Files From the Edge (26 page)

Any light source moving across an open shutter would create a streak on the frame; whatever made the images only appeared on two of six exposures taken at the chamber entrance (they were consecutive shots). The source was not visible to my eye, though then again, why should it be since the object only emitted infrared light. I was very happy with the images obtained that night, since it proved to me these strange globes of light may be around us more often than we realize, but we very rarely perceive them since they are invisible to the naked eye. Over the next several years, I tried to duplicate my success with the hope of getting better images, but didn’t. However, I was not the only one getting photos of the phantoms of Ninham. In the years to follow, I received fifteen photos from my readers who were able to capture images of unusual lights (both day and night)inside or in close proximity to the stone chamber.

Was it an Image of the Past or Another Reality?

With the rise of digital photography, there has been a marked increase in paranormal photography. I must admit the reason for this eludes me; perhaps it’s because people are taking more photos since they no longer have to pay expensive processing fees. Some skeptics believe the answer to this question is because digital images are much easier to fake.

In 1978, before the use of digital photography, I obtained a number of photographs with negatives of what is considered by many researchers to be the best paranormal photos ever taken. All the images on the twenty-four exposure roll show one reality disappearing and another taking its place. One of the most interesting frames shows flowers in the foreground in focus (the intention of the photographer) then more flowers behind out of focus (as it should be). What’s amazing is that another image appears very clearly, behind the out-of-focus flowers that, according to the laws of physics, should also be out of focus but isn’t. The image in this particular photograph shows what has been identified as a Babylonian bull and a winged man that some paranormal researchers think is an angel. A microscopic examination of the negatives proved that this was not a double exposure and, despite a lengthy investigation that included working with the company that processed the film, there is no indication that the negatives were faked. The photographers were two teenage girls taking photos of flowers on Block Island (off the east coast of New England), and until the film was developed, the girls had no idea what was on it because they saw nothing unusual in person. The negatives and prints were also sent to Kodak labs where technicians could find no explanation for how the images got there. It still remains a mystery and it may be one of those rare occasions when images of the past merge with our present.

Messages From Beyond

Throughout history, human beings have been fascinated with the idea of communicating with another plane of reality. Before the great boom in electronics, people went to mediums and used instruments such as Ouija boards in an attempt to contact the spirits of loved ones who had passed over. The case for “contacting the dead” using these methods is very weak and the product of an eager, possibly over-active imagination. The majority of individuals who attempt spirit communication want to believe their loved ones are still with them; they want to believe there is a life after the death of the physical body; they want to believe there is more to existence than education, working, and raising a family, but these peoples’ desires exceed their common sense, in my opinion. One of the simplest and cheapest tools to attempt contact is the Ouija board. Many users of the board claim success, but just as many will say that it doesn’t work and the Ouija is nothing more than a game.

Ouija Board Contacts

A Ouija board, also known as a Talking Spirit Board, is a flat board with letters and other symbols painted on it. For decades, it was used by many people from all walks of life to contact the dead. Although its popularity peaked at the latter part of the nineteenth century, it is still manufactured (these days by Parker Brothers, who has trademarked the term “Ouija”) and used today in attempts to contact ghosts and spirits. In the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, it has also been used to contact “demonic” entities and, in some cases, extraterrestrials. For however long its lifespan, the Ouija board hasn’t changed very much; it still consists of a highly polished board with numbers and letters printed on it and a planchette, or indicator, which can mover freely across the board with a minimal of friction.
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A very similar device is described in the Greek historical account of the philosopher Pythagoras of Samos in 540 bc and was used to communicate with the gods and spirits of nature.

In the late 1800s, mystics claimed that in order for the board to work correctly, it had to made out of wood from a weeping willow tree; the letters must be painted in red; and, most importantly, the board had to be blessed by a priest sprinkling holy water while reciting the Lord’s Prayer. Today, the boards are made out of everything from pressed wood to plastic, and in today’s world, I am doubtful Parker Brothers calls in the services of a Catholic Priest to bless the boards as they roll off the production line.

In the twenty-first century, the use of the Ouija board is controversial; some claim usage is very dangerous because it can avail one to “evil” spirits (Djinn?) from other planes of existence. I have investigated a great number of cases where a series of paranormal events began to take place after the use of a Ouija board; terrifying events that in some cases, never went away. I do know for sure that well-noted author and close friend the late John G. Fuller used a Ouija board while doing research for his 1976 book
The Ghost of Flight 401
. Although skeptical, John claimed to have gotten amazing results when the board was used with a psychic he had worked with in the past.

I have also used a Ouija board in investigations of supposedly haunted houses. In a séance-like setting, the pointer moved so rapidly it actually surprised me. While my hands were on the pointer with another person, I said, “At the count of three, take your hands off.” To my surprise, the pointer continued to move for about two seconds on its own. We repeated this several times and I was convinced that an outside force was pushing it during the session. I and everyone else present during this session had no negative experiences from use of the board, but others have. The case that illustrates this concerns a young man by the name of Bruce, his sister, friends, and a multitude of paranormal experiences that began after he and his friends decided to “play” with a Ouija board one night.

Night Terror (Bruce’s Story)

“I was born in England and came to the United States when I was fifteen years old. At seventeen, I went back to England to spend time with my family who owned a pub. One day in 1977, in the early evening, a friend of mine made a Ouija board from a mirror and drew letters on it with a marker and used lard to make it slippery. We then found an old shot glass, turned it upside down, and used it as a pointer. It took awhile for us to get it started, but we asked some questions, at first it moved very slowly. Then as time went on, the indicator started moving so fast we had to have somebody write down the letters so that we could keep up with it. It was giving us quite a great deal of information and it seemed like there were different personalities communicating with us. Sometimes it spelled out words in modern English and then a new entity would take over and start spelling out words in old English.

“After awhile, whoever was communicating with us would use the extra lard to make patterns and draw a face. Sometimes, when we asked a question that it didn’t want to answer, the shot glass would tip over on its side and stay there until we changed the subject. It drew a face I thought at the time looked like the
Creature from the Black Lagoon
. When I think about it today, it was more like that of a reptilian extraterrestrial with huge eyes, scaly skin, and a small mouth. My sister took some photos of it and they didn’t come out, but strangely, every other photo she took did. We tried using the board again the next day and once again used the lard as a lubricant. A short time into the session it drew a picture of a solar system that looked like ours, and they said that they were from another planet that was on the other side of the sun that we didn’t know about. They told my sister and her husband that in Kent (England) there was a natural time window, and if they went there that weekend the aliens would appear to them. In the days that followed, my sister’s husband started acting very strange and finally had a nervous breakdown so they never went. After that, my sister never wanted to talk about what happened, and she stopped using the board to get messages.

“My friend and I continued to use the Ouija for several weeks, but weird stuff started happening around the apartment every time we used it. We heard strange sounds that came from nowhere and things fell off of shelves and sometimes flew across the room. This started to take place every time we used the homemade Ouija. During one session, it got so violent that my friend got scared and said that she wanted to stop. I picked up a bible that was next to me and placed it close to the board; when I did the words KILL spelled out. Then it said GET RID OF BIBLE, KILL. This went on for ten minutes, and I finally said that I wasn’t going to put the bible away. As I picked the bible up, it flew out of my hands and smacked against the wall. The bible hit the wall with such a force that we just sat there startled for at least several minutes without a sound and just stared at each other. It was clear that whoever we were communicating with meant business and didn’t want that bible around. Then the glass that we used as a pointer emitted a bluish white spark and shattered in my hands into a thousand different pieces.

“Things started happening after that night: it was a two-room apartment and my roommate told me that I was stiff on the bed one night and bouncing up and down as if something was shaking me. We often would wake up in the middle of the night or walk into the house after being away and smell a strong scent of burning sulfur of which we could not find the source. There was always a presence in the house that seemed evil; I told my friend not to leave me alone in the dark because whatever this thing was, it was after me and wanted to get me alone.

“Weird things continued to happen for a few days. Then one night in the early morning hours, my friend and I woke up at the same moment and saw a green circle of light moving across the room. When we saw it, a feeling of terror grew in both of us and I felt that if the light moved to the center of the room something was going to open up and it was going to be very bad for the both of us. I then got out of bed and turned on the lights and said, ‘I don’t want to do this anymore, I will not use the board again and look into this stuff anymore, leave me alone.’ After I said this, the green light vanished and that was it, nothing happened for six months until I moved back to America. While in the United States I experienced what could be called dimensional contacts.”

I would like to stop Bruce’s story here since most of what took place after he came to the United States did not involve a Ouija board but was a series of dimensional alien contacts. It could be that the use of the board opened or created a conduit for these entities to continue contacting him. His further experiences will be presented in my next book, which details my investigations into the contact phenomenon.

Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP)

When I see people on a television paranormal reality show walking around a cemetery with a portable digital recorder asking, “Is there any one here who wants to talk with us,” I can’t help but laugh. Even if it was possible to communicate with those who have passed over, do these people really believe that the spirit of a deceased person would be hanging around the place where their body is buried? Over the centuries, many have tried to communicate with the dead with no success. Recently, a number of researchers have claimed to have received voice communication on their recorders and modified radios, but the evidence is weak at best. I must mention again that UFO investigators (including myself) have recorded messages, strange noises, and voices on tape recorders while conducting interviews with UFO witnesses decades before ghost hunters. Electronic voice phenomena was more frequent if the person was a contactee or had claimed alien abduction. UFO investigators and ghost hunters alike have to consider that taped anomalies on recordings may not be from the dead, but from intelligent beings from another reality playing a favorite game called “Fool the Human.”

Human attempts from this physical reality to contact another realm of existence go back hundreds of centuries to the oracles of ancient Greece and Rome. Druid priests believed there was one special night of the year in which the past, present, and future coexisted, and it was possible only at this time to talk with those who had died and yet to be born. They also believed that doorways opened up to another reality where spirits would enter our world and interact with
humans. Likewise, it was also thought possible to journey into their reality, but this was considered to be extremely dangerous. Today, we still acknowledge this special day of the ancient Celts and call it Halloween. According to my research, a peak in paranormal reports takes place on or around this day—is it just a coincidence, or are portals opening up at this time?

There are unconfirmed stories that Thomas Edison was working on a communication device to contact the dead. However, most Edison experts would contest this point and say the story about the genius trying to contact the spirit world is only a myth.
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In 1899, while experimenting with a large electromagnetic generator (now called the Tesla coil), the great self-taught scientist Nikola Tesla claims that—after the device was turned off—to have heard a series of clear dots and dashes on his radio monitoring equipment. He said that the signals “were of a clear order that could not be traced to any known source.”
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Had Tesla’s coil produced enough electromagnetic energy to create a small wormhole on the quantum level allowing beings in another dimension to send a message?

While on board his yacht in the Mediterranean in summer 1921, the inventor of the wireless telegraph Guglielmo Marconi claimed to have detected “unidentifiable radio signals” he said sounded like voices and strange sounds in the distant static.
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,
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He also said some of the sounds he heard were very similar to the same type of signals Tesla had detected in 1899. Stranger still, Marconi was very surprised when he heard dots and dashes he was able to decode as the Morse letter “S,” the exact duplicate of the first radio transmission that was sent over the English Channel from South Foreland, England, to Wimereux, France, on December 12, 1901. He speculated that somebody was trying to communicate by sending his message back to him. Since no one was using the frequencies Marconi was experimenting with at the time, there would be no explanation for what he heard. Marconi was respected by his peers as being a down- to-earth person so no one doubted his claim; it remains a mystery.

Later, in the mid-twentieth century, a number of radio astronomers speculated that Marconi may have received extraterrestrial signals. However, it is much easier for me to believe part of his first radio transmission leaked into a parallel dimension where it was picked up by intelligent beings and then sent back twenty years later. Why wait twenty years to acknowledge the signal? Perhaps time flows at a different rate in this other reality and a period of twenty years between Marconi’s experiment and when he picked up the unknown signals was only minutes in this other dimension.