Sitting before you is a small, limbless, asexual being resembling Casper the Friendly Ghost, smiling and jerking around as it works to manifest a friend for you, who sits a good distance away speaking into a webcam. What’s going on here?

If Japanese robotist Hiroshi Ishiguro could have his way, this little creation, the Telenoid R1, would likely replace instant messaging and webcams altogether, providing a semi-realistic chat experience with friends remotely.

The Telenoid R1 was designed, according to Ishiguro, to resemble neither a male nor a female, maintaining the same lack of distinction between adult or a child, in an effort to present a “blank slate”–though slightly human–which people could use to communicate with friends remotely. “Casper” uses visual stimulus received from a webcam that captures the host’s movements, which are then interpreted into an eerie song-and-dance as the robot plays the part of the individual in their absence.

Somehow, I don’t see this creation ever out-doing plain ol’ video chat.

But when it comes to Sleep Paralysis in particular, nobody comes to mind more quickly than my friend Louis Proud, author of the book Dark Intrusions: An Investigation into the Paranormal Nature of Sleep Paralysis Experiences (a close second would be Dr. David Hufford PhD., who authored Proud’s introduction). Recently, Louis sent me a recorded segment he has done where he gives a wealth of information about the nature of Sleep Paralysis, delving into a variety of the subjects discussed in his book, as well as rather startling personal experiences of his own with the phenomenon. Below is a link where you can listen to Louis discussing the scientific and paranormal nature of this strange sleep science:

Louis Proud on Sleep Paralysis

Also, to purchase the book, you can visit this link.

A rather obscure reference to a psychedelic substance used to evoke such an experience was recently discussed at Daniel Pinchbeck’s site Reality Sandwich, in which author Charles Shaw outlines the way the peculiar drug ibogaine, understood to have remarkable abilities in reversing addiction to drugs like heroin, is also used by African tribes to contact their elders (image, right, by Cliff1066 via Flickr).

Ibogaine is a naturally occurring alkaloid, derived from the Tabernanthe Iboga plant found in West Central Africa. “The iboga root bark contains a powerful psychedelic that has been used as a religious sacrament for centuries,” Shaw explains. Among the Bwiti religion of Gabon, ibogaine is actually a common facet of their rituals, during which Shaw says that “large amounts… are consumed and the initiates are known to enter visionary states where they meet their deceased tribal elders — what they call “the work of the ancestors” — and confront their shadow selves as a means of becoming aware of negative behavior patterns and character traits which cause illness and impede spiritual growth.”

Strangely, in Western society this almost mirrors (no pun intended) the premise behind what is called the psychomanteum, a form of mirror gazing that often evokes similar experiences among those being counseled for grief following the death of a loved one. For those who may not be aware of this process, below is a link to a sample chapter from my book that discusses this in depth:

Labyrinths of the Mind: An Excerpt from Magic, Mysticism and the Molecule

This brings to mind other altered states of consciousness–namely those like sleep paralysis–in which we again find instances that involve contact with what sometimes appear to be spirits of the dead. My good friend Louis Proud’s book Dark Intrusions: An Investigation into the Paranormal Nature of Sleep Paralysis deals with a stammering number of ways in which what many refer to as visits from “the night hag” also seem to relate to ghostly manifestations, and even demonic possession. How are these experiences governed by various circumstances that alter the human mind, and when strange manifestations do occur, are they something that stems from within the subconscious, or are they literally manifestations of disembodies personages?

As the story goes, owner Robert Eugene Otto had shared an unsettling affinity with the stuffed toy, given to him by a maid who lived with the family. It became part of the legend that the maid had actually been a practitioner of voodoo, thus leading to the negative energies which seemed to accompany the doll. Though Robert (the boy) was known to be very fond of the toy, keeping it with him as he honed his craft as a painter, he would often blame mishaps that occurred on the property on Robert (the toy). Upon his owner’s leaving to attend college, the doll was eventually banished to the attic of the Otto home to live alone in solitude (and extreme summertime stuffiness).

This wouldn’t end the “devil doll’s” strange activity, however. Many school children claimed to have witnessed the strange apparition of a small, featureless “man” dodging from window to window in the upstairs of the Otto family home, peering at them menacingly as they walked to school. Eventually, Robert’s hi-jinks became so legendary that he was donated to the East Martello Museum, where he still resides. Even night watchmen there claim that he will occasionally change positions in his glass display while no one is looking.

Below is a video segment that probes the mystery a bit further, with some uber-creepy video closeups of the puppet from hell:

This story was brought to mind by Gralien Report correspondent Chris McCullom, who today sent along yet another strange story pertaining to a haunted doll. In an article appearing at the CNN website (originally from Oprah.com), the strange story of “Jessica Lynn Cohen” is recounted, better known by her familial moniker “the Christmas Zombie Doll.” The author tells the story of how his daughter received the doll as a gift on Christmas day. Removing the wrapping, he says she “immediately and inexplicably christen(ed) the doll Jessica Lynn Cohen. Why that oddly specific appellation, with its country-western triple cadence, we’ll never know. It was Christmas, and it was her doll, and it stuck.” Was this a peculiar instance of telemetry, where the young girl somehow “read” information off the doll, or perhaps even a lingering spirit which lay at hand, hovering in the astral?

The actual source for the title is less enigmatic, as this was also the name of an actress who appeared in George Balanchine’s “The Nutcracker” film starring actor Macaulay Culkin. The film was first released in 1993, and the author in the CNN piece mentions that the three-foot-tall Beelzebub Barbie was purchased about a decade ago (around 1999). Though this still presents a reasonable gap, it seems likely that the film would have been present and popular enough for his young daughter to have made the obvious Christmas-time association with the actress. Though unconventional, “Jessica Lynn Cohen” is actually a very fitting name for the demonic death doll.

But all name games aside, it’s what occurred after the toy’s titling that made it infamous; as time went on, the author’s daughter gets older, and the “cooling off” period occurs. “I’d go downstairs to attend to a blown fuse and there’d be Jessica Lynn Cohen in the boiler room,” he says. “We’d find her in the pantry with her arms outstretched in a sort of pious Joan of Arc gesture of supplication or in the bathroom with one leg raised high over her head like a Folies Bergère dancer. Coming upon her this way could be frightening. She had taken on the stricken phantasmal look of a ghost from a shipwreck.”

If this weren’t creepy enough, upon trying to rid themselves of the doll they began to succumb to bad luck, including health and financial problems. “We eventually had to reach an accommodation with Jessica Lynn Cohen and accept her as a permanent member of our family.”

Is there indeed some strange psychic property that affixes itself to inanimate objects, especially those with more anthropomorphic features? It’s a strange notion indeed, almost like the ancient Kabbalistic traditions that involve the creations of “golems” or non-human “robots.” It also brings to mind “noisy spirits” and poltergeist activity.

My, it’s strange the way that some humans haunt themselves!

Special thanks to Christopher McCollum for contributing to this report.

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” (see image at right). 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 such as the one below, purported to show a young girl’s deceased sister staring back at her from a mirror as she turns her head back towards the camera.

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.

Have you ever seen a ghost in a mirror? If so, was it an apparition you recognized, or did you instead witness some strange aspect of the neither realms too horrifying to judge apart from a nightmare? Email your stories to info@gralienreport.com.

UPDATE: Sheridan Walker of San Antonio, TX sent along the following response to this 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. Very intriguing!

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.

17-year-old Kosmo Nurshahirah of Taman Keladi says she was awakened just before six AM on September 14, feeling “a warm sensation on her left ear.” She opened her eyes and found an apparitional form bearing “curly hair and thick moustache” standing by her bed. To her amazement, the ghost allegedly “took off his kain pelikat (a large robe-like lower garment) and started to fondle himself.” The fiend then began groping her body, at which time Nurshahirah became paralyzed as though “charmed” and unable to move.

Similarly, a 42-year-old housewife in the area revealed that her two daughters, ages 14 and 15, were heard crying out at around the same late hour as Nurshahirah’s encounter, claiming a dark apparition had molested them. “My 14-year-old daughter said she managed to kick the ghost, who wore a kain pelikat and black singlet when she felt her body being touched. She screamed and the ghost ran out of her room.”

Indeed, “demon rapists” exist in other cultures around the world as well. Gralien Report correspondent Christopher McCollum describes his learning of what is called a Curupi in Paraguay. Resembling a small caveman-like hominid, the Curupi bears a long phallus, which it often wraps around its waist like a belt. The striking similarities between entities in various cultures around the world that bear long phalluses wrapped around their waists like Curupi—or in the case of the Assyrian Pazuzu, around one of its legs—are worthy of notice. Do such manifestations indeed stem from people’s collective fears of invasion and threat? Or are there actually “demon rapists” that haunt the outskirts of civilization, assaulting the innocent for sheer folly?

Special thanks to Gralien Report correspondent Chris McCollum for contributing to this report.

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.

Michael Cohen, a journalist and “paranormal personality” who writes for the web-based news source All News Web notes that the alleged ghost in the CNN “Neverland video” is “probably just one of the crew, but who knows.” Elsewhere, Spike TV also featured a video on their website which points out a ghostly image of Jackson, appearing suddenly behind CNN anchor Anderson Cooper (see image below). In this instance, rather obviously, the image seems to appear due to a television screen oriented behind Cooper. However, the odd, shadow-like image in the CNN “Neverland” footage may be a little more difficult to explain.

ABOVE: Faces of death… Jackson’s ghost, or teleprompter-screen spying on Anderson Cooper?  

Speaking of Michael Jackson’s ghost popping up everywhere since the singer’s death, All News Web commented yesterday that “one rather expected consequence of the passing of the ‘King of Pop’, Michael Jackson, is a rash of alleged sightings of Jackson’s ghost,” with reports of Jackson’s phantasmal figure appearing in locales as varied as Mexico, Japan, the Philippines, and of course, the United States. “Many such events will be dreams and we can expected many more of these stories,” Cohen says. “If Michael Jackson brings comfort to so many of his fans we should not be too skeptical. Of course, some of these events may well be real.” One fan in the Philippines has even claimed that Jackson’s spirit appeared before her, curing her of an illness.

Strangely, the appearance of spirit manifestations resembling “Michael Jackson” were even being reported at times that preceded the singer’s death. For instance, during archival footage of the “Rumble in the Jungle” boxing match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman, one can see an odd, ghostly-looking face which appears in the crowd after the fight (see photo to the right). Mori of the Forgetomori site notes that “there are some things that interact with the image – passing both in front and behind the ‘face’ – which suggest that it was not (just) a bad editing job. And also suggest that perhaps it’s not a hoax, but pareidolia,” which describes “a psychological phenomenon involving a vague and random stimulus (often an image or sound) being perceived as significant.” Images of animals, faces in clouds, and the “man in the moon” are all examples of pareidolia… does this ghostly face represent the same, or is it merely another face in the crowd, strangely illuminated, and perhaps reflecting light off of a pair of glasses to create the odd, luminous appearance of the eyes?

Jackson’s life was peppered with his interests in ghosts and the paranormal. Perhaps the most obvious example would be the album Thriller, as well as the respective imagery that surrounded it. However, again in 1997 Jackson starred in the short film Ghosts, which detailed the story of “a scary Maestro” with supernatural powers. Featuring a series of dance routines performed by Jackson and his “family” of ghouls, the film’s sound track was borrowed entirely from Michael Jackson’s HIStory and Blood on the Dance Floor albums. However, outside the realm of spirits and specters depicted in Jackson’s videos, Jacko had a variety of odd connections with paranormalia in very real ways. For instance, Jackson was famously associated with psychic Uri Geller, having stood as best-man in the re-affirmation of Geller’s marriage vows with his wife in March of 2001. Geller, also a defender of Jackson’s stances regarding his involvement with minors, claimed he hypnotized Jackson the same year “to help cure an urge for peanut butter.” While under hypnosis, Geller says he “acted somewhat un-ethically” by asking the singer about his alleged sexual molestation of children. “He answered me under deep hypnosis that he had never touched a child in a sexual way,” Geller told CBS News. “He said – and here I’m using his exact words – ‘My relations with children are very beautiful.’ I’m a good hypnotist, and I know who is trying to mislead me. I can see straight into the subject’s eyes … [Jackson] didn’t fool me, I’m absolutely sure of it.”

Stephen Wagner of the Paranormal About.com points out that Jackson was also friends with Jacqueline Stallone, mother of actor Sylvester Stallone and self-proclaimed psychic who reads the future by looking at people’s bare backsides (EDITOR’S NOTE: I’m being completely serious here, folks. On one occasion several years ago, I had scheduled Stallone for an interview on Joshua P. Warren’s radio program Speaking of Strange, but was unable to reach her after calling the hotel in France where she was staying, and being told in broken English that “Miss Stallone will not be taking any calls this evening.” Joshua had hoped to email her a photo of his rump, from which she claimed she might be able to read his future… you can learn more about Stallone and her practice of the art of “rumpology” by clicking here). In November, 2003, Stallone told the MSNBC source The Scoop that Jackson would be found innocent. “He is totally innocent. I got a flash. You’re going to find out that this is the biggest frame up that ever happened. People say his career is over. They’re wrong. He’s going to come out of this stronger than ever. This all came to me like a lightning bolt.”

In addition to having made bids in an attempt to purchase a “ghost in a bottle” in 2004, Jackson himself claimed to have communicated with the spirit of flamboyant pianist Liberace several times. Jackson supposedly had a private mirror-filled room (perhaps similar to a psychomanteum setup?) where he communed with Liberace. “That’s where I talk to Lee,” Jackson said. “His is the voice I hear in there. I feel his presence so very close to me. [He] is like my guardian angel. He’s even given me permission to record his theme song ‘I’ll Be Seeing You’.” Indeed, if Jackson was communicating with spirits himself, it would be no surprise if he carried his fascination with spirits with him in the afterlife, providing a unique reversal of roles where Jackson now may be attempting to communicate with the land of the living from the other side. Are these indeed instances where Jackson could have experienced psychic phenomenon himself, and furthermore, could the strange “apparition” at Neverland ranch actually be the disembodied ghost of the famous singer? Who knows… in the meantime, I am particularly fascinated by Jackson’s alleged communications with Liberace, for if indeed this occurred in any capacity, it may be very similar to the aforementioned psychological phenomenon known as the psychomanteum, directly related to the ancient art of mirror gazing. Indeed, there may be more to the life (and afterlife) of Michael Jackson than any of us might have realized.

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.

The Southeast has a long tradition held among the Cherokee Indians regarding “little people” who inhabit caves and other small subterranean dwellings throughout the Appalachian Mountains. Often mischievous in nature, these beings are known to appear under peculiar circumstances, and though most are known to be helpful and benign by nature, it is advised in native traditions that one who witnesses a little person should ignore them, so as not to draw attention to their presence. The Cherokee divide these spirit folk into three categories: the Rock People, vengeful and angry dwarfs who are known for accosting lost travelers by tossing stones at them for invading their space; the Laurel People, generally regarded as tricksters; and the Dogwood People, who are the most helpful and kind-hearted of the Little People.

Though such legends are traditionally considered Native beliefs, I find it interesting that the most fascinating accounts of contact with the Little People I have collected from the region don’t originate from the Cherokee themselves, but instead were told to me by locals living in the more remote areas around Western North Carolina. J.R. Sutton, a friend of my family I had known while growing up, had lived near the Cherokee Indian reservation decades ago, and told me about an encounter with “little bearded folks of short stature” he had observed on one occasion. Sutton always used to keep horses, and one afternoon while tending to them he said he was astonished to find three small people sitting on the bare back of one of the animals. “I looked at this and thought they were kids,” Sutton said. “Then one of the little fellers looked around at me and he had a long beard.” Sutton expressed some degree of superstition about the encounter, adding that he “was familiar with the legends, and didn’t want to bother the little folks.” Were the small, bearded dwarves Sutton encountered in his pasture that afternoon the same mischievous spirit folk the Cherokee have told of for centuries?

Two counties away, an even stranger encounter with a little person took place. John Capps, an entrepreneur and Western North Carolina native, lives with his wife on a remote piece of property stretching over an entire mountain on the outskirts of Buncombe County. One day several years ago, John had ridden a golf cart to the base of the mountain to collect a few bundles of firewood to bring back up to their house. The entire property has a peculiar air, and near the area where he had stopped, John has since told me about a large, curious-looking rock with a wide, flat top, which locals say was once used in Indian rituals. “I was loading up the wood down there at the base of the mountain, when I looked over and saw this strange looking little man. He was kinda leaning against a tree, and was wearing these little coveralls, just standing there.” John winced as he searched for words as he related this story to me, saying “he had a funny little look on his face. I’ll tell ya what it was—it was a little shit-eatin’ grin. That’s the best way I could describe it.”

John found the odd demeanor of the little man disconcerting, and decided to ignore the fellow, climbing into his golf cart and heading back up the mountain. “I got back up there to where I was unloading the wood, and I turned around and saw the same little character about twenty yards off, watching me just like he had done all the way down at the base of the mountain. He scared me to death, and for days I wouldn’t go anywhere without my wife riding around with me. I even started carrying a gun.” Before long, John’s wife began to wonder about what might have scared her husband, who was normally a calm, laid-back individual. “I finally told her, and she just said ‘I’ll fix this’.” John’s wife was one-quarter Cherokee herself, and also knew the legends regarding the Little People very well. “She got in touch with some family members who knew the native stories, and whatever they did to ask the little man to leave seemed to have worked.” John and his wife never saw the entity around their property again.

Further East, near the town of Winston-Salem lies what is called the Single Brother’s House in the historic Old Salem Village and Gardens. The building was originally used as a communal home for unmarried men in the area, which had been a Moravian settlement. It is here that encounters with a ghostly entity called “the Little Red Man” were said to occur up until a few decades ago. Perhaps the most famous encounter with the Little Red Man involves the granddaughter of a resident of the house named Betsy. “Little Betsy” as she was called had suffered from a childhood illness which caused deafness, though she maintained the ability to speak. One day Betsy returned from playing in the garden and told her grandmother about seeing “a small man wearing a red cap” who had beckoned her to come and play. Legends say that the entity, though seemingly harmless, was encountered again in the cellar of the building while an important public figure was visiting the house. This prompted his removal, and a minister was asked to come and exorcise the strange little fellow from the property. Winston-Salem’s “Little Red Man” was never again seen.

More recently, another strange incident involving similar phenomenon was reported across the United States in California, as related by a woman named Tammy to Jason Offutt, author of Darkness Walks: The Shadow People Among Us (of which, I might add, Patrick Huyghe of Anomalist Books was kind enough to send me a review copy. Keep an eye out for my review of this fine book in an upcoming Gralien Report post).

Tammy reported that she and her children had lived on a lot with five houses “and one very spooky old barn.” Tammy had begun to notice that “none of the neighbor’s animals, or stray animals for that matter, would go anywhere near that barn.” Eventually, strange things began to occur around the area, and one evening Tammy finally says she heard a “very freaky, very evil-sounding chuckle.” Looking in the direction of the sound, Tammy and her son witnessed what she called “a gnome”. Offutt describes for us what this strange man of diminished proportions looked like: “The entity was about two to three feet tall. Baggy black pants hung from its waist and the “creature” wore a gold-colored shirt. It had a salt and pepper beard and hair that ran from beneath a red, pointed hat.” By all accounts, it appeared to be a traditional gnome; and a creepy one, at that!

Of course, reports of “creepy gnomes” aren’t restricted to the United States. In fact, readers of this blog may recall posts around March of 2008 dealing with a “creepy gnome” seen around the Salta province of Argentina. Strangely, this creature was described as looking very much like a typical gnome as represented in Germanic folklore; culturally, this creates a few problems. To quote myself from the original article, “For the reasons above, culturally there are many problems with a “gnome” appearing in Argentina; for instance, these creatures are a part of the folklore of mostly northern and eastern Europe, having been known famously by such names as Kaukis and Tomten in Germanic traditions, as well as Barbegazi further south in France. Having been a part of the culture of this region for centuries, one might find it more credible if reports of a “gnome” were seen here, especially with his trademark pointed hat.” Apparently, these creepy gnomes no nothing of culture when it comes to where they decide they want to appear.

Are there indeed strange, very small “spirit folk”, or “fairies” which exist in remote areas around the world? Could they be strange, hidden races of “hobbits” which exist primarily underground, hidden from view? Or could they be mere folklore, nothing more than legends that represent some weird archetypal element in the human psyche?

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!”

Tantallon’s “Curtain Wall”; Photo by Phillip Capper of Wellington, New Zealand

Tantallon was built by William Douglas, 1st Earl of Douglas, in the mid 14th century. Douglas left it to his illegitimate son, later given the title the Earl of Angus, in whose name it remained the property for much of its history. Tantallon would fall victim to several sieges, perhaps most notably by King James IV in 1491, and again by his successor James V in 1528, the latter of which caused extensive damage. Some have suggested, for whatever reason, that the “ghost” in Aitchison’s photo might actually depict James V, though other explanations include light reflecting off a wall in the background. According to a recent AOL News poll, 65% of all viewers believe there may be a natural explanation as opposed to being anything ghostly in the photo, whereas only 35% believe the apparition may indeed be something anomalous. What do you think is being depicted in Aitchison’s photo?

According to Ben, “Paranormal investigator Zak Bagans and his crew Nick Groff and Aaron Goodwin search for haunted locations both domestically and internationally. They research the area, interview locals about the hauntings and then go face-to face with the spirits in a 12 hour overnight lock-down. Friday night begins with the award-winning Ghost Adventures documentary at 8 pm ET, followed by the series premier at 10 pm ET. This week the team is at Bobby Mackey Music World in Wilder, KY where local interviews help reveal the sinister past behind the cheerful nightclub setting.”

Tune in this Friday, and join up with the chat the at follows by clicking here!