The Gralien Report

Do you remember playing “Bloody Mary” when you were a child? You know, the game where you stared into a mirror and chanted the name of the blood-witch mentioned above 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.

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Last night, my friend and associate Joshua P. Warren discussed two separate lists he and I recently concocted which describe our top five scariest cryptid monsters on the late-night radio program Coast to Coast AM. Surprisingly, only two creatures made both lists: the flying “Batsquatch” of Mount Rainer, Washington, and the vile demonic serial-rapist “Popobawa” of Zanzibar, the latter of the two ranking first-place on both of our round-ups.

Chalked up by psychologists to be a mass-hallucination stemming from social unrest in the affected regions of Zanzibar and Tanzania, locals who have encountered the horrific Popobawa—described as being a humanoid entity with wings and large male genitalia—would argue otherwise. Terrifying reports, often made buy male members of the community, detail sexual assaults where the creature warns them that it will return if they don’t share their the details of their encounter with others.

Having studied the Popobawa literature profusely, today I was shocked to read about recent reports stemming from Kuala Lumpur of what is being described as a “horny ghost”, which in local Malay culture is called an orang minyak (similar in spelling to the cryptid animal Orang Pendak, a Sumatran Bigfoot-like creature). The entity has spent the last week accosting close to 300 families in the Sungai Petani area, and unlike Popobawa’s preference for male victims, Orang Minyak is alleged to be picking homes where there are young women.

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In the video below, fast forward to the 8:22 mark and watch the illuminated doorway at the end of the hall.

Notice the odd shadow that walks by?

Various websites, including the blog Phantoms and Monsters, have featured the strange video, questioning whether the odd apparition is indeed a “ghost”, with the obvious implication that it is the disembodied spirit of the late King of Pop himself. With all this talk already of a UFO being witnessed over the singer’s former residence, it may not be particularly surprising that ghosts, spirits, and the afterlife may also have been things Jackson had been fascinated with throughout his time on Earth, and now with his passing, several reports have made similar assertions that Jackson’s own spirit may still be hanging around.

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Several years ago, I remember Joshua Warren informing me about a phone call he had received on the L.E.M.U.R. office line from a woman in Burnsville, North Carolina, who shared a strange story. In her message, she had described an encounter with a “strange little man” in the backwoods between her home and the nearby town of Spruce Pine. I made a follow up call within a few days, and was able to speak to the witness about her peculiar experience. While camping in the area, a remote region with one primary highway winding throughout heavily wooded valleys, she described how a strange, fur-covered little man had appeared and leaped onto her car one evening. “My boyfriend and I had been hearing weird noises, and we put out the fire and went and got in the car,” I remember her telling me. “Around that time, this little thing came running out of the woods and leaped up onto the hood. In the darkness it was too difficult to get a good look at it, as it was mostly in silhouette. It climbed onto the top of the car, and I remember hearing it scratching around up there right before we took off.” Needless to say, they left in a hurry.

Based on what was described, I’m not convinced that what the witnesses actually saw wasn’t a raccoon. I asked if this creature had appeared to move upright or on four legs, to which she said she wasn’t certain. As for the mysterious “scratching” sounds on the roof of her car, the clawed paws of a raccoon certainly would be the most likely solution, and the raccoon hypothesis nonetheless explains the fur she and her boyfriend described seeing in the creature’s silhouetted outline also. Whether or not the folks who shared this story were actually accosted by a strange little “man”, North Carolina and many other parts of the world nonetheless have folk traditions and histories that involve “little people”, presumed to be spirit folk, which sometimes do appear to cause mischief. Read the rest of this entry »

An eerie photograph taken recently by tourist Christopher Aitchison is being touted as “proof” of a ghost haunting Tantallon Castle, a mid 14th century fortress in East Lothian, Scotland. Aitchison says he didn’t tamper with the image, and cannot explain who or what the entity in it may be.

ABOVE: The Aitchison photograph, purported to show an odd, doll-like “ghost” starring down from a castle window.

“I was not aware of anyone, or anything, being present in my picture, only noticing the anomaly when I got home,” Aitchison told news sources earlier this week, who inquired about the 2008 photograph. “Staff have verified that there were no sinister dummies in period costume or historical reenactments going on that day at the castle. I did not notice any nice old ladies wearing ruffs walking around the stairs!”
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The latest from Ben Castelli, on behalf of the Travel Channel:

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Yesterday I recieved an email from Ben Castelli, a blogger who works with the online team for Travel Channel Network, promoting the new season of their popular program Most Haunted. This season, they plan to kick off their fall run with a live seven hour investigation on Friday October 10th at 8pm ET. Below is a video sneak-preview of the event:

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The website Londonist reported on Saturday Strangeness this past weekend, involving one of my favorite subjects: creatures below the Earth.  

Urban legends of the more sinister variety have always intrigued me, so continuous whispers and friend-of-a-friend tales concerning a mutant race of beings inhabiting the dark tunnel systems, sewers and subterranean passages beneath the capital are always welcome, even if unfounded (despite rumours circulating as far back as the nineteenth century). However, one thing us folklorists do know is that the underbelly of the city is teeming with all manner of spectres, and a majority of these seem trapped in the London Underground.

 http://londonist.com/2007/11/the_saturday_st_24.php

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I’m excited to announce that my best pal in the whole world (seriously!) Joshua P. Warren will be on Coast to Coast AM this morning with George Noory. He will be discussing the relationship between ghosts and UFOs, and I even hear he may be tossing into the mix an article I wrote for FATE Magazine a while ago, titled “Ghostly Receptors” which dealt with the same sort of material.

Joshua will join George Noory on the program at 2:00 AM EDST, and I’m certain a variety of other strange and interesting topics will be on the table as well. I encourage everyone to listen in, as it’s never a dull time when Josh is in the house!

When it comes to guessing about what might qualify for being called “paranormal Hollywood”, many things come to mind. For instance, the enigmatic phrase, “I warned him,” uttered by former “Joker” Jack Nicholson upon learning of Heath Ledger’s tragic and untimely death. Or maybe even the uber-eccentric weirdness commonly associated with guys like Tom Cruise and Gary Busey could qualify for being evidence that they’re actually aliens from another dimension. But when stewing over paranormal themes in Hollywood, I was a bit surprised to learn about Billy Bob Thornton’s ties to ghostly phenomenon.

Thornton, Hollywood’s reigning hillbilly king, is most often associated with his role in films like Monster’s Ball and Slingblade, or even his “ethereal ex” Angelina Jolie. Thornton is also known to be a good buddy of the legendy vampire and “King of the Country-Western Troubadors” Unknown Hinson. Of all these things that might be considered kinda spooky about the guy, I was still even more surprized to learn (partly due to his professed dislike for “old stuff”) that Thornton is living in a 1920s mansion that is purportedly haunted!  Read the rest of this entry »