Paranormal Magazine

An eerie image of a figure in period costume at a Scottish castle has spooked experts conducting the biggest ever investigation into photographic evidence for ghosts.

The picture, taken in May 2008, appears to show a man or woman in a ruff peering out of a barred window at Tantallon Castle.

No mannequins or costumed guides are employed at the castle, and three photographic experts have confirmed that no digital trickery was used on the photo.

Even confirmed ghost sceptic Professor Richard Wiseman, who led the study, admitted to being puzzled.

“It is certainly very curious,” he said. “We ran it by three photographic experts and they said it hadn’t been Photoshopped at all.

“The figure appears to be in period costume, but we know 100% that Tantallon Castle is not the sort of place that has dummies or costumed guides; they just don’t go in for that sort of thing.

“I suppose it could be a visitor looking a little bit strange. Perhaps someone will come forward. Another possibility is an odd reflection of sunlight, but it does look very like a person. The explanation is not obvious.”

Tantallon Castle, a ruined fortress dating back to the 14th century, stands on a remote rocky headland near North Berwick on the Scottish east coast. It was badly damaged in an attack by Oliver Cromwell’s forces in 1651.

Christopher Aitchison, who took the photo, said: “I was not aware of anyone, or anything, being present in my picture, only noticing the anomaly when I got home.

“Staff have verified that there were no sinister dummies in period costume or historical re-enactments going on that day at the castle. I did not notice any nice old ladies wearing ruffs walking around the stairs! Some people have suggested its just light reflecting on rocks and one person suggested it may be King James V of Scotland.”

Psychologist Prof Wiseman, from the University of Hertfordshire, who has made many studies of the supernatural, launched the investigation a month ago.

Members of the public were asked to submit ghostly images for experts to analyse, the best of which were posted on the website www.scienceofhauntings.com.

More than 250 pictures were received from all over the world and more than a quarter of a million people voted for what they considered to be the most convincing photos.

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A boomerang-shaped object seen from an airport control tower and a woman’s encounter with an “alien” are among the secrets revealed in official UFO files.

The woman reported seeing a glowing, spherical object rise into the air in Norwich after meeting a man who said he came from a planet similar to Earth.

In another sighting, a triangular craft hovered then “shot off at 500mph”.

The third set of UFO documents to be released by the Ministry of Defence covers the period from 1987 to 1993.

In November 1989 a “completely terrified” woman contacted RAF Wattisham in Suffolk to report her close encounter with a man claiming to be an alien.

She said she met the fair-haired man with a Scandinavian-type accent as she walked her dog on a sports field.

He told her crop circles were caused by others like him who had travelled to Earth and that the purpose of his visit was friendly.

He then said he had spoken to her because he felt it was important to have contact with humans even though he was told not to.

As the unidentified woman ran home she heard a loud buzzing noise and turned to see a large, spherical object, glowing orange-white, rise steadily until out of sight.

A letter from RAF Wattisham to the MoD and Norfolk police described it as “one of our more unusual UFO reports”.

Three years later two air traffic controllers at London’s Heathrow Airport reported seeing a black, inverted boomerang-shaped UFO from their control tower.

It was stationary then moved steadily in the morning sun, the files say.

A week earlier on a coastal road in Louth, Lincolnshire, several people had reported similar sightings of a large, triangular-shaped object with three lights.

Many witnesses reportedly stopped their cars and got out for a better look before it turned on its axis and zoomed off “at 500mph towards north west”.

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If you want to take a look at the newly released UFO files visit: www.ufos.nationalarchives.gov.uk

This ghostly figure was snapped by a holidaymaker on the moors of North Yorkshire – and experts think the eerie photo is genuine.

Unsuspecting Colin Foster, 34, aimed his new digital camera at the winter scenery during a trip earlier this year, not spotting anything unusual until he returned home from his backpacking tour and began checking the photos he had taken.

Colin said: “My girlfriend and I were looking through them when she grabbed my hand and said, ‘Stop’.

“She insisted I zoom in on one particular picture. At first I didn’t see it — but, as we zoomed in, we just turned to each other with our mouths agape.”

Colin, of Wordsley, West Mids, added: “At the time I took the photo I did feel like I was being watched, but I just put that down to how remote and lonely the place was.

“All my friends and family are scratching their heads in awe.”

TV medium Craig Hamilton-Parker said: “I have checked it over for cheating, but it has none of the tell-tale signs of photo manipulating.

“The exact human shape leads me to say, ‘Yes, this is a real supernatural snap’. The Yorkshire Moors are renowned for their ghosts.”

Nick Thurston, of the UK British Paranormal Association, said: “This image is extremely clear and is certainly that of a spirit manifestation of a full human figure.”

UKBPA vice chairman Clint Symonds said: “This is one of those pictures that makes you sit up and say wow. But obviously it is also a picture that needs deep examination.

“It is so easy these days to fool the public with paranormal phenomena due to modern software.”

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On 10 August 2004 , Madame Amutha Valli suffered a late night abduction by Christian fanatics as they determined to chase away the evil spirits from her. Alas there was one remaining – the spirit of Imagination-Goes-Bad-Motivated-By-Greed which prevailed toward her suing the priests & volunteers at Novena Church who in turn presented their version of Truth as she being brought to the Church by her family members who claimed she was being possesed & the same family members requested for a priest to pray for her.

After a very lengthy & tedious legal battle, the verdict is finally out. But first, do check out the compilation of news covering this bizarre incident from June 2008 till February 2009 when the case is finally closed.

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On Friday 13 February, High Court Judge Lee Seiu Kin brought down the curtain on a courtroom drama spanning some 30 months: He threw out Madam Amutha Valli Krishnan’s lawsuit against Novena Church and nine others, citing “many dubious areas” in the evidence provided by the 53-year-old’s witnesses.

Mdm Amutha Valli had claimed that on Aug 10, 2004, she went to the church with her two children and a close friend to pray. But she fainted and found herself subjected to a two-and-a-half-hour ritual, during which she claimed she was strangled, pinned down and verbally abused.

In his 61-page judgment, Justice Lee said he found it hard to believe her companions’ claims that they were helpless to stop the “ritual”. “They were articulate in the witness box and able to give as good as they took from the counsel … This is in stark contrast to the meekness that they appeared to display on the night in question.”

He also noted Mdm Amutha Valli’s son Jairaj’s “nervous twitches, which could be due to the stress of cross-examination or to the fact that he had to maintain a story that was not true”.

Justice Lee noted the “equally bizarre” account given by the defendants of Mdm Amutha Valli “slithering like a snake, ­shouting and screaming like Satan and marching like a soldier’’.

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The Sci Fi Channel show “Ghost Hunters” went to Somerville last month to investigate reports of haints and haunts at the Sacco’s bowling alley, Boston.

There have been numerous reports of mysterious events and happenings taking place in the aging alley.

Since opening its doors in 1939, more seems to take place there than boowling and socialising.

Many of the employees have heard strange noises ranging from footprints to idle pins toppling. Some have seen unexplained shadows moving past, electrical equipment turning on and off by themselves, and a previous worker there felt something brush his neck, prompting him to quit o the spot.

Some take the bizarre happenings with a pinch of salt, but enough has gone on there to prompt an investigation by the Ghost Hunters

Comedian/historian Jimmy Del Ponte gave the Ghost Hunters several possible explanations. Maybe it was Minnesota Fats, angry because a Somerville man once beat the famed pool player at his own game at Sacco’s billiards room. Rumor said a habitué of an after-hours club next door was murdered, though not at the lanes.

It could even be his own sister, Del Ponte thought: She’d had run-ins with a Sacco’s employee before her death, in 1992.

Somerville city spokesman Tom Champion tried to focus the attention across the river: He’d expect “Sammy White’s Brighton Bowl would be the locus” of paranormal practices in Boston, he said. Four employees were murdered there in 1980; a Somerville cabbie was convicted.

The mystery may remain unsolved. In the end, the Ghost Hunters sat Damon Sacco down and told him: no ghosts.

Sacco professed to be relieved. “I’m happy to know that the place isn’t haunted,” he said. He did the show “just to help [set] everyone’s minds at ease.”

Still, “they did find a few things that were bizarre,” he said – specifically “extraordinarily high levels of electromagnetic energy” that can cause paranoia and creepy feelings.

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A young female voice emanates from an empty room.

Footsteps are heard from another part of the house, but no one is there.

A black cat leaves the room — through a solid wall.

During the 12 years that Fred Nolte and Sandra Frye have owned the Chapman Inn Bed & Breakfast on the Bethel common, their guests have repeatedly related such stories over breakfast.

The incidents are frequent enough to prompt a description titled “Come Meet the Spirits” on the inn’s website, along with a “Certified Haunted” designation for the house.

About a year and a half ago, due to the growing number of reported incidents, Fred called upon a Certified Paranormal Investigator to do an in depth study of the inn.

The investigator spent several days, utilizing all of the field’s modern and accepted techniques, including electronic detection and monitoring, Fred said.

As Fred writes on the inn’s website, “His summation indicated that the inn is definitely haunted, and almost certainly by at least two entities.

“The investigator theorized, with good evidence, that even after death [the daughter] would not leave her only friend, and stayed on in spirit to be close to her.

“The investigator went on to state that there is very compelling evidence to indicate that there are two spirits who inhabit the inn. It is his professional opinion that the other spirit is that of the companion, who has also chosen to remain on this side, and that they will spend eternity forever united.”

Click here to read about the Lady in Room 7

The Big Cats in Britain group is holding its 3rd annual conference at the Marton Country Club in Middlesbrough.

Investigators from around the British Isles and Ireland will be attending the meeting on the weekend of March the 20th to the 22nd.

Big Cats have been reported in the British Isles for over 50 years, and we are no closer to discovering just exactly what these animals are. The media focus has usually been on the ‘Beast of Exmoor or Bodmin.’ But the greatest number of reports, that BCIB receive, actually come from the North of England. Big black panther-like cats, lynx, pumas, are they really roaming our countryside?

Researchers from the beginning of this saga will be present at the conference to reveal their research. People such as Di Francis who first brought the subject to the public’s attention in the early 80s with her books the Beast of Exmoor, Cat Country and My Highland Kellas cats, will give a presentation on her never before published pictures of a large cat found on the shores of the Oban Estuary.

The event will also have previously unseen photos of a big cat in the British countryside brought along by one of the delegates.

Inspector Eddie Bell of the Durham Police will be presenting results of his 22 years of research in the area. His information on the subject in the North East is invaluable. He said: “I think there are wild-born animals out there – enough to maintain a local population. We have had very good sightings from people who should know, like biologists, and also other evidence such as a footprint identified as a puma near Barnard Castle.”

North east ecologist Ian Bond of the Northumbrian Mammal Group will also be speaking at the conference, he reports: “The focus seems to be mainly in the Tynedale area at present with sightings easily in double figures in the last two years. But there is also a good cluster of sightings near Whitby and the Trimdon Panther has been sighted again north of Hartlepool recently.

“I have no doubt whatsoever that there are some big cats out there, possibly of two or three different species.

“Some of the sightings have been made by excellent naturalists who are unlikely to have got it wrong.”

Chris Hall is another local researcher who will be speaking. Mr Hall has spent the last three years following up reports and interviewing witness in the area, he has been responsible for discovering previously unpublished reports. He has also organised, along with the Aycliffe and District preservation group, a vintage bus tour, with running commentary, to the Castle Eden Walkway.

Naturalist and Natural History museum curator Jonathan McGowan will be travelling from Dorset to present his findings. Jonathan is a prolific field researcher, and has found convincing evidence of large cats in the British countryside, and featured on last year’s History Channels ‘Monster Quest’ documentary, along with conference organiser, Mark Fraser.

Speakers will be coming from as far away as Scotland and the Irish Republic. Dr Peter McCue will be presenting a different slant to the subject, not everybody believes that these animals are flesh and blood creatures!

Other activities include:

·        Workshops with ecologist Rick Minter

·        Raffle

·        Books stalls and memorabilia

·        Northumbrian Mammal Group display.

·        Dorset big cat display

·        Field craft displays

·        A live web cam

·        Skulls and cats

This is a unique gathering of the country’s leading researchers on the subject. The audience will be invited to take part as much as possible, relating their own experiences or asking questions.

BCIB are looking for witnesses to contact them with sightings in their area, video footage, photographs are most welcomed. Your anonymity will be assured if that is your wish. A short film is being produced from the area, and any persons wishing to take part should contact BCIB for filming in February.

Conference organiser Mark Fraser said: “The subject of whether or not big cats exist in Britain is a popular one, nearly everybody knows someone who claims to have seen one of our mysterious felines. It is hoped by these gatherings we can get nearer to the truth and obtain hard evidence of these animals.”

Tickets cost for the full weekend £25 – one day £15 each.

All enquiries to Mark Fraser on Tel: 07766 416 211 or visit the Big Cats In Britain website at www.bigcatsinbritain.org

Sexual hauntings are among the most disturbing and mysterious of paranormal phenomena. Assaults and seductions by inhuman entities have been recorded for thousands of years. Veteran researcher BRAD STEIGER discusses several of the many such cases that have come under his notice.

The email was not a request.  It was an urgent plea: ‘You must help my sister!’
In the body of the email, a woman stated that her sister – an adult female living in her own apartment – had suffered a number of nocturnal attacks by an invisible being.  These terrible night visits by the molester were described as violent and sexual in nature.

One night, she said, admitting to me that a seed of doubt persisted in her mind, my correspondent left her children home with her husband and went to spend a night watching over her sister.

After her sister had fallen asleep and she herself was beginning to nod in the rocking chair beside the bed, she witnessed for herself the unbelievable onslaught on her defenceless sister.  The covers were torn from the bed by an invisible force, and a nightmarish struggle between her sister and her determined and increasingly aggressive assailant began.

(Full article in Paranormal issue 35, available now. CLICK HERE to buy the issue and for subscription information, or CLICK HERE to download the digital issue from www.zinio.com)

JASON KARL describes an extraordinary case of a sexual haunting he has spent several years investigating at an old manor house in the North West of England.

Extract - After slipping into a deep sleep, Sarah was awoken by a strange feeling which she described as a ‘muscular man pressing down upon me with great force’. Strangely, though, her reaction was from far from fear:

‘The feeling lasted for almost an hour and the experience was incredible,’ she told me. ‘It was as if a man was making love to me, I could feel the physicality of him, pressing against my skin.’

(Full article in Paranormal issue 35, available now. CLICK HERE to buy the issue and for subscription information, or CLICK HERE to download the digital issue from www.zinio.com

Need to beat the credit crunch? Expert on the mystic arts Dr SNAKE reveals some easy to do at home magic intended to bring in the readies.

There’s no doubt about it, these are grim times. But if you’re suffering from the effects of the credit crunch, don’t despair. I’m going to show you how to use sorcery to get ahead of the competition and bring money – even wealth – your way.

(Learn more in Paranormal issue 35, available now. CLICK HERE to buy the issue and for subscription information, or CLICK HERE to download the digital issue from www.zinio.com)

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