The Creepy Haunted Doll Of Finedon

Finedon is a picturesque, semi-rural village that sits quietly amidst the county of Northamptonshire, England. The village is famous for its quaint public houses, breathtaking hillside views, and cobbled streets that have awed people for centuries. Residents and visitors alike enjoy the wonders of grassy knolls, peaceful trickling rivers, and the gentle bleating of sheep, but the town has not always dwelled in such calmness. The rise of the Black Death plague in 1348 saw the once-thriving and bustling village slowly deplete of everything that gave it character. Children’s laughter that once graced the lush green pastures slowly began to fade, and the clunking sound of horse hooves on the cobbled streets became no more. Illness and death cast their sticky web of destruction over every home, forcing many to flee. An orchestra of silence was all that echoed in the tragic streets and hopeless homes for many years.

New Beginnings

Fortunately, the Black Death eventually succumbed to nature. Resettlement began sometime in the 17th century and life returned to Finedon. Inns were again filled with laughter, farming began to flourish and the once death-infested homes became occupied by young and happy families. The town continued to develop into the 20th century with no further signs of misfortune. Until a young school teacher was appointed the village school’s headmistress in 1901. Her name was Mary Ozier and curiously, our tale begins with nothing other than a kind gesture from this professional lady.

A Commemorative Oddity - A Haunted Doll

Proud of her appointment and seeking to christen her new status, Mary pondered greatly. She also needed something unique to commemorate the Finedon school’s upcoming anniversary, something that reflected the unique and quirky character of the village and school. She chose a beautifully crafted wooden doll and strategically positioned it in a small alcove above the school's main entrance, where it could be admired by all and keep watch over everything!

Very little is known about the origins of the doll. It is believed that it was made by a mysterious merchant who Mary allegedly met on a quiet country walk one afternoon. After conveying her ideas for the commemoration, the merchant gifted Mary the doll. Conveniently, it lay inside a sack upon his back. He took no payment, walked away, and was never seen again.

Dressed to Impress

The doll was deemed peculiar from day one by all who saw it. Mary’s sentiment was appreciated by the locals but there was something about the doll’s aura that emitted an uncomfortable, eerie feeling. Standing at approximately three feet in height, the figure was so intricately carved that the dark brown flowing dress looked almost real. Equally impressive was the carved white Dutch cap that adorned the head. The face appeared emotionless with dark staring eyes and tightly closed lips. These features were a strange contrast to the cherub cheeks upon which they sat. The doll’s attire closely resembled the fashion of the modern-day Puritan woman, complete with dark boots with a slight heel, also carved from wood.

The Dutch headpiece became the doll’s most famous and defining feature. It also resembled the hat worn by the children of the school at the time. As curiosity and uncertainty grew, the strange figure eventually became known as the ‘Dutch Doll of Finedon’. Finally, and probably the strangest feature of all was what sat tightly grasped in its hands. On the right was a bible, and on the left was a scroll that bared the writing ‘ Search the scripture-John-verse 39’...

Sinister Happenings

Days after the doll’s arrival, inexplicable events began to unfold. The once tranquil and carefree vibes of the school turned to anxiety and dread. One morning, a chastised student was sent to the school's front lawn to spend her break alone while others played in the yard at the rear. As she moped, a startling gust of wind appeared from nowhere, knocking her backward with great force. The girl grazed her head as she fell against an old tree. Within seconds, the wind was gone and the calmness of that June morning returned. As the girl composed herself, she saw something that chilled her to the marrow and contested until her dying day. Peering down from its concrete throne, the doll waved its left arm, scroll in hand, and juddered violently. The tight wooden lips were puckered, and its eyes glared with sadistic pleasure. Within seconds, the face returned to normal and the arm to its original position. Shocked and shaken by what had happened, the girl ran home, never to return to the school.

Since that horrifying incident, many students recounted witnessing the doll move on its own accord and the school record book reportedly possessed pages of daily occurrences depicting many traumatizing accounts. In the dead of night, the students who lived as boarders could often hear the sound of tiny pattering feet scurrying through the hallways. Dormitory doors would open on their own and scratching sounds could be heard on the floors. Some students claimed to see ‘tiny wooden hands’ and ‘beady wooden eyes’ peering around open doors before they were violently slammed shut. Piercing and blood-chilling cackling could also be heard around the school. Quite often, the shrill cries disrupted lessons and caused panic among teachers and students alike.

Was it a Haunted Doll or Not

Concerned for the student’s welfare, staff and parents decided to examine the doll during a school holiday. Convinced that the doll possessed a mechanical feature that could explain the phenomena, it was brought down from its cove above the door. After a thorough search, nothing was found. It was suggested that the doll may have been used in witchcraft rituals or even acted as a vessel for a malevolent spirit. Taking no chances, the now haunted doll was permanently removed from the cove. It was tightly locked in a chest and placed in the school’s dank, dark cellar.

For a short while, calmness settled upon the school. During this period, poor behavior would often be controlled with ‘tongue in cheek’ threats of detention in the cellar. Students trembled at the thought of being at the mercy of the wooden demon. It was the perfect deterrent. As time passed and incidents lessened, students began to believe the stories had been nothing more than a hoax. That was until a young student was sent to the cellar to retrieve more slates.

Haunting Crash

As the student gathered the resources, she heard an almighty crash behind her. The chest that housed the doll had fallen from a shelf and hit the floor with a deafening thud. Slowly, the chest started to rattle and vibrate furiously. A series of violent thumps followed and the chest edged toward the girl. Groans and gasps could be heard from inside the chest, each one more penetrating and violent than before. The student fled the cellar immediately. Terrified and shaken by the incident, she too left the school, never to return.

Eventually, the cellar was permanently closed, leaving the haunted doll entombed and alone for many years. Although the phenomenon decreased, a lingering and anxious atmosphere engulfed all who walked through the school. And despite the cellar being deep below the classrooms and far from the dormitories, strange laughter and voices could still be heard. The chilling echoes pounded through the school in the dead of night for many years.

A Mysterious Twist

Decades passed but the phenomenon and unrelenting feelings of dread persisted. A new headteacher, determined to alleviate the school of its supernatural reputation, had the doll removed. It was taken to the local St Mary’s church, and fixed tightly to the west wall. Locals hoped this would eliminate further troubles and suppress whatever strangeness lurked inside. As a result, the school returned to a state of calm that had not been felt for almost a century. Years passed and the memory of the Dutch doll began to diminish. All that remained were the frightening tales that once plagued the school, passed down through the generations. That was until an alarming and unexpected event took place...

Haunted Finedon Doll Vanishes

On the 24th of January, 1981, the parishioner unlocked the church to prepare for his daily duties. Upon walking to his alter, he noticed something unusual on the west wall. Further inspection revealed that the Dutch doll was no longer there. The hooks and bolts that kept it secure were strewn on the floor. Confused and unnerved by what had happened, the parishioner immediately visited the local police. Fears of supernatural forces being responsible resonated with him more than the idea of a potential thief. The parishioner knew that he had locked and bolted all the church doors the previous evening. All windows had also been locked, and only he possessed the key. It hadn’t been possible for anybody to gain entry without his permission. As a result, homes, fields, shops, and even the school were aptly searched. Locals were questioned but to no avail and restlessness returned to the town.

Tales of the haunted doll and superstition began to resurface, causing some parents to remove their children from the school amid the fear that the doll had returned. Fears of misfortune and miscellaneous activity repeating themselves grew at an alarming rate, forcing the town’s hierarchy to act. The townsfolk were reassured that the doll would be found and returned to the church. Despite everyone’s efforts, the haunted doll was never recovered. No further progress has since been made, and its disappearance remains Finedon’s biggest mystery. Is the Dutch doll residing in your home? It might be wise to check all those dark places before going to bed...

Photo Credits

St Mary’s church

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons, The Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Finedon (Public domain)

Haunted Doll photo

https://cdn.playbuzz.com/cdn/b983998b-1e60-4476-8ee6-20cf35bb3213/9259919c-06c0-4e43-8055-c804e1a8b96f.jpg

Two new paranormal TV shows are changing the landscape of ghost-hunting shows

A few months ago, I joined a team of paranormal investigators, visiting haunted locations for the first season of a brand-new indie ghost-hunting show called Inhuman Beings. This month, we launched a Kickstarter to finish Inhuman Beings and a paranormal documentary series called New Blood. The two shows aim to present a new outlook on the supernatural, showcasing the esteemed specialist in the occult, Michelle Belanger. Her expertise has been previously displayed on several publications such as Paranormal State, Portals to Hell, Conjuring Kesha, among others. Locations have been chosen for the first season of a brand-new indie ghost-hunting show called Inhuman Beings. This month, we launched a Kickstarter to finish Inhuman Beings and a paranormal documentary series called New Blood.

Inhuman Beings

Each episode of Inhuman Beings features a different location with a reputation for high strangeness. Rather than trying to banish ghosts or uncover demons, we approach the unknown with a sense of curiosity, keeping an open mind and looking into ghosts, UFOs, cryptids, the fae, and more.

We use some traditional paranormal investigation techniques, experimenting with REM pods, spirit boxes, a Kinect SLS camera, and an Ovilus. But we also get weird, trying out remote viewing experiments, using dream sigils to communicate with entities, and following our curiosity as far down the rabbit hole as we can go.

That led us to some strange places. During production, we found ourselves crossing a remote river to visit land ruled by the fae, exploring a strange castle with a mysterious past, and investigating the most haunted building in a small town.

As the team’s paranormal researcher, I dug into the locations before filming and was floored by how many anomalies had been reported in each spot.

In one episode, we venture to the area of the original Loveland frogman sightings, along the banks of Ohio’s Little Miami River. While doing preliminary research, I couldn’t believe how much lore was concentrated in one small area and how interconnected the different paranormal phenomena were there.

I had heard the famous 1950s story about a man encountering strange, frog-like humanoids—one of whom carried a wand emitting sparks—but the more research I did, the more reports I found about local sightings of UFOs, cryptids, aliens, and ghosts.

That was my first hint that things were going to get a lot stranger than I had expected. However, I was not fully prepared for the firsthand experiences we had when we arrived at the site and engaged in conversations with the locals, conducted our own experiments, and gained a true understanding of what the place was truly like.

New Blood

Much of the cast and crew of Inhuman Beings are also in New Blood, a longform docu-series about modern-day vampires.

In New Blood, a series of synchronicities leads witch and host of paranormal podcast Follow the Woo Fen Alankus (she/they) to move from LA to the spooky Midwest. There, she conjures an investigative film crew to document a secret society of vampires.

They delve into the mysterious world of vampires while staying in a haunted Airbnb. The experience, which involves visiting sacred vampire ritual spaces, braving the creepy woods of Ohio, and performing out-of-the-box psychical experiments and spells, changes all of them. Season one was a wild ride, and the next phases of initiation have already begun for the team.

The Kickstarter and team

Michelle Belanger (he/she/they) and Fen Alankus (she/they) have gathered a top-notch crew of film professionals and paranormal investigators. That includes historian and medium Stephanie Bingham (she/her), who has been featured on the CW’s Mysteries Decoded, Destination America’s Paranormal Lockdown and SyFy Channel’s School Spirits; tarot/oracle reader Tigresse Bleu (they/she); filmmaker, forager, and hedgewitch Aubrey P. Archer (they/them); and photographer and skeptic-turned-believer Taylor Brown (she/they), and me.

More than 100 hours of footage have already been shot for these shows, and both shows are slated for release in Fall/Winter 2023.

With the Kickstarter funding, the team will finish up the first seasons of both shows, start pre-production on the next seasons, and more. Backers get rewards like magically imbued Ouija planchettes, Bigfoot and Pride Demon T-shirts, subtle-body portrait readings, bonus and behind-the-scenes content, executive producer credit, guest spots on their shows, and more. Spread the word and help bring this fresh paranormal project into the world!

The Vanishing Hitchhiker

Urban legends are a type of modern folklore that typically circulate through word of mouth or online media. These stories are often presented as true accounts and usually involve a shocking or mysterious event or circumstance. One of the most popular urban legends is the Disappearing Hitchhiker.

Imagine driving down a dark road and seeing a man (or woman) standing on the side of the road. There is light rain. You pull up and ask him where he is going. He asks for a ride to his girlfriend’s house, which isn’t far from where you are heading. You tell him to hop in the passenger side. Then you make some small talk about the weather and the town. Furthermore, you drive for a few minutes, but when you look over again, the mysterious hitchhiker is gone.

Variations of a Classic Urban Legend

The vanishing hitchhiker is a classic urban legend that has been circulating for decades. The story typically involves a driver who picks up a hitchhiker on a dark and lonely road. The hitchhiker is often described as being a young woman dressed in white or a soldier in uniform. The driver talked to the hitchhiker while driving, but when they arrived at the hitchhiker's place, the hitchhiker was no longer there.

Traced back to the early 20th century, this legend has retold and adapted in many different forms, with variations depending on the location and culture. Most accounts involve supernatural or paranormal elements, such as the hitchhiker being a ghost or spirit.

There are different narrative versions about the hitchhiker's identity, including a young woman who perished in a car accident on the very road she's hitchhiking on and a soldier seeking a ride back home after dying in combat. Sometimes the hitchhiker leaves behind a physical object, such as a scarf or a piece of jewelry that the driver later returns to the hitchhiker's family, or the driver goes to the address given by the hitchhiker only to discover that the person they picked up has been dead for years.

Image: Coco Parisienne, Pixabay

Hitchhiking Horror Stories

While the vanishing hitchhiker story is often presented as true, there is little evidence to support the idea that it is based on actual events. Instead, it may be more likely that the story evolved as a cautionary tale, warning people about the dangers of picking up strangers on the side of the road.

Hitchhiking was a common mode of travel in the 1960’s, especially during the hippy movement. People opted for hitchhiking to travel long distances without the high cost. Commercial air travel was still quite new and expensive in that era and generally reserved for businessmen and wealthy people while bus and train travel were more common but also quite pricey.

Unfortunately, hitchhikers made for perfect victims. Usually alone and far from home, they made excellent targets for violent crime. Multiple serial killers reportedly targeted young female hitchhikers; one of the most famous stories being that of 15-year-old Mary Vincent. She was attacked by Lawrence Singleton after accepting a ride in his van to her grandfather’s house. Singleton assaulted her multiple times then cut off her arms cut off with an axe, leaving her for dead. She managed to survive the ordeal after walking three miles with her bloody stumps raised above her heart to decrease blood loss.

Men are not any safer. The movie There is Something About Mary uses humor to show that even a man can be in danger when picking up strangers off the side of the road. By the late 1980s, hitchhiking had all but vanished. So why is this still one of the most popular urban legends?

New Stories Continue To Emerge

In recent years, the disappearing hitchhiker legend has continued to evolve and adapt to changing cultural norms and technologies. For example, there are now versions of the story that involve ride-sharing services such as Uber and Lyft, with passengers reporting picking up a hitchhiker who vanishes from the back seat.

While hitchhiking is no longer used as a common mode of transportation, we can now order our own stranger to bring our intoxicated selves home. As children, we were told to not get in a car with a stranger. Uber and Lyft now allow you to order your own stranger to pick you up and there have been many incidents of assaults stemming from ridesharing. In 2019, Samantha Josephson, a student from University of South Carolina, was raped and murdered after she got into a car that she believed was her Uber driver.

There are several theories about why the vanishing hitchhiker legend has persisted for so long and become so popular. Some suggest that the story taps into deep-seated fears and anxieties about death and the unknown, while others argue that it serves as a warning about the dangers of picking up strangers.

Despite there being little evidence to support the idea that the vanishing hitchhiker legend is based on actual events, it remains a popular and enduring urban legend, with new variations and adaptations continuing to emerge.

Urban legends commonly play on people's fears and anxieties, such as fears of strangers or the unknown, and can spread rapidly through social media and other online platforms. While many urban legends are generally harmless, some can be harmful or even dangerous if they inspire people to take unnecessary risks or engage in harmful behaviors.

References

Student killed after taking car she mistook for Uber was victim of 'heinous' acts, prosecutor says (nbcnews.com)

Brunvand, Jan Harold. (1981). The Vanishing Hitchhiker: American Urban Legends and Their Meanings. New York: Norton. ISBN 0-393-95169-3

Vanishing Hitchhiker - Oxford Reference

How Mary Vincent Survived A Horrific Abduction While Hitchhiking (allthatsinteresting.com)

Further Reading

Tsunami Ghosts - Tales of Loss and Grief

The Curse Of Bhangarh Fort

India is a beautiful country with a vast array of historical achievements. The medieval history, cuisine, religion, and influential leaders of this place are truly fascinating. Their rich tapestry of remarkable feats is difficult to measure. The allure of architecture, the enchantment of romance, and the saga of barbaric and breathtaking tales. The customs, and traditions of India should, if they are not already, be envied the whole world over. Bhangarh Fort certainly fits these criteria. Despite the wonders, India is also rich in paranormal phenomena, curses, and weird events. As a result, this enigmatic cocktail of supernatural blend should catapult India to the forefront of every paranormal enthusiast’s watch list.

Macabre Silence

At night, it is said that silence lies heavily against the wood and stone of Bhangarh Fort, and for good reason. Misfortune, unbearable terrors, and even untimely death are said to be the price for disturbing whatever dwells there. Scores of evidence, in both recent times and years gone by, show that egos and heroism are fiercely chastised. Visitors are warned to take heed of the sunset threshold. Begone by nightfall or you will have to contend with the treacherous forces that bitterly wait and skulk within this unforgiving, embodiment of evil. Make no mistake: the curse, whatever its desire, will engulf you. It will strike with a venomous bite. Instantly or slowly. There is no escape.

Naturally, within the aged walls of the world’s most majestic structures, whatever their purposes were, lie oceans of residual emotion. Euphoria, love, exasperation, and dejection, to name but a few, will forever be rife within these blood-drenched and tear-stained places. India's historical architecture is no exception when it comes to eerie stories and superstitions that are still being told today. These tales continue to circulate in communities daring enough to listen.

The History Of Bhangarh Fort

Photographer: Deepak Kosta | Source: Unsplash

The construction of the Bhangarh Fort dates back to the 16th century under Bhagwant Das, the 23rd ruler of the Amber kingdom. The fort's purpose was to serve as a dwelling place for his second son, Madho Sing, along with his family. The fort was built in Rajasthan, India, near the Sariska reserve. It was strategically placed at the base of the Aravali range hills to protect the important family who lived there.

The location was strategically chosen to make invasion plans and escape routes for rebels and mercenaries difficult to operate. The fort sat, as it does today, eagle-eyed, watching everyone and everything, ready to chastise all who dare to oppose it.

The Curse Of Bhangarh Fort

Historical landmarks that survive over time often have fascinating stories that show important moments of change or development that shape their current traditions. The Bhangarh Fort manages to emulate this and remains atypical, for it boasts not one, but two possible reasons for the dark curse.

Guru Balu was regarded as a great man of wisdom, who was knowledgeable of all things supernatural. Upset by the fort’s building, he warned that bad things would happen to the community and anyone linked to the fort and its family. When mockingly questioned about when this would happen, Guru Balu Nath coldly warned that the great wrath would engulf the town the second the shadows of the fort should touch him or his home.

As the fort was being built, it started to cast shadows over the Guru's house and the town. The fort looked more and more imposing as it grew taller. Before long, the inevitable clash between the shadow and the mystical man reared its ugly head and catastrophe unfolded.

As the Bangargh Fort legend goes, the city of Bhangarh was destroyed instantly. Sickness befell the healthy and businesses that once thrived, suddenly collapsed, ruining so many people. The once delightful and caring personalities that brought resilience, hope, and joy to the city became despondent and emotionally crushed. With nothing left but despair and emptiness, the residents slowly vacated, leaving the city baron and desolate. All that remained was the eerie howling of the wind, empty sandy roads, and the echos of wind-swept homes.

A Cursed Love Story

The next story, and equally unnerving, is of Sinhia, an occultist and mythical expert who regularly visited Bhangarh. With great stage presence and an ocean of magical and mind-boggling tricks, the mysterious magician would rack up crowds in their hundreds. He could grip the hearts and minds of all who watched him.

People were always left baffled and in awe of his physics-defying skills and manipulation of the natural world. Naturally, it wasn’t long before he would notice the presence of the beautiful Princess Ratnavati. She watched his performances with a great degree of reservation, unlike the locals, from one of the fort’s tower windows.

Sinhia was enthralled by her radiating beauty and regal presence. Knowing that such things would forever stand as a broken bridge between them, the occultist, becoming more smitten by the day, had other plans. The princess was known for using special oils that were regularly brought to the city from afar. So exotic and costly were these majestically aromatic oils, that the magician knew only she would have the privilege of using them.

Magic and Mystery

Knowing this, the magician, dressed in his finest, intercepted a weekly batch delivered to the city. Whilst pretending to inquire about a purchase, he quietly enchanted the oil with a hypnotizing love spell. When the oil arrived at the palace, the princess would, after using the oil, fall deeply in love with Sinhia. She would fall helplessly into his arms, or so he hoped.

Unfortunately for Sinhia, a passerby who happened to witness his sly actions with the oil merchant, shuffled quickly to the palace. Immediately, they informed the princess of his unsavory intentions. When the oil arrived a short while later, the Princess ordered that it be burned and the intricately decorated bottle in which it was stored, be buried. However, the tale takes a drastically darker turn...

During the burning of the oil outside the palace walls, a small drop of the oil was gathered up by a gust of wind as it was poured on the fire. It landed on a huge boulder near the dirt track next to the fortress.

Shortly after, Sinhia made his way triumphantly back toward the palace, eagerly awaiting the arrival of his princess after bathing in the oil. All of a sudden, the boulder that caught the oil, cracked and groaned like a demonic entity. It appeared to loosen itself from the wall and charged at Sinhia like a raging bull. Lost in his lustful thoughts, the occultist failed to see the destructive mountain-sized rock hurtling towards him and within seconds, was crushed beneath its powerful impact.

In agonizing pain, distraught, and knowing death was imminent, the heartbroken and crippled Sinhia cursed the palace and all who dwelled there, including the townsfolk. Within a year, a destructive war unexpectedly broke out between Bhangarh and the nearby village of Ajabgarh. Atrocities befell the Bhangarh townsfolk and the princess was mercilessly killed, leaving behind a soulless maze.

What lurks within the fort’s walls?

Naturally, something disturbing lurks within Bhangargh Fort’s dark walls. After all the glamour, hope, excitement, horror, love, and tragedy, it should bare no surprise.

Could it be the angry soul of the princess seeking revenge for the demise of her town and people? Perhaps it could also be the love-sick devastated spirit of the occultist desperately trying to execute his love-sick plan for the rest of eternity? Maybe it’s the sadistic nature of the Guru bestowing misfortune on anybody who dares enter the town or fort to this very day? Let’s take a look at the reported phenomena and you can decide for yourself.

Strange disappearances

Interestingly, the government has imposed a warning that all visitors to the town and fort should vacate the premises before sunset and not return until sunrise the following morning. This message is relayed by a never-ending display of notice boards all over the town and on the outskirts. There are many tales of people who have ignored such warnings and have never been seen again.

One tragic tale involves two curious young boys who decided to hide in one of the fort’s desolate rooms as night fell. The boys hid from security officers who nervously completed their evening checks, before quickly leaving the premises themselves. Shortly after, the boys were left all alone as darkness and silence engulfed the town and its foreboding fort. They were never seen again. Not a single trace of life, clothing, or struggle was left behind. It was as if the boys had simply vanished into thin air. To this very day, there are no further answers to this tragic and confusing tale.

Well of tragedy

Similarly, upon hearing of the disappearance of the two boys, another boy decided to challenge the wrath of Bhangarh. Arming himself with lighting equipment, the boy paraded around the fort and surrounding town in the dead of night. Curiously, he slipped and plummeted to the bottom of a well, where he unwillingly and badly injured, spent the rest of the night.

The next morning, in agonizing pain, the boy was discovered by staff and rushed to the local hospital. However, tragically and unsurprisingly, as stated by locals, the car in which the boy was being transported suffered a head-on collision with an oncoming lorry. The driver and everybody else in the car, including the boy, were instantly killed.

The mysterious boy

Another less tragic incident involved a large group of ghost-hunting enthusiasts. They managed to persuade the keeper of the fort to allow them inside just before midnight. Despite the keeper’s warning, the enthusiastic team went inside. After anxiously parading the premises, they entered the fort. Within one of the rooms, looming in the darkness, was the figure of a young boy. When questioned about how he had entered the fort or why he was there, the figure quietly moved back into the darkness and was never seen again. Not a sound was made, and the team was left alone again, unnerved by what they had seen.

Upon further investigation, the team realized that there were no windows, doors or any other entrance that the boy could have used to enter the fort. It had been locked and bolted at sunset. The security team, upon completing their evening checks before closing up, had not seen a boy in the area.

An orchestra of unnerving sounds

Despite not being allowed anywhere near the town or fort after sunset, some folk possess a strong disposition. Although not brave enough to go inside, they lurk as close to the boundary lines as possible. Many have reported an array of strange wailing sounds coming from the town in the dead of night and ghastly groans and wails emanating from the towers of the fort.

Sometimes, simultaneous noises create what is often described as ‘an orchestra from hell’. Although there are claims that the sounds could be from animals, they appear to have been refuted as the sounds bear no resemblance to the local wildlife. According to many people who live near the town and fort, animals, for some reason, appear to stay away...

Apparitions, broken roofs, and mysterious parties

Again, those who choose to venture past the many sign-posted warnings claim they can hear the delicate sounds of distant partying. Although people never get close enough to hear the dialogues, it is evident that some sort of ‘ethereal’ celebration is taking place. In addition, from a distance, have identified strange white and bright glowing mists standing on what appear to be the roofs of buildings. Oddly, many of the fort’s roofs collapsed centuries ago.

Speaking of roofs, there also appears to be a never-ending cycle of ‘continuous collapsing roofs’. After some roofless buildings have been renovated or restored, they collapse again. Despite the work, investigation and efforts of professional builders, no rational explanation is has ever been conveyed. Could it be that the Guru and Occultist, who bestowed such devastation on the town and fort, intended it to last for an eternity?

The Bhangarh Fort certainly has a catastrophic and unusual history that suits the tales associated with it. True or not, people clearly enjoy the ancient architecture and remnants of the past when they come to visit. As for staying after nightfall, it seems that remnants of a different kind are waiting to be accessed. Proceed with caution!

The Dormant Horrors of Beach Army Hospital

Those in the paranormal community are a thorough bunch. They leave no stone unturned, no forest unsearched, and no dark corner of any state unexplored. They’ve outed every ghost, documented every haunt, explored every rumor and shrapnel of mythical lore, and yet, here I find myself, alone in the damp and crumbling halls of a building for which no record exists and no investigator has ever truly set foot in. Here, on the periphery of the Mineral Wells city limits, abandoned in the barren fields of this dreary town; I am alone in the Beach Army Hospital.

Beach Army Hospital Researched

I’ve done my research, and the only indisputable fact I can spew about this building is that in the eyes of the world, it might as well not even exist. There are no videos of overnight hunts, no independent publications or blogs that have been written, and no record of it’s past with the Mineral Wells Chamber of Commerce. It once served as an installation of the Fort Wolters Military base. It was a hospital devoted to treating active-duty military personnel, but when Fort Wolters shuttered its doors at the end of the Vietnam War, so too did this facility. So here it has sat since the early 1970s, and here I stand in 2020. The first paranormal investigator ever granted access to the structure in nearly half a century.

I stumbled upon this enigmatic situation at the behest of Brett Hobson, the owner of Beach Army Hospital, LLC. In an effort to help fund the hospital's renovations, Hobson wants to open the doors of Beach Army Hospital for the world to see and wants to do so by allowing private overnight ghost hunts of the facility to any team brave enough to venture to its location.

The dark Past

The site of countless deaths, due to the building's operation as a hospital. There is also the looming threat of something sinister. Hobson and his family had the misfortune of discovering the building had been used as the destination for numerous satanic rituals. They discovered pentagrams and upside-down crosses painted on the walls of a former patient's bedroom. According to Hobson, the energy inside the room was so strong “the family dog nearly jumped out of the second-story window when brought in there.”

While there is no doubt in my mind that Beach Army Hospital will quickly prove itself to be amongst the most haunted locations in Texas, if not the country, it’s the spotlight in the paranormal community that will be short-lived. With construction on the building set to begin later this fall, there will only be a few months open for investigators to explore the inside of the building. Then it will close and at that time it will become the Perfect Technician Academy - a local trades training school catering to the veteran community - has announced they will be leasing the building for their own use. What’s more, with the spirits inside having had no interaction with the living in decades, those few months of investigations are poised to yield some utterly groundbreaking evidence of spirits who are eager to make themselves known.

Voices Heard

The disembodied voices of men and women linger in the stairways and halls. The blackened apparitions of former patients can be seen lurking in shadowed corners. The shuffling of phantom footsteps can be heard all around you, and the resident poltergeists are quick to move objects before your very eyes. All of this evidence and more deserve to be captured, and it will be up to you and your team to do so. Visit The Haunted Historian (@haunted.historian) on Instagram for a link to the locations website for bookings, and prepare to conduct an investigation unlike any you’ve ever done before. Happy hunting!

The Meaning of the Mirror Worlds Research

At an online conference on the Theories of Psi in March of 2022, I first met professor Russell Gruber.

As we were chit chatting, I learned that he had done a great deal of research into psychic ability over the years, but that he hadn’t published it and barely anyone knew about it. Writing about psi research is what I do, so after a few discussions we agreed that I would write an article about his 18 years of psi research conducted at the University of Eastern Illinois.

You can find the article here: https://paranormaldailynews.com/skeptics-psychic-psi-missing/1394/

The Mirror Worlds research is so named because the experiments uncover a strong correlation between what people believe, how they act, and their performance on psychic tasks. On a graph, you can see quite plainly that there are people who exceed chance results at a psychic task, but also that there are people who exceed chance results by being unsuccessful at the same task. If you look at this on a bar graph, these two results mirror each other in opposite directions.

The research is valuable to parapsychology because it strongly validates some properties of psychic ability known to other researchers, but not as fully explored.

Superpsi or telepathy?

Telepathy, for example, has been theorized to be either clairvoyance or precognition. This is the origin problem of not knowing where psi information comes from because our consciousness is a kind of black box in that it’s impossible to objectively observe what’s happening. Psychic ability is not a physical process, so there is nothing to measure or watch as it happens. What that means is that we’re not sure what’s actually happening with telepathy and mediumship. How are people getting the information? We don’t know. It could be coming from where people think it’s coming from, but it could also be some combination of clairvoyance and precognition.

(I’ve never been a fan of the SuperPsi or precognition hypothesis. While technically feasible, it doesn’t match up well with human experience. Superpsi and precognition seem to be “taking the long way” to getting the answer.)

In one of the Mirror Worlds studies, Gruber had the senders intentionally deceive the receiver by telepathically sending the wrong answer. If the superpsi or precognition hypothesis were true, then this should not affect the choice of the receiver, as the senders would be bypassed in favor of the receiver getting the answer directly through clairvoyance or precognition.

But that’s not what happened. The receiver consistently got the wrong answers that the senders were sending and not the correct answer. This strongly supports the hypothesis that telepathy is what was actually happening in the experiments and not clairvoyance or precognition.

People Are Psychic, But in Different Ways

Image: Canva

Gruber’s research made heavy use of the mirror worlds effect, which validated a known testing condition also known as the Differential Effect, that was almost unknown in the field. If you gather enough information about the personalities and beliefs of participants, you can often find that the data divides according to various criteria, the strongest of which is the belief or lack of belief in, psychic ability. That division is a very strong indicator that you’re not getting chance results.

The idea that test results can be affected by belief suggests something important: It leads to a more fluid idea of objective reality. We are all somewhat blinded by our beliefs , as this research shows, and at some deeper level of our subconscious we know the outcome of various paths we’re about to take. Our beliefs will cause us to choose the outcome that matches those beliefs most closely, whether it is what we consciously want to achieve or not. This can be somewhat difficult to wrap your head around, but everyday examples abound, particularly in romance where the effects of deeply held beliefs are particularly obvious.

For example, there are always those men and women who find themselves in toxic relationships over and over again, even if they aren’t particularly toxic themselves. A subconscious belief about their own self worth is causing them to not only ignore warning signs, but also to actively, psychically choose to bond with people who are toxic. Meanwhile, other people seem to be able to consistently avoid that type of person.

The Mirror World studies expose one of the mechanisms responsible for consistently making choices which are not in line with what a person might consciously want.

What this means for Psi Research: Our Subconscious Is In Control

How we perform at psychic tasks is an indication of what is coming from our subconscious and it is very important to be aware of this because it has a huge effect on what we experience. Psychic ability is also intuition. It’s our ability to make the right decisions with limited information. What we subconsciously believe affects our ability to make those decisions.

This can either be an accumulation of small decisions or a few larger ones. This can lead to very negative or positive outcomes generally, as we might miss clues that something is wrong and end up in a bad situation or instinctively recognize a hidden opportunity and become quite successful. What this research is showing us is that those outcomes don’t come from nowhere. Our subconscious is constantly nudging us based on our deepest beliefs.

Some people are lucky in love, or lucky in financial stability, or lucky in staying healthy. They may not be lucky in any of them or only lucky in one or two of them. This luck appears to be the result of subconscious beliefs driving us in certain directions.

To sum it up, I think that we all need to be aware that our largely ignored subconscious is playing a much larger role in our lives than we imagine. What we consciously desire can be sabotaged by our subconscious, beyond our conscious ability to access it.

It’s a much bigger deal than we give it credit for.

A Truck driver's dashcam catches a ghost on Highway 87, sparking a frenzy in paranormal interest;

During the footage on YouTube, there were several comments that reported similar incidents along highways. One person remarked that the highway in question, route 87, was “incredibly creepy” at nighttime.

A video which has hit over 1.7 million views on YouTube shows a truck driver's dashcam footage of a ghostly figure walking along Arizona Route 87. The interest in the footage has sparked a debate over the supernatural and hauntings along highways in America.

Back in March, truck driver William Church was driving late at night when his dashcam captured a white figure standing on the side of the road. Church, whose truck was traveling between Phoenix and Payson, was near the 200-mile mark when he noticed something resembling a person but with a “bright glare.” Later, when he checked his dashcam, it confirmed what seems to be a white ghostly figure.

The truck driver said that there “Were no other vehicles on site” and “you (could) see the lines on the road through the figure's legs”.

Historical Ghost On Highway 87 Still Haunts

In 1926, US Route 185 was formed and extended from Route 85 in Cheyenne north to Orin. In 1936, it was changed to the southern extension and realignment of the US 87. This originally ran from the Canadian Border at the Piegan Border Crossing. In 1934, it was routed via Glacier Park, and then in 1945 extended to the current northern terminus in Havre, Montana. The route is 3215 km long and runs through five states; Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming and Montana. In the early '50s, a Maricopa County supervisor named Jim Hart, who had a cabin in Payson, persuaded the Salt River Pima and Fort McDowell Yavapai tribes to give up a diagonal right-of-way across their reservations. That's how the highway got its name. The shortcut made it a beeline from Phoenix to Payson.

Route 87 has been the centre of many missing people over the years, the first one back in the 70’s, when a hitchhiker was reported missing and has never been found. Most recently was the discovery of twin brothers, who were shot and set on fire along the Beeline highway. Other incidents along the beeline part of Route 87 include; A shooting spear in 2017; James David was arrested after killing one and leaving several injured. In 2022 an 18-year-old; was charged with killing four people after causing an accident along the highway.

During the footage on YouTube, there were several comments that reported similar incidents along highways. One person remarked that the highway in question, route 87, was “incredibly creepy” at nighttime.

Another was quoted as saying;

“Seen a ghost standing next to a small drainage bridge. We investigated any accidents in that area when we got home and a guy died in a car accident a day before at that location. The picture in the paper showed the guy in a red shirt and blue jeans. When we saw the apparition, it had a red shirt and blue pants. Real freaky”

While another comment went on to say

“Most definitely, he caught a spirit apparition. If you look closely, you can see what looks like a foot that appears first, then the rest of the body. That stretch of highway has seen so many accidents with fatalities. Sometimes when you die, suddenly, your spirit is stuck in that place where you died. Driving down that stretch at night around 3 am is really creepy, and I have seen stuff like this alongside the roads. There is so much stuff we can't explain.”

The clip has started a discussion on the many incidents that have happened on highways all across America. Many paranormal activities happen during the night in these places. None of the comments or reports confirms the sighting as a ghost, but many suggest that they agree with the truck driver's conclusion.

It is apparent from the comments that there is still much debate about paranormal activities in general. It would be interesting for media outlets to report more on these sightings. There is a correlation between incidents of horrific deaths and paranormal sightings. With many missing person reports, deaths by car accidents, and murders happening along Route 87 and other highways, this should be investigated further. Have you seen the ghost on highway 87? We want to know.

https://knewz.com/truck-driver-claims-to-see-ghost-on-notoriously-spooky-arizona-state-route-87/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Route_87

https://www.wptv.com/news/palm-beach-county/region-n-palm-beach-county/suspect-guilty-of-murder-after-twins-found-burned-along-beeline-highway-in-2017#:~:text=Jullian%20Cathirell%20is%20one%20of,Highway%20on%20March%2015%2C%202017.

https://eu.palmbeachpost.com/story/news/crime/2022/04/19/plea-deal-beeline-highway-crash-killed-4-rejected-lenient/7335529001/

Ghost? Glare? Arizona trucker shares footage of chilling sighting