Paranormal State: My Journey into the Unknown

by Stefan Petrucha

  When they asked about the attacks, he again repeated the name. Since we’d already cautioned him, Heiser just said, “Ow.”

  Again, he was reminded. “Just for the record, it’s not good to say the name you heard out loud.”

  Ray’s response was strange to say the least. “It ought to be a fun night, then, because that’s the third time I’ve said it.”

  It was a strange scene. His wife was crying in the other room. She’d reported being seriously abused by the entity and her children had experiences, but he wasn’t listening when we asked him not to say the name.

  As I said, the situation didn’t lend itself to a lot of research. We tried to interview some neighbors, but Teena was worried about being judged, so we backed off to respect their privacy. Those we did speak to had no experiences in the park, and nothing negative to say about Teena and Ray. We did find out that the land had some Native American ties, but I didn’t think that had anything to do with the phenomena. Every part of the United States has some Native American ties.

  It was late by then, so we took a break for dinner, then came back. I took a walk with the team, trying to sort things out, going over how complicated the threads in this case were. There was the name, a wild variety of activity, Ray’s reticence, and Pat’s melodrama. It was hard to think where to begin, or how.

  One of our producers ran up to us, saying, “Guys, Teena’s calling for you. She’s saying something happened in the house.”

  We went racing in. Several of the crosses hung in the house had been turned, some upside down, some sideways. Teena was visibly upset. “This isn’t funny! We pissed it off,” she said.

  Was I suspicious they’d done this themselves? Sure. If I had to suspect someone, I’d suspect Raymond, but I had no proof. As much as we checked, there was no indication they’d tampered with any evidence.

  In any case, Teena remained agitated. “I’m scared. This is what happens every time it messes with the crosses. It’s just shaking my belief.” She also said that the demon was near Pat.

  “He’s here,” Pat told us. She said things like, “The sense I’m getting? He knows you’re here to get rid of him and he’s fighting it. It’s around me. It’s trying to get to me. Get the Bible!”

  So Teena found a Bible, got down on her hands and knees, and listened as Pat gave her instructions on exactly what to do. As Teena obeyed, reading from Psalm 7, she started crying. “Let the enemy pursue me and overtake me, and let him trample my life to the ground and lay my soul in the dust.”

  It didn’t take a degree in psychology for me to believe that while Pat seemed to really feel there was a presence, she wasn’t helping the situation. Teena was upset, yes, but Pat’s melodramatic comments were apparently fueling the fire. I felt that in order to have a chance at helping Teena, I had to get Pat out of there.

  “Something has to be done about this,” Pat said. “It’s going to attack me and attack them.”

  I always tried to be diplomatic with clients. Confrontation doesn’t help. But here, I couldn’t keep quiet any longer. I blew up and said, “No, Pat. I think you’re part of the problem. You’re making this family hysterical. Maybe the crosses did turn upside down by themselves. I don’t know. But the last thing we need is for Teena to be in tears. You’re not helping. I’d appreciate it if you left this house.”

  Put on the spot, she agreed to go. Before she drove off, there was a final interview with her in her car. “I don’t know anything that would turn crosses like that. When he said, ‘Turn around,’ my eyes went right to that cross first thing. Upside down? It’s been right side up since we put it there. It’s in there.”

  Throughout, Raymond sat there, not showing any emotion at all.

  At this point, I felt I needed help. Lorraine had other commitments, but I’d been in touch with Father Andrew Calder, a part-time pastor who was recommended to me by Chip. He claimed to have experience with the demonic and was involved in some social circles of the paranormal community. After his arrival, one of his first suggestions was that we move the clients to a safe location, and do a spiritual walk-through of the home.

  After they’d left, we didn’t rifle through their belongings by any means, but what was left out in the open held some surprises. Raymond’s screen name was Tiny666. The numbers 666, as many readers will know, is famous as the “number of the beast” mentioned in the Book of the Revelation of St. John the Divine, in the New Testament.

  The lights were turned off as we did the walk-through. Father Calder sensed a presence, and felt that in the dark it had gotten stronger. “Darkness is their realm,” he explained. He also described what it felt like to sense the unseen. “When I’m dealing with a demonic entity, I will get pressure. I will get stinging sensations.”

  Chip had also been invited on this case; the father asked that he be brought in. As we moved through the trailer, Chip started acting very bizarrely. Because of what had happened last week in Elizabethtown, he obviously knew something demonic was up before he arrived. He seemed fine, but once inside, he got a bit crazy, talking forcefully, and faster and faster. In Katie’s room, he felt hit in the gut. The presence, he said, was rattled because we were there.

  Father Caldwell agreed. “We’re all a threat to it.”

  “It knew we were coming,” Chip said quickly, phrasing things in that quirky way of his. “I’m confirming that at this point in time. It knew we were coming. I am one massive goose bump.”

  During the walk-though, I was using a thermal camera, which basically shows the relative temperature of whatever it’s pointed at, different colors indicating colder and warmer. It showed Chip’s body temperature as unusually low. I didn’t think this was paranormal, but it may have been an indication of his emotional state.

  He went on, seeming more and more frantic. “It wants the child. There’s something very negative in this house. And it wants the kid. Whatever is in here is very demanding, and this is the feeling I get, this big kind of energy. Whatever it is, is ramping up.”

  Suddenly, Father Calder said, “Okay, Chip, time to go.”

  He took him out of the house to calm down.

  Chip did return for Dead Time later that night. In this case, since the presence certainly seemed demonic, it took place at 3:00 A.M. As Chip tried communicating, I sensed a weight in the house beyond the stifling clutter. If there was something demonic, it was definitely present.

  There was little activity to speak of, though, beyond the brooding darkness, until we heard a sharp, constant, electronic beeping. After some effort at maneuvering the crowded space, I tracked down the source. It was an alarm clock, set to go off at 3:33, half of 666. It may well have been someone setting us up, or a coincidence, but it felt as if the entity was toying with us.

  There was something unusual about the house that’s hard to explain but that I’ve only experienced during demonic cases. There’s a disorientation, and shadows will flicker as if there’s a candle in the room.

  When it was over, we all left, Chip and Father Caldwell agreed that the presence was demonic. Part of the question for me was, was it B—, the name I encountered in Elizabethtown? It seemed a stretch. If the activity began after Charlie was born, it overlapped with what happened with Jodi and Nate on the other case. At the same time, things seemed linked.

  Could demons be in two places at once? Perhaps, but Satan is often described as the Prince of Lies. As Lorraine said, demons try to deceive people about who they are, to pump themselves up in the eyes of their victims. I have no definite answers, and my own theories about these beings is open-ended. My sense, though, is that it was a network, two entities using the same calling card.

  While Chip was getting strong messages that Katie, the girl, was its primary victim, I disagreed. It seemed to me that the force was more focused on Ray. There was the physical attack, his depression, his quiet, angry personality, Teena’s claims that he’d changed when the activity started and last, the fact that it was Ray who repeatedly said t
he name. Taken together, it sounded like Raymond was experiencing oppression, an initial stage in possession.

  Father Caldwell recommended that no matter what else we tried to do, the house had to be cleaned up first. How can you address a spiritual issue when the clients’ lives are so literally and symbolically messy? It made a lot of sense. To get them on their feet, we had to get them to help themselves.

  Beyond that, the spiritual situation required more than a quick house cleansing. That meant that like the last case, we would have to return after arrangements were made. I was worried production would be concerned again, but maybe because we were already planning to return to “The Name,” or maybe because of their own experiences, everyone agreed easily.

  I rode with Teena to her church to explain. This is no exaggeration: McDonald’s trash was piled above the minivan seats, all around me. I couldn’t see the floor.

  We sat down in the church. I told her what we’d learned about Ray’s screen name. She said she was aware that devil worship had been part of his past, and part of the reason she felt the presence had been influencing him.

  Then I laid into her, much more than I ever had with a client about what I felt should happen. I told her we’d be back, but only provided she did certain things. I said that her house and her life were a mess, and that we couldn’t help her unless she did something about it. I actually gave her a list of tasks, including cleaning and counseling.

  To my surprise she said, “You’re right, Ryan. I do need to do these things.”

  It was a tough conversation, but afterward my producer complimented me, saying something like, “Ryan, if you’re ever looking for another career, you’d make a really awesome motivational speaker.”

  I also talked to Raymond, telling him what we’d found out about him. “I hope you don’t feel like I betrayed your trust, but I’m afraid this thing might be targeting you.”

  He had little response, as usual. He did say he felt the entity was more connected to Teena.

  “No,” I said. “Clearly this thing is more attached to you.” I told him if he wanted it gone, he’d need to be more involved. His answer, pretty much, was stony silence.

  Before we left, I sat in the car talking to Teena. She asked if there was anything from us she could have while we were gone. I was wearing a St. Benedict medal, so I handed it to her. She seemed so shocked and pleased that I was very moved.

  “You need it more than I do,” I said. “So keep it.”

  To be honest, as we drove away, I had, maybe not doubts, but certainly concerns about how things would work out. I worried that like “Paranormal Intervention” she would agree at first, and then go back to doing what I thought caused the problems in the first place.

  I felt a very strong connection to Teena. She seemed so warm; I felt as if she were a friend I’d known for a very long while and now needed help. As I drove back to PA, I looked upward and prayed to God to please, let this case be a success.

  We headed back to Elizabethtown to meet with Lorraine Warren and finish up “The Name.” In the two weeks we were gone, Ray and Teena had minor experiences, but nothing extreme. The name did not come up again.

  By the time we were ready to return, though, Father Calder wasn’t returning my phone calls. Chip couldn’t get hold of him either. Finally he texted me saying he was ill and couldn’t make it. He later told me his illness might have been related to the demon.

  In his place, I called Keith and Sandra Johnson, the laymen from “School House Haunting.” Keith had come to UNIV-CON a few years running and gave a phenomenal workshop, which was always packed.

  When it was time to return, I was apprehensive. Would she make the changes we asked of her? Despite my concerns, in the short time we were gone it looked as if Teena had changed her life radically. When I walked in to her house, my jaw dropped. It was significantly cleaner. I wouldn’t lick the countertop, but it was presentable. She also had a new full-time job, working as a secretary. She’d even reenrolled in college. All that in three weeks. I was stunned.

  We had no church sanction in this case, so we originally only planned to do a house blessing, but as we worked, things changed.

  We began in the master bedroom, making crosses with holy water on the doors and windows, telling the demon in no uncertain terms that it wasn’t welcome.

  Teena seemed to be quickly affected. “I feels like my legs are being tied. My legs are being tied.”

  So Keith prayed over her. “We ask for any unholy presence to release its bond on her.”

  When we reached Katie’s bedroom, Teena felt the presence again. “It’s with us.”

  “Any spirits, be expelled,” Keith said. “Your right to remain in this room is removed.”

  During this, my team sat with Raymond. They said he was looking more and more angry, as if he were about to snap someone’s neck. Soon he said he was feeling very off, telling Teena, “My head’s on fire, honey.”

  Worried, she called us in. Once I saw Ray, it was easy to understand her concern. His skin was beet red. He was hot to the touch. Keith prayed over him and Ray reacted more and more.

  Now it was clear to me that Raymond was the center of things.

  Technically, as discussed last chapter, without church sanction, there could be no exorcism. There’s been a lot of discussion about that in the church. In Mark 16:17, Jesus says, “And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils . . .” This means to many that believers can call on him to cast out demons.

  Others have done so, and with success. When someone tries to end a possession this way, without the official go-ahead of the church, be they priest or layperson, it’s called a “deliverance.”

  It’s difficult to keep the terms straight, and, in fact, in an episode from a later season, Father Bob, whom we work with regularly now, performs a deliverance that the episode text erroneously calls an exorcism. It was understandable. We work with different editors from time to time and if they see someone trying to get rid of a demon, they naturally figure it’s an exorcism. It was a concern for Father Bob, who worried he might lose his priesthood if he were seen as claiming to perform exorcisms.

  So, specifically, when Raymond became so reactive during the blessing, Keith began a deliverance for him. Chip, Keith, and I all put our hands on him and prayed.

  “We rebuke any evil spirit . . .”

  “I swear to go through with my promise to rid you from this house,” I said.

  As we worked, Raymond often stared at me without blinking. I had the powerful sensation that he was on the verge of grabbing me and trying to snap my neck. His anger and attention seemed focused on me, perhaps because I’d told him what we found out about his past.

  I didn’t believe he was possessed; things hadn’t gone that far yet. I did believe a demonic presence was influencing him, that perhaps he was experiencing oppression, but not that he was totally under its control.

  “Raymond, you need to let this thing go,” I said. “Think of your daughter.”

  Suddenly, he began shouting, “Get out of here. Leave my home. Leave my body. Leave my family alone!”

  The entire process took about ten or fifteen minutes, but there came a definite moment when it felt like it was over, that whatever had been tormenting him left. It wasn’t gradual. According to Raymond, it suddenly felt like it was gone—bam! Raymond, and the house, became quiet. It seemed we’d succeeded.

  Afterward, a more human breakthrough happened. With the deliverance complete, we took a break and I went outside. To get to our van, I had to pass by Raymond, who was having a cigarette. At this point, given how he was staring at me during the deliverance, I had no idea if he was still angry with me or not.

  I quickly said, “Hey, Raymond,” and kept walking.

  This guy had never talked to me, never approached me, but now he said, “Ryan?”

  I stopped and turned to him. “Yeah?”

  I don’t have a record of it, but this i
s how I remember the conversation.

  He said, “This thing really was here, wasn’t it?”

  “You tell me.”

  He shrugged. “I don’t know what to believe anymore.”

  He began a sort of confession. When I’d first said he was the focus, he was angry, but now, as he thought about it, he admitted to himself that I was right. He said he loved his family, that the one thing he wanted to do, even though he didn’t have a job, even though he had his own problems, was to be able to protect them. He said something like, “But I couldn’t even do that. I was so angry because I couldn’t punch this thing. I felt so weak. So, I tried to make a pact with it. I said it could have me if it spared them. It took me, but continued to harass my family anyway.”

  It was a startling admission. I thanked him for opening up. “You have to understand that though your intentions were noble, these things don’t make deals. It will pretend, but it won’t follow through. You gave yourself, but that didn’t give you any power over it.”

  “I realize that now.”

  “That’s good, Raymond.” As I walked away, snow began to fall.

  I held a final interview with Teena at a local diner the next day. The activity had stopped completely that night. Teena seemed relieved, grateful, and full of hope. “I was just going day by day,” she told me. “Now I’m looking forward to the future. You guys helped us to realize that the baby steps led to the giant steps. I thought I was beyond hope, and hope found me.”

  At that, we said our good-byes. Every few months or so, she’d call to update me. They did go through a few ups and downs, but for the most part, they were finally starting to lead a normal life.

  As a coda to the case, on New Year’s Eve 2007, almost a year later, I was in South Carolina, going to a party thrown by one of my high school friends. I’d just arrived with my brother, Jordan, and Serg when my phone rang. I recognized the CID as Teena’s, so I picked up. It was Raymond. He’d never called before.

  “Hey Raymond, is everything okay?”