Theater Superstitions & the Supernatural

How many of you have heard of a few famous haunted theaters or maybe legends surrounding haunted theaters in your area? There is a good reason for how frequent this phenomena occurs. Theaters are places that generate great passion from the actors which spills out into the audience. The sheer amount of energy created in a building no doubt leaves behind a few impressions or leads the spirits to linger. The paranormal has become so synonymous with the theater many superstitions and traditions revolving the supernatural remain in use today. 

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Don't Turn Out That Light!

Theaters often leave a ghost light left on overnight on the stage. Although it does have practical safety uses the tradition's origin is more rooted in the paranormal. Some believe it is left on to give the spirits their time to perform, but the general consensus is the illumination is to appease the ghost. If the Ghost Light wasn't lit the spirits would cause mischief or worse curse the theater. 

Somebody's Watching Me?

There is a rule in the theater to never ever use peacock feathers on stage. The tip of the  feather's design is said to be the representation of 'The Evil Eye' also known as 'The Devil's Eye'. If worn on stage the feathers will bring bad luck to production causing missed lines, scenery collapses, and lighting issues. 

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The Birth of Tragedy

According to Aristotle, Thespis of Icaria. (which is where we get the word “thespian”, meaning “actor”) was the first actor to ever appear on stage. Men had spoken on stage as themselves but Thespis was the first to appear as a character in a form of the play and this was the birth of tragedy. He is also credited with the creation of theatrical touring. Generally any mischief or mishaps in the theater first get blamed on the ghost of Thespis who is said to travel the worlds theaters causing mayhem. It is said that November 23^rd marks the day of his first performance and being the day he wreaks the most havoc. In order to keep Thespis happy a theater must close it's doors one night a week which is generally on a Monday. This gives actors the night off after a weekend of performances.

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The Play That Shall Not Be Named

“The Scottish Play” or “The Bard's Play” is what theater folk generally call Shakespeare's Macbeth. It is believed that the play is plagued by a curse and uttering the work's title in a theater can bring misfortune. It is said that Shakespeare used real spells he received from a local coven of witches but that the incantations are incomplete bringing on the curse. The character Hecate's, the Goddess of Witchcraft, lines are believed to strengthen the curse when they are spoken. Other theories include that the play itself was an insult to a group of witches and they cursed the play for eternity and that the cauldron initially used was stolen from a witch. The origin of the tale of the curse dates back to opening night when a real dagger was used in place of a prop and an actor died. Other mishaps and tragedy have occurred over the years including injuries, deaths, fires, and a riot. 

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Written By
Associate Director & Photographer
Thames Society of Paranormal Investigations 

Stephanie Sutera

The Sound of Spirits:
What is Infrasound and Why Should We Care About It?

“There is certainly a world beyond our normal consciousness from which neither space nor time divides us, but only the barrier of our sense-perceptions.... this threshold is not immovable.” ~William F. Barrett, 1918

That overwhelming feeling that you are being watched; the sensation that you are not alone although no one is in sight; that “6^th sense” that many of us have experienced at one point or another…It can cause the little hairs on our arms to stand up and our heart to beat just a little bit faster. The majority of people believe that there is a world unseen, a spiritual plane perhaps coexisting with our physical world. These feelings however, do not constitute evidence. That being said, they are also not to be ignored. These perceptions originate from something…some stimulus we cannot easily interpret. In a sense, if we cannot easily determine the origin, it may be considered “para normal’, that is, outside the normal experience. As a paranormal researcher, our jobs are to provide the physical evidence to validate these 6^th sense experiences. It is our responsibility to be well-informed of all the potential natural causes of haunted feelings.

Infrasound is sound frequency that is too low for the human ear to detect, falling below 20 hertz. Some natural causes of infrasound include earthquakes, avalanches, and waterfalls. Animals such as whales communicate via infrasound. Man-made producers of infrasound include explosions, diesel machinery, and wind turbines. Researchers who have studied infrasound posit that, although it is below our conscious perception, infrasound affects our bodies nonetheless. It can cause feelings of anxiety, dread, depression, and fear. At the right frequency it can impact our eyes, causing vibrations leading to distortions in vision and hallucinations or illusions.

So if we know that infrasound exists and that it is one potential cause of a haunting, why are we not measuring it? Measuring this low frequency requires highly specialized equipment, as readily-available sound sensors only measure in decibels and cannot account for the ultra-low frequency which constitutes infrasound. Instruments for measuring infrasound are few and far between and are typically quite expensive. However, TSPI is committed to providing the highest-quality investigations to our clients, and our ongoing desire to evaluate potential hauntings in a scientific manner will ensure that we search for a way to measure infrasound in the upcoming years.

Written by Laura Palmese

Investigator & Researcher

Thames Society of Paranormal Investigations (TSPI)

Beware the Lemures

 In ancient Rome, the people of the time believed in spirits called Lemures. They were thought to be benevolent spirits of deceased loved ones who couldn't afford a proper burial and were now restless. If one was not interred, in a tomb or cremated and placed in an urn, the soul could not cross the River Styx which is how the living passed into the world of the dead. These ghosts would come at night to terrorize the living. Although it is a term mostly used in antiquity Lemures are commonly used in tabletop RPGs as well as fantasy based characters of literature and video games.

"Mense Maio malae nubent...They wed ill who wed in May!   

This was such a concern for the Romans that they celebrated  Lemuria, a festival to appease these spirits. It was held on May 9, 11, and 13 and certain rituals would be performed in order to exorcize them. On the first day, the head of the household would rise at midnight barefoot, wash his hands three times, walk around throwing beans over his shoulder while reciting this line 9 times “I send these; with these beans, I redeem me and mine.” The beans were said to be offerings to the Lemures. The Vestal Virgins would prepare salted flour and sprinkle it on animals which would then be sacrificed on an altar and burned on a sacred fire on the second day. Then on the 13 of May, they would throw 30 images of old men from a bridge into the Tiber River. The whole month became known as unlucky due to the festivities and those who wed during the month could bring death upon themselves.

    The Lemur's name was derived from the Lemures. They were given the title due to their nocturnal behavior and slow movements. Although their glowing eyes in the night and their ghostly cries surely are fitting as well. No wonder why they were used in the tragedy of Faust as half undead creatures who bury Faust's body.

Written By Stephanie Sutera

Associate Director & Lead Investigator 

Thames Society of Paranormal Investigations

TSPI Debuts a NEW Web Series 

After years of discussion and planning, my team the Thames Society of Paranormal Investigations has created our own web series that revolves around some of our cases. It's really satisfying to see a project you put your heart and countless hours of work into blossom, into reality. It's titled "TSPI Presents: Into the Black" and our first episode is located in Windham, Connecticut in the United States. The place is over 200-years old mansion and our client was gracious enough to let us film our experience so we can present it to you.

Gray/Perkins House Windham, Connecticut

As always our first priority is to assist our clients. Our clientele come to us asking for our help and are looking for some sort of understanding about what is going on. So we make that our main focus. We are also in the business of research and data collection, which over time helps us perform better in the field. Lastly, our job is to educate. In order to do that efficiently and reach a plethora of people, we have had to take many different roads to get there. This includes radio shows, publications, blogging, paranormal events...and online videos of course. After all, a video is the best medium for distance learning and this led us to  the birth of "Into the Black".

This is not just another paranormal show!

After a slew of bad programs plagued with unbelievable or questionable evidence it was a tough decision to even go through with making the show (not all of them of course). We were also discouraged due to our encounters with the many major production companies we have crossed paths with in the past. Still, we felt that somehow this was the avenue to travel. Then came the realization that if we produce "Into the Black" ourselves we have total control of all of the content and that is when knew that we had a good idea.

TSPI Presents: Into the Black is such a fantastic tool to educate the masses. The program gives us the chance to share our methods of investigating and teach a history lesson at the same time, which is all tied up into a nice TSPI bow. The second episode is due to come out within the next few months and the show can be found on our website at tspiparanormal.com and on YouTube.    

Written by Stephanie Sutera

Associate Director & Lead Investigator 

Thames Society of Paranormal Investigations

Waking up with a Demon

It happened during the summer break after my freshman year of college. I woke up and I could not move. NOT AT ALL. I tried to scream for help but I could not even open my mouth. My eyelids wouldn’t open. My heart pounded and my mind raced as I tried to come up with an explanation for what was happening to me. Had I experienced a stroke? Was this a rare form of Meningitis? My affliction seemed to last about 30 minutes (in actuality it was probably only 5). Eventually I was able to slightly move one of my pinky fingers; the movement slowly transferring from one finger to the next, eventually resulting in me regaining control over my whole hand. From there movement spread up my arms and down my legs until I had   completely escaped my body’s self-imposed prison.

I scoured my psych 101 book for an explanation of what I had experienced, eventually resulting in my discovery of a condition called sleep paralysis. Why had I never heard of this? Why did no one ever warn me of this? It was a horrific experience during which I felt terrified and not in control of my own body. It occurred few more times that summer, and since, (thankfully) never again.

Sleep paralysis occurs during a part of the normal sleep cycle known as REM (Rapid Eye Movement). Most people are familiar with REM as being the stage in which the most dreaming occurs. To prevent us from acting out dreams, our brains release a neurotransmitter which essentially induces a state paralysis. In the normal sleep-wake cycle, the effects of this neurotransmitter wear off before we become consciously awake. Sleep paralysis occurs when our minds become “awake” before our bodies. Accompanying this is frequently the feeling that something (OR SOMEONE) is pressing down on our chests and vivid, often frightening, hallucinations. Fortunately, I neither experienced the former or the latter of these. Sometimes people also experience an eerie sense that there is a presence in the room with them. Sleep paralysis most likely to occur during periods of stress, sleep deprivation, individuals with irregular sleep patterns, and in individuals with mood disorders (particularly bipolar disorder).

Understandably the experience of sleep paralysis is often attributed to the paranormal. History is wrought with stories of demons attempting to suffocate their victims by sitting on their chests. These experiences have been happening to people for as long as we know and its existence is visible in folklore across all cultures, often depicted as an Incubus, Succubus, or the Old Hag (aka “Night Hag”).

The feelings of being watched, of being physically oppressed, or of hearing and seeing strange things can be consistent with both the paranormal phenomenon and sleep abnormalities. Part of the job of a thorough and competent Paranormal Investigator is to consider all evidence and all possible explanations for what an individual is experiencing. About half of us will experience at least one episode of sleep paralysis during our lifetime…its unknown how many of us will experience the paranormal.

Written by Laura Palmese

Investigator In Training with the

Thames Society of Paranormal Investigations (TSPI)

A Newbie’s First “Ghost Hunt”

After a full day of work and then a trip to the dentist to get some cavities filled, you might think that staying up until 2 am to sit in a dark auditorium would be the last thing on my to-do list. Wrong! As an Investigator-in-Training, last Friday was my very first paranormal research expedition and I was so excited! First, a tour of the investigation site which was a local theater said to be occupied by at least 2 spirits. Second, the team determined where the equipment would be set up. At this point, I primarily watched as the team members assembled everything. I was surprised by how much of it there is! Shamus, Stephanie, and Marilyn were very patient with me and my questions.

The experience of sitting by myself in the back of a large, vacant, dark auditorium was unprecedented. While I had originally worried about becoming sleepy (or worse, bored) this did not happen at all as the mental energy it takes to actively listen to the environment keeps you very much alert and interested. As my eyes adjusted to the lack of light, the keen awareness of every little creak as the building settles around us is energizing. Then the first voice recording session began. The EVP sessions are strange at first; honestly it initially felt a little silly asking questions into a dark, empty room. The expectation of a response is palpable as I strained to hear something, anything in reply. The team was great about teaching me what to listen for and that sometimes the answers are detectable only afterwards when reviewing the recordings.

I jumped. More than once. I am not too proud to admit it. The basement of the theater was particularly creepy and I do not yet have the calm composure of the team members, which I can only assume comes along with being the experienced professionals that they are. Shamus and the others were great about it and did not make me feel badly. I expect that with time I will become less “jumpy”. After several hours of investigation, the evening concludes with the careful taking down of all the equipment, and at this point I am pretty tired out but very grateful to have had such a positive first experience. 

Being an over-zealous newbie, the first thing I did when I woke up the next morning was to listen to the EVP recordings. To hear an unaccounted for human-voice on the recording was exhilarating; my first piece of real evidence, clear and unmistakable. I can’t wait to share it with everyone. 

Written by Laura Palmese

Investigator In Training with the

Thames Society of Paranormal Investigations (TSPI)

The Truth About Orbs

There seems to be a bit of controversy in the paranormal world involving orbs. Some people feel that they are complete bogus while others claim that they are the presence of the supernatural. After years of  video and photographic evidence analysis, I have come to the determination that both are possibilities. Most can be debunked quite easily, but some orbs characteristics seem to fit more in the category of the paranormal.

Here are some simple ways to test your photographs or videos.  Sometimes an orb can be mistaken for lens flare. This can happen when light shines directly into the lens of the camera. It could be caused by natural or artificial light or the flare could be caused by your flash bouncing off a reflective surface in the location you are in. Moisture on a camera lens can also bounce light right back into the lens creating the same effect. Another culprit of lens flare is light reflection off  bugs, or dust particles in the air. If the possible photographic evidence is taken in a rather dusty location, the images may seem to have a plethora of orbs in them but most likely they are nothing but flares. So, if you are trying to debunk your own evidence make sure you observe your environment and make note of your surroundings.


Once in a great while there will be a piece of evidence that comes our way that isn't so easily debunked. Luckily when we conduct our investigations, we take great care in the observation of the location which helps us make our determination in whether what we found was caused by something completely natural. There have been a few cases that have past the previously mentioned tests. We have come across some "orbs" that morphed in shape and others that have emitted their own light brighter than that of a simple reflection. After careful analysis, there wasn't any explainable reason for this to happen. The images were derived from stationary equipment in a controlled environment.

As a team we will continue to collect evidence to shed light on the subject, but as of right now we are not 100% sure that there is no such thing as paranormal orbs, but we also can't say that there is either. All we can say is that some of the phenomena is still unexplained.

Stephanie Sutera 

Associate Director of Thames Society of Paranormal Investigations

Doppelgänger

Doppelgänger is the paranormal phenomenon of a ghostly entity with the 

resemblance to a real live person, who appears spontaneously from the spirit world, the sight of which is said to be an ominous or auspicious omen or a harbinger of death. In addition, a doppelgänger can also be a corporeal double conjured into the physical world by a technique called bilocation in which in a person can appear  in two places at once.  Doppelgängers are also known as evil twin, spirit doubles, wraith, or astral projection which is the hypothetical ability to project ones’ consciousness outside of their body.  

The word doppelgänger is of Germanic origins meaning “double-walker or double-goer.”  The lore on doppelgängers has been prevalent throughout our history, and whether you know it or not odds are you have either; heard of, read about, or seen stories about it on television at some point in your life.  So, what does this paranormal phenomenon known as doppelgänger mean? Where did it even come from and why are we still talking about it today? Well, in order to answer these questions we need to examine our history. The folklore on these supernatural clones goes far back into antiquity.  Various ancient cultures wrote about their own versions of doppelgängers.  However, all these stories share a ubiquitous similarity, the perception of the duel forces between good and evil.  Whether, the doppelgänger is a corporeal or an incorporeal entity the premise is almost always the same – this double is a dubious entity.  In Sumerian folklore, there are the twins Inanna (goddess of love and war) the evil twin and Utu (sun god of truth and justice) the good twin.  Mesopotamian’s twins; Gilgamesh (the good twin) and Enkidu (the evil twin), the Zoroastrian culture has the good twin known as Ahura Mazda and the evil twin or as they called it ‘destructive spirit’ Angra Mainyu.  The Greeks had the twins Heracles and Iphicles and Apollo (sun god) and Artemis (moon goddess). Even the Romans had twins as part of their mythology, Romulus and Remus.  Romulus kills Remus so obviously we would consider Romulus to be the evil twin.  Doesn’t the story of Romulus and Remus sound similar to the biblical story about the brothers Cain and Abel – albeit they weren’t exactly twins but you get the gist. Twins have always been a source of fascination to us and it’s probably due to their rareness and our inability to comprehend their unique bond. Furthermore, we see this concept of the forces of good versus evil or a dichotomous universe throughout mankind’s history as if our brains have been wired to believe that there must be symmetry or a balance to our Doppelgängers don’t just show up in our pop culture today but it’s also found its way to our scientific world under a new guise we know as psychology.  In psychological terms today, doppelgänger is simply a person with a ‘dissociative identity disorders’ also known as multiple or split personality disorder.  People with dissociative disorders unconsciously refer to themselves as a different person and this so called other person or alter ego displays complex individual behavioral identities; in other words – two unique personalities, in one body. Psychology 

theorizes that this other personality represents the person’s subconscious secret

desires and impulses and they conjure up this other personality in order to act upon 

their desires while also separating themselves from there evil deeds. We all have 

dark thoughts or secret desires deep down but most of don’t act upon them.  But 

what if one day we do act on them?  What would you do if you were told that you 

had committed a crime, yet knew you were nowhere near the scene of the crime?  

How would you feel and how could you explain it?  

I apologize if this is starting to sound like a psychological or theoretical article.  

This is not my intention.  In fact, when I first heard of this strange phenomenon 

known as doppelgänger, I blew it off – it was of no interest to me.  It was too far, 

fetched just plain pseudo-science or just plain science fiction.  

Johan Wolfgang Von Goeth

However, a few years ago while doing research for a philosophy class, I happened 

to come across an article on Johan Wolfgang Von Goethe a German writer, poet, politician and even a scientist – a genius and one of the pioneers of the era of Enlightenment.  Goethe was obviously had a realistic and scientific approach to his work and his everyday life.  So, when I read about his own personal experience with his own doppelgänger I was intrigued.  Here’s a brief summary on Johan Wolfgang Von Goethe’s doppelgänger experience:

Goethe was riding his horse on a dirt road in Drusenheim, France on his way to visit a friend. At one point on his journey he noticed another man on horseback coming from the opposite direction, which was not unusual.  However, once Goethe was about to pass the other rider he noticed that the rider looked identical to himself, except he was wearing different clothes and was riding a different horse.  As odd as this experience was – Goethe was not frightened instead he felt a sense of peace, and he soon forgot the experience.  That is until, eight years later when he was on his way back from home on horseback from visiting the same friend as before, when he experienced déjà vu.  Then it dawned on him – he was wearing the same outfit and riding the same horse as his doppelgänger, whom he encountered on the same dirt road eight years prior.  

Now, there are tons of other famous stories of doppelgängers online, so if you’re 

interested than you should definitely browse around.  However, I have read many 

of those stories and as I said before the Goethe story is the most interesting to me.  

The reason why is because the story puts a different spin on the doppelgänger lore.  

In Goethe’s story the doppelgänger phenomena can be explained by a branch of 

science known as Quantum Theory.  I know, what you’re thinking – ‘more science,’ but most of us paranormal investigators believe that there needs to be a healthy balance between the paranormal and science.  (There is that dichotomy I was talking about earlier, our brains always needs a symmetrical world.)  As soon as I read about Goethe’s doppelgänger experience I realized it was similar to what Quantum physicist call a “distortion in the space time continuum.”  According to Albert Einstein, in his Theory of General Relativity space-time itself is like a fabric and can therefore be bent, warped and distorted.  Einstein, made to possibility of other dimensions plausible and gave way to today’s multiverse theory, which has been gaining real scientific ground in the past decades.  Most theoretical physicist who support the multiverse theory believe that there could be up to 11 different dimensions and it is possible for these other dimensions to occasionally leak into one another.  This could explain Goethe’s doppelgänger experience and perhaps many other doppelgänger or paranormal phenomenon.  Well, this is just my theory.

In conclusion, no one can say for certain what causes the doppelgänger 

phenomena because, there is no real scientific proof for it, yet for thousands of 

years these dubious entities have lived through ancient times and into our 

modernized world.  Its expression in folktales which have been passed down 

through generations. Resurrecting itself in our cultures through different guiles, whether it’s supernatural or our psychological need of a symmetry in a perverse 

way to control the balance of good and evil. Not just in our world but in us, our visceral fear that there is some evil born in each of us crouching in the shadow of every human soul.  We may never know the real nature of the doppelgänger phenomenon but, I think we can be certain that it’s not going to go away anytime soon.

Marilyn Marin
Investigator of Thames Society of Paranormal Investigations