The Demonologist: The Extraordinary Career of Ed and Lorraine Warren (6 page)

The answer opened the door to even deeper questions: why does the phenomenon occur in the first place? Is there some reason why one person will become a ghost and another won’t? These are the sort of questions Ed and Lorraine are able to answer in intricate detail. As young artists, they came to learn that earthbound human spirits are no more than individuals whose bodies have been deducted from the total entity. Caught up in a confused state of mind, such unfortunates possess life but no body. Yet, body or no, these human spirits are stuck in a temporary limbo between this realm and the next. Factors have somehow conspired to prevent the spirit from making any onward progress.

"The ghost syndrome," Ed explains, "is caused by a tragedy in the life of an individual, where death occurs suddenly or under very traumatic circumstances. Less often, the spirit will linger because of an unusually strong attachment to things of this world. But in either case, the earthbound spirit identifies with
this
realm rather than the next. Now, it’s a general rule that people who can contemplate an afterlife will pass over correctly. However, the mind of the earthbound spirit tends to be rigidified in a particular state of emotion. Deep down the spirit seeks resolve, of course, but it is
so
caught up in its own trauma and misery that nothing makes sense to it except the contemplation of its own emotional state. Many times the ghost isn’t even aware that death has taken place. This is because the individual as a ghost no longer has the same awareness it had as a flesh-and-blood person. When communication takes place, you often have to tell them—in fact, you’ve got to
convince
them—they’re dead, that they’ve been dissociated from their physical body. The mind, you see, is unaffected by the advent of death. So if death comes suddenly or in the midst of emotional trauma, the spirit gets caught up in a state of unresolve. This is why spirits linger, sometimes for ages. Time is not a factor with spirits; they live in a sort of perpetual present. It is wisdom and realization that allows the human spirit to progress successfully.

"Essentially, when a ghost is responsible for haunting phenomena," continues Ed, "there has either been an emotional situation in the home that triggers the disturbance, or a spirit present is trying to communicate its problem to the physical realm. Take emotional situations first. People often wonder why two, three, a dozen families will live in a house, but only one person or family will experience spirit phenomena. The answer is that an emotional interlink has usually taken place.

"For example, you have an old house in which someone committed suicide a hundred years ago. In the meantime, a half-dozen families may live there and never once experience anything strange. Then one day, in moves someone who’s also bent on self-destruction. Immediately activity starts up. An emotional interaction has occurred. It’s like putting batteries in a flashlight: a connection is made between compatible emotions.

"Take another example. Up until maybe fifty years ago, women gave birth at home, and sometimes these women would die in childbirth. Now, a woman who very much wanted to bear a child and be a good mother would hardly want to die at the point of delivery. So she might remain earthbound in the home—emotionally fixated to the place. A hundred years later, a family with a newborn baby moves in. All of a sudden, the ghost of a Victorian woman is seen in the nursery. The presence of the child has triggered an emotional response. This kind of haunting phenomenon is very common and has happened more times than I can count.

"Another reason a ghost will manifest is based on a need to communicate. In these cases, the earthbound spirit is so caught up in its own tragedy or unresolved state that it will manifest to anyone in order to try and communicate its plight. That’s why lights will be switched on and off, or you’ll hear knockings, or small objects will move in your presence. The spirit is
trying
to gain attention. This happened at West Point. Sometimes, though, the ghost doesn’t know he’s there. I’ve got a picture of one of them. He’s a monk in England and I inadvertently photographed him in Borley church while he was leafing through a great big book.

"A better example of this," Ed goes on, "is a case that happened a few years ago here in America. A family of seven grown children and their recently widowed father had a ghost in their home, all right, but it was a little more than that—the spirit was the apparition of the mother. About two months before the family called on us, the woman had been driving her own 65-year-old mother back from Christmas shopping when it began to snow quite heavily. Anxious to get home before the storm took hold, this lady hit a bad spot on the road. The car slammed into a tree, killing both women instantly. Though the grandmother passed on immediately, the mother did not.

"Why did she stay behind in spirit form? Because the final thing on her mind was to get home: and that’s where she went, but as a
spirit.
Soon after the accident, unusual movements began to occur in the house. After a few months, it became apparent that the source of the activity was the mother’s spirit I say
apparent
because the more sensitive of the children saw her in a semi-materialized state, watering plants, straightening the beds, closing cupboard doors; in the middle of the night when it was cold, she’d shut the windows—things like that. In her new state of awareness, this woman was totally
un
aware that she was now discarnate."

How could a person be oblivious to being a ghost?

"Well, it’s a lot like an amputation. A person may think his amputated leg is there when it’s not. For the ghost it’s the same thing, only in the spirit’s case, the
whole
body is amputated away.

"Nevertheless, in that case, I had to use a deep-trance medium to communicate with this woman," Ed concludes. "It was a long, emotional sitting. At first, I got the ‘Not-me-
I’m
-no-ghost’ routine, because she naturally refused to accept the fact that she was dead. Eventually, though, that afternoon we
were
able to get the woman to transition correctly as a spirit The phenomena in the house stopped immediately, of course. To some, it might seem cruel to send this woman on, but the human spirit is no pet. Therefore, it was imperative for this woman to know her condition. Otherwise, in the future, when the family moved away or also died, she’d still be fixed in her earthbound state. Once again, tragedy and unresolve are the watchwords of the ghost syndrome."

Communication with a ghostly entity ordinarily takes place by means of mental telepathy. This is the process Lorraine used at West Point. It was not necessary for Greer to display himself in order to communicate; telepathy was perfectly sufficient to get the job done.

Telepathy, a latent ability in everyone, is a form of thought transference. Instead of an idea being projected vocally, it is projected directly
by the brain.
Just like the eyes and ears, the brain—the most complex organ of the body—is also an organ of perception. Put another way, the brain can handle sense data the other five senses cannot. Spirits find this "sixth" sense the easiest to use as a channel of communication; however, what is not commonly understood is that thought transference is a
physical
phenomenon.

"Thought has substance," Ed explains, "and the substance of thought is vibrations.
All
sense data, regardless of type, come to us by means of vibrations. Our body is like one great big antenna with specialized receivers to collect these specialized vibrations. Like radio waves, these vibrations can’t be seen, although they are all around us. Not only thoughts, but everything in the world has its own unique vibration, its own special frequency. Because each frequency is different, the brain is able to physically sort one thing out from another.

"The one hitch is that it’s impossible for the human brain to distinguish between a real physical sound and the psychically-created
impression
of that sound. The frequency is identical. So when a ghost communicates by telepathy, it is no more or less than the transfer of vibrations from one mind to another. The result is communication. Of course, it follows that there would be no communication from the other side unless there was an intelligence, a mind, generating telepathic vibrations to the physical realm."

As young artists, Ed and Lorraine discovered that much of the phenomena in haunted houses could be attributed to the workings of earthbound spirits. They learned in time that these discarnate entities—though sometimes responsible for frightening phenomena—did not really exist for a sinister purpose. Furthermore, despite the strange activity these earthbound human spirits were able to bring about, they did not have truly mysterious powers.

In some rare cases, however, it was evident to the Warrens there was another category of phenomena altogether. Forces active in these homes had powers that
were
truly mysterious. "Many times," says Lorraine, "we would arrive at the site while the disturbance was still occurring. We would see the activity
ourselves,
firsthand. But most of all, I’d have to say the deportment of the people told the real story. We’d go into a home, and the family would be frightened senseless from what they’d seen or experienced. In those days, too, there were few if any institutes or agencies for people to call on, so many times these families would have to weather these incredible assaults by malicious spirits alone. By the time we arrived, they’d often be worn out, spent by the unrelenting phenomena going on around them. And though many of these folks were being harassed half out of their minds, a lot of times they didn’t realize that spirits—not to mention
demonic
spirits—were often responsible. There was nothing debatable about what was happening to these people: they were under siege.

Ultimately, what Ed and I got out of these early experiences was an understanding that there was a spirit behind the phenomena,
but
that spirit was far worse, far more threatening than a mere ghost"

"A ghost is essentially a passive entity with limited powers and abilities. Usually, it will manifest at random, attempt to communicate, and then dissipate from view. It works out to a cycle: manifestation, communication, dissipation," states Ed. "And other than make itself known, the ghost only rarely
does
anything. We came to find the ordinary earthbound human spirit to be a loner, caught up in a personal problem, seeking resolve to its primary nature. The ghost behaved in predictable ways, either wanting to communicate its plight or be left alone to contemplate its own misfortune. However, these other cases bore no markings whatsoever of the earthbound spirit. The enormous upheaval, the negative phenomena, the shock and terror indicated that something
else
was at work."

In the worst cases, the Warrens walked into situations where things would be running completely amuck. Whereas a relatively docile human spirit might levitate a pencil or break a cherished teacup, here the whole house would be ruined in a deliberate, orderly way. Not infrequently, people in the home would be attacked, mentally
and
physically. At first the Warrens attributed these disturbances to gangs of spirits, perhaps marauding after death as they once had on earth. But this hopeful explanation never bore out, for this was a phenomenon with a purpose—something that
was
possessed of a mysterious intelligence—something that bespoke an absolutely wicked wisdom.

While a ghost would manifest at any time, day or night, this species of phenomenon occurred most frequently in the absence of natural light. Disturbances tended to begin after sunset and end before sunrise. And unlike the ghost, which requires light energy to manifest, this thing was black when visible to the human eye, and desisted in the presence of light. It came in a large, formless mass, typically described by witnesses as "blacker than natural black."

Moreover, everything associated with the spirit was terrifying and negative. Quite distinct from a ghost, which would vanish if fear was aroused, this spirit only
intensified
in an atmosphere of fear. Its arrival was accompanied by a sense of utter terror and foreboding; an undeniable sense of evil and wild animosity would fill the room. Often a foul, revolting stench—of sulfur, excrement, or rotting flesh—would fill the area where it materialized; many times it would leave behind a residue of blood and other bodily fluids. And like a beacon, it projected an unmitigating sense of hate and destructive jealousy; its every action was cruel, violent, and wrong. Furthermore, the Warrens noted, when these bizarre entities were present they played dirty, used foul language, and caused injury.

In case after case, the phenomena the Warrens came across bore the same foul, terrifying imprint. What
was
this depraved force of hate and violence? Eventually, however, they no longer needed to guess, for to make itself known, this spirit often left deliberate, forthright clues: upside-down crosses, piles of excrement, pools of urine. Indeed, it often boldly wrote what it was, usually on mirrors—backwards, from right to left: