by Rich Newman
Instead of concluding that the medium provided false information and confronting her for lying to him, he determined that it was the spirit who was lying to him and that it was attempting to manipulate him for nefarious reasons. He left the spiritualist group and soon became paranoid that spirits were now trying to get him. On May 9, 2001, Joe Fisher committed suicide by leaping off a cliff at Elora Gorge, near Fergus, Ontario, Canada.
His death was a tragedy and left many questions unanswered. Why was he so convinced that spirits were after him? Were paranormal events really happening around him? Unfortunately, nobody but Fisher can truly know what was running through his head the day he passed away.
While this is an extreme example of obsession with the paranormal, there is still a lesson to be learned here: obsession is a very bad thing!
Ghostbusting
Blame it on the movie if you like, but there is a whole culture of paranormal investigators out there that believe they can “get rid” of ghosts. Some are even so bold as to post this on their websites. Huh? How can you guarantee to get rid of ghosts? And do we want to get rid of them? I’d hate to think that if I died and became trapped in a physical location, people would be trying to do away with me. I mean, where would I go exactly? Aren’t things bad enough as it is?
Claiming to rid a location of ghosts is a bad practice. Besides the fact that there is no way to guarantee this, how do you prove a ghost is gone? It’s hard enough to prove to some people that a ghost is there. These types of shenanigans are usually done to give clients a sense of relief—though this will be short-lived if the place is actually haunted.
So what can investigators do to assuage the fears of a haunted home owner? It seems a little cruel to investigate a private residence, show the client evidence that they are, indeed, haunted, and then to simply leave them wondering what’s next. So what do you do? This is where the psychological and religious aspects of a household come into play. Notice I say “of a household”—not you!
At times, simply understanding the religious views of a family and suggesting an appropriate course of action is enough (you don’t want to suggest a Protestant “clearing” of their home if they are a Catholic—this is a foreign concept to them). At other times, like the case I mentioned before, it’s more appropriate to suggest a counselor or psychologist/psychiatrist. And, unfortunately, there are times when a family should simply consider moving if they continue to be uneasy with their environment. Moving is an especially important consideration if there are young children present who can be permanently scarred by living in an environment of fear.
Whatever happens, if you are a recreational ghost hunter, you should keep the contact information of a professional paranormal investigator that you can refer people to when needed. And if you are a professional, I suggest keeping business cards for a counselor and a clergyman on hand (I have found that Unitarians and Presbyterians are great for being open to blessing homes). The goal is to make the client comfortable in their home once again, and to find answers for them. This involves good counseling, research, and understanding who you are working for.
The Martin Case
Now that you understand where I stand as far as investigating private cases goes—and my opinions about the paranormal in general—be prepared to read as I continuously get baffled by the twists and turns of the Martin case and am often forced to reevaluate what I think of as “evidence” and as “paranormal.” This particular case is also important in that it illustrates the difficulty that arises when we try to classify or pigeonhole a paranormal case as one type of event.
It was on a Friday when I received the phone call. There was a home that was under malicious, otherworldly assault in the heart of the Mississippi delta … and the owners believed it could be the Devil …
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2
Getting the Call
I could tell by the sound of Terri’s voice that something extraordinary was happening in Mississippi. Though she belonged to a relatively new paranormal group, her band of investigators had explored some pretty heavily haunted locations. So when she said they needed assistance on a case that involved a haunted home, a young man who was suffering the occasional possession, and activity that was off the charts, I was most certainly intrigued.
According to the homeowner, Joanne Martin, her family had been experiencing paranormal activity on a regular basis since they had moved into a double-wide trailer on her family’s land in 2000. They were accustomed to this, however, and had learned to simply live with the constant otherworldly attention. It was only during the last year that the activity had suddenly escalated to the point that she felt compelled to call upon paranormal researchers for assistance.
There were five individuals currently living in the Martin premises: Joanne, her daughters Julie and Katie, and a couple in their twenties who were renting a room from the Martin family (I’ll call them “Tim” and “Sarah”). All of them had seen and heard strange things in the property, and all of them were frightened—particularly the youngest daughter, Katie. It had gotten to the point that she did not want to be in the home anymore and was frightened of her own bedroom. It was mainly for her sake that everyone wished for a speedy resolution concerning the activity in the trailer.
When Terri’s group had gotten the call about the place, they had decided to coinvestigate the property with a paranormal group from Florida. During this investigation, one of the investigators claimed to have been touched by an unseen entity and, later that same evening, Tim had “gone into a fit.” He claimed to be under assault by a spirit who was trying to possess him. According to the family, this had happened at least one other time.
The family, as well as the Mississippi investigators present, was now wary of the possibility of another possession taking place. Because of this event, Terri wanted to have another, outside researcher present for her group’s next investigation of the home.
Witnesses to the previous attack reported that Tim had reacted violently to the affair and had to be physically restrained from attacking the investigators on the scene. I wasn’t sure how much of a deterrent I would be for Tim to avoid violence, but I understood why they all wanted to have someone else present. At the very least, I could help with restraining him!
When I asked about the history of activity in the home, Terri explained that there was simply too much information to go into detail about over the phone and that I needed to get down to Mississippi ASAP if I wanted to help out and investigate this case with them the following night. I told her I would be there the following day, but I needed to know (at the very least) the basics of what was happening so I could bring appropriate gear for tackling the investigation. Here’s what she told me:
The earliest paranormal occurrences at the location involved stones hitting the exterior of the house. When Joanne would go outside to see who was throwing them, nobody would be there. This eventually escalated into an incident that involved deputies from the local sheriff’s office coming out to investigate—and they experienced the exact same thing (only the rocks hit their squad cars instead of the home).
On at least one occasion, a member of the Martin family was standing in the driveway (talking to a second person) when, instead of a rock, a couple of coins seemed to fall out of thin air. The coins were all recently minted and seemed perfectly normal according to the witnesses.
Residents of the home had heard mysterious scratching noises in the walls and the sounds of disembodied voices. The voices seemed to be male, of an unsettling quality, and they alarmed those who heard them. The scratches seemed to originate from the walls that surrounded the living room and adjoining master bedroom. These were said to start subtly and then escalate to frantic proportions.
On at least two occasions, the scents of rotten eggs and feces had suddenly appeared and then disappeared just as quickly. Again, this phenomenon usually occurred in the living roo
m area, though there was at least one instance of this happening in the kitchen (which adjoins the living room).
Objects had been witnessed moving by themselves, including utensils flying from the kitchen into the living room. This culminated into one horrific night in the master bedroom. (More on this later.)
The male tenant of the spare room (Tim) claimed to have been possessed at least twice by an “evil ghost” they dubbed “John.” They thought that John was a malevolent spirit, but did not rule out the possibility that it could also be a demon. This was witnessed once by the Mississippi and Florida paranormal groups and by the other tenants on another occasion.
John was not the only spirit thought to be in the home. They believed there were three ghosts total within the trailer: John, Joanne’s ex-husband, and the spirit of a young girl.
But perhaps the most interesting thing I was told about the haunting involved the evening that all the paranormal activity came to a head. This is the story I was told:
Joanne, Julie, Tim, and Sarah were all congregated in the living room, settled in for the night and watching television, when they noticed there was an audible scratching sound coming from the wall that separates that room from the master bedroom. Tim got up to check out the sounds, but they immediately ceased when he approached the wall. This event happened a couple of times before they decided to just ignore the sounds, writing them off as possibly being the product of a rodent.
It was then that a fork suddenly flew into the living room from the direction of the kitchen. The utensil bounced off one of the living room walls and fell in the middle of the carpeted floor before the astonished eyes of all of them. Apparently, whatever was in the trailer didn’t like to be ignored!
Fearing that something was “about to happen,” they discussed leaving the trailer for a while when a loud commotion suddenly began in the adjoining master bedroom. They listened as the loud sounds of bangs and knocks came from that room. It sounded as if someone was violently moving pieces of furniture back and forth across the floor.
Joanne stood and cautiously approached the doorway to the bedroom; it was then that she witnessed drawers sliding out of the bedroom’s dresser and chest of drawers all by themselves. And they didn’t just fall on the floor. They flew out of furniture, tumbling end over end, dumping out their contents in a heap onto the bedroom floor.
At this point, the strong scent of rotten eggs filled the air and smoke began to visibly emanate from a small television set in the bedroom. The television then exploded and smoke rolled out in a heavy cloud. Fearing a fire was imminent, Tim ran into the bedroom and grabbed the TV, pitching it right through one of the trailer’s front windows into the yard. But the activity wasn’t over yet …
According to all those present, the bed mattress then began to violently shake and eventually flipped into the air to land against a wall. The box springs then followed suit. That was when Tim went into hysterics and claimed that he saw a shadowy shape shoot by him. Moments later, he would begin clawing at himself and yelling that something was trying to get into him.
He lashed out at those around him, frightening them all even more, but eventually calmed down when he felt the danger had passed. After that, the activity seemed to come to a sudden halt and life went back to normal in the Martin household. However, because of this evening’s events, the family decided to call in the Mississippi paranormal group. The activity was simply too frightening for them to tolerate any more.
Now, fearing that the master bedroom was the habitat of the entity, the family hung a heavy blanket over the doorway that separated that area from the living room and they all decided to only enter that space if it was absolutely necessary. But since that night, they had heard regular “rumbles” come from that empty room. Rumbles that would, literally, shake the entire trailer.
Breaking Down the Phenomena
Several aspects of this case intrigued me right off the bat—the first being the throwing of stones. While much of the reported activity at the Martin home is quite common in paranormal cases, most people do not know about mysterious stone-throwing. This is, however, a phenomenon that is known to investigators.
Author Jerome Clark talks about such “phantom attackers” in his book, Unexplained!. He mentions several cases (including a well-documented affair in Chico, California, in 1922) that involved rocks being thrown by invisible hands. Interestingly, local law enforcement would often be involved with these cases as well—and much like the Martin case, they would find no assailants in the area.
According to Clark, this type of activity is usually indicative of a poltergeist type of haunting, and is usually accompanied by other poltergeist symptoms, such as the presence of a young girl, objects moving on their own, and persistent rapping sounds. All of these conditions were present in the Martin home.
The second thing that caught my attention in the case details was the idea of a ghost or spirit possessing the young man. The residents had stated that an entity named “John” was trying to possess Tim—not any demonic being. Though instances of this happening have been documented, they are usually benevolent affairs—incidents that are usually instigated on purpose by the living.
During the great age of Spiritualism, mediums would often allow spirits to temporarily possess/inhabit them in order to converse with the dead (of course most of these so-called Spiritualists and psychics were complete frauds). It was, in fact, quite a popular pastime.
Reports of an “evil” spirit trying to possess a living being, however, are extremely rare—though in cases where this has happened, it was always for a reason, which usually involves unfinished business on Earth, wanting to communicate with a family member, or a refusal to simply move on to the afterlife. Spirits of humans rarely possess a living being with the intent of killing the host (unlike possession by a nonhuman, or demon).
The final type of paranormal activity that interested me in the Martin home—and also set off a few internal alarms—was the laundry list of activity in the trailer that is usually associated with demonic infestation (meaning the presence of a demon or nonhuman entity in a home). Things like the scent of feces, persistent scratching sounds, and rumbles in the walls usually make the short list of such activity—not to mention the possessions!
Though I cannot personally vouch for the existence of demons, I do know that some spirits can be downright nasty and do their best to scare the inhabitants of a home (mostly because they are, presumably, defending their territory from encroachment). In many instances, these harmful spirits are often labeled as “demonic” or the equivalent, depending on the religious views of the afflicted. As for the actual existence of demons … well, let’s just say the jury is still out as far as I’m concerned, though I do not discount the possibility of such things.
After my discussion with Terri, it was clear that I was about to set foot into a very strange case—a case with several distinct possibilities. Was the Martin family suffering from a particularly intense haunting, an ongoing poltergeist, or were they plagued with demonic infestation? I had no idea, but I intended to find out. Research was sorely needed …
Initial Thoughts
After listening to Terri’s story, I knew that three things would have to be investigated immediately. First, I asked Terri to attempt to call the local sheriff’s office to confirm the incident when the Martins witnessed rocks hitting the house/vehicles.
Second, I wanted the trailer checked for possible gas leaks. Natural gas can often be mistaken for the smell of rotten eggs and I wanted to rule out the possibility of a mundane explanation for that scent.
Lastly, I wanted a competent plumber to look at the water pipes. When pipes go bad, they can often rattle in the wall. I wanted to be sure that this was not responsible for the rumbles that the family was hearing.
After wrapping up my phone call with Terri, I went over my notes from the conversation and gathered the gea
r that I would need for my trip into the delta. I packed the usual items for my investigations—digital camera with night vision, digital audio recorders, camcorder with night vision, etc.—but I knew that the most important tool for this trip would be my own experience and senses.
Over the years, I have investigated numerous reputedly haunted places—hotels, museums, private residences, etc. And in my experience, there are significantly more places that pan out to be mistakenly thought of as haunted than places that actually are haunted.
Because of this, I stay tuned for specific types of events and tend to pay special attention to the hot spots of a property that inhabitants point out. This is standard operating procedure, and it has saved me countless man-hours by not investigating the wrong places. Even though this was no standard case by any stretch of the imagination, I would take the same logistical approach to the investigation of the Martin property.
Planning my trip and the gear I would take along for the investigation, I was most concerned with the reported possessions. According to Terri, the event was quite disturbing and everyone feared an additional outbreak of violence from Tim. I wondered if he was simply reacting to the proximity of a spirit with a bit of hysteria.
In other words, what if a ghost was approaching him—perhaps even touching him as one investigator previously reported experiencing—and fearing the worst, he was going into a panic and beginning to flail about, thinking he was either going to be possessed or that he was in the process of being possessed? Certainly most people would be terrified.
I felt it simply had to be this or—to be blunt—he was faking it for whatever reason: attention, insanity, or drug/alcohol influence. Either way, I planned to directly confront him regarding the situation. I would not have him upsetting my chances of performing a thorough and extensive investigation of the property. If he would be unable to control himself in this regard, he would simply have to leave the property for the duration of my visit (once I had finished interviewing him, of course).
