The Element Encyclopedia of the Psychic World: The Ultimate A–Z of Spirits, Mysteries and the Paranormal. Theresa Cheung
and Lucy Bell lived with their nine children on a farm. The phenomena started with noises and scraping and progressed to clothes being pulled off and furniture and stones being thrown about. Two of the children, Elizabeth and Richard, had their hair pulled one night, and Elizabeth was slapped and punched and pinched. Under investigation by the family and a neighbour, James Johnson, the poltergeist stepped up its activity, tormenting the family, especially Elizabeth, even more. Elizabeth was sent to stay with a neighbour, and the disturbances went with her, indicating that she was the focus of the activity.
The strange events continued over the next few years. Later activity included strange lights outside the house, stones thrown at Elizabeth’s brothers and sisters and visitors receiving slaps similar to Elizabeth’s. The entity also began to speak using foul language. According to reports a voice would appear from nowhere and with no identifiable source. The voice claimed to be various different people but eventually settled on the name of Kate Bates, a woman who had been dissatisfied with business dealings with the Bells. From then on the voice was called Kate.
Johnson advised forming a committee to investigate, and with that the Bell family became the object of much curiosity: General Jackson even paid a visit with a ‘witch layer’, a professional exorcist. According to legend, just outside Bell Lane their carriage got stuck. Kate’s voice could be heard promising to appear that night, and the carriage became unstuck. Later in the evening the witch layer tried to shoot Kate with a silver bullet but was slapped and chased out of the house.
On one occasion it was said Elizabeth was given an emetic to make her sick, and she threw up brass pins and needles. The poltergeist, who had a sick sense of humour, suggested that if she did it again Elizabeth would have enough to set up a shop.
Elizabeth’s father, John Bell, began to suffer from repeated bouts of illness, and Kate claimed she was the cause. He couldn’t eat, his tongue was swollen and Kate declared that she would torment him for the rest of his life. Unfortunately, this is exactly what she did. Finally the ordeals and cursing wore John down, and on the morning of 19 December 1820, he fell into a stupor, dying a day later. A bottle was found in the medicine cabinet, and when the contents were given to an animal the animal died. Kate declared with delight in her voice that she had poisoned John with the liquid while he was asleep.
After John Bell’s death the poltergeist activity diminished. Some time later Elizabeth got engaged to a Joshua Gardener, who apparently did not meet the poltergeist’s approval. The entity told Elizabeth not to marry Joshua and the couple could not go anywhere without the entity following them and persistently taunting them. In 1821 their patience finally snapped and they broke off their engagement.
Elizabeth eventually married a man called Dick Powell, and Kate finally disappeared with the words ‘I will be gone for seven years’. John’s widow, Lucy Bell, and two of her sons who stayed at the farmhouse, did hear manifestations seven years later, but they kept quiet about it this time and the torment stopped after two weeks. Apparently the poltergeist promised to return in 1935 but failed to do so, or wasn’t noticed by anybody.
The Bells never understood why they were ‘attacked’ in this way, and Kate Bates never made any statements. The most commonly accepted theory is that the poltergeist activity focused on Elizabeth, who was the right age, around puberty, for sexual guilt and tension. It has been suggested that there was some kind of incestuous relationship between Elizabeth and her father, which would have distressed the young girl. This theory, however, does not account for poltergeist activity that took place when she was not around, such as that with General Jackson.
The legend of the Bell Witch continues to haunt the Bell farm to this day. Thankfully, the violent and terrible manifestations are a thing of the past, but she is believed to haunt a cave, called the Bell Witch Cave, where unearthly screams, knocks and noises have been reported.
BENTHAM, JEREMY [1748–1832]
The bizarre sight of the body of Jeremy Bentham, law reformer, scientist and philosopher, can be seen to this day mounted on display in University College London. Bentham was fascinated by mummification and believed that corpses, put on permanent display as memorials to the dead, or ‘auto icons’ as he called them, would become commonplace items in the houses of family and friends.
Prior to his death Bentham gave detailed instructions in his will about how his body should be preserved. He requested that his body be dissected, his bones be wired in a sitting position and his mummified corpse be dressed in his favourite black suit and straw hat, with his hand on his favourite walking stick, ‘Dapple’. Bentham’s preserved form is on display today in a case with glass sides. Apparently the mummification of his head was not successful, so it was removed and replaced by a wax head modelled in his likeness.
Over the years there have been various sightings of Bentham’s ghost walking the university corridors, tapping the floor with his cane or cradling his head in his arms.
BERMUDA TRIANGLE
Reports indicate that dozens of ships, twenty or so aeroplanes and a thousand people have mysteriously vanished in this restricted wedge of the ocean just east of Florida in the United States. The ocean region was named the Bermuda Triangle in 1945, after six airforce planes and their crews disappeared on a calm day in good flying conditions.
Although accidents and mysterious disappearances are to be expected at sea, the ones in this area are unusual because they often occur in good weather and no traces of wreckage or survivors are found. Just before disappearing, crews often report that nothing is amiss, and in rare instances ships have been found days later with their entire crews missing. The area is policed by the US government, but despite this the number of disappearances far exceeds the law of chance for such a relatively small area. This had led many investigators to believe that the ‘vanishments’ in this area are caused by some sort of paranormal force.
The mysterious history of the Bermuda Triangle reaches as far back as its first recorded traveller, Christopher Columbus. While sailing into the area, Columbus and his men were unnerved by bolts of lightning, strange lights and the erratic action of the compass spinning wildly.
Over the years the area became notorious for strange occurrences. Until World War II only ships were thought to be affected, but since then aeroplanes have also disappeared. All the most obvious causes - human error, weather and so forth - have been investigated, and by the mid-1970s logical explanations for virtually all the reported mysterious incidents had been uncovered. Despite this, the Bermuda Triangle - also known as the Devil’s Triangle and the Limbo of the Lost - continues to intrigue and defy rational explanation. Various incredible theories have been put forward to explain the disappearances, such as time warps, black holes, atmospheric aberrations, magnetic anomalies, alignments of the planets, tidal waves, earthquakes, hidden sea beings, death rays from outer space, forces emanating from Atlantis and alien abduction.
BERRY POMEROY CASTLE
This ruined castle, located at Berry Pomeroy, Devon has been the scene of ghostly sightings and strange phenomena for hundreds of years. Even today, visitors to the castle remark upon its strange atmosphere and the feelings of foreboding and terror it inspires.
The great majority of the hauntings can be traced to the castle’s original owners, the Pomeroy family, who occupied it from about 1086 to 1550. The most terrifying apparitions are those of a white and a blue lady. The White Lady is believed to haunt the dark dungeons. According to the legend, she is the spirit of Margaret Pomeroy, who was imprisoned in the dungeons by her sister Eleanor. Eleanor was jealous of both Margaret’s beauty and her success with men, and Margaret slowly starved in the dungeons, a long drawn-out and painful death. Perhaps Margaret’s agony is the source of the feeling of unease and horror some people experience at the castle.
The Blue Lady roams around the castle as she pleases and has been seen trying to lure people into parts of the ruin. According to some stories she is the ghost of the daughter of one of the Norman lords of the castle. She was raped by her father, who then