“THE GHOST OF THE KALAHARI: GHOST OR ALIEN?” and More Fortean-Related Stories! #ParanormalityMag

Episode Transcript
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inserted my ad agencies and are notunder our control. Welcome to Paranormality

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Magazine. Each week, Paranormality Magazineexplores all forty en subjects, from phantoms
to UFOs and every cryptid creature inbetween. Each week you're treated to a
collection of well researched and investigated stories, interviews and reports on cutting edge paranormal
projects and topics they know you crave. And here in the podcast, I

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share stories from the magazine to giveyou just a taste of what you receive
in every issue. I'm Darren Marler, and this is Paranormality Magazine. The

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Ghost of the Kalahari seems to siton the verge between a variety of phenomena.
It has glaring similarities to the UFOphenomenon. The way it moves beyond
the limits of physics, and itspension for following cars on lonely roads mimic
the actions of these suspected alien spacecrafts. But it is also named a ghost
and seems to line up with legendsand stories of fairy lights from other regions

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around the world, and the localcultural belief treats them in the same regard.
For many investigators, this is achallenging dichotomy to tackle, but for
others who work from a non physicalangle, these differences make sense. Something
paranormal is occurring. To these people, they are simply using their cultural reference
points to best understand what is areality bending experiences. If this is the

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case, then it is no surprisethat this crossover occurs in other paranormal cases
throughout Africa, where the belief inthe paranormal comes from magicians and spirits here
on Earth as opposed to creatures fromthe sky. In many of these humanoid
encounters, this blurring of the lineis a prominent feature. One such example

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was reported to Cynthia Hines after sheappeared on a radio show in Johannesburg.
The witness wrote to her after hearingher discuss abductions on the radio program as
he'd had an experience that he thoughtlined up with the other reports. The
witness was of Asian descent and wasa married mother of two. She told
of how one night she heard astrange clicking sound, as if a key

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was opening a lock. This wasstrange to her because the doors of her
home did not have any key basedlocks. She noticed a large robed figure
had entered the room. She describedhim as looking like a monk. She
was paralyzed with fear, and thecreature walked over to her and blew into
her ear. This would repeat severaltimes a night, almost always preceded by

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a strange sound clicking, bells,ringing, or the sound of birds flapping
their wings. She would feel astrange type of vibration in her body and
then the entity and sometimes multiple robedfigures would appear. It was usually around
four a m. When they wouldconduct their raid. The entity or entities

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would then move towards her, touchher, inspect her, and violate her.
She started to wake up from theseexperiences with large hickeys all over her
body, and it was this detailthat convinced her to call Cynthia after hearing
other reports of similar bruising from abductees. They would prod and inspect her mouth,

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ears, and genitals. At onepoint, they opened her mouth too
wide, causing jaw pain, anda subsequent clicking sound comes from her jaw
to this day if she opens hermouth past a certain point. Of course,
the robed figure is a common archetypethat appears in hauntings as well.
The witness was afraid because her childrenseemed to start interacting with these entities.

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They eventually moved homes and it isnot said whether this solved the issue,
but no new reports were ever submittedafter this. These events are similar to
not only abduction stories, but alsothat of sleep paralysis. Another prime example
of this ghost toward gray phenomenon occurredin March of nineteen ninety six in a
suburb ten kilometers outside the small townof Bindura, Zimbabwe. The witness in

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this case was a seventeen year oldstudent. Like most teenagers, this witness
had adopted a strange sleep schedule wherehe would go to bed around eight pm
and wake up four or five hourslater to do his class work in the
early hours of the morning. Thisevening was on such occasion, the witness
had gotten up at around one amto begin his work when he heard something

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that distracted him. It was thiscontinuous clicking sound that was coming from outside
the house on the street. Itsounded vaguely electronic and as if it was
getting closer. The witness, Lloyd, was home alone that evening, and
his mother had been staying with hisadult sister. The noise frightened him,

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and he spent a while trying todecide what to do about the sound.
Eventually, he summoned discourage to openthe front door and see what was making
the noise. He stepped outside andsaw nothing. The sound now had faded.
He walked around the yard for amoment and began to hear the sound
faintly again. It sounded like itwas coming from the street where there was

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a women's training center. It soundedas if it was coming from inside the
complex. He went back into thehouse and shut off the lights, but
soon the sound grew louder again.This time, he was determined to see
its source, so he snuck outthe front door and crouched behind a hedge
in his lawn. From this position, he saw something very strange. Here

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is what he described quote. Icould see this thing about two meters away
from me. I nearly died ofshock. I had never seen such a
thing. I wish I had notseen it. Even now. That night
still makes me feel timid if Ithink of all that happened. I saw
completely white, short, fast moving, mysterious things. It was about one

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point five meters or four point ninefeet tall. When I first took a
glance at the thing, I nearlycollapsed because I had never seen such a
person with such a head. Thehead was like a rugby ball or an
egg. I managed to see onlythe back part of the object. It
had a satchel on its back,an aeriel antenna, and a small red
light quote. Lloyd even included asmall annotated drawing of what he saw,

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depicting some kind of radio fanny pathon the back of a completely white,
gnome shaped creature. The creature alsoleft strange circular footprints in the ground.
Its print had five smaller circles inside. Investigators were able to see these for
themselves. They were also able totrack down a second witness to the event
when they asked a local security companyif they could talk to the guard that

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had been stationed at the women's centerif they had seen anything weird. The
head of the company responded with,Oh, that's the guard that saw the
ghost. This guard had been sofrightened by the experience that she had to
quit the company as she could nolonger work at night. On the evening
mentioned, the guard had heard theclicking sound for around twenty minutes that it

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would die off and grow louder.She went to investigate when she saw the
same small creature walking slowly and unpleasantly, and the guard was terrified. She
described it in the same way asLloyd did, even including the antenna.
She watched a little longer as itappeared to shift from a white color to
a rainbow of color. This convincedher that what she was looking at was

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a ghost, and she fled infear. The history of witchcraft is deeply
fascinating. A large part of thatis because witchcraft has been viewed in every
lens throughout history, from benevolent tomalicious and Page Woolston, heume of Paranormality

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Magazine, should know she's done alot of study on witchcraft and has a
lot of knowledge about the discovery ofwitch bottles. The belief in sorcery and
its powers were important to the peopleof the ancient East and ancient Egypt.
Because of this, defensive spells becamefairly popular to those wishing to protect themselves

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and their families in times of crisis. A great example of this would be
the use of semi circular pieces ofcarved ivory used by midwives and healers,
carved into a kind of wand thesewere depictions of dangerous creatures fighting off demons.
These objects were used to ward offevil or the threat of outside terrors

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while a mother was pregnant or givingbirth. Superstitions like that in uncertain times
can be a source of comfort.Utilizing spells as a type of protection against
harm is referred to today as apotropaicmagic. Just like our ancestors had thousands
of years ago, today we haveour own set of superstitions. The author

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of this piece is a strong believerin the idea that knocking on wood three
times will keep bad luck away,caused by her hubris alimancy, which is
a form of divination wherein you throwsalt into the air to read patterns,
led to the popular belief that spillingsalt is bad luck, or that throwing
salt over your left shoulder is goodluck. In the sixteen hundreds, defensive

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which became a popular ritual for peoplewanting to defend their homes and loved ones
from harmful intentions. One of theeasier ways to do that was to create
a witch bottle. Essentially, witchbottles served as a counteractive spell. Anyone
could have a witch prepare one forthem, and they were generally thought to
bring the residents of a home along and healthy life. Whatever diabolical wish

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and unpleasant neighbor or stranger would castupon you or your home would end up
only bouncing back to them. Despiteeras of witch hunts being a common time
for the creation of witch bottles,the use of these spells can also be
placed in times of turmoil, wars, plagues, droughts, or an unsuccessful
year of crops caused believers in darkwitchcraft to prepare for the worst and get

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to work on creating a witch bottle. Originally, witch bottles consisted of salt
glazed stoneware that today are referred toas bartman jugs or graybeards. This was
because they were usually embossed with thefigure of a bearded man. Centuries later,
they would consist of small and clearor colored glass bottles. According to

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what archaeologists have been able to findand test, which bottles usually included biological
samples such as human urine, hair, fingernail, clippings or even menstrual blood.
This would be combined with sharp objectslike rusty nails, thorns, pins,
broken glass, or even shards ofbone. In some versions, rosemary

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and red wine would also be addedin. After being secured shut, preferably
as tight as possible, it wasthen hidden in one of these several places,
with owners going to an incredible amountof effort to hide the bottles.
Chimneys or fire pits were popular areas, but they were also placed in the
framework of buildings or at the furthestends of a property to help broaden their

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powers. The contents would then worktheir magic on any evil spirits that would
enter a home. The human clippingsor liquids would trick and attract the spirits
to enter the bottle, and thesharper objects would impale and trap them.
Sometimes the bottle wasn't hidden, butrather heated until it exploded. This was
believed to have caused the ill wishera slow and painful death unless the bottle

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was uncorked. The first recorded descriptionof a witch bottle being used was in
Suffolk, England, in sixteen eightyone. Joseph Glanville's Ascetisismus Triumphatus, or
Evidence concerning Witches and Apparitions, wasone of a handful of books that would
later serve as a guide for thosewishing to persecute witches in the Salem Trials.

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The book described an event wherein atraveling man called on the home of
a couple, only to find thatthe wife was ill and slowly getting worse.
The traveling man that advised the husbandto create a witch bottle and to
put it near a fire so thatit would explode. After the bottle exploded,
the wife can continued to feel ill, and so the traveling man again
advised the husband to make a witchbottle, but that time to bury it

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deep underground so that the spirits couldn'tescape. Not long after that, the
wife began to regain her health,and one day from the outskirts of town,
came across a woman crying out thatthey had killed her husband. When
asked what she meant, she toldthem that her husband, a man that
lived at the edge of town,was a wizard. On his deathbed,
he admitted that he had bewitched thisman's wife, and that this counter practice

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prescribed by the old man, whichsaved the man's wife from languishment was the
death of that wizard that had bewitchedher. In twenty nineteen, the demolition
of a pub and inn in Watford, England led contractors to the interesting find
of a glass bottle full of mysteriousobjects stuffed into the chimney of the building.
Eerily, the bottle was not onlyfilled with fish hooks, pieces of

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broken glass, and a mysterious liquid, but also with a few human teeth.
The house was later linked to thestory of Angeline Tubbs, a woman
that in the seventeen hundreds was nicknamedthe Witch of Saratoga. She emigrated from
England to New York at age fifteento follow a soldier fighting in the Revolutionary
War. He promptly abandoned her whenthe British were defeated, she was left

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homeless to wander the streets. Accordingto her story, she ended up walking
fifteen miles to Saratoga Springs, NewYork, where she continued to live and
make a living telling fortunes, surroundedby a brood of cats. The discovery
of that particular witch bottle was notan isolated incident. Over one hundred bottles
just like it have been discovered inEngland, where the superstition primarily existed.

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In England, a more well knownwitch bottle was featured on the popular show
Antique's Road Show in twenty sixteen.A bottle was found in a man's home
in Trellisic, Cornwall, who afterwardtook it to the show in hopes of
gaining a little more knowledge as tothe meaning behind the mysterious object. Glass
specialist Andy McConnell ended up tasting asmall amount of the contents and believed it

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to be wine, noting as wellthat it also tasted like rusty nails.
About three years later, the contentsof the bottle were revealed to be human
urine, a very small amount ofalcohol, some brass pins from the eighteen
forties, and a single strand ofhair. Witch bottles haven't just been found
in England. Less than a dozenwitch bottles have been found in the United

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States, but they have still lefttheir mark in the history books. Archaeologists
even believe that a jade blue bottleplucked from an area that served as a
Civil War battleground was just such aprotective talisman, despite the Civil War occurring
one hundred and seventy years after thefamous Salem Trials, It's believed that witch
bottles were still being created to wardoff bad intentions. The history of witchcraft

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is, whether you like it ornot, something that has had a deep
impact on how people view the world. Something I would like to point out
is that witch bottles weren't just acounteractive measure against malevolent witches. They were
also created by witches as protection againstevery sort of misfortune or villainy someone else
could wish upon you. Taking thatinto account makes you wonder whether we,

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as a modern society or taking enoughprecautions to ward ourselves against malice. Even
if the magic of Yesteryear is alljust a bunch of hocus focus, would
it be worth it just to havepeace of mind and troubling times? All
I know for a fact is thatthe next time I move, I'll be
sure to keep an eye out fora hiding spot to slip a witch bottle
into. Want more Paranormality subscribe toParanormality Magazine and each month get it delivered

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digitally or via mail in our printversion. Paranormality Magazine is a collaborative endeavor
featuring works from people like you whohave a passion for all things mysterious and
unexplained. Our goal is the pursuitof knowledge, gathering captivating stories from our
own team of writers, researchers,and investigators, as well as from writers

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such as yourself. Each monthly issuealso includes a list of paranormal, horror,
UFO and cryptozoology events around the country, incredible paranormal themed artwork, articles
and writing sent in from our readers, suggested books and podcasts to consume,
and more. Visit paranormalitymag dot comand subscribe today for as little as three

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ninety nine a month. That's paranormalitymagdot com. Paranormalitymag dot com. Buried
beneath the surface of the southern endof Chicago's sprawling Lincoln Park are the remains

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of one of the city's best keptsecrets, City Cemetery. Lincoln Park is
Chicago's largest public park, attracting millionsof visitors every year from around the world
to its zoo museums, conservatory,beaches, harbors, lakefront trails, sports
facilities, and more. Many peoplewho traverse the southern end of the park,

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even those who call Lincoln Park andGold Coast Neighborhood's home, are not
aware that some twelve thousand former residentsstill lie in eternal repose just below their
feet. In eighteen thirty seven,the state of Illinois dedicated a large plot
of land to bury Chicago's dead outsideof what were then the city limits.

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This area spanned from approximately what istoday North Avenue north to Webster Avenue.
During the eighteen forties and eighteen fifties, as many as thirty five thousand people
were interred at what came to becalled City Cemetery, Chicago's only public graveyard
at the time. The city grewquickly around the cemetery, and the cemetery

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itself fell quickly into disrepair. Ineighteen forty seven, the unburied land north
of the cemetery was designated Cemetery Park, and in eighteen sixty eight Lincoln Park
Zoo was founded. Therefore, residentsfound themselves living and recreating an uncomfortable proximity
to the deceased. Concerns grew thatbacteria from the decomposing dead, many of

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whom had succumbed to the city wideoutbreaks of cholera and Spanish flu, could
contaminate the city's water supply. Asthe cemetery was located so close to Lake
Michigan, and the bodies were buriedbelow the water table. Many residents also
found the prospect of living so closeto the dead rather grim. The last
lots at City Cemetery were sold ineighteen fifty nine, and the last burials

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took place around eighteen sixty six.After President Lincoln's assassination in eighteen sixty five,
the area that was the cemetery andCemetery Park was renamed Lincoln Park in
his honour, and in eighteen sixtynine the Lincoln Park Commissioners assumed responsibility for
the cemetery grounds. Between the lateeighteen sixties and eighteen eighties, the city

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undertook the immense project of moving allthe bodies and grave markers from City Cemetery
to outlying cemeteries. At the time, these rural cemeteries included rose Hill,
which opened in eighteen fifty nine,and Graceland and Cavalry, which both opened
in eighteen sixty. The city wassuccessful in moving most of the grave markers,

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with only one monument remaining in placetoday. The Couch Tomb was built
in eighteen fifty eight to house theremains of wealthy Chicago hotel owner Ira Houch
and his family and sits today onthe grounds of the Chicago History Museum.
Historians speculate that the Couch mausoleum wasallowed to remain for several reasons. For
one, the Couch family had tremendouswealth and influence. The tomb was the

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last and most expensive mausoleum built incity cemetery, and the city was more
than likely willing to let it standas a memorial to these cemetery's existence.
Although sometimes mistaken for an old shedby passers by on West LaSalle Drive,
the mausoleum is possibly the oldest remainingstructure in the Great Chicago Fire Zone,

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and is shrouded in its own mythsand legends. There have long been doubts
about whether any once even buried inside, as some records indicate the Couch family
were interred at Rose Hill Cemetery,and a worker who entered the tomb sometime
in the early twentieth century claimed tohave seen no evidence of any burials within.

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However, the rather plain looking aboveground structure is merely a ruse for
more complex subterranean chamber, which mayexplain where the bodies are and why the
mausoleum wasn't so easily dismantled. Alongwith the rest, the city was not
quite as successful in moving all ofcity Cemetery's bodies. The cemetery's primary researcher

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and advocate, Pamelabanos, has estimatedthat as many as twelve thousand people are
still buried beneath Lincoln Park. Manyof the cemetery's grave markers were destroyed during
the Great Chicago Fire in eighteen seventyone, when the fire swept through the
cemetery and surrounding areas, famously forcingsome fleeing residents to hide in open graves
to escape the flames. The fire, along with poor record keeping, lack

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of manpower, and outright scandal,were all significant factors which contributed to the
failure of the city to disinter andreinter elsewhere all of the bodies. Additionally,
there was a large Potter's Field wheremany of the cities poor were laid
to rest in a mass unmarked grave, as well as some four thousand Confederate

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prisoners of war who had been imprisonedand died at Camp Douglas on Chicago's near
south Side during the Civil War.The Potter's Field, still containing many of
the remains of the Confederate soldiers islocated below what are now Lincoln Park's baseball
fields. I would be remiss notto mention Suicide Bridge in conjunction with Lincoln

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Park's dark history. In eighteen ninetyfour, a high pedestrian bridge was built
over the lagoon that runs parallel toLake Shore Drive. This bridge came to
be known as Suicide Bridge, soinfamously that it was even designated as such
on postcards of the time. Untilit was permanently closed in nineteen nineteen,
as many as one hundred people diedby suicide there, typically by jumping or

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hanging themselves from the bridge. Thebridge attracted morbidly curious spectators from around the
city who would visit in hopes ofwitnessing a death. Famously, in eighteen
ninety nine, an Ostrich escaped fromthe Lincoln Park Zoo and umped off the
bridge, surviving and making national headlinesin the New York Times. As early

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as the eighteen eighties, ghost storiesbegan circulating about the park and its deceased
inhabitants, including regular sightings of spectralfigures in Victorian era clothing wandering through the
park. Police officers on their nightlypatrols in the late nineteenth century reported playground
swings, swinging on their own whenthere was no wind or even a breeze.

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There were even reports of a policeshootout or two with a mysterious dark
bandit clad in a Mexican style ponchoand cowboy hat, who would disappear into
thin air before he could be apprehended. The couch tomb was said to be
guarded by a black dog with glowingred eyes reminiscent of those described in English

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folklore. Teens looking for thrills wouldstand in front of the tomb at midnight
and chant three times the graves belongedto the dead, not the living,
in hopes of witnessing the door tothe tomb fly open and a tall male
apparition clad all in white emerge fromits depths. Many of these stories continue
to circulate today, fueled by alove of Chicago legends and lore and the

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ongoing discovery of coffins, bodies,and body parts throughout the park. In
nineteen sixty two, a skeleton andcoffin were unearthed during the construction of the
barn at Lincoln Park Zoo. Bothskeleton and coffin were reburied and remained beneath
the barn today. In nineteen ninetyeight, eighty one bodies and parts of
bodies, along with a cast ironfisk metallic burial case, were excavated during

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the construction of the Chicago History Museum'sparking lot. These remains became property of
the State of Illinois under the HumanSkeleton Remains Protection Act, and many are
now part of the collection at theIllinois State Museum. As recent as twenty
thirteen, humid remains were discovered duringconstruction on a home built over an area
of the cemetery that is now partof the Gold Coast neighborhood. More recently,

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sightings and mainstream news coverage of theChicago Mothman have drawn hopeful spectators to
the area in hopes of catching aglimpse of the creature or creatures which have
been spotted along Lake Michigan for decades. While not directly related to city cemetery,
this and the proximity of the hauntedSaint Valentine's Day massacre site at twenty

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one twenty two North Clark make LincolnPark a rich and rewarding location for paranormal
phenomena of all kinds. The LincolnPark Zoo now also offers ghost tours of
its own, giving visitors a glimpseof its haunted history. One of the
Lincoln Park Zoo's most beloved ghost storiesis that of the woman in Black,
who haunts the women's bathroom beneath theLionhouse. She's often spotted in the bathroom's

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expansive mirrors, standing directly behind herhapless observer. In recent years, one
terrified male security guard on his nightlypatrol was approached by the ghost and told,
in no un certain terms, youdon't belong here. Some security guards
will not enter the bathroom alone afterhours when conducting their nightly rounds. Undoubtedly,

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Lincoln Park and the inhabitants of CityCemetery have many stories left to tell.
If only they could speak to us, the woman in Black notwithstanding,
and tell us more of their tales. Or perhaps if on a clear night,
with the moon hanging low over thelake, we could pay a visit
to the park and our respects toits dead and just listen. Thanks for

(27:45):
listening to Paranormality Magazine. Get moreinformation about the magazine and subscribe to our
monthly publication at paranormalitymag dot com.That's paranormalitymag dot com, or click the
link in the show description and ifyou're a researcher or investigator, send us
your stories. We might feature youat our next issue. If you have

(28:08):
a paranormal podcast, you can addit to our website so our readers can
find your show and artists. Ifyou'd like your work to be featured in
our magazine or on our back cover, contact us again. Our website is
paranormalitymag dot com. I'm Darren Marler, and I'll have more paranormal for you

(28:29):
next time from Paranormality Magazine

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