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. ❤

A Different Kind Of UFO

This highly unusual and very interesting report of flying women was sent to me by my good friend and colleague in the documenting of the strange, Albert S. Rosales this past Winter Solstice. This appeals to my UFO-ish and Cosmic Witchiness.

Location: Birkenhead, Wirral, Merseyside, England
Date: early June 1982 Time: afternoon


Insidious heat crept into the country at the end of May and bubbled road tar and inflamed tempers, when two painters saw an incredible sight. A perspiring 17-year old apprentice decorator named Dominic Bassett took off his paint-splattered T-shirt on the roof of an office building in one of the higher parts of Birkenhead not far from Bidston Hill. The sounds of distant shrieks – female shrieks – and girly laughter came from somewhere up in the burning blue sky. The painters both looked up and the ultraviolet stung their eyes. “That came from up there!” Dominic placed his hand over his eyes as if he was saluting and saw only a passing gull. Female screams pierced the air again, followed by melodic laughter – and this time it came from behind the painters. They both turned around and looked out towards a Liverpool skyline ghosted by the haze of the heatwave and a light wind gently wafted up an aroma of tar and Mersey salt, and there in the distance, some 400 yards up in the Alice-blue sky were three colored dots. “Balloons” the other painter, Eric, muttered, but the superior eyesight of youth could plainly see three people, and Dominic shook his head, “Its three girls!”


The hay fever began to water Dominic’s eyes and he sniffed and rubbed them and looked again and the three girls moved off towards the north, until they were specks over the river. Then they were gone. Eric stuck to the balloons explanation but a sneezing Dominic knew what he had seen. Eric then blamed the lad’s hay fever. About 10 minutes later the men had managed to resume painting. Eric climbed a ladder and then Dominic felt paint trickling onto his head. “Eric!” he looked up and saw his workmate gazing at something in a daze with paint dripping off the brush. This time the three levitating women were almost near enough to touch as they flew by, and Eric swore in shock. The first woman in the formation was a brunette of about 30 sitting slide-saddle on a brush, and wore a flowing pinkish dress, and the young blonde lady flying behind her had her hand on the broom-mounted woman’s shoulder. The third figure flying closely behind the blonde one was much younger, possibly in her teens, and she was also blonde. All of these females were laughing and giggling and the brunette was screaming as she almost fell off the broom. They were oblivious to the male observers as they flew in the direction of Bidston Hill. Eric was so shocked he had a ‘funny turn’ and went home.

According to the source (Slemen) years later when he gave an account of this incident on the Billy Butler Show (radio) he was inundated with calls and emails from people of all ages and all walks of life who recalled the “witch scare” that summer.


HC addendum
Source: Tom Slemen’s Spooky Summer: Broomsticks over Birkenhead – Liverpool Echo Type: E
Comments: Slemen comments that “someone reading this knows the truth”, I can only conjecture what these flying women were. Modern day witches, apparently that’s what they were trying to portray themselves as? This one is beyond strange.

1212 Synchronicity

Synchronicity is a word that was coined by C.G. Jung and is defined as the simultaneous occurrence of events that appear to be significantly related, but have no discernible causal connection ie: meaningful coincidence. Synchronicity, and synchronistic-mysticism is something that I study, research and practice. I pay close attention to these meaningful coincidences, and particularly those with repetitive number sequences.

Despite the fact that I have never been very good with numbers I have always and not so secretly wished I was a Math geek like my Dad was and my sister is. My mind is just not cut out for advanced mathematics, however I do enjoy numbers. And I have had a special relationship with the numbers 11, 22, and 23 since I was very young. By relationship I mean that through my own curiosity and observances I have noted these numbers appear to me often, in repetitive sequences and in significant ways, and times.

I am not alone. This happens with many people and with different sets of numbers, and there are many schools of thought on why this occurs, and what the meaning behind the appearance of these numbers may denote for the experiencer. If you are interested in researching these potential meanings and notions a search on Google will bring you many, many hits. In fact humanity's fascination with numbers in general, and numerical mysticism is both very ancient, and complex. With 1111 and 22 in particular there are cults built around them. And my lucky number 23. 

Many years ago when I was working from home, and during an 11:11 wave (for UFO geeks think like UFO wave) so to speak ie: I was seeing this sequence often, and I decided to run a little test. I covered every clock in my home, and I removed my wrist watch.

The very morning I did this little experiment, and with the radio on a CBC morning program the announcer called out the time as 11:11am. This was so random, and unexpected that I was floored. I was seriously gobsmacked. In fact I started laughing. I found it quite funny, and immediately started uncovering the clocks. So I have tested some of these ideas, including the most mundane that we train ourselves to look at clocks at certain times, or scan receipts for number combinations and then simply affix a special meaning to them, which the Cosmic Joker saw fit to play a prank with via the radio announcement.

For an ambitious, fascinating and artistic study of numbers, and the significance they can play within our live please do have a look at The Secret Lives of Numbers.

The above video link contains some screen-caps that are taken from archive.turbulence.org

The authors conducted an exhaustive online empirical study in order to determine the relative popularity of every integer between 0 and one million. The resulting information exhibits an extraordinary variety of patterns which reflect our culture, our minds, and our bodies. They surmise that their data-set is a numeric snapshot of the collective consciousness; herein they return their analyses to the public in the form of an interactive visualization, whose aim is to provoke awareness of one's own numeric manifestations.

 The manifestation of specific number sequences such as 1111 or 2222 have always seemingly occurred to me prior to, during, and just after significant changes within my life or those lives of people very close to me. These timeframes and circumstances are ones that one might consider to be liminal; at a point of change, a threshold, in between one state and the next.  Occasionally they are accompanied by PSI ie: psychic disturbances, and I will give a very recent example of one.

Lately I have begun experiencing 1212. The other day I came home and my iPod docking station had been switched to on (anonymously), no one, but my cat was here, and my cat is not that dexterous. My iPod is password protected and it takes two swipes of the screen, plus a password and then a touch to the app to launch a music player. I have 1000s of songs on it, but when I walked in through my front door it was very loudly in the midst of a Lovecraftain style dramatic recording about a Homunculus, yet another Fortean subject that I am currently very interested in and experimenting with. I had forgotten I had even loaded up this particularly recorded story and it certainly wasn't on my last listened to playlist. The incident was very John Keel-like in it High Strangeness factor. But if that was not weird enough, the time on the docking station (which should have been in sync with the device (which was 6pm-ish) was displaying 12:12 am. Very odd and meaningful considering I have been waking up randomly to seeing that specific time 12:12 over the last month.

I keep a journal of synchronicity, and I would suggest anyone who experiences them to also keep a record of these. Some synchronicities turn out to be not so important or meaningful and others much more so and highly significant in hindsight. I have actively manifested synchronicity with success, and in doing so have created  unexpected and complex, and enriching experiences, (along with some darker ones) these will be in part the focus of my planned book on UFOs, Synchronicity and Magic.

If you have had a similar experience with numbers or a haunted iPod please feel free to share in the comments. I'd love to hear more.

An Impossible Little Man

"Last night I saw upon the stair

a little man who wasn't there.

He wasn't there again today.

Oh gee, I wish he'd go away!" 

~ Old Nursery Rhyme

I love a good mystery......which is why I chase after UFO's, Ghosties, and other strange beasties....in a conversation with a friend the other day I had the opportunity to remember, and relate a strange experience from my childhood, which may have in turn been the impetus for my deep interest in the paranormal. My encounter with the "Impossible Little Man" is from way back, 1973 to be exact, and I was 5-6 years old.

Make of this what you will.....

In '73 my Mom was pregnant with my younger sister and my parents were looking to upgrade their home. Often they would take me out with their real-estate agent looking at houses. One house in particular was in a then newly developed neighbourhood, but on land with some historic significance.

The house was brand new at the time, and therefore never lived in. Being a kid I was itching to explore, and seeing it was unoccupied I was given free reign. And I did explore on my own bottom to top. I came to one bedroom that was just too cool!!! It had skylights, and I said to myself this is soooo going to be my bedroom!!!!! I whirled around intending to run down the stairs and tell my parents, and the realty lady that I picked MY room ...

And that is when I saw him .... He was standing in the corner of the bedroom. A little man, slightly smaller than myself at age 5-6. He was wearing non-descriptive clothing, looked rather stern and was staring directly at me. I remember being shocked. I remember blinking, looking away, and back again and he was still there. I was probably scared, that I can't really recall, but I do remember knowing he was "wrong" ... not supposed to be there, not "real" ...

I have no idea how much time passed, but eventually I heard my parents and the realtor outside of the door. I looked at my mom in the door frame, and gingerly made my way past the little man who had kept his eyes fixed to my own the entire time.

I said nothing ..... But I loathed the house from that point. My father put a deposit it on it, but the deal fell through ... and I was relieved ...... we eventually moved elsewhere.

Many years later I told both parents about that day. My father was a scientist and atheist, and my mother more of a nature loving free spirit, but who was still very level headed ... and they both were supportive of me. They never insulted my intelligence....or in other words, if I said something happened, they trusted my word that something had indeed occurred that I felt was important enough to tell them.

My mother claimed to have recalled that day, and how my demeanor did change dramatically, but she just wrote it off ... and I said nothing to her at the time.

So there you have it, what, who, or why I can't say.....beyond he was solid, and looked very real ... yet somewhere in my child's mind I knew he was "impossible" ....... maybe even a ghost......or some bleed through from another space, and time.....

Several years after writing this post, and with the help of another friend who is a professional scientist and very well versed in UFOs and open to the occult, I came to consider my "little man" may have been a homunculus or  -> literally "little man." The image I have included is LAM which is Aleister Crowley's homunculus. This is not a true representation of what I encountered, but its close enough that I thought I'd include it.

Originally published October 23rd, 2009 to my Out Of My Mind's Eye web journal