The Centrahoma Visit In Retrospect

These objects materialized while I was interviewing a contemporary family experiencing so-called 'talking poltergeist' phenomena in Centrahoma 1995. There are pebbles and coins, a nail, an "Amusement Centers" token, and a piece of costume jewelry with pearl and diamond symbols.

As some blog readers are aware, in the 1990s I researched the 'Bell Witch' case and similar cases of 'talking poltergeists,' including the 'Gef'/Isle of Man case. Noticing tantalizing parallels between the cases, I then learned about a contemporary case in Oklahoma and visited the family. After witnessing a variety of anomalous occurrences while conducting interviews, I returned home to Los Angeles only to observe the phenomenal events continuing to happen. The expression 'poltergeist' for me now is useful in referring to a manner of categorization for some recurring patterns of so-called 'unexplained phenomena.' The Force making such occurrences possible is the source for the diverse manifestations, from seance room materializations to Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) and other forms of Instrumental Transcommunication.

Considering the 'Bell Witch' case that has inspired commercial movies and TV shows emphasizing the frightful aspects among the diverse occurrences described in eyewitness testimonials, John Bell was around 70 years old when his physical demise occurred under strange circumstances. It has been attested that there were recurring threats and tauntings of John Bell by an unseen entity who became a familiar participant in the life of the Bells. The Bell children are also described to have been rebuked occasionally. The incidents of the case may well have not been so closely detailed by witnesses if not for this peculiar aspect.

Among the annals of paranormal phenomena, there are similar circumstances chronicled among mediums, each having helpful 'guides' while throughout the world guardian angels are a familiar aspect of religious lore. In 1995 I witnessed phenomena that included audible voices of unseen entities. Some individual talking poltergeist experiencers have each been considered to be an 'agent' of the phenomena. Considering my career prior to the Oklahoma expedition, it is ironic that I'd worked as a talent agent in the Southern California entertainment industry prior to becoming a movie publicist. After all, the central manifesting entity 'Michael' is reported to have once replied to the question of what he was by stating "I'm your imagination."

Something that I've noticed upon reading chronicled cases of anomalous phenomena is that the names Michael and Bell are recurring patterns — a detail found in many previous blog articles, including "Spiritualism" and "People From The Other World". In my own case, my twin brother is named Michael and at the talent agency where I once worked I'd interacted with Mickey Rooney, the Hollywood entertainer whose life continues to generate controversy after a sensational article in The Hollywood Reporter last October. I don't think people generally are aware of the difficulties that may arise for a human ego when a significant degree of celebrity is achieved. Mickey was a child star and then became famous as the star of the Andy Hardy movies. He continued working as an entertainer throughout his life. While Mickey developed many talents as a performer, there were intellectual pursuits and interpersonal sensitivities that remained uncultivated. When I first met him, he looked older than his age of 59 years yet for the seven years I worked at the agency his hyperenergetic personality was something that never ceased to amaze me. What is important to consider with these circumstances is how someone who works as a talent agent and then as a publicist for a media conglomerate is going to have considerable experience observing the condition of human egos confronted with the stark realities of the entertainment industry.

Some members of the Oklahoma family I interviewed had the last name 'Bell' as the mother of the family, Maxine, had previously been married to Jearld Carlton Bell. At the time of my visit, her current husband Bill Mc Wethy was in a disadvantaged state of health. Nobody in the family associated his condition with the haunting presence and I soon relinquished the suspicion that this could be an obvious correlation with the earlier 'Bell Witch' case. I reported about Maxine and her family in the case study Testament (1997) —

In recent years, they have been visited by newspaper, magazine and television reporters, among thousands of visitors who have interacted with 'Michael,' an unseen and all-knowing Spirit. The family's first national television appearance was in the November 1995 ABC special "Ghosts, Mediums, Psychics: Put To The Test" and this footage also aired in the summer of 1996 on "20/20."

I'm not aware of the Centrahoma documentary footage having been televised again since 1996. This is one of many examples I've found of amazing events being nationally televised only to be promptly ignored and forgotten. Some other examples are presented in the blog article "Taking a Closer Look at 'Unexplained Phenomena'".

There are a variety of correlations and parallels between chronicled 'talking poltergeist' cases — a recurring aspect of the current series of blog articles that began in August. One might recall the 'cross correspondences' and 'cross references' noticed in diverse mediumship cases. Nandor Fodor described these phenomena in Encycopaedia of Psychic Science (1966):

In the S.P.R. [Society for Psychic Research] Proceedings hundreds of pages are devoted to cross correspondences. They are so ingenious and subtle that their disentanglement requires considerable literary skill and as reading matter they are too heavy. The subject was thoroughly studied by the Verrall family, Mrs. Holland, Mrs. Sidgwick and Mr. Piddington. Dr. Van Eeden obtained cross correspondences between his own dreams and the trance utterances of Nelly, Mrs. Thompson's control. Professor Hyslop employed it for researches in cases of obsession. The victim of obsession was either taken to the medium or some object belonging to the obsessed was produced as clue and the medium in trance has given communications from the obsessing spirit or information tending to show whether it was an extraneous entity or subconscious personality.

The latter comment in this excerpt is relative to the spiritual knowledge of a reader as the distinction between these two forms of manifestation becomes insignificant when one considers the concept of a shared Subconscious Mind and omnipresent interacting Superconsciousness.

A casual reader of one or two blog articles about the Centrahoma case may not recognize the portentous significance of some of the described incidents. On one occasion a bottle of Trouble perfume had been left for Maxine in the family refrigerator while the materialized nail seen in the above photo is the symbol confronting myself after it struck my scalp before falling to the floor.

In the Fortean Times magazine article that had first informed me about the case, one of the early incidents was the family having "heard someone or something in the darkness of the toolshed, tapping away on an old typewriter." Years later, I recalled this strange occurrence while reading Truman Bethurum's autobiographical account Aboard a Flying Saucer (1954) as mentioned in the blog article "The Letters from Aboard a Flying Saucer"

This undated Bell / Mc Wethy family photograph shows the toolshed in the backyard.

The documentary-style Testament is a case study of how I learned that an individual human being can have an unusual experience of the spiritual Force, apparently due to events in a previous lifetime. Extensively documented 'channeled' transcendental communication in such cases as those of Edgar Cayce and Ramtha (through JZ Knight) offer the perspective that, as articulated by the latter, "the Soul records memory as feelings" and "you are fulfilling this journey, as it were, and recording on your pages of life, in your divine soul, the action/reaction that creates manifested matter, manifested destiny, manifested reality".

This spiritual Force has been articulated in metaphysical literature with such expressions as 'Christ Consciousness' and 'Oneness.' The gamut of phenomenal occurrences in Centrahoma at first seemed to me as being entirely beyond expectation but then I began remembering foreshadowing episodes in my life. Upon returning from Oklahoma to Los Angeles I found 'unexplained phenomena' continuing to occur in my presence. There was the instinctive conviction that the answer must relate to reincarnation. Working on publicity materials for the movie "Dead Again" had previously induced me to give some consideration to the topic. As recounted in Testament, the turning point of my life occurred with the Centrahoma expedition as my paranormal research and experiences allowed me to know that the possibilities chronicled in the annals of the unexplained were supported by what I'd personally witnessed and learned.