This was a really interesting book. Looking forward to seeing this. {video source: hollywoodstreams}

NOW ON DVD! A new paranormal documentary film from The Booth Brothers, (Spooked, Children of the Grave, The Possessed, Death Tunnel as seen on SyFy, NBC Universal, Sony Pictures). {video source: spookedtv}

Possession

Another controversial topic in the paranormal is possession. This is another subject that has been ignored by science and torn apart by doctors. Is this something that is the product of fantasy or explained medically? Or is it possible for entities to take over the body and mind of a living person? When dealing with possession there are actually many categories, for this article we will concentrate on evil control, that of the demonic.

Demonic possession is when the human body is taken over by demons or even Satan himself. There are 5 levels of possession. I would like to state that I am not a priest nor a demonologist, if you think you may be dealing with demonic possession seek help.

Read complete article here. {via The Examiner}

Do You Believe In The Devil?

MB: I didn’t know what to believe. I didn’t have this fascination with spirits, ghosts or demons at all. I think that really helped me out, because I went in with this real objective approach trying to look at it as a journalist would. Beyond just trying to put it into a Sunday school vernacular, I really wanted to understand, almost from a scientific journalistic standpoint, what are these things, what role do they play?

Read complete article here {via The Examiner}

Interview with Exorcist Fr. Jose Antonio Fortea. This is a multi-part series with many subjects including, phenomena, possession, sin, witchcraft and more. {source: Dollyhot}

The Haunted Tree (Dromore Leader)

FINNIS’S famous haunted tree has finally been felled and the whereabouts of the evil spirit it was claimed it imprisoned is now unknown.

Villagers, generations of whom are said to have stood watch over the tree and its captive spirit, were shocked to find the lightning-blasted sycamore shell had gone, victim of another, recent, storm.

It was almost a year ago to the day, on July 22 last year, that The Leader published the ghostly tale of the tree and the malicious spirit said to be literally bottled up within it.

Read complete article here. {via Dromore Leader}

It looks as though my buds may have been correct when mercilessly picking on my fear of the 1973 film The Exorcist. As many of you might have already figured out from older posts that The Exorcist scared about almost every possible bodily fluid out of me. I kid you not, while viewing the re-release a few years ago I broke out in a sweat and almost filled my popcorn bucket. It was another case of “based on a true story” that seemed to always get me. While my sympathetic buds would laugh and point, they would claim it’s a all fake, phoney-baloney if you will. And they might’ve been on to something. After reading The Real Story Behind the Exorcist: A Study of the Haunted Boy and other True-Life Horror Legends from Around the Nation’s Capital by Mark Opsasnick, my opinion about the infamous case has changed…dramatically.

The Real Exorcist

Opsasnick tracks down friends of the boy as well as clergy involved with the case for some pretty interesting insight. When asked about the boy speaking languages other than English, the late Father Walter Halloran who had assisted in the exorcism stated, “Just Latin,” and “I think he mimicked us.” Well I thought that was interesting since that’s often one of the many so-called signs of possession. Opsasnick also inquired about the change in the boys voice which Father Halloran responded with a “Not really.” So no demonic voice speaking ancient languages. Hmmm.

And if you’re wondering what happened to that demon boy, he is still on this planet living among us. Opsasnick does get to him, but things don’t go too well.

My only problem with the book is the length. I was expecting a bit more detail on The Exorcist story. The actual Exorcist chapter is only a little over forty pages. The rest of the book includes the investigations into the Tom Monteleone Contactee case, the Luzo-Brazilian Black Magic Cult, The Ghost of Crybaby Bridge, and the Goatman of Prince George’s County. And by no means are these stories filler, each is a very interesting study on how some of these urban legends are blown out of proportion.

The ReaL Deal

It’s not a sequel or a prequel or a reboot or a remake, but a film based on Mark Opsasnick’s book The Real Story Behind The Exorcist is on the cards from Vertigo Entertainment (The Ring, Quarantine). 

The Exorcist story, The Haunted Boy, is a single chapter (serialised in full here) in Opsasnick’s tome of supernatural investigations, subtitled A Study of The Haunted Boy and Other True Life Horror Legends. In it, the author tracks down and speaks to the priests involved in the 1940s exorcism, local residents from the time, and the actual “Rob Doe” who became Regan in the novel and William Friedkin’s film. Hmm: sounds like a similar approach to Requiem, the German film that told a close-to-the-truth version of the story of the exorcism and death of Anneliese Michel, which also inspired the Hollywoodised The Exorcism of Emily Rose.

Read the complete article here. {via empireonline.com}

Paranormal Field Investigators based in Adelaide, South Australia, caught up with Keith, Sandra & Carl Johnson from New England Anomalies Research for an informal interview. The Johnsons, who’ve been featured on Ghost Hunters and Paranormal State, discussed demonology, exorcism and how they got into the paranormal field. And make sure to check out Paranormal Field Investigators’ YouTube videos, they’ve got some really cool footage of investigations.

For more info on Paranormal Field Investigators.   
For more info on New England Anomalies Research.

For those of you interested in the demonic side of the paranormal, the new book The Rite: The Making of a Modern Exorcist by journalist Matt Baglio, sounds like one heck of a read. Baglio heads to the Vatican where he follows a Catholic priest’s training as an exorcist. And part of the training is actual apprenticeship on actual exorcisms. You can’t get any closer to the source than that. Actually sounds a little too close.

“Truth is stranger than fiction … and far more terrifying. Forget what Hollywood tells you about demonic possession and exorcism; The Rite will open your eyes to the awesome truth about such things. I’ve been investigating paranormal events for some time,but this book taught me much that I didn’t know about the timeless battle for the human soul waged between the forces of good and evil. Fascinating, inspiring, and scary, a great read.”
—John Kachuba, author of Ghosthunters: On the Trail of Mediums, Dowsers, Spirit Seekers, and Other Investigators of America’s Paranormal World

Get the book here.