The Ghosts Within

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Story 1.

The San Pedro Haunting

Shortly after moving into a new home in the summer of 1988, single mother of two Jackie Hernandez began to experience a horrific and relentless haunting from a seemingly restless entity.

Was it all a hoax?

Or was there any truth to the infamous San Pedro haunting?

Ghost stories have been told all over the world since time immemorial.

From haunted buildings, roads and forests, to cars and even people.

There is no shortage of such tales to tell on a cold, dark night, whilst sat around an open campfire.

Maybe you believe them, maybe you don't.

But regardless of your thoughts on the matter, whether real or imagined, these stories are no less chilling.

According to paranormal research, a staggering staggering 50% of us have experienced or will experience something out of the ordinary during our lifetimes.

Indeed, it does appear that some people are more receptive to these occurrences than others, and there are reports to suggest that paranormal activity is actually drawn to certain individuals.

This at least seemed to be the case for 23-year-old Jackie Hernandez when she moved into the rented bungalow at 593 West 11th Street, San Pedro, California in November 1988.

As a single mother working multiple jobs, studying part-time in order to advance her career and going through the stress of moving into a new home, all whilst being pregnant with a second child and negotiating a messy divorce, Jackie was certainly enduring a most difficult period in her life.

And unfortunately for her, things were about to get a whole lot worse.

From the moment she moved into the bungalow, a home much like any other on West 11th Street, Jackie described to friends and neighbours how she felt as if she was constantly being watched by someone or something that was always at her back.

However, when she turned around, there was never anyone there.

Over the following months, this feeling only intensified.

and whatever presence she felt was in the household with her would gradually make itself known.

The activity started small and was, for the most part, benign in nature.

An object would go missing here or there and then reappear elsewhere in the house.

There would be the odd unexplained knock or bang and on occasion, a strange smell.

These things were not too bothersome for Jackie, and she would determine that, in many cases, her mind was simply playing tricks on her.

However, one evening she was sitting watching television, when out the corner of her eye, she saw a pencil holder that was placed on a table in the hall mysteriously levitate and then fly towards her, as if thrown by an invisible hand.

The experience frightened her so much that she grabbed her young son, left the house and ran to her neighbours in a panic.

She even called the police, who it has to be said, were less than impressed with her story.

Nevertheless, Jackie knew the truth of the matter.

More importantly, she also knew that she had to go back into the house that night and sleep in her own bed in the knowledge that she was not entirely alone.

If her friends had been sceptical of this experience, it would not be long before they too would have their own stories to share.

According to her neighbor, Susan Castaneda, whilst having dinner together, the two of them heard a painting fall from where it hung in a separate room.

When they went to investigate, it had inexplicably moved five feet from where it originally hung.

On another occasion, Susan also claimed to have seen a lamp float 7 feet across a room before dropping to the floor right in front of her.

Since her friends were also witnessing the strange activity, Jackie was relieved to know that whatever she was experiencing was indeed real and that she was not losing her mind.

This led to a brief period of reassurance, but unfortunately, Following the birth of her second child, Samantha, this activity did not slow down.

In fact, it only escalated and grew more and more distressing by the day.

One evening whilst doing chores around the house, Jackie discovered a blood-like ooze seeping from the cracks in the ceiling and running down the kitchen walls.

In order to find the source of the leak, she climbed on top of her washing machine to reach the attic opening, and as she hesitantly poked her head through the hatch into the darkness, she turned to face a most horrifying sight.

Floating in the corner and staring straight at her was the severed head of a menacing old man, which then rapidly flew in her direction.

Jackie was so shocked by this that she fell backwards into her kitchen in floods of tears and refused to enter the attic ever again.

This would not be the only time that the entity manifested before her eyes.

One night whilst watching a film on her own, She witnessed a dark mist float into her living room through an open window, which then quickly dissipated.

Alarmed, she went to check on her two children, who were in bed.

Samantha was in her cot and Jamie was in the top tier of his bunk bed, both asleep as expected.

However, what she did not expect to see was the apparition of a thin old man with grey sunken skin, wearing a red flannel vest and high water trousers, sat cross-legged on the vacant bottom bunk.

The man glared at her with what she described as evil red eyes, before eventually disappearing.

This incident deeply unsettled her, and it was around this time that her friend suggested contacting the well-known parapsychologist Barry Taff, whom she had recently seen on television.

With experience in over 4,000 similar cases in a career spanning multiple decades, Taff was also famous for his involvement in the Doris Bither case back in the mid-70s, another haunting which inspired the Hollywood film, The Entity.

He and his team showed an immediate interest and visited Jackie's home on the 8th of August 1989 with the intention of conducting a preliminary interview.

Upon arriving, they were surprised by an overwhelming, putrid stench wafting through the house, which seemed to emanate from the attic.

This was accompanied by loud thumping sounds, which Taff later described as sounding like a 200p rat was running around up there.

Jackie told them about the incident regarding the severed head, and the team expressed a desire to explore the attic and see if they could find any rational explanation for the activity.

Gary Byrne, the team's photographer, and Jeff Wheatcraft, his assistant, entered through the small hatch and immediately reported a feeling of being watched.

In total darkness, Wheatcraft took out his camera and tried to capture some images using his flash, but something suddenly pulled it from his hands and threw it across the room.

causing both him and Byrne to descend back to the kitchen in alarm.

After composing themselves, they went to retrieve their equipment and found that the lens had been separated from the rest of the camera.

Whatever was up there clearly did not want to be photographed, and as we shall learn, had possibly taken a dislike to wheatcraft as a result.

Meanwhile, Taff took a sample of the bloodlike ooze and passed it to a colleague in the scientific community for analysis.

The substance was later found to have traces of male blood, as well as high iodine and copper content.

Taff remained in contact with Jackie over the next few weeks, and it became obvious that the courage she had initially displayed was beginning to wane and giving way to a genuine fear for the safety of her young family.

During this time, he learned a great deal regarding Jackie's background and went on to explain how she matched the archetypal profile of a victim of a poltergeist haunting.

She had suffered abuse at the hands of her lovers, was under high levels of stress whilst experiencing difficulties in her personal life, and she carried a negative outlook on the world.

All perfect ingredients for an alleged poltergeist to feed upon and thrive.

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On the 28th of August, almost three weeks after their initial contact, Jackie called Taff in a state of hysteria.

She described how objects were being thrown aggressively around her house.

Upon trying to retrieve some of these items, she had been attacked, clutched by invisible hands that pinned her down until she struggled to breathe.

The team arrived within hours, and once again, Byrne and Wheatcraft entered the attic.

Immediately they reported orbs of light appearing without any notable source.

This was accompanied by the distinct sound of the snapping of fingers, which could also be heard by those gathered below.

Jackie, in a terrified state, asked them to return to the kitchen, and as Wheatcraft made his way towards the exit, the others heard him suddenly shriek and begin to panic.

Byrne turned in the direction of his colleague and took a picture.

instinctively using the flash to illuminate the scene and assess what was happening.

To his horror, he saw that a length of cord had somehow tightly wrapped itself around Wheatcraft's neck, pinning him against a wooden beam.

Fortunately, he was still able to breathe, but needed assistance in freeing himself and desperately wanted to get out of the attic.

He was clearly traumatised by this ordeal, and the entire team left shortly afterwards.

This would be the last time they visited the property at San Pedro.

Following the continued increase in both frequency and severity of the paranormal activity, Jackie Hernandez decided to move 380 miles north in September of 1989 to a trailer park in Weldon, California.

At first, she felt a calm serenity in her new surroundings, believing she had escaped the entity for good.

This period of inactivity, however, would be short-lived.

In April 1990, she heard scratching sounds coming from the storage shed outside, followed by the aforementioned orbs of light moving around the trailer without any apparent source.

Later that same month, the activity rose to a climax when her daughter's bedspread randomly set alight after Jackie had spotted a black mist floating in her hallway.

As with the haunting back in San Pedro, these occurrences were also witnessed by neighbours.

One evening, Jim and Janice Sobert were helping Jackie move a television into the trailer and described how they both saw the reflection of an old man's face, with evil-looking eyes, appear in the corner of the screen.

It was clear that the entity had returned, and once again, Taff came to Jackie's aid.

In a state of desperation, she suggested using a Ouija board, hoping to contact the spirit, or spirits, and understand what it or they wanted, which would hopefully exorcise them once and for all.

Taff and Wheatcraft, along with Jackie's friend Tina Lawler, agreed to be present for the seance.

They attempted to record their activities, but unfortunately, and some say conveniently, the cameras would not work consistently to capture any of the reported activity.

Almost as soon as they began, the table upon which the Ouija board was placed began to violently shake, as the planchette moved from one letter to the next with alarming speed.

The exchange went as follows.

Taff asked, how many ghosts are there in here?

Phantoms fill the skies around you, came the reply.

Why did you attack Jeff?

they asked, referring to Wheatcraft.

The entity replied, because you are the likeness of my killer.

They asked why it chose to haunt and torment Jackie, and it simply said, energy.

What kind of energy?

Dead, came the response.

They were able to ascertain that the entity was a man who had been murdered, hence existing in a state of limbo.

The Foresome learned that the supposed killer which Weecraft resembled was a man by the name of Charles Pearson.

This was supported by later research, which confirmed that Pearson was a sailor who'd had a bad reputation.

He was a suspect in the killing of two people, but had somehow avoided arrest and prosecution.

Either one of his two victims, Herman Hendrickson or John Damon, might have been the entity tormenting Jackie, feeding off her negative energy and wanting his injustice to be known.

In the aftermath, Jackie moved house several more times, and with each relocation, the activity dissipated.

She now lives in Los Angeles, and has put the terrifying ordeal behind her, claiming that it's now completely stopped.

Despite this, even to this day, the house at 593 West 11th Street, San Pedro, has seen many residents move in, only to leave again after a short tenancy.

It must be noted that some of these residents reported hearing strange thumps and smelling putrid scents emanating from the attic.

Reading all of this back, we're inclined to suggest that the San Pedro haunting sounds like something straight out of a Hollywood movie.

In many cases, it just seems too far-fetched to take seriously, and for that reason, the sceptic in us shouts, hoax.

During our research for this episode, We came across many inconsistencies in the timeline of events, and we had to piece the story together as best we could.

It might not be that the haunting itself was a hoax, but because of its fame, it has been retold, sensationalised and embellished upon so many times in the intervening years that it's hard to know what is true and what isn't.

There are so many questions about this case that unfortunately poke gaping holes in its validity.

First and foremost, where is the evidence?

Despite the fact that there was a whole team of people investigating the strange activity, very little, if any, photographic or video evidence exists.

Taff and his team explain this by saying that their equipment malfunctioned whenever they tried to capture anything on film, though the more cynical amongst us would agree that this seems a little too convenient.

Moreover, people have also argued that in the case of Wheatcraft's strangling, the natural reaction would have been to assist him, not to take multiple photographs from different angles as Byrne did.

This suggests the occurrence may have been staged in order to sensationalise and make money out of the story.

Questions have also been raised over the analysis carried out on the used sample, as the scientist involved refused to be named.

It could be that whoever carried out the tests did not want to associate their organisation with a paranormal investigation, or it could be that this scientist simply never existed.

Many sceptics also wonder why Jackie didn't move out sooner.

She was being attacked in her own home where her children also resided, which would surely prompt most people to leave immediately.

However, we must also remember that Hernandez was a single mother already struggling to make ends meet, and it may not have been within her means to move away at that time.

All that aside, there are key elements to this case which cannot be ignored, and go a long way to supporting its authenticity.

Primarily, the sheer number of independent witnesses who claim to have seen activity with their own eyes.

Neighbours and friends from different locations with no apparent reason to lie, as well as Barry Taft's team all claim to have experienced a variety of paranormal incidents firsthand, which is certainly rare in a case such as this.

With that in mind, we're prepared to present this case on middle ground.

Poltergeist activity has been observed and recorded for centuries, maybe even millennia.

Whilst this phenomenon may be spiritual in nature, Many paranormal researchers now consider the possibility that it could be manifested by the individual or individuals experiencing the episode themselves.

After all, there seems to be an astounding commonality in all such cases where someone within the affected household is either dealing with overwhelming personal issues or suffering from an illness which involves seizures.

It is purported that the poltergeist itself may be a mental, telekinetic-esque projection acting out the subconscious thoughts and desires of the sufferer and is therefore beyond their control.

Could it be that Jackie Hernandez suffered a similar plight?

We have already mentioned the difficulties she was facing during this period of her life and how the activity seemed to follow her and then dissipate as her circumstances improved.

Perhaps many of the more simple aspects of the haunting are true, whilst the more unbelievable accounts are either embellishments added later on or hyperbole designed to sell a story.

In the end, If there was any truth to the San Pedro haunting, then we are glad that Jackie Hernandez is now free from this awful ordeal and is able to lead a normal life.

And if there is anything we can learn from this case, it's that we should all be mindful of the stresses and pressures we experience from day to day and of allowing personal difficulties to overwhelm us.

This is not just for the sake of our mental health, but for the sake of our own households and of protecting them from the darkness that may lurk within.

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Story 2 Doppelgangers and the strange case of Emily Sarger

In 1845,

a school in Latvia became the scene of some disturbing paranormal activity as a newly employed teacher began to appear in two places at the same time.

We now recount the strange tale of Emily Sarger and ask the question,

could could we all have a doppelganger?

What is the difference between a doppelganger and a dead ringer?

People often confuse the two, but they are in fact very different.

A dead ringer is the living double of an individual.

Two unrelated people who are very similar in appearance, but who lead very different lives, and in all likelihood, have probably never met.

The experience of running into your double, whose existence you are otherwise completely unaware of, would of course be rather breathtaking.

But the fact is that every one of us probably has at least one lookalike out there in the wider world, and it is even more likely that we each have several.

After all, there are more than 7 billion people on this planet, and whilst there is an immense variety of features and characteristics amongst human beings, those same features and characteristics can only arrange themselves in a finite number of ways, and so combinations of such will eventually repeat.

There is nothing particularly strange about dead ringers.

Interesting, yes, but the fact remains that they are nothing more than coincidental.

Doppelgangers, on the other hand, are something else entirely.

Literally translated, doppelganger means double walker and these entities are not just mere look-alikes.

They are not just similar to an individual in terms of appearance, they are exactly the same, a carbon copy.

In fact, they are the person they are emulating, or at least a ghostly reflection of them.

Seeing your own doppelganger is like looking into a mirror and catching a glimpse of an alternate reality.

But you had better hope that never happens, for seeing your doppelganger is considered an extremely ill omen, a sign of your impending doom.

Throughout history, there have been many people who apparently saw their own doppelgangers and died shortly afterwards.

One such story and perhaps the most famous doppelganger case on record, centred around a young teacher from France known as Emily Sargé.

32-year-old Emily had taught at many schools in her native country, but in 1845 she travelled to Latvia to begin teaching at an exclusive girls' school called Penshanat von Neuelk.

She was popular with the students there, but the school board was somewhat concerned about her employment history.

She had moved around quite a lot, having taught at 19 different schools over the course of just 16 years.

Good teachers were hard to come by, so naturally they feared that she would move on somewhere else at the earliest opportunity and leave them with yet another vacancy to fill.

However, just weeks after she commenced teaching at the school, the answer as to why she could not stay in one place for too long would present itself in shocking fashion, and it didn't take long for them to realise the unfortunate truth of the matter.

As it turned out, no one would have her, for Emily was at the centre of some very strange activity.

And although she never saw her doppelganger, everyone else did.

The first time Emily's ghostly twin appeared, she was teaching a class of 13 students.

She had her back to the room writing on the chalkboard, when all of a sudden, Another Emily appeared right beside her and mirrored her movements exactly.

It seemed to have no unique awareness of its surroundings or of what was going on.

Students described that it simply copied the real Emily, the same way a mirror image would, only not reversed.

This instance was bewildering enough for those who witnessed it, but nobody would believe the children when they related the experience to others.

At least, not at first.

The second time it happened Emily was sitting in the school hall eating lunch.

It was relatively empty at the time, but the few people who were present were alarmed to see the ghostly apparition blink into existence behind her yet again and start copying her movements as she ate.

Whilst Emily was sitting down, the doppelganger stood, but no food could be seen in its hands.

Sajay herself seemed completely unaware of her doppelganger's presence, but she would often say that she felt tired and drained whenever it materialized.

As time went on, the appearances became more frequent, and her ghostly double would begin to wander beyond the real Emily's immediate vicinity.

More importantly, it began to appear as though it had a mind of its own, as its actions and interactions would diverge away from those of the young teacher.

On another occasion, Emily asked a colleague to watch her class while she helped other students with the gardening.

At some point during the lesson, Emily walked back into the classroom and the stand-in teacher left.

The students at their desks thought nothing of this until they looked out the window and could see the real Emily still working in the garden.

Her doppelganger simply sat in its seat, silently watching them.

Although Emily confirmed she had been outside the whole time, school officials documented in their notes that at the exact time of the sighting, she had wished she was indoors teaching her sewing class instead of working in the garden.

Several brave students did eventually find the courage to approach the apparition.

They reported that when they reached out to touch it, their hands were met with a strange resistance.

The air immediately surrounding the figure was like a thick fabric.

The doppelganger eventually became a permanent fixture at the school, but unfortunately for Emily, it had a habit of not only confusing people, but absolutely terrifying the students.

A number of parents complained, and Miss Sajay was asked to leave.

As fantastical as this case may sound, this phenomenon is not unique and has in fact affected some of the most famous people in history.

For instance, Abraham Lincoln was said to have seen his doppelganger shortly after being elected to his first term in office.

He lay down on a couch one evening to rest and just happened to glance over towards a mirror when he saw not one, but two faces staring back at him.

Whilst he was certain that both faces were his, the second one looked gaunt and deathly pale.

Upon telling his wife, she became deeply troubled.

She interpreted the vision as a premonition, stating that her husband would be elected president twice but would die during his second term.

Sure enough, Lincoln was assassinated shortly after being elected for a second time in 1865.

Catherine the Great, the Russian Empress, was awoken one night in 1796 by worried servants who reported that they had just seen her entering the throne room.

This intrigued her, as she had not left her quarters since retiring for the evening three hours earlier.

She decided to see this for herself, and upon entering the room, Catherine saw her doppelganger sitting calmly on the throne.

She immediately ordered her sentries to shoot at the ghostly apparition, but their muskets had no effect.

The doppelganger eventually faded from sight, and the Empress died shortly afterwards.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a famous German writer, poet and politician.

On a summer's day in 1775, he happened to be riding along a path when he saw a mysterious stranger riding towards him.

As they passed, Goethe was startled to discover that the other man was him, or at least someone who looked exactly like him, but they were wearing different clothes.

Eight years later, He happened to be riding down the same path in the opposite direction when he suddenly recalled that this was where he had seen his double.

It was then that he realised he was now wearing the exact same clothes that the mysterious stranger had worn all those years before.

There are many more cases involving doppelgangers which unfortunately we don't have time to explore, but suffice it to say that their appearance is not as rare as one may think.

There are a multitude of high profile cases involving celebrities and other well-known individuals that have been recorded throughout the ages, and there are also many everyday occurrences.

You may well have seen someone else's doppelganger, or even interacted with one and not even realised it at the time.

But the most pressing question is, of course, who or what are they?

Unfortunately, there is no definitive answer.

Doppelgangers are yet another addition to the list of other unexplained phenomena witnessed throughout this strange and beautiful world.

And just like any other paranormal activity, doppelgangers have been met with much speculation, and indeed, outright scepticism.

Most prominent among theories is that these mysterious entities are astral projections, an embodiment of one's thoughts and wishes, which are so powerful that they manifest in the real world.

This would certainly appear to correlate with the experiences surrounding Emily Sarger, whose doppelganger always seemed to act out exactly what she was thinking at the time.

But could there be multiple explanations?

Goethe's experience seemed to suggest a crossover of realities and timelines, and many people have reported similar occurrences, especially in recent times.

The Mandela effect has been referenced as a possible culprit, with some individuals postulating that the appearance of these apparitions may be the result of glitches in the matrix, or that we are seeing a glimpse of another reality altogether.

Accounts vary regarding the level of interactivity with these beings.

Some people report that they have been able to converse with their doppelganger whilst others say that they seem to display no awareness of other people or their surroundings at all.

In demonology there are said to be certain parasitic spirits, which can impersonate anyone, including their host.

For this reason, others have suggested that some doppelgangers, particularly those that display a level of intelligence and can interact with the world around them, might in fact be demons.

On the other hand, they could also be the embodiment of one's higher self, here to guide and advise.

The number of cases in which individuals died shortly after seeing an apparition of themselves is the most common type of doppelganger encounter, and there is, in fact, scientific research which may support this.

A study on a number of test subjects found that when certain areas of the brain were stimulated, the participants felt an outward presence of themselves standing in the same room.

It is theorized that natural stimulation of certain areas of the brain through injury, illness, or chemical imbalance could cause someone to hallucinate and see their doppelganger.

These illnesses or injuries could then go on to cause the death of these individuals, hence why the sense of impending doom surrounding the appearance of these apparitions exists.

With so many accounts of doppelgangers recorded over the years, it is difficult to simply dismiss their existence altogether.

Conversely, Given that there are so many differences between these experiences regarding what the apparition did or did not do at the time of its manifestation, it is hard to pin down exactly what their nature or purpose is.

In any case, when you go to brush your teeth before bedtime tonight, after you have rinsed your mouth out with cold water, and as you stand to look in the mirror a final time, you'd better hope you only see one version of yourself, staring back at you.

Bed tonight's horrible.