While on the net tonight I made a great discovery, friend and fellow investigator from Adelaide, SA, Alison Oborn had made a guest appearance on her recent trip to the U.S with Keith and Sandra Johnson of NEAR paranormal.
Its is so good to see the Aussies out and networking and getting the Australian way of Investigating out there !!
Daniel Pinchbeck
This summer, I visited Glastonbury, the New Age epicenter of England, to speak at a “Great Mysteries” conference about orbs. Orbs are best known as those mysterious balls of light that have appeared on digital photographs for the last fifteen years, though some claim they can see them with the naked eye as well. Orbs have spawned an enthusiastic subculture of people who believe the blobby wisps are not dust particles or lens anomalies, but angels, spirits, other-dimensional beings and so on. Although I am now an accredited orbs expert, I remain agnostic on the subject. In this area, one encounters the same difficulties in establishing a methodology as one does with other phenomena that float on the outer edge of cultural possibility, such as UFOs, crop circles, occult conspiracies, miraculous appearances of the Virgin and so on.
The Orbs Conference offered an eccentric collection of testimonies, channeling, scientific research and slide shows. My favorite take on the orbs came from William Bloom, a local mystic, who claims he has telepathic chats with the spheres. The orbs told him they work like “a cloud or a flock,” and visit us to “support group consciousness.” According to the orbs, “As we touch your individual psyches you begin consciously to experience yourselves as intimately connected with all other life forms on this planet and throughout the cosmos.” A physicist who connected two cameras to take simultaneous photographs found that orbs would only appear on one or the other camera. While he took this as evidence of their quantum subtlety, it could suggest spoof rather than proof.
In my talk on the orbs, I downplayed the question of the orbs’ authenticity to take a sociological approach. A postmodern phenomenon, the orbs only appeared in our world due to new technology, digital media, and social networks like Flickr, or blogs where people share orb images. As our evolving social technologies keep bringing us together in unexpected ways, Bloom’s transmission about “group consciousness” is thought provoking. As media theorist Clay Shirky explores in Here Comes Everybody, new social tools are making it possible for previously unconnected groups of people to suddenly behave like a “cloud or a flock,” when their interests coincide.
The orbs express a cute, trickster element by redirecting our attention. Most people first discover orbs when they are trying to photograph something else — friends at a party, a politician, their cat. Once captivated by the odd spheres floating through their images, their perspective changes: what seemed most important becomes marginal, and vice versa. A friend of mine once suggested that the year 2012 — end-date of the Mayan “long count” — might be when the center and the periphery of our attention switches places. The areas that our culture now finds important — such as possessions and wealth — might become marginal, while other areas, such as the development of soul and the ability to perceive subtle energies, will take on greater significance.
Although I do not pretend to have certainty in this area, I find the theories of the Dr. Alexey Dmitriev, a Russian scientist, to be highly intriguing. Dr. Dmitriev believes that our entire solar system is undergoing a phase transition, entering a region of the galaxy saturated with more intense cosmic energies. He has documented changes on other planets and moons around our solar system, some of which are developing atmospheres or experiencing polar reversals. One way this phase-transition is manifesting on earth is in increasing “vacuum domains” such as tornadoes, which are occurring with greater frequency. The orbs might be linked to this transition to a higher-energy state, as plasma-based vacuum domains that appear for an instant before spinning away. Plasma is the most unstable form of matter, and could be responsive to psychic energy — the orbs seem drawn, if not produced, by conscious intent. In photographs, they appear with greater frequency and in greater numbers at celebrations, group meditations, weddings and so on.
It can seem a bit reductive to seek to explain phenomena — such as the gregarious orbs — that resides at the periphery of our awareness. What is an explanation, in any case? Generally, it is a like cheap magician’s trick that pretends to make the Mystery disappear by covering it with language. As a phenomenon, the mass interest in the orbs suggests we are going through another wave of “Spiritualism,” a movement that swept the U.S. and Europe in the 1890s, bringing with it a wave of aura photography, levitating mediums and other anomalous events. Only the future will reveal whether the orbs reflect a deeper development of psychic awareness, or whether they are a fad that will soon trail off into the ether, from whence they perhaps came.
Daniel Pinchbeck is the author of Breaking Open the Head: A Psychedelic Journey into the Heart of Contemporary Shamanism (Broadway Books, 2002) and 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl (Tarcher/Penguin, 2006). His features have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone, Esquire, Wired and many other publications.
By Philip J. Imbrogno
“Paranormal” simply refers to something outside of normal. When we think of paranormal phenomena, the first things that come to mind are ghosts, poltergeists, and psychic communication with other worlds. However, there is another side to these strange occurrences that includes UFOs, alien contact, and the appearance of unusual creatures.
I am a paranormal researcher; over the past thirty years I have investigated every form of paranormal happening imaginable and have compiled an extensive library covering the details of my work in over 2700 case investigations. Despite this great amount of data, I am always amazed by the similarities of reports that span from hauntings to UFOs. Although I have spent quite a great deal of time chasing down strange happenings, my full-time profession is as a science educator; I have been teaching astronomy, earth science, and chemistry for the past 28 years. I have undergraduate and graduate degrees in science, and this makes me one of the few UFO/paranormal investigators with a real scientific background. I try to use science as much as possible when conducting an investigation, but since we are dealing with what I believe is a new branch of science our instruments and the so-called scientific method breaks down when researching these so -called borderline sciences.
No matter how skeptical you are, there are three things that cannot be denied: that reports of paranormal experiences exist, that they persist, and they are increasingly occurring on a global scale. The same types of reports that we receive in the United States are taking place all over the world, including in places that are not influenced by the media of the United States and Europe. The cases are so similar that there is no doubt that people are seeing and reporting the same thing.
Although I have investigated all claims of the paranormal, my “expertise” in the field has centered on UFO reports. This is because I was the chief investigator during one of the best documented of all UFO flaps, the Hudson Valley UFO Sightings. The UFO sightings took place between the years of 1982-1995; thousands of people in that area of New York encountered something that they believe was not from our Earth; these sightings are documented in my book Night Siege: The Hudson Valley UFO Sightings. During the duration of these sightings there were reports of a giant UFO (larger than an aircraft carrier) that silently flew over ten counties in New York and three in nearby Connecticut. These were “typical” sightings of a UFO, but other types of reports that spanned the paranormal spectrum were also taking place at the same time, including the appearances of ghosts, outbreaks of poltergeist activity, and the appearance of alien and other strange creatures. These other cases were labeled “High Strangeness Reports” since they were not of the UFO ilk but took place during and after its appearance. It was as if the monstrous UFO opened up some type of doorway to a strange world, allowing our plane of reality to be bombarded with all types of phenomena. The High Strangeness Reports intrigued me and I investigated most of them, especially those that seemed to be an offshoot of the UFO phenomenon.
During my research I found a definite correlation between the locations of intense magnetic anomalies in the area and the paranormal reports. Also, although many of the people who saw the Hudson Valley UFO were from all walks of life, the majority had never before had a sighting. A very high percentage of the witnesses who had a paranormal experience (High Strangeness Report) had active or dormant psychic abilities, with many of them having similar encounters as a child or sometime in the past.
After the Hudson Valley Sightings, I investigated not only encounters with UFOs but also all claims of the paranormal. Each new case that I collected was compared with my previous research, and after gathering enough data I began to see the connection between reports of the paranormal and UFOs.
My new book, Interdimensional Universe: The New Science of UFOs, Paranormal Phenomena and Other Dimensional Beings, compares the paranormal cases with the UFO reports showing that they are related. Like Einstein, who searched all his life for a unified theory to tie together all the forces in the universe, I looked for a similar theory to show that all paranormal events are related. I believe I have finally found the connection to tie together all forms of paranormal phenomenon, from UFOs to hauntings.
When human beings are confronted with things they cannot understand most will try to attribute them to supernatural causes. Such was the case during the 18th century, when science was starting to bloom. Despite all scientific advances, including the discovery of the planet Uranus, no one was able to explain what powered the sun. The scientists during that time period knew that no fuel source with which they were familiar could explain the tremendous output of energy given off every second by our sun. Of course we now know that our sun’s power source is deep within its core, where the element hydrogen is fused into helium, but at the time theories abounded, none of which could give a satisfactory answer. Some even claimed that human beings could not understand the sun’s power source, since it was the creation of God. We see the same thing today with paranormal phenomenon and UFOs. Science today does not have the instruments or knowledge, and certainly no answers, to prove or disprove all of these strange events that people are experiencing. Human beings like to think they are in control of their domain, and everything that occurs has an explanation; if it can’t be explained, then it must not exist. UFOs and paranormal phenomenon have no simple answer; they are very complex phenomena indeed, and the only way to begin to understand these types of events is to accept the idea that the visible universe that we mere humans can see is only a narrow band of reality. It is my belief that the events we call paranormal phenomena are emitted from a parallel reality, perhaps even further. Recently, the theory of multiple strings making up the universe has received considerable attention, not only in the scientific community, but with the general public as well. String Theory theoretically explains that the universe is multi-dimensional in nature. It is strange to think that it took science over 2000 years to catch up to what the mystics, shamans, and Druid priests speculated so long ago.
String theory is a relatively new idea that states that particles existing in the universe do not lie at zero dimension points, but are on building blocks or lines called strings. This theory unifies the forces of nature into a single one and tells that all of creation is linked together. The “vibration” of a string at a particular frequency determines if that particle is to be an electron, photon, or any other bit of matter. The force that causes the string to vibrate may come from another universe. In order for one string not to interfere with another when it is vibrating, something like a membrane may separate them. A string can be opened or closed; open strings are linear, while closed strings can fold space creating a multitude of dimensions.
In the 1990s, Dr. Edward Witten found evidence that String Theory can predict the existence of a universe with eleven dimensions; this is called the M theory. Many recent developments in the field led to the idea that the universe could have has many as 26 dimensions. The hope of scientists is that String Theory will be able to unify all the known forces and particles into a single theory of “all and everything.”
Strings interact by splitting and joining. The annihilation of two closed strings into a single closed string can cause changes to the dimensional state of space. Multiple closed strings can be connected to make tunnels that, in theory, can transport you to another part of the universe or even to one of the theoretical 26 dimensions. This is one way in which dimensional wormholes or windows can be formed. Look at it this way: if you have two lengths of string crossing over each other, each string would represent a part of the physical universe. If we bend the strings to form a loop we can merge both dimensions together, and twisting each string can bring us to different levels or, in the case of the cosmos, different dimensions. Each part of the string could actually vibrate at a different rate, which would mean “time” as we know it would progress in a different manner depending where you are located on the string.
If our universe has 26 dimensions, we as three-dimensional beings have very little awareness of them. If intelligent beings do exist in some of these dimensions and if they come into our universe we humans would not be able to perceive them as they truly are. This could be the reason why so many different reports of UFOs exist. Each witness is trying to understand what he or she saw by identifying it with something with which they are familiar or could accept. However, the truth may be that UFOs and other types of paranormal phenomena are things we cannot possibly fully understand since we have no real understanding of their part of the universe. An analogy to this hypothesis would be a group of present-day scientists traveling back in time to the 14th century to explain to the great scientific minds of the day the state of the universe, that our Earth orbits the sun and there are other worlds out there besides our tiny planet. Surely, they would be considered mad or even heretical.
Interdimensional Universe covers in detail the topics briefly touched on above; while I don’t consider it to be a solution, it is never the less a start to understand the unseen worlds that exist around us.
About the Author
Philip Imbrogno (Connecticut) is a recognized authority in the field of UFO research. He has been interviewed by the New York Times and Coast to Coast AM, has appeared on NBC¹s Today Show and The Oprah Winfrey Show, and has been featured in documentaries on the History Channel, A&E, Lifetime, and HBO. Imbrogno worked closely with many top UFO investigators, including Dr. J. Allen Hynek and Bud Hopkins. He has been a science educator for the past 26 years with a graduate degree in Chemistry and undergraduate degrees in astronomy and Earth science.
Marica Jedd
While living temporarily in her mother’s basement, Mary Klein awoke to the sound of heavy breathing in her right ear. “I tried to get up and I couldn’t move. I couldn’t talk or scream. It felt like there was a hand over my face,” she says.
She was unable to move her spread-apart legs, and her shoulders felt pinned down. Her dog barked repeatedly and backed away from her bed. Her cat escaped into an adjoining room. An innate sense told Mary that she was being accosted by a large male presence without a physical form. “I had to figure out how to convince this entity to leave me alone, and I started to will it to do so in my mind,” she says.
During the attack, Mary felt rubbing on her pelvic bone. “I got very angry with the entity and I think he knew it,” she says. After several minutes, the presence and the pressing sensation vanished. “There was no actual penetration, but I was sore for two days,” she recalls.
This wasn’t Mary’s first experience with the paranormal. She had witnessed poltergeist-type activity in a childhood residence, hearing noises and seeing a dark presence in a particular room. Later residents of the house reported activity in the same room. But for years Mary was too terrified to talk about her latest experience: She tried to dismiss it until last year when she noticed a book in the library about ghost attacks. A few weeks later, she felt bold enough to tell her mother, who admitted similar, less severe experiences. That was more than five years ago. Now, Mary reports no other attacks and remains convinced it was a random incident.
For Carla Moran, a single mother with four children living in California in the mid-1970s, nothing seemed random about the repeated and apparently violent attacks that, like Mary’s, felt like rape. Carla sought psychiatric counseling and books on the subject, and while in a bookstore, she happened to meet Kerry Gaynor and Barry Taff, two parapsychologists specializing in haunted-house and poltergeist cases. Gaynor and Taff volunteered to investigate Carla’s case. Her story was overdramatized in the 1982 movie The Entity
and a book of the same name. Neither treatment was completely factual.
Carla was initially accosted by what she perceived as three entities – two holding her down while the third assaulted her. Over the course of nearly a dozen incidents, the number of perpetrators decreased to just one. Carla reported attacks that simulated penetrating rape in some instances. Her teenage son described a particularly vicious attack in which Carla was thrown by the malevolent force and hit her head. He tried to intervene, but he was also thrown, breaking his arm. (”In the filming of The Entity, the actor playing the son broke his arm in that scene, and the curtains tore from top to bottom without explanation,” recalls Gaynor.) Carla later moved to Texas and the attacks subsided and eventually stopped.
Despite on-site investigations by Gaynor and Taff, as well as psychics and professional photographers, the attacks on Carla never occurred in the presence of non-family members. Gaynor observed only bite marks on Carla’s neck and bruises on her body. But general paranormal phenomena in the house was observed by many. Strange lights started to appear on the walls. Investigators covered the walls and ceiling with black cardboard and told the light source to move to certain spots. The light obeyed. On several occasions, it floated into the middle of the room, gaining speed and dimension, and formed into a distinct human-like figure before dissolving.
Gaynor remains convinced there was legitimate paranormal activity in the house, but he stresses that there was no evidence of anything paranormal about the attacks. If Carla did experience sexual assault, possible sources could have been a random violent spirit or disturbances in her psyche, such as subconscious childhood abuse memories.
The experiences reported by Carla and Mary are similar to other reports of attacks by unknown forces having sexual or rape-like characteristics. Gaynor speaks from examination of 900 cases over 25 years. “Sexual aspects to cases are not that unusual,” he says. “It’s far more a part of [paranormal] phenomena than is recognized. These may very well fall into the domain of psychological disturbances.”
Demon and Poltergeist Lovers
Reports of phantom sexual attacks go back centuries to the realm of the incubus and classic demon lovers. The incubus is a male demon who lies on sleeping women to have sexual intercourse or otherwise abuse them. The succubus is a female version of this demon, and attacks men. Bruises and cuts might appear on the victim’s body following such encounters.
“This is an ancient phenomenon utilizing popular figures in our culture, archetypes, and myths,” says Brad Steiger, whose many books on the paranormal include Sex and the Supernatural and Haunted Lovers. According to Steiger, incubi have many modern spins. The intruder may take on the form of a priest, a rock star, or other respected or idolized figures. Alternately, a visitation could be triggered by a UFO sighting or alien contact. “Seeing a being seems to open the doorway,” says Steiger. “They may not be aliens in the extraterrestrial sense, but other non-physical life forms indigenous to this planet.”
One of the most commonly accepted explanations for entity attacks, especially when the victim reports pressing sensations, is sleep paralysis or “night heavies,” a phenomenon linked to out-of-body experiences. “If your torso hasn’t awakened when you come to consciousness, you feel like there’s pressure on you,” says parapsychologist Loyd Auerbach. But while victim Mary Klein has experienced the related sleep phenomenon of lucid dreaming (dreaming with awareness), she notes that during the attack she was fully awake, felt considerable physical discomfort, and heard heavy breathing.
To understand the topic of assault by entities, it’s important to differentiate between poltergeists, ghosts, and other types of spirits. The word poltergeist literally means “noisy ghost.” But an accepted theory is that poltergeist activity is actually energy that leaves one’s body and has conscious or unconscious effects. Dishes falling off a shelf, loud noises, and other poltergeist-associated activity may emanate from a living human – for example, an adolescent with repressed anger, sexual energy, or hostility. “That energy causes the poltergeist,” emphasizes Gaynor, adding that the energy typically manifests within ten feet of the person or “agent” causing the phenomena. “Poltergeist activity can be an externalization from the person himself or someone in the family,” adds paranormal observer Bufo Calvin.
Attacks may also be a form of psychokinesis (PK) – the mind’s influence on material objects, events, and energy. PK energy can bring on self-inflicted wounds such as cuts, bleeding, and bruises. The victim could be her own perpetrator, as her unconscious “dark side” manifests. Calvin suggests that mentally unstable adults may fall prey to such self-attacks. When sudden and unexpected violence, noises, or other disturbances happen repeatedly in close proximity to a particular person, they are classified as Recurrent Spontaneous Psychokinesis, or RSPK. Gaynor and Taff suggest that the case of Carla Moran had all the symptoms of RSPK activity.
This is not to say that sexual assault cannot be the work of actual ghosts – although in the majority of haunting cases, there’s nothing to worry about. Most hauntings are simply recorded impressions of an event, and do not interact with the living world. But other types of spirits are akin to concentrations of energy, and the non-human realm can encompass parasites or psychic residues. “These parasites feed off human vibrations and become stronger or energized,” says Steiger. Parasites can be found anywhere, often in public spaces such as hotel rooms.
Calvin goes so far as to suggest that a discarnate, non-human entity in search of a fix would attack a human sexually to gain energy. “Sexual energy is very strong, powerful energy,” says Calvin. Indeed, orgasmic energy is associated with cosmic energy. Sexual energy, as the second chakra, is linked to creativity. That chakra is located in the sexual organs and governs relationships, sex, and reproduction.
Meanwhile, lower-level entities could purposely attack a human to inflict pain, says Calvin. Hypnotherapist Dr. Bruce Goldberg agrees, arguing that attacks of a sexual nature can fall into the broad arena of “psychic attacks.” Psychic attacks, both sexual and non-sexual, may be inflicted by troubled discarnates or ghosts. But the most severe psychic attacks, which may contain sexual overtones and produce physical wounds, make up only a tiny portion of the phenomena, and might derive from true black magic or demonic activity requiring an exorcist, says Goldberg. Another twist is a non-human spirit posing as a human spirit in order to deceive a victim. Furthermore, “What have been perceived in history as incubi and succubi could really be witches or demonic spirits in an astral body,” Goldberg adds. Suspected encounters of these types should be treated with caution.
But truly related to the dark side is the notion of consensual sex between a human and a discarnate entity, whatever its form. “One can invite this,” says Steiger. “It’s one of the most dangerous things a human can do – ultimately courting possession.”
Mark and Debbie Constantino are a husband and wife paranormal investigation team, both Being Certified Parapsychologists, they have investigated many haunted sites. Over the past few years they have been putting most of their time and effort into the research and experimentation of receiving EVP’s on a consistent basis, Debbie is also a gifted sensitive.
Debbie and Mark have come a long way in their research and are regular speakers at conferences across the US.
They have featured on many paranormal pod casts including Darkness Radio and TAPS Beyond Reality Radio.
Techniques we use :
As we see it evp is the most direct way of spirit communication. Over the years, it seems like those that speak to us are modifying their techniques just as we are on this side.
Here are some of the techniques we find most helpful in this fascinating field:
We’ve used several recorders over the years. What we’ve learned is that obviously spirits have no physical voice box, they roll sound into words. In the earlier years we used background noise such as the sound of a ceiling fan, running water, etc. We’ve experienced they are extremely resourceful in using whatever sound is available to them. They had taken the sound of a barking dog, leaves crunching under our feet, etc. basically sound they can roll into their own words. There is also a fascinating phenomena “Voice manipulation” It seems rare but, spirits will actually take your spoken words and roll them into their thoughts. It’s quite eerie to hear your own voice saying something you know for a fact you didn’t say!
This being said, our thoughts on recorders are not the new pricey clear ones. Rather the noisy cheaper quality ones. the reason for this is the cheaper quality ones have more internal noise. We believe the internal noise is what spirits use to manipulate into words.
The older Sony’s are great. If you notice a lot of the so called “Ghost Recorders” are only available on E-bay. We believe the reason behind this is they have been discontinued by company’s because the sound quality is so poor. Poor for the office, Great for evp! Please, don’t run out and pay hundreds of dollars on a recorder just because, it is said to record ghost voices.
For that kind of money you can buy several, which leads me to my next strategy.
We experimented with so many over the years and are now realizing that they beat at a vibration ( Higher than ours obviously ) But, what if they work on separate vibrations from one another? We put this to the test in using all our different recorders together. turning them on and off at the same time. What we’ve noticed is that each recorder will pick up different evp. Does this mean it’s easier for them to use a certain recorder than another ? It seems so. But, regardless of why. the fact is it does seem to work. Working in this manner you are able to get much more evp you may otherwise have missed.
We have since begun using at least one back up recorder. We like the Panasonic QR80 or 100 They are a very clear quality recorder. When they do get evp it’s usually class A. We turn this recorder on first and after our “evp” recorder. Reason being, If you have any reason to question whether or not what you received is actually evp. You can check your back up recorder. If you should get a voice manipulation, you will be extremely glad you used this method.
Back in the day, the general rule of thumb was that evp only came up on one recorder. over the past couple years we have noticed that it can. Rare but, it can. There are so many questions, the fantastic thing about evp is that you can go directly to the source! Ask them! How can we hear you clearer. Occasionally we come across a spirit who is a good speaker. I think these spirits are ones that have already crossed. They seem to be more educated, speaking clearer and for a longer period of time. When you come across one like this, have a list of questions ready. They will try to answer.
Mark & Debby Constantino
www.spirits-speak.com
Interview With RTSC Researcher Steve Hultay
By Annette Munnich
Annette: Steve, I have been looking forward to this for quite some time now. Thanks for making some time for me. I appreciate it. I think I have some good questions for you, I’d like to start off by asking about the history of the Ghost Box, the different kinds of boxes, and what types you use.
Steve: The Spiritcom came out in the late 70’s to early 80’s. A bunch of scientists working on that were able to communicate with the other side using audible tones coming through some type of device that they were using and had developed. It lasted for a few years, but everyone started fighting and it never amounted to anything. Then Frank Sumption got a hold of a Popular Science magazine from I believe it was 1995, and it was basically an article saying “How do we speak to the dead?” and “Could we speak to the dead?,” based off an idea that Edison came up with originally back in the 20’s. I can’t verify any of that as I wasn’t around in the 20’s, (laughs) this is just the story that I hear. Frank started building his boxes back in 2002, and gave them to Chris Moon, and he started using them out in the field. I didn’t get involved in this until 2007. It was only last year. My sister knew I was big into EVP’s so she e-mailed me an article about Frank’s Box. I saw that Chris Moon was using it and immediately signed up for one of his ghost hunter universities because I wanted to see the box in action.
In the meantime I started to go nuts looking for an idea of my own, since Frank’s boxes were not available, only Frank made them, and he gave them out, and there was only very few. So I ran rampant on the internet trying to find an engineer to build one for me. I ran across Joe Cioppi, who lives in Pennsylvania, he’s a nice guy and a retired engineer, and he said he was working on an FM version of a Frank’s Box in his own design. He said if I was interested in that, I could buy the parts and he would build it. So we started there.
He built the first device. I got it and I was not overly thrilled, it seemed to sweep very slowly. The whole idea and premise behind the box is that you have a nice fast sweep rate going through the stations grabbing only small bits and pieces of the fragments that they (spirit) utilize to form words and sentences, whatever the case may be. So it was a little slow, we went back and did this a few times until we finally got it right. I went over and sat on his couch and we went over ideas, what I wanted to hear and how we could go about building it. We finally designed a product that I started getting results with. So being that Frank Sumption called his design the Frank’s Box, I decided to call what we made the Joe’s Box.
We collaborated on different ideas over the course of the past year, and I’ll have 4 Joe’s boxes as of next week, and they’re all unique, they’re all different. What happened was I started using the Joe’s Box, and I found Frank’s message board and started posting my files the way I knew how. I didn’t have any direction at all, I just started doing my own thing. (laughs) Frank saw what I was doing. I wasn’t using a Frank’s box, but I was still getting communication. He had just got two boxes from Chris Moon that were not working. He fixed them and then he offered me one of those boxes which was #13. I never asked him for the Frank’s Box, he had offered it to me. So I got it and used it for awhile, I never really got a whole lot out of it to be honest with you. Then I ended up sending it back because it just didn’t work. So he built me a new one which was #27. I do get good stuff from that one.
I use so many different methods. When the Radio Shack Hack came out, somebody got the idea and posted on the internet that you could pull a pin off a radio and the thing constantly sweeps and is like an instant Frank’s Box for about $25.00. So what I did with that is the person said they had this idea but didn’t say how to do it. So I was at home, it was raining, I didn’t have anything to do so I e-mailed this person and said that if he knew how to do it, but wasn’t ready to post it yet, could he please tell me because there is a Radio Shack across the street and I’m ready to get jumping and get involved with it. So he e-mailed me back about what model it was and such. I went right across the street, grabbed it and within a half an hour, I already posted a couple of files from it.
He is actually Bill Chappell, who has now developed the Paranormal Puck and the Ovlilus. He was under an assumed name. After he came out with the Radio Shack Hack, I used it and got some great stuff with it. I’m always up for something new. I sent my files to him and he e-mailed me back and said he had this website called ghostboxhacks.com., and he says can I use your files on the site? I said, “yes, sure, why not?” So he did that and everything went rampant.
The 470 is another model that was able to be hacked right after that which is the same as the 12-469, which incorporated a speaker, and is the only basic difference, plus it didn’t have the annoying click. So that was the one that really took off with a lot of people because it was small and portable with a speaker built into it and you could take 5 minutes to modify it and be up and running.
I since then found two of my own Radio Shack models that were able to be modified. On a whim, I was walking around in Radio Shack and grabbed a 20-125, which is another radio that incorporates a speaker and also has a shortwave, and is the first one that brought the shortwave into the research. I figured I had to modify that and put that up on my website allowing everybody to go out and buy that and use it if they wanted to.
Soon after I found another one which is the 12-820 model. It’s an armband radio, it costs $29.99, and I did that one at the pizza parlor at work. There’s a Radio Shack next to the pizza parlor, and while I was waiting for my food, I took it apart and I actually modified it right then and there on the table (laughs.) So I got that one out into the public too.
There’s also other methods. I have a Sony Walkman radio (model #SRF-M37V) that needs no hacking at all. All you do is hold the scan button down and it automatically sweeps, never stops, that one you can buy anywhere it’
Since then there’s been so many other modifications to the boxes. Frank is on box #38 now, I believe, I have #27 so he has made 11 more boxes since he gave mine to me. As far as the boxes are concerned LC Duplatt developed a Joe’s Box type that sweeps the FM band, but he modified his to scan and sweep a little differently than the rest. He gets really good stuff with that. I’m always complimenting him on his files. I think they are excellent. I think he is going to start producing them.
Stefan Bion, from Denmark, developed an EVP Maker, if you actually go back a little ways. EVP maker, according to Frank Sumption is what he was using, and spirits were taking that program and telling him how to build a Frank’s Box before it was called a Frank’s Box. Now basically what EVP Maker does is you take a piece of audio put it in there, and it mixes it up, jumbles it, and spits it out. Kind of randomly grabbing words from whatever file you put in. He used that and that’s how he came up with the design for the Frank’s Box, which is the story that I have been told. I used it several times and never got anything from the EVP Maker.
A couple of months ago Stefan came out with this Allophone File which is based off of 72 audible tones, no words at all, just the audible tones. It’s very robotic sounding. You use the EVP Maker software, and you put it in there and it mixes up the 72 tones. I gave that a shot and all of a sudden I was getting full sentence answers that I have never gotten with any box. This was the first time I got full sentences from anything I have done research with. So I was pretty intrigued with that. What I did was, I decided to take his file and use a program called Sound Soap, which is a software program used to edit and take the noise out of files and stuff like that. It has a bar on the bottom you could actually manually sweep it yourself. So I put the 72 allophone tones as my program and I started just manually sweeping it myself and I started getting answers to my questions.
What I feel is that they (spirits) use what we use. It doesn’t really matter. I think it is more based on the person who is doing the research. I seem to be able to, whatever I turn on, get something. So I’m using the Sound Soap and the EVP Maker and all of a sudden the Speakjet comes into the picture. Rob Fitzgerald from deadscience.com put together a Speakjet Box, which is basically the 72 allophone tones in a chip format and it sounds like a Speak and Spell. He put it into a box and he based it out of energy fields so when it detects an energy field it randomly jumbles the 72 tones and spits stuff out. Now I could understand if it says “hello,” that I get, but if it says “hello Steve how are you?” the chances of it actually jumbling audio together to say things like that is significant enough that it’s not a coincidence to me.
Then the Paranormal Puck came out, which is Bill Chappell as I said before. That’s about energy fields, he’s all about environmental readings. Energy fields, voltage, he’s really into the data and that kind of stuff. I was one of the beta testers for original Paranormal Puck that started in February and I used it until recently then he sent me a brand new one; a finished product of it. I use that. That has a thing called phenomes, and what that is is bits and pieces of human speech. It’s not words and it’s not tones, it’s actually human vocal speech patterns. Now if you run that into his program, you can change the speed of it, and it randomly jumbles it up and spits out human speech giving a nice clear communication. A lot of things can be caught in a real time format. Some things you can’t which is why I record everything and go over it later, put the headphones on and I have some incredible files from that.
And that brings us up to date on all the boxes that are out there, except for one more which is the Mini-Box. That one came out in December. I got that one in December and the first time I used that I went to my mother’s for dinner. I was using it and there was a grounded spirit that was at my mother’s house and he kept saying “Why can’t you see me I am staring right at you, why can’t you see me?” It was really creepy (laughs.) The way the Mini-Box was working that night was that I heard the radio and this voice was coming on top of the radio, using the audio from the radio, to make his presence known, and he was not happy. We fought with him for awhile and then finally convinced him to move on and he said okay. Then all of a sudden all I heard was radio and he was gone. My mom hasn’t had any problems with her house since. She had people singing in the middle of the night coming from her closet and people walking around in her room; all kinds of stuff before, and after that night she hasn’t had those problems since. So does the Ghost Box work? I think it does. Can people say it’s radio? Of course. Most people will. I don’t believe that. I have gotten stuff beyond what I believe to be radio. I just think this stuff works.
Annette: That was a very good detailed answer. I would like to talk about the Box itself for a few minutes. I’d like to ask you about the uses for it as well as the limitations in your opinion.
Steve: Boxes are very useful. I’ve taken them out on location and I’ve gotten some really interesting stuff. LC Duplatt has also touched on this recently also. Bringing it to a supposed haunted location seems to fire it up and makes it a lot more active. I found that in a lot of situations.
There was a girl that lived up the road from me that needed help. I went over there and used the Joe’s Box that I was currently using at the time, and got a lot of answers to questions; things I did not know, and I went to school with her, but that’s pretty much it. Up until recently, I didn’t know anything about her history. Her boyfriend was living with her. I kept getting this name Ed coming through, and he was really nasty, cursing, and doing a lot of stuff that was just not nice. Come to find out the boyfriend’s father’s name was Ed, and he had a falling out with his father, and ended up putting his father in jail. His father died in jail. I didn’t know any of these things when I went in there. All I did was just repeat what I was hearing and they were blown away that I was getting answers, and this is like the first month I was using this box, so I was pretty intrigued that I was getting anything like this also.
Up until that point, I was sitting at home doing research and I was getting minimal stuff. When I went over there where they actually had activity, I was getting stuff that was pretty close to their situation. So I found that to be pretty good.
Now as to the limitations of the box, radio method boxes are limited to the location you are in. You’re not always going to be able to get a good signal. Say for example, if you are in a basement. So if you’re in the basement where the activity is and you turn the box on and you don’t have a radio signal, then you don’t have anything (laughs.) It’s definitely a downfall. That’s my big problem and why I am moving forward into the Speakjet boxes and to more of the Allophone tones.
I mix and match. I do a little bit of everything just to keep it fresh in my mind. I want to stay current with all of it. I don’t want to stick with one option. I think I will bounce around until I find the one that best works for me and then maybe stick with that.
Annette: It seems that there are some other limitations in regards to what kind of information they will pass on. They don’t like to predict the future, they don’t like to try to give too much detailed information as to what it’s like on the other side, have you run across any of those things?
Steve: I actually have gotten a lot of files that pertain to the other side. They’re pretty willing to talk about that. As for predicting the future, if anyone wants the lottery numbers they’re probably not going to get them (laughs.) I think from what I have learned doing this, is that they have limited predicting ability. I have that file that you heard that said I have company and right then the phone rang. So they know things that are current and going to happen in the immediate future. As for the distant future, I’m not really too sure that they know any of that. I actually had a prediction tonight through the Joe’s Box and it was very specific as to what I am doing tomorrow night. So I am interested in seeing how that pans out because it didn’t seem to be a good message (laughs.) I don’t know if anything they say is actually going to happen and is true.
Annette: Bruce Halliday had posted some files that may be about the recent earthquake that happened in China, and I thought that was really interesting.
Steve: Yeah a few months ago we were getting a lot of earthquake messages. All of us. It got to the point of yeah earthquake message and I just started deleting them. For like two weeks straight I got nothing but earthquake warnings and I didn’t think anything of it. I never got China, and then Frank was sending me seismograph maps showing me that there are always earthquakes going on and not to take it seriously. So I didn’t.
Annette: There is another researcher, and I’m not going to mention his name, because I’m not sure he would want me to, who had a particular spirit that he was talking with. He started asking questions about when that person was alive and trying to research him. His communication got cut off. He heard other voices in the background saying “don’t” and “stop” and things like that and he actually lost contact with that spirit and never heard from him again. Have you ever tried to use the box to research anyone in particular? You know try to find out someone’s personal details; where they lived, when they died etc?
Steve: I have tried to do that in the past but never got anything. They don’t like to answer those sorts of questions. I shy away from doing it now because I know they don’t like it. I’ve had problems and been cut off at different points in my communication also.
Annette: That person lives in a haunted house and was trying to investigate the spirits that remain there.
Steve: Which is a great idea but can we say on the other hand that we are talking to spirits for sure? Can we say that they are who they say they are? If I were them, and wanted to have a good time, I could say I am so and so and let you run to the library looking up all sorts of records (laugh.) I don’t know where they are. Are they on a parallel universe to us? It’s possible. Are there different levels? I’m sure there are. I’ve gotten that several times where they say they are on different levels. The longer you are gone the more you move up on the levels. Sometimes I ask for someone, and it takes a long time like they have to go searching… I can’t say if it’s spirits or ghosts that we’re talking to, or if it is always earthbound spirits that we are talking to. Is it aliens (laugh) I honestly don’t know. All I know is I ask questions and I get answers.
Annette: It’s a fascinating thing. I think I have been privileged in a lot of ways to be able to listen to so many files. I am amazed all the time at the questions and the answers that are coming through; people actually getting in touch with their loved ones, and people doing spirit rescue. It’s kind of mind boggling it really is.
Steve: I’m actually going over a session I did today. I went to Monmouth Battlefield Park, here in New Jersey. It’s where they fought one of the big battles of the Revolutionary War. George Washington was there.
So I went over there today and sat in the middle of the battlefield and I did a session. This is the second time I have done this at this location. Both times that I went there I got British speaking people coming through the Box. Which is bizarre, because there are no British speaking people on any of the radio stations around here that I know of. Now considering that this was a war between America and Britain, getting British speaking voices is really interesting. Now today I went over the file and I believe I crossed over five spirits today while I was there. They were speaking to me and were willing. I asked them if they could see the light and told them to go to the light. This isn’t the first time. I actually enjoy doing this. I feel like I am serving a purpose at that point. What I did was simply convince them. If you see the light, your family friends and loved ones are all over there, and they want you over there. Trust me. And then I hear people in the background saying “yeah Steve said it is okay” I think I have built up enough clientèle over there that they seem to know who I am now (laughs.) So when I said it, they were like hesitant, and then I kept saying “it’s okay go” and I keep hearing some Spanish radio station and then they were gone. Did I help cross them over? I might have. They said there were five of them. I didn’t hear anything after that so if there was five, I may have crossed all five over. I had that happen quite a few times.
Annette: I’d like to ask about your research in particular, what your hopes are for the future, as opposed to other researchers out there. What are you looking for? What are you hoping for?
Steve: Basically I do what I do every day, I think the skill is in the editing process; going over the file and being able to capture it with your ear. You develop an ear for it over time. Being able to isolate it and get it out into the public is a great thing. I’ve never done this for a cent. I’ve given boxes away. I’ve offered tons and tons of time. I’ve gone over files for people and worked on stuff for them.
What I like to do, what I feel is my portion, is teaching and helping others. That’s what I really like to do. That’s what my research is about. What I hope will come out in the future is to eventually get a device where we could actually sit there and no matter who you are you could sit with me and hear what is being said. I think we’re a ways off from that, but it’s coming. I started this back in early 2007, and it’s light years away from when I started. When I started, it was just Frank Sumption, Chris Moon and me. Those were the only people doing Box research at that time, and I was the only one using the Joe’s Box because I co-created Joe’s Box. Joe was an engineer. He knew how to build devices but he didn’t know what this research was about. He built it, we learned together, so it truly was a collaboration between us. We have a good working relationship that way. When I go to visit, his wife brings out coffee and cookies and I stay and talk for like three or four hours (laughs.) We have so much stuff to talk about. I always have ideas. He’s constantly trying to put things into motion. He’s now talking about working with the Speakjet chip and trying to do something with that. You never know what will happen next. It seems to change all the time.
Annette: Yes it certainly does. It’s out there and people are thinking about it. There’s this idea and that idea and it’s kind of like a think tank situation in a way. You have a bunch of very sharp minds all focused on the same sort of a goal.
Steve: Well the thing is people see your ideas and see what you’re doing, and sometimes it sets something off in somebody. You know, basically, what I did when the Radio Shack Hack first came out, I saw the idea of what was going on and I just kind of ran away with the idea. I saw what he did with that design and I thought any radio with a similar pattern, set up and circuit board inside it, could be done the same way. It could also be done in different ways and people are just kind of all over the place doing stuff now.
There’s not a whole lot in the development. It seems like everybody just currently is using what everyone else is using. Me, personally, I am trying to do new things all the time to keep it new. I kind of throw it out there and try to keep myself slightly ahead of the pack. People see me using things and want to give it a try. I have gone pretty far with this. I am trying to keep myself a little bit distanced so people look to me and say, well he gets good stuff, he’s gotten a lot of answers and I am willing to give it a shot because he did it. It’s kind of like follow the leader, not that I am a leader, because we are all working together on this, but I think that we should all keep moving forward.
Annette: Well, I think you are a leader, and I think that your curiosity, imagination, and enthusiasm has effected a lot of people Steve.
Steve: I get a lot of e-mails. It’s almost impossible to help everybody. I do reply, but when it gets more and more in depth I send them to my Yahoo Group where I can, or somebody else can answer it. That’s kind of the whole point of having a group and we have everybody working together on it.
Annette: Steve thank you so much. It was all very informative and interesting. I’m glad we finally got together to do this. I appreciate your time. I’m going to close with some tips from Steve on editing.
Steve Hultay on Editing
This is a style that I do. Basic scenario for me is if I get a 5 second piece of audio that, for example, says “Steve, I (er-ee-oo) love (ir ikk) you”. Granted, you can share that to the group and it would sound like a mess. I simply highlight the nothing worded area and I amplify it, slow it down, and also reverse it. At that point, if I get nothing by those 3 methods, in that highlighted area, it gets deleted and Ii move on to the next section.
I go over all my files in the exact order that I get it originally, but I try to keep the crap in the middle to a minimum, so others can hear the message clearly. I can’t personally listen to a 35 second audio clip that say’s “Hi”. “Hi” takes up a half a second and the rest is just random audio nonsense, so why not just highlight the “Hi” and make it a 2 or 3 second file? And to add more to the editing process, sometimes a word during that sentence doesn’t fit and sounds like gibberish. At that point, I do the 3 methods and in doing that I reverse it and it actually is a word that fits in the same sentence. Now, I didn’t do anything but reverse a piece of nothing fragment that became something usable, which is still in the same exact section of the original audio file. Editing for me is very hard and takes a long time, but we have to grab every section that could possibly be something and utilize it.
Remember that whoever we are speaking with is mostly likely not a professional at communicating either. We can’t expect that whatever device we turn on, that it’s going to be full word clear sentences, it’s not possible. If we do not edit to get the full message clearly, they will eventually just give up on us because we are expecting them to do all the work and for us to do minimal at best.
Common sense has to come into play, if a section doesn’t belong, and is obvious it’s a fragment or piece of white noise just get rid of it. As long as you keep the file moving in the same direction without cutting and pasting words to fit your situation, it only makes sense to make sense…?…Right?
Steve’s website
http://www.keyportparanormal.com/
Steve’s Yahoo Group RTSC
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/rtsc/
Listen Below to some interesting recordings Steve has captures with various recording devices.
you_re_quite_welcome_steve - Obtained Using Shack Hack 12-470
yes-i_m_here-i_m_trapped-your_standard_haunting - Obtained using miniBox
yes_it_is_steve - Obtained using the shack hack 12-470
steve_it_s_me - Obtained using Joe’s Box #2
i_watch_you - Obtained using Joe’s Box #2
i_m_dead - Obtained using manual sweep method
getting_dead_people - Obtained using Frank’s Box #27
company - Obtained using the paranormal Puck
cannot_prove_death - Obtained using Joe’s Box #2
are_we_dead - Obtained using Joes box #2
It is an absolute pleasure to be asked by Allison to make an initial contribution to the ‘Australian Paranormal Society’s’ new website.
Since 2002, following many years of counselling in the areas of death and grief as an ordained Minister Of The Word within the Uniting Church in Australia, School Chaplain and Civil Funeral Celebrant - I began to record strange ‘human-like mutterings’ on my tape recorder that I was using for my Funeral Celebrant work.
I dismissed these recordings as simply ‘radio interference’ - but the ‘plot’ (excuse the pun) was to thicken! Not only did I begin to hear my name, ‘Rob’ used in many of the messages which suggested they were directed to me personally, but I nearly ‘fell of my chair’ one day when I heard and recorded the voices of my ‘deceased’ Mother, maternal Grandmother and Grandather communicating with the same physical voice inflections, accents and intonation they used when physically alive!
This experience instantly ‘imploded’ my long-held ‘hard nosed scepticism’ about all things supposedly ‘paranormal’ as it did not fit in to my mindset or worldview.
And it wasn’t that I was ‘hearing’ voices, rather I was ‘recording’ voices which ruled out any subjective mental abheration on my part.
Really needing some cognitive answers, I googled the world-wide-web and discovered the American website of the “American Association Of Electronic Voice Phenomena” (AAEVP.com) where I came to realise that many other people around the globe were having similar experiences to mine.
So Instrumental Trans Communication (ITC) became a reality for me in the form of Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) and my life was opened to an exciting ‘new world of unending possibility’ that could not be contained within any current religious/scientific paradigm.
Today I have recorded many hundreds of communications from ‘deceased’ family members and friends providing solid empirical evidence that life ‘transitions’ - rather than ‘ceases’ upon our physical demise - and it is my fervent hope that many other ‘ open-minded sceptics’ of sound mind feel encouraged to explore this ‘electronic mediumship’reality for themselves - rather than rely upon any subjective interpretations from a medium or clairvoyant.
Believers will more likely believe clairvoyants and mediums, but dis-believers often require the objective proof of a personal experience in order to discover the reality of the afterlife for themselves.
EVP does provide an integral ‘key performance indicator’(KPI) for many of those “doubting Thomases” out there.
It becomes rationally difficult for “open-minded” cynics to dismiss the validation of ‘audible recorded voices’ of a loved one as ‘ illusory” - when the voice addressing you personally on a tape recording is objectively discernable and scientifically repeatable.
It is my fervent wish that all things ‘paranormal’ will soon be collectively integrated into the mainstream of a slowly emerging global consciousness that will incorporate the reality of multi-dimensional incarnate/discarnate life - and be inclusive of the fact that consciousness never dies but transfers to a new realm of being.
Blessings and Peace to you all.
please feel free to visit my website for more information of recording EVP for yourselves.
By Jeff Belanger
I’ve been on many investigations and witnessed people from all walks of life interpret the same phenomena in very different ways. Some people go into an investigation and want so badly to experience something supernatural that they easily misinterpret some very natural occurrences. For example, a person may walk by a window and cause a drapery to sway slightly. One witness will see the moving curtain, point, and exclaim, “Look… a ghost!” A more skeptical-minded person may ask if anyone walked by that window in the last few seconds and then easily dismiss the movement. This is just an over-simplified example. When there are actual paranormal phenomena afoot, things get more complicated.
There are some people who believe that anything peculiar in a given environment must be demonic sent directly from the devil. These folks are operating under a belief system, and a potentially dangerous one at that. If a family is experiencing some paranormal phenomenon, planting the notion of demons into an already emotionally taxed group of people can cause serious psychological damage. I’m not necessarily saying there’s no such thing as demons, I am saying we need to tread carefully before we start throwing theories and ideas based on our own personal baggage into an investigation.
Even some self-proclaimed skeptics are actually operating under a belief system called atheism a system with just as much dogma and rules as any other. These folks must dismiss anything that doesn’t fall into their current understanding of how the world works.
We can’t escape our beliefs because they’re as much a part of us as our arms and legs, but if we understand our own beliefs, we can consciously work to limit our own biases before heading into the great unknown that is the paranormal.
Jeff Belanger has written numerous books on the paranormal and is also the owner of GhostVillage.com
Jeff has also just released his new book Weird Massachusetts
Written exclusively for the Australian Paranormal Society by Pat Fitzhugh, Bell Witch author and historian.
While inspecting his fields one morning in the fall of 1817, Bell noticed a strange looking animal, with the head of a rabbit and the body of a dog, sitting between two rows of corn. Motionless, the mysterious animal gazed into Bell’s eyes. He pulled up his muzzleloader rifle, took aim, and fired a shot at the creature, which remained motionless. Bell fired another shot and the animal vanished.
Not long after the incident in the field, other family members began reporting strange apparitions. Drewry Bell reported seeing a large, bird-like creature sitting on one of the log fences, and 11-year-old Betsy Bell reported seeing an odd-looking, very old woman walking in the pear orchard behind their house. The woman seemingly vanished when Betsy spoke to her.
As the nights grew cooler upon winter’s arrival, the Bells began hearing strange noises throughout their log home at night. There were the sounds of chains being dragged across the floor, stones landing on the roof, and rats gnawing at their bedposts. Something would occasionally tug at the children’s bedcovers, and if they dared to resist, they were slapped by an invisible hand. These events usually started just after bedtime, and sometimes lasted until 3 o’clock in the morning.
Being an elder of the church during the period of time when everyone feared “witchcraft,” John Bell swore his family to complete secrecy in the matter of the disturbances; otherwise, his family would be ridiculed by the church. The disturbances continued, however, and Bell decided to confide in his closest friend and neighbor, James Johnston, who agreed to spend the night in the Bell home. He felt his bed shake as he heard screams coming from Betsy’s room, where she was being beaten mercilessly and relentlessly by an invisible force.
The next morning, Johnston suggested that the entity was a “spirit,” and a very malevolent one. He recommended that John Bell get more people involved in hopes of shedding some light on the mystery. All of the disturbances previously mentioned increased over time, both in frequency and intensity. The Bells got very little sleep, and Betsy always seemed to have bruises and welts all over her body. One evening, the Bells began hearing faint, indiscernible whispers that sounded like a feeble old lady.
The disembodied whispers grew over time, finally reaching the point where they could be understood, somewhat. When the entity was excited, whether happy or mad, it spoke in a shrill, high-pitched tone. When it was sad or relaxed, it sounded like low-pitched musical notes being played on a cello, but could be understood. It never gave a direct answer when asked what it was or what it wanted, and the entity often made fun of those who tried to ascertain its identity. Finally, one of the local preachers asked, “In the name of the Lord, who are you and what do you want?”
The entity responded, “I could never lie to a man of God. I am old Kate Batts’ witch, and I am here to kill Ol’ Jack (John) Bell!” Those who heard the response where shocked. Who would want to kill John Bell, and why? They had no problems believing that the entity was the work of Kate Batts, however. Mrs. Batts was rather strange, eccentric woman who lived not far from the Bells, and who seemed jealous of the Bells and other prominent residents of the Red River Settlement. She was furious when she received word that the entity was being attributed to her, and she swore that she was not involved.
The entity’s revelation also earned it the nickname, “Kate,” which is still used to this day. It seemed that Kate’s favorite pastime was arguing religion. No preacher could hold a candle to her; she always answered their arguments with scripture, and she was always correct. As the word spread, people came from far away places to experience Kate’s antics. They were rarely disappointed.
Kate told them of their pasts, joked with them, insulted them, and on occasion, beat them. Even Major General Andrew Jackson, who later became President of the United States, came to investigate.
Over the next two years, Betsy Bell’s relationship with Joshua Gardner blossomed and he asked her to marry him. Their engagement was the talk of the settlement, and everyone seemed happy. Well, almost everyone. Kate begged repeatedly, “Betsy, please don’t marry Joshua Gardner. Please don’t have Joshua Gardner.” Betsy paid no attention to Kate’s disapproval and continued seeing Joshua. Meanwhile, John Bell fell with a condition that affected his ability to swallow, and later, talk. About that same time, Kate began committing acts of physical violence against Mr. Bell, pushing him to the ground, untying his shoes, and striking him.
John Bell’s condition worsened, and he died in December of 1820. Kate took credit for his death, explaining how she gave him a dose of poison that “fixed him.” She sang cheerfully at his funeral, sometimes even sounding drunk, until everyone left the graveyard. The disturbances slowed considerably after Bell’s death, but Kate continued to voice her disapproval for Betsy and Joshua’s engagement. Finally, on Easter Monday of 1821, Kate won out and Betsy broke off the engagement. Betsy would eventually marry Richard Powell, her older schoolteacher, who had professed a deep fondness for her since she was a child.
Kate bade farewell to the Bells in the early summer of 1821, promising to return in seven years, which she did. Kate reappeared in 1828, much like she appeared years earlier, and visited the home of John Bell, Jr. for a few weeks. During that time, she allegedly discussed with Bell, Jr. such things as the past, the present, and the future. It was during these “conferences,” as she called them, that she predicted the Civil War and other future events. Kate finally bade farewell to John Bell, Jr., this time promising to return in 107 years, which would have been 1935.
No one has been able to prove whether Kate returned in 1935, but many feel that she never fully left the place. That area Robertson County, Tennessee is the site of much paranormal activity, even today.
Anomalous pictures, strange apparitions, mysterious lights in the forest, and strange voices are often reported in the area. No one has been able to solve the case of the Bell Witch, and due to the passage of time, it is doubtful that anyone ever will. Numerous theories have been put forth over the years, but none has been widely accepted. The deeper one digs for answers, the more questions arise.
One popular myth is that Kate Batts was in fact behind the haunting, and that she came back from the dead to haunt the Bells. Mrs. Batts died after John Bell died, and the oft-mentioned “dispute” between Mrs. Batts and John Bell – which never happened – was actually between her brother-in-law, Benjamin, and Mr. Bell.
Another theory, which was made popular by several books and one motion picture, is that John Bell sexually abused Betsy and caused her mind to create recurrent spontaneous psychokinetic energy in the form of a poltergeist. There is no way to prove that such abuse ever happened, and based on actual records of the time, it is highly unlikely that John Bell would have done such a thing. Additionally, Kate exhibited characteristics that went far beyond those of a poltergeist. Although Kate manifested some poltergeist-like characteristics during the early part of her “visit,” she later spoke, with intelligence.
The foregoing paragraphs do not begin to scratch the surface of the Bell Witch case, but they provide the reader with a reasonable overview. Should you dare, you can find more information at :
http://www.bellwitch.org.
Thank you, and pleasant dreams.
You are currently browsing the archives for the ARTICLES category.
