In Pure Spirit

For open minds

They call it the Poltergiest House: Is 30 East Drive in Pontefract haunted?

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Some say that the Black Monk of Pontefract is one of the most violent poltergeists in Europe. Are they right?

It is believed that the terrace house in the Chequerfields Estate in East Yorkshire is built near to where the town once had its gallows. The Black Monk of Pontefract, as identified by author Tom Cuniff, is said to have been a 16th century monk who was found guilty and then hung to death for the rape and murder of a girl.

Modern reports of hauntings and supernatural disturbances began in the 60s when Jean and Joe Pritchard moved in with their son and daughter, Phillip and Diane. One report cites the first instance starting while some of the family where on holiday in Devon but grandmother Sarah Scholes was at 30 East Drive looking after Phillip. First a strange gust of chilling wind swept through the house, then white powder began to fall from the ceiling with, finally, pools of water appearing throughout the house.

During that incident a tea dispenser seemed to work by itself, a plant pot threw itself down the stairs and objects flew out of the cupboards. The water board was called to investigate the puddles but could find no solution.

This video shows a 25 minute investigate by Abandoned Investigated.

Featured in this video are Karen and Alison, both sensitive, Ben and Tom as investigators, Kris as the Medium, Laura on camera and Jess, Ema and Steve as guests.

30 East Drive in Pontefract is now a commercial venue after a film and a second wave of haunting.

The British movie “When The Lights Went Out” is loosely based on the poltergeist occurrence known as The Black Monk of Pontefract. It was made after Colin Wilson’s 1981 book Poltergeist! A Study in Destructive Haunting, Including the Black Monk of Pontefract became popular among supernatural investigators and experts. In the movie Jenny and Len move into the home only for their daughter, Sally, to be terrorised by an evil entity. The movie stars Kate Ashfield, Tasha Connor, Steven Waddington, Craig Parkinson, Martin Compston and Jo Hartley.

A newspaper report by Andy Lea describes how locals noticed an increase in supernatural activity after the film. A neighbour, Carol Fieldhouse, was unaware Pritchard’s had sold the house to movie producer Bil Bungay. Carol said;

“I saw Philip in the front, tidying up the garden,”
“I went out and asked him if he’d sold it to one of his nephews. I thought it must have been one of them because I knew they were deaf and I’d heard the telly blasting out all night.

“He said ‘There’s no TV in there. It’s empty’. Then he turned pale and went ‘God, it’s started again’. I haven’t seen him since.”

Carol later told reporters that she held a séance in the neighbouring house and managed to make contact with the Black Monk.

A Most Haunted Live Halloween special in 2015 hooked cameras up to the Coal Hole, the EVP / Dining Room area and Stairwell and invited viewers of the Really TV channel to watch. In the run up to the night the Most Haunted Crew have already discovered the name “Carl Anthony”, a 52-year-old priest from 1633, who gave them one message: GET OUT.

In the show balls and marbles have moved around, there have been knocks and whispers and a knife dangerously hidden in a sofa.

In Pure Spirit

Have you done what Yvette and Karl of Most Haunted have done and visited 30 East Drive? Let us know if you have and what your thoughts are on the location in the comments below.

Do you believe that Carl Anthony is the Black Monk of Pontefract? Do you believe the death of a young girl during the reign of King Henry VIII at the hands of a priest could be responsible for a Yorkshire haunting that is still in effect today?

This is what might happen if you try and summon a demon

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Thinking about trying to summon a demon this Halloween? Or perhaps your are turning your attention towards the sky and are planning to do something dramatic during the rare triangle alignment that Venus, Mars and Jupiter will form?

Maybe you shouldn’t. This comic strip reveals the true horror.

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Did you know there are items on Etsy tagged with “Summon Demons”? There’s this ink drawing of “Come to Sabbath” that shows a witch dance to summon a demon as well this Wormwood sample sold for potions, witchcraft and magic.

There’s also this hand to order, English, grimoire of magic that claims to have illustrations and seals needed for demon summoning as well as this cheaper, made-up, pages of instructions.

In Pure Spirit

Have you ever tried to summon an otherworldy entity or spirit?

Is this really photographic evidence of a sexy ghost?

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A funny thing happens around about Halloween. Certain newspapers start to get interested in reporting ghost stories. This encounter that apparently features a blonde female ghost flashing her cleavage comes from The Mirror.

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Is there any evidence other than the blurry photograph above? According to reports the paranormal entity left behind a possible fingerprint smudge inside an ancient Egyptian Mummy’s case at the Torquay Museum in Devon.

The manager at Torquay Museum told press;

The weirdest thing was that we have a mummy, which we believe is Devon’s only human mummy.”

The ghost was after an event called Real Investigators of the Paranormal took place last week at the old building. The museum dates back to 1866 and may have Devon’s only human mummy. Inside the case is the remains of a mummified four year old boy.

The Mirror has found fans who are happy to joke along with the findings. One told the paper;

Who knew ghosts could be so sexy? She could haunt my house and give me nightmares any day of the week.
“I certainly wouldn’t want to see her busted.”

In Pure Spirit

Do you think this is proof a real haunting? Is this finally photographic evidence of something supernatural in nature? Vote below.

Are you able to walk with the Elegy?

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In this striking short film we try and follow one girl and a strange coin as she approaches a mysterious door.

In Pure Spirit

Would you trade the coin for a trip into the unknown? Would you push past the door and into the darkness beyond.

Why?

7 terrible fake ghost pictures

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What counts as a terrible ghost picture in the first place?

There are a few answers; the photoshop ghost might be easy to spot, the original picture might already be famous or some popular smartphone app like Ghost Camera Prank might have been used. Badly faked ghost pictures are common on the internet. Some might argue that all ghost pictures are fake but that’s a debate for another day.

Here’s 8 of the worst fake ghost pictures according to In Pure Spirit.

Faked Scolastic Information

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The picture above is a fake. You can just see the “ghost teacher” or very large child floating above the students in the foreground. The original, seen below, is Robert Doisneau’s Scolastic Information. You can buy the original from Art Republic.

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Faked Dracula, Bela Lugois

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This is a famous picture from Bela Lugosi’s 1931 Dracula picture. It boggles the mind that anyone would thik to photoshop a ghost into it. Are we expected to think that the vmpire is real too? As evidence; the original can be bought as a poster from Art.com.

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Haunted Gothic Church of St Peter

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This fake ghost looks like it was created on a smartphone. You can see the so-called haunting sitting in what looks like a sofa on the right. The original picture can be seen in a blog post created by Andy Finnegan which tells us that the original is the Gothic Church of St Peter in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. You can see a copy of the original below.

 

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Ghosts in the snow

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This terrible picture is of Miranda Castle. The original photograph may have been taken by this Flickr user and published without permission to be shared elsewhere. That’s not stopped the original from being spread around the internet and in this case some one adding a horrible creature you can just see in the front left.

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Ghosts inside the castle church

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It might make sense to imagine there would be ghosts inside a church or ghosts inside a castle. Needless to say it may well make sense that there are ghosts inside a castle church. In this case the photograph does not prove ghosts are real. The original can be found among a personal collection at Roman Zakharii’s site.

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Edward VII and his ghost

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This so-called haunting of Edward VII is unlikely. The original picture can be found in Wikipedia’s archives and the ghostly spectre added to the image looks more modern than anything else. Do you think this is real?

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The ghost on the pier

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I suppose this is quite a nice idea. In this case the faked photograph begins life as a good photograph without any obvious hook to the supernatural. A figure is simply added in and suddenly the whole picture takes on a new life. The original, however, can be found on Redbubble by the artist SD Smart and there’s no ghost.

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In Pure Spirit

Do you have any other examples of badly forged ghost pictures? Share them in the comments below. Perhaps you think the 7 ghost pictures above have been badly treated and that the originals don’t match up – after all, perhaps it’s the so-called original that’s been photoshopped.

Pranking bookstores with “The Beginner’s Guide to Human Sacrifice”

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Prankster Obvious Plant created some pretend books and left them hidden at a local bookstore.

Imagine how people must have felt as they reached for this particular pretend book and discovered they held in their hands “The Beginner’s Guide to Human Sacrifice”.

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The text says;

There’s no better place to start your journey into the world of satanic death rituals than Lord Bing Shipley’s Beginner’s Guide to Human Sacrifice.

This simple introduction to human sacrifice has been purchased and enjoyed by thousands of people looking to strengthen their personal relationships with the dark Lord Satan.

Put your questions to rest and build the confidence required to get the job done right!

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In Pure Spirit

Where does this rank on your prank scale? Funny or not?

10 types of spirits that could be haunting your home

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Do you think your home might be haunted? Perhaps your flat gets strangely cold at night? Does your apartment develop eerily dark shadows or do you sometimes catch sight of things just at the corner of your sight when you’re awake at midnight?

If you do believe your house is haunted then you might be interested in researching what type of ghost, monster or entity is living with you. Myth and legend has plenty of stories about these horrors and those who do believe know that there are different types of haunting.

Haunting

#1: Poltergeist

Thanks to the movie Poltergeist this particular ghost is well known but not well understood. If you’re worried that the ghosts on this list don’t seem very “English” then keep in mind that poltergeist is a German ghost. It means; “noisy ghost”.

For the most part Poltergeists are more troublesome than they’re are powerful. They’re the ghosts that knock books off shelves or pans off tables. If you think you’re seeing things when you’re home alone then it won’t be a poltergeist.

Many paranormal investigators who believe in ghosts do not believe in poltergeists. They’ll suggest that the effects of apparent poltergeist activity are almost always rogue psychokinesis from a source elsewhere in the house.

Artisan Witchcrafts on Etsy sell ”Spirits Depart” a folk hoodoo oil that mentions Poltergeists.

#2: Lady in Grey

There are many “Lady in…” ghosts The Lady in Grey, The Lady in White, The Lady in Green and the Lady in Red just to name a few. The colour normally applies to some sort of characteristic of the apparition. The Lady in Grey is the most common and typically manifests as a visual phantasm that can be seen floating down a corridor.

The Lady in Grey can usually be seen (unlike a Poltergeist). The spirit is usually trapped after some sort of wrong-doing. Famous Ladies in Grey include one at Bishops Stortford in England, one in Cumberland College in Dunedin, New Zealand, Denbigh Castle in Wales, Glamis Castle in Scotland and Rufford Old Hall in Lancashire in England.

There are tourism opportunities with some famous Lady in Grey encounters. Sites like Red Letter Days offer ghost tours. That said; it’s not generally advised to mention such a haunting if you are trying to sell your own house.

#3: Bhoot

Known either as bhoot or bhut this is a ghost that is too restless to carry on to nirvana, heaven, hell or non-being. It can be the case that a funeral not to the liking of the spirit will create a Bhoot.

Bhoots normally look human but can take the form of almost any animal. They frequently haunt houses and the term “bhoot bungalows” or “bhoot banglas” are used in India to describe such places.

The main danger from Bhoots is their obsession with milk. They wish to immerse themselves in milk and bhoot-contaminated milk is the usual path to bhoost-possessed humans.

Bhoots dislike the ground and will take measures to avoid touching it. Some bhoot have feet that point backwards and they may cast no shadow. It is said that bhoots fear iron object and the scent of burnt turmeric. As it happens Tulasi Turmeric Incense is regularly available at Amazon.

#4: Churel

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Churel are ghosts of women who died in childbirth. As such these ghosts are often associated with homes and hospitals. In some parts of the world the word Churel (or chudel) is also used to mean witch.

Churel look horrible but can disguise themselves as beautiful young women. They do so to seduce young men; draining them of blood and semen to age them prematurely and use their life-energy.

Churel are often associated with impurity too and while cleaning a home is not enough to turn back a Churel keeping a home clean is a good first step.

It is said that four iron nails used to support red flowers have been used to restrain churel entities in the gravesite where their body is buried. Iron nail vases aren’t a think and so a trip to B&Q online may be necessary.

#5: Tikoloshe

Tikoloshe are small water spirits that can completely vanish into drinking water. Almost exclusively, Tikoloshe are summoned by someone to scare and harass others.

Typically offending a local witch doctor (or equivalent) is the usual path to troubles with Tikoloshe. Another witch doctor is usually able to unsummon the spirit and in Zulu mythology n’anga will perform these.

Another way to defend against a Tokoloshe is to put a brick under each leg of the target’s bed. This protects the target while they rest on the bed but not others in the household.

#6: Di Fu Ling

Di Fu Ling are ghosts that have been bound to a certain place. This binding may be natural such as the Di Fu Ling ghost haunting a location it had strong ties to in life or may be unnatural such as the unwelcome invention of someone else.

It is believed that chanting “hum, hum, hum, hum” as a very basic mantra, the foundation of many prayers and spells, can be enough to offer you some protection from Di Fu Ling class entities. Keeping the lights, especially red candles on the window (better still; outside your house), is another method of prevention associated with these spirits.

As it happens a lot of the practises recommended by Feng Shui align to many of the defences against these location bound spirits. Sites like Buy FengShui.com offer a range of talismans, coins and crystals.

#7: Phi Tai Hong

Phi Tai Hong are ghosts of those who have died suddenly or unexpectedly. It tends to be the case that such deaths are violent, horrible and sometimes murder. They are one of the hardest entities to exorcise.
The worst incarnation of a Phi Tai Hong is a Phi Tai Hong Tong Glom or Phi Tai Tong Glom which are ghosts of women who died giving birth and who lost her child at the same time. They’ve the strength.

Those who believe and know about ghosts of this nature will warn that they are very hard to get rid of. Where one cannot commit to exorcism a handmade Protection Amulet may be a necessary stop gap.

#8: Bogles

It is the Bogles from where we get the phrase Bogeyman. These are entities with a temper and a dislike of children – especially those who are lazy, commit crimes or disobey their mothers. Bogles strike households by teasing and tricking people, driving them more angry and unstable or possibly even insane.

There are some who believe that bogles are a type of fairy and therefore can’t really be removed from the house. They can only be appeased. Growing up or being more obedient to one’s family would be the Bogles’ recommended approach. Leaving gifts out for Bogles will not work; as such gifts only create more clutter which the Bogle will object too.

#9: Lemures

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Lemures are shades and spirits out for revenge. They wander the Earth and will come to haunt houses they have no previous association with.

The supposed cries and nocturnal activities of the dreadful Lemures are the inspiration for the name “Lemur”. Lemurs are cute, active at night, primates native to Madagascar. Lemures are formless and associated with darkness.

In ancient Roman times the head of the household would throw black beans out of the doorway, without looking, at midnight to distract the evil Lemures. It was believed then that the spirits would feast on the beans as a substitute for life source.

Borlotti beans, also known as Roman beans, are native to the Mediterranean but are not naturally black. Black Turtle beans are and work well in Latin American cuisine. Either way; services like Graze or Hello Fresh which can supply households with a regular shipment of beans may be useful to anyone worrying about Lemures.

#10: Quod Possederunt

One translation of “Quad Possederent” from Latin to English is simply “Possessed Object”. It may well be the case that the entity causing a disturbance in the house is neither associated with the location or any of the people in it. The horror may be associated with a particular item.

Haunted items are fairly common. It is possible to find tens of thousands of listings for haunted objects on Ebay at any given time although most of those so-called “haunted dolls” are nothing more than a seller’s attempt to earn some extra pennies.

In most cases the cure is straight forward – get rid of the item. This isn’t always the case. Sometimes the item will ‘fight back’. Other cases of Quad Possederunt require the items to be disposed of in a special way. Often a straight forward, if unpleasant method, to remove the spirit is to gift the haunted object to someone else.

In Pure Spirit

How many of this list of 10 entities did you know about already? Would you add any more?

Do you worry that there is something haunting your home? Do you believe in any of this or is this all just superstitious nonsense?

lemure-t-shirtLike the Lemure illustration?
This Lemure features as t-shirt, mug and even print design at Redbubble. Ships to the UK, US and worldwide. Look here for styles.

 

Image Credit: Lord Orgl for Haunting and Debu of Course Who Else for the Churel. Pictures via Deviant Art.

Former Stanley Tools Factory in Neepsend is haunted, says Gcuk

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stanley-tools-sheffieldThe team at Ghost Central UK took some of the Most Haunted team, including Yvette Fielding, Karl Beattie and Stuart Torevell, to investigate the Former Stanley Tools Factory in Neepsend. More than a dozen members of the public were along for a whole night of paranormal investigation.

According to news coverage from The Star they found evidence of supernatural.

Jenny Bryant, founder of GCuk Paranormal, told the paper;

We explored the dark and derelict building. We conducted séances, a ouija board and table tipping.

“Our group heard tapping noises in answer to our questions and we determined it was a male spirit.

“These taps were witnessed by about 12 people – by the team, guests and Karl and Yvette.

“Guests also witnessed shadowy figures fleeting across dark rooms – a very eerie atmosphere.”

The team were using devices, perhaps ones similar to a K-II EMF Meter, to trace high electromagnetic fields. The factory, strangely, had one.

In Pure Spirit

Where you part of this ghost hunt or do you know the factory? Let us know in the comments below if you have any thoughts about it?

Tempted by an overnight ghost hunt of your own? You can book one at sites like Red Letter Days for about £69.

Image credit: Urban Adventure.

Did fishermen really find a dragon skeleton in the Chinese Sea?

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According to the Japanese news site Byoukan Sunday there is debate as to whether this is a strange discovery or a hoax.

The find is dated March 2013 and was apparently made by a Chinese fisherman. As the Japanese newspaper points out the bones are rather perfect for a washed up skeleton, though. Could they have been hand carved?

As a hoax it is still a remarkable piece of art.

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In Pure Spirit

What do you think? Is this a hoax or do you think the Chinese really have their hands on a skeleton that belongs to a creature we’ve never seen before?

Or is there a third option? Is this a partial skeleton of a more common creature? A whale, for example.

Disclosure

This blog discusses ideas and causes. Urban myth and history combine here. In Pure Spirit covers stories from elsewhere on the web and may make fair use clippings and quotations from the original source.