The Parallels of Paranormal

SUPERNATURAL PHENOMENA HAVE BEEN HAPPENING FOR AS LONG AS FOLKTALES HAVE BEEN TOLD. Names are ascribed to entities. Eye-witness accounts are taken into consideration. Prevailing lore is established.

But what if the things that go bump in the night are something entirely different from what we’ve been told?

Folklorist Alvin Schwartz will tell you that the boo men of Newfoundland have similarities to the boggarts of Great Britain, and these are not so different from the bogey men or boogeymen of America. Could the haunt that grins from the darkness really be a boo man and a boggart and a bogey man all in one? Probably, but are boogeymen really just part of folklore that has traveled far and wide? Or is this folklore based on the common experience of people groups, as it so often is?

For centuries, in the realm of half-timber cottages, the old world produced what we call faery tales. Belief in the realm of faery is still as strong as ever in some European countries today. Anything that goes right or wrong can be attributed to faery. Creatures such as brownies, phookas, dwarves, goblins and pixies are identified by particular habits. Some threads are the same among all inhabitants of Faeryland, weaving them all together into the same family.

To begin with, the most common tendency of all “the little people” is to be helpful to humans until mistreated. When faeries turn malevolent, they are fearsome indeed. As one example, brownies are said to adopt houses. Like all faeries, they are unpredictable in their behavior and should not be offended. An insulted brownie becomes a boggart that bangs on walls, throws objects and even people through the air, pinches sleepers, destroys possessions, speaks secrets out loud, howls, and beats their victims. A Welch brownie was once said to have tormented a Baptist preacher by jerking his stool out from under him while he was praying, jangling the fire irons on the hearth, causing dogs to howl incessantly, and frightening everyone around by taking on the preacher’s likeness.

Jump to the year 1679, when Protestant settlers were establishing villages in the new world. Fairy tales, but not superstition, had been left behind. At the farmhouse of William Morse in Newbury, Massachusetts, strange happenings began to occur that terrified the family. Bricks, sticks and stones were thrown by invisible hands. Ashes were heaped on plates and heads at supper. Mr. Morse could not write without his inkhorn being snatch away. According to him, demons pulled his hair, pinched and scratched him, stole his shoes, pricked and pelted him. Witnesses could even see a ghostly fist beating him. Once, Mrs. Morse found herself trapped in the cellar because the trapdoor flew shut and a table was pulled on top of it. A young lad in the family was also flung about and hurled into the kitchen fire, among other abuses. He claimed that a man whose name began with P, but the name has since been lost, was the cause of it all. Around this time, people would often see a vision of a child. When the family implored God for help, voices were finally heard mournfully crying, “Alas! Alas! We knock no more, we knock no more!” The case became known as the Demons of Newbury, and it has lived in American folklore ever since.

Jump ahead now to 1977. This year, a young girl in Enfield, London was said to be possessed by a poltergeist. A single mother of four reported strange noises in her house and furniture moving by itself. The story took the nation by storm. Police were involved. Demonologists were involved. News reporters, the Society for Psychical Research and other paranormal researchers all came to witness the spectacle. They saw objects being tossed by invisible hands. Cold breezes chilled them. Fires ignited, and cups filled with water. Most frightening of all, a spirit manifested itself through 11-year-old Janet Hodgson. The girl levitated and spoke in a deep, scratchy voice for hours at a time. The spirit claimed to be that of Bill Wilkins, who had died in the house years earlier. Upon investigation, a Bill Wilkins had died in the house. The impoverished Hodgson family was tormented by the entity for a total of 18 months. Unfortunately, they were also ostracized by their community during that time. The tale came to be known as the Enfield Poltergeist. It was widely-publicized and has since been a popular topic for books and movies.

Now, we know that faeries, demons and ghosts are all classified as part of the supernatural realm. Today, many in our age of science might still call belief in such things mere superstition. Or at best, the result of an overactive imagination. However, our technological age is not without its own unexplainable accounts from other worlds.

In the first-ever widely publicized account of its kind, Barney and Betty Hill were said to have been abducted by aliens. Their experience shaped how encounters with visitors from outer space would be understood from that time on. The year was 1961.

First, a strange light seemed to follow the couple’s car as they traveled home to Portsmouth, New Hampshire. It flit around trees and hid behind mountain ridges. Barney had an eerie sense it was toying with them. The couple returned home hours later, curiously disheveled with no memories of the drive after seeing the light. Their wrist watches had stopped, Betty’s dress was torn, and both felt a puzzling presence. As the years progressed, Betty suffered from disturbing dreams while Barney developed severe anxiety. They eventually sought help from a physiatrist and neurologist specializing in hypnosis, who helped uncover their missing memories.

Supposedly, when the light had hovered just above their car, Barney had reacted. Feeling threatened, he stopped the vehicle. He put his handgun in his pocket and stepped out into the dark field. Barney later recalled his confusion as he gazed upon a round, flat object as large as a jet. Gray beings with large eyes stared at him. He was unable to lift his hand to his pistol. Suddenly, a voice started giving him instructions. The couple remembered trying to flee, but something put them to sleep.

The Hills awoke later inside the alien craft. Barney and Betty were stripped, poked and probed. The beings seemed to take samples from their bodies while a menacing leader watched. Betty asked him where they were, and he joked, in English, “If you don’t know where you are, there wouldn’t be any point in telling you where I am.” Betty remembered starting to feel a growing excitement. She wanted to meet the beings, and she bantered with the “gray” that performed her examination.

Later, the Air Force’s Project Blue Book ultimately dismissed the story while the account was still deemed credible by many other professionals who had become involved. The couple never felt that false memory or sleep paralysis explained their experience. Betty later claimed she was visited multiple times by “grays” in the years that followed.

What really happened to the Hills?

I submit that perhaps it’s not so different in nature than what happened to Linda Scarberry and her friends in Point Pleasant, West Virginia during the Mothman and Men in Black sightings of 1966. Or what happened to some friends of mine who supposedly had to live with the ghost of their house’s previous owner until a group of ministers and friends prayed with them. Or what happened to Johanna Michaelsen as described in her book The Beautiful Side of Evil, when theater ghosts and "little people" dressed in green and brown began to make appearances to her. Or what happened to the Hodgsons. Or the Morse family. Or the Welsh Baptist preacher. Or the pagans of the ancient world when they interacted with their supernatural gods.

As a collector of folklore, it seems to me that the characteristics and abilities of all paranormal entities are strikingly similar.

For instance, one of the clearest examples is knocking. Faery knockers are said to haunt mines and knock to alert miners when there is impending doom. Sasquatch, a member of cryptoid lore, also knocks on trees as a method of warning. Ghosts similarly knock on doors and walls of allegedly haunted structures.

Tales through the centuries have revealed many other similarities as well. Most forces from unseen realms can mimic voices, manipulate energy or electricity, reveal secrets, move objects and touch humans. Abilities usually increase in power over a period of time. People have reportedly seen some of these beings and even caught them on video or audio recordings. Though they may look different from one type of account to another, even appearing in the form of a deceased loved one or alien from space, there is an obvious pattern to the actions and abilities they demonstrate.

In the end, tales of the paranormal most often reveal intended harm toward humans. Victims suffer physically or emotionally long after the incidents are over. They experience fear, anxiety and nightmares, and it is not uncommon for the same experiences to be passed down to other members of their family. Most often, the reasons why the entity initially showed up and why it finally decided to leave is a mystery to those involved.

Is there any explanation that can account for this? If these entities are all one in the same, what is their purpose for allowing humans to name them differently and to shape lore around them to fit the time and culture? What do they want with us? Why do they do what they do?

So, what about you? Have I convinced you that all creatures of the invisible realm have always been one in the same? How about that the boogeyman ever never been, or may never be, truly benign?

What do you think? Who are they?