Getting the Call
I could tell by the sound of Terri’s voice that something extraordinary was happening in Mississippi. Though she belonged to a relatively new paranormal group, her band of investigators had explored some pretty heavily haunted locations. So when she said they needed assistance on a case that involved a haunted home, a young man who was suffering the occasional possession, and activity that was off the charts, I was most certainly intrigued.
According to the homeowner, Joanne Martin, her family had been experiencing paranormal activity on a regular basis since they had moved into a double-wide trailer on her family’s land in 2000. They were accustomed to this, however, and had learned to simply live with the constant otherworldly attention. It was only during the last year that the activity had suddenly escalated to the point that she felt compelled to call upon paranormal researchers for assistance.
There were five individuals currently living in the Martin premises: Joanne, her daughters Julie and Katie, and a couple in their twenties who were renting a room from the Martin family (I’ll call them “Tim” and “Sarah”). All of them had seen and heard strange things in the property, and all of them were frightened—particularly the youngest daughter, Katie. It had gotten to the point that she did not want to be in the home anymore and was frightened of her own bedroom. It was mainly for her sake that everyone wished for a speedy resolution concerning the activity in the trailer.
When Terri’s group had gotten the call about the place, they had decided to coinvestigate the property with a paranormal group from Florida. During this investigation, one of the investigators claimed to have been touched by an unseen entity and, later that same evening, Tim had “gone into a fit.” He claimed to be under assault by a spirit who was trying to possess him. According to the family, this had happened at least one other time.
The family, as well as the Mississippi investigators present, was now wary of the possibility of another possession taking place. Because of this event, Terri wanted to have another, outside researcher present for her group’s next investigation of the home.
Witnesses to the previous attack reported that Tim had reacted violently to the affair and had to be physically restrained from attacking the investigators on the scene. I wasn’t sure how much of a deterrent I would be for Tim to avoid violence, but I understood why they all wanted to have someone else present. At the very least, I could help with restraining him!
When I asked about the history of activity in the home, Terri explained that there was simply too much information to go into detail about over the phone and that I needed to get down to Mississippi ASAP if I wanted to help out and investigate this case with them the following night. I told her I would be there the following day, but I needed to know (at the very least) the basics of what was happening so I could bring appropriate gear for tackling the investigation. Here’s what she told me:
But perhaps the most interesting thing I was told about the haunting involved the evening that all the paranormal activity came to a head. This is the story I was told:
Joanne, Julie, Tim, and Sarah were all congregated in the living room, settled in for the night and watching television, when they noticed there was an audible scratching sound coming from the wall that separates that room from the master bedroom. Tim got up to check out the sounds, but they immediately ceased when he approached the wall. This event happened a couple of times before they decided to just ignore the sounds, writing them off as possibly being the product of a rodent.
It was then that a fork suddenly flew into the living room from the direction of the kitchen. The utensil bounced off one of the living room walls and fell in the middle of the carpeted floor before the astonished eyes of all of them. Apparently, whatever was in the trailer didn’t like to be ignored!
Fearing that something was “about to happen,” they discussed leaving the trailer for a while when a loud commotion suddenly began in the adjoining master bedroom. They listened as the loud sounds of bangs and knocks came from that room. It sounded as if someone was violently moving pieces of furniture back and forth across the floor.
Joanne stood and cautiously approached the doorway to the bedroom; it was then that she witnessed drawers sliding out of the bedroom’s dresser and chest of drawers all by themselves. And they didn’t just fall on the floor. They flew out of furniture, tumbling end over end, dumping out their contents in a heap onto the bedroom floor.
At this point, the strong scent of rotten eggs filled the air and smoke began to visibly emanate from a small television set in the bedroom. The television then exploded and smoke rolled out in a heavy cloud. Fearing a fire was imminent, Tim ran into the bedroom and grabbed the TV, pitching it right through one of the trailer’s front windows into the yard. But the activity wasn’t over yet …
According to all those present, the bed mattress then began to violently shake and eventually flipped into the air to land against a wall. The box springs then followed suit. That was when Tim went into hysterics and claimed that he saw a shadowy shape shoot by him. Moments later, he would begin clawing at himself and yelling that something was trying to get into him.
He lashed out at those around him, frightening them all even more, but eventually calmed down when he felt the danger had passed. After that, the activity seemed to come to a sudden halt and life went back to normal in the Martin household. However, because of this evening’s events, the family decided to call in the Mississippi paranormal group. The activity was simply too frightening for them to tolerate any more.
Now, fearing that the master bedroom was the habitat of the entity, the family hung a heavy blanket over the doorway that separated that area from the living room and they all decided to only enter that space if it was absolutely necessary. But since that night, they had heard regular “rumbles” come from that empty room. Rumbles that would, literally, shake the entire trailer.
Breaking Down the Phenomena
Several aspects of this case intrigued me right off the bat—the first being the throwing of stones. While much of the reported activity at the Martin home is quite common in paranormal cases, most people do not know about mysterious stone-throwing. This is, however, a phenomenon that is known to investigators.
Author Jerome Clark talks about such “phantom attackers” in his book, Unexplained!. He mentions several cases (including a well-documented affair in Chico, California, in 1922) that involved rocks being thrown by invisible hands. Interestingly, local law enforcement would often be involved with these cases as well—and much like the Martin case, they would find no assailants in the area.
According to Clark, this type of activity is usually indicative of a poltergeist type of haunting, and is usually accompanied by other poltergeist symptoms, such as the presence of a young girl, objects moving on their own, and persistent rapping sounds. All of these conditions were present in the Martin home.
The second thing that caught my attention in the case details was the idea of a ghost or spirit possessing the young man. The residents had stated that an entity named “John” was trying to possess Tim—not any demonic being. Though instances of this happening have been documented, they are usually benevolent affairs—incidents that are usually instigated on purpose by the living.
During the great age of Spiritualism, mediums would often allow spirits to temporarily possess/inhabit them in order to converse with the dead (of course most of these so-called Spiritualists and psychics were complete frauds). It was, in fact, quite a popular pastime.
Reports of an “evil” spirit trying to possess a living being, however, are extremely rare—though in cases where this has happened, it was always for a reason, which usually involves unfinished business on Earth, wanting to communicate with a family member, or a refusal to simply move on to the afterlife. Spirits of humans rarely possess a living being with the intent of killing the host (unlike possession by a nonhuman, or demon).
The final type of paranormal activity that interested me in the Martin home—and also set off a few internal alarms—was the laundry list of activity in the trailer that is usually associated with demonic infestation (meaning the presence of a demon or nonhuman entity in a home). Things like the scent of feces, persistent scratching sounds, and rumbles in the walls usually make the short list of such activity—not to mention the possessions!
Though I cannot personally vouch for the existence of demons, I do know that some spirits can be downright nasty and do their best to scare the inhabitants of a home (mostly because they are, presumably, defending their territory from encroachment). In many instances, these harmful spirits are often labeled as “demonic” or the equivalent, depending on the religious views of the afflicted. As for the actual existence of demons … well, let’s just say the jury is still out as far as I’m concerned, though I do not discount the possibility of such things.
After my discussion with Terri, it was clear that I was about to set foot into a very strange case—a case with several distinct possibilities. Was the Martin family suffering from a particularly intense haunting, an ongoing poltergeist, or were they plagued with demonic infestation? I had no idea, but I intended to find out. Research was sorely needed …
Initial Thoughts
After listening to Terri’s story, I knew that three things would have to be investigated immediately. First, I asked Terri to attempt to call the local sheriff’s office to confirm the incident when the Martins witnessed rocks hitting the house/vehicles.
Second, I wanted the trailer checked for possible gas leaks. Natural gas can often be mistaken for the smell of rotten eggs and I wanted to rule out the possibility of a mundane explanation for that scent.
Lastly, I wanted a competent plumber to look at the water pipes. When pipes go bad, they can often rattle in the wall. I wanted to be sure that this was not responsible for the rumbles that the family was hearing.
After wrapping up my phone call with Terri, I went over my notes from the conversation and gathered the gear that I would need for my trip into the delta. I packed the usual items for my investigations—digital camera with night vision, digital audio recorders, camcorder with night vision, etc.—but I knew that the most important tool for this trip would be my own experience and senses.
Over the years, I have investigated numerous reputedly haunted places—hotels, museums, private residences, etc. And in my experience, there are significantly more places that pan out to be mistakenly thought of as haunted than places that actually are haunted.
Because of this, I stay tuned for specific types of events and tend to pay special attention to the hot spots of a property that inhabitants point out. This is standard operating procedure, and it has saved me countless man-hours by not investigating the wrong places. Even though this was no standard case by any stretch of the imagination, I would take the same logistical approach to the investigation of the Martin property.
Planning my trip and the gear I would take along for the investigation, I was most concerned with the reported possessions. According to Terri, the event was quite disturbing and everyone feared an additional outbreak of violence from Tim. I wondered if he was simply reacting to the proximity of a spirit with a bit of hysteria.
In other words, what if a ghost was approaching him—perhaps even touching him as one investigator previously reported experiencing—and fearing the worst, he was going into a panic and beginning to flail about, thinking he was either going to be possessed or that he was in the process of being possessed? Certainly most people would be terrified.
I felt it simply had to be this or—to be blunt—he was faking it for whatever reason: attention, insanity, or drug/alcohol influence. Either way, I planned to directly confront him regarding the situation. I would not have him upsetting my chances of performing a thorough and extensive investigation of the property. If he would be unable to control himself in this regard, he would simply have to leave the property for the duration of my visit (once I had finished interviewing him, of course).
I was also disturbed by the fact that the two young girls of the household were often present for the nightmarish activity. Julie was in her early teens, but Katie was only ten years old. This is the kind of environment that can permanently scar the psyche of a young person, and I did not want either of the children to be present during my investigation of the trailer.
Though removing the young girls could possibly risk taking the “battery” for the phenomena out of the equation (most paranormal investigators believe poltergeists happen in the households of young girls because spirits tap them for their prepubescent energy), I did not want to risk any harm to them mentally or physically.
I had little to no time to fully research the specifics of the case, but I thought it best to at least brush up on the basics of demonic infestation and poltergeist activity before driving down to the home the following day. After all, it’s better to be prepared than caught off guard, right?
Possession and Demonic Infestation
I can still remember reading the books The Devil in Connecticut, The Haunted, and In a Dark Place when I was young. All three books were written by different authors, but they all featured cases that were investigated by the infamous husband and wife team of Ed and Lorraine Warren. But, more importantly, all three books scared me to death!
Unlike most paranormal investigations of today, the Warrens’ cases seemed to almost always spin off into
the realm of the demonic. These stories were as frightening as they were entertaining—but when I read these books today, though, I’m amazed at how much of the reported activity in the cases falls under the simple heading of “haunting.” But, then this is just my opinion.
During a paranormal investigation, the opinions concerning the activity at a location often influence how a case is ultimately judged. And so it was that the Warrens labeled many of the activities detailed in their cases as being signs of demonic infestation. They believed that the events were of a diabolical nature, so their remedies for coping with the paranormal activity were usually of a religious nature.
In the book The Haunted by Robert Curran, the Warrens are quoted describing the four stages of demonic infestation: Infestation, Oppression, Possession, and Death. Of these stages, the hardest to quantify would be the first two. This is because the things that are often cited as signs of infestation are also usually associated with simple hauntings: knocks/raps on the walls, objects moving of their own accord, disembodied voices, etc. And “oppression” has as much to do with the psychological state of the inhabitants of a haunted house as it does with the paranormal activity there. Let me explain …
Let’s say, for example, that the aforementioned elements of infestation were happening in a house inhabited by a paranormal enthusiast. In that instance, the inhabitant would be elated at the apparent activity in the household, as well as be thrilled at the prospect of possibly encountering a ghost. So, clearly, this person would not be oppressed in any way.
Conversely, if an inhabitant is terrified by the possibility of a ghost pulling at their bed sheets during the night or speaking into their ear, that individual could definitely feel a bit oppressed by the goings-on in their property without ever really experiencing anything specifically of a demonic nature. When people are frightened, they often jump to the worst possible conclusion—and, so, a ghost suddenly becomes a demon.
As for the third stage of demonic infestation, possession, you really have to realize how murky these waters truly are. Every year, scores of folks from all over the world report being possessed by demons. The vast majority of these turn out to either be frauds, sufferers of a mental disorder, or a hysterical ultrareligious individual who is misinterpreting what’s going on around them. Don’t believe me? Just check out any of the books by Gabriele Amorth, the official exorcist to the diocese of Rome. He lists many of these cases, as well as cites examples of the rare, real thing.
When the movie The Exorcist first hit the movie screens in 1974, it not only terrified thousands of moviegoers, it also spawned an epidemic of sudden possession cases all over the world.
In an article titled “Behavior: Exorcist Fever” in Time magazine, Dr. Ari Kiev (a psychiatrist at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center) wrote, “If people are attracted to this film, then that is what is in their subconscious. Then again, many patients see themselves as the devil.”
The article also tells of the influence the film had on the public, “A prominent Midwest Catholic theologian received dozens of calls from confused people fearful that they were losing their grip on reality. A number of priests reported receiving inquiries from people who believed themselves possessed.”
So were all these people under demonic assault? It’s more likely that these folks were terrified by something in their lives and were afraid of experiencing the events associated with “Regan” in the movie. Or they were simply people who wanted attention. (Hey, sometimes the obvious reason is the best.) Or maybe these individuals wanted so much to believe in the Devil (as well as God) that they subconsciously wanted to be possessed in a way that would provide them with a form of proof that their religion is valid. This line of thinking, in my opinion, could also be applied to the Warren cases.
Were the Warrens simply investigating haunted houses, but their own belief system dictated that they label the affairs as being “demonic?” Maybe. I don’t know. I wasn’t there. But this could certainly be a possibility. One thing can generally be agreed upon, though: something was happening in those cases and evidence needed to be gathered—regardless of the viewpoint of what was going on. Looking at the Martin case, I was confronted with the same challenges. Of course there is also the fourth stage of demonic infestation to contend with as well: Death.
Though somebody dying from possession is extremely rare, it has happened. One such case was highlighted in the case and movie titled The Exorcism of Emily Rose. The film was based on a real case that happened in Germany in the 1970s.
A young girl by the name of Anneliese Michel was reportedly possessed and underwent a series of intense exorcisms that resulted in her death. Two of the priests involved with the exorcism, as well as the girl’s parents, were held accountable for the death and were convicted of negligent manslaughter.
Later it would be revealed that Anneliese was previously diagnosed with mental illness and even suffered a form of epilepsy, so many have questioned whether or not she was, indeed, ever actually possessed. And, unfortunately, though many of the details of the ordeal can be debated, one thing is certain: Anneliese did die.
While researching the particulars of demonic attack, I came across an interesting article written by Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted for The Catholic Sun titled “Year for Priests: St. John Vianney, Part Two: The Devil’s Attack.” In the article, Bishop Olmsted details the demonic harassment that Father John Vianney experienced during his priesthood.
Olmsted states, “In addition to … ordinary ploys, demons resort to other extraordinary acts, on rare occasions, with the same intention of thwarting the plan of God and undercutting our filial trust in Him. These harassments can be of three kinds: infestations, possessions, and obsessions.”
Olmsted goes on to detail events that occur during infestation—things like noises, cries, bangs/rattles, and the appearance of apparitions. These were things all reported in the Martin home. Of course, I was already aware of the implications of infestation and possession. It was the second type of activity mentioned by Olmsted, obsession, that caught my eye the most.
Obsession: Part Two
Ever since the first paranormal investigator set foot in the first haunted place, there has been the fear of obsession. This fear, basically put, is that by constantly exposing oneself to the paranormal, as well as studying it and reading about it, one can actually attract spirits and entities. It’s thought by many in the paranormal community that the simple act of “obsessing” about the dead can actually cause a person to eventually be visited by such.
Over the years, many researchers have supported this theory by writing about personal experiences while being involved with a haunting—or when investigating paranormal activity. These are experiences that occur in their own homes after returning there from investigating particularly horrific places. While it seems the stuff of horror movies, it does seem to happen on occasion and it can be a negative aspect of becoming a paranormal investigator. In addition, obsession is often reported by investigators in another form as well …
If you investigate the paranormal for any amount of time, you will begin to run into a certain type of client: people who seem to want to be haunted. These individuals often watch ghost programs, read books about hauntings, and sometimes even participate in various types of séances and other activities that seem geared toward communicating with the dead.
If the concept of obsession is a valid one, then these particular people may actually be causing their own haunting by actively obsessing over the subject. And if the ghost enthusiasts are bad about this, then imagine how it can be with an overly zealous religious person. How many times a day would that person think about the Devil and/or demons? Or dwell on the subject of evil?
Could an extreme amount of concern about spirits and demons actually cause a place to become infested? Or, worse yet, cause a person to become possessed? Many believe so. Olmsted writes, “With obsession, the Devil goes beyond infestations and actually plays on the external senses of the body or influences a person’s memory or imagination.” Think about that for a moment …
For example, let’s say you see a dark shadow move strangely. Because you are already afraid of demonic infestation—and are possibly dwelling on the subject a bit too much—your memory of the shadow slowly changes. With time, your memory/imagination will begin to tell you that what you actually saw was the manifestation of something demonic or ghostly.
Multiply this event times a hundred in one home and you can see why obsession can be a dangerous thing. Even if no entity was “attracted” by all this attention, the act of obsession could certainly cause a person to become paranoid and emotionally wrecked.
Knowing all of this, it would be important for me to gauge how tuned in to the paranormal, and possibly demonic subjects, the Martin family was. Maybe their interest in these subjects was affecting how they were looking at the activity, or perceived activity, in their environment. And I would have to do this without actually bringing up those subjects myself …
Past experience dealing with religious households and their hauntings has taught me to steer clear of any religious suggestions of activity. This is because it can cause investigations to go down strange paths—paths that usually involve clergy and religious ritual.
So I would cautiously avoid bringing up any subject related to demons, exorcism, or infestation with the Martin family. I did not want to have to deal with any requests of performing an exorcism, deliverance, or clearing on my first visit—and, more to the point, I did not want to affect what they would tell me firsthand about what was happening in the home.
Avoiding the subject of the demonic would prove to be no challenge, though, since I only worked with the scientific method. Besides, looking at all the reported activity in the home, there was a lot more happening with this case than is typically associated with infestation. Much of the Martin family’s paranormal activity seemed to fall under the heading of “poltergeist.”
Elements of a Poltergeist
Usually when the word “poltergeist” is brought into play, yet another movie springs to mind. Though less influential on the psyche of the public than The Exorcist, the film has, unfortunately, led a lot of people astray in what they tend to associate with this phenomenon.
Besides the most obvious non-truths (trees snatching kids through windows, clown dolls attacking people, spirits speaking through the television, etc.), the biggest fallacy is perhaps the presence of a ghost at all. These days, most researchers believe that a poltergeist event—often dubbed “PK” by the paranormal community—has more to do with the psychokinetic ability (to move objects solely by mental effort) of an individual than it does with any spirit.
Typically, when a paranormal case is labeled as being a poltergeist, there seems to be a person who lives in the environment that serves as a sort of catalyst to the events happening around them. Sometimes, by simply being present, activity seems to generate around these individuals—though activity is not always limited to this circumstance.
At times, this activity is thought to be the product of an entity present in the home—at other times the activity is thought to actually be initiated by the person in question. In most of these instances, this psychokinetic ability is not even perceived by the person who is doing it. This is because their PK ability is usually a result of traumatic or dramatic changes happening within this person’s psyche (such as a sudden life change, a tragic loss, or puberty).
Poltergeist activity almost always includes objects moving of their own accord (in and around the property), as well as finding things relocated in new locations. Sometimes these events are witnessed in real time—including the spontaneous appearance of items—and sometimes the movement is discovered after the fact. Even more perplexing is that fact that, in some cases, these are items that seem to have never existed in the home in the first place (such as foreign objects, antique items, etc.).
On rare occasions, the strength of a poltergeist can actually be so great that heavy/massive items can actually be manipulated. There are examples of this happening in cases like the Bell Witch, the well-documented Enfield poltergeist, and most recently, the infamous “Danny” poltergeist case.
With the Bell Witch—perhaps the most well-known American poltergeist case in history—objects moving of their own accord was a commonplace activity. The Bell family constantly observed household items being thrown across a room, as well as heard constant noises in their home’s walls, and even felt invisible hands slapping and pinching them! Activity at the home was so high it was observed by numerous witnesses, including former United States president Andrew Jackson.
More recently, family members involved with the Danny poltergeist also witnessed objects moving in their home. When the Cobb family in Savannah, Georgia, purchased an antique bed at a local auction, they had no idea that they had just inherited a mischievous spirit as well. When young Jason Cobb attempted to sleep in the bed, strange things would happen: a photo of his deceased grandparents would flip down by itself and the boy would feel the pressure of another person sitting/lying on the bed. This activity led the family to experiment with their newfound ghost.
Over the course of the poltergeist—an ongoing incident chronicled by local journalist Jane Fishman of the Savannah Morning News—the spirit would move toys from the room onto the bed and even communicate to family members via crayon and paper. It was through these communications that the family learned the spirit was named “Danny” and that he was seven years old. Danny also informed the Cobb family that his mother had perished in the antique bed and that he did not like people sleeping in it.
Investigators on the scene in Savannah would later conclude that Danny wasn’t the only spirit in the home; there were, according to them, multiple entities in the property and that they were all a product of the psychic ability of young Jason, coupled with unusually high EMF fields that generated from the boy’s bedroom wall.
Was it possible that the events reported in the Martin case were being generated unknowingly by one of the home’s inhabitants? While it was possible that at least some of the activity could fall under this heading, it was clear that definitely not all of the activity could be. For instance, there’s no way to psychically produce a scent or disembodied voice in a room—though both of these activities have occurred during poltergeists that were associated with an entity being present.
So, while I would have to look at the possibility of there being poltergeist activity in the home, the investigation would not end with that. But, again, the rock-throwing aspect of the case intrigued me quite a bit. If they were faking any of the activity there—or simply lying about it—why would they choose a paranormal event that’s unknown to most people?
Famed investigator Guy Lyon Playfair wrote of just such an event in his book This House Is Haunted—An Investigation of the Enfield Poltergeist. He wrote, “Stones fall onto your kitchen floor, as if they had come through the ceiling. Somebody, or something, starts banging on the wall. Things disappear, and reappear somewhere else. Before long, you realize it can’t be an earthquake, or the Concorde, or mice. It must be something else—something entirely inexplicable and very frightening indeed.”
Planning My Investigation
Clearly I would have to be open to whatever was going to happen in the Martin home during my visit. I would interview the family members, get as much history as possible concerning the land and the family, and then attempt to capture as much activity as possible on audio/video. My chief concern was the possibility of another possession—or the family spiraling into a state of hysteria.
Since one of the members of Terri’s group had been touched by an entity, and there was a significant amount of activity reported, I was confident that something paranormal was going on in the Martin home—it would just be a matter of figuring out what that “something” was and bringing about some type of resolution for all involved.
I also began looking for an area clergy who might be willing to perform a blessing on the house; if the Martin family was at all religious (and this subject came up despite me avoiding it), this might put them at ease about living in such an environment. So I packed up my gear, gassed up my truck, and prepared for a long drive into the hot, steamy Mississippi delta …