“GHOSTS IN THE MIRROR” and More True Paranormal Stories! #WeirdDarkness

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IN THIS EPISODE: Could there be floating balls of light not only possessed of some sort of intelligence, but which are capable of forming a unique bond with a person and even delivering painful stings when they so choose? (Sentient Fireballs and Biting Lights) *** Cattle sometimes die suddenly on Silvies Valley Ranch’s 140,000 acres in Harney County — struck by disease or felled by a broken leg and unable to find a way out of the rugged, forested terrain. But by the time ranch hands discovered four more dead bulls within 24 hours, they knew they were likely dealing with deliberate, premeditated killings. (Oregon Cattle Mutilations) *** To quote one survivor of a near-death experience: “I know of no English words for the combination of joy, ecstasy, love, and requited longing that burned within me. It carried me to a dimension I never knew existed. In that moment, there was no pain of loss, only unity, rapture and reunion.” Is it possible that we may soon have scientific evidence for what lies beyond the veil? (New Evidence of Life After Death) *** Seeing specters in the reflection of a mirror or piece of glass is not just a cliché movie trope. There is a history that goes along with the happening. (Ghost In The Mirror) *** We’ve all heard of haunted forests – but there is one that is so disturbing it drives some people to want to commit murder! (Where The Woods Entice You To Murder) *** When it comes to ghostly apparitions, the White Lady are ubiquitous. But a theater in Sunderland, England has not just a White Lady specter, but also the haunting Grey Lady… and the ghost of a comedian. (Haunted Empire Theater)

SOURCES AND REFERENCES FROM THE EPISODE…
“Sentient Fireballs and Biting Lights” from the Fortean Times: (link no longer available)
“Oregon Cattle Mutilations” by Diana Kruzman for Oregon Live: https://tinyurl.com/y3sg3gle
“New Evidence for Life After Death” by Michael Grosso for Consciousness Unbound: https://tinyurl.com/wou5am3
“Ghost in the Mirror” by Micah Hanks for the Gralien Report: https://tinyurl.com/wuxunbx; Erin McCann for Graveyard Shift: https://weirddarkness.com/archives/2587; and Lyra Radford for Ranker: https://tinyurl.com/wnzk58k
“Where The Woods Entice You To Murder” by Claire Reid for Lad Bible: https://tinyurl.com/tg9ylqo
“The Haunted Empire Theater” by Ian at Mysterious Britain and Ireland: https://tinyurl.com/tvxswbr
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OTHER PODCASTS I HOST…
Paranormality Magazine: (COMING SEPT. 30, 2023) https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/paranormalitymag
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“I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.” — John 12:46

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TRANSCRIPT:

DISCLAIMER: Stories and content in Weird Darkness can be disturbing for some listeners and intended for mature audiences only. Parental discretion is strongly advised.

SHOW OPEN=====

Welcome, Weirdos – I’m Darren Marlar and this is Weird Darkness. Here you’ll find stories of the paranormal, supernatural, legends, lore, the strange and bizarre, crime, conspiracy, mysterious, macabre, unsolved and unexplained.

Coming up in this episode…

Could there be floating balls of light not only possessed of some sort of intelligence, but which are capable of forming a unique bond with a person and even delivering painful stings when they so choose? (Sentient Fireballs and Biting Lights)

Cattle sometimes die suddenly on Silvies Valley Ranch’s 140,000 acres in Harney County — struck by disease or felled by a broken leg and unable to find a way out of the rugged, forested terrain. But by the time ranch hands discovered four more dead bulls within 24 hours, they knew they were likely dealing with deliberate, premeditated killings. (Oregon Cattle Mutilations)

To quote one survivor of a near-death experience: “I know of no English words for the combination of joy, ecstasy, love, and requited longing that burned within me. It carried me to a dimension I never knew existed. In that moment, there was no pain of loss, only unity, rapture and reunion.” Is it possible that we may soon have scientific evidence for what lies beyond the veil? (New Evidence of Life After Death)

Seeing specters in the reflection of a mirror or piece of glass is not just a cliché movie trope. There is a history that goes along with the happening. (Ghost In The Mirror)

We’ve all heard of haunted forests – but there is one that is so disturbing it drives some people to want to commit murder! (Where The Woods Entice You To Murder)

When it comes to ghostly apparitions, the White Lady are ubiquitous. But a theater in Sunderland, England has not just a White Lady specter, but also the haunting Grey Lady… and the ghost of a comedian. (Haunted Empire Theater)

If you’re new here, welcome to the show! While you’re listening, be sure to check out WeirdDarkness.com for merchandise, my newsletter, enter contests, to connect with me on social media, plus, you can visit the Hope in the Darkness page if you’re struggling with depression or dark thoughts. You can find all of that and more at WeirdDarkness.com.

Now.. bolt your doors, lock your windows, turn off your lights, and come with me into the Weird Darkness!

STORY: WHERE THE WOODS ENTICE YOU TO MURDER=====

If you fancy having the crap scared out of you, then why not take a trip to these haunted woods in Essex, which are said to be so spooky they drive people to cry and drives others to ‘want to kill’?

Cash’s Well, in Langdon Hills Country Park near Basildon, has had ghost sightings since 1924, as such it’s a popular spot for ghost hunters and paranormal investigators, who claim that the area is infested with spirits.

A reporter from Essex Live recently paid the area a visit alongside a group of ghost hunters who say the deserted well is frequented by a number of otherworldly entities including a man in uniform, a woman, and up to 20 children.

Ghost hunter Russell Old told Essex Live that when they take people on tours of the spooky area, he invites the ghosts over to interact with people.

“We get our guests to stand there and the children will come and hold their hands,” Russell said.

“We’ll get them to pull on the guests’ fingers, two for a boy or one for a girl, and they’ll get that physical sensation.”

The well was built in the 1900s by a man called Edwin Cash who wanted to bottle up and sell the mineral-rich water – but a few years after launching his business it went under. He died in 1931, but mediums say Mr Cash’s spirit remains at the well.

The group hold seances near the well and Russell says things get pretty scary.

“We all stand up, hold hands and draw the energy in,” he explained.

“We’ve had people’s noses going down that well after being pushed over, and we’ve had the whole group pushed out the door.

“We’ve had people who come here, do not believe us, and they’ve got their noses touching the floor. People stand there saying ‘why are my hands moving?’.

“They’re trying to push it down but they can’t, then all the hands are in the air.

“On the other side through the bushes, it’s a bit sinister, you see a lot of light anomalies. A lot of it is psychological but you’ll get a lot of people who don’t want to stand with their backs to the window or by the door.”

Things get even darker over near a bridge in the woodland, with Russell saying even the experienced group refuse to go near.

“There’s a bridge that we very rarely go to because it’s dark and sinister,” Russell claimed.

“We also had a guy who was seven feet tall, stocky, broad, and he was the nicest guy you’d ever spoken to, but we took him up to the top of the hill and he got so aggressive.

“The others were telling me that he wasn’t right and he’d never spoken to anyone like that. He was cursing and throwing his arms around, so we had to turn him around. He wasn’t under attack, he was just feeling the energy.

“We had to talk to him to get him out and all of a sudden he came back to us. He said ‘I just wanted to kill everybody’. You do worry, you could see his hands and he was really containing something.”

Many people have been left in tears after their ghostly interactions, but if none of that puts you off, you can check out Essex Ghost Hunters Facebook page. I’ve placed a link to it in the show notes.

STORY:  SENTIENT FIREBALLS AND BITING LIGHTS=====

At the fringes of those luminous phenomena which range from spook lights to freak lightning, there are some strange accounts for which there is no ready explanation. These involve lights that show a particular interest in human beings – and not always to their benefit.
Take what befell 12-year-old George Campbell and his father, EW Campbell. They were riding along the ‘Eighty-foot Road’, north of the city of Sherman, Texas, on the night of 4 October 1898. Somewhat after nine o’clock that evening, the boy was witness to a startling phenomenon:
He is a bright, intelligent little fellow, who said he didn’t believe in ghosts; that his parents had never scared him with spook stories, and he is one of the best- behaved scholars in the fourth grade at the Franklin school building. His story as told to a News reporter is as follows: “Last night papa and I were riding along the ‘Eighty-foot Road’, about two and a half miles [4km] north of town, when all at once everything got very bright. We saw a great ball of fire coming down toward the ground. It got within about three feet [90cm] of the ground and seemed to rest for a while and then it went back up until it got clear out of sight. There was a buzzing sound all the time.” George describes it as being about 10 feet [3m] in diameter and that it hurt one’s eyes to look at it. Although they were very close to it, he says that he did not feel any heat.
It’s a puzzling tale, one which nowadays might be interpreted as a UFO account.
Another encounter with a mysterious fireball did not have such a fortunate outcome. Twenty-two years previously, also in Texas, near the town of Palestine, another “intelligent boy” appeared, out of breath and “as pale as he could be”. His story was that he’d been trudging along a highway at night. According to the report:
“There was a woman riding a horse in the direction the little boy was going. The boy appeared that night in Palestine… He said he saw a ball of fire come out of the sky and strike the woman and set her ablaze. The horse ran away with the woman afire on his back, and he ran to town to tell the people what had happened. The people went to look after further particulars concerning this curious incident, and they found the woman lying on the ground, her clothing burned off, but enough of life in her to tell that she had been struck in the breast by a ball of fire. She died the next day. The horse was afterwards found with his mane singed. People here think that she was struck by a meteor.”
In contrast, there are also numerous instances of death from above by freak lightning manifesting as balls of fire. These incidents are no less outré, but in such cases we might console ourselves with a natural explanation. In 1866, Miss Addie Murray, a schoolteacher in Ross township, Vermillion county, Illinois, met her untimely end in this way: “She was sitting in the schoolhouse with two pupils, when the house was struck, and she was found sitting in the chair dead, with her clothing nearly burned off, and the children severely stunned. The children describe the scene as a ball of fire falling into the room.” Something similar struck John Whitton, a driver for a telegraph construction train in Leavenworth that same year. “He had occasion to lift the telegraph line off the ground, when a flash of lightning struck the line at that point, tearing it into small pieces, and instantly killing him. The men who saw the accident state that they saw a ball of fire as large as a man’s fist issue from Whitton’s breast.”
An unfortunate death by a fireball in 1933 was accompanied by a curious premonition on the part of the unfortunate victim. “In San Rocco, during a thunderstorm, a cleric was killed by lightning. The priest was involved in a discussion with several of his congregation in the village street, when quite slowly a one metre [40in] big, orange-coloured fireball came floating through the air straight towards the priest, which then erupted in his vicinity. The incident made quite an impression on the superstitious farmers, more so, as the day before the priest had presaged his own demise that was soon to come.”
A different kind of strange light, again attracted by the presence of a human being, was experienced by Alec Campbell, working as a game warden in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). One night, Campbell was walking by an old burial ground when suddenly a bright light appeared beside him. “The light turned into a ball of fire about the size of a softball and moved along at Campbell’s speed, he said… he turned and stared at the mysterious light. Immediately, the ball started advancing on him.” Campbell remembered the tales that said that if one encountered such a light, the best thing to do was to close one’s eyes, which would cause the light to disappear. He did so, and the light vanished.
Could there be lights not only possessed of some sort of intelligence but which are capable of forming a unique rapport with a person and even delivering painful stings when they so choose?
This seems to have been the case in Richmond, Indiana, in 1978. The bizarre incident involved local resident Martha Grieswell, 46 at the time, whose house had been plagued by “flashing pinpoints of light” ever since one had come into her bedroom one night in early January that year. Grieswell described how it appeared to her that she and the light were watching each other. The little light approached her: “I said ‘No,’ and it stopped about one and half feet [45cm] away. Then I held out my hand and it came right over and sat in my hand and turned my whole hand a psychedelic purple. It glowed for a while, then shut down to a point of light, then rose from my hand – then the others started to come in…”
Over the following nights, dozens of the “floating, flashing lights”, mostly white and pinhead-sized, entered her bedroom through the closed window; after that, they became her constant companions as soon as evening fell. Grieswell also began to note some of these lights during the daytime, although then they seemed less active. She moved out of the upstairs bedroom, where the lights continued to manifest, and began conducting experiments to try to ascertain what the lights might be.
She captured several in containers, including an aluminium cigarette case, and saw them shining through the container walls. Grieswell also immersed the lights in water, keeping them submerged for two days: “The lights were observed to ‘swim’ freely, and when released, to ‘fly’ free, their lights undimmed.” She got the same results when she locked them up in a freezer. She was only able to conduct these experiments when the lights were willing participants, since at other times they simply escaped through the walls of the containers. Radiation tests and an attempted chemical analysis turned up nothing. She did find out, though, that one thing had an effect on the lights. When she touched one with a burning cigarette, the light made “a crackling sound, as if you had wadded up cellophane very rapidly in your hand”. She was unable to replicate that experiment: “You can’t burn them any more. They move away too fast,” she explained. It dawned upon Mrs Grieswell that the lights might learn from experience and therefore might possess some kind of intelligence. When asked why she wanted to get rid of them, she gave the unnerving answer: “Because they bite.” At times, when the lights became more bright, they would sting or bite, giving off a sensation like “the sting of a sweat bee”, and leaving a very small welt. “They go through a tapping motion… When they land, they raise up, then light again… they feel like bugs when they sit on you and that’s when they burn.”
One night, a light got in her eye, which was a painful experience. The next day, she noticed that the eye was bloodshot and the corner crusted. When the lights were not stinging her, they had a tendency to land and crawl over her during the night. They also stung her husband, who wasn’t able to see them. This might be a significant detail; some of the many curious people who visited her house were able to see the lights, yet others were not.
Trying to escape the lights for a while, Mrs Grieswell went to her mother in Decatur, but on the third night after her arrival the lights came in through the window and were also seen by her mother. Perhaps, she reasoned, they had been able to follow her or had hidden themselves in her clothing or luggage. She got the impression that the lights meant to say that she could not flee from them. She sought help, and consulted scientists, ufologists and psychic researchers, but to little avail. As she said to the reporter who visited her (he wasn’t able to see the lights): “I’ve just made up my mind that I’m not going to get rid of them.”
One of the psychic researchers whom Grieswell contacted offered as explanation that she might be “experiencing a stage of consciousness preliminary to becoming a psychic medium”. A plausible suggestion, coming from a psychic researcher, as puzzling luminous phenomena manifest themselves often around mediums, and are well known in the field of parapsychology. It is said that Helène Smith experienced the manifestation of mysterious globes or lights in her studio where she had taken up painting, long after her association and ensuing break-up with Theodore Flournoy: “The visions were accompanied by luminous phenomena. They began with a ball of light which expanded and filled the room. This was not a subjective phenomenon. Helène Smith exposed photographic plates which indeed registered strong luminous effects.”
Then there is the case of Ada Bessinet, a Toledo medium of the 1920s. Denounced as a subconscious fraud by Professor Hyslop, who had investigated her during 70 sittings between 1909 and 1910, she clearly made more of an impression on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. He wrote, describing a séance with her: “Brilliant lights are part of the medium’s power, and even before she had sunk into a trance, they were flying up in graceful curves as high as the ceiling and circling back on us. One nearly rested on my hand. It seems to be a cold light, and its nature has never been determined, but perhaps the cold, vital light of the firefly may be an analogy.” Hereward Carrington was another who was not impressed, but he did state that he observed some very curious lights at a 1922 séance which, “on request, hovered for a few moments over exposed photographic plates and that the plates, when developed, showed unusual markings which he failed to obtain by artificial means”.

BREAK=====

When Weird Darkness returns, we’ll look at the history of seeing ghosts in mirrors. Plus, the Haunted Empire theater has a White Lady specter – as well as a Gray Lady… and even the ghost of a comedian!

<COMMERCIAL BREAK

STORY: GHOST IN THE MIRROR=====

Do you remember playing “Bloody Mary” when you were a child? You know, the game where you stared into a mirror and chanted the blood-witch’s name three times, with the eminent risk that a devilish ghost would emerge from the reflective surface and rip your face off?
In all likelihood, you did play this game, but failed to see a bloody witch glaring back at you. Still, many have professed an interest in the legend of Bloody Mary over the years, variously referred to as Mary Worth, Hell Mary, Mary Jones, and a host of other names. According to Snopes.com, Bloody Mary research began around 1978 in an essay published by folklorist Janet Langlois, at which time belief in summoning the mirror-witch was still widespread. “Mary is summoned whenever squealing girls get together for a sleepover,” Snopes says. “We typically performed the ‘ritual’ in bathrooms, because the bathrooms of our suburban homes had large mirrors and were easily darkened even during the day since they had no windows.” Typically, when the Bloody Mary ritual is performed correctly, a murderous ghost is said to emerge from the mirror, often attacking the individual who summoned her.
There is indeed a bit of history associated with the notion that ghostly images appear in mirrored surfaces. One early 20th century rhyme featured on Halloween post cards read, “On Halloween look in the glass, your future husband’s face will pass”. Although this reference certainly pre-dates Langlois’ 1978 research into the phenomenon, even earlier references to magical arts like mirror-gazing and the use of “shew stones” dates back to ancient Egypt, where black obsidian mirrors were sometimes used in the process of divination known as “scrying.”
According to Raymond Moody M.D., the ancient Greeks used a similar process with the specific intention of contacting the dead, which they called the psychomanteum. In modern times, this environment (sometimes called a “spirit booth”) is used in a fashion similar to that of the Ganzfeld Technique, in that it is a form of sensory deprivation (staring into the optical depth of a mirror in a darkened room). Moody says the effect that produces “apparitions” is purely psychological—but it also causes one to consider whether, if the appearance of the dead in psychological studies can be achieved, the same might have occurred in other, less formal situations.
Ghosts in mirrors have indeed become an item of fascination. Various different takes on this theme include everything from the popular Candyman films to widely-circulated videos seen on the Internet. We’ll talk a bit more about those in a moment.
Similarly, many parapsychologists have suggested that ghosts may become visible in reflective surfaces due to the way that mirrors, while maintaining an optical reversal of their surroundings, nonetheless reflect one of the most common forms of electromagnetic energy: light. Thus, a variety of images purported to show ghostly manifestations in haunted locations achieve their affect by aiming the lens of a camera diagonally into mirrors and reflective surfaces.
As an addendum to this story, Sheridan Walker of San Antonio, TX sent along the following story:
“A friend in England, Dr. Harry Oldfield, has been interested in ghost research for many years. At the request of a friend who believed her house was haunted, Harry visited to take photos with his specially equipped camera. He and the friend stood in the doorway of the bedroom where a lot of activity had been happening and he snapped a quick photo when he saw a flash of motion–neither could say at the moment what it could have been. The wall opposite the door contained a bureau and mirror. When the photos came back there was one( the one with the mirror) that showed 3 people in medieval dress with shocked looks on their faces, one reaching his hand out as if to bravely try to touch the unknown room they were seeing. These people were within the mirror. The mirror also reflected back a small table with some things on it–a table not in the physical room. The house was of an age to date back to the time that these other people might have lived. I always got the feeling that perhaps the location of the mirror was a portal of some sort–and these folks were not ghosts.

While we’re on the subject of mirrors, there are a lot more creepy aspects of them to look into.

If you have eisoptrophobia or catoptrophobia, you won’t be querying a mirror on the wall – or a mirror anywhere – about fairness. Both of these phobias involve a fear of mirrors, and though this rare condition may seem strange, it’s not hard to argue that mirrors are inherently mysterious – we assign them meaning beyond their role as an object that’s used to check if our hair or outfit looks good.

The history of mirrors dates back to the time when ancient people gazed at their reflections in the water. Later, they peered at themselves via polished stones until the advent of modern glass mirrors. In addition to allowing people to look at themselves, mirrors became metaphors for the soul, serving as a reflection of one’s inner and exterior qualities. Along with this idea came the notion that people’s souls can get trapped inside these objects, which might become portals to the spirit world where the spirits aren’t always friendly.

The spooky game called Bloody Mary, as well as many horror movies and stories, take advantage of our superstitions about mirrors. Scientists may not be able to pinpoint why people are afraid of mirrors, but these phobia facts suggest our reflections could have fascinating associations.

The medical term for a fear of seeing yourself in a mirror is eisoptrophobia, though it is often interchanged with catoptrophobia and an aversion of mirrors in general. Eisoptrophobia comes from the Greek words for “into” (eis) and “vision” (optikos). Usually, people who have eisoptrophobia are afraid of the image they see reflected, not the physical mirror.

Like all phobias, the condition involves an intense fear that disrupts a person’s life. Symptoms can include rapid heartbeat, anxiety, and shortness of breath. People living with Eisoptrophobia may avoid mirrors or cover them up. Scientists don’t have a concrete reason as to why this phobia occurs, but they believe an external event like a traumatic experience could be a factor.

Though sometimes interchanged with eisoptrophobia, the fear of mirrors is medically known as catoptrophobia. Catropto is the Greek word for mirrors, from which the term originates. This irrational fear of the physical mirror can cause anxiety attacks and physical symptoms, including shortness of breath and rapid heartbeat.

Catoptrophobia can manifest at the same time as other phobias, such as scoptophobia, the fear of being watched, to make the act of seeing one’s reflection even more terrifying. Scientists are unsure what causes catoptrophobia, but therapy can help those who have it.

Eisoptrophobia and catoptrophobia can simultaneously exist with spectrophobia, the extreme fear of spirits or ghosts. The term comes from the Greek translation of “fear” and the Latin word spectrum, which means “apparition.” Thanks to urban legends, superstition, and horror movie tropes involving supernatural beings suddenly appearing in mirrors, it’s not hard to see why this phobia pairs well with the fear of mirrors.

In addition to mirrors, spectrophobia sufferers may fear and avoid dark places, empty houses, and heavily wooded areas. Spectrophobia, also known as phasmophobia, can cause the same symptoms of anxiety similar to other phobias.

Historically, people in some cultures might have draped cloths over mirrors in a home after a friend or family member has perished. In Victorian times, whether people covered the mirrors completely or wrapped them in black fabric around the edges, they considered the decoration a status symbol.

Long before then, Germans reportedly feared that looking in a mirror after someone passed would bring the same fate to the gazer. In China, people turned mirrors over after someone departed so that their loved one’s spirit wouldn’t accidentally see their reflection and realize they were a ghost. People in other cultures might have covered mirrors after a loss because they believed the reflective surface could absorb the energy of a spirit who came by, bringing evil and bad luck to the mirror’s owner.

Some Jewish people may still practice this tradition, not only to help their loved one’s spirit move on and avoid being trapped in the mirror, but also to help the living focus on the deceased’s image rather than their personal reflection.

Superstitions about mirrors mainly derive from the belief that they are connected to and serve as a portal to the supernatural world. In some horror movies, for example, ghosts, evil spirits, and other beings appear in or emerge from mirrors once a portal is opened.

Other people believe souls can get trapped inside mirrors. Often, these souls are evil and can bring harm to anyone who gazes into the same mirror. The evil energy trapped in the mirror would be proportional to the evil that dwelled in the deceased person when they were alive. Those who hold these beliefs say people should cover, destroy, bless, or bury haunted mirrors.

In addition to walking under ladders and crossing the path of black cats, breaking a mirror is one of the most well-known superstitious beliefs thought to bring bad luck. People in ancient times thought reflections were the result of being able to see one’s soul. Since they also believed it takes seven years for a soul to regenerate itself, breaking a mirror would supposedly bring a person bad luck for that many years.

The same concept applies to reflections in water. According to some folktales, people reportedly experienced bad things after ripples or waves disturbed their reflection.

Some people use mirrors to query those in the spirit world or learn about the future. Ancient Greeks might have built psychomanteums – mirrored rooms in which they would sit, gaze at their reflections, and connect to the spirit world. Greeks also allegedly dipped mirrors in water to double the power of their reflection and communication. Black magic practitioners in ancient times could have used this double reflection plus water to predict if people would perish.

Those who practice scrying – seeking answers and hidden meanings in a reflective surface – may use crystal balls or mirrors.

According to ancient Greek myths, Narcissus falls in love with his reflection after attempting to drink from a body of water. Since it is only a reflection, he can’t touch or hold onto it, so he spends the rest of his life gazing at himself. The story has different endings, with Narcissus turning into a flower, dying by suicide, or becoming condemned to view his reflection in the River Styx.

Whatever the outcome, the myth teaches that extreme vanity is not a good thing when a person becomes trapped in it. Cabinets or dressers attached to mirrors are often called vanities, which strengthens the association with one’s reflection.

Some religions consider vanity a sin. In Christianity, vanity often goes along with pride, one of the seven deadly sins. During the 17th century, the Russian Orthodox Church supposedly banned priests from owning mirrors.

For some, gazing into a mirror may cause fear if they have a warped body image. People with dysmorphophobia, also known as body dysmorphic disorder, can become obsessed with a perceived flaw in their appearance. Psychologists used to view this problem as the fear of a repulsive or deformed body, but now classify it as a disorder rather than a phobia.

Though people who have this disorder aren’t necessarily scared of mirrors, they might avoid or despise looking in mirrors.

Some supernatural beliefs about mirrors claim the reflective surface is a parallel universe, as described in Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There when she goes through the glass. Though the idea of another world inside a mirror is largely based on superstition and urban legends, science suggests that if such a world did exist, the mirror-image molecules there might create an environment that’s drastically different from ours.

It’s all based on a concept in chemistry called chiral molecules. A molecule is chiral when it can have a mirror image of itself, but those two molecules can’t be superimposed on one another. Consider, for example, a pair of gloves, which are mirror images and appear exactly alike, but they can’t be worn comfortably on the wrong hand.

Thus, according to science, the world inside a mirror might be incompatible or even inhospitable, as it would entail a place where molecules and DNA have dissimilar properties from ours and might react differently. If such a scenario were true, perhaps fearing another world inside a mirror makes sense.

Bloody Mary though, has probably done the most damage to the reputation of mirrors.

The history of Bloody Mary is a mysterious one: no researcher can prove conclusively or exactly where and when the creepy Bloody Mary legend began, nor can anyone pinpoint who Bloody Mary was. Several theories have circulated, however, about who Mary truly was and how her morose legend came to be. As with all legends, plot points change as they are passed down and vary by region to make the tale more applicable to whatever cultural group is involved at the time. For this reason, there are different versions of the “game” and different beliefs about what will happen if Bloody Mary is successfully summoned.

Folklorists have been able to trace these various tales back to the 1960s, but the legend of Bloody Mary and the accompanying creepy adolescent sleepover ritual could be much older than that. In fact, the elements involved in the folklore date back to much older ritualistic practices like mirror-gazing and self-hypnosis. Let’s explore some variations of the lore, the ritual, and the possible identities of the infamous Bloody Mary.

The instructions for summoning the spirit of Bloody Mary have been tweaked in various regions, but the basic ingredients remain the same. You’ll always need a dark bathroom, at least one lit candle, a mirror, and equal parts bravery and stupidity. What happens after you’ve gathered these ingredients can vary.

Some versions of the game say once you’ve turned off the bathroom light and lit the candle, you stare into the mirror and slowly chant “Bloody Mary” three times. Other versions claim chanting her name five times will rouse her. Some variations even suggest spinning anywhere between three and thirteen times before chanting, and then blowing out the candle to summon her in the dark.

Summoning this bloody witch of legend can produce multiple results, none of them good. The tamest consequence is simply seeing Bloody Mary appear in the mirror – or the mirror itself will start bleeding. From there, the consequences escalate to mysterious claw marks appearing all over your face and body.

Some say Mary will reach through the mirror and rip out the summoner’s eyes. Others claim she will drive anyone in her presence insane, and some say summoners will suffer instant death.

One version of the Bloody Mary legend states that she is the ghost of a witch named Mary Worth who dabbled in the dark arts, abducting young girls and harnessing their youth to maintain her own beauty. Eventually, around the time of the Civil War, locals discovered there was a witch in their midst and took matters into their own hands. Mary was dragged outside, tied to a stake, and burned. Many believe her body was buried on her own farmland, and that, because of this, the land is now cursed.

Eventually – and mysteriously – Mary Worth’s spirit was absorbed into a mirror, and it is now summoned whenever pre-teens gather for a slumber party. The game for this variation involves locking yourself in a dark bathroom with a candle (which represents the fire of her demise) and standing in front of the mirror whispering “I believe in Mary Worth” three times.

While the origins of Bloody Mary vary from depending on region, the most popular theory contests that, historically, this enigmatic figure was Mary I, Queen of England, who ruled during the Tudor period. The Catholic queen was nicknamed Bloody Mary during her lifetime because of her unusual amount of miscarriages, as well as her penchant for ordering frequent executions – especially for Protestants – during her five-year reign.

The history of Mary Tudor’s multiple miscarriages and two phantom pregnancies resulted in the “I stole your baby” variation of the game. In this version, chanters call for Bloody Mary three times as usual but then add the taunt “I stole your baby” afterwards.

Another origin story for this blood-soaked mystery woman is that she is really the ghost of a beautiful but terribly vain woman by the name of Mary Worthington. According to legend, a terrible accident left her disfigured. Unable to carry on without her former beauty, Mary killed herself in the 1960s. Many cultures maintain their own lore about bathroom-summoned entities. Hanako-san, or Toire no Hanako-san (which translates to “Hanako of the toilet”), is the Japanese equivalent of Bloody Mary.

Hanako-san is said to be the spirit of a WWII–era girl who haunts school bathrooms. According to the legend, if one approaches the third stall of a girl’s restroom on a school’s third floor and knocks three times, asking,”Are you there, Hanako-san?”, she will answer, “I’m here.” Allegedly, if you choose to enter the stall, there will be a small girl with bobbed hair in a red skirt waiting for you.

Some say that, after she is summoned, Hanako-san’s white, blood-stained hand will emerge from under the door. Some regions even claim that entering the stall after Hanako-san responds will result in a three-headed lizard eating the summoner.

Hanako-san is a widespread urban legend all throughout Japan and, much like in the Western world, the game is often played by children to prove their bravery to their peers.

Mirrors have always been considered gateways into the spirit world, and using mirrors to glimpse the future and communicate with otherworldly entities dates back to ancient times. The practice became immensely popular in the 1700s-era British Isles for young girls, who would perform a ritual with a candle and mirror to discover the identity of their future husbands. A girl would sit in front of a mirror with a candle, brush her hair, and bite out of an apple.

Apparently, the face of their husband-to-be would appear over their shoulder in the mirror. If the face of a skeleton appeared instead, that meant the girl would die before getting married.

This example from the Poems of Robert Burns was published in 1787: “Take a candle, and go alone to a looking glass; eat an apple before it, and some traditions say, you should comb your hair all the time; the face of your conjugal companion, to be, will be seen in the glass, as if peeping over your shoulder.”

From television’s Ghost Whisperer, Charmed, and Supernatural to full-length feature films and video games, the legend of Bloody Mary has made quite a few appearances in pop culture. The most hilarious re-imagining is most likely South Park’s parody, where the boys all dare each other to chant “Biggie Smalls” in the mirror three times.

An intriguing interpretation of the Bloody Mary legend is found in the movie Candyman.

The story begins in the 1890s with a forbidden love affair between Daniel Robitaille, the son of a slave, and Caroline Sullivan, the daughter of a wealthy landowner. Caroline becomes pregnant, but her father, angered by the racial difference between the two lovers, refuses to accept the relationship. Mr. Sullivan enlists a lynch mob to brutally slaughter Robitaille, severing his right hand, coating him in honey, and chanting “Candyman” as bees sting him to death.

Robitaille saw himself reflected in Caroline’s mirror as he uttered “Candyman” with his last breath. This action supernaturally trapped his soul in the mirror for all eternity.

In order to reach him, a summoner must stand in front of a mirror and repeat “Candyman” five times. Robitaille’s vengeful spirit will appear and murder the summoner with the bloody hook that replaced his missing hand.

Assuming your friend’s sister’s cousin is actually telling the truth when she swears Bloody Mary appeared to her at a sleepover last summer, science has an explanation. Apparently, you don’t need hallucinogens to hallucinate; the act of staring into a mirror in a dimly lit room for a prolonged period is enough to do the trick. Experiments performed by psychologists have proven the phenomenon.

In essence, your brain, due to lack of information, starts creating its own, causing the reflection’s facial features to distort or melt, and even adding things that aren’t really there. These hallucinations can range from familiar to terrifying.

The adrenaline from spinning around beforehand can also add to this phenomenon. Ultimately, the Bloody Mary game does work, it’s just not Bloody Mary you’re seeing.

BREAK=====

Up next – who or what is mutilating cows in Hamey County, Oregon? A haunted theater with two lady ghosts and a phantom comedian!

Plus… life beyond death – is it possible science is on the brink of revealing the truth about it? These stories and more when Weird Darkness returns!

STORY: HAUNTED EMPIRE THEATER=====

A 2004 the Sunderland Echo article stated ‘The Empire Theatre in High Street West is thought to be haunted by the White Lady, known to frequent the bar area. A staff member says she heard doors banging, people walking about and felt an ice-cold presence. Some have speculated the ghost could be linked to the disappearance of a female member of staff from the 1940s.’ The white lady though is only of the three ghosts thought to have a presence there.

The White Lady is thought to be Molly Moselle. The following article by Sarah Stoner looking into Molly’s vanishing was published in the Sunderland Echo on 7 June 2011.‘The mysterious disappearance of a dancer and entertainer from a Wearside theatre sparked a real-life drama in 1949.’

It was on January 14 that Molly Moselle – an assistant stage manager for Ivor Novello’s show The Dancing Years, then running at the Empire – vanished while on an errand.

The 33-year-old, whose real name was Mary Burslem, had left her lodgings in Eden Street in the late afternoon, after telling her landlady she was popping out for a birthday card.

But the card for Barry Sinclair, the show’s leading man, never arrived. And Molly, a bright, lively and popular girl, was never seen again.

Tom Kershaw, then a dresser at the Empire, is thought to have been the last person from the theatre to see her alive that day.

“It was about five in the afternoon. I was at the window of my flat and saw Molly going across the road,” he later recalled.

“She had an orange jacket on, and orange slacks and a hair band. I told my wife that it was the assistant manager from the Empire.”

Molly quickly disappeared from view into an alleyway, which in those days linked Eden Street with Garden Place, and Tom thought nothing more of it.
But, when he arrived at the theatre later that night, he found that Molly hadn’t turned up. “No-one ever saw her alive again,” he said.

As fears for Molly’s safety soared, so detectives quizzed her theatrical pals. “She was very popular with everyone,” leading man Barry Sinclair told the Echo.
Peter Braid, the Empire’s stage manager, added: “She was an extremely happy girl. She was a girl with a strong personality.”

Beneath Molly’s bubbly and vivacious personality, however, lay a troubled soul. Indeed, she was deeply depressed after two failed relationships.
Her 16-year affair with comedian Bunny Doyle had finished only months before, while a romance with businessman Walter Hattersley had just ended in tears.

Mysteriously, according to old newspaper reports, Molly had received a letter from Walter on the day she disappeared – but she refused to reveal the contents.

“The police search for Molly has been extended across Britain, with many people reporting sightings of her at various railway stations,” reported the Echo.

“No trace, however, has been found.

“Investigations into the possibility of suicide or murder have drawn a blank too, as have interviews with past boyfriends and her family back in Merseyside.”
Numerous suggestions for her disappearance were put forward. One rumour had her snatched by the white slave trade, another that she had stowed away on a ship to start a new life.

But, despite the many offers of help from the public, Molly’s trail soon went cold. After weeks of investigations, no further evidence could be found – although the police file remains open.

** Almost 21 years after Molly was reported missing, a badly decomposed torso was found in the River Wear on October 12, 1960. A post-mortem examination revealed the body to be that of a woman, aged from 25 to 50, who had been dead for many years.

“A note made at the inquest suggested the body may ‘explain the disappearance’ of Molly, although proving the theory ‘would be impossible,’” reported the Echo.

Eventually, when police inquiries failed to shed any further light on the identity of the river body, the remains were laid to rest on October 17, 1960.

* Molly’s disappearance remains just as much of a mystery as it was 62 years ago, although legend has it that she now haunts the Empire Theatre. As it was never proved that she died, it could just be possible that a 95-year-old Molly is living out her final years away from the spotlight.

According to ‘Why is the Sunderland Empire one of the UK’s most haunted theatres?’, a Sunderland Echo article by Vicki Newman published on 8 September 2016 ‘Molly is said to haunt the mens’ toilets in the dress circle and was last sighted very recently during a run of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat earlier this year.

Anthony [Hope] added: “A little boy from London who was here to see the show with his family gave everyone a fright one night. He’d never been to Sunderland before and couldn’t have possibly known this story.

“But he came out of the toilets and told a member of staff that he’d just been talking to Molly in there. The staff member told him no one called Molly was working that night. Everyone was too scared to go in and take a look for themselves.”

In her article, Vicki explains that Anthony Hope a member of the creative learning department, revealed what he knew of the ghosts. ‘The gallery, sometimes referred to as ‘The Gods’, is the highest point in the theatre and supposedly the most haunted area within the building.

A ghost known only as ‘The Grey Lady’ is said to occupy the gallery, although most theatres are believed to have a Grey Lady.

Anthony said: “She likes it up in the gallery because she watches over the shows and the audience to make sure that everything goes the way it’s supposed to.

“People have said that while they’ve been sat up in the gallery, they’ve turned around to see a grey figure standing behind them, but whether or not that’s just an usher in the shadows we don’t know.”

One of my favourite comedy actors, Sid James (Born 8 May 1913 – Died 26 April 1976) suffered a fatal heart attack on stage whilst appearing in ‘The Mating season’. According to Vicki Newman, ‘He was sitting on a sofa next to actress Olga Lowe, who got no response when she said her line to him.

Known for his improvisations, she played along and continued talking to him, but still didn’t get a response.

Anthony said: “She knew then that something was wrong and ran off stage. The company manager came onto the stage and started shouting into the audience, asking for a doctor.

“Because Sid James had been in Carry On Doctor, everyone thought it was part of the show and just howled with laughter.

“Eventually a doctor came up from the audience onto the stage, crying with laughter, and only realised it wasn’t part of the show when the curtain came down dramatically.”

Sid is now said to haunt dressing room one – which he was using – and actors using it have reported hearing his signature dirty laugh echoing around the room.

Anthony added: “Some people who’ve been here for panto have said they’re never coming back because they’re so scared and others have refused to use dressing room one and requested to have another.

“Maintenance workers who’ve been in there alone to paint have also reported hearing the laugh and being tapped on the shoulder.”

There is a story that the comedian Les Dawson (Born 2 February 1934 – Died 10 June 1993) had a strange experience in Sid’s old dressing room in 1989. but this may or may not be the case. An interesting interview with Melvyn James, the theatres Technical Manager appeared in an article in The Shields Gazette (11/01/2009) entitled ‘Theatre Stage An Old Haunt For Sid?’ When asked about Les, he said “I’ve heard the stories, but if Les did see anything, he never mentioned it when he was here. Maybe he related something later, but I saw him regularly and he never made any such claims.”

STORY: OREGON CATTLE MUTILATIONS=====

When the first dead bull turned up at the end of July, it didn’t raise an alarm at the Silvies Valley Ranch.
Cattle sometimes die suddenly on the ranch’s 140,000 acres in Harney County — struck by disease or felled by a broken leg and unable to find a way out of the rugged, forested terrain.
But by the time ranch hands discovered four more dead bulls within 24 hours, they knew they were likely dealing with deliberate, premeditated killings.
They’re still baffled by the circumstances. There were no wounds. No signs of a struggle. And the bulls’ genitals and tongues had been carefully removed.
The killing and mutilation of the 4 and 5-year-old Hereford bulls in the prime of their productive lives has since spurred a multi-agency investigation in eastern Oregon, but detectives have turned up no leads and haven’t yet even settled on a cause of death.
“How somebody put these bulls on the ground at what would be arguably a fairly close range — and to do it in a way that didn’t leave any signs, no trace evidence, no footprints, no struggle marks from the animal, no broken limbs — I have no idea,” said Colby Marshall, vice president of the Silvies Valley Ranch.
The mystery deepens because there’s no obvious reason someone would want those animal parts. They aren’t prime targets for black market sales, authorities said.
The deaths are eerily similar to a rash of livestock killings and mutilations across the West in the 1970s, when hundreds of cows and bulls turned up dead, also of seemingly unknown causes and with their genitals and tongues missing.
Back then, theories ran the gamut from a government conspiracy and UFOs to natural deaths and scavengers. Today, the circumstances at Silvies Valley Ranch point to humans as the probable culprits because of the precise cuts on the bulls.
Anything else for now is speculation, including ideas of what might have killed a bull without leaving marks. Marshall said he wonders if the killer used poison darts.
“We think that these are very sick and dangerous individuals and they need to answer for this horrible crime,” he said.
Silvies Valley Ranch, about 40 minutes north of the county seat of Burns, has put up a $25,000 reward for information on the bull killings that leads to an arrest and conviction, and the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association has offered its own $1,000 reward.
The investigation has pulled in Oregon State Police as well as the U.S. Forest Service because the cattle were grazing on a federal allotment in the Malheur National Forest.
The ranch is owned by veterinarian Scott Campbell, who bought the enterprise in 2006. Since then, it’s expanded into tourism with a golf course and resort on site, but still maintains around 4,500 head of beef cattle, including around 100 bulls.
The five dead bulls were found on July 30 and 31, in a wooded area about 15 miles from U.S. 395, the nearest major road. They were each about a quarter mile apart, Marshall said. There is some official disagreement on when they were killed — the Harney County Sheriff’s Office, which saw only four of the bulls, puts the deaths at three to 14 days before discovery, but Marshall believes the cattle were discovered within 24 to 48 hours of their deaths.
The delay in finding the animals is not unusual in such a remote area, where ranchers are tasked with patrolling large tracts of land, said Jerome Rosa, executive director of the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association. Harney County is Oregon’s largest county, covering more than 10,000 square miles where cattle outnumber people 14-to-1.
“These are huge, vast, steep landscapes with lots of rock and trees and brush,” Rosa said. “Ranchers may not see their cattle for long stretches of time.”
Beef is Oregon’s largest agricultural commodity, drawing in nearly $1 billion a year – and most cattle crimes typically involve theft, Rosa said.
This makes the deaths at Silvies Valley Ranch particularly bizarre, he said, because the bulls were worth a lot of money alive, particularly for breeding.
Marshall estimated their value at up to $7,000 apiece and said they would have sired at least 100 calves each over the remainder of their lives.
“Their productive life was a huge economic opportunity for the ranch, and now that’s completely lost,” he said. “We’re talking hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
Marshall has heard from several other Oregon ranchers who reported similar killings on their property over the past few decades — including cows that had been found with their udders, vulvas and tongues removed.
One of these ranchers, Terry Anderson, found a dead cow on land he was renting near Pendleton in 1980. Its udder had been cleanly removed and Anderson could see no clear evidence of what had killed the animal.
“There was no visible bullet hole or anything there,” Anderson recalled this week. “It was so unusual. It just left you with an eerie feeling.”
The hundreds of cattle deaths in the 1970s — largely concentrated in the Midwest — caused a media sensation as ranchers roiled by an economic crisis blamed a government conspiracy, according to Michael Goleman, a history professor at Somerset Community College in Kentucky who researched the phenomenon.
Because the killings were scattered across different states, investigators reached no overarching conclusion on the cause of the deaths, but Goleman said some people believed the government was conducting weapons tests on the cattle.
Facing pressure from ranchers, the FBI opened an investigation in 1979 into the deaths of 15 cattle in New Mexico, ultimately concluding that there was no evidence of intentional mutilation by humans and the animals had likely died of natural causes.
Since then, scattered reports have made headlines, including the discovery of several mutilated cows in Kansas in 2016 and five cows in 1990 that had been killed and dissected on a farm in Washington. Goleman said conspiracy theorists have pinned the blame on everything from satanic cults to aliens.
But Silvies Valley Ranch isn’t placing its bets on paranormal activity, though Harney County Sheriff’s Deputy Dan Jenkins said he’s gotten a few suggestions that Sasquatch may be responsible. He’s received around 20 calls from around the western U.S. since news about the deaths started spreading.
Jenkins, the lead investigator on the case, said the lack of physical evidence at the crime sites — no footprints, no tire or ATV tracks — means authorities are relying on witnesses to call in to the tip line and report any suspicious activity they might have seen in the area.
David Bohnert, a professor at Oregon State University who studies beef cattle, said two things typically kill livestock: poisoning from eating toxic plants and people.
In this case, poisoning is unlikely, given the number of bulls involved and the plants in the area, he said. Larkspur typically flowers earlier in the year, while hemlock, another deadly plant, grows only around rivers and streams — not the dry forests where the bulls were found.
Plus, the fact that all five cattle killed were bulls, Bohnert said, is statistically unlikely to occur in nature — they make up only about 4% to 6% of a herd.
That leaves human activity as the most likely cause, he said. Adding to the evidence is the surgical precision with which the genitals and tongues were removed. Scavengers would leave obvious signs of tearing with teeth, claws or beaks, he said.
Bohnert said he has heard rumors of bull testicles being considered an aphrodisiac, and both tongues and genitals can be eaten — the famous “Rocky Mountain Oysters” come to mind. But he could think of no reason why someone couldn’t just legally buy the animal parts.
Yet the human explanation comes with its own difficulties.
Taking down a 2,000-pound bull is no easy feat, and Marshall said there were no signs of a struggle — the bulls were all lying on their sides as if they had just fallen over and died.
He said he could only think that some kind of toxic dart might kill a bull from a distance. But he has no proof of it and may never find it. It’s not clear if a dart would leave a detectable imprint.
In the meantime, tissue samples taken from the carcasses are still being analyzed for toxins and no results are available yet, Marshall said. Even with the tests, the killings may remain an enigma. The bulls had been left to decompose for several days, making a toxicology screen difficult to do, he said.
Until a suspect is found, ranch employees are on high alert, particularly those who patrol vast areas alone on ATV or on horseback.
Rosa said the news had also concerned other ranchers — but that greater awareness could also lead to faster answers in the tight-knit ranching community.
“The neighbors and the folks that are in those areas know each other,” Rosa said. “And when there’s someone strange or different that’s out and about, they take notice of that, and they let each other know.”

STORY:  NEW EVIDENCE OF LIFE AFTER DEATH=====

Most of us are struggling to survive on earth and don’t have time to think about life after death. As it happens, there is much information about this subject, and some progress in the field is notable. Thanks to new technologies, what may lie behind the veil of bodily death is being gradually scoped out.
There are four types of experience fairly recently noted that seem to shed light on the great mystery: near-death experiences (NDEs), deathbed visions, terminal lucidity, and group near-death experiences.
The most widely known are NDEs, perhaps the most interesting. In cases of near-death caused by cardiac arrest, blood is immediately cut off from the brain, and there ought not to be any consciousness, any experience at all, according to the mainstream view. But not only do people still have experiences, they have the most vivid, super-real, and transformative experiences—which should be impossible, if mainstream science is right.
In death-bed visions, people about to die see apparitions of dead people; their mood is exalted. They die convinced by their vision that there is a world beyond. Terminal lucidity refers to people who suffer from Alzheimer’s, schizophrenia, or other brain disease, but who, days or hours before death, suddenly recover their mental faculties and recognize their loved ones just before passing away. This phenomenon is a real challenge–how to explain it? It looks as if the person, in leaving the sick brain, retrieves her mental faculties before passing into the next world. The retrieved mental faculties may be the result of the mind breaking loose from its damaged brain. I’m waiting to hear another explanation.
Finally, the fourth new phenomenon, and one that seems especially rare: in this case, individuals with the dying person somehow mentally join him or her in the preliminary journey to the next world. Scott M. Taylor, Ed. D, President and Executive Director of the Monroe Institute, was kind enough to provide a written account of the near-death experience he shared with someone he loved.
Before I quote Scott’s description, there is the sad background for this remarkable experience. Mary Fran and her boy Nolan were both killed in a car crash, Mary Fran instantly and Nolan several days later in a hospital, surrounded by two anxious families, along with Scott. There came a moment when the boy died, causing the hearts of all to sink—except Scott.
At the moment of Nolan’s passing, Scott had an experience that is rarely reported, although Raymond Moody has written a book about the phenomenon called Glimpses of Eternity. How many times in the history of the world have people been forced to watch those they loved die? Countless, no doubt—but how often do you hear stories of anyone who claimed to join the dying person making the transition?
Not very often, to be sure. But it’s being reported more frequently today. Here is how Scott Taylor describes it: “As Nolan’s heartbeat patterns flattened and the monitor beside his bed sounded the constant, unwavering tone of organ failure, every member of his extended family wept…except for me.
“As he left his physical body for the last time, Mary Fran crossed the divide between the nonphysical world and the physical and scooped Nolan out of his body. Their reunion embrace was exquisite. Then, to my surprise, Mary Fran and Nolan turned and included me in their embrace. Together, the three of us went to the light.
“I know of no English words for the combination of joy, ecstasy, love, and requited longing that burned within me. It carried me to a dimension I never knew existed. In that moment, there was no pain of loss, only unity, rapture and reunion.”
Now, as it seems, the greater mental world we inhabit—not in physical space or time—is present to us and pervades physical reality. We are, it seems, psychophysical amphibians, separate in space but united in mind and spirit. The great oneness of mind is mostly hidden below the threshold of our everyday awareness.
The experience that Scott describes fits the amphibian image. He describes his experience unfolding in the ‘next’ world even while at the same time being fully aware of himself with his co-mourners standing next to him in the hospital. Scott was aware of the incongruity of his feeling expansive and ecstatic at the very moment that Nolan died, so he puts his face in his hands and tries to conceal the fact that he is bursting with joy.
As Scott writes in a remarkable passage: “I was fully conscious, fully present in the hospital room with the grieving gathering. Yet simultaneously I was lifted to a place beyond description. I experienced bi-location: two fully conscious vantage points, one on the window sill next to Willy, and a second, somewhere in another dimension embraced by Mary Fran and Nolan as she guided her son farther into the Light.”
The image that emerges tells us that by virtue of our minds we are connected with a greater mind and greater worlds. But to know this we sometimes are forced to venture into the dangerous waters of love and death.

SHOW CLOSE=====

All stories in Weird Darkness are purported to be true (unless indicated otherwise) and you can find source links or links to the authors in the show notes.

“Sentient Fireballs and Biting Lights” from the Fortean Times

“Oregon Cattle Mutilations” by Diana Kruzman for Oregon Live

“New Evidence for Life After Death” by Michael Grosso for Consciousness Unbound

“Ghost in the Mirror” by Micah Hanks for the Gralien Report, Erin McCann for Graveyard Shift, and also Lyra Radford for Ranker

“Where The Woods Entice You To Murder” by Claire Reid for Lad Bible

“The Haunted Empire Theater” by Ian at Mysterious Britain and Ireland

WeirdDarkness™ – is a registered trademark of Marlar House Productions.

Now that we’re coming out of the dark, I’ll leave you with a little light… “But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord…” — Philippians 3:7-8

And a final thought… “Love people for who they are instead of judging them for who they are not.” – Unknown

I’m Darren Marlar. Thanks for joining me in the Weird Darkness.

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