Hauntings: A History

The roots of hauntings plunge some three thousand years back into the Celtic origins of Sowen rituals, known today as All Hallows' Eve or Halloween. One very particular night between the bountiful harvest and the bitter cold winter, between the long warm days and the short cold days, transpired the most important night of Gaelic prayers. Their priests called Druids, would pray in thanks for the harvest and in fear of the cold approaching winter. On that transitional night called Sowen, the Celts believed the boundary between light and dark, between life and death, was so thin that the spirits of the dead could pass through back and forth at will. On that night was born an eternal awareness of spirits reentering the world of the living. Atrocities of the Middle Ages that occurred to the west of Ireland released spirits into such bastions as Scotland's Sterling Castle, home today of the Green Lady and ninety nine other haunts, and Chillinghams Castle, a bit further south in England, home of Lady Gray and of the Radiant Boy.

Ironically, it was a Puritan disdain for Halloween that may have released some of the first human spirits into the New World in 1692 to haunt people forever. The witch trials of Salem resulted in nineteen innocent hangings and one man put to death under the weight of enormous rocks. One of those responsible for the torture and killing of witches was George Corwin, the sheriff of Salem in 1692. Corwin's house once stood where the Joshua Ward House stands today, which is one of the most haunted sites in all of New England.

As the colonists settled along America's east coast, so their dead began to fill up the cemeteries. Ample eyewitness testimony today suggests that the colonial spirit world also began to fill up during the eighteenth century in places like New England, Charleston, and New Orleans. The nineteenth century preoccupation with life beyond death began in the spring of 1848 in the New York village of Hydesville. Two sisters, Margaret and Catherine Fox, decided after great frustration, to attempt to relate to the nagging spirit that was rapping and knocking loudly throughout their quaint farmhouse. Catherine would snap her fingers twice and the spirit would knock twice back. This deliberate attempt to communicate with the spirit world became known as "spiritualism." It is the science, philosophy, and religion of continuing life. Margaret and Catherine had become the country's first "mediums."

Spiritualism spread rapidly across America. By 1853 there were as many as twenty five thousand mediums attempting to communicate with the spiritual members of the next phase of human existence. The goal of the movement was to scientifically prove that human spirits did exist and that it was possible to establish communication with them. Spiritualists do not believe in death, only different phases of life connected through mediumship.

Fakery ran rampant during this time and eventually even the now famous Fox sisters drew criticism. But one man named Daniel Douglas Holmes made believers out of nearly all who witnessed his uncanny talent At one seance he convinced poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning by having spirit hands place a garland on her head. Holmes' trademark was his ability to levitate and materialize objects including himself, and while her frauds were exposed, he remained untouched. Today, the world center for spiritualists is the Lily Dale Assembly on Cassadaga Lake in western New York State.

As America grew throughout the nineteenth century, so did reports of ghostly phenomena. Wherever violent quick deaths occurred, restless spirits were born. From the early days of the Puritan settlements and witch trials in New England, through the American Revolution and the slavery issue of Charleston in the late 1700s, to the San Francisco gold rush robbery killings of 1849, then back to the Civil War of the mid nineteenth century, young America was a violent place to be. Many died and became haunting legends. Many such landmarks where America's future course was set are now the focus of a new breed of spiritualist. Today they are called paranormal investigators. These ghost hunters use a vast complete array of detective tools, everything from the proven extrasensory skills of psychic investigation to an arsenal of sophisticated instrumentation used to monitor haunting environments. Though still struggling to become a mainstream scientific endeavor, ghost hunting has entered the information age of technology.

Some instruments used in investigations are the hydrothermograph for detecting temperature changes, the thermovision camera for detecting thermal image deviations, special radioactivity monitors as well as electromagnetic and geomagnetic field monitors, several different types of surveillance systems, video cameras, closed circuit television, gad Polaroid film. Every environmental characteristic is examined, including the visual, physical, audible, chemical, electrical, magnetic, geophysical, thermal and residual. Deviations between a normal environment and a suspected anomalous environment usually indicate the presence of a spirit. Because this science is still young, humans have yet to develop a device that will irrefutably point to a ghost.

Prevailing theories regarding hauntings are: 1. Spirits of the dead that return to complete a task or to pursue revenge, justice, or to interact in some way with living humans.
2. Spirits are emotional tracers that linger after physical death, acting like a shadow pressed into the space time plane.
3. Spirits are memories somehow sustained in some type of psychic ether.
4: Spirits are residual images that get replayed over and over again.
5. Spirits are caused by the human imagination.
Theory #1 is substantiated by the most evidence.

Documented Cases

The Heartland Ghost In a quaint little house on a quiet street in our American heartland, lived a young family of three who experienced the haunting of hauntings. The television documentary, Sightings, a leader in scientific ghost investigations worldwide, became involved with Tony Deborah, and Taylor Pickman in what was to become a landmark case packed with high tech evidence and multiple videotaped eyewitnesses. Early in 1993, shortly after they moved into their home, the Pickmans' freshly snapped baby pictures came back from the developers with distorted blobs of light and color covering the image of baby Taylor. The photographic anomalies continued through countless rolls of film and two different cameras. The concerned young family turned to psychic Barbara Conner who determined the entity causing the photographic anomalies was a restless little girl named Sallie. The photos were authenticated as a genuine anomaly, and not a double exposure or a hoax, by visual effects specialist Edson Williams. Soon after these episodes, the most bizarre behavior began to occur, it would continue throughout the incident and would become the signature of the six year Heartland investigation. Significantly, this entire case was videotaped by Sightings from beginning to end.

Out of thin air, Tony's arms, back and chest became the target of scratches, not tiny ones mind you, but long, deep, welted scratches that would form and begin to bleed right in front of everyone's eyes, even on camera. Environmental and medical causes were officially ruled out. Also, the air immediately around Tony turned very cold during these events. Paranormal investigator Howard Heim entered the picture and measured the temperate and electromagnetic fluctuations. Then, a lonely rose resting in a vase on the kitchen windowsill was found to be burned on the inside of some of its petals, and the scratches on Tony continued to appear. Sightings, now entrenched in this case, invited internationally esteemed psychic Peter James to join them in pursuit of the answers to the cause of Sallies frustration. With no previous case knowledge, Peter psychically identified Sallie, along with many other case details, in the presence of many witnesses. Courthouse and cemetery records confirmed Peter's suggestions that Sallie Isabel Hall died in this house from pneumonia in 1905 and was buried in the town cemetery.

Tony's scratches continued to appear with no apparent rhyme or reason, but it was not a hoax, not self inflicted wounds, and not an allergy or any medical condition. Then Sightings got down to business. They brought in parapsychologist Kerry Gaynor along with every instrument known to exist for paranormal research. Closed circuit cameras were set up in every room, and the kitchen was transformed into the base, of operations with oscilloscopes, frequency counters, audio monitors, and a handheld thermal energy system that detected cold spots.

Throughout their vigil, the team monitored anomalies with all their instruments as the scratches continued to form on Tony. The Pickman's finally left their house after three years of Sallie's bizarre mayhem. Wondering whether Sallie moved with them or stayed behind, Sightings called in Peter James once again to psychically survey the house. Confirmation of Sallie's presence came in the form of burns to Peter's face. Two years later, after several other tenants had come and gone, Sallie still remained on that quaint, quiet, heartland street, according to Peter James, who again came to survey the home. Sallie never again displayed as many transgressions against other occupants as she had inflicted upon Tony. Peter believes Sallie will remain in that house for a long time, until she finally realizes her physical form no longer exists.

This excerpt from "The Magic of Our Universe Beyond the Facts" By Kent Davis Moberg is reprinted with permission from Camelot Productions.