Satan Summoned by Stone? England’s Ancient Demonic Rocks, Lore & Legends

​The Devil, Probably?

In England, there’s a plethora of ancient stones associated with the Devil - and in many cases with related lore in how to summon him in. Here are just a few of them.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys & Girls, Angels & Imps, I give you... England’s Satanic Stones. This one, a mere 5 minutes by motor vehicle from my abode.

The Devil’s Boot (Soulbury, Buckinghamshire)

Not a summoning place, as such, but worth a mention; a glacial chunk of 300-million-year-old carboniferous limestone deposited from the Peak District some 450,000 years ago. Oliver Cromwell has speechified from it, tanks during WWII tried to dislodge it and boy racers have pranged it, but the Boot abides on its hillside vigil. Come the stroke of midnight and the chime of the bells at Soulbury’s All Saints Church every evening though, the object rolls down the hill to face The Boot Inn public house - and presumably then swiftly returns to its original site. Therein lies a tale. The ‘Boot’ is in fact the Devil’s Hoof, sheared off by irate Soulbury villagers after Old Nick tried to trash the church.

The Blood Stone (Wiltshire)

Near the ancient battlefield of Edington (Alfred the Great vs Guthrum’s Danes, 878 AD) in Wiltshire is The Blood Stone. This from The Witchery Arts:

“One of the smallest and most overlooked of these sites is the Blood Stone, situated in the center of a sheep infested valley between Westbury White Horse Hill and Picket Hill in Bratton, on the edge of Salisbury Plain.

The stone itself is about three feet across, two feet high and a dark, scabby red in colour. It’s said that the stone was one of those used by King Alfred’s men as a block upon which to behead Danish prisoners of war after the Battle of Ethendune of AD 878, which is how it is supposed to have got its particular shade. There are even paired indentations in the surface of the rock, which look uncannily like the marks left by a pair of front teeth.

There is archeological evidence to suggest that it really is an ancient execution site since a large pile of headless skeletons, dated to around that time, were excavated from the nearby watercress beds at the bottom of the valley in the 1970s. The skulls were found a half mile away, buried upside-down, apparently according to the Saxon tradition that if a soul escaped through the top of the head it could be thus trapped into heading straight down into the bowels of the Earth.”

The 'blood stains' are actually Iron Oxide traces. Apparently.

​The Devil's Stone (Kent)

The Devil’s Stone is noted for what appears to be a cloven strange footmark indented in it. The Devil, who so annoyed by the sound of Newington-next-Sittingbourne’s church bells, climbed the steeple with a bag over his shoulder, and nicked them.

As the fiend leapt from the tower, he slipped, and his foot hit the stone, the bells rolling out of the bag and into the nearby Libbet Stream. As a result, the well was said to continuously bubble, and bizarrely, the stone is also said to sparkle when hit. Another version of the legend blames the church wardens, who decided to sell the great bell of the church to pay for the repair of the remaining bells. Under the cover of darkness, the bell was drawn up to the roof of the bell tower in order that it could be lowered from outside. The Devil appeared, and seized it. The church wardens, after seeing that Old Nick had gone, attempted to remove the bell with grappling irons and ropes. At first, they had great success at raising the bell to the surface, but the rope broke and down went the bell! Again, they tried and again they failed. In both versions, a local witch arrived and told them that the only way in which the bell could be raised is by drawing it up by four pure white oxen. This was done, and it was almost raised to the surface until a local urchin, who was passing, shouted out at the top of his voice, 'Look at the black spot behind that bull's ear'. The rope instantly broke, and the bell was lost forever!

The Devil’s Stone in Crook (County Durham)

You must run around it seven times anticlockwise at midnight, sometimes with added, much darker rituals.

​The stone is an erratic glacial, beginning in the Lake District more than 10,000 years ago during the last Ice Age. A glacier moved it 60 miles east and dropped it on the edge of the Durham market town of Crook. It is now made up of three large lumps of igneous rock after someone blew it up looking for a diamond reputed to be hidden inside.

Chanctonbury Ring (Sussex): Run round this prehistoric ring fort three or seven times backward or naked and the devil will appear and offer a bowl of soup or porridge for your soul. Nice deal.

​The Witch's Stone (Westleton, Suffolk)

Place a handkerchief or piece of straw in the grating beside the chancel door and (using the Witch’s Stone) as a base – run around the church three or seven times widdershins (or counter-clockwise) without looking at the grating; once back at the Witch’s Stone, the item in the grating will be gone and the eerie rattling of the Devil’s chains can heard from the church crypt. Cool. I guess.

​The Devil's Chair, Avebury (Wiltshire)

The Devil’s Chair

​JimChampion, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

L​egend says that if you run around this megalithic stone at Avebury Henge one hundred times, the Devil will pop up for a chat.

​In an original ceremony devised by Philip Shallcrass of the British Druid Order in 1993, pagans assemble and divide into two groups, one the God party and the other the Goddess party. Those with the Goddess party go to the Devil's Chair, where a woman representing the spirit guardian of the site is a vessel for the voice of the Goddess.

Avebury in fiction:

​Children of the Stones (1977) - full series

The Devil’s Den (Avebury)

​A dolmen burial chamber, part of a Neolithic passage grave on Fyfield Down.

A local tradition says if water was poured into hollows on the capstone, Satan would come in the night and slurp it. Super.

The Devil's Arrows (North Yorkshire)

Two of the Devil's Arrows

​Two of the Devil's Arrows by Gordon Hatton, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

​These millennia-old standing stones in North Yorkshire are the second tallest in the United Kingdom, after the Rudston Monolith.

The common Dark Age belief was that the Devil was shooting or throwing arrows from a neighbouring hill at the Christian settlement of Aldborough nearby, but he fell short of his target. Human sacrifices were supposedly conducted on the top of the stones, where the bodies were left to rot.

​​The Devil's Ring and Finger (Staffordshire)

​Some posit this Neolithic pile as a Druid’s altar within a sacred grove, the circular Ring Stone an altar piece for the Sun God, who represented the power of life, of good, of increase, and the Finger representing the Serpent God, which represented evil and death - in other words Satan, to later inhabitants. The Ring Stone’s porthole, is large enough for a person to climb through, or be passed through, to increase fertility. Or is it a portal to another dimension? Faerie perhaps?​

The Devil's Quoits (Oxfordshire)

​The Devil's Quoits are located in Oxfordshire, Neolithic henge and stone circle near the village of Stanton Harcourt. Folklore says the Devil threw large stones from Wytham Hill, some 8 miles away, during a game of quoits with a beggar for his soul. The beggar lost.

In a different version, Satan was actually playing solo on a Sunday and was b*llocked by God for playing games on His Holy Day. Understandably, a frustrated Old Nick threw his huge stones down in a hissy fit at Stanton Harcourt.

Traditionally, the stones were thought to resist being moved; one story tells of a stone moved to make a bridge that would not stay in place. In fact, the henge has been disturbed many times in recent history. The stone circle originally featured 36 stones, some removed during the medieval period (used as building materials); during WWII, the site was levelled for an airfield. More recently, there have been efforts to restore the henge; the remaining stones being re-erected, missing stones replaced with modern blocks, and the earthworks surrounding the circle re-dug between 2002 and 2008. So a tad ersatz then.

The Devil's Stone (Shebbear, Devon)

The stone is rolled over every November 5th to "turn the Devil away" and prevent the next year's crops failing. Also, if the stone is NOT overturned, Satan will the appear. The Shebbear Yeomanry has yet to try leaving the stone unrolled as a test, local parish records show.

​​The Nine Stones, Winterbourne Abbas (Dorset)

These sarsen stones were erected in the Bronze Age; legend claims they were the Devil, his wife, and his children and cannot be counted; others say they had once been children who were turned to stone as punishment for playing ‘Five-Stones’ on a Sunday. A bit severe.

​In 2007, the Dolmen Grove Druids claimed they’ve had to confront individuals hurling abuse at them as they performed their rituals at the Nine Stones.

The Devil’s Toenail (Bedfordshire)

​This Neolithic stone (10,000 to 4,500 BC) marks the spot where the Devil joined some local kids who were defying the sabbath by enjoying a cheeky game of leapfrog. Satan merrily participated in their game, then opened a hole in the ground into which they were cast and never seen again.

20 minutes or so from my dwelling.

Roche Rock (Cornwall)

Roche Rock

​Roche Rock by Chris Gunns, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

I’ve been to Cornwall’s chapel of St Michael at Roche Rock, mainly I admit from curiosity to see the location for one of the doomed killer monks attempts on Damien’s life in 1981’s Omen III: The Final Conflict than anything else.

The Chapel in Omen III: The Final Conflict (1981)

​Roche Rock features in Cornish myth; the ruined chapel that we see today was built more than 600 years ago in 1409 by the wealthy Tregarrick family. The last resident of Roche Rock is said to have been Sir John Tregarrick who hid himself there for many years after contracting leprosy. His only visitor was his daughter who brought him food and fresh water from a nearby well. 17th century magistrate Jan Tregeagle’s evil spirit was set to roam the wilds of Cornwall pursued by Satan’s demons. Tregeagle sought sanctuary in the chapel’s holy ground, but only managed to get his head stuck in the east window, with his body dangling outside to be welted by the Devil’s eager helpers. On a stormy night you can still hear the howls and tortured screams of cornered Tregeagle on the wind.

​In the time of King Arthur, it was said to have been the base of hermit/holy man Ogrin. Ogrin helped the famous star-crossed lovers Tristan and Isolde in their attempted escape from an enraged King Mark, hiding the couple with him on the rock.

​Devil's Chimney (Gloucestershire)

The Devil, cheesed off by the many Christian chapels in the area, took to perching on Leckhampton Hill, mocking and hurling rocks at those who attended church on a Sunday. But the treacherous, turncoat rocks rebelled and drove Satan back beneath the ground, preventing him from harassing the pious villagers any further.

The mass of stones then formed a chimney to hell - as can be seen by tendrils of smoke that waft from the structure at night. Visitors still leave a coin among the stones, to protect them from the wrath of the Devil.

​The Devil's Lapstone (Durham)

The Devil himself offered to help build Durham Cathedral but with the wicked intention of constructing foundations of such crumbly rock, the building would soon collapse, killing anyone inside. Naughty Satan.

Lucifer would fly up and down the length of the River Dene, collecting stones for the cathedral, but one day, his leather apron snapped and the stone within plummeted to earth. The Devil snatched at it, trying to catch it again and again, leaving deep scratches and Satanic blood in the rock. If you ever see the Devil’s Lapstone, take a close look, as you can still see the rents and blood left by The Horned One in his fury.

LINKS:

​The Blood Stone at Luccombe: https://www.gothichorrorstories.com/journal/folk-horror-from-wiltshire-the-blood-stone-at-luccombe-spring-starving-out-the-vikings-at-bratton-camp-the-white-horse-of-westbury-and-the-nature-of-folklore/

​The Devil’s Boulder: https://www.shebbearvillage.co.uk/people/the-devils-stone/

​Soulbury Stone: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-36024009

​Sitting in The Devil’s Chair: https://marywoodenglandandireland2015.wordpress.com/2015/05/29/sitting-in-the-devils-chair-erasure-of-ancient-culture-and-fear-of-the-other/

​Devil's Toenail: Bedfordshire's frightening version of Stonehenge: https://www.bedfordshirelive.co.uk/news/history/devils-toenail-bedfordshires-frightening-version-5808785

​Ritual Protection Marks & Ritual Practices - The Devil’s Stone: https://ritualprotectionmarks.com/2022/10/31/a-chill-tale-for-halloween-the-legend-of-the-devils-stone/

​The Devil's Den and Fyfield Down: https://www.hiddenwiltshire.com/post/the-devil-s-den-and-fyfield-down

​The Devil in Westleton: The Westleton Witch’s Stone: https://withthefaeries.wordpress.com/2022/11/27/the-devil-in-westleton-the-westleton-witchs-stone/

The British Druid Order: https://web.archive.org/web/20120808075032/http://www.druidry.co.uk/bdocaerabiri.html

​The Devil’s Ring and Finger: https://thehistorydetective.org/2019/02/15/the-devils-ring-and-finger/

​The Devil's Quoits: https://www.darkoxfordshire.co.uk/explore/the-devils-quoits/

​Pagans suffer ritual abuse: https://www.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/1267293.Pagans_suffer_ritual_abuse/

​The Nine Stones of Winterbourne Abbas: https://shows.acast.com/dark-darzet/episodes/the-nine-stones-of-winterbourne-abbas

​Devil's Lapstone: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/devils-lapstone

​Roche Rock: https://www.cornwalls.co.uk/st-austell/roche-rock

​A tale of rocks and rogues: https://www.boltholeretreats.co.uk/blog/a-tale-of-rocks-and-rogues/#

​Why not visit the enigma of the Devil's chimney: https://www.bbc.co.uk/gloucestershire/content/articles/2005/06/17/devils_chimney_feature.shtml

​A look at devil-lore in Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire: https://www.greatbritishlife.co.uk/magazines/cotswold/24329332.look-devil-lore-gloucestershire-oxfordshire/

STEPHEN ARNELL’S NOVEL THE GREAT ONE IS AVAILABLE ON AMAZON KINDLE NOW:

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When Liz Met Fred

Introduction

​I was fortunate to meet dedicated Spiritualists Fred and Liz Welling in the mid 2000s during my newfound spiritual church travels in Adelaide, South Australia. As a non-religious and non-churchgoing woman, I felt like a bit of a misfit but my new partner was an evidential medium who decided to resume public demonstrations in local spiritual churches and community halls, so I trotted around with him and learned a lot along the way. Curiously, the spiritualist community was frowned upon by certain mainstream religious institutions, some going as far as calling it a devil worshipping cult. This made me laugh because the spiritualist churches and halls were just friendly gathering places for people from all walks of life who were looking for solace, healing, friendship and perhaps a message from a loved one in spirit or psychic guidance about their personal circumstances. No harm in that. For some reason, the spiritualist churches also attracted many ex-Catholics but I never got around to asking why.

Fred and Liz Welling (Photo courtesy of Liz)

​By that stage, I had read books about exceptional mediums over the years but had only experienced one sitting with a Sydney based medium who was recommended to me. Disappointingly, she was clearly under developed, made things up as she went along and was more interested in selling me her potions on the way out. But when I met my former partner at a spiritual development group, I was floored by his on-target, specific, accurate messages from loved ones in spirit. I’m not talking about psychic impressions, predictions, generalisations or snippets of ‘possible’ messages. I am talking about detailed, evidential and relevant messages that also gifted me with profound healing and renewed strength in the process. He described himself as being ‘just a postman for spirit’ and gave exactly what he heard, felt and was shown.

Evidential medium Fred Welling had been a significant mentor to my former partner, especially in his earlier days when he became a popular demonstrator in the spiritual churches - until spirit temporarily ‘sanctioned’ his mediumship gift when his ego ran away from him. He credited Fred for teaching him to put his mediumship and ego aside, and focus on personal development and the vital facets of mediumship development that too many ‘pop-up’ mediums seem to bypass in their quest for fame these days. This phenomenon has increased exponentially with the rise of the internet.

After moving on from that particular life chapter in 2013, I took a break from the spirit world for a few years and started helping out chief editor Jock Brocas with his Afterlife Magazine. In 2020, I contacted Liz to see if she and Fred were interested in sharing some of their personal spiritual experiences and we eventually published two articles. Brocas later decided to integrate the Afterlife Magazine with Paranormal Daily News, and some of the articles were republished, including Fred Wellings’ engaging story: How a Ghost Inspired a Profound Spiritual Journey. More recently, I decided to republish the Still Here: Our Near Death Experiences article. This time, I thought it best to check in with Liz and Fred to see if they were both still here, given that Fred was grappling with health issues in 2020.

Farewell to an exceptional medium

Sadly, Liz informed me that Fred died in August, 2025 after spending his last ten months of life in a nursing home when it became hard for him to walk. She also shared that she had received a message in one of the churches that Fred had not “been around” much as he was busy trying to sort out problems on the other side. They worked out that he is continuing his spiritual work with souls who have passed into the spiritual world but don’t realize that they are “dead”, and is helping them settle into their new lives. I was not surprised to hear this because Fred was such a helpful, generous and compassionate soul during his earthly life, not to mention an exceptional evidential medium.

Liz kindly agreed share her more recent experiences with the PDN community and honour the memory of her dearly loved and dearly missed husband. The rest of this article is comprised of a collection of anecdotes written by both Liz and Fred Welling, starting with Fred’s passing and an “out of this world” surprise for Liz.

Fred Welling (Image courtesy of Liz Welling)

They are as Close as Our Next Breath

Written by Liz Welling

When Fred was about 81 years of age, he was diagnosed with a large aneurysm leading down to his kidney. The hospital decided to monitor the growth of this aneurysm and within two years it had grown to the extent that surgery was recommended.

My husband elected not to proceed with the surgery for fear of major complications. For the next eight years we lived with a ticking time bomb knowing that the aneurysm could burst at any time and that death would be fast and painful.

However, we continued our life of Service to Spirit. Fred was the evidential medium and I accompanied him on the platform giving the talk. We worked as a team. Fred had been a Spiritualist all his life. He demonstrated on platforms in England before coming to live in Australia and was passionate about letting people know that their loved ones lived on beyond what we call “death”. He used to say that they are “as close to us as our next breath”.

There came a time when Fred’s health declined dramatically and he went to live in a nursing home at Morphettville. Luckily it was close by and I was able to visit him, usually six times a week. Fred and I had done everything together for 33 years and both felt as though part of us was missing when we had to live apart.

In April 2025, Fred was admitted to hospital on three occasions and I had to use the “do not resuscitate” order that Fred had set in motion. On each occasion, Fred was discharged and returned by ambulance to the Morphettville nursing home.

On 31 August 2025, I visited Fred at lunchtime and then proceeded to St John’s Spiritual Church for their afternoon service. When I pulled into the carport at home, my phone started ringing and I received a message that Fred was being sent by ambulance to hospital as he was in pain. I was told not to follow the ambulance. The doctor would ring from hospital and advise me of the situation. Being very worried, I tried at least three times to get through to the hospital but the phone in Emergency was continually engaged. I went to the toilet and of course the doctor rang in this time frame but did not leave a message. He contacted my daughter who let me know that she had been contacted as I was unavailable, and that we were to go to the hospital immediately.

I travelled there by taxi, silently saying, “Fred, Tanya and I are on our way. It would be good if you can wait until we get there before leaving your body but if not, then that’s okay but we’re on our way. I love you.”

When we arrived, I was taken into a small room and asked to wait as there was a commotion in emergency. I asked if Fred was dead and they said, “No, you’ll be with him in a few minutes." When I saw Fred, a very caring doctor was holding his hand and his head. The aneurysm had burst and he had been given fentanyl for the severe pain. I looked into my husband’s eyes and said, “When you see the light, to go to it,” and then continued, “but you already know that don’t you! I’m preaching to the converted, sorry about that!” Then my daughter entered the room and held his hand.

Fred was unable to speak but the awareness in his eyes told me that he knew we were there. There was no great fanfare. All was calm in the room. I was not aware of any spirit friends or loved ones being present and Fred was unable to speak.

Within 10 minutes, my daughter noticed that he was not breathing. He had passed to the “other side” where he knew his parents and first wife would be waiting for him. Fred’s body was moved to another room and we were allowed to remain there for the next two hours. His other daughter who had further to drive, arrived during this time frame and sat with us. We talked. We laughed. We cried. The love in the room was powerful.

The following day I went to the nursing home and several of the staff were in tears. Fred had been a favourite resident as he was so grateful for the attention he received and would often call the staff “Angels” and thank them for helping him. The nurse had been stunned to have received the report from the hospital as she was expecting a fourth discharge notice, but not this time!

The Celebration of Fred’s Life Service was going to be family only. However, as news of his physical death circulated we ended up having about 80 people at the service which went for over 90 minutes and concluded with a beautiful ceremony from the Freemasons.

Fred and I had not arranged for any specific message to be relayed to me from a medium as he said he would always come direct to me when there was a need. However, I knew that he was keen to explore his new surroundings and that there would be many people there to greet him. I miss him dearly and in the early weeks, would sometimes “roar” with grief. There had also been no direct contact from Fred to me.

Proof of Love Beyond Death

On the third Monday before Christmas 2025, I went to a meditation group at Brighton. This was their Christmas break up. I returned home, feeling numb and still unable to comprehend that Fred was no longer physically on earth. It was and still is, surreal.

The next day I went up to my car, opened the door and was most annoyed to find that there was a mess on the passenger seat cover. There appeared to be a handful of “dead flowers” which I scooped up and threw in the rubbish bin. The car door had been locked all night and all the windows were in the upright position. Obviously no one had gained entrance. So what was going on? No logical explanation.

I was walking back to the front door of the unit when I suddenly stopped in my tracks and the word “apport” flashed into my mind. A friend had received an apport from her family member many years ago and told us about it. I upended the rubbish bin and was able to retrieve about a tiny fingernail full of what I considered to be a “mess” from the bin.

It turned out to be a very delicately formed group of dried buds. I took them inside and spread them out on paper so that I could take a photograph. The photos in this article do not do the colour justice as they were a colour and a flower that is not seen on earth. I sent a copy to a close friend of mine from Elizabeth Spiritualist Church and she agreed that, without any other explanation, (NOE) it had to be an apport from Fred showing his love.

She agreed that what I had received was not from this world but transported by love and energy across time and space. A direct way to show that love continues beyond the veil.

As an aside: I had to throw away the seat cover as I could not get the upright part of the cover clean. Tiny particles of the “apport” had embedded themselves into the cover. In retrospect, I wish I had kept that seat cover!

Flower buds that Liz originally discovered on the passenger car seat. (Images courtesy of Liz)

Editor’s Note: More than 70 apports were received in total during the Scole Experimental sessions (1993-1998). An apport (from the French apporter, ‘to bring’), is a physical object which appears in a room or other enclosed space into which orthodox entry is impossible. This implies that the apport has had to pass through matter. The Scole Group reported that the arrival of an apport was announced by the sound of a loud thud, either on the floor or on the table. (Source: The Scole Experiment)

Further research has also been done to locate this flower bud species on earth. At the time of writing, we are still looking. If you find ane exact match, please let us know in the comments.

---

When Fred Met Liz

Written by Fred and Liz Welling

Fred Welling was in his late 20s and living in Shirley, Southampton UK when his first wife Doreen needed major surgery. Fred signed the papers to authorize it, as the alternative was death. Sadly, Doreen died on the operating table and for many decades, Fred felt responsible for her death because he signed the consent forms.

Even though Fred had been born into a spiritually aware family, in the midst of his grief he demanded that God prove and let him know if there really was life beyond death. He spoke to a Methodist Church Minister where he had been a young choir boy and asked if he KNEW that there was life beyond the physical but the response was: Just believe. Have faith and just believe. Naturally, that did not satisfy Fred’s inquiring mind, so he visited a Spiritualist Church seeking answers.

One afternoon, a medium on the church platform was an old lady who was almost blind. Fred sat at the back of the church, and despite not being able to see him, she singled him out and gave incredible details of his relationship with Doreen – information that was known only to Fred. She also emphasized that Doreen did not hold him responsible for her death and that it was simply her time to leave the physical world.

Fred later remarried (another Doreen). She had a 4 year old daughter named Patricia, whom Fred adopted. Doreen and Fred were also blessed with another daughter, Barbara, and the family migrated to Australia in 1969. They lived in Sydney, New South Wales before moving to a home in Hope Valley, Adelaide, South Australia and not long after that, they found a Spiritualist Church in the northern suburb of Elizabeth.

Some years later, the family had been enjoying a day at the beach and whilst driving home, Fred started to feel dizzy and unwell. He managed to open the car door and enter the house, and intended to go straight to bed but the next thing he knew, the floor came up to meet him and he passed out.

Fred found himself in a tunnel and at the end of the tunnel, two beings of light informed that it was not his time and that he had to return. The love h felt was so incredible and unconditional that Fred fell to his knees, pleading with them to stay but they insisted that his family still needed him in the physical world and he was sent back. He awoke and went to bed and slept for 12 hours – something he had never done before nor since.

The next day, Fred remembered his demand to God that he be given proof of life beyond the physical realm. In a dramatic way, God had answered his demand and Fred was very grateful that he was able to drive home safely before having the experience.

In 1987, Fred and a friend visited the library where Liz worked as a chief librarian. They inquired about the possibility of doing a display on crystals for his friend’s son who was completing a Duke of Edinburgh award. The library had just been extended and Liz was delighted to have an instant display that could tie in with their books about crystals.

After that she began to see Fred around Adelaide in various meditation groups and they started going out together in 1992. At that stage, she had just started giving talks in local spiritualist churches and given that Fred was a medium, she asked him if he would team up with her to give mediumship demonstrations. That marked the beginning of a long and spirited journey, and they married in October, 1995.

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Roar of Death – Maleny 2001

Written by Fred and Liz Welling

It was the Sunday after 9/11 and Fred and Liz were attending a service at the White Eagle Lodge, Maleny Queensland. Ivan Cooke, the Grandson of Grace Cooke (who channeled White Eagle) was present and had just led a beautiful Opening Prayer.

Suddenly there was an almighty roar and Fred collapsed forward in his chair. The next thing he remembers was sitting in the chair, which had been carried with him in it, to the kitchen. He was surrounded by several concerned women and a bucket of water that had been collected from his body.

People in The Temple were commenting that it was a “heart attack”. Hoping that Fred could hear at some level, Liz assured them that his heart was strong and healthy, as it had been checked before they left Adelaide.

He was taken by ambulance to the Maleny Hospital where he was given a heart check and his records from Adelaide were sent to the hospital. The Doctor diagnosed “dehydration” and explained that the almighty roar was the sound made by some people at the actual moment of death. He said Fred had come as close to death as possible without actually dying.

The roar sound was very different from the death rattle Fred was familiar with from hospice work and he commented that this time, there was no welcoming tunnel or Beings of Light.

Liz Welling also had a Near Death Experience (NDE) about 35 years before, and her recollection also involved the widely documented tunnel of white light. As she floated along the tunnel, Liz telepathically heard the voices of her parents’ friends and then two Beings of Light, who clairaudientIy said: Your children are too young. You must go back. She awoke in intense pain and her young children phoned a doctor who came to the home and injected her with pethidine.

---

Not Without Fred

Written by Liz Welling

In July 2016, Fred and Liz attended a retreat led by Gay Robinson and Lyn Edwards at The White Eagle Lodge, Maleny, in Queensland’s Sunshine Coast hinterland. Maleny is situated on the southern edge of the Blackall Range with spectacular views across to the Sunshine Coast and Glass House Mountains.

Each day at the retreat there was an hour’s ‘cellular meditation’ starting at 8.00am, followed by breakfast, a talk and another one-hour meditation. During the retreat, I had three incredible experiences:

1. Wednesday 5 July, 2016 – Meditation led by Gay

The meditation format included a short track of quiet music, a guided journey to the higher realms of light, silence, quiet music and return to everyday awareness. There was no debriefing but the retreat participants were instructed to return silently to their rooms and not to speak for an hour until lunch time.

Following Gay’s initial guidance, she saw wild flowers in her meditation, including daffodils, primroses and snow drops but for some reason, she found it hard to enter the Pool of Healing. The pool was pink with floating pink lotus flowers.

They were asked to look for elementals (nature spirits) and she saw a tiny round light which is the sylph or zephyr elemental of air. Struggling to follow the meditation, she decided to use the Eagle from her previous day’s meditation and followed it into the higher realms. Then, a spinning vortex/tunnel of beautiful purple/pink amethyst energy formed.

A spirit being manifested at the end of it and she heard an inner voice telepathically ask, “Do you want to come?” Very quiet, yet powerful and loving.

Instantly, she replied: “Not without Fred” and the Being of Light and the amethyst tunnel vanished.

Intense, sharp pain immediately hit her upper transverse colon and she had to move away from the group to sit on some carpeted stairs. She writhed in agony until the meditation finished and the stabbing pain continued. She tried to use the Golden Light of The Christ Consciousness – the Golden One – for healing but still the pain intensified. Tears of pain streamed down her face.

At the end of the meditation and final music track, she tried to stand up to return to her room, but was bent over double in pain. Gay realised something was wrong and asked what happened.

“I have to tell Fred first,” she replied. The three of them went back to the bedroom leaving the other nine members of the group wondering what had taken place. She dissolved into more tears because she had not mentioned to the Being of Light that her daughter Tanya may still need her, as she was due for major surgery when they returned from Maleny. (Fred later told Liz that from his experience of an NDE, family is not even on your mind.)

Throughout the whole experience, everything had been so natural and matter of fact.

“Do you want to come?”

“Not without Fred.”

In retrospect, it was an opportunity to leave her physical body behind and make the transition to the next stage of life beyond physical death. Her reply, Not without Fred was very interesting, as the previous day, Fred had shared with several of the retreat women that “he had a contract with God that Liz and he would die at the same time.”

One of the women asked Liz what she thought about it and she merely shrugged. The woman responded, “You don’t seem to be a part of it,” and answered that she was not sure if God had accepted Fred’s contract.

Fred was quite relieved with Liz’s answer as he did not want to be left on his own if she died first. Nine years later, in August 2025, Fred passed away with Liz and daughter Tanya by his side, and were later joined by his other daughter, as previously mentioned.

2. Thursday 6 July, 2016 – Meditation led by Lyn

The retreat participants lay on the floor in the Temple rugged up in warm doonas, practising a daily exercise known as ‘Cellular Alchemy’; an hour-long process in which Golden Light is brought into every part of the body including all the cells, nerves, tissues, blood, veins, arteries and organs.

Part way through the practice, Liz felt a magenta/purple feathery presence above her and an inner voice -again telepathic - that said: “I am your Overlighting Angel.”

Her response was simply: “Oh, are you?”

This Overlighting Angel felt very comforting and protective. Retreat participants were not permitted to use telephones or the internet whilst on retreat but after this meditation, Liz was very naughty and sent a text message to a friend in the Clare Prophet Summit Lighthouse movement. She asked if he knew about the Overlighting Angel. His reply was no but he Googled it and confirmed that it was a very protective energy.

Still curious, Liz did some research once they returned home and found that the Devas or Overlighting Angels are part of Theosophy. They “interface” with the human soul while in form and are responsible for the life vitality of the human form. The Archangels are also referred to as the Overlighting Angels, since their function is to overlight or watch over and direct groups of angels, as well as all aspects of humanity. (Source: The Vibrational Healer.)

The four Archangels we are most familiar with are Gabriel, Michael, (deep blue colour) Raphael, and Uriel. (Source: Angelfire.) Whatever name is given to these beautiful beings, it is obvious that Liz was very close to physical death.

3. Thursday 6 July, 2016 – Meditation led by Gay

The meditation group was taken to The Lake of Peace and they ‘magically’ crossed it in a small canoe with their Guide and Guardian Angel. They were instructed to climb the mountain to a plateau where they would meet souls they had known who were gathering to perform an ancient ritual to bring in the Dawn and gather rays from the Solar Logos – the Golden One – to bless earth and all humanity.

Liz met several family members and Fred’s previous mother-in-law. Again, for the second time, a voice asked: “Do you want to come?” No beautiful amethyst tunnel this time but the same, calm voice asking, “Do you want to come?”

“No thank you.”

A second opportunity to exit the physical body and make the transition to the worlds of spirit. Again, all very natural and matter of fact.

Before lunch that day, Liz was looking at the trees that led down to the valley and they were all different – more vibrant and more alive. She was actually seeing the etheric part of the trees and leaves. It was like entering a fairy world.

Before these experiences, although cold, she had felt OK. But when she looked in the mirror, she commented to Fred that one of her eyes was only partly open and that both eyes looked full of pain. When she had partly processed the experience, she shared it with the other retreat members. They were very supportive and one of them commented: “What a pity you did not actually go over and then change your mind and come back and tell us about it.”

Liz replied that there was an inner knowing that if she had accepted the invitation to depart, there would be no return ticket included. Make or break. In hindsight, it was a timely experience, as she had been in so much pain at home before they left Adelaide, and in an outburst, had said: “I have had enough. I wish I were dead. I want it all to end.”

Moral of the story: Be careful what you wish for. It might just come true.

When they returned home from Queensland, Fred said: “I was doing an hour-long meditation at a retreat in Maleny when I suddenly had a vision of a garden of flowers of many colours not seen on earth. I knew that if I entered this garden, I would not return to earth. I did not wish to leave my wife Elizabeth so I did not enter the garden.”

---

Gratitude for Incredible Experiences

Written by Fred Welling, March 2020

In the mid 1990’s I was working as a volunteer at the Mary Potter Hospice, North Adelaide, South Australia. I often sat and talked with a lady from the Riverland and we had many interesting conversations. She told me that she had done everything in her life that she needed to do and was ready to leave this world. She believed in a life beyond the physical.

One morning I arrived at the Hospice and wanted to see her immediately but was asked by the nursing staff to shave a man whose family was coming to visit him. This I did, and when I had finished and cleaned up, I wanted to see the lady but was informed that she had died.

I was given permission to sit with her for a short while, so I sat and held her hand and expressed appreciation for the time we had shared. Then I saw an energy moving away from her physical form and moving upwards. From this vision I knew that the separation from the lady’s physical body was complete and I wished her well in her new life.

When I left the room, Sister Shirley was outside and she asked me what had happened. When I told her, the nun smiled, nodded and gave me the “thumbs up” sign.

I am very grateful for having been granted these incredible experiences.

Liz, Fred & Daughter Tanya (Photo courtesy of Liz)

Editor’s note: Many of us Adelaidians are grateful for having had the opportunity to witness Fred’s compelling mediumship demonstrations and Liz’s enlightening talks, and their development circles were also a blessing. Both Fred and Liz were, and still are, a formidable spiritual team. Sincere condolences to Liz and family for their loss.

Further Recommended Reading

Nick Bell Interview: The Manhattan Psychic Medium

Psychic Medium Nick Bell, the “Manhattan Psychic Medium,” on mediumship, and how he guides clients toward healing and comfort.

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Are All Professional Mediums the Real Deal?

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Helen Duncan: The Medium Who Shook a Nation

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The Hannen Swaffer Circle

How Hannen Swaffer, Maurice Barbanell, and spirit guides White Shadow and Silver Birch shaped spiritualism in the 1930s.

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Dead in the Water

“I love a sunburnt country,

a land of sweeping plains,

Of ragged mountain ranges,

Of droughts and flooding rains.

I love her far horizons,

I love her jewel-sea,

Her beauty and her terror-

The wide brown land for me!”

(From the 1904 poem “My Country”, by Dorothea Mackellar)

I’ve got a question, one which I’m fairly sure I’m not alone in pondering; can a place or object be cursed? Could an ancient curse be the reason for the 21 recorded deaths at an innocent-looking waterhole in a humid jungle in the tropical far North of Queensland, Australia? Could disregard for an old maritime superstition be the reason so many people who have come into contact with an old shipwreck in Western Australia- a wreck with a sinister reputation- have suffered bad luck, and some even death?

These are questions which warrant further exploration, and the locations pertaining to those questions are intriguing indeed, as are their stories. This country, although a “young” one in terms of European colonisation, has a history that stretches back into the dim reaches of time, with its Indigenous custodians, the Australian Aborigines, having arrived here well over 40,000 years ago. It also has a more recent history related to its use as a penal colony, one marred by bloodshed and brutality, and accordingly, abounds with ghost stories. The following two tales, however, are not so much about ghosts- although these are mentioned on occasion. These are stories of two places said to be cursed, and of those who were, perhaps, their victims...

THE “DEVIL’S POOL” - BABINDA, FAR NORTH QUEENSLAND

Deep within a verdant tropical rainforest in Babinda, Cairns, in Far North Queensland, lies a deceptively peaceful-looking pool of clear, invitingly cool water. But visitors to this location should avoid the temptation to swim here, and warning signs have also been posted prohibiting swimming; doing so has cost many an unsuspecting traveler their lives. This is the Devil’s Pool, and it has a sinister reputation. Over the past 60 years, roughly 21 people have lost their lives in these waters- most of them male, almost all of them white. Old newspaper reports indicate that there may have been more lives lost there before official records began, but the official death toll alone is enough to have raised both curiosity, and speculation that something was...wrong...with that part of the creek.

The Devil’s Pool, seen from above (image courtesy of Facebook/Scott Harty/FNQ Waterfalls page

BACK IN THE DREAMTIME

Babinda is an Australian Indigenous/Aboriginal word, and comes from the words “Bunna” (running water) and “Binda” (shoulder or rock), and is known to the Indigenous people in the area as a sacred place, but also, or at least to some, it is a known as a cursed place- an evil one. There is an old Indigenous “Dreamtime” (creation story) legend attached to the Devil’s Pool, which tells of a beautiful young woman named Oolana from the Yidinji tribe, who was promised to an elder from the same tribe, Waroonoo. A neighbouring tribe arrived in the area one day, and Oolana soon fell hopelessly in love with a handsome young warrior from that tribe named Dyga. Realizing they would be punished by their respective tribes for their adultery, the young lovers fled into the valleys, but were soon caught by the tribal Elders. Rather than face harsh punishment at the hands of the angry Elders, the distraught Oolana broke away from her captors, and threw herself into the calm waters of the creek of which the Devil’s Pool is part, screaming for Dyga to join her.

According to the legend, as soon as Dyga hit the water, the tranquil creek erupted into a rushing torrent, and in a section of the creek now known as the ‘washing machine’, the wailing Oolana disappeared among the huge boulders that lay scattered about submerged in the rushing water. Since that fateful day, Oolana’s spirit is said to be heard on occasion, crying out for her lost love, and is said by some locals to seek him still, by luring young men to their deaths in the Devil’s Pool; a story similar to those of the Lorelei of the Rhine river, or the fabled Sirens of maritime lore. The waters have thus also earned a haunted reputation, and tourists and travellers are warned not to swim there. However, according to some Indigenous locals in the area, there is a belief that those of their culture are quite safe to enter the water, and remain unharmed.

The rumours of Oolana’s spirit could likely be attributed to hearsay, as no confirmation of any encounters with her apparition are to be found, but the paranormal connotations that surround the site have nonetheless persisted for quite some time, as illustrated by the story of Patrick McGann...

Aboriginal artist Paul Bong’s painting depicting Oolana in the “washing machine”. (Image credit: Paul Bong)

The warning sign at the Devil’s Pool (Image credit: Cairns City Council website)

Diagram of the hazardous areas (Image credit: Safety report, Cairns City Council website)

PATRICK, IN THE POOL?

In the carpark adjacent to The Boulders, a plaque memorializes one young, white, male victim- a nurse from New South Wales named Patrick McGann who, as the plaque poignantly states, “came for a visit on 22/6/79...and stayed forever”. The small, sad memorial was installed at the behest of Patrick’s father Terry, who almost lost his own life in the same spot as his son while assisting local Police in the search for the body. In an article published in the Australasian Post newspaper on the 2nd of March 1991, Terry spoke about a photograph, taken for Police records, which he strongly believed that the photograph contains an image of his departed son, saying:

​“It (the photograph) was for police records and when it was developed the sergeant at Babinda took me quietly to one side. There was Pat’s face in the water. He looked exactly the same in both photos, even to the cigarette in his mouth. I’ve spoken to many priests about it and one told me ‘there’s a lot of things in life we will never understand. This is one of them.’”

The “ghostly” image, believed by his father to be that of Patrick McGann (image credit: “Haunted” , Pinkney, J., 2005)

A photograph of Patrick McGann, taken by his girlfriend a short time before his death. (image credit: “Haunted”, Pinkney, J., 2005)

While the image taken of the area where Patrick McGann drowned may to some show only rocks and churning water, the comfort the image brought his father- that of believing his son’s spirit continues after death- is not to be doubted, nor belittled; nor does it negate the possibility of something anomalous having occurred at the Devil’s Pool. Is that something a curse, a ghost, both of the aforementioned? Or, as is commonly believed and has been proven repeatedly, is the Devil’s Pool, with its strong underwater currents and watery hidden caverns, merely a treacherous place to swim? To the Indigenous locals, it’s a combination of both. Perhaps the priest who spoke to Terry McGann was correct, that there are things that can never be understood- and perhaps the mystery that surrounds the Devil’s Pool is one of those.

THE ALKIMOS: YANCHEP BEACH, WESTERN AUSTRALIA

The Alkimos in 1963, prior to running aground (image credit: Shipwrecks WA/ Australian Geographic)

Jutting in rusted, time-worn pieces from jagged rocks a short distance from the golden-white sands of Yanchep beach, about 56 kilometers north of Western Australia’s capital city, Perth, are the remains of what was once a ship with a long history filled with misfortune- and apparently also home to a resident ghost. Divers and fishermen are wary of the wreck, and some avoid it entirely. Tourists who visit the beach to photograph it have sometimes found that their cameras won’t work, and upon attempting to leave the beach, some have had their cars refuse to start. The story of this ship is unusual to say the least, and she has become the stuff of Australian maritime- and paranormal- legend.

BAD LUCK FROM THE BEGINNING?

Now known as the Alkimos, her story began in America in October 1943, when she was known as the George M. Shriver, and was one of the 2,750 ships collectively known as Liberty Ships. Often named after influential American public figures of that time, Liberty ships were known for their rapid construction, with a new ship completed in about 10 days, and mostly without any issues, but the Alkimos apparently proved an immediate exception to that rule, with her construction rumored to have taken six weeks to complete. This was only the beginning of the series of misfortunes that would plague the ship until the end of her seafaring days.

The Alkimos in her final resting place (image credit: shipwreckswa.com)

An old maritime superstition maintains that to change the name of a ship is bad luck; and yet the George M. Shriver, only 9 days after being launched from the dock at the Bethlehem-Fairfield shipyards in Maryland on October 11, 1943, and upon being reassigned to the Norwegian Shipping and Trade Mission on October 20th, was renamed the M.V. Viggo Hansteen, after the then-prominent Norwegian lawyer, politician and labour activist who was executed by the Nazis two years previously. This re-christening seemed to mark the beginning of the ship’s almost endless bad luck.

WAR WOUNDS

The Viggo Hansteen’s first wartime mission was as part of a convoy to Bandur Shapur, via the Mediterranean and the Suez canal, and in early 1944, she set sail with a crew of 47 members comprised of Canadian and Norwegian members. Soon after she steamed, somehow unscathed, through a convoy of German U-boats in the Atlantic, many of the ships around her were destroyed. However, this seeming good luck was to be only temporary, and the Viggo Hansteen beached herself on an uncharted reef shortly after. The next morning, however, she was mysteriously floating free again. Upon her return to New York soon after freeing herself from the reef, the ship was loaded with a cargo of ammunition and gliders, and a 28-year-old Canadian radio operator named Maude Elizabeth Steane joined the crew. She served on the ship for only a few months, then while the ship was unloading gliders in Piombini (or according to some reports, Naples), Italy, on August 14, 1944, Maude Elizabeth Steane was shot and killed by the ship’s Norwegian gunnery officer, who then turned the gun upon himself. Due to the horrific nature of the incident, the Military concealed the true cause of her death, and instead listed her as the first Canadian woman to die in active service, killed by enemy fire.

The rumour that the ship was jinxed began to circulate at this point, and the ghost of Maude Steane was held responsible. Then came the repeated, unexplainable breakdowns and mechanical faults, which saw the ship deemed a danger to the other vessels in any convoy she was part of. The Viggo Hansteen, at one point, was apparently in drydock more often than she was at sea. Crew turnover between missions was reportedly close to 100%, possibly due to numerous accounts of paranormal activity on board, and the belief held by crew members that the ship was cursed- a belief that seemed to be reinforced by the misfortune that touched a great many who had ventured on board the ship. An improbably large amount of crew members are said to have suffered injuries or illnesses, and others had family members die unexpectedly, or commit suicide.

NO PEACE IN PEACETIME

When peace was declared in 1945 the United States sold off its Liberty ships, and the Viggo Hansteen was sold twice more, with the first sale (to an S. Ugelstad from Oslo) occurring in 1946. In April 1952, she ran aground off the coast of New Zealand, suffering slight damage, and it was at that time that reports began circulating of sightings of a hulking figure dressed in oilskins, rubber boots, and a green seaman’s coat, being regularly seen on the deck. As is somewhat common with frequently sighted apparitions, the resident ghost was given a name- Henry.

After having run aground, the damaged ship was sold to owners from Costa Rica, who had her repaired, and then in 1953 she was again sold, this time to a Greek trading company, who acquired the ship at a bargain price. Once more, maritime superstition concerning changing a ship’s name was disregarded, and the ship was renamed the S.S. Alkimos, which was both the name of a Greek god, and their word for “strong”, and is the name she bears to this day. Under this name, the ship travelled the world’s oceans without incident for nearly a decade, until March 20th 1963 when, during a voyage from Jakarta to Bunbury, Western Australia, she hit Beagle Island Reef, near the city of Geraldton, north of Perth, Western Australia’s capital city. Having suffered heavy damage, the ship was towed to Fremantle (also in Western Australia), where she underwent repairs for two months.

After settlement of a dispute concerning payment for the repairs, the Alkimos left Fremantle under tow by the Hong Kong-based tugboat Pacific Reserves. Only a few hours out of port the tow line snapped in the rough waters, and the Alkimos was driven by the strong currents towards the shore. Although intact, the ship could not be refloated at the time, so she was beached north of Fremantle, filled with water to secure her in place, and left in the charge of an onboard caretaker, the first of a succession of people who were employed to stay on the ship to guard her. That first caretaker, an American exchange student named Wayne Morgan, later told staff at the hospital he was admitted to after his experiences on the ship, of the terrifying days and nights he had spent on board, often cowering fearfully in his cabin, too afraid to open the door; of witnessing an immense, misty, human-shaped figure stalking the decks; and of cabin doors being opened and closed unaided by human hand. He quit, terrified, and was succeeded by a married couple, who also quit after the pregnant wife fell while on board the ship, later giving birth to a stillborn baby.

SALVAGING SCARES

The Alkimos remained stranded north of Fremantle until early 1964 when, on February 28th, a tugboat from the Philippines, the Pacific Star, arrived and managed to refloat the ship. However, shortly after the return journey began, the captain of the tugboat was arrested and detained due to money he owed to a company in Manila. As the Alkimos was no longer legally allowed to be towed or offered aid by the Pacific Star, she was set at anchor between the reefs of Eglington rocks, roughly 4 kilometers south of Yanchep beach, where she was left abandoned. The Pacific Star was mysteriously set ablaze while in port awaiting legal proceedings, and the doomed Alkimos broke anchor 4 months later, drifting onto Eglington rocks, where she remains to this day.

The Alkimos as she looks now (image credit: Instagram/@matt.odonoghue.images)

Over the following years, a number of salvage crews and caretakers lived on board the Alkimos as they attempted to save what they could of the ship, but each of those attempts were in vain. The first salvage attempt was cut short after a fire somehow broke out on board and all work had to be ceased due to the ship having been more damaged than was first thought. Soon after, the Alkimos was sold by her owners for scrap. Numerous further attempts at salvage were made over time- twelve in total, but none were successful. In 1969, one crew of salvage workers were driven off the wreck after yet another mysterious fire, and it was becoming increasingly apparent, at least to those on board, that the ship was haunted. Workers reported having had their tools moved by unseen hands, and spoke also of tools vanishing, only to reappear later. Salvage crews would stay on board 24/7 while they worked on the Alkimos, and many would refuse to leave their cabins at night if alone, for fear of what they may encounter. Those that did muster the courage to leave often reported hearing footsteps following them. The sound of someone climbing one of the ladders to the deck above was also heard on one occasion, when all the crew members were accounted for. The sounds and smells of food being prepared in the galley were reported too, but these would cease when those brave enough to investigate them would open the galley door, only resuming after the door was closed again. These experiences terrified several men to the extent that they quit their jobs rather than face another night of fear on the ship.

Now permanently stranded, the Alkimos was bought and sold again and again. Each new owner experienced misfortune of some sort. Several declared bankruptcy, others became seriously ill. Once they sold the ship, however, they were apparently no longer plagued by bad luck. Years passed, and attempts to salvage the Alkimos stopped. Her partly-dismantled remains sat in several metres of water, gradually being claimed by the sea, and a source of great interest to the curious onlookers who would frequently gather on the beach...and the legend of the cursed, haunted ship only continued to grow.

HORRIBLE HENRY

Cray (crayfish) fishermen in the area soon began to report seeing an extremely tall man dressed in oilskins on the decks of the Alkimos, and at first it was thought he was a hermit who had taken residence on the ship, but when the ship was searched, no trace of human habitation could be found. Talk of a curse was further fueled by the discovery of a human skull, found to be that of champion long distance swimmer named Herbert Voigt, who vanished in March, 1969, while attempting to swim from Cottesloe to Rottnest island. An extensive air-sea search failing to locate him. According to some reports, his skull was found four years later lodged in the hull of the Alkimos, and although how this discovery was made has never been adequately explained, it only added further weight to the case for a curse. Curiously, Voigt’s planned route was to have taken him nowhere near the ship. A number of people who have been on the beach near the ship are said to have slipped and fallen, or have become ill after their visit. Horses ridden on the nearby beach would become nervous, some riders would claim, and would either bolt in terror, or even refuse to pass the ship.

JACK’S JINX?

The most impressive documentation of the strange occurrences on board the Alkimos comes from Jack Sue, a renowned diver in Perth, who was so affected by his experiences on board the Alkimos to such an extent that he wrote a book about them, titled “The Ghost of the Alkimos” (Wong Sue, J., 2001, Jack Sue WA Skindivers Publication). Originally having no belief whatsoever in the paranormal, Sue had his mind changed when, accompanied by a film crew and several fellow skindivers, he spent a hair-raising night aboard the now-notorious old ship, as host of the Australian television program “Down Under”. Soon after they set foot on board the ship, determined to prove that nothing paranormal was taking place, a series of strange and terrifying events occurred for which they had no explanation. Multiple people reported listening in sheer amazement as the sound of sneezes, accompanied by footsteps, echoed from an area below deck known by everyone to be empty. One skindiver felt the sensation of something large brushing past him, and then watched in abject terror as the figure of a towering man, clad in oilskins, passed through a solid steel bulkhead. Sue, while attempting at some point to sleep below deck, reported having heard what sounded like someone rolling over in an adjacent bunk- one which he knew was unoccupied at the time.

Several of those who spent the night aboard the Alkimos would later regret their adventures, as they too would suffer illnesses, misfortunes, and tragedies. Jack Sue collapsed the day after he set foot ashore, and was hospitalized for almost a year, with doctors unable to diagnose his illness; another man lost his business, and yet another lost his girlfriend in a plane crash. In 1997 Jack Sue, despite swearing decades earlier to never have anything to do with the Alkimos again, ventured to the beach with the clearest view of the wreck, and soon after this he suffered a severe stroke. In an interview published on the 18th of January 1998 in Sydney’s Herald Sun newspaper, Sue said of the ship whose malignant influence had touched so many unfortunate people:

“It’s probably just coincidence, but you never can tell with the Alkimos. I can’t help thinking of the number of people who’ve driven down that beach in four-wheel drives to photograph the wreck and had their cars break down, or their cameras fail, or their watches stop. That ship is bad luck”.

CURSED QUESTIONS!

Stories of “cursed” objects and locations can be found in countries and cultures worldwide. We’re left to consider the nature- the possibility (or lack thereof)- of the existence of such things as curses. Could it be that a “curse” is an accumulation over time of energetic “traces” left behind by successive events charged with emotional energy- akin to that which the well-known Place Memory/Stone Tape hypothesis championed by T.C. Lethbridge seems to suggest? Could a series of many negative events, such as those linked to the Devil’s Pool and the Alkimos, leave negative energetic “traces”, and could these then accumulate? Could this energy physically impact someone, and if so, how, and by what mechanism? Does a person have to believe in curses for one to work? Could events that are blamed on a curse all be simply unfortunate coincidences, and misperception of events which could have an alternate, non-paranormal explanation? Whatever the answer may be, and whatever the explanation for the events at both of the above locations, their stories of curses and ghosts remain intriguing to many today, and are perhaps two of the most fascinating in Australia’s paranormal history.