KNOCKING ON THE DEVIL’S DOOR

When a reporter decides to jump head first into stories that deal with hauntings, there is a seemingly inexhaustible supply of stories and legends about bridges, dwellings, and places off the beaten path that have frightened people over the years. Folklore whether age old or modern does not die and the ghosts that are the superstars of these stories do not go quietly into the night.

When I was a kid there was always that house that was left abandoned in an alfalfa field with boards on the windows that we suspected was haunted. Someone would throw a rock or two at it; others would try and see how close they could get to it before something scared them off.

Sometimes it was just enough to walk by it and your friends would start freaking out, or would stop and say that they saw the face of a young girl in the window.

When I first came to Portland, Oregon I lived in a very nice neighborhood. It was a nice area that was situated beneath the medical college. Most of my neighbors were med students, lawyers and judges. There was an old market near my home that I would go to everyday for coffee.

At first no one really knew who I was, but as more people were exposed to my radio show, word traveled quickly that I was a paranormal investigative reporter and talk show host. One day a young Doctor and his wife sat at my table and the market and bought me coffee. They asked me if I had ever done an exorcism on a house before and I had told them no. I had observed the Exorcism ritual being performed to cast demons out of people, but there was never an occasion where I was asked about exorcisms on houses.

The young couple told me that they needed an exorcism for a home they owned and wanted to rent. I had heard rumors about the house and that it was haunted by a little girl that hanged herself with a blanket wearing a pretty nightgown. The rumor is that the mother found her. The truth was far more frightening that I could imagine.

They proceeded to tell me about a young college co-ed that lived in the house. One night after a binge of hard liquor and cocaine with her friends in the house, the young girl went upstairs, put on her makeup and a very elegant evening dress. She fixed her hair and put on her high heeled shoes.

She then took a belt and looped it across the pipes that were seen near the roof and then buckled it across her neck. By this time she was standing on her bed. The girl then took a leap and hanged herself. She believed that the pipe would be sturdy and it kept her hanging long enough to do the dance of death. However as her body was suspended above the bed , the weight somehow caused the pipe to give and so her body fell to the floor, the pipe was pulled far enough to allow the belt to slice through the neck nearly decapitating the girl. Most of her friends downstairs were either too drunk or high to notice that the girl was missing. No one knew of her fate until someone noticed that a huge bulge had formed in the ceiling. Water was actually accumulating in the sheet rock and paint of the home. One of the party goers grabbed a screwdriver and poked a hole into the ceiling.

The water had a red tint to it as the young girls blood was mixed with it. The witnesses claimed that the spray was like something out of a horror film. I could just imagine being dunk or high and experiencing a spray of blood and water.

The story I was being told was horrific enough, only that the couple was concerned because the girl was haunting the upper bedroom and the only person that was willing to rent their home was a practicing witch that was behind on her rent. She was not a traditional witch because it was reported to me that the entire house was decorated with all sorts of religious iconography, including artifacts and icons used in Santeria rituals and a room that was changed without permission into a mediation room covered in pages from the bible and other apocryphal texts.

The couple said they eventually had to evict her from the property.

I asked if the witch had experienced any hauntings. The couple stated that the woman who claimed to be a witch stated that there was nothing evil about the place however the young couple had noticed that the tenant had placed mirrors in all of the windows. When asked why she did this weird thing, the woman said that it was to ward off evil that she felt needed to be reflected back into the neighborhood.

The odd thing is that the witch had pictures of Jesus hanging in the house. She also had a Buddha statue in the living room, pages of the Koran and the bible glued to the walls and different Hindu gods displayed with candles.

It looked as if the witch was covering her bases. There was most certainly something haunting her however she did not want to admit it.

The young girl was still haunting the home and so I obliged the couple and decided to do a smearing and used some sage to cleanse the house. We also attempted to contact the young girl using an Ouija board, she did not try to communicate however a demon that called itself Focalor did. Focalor spoke to us through the board and told us that he was sent to guard the devil’s door.

I never knew or heard of Focalor, however I did research the demon and realized that Focalor was a demon that was known for the drowning of men.

According to the Pseudomonarchia Daemonum published in 1583 by by Johann Wier, Focalor is a great duke coming forth as a man, with wings like a gryphon, he killeth men, and drowneth them in the waters, and overturneth ships of war, commanding and ruling both winds and seas. And let the conjuror note, that if he bid him hurt no man, he willingly consenteth thereto: he hopeth after 1000 years to return to the seventh throne, but he is deceived, he hath three legions.

There are other accounts that Focalor is also known as Furcalor and commands 30 legions of demons. In 1583, Johann Weyer (aka Wier, Wierus) published a treatise on witchcraft called “De praestigiis daemonum”. In this text, Wier included a section which listed the names and descriptions of demons. He called it the “Pseudomonarchia daemonum.”

Focalor was telling us that as we were trying to communicate with the young girl we were at the devils door as the home became a literal gateway to the abyss. Focalor is mentioned in The Lesser Key of Solomon as the forty-first of the 72 goetic demons.

After the séance and the banishing of the girl the couple that asked me to do the exorcism were convinced that it was enough to make the spirit leave. I did not hear anything from the couple or about the haunted house. Years went by and then one night when I performed one my nightclub shows at the Ground Zero Lounge, a man who eventually bought the house informed me that the exorcism did not work and that the young girl was in the home and that she was knocking on walls and could be heard crying.

He did not want details of why the ghost was there, he just wanted to be sure that I was told that the girl has returned.

This type of story is all too typical. There are many realtors that overlook a traumatic event in a home because in reality deaths happen in homes every day. It is nothing out of the ordinary to hear of deaths that happen in homes. However if there seems to be some sort of traumatic event wouldn’t it be a courtesy to be informed in case there are paranormal activities that seem to be manifesting because of the event?

Must a seller disclose whether their property is haunted? Or if a horrible crime, murder, or suicide occurred on the property?

According to information provided by Legal Zoom, the Association of Realtors of California addressed the issue of death disclosure requirements. Civil Code 1710.2 states death on a property need not be disclosed if it occurred more than three years prior to the sale. The statute does require disclosure of a death more than three years old if the buyer asks. Many brokerage firms have supplemental disclosure forms that specifically inquire about death.

To avoid liability, it is recommended the seller disclose a death if it occurred within the last three years and let the buyer decide. Some states have even gone further requiring home sellers to disclose “stigmas” attached to a property, which can include proximity to homeless shelters and if it was the scene of a violent crime.

In a famous 1991 New York case, a buyer sued the seller and the seller’s Realtor for failure to disclose the house’s ghostly reputation. Prior to putting the house up for sale, the seller wrote about her bumps in the night for the local paper and Readers’ Digest, but the buyers were unaware of the home’s reputation. Although the court did not rule nondisclosure of the house’s reputation as fraudulent, it did allow the buyer to back out of his contract and get his down payment back.

According to a study by two business professors at Wright University, houses where murder or suicide have occurred can take 50% longer to sell, and at an average of 2.4 percent less than comparable homes. A California appraiser who specializes in diminution in value issues says that a well-publicized murder generally lowers selling price 15 to 35 percent.

In South Carolina paranormal activity, does not have to be disclosed by a seller, but it must be revealed if the buyer asks. If this is something that is of concern then perhaps it may be something to ask when buying a home or even renting one.

There are some who will say that the whole idea is silly and superstitious. They firmly believe that there is nothing supernatural to worry about and that the thought of disclosure is a waste of time. Whether or not ghosts exist, the laws in some states may hold home sellers responsible for disclosing rumors of haunting, and it’s important for sellers to be aware of those requirements.

There is also the old axiom “buyer beware” because while there are “material artifacts” that may ruin the experiences at home, the spiritual feeling and cognitive resonance is very important.

I have not gone back to the house and I was not asked to do a séance or a clearing of the spirit that may still be there. Sometimes we are unable to remove a legion or an infestation from a home and sometimes good people have to live with demons and ghosts from time to time as haunted houses seem to common. Stories vary on why the houses are haunted, but when a family has to contend with a demon infestation that is a whole other story entirely.

Last August a book was released about a family that was terrorized by a demonic infestation, however as Halloween approaches the story is once again being told about the demon of 3406 Brownsville Road, a story about a Pennsylvania politician and how he and his family were horrified to find out that their house was under the possession of a devil.

Bob Cranmer, a former commissioner in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, insists that it was a horrific and life-altering reality for him and his family.

From a mysterious, blood-like substance coating the walls of his home to crucifixes purportedly snapping in half on their own and scratches randomly appearing on his body, Bob has told his story on television, radio and in the new book The Demon of Brownsville Road.

The 105-year-old Cranmer home was designated a landmark by the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation in 1994. Bob Cranmer and his family of five moved into it in 1988, and he says the trouble started shortly after. Cranmer said he would sometimes wake up with three claw-like scratches across his chest. When the “demonic infestation” came to a head in 2004, with bent crucifixes and broken family pictures, the former Army officer reached out to the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh for some ghost-busting tips.

Father Ron Lengwin, told the family that they could move and hope the best for the next owners, or stick it out and the church can help you. He told the family it would take a year to remove the demonic infestation from the home.

The procedure included three daily masses and the unusual tactic of playing The Passion of the Christ movie on repeat in one of the affected rooms. Many times the DVD would be found lying on the floor and the TV would be turned off.

Also the house had a “void” or spot in the house where the demon resided, a closed-up closet behind the stairs. Cranmer says that the family found Lego toys and some of his son’s drawings in there. But the area was completely plastered up so no one could get in. Over the course of two years Cranmer’s family battled, and with a final Mass in the basement in February 2006, the house has remained incident-free.

While Cranmer’s story might seem unbelievable to many, the Diocese of Pittsburgh has publicly stood by the details, as have others who were involved during the two-year effort to correct the situation inside the home.

Fr. Michael Salvagna, a local priest stated to the media that the process of dispelling the force as a long one that was “like putting out a fire on a gas well.”

“There are ritual prayers for house infestation. There are patterns of prayer,” Salvagna said. “We turn to God, the saints, the blessed mother; there are regular prayers, Psalms and scripture passages.”

It seems that there have been many reports of hauntings and demon infestations in homes this year and many of these infestations can be attributed to many contributing factors.

Even though no background for a haunting will be exactly the same as another, some common themes do pop up in the majority of haunted places. The history of the building or area is always a primary factor.

A very old place that has a long history of human use and habitation is more likely to be haunted than a newer one as the chances increase dramatically that bad things have happened there as the likelihood of at least one person experiencing something very negative at the locale is rather high.

Bad events or situations always increase the probability of a place being haunted as well, because spirits who have not been affected by ill fated happenings generally have no problem crossing over to the other side or moving on while those who are the center of such an occurrence feel bound to this world until they receive some form of justice, retribution, or simply someone knowing their personal stories of sorrow. Violent deaths, cruelty, and abuse are some of the most prominent events that bind a ghost to the earthly realm.

It is important to note that as we move closer to the witching times where the veil thins and ghosts become the part of most conversations, we must understand that ghosts have the desire to let the living know of their past hardships and uncommon problems or issues mean that the ghosts really will reveal themselves to all kinds of people from various age groups, walks of life, and most importantly whether these people who visit the haunted locale believe in the presence of spirits or not.