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The Spiritualist Movement: The Fox Sisters Who Started a Ghostly Revolution as a Prank

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It’s impossible talking about communicating with the dead without talking about The Fox Sisters and their impact they had on the Spiritualism movement as well the enduring popularity ghosts and the afterlife have on people, even when its well known fraudsters performing. 

At a public demonstration at the New York Academy of Music, Maggie Fox takes the stage. She had all her life been one part of the most popular medium duo in the world at the time. She had since she was a little girl held public seances where she and her sister would communicate with the dead. Now she was telling everyone in the crowd that it had all been a fraud.

She was met with hissing and cheers from the crowd. People had spent their money on her, been comforted when she said that their dearly departed was at peace in the afterlife and with her help, she could communicate a message from the spirit world to the world of the living. All a lie. 

“When I began this deception I was too young to know right from wrong,” Maggie told the crowd, according to the Herald. “That I have been mainly instrumental in perpetuating the fraud of Spiritualism upon a too-confiding public, many of you already know. It is the greatest sorrow of my life.”

The Fox Sisters: Portrait of Kate and Maggie Fox, Spirit Mediums from Rochester, New York. Along the bottom edge of the daguerreotype “Kate and Maggie Fox, Rochester Mediums, T.M. Easterly Daguerrean” is inscribed. Portions of the daguerreotype are colored with pink pigment.

Spiritualism and the Hunt for Ghosts and Communicating with the Dead

The 19th century was a time of grand discoveries, scientific advancements, as well as talking to ghosts.

Enter Spiritualism, a movement that swept through the Western world like an eerie whisper in the dark. It promised communication with the dead, answers from the great beyond, and (let’s be honest) a fair share of parlor tricks.

At the center of it all? Two young girls from upstate New York, Margaretta and Catherine Fox—better known as the Fox Sisters. Their story is one of mystery, deception, and perhaps a little too much ambition. Were the Fox sisters truly gifted with the ability to communicate with spirits, or did they accidentally start one of the biggest hoaxes in history?

Light a candle, keep your ears open for unexplained knocks, and let’s step into the shadowy world of the Fox Sisters and the rise of Spiritualism.

A Knock in the Night: The Birth of a Phenomenon

Our tale begins in Hydesville, New York, in 1848, in a modest farmhouse occupied by the Methodist Fox family. It was here that 14-year-old Margaretta (Maggie) and 11-year-old Catherine (Kate) first encountered what they believed to be messages from beyond the grave.

Read More: Check out all ghost stories from the USA

The family had been experiencing strange noises—knocking sounds in the walls, unexplained raps on furniture, eerie disturbances in the dead of night. 

The Fox Sisters Childhood Home: Original Cottage before it was moved to Lilydale in 1916. This is where the alleged haunting started.

Instead of running for the hills, the Fox Sisters leaned into it when they scared their parents. One fateful evening, they wanted to share it with a neighbor. They said they heard the rapping every night on the walls and furniture. The neighbor was curious and wanted to see for herself and came to visit the small bedchamber the sisters shared with their parents. Their very superstitious mother, Margaret started, asking the knocking to count to five.

Five heavy knocks answered. Then followed her command when asking for fifteen knocks. 

“What is our guest’s age,” she asked and the entity in the room answered with thirty-three knocks. 

Convincing even the adults in the room, they didn’t even consider that the night was going into April Fool’s day. The young girls called the knocking for Mr. Spitfoot, a nickname for the devil, and the parents genuinely thought the house was haunted by something evil. They then called it Charles B. Rosna, the name of a man allegedly killed on the property. 

There was a rumor that a peddler had been murdered in the same farmhouse five years before and that this was the spirit trying to communicate with them. It’s uncertain if the story started before or after the Fox sisters started to hear the knocking. There was a whole ordeal of whether or not there actually was a dead man buried on their property haunting it, but after excavations, it has, as with everything else, said to be a hoax.

The Rise of Spiritualism: Talking to the Dead Becomes Trendy

The 19th century was the perfect time for a movement like Spiritualism to explode. Death was everywhere, and people were desperate for comfort. High infant mortality rates meant grieving parents longed to speak to lost children. The Civil War (later on) would create millions of mourning families, looking for closure. Scientific progress made people more open to the idea that maybe there was something beyond the grave that could be studied.

And then came the Spiritualist Movement—an alluring blend of religious belief, science, and just enough mystery to keep people hooked. It promised proof of the afterlife, making it one of the most compelling belief systems of the era.

The Fox Sisters weren’t just two kids from New York anymore. They were the pioneers of an entire industry—one that would dominate the world for decades.

The Fox Sisters Take the Stage

With their newfound fame, the sisters—along with their older sibling, Leah Fox—decided to take their act on the road. They moved to Rochester, New York, a place where all kinds of spiritual movements flourished. This area gave birth to Mormonism, Millerism that would become Seventh Day Adventism – As well as Spiritualism. 

The Fox sisters: Kate (1838–92), Leah (1814–90) and Margaret (or Maggie) (1836–93). They were famous mediums in Rochester, New York. Taken around 1852

They began holding public séances, demonstrating their “spirit communication” abilities to packed audiences. Where they could have been condemned to death for their claims to be communicating with the dead a couple of centuries ago, now they could make money from it. Leah had seen that this act could turn into a nice business venture.

The formula of the Fox Sisters was simple but effective:

A darkened room for maximum spookiness and where you could hide details your audience shouldn’t see. A table where spirits could “manifest” through knocks and tilts. A crowd eager for messages from beyond. And just like that, a supernatural empire was born.

They traveled from city to city, performing for skeptics and believers alike. Even respected intellectuals and politicians found themselves drawn into the movement. In 1849, 400 people came to see them at Rochester’s Corinthian Hall. After the performance they were taken to a backchamber and undressed to be examined by skeptics, finding no evidence of a hoax.

A physician from New England named Dr. Phelps claimed that his windows had shattered during one of their seances and that his clothes had been torn off by an unseen entity and objects were dancing on his floor. Even turnips had sprung from the carpet, inscribed with mysterious hieroglyphs. 

The Medium Madness: When Talking to the Dead Became Big Business

By the 1850s, Spiritualism was in full swing, with thousands of people across America and Europe attempting to communicate with the dead. In upstate New York there were forty families claiming to have the same gifts as the Fox sisters, and hundreds of more throughout Virginia and Ohio. 

They were not the first to claim to be able to communicate with the dead, and there were already many thinkers and philosophers who were exploring the idea around the same time. Franz Anton Mesmer from Australia was healing people in the States in the 1840s by putting them in a hypnotic state where some who woke up, thought they had been visited by a spirit. Philosopher and mystic, Emanuel Swedenborg from Sweden described a world of spirit and claimed to have seen and talked with them. 

And then things got really out of hand.

Séance: After the Fox Sisters, the séance and spiritualism got a boost in popularity that changed how the western world would see the ghosts and afterlife. The alleged clairvoyant medium Erik Jan Hanussen (middle) at a an illuminated séance.

With the Fox Sisters’ success, everyone and their ghostly grandmother wanted a piece of the action. Suddenly, mediums were popping up everywhere, offering séances, table-tipping sessions, and spirit photography.

It was a belief system with a show, filled with lighting, music and drama feeding on people’s curiosity of death and longing after their death. The mediums like The Fox Sisters became celebrities. Some of the most famous names in Spiritualism came out of this boom, including:

Daniel Dunglas Home, a medium who could allegedly levitate. There was also Eusapia Palladino, known for “spirit hands” appearing out of thin air. This is where the notion of Ectoplasm was coined. 

Read More: Spiritualism and the Occult: The History of Ectoplasm and Gooey Ghosts

The Bangs Sisters, who produced “spirit paintings” of deceased loved ones. But with fame came skepticism. Scientists, magicians, and journalists began questioning whether these supernatural events were real or just elaborate hoaxes.

Read More: Georgiana Houghton and her Spirit Drawings in Watercolor

Not to say that this went on without controversy. They had from day one people suspecting them for fraud. One time Maggie was almost kidnapped by a group of men who didn’t like the childrens show. They tried as early as 1849 to end the charade and said that the spirit bid them farewell during a show. But Leah pushed them onward.

And unfortunately for the Fox Sisters… things were about to fall apart.

The Fall of the Fox Sisters: Confession and Collapse

By the late 1870s, the Fox Sisters’ once-glorious reputation was crumbling. Throughout their career they had noted mistakes they made. Like when they conjured the ghost of Benjamin Franklin through writing and one observer noted how the former president’s spelling and grammar had diminished since he died. On a show in Buffalo the girl’s had cushions placed under their feet and only silence came through that night. 

Maggie struggled with alcoholism as she was mourning the death of her sort-of-husband in 1857. His family hated her and she wasn’t even allowed to attend his funeral. She had by then converted to Catholicism to honor her belated husband and promised to abandon Spiritualism forever. 

Kate on her side had married a devoted Spiritualist and wanted to expand and cash in on the grief the Civil War left in society. She was also accused of fraud and drinking heavily under the pressure to constantly summon spirits and perform.

The final blow came in 1888, when Maggie Fox did the unthinkable—she confessed and was scheduled to publicly denounce Spiritualism.

In a public lecture at the New York Academy of Music, she admitted that their ghostly communications had been faked all along. Leah had distanced herself from the younger sisters and Maggie was mad at her and the other Spiritualists who ridiculed Kate for her drinking and calling her an unfit mother as all of her children had been taken from her because of her drinking. Kate herself was in the audience to support her. 

Their secret? Cracking their toe joints to produce the knocking sounds. They also used their knuckles.

Yes. The entire phenomenon that launched Spiritualism had been created using nothing more than clever deception and a few well-placed toe pops.

Maggie even demonstrated the technique on stage, proving that the rapping noises could be recreated without any supernatural assistance. She confessed to the New York World in 1888 that the childhood prank had spun out of control. 

“My sister Katie and myself were very young children when this horrible deception began. At night when we went to bed, we used to tie an apple on a string and move the string up and down, causing the apple to bump on the floor, or we would drop the apple on the floor, making a strange noise every time it would rebound. Then we started to crack our bones. A great many people when they hear the rapping imagine at once that the spirits are touching them, It is a very common delusion.”

She then went on to expose her sister, Leah, who had known it was fake all along and exploited them. The audience was horrified. The Spiritualist Movement had been built on a lie.

But here’s the kicker—even after the confession, people still believed in Spiritualism that had by then spread around the world. Many brushed off Maggie’s words, claiming she was coerced or simply bitter. After all, people had claimed to talk with the dead before the Fox sister’s ever existed and types of mediums have been around in all cultures at all time. The movement was too big to die, and it continued to thrive long after the Fox Sisters faded into obscurity.

Maggie later recanted her confession the year after confessing it all, but the damage was done. What was the hoax? The confession or their entire career? According to Spiritualist she had been lying at the confession performance as she needed money and they paid her 1500 dollar for it. She then said that her spirit guides had told her to do so. Still, she spent the rest of her life to reveal the tricks behind her profession and the lies of other mediums. 

Maggie never reconciled with her sister who died in 1890. Her sister Kate died two years later, Maggie eight months after that. Both sisters died in poverty, their once-glorious reputations reduced to whispers of fraud and scandal.

Legacy: The Fox Sisters’ Impact on the Paranormal World

So, were the Fox Sisters frauds? Yes. But did they also accidentally launch an entire paranormal movement? Also yes.

Their “discovery” of spirit communication led to:

The rise of modern-day mediumship, the popularization of séances, spirit boards, and paranormal investigations. An entire industry of ghost hunters, TV psychics, and supernatural tourism. Even today, we see echoes of the Fox Sisters in every ghost-hunting show, every psychic reading, and every flickering candle during a séance.

Whether you believe in ghosts or not, one thing is clear: the Fox Sisters left their mark. Even when confessing to lying people refused to believe in the power of communicating with the dead. It was something that people desperately needed to believe in. 

They may have started with toe cracks and lies, but their influence? It’s undeniably haunting.

So, the next time you hear a mysterious knock in the night, ask yourself—

Is it just the wind?

Or is Mr. Splitfoot still knocking?

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References:

How a Hoax by Two Sisters Helped Spark the Spiritualism Craze | HISTORY 

The Fox Sisters and the Rap on Spiritualism | Smithsonian

The Paris Review – How the Fox Sisters’ Hoax Gave Birth to Spiritualism

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The Demon Zozo: The Mysterious and Terrifying Entity of the Ouija Board

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A collective memory of people summoning an entity called Zozo has taken over the Ouija Board sessions. The demon who goes by many names is said to be conjured from the human mind, but there are still those claiming that the demon Zozo is something real to fear.

For as long as people have attempted to communicate with the spirit world, there have been warnings about entities that should never be contacted. Among the most feared is Zozo, a sinister and enigmatic presence said to haunt those who dare to use a Ouija board. 

The stories of the demon Zozo have become almost like a Christian symbol of what evil the occult and Ouija can bring from the darkness. Reports of encounters with Zozo stretch back centuries, some saying its older Sumerian or African origins, perhaps ancient Babylonian, but in the modern age, its legend has gained notoriety thanks to chilling firsthand accounts and online discussions. But who—or what—is Zozo? And is it truly a demon, or a product of human fear and suggestion?

Demon Lore: The first mention of a demon named Zozo comes from a French book of demonology. Detail from the frontispiece to the 1863 edition of Collin de Plancy’s Dictionnaire infernal — Source.

The Legend of the Demon Zozo

The name “Zozo” with this particular spelling, first appeared in historical texts in 1816, when a French occultist named Jacques Collin de Plancy documented a demon by that name in his book Le Dictionnaire Infernal, a sort of encyclopedia of demons. This is decades before the Ouija Board we know today existed, but there did exist other planchette writing said to communicate with spirits.

In the text, Zozo was described as a minor demon capable of possessing people and told about a girl in Teilly in France, possessed by no less than three demons called Mimi, Crapoulet and Zozo. Someone from the church reported it to the authorities and she was hospitalized. However, Zozo’s notoriety skyrocketed in recent decades due to countless accounts of individuals encountering the entity through the Ouija board.

The demon’s rise to infamy largely began in the early 2000s when Darren Evans, a paranormal enthusiast from Oklahoma, claimed to have been tormented by Zozo after using a Ouija board. Evans shared his experiences online, recounting how the entity terrorized him and his loved ones, leading to unexplained injuries, psychological distress, and even suicidal thoughts. Perhaps the worst was his claim that the demonic entity had almost drowned his baby daughter and infected her with an illness.

His accounts were disturbing enough to catch the attention of paranormal researchers, and since then, Zozo has been considered one of the most dangerous entities that can manifest through Ouija sessions.

Today there are countless alleged encounters retold on forums and throughout popular culture. Some are more haunting than others. 

How the Demon Zozo Manifests

Zozo Lore: Some sourcers will put the divorce of Laura Brooks Ellwanger and Walter K. Martin was a part of the Zozo lore from the early 1900. He was a famous palmist and fortune teller who often went by the name Zozo. And according to Laura, one of his many ex-wives, he “stole her soul” as she put it in the article. Although it was from marriage, not demonic possession. Source

Zozo allegedly communicates with people through Ouija boards, often spelling out its name repeatedly—”Z-O-Z-O”—in rapid succession. Some believe the name itself is a trick, meant to lure the unsuspecting into prolonged communication. Once engaged, Zozo’s behavior can range from mischievous to malevolent. Users have reported the following eerie patterns:

The planchette moving in rapid figure-eight motions, often associated with dark entities and them wanting to take control over the board.

Repeatedly spelling “Z-O-Z-O” or variations like “Zaza” or “Zo”

Sudden temperature drops and feelings of dread

Threats and violent messages appearing on the board

Physical attacks, such as scratches, bruises, and unexplained illnesses after contact

Disturbances in the home, such as shadow figures, nightmares, and poltergeist activity

Some who have encountered the demon Zozo claim that even acknowledging its presence can open a door to further hauntings. Others say that breaking contact improperly—such as not saying goodbye on the Ouija board—can result in lasting consequences.

Theories Behind the Demon Zozo

Zozo’s existence is a hotly debated topic among paranormal researchers. There are several theories about what, exactly, this entity might be:

Could the Demon Zozo be a True Demon from Ancient Times?

Many believers claim that Zozo is a malevolent demon that thrives on fear and negative energy. They cite the consistency of its manifestations and the similarities in reported encounters as evidence of a real supernatural force.

Those believing the demon is real says it goes under more than one name, where Mama, Zaza and Zoso are some of them. 

Those claiming that the demon Zozo is real, most often claim that it really is a misspelling and that his true name is Pazuzu. This is a Mesopotamian deity of the wind and said to be the king of demons and believed to be evil by the Babylonians and Assyrians. Also, interestingly, a protector demon for pregnant women in some of the mythology lore. The demon caused famine and attacked people by summoning locusts.

Being so old in mythology, there are plenty of variants and meanings the ancient people put on him. This is also the demon who possessed Reagan in The Exorcist and has perhaps become most known in the modern world as a demon seeking to possess people. 

Pazuzu (𒅆𒊒𒍪𒍪): In Assyrian and Babylonian mythology, Pazuzu was the king of the demons of the wind, and son of the god Hanbi. He also represented the southwestern wind, the bearer of storms and drought.

The Real Exorcism of Roland Doe

Talking about the demon Zozo and the Exorcist, we must revisit the exorcism of Roland Doe who the Exorcists was said to be inspired by. The name was a pseudonym, but his exorcism by the Catholic Church in the late 1940s in the US really happened. He was a 14 year old boy said to be possessed. His family was Lutheran, but his aunt was a spiritualist who showed him the Ouija Board. The aunt died and the family claimed that strange things started to happen and he went through several exorcisms.

Was he truly possessed? Or was he simply a disturbed boy throwing temper tantrums? Although most of the story behind the exorcism of Roland Doe was based on hearsay, it created the foundation of how the western world would look at demonic possession in the modern world. 

The Exorcist: Much of the demon possession and the story of Zozo comes from the book and movie The Exorcist based on the allegedly true possession of a boy playing with the Ouija Board.

Some occultists suggest that Zozo is not a demon but rather a malevolent spirit or trickster entity that delights in scaring and deceiving Ouija board users.

Mass Hysteria Through Popular Culture

Mass Hysteria and the Ideomotor Effect: Skeptics argue that the demon Zozo is nothing more than an urban legend fueled by the power of suggestion. The ideomotor effect—a psychological phenomenon where unconscious movements guide the planchette—may explain why so many people “contact” Zozo. The letter Z and the number 0 are located right next to each other, and chances that Zozo was created by random muscle motions is high. That is also why so many come back with spirit stories about Mama or Abba from the board as well. 

An Internet-Age Myth: The rise of online storytelling, horror forums, and viral ghost stories may have amplified the legend of Zozo, turning it into a modern folklore figure much like Slender Man or other creepypasta legends.

Read Also: The Philip Experiment: The Spirit Created by Scientists 

Some of the earliest entries of the demon Zozo was in 2009 from True Ghost Tales, an online forum telling allegedly true ghost encounters. Darren Evans who originally made the post told about an entity seemingly friendly, turning evil, threatening to hurt his loved ones. His post went viral, and although people chimed in with similar experiences, his became the foundation of a new urban legend. 

The Led Zeppelin connection: Further, a symbol etching out the name “Zoso” as a code for the god Saturn appeared in a banned occult book in 1521. This would later be copied by Led Zeppelin as the symbol for their guitarist Jimmy Page. Did he invoke a demon, or was he simply channeling the planet ruling his zodiac, Capricorn? The origin of the symbol remains a mystery for now.

Darren Evans appeared on TV-shows and also published a book based on his experiences, adding more and more details to his encounter with the legend. In 2012 a movie based on tales of the demon Zozo also was released and truly cemented the Zozo lore in popular culture.

Back to the story from 1816, many skip the part about the book where the author talks about how untrue the story the girl told, as she had previously been publicly whipped as punishment for telling false demon possession stories. She was sentenced to life imprisonment. Even though the author himself denied its existence, people still use the book as proof, elevating the lore to something older than a 2009 urban legend.

The Book of Demonology: Although the author of this book claims that the demon Zozo was nothing more than an elaborate lie centuries ago, he still believed demonic possession was real. Read the book here.

Evans’ story has also changed over time, now claiming he first met the demon in 1982 when he found a Ouija Board in a basement with the name engraved on the back of the board, sometimes he said on the front. He has since spent his time trying to find further proof that the demon Zozo is indeed older than what the urban legend it created was. 

How to Protect Yourself from the Demon Zozo

I AM ZOZO: A horror film based on the legend was made about five young people who play with a Ouija board and attract the attention of the malevolent Ouija demon ZoZo. Watch here

Although the truth of the matter is built on rather flimsy evidence, the belief in Zozo is today widespread and countless people across the world now believe it and claim to have encounters with this particular demon. Whether the demon Zozo is a genuine demonic force or a psychological phenomenon, its presence in paranormal lore remains undeniable, and you can now buy the proper Zozo Ouija Board specially designed for a demonic encounter. 

For those who believe in the supernatural, avoiding Zozo means exercising caution when using Ouija boards. Paranormal experts offer the following advice:

Never use a Ouija board alone.

Do not ask for a spirit’s name, as this can invite malicious entities.

Always say goodbye before closing a session.

If the demon Zozo appears, immediately end the session and cleanse the space with sage or protective prayers.

Do not challenge or provoke the demon Zozo, as this is said to increase its influence.

Because true or not, better to be safe than sorry, eh?

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References:

Zozo, the Ouija Board’s Most Famous Demon

Zozo Demon Legend & Link to Ouija Board and Led Zeppelin – Thrillist 

Who Is Zozo, The Demonic Spirit Supposedly Summoned Through Ouija Boards? 

Dictionnaire infernal/6e éd., 1863/Zozo – Wikisource

Dictionnaire infernal/6e éd., 1863/Possédés – Wikisource 

Dictionnaire infernal/6e éd., 1863/Possédés – Wikisource

Zozo phenomenon documented in new book | Paranormal Corner – nj.com 

Pazuzu – Wikipedia

Zozo the Demon – Believing the Bizarre 

Zozo Demon (episode) | Ghost Adventures Wiki

The Zozo Phenomena 

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The Philip Experiment: The Spirit Created by Scientists

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After a long experiment, a made up spirit started to haunt a group’s seances. What really happened during the Philip experiment, and what does it tell us about what lengths humans go to believe in ghosts?

Sitting in a traditional seance with dimmed lights around a table, a group of people tried to make contact with the dead. They started to feel a presence, the table was vibrating and a chilling breeze entered the room. A spirit was present and answered with knocks and unexplainable echoes. 

The spirit was Philip Aylesfor. He was born in 1624 in England and was once a nobleman with military ties to Oliver Cromwell, knighted when he was 16 and worked as a spy for Charles II during the English Civil War. He gave many details of his life like that he was married to a cold, loveless woman called Dorothea and had a tragic affair with a beautiful Romani woman named Margo that he met when riding on his estate. His wife discovered the affair, accused Margo of witchcraft, and had her burned at the stake. Overcome with guilt and grief, Philip committed suicide in 1654

The seance that went for about a year was a success, everyone felt and heard the spirit. At one point the table tilted on a single leg and moved across the room without anyone touching it, getting it all on audio and tape. There was only one problem. Every part of this story was fabricated. Philip Aylesford had never existed. His life was purely a creation of the group trying to conjure it. And yet, they all ended up believing it.

In the world of the paranormal, most hauntings involve spirits of the dead lingering in our realm. But what if a ghost wasn’t the remnant of a once-living person? What if it was something else entirely—something born not from tragedy, but from pure human imagination? Enter the Philip Experiment, a groundbreaking 1970s parapsychology study that sought to prove that ghosts might not be spirits at all, but products of human thought. 

The Philip Experiment: A group gathered for seances to conjure up a spirit they had made up. In the end they all experienced stuff most people would call a poltergeist haunting.

The Birth of Philip: A Ghost Without a Past

The Philip Experiment was conducted from September in 1972 by the Toronto Society for Psychical Research (TSPR), led by Dr. A.R.G. Owen, a mathematician and psychologist. The group aimed to explore the idea that paranormal phenomena, particularly ghostly activity, might not be caused by spirits of the dead, but rather by the human mind’s ability to create and project entities into reality—a concept known as thought-form manifestation or tulpas in Tibetan mysticism.

Philip Aylesford: A drawing made of the spirit by the Owen Group.

To test this theory, they created an entirely fictional ghost named Philip Aylesford. With Philip’s “history” in place, the team—eight participants, including Dr. Owen’s wife—began conducting séances without much result in the beginning. It started out first as informal meetings where they discussed his history and life, but not much paranormal was reported on by the group that called themselves the Owen Group.

They drew a picture of him and even went to England where he “lived” and took pictures. The other people in the group were unnamed but included a formerly chaired MENSA woman, a bookkeeper, a sociology student, a housewife, an accountant and an industrial designer. What they all had in common was that they were all members of the TSPR.

Then they changed tactics and created an atmosphere in a dimly lit room, just as one would when attempting to contact a real ghost. The whole experiments and their experiences started to shift. They focused on Philip’s story, visualized him, and called out to him, asking for signs of his presence.

One night, as they continued their séance, the table suddenly shook. Knocking sounds echoed in the room. At first, the group thought it was a coincidence or subconscious movement. But the phenomena intensified.

Through a system of knocks (one for “yes,” two for “no”), Philip started answering questions. When asked about his past, he responded in ways that aligned with the fictional backstory they had written. However, whenever the group asked something outside of his “history,” Philip could not answer, reinforcing the idea that his existence was completely dependent on their belief in him.

The Paranormal Activity Escalates

As The Philip Experiment progressed, the manifestations became eerier after it had gone on for a couple of months. Philip didn’t just communicate through knocks—he moved the table, made lights flicker, and even created cold spots in the room. Witnesses reported that the table would tilt, slide, and even levitate. Some claimed they heard whispers and faint laughter, though no voice was ever recorded.

At one point they had to take a break from their meetings as some of the members in the group claimed to experience strange things in their homes. They even had the seance in front of a live audience of 50 people where a lot of presence was felt, and experiences, but the televised documentation was unable to give further proof of haunting. 

Watch the televised seance they did here.

Despite all this, Philip never appeared as a ghostly figure, nor did he provide any information beyond what the participants had imagined. He was a true creation of their minds, responding only to what they had already established about him.

What Did the Philip Experiment Prove?

The Philip Experiment left researchers with unsettling conclusions. If a group of people could “create” a ghost through belief and focus alone, what does that say about the nature of hauntings? Were all ghostly encounters just the subconscious mind manifesting phenomena? Could poltergeists and spirits actually be projections of human thought?

The experiment also drew connections to psychokinesis (mind over matter)—the idea that focused human intention can physically influence the world. If the group could make a table levitate just by believing in Philip, was it possible that hauntings stemmed from emotional energy rather than actual spirits? Do we want to believe in ghosts so bad that the mind will create them for us?

The Legacy of the Philip Experiment

The Philip Experiment: The Owen’s wrote a book about their experiences. Read it here.

The experiment remains one of the most famous studies in parapsychology, inspiring further research into tulpas and the power of collective consciousness. While skeptics argue that the table movements were a result of ideomotor effects (unconscious muscle movements), believers point out that the level of activity was far beyond typical séance trickery and that the ghost of Philip was perhaps the start of it, but a true spirit really did appear. 

Although it created a lot of debate, it also created a lot of criticism in that the experience would be hard to recreate to show more consistent results.

The Philip Experiment was later repeated with different groups, creating new fictional spirits like Lilith, a French Canadian spy, Sebastian,a medieval alchemist and Axel who was said to be from the future. In each case, similar phenomena occurred, suggesting that the power of belief plays a significant role in paranormal experiences. 

The Philip Experiment forces us to ask a terrifying question: What if ghosts don’t haunt us? What if we haunt ourselves? If human minds can conjure spirits from thin air, it means the line between reality and imagination is disturbingly thin. It also raises the possibility that some hauntings might be self-created manifestations of guilt, trauma, or fear.

So next time you hear a whisper in the dark, feel a tap on your shoulder, or watch an object move on its own—ask yourself: Is something there? Or are you making it real?

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References:

Philip experiment – Wikipedia

https://www.liveabout.com/how-to-create-a-ghost-2594058

The Philip Experiment — Astonishing Legends 

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Spiritualism and the Occult: The History of Ectoplasm and Gooey Ghosts

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Ectoplasm was a substance said to be the materialization of spirits in our world. The fascinating ectoplasm gave some insane pictures from seances and plenty of bonkers debunking of fraudulent mediums using it. 

“Ectoplasm is a thick, vapory, slightly luminous substance which exudes from some materializing mediums. Immediately there comes from her body this vaperous substance which surrounds her like a fog. As the ectoplasm increases it becomes more dense. It coalesces, becomes sticky. It can be felt. It can be photographed.”
– Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Ectoplasm is the name given to a type of psychic energy which is said to be the medium by which the spirits interact with the physical world. According to the Spiritism movement, ectoplasm is a translucent, luminous substance that forms around the mouth, eyes, and nose of mediums during a seance. 

Although we today mostly know it to popular media like Ghostbusters like a gooey and sticky substance, it was an actual thing that mediums used in their seances to prove the existence of ghosts. The word “ectoplasm” was coined in 1894 by the French Scientist Charles Richet to explain a third arm that allegedly appeared from a medium named Eusapia Palladino, and derives from the Greek words ἐκτός ektos, “outside” and πλάσμα plasma, “anything formed”.

Ectoplasm: Stanisława Popielska (born c. 1893), known as Stanisława P., was a Polish spiritual medium alleged to have produced ectoplasm and moved objects psychokinetically. In 1913, psychical researcher Albert von Schrenck-Notzing investigated her, taking flashlight photographs during séances, and published a book declaring her ectoplasm genuine. However, his experiments faced criticism for poor controls, and he was accused of falling victim to fraud.

What is Ectoplasm in the Paranormal Realm?

Ectoplasm is a type of spiritual energy that can be seen by clairvoyants and mediums in Spiritualism. Ectoplasm is said to be a type of energy that can be seen and felt by people who have the ability to see or sense it.

It wasn’t a new discovery in 1894, and before it was called ectoplasm it was called soul substance, biogen or a manifestation of the perispirit. It is not to be confused by the actual scientific term ectoplasm.

Real Ectoplasm: Ectoplasm is a defined term in science. It’s used to describe the cytoplasm of the one-celled organism, the amoeba, which moves by extruding portions of itself and flowing into space. Ectoplasm is the outer portion of an amoeba’s cytoplasm, while endoplasm is the inner portion of the cytoplasm. Ectoplasm is a clear gel that helps the “foot” or pseudopodium of an amoeba change direction. Ectoplasm changes according to the acidity or alkalinity of the fluid. The endoplasm is more watery and contains most of the cell’s structures.

Some people see ectoplasm as a type of mist or a kind of energy that surrounds living beings. This mist or energy is said to appear in the form of a white, wispy substance, often light colored and can only be seen in the darkened atmosphere a seance brings. It has been said that ectoplasm can appear in many different ways, including as a solid, liquid, or gas.

What are the Different Purposes of Ectoplasm?

Ectoplasm is a term used to describe a medium’s or spiritist’s substance which is supposedly seen. Ectoplasm is said to be formed by physical mediums when in a trance state. People who have had a spiritist experience may have seen a ghostly image with a white substance. This substance is said to be the medium’s or spiritist’s “ectoplasm” or “spirit substance.” 

Early Seances Before the Ectoplasm Craze: Materialization is a term used by psychical researchers to describe a phenomenon that emerged in séances during the 1870s. It refers to the appearance of spirit presences as objects or bodies, as well as sensations like touches on the cheek or hands, slaps, caresses, or breezes suggesting something is passing by.

This substance is said to have the ability to move, fly, and even change shape. Often said to start out as clear before darkening when the psychic energy becomes stronger. It is also sometimes said to have had a strong odor.

Within Spiritualism and seances, levitation is a common trope said to happen to some. Many say that the levitation of material objects comes from a gradual buildup of ectoplasm under the objects. 

What is the Difference Between Ectoplasm fluids and forms?

In the early 1900s, ectoplasm was seen as a physical manifestation of the spirit itself. It is believed that spirits would leave a body and move into ectoplasm, which was seen in the form of a white cloud, slimy and soft tissue or other forms. 

The Edge of the Unknown (1930): Conan Doyle described ectoplasm as “a viscous, gelatinous substance which appeared to differ from every known form of matter in that it could solidify and be used for material purposes” Doyle suggested that ectoplasm often functioned as a more sensitive body part, noting that if it was “seized or pinched […] the medium cried aloud”

There was also teleplasm, referring to ectoplasm acting separate from the medium’s body. Ideoplasm is when the ectoplasm molds itself into another person.  

Where did the Idea of Ectoplasma come from?

But where did this idea come from? You can often draw a line of medium using ectoplasm in their seances after the idea of an ‘ectenic force’ came along. This was an early psychical researcher who tried to seek a physical explanation for psychokinesis and Table Turning. 

Absurd as it seemed, ectoplasm looked like it could change the understanding of science. Dr. Gustave Geley, a French doctor and researcher, saw this paranormal phenomenon as proof of new human abilities and thought it could bring a major shift in scientific thinking.

Mystery of the Female Anatomy and the Sexualisation of Ghosts: On some level, the medium performs a type of striptease for a crowd that likes to watch. A complete examination of the medium had been performed before it commenced. This was the case of Eva Carrière (pictured) as well. How did they believe cloth came out of people’s bodies, especially women’s? A classic trick was it came from their vagina. At that time, female anatomy was an even greater mystery. Even Sigmund Freud, despite his analytical tools, could not penetrate the “dark continent” of female sexuality by 1926. Thus, it is unsurprising that male researchers viewed ectoplasm—a tangible and often gynecological externalization of the spirit world—as a substance promising to revolutionize science.

Throughout the years, notable scientists experimented and researched this phenomenon. Although most of the research was to find out if the medium was a fraud or not. Even though people were starting to leave the ectoplasm thing in the past as a hoax, it had dire consequences for some of the mediums claiming they were real. 

Helen Duncan and Britain’s Last Witch

Although a visually strong thing during seances, not every medium used it. One who did however, was Helen Duncan. Today, she is perhaps best known for her trial in 1944, were she became the last woman convicted and imprisoned under Great Britain’s Witchcraft Act of 1735.

Helen Duncan was born in Scotland in 1898 and in 1926 Duncan claimed to have developed her mediumistic powers. She was around 29 years old at the time. But long before that she had scared her fellow pupils at with her dire prophecies and hysterical behavior. eventually, Duncan claimed to be able to produced fully-formed physical materialization of spirits by emitting them as ectoplasm through her mouth.

Photographs revealing the fraud mediumship of Helen Duncan. Malcolm Gaskill revealed in his book Hellish Nell: Last of Britain’s Witches (Fourth Estate, 2001) that the photographs were taken by the photographer Harvey Metcalfe in 1928 during a séance at Duncan’s house.

Pictures taken of her seances, showed the reality behind her papier-mâché dolls and slimy cloths that something strange was going on, but not the paranormal one. Things really got worse for Duncan after she was investigated by the famed paranormal investigator Harry Price in 1931.   

Cheesecloth of Helen Duncan taken by Harry Price

During the sitting in Edinburgh one of the participants grabbed the supposed spirit and discovered it was made from fabric. The police were called and Duncan was arrested for fraud.

Her 1933 conviction followed a séance in which she allegedly made contact with a dead sailor, before the loss of his ship was public knowledge. This supposed clairvoyance was perceived as a breach of wartime security. Duncan’s trial for fraudulent witchcraft was followed closely by the public, even in London in the midst of the war. Duncan was imprisoned for nine months after being found guilty.

On her release in 1945, Duncan promised to stop conducting séances, but she was arrested during another one in 1956. She died shortly after this, some of her followers spreading rumors about it being because of the ectoplasma. Truth was that she had been in bad health for years. She fought against her verdict until her death.

Keeping her Electoplasma: Although exposed, her electoplasma from a séance in 1939 is preserved at the University Library in Cambridge. Inside was a folded heap of yellowing dressmakers’ lining material, about four yards cut straight from the bolt with no hems. It had been washed and ironed, but creases from being crumpled remained, indicating it had been tightly wadded. Traces of old blood were still visible.

What Really Was Ectoplasma?

Although a popular fad at the time, now many paranormal researchers, mediums and other ghost interested people take much notice and talk about ectoplasma anymore. The substance has also been proven many times to be nothing more than a fraud. 

Because ectoplasm was believed susceptible to destruction by light, the possibility that ectoplasm might appear became a reason for making sure that Victorian séances took place in near darkness. Poor lighting conditions also became an opportunity for fraud, particularly as faux ectoplasm was easy to make with a mixture of soap, gelatin and egg white, or perhaps merely well-placed muslin.
– John Ryan Haule

Most often it was some sort of textile products like cloths, gauze with potato starch. Sometimes it was paper, sometimes it was egg white or butter muslin. The mediums used a method of swallowing and spewing out the cloth during the seance. 

Male Mediums: Although an overwhelming number of female mediums topping the list with ectoplasm, men also dabbled. Einer Nielsen (1894–1965) was a Danish physical medium and spiritualist and claimed to use ectoplasm.

This was the case with Eva Carrière who was a medium known for making fake ectoplasm from chewing paper and cutting out faces from magazines and newspapers. Danish medium Einer Nielsen was investigated by a committee from the Kristiania University in Norway in 1922 and it was also caught hiding ectoplasm in his rectum. Nielsen continued to work as a medium until his death but was never considered credible again by people outside his small circle of influence.

Famous Medium, Mina Crandon produced a small ectoplasmic hand from her stomach which waved about in the darkness. Her career ended, however, when biologists examined the hand and found it to be made of a piece of carved animal liver

The Future of Ectoplasm

Is the use of ectoplasm really dead, or has it merely evolved into a form that is less recognized today? In the past, ectoplasm was often associated with spiritualism and paranormal phenomena, particularly during the late 19th and early 20th centuries when mediums would claim to produce this mysterious substance as a manifestation of spiritual energy. As we delve deeper into the realms of science and technology, one might wonder whether ectoplasm has become an obsolete concept, overshadowed by modern understandings of the universe.

There are however cases of paranormal investigation where people insist on seeing different residues, often explained as a slimy and gooey substance.

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References:

Ectoplasm | Spiritualism, Mediums & Seances | Britannica

Bawdy Technologies and the Birth of Ectoplasm | Genders 1998-2013 | University of Colorado Boulder

Ectoplasm and the Last British Woman Tried for Witchcraft – JSTOR Daily

https://www.eframserashriar.com/post/a-brief-history-of-ectoplasm

https://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/12/warner.php

Ghost Bluster: Arthur Conan Doyle and his wacky ectoplasm – The Bowery Boys: New York City History 

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The Haunted Ocean Beach in San Francisco: The Ruins of Sutro Bath and Mysterious Cliff House

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Could the entire Ocean Beach in San Francisco be haunted? And could the haunting come from all the mysterious and tragic occurrences around Cliff House and the now ruins of the once grand Sutro Bath? Could the very foundations, even the caves underneath be cursed? 

San Francisco’s Ocean Beach may be a peaceful escape for visitors, but beneath the tranquil waves and scenic cliffs lies a darker story that covers everything from mystical ghostly woman on the shore, occult artifacts and curses, satanic rituals and monsters hidden abandoned caves. 

Read More: Check out all ghosts stories from USA

From the iconic Cliff House built upon and damaged by the many wrecked ships to the eerie ruins of the Sutro Baths, this coastal stretch is woven with tragic history, ghostly apparitions, and a deep-seated curse that seems to haunt every crumbling stone. 

The Haunted Beginnings of the Cliff House

Overlooking the entire Ocean Beach is The Cliff House, which had originally been built by Samuel Brannan, an ex-Mormon from Maine in 1858 using materials salvaged from a shipwreck. In 1883, the Cliff House was bought by the engineer and developer, Adolph Sutro, who would be the one to develop the whole area of land we see today and where the mystery started. 

The Parallel, a schooner heading into the bay loaded with 40 tons of dynamite and black gunpowder, tragically crashed against the rocky shore. The explosion of the boat was heard across the whole bay and it destroyed the entire north wing of the house. It was not the only ship wrecked there and the ships of The King Philip, SS Ohioan, & SS City of Rio De Janeiro, all met their end on this craggy cliff.

This fueled rumors that the cliffs were cursed by the spirits of those who had met their end there. Some say that they see the ship of the Parallel heading for the rocks before vanishing into thin air right before impact. The victims of the other shipwrecks are also said to wander the rocks on the cliffs below.

In 1896, Adolph Sutro rebuilt the Cliff House from the ground up as a seven-story Victorian chateau, called by some “the Gingerbread Palace”.

The Cliff House would go on to survive a series of devastating events. On Christmas Day in 1894, a fire from the chimney ravaged the structure, only for it to be rebuilt in 1900, only to fall to flames again in 1906 and 1907 — both during times of tragedy and chaos in the city. Could the series of disasters be linked to the haunting curse? Many locals think so.

Today it-s a restaurant with a full view over the sea. Still, many claim that spirits are still trapped around the house.  

The Curse Deepens: The Sutro Baths and its Tragic Legacy

In 1894, Adolph Sutro built the Sutro Baths, a grand swimming complex perched along the edge of the ocean. The eccentric millionaire and former mayor wanted to build the largest indoor swimming area in the world. Though it stood as a marvel of the time with seven pools and could house 10 000 people, it also became a site of haunting tales. 

After Sutro died in 1898, the bathhouse started to struggle. The Great Depression took away its guests, and stricter health codes made it harder to run a public bathhouse. They tried to turn it into an ice skating rink, but this also struggled financially. 

In 1887 when the schooner Parallel hit Cliff House next door, it exploded and demolished part of the house as well as the baths. In 1966 they had decided to turn the building into high rise buildings, but on the first day of construction, a new fire erupted, demolishing the remains of the bath and they abandoned the plans of building. It was found that the cause of the fire was arson.

By the early 20th century, reports of strange occurrences and ghost sightings around the Sutro Baths were common. These ruins — now a quiet monument to decay — are rumored to have seen unspeakable acts within their walls, including ritualistic human sacrifices. Even now, visitors report strange occurrences in the area: sudden cold spots, shadowy figures emerging from the ruins, and a sense of being watched by unseen eyes.

The Ghosts of Ocean Beach

As if the curse of the Cliff House and Sutro Baths weren’t enough, the Ocean Beach area itself is teeming with spectral inhabitants, even when the bathhouse was still in operation. According to them, there was just something that was a little off about the place. 

Over the years, visitors have reported seeing ghostly women wandering along the beach — some dressed in flowing Victorian-style gowns, others carrying parasol umbrellas, as though they are lost from another time.

Among the most famous spirits is Natalie Salina Harrison, a woman whose tragic love story haunts the cliffs. Natalie’s fiancé, a soldier in World War I named Sean Eric Anderson, was lost in battle, and she is said to have waited for his return along the cliffs for decades. In the end, she was petrified to stone and made into a statue, and she is still standing there. It is believed that Natalie’s ghost still haunts the shoreline, waiting for the man she loved, her form sometimes spotted wandering by the ocean with a look of eternal longing in her eyes. There are also those claiming she is luring men down to the rocky shores, and that any men have vanished after trying to follow her. 

Read Also: Check out The Siren Ghost of San Francisco’s Baker Beach where a similar story about the ghost of a woman is haunting the beach. 

But it isn’t just women who haunt Ocean Beach. The spirit of Frank Denvin, a 16 year old boy who tragically fell from a ladder head first into an empty cement tank and died in 1896, has also been seen along the cliffs, his shadowy figure still visible near the site of his untimely death. Over the years, workers and visitors have reported hearing the sound of his footsteps echoing across the beach at night, but when they turn to look, he is gone.

There is also the former lifeguard Theodosius who is said to have drowned as he was trying to save someone in the ocean, his shadow appearing in the bath and on the beach. 

What Makes Sutro Bath and Ocean Beach Haunted?

What is it about the place that has fueled the haunted rumors? What could be the cause of it? Some point to the eccentric founder of Sutro Bath to be the cause. Adolph Sutro brought strange things back to the place it is said, either with a sacred or occult story behind them. Some believe that these artifacts have affected the spiritual energy of the place. He had among other things an extensive taxidermy collection, a 3500 year old mummified head and two Egyptian mummies. 

A lot of information about Sutro’s mummy collections disappeared in the 1906 San Fran earthquake, but there are still his collections displayed in the city. 

One of the mummies is called Nes-Per-N-Nub, a mummy whose rare, triple nesting sarcophagi indicates a former great import, as the doorkeeper in the temple of Amun. He dates from between 945 and 783 BCE He was once a high priest of the Temple of Karnak. The mummy  is thought to come from Thebes who died from natural causes. 

The second, unnamed mummy is a female who is often referred to as The Yellow Mummy due to her sarcophagus’ brilliant color, and is remarkable for having extra sets of bones within the folds of her wrappings

The Haunted Cemetery and Satanism

Some say that it’s the very ground Sutro Bath is built on that is haunted. The surrounding land used to be the Golden Gate Cemetery where hundreds of bodies were buried. In the 1930s, 18,000 bodies were supposed to be moved to Colma, but the job was not done properly. In 1993, hundreds of bodies were found in unmarked graves around the area of Ocean Beach. 

There is also a cave system under the Sutro Baths that has drawn attention because of its occult connections. The tunnel that once funneled seawater into the baths is another site where paranormal activity is frequently reported. The dark, narrow passageways echo with strange whispers, and some claim to feel unseen hands brushing against them in the deep silence. For those brave enough to explore, the curse of the Sutro Baths seems to reach out from the shadows, eager to claim another soul.

The caves were dug out when constructing the bath. Some claim that a monster is living there, and some say that they have seen strange claw marks inside of the tunnels.

Many people are said to have been sacrificed at the end of the tunnel. If you go in at night and light a candle, the spirits will come and take it from you, throwing it into the dark water. 

It is also in close proximity from where Anton LaVey founded the Satanic Temple. A lot of nearby buildings and places have been seen in connection to the Satanic Temple as the religion was in large portions formed there. This is also the case with The Westerfeld House in the city.  In 1966 he told the S.F Examiner: 

“Ah, the happy hours I spent looking for ghosts in there. So I went out and put a curse on the place. It burned down 35 hours later, which is pretty unusual. It usually takes 36 hours for a curse to work, you know.”

Local lore suggests that the curse may never be lifted. Every year, as the winds howl off the Pacific, the restless spirits of the beach stir once more, seeking revenge for their untimely deaths and the misfortunes they endured in life. Perhaps the Cliff House is fated to burn again, as the curse of Ocean Beach continues to claim its toll.

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References:

The Haunted History of San Francisco’s Sutro Baths 

Raves, Satanic rituals and a journey into the 130-year-old tunnel at San Francisco’s spooky Sutro Baths

https://paranormalghostsociety.org/SutroBaths.htm

https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SFC18960709.2.108&e=——-en–20–1–txt-txIN——–

The Sutro Egyptian Collection – Atlas Obscura

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The Adze: Bloodthirsty Firefly of Ewe Folklore

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Without any cure and without knowing, the vampiric Adze entity can shapeshift as a Firefly and suck the blood and life force, they are also said to have demonic abilities to possess their targets.  

In the dense tropical nights of Togo, Ghana, and Benin, when the air grows thick and the hum of insects rises like a restless chant, ancient stories whisper of a creature more sinister than any ordinary predator. Known as the Adze, this vampiric spirit from Ewe folklore is said to lurk in the shadows — taking the form of a harmless firefly by night, only to slip through cracks and keyholes, draining the life of the sleeping.

Beneath its flickering glow lies something far more sinister than superstition — a terrifying legend deeply rooted in the Ewe people’s culture, fears, and unexplainable tragedies of West Africa.

A Firefly with a Hunger for Blood

By day, the Adze is nowhere to be found, but by night it takes the form of a firefly, flitting silently through the darkness. The Adze is particularly known for residing in baobab trees, which are considered sacred in Ewe culture and hold significant spiritual importance. Unlike ordinary insects, the Adze seeks out homes, slipping through the tiniest of openings: a cracked window, a gap beneath a door, or the invisible seams of a thatched roof.

Once inside, it descends upon the sleeping, silently feeding on their blood especially from children. Victims would grow pale and feverish, their strength ebbing away, sometimes slipping into death with no visible wound to explain their decline. Entire households might fall ill, fueling whispers of witchcraft and unseen forces at work.

Ewe People: There is no record of when the stories of the Adze first began. Archaeological evidence shows that the Ewe people settled the coast of West Africa, in the tropical region of what is now Ghana and Togo, around the 13th century.  Traditional Ewa dancers perform the Bobobo dance at the Hotel Campement de Kloto in the Forêt de Missahohe at Kouma-Konda village near Kpalimé, Togo. //Source: Bobobo Dance

Possession and Witchcraft

But the Adze’s terror does not end with its nocturnal feedings. Although known for it’s vampiric traits, it doesn’t stop there. If caught, the creature is said to transform into its human form — and worse still, it can possess the living like some sort of demon. Those possessed by an Adze, whether man or woman, are viewed by the community as witches, known locally as abasom.

Vodun Religion: Ewe people were exposed to the teachings of missionaries, they did not cast away their traditional religion of Vodun—which means “spirit” in Ewe and is the source of the various Vodou or Voodoo traditions in the Americas—for Christianity. Instead, they loosely combined the two. This is perhaps why adze started to resemble demons and the devil.

It was believed that an Adze’s influence spread misfortune and sickness among the victim’s family or neighbors. Suspicion of Adze possession traditionally fell upon those viewed as outsiders or threats:

Women with brothers whose children thrived while theirs sickened, are jealous on her husband’s other wives or are infertile. In general, women are thought to be possessed by adze much more than men are. Elderly villagers who inexplicably outlived the young. The poor and envious, suspected of seeking revenge on the prosperous through dark spiritual means.

A Reflection of Real Dangers

Folklorists have long speculated that tales of the Adze may have emerged as an attempt to explain the deadly effects of malaria, a disease spread by mosquitoes in the same regions where belief in the Adze is strongest. The Ewe people have long felt powerless against the disease. Like the legendary creature, mosquitoes slip unnoticed into homes at night, leaving their victims ill and weak without apparent cause.

Yet the Adze is more than an allegory. For generations, its legend served as a way to make sense of death, illness, and envy in tightly woven communities, where unexplained tragedy demanded a face — and the Adze, with its shifting form and vampiric hunger, provided one.

No Defense, No Escape

Perhaps most chilling of all is the belief that there is no defense against an Adze. Neither amulet nor spell, no sacred rite nor healer’s blessing, could prevent its entry or spare the marked victim. A silent predator, it moves between worlds — from insect to human, from spirit to possession — and once it has claimed a victim, death or ruin soon follows.

Some say you can free someone from possession though, like forcing the adze out from the host, or after Christianity entered, through prayer. 

Even today, in rural villages and among elders who remember the old stories, the flicker of a lone firefly on a humid night can still stir unease. Is it merely a harmless insect… or a centuries-old vampire in search of blood?

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References:

In West Africa, the Adze Is an Insectoid Source of Misfortune – Atlas Obscura

Adze (folklore) – Wikipedia

Adze – Deyerin Storytellers 

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The Ghost of the Quarantined at Q Station in Sydney

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At the old North Head Quarantine Station in Sydney, it is said that the ghosts of the quarantined still linger. Over 50 ghosts are said to roam the Q Station, claiming to be one of Australia’s most haunted places. 

The golden stretch of Manly Beach, in the northern suburbs of Sydney, is a sun-soaked paradise where surfers carve through crashing waves and families gather to bask in the warmth of the Australian coast. But just beyond its inviting shoreline lies a place steeped in death, sorrow, and lingering spirits — a site whose tragic past bleeds into the very air around it.

Read More: Check out all ghost stories from Australia

Perched on the headlands near Manly sits the notorious Q Station, formerly known as the North Head Quarantine Station, one of the most haunted locations in all of Australia. Today it’s a museum of the past and things like clothes, luggage and other personal belongings are left with their tombstones. And if we are to believe the legends, so are the ghosts of those who never left as well. 

Q Station: Hospital, Boiler House and Wharf at the old Quarantine Station, with humpback whales passing by. The building complex by the beach is said to be haunted by many ghosts. // Source

A Grim Chapter in Australia’s History

From the 1830s to 1984, the North Head Quarantine Station served as a detention and treatment site for immigrants suspected of carrying deadly diseases. Before the Europeans came it belonged to the Carrang Gel Aboriginal people and it was an important ceremonial and teaching place. The place’s legacy would soon change as the arrival of new ships often meant outbreaks of smallpox, the Spanish flu, scarlet fever, and the bubonic plague — afflictions that would claim the lives of over 500 souls within the station’s gates.

Arriving at the Q Station: The Sydney Ferry Kookooburra at Manly Quarantine Station 1930. These people will be passengers from a liner which, inbound, has reported carrying some contagious disease and needed to be quarantined.

The isolation and strategic role of North Head was recognized in 1828 when the first vessel, the Bussorah Merchant, was quarantined at Spring Cove. Governor Darling’s Quarantine Act of 1832, set aside the whole of North Head for quarantine purposes in response to the 1829–51 cholera pandemic in Europe.

Read More: Check out the stories of Isla de Pedrosa – the Haunted Island and Poveglia Island — The Most Haunted Place in the World for more stories about haunted quarantine stations.

In an era before modern medicine, treatment was crude, and survival was rare for the most ill. Victims were separated from their families, stripped of their possessions, and subjected to invasive carbolic acid showers designed to “disinfect” them. They had to stay symptom free for 40 days before being let out. It is said that the cries of the dying and the hopeless murmurs of those quarantined still linger in the salt-heavy air around Manly Beach.

Bildetekst: Quarantine Carvings: One of the most historic features of the quarantine station is the series of engravings along the escarpment adjacent to the jetty. The carvings were executed by people staying at the quarantine station, and cover an extensive period that stretched from the early nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century. Some were executed by stonemasons and sculptors and show a high degree of skill.

The Haunting of the 1st Class Shower Block

Among the Q Station’s most infamous hotspots is the 1st Class Shower Block, a place once reserved for passengers wealthy enough to afford better quarters on incoming ships — but death did not discriminate. Here, those showing symptoms would be ordered to strip and doused with scalding carbolic acid, a brutal attempt to eradicate infection. The showers contained 10 percent of carbonic acid, and although it took all the fleas and ticks, it also took off a layer of your skin. There are however no records of people having died in this block. 

Shower Block: Picture from 1919 showing the 3rd class shower block

Today, visitors on night ghost tours report hearing disembodied whispers asking, “Why are you here?” and feeling unseen hands shove them, even when standing alone. The room is heavy with a stifling, oppressive atmosphere, as though the anguish of those tortured in life still clings to the damp stone walls. Some people report about someone peering over the top pf the shower cubicles.

In the Shower Block there have also been reports of a man wearing a fedora and a woman wearing a bloody gown. There is also said to be a little girl appearing. It is said that the little girl looks to be around six years old and you can hear her complaining and doesn’t want to go under the acid shower. 

The Shower Room: A couple on a ghost tour took this image inside the 1st class shower block. A man wearing a fedora hat can be seen at the end of the corridor with a small child, even though the room was empty at the time. This image probably help popularize the story of the ghosts haunting the shower rooms.

Gravedigger’s Cottage

Another place said to be haunted is the Q Station Gravedigger’s Cottage and is left like when it was last lived in and looks like time stopped in the 80s. The building has also been known as the Boatman’s Hut and the Cookhouse and is perhaps one of the earliest structures of the old quarantine station. It is also said to be one of the most haunted. 

It was actually officers or perhaps doctors living in the house, but on both sides were the Quarantine Station’s cemeteries. Some say that the energy in the house comes from the legend of two doctors torturing some of the residents. Some guides talk about two entities named Martin and Samuel that don’t like women at all. It also gets its name because of the man in a black cloak and wide brimmed hat that has been seen in the house many times. Today he is simply known as Sam the gravedigger.

People report a strangling sensation of hands wrapped around your throat, or something pushing your chest or the feeling of being put underwater unable to breathe. According to mediums and paranormal investigators that have been inside the house, this is because the house is haunted by a woman that allegedly was attacked and drowned in the bathtub of the house. 

She is said to be seen crying, sitting crouched in the bathtub. 

The Old Nurses’ Quarters and the Hospital

In the old nurses quarters in the complex, people have reported about a threatening figure cloaked in shadows. Some will go as far and say that it is a demon haunting these quarters. 

Nurses Haunting the Q Station: A nurse is pictured above walking past the 1st class living accommodation as she makes her rounds in 1935. // Source

In the hospital there is also said to be a grieving mother, looking for her child. Allegedly, she arrived with her young child who died of a smallpox outbreak and the mother died shortly afterward. Her ghost is said to wander the corridors, clutching a bundle believed to be her child she was separated with in life. 

In the hospital a Matron is still looking after her ward, and hates when people behave disrespectfully. There are as with many hospitals, many spirits of the ghosts of the nurses wandering the halls. 

The names of Elizabeth McGregor who had served in the first world war and Nurse Annie Egan who lost their life to the Spanish Flu when they were working as nurses have been known to appear at their old place of work. Nurse Annie Egan was actually a 27 year old Catholic, and when she died she had pleaded to be allowed a priest to give her last rites as well as the other Catholics. Her wishes were denied though as they feared the priest would spread the flu when he left. She died December 3rd in 1918. 

Child Spirits of the Quarantine Station

Of all the tragic tales to emerge from the Q Station, none are as sorrowful as those of the children who died within its confines. Roughly 20 child spirits are said to roam the grounds, their ghostly presences felt most strongly during the quiet hours of night.

The most well-known of these is Isaac Lowes, a young boy who succumbed to scarlet fever on August 24th in 1878. Isaac’s spirit has been witnessed by numerous guests, often spotted in the corners of rooms or darting behind old furnishings. He is sometimes accompanied by Mary-Anne, a little girl known to grasp the hands of visitors during ghost tours, her cold, phantom touch sending shivers through the living.

The Ghost of Mr. Slimey and Other Ghosts at Q Station

There are many vague and mysterious hauntings said to happen at Q Station, but some are very specific. It is said that the ghost of a flirtatious mortician they today call Mr. Slimey, can get quite handsy with the visitors. He is reportedly a very well dressed man with a top hat. 

There is also said to be a sweet Chinese man said to be a fisherman they now call Mr Chen. He often roams around the 3rd class living quarters that used to take up to 60 people in one room. 

There is also said to be a disfigured man, an angry guard and other ghosts haunting the premise.  A ghost of what the guides now only call Red keeps watch over the showers, watching out for any diseases after dying of scarlet fever himself. But there are certainly many more said to haunt the grounds.

Q Station Turned Supernatural Landmark

Today, the Q Station has been transformed into a resort and restaurant, offering scenic views and seaside hospitality known as Q Station by the beach. But beneath its manicured grounds and polished dining rooms lies a history of unrelenting suffering. Ghost tours continue to this day, luring the curious and the brave into encounters with Manly Beach’s haunted past.

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References:

‘This place is pure evil’: Are you brave enough to enter Sydney’s most haunted bathroom?

Haunted Sydney Quarantine Station Ghosts – Adelaide’s Haunted Horizons

Inside Australia’s most haunted hotel Quarantine Station | Daily Mail Online

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The Ghostly Clergyman of Bubendorf: A Restless Spirit at the Rectory

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The spirit of a former priest was said to haunt his rectory in Bubendorf, outside of Basel in Switzerland. Question remaining, is his spirit still lingering inside of the centuries old walls?

In the Basel countryside, nestled between rolling hills and quiet woods, lies the village of Bubendorf, a picturesque place where time seems to slow. It is also said to be a haunted place. It has been in this village for over 500 years and doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. 

Read more: Check out all ghost stories from Switzerland

But behind the tranquil façades of this historic community lurks one of the most notorious and best-documented ghost stories in the region — that of the haunted rectory at Hauptstrasse 62 and its unsettling resident: the spirit of Pastor Wilhelm Strübin.

Haunted Rectory: Evangelisch-reformiertes Pfarrhaus in Bubendorf.

The Pastor Who Loved His Fields More Than His Flock

Wilhelm Strübin, who passed away in 1795, served as the local clergyman in Bubendorf for many years. However, he was not remembered fondly by his congregation. By all accounts, Strübin had a greater passion for his fields and agricultural affairs than for the spiritual well-being of his parishioners. Complaints mounted over his growing neglect and indifference, eventually leading the church authorities to appoint an assistant to share his duties — a quiet but public humiliation for the wayward priest.

His worldly attachments, so tightly clung to in life, would apparently prevent him from finding rest in death. It’s said of one of the Strübins that he was so stingy during his lifetime that he paid more attention to his horse than to his flock. He even brought his horse to his deathbed. Legend has it that you can now hear him leading it up the stairs as a ghost.

A Rectory Besieged by Restless Spirits

After Strübin’s passing, the once quiet rectory gained a grim reputation. Strange disturbances plagued the house, and the ominous activity only seemed to intensify over time. The most unsettling and well-documented reports come from the Schölly family, who resided in the rectory from 1884 to 1926.

The wife of the parish priest, Clara Schölly-Werdenberg, kept a diary that would become a chilling record of nightly torments. She described with unsettling precision the strange phenomena that disrupted their home:

“Often at night, we would hear footsteps on the stairs, then the sound of an object rolling down the stairs. Then we were often awakened by knocking on our bedroom door, often several times in one night.”

It is said that she often laid in bed when she heard the ghosts rumbling around in their house. She prayed with them until they went away. Her daughter also supposedly saw the ghosts haunting their home. One day she was taking the laundry outside, her daughter said: “Look, someone is helping!” No one else was with them at the time.

On one particularly unnerving evening, Clara recounts lighting a nightlight to calm her nerves. But the spirit would not be deterred.

“The first night, I was awakened by a bump, and lo and behold, the nightlight was extinguished and a box of matches was ablaze next to my pillow.”

The implication was clear: something — or someone — did not appreciate the attempt to pierce the darkness.

The Tithe Books and the Waning of the Haunting

As the disturbances wore on, the family sought answers. Eventually, during renovations and a thorough cleaning of the aging building, a secret compartment was discovered within the rectory walls. Inside lay Pastor Strübin’s old tithe books — meticulously kept records of agricultural dues and parish contributions, a lasting testament to the man’s material obsessions.

These dusty ledgers, so long hidden away, were removed from the house. And with their removal, so too did the worst of the haunting reportedly begin to subside.

Whether it was the spirit of Strübin, unwilling to part with his earthly possessions, or a more symbolic unburdening of the house’s troubled past, locals to this day believe that the discovery of those tithe books marked a turning point in the rectory’s haunted history.

The Restless Past Still Echoes

Those who have lived in the alleged haunted house like Josef Handschin and Christoph Monsch had said that they never experienced something spooky. Although the people living before Monsch, claimed that it was. The Pastor Rolf Schlatter who has office in the old rectory also claim to have heard strange noises around midnight. 

Bubendorf. // Source: Roland Zumbuehl/Wikimedia

Though quieter now, the Bubendorf rectory remains a place of whispered unease. The haunted story is remembered particularly through Fanny Moser’s book: Ghosts: False Belief or True Belief from 1950 with a foreword by Jung. Visitors have claimed to hear faint footsteps on the old staircases, and locals swear that on certain mist-shrouded nights, a shadowy figure can be glimpsed standing by the house, gazing longingly out over the fields.

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References:

Von Geistern, die durch Fluchen verschwinden | Basler Zeitung

Huhuuuh! – Sieben Spukhäuser in der Region | TagesWoche

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Brighton Beach, Adelaide and the Ghost of Kitty Whyte

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Is the first person who died after a shark attack in Australia haunting Brighton Beach in Adelaide, South Australia. Ever since, people claim to have seen the ghost of Kitty Whyte on the jetty and beach she jumped out into the ocean from. 

The sun-bleached sands of Brighton Beach in South Australia shimmer with serenity, a popular escape where locals and tourists alike stroll the shoreline, fish from the jetty, and bask in Adelaide’s coastal charm. But beneath its breezy, postcard-perfect surface, this beach harbors a haunting that’s whispered about by generations of beachgoers.

Read More: Check out all ghost stories from Australia

If you find yourself near the Brighton Jetty at dusk, keep your eyes on the water — for it’s said that a spectral woman appears, diving gracefully from the pier into the waves in vintage swimming clothes. She vanishes before she ever resurfaces. This eerie apparition is believed to be none other than Kitty Whyte, whose tragic and untimely death left a ghostly imprint on the beach she so loved.

Flickr/Ardash Muradian

The Legend of Kitty Whyte

Kathleen ‘Kitty’ Whyte wasn’t just any swimmer. In the early 20th century, she was a local heroine, renowned for her skills in the water and her commitment to teaching swimming to Adelaide’s youth. She was even awarded the Grand Diploma of the Royal Life Saving Society for rescuing a drowning woman.

But fate had a cruel plan for Kitty. In 1926, after concluding a lesson with local children, she decided to take a solitary swim in the very waters she knew so well. Whyte was visiting Brighton from Yadlamalka Station near Port Augusta in South Australia’s north for her annual summer holiday. She was 35 years old and didn’t know it would be her last swim. Kitty Whyte became the first person in South Australian history to be killed by a shark as her two children had to watch the whole thing on the jetty. 

It was a 3.5 m long shark and although her body was pulled out from the water, she did die in the hospital because of it. Her death sent shockwaves through the community. The horror of the attack, so sudden and violent, marked Brighton Beach indelibly. And according to local lore, Kitty never truly left.

A Ghost on an Eternal Loop

Paranormal experts, including Allen Tiller, author of Haunted Adelaide, believe that Kitty’s spirit lingers as a residual ghost — a spectral imprint left behind by the trauma of her passing.

“A residual ghost is like a video recording on loop,” Tiller explained in an interview. “What people are seeing on the beach is how she would have been remembered.”

Witnesses have described seeing a young blonde woman in antiquated clothing sprinting along the shore or diving gracefully from the jetty. Yet, when approached, the figure vanishes without a trace. What makes these sightings all the more chilling is the uncanny way her appearance never seems to fit the modern era — her garments, her hairstyle, and her very presence belong to a different time.

Chilling Encounters at Brighton Beach

Sightings of Kitty’s ghost aren’t rare, and stories have circulated for decades. One particularly eerie account tells of two young men walking along the beach at twilight, startled by the sight of a woman running toward them in the sand, her clothes out of place for the time. Before they could react, she disappeared into the gathering dusk.

Fishermen and night swimmers alike have reported feeling an unexplained presence near the jetty, and lifeguards have claimed to hear the faint splash of a dive with no one else in sight.

While most encounters are benign, there’s an unshakable sense of melancholy attached to them — as though Kitty is still drawn to the waters, repeating her final moments in a ceaseless loop.

A Memorial and a Mystery

In honor of her bravery and life, a water fountain and statue stand near Brighton Beach, a quiet tribute to the woman whose story is etched into the community’s history. But even these memorials haven’t put Kitty’s restless spirit to ease.

Memorial: The sculpture commemorates the life of Kathleen (Kitty) Whyte and her contribution to the local community. Source

Today, the beach remains a popular gathering place — but those who know the legend advise a cautious glance toward the sea at twilight. And if you happen to glimpse a lone figure diving into the waves, never to surface, you might just have caught a fleeting moment of a century-old tragedy still replaying itself.

So the next time you walk along Brighton Beach, especially near the jetty as evening falls, listen to the soft hush of the waves. You might just hear the ghost of a dive, a splash… and silence.

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References:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9081041/Australias-haunted-beaches-reveal-ghosts-murdered-swimmers-headless-men-haunt-locals.html

Here Are Australia’s Haunted Beaches If You Want Some Terror With Your Chill Time 

Kitty Whyte’s death by shark attack in 1926 at Adelaide’s Brighton the first since 19th Century in South Australia 

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Abere: The Marsh Demoness of Melanesia

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Waiting in the swamps of the Melanesian Islands in the Pacific Ocean, the cannibalistic Abere demon lures men to their death by posing as a seductive woman. 

Across the scattered islands and lush, humid marshlands of Melanesia, ancient legends tell of creatures both beautiful and unspeakably cruel. Among the most unsettling is the story of Abere, a beguiling demoness who dwells in the swamps and wetlands, preying upon the foolish and the lovestruck. 

To those unfamiliar with her legend, she appears as a wild and stunning woman, but to the elders of Melanesia, she is a flesh eating monster older than memory — a cunning predator who devours those seduced by her beauty.

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The Allure of the Marsh

Abere is said to reside deep within the marshes and stagnant waterways, in places where the reeds grow tall and the mist clings low to the water’s surface. It’s said that the mimia reed grows around her to hide her from her victims.

Melanesia is a region in Oceania, a group of islands in the Pacific Ocean, west of New Guinea to Fiji Islands and include Vanuatu and Solomon Islands as well. Although the Melanesians are a group of people with different cultures, mythologies and languages, they share a long history of cultural exchanges. 

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She is not alone, for countless tales describe her surrounded by a group of young, beautiful female attendants — women who themselves may be victims turned thralls, or spirits bound to Abere’s service.

Those who wander too close to her domain often find themselves inexplicably drawn to the otherworldly beauty of these figures, unaware of the mortal danger awaiting them.

Reeds sprout and twist unnaturally, growing rapidly around the victim until they are trapped, ensnared in a living prison of marsh grass. The more they struggle, the tighter the reeds wind themselves. Once the unfortunate soul is bound and helpless, Abere reveals her monstrous nature — shedding her illusion of beauty and devouring her captive alive.

An Ancient Warning from the Swamps

Like many demoness figures in regional folklore, Abere serves as both a supernatural terror and a cautionary figure. What is she really? A vampire, a particularly vicious mermaid species? Something demonic? In the isolated, waterlogged regions of Melanesia where survival depended upon sharp instincts and respect for nature’s hazards, Abere personified the unseen dangers of straying too far into the unknown.

Melanesian Mythology: A common theme in Melanesian tales is the risk for humans to be eaten alive by non-humans: either ghosts, spirits, or dangerous animals. Mentions of human cannibalism – where humans are eaten by other humans – are much rarer, but they exist in some stories. // source

Whether interpreted as a metaphor for the treacherous marshes themselves or as a caution against reckless desire, her legend endures, whispered by elders to warn children against wandering alone, and to remind them that not all beauty should be trusted.

Though Abere may not be as widely known outside of Melanesia, she remains a potent figure within the folklore of the islands. Her story survives in oral traditions and regional myths, a chilling reminder of the shapeshifting, hungry spirits that populate the world’s forgotten places.

In the modern age, tales of encounters with ghostly women along misty waterways still surface now and then. And for those who walk the marsh paths of Melanesia under the cover of night — there’s always the chance that the rustle in the reeds isn’t the wind, but Abere, waiting.

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References:

Rose, Carol (1998). “A”. Spirits, Fairies, Leprechauns and Goblin. The Abere is a particularly vicious mermaid species. Norton. p. 1. ISBN 978-0-393-31792-3. 

Coulter, Charles Russell; Turner, Patricia (4 July 2013). Encyclopedia of Ancient Deities. Routledge. p. 7. ISBN 978-1-135-96397-2.

ABERE – the Melanesian Demoness (Melanesian mythology)

Melanesian mythology – Wikipedia