Paranormal Investigators: Past and Present: George Shiels

"Core New Zealand"

George Shiels

Born in Scotland but now living in the “land of the long white cloud”, New Zealand's George Shiels runs the team “Core Paranormal NZ”.

George working with members of Haunted Auckland

George started his first paranormal investigation group 3 years ago. Strange things have been happening to George and his family after the passing of a close relative, seeking answers, George sought help from a local team, but was turned away, so he decided to start his own team, and learn the ins and outs of paranormal investigations for himself, and along the way, help others like himself seek the answers to their own paranormal questions.

After a few name changes along the way, George settled on the name “Core Paranormal NZ” and has been using it now for more than two years

George discussing paranormal phenomena with Haunted Auckland

George loves to investigate historic places, and lists his personal favourite investigations as The Tavistock Hotel, Waitomo Caves and a couple of private museums


He states his favourite piece of equipment is a thermal imaging camera because; “ Thermal imaging camera, it gives a different view or twist to how the investigation is going”


In 2010 George and the “Crew”, as he likes to call his team, investigated Pukeora Sanatorium, a World War One respite hospital for soldiers returning from the trenches. The hospital offered to care for soldiers who had inhaled mustard gas and had bronchial complaints or suffered TB

Taverstock Hotel

You can read more about this investigation on Core Paranormal NZ's website here:

http://www.coreparanormalnz.com/pukeora.html 

Interviewed, Researched and Written By:

Allen Tiller

www.eidolonparanormal.com.au

Paranormal Investigators: Past and Present: Joseph Glanvill

"The most skilful apologist of the virtuosi"
Joseph Glanvill

Joseph Glanvill was a leading English philosopher in the late 17th century, a noted writer, Joseph was also an Anglican clergyman and a sceptic.

Joseph was educated at Exeter and Lincoln Colleges in Oxford, graduating with a B.A. from Exeter and M.A. From Lincoln.

He went on to serve as rector of Frome, Selwood and Streat, before, in 1666 becoming the rector of the Abbey Church in Bath. In 1678 he became the Prebendary of Worcester and acted as the Chaplain to King Charles II.

Glanvill was the author of a book titled “The Vanity of Dogmatizing” (1661) which was controversial at the time, because of its tones for religious toleration, attacking the movements of religious persecution and scholasticism [1]. Glanvill was a supporter of freedom of thought and using the scientific method, both ideals going against the grain on thinking at the time.

In his book “Plus Ultra or the Progress and Advancement of Knowledge Since the Days of Aristotle” (1668) Glanvill reasoned that, the then current way of deducing facts about “universal laws” was flawed as reasoning alone could not unveil the truth, he preferred to use, what at the time was the experimental “scientific method”. His approach to proving scientifically that witches and ghosts exist was viewed in his day as a refutation of atheism, his methods included interviewing witnesses of paranormal events and examination of the locations involved with the phenomena.

Is Glanvill the first paranormal investigator using the modern scientific method approach? Quite possibly.

In 1681 Glanvill wrote “Sadducismus Triumphatus” which roughly translates as “The Defeat Of Sadducism”, in which Glanvill expressed his distaste for the teachings of the Jewish sect that denied the existence of the soul and afterlife, contradicting the teaching of Christ, but that wasn't really the point of this book, this book was aimed at anyone who deliberately denied the existence of the supernatural, especially those who were of the church, where almost all the foundations of which are based on supernatural occurrences.

Glanvill wrote about of one his famous cases in an addition to a his “Sadducismus Triumphatus” book, titled “ The Relation of the Fam'd Disturbance by the Drummer, in the House of Mr John Mompesson”, or as it is better known, the ghost story of “The Drummer Of Tedworth”. 

The story goes that a local landowner, John Mompesson, brought a lawsuit against a local drummer, whom he accused of extortion. Mr Mompesson won his lawsuit, in which he also gained the drum.

 A few nights later, and every night after that, Mr Mompesson's house would be filled with the noise of drumming.

It was assumed the aggrieved drummer had conjured magic through witchcraft and was behind the noises as revenge for Mr Mompesson's arrogance and lawsuit.

An enquiry was made into the house by Glanvill and a number of other notable local people, all of which heard the drumming for themselves.

None could attribute to where the drumming was coming from.

Meanwhile, the drummer was sitting in a Gloucester Gaol when he was visited by a person from his old neighbourhood in Tedworth.

The drummer asked of Mr Mompessons house, and whether there was the noise of drumming in it. The visitor told the drummer that the drumming noise is all that is spoken of in the town.

With that, the drummer stated, "I have done it; I have thus plagued him, and he shall never be quiet until he hath made me satisfaction for taking away my drum."

The Drummer was sent to trial for witchcraft upon his admission and was found guilty, a crime that would usually find the guilty party burnt at the stake or beheaded, with the body hung on a gibbet for all the world to see.[2]However, the drummer got off lightly and was sentenced to transportation.

Upon his departure the drumming stopped, but, as fate would have it, the drummer somehow managed to return from his voyage, with some saying he did it by "by raising storms and affrighting the seamen”.

The incidents of drumming commenced again and continued to do so for intervals for many more years

The case was never solved conclusively and was later mentioned in a book by another scholar, long after Glanvill's passing, as being an elaborate hoax.

[1] Scholasticism – narrow adherence to traditional teachings, doctrines, or methods.

[2] Gibbet - use of a gallows-type structure from which the dead or dying bodies of executed criminals were hung on public display to deter other existing or potential criminals

Researched and Written

By

Allen Tiller © 2012

www.eidolonparanormal.com.au

"Blackbeard"
The Ghost of Edward Teach.

Written for

 “Talk Like a Pirate Day” 2012

By

Allen Tiller

www.eidolonparanormal.com.au

It is recorded that Pirates have sailed the seven seas since the 14th Century B.C. when the Lukka Sea Raiders plundered the coasts of Asia Minor.

Many a vessel and many a pirate have plundered, pillaged and died since those times, and still, pirates operate off the coasts of Africa in modern times.

Through the centuries, many Kings, Queens and Governments have fought to fight the scourge of the sea pirate, a group of outlaw men not unlike today’s Motorcycle clubs, having their own code of conduct, their own vessels and their own Captain.

Many Pirates have become famous in their time, Laurens de Graff, Black Bart, Captain Spriggs, The Barbossa Brothers and the aptly named Benjamin Hornigold, but no name struck more fear of the American coast than the name “Blackbeard”

“Blackbeard” a ferocious pirate, who many a sailor thought was the devil incarnate, was a tall, fierce-looking individual. He burnt lengths of twisted hemp attached to his beard and his hat when he went into battle, enveloping his face in a cloud of black smoke.

He wore a long black cloak, had pistols attached to him in a sling, pistols and daggers in his belt and in his scabbard a shiny silver cutlass.

Blackbeard's standard (flag) had pictures of the devil, or a horned skeleton holding a spear, an hourglass and a bleeding heart. His standard was feared, possibly more so than the standard pirate flag, “The Jolly Roger”.

Blackbeard's Standard

Who was “Blackbeard”?

Circa 1680, the man, later to become known as “Blackbeard” was born "Edward Teach"  in Bristol England. It is speculated that in his early years he may have sailed upon privateer ships in the period of Queen Anne's War, or the “War of the Spanish Succession” as it is sometimes known, which waged from 1702 to 1713 off the coasts of North America – this war was a battle of the “Superpowers” of the time, it involved The Spanish, The French, The English, The Dutch, The Portuguese and the Indians.

Edward came to settle at some point on the Caribbean island of New Providence sometime around 1716. It was here that Teach met his employer, Captain Benjamin Hornigold, who put Edward in charge of his own sloop, and led him out to sea to begin his life as a pirate.

The two engaged in numerous violent acts of piracy, plundering and pillaging in the Caribbean seas. Soon their flotilla took in two more ships, one Captained by Stede Bonnet.

The men's ships plundered the seas until the end of 1717, when Captain Hornigold retired from piracy, taking two ships with him, and was pardoned by the new Governor in the Caribbean, who instated him as a “Pirate Hunter”.

Teach continued to sail as a pirate, and caught a French merchant vessel, which he renamed “Queen Anne’s Revenge”. He fitted the ship with 40 cannons. When fighting, it is said that Blackbeard would light hemp fuses in his beard and his hat when he fought. The smoke made him look ferocious, and thus a legend was born...

Pirate Captain Stede Bonnet

Teach formed an alliance with other pirates in the area and blockaded the Port of Charleston in South Carolina, he successfully plundered and held to ransom the town, then set sail. His men desperately needed medicines so Teach kidnapped a councilman and his son and held them for ransom until a chest of medicine was delivered to him.

He parted company with Bonnet around this time and settled for some time in Bath Town, Beaufort County, North Carolina, where he was pardoned for his crimes.

But, you can't keep a good...or bad...pirate down, and soon Teach was again sailing the seas in his pirate clothes, this time attracting the attention of the Governor of Virginia, Alexander Spotswood.

Spotswood set about to capture Blackbeard and bring him to justice, on the 22 of November 1718 a party of soldiers and sailors set forth under the command of Lieutenant Robert Maynard.

Maynard’s crew were successful in their capture of Blackbeard and crew and killed the pirate and his men.

Blackbeard is remembered as a ferocious and blood-thirsty pirate, but it seems these accounts may indeed be wrong.

Lieutenant Robert Maynard

Recent documentation suggests Blackbeard was purely a pirate for the money and wasn't interested in murdering anyone.

It is said, that he was a cool and calculated man, who worked out his fearsome image would be enough to make most men surrender their belongings to him easily, without a fight. In the Pirate seas, reputation was everything!

It is also said he only Captained his ships with the permission of his crew and that there is no known account of him ever harming or murdering any of his captives.

Blackbeard, it is claimed, was a lover not a fighter and is thought to have had more than a dozen wives. A “Casanova” of his time and region, he made each one feel special as if she was his first and only love until he spotted the next one.

The Battle.

Blackbeard's ship was well-armed, frightening sight to many at sea, but in Maynard, he found a cunning foe.

Maynard, upon spotting and setting sail towards Blackbeard's ship, ordered the majority of his men below deck and readied them for in close hand to hand combat.

As was expected by Maynard, when Blackbeard was close enough, he and his men boarded Maynard's vessel, it was at this time that Maynard's men burst out of their hiding place, guns firing, swords swinging and surprised Blackbeard and his men.
 The two crews fought across the deck of the ship, a deck covered already in blood from Blackbeard's guns, killing men as he came up alongside on his ship.

The two Captains, Blackbeard and Maynard, fired their guns at each other, before throwing them to the side, both drew their swords and started to fight, but Maynard's sword was weak, and Blackbeard's cutlass broke it in one easy swing.

As Maynard pulled back to fire another gun, Blackbeard moved in to strike him down with his Cutlass, but, one of Maynard's men struck Blackbeard across the neck with his own sword, mortally wounding the pirate.

Blackbeard's Skull

Blackbeard was stabbed 20 times and shot 5 times before collapsing in his own blood upon the deck of the “Jane”, Maynard's Vessel.

The remaining pirates surrendered with the death of their Captain.

Blackbeard was decapitated, his corpse thrown into the sea and his head suspended from the bowsprit of the Maynards Sloop

The Curse of Blackbeard

Pirate tradition, according to legend, states that when a pirate buries his treasure, one of the crew must be buried with it to guard the treasure against looters and plunderers. Blackbeard's booty was buried in Burlington New Jersey, under a black walnut tree, and with it, the body a Spaniard and a dog.

It has long been said, that when people dig for Blackbeard's bounty and are near the treasure, a spectre of a man, with glowing glaring eyes, and a dark dog beside him, appear to scare them away and protect their Captains horde.

Another of Blackbeard's treasure chests is alleged to sit off the coast of Maryland, protected by a curse placed upon it, that only he who sunk it, may raise it again, it is alleged that many have died at sea trying to salvage the treasure.

The Ghost of Edward “Blackbeard” Teach

A Cannon from "Queen Annes Revenge" Blackbeard's Ship

Blackbeard's death, as we read earlier, was a brutal and bloody affair, and of which many legends have been told.

The soldiers who killed Blackbeard were said to tell stories of how, once he had been decapitated and his body thrown into the sea, that the body swam three times around the ship before sinking into the depths, and all the while, his head screamed like a Banshee.

Over the years since his death, his glowing phosphorescent body has been seen swimming amongst the waves by many a local fisherman, around in circles he goes, perhaps marking the spot of his defeat.

 Many a fisherman has reported seeing Blackbeard's headless body walking out of the ocean, holding a glowing lamp walking onto the shore, searching for his body, the animated corpse leaves behind him no footprints and no trace.

Blackbeard is also said to haunt North Carolina's beaches and the Delaware and Chesapeake Bays wetlands, where it is rumoured some of his treasure may lay awaiting his return.

The Anchor from "Queen Anne's Revenge"

It is said Blackbeard will never rest, that he will always guard his treasure, and appear whenever someone gets too close to finding it, and frightening them off, thus, forever protecting his loot from other pirates!

Blackbeard has also been spotted in a cove at Ocracoke Island, locally known as “Blackbeards Hole”, is there possibly a treasure hidden somewhere in the cove?

The locals sometimes refer to Blackbeard's Ghost, as “Teach's Light” a reference made to his real name and the burning lantern he holds whilst searching for his missing head...



Even now, Blackbeards voice can be heard floating on the coastal winds, "Thar be plunderin an lootin to do ya scurvy dogs"

Paranormal Investigators: Past and Present: Peter Underwood

"The Sherlock Holmes of Psychical Research"

Peter Underwood

 As probably the longest-serving paranormal investigator in the world today, Peter Underwood is well respected, admired and sought after for his vast knowledge on hauntings and other paranormal topics.

 A life member and president of “The Ghost Club Society” (founded in 1851, this being the third incarnation, founded in 1994) Peter Underwood has travelled the world recording anecdotes, stories, writing books and investigating the paranormal. To date, he has written over 50 books on hauntings and other phenomena.

Peter was born at Letchworth, Garden City in Hertfordshire, on the 16^th of May 1923. Privately educated, Peter Underwood was destined to become a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and one of the worlds leading experts on paranormal phenomena.

 It is recorded that Peter’s first supernatural experience was that of seeing an apparition of his Father on the day off his Father’s death, but it should also be noted that his Grandparents lived in a haunted home known as “Rosehall”, a 17^th century house that allegedly contained the ghost of a headless man – it is thought that this is the around the time Peter developed his interest in ghosts and other phenomena.

 

 Peter Underwood has investigated some fascinating cases, including Borley Rectory (Essex U.K.) with Harry Price, whom Peter would later become the executor of Harry’s estate.

 Other notable cases included The Church at Langenhoe, in Essex. The haunting included the Church, the Manor House and the surrounding yards, and is well documented in Peter Underwood’s book “Nights in Haunted Houses” (1994), the book also features another famous location that Peter investigated “The Queens House” at Greenwich

 

He spent 12 years, on and off, exploring the remarkable Langenhoe case of hauntings that extended to the manor house, the church and surrounding area; Peter thoroughly examined and researched the unique Greenwich ghost photograph - probably the best known "genuine" ghost photograph ever obtained, “The Tulip Staircase” photo (for more about this amazing photograph visit this link: http://www.nmm.ac.uk/about/history/queens-house/the-queen-s-house-ghost).

Another case of note investigated by Peter is the Police College “Bramshill” in Hampshire, built in 1621, which is said to house 9 spirits.

"Bramshill" build in 1621

 

 In his almost 50 years of investigating Peter has held many positions of importance including:

Life President, Ghost Club Society (founded 1851)

President, Unitarian Society for Psychical Studies

Patron, Paranormal Site Investigators

Patron, Ghost Research Foundation

Patron, Ghost Investigation

Life Member: Vampire Research Society

Fellow: Royal Society of Arts

Peter has also had memberships with The Society for Psychical Research, (SPR), Association for the Scientific Study of Anomalous Phenomena (ASSAP), The Society of Authors, just to name a few            

 

 Peter Underwood has also had extensive media coverage on radio and television. He has been seen on “Strange But True” and appeared in the TV film “The Ghost Hunters” (UK).

 

 Peter was married in 1944 to Joyce, who unfortunately passed away in 2003 after suffering Parkinson’s disease for 14 years. In 2004 Peter struck up a friendship with Marlena Sypniewska, of whom he travels the world.

 In recent years Peter has continued publishing books but has also become the patron of “The Ghost Research Foundation” which was founded in Oxford in 1992 and Patron of “Paranormal Site Investigators” in Swindon.

He was also featured in Jason Karl’s book “Illustrated History of the Haunted World” and is a contributor to a Boris Karloff biography.

 

In 2009, following the passing of his friend, the renowned parapsychologist Hanz Holzer, Peter was invited to write the obituary for The Guardian Newspaper.

 

In 2010 Peter was also featured in a 6-page spread in “Paranormal Magazine” written by John Stoker, who listed Peter Underwood as  "One of the most important figures in the paranormal investigation community”

 

In 2011 he published the book “Shadows in the Nave”

 

So far in 2012, Peter has released two books “Haunted Britain: A Gazetteer” and “Irish Ghosts: Ghost Hunters Guide” plus he has one book scheduled for release in 2013 “Haunted Farhnam” when he turns 90 years of age!

 

To contact Peter Underwood please write to:

 Savage Club, 1 Whitehall Place, London, SW1A 2HD.

  Further reading:

http://seminars.torontoghosts.org/blog/index.php/2007/04/18/weird_wednesday_with_chris_laursen_20

researched and Written by:

Allen Tiller

www.eidolonparanormal.com.au

Paranormal Investigators: Past and Present: Ryan Buell

“Paranormal State”
“Ryan Buell”

Ryan Buell, a man of many hats, Paranormal Investigator, Producer, Author, Journalist, Actor and founder of the “Paranormal Research Society” at Penn State University in Pennsylvania, was born in Corry Pennsylvania USA in 1982 but grew up in South Carolina.

Ryan had paranormal phenomena happen to him from a young age, many things went unexplained (you can read more in his book). Ryan started investigating at the age of 16, working with local teams (now disbanded) and at the age of 19, founded his own team.

Ryan found himself at Penn State University, an institution of learning, boasting some 600 special interest groups, with none devoted to researching the paranormal.

On September 16th of 2001 Ryan formed the “Paranormal Research Society” at the University, in its early years, PRS welcomed all and sunder, but this changed after an incident of hysteria when self-proclaimed psychics in the group, with outside influence, proclaimed Ryan to be possessed by the spirit of a girl who had died many years before at the university.

After this point, PRS screened potential members seeking only those serious about research and investigation. PRS restructured its internal workings and created department-specific research and investigation sections. It also required members to enrol in a semester-long training course before being elevated to investigator status.

In 2006 PRS filmed the pilot episode of what was to become “Paranormal State”, the episode wouldn’t air until 2007, as the first episode of a 13 investigation series on A&E. The show attracted 2.5 million viewers and is very distinct in its styling, narration and investigation style.

Paranormal State went on for five seasons until Ryan decided to leave in 2011 due to personal reasons and to focus more on PRS.

In 2008 Ryan re-enrolled to earn an Anthropology degree via Penn State.

In 2010 Ryan released his first book “Paranormal State; My Journey Into The Unknown”, a best seller.

As I write this in July 2012, Ryan is in hospital suffering from kidney failure after recently being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The photo below was posted on Ryan's facebook page with the following caption:

“Why I did the picture. First off, art should really stand alone, for people to interpret. But just so you know, Sergey (and almost anyone who knows me), know that I have an obsession with superheroes. Particularly Captain America, Spider-Man and Batman. Sergey asked me how my illness made me feel. I said "naked." And that's where the process began. And I'm holding a Captain America bookbag, pulling out a Captain America shirt, looking at it for strength. This photograph process was great therapy for me. But the finished product is meant for you. I know there are many of you suffering from illnesses, and not just cancer. I say to all of you: SOLDIER ON! I know the pain that you will feel. And the pain for treatment. I still say SOLDIER ON! Let's think of one another during those moments, even though we don't know each other. “

We at Eidolon Paranormal are big fans of Ryans work, our thoughts and prayers are with Ryan and his family, and we wish him a speedy recovery.

http://paranormalresearchsociety.org/

Written 

by:

Allen Tiller

www.eidolonparanormal.com.au

Paranormal Investigators: Past and Present: Gary Anderson

"Join The Hunt"

Gary Anderson

Born in Thornaby-On-Tees, in North Yorkshire, England, Gary has since emigrated to Western Australia. He is the Co-Founder (with Anthony Yates) of West Australian Paranormal Research.

Seeing a UFO as a child led Gary into seeking other aspects of the paranormal, broadening his perception of what may be out there. His fascination with the paranormal has also heightened his perception of the fact that there is more going on in the world, on a daily basis, than we humans understand and perceive.

Gary became an investigator for the same reasons most of us do, to seek knowledge and answer questions of the unknown, the unexplainable, the supernatural and the paranormal.
 Gary seeks to raise the profile of the paranormal amongst the general public, a still somewhat taboo subject, and one that often has stigma attached to it.

One of Gary’s favourite investigation locations is the historic Albany Quarantine Station in Western Australia.

Work on the Albany Quarantine Station was begun in 1874, and six years later, was expanded to include additions to the original hospital and caretakers buildings. A morgue, Doctors quarters, isolation wards, servants quarters and a dining room being some of the additions.

 The Quarantine Station was used to control infectious diseases being brought onto Australian shores and saw people with cases of yellow fever, smallpox or scarlet fever pass through its doors.

As you can imagine there were many deaths over the years within the walls of this location, lending the Albany Quarantine Station a morbid past, and one attractive to a paranormal investigator.

Gary lists Waverley Hills Sanatorium, Edinburgh Vaults and Poveglia Island as the places outside of Australia he would most like the opportunity to investigate.

Gary and the WAPR team have done some fantastic investigations over the years and have collected a great deal of data from haunted locations, including a video of doors being pushed open on request, that coincides with a spike on K2, and Trifield meters. An EVP answer to a directly asked question of “Where are you?” with the EVP response being “ Behind you”...and if that doesn’t creep you out, Gary has been pulled down flat to the ground from an unseen force!

Gary loves EVP work and videoing investigations and lists a voice recorder, PX (ovilus), EMF meters and night vision cameras as his favourite choices of equipment on an investigation.

Gary and the team from West Australian Paranormal Research. Have made it into the mainstream media on many occasions for their work in Western Australia. Including appearances on Today Tonight, A Current Affair, ABC Radio, Shadow Walkers Radio, SOCO Paranormal Radio, Night Visions Radio and many more.
Gary has appeared in Australian magazines and newspapers including, “The Examiner”, “Take That”, "The West Australian" (newspaper) and "The Sunday Times."

 You can see Gary in this promo for a possible upcoming Australian Paranormal TV show:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xUO45BFnO4

Links for some of the videos and news stories Gary and WAPR team have done below;

http://www.youtube.com/user/waparanormal/videos

http://www.inmycommunity.com.au/news-and-views/local-news/Paranormal-researchers-to-probe-Town-Hall/7620660//%22

Eidolon Paranormal and West Australian Paranormal Researchers have become very good friends over the past couple of years, and we look forward to seeing more great output from this team that is going places fast!
We will be covering more investigators from W.A.P.R. and other Western Australian teams in future releases of this series on our blog.

Surveyed, Researched and Written by:

Allen Tiller ©2012

www.eidolonparanoral.com.au