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This was sent in by a
viewer. We cannot be sure that every fact
in this article is true, but it is pretty
close. If you haven't seen the movie,
please do. It's one of our favorites.
The Carla Moran Story
“The Entity”
Dr. Kerry Gaynor and Dr.
Barry Taff were the first to be approached
by Carla Moran to investigate the
paranormal phenomenon at her house, later
to be known by the movie "The Entity." In
interviews done by Omni Magazine, Fate -
1996, and also in the movie documentary
Sightings - "Ghost's", Dr. Gaynor explains
in his own words how it all happened and
came to be.
It was 1974 when Gaynor began to
investigate the Culver City, California,
haunting. "At the time I had a colleague
named Barry Taff," said Gaynor. 'We were
working under the auspices of Dr. Thelma
Moss, but Barry and I did most of the
research on this case." Gaynor notes that
Moss was a prominent UCLA parapsychologist
who is now retired. Gaynor and Taff made
an appointment with the woman from the
bookstore to discuss her case. Gaynor said
the first time they visited the woman they
conducted a two-hour interview. But Gaynor
knew that she was holding something back.
I kept pushing her," said Gaynor. "Finally
she said that a ghost had raped and beat
her. 'We laughed when we left her home,
and I thought she was probably off her
rocker. But she called me back a few days
later and said that several people
visiting her had seen an apparition, And
this is what we're always looking for
independent verification of the phenomena.
"I'm a scientist and that's how I approach
it. I don't take their stories at face
value. Their story is the beginning and I
don't discount it, but I'm there to
experience the phenomena and document it."
The Entity case was to become one of the
most famous in paranormal research
history. It was so well-documented, in
fact, that a movie was made about it. The
1983 film The Entity starred Barbara
Hershey and was loosely based on the
Culver City haunting. Gaynor and Taff
served as technical advisors on the film.
The second time Gaynor and Taff visited
the Entity house, things began to happen.
Although they never saw the apparition,
they witnessed visual phenomena. "We were
seeing little pops of light," said Gaynor.
"They would happen quickly. We would try
to shoot the camera, but they were
happening too quickly and we just couldn't
catch them. We were shooting with a
Polaroid and with a 35mm camera."
I was standing in the kitchen talking to
the woman's 16year-old son when a lower
cabinet door slammed open and a pan came
flying out," said Gaynor. It flew out and
landed about three or four feet from the
cabinet. I immediately tore the cabinet
apart to see if there were any tricks, or
if anyone was hiding in the cabinets. But
there was nothing. And that's when
everything started. "The lady screamed,
'It's in the bedroom. We ran in there and
that's when all the lights started
happening. That's when we got the Polaroid
shots. "The lady shouted, 'The ghost is in
the comer'. We snapped the picture, but it
was bleached out and not very interesting.
"She shouted again, 'It's in the corner.'
And again the photo was bleached. At this
point, I thought the camera wasn't
working. So I took two control pictures. I
asked her if the ghost was gone. She said
yes. The picture came out perfectly. A few
seconds later I took another one. Perfect
picture. "But then we got the most
interesting Polaroid. The woman said, 'It
is right in front of my face.' Those were
her exact words. So we took a shot. And in
the photo you can see the curtains and the
buttons on her dress, but her whole face
is obliterated. We took a second picture
when she once again said, 'It's right in
front of my face.' Amazingly, her face was
obliterated again, but you could see
details in the rest of the picture.
"At this point I wanted another control
picture. So I asked if the ghost was gone.
When she said it was gone, the picture I
took was perfect". "On the third night we
decided to start with a séance in the
bedroom," said Gaynor. The walls of the
bedroom, however, were covered with
chipped and uneven paint. Some of Gaynor's
colleagues had commented that the uneven
paint created images in his photographs.
So the researchers covered the walls
entirely with black poster board, so that
nobody could make that claim again. They
also numbered the black paper boards with
a magnetic orientation and a number.
"Then the lights appeared," said Gaynor. 9
would call out, 'All right, blink three
times on board number two for yes. Blink
twice on board number five for no.' It
would blink on the exact board that I
asked it to. At that point the level of
excitement really increased, because it
seemed like we were communicating with
something intelligent.
"But I was very concerned that somebody
was faking it by projecting light onto the
wall. So I said to it, 'If you're really
here, come off the wall. 'I didn't think
anything would happen. But then the light
pulled right out of the wall and floated
into the middle of the room. It started
spinning and twisting and expanding in
different directions simultaneously. I had
nine professional photographers shooting
every angle of that room. It was
extraordinary because it was floating in
the middle of the room and the light was
dimensional. It is very difficult to fake
something like that. If you project light,
you have to project it onto a flat
surface. You can't project light into
empty space unless you have some kind of
very sophisticated laser system."
Gaynor said this was not likely a
sophisticated hoax because this house had
twice been condemned by the city, and the
investigators had sealed off the entire
bedroom. Nobody could go in or out during
the photo session. "What we saw was not
what ended up in the photograph," said
Gaynor. "We were seeing balls of light,
but the photo shows arcs of light over the
woman's head". Taff, Gaynor's colleague at
the time and now a Los Angeles
parapsychologist and writer, confirms
witnessing this phenomena at the Entity
house. Taff described the lights as three,
dimensional greenish-yellow, to-white
balls of light. "We never saw arcs of
light. We saw balls of light," said Taff.
"However, the camera captured arcs.'; The
team captured a spectacular 35mm photo
showing reverse arcs of light over the
woman's head. This photo was published in
Popular Photography magazine. "Popular
Photography has never published a ghost
photograph before or since," said Gaynor.
"But they published this one." This
photograph was also broadcast on the
television show Sightings in 1992.
Gaynor said he was not able to rid the
woman of the assaulting ghost. "I'm not an
exorcist," said Gaynor. I document the
phenomena. I research the phenomena, and I
do a lot of counseling with these people."
The woman described the attacking entity
as a solid male figure that she did not
recognize. So how did the woman know it
was a ghost? "Because after the ghost
assaulted her," said Gaynor, "it faded
away." "There were actually three
apparitions according to her account,"
Gaynor stated. "Two would hold the woman
down and the third would rape, her. It was
horrible. She would call me in the middle
of the night screaming, and I would go
over there and she would be all beaten up.
She had black and blue marks all over her
body." But Gaynor never witnessed the
attacks nor saw the apparitions in solid
form. Gaynor said, however, that he and
several of his colleagues did witness the
formation of a full-figured apparition.
'We saw the head take shape and then the
shoulders. The light extended down to the
ground until it became a full humanoid
figure of greenish-white light. Then it
just vanished, almost as if somebody
pulled the plug. It didn't fade away. It
just vanished. Everybody was completely in
awe and silent as we watched this happen."
Taff adds, "After the apparition
disappeared, two young men assisting our
investigation passed out and had to be
carried from the room." "The question, of
course is, Were the attacks done by a
person, or were they done by a ghost?"
said Gaynor. "And there is no way to
distinguish between the two. The
apparition didn't rape anyone else except
the woman. These attacks were very
personal. "The attacks only happened very
late at night. One night the woman's
16-year-old son heard his mother
screaming. He ran into her bedroom and saw
his mother being thrown around on the bed.
When the son reached over to help her,
something hit him on the head and threw
him across the room. He broke his arm."
Gaynor noted an unusual coincidence. When
the movie The Entity was being filmed, the
actor playing the role of the son broke
the same arm while filming this particular
scene.
The woman was attacked about 15 times
during the ten-week investigation. "But
she got stronger," said Gaynor. "And she
was able to realise that she wasn't crazy
and that there really was something going
on. She got stronger, and in my opinion,
she outlasted it." The woman moved five
times, but the attacking entity followed
her. She eventually moved further away.
"As she moved," Gaynor said, "the
phenomena diminished, and after about two
years the attacks stopped altogether,"
Gaynor said he cannot prove ghosts exist.
But what is proof? "A ghost in a jar,"
said Gaynor, "or at least that's what the
scientific community would want." Gaynor
said he doesn't feel any need to convince
the world to believe in ghosts. I want the
public to know about it, but I don't have
an agenda. I'm not interested in standing
on a pulpit and saying, 'You must believe
in ghosts.' Something is going on that
demands our attention. I'm much more
interested in figuring it out." |