The Rochester Poltergeist

 

Artist conception of poltergeist activity claimed by Therese Selles, a 14-year-old domestic servant of the Todescini family at Cheragas, Algeria. From the French magazine La Vie Mysterieuse in 1911.

Sometimes emotional turmoil and stress are suspected of creating PSI phenomena such as is suggested in the report that I investigated below.

"For nearly two years from 1991 to 1992 I went to live with my parents in Brockport NY. I was 24-25 at the time and was experiencing a great amount of emotional turmoil because of a recent arrest and lengthy court appearances. In addition I had a falling out with my wife at the time because of said arrest.

While at my parent's home I would on occasion hear loud explosions sometimes so violently loud that they would shake the house. My mother would hear them too, one time knocking on my bedroom door to inquire if I had been lighting off fireworks. My father had experienced these explosions too, but refused to discuss such (I think it unnerved him). I came out of my room one day to hear something like chains jingling in the small linen closet in front of me. upon opening the closet the only thing I could find that could possibly make such a noise was a box of family silverware. However this was secured in a large wooden box which would have muffled the noise to the point that I doubt it could have been heard as clearly as I heard this.

The occurrences climaxed one day while I was home alone. I was upstairs in the loft when I heard something that sounded like a 300lb. safe being dropped below me in the kitchen. I proceeded to grab my father's 32 auto from the adjoining bedroom as I thought someone may have kicked in the door downstairs. As I swept the house and began to descend the staircase I felt and heard pounding directly under my feet and then I felt something pass through me from my feet to my head, like a chill(it made me tingle). I checked the house inside and outside and from top to bottom, nothing was amiss.

I did not know what to do so I called this psychic bookstore and talked to the person there. I explained the situation to them and told them that it was a brand new home that my parents had just built and that we had even had the builder come to inspect the home because of the occurrences, but he had no explanation. The woman I was talking to suggested that we could have built over an old grave site and to tell the presence to go to the light. So after getting off the phone with her I told this presence out loud several times to go to the light. Later that night while lying in my bed I heard directly over top of me, and only for a split second, a piercing scream so loud that it reverberated off of the walls. I lay in awe, and actually began to question if I had really heard what I had heard. The interesting thing was that we never had any further occurrences after this event.

I believe that I may have been unconsciously manifesting these happenings or that it could have been a manifestation of energy caused by disturbing the site the house was built on (old burial ground, etc.). From what I have studied over the years concerning poltergeists, the severe turmoil and uncertainty in my life may have very well been the catalyst that precipitated the happenings."

Much appreciation and gratitude goes to the witness for sharing these experiences with me.  It is interesting to note that when the witness took charge of the situation by speaking out loud and therefore empowering himself that the phenomena ceased. This is very much in keeping with my own findings to date, and is usually the case.

Pandemic note: During 2020-21 numerous reports of loud explosions, and phantom fireworks have been reported first in North America and then Europe. Some of these reports I'm certain have mundane explanations, but others such as the poltergeist report above do not. I do not doubt that in these times of extreme anxiety, stress, and death the world is experiencing increased poltergeist phenomena. We are living in haunted times. 

Originally published to PSICAN Paranormal Studies and Inquiry Canada

Have you had a similar experience? If so please feel free to connect with me here or through social media I'd love to hear from you. 

 

Synchronicity, Terror, Technology, and Angela

Our world has been plunged into a very liminal state during these last six months, and as a consequence the veil is much thinner so to speak. I was discussing this with a friend from New York who is a professional psychic, and she agrees with me that these strange times are producing many more stranger experiences. UFOs are flying, ghosts are appearing, and I am noticing synchronicities more often than I usually do, and I am a person who sees the symbolic dream-like language of our collective reality quite readily.

In the last couple of weeks we've experienced a number of odd things here in our mountain village, which I wanted to write down before their memory becomes blurry. 

On July 20th we decided to attempt to photograph comet Neowise. It was not easy to do as the comet was very faint, and while awaiting for it to get sufficiently dark enough I downloaded the Randonautica app. This is something I wanted to try out for a while and for me the timing seemed good. I have linked to the Ranonaut homepage for those who are unfamiliar with it and want to learn more, but in a nutshell it is an app that gives geo-cords based on intentions you set. The idea is to venture to potentially new and random places where synchronicities may be produced with your own intention.

This is our comet photo. 

My intention that night was to see UFOs, which is no surprise to anyone who knows me. The co-ords given were somewhere in the middle of a forest close to where we live. It was very late, and at night the forest here is populated by wild boars, and wolves, and other creatures I prefer to avoid while giving all due respect IE: no way were we going at night. 

So, we waited until going home and used Google Earth to check out where this place is, and make a plan to visit there during the day. What we saw surprised us because right at that location exists the ruins of a large church that we had no idea was there. You literally have to hike into this location to find it, and you can bet we will do so when the weather is a little cooler. The photo below was found on the internet and has the photographer's name below.

Photo: Francesco Marucci

I tried using the Randonautica app the next two nights in a row with the same UFO intention and it sent us first to our local cemetery, and then a bakery! What to take away from that, but the UFOs are related to the hungry dead?!!  

I haven't used the Randonautica app since, but it is a lot of fun, and if you are into synchronicities, and random adventuring its worth trying out in my opinion.

High strangeness and the paranormal and synchronicities tend to manifest spontaneously and when you least expect them. Therefore it was not too surprising to me when a few days after the randonaut, comet chasing adventure, we had a very strange event in our car while out doing some morning errands. 

We had just finished grocery shopping, something that really ranks high up there in the mundane, and routine. When we opened the car doors to put our purchases inside we were both assaulted by an extreme smell of perfume. It was so strong it was as if someone broke an entire bottle of the stuff in the car! I could literally taste it. 

Neither Massimo or I could come up with a reasonable explanation for it, and as the car began airing out the scent was clearly identifiable as roses.

This type of paranormal smell is not new to me. I had a similar occurrence in a house I lived in during the 1990s. The appearance of the rose scent at that time heralded the beginning of a three period of intense high strangeness that at times was frightening for me and my children, and others who came to our house and witnessed these weird things. 

I have to wonder if this new out of place rose smell will spark the beginning of similar cycle of high strangeness... 

The mysterious smell of roses is associated with Catholic Saints, so when it happened I immediately thought of Saint Catherine of Bologna. She was a mystic, artist and visionary and so her life story, and shrine intrigued me. 

I visited this incorruptible saint twice in 2018, and the photo above is one I took of her.  You can read about her and my visit here.  

Later that day I received a DM from an American friend who said she had a very vivid and highly symbolic dream about me, which would have roughly coincided with the timing of the mysterious perfume in our car. Her first name along with 5 generations of women in her family is a variation of the name Rose. Was she bi-locating to me with the scent of roses? 

And even later that night, we were sitting outside and I kept hearing what I thought was church bells. This might not be so unusual, but the bells which started out melodic turned more and more into a cacophony, AND it was 9 pm on a Tuesday night! Of course I thought of the nearby abandoned church and wondered if what I was hearing was coming from some other reality. Massimo who was sitting with me did not hear them the way I did. 

Riding the weirdness wave, I decided to try a little impromptu ghost hunting. After a few minutes of quiet meditation I turned on the GhostTube app, which was created by my favourite ghostly Youtubers at Amy's Crypt, and is free to download.  Almost immediately it  said the name Angela. It repeated the name Angela a few times, also the words peaceful, and sailor. I had no idea what this might have meant. The only Angela that both my husband I know is the lady at the cat shelter where we adopted Pixie and Merry, and she seems to be alive and well.

After getting ready for bed I opened up my phone for one last check of messages and news and this was the first image that popped up. It startled me so much I got Massimo to take a pic of my phone screen with his. This is what we saw....

The article is about the worst terror attack in the history of Italy. On the morning of 2 August 1980, Fascist terrorists planted a bomb in the waiting area of the Bologna Centrale railway station resulting in the death of  85 people and wounding over 200 more. It is known as the Bologna massacre. The poignant image above depicts a memorial at the station and a hand touching the name of one of those victims... Angela. 

My husband had been scheduled to arrive at the train station 2 hours after the bombing occurred. He had been visiting his sweetheart in Finland and was taking the train from Milan's airport to his home in Bologna. In those days there were no mobile phones, no social media, and no easy way to communicate, so at the time his family were in anguish not knowing if Massimo had been caught up in the horrific events of that day. I can only imagine my husband's horror when he was able to get back to Bologna.

The synchronicity between the Ghost Tube session, and the photo of the memorial is striking to me.  Angela's full name was Maria Angela Marangon and she was 22 years old when she died, almost the exact same age as my husband was in 1980 at the time of the bombing. 

Clearly my husband is tied to that event, as are all the people of Bologna within living memory, and this is our home. Along with the name Angela the word peaceful came up more than once in my session. I hope that she and her loved ones, and all those who have suffered such an immense and senseless tragedy have found some peace. I honestly don't know if I ever could, and I plan to bring a flower for Maria Angela to the train station memorial the next time I am there. 

I cannot with 100% confidence say this was a message from the other side, or know how deeply inter-connected these strange experiences over the last couple of weeks are to each other. But I do strongly suspect they are connected on some deeper level. 

My take away from the Angela synchronicity is that this was a reminder of the preciousness and fragility of all of our lives. 

Be well and good to each other. ❤

Ghosts of Griffith Park Los Angeles

Detail from the Griffith Park Merry-Go-Round

In November 2016 I took a trip to Southern California with my Sisters and niece. While there I was fortunate to visit a few places that are either reported to be haunted, and have a history or legend that is paranormal in nature. Of all the places my Sisters and I went we only encountered one definite cold spot that was very weird. I should note we were not ghost hunting, but just worked in the paranormal, magical, unique and interesting when possible.

On Sunday November 13th we visited Griffith Park in Los Angeles, and it was near the old, long abandoned LA Zoo that we had the odd happening. The old Zoo is located on a hiking trail off Fire Road, Los Angeles, 90027

Here is a brief history:

"The Griffith Park Zoo was originally opened in 1912, amusingly built on the former location of Griffith J. Griffith's old ostrich farm. It was opened with 15 animals, and due to lack of funding, it opened without any cages, simply stockades to keep the animals in, which was inadequate for several of the species kept on site.

Stories claim that the history of the zoo was rocky, and it was always struggling. For example, in 1916, the zoo was apparently leaking sewage into the L.A. River, and later during World War I, a meat shortage made it hard to properly care for the animals, forcing the zoo to substitute horse meat for beef, leading to the deaths of many of the meat eating animals, particularly the big cats. Luckily the zoo was free which kept visitors coming.

In the mid 1920s, with the failure of the Selig Zoo, William Nicholas Selig donated several of his animals to the Griffith Park Zoo. Selig had owned Selig Polyscope, which post closure of the film studio, led the movie producer to take all the animals he had gathered for his films and try his hand at opening up a zoo in East Los Angeles. A zoo he had plans to mix with a large amusement park. Selig had grandiose plans involving a large zoo, rides, restaurants, a hotel, and even a giant swimming pool complete with a beach and wave making machine. None of his plans ever saw fruition however, and although the Selig Zoo was occasionally rented out to film a few movies, such as the 1918 Tarzan, the zoo ultimately failed, leading Selig to donate the animals to the Griffith Park Zoo.

By May 1958, people had had enough of the Griffith Park Zoo and its condition, leading voters to vote for the establishment of a brand new zoo. An $8 million dollar bond was approved for construction, and by November 1966 the new Los Angeles Zoo opened a few miles north of the Griffith Park Zoo. All the animals were relocated there, thus ending the career of the Griffith Park Zoo."

History Source Weird California

We arrived at the head of the trail after several hours of exploring the Griffith Observatory and taking in a show at their Planetarium, which I highly recommend! There were quite a few people including families near the parking area who were picnicking, it was getting close to dusk, but still fairly early in the day and quite warm. As we hiked up to the abandoned zoo enclosures there were fewer and fewer people and no one on the trail giving us a chance to thoroughly check it out.

There is an eerie atmosphere there that can definitely be related to the history of how people used to believe it was OK to treat animals, and in some cases still do. A definite sadness in the air, and the scenery lends itself to a horror movie vibe.

After climbing into some of the enclosures and snapping a few photos we started back up the path away from the parking towards the trails. I was looking for some rocks to bring home from the location when my Sister called out to me to come over to where she was standing. Right in that spot there was a definite "cold spot" with absolutely no identifiable source. The temperature if I had to guess was at least 15 degrees colder and felt like standing beside air conditioner's vent. 

Here is a photo of the location of the cold spot.

This is another angle from near where the cold spot was encountered. 

Cold spots are considered to be part of a PSI or paranormal experience. Maurice Townsend of ASSAP describes them thusly:

"People often report 'cold spots' in haunted locations. These are small areas (usually a lot smaller than a room) that feel significantly colder than the surrounding area. They are considered by some to be a sign of a ghost in the area. Some cold spots are always felt in the same place while others seem to appear and disappear at different locations." 

Full article on cold spots here

I have encountered cold spots before while visiting reportedly haunted sites, but usually not so drastic a change, and never one outdoors before. An unusual and unexpected highlight of our visit to Griffith Park. 

For more on the Griffith Park hauntings please have a look Weird California's Curse of Griffith Park page which includes the Griffith Park Merry-Go-Round which we visited after the the hike up to the Zoo. 

This Merry Go Round was the inspiration in part for Walt Disney to build his theme park. There is information and a history on the site. It is definitely beautiful with its own creepy long ago fairground vibe and vintage calliope music.

Creepy clown and devils lead the way!

Naturally we just had to take a ride! 

Merry Go Round Selfie!  

According to Weird California "a ghost lurks near the Merry Go Round, having been seen descending steps nearby and disappearing as he reaches the last step." I can believe it! And while we did not encounter that ghost I would love to hear from anyone who has had a first hand encounter or an interesting story from Griffith Park. Will definitely go back when in L.A.

Snack tip: Popcorn is free at the Merry Go Round at the end of day 😀

Ghosts Are A Trickster

Video clip taken at Fort George. Both the security staff and I felt something brush past us in the dark room. This particular building is proclaimed the “most haunted” site in Kyle Upton's book on the ghosts of Fort George.

Ghosts are a Trickster

In the early 2ks I worked as a segment producer on a television show called Creepy Canada. The attached video clip was filmed by me (very poorly, sorry) after a day of shooting in Fort George, Niagara-on-the-lake, Canada. This particular building I was in is proclaimed the “most haunted” site in Kyle Upton's book on the ghosts of Fort George.

That evening after the production crew was wrapping up I was called into a room where another producer from Los Angeles had heard what he believed to be the sound of a child's spirit playing with some wooden toy blocks. I recall that he was super unnerved and when I heard the weird noises I grabbed one of the security guards who worked at the Fort to accompany me in trying to find the source of the sound.

We walked through the large barracks style building with only a flashlight and my camera to light our way until we got to the other end, down some stairs and to where the sound was coming loudest. At the source it had the very distinctive sound of an animal (maybe a squirrel or mouse that was in between the wooden panels and outer stone wall. Our walk to looking for the sound's source was a bit tense and so naturally we started laughing, and thinking of how we were going to tell the producer from LA that the "child ghost" which freaked him out so much was an animal scratching on the wall. I remember hoping the poor thing was not trapped and would find his or her way out.

The video clip begins where we started walking back. Still feeling satisfied at debunking the sound I all of a sudden felt a chill. The air literally shifted and changed. As we walked into the upper space I felt someone from behind push past me very quickly and brush my shoulder. I could see a figure a very dark a little taller than myself out of my peripheral vision. I should add here that the security guard and I were completely alone at this point.

On the video you hear me gasp, then the security guard and I ask him if he is ok? He answers yes, and I tell him we are not alone there. He also felt the figure move past us only he saw directly in front what he described as solid legs move through the door ahead.

A television production which is a fictionalized reality, a debunking, and a true encounter all in the same day in a very haunted place.

As I say, Ghosts Are A Trickster