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The Evil Eye of Rebgasse: Curses, Shadows, and an Exorcism in Basel

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Kleinbasel neighborhood is perhaps one of the most haunted places in Basel, Switzerland. In an unassuming house at Rebgasse 38, the well known exorcist Johann Jakob von Brunn visited twice to banish the ghosts lingering in it.

In the winding alleys of Kleinbasel, where centuries-old buildings lean toward one another and twilight seems to gather early, there once stood a house that no one in their right mind dared approach. At the house that seemingly was also used as a rectory, a married couple who lived there from 1888 to 1907 reported about ghostly occurrences from previous tenants. It also seems that it was haunted long before they moved in.

Read More: Check out all ghost stories from Switzerland

There are a lot of ghost stories around the Kleinbasel district in Basel. At Rebgasse 38, there were supposedly two ghosts haunting this particular building. First the dead wife of a man who remarried after her death, and a woman named Grethi Beck was said to possess the Evil Eye.

Haus Zur Alten Trotte: The haunted house on Rebgasse 38 in Basel, was said to have had an exorcism twice. // Source: Laloom/Wikimedia

A House the Shadows Would Not Leave

The house at Rebgasse 38, also known as the Haus zur alten Trotte (House of the Old Wine Press) had long been shrouded in ominous whispers. Locals spoke of unseen presences, shadows that moved on their own, and the chilling sound of phantom footsteps when no one else was near.

Some claimed it was the work of the “Grey Man”, a spectral figure of indeterminate origin known to haunt certain homes in Basel and this particular working class district.. 

Read More: The Gray Ghost of Claraplatz: Kleinbasel’s Neighborhood Spirit

Margrethe (Grethi) Beck was said to have been the maid when Pastor Johann Jakob Übelin (1793-1873) lived there. He was a Swiss Protestant theologian , deacon , chronicler , draftsman , botanist and author. He then worked in Basel for 27 years as a deacon for St. Theodor’s Church and, from 1845 to 1867, as a construction clerk. In 1818, Übelin married Margaretha, née Brenner (1798–1840), with whom he had eight children.

It is said that she stole money from the pastor, and when she died, she appeared to him and the later tenants as a ghost. People were convinced that she caused bad things to happen to the people of Kleinbasel. And the way people talk about the case, it looks like it was also when she was alive. There is not much info about how she died, but also in death, she scared her neighbors. She was said to be sitting on the steps on the stairwell, and even though Johann Jakob Übelin got another clergyman to exorcise her, her haunting seemed to persist. 

An Exorcism Against the Darkness

The government and the clergy made every effort to counter the superstition and the stories related to it. On Sundays the priests would issue warnings from the pulpit against fortune-telling and devil worship and would advise people not to believe in them. It is unknown whether the haunting happened when Johann Jakob Übelin still lived in the house, or it was after.

At last, the city turned to its most renowned spiritual defender: Pastor Johann Jakob von Brunn, a cleric famed for his boldness in confronting the supernatural and was supposedly a well known ghost hunter in Basel. He had allegedly faced so-called witches, expelled demons from livestock barns, and purified cursed wells — and now he was summoned to confront the menace at Rebgasse 38.

It’s said that von Brunn entered the home armed with holy water, relics, and an arsenal of ancient prayers, undeterred by the suffocating dread that clung to the walls. It is said he banished the ghost of the former housekeeper to a corner of a room on the first floor of the house. 

And for a time, peace returned to Rebgasse, although the family dog would howl towards the very same corner of the room as if it sensed a presence there. And later tenants would still see her, sitting on the steps of the stairs. 

The Scandal of Johann Jakob Übelin Waking a Ghost

Family Grave: Grave in the Wolfgottesacker Cemetery, Basel. Descendants of Johann Jakob Übelin.

As mentioned, it wasn’t the only ghost said to haunt the house, and the other one, was the dead wife of Johann Jakob Übelin. Margaretha died in childbirth around 1839 and would later come back as a ghost. In November 1845, Johann Jakob Übelin caused a scandal when it came to light that he had an affair with his cook, Henriette Rosine Trautwein. 

Because of this he had to resign his position and married Henriette in 1846 as she was now pregnant. Together, they had a son and he lived out his working life until 1867 as a construction clerk. He died in 1873.

After the whole scandal it was said that the ghost of Margaretha came back to haunt them because of her husband’s infidelity, although she was dead. Who knows when it really started. It was said she haunted the rectory until she too was banished by the ghost hunter Johann Jakob von Brunn. 

A Shadow That Never Quite Faded

Though the hauntings ceased, the house was never truly free of its reputation after the ghost of Grethi Beck and the dead wife of Johann Jakob Übelin. Some claim that, on certain nights, you can still sense a cold, baleful gaze from the upper window, though no one lives there. 

Today, the spot where Rebgasse 38 once stood bears little trace of its haunted history.  At the address that used to belong to the building that used to be haunted there is now a kindergarten listed. But the old stories persist in whispered retellings among local ghostwalk guides, a reminder that in places like Kleinbasel, some shadows leave their mark forever as long as someone remembers.

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References:

Spuk und Geister im alten Basel

Tour Description «Walk of legends» Place 1: Claraplatz and Rebgasse

Johann Jakob Übelin – Wikipedia

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The Ghosts of the Patron Saints of Zurich: Felix, Regula and Exuperantis, Carrying their Heads under their Arms

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There is a ghost legend from Roman times in Zurich. The story of the martyrs and saints Felix, Regula and Exuperantis who rose from their deaths and walked with their heads under their arms, is still an important story for the city. 

Before it became the iconic Swizz city it is today, it once was a Roman outpost as well. Becoming the image of Zurich city, the ghostly tale of Felix, Regula and Exuperantis helped shape the city to become what it is today.

Read More: Check out all ghost stories from Switzerland

One of the earliest ghost stories Zurich has to offer is the story of the three patron saints and what happened after their execution when they rose from the ground where they had been executed. 

The Legendary Theban Legion and The Saints of Zurich

Felix, Regula and Exuperantis fled to Zurich in the third century. Felix and Regula were siblings and members of the Theban legion based in Egypt. It is said they came from Egyptian nobility. Exuperantis was their servant. The legion, also known as the Martyrs of Agaunum, were stationed in the Roman outpost, Agaunum in the Valais in Switzerland. The legion consisting of 6666 med were all Christians led by the holy Mauritius, dying as a martyr around 287. 

The Ten Thousand Martyrs

They were going over the alps to put down a Gallian rebellion on the command from emperor Diokletians. When the legion refused to sacrifice to the Emperor Maximian of the Roman empire, they fled as they started executing every ten men.

They went through Valesia, preaching the gospel. They stayed in a cave in the wilderness for a while as well. The coptic Christians reached Zurich, which then was called Turicum in 286 and stayed with a Christian family. 

They were discovered by a man called Decius who was ordered to hunt the heathens down. First he tortured them, beating them and putting them in boiling oil to turn them. Still, they refused to worship the Roman gods. Then they were beheaded on the location where the Wasserkirche now is. 

The Saints of Zurich: Detail from the former altarpiece of the Chapel of the Twelve Apostles in the Grossmünster in Zurich : Martyrdom of the Zurich city saints Felix and Regula and their servant Exuperantius (right). In the background, the Lindenhof and Uetliberg can be seen from the panorama of the medieval city of Zurich. Condition after restoration and uncovering of the figures in 1937.

Their story was not done however, and after dying, their corpses stood up and picked up their heads on the ground before walking off. A trail of blood followed behind them. They walked around forty paces uphill, all the way to a hill where they prayed before laying down, thinking that this was a better place to be buried. 

Martyrs: The Zurich city saints Felix, Regula, and Exuperantius, as head bearers, offer their severed heads to Christ and are led by him into heaven. Banner: venide benedicti patris mey percibide rengnum 1506

The Truth Behind the Legend of Felix, Regula and Exuperantis’ Death

So what really happened in Roman times? Is this one of the ancient ghost stories? Some experts would even question the foundation of the story at all. 

The story of how they fled and carried their heads to the hill actually came to the monk, Florentius in a dream in the 8th century. In the 9th century there was a small monastery there and the holiness of the place grew over time.. The site where their supposed graves now are is Zurich’s most well known landmark, Grossmünster church that was built from around 1100. The Wasserkirch was built at the site of their execution. 

They have since the 13th century been saints and important for the people in Zurich. But at the dissolution of the monasteries in 1524, their graves were opened. Some claimed that they were already empty except for a few bone fragments. Some say that an Uri man stole the bones to Andermatt where the skulls of Felix and Regula can be seen today. The rest of the remains were sent back to Zurich today in the church dedicated to the saints. 

The Crypt: Crypt of the Wasserkirche in Zurich: Martyr’s Stone on which, according to legend, the city’s saints Felix and Regula and their servant Exuperantius were beheaded; a natural boulder deposited hereby the Linth glacier during the Würm glaciation. //Source: Roland zh/ Wikimedia

The skulls in question have been carbon dated, where one dates to the Middle Ages. The other skull is actually fragments of two different ones. One from the middle ages, and the other could be from Roman times. 

Were they even there? Some say that the Theban legion is fictitious, although some historians still claim that evidence places the legion in Switzerland at that time in history. Still, their feast day is 11th of September in the Gregorian calendar, and the story is still told, that they rose from their death, head in hand. 

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References:

Ghosts haunt Zurich streets – SWI swissinfo.ch

Felix and Regula – Wikipedia

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The Gray Ghost of Claraplatz: Kleinbasel’s Neighborhood Spirit

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Said to haunt several houses around Kleinbasel district in Basel, Switzerland, the terrifying ghost known as The Gray One was roaming the street. Especially in a now demolished house on Claraplatz, two little girls had to endure his persistent haunting. 

At the main square of Kleinbasel, today’s bustling Claraplatz hums with the familiar rhythm of city life. The Clara Quarter is Basel’s smallest district. It is named after the Clara Church and the Claraplatz in front of it, which were part of the former St. Clara Convent.Shoppers, commuters, and café patrons pass by without giving a second thought to what once stood on this very ground that is the long-forgotten Abbess’ Court (Äbtissinnenhof), a stately residence rich in history and mystery, whose stones held secrets and whose shadows moved with a life of their own.

Read More: Check out all ghost stories from Switzerland

Long before it was demolished in 1951, the Abbess’ Court was known for the unsettling presence said to linger within its walls. The house had a ghost, one so persistent and distinct that it earned a name whispered in townhouses and taverns alike: “Der Graue”, The Gray One.

Abbess Court: Image taken in 1934. In 1938, “progressive circles” attempted to sacrifice the impressive Abbess’ Court, to create jobs. Monument preservation and heritage protection agencies were able to temporarily avert the plan for a time. In the spring of 1951, the Abbess’ Court, one of Kleinbasel’s last particularly valuable architectural monuments, was demolished and redeveloped.

A Spirit in Franconian Garb

The most documented hauntings occurred during the 19th century, when the Schetty family took residence within the halls of the Abbess’ Court. The fire engine commander, Joseph Schetty from a wealthy silk-dyer family, moved into the house with his family. And not long after, the Gray One appeared.

The ghost appeared as a somber figure dressed in traditional Franconian costume with a tricorn hat. His most unsettling feature was the braided wig he wore upon his head, a strange, almost theatrical accessory that made his silent materializations all the more unnerving. His elegant buckled shoes moved ghostly around the house, rattling with chains, his voice only miserable moans echoing through the house and the surrounding neighborhood. 

It’s not certain of who this ghost of a man used to be. However, apparently, this house spirit had its roots in the time when Samuel Werenfels gave the Abbess’s Court its baroque appearance in 1748. It also seems that the haunting started way before the Schetty family moved into the house as well. 

The Gray One was a creature of habit and, it seems, of unsettling intent. His favorite haunt was the bedroom of the two young Schetty daughters, where he would appear without warning, standing silently in the dim light, a spectral observer from another age. 

When he appeared to them in their room, staring at them from the corners, the younger sister would try to hide under the covers, as the oldest screamed pious refrains at the ghost, seemingly offending the ghost who would vanish into thin air when he heard it. 

It seemed that the fear he held over the girls slowly subsided. One evening, one of the daughters was sitting in the living room sewing, when a hand was suddenly laid on her shoulder and she said in a stern voice: “Who’s that messing around behind me?”

She knew well that it was the Grey Man. But her fear had turned to anger, and she simply stared at him. This made him disappear, at least for a while.

Rumbles in the Attic from the Gray One

When foul moods overtook him, whether stirred by the behavior of the living or by some ancient grievance now lost to time, The Gray One would retreat to the attic of the house. There, in the dead of night, he made his displeasure known by loud, relentless rumbling that echoed through the house, keeping the Schetty family awake with its strange, otherworldly clatter of chains or moving the furniture around. 

These disturbances became so notorious that even Basel’s typically skeptical townsfolk began to murmur about the restless house spirit on Claraplatz.In the end it was decided that they needed to do something to keep him away. According to the legend, they decided to paint a pentagram on the threshold of the house. But did this truly keep him away?

A Legacy of Hauntings

The legend took an even stranger turn after the death of Joseph Schetty, the patriarch of the household that tried to banish the haunting of his daughters when he was alive. It was said that he, too, became bound to the ancient residence after death. 

According to one enduring tale, a cleaning maid worked in the house some years later after his death. She claimed to have seen Joseph’s ghost seated solemnly in his old study. The room was empty, and yet there he sat as an unquiet shade amid the flickering lamplight.

She continued cleaning the room, not bothering about his ghost, perhaps thinking it was just a visitor in the study. But when she tried to pull the fur out from under his feet to brush it, he threw it at her with an angry look. Evidently, he wanted to be left alone.

The Spirits Beneath Claraplatz

The Haunted Streets: View from Claraplatz into the lower Rebgasse, on the left the junction with Greifengasse, corner house Greifengasse 1 [Biri restaurant], then houses nos. 3 – 17, in the foreground house Claraplatz 1, factory chimneys in Rappoltshof, on the right Aebtische Hof [no. 3]. Many of them are said to have been haunted by The Gray One.

Though the Abbess’ Court was demolished in 1951, the legends did not entirely vanish with its stones. Locals claimed that, for years after the building’s demise, strange phenomena continued to occur in the vicinity: phantom footsteps, inexplicable knocking, and fleeting glimpses of a gray figure moving in reflections or corner shadows, particularly near the old foundations.

Abbess Court Today

Today, Claraplatz bears little resemblance to its ghostly past as the haunted house was demolished and replaced by a modern residential and commercial building. Modern shops and trams now cover the old ground. But for those attuned to such things, the sense of something lingering, a presence beyond reason and time, occasionally seems to cling to the night air.

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References:

Happy Halloween! 🎃 Ein Streifzug durch Basels grusligste Orte — Bajour

Spuk und Geister im alten Basel

Äbtischer Hof am Claraplatz – Basel

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Ghosts of Uetliberg Hill and The Three Beeches by the Manegg Castle Ruins

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A woman scorned by the Manesse family from the ruins of the old Manegg Castle on the hills of Uetliberg in Zurich, she is said to haunt the place she was seduced and ended her life, appearing to passersby on stormy nights. 

From a Swizz perspective, the Uetliberg Hill is perhaps not much of a peak, but it  is Zurich’s very own “mountain”. From the top, visitors can enjoy beautiful views of the city and lake – and perhaps even a glimpse of the Alps. The Uetliberg is particularly popular in November, as its summit is often above the blanket of fog that can cover the city at this time of year. In the winter, the hiking trails to the summit are converted into sledding runs.

Read More: Check out all ghost stories from Switzerland

It is also the location of a ghost story that has haunted these hills for centuries. The story of the ghost of a peasant girl who hanged herself on the Uetliberg hill after being betrayed by the cruel and lustful Duke of Manegg

Manegg Castle and The Manesse Family

Today, the Manegg Castle is just ruins, and even the ruins are starting to disappear. Not much is known about who built the castle, but the first documentation we have of it is from 1303. The Manegg castle square used to be a much visited place with a great view over the town, lake and mountain. 

Manegg Castle: The ancestral seat of the now extinct Manesse Family was Manegg Castle in the middle of the Albisberg, on the foothills towards Lake Zurich: It was burned by some mischievous noblemen. According to legend, this happened on Ash Wednesday, when a carnival party staged a playful siege. After the fire, large remnants of the walls survived until the 17th century. Today, only a few foundations are visible.

It was the ancestral seat for the Manesse knightley dynasty. The Manesse family is known primarily through the Manesse Manuscript, a collection of Middle High German songs. Their coat of arms depicts two fighting white knights on a red background, one of whom is victorious. It is a telling coat of arms ; the name comes from Manesser , meaning “man-killer.”

The Manesse family coat of arms: The Manesse Song Manuscript contains poetic works in Middle High German . Its core was produced around 1300 in Zurich , probably in connection with the collecting activities of the Zurich patrician Manesse family . Several additions were made up to around 1340. The text was written by 10–12 different writers, perhaps from the circle of the Grossmünster in Zurich.

The Manesse family were originally merchants and rose to knighthood through their wealth and reached their peak of power between 1250 and 1310. As vassals of the Fraumünster Abbey , the Einsiedeln Monastery , and the German Empire, they were an important family in the city of Zurich before becoming “extinct” around 1415..

In 1393, the castle was sold by Ital Maness to the “Jew Visli or Vifli” at a public auction, but already before this, it seems the castle didn’t have anyone living there anymore. 

Have a look at the panorama of the old castle ruins

The Three Beeches on Uetliberg

The girl was a beautiful and young girl from a nearby farmhouse, this more reclaimed by nature than the castle ruins. She often encountered the castle lord when he was out hunting, or walking into town. They started talking and he would soon seduce her by three beech trees on the hills. He told her he would marry her and she finally gave in. 

After this, he cast her away and treated her coldly with her losing her honor and innocence. To make him change his mind, she sat outside the castle gate, hoping he would take notice and pity her. Instead, he just laughed and sent the dogs after her, who ran out into the forest on the hill, and back to the three beeches. 

There she cursed his name before taking her own life. It is said she was buried close to three beeches on the hill as well as she wouldn’t be able to be buried as a consecrated ground. The trees were supposedly standing up to a few decades ago. 

The Manesse Family: The Manesse family was continuously represented in the Zurich City Council from the 13th to the 15th century. They twice provided the mayor and actively promoted the city’s cultural life. They belonged to the city’s patriciate . Rüdiger von Manesse, son of Ulrich M. Manegg and Adelheid von Breitenlandenberg. Married to Clarita von Hertenberg. Engraving by Johannes Meyer from 1696

The Ghost of Uetliberg Haunting Stormy Nights

Tales started to be told that someone was haunting the area around the three beeches were she was buried. When storms were coming in over the city and thunder roared a fire sprung up from under the trees, even when it was raining. 

As the lightning flashed, illuminating the night, travellers passing by would see a white figure, her long hair loose, beating her chest and wringing her hands, always looking at the old Manegg Castle where the lord who betrayed her came from. 

Now his castle has burned down, crumbled and his name mostly forgotten. 

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References:

Die drei Buchen am Uetliberg | Märchenstiftung 

Manesse – Wikipedia

Ukategorisert

The Restless Spirits of Kleines Klingental: Basel’s Haunted Nunnery

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A house of God turned into the sinful playground of the rich and powerful nuns, the former Dominican Cloister, Kleines Klingental in Basel is said to be haunted by the ghostly nuns, still to this day praying to be released from their sins. 

In the cityscape of Basel, few would suspect that beneath its serene facades and picturesque medieval streets, lurk tales of scandal, sin, and spectral unrest. One of the city’s most persistent and unsettling legends clings to the site of Kleines Klingental, a former nunnery turned barracks, museum, and, by some accounts, one of Basel’s most active haunted sites.

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Today it goes under the name of The Kleines Klingental Museum and showcases statues from the Cathedral. It is here, in what was once a house of prayer and seclusion, that shadows from centuries past still move in the dark corners. And if the legends are to be believed, the ghosts that roam these halls were once no ordinary nuns.

Museum Klingental Basel: The old nunnery is said to be haunted by the sinful nuns that used to live there, centuries ago. // Source: Mikatu/Wikimedia

A Cloister of Contradictions

Founded in the 13th century, the Klingental Monastery was established in Kleinbasel, just across the Rhine from Basel’s bustling old town. It dates back to at least 1274 when twelve Dominican nuns settled in Kleinbasel, having come to Basel from Alsace via the Black Forest.

Officially a place of pious retreat for noblewomen, it soon became something altogether different. The Klingental Monastery, which at its peak was home to 52 nuns, was the richest and most distinguished monastery in Basel. The women who sought sanctuary here were largely from wealthy, aristocratic families, bringing with them not only their dowries and fine possessions but also their personal attendants and, as rumor has it, a disdain for the strictures of monastic life.

Nuns in Medieval Europe: There were few career options for a woman except marriage or cloister. Many nuns excelled as illustrators, tapestry-makers, musicians, gardeners and cooks. Some wrote diaries and texts that survive today and provide interesting insights into the way in which they lived and thought.

Among the nuns spending time in the cloister were two representatives of the Eptingen family, the cousins ​​Sophie and Elisabeth, appear. Susanna, a daughter of Georg von Hattstatt and Elisabeth von Tierstein, is also documented as a nun in 1334. Clara, the daughter of the Basel mayor Henmann II von Ramstein, was also a nun at St. Clara.

There were cases of women being sent to the convent against their will, like Anna von Ramstein. She was the cousin of Susanna von Ramstein, whose father was mayor of Basel in the 15th century. She was said to have been rebellious at the Steinen monastery and, after a failed escape attempt, was brought to St. Clara that she successfully escaped from in 1462.

The nun Katharina, mentioned in 1357, was the stepdaughter of Claus Berner the Younger and the records curiously says she was “taken from the Jews.” In a pogrom before the plague in 1349, the Jewish inhabitants of Basel were expelled from the city or killed. Many of their children were forcibly taken from their families to convert them to the Christian faith, and this nun was most likely one of them.

The four nuns Agnes, Ennelin, Gredlin, and Katharina von Hachberg were of roya blood being the daughters of Margrave Rudolf III of Hachberg-Sausenberg (1343-1428) and Röteln and his wife Anna von Neuenburg (1374-1427).

So how then, did this seemingly pious and respected community of women get the reputation of evil and sinful nuns?

Position of Power: In the 13th century, the abbess of the Fraumünster abbey in Zurich was the chief office-holder of the city. She appointed mayors and judges, had voting rights and the right to sit in the Imperial Diet of the assembly of Princes of the Holy Roman Empire.

From Sacred to Profane at Kleines Klingental

By the late Middle Ages, the Dominican cloister’s reputation was in tatters. Cloistered walls became veils for intrigue. Lovers came and went under the cover of night, and luxuries forbidden by monastic vows flowed freely behind thick stone walls. Chroniclers of the era spoke darkly of secret births and whispered of infants drowned in the cold, rushing waters of the Rhine to preserve the illusion of chastity. 

Attempts by church authorities to restore order and penitence to the monastery met with clever defiance and the noble-born nuns using their rank and influence to evade the scrutiny of even the most zealous inquisitors.

Now, how true were these rumors? Did they really do all of the things their legend accuse them of? Or is this just yet another example of the male dominated church looking down on the female community, perhaps the most powerful women could be at that time? Or was it when the male dominated military moved in that the ghostly legends started? 

The Old Haunted Nunnery: Detail from Matthäus Merian’s 1642 bird’s eye view of the city of Basel in his work Topographia Helvetiae, Rhaetiae et Valesiae . The area of ​​the Klingental Monastery can be seen in the center.

The Military Takes Over

With the arrival of the Reformation in the 16th century, the monastery was secularized, and much of its land was repurposed. By the 19th century, the site had become a barracks. But the soldiers stationed at Kleines Klingental soon discovered they shared their quarters with more than just their fellow men.

Nights in the old nunnery became restless affairs. Strange wailing echoed through the empty corridors. Disembodied footsteps padded softly across stone floors. Soldiers reported encountering ghostly figures clad in flowing black habits, faces hidden in shadow, clutching rosaries or silently weeping. It was whispered that these were the unquiet souls of the sinful nuns, cursed to wander the halls where they had once schemed, sinned, and sought fleeting pleasures.

Some claimed that the phantoms prayed aloud at midnight, their voices mournful, seeking forgiveness too long denied. Others spoke of ghostly processions in the dead of night — pale women gliding past candlelit walls, vanishing into darkness. Apparitions of a mother cradling a child before disappearing into the old well, rumored to have once been used to dispose of unwanted infants, chilled even the most hardened soldier’s blood.

Even the soldiers quartered there left a deadly imprint on the barracks. As they were renovating the place, 29 skeletons of the soldiers, most likely dying in an outbreak of the Spanish flu and buried on the grounds, were found. 

The Ghostly Legacy Lives On in Kleines Klingental Museum

The soldiers left in 1966. Today, the Kleines Klingental Museum occupies part of the historic site. While much of the monastery was lost to time and urban development, several original monastic cells and the old cloister remain intact. And with them, so too, it seems, do the phantoms.

Artists in the art studios in the right wing of the barracks and caretakers who have spent long evenings within the ancient walls speak of unexplained chills, flickering lights, and strange nocturnal sounds. Some report seeing figures in habits lingering in shadowed doorways or passing by in mirrors, only to vanish when pursued. The local legend insists that the unrepentant souls of Kleines Klingental still walk, their sins too great to allow them peace centuries after their death. 

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References:

Basler Phänomene: Spuk, Phantome, Poltergeister | barfi.ch

Happy Halloween! 🎃 Ein Streifzug durch Basels grusligste Orte — Bajour

Huhuuuh! – Sieben Spukhäuser in der Region | TagesWoche

Museum Kleines Klingental – Wikipedia

St.Clara und das Clarissenkloster in Basel 

Ukategorisert

Anchanchu: The Shapeshifting Vampire of Bolivia’s Lonely Roads

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In the loneliest corner of the Andean highlands of Bolivia and Peru, an Aymaran legend of the Anchanchu or the Abchanchu is said to lurk. Disguised as an elderly man, weary from his travels, he uses people’s goodness to attack and drink their blood. 

Come in, come abchanchu, do not do any harm, because Mallcu protects me.
– Chant to keep the monsters at bay

South America is no stranger to terrifying folklore — from weeping women haunting riverbanks to spectral riders in the dead of night their ancient and distinct cultures throughout history has given rise to so many different legends and myths. 

One of the more obscure and perhaps not so well known tales chills the blood quite like that of Anchanchu, sometimes known as the Abchanchu, one of Bolivia’s most enduring and sinister legends. For generations, whispers of this deceptive creature have echoed through mountain villages and remote country paths, warning travelers of the horrors that may lurk beneath a frail, human guise.

Vampires on the Road: Said to haunt the deserted roads in highland Bolivia, the Anchanchu appears as an old man before attacking. The Anchanchu: In Aymara mythology, Anchanchu or Janchanchu (Hispanic spelling, Anchancho) is a terrible demon that haunts caves, rivers, and other isolated places. This deity is closely related to the Uru god Tiw. He is also said to be a vampiric deity, feeding on people’s blood.

The Legend of the Bloodthirsty Trickster

At first glance, Anchanchu appears as nothing more than a harmless, elderly man on the side of the road, a hunched figure, weary from travel, moving slowly along the dusty Bolivian roads. His face is lined with age, his clothes tattered from long journeys, and he leans heavily on a walking stick, luring in his unsuspecting victims. 

But behind those sorrowful eyes lies a predator.

Anchanchu is a vampire of ancient origin, known for his ability to shapeshift into this deceptive, vulnerable form. 

When a kind-hearted passerby offers to assist the seemingly feeble traveler, walking him to safety or providing shelter for the night when he knocks on your door, it’s then that his true, monstrous nature is revealed. The helpless elder transforms into a savage creature, attacking his victim under the cover of darkness and drinking their blood.

Sometimes he lures the victims to his home, promising them a hot meal or anything to get them inside. Other times he plays on your good will, and you bring him home and give a bed for the night. Even if you survive the attack, you will slowly die of the disease the monster leaves you with. 

In some versions of the tale, it’s said the vampire leaves little trace of his victims, allowing him to wander from town to town, his terrible secret forever cloaked by his kindly, unassuming appearance.

A Cautionary Tale Born from Bolivia’s Mountains

The legend of Anchanchu is believed to have originated in Bolivia’s Andean highlands, where treacherous mountain paths wind between isolated villages. It is believed that the vampire story comes from an older demon lore of the modern Aymara people in Bolivia and Peru. 

The Aymara People: The Aymara or Aimara people are indigenous people in the Andes and Altiplano regions of South America. The ancestors of the Aymara lived in the region for many centuries before becoming a subject of the Inca Empire in the late 15th or early 16th century and later of the Spanish in the 16th century.

In these remote regions, travelers would often rely on the kindness of strangers for survival — a fact that the myth of Anchanchu turns tragically on its head. It used to be confined to small regions until the 18th century, when tales of the monster travelled further. 

Aymara Settlement: The story of the Anchanchu as a vampiric demon was confided to the rural Bolivian highlands. Here, a Aymara town around 1904.

In the Uyuni region, he comes with the cold, and if you don’t remember to close the windows and lock your doors, he will just walk right in. 

Uyuni: The Uyuni region is mostly known for the mysterious and beautiful salt flats. It is also thought to be a place where the Anchanchu roams.

For the people of Huancané, it is recommended to not walk at night, specifically after midnight. Anchanchu appears as a red dog around one to three A.M. His appearance is described as being a pudgy, bald, older man.

If you find yourself on a deserted Bolivian road as the sun begins to set, and you happen upon a frail old man limping along the path, remember the warnings of generations past. His weathered smile and pleading eyes may mask ancient hunger, and one act of misplaced kindness could be your last.

Anchanchu or the Abchanchu waits for the charitable, hiding his fangs behind a trembling voice — and the mountains have many lonely places where the missing are never found.

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References:

Abchanchu: Bolivian Vampire. From the desk of The Reddest Raven | by Rayven Red | Feb, 2025 | Medium

Anchanchu. Dios del mal aymara.

Anchanchu – Wikipedia

Aymara people – Wikipedia

Ukategorisert

The Legend of the Jiāngshī: China’s Hopping Vampire

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With stiff limbs after rigor mortis has set in, the Chinese vampire entity, the Jiāngshī is after the life force of the living. But where did the lore of the hopping undead really come from? 

The concepts of vampires and the undead is not a modern notion. Long before Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and centuries before Hollywood’s suave, bloodthirsty counts graced silver screens, the people of ancient China harbored their own chilling tales of the dead refusing to stay buried. 

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In Chinese folklore, these restless corpses came not with bat wings or seductive stares, but with stiff limbs, pallid skin, crimson eyes, and long hooked claws. Their name? Jiāngshī (殭屍) — roughly translating to “stiff corpse” or more colorfully, “corpse-hopper.”

Yes — they hopped. And it was every bit as unsettling as it sounds.

Mr. Vampire (1985)

What is a Jiāngshī?

The Jiāngshī (僵尸) is a reanimated corpse, a creature caught somewhere between life and death. It goes under many names like Chiang Shi, Kang Shi and Geungsi. The myth also appears in other parts of Asia; such as South Korea, Japan, and Vietnam.

Unlike your typical Western vampire, which drains blood with charm and elegance, a Jiāngshī is known for its stiff, rigor mortis-bound body that can only move by hopping, arms outstretched like some grim parody of a child’s game.

Its arrival is accompanied by the scent of decay and often a sinister green phosphorescent glow. Traditionally, it feeds on the life essence or qi of the living or by simply draining their vital energy. Victims struck down by a Jiāngshī would either die outright or rise again as one of its own.

As for appearance — imagine a corpse with ashen or moldy green skin, protruding fangs, claw-like fingernails, and red, hungry eyes. In some accounts, it wears the clothes it was buried in: threadbare robes from dynasties long past.

In some folkloric accounts it had more powers and was capable of running and chasing people at high speed. 

Origins of the Legend of the Jiāngshī

The origins of the Jiāngshī legend are as murky as a midnight fog rolling through a mountain pass. Tales of reanimated corpses in Chinese culture can be traced as far back as the Qing Dynasty (1644–1912), with possible roots stretching into even earlier dynasties. 

One plausible theory ties their genesis to the folk custom of “transporting corpses over long distances, “ ((千里行屍; 千里行尸; qiān lǐ xíng shī)In rural China, Xiang province (present-day Hunan), when people died far from home, families often couldn’t afford to transport the body by cart. A lot of people worked construction work in the backwaters of western Hunan and the death toll was high. But they all preferred to be buried with their family in their ancestral homeplace.

the first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang, whose reign was rife with war and conquest in an attempt to claim land and establish the Chinese states.

Instead, local priests or corpse-handlers were hired to bind the corpses upright between bamboo poles, carried by porters walking in unison. They avoided driving during the day as people feared dead bodies. From a distance, the swaying of the corpses might have resembled hopping — giving birth to stories of corpse-hoppers prowling the countryside.

Couple this with deep-seated fears of improper burials, vengeful spirits, and death-related taboos, and you had the perfect storm for spawning the Jiāngshī myth. This practice also gave rise to the belief that Taoist sorceres could be paid for the corpse to “hop their way home” if they couldn’t afford the transportation costs.

The Jiāngshī’s Vampiric Traits

The Jiāngshī shares enough blood-chilling traits to land itself firmly in the category of vampiric folklore like the eastern European one. In some ways it could also look more like a mindless zombie than an immortal and intellectual vampire. If absorbing enough energy, it could even fight. It was said to come from the hills, soaring through the air to devour infants. 

They believed they could be created with dark magic or by spirits possessing the dead bodies, or even by absorbing enough yang qi energy to return. There were also more specific ways to become this entiry like When the dead person is not buried even after a funeral has been held. The corpse comes to life after it is struck by a bolt of lightning, or when a pregnant cat (or a black cat in some tales) leaps across the coffin.

Its victims may fall ill, die, or rise as new Jiāngshī. It is repelled by sunlight and sleeps in their coffins, caves or dark forests during the day. 

Like its Western counterparts, a Jiāngshī is often born of violent death, improper burial rites, or spiritual unrest. In some tales, even a strong grudge or curse could tether a soul to its body, animating it into a hopping nightmare.

Unlike its western counterparts though, there is rarely talk about the Jiāngshī feeding on human blood with fangs. 

How to Stop a Jiāngshī

Chinese folklore, practical as ever, offers several creative ways to ward off or destroy a Jiāngshī and they have several weaknesses. As with most undead, exposure to daylight causes the creature to decay or combust.

They also feared their own reflection and mirror could also repel them. They were also afraid of things made from peach trees, a rooster calling, fire and hooves of a black donkey, dropping a bag of coins as they must count them, glutinous riceand blood of a black dog among other things. 

Fulu or Taoist talismans are also a classic way of fighting dark entities. Written on yellow paper in red ink and affixed to the creature’s forehead, these magical scrolls could immobilize or dispel the vampire.

The Jiangshi in Pop Culture

The legend of the Jiāngshī didn’t fade with the passing of imperial China. Instead, it found new life in Hong Kong horror comedies of the 1980s and 90s, notably the cult classic Mr. Vampire (1985), which turned the hopping vampire into an iconic figure of Chinese pop culture. Interestingly, the use of the entity in pure horror movies without comedy has proved to not work. 

It is also perhaps from Hong Kong cinema that we get the depiction of a stiff corpse dressed in official garments from the Qing dynasty. The Manchu style qizhuang and the headpiece Qingdai guanmao could come from anti- Manchu propaganda. 

Modern adaptations often blend humor with horror, depicting Taoist priests armed with incense sticks and spirit scrolls battling swarms of hopping undead. While the Jiāngshī might seem quirky or even comedic in some modern depictions, at its core it’s a reflection of ancient anxieties about death, spiritual unrest, and the consequences of neglecting the dead. 

Beneath the slapstick lies a persistent echo of ancient fears: that death, if disrespected, will come hopping after you.

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References:

https://link.springer.com/rwe/10.1007/978-3-030-82301-6_38-1

Hopping Vampire – 僵尸 (jiāngshī) – CHIN 3343: Chinese Popular Culture Terms, Vol. 2

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The Knocking Ghost of Utengasse 47: Basel’s Poltergeist Case

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In a small apartment at Utengasse 47 in Basel, a poltergeist was said to torment the family living there. It got so bad and they found no solution that the family had to vacate the place instead. 

In the old working-class neighborhoods of Basel’s Kleinbasel district, Utengasse is today an unassuming street, its tidy rows of homes giving little hint of the dark history that once unfolded there. But in 1929, one of the most unsettling and inexplicable hauntings in Swiss urban folklore made its mark at Utengasse 47 where a poltergeist was said to be haunting.

Read More: Check out all ghost stories from Switzerland

Unfolding like a classical poltergeist case of eerie knocks, invisible hands, and a terrified child caught in the grip of something unseen.

A Home with a Terrible Secret

In 1929, there was a woman living there together with her three children in a small apartment at Utengasse 47. The haunting began as a series of strange and persistent knocking sounds inside the home’s second-floor apartment, particularly from a thin wall separating the living room from the children’s bedroom. 

These sounds weren’t the casual creaks and groans of an old building settling into itself, but deliberate, insistent taps and raps like some unseen presence were methodically announcing itself from within the very bones of the house.

The true focus of this unseen terror appeared to be 10-year-old Marcel, a boy whose innocent curiosity seemed to draw the spirit’s attention. Every time Marcel neared the partition wall, he was seized by an inexplicable, ice-cold dread and panicked. His limbs trembled uncontrollably, and he was overwhelmed by a suffocating sense of fear that no one could explain.

A Town’s Whispered Panic

As word spread of the disturbances at Utengasse 47, curious neighbors gathered outside. The phenomena worsened at night with loud knocking sounds echoing from the walls, disembodied tapping in the dead hours, and a general air of suffocating unease. The events quickly came to the attention of both the authorities and the local press and the police were said to have made several visits to check the apartment, searching it from top to bottom. Nothing was found. 

They watched the boy as well, pinning him down when he got his panic attacks. Even with his arms and legs restrained, the strange poltergeist knocking sound was heard. Doctors and physicists also stopped by, unable to find something scientific they could pin the strange phenomena on. 

In an era when spiritualism was still a subject of hushed parlor conversations and séances were as much entertainment as superstition, the case drew the interest of spiritualist investigators as well when they couldn’t find any logical explanation of it all.. They scoured the apartment, attempting to contact whatever entity might be responsible. Yet no convincing explanation or natural cause could be found.

A Decision from the City

The situation reached such a fever pitch that even the Basel Department of Buildings intervened. Though many officials suspected the episode to be a hoax or hysteria, they could find no perpetrator and no rational origin for the relentless sounds. Ultimately, faced with mounting public concern and the palpable distress of the tenants, the city made a rare and decisive move: the haunted apartment was ordered vacated.

In a time when housing shortages were severe due to Basel’s post-war growth, this was an extraordinary step. The apartment remained empty for three months, an unheard-of vacancy for a modest dwelling in a crowded, working-class district. No one ever complained about these types of noises again. 

We don’t really know what happened to Marcel, or what he thought of the frightening phenomena he was experiencing back then. The building still stands today with its outward appearance giving no hint of the strange disturbances that once gripped its walls.

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Tour Description «Walk of legends» Place 1: Claraplatz and Rebgasse

Huhuuuh! – Sieben Spukhäuser in der Region | TagesWoche

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Spiritism and the Religion of Spirit Communication

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Spiritism or Kardecism is a philosophy and religion of spirit communication. After being inspired by the Spiritualist movement, the French Allan Kardec developed the loose movement of seances, mediums and communicating with the dead into something people still practice today. 

There is a debate about whether or not we should call the spiritism movement a religion or not, but it certainly was a movement together with Spiritualism that impacted the western world and how they view death, the afterlife and ghosts and the paranormal.

The Spiritism Movement was started by the French author and teacher Allan Kardec and is also called Kardecist spiritism or Kardecism. A simple way of explaining the difference between Spiritualism that grew in popularity in North America was that Spiritism was mainly in Europe and although much alike was much more organized and had a stricter doctrine. Today, the word spiritism is used for most of the religious and doctrines believing that the spirits go on after the body dies. 

He believed in physical reality and that alongside that, there was another spirit world. This world, he believed, could be accessed through mediums and that spirits exist separately from human bodies. 

Most of the practice of Spiritism is around the mediumship and communicating with the dead. It can manifest in automatic writing or drawing among other psychographic ways. 

Read More: Spiritualism and the Occult: Automatic Writing and When Ghosts Slide Into Your DMs 

The spiritists also believe in reincarnation and that the spirit is constantly trying to achieve intellectual and moral perfection. 

The Spiritism Movement as we know it today started in Europe in the 1850s, but soon spread, becoming very popular in the USA, Brazil and in the French colonies. 

Allan Kardec and the Founding of Spiritism

Allan Kardec’s real name was Léon-Dénizarth-Hippolyte Rivail and was really the one that organized the loose movement in Europe to a path with a certain doctrine and way of thinking. He was born in 1804 in Lyon in France and studied in Switzerland. When coming back to Paris he purchased a school for boys in 1928 and was a teacher.

Read More: Check out the story of the haunted Paris’ Haunted Père Lachaise Cemetery, were Kardec is buried.

He was in his 50s when he became interested in séances and started researching them and compiling the consistent things the mediums talked about into a philosophy he called Spiritism. The name Allan Kardec was a name picked out by a spirit called Truth. 

Table Tipping and Communicating with the Dead

A very popular pastime in Europe at the time was animal magnetism, mesmerising and what would eventually be called Table Tipping. This was equally seen as pure fun as well as a séance. Although a skeptic at first, Kardec became interested in the phenomenon and started to explore it as well. 

Table Tipping: Table levitates during Palladino’s séance at home of astronomer Camille Flammarion, France, 25 November 1898. There are two women seated at the table. Palladino sits at the far short end.

Kardec studied the phenomenon and concluded in The Book on Mediums that some communications were caused by an outside intelligence, as the message contained information that was not known to the group.

Read More: Table Turning: When Spirits Spill the Tea Through Furniture

Skeptics and those exposing the truth behind the table turning chucks it up to the ideomotor effect, not ghosts trying to communicate through furniture. The movement experienced in the seances was due to involuntary and unconscious muscular reactions. This scientific explanation was published in the Medical Times and Gazette in 1853, but that didn’t stop its popularity or people believing in it, it only made the hoaxes more elaborate. 

Spiritualism and the Fox Sisters

In addition to European dabbling in the occult already, Kardec became increasingly more interested in Spiritualism from the USA. It was a popular movement that had started with communication with the dead’s spirits. This movement is often connected with the popularity of Margaret and Catherine Fox who kicked off the Spiritualism movement in the USA with their table rapping. 

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

Since childhood they had been famous ever since they communicated with spirits in 1848 with the spirit haunting their home in New York. They later came to Europe to hold public séances.

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

Allan Kardec was definitely directly inspired by this, but narrowed the belief system down to one doctrine. For example, Spiritualists do not necessarily believe in reincarnation but this part was important for the Spiritists. He worked to distance himself from fortune-tellers, mediums and magicians from the movement of the time, many of those often ending in trouble when discovered as a fraud.

The Spiritist Codification

Kardec’s first of five foundational Spiritist texts was 1857’s The Spirits’ Book. More than a book on ghosts, it’s a collection of philosophical questions Kardec asked mediums around in Europe. This was also an effort to bridge both religion, science and philosophy to one thing that he himself called a “Positive Faith”. More books followed and collectively, they are called the Spiritist Codification. 

Spiritists believe all humans are spirits, and the body is only a temporary vessel. After you die, the spirit crosses into the spirit world where it resided around the same time it was alive last before being reincarnated. 

It also adheres a lot to the Christian belief in one god as well as the rules science dictates. When Kardec developed his idea, it was definitely through the lens of a christian. Spiritists often cite biblical events to make their claim of how spirits exist, like how Moses consulted the dead, how Saul heard the spirit of Samuel. 

After Kardec died in 1869, medium and writer Léon Denis who had met Kardec many times, continued with his legacy and furthered its popularity. 

Backlash Against the Movement of Spiritism

Although the Spiritism Movement became popular and came from a place of Christianity, it wasn’t without controversy. Critics saw the movement as evil and devil worship. Many of the mediums were also accused of being frauds and charlatans, profiting on people’s grief and fear of the afterworld. 

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

In Europe, this type of mediating and communication with spirits have been prosecuted since the middle ages, mostly because it was seen as blasphemous behavior. British witchcraft laws used against mediums were not repealed until the 1950s when the last woman was convicted for witchcraft.

Helen Duncan: Born in Scotland in 1898. 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.

Also scientists attacked the movement, calling it madness, hysteria and fanciful without root in science and the real world. The Roman church condemned it, Brazil even banned it. Counter-movement to expose mediums, like Harry Houdini did for years, started as well. 

What Happened to Spiritism?

Freud: Although said to not believe in the paranormal, Freud once wrote: “Though I am a man of science, I cannot dismiss the idea that ghosts might embody our suppressed desires and unfulfilled wishes.”

With so much hype and popularity that only seemed to be growing at the turn of the century, it begs the question of why Spiritism isn’t a bigger movement today as before. The answer to that might be as boring as timing. 

Two big factors happened at the time that fought against the Spiritism Movement of Spiritualism. One of them was the discipline of psychology that started to take hold of people, especially modern and well read people in Europe. The very same group that a couple of decades ago would probably have turned to Spiritism or some sort of Spiritualism.

Sigmund Freud, who denied all existence of ghosts, was a leading voice going forward, and although some of the earlier psychologists played around with the idea of a spirit world, their voices weren’t strong enough. Although his official stance on ghosts have been to not believe in them, he had some interesting musings and discussions of the concept of ghosts and the supernatural.

The other thing happening in Europe at the time was World War 1 and had a big impact on culture. The war and fear of war stopped a lot of new ideas and thinking that flourished in more peaceful times. Who knows how the movement would have progressed if not for the European wars that century?

Were are the Spiritists Today?

But did Spiritism completely die? Through French colonialism the texts and ideas spread to the colonies in the 19th century to the mid-20th century, especially in Vietnam. Here, the movement and idea was crucial for the Cao Dai religion that started in Vietnam in 1926. The age-old traditions was a mix of Asian divination and mediumship from Vietnamese folk religion with ancestor worship, Confucianism, occult practices from Taoism, theories of karma and rebirth from Buddhism.

Caodaism: Cao Dai monks inside Cao Dai Holy See, Tây Ninh, Vietnam. Priests are dressed in red, blue and yellow, followers in white. The full name of the religion is Đại Đạo Tam Kỳ Phổ Độ (大道三期普度) ‘The Great Faith for the Third Universal Redemption’.

French Spiritists Mediums travelled to Saigon, which today is Ho Chi Minh City and interacted with the Cao Dai mediums. They then began to mix with the new traditions of European Spiritism with the old. Some of them even claimed they had been visited by the spirit of Kardec. 

In addition to the French Colonies, the Spiritism Movement spread to Latin America as well, where it had a big impact on Brazil, even though they banned it in 1890. Today it is the third most popular religion in Brazil. 

The mediums also channel spirits for healing purposes and in Brazil they had around 13000 Spiritists centers that are a sort of physical or mental aid facility in 2022. This can be various ways, often a “laying of hands” much like they do with Reiki to heal energy.

Laying of the Hand: In Christian churches, chirotony or “Laying of the Hand”, is used as both a symbolic and formal method of invoking the Holy Spirit primarily during baptisms and confirmations, healing services, blessings, and ordination of priests, ministers, elders, deacons, and other church officers.

Although the Spiritism Movement didn’t have the hold of people as it used to, there are definitely still practitioners today throughout the world. Today, the International Spiritist Council claim that they have over 13 million followers in 36 countries.

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References:

Allan Kardec – Wikipedia

Séance | Spiritualism, Mediumship & Clairvoyance | Britannica

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Spiritualism and the Occult: Automatic Writing and When Ghosts Slide Into Your DMs

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In the height of the spiritualism movement of séances, mediums and table turning, automatic writing was a popular way to communicate with the dead. But what type of writing and messages did the practice leave us with?

Imagine sitting alone in a dimly lit room, pen in hand, paper in front of you, when suddenly—your hand jerks forward, scribbling furiously as if someone else is holding the pen. You sit there, equal parts fascinated and mildly horrified, as cryptic messages, strange symbols, or maybe just some very messy handwriting pours onto the page you have no control over. Is it a deep connection to the spirit world… or did your subconscious just have way too much caffeine?

This is the basic premise of automatic writing—a ghostly communication method that’s part séance, part psychological mystery, and 100% unsettling.

What Exactly Is Automatic Writing?

Automatic writing, also known as psychography, is the act of writing without conscious thought, letting an unseen force (be it your subconscious mind or something a little more… otherworldly) take the wheel. The idea? Spirits, guides, or even higher consciousnesses use your hand as their personal typewriter to deliver messages from beyond.

It’s not only to come in contact with ghosts that automatic writing is used, and is a method used by writers to tap into their subconsciousness and let the words flow on the paper instead. This was particularly popular with French surrealists and was for a while a popular therapy form in Freudian psychology. Unlike brainstorming or journaling, you’re not supposed to think about what you’re writing. Instead, you let the pen flow, giving the spirit world a direct hotline to your notebook. 

Automatic Writing: An alleged psychograph (psychic picture) by the spiritualist medium Francis Ward Monck. Born in 1842, he was a British clergyman and spiritualist medium who was exposed as a fraud. In 1876 a sitter named H. B. Lodge stopped his séance and demanded Monck to be searched. Monck ran out and locked himself in another room, escaping out of a window. A pair of stuffed gloves was found in his room, as well as cheesecloth, reaching rods and other fraudulent devices in his luggage.

When talking about automatic writing within spiritualism, we often talk about mediums letting themselves be used for spirit to talk through. Some claim that they go into a sort of altered state, some not even remembering what happened and what they wrote down, as it came from the afterlife, not their own mind. The handwriting often looks different, even the language could be foreign. 

Read More: Books Written by Ghosts and Channeled Texts

Automatic writing has been a staple within the spiritualist community for centuries now, often combined in a séance as a way to contact the dead, much like Table Turning, Ectoplasma, Spirit Drawing and other means of communications. 

A Brief (and Slightly Haunted) History

Automatic writing isn’t some New Age trend—it’s been around for centuries, quietly creeping through spiritual practices and philosophical circles in all cultures, times and places on earth with a written language.

Some of the more famous traditions of automatic writing includes:

Ancient China:

Spirit writing, known as Fu Ji (扶乩), was practiced as early as 1100 AD, using a suspended stylus to communicate with deities and ancestors. It was considered so powerful that it was eventually banned during certain dynasties—because nothing says “this works” quite like outlawing it.

Read More: China’s Mystical Writing: Fu Ji (扶乩) – When Spirits Pick Up the Pen

The tradition of Fu Ji spread into Taoist lore as well and through this, the kung fu system is even credited to a sage from beyond, given to the living through writing. 

Enochian Magic:

In the west automatic writing has a long tradition long before the New Age takeover as well. One of the earlier examples we can find is through Enochian magic that supposedly gave guidance through the Enochian language, or the language of angels as it was believed to be. 

Here it was particularly John Dee and Edward Kelley in Renaissance England who practiced the art and was advising Queen Elisabeth I, giving this alleged spiritual messaging real life consequences. 

Enochian Magic: John Dee (13 July 1527 – 1608 or 1609) was an English mathematician, astronomer, teacher, astrologer, occultist, and alchemist. He was the court astronomer and advisor to Elizabeth I. As an antiquarian, he had one of the largest libraries in England at the time. As a political advisor, he advocated the foundation of English colonies in the New World to form a “British Empire”, a term he is credited with coining.

Victorian Era:

Pearl Curran: Patience Worth was allegedly a spirit contacted by Pearl Lenore Curran. Starting in July 1912, Pearl Curran, along with her friend Emily Grant Hutchings, began using the Ouija Board. According to their accounts, they soon made contact with several spirits, each bringing their own unique messages and stories from the afterlife.

The 19th century in Europe and USA saw the golden age of spiritualism, where automatic writing made its grand comeback for the popular masses as a means to make the communication quicker than table turning and rapping could. Mediums at candlelit séances would go into trances, letting their hands scrawl out letters from the dead while wide-eyed onlookers gasped (and sometimes fainted for dramatic effect).

Literary heavyweights got in on the action too. Surrealist writers and artists, like André Breton, used automatic writing as a creative tool, believing it bypassed the conscious mind to tap into pure thought. Perhaps his most well known word produced by automatic writing is his book Soluble Fish.  

Then there was Pearl Curran, who in the early 1900s supposedly contacted a 17th-century spirit named Patience Worth, whom she met through a session with a Ouija Board. Together they allegedly wrote several novels, thousands of poems and other writings together. Many people think that this case is one of the best examples that automatic writing is real, mostly because they didn’t think that a housewife would be able to write all of this by herself. Proof of a ghost or just a touch of misogyny? 

From this era, perhaps Hélène Smith, who used the pseudonym of Catherine Elise Muller who was the most well known medium using automatic writing. She was born around 1863 in Geneva, Switzerland and held many séances. She claimed to have been a Hindu princess as well as Marie Antoinette in her previous lives. 

Not only did she produce automatic writing in Arabic, but also in something that she said were the languages of Mars and Uranus translated into French. Although a wild claim to make, and it certainly wasn’t without controversies, she actually had a fair bit of support from believers in her extraterrestrial language. 

Modern Psychology

Although the act of automatic writing still lingers in the corners of religious belief, New Age spiritualism and for those believing in the paranormal, we mostly talk about automatic writing from a scientific and psychological viewpoint today. Documented examples are considered to be the result of the ideomotor phenomenon and a milder form of dissociative state.

How It (Allegedly) Works

Message from Mars: 19th century medium Hélène Smith (Catherine Müller) did automatic writing to convey messages from Mars in Martian language. The “Martian” language looked a lot like her native language French and that her automatic writing was from forgotten sources like books read as a child. The term cryptomnesia is used for this phenomenon.

The process is of automatic writing is a simple concept—at least on paper:

Set the mood: Dim lights, candles, maybe a little incense. Spirits love ambiance.

Grab your tools: A notebook, a pen, and an open mind.

Get in the zone: Many practitioners meditate or use light hypnosis to clear their minds.

Let it flow: Relax your hand, hold the pen loosely, and wait. The theory is that a spirit will “guide” your hand, bypassing your conscious brain.

Decode the chaos: Once you snap out of it, you might find anything from coherent sentences to frantic scribbles that look like your cat ran across the paper.

For believers, automatic writing is a spiritual tool—a direct line to the afterlife or higher planes of existence. Many think that the power comes from themselves as mediums and if it doesn’t work for some, they simply doesn’t have the power and sensitivity for it.

For skeptics, it’s a textbook example of the ideomotor effect (the same involuntary movement theory behind Ouija boards and table tipping).

Read More: Check out The Dark Origins of the Ouija Board: A Mysterious History of Spirit Communication and Table Turning: When Spirits Spill the Tea Through Furniture for more information of the history behind this.

Essentially, your subconscious mind is doing the work, but because you’re not aware of it, it feels like an external force.

Famous Writers and the Art of Automatic Writing

Many famous people have over the years been involved in automatic writing, either doing it themselves or their ghosts have said to have been channeled through other mediums. Charles Dickens unfinished work of The Mystery of Edwin Drood was supposedly finished written through the hand of the itinerant printer T.P James, now remembered as the Brattleboro hoax.

Another famous writer who got involved in the supernatural automatic writing was W.B Yeats who married Georgie Hyde-Lees, a woman who claimed she could channel spirits through automatic writing. This influenced him greatly and his writing after they married.

Read More: Renvyle House and a visit from Yeats

Also the writer Arthur Conan Doyle and his wife explored automatic writing. Once they even held a séance with Harry Houdini where Lady Doyle wrote 15 pages worth of communication with a spirit she claimed was Houdini’s mother. Houdini himself saw it all as a hoax. 

When Things Got… Dark

Of course, no paranormal practice comes without a little side-eye from the dark side. Some caution that automatic writing can be a gateway for less-than-friendly spirits. After all, if you’re leaving the door open, who knows what’s going to walk (or scribble) through it? There are stories of people contacting malevolent entities or receiving unsettling, cryptic messages that seem straight out of a horror film.

And then there’s the famous case of Aleister Crowley—yes, that Aleister Crowley—who claimed to have channeled the text The Book of the Law through automatic writing, dictated by an otherworldly being named Aiwass. He was also very inspired by Enochian Magic. Let’s just say it didn’t exactly help his already spooky reputation.

Aleister Crowley: The book was dictated to him by a beyond-human being, Aiwass, who he later referred to as his own Holy Guardian Angel. Through the reception of the Book, Crowley proclaimed the arrival of a new stage in the spiritual evolution of humanity, to be known as the “Æon of Horus”. The primary precept of this new aeon is the charge, “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.” Read the Book.

Exposing the Hoaxes

In the modern era, from Victorian times up to today, there have been people dedicated to exposing charlatans and frauds, trying to pass off their tricks as true communication with ghosts. Some of the more famous paranormal investigators was Harry Price who got involved in many popular mediums and ghost stories. One of them was for example the infamous haunted Borley Rectory where a housewife was trying to cover up an extramarital affair and make it look like ghosts were haunting her house. 

Read More: The Mysterious Tale of Borley Rectory – Was it Really Haunted?

Science largely dismisses automatic writing as a psychological phenomenon. The ideomotor effect explains how subtle, unconscious muscle movements can create the illusion that an external force is at work. Plus, the human brain is really good at finding patterns in randomness. Those looping scribbles? Your brain’s dying to read them as a message.

Harry Price: Harry Price pictured with assorted pieces of his “ghost hunting” equipment

But for spiritualists and believers, automatic writing isn’t about proof—it’s about connection. Whether it’s a voice from beyond, the collective unconscious, or simply a way to tap into deeper layers of your own psyche, the results often feel real to those who experience it.

A Pen, Some Paper, and Maybe a Ghost?

Automatic writing sits at that curious crossroads where psychology and the paranormal shake hands—and then maybe slap each other. Is it a portal to the spirit world? A glimpse into the subconscious mind? Or just a very dramatic way to doodle?

Either way, the next time your hand randomly scribbles something when you’re zoned out in a meeting… Maybe it’s not just boredom. Maybe, just maybe, it’s someone—or something—trying to say hello.

Or maybe you just really need another cup of coffee.

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References:

Automatic writing – New World Encyclopedia