#seances

Haunted Lives: True Ghost Stories - “Ghosts R Us” - May 15th, 1991

“When one thinks of ghosts, one imagines ruined castles or a lonely graveyard in the dead of night. But recently, psychic Sylvia Browne investigated a series of hauntings in a most unlikely location: an ordinary toy store in Sunnyvale, California…” narrates Leonard Nimoy.

Haunted Lives is a series of three TV specials: one in 1991, one in 1992, then a final one in 1995. The first two aired on CBS, and the last one, under the name Real Ghosts on UPN; oddly, after that one aired the first two were retrospectively made sequels, retitled Real Ghosts II and Real Ghosts III.

Not only is this one narrated by Leonard Nimoy, but it was directed by Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Poltergeist director Tobe Hooper.

Noted terrible human being Sylvia Browne says this haunting is tragic. Sad. Not scary or violent.

In 1881, John "Yonny" Johnson (or is it Jan "Johnny" Johnson? Yohan Johnson??? Browne is inconsistent on the matter) was in love with Elizabeth, daughter of the owner of a local ranch. When she rejected his advances, because he was a unstable man who had never spoken to her, he was forced to angrily chop wood, until he accidentally sliced his own leg and died alone. Men are always doing this

1982. A Toys R Us now stands on the site of the ranch. A woman working at the store feels something moving her hair. She tells a manager, who is fielding complaints from a customer who says the water in the restroom turned on by itself; the manager says they'll go inside the storeroom to see the rational explanation...

SURPRISE! ALL THE TOYS ARE JUMPING AROUND, FRISBEES ARE FLYING, AN E-Z-BAKE OVEN IS ON THE FRITZ

The manager tells the crew: the storeroom is off limits. One woman says - “rumor is there’s ghosts in the storeroom. Welcome to Ghosts R Us, can we haunt you?”

Meanwhile, the ghost changes the price of a baseball bat to $900 dollars. Pan down to the stunned child holding $20.

I can get why the ghost would harass women in death as well as life, but why the ghost of a simple backwoods man who only wanted love and also to solve all his problems with axe violence would be stacking skateboards I'm not so clear on

Blood appears and disappears

Something something children's hospital hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahhaahhahaha what is air xD;;

The manager is chatting with someone who's read about the history of the ranch and OH GOD OH FUCK A FRISBEE. THE GHOST IS THROWING FRISBWAIT NO THEY SUE OVER THAT I MEAN THE GHOST IS THROWING THE ULTIMATE DISC (?)

A seance is convened by Sylvia Browne in the bike aisle. She says Johnson is stuck in a "time warp" and must be convinced he's dead, Elizabeth's dead, and he needs to move towards the light. A photo is taken...

Supposedly the ghost is the guy leaning in the back

So quick story: this photo spread around the early internet along with the story of the Toys R Us haunting a lot but they often didn't explain who the ghost was meant to be? The game of telephone degraded the story enough to lose that detail. So divorced from context people had no idea what they were meant to be looking at. It just looks like some guy

The seance is finished. Johnson has moved on. But when closing up for the night, they hear the doors rattling from the inside, and the manager who JUST SAW THE GHOST BE SUMMONED goes inside ALONE, past the aisle of race car beds, to find...

Gasp!

In 1991, they convene a reunion of present and former workers at the Sunnyvale Toys R Us to describe their experiences...

Suzanna heard her name called and felt her hair being caressed.

"Putt" saw a teddy bear fall in an arc and asked, "did it frighten you?" Her coworker responded, "it sure did Putt".

James heard too many footsteps; when he asked his employees to go upstairs and check they didn't

Cheryl heard the door open and the water turn on in the restroom...but nobody else was there!

Sylvia Browne says: “Someday of course he will leave. Maybe Beth will come for him, some loving entity will grab him, he’ll go on to the white light but until that time, he still walks up and down these halls looking for his lost love."

Okay but she rejected him. Why would she come back from him. The ultimate in inceldom: dying in a furious axe incident and then haunting a Toys R Us bc a woman said no to you. How do restraining orders work beyond the veil?

The ranch burnt down in 1961. The Sunnyvale Toys R Us opened in 1970, closed in 2018, and today is a REI store - which has had, as far as anyone knows, no reported ghost stories. In its time the Toys R Us haunting was profiled repeatedly: on a show called That's Incredible, on another show in the mid-80s with Lloyd Auerbach, and finally this one.

The story Sylvia Browne told was all bullshit, obviously. Elizabeth died prior to 1881, there's no evidence of a Johnson who killed himself by accidental axe strike, and Elizabeth didn't even go by "Beth". Sylvia Browne, a liar? Perish the thought!

PATIENCE WORTH

Famous case of automatic writing. Patience Worth was an alleged spirit who manifested in 1913 through a St Louis housewife called Pearl Curran.

On 8 July 1913, during an Ouija board session, the pointer spelled out a message: 'Many moons ago I lived. Again I come. Patience Worth is my name.'

In the séances that followed Patience Worth spoke in archaic dialogue and revealed herself to be an English woman, born in Dorset in 1649. A spinster, she emigrated to the American colonies late in life and was killed in an Indian massacre. Worth then began to dictate a total of a million words over the next five years. Her works, which included poems, plays and six novels, were published and enjoyed great success. Her first novel, The Sorry Tale, a 300,000-word epic about the life of Christ took two years to dictate via the Ouija board.

For seven years Curran used the Ouija board and after that she simply recited the words as if they were dictated to her in automatic speech. In 1922, when Curran became pregnant at the age of 39, the relationship between Curran and Worth began to decline, occurring less and less frequently. Curran died in 1937 when public interest in her had declined.

There is considerable debate among researchers as to the real identity of Patience Worth. The novels and writings have been investigated and found to be accurate in historical detail and well constructed, although doubt has been cast over the authenticity of the English used. Some say that even though Curran was uneducated she merely channelled material from the depths of her subconscious. Others think that Worth was indeed a discarnate entity who, centuries after her death, found a way to express her literary talent.

At long last we're going to start talking about Spiritualism! Just in time for Women's History Month! Hear how two young sisters in a haunted house sparked a religious movement that had far reaching repercussions. From a farmhouse in upstate New York, to shaping world events and politics, Spiritualism is a big topic. And it all starts with the Fox Sisters...

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Since the Reanimator Mysteries sit firmly on the morbid side of research, I have acquired and read a lot of nonfiction books that are great for the Halloween season, so I thought I would share them with you in case you need a hit of spookiness before October ends or year ’round. All links below are affiliate links, so I get a tiny kickback if you buy anything with them. Eaters of the Dead by…