The Occult Section

Yes, it’s another addition to the list of celebrity ghost stories. Apparently Miley Cyrus had some paranormal activity in her London apartment during her 2009 tour. I’m terrible at research, so does anyone know if she had been smoking marijuana back then? Also, this is not the first time the Cyrus family has been linked to the paranormal…or featured  on our blog (see here, here and here, where Billy Ray Cyrus was supposed to host a show on SyFy).

“A ghost? That’s pretty cool!”

The 20-year-old singer and her family rented an apartment in the English capital during her 2009 European tour but they had to move to a hotel after a number of ghostly encounters.

She told British Elle magazine: “It was seriously so terrifying. One night, my little sister — it sounds crazy to tell you — but she was standing in the shower and all of a sudden, I hear her scream. I run in there and the water had somehow flipped to hot but it was still … It wasn’t like the water had just changed, the knob had turned but she hadn’t turned it and it was burning her. She was really red.

“I thought I had seen a little boy sitting on the sink watching me take a shower so I felt really freaked out. I was sitting there the next night and maybe I’m crazy, but I could have sworn I could see this little boy sitting there on the sink, kicking his feet.”

The family later discovered the apartment was reportedly haunted and Miley has vowed never to stay there again.

She said: “We found out that there was this older man that owned it [the bakery that had once been in the building] and his son lived with him there, and I guess the wife died or something, she had gotten sick.

“So it was just the son and the dad that lived there in the bakery, and then the dad died and the son took over the bakery, and I thought I was seeing the son. I’m not even kidding.

“I had to move. That’s not a lie. I will never stay there ever again.”

I think it’s safe to say that ever since Ghost Hunters came on the air, any business that can charge admission of some kind is not “reportedly haunted.” Hell, it’s an easy way to make a buck, and all you have to do is make up some cliché, non-verifiable story, and the knuckleheads will eat it up and pay $200 to get in and investigate with 150 other knuckleheads. Like, totally seriously though, old faucets and valves can move on their own if they are old, broken,, and there’s enough water pressure. Like, totally.

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A big story floating around the interwebs this week has been the alleged discovery of giant crystal pyramids beneath the Bermuda Triangle. Now, of course there’s no proof (yet), and there’s no real mainstream media coverage of this story (yet), and the articles out there all seem to be the same article, verbatim (see below). Most of the sites covering this story seem to be weird fringe websites and conspiracy theorists (e.g., MSNBC). So I figured hey, we might as well get in on this too. We’re not really weird enough to be in the same category as those other sites, thankfully, but, behold: the story of the crystal pyramids of the Bermuda Triangle. Or something.

We had the underwater Millennium Falcon, so I guess this is the underwater Jedi Temple?

‘The Bermuda Triangle: mysterious, unworldly, sometimes deadly. For decades intrepid researchers delved into the maze of mysteries hidden deep within this most enigmatic place on Earth.

Some speculate the bizarre time anomalies, disappearances and weird phenomena can be explained by natural occurences. Others are insistent that relics of an advanced, unknown culture left behind fantastic technology…great energy machines that literally warp spacetime and open portals to other realities.

Now American and French explorers have made a monumental discovery: a partially translucent, crystal-like pyramid rising from the Caribbean seabed— its origin, age and purpose completely unknown.’

A gigantic structure, perhaps larger than the Great Pyramid of Cheops in Egypt, and initially identified by a doctor in the 1960s, has been independently verified by diving teams from France and the U.S.

The discovery has rocked scientists around the world. Will they rush to investigate it? No, they’re more likely to studiously ignore it. If pressed, they’ll officially position themselves as highly skeptical—especially in light of the potential ramifications.

The pyramid could confirm some engineers’ contentions that pyramids were originally created as massive power sources, support the claim that the ancient city-state of Atlantis did exist, or even provide answers to the mysterious goings-on that have been recorded since the 19th Century in the region of the Atlantic dubbed the Bermuda Triangle.

According to the history, the pyramid was accidentally discovered during 1968 by a doctor of naturopathy, Ray Brown of Mesa, Arizona.

Brown was in the Caribbean on vacation and making dives with friends in a region off the Bahamas known as “the Tongue of the Ocean.” The area acquired that name because a tongue-shaped portion of the seabed extends out from the island before sharply dropping off into much greater depths.

When relating his discovery, the doctor explained he became separated from his diving friends underwater. While attempting to rejoin them he came upon a massive structure rising from the ocean floor: a black, hulking object silhouetted against the lighter sun-filtered water. The object was shaped like a pyramid.

Because he was low on air, he didn’t spend much time investigating the pyramid, but did find a strange crystal sphere.

He brought it to the surface with him and later when the ancient crystal was studied researchers were astonished by its properties.

Blah blah blah bling bling bling blah.

The article goes on, at some length, talking about how these pyramids might be the cause of the strange anomalies and energy fluctuations in the Bermuda Triangle. And how this might be proof of Atlantis. I think it’s still too early to tell, but this story is really reminding me of the whole Baltic Sea UFO that looked like the Millennium Falcon that turned out to be nothing. Of course, it would be really interesting if it turned out to be real, but as always, I won’t be holding my breath.

Thanks to my brother Keith for letting me know about this story

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One of my favourite ghost stories relates to an enterprising Scot who immigrated across the pond to the US, finally ending up in Canada. Simon McTavish was a Highlander born around 1750. When he first arrived in the Americas, he spent several years living in New England, before ending his days in Montreal, Canada. In that time, he became a very successful fur trader, owner of the dominant North West Company.

Simon McTavish

By all accounts, McTavish was a colourful character, who kept the citizens of Montreal highly amused by his antics. An acknowledged hard worker, he also liked to enjoy himself. One of his favourite past-times was apparently either falling in love or being in love. He led quite a grand life, throwing large parties and enjoying good food. In 1793, he got the hang of the love game, marrying Marie-Marguerite Chaboillez, a local woman. They had six children, of whom four survived. McTavish promised his wife that he would built her a castle on top of Mount Royal, the grandest house in all of Montreal. But he died during its construction in 1805. His body was buried on the site in a mausoleum.

But McTavish did not rest easily in his tomb, and in fact went on to become the centre of one of Montreal’s biggest local legends. The story became so notorious, that it led to McTavish’s mausoleum being covered over. There are quite a few twists to the tale. Following his death, the grand house McTavish planned for his wife was never finished, and became known as the ‘haunted house on the hill’. People reported hearing the revelries of huge parties emanating from the house. Others said that the man himself could be seen dancing on the rooftop – maybe with or without a few accompanying fairies. Perhaps more unusual, and rather befitting for the ghost of an eccentric ex-pat Scot, his ghost could also be seen sitting upright in his coffin, sledging down the side of Mount Royal.

It goes that the abandoned construction of his castle after his wife left Montreal angered McTavish’s spirit, causing it to get up to such merry japes. His ghost was also said to be somewhat miffed when some grave robbing took place in the new cemetery in Mount Royal in 1870. An anatomy professor had employed some bodysnatchers to sort out a supply problem for his classes. The resurrection men were reportedly accompanied by McTavish sliding down the hill next to them in his coffin. McTavish’s tomb itself was also apparently broken into.

A few years ago, archaeologists began excavating Simon McTavish’s mausoleum. It’s not known if they had any coffin-sledging company from the other side…

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Isn’t it funny how psychics, and their defenders,  always have excuses ready to go when the “psychic” turns out to be utterly wrong? Actually, it’s not funny, especially when people’s lives are at stake, or when families are grieving over loved ones. Here’s yet another example of how blowhard Sylvia Browne made a huge mistake in declaring someone to be dead, when she really wasn’t.

There’s a special place in Hell for you, Ms. Browne. My psychic powers told me so.

One of the world’s most recognizable self-proclaimed psychics was wrong yet again about the fate of a missing child, and her followers on social media are taking her to task.

Browne’s prediction about the fate of Amanda Berry was not her first attempt to explain the fate of a child, but her fans on social media demanded acknowledgment from the self-proclaimed spiritual leader.

On Wednesday, Browne released the following through her Facebook page:

For more than 50 years as a spiritual psychic and guide, when called upon to either help authorities with missing person cases or to help families with questions about their loved ones, I have been more right than wrong. If ever there was a time to be grateful and relieved for being mistaken, this is that time. Only God is right all the time. My heart goes out to Amanda Berry, her family, the other victims and their families. I wish you a peaceful recovery.

On Facebook and Twitter, Browne sends inspirational messages to hundreds of thousands of fans, often advertising her latest appearances or one of 45 books she has published (most recently Afterlives of the Rich and Famous). She reached a high level of visibility after years appearing as a regular guest on Montel Williams’ television show, a long-running daytime talk program that subsisted on paternity test results, cheating spouses and half-baked psychic predictions before it stopped production in 2008.

Browne’s Facebook followers are using her most recent post to ask for a better answer about Amanda Berry. Photograph: Facebook

“I remember you on Montel Williams telling the family of Amanda Berry she was dead,” wrote one commenter on Browne’s Facebook page. “What do you have to say for yourself? What a horrible horrible thing to say to a family holding on to nothing but hope and faith.”

“Can you admit that you’re a hack now?” asked another.

“I hope todays events seal it for you and everyone else who take advantage of those in mourning,” wrote another.

Not likely.

Browne announced the death of Amanda Berry in 2004, when she appeared on Williams’ show to tell Berry’s mother, Louwana Miller, that her daughter was “in heaven and on the other side” and that her last words were “goodbye, mom, I love you”. Miller would die a year later, of heart failure.

In fact, Berry escaped Monday from a Cleveland home where she had been held captive with two other women for more than a decade. A child who is hers was also removed from the home, according to police.

As Jon Ronson wrote in his 2007 profile on predatory psychics, Browne has spoken face-to-face with many distraught parents and wrongly forecasted life or death. Shawn Hornbeck was a missing child whose parents were told by Browne that their son was buried between two boulders. When he was found alive after four years in 2007, Browne’s publicist told CNN in a written statement: “She cannot possibly be 100% correct in each and every one of her predictions. She has, during a career of over 50 years, helped literally tens of thousands of people.”

For her part, Browne told Montgomery Media in Pennsylvania in April that she’s exceptional at spotting imposters:

“You can always see when they start doing guessing games.”

On Facebook, some of Browne’s fans are defending her predictions. “everyone makes mistakes. Even doctors, lawyers … Psychics,” wrote one.

“Sylvia you were right on for me, you have my support,” added another.

The Guardian has asked Browne for comment.

Are there people who are really psychic? Who knows. I don’t discount the possibility. I’ve had things happen to me that made me think perhaps I was able to see something that was going to happen before it did. But it’s far more likely that it was just a coincidence, and our minds just want to link these things when we’re right. We don’t remember the times we were wrong, because that’s not “freaky.” Hell, statistically speaking, you can take a multiple choice test in a subject you know nothing about, guess every answer, and still average about 65% correctness. I feel that’s pretty much what every single psychic averages. So yeah, they’re bound to be wrong sometimes. Because they don’t have super powers. They are making educated guesses. That’s all. And once again, I’m glad Sylvia Browne was wrong.

Thanks to my brother Jeff for letting me know about this story

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I’m intrigued by this article. There’s a house for sale in Montreal, right, and people are already assuming it’s haunted. Why? Cuz paranormal stuff is so hot right now. But seriously, it’s an old house and apparently hasn’t been renovated much, if at all, since being built almost 100 years ago.

An eerie house for sale in Montreal’s Rosemont-La Petite-Patrie area is still in search of a buyer nearly a year after going on the market, according to CTV News.

The listing says a building contractor built the house with his employees in 1919 and 1920. Judging from the images posted online, nothing has changed since.

The house looks like a time capsule from the 1920s; its well-worn furniture and dusty floors contributing to a sense that something of its past owners lingers on inside the empty rooms.

“Probably the first Victorian house to be built in the area of Petite Patrie and certainly the last to be renovated,” the listing says.

It adds that the floors, doors and paneling are all original, made from oak. The floor was only ever covered with beeswax, it says. The walls bear the marks of items that once hung there and the bedroom still contains a bed.

A visitor told CTV News the house had a feeling to it, as though it was haunted.

The listing includes a warning that there is no legal warranty for the house’s quality.

In this day and age, it’s totally acceptable to presume everything you come across is paranormal, full of ghosts, possibly demonic, and definitely soon-to-be on TV.

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