textfiles/reports/ACE/realghst.txt

        ÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜ                            ÜÜÜ           ÜÜÜÜ
     ÜÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛßÛßßßßßÛÛÜ       ÜÜßßßßÜÜÜÜ ÜÛÜ  ÜÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÜÜÜÜÜÛßß ßÛÛ
    ßÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÜ  ßÛÛ   ÜÛÛÛÜÛÛÜÜÜ   ßÛÛÛÛÜ ßÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÜÛÛÜÜÜÛÛÝ Ûß
        ßßßÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÜ ÞÝ  ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛßßÛÜÞÛÛÛ    ÛÛÛÛÛÜ    ßßÛÛÛÞß
Mo.iMP  ÜÛÛÜ  ßÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÝÛ  ÞÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛ    ÞÛÛÛÛ     ÞÛÛÛÛÛÝ      ßÛß
      ÜÛÛÛÛÛÛÛ  ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÝ ÞÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÝ     ÛÛÛ       ÛÛÛÛÛÛ
     ÜÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÝ  ÞÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛ ÞÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛ       ß        ÞÛÛÛÛÛÛÜ   ÜÛ
    ÜÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÝ    ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛ  ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÝ               ÞÞÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛß
   ÜÛßÛÛÛÛÛÛ ÜÜ  ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÝ ÛÛÞÛÛÛÛÛÝ               ÞÛÛÛÛÛÛßß
  ÜÛßÛÛÛÛÛÛÜÛÛÛÛÜÞÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛ ÞÛ ßÛÛÛÛÛ           Ü   ÛÝÛÛÛÛÛ             Ü
 ÜÛ ÞÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛß  ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛ ßÛÜ  ßÛÛÛÜÜ    ÜÜÛÛÛß ÞÛ ÞÛÛÛÝ         ÜÜÛÛ
ÛÛ   ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛß    ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÜ ßÛÜ  ßßÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛß ÜÜÜß ÛÛÛÛÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÛÛÛÛÛß
 ßÛÜ   ÜÛÛÛß       ßÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÜ  ßßÜÜ ßßÜÛÛßß  ßÛÛÜ   ßßßÛßÛÛÛÛÛÛÛßß
    ßßßßß                ßßÛÛß      ßßßßß        ßßßßßßßßßßßßß
          ARRoGANT                CoURiERS      WiTH     ESSaYS

Grade Level:       Type of Work           Subject/Topic is on:
 [x]6-8                 [ ]Class Notes    [Essay on the book Real  ]
 [ ]9-10                [ ]Cliff Notes    [Ghosts.                 ]
 [ ]11-12               [x]Essay/Report   [                        ]
 [ ]College             [ ]Misc           [                        ]

 Dizzed: 09/94  # of Words:1959   School: ?              State: ?
ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ>ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ>ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ>Chop Here>ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ>ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ>ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ>ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ
Real Ghosts

 I have chosen to do my book report on a book called... Real Ghosts.
  what is a ghost suppose to look like?

   First you may think of something in a white sheet with holes for
eyes, you may think of a ragged figure dragging chains and moaning. Or an
idea of a ghost may be a figure you can see through, something that goes in
and out of rooms without needing to open doors. That is the way ghosts are
usually described in stories or shown in movies. But real ghosts come in
many different sizes and shapes. Sometimes they are strange and frightening
looking. Sometimes they look very ordinary. It is hard to tell they are
ghosts at all. Often ghosts cannot be seen, but are just heard and felt. This
book is about real ghosts.

 Are ghosts real?

At 3:25 pm an airplane crashes and the pilot is killed. But at the same time
in another city, a lieutenant claims that he saw and spoke with the pilot.

A judge says that he had a conversation in his home with a reporter at 1:30
the night before. But at 1:30 that night the reporter had died of a heart
attack in his own bed.

In an old mansion in england a photographer actually snaps a picture of a
shadowy figure on a staircase. It is the "brown lady" of raynham
hall.

    Each of these people claims that he really saw a ghost. In this book the
author (daniel cohen) investigates many strange stories. Sometimes he
uncovers a hoax, but other stories leave puzzling questions...

 Do spirits really haunt old houses?
 Can a human be transported back into the past?
 Are ghosts real?

 Return from the dead?

    A man named john thorne lived near an old haunted house. In 1958 he had
an odd experience... He woke up in the middle of the night to find a strange
woman in his bedroom. It was dark, but he could still see that she was
wearing a long dress, the kind people wore a hundred years ago. Thorne turned
the lights on, and the figure had disappeared.....

   On 1961 thorne's brother, william, came for a visit. On the first night
william heard footsteps outside the door. When he looked out of the open
door... He saw a woman in a long black dress holding a handkerchief in her
hand. Suddenly the room became very cold.....

 The real exorcists and others?

   The exorcist was an extremely popular book. It was about a young girl who
was "possessed" by the devil. It took a ritual called "exorcism" to drive
out the evil spirit. An even more popular movie was made from the
book. People thought that the movie and the book were true. They were not. The
book was a piece of fiction written by william p. Blatty. But blatty's book
was based on a real case. One of the reasons that the book and the movie
were so popular, is that people thought they were actually a real case. Here
we have to be very careful. "based on" in not "the same as. " the writer and
the movie producers made many changes in order to make "the exorcist" more
dramatic and exciting than the case that inspired it. In the book and the
movie, the "possessed" subject was a young girl. In the real case it was a
boy. And that was just one of the changes made. There were many, many, many
more. A large part of the exorcist was not based on anything at all. It was
just made up. One reason is that we really don't know a great deal about the
real case. Very few records were kept. Not all of what few there have been
made public. Some of those involved in the case have since died. Many others
just don't want to talk about it anymore. Here is what we do know. The case
began early in 1949. The possessed subject was a fourteen year old boy who
was called douglas deen. He lived with his family in a suburb of washington
d. C. The first thing the family noticed was strange noises coming from the
boy's room. They suspected mice. Exterminators were called in but found
nothing. And the noises continued... The disturbances became more
violent. Heavy furniture moved back and forth. A bowl fell off the top of the
refridgerator for no apparent reason. A picture seemed to jump off the
wall. The worst disturbances took place in the boy's bedroom. His bed shook
and trembled all night. The noise kept douglas and his parents awake night
after night. The deen's talked about events with their neighbours. The
neighbours laughed at first. But after they spent a night in the deen's
house they stopped laughing. The neighbours also began to believe that
something very strange was going on. But what? the deen family then called
in the minister of their church, the reverend mr. Winston. The
minister, too, was sceptical. But he decided to investigate more closely. He
spent the entire night of february 17, 1949 in douglas deen's
bedroom. Later, the reverend mr. Winston described what happened that night
to a meeting of the society of parapsychology in washington. First, the
boy's bed began to shake. Then there were scratching and scrapings from the
wall. The minister switched on the lights but could see nothing that might
be causing the disturbances. The minister then asked the boy to sit in an
armchair. The chair began to move around the room slowly. Then it started
rocking back and forth. Finally, it tipped over, throwing the boy on the
floor.

   Reverend Winston thought it would be best to get the boy off the
furniture that seemed to move. He told the boy to take his pillow and
blankets and sleep on the floor. While reverend winston watched, the boy and
the bedding began to slide across the room. Reverend winston was then
convinced that something very odd was going on. But he didn't know what? he
felt that the events were beyond his understanding and control. The boy was
taken to georgetown hospital for both physical and mental tests. The tests
turned up nothing. Visits to the psychiatrists did not make the disturbances
that centred around the fourteen year old disappear. The deen family became
desperate. They finally depended on a drastic cure. They called in a priest
to perform an "exorcism. " exorcism is a very old ritual. Its purpose is to
drive out demons. It is not used very often in the modern world. Many people
do not approve of using it at all. But the family didn't know where else to
turn. They believed that exorcism was their last hope. The priest who
performed the exorcism remained with the boy for over two months. During the
period he performed the long exorcism rite thirty times. While the ritual
was going on, the boy would tremble violently. Sometimes he would begin to
scream. Then the voice was not at all like his normal voice. In may 1949, the
priest went through the entire ritual again. The boy did not react violently
as he usually did. The priest assumed that the demon had been driven
out. After that the boy was no longer troubled by shaking beds or moving
furniture.

 What does all of this have to do with ghosts?

   Perhaps a great deal. Psychical researchers found the details of this
case very familiar. The unexplained noises, the shaking furniture, and the
rest of the things that happened to the deen's boy had troubled many
others. Usually these disturbances were not blamed on demons. They were said
to be due to activities of a "poltergeist. " poltergeist is a german
word, which means "noisy ghost" or "noisy spirit. " but in a poltergeist
case, people don't usually  see any figures at all. What happens is just what
happened in the deen's case. There are all sorts of unexplained
disturbances in a house. Often these disturbances are blamed on a unseen
spirit... A poltergeist. Hundreds of poltergeist cases can be found in the
records of different psychical research organizations. Reports of such
experiences go back to the ancient times. New ones are reported every
year. Usually psychical researchers hear about the case after it is
over, that is, after the disturbances have stopped. But occasionally they are
able to investigate while the disturbances are still going on. That happened
in 1958. We like to think of ghosts or spirits haunting crumbling castles or
ancients houses. This ghost began causing trouble in a modern ranch
house. The house was located in the very ordinary suburban community of
seaford, long island. In the house lived mr. And mrs. James hermann and their
two children. The children were a girl lucille, thirteen, and a boy
jimmy, twelve. Most of the disturbances seemed to centre around the boy. When
he was around things began to happen. The disturbances began on february
3. First, the family heard what sounded like popping bottles. When they went
to see what was wrong, they found bottles in several parts of the house that
had been mysteriously opened and spilled. A few small objects had also been
broken. Strange noises and bottle openings continued for three days. The
family became very concerned. They called the police. Patrolman j. Hughes
came to the house. He too heard some noise. He looked in the bathroom and
found that some medicine and shampoo had been open and spilled. He could not
explain how it happened. No one had been in the bathroom. Some of the
hermann's relatives also had strange experiences. A cousin of mr. Hermann
saw a statue move around a table. Then it flew two feet in the air and
landed on the rug. Some of the bottles were taken to the police
laboratory. The electric company checked the house to see if anything was
wrong with the electricity. Building inspectors and the fire departments
also examined the house. Everything about it seemed normal. They could not
find nothing to account for the disturbances. The hermann's family was very
upset by these going©ons. The appealed to the public for help. Naturally the
appeal got into the newspapers. The long island poltergeist became
famous. News of the poltergeist reached dr. J. G. Pratt in north carolina. Dr.
pratt is one of america's leading researchers on the subject of
haunting, ghosts, and other unexplained events. He came up to long island to
investigate the case in person. He interviewed everyone connected with the
case. He checked over the house, and examined all the objects that had been
disturbed. By the time dr. Pratt arrived, the disturbances had died down
considerably. He didn't see any objects fly across the room. He did hear a
few strange thumps coming from jimmy's room. He was not able to come up with
any explanation for the case. He just left as puzzled as he was when he
came. The case has never been solved.

 About the author

   Daniel Cohen is the author of over a hundred books for both young
readers and adults, and he is a former managing editor of science digest
magazine. His title include supermonsters, real ghosts, ghostly
terrors, science fictions greatest monsters, the world's most famous ghosts
and monsters you never heard off, all of which are available in archway
paperback editions. Mr. Cohen was born in chicago and has degree in
journalism from the university of Illinois. He appears frequently on radio
and television and has lectured at colleges and universities throughout the
country. He lives with his wife, young daughter, one dog and four cats in
port jervis, New York.