SPIRIT? GHOST? POLTERGEIST? GEF THE TALKING MONGOOSE BAFFLES RESEARCHERS

By Sean Casteel

Gef The Mongoose

If there were such a thing as a top ten list of unexplainable phenomena throughout history, Gef would rank right at the top.

Fortean researchers, parapsychologists and skeptics alike would have to admit that they have never encountered such a bizarre but apparently well-documented case that is so completely devoid of hysteria in the timeless annals of the unexplained.

If Gef the talking mongoose is what it is claimed he is, he should certainly turn the heads of the scientific community, who at first glance would probably consider this to be a case of mass hysteria.

There is – as we shall see – every reason to recognize this talking animal as the Eighth Wonder Of The World, a title for which he is wholly deserving, for it is said that Gef, an otherwise unassuming small rodent, could:

** Sing songs.

** Mimic the sounds of other animals.

** Read minds.

** Move objects through the air although he was nowhere near them.

** Chat with visitors from around the world, sometimes using vulgar language.

** Hide himself from curious eyes and become invisible whenever he wanted to.

Whatever the powers that lurk behind the curtain of paranormal mystery truly are, they usually manifest in dark and frightening ways. They are not shy or apologetic about inducing extreme levels of terror in the hapless percipients who encounter them.

But in the case of Gef, the Talking Mongoose, it seems as though the spirits are having a bit of childlike fun, indulging in a whimsical playfulness where no one is really injured or frightened – just perplexed and made curious by a creature who crossed over from the other side and took up residence in the home of a farming family living on the Isle of Man, located in the Irish Sea between Great Britain and Ireland.

Publisher Timothy Green Beckley has done his readers a favor by resurrecting an out-of-print book about Gef that is not only extremely rare but very costly. The book is called “The Haunting of Cashen’s Gap: A Modern ‘Miracle,’” by Harry Price and R.S. Lambert, and was first published in 1936. Original copies sell for up to $1000 nowadays, but Beckley can provide not only the original text but the updated research of present-day writers like Tim R. Swartz and Hercules Invictus for the price of an everyday paperback.

“James Irving and his family found themselves in the crosshairs of a series of increasingly strange events,” Swartz writes, “that would dominate their lives for years to come. James ‘Jim’ Irving, an educated man, had previously been a traveling piano salesman, and although the farm was his retirement project, it was proving insufficient to support his wife, Margaret, and their young daughter, Voirrey. The farm was called Doarlish Cashen – Manx Gaelic for ‘Cashen’s Gap.’ There were no neighbors nearby nor was there a telephone or electricity.”

Beckley’s updated reprint is called, simply enough, “Gef The Talking Mongoose,” and opens with a chapter by longtime paranormal researcher Tim R. Swartz. Swartz provides an excellent overview of the Gef saga and equips the reader with the basic facts as a precursor to the more detailed treatment by Price and Lambert.

GEF INTRODUCES HIMSELF

Gef made his first appearance on September 13, 1931.

Voirrey and James Irving stand on the front porch of Cashen’s Gap.

“According to Jim Irving,” Swartz writes, “he first saw a small, weasel-like animal in his farmyard that could bark like a dog and meow like a cat. Even more amazing, when Irving made other barnyard animal noises, the little animal would repeat the sounds back immediately. It wasn’t long before the Irvings became aware that this creature had found its way into their home, announcing its presence with random scratches, rustling and general activity between the walls and the matchwood paneling.”

Thinking the sounds were caused by rats or other pests, the family set traps but caught nothing. Jim made a last-ditch attempt by growling like a dog at the invasive vermin, only to hear something growl right back. He then realized it was the animal he’d seen outside.

“Whatever it was,” Swartz recounted, “it proved to be a talented mimic. It would repeat Irving’s imitations of various animals and birds, and soon he had only to name an animal and it would promptly respond with the appropriate sounds. At other times it made a gurgling sound like a baby that soon changed into actual words.”

Voirrey, the family’s young child, was fascinated by the new guest and would ask the creature to repeat nursery rhymes, which it would do in a clear, high-pitched voice. The family called the interloper “Jack,” but he soon told his hosts he preferred to be known as “Gef,” spelled G-E-F. He claimed to have been born in Delhi, India, in 1852, and he was brought to the island twenty years earlier when a farmer had imported mongooses to the area hoping to curb the local rabbit population. Gef said he had always understood human speech, but he learned to speak himself more recently, having been taught by Jim.

As rumors of the strange creature spread throughout the Isle of Man, it was often claimed that Voirrey was fooling everyone by “throwing her voice,” an explanation that Swartz skillfully debunks.

“This is not to say that Voirrey didn’t at times imitate Gef’s voice,” Swartz admits. “In practically every poltergeist case that centers on children, there are instances where the child is seen to throw something or bang on a wall if they think they are not being observed. Voirrey was probably guilty of this when Gef would become stubborn and refuse to make an appearance. But it is unlikely that Voirrey could have managed to keep such a long, drawn out hoax going for as long as the phenomenon lasted.”

Investigators speculated from the beginning that Gef was a haunting of some kind – possibly a poltergeist.

Jim Irving using a pair of knives to show the depth of a crack in the matchboard paneling from where Gef threw a packing needle at Capt. Mcdonald.

“Gef could produce knocks and raps all over the house practically simultaneously,” Swartz writes. “He was also fond of throwing things at the Irvings and their guests from cracks in the paneling. As well, Gef claimed to be able to travel all over the island and repeat various conversations that he had overheard. He also had a rich vocabulary of swear words and loved to sing songs that were unknown to his hosts. These antics are very similar to poltergeist pranks and even Jim Irving thought at times that Gef was more than just an ‘extra clever mongoose.’”

The case attracted attention from the media. News of the mystery first reached London in October 1931, when an item concerning a “man-weasel” appeared in the press. A newspaper called the Daily Sketch published a photo of the Irving cottage with the caption “The Talking Weasel Farm,” and the Daily Mail and other journals briefly reported strange events at Doarlish Cashen. The northern newspapers took a larger and more sustained interest in the affair because the talking animal was a near neighbor and naturally paid more attention than the London newspapers.

Newspapers around the world reported on the mysterious “Talking Weasel” from the Isle of Man.

Early in 1932, the Manchester Daily Dispatch sent a reporter to the Irving farm in order to investigate the mystery at its actual location. He was fortunate enough to hear Gef speak.

“The mysterious ‘man-weasel’ of Doarlish Cashen has spoken to me today,” the journalist wrote. “Investigation of the most remarkable animal story that has ever been given publicly – a story which is finding credence all over the island – leaves me in a state of considerable perplexity. Had I heard a weasel speak? I do not know, but I do know that I have heard today a voice which I should never have imagined could issue from a human throat; that the people who claim it was the voice of the strange weasel seem sane, honest and responsible folk and not likely to indulge in a difficult, long, drawn-out and unprofitable practical joke to make themselves the talk of the world; and that others had had the same experience as myself.”

Jim Irving told the reporter the story of how the animal had taken up residence in the family home but denied that the place was haunted.

“There are no spooks here,” Irving declared.

WHO OR WHAT WAS GEF?

The Haunting of Cashen’s Gap by Harry Price and R.S. Lambert

The publicity in various media outlets quickly piqued the curiosity of psychic investigators Harry Price and R.S. Lambert, who would team up to write the aforementioned paranormal classic “The Haunting of Cashen’s Gap,” based largely on their own onsite investigation of the Irvings and their mysterious houseguest.

In their introduction, the pair writes: “The following pages are an essay in the Veracious but Unaccountable. Whether looked at from the point of view of psychology, of psychical research, of anthropology or of sociology, this true story of Gef is very odd. We have been moved to set it down in as full a form as possible in order that everyone interested – including, we hope, posterity – may be in a position to form their own judgment about it.

“To believers,” they continue, “it will represent proof of a miracle; to skeptics a lesson in the laws of evidence. Some will call it nonsense from first to last; others will admit it to be at least as good as most ghost stories. Throughout we have sought to avoid mere credulity on the one hand and prejudiced skepticism on the other. There may be readers who will be disappointed that we have at the end no cut-and-dried solution of the mystery to offer, but this only suggests that the facts, as we have honestly tried to set them forth, are susceptible of various explanations.”

The authors comment that although the farm yields little or no produce and that most people would find their lifestyle nearly intolerable, the Irvings are still a “united, cheerful and healthy trio of normally intelligent persons. Nevertheless, into their lives has entered a mystery, perhaps one of the most curious and unaccountable mysteries of our times. Their solitary farm has become the scene of what is alleged to be a supernatural visitation – such a visitation as was common enough three hundred years ago, when the reality of witches and their familiars was acknowledged and feared.”

And what does Gef call himself? He cannot be relied on, the two investigators write, to tell his hosts exactly what he is. At various times he has called himself a mongoose and an “earthbound spirit.” This last description, they write, is a “purely spiritualistic term,” adding that Gef is thought to be afraid of dying, so he cannot be assumed to have made the transition to the world of the dead.

The Irving’s did not see Gef as a frightening creature but more like the family’s pet, one who could feast on biscuits, chocolate and bananas and helped them keep the stoves lit. But to others he was considered a “monstrosity,” a freak of nature, an abomination to God.

Gef himself seemed confused about his identity. He once said he was from another dimension, that he was a spirit, but took that back by intimating, “If I were a spirit, how could I kill rabbits?” When quizzed on why he was so reclusive, Gef said he was not a pleasant sight to behold. That some might be frightened and see him as a “real freak.”

Gef suddenly took to singing and speaking in strange tongues. The authors were told that “the voice is extremely high-pitched, above the human range, with a clear, sweet tone.” He began to sing more and more: songs, hymns and ballads. Some of these the Irvings knew, some were new to them. His singing became almost a nuisance.

ONE BIG HAPPY FAMILY?

Though the Gef phenomenon seemed at times to center around Voirrey, she told the authors that she had no great love for him. However, she saw more of the animal than anyone else and was the only one to see all of him. Her parents frequently pleaded for him to show himself fully but were always refused. They sometimes saw a portion of him sitting on a beam or glimpsed something flashing past a gap in the hedge, but that is all. When they asked him to come out in the open, Gef answered them by saying, “I am a freak. I have hands and I have feet, and if you saw me you’d faint. You’d be petrified, mummified, turned into stone or a pillar of salt!” 

That last remark about a pillar of salt led the researchers to speculate that Gef must have attended Sunday school somewhere. Gef also found enough amusement in his living situation to make the Irvings familiar with the sound of his laughter.

“If laughter indicates happiness,” the two researchers reasoned, “then Gef must be supremely contented in the bosom of the Irving family. He laughs all day. He possesses an extensive repertoire of laughs. To quote Jim’s description, ‘Sometimes it resembles the tittering laugh of a precocious or mischievous child; at other times I would say it was the chuckling laugh of an aged person, and another distinct type is one which I would say was satanic laughter, or the laughter of a maniac. We all have a most intense dislike to this last laughter, as it is very trying. But, fortunately, we do not get this kind very often.’”

 TRYING TO EXPRESS THE ULTIMATE TRUTH

Price and Lambert can only offer three possibilities as to ultimate reality of Gef. First, Gef exists and haunts Doarlish Cashen, substantially as the Irvings say he does. Two, that Gef is a product of hallucination and fantasy. Or three, that Gef is a product of conscious deception. Acceptance of the first conclusion rules out the other two, but the second and third conclusion are not exclusive of each other and may be entertained together or separately.

In assessing the reality of Gef, the authors are unwilling to sweep away the many trustworthy outside witnesses who heard Gef and were certain of his independent existence. They take very seriously the findings of people who also visited the farm, such as spiritualists, teachers, hikers, relations and neighbors, and are unwilling to discount their statements.

One of several photos allegedly of Gef taken by Voirrey Irving.

Given the reality of Gef, the authors speculated that had he been rather more docile and agreeable in his behavior, less elusive in his manifestations, and more pleasing in his personality, he might have become in time the center of a sort of cult. In spite of his deficiencies, he gained a circle of admirers eager to hear his latest doings, ready to pay periodic visits to his shrine, and to bring small gifts to win his good will.

“It is the stuff of which oracles are made,” Price and Lambert write, “and the foundation on which temples are built. Gef rejects spiritistic interpretations of himself, and yet will not or cannot reveal his own identity. He has no message to give out, no real miracles to work. It is certain that ‘doubters’ will abound and that the faithful themselves will be able to do little more than acclaim Gef, with all his wit, malice and tomfoolery, as A VOICE AND NOTHING MORE.”

But what a fascinating voice! Whether it came from a “clever” mongoose or a poltergeist in animal form, reading “Gef The Talking Mongoose” will more than satisfy occultists and students of the supernatural like few other works available today. This priceless reprint of 1936’s “The Haunting of Cashen’s Gap” coupled with the 21st century efforts of Beckley and his pool of writers is a must-have item for both collectors and newcomers to the subject.

Oh, and by the way, there is even an account in the book of a talking stove – yes, I said talking stove – that goes well beyond the boundaries of Gef’s abilities as an animal to speak. The universe gets stranger all the time. Where are John Keel and Charles Fort when you need them the most?

Tim R. Swartz is the author of the book “Gef The Talking Mongoose The “Eighth Wonder of the World.”

SUGGESTED READING

GEF THE TALKING MONGOOSE – THE EIGHTH WONDER OF THE WORLD

WEIRD WINGED WONDERS: THE TWILIGHT WORLD OF CRYPTID CREATURES

AMERICA’S STRANGE AND SUPERNATURAL HISTORY

YouTube Channel (400 plus interviews posted) – “Mr. UFOs Secret Files”

Sign up for Facebook group Gef The Talking Mongoose

When The Poltergeist Finds Its Voice

By Tim R. Swartz

A poltergeist distinguishes itself from traditional ghosts and hauntings. Could a poltergeist be something entirely different?

It can be terrifying enough when a poltergeist makes its appearance in a household. Rocks thrown about, strange bangs on the walls, moving furniture, items disappearing and then reappearing, this is enough to set anyone on edge. However, when a poltergeist finds its voice and starts to talk, you know that events have decidedly taken a turn for the worse.

Poltergeist activity has been recorded throughout history and is probably the most prolific of all supernatural events. One of the earliest accounts was from around 500 C.E. when St. Germain, Bishop of Auxerre, was bothered by a spirit that battered the walls of a shelter the Bishop was spending the night in with showers of rocks. Another early case was the Bingen poltergeist, which comes from the Annales Fuldenses or Annals of Fulda. This incident happened near Bingen in present-day Bavaria around 856-858 C.E. A farmer was plagued by a stone-throwing ghost who shook the walls of his house “as though the men of the place were striking it with hammers,” set crops on fire and also shouted obscenities and accusations at the farmer suggesting that he had slept with the daughter of his foremen. The poltergeist would follow the man around and fearful neighbors would refuse to allow him near their homes.

The Bishop of Mainz sent priests with holy relics who attested to hearing the poltergeist denouncing the farmer for adultery. When the priests sang hymns and sprinkled holy water, the poltergeist threw stones and cursed at them.

The Bingen poltergeist had many typical features of a poltergeist that are still repeated in modern times. The fact that this poltergeist could talk is something that has been seen in other cases, but nevertheless, it really doesn’t happen that often.

Is A Poltergeist A Ghost?

Poltergeist phenomenon is often placed in the same niche as ghosts and hauntings. The implication is that a poltergeist is a ghost, i.e. a human that has died and returned in spirit form.  There is no doubt that there are similarities between ghosts and poltergeist activity. However, a ghostly haunting often tends to have the visual element; for example, a glowing figure dressed in old fashioned clothes is seen walking down a hallway. A haunting also repeats in the same way on a regular basis, much like a recording that is played back over and over. In long-term ghostly hauntings, a ghost will usually ignore entreaties from the living and shows no sign of awareness of its surroundings.

The Demon Drummer of Tedworth, 1662

Poltergeist activity, instead, operates in a completely different fashion. A poltergeist almost never makes an “appearance” and becomes visible, but as with ghostly hauntings, there are always exceptions. A poltergeist can do things such as move heavy furniture, instantaneously teleport objects, produce explosive sounds and disgusting odors, create rain inside a building, cause spontaneous fires and other things that seem to be outside of our current understanding of physics.

A poltergeist is extremely aware of its surroundings, and will often quickly respond to suggestions by observers and other external stimuli. This shows that there is some kind of “intelligence” behind its pranks and not just some random psychokinesis (PK). This intelligence, along with an ability to communicate, will manifest in a myriad of ways. Pieces of paper with strange messages appear; writing on the walls, children’s toys will be arranged to make words, and, perhaps the most shocking, they will sometimes start to speak out loud.

When a poltergeist achieves speech, it generally starts out as animal-like growls and whispers that slowly evolve into discernible words. Most poltergeists never reach this stage of their development, but once they do, a clear “personality” emerges from what were previously just random events.

L’Antidemon de Mascon

One early case of a talking poltergeist happened in  Mâcon, France in 1612 when a Calvinist pastor named Francois Perreaud, (or Perrault), became the target of a very unsettling poltergeist. Perreaud’s poltergeist made its first appearance on September 19, 1612 when invisible hands started shaking bed curtains and tossing bed clothes onto the floor. This continued for several nights and then escalated when Perreaud and his family heard “A frightful din in the kitchen consisting of unearthly rumblings and knockings, accompanied by the sounds of plates, pots, and pans being hurled against the walls.” Perreaud rushed to the kitchen, expecting to find his kitchen destroyed, but was shocked to find that everything was normal and the kitchenware was in its place.

Title page of “L’Antidemon de Mascon” by the Calvinist pastor Francois Perreaud, detailing his experiences with a talking poltergeist.

Eventually a voice that was “very distinct and understandable, although somewhat husky” was heard in the house. It sang, “Twenty-two pennies, twenty-two pennies,” then repeated the word, “Minister” several times. Perreaud said to the voice, “Get thee behind me, Satan, the Lord commands you.”

The voice kept saying “Minister, minister,” until the exasperated Perreaud snapped, “Yes, I am indeed a minister and a servant of the living God before whose majesty you tremble.”

“I am not saying otherwise,” the voice replied.

Once the poltergeist began speaking, it would not stop. It recited the Ten Commandments, followed by the Our Father, the Apostles’ Creed, and other prayers. It also sang Psalms and recited accurate personal details about Perreaud’s family. The voice claimed that it was from the Pays de Vaud, which was at that time infamous for its witch hunts.

The voice told wild stories, made inappropriate jokes and often acted like a child and teased the maid. It was also able to expertly mimic the voices of various Mâcon residents. It also took on several different identities. At one time the voice claimed to be the valet of the original entity, who had left the house and was now in Chambery.

On November 25, the voice announced that it would no longer speak, but its antics in the form of throwing stones, tying knots in the mane and tail of Perreaud’s horse, and other typical poltergeist stunts, continued through until December when it finally disappeared forever.

Different Personalities, Different Voices

The Bell homestead. From Authenticated History of the Bell Witch, M.V. Ingram, 1894.

The Bell Witch poltergeist in 1817 was very similar to the Mâcon poltergeist due to the fact that “the witch” was extremely talkative and could imitate the voices of people from the area. The poltergeist was said to speak at a nerve-racking pitch when displeased, while at other times it sang and talked in low musical tones. In one instance, it was alleged to have repeated, verbatim, sermons administered by two preachers, occurring at separate locations, that took place simultaneously. The sermons recited by the witch were verified by people attending the churches as being identical in voice, tone, inflection, and content. The poltergeist was even known to attend church and sing along with the congregation, using the most beautiful voice anyone had ever heard.

As well, the poltergeist had the ability to change personalities in the middle of conversations with the Bells’ or their visitors. The witch had five distinct personalities, each with different voices and traits which made it easy for the family to separate the perpetrator of the moment. These voices were named “Black dog,” “Mathematics,” “Cypocryphy” and “Jerusalem.”

This ability to produce “different personalities” also shows up in other poltergeist cases, creating a belief that there are a number of different entities haunting a house.

The Bell Witch was very fond of talking about religion and philosophy for hours on end, especially with John Bell Jr. The witch had developed a respect John Bell Jr. due to his tendency to stand up to its abusive behavior. In 1828, the poltergeist reappeared to John Bell Jr. telling him, “John, I am in hopes you will not be as angry at me on this visit as you were on my last. I shall do nothing to cause you offense; I have been in the West Indies for seven years.”

Despite his misgivings, the poltergeist had long talks with him about the past, the present and the future. Years later, he told his son, Dr. Joel Thomas Bell, the details of the poltergeist’s discussions. A book was published in 1934, The Bell Witch – A Mysterious Spirit, which supposedly was met by outrage by other members of the Bell family who felt that details of “the family problem” should not have been made public.

For a more complete history of the Bell Witch poltergeist, see The Bell Witch Project by Timothy Green Beckley, published by Inner Light-Global Communications.

The Shawville Poltergeist

When a poltergeist does find its voice it seems to take great delight in spinning wild tales of its identity and origin. It may at one time say it is the ghost of someone who died years before, only to change its tune later and profess to be the devil or a demon. Like the Bell Witch, the Shawville poltergeist (also known as the Dagg poltergeist), enjoyed entertaining visitors by telling obscene stories and conversely, singing hymns in an “angelic voice.”

The Dagg home as it looks now. The Shawville poltergeist also known as the Dagg poltergeist is a historical, and well documented case in Canada.

The Shawville Poltergeist took place in the Ottawa Valley, Quebec in 1889 and centered on the farm and family of George Dagg. The incidents started with what appeared to be animal feces streaked along the farmhouse floor. At first, a young farmhand named Dean was blamed since he was known to come into the house with dirty shoes. Nevertheless, after the boy had been fired, the strange incidents continued with crockery moving, fires starting spontaneously and windows being smashed.

The Dagg family’s eleven-year-old adopted daughter, Dina-Burden McLean, was also physically attacked by the entity when it pulled her hair so hard that her braid was almost torn off. Later, when Dina’s grandmother was making up one of the bedrooms, the girl shouted, “Oh grandmother, see the big, black thing pulling off the bed clothes!” The woman could see the sheets being pulled up, but couldn’t see what was doing it. She handed Dina a whip, telling the girl to strike out at the invisible being. Dinah struck the air a few times and both the girl and her grandmother heard a sound like a pig squealing.

A few days later a piece of paper bearing the message “You gave me fifteen cuts” was found nailed to the wall.

After this incident Dina claimed that she was hearing a strange, gruff voice that followed her around saying bad words to her. Soon, the entire family and others could hear the gruff, man’s voice who identified itself “as the Devil.” Not everyone was convinced the voice was a supernatural being and blamed Dina for everything. At one point her mouth was filled with water, yet the voice could still be clearly heard by everyone in the room.

Much like the Bell witch, the Shawville poltergeist enjoyed the attention and would talk for hours. It would often give conflicting stories on what it was. Previously it said it was the devil, later, it claimed to be the spirit of an old man who had died 20 years earlier. When George asked it why it was bothering his family, it replied, “Just for fun.”

It also admitted setting small fires in the house, but again only for its amusement. “I set the fires in the daytime, when you could see them. I like fires, but I didn’t want to burn the house down.”

After several months of activity, the voice announced that it was going away. When word got out, crowds began gathering at the house to witness the event. The voice was happy to answer questions from the crowd, but now it claimed, “I am an angel from Heaven, sent by God to drive away that fellow.”

“You don’t believe that I am an angel because my voice is coarse,” it said to the crowd. “I will show you I don’t lie, but always tell the truth.” Instantly its voice took on an “incredible sweetness,” and it started singing a hymn:

“I am waiting, I am waiting, to call you dear sinner, Come to the savior, come to him now, won’t you receive Him right now, right now, Oh! List, now he is calling today, He is calling you to Jesus, move! Come to Him now, Come to Him, dear brothers and sisters, Come to Him now.”

Witness testimony agreed that the poltergeist sang with such a beautiful voice that many of the women were reduced to tears. After several hours of singing, the poltergeist said goodbye, saying it would return the next morning and show itself to Dinah and the other children.

The next morning the children breathlessly told their parents that “a beautiful man, he took little Johnny and me in his arms… he went to Heaven and was all red.”

Under questioning, the children described a man dressed in white with a lovely face with long white hair. He also had ribbons and “pretty things” all over his clothes and a gold object with stars on his head. The man reached down and picked them up saying that they were fine children.

Dinah said he had spoken to her as well, telling her that everyone thought he was not an angel, but he would show he was. Then he had “gone up to Heaven.”  Questioned further, she said he seemed to rise up in the air and disappear in a kind of fire that blazed from his feet.

Compared to other poltergeist events, talking poltergeists seem to be in a category all by themselves. They may start out the same, annoying pranks, strange noises, showers of rocks and other debris, but then they seem to turn a corner and gain energy to a point where a consciousness and personality emerges.  The personality is much like a child or mentally challenged adult, but it is a personality nevertheless.

Both the Bell Witch and the Shawville poltergeist exhibit almost identical personality traits. Both were fond of using obscene language and taking on the roles of different characters. Both entities were never shy about talking for hours in front of multiple witnesses. In fact, they seemed to thrive on the attention. They also claimed the ability to travel instantaneously to far off locations, bringing back information that could be verified later.

Gef The Talking Mongoose

So much has been written about the “Dalby Spook” over the years that there really is nothing new that can be added for this chapter. Nevertheless, considering the similarities between “Gef” and other talking poltergeists, this amazing case does need to be included.

The case of “Gef the Talking Mongoose” started in 1931 on the Isle of Man, located in the Irish Sea between England and Ireland.

The farm, located on an isolated hilltop, was home to 60-year-old Jim Irving, his wife Margaret, and their 12-year-old daughter Voirrey.

Jim had been a traveling salesman before taking up farming in his retirement. The farm was not a success and the family struggled to make ends meet.  Doarlish Cashen (Manx for “Cashen’s Gap”) was extremely isolated with no electricity, no phone and no radio. By all descriptions, life on the Irving farm was dreary and offered few pleasantries.

This all changed when Gef made his appearance when the family started hearing strange “blowing, spitting and growling” sounds coming from behind the wooden paneling lining the farmhouse walls. Eventually these sounds turned into recognizable words from a very high-pitched voice. The voice introduced itself as Gef and claimed to be “an extra clever mongoose” born in Delhi, India in 1852.

Gef was soon holding regular conversations with the Irving family. He would travel in the space between the interior wooden paneling and the exterior walls of the house. He reportedly would throw objects like pins or rocks from the cracks and holes in the paneling. Although Jim and Margaret both caught brief glimpses of Gef, only Voirrey was allowed to look at him directly. She described him as being the size of a small rat, with yellowish fur, a flat snout like a hedgehog, and a long bushy tail.

Even though Gef acted like a poltergeist, he once told Jim that he was a living creature and was, in fact, terrified of ghosts. Like other talking poltergeist’s, Gef’s voice had an inhuman quality about it. Those that did hear him said his voice was high-pitched, at least an octave above a human voice. Unlike other talking poltergeist’s, Gef did not like to talk to others outside of the Irving family. Paranormal investigators Harry Price and Nandor Fodor went to great lengths to travel to Doarlish Cashen, but Gef refused to speak to them. However, there were plenty of witnesses to Gef’s ability to speak to convince both men that there was some sort of unusual activity at the Irving house.

On one occasion Gef agreed to allow Voirrey to take his picture. The subsequent photographs did little to convince skeptics on the reality of the talking mongoose.

In their book about Gef, The Haunting of Cashen’s Gap: A Modern Miracle Investigated, Price and R. S. Lambert noticed some parallels to poltergeist cases.  They wrote:

“Many of the events related by Irving can be classified by those experienced in psychical research as belonging to the class of ‘poltergeist’ phenomena. Amongst these are Gef’s habit of throwing sand and small stones, also metal, wooden, and bone objects, at persons in or near Doarlish Cashen; the thumping, scratching, rapping, and banging noises which he makes behind the paneling and in the rafters of the house; and the movement of furniture.”

In 1970, Voirrey agreed to be interviewed by Walter McGraw for FATE magazine, Voirrey denied any involvement, and seemed rather bitter about the whole experience, stating, “It was not a hoax…Gef was very detrimental to my life. We were snubbed. The other children used to call me ‘the spook.’ We had to leave the Isle of Man, and I hope that no one where I work now ever knows the story. Gef has even kept me from getting married. How could I ever tell a man’s family about what happened?”

She continued by saying that Gef “made me meet people I didn’t want to meet. Then they said I was ‘mental’ or a ventriloquist. Believe me, if I was that good I would jolly well be making money from it now!”

Gef remains a true enigma in the hallowed halls of paranormal research. One side thinks that Gef was a poltergeist, while the other side thinks he was something else. If you were to compare Gef to other talking poltergeists, the similarities are obvious. Like the Bell witch and the Shawville poltergeist, Gef enjoyed singing hymns.  On January 19, 1935, Gef was in “high spirits” sang the hymns, “Jesus, my Savior, on Calvary’s Tree” and six verses of “The King of Love my Shepherd is.”

As well, like other talking poltergeist’s, Gef’s voice was said to be strange and not like human speech. Jim Irving also said that Gef’s laughter varied from what sounded like a small child, an adult chuckle, or a maniacal laughter that left the family thinking that they were dealing with an insane creature from hell.

Gef is also discounted as being a poltergeist because he was seen physically several times. However, a talking poltergeist is often able to make itself visible, but much like the way it can talk in different voices, it can also appear in different forms.

The Voice From the Stove

Maid Pascuala Alcocer in front of the stove where the mysterious voice emanated.

Around the same time that Gef was active, another talking poltergeist appeared in Zaragoza, Spain. The Palazon family was living in an apartment complex on Gascón Gotor street when in September, 1934 they started to hear maniacal laughter and voices coming from inside their home. At first the voice sounded like a woman, but later it would change and appear to be a man speaking. The family was perplexed by the strange sounds, but kept it to themselves for fear of ridicule.

When the din coming from the apartment became too much, neighbors called the police. The voice then started shouting: “Cowards, cowards. You called the police. Cowards!”

When they arrived, the households young maid, named Pascuala Alcocer, told police that when she was trying to light the wood stove, she heard a loud voice coming from the stove saying, “You’re hurting me!”

The police checked the apartment but couldn’t find any source for the mysterious voice. Word quickly spread and hundreds of people gathered outside of Building #2 in hopes of hearing the “duende” (goblin) for themselves.

Local police and judges personally investigated the home, forcing the family to move out as they shut off electricity and phone service as they tore the place apart. This enraged the voice and it shouted to everyone that it would kill them and all the residents in the building.

Authorities also brought in psychiatrists to question Pascuala, whom they suspected of hoaxing everything. The doctors suggested that Pascuala was mentally ill and that she was producing the voice through subconscious ventriloquism.  At one point they sent the maid on a vacation along with the family, yet the voice continued to speak. Even moving every resident out of Building #2 failed to stop it.

Whatever the source, the voice was able to see what was going on around the building. It would guess the number of people that were in a room at a time, it would interact with police officers directly when they asked it what it wanted.

“Do you want money?”

“No!”

“Do you want a job?”

“No!”

“Every man wants something.”

“I’m not a man!”

One of the original builders was brought in to take measurements of the kitchen, but the voice interrupted saying: “Don’t worry, it measures 75 centimeters.” The mason was so scared he left the building never to come back leaving his tools behind in a closet.

Eventually the voice vanished just as mysteriously as it arrived. Pascuala Alcocer went into seclusion lamenting up until her death years later that “the voice from the wall ruined her life.”

The Poltergeist As An Elemental

There are many more cases of talking poltergeists that have been carefully researched and chronicled, and probably hundreds more that were never reported for fear of ridicule.  The poltergeist by itself is an oddity in the world of paranormal research, and the talking poltergeist goes even further as a head-scratcher due to its outright off-the-wall high strangeness.

All kinds of theories on the true nature of the poltergeist have been suggested.  Black magic and curses as the cause of poltergeists are popular in countries such as Brazil where spiritism is still practiced.  Folk lore concerning elemental spirits such as fairies, hobs and goblins show that they were also fond of mischievous tricks such as throwing rocks, starting fires and stealing household objects.

The black king of the djinns, Al-Malik al-Aswad. Photo courtesy of the Oxford Digital Library.

Middle Eastern folklore and Muslim theology concerning the djinn and their amazing powers also have similarities to the poltergeist. The djinn are beings with free will that once lived on Earth but were sent away by God to a world parallel to mankind. The word djinn comes from an Arabic root meaning “hidden from sight,” so they are physically invisible from man as their description suggests.

The djinn will take possession of buildings or locations and torment any person who goes to live there. They throw rocks at people. They can levitate and cause objects to disappear. A djinn can quickly travel great distances. One of the powers of the djinn, is that they are able to take on any physical form they like. Thus, they can appear as humans, animals and anything else. They can mimic the voices of deceased humans, claiming to be spirits or Satan. They enjoy playing tricks and frightening people. In fact, they can feel strong emotions such as fear or grief and gain energy from these strong emotions.

Like humans, the djinn have distinct personalities. There are those who are of low intelligence, quick to anger and are fond of playing tricks. Others have a superior intellect and act more along the lines of guardian angels rather than tricksters.

It is interesting to consider that the poltergeist could be an elemental spirit rather than a human.  This could explain why poltergeists (especially the more energetic talking poltergeist) are resistant and very hostile, to attempts to get rid of them by using religious methods.  If a poltergeist is not a human spirit or a demon in a Christian, Jewish or Muslim tradition, attempts to use exorcism are pretty much useless.

Could The Poltergeist Be An Artificial Intelligence?

Considering that the poltergeist could be something other than a human spirit, the website The State of Reality, (www.thestateofreality.com) states to be “the combined effort of four professional remote viewers that have set out to share their project findings regarding socially significant, anomalous target sets.”  On this site there is an interesting article concerning their remote viewing of the Bell Witch incident.

 Jeff Coley writes that the team’s result of their remote viewing attempt came up with the concept of “Something contained, or restrained inside an enclosure. Often this container was sketched and described to be like a bottle, while at other times as a box of some kind, which acted as an enclosure or a tomb. One viewer’s session described this object as an ossuary, similar to what a collector of antique relics might possess within their private collection. Other sessions described what looked suspiciously similar to the idea of a Genie bottle.”

According to Coley something had been contained inside a bottle or box. The viewers described it as a phantom, and intelligence and a thought form. The remote viewing work describes the purpose of this thing as having to do with amusement, recreation, performance, and the idea of sending a message. The viewers also described that the phenomenon was associated with something destructive in nature. One viewer notes that it is like a parasite or a time-bomb that somehow escaped or was accidentally released.

Could the talking poltergeist be an artificial “spirit” created by an ancient civilization eons ago?

The opinion by the remote viewers was that whatever the Bell Witch was, it had been deliberately contained as a punishment eons ago. Three of the viewers described guards who seem to be keeping this thing bottled-up. One viewer described these guards as ethereal, floating, muscular “brutes,” almost like otherworldly prison guards, while another viewer described something like a sentry, guarding and patrolling.

It almost sounds like the Bell Witch (and it even admitted to John Bell Jr. that it was millions of years old) was an artificial intelligence that had been created by a highly advanced and now vanished civilization that could have been terrestrial or even extraterrestrial. Its purpose might have been to entertain and teach but somehow became uncontrollable and had to be contained.

This is just speculation of course. But considering how unusual and powerful talking poltergeists can be, is it really so far-fetched to say that these invisible intelligence’s might be a form of artificial intelligence?  Not an intelligence contained within a machine, but an artificial intelligence without a physical form…in other words, an artificial “spirit.”

Perhaps these AI’s were locked away millions of years ago for some reason. As time wore on, some have managed to escape their confinement and then proceed to wreak havoc in the area where they were kept. Perhaps they have limited energy that can no longer be “recharged.” This could explain why they disappear so abruptly and completely, never to be heard from again.

When you look at past cases of talking poltergeists, they display personalities that if they were human subjects, doctors would describe them as psychotic or schizophrenic.  If my thesis is correct, this madness could be the result of millions of years of lonely confinement, with little hope of rescue.  The human mind would self-destruct in a matter of months. Consider what this amount of time could have done to an artificial mind.

Rather than fear and loathe these tortured entities, a better solution would be to offer them kindness and understanding. For any creature with a soul, even if it is an artificial soul, deserves happiness and even love. This is a difficult concept considering the torture these things have brought upon their victims, but even a savage dog will eventually respond to a kind heart.

Could the poltergeist respond as well?

SUGGESTED READING

Amityville And Beyond: The Lore Of The Poltergeist

The Bell Witch Project