Ghost Hunter Readies Students For Halloween

Lorraine Warren, the world-renowned clairvoyant and paranormal investigator, lectured Tuesday at the Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts in her annual visit about her career as a self-proclaimed ghost hunter. The unique presentation was carried out through a series of video clips and slides, while Warren and her son-in-law and colleague, Tony Spera, carefully explained each piece of evidence on display from her career of more than 50 years.

This was a night fitting for the time of year, as an attentive crowd listened eagerly to a series of stories from the various Warren cases on the night before Halloween. Most of the lecture was focused around ghosts, which Spera defined as "a spirit without a living body," due to the amount of visual evidence available. However, Spera was quick to note that many of their cases "deal with things that have never walked this earth in physical form" - demonic manifestations, the devil, demons - whatever you may call it. Spera, a UConn graduate and psychologist who works with Warren, pointed out that these spirits manifest themselves in different ways.

One clip showed a video of a particularly eerie event in which Ed Warren, Lorraine's late husband, coaxed a demonic force into violently moving tables and chairs in a possessed home, as he called out, "In the name of Jesus Christ, I command you to identify yourself!"

Another showed shockingly real footage of the exorcism of Maurice Theriault, a tomato farmer from Massachusetts with whom the Warrens worked. At one point in the clip, Theriault, whose skin had become a deep, Satanic red, kept his eyes, which looked reptilian, fixated on the wall in front of him. Everything from exorcism movies came to mind during this hastily shot event, which seems almost expected from someone who is possessed by a demonic force.

Most of the lecture, however, focused on pictures and stories containing the manifestation of spirits.

One of Warren's stories stood out in particular. She spoke of a case that she had received just days before last night's lecture in which a soldier, upon returning from Afghanistan, had seen a large hand creep around a doorway in his condominium, the climax of a series of terrifying events in the house.

"The soldier followed the hand around the corner, where he saw a huge, dark figure disappear into his bedroom," Warren said. "That's when he called us."

She also discussed the reasons that such hauntings occur.

"There are many things that can cause these doors [to hell] to open. In this case, the area had been the subject of many tragedies. Just the year before, five firefighters were killed in a fire in the condominium and the next door neighbor hung herself."

Warren explained that tragedies can attract the inhuman.

"This house was absolutely diabolical," she said.

Although the presentation was long and seemed to lack excitement, the novelty of the subject and the prospect of finding evidence to believe in kept the audience attentive, excepting a few who nodded off to Warren's grandmotherly lull. There was some complaint, Warren included, with the quality of the projector used to display the photos.

"This equipment really is awful," she said to uproarious laughter.

"It was really hard to see what she was trying to show us," said Matt Berkley, an audience member. "I was sitting near the back, so that might have been part of the problem, but I wasn't really convinced with the pictures. It was interesting though."

The audience felt, however, no doubt that some of these photos had genuine spirit activity in them. Many shocked the crowd, making audience members believe that they may themselves have someone special following them in the shadows.

Warren's cool, convincing ways left the audience, at least those who could see, with no doubt that we are not alone at night.

Contact Tom Crosby at

Tom.Crosby@UConn.edu.