Categories
Updates

A Very Human Ghost

Every once and a while, there are cases where the antics of certain paranormal phenomena are so literal that they mimic those of living people in every almost every way.

During the summer of 1987, I was fortunate enough to run into just such a case that was “given” to me by an old friend who knew of my work.  Having married for the second or third time, Roger was off on a honeymoon with his new bride.  He asked if I’d care to house sit and take care of their two dogs.

Located in Studio City, California, the house was spacious and rustic, but incorporated a large swimming pool and built-in, stone barbecue in the backyard.  Who could say no to such an offer?  However, I had no way of realizing the actual reason Roger wanted me to stay at his house….it was haunted.

Arriving the first night I threw my duffel bag onto the bed in the master bedroom at the rear of the house.  I returned to the kitchen to get a drink of water. Upon re-entering the bedroom I discovered that my duffel bag was now on the floor.  Assuming it was too close to the edge of the bed, I simply put it back on top and returned to the living room to watch some TV.

Back in the bedroom about two hours later, I once again found my duffel bag on the floor.  But this time it was on the opposite side of the very large room.  I was very tired and just wanted to sleep so I didn’t pay it much mind.

My sleep was very sound, but at around 6 a.m. something pinched my side and awakened me quite suddenly.  As the rear facing walls of this bedroom were primarily glass, the room was already well lit given that this was the middle of summer.

As I turned onto my left side to continue my sleep the quilt above me began to rise from behind and the mattress compressed as if another physical body was entering the bed.

I then felt a body roll into my back, and the sensation was as that it had long hair and large breasts, which were then compressing against my back in an obvious effort to cuddle.

Almost immediately, I felt and heard what appeared to be an arm wrap around my right shoulder area, further raising the quilt.  All the while, there was a strong floral fragrance around me accompanied by a vocal presence of definitive human breathing.

When I abruptly turned in an effort to see what was there, it quickly recoiled and departed, throwing the quilt up into the air with the mattress rebounding in unison.  What in the hell was that?

Now remember, I was not asleep at that time, I was still very much awake from the initial pinch.  Well, this was just the beginning of what was going to transpire over the next several weeks, as the onslaught of events escalated into hearing disembodied voices, photographing visual luminous anomalies and the very human presence of absconding with food and throwing a breakfast nook table into my side as I sat talking on the phone in the kitchen.

The full accounting of this particular case is detailed in Chapter 4, “An All Too Human Haunting” of my book Aliens Above, Ghosts Below: Explorations of the Unknown.

In ending this brief encapsulation of my book’s chapter, I should let you all know that when Roger returned from Europe and asked how my stay at his house was, I really let him have it.

But then again, this was actually Roger’s way of setting up a single-blind experiment in that he and his wife knew that the house was haunted, but I did not.  After I told him all that I and others had encountered at his home, he opened up to me with many instances where different types of phenomena were occurring on a fairly regular basis.  A

s Roger’s marriage did not last very long, we lost the ability for conducting further research on this most interesting home.  This is one case that definitely smacks more of a haunting than an RSPK poltergeist case.

Read the chapter and let me know what you think.

Thanks.

By Dr. Barry Taff

Dr. Barry Taff, who holds a doctorate in psychophysiology with a minor in biomedical engineering, worked as a research associate at UCLAs former parapsychology laboratory from 1969 through 1978. During his 41-year career, Dr. Taff has investigated more than 4,000 cases of ghosts, hauntings, poltergeists, and he has conducted extensive studies in telepathy and precognition which led to the development of the original protocols and methodologies for what was later coined remote-viewing. He is the author of Aliens Above, Ghosts Below.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.