Haunted House?

My husband lived and worked on a ranch in the Lowvelt of Zimbabwe.

He and a fellow worker shared an old house on the ranch.

Every morning they would get up to find the milk jug which had been placed in the refrigerator the night before was on the table in the kitchen. This happened every morning during the whole time he lived in the house. No one ever found out what was the cause of the mysterious movement of the jug. Other items were also found to be misplaced on a regular basis.

I was doing some family research when I came across new details of my Great Uncle Havelock Ellis. he had been a prolific writer in his day but it is difficult to obtain his books now.

I found my information - put away my books and progressed to other subjects.

A week or so later I awoke in the very early morning and looked across to the doorway - there appeared a green mass - a swirling ball which turned into the head and shoulders of what appeared to be Havelock Ellis.

I might have dismissed the whole affair as a figment of my imagination, fired my research weeks earlier if it had not been that I had seen the same apparition when I was 12 and knew nothing of Havelock Ellis.!

Zimbabwe lifted the ban on witchcraft in 2006

In July of 2006 Zimbabwe acknowledged that supernatural powers exist - but prohibited the use of magic to cause someone harm.

In 1899 it was made a crime to accuse someone of being a witch or wizard. They were aware of the witch hunts and prosecutions that had gone before in Europe and indeed were still in operation.

Zimbabweans, especially those who grew up in the rural areas were positive that witch craft existed.

Stories abound of people who have been bewitched by jealous workmates - from being made bald to being made very sick.

Many people resort to witch doctors to cure them and many fail - but some succeed.

Magic charms are worn round the neck and placed on doors and windows. They are buried around houses and at entrances to properties.

The witch doctors chant and burn mysterious substances to protect you, your home and property.

Does it work?

The Christian church in Zimbabwe has always believed that witchcraft exists, but it has been careful to establish the source of such supernatural powers.

"As Christians we've got to recognise that supernatural forces are good if they originate from God - now witchcraft is one of the things that originates from the Satanic world," says Reverend Roy Musasiwa who runs a theological college in the capital, Harare.

The Criminal Law Codification and Reform Act demands proof that a person has supernatural powers and that they are using them to harm others. This is difficult to prove.

I have on several occasions made use of witchdoctors to exorcise our home. Fight fire with fire is the old saying - if someone is trying to harm you and uses witchcraft then get witch craft to end the problem

Seance in Salisbury

My 15th birthday was quite interesting - I w s allowed to wear lipstick for the first time and my parent took me to my first seance.

We went to a very normal house in the Avenues of Salisbury and were net by the owners - the medium and her husband.

There were a small group of people already gathered and after having tea we were led into a plain room with a round table in the middle. it was wood and had no table cloth or covering.

We sat down and held hands and began to say the Lord's prayer. There was silence after this and then tapping came from below the table. The medium asked several questions - one at a time and asked the entity to answer by one tap for yes and two for no.

The questions - all very ordinary and general were all answered within a matter of perhaps 10 seconds.

She asked several questions for people sitting with her. Was 'so and so' (who had recently passed away) happy? Had some one's mother met up with her late father? All questions that meant very little.

I dis not find it frightening in fact - I hate to say I found it rather pathetic.

I found it interesting but I did not actually believe very much of what came out of the seance and it took me many years before I even thought of attending another one!

The Exorcism in Harare

I had always thought that exorcisms with water being thrown around and foaming at the mouth were the realm of horror films until one day............

Adrian and I were always being asked to tell ghost stories to a family of teenagers - we were reluctant at first but finally gave in and would sit down and recount our experiences.

The family left the country and we never really kept in touch except at Christmas birthdays.

Suddenly we received a phone call from the eldest of the daughters of the family saying she had returned and could she come and see us. We were delighted at the time.

She came sat down and we offered her a drink - she accepted this and then started to talk. Her first words were "It is all your fault".

While in England she and her sisters had got involved with a rather rough bunch of youngsters - biker types. The sisters - three of them - had also decided to play with the planchet board - 'glassy glassy' as it is often called due to using a glass with fingers placed on it to navigate a circle of letters rather than the traditional pencil suspended over a sheet of paper which writes. (I have used - but will never use again both of these tools).

The bikers persuaded her to use the glass more and more and despite warnings from the entity contacted she continued to do so with grave consequences. She started to behave in a very strange manner - completely out of character. Swearing, throwing things around, even picking up a chair and hurling it at some of her friends.

It was then she realised she needed help.

This is why she returned to Zimbabwe.

We listened to her story and she then explained that she thought she was possessed.

Both my husband and I were at that time involved in spiritual healing and we contacted an old friend of ours who we felt could assist. He agreed to meet the girl and an appointment was made for the following morning.

We were all ushered into his study and his wife brought in a tray of tea which we drank while engaging in light conversation. When our tea was finished the healer got up and asked the girl to sit on a small red velvet stool which he placed in the centre of the room. She immediately went mad - refusing to sit on the stool and battling with my husband and the healer who were trying to force her down. She was lashing around and foaming at the mouth.

The healer called to his wife and myself to get water - the only water we could find close at hand was the dogs bowl which we fetched and poured over her head.

She settled down a bit and we formed a circle holding hands and praying with the healer.

Within about ten minutes she slumped down and I saw an almost sold figure emerge from the girls body.

It was a short woman with club cut blonde hair wearing a dirty, short, sack like dress with a Chevron pattern in beige and blue. it slunk out of her body and made its way towards the door, looking back at me with hatred. It disappeared into thin air.

We all gave a sigh of relief and sat down - the girl looked much better and an glasses of brandy were handed round to all - I for one was shaking.

The healer explained that the figure (which he only saw in black and white) was that of a woman who had died at Belsen and whose spirit had inhabited the body of our friend.

Needless to say none of us have ever used the glass or the planchet board again and never will.

Take warning!!!!!

More on the Alveston Ave Entity

Well it hit again - this time keys went missing - I cast a spell and used the numerology program which told me 'ask your servant'. I have a maid who comes in twice a week and when she arrived I told her we were missing two items a set of keys and a spanner (I have yet to cast a spell about the spanner). Sure enough during the day she found the keys!!!! On the ground next to a trailer that we had moved the day before -the keys had certainly had not been there the day before as we had driven the landrover over the area and had looked on the grass. Who is this entity? What does he or she want? Is it the boy and the dog or is it the mysterious white figure?

Knock, Knock - who's there?

My parents lived in an apartment in the Harare Avenues. They were often awoken by knocking on their door - quite often late at night. To begin with they would go to the door to see if anyone was there. After a while they just laughed it off.........the ghost again.

After my mother's death my father moved into a cottage on our property. To begin with everything was quiet and then the knocks started on his door!!! To begin with they were just a few quiet knocks but as time went on they accelerated.

Since my father's death we have had no knock on our doors until now...... this last week I have been awoken by knocks that appear to come from an old military chest we have in our bedroom.

What or who is causing this disturbance?

The poltergueist again

The poltergeist has hit again.

Money went missing this week - hard to get money. It was in a blue envelope and is always placed in the same spot.

In desperation I cast a spell to get it back and then used a numerology program to find it - it worked - I was told it would be found on a shelf and after an extensive search found the item on a shelf in the study - strange happening but true!