The Latest Version of Dybbuk Possession

This week, a new horror movie titled 'The Possession' will be released. The story is derived from Jason Haxton's book The Dibbuk Box In the movie "a young girl buys an antique box at a yard sale, unaware that inside the collectible lives a malicious ancient spirit. The girl's father teams with his ex-wife to find a way to end the curse upon their child." Below is an excellent article describing the movie and some of the mysticism and folklore included:

'Possession' Mixes Jewish Folklore and Urban Legend

By Jim Beckerman - Supernatural possession, as we learned in "The Exorcist," can involve levitation, spinning heads, foul language, green bile. But why should Christians have all the fun?

"The Possession," a horror film that opens Friday, trades on an even older tradition: the "dybbuk" (a Yiddish word, from the Hebrew word for "cling"), a malicious spirit of the dead that, in Jewish folklore, possesses the living.

"Human beings all have the same fears, dreams, hopes and wishes," says Peninnah Schram, professor of speech and drama at Stern College for Women of Yeshiva University. "That's why so many of our stories, folklore, legends and parables are really universal."

Dybbuk tales have been, in their way, a Jewish pop culture tradition, much as stories of vampires and werewolves have figured in mainstream entertainment. The Dybbuka 1914 play by Sholom Ansky, is considered one of the cornerstones of Yiddish theater; it has been adapted to film, opera and ballet. More recently, dybbuks figured in the films A Serious Man [Blu-ray] and The Unborn [Blu-ray]

"None of this is borne out in authentic Jewish scripture, or Jewish law," says Rabbi Shmuley Boteach of Englewood. "It's folk stories."

But "The Possession," uniquely, is based not so much on Jewish legend as urban legend: a supposed "dybbuk box," a "haunted" wine cabinet bought at an estate sale in 2001, and advertised on eBay with a story about a dybbuk's curse that causes misfortune to anyone rash enough to own it.

The story evidently captured the imagination of producer Sam Raimi ("The Evil Dead," "The Grudge") and director Ole Bornedal. They've concocted a yarn about a young girl (Natasha Calis) who becomes obsessed with opening such a box, bought at a yard sale, and her divorced parents (Kyra Sedgwick, Jeffrey Dean Morgan) who eventually turn to an exorcist (Jewish reggae star Matisyahu) as their daughter's behavior becomes increasingly strange.

"In general, the notion of dybbuks entering inanimate objects, I've never seen," says Rabbi David Kalb, director of Jewish education for the 92nd Street Y.

"There is a tradition of spirits entering animals. But I've never heard of inanimate objects. My sense is that this is pure urban legend."

There are, to this day, people who believe in dybbuks – and people who have claimed to cast them out. Kalb has heard two such stories, from the exorcists themselves. "In both cases, as the rabbis probed deeper, they uncovered serious psychological issues," he says.

One example, from the 1970s: a possessed woman who was being "choked" by the necklace she was wearing.

"The necklace had been given to her by a parent, her father, who had committed incest with her," Kalb says. "And he held her over the throat when he did that to her.

"This woman had seen social workers, therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists, but it was only the rabbi who was able to find this in the background."

Dybbuk tales largely derive from the 16th century, Schram says, when supposedly "true" accounts were told and retold and eventually took on the color of legends. Sometimes they became cautionary tales: Dybbuks could punish people, it was said, who displayed an improperly made mezuzah, or doubted the parting of the Red Sea. "There are stories where somebody breaks a vow, and terrible consequences happen," Schram says.

But a greater number of dybbuk tales stressed the idea of the dead having unfinished business with the living. For instance, the woman wearing her father's necklace in Kalb's story. Or the spirit in the 1914 play "The Dybbuk," a dead groom who possesses the body of his bride as she is about to marry another.

"Somehow, a spirit goes into someone and is causing difficulties for them," Kalb says. "Clearly there is some kind of physical manifestation and mental anguish for someone who has a dybbuk inside them."

Interestingly, Freudian psychology – also a Jewish idea – has at its core the notion of the casting out of malign influences from the past. Did Freud have a dybbuk in the woodpile?

"One might make some parallels between the id and some kind of primitive subliminal force we can't understand," Boteach says. "A lot of what Freud wrote was influenced in some way by the Jewish tradition in which he was immersed." - northjersey

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In February 2011, after I read Jason Haxton's book The Dibbuk BoxI decided to investigate this phenomena.

I came across several interesting stories while reading about Jewish mysticism and rituals. I decided to look further and discovered references to the 'Dybbuk'. To my surprise, much of what is described in Judaism and the Kabbalah in relation to spirits and possession correlates directly and more precise to the spirit rescue work that I have recently undertaken. I would like to share some of this with you...

A dybbuk (pronounced "dih-buk") is the term for a wandering soul that attaches itself to a living person and controls that person's behavior to accomplish a task. The word "dybbuk" is the Hebrew word for "cleaving" or "clinging," and having a dybbuk is not always a bad thing for the human host...though, in most instances this is not the case.

In the Roman Catholic view, a person can succumb to a demon or devil that takes over their body, and the only cure is an exorcism to drive the demon out. In the Jewish faith there is no belief in demonic possession though there can be a possession of a living person by the soul of one who has left the body, but not the world. This soul is seeking a body to possess in order to take care of unfinished business.

In the Old Testament of the Bible, a bad spirit is described as attaching itself to King Saul, the first chieftain of the ancient tribes of Israel. Later, the prophet Elijah is possessed by the spirit of a dead man in an attempt to persuade the prophet into maneuvering the King into a war.

According to ancient Hebrew tradition, demons are beings not much different than humans but were created in the twilight of creation after the humans and right before the end of creation. They are neither of our world, nor of the other world, but a part of both.

The concept of the transmigration of souls developed and found serious followers during the Dark Ages, and by the 12th century it became an established part of the Kabbalah. The 16th century schools of mysticism embraced it. When Hasidism developed, the belief took final hold.

The first form is the Gilgul, which is the Hebrew word for 'rolling,' but means, in this context, the transmigration of the soul. Generally, it is represented as a natural sequence in the life of the soul and simply enters the body at birth, just as the infant is about to leave the mother's body, and prepares to live whatever normal life span has been allotted to it.

The second form of transmigration is the Dybbuk, a disembodied spirit possessing a living body that belongs to another soul. The earliest description was that they may be nonhuman demons...later it was assumed they were the spirits of persons who have died. The dybbuk may be the soul of a sinner, who wishes to escape the just punishment given to it by the 'angels of the grave' who seek to beat them, or to avoid another form of soul punishment...which is wandering the earth. A dybbuk may seek revenge for some evil that was done to it while it lived. The dybbuk may be lost and enter a body simply in order to find a rabbi who would be able send it on it's way. The living host may or may not know that a dybbuk is occupying their body. There may be torment towards the host but this depends on the intent of the possessing soul.

The third form is the Ibbur. The Hebrew translation of the word means 'impregnation.' Ibbur is the most positive form of possession, and probably the most complicated. It happens when a righteous soul decides to occupy a living person's body for a time, and joins, or spiritually 'impregnates' the existing soul. Ibbur is always temporary, and the living person may or may not know that it has taken place. Many times the living person has given consent for the Ibbur since it is always benevolent. The departed soul seeks to complete an important task, to fulfill a promise, or to perform a Mitzva (a religious duty) that can only be accomplished in the flesh.

If the dybbuk is able to encounter a rabbi while possessing a living host, then an exorcism ritual can be performed. The Jewish exorcism ritual is performed by a rabbi who has mastered practical Kabbalah. The point of the exorcism is to heal the person being possessed and the spirit doing the possessing. This is a stark contrast to the Roman Catholic exorcism that is intended to drive away the offending spirit or demon. The intent is to heal the soul that's possessing and heal the person. The ceremony is done on behalf of both.

In some cases, there is a positive aspect to a dybbuk. On occassion a spirit will seek out a person in a time of need to help. This second type of possession is called 'sod ha'ibbur,' which is Hebrew for 'mystery impregnation.' This is a good possession simply because this is a spirit guide. The spirit of someone who has struggled and overcome what you have struggled with and can't overcome will be lent to you from the spirit world to possess and stimulate you, and help you overcome misfortune and what it has been able to in its lifetime. When it's tasks are done and you've managed to achieve what you need in your life, it leaves you.

Some people reach high pinnacles of achievement and they may fall into deep depression. This can be explained as the loss of that spirit. There's a sense of loss, and it's misinterpreted as depression. If the person eventually realizes that, they can be thankful that they had a spirit guide to help them. They need to continue to lift up their own spirit for the remainder of their life.

The concept of dybbuk recognizes that our physical world and the spiritual world can intertwine for both positive and negative reasons. If those intersecting reasons are negative, there is a healing process to mend the collision so both the possessor and the possessed can move on.

NOTE: There have also been times when a dybbuk can haunt or infest an inanimate object, for example the Dibbuk Box, a supposed haunted wine box that has brought terror and regret to several owners over the years...Lon

Sources:
metro.co.uk
britannica.com
myjewishlearning.com
A Dybbuk and Other Tales of the Supernatural
learnkabbalah.com
The Dybbuk and Other Writings by S. Ansky
mythencyclopedia.com
Between Worlds: Dybbuks, Exorcists, and Early Modern Judaism (Jewish Culture and Contexts)
ghostvillage.com
mythencyclopedia.com
Dybbuks and Jewish Women in Social History, Mysticism and Folklore
northjersey.com

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Proceed With Caution In Ireland's Haunted Castles

Clonony Castle
Shannon Harbour, County Offaly

Built in the 16th century, the great ruins of this tower are the home of a mysterious ghost that no-one has been able to identify. A man, surrounded by a hazy, eerie light, stands at the top of the tower wearing old-fashioned clothes. This tall, gaunt figure is regularly seen by people driving by the castle and the description of the man has always been the same. Irish castles are usually not visited by such mysterious apparitions from the Beyond.


Charleville Forest Castle
Tullamore, County Offaly

With luminous balls of ghostly light appearing throughout the castle, and the ghost of Charles Bury, First Earl of Charleville haunting a tower, the Charleville Forest Castle is an eerie place of strange sights, include an Initiation Circle left over from the Druids. Thanks to the fact that this haunted castle of Ireland provides accommodations for the night, ghost hunters can bed down here to search for the secrets of its uncanny events.


Kilkea Castle
Castledermot, County Kildare

High on a wall in the rear of this castle, an erotic carving of bizarre half-human, half-animal figures indicates to all who approach that Kilkea Castle is not for the faint of heart. This carving, known as the Evil Eye Stone, is not the only unusual feature of this haunted castle of Ireland. It is said that every seven years, the ghost of Earl Gerald rises from the grave to rid Ireland of its enemies. Time your visit to this haunted Irish castle right, and you may catch a glimpse of the Earl as he sets out on his spectral mission.


Killua Castle
Clonmellon, County Westmeath

Famed as the family seat of the great T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia), Killua Castle was abandoned long ago. Nevertheless, its former visitors often heard strange sounds in the middle of the night.

The walls of Killua Castle are said to be guarded by a white specter at night, and a vile-looking figure was often seen inside the ruins. This hideous apparition is believed to be Jacky Dalton, a land steward from the 18th century who swindled his master out of great sums of money.

He was said to be a small but wily man who drank all his ill-gotten gains and committed suicide by throwing himself into the lake. If you are possessed of steely nerves and you wish to glean the knowledge of Ireland haunted castles, Killua can give you a glimpse into the eerie and uncanny.


Leap Castle
County Offaly

Visit Leap Castle only if you are willing to dare a glimpse of the life and unlife. Standing out among Ireland haunted castles, Leap is said to be one of the most haunted castles of Ireland.

Even the locals who are supposed to "know better" avoid it after the sun goes down. Some have described seeing the windows at the top of the castle lighting up brilliantly for no reason whatsoever. Another presence is said to give off a ghastly odor.

The ghosts in Leap Castle are angry specters...and with good reason.

Within its walls lie secrets of a dark and deadly past. Over 400 years ago, during High Mass, a priest was murdered by his own brother in what is now called the "bloody chapel".

The dungeon was also a source of excruciating pain and unendurable misery for tortured prisoners as they waited for the sweet release of death. With such notorious implements as thumbscrews, the rack, and the iron maiden, there was no end to the pain this den of misery subjected its denizens to.

Around the year 1900, workmen hired to clean out Leap Castle pulled up the drop floor of the dungeon and discovered human skeletons piled on top of each other as though they were tossed in like cordwood. Death was everywhere in Leap Castle. And now, it lingers in the very living stone.

If the bizarre, the frightful, and the inexplicable do not dissuade you, Leap Castle is the destination where you can test your mettle against all things that go bump in the night.

Castle Ghosts of the British Isles

Haunted Castles of Britain and Ireland

The Sin Eater

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The Capitol Theatre Haunting - Salt Lake City, Utah

The Capital Theater in downtown Salt Lake City is the site of several ghost accounts, in particular the spectre of an usher who was killed there in a fire in the 1940s. Since then, lights switch on an off, doors lock and unlock themselves, toilets flush unattended and a Coke machine exhibits strange behavior.

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A recent Paranormal Witness episode described the ordeal of Dave Murphy, a Salt Lake County sheriff’s deputy, who worked security in the building. He thought stories of hauntings were, well, "a load of crap" until he "saw dark shadows moving through walls."

He recalled hearing doors slam with such force that windows vibrated when there was nobody in the building with him. "I saw a woman dressed in early 1900s clothes," Murphy said. "She walked right past me as I sat in the control room. My jaw dropped."

Unlike other ghost-hunting shows, Murphy was intrigued by this one because many of the witnesses are in law enforcement. "I like the way they don’t make officers look like imbeciles or the hillbilly with the missing teeth kind of thing," he said.

That’s based on the show’s strategy, said producer Mark Lewis. "What we search for is the most credible interviewees we can possibly find."

The episode focusing on the Capitol Theatre was a stand-out story because three police officers were the main contributors. "They don’t come more credible than that," Lewis said.

Among those interviewed is Blair Fuller, the administrative and fiscal manager of the Salt Lake County Center for the Arts, who first experienced something otherworldly in the building in 1997. While working late at night, he found the elevator operating on its own, and overhead file doors swinging open about two or three inches, and then slamming shut.

Still, he never felt menaced. "In my experience, it’s almost like a teenager trying to get some attention," Fuller said. "And once you acknowledge that, it stops. But it took me an hour-and-a-half to get to that point."

As it turns out, a 17-year-old usher was killed in a fire at the theater back in 1947, and Fuller suspects it might be his ghost haunting the theater.

Murphy, on the other hand, had "menacing" encounters. "Toward the end, they wanted me out of that building for whatever reason," he said. At one point he was "attacked" by the black shadows. "It felt just like I got a punch in the chest. Literally, I could not talk," he said. "Whatever it was, it had the power to shut me up."

Both men say they’ve talked to dozens of others who have encountered something supernatural. "I’d heard stories, but until it happens to you there is that disbelief," Fuller said. "As soon as it happens to you, there’s a complete shift of attitude."

Fuller still works down the hall from a men’s room that’s a center of paranormal encounters.

"Let me give you some tips," Lewis advises Capitol Theatre patrons. "Stay away from the men’s room on the third floor. Don’t go down to the basement. And whatever you do, don’t get on an elevator."

Murphy said he might return to the theater for a performance, "but would I work there? No. My nerves were shot. Some nights I would be shaking so bad it would take me hours before I would unwind," he said. "A lot of people think I’m crazy, but I know what I saw." - sltrib.com

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By 'George,' is the Capitol Theatre Still Haunted?

Ballet West's Annie VanAlstyne remembers the event well.

She was working in her Capitol Theatre office during a production of "The Nutcracker" a few years ago when she heard the latches on a door banging. She looked, but no one was there.

Then, a clock flew across the room. She picked it up and put it back, only to have it happen again and again.

"I realized it was George visiting me," she says. "He wanted to play. I was annoyed with him."

"George" is the legendary ghost some insist haunts the venerable Salt Lake City theater. Retired security officer Doug Morgan named the spirit. He believes it is the ghost of a young usher killed in a fire at the Capitol in the 1940s.

Morgan has many George stories. On the eve of Halloween, he was in the mood to tell them.

His favorite occurred opening night of "The Nutcracker" in 1978. He got a call from a lighting technician shortly before the ballet was to begin that the stage lights were not working. He checked out the power source, but still no lights.

"We were down to five minutes to show time and I was exasperated," Morgan says. "How do you put on a 'Nutcracker' without lights? I looked up and said, 'Damn it, George, knock it off or I am going to have you exorcised.' And the lights came on."

Another time, Morgan said a bored security guard working the night shift made paper airplanes and flew them off the balcony, trying to hit the stage. He soon tired of the game and returned to the security station. While sitting there, alone, one of those paper airplanes hit him in the back of the head. He came unglued.

Charles Edwards, who works as a security guard at the Capitol, tells the story of another guard who decided to play a few tunes on the old theater organ. When finished, she turned off the instrument and lights, only to have the organ begin to play the same tune by itself.

Troy Wood of the Utah Ghost Organization that investigates strange happenings around the Salt Lake Valley had his own experience at the Capitol during a production of "The Nutcracker," when George seems to be particularly active.

He was doing an investigation with a camera and tape recorder near where the 1940s fire occurred. A shipping crate started vibrating violently and then slammed into the wall by itself.

"I did not want to be down there by myself," he says. "I got the sound on one of the video tapes. It happened behind me. I jumped. It scared me."

Gary Mlynarski of Roy, who heads the Salt Lake City Ghosts and Hauntings Research Society, has a photo of orbs of lights inside the Capitol posted on his Web site, www.ghrs.org. Yet he remains skeptical.

"I do not believe in ghosts," he says flatly. "I consider a ghost to be an apparition that appears before you and scares the hell out of you. I have never had that happen."

In his investigations of the Capitol, he has seen the security elevator run by itself, something Morgan has also witnessed. He has smelled burning wood and cotton candy in the balcony. He once sat alone on the stage with a news reporter and recorded a voice on his tape recorder that said, "Crybaby, get out." He says the reporter quickly left the building.

Still, Mlynarski remains an unbeliever. Some things, he says, are simply unexplainable.

"I believe in God and I believe in the devil. Why mess with it? The devil is not the first thing I want to see." - sltrib.com - 10/31/2001

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The History of the Capitol Theatre

During the Christmas holidays, Utahns have been flocking to the Capitol Theatre at 50 W. 200 South to enjoy Ballet West's presentations of The Nutcracker. Most audiences find the theatre's Louis XIV comfortable, and well suited to the ballet offerings, aside from a few minor complaints concerning bruised knees due to some crowding of balcony seat rows.

All in all, the Capitol seems to this columnist to suit the needs of both ballet programs and the Utah Opera presentations. Acoustics are better than average -- meaning attending operatic programs as well as drama or musical comedy in this 80-year-old landmark makes for a pleasant evening. There are parking problems occasionally, and crossing 200 South can be a a chore. But all in all, the Capitol Theatre has, since 1978, provided a necessary and a welcome center for pleasant downtown evenings or afternoon matinees.

One wonders at times whether many of today's balletomanes and opera buffs are aware of the history of the Capitol Theatre. It began as the Orpheum Theatre, and when completed in 1913 was considered to be one of the finest, most innovative -- and fireproof -- houses in the entire nation. And, if you've looked up the alley alongside the theater's east wall you may have noted the rear, extra-height section once used to ``fly'' vaudeville scenery. Today it serves to handle ballet or opera settings. Some 80 years ago, of course, vaudeville stars included not only comedians and vocalists but high wire, tumbling and other acrobatic performers who required backgrounds the Orpheum's drops could provide.

Perhaps most important in the Orpheum/Capitols history was the importation to the Salt City of a skilled out-of-state architectural specialist in theater design. He was 36-year-old G. Albert Lansburgh of San Francisco, an architect who graduated from the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, and won a Gold Medal Award at the Grand Salon in 1906. Returning from France he designed several Orpheum Theatres in eastern cities, plus the Manx Hotel, Concordia Club and other notable San Francisco buildings. In the wake of the big earthquake he supervised restoration work on the big Temple Emanuel in that same city.

The outside of his Orpheum/Capitol remains an eye-catcher today, with an especially rich facade of tapestry brick and terra cotta. The only other major building in Salt Lake using the new terra cotta material was the Hotel Utah exterior. The overall styling, Italian Renaissance (with perhaps a touch of Spanish), remains unique in the city. Its concrete, brick and steel structure was much enhanced, for safety reasons, by a ``water curtain'' which could spray the area in front of the big asbestos curtain, using water jets operated from both sides and above the stage.

Finally there was a precursor of today's air conditioning. A ``plenum system'' of mechanical ventilation pumped fresh air through grates beneath the seats, after which the ``used'' air exited through ceiling and dome vents. It was claimed the system could cool the house to 60 degrees in summer and keep patrons comfortably warm in winter.

A major stopover on the extensive Orpheum ``wheel,'' the theater housed from 1,800 to 2,000 customers as seats were rearranged. They enjoyed such artists as Will Rogers and Sophie Tucker, Dale & Evans, Joe Frisco and Trixie Friganza after which stars rode trains to Denver and points east, or San Francisco and the northwest. Critics called the Orpheum especially attractive due to its acoustics and the absence of pillars and posts usually needed to support the cantilevered balconies. Admission prices might surprise today's moviegoers, ranging from a thin dime to 75 cents in the early decades of the century.

The miracle of ``talking pictures'' came in 1929, and the house gradually eliminated vaudeville after introduction of the talkies. By that time the Ackerman-Harris vaudeville chain had bought the building which had cost $250,000 to construct. Ackerman-Harris bought the structure in 1923, and sold it in 1927 to the Louis Marcus Chain for $300,000. Marcus, a much-respected mayor of Salt Lake City, phased its shows in with theaters already owned in Ogden, Provo and Boise. Marcus enlarged capacity to 2,260 patrons and installed a ``mighty Wurlitzer'' with Alexander Schreiner (the Tabernacle organist) as its spotlighted musician.

The big house slipped a bit in Depression and pre-war years when the lobby was cut in size. An O.C. Tanner shop occupied the right-hand space, with a printing establishment on the west end. Motion pictures were shown at the Capitol until 1976, when the Salt Lake City Redevelopment Agency bought and renovated it to the present form.

Meanwhile the new Symphony Hall -- now Abravanel Hall -- and the Salt Lake Art Center came into being along with the Salt Palace to enliven downtown. Stores were ousted, the lobby, with its arched entrance and matching windows was restored, while the big sunburst on the interior ceiling was repaired. The sunburst had been put in place under Louis Marcus who employed the design talents of the R.E. Powers Co.

Vaudeville, silent films, talking pictures, ballet, opera and traveling shows -- the Capitol fitted them all well. Old timers regret one change -- the big steel arch, brightly lighted at night, vanished as a Capitol Theatre landmark when it was moved to Trolley Square almost a quarter century ago. - sltrib.com - 12/25/1994

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Actualizing Apparitions: The Philip Experiment

This weekend, a thriller film titled The Apparition opens in theaters. Here's a quick synopsis:

When frightening events start to occur in their home, young couple Kelly (Ashley Greene) and Ben (Sebastian Stan) discover they are being haunted by a presence that was accidentally conjured during a university parapsychology experiment. The horrifying apparition feeds on their fear and torments them no matter where they try to run. Their last hope is an expert in the supernatural, Patrick (Tom Felton), but even with his help they may already be too late to save themselves from this terrifying force of death. - The Apparition

The film is loosely based on an ambitious project that started in 1972 named 'The Philip Experiment'.

Many researchers of the paranormal (including myself) believe that some manifestations and poltergeist phenomena (objects flying through the air, doors slamming, etc.) are products of the human mind (tulpas or thought-form manifestation). To test that idea, a fascinating experiment was conducted in the early 1970s by the Toronto Society for Psychical Research (TSPR) to see if they could create a ghost. The idea was to assemble a group of people who would make up a completely fictional character and then, through séances, see if they could contact him, receive messages and other physical phenomena - perhaps even an apparition.

Dr. A.R.G. Owen lead a group of eight people from the Toronto Society for Psychical Research. None of these people were known to have any particular abilities in ESP, psychic, channeling, or other physical or mental specialties. They proceeded to create a person on paper, giving the person the name Philip Aylesford. The group created Philip’s entire life story: He lived in 17th century England, was married, had a love affair, and ultimately died by his own hand in 1654. Someone from the group even traveled to England to photograph the area it was said Philip had lived. Another group member sketched a drawing of Mr. Aylesford. The experiment began with the entire group meeting frequently to discuss the life and times of Philip as they would any interesting real person. Much time was spent in deep concentration, meditation and séances as a group about Philip.

After a year of continued experimentation, Philip began to make "his" presence known. Beginning with simple taps and raps the quickly becoming yes/no answers. He even gave factual answers to known historic events of his time. Soon after Philip manifested physical abilities. He was able to shake and move a table the group used.

Actual Video - The Philip Experiment

Dr. Owen repeated his experiment several times with different groups of people and was able to create other manifestations including: Lilith, an 18th century French Canadian spy; Sebastian, a medieval alchemist; and very curiously Axel, a man from the future! All manifested very quickly after the experiment started and also communicated via raps and taps. At the beginning of the experiment, the stated goal was to eventually create an
apparition. Though toward the end of 1977 they felt they were close to reaching that goal, interest in the experiment waned and activities were discontinued. - The Philip Experiment

Inspired by these experiments a group from Australia conducted The Skippy Experiment in which they created the persona of Skippy Cartman, a 14-year-old Australian girl.

Because of the results of these experiments, some would conclude that this proves that ghosts don't exist, that such things are in our minds only. Others may say that our unconscious could be responsible for this kind of the phenomena some of the time. Regardless there is no way to prove that ghosts don't exist. Philip was completely fictional...the spirit world was never contacted. This was simply a psychokinetic anomaly manufactured by the collective human conscious. The only certain conclusion is that there is much to our existence and beyond that is still unexplained.

In an interesting side note, after these experiments were started, the 'religion' of Spiritualism increased dramatically in popularity, especially in the United States, Canada, England and Wales. Spiritualists believe in communicating with the spirits of discarnate humans. They believe that spirit mediums are humans gifted to do this, often through seances and that anyone may become a medium through study and practice. They believe that spirits are capable of growth and perfection, progressing through higher spheres or planes. The afterlife is not a static place, but one in which spirits evolve. The two beliefs - that contact with spirits is possible, and that spirits may lie on a higher plane - lead to a third belief, that spirits can provide knowledge about moral and ethical issues, as well as about God and the afterlife. Thus many members speak of spirit guides - specific spirits, often contacted, relied upon for worldly and spiritual guidance. - Spiritualism in Antebellum America (Religion in North America)

I personally believe in some of these tenets...but defined a bit differently. True mediumship, in my opinion, is an instilled gift. I don't think that it can be learned or taught. I do believe that spirits are remnant energy that do have the ability to communicate as well as pass through portals (worm holes) between this world and other locations in our universe and possibly others. I feel that the afterlife is like a 'way station', where these life energies remain after they leave their earthbound environment. Some of these former earthbound energies evolve into 'helpers' for living beings...while other are integrated and merged with other living spirits. There is nothing religious or dogmatic with my theories...it's just what I have hypothesized after being subjected to the supernatural. Lon

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The Kennesaw Mountain Ghost Rider

"I saw the link about seeing anything strange...well, earlier this year, I think I did."

"I've got a bad back and haven't worked in over a year so I spend a lot of time in bed. Earlier this year, late spring or early summer, I was in a half-awake state and I noticed the hazy form of what appeared to be someone in civil war clothing on a horse standing in my bedroom. It was there for only a second and kind of dematerialized. I remember it being a kind of a yellowish color."

"I wasn't scared and thought it was probably not so much a ghost but the energy of something that happened here during the Civil War. I am 3 miles from the epicenter of the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain park and probably less then a mile from the cavalry battleground at Mud Creek."

"On Twitter, there is an Alabama paranormal group that I think started following me first. I told them that the area I live in is supposed to be haunted and they should check it out sometime. I kind of forgot about the thing I saw in my bedroom. The Marietta Square is about 5 miles from my house and they have a company doing ghost tours. Anyway, I did a Google search to send them some links and I found the posting below. The fence mentioned is probably 1-2 miles from my house. I haven't seen anything in this house before or since, but sometimes I hear things in my bedroom that come from that side of the room. I have heard that for awhile. It may be explainable since I have a fan over there and it may be blowing stuff around on my disorganized desk. Anyway, thought you might enjoy that story."

Bill

NOTE: I received this email in November 2009. Below is the story Bill referred to...Lon

---

From 11/1/2007

Ghost Rider at Kennesaw Mountain?


11alive - A Cobb County, GA man tells 11Alive News that he had a brush with what may have been a real ghost near Kennesaw Mountain earlier this month.

The man, who doesn't want to be identified, says he and his teenage son were driving through Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield the night of October 8 when they spotted something about to cross the road in front of their car. Both Civil War buffs, they say the rider appeared to be a Union Army cavalry officer complete with a sabre in his hand.

"I quickly locked down on my brakes as the horse proceeded to come right in front of us", the driver says. He says the rider then headed straight through a fence as though it didn't exist and faded into thin air. "My son and I were in a state of almost sheer panic," the man says, "but we managed to maintain and get on the way home very quickly."

The driver also told his story to Kevin Fike, a professional ghost hunter who helps run a ghost tour in Marietta. Fike, who founded Historic Ghost Watch and Investigations, says the sighting sounds like what's known in the paranormal field as a "residual haunting". He explains it as sort of a historical video clip that's lost in time and replays itself occasionally.

Fike says such sightings are more common in historic areas. "The most common type of a haunting would be a residual haunting," according to Fike, "then you add to that the emotion and the trauma associated with battlefields or hospitals."

True story or not? All this reporter can tell you is that he knows the two people involved and they are not given to fancy. They want to remain anonymous because of what people might think of them. After all, if you thought you saw something like this, would you want to be quoted by name?

The Ghosts of Kennesaw Mountain

A Ghost a Day: 365 True Tales of the Spectral, Supernatural, and Just Plain Scary!

Haunted Georgia: Ghosts and Strange Phenomena of the Peach State (Haunted Series)

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The Mercado / Gravesend Haunting

A retired Gravesend nurse’s unbelievably spooky tale about living in a haunted house is now reality TV.

Elaine Mercado, 64, says she spent 22 years living with ghosts who terrorized her and her family in their old Queen Ann-style home on East 9th St.

Mercado’s spooky tale was featured on the SyFy network’s show “Paranormal Witness” about close encounters with ghosts on Wednesday.

“Things happened that we just couldn’t explain,” said Mercado, 64, who wrote a book about her ghostly experience called Grave's End

“Sometimes I would cry. [The house] would be charming if it wasn’t so creepy,” said Mercado.

The retired emergency room nurse from Coney Island Hospital first moved into the house in 1982 with her two young daughters and her first husband - and she immediately felt like she was being watched when there was no one else in the room.

Soon, she had a creepy feeling a ghost was pressing down on her chest and stomach while she would sleep.

After her daughter saw a strange man who was sitting at the top of the stairs disappear, Mercado called paranormal psychologist Hans Holzer and a medium for help.

They told her the home was full of the ghosts, including a bride who mysteriously died in the home’s attic and still wore her wedding dress.

After Mercado’s mother died, she put the spooky house up for sale so she and her husband Matthew could move in with her elderly father.

Mercado told the new owners the house was haunted and even gave them a copy of her book but said they were not scared.

Years later, the owners of the house say they still have not seen any spooks, specters or apparitions in the home.

“After we moved in I remember hearing a bunch of footsteps upstairs and getting scared. But then I remembered I had four kids in the house,” said the current owner who declined to give her name. “We renovated [the house] and that must have took [the ghosts] out.”

Mercado sometimes drives to the block and wonders if the ghosts still exist and said she understands if her horror story is too much to believe.

“If someone were telling me these stories without having experienced what I’ve experienced, I’d probably say the same thing,” said Mercado. “It’s okay if you don’t believe.” - nydailynews

NOTE: Marisa Anderson, a psychic consultant and medium from Scarsdale, NY and parapsychologist Hans Holzer cleansed the house in 1995. The presentation on 'Paranormal Witness' doesn't go into much detail on how the case was researched and handled, which is unfortunate. A few years ago, I examined this case and, honestly, it was conducted in a very familiar manner...it paralleled procedures used by Spirit Rescue International in our past and current investigations and clearings...especially the use of coordinate, scientific and psychic remote viewing.

The 'Paranormal Witness' presentation was entertaining but lacked reality in describing the actual events. I suggest that you read the book Grave's Endand make your own judgement.

Elaine Mercado in a 2010 interview: Now, at some point – and this was after I was writing the book – I got a lot more confident as the years went by in that something was in our house. I wasn’t crazy; my kids weren’t nuts; something was in my house. So I decided to ask my neighbor about it. I had already asked my neighbor on the left, and he just laughed at me so I didn’t bother him anymore. But the one on my right . . . we were closer. I asked him, “Tony, did anything strange that you know of ever happen here?” He said, “What took you so long to ask me?” He said that he used to baby-sit there when he was a teenager, and he heard the footsteps and all the noises. Then he refused to baby-sit there anymore. Not just that, but he said a little lady died upstairs in my daughter’s bedroom. You know, this still affects me.

I asked him what he meant, and he said that the old couple’s son married a very, very petite woman. She was 18 or 20 at the time, and Tony was a young boy. He remembers how “wonderfully tiny” her waist was. She was standing on our stoop posing for pictures when they got married. Then she moved in upstairs on the third floor, which eventually was Karen’s room. So apparently a few years later this woman died. Some people said it was a heart attack; some people said she hit her head on the night table and had an aneurysm. He never really got the story straight.

So, that’s three objective corroborations of this lady in the little dress. Then, after hearing the story, how sad was I about it. Oh my God, there was pain here. And sadness. And Tony also said that at some point the son also died. Someone said drowning; someone else said heart attack. So now I zoom back in my head to the old woman who lived here before who was very sad. Well, why shouldn’t she be sad? Look at what happened in her life. So she wasn’t just a little old lady anymore. She was that sadness that I felt looking at her that day.

Below are links to a few books that may be of interest...Lon

The Spirit Connection: How the Other Side Intervenes in Our Lives

Psychic: True Paranormal Experiences

Among the Spirits - the memoirs of Irene Allen-Block and the birth of Spirit Rescue International

Spirit Rescue International™
Providing no-cost professional spiritual help, personal support and guidance
Take the first step towards genuine peace of mind
---------------
Sign up for the
Spirit Rescue International Newsletter

The Spirit Rescue International™ Haunted Help Forum
Discussion of paranormal and spiritual phenomena,
including peer support for those with questions or concerns

*Join Our Group On Facebook*

Join Eric Altman and Lon Strickler
*LIVE*
each Sunday at 8 PM ET as we go
Beyond the Edge!
--> Buy official 'Beyond the Edge Radio' gear <--

Give a personal and authentic gift from their favorite celebrity - Free shipping & fast delivery