The Most Horrific EVP Ever Recorded

IN JANUARY 2007, the Central New York Ghost Hunters (CNYGH), based in Syracuse, New York, were invited to investigate an old hotel in upstate New York. (The owners of the hotel have asked to keep its location confidential.) The investigation proved to be one of the most intensely active the group has ever encountered, and produced an EVP – an electronic voice phenomena recording – that is remarkable not only for its length, but also for its terrifying content.
It may well be the most intense, frightening EVP ever recorded.

THE INVESTIGATION

On that weekend in January, CNYGH founder Stacey Jones and several members of the group went to the hotel on an overnight stay for what they thought would be a routine investigation. They had no idea what they were in for.
Originally built in the late 1800s, the building was in its colorful history the site of some nefarious activity, a fact that might be key to what is heard in the EVP.
On Friday night, Stacey and her group set up their equipment – audio recorders, video recorders and other electronics – and settled in, hoping to document some evidence for the haunting the owners had claimed. Most investigations are relatively quiet, but this night was filled with paranormal activity, including muffled voices of unknown origin, footsteps from unseen bodies and more. Members of the group I spoke with confirmed that it was the most active haunting they had personally experienced.
The real shocker came the next day. On Saturday afternoon at about 3 p.m., two female CNYGH investigators and a member of the owner's family (also a female) sat on the staircase of the hotel with a digital voice recorder, intending to capture some EVP. They chose the stairway because they had heard soft conversations and footsteps on the floor above, although no one was up there.
When they later played the recording back, however, what they heard were not soft voices and footsteps, but something totally unexpected and completely terrifying.

THE EVP: WHAT YOU'LL HEAR

Stacey Jones describes what you'll hear on the recording:
"You can [faintly] hear the three females talking throughout the recording. You will hear a female – the family member – say, 'Hello, baby,' and another long conversation. Those are all human voices. But what sounds like a struggle or attack is going on as well.
"The male [voice] you hear was not present at the hotel. You will hear a cuckoo clock (which was not present) a ticking of a hall clock (which was there); you will hear what sounds like the microphone being moved (which was not touched) and then the sound becomes clearer.
"You will hear a creaking door and slamming of the door, which is real. Then you will hear a [unknown] woman say, 'Get off me,' and what sounds like the woman being attacked. The struggle continues for awhile, and during the EVP you can hear some of my investigators' conversations. After interviewing my investigators, they said they went and sat on the stairs of this hotel, because they heard from an above floor, what sounded like footsteps and conversations, not what you hear on this recording. When the noises stop, you hear the investigators participate in a lulled conversation. They stated that they started to talk when the noises stopped. In their conversation, you will hear a male voice say, 'Help me' several times."

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE EVP RECORDING

Caution: the recording is violent and may be too intense for some listeners.

"The EVP has not been altered in any way, except it was edited for time," Stacey says. "CNY Ghost Hunters have tried to reduce the noise, amplify and 'clean' it up, but found it difficult to make out exactly what was being said."

If you have heard the recording, what do you make of it?

Possessed by 3 Demons

A teenage girl's interest in the occult draws her into a dark vortex of evil and possession

Ouija boards... demons... possession... Satanism.... The words themselves strike fear in the hearts of many people - especially those with strong religious beliefs. Danielle is one of those people, yet in the span of a month, the curiosity of her youth drew her away from her church to what her faith would call the dark side. And the results, according to her sworn testimony below, would be devastating and terrifying.

Non-believers would say that Danielle's experience was strictly psychological in nature, a product of her deep-seated religious belief system. Believers, however, assert that everything she went through - and is going through - is all too real: that demons really are out there, waiting to possess the innocent.

Whether it is real or not is in some respects irrelevant. Danielle believes it to be real, and so its effects on her life are real. This is Danielle's story....
 
"This took place in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada at Springs Church. It all started around March, 2011 when I took up an interest in demonology. It didn't take long until the study had converted me from a Christian to a full-out Satanist. I had started attempting to summon demons and I never got a sign there was one there, so I bought a Ouija board.

On April 8, I used it to see if my promised Guardian Demon was there, and I remember the whole thing word for word, and here's how it went:

Me: Is there anyone else in this room with me who wishes to speak with me?

Ouija: YES.

Me: Holy **** ! Are you good or bad?

Ouija: B.

Me: Ok.... Will you do anything to harm me or anyone?

Ouija: MAYBE.

Me: Alright then, how many spirits are here?

Ouija: 3.

Me: Okay, what are your names?

Ouija: BELIAL MALPHAS LEGION.

I thought perhaps it was just my imagination, so I decided to quit. Right as I was about to leave, I heard loud hissing from all around me, and it wouldn't stop until my good friend Kaitlyn arrived. So we decided to go to NURV (the Springs Church youth ministry). It was raining and I kept seeing orange auras.

When we got there, I didn't go in. It felt like a huge time gap, because before I knew it, I was inside the Christ session and I was choking. It felt like something was trying to come out of me. I also remember my friend Kaitlyn praying, but my choking was so bad I couldn't hear anything or anyone.

I was rushed to a secluded area, and then I felt a humongous rush of energy. I couldn't talk or anything, and I felt the time gap again. I remember battling the orange aura and then another time gap. It seemed like forever, and when I felt my consciousness slowly come back, I screamed, "Get out of me!" And then the choking ceased.

But I didn't know if the demon was gone. I didn't know I had three. A girl told me I had experienced "demon evocation" and assured me it was gone. Then the priest began reciting words from the Bible and I felt the orange aura surge again. Time gaps happened again.

My friend had voice recorded the session, but when I listened I couldn't hear the John, the exorcist, talking, but instead only my screaming and a hissing. Here's what I could make out:

John: Tell me, demon, what is your name?

Me/demon: I am 28!

John: In the name of the holy son Jesus Christ, tell me your name!

Demon: Ano 28!

John and Phil: In the name of Jesus Christ, I command you to tell me your name!

Demon: I am Belial! One of the Four Crowns and chief of 80 legions of spirits!

John and Phil: (inaudible)

Demon: I will not leave! This girl has repented the worthless and vile son!

John: (inaudible)

Demon: If you can shut up with this religious sh- for one minute, I'll let her go!

Kaitlyn: No, Belial, you have no right to be in this girl, and Jesus Christ, son of God commands you to leave!

Then I heard them chanting Latin and English and then covered by my scream. I then had enough time to yell something. "GET OUT OF MEEEEEEEEE!"

My choking stopped and I burst out crying. Then Kaitlyn told me it was all done, but I felt another power. It was the other demon, Malphas. The exorcism went almost the same, but he actually left. The last one was a Legion, and it's still in me, as well as Belial.

Tomorrow I am heading for my fourth exorcism, and hopefully my last. Possession is not a joke, nor should it be taken lightly. It was the most terrifying and painful experience ever."

What do you make of this incident? Was Danielle really possessed by 3 demons? Or was she just having some sort of psychotic break?

Ghost Girl Caught on Tape : Real or Fake?

This video, recorded by a guy named Mark Apsolon, can be found on youtube. His description of the video is:

"The video documents new paranormal activity that has started at my residence. In the video I heard the ghostly footage steps during recording and saw the door slam. However it was not until I played back the video tape that I saw the ghost of the little girl. The ghost of the little girl appears and disappears during the taping. Since this recording more has happened and I will record it to document this paranormal activity."

The question to be asked is whether the footage is real or just some mere prank being played?

Surviving a Poltergeist

When your family is the victim of the unseen forces of a poltergeist, the solution might surprise you.

KNOCKS ON WALLS, objects thrown about by unseen hands, furniture moved around by the invisible, water dripping inexplicably from ceilings where no pipes are hidden, even small fires breaking out. These are classic manifestations of what has become known as poltergeist activity.

As the word itself implies (poltergeist translated from the German means "noisy ghost") such manifestations were long thought to be the mischievous pranks of spirits or, more frightening, the malevolent works of demons. Most researchers today, however, theorize that poltergeist activity is not the work of spirits (either impish or evil) at all. Thanks largely to the work of parapsychologist William G. Roll in the 1950s and '60s, they are now commonly understood to be psychokinetic manifestations produced by living persons. (Psychokinesis refers to things being moved solely by the power of the mind.)

RSPK

Roll called it "recurrent spontaneous psychokinesis" or RSPK and found that the paranormal activity could almost always be traced to a person, clinically labeled an "agent." This agent, although a victim of the puzzling and sometimes frightening activity, is unaware that he or she is actually the cause of it. By some mechanism that is still not understood, the activity arises out of the unconscious or subconscious of the individual in response to emotional stress or trauma.

So little is really known about the human brain and mind, but somehow the psychological stresses suffered by this agent produce effects in the surrounding physical world: pounding on the walls of a house, a book flying off a shelf, glowing orbs zipping across a room, heavy furniture sliding across the floor - perhaps even audible voices. In some rare cases the manifestations can turn violent, producing scratches on skin, shoves and slaps. So powerful is the unconscious mind under stress.

One possible and famous historical case is that of The Bell Witch from the early 19th century. This was a case of severe poltergeist phenomena that centered around young Betsy Bell. The activity, then attributed to a "witch", threw things around the Bell home, moved furniture, and pinched and slapped the children, according to eyewitnesses. Betsy Bell appears to have been the agent in this instance. It has been suggested (although never proved) in two films about the case - The Bell Witch Haunting and An American Haunting - that Betsy was under profound emotional stress brought about by sexual abuse from her father, John Bell. It's interesting to note that John Bell became a special victim of the "witch", who was blamed for his sickness and death. Was this a case of Betsy's unconscious exacting revenge?

HOW COMMON IS IT?

Poltergeist agents are very often adolescents, but not always. It seems true that some adolescents under the combined stresses of growing up and the hormonal changes occurring during puberty can produce poltergeist activity, but adults under stress can be agents as well - especially, perhaps, if they have unresolved stresses from childhood.

It is unknown how common poltergeist activity is. Certainly, remarkable cases in which household objects are tossed about are relatively rare. But those are the cases that get attention and are documented simply because they are remarkable, especially if the activity persists over many days, weeks or months. There may be many more cases, however, that occur just once or on rare occasions to people. A child furious with his parents storms into his room and a picture flies off the wall. A couple having a heated argument is interrupted by a pot inexplicably falling to the floor. These and a thousand other possible scenarios could be taking place all the time to temporary poltergeist agents, but are dismissed as coincidence or with some other rational explanation. (Indeed, in many instances it might be just coincidence or have another rational explanation; the point is, we don't know.)

MANY DOCUMENTED CASES

There is ample documentation that poltergeist activity does take place, in various levels of severity and for various lengths of time. Many cases have been documented by such researchers as Hans Holzer, Brad Steiger and others (their books are available in libraries and bookstores), and I have recounted a few notable cases in my articles, "Poltergeists: Three Famous Cases" and "The Terrifying Amherst Poltergeist". Readers have submitted stories of their poltergeist experiences as well, and you can find many of them here.

So if you have poltergeist activity in your home, what should you do?

DO YOU HAVE A POLTERGEIST?

How about you? Are you experiencing poltergeist activity in your home? If so, what can you do about it?

First, you must be as certain as you can be that the poltergeist activity is genuine. Don't look for paranormal drama where there is none. Perhaps there was a logical reason the picture fell off the wall when Billy stormed into his room: he slammed the door pretty hard. Try as best you can to find reasonable explanations for the activity. If reason and logic fail, and especially if the activity is consistent and persistent, you may have a case.

In the past and even today, people react to poltergeist activity by calling the clergy, an exorcist, a psychic or a paranormal investigator. Can you blame them? After all, some unseen force is pounding on their walls and throwing their hardcover copy of The Secret around the living room. They do so because the movies and spooky novels have told them that ghosts or demons must be responsible.

If we realize that the activity arises out of a family member's unconscious, however, and could very well have a stress-induced psychological genesis, then the priests or ministers, exorcists and ghost hunters probably are not the right folks to call.

It may well be true that clergy, exorcists and ghost hunters have been helpful to poltergeist victims. After their visits and subsequent rituals, the unexplained activity might have lessened or disappeared. But why? Because the ghosts were banished or the demons exorcised? More likely, it's because the comfort brought by these people alleviated the stress the agent was feeling. In other words, it worked because the agent believed it would work.

In other cases, however, bringing in these types of people can backfire. A well-meaning clergyperson who blames the devil for everything or a bumbling "exorcist" could only add to the stress of the agent, especially if the agent is an impressionable child who is ill-equipped to handle the idea that there is a malevolent spirit in the house or that a demon is lurking about - or that they themselves are possessed! Such irresponsible suggestions could elevate the stress and therefore the poltergeist activity.

SURVIVING A POLTERGEIST

If poltergeist phenomena are stress-induced, there are better courses of action.

People get stressed out over all kinds of things; sometimes serious, sometimes trivial things. If the activity seems mild and harmless, it might be best to wait it out. Research has shown that most recurring poltergeist activity lasts only a few weeks. In rare cases it can last a year to 18 months or so. And in the vast majority of instances the phenomena are harmless: lights going on and off, toilets flushing, things being moved around the house, etc.

If the activity is severe, annoying or you just want it to stop, the first thing to do is try to determine who the agent might be. Who in the household is exhibiting signs of stress? There are many causes of stress, of course, and there's no reason to assume that anything as serious as the Betsy and John Bell case is taking place. But stress from any source is a serious matter, as it can lead to loss of sleep and health problems, among other negative effects; recurring poltergeist activity is a relatively rare and extreme effect.

Professional counseling or therapy for the stressed individual could be the answer. The person might be experiencing something that is causing extreme emotional stress, or they might not know how to cope with the common stresses we all face with school, jobs and relationships. A trained therapist can help talk through any issues with which the agent is struggling.

Again, recurring poltergeist phenomena are relatively rare, and we don't really know how our deep emotions can work through the unconscious to produce psychokinetic effects. And we don't know why it happens to some people and not others when all are under identical forms of stress. However, this is one from of unexplained phenomena that is more prudently examined and treated by a conventional therapist rather than a psychic or exorcist.

Reincarnation : Is it really true?

Is there good evidence for reincarnation? Researchers say yes.

HAVE YOU LIVED BEFORE? The concept of reincarnation -- that our souls may experience many lifetimes over centuries, maybe even thousands of years -- has been present in virtually every culture since ancient times. The Egyptians, Greeks, Romans and Aztecs all believed in the "transmigration of souls" from one body to another after death. It's a fundamental precept of Hinduism.

Although reincarnation is not a part of official Christian doctrine, many Christians believe in it or at least accept its possibility. (Jesus, it is believed, was reincarnated three days after his crucifixion.) That's not at all surprising; the idea that after death we can live again as another person -- maybe as the opposite sex or in a completely different station in life -- is intriguing and, for many people, highly appealing.

Is there any truth to it, however? Is reincarnation just an idea, a fantasy? Or is there real evidence to support it? Here's some of the best evidence available, gathered by researchers who, in some cases, have devoted their lives to the subject. Examine it, then decide for yourself.

PAST LIFE REGRESSION HYPNOSIS

The practice of reaching past lives through hypnosis is controversial, primarily because hypnosis is not a reliable tool. Hypnosis can certainly help reach the unconscious mind, but the information found there is not reliable as truth. It has been shown that the practice can create false memories. That doesn't mean, however, that regression hypnosis should be dismissed out of hand. If the past life information can be verified through research, the case for reincarnation can be considered more seriously.
 
The most famous case of past life regression through hypnosis is that of Ruth Simmons. In 1952, her therapist, Morey Bernstein, took her back past the point of her birth. Suddenly, Ruth began to speak with an Irish accent and claimed that her name was Bridey Murphy, who lived in 19th century Belfast, Ireland. Ruth recalled many details of her life as Bridey, but, unfortunately, attempts to find out if Ms. Murphy really existed were unsuccessful. There was, however, some indirect evidence for the truth of her story: under hypnosis, Bridey mentioned the names of two grocers in Belfast from whom she bought food, Mr. Farr and John Carrigan. A Belfast librarian found a city directory for 1865-1866 that listed both men as grocers. Her story was told both in a book by Bernstein and in a 1956 movie, The Search for Bridey Murphy.

ILLNESSES AND PHYSICAL AILMENTS

Do you have a life-long illness or physical pain that you cannot account for? Their roots could be in some past life trauma, some researchers suspect.
 
In "Have We Really Lived Before?", Michael C. Pollack, Ph.D., CCHT describes his lower back pain, which grew steadily worse over the years and limited his activities. He believes he found out a possible reason during a series of past life therapy sessions: "I discovered that I had lived at least three prior lifetimes in which I had been killed by being knifed or speared in the low back. After processing and healing the past life experiences my back began to heal."
    
Research conducted by Nicola Dexter, a past life therapist, has discovered correlations between illnesses and past lives in some of her patients, including: a bulimia sufferer who swallowed salt water in a previous life; a fear of indoor heights caused by carving the ceiling of a church and being killed by falling to the floor; a persistent problem in the shoulder and the arm area having been caused by participating in a tug of war which injured the same arm; a fear of razors and shaving was found to have its root cause in another lifetime where the client had chopped off someone's fingers with a sword and then as retribution had his entire hand cut off.

PHOBIAS AND NIGHTMARES

Where does seemingly irrational fear come from? Fear of heights, fear of water, of flying? Many of us have normal reservations about such things, but some people have fears so great that they become debilitating. And some fears are completely baffling -- a fear of carpets, for example. Where do such fears come from? The answer, of course, can be psychologically complex, but researchers think that in some cases there might be a connection to a previous life.
 
At "Healing Past Lives through Dreams", author J.D. tells of his claustrophobia and a tendency to panic when his arms and legs were confined or restricted in any way. He believes that a dream of a past life uncovered a trauma from a past life that explained this fear. "One night in the dream state I found myself hovering over a disturbing scene," he writes. "It was a town in fifteenth-century Spain, and a frightened man was being hog-tied by a small jeering crowd. He had expressed beliefs contrary to the church. Some local ruffians, with the blessing of the church officials, were eager to administer justice. The men bound the heretic hand and foot, then wrapped him very tightly in a blanket. The crowd carried him to an abandoned stone building, shoved him into a dark corner under the floor, and left him to die. I realized with horror the man was me."

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE

In his book Someone Else's Yesterday, Jeffrey J. Keene theorizes that a person in this life can strongly resemble the person he or she was in a previous life. Keene, an Assistant Fire Chief who lives in Westport, Connecticut, believes he is the reincarnation of John B. Gordon, a Confederate General of the Army of Northern Virginia, who died on January 9 1904. As evidence, he offers photos of himself and the general -- and, indeed, there is a striking resemblance. Beyond physical similarities, Keene says that "they think alike, look alike and even share facial scars. Their lives are so intertwined that they appear to be one."

Another case is that of artist Peter Teekamp, who believes he could be the reincarnation of artist Paul Gauguin. Here, too, there is a physical resemblence and similarities in their work as well.

CHILDREN'S SPONTANEOUS RECALL AND SPECIAL KNOWLEDGE

Many small children who claim to recall past lives express thoughts, describe specific actions and environments, and even know foreign languages -- none of which they could know or have learned from their present experiences. Many cases like this are documented in Carol Bowman's Children's Past Lives:
 
Eighteen-month-old Elsbeth had never spoken a complete sentence. But one evening, as her mother was bathing her, Elsbeth spoke up and gave her mother a shock. "I'm going to take my vows," she told her mother. Taken aback, she questioned the baby girl about her queer statement. "I'm not Elsbeth now," the child replied. "I'm Rose, but I'm going to be Sister Teresa Gregory." She later described her nun's habit in detail as well as her daily chores at the convent.    

When little Tommy was about five years old, a button from his pants had popped off. When his mother didn't sew it back on right away, Tommy found her needle and thread and did the job himself. "[He] sewed that button on so expertly that I couldn't believe it," his mother said. "I had never taught him to sew and he had never even seen me do it." When she asked how he knew how to do that, Tommy relied, "Well, we used to do it on my ship all of the time." He then related details of his previous life as a sailor.

HANDWRITING

Can past lives be proved by comparing the handwriting of a living person and the deceased person he or she claims to have been? Indian researcher Vikram Raj Singh Chauhan believes so. Chauhan has undertaken a study of this possibility, and his findings have been received favorably at the National Conference of Forensic Scientists at Bundelkhand University, Jhansi.
 
A six-year-old boy named Taranjit Singh from the village of Alluna Miana, India, claimed since he was two that he had been a person named Satnam Singh. This other boy had lived in the village of Chakkchela, Taranjit insisted, and even knew Satnam's father's name. He had been killed while riding his bike home from school. An investigation verified the many details Taranjit knew of his previous life as Satnam. But the clincher was that their handwriting -- a trait experts know is as distinct as fingerprints -- was virtually identical.

BIRTHMARKS AND BIRTH DEFECTS

Dr. Ian Stevenson, head of the Department of Psychiatric Medicine at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville, Virginia, is one of the foremost researchers and authors on the subject of reincarnation and past lives. In 1993, he wrote a paper entitled "Birthmarks and Birth Defects Corresponding to Wounds on Deceased Persons" as possible physical evidence for past lives. "Among 895 cases of children who claimed to remember a previous life (or were thought by adults to have had a previous life)," Stevenson writes, "birthmarks and/or birth defects attributed to the previous life were reported in 309 (35%) of the subjects. The birthmark or birth defect of the child was said to correspond to a wound (usually fatal) or other mark on the deceased person whose life the child said it remembered."

But could any of these cases be verified?
 
In one fascinating case, an Indian boy claimed to remember the life of a man named Maha Ram, who was killed with a shotgun fired at close range. This boy had an array of birthmarks in the center of his chest that looked like they could possibly correspond to a shotgun blast. So the story was checked out. Indeed, there was a man named Maha Ram who was killed by a shotgun blast to the chest. An autopsy report recorded the man's chest wounds -- which corresponded directly with the boy's birthmarks.
A man from Thailand claimed that when he was a child he had distinct memories of a past life -- as his own paternal uncle. This man had a large scar-like birthmark on the back of his head. His uncle, it turns out, died from a severe knife wound to that very part of his head.

Is it really possible that the life we are living now, isn't the only one that we have lived?

The River of Lost Souls

In the days when Spain ruled the Western country, an infantry regiment was ordered out from Santa Fe, New Mexico to open communication with Florida and to carry a chest of gold for the payment of the soldiers in St. Augustine. The men wintered on the site of Trinidad, Colorado, comforted by the society of their wives and families. In the spring, the women and camp-followers were directed to remain, while the troops set forward along the canyon of the Purgatoire River -- neither to reach their destination nor to return. Did they attempt to descend the stream in boats and go to wreck among the rapids? Were they swept into eternity by a freshet? Did they lose their provisions and starve in the desert? Did the Indians revenge themselves for brutality and selfishness by slaying them at night or from an ambush? Were they killed by banditti? Did they sink in the quick sands that led the river into subterranean canals?

 None will ever know, perhaps; but many years afterward an Indian told a priest in Santa Fe that the regiment had been surrounded by Indians, as George Custer's command was in Montana, and slain, to a man. Seeing that escape was hopeless, the colonel -- so said the narrator--had buried the gold that he was transporting. Thousands of doubloons are believed to be hidden in the canon, and thousands of dollars have been spent in searching for them.

 After weeks had lapsed into months and months into years, and no word came of the missing regiment, the priests named the river El Rio de las Animas Perdidas--the River of Lost Souls. The echoing of the flood as it tumbled through the canyon was said to be the lamentation of the troopers. French trappers softened the suggestion of the Spanish title when they renamed it Purgatoire, and -- "bullwhackers" teaming across the plains twisted the French title into the unmeaning "Picketwire." But, Americo-Spaniards keep alive the tradition, and the prayers of many have ascended and do ascend for the succor of those who vanished so strangely in the valley of Las Animas.

What could have been the reason? Nobody knows the answer to this question and the mystery of the river still remains..!!

The 6 Terrifying Tales of Halloween

IS HALLOWEEN just a delightful holiday for dressing up, parties and candy? Or is it really a time when restless spirits are allowed to roam more freely among the living? Is the veil that separates our world from the world of the dead more transparent at this time of year? People report paranormal phenomena at all times of the year, of course. But there’s something about Halloween night that heightens the senses and, perhaps, connects us more readily to forces unexplained. Consider these seven chilling true stories of Halloween frights.

EVIL IN THE ATTIC

Attics can be scary places... maybe even more so around Halloween time. Take it from Eve, who as a young girl ventured into her attic alone in search of costumes. “My mum and sister went to my neighbor's house, leaving me alone in the house,” says Eve. “It was about 4:30 and already beginning to get dark. I took that opportunity to sneak upstairs into the attic to try on some Halloween stuff. I quickly ran up the steps, knowing that if my mum came back and caught me, I would be in deep trouble. Although all the windows were shut, I felt a cold breeze pass through me, but I thought nothing of it at first because I had had no past experiences of paranormal phenomena.”

Eve rummaged through the bag of Halloween costumes and pulled out a witch’s hat, which she tried on for size. Almost immediately, some unseen force hit the hat. She dropped the bag and quickly turned around, but found nothing against which she could have knocked the hat. “As I bent down to pick up the bag, I saw the handle to the bathroom door turn and the door rapidly opened,” Eve says. “I walked cautiously into the bathroom, wondering what had caused the door to open in such a way. I had a feeling that there was another presence in the room. I looked out of the window to check if my mother and sister were still outside, and sure enough they were. Just as I was about to turn away form the window, I saw the reflection of the cupboard door sliding open. I turned around hastily to try and see what was causing these incidents, but I wasn't quick enough to catch whatever it was.”

Terrified, Eve threw the bag back into the cardboard box and ran downstairs and out into the front garden, waiting anxiously for her mum to return home. “That night, I had a nightmare about what might have followed if I had stayed up there any longer,” Eve says. “Evil, gleaming red eyes stared at me from the bathroom cupboard, locking me in the toilet and causing complete havoc all around the house. Several unexplainable things have happened up there since then, including ‘self-breaking’ objects.”

What was it, besides her own equilibrium, that Eve disturbed in that attic that evening?

THE PHANTOM'S CAR

It was Halloween evening 1995 when Pamela and her brother were heading home on a country road near Greenbelt, Maryland. At the time, I was not licensed to drive, so as usual my brother was the driver. As it was darkening, Pamela reckons that they were moving at about 25-30 mph on the two-lane road, with her brother at the wheel.

Suddenly appearing behind them, and approaching quickly, was a black vehicle with two large, round and glaringly bright headlights. Almost as quickly, the car was beside them on the left, as if trying to pass. But, Pamela says, it seemed that the old black car was floating rather than riding the pavement. “This old car was in the path of head-on traffic,” Pamela recalls. “It seemed like those other cars kept going without interruption. My brother and I looked over inside the car and there were four young teenagers, two young men and two young ladies.”

Strangely, they looked to be dressed in farm clothing from the 1930s or 1940s – and they all looked as white as ghosts. The young lady in the front passenger turned her head slowly to Pamela and her brother and smiled, then turned back. The two people in the back seat just stared. Then, inexplicably, the car floated past them... and vanished into thin air.

But that’s not the end of this ghost story. “In 1997, my brother and I were on the same road, around the same time, again coming home,” Pamela says, “and the same spirits appeared and repeated the same scene. In 1998, my brother was alone driving home on this road and the same ghosts appeared again, repeating the same scenario.

“Maybe these teens were going out on Halloween and got into some terrible accident. They are clearly stuck on this road driving! God rest their souls!”
 
THE VOICE IN BLOOD CEMETRY

At Halloween, many people test their bravery by venturing into dark cemeteries. Sarah and her husband, who had always been fascinated by the unknown, decided to do just that on the Halloween night of 2002. It was an experience, she says, that changed her life.

“We chose Blood Cemetery in Mukwanago, Wisconsin,” Sarah tells us. “I think it goes by a different name now, but the Blood family was the first African American family in that town, and they are buried in that cemetery near a statue of a book on a pillar.”

Sarah’s husband used to live in that town and often heard tales of supernatural events occurring in the cemetery. This got Sarah’s juices flowing, so armed with a camera, two flashlights and an audio recording device, they headed into the tiny cemetery.

“We headed for the Blood monument first,” she says. “After waiting around in vain for the Blood family to show themselves, we did a little walking around. We were about 48 feet away from the Blood monument when something made me turn around and look back at it. I saw what appeared to be a giant blue orb. It was about the size and shape of a human head, and about that far off the ground. I didn't look long enough to make out a face, so I cannot tell you if it was truly a face or not.”

That’s all it took for Sarah and her husband to run out of the cemetery at a speed they never imagined they could attain. Although the ground was dry, they both stumbled and tripped as they ran. Her husband said he felt as though he was being sucked into the ground, but Sarah swore it felt more like hands grabbing at her ankles and pants. At the outer edge of the cemetery, they caught their breath and gathered their courage for one more short walk around the gravestones with the audio recorder and camera. “I tried to open myself up a little and I was lured to a random area of the cemetery,” says Sarah.

“We stood there for about 10 seconds, until I felt the sudden urge to run. I said, ‘Oh my God! We have to go!’ I started running with all my might. My husband followed. I turned and I snapped a picture of the spot we were standing. When we got back to the car, we listened to the audio. This is what we heard: the shuffling of our feet in the leaves and then it stops. ‘Grrr…. Get out!’”

“The voice was obviously not human, but not quite animal,” Sarah is certain. “It was a demon. The picture showed a whole lot of nothing... except for two little red eyes.”

THE HOODED FIGURE

High schoolers and even college students seem to love Halloween as much as little kids do. It’s an opportunity to challenge their fears of the unknown and to indulge in scary pranks. Chris will never forget the Halloween of 1981, when he was enrolled at a college in his hometown.

Chris and five or six of his friends decided to check out a small cemetery at the edge of campus. A rusty, worn, chain-link fence encircled the few graves of past college faculty and their relatives. “It wasn't long before I felt... ‘something’,” Chris remembers. “A few minutes later, I heard the crunch and rhythm of footsteps shuffling through the leaves on the ground. Some of the others heard it, too, and we all looked in the direction of the footsteps, and when we didn't see anyone, we assumed it was another friend trying to scare us.”

They all laughed it off, at first, but the sound of the footsteps continued. Every couple of minutes, Chris would look down the length of the fence. He squinted his eyes, trying to find the prankster in the dark, but he couldn't see anyone, even as the crunch of leaves got louder... and closer.

Then, to the left of his vision, coming from the dark edge of the woods, Chris saw it. “Vague in shape, it was definitely cloaked in black head to foot,” Chris says. “It seemed to move in spurts of speed, and then, as though time fast-forwarded, it would be ahead of my speed of sight – closer to me than before until it stopped at the corner post of the fence.”

The figure changed shape from a thin, tall form as it turned to its left and faced the students. It was cloaked and hooded, although Chris could make out no arms nor eyes to look at for familiarity. There was no shape of feet, even though the hem of its cloak floated inches above the leaves and grass. Scared, Chris wheeled away from the whole affair, and without saying a word to his friends, ran uphill to the first lighted building he could find.

“I felt someone running beside me,” he says. “I was relieved when I saw one of my friends. We stopped running and asked each other what we saw, and we both said the same words, saw the same vision. Since that night, I have seen my friend often. Except for one occasion a couple of years after that Halloween, we have never talked about what we saw that night.”
 
OUIJA ATTACKS DOGS
 
Halloween often inspires people to break out their Ouija boards, even if the “talking board” has been sitting gathering dust on a shelf the rest of the year. Bea and her friends Ingrid, Anna, Lara and May decided to experiment with the board one Halloween night some years ago in Bea’s large house in Australia.

Bea’s parents were away on business, and her brother and sister were visiting an uncle in South Australia, so she and her friends had the house to themselves for a sleepover. Naturally, sleep was the last thing on their minds. Anna, who was really into séances and the paranormal, suggested playing with the board, which she brought with her.

“I have two Pomeranian dogs, Muffy (tan) and Shadow (black),” says Bea, “and my friend Ingrid has a white Pomeranian called Hayley. “Muffy, Shadow and Hayley, along with Anna's dog, Ernie and Lara's two dogs, Archie and Rosie, were all in the backyard and we hadn't heard a peep out of them for about an hour.”

Upstairs in Bea’s bedroom, the girls arranged themselves in a circle with Anna’s Ouija board in the center. They each placed two fingers on the planchette. Anna started by asking the board, “Is anybody there?” The board moved to YES. Then Ingrid asked, “Who?” and the board spelled out: GAIL.

“Who are you?” another girls asked. Again the board spelled out only: GAIL.

“More detail,” another requested. But the board only replied: GAIL.

“What’s going to happen tonight?” Bea asked. DOGS, the board spelled.

“What are you going to do to our dogs?” YOU'LL SEE, replied the Ouija.

Bea pushed the board aside and the girls just sat there staring at each other. The silence was soon broken by a piercing whimper from the backyard. The five girls jumped up and raced down the stairs, fearing for their dogs. “We flung the back door open and raced out,” says Bea. “We soon discovered Lara's dog Archie whimpering in a corner. We didn't even take a second glance at any of them. We simply picked up our dogs (all of them were small ones) and ran them inside up to my room. Once we had them upstairs, we fussed around inspecting every inch of them. Lara screamed and we rushed over to see her holding Archie, who had a burn mark on his left side in the shape of a pentagram in a circle (the symbol for witchcraft).

“We spent the whole night with the dogs in our arms and vowed to burn the board the next morning.”
 
SUICIDE GHOST

“This experience is very dear to me, though it grows blurry with time,” Satori tells us. “Memories fade like breath upon a mirror... especially ones that were dim to begin with. But this is what I remember, I do not know exactly what I saw, but I do know it changed me.”

Satori’s experience took place at an all-girl’s Catholic college she attended where, it was rumored, there was a particular bathroom that was haunted. The girls frequently talked about the icy air in this room, and of hearing and seeing strange things, and a feeling of being watched. Satori dismissed them as tall tales.

One Halloween, however, Satori and her friend decided to go and “talk” to this spirit. They went into one of the bathroom stalls that had a bathtub, because it was said to be the center of the haunting energy. “My friend got into the tub and started feeling around,” Satori says. “I did too... and I felt the most amazing feeling – a tingling, like electric current, coming from the walls and the faucets. I was stunned but, oddly enough, not afraid. Elated was more the word.

“We got out of the tub and that's when I saw it: the pale image of a young girl with dark hair and deep, sad eyes. She was wearing some kind of slip. Her wrists were cut and her blood was dripping down the drain. She looked like me! Again, I did not feel fear, only sympathy.

“ ‘I think she put the razor in the soap dish,’ I said to my friend. ‘I know,’ she answered. Suddenly, I felt this presence, this tingling warm feeling inside... like the way your arms prickle before a storm. I said to it, ‘Come out. Don’t be afraid.’ And the feeling got stronger. Then I said, ‘It’s okay. We understand. You can go back.’ And the feeling seemed to move upward in my body until it disappeared. Then there was no more energy.”

When the girls stood to leave, however, Satori was stricken with an overwhelming feeling of sadness and loneliness. “I knew she did not want us to leave,” Satori says. “I said to her gently, ‘I'm so sorry, but we can't help you. You need to go back now.’ Then I felt the sadness lift and the room grew lighter. I felt her leave. She never returned and no one spoke of her again. But I will never forget her. She taught me a lesson: compassion heals all wounds, whether alive or dead.”

The Three Famous Poltergeist Cases

 Some of the best-documented, frightening, and controversial poltergeist cases of recent times

CHAIRS MOVE ABOUT by themselves. Walls shake from loud, unexplained banging. Water drips from a ceiling. Hairbrushes disappear for days, only to reappear in their place on the dresser. These are some of the classic symptoms of a poltergeist haunting. From the German for "noisy ghost," a poltergeist refers to phenomena usually credited to mischievous spirits or ghosts and are characterized by psychokinesis or other physical manifestations. Although ghosts may sometimes be involved, most poltergeist incidents are a kind of psychic phenomena, usually centered around a living "agent."

Cases have been cited almost since the beginning of recorded history. Three famous cases have taken place in the 20th century, gaining notoriety, perhaps, because they have been extensively investigated, reported, and in some cases even photographed and videotaped.


THE THORNTON HEATH POLTERGEIST CASE

In the 1970s, in Thornton Heath, England, a family was tormented by poltergeist phenomena that started one August night when they were woken in the middle of the night by a blaring bedside radio that had somehow turned itself on - tuned to a foreign-language station. This was the beginning of a string of events that lasted nearly four years.

A lampshade repeatedly was knocked to the floor by unaided hands. During the Christmas season of 1972, an ornament was hurled across the room, smashing into the husband's forehead. "As he flopped into an armchair," reports Haunted Croydon, "the Christmas tree began to shake violently. Come the New Year and there were footsteps in the bedroom when there was no one there, and one night the couple's son awoke to find a man in old fashioned dress staring threateningly at him. The family's fear grew when, as they entertained friends one night, there was a loud knocking at the front door, the living room door was then flung open and all the house's lights came on."

Having the house blessed failed to rid the house of the phenomena. "Objects flew through the air, loud noises were heard and the family would sometimes hear a noise which suggested some large piece of furniture... had crashed to floor. When they went to investigate, nothing would be disturbed."

A medium who was consulted told the family that the house was haunted by a farmer of the name Chatterton, who considered the family trespassers on his property. An investigation bore out the fact that had indeed lived in the house in the mid-18th century. "Chatterton's wife now joined in in causing mayhem, and often the tenant's wife would be followed up the stairs at night by an elderly gray-haired woman wearing a pinafore and with her hair tied back in a bun. If looked at, she would disappear back into the shadows. The family even reported seeing the farmer appear on their television screens, wearing a black jacket with wide, pointed lapels, high-necked shirt and black cravat."

After the family moved out of the house, the poltergeist activity ceased, and none have been reported by subsequent residents.

THE ENFIELD POLTERGEIST CASE

Another English ghost - this one in Enfield in North London - made headlines in 1977. The strange activity seemed to center around the daughter of Peggy Harper, a divorcee in her mid-40s. Again, it started on an August night. "Late at night," An Urban Ghost Story relates, "Janet, aged 11 and her brother Pete, aged 10, complained that their beds were 'jolting up and down and going all funny.' As soon as Mrs. Harper got to the room, the movements had stopped - as far as she was concerned her kids were making it all up."

But things got progressively more bizarre from there. Shuffling noises and knocks on the wall were followed by a heavy chest of drawers sliding by itself across the floor. Mrs. Harper promptly got her children out of the house and sought the assistance of a neighbor. "The neighbors searched the house and garden but found no one. Soon they also heard the knocks on the walls which continued at spaced out intervals. At 11 p.m. they called the police, who heard the knocks, one officer even saw a chair inexplicably move across the floor, and later signed a written statement to confirm the events."

Several people were witness to the events that occurred in the following days: Lego bricks and marbles were thrown around the house, and were often hot to the touch. In September of that year, Maurice Grosse of the Society for Psychical Research came to investigate. "Grosse claims that he experienced the strange happenings - first a marble was thrown at him from an unseen hand, he saw doors open and close by themselves, and claimed to feel a sudden breeze that seemed to move up from his feet to his head."
Grosse was later joined in the investigation by writer Guy Lyon Playfair, and together they studied the case for two years. "The knocking on walls and floors became an almost nightly occurrence, furniture slid across the floor and was thrown down the stairs, drawers were wrenched out of dressing tables. Toys and other objects would fly across the room, bedclothes would be pulled off, water was found in mysterious puddles on the floors, there were outbreaks of fire followed by their inexplicable extinguishing."

The case became decidedly unnerving when the spirits revealed themselves - through Janet. Speaking in a deep, gravely voice through Janet, the spirit announced that his name was Bill and had died in the house - a fact that has been verified. The voices and the phenomenon have been recorded on tape and film, and Playfair has written a book about the case called This House is Haunted.

Despite the documentation, however, much controversy surrounds the case. Skeptics claim that the case is nothing more than the work of a very clever and mischievous girl - Janet. The poltergeist activity always stopped when she was watched closely, and when she was taken to a hospital for several days to be tested for physical or mental abnormality, the phenomena ceased in the house. Some researchers believe that Janet taught herself to speak in the strange male voice, and that photos of her levitating in her bedroom merely caught her jumping off her bed. Was this poltergeist case just the result of an attention-seeking 11-year-old?

THE DANNY POLTERGEIST CASE

In 1998, Jane Fishman, a reporter for the Savannah Morning News, began a series of articles about a possibly haunted antique bed in the home of Al Cobb of Savannah, Georgia. Cobb bought the vintage late-1800s bed at an auction as a Christmas present for his 14-year-old son, Jason - a purchase he later regretted.

"Three nights later," Fishman reported, "Jason told his parents he felt as if someone had planted elbows on his pillow and was watching him and breathing cold air down the back of his neck. He felt sick. The next night he noticed the photo of his deceased grandparents on his wicker nightstand flipped down. So he righted it. The next day, the photo was facing down again.

Later that morning, after leaving his room for breakfast, he returned and found in the middle of his bed two Beanie Babies - the zebra and the tiger - next to a conch shell, a dinosaur made of shells and a plaster toucan bird. That got his parents' - and his twin brother, Lee's - attention. Trying to make sense of the irrational, Al called out, 'Do we have a Casper here? Tell me your name and how old you are.' Then he left some lined composition paper and crayons and, with his family, walked out of the room. In 15 minutes they returned and found written vertically in large block childlike letters, 'Danny, 7.'"

With his family out of the house, Al Cobb decided to continue trying to communicate with the spirit of Danny. With the same kind of notes, Danny indicated that his mother had died in that bed in 1899, and that he wanted to stay with the bed. He also made it clear that he didn't want anyone else sleeping in it. "The same day they found a note reading, 'No one sleep in bed,' Jason, who had moved out of the room, decided to stretch out and pretend to take a nap. That, says Al, was a mistake. 'I doubled back in the room to pick up my clothes,' remembers Jason, 'when this terra cotta head that had been hanging on the wall came flying through the room, just missing me before it smashed on the closet door.'"

"No one really knows," Fishman writes in her second installment, "who - or what - is leaving the copious notes, moving the furniture, opening the kitchen drawers, setting the dining room table, flipping over the chairs, lighting the candles, arranging the posters to spell out a person's name, Jill, then hanging the finished product on a bedroom wall. Jason also spoke of other spirits: 'Uncle Sam,' who had come to reclaim his daughter he said was buried under the house; 'Gracie,' a young girl whose sculpture sits in Bonaventure Cemetery; and 'Jill,' a young woman who left a number of handwritten messages, among them one inviting the Cobbs to a party in their living room."

Parapsychologist Andrew Nichols, head of the Florida Society for Parapsychological Research, investigated the case. "What happened at the Cobbs," he told Fishman, "- more specifically to Jason - would have happened without 'Danny,' or the bed. It was the electromagnetic energy of the wall - that Jason started sleeping next to when they moved the bed there - that charged a psychic ability that the boy already had."

Amazing Coincidences or Paranormal Power at work?

Stories of remarkable coincidences and synchronicity never fail to make us shake our heads in sheer astonishment, puzzlement, and delight in how the universe sometimes functions. Are they just cases of mere coincidence -- the random appearance of seemingly remote odds? Or is there something deeper, more meaningful, and ultimately more mysterious taking place?
 

FINDER FISH

These two astonishing tales of coincidence both come from Norway and both involve fish. Waldemar Andersen was fishing in the North Sea when he was happy to catch a good-sized cod. He took it home and began to prepare it for a meal. Upon cutting open its stomach, he found a gold earring. Noting that it seemed familiar, he presented it to his wife, who confirmed it was the earring that had lost when it fell into the water a week earlier.

The second story took place in 1979 involves a 15-year-old boy named Robert Johansen, who was fishing in a Norwegian fjord. He was quite pleased to haul in a 10-pound cod that might serve as the family's dinner that night. His grandmother, proud of the boy, agreed and began to prepare the fish for supper. She was shocked to find within the cod's stomach a diamond ring, which she instantly recognized as a valuable family heirloom she lost in the fjord while fishing some ten years previous!

REJECTED MANUSCRIPT

A promising author was disturbed to find his manuscript on his front lawn. It was the manuscript he had given to his publisher in hopes of publication, but apparently it had just been thrown disrespectfully over his front yard fence. Did the publisher really dislike it that much? He called the publisher and asked why his work had been disregarded so tactlessly.

The publisher explained that this was not the case at all; in fact, she had great hopes for the manuscript. So what happened? While she was dining at a restaurant, thieves broke into her car and stole several things, including the manuscript. Keeping the valuables, the thieves later just tossed the manuscript away, over a fence -- right into the author's front yard!

MYSTIC BOOK

Dr. Lawrence LeShan was researching a book he was in the process of writing on mysticism. When consulting with colleague Dr. Nina Ridenour on the subject, she offered several points of advice to him, including understanding the differences between Western and Eastern mysticism. To help in this understanding, she recommended to LeShan a book entitled The Vision of Asia by Crammer-Bing.

Not long after, LeShan began to search for this book, but was unable to find it at two specialized libraries. Then, while walking home, he felt compelled to take a somewhat different route. As he was standing at a corner waiting for the traffic light to change, he looked to the ground and saw a book laying there. He picked it up. It was The Vision of Asia!

This story has one last, strange twist. LeShan called Dr. Ridenour to tell her of the remarkable coincidence regarding this book she had recommended so highly. Her puzzling response was that she had never heard of the book.

FLOATING HOME

In 1899, while touring Texas, Canadian actor Charles Coghlan fell in and died in the city of Galveston. His body was placed in a lead coffin, which was sealed and the interred in a vault.

A year later, a severe hurricane hit Galveston, causing much destruction, including the cemetery where Coghlan was buried. His coffin was washed out of the vault and out of the cemetery by the raging waters and was carried out to sea.

The coffin drifted for years on the ocean currents, out of the Gulf of Mexico, along the Florida coast, and into the Atlantic Ocean where the Gulf Stream carried it north. Coghlan's body had drifted more than 5,600 miles when it was finally discovered in 1908 by fisherman on the shores of Prince Edward Island -- Coghlan's home! His body was reburied in the churchyard of the parish where he was baptized.

THE MYSTERIOUS PEN

This story will make you wonder if the idea of a tulpa is a reality. A tulpa is a thought form -- an object made real simply because it is thought of or meditated upon.

Consider the experience of Barry Smith, who was attending a fancy dress ball at the behest of a friend. Before the dance he went with his friend to a restaurant for dinner. Afterward, when he was changing out of his dinner jacket, he noticed that his gold pen was missing, and he was sure that he had it with him during dinner.

A thorough search did not turn up the pen, so he went back to the restaurant and described it to the staff: it was a gold Schaeffer pen inscribed with his name, "B. Smith." Barry was quite pleased when one of the staff said they had found it and it was returned to him.

That evening, as Barry was packing his bags to return home, he found his gold Schaeffer pen -- another one inscribed with "B. Smith" -- in the bottom of his bag! So where did the one in the restaurant come from and to whom did it belong? Barry returned the one to the restaurant, but it was never claimed. Was the duplicate pen somehow manufactured out of thin air, or was this just some bizarre, unexplained coincidence?

ARTICLES IN THE MATRIX

Several people have told me about experiences similar to the one that follows, and makes us wonder if they are premonitions or if there is a "glitch in the Matrix" that has been corrected.

In Florida on May 13, a woman bank teller greeted a customer she had known for quite some time with a congratulations. She had seen the article about his daughter's engagement in the May 9 edition of the Sunday paper. She even remarked at what a lovely photo it was of his daughter that accompanied the announcement.

One small problem: there was no such announcement. Not yet. The announcement did not actually appear in the paper until May 23. Yet the woman was able to describe the man's daughter exactly from the photo she had seen (she said she did not even know that he had a daughter until she saw the announcement) as well as the precise placement of the article in the paper -- all of which came to pass ten days later on May 23.

Are all these just amazing coincidences or is it something more?

Are deathbed visions real?

Father lies dying. The hospital is quiet. Visiting hours are over and the sun has long since set. Father has been sleeping off and on all day. His doctor says the end could come at any time. His wrinkled, sunken eyes open slowly. His breathing has been labored, but now it seems to ease and soften. His eyes track to a corner of the room where there is only a faded green vinyl chair. Father smiles.

"You're here," he whispers.

His daughter, determined to be with him in his final moments, takes his hand. "Yes, I'm here, dad," she says. But she knows he's not looking at her.

"No," father says, never taking his eyes off the corner of the room. "There. It's your uncle Jerome. I never thought I'd see him again."

The daughter glances to the corner, but of course sees nothing. Father seems coherent. In fact, she hasn't seen him so alert in days.

"Oh my!" Father's smile broadens. "And Lucille! And mother is with them! They- they say they have come to help me. They have come to take me with them. Can't you see them? They look so wonderful!"

The daughter wraps her father's hand in both of hers. She doesn't know what to think. Father closes his eyes again and the smile slowly fades from his lips. He releases one long, last breath... and is gone.

Such deathbed visions are not just the stuff of stories and movies. They are, in fact, more common than you might think and are surprisingly similar across nationalities, religions and cultures. Instances of these unexplained visions have been recorded throughout history and stand as one of the most compelling proofs of life after death.

Anecdotes of deathbed visions have appeared in literature and biographies throughout the ages, but it wasn't until the 20th century that the subject received scientific study. One of the first to examine the subject seriously was Sir William Barrett, a Professor of Physics at the Royal College of Science in Dublin. In 1926 he published a summation of his findings in a book titled Death Bed Visions. In the many cases he studied, he discovered some interesting aspects of the experience that are not easily explained:

It was not uncommon for the dying people who saw these visions to identify friends and relatives who they thought were still living. But in each case, according to Barrett, it was later discovered that these people actually were dead. (Remember, communications then wasn't what it is today, and it might take weeks or even months to learn that a friend or loved one had died.)
Barrett found it curious that children quite often expressed surprise that the "angels" they saw in their dying moments did not have wings. If the deathbed vision is just a hallucination, wouldn't a child see an angel as it is most often depicted in art and literature - with large, white wings?
More extensive research into these mysterious visions was carried out in the 1960s and 1970s by Dr. Karlis Osis of the American Society for Psychical Research. In this research, and for a book he published in 1977 titled At the Hour of Death, Osis considered thousands of case studies and interviewed more than 1,000 doctors, nurses and others who attended the dying. The work found a number of fascinating consistencies:

Although some dying people report seeing angels and other religious figures (and sometimes even mythical figures), the vast majority claim to see familiar people who had previously passed away.
Very often, the friends and relatives seen in these visions express directly that they have come to help take them away.
The dying person is reassured by the experience and expresses great happiness with the vision. Contrast this with the confusion or fear that a non-dying person would experience at seeing a "ghost." The dying also seem quite willing to go with these apparitions.
The dying person's mood - even state of health - seems to change. During these visions, a once depressed or pain-riddled person is overcome with elation and momentarily relieved of pain... until death strikes.
These experiencers do not seem to be hallucinating or to be in an altered state of consciousness; rather, they appear to be quite aware of their real surroundings and conditions.
Whether or not the dying person believes in an afterlife is irrelevant; the experience and reactions are the same.

FACT OR FANTASY?

How many people have deathbed visions? This is unknown since only about 10 percent of dying people are conscious shortly before their deaths. But of this 10 percent, it is estimated, between 50 and 60 percent of them experience these visions. The visions only seem to last about five minutes and are seen mostly by people who approach death gradually, such as those suffering from life-threatening injuries or terminal illnesses.

So what are deathbed visions? How can they be explained? Are they hallucinations produced by dying brains? Delusions produced by drugs in the systems of the patients? Or could the visions of spirits be exactly what they appear to be: a welcome committee of deceased loved ones who have come to ease the transition to life on another plane of existence?

Could they be creations of the dying brain - a kind of self-induced sedative to ease the dying process? Although this is a theory offered by many in the scientific community, Wills-Brandon doesn't agree. "The visitors in the visions were often times deceased relatives who came to offer support to the dying person," she writes. "In some situations, the dying did not know these visitors were already dead." In other words, why would the dying brain only produce visions of people who are dead, whether the dying person knew they were dead or not?

And what about the effects of medication? "Many of the individuals who have these visions are not on medications and are very coherent," writes Wills-Brandon. "Those who are on medications also report these visions, but the visions are similar to those who are not on medications."

BEST EVIDENCE

We may never know whether these experiences are truly paranormal - that is, until we too pass from this life. But there is one aspect of some deathbed visions that is most difficult to explain and lends most credence to the idea that they are actual visitations of spirits from "the other side." On rare occasions, the spirit entities are seen not only by the dying patient, but also by the friends, relatives and others in attendance!

According to one case documented in the February, 1904 edition of Journal of the Society for Psychic Research, a deathbed apparition was seen by a dying woman, Harriet Pearson, and by three relatives who were in the room.

Two witnesses in attendance of a dying young boy independently claimed to see the spirit of his mother at his bedside.

HOW THE DYING AND THEIR RELATIVES BENEFIT

Whether the deathbed visions phenomenon is real or not, the experience is very often beneficial for the people involved. In his book Parting Visions, Melvin Morse writes that visions of a spiritual nature can empower dying patients, making them realize that they have something to share with others. Also, these visions dramatically lessen or completely remove the fear of dying in the patients and are enormously healing to the relatives.

Carla Wills-Brandon believes that deathbed visions can help change our overall attitude about death. "Many people today fear their own death and have difficulty handling the passing of loved ones," she says. "If we can recognize that death is nothing to fear, perhaps we will be able to live life with more fully. Knowing that death is not the end just might resolve some of our fear-based societal difficulties."

Who is Lucifer?

Lucifer means 'light bearer.' Other names that may refer to Lucifer include Satan, Iblis, Beelzebub, Ba’al, Belial, Apollyon, Azazel, Leviathan, Lumiel, Prometheus, and Devil.

Main Characteristics:

Lucifer was once among the most powerful of all archangels, and as his name suggests, he shone brightly in heaven. However, Lucifer let pride and jealousy of God affect him. Lucifer decided to rebel against God because he wanted supreme power for himself. He started a war in heaven that led to his fall, as well as the fall of other angels who sided with him. As a fallen angel, Lucifer is often referred to in popular culture as Satan, and the fallen angels who work under him are called demons. Many people say that the fallen angels’ work has brought only evil and destructive results in the world, so they try to protect themselves from fallen angels. Others believe that they can gain valuable spiritual power for themselves by invoking Lucifer and the fallen angels that he leads.

Symbols:

In art, Lucifer is often depicted with a grotesque expression on his face to illustrate the destructive effect of his rebellion on him. He may also be portrayed falling from heaven, standing inside fire (which symbolizes hell), or sporting horns and a pitchfork. When Lucifer is shown prior to his fall, he appears as an angel with an extremely bright face.

Energy Color:

Black

Role in Religious Texts:

Some Jews and Christians believe that Isaiah 14:12-15 of the Torah and the Bible refers to Lucifer as a "bright morning star" whose rebellion against God caused his fall: "How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations! You said in your heart, 'I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.' But you are brought down to the realm of the dead, to the depths of the pit." In Luke 10:18 of the Bible, Jesus Christ uses another name for Lucifer (Satan), when he says: "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.'" A later passage from the Bible, Revelation 12:7-9, describes Satan’s fall from heaven: "Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down -- that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him." Muslims, whose name for Lucifer is Iblis, say that he is not an angel, but a jinn. In Islam, angels don’t have free will; they do whatever God commands them to do. Jinns are spiritual beings who do have free will. The Qur’an records Iblis in chapter 2 (Al-Baqarah), verse 35 responding to God with an arrogant attitude: "Call to mind, when we commanded the angels: Submit to Adam, they all submitted, but Iblis did not; he refused and was arrogant, being already one of the disbelievers." Later, in chapter 7 (Al-Araf), verses 12 through 18, the Qur’an gives a longer description of what happened between God and Iblis: "Allah questioned him: 'What prevented thee from submitting when I commanded thee?' He retorted: 'I am better than he. Thou hast created me of fire while him hast thou created of clay.' Allah said: 'In that case, depart hence. It behooves thee not to be arrogant here. Get out, thou art surely of those abased.' Iblis pleaded: 'Grant me respite till the day when they shall be raised up.' Allah said: 'Thou art given respite.' Iblis said: 'Since thou hast brought about my ruin, I will assuredly lie in wait for them on thy straight path and will approach them fore and aft, and from right and left, and thou wilt not find most of them grateful.' Allah said: 'Get out hence, despised and banished. Whoso of them shall follow thee should know that I will surely fill hell with you all.'" The Doctrine and Covenants, a scriptural book from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, describes Lucifer’s fall in chapter 76, calling him in verse 25 “an angel of god who was in authority in the presence of God, who rebelled against the Only Begotten Son whom the Father loved” and says in verse 26 that “he was Lucifer, a son of the morning.” In another scriptural text from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Pearl of Great Price, God describes what happened to Lucifer after his fall: “And he became Satan, yea, even the devil, the father of all lies, to deceive and to blind men, and to lead them captive at his will, even as many as would not hearken unto my voice” (Moses 4:4). The Bahai Faith views Lucifer or Satan not as a personal spiritual entity like an angel or a jinn, but as a metaphor for the evil that lurks in human nature. Abdul-Baha, a former leader of the Bahai Faith, wrote in his book The Promulgation of Universal Peace: "This lower nature in man is symbolized as Satan -- the evil ego within us, not an evil personality outside." Those who follow Satanist occult beliefs view Lucifer as an angel who brings enlightenment to people. The Satanic Bible describes Lucifer as “Bringer of Light, the Morning Star, Intellectualism, Enlightenment."

Other Religious Roles:

In Wicca, Lucifer is a figure in Tarot card readings. In astrology, Lucifer is associated with the planet Venus and the zodiacal sign Scorpio.

All About the Djinn

In the modern world, we have grown up with the concept of demons and devils – the evil beings of the spirit world, according to traditional Christian beliefs. Other religions around the world have their spirit beings, too, of course. In Islam, the djinn are a race of spirit beings that can be good or evil. (Djinn, or jinn, is the origin of the more familiar word "genie" in English.)
As we learned in the recent article "Exorcism is Islam," Muslims believe that evil djinn can sometimes possess human beings, as some Christians believe demons can possess people.


But what are the djinn? Our Muslim contact, who we identify only as M.M., and who provided the video of the exorcism, answers questions about these spirit beings.


Q: How were the djinn created?


A: Verses of the Koran and the Hadiths show unambiguously that the djinns were created of fire without smoke. According to Ibn ' Abbas, the expression "without smoke" means "end of the flame." Other scientists think that this expression means the purest of fires. What's important to know, quite simply, is that that the djinn were created of fire and therefore have a constitution completely different from ours.


The djinn were created before man. While the djinn were made of fire, man was made of clay and angels created of light.

In this way, the djinn are invisible. So if they are invisible how do we know they exist? Many things exist that our eyes do not see, but their effects are perceptible, such as the air and electrical current.


Also, this word was reported by Allah himself, and Allah does not lie.


Q: Where do the djinn live?


A: The djinn prefer to live in places not inhabited by man, such as deserts and wastelands. Some among them live in the dirty places (dustbins) and others live among man. The djinn live in these dirty places in order to eat the remainders of foods thrown away by people. Also, certain djinn live in cemeteries and ruins.


Q: Can djinn change form and appearance?
A: The djinn have the capacity to take many forms and to change appearance. According to the Imam Ibn Taymiya, they can take a human or animal, form such as a cow, a scorpion, a snake, a bird.... The black dog is the devil of the dogs and the djinn often appear in this form. They can also appear in the form of a black cat.


When a djinn takes a human or animal form, it obeys the physical laws of this form; for example, it will be possible to see it or to kill it with a gunshot or to wound it with a knife. For this reason, djinn remain in these forms for only a short time because they are vulnerable. In fact, they benefit from their invisibility to frighten people.


Q: Are djinn both male and female?


A: Yes, there are males and females among the djinn. According to the Koran, the djinn have the capacity to procreate and can have offspring.


Q: Are djinn responsible for their acts?


A: Just like humans, the djinn are responsible for their acts. Indeed, Allah will take the day of the last Judgement to them.


According to the Imam Ibn Taymiya, the djinn observe obligations in relation to their specific nature. Being different from the human beings, their duties are inevitably different, too.


They have religious beliefs, too. Like human beings, they can be Christian, Jewish, Moslems or non-believers. Some are pious, others are evil.


Q: Are djinn afraid of humans?


A: The djinn and men feared each other mutually, but the djinn were able to instil fear more intensely than men. The djinns are more fearful beings by nature, but they can also feel such human emotions as anger or sadness. In fact, the djinn benefit from these states, being better able to cause fear in the heart of man. Like bad dogs, when they sense your fear, they will attack.

Phantom Hitchhikers

One of the most persistent and entertaining types of ghost stories is that of the phantom or vanishing hitchhiker. It's also one of the most chilling because, if true,it brings ghosts in very close contact with mortals. More disconcerting still, the stories depict the specters as looking, acting, and sounding like living people - even physically interacting with the unsuspecting drivers who pick them up.

The basic story usually goes something like this: a weary driver traveling at night picks up a strange hitchhiker, drops him or her off at some destination, then somehow later finds out that the hitchhiker had in fact died months or years earlier - often on that very same date. Like many "true" ghost stories, tales of phantom hitchhikers are difficult to verify, and are most often relegated to the category of urban legend or folklore. But there are many such stories, and it's up to you whether or not you believe any of them. Here are a few:


The Dancing Ghost


This story has many of the classic elements. It takes place in Tompkinsville, Kentucky.Two young men are on their way to a dance when they spot a girl their age walking along the road in a party dress. They stop and ask if she'd like to attend the dance with them. She accepts and spends the evening dancing with them. When the dance is finished, the young men offer to take her home and she insists they drop her off at a certain spot. They agree, and since it is raining, one of the boys gives her his coat, saying he will pick it up from her later. As she requests, they drop her off at a house on Meshack Road. A few days later, the boy returns to the house to retrieve his coat... but is told by the woman at the house that the girl he describes sounds like her daughter, who died in an accident on that road. When the boy visits her grave at the cemetery, his coat is laying beside her tombstone.


The Girl on the Side of the Road


"The Vanishing Hitchhiker" relates the story of one Dr. Eckersall who, while driving home from a country club dance, picks up a lovely young girl dressed in a sheer evening gown. She climbs into the back seat of the car, because his front passenger seat is crowded with golf clubs, and gives him an address to take her to. As he arrives at the address, he turns to speak to her - and she is gone. The curious doctor rings the doorbell of the address given to him by the mysterious girl. A gray-haired man answers the door and reveals that the girl was his daughter who died in a car accident nearly two years ago. A very similar story is known as The Greensboro Hitchhiker.


The Basketball Player


It's a winter evening in Oklahoma in 1965. Mae Doria, driving to her sister's house from Tulsa to Pryor, sees a boy of about 11 or 12 hitchhiking on the side of the road. She stops for him, he gets into the front seat along side of her, and they make idle chatter as they make their way down Highway 20. In their conversation, the boy says that he's a basketball player for a local school, and Mae reckons that indeed he has the height and build of an athlete. She also notices that he is not wearing a jacket of any kind, despite the fact that it's winter. And the boy seemed to have no particular destination in mind. He points to a culvert on the side of the road and asks to be let out there. Mae is puzzled because there are no houses or lights anywhere in sight. Before she can even pull over, however, the youth simply vanishes from the car. Mae immediately stops the car, gets out, and looks around, but there is no sign of the boy. Mae later learns in a chance conversation with a utility worker that the same phantom hitchhiker was first picked up at the same spot in 1936 - 29 years earlier!


Resurrection Mary


The story of Resurrection Mary is considered one of "the most famous ghosts in Chicagoland."The story begins on another winter night in 1934 when a young girl was killed in an auto accident while on her way home from the O. Henry Ballroom on Archer Avenue in Justice, Ill., a suburb of Chicago. Five years later, in 1939, a cab driver picks up a young girl in a white gown on Archer Avenue. She sits in the front seat and instructs him to drive north on Archer. After driving a short distance, she suddenly tells him to stop... and simply vanishes from the cab. The cab is stopped in front of Resurrection Cemetery, where the girl is buried. According to a 1977 account, a woman may have seen Mary locked inside the iron fence of the cemetery. Reportedly, the metal bars bore the imprints of her hands. According to the Northwest Indiana Society of Ghost Research, the girl's name was actually Elizabeth Wilson, and the cemetery she's buried in is actually called Ross Cemetery.


The Flapper Ghost


The ghost of an attractive young Jewish girl dressed in the fashion of the Roaring '20s (hence the "Flapper Ghost") is said to hitch rides on Des Plaines Avenue in Chicago. According to the story, during the 1930s, she would appear at the Melody Mill Ballroom, looking quite alive and human and dancing with the young men. She would ask for a ride home, then ask to be dropped off at the Jewish Waldheim Cemetery, saying she lived in the caretaker's house. The girl would then dash into the cemetery and vanish among the tombstones. One of the last reported sightings of this ghost was in 1979 when she was spotted by the police walking from the Ballroom toward the cemetery, where she again disappeared.


The Smoking Ghost


On a night in February, 1951, a British officer stops for a fellow soldier hitchhiking on the road. The stranger is dressed in a Royal Air Force uniform, and after he gets into the car with the officer, asks if he can bum a cigarette. The officer gives him one of his Camels and a lighter with which to light it. With his peripheral vision, the officer sees the flash of the lighter, but then turning his head is astonished to see that his passenger has vanished into thin air. Only the cigarette lighter remains on the seat.


Hitchhike Annie


During the 1940s, a young girl is a white dress is said to be seen hitchhiking on Calvary Drive in St. Louis. The pretty girl with pale complexion and long dark hair would tell the drivers who picked her up that her car broke down or was otherwise stranded. Just as they pass Bellefontaine Cemetery, the girl, who has become known as Annie, would vanish from the car.


Sometimes a Bus Will Do


If you can't hitchhike, why not take the bus? This seems to be the attitude of a ghost in the Evergreen Park community of Chicago. A beautiful young girl has on several occasions been picked up by drivers. She asks to be taken to a section of Evergreen Park. As they approach Evergreen Cemetery, she simply vanishes from the car. On many other occasions, however, she has been seen waiting at a bus stop across from the cemetery. On one occasion she actually got on the bus and, not surprisingly, did not pay the fare. When the bus driver approached her for the money, she disappeared before his eyes.


The Grandmother


C.B. Colby tells the the story of the "Hitchhiker to Montgomery" in which two businessmen on their way to Montgomery, Alabama, stop for a little old lady in a lavender dress walking on the side of the road in the middle of the night. She tells them she is going to see her daughter and granddaughter, and they offer to drive her to the next town. On the way, she proudly tells them all about her children and grandchildren, their names, where they live, and so on. After a while, the men become engrossed in their own business conversation, and when they reach their destination, the old woman has vanished from the back seat. Fearing the worst, the men retrace their route, but do not find the woman anywhere. Finally, recalling the daughter's name, they go to her house in Montgomery to report what might have been a horrible accident. The men identify her from photos in the woman's house. But as it happens, the old woman was buried just three years ago that day.


The Ghost of Highway 36


Sometimes, it seems, these phantom hitchhikers don't always ask for rides - they just take them. In the mid-1980s, a woman named Roxie was driving along Highway 36 near Edmonton, Alberta when she was astonished to see a spirit suddenly sitting in the passenger seat next to her. "I realized he wasn't flesh and blood, but, needless to say, I was scared. He appeared in shades of black, gray and white, as if a black and white movie was being projected into my car." His attire, she said, from from the previous decade and she was able to describe him clearly: black turtleneck, black pants, leather boots, blond chin-length hair. He turned, smiled at her with a small wave of his hand... and disappeared.