Poultry Guys

Poltergeists (German for "knocking ghosts") are another class of spirit that seem to be found the world over under a variety of different names, though rather than going into the distinctions between different "types" of poltergeists, I'd like to focus on their shared abilities, as well as one very interesting point about them.

Poltergeists, by their most simplified definition, are entities that have the ability to make noises and move objects around independent of any observable external force. Usually the phenomena manifests quite suddenly, with often with no provocation on the part of the inhabitants of the affected dwelling, and tends to last between the space of a few hours to a few years at sporadic intervals of quiet and activity. While the phenomena can be mischevious-seeming at times, as there have been numerous reports of objects being tossed at individuals residing in a house afflicted with poltergeist activity, it is worth noting that for the most part the activity seems "dumb", that is to say there is no rhyme or reason to the actions it takes, and most objects that impact individuals seem to be projected with only enough force to make contact, and not nearly enough to hurt someone. However, this last point has two major caveats: one, that there have been rare cases of violent poltergeists that actively harmed those in their vicinity with forcefully thrown objects, scratches, beatings, etc (however, while this has been reported, it is in the -wildly- vast minority), and two, that most houses with a poltergeist tend to have a "center" of the activity, not necessarily a focal point or target of the phenomena, but someone who seems to always be present when the activity happens. Usually, this happened to be a child in the midst of adolscence, leading many to claim that poltergeists are actually subconscious manifestations of telekinesis by those "centers", their existence usually reasoned as an outlet for their feelings of agression, alientation, and other teenage angsty-wangsty issues.

Now, the big thing worth noting that I had no idea about until recently...supposedly lending support to the psychokinesis theory, a group of paranormal researchers in the 1970s were able to create an "artificial poltergeist" named Philip. See, what they did was make up a name and backstory for a fictional person, and by collectively meditating and visualizing the spirit, were able to supposedly make a table tilt and knocks to be heard in response to questions, with the questions answered as a person with the given backstory would answer them. Even more curious is that the table movement and rapping was supposedly caught on film, and that other parapsychological groups were able to replicate the same effects with different backstories and therefore different "artifical poltergeists". So the story goes that the original group continued to try and meditate with the intent of getting an actual apparition to appear, but upon finding themselves unable to, the project was abandoned.

A couple of questions pop out at me on hearing this. The biggest, though, is while it's an interesting story, why was the work discontinued? It may be that seeing an apparition would have been much more convincing an effect that just hearing knocks, and maybe I'm just being naive, but if I could reliably cause knocks to sound in response to questions without physical movement on my part, I'd be pretty damn excited with even that. So for me, the whole story should be taken with a Buick-sized grain of salt, but still, an interesting little story all the same...

 

Jurassic Parks and Rec

So, where were we? Ah yes, dinosaurs! Let's crack into a couple of examples, shall we? Mr. Wikipedia, if you please?

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Most reports of allegedly surviving dinosaurs come from African rain forests in the Congo Basin and the rain forests of South America, although others include those from Australia and Scotland.

 

 

• Emela-ntouka, allegedly a living ceratopsian.
  
• Kasai rex, allegedly a living theropod.
  
• Mbielu-Mbielu-Mbielu, claimed to be a living stegosaur.
  
• Mokele-mbembe, claimed to be a living sauropod.
  
• Muhuru, allegedly a living ankylosaur.
  
• Nguma-monene, allegedly a living Spinosaurus.
  
• Ngoubou, allegedly a living Styracosaurus.
  
• Other Mesozoic reptiles such as the winged pterosaurs have been reported as well.
  
• Kongamato, hypothesised to be a living Rhamphorhynchus.
  
• Mahamba, hypothesised to be a freshwater mosasaur.
  

Just for reference, Mokele-mbembe is by -far- the most "well-known" (or infamously still at large) out of all those listed. Also, I think it's somewhat unusual that out of all of these, almost half (Mokele-mbembe, Emela-ntouka, Mbielu-mbielu-mbielu, and Nguma-monene) come from the same rough area, the Likouala region of the Congo. All I'm saying is it's not the only time things have gotten a bit weird down there...maybe they have a King Kong situation up ins? All the same, for as far fetched as the the idea of living dinosaurs may sound, stranger things have happened, so maybe it's too early to discount it quite yet.

 

 

Case Files: The Cheshire Dog, pt. 2

So, you got to see what I saw. Here's how I responded.

 

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Hey everybody!

 

So...I have a couple more random thoughts in no particular order to toss into the conversation, so here we go...!

 

1. The discomfort associated with the memory by the original/main subject of the phenomena...why? Is this due to how the subject ended up rationalizing the experiences, or possibly the negative feelings she associated from her social support at the time rubbing off enough on her to negatively reinforce the topic as a whole? Or did something bad happen after the dog started to appear? I'd be curious to hear -why- she dislikes talking about it...

 

2. I understand everyone has a different eye for details, and it may just be me, but mentioning a "buried treasure" seems somewhat incongruous, and I'd like to know more whether the mentioning of that particular point was just coincidental or if there was something behind that. Did she get the feeling like the dog was guarding something? Or was it just a flavor detail?

 

3. Large and wavy fur would indicate a large likelihood of a herding or hunting dog, if I recall my dog show assistant experience at all correctly, though probably more likely herding. They're both known for their unusual intelligence, as well as being pretty aces at athletic feats...though if we could get a better ID on the breed we may have more traits to go on. Either way, this probably wasn't a "stupid dog", which leads me to my next point...

 

4. Bachelor lived there. 1930s. Any background on Señor Richy-Britches or a history of his pets (if he had any)? Seems like it'd make sense for him to have one, given the time and social climate, and (BIG jump on this line of logic) if he was a bachelor and died as such, then his only constant, deepest emotional contact would be his faithful hound. Also, a better idea as to the layout of the house and which rooms were which might also give insight into the issue, which I personally see as a toss-up between two off-the-cuff-completely-not-based-on-anything-other-than-an-educated-guess theories (assuming the manifestation of the phenomena was not explainable by conventional means [which seems difficult, as I imagine trying to reconcile a ghostly Cheshire Dog with reality isn't the easiest thing to do]): either a) she resemble(s/d) someone who abused/killed the dog in life, and he always manifests with the terror/hatred he felt towards the original or b) the "master" still dwells there (as a spiritual manifestation) and the dog feels she is getting too close to him and is attempting to protect him from the intruder. I personally lean more towards the second, from the note about her noticing the footsteps when no one else did (at least initially) as well as the fact she saw it often in her room, which I'm thinking may have actually been originally the master's room or possibly the "pet room". So, if that were the case, then it stands to reason that she'd be pretty high on the spectral dog's doo-doo list, so to speak. Keep in mind, that was all based on a -large- number of logical assumptions which are more than likely wrong, so I broker no offense to anyone saying that they think those are ludicrous working theories :P

 

5. Like YYYYY and ZZZZZ said, memory loss or "blanking" after a traumatic or logically irreconcilable event is quite common. I probably wouldn't call it amnesia per say, since I bet you dollars to donuts that she probably could tell you other events that happened in her life at that time, she simply denied the experience at such a basic level that it ceased to be a conscious memory, so as to allow her to put some distance between herself and the worldview-warping memory. There's a wide range of responses, from direct confrontation, to avoidance (as the primary subject appears to be exhibiting), to denial (conscious or subconscious), to amnesia, to fugue, to PTSD, to gosh knows how many different mental aberrances and abnormalities. To make a bad joke/analogy, pretend the mind is a baby...if Patrick Swayze taught us anything, it was to never put it in a corner, which it seems the "dog" forced it into in a manner of speaking. A relatively benign corner, but one all the same. Anyways, million dollar question: why mention it now? Was it the friend's mother's inexplicable experiencing of the basement noises that jogged her memory back to that spot?

 

6. As far as other weird notes and errata about the story as it stands...Ghost Dog: a movie starring Forrest Whittaker, if I remember from my Blockbuster video days. But, lots of occasions in tales for animals to become ghosts that appear with malevolence, both in an abused or protector setting, but also to occasionally warn of ill-fortune yet to come (doubtful, since there was ample time for that to happen and it doesn't seem like it did, and multiple manifestations don't usually occur). Also tales of playful animal spirits (though highly unusual for them to be playful with anyone outside their immediate family at the time of death, and also doubtful due to the palpable malevolence felt during each event). Lastly, in European and Middle Eastern countries, the sacrificing of animals and subsequent haunting of the premises where the ritual was done at is/was quite common, but actually as a form of good luck, if I'm not mistaken...but yeah, none of the other types of spiritual animals seem to match the simultaneously occurring aura of hostility.

 

Anyhoo, fun story, I'd be curious to see what happens next. Take care!

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And there you have it, a glimpse into my world. Have a good weekend!

 

 

Case Files: The Cheshire Dog, pt. 1

So a week or two ago, everyone in my paranormal research group received an email from one of our member, who received an email from a friend asking if she had any opinions about something that happened to her earlier in her life. I thought it was relatively interesting, so I copied a transcript of the email (it already had the names edited out, but even if it hadn't I would've, and I also removed a couple of specific geographical landmarks as well) with the intent of showing you the sorts of things we get asked to look into. Next entry on the blog will be my analysis of the story...

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It happened when we were 11 or 12 years old and afterwards we didn't mention it to each other again until we were over 40. At that point I wanted to confirm that it really had happened as I remembered it, so I finally asked XXXXX if she remembered "the dog." She said yes and confirmed that she remembered what I remembered, but the discussion made her very uncomfortable. Out of respect for her feelings, I can't make the story public, but I would like to tell you about it and see if you have any ideas about what it might mean.

XXXXX and I have been best friends since second grade and we grew up on the same street. She lived in a beautiful house that was built by a wealthy bachelor in the 1930s. He supposedly hid a stash of money somewhere in the house, but nobody ever found it. I loved her house. It was much fancier than mine and was surrounded by gardens and a filbert orchard. XXXXX loved the house too, but always said that there was sometimes something scary in it. She was afraid to be home alone and said that when she was alone she heard heavy footsteps on the basement stairs. Her parents laughed off her fears and told her she was imagining it. (Her elderly mother still lives in the house and for decades insisted that nothing was wrong with the house. A few months ago, XXXXX's  mom reported that she had locked herself in the bathroom because she heard banging in the basement and the sound of footsteps on the basement stairs. She assumed somebody had broken in, but later found no evidence of that.) That's the background to my story. XXXXX grew up in a house that frightened her, a house where she heard noises and occasionally saw things.

XXXXX was a believer. I wasn't. I tend to prefer rational, scientific explanations for things. I would entertain the notion of ghosts the way I entertain notions of vampires and werewolves. I love to get a chill up my spine from contemplating other-worldly beings and hearing stories, but I didn't really believe they existed. XXXXX and I brought very different mindsets to our shared experience. 

When we were 11 or 12, XXXXX told me that she had started seeing what she called a ghost dog. The first time she saw him was in the middle of the night. She woke up and in a shaft of moonlight, she saw a dog materialize next to her bed. It was a large dog with wavy black fur. He was sitting on his haunches, leaning forward, looking at her intently. It drew back its lips and exposed its teeth, as if it were snarling, but it was absolutely silent. As she stared at the dog, he disappeared. He frightened her. She said that she saw him many nights and was having trouble sleeping. 

Her house was surrounded by filbert orchards and we spent a lot of time playing among the trees. XXXXX said that the ghost dog had started appearing to her in the orchard. It always happened close to sunset. She insisted that she didn't walk around a corner and see him and he didn't jump out from behind a tree, the way a real dog might. He appeared and disappeared while she was watching. He always was in the same position and he always snarled silently before disappearing.

XXXXX's parents thought she was making it up and didn't want to hear any stories about ghosts. I was the only person she could tell. I listened sympathetically and said it sounded scary, but the truth was that I was just as skeptical about ghosts as her parents were. I didn't think she was making it up. I knew she was really frightened, but I figured she had psyched herself into it. I thought she had a recurring nightmare about the dog showing up in her bedroom at night and that she was so jittery that she was imagining she saw the dog in the orchard. That she jumped and ran at the sight of a stump, or something. I was in no way predisposed to see it myself.

Our mothers had convinced us that if we walked home alone after dark we were likely to be murdered, so whenever XXXXX and I visited each other and had to walk home after dark, we'd split the risk. The host would walk halfway home with the guest, then we'd split up and head home separately. Share the risk. Confuse any homicidal pervert with two targets. One evening I was leaving XXXXX's house and, as per our agreement, she was going to walk halfway home with me. She had a long driveway that was edged by a laurel hedge so dense that nothing could have jumped out of it. (We had tried to build forts in it and couldn't penetrate it.) Exterior lights from the house and the garage illuminated the driveway. We walked out of her back door, came around the corner of the house and started up the driveway. All of a sudden a dog materialized in front of us. It was the dog XXXXX had described: large, with black wavy fur, sitting on his haunches. I remember that it carried a real aura of menace. XXXXX and I grabbed each other. I was too frightened to scream. The dog exposed its teeth in a silent snarl that resembled a grin.  As we were looking at it, it disappeared. It didn't leap away. It faded away. 

This is as much as I remember and over time, I started to question the memory. It defies sense. XXXXX and I didn't tell anybody. I didn't validate her story to her parents. Why not? Somehow I still walked home, but it's hard to believe I wasn't too scared to do so. I can't remember what happened next and XXXXX and I seemed to have an unspoken agreement never to mention the event to each other. It's funny. It still feels like a moral imperative. I am hard-wired not to talk to XXXXX about it, as if it would betray our friendship to do so. For 30 years I mulled over the memory and over time it bothered me more and more. I finally had to ask XXXXX if it really happened. She told me that it did, but she doesn't want to discuss it further and I'm left wondering about my post event amnesia. Maybe amnesia isn't right, but I can't recall any aftermath to the event. It's like it happened in a void and had no logical consequences.

Have you heard of an animal being a ghost?  A ghost who deliberately appears before someone and seems to aim his malevolence toward the person seeing him? And have you ever heard of the kind of amnesia I experienced after the event?

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END TRANSMISSION.