'Gef': A Modern Sphinx as an Esoteric Lesson about Oneness

Doarlish Cashen with Mr. Irving and daughter Voirrey outside their front door.  The house was located on an isolated farmstead on the Isle of Man.

This sketch shows the Bell House during the 'Bell Witch' case of the 19th Century.  The location was a farm at the Red River in Tennessee.

In the 1936 book The Haunting of Cashen’s Gap: A Modern Miracle Investigated, Harry Price and R. S. Lambert presented a compendium of anecdotes and commentary about a case that they equated with "what is alleged to be a supernatural visitation."  The events took place in the vicinity of a small farmstead on the Isle of Man where lived James T. Irving, his wife and their daughter Voirrey in a remote house.

They reported experiencing a bizarre series of events where an unseen communicator had been heard that often claimed to be a mongoose.  The family described seeing an animal like a mongoose on different occasions and had been able to take photographs of it.

In their chronicle about Gef the Talking Mongoose, Price and Lambert noticed some parallels to poltergeist cases.  They wrote:

Many of the events related by Irving can be classified by those experienced in psychical research as belonging to the class of ‘poltergeist’ phenomena. Amongst these are Gef’s habit of throwing sand and small stones, also metal, wooden, and bone objects, at persons in or near Doarlish Cashen; the thumping, scratching, rapping, and banging noises which he makes behind the paneling and in the rafters of the house; and the movement of furniture.

At the time Price first learned about the Gef case, he was already a well-known investigator of ‘psychical phenomena.’  He sent an inquiry to Irving, who responded by sending him a letter providing a short account of what had happened.

After having heard "barking, growling, spitting, and persistent blowing" sounds of an animal nature in his house, Irving gave imitations of animal calls and each time named the animal.  In the following days, "one had only to name the particular animal or bird and instantly, always without error, it gave the correct call."  Then, Voirrey recited nursery rhymes and they were accurately repeated.

Price and Lambert wrote: "We are told that ‘the voice is extremely high pitched, above the human range, with a clear, sweet tone.’"

The authors divulged the early circumstances that established a pathetic context for the relationship of the family with the mysterious encroacher: "The Irvings decided to tolerate the animal, though previously the farmer tried to kill it by means of gun, trap, and poison. It eluded all attempts at capture, dead or alive."

When the family threatened to move, Gef told them, "I am a ghost in the form of a weasel and I will haunt you!"

As the family got to know Gef better, they overcame their fear of him — or should I say ‘of them’?  The book includes an Appendix offering notes about Gef’s activities. In December 1931, a statement is found where Gef is reported to have mentioned the pronoun "us."

The incident reads:

"During the absence of Mrs. Irving from home, Irving goes down to the local school to meet Voirrey, and fetch her home.  Leaving Voirrey outside at play, he enters the schoolhouse and converses with the mistress, Miss Creer, chiefly about Gef. On leaving the school with Voirrey, while proceeding home up the glen after dark, Irving hears Gef’s voice calling out: 'What did you tell Miss Creer about us?'"

The authors mentioned that soon after Gef attached himself to the family, Irving saw a large stray cat striped like a tiger, outside the house.  It was a tailless Manx cat and that evening Gef squeaked out: "It was me you saw, Jim!"

A note for March 21, 1932 reads: "I have recently discovered it to be an Indian mongoose, several of which were turned loose a mile away by a farmer . . . about the year 1911 or 1912."

Price and Lambert reported that the animal had said he was born on June 7th, 1852 (almost eighty years previously) in Delhi, India and had been chased and shot at by natives.  To test him, Irving asked him to speak Hindustani and some of the resulting vocabulary was listed for Price and Lambert.

The authors reported in their book that the Irvings had first called their prodigy ‘Jack.’  But during the summer of 1932 this was gradually softened to ‘Gef,’ and the animal said he liked the name.  Gef told the family about visits to the nearby town of Peel and divulged what people there were doing and saying.

Some of the occurrences in the home involving physical objects impressed Irving as showing enormous strength entirely out of proportion to his size.

Gef revealed to the family that he knew phrases of different languages, including Russian.  Gef was also a singer.  One night: "Gef sang three verses of ‘Ellan Vannin,’ the Manx National Anthem . . . then two verses in Spanish, followed by one verse in Welsh; then a prayer in pure Hebrew . . . finishing up with a long peroration in Flemish."

Irving argued with Gef that he must be a spirit, or he could not have the knowledge which he possesses.  Gef once advised Irving: "I’m not a spirit. I am a little extra, extra clever mongoose."

Gef was reported to have killed rabbits for the family.  "Having killed a rabbit, he would tell Irving where he had placed it — generally in a convenient position near the house."

Once when it was suggested to Gef that he was a spirit, he explained, "If I were a spirit, I could not kill rabbits."

According to the book, at various times Gef called himself a "tree mongoose," a "marsh mongoose," and an "earthbound spirit."

Harry Price learned that somehow Gef knew him to be "the man who puts the kybosh on the spirits."

On the same night of October 25th, 1934 in the course of conversation, Gef referred to the Gresford Colliery Disaster, Einstein, and Sir Isaac Newton, and said "I’ll split the atom."

Gef was quoted as saying on November 2nd: "I am a freak. I have hands and I have feet, and if you saw me you’d faint, you’d be petrified, mummified, turned into stone, or a pillar of salt."

When the question was first raised about Price coming to the house, Gef was quoted as saying: "Ask Harry Price whose was the invisible hand that scattered the violets about the room at night.  You know, Olga and Rudi Schneider."

The note for January 19, 1935 reads:

Gef in high spirits and sings hymn, "Jesus, my Savior, on Calvary’s Tree."  Asks Irving who God is, and on his replying: "I do not know," replies: "Jim the infidel." Afterwards Gef sings six verses of "The King of Love my Shepherd is."

Irving also reported that Gef’s laughter ranged from what sounded like a precocious child to the chuckling laugh of an aged person to a distinct type of maniacal laughter that the family felt themselves fortunate to not hear very often.

During a demonstration of his arithmetician abilities, when Irving remarked that Gef took a long time calculating on one occasion Gef replied, "My rectophone wasn’t working."

Once when Mrs. Irving commented, "You know, Gef, you are no animal!," Gef replied: "Of course I am not!  I am the Holy Ghost!"

When Price and Lambert visited the house, Gef was unheard and unseen. Something Irving told them was: "The fact that Gef can enter and leave my house, as he has done hundreds of times, without being seen by us, look as often as we like, compels us to think that invisibility is a possibility."

Price and Lambert also quoted Irving as telling them: "Out of doors, when walking side by side by Voirrey, Gef’s voice appears to be in the air, and not a foot away from the back of my head . . . Indoors, the voice moves about as quick as wireless, so rapidly in fact that obstructions to his bodily movements do not seem to exist."

Gef also became a subject of investigation by Dr. Nandor Fodor, a psychoanalyst and paranormal researcher who wrote about the Isle of Man case in 1937.  This information is included in his 1951 book Haunted People.

When Fodor visited the Irvings, Gef was elusive yet details learned by Fodor provide further information about the case.  Gef’s declaration of being a ghost in the form of a weasel and I shall haunt you was supplemented with some further words: "with weird noises and clanking chains."  Gef was also quoted as saying "I am the fifth dimension" and "I am the eighth wonder of the world."

A rumor had spread that the talking mongoose was taking bus rides. One witness interviewed by Fodor was John Cowley, described as "a motor mechanic at Peel, the very man who fixed up the electric trap under Bus 81, to kill Gef when he next stole a free ride."  Cowley was quoted as saying:

"It did not work. Nor the wire cage which I placed baited under the waiting room to stop the stealing of sandwiches. Mr. Irving told me where the electric trap was fixed. He said that Gef knew all about it. This animal, or whatever it is, knows a darn sight too much. He seems to hear what we talk in the bus-shed, behind closed doors, in the early morning hours, when no one is about."

Cowley added that Mr. Irving made him and the other men feel uncomfortable by telling them every ridiculous thing they’d been doing.

Concerning the sad trouble over the fur sample that had been sent to Harry Price, Fodor related that Irving had told Gef about it.  "The expert thought it was that of the dog," Irving informed Gef, who answered: "He should not think, he should know. He damn well does not know what I am."

Fodor reported about the rabbits killed by Gef: "One eye of the rabbit is always poked out and there is a clot of blood on its nose, sometimes behind the ears."

At the time of Fodor’s visit, Gef was reported to have caught 244 rabbits.

Fodor explained further about the family: "The only meat they knew was rabbit, when Gef provided them, or when they caught them with snares . . . Most of the rabbits had to be sold because they fetched seven-pence apiece . . ."

A 1970 article about ‘the talking mongoose’ appeared in Fate magazine.  The writer, Walter McGraw, stated that he was an acquaintance of Nandor Fodor and had interviewed Voirrey Irving. The question McGraw most wanted answered was what happened to Gef?

Voirrey says she does not know.   The last she remembers his being around the farm was in 1938 or 1939.  He seemed to go away for longer and longer periods of time, and then he just never showed up again.  He had made no statements about leaving; there had been no good-byes; he simply was gone.

Price and Lambert wrote in The Haunting of Cashen’s Gap that "in the whole history of such phenomena there is no known case of a poltergeist assuming the form of a talking animal, and conversing with human beings intelligently and at length"; however, they ignored incidents documented in what is known as ‘The Bell Witch’ talking poltergeist case.

The first book about this case was published in 1894 and is entitled An Authenticated History of the Famous Bell Witch and Other Stories of the World’s Greatest Unexplained Phenomenon by M. V. Ingram.  The book includes many eyewitness testimonials.

A profusion of supernatural phenomena was experienced by the Bells, whose double log house, weather-boarded on the outside, was located on the south bank of the Red River in Robertson County, Tennessee, an area north of Nashville.  Richard Williams Bell called his memoirs Our Family Trouble and described a variety of strange phenomena witnessed by the family.

The unexplained events began in 1817, including a strange knocking at the door and on the walls of the house.  An account of the initial vocal manifestations was provided by Richard Williams Bell.  At first there was a whistling sound, followed by whispering.

"The witch continued to develop the power of articulation, talking freely, and those who engaged in conversation with the invisible persevered in plying questions to draw out an explanation of the mystery, and again the question was pressed, inquiring, ‘Who are you and what do you want?’ and the witch replied, stating the second time, ‘I am a spirit who was once very happy, but have been disturbed and made unhappy.’  Then followed the question, ‘How were you disturbed, and what makes you unhappy?’  The reply to this question was, ‘I am the spirit of a person who was buried in the woods nearby, and the grave has been disturbed, my bones disinterred and scattered, and one of my teeth was lost under this house, and I am here looking for that tooth.’"

After Mr. Bell took up a portion of the floor to look unsuccessfully for the tooth, the witch was said to have laughed and declared that "It was all a joke to fool ‘Old Jack.’"

The next information presented as having been offered by the disembodied voice was:

"I am the spirit of an early emigrant, who brought a large sum of money and buried my treasure for safe keeping until needed.  In the meantime I died without divulging the secret, and I have returned in the spirit for the purpose of making known the hiding place, and I want Betsy Bell to have the money."

The spirit told them where the treasure was to be found; however, after a hard day’s labor the spirit was said to have laughed and ridiculed them for being so easily duped.

Among the people interviewed by Ingram was Mrs. Nancy Ayers, whose father and grandfather were friends of the Bell family.  Ayers was quoted:

"The witch talked almost incessantly, gabbing and spouting about everything that was going on in the country, seemed familiar with everybody’s business, telling things that no one present knew anything about, called strangers by name and telling where they were from before they could introduce themselves.   It would also quote scripture, discuss doctrinal questions, sing songs, and pray eloquent prayers . . ."

Richard Williams Bell reported that the "first exhibition of a religious nature" was an exact mimicking of James Johnson’s prayer and commentary made by the old gentleman on the first night he and his wife visited for the purpose of investigation ". . . so perfect that it appeared like himself present."

Repeatedly, the haunting presence seemed to have intimate knowledge about everyone who visited the Bells.  The family eventually used the nickname Kate for the mysterious spirit.  The use of the word ‘witch’ is a reflection of how witnesses to the events perceived the spirit based upon cultural traditions.

Ingram—in explaining public perception among witnesses of the case—used the word superstitious, a word that greatly implies irrationality in our time yet his purpose is obviously meant to convey belief.  He wrote:

There were many superstitious people in the country who believed the witch was a reality, something supernatural, beyond human power or comprehension, which had been clearly demonstrated.  This is the way many reasoned about the mystery.  Kate arrogantly claimed to be all things, protesting the power to assume any shape, form or character, that of human, beast, varment, fowl or fish, and circumstances went to confirm the assertion.

Ingram observed further —

Kate the witch never slept, was never idle or confined to any place, but was here and there and everywhere, like the mist of night or the morning sunbeams, was everything and nothing, invisible yet present, spreading all over the neighborhood, prying into everybody’s business and domestic affairs; caught on to every ludicrous thing that happened, and all of the sordid, avaricious meanness that transpired; divining the inmost secrets of the human heart, and withal, was a great blabbermouth; getting neighbors by the ears, taunting people with their sins and shortcomings, and laughing at their folly in trying to discover the identity of the mystery.

. . . People now concluded that a good spirit had been sent to the community to work wonders and prepare the good at heart for the second advent.

In Our Family Trouble, Richard Williams Bell wrote about two reverends who preached at the same hour on Sunday mornings with their churches located thirteen miles apart:

"The company was treated one night to a repetition of one of Rev. James Gunn’s best sermons, preached in the vicinity, the witch personating Mr. Gunn, lining the hymn, quoting his text and prayer, and preaching so much like Mr. Gunn, that it appeared the minister himself was present.

"It so happened that both ministers came to visit our family that evening, finding quite a crowd of people gathered in, as was the case every day during the excitement.

"Mr. Gunn asked the witch how it knew what he had preached about? The answer was, ‘I was present and heard you.’

"Someone suggested that Brother Fort had the advantage of the witch this time, that having attended Brother Gunn’s service, it could tell nothing about Brother Fort’s discourse at Drake’s Pond. ‘Yes I can,’ was the prompt reply. How do you know? was the inquiry. ‘I was there and heard him.’ Then assimilating Rev. Fort’s style, it proceeded to quote his text and repeated his sermon, greatly delighting the company.

"Then it told Calvin Johnson that it was the spirit of a child buried in North Carolina, and told John Johnson that it was his stepmother’s witch."

What this meant was explained by Nancy Ayers.  She said that on one occasion her father asked Kate to tell him something about itself.  The witch or spirit’s nickname for Nancy’s Grandfather was "Sugar Mouth."  Kate was recalled to have replied:

"‘Well Jack, if you will agree to keep it a secret, and not tell old "Sugar Mouth" . . . I will tell you.’ Of course Father agreed to that. ‘Now,’ says Kate, ‘I am your stepmother.’ Father replied, ‘Kate, you know you are lying; my stepmother is a good woman, and the best friend I have. She would not do so many mean things as you are guilty of.’ ‘Now,’ replied Kate, ‘I can prove it to you.’ Grandmother Johnson had an unruly servant who would go wrong, irritating her very much, and the old lady was constantly after Rachel, raising a sharp storm about her ears.

"Father said the witch at once assumed the voice and tone of his stepmother, and got after Rachel. ‘Tut, tut, Rachel, what makes you do so,’ imitating grandmother exactly."

In the testimonial written by Richard Williams Bell, numerous examples of voice phenomena were provided in the reports of the communication offered by the unseen Kate.  Once, the voice of a family slave named Harry was heard when two Shakers on horseback were approaching the house.

Recalling the comment in The Haunting of Cashen’s Gap about no known case of a poltergeist assuming the form of a talking animal, it is ironic to mention that one of the bizarre stories told by a Bell family slave named Dean occurred when he was hunting an opossum and a rabbit began conversing with Dean’s intended quarry.  The rabbit was said to have suddenly grown in size to be bigger than a man and then hit Dean over the head with a stick to punish him for the cruel treatment of the opossum.

M. V. Ingram received a written report from Reverend James G. Byrns, whose objective was "to state faithfully some of the facts impressed upon me, as I have so often heard them detailed" by his father and other witnesses to the events.  Here is an excerpt of the report.

"It seemed to prefer talking with John Johnson and Bennett Porter more than any other persons, perhaps because they were more disposed to humor and gas [chat] with it than were others.  Bennett Porter was Mr. Bell’s son-in-law — married to Esther Bell.  The witch promised him one night to go home with him that the family might have some rest.  Then it said, ‘Bennett, you will try to kill me if I visit your house.’  ‘No, I won’t,’ replied Porter.  ‘Oh, but I know you,’ replied the witch, ‘but I have been to your house.  Do you remember that bird you thought sung so sweet the other morning?’  ‘Yes,’ replied Porter.  ‘Well that was me.’  Then continued the witch, ‘Bennett, didn’t you see the biggest and poorest old rabbit that you ever saw in your life as you came on here this evening?’  ‘Yes,’ replied Mr. Porter.  ‘Well that was me,’ said the witch, and then bursted into laughter."

Ingram’s interview with Nancy Ayers, who was born in 1819, demonstrates how importantly the events were regarded by the families of those who witnessed the occurrences.  She related what she had learned about Kate from family members.

Ayers told Ingram that her father, John Johnson, once said to Kate: "Tell me where you live, and who and what you are, anyhow?’

The response reported is "I live in the woods, in the air, in the water, in houses with people; I live in heaven and in hell; I am all things and anything I want to be; now don’t you know what I am?’"

In 1934 Bell descendant Charles Bailey Bell, M.D. brought forth additional recollections that he wrote were handed down by his grandfather, John Bell Jr., a brother of Richard Williams Bell.  The Bell Witch: A Mysterious Spirit included three chapters describing recollected conversations between the spirit and John Bell Jr.  The spirit was said to have spoken all languages fluently.

Charles Bailey Bell wrote in the Preface of his book that his father had said that he thought Richard Williams’ manuscript was true, but he was too young at the time to understand the Spirit.

John Bell Jr.’s recollections of the Spirit included "a last farewell" in 1828 when Frank Miles was also present.  The Spirit was quoted as then saying: (quote) "I will be here again in another seven years, to which one hundred will be added."

Charles Bailey Bell wrote:

The Spirit assured John Bell Jr., that it would make itself known to a Bell descendent of his, as it did to him.

Charles Bailey explained that his book was published in 1934 on account of three reasons: (one) the depression, from which people were suffering; (two) because so many church people were doubting the divinity of Christ; and (three) due to "the fact that the Spirit said it would be back in the year 1935" — "I believe the reader will agree with me that my grandfather and father would both think now would be the proper time to publish these recollections."

The anticipated year of 1935 is the same year that The Haunting of Cashen’s Gap was written. The book was published the following year, 1936.

In Our Family Trouble, Richard Williams Bell shared another detail correlating with the Gef case.  This information concerned the wife of a brother, Jesse, who was living away from the Bell household.

This passage began:

"Kate, as before intimated, visited the family of Brother Jesse Bell quite often, making demonstrations, but never to the extent of the manifestations at home. Jesse’s wife, whom the witch called ‘Pots’ . . ."

The word is ‘P — O — T — S’ as in ‘pots and pans.’

What is significant here about the nickname is that ‘Pots’ is also the nickname selected by Gef for Mr. Irving.

It is reported on Page 29 of The Haunting of Cashen’s Gap: "The mongoose usually called Mr. Irving ‘Jim’ or ‘Pots’ . . . .

*

The preceding article is the paper that I contributed to the April 10, 2014 Symposium on Gef, the Talking Mongoose.  It was read today (in absentia) at the Senate House Library of the University of London.  The Library is the repository of Harry Price's original texts, photographs and materials from the Gef case.

This event was described as "A half-day symposium exploring the history, meaning and legacy of one of psychic investigator Harry Price's most extraordinary cases, that of Gef, a very talkative but elusive mongoose claimed to have lived with a family on the Isle of Man in the 1930s."  The Symposium was followed by a showing of the film "Vanished!," based on the case, and introduced by its makers, Professor Brian Catling and Tony Grisoni. 

The other lectures were entitled:

"On the trail of the Dalby Spook: an archival and anecdotal quest"

Christopher Josiffe

"Crossed Lines of the Dream Operators: a conversation concerning Gef, The Radiant Cat, and WS Burroughs' Third Mind"

Robin Klarzynski

"Animal Apparitions and sexual symbolism in poltergeist cases: the example of Gef the talking mongoose"

Alan Murdie

"Reading the Mongoose, the mongoose reading"

Richard Espley

"Gef on television?  Nigel Kneale's "Beasts" and the Desacralization of Modernity"

Craig Wallace

Concerning the mythical ancient Sphinx whose riddle seems to be an esoteric metaphorical exercise, the answer attributed to Oedipus seems superficial.

Sphinx: "What animal is it that in the morning goes on four feet, at noon on two, and in the evening upon three?"

Oedipus: "Man, who in childhood creeps on hands and knees, in manhood walks erect, and in old age goes with the aid of a staff."

The Sphinx was said to have thereupon perished after casting herself from her rock. 

Perhaps, such a collapse was not because her riddle had been solved but because of the hopelessness brought by the realization that the mind of man was then only capable of thinking of himself.

It seems to me that an alternative answer for the riddle of the Sphinx is "One."  Considering the riddle from a perspective keeping in mind what has been learned from transcendental communicators, one notices that the numbers four and two and three together equal the number nine and it has been explained by those speaking to us from beyond our physical Earth plane how the number nine can be representative of One and Oneness: ". . . nine principles of the Universe that in collectivity are one," as the Council of Nine were quoted in a previous article.

As chronicled in the case study of my unexpected spiritual awakening presented through verbatim transcripts of interviews and journals, Testament (1997), the year was 1995 when I went to Oklahoma to investigate "America's Talking Poltergeist".  The magazine article had left unmentioned one important fact about the case.  The family had Bell ancestry as the mother of the family had married Carlton Bell before her current relationship.  Although the family had reported that many different voices had been heard with their names often given, the central being manifesting in the case was known as 'Michael.'

One memorable incident from my interviews in Centrahoma was when the mother of the family, Maxine Mc Wethy, told me about one of the many strange an unexpected things said to her by ‘Michael.'  Maxine said:

"Once I had a little black and white dog that Brenda gave me — an Australian Shepherd. That was the best little old dog . . . Well, one time it got so full of ticks and everything you find around here that the poor thing couldn't even walk on its hind legs.  Twyla and I were out there and she was picking ticks off of him and Michael hollered, ‘HELP ME, MAXINE’ — just like he was concerned about it."

 

I took these photos of the front and back of the Centrahoma house during my visit in August 1995.

 

 

5/1/14 Update: An article about the symposium was published yesterday in The Wall Street Journal:

"In England, Researchers Investigate Case of the Talking Mongoose"