Ouija Board Nightmares 2 is now available as an audiobook, narrated by the inimitable Michael E. Smith. Audio fans can get their copy at:
Just like listening to smooth jazz. Well, except for that whole nightmares thing.
A Ouija Omnibus
The newest addition to the Harker paranormal collection.
A 2-in-1 volume that combines the complete editions of
Ouija Board Nightmares: Terrifying True Tales and
Ouija Board Nightmares 2: More True Tales of Terror
Why settle for one nightmare when you can have a whole night's worth?
Beings of Light
There are some true believers, of course. A Creighton University Jesuit named Father Francis Deglman used to fascinate me and other students with his recital of encounters with his personal angel. He carried on a spirited discourse with this being--argued even, and complained.
His most dramatic episode occurred early one morning when he was awakened from sleep.
"Francis, get up!"
Father Deglman glanced at his alarm clock. "It's 3 in the morning," he managed to object. But he arose. The guardian angel instructed him to turn on the light. Reluctantly he fumbled for the wall switch.
"Now turn it off. And get back to bed."
Deglman shook his head, plunged the room into darkness again, and crept beneath the solo blanket, still wondering what this was all about.
The next morning a student came to see him.
"Father," he began, "last night I was thinking of taking my life. I tried to get into the campus church but it was locked. It had to be about 3 o'clock. I sat on the wall outside the Jesuit residence, certain that God didn't care if I lived or died. Then I said, 'If there is a God, let a light go on in that building.' I looked back up and your light was on." *
The light is always there for us. All we have to do is ask for it.
* As published in U.S. Catholic magazine.
Demons are real, says New York psychiatry professor
Juan de Cordoba chassant les démons
Dr. Richard Gallagher is a respected New York psychiatrist and a professor at Columbia University and New York Medical College. But he’s something else that’s even way cooler. For the last 25 years, Dr. Gallagher has served as a consultant for a network of exorcists across the country. When one of these priests suspects that someone may be a victim of diabolical possession, they ask Dr. Gallagher to assess the person to rule out a medical or mental condition before beginning the process of a formal exorcism. In most cases, there is indeed a scientific explanation for the person’s odd behavior. But not always. In his 25 years of consulting, Dr. Gallagher says he’s seen about 100 cases of true demonic possessions, and hundreds more of oppressions, cases in which a demon basically makes life miserable for someone.
In the article below, Dr. Gallagher shares some fascinating insights and creepy stories from his experiences. And good news for those of us who are fans (I've known about Dr. Gallagher for some time now): he's coming out with a book later this year entitled Demonic Foes: Experiences of a Psychiatrist in the World of Exorcism.
Enjoy!
Psychiatrist Professor Says Demonic Possessions Real
Lady Gaga’s Bedevilment Problem
“The demonic is a loan shark, and it not only collects before you’re ready, it wants double in return for what it gives. Ultimately it wants the soul. - Ed Warren, demonologist
As I stated in my book Evil Unleashed, involvement in the occult always backfires, in one form or another. It can be quick or it can take a number of years. But be assured that the spirits you bargain with will never let you off the hook.
Just ask Lady Gaga.
In an explosive new interview, Lady Gaga relates how she went from being an unknown burlesque performer to a multi-platinum pop star “in a cinch” thanks to a mysterious, “strangely ageless man” who made her a deal she couldn’t refuse.
Well, she could have. And actually now she wishes she would have.
Read this fascinating account at the link below. And keep Lady Gaga in your prayers. If she’s telling the truth, she surely needs them. If she’s blowing a major load of performance smoke, she still needs them.
Lady Gaga: Fibromyalgia Is ‘Punishment’ For Joining The Illuminati
Witches Hexing Trump Will Have Disastrous Results (And Not The Kind You Think)
The Three Witches, Henry Fuseli, 1783
Okaaaay then. Here’s what I want to remind anyone who thinks this is a good idea. Spells, curses, hexes -- they backfire. It’s the ultimate case of “be careful what you wish for.” In my book Evil Unleashed, I have a chapter devoted to the travails of a young man who was victimized by a witch’s hex. This isn’t Bewitched, friends. This is serious stuff. Being on the receiving end of a hex can bring misery, suffering, and death. And for those doing the hexing? Well, pretty much the same.
Fr. Herman Jayachandra, a priest with extensive exorcism experience in India and the United States, and who has had to deal with curses and hexes on both sides of the world, warns: “The devil, after using a witch to the best interest of both, eventually will kill her indirectly, driving her mad so she’ll die quickly in an accident or slowly from not being able to care for herself.”
Of course, witches like Bracciale will say they’re not invoking the devil in their spells; only forces of natures, cosmic energy, thought vibrations, etc., etc. Exorcists who have been in the trenches say that’s a bunch of hogwash: The power of the spells comes from evil forces, pure and simple.
“You are becoming indebted by calling on power not from God and establishing a relationship with that power,” says exorcist, Fr. Patrick (not his real name, for privacy purposes). “If you ask a favor, these spirits don’t want to help you in the long run. If you think they do, you are fooling yourself. . . Evil is not concerned about your freedom; it wants control.”
Reverend Vincent Lampert, an exorcist from the Diocese of Indianapolis, says that those casting spells are relying on evil that feeds on anger and revenge. “The end result of all this for people will be to find themselves more deeply entangled with the devil,” he said. “Their lives will continue to spiral out of control.”
There’s a similar theme in all these warnings: loss of control. The witch may think she or he is doing the driving, but later down the road it will become apparent that they’re just along for the ride -- a ride that will end with a crash if they don’t find a way to escape the darkness.
The Peruvian Anabelle - Possessed Doll Terrorizes Family
This story goes back to May, but remains blog-worthy for its creepiness. It begs the question, though, as so many of these haunted doll stories do, why do people keep these demonic little playthings around? I don't care if my favorite nephew gifted it to me or not: she'd be outta my house faster than a dead rat.
Possessed Blue-Eyed Doll
Haunted Dolls are This Woman's Passion
“I was both excited and scared as the fingers moved up my leg,' she told Australia’s that’s life! magazine. “I wondered if my sons, Caleb and Jacob had sneaked into my room. But there was no one there!”
Since that night, Karina started experiencing many other strange occurrences, prompting her to investigate further into her existing doll collection, and even motivating her to acquire other antique dolls with a history of “spirit attachment.” Karina, now 38, estimates that within her collection of 700 dolls, there reside about 100 different spirits.
“I love having so many possessed dolls living with me,” she said. “My house will always be happily haunted.”
[I’d rather my house be happily non-haunted, but that’s just me. - John]
To read more, see “Mum says her collection of ‘possessed’ antique baby dolls lets her talk to the dead,” that’s life! February 2017.
(Photo: Creative Commons, author: NikiSublime)
World's Largest Ouija Board
"It has been one fantastic adventure," said Blair in an interview with Guinness World Records, noting that he and his guests have experienced many strange things at the hotel. But it was when he held a Ouija board session there that the activity really kicked up.
“Things flipped out throughout the hotel. Energies were swirling. Guests were getting completely freaked out,” says Blair, “it seemed to kick things up into an entire new level of paranormal activity. We were seeing floating people and hearing voices and even the hotel pets were flipping out and reacting to unseen forces. Our dreams were pretty wild. And it wasn't just us. Other longer-term hotel residents were saying ‘there is absolutely something going on here’ and having their own middle of the night weird encounters.”For most people, that would have been more than enough reason to pack up and move a thousand miles away. But for Blair, it actually inspired him to make the hotel more spooky by constructing the world's largest Ouija board on the roof, so big, in fact, that it's visible from Google Maps.
“The hotel roof was this massive blank canvas just waiting for the perfect project to present itself,” said Blair. “A Ouija world record roof was a perfect match for our place.”
To see the board come alive from start to finish, check this out:
Interesting, yes. But my readers know how I feel about Ouija boards. If I lived in this neighborhood, I'd be calling my realtor about now.
R.I.P. William Peter Blatty
Topping most lists as the scariest movie ever made (and the scariest book ever written), The Exorcist not only made Blatty a star, but opened the door to a whole new generation of horror films, a sub-genre that could be called the “Supernatural Thriller,” the likes of which today are reflected in modern hits like “The Exorcism of Emily Rose,” “The Conjuring,” and the Paranormal Activity franchise films.
Blatty also achieved something else with The Exorcist that in the early 1970s was considered countercultural, if not downright heretical. He made evil a tangible thing. He personified it. It was something that was real, that was intelligent, that was cunning. Yet it could be confronted and overcome. By religion, of all things! This flew in the face of everything the pop psychology of the time preached, that the concept of evil was outdated, irrelevant, and, if anything, was just a “disordered psychoses” appearing in a few unfortunate individuals.
Blatty died on January 12, 2017, at the age of 89, after a short battle with blood cancer. He was a lifelong Catholic, albeit one who struggled with his faith, like so many of us. To honor his memory, here are a few interesting facts about the man who changed the landscape of cinematic horror.
- In 1959, he took a job as a ghostwriter for Abigail van Buren, the original “Dear Abby” columnist. He ghostwrote her book Dear Teenager.
- In 1961, while still working in public relations, Blatty appeared as a contestant on the Groucho Marx quiz show You Bet Your Life, winning $10,000, enough money to quit his job and to write full time.
- During the 1960s, Blatty turned his focus away from novels and towards screenwriting. His credits during this time include The Man from the Diners’ Club (1963), A Shot in the Dark (1964), What Did You Do In The War, Daddy? (1966), Gunn (1967), and Darling Lilli (1970).
- His success at writing comedy (in particular, the successful Pink Panther movie A Shot in the Dark) came to a halt with his new-found acclaim as a horror writer. Looking back at his career, Blatty once remarked: “And the sad truth is that nobody wants me to write comedy. The Exorcist not only ended that career, it expunged all memory of its existence.”
- In an interview with the Washington Post, Blatty said that he does believe in the possibility of reincarnation. “Personally, I do. In the very early Catholic Church there were sects who definitely believed in the transmigration of souls. I've read a great deal about it. And maybe there’s something in my own life that tends to convince me it’s a possibility.”
- His final book was 2015’s Finding Peter. It was inspired by the death of his 19-year-old son Peter, who died from a rare heart disorder in 2006.
* * *
(Photo: Creative Commons, author: J.T. Blatty)
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