Parallels Between Case Studies: Unwelcomed and Testament

An antique bell and a pendulum with a face motif are two of the 'apports' reported to have manifested in the presence of the Moffitt family residing in Southern California.  A nickname used for the haunting presence was 'Mr. Entity.'

Two Centrahoma photos: the note at right reads "Rocks & pennies that hit inside my house Dec. 1st, 1990."  The predominant manifesting entity was known as 'Michael' by Bell / Mc Wethy family members.
 

Having learning about many 'talking poltergeist' cases or 'hauntings,' it seems obvious that the unique scope of 'paranormal' occurrences for each case—and also how the events are interpreted and reported—is influenced by the spiritual orientation of the experiencers.  In this article, I am reporting about some of the parallels that may be found between the Moffitt family case (Rancho Cucamonga 1987-1992) chronicled in Unwelcomed (2015) and the Bell/McWethy case (an eventful sequence of phenomena for the Centrahoma family began in 1990) which I investigated in 1995 as chronicled in Testament (1997).  In 1995 I returned home to my Los Angeles condo in Echo Park only to continue to experience phenomenal events.  There are also parallels between incidents in my own life and events described by Deborah Moffitt in her book.
 
Reflecting about some previous odd experiences and my research concerning 'talking poltergeist' accounts, I understood that the haunting presence was Angelic.  Gustav Davidson's  A Dictionary of Angels . . . (1967) includes about 'Michael': "Michael ('who is as God')—in Biblical and post-Biblical lore, Michael ranks as the greatest of all angels, whether in Jewish, Christian, or Islamic writings, secular or religious . . . He is chief of the order of virtues, chief of archangels, prince of the presence, angel of repentance, righteousness, mercy, and sanctification; also ruler of the 4th Heaven, tutelary sar (angelic prince) of Israel, guardian of Jacob, conqueror of Satan . . . ."
 
One of the videos featuring commentary of Deborah Moffitt includes some examples of hundreds of  'apports' that materialized in her home.

Left: a Caesars Lake Tahoe pendant was received by the Moffitts on the night that the family left for a Lake Tahoe vacation; right, my Oklahoma trip souvenir apports consisted of coins, stones, a nail, an "Amusement Centers" token, and a piece of costume jewelry with pearl and diamond symbols.

The Moffitts usually assumed the manifestations to be demonic with knives reported to have been a frequent object to change location or materialize.  Other apports collected by the Moffitts include rocks with a triangular shape and a spear head that a museum expert identified as being an antique from the Belgian Congo area in Africa.  It would seem that karmic considerations and the assumption of malevolence concerning the haunting presence brought corresponding apports.  In Centrahoma, there were metaphorical associations noticeable for unique apports such as a padlock and a package of Trouble perfume.  One might even notice that the three coins seen in the photo above each bear the proverb "In God We Trust". 
 
The Moffitts of Southern California and the Bell / Mc Wethy family of Oklahoma are among countless people who found themselves experiencing uncommon 'supernatural' manifestations throughout the ages.  This blogger can only compare my state of mind at the time I went to investigate the Centrahoma 'talking poltergeist' case in 1995.  My motivation was to see what might be learned and not to evaluate what might be witnessed on the basis of any particular religious dogma or supposition. 
 
While the Moffitts received messages written in soap on mirrors, the Centrahoma family conversed with a variety of disembodied voices identifying themselves with different names.  On several occasions in the Centrahoma house were found 'cryptograms' and an Egyptian Arabic message (written backwards) in lipstick on a mirror.  These communications were copied onto notebook paper by the family [see "Family Notes and Other Data (The Centrahoma Poltergeist)"].  When I began transcribing the microcassette tape recordings of my interviews with the family, there were often noticeable 'spirit messages' (unattributed speech at times very distinct in unfamiliar voices) and these words were included within parentheses in the transcripts.  I later learned that this type of paranormal occurrence is known categorically as 'Electronic Voice Phenomena' or 'EVP.'

 
On one occasion, 'Mr. Entity' left a symbol in baby powder on carpeting; while in the Centrahoma case, there was an incident when a design was left in bird gravel on the carpet.  Another detail of each of the Rancho Cucamonga and Centrahoma 'poltergeist' chronologies is that eggs were among the objects witnessed to be moved by an unseen Force.

The following excerpts from the two books provide ten examples of  the many parallels that may be found between these case studies.  Testament is available in a free Internet edition and quoted passages in this article are excerpts of interviews transcripts of microcassette recordings.
  
   

Unwelcomed p. 34

"To our disbelief a shower of pebbles began to fall on us.  Small stones fell seemingly from thin air . . . I bent down and picked up a handful of pebbles.  They were ice cold."

Testament Tape #4, Side #2

This transcript includes an incident where I witnessed a rock materialize.  I picked up the rock and it felt warm to the touch.

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Unwelcomed p.54

"The entity began writing more and more frequently on the mirror.  His writings reflected that he  must have listened to us constantly.  Running commentary on our lives and conversations became the main topic of his communications . . . Lee and Bill would have full conversations in Tobresh, thinking the entity wouldn't know what they were saying.  Much to their chagrin, the entity began replying to Lee on the mirror in Tobresh as well.  She tried using Spanish and Italian, but soon fluent replies began appearing on the mirror as well in those languages as well."

Testament Tape #1, Side #1

"(TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: MAXINE SHOWS ME SOME REPRODUCTIONS OF CRYPTOGRAMS LEFT BY THE SPIRIT.)
"Maxine: See?  He drew them on the mirror and I copied them.  With lipstick.  He’d use a whole tube of lipstick.
"Mark: I wonder what that means.
"Maxine: Part of it’s Egyptian."

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Unwelcomed p. 49

"This was the only time I actually heard 'Prince.'  Booming laughter from upstairs reverberated through the house."

Testament Tape 4, Side 1 and Side 2

While driving a car in the Centrahoma area with Twyla in the passenger seat, there were two voice manifestations that I personally heard.  The first was a little boy giggling.  I wrote in a transcriber's note:

"(TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: THE SPIRIT GIGGLING HEARD ON THE TAPE HERE SOUNDED LIKE IT WAS COMING FROM THE BACK SEAT. IT WAS HEARD AT THE TIME OF RECORDING AND HAD AN OTHERWORLDLY METALLIC TONE WITH A BLOOD-CHILLING EFFECT.)"

Later during the same drive I heard a deep adult male voice groaning that sounded like it was coming from the back seat.

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Unwelcomed p. 121
"He ['Mr. Entity'] would take any religious objects the Warrens would give to us and either destroy them or throw them into the swimming pool.  The blessed religious medals that the Warrens gave us  to put in all the corners or the house disappeared, never to be seen again.

Testament Tape #5, Side #1 

"Bill Mc Wethy: Alright. I’ll tell you the most spooky thing. To me, the most heart-rending part of it that I can really ascertain.  (“WHEN I HAD A”)  I had a cross and it had holy water in it.  (“OOOH”)  A souvenir (“YEAH”) filled from a hole in Wyoming.  I had it on a chain, put it around Twyla’s neck.  It disappeared.  Then we found it in another part of the house — (“UM-HUH”) the chain one place and the heart in another.  We picked it up, brought it back in here and put them back together.  At the same time this was going on, we were in the kitchen.  She went back (“HMMM”) to the bedroom and it disappeared again.  So it come back this time and the chain was broken.  I took this big safety pin here and just pinned it on her blouse.  When they were going with the neighbor, Frieda Severe, toward Dayton it disappeared on her chest with the windows rolled up.  There’s no way it could’ve gotten out of the car when it disappeared."

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Unwelcomed p. 142/143

"I followed her gaze and looked down to see what appeared to be Lee's baby powder covering the floor . . . In the powder were spots that looked like footprints . . . The heel looked like a large semi-circle.  Where toes should have been were only small marks that looked like claws."

Testament Tape #1, Side #2

An incident is described when there was spilled coffee and Twyla was with a house visitor who also witnessed "feet marks.  It was running all the way over there but there were webbed feet marks.  Webbed like a duck’s."

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Unwelcomed p. 170

"Mr. Entity wrote about the poor couple . . . He wrote, 'Thomas has a 12 inch dick . . .'"

Testament Tape #4, Side #2

An EVP that I heard used the slang word 'dick' and it was disturbing to include it in the book; however, the basis of the case study was to have verbatim transcripts so one of the EVP message sequences of the transcript for Tape #4, Side #2 with the last word being prognostic is: (“RIGHT NOW I’M LOOKING AT MY DICK — THAT AREA” “GOLLY” “YOU KNOW WHEN YOU’RE EROTIC IDIOM”)

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Unwelcomed p. 209/210

"Suddenly I heard howling coming from the room next door. Bill and I burst into the room to find Bill Sr. sitting on the edge of his bed howling like a wolf.  His head was tilted back and his eyes were closed.  It was unbelievable.  He was making sounds that I didn't believe capable of him.  I walked over to him with great trepidation and shook him gently.  He just looked at me blankly and laid down again."

Testament Tape #25, Side #2

"Mark: . . . I mean there were some weird things going on in Alhambra.  The guy in the bed next to me was howling like in “The Exorcist.”  (“UH-HUH”)

"Larry: (laughs)

"Mark: So I told him he was snoring.  I woke him up and said, “You’re snoring.”

"Larry: Yeah.  Rather than say, “Excuse me, but you’re howling like a human coyote,” which might have upset him a little bit."

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Unwelcomed p. 222

"Small things like the TV getting turned on and off and the channels changing seemingly on their own served only to frustrate us."

Testament Tape #14, Side #1

"Mark: . . . I haven’t had anything happen since Sunday but it’s not letting me watch TV.  It just turns on the TV to give me messages and it has written a couple messages on my computer screen while I was transcribing like “ARE YOU NERVOUS?” and “FIND A SCRAPBOOK.” 

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Unwelcomed p. 224

"Within a few days of Gary's initial arrival, he opened his brand new leather briefcase to find it filled with water."

Testament Tape #12, Side #1
"(TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: I JUMP UP FROM MY CHAIR WHEN I FEEL SOMETHING WET ON MY PANTS.)
"Maxine: You got something else?
"( . . . )
"Mark: It’s very strange.
"(TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: I REMEMBER WHAT I HAD MENTIONED EARLIER ABOUT THE NUMBERS ONE AND ZERO BECAUSE THERE IS A WATER SPOT THAT HAS LEFT A WET SPOT THE SIZE OF A SILVER DOLLAR ON MY PANTS.)
"Mark: Look what I have on my —
"Maxine: (gasps)
"Mark: And I thought it was my water bottle but it’s dry in here inside my Land’s End shoulder bag."

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Unwelcomed p. 313

Photo caption: "A severed plastic head placed on Lee's pillow."

Testament Tape #5, Side #2

"Twyla: Once he told Mama he was going to show itself.  He said, 'COME ROLL YOUR BLANKET BACK AND I’LL SHOW YOU MYSELF.'  It looked like there was a body laying there and she pulled the blanket back.  There was a mask there.  Wasn’t it a Halloween mask that you found after Michael told you to pull back the blanket to see what was there?
"Billy Joe: Yeah.
"Twyla: He said 'HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA.'"
 

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Other blog articles about the Centrahoma case: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23

Other blog articles about the Moffitt Family case: 1, 2, 3, 4 (and following publication of this article) 5, 6, 7, 8.