Last Shout - Posted by: Angel - Monday, 26 October 2009 06:45
If you are interested in having us come out to investigate your home or business please email me at naps@live.ca and we will contact you. Our services are confidential and free of charge.
NOTE: Two friends recorded a video at a lake near the French town where stories are told about a woman who drowned. On occasion, she emerges from the water only at sunset (the time she died). SW tells me there is another entity in the video...it appeared in the enhancement. "I have no knowledge of the background behind this story but there was a young woman, she didn't just drown... I am getting a sense of foul play." Was this video 'staged' and a phantom actually showed up? Take a look at the video/images and tell me what you think...Lon
“More of this is true than you would believe,” we’re told, just a few minutes into the movie version of The Men Who Stare At Goats, which opens today. But how many of the film’s outlandish military research projects really happened? Turns out there’s plenty of material in the movie which sticks quite close to the truth — though reality is a bit more complicated.
(Warning: minor spoilers ahead.)
Psychic spies? True. The non-fiction book which serves as the movie’s basis features Colonel John B. Alexander. He served as a Special Forces commander in Vietnam and spent decades promoting the use of psychics and “remote viewers” for national security. (That is, when he wasn’t pursuing his interests in -linguistic programming, UFOs, or non-lethal weapons.) In 2007, our own Sharon Weinberger interviewed Col. Alexander in some depth on the military use of witches. “They were doing palmistry, crystal ball kinds of stuff,” he said.
Danger Room also noted Col. Alexander’s long-running feud with Armen Victorian (alias Henry Azadehdel, alias Habib Azadehdel, alias Cassava N’tumba and others), orchid smuggler, conspiracy theorist and all-round spooky character in the intelligence world.
Moving into the further reaches of the fringe we find earlier work, such as Boeing’s 60’s psychic experiments which concluded that certain subjects could force a random number generator to produce a specific number by sheer willpower. By 1985 an Army report declared that “psychokinesis could, with continued research, have a potential military value for future military operations ” and as recently as 1996 the phenomenon of eyeless vision was being investigated.
Military psychics may still be in business: a 2007 report suggested that the 9/11 attacks had been predicted some years beforehand by Remote Viewers. In the post-9/11 world where every option seemed worth exploring, it’s not implausible that some psychic spies were reactivated.
Drug experimentation? True. Troops were doused with everything from concentrated cannabis oil to LSD — at times, without their knowledge. Researchers would watch as servicemen would then “carry on conversations with various invisible people for as long as 2-3 days.” The CIA was so enamored of acid, the agency had to issue a memo instructing that the punch bowls at office Christmas parties were not to be spiked.
Hippie Army? True. Lt. Col. Jim Channon dove deep into the New Age movement, and came back to the military with a most alternative view of warfare — one in which troops would carry flowers and symbolic animals into battle. In the movie, Channon is played by Jeff Bridges. His First Earth Battalion is renamed the “New Earth Army.” But the ideas are the same. Much of the artwork from the New Earth manual is lifted straight from the Channon original.
Channon has been taking advantage of the publicity for his cause; this week he has a column in the Guardian newspaper, suggesting (among other things) that armies should be used for reforestation and navies to control over-fishing.
The military’s interest in Eastern and alternative practices is once again on the rise. “Warrior mind training“, apparently based on ancient Samurai techniques, is being taught at Camp Lejeune as a possible treatment for PTSD. Elsewhere the Army has a $4 million initiative exploring other approaches including Reiki, transcendental meditation and “bioenergy.” The Air Force is looking into acupuncture for battlefield pain relief.
Sound weapons? True. Unpleasant sounds and repetitive music — including the Barney theme — have been used as real-life psychological warfare and interrogation techniques. (Some of the bands involved have been less than happy about it.) Repetitive music takes a long time to be effective, but loud, discordant noise is becoming more common as a method of dispersing crowds. Danger Room’s David Axe was a test subject for the LRAD sonic blaster and reported “It was like having a hundred nagging girlfriends in my brain screaming at me”, while Sharon Weinberger tried the Inferno blaster and experienced “the most unbearable, gut-wrenching noise I’ve ever heard in my life.”
Killing animals with telepathy? False. The most outrageous claims in the movie (and book) is that military psychics could kill goats by looking at them. Even John Alexander says this isn’t true. “As I told Jon Ronson when the book first came out, Alexander writes, ‘He [one of the soldiers] hit the goat.’”
Goats are the one of the preferred substitutes for human targets in military testing, and there are rumors of lethal goat-zapping experiments with the Active Denial System. Special operations Command use them for training battlefield medicine – first shoot your (anesthetised) goat — a practice which is still controversial.
In her review of the movie, Col Alexander’s wife mentions that in real life her husband can disperse clouds by looking at them — “It certainly helped during our cruise to Antarctica!” – but asserts that he has never used his powers to kill a goat. (Look at time lapse photography of clouds and cloud-busting becomes less impressive).
Psychics are notoriously prone to believing in their own powers and are often convinced that experiments have proven their abilities when the results have been equivocal. In the Guardian, Dr. Phillip Sponenberg suggests that mytonic or fainting goats plus little self-deception may be behind the supposed success of the goat-staring experiment.
However, as the First Earth Battalion’s manual makes clear, winning the psychological battle is a big part of the struggle. If your opponent believes that you can kill them with a look, then they are already half-way to being defeated. And many martial arts masters know that by overawing their students with displays that might be described as trickery, they can convince them of the value of their discipline. So it might be best not to take everything quite at face value, as Jon Ronson does in the book and Ewan Mcgregor does in the movie.
How can anything so repulsive and so repugnant in appearance be real? And how can there possibly be any spiritual connection with it?
No doubt this is the first reaction of intelligent, rational people who come across old photos in books about paranormal phenomena of a substance referred to as ectoplasm. The photos usually show a seemingly thick foamy or slimy substance - sometimes looking like vomitus, other times like shaving soap, and still at other times more like cheesecloth - flowing from one of the orifices of a so-called "medium" in an entranced state - from the nostrils, mouth, ears, vagina, and even the pores. Some of the photos show what are claimed to be materialized human forms - occasionally just a face or an arm - forming within the ectoplasm.
If we are to believe the debunkers and skeptics, ectoplasm is nothing more than cheesecloth stuffed into one or more of the cavities of the body and then extruded at an opportune time, the sole purpose being to dupe those present. However, it is difficult to believe that some of the most eminent men of science, who observed it, examined it, tested it, and proclaimed it real, could have been fooled over and over again, especially under laboratory conditions. It stretches the imagination to believe that as much "cheesecloth," as seen in many of the photographs, could be stored in an orifice of the body, especially the ears and pores, and so dramatically extruded, then to have human forms shaped from it or within it, and then, in some cases, to have those human forms emerging from the ectoplasm and carry on conversations with those present, sometimes about personal matters known only to the sitter.
Equally puzzling is why numerous alleged charlatans would dream up something so seemingly ridiculous and revolting. Couldn't they come up with a trick a bit more realistic and believable? If it all began with one trickster, why were so many other charlatans impressed by something so bizarre?
"It is a whitish substance that creeps as if alive, with damp, cold, protoplasmic extensions that are transformed under the eyes of the experimenters into a hand, fingers, a head, or even into an entire figure," explained Dr. Charles Richet.
Winner of the 1913 Nobel Prize in Medicine, Richet (1850-1935) was a physiologist, chemist, bacteriologist, pathologist, psychologist, aviation pioneer, poet, novelist, editor, author, and psychical researcher. After receiving his M.D. in 1869 and his Ph.D. in 1878, he served as professor of physiology at the medical school of the University of Paris for 38 years.
It was Richet who gave the name ectoplasm to what had previously been referred to as od, psychic force, and teleplasm. When Sir William Crookes, the esteemed British chemist, first reported on it in connection with the mediumship of Florence Cook, Richet was among the many scientists who scoffed and thought that perhaps Crookes, a pioneer in X-ray technology, had "lost it." . "I avow with shame that I was among the willfully blind," Richet wrote in dedicating his 1923 book, Thirty Years of Psychical Research, to Crookes, commending him for his courage and insight.
"This ectoplasmic formation at the expense of the physiological organism of the medium is now beyond all dispute," Richet stated. "It is prodigiously strange, prodigiously unusual, and it would seem so unlikely as to be incredible; but we must give in to the facts...Yes, it is absurd; but no matter - it is true."
Richet saw it as some sort of exterior ("ecto" meaning exterior) protoplasm. In his book, Richet referred to the ectoplasm produced by the medium Marthe Béraud as "gelatinous projections," explaining that "a kind of liquid or pasty jelly emerges from the mouth or the breast of Marthe which organizes itself by degrees, acquiring the shape of a face or limb.
"Under very good conditions of visibility, I have seen this paste spread on my knee, and slowly take form so as to show the rudiment of the radius, the cubitus, or metacarpal bone whose increasing pressure I could feel on my knee," Richet wrote.
Richet further observed that the materializations are usually gradual, beginning with a rudimentary shape and then complete forms and human faces only appearing later on. "At first these formations are often very imperfect. Sometimes they show no relief, looking more like flat images than bodies, so that in spite of oneself one is inclined to imagine some fraud, since what appears seems to be the materialization of a semblance, and not of a being. But in some cases the materialization is perfect. At the Villa Carmen I saw a fully organized form rise from the floor. At first it was only a white, opaque spot like a handkerchief lying on the ground before the curtain, then this handkerchief quickly assumed the form of a human head level with the floor, and a few moments later it rose up in a straight line and became a small man enveloped in a kind of white burnous, who took two or three halting steps in front of the curtain and then sank to the floor and disappeared as if through a trap door. But there was no trap door."
While skeptics find much humor in some of the flat, paper-like materializations, Richet had no difficulty with them. "The fact of the appearance of flat images rather than of forms in relief is no evidence of trickery," he wrote. "It is imagined, quite mistakenly, that a materialization must be analogous to a human body and must be three-dimensional. This is not so. There is nothing to prove that the process of materialization is other than a development of a completed form after a first stage of coarse and rudimentary lineaments formed under the cloudy substance."
Richet referenced one sitting in which a communicating spirit said that he could not materialize because he could not remember what he looked like when alive. At a later sitting, this same spirit materialized in body but without a face. In effect, the success of the materialization appears to depend upon the ability of the particular spirit to visualize his old self and somehow project that thought-image into the ectoplasm. Apparently, the ability to do this varies as much with spirits as does artistic ability among humans.
Richet also observed somewhat similar phenomenon with Eusapia Palladino, the controversial Italian medium, although never a full body materialization. She most often produced ectoplasmic arms. He referred to it as a kind of supplementary arm that came from Palladino's body. "Once I saw a long, stiff rod proceed from her side," he explained, "which after great extension had a hand at its extremity - a living hand warm and jointed, absolutely like a human hand."
Replying to skeptics, Richet said that we have no warrant to deny a phenomenon because we do not know its laws. "If that were the case we should have to close all scientific books."
While the "veil-like" or "cheesecloth" form is often seen in photographs taken in infrared or phosphorescent light, ectoplasm apparently comes in many forms, including gaseous, liquid, or fibrous. It can assume different colors from soft white to gray and black. It can move slowly but disappear in a flash. It can be stiff or pliable. It can be invisible, seen only by clairvoyants, or seen by all present.
The inconsistent nature of ectoplasm is just one of many aspects of it that defies scientific scrutiny and gives fuel to the attacks by debunkers. Adding to this is the fact that darkness is usually required. This is because the ectoplasm is said to be sensitive to light rays, and exposure to light can result in serious injury to the medium, who must reabsorb the ectoplasm at the conclusion of the séance before the lights are turned on. Further complicating the observation is the fact that a materialization "cabinet" is usually required. This cabinet is often nothing more than a corner of the room curtained off for the medium to sit within. It further protects the medium from light rays but is said to also be necessary to concentrate the ectoplasm and permit the spirits a certain privacy in their attempts to take shape.
Of course, the debunkers see the cabinet as nothing more than a "dressing room" which permits the "fraudulent" medium to quickly change costumes and emerge from the cabinet as a spirit entity. To advance such a debunking theory is to assume that men like Richet, Crookes, Professor Gustave Geley, Baron (Dr.) von Schrenck Notzing, and a dozen or more other distinguished scientists were duped over and over again under controlled conditions. Only the most arrogant and closed-minded person would dare challenge the observations of these respected scientists without doing any kind of investigation of his or her own. Nevertheless many did. And mainstream science continues to ignore what could be the most important scientific subject in the physical realm.
By Stacy Horn Someone I know has a tv show! It’s called Extreme Paranormal and it’s on A&E.
(I know the guy in the middle!) What I really appreciated about this show was the new stories. Usually you hear about the same ghost stories again and again.
In one episode they went to Bonita City, New Mexico and the site of a 19th century murder. It was an old mining town that is now underwater, which made for a unique investigation (you have to see it). But I found this story so intriguing I was googling it all night.
On May 5, 1885, this young guy Martin Nelson went on a rampage, killing seven people. He was staying in Bonita City’s only hotel and he started with the family who ran the hotel. They were Mr. and Mrs. W. F. Mayberry, their 17 year old son John, and their 7 year old son Eddie. He also shot the Mayberry’s 14 year old daughter Nellie, but she begged for her life and survived. Also killed was a guest of the hotel, Dr. R. E. Flynn, and two people who came running to help, Pete Nelson and Herman Beck.
I think this story got to me because I’ve been reading Willa Catha lately and her books like O Pioneers. I’m more aware of how hard life was out west back then. For instance, this was Bonita City’s general store. Is this not the saddest general store you’ve ever seen?
And this was the post office.
These pictures don’t even really capture it. The lack of food, losing crops, animals, the meagre protection against the elements. To have to fight the way they did for existence and then suffer this kind of tragedy on top of everything else. Especially the children. It’s always harder when children die. And the two guys who ran to help and were murdered for their kindness and bravery? It must have completely demoralized the small town.
But Bonita City doesn’t exist anymore. The building of Bonita Dam put the town underwater, and the remains of the victims were moved to Angus Cemetery.
was really hoping to be able to find out what became of Nellie Mayberry. Children who lose their parents at a young age usually carry that pain in some form or another for life, sadly, and she lost her parents—her entire family—to murder. Where did she go? Who took her in? Did she find happiness somewhere, somehow? But I didn’t manage to find out anything yet. Women are harder to track down because they change their names when they marry.
I would also love to find out more about Martin Nelson. What brought him to this sad little place? What was wrong with him to cause him to go off like that? In all the accounts it took everyone by surprise, he was a nice, polite young man until that night. I wish he didn’t have such a common name. It’s going to be pretty much impossible to figure out anything about his past.
In another Extreme Paranormal episode they went to the now abandoned New Mexico State Penitentiary, where 33 inmates were killed in 1980. It amazes me that 33 people were killed and I never heard about this either. Congratulations on the show guys! And keep up the great work uncovering these stories!
Photo credits. I found the General store shot here. The Bonito City post office shot is from the book, Ghost Towns and Mining Camps of New Mexico by James and Barbara Sherman (the picture is from 1904). And the grave shot is from Find A Grave and the photographer is listed as Ron.
Who doesn’t like a good haunted house story? We found some good tales to tell where hauntings still exist. Just ask the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Born in Toronto, Mary Pickford began acting in plays at an early age. She eventually moved on to Broadway and then to Hollywood where she starred in many feature films during her time as a silent film actress.
Pickford acted with Douglas Fairbanks in “The Mark of Zorro” in 1920 — the same year they were married. The couple was often referred to as “Hollywood royalty” and foreign heads of state visiting the White House would request a visit to the couple’s Beverly Hills mansion located at 1143 Summit Dr Beverly Hills, CA 90210. The Pickfair estate is currently for-sale for $60 million.
Dinners at the mansion included such luminaries as Charlie Chaplin, George Bernard Shaw, H.G. Wells and F. Scott Fitzgerald. The constant attention, activity and strain led to divorce in 1936. Pickford kept the estate and spent her final years there. While the original Pickfair was torn down and transformed, some say Pickford still lives there, waiting to reconcile with Fairbanks who has also been spotted appearing under an archway.
Virginia Hill’s house (where Bugsy Siegel died) 810 N Linden Dr Beverly Hills, CA 90210
Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, born in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, was part of the East Coast mob from an early age. He joined a gang on the Lower East Side as a boy, first committing thefts and then moving on to create a protection racket. In the early 1930s he built ties to the future leaders of the Genovese crime family and became a bootlegger, covering territories in New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia.
In 1937, the East Coast mob saw an opportunity to expand and sent Siegel to California with instructions to develop syndicate gambling rackets with Los Angeles mobster Jack Dragna. Shortly after the move, Siegel was involved in the hit on Harry “Big Greenie” Greenberg, who had become a police informant. Siegel was tried for the Greenberg murder and, although he was acquitted, his reputation was in ruins. Newspapers began to refer to him as “Bugsy” a nickname he would not allow in his presence.
On June 20, 1947, Siegel was sitting in a room of his girlfriend Virginia Hill’s Beverly Hills home, when an unknown assailant fired nine shots at him through the window. He was hit multiple times and died instantly. No one was ever charged with his murder.
His ghost is said to still haunt Hill’s old home, some say because he is seeking revenge, while others think he is still broken-hearted because he was sold out to the mob by Virginia Hill, who moved to Paris earlier that year.
George Reeves’ home 1579 Benedict Canyon Dr, Beverly Hills, CA 90210
George Reeves is best known for his portrayal of Superman in the 1950s television show. The television program became wildly popular and he was recognized everywhere, but he was typecast as Superman and as a result, it was difficult for him to find other roles.
George Reeves died June 16, 1959 in his home at 1579 Benedict Canyon Dr Beverly Hills, CA 90210 from a gunshot wound to the head. Reports of that day conflict slightly, but it seems that he went to bed sometime around midnight, but was awoken when friends arrived and began an impromptu party. He came downstairs to complain about the noise, and then had a quick drink before going upstairs in a foul mood. His fiancée, Leonore Lemmon and the two guests heard a single gunshot shortly thereafter.
Though ruled a suicide, many people refuse to believe that assertion and think instead that he was killed by an ex-lover Toni Mannix or her husband, Eddie Mannix. There is little evidence to support this claim. There are however, reports of the Reeves’ house being haunted. Reports include inexplicable noises in the upstairs bedroom, the smell of gunpowder and belongings being moved around. There are also stories of dogs standing in the doorway barking and refusing to enter the room as well as lights flickering on and off. Some even say George Reeves appears at the foot of the bed every now and then, dressed as Superman.
The Mansion 2451 Laurel Canyon Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90046
Errol Flynn, left and Rick Rubin, right, are the previous and current owners of “The Mansion”
Known simply as “The Mansion,” this haunted house is located at 2451 Laurel Canyon Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90046 and is currently owned by music producer Rick Rubin, who uses it as a recording and production studio where bands such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Audioslave, the Mars Volta , Slipknot and Linkin Park have recorded. Originally built in 1918, it was also once owned by swashbuckling film star Errol Flynn in the 1930s.
Rumor has it that the mansion has been haunted since 1918 when the son of the owner (a furniture store owner) pushed his lover from the balcony. The current mansion is built on the grounds of the original mansion which burned to the ground in the late 1950s during a fire that swept Laurel Canyon. The place was rebuilt a few years later and used as a recording studio during the 60s and 70s when it was visited by artists like Mick Jagger, Jimi Hendrix, David Bowie and The Beatles.
Artists who have stayed in the Mansion while recording have reported strange happenings such as sightings of orbs, doors opening when they had been firmly closed, and other odd occurrences.
Some reports concerning the Houdini Mansion, located nearby, conflate the two residences and similar stories are told.
Harry Houdini House 2400 Laurel Canyon Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90046
It’s difficult to ascertain the exact location of the home magician Harry Houdini allegedly rented in 1919 for one year: 2435 Laurel Canyon Blvd, Los Angeles, CA or 2400 Laurel Canyon Blvd, Los Angeles, CA. The home, along with others in the Hollywood hills, was destroyed in 1959 when a brush fire rushed through the canyon.
Though Houdini held séances at his home in an attempt to contact his mother, he also spent a great deal of time discrediting supposed “mediums” by proving that what they did on stage was mostly sleight-of-hand and showmanship.
Before Houdini’s home was destroyed by fire, it was said to have been a castle with parapets, battlements, towers and a foundation with tunnels, secret passages and chambers, including a deep-water pool where he would practice his underwater escapes.
Houdini died on Halloween of 1926 from a ruptured appendix. His wife stayed in the Laurel Canyon home until her death some 20 years later.
If you are interested in having us come out to investigate your home or business please email me at naps@live.ca and we will contact you. Our services are confidential and free of charge.
Welcome to our site! Remember you must register with a valid email address in order to view and access all of this sites content. If you have any questions or wish us to come to your residence or business to investigate please contact us at naps@live.ca for further details.
We are offering a course and investigation on Saturday, October 3rd at the Mildred Mahoney Dollhouse. This is the last one we will be offering until next Spring. If interested please read the forum for more details and contact me asap if you wish to attend naps@live.ca
Welcome to our site! Remember you must register with a valid email address in order to view and access all of this sites content. If you have any questions or concerns you can contact us at naps@live.ca
