Knecht Ruprecht

Knecht Ruprecht

A companion of Santa who appears on Christmas Eve - He has a long beard, wears fur, or is covered in pea straw.
Ruprecht is another word for the devil
Much like other Christmas traditions in Germany, he is a dark figure that plays against Santa's light.
Knecht Ruprecht sometimes carries a long staff and a bag of ashes and wears little bells on his clothes.
sometimes he rides on a white horse, and sometimes he is accompanied by fairies, or men with blackened faces, dressed as old women
According to tradition, Knecht Ruprecht asks children whether they can pray, if they can, the receive apples, nuts and gingerbread. If they cannot, he beats the children with his bag of ashes!


Researched and written by Allen Tiller
First published 2012 ©

The Christmas Pickle

The Christmas Pickle

The Christmas Pickle is a green, blown glass ornament shaped like a pickle. It is hidden among Christmas Tree decorations on Christmas Eve. Traditionally, the first child to find the pickle on Christmas morning receives an extra present and the first adult to find the pickle is granted good fortune for the year.

The Christmas Pickle is a German Christmas tradition.

Researched and written by Allen Tiller

First published 2012 ©

P.I. : Past & Present: Dr William G Roll

Dr William Roll

William Roll was born 3rd of July 1926 in Bremen, Germany, where his Father was an American vice-Consul. His Mother was of Danish origins, and due to this, he attended Holte Gymnasium in Denmark. Later he received a BA from the University of Berkley, a B. Litt and M. Litt from Oxford University and a PhD from Lund University.

In his time William became a President of the Parapsychological Association and also a lifetime member.

Dr Roll had a lifelong infatuation with his work, in 1957, he moved to Durham in North Carolina USA to a position working at the Parapsychology Laboratory at Duke University, under J.B Rhine, who is often referred to as the “Father of Modern Parapsychology”.

It was under Rhine that Dr Roll began his extensive research into poltergeist phenomena, which would soon become one of the most studied parapsychology subjects, and one in which Dr Roll contributed the most of his talent and work.

Between 1964 and 1985, Dr William Roll conducted countless experiments as the Director of the Psychical Research Foundation, testing numerous psychics and the effects of extra-sensory perception, it was also during this time he coined the phrase RSPK or, “Recurrent Spontaneous Psychokinesis”

Some of my readers here may recognise Dr Roll from his appearances on Unsolved Mysteries and the Discovery Channel series “A Haunting”, he also appeared on various other TV documentaries and specials.

Dr William “Bill” Roll was truly dedicated to his research, and during his time he contributed over one hundred scientific papers, edited eleven volumes of “Research in Parapsychology”, contributed articles to anthologies and wrote four books:

1. The Poltergeist
2. Theory and Experiment in Psychical Research
3. Unleashed: Of Poltergeists and Murder: The Curious Story of Tina Resch
4. Psychic Connections (with Lois Duncan)

Dr Roll also received the Outstanding Career Award from the Parapsychological Association and in 2002 he received the Tim Dinsdale Memorial Award from the Society for Scientific Exploration. 

Dr William Roll died on the 9th of January 2012, he is survived by his wife Lydia, his daughter Lise and sons Leif and William G Role III, plus 7 grandchildren

Many in the parapsychology world speak positive things of Dr William G. Roll, he was known as a devoted and loving Father (and Grandfather) and a man who enjoyed the great outdoors, hiking, sailing and travelling the world.

Forever known as a lover of animals and to everyone who met him as a man full of warmth and kindness...may his work and memory live on...

© 2013 Allen Tiller

www.eidolonparanormal.com.au

P.I.: Past & Present: Professor Werner Schiebeler

 Professor Werner Schiebeler

A leading parapsychologist in Germany Dr Werner Schiebeler was born on March 17^th 1923 in Bremen, Germany.

After World War 2, Werner studied physics at Gottingen and received his Doctorate from the Max Planck Institute for Flow Research.

From 1955 – 1965 Werner worked in the electrical industry, inventing and patenting numerous inventions he created. For seven years of the ten-year stay in Pforzheim, he was Director of the Development Department for electronic telex equipment.

 

In 1965 he moved on to Ravensburg Polytechnik where he began to lecture on Physics and electronics, 6 years later he was appointed Professor (1971), and another 12 years later he retired at the age of 60 years old in 1983.

After his retirement, Werner began to intensify his research into aspects of parapsychology something he had longed to do since 1969 when he gave lectures at university on parapsychology and psychophysics parameters

Professor Schiebeler's career and work didn’t go unnoticed, in 1974 he was awarded by the Associazione Italiana Scientifica di Metapsichica with the Ernesto Bozzano Award, and in 1988 he received an award from the Association for Parapsychology in Bern, Switzerland, and much more recently, in 2004 another “Swiss Award”.

Werner also made to films about healing methods used in the Philippines and published 12 books and 15 pamphlets on various parapsychology topics.

Including:

• Testimony to the world beyond. A representation of the experience of evidence
• The bridge to a new life evidence of a personal life after death, the report of a physicist 
• Life after earthly death. Experiences of the dead 
• Fates after death Mutual aid between this world and the hereafter 
• The mystery in our world. Strange phenomena that want to make us aware 

Through all his research and discovery in Parapsychology, Para-psychophysics, Exceptional Healings, Consciousness and modern death and afterlife research, Werner lost his faith in God and always recognised himself as a Christian with a strong belief in God.

It was always his underlying mission, in all his work to make people more aware of parapsychological research, and let people know the physical death of our bodies was not the end of our existence, just a change of reality.

For Werner religion and charity gave meaning to life, where science could not.

Werner: "If we receive the knowledge of that which is offered to us from the world in which we, after death, result. If we consider it, and use it carefully, and align the guide of our actions accordingly, then we can go through life with other living people with more peace and serenity. Even after we suffer setbacks, we look at the life in this world only as a stepping stone to a life after death, and not get upset in the mass hysteria, as they do when death is an irrevocable terminus for us."

Professor Werner Schiebeler died on January 12, 2006, in his home. A charitable Protestant man, who even in his final years was willing to help others and offer his knowledge to those seeking it.

© 2013 Allen Tiller

www.eidolonparanormal.com.au

Paranormal Investigators: Past & Present: Thomas Pedall

Tom Pedall

Ghosthunter-NRWup

We're are flying across the globe tonight to revisit Germany and meet Tom Pedall of Ghosthunter-NRWup located in the North Rhine-Westphalia city of Wuppertal.

Thomas was around 12 years old when he visited with his Great-Aunt in a very old house in Echternach (Luxembourg) where she lived. His Great-Aunt would regale him with stories of the ghosts in her house, Thomas himself, even heard the ghost walking up the stairs on occasion when no-one was there. His Great-Aunt also told him, that a few years ago, she was having work done in her coal-basement, when the workmen found a skeleton, possibly of a World War 2 Soldier.
Thomas got his interest in the paranormal from his the strange things happening in his Aunts house during his visits there, it led him to start reading paranormal related books, about ghosts and hauntings in his local library, this, in turn, led Tom into his journey to start investigating for himself later in life.
 His Great-Aunts house is not the only place where Thomas has experienced unusual events, in 1994 in the weeks before his Father died, Thomas started to hear footsteps in his parents flat and seeing shadows when no-one was present.
Much later in 2004-2005, Thomas and his partner Claudia were laying in bed one night, when about 1am they heard noises from the attic. It sounded like heavy furniture moving across the floor from where they lay, they knew no-one else was in the house or in the attic. On a different night Claudia witnessed a large “fog-ball” in the air, Thomas has also witnessed shadows in their home office and had strange reactions with his cats, one even jumped between him and the shadow he could see and began to hiss at the shadow until it disappeared

 With all this activity throughout his life, it was only natural that Thomas would seek an explanation to the cause. In 2010 Claudia and Thomas met two people through an internet forum and founded a Ghosthunter team, but decided to leave that team and found a new one in 2012, and thus Ghosthunter-NRWup was born.

Thomas focus, like most of us in the field, is to find natural explanations for anomalous phenomena, wherever He can, but he is also interested in helping people and giving them support to know that phenomena are often real and that his clients aren't crazy!

 Another thing Thomas enjoys is the connections he has made with teams locally and internationally, allowing him to discuss different techniques and philosophies, which is often eye-opening.



The four members of Ghosthunter-NRWup are Claudia, Tom, Daniela and Markus ( a Medical Doctor).
 In the past Tom and Claudia, together with their old team, have investigated some fascinating places including Castle Frankenstein, Castle Vondern, Castle Satzvey, Castle Altena and Chateau Burg, just to name a few!

You can also find Ghosthunter-NRWup at: http://ghosthunterwtal.blogspot.de/

german/English and with google-translator

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ghosthunter-NRWup/

In 2013 Tom and  Team will be working with other teams like P.I.N. from Netherland (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Paranormal-Investigators-Nederland/221560347908042)"

© 2013 Eidolon Paranormal

written and researched by

Allen Tiller

www.eidolonparanormal.com.au

All content on the “Eidolon Paranormal Blog” site, blog and corresponding media pages (eg Facebook, twitter etc) is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any means or process without the written permission of the author. © 2012

All photos remain the property of their respective copyright owners and are displayed here for the purpose of education, research and review under the copyright act "fair usage" clause.

Paranormal Investigators: Past and Present: Daniel Kaempf

Spirit Research Team - LeipzigDaniel Kaempf

In this week's blog, we travel to the city of great historical and national importance to its citizens. A city that was once a trade route during the Holy Roman Empire. A city first documented in 1015 that has undergone significant change in the last century but still contains the worlds oldest trade fair, which started in the Middle Ages.

This city located 200 km south of Berlin, has seen death, with the region being the arena for a battle between Napoleons France against allies Prussia, Russia, Austria and Sweden in 1813.

In World War II this city was extensively bombed by the allied forces before the fighting moved into its streets, often the front line of battle came down to a “block to block” fierce warfare fight, that eventually saw this city fall to the allies.

The U.S. Army handed the city to the Russians when they pulled out their troops to predetermined occupation zones, and thus the city of Leipzig became part of the German Democratic Republic, or as we once knew it, East Germany.

A view of Leipzig

Today Leipzig is a city that is modernising with new buildings and infrastructure being built, and with a new positive outlook after years of being behind the Iron Curtain. With the new found freedoms has come an interest in Paranormal Investigating, and today, we visit Daniel, team leader of “ Spirit Research Team – Leipzig”.

S.R.T.L. Consists of three members, Founder Daniel Kaempf, Daniel Franke and Beatrice Petereit. Daniel founded the team in 2009 after spending some time with another local team named “Team Paranormal Investigation Leipzig”.

Daniel and team are a scientifically based investigation team, educating themselves with the latest techniques, terminology and theories.

I asked Daniel how being a paranormal investigator has changed his perspective of the paranormal, his reply “ There is a life after death. Working in the team has changed my whole perspective on the Paranormal. At first, I did not believe in it and now I'm sure that there may be something (there) “

Ehrenberg Stone Tomb of Winzigerod

The locations available to teams in Germany, and Europe are vast, sometimes amazing, old castles, old battlefields, houses that are centuries old. Spirit research Team has investigated some of these amazing locations including, Grawbosse Sanatorium, Leuchhtenburg Castle, Castle Arnstein and Ehrenberg Stone Tomb of Winzigerode, all locations that Investigators in the U.S.A., Australia and other parts of the world would fall over themselves to investigate if the opportunity came knocking!


Daniel tells me that one of his favourite locations, and one where the team have compiled a vast amount of data, and possible evidence, is an old German prison, but, at this stage, he is reluctant to release the exact location.

Castle Arnstein

The team often visits the same place multiple times to ascertain patterns and to collect data that will hopefully accumulate and eventually lead the team to be able to confirm that its vast amount of unreleased documentation and evidence is verifiable evidence of ghosts.


The “notes” section on S.R.T. Leipzig's Facebook page contains some of their investigation reports. These reports are quite detailed and give a great deal of insight into what a paranormal investigation team does before, during and after an investigation, a great resource for amateur investigators to gain a feel of an investigation procedure. You can find the notes at this address: 

https://www.facebook.com/SRTLeipzig/notes 

( The notes are in German and can be translated by using Google Translate or Bing)

Leuchhtenburg Castle

Spirit Research Team- Leipzig is definitely a team to watch. This is a team with a great future, a fantastic work ethic and very professional conduct when it comes to their approach to cases. This is a team with great potential for bridging the gap of potential evidence, with the scrutiny in which they dissect their photos, videos, EVPs and other potential evidence, they are one team that is shining a bright light on the future of paranormal investigation, not only in Germany, but across Europe.

I would like to personally thank Daniel and the team for allowing me the privilege of interviewing them for this blog, and for being patient, as translating and making sense of what is asked and what is received, once translated is often quite difficult.

For more information on Spirit Research Team – Leipzig please find them on facebook and support them by liking their page at:

https://www.facebook.com/SRTLeipzig

or email the team at:

danielkaempf@srt-leipzig.de.

The teams blog can be found at:

http://www.srt-leipzig.de/

http://www.geisternet.com/??

Interview, Reserached and Written by

Allen Tiller

www.eidolonparanormal.com.au

© 2012

All photos remain the property of their respective owners and are used here with permission