The New Paperbacks are Here!!

The paperback of Unbelievable: Investigations into Ghosts, Poltergeists, Telepathy and Other Unseen Phenomena from the Duke Parapsychology Laboratory came out today.

Woohoo!!

You can buy it here!

This is the slightly different cover. It has a new P.S. section, where I tell a couple of ghost stories, (one of which I’ve already posted here) recommend other books to read on this subject (with explanations as to why I’ve recommended the ones that I have) and I also try to correct the bleak impression I gave at the end of the book about the field of parapsychology.

I’ve scheduled my first reading which will take place on April 4th, at Sunny’s Bar. All the details are in the Events section which you can click on above.

Hopefully there will be more events, perhaps a radio show or two. In any case, Unbelievable is now more affordable, and easier to carry around!

More About the Greten Family Poltergeist

A while back I posted about a 1949 poltergeist case that took place in the Lively Grove, IL home of Mr. and Mrs. Tony Greten and their ten children. The events centered around 11 year old Jerome and only took place after he went to bed. My first post is here.

It’s not the strongest case in the world, but it got my attention because it took place around the time as other cases I was researching (like the more famous case which led to the book, The Exorcist). What was going on in America in 1949??

Two more articles about the disturbances turned up. A June 26, 1949 Chicago Daily Tribune piece said that Rev. Edward Dahmus (a local priest who was investigating) confirmed that he had observed several manifestations of the spirit, which Mrs. Greten insisted was not to be referred to as a spook or a ghost. However, his Bishop Albert R. Zuroweste, would not allow him to discuss it.

In my original post I talked about how the family would ask the spirit questions and then leave paper and pencils and crayons out for the answers. “What do you want,” they’d ask. “Why are you here?” The spirit threw a pencil on one occasion and moved a bottle of ink across the floor in other. In the Chicago piece, when the family followed Father Dahmus’ suggestion to use an indelible pencil the spirit wrote out “Mass.” On another night it wrote “1,000” with a green crayon. There was never any explanation for the cryptic message. And when Dahmus wrote, “Are you a good or an evil spirit,” once again, a pencil was flung in response.

The Los Angeles Times wrote a more light-hearted piece a couple of weeks later titled, Angelic Spirit Forces Farmer to Keep Shoes On. Dahmus was talking a little more openly now. Describing events that took place on May 28, a little after 8pm, “Dahmus said the ‘dreadful’ pounding about the floors and walls was so loud and continuous that the family became alarmed … The noises stopped when they began reciting the Rosary but resumed when they finished.”

“Greten got tired of kneeling and sat on the bed. He took off one shoe and again there was a terrific pounding. He put the shoe back on and the noises stopped. He decided to keep it on.”

Two days later, with Dahmus present, Jerome said to the spirit, “a priest is here who would like to help you: what can he do?” The spirit wrote only, “help.” The priest wrote out, “Did God send you here?” The note came back with a green line drawn through what Dahmus had written. “Do you love Mary, the mother of God.” “Yes.” “Write Ave Maria.” But only the word “Ave” came back. “Write Maria, too.” The spirit did not comply.

Different papers wrote different versions of this story. For instance, in one version, the answer to “Did God send you here?” was “No.” And the next question was “Do you want the priest to pray for you,” to which the spirit answered, “No.” The farm is described as ramshackle in one article and prosperous in the next.

The first time I posted about this case I was pointed to the story of the Lively Massacre. Aside from the location, there is nothing connecting these two events, but I do enjoy when one good story leads to another. Actually, “good” is entirely the wrong word to use to describe this story. I wonder what prompted the Indians to kill this family in 1813? I’m guessing this is a sad story in more ways than one.

The picture of St. Libory (the church of Father Dahmus) came from www.stlibory.com. The picture of Bishop Albert R. Zuroweste came from www.stannnashville.org, and the picture of the Lively family grave came from the website I linked to in the previous paragraph.

Dark Intrusions

I haven’t read Dark Intrusions, but from a review by Nick Redfern, which can be read in its entirety here:

“… this is a truly excellent and wide study of a phenomenon undertaken by a man who has not only been touched and changed by SP [sleep paralysis] himself, but who has had the courage to seek out the answers to this mystery, and who ultimately triumphs, rather than merely playing the role of victim to the menacing entities that invade our slumber.

As Proud states: “… the SP state puts you in direct contact with your soul.”

The publisher has more about the book here, including a table of contents. This whole subject is just so disturbing and scary to me. I don’t know what to make of it (which doesn’t mean I’m not buying it, I try to have an open mind). The subject makes me think of Communion, Whitley Strieber’s book about alien abduction. (Strieber gets a chapter in Proud’s book.) I also didn’t know what to make of Strieber’s experiences either. But ever since reading his book, from time to time at night I look out the window and wonder how I would respond if aliens suddenly appeared. I feel lucky that I’ve never had to answer that question.

Great Footage from a 1976 Movie

Thanks to Guy Jackson for pointing me to The Amazing World of Psychic Phenomena on YouTube, and thanks to ChortleNEOK, the person who uploaded it. In it are brief appearances from all sorts of people I learned about while researching my book.

It was uploaded in 8 parts. Part 6, for instance, has a small section about EVP which begins at 6:52. Raymond Bayless and medium Attila von Szalay (I wrote about them in my book) show up with writer/researcher D. Scott Rogo at 7:52.

I also liked the section about Ted Serios in part 3 (Jules Eisenbud also appears). Gaither Pratt, a Duke parapsychologist, wrote that Serios had to get drunk in order to perform. Apparently they all had to wait around while Serios drank and drank. It just made me laugh reading that, knowing how serious Gaither could be. So I laughed again when I saw the quick shot of a bottle on the table in the Serios section, which starts at 7:16.

The actress Kathryn Grayson, who recently died, was brought in to play a psychic in part 2. Anyway, it’s fun, for the history, and the people who made this really did a lot of research. Something interesting called the Central Premonitions Registry was mentioned in part 1. It comes up when I google it, but nothing to indicate that it’s still an active concern.

IBM and ESP Part One

One of the most fun finds I made while going through the Parapsychology Laboratory’s correspondence was a 1938 exchange between J. B. Rhine and IBM.

Rhine contacted them first. “I am writing you concerning the possibility of adapting the Test Scoring Machine which you have invented, to the purpose of research we are conducting at the Parapsychology Laboratory here in extra-sensory perception.” Rhine was always trying to refine their experiments and tighten the controls, and part of that quest was the creation of an ESP machine.

The best part in this exchange however, was the response from IBM. “There is no question in my mind,” Reynold Johnson wrote back enthusiastically, that “it would be possible to develop a machine along the lines that you outline.” Again, this was 1938.

Reynold Johnson wasn’t just any IBM employee. He had designed the test scoring machine Rhine mentioned while working as a high school science teacher, and his design was bought by IBM, who then hired him as an engineer. Johnson went on to have an amazing career, with 90 patents to his name and he has been called the “father of the disk drive. (His Wikipedia entry is worth reading, he was an interesting guy.)

“I have given some thought to the application of the Test Scoring Machine to the problem you describe,” Johnson went on, “and have made out several forms which might possibly work out for the purposes you have in mind.” A detail from one of the forms he sent is shown above.

Johnson wasn’t sure if his machine could do the trick and said, “Undoubtedly a special machine more along the lines you outlined could be developed, but a good deal more information would have to be made available to us,” and then they talked about where the funds would come from in order to pay for the development of such a machine.

In the last letter I found Johnson said he was going to take up the matter with their Engineering Department and get back to him, but I couldn’t find any more letters after that. That isn’t to say they aren’t in there. There are over 700 boxes in the Parapsychology Laboratory archives at Dukes and I didn’t go through them all.

I keep meaning to post about how much else is in there to explore. I just scratched the surface. There are still countless discoveries like this one to be made.

Ectoplasm: Myth or Reality - A Lecture on February 16

As part of the Parapsychology Foundation’s Perspectives Lecture Series, Walter Meyer zu Erpen, historian, Archivist and President of the Survival Research Institute of Canada, will give a talk based upon photographs of ectoplasm taken by Dr. T. Glen Hamilton during experiments conducted in Winnipeg, Manitoba, 1918-1935. From the press release:

“In trying to decide whether ectoplasm is myth or reality he will discuss the authenticity of the T.G. Hamilton archival collection and the question of photographic fraud highlighting the integrity of the Hamilton family and other researchers.”

The lecture will be held at the New York Open Center, 22 East 30th Street, New York, NY, 10016 with doors open at 6:45 p.m., the lecture begins at 7:00. Donations in support of non profit Parapsychology Foundation at the door of $10 are welcome.

(The photograph below is not from this series, this is from my collection and originally from the Rhine Research Center archives.)

News and Articles

I think I have The Daily Grail to thank for bringing my attention to a British Journal of Psychiatry report that auditory hallucinations in children may be common and not a sign of mental illness.

I’ve said this before, but had science paid attention to the discoveries of Dr. Louisa Rhine we’d be fifty years ahead of where we are now on this subject! (That is Louisa Rhine in the photograph.)

I also want to link to a couple of interesting pieces. I’d love to get some feedback to this first one from some parapsychologists.

It’s an interview with Dr. Michael Persinger, and the headline reads: Neuroscience Researcher and Laurentian University professor, Dr. Michael Persinger, demonstrates telepathy under laboratory conditions.

The second is an interesting article called, Not Your Daddy’s Team: The Queer Side of the Paranormal.