Sue St.Clair and Matthew Didier's Paranormal Blog

“By feeling disillusioned, you risk giving up in regard to a course of action at a time when it is about to reach a breakthrough. It’s crucial to stay with your objectives. An attractive option is coming your way.”

- Capricorn horoscope for July 23
(from the Toronto Star, by Phil Booth)

Startling revelations about PSICAN!
by Chris Laursen

A year ago, I found myself in a place I never expected to be: in awe of some local paranormal enthusiasts. Their names are Sue Darroch and Matthew Didier (yes, the very same ones who put this blog together) and they have become a significant… actually a huge influence on my day-to-day life.

In May of last year, I connected two deep passions in my life: the paranormal and history. Inspired by the work I had done with my friend Sarah Kapoor on a radio pilot for CBC Radio about paranormal topics (the pilot was rejected, but that turned my attention to my passion for academics) and a university course I was taking to complete my history degree on the witch hunts in early modern Europe, I had a revelation that has affected the very course of my life. I can study the paranormal in historical context! I am happily ending a fruitful full-time career working in the media to become an academic historian and eventually a university professor. And not just your traditional historian either, but one who researches how people have related to the unexplained, especially in the past two hundred years of psychical research.

Sue and Matthew created Paranormal Studies & Investigations Canada (PSICAN) in 2005 as an umbrella to cover various affiliate organizations across the country who adhered to the high standards they have set in psychical research, including Sue’s ParaResearchers of Ontario (founded 2000) and Matthew’s Toronto Ghosts & Hauntings Research Society (founded 1997). ParaResearchers of Québec and the British Columbia Ghosts & Hauntings Research Society are also affiliates. I am honoured to be part of it!

But I wasn’t so sure a year ago. The last thing I ever, ever wanted to do was join some sort of “paranormal group.” For years, I had gritted my teeth over television programs that spread misinformation about what paranormal research is, and even worse, the plethora of Internet-based wannabe ghost hunters out there who take after these shows, horror movies and other imaginative but non-factual schlock. I had looked over the Toronto Ghosts & Hauntings Research Society website and, to tell you the truth, was rather sceptical about it (even though it had much more content than most websites). When Sue and Matthew were giving seminar tours of specific sites in the Toronto area last summer, I thought it very likely I would be witnessing ghost-hunting yahoos in action. And why would I think differently? That’s pretty much all you find on the Internet.

One evening, I took the ferry over to Toronto Island where Sue and Matthew were leading a seminar to the Gibraltar Point Lighthouse. We all wandered over to an area where we could sit and listen to Matthew talk before proceeding to the lighthouse, and that turned out to be the highlight of the evening, even more interesting than exploring the haunted site itself. Matthew (being Matthew) laid down the law of paranormal investigation in a way I didn’t expect at all! He went through, point by point, the mandate of an organization which was deeply influenced by top notch research into the subject. He showed off all sorts of equipment typically used in haunting investigations, and proceeded to look at the strengths and weaknesses of them all, bluntly stating when there really was no evidence at all that certain pieces of equipment were even useful in such investigations. For about an hour, I was quite inspired by the dialogue between Matthew and Sue, stories of their investigations, and the historical and ghostly background of the Gibraltar Point Lighthouse. In the group, I met a lot of keen and interested people.

I walked away from that evening feeling like maybe there are local people who actually care about doing good research. So I signed up for the next walk, this one to the Old Mill on the Humber River, another source of many ghost reports. Matthew and Sue did much of the same in terms of speaking on PSICAN’s mandate, equipment and stories, and although Matthew did make a comment that he hoped he wasn’t boring those who’d heard his spiel before, it wasn’t boring at all. It fortified my view that these are smart people who care about the quality of research they are doing. I met other friendly PSICAN members that evening, and was encouraged to join the group by another long-time member. I read through the 100-plus page course book Matthew and Sue have refined over the years, and was impressed by the quality, thoroughness and standards they set forth in this document. Based on reading the document, I completed a written test, and was accepted into the PSICAN fold.

Over the past year, Sue, Matthew and the PSICAN gang have proven to me time and time again why the organization stands tall in international psychical research. Yes, standards compatible with long-standing, reputable international organizations! This is what has impressed me about them:

1. The best equipment for any investigation is reason, observation and attention to detail. Forget the EMF-toting, camera flash-happy tactics of amateurs who are desperate for a ghostly encounter. An open yet sceptical mind, a notepad and flashlight are far more essential than any technical gadgets. Experimenting with still cameras, video, audio and using scientific equipment (such as lab thermometers, not laser thermometers to measure temperature) is great, but has yet to prove anything. Human experience on the other hand has provided the most compelling evidence, and that is the key focus of PSICAN’s investigations.

Oh no, Matthew! Watch out for the orb attack! It’s usually easy to determine the cause of these circular shapes in digital pictures. Just hold the camera at chest level and look down at it as you take a picture and the flash fires. Often, you will see the particulate matter causing the “orb” image. In this case, pollen was having a free for all in the atmosphere at Gibraltar Point Lighthouse. (Photo: Chris Laursen)

2. There is no scientific basis that orbs are “paranormal.” Those circular blobs that you capture with your digital camera? What makes people think they’re spirits or ghosts? Yet, the majority of “ghost groups” out there have virtually concluded that they are. Now, visible points of light seen with the naked eye - that has been reported in many cases and are worth investigating. PSICAN supports exhaustive research that has shown that these blobs are in all likelihood particulate matter in the air. They’re not closed to any strong research that may suggest otherwise, but such research has yet to come along. Please read: http://www.torontoghosts.org/finalorb.htm

3. Experience is key. Matthew and Sue make every effort to spread the knowledge they have gained over the years and point people to good sources of information. They team up new investigators with those who are experienced. This makes for a very positive, mentor-based system of training.

4. Read, read, read. Hey, we all enjoy a bit of boob tube, film documentaries or scary movies. But these are predominantly to entertain and to give surface exposure to this intriguing topic. Depth can be found in articles and non-fiction books written by individuals with varying but compelling and intelligent views, among them Frederick Myers, Eleanor Sidgwick, Harry Price, Peter Underwood, Gary Schwartz, George Owen, Iris Owen, William Roll, Nandor Fodor, William James, the list goes on and on. No source of shared knowledge parallels the depth of the written word. How could any form of research be done without it? My professors have always told me that to gain knowledge, you “read, read, read” and there are some very well read people in PSICAN. It’s an inspiring place to find and discuss the best research.

5. An open, respectful forum for debate. PSICAN has a wonderful online message board where you can encounter many opinions and ideas. Among its members are people who are enjoy being challenged on their ideas, and I have many times been questioned on what I say. The huge difference is in the respect its members have for each other. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I’ve seen discussions get pretty fiery - and Matthew and Sue are always quick to step in to remind of PSICAN’s mandate to respect other’s views when necessary.

6. High standards. I work very hard to achieve high standards in my own work, and I expect the same from those I work with. PSICAN is run by volunteers who all have lives, jobs and families, yet I experience the same high standards of work as I experience in university, working in the media and even volunteer work I’ve done in law enforcement. PSICAN puts its mandate into practice.

7. So you want to be a paranormal investigator? Well, you are unlikely to make a career of it, but it sure is a fascinating hobby. Like any job though, would you rather work for an established and respected organization, or try from scratch on your own? Let me tell you, there is a great value in being part of an established organization, especially one that provides training, resources and teamwork for those who wish to learn more about our mysterious world. You should be very critical and wary of what types of organizations you join. Sorry folks, but you cannot be a “certified” paranormal investigator unless you obtain a parapsychology degree from one of the few recognized institutions that offer it, of which there are none in Canada. But you can be who you are, offering your own strengths and personal interests to participate in team investigations. I’d recommend reading at least a few books by psychical researchers before joining any group. PSICAN’s course book is highly recommended and universal.

8. It’s about empathy. I volunteered for police victims services many years ago, and it was a huge influence on how I deal with people who have had traumatic experiences. For many people, inexplicable occurrences are quite unnerving. Witnesses come first at PSICAN, and confidentiality is held in high regard. It’s about documenting people’s experiences, seeing if a natural explanation can be found, and letting these people know that they are not alone in what they have experienced. This is highly rewarding and leads me to my next point.

9. Lasting friendships with like-minded people. Not only have I found friends in PSICAN, but in the people who call on PSICAN to help them understand the strange things they have experienced. A supportive circle forms over time.

10. It doesn’t just happen - it takes your own initiative. Woe is the person who waits for things to happen. You can’t just start a job and sit there waiting for something to happen. You have to actively participate. Yes, you have a wonderful supportive network in PSICAN, however you have to take your own interests and bring them to life. Over the past year, I have joined many very interesting investigations, counselled people, written this column for the Paranormal Blog, consulted with media, and so on. Matthew and Sue have offered my opportunities, but it is my own initiative that has made it happen. The more initiative you take, the more rewarding you will find this work!

There you have the joy that PSICAN has brought to my life over the past year. Thank you to Matthew, Sue and everyone I’ve met for the wonder you have added to my life!

Ponder this, gentle readers…

What is your personal interest in the paranormal?

Further reading:

For those who want to know about what the majority of “paranormal groups” out there do, go no further than…
Layeth the Smacketh Down - “We're all just one big happy community!”- THE HELL WE ARE! by Matthew Didier. Scroll down to the 7/22/07 entry in this blog.

PSICAN Course Book
http://www.torontoghosts.org/course/

PSICAN Message Board (registration required)
http://www.psican.org/messagecentre/

Toronto Ghosts & Hauntings Research Society (since 1997)
http://www.torontoghosts.org/

ParaResearchers of Ontario (since 2000)
http://www.pararesearchers.org/

This week, historian Chris Laursen takes a light-hearted look at the first haunted buildings he visited when he lived in Edmonton in his home province of Alberta, Canada in 1992.

There must be more to ghosts than this
by Chris Laursen

Fifteen years ago, I wrote my first ever article about the paranormal. At the time, I was a journalism student in Edmonton and was freelancing for the now-defunct arts and entertainment magazine the Edmonton Bullet. It wasn't the beginning of my interest in ghosts by any means, but it was the first time I had consciously stepped foot in places where ghostly things had allegedly occurred.

I ended up interviewing Ron Hlady, a preservation technician at the historic and haunted downtown McKay Avenue School. The school is now a museum and archives run by the Edmonton Public School Board. The building was actually the site of Alberta's first two legislative sessions in 1906 and 1907. The government rented the third floor assembly hall from the Protestant School Board for $400 per session, and it was in that room that politicians made the decision to make Edmonton Alberta's capital. After that, the young provincial government moved its sessions to cheaper digs until the current domed Legislature was built for it in 1911.

The Alberta Legislature that former Premier Ralph Klein will no doubt continue to haunt. (Photo: Legislative Assembly of Alberta)

At its peak, McKay Avenue School had 456 students in 1916, but that number declined steadily over time, leading to its closure in 1983 with only 53 students enrolled. Its Romanesque design, pillared entrance and brick façade - all unique to Alberta architecture - prompted the school to be designated a Provincial Historic Resource in 1976, thus ensuring the building's survival in a rapidly expanding provincial capital where many of the old original buildings were torn down to make way for new development.

Hlady told me about how objects mysteriously moved around and strange noises were heard at the school. In the late 1980s, Hlady and a co-worker were setting up chairs on the top floor of the building. They both left the room for a few minutes and returned to find the chairs scattered about, although no one else was in the building at the time. Hlady also recalled how lights had been turned on and off mysteriously, water taps have been found running when they should have been turned off, and the alarms in the building have been triggered without reasonable explanation.

I recollect Hlady pulling a ouija board off a shelf in his office, and telling me that he had been experimenting with it, and communicating with a spirit who claimed to be a worker who had accidentally fallen off the roof of the building during its construction or a renovation. It is a well-known legend that this maintenance man is said to be one of the ghostly residents in the building, and I find it interesting that the legend may be rooted in Hlady's own ouija board sessions. I didn't mention this in the published article. Maybe it was just a figment of my imagination? Barbara Smith, author of Ghost Stories of Alberta, counted over a dozen spirits that are reputed to haunt the building. To this day, the McKay Avenue School is a prime destination for a local ghost walk.

The McKay Avenue School in Edmonton, Canada in 1912. (Photo: Edmonton Public Schools Archives and Museum)

One of the buildings I looked into never made it into my published article. I cannot recall why I decided that it shouldn't be, but I remember very well visiting this rather unusual haunted location. I won't mention the name of this place, although I will say it was one of the last drive-in fast food restaurants in Edmonton, a small, somewhat cheesy but historical site all the same. (May the record show that I have fond memories of visiting this fast food chain as a kid, and having a tray of frosty glass mug of root beer, a freshly grilled hamburger with greasy but delicious onion rings attached to the window of my parents' car for me to enjoy. Oh how the times have changed. Mind you, I'm not so old to remember servers on rollerskates!) This particular restaurant no longer stands, a victim to Edmonton's development and a changing fast food industry. Trendy downtown condos now stand in its place.

The employees had been reporting strange things. One day a fry cook was almost injured when the open lid of the fryer he was using slammed down. On several occasions, the combination safe in the office was found to have opened with no plausible explanation as to why. Everyone was talking about a ghost. They were a bit freaked out by this, but also fascinated. I can't remember getting much more detail beyond that, and maybe that's why it didn't make it into my published article.

After my first foray into allegedly haunted buildings, I remember feeling rather disappointed. By that time, I had read several books on ghosts and marvelled at the famous photographs of the Brown Lady or Tulip Staircase monks, was astonished by the spontaneous appearances of the faces of Belmez, the Enfield poltergeist, and the many adventures had by professional ghost hunter Peter Underwood in his books. I guess I had expected to hear reports of half-body apparitions floating through the halls and disappearing through closed doors, of eerie messages being scratched into walls, or at least get to hear some ghostly footsteps.

Someone had told me around that time that ghosts preferred wet and damp environments, which seemed to explain to me why rainy England was so haunted and arid Alberta was not.

Edmonton, I concluded at the time, barely had any ghosts, and the ghosts it did seem to have - well, I very much questioned whether they were ghosts at all. The maintenance man falling from the roof and then haunting the building sounded too fanciful to me, like an urban legend. And I thought there were just too many possible natural explanations for why these reported things happened.

In hindsight after reading a great deal about ghostly phenomenon, my view has shifted. I can say that the McKay Avenue School's domineering atmosphere made a definite impression on me. Now, when people tell me about a haunted school or institution, I think of its spacious rooms and tall windows that seem perfect for ghosts. And Ron Hlady was a very effective and kind guide who honestly felt there were probably spirits walking through the former school's halls.

With further investigation, no doubt natural causes could resolve some the mysteries that have been experienced in these haunted buildings I visited. But reading updated remarks of those of have since visited McKay Avenue School, I can definitely respect that there is something odd there - a sense of something unseen yet present. The fast food restaurant may no longer stand (my Dad suggested perhaps the new condos are haunted in its absence), but McKay Avenue School sits waiting at the corner of 99th Avenue and 105th Street, waiting for open yet sceptical minds to explore its space.

Further Reading:

Barbara Smith's Ghost Stories of Alberta which includes an account of McKay Avenue School (1993), More Ghost Stories of Alberta (1997) and Even More Ghost Stories of Alberta (2001) all delve into the tales that come out of the province, proving my initial impression of Alberta being not all that haunted quite wrong. They are available from Lone Pine Publishing.

This week, historian Chris Laursen looks at the circumstances behind a famous photograph in which a ghostly girl appears in the doorway of the Wem Town Hall as it was burning down in November 1995.

In the doorway of a burning building
by Chris Laursen

A few weeks ago, the North Shropshire Chronicle reported on the controversies surrounding the closure of the municipal hall in Wem, a market town located near the Welsh border 100 kilometres southwest of Manchester, England. The century-old building was destroyed by a fire on November 19, 1995, but was later rebuilt for £1.8 million ($3.6 million US). The local councils decided to move out of the building two years ago, much to the despair of local residents who watched as the vacant building fell into disrepair which, as one local resident put it, made it “look like a dustbin with windows.” For the local councils, the closure was a decision between keeping the town hall or the local swimming pool open, and via a questionnaire, North Shropshire residents favoured the recreational facility.

All the same, it is sad for any town with such a rich history to see a landmark fall into disuse. Wem has been holding its weekly markets since 1202, and is the birthplace of sweet peas first crossbred by Henry Eckford in the 1880s. During the War of the Roses in the 15th century, the entire town was razed by the Yorkists. Then the townsfolk, under Colonel Mytton, fended off Lord Capel’s forces during the Civil War in 1643. The Wem Town Hall fire of 1995 was the second large fire to have afflicted the town. In 1677, most of the wooden structures in the town were destroyed when a teenaged girl, Jane Churm, accidentally dropped a candle. According to Wem’s official website, “the intense heat partly melted the church bells, which had to be recast.”

The Wem Town Hall burned on November 19, 1995. (Photo: Shropshire Star)

On that November night in 1995 when the Wem Town Hall caught fire, hundreds of townsfolk gathered to watch outside of a cordoned off area. Over 60 firefighters came to fight the flames, and although they managed to save much of the exterior of the building, the interior was gutted. The Shropshire Star reported that despite the massive fire, “a large plaque on the town hall entrance commemorating the Great Fire of 1677 had only suffered minor water damage.” Arson was ruled out, but no one was able to pinpoint the cause of the fire.

Standing across the street with his camera was local resident Tony O’Rahilly. He had a 200-mm zoom lens mounted on his camera, and was taking pictures of the scene of the fire from a safe vantage point.

Some time later, O’Rahilly had his black and white film developed and was astonished to find an unexpected image in one of the photographs. Standing in the doorway of the burning town hall is what appears to be the image of a young girl who O’Rahilly said he did not see when he was taking the photograph. This is a very unusual photograph indeed, notably haunting since the girl appears to be looking directly towards the camera, flames raging behind her inside of the town hall. No other picture with this image of a girl has surfaced. Who was this mysterious young woman?

A strange figure stands at the doorway of the burning Wem Town Hall. (Photo: Tony O’Rahilly / Fortean Photo Archives)

O’Rahilly immediately sent the image and negatives to the Association for the Scientific Study of Anomalous Phenomena, who passed it to Dr. Vernon Harrison, a former president of the Royal Photographic Society. “The negative is a straight forward piece of black-and-white work and shows no sign of having been tampered with,” the expert said. A BBC report on Dr. Harrison’s analysis added that “Dr. Harrison still considers himself something of a sceptic and suggested that the image of the girl may just be a convenient trick of the light - with smoke, flame and shadow creating an optical illusion at the moment the photographer took his picture.”

When the photograph surfaced publicly, many locals believed the girl in the photo to be the ghost of 14-year-old Jane Churm who had accidentally set fire to the town 318 years earlier. Stories of Jane returning to the scene of the Wem Town Hall fire out of guilt for what she had done spread widely. Some suggested that perhaps she was even responsible for the town hall fire.

With this publicity, local resident Richard Burnham carried the sceptical viewpoint further. He wrote: “Now, let me say that, as ghost pictures go, it’s a pretty good one. The figure stands out readily, and you don't need much of a leap of the imagination to see it…. It’s also not a clear fake, like the incompetent autopsy of the ‘Roswell alien’ or the ‘fairy pictures’ that deceived Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.”

In his layman’s analysis of the photo as it has been posted online, Burnham suspected that the face would have to be positioned in front of the railings, which would “not be compatible with the position of the body.” He questioned if the “body” that appears below the face is even a body at all. “In a big fire, there is a lot of stuff in the air: smoke billowing around, creating patterns of light and shade, debris falling from ceilings or blowing about in the hot draughts, sealed containers exploding and so on,” he wrote. “My guess is that the photographer has been very lucky to catch some of these in an instantaneous configuration that the human eye and brain find very easy to interpret as a human figure.”

In the end, this picture remains yet another piece of the unexplained. Was the image of what appears to be a ghostly girl merely a spontaneous capture of something, such as smoke or light, creating what appears to us to be a human standing at the doorway? Although not witnessed by any of the many residents watching the fire, was a flesh and blood young woman standing there? Or could this be yet another example of an apparition caught on film, even though it was not spotted by the naked eye, which has been the case in so many inexplicable ghost photographs? It is likely we will never find out for certain, but we can view this photograph with fascination for the possibilities it presents to us.

Ponder this, gentle readers…

Do you think the explanation of Jane Churm being the girl in the picture accurately reflects historical fact or is it merely imaginative thinking?

Further reading:

Official Wem website:
http://www.wem.gov.uk/

Richard Burnham’s sceptical analysis of the Wem Town Hall photograph:
http://www.wisewords.demon.co.uk/shropshire/ghost.html

UPDATE MAY 2010:

It looks like the mystery of this particular photo may have been solved. Please see this article which describes how the image of the "ghostly girl" is identical to the image of a young girl in a recently discovered postcard that was stamped 1922.

Dear Weird Wednesday readers:

I am taking the week to relax, but if you're looking for some wonderful weirdness, do not fret. Maybe you've missed out on some of the articles I have written in the past few months about some fascinating photographs that raise questions about cameras capturing the uncanny. In all of these cases, the figures that show up in the photos were not seen by the photographers or witnesses at the time the photograph was taken. Could it be an apparition caught only by the camera's lens, a psychical imprint of some sort, or something else? Enjoy - and I will return next week with an all new Weird Wednesday, this one about yet another inexplicable and controversial photograph. And Happy July 4th to our friends in the United States!

Tiptoe up the Tulip
The Queen's House, Greenwich, England, 1966

Bachelor's Grove seeks Single White Apparition
Chicago, Illinois, 1991

Photos and Survival of Bodily Death
Sheffield Park, England, 2004
Undisclosed location, 1997

For the month of June, historian Chris Laursen takes us to different locales in East Asia to reveal the colourful and fantastical ghostlore that comes from that region. In his last instalment in this series, a Filipino woman (who lives in Toronto, Canada) tells Chris about her recent experience clearing her husband's house in Manila of its ghosts.

Throw a fistful of salt, smash a glass of gin
by Chris Laursen

A few months ago, I ran into a couple of friends in a local bakery, and in conversation told them about the historical research I've been doing on the paranormal. One of my friends told me that her mother had gone to the Philippines (where her father currently lives), and was clearing his house of its ghosts. I was really curious about this, and some weeks later had an opportunity to sit down with my friend's mother, who likes to go by the nickname Mama, to talk to her about the experience.

In the late 1990s, Mama's mother-in-law died, and her husband returned to the Philippines to take care of the family property. He moved into her house in Manila, and ever since, strange things have been happening in the house. Many people have sensed a presence there, while others have reported apparitions, the regular sound of someone walking up the stairs, doors closing on their own and electric fans turning on by themselves.

Several years ago, my friend went to visit her father in Manila and had a strange experience of her own. "My Dad let me stay in his room while he stayed in the other room," she told me. "One night, I was in his room and he was watching TV in the other room. I thought I heard him calling out to me. I peeked out my door and I saw what I thought was him with white stockings on his feet, running from the hall into the room, which is weird because he doesn't wear socks around the house." She went to his room to ask what he wanted. He was just relaxing in his bed, barefoot as usual. "I asked him what he needed and he said he didn't call me. I told him what I saw, and he said, 'You know I don't wear socks in the house.'" She added that she really doesn't want to know about the haunting there because it makes her feel a bit paranoid.

But Mama was eager to tell me all about it. She told me of how, being a Roman Catholic family, the house had been blessed on a few occasions. But soon after each blessing, the ghostly incidents would resume. Late last year, her husband had hired a cook to work in the restaurant he owns. The cook and his wife came from another village about two hours from Manila and they needed a place to stay until they got settled in the city. Mama's husband offered them a room for a few weeks.

The bustling city of Manila, Philippines.

One night, when her husband was out, the couple heard someone in the kitchen. There was the sound of dishes as if they were being cleaned. They went downstairs to greet Mama's husband, who they thought had just returned home. But there was no one there. The next day, they asked Mama's husband if he had been in the kitchen at this time, but he said he hadn't returned home yet. The couple were unnerved by the experience.

Mama's husband decided to call in an older woman who believed in the supernatural and could perform a ceremony to rid the house of its unwanted and unseen guests. When she entered the house, she told Mama's husband that she saw a lady sitting at the dining room table, her head bowed. The woman did a rite involving a chicken, gin and candles, and for a while all was quiet. But soon, the haunting resumed. Mama's husband told Mama of this when he came to visit her in Toronto, Canada last January.

In Toronto, Mama has a friend originally from Jamaica. Her friend had told Mama about how her home in Jamaica had been haunted, and she had learned a procedure to get rid of the ghosts. With many strange, often frightening reports, Mama was willing to try something new to clear family home in Manila of its ghosts.

The procedure would take nine days to complete and would have to be performed on each of those days just before sunrise. In early April, Mama was visiting her husband and decided to undergo the process her Jamaican friend had advised her to try. It was around midnight, and Mama had to get up in a few hours to do the lengthy initial procedure to exorcise the house. "I woke up, and by our window, it sounded like birds were coming. They were so loud, but I couldn't see anything because it was dark," she told me. No one else had heard the strange sounds. She wondered if it was a sign that someone knew Mama was going to try to rid the house of its spirits.

Filipinos have a long-standing, rich mythology, and continue to experience apparitions and ghostly activities within the context of traditional beliefs. A recent news story featured video captures of alleged "multos" (the Tagalag word for ghosts). Interestingly, they seem to share the girl with long dark hair wearing a nightgown or dress as has often been captured on videos since the popular movie "The Ring" was released. The link for the video is at the bottom of this article.

In the early hours of the morning, Mama and the housekeeper started the process of clearing the house. They had many different items her Jamaican friend recommended she use: salt, hot chillies, chayote, green lemons, red candles, gin and so on. Outside of the house, she filled a glass with gin and took a fistful of salt, and threw them both to the ground. "My friend told me to say, 'Go away! Don't come back!' like you're really mad! So I did that," said Mama. The two women went through the entire property with frankincense, spreading the various items around to repel whatever spirits were haunting the home. The initial procedure was completed before sunrise. On each of the nine days, before the sun rose, Mama read a prayer from the Bible, Psalm 97, while facing to the east.

But on the ninth day, Mama wondered if all of her prayers had been in vain. She stood in a room reading the prayer one last time when she felt a breeze. She looked and saw that the electric fan was on. It was very strange that the fan would be on so early in the morning, for it was always left off during the night. As Mama told me the story, she rationalized the maybe the fan had been left on, but she was quite certain it was not, and that it turned on by itself while she was reading the prayer. Her husband further verified this when told her he had not turned on the fan before going to bed. "I thought to myself, 'Oh shoot!' What was going on?" she said. "This was the ninth day! But you cannot fear. You have to be strong. This is my house."

To Mama's knowledge, all has been quiet in her husband's house in Manila since she did the procedure. But things have always been quiet after blessings have been made, leaving one to wonder if the ghosts might return. Mama hopes they don't.

Further reading:

The Philippines has a rich mythology passed on from the many tribes who lived there before the Spanish brought Catholicism to the islands. Among the tales you will read about are tree spirits, including fairies, dwarves and giants, all of whom live in or around the trees in the forests. This rich folklore still lives on today, as Mama told me about how there is a tree on her husband's property that is thought to have spirits. One person reported seeing a kapre (a tall, dark giant) in the tree coming to the house one night. To ensure the tree spirits are happy, people leave offerings at the tree.

Some further details on mythological creatures in the Philippines can be found at:
http://www.answers.com/topic/philippine-mythology

Not only does the Philippines have incredible folklore, it also has a lot of ghosts! People have written about their own accounts of their paranormal encounters on several websites:

Your Ghost Stories - Personal paranormal encounters
http://www.yourghoststories.com/ghost-stories-countries.php?country=PH&page=1

A list of haunted places in the Philippines:
http://theshadowlands.net/places/philippines.htm

An article by Doris Trinidad in the Philippine Post Magazine from October 2001 on ghosts:
http://www.philpost.com/1001pages/insight1001.html

Last, but not least, check out this Filipino television segment which includes several video captures (see above picture) of what are said to be apparitions. Judge for yourself, and be sure to have someone close by to grab onto if you get scared:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AL4j-Wsp-EI

For the month of June, historian Chris Laursen takes us to different locales in East Asia to reveal the colourful and fantastical ghostlore that comes from that region. This week, he looks at a Dutch explorer who encountered poltergeist phenomenon on the island of Sumatra in what is now Indonesia in 1903.

Rock the house
by Chris Laursen

Late one night in September 1903, W. G. Grotten-dieck awoke to the sound of something falling on the floor near his head. "They were black stones from an eighth to three-quarters of an inch long. I got out of the [mosquito] curtain and turned up the kerosene lamp that was standing on the floor at the foot of my bed. I saw then that the stones were falling through the roof in a parabolic line. They fell on the floor close to my head-pillow," he reported to the British Society of Psychical Research some years later.

The Dutch explorer had been travelling extensively through the jungles of Sumatra (in the Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia) with 50 Javanese coolies searching for oil. Upon his return, he wrote, "I found my home had been occupied by somebody else and I had to put up my bed in another house that was not yet ready, and had just been erected from wooden poles and... kadjang," a type of dry, broad leaf measuring two by three feet in size and commonly used as roofing on Sumatran homes at the time. The leaves, he explained, were arranged overlapping each other and could stop anything from penetrating through, most importantly rains. Imagine his surprise to wake up just past one to find the small black rocks falling onto the floor near his pillow.

He woke up a Malay-Pelembang boy, one of his servants sleeping in the next room, and asked him to check for the source of the falling stones that continued to fall mysterious from the ceiling. Mr. Grotten-dieck remained in the room where he had set up his bed as the boy checked the surrounding jungle and kitchen, finding nothing. "I knelt down near [the head of my bed] and tried to catch the stones while they were falling through the air towards me, but I could never catch them," the explorer wrote in a letter to the British SPR, published in their Journal in May 1906. "It seemed to me that they changed their direction in the air as soon as I tried to get hold of them. I could not catch any of them before they fell on the floor."

Mr. Grotten-dieck inspected the kadjang roof closely where the stones were flying. "They came right through the kadjang, but there were not holes in the kadjang," he wrote, explaining in further correspondence that nothing could penetrate the kadjang leaves without making a hole. "When I tried to catch them at the very spot of coming out, I also failed," he added.

In true explorer style, Mr. Grotten-dieck wasn't one to mess around. If someone was playing a practical joke on him, he was going to make sure they got the message that he was not impressed. "I took my Mauser rifle and fired five sharp cartridges into the jungle" from the window of the boy's room. "But the stones, far from stopping, fell even more abundantly after my shots than before."

The boy was terrified. He blamed Satan for the falling rocks and ran off into the jungle, never to be seen by Mr. Grotten-dieck again. The Dutchman picked up the stones and was intrigued to find that they were warmer than usual. The warmth of the object would later become a trademark of poltergeist cases. In such cases, when objects are flung about rooms by unseen hands, often at angles, speeds and in trajectories that defy the known laws of physics, they are found to be quite warm to the touch. Additionally, Mr. Grotten-dieck reported that the stones seemed to be falling slower than they should, another interesting trademark of such cases. "The sound they made in falling down on the floor was also abnormal," the explorer wrote, "because considering their slow motion the bang was much too loud." Yet another hallmark of the poltergeist phenomena.

Mr. Grotten-dieck shared a far bit of correspondence with the SPR in 1906 to thoroughly examine the case to determine if it may have had any other causes, which is quiet interesting considering it had happened three years prior and could not be investigated beyond the witness's testimony. Throughout this scrutiny, Mr. Grotten-dieck remained adamant that there was no trickery or natural explanation for the fall of stones inside of the Sumantran house. Could the Malay boy have been connected to this at all, as many poltergeist events seem to have a human agent at the center of it? That we will never know.

This strange type of materialization has been repeated in many different cases around the world where stones and other objects have mysteriously appeared out of nowhere, quite literally falling from the ceiling as if they were transported from another dimension.
In the Scole Experiment of the 1990s, objects "apported" themselves (or mysteriously appeared) in a controlled environment (a closed off cellar) from nowhere, often landing with a significant thud. These objects included a crystal cluster, coins, dated newspapers from 50 years previous in authentically new condition, jewellery, ashes, water, spoons and so on.

Is there a connection between objects that randomly appear from nowhere, apparently through solid surfaces or from mid-air inside buildings in poltergeist cases, such as Mr. Grotten-dieck's experience, and controlled experiments such as those led by the Scole Experimental Group? Is it merely psychokinesis brought on subconsciously by someone? Or are these objects being materialized by means beyond our current comprehension? Whatever the case, Mr. Grotten-dieck's experience remains one of the many fascinating reports of this type.

Image credits:

"A Plantation House in Sumatra" by W. Bell and J.G. Stadler and "A Malay Boy, Native of Bencoolen" by T. Heaphy and A. Cardon from The History of Sumatra written and published by William Marsden, 1811. Although not connected to this particular case, they are interesting prints depicting Sumatran housing and a Malay boy in early nineteenth century clothes.

Further reading:

Sacheverall Sitwell. Poltergeists: An Introduction and Examination Followed by Chosen Instances. New York: University Books, 1959.

William Roll. The Poltergeist. With a foreword by J.B. Rhine. Re-released by Paraview Books, 2004.

Grant & Jane Solomon. The Scole Experiment: Scientific Evidence for Life After Death. http://www.thescoleexperiment.com/

For the month of June, historian Chris Laursen takes us to different locales in East Asia to reveal the colourful and fantastical ghostlore that comes from that region. This week, he looks at the research done by Charles and Chee Lee Emmons in 1980-81, polling 3,600 Hong Kong residents on their beliefs and experiences with respect to ghosts.

Haunted Hong Kong
by Chris Laursen

From June 1980 to January 1981, Dr. Charles F. Emmons, a sociologist from Gettysburg College, Pennsylvania, and his wife Chee Lee embarked on a seven-month project to poll Hong Kong residents on their beliefs and experiences in regards to ghosts. Influenced by similar large-scale surveys conducted by the Society for Psychical Research in the late nineteenth century of 17,000 Britons, Charles and Chee did extensive telephone polls of over 1,500 people and distributed nearly 2,000 questionnaires to secondary school students, asking about their views on the topic. Emmons’ academic colleagues were far from encouraging, telling him that Chinese people would not wish to speak on the subject, especially to a Westerner. But one sociologist Emmons spoke with had done a small-scale survey in Hong Kong using Chinese student interviewers and only encountered no more than 15% refusal from those asked to participate.

With that single vote of confidence, the academic couple pushed forth, and found Hong Kong’s residents quite receptive to the question, “Do you believe in ghosts?” “My wife, Chee, a native speaker of Cantonese and a sociologist, single-handedly called 1,668 telephone numbers over a four-month period,” Emmons wrote in his book on the survey, Chinese Ghosts and ESP: A Study of Paranormal Beliefs and Experiences. “I was pleasantly astonished when she achieved a 90% completion rate, with only 7% refusals and 3% disconnected or never-answering numbers.”

The incredible survey was documented in Emmons’ book, and contains a wide range of Chinese ghost experiences. He wrote that the survey revealed the universal nature of paranormal phenomena including ghosts, ESP and reincarnation, but it also was “entwined with mysteries of Chinese culture: ghost fear, ancestor worship, and lore about tree spirits.” Tree spirits I will write about in an upcoming instalment of this series on Far East Phantoms from the Philippines, but let’s consider the ideas of ghost fear and ancestor worship among Hong Kong residents in the early 1980s. Emmons wrote that his hugest challenge was how to “disentwine the nature (or supernatural!) from the cultural and social.”

For example, in many of the experiences relayed by Hong Kong residents, they expressed deep fear over what had happened. The sight of a ghost of a relative, for example, could be considered an omen. In one case (G002, Harvest Homecoming), an apparition of a man in a white robe was seen by many people late at night entering the house in which he once resided. “My aunt yelled, ‘Look who’s here!’ and we all saw him walk from one side of the patio to the other and go in the house. We went into the house and asked the woman who lived there who had come in. She was asleep inside, hadn’t seen him, and said that nobody had come in,” the witness reported. But the people recognized the man as her husband who had died in the house. The witness continued, “My aunt was immediately afraid when she realized that she had been the first to see the ghost. She got very sick one week later, and died a month later.” The mere sight of the ghost instilled a great sense of fear in the witnesses, and the death of the aunt was seen as resulting from it. Emmons wondered what part culture and psychology played in the case.

Similar fear was struck when Boy Scouts witnessed something strange in 1973 (Case G008, Boy Scout Picnic). One of the witnesses, who was 15 at the time, described marching in the evening with his troop and leader. Two white lights approached, “self-lit, like two spotlights.” As they came closer, it was apparent they were an elderly couple. The witness recalled, “They had no expression on their faces, and were not looking at anybody. Both of them were wearing white robes. Their hair was old-fashioned and parted and short.” There was something strange in the way they walked, swinging their arms in synchronization, and then jumping, both at the same time before continuing their odd walk. Five or six of the Boy Scouts saw the strange apparitions, but no one else did. “I was very scared, and turned around to look at them again when they passed by, but they were gone,” the witness said. “I’m very sure of what I saw.”

Those who participated in the survey also recalled experiences from before they moved to Hong Kong. One 27-year-old man recalled a story from when he had lived in Canton in the early 1970s (Case G042, The Floating Tenant). A commerative tablet had been kept on an altar in memory of a woman tenant who had lived in his building. He described seeing her float by the altar. “Her face was green and horrible. Otherwise, she looked normal. She didn’t look at anybody and disappeared instantly after a couple of seconds. She had been dead for a month,” the witness said. In many of the cases reported, apparitions floated, many were shadowy in nature and many wore white robes.

Just as with any ghostly experiences from any part of the world, the types of stories collected by the Emmons were varied and had universal themes, including animal ghosts (such as the chilling tale of a witness hearing the sound of screaming pigs after a slaughterhouse had been shut down), phantom footsteps, poltergeist activity, partial apparitions, Buddhist exorcisms, even the old hag.

Like most psychical researchers, Emmons pondered if the reports could be trusted. “It is my distinct impression,” he wrote, “that very few of the respondents in this study were fabricating or significantly distorting their reports of their own firsthand experiences. On the contrary, there was often either a ‘relectance to report’ (citing Allan Hynek) or a stated desire for anonymity,” a condition that is prevalent for psychical researchers worldwide.

Emmons’ book on Chinese Ghosts and ESP is often cited as a valuable source by psychical researchers. Such surveys do indeed help put numbers on ghostly experiences, and when you put these surveys side by side, there are many commonalities. Most recently, Erlendur Haraldsson released statistics related to a long-term survey he conducted over 25 years ago in Iceland, the results of which were discussed at the Gwen Tate Memorial Lecture in London last April. Like Frederick Myers of the SPR, the 1978 Gallup poll on paranormal beliefs in the United States and Emmons’ work, Haraldsson put together an array of figures that help researchers understand the types of reports found among a large group of those who have had firsthand paranormal experiences. Alan Murdie writes about the Icelandic ghost survey’s results in Fortean Times Issue 224, August 2007.

As Emmons says, there is certainly universality in paranormal experience as can be seen in the examples cited above. However, cultural differences account for unique perceptions of what ghosts are, how people react to them and how tradition seeps through into contemporary life.

Ponder this, gentle readers…

Have you ever encountered a ghost or interesting ghost story while travelling overseas?

Further reading:

Charles F. Emmons. Chinese Ghosts and ESP: A Study of Paranormal Beliefs and Experiences, 1982.

Agence-France Presse (AFP) article on the 2005 Hungry Ghosts Festival in Hong Kong by Chitra Panjabi: http://www.thingsasian.com/stories-photos/3435

For the month of June, historian Chris Laursen takes us to different locales in East Asia to reveal the colourful and fantastical ghostlore that comes from that region.

On the first Weird Wednesday of each month, Chris Laursen reviews exceptional films, television series, visual arts and music that have imaginative paranormal themes. In this instalment and to kick of 'Far East Phantoms,' he looks at how the Japanese yokai (spooks) have been portrayed in the country's movies.

Haunting Visions | June 2007
Japanese Yokai On-Screen: Pom Poko, The Great Yokai War & Akira Kurosawa's Dreams
by Chris Laursen

Japanese folklore is filled with kwaidan - ghost stories - and there is no lack of intriguing characters that populate these tales: half human, half animal beings; mischievous shapeshifters (henge); giant ogres; inanimate objects coming to life; masked spirits; and many more. Often, these fantastical beings are visually depicted in old Japanese block prints, but they also have come to life on the big screen in recent years.

For those not well versed in Japanese folklore, it can be tricky to follow these films, but after awhile, you start to see some common characters, storylines and themes. A bit of reading up on the various yokai online is good preparation to understanding some key characters and the stories behind them. Many of the characters actually originate in Chinese folklore, and were adopted in Japanese storytelling. See below links for some good online English-language sources!

The spooks are active and eager in Pom Poko (twin girl spirits and giant skeleton) and the Great Yokai War (sunekosuri, hamster-like magical creatures which are not so prominent in Japanese folklore, but very prominent in this movie).

The first film worth checking out was released by the great Studio Ghibli in 1994. The animated Pom Poko is the wonderfully entertaining, often sad ecological story of tanuki, raccoon-like creatures that dwell in Japanese forests who are pushed off of their land by human development. The cunning but lazy creatures plot to use their shapeshifting abilities to scare the humans out of construction zones and renew respect for the various Japanese spirits, flora and animals that inhabit the woods. They are depicted in natural tanuki form, a cartoonish variation of the tanuki based on traditional Japanese sculptures (complete with pot bellies and over-exaggerated scrotums - explain that one to the kids!), and their various sneaky transformations. Ultimately, after a series of small-scale scares, the tanuki resolve to push the humans over the edge by staging a massive yokai festival on the streets, which features many spooks and references to Japanese ghost stories. Like many Studio Ghibli works, Pom Poko is rather mind-blowing, and contains a lot of deep, potent messages about how we treat the natural world and how humans have drifted away from respecting its mysteries.

"I have no face!" One of the humourous and twisted yokai depicted in both Pom Poko (top) and The Great Yokai War.

Similar in theme but different in plot is the live-action 2005 fantasy film directed by Takahashi Miike, The Great Yokai War (Yokai daisenso). Like Pom Poko, this is quite a visual delight, especially since the edgy director has chosen to bring yokai to life using a combination of computer graphics, fantastic stop motion animation and cheesy B-movie styled effects. The mixture of tack and high-tech action sequences works really well for this. Although it seems to be a film for kids, it features a great deal of gore, scary scenes and violence. It's rated for the 13-plus crowd, but has a lot of elements that seem more like a children's fantasy film, along the lines of Wolfgang Peterson's The NeverEnding Story (1984). It is the story of young Tadashi who is chosen in a festival to climb a great mountain next to his village to obtain a sword and protect humanity from evil yokai who are planning on taking their revenge on humanity for - well, doing all of the bad things humanity does, such as polluting, making too much waste and pretty much messing up the planet. Ryunosuke Kamiki is really excellent as Tadashi, bringing to life a shy, introverted character who has no choice but to become a warrior with a ragtag gang of forest spirits. The plotline is often outrageous, but so are the tales that inspired this movie. The movie climaxes with a huge yokai festival that gathers to celebrate the conquering of the humans.

Stunning and artful scenes from Akira Kurosawa's Dreams.

The most artful of these films is Akira Kurosawa's Dreams (1990). It is a quiet, challenging film based on the famed director's own night visions, including a fox wedding procession, Yuki-Onna (a dangerous female winter spirit seen by those lost in blizzards), musical spirits of peach trees that were cut down, and a village filled with watermills that exists harmoniously with nature and spirits. It's truly beautiful, colourful and poetic, but it certainly won't be for all movie audiences. Some might find it plodding. Kurosawa has always been one to take filmmaking to a new level; he has brought traditional and satirical Japanese tales to life in Rashômon (1950), The Seven Samurai (1954), The Hidden Fortress (1958), Ran (1985) and the wonderfully told commentary on the post-Hiroshima generation, Rhapsody in August (1991).

The Japanese kitsune (fox), one of the most famous yokai known for their intelligence and magical powers, are depicted in (from top) Pom Poko, The Great Yokai War and Dreams.

It is wonderful to see old tales being brought to new generations via these movies, and they are all well worth watching especially to gain a different cultural perspective on the world of ghosts. In many ways, these Japanese filmmakers are light years ahead of where we are, putting out amazing films with deep environmental messages at times when the popular environmental movement lagged, bringing dreams to life in live action form and pushing the very bounds of the kinds of stories we are used to seeing made into movies.

Ponder this, gentle readers...

What is your favourite Japanese yokai?

Further reading:

Ancient Tales and Folklore of Japan by Richard Gordon Smith, 1918.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/shi/atfj/index.htm

Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things by Lafcadio Hearn, 1904.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/shi/kwaidan/index.htm

Encyclopedia Mythica entries on Japanese mythology:
http://www.pantheon.org/areas/mythology/asia/japanese/articles.html