Categories
Updates

A Poltergeist Case To Remember

 

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What you’re about to read below is a detailed chronicle of this most extraordinary poltergeist case that affected the lives of the late Lisa McIntosh, Barry Conrad, myself and many others.   While this chronicle is almost a blow-by-blow account of what happened, even more background detail can be found in chapter seven, “An Irreplaceable Loss: The Life and Death of A Poltergeist Agent”, of my book Aliens Above, Ghosts Below: Explorations Of The Unknown.

While the majority of these events transpired at Barry Conrad’s house in Glendale, CA, there were a number of events that occurred outside Conrad’s house as related to Lisa.   But what’s most important to remember here is that Lisa claimed that as she was growing up, her parent’s moved from one haunted house to another, which is equivalent to winning the Power Ball Lottery at the billion dollar level five times in a row.  For a greater understanding of how this type of case fits into the lengthy history of such phenomena, read other blogs on this site entitled “Looking A Gift Ghost In The Mouth: The Science of Poltergeists” and “Hazardous Hauntings: The Enemy Within”.

One last item of note here.  Barry Conrad moved into his Glendale home in 1997, and there were no poltergeist incidents until Lisa McIntosh moved in during the early summer of 2001, and after she had accompanied Conrad and I out on a case in the evening of October 12, 2001.

10/13/01: 8:30-11A.M.:  Lisa MacIntosh’s hair dryer turns itself on in upstairs bathroom.

10/15/01: 12-3 P.M.:  Lisa on computer when it shuts down spontaneously.10/17/01: 7-8 P.M. Conrad & Lisa observe blinding blue-white flash of light from no apparent source, while in entrance way of house.

October? After 1 A.M.  Conrad and Lisa were upstairs asleep when the explosive sounds of heavy furniture crashing came form downstairs.  Conrad runs downstairs thinking his home entertainment center has been destroyed, but finds absolutely nothing to account for the sounds.  Once upstairs and back in bed and almost asleep once again,  the loud sound once again emanated from the first floor.  Again Conrad runs down expecting the worse and finds nothing.

10/26/01: 1 A.M.:  While Conrad’s out-of-town on a shoot. Lisa is up in the master bedroom and begins to feel pressure around her head.  The dog (Bo) starts to jump up into bed as it usually does.  In mid-jump, Bo hits “invisible” wall and is violently repelled backwards into wall beneath window by unseen force.  Dog is momentarily stunned, shakes, moans, etc. Then starts visually tracking something unseen while growling/barking at “it”.  Interestingly, Lisa was harboring strong negative emotions towards Bo who was frequently jumping into bed.  In fact, Lisa had Conrad put the dog out every night after that due to her disgust at dog’s aggressive/territorial behavior.

11/01/01: 2:30 A.M.:  As Conrad and Lisa are about to go to bed there is an extremely loud sound within the bedroom.  The high decibel sound of cracking wood (perhaps high voltage discharge?)  Event lasts maybe 3-4 seconds.  The sound appears to be coming from right next to them.  Lisa is terrified and starts to shake and cry.  Interestingly, the dog dives under the bed as if to hide just prior to event, as if in anticipation.

11/05/01: 11:15 A.M.:  Conrad & Lisa in bed.  Lisa’s calf is repeatedly touched/tapped by invisible fingers.  She jumps out of bed terrified.

11/28/01: 1 A.M. :  Conrad hears very loud pounding coming from ceiling of living room (3-4 bangs) while watching TV (like that of very big sledge hammer being slammed into the bedroom floor). When he goes upstairs to investigate, Lisa is sound asleep and heard nothing.

11/28/01: 8 P.M. :   Lisa observes can of empty dog food that Bo dragged into entrance hall move of its own accord across carpet.

12/02/01: 5:20 P.M.:  While Lisa & Conrad are lying in bed in main bedroom, they hear something approach the door.  Doorknob turns and door opens.  This event was preceded by both Conrad & Lisa feeling the same pressure around their head, which gave Conrad a headache.

12/16/01: 10:45 P.M.:  While Taff was sitting in one of the lounge chairs in living room with Lisa & Conrad watching Bob Schott’s videos, something unseen struck his chair twice.

12/17/01: Approx.  7:30 P.M.:  Lisa puts Pyrex cooking pan into oven to cook herself some dinner as Conrad is not home.  Before the oven is even warm, the Pyrex pan explodes in many shards within the oven.

12/17/01: 1 A.M.:  Sounds of coins falling & hitting the nightstand in main bedroom are clearly heard by both Conrad & Lisa.  No coins were found.

2/14/02:  7 P.M. (approx.):  While at the bottom of stairs Conrad and dog heard what sounded like Lisa walking down stairs.  They both looked up in response.  However, Lisa was, in fact, in the bathroom preparing to leave and nowhere near the stairs.

2/16/02:  No time indicated.  Conrad & Lisa in his office discussing his mother’s untimely death and the lawsuit she and Don Gebhart launched against Conrad. Immediately after that conversation, the bar lamp over the computer started flickering, going out and coming on again.  According to them, this has not occurred before.

2/18/02:  11 P.M.: Lisa heard disembodied voices “counting down” while upstairs in bedroom.

2/19/02:  10:30 A.M.:  Lisa’s hair was pulled very hard while in bathroom.

2/19/02: 10 A.M. (approx.)  Phones ring incessantly for about one hour, but no one is onr was calling.

2/23/02: 8 P.M.  Best Buy Store in Burbank, CA.  Conrad & Lisa at store scouring through DVD’s.  Lisa is alone in aisle searching through DVDs.  Suddenly, she feels a hand stroking her hair from behind.  She abruptly turns expecting to see Conrad behind her pulling a prank.  However, no one was in the aisle at all.

2/27/02:  NOON:  Conrad & Lisa in living room hear a disembodied female voice move across room in front of entertainment center while system is off.  No DVD, VHS or TV is on. Voice appeared to move from left wall and exit through the glass wall where dog sleeps.  Vocalization unintelligible.

3/16/02:  6:30 A.M.: Downstairs hallway door before bathroom, next to table, violently slams shut.  No door or window open to the outside is open.

3/17/02:  10:20 A.M. Lisa & Conrad in kitchen when they both felt a cold wind blowing through the area although the doors & windows are closed & heat is on.

3/17/02:  Time:?  The sounds of pipes loudly clanging from main bedroom upstairs.

 4/3/02:  10:30 A.M.:  As Conrad walks by dresser in upstairs bedroom, Christmas lights strung over the back of the dresser suddenly and seemingly inexplicably, fall off to the ground.  May have conventional explanation of vibrations caused by his movement and lights being too close to back of furniture.

4/3/02:  4:15 P.M.:  Taff hears sounds of women in garbled conversation outside but nothing is discovered to account for it.  Sense of overpressure throughout house felt by Taff.

4/18-19/02   No time indicated. On the way to do interview with Kym Dumas in San Diego with Conrad and Lisa, an odd ringing sound began occurring in the van.  While eating dinner at the Hungry Tiger Restaurant in Temecula, the same unusual ringing was continuously heard at our booth by us, by other patrons and the waitress. The ringing, always three successive rings, appeared to come from around Lisa, then next to me and then in the wall to my right in the booth.  Must have rung at least a dozen times or more.  It was clearly not Conrad’s cell phone or pager as they each make a very distinctive sound, which we were not hearing.  Nothing unusual occurred while at Kym’s house.

We left Kym’s home at around 11:40 p.m.. During the 2.5 hr. ride back to Conrad’s house, the ringing began again. No discernable pattern or interval period could be determined in the ringing. Jokingly, Taff began taunting it and surprisingly it appeared to respond.  Again the sets of three rings, and not from Conrad’s cell phone, pager or walkie-talkies, the sound emanated from the front dash area.

When Taff asked the ringing if it was not a random function of nature, it immediately rang in response.  When Taff asked if it were the poltergeist attached to Lisa Macintosh, it immediately rang in response.  When Taff asked if it were non-corporeal in nature, it immediately rang in response. The ringing also indicated that it was from the past?

As we approached Conrad’s house the frequency of ringing significantly diminished as did it’s seeming willingness to answer questions. The last ringing occurred at approximately 1:46 a.m. We pulled into Conrad’s driveway at approximately 2:04 a.m.  Lisa’s fear response to the ringing increased steadily.  Conrad became so upset the he lost control of the van at least three times.

However, as the ringing diminished in frequency, Lisa fell asleep, which given her heightened state of anxiety was very unusual, except for the fact that the hour was very late.   Interesting side note here is that both Lisa & Conrad recalled that earlier that day (that morning to be specific), “something” turned off the ringer on   Conrad’s downstairs phone.  This is something that Conrad never does, nor does Lisa.

5/29/02:  11 A.M.:  While Lisa was upstairs, she hears Conrad calling her.  She yells down that she’ll be there in a second.  However, when she comes downstairs she discovers that Conrad has been on the phone during that time and did not call her.

6/11/02:  3 P.M. (approx.)  Conrad & Lisa hugging in garage when back door of house that opens into garage violently slams shut on its own accord without any wind.

7/12/02:  Tippie Hedren’s photo in frame flies off table in dinning room and lands several feet away (4-6 ft.) by stone wall.  Conrad, Lisa & Buster were not downstairs at the time. Occurred somewhere between midnight of prior day  and 10 A.M. that morning.

7/27/02:   7 P.M.:  Lisa hears what she believes is Conrad calling to her name as he comes home and rushes downstairs to meet him.  He’s not there.

7/27/02:  8 P.M.:  Lisa hears several knockings on the walls in the walk-in close adjacent to the upstairs bedroom.

8/07/02: 5 P.M. Lisa’s upstairs in office making copies of “California’s Most Haunted for Conrad.  Suddenly, the computer which was on MS Word started generating its own text in the middle of the screen.  The letters “cu”  and “et” mysteriously appeared on their own without any prompting at the keyboard.

8/07/02 8:45 P.M.:  While Lisa was taking a shower upstairs, the power suddenly went out in the house, requiring Lisa to find her way downstairs in the dark to the breakers to reset them. This power crashing has never happened before at Conrad’s house although there have been blackouts in the area affecting much more than just his home.

8/11/02: 3 A.M.:  While Conrad is upstairs, unable to sleep, he is working in his office when he hears the sound of heavy footsteps coming up his staircase, which is followed by the distinct feeling of being watched while sitting at his desk.

8/30/02 9:15 P.M.:  Lisa hears footsteps approaching upstairs bathroom and panics.

9/3/02: Late P.M.:  While Conrad is upstairs in office he hears what he believes to be someone or something running around the house and the garage making a great deal of noise.  When he investigates he find nothing. Earlier in the day, Conrad hears what he thinks is Lisa calling to him only to later realize that she did not.

11/4/02: 10:45 A.M.  While Lisa is in upstairs bathroom combing her hair, the shower curtains begin to move as if blown by a strong wind.  However, the window was not open and the heat was not on.

5/13/03: 5:45-6 A.M. Barry & Lisa are asleep in bed.  They hear several loud knocks (pounds) apparently coming from the walls perhaps from outside the house.  It abruptly wakes them up. Over an estimated five (5) minute period, they hear repeated volleys of three loud knocks coming form outside, perhaps above the bedroom.  Barry gets up and knocks upon the wall attempting to get the knocks to respond. It does not respond.

5/26/03:  Late evening, no specific time. Both Conrad & Lisa observe dark, amorphous image (apparition) in kitchen that resembles a distorted “M” at about 9:30 p.m.

11:30 P.M.  Barry’s watching TV, Lisa is upstairs getting ready for bed when Conrad hears that sound of loud shattering glass from the kitchen area.  Upon investigation, nothing is found to account for sound.

5/27/03:  9 A.M.:  The blade out of Conrad’s razor mysteriously disappears.  No explanation.

5/31/03:  9-10 A.M.:  Hallway (by downstairs bathroom) cabinet door violently swings open with enough force to shake the house while Barry & Lisa were watching TV in living room.

7/28/03: 11 P.M.:  Conrad & Lisa up in their office when “a warm hand” touches her right ribcage area and causes her to jump.

8/28/03No time indicated. Out of the blue, Conrad tells Taff that he believes that Los Angeles will soon experience a major UFO flap or wave.  Given that L.A. has never, to my knowledge, even had a minor such event, I pegged the likelihood as astronomical at best.  However, days later what appears to be a UFO flap in Montebello and Monterey Park has apparently begun. KNBC News showed videos shot of glowing red plasmas surrounding 30+ ft. diameter saucers witnessed by many including the police. Whether this event is in any way related to the aforementioned events is unknown. But it is worth mentioning.

Just prior to this precognitive event, Conrad tells Lisa that he believes that his father will soon become very ill and perhaps die.  Within less than five days, his father falls gravely ill due to kidney failure as a result of diabetes and eating lots of sugar.  He’s found unconscious laying in his Ohio home with 107 degree fever by Conrad’s brother.   Coincidence or another indication that Conrad is one hell of a psychic.

10/05/03 Approx. 6:30 A.M.:  Picture of flowers over fireplace in main bedroom starts being producing sounds as if it’s being tapped by unseen hands.  Then the dog “Buster”, violently reacts as if something either startled him or stepped on his foot. This woke Lisa up but not Conrad.

10/18/03,   No time indicated, Knocking sounds are heard in upper bedroom by Lisa in early morning.

11/17-18   10 A.M.. Lisa clearly hears Conrad’s voice calling to her while she is upstairs, and mistakenly believes that he’s returned to pick up something he’s forgot.  In reality, he’s not there at all.

1/24/04    5:40 P.M..  Lisa puts chicken into oven within a Pyrex glass pan that violently explodes when she opens the oven door after just five minutes of heating.  Glass is intensely propelled out of the oven missing Lisa only because she was off to the side of the door rather than in front of it.  This is the second such event, as the first one of this kind occurred on 12/17/01.  Oddly though, the chicken itself barely moved given the fierceness of the glass’s explosion.  Although the glass might have just blown out laterally beneath the chicken!

4/24/04:   7:55 P.M.:  Buster awakens from his slumber in the downstairs bedroom and  begins barking at the staircase.  Backs up and continues barking while staring at the overhead light.  Conrad goes up stairs and suddenly observes a bright blue flash of light outside in the direction of the neighbor’s house whose power immediately goes out.  However, Conrad also notices that a framed picture of him that has originally on the bookshelf was now on the floor.  He places it back on the bookshelf only to later find it again on the floor.

6/2/04:   Approx. 11:50 P.M.:  While Lisa & Conrad are watching TV in the main upstairs bedroom, something slams into the side of the door of the cabinet holding the TV making a loud crack startling them.

6/24/04:   Approx. 6 A.M.  While Conrad & Lisa were asleep in bed at Conrad’s father’s house in Ohio when the bedroom door begins to violently shake which lasts for about 6-10 seconds.  When Barry goes into the basement in order to shower the power repeatedly short-circuits and blows out.  Neither of these events has ever occurred at this house whether Barry was there or not.

7/5/04 1 A.M.:   Morning after 4th of July barbecue.  Paul Clemens, Conrad & Lisa at outdoor table talking when Conrad walks back into house and discovers that a large, heavy poster that had been leaning against the wall was now several feet away on the floor.  After extinguishing the Tiki torches around the pool, Lisa discovered that one of them mysteriously reignited.

10/4/04   3 A.M. & 9 A.M. Both Conrad & Lisa hear a woman’s voice seemingly coming from the downstairs area.  When they investigate, there’s no one there.  This  occurs more than once.

12/4/04:  10 P.M.  While Conrad is walking up the staircase he hears something hit the wall and discovers that his manual toothbrush is lying beneath the stairwell next to the wall.   Lisa’s diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma!

1/1/05   5:45 A.M.:  Lisa & Conrad hear loud explosion as if something crashed to the floor.  Investigation revealed nothing.  Buster wouldn’t go downstairs.

7/19/05,  Lisa,Conrad and Taff go to the Cielo Drive house, from 7:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m.  Lisa has an intense neurophysiological response to house. That night, Lisa has terrible dreams, feelings of nausea, vertigo, and general malaise.  Within weeks it appears that Lisa begins to relapse.  Conrad has odd sexual dreams and is irritable as was Taff.  Neither Lisa, or Conrad, ever return to Cielo, and for good reason. (Read another blog on this site entitled, “Cielo Drive Convergence: The Ultimate Field Laboratory”, for more details on this.

9/26/05   12-Mid-night. Conrad & Lisa going to sleep.  Loud rapping sounds are heard throughout the house, waking them up. Buster goes nuts thinking someone  is at the door.  It suddenly ceases.  At approximately 3 A.M., there are loud  sounds of footsteps coming up the stairs, Buster again goes wild. Lisa has been very sick last several days with symptoms suggesting that her Multiple Myeloma may be returning.

6/1/06 . No phenomena for some time now.  Lisa has unfortunately relapsed for a third time, with severe weight loss, fatigue and numerous bodily tumors.  She is about to begin radiation therapy.

7/16/06 Approximately 11 p.m. – Mid-night.  A loud explosion is heard by Barry out where the pool is.  Investigating the area for a possible source reveals nothing!

7/25/06 Lisa dies at 1:50 a.m., which was immediately followed by a door opening on its own, patio/pool lights flickering on and off as well as several lamps turning themselves on in the bedrooms.  Approximately one half-hour prior to Lisa’s passing, Buster (the dog) began to intensely bark at the bottom of the stairwell, looking upwards as if someone or something was physically there but unseen to the eye.  Buster’s barking abruptly stopped when Lisa died.

7/29/06 1:50 a.m. While Conrad is talking with Natalie’s (Lisa’s daughter) boyfriend in the kitchen, an ice cube apports right into the space between them and falls to the floor, Barry is amazed and the boyfriend freaks out and immediately leaves.  Later that morning, when Conrad goes into his office, all the tapes from the Kelly, KY segment of his new show are pushed up against the door blocking his entrance.

8/1/06.  No time indicated.  Strange, whistling sounds of wind in house by Conrad.

9/10/07,  4 A.M. While alone upstairs Conrad’s new girlfriend was awakened by the sound of someone breathing very.  It appeared to be coming from the closet. Overcoming his fear and getting up to investigate, he finds nothing to explain the sound.

5/10/08  Barry and his new girlfriend are in bed when he hears the sound of footsteps emanating from the attic and/or roof.  Oh no, not another attic!  But then again, maybe the new squeeze should have ventured forth to determine that cause of the noises and she would be really hanged in the attic!

5/21/08: Around 7:50 P.M.. Barry comes home with Buster to discover his blender is on within the kitchen.  The “on” button was depressed and he had not used the blender for quite some time.  At around 8:10 p.m. Barry hears some odd sounds in his living room and goes to investigate.  He observes a candle within its glass casing, which rests on top of one of the large speakers, rapidly accelerates vertically and slams into the ceiling where it bursts into many pieces.  The pieces and shards fall to the floor.

10/21/08, Evening. Taff at Conrad’s house to do a shoot on The Entity case for a production company and TV in Spain.  Fortunately, the new woman wasn’t present.  It was only Barry, Buster and myself.  Around 7:30 P.M.  I’m in the living room watching Thriller DVD’s while the sounds of chaotic footsteps were clearly discernable from the master bedroom above.  I told Barry about it and he said that he frequently hears such sounds.  About an hour later, the footfalls were so pronounced that it became a significant distraction while watching TV.

I turned the DVD off and spoke aloud to whatever the source of the sounds were overhead, assuming that they were perhaps those of Lisa’s.  I first announced my name to Lisa as if she were actually present.  I next said that I would knock three times upon the end table to the side of the couch and requested that if it was Lisa McIntosh, she should reply with three loud knocks as opposed to the continuing footfalls.  I knocked on the table three times, and almost instantly, the frenetic footfalls ceased to be rapidly replaced three, loud knocks from the ceiling above.

10/21/08 10:15 P.M. – 10:40 P.M.  While driving home from Conrad’s while doing about 140 mph on the 2-South, the interior of my car lights up as though someone hid a flash or strobe under the front of my passenger seat.   Color was pure white. Nearly jumped out of the car.  There were no cars in front of me, beside me or behind me.  There was absolutely no opposing traffic whatsoever.  Quickly scanning my gauges showed no problem, nor was there any smell of something burning.

As I continued onto the transition to the 134-N at around 110 mph, there was a second, identical flash of light. I finally exited the 134-N at Forrest Lawn Drive and continued to Barham Drive and turned left onto Cahuenga/Highland Ave.  Just before I reached the Hollywood Bowl, there was a third flash of light from the same direction in my car.

10/25/08 LATE EVENING, SPECIFIC TIME NOT KNOWN,  Conrad’s eating dinner alone in the dining room when a portion of a curtain rod, a “finiel” went flying across the room from no apparent source.

5/14-15/09, Early in the morning Barry’s up walking towards kitchen when he hears a loud bang coming from the laundry room.  He investigated and found nothing to explain it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.