The Technological Possibilities of Ghosts

Have you ever wondered if ghosts are just imagery, in the same sense that you see film cells when the projector starts skipping or is slowed down, or the way the monitor flickers when it's going out?

This is not an original thought; I'd actually been thinking about something similar (because I was having monitor issues) when I saw a meme in a ghost-hunting group positing much the same question, and I returned to the idea of veridical imagery -- the concept that some things are somehow "recorded" in time, and set to playback on certain anniversaries, whenever triggered by events, emotions, memories, or something else in this reality (or at random).

It may suggest multiple realities or dimensions but, if true, we could be reflections of veridical imagery ourselves -- even as we're alive!  Perhaps something that happened in our past lives was emotional or spiritual enough in nature to have made it off the cutting-room floor and is playing in perpetuity even as we discuss it?

This could explain all manner of things, from Green Children to The Lost City of Alaska, and could be electromagnetic in nature (but it certainly doesn't have to be).  There have been, and will continue to be, things that simply escape our knowledge and ability to comprehend.  This could be one of those things -- but, with the advancement of technology clipping along at such a pace, knowing more about these things might be just around the corner.

© The Weirding, 2014-2015

#209 Wingate Hotel, Illinois

© C Harris Lynn, 2013

Enfield Poltergeist Confirmed

Recordings made between 1977 and 1978 during investigations of the world famous Enfield Poltergeist case have proven "unlikely" to be normal in nature, according to a report published in the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research. This is the first time the recordings have been examined in detail against "control" disturbances, in which living humans knocked on the walls and furniture of the home. The nature of the many recorded knocks and rappings have proven different from one another, suggesting some unseen force was, in fact, present at the home.

Journalists, local police officers, neighbors, and others witnessed all manner of phenomena in and around the area at the time of the disturbance. Experiences reported included levitation, unexplained sounds, moving furniture, and visible apparitions. Children's toys were said to be too hot to touch and to have been thrown forcibly across rooms. The phenomenon lasted approximately one year, from 1978 to 1979, but thee may have been a second burst of activity in the 1980s. All told, there were some 30+ witnesses, and several inexplicable encounters and incidents were caught on tape, both audio and visual.

Guy Lyon Playfair, an author who spent two years investigating the case before writing a book on it entitled This House Is Haunted, called the examination of the evidence "the biggest step forward in the last 30 years [for paranormal investigation, and the Enfield case]." Playfair's experiences included feeling cool breezes where there were no natural source, seeing pools of water appear on the floors, objects moving of their own accord, and more. At least one witness, a photographer, claimed to have been physically assaulted -- he claimed a Lego brick hit him in the head.

Possession of one of the young girls in the house was also said to have occurred.

But the Enfield Poltergeist case is also famous for one other things: The girls at the center of the case were caught playing "practical jokes" on the investigators, and admitted to faking some of the phenomena, casting doubt, for some, on the entire case. However, several of the more inexplicable events -- such as moving furniture and a dismantled fireplace -- could not have been achieved by the children.

© C Harris Lynn, 2010

Analysis Proves Poltergeist Knocks Different from 'Real' Knocks

Dr. Barrie Colvin B.Sc., Ph.D. writes, in the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) that poltergeist "raps" (reports, or knocks), a phenomenon almost solely associated with poltergeist hauntings (poltergeist literally means "noisy ghost") are actually different from those made by humans. Dr. Colvin's research involved poltergeist knocks from as far back as 1960 and as recent as 2000, and appear to show significantly different acoustic patterns than those of normal knocks.

Dr. Colvin analyzed 10 different poltergeist knocks recorded on as many different devices, and found the same pattern in each. So far, attempts to replicate the pattern by normal means have failed. Dr. Colvin decided to research the phenomena after witnessing a poltergeist event in Andover, Hampshire, in which he said, "...it was absolutely clear that no normal explanation could account for the observed phenomena."

The research seems to show that the noise generated by poltergeist rapping does not begin as loudly as that of a normal knock; poltergeist knocks seem to grow in sound before reaching their maximum noise, then declining as normal. A normal knock is loudest at the very beginning of the strike.

© C Harris Lynn, 2010

Poltergeist or ESP? Binbrook, Lincolnshire, England

At the turn of the last century, the Reverend A.C. Custance said bizarre things started happening at the rectory in Binbrook, Lincolnshire, England. In December of 1904, the Reverend reported objects began moving of their own accord -- some even caught fire. But it was in January of 1905 that a farmer in Binbrook walked into his kitchen to discover the servant girl sweeping the kitchen, unaware of the flames leaping from her back. He rushed to her aid and smothered the fire, but she was badly burned.

These cases seem to suggest Dæmonic activity, as poltergeists are generally associated with a specific place or person. Poltergeists are also rarely associated with fire but often associated with girls -- specifically, adolescents. Could it be that the servant girl mentioned in the account, recorded by famed Phenomenalist, Charles Fort, also worked, or attended services at, the local rectory and was the source of all the associated phenomenon the small village of Binbrook experienced in the early 1900s? Or was Binbrook perhaps host to a Supernatural entity?

© C Harris Lynn, 2010

The Many Faces of the Bell Witch

This is one of the accounts of the Bell Witch that is often overlooked or underplayed - even I had forgotten about this part of the tale until reading about it earlier:

Some time after the events began, the Bell Witch decided to claim that she was, in fact, Kate Batts' "witch," saying, "It was she, dancing around a pentagram, who conjured me here."

Shortly thereafter, The Spirit claimed to be four, seperate entities: Black Dog (after John Bell's first encounter with the Spirit - the black "dog" he shot at on his property), Cypocryphy, Jerusalem, and Mathematics.

Of these, Black Dog was the most heinous and violent and took charge of the other voices, but according to the school teacher, they were all one and the same. Even though they each were slightly different, they were all strongly feminine in quality.

Sometimes, all four voices would get into "drunken brawls" and alternate. Often, beyond the cacophony, could be heard the sound of pots and pans clanging and dogs barking.

All of this behavior is far beyond what is normally associated with poltergeist activity.

Historical Accuracy and the Bell Witch

I really want to bring you some of the accounts I am coming across as they are written. I mean, it's one thing to tell you the story, but direct quotes are always stronger.

The problem is that these events occurred back in the early 20^th-Century. Things were a lot different back then. And I don't say that to insult anyone's intelligence; I say that to make the point: things were very different back then. Nowadays, the way people talked, the way certain people were treated, the very issues-at-hand, are far from politically correct.

Now, this goes every which way. I mean, it isn't just about white people using "The N-Word." In fact, the very quotes I wanted to bring you are from black people using "The N-Word." But that isn't the extent of it; there is a lot of disparaging talk about Native Americans because these events occurred not long after Red River was settled. Red River has a long and violent history of Indian attacks, which are key to Tennessee's history, and to leave that portion of the story out is detrimental all the way around.

Even more, there are some religious issues as to denomination: John Bell was "excommunicated," or banished, from the local Baptist Church (even though many of the congregation - including the pastors - continued to associate with both him and the family) and began attending the local Methodist chapel. While the specific language involved isn't necessarily derogatory to either denomination, Southern Baptists are... well, it's hard for me to even discuss them without my blood rising. If you are a Southern Baptist who gets drunk and beats his children, you "have problems"; if you are of any other denomination and act the same way, you are "possessed by The Devil." But it isn't just that I worry that my personal issues and experiences with such people will tarnish my coverage, it is also that I would be forced to dredge-up a lot of religious history and personal experiences in order to put things in perspective.

So, I put it to you: how would you prefer I handle these things?

We rarely get comments here - in fact, we don't even get that many visitors, in general - so I don't want to offend anyone. On the other hand, I also don't wish to whitewash this historical event or bow down to self-appointed PC "peace officers."

The story of the Bell Witch really is one of the best-supported cases of an entity infestation in American history. And since I am mere hours from the site where it happened and have access to a host of important information concerning the events, people, places, and history surrounding it, I feel it incumbent upon myself to bring you what I can. But I want to do so the right way: not "tone it down" or modernize it - nor do I wish to sensationalize it.

Of course, I am truly not looking to offend anyone. So I'm a little confused as to where I should go from here.

The Bell Witch: A Revised Introduction

I found yet another book on the Bell Witch the other day - the one on which the movie, American Haunting, was based - and in the introduction, the author notes that while many authors refer to the case as being “world-famous,” it is not as well-known outside the area as those writers claimed. This had never really occurred to me, since the concepts involved have been drawn upon by just about every pop-culture poltergeist-based work I can think of.

Poltergeist used the whole Indian burial ground concept; King Diamond (who is not even American) has made at least 3-4 albums based on the case; parts of the account can be found throughout several books on American history (usually in relation to Andrew Jackson’s encounter); and so on. But this doesn’t make the case “world famous.” Of course, being born and raised in Tennessee, I have always heard of the case and, as the author said, a lot of writers who have covered the events have said it was world famous, so I guess it was somewhere between an assumption and misinformation that led me to simply accept this was the case.

Being better-informed now, I suppose I need to go back and restate the general story so that everyone has some idea why this whole thing is so important. I also realize that a cursory history of Tennessee is in order for you to get a good understanding of all the concepts involved - particularly the Indians, Red River, and so forth.

Of course, whether world-famous or not, the case has gotten ample coverage by many better writers and researchers, but the facts remain that many of them either distorted accounts or downplayed them for various reasons; some people fictionalized certain facets of the story in order to sensationalize them, while others tried desperately to “explain-away” the phenomena so as to remain “trustworthy.”

My intentions are to get as much of the story correct as I can, working from the various sources on the topic itself, along with the myriad local history resources I have at my disposal, being in the area. This is especially important in this time and age, as so many people became interested in Genealogy recently, so a lot of other “independent researchers” have done much of the important work for me.

Suffice it to say, the Bells, the Gardners, Adams, TN, the Red River, and many of the other facts involved can be readily verified. And regardless of what parts of the story have been sensationalized or fictionalized, a thorough reading of the available materials is going to give me a very good idea as to what exactly happened. But I’m not fooling myself; between the Bells’ and neighbors’ reluctance to discuss the subject, the many years that have passed since it happened, and the facts having become occluded by their passing into folklore and campfire stories, we will never know exactly what happened in those terrible years.

But being so close to the location of this historical, and truly Supernatural, event, I would be remiss not to take advantage of this opportunity to delve into one of the most celebrated hauntings of all time.

Ghost of Guy and Gus, The Nazi

These two accounts seem to fall into the Poltergeist category, and I thought I would post them in order that they might be used to further the categorization and division discussion with which I have recently been involved (with myself, but maybe one day, someone will comment).

One of the earliest and best documented "spirit voice" cases in Europe is that of Guy from the year, 1323. In the town of Alais, Provence, a spirit voice was heard in a private home, shortly after the owner, one Guy de Torno, died. The disturbance was so noisome that it brought four friars from the local priory who are said to have actually held a conversation with the ghost. After eight days, they claimed the voice had told them the only way it could be released from haunting its former home is if they said 100 Masses for his soul. After doing so, the voice disappeared and did not return. Some insist that de Torno's widow, who was said to be unstable, may have fooled the townspeople and friars through ventriloquism, but my problem with this is very simple: she would have been called a witch (even though this predates witch-burning slightly) and, if she (or really anyone else) had done this for attention, why would they suddenly stop? Why not continue the ruse? If not doing it for attention, then why do it at all? The only other possible explanation would be that the widow thought her husband a wicked man and, being unstable, thought this the best way to put his soul to rest. But... eight days? Occam's Razor itself insists this was a real haunting.

The other story I liked because it is an actual German poltergeist (poltergeist is German for "noisy ghost") and was first reported in Bavaria in 1949. "Gus the Nazi" took exception to German women who fraternized with Allied forces and threw things at them, even tipped them from their beds! In one account, he is said to have cropped the hair of a girl in front of her parents!

Blows Invisible

In continuing on the theories I've advanced as to Elemental Manifestations, I wanted to discuss the real dividing line between what I would consider "mischievous" behavior and that which is downright maleficent. And to this, I bring some accounts of inexplicable attacks on human beings by forces Unknown, referred to as "Invisibles" by some.

In their seminal book, Phenomena: A Book of Wonders, authors John Michell and Robert Rickard begin discussing the Invisible with accounts of hair-stealing. While originally thought to be localized to China, they discuss a short outbreak of similar events in London in December 1922. In some cases, the hair was said to disappear as soon as it was cut and the victims claimed to have felt their hair "being pulled."

While certainly injurious to the victims' appearance and ego, with very few exceptions, these attacks were not actually physically harmful, and so cannot be completely deemed "maleficent" or Evil. On the other hand, they are congruent with other activity reported to surround Elemental Manifestations and thus hint to me that they are no mere hauntings. Hair plays an important part in many Occult practices and rituals and has held a sort of mystical quality since Biblical times or before (Samson and Delilah).

But in this same discussion, the authors mention the bizarre events surrounding spontaneous wounds - some of which are said to be deadly to the victims. The most interesting of these involves the reported activity surrounding Coventry Street in London in April, 1922. A man was brought in with a stab wound to his neck, but all he could tell the doctors was that he had been walking along Coventry Street and, when he turned off of it, he had fallen to the ground. By the end of the day, two more men with the same wounds and the same story were admitted. The report was given in The People, April 1922.

In further posts, we will discuss more about Elementals, what they are and how they may come to be created. Assuming this report to be true and not - as it could be posited - an April Fool's joke, this is an Elemental that can be classified as a "Hate." Created by Evil thoughts when an Evil man is murdered, the Hate is said to seek revenge for its creator's death. This is a True Elemental, borne from the mind of Man, formed by Evil and angry thoughts, desires, hopes, or feelings. The advent of the man's death by murder is said to create such a spirit form.

But, again, given the fact that it appeared in a magazine in April and the events have not been repeated since, it may have been an April Fool's Day prank (they were pretty popular around that time). The number three is important in many branches of the Occult.

Prescience in Spiritual Manifestation

The act of prescience (which probably should be capitalized, but isn't because Elite Caps are so... Elite) is the foretelling of the future. While all of what I'm about to be say needs to be qualified (and will be), let me first point out that prescience in a human being with ESP (often called a "psychic," but sometimes called things like "prophet" in religious circles) almost always comes and goes in certain patterns - indiscernible as yet except amongst those who feel them, and completely misunderstood even by them.

Most people who are blessed/cursed with ESP have prescient visions, notions, dreams, or other immeasurable (currently) experiences which have almost nothing to do with truly important events. You might feel a damning sense of Deja-vu while ordering a drink, for example: you feel that, if you order a beer instead of a Coke, a fight will break out, but you feel powerless to stop the fight no matter what you order and you really wanted to order a beer, so you order a beer anyway and then a fight breaks out - just like you "remembered" and you feel responsible. You aren't. Such seemingly innocuous events do not have a greater "Butterfly Effect" across all of history; you are fine. You wanted a beer and you bought one; those schlubs were going to fight, anyway. This is what the Secular World refers to as Hallucinatory.

Do not EVER take drugs from someone who is paid to give them to you.

When prescience is involved with paranormal activity, it is always due to some spiritual presence. Always.

This is what separates "psychokinesis" from "telekinesis" in ESP, but the division cannot truly be made in living things. And thus, should not be in dead ones: if any spirit - living or dead - can move things without obvious physical means, it is doing so by its very sheer force of Will, not its mind, and is possessed of kinetic energy projection. You can call it KEP, if you want; I do. Only living beings employ deceptive methods to fool investigative attempts; dead things can just move stuff.

Whether or not it uses its own sheer force of will ("psycho"-kinesis) or uses its mental acumen or ability to force its will on disconnected spirits which perform its bidding, the end results are the same and that's all we can measure because that's all we can actually... like MEASURE, gentlemen; if a spirit, living or dead, can move an(y) object(s) without visible means of support, it is possessed of the ability we call KEP. Further, true KEP is not done slowly; it happens very quickly - sometimes within the blink of an eye. Film of things moving slowly over the course of several hours is usually faked - at the very least, it is rarely caused by KEP.

True Prescience - the matter of literally knowing about future events as opposed to predicting them - is an Elemental secret. If a human possesses this ability, it may be a matter of Possession. But being "possessed" does not mean that the spirit manifestation is necessarily Evil: it does not mean that it is malefic, mercurial, Elemental, or even Apparent; the cat what is possessed may very well have the sixth sense (ESP), and may have given over control to spiritual influence. This is dangerous and should be downplayed and discouraged but not condemned; there are "automatic mediums" and places and spirits of great power. Being "possessed" cannot always be avoided by those with ESP.

BUT we're talking about prescience, aren't we? In living things, none of these disciplines should be divided; it is all ESP. In dead things, the question is to whether or not it is a matter of Poltergeist or Elemental activity - further (ONLY within investigative matters and peoples; NEVER, EVER tell media outlets), Daemonic or Natural - and prescience is not present within any spirits except those what have not lived, kids.

More on Elementals

I know I've gone on about this lately, but I have had this train of thought going for a long time now and either had problems posting (like this weekend) or kept putting it off, so I figured I'd go ahead and get most everything I have on my mind about it out now, while it's still fresh and then worry about what else I have to say another day (besides, I'll have Ghost Hunters to talk about tomorrow):

Keep in mind that the word "demon" comes from Elemental, so I posit that we refer to these hauntings in general as Elemental Manifestations, but within the investigative community, we make a clear distinction between those hauntings which feature mercurial personalities and those that feature malefic ones.

This has nothing to do with the actual phenomena present; prescience, clairvoyance, telekinetic activity - these abilities may very well be the sole domain of one or the other force, but that is not the question. All we are concerned with is whether or not the force is Evil or not, and that's not to say that it cannot be mischievous or even callous from time to time, just to say that if the activity is mean-spirited and dangerous in general, it is Dæmonic activity. A phenomenon such as the Duenda de Zaragoza is Elemental (by all accounts I've read) in nature, for example.

Still, I think it important that the name be specifically changed to Elemental Infestation as opposed to Demonic for the general public's sake. It takes the religious connotations out of the word.