Spiritual

Location: Greenford, West London. June 2000.

(Report by SPI’s Malcolm Robinson)

(* Heather Campbell pseudonym)

A case was presented to me which turned out to be not your normal run-of-the-mill ghostly case! No, this was something else. This was something which was occurring to a woman aged 47 at her home in Greenford, London and which was frightening and disturbing to say the least. It’s what’s known as an incubus (a ‘demon’ who assaults females during sleep.) There are recorded cases in the past in which nuns and female saints were particularly likely to be sought out to be sexually assaulted during the night time hours. Father Sinistrari, a noted demonologist of the late 17th century, writes of the Devil who ‘shapes for himself a body endowed with motion by means of which this body copulates with the human being. I made contact with the woman, whom we’ll call Elizabeth, by phone and found out that she was deeply depressed and terrified by what was going on, so much so, that she hadn’t had any proper sleep in weeks. This was ruining her life. Not only was the incubus keeping her awake each and every night, but it was with her every moment of the day, (even when she went shopping!). My partner at the time, Heather Campbell * (pseudonym) and I took a serious look at this case and weighed up all the options. Was this lady making this all up and if so, what for? Could this not just be a medical condition, was she hallucinating or going out of her mind? Was she looking to be re-housed and had tried everything to get away from that home but couldn’t, so invented a story of a ghost in the vain hopes that the local council would re-house her? Fanciful yes, but was it the case here? I’ve often said (with my sceptics’ hat on) that some people will do anything to get out of their council house, more so if everything else has failed. There was only one way to find out for sure what was going on, and that was to visit the lady in question and find out what was happening.

OUR FIRST VISIT.

On Wednesday the 21st of June 2000 Heather and I visited Elizabeth at her modest council home in the town of Greenford, West London. Elizabeth lived with her 22-year-old son Martin who unfortunately did not believe in his mother’s claims that they shared the house with a ghost. This was a cause of some distress to Elizabeth for she had looked to Martin to support and help her through these troubled times but had to accept that a story such as this would be hard to believe ‘anywhere’, never mind a council house in Greenford. Elizabeth had moved into this house back in 1992 from her prior home in South Harrow. She was now divorced from her husband and had entered into a relationship with a much younger man, a relationship that was fuelled by an intense sexual energy and desire. This relationship, it would turn out, proved to have a direct bearing on the horrible events that would transpire later, but at this stage Elizabeth was in love, a love that she had never known before, a love fired with passion and longing, but a love which was dangerous and full of hidden deceit, for her young lover was the best friend of her son. When her son found out, he was enraged and needless to say Elizabeth’s relationship with her lover ended, not at her insistence, but at her lover’s. This was in January 2000.

The pain and hurt that Elizabeth felt at the end of this intense relationship was immense, she had never known so much pain in all her life. She couldn’t eat, she couldn’t sleep, she constantly longed for her lover to come back to her and re-kindle the emotions of before sadly this was never to be. Now, it was at this point, and all will become clear the more we go through this story, that her life descended into what could only be described as a horror story. Elizabeth at this point was at her weakest, and it was at this point that she began to experience horrible sickening sensations. These sensations took the form of pins and needles that she felt moving all over her head. This happened no matter where she went and occurred both indoors and outdoors. She then experienced a pushing sensation down on her legs when she was lying in bed and the sensation of someone/thing stroking her hair. She also at this time experienced constant breezes blowing into and around her head. This would occur in a closed room with all the windows securely locked. She began to think she was losing her mind and nothing it seemed could stop these incessant occurrences, not only that though, there was also a horrible musky smell that she detected in her bedroom, and, on one occasion, she looked up from her bed into the air, and looking back at her were little faces (human) with intense black eyes. However, the above incidents were nothing in comparison to what was to follow.

AN EXCUSRION INTO DEPRAVITY!

Elizabeth dreaded going to bed, for she knew that as soon as she lay down to go to sleep, it would start! She would be touched by an invisible presence all over her body. Breezes would flit and waft all over her but more horribly she then was subjected to any woman’s worst imaginable fear, that of being raped. But nothing can be worse surely, than being raped by an unseen entity! Nothing can prepare one for the horrors of being sexually entered by something from an unseen dimension. She lay back frozen in fear as she firstly felt her breasts being touched then a weight would come down on top of her body and then suddenly and painfully she felt what to all intents and purposes was a penis being inserted into her vagina. No woman can imagine the horror of something like this happening to her, for whom does she tell? Who would believe such a tale? What could be done to stop the nightly horrors? It went on and on until finally it would stop and her exhaustion would finally give her a few hours sleep before she would wake up to the same.

People often say that ghosts can’t do you much harm (other than frighten you) but cases such as these clearly illustrate that there sadly is a more sinister and depraved side to the paranormal. We know that cases such as this are quite rare, although there have been, as I mentioned earlier, cases of this throughout recorded history and probably will continue to be, but that doesn’t help people like Elizabeth. She knew that what was happening wasn’t normal, she knew enough to know that something had to be done, she had to take steps to try and get rid of this evil presence once and for all and it was through reading a local newspaper where she came across an article about myself and my interests in the supernatural, that she contacted me. It was time to see what could be done.

HELP WAS AT HAND. JULY 8TH 2000.

I knew that I had to help this lady. Heather and I obviously questioned everything that Elizabeth had to say, and before Heather and I would even begin to look at a supernatural situation, we looked at a possible medical one. Was she deluded, were these sensations nothing more than imaginations? Crazy I know, but we had to check for alternatives. We advised her to go to her doctor and ask for a proper check up. She could if she wanted to explain all about her strange condition, but whether the doctor could suggest anything once he had heard it, remained to be seen.

“She refused this advice on the grounds that any doctor would automatically diagnose her as suffering from some kind of schizophrenia or sexual psychosis, without even considering the possibility of entity oppression”. “Before contacting us she had already arranged with her local C of E vicar for deliverance ministers to visit”. “She was convinced that a “spirit” was plaguing her, and we could do nothing to shake this conviction”. Heather Campbell.

Admittedly we should have pressed on with this more, rather than seek the services of a psychic medium, but she was desperate, we had to help her, and we had to help her now. Elizabeth had also contacted her local church and spoken to a Minister about what had been going on in her home. He believed her and he set a date when he and three women from the Church of England would attend and conduct an exorcism. That day came, and Elizabeth informed me that the Minister was a very pleasant man who said a number of prayers around the home and asked the spirit to leave. He, and the three Church of England women, sprinkled Holy water at different parts of the house. Sadly, all this was to no avail, for things got worse. The events got more horrific. Elizabeth now started having a severe pain in her lower back. The Church had failed what could SPI England do!

And so I took the step of bringing in one of England’s leading psychic mediums, a very pleasant and charming woman called Jane Anderson (pseudonym) Jane has appeared on the Kilroy Silk programme and a number of other T.V. shows and has given clairvoyant meetings around the world. I looked to Jane to hopefully eradicate these horrible events from Elizabeth’s life but knew that success in these matters was not always assured. Nonetheless on Saturday July 8th, Heather, myself, Jane and her son Alan, travelled over to Greenford to see what we could do. Upon arrival and a refreshing cup of tea, Jane set to work. She asked numerous questions of Elizabeth which would assist her in determining how bad the situation really was. It wasn’t too long before Jane’s spirit guides told her that the events were real, that there were two spirit presences involved here, one of which was good, and the other not so good. Surprisingly the good spirit was a 28 year old woman whom it turned out was Elizabeth’s child! Elizabeth had a still-born child 28 years ago, that child had died in the physical world, but continued to live on in the spirit world. Elizabeth was very moved by this, and gave her the name, Susanna. More importantly however, Jane found out who the culprit of these evil matters was. He was a scruffy looking man, around five feet nine inches in height, had greasy, long, unkempt, curly hair and had a long wiry beard. He was also thin in the face and had a thin bodily frame in general and was around 50 years of age. Jane explained to us all that he was trapped between both worlds. He was caught between the earth bound realms and the spirit realms and would not go towards the light, he preferred where he was. Jane went onto explain, that due to the breakup of her (Elizabeth’s) relationship with her young lover, she was at her lowest ebb. She was depressed, lonely, and insecure and longed for that loving companionship to come back. It was at this point that this Earth-bound spirit had ‘latched’ itself onto her in this most despicable way. Jane explained to this spirit man, that what he was doing was very wrong, and that there was a better place for him to go, that he should go towards the light and that that light would be shown to him now. Jane explained that this light was in a way similar to an elevator. If you can imagine an elevator going up but you don’t see the walls, and the elevator would be going up in a shaft of light, well it would be something similar. At this point the man threw himself down on the ground (Jane could psychically see this) and began crying and asking forgiveness. He apologised for all the hurt, pain and suffering that Elizabeth had to endure and said that he would now go towards the light, that he was ready to do so. Jane had asked her spirit guides to bring forth the man’s father (who was also in spirit) who would assist him to travel over, and on seeing his father, the man left, he was gone. It was over. The relief in Elizabeth’s face was plain to see. Not only had Jane got rid of this Earth-bound spirit, but she had also administered psychic healing on Elizabeth. She also left a protective shell around her and told her to visually imagine a cocoon of protective light around her, a light that would not allow anything else to come though. But she herself had to make positive steps in her life. She had to take up a daily interest, join a club or society, do something constructive and positive with her day to day living, for at the moment, all she was doing was shuffling around the house and occasionally going out to do some shopping. We all enforced these proposals to her and she recognised the importance of doing so. My partner at the time Heather Campbell explains what she felt about this case.

“I was totally unconvinced by Jane’s well-intentioned performance”. “I have never seen anyone so adept at asking leading questions and putting thoughts and words into another’s mouth”. “As an investigator this angered me, although I am absolutely sure that Jane was doing her very best to help Elizabeth”. “I was very concerned that she was reinforcing Elizabeth’s total belief in a spiritual explanation for her distress, and possibly making matters worse”. “If this didn’t work, then Elizabeth would be plunged into even greater depression”. “It all just seemed far too pat, far too easy to me. I had an overwhelming sense of deception, either on Elizabeth’s part or on the part of the alleged entity, if it existed at all”. “Jane was insistent that the possessing entity was a human soul lost and unloved”. “Hundreds of years of conventional wisdom about incubi and succubi dictate otherwise”. “They are invariably manifestations of an evil that has never been human, and are incredibly difficult to banish”. “At the moment I can see two distinct scenarios emerging – that of a depressed, delusional, mentally- ill woman, or a non-human force that is cunning and deceptive, or even a combination of both”. “There is something we are missing here, and I am sure that Elizabeth has not told us all the information about herself that we must have in order to make a proper and responsible evaluation”. “I fully expect Jane’s spirit deliverance not to have worked”. “We researchers take on an enormous responsibility when trying to handle a case like this”. “Neither Malcolm nor I are qualified mental health professionals, nor are we trained exorcists”. “But we are catapulted into a distressing case where we have to make judgements about what is the right way to proceed, because people like Elizabeth have nowhere else to turn”. “I personally want Elizabeth to go to her doctor, but she won’t”. “What do we do? Wash our hands of the whole case and leave her to the hell that’s she’s living in, be it created by herself or not?”

“If Elizabeth were to go to her doctor and be wrongly diagnosed as psychotic, it would be a travesty, and thus I understand her reluctance”. “But if she is in need of psychiatric help and we don’t try to ensure that she receives that help, then that would be a travesty also”. “This brings into focus a huge problem that we have in Britain in paranormal and UFO research”. “More and more what we term “high strangeness” cases are being reported, and who in all honesty is qualified to deal with them?” “There are no diplomas in spirit possession or alien abduction”. “If you leave it to psychologists, you can be sure before you even start what their evaluations will be”. “They have been trained to think in a certain way, and believe in certain things”. “Very few have the courage, or the curiosity, to embrace this kind of thing with open minds, and open hearts”. “This is not to say that I believe all witness reports on the paranormal can be taken at face value and a supernatural explanation be arrived at”. “Not at all. The majority of weird experiences do have a psychological stimulus, and this is in itself an interesting field of study”. “But there will always be some cases where this just does not apply”. “Who ya gonna call?”

Heather Campbell.

JEEZ, WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?

Just before Heather and I got up to leave Elizabeth’s house, we both saw a quite amazing spectacle unfold before our eyes. For me personally, it has got to be one of the most amazing things that I have ever seen in all my days researching ghosts and the paranormal. As I was putting my writing paper away in my brief case, I happened to look over to Elizabeth who was sitting down in a nearby chair. At first I thought I was seeing things, then, as I continued to look ever closer I saw what can only be termed as, little blue aquamarine globules of light move all around Elizabeth’s body! There were hundreds of them moving slowly up and down Elizabeth’s body. Well I was totally dumbstruck, my mouth was hanging open and just then Heather let out a loud cry of,

“Oh my God, Oh my God I can see little aquamarine blue spots all over your face”.

Thankfully Heather had also witnessed this amazing spectacle. These lights weren’t circular lights, but were small oval lights of such a beautiful translucent colour. (Heather had this to say about the lights/colours)

“They were not lights as such, but spots of colour”. “They were not luminescent, nor incandescent, but looked as if they had been projected onto her face from elsewhere”. “They moved over the contours of her face like the projected lights you would find on the walls of a disco or club, and were similarly flattened ellipses, not circles. “I am at a loss to explain this phenomenon”. “There was nothing I could see in the room that could have produced such an effect”. Heather Campbell).

These ‘lights’ were also in her hair and above her head. Jane our psychic piped up when she saw the shock and surprise from us both and told us that what we were looking at was the healing energies that she had left with Elizabeth. To be honest with you, I actually thought that my eyes were playing tricks on me, and that perhaps I had been looking at something else in the room and that the colours had followed me, (which can happen). But for Heather to see it too was quite something.

EVENTS CONTINUE, A NEW APPROACH IS TRIED.

A few days after Heather and I had visited Elizabeth’s house, I received a distressed telephone call from Elizabeth who through tears mentioned that the entity was still with her. That she was still feeling all the horrible sensations of being touched all over her body more so on her private parts. I felt sorry that our ‘rescue’ service’ hadn’t worked, I was very positive that it would have. “Is there anything else that you can do for me Malcolm, anything at all”! These despairing words from Elizabeth rang at the back of my mind and I knew that I had to try something else.

My partner at the time Heather Campbell mentioned that there was someone at her work (Aggie) who could possibly help and that she had dealt with things of this nature many times in her past. And so on the night of 16th August 2000, Heather and I travelled over to Greenford to meet up with Elizabeth and also Aggie and her friends. Prior to this visit, Aggie had in point of fact visited Elizabeth some few days before where she had tried to move on this spirit but sadly she was unsuccessful. On that occasion just as they were trying to drive the spirit out, loud banging’s and rapping’s were heard by all those present coming from upstairs. Aggie and her friends all rushed upstairs slightly apprehensive as to what they might find. Rushing upstairs they found, ‘nothing’!! We arrived at Elizabeth’s home and after some brief chat about the events that had transpired Aggie set to work. This was different, this was something else. It was like a scene out of a James Bond movie filmed on location at Haiti. Aggie proceeded to ‘do her stuff’ and no sooner has she started than banging noises could be heard! However, those banging noises were definitely coming from next door and were not of the supernatural variety. The following is but a very short extract from the exorcism that was conducted on Elizabeth, (much more than this can be found on the full audio tape of that session) For the moment though, here is but a part of what Aggie said as she commanded the ‘spirits’ to leave her body.

“All power has been given unto us, you are a spirit of schizophrenia, that is your name and we command you now in Jesus’ name to come out”. “You’ve brought many more with you and I want them all to come out, I want you all to pack your bags and come out at the mouth, every one of you, pack your bags and leave”. “You are not welcome in this body anymore”. “This body is soaked and covered in the blood of Jesus Christ. In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to leave, you that have lodged yourself in her body”. “We use the name of Jesus against you, there is power in his name, there is power in his word”

Sadly the bizarre approach to curing the problem did not work as the events were still ongoing unabated. Not to be out done, Elizabeth took steps of her own and brought in another Minister who tried but failed. She also tried some more psychics, they tried, and they failed. It was at this point that my feelings about this case started to change, I began to think that perhaps, just perhaps, there was nothing supernatural going on here at all, that it could well be down to Elizabeth having a psychological problem, a problem which she felt was spiritual. Since Heather and I’s first visit, Elizabeth had collected many paranormal books in an attempt to see if others had experienced what she was going through. Another visit was arranged with Aggie Heather and I, but I refrained from participating in this visit as I was beginning to feel more and more that it ‘was’ a psychological case. Nonetheless, unperturbed Heather went along, and for a time wished that she hadn’t! For she told me afterwards that she experienced a sensation of extreme coldness all over her body but more so on her back, this lasted for several hours. Needless to say, that ceremony didn’t work either. As the days progressed I continued to receive a string of phone calls from Elizabeth asking if there was anything else that I could do for her. My feelings were (which I didn’t say to Elizabeth) was that I’d more or less tried everything; I didn’t know what else to try. I could only suggest trying more psychics, trying more Ministers, but more importantly, going back to her doctor and explaining all that was going on. Heather is now of the opinion that what Elizabeth is suffering is purely psychological. Elizabeth is adamant that it is spiritual, that she does have an evil spirit with her.

IN CONCLUSION.

Elizabeth constantly telephoned our house stating that things were still very much happening and that we should come over and try and get rid of them. As I say, it was my belief that Elizabeth was suffering from some kind of mental delusion and that if truth be told, she really need to see her doctor. I was of the opinion (probably for the very first time in my life) that psychics would ‘not help’ in this instance and in that regard I declined to participate in any further visits to Elizabeth’s home. Heather however did stay the course and I can fully understand her reasons why. Heather is a very compassionate human being and won’t give up on things so easily. Heather had this to say in a well written and factual report on this case in 2008.

“On the 12th of September 2000 Elizabeth rang me again and stated that she was now seeing spirits next to her bed, there was also a glowing white mist which appeared in her bedroom”. “She also heard beautiful singing coming from the bathroom and when she went to investigate the signing suddenly stopped”. “Surprisingly she feels that there is someone/thing else, that is with her, and this something is trying to help her, having said that, she also told me that she was seconds away from phoning an ambulance as the night before she was terrified by further ‘feelings’ on her body”. “She continued by saying that she had informed another Vicar who was coming to see her the following day and that she had travelled out of London to see another psychic, (both the Vicar and the psychic failed to do anything)”. “She had also phoned the Daily Express due to seeing a story featured in there which dealt with ‘rescue services’ on cases similar to hers”. “She has also written to a Bishop in London asking for his help and whilst praying of an evening, is seeing flashes of white light all around her”. “This and more is still happening. I feel so very, very sorry for Elizabeth; it would appear that nothing is working for her”. “If it is psychological, then she must talk to her local G.P. who could recommend further steps”.

It later came out through Heather’s investigation, that Elizabeth had been sexually abused by her father as a child in Ghana over a period of 10 years and that her father was involved in Black Magic. Elizabeth also spoke about seeing strange small lights in her bedroom; lights that she knew belonged to the presence that was in her home. During one of those visits that Heather made to Elizabeth’s home without me, Heather encountered something very weird and cold going right through her body, whatever it was left a raised red mark of the rosary beads of her crucifix that she was wearing under her sweater. This mark was witnessed by others in the room at the time. In her report of this case and of this horrible ‘thing’ that went through her body she states,

“For the next 48 hours I felt like I had a block of ice attached to my back”. “I spent hours on end with an electrically heated pad placed on every chair I sat in, and also in bed, but not even that could shift the feeling of bone-deep cold.” “It gradually faded on its own, but left me with a sense of having encountered something terribly alien (not for the first time in my life, I might add).”

SUMMING UP

At the end of the day this was a bizarre case, a case which taxed my thoughts to the extreme but one in which I personally felt after we had exhausted probably all rational avenues, that is was a purely psychological one. (I still could be wrong) Even Heather had to concede in her own personal report on this case that this may well be psychological in nature. She stated and I quote,

“We all extracted a promise from Elizabeth that she would indeed go back to her doctor and insist on a referral to a clinical psychologist, with whom she would be totally honest about her life experience and even about the exorcism”. “But somehow, even after all this; I wasn’t totally convinced that Elizabeth was taking everything on board”. “There was a slyness about her that still persisted, I felt, and I wasn’t sure that she would take the well-intentioned advice”. “I hoped I was wrong”. “I asked her not to call me again until she had made such an appointment, as I was worried that she had become too dependent on me, and that having made said appointment I was more than happy to go along with her to her GP or a consultant psychologist as moral support.”