Dr Richard Gallagher: Evidence for Evil Spirits (1)

​Who believed in magic when they were a child? I did. Even before I learned to read. My first favourite book was Enid Blyton’s Magic Faraway Tree and I couldn’t put it down because it filled me with joy and wonder. I was also blessed to have scant awareness of ‘evil spirits’ and so called ‘dark forces’ and even avoided our illustrated children’s bible because the scary images freaked me out too much. I had a similar experience much later in life when I connected with Jock Brocas and began writing and editing articles for his Afterlife Magazine, but it took me awhile to warm to his Paranormal Daily News publication primarily because of the predominantly dark imagery that accompanied most of the articles. I was the ultimate scaredy cat.

That was around 2016 but my timely, parallel shamanic healing art and energy medicine studies gradually helped me create a more balanced perspective about the ‘dark side’. I also learned that healing our wounds and traumas serves to strengthen, expand and protect our innate light and frequency, so much so that the lower, pesky, daemonic entities don’t have a hope in hell of getting anywhere near us no matter how hard they may try. Only then was I able to start editing PDN articles and contributing a few of my own. And ironically, my subsequent and unexpected research travels into horrific hidden realms of the death/blood cult world, served to dissolve all of my fears.

The parallel death/blood cult world has existed for thousands of years but has largely remained conveniently out of sight because historically, the majority of men and women the world over, never allowed the horrific sex and sacrifice rituals involving babies and children to be ‘normalized’. And nor should they be. That said, the word cult has also been extremely muddied and misconstrued in the western world in particularly, probably because of the socially engineered mass ignorance about the occult in general. For the record:

(Etymonline)

Abundant eyewitness evidence for evil spirits

​Given that the overarching theme of this article revolves around ‘evidence for evil spirits’, sensitive readers may find the following revelations extremely disturbing. But the wider community must be made aware of the fact that millions of babies and children are suffering beyond belief on our planet, 24/7, and that the government enabled child/human trafficking ‘industry’ is now alleged to being the trillions, rather than billions. Only then will we be able to link arms and demand full exposure, change and legislation to stop these and other horrific death cult crimes from continuing.

When generational cult survivor testimonials began to cross my path in 2020, I was horrified to my core by the amount of child sacrifice that goes on in the names of Moloch, Satan, Lucifer and other dark entities that I previously thought were mere myths; the violent ‘sex majik’ rituals involving babies and children that allegedly enable their equally violated abusers to access portals and supernatural powers; the male sorcerers who believe they can access other dimensions of galaxies and commune with ‘older and stronger entities than god’ through sex with young boys.

Former Freemason turned educator Dr Selwyn Stevens will tell you that Freemasons make energetic connections with dark entities when they take their oaths, and dark entities 'attach' to the energetic signature/DNA of the host via the chakra portal which the oath relates to. This is how curse energy can be passed down through generations within families. Ex freemason Dr. William (Bill) Schnoebelen will tell you about the little known masonic ‘Royal Secret’ belief that you can live forever by sexually vampirising children; and when he swore his oath to Satan and signed his name in blood, he was obligated to finding seven people to sell their souls to the devil, sort of like multi-level marketing, but for the devil.

Masonic abuse survivor and award winning investigative journalist Phoenix Caspian mirrors the growing ‘ponzi scheme’ claims of other masonic whistleblowers: “Most Freemasons think they are being given occult knowledge and power. In fact, they are being initiated into a giant ponzi scheme. In return for providing the 'higher' Freemasons with 'kompromat' (self-incriminating blackmail material) the initiate is advanced up the 'degrees' of the Freemasonic hierarchy. As a Freemason attains more 'power' they are installed in 'higher' positions of authority by those at the top of the ranks... It is for this reason that many court judges, politicians, business 'leaders', and police officers are Freemasons.” (The Cloud Pyramids)

Innocent children should not be forced to witness the reality of evil spirits

After many hours of listening to cult survivor testimonials, and reading comprehensive military intelligence reports, books and articles penned by esoteric/metaphysical scholars, researchers and cult whistleblowers, I developed a sense of deep empathy for anyone trapped in the chronically sad death cult realm. I am also of the view that no child should born into such extreme and traumatizing darkness where witnessing children and animals being murdered and evil spirits manifesting in front of them in frenzied rituals, becomes their ‘normal’. No child should be so brutally deprived of their sacred innocence; of ever experiencing the wonders of childhood - the joy, love, laughter, fun and adventure.

Equally concerning is the danger that generational cult children pose to themselves and others as adults if there is no intervention. Tragically, deliberately breaking the mother-child bond at birth is key to controlling generational cult children - and all children - well into adulthood, and many children die at the hands of cult predators in ‘privileged’ aristocratic bloodlines, some of whom are so psychopathic that they ‘kill for fun.’ And get away with it. Then there are the men and women who are recruited into the various cult groups and don’t understand what they are getting themselves into until it’s too late. Another reason why basic occult and cult awareness and education is so important, especially during these crazy times when a minority of generational cult bloodlines that have lost their way so severely, are desperately trying to force the general population into accepting their horrifically wicked practices and subjecting all children to submit to extreme practices that inflict extreme trauma and suffering.

More recently, I received first hand information about an illuminati-driven baby/child murder and ‘soul stealing’ crisis in Adelaide, South Australia, during a brief online interaction with a woman who is a survivor of the illuminati’s cruel and damaging Monarch program. She made a public plea to the Police Commissioner to intervene because things were so out of control. Our comments were swiftly deleted but I found out more about her via her seemingly crazy podcast. The conveniently hidden horror show she speaks of appears to be largely driven by mentally diseased death cult diehards, illicit drugs and frenzied cult rituals that turn into murderfests and violent cannibalism of babies and young children. Adults are also killed and eaten during ‘spirit cooking rituals, and there is also no shortage of testimonials about evil entities manifesting in our earthly realm from the fourth dimension during rituals.

The CIA & Project Monarch Report

Author Ron Patton encapsulates the Monarch Project in his comprehensive Monarch Report - Full History, which all moral legislators and law enforcement men and women should read:

​'... A form of structured dissociation and occultic integration, in order to compartmentalize the mind into multiple personalities within a systematic framework. During this process, a Satanic ritual, usually including Cabalistic mysticism, is performed with the purpose of attaching a particular demon or group of demons to the corresponding alter(s). Of course, most skeptics would view this as simply a means to enhance trauma within the victim. negating any irrational belief that demonic possession actually occurs.'

Another common thread I discovered in my dark occult travels was a cult dependency on instructions and rituals from old books written by prominent, long dead occultists whose heavy hearts and minds were filled with old beliefs and uncontrollable addictions to violent sexual and sacrificial blood rituals. Some cult bloodlines have family members who are so far gone that they can’t live without daily blood baths. Then there is the belief that ingesting ‘young blood’ known as adrenochrome will keep you young and many people with money to burn are severely addicted. The lucrative adrenochrome ‘young blood’ black market is also booming, with elitist addicts from a broad range of professions having no regard for the extreme suffering of babies and children that provide them with their vanity drug. Withdrawal is allegedly worse than heroin.

Death/Blood Cult definitions

One of the most succinct definitions of the death/blood cult that I came across in my research travels was provided in a newsletter written by GAB CEO Andrew Torba:

At its core, this ideology venerates death. It champions the right to end innocent life in the womb, rebranding the slaughter of the unborn as “healthcare” and a sacred right. It encourages the chemical and surgical mutilation of healthy young bodies, a grotesque parody of medicine that severs the individual from their own biological reality. It pushes policies that dissolve the fundamental bonds of family and community, leaving isolated, atomized individuals adrift in a meaningless sea of consumer choices and state dependency.’

Another astute death cult educator and survivor is Max Lowen, whose latest article poses a wise question: Epstein Disclosure: How do we move forward? Lowen was sex trafficked through elitist circles and major institutions as a child, witnessed terrifying entities manifest at VIP rituals involving child rape and murder that still haunt her today, and eventually found her way out of the darkness and onto her healing path. She is now a trauma counsellor, podcaster, writer and contributor to various health and healing forums including the World Council for Health (1)

​Writes Max Lowen: ‘The sacrifice of children is nothing new. In ancient cultures babies were sacrificed to Moloch by being burnt alive as offerings. This cult ritual simply went underground in more modern times, literally under the ground at the Vatican, under the UN and other global organizations, in DUMBS, tunnels and other locations. I myself witnessed these sacrifices in the subterranean levels of the Vatican and at Elite events. The sacrifice of children also occurs above ground via the medical-pharmaceutical companies through vaccines, medications and transgender surgeries.’

With regard to Lowen’s question of how do we move forward, I would recommend the establishment of a global Truth and Restorative Justice Commission to assist cult survivors and victims of cult crimes be heard, acknowledged and compensated for decades of government and law enforcement negligence, and their perpetrators investigated and dealt with. Only then will they be able to focus on their healing journey and creating the life that they wish to live that is free from cult harassment and revenge attacks. Government run inquiries tend to provide recommendations for reform, but more often than not, they are not acted upon. Time for a new and independent strategy.

‘Dark to Light’ Translates to ‘Satan to Lucifer’

After five years of researching the many facets of this parallel death/blood cult world, I have concluded that power, politics, wealth and frenzied, bloodied, dark occult rituals have become far more intertwined than they should be, and the current state of mentally diseased play at the highest levels is detrimental to the mental and spiritual health of the world at large. This includes both innocent, unaware people and practicing dark occultists who are commonly known as sorcerers, queen mothers of darkness, warlocks, witches, high priestesses and various other labels. I have also concluded that the seemingly ‘privileged’ luciferian and satanic bloodlines are behaving like arrogant, power-abusing racketeers and can’t realistically expect the world to comply with their brazen attempts to the normalize demonic worshipping which includes adult sex with children and child sacrifice. And in their world, Dark to Light translates to Satan to Lucifer.

Should you be interested in learning more, I highly recommend this video essay by author, religious scholar and broadcaster Charles Swindoll Jr – Lucifer and the Luciferians: Masters of Deception.

Writes Chuck Swindoll Jr:

‘Luciferians have run the world since organized human history began. They have been steering and shaping the planetary cultural vector since long before the United States, Rome, or even the Egyptians. The cult goes way back. It is also known as ‘The Old Religion’.

They have maintained direct contact with a fourth dimensional being known as Lucifer for thousands of years. Luciferians communicate directly with Lucifer through the ritual practice of child sacrifice. This practice to evoke and convene with Leviathan originated in the cult of Baal. Baal is just a name for Leviathan or Lucifer or Moloch, which all reference the same energy - the cult of Baal... the ancient precursor to luciferianism which I personally consider to be simply a formalized and highly organized cult of Baal...’

‘Luciferianism is both a religion and a bloodline. Satanism is a lower echelon of luciferianism for those outside the bloodline, and wealth prerequisites to qualify as a true luciferian. Money can buy you into the luciferian cult but only bloodline accesses leadership. The highest ranks in the luciferian cult are not voted in, they are bestowed rank through female genetic lineage carefully steered by the cult through select breeding within the blue blood family lines like a king's executive rulership is stowed to his firstborn son.

Luciferians involve thirteen bloodline families plus one hidden royal bloodline, instead of just one family ruling like an imperial kingly monarchy. Luciferians have many at the top so it's a bit more complicated and integrates many more ranking members. There is much disagreement and infighting and personal agenda between the families but they all follow a singular agenda and that is to control and rule the planet.’

​Names are changed in luciferianism to hide the true identities of the individuals, or virtually every name in US Congress would be one of those 14 families and it would be obvious a coup has been pilfering the USA since its inception.

Wise Advice for Aspiring Dark Occultists

To conclude this part of my article, here is a timely quote from Leo Zagami’s comprehensive and insightful book Invisible Master - The Puppeteers Hidden Power. Zagami was born into a ‘black nobility’, masonic, illuminati bloodline and became hugely unpopular when he decided to blow the whistle on all the corruption and other criminal cult shenanigans that were going on behind the scenes, at great personal cost. This memorable revelation sums up what often happens to the majority of practicing occultists in the long term, so please keep this in mind if you decide to exercise your free will choice and dive head first into the dark side:

Writes Leo Zagami:

‘Aleister Crowley’s teachings influence members through initiation rituals for various degrees of his order, the Ordo Templi Orientis, and other sects. They are believed to gradually and consciously distort the chakra energy, polluting them so badly and sometimes irreversibly, to facilitate the demonic control of their minions.

Unfortunately, they think they are elevating themselves to new levels of consciousness, but they are actually doing the exact opposite, falling most of the time into the abyss that Crowley described as the last impediment before illumination. The risk of being overwhelmed by the abyss is high, even for a high level Initiate, as Crowley pointed out. Hence the famous admonition of Crowley, ‘Babe of the Abyss’ which appeared in his famous work called The Book of Lies, published in 1913…of being literally vampirized by interdimensional alien entities, something that happens to the majority of practicing occultists.’

Are spiritually ignorant mental health professionals detrimental to clients?

‘There are non-material realities that are impossible to adjudicate by what we now know as the modern scientific method.’ Dr Richard Gallagher

​This article was originally inspired by PDN Editor-in-Chief Jock Brocas’s Deadly Departed podcast with Professor of Psychiatry Dr Richard Gallagher. Their compelling, multi-faceted discussion about evidence of evil spirits captured my interest because of a ‘near-death experience’ in my late 20s, caused by a spiritually ignorant and extremely dismissive psychiatrist. I was traumatized by a debilitating assault perpetrated by white collar criminals whilst working in Adelaide’s frenetic media industry, which coincided with my spontaneous and wondrous spiritual awakening (of sorts) that sadly descended into something akin to a ‘crazy’ spiritual crisis. I suffered more damage and distress at the hands of this psychiatrist who completely overlooked my spiritual confusion and also the heinous crimes that were committed against me.

Her knowledge and experience with mental health imbalances and disturbances were severely limited to textbook diagnostics and treatment with antipsychotic drugs. Within weeks, her ‘treatment plan’ almost culminated in my untimely death from a drug overdose, despite having zero suicidal thoughts prior to seeing her. When I told her that her deadly drugs nearly caused me to kill myself, she refused to listen, dismissed my warranted distress and told me that I was ‘highly creative’ and needed lithium. I could not believe what I was hearing and furiously told her to stick her drugs and that I was done with her shocking abuse. I walked out and never saw her again. My mother flushed the remaining deadly pills down the tra-la-la, and I eventually recovered enough to pack my bags and limp out of town. Several years later, I was informed that the psychiatrist suffered a nervous breakdown soon after our sessions ended. In hindsight, it was a dark time for us both, and she did me a huge favor by scaring me away from Australia’s mainstream mental illness system for life.

I don’t blame her for not having any idea about things like ‘spiritual crises,’ ‘psychic attacks,’ and even ‘demonic attacks’ because the Australian mental health curriculum simply didn’t ‘go there’ and probably still doesn’t, which is not only blinkered, but dangerous and backward. While I’m sure there is a place for anti-psychotic medication in certain cases, these days we seem to have an over-prescribing crisis where pill-profits and willful ignorance of the reality of spiritual imbalances, disturbances and crises override the primary goal of mental health practitioners - to help clients regain a balanced mental state and their life. Instead, suffering is often made even worse by the ongoing medication dependency, dysfunction and inevitable poverty which places even more pressure on the buckling welfare system.

Needless to say, listening to the Deadly Departed discussion about evidence of evil spirits with Jock Brocas and Dr Richard Gallagher, was divine music to my ears. Gallagher is also a psychoanalyst, Catholic scholar, member and scientific advisor to the International Association of Exorcists since the 1990s, and author of Demonic Foes: My Twenty-Five Years as a Psychiatrist Investigating Possessions, Diabolic Attacks, and the Paranormal. His book deserves a place on the reading list of all mental health study curriculums worldwide. And if the psychiatrist that I saw for those few dark months in early 1990 is still alive, she needs to read it too. As do her peers.

Deadly Departed Podcast: The Evidence for Evil Spirits

Premiered December 15, 2025 - Runtime 1 hr

Deadly Departed Podcast Quote – Dr Richard Gallagher:

‘I believe that what I write about is genuine knowledge. It's just that it doesn't fit the paradigm, if you will, of being able to do scientific experiments. In other words... when you're dealing with... evil spirits, you're dealing with creatures that want to confuse people and want to hide people. They're not going to be able to be subject for experimentation in a modern scientific sense. They also are perfectly capable of interfering with the study of them.’

Brocas and Gallagher explore one of humanity’s most enduring questions: Are evil spirits real, or simply the stuff of stories and superstition? Despite the expected level of skepticism in scientific and medical circles, it’s heartening to learn that a significant number of mental health professionals do believe in the existence of evil spirits. But are they adequately equipped with the knowledge and understanding they need to effectively address potential spiritual imbalances or interferences? If more mainstream professionals collaborated with experienced, competent spiritual interventionists to help them determine the root cause of ‘mysterious’ or ‘bizarre’ mental and emotional issues, they are bound to assist more clients return to a balanced state of health and wellbeing; a healthier outcome for the practitioner and client alike.

Evidence for Evil Spirits Podcast Key Points

• Evil spirits: Belief persists worldwide, historically and today, with anecdotal evidence mounting from credible experts and centuries of reports.
• Materialism vs. spiritual worldview: Science provides tools for investigation, but some phenomena demand approaches that transcend materialist boundaries.
• Discernment is key: Not every evil act is caused by possession; careful investigation and rational analysis prevent over-attribution.
• The conversation continues: Empirical research, open-mindedness, and balanced education are vital as we seek to understand anomalous experiences.

---

Part 2 of Deadly Departed: Evidence for Evil Spirits - includes notable transcript highlights.

​References

Chuck Swindoll Jr Video Essay (28 March 2020 - 36 mins): Lucifer and Luciferians: Masters of Deception

​*The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis (1942) was written in a satirical, epistolary style as a series of 31 letters from a senior demon, Screwtape, to his nephew, Wormwood, and explores the subtle ways demons attempt to lead humans away from God, using psychological manipulation and spiritual deception.

1. World Council for Health forum: Trauma-based Mind Control and Organized Ritual Abuse - A Healing Exploration.

Further Recommended Viewing

​Redacted Report (13 Feb 2026 - 39 mins) : The ‘Eyes Wide Shut’ Epstein CONNECTION is Dark and Disturbing

Man in America with Max Lowen (21 Feb 2026 - 24 mins) Is the World Run by a Satanic Cult?

50 Voices of Ritual Abuse (August 23, 2023 - 8 mins) - Max Lowen Testimony

​Almost False (March 25, 2025 - 1 hr 15 mins): Former 33rd Degree Mason Reveals the Darkest Secrets of Freemasonry

Almost False (April 22, 2025 - 1 hr 05 mins) The True Life Story of a Former Satanic Vampire

​Ron Patton: CIA and Project Monarch Full History Report

Haunted McNabs Island

​McNabs Island, located in the Canadian harbour of Halifax, Nova Scotia, is rife with ghost stories, legends of hidden treasure and hanged men. Settle in for a ghost story that will give you chills. The island boasts” “three abandoned military forts, a cholera quarantine in an old potters field, ruins of old family homes... a family burial plot, a former soda pop factory that ran bootleg booze during prohibition, a shipwreck cove, a beach where English redcoats hung navy deserters during the Napoleonic Wars, a forgotten lighthouse, a former Edwardian fairground, and the remnants of a cultivated Victorian botanical garden.” (Atlas Obscura)

Eerie image of McNabs Island, author’s own photo

​McNabs Island is believed to be haunted. People have reported hearing strange sounds and someone found a hole with five marker stones near Finlay. The nearby Oak Island is famous for possessing buried treasure, and only the truly foolish would risk life and limb to find it.

The Maugher Beach Lighthouse was built in 1941 near the Sherbrooke Tower site. “The other island lighthouse, McNabs Island Rear Range Lighthouse built in 1903, was replaced by skeleton towers in 1979. The waters surrounding the island became the graveyard for many ships. In 1797, HMS Tribune struck Thrumcap Shoal and sank off Herring Cove with the loss of 228 lives. Over the centuries, numerous ships were scuttled around the island. Wrecks in Ives and Wreck coves are still visible.” (Messy Nessy Chic)

Before European colonization, the local Mi’qmaq people used the island to hunt and fish. In 1794, Colonel Edward Cornwallis resided there and began a long-term military presence that would last for two hundred years. Settlers on the island found life challenging. They grew their own food or had to go to the mainland for provisions. There was no electricity except by battery and no nearby stores or services.

The European settlers brought illness with them. In 1746, France sent a fleet of 3,000 men under the command of Doc D’Anville to ally with the M’iqmaq against the British. Typhus broke out on the ship, killing 1200 men at sea. The Frenchmen were never quarantined. They set up camp and suffered through the typhus illness. The last of the fleet were left to die unburied on the rocky coastline. More settlers came from Europe, bringing infectious diseases such as typhus or smallpox with them, which infected the M’iqmaq.

In 1866, a cholera outbreak spread throughout the island. An English steamship, the SS England, was ordered to lay anchor off the island because the ship’s crew and passengers were infected with cholera. Eight hundred infected people lived on the island in tents, and food was sent to them from the mainland. The crew and the passengers were forced to remain there until the disease had run its course. There is a sad energy where the unfortunate victims of the cholera outbreak are buried, and people report a sense of being watched. (Uncomfortably Dark)

Dr. John Slayter reported that the illness was fast and brutal. The strong would survive, and the weak would perish. Two hundred people were buried in two mass graves on the island. The bodies buried at Little Thrum Cere washed out to sea, but the bodies buried at Hugonin Point remain.

McNabs Island shipwrecks and hapless victims

Shipwrecks also surround McNabs Island. Halifax Harbour is often overcast, foggy and dark. Treacherous shoals and thick fog have caused many maritime disasters. Wreck Cove is believed to have the highest number of shipwrecks in Nova Scotia. The loss of HMS Tribune in 1797 claimed two hundred lives. The ship is now in pieces, with “rusted fittings, skeletal hulls and exposed timbers”, eerie remnants of the ship’s history. People believe that the ghosts of sailors still haunt the area, doomed never to find peace. (Ghostwatch)

Peter McNab settled on the island on December 25, 1782 and his descendants lived on the island until 1935. According to Uncomfortably Dark, Peter McNab was alive and well when the gallows were still present on the island. The sound of the clanging chains that supported the dead bodies of the hapless victims of the gallows often kept him awake at night. The sound annoyed him so badly that he gathered his best mates, and they tore down the corpses and gallows with their bare hands.

McNabs Island played an important role in the defense of Halifax from the 1800s to the Cold War of the 1950s. The first fortification was Sherbrooke Tower, a Martello tower constructed in the early 1800s which was later converted to a lighthouse where Abraham Gesner tested his kerosene invention in 1851. In the 1860s, the British built Fort Ives, followed by Fort McNab in the 1880s, and Hugonin Battery in 1899. The Canadian military built Strawberry Battery, which is not accessible to visitors, during the Second World War.

Maugher Beach Lighthouse

​Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

McNab’s Island was significant in terms of its strategic location of the defence of Halifax. During the Napoleonic wars and other wars, the island was garrisoned, ready to guard the harbour. The military presence waned after the Second World War, but the relics of gun emplacements, pillboxes and underground stores remain, bestowing an eerie atmosphere to the island.

Peter McNab’s headless ghost

Peter McNab was a man with a good business sense, but bad luck followed him. He bought an aged fairground with hopes of restoring it and earning a fortune. He hoped to attract attendees, but was unsuccessful. He revived the old merry-go-round and added other games, but it still failed. He erected a soda factory in a barn next to his old house, and in 1908, he brewed flavorful beverages in ceramic bottles. He offered bottles to visitors of the fairgrounds, and threw parties at his dance hall. Perhaps the lack of enthusiasm for his fair waned, because he stopped in 1915. In 1919, the bottle storage cottage burned to the ground, thereby ending his ill-fated fairground and soda pop business. Hundreds of glass and ceramic bottles were lost to the flames as the building burned. Bootleggers used the old place to operate a moonshine still during the prohibition in the 1920s. Avid bottle collectors still search for vintage bottles. In Halifax, my mother found a few blue glass bottles when she was digging in her garden. She cleaned them up and has kept them to this day. (Uncomfortably Dark)

It’s believed that Peter McNab’s headless ghost still haunts the island searching for something. His old soda bottles? One more spectral ride on a merry-go-round? Only time will tell. McNab’s old family home and graveyard are the focal points for these enduring ghost stories.

More spooky phenomena have been reported on McNabs Island, including apparitions and unexplained sounds. There were accounts of a ghostly horse and carriage rattling down the old paths, and sightings of an unknown man who has never been identified. It’s hard to identify a man when he’s dead. Dead men tell no tales.

McNabs Island books

​If you are curious to learn more about McNabs Island, then the following books may satisfy your curiosity, such as Bluenose Ghosts written by the celebrated folklore author Helen Creighton, or Steve Vernon’s Haunted Harbours: Ghost Stories from Old Nova Scotia. Both books are sure to give you chills. You will read with the light left on all night! Bruce Scott’s book, The Last Farm on McNabs Island, is a portrait of the island’s spooky history, with anecdotes, photographs and maps. Thomas Raddall’s book Hangman’s Beach portrays the history of McNabs Island.

Here is a short quote from the book Hangman’s Beach: “The other Frenchmen tell me it is hell turned inside out – a torture of cold instead of heat. An eternity of short days and long black nights, with snow to the hips, and an air cold enough to freeze a brass monkey’s double-shot. Why France ever owned or fought for this country I shall never know. It is not for Frenchmen, this, unless one could arrive in April and depart by November. For the rest of the year the Devil can have it - he’s an Englishman, of course.”

Today, the island remains mostly uninhabited, unless you include the dead. The Friends of McNabs Island is a volunteer, nonprofit, registered charity based in Halifax, Nova Scotia and established in 1990, dedicated to preserving McNabs Island. The island is protected as parkland, preserving its natural beauty and eerie history, promoted as a nature park and outdoor classroom. They host various events on the island, nature tours and a beach clean-up, which I once participated in. The society publishes brochures, guidebooks, posters and newsletters. They host events such as a Fall Foliage Tour, a Heritage Tour, Nature Tour, an Adventure Tour, and a Coastal Shoreline Tour. You can find their website at: https://mcnabsisland.ca/activities for more information.

Be brave, respect the island and respect the dead. There is more to McNabs Island than meets the eye.

Links to books

The Last Farm on McNabs – Nimbus Publishing and Vagrant Press

nimbus.ca

Bluenose Ghosts (2nd Edition): Creighton, Helen, Croft, Clary: 9781551097176: Books - Amazon.ca

Bluenose Ghosts (2nd Edition): Creighton, Helen, Croft, Clary: 9781551097176: Books - Amazon.ca

a.co

Haunted Harbours : Vernon, Steve: Amazon.ca: Books

Haunted Harbours : Vernon, Steve: Amazon.ca: Books

a.co

REFERENCES

www.saltscapes.com

ghostwatch.com

A Renewed Thirst for Mediumship Standards and Development

In all walks of life, there are frauds and fakes. Wherever there is a buck to be made, these individuals will go to great lengths to extort money from innocent people. From mechanics and carpenters to bankers and lawyers. There are personalities within every niche that have no experience or training and knowledge. But they will try to dupe you with their wisdom. The world of psychics and mediums is no exception. The sad thing is, many suffering people looking for a lifeline will fall for their charms. Some would call this willful stupidity and claim it is their own fault for falling for a scam. However, suffering can make you act in ways that you would not normally succumb to. This, of course, can be detrimental to one’s life.

Spirituality or mediumship, and psychic skills are unregulated niches. They are without established standards, and it is unlikely to ever have real regulation. Therefore, it becomes an easy target for dishonest individuals exploiting people's suffering and grief. But in a unique niche that has no legislative control or definitive standards. It is fair game to the unscrupulous who target the suffering and those who grieve.

Just as one can clean up a house and easily mess it up again through free will. One thing is for certain: we won’t stop frauds and fakes from operating in the paranormal arena. It’s rather like banning guns under the constitution; it won’t stop criminals from getting them.

Horrific examples of unscrupulous psychics and mediumship

You only have to browse the internet to learn about unfortunate individuals who have been duped into psychic scams. These individuals lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in the process. A glaring example of psychic fraud is Priscilla Kelly Delmaro. As reported by the New York Times and other media outlets in 2016. She was charged with defrauding a business executive out of $713,975, and allegedly promised to reunite him with a woman he loved even after he learned she had died. Delmaro pleaded guilty to grand larceny and served jail time. Her unfortunate victim was preyed upon because of his grief and desperation. As a result, he continued to feed and be bled by her.

Curse Removal

In another case; a woman in Scotland was taken in by a psychic and lost thousands of pounds when the individual claimed she was under a dangerous curse. She claimed the only way to remove it would be a particular spell that would cost an exorbitant amount of money. Or what about the family who lost money with the promise of having wealth beyond their wildest dreams? Stories like this are far too commonplace, even more so with the rise of the internet’s over-serviced ‘psychic industry.’

Whilst we will never stamp out unscrupulous psychic frauds from exercising their free will to cash in on vulnerable, unaware people. We can help to minimize the chances of being duped and ripped off. Should we decide to seek spiritual support and guidance. This can be achieved through a combination of basic education and learning how to differentiate between genuine, ethical practitioners. Being able to discern inadequately developed practitioners and fraudsters. Improving education and protection. We are then working to raise standards and ethics in mediumship and psychic practices. Thus ensuring that mediumship standards and psychic standards and ethics are raised sufficiently to provide more education and protection.

A psychic does not the medium make

One of the greatest tragedies is when a psychic considers themselves a medium but does not understand the difference between a psychic reading and evidential messages from spirit. Nor do they understand how this can actually cause damage to an individual seeking comfort from losing a loved one. The psychic may believe that information received is coming from a discarnate, and whilst many could argue the point. It is the lack of supporting evidence of the original statement or link that will give it away.

The unscrupulous person posing as a psychic can also cause tremendous damage to the grieving. They are the worst of all because they can tap into a general statement and create a seed of fear in the vulnerable sitter who may be none the wiser. A person with some degree of real psychism within them can hit on some helpful things, but one who knowingly deceives their ‘clients’ and does it just to extract money, is worse than the lowest forms of spirit.

Not all mediums are mediums

Image: Canva

Some individuals consider themselves mediums without adequate knowledge and experience, with only a workshop or two under their belt and perhaps a few hits here and there. Then they go out into the world with a drive to heal people who are suffering from grief, which is a fallacy, in actual fact.

Grief is a necessary part of life that we all experience at some point in our lives, but the only person who can heal you through grief is yourself. In fact, grief is something that must be integrated and accepted. A medium is a conduit for spirit and can help you on your journey for a short time by providing real evidence of loved ones around you. Being able to give a reading is only a small part of the mediumship process, and becoming a medium is not like choosing a bike or new car. It is a lifestyle choice with many challenges along the path.

Professional practices

One of the best ways to protect the public and ensure the integrity of those who take up the path of mediumship, is to develop professional practices and standards that extend far beyond the basic ability to give an accurate reading. It is the whole package, being able to go beyond the limits. Walk the walk instead of just talking the talk. Of vital importance in mediumship is how a message is delivered; a delicate balance between helping and hindering. Moreover, the experience of learning the language of the soul and decoding what spirit is trying to say is a fundamental skill that can’t be learned just from a book, course or video.

There was a time when a development group and circle enabled fledgling mediums to patiently grow from mere seeds under the guidance of experienced, caring mentors, but that seems to have been lost and replaced with an ‘add water and mix’ attitude. Whether it is a drive to gain more money to make a living or some other ambition, such as the trappings of fame, there are now more untrained and undisciplined individuals labeling themselves as mediums who pose a danger to those who grieve. Some of them may not even realize that because they are unaware of traditional development groups and circles.

It is, therefore, important that mediumship standards are raised and we return our focus to development to ensure that we mirror real ambassadors of the spirit and not ambassadors of ourselves. The greatest gift we can give to those who grieve is the knowledge that our loved ones live on in spirit and that death is a mere transition.

ISSMPI - The International Society for Scientific Mediumship and Parapsychological Investigation

The ASSMPI (American Society for Scientific Mediumship and Parapsychological Investigation), now known as the ISSMPI, is a nonprofit organization that developed standards for mediumship practices many years ago. The ISSMPI developed these standards much earlier than other organizations in the US. Many individuals adopted these standards globally, which helped to ensure integrity and care within the practice of mediumship and grief. The organization continues to use and develop these standards today. However, an academic balance between mystical experiences, scientific measurements, and the intersection of lived experience remains absent. This is one new direction the organization will be taking from 2026 onward—bringing more evidence to the mystical experiences and lived experience.

Further Recommended Reading

Are Mediums and Channels Ready For Professionalization? by Craig Weiler

Helen Duncan: The Medium Who Shook a Nation by Jock Brocas

Are All ‘Professional’ Mediums the Real Deal? by Mary-Anne Kennedy

Qualities of the Best Psychic Practitioners - Observations of a Parapsychologist/Psychic Entertainer by Loyd Auerbach

Note: A Renewed Thirst for Mediumship Standards and Development by Jock Brocas was originally published the The Afterlife Magazine which has since merged with the PDN group.

Pluribus, An Apple+ Show: The Science and Metaphysics

In the TV series Pluribus, scientists receive a coded message from space that ends up being a formula for a virus like substance that infects people upon contact. Within a short time nearly all of mankind is infected with a weird hive mind that both keeps people in constant telepathic contact with one another and suppresses individuality. The infected people talk as one voice and appear to be happy and considerate, not willing to harm any living things or the immune individuals who resisted the infection.

As a parapsychology journalist, I couldn’t help but compare that to the actual science. How does this scenario of all of mankind merging its consciousness into a single mind and how does it stack up against what we know of psychic ability and biology? Is it even possible to do something like this?

Let’s get into it:

The scenario given to us in this show necessitates a universe where consciousness is fundamental to reality because telepathy doesn’t exist in a material universe. While the show suggests that EM fields are responsible for the connection, this is a physical impossibility. The human body doesn’t emit waves strong enough to be received over many miles; only telepathy can serve this function because of its non local nature. A conscious universe also adds some dimensions to the telepathy that the show doesn’t and probably never will cover. This also requires the brain to operate as a filter of consciousness, not as a generator of it.

The Brain is Wired for Telepathy

It’s entirely conceivable that the brain could be wired for this kind of massive increase in telepathy. Counterintuitively, you don’t enhance parts of the brain to do this, you suppress them. Psychedelics do this, there are studies of people with specific brain damage and researchers have also induced temporary suppression of the left medial middle frontal lobe and that has been shown to increase psychic ability. But all this comes with serious caveats, which I will address later.

Since the series describes the conversion as reversible, we know that the virus thingy is suppressing, not destroying, that part of the brain. Since psychedelics already do something like this, it’s not entirely out of the question for some sci fi engineering feat to pull this off. The virus thingy also leaves the infected unable to cope with strong emotions. This is a realistic effect of increasing psychic ability. The virus thingy is massively reducing some filtering that the mind normally does, and it could conceivably have a side effect of removing the filtering (aka shielding) that we do with other people when they have strong unpleasant emotions, which could explain the hive’s strong reaction to Carol’s anger and pain.

Pluribus Veers Off into Sci Fi

When it comes to completely suppressing the personalities of all these people and disconnecting their consciousness from their bodies while also enhancing their psychic ability, that’s where things veer off into Sci Fi magic. Humans aren’t designed to operate with a hive mind like termites or bees. (In termites this is called Swarm Cognition. Some informal experiments suggest a psychic connection.) There are very few different types of hive minds in nature and all of those species survive by having a lot of different hives. Most insects, reptiles, birds, fish and mammals are hard wired to have individual agency which means that it’s a fundamental part of the wiring of the minds of most creatures. Hives are a different evolutionary track entirely. The Pluribus virus thingy would have no ancient part of the mind to alter. There’s never been anything there to tinker with.

​In the show, the Hive members act like people with individual agency while not actually having it. They retain the memories and abilities of people who are disconnected from their bodies. According to theories where consciousness is fundamental to reality, the brain acts as a filter which means that the hive mind is using billions of consciousness filters, all with quite a bit of variety, as its input and somehow channeling this into a single overarching mind that processes all of it into a single thought pattern. This bit of sci fi magic reminds me of a quote from Time Magazine when Michael Okuda was asked how Heisenberg Compensators worked on Star Trek. He replied, “Very well, thank you.” It’s the same sort of thing on Pluribus.

This is a TV show though, and these things are absolutely allowed because the objective isn’t perfect scientific accuracy, it’s entertainment. What the show accomplishes is that it allows us to see science from a different angle by asking the question, “What if?” And then follow it up with the question, “Is this even possible?” And we can then have a look at what would happen in real life if something like the virus in Pluribus actually did exist and this is where it gets interesting.

Enhanced Connectedness and Telepathy

Does giving people extreme telepathy greatly enhance their feelings of connectedness? Are those things related? Is it joyful? There are people who have had near death experiences and others who have had intense psychedelic experiences who report back these types of experiences and feelings. There are also scientific theories such as Morphic Resonance that explore collective consciousness and experiments that show effects of collective consciousness. The show is not pulling this stuff out of thin air. But people also come back from these experiences with their individual agency completely intact.

The reality of kludging a hive mind onto a human brain is that it would never work as flawlessly as it does on the show if it could be done at all. As I mentioned earlier, humans have no built-in biological mechanism to support that kind of suppression of self within a greater consciousness, and we would therefore expect all sorts of weird reactions to it because a substantial number of people would never completely disassociate from their bodies.

Our consciousness and our bodies are arguably fine tuned for each other and some of the individuals that make up the collective would almost certainly resist the suppression of their agency. This would probably occur without outside assistance.

The show does a good job of showing the downsides of the entire human race acting with one (very passive aggressive) mind. The fate of the entire human race in Pluribus depends on a mind with 100% intelligence and 0% wisdom. ​(An interesting choice by the showrunners. The Hive cannot harm any living thing. As all creatures require the consumption of things that live or lived to survive, this poses the problem of starvation in the show.)

The Wisdom Problem in Pluribus

It is a problem that people with agency would easily solve, but the Hive mind does not seem to be able to manage it. Wisdom is a holistic, right-brained type of intelligence; it requires the ability to take a step back and see the big picture, weigh priorities and make hard decisions. The Hive mind however, can’t refuse any request from the uninfected no matter how destructive, leading to the conclusion that it can’t use the collective wisdom of the entire human race to perform basic reasoning tasks.

Perhaps the show is deliberately demonstrating a serious drawback of removing consciousness from it’s tether to individual bodies. Or perhaps this collection of individual minds cannot cope with hearing everyone and feeling everything all at once. That is a known problem of connectedness. While a lot of people seek out feelings of overwhelming connectedness, there are a not an insignificant number of people out there struggling to turn it off.

The hive mind is necessarily made up of the minds of all of humanity because otherwise it would not have access to everyone’s memories, experience and expertise. The people are still “in there” so to speak, so it stands to reason that they are going to react in different ways to being part of the Hive.

Now I finally come back to the problem of having truly strong telepathic ability: it comes with some very interesting side effects. Telepathy has no material basis; it is not a signal like EM waves. It appears to be instantaneous and does not appear to be affected by distance or obstructions. This is why current theories are consciousness, not material based. It demonstrates a deeper reality beyond time and space where information, not objects, are fundamental to reality. The reason I bring this up is that this doesn’t stop at telepathy. Precognition, psychometry, mediumship, ghosts and other non physical beings and the like all come into play. The hive mind would be aware of discarnate souls and non human telepathic beings. Once psychic ability is going full blast it’s far more than mere telepathy, it’s the whole ball of wax.

The Real Telepathic People

We have a group of people right now that communicate telepathically with each other. They are non speaking autistic people, who are intelligent, but lack much control over their bodies and whose paths to communication are otherwise very limited. Some of them use spelling boards, (which I’ve discussed in this article) and what they have to say tells us quite a lot about all the things that come with telepathy. This all comes to us via Ky Dickens and her wildly popular Telepathy Tapes podcast.

I think that this is what makes Pluribus popular. It speaks to a reality that deep inside we already know about. On the one hand we want to be part of it, but on the other hand it comes with the existential fear of losing ourselves in it. We are drawn in by the joy of the deep connectedness, but it is also the death of the self. Personally, I am fascinated by this show and its metaphysical implications.

Vardøger: You Might Have Already Experienced It

Vard

​The word Vardøger (pronounced var-deh-ay-gr) originated in Norway, and means “the premonitory sound or sight of a person before they arrive”. Thus a person may be seen, or the sounds of their arrival heard- their footsteps on the path, their key turning in a lock, or their passage along the hallway- but when the person who has heard these sounds, or believes they have witnessed the apparent arrival of said individual and then goes to greet them, they find that there is nobody there. Some time later, the same sight or sounds are repeated, but are this time indicative of the actual physical arrival of the individual.

I first read about the Vardøger phenomena at the age of 10, in a book that was once part of my Mother’s collection, and is now on my own bookshelf, tattered and dog-eared from repeated reading. The book, by prolific American author Brad Steiger, is titled “Real Ghosts, Restless Spirits, and Haunted Minds”, and was the first serious non-fiction book about the paranormal I’d ever read. As my interest at the time was more to do with traditional ghost stories, I quickly lost interest in the chapter about Vardøgers as it contained nothing even remotely ghostly, and moved on to the next chapter. However, the passage of time brings about broader perspective, and different curiosities so when I picked up the book again, some 2 decades later as an adult, I found myself curious about that unread chapter.

​Etymology and cultural beliefs

At its grammatical root, the word Vardøger is likely derived from the Old Norse word “Varohygi”, which in turn is itself from the words “voro”, which means “guard, watchman, or warden”, and “hugr”, meaning “mind” or “soul”. The Vardøger phenomena is quite commonly believed in Norway, and has been reported there often- indeed, the word Vardøger itself was likely coined there to describe the phenomena, indicating how common the belief in the Vardøger is in Norwegian culture.

Norway is not alone in its belief in Vardøgers, however. In Scotland they are known as “fetchers”or “co-walkers”, and in Icelandic culture and folklore the Vardøger is known as a “fygjla”, and is considered a guardian spirit. Finland has its own word for the Vardøger also; there it is called “etiainen”. Across all cultures who share a belief in the phenomena, the Vardøger, unlike the doppelgänger, is considered a benign entity, without the sinister connotations associated with the other "double", with which it could easily be confused.

​Vardøgers in print

Outside of the aforementioned cultures, the Vardøger is given little consideration in psychical or paranormal research, and thus little mention of them is to be found in English language. However, there are still some to be found. On page 149 of her classic book “The Night Side of Nature”, author Catherine Crowe mentions cases which, although classified as doppelgänger encounters, I believe could equally fit the description of a Vardøger, as they seem to indicate intent:

​"The landrichter, or sheriff, F⁠——, in Frankfort, sent his secretary on an errand. Presently afterward, the secretary re-entered the room, and laid hold of a book. His master asked him what had brought him back, whereupon the figure vanished, and the book fell to the ground. It was a volume of Linnaeus. In the evening, when the secretary returned, and was interrogated with regard to his expedition, he said that he had fallen into an eager dispute with an acquaintance, as he went along, about some botanical question, and had ardently wished he had had his Linnaeus with him to refer to."

"Dr. Werner relates that Professor Happach had an elderly maid-servant, who was in the habit of coming every morning to call him, and on entering the room, which he generally heard her do, she usually looked at a clock which stood under the mirror. One morning, she entered so softly, that, though he saw her, he did not hear her foot. She went, as was her custom, to the clock, and came to his bedside, but suddenly turned round and left the room. He called after her, but she not answering, he jumped out of bed and pursued her. He could not see her, however, till he reached her room, where he found her fast asleep in bed. Subsequently, the same thing occurred frequently with this woman."

"An exactly parallel case was related to me, as occurring to himself, by a publisher in Edinburgh. His housekeeper was in the habit of calling him every morning. On one occasion, being perfectly awake, he saw her enter, walk to the window, and go out again without speaking. Being in the habit of fastening his door, he supposed he had omitted to do so; but presently afterward he heard her knocking to come in, and he found the door was still locked. She assured him she had not been there before. He was in perfectly good health at the time this happened."

I’ve also found accounts of possible encounters with Vardøgers in one of the groundbreaking early works in psychical research- “Phantasms of the Living”, which was compiled by two of the founding fathers of the Society for Psychical Research- Frederic William Henry (F.W.H.) Myers, and Edmund Gurney (with the assistance of Frank Podmore).

The first account, from a Mrs. Amy Powys, can be found on page 515, and is related as follows:

​"I was expecting my husband home, and shortly after the time he ought to have arrived (about 10 p.m.) I heard a cab drive up to the door, the bell ring, my husband's voice talking with the cabman, the front door open, and his step come up the stairs. I went to the drawing-room, opened it, and to my astonishment saw no one. I could hardly believe he was not there, the whole thing was so vivid, and the street was particularly quiet at the time. About 20 minutes or so after this my husband really arrived, though nothing sounded to me more real than it did the first time. The train was late, and he had been thinking I might be anxious.”

Another account (on page 516) comes from a Mrs. Smith:

"My father and mother lived, when young, near St. Albans, in a house separated by three fields from the high road. My father had been staying in Warwickshire, and was returning by the night mail coach. My mother had risen early to be ready for his return, and after seeing that breakfast and a bright fire were ready for his reception, she took her work to the window and sat there awaiting my father’s return. She presently looked up and saw him approaching; she watched him until close to the house, when she went to the door intending to meet him, but he had vanished. Half an hour afterwards he really arrived. My mother was a Quakeress of exceeding truthfulness, and possessing to the full the perfect self‐command and self‐repression inculcated by her sect."

A mention of the phenomena, albeit only in passing, can be found in a series of letters between the Scottish poet, novelist and collector of folk and fairy tales Andrew Lang, and Sir William Craigie, a philologist (scholar of literature and language) and lexicographer, and the third editor of the Oxford Dictionary. Both men, it seems, had an interest in the phenomena, and the following letters from Andrew Lang caught my attention:

​Andrew Lang to William A Craigie, 8 Gibson Place, St Andrews, Feb 29 [1912]

"Dear Craigie, Very nice Viardogr, but they are as common here as in Norway. The psychs call them "arrival cases". Kirk (1693) called the V, the Co-walkers. As I read your paper lots of parallels, privately known to me, came into my mind. I remembered that my father had a V. which I never knew till one of my brothers told me what he heard. At that time I had no knowledge at all of these things. A case so chronic as your cobbler's I have not met, I admit. Mrs Purdie once saw a V. It is odd indeed that you have not heard of plenty in this country."

8 Gibson Place, St Andrews, March 4 [1912]

"Dear Craigie, I grant that the V. seems either much more common in Norway, or there it attracts more attention. That is proved by its possessing a name in ordinary talk, whereas Myers for the same thing here had to invent a term. Yet for Mr Kirk, in his Secret Commonwealth* (about 1690,) the thing had a name, the Co-walker.”

“Whether this co-walker is from the Gaelic or not, I don't know. But I get firsthand cases of the V. from Rev. Mr MacInnes, Glencoe. My brother John writes today that he remembers my father's V. very well. "The step on the gravel and up the stone stairs to the front door, and then the latch key. It was not I alone who heard it, many did so."

“His recollection is that he "went out more than once to look". I have any number of cases in my memory; but I don't mean that the V. is as common in practice as in Norway; and here people who come across it think but little of it. But in Glencoe it is quite recognised, whether it has a Gaelic name or not.”

“..Myers invented an explanation of the V; not North but general. One of your informants talks of the "fore-walker". Much like Kirk's "Co-walker" who "goes to his own herd" when his owner dies.”

Are there no "fetchers" in the sagas? Mr MacInnes told me that his brother and another lad were expected in the glen, to which they were walking. There was heavy snow and they were late but their V's knocked at the door, breakfast was made ready, and the owners of the V's, when they came, were glad to get it."

​Vardøgers Throughout History

(* refers to “The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns and Fairies”, a manuscript written by a Scottish minister, Robert Kirk, dating back to around 1690. At his death in 1692 it remained unpublished, and is a detailed study of Scottish folklore, fairies, and supernatural phenomena like the "second sight". Although the text itself was written in 1690/91, the first printing only occurred in 1815.)

As to the references made in the letters about Myers’ invented term for the mechanism behind a Vardøger, and his explanation for such manifestations, so far as this author can understand, these are to be found in Volume 1 of his classic 1903 publication “ Human Personality: And Its Survival Of Bodily Death”, in the terms Psychorrhagia, and Psychorrhagic Diathesis.

The Greek word at the root of both the terms Myers uses- ψυχορραγῶ - means “to let the soul break loose”. Myers posits that those who can easily manifest their double have been born with Psychorrhagic diathesis, and believes that:

“That which “breaks loose” on my hypothesis is not (as in the Greek use of the word) the whole principle of life in the organism; rather it is some psychical element probably of very varying character, and definable mainly by its power of producing a phantasm, perceptible by one or more persons, in some portion or other of space”.

In slightly more modern parlance, Myers is seemingly explaining that it is not the entire soul that is perceived by an experient in such cases as those mentioned here, but merely a fragment, and this (for my mind at least) perhaps indicates the possibility that the fragment which has temporarily broken loose is the aspect of the agent’s subconscious that is occupied with daydreams, the aspect that is woolgathering- and has the intent of being elsewhere than where the agent’s conscious mind and physical being currently is.

In 1968, Brad Steiger wrote “Real Ghosts, Restless Spirits, and Haunted Minds’, which, as previously mentioned, was the very first serious, non-fiction book about paranormal phenomena I would ever read. In this book, Steiger wrote of his own experiences with Vardøgers- those of his own parents:

​"As I would be sitting upstairs in my room reading, I would be certain that I heard my parents returning from town. I would hear the door open and close, the sound of feet shuffling- all the normal sounds that a man and woman would make upon entering their home. When I would call down my goodnight and receive no answer, I would find that the house was empty and I was alone. Often, while I was still calling to my parents to answer my goodnights, I would see their car lights coming down the lane of our farm home and realise that I had been fooled and frightened once again by the Vardogr."

In the Journal of Scientific Exploration (J.S.E. Vol. 16, pp. 621-634, 2002), an article by David Leiter details two sightings of his own Vardøger, one of which was reported to him by his own wife and son:

“I was working for a company in Phoenixville, PA, nearly 30 miles due west of my home in willow Grove, PA. It was springtime 1979, or perhaps 1980. I did not make a written record at the time of this first experience because, at that time, I had essentially no background or specific interest in parapsychology, and no clear idea what the experienced phenomena was, except for its being very strange. The portion of my daily commute (via private automobile) closest to my home (about 20 miles worth) was on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, a well-known high-speed toll-road. There is a reason for all this detail, as will be seen shortly.

On the day in question, I was driving home alone, although I frequently car-pooled with a colleague. It was a beautiful, warm spring day, and the pressures of my job were quite low at the time, so I was very relaxed. Also, at that time, I had been working for that employer for 3 or 4 years, and thus was very familiar with the route. Finally, traffic was light that day.

Anyone who has driven under similar conditions, i.e., an extremely familiar route, under very relaxed driving conditions, is familiar with a specific state of mind that often occurs, best described as “autopilot”, a distinct, altered state of consciousness. In other words, driving an automobile is almost like riding as a passenger on a train or bus, except the view is a lot better. Under such conditions, the mind wanders easily to the scenery and surroundings, and to daydreaming. I’ve always had a strong tendency to daydream when physical and mental circumstances will permit it. Daydreaming also often served me well in my R&d pursuits.

In any event, I came to my normal exit on the turnpike, at Willow Grove, and drove the half-mile or so final leg of the commute, over local town streets. I parked in my normal spot in the driveway in front of our house, took my briefcase and sports jacket out of the car, and entered through the front doorway, which was always unlocked during the daytime (with two teen-aged children running in and out constantly).

My wife was at her usual spot in the kitchen preparing supper. Up to this point, it was a scenario that had occurred thousands of times before during our marriage of almost 20 years. She heard me come in, came out of the kitchen, and asked “what are you doing coming in again?” I answered with my own question, something like “what are you talking about?” She replied, “you came in about 10 minutes ago and just went upstairs”. At this point, I began to get somewhat irritated with her seemingly irrational questions and statements, and said basically “Hon, what are you talking about? I just now shut down the car and came in!”. She responded with mounting confusion and agitation, insisting that I’d come in a little while earlier and had simply gone upstairs. Then to support her contention, she called upstairs to our son, who was in his bedroom with the doors closed, and asked “[Son’s nickname], did you hear your father clump up the steps a little while ago?” He responded with a muffled “Yeah, Mom”.

A work colleague of Leiter’s also reported seeing him in the parking lot of their mutual workplace, dressed in formal attire, which was rather unusual considering he (Leiter) normally wore more casual garb to work. Upon going out to the parking lot, the colleague found Leiter’s parking spot empty, and nobody in the lot. Leiter was in fact not expected at work that day, and was quite some distance away at the time “he” was sighted, attending a funeral. Given this information, the clothing the Vardøger was described as wearing thus now makes sense.

Perhaps the most unusual Vardøger case comes from “The Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits” (1992, 2nd ed. 2000), by the late author Rosemary Ellen Guiley. The case dates back to 1955, and concerns an art dealer by the name of Erikson Gorique.

A Vardøger Books a Room

Gorique, living in New York, had always wished to visit Norway. In July of 1955, due to his job, he was fortunate enough to finally be able to make the journey, in order to purchase Norwegian glassware. After landing in Oslo, he went to reserve a room at a large hotel. He was astonished when the receptionist greeted him by name, and told him that his room had been booked. Gorique asked who had made the reservation, and the receptionist informed him that he had done so, in person, a year ago.

Things got stranger still. The following day Gorique went to meet with the wholesaler, a Mr Olsen. He had never met Olsen but, like the hotel receptionist, Olsen greeted Gorique by name and told him he was delighted to see him again. He said he hoped that this time Gorique's visit would be longer, as last time he had been in a rush.

When Gorique made it clear that he had never set foot in Norway before, Olsen introduced him to a university professor, who speculated that it was Gorique's Vardøger, visiting the country beforehand.

These encounters, for my mind, are of the greatest interest as they detail multiple interactions in the form of actual conversations, seemingly denoting an intelligence, or a non-local consciousness, that is perhaps separate from the “owner” of the Vardøger, who of course had no idea the encounters had taken place!

A further story of an encounter with a possible Vardøger hails from somewhere much closer to yours truly- my home country, Australia. In his book “The Ghost Guide to Australia” (Davis 1998, pp. 207-8) author Richard Davis writes about a curious occurrence that took place in the tiny town of Birregurra, near Colac, in Victoria’s West, in previous years.

In 1996, a series of ghostly goings-on had been reported at the town’s 130-year-old Vicarage. But the most interesting account connected to the Vicarage comes from almost half a century earlier, from a Mrs. Flavel, who had lived there in the 1960’s. Upon waking one morning, she found an elderly woman busily arranging flowers on a small table in her bedroom. The woman turned to Mrs. Flavel and apologized for disturbing her, saying “I didn’t think anyone lived here any more”, before suddenly vanishing, along with the flowers. Weeks after the strange experience, at the centenary celebrations for the church to which the Vicarage was attached, Mrs. Flavel was introduced to the widow of a former reverend who had presided over the church in the 1930’s. She was certain that it was the same woman she’d seen in her bedroom, arranging flowers!

Regarding an explanation, or a definition, as to what a Vardøger is- as with any phenomena classed as unexplained, there is no definitive answer as yet. It appears that one possible prerequisite for a Vardøger to be manifested is intent- the individual to whom it belongs, the "agent" if you will, is occupied (albeit not necessarily consciously) with thought of a location they intend to be at, or with the people in that location- those who then perceive the Vardøger. The possibility habits or memories, as denoted by its interactions with its environment. Telepathic interaction between the minds of the agent and the percipient seems viable also- with the agent's distracted or preoccupied mental state also serving as a crucial element; a sort of altered state of consciousness reached when one is on autopilot, daydreaming- woolgathering.

​References made in the series of letters above make mention of Myers’ invented term for the mechanism behind a Vardøger, and his explanation for such manifestations. These can be found in Volume 1 of his classic 1903 publication “Human Personality: And Its Survival Of Bodily Death”, in the terms Psychorrhagia, and Psychorrhagic Diathesis.

The Greek word at the root of both the above terms Myers uses- ψυχορραγῶ - means “to let the soul break loose”. Myers maintains as well that those who can easily manifest their double have been born with what he calls Psychorrhagic diathesis, and believes that:

“That which “breaks loose” on my hypothesis is not (as in the Greek use of the word) the whole principle of life in the organism; rather it is some psychical element probably of very varying character, and definable mainly by its power of producing a phantasm, perceptible by one or more persons, in some portion or other of space”.

A Fragment of A Soul

In slightly more modern parlance, Myers is seemingly explaining that it is not the entire soul that is perceived by an experiencer in such cases as those mentioned here, but merely a fragment, and this (for my mind at least) indicates the possibility that the fragment which has temporarily broken loose is the aspect of the agent’s subconscious that is occupied with daydreams, the aspect that is woolgathering- and has the intent of being elsewhere, or of doing something else- than whatever circumstance is currently occupying the agent’s conscious thoughts and/or actions.

Whether or not the Vardøger could be classified as a Phantasm of the Living, an unwitting telepathic process, or an indicator of the reality of non-local consciousness, remains an unanswered question. As the phenomena is spontaneous in nature, there is a lack of replicability. However, in some cultures, the existence of Vardøger phenomena is widely accepted, as is starting to occur now with the existence of Psi phenomena.

Perhaps someday neither will be classed as paranormal at all, but as just another function of our consciousness. This relatively obscure but deeply fascinating phenomena is assuredly worthy of further attention and study.

The Scole Experiment Swansong Part 2

This is the second installment of a captivating series detailing the direct guidance from Spirit that led Robin and Sandra Foy to establish the Spiritual Science Foundation in Spain. The Scole Experiment lives on. This is a republishing of the initial article that was originally published in The Otherside Press, which is now a part of Paranormal Daily News.

From ‘Scole Hole’ To Spain

In early 2004, Sandra began to receive crystal clear clairvoyant and clairaudient messages again. Whilst she sat quietly during her night-shift job in a Diss electronics factory, she kept getting a recurring message that constantly told her to ‘move to Spain’.

At the same time, I clairaudiently received a single word from Spirit: Guardamar. I had not heard this name before, but when I researched it, I discovered that it was the name of a place – ‘Guardamar del Segura’—a small resort on the Costa Blanca in the Province of Alicante, Spain. We were due to go to a mountain town near Barcelona for a break to celebrate our Silver wedding (25 years) anniversary in April 2004, and decided to look at some properties near Guardamar whilst we were there.

We were psychically led to an advert for small new apartments being built in Formentera del Segura, a village just 7 minutes' drive away from Guardamar, and scheduled an appointment to view them. We had a problem in that we were unable to get out of our hotel early enough to be on time for the 250-mile drive south because the hotel owner locked up the property overnight. However, despite arriving two hours late, we did get our viewing, and it was actually in Formentera del Segura that we finally came to live in December 2006!

Amazingly accurate and evidential information from Spirit

After making a firm decision to actually move there, we felt pretty sure that Spirit really did want us close to Guardamar on the Costa Blanca. We no longer looked for any new circle members for our Scole group, but nevertheless continued to sit together as a duet on a weekly basis.

Sandra’s clairvoyance developed naturally during this period, and she often came out with names and places that were indicated to her as being relevant to us and our future work. When I researched these after a sitting, it was amazing just how accurate and evidential much of this information from Spirit was!

On December 4th 2006, we crossed the English Channel by Ferry in Sandra’s small Toyota Yaris, having previously disposed of my old Volvo Estate Car. The car was packed to the gunwales with the last of our belonging, with a tiny space left in the back for our beloved black cat Cookie.

We arrived at our tiny apartment in Formentera del Segura on the Spanish Costa Blanca in the late afternoon of December 6th 2006. It was January 2007 before Sandra and I started to once again sit together on a weekly basis.

Assurance from Spirit that the Scole Experiment work would continue

Early in March 2007, we were contacted by physical mediums Tom and Linda Anderson, a Glasgow-based husband and wife team known as the ‘Freedom of Spirit’ group. They had been getting amazing physical phenomena for some time and contacted us whilst we were still living at Scole but were unable to visit us before we left.

Consequently, Tom and Linda asked us if they could come and stay with us in Formentera del Segura for a week and share some sittings for our benefit. They told us that the phenomena they were now getting was energy-based, similar to some of the phenomena we had enjoyed during the ‘Scole Experiment’, including independent voice and teleported ‘solid’ spirit visitors. So we were very happy to have them as guests, even though we had not met them before.

During the week that Tom and Linda stayed with us, we had three sittings. It was very clear that their physical phenomena was excellent, and quite advanced. We experienced some spirit lights, levitations of their two trumpets and a heavy table, and apports of crystal clusters. Very quickly too, were ‘direct voice’ from the trumpets and ‘independent voice’ from a number of different communicators.

These included several of the spirit guides and helpers from The Scole Experiment whose voices were unknown to the two mediums but instantly recognized by us. The well-known, beloved guides and helpers from our Scole days assured us that our work would definitely carry on!

Chatting to the likes of Helen Duncan and John Lennon

The loud independent voices also included those of past physical mediums Gordon Higginson and Helen Duncan. We had known Gordon Higginson in his lifetime, and immediately recognized his voice. An evidential aspect of this voice communication was the fact that whilst the spirit voices were speaking, the two mediums joined in. The sittings took place in our tiny spare bedroom and there had been absolutely no opportunity whatsoever for the mediums to prepare for the sittings in that room. This meant there was no question that everything that took place was absolutely 100% genuine!

During the three sessions in our home, we also chatted to the likes of Winston Churchill (Sandra and I had enjoyed connections with him through many other groups and circles since 1975); Thomas Edison; John Lennon and George Harrison. Karen Carpenter and Al Jolson sang for us. Maria Callas also sang in her beautiful trained operatic voice. Her singing was literally so loud, it could have been heard two streets away!

Our late friend Anne Child (who was totally unknown to the mediums) spoke independently and gave some very evidential information to Sandra, and we had many touches from teleported spirit people. What really impressed us was the fact that these solid spirit visitors included our parents: my mother spoke to me in her vary familiar earthly voice; my father signed his name exactly as he did during his lifetime, and – amazingly – the little ET we knew as Blue from our Scole days was teleported into the room in a solid form. Just as he had done at Scole on previous occasions, Blue stood in front of us and lifted our hands onto his head, so we could feel his face and check that it felt identical to the way we remembered it.

We thoroughly enjoyed these three sittings with the Andersons and arranged to share a gite (cottage) near Carcassonne in the South of France, just one month later. Whilst there, we had another two sittings that were extremely evidential. Since the owners of the gite lived in the house next door, we had to politely ask Maria Callas to lower her voice when she again sang for us so that the gite owners would not hear the singing!

Interpreting clues to the new spiritual centre

However, the most significant thing to come out of all five sittings with the Andersons was that our Scole Spirit Team repeatedly told us that our work must go on, and that Spirit wanted us to open a specialist centre in Spain for physical mediumship and physical phenomena.

They also told us that the actual premises they wanted us to use would eventually become self-evident. While refusing to tell us exactly where this centre would be, they offered us several clues so we could work the area out for ourselves. This is what we were given:

The place would be inland from the ‘Costa del Sol’.

The name of the town began with an ‘A’.

There were tombs that were thousands of years old.

There was a well.

There was a natural spring.

There had been many UFO sightings.

There was an important mountain where there was a portal.

There were very unusual rock formations.

There was a ‘Sleeping Indian’.

There was a castle.

Close by was a lake and nesting area for Flamingos.

It was close to an area where wolves were kept.

It was close to a ‘camp’.

There was a ley line connected to magnetic energy. Not actually in a town, but very close.

Interesting bridge close by.

Special bread roll made in the town.

Statue of a king with a robe and jagged crown.

A special drink was brewed close by.

The property would be specially selected by Spirit.

There was a cave in a mountain.

Many Spanish people would become involved in the experiments.

There were Roman remains in the town.

The town had many very old churches and convents.

The town had historically been occupied by many settlers from abroad.

Dozens of confirmations about Antequera, Andalucia

Antequera (Rufus46 - Wikimedia Commons)

It was not long before I started to investigate the clues. At this stage, my geographical knowledge of Spain was not brilliant, but after much searching, I discovered that the only place in Spain that fitted almost all of the clues was Antequera in Andalucia. In the 12 years since the sittings with the Andersons in Spain and France, we have had dozens of evidential confirmations from Spirit that Antequera is the place!

We were rather excited about what we might find in Antequera, which lies about 260 miles south of our current home on the Costa Blanca. We wanted to visit the area as soon as possible in order to explore and booked a three-day visit in July 2007.

Before the visit, however, we returned to the UK to see the family. Whilst we were there (and knowing that she was usually booked up for months in advance) Sandra got in touch with evidential mental medium Alexia Green who lives in Stowmarket, Suffolk to see if she had any dates available for a private reading.

Surprise, surprise! Alexia just had a single cancellation and was able to fit Sandra in. Her reading was quite amazing and contained confirmation about our starting a special centre in Antequera for physical mediumship and its phenomena.

Sandra’s mum communicated the information. She told us there was a sanctuary nearby for exotic birds – ‘Flamingos’. She also described exactly how to get to Antequera: Go down the coast to Malaga – turn 90 degrees inland, and travel for 25 miles. This was fantastic and accurate evidence, as Sandra’s mum knew nothing in her lifetime about Spain and, in fact, was not at all in favor of afterlife communication!

My mum-in-law added that we must carefully read and act on the small print when we bought this property (now we know exactly why, because the property is technically an ‘illegal build’). Of course, we had absolutely no idea of just exactly where this property might be in relation to Antequera.

The final ‘coup de grace’ from Sandra’s mum was that Spirit wanted us to visit the area on certain dates in July (which proved to be the exact dates we had already booked for our visit), and that we were to look out for the goats with the bells.

End of part 2

If you missed part one of From the Wilderness to Scole Swansong, click this link

In Part 3 of this article, we learn exactly how Spirit brought the Spiritual Science Foundation into being, why they guided Robin and Sandra to choose a particular property to buy and turn into a special centre for physical mediumship and its phenomena.