Barb Huyser, founder of Small Town Ghosts has been investigating the paranormal since she was a graduate student in 1977. She and her team approach crossover work with something she calls paranormal social work. In this episode you’ll hear about the haunting of “Rhoda’s House” in one of the greatest stories ever told on the podcast.
Keith and Sandra Johnson
Demonologist Keith Johnson was one of the first to investigate the now famous farmhouse that inspired the movie, The Conjuring. He has also been featured on paranormal television shows, such as Syfy’s Ghost Hunters. His experience at the now famous farmhouse in Rhode Island was all before Ed and Lorraine Warren showed up on the scene. Keith shares the truth about Bathsheba, whether the farmhouse is still haunted, a response to the current owner speaking out, plus some behind the scenes controversy involving the Warrens.
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Since the first part of July of this year, a lot of my blogs and reading have had to do with either the House of Darkness House of Light trilogy by Andrea Perron or The Conjuring movie. Even though the movie is based on the investigation case files of Ed and Lorraine Warren, Andrea, the eldest real life Perron daughter, tells the story of the very real events in her books. Though I have not seen or read the actual case files, after reading Andrea’s first two volumes, I’m fairly confident in saying the movie is VERY loosely based on the events from that farmhouse outside of Harrisville, Rhode Island during the 1970s. I didn’t have knowledge of just how loosely it was based when I wrote the review of the movie. At the time, I was very excited about researching the back story and seeing an advanced screening of the film. I’d read that Lorraine Warren was pleased with the final product (she also makes a very brief appearance that many people, including myself, missed). Also, in a YouTube video Andrea reviews the film and states “I expected something entirely different. I expected Hollywood to do what Hollywood does, and yet in some ways this is a very quiet and studious film. You would never know that from the trailers, but that’s their job… to entice an audience. It’s also about the love of a family. It’s also about people who came to help, who felt that this was the most significant and compelling, and dark and disturbing story that they had ever heard in the course of a fifty year career.” She also mentioned that the film “truly captured what we endured.”
I really did love The Conjuring and I think it’s truly a new classic, but after reading volume one and two, they don’t seem to be connected. You know how it is when you get sucked into reading a novel AFTER you watched the movie it inspired? Do you allow yourself to visualize the setting and the actors in the situations you saw in the film? I usually try to shake the temptation, because as soon as I allow myself to watch the movie in my head while reading, something ends up being slightly or majorly different. Once that happens I’m hopelessly confused till the very last page. Well… let’s just say I didn’t have this problem with House of Darkness House of Light.
At around 500 pages each, volume one and two aren’t for light and quick reading. Volume one had my intense attention for most of the book. I really enjoyed how detailed Andrea was. I don’t think there’s any chance of her leaving out any of the details. After a blogger and Big Séance reader commented on my review of volume one, mentioning how the book jumps back and forth in time, making it very confusing, I had to agree. Though it didn’t bother me as much in the first book, I frequently got lost in the timeline of the story in volume two. Not only that, but you have to try to keep track of the five siblings, the order of their ages, and how old they are at that particular moment. Was this chapter before or after a particular event I just read about? Had the Warrens been there yet? In my opinion, even though I think Andrea is a fantastic writer, and I very much enjoyed the books, the back and forth in time thing is the biggest flaw in these two volumes. With that being said, perhaps an explanation for this style has to do with these events lasting a whole decade. It may have been impossible to get points and information across in a simple chronological style. The reader might also want to be aware that Andrea writes in a very flowery and poetic style, which might not be something everyone resonates with.
By the time I got midway through volume two, it had my serious attention, just as volume one had. It was the moment the Warren’s arrived on the scene (their involvement is only hinted at in volume one). They made several appearances in the book, but the infamous séance chapter, which I can only assume was the direct inspiration for the exorcism portion of the film, was so very powerful. Dramatic and intense, after being carried away with real life and reading short chunks at a time for a week or two, it brought my focus back to the book. This was the height of the supposed “oppression” (making its way to “possession”) of Carolyn Perron (the mother). Before the séance was over, Roger Perron (the father), who incidentally is painted horribly in the books, ended it all and threw all non-family members out of the house.
Speaking of being painted horribly, what I didn’t know and was surprised to find out, was that the Warrens aren’t portrayed at all to be the saviors that they are in the movie. In fact, the family seems to end their relationship with the Warrens on bad terms. For the most part, they’re blamed for making everything worse. Prior to their first visit, Carolyn took quite a few notes on her early haunting experiences at the house. She did lots of research on the history of the farmhouse and the residents that appear to be haunting them. Apparently the Warrens either lost these documents or just never returned them. Possibly the biggest strike against them was the fact that they apparently broke their confidentiality agreement with the Perrons, discussing details of the fascinating haunted Harrisville farmhouse in the talks they gave around the country. For a while the Perron family’s privacy was continually violated by curious travelers dropping by to catch some kind of paranormal activity first hand. Ironically, the popularity of the movie caused the same thing to happen for the current residents. I sincerely hope that problem is old news by now.
In the remainder of volume two there are some very heartfelt moments, some incredible stories involving the sisters, and a big life-changing realization by Carolyn. The paranormal activity (which isn’t always negative) apparently got milder as the family learned to give respect and practice “live and let ‘live'”. In the end, Roger and Carolyn split up, though it’s unclear to me whether this happened before or after they move out of the farmhouse for Georgia, leaving a decade of haunting experiences behind. I’m only guessing this will be cleared up in the last volume.
Volume three has not been released yet, but I imagine you’ll hear from me at some point after it arrives and after my bookmark has the chance to make its way through the pages.
Children who have spirit friends
House of Darkness House of Light, Volume One, by Andrea Perron
Flies and Hauntings: “You can’t really kill what’s already dead.”
Andrea Perron’s House of Darkness House of Light Trilogy
Currently I’m in the middle of reading Volume Two of Andrea Perron’s House of Darkness House of Light, the true story of the decade of events experienced by the Perron family and depicted (loosely, I’m finding out) in the movie The Conjuring. Just in case you’re new to my blog, the movie doesn’t have any direct ties to the book, but is inspired by the case files of Ed and Lorraine Warren.
I recently read the chapter titled “in the closet”, when I had one of those moments… a moment where you find yourself tearing up and getting deeply into what you’re reading. In this chapter, Andrea writes about experiences that happened to April, the youngest of the five Perron daughters. April doesn’t come up much in Volume One and so far in Volume Two, and I always wondered why. It turns out she had plenty of experiences, perhaps just as many as the other kids in the house, but she refused to open up and discuss them with anyone until just recently. It turns out April has truly been haunted with memories and a pain in her heart since then.
April spent a lot of time alone, or at least that’s what the rest of the family thought. Very early on after moving to the farmhouse, April met the spirit of a little boy, a boy who gradually got comfortable with her presence and friendship, though he was constantly in fear and hiding. They appeared to be about the same age. They would play together, sharing April’s toys while they were alone in her room. When they were done playing he would disappear in a closet to hide. She was never once afraid. She grew to like spending time with him, even though he never spoke. As April grew up to be a teenager, she mentions that often the little boy would peek out of the closet into her room in hopes that she’d decide to play for a while. Not being the same little girl she once was, she ignored him. When she described the disappointed look on his face as he disappeared into the closet once more, that’s when I felt the tug in my heart and my tear ducts proved to be fully functioning. These experiences and the guilt of leaving the little boy at the farm has affected April her whole life.
A common theory is that many or all children are open to seeing spirits on a regular basis, but adults drive this ability out by making them feel ashamed for speaking such nonsense, thus blocking the experiences out of their minds. I wonder how many of us don’t remember a significant friendship or two from childhood. As a child I loved to spend time alone. It was nothing unusual. Very often I’d turn down invitations to play because I had a fun filled day planned out already. When my little sister arrived and was old enough, I was able to drag her through the experiences of things like playing school to keep me occupied. Even though it would be cool to suddenly remember a long lost spirit friend from my childhood, I don’t recall ever having an additional student in the attic or “imaginary friend”. After this chapter I kind of wish I did, although I would not want the sadness that has followed April.
I know that for several of my readers, seeing or feeling the presence of spirits is not an unusual thing, but I’m curious to know how many people had a spirit friend as child that no one else knew about. Please share!
Flies and Hauntings: “You can’t really kill what’s already dead.” (Big Séance)
Apparitions (Big Séance)
Investigation Report of a Private Residence in St. Peters, Missouri (Big Séance)
The Conjuring, a film that has now grossed over 125 million dollars, has been ranked by Box Office Mojo as #6 for top grossing horror films of all time. Last month I had the opportunity to see an advanced screening of the film and was researching the story to write my review. In my research, I quickly became fascinated with learning about the very real family behind the true story. This led me to Volume One of Andrea Perron’s trilogy, House of Darkness House of Light: The True Story.
The author, who is the eldest Perron daughter, writes in a beautiful style that leaves no detail behind. After all, volume one alone is 504 pages. As I’ve mentioned before, she puts you in that house with the characters. Roger and Carolyn Perron, along with their five daughters, moved to the infamous farmhouse (built in 1736) in Harrisville, Rhode Island in 1971. They remained there for nearly ten years. For decades, the world knew very little about the incredible events that happened in that farmhouse. What little we knew was probably due to the fact that the famous Ed and Lorraine Warren, pioneers in the field of paranormal investigation, came to the aid of the family and documented their experiences. This was all before the famous Amityville case that involved the Warrens as well.
Forty years later, the family’s story is finally told.
The book begins with the Perron family in their former suburban home, before they even knew the farmhouse existed. But fate seems to take over and leads them there, like it or not. They experienced paranormal activity in the farmhouse from day one, and even though it is hard for the reader to believe, the family’s acceptance of their reality – the fact that they share their home with others – is a slow and gradual process.
As a reader, I felt I had the opportunity to get to know each of the seven members of the Perron family. Mrs. Perron (Carolyn) seems to have experienced the worst of the activity, having been directly attacked by a jealous ghost named Bathsheba, the nastiest and most complicated spirit (with quite a history) in the farmhouse. Mr. Perron (Roger), a hard worker who spent much of the time traveling to provide for his family, for the majority of the book is in complete denial about the activity in the house. This causes a lot of friction in the family, and it frustrated me to no end. One of my favorite moments involved an incredibly brave and blunt Nancy, the second daughter, who finally had enough and told her father what was what. Everyone else knew and accepted it. It was time for him to wake up. That seemed to be the beginning of his awakening, and also the moment that I tried to silently cheer in the middle of the night while the rest of the world was asleep. Roger Perron’s family was indeed learning to survive in an incredibly haunted house.
Another character that I felt like I got to know and related to was Cindy, the 4th daughter in line. Growing up in the house, she experienced hundreds of visits from the spirit of a little girl. She was always crying for her mother. As she grew older, the little girl didn’t. Cindy cared for her, giving her space whenever she came around, and even letting her play with her toys.
We occasionally get bounced around in time when it is necessary, and the Warrens never make an official appearance, but I have no doubt that by the third volume (not yet released) we’ll know it all.
Author, Andrea Perron
It is important to note that Andrea Perron began writing the trilogy in 2007 and this volume was released in 2011, well before the movie. It also must be noted that the movie is based on the case files of Ed and Lorraine Warren and not Andrea’s books.
Visit the author’s website at houseofdarknesshouseoflight.com
Also, learn more about the book on Facebook.
Flies and Hauntings: “You can’t really kill what’s already dead.” (Big Séance)
The Conjuring Movie Review (Big Séance)
Earlier this month, while researching for a review I was writing before seeing an advanced screening of the new and exciting film, The Conjuring, I learned of the very real family behind the true story. The Perron family moved to the infamous farmhouse (built in 1736) in Harrisville, Rhode Island in 1971. It didn’t take long to find a wealth of information online about Andrea Perron, the eldest of the five Perron daughters. For decades, the world knew very little about the incredible events that happened in that farmhouse. What little we knew was probably due to the fact that the famous Ed and Lorraine Warren, pioneers in the field of paranormal investigation, came to the aid of the family and documented their experiences. This was all before the famous Amityville case that involved the Warrens as well. In 2007 Andrea Perron began writing what is now a trilogy and titled House of Darkness House of Light. The movie is based on the Warrens’ case files, but I can only assume that if we’re looking for an accurate account of the events that happened during the span of a decade, this is where we’re going to find it.
Author, Andrea Perron
I have to tell you, each of the first two volumes, released in 2011 and 2013 (the third volume hasn’t been released yet), are quite intimidating, as they are around 500 pages each. But you quickly find that it’s because Andrea’s beautiful style of writing leaves no detail behind. She puts you in that house with the characters.
This is not a review. In fact, I’m only 66 pages into the first book. One thing is for sure, though… I’m sucked in already, and I foresee several blog posts about these books in our future.
I know several of you have already been reading the books. What are your thoughts? No spoilers, please.
For more information about Andrea Perron, visit houseofdarknesshouseoflight.com. I also recommend checking out some of her many videos on YouTube.
Haunting Trip Through an Abandoned Farmhouse (Big Séance)
Ghostly Pics: Amityville Ghost Boy (News From The Spirit World)
You’ve heard me blab about it for weeks. My paranormal investigation team, Missouri Spirit Seekers (MOSS), investigated an abandoned farmhouse in Silex, Missouri. It was built in 1901 and has been abandoned officially since 1983. There was a death recorded on the property in 1947.
I’ve worked really hard on this one and I think we learned a lot. Now the investigation report, complete with audio, video, and evidence, is posted on our site.
Feel free to question or comment.
Now… moving onto my Fort Chaffee Prison evidence! 🙂
Peace!
Photo Credit: Alan Light
Thank you for being a part of this very special awards ceremony! Tonight’s ceremony and awards have been brought to you by this very post (the 85th), my Dell PC, and WordPress Stats. There is no budget for this evening… no flashy opening number… and no real corporate sponsors or commercials, so let’s get right to it!
The award for The Big Séance’s Top Viewed Post goes to…. Energy, Paranormal Fiction and RomanceOhhh thank you! Actually, I’ll be accepting and explaining all of the awards this evening, therefore I’ll just stay up here so I don’t have to risk my life tripping over these Prada heels. Just kidding… they’re Payless.
I’ll admit that the attention this post got still shocks me! It was pretty early on in this blog’s history (only months ago) and I was struggling to come up with a post for that day. I remember thinking it was absolutely dorky, but I needed a topic and wanted to stay consistent. If you read the comments, I was scolded for making light of the topic. Well, I stand corrected. This was also the post with the most comments, including some surprising responses from authors from the same genre.
#2 – Black Eyed Kids
No… it might not be as strange as those bath salts inhalers who head to the streets to snack on someone’s face or thigh, but black eyed kids are still pretty interesting, and probably just as scary. And believe it or not, “black eyed kids hoax” is the most commonly searched term or phrase that brings people from the search engine world to my blog. In fact, it happens so often that you may have found this post by searching this very phrase. If so, you are truly a paranormal nerd and I love and respect you for that!
#3 – Coming Out of the Paranormal/Spiritual Closet
This was a relatively short but heartfelt post where I simply asked my readers the question “How do you balance your “paranormal/spiritual” life and interests with your “normal” life in the “real world” (such as job, Walmart, family situations, etc) where it might not be as socially accepted to be that nerdy?”
#4 – Phonemes, Allophones, and Cinnamon Buns…
This post truly may give some of you cinnamon bun eyes! Actually, I think may folks clicked on this post due to the deliciously misleading picture. Come on… you know you want to click it now.
#5 – Abandoned Farmhouse Investigation…
This was a fairly recent post, and one of several having to do with MOSS’s recent investigation of a really interesting abandoned farmhouse. The online version of this report and several pieces of evidence will be posted at www.mospiritseekers.com very soon.
And now… the LEAST viewed post… THE LOSER is……………….. (these dots are a drum roll)…………….. What’s your favorite word for “ghost”?
Can you believe it? I can’t! Like 2 people saw this one! It’s GHOSTS, people! Ghosts are probably why you’re here. GO THERE NOW!
As of this very minute The Big Séance has had just over 4,200 total views with 109 views on his best day (yes, I just attached a gender to my blog).
Also as of this very minute, this blog has been read by people from 47 different countries! It may not be a surprise to hear that the top countries were the US, UK, and Canada (in that order).
The most important award for the evening! Someone’s life is about to change! You can look for her on the talk show circuit first thing tomorrow morning!
………. (drum roll again)………….
Thank you folks, we’ll now take you to your local news, already in progress!
Kitchen and corner pantry
For over a month now I’ve been reviewing evidence and writing up the report for MOSS’s abandoned farmhouse investigation. I used two stationary audio recorders that ran throughout the investigation, in addition to all of our other video and audio, so it’s a lot to review. Since I’m very detailed, documenting almost every sound and action, finishing up an investigation takes a very long time… especially with a “real job” during the day.
The way I review evidence is by starting with all of the audio. I keep a detailed log of unexplained noises, what investigators say and do, and the time stamps as they happen. For this particular investigation I easily ended up with a 15-page Word document by the time I had made it through the audio. When I hear possible EVP or suspicious noises, I listen to them and document, but I don’t get too detailed until I have gone through everything else, video, etc. Then I return to those time stamps to really dig deep into the audio.
Opposite corner of the kitchen
Yesterday, I was returning to what I was referring to as a “possible whispered conversation” that was captured at 10:55pm in the stationary audio recorder that was placed in the kitchen, which is in the very back of the house. After matching up all of the other audio and video I knew that no one was near that recorder. Three investigators were in the very front of the house.
I was absolutely fascinated by the whispers in the kitchen. I couldn’t figure out what they were saying, but there was no doubt in my mind that this was a conversation that was being picked up. You could hear all the “S”s that appear so pronounced when someone is whispering quietly. While matching up other audio and video I discovered that no investigators were speaking at that exact moment. I began texting and calling my team excitedly to let them know what I had caught.
Front entrance/hallway where investigators were located at the time of the whispers
Ten minutes later, after playing the audio and video of that moment over and over, I began to notice a pattern of sounds, both in the whispers from the kitchen, and in the video from the investigators on the other side of the house. My heart sank… but not for long.
The pattern you’ll want to listen for happens as soon as you hear me clear my throat. And it goes until you hear me start talking again. The cord to my headsets hit either my equipment or other items in the room, creating about five quick sounds. Then pay attention to my footsteps. There is a rhythm to the whole thing. Who said being a music teacher couldn’t help with paranormal investigations? Then go back to the original audio from the kitchen and listen for that rhythmic pattern.
I was so proud of myself for getting to the bottom of those whispers. It would have been truly very cool to present that as evidence… but it wasn’t. But, it was like a difficult puzzle that I solved when I was so certain that what I was listening to was real. I almost did a cart-wheel when I figured it all out. It just goes to show how very easy it is for groups and investigators to walk in with one recorder and then tell you you’ve got a ghost. Are we really working hard to “debunk” things we think are real? Are we paying attention to the details? Or just the fun stuff?
The Story Behind The Conjuring with Andrea Perron – The Big Seance Podcast #98
Andrea Perron, author and eldest daughter from the family depicted in the 2013 film, The Conjuring, shares her terrifying yet beautiful true story. Plus her beautiful trilogy, the truth about Bathsheba, responding to critics, and future films in the works!
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