roberts, Seth and Others
Some critics contend that such contact is inherently dangerous, and that any beings who communicate through such a device are likely to be demonic and attempt to possess the user .... The entity Seth, popularized by the writings of Jane Roberts in the 1960s and 1970s, initiated his communication with Roberts through a Ouija board. The communication then rapidly progressed to direct automatic writing with a pen and then into a trance mediumship in which Seth allegedly used Roberts' vocal cords to speak.
The Ouija also served as the initial means of communication with alleged spirits of the dead in 1913 for Pearl Curran (see WORTH, PATIENCE), and in 1919 for Stewart Edward White and his wife, Betty. The Whites spent 17 years studying Betty's mediumship with a group of discarnate beings who called themselves "the Invisibles." After initial contact was made through the Ouija, Betty began using automatic writing and then trance mediumship, in which the spirits allegedly used her own vocal cords.(4)
The Lie Will Continue to go Forth
Be assured, that for the many that are misinformed, the Ouija board will continue to be accepted as a mere game for entertainment purposes:
Ouija A device marketed as a game in which answers to questions are divined.(5)
The Ouija Board is Unsafe and Even Used in Seances!
While the Ouija board remains popular and is sold commercially as a "game," it has been attacked both by critics of the occult and those within the occult community who consider it unsafe. Some mediums claim to have started with the board and "discovered" their psychic abilities as a result of using it.(6)
Ouija board, in occultism, a device ostensibly used for obtaining messages from the spirit world, usually employed by a medium during a séance.(7)
So what is a seance? And why would an occultic medium be using a harmless game for entertainment purposes there?
seance A sitting organized for the purpose of receiving spirit communications or paranormal manifestations via the services of a medium .... A seance is immediate and powerful, playing upon the sitters' sensibilities with a drama that no other occult reading can match. But to the initiated, the seance can open the doorway to a mysterious other world.(8)
WARNING!
Have NOTHING to do with the occult or Spiritism in any form. Do NOT dabble with what God has expressly forbidden. If you already have, pray a sincere prayer to God asking Him to forgive you for your grievous sins. Also pray a prayer of renunciation, that is, renouncing this and all involvement in the occult. If you already own an Ouija board, remove it from your house and burn it publicly. This is how some first-century sorcerers treated their scrolls and thereby proved their repentance toward God:
A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas (Acts 19:19).
Please WARN as many as you can about the Ouija board. This dangerous occulic device not only can lead to demon possession, but even eternal damnation in the lake of fire. Remember what God says about those that practice the magic arts, even if under the guise of a harmless game for entertainment purposes:
Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD, and because of these detestable practices the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you (Deut.18:12).
Anyone means anyone, even a person previously saved.
Endnotes
1. Rosemary Ellen Guiley, Harper's Encyclopedia of Mystical & Paranormal Experience (NY: Harper San Francisco, 1991), pp. 418, 419.
2. Ibid., p. 419.
3. Ibid.
4. Rosemary Ellen Guiley, The Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits (New York, NY: Facts On File, Inc., 1992), p. 240.
5. Ibid., p. 239.
6. Encyclopedia of Occultism & Parapsychology, Edited by J. Gordon Melton (Detroit, MI: Gale Research, 1996), p. 966.
7. The New Encyclopædia Britannica, Vol. 9, (Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 1997), p. 11.
8. Guiley, The Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits, pp. 298, 299.
www.evangelicaloutreach.org
The Berini Haunting
In one of the most shocking cases of recent times, a New England family was surprised, disturbed and ultimately terrified by a series of apparitions that seemed intent on driving them from their home.
The strange, horrifying events that took place in a New England home in the late 1970s and early 1980s have been documented and investigated, but never fully explained. They began as a series of benign if remarkable hauntings and escalated into terrifying poltergeist phenomena, making this one of the most astonishing cases of ghostly activity in recent American history.
The real name of the family involved has been kept secret to protect their privacy, but the investigators for the Psychical Research Foundation provided them with the pseudonym of Berini. First names have also been changed.
The Berini's unsettling clash with the paranormal started after the father, Joe Berini, moved the family into his ancestral home located in a New England town. The house had been in the family for many years: Joe's father grew up there, and several family members had died in the house. All seemed normal, at first, as Joe settled in with his wife Rose and her two children from a previous marriage, John and Daisy. It was one night in May, 1979 that Rose began to hear a disembodied voice. It sounded like that of a little girl, Rose said, and the first time she heard it, it said, "Mama, mama, this is Serena."
No one knew who Serena was or what the voice might mean. It wasn't until a later investigation into family history that Joe learned that his father had a sister named Serena who died in the house at the age of five more than 50 years previous. But what was Serena's message trying to convey? It turned out that Serena's voice would be a forewarning of family danger - on more than one occasion. The very next day after Rose first heard Serena's voice, Daisy was taken for a scheduled appointment to have her tonsils taken out. Something went wrong during the surgery, however. Daisy's heart failed and she nearly died.
The girl's voice was heard on several more occasions, once on a June night before Joe's grandmother suffered a stroke, and again in November just before the old woman passed away. A fourth time, Joe was awakened by Serena's voice to find Rose choking in her sleep. Upon being roused from sleep by Joe, Rose said she had been dreaming that her ex-husband was strangling her.
The Boy in White
Then, as mysteriously as Serena's warnings came to the Berinis, they ceased. Through the end of 1979 to March, 1981, the family encountered nothing more out of the ordinary. But in that spring of 1981, a new series of haunting phenomena began when Rose was startled by the apparition of a small boy, dressed completely in white, walking along the upstairs hallway in the dead of night. "It was almost like looking through a milk bottle," Rose later told researchers. "It was a very peaceful experience. It stayed for about two hours on and off, coming and going." The boy's spirit appeared again a week and a half later, and this time spoke to Rose, innocently asking, "Where do all the lonely people go? Where do I belong?"
The boy in white also appeared before Joe, who says he saw the spirit go to each of the bedrooms and then kneel in the hallway, as if looking for something that lay hidden beneath the carpet. More than curious, Joe later took up the carpet and the floorboards at that spot and found a religious medal with a broken chain. Had it belonged to the boy? Who was he? Joe then recalled that another child had died in that house - his father's younger brother, Giorgio, at the age of eight. Again checking family history with other relatives, Joe was told that Giorgio was buried in his all-white First Communion suit.
Giorgio began to appear frequently to Joe and Rose over the next few months. The spirit would respond to questions, but seemed distressed over something. At one point, Giorgio accused his twin brother Carlos (who was still alive and living nearby) of taking something from the house, but no one, including Carlos, could figure out what the boy's ghost was referring to. On one nightly visit, Giorgio's spirit said, "My oldest brother is the only one who can help me." This statement caused the Berinis to wonder if the spirit was confusing Joe for his father - Giorgio's oldest brother. And as the apparition vanished that night, the telephone next to Joe and Rose's bed was thrown off the night table by unseen hands.
This was the beginning of the poltergeist activity that would terrorize the Berinis in the weeks and months to come. More than a dozen times, Joe and Rose's bedroom phone was thrown violently off their night table. Joe took this, along with Giorgio's last message, as a sign that he should call his parents and warn them that the little boy's spirit might be paying them a visit. He did so, but each time Joe uttered Giorgio's name, the phone line went dead.
The Berinis had had enough. They sought the advice of a local priest who said they should merely ignore the spirit if it should appear again. Not good advice, as it turned out. The next time the boy in white appeared to Rose, she did as she was advised and paid it no attention. Immediately, a closet door began to slam open and shut repeatedly. On subsequent days, unexplained running was heard in the house, and box of macaroni was yanked from Rose's hands and dashed to the floor. Again taking their plight to the Church, the Berinis invited two priests to visit the house, where they blessed it and said mass.
Giorgio's spirit finally seemed to give up its mission, whatever it was, and appeared no more. But the Berini's paranormal troubles were far from over. Giorgio's disappearance only seemed to make room for another entity to enter their home and their lives - one that was not so innocent or benign.
The Dark Hunchback Entity
In June, 1981, the Berinis began to see a sinister hunchbacked male figure clad in a black cape. Throughout that summer, the hunchback, which the Berinis described as having large feet and a gruff voice, appeared regularly in the house. The Berinis tried to get the entity to identify itself, but it only told them it was "a minister of God."
The dark figure hardly acted like a denizen of Heaven, however. It frequently made its presence known, for example, when Rose was praying with her rosary, trying to distract her with various obscenities. The poltergeist-like activity increased in frequency and intensity. Joe, Rose and 15-year-old John reported that they had been struck by thrown objects. The bedroom telephone continued to fly off the table. A bedside lamp "fell," striking Rose on the head. Furniture in several rooms were on occasion found overturned or moved: Daisy's bedroom desk was somehow transported down the stairs. The retractable attic stairs were open and shut repeatedly and with such violence that it cracked the hall ceiling. Several religious objects were removed from walls or broken.
Rose, it seemed, was in particular the object of the entity's violence. The door of the freezer was swung open, hitting her in the head. During an evening meal, her arm was twisted behind her back and her head pulled to one side with such force that she began to choke. On more than one occasion, Joe testified, he saw Rose pulled out of bed at night, levitated into the air and then dropped to the floor. After one of these attacks, bruises were found on her arms and legs, as if from a powerful grip.
Two months after it first appeared, the dark, hunchbacked entity became its most violent. Not long after Joe left the house to work the night shift at his factory job, a loud banging shook the bedroom walls. "The bed was raising off the floor," Rose said. "I tried to scream and the door slammed so I could not get out of the room. The dog was growling and the door opened." Rose struggled to get to the children's bedrooms, but their doors slammed shut and she was dragged by the unseen force back into her room. Invisible hands began to choke and scratch her. She managed to call Joe. He rushed home and ran upstairs to the bedroom where he saw the bed jumping as high as two feet into the air, and found Rose crouching in a corner clutching a crucifix.
Remarkably, the Berinis still refused to abandon their home. Their minds changed, however, when one morning they awoke to find a heavy carving knife stabbed into the kitchen table.
Fearing that their lives could truly be in danger, the Berinis moved out of the house for a month, putting most of their belongings into storage. Once again, they sought help from a priest, who went to the house and performed a kind of exorcism. When the Berinis returned to their home, the evil seemed to have been vanquished. They no longer saw apparitions of any kind or suffered any more poltergeist activity.
Ironically, it was only after the haunting activity stopped that Joe Berini invited an investigation by the Psychical Research Foundation, based in Durham, North Carolina. (The organization is now the American Institute of Parapsychology, based in Gainesville, Florida.) The investigators were able to corroborate some of the Berini's claims through friends, neighbors and their priest, all of whom testified that they witnessed poltergeist phenomena in the Berini home.
Children's Encounters with the Unknown
They see and experience extraordinary things that many adults cannot, from ghosts and "imaginary" friends to startling premonitions and toys that come to life.
Are children more attuned to the supernatural? Many researchers suspect that children, from the youngest ages and into early teens, are more likely to experience paranormal phenomena because they have not yet developed the prejudices that many adults have against such far-out, "unscientific" ideas. Perhaps they have not yet created their own filters for feelings and experiences that most of society consider irrational or abnormal. Or it could be that young brains or minds are, for whatever reason, physically more receptive to such phenomena as ghosts, near-death experiences, past-life recall and premonitions.
Whatever the reason, here are several true stories from readers that seem to confirm that children can be extraordinarily tuned in to the strange and the unexplained:
The Mystery Man
Years ago while in my teens, my mom took me with her to pick up one of her elderly friends to give her a ride to our church. We weren't going that night, but my mom was always helpful to the senior citizens at our church. When we got to my mom's friend's house, mom asked me to go to the door to tell her that we were outside waiting on her.
I rang the doorbell and the elderly lady opened the door, said "hello" and left me standing in the doorway for a few minutes while she finished getting ready. The couch in the elderly lady's living room was partially shielded by the door, but I could see a man sitting on her couch in front of her TV, which was turned on. He never moved or spoke to me as I stood there. I was very shy and didn't attempt to speak to him either. I distinctly remember he had on a white shirt, black pinstriped pants, black nylon socks and shiny black shoes. His hands rested on his knees. I remember that his hand was wrinkled and appeared to be that of an elderly, very dark, African-American man, but I was positioned in a way that I could not see his face.
After a few minutes, the elderly lady grabbed her coat and walked out the door locking it behind her. She left the man sitting on her couch watching television, but she hadn't said anything to him when she left. I thought that it was rather strange, but said nothing about it to her. After we dropped the elderly lady off at church, I said, "Mom, Mrs. McClain left a man in her house, but she didn't say bye to him when we left." I also told her that he was sitting on her couch in front of the TV. She asked me what he looked like because Mrs. McClain's landlord came to visit her from time to time. I described what I saw to my mom, but told her that I didn't see his face. My mom said that the description that I gave did not match that of her landlord, because he was a very pale-skinned man.
My mom was very concerned, so she called Mrs. McClain at church and, in order not to alarm her, asked, "Did you have some company? My daughter said that you left your TV on." Mrs. McClain told mom she didn't have any company that day and that she leaves her TV on whenever she goes out because she wants people to think that someone is home, so that no one will break in. Hearing this really frightened my mom, and I guess the elderly lady could hear the fright in my mom's voice and she started screaming out, asking my Mom, "What did your daughter see? Please tell me, what did your daughter see? You are scaring me. I can't go back there. What did she see?" I remember my mom having to talk to her for quite awhile to calm her down. My mom finally convinced her that we were just wondering why she had left the television on. When my mom finally got off of the phone, we were both very shaken. I was crying and extremely afraid that I would see this man again because at this point we knew it had to be a ghost. I kept repeating, "I am so glad that I didn't try to see his face." My mom comforted me by saying that it was probably Mrs. McClain's husband, who had passed away, watching out for her because she was all alone. I never saw the man again and we never told Mrs. McClain what I had really seen that evening in her house. - H. Holmes
What Did Baby Brother See?
When my little brother was a baby, maybe nine months old, we lived with my grandma. My grandpa had just died. My mom was sitting in the living room around midnight trying to get my brother to sleep, but he wouldn't stop crying. Suddenly, out of nowhere he stopped crying, sat straight up and said, "Hi, grandpa." There was no one else in the room at all. The weird thing is, he said those words so clearly, and he had never spoken before, not even to say "mom"! - Beth B.
Andy Pandy Comes to Play
Many of your UK readers between the ages of 45 and 55 will probably remember a TV show called "Watch with Mother". The show was on the BBC in the 1950s and featured a string puppet named "Andy Pandy", he had a sidekick named "Loopy Lou or Looby Lou". One day my brother and sister where playing upstairs in our front bedroom. This room was about 12 ft. x 12 ft. and had a cupboard in the corner, which was directly over the stairs. My sister and brother, both now in their late 40s, swear to this day that Andy Pandy came out of that cupboard in the corner and spent the next hour playing with them both. This Andy Pandy, however, was about four feet high and had no strings attached. I have questioned both of them over the years and still their story remains the same. - Mike C.
Shadow People Encounters
When I was seven years old, one weekend I planned to stay up late downstairs playing video games and then sleep on the pull-out bed. I was preparing to go to bed when, for some reason, I got the impression that something was watching me. I got scared enough to run back upstairs, and while I was running, I could see very short (no larger than two feet tall) and squat figures darting after me. They were very indistinct in features, and appeared as nothing more than inky-black silhouettes. Also, when my aunt was young, she was sleeping over at a friend's house at the end of the street when she said that a "shadow man" appeared at the foot of the bed and began to call out her friend's name. She screamed and said that it disappeared into the floor.
Accident Premonition
My mother's family (parents and siblings) lived in Binghamton, New York. My dad was in the Navy and my parents, my sister and I lived in Patuxent River, Maryland. I was six years old at the time. Even though we lived in Maryland, I knew most of my mother's family because we would visit them quite often in Binghamton, and during the summer they all came to visit us. At the time, my cousin, Marylou, who lived in Binghamton, was 11 years old. I got home from school one day and asked my mother why Marylou was crying. She didn't understand what I was talking about. I told her that I heard her crying. She was quite puzzled by my statement and had no explanation. Within a few hours, the phone rang. It was my grandmother calling to say that my cousin had been hit by a car walking home from school - about the same time I told my mother I could hear her crying. I have had a few other premonitions, but this is the one I remember most. - Nancy T.
Chanting Men in White
I was 13 and it was quite some time after my little brother had passed away. I had wanted to be with him, because I thought it would be better with him than at home. One night I was sleeping in my bed and I had felt this warm sensation. I saw this large hand come on my legs. It was so warm I had to wake up. To my surprise, there were some men standing around my bed, which was up against the wall. They were dressed in white and chanting in some language I never heard. One looked at me and then they all did and stopped chanting. Then, all in a single file, they walked out of the room. I crawled to the end of my bed and peeked out the door to the living room. There we had a dim light on. They were gone. I was a little scared and crawled under the covers and started to pray. Then my other brother asked me if I was awake. I said yes. He asked me to come to his room. I said, "No way. You come." But I did manage to get to his room, just to find out that my brother had gone through the exact same thing as I did. We were both scared. - Ruby
The Imaginary Friend
When my cousin was little, she would always say that she was visited by "a friend." My family thought this was an imaginary friend. One day while looking through a photo album, my cousin saw a picture of her grandfather who had died only a few years before she was born. She had never seen this picture before. She said that the man in the picture (her grandfather) was the friend who visited her regularly. This is interesting because my grandfather adored his grandchildren, and I could envision him wanting to meet the one who was born after he died. - Dennis and Heather S.
Shirley Saves Her Brother
My mom told me this story, and she still cries when she tells it. It has never been explained. My sister, Shirley (the firstborn), died of Downs Syndrome at the age of two in 1961. She had holes in her heart. Almost two years later, my mother had a baby boy, my brother, Steven. One day in 1962, my mom was up in the attic doing some work, and my dad was in the basement in his workshop. Steven was supposedly napping in a playpen (age one) in the den. My mom heard, clear as day, Shirley's voice saying, "Dadda! Dadda!" ...and it was as though she were right there next to her in the attic. Clear as day. My dad heard the SAME THING down in his workshop. "Dadda! Dadda!" They both say it was distinctly Shirley's voice - loud and clear. Dad ran up to tell mom; mom ran to tell dad. They both ran into the den, and there was baby Steven with plastic dry cleaner's sheeting that he had reached for on the couch - and he was suffocating. Mom and dad both told us later on that it could not have been Steven calling them; he called my dad, "daddy" not "dadda," and it was not his voice. They are convinced to this day that it was Shirley warning them that her brother was suffocating. - Donna B.
The DOPler Effect
Do objects disappear around your home, then inexplicably reappear? You might be a victim of DOP, or Disappearing Object Phenomena. What could be the cause? One afternoon I was copying programs using my old Commodore 64 computer in a room designated as the "computer room." The copy program had just instructed me to swap disks, and I remember taking the "original" disk out of the drive and laying it on the desk next to the keyboard. At that time, my mother called me out of the room and I went to see what she needed. Upon my return a few minutes later, I noticed that it was time for another disk swap. The disk was not where I had left it. I looked everywhere. I took all of the disks out of the disk file, looked under the desk - everywhere - and couldn't find it. I left the room, and came back, determined to retrace my steps. When I came back, the same result - nothing. I left again, saying to myself that "enough was enough." When I came back, my first impulse was to check the disk file again. I flipped down the first disk in the file - and there it was - backwards. At that instant, I felt an incredible feeling of dread and could swear that I heard a faint, but amused laugh. Stories like this appear in my e-mailbox on a regular basis - common examples of disappearing object phenomena (DOP). Typically, DOP involves an object that the person had just been using or that they invariably keep in one particular place. When they go to use the object, it is gone. The person looks high and low for the object, often getting others involved in the search, but it cannot be found. A short time later, or perhaps the next day, the person is surprised to find the object returned to the spot where it is always kept or in some other obvious place where the search should have found it.
What happened here? Where did the object go? Why did it "disappear"? How was it returned? What forces are at work in this highly strange yet relatively commonplace phenomenon? There are several possibilities, from the mundane to the peculiar to the profoundly bizarre - both psychological and paranormal.
Absentmindedness
[My] latest loss is a nice birthday card that my husband printed out for my mother. I showed it to everyone, then left it on the kitchen table overnight so I could send it the next day. It's gone. No one has seen it, no one remembers moving it, and we still haven't found it, although we've looked all over the house...
When examining such occurrences as DOP, we must first consider the most ordinary possibility: that the person simply misplaced the object or forgot where he/she put it. This, in fact, probably accounts for the vast majority of reported DOPs. For example, a woman always puts her hairbrush in the same place on her dressing table, but now is not there. It's quite possible that, being distracted somehow, she absentmindedly carried it to another room and put it down on a table. Naturally, when she goes to look for the brush she's astonished that it's not on the dressing table. And she'll most likely look all around the dressing table since that is where it is always kept. She might not even think to look in the other room on the table because... why in the world would she ever do such a thing? Yet things like this probably happen more often than we imagine.
This DOP possibility falls apart when the hairbrush is later found on the dressing table in its usual spot. Unless the woman was experiencing temporary blindness with regard to this one object, then other possibilities must be considered.
The Borrower
Here's another mundane, but highly possible cause that we must consider if we are to investigate DOP seriously. When the hairbrush has vanished from the dressing table, after her initial search, the woman would quite likely question other members of the household. Even though they might deny up and down that they borrowed the hairbrush, it's very plausible that a family member did, in fact, borrow the item. Seeing that mom is upset, and perhaps not wanting to get into trouble for borrowing an item they know they shouldn't touch, they'll deny taking it. Then, when mom is elsewhere in the house, the borrower sneaks back to the dressing table and returns the brush. And when mom returns to the scene of the "crime," the brush has amazingly returned to its proper spot. And a household mystery is born.
This possibility can be eliminated, of course, if the person lives alone or when other family members are not around when the DOP occurs.
The "absentminded" and "borrower" possibilities aren't as exciting or intriguing as those that follow, but they probably solve a majority of DOP cases. We must remember that any paranormal investigation must first rule out the most likely, if pedestrian, explanations for what seems like an unexplainable event. Only then can we consider more unusual possibilities.
Poltergeist
I have all of my grandmother's jewelry boxes and most of her jewelry. Many times I would forget and leave my jewelry out on my dresser or counter, and in the morning they would be gone from the dresser or counter and in one of the jewelry boxes.
When the DOPler Effect takes place, a lot of people blame a poltergeist, if only half seriously. A poltergeist is usually defined as a mischievous or noisy spirit. Poltergeist activity often includes unexplained noises, music, smells and movement of objects. So when that hairbrush disappears, some people think, it must be because of a poltergeist. And some might have more reason to think a poltergeist is responsible than others. This might be the case if the hairbrush incident is not an isolated one. If the person finds that objects are "disappearing" or being moved on a regular basis, for example. Or if there are other phenomena, such as unexplained smells and noises that the person can associate with the missing item.
Sometimes the particular item has a history that gives the person the idea that a spirit is involved. For instance, a watch that belonged to a grandfather might be found to be moved to a certain place on its own - the sort of place that grandfather usually kept it. Or like the case of the grandmother's jewelry above.
Even though it seems likely to the person that a spirit or poltergeist is responsible, it is still unknown what a poltergeist really is. In the case of DOP, is it an actual spirit that has somehow become attached to the object and by some force that science cannot yet explain moves or borrows the object? Or does the activity arise from the person's subconscious and their emotional relationship to the object and its original owner?
Temporary Invisibility
It was the night of my freshman homecoming. I had brought three dresses a few days or so before and was planning on wearing the simple black and white one. Nothing fancy. I went to my closet an hour or so before the dance to get ready... and the dress wasn't in my closet. Nowhere in my closet, not even with the other two dresses. My mom and I searched everywhere but still couldn't find it. My mom finally said I had to wear one of the others... and so I chose one of the white ones. A day or so after the dance, I went to my closet to find a shirt... and the black and white dress I was going to wear to the dance was the first piece of clothing on the rack. Go figure.
Let's again take the example of the woman and her hairbrush. She believes she placed it on the dressing table as always, but it is gone and she has thoroughly looked for it. There's no one else in the house who could have borrowed it. A while later, it's back on the dressing table. It was Sherlock Holmes in The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet who said, "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." Okay, Mr. Holmes, here's an improbable explanation: the hairbrush - or the girl's dress - temporarily became invisible.
There is no scientific hypothesis that allows for an object to become invisible and then, after a time, become visible again. Yet that is exactly the effect as perceived by some DOP experiencers. And if this temporary invisibility is somehow possible, it raises many questions: How or for what reason does a specific object become invisible? Does the effect have something to do with the person's regular or intimate use of the object? Is it a physical effect produced by some unknown mechanics of the human mind?
Dimensional Shift
I looked everywhere for my car keys. I looked everywhere in the kitchen and living room - just everywhere! Then all of a sudden I heard keys drop in the kitchen. I went in and there they were on the ground.
The existence of dimensions other than the three we jostle around in every day is theorized by science. Sometimes referred to as "other planes of existence" by the more spiritually minded, these dimensions are sometimes thought of as places where spirits and other forms of reality might reside. Could the temporary invisibility or movement of objects be explained by their slipping into another dimension? Is some kind of dimensional or temporal shift to blame? It's a pretty far-out notion, but then a genuine DOPler experience is hard to explain.
Even when the rational explanations are ruled out, there are still enough intriguing DOPler experiences remaining to remind us that there is much more to this life, this reality than we are currently aware.
And here, I suppose, is one more possibility:
The first thing I think of when that [DOP] happens is faeries, since one of the places I lived in had some. They tended to take things and then give them back later. One time, in full view of a number of people, I was getting ready to leave the apartment, and since I was always in the habit of misplacing my keys, no faeries needed, I had taken to hanging them on a heavy "biker wallet" chain and had some jangly brass keytags to boot. They weren't where I'd put them, and I had to leave. So I hollered, "Okay, guys, this isn't funny. I need my keys NOW!" My friends were watching as they materialized out of thin air above the shelf I had my phone answering machine on and clattered to the shelf.
Electronic Voice Phenomena
Otherwise known as EVP, electronic voice phenomena is the recording of mysterious voices from "beyond." Here's what it is, how it works and how you can experiment with it.
Mankind has long believed that it is possible to communicate with the dead. Attempts to do so have been made over the centuries through oracles, séances, mediums and psychics. Today, with a variety of electronic equipment at our disposal, there might be an easier, more effective way. And whether or not the results really are communication with the dead - or something else - the results seem to be quite real. Here's what you need to know about it, how you can hear samples and how you can try it!
What is electronic voice phenomena?
Electronic voice phenomena - or EVP - is a mysterious event in which human-sounding voices from an unknown source are heard on recording tape, in radio station noise and other electronic media. Most often, EVPs have been captured on audiotape. The mysterious voices are not heard at the time of recording; it is only when the tape is played back that the voices are heard. Sometimes amplification and noise filtering is required to hear the voices.
Some EVP is more easily heard and understood than others. And they vary in gender (men and women), age (women and children), tone and emotion. They usually speak in single-words, phrases and short sentences. Sometimes they are just grunts, groans, growling and other vocal noises. EVP has been recorded speaking in various languages.
The quality of EVP also varies. Some are difficult to distinguish and are open to interpretation as to what they are saying. Some EVP, however, are quite clear and easy to understand. EVP often has an electronic or mechanical character to it; sometimes it is natural sounding. The quality of EVP is categorized by researchers:
Class A: Easily understood by almost anyone with little or no dispute. These are also usually the loudest EVPs.
Class B: Usually characterized by warping of the voice in certain syllables. Lower in volume or more distant sounding than Class A. Class B is the most common type of EVP.
Class C: Characterized by excessive warping. They are the lowest in volume (often whispering) and are the hardest to understand.
The most fascinating aspect of EVP is that the voices sometimes respond directly to the persons making the recording. The researchers will ask a question, for example, and the voice will answer or comment. Again, this response is not heard until later when the tape is played back.
Where do the voices come from?
That, of course, is the mystery. No one knows. Some theories are:
They are voices of people who have died. This is why many researchers go to cemeteries seeking EVPs (and often with great success). In this context, the phenomenon is sometimes called instrumental transcommunication or ITC.
They are from another dimension. It is theorized that there may be many dimensions of existence, and somehow beings from some other dimension are able to speak and communicate with ours through this method. A good question is, however: How do they know English and other languages of our dimension?
They come from the researchers' own subconscious. It's been suggested that somehow the researchers' thoughts are projected onto the tape.
Some people believe that these voices are angelic or demonic in origin.
Skeptics assert that there is nothing to EVP at all - that the "voices" are either hoaxed, random noise interpreted as voices, real voices already on the tape, or voices picked up from radio, cell phones and other such sources.
How did EVP begin? A short history...
1920s. It is not generally known that in the 1920s Thomas Edison tried to invent a machine that would communicate with the dead. Thinking this was possible, he wrote: "If our personality survives, then it is strictly logical or scientific to assume that it retains memory, intellect, other faculties, and knowledge that we acquire on this Earth. Therefore … if we can evolve an instrument so delicate as to be affected by our personality as it survives in the next life, such an instrument, when made available, ought to record something."
Edison never succeeded with the invention, obviously, but it seems he did believe that it might be possible to capture disembodied voices with a machine.
1930s. In 1939, Attila von Szalay, an American photographer, experimented with a phonograph record cutter in trying to capture spirit voices. It's said that he achieved some success with this method and got even better results in later years using a wire recorder. In the late 1950s, the results of his experiments were documented in an article for the American Society for Psychical Research.
1940s. In the late 1940s, Marcello Bacci of Grosseto, Italy claimed to be able to pick up voices of the deceased on a vacuum tube radio.
1950s. In 1952, two Catholic priests, Father Ernetti and Father Gemelli, inadvertently picked up EVP while recording Gregorian chants on a magnetophone. When the wire on the machine kept breaking, Father Gemelli looked to heavens and asked his dead father for help. To the shock of both men, his father's voice was heard on the recording saying, "Of course I shall help you. I'm always with you." Further experiments confirmed the phenomenon.
In 1959, Friedrich Juergenson, a Swedish film producer, was recording bird songs. On playback, he could discern his mother's voice saying in German, "Friedrich, you are being watched. Friedel, my little Friedel, can you hear me?" His subsequent recording of hundreds of such voices would earn him the title "the Father of EVP." He wrote two books on the subject: Voices from the Universe and Radio Contact with the Dead.
1960s. Juergenson's work came to the attention of a Latvian psychologist named Dr. Konstantin Raudive. At first skeptical, Raudive began his own experiments in 1967. He too recorded the voice of his deceased mother saying, "Kostulit, this is your mother." Kostulit was the boyhood name she always called him. He recorded thousands of EVP voices.
1970s and 1980s. Spiritual researchers George and Jeanette Meek joined forces with psychic William O'Neil and recorded hundreds of hours of EVP recordings using radio oscillators. They allegedly were able to capture conversations with the spirit of Dr. George Jeffries Mueller, a dead university professor and NASA scientist.
1990s to present. EVP continues to be experimented with by a number of individuals, organizations and ghost research societies.
How you can do it
Anyone can experiment with EVP. You don't need expensive equipment, special knowledge or psychic abilities. All you need is a tape recorder, new, previously unused audio tapes, and perhaps a good quantity of patience.
You can try to pick up EVP by recording radio "white noise" or directly by recording sound at a location such as a cemetery or old house.
Most researchers suggest using a cassette recorder that has a remote microphone; that is, one that connects to the recorder by wire. This is preferred to an in-machine condenser microphone on the recorder because it is more likely to pick up motor noises from the recorder itself.
Buy name-brand audiocassettes (not the cheap-o, no-name kind) to ensure quality. Tapes that are labeled "normal" are fine, but many researchers recommend using "high-bias" tapes for best results.
To use the radio method, tune the radio between stations where you can hear only static or "white noise." Be sure there are no distant stations coming through, however faintly. Make sure the room is otherwise quiet with no TV sounds in the background, people talking in the house or other audible distractions.
To use the direct method, take your equipment to the cemetery or other location where you think you might pick up EVP. Make sure the location is as quiet as possible with no traffic noises in the background to interfere with your session.
If your recorder has a counter, reset it to zero.
Begin recording and announce the date, time and location.
Record for a few minutes. Some researchers say you should even announce that you wish to communicate; ask them to speak to you. You can even ask questions every minute or so. Record for a few minutes.
If you're on location, try different spots, keeping a record of where you are and what the counter number is when you begin at that spot.
Later you can listen to your playback and see if you captured any EVP. Rewind the tape, of course, and listen carefully to your sessions. You may need to turn up the volume a bit because the voices can sometimes be faint. You may not succeed the first time. Try it at different times and at various locations. It might take several attempts before you succeed, although there is no guarantee of success.
When you hear what you think might be an EVP voice, make a note of the counter number so you can easily return to it. Listen carefully to what it might be saying. Before you declare it to be an actual EVP, be sure you rule out any other explanation: real voices in the background, radio transmissions, etc. Be skeptical. You want to be as certain as possible that you have a genuine EVP.
Keep a journal of your recordings. Present them or send them to researchers who have experience with EVP for their opinions.
If you succeed and can transfer the recordings to computer format (such as .wav files), you can send them to me via e-mail for inclusion in a future article. It would be very interesting to hear what readers might have picked up. Was the voice familiar? Did it respond to your questions or otherwise seem that it was aware of your presence?
EVP is a fascinating, mysterious phenomenon quite worthy of research and experimentation. Let me know about your results.
 |
