The Centrahoma Poltergeist (First in a New Series of Blog Articles)



During the summer of 1995, I traveled from Los Angeles to rural Oklahoma to investigate a 'talking poltergeist' haunting.  After researching similar cases such as the 'Bell Witch' case that occurred in Tennessee during the 19th Century, I learned about the contemporary case in a Fortean Times magazine article about "America's Talking Poltergeist".  I contacted Maxine Mc Wethy and she told me that in addition to the entity they called 'Michael' her family had interacted with "quite a few" other manifesting entities.  I also learned that her daughter's maiden name is Bell.  It was startling to discover that there could be a dynasty of poltergeist experiencers.  I excitedly arranged to visit and interview the family.

During three days, I interviewed a gracious and friendly group of people experiencing a gamut of 'paranormal phenomena,' including a series of small objects occasionally materializing.  (The objects are shown in the photo below.)

 
While driving in my rental car, there were two occasions when I heard utterances of 'spirit voices' (or clairaudience).  When I telephoned my twin brother Mike from my hotel room, he was half-asleep as he said: "My bed is shaking."  One night there was a continuous knocking at my hotel door and I looked out the window to see a large beetle that resembled an Egyptian scarab repeatedly flinging itself against the door.  Maxine Mc Wethy and her family had no idea about what could possibly explain the bizarre gamut of paranormal phenomena that they—and now also myself—were experiencing.

August 10, 1995 is the 20th year anniversary of the start of the amazing journey that was the beginning of my unexpected spiritual awakening and gradual expansion of my metaphysical understanding.  This article is the beginning of a blog series presenting documentation and analysis of the Centrahoma case, beginning with the first of several newspaper articles about the production of a television documentary made in the Mc Wethys' house and vicinity.  The documentary would be televised on the ABC network with the title "Ghosts, Mediums, Psychics: Put To The Test."  The airdate would be November 30, 1995 and the footage was also later presented on "20/20."  The phenomena recorded by a video camera would include a chair moving due to an unseen force.  The details of my research expedition are provided with a documentary-style Q&A and journal format in the free Internet edition of the nonfiction case study Testament (1997) and a follow-up online book.

Here is my snapshot from Testament of what in 1995 seemed to be America's most haunted house.

 

 

Here is the information presented in the May 31, 1995 issue of the Coalgate Record-Register with nothing omitted.

  Centrahoma Story Filmed

by Wanda Utterback

 

Last week, LMNO Productions in Los Angeles, California, went to the home of Bill and Maxine McWethy in Centrahoma to film a story about paranormal activities which have been occurring there since 1990.

This is part one of a series of articles which cover our interviews with the producers, Maxine McWethy and her daughter, Twyla Bell Eller, and some of the other people involved in the filming.

The first article to be written on the Centrahoma phenomena appeared in the December 12, 1990 issue of the Coalgate Record-Register.  Needless to say, it drew considerable interest, curiosity and skepticism.  That's understandable.

It is not our intent to persuade anyone to either believe or disbelieve in the alleged activities which have taken place at the McWetheys [house].  Our intent is to report what we witnessed, what other people say they have witnessed, and what the producers and experts have to say about the activities.

Four-and-a-half years have passed since the Coalgate Record-Register first reported the story of a house in Centrahoma where unusual, or paranormal, activities were taking place.  Amazingly, the story has traveled great distances and has caught the attention of a lot of people, including writers and television producers.

Jonathan Rosen and Paul Amirault with LMNO Productions, read the story of Bill and Maxine McWethy, Maxine's daughter Twyla, and their strange house guest, "Michael," in the British magazine, "Fortean times."

Within a few weeks after reading the article, LMNO had completed its investigation and made the decision to go to Centrahoma to film the story for a national television special.  By May 20, a crew was on its way to the tiny rural town in southeastern Oklahoma that few people beyond Coal County have heard of.

For six days, the McWethy house and yard was a beehive of activity as producers, crew members, security guards, experts in several fields, and eyewitnesses came and went.  The results of those six days will be aired sometime this summer or fall on an ABC special tentatively named "Put to the Test."

The McWethy story began one evening in Mid-June of 1990 when rocks began hitting their house while the family was sitting in the yard.  This initial attack continued for 24 hours.

When the Record-Register covered the story in December, 1990, the McWethys reported that the rock activity and other phenomena had become commonplace occurrences.  By then, they had experienced rocks, coins, marbles and other objects flying inside and outside the house.  In an apartment behind the house, a couch had mysteriously been moved to the center of the room, a picture of Christ that hung on a wall had been turned around, and a typewriter had been heard typing.  Windows had been broken in the house, and Twyla, clearly the focus of the phenomena, had received unexplainable and strange-looking cuts on her forehead.

When Helen Langdon and I went to the house on December 5, 1990, we weren't sure what to expect.  There had been rumors of the flying rocks for several months but they had not been taken seriously.  Instead of going away, however, the rumors persisted to the point that it should become clear that the story should be "checked out."  When Bill McWethy came to the Record-Register office on the morning of December 5, an appointment was made for two o'clock that afternoon at his house.

We drove to Centrahoma purely as skeptics.  We didn't know what lay ahead, but we found it rather amusing, if not strange, that someone would be trying to pull off a hoax of rocks flying through the air.

We left Centrahoma two hours later with a lot of unanswered questions.  We knew we had just experienced something that was beyond logical explanation, and we knew it was no hoax.

Our short-lived amusement quickly changed to bewilderment when, within moments after entering the house, rocks started falling from the ceiling and flying horizontally across the room from all directions.  For 45 minutes we witnessed a barrage of stones hitting the floor and everything in the kitchen and dining area.  The heaviest concentration seemed to focus on Twyla.

The same thing happened in the dining room, but by then the rocks were accompanied by flying pennies, nickles and dimes.  Outside, as we were leaving, rocks began hitting the roof of the house and the ground, and 16 pennies appeared and fell in a neat pile beside the back steps.

It was late December, 1990 or early January, 1991 when Twyla and Maxine began hearing a voice that they now identify as "Michael," their unseen but often prankish house guest.

"It was just a high-pitched 'psst' sound at first," Twyla recalls.  "Then gradually it went to 'yeah' and 'so.'  Later, it got to syllables and sentences, and now we carry on conversations just like we're doing right now."  These conversations, she said, are about whatever happens to be going on at the time, "like if somebody had made us mad, he talks about that." "Michael" also carries on conversations with other family members and friends, Twyla and Maxine said.

Barry Taff, a parapsychologist who spent several days on location at the McWethys' during the filming of "Put to the Test," explains "Michael" as a poltergeist.

"Based on histories we've read and information we have, we don't believe there's a ghost or a spirit of a dead person floating around out here," he stated.  "The phenomena of flying objects, noises and fires are products of a psychokinesis which means mind over matter.  The person that is unconsciously doing this is Twyla.  She's the poltergeist agent."  Taff stated that the psychokinesis is beyond Twyla's control.

Taff has investigated over 3,300 cases of poltergeists, apparitions, telepathy, precognition and hauntings during his 27 years as a parapsychologist.  He was the principal investigator on the 1974 "Entity" case.  He assisted in writing a book on the case and was technical advisor on the 1983 movie starring Barbara Hershey.

Part of Taff's investigation at Centrahoma included tests of the electromagnetic field around Twyla.  Normal readings without the presence of power lines, etc., are .1 to .2 milligauss, he said.  Around Twyla they read several hundred milligauss "plus the polarity kept oscillating back and forth."

A poltergeist agent can surge an environment like a battery, he said, and even though they may be physically removed from an area, the force reacts.  This could explain how phenomena sometimes occur when Twyla is gone, he said.

"Michael" reportedly sometimes goes home with people who visit the McWethy house.  Asked if he had an explanation for this, Taff replied: "It could be contagious, or they reach a surge in that space.  Or it could be that other family members act as catalysts.  One thing we do know, it moves with the agent.  In hauntings or a haunted house, the ghost stays at the house."

Generally speaking, Taff said, a psychokenesis of this magnitude (as in Twyla's case) can start at puberty and usually lasts into a person's 20's or sometimes into his or her late 30's.  It's generally associated more with women than with men, and usually there are unresolved emotional conflicts and pent-up anger.

"In a lot of cases, the agents have neurological problems such as epileptic convulsions or migratory headaches," Taff stated.  "In Twyla's case, however, she seems to be a picture of health.  It's also interesting that, in all cases, they've been high strung, wound up with no place to go.  We've never run into a case where an agent is real laid back like she seems to be."

According to Taff, there are millions of people who have the same type psychological profiles as poltergeist agents who aren't agents.  There is no explanation for this.

"It involves a force of nature that we don't understand," he said.  "All cultures have reported it for thousands of years starting with the ancient Greeks, but there's a component out there that's missing.

"The more we focus on it scientifically, the more its elusive—there's something out there we don't understand."

My 1995 contemporary 'talking poltergeist' case research expedition began two days after my 39th birthday.  The following are two of the snapshots I took during the visit to Centrahoma while the other photos are among those provided to me by Maxine Mc Wethy.  The photos are of Maxine's daughters Brenda Bell and Kim Carrell (with her husband Steven) along with two of Maxine's grandchildren who themselves were briefly interview participants.

 

Left to right: Twyla Bell Eller, Megan Eller, Marla 'Fae' Ward, Bill and Maxine Mc Wethy.

 

 

 

Take a close look at the assortment of materialized objects (or ‘apports’) shown near the beginning of this article and upon reflection there can be found a collection of symbols and proverbs.  The cases selected for profiling in various series of articles at this blog are extensively documented while people who probably have not themselves researched the cases may doubt the reality of them due to disbeliefs fostered by skeptical and denialist perspectives presented among programming of the commercial news media.

 

 

     Subjects of Previous Blog Series 

Ray Brown/'Paul' Trance Healer Case (channeling)
Ryuho Okawa's Happy Science (channeling)

William Usborne Moore's Glimpses of the Next State (seance phenomena cases)

Materialization Phenomena

Matthew Manning (spiritual healing)

JZ Knight/'Ramtha' Case (channeling)

Edgar Cayce (channeling)

Rubens Faria/'Dr. Fritz' Trance Healer Case (channeling)

John of God Trance Healer Case (channeling)

Major Donald E. Keyhoe (UFOlogy)

Arthur Shuttlewood (UFOlogy/'contactee')

Mark Probert/'The Inner Circle' Case (channeling)

Rosemary Brown (channeling)

Pearl Lenore Curran/'Patience Worth' Case (Ouija Board spelling/channeling)

John Dee and Edward Kelly (mediumship)

Orfeo Angelucci ('contactee')

Daniel Fry ('contactee')

Truman Bethurum ('contactee')

Madame Blavatsky

Leslie Flint (Direct Voice mediumship)

Spiritualism

'Talking Poltergeist' Cases

 

Previous blog articles about my 'talking poltergeist' research include "Direct Voice Seance Phenomena", "Bryant and Helen Reeve's Flying Saucer Pilgrimage", "'Gef': A Modern Sphinx as an Esoteric Lesson about Oneness" and "Other Incidents of My Unusual Spiritual Awakening".