In December 1975, George and Kathy Lutz moved into a large house in Amityville, Long Island with their three children. Less than a month later, they fled from the house in a rush, leaving all their possessions behind. Throughout their brief stay there, they saw objects levitate, walls bleed and family members transform before their eyes.
The last night in the house they attempted an exorcism. Family members have subsequently refused to describe what followed the home-grown religious procedure, describing the events as "too frightening."
The Lutz's story entered mainstream culture when a popular book (The Amityville Horror: A True Story) and the subsequent film were released based on their experiences. Throughout the decades since publication, critics have repeatedly slammed the validity of the paranormal aspects of this "true story."
But Metropolitan Archbishop Daniel Romanos, a resident of Hopkins-owned apartment housing in Charles Village, is a true believer.
"Most of the things that you see on the screen actually occur," he said. "Just not all at once in the same place."
Romanos is a skinny man with a long gray beard with patches of color which flow into a goatee. His hair is done up in a long pigtail which snakes down the back of his shirt. He dresses in all black with the white of a priest's collar poking out at the bottom of his neck.
Growing up in Greek City, Baltimore, Romanos saw "flashes" - of people, of ghosts, of spirits.
"I believe children are more attuned to spiritual things," he said. "When we get older, we convince ourselves that nothing is there so no one will think we're crazy."
His interest in the occult only intensified after his mother took him to see Dr. Hans Holzer, an Austrian born paranormal researcher who served as a formal investigator on the Amityville case.
Later interactions with television documentaries (including In Search of . . . hosted by Leonard Nimoy) and magazine articles cemented his interest in the supernatural.
He says he graduated from high school early (he was only 15) and started Gargoyles Paranormal Investigations in 1984 - it has been running ever since.
"The mid 1980s was a time when there was a lot of talk about teenage satanic cults. So I was very active," he said. "I would attempt to give my so-called 'expertise' on the matter - which was more, in that time, than strictly supernatural. More along the lines of cults, graffiti on churches, that sort of thing."
Today, he is investigating the case of the "Mysterious Musician," a friendly ghost (although he is quick to disassociate it from Caspar) who has been known to play the piano at the Baltimore Theatre Project, a fringe theatre located on 45 West Preston Street.
He begins by noting that the large warehouse building which has been revamped for theater use was once the headquarters for a chapter of the Improved Order of Heptasophs (IOH), a fraternal organization from the early 19th century.
"There would have been a man with a sword at the entrance," Romanos said. "And as I understand it, the initiation sequences were pretty extreme."
Stained glass windows emblazoned with IOH acronyms still line the theatre, and the letters IOH are literally built into the ceiling, above the catwalk.
Romanos asks an official a few questions regarding the alleged spirit: Are there any unusual cold spots? Any reports of objects moving or levitating? Has anyone ever been murdered violently on the premises?
After a steady series of "no's" from the skeptical tour guide, Romanos sets about investigating the piano which reportedly is still visited by a musician from the early 1920s.
For the most part, Romanos eschews modern ghost hunting equipment, the likes of which can be seen on Ghost Hunters or other, more mainstream, ghost hunting media.
"I prefer to keep it spiritual, to reach out with my hands and my soul," he said.
The last person who heard the Mysterious Musician play left the theatre in 2000. Romanos inspects the piano, feeling for cold spots and trying to spiritually "feel" the presence of a supernatural force. Despite saying that he had the distinct impression of something "off" as he walked into the room housing the piano, Romanos eventually concludes, given the lack of spiritual or physical indicators and the sheer length of time since the last sighting, that this spirit had moved on to the "other side."
Today, Romanos knew that the spirit would be benign. When he suspects the spirit might be hostile, he comes prepared.
"When it is a negative entity I am called to deal with, I bring a few items," he said. "Holy water, anointing oil and crucifix, things of that sort."
And, according to Romanos, some of the legends surrounding ghosts and demonic spirits are devastatingly true.
"Since I have become a priest of my church, I have been called in on cases of very negative entities and things that have required - or I believe required - an exorcism," he said. "I had a case a few years ago where a lamp levitated a full three feet off of a table and threw itself at my head - and a lady who was there with me turned and told me: 'It doesn't like you.'"
When an alleged negative force invades a house (be they the spirits of deceased humans or demonic entities), Romanos turns to the writings of St. Basil the Great, who was a saint of the Greek Church and is recognized by the Roman-Catholic Church.
"[St. Basil] wrote prayers of exorcism and I [chant them]," he said. "An exorcism is just a prayer, a call to God to free the person or the building or whatever from the negative entities which are inhabiting it."
The Mother Virgin Mary is the strongest force to call upon against negative entities, according to Romanos, and the most dangerous type of spiritual infestation is that of a demon from another plane of existence.
"Demonic spirits, I believe from my experience, are more likely to constantly torture a person in various ways, in a form of spiritual-psychological warfare, you may say," he said. "But actual possession does occur.
"There are a few cases where [a person] is beyond repair - when a person is what we call 'perfectly possessed,'" he said. "That's a person who has willingly and completely invited demonic spirits into their body. This can happen to a person who is spiritually Satanist or [a] Devil Worshipper, or someone who wanted to sell their soul - and that is the only case where I believe a person could not be saved.
"I believe that Adolf Hitler was perfectly possessed."
Romanos draws many of his beliefs from the Book of Enoch, a non-canonical scripture from about 300 BCE.
"Its revelations were a bit too much for most people to take," he said. "The fallen angels themselves actually came down to earth and married human women. Perhaps one of the reasons that angels fell is because they wanted to experience things that human beings experiences - and they've found cases of demonic spirits that prey sexually on human beings."
But if demonic possession is possible, as Romanos asserts it is, then is our entire world at risk from an "invasion" from another plane of existence?
"It's definitely possible. The prophesy of Enoch is that the fallen angels will return to Earth one day," he said. "I'm not a fundamentalist and don't take it all literally, but spiritually I'd say it's very possible.
"There have been times in history when there were wars or other tragic events when evil has really been wholesale - and then I believe that could be a time when there could be an invasion, so to speak."
Perhaps there will be an invasion one day, but it isn't today - and after Romanos finishes his investigation, he leaves the Baltimore Theatre Project.
"My church takes up most of my time," he said. "But Gargoyle's Paranormal Investigations will continue to accept cases." - jhunewsletter
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Phrenology: August 1926
By 1926, phrenology, which sought to explain personality through the physical dimensions of the skull, was so disreputable that we couldn't publish this article without mentioning that "though scientists generally do not endorse it, the subject always has fascinated the layman." The writer of this article, William J. White, Jr., was a phrenology enthusiast who compared the brain to a business with 42 departments. Each section the brain corresponded to a section of the skull so that you could judge a person's character and capabilities by rubbing his skull.
Since the region of Individuality is on the bottom of your forehead, you could discern a strong personality by the top of the person's nose. To support his case, White pointed out how people have personality quirks despite being normal in every other aspect. If an otherwise rational person possesses hypochondriac tendencies, it's reasonable to assume that one of his 42 mental departments has shut down. - popsci
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The Clown Statue
“I have this friend of a friend who used to babysit as a teenager. Her clients were pretty wealthy and live in this absolutely huge house out near the country, on the outskirts of the town they live in. I think she’s a doctor and he’s a partner at some law firm, so we are talking huge income. It’s really nice out there, peaceful, but a bit out of the way.
The house is a bit ridiculous; an unbelievable number of rooms. You can easily get lost in the place. They’re a bit anal, especially about the house. They have a large number of inherited family heirlooms lying around the place, and the father is quite the ‘no nonsense’ father, if you know what I mean?
Anyway, this one night they go out for some posh-do dinner party and leave this girl to look after the kids. As I said, he’s pretty anal and doesn’t want her wandering around the house where she might damage some antiquated piece of armour or whatever, so he says she has to stay in this one reception room. It has a kitchen attached to it and has this huge screen TV, so it’s fully decked out to keep her entertained.
So they leave and, being a strict household, they soon obediently go to bed. She takes up residence in this specially designated room and starts watching TV, making herself a snack and what not. Before long she starts to feel uncomfortable. There, in the corner of the room, is this ugly, bulky clown statue. It looks like some grotesque antique piece from the 20’s or around that period and it’s all grimy, covered in what looks like oil.
She can’t help getting the feeling it’s watching her. It’s been said that we have this inbuilt ability to sense being watched, but it is not uncommon for it to play tricks on you. She tried to ignore it, but she can’t shake the sense that those eyes are burning into her. In the end she relents and takes her phone to the toilet in the hall outside. In her head she was telling herself that she’s insane, thinking the statue can hear her, what a ridiculous thought, but she leaves anyway.
‘Hey. It’s Sarah. Look, I’m really sorry to call you up like this but that clown statue you have in the reception room, it’s really making me uncomfortable. Would it be ok to move to another room or just stick a blanket over the thing of something?’
After a long pause he replies.
‘Okay Sarah, I need you to get the children from the room, get them into your car and take them to the nearest house. When you are there, call the police.’
I think it’s safe to say after hearing ‘call the police’ you aren’t about to ask questions. She grabbed the kids and ran.
It turns out the kids had complained of a clown had been watching them sleep in their room. The father put it down to silly stories and had basically disregarded what they had said until the babysitter had seen the thing too. Apparently a Psychiatric Unit had closed down recently in the area and not everyone had stable places to go. The story goes that the police seemed to try and hide their concern, though not very well after hearing the mention of a clown costume before heading over to the house. After a thorough search of the building, they failed to find the clown. It turns out that the patient had been treated for vivid and dangerous fantasies prior to release, but had not been able to complete his course before the closure of the unit.
They didn’t catch him.”
The fear of clowns, or Coulrophobia, is a relatively widespread fear, and relates back to the famous Stephen King novel, It, in which seven children are terrorized by an entity that mainly appears in the form of ‘Pennywise the Dancing Clown.’ The twisted smiles and make up of clowns have come so much more to represent twisted and insane evil over the innocent child’s entertainer in recent years, most famously in Batman’s arch-nemesis, the psychopathic Joker. It is perhaps the mask and facade of innocence that the make-up represents that makes the clown so scary.
There is also the link with pedophilia or sexual assault. This Urban Legend is terrifying for babysitters, playing on the fear of intruders, both as the invader that they are supposed to protect the children from, as well as being a potential threat to the babysitter herself. There are variations of the tale that both pose most threat to the children, or to the sitter. Either way, this is an Urban Legend that has haunted babysitters for years and deserves a place as one of the scariest of the Urban Legends.
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Coincidence? Lights Go Out While El Paso County Commissioners Talk About Ghost
During a discussion whether to allow a paranormal study to be conducted at the El Paso County Courthouse on Monday, the lights inside the building went out.
On the agenda, the County Commissioners’ court was to decide if they would allow a group of ghost hunters to investigate paranormal activity at the courthouse after hours.
The item came up around 11:20 a.m. at the courthouse located at 500 E. San Antonio Ave.
After the lights turned off commissioners agreed to allow GHOST-EP.
The study will be performed at no cost.
According to GHOST –EP's Facebook page, the group captures many types of phenomena by collecting evidence using a scientific method. All investigations according to the GHOST-EP will be held in a series of three nights and days. - kfoxtv
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Humans 'predisposed' to believe in gods and the afterlife
A three-year international research project, directed by two academics at the University of Oxford, finds that humans have natural tendencies to believe in gods and an afterlife.
The £1.9 million project involved 57 researchers who conducted over 40 separate studies in 20 countries representing a diverse range of cultures. The studies (both analytical and empirical) conclude that humans are predisposed to believe in gods and an afterlife, and that both theology and atheism are reasoned responses to what is a basic impulse of the human mind.
The researchers point out that the project was not setting out to prove the existence of god or otherwise, but sought to find out whether concepts such as gods and an afterlife appear to be entirely taught or basic expressions of human nature.
'The Cognition, Religion and Theology Project’ led by Dr. Justin Barrett, from the Centre for Anthropology and Mind at Oxford University, drew on research from a range of disciplines, including anthropology, psychology, philosophy, and theology. They directed an international body of researchers conducting studies in 20 different countries that represented both traditionally religious and atheist societies.
The findings are due to be published in two separate books by psychologist Dr. Barrett in Cognitive Science, Religion and Theology and Born Believers: The Science of Childhood Religion.
Project Co-director Professor Roger Trigg, from the Ian Ramsey Centre in the Theology Faculty at Oxford University, has also written a forthcoming book, applying the wider implications of the research to issues about freedom of religion in Equality, Freedom and Religion (OUP).
Main findings of the Cognition, Religion and Theology Project:
• Studies by Emily Reed Burdett and Justin Barrett, from the University of Oxford, suggest that children below the age of five find it easier to believe in some superhuman properties than to understand similar human limitations. Children were asked whether their mother would know the contents of a box in which she could not see. Children aged three believed that their mother and God would always know the contents, but by the age of four, children start to understand that their mothers are not all-seeing and all knowing. However, children may continue to believe in all-seeing, all-knowing supernatural agents, such as a god or gods.
• Deborah Kelemen from Boston University finds both children and adults imbue the natural world with ‘purpose’. For instance, respondents were provided with three possible answers to the question of why polar bears are white. Adult respondents, who were obliged to supply answers quickly without time to think, instinctively gave answers that implied ‘purpose’ in the natural world. They would reply that polar bears were white for reasons of camouflage, rather than the more scientifically accurate mechanistic explanation that a polar bear fur lacks pigment, or the silly answer that polar bears have been bleached by the sun. However, if the respondents were given more time to answer, they opted for a ‘mechanistic’ response i.e. that polar bears did not have pigment. The researchers conclude that the immediate, instinctive response was over-ridden by a scientific, reasoned response if participants had time to reflect. This research extends Kelemen’s previous research showing that children prefer purpose-based explanations: children were asked why rocks were pointed and were also found to choose answers that implied purpose, saying that rocks were pointed so the birds could sit on them.
• Experiments involving adults, conducted by Jing Zhu from Tsinghua University (China), and Natalie Emmons and Jesse Bering from The Queen’s University, Belfast, suggest that people across many different cultures instinctively believe that some part of their mind, soul or spirit lives on after-death. The studies demonstrate that people are natural 'dualists' finding it easy to conceive of the separation of the mind and the body.
Project Director Dr. Justin Barrett, from the University of Oxford’s Centre for Anthropology and Mind, said: "This project does not set out to prove god or gods exist. Just because we find it easier to think in a particular way does not mean that it is true in fact. If we look at why religious beliefs and practices persist in societies across the world, we conclude that individuals bound by religious ties might be more likely to cooperate as societies. Interestingly, we found that religion is less likely to thrive in populations living in cities in developed nations where there is already a strong social support network."
Project Co-Director Professor Roger Trigg, from the University of Oxford’s Ian Ramsey Centre, said: "This project suggests that religion is not just something for a peculiar few to do on Sundays instead of playing golf. We have gathered a body of evidence that suggests that religion is a common fact of human nature across different societies. This suggests that attempts to suppress religion are likely to be short-lived as human thought seems to be rooted to religious concepts, such as the existence of supernatural agents or gods, and the possibility of an afterlife or pre-life." - physorg
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THIS WEEK'S SPIRITUAL / PARANORMAL ACTIVITY LINKS
Stephen Hawking: 'There is no heaven; it's a fairy story'
Reincarnation: Believing in second chances
The Poltergeist Phenomenon
Mysterious Church Yard
Are Paranormal Personal Experiences Helpful?
A terrifying entity tears through man’s chest
Phantom Footsteps
Shadow People: What you need to know
The Nine Gates of Hell
"2012" and Electromagnetic Effects on Consciousness
The 100 Most Spiritually Influential Living People
Old Bryce Hospital for the Insane
Psychic detective tells his life story
Tales of the Unquiet Dead
The Astral Plane: A young man’s discovery of astral projection
Visions of Our Youth: Children, Early Memories, and the Unexplained
4 ghost hunters charged with trespassing in Maine
Paranormal Team Investigates The Old County Courthouse
Gossip influences our vision to protect us
Do Ghosts Haunt Mission Viejo?
'Haunted' building spooks KTVB reporter
The Shadow Knows: Thomas Drake, NSA, and SECRET Psychic Espionage
The Curse of Stull Cemetery
Demons take over Mdzimba High
Toyshop owner refuses to sell Harry Potter goods over fears they turn children to the occult
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