Saturday 10 May 2014

10th May 2014

Recent talk of poltergeists and occult-y-type-shenanigans on the WMGC Facebook Page - LINK - sent the club members rifling through our diaries in search of the case mentioned below. we've had no contact with the people concerned for a very long time now, but, for reasons mentioned in the blurb below, their names and personal details have been removed  from the accompanying article about the case.....

West Midlands Ghost Club member, Nick Duffy, takes up the account:

"Speaking to a relative in Autumn, 1999, I was told that they had just heard a news report (on local radio) concerning a (then) Darlaston family that had apparently 'had to' move house 5 or so times because they were being dogged by 'ghostly activity'. I instantly called the station concerned and explained my interest to a member of their news team..... and they promised to pass my contact details on to the family concerned, etc. Within 24 hrs of the call, I was contacted by the mother of the family - I'll call her 'Sue' - and invited to go along to their (then current) house and speak with them about what had been going on. Ironically, the family wishes to remain completely anonymous in this matter, but, as I arrived at their comfortable, little flat, I happened to pick up their 'free-paper' which had just been dropped on their doormat and called to Sue that I'd bring it upstairs to her and so on. As I carried the newspaper, I happened to look at the front page and there was an article about the haunting - full details, including names and addresses - published therein!! This information didn't go down at all well with Sue, who said that she would be contacting the paper concerned and complaining. 

With regards to 'activity': initial reports seemed to indicate that they were experiencing a considerable amount of poltergeist-like effects, which had seemingly started with a knocking noise heard coming from the headboard of the parents bed, which moved from one side of the board and back again. Quite soon afterwards, other, peculiar matters developed, such as glasses being hear smashing in the kitchen and crayon found to have been scribbled down the walls of the staircase, in a position where it would have supposedly been very hard to accomplish such vandalism. Sues underwear had also been found to have 'gone missing' at times...... either never to be seen again, or, sometimes, returning under mysterious circumstances!? 

Interestingly, Sue mentions that one of the addresses that they had moved into – while attempting to flee their peculiar problems – had actually 'been haunted too', anyway..... which she believed had made their own troubles worse...? She reckoned that the already existing haunting had given their own activity more impetus, possibly?!

A major phenomenon that they had been experiencing at the time that I spoke with them was a most disturbing force, during which they were seemingly 'pinned down' by something and found themselves unable to move. This was experienced by both of the parents at different times. I was told that, when this was actually happening, they had sometimes seen a 'black figure' in the room and also heard what seemed to be a 'shuffling sound'. Sue believed that two separate spirits were taking part in these attacks – one performing the 'pinning' activity and another moving around the room and producing the 'shuffling' sound. The episodes also seemed to be preceded by a pulsating sound – a 'wow-wow-wow' effect – described as akin to something from a Sci-Fi movie!? These attacks were, at the time in question, occurring approximately every two weeks or so. (It was also mentioned that this was something of a 'reduced figure' re. regularity, as they had been more frequently experienced previously). The last attack had occurred to Sue some 4 nights before our initial contact. It was suggested to me that the assaults tended not to happen if the lights were left on and they certainly seemed to favour the dark. Sue admitted that she had – on occasion – experienced the 'pressing' effect at different times throughout her lifetime. One such attack had occurred in a hostel that she was staying in and was witnessed by another girl sleeping in the same room. (*Needless to say, this type of experience could be put down to a case of sleep paralysis, or perhaps hypnagogic experience, etc, but it is worthy enough of note to simply record that such events are frequently associated with paranormally charged situations. In the last couple of years, for example, I was asked to visit a family living in my own street who were experiencing poltergeist-like activity AND episodes of paralysis along the lines mentioned).

Throughout the interview – at different points - Sue emphasised that she was desperately worried about the effect that the activity concerned might be having on her young son. She believed that he was already able to 'see' things in his bedroom that his parents could not, as he seemed to be 'watching' something invisible moving around the room at times. She basically lived in fear of the child being assaulted in some way, the same as both she and her partner had experienced, etc.

I was told that 'the church' had allegedly become involved in these matters some 8 or so times during the course of the experiences – at different properties across the Black Country region – but the phenomenon still persisted. One vicar had told the family that their problems had something to do with the practice of devil worship and that 'something' was now 'after their souls'!? At an address they'd occupied in the Halesowen region, they had discovered a box full of books that appeared to be 'Satanic' in nature. It should perhaps be added here that - as a brief 'life history' for Sue - she admitted that she had been abused as a teenager and had developed something of a troubled life afterwards. (Including drug usage). She said that her father had practiced some form of 'black magic', which he had apparently used to try and control people around him (including Sue). She herself had also dabbled in forms of negative occultism at times and had been a keen devotee of the Ouija too at one point. (*Re. the references made by the vicar above concerning 'Devil Worship': I have to take it that a potted history of what had been going on - including family / life history, etc - would have been mentioned to all church figures entering the scenario and the 'devil worship / after their soul' comments potentially made 'as a result of' his learning such data?)

When Sue was some 8 or so years old, her mother had been to see a clairvoyant and was told that Sue was 'highly gifted', in a spiritual sense. (I was asked if this might have something to do with the problems they had been experiencing?) She admitted that she believed herself to have had certain powers or gifts throughout her lifetime, which she openly tied in with what was currently happening around her......."

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