For those who believe in spirits

For those who believe in spirits I'd appreciate any advice on how to manage this.


I moved into my current home two years ago. I begin to experience unexplainable activity the first night I spent alone in this house. Footsteps, knocking, screen door slamming, shower turning on and off. The man I was dating kept telling me it was all in my head--until he spent the night here. The first night he shook me awake at 2 o'clock in the morning babbling about hearing footsteps. Out of politeness I refrained from saying "I told you so."

The second night a very loud metal on metal sound, similar to the sound of running a knife over a honing steel, came from closet. He poked me in the shoulder and asked me if I was going to get up and see what it was. I explained it wasn't the first time I had heard that sound. That I already ripped my closet apart to locate the source. There's nothing metal in my closet. Not even my hangers are metal. So I told him I wasn't going to check, but he was free to rip my closet apart. He chose to cower under the blankets.

Two years in and I'm now so used to all of the noise I pretty much ignored it. When it gets too loud and too much, I just yell at the spirits to either shut up or leave.

When I first moved in I would notice the scent of a very unusual perfume. It would come and go. Then about four months ago I started smelling this perfume more frequently. Initially I only detected it in my bedroom. After a couple of weeks I was smelling this perfume pretty much everywhere I went.

The increased presence of this perfume coincides with my ceiling lights flickering. The first 18 months here I never had an issue with flickering lights.

I also started feeling what I thought was anxiety in my chest. I brushed it off to stress from some personal matters.

Last month I had an eerie experience that I wrote about on another thread here. That experience scared me enough that I did research on protecting my home. For a couple of weeks I did a lot of saging, prayers, and blessings. All of the activity in my house came to a halt. I stopped smelling the perfume. My house was peaceful for the first time.

So it's been pretty quiet here the last three weeks or so. Then two nights ago I was in bed and I hear a very loud bang. But it doesn't sound like it's from inside my house. I live in a rural area. So it's very very dark when night falls. Just as I set up In bed, the house shook. For a moment I thought it was an earthquake but it was much too small to be an earthquake and it felt like it was in the wall behind my bed. A minute later I heard footsteps on my back deck. No one uses my back deck except me. At that point I called 911. Of course the sheriff didn't find any evidence

Earlier this evening I was feeling off. A sense of something not right. Then than anxiety feeling returns. I think I'm just feeling anxious because of the strange disturbance from Tuesday night. So I sage, pray, and bless my space. I wash up and get ready to climb into bed. Then my ceiling light flickers.

I think, ignore it. Get into bed. So I'm reading skeptiko. I'm feeling better, then suddenly I smell that perfume.

The scent keeps coming back. So I'm lying here smelling that perfume and something touches my forehead. I freaked out, start slapping my forehead to brush it away.

Nothing is threatening me. I don't feel threatened. But that anxiety persists. And I just don't know what to do.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Just an aside: I think the perfume is frankincense or something very similar to it.
 
Jim_Smith,
Thank you for directing me to your articles. They are informative. I have a question about poltergeist.

You write:
"When the phenomena happens at various locations but always in the presence of one particular person, it is usually the person causing the phenomenon unconsciously through psychokinesis (unconscious PK). In this case, there may be something causing the person to be emotionally upset that is causing them to produce the phenomenon. If you can figure out what is causing the emotional problem and eliminate it, the phenomenon may stop."

So some of this strange activity is caused by some strange energy coming from me?!!

When the ceiling lights flicker, in usually standing under them. It doesn't seem to happen with the lamps. The sitting area in my bedroom has a table with a small lamp on it. It's right next to the chair I use. I frequently sit there to read. I don't own a television; don't want a television. So I read a lot there. That light never flickers.

I mentioned I was feeling anxiety last night. When the ceiling light started to flicker I was standing at the foot of my bed. The ceiling light was above my head. And that's when it started to flicker. The association with emotional upset concerns me. Is this "negative" energy?

I normally meditate for relaxation. But I stopped a couple weeks ago. I receive visions from spirits. Frequently it happens during meditation. For years I simply tried to deny and ignore the visions. But it got to the point where I couldn't ignore them anymore. I tried embracing it. But then that eerie event happened. I was really spooked. So I stopped meditating because I didn't want anything coming through during meditation. I need to meditate, but I'm afraid to.
 
I normally meditate for relaxation. But I stopped a couple weeks ago. I receive visions from spirits. Frequently it happens during meditation. For years I simply tried to deny and ignore the visions. But it got to the point where I couldn't ignore them anymore. I tried embracing it. But then that eerie event happened. I was really spooked. So I stopped meditating because I didn't want anything coming through during meditation. I need to meditate, but I'm afraid to.


In mine and my girlfriends expereince the anxiety feeling isn't actually anxiety but seems to be the byproduct of being near a stronger than average energy source. It's just the feeling of feeling energy nearby if that makes any sense. Although it is possible for spirits and trained/practiced individuals to induce emotions purposefully your story doesn't sound like that's what's happening to me. If it were I'd expect a lot more overt malicious behaviour alongside it. The spirit(s) you describe sound neutral to the point of practically being benign. Yeah it's probably a little scary on the basis that it's something unknown but it doesn't sound like you're immersed in anything dangerous to me.

I'd agree it might be a good idea to talk to them but not to tell them to leave. Ultimately you don't know anything about them. You don't know who they are, what's happening to them, what they're thinking and feeling, or whether they actually need to leave or not. So its better to just talk and get to know them as a person first.

Preaching to them that you own the house now and they need to leave sounds like a recipe for a vengeful spirit. Think about it if it was you, some random dude walks in and starts telling you to get out because this is their place now and then attempts to force you out anyways. Never tries talking to you, talks about you as if you're just an object not a person, and you have the ability to move objects and other poltergeisty things. How long would it take you to get tired of the dude and just start chucking stuff at them or turning faucets on and wasting water or generally making their lives miserable or whatever when you know there's nothing they could really do to stop you?

Also... it doesn't really sound like your sage treatments are doing anything. In my expereince things like that typically don't work. Or rather when they do work it has little to do with the sage and everything to do with your own will and mental focus which might be getting enhanced by teh sage or other reagents. Granted I actuall can't speak much from experience from this because my solution to a malicious, obviously dangerous spirit, is to astral project and attack and kill it. An incredibly effecive solution but really not one I'd recommend unless you really, really had to.

As for the unconscious PK, My personal research and experiements developing magic, or I guess what would be controlled, conscious PK, have taught me why negative emotions seem to trigger more events than positive ones.

Your mind controls your body and your energy and your concept of reality is what defines what is and isn't possible in your mind and thus what your mind will and won't put effort towards. Negative emotions are, in part, you rejecting the "authority" of reality. The limits you've put on what is and isn't possible or real melt away and all that's left is raw desire. Because of this your energy can flow much more freely and precisely during those moments which can sometimes lead to PK events whether conscious or unconscious. However it's not just negative emotions that can trigger this. imagination and daydreaming can as well. Because during those states you are also not thinking about the limits you've put on your percieved reality. You're not rejecting them, you're just not thinking about them in the first place. So those moments can also allow your energy to flow more freely and precisely. Get enough of it concentrated in teh right place in the right way and sure you'll probably cause a PK event.

anyways that's just my two cents, take it or leave it.
 
In mine and my girlfriends expereince the anxiety feeling isn't actually anxiety but seems to be the byproduct of being near a stronger than average energy source. It's just the feeling of feeling energy nearby if that makes any sense. Although it is possible for spirits and trained/practiced individuals to induce emotions purposefully your story doesn't sound like that's what's happening to me. If it were I'd expect a lot more overt malicious behaviour alongside it. The spirit(s) you describe sound neutral to the point of practically being benign. Yeah it's probably a little scary on the basis that it's something unknown but it doesn't sound like you're immersed in anything dangerous to me.

I'd agree it might be a good idea to talk to them but not to tell them to leave. Ultimately you don't know anything about them. You don't know who they are, what's happening to them, what they're thinking and feeling, or whether they actually need to leave or not. So its better to just talk and get to know them as a person first.

Preaching to them that you own the house now and they need to leave sounds like a recipe for a vengeful spirit. Think about it if it was you, some random dude walks in and starts telling you to get out because this is their place now and then attempts to force you out anyways. Never tries talking to you, talks about you as if you're just an object not a person, and you have the ability to move objects and other poltergeisty things. How long would it take you to get tired of the dude and just start chucking stuff at them or turning faucets on and wasting water or generally making their lives miserable or whatever when you know there's nothing they could really do to stop you?

Also... it doesn't really sound like your sage treatments are doing anything. In my expereince things like that typically don't work. Or rather when they do work it has little to do with the sage and everything to do with your own will and mental focus which might be getting enhanced by teh sage or other reagents. Granted I actuall can't speak much from experience from this because my solution to a malicious, obviously dangerous spirit, is to astral project and attack and kill it. An incredibly effecive solution but really not one I'd recommend unless you really, really had to.

As for the unconscious PK, My personal research and experiements developing magic, or I guess what would be controlled, conscious PK, have taught me why negative emotions seem to trigger more events than positive ones.

Your mind controls your body and your energy and your concept of reality is what defines what is and isn't possible in your mind and thus what your mind will and won't put effort towards. Negative emotions are, in part, you rejecting the "authority" of reality. The limits you've put on what is and isn't possible or real melt away and all that's left is raw desire. Because of this your energy can flow much more freely and precisely during those moments which can sometimes lead to PK events whether conscious or unconscious. However it's not just negative emotions that can trigger this. imagination and daydreaming can as well. Because during those states you are also not thinking about the limits you've put on your percieved reality. You're not rejecting them, you're just not thinking about them in the first place. So those moments can also allow your energy to flow more freely and precisely. Get enough of it concentrated in teh right place in the right way and sure you'll probably cause a PK event.

anyways that's just my two cents, take it or leave it.

Mediochre,
What you say resonance with me, especially about not yelling at them and demanding they leave. Something has really been bothering me for the last couple of weeks about all of this. I had been sensing a Spirit around me for sometime. Initially I only sensed it when I was sitting in my bedroom. It was always a comforting feeling. Then I started sensing it more frequently and outside of my home.

A couple of years ago two people close to me died. One was a woman who cared for me during my teenage years. She and her husband took care of me, then later my youngest sister. A couple of months ago I found a penny on my back porch. Since I rarely ever carry cash I was astonished to see this penny sitting right there on my doormat. When I looked at the date I thought I don't know anyone who died in this year.

A few seconds later I thought maybe this is about me, and thought back to what was I doing that year. I realized it was the year that I was living with this woman and her family. So I thought it a penny from heaven--a penny from her. I kept it under my pillow. Later someone told me that it was probably from a demon who is trying to sneak and trick its way into my house. So I got frightened and threw the penny away. I threw the penny into an open field. When I threw it I said the woman's name and told her I sorry if this was from her, that I didn't mean to disrespect her, but I was scared. Right after the spirit I sensed disappeared.

Do you know of a way to identify spirits and find out what they want? I don't want to kick out people I love.
 
Kill it? How do you kill a spirit? What do actually mean by "kill"?
Even if you shoo it away... How can you be certain that it is dead? Isn't the recurring haunting a big meme of poltergeist stories?

Technically it's not actually dead it's just close enough that I just say it is. What appears to happen is that you destabilize the soul which prevents it from, well, being "animate." It seems that in order to be conscious the soul needs to maintain some sort of equilibrium or circulation, if this is disrupted, the entity goes unconscious. the soul appears to be comprised of an energy that shares a common signatre, probably an interference pattern created by the mishmash of many many different overlapping frequencies, at least that's how it tends to feel. This common frequency seems to also exist in the subdivided parts of a soul, literally if you cut it in half or blast it to pieces each part retains this signature. This appear to cause the soul bits to eventually gravitate back together and reform, causing the entity to become conscious again. But the more severe the damage the longer this can take.

It's the difference between an entity coming back after a few days and coming back after a few years or decades if at all. So as far as I'm conscered, it's dead.

At least that's the story for what I think of as a "real" soul which is defined as a pool of energy with a unique signature that self circulates, creating a closed, recursive loop, making it distinct from it's environment and capable of changing it's own signature, becoming more complex, etc, etc. It's a lot to go into right now.

There's also something I call a "construct" soul which lacks this recursive circulation and thus doesn't appear to be able to "learn" or put itself back together again if popped. I don't really know exactly why constructs exist but they tend to act far more animalistically and sometimes irrationally. Best as I can tell they're a type of thought form, made out of the interaction of certain compatible brainwaves caused by certain emotions. Literally something created from fear, anger, etc. Appearing to have been "programmed" by their composite thoughts into something that apparently can hold a form. But I haven't managed to do a lot of experiments to figure out anything definitive. You kill a construct and it seems to be gone forever.
 
Do you know of a way to identify spirits and find out what they want? I don't want to kick out people I love.

I do but my way involves being able to sense energy and I'm not sure if you know how to do that or not. I suspect that if you'resking this question it means that you don't.I figure you could just directly ask yes or no questions and try getting responses that way.

It might be tempting to try to leave out a pencil and paper or a computer running with a word processor running and see if the spirit would just write it's life story down but chances are they're not going to have the fine motor control to do that assuming they even have the sight for it. I know because I developed a way to become a poltergiest during astral projection and yeah .... it'd be like trying to type with boxing gloves on while inside a vat of molasses. Unless you're talking to the ghost of Strong Bad I'm pretty sure you're out of luck. Granted actual spirits tend to be a lot better at it than me so you never know. But it seems like it's a pretty rare skill to learn, probably because there's not much reason for it unless you have something left in the physical world you want to keep in contact with.

For every spirit that can poltergiest there's probably a hundred or so who can't. Also this is probably why lots of contact is someone knocking something off a shelf or whatever because that's probably all they're capable of doing. It's also probably why a poltergiest's energy feels a lot stronger than other spirits, because it takes that much more of it to interact with the environment for them. I know that from personal experience.

If someone can poltergeist there's also a decent chance they're also capable of inducing shared dreams because the two skills are pretty related so you could always try asking for one of those and see what happens. It would actually probably be the best method of communication they could give you because they'd be the least restricted in it and thus most able to express themselves.
 
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It might be tempting to try to leave out a pencil and paper or a computer running with a word processor running and see if the spirit would just write it's life story down but chances are they're not going to have the fine motor control to do that assuming they even have the sight for it./..../ But it seems like it's a pretty rare skill to learn, probably because there's not much reason for it unless you have something left in the physical world you want to keep in contact with.

It's not often seen, but it happens on occasion.



BORLEY RECTORY - "The Most Haunted House in England"


The most famous case in the career of Harry Price was undoubtedly that of Borley Rectory, a deteriorating house in Essex.

The tiny parish of Borley is located in a desolate, sparsely populated area near the east coast of England, near the Suffolk border.

Harry Price got involved in the case after a newspaper carried a story about a phantom nun at the house in June 1929. Price was asked by the paper to investigate and he was told about various types of phenomena that had been reported there, like phantom footsteps; strange lights; ghostly whispers; a headless man; a girl in white; the sounds of a phantom coach outside; the apparition of the home’s builder, Henry Bull; and of course, the spirit of the nun.

The ghosts at the rectory had been relatively peaceful, but all that would change in October 1930 when Smith was replaced by the Reverend Lionel Foyster and his wife, Marianne. Their time in the house would see a marked increase in the paranormal activity. People were locked out of rooms, household items vanished, windows were broken, furniture was moved, odd sounds were heard and much more.

However, the worst of the incidents seemed to involve Mrs. Foyster, as she was thrown from her bed at night, slapped by invisible hands, forced to dodge heavy objects which flew at her day and night, and was once almost suffocated with a mattress.

Soon after, there began to appear a series of scrawled messages on the walls of the house, written by an unknown hand. They seemed to be pleading with Mrs. Foyster, using phrases like “Marianne, please help get” and “Marianne light mass prayers”.

Here is actual photographs of the writings:

borley3.jpg


Because nearly all of the poltergeist-like activity occurred when Mrs. Foyster was present, Price was inclined to attribute it to her unknowing manipulations. However, he did believe in the possibility of the ghostly nun and some of the other reported phenomena. The rectory did not fit into pre-conceived notions of a haunted house, which was one of the reasons that it would go on to gain such a reputation.

Despite the implications of the phenomena centering around Marianne, Price maintained that at least one of the spirits in the house had found the rector’s wife to be sympathetic to its plight. This was the only explanation he could find for the mysterious messages.

Link to whole story



...or as in The Amherst Poltergeist



The Amherst Poltergeist


Background: The Amherst Poltergeist is one of the most frightening poltergeist accounts in Canadian history. The activity centered around Esther Cox, age 19, who lived on Princess Street in Amherst. After nearly being raped by a local shoemaker named Bob MacNeal, Esther started experiencing violent poltergeist activity including moving objects and loud noises. Her body even swelled mysteriously.

Some ghost stories live on because of the sheer terror they brought into the lives of those who experienced them firsthand. For the most part, ghosts and apparitions are harmless to those who witness them, flickering briefly into view to perform some timeless task or to relay a message to a loved one, and then fading back into the unknown. Poltergeist activity, however, is another matter entirely. Seeming to center around an individual, a poltergeist produces physical phenomena that have been known to cause serious harm and otherwise scare the daylights out of its victims.

Esther Cox of Amherst, Nova Scotia was such a victim in a case that became one of the most frightening poltergeist accounts in Canadian history. The strange events were witnessed and documented by many people, and even became the subject of a book.

A jump to the middle of the story:

Up to this point, the events could have been attributed to the active imaginations of the two girls, especially given Esther's recent, harrowing experience at the hands of Bob MacNeal. But the third night would provide evidence to all in the Teed house that something far out of the ordinary was happening with Esther Cox. That night, Esther excused herself to bed early, complaining that she felt feverish. At about 10 p.m., soon after Jennie joined her in bed, Esther jumped up from the bed to the center of the room, tearing at her nightclothes and screaming, "My God! What is happening to me? I'm dying!"

Jennie lit a lamp and looked at her sister, horrified to see that her skin was bright red and seemed to be swelling unnaturally. Olive rushed into the room and assisted Jennie in getting their sister back in bed as she now seemed to be choking and struggling to breathe. The other adults watched in disbelief as Esther's entire body, which was remarkably hot to the touch, swelled and reddened. Esther's eyes bulged and she cried in pain, fearing she was literally going to burst through her stretched skin. Then from beneath Esther's bed came a deafening bang - like a clap of thunder - that shook the room. Three more loud reports exploded from under the bed, after which Esther's swelling subsided and she fell into a deep, deep sleep.

Four nights later, these terrifying events repeated themselves - Esther's unexplained swelling and torture ended only by the thunderous noises from under the bed. At a loss to cope with this unearthly ordeal, Daniel asked a local doctor, Dr. Carritte, to examine Esther. And he was witness to some of the most frightening events of all.

Attending at Esther's bedside, he watched in astonishment as her pillow moved beneath her head, untouched by any hands. He heard the loud bangs from beneath the bed, but could find no cause for them. He saw her bedclothes thrown across the room by unseen hands. Then the doctor heard a scratching noise, like a metal tool scraping into plaster. Dr. Carritte looked to the wall above Esther's bed and saw letters nearly a foot high etching themselves into the wall. When it was done, it had spelled out: ESTHER COX YOU ARE MINE TO KILL. A jagged clump of plaster then tore off the wall, flew across the room and landed and the doctor's feet. After two hours, the house fell quiet.

Dr. Carritte - out of courage, compassion or curiosity - returned the next day and bore witness to more unexplained manifestations. Potatoes hurled themselves across rooms... the deafening noises now seemed to be coming from the roof of the house, yet when the doctor investigated, there was no apparent cause. Of these events, years later he would write to a colleague: "Honestly skeptical persons were on all occasions soon convinced that there was no fraud or deception in the case. Were I to publish the case in the medical journals, as you suggest, I doubt if it would be believed by physicians generally. I am certain I could not have believed such apparent miracles had I not witnessed them."

The doctor could, of course, do nothing to help Esther or settle the disturbances at the Teed home. The haunting continued and, in fact, became more destructive and threatening:

* unexplained fires erupted around the house

* knives and forks were thrown by some entity, sticking violently into woodwork

* lit matches materialized out of thin air and dropped onto beds

* furniture moved about by itself, flipping over or slamming into walls

* loud slaps were heard, followed by the appearance of red finger marks on Esther's face

* sewing pins appeared from nowhere and were jabbed into Esther's face

* a pocketknife was ripped from the hand of a neighborhood boy and stabbed into Esther's back

Poor, tormented Esther tried several times to escape the devilish entity, but it followed wherever she went. One Sunday, Esther attended a Baptist church service and sat in one of the rear pews. Once the service had begun, knockings and rappings echoed throughout the church, seeming to come from the front of the church. The noises grew louder and louder, drowning out the minister's sermon. Knowing she was the cause, Esther left the building and the noises stopped.

She even tried to spare her family from the malevolent haunting. At first she moved to a neighbor's house, but the poltergeist followed and she was forced to return home. The Teed's landlord, fearing the destructive nature of the phenomena, wanted to evict the family. Again taking responsibility for the events, Esther moved herself out instead, finding work at a nearby farm. When the farm's barn burned to the ground, however, the farmer had Esther arrested for arson, for which she was convicted to a four-month sentence.

Fortunately, Esther served only one month in jail and was released. The short sentence may have at first seemed like a low-point to the much-troubled Esther, but it did have its upside. After she was freed from jail, the poltergeist activity seemed to just fade away. There were minor instances for a short time, and then the haunting stopped completely.

Esther later married, twice, and died in 1912 at the age of 53. Walter Hubbell published his book, The Great Amherst Mystery, after her death, and it included an affidavit signed by 16 witnesses of the horrific events at Amherst.

Testimony: A number of eye-witness accounts support this story, including Dr. Carritte who examined the girl because of the swelling. While attending to the girl, the doctor reported watching the words "Esther Cox you are mine to kill" etch itself into the wall plaster by unseen hands. According to The Great Amherst Mystery by Walter Hubbell, the doctor later wrote to a colleague regarding the case, expressing the sentiment that no one would believe him if he published what he had witnessed. In fact, he wouldn't believe if he hadn't experienced it for himself.

The Terrifying Amherst Poltergeist
 
It's not often seen, but it happens on occasion.



BORLEY RECTORY - "The Most Haunted House in England"


The most famous case in the career of Harry Price was undoubtedly that of Borley Rectory, a deteriorating house in Essex.

The tiny parish of Borley is located in a desolate, sparsely populated area near the east coast of England, near the Suffolk border.

Harry Price got involved in the case after a newspaper carried a story about a phantom nun at the house in June 1929. Price was asked by the paper to investigate and he was told about various types of phenomena that had been reported there, like phantom footsteps; strange lights; ghostly whispers; a headless man; a girl in white; the sounds of a phantom coach outside; the apparition of the home’s builder, Henry Bull; and of course, the spirit of the nun.

The ghosts at the rectory had been relatively peaceful, but all that would change in October 1930 when Smith was replaced by the Reverend Lionel Foyster and his wife, Marianne. Their time in the house would see a marked increase in the paranormal activity. People were locked out of rooms, household items vanished, windows were broken, furniture was moved, odd sounds were heard and much more.

However, the worst of the incidents seemed to involve Mrs. Foyster, as she was thrown from her bed at night, slapped by invisible hands, forced to dodge heavy objects which flew at her day and night, and was once almost suffocated with a mattress.

Soon after, there began to appear a series of scrawled messages on the walls of the house, written by an unknown hand. They seemed to be pleading with Mrs. Foyster, using phrases like “Marianne, please help get” and “Marianne light mass prayers”.

Here is actual photographs of the writings:

borley3.jpg


Because nearly all of the poltergeist-like activity occurred when Mrs. Foyster was present, Price was inclined to attribute it to her unknowing manipulations. However, he did believe in the possibility of the ghostly nun and some of the other reported phenomena. The rectory did not fit into pre-conceived notions of a haunted house, which was one of the reasons that it would go on to gain such a reputation.

Despite the implications of the phenomena centering around Marianne, Price maintained that at least one of the spirits in the house had found the rector’s wife to be sympathetic to its plight. This was the only explanation he could find for the mysterious messages.

Link to whole story



...or as in The Amherst Poltergeist



The Amherst Poltergeist


Background: The Amherst Poltergeist is one of the most frightening poltergeist accounts in Canadian history. The activity centered around Esther Cox, age 19, who lived on Princess Street in Amherst. After nearly being raped by a local shoemaker named Bob MacNeal, Esther started experiencing violent poltergeist activity including moving objects and loud noises. Her body even swelled mysteriously.

Some ghost stories live on because of the sheer terror they brought into the lives of those who experienced them firsthand. For the most part, ghosts and apparitions are harmless to those who witness them, flickering briefly into view to perform some timeless task or to relay a message to a loved one, and then fading back into the unknown. Poltergeist activity, however, is another matter entirely. Seeming to center around an individual, a poltergeist produces physical phenomena that have been known to cause serious harm and otherwise scare the daylights out of its victims.

Esther Cox of Amherst, Nova Scotia was such a victim in a case that became one of the most frightening poltergeist accounts in Canadian history. The strange events were witnessed and documented by many people, and even became the subject of a book.

A jump to the middle of the story:

Up to this point, the events could have been attributed to the active imaginations of the two girls, especially given Esther's recent, harrowing experience at the hands of Bob MacNeal. But the third night would provide evidence to all in the Teed house that something far out of the ordinary was happening with Esther Cox. That night, Esther excused herself to bed early, complaining that she felt feverish. At about 10 p.m., soon after Jennie joined her in bed, Esther jumped up from the bed to the center of the room, tearing at her nightclothes and screaming, "My God! What is happening to me? I'm dying!"

Jennie lit a lamp and looked at her sister, horrified to see that her skin was bright red and seemed to be swelling unnaturally. Olive rushed into the room and assisted Jennie in getting their sister back in bed as she now seemed to be choking and struggling to breathe. The other adults watched in disbelief as Esther's entire body, which was remarkably hot to the touch, swelled and reddened. Esther's eyes bulged and she cried in pain, fearing she was literally going to burst through her stretched skin. Then from beneath Esther's bed came a deafening bang - like a clap of thunder - that shook the room. Three more loud reports exploded from under the bed, after which Esther's swelling subsided and she fell into a deep, deep sleep.

Four nights later, these terrifying events repeated themselves - Esther's unexplained swelling and torture ended only by the thunderous noises from under the bed. At a loss to cope with this unearthly ordeal, Daniel asked a local doctor, Dr. Carritte, to examine Esther. And he was witness to some of the most frightening events of all.

Attending at Esther's bedside, he watched in astonishment as her pillow moved beneath her head, untouched by any hands. He heard the loud bangs from beneath the bed, but could find no cause for them. He saw her bedclothes thrown across the room by unseen hands. Then the doctor heard a scratching noise, like a metal tool scraping into plaster. Dr. Carritte looked to the wall above Esther's bed and saw letters nearly a foot high etching themselves into the wall. When it was done, it had spelled out: ESTHER COX YOU ARE MINE TO KILL. A jagged clump of plaster then tore off the wall, flew across the room and landed and the doctor's feet. After two hours, the house fell quiet.

Dr. Carritte - out of courage, compassion or curiosity - returned the next day and bore witness to more unexplained manifestations. Potatoes hurled themselves across rooms... the deafening noises now seemed to be coming from the roof of the house, yet when the doctor investigated, there was no apparent cause. Of these events, years later he would write to a colleague: "Honestly skeptical persons were on all occasions soon convinced that there was no fraud or deception in the case. Were I to publish the case in the medical journals, as you suggest, I doubt if it would be believed by physicians generally. I am certain I could not have believed such apparent miracles had I not witnessed them."

The doctor could, of course, do nothing to help Esther or settle the disturbances at the Teed home. The haunting continued and, in fact, became more destructive and threatening:

* unexplained fires erupted around the house

* knives and forks were thrown by some entity, sticking violently into woodwork

* lit matches materialized out of thin air and dropped onto beds

* furniture moved about by itself, flipping over or slamming into walls

* loud slaps were heard, followed by the appearance of red finger marks on Esther's face

* sewing pins appeared from nowhere and were jabbed into Esther's face

* a pocketknife was ripped from the hand of a neighborhood boy and stabbed into Esther's back

Poor, tormented Esther tried several times to escape the devilish entity, but it followed wherever she went. One Sunday, Esther attended a Baptist church service and sat in one of the rear pews. Once the service had begun, knockings and rappings echoed throughout the church, seeming to come from the front of the church. The noises grew louder and louder, drowning out the minister's sermon. Knowing she was the cause, Esther left the building and the noises stopped.

She even tried to spare her family from the malevolent haunting. At first she moved to a neighbor's house, but the poltergeist followed and she was forced to return home. The Teed's landlord, fearing the destructive nature of the phenomena, wanted to evict the family. Again taking responsibility for the events, Esther moved herself out instead, finding work at a nearby farm. When the farm's barn burned to the ground, however, the farmer had Esther arrested for arson, for which she was convicted to a four-month sentence.

Fortunately, Esther served only one month in jail and was released. The short sentence may have at first seemed like a low-point to the much-troubled Esther, but it did have its upside. After she was freed from jail, the poltergeist activity seemed to just fade away. There were minor instances for a short time, and then the haunting stopped completely.

Esther later married, twice, and died in 1912 at the age of 53. Walter Hubbell published his book, The Great Amherst Mystery, after her death, and it included an affidavit signed by 16 witnesses of the horrific events at Amherst.

Testimony: A number of eye-witness accounts support this story, including Dr. Carritte who examined the girl because of the swelling. While attending to the girl, the doctor reported watching the words "Esther Cox you are mine to kill" etch itself into the wall plaster by unseen hands. According to The Great Amherst Mystery by Walter Hubbell, the doctor later wrote to a colleague regarding the case, expressing the sentiment that no one would believe him if he published what he had witnessed. In fact, he wouldn't believe if he hadn't experienced it for himself.

The Terrifying Amherst Poltergeist

Pollux, I'll never be able to sleep now!
 
I do but my way involves being able to sense energy and I'm not sure if you know how to do that or not. I suspect that if you'resking this question it means that you don't.I figure you could just directly ask yes or no questions and try getting responses that way.

It might be tempting to try to leave out a pencil and paper or a computer running with a word processor running and see if the spirit would just write it's life story down but chances are they're not going to have the fine motor control to do that assuming they even have the sight for it. I know because I developed a way to become a poltergiest during astral projection and yeah .... it'd be like trying to type with boxing gloves on while inside a vat of molasses. Unless you're talking to the ghost of Strong Bad I'm pretty sure you're out of luck. Granted actual spirits tend to be a lot better at it than me so you never know. But it seems like it's a pretty rare skill to learn, probably because there's not much reason for it unless you have something left in the physical world you want to keep in contact with.

For every spirit that can poltergiest there's probably a hundred or so who can't. Also this is probably why lots of contact is someone knocking something off a shelf or whatever because that's probably all they're capable of doing. It's also probably why a poltergiest's energy feels a lot stronger than other spirits, because it takes that much more of it to interact with the environment for them. I know that from personal experience.

If someone can poltergeist there's also a decent chance they're also capable of inducing shared dreams because the two skills are pretty related so you could always try asking for one of those and see what happens. It would actually probably be the best method of communication they could give you because they'd be the least restricted in it and thus most able to express themselves.

Sensing energy and shared dreams...you seriously have my attention!

Normally when a spirit communicates with me I have the distinct feeling that it's a deceased person. A human who once lived on earth, and now lives in the spiritual world. But I had seven experiences with an energy force that intrigues me part because it has happened both in and out of my lucid dreams! Perhaps you could shed some light on it.

When I meditate it seems to open a channel--not my intention, it just happens. I tried to stop it, but that's not a door that can be closed. So then I tried to embrace it as a means of at least controlling it. I make clear I will only communicate with spirits who are kind, loving and have good intentions.

I had an experience with this very unusual energy force. I wasn't technically meditating the first time I encountered this energy. I was sitting in a chair with my eyes closed. I then saw this light, it was waves of lightening. I could feel the strength of this energy force. And I know this is going to sound insane, but I swear I felt it enter me it, literally physically I felt it. It scared me so much I jumped out of the chair.

That night I had a lucid dream. Normally I'm not a lucid dreamer. I had a few years ago, but of late I've been having them more frequently. As I was dreaming I remember looking around in my dream and thinking, I'm dreaming. I was thinking how much I loved the beautiful colors I picked for my dream. Suddenly everything went black. It was like a light switch was flipped. So I was standing there in my dream in the pitch dark looking around. Then I saw that energy force again.

There was some distance between me and the force; then it started coming towards me and I really freaked out. I stood my ground and I told him no, to stay away (I call him him only because it's such a strong powerful force that it feels masculine). I could feel it right next to me. I put my hand up and started pushing against it. I could literally feel it as I pushed against it and yelled for him to get back.

Interestingly, I felt no resistance from him. Still I was completely freaked out. I remember trying to step sideways to step out of my dream, then realized at that moment I was in sleep paralysis. It took me three or four tries before I managed to pull myself out of my dream state.

He visited me a total of 7 times over a month: 4 times in mediation; 3 times in my dreams.

I was terrified the first few visits. Not that he did anything threatening. But because I've never encountered a energy force or anything that powerful. Visually, he is this mass of energy. He's like lightening piercing the darkness. My first thought when I saw him was this is thunder--he feels like the deep rumble you feel in the air when thunder booms.

When he visits in meditation, he enters into my being. I'm not sure if that makes any sense to you, but I physically feel him enter into me.

But he's never tried to hurt me or take control of me. I've never channeled a spirit, so I don't know if that's what's happening. And even though there was no pain, and he did nothing threatening, the sensation was so foreign it terrified me.

The second time he visited me in meditation, I again tossed him out immediately. I reacted with pure fear and immediately broke meditation to get away.

The second dream visit, I was again lucid dreaming. But this time he lowered his energy level so as not to intimidate me. He approached me without approaching me if that makes any sense. I could tell it was him and I stepped back away from him. Yet even though I could feel the closeness of him, it wasn't like he was moving towards me. Even still I fought back really hard. I pushed against him and screamed. I turned to step out of my dream; again realized I was in sleep paralysis. But that time I decided to try to completely relaxed my body to see if I could ease out of my dream. Didn't work, still took me 3-4 tries of relaxing my body before I was able to get out of my dream. But each time I relaxed my body, I felt less and less fear.

There was a week and a half when he did not visit. During that time I tried to mentally prepare myself for the next encounter.

When he visited my dreams for the third time, he lowered his energy force so low he barely floated waist high to me. Normally he fills the entirely of the space in front of me. When I recognized him I screamed, "No"! I swung my arms out and started kicking him. He just run hung there in the air and let me fight and rage against him.

I then realized that my hands were going through him, he wasn't fighting back. He didn't resist my blows. He wasn't trying to harm me in any way. At a certain point I became calm. I was looking at this energy force and it surrounded me. I then took my hand and just gently ran it through his energy and I realized he means me no harm. I woke up on my own. There was no sleep paralysis episode with this one.

So when he came to visit me during meditation the next day I didn't react with fear. I let him come near me and enter me. I mentally started talking to him asking him who he was, but there was no response-- no communication at all, just his presence there.

The lack of communication leaves me baffled. I don't know who he is or what he is.

The other interesting thing about him is the timing of his visits.

I normally meditate in the morning. I refer to it as the morning veil. The lightness of being makes mediation and communication a lot easier. At the end of the day I like to ground. I do a short meditations during grounding. If I meditate during the evening veil, he will visit. He's never come during the morning veil. And then he will visit me in my dreams.

Had I not encountered him in meditation, I would assumed it was all hallucinations. But these are not hallucinations. Half the time I'm lucid and awake. When he visits my dreams, I'm lucid dreaming. But he stands out as separate from that dream world.

I stopped meditating about a month ago. I have not seen him since and I've not had a lucid dream either. I'm thinking there must be some connection. Any thoughts would be deeply appreciated.
 
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Sorry it's taken awhile to respond I've been busy. I'm going to try keeping things short and non -technical.

When I meditate it seems to open a channel--not my intention, it just happens. I tried to stop it, but that's not a door that can be closed. So then I tried to embrace it as a means of at least controlling it.

It seems that meditation runs your energy a little harder which makes you more visible and also partially phases you into other entities phase states which makes it easier to interact with.

I make clear I will only communicate with spirits who are kind, loving and have good intentions.

I can tell you from a lot of first hand experience that it doesn't matter what you want. If something wants to get in and it has the ability to get in, it gets in, period. Doesn't matter how you feel about it. That being said it's pretty unlikely that anyone's going to bother 99% of the time because most people aren't dicks.

I had an experience with this very unusual energy force. I wasn't technically meditating the first time I encountered this energy. I was sitting in a chair with my eyes closed.

If you're relaxed enough it doesn't really matter, your energy will likely flow a little more anyways.

And I know this is going to sound insane, but I swear I felt it enter me it, literally physically I felt it.

Nope not insane don't worry.

That night I had a lucid dream. Normally I'm not a lucid dreamer. I had a few years ago, but of late I've been having them more frequently. As I was dreaming I remember looking around in my dream and thinking, I'm dreaming.

Pretty confident this might've been a shared dream. although I exclusively induce/have shared dreams with my girlfriend these days I used to induce/have dreams with a few other people. All of them told me "it was the most real thing I ever experienced." For my girlfriend and I it's relatively easy to tell if something is probably a shared dream or not because a nonsensical dream will suddenly jump in quality and become lucid. Although this doesn't seem to happen 100% of the time during the dream.

Give that you state you don't usually have lucid drems but this one that just happened to involve something you encountered in meditation that did other funky stuff to you leads me to believe this was probably a shared dream. Whether deliberately induced or not I don't know. But of course I could be wrong.

stood my ground and I told him no, to stay away (I call him him only because it's such a strong powerful force that it feels masculine). I could feel it right next to me. I put my hand up and started pushing against it. I could literally feel it as I pushed against it and yelled for him to get back.

Chances are it felt masculine because it was masculine. It seems that everyone has a unique energy signature based on who they are, like their personality and such. As a result there's certain commonalities, such as men feeling like men, humans feeling like humans, etc.It's possible to fake an energy signature too but I doubt that was happening given everything else you said.

But he's never tried to hurt me or take control of me.

Well to be fair he's been forcing himself inside of you clearly against your will. Sure he seems pretty neutral about it but still. I know if it was me I'd be giving him an ultimatum to either talk or die. But that's because I've had a lot of bad experiences that most people don't and am kinda jumpy now.

The lack of communication leaves me baffled. I don't know who he is or what he is.

I suppose it's possible that he doesn't know how to communicate properly but somehow I doubt that.

Had I not encountered him in meditation, I would assumed it was all hallucinations. But these are not hallucinations. Half the time I'm lucid and awake. When he visits my dreams, I'm lucid dreaming. But he stands out as separate from that dream world.

Yeah that's one of the defining feature of confirmed shared dreams. You can tell the difference between a construct of the dream and a real person sharing the dream with you. For me and my girlfriend we can tell because, in short, real people emit energy and constructs don't. Making real people stand out from the environment.

This is all just my two cents and could be wrong.
 
Sorry it's taken awhile to respond I've been busy. I'm going to try keeping things short and non -technical.



It seems that meditation runs your energy a little harder which makes you more visible and also partially phases you into other entities phase states which makes it easier to interact with.



I can tell you from a lot of first hand experience that it doesn't matter what you want. If something wants to get in and it has the ability to get in, it gets in, period. Doesn't matter how you feel about it. That being said it's pretty unlikely that anyone's going to bother 99% of the time because most people aren't dicks.



If you're relaxed enough it doesn't really matter, your energy will likely flow a little more anyways.



Nope not insane don't worry.



Pretty confident this might've been a shared dream. although I exclusively induce/have shared dreams with my girlfriend these days I used to induce/have dreams with a few other people. All of them told me "it was the most real thing I ever experienced." For my girlfriend and I it's relatively easy to tell if something is probably a shared dream or not because a nonsensical dream will suddenly jump in quality and become lucid. Although this doesn't seem to happen 100% of the time during the dream.

Give that you state you don't usually have lucid drems but this one that just happened to involve something you encountered in meditation that did other funky stuff to you leads me to believe this was probably a shared dream. Whether deliberately induced or not I don't know. But of course I could be wrong.



Chances are it felt masculine because it was masculine. It seems that everyone has a unique energy signature based on who they are, like their personality and such. As a result there's certain commonalities, such as men feeling like men, humans feeling like humans, etc.It's possible to fake an energy signature too but I doubt that was happening given everything else you said.



Well to be fair he's been forcing himself inside of you clearly against your will. Sure he seems pretty neutral about it but still. I know if it was me I'd be giving him an ultimatum to either talk or die. But that's because I've had a lot of bad experiences that most people don't and am kinda jumpy now.



I suppose it's possible that he doesn't know how to communicate properly but somehow I doubt that.



Yeah that's one of the defining feature of confirmed shared dreams. You can tell the difference between a construct of the dream and a real person sharing the dream with you. For me and my girlfriend we can tell because, in short, real people emit energy and constructs don't. Making real people stand out from the environment.

This is all just my two cents and could be wrong.


Mediochre , thank you very much for your insightful analysis. It brings the fragments of a recent experience into perspective for me.

The spirit interactions coincided with online conversations I had with a man regarding empaths. At a certain point I became very uneasy about this man. My intuition told me this guy walked in the dark, and not by accident. You mentioned how you can't realistically control the type of spirits who enter your space...unintentional and unwanted contact with dark forces is a real possibility. I just had this strong feeling his encounters with the dark side weren't by chance.

I stopped responding to him when he mentioned he was in a struggle to regain control and balance; to be able to recognize what was real, and what wasn't.

His last post to my thread was an invitation to contact him through PM. No way was I going to engage with him at all.

For a few days after disengaging I continued to read the forum and occasionally commented on other people's posts. I was careful to not post on any threads he commented on.

Still. I couldn't shake the feeling that something was approaching me. That something was in my space. But I kept telling myself that was a ridiculous notion because people on the forum are anonymous. He doesn't know my identity. I don't know his identity.

Then, I read a comment that he had made on a post admitting his proclivity to walk in the darkness. It not only confirmed what I had felt, but made clear he sought out the very darkest corners. It disturbed me. And I couldn't shake the feeling of his presence, so I deleted my account.

Several days after I deleted my account, I experienced the first encounter with the energy. I kept telling myself it wasn't possible, that people can't enter your dreams...but clearly I was mistaken.

I stopped meditating for a while, so no visits from this energy. I just started again; short sessions. No sign of him. But I've been experiencing a lot of full body vibrations after second or third awakening at night. I had read on the sleep paralysis thread here about vibrations during WILDs to induce a lucid dream. I'm NOT trying to induce a lucid dream. I've interrupted the vibration every time since I don't want to experience an episode of SP.

Not really sure what the next step is...
 
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