Page 71 - July - August 2019 - v3_june_july_2009_Neat

The Conjuring: Ghosts? Poltergeist? Demons? 71

The Conjuring: Ghosts?

Poltergeist? Demons?

Continued from Page 70

She had clearly experienced a common
waking dream, a type of hallucination that
occurs in a state between being fully asleep or
awake. This was accompanied—as often
happens—by sleep paralysis, the inability to
move because the body is still in the sleep mode
(Nickell 2012, 41–43, 109).
Carolyn Perron had another
characteristic waking dream in which, stirring
from sleep and “sensing a presence” (a common
experience), she opened her eyes and saw “The
grotesque figure of a woman hovering above
her.” Again “immobilized,” she watched the
ghostly form approach as she reacted in terror,
then—“It was gone” (I: 185–187). Andrea had a
similar “nightmare,” saying, “It woke me up but school classes with herself as teacher, using an Witches and Demons
then I couldn’t move” (I: 191). One doesn’t have old oak-framed slate blackboard. However, she
to be in bed to have a waking dream. Eight-year- tells us that “some scoundrel spirits from the Even when the best evidence warrants a
old Cindy was playing with toys on her bedroom Netherworld did not appreciate having to attend mundane explanation, Andrea still invokes the
floor, and “many hours passed without her school and would play nasty tricks. . . .” The supernatural. For instance, her father was once
recognizing it.” Then she saw the figure her chalkboard was a target, being repeatedly angry about something and “touched a handle on
mother had told the children about, and that smeared, often even erased, and was eventually the pot of meatballs” cooking in the kitchen,
Cindy had later seen “in a dream” (original completely smashed. Although Andrea believed whereupon “it flew off the stove and hit the
emphasis). Now, in a “soft glow,” the figure it was all of the girls’ “favorite pastime,” I floor,” splattering him with sauce. Andrea insists
emerged from the closet, and seeing it “instantly suspect that one of them secretly resented the she “saw that pot of meatballs go flying off the
paralyzed Cindy” (I: 222). extra “school” time their big sister was surface of the stove without the assistance of her
Sometimes, however, Carolyn or the subjecting them to. To such reports, Lorraine furious father.” She wondered if the “Kitchen
girls had an apparitional experience other than a Warren gave a knowing smile and said, Witch”—a historic local figure named
waking dream. Andrea, for instance, during “poltergeists”—as if her “clairvoyance,” rather Bathsheba Sherman the Perrons obsessed on—
daily activity, saw “a family: a man, a boy and than her fantasy proneness, told her so. States was actually responsible (II: 236; I: 298).
his dog, standing side-by-side, peering through Andrea (I: 448): Carolyn Perron had researched local
the wall of her bedroom” (I: 473). Cindy, who As one of the most active rooms in the history and found that Bathsheba had been
exhibited many of the traits associated with a house, the kitchen attracted someone, maybe charged with the murder of a child, although the
fantasy-prone personality, once whispered to her more than one spirit. The telephone was case was dismissed. Nevertheless, people
mother, “Mom, there’s a whole bunch of people frequently tampered with, as were several purportedly whispered she was a witch who had
eating in our dining room” (II: 69–70). On appliances. Antique bottles were routinely sacrificed an infant to the Devil (II: 299, 321,
another occasion, Cindy saw several “little arranged and rearranged, moved from open 404). But was Bathsheba instead—as Mrs.
ghosts”—“native children”—playing in a shelves to windowsills then back again; Warren told them, according to Andrea (I:
nearby pine grove (II: 164–165). Apparitions someone had a flair for interior design! A pile of 328)—“the lone demonic presence in their
tend to be perceived during altered states of dirt left on the floor, the broom propped beside house?” Did Lorraine Warren really use her
consciousness. Many occur while the percipient it, leaning against a chair; a message received psychic powers to divine this? Apparently not:
is tired, in a relaxed state, daydreaming, or then ignored. Household provisions spilled and Carolyn Perron had told the Warrens about
performing routine work—conditions in which, splashed about the premises, chairs pulled out Bathsheba Sherman. Andrea says her mother let
particularly with imaginative persons, a mental from beneath children; hair pulling was always the Warrens have her notebook—filled with
image from the subconscious might be briefly a less-than-gentle reminder of their “meticulous notes” and sketches of frightening
superimposed on the visual scene, rather like a omnipresence. And the flies! entities—but it was never returned (I: 404–405;
camera’s double exposure (Nickell 2012, 110). Investigators, however, will need more II: 298–299, 314).
and precise evidence than the recollections of Mrs. Warren went on to suggest that
Poltergeists schoolgirls some thirty to forty years late in some specific reported incidents—some
order to conclude who the real poltergeists were. knocking sounds, the house shaking—were not
But suspects are readily at hand. due to fierce winds but were instead “demonic in
In addition to ghosts, so-called poltergeist
We must ask, did the supernaturally
phenomena were common at the Perron nature” (I: 53, 311, 313). Soon, whereas the
inclined Cindy really have her hair “knotted” by
farmhouse. Although the superstitious attribute Perrons had intended what they were telling the
a spirit? Was she actually “dragged to the floor”?
such pranks and disturbances to an invisible Warrens to be kept in confidence, they found
Was she genuinely “trapped” in a wooden box in
agency, a supposed spirit called the poltergeist, otherwise when curiosity seekers began
the shed (where she had hidden during a game of
history indicates that the occurrences typically showing up unexpectedly. Among them were a
center around one or more real mischief makers hide-and-seek)? Or was she deliberately play- “cluster of ghost hunters” and a man “with only
acting or even just fooling herself? (Perron II: one tool-of-the-trade in hand: his Holy Bible.”
in a household, perhaps acting from hostility or
53, 48; cf. Nickell 2012, 347). The late The Warrens, it turned out, were giving public
just seeking attention. Many have been caught at
psychologist Robert A. Baker, my long time
their secret misbehavior, while, on lectures about the “case”; they even “named the
ghost-hunting colleague, found that sometimes
the other hand, science has never confirmed the town and described the farmhouse.” Carolyn
events that were attributed to a pranking entity
existence of a single poltergeist (Nickell 2012, Perron “felt utterly betrayed” by the Warrens (II:
(such as a telephone flying off a table) could
325–331). 324–329).
have a simpler explanation (the cord was
A good example of an apparent little
snagged by the leg of a chair and pulled when
“poltergeist” at the Perron home occurred for a
the chair was scooted forward) (Baker and (Continued on Page 73)
period when older sister Andrea set up after-
Nickell 1992, 135–139).