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?
For open minds
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?
by Andrew 3 Comments
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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”.
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!
In Pure Spirit
Where does this rank on your prank scale? Funny or not?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
Like 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.
The 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.
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.
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.
Places right across the world have their own local tales and folklores to tell, passed down from generation to generation. You hear about them when young and it adds intrigue to certain spots and locations near where you live. They draw people in to an area who might otherwise never visit, to see and feel where the story was said to occur, however strange, however quirky. Mill Pond in Massachusetts with its tale of a wizard, the Devil and Satanic imps is a wonderful case in point.
The tale centers around an old sawmill built back in the 18th century by John Selee, later to be run by his son Nathan, the alleged wizard. The sawmill no longer exists and in its place is a sign that tantalises the visitor with the rough outlines of the murky tale. Erected in 1999 by the Easton Conservation Commission it states:
Site of the sawmill built by John Selee in the 18th century and continued by his son, Nathan, a wizard who purportedly used satanic imps to run the mill at night
It is a great and simple sign to draw you in and arouse your interest.
The legend tells of the Devil visiting Nathan Selee one night at his home and telling him to come and follow him. Nathan does this, taking one of his magic books with him as they leave the house. On opening the book a ferocious storm of thunder and lightening broke out, so scaring Nathan Selee that he ran back to his house and threw the book on the fire, stopping the storm. This infuriated the Devil, who gathered up some rocks as he went to follow Nathan back home, until crossing through a swamp he slipped, scattering the rocks that he carried. It was at this point while correcting himself from falling that the Devil stood on a rock leaving a huge foot print 24” long and 10” wide, a mark that can still be seen today.
From this point on local legend has it that the satanic imps arrived to work at the mill, though for reasons not especially clear. Whatever the deal, whether it was at the price of his soul or not, Nathan Selee in one instant suddenly had a free work force to help run his mill.
So what happened to Nathan Selee, the wizard. Across from where the sign has been erected is Easton cemetery, where the headstone for Nathan’s father John Selee can be found. However Nathan’s grave is noticeably absent. As a wizard with an understanding of the darker side of magic, and one with a pact with the Devil, did he ever leave this world and hence there would be no grave in Easton cemetery? Or perhaps at some point of his life he just moved. The beauty of such legends lies in the not knowing.
The Easton Conservation Commission have done well in putting up such a mysterious sign that entices the imagination. It draws people in, it makes you want to go and have a look, to sense the atmosphere, and just as importantly it helps preserve a local folklore.
In Pure Spirit
Have you been to any similar locations? What story did they have?
Have you been to the Mill Pond and the site of John Selee sawmill? What was it like?
(Image credit: Imgur)
The Jenkem Magazine team hit up a few abandoned spots for this film. Back in 1931 this building was thriving but World War 2 got in the way and things started falling apart.
There are 10 abandoned buildings in this centre (with 4 additional buildings still in use). Psych patients and cops roam around the site.
In Pure Spirit
What do you think? Spooky? Or just stakeboard cool?
Does this picture show a monster in Loch Ness?
The photograph was taken by paranormal investigator Jonathan Bright and seems to show something other than a wave in the choppy waters of the Scottish loch.
Bright is a professional monster-hunter, who’s been on TV shows and even History Channel documentaries. He found the photograph three years after he took it as he’s spent months analysing thousands of his own surveillance of the area. He told the Express;
I investigate the paranormal but I also investigate legends and Nessie is one of them.
“Three years ago, I came to Scotland to investigate the Nessie legend and took thousands of photographs.
“It took me six months to look at them all and I found this one which I showed when I spoke at the Scottish Paranormal Festival in Stirling this week.
Bright is now expected in Edinburgh where he’ll search the capital for ghosts.
In Pure Spirit
What do you think? A fake? Just a rock peaking through the loch? Surely we’ve now seen enough scientific evidence to prove there’s no Nessie?
by Andrew 2 Comments
Want to help the Paranormal Knights capture a ghost on camera?
[Back this Campaign]
In Pure Spirit talked to Chris Kiley, creator of Paranormal Knights, and asked about this Indiegogo campaign and his experiences in the field.
Who are The Paranormal Knights? What do you do?
We are a collection of paranormal researchers, multi-denomination experts, sound technology professionals, film makers and technology engineers. Through the use of a very rigorous screening process, we have a team that is not only able to discover evidence of possible spirits, but also able to distinguish the difference between a normal and paranormal event caught on film or recording devices. This is why we have chosen the word Knight. It represents a set of values that we consider essential. Truth, Valour, Bravery, Honour and Perseverance. It also doesn’t hurt that we think it sounds pretty cool.
A Paranormal Knight, with a previous group or by yourself which locations have you investigated already? Favourite location?
Prior to building the Paranormal Knights team, I myself investigated a collection of haunted houses, cemeteries, insane asylums, private home investigations and abandoned buildings. My favourite location, tough question. Each location hold a little something special for me but my top choice to return to is the Dorea Institute. Dorea was an institute for mentally ill orphans back in the 40’s and remained open until 1995. What is so intriguing is that the so called “mentally ill” orphans were part of a group in the range of 20,000 orphans falsely accused of insanity so that experiments could be done on them without anyone questioning it. They were part of the “Duplessis Orphans” and the Dorea Institute was so close to the U.S. border that tunnels were created so American doctors could secretly enter Canada to partake in the experiments. Unfortunately due to the horrible conditions, exposure to toxins and the property owners lack of cooperation, we could not investigate in depth. We’re not giving up though. We’ll make it back there someday!
Also, what has been your favourite discovery?
My favourite discovery is one that happened just recently. We visited a mass grave site that contained hundreds of bodies dating back over 200 years. The site was used for military and civilian personnel that were stationed at an old fort nearby. Almost instantly our EMF reader was registering some intense activity, however it was only in one small two foot radius. The signal would come and go about every 3 minutes but always in the same spot. We did a sweep of the entire location and found no other activity and no possible sources of electromagnetic interference. Returning to the original spot, our EMF reader continued to register a high frequency in regular intervals. We discussed some possibilities and thought perhaps, being a military grave site, that it was a guard doing his rounds. Passing the spot on each time around the grave. Here’s where it gets really exciting! The next time our EMF reader went off we followed what we considered to be a logical path for a guard to make and we were able to follow the signal for a good 5 feet before the EMF reader lost the signal. All caught on film. Very exciting!
The Indiegogo video promises you’ll find supernatural activity. Isn’t that a really bold promise to make?
You’re right, it is a bold promise. They key to finding evidence is first having a location that is haunted. Sounds simple enough but in reality it’s not always the case. There needs to be a reason WHY the location is haunted. With the help and insight from parapsychologists and psychologists we have devised a list of elements that would be the main source of a haunting. We have put our list to the test numerous times in both haunted and non haunted locations. The results have spoken form themselves. Locations that contained no elements from our list, had no activity that would suggest any evidence of the supernatural. However the areas that did contain at least one of our elements, we have found a large variety of unexplained events. This is why I’m so confident that by investigating locations according to our elements, we, and of course the viewers, will find some sort of evidence.
Why do you think there is not already compelling evidence of the supernatural? Or is paranormal, by very definition, never going to be normal?
Another great question! That’s really THE question, isn’t it? I think there’s two issues here. One is that, at this stage the majority of the scientific community has not embraced the investigating of the supernatural, so research in the field is considered a little fringe. Only a handful of Universities world wide teach courses in Parapsychology. If we had more minds trained in the field, I think we would be much farther ahead than we are today. Mind you, we once thought the world was flat, and that the stars moved around the earth as it stood still. So although I am a believer in science, history has proved that it’s not always right. The second issue we face is confusion. Often a paranormal investigation and ghost hunting are considered the same thing. They’re not. It would be like saying crime scene investigation is the same as CSI on TV. One is for evidence, one is for entertainment. The more we pay attention to true investigations, you will see a pattern emerge. That to me, is what compelling evidence is all about.
Sadly there’s only one way to truly find out what’s on the “other side”, and by then it’s too late to tell anyone. That being said, we as a human race has always been trying to understand the world around us and records of spiritual contact date back when humans scratched drawings on cave walls. Could that many people be wrong?
What tips do you have for ghost hunters and paranormal investigators?
A good paranormal investigator must first investigate. It’s essential to know your surroundings and details about your location. Go there during the day, gather all the details about the place, things in the surrounding area, history of the location, anything you can get your hands on. The more information the better. It’s super important because, as an example, flickering lights in a house built before 1940 are common because of the old electrical standards. We once had a woman hear scratching from inside her closet, when in fact it was a tiny branch that would scrape her aluminium siding. If you are a paranormal investigator you absolutely MUST rule our anything that could cause whatever is happening at the location. If you really want to find evidence, then treat it like a crime scene. Figure out why these things happen. Once you rule out every possibility, now you have some serious evidence! Oh and one last thing… don’t do that ghost taunting they do on TV. We always stick with the mind set that, if there is a spirit there, they were once human. Would you go talk to a jerk if you were a ghost?
It is really hard to raise money and budgets for paranormal investigations. Why do you think that is?
Well I think that unfortunately some people have given paranormal investigation a bad reputation. Not everyone takes it seriously so when they go out ghost hunting, they do all sorts of unprofessional things. I once interviewed someone who told me that she communicates better with spirits while she is under the influence of large amounts of alcohol. Even I laughed at that one. This is the struggle we, as a community, face. We get piled into one giant group. Once the word paranormal comes out, we are often instantly grouped in with those who like to just play around. Police and Intelligence Organizations like the FBI take it seriously, proven by the fact that they hire clairvoyants on important cases. SO… here’s my call to action for all you paranormal investigators! Let’s raise the credibility of the science. When our show is aired, we’ll have ways for you to see our investigations and interact with us. I invite you, Andrew to join us! In fact I invite everyone! Let’s bring paranormal research out of the fringe and into every day thinking!
In Pure Spirit
There you have it – a Q&A from the founder of the Paranormal Knights. Have you ever attempted something like the investigation group and film team combo that Chris is doing? Let us know about your experiences in the comments below.
This blog discusses ideas and causes. Urban myth, science and faith combine here. So do editorials and technology; In Pure Spirit uses affiliate marketing and some links might earn us money. You can read more about that here.