The Elusive Shadow People

The idea that someone, or something, has invaded the sanctity of your house or bedroom is probably the epitome of nightmare fuel. Thankfully I’ve never had this kind of experience. Coincidentally (or maybe not) many denizens of the paranormal have a penchant for visiting people within their bedrooms. Today however I wish to focus your attention today to The Shadow People. Tracking down the origins of these entities is almost as elusive as sightings of them are. The first time I heard them mentioned was on one of a number of Ghost Hunting websites I used to frequent back in the mid to late 90’s, the URLs to which I’ve long since misplaced. At the time they were often described as a kind of haunting that people would experience. And many seemed to be described as emanating evil, if not outright evil in action or deed.

Accounts from Legend

It should come as no surprise that some cultures around the world have reported the same, or similar, creatures within their myths or worldviews. Just one example is of the Choctaw People, a Native American tribe which was originally located in the states of Mississippi, ALabama, and Louisiana, had a few different shadow-like creatures. Nalusa Falaya, which translates roughly to long black being, is a man shaped being which would frighten hunters and prefered to slither on it’s stomach like a snake in some accounts. Additionally, Choctaw believed that every person had both a shilombish (outside shadow) and a shilup (the inside shadow). Upon death, the shilup is said to go to the land of the ghosts. The shilombish,  is believed to hang around the earth after the passing of the deceased person. This particular figure seems to be more closely related to our modern concept of The Shadow People.

Examples of Encounters

Here are just a few of the more standard accounts of persons who have claimed to have had encounters with The Shadow People. The following stories come from Shadowpeople.org:

Melissa - I was asleep only to immediately wake up and look to the corner of my bedroom, there I saw the figure of a tall man standing and looking at me, I was scared beyond belief, to make things worse I knew he wasn’t human as not only could I make out his shadowy figure in the dark, but I could also see through him, I threw the covers over my head and screamed out in horror until my father ran in, I cried for him to turn on the lights.

Jonas - one night I woke up late and was just staring at the ceiling of the apartment when I began to feel that something just didn't feel right, or like I was being watched. I scanned the room and to my utter shock there stood a Shadow Hat Man at the end of my bed on the left hand side. I have never been so terrified in my entire life. I seriously thought I was going to die of fear. This black mass was a man and he was wearing a wide brim hat and what looked like a cloak of some sort. I couldn't move or speak because I was totally numb with fear.

unnamed person - Not being able to fall asleep, I opened my eyes and looked towards my open bedroom door. There stood a dark figure, about six feet tall with the build of an average sized man. The shadow seemed to be wearing a pea coat or a trench coat. The silhouette was completely featureless in all other respects. It did not move. It just stood there in the doorway, completely silent. I assumed my eyes were playing tricks on me so I felt rather silly when I called out, "Who's there?" and "Hello?" When I got no response, my confusion turned into the most intense and unexplainable fear that I have ever experienced.

The above encounters are only a few of the dozens you can easily find all over the internet. A great place to read similar encounters is Jason Offutt’s blog, From The Shadows.

Variety of Types

One of the interesting aspects of The Shadow People is the variety of types, shapes, and forms with which they are reported. In his 2009 book Darkness Walks: The Shadow People Among Us, author and journalist Jason Offutt details roughly eight different kinds of Shadow People that had been reported to him by various experiencers. Here are just a few of them:

The Hat Man

Maybe one of the creepier shadow people, at least in my opinion. Why in the world is it wearing a hat?

Hooded Figure

Somehow a figure in a hood just doesn’t instil the same fear or creepy-factor in me as one with a hat does. Maybe I’m just desensitized by years of horror movies?

Black Smoke/Mist

Shadow People which are seen in this variety appear to be comprised of their namesake; black smoke or mist. To be fair, I doubt the veracity of the above photo but Google Image search was not kind to my query for "Black Mist Shadow People"

Science has the “answer”!

Modern science has weighed in on the Shadow People and seems to offer a compelling explanation for many, though not all, of the encounters which people have had. It is believed that Sleep Paralysis, accompanied by hypnopompic and hypnagogic hallucinations may account for some of these bedroom visitors. The idea is that during REM sleep, or the state of sleep in which dreams can occur, the body undergoes muscle atonia or a weakening of the muscles. This is so that the body doesn’t act out what is happening in your dreams. In the sleep paralysis state, the REM cycle has been disturbed or interrupted, so that a person is awake but their body is still paralyzed. During this state has been suggested that individuals might experience hypnagogic hallucinations in which they would then see “Shadow People” and really any other kind of nighttime visitor (such as Greys).

The Paranormal Community has an “answer” too! (well, a bunch of them)

Not to be outdone by scientists, the paranormal community has an opinion on what The Shadow People are. However like everything else in this field, if you ask 10 people for their opinion on The Shadow People, you’re going to get 10 different explanations. The usual suspects show up as you might imagine. For more religious-minded folk the Shadow People are clearly demons; they are literally black, usually described as devoid of light, give off “evil vibes”, and show up late at night. For those who spend their time looking up for all the answers, The Shadow People represent a race of ETs who are scoping out the situation and trying to figure us humans out. Ghost hunters see them as kinds of ghosts. Some think they may be time travelers. The list goes on. As with most paranormal things, your phenomenology or “reality tunnel” clearly colors your perceptions of this phenomenon.

Conclusion?

Given that many of the experiences involving The Shadow People  do seem to occur in the bedroom, usually after a person has been woken up from sleep, it’s not hard to see why this explanation is so attractive to scientists or anyone else who wishes to ignore “Damned” data. I could certainly see how some of the encounters with The Shadow People might fall under this explanation, I can’t see it accounting for all of the varied experiences. On the other hand, the paranormal explanations for The Shadow People are as varied as the field is. Aliens, Ghosts, Demons, Time Travelers, you name it, likely someone thinks that what The Shadow People are. Personally I don’t know what to make of these experiences. Regardless of their origin, they are certainly “real” to the people who undergo them. Maybe that’s the only important takeaway from all of this. Until I learn anything differently, I’m going to keep an open mind on The Shadow People. And hope I never encounter one myself, especially The Hat Man! Yeesh.

Enfield Poltergeist

Stories of poltergeist activity have been an interest of mine, perhaps more so than other kinds of alleged “hauntings”. This stems mostly from some of the evident peculiarities and similarities amongst the cases. This is just a short review, but the phenomenon almost always begins as a tapping or knocking sound that is heard. This is where we get the term from anyway, it roughly translates from German into English as ‘noisy-ghost or spirit’. The phenomenon is usually focused on a pubescent child in the home, almost exclusively a girl. This fact has lead some Parapsychologists to theorize that the Poltergeist Phenomenon may actually originate from the mind of the child in the form of recurrent spontaneous psychokinesis.

The idea is that perhaps as these girls are undergoing the normal process of development, the stress and/or hormones causes the girls to unconsciously act out in less than normal ways (i.e. psychic). Others believe that these stories represent actual entities which are external to the child that seems to be the focus of the phenomenon, perhaps because they are being targeted for nefarious reasons no doubt.

For today’s post I wanted to focus on a very specific reported case of Poltergeist activity which is a very interesting case study in possible genuine phenomenon which occurred alongside trickery or at least an exaggeration of the reported phenomenon by the witnesses. Most of the information that I’ve listed below comes from Colin Wilson’s Poltergeist which, as the name suggests, The reports of what happened here began over 30yrs ago on an August night in the year 1977 in Enfield, England.

40yr-old divorcee Margaret Hodgson lived in a rented home with her four children; Rose aged thirteen, Janet aged eleven, Pete aged ten, and Jimmy aged seven. Pete and Janet shared a room and it was this room that would be the site of much of the alleged phenomena. That night, after Pete and Janet had gone to bed their beds began to move in a strange fashion. They called their mother in, she thought that they were messing around and told them to go back to bed.

Picking up the story Wilson notes (as a note Wilson refers to the family as Harper and not Hodgson for reasons I’m not aware of):

The next evening, the children heard a shuffling noise, like a chair moving. Mrs. Harper came in and asked them to be quiet. The room all seemed to be perfectly normal. But when she switched off the light, she also heard the shuffling noise. It sounded like someone shuffling across the room in slippers.

Then there were four loud, clear knocks. And when Mrs. Harper put the light on again, she saw the heavy chest of drawers moving on its own. It slid a distance of about eighteen inches across the floor. She pushed it back. It slid back again.

At this point Hodgson decided to run to a neighbor named Vic Nottingham. Nottingham and his son ran inside the house and searched around, I assume for some kind of explanation for what the Hodgson’s were experiencing.  As the Nottinghams were inside the house, the knocking began again. By this time, Hodgson must have had enough and decided to call the police.

Wilson writes:

They sent for the police. When the lights were switched of, the knocking started. Then, in the light from the kitchen, everyone saw a chair that was wobbling into motion. It slid toward the kitchen for three or four feet.

Evidently they should have called the Ghostbuster (man that was bad) because the police leave seemingly without being able to offer any kind of explanation or solution for the Hodgsons. The family slept that night in the living room.

The following day all was seemingly quiet until night fell. Wilson tells us:

Then the poltergeist began throwing things. Marbles and Lego bricks came zinging through the air as if shot from a catapult. When someone picked up one of the marbles, it was found to be burning hot.

Eventually the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) was to get involved with the case. Specifically, Guy Playfair would come in on the case and spend the next two-years investigating this case. This case has a lot of media attached to it. Below is one of the more (in)famous photos from the case that purport to show one of the girls, Janet, being thrown around the room by the alleged entity.

I’m not the first person to suggest this, but to me at first glance this photo appear to show girls jumping around on their bed. That doesn’t mean it’s what’s actually happening, but it certainly looks that way. In the end Playfair was to write a book recounting his version of the events which took place at the Enfield house entitled This House is Haunted. Playfair concludes the following about the case:

When Mr. and Mrs. Harper were divorced, an atmosphere of tension built up among the children and their mother, just at the time when the two girls were approaching physical maturity. They were a very energetic pair to start with, both of them school sports champions, but even they could not use up the tremendous energy they were generating. So a number of entities came in and helped themselves to it.

So many years later, and being so removed from the events, it’s hard to say what may have actually occurred here. Playfair seemed to believe that some genuine paranormal events happened in this case, but at the same time it’s known that the girls were found to be faking some of the events. If there was real weirdness happening here, why did the girls fake some of the experiences? Who knows? Could it be that the girls liked the attention they were receiving, especially from the male investigators as a replacement for their father’s attention and didn’t want for it to end?

If you want to learn more about this case, there have been a plethora of documentaries made about it. Most of which seem to be available on youtube. And if that’s not enough for you, because Ed and Lorraine Warren somehow got involved in the case at some point, you can look forward to seeing a version of the events on the big screen in the form of The Conjuring 2 coming sometime in 2015.

Nurses relate ghostly encounters

I don’t really know what to make of ghost stories. Or rather accounts of actual ghosts and not like campfire tales. Some of them are really interesting, while others are quite dull. Are people actually encountering the spirits of the departed? Is it all just in their minds? Are some people more prone to see them than others? Ultimately I’m not sure. I haven’t really made up my mind yet on this particular paranormal phenomenon. What I bring to your attention today are some rather interesting stories of ghostly encounters that nurses have reported. 

Much like Albert Rosales’ “Humanoid Reports” the following is probably nothing more than paranormal porn, adding nothing really substantive to the body of “paranormal research”, but they are interesting in and of themselves. Besides sometimes it’s fun to just read of other’s encounters with things that I haven’t (thankfully?) experienced yet. I offer no further opinion on the following other than they seem interesting and want to know what you all think. I’ve selected only a few of the stories as there are pages and pages of accounts to go through.

Member stidget99 reports the following:

I used to work in a state inst for developmentally disabled. We were temp relocated to another building for remodeling of our bldg. Anyways...I was working one nite, 2nd shift. We had a locked pica unit. I saw one of the residents walking down the hall. Very distinct gait and very distinct yellow t-shirt w/ a happy face on it. I went into the ward to let staff know that they had an escapee.

This was a serious situation because this particular resident, Larry, would ingest absolutely anything (from clothing to pens to belts to *ugh* a bird's head)...literally anything. He was also very reluctant to go back to his home ward (hence why I didn't bring him back myself...he needed two escorts). When we got back into the hall, less than 15 secs later, Larry was gone!!

We searched the entire building! Outside, downstairs, all wards...he was NO WHERE to be found!!! This whole search lasted last than 10 mins because I had all extra staff looking for him. I was just about to call the house supervisor to let her know that we "lost" someone when out from the bathroom walks Larry w/ one of the staff. He had been getting his bath in the bathroom for the last 30 mins or so. Kind of freaky! I absolutely, without a doubt, saw Larry in the hallway. I never would've short-staffed the wards like I did if I hadn't seen him! Like I said, very distinctive gait, look, clothing. I took a lot of razzing that nite!

They all thought that I was crazy. Anyways, come to find out the next day, after the story goes around that I am crazy (haha, giggle giggle, funny funny)..............Larry had an identical twin brother who died in that building 10 yrs previously.

Member Chad_KY_SRNA shares:

We have a white figure that has been seen in the medicine room, sometimes the carts are moved down the hall while you are in a room giving meds, etc. One of the male CNAs reported seeing a very tall black figure going from room to room several times. We have all seen balls of light floating around. From what we have been able to gather from old pictures of the property that the nursing home is on there was a mobile home park at one end and a cemetary at the other end of the building. Everyone has seen a little boy walking around but the freakiest part was when they saw wet childrens foot prints coming down the hall and followed them to the wall and there were footprints in the snow outside that came right to that place in the wall.

Member ZASHAGALKA

We had a patient, chronic CHFer, always on the call button, hated being on fluid restrictions. you know the type: the nurses have to take turns during the shift answering the call button so the primary can actually do other work.

And this was a frequent flier cause he was very chronic, very borderline, and the hospital was the only place he wouldn't fluid overload.

I work 7p-7a. He died about 8pm. Oh the look on his face, like, "how could you let me die!" - Like it was our fault.

Anyway, family came and gone by 9pm, funeral home gone at 930pm.

About 10pm, the call button starts going off. I was there - call button going off every 5 minutes.

One of the nurses was a very spiritual girl. At about 2am, after like 4 HOURS OF THIS, nurse Mary snaps, 'Enough!'

She walks down to the room, and, practically screams into the empty room, "Mr X, you have died. You can't be in here bothering us anymore. Move along. In the name of Jesus, I'm exorcising you from this plane of existence. Go to the light and be happy!"

And I kid you not, the call button stopped going off then and there.

~faith,

Timothy.

Member gms1976:

Hi! I am a South African Nurse who is currently living and working in California. The weirdest thing happened to me one night when I was working Night Shift back in SA. I had a patient whom I thought was playing with his IV causing me no end of headaches - As we have all experienced. I eventually confronted him after having to open the clamp for what seemed like the hundredth time that night. He got really irate with me and said he had done no such thing but blamed it on a young nurse in a white dress whom he said had fiddled repeatedly with it . I was confused as while we wear specific uniforms in South Africa, they were not white at this specific hospital. Needless to say I was really irritated and I think we both ended the conversation feeling exasperated.

I didn't think about the young nurse for several weeks until one night in a totally different room with a totally different patient. The call light rang and when I went to answer it the patient said he had a problem with one of my staff. Curious, asked what. He said a young nurse in a white uniform was standing quietly in the doorway of the dark bathroom staring at him and it was freaking him out. At this my hair stood on end but I reassured him that he must have been dreaming and checked the bathroom just to be sure. There was nothing there but I will never forget it.

Another instance, there was a patient who was terminally ill with liver cancer in a private room. I was working days but the night shift people said they hated going into the room because something would blow on the back of their necks and shadows would move where shadows shouldn't be. The man was a christian, as was his wife and his wife said she saw this black prescence descend above him and his breathing would become labored. She asked myself and a friend to pray for her which we gladly did being christians ourselves. We anointed and blessed the room and prayed with the family and asked the Lord to seal the room. From that time on the room was filled with peace and love and the man breathed so much more easier. People had no more problems with going in there. This gentle little man eventually passed away, but it was in a place of peace and love.

I think I have a few more stories but I can't remember them right now as I have just gotten home from a crazy night in a wild med/surg unit and I am truly beat!

Again the above stories really only scratch the surface,  I recommend readers to go and check out all 225 (!) pages of reports from the website itself. Considering that my mother is also  a nurse, and was a hospice nurse as well for a number of years, I should really go and ask her if she too has encountered anything. What was it that these folks experienced? The actual souls of the dead? Some sort of psychic projection left on the environment?

Truthfully I can’t say. At the moment I’m leaning towards these experiences being externally created realities, rather than something internal. What the source of these encounters is anyone’s guess. I do enjoy reading these kinds of stories though. Somehow people’s ghost encounters are much more enjoyable to me than their UFO reports, or at least the garden variety “Light’s in the sky” reports. Give me humanoids any day. I’m beginning to ramble at this point.  I suppose that’s all for today, be sure to follow the link and read some more of the encounters and drop me a line via email or the comments section below if you have anything to add.

Until next time this is your friendly neighborhood Fortean Philosopher saying, “Booooooooooooo!!!!!”

Tulpas, Tibet, and the Conjuration of Philip

When it comes to possible explanations for fortean or paranormal phenomena, I always find myself fascinated by the concept of the tulpa. Tulpa is a Tibetan word that is typically rendered into English as 'thoughtform'. The idea is that someone can create from their thoughts an actually entity or phantom and give it life. Alexandra David-Neel is credited with bringing the term and concept to the Western world in her 1929 book Magic and Mystery in Tibet. David-Neel had traveled extensively around the globe and was one of the first Westerners to be allowed entrance into Tibet and their religion and culture. David-Neel relates a lot of information to the reader about Tulpas in the Tibetan belief. According to David-Neel:

“A Bodhisattva [David-Neel says this is a person that has attained a spiritual perfection that places them just below the Buddha] is the basis of countless magic forms. By the power generated in a state of perfect concentration of mind he may, at one and the same time, show a phantom (tulpa) of himself in thousands of millions of worlds. He may create not only human forms, but any forms he chooses....” (pg 121)

David-Neel continues by saying:

“The power of producing magic formations, tulkus or less lasting and materialized tulpas, does not, however, belong exclusively to such mystic exalted beings. Any human, divine or demoniac being may be possessed of it. The only difference comes from the degree of power, and this depends on the strength of the concentration and the quality of the mind itself” (pg 121)

With this in mind, I wish to take a look at a relatively modern example of the creation of a ghost named Philip. During the 1970s a group from the Toronto Society for Psychical Research, along with a Dr. A.R.G. Owen (who was a mathematician) meet in order to see if they could, in essence, create a ghost. The group was comprised of Dr. Owen, his wife, a former chairperson of Mensa, an industrial designer, an accountant, a housewife, a bookkeeper and a sociology student. Additionally a psychologist by the name of Dr. Joel Whitton would also attend some of their experiments. The original idea was that this group of people could create a ghost seemingly by meditating on the idea of him including the history of the ghost. They would then attempt to make contact with this discarnate entity through séances and gain information from it.

Here is a part of the biography for the spirit the group created in order to flesh out “Philip Aylesford”:

Philip was an aristocratic Englishman, living in the middle 1600s at the time of Oliver Cromwell. He had been a supporter of the King, and was a Catholic. He was married to a beautiful but cold and frigid wife, Dorothea, the daughter of a neighboring nobleman.

One day when out riding on the boundaries of his estates Philip came across a gypsy encampment and saw there a beautiful dark-eyed girl raven-haired gypsy girl, Margo, and fell instantly in love with her. 

He brought her back secretly to live in the gatehouse, near the stables of Diddington Manor - his family home.

For some time he kept his love-nest secret, but eventually Dorothea, realizing he was keeping someone else there, found Margo, and accused her of witchcraft and stealing her husband. 

Philip was too scared of losing his reputation and his possessions to protest at the trial of Margo, and she was convicted of witchcraft and burned at the stake.

Philip was subsequently stricken with remorse that he had not tried to defend Margo and used to pace the battlements of Diddington in despair. 

Finally, one morning his body was found at the bottom of the battlements, whence he had cast himself in a fit of agony and remorse.

One member of the group even sketched Philip's portrait

With this back story firmly in mind, the group meet weekly in order to attempt to communicate with “Philip”. As a part of their weekly meetings the group would come together and meditate on both the image of Philip and also his history. The group did this for about a year with no positive results. Some members of the group did claim during this time that they were able to sense a presence, but apparently nothing that was verifiable. The group was quite determined and rather than let the last year be for waste they decided to change up the tactics a bit. In order to have better results with conjuring Philip, the group began to replicate the séances of old.

Candle light, sitting around a table, soft music playing, the whole thing. They even had pictures of castles like the one Philip would have lived in, had he ever actually lived that is. This new method seemed to do the trick. During one of the group's séances, they began to receive communication from an entity. Through a series of rappings (reminiscent of the early Spiritualism movement) the group was able to determine that they were finally talking with Philip. The entity revealed this to the group through a series of raps. Speaking through raps, Philip continued to display his own unique attitude. This was discovered by how long Philip would pause in between answering the questions which the researchers posed to him.

The group never questioned that the entity they were in communication with was Philip because of it's lack of knowledge on many topics. It seems that Philip only knew the answers to questions that someone in the group knew the answer to. If they would ask him a question that the group didn't know the answer to he would be unable to answer. While the Q & A portion of Philip's ability might have been lacking, he completely made up for this shortcoming with his very clear psychokinetic abilities. Overtime as the séances continued, the group discovered that Philip was able to move the rapping table. Often, Philip would even cause the table to rush over to people that were late to the weekly meetings.

The height of the Philip saga came when the group set out to perform one of their weekly séances in front of an audience made up of 50 people or so. Additionally a TV film crew was brought in to record the séance as part of a documentary. Unlike most paranormal phenomena, Philip actually seemed to enjoy the spotlight. The rappings and psychokinetic feats were on display for all the audience to see. At one point during the séance the group was even able to get the entire table to levitate a few inches off of the ground. Sadly, because of the dim lighting that was required as a part of the séance the film crew was unable to record this for posterity. Only a part of the documentary seems to be online and you can check out the few minutes of it that exist here.

Although the groups main objective of having Philip physically materialize (not unlike Rosalie), they were overall satisfied with the results of their experiments. So much so that after their success with Philip, the Toronto Society for Psychical Research went on to conjure other ghosts with similar apparent success. In one instance, using a different group of people, they were able to conjure a new spirit which was called “Lilith”. A few other groups are supposed to have been able to successfully recreate this experiment as well, but finding information on those incidents is rather difficult.

At the end of the day it's hard to say what it was that was actually occurring in this situation. It certainly seems to fit in with the concept of the tulpa, especially as explained by David-Neel in her classic work on the topic. I only wish that more of the documentary existed so that it could be scene. Ostensibly, if this experiment was truly as easy as the group proclaimed I suppose that anyone could conceivably do this at home. Before you do decide to go through with this and conjure your own ghost, I feel I must leave you with a parting warning from David-Neel:

“.....the practice is considered as fraught with danger for everyone who …. is not aware of the nature of the psychic forces at work in the process. Once the tulpa is endowed with enough vitality to be capable of playing the part of a real being, it tends to free itself from its maker's control.....Sometimes the phantom becomes a rebellious son and one hears of uncanny struggles that have taken place between magicians and their creatures, the former being severely hurt or even killed by the latter.” (pg 313)

Sources and further reading:

About.com article

Unexplained Mysteries thread

Stranger Dimensions article

Conjuring up Philip by Iris Owen (part of the original group that summoned Philip)

Harry Price and the Materialization of Rosalie

In parapsychological research perhaps no phenomenon is more elusive, and most highly debated, than the actual manifestation of a ghost or spirit. While reading through my recently acquired copy of Brad Steiger's Real Ghosts, Restless Spirits, and Haunted Places I came across a fascinating account of a materialization of a child's ghost that was witnessed and investigated by famed British author and Psychic researcher Harry Price. Price wrote about the events that led up to his coming into contact with Rosalie in his 1939 book Fifty years of Psychical Research. The story that follows is interesting but, like most of the paranormal, is highly controversial. I'll leave it for you to decide what happened that night. Steiger tells us the following:

On December 8, 1937, Harry Price had just concluded a radio broadcast regarding psychic phenomena when a listener contacted him with an interesting revelation. Price was informed that the listener regularly participates in a family séance that was held every Wednesday evening, at which the family materialized the spirit of a child. (pg 234)

Harry Price, Psychical Researcher

Price was offered the opportunity to come and witness one of these weekly investigations on some conditions; according to Price in Fifty years in Psychical Research:

Of course, there were conditions, which I anticipated. But I was genuinely astonished at the simple rules to which I was asked to adhere. In the first place, if I accepted the invitation to attend a séance, I was to promise not to reveal the identity of any of the sitters, or the locality where the séance was held. I could write an account of the séance giving my candid views of it, provided I mentioned no names.

If I were impressed with the proceedings, I was 'not to seek a scientific inquiry', as the mother of 'Rosalie,' who attended each sitting, was 'terrified that her girl might be frightened away.' These Wednesday meetings were in the nature of a sacred communion with the spirit of her daughter, and would be maintained as such.

I was not to bring to the séance any light (such as a torch); I was not to speak to or touch the materialization without permission, and I was not to do anything, or make any experiment, without the sitters' consent. I would not be asked to sign any document embodying these arrangements: it was to be a 'gentlemen's agreement.'

As a part of the conditions, Price would be allowed to fully search the room and home where the séance was to be held. In his own words Price says:

I would be allowed full control of the room and the sitters up to the beginning of the séance. I could search the house from top to bottom, seal all external windows and doors, search the séance room (the drawing-room), all doors and windows of which I could lock and seal,

I could move - or remove - any furniture, ornaments, etc., from the séance room which I thought fit, I could control the room to the extent of sprinkling powdered starch or other substance round doors or windows, or place electrical contacts there (she admitted that she had gathered that this was what I did, from my broadcast from the 'haunted house'),

I could search the sitters or any person in the house immediately before or after the séance.

Price agreed and set a date in which to come see the events of the séance firsthand. When he arrived at the location, Price was given a little more background information about the child's spirit that was going to be manifested. Apparently the child was a little girl named Rosalie. Rosalie had died in 1920 from a case of diphtheria. In his notes, Price simply referred to the mother as a 'Madame Z'. In addition to the background on the child, Price was given some information detailing the circumstances by which the weekly séance began. Price notes:

In the spring of 1925 - according to my hostess - Madame Z. was awakened during the night by the sound of her dead girl's voice crying 'mother.' This occurred so frequently that Madame Z. got into the habit of lying awake at night, waiting for the 'voice.' Gradually, she thought she could see (in the dark) the dim outline of 'Rosalie' and hear her footsteps in the room. Finally, the mother declared, one night she put her arm out of bed and her hand was clasped by that of her little girl.

The séance began sometime after dinner. However it wasn't until around 10 pm that something started to happen. Madame Z suddenly said that she felt the presence of Rosalie that she was here. Rosalie's mother began weeping and sobbing. Price, meanwhile, relates that he heard nor saw anything though he did report smelling something. In fact Price says:

At the same moment I, too, realized that there was something quite close to me. I neither heard nor saw anything, but the sensation was an olfactory one - I seemed to smell something that was not there previously. It was a strange, not unpleasant smell.

Smells aside, Price seemed to infer that Rosalie had made her appearance. Finally curiosity perhaps getting the best of him, Price requested permission to touch Rosalie. According to Price:

Permission was given, and I stretched out my left arm and, to my amazement, it came in contact with, apparently, the nude figure of a little girl, aged about six years. I slowly passed my hand across her chest up to her chin and cheeks. Her flesh felt warm, though (and this may have been imagination) not so warm as one would expect to find normal human flesh. I laid the back of my left hand on her right cheek: it felt soft and warm and I could distinctly hear her breathing. I then placed my hand on her chest again and could feel the respiratory movements.

Going further:

There are no words to express how I felt at the appearance of the form before me - or rather to the left of me. A supreme scientific interest, with a feeling of absolute incredulity, would best describe my reactions. I had not bargained for anything so wonderful (or so clever!) as this.

But if I had been tricked, so had the mother, and that was unthinkable. She, at least, was not acting a part. I asked whether I could hold 'Rosalie.' I was told that I could move my chair nearer to the child and this I did. I was now able to use both hands and again felt every inch of that little form.

If it is a spirit - I argued to myself - then there is no difference between a spirit and a human being. With my right hand, I lifted 'Rosalie's' right arm and felt her pulse. It appeared to be too quick and I estimated a rate of 90 to the minute. I put my ear to her chest and could distinctly hear her heart beating.

I then took both her hands and asked X., his daughter, and Jim to speak in order to prove their presence in their respective seats. They did so. I knew that Madame Z. and Mrs. X. were on either side of me, as I had only to put out my hand to touch them.

After time spent investigating the fact that the materialized child was, at least apparently, flesh and blood, Price didn't want to miss the opportunity to speak with what could very well be an ambassador of the spirit world. So he set about to ask her some questions that he felt could give him some more information about where she came from and what 'life' was like where she resided. Price lists the questions and answers, or lack thereof, in his book as:

'Where do you live, Rosalie?' (No answer.)
'What do you do there?' (No answer.)
'Do you play with other children?' (No answer.)
'Have you any toys there?' (No answer.)
'Are there any animal pets?' (No answer.)

The only question that Rosalie was willing, or perhaps able, to answer was whether or not she loved her mother to which she replied in the affirmative. Not long after the Q & A session had ended, Rosalie began to slowly dematerialize and finally disappeared back to whatever realm she had first come from. A mere two hours after returning home wrote notes on the events that had occurred that night. He concluded with the following paragraph that shows what his opinion on the preceding events was. It reads as follows:

I feel I have not done justice in this report to the amazing events of last night, and I am still wondering if 'Rosalie' was a genuine spirit entity, or whether the whole thing was an elaborate hoax. If the latter, then the 'hoax' has been going on for years and no actress in the world could simulate Madame Z.'s poignant emotion.

And where did the 'spirit' come from? These are questions which I shall have to think about, and answer. If I had witnessed the materialization of 'Rosalie' in my own laboratory, I should not hesitate to proclaim to an incredulous world that survival was proved. It is possible - though very doubtful - that last night's historic (as far as I am concerned) séance may be repeated under better conditions in a laboratory. But Madame Z. is convinced that 'Rosalie would be frightened away.'

The sitting I have just attended is at least distinguished by the complete absence of blasphemous humbug and hymn-singing, which characterize so many pseudo-spiritualist séances run by rogues for profit. Looking at it in retrospect, I can think of several things I ought to have done that I did not do, and one of these is the taking of 'Rosalie's' finger-prints.

I had ample opportunity, but no materials. Another thing I might have done was to have ascertained who the 'medium' was. Madame Z. herself denies that she is mediumistic, but I can think of no one else. Apparently, there was no medium.

I have to say that, all things considered, Price maintains a fair amount of skepticism over what he experienced. I'm not so sure that I would have been able to retain such skepticism after what Price had witnessed. Steiger notes that after Price refused to divulge the information about the identities of those involved in the séance, his already tarnished reputation within the psychical research field was hurt even more. Investigators not only wanted to know who the séance members were, they also wished to perform their own investigations. But Price was nothing if not a man of his word and so, as far as I've been able to determine, the identities have remained a mystery. Let me know what you think of this story, and be sure to follow the links below for more information, including a link to the entire chapter of Price's book that was devoted to the case of Rosalie.

Further Reading:

Rosalie Chapter of Fifty years of Psychical Research

Harry Price website