Paranormal Pioneers and Other Strange Phenomena

The Jersey Devil

The Jersey Devil, sometimes called the Leeds Devil, is a legendary creature said to live in the Pine Barrens in Southern New Jersey. The creature is often described as a flying biped with hooves.

The story of the Jersey Devil has existed for over 265 years and began in 1735 when a Mrs. Leeds of Smithville was pregnant with her thirteenth child. Mrs. Leeds was simply worn out and as her labor began one stormy night, she cursed the unborn baby during a painful contraction, saying "Let this child be a devil!" That is the version of the story that we hear most often, but there are several other variations. One says the Jersey Devil was created as the direct result of a curse from a starving gypsy whom Mrs. Leeds had denied food. As revenge, the gypsy placed a curse on the pregnant woman which resulted in her child being born a ‘devil’. Still another variation says that Mrs. Leeds could have been involved in witchcraft (there are even reports of a witch trial held around this time in Mt. Holly, NJ). Yet another says the creature was born as a devil and never resembled a human.

Throughout the 1800s, the Jersey Devil was blamed for livestock killings, strange tracks, and reported sounds. In the early 1900s, several people in New Jersey and neighboring states claimed to see the Jersey Devil or its tracks. In 1957, reports of a corpse matching the Jersey Devil's description began to crop up and in 1960; the business people around Camden offered a $10,000 reward for the capture of the Jersey Devil, even offering to build a private zoo to house the creature if captured. The most recent event occurred in March of 2009 when sstrange screeches were heard and a curious hoof print was found in Mayetta, New Jersey.

Edward Kelley (1555-1597)

A horoscope drawn up by John Dee indicates that Kelley was born in Worcester, England on August 1, 1555. Kelley's early life is obscure, but most stories say that he worked as an apothecary's apprentice and may have studied at Oxford under the name of Talbot. Whether or not he attended university is unsure, but we do know Kelley was educated and knew Latin and possibly some Greek and he must have learned it somewhere.

Kelley approached Dee in 1582, initially under the name Edward Talbot. Dee had already been trying to contact angels with the help of a "scryer" or crystal-gazer, but he had not been successful. Kelley professed the ability to do so, and impressed Dee with his first trial

About a year after entering into Dee's service, Kelley appeared with an alchemical book and a quantity of a red powder which, Kelley claimed, he and a certain John Blokley had been led to by a "spiritual creature" at Northwick Hill. With the powder (whose secret was presumably hidden in the book) Kelley believed he could prepare a red "tincture" which would allow him to transmute base metals into gold. He reportedly demonstrated its power a few times over the years, including in Bohemia (present Czech Republic) where he and Dee resided for many years.

By 1590, Kelley was living an opulent life. He convinced many influential people that he could produce gold. One of these was Emperor Rudolf II of Prague. Emperor Rudolf made Kelley a "Baron of the Kingdom," but eventually he tired of waiting for the gold to appear and had Kelley arrested in May of 1591 and imprisoned in the Křivoklát Castle outside Prague. Rudolf apparently never doubted Kelley's ability to produce gold on a large scale and hoped that being in prison we make him miserable and would induce him to cooperate. Around 1594, Kelley did cooperate and produced gold. As a result, he was released and restored to his former status, however, after that his abilities declined once again and no gold was forthcoming. Figuring it worked once, why not it do again and Kelley was imprisoned in Hněvín Castle in Most. Kelley died in 1597 at the age of forty-two. Tradition has him dying while trying to escape: the story goes that he used an insufficiently long rope to lower himself from a tower, fell and broke his leg, and died from his injuries.

Sybil Leek (1917-1982)

Sybil Leek was an English witch, astrologer, psychic, and occult author. She wrote more than sixty books on occult and esoteric subjects. She was dubbed "Britain’s most famous witch" by the BBC.

Because she rose to media after the repeal of the 1735 Witchcraft Act in 1951

Sybil Leek was born on February 22, 1917 in, Staffordshire, England to a well-to-do family. She traces her family history of witchcraft from the 16th century and to an ancestor named Molly Leigh, who had been accused during the witch hunt.

Sybil had only three years of formal schooling and the rest of her education was as a home-schooled child. However, her education was not lacking as her family played host to some numerous authors and other “scholarly” characters. H. G. Wells, Sybil and her father used to take long walks discussing all things metaphysical. Aleister Crowley, another friend of the family, used to read his poetry to Sybil and it was Crowley who encouraged her to begin writing herself. Sybil became an avid poet, and published her first book, a slim volume of poetry, while she was still a teenager.

As Sybil was growing up her immediate family was very supportive of her also following ‘the craft’ and it was from her father that learned about nature, animals and the power of herbs and even eastern philosophy. Her Grandmother’s baking taught her astrology because it was by eating cakes decorated with the astrological symbols that Sybil learned what they meant, and in which order they were arranged.

When Sybil was sixteen, she met a well-known concert pianist who became her music teacher and her husband in the same year. He died two years later, when Sybil was eighteen, and she returned home to her grandmother’s house. It was shortly after this that, she was sent by her grandmother to a French coven based at Gorge du Loup in the hills above Nice, to replace a distant relative of hers as High Priestess.

Eventually she returned to England and for a while she lived with an acquaintance in New Forest, but soon left because she found the lifestyle boring. She became friends with the Romany Gypsies in the forest lived with them for a year learning much from the them about the forest, ancient folklore and more about the practical use of herbs. While she was there, she attended rituals with the Horsa coven in the New Forest, of which for a short time she was High Priestess, and therefore a member of the Nine Covens council.

When she was 20, Sybil returned to her family, who had now moved to the edge of the New Forest and opened three antique shops; one in Ringwood, one in Somerset, and one in the heart of the New Forest in Burley, where she eventually moved.

Her open attitude about being a witch caused problem, but media interest grew. Sybil found herself being hounded by reporters and tourists, who would simply turn up on her doorstep; no matter that it was the middle of the night. She even had to create decoys in order to be able to leave the village to go to the secret coven meetings. The village thrived on the extra tourists, but because of the traffic and noise, her landlord eventually asked her to move out.

In April, 1964, an American publishing house wanted Sybil to speak about her new antique book ‘A Shop in the High Street’ and so she took the opportunity to go to New York where she was mobbed by reporters and gave many interviews. It was there she met Hans Holzer, a parapsychologist and together then investigated hauntings and psychic phenomena, becoming close friends. From New York she moved to Los Angeles where she met Dr. Israel Regardie, an authority on Kabbalah and ritual magic, and they spent much of their time together discussing and practicing the Golden Dawn rituals together.

Strong in defense of her beliefs, Sybil sometimes differed and even quarreled with other witches. She disapproved of nudity in rituals, a requirement in some traditions, and was strongly against the use of drugs. She was also one of the first of the modern-day witches to take up environmental causes.

Sybil died at her Melbourne, Florida home on 26 October 1982.

Levitation

Levitation (from Latin levitas "lightness") is the process by which an object is suspended by a physical force against gravity, in a stable position without solid physical contact. One of the more famous instances of object levitation is the so-called levitating brick that was caught on camera at the Borley Rectory.

Levitation in the paranormal context is the rising of a human body into the air by mystical means. Some people interpret alleged instances of levitation as the result of supernatural action of psychic power or spiritual energy. The scientific community states there is no evidence that levitation exists, and alleged levitation events are explainable by natural causes (such as magic trickery, illusion, and hallucination).

Various religions have claimed examples of levitation amongst their followers. This is generally used either as a demonstration of the validity or power of the religion, or as evidence of the holiness or adherence to the religion of the particular levitator. This ability to levitate has not been claimed as the exclusive property of any one specific religion; there are cases of levitation in all religions: Below are some examples:

Yogi Subbayah Pullavar was reported to have levitated into the air for four minutes in front of a crowd of 150 witnesses on June 6, 1936. He was seen suspended horizontally several feet above the ground, in a trance, lightly resting his hand on top of a cloth covered stick. Pullavar's arms and legs could not be bent from their locked position once on the ground.

It is recounted as one of the Miracles of Buddha that Gautama Buddha walked on water levitating (crossed legs) over a stream.

Seraphim of Sarov (1759–1833) Russian Orthodox saint had a gift to levitate over the ground for some time. This was witnessed by many educated people of his time, including the emperor Alexander I.

St. Teresa of Avila (1515-1582) claimed to have levitated at a height of about a foot and a half for an extended period somewhat less than an hour, in a state of mystical rapture. She called the experience a "spiritual visitation". Simon Magus, a Gnostic who claimed to be an incarnation of God (as conceived by the Gnostics), reportedly had the ability to levitate, along with many other magical powers.

Many mediums have claimed to have levitated during séances, especially in the 19th century in Britain and America. Many, but not all, have been shown to be frauds, using wires and stage magic tricks. Daniel Dunglas Home, a prolific and well-documented levitator of himself and other objects, was said by spiritualists to levitate outside of a window.

Miracles

A miracle is sometimes thought of as an observable disturbance of the laws of nature. Sometimes an event is also attributed (in part) to a miracle worker, saint, or religious leader. Theologians say that, with divine providence, God regularly works through created nature yet is free to work without, above, or against it as well

Many religious believers hold that in the absence of a logical scientific theory, the best explanation for these events is that they were performed by divine intervention and cite this as evidence for the existence of God.

Descriptions of miracles appear in the both the Old and New Testaments. Examples include prophets, such as Elijah who performed miracles like the raising of a widow's dead son (1 Kings 17:17–24) and Elisha whose miracles include multiplying the poor widow's jar of oil (2 Kings 4:1-7).

In the New Testament, Jesus says that miracles are performed by faith in God. "If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'move from here to there and it will move." (Matthew 17:20). After Jesus ascended to heaven, the book of Acts records the disciples of Jesus praying to God to grant that miracles be done in His name (Acts 4:29-31). Other passages mention false prophets who will be able to perform miracles to deceive "if possible, even the elect of Christ" (Matthew 24:24, 2 Thes 2:9, Revelation 13:13).

In Judaism, many rabbis mentioned in the Talmud held that the laws of nature were unbreakable. The idea of miracles that disregarded the laws of nature were hard to accept. Therefore, some explained that miracles were natural events that had been pre-ordained by God at the beginning of time.

From this point of view, when the walls of Jericho fell, it was not because God directly brought them down, but that at the beginning of time God planned that there would be an earthquake at that place and time, so that the city would fall to the Israelites.

Most philosophers, sticking to the scientific world view, had difficulty explaining the existence or not of miracles, since miracles are contradictory to it (science) by definition. For example, Aristotle rejected the idea that God could or even would get involved in the order of the natural world.

We find in the book of Numbers 22 the story of Balaam and the talking donkey. Many hold that for miracles such as this, one must either assert the literal truth of this story or reject the story as false. However, some Jewish commentators hold that stories such as these were never meant to be taken literally in the first place. Rather, these stories should be understood as accounts of a prophetic experience, which are dreams or visions.

There have been numerous claims of miracles in Christianity. They are found in many denominations including the Roman Catholic Church, various Protestant churches and the Orthodox Church. The Roman Church and Orthodox Church recognizes miracles as being works of God, either directly or through the prayers and intercession of a specific Saint or Saints. There is usually a specific purpose connected to a miracle, e.g. the conversion of a person or persons to the Christian faith or the construction of a church desired by God. The Church tries to be cautious in approving the validity of miracles and maintains particularly stringent requirements in validating the miracle's authenticity. In the Roman Catholic Church, the process is overseen by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.

The Roman Catholic Church claims to have confirmed the validity of a number of miracles, some of them occurring in modern times and having withstood the test of modern scientific scrutiny. According to 17th-century documents, a young Spanish man's leg was miraculously restored to him in 1640 after having been amputated two and a half years earlier. Another miracle approved by the Roman Church is the Miracle of the Sun, which occurred near Fatima, Portugal on October 13, 1917. Anywhere between 70,000 and 100,000 people, who were gathered at a cove near Fatima, witnessed the sun dim, change colors, spin, dance about in the sky, and appear to plummet to earth, radiating great heat in the process. After the ten-minute event, the ground and the people's clothing, which had been drenched by a previous rainstorm, were both dry.

One of the most holy of miracles in the Orthodox Church is the miracle of the Holy Fire which occurs on every year at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem on Holy Saturday, the day preceding Pascha (Easter). It is considered by many to be the longest-attested annual miracle in the Christian world and has been consecutively documented since 1106 A.D. (see the chapter on The Holy Fire).