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Halloween: A Nova Scotian exorcism

It was the Irish pagan festival of Samhain, a night when the dead and the living edged near one another, whence came Halloween. On the night of Nov. 1, and with the dying crops, souls returned to walk the earth. Spooked pagans bolted their doors and extinguished the cooking fires that attracted witches. A rap on the door came from villagers dressed as dead relatives: "Trick or treat?" Best give the souls a treat lest they do something rotten. Canadians have kept the ancient belief in souls haunting the living alive, telling frightening ghost tales for the past 50 years, and not just on Halloween.

CBC Radio's Arthur Black turns on his tape recorder in a rural Nova Scotia farmhouse. It's a dark autumn night and the century-old home is so quiet, you can hear the clock on the wall ticking. He sits at a big wooden table with parapsychologists Ian Currie and Carole Davis who are about to perform an exorcism. Davis becomes the medium for a ghost with gangrene. She grabs her wrist and moans in pain.

Currie performs the exorcism. He tells Davis, "No more pain. No more hiding. Now go into the light ... quickly."
• In the 1920s, British parapsychologist Harry Price created a ghost-busting kit. It contained a thermometer, a camera, felt overshoes, a telescope, fingerprinting equipment and a portable telephone.

• Parapsychologists use infrared film, attempting to capture a photograph of an apparition in the dark. They often employ Geiger counters to measure changes in the atmosphere, heat sensors and tape recorders.

• Early experiments by parapsychologists showed the mind could obtain information in an unrecognized way. By the 1930s, they maintained the brain could receive information when the senses are shut off called extra-sensory perception (ESP).

Medium: Radio
Program: CBC Radio Special
Broadcast Date: Oct. 31, 1987
Guest(s): Ian Currie, Carole Davis
Host: Arthur Black
Duration: 12:57

Last updated: July 16, 2012

Page consulted on April 10, 2013

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