Pukekohe poltergeist: terrified residents call witches after ghostly encounters

Ghost hunters are being brought in to rid a Pukekohe home of evil spirits after terrified Filipino workers complained that it is “haunted” by demons.

Frightened men report the disturbing presence of three female spirits in ancient Pukekohe village and have enlisted the services of a good witch to drive them out.

But skeptics say there are more scientific explanations for men’s experiences.

Glenn Pool told the Herald that the five-bedroom villa had been occupied by workers from the Philippines for three weeks.

Pool, manager of the scaffolding company that employs the men, said the encounters began shortly after they moved in.

“The first days they were there, they came back to us and said, ‘Boss, boss, the place is haunted, there are women there, three women, ghost women,’ and we thought, ‘Yes, that’s fine’, but after things that have been happening

They have been non-stop, “he told the Herald.

One man reported feeling a slap to the face in the middle of the night, upon awakening to discover that he was completely alone.

The men also reported that “lights went on and off, footsteps and runs in the room.”

Pool said the men also claimed to have heard “constant crying, women crying” and one of the men reported experiencing a form of paralysis.

“He couldn’t move. It was like something grabbed his legs, immobilized his legs.”

Pool also described the strange encounter one of the workers had during a video call with his wife in the Philippines.

“His wife got mad at him because she saw another woman behind him and he swore there was no one there.”

The wife initially refused to believe the man’s denials and insisted that he was lying.

Pool said the workers relied on their strong Catholic faith to deal with the problem, recounting a conversation with one of the terrified men.

Pool said that while the man said he was not afraid, he had said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus, leave us alone.”

It didn’t work.

Darwin Rivera, one of the Filipino workers who lives in the house, described feeling an invisible force pulling his legs up and down while lying in bed and experiencing strange smells and sudden drops in temperature.

Rivera said he heard the voices of the women crying, but had only heard them say one word: his own name.

Now he was praying every night to stay safe and keep his Bible close by, but he admitted that he was too scared to address the spirits directly and tell them to leave.

‘We just kept the closet door closed’

Previous owners weren’t surprised to learn of the grisly events.

“They have been delighted, right?” Former owner Kim Tilyard asked before telling her about his family’s experience with the property, telling the Herald that visitors had said the house was “not right.”

His wife Christine said the family lived there for about 24 years and initially had frequent confrontations with the spirits.

They had blessed the house several times, which would calm the disturbances for a time, and she had spoken directly to the spirits to tell them to “go and leave us alone, and you did.”

The family also placed “protective angels” at the four corners of the section.

The spirits never returned, he said.

The family had not encountered any paranormal activity for two decades before they were sold in February this year.

Christine said her little boy woke up to find a figure standing by his bed and told him to go away. He also recounted a chilling experience when one of his children was a baby.

“She was gray so I put her between us and when I woke up there was someone standing over me. It was something in a very long cape bent over me.”

She was “petrified” and screamed.

Despite her experiences, Christine said her family learned to live with their ghostly housemates, but they put security measures in place.

“We just kept the closet door closed. There’s a closet there that we never open.

“So I’d say they opened the closet door and whatever’s inside came out.”

He also asked if one of the spirits could be that of his mother, who died earlier this year and remained in the house for a time after her death.

“That’s the kind of thing my mother would do.”

Christine said she was skeptical before her experiences at the house and had advice for new occupants.

“May he be blessed.”

The ‘nuclear option’

After part of the men’s story was shared on Facebook, Pool spoke to Karen Williams of the paranormal investigators Haunted NZ, who agreed to investigate the case.

Williams told the Herald that Haunted NZ’s work was not for profit and that the results of the “investigations” would be shared publicly online. The group planned to visit the property soon and was treating it as an urgent case.

She said that most of the team members had scientific backgrounds and used photos and videos to try to capture evidence from what she admitted was a “theoretical” area.

They would also use devices like a “spirit box” and a “geographic port.”

Williams, a Wiccan practitioner and traditional British witch, said that the spirits often did not want to go on.

“A ghost is a person who is no longer a corporeal being, he no longer has a body, but is still the same person he was before.

“They have free will. If they are in a place, they may not want to move. You have to be persuasive.”

Williams said he would use the “nuclear option” to eliminate spirits.

“This is where my Wiccan training comes in. There is a ritual I like to use called the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram, it is a very powerful banishing ritual.”

Williams shared some details of the ritual with the Herald. The ceremony would be carried out using the Hebrew language and would invoke “divine light” to help clean the house.

She never tried to convert the skeptics, preferring to let fate intervene.

“I think the skeptics fall into two camps.

“There is the field of skeptics who really don’t believe it because they have never had an experience of that nature.

“There’s another version of the skeptic, which is, ‘I don’t really want to believe this, I’m really uncomfortable with it, I find it quite scary, I don’t want to think about it.’

“Maybe one day they can have an experience that will change their mind, then they will call me.”

‘Promotion of magical thinking’

NZ Skeptics Society spokesman Craig Shearer told the Herald that if his group investigated the reports, they would work to eliminate more prosaic explanations of the events.

“The problem with ghost hunting that has become popular on television is that they use all this high-tech equipment and look for anomalies. Just because there is a temperature differential in the room does not mean that there is a spiritual presence there.”

Shearer said there could be psychological explanations for what the men had seen and heard, including hypnagogia, which is the experience of the state between sleep and wakefulness and can include hallucinations and sleep paralysis.

“I don’t think it’s particularly helpful for this group to step in and bless the house,” said Shearer, who described Haunted NZ’s actions as “opportunistic.”

Shearer said he “didn’t want to mess with their religious beliefs,” but said the workers’ Catholic faith could play a role.

“Catholics in particular seem to be into their idea of ​​exorcism,” he said, adding that their beliefs can “skew the mind.”

Shearer said that “the mind is a powerful thing” and men can find comfort in the action of Haunted NZ, but the overall harm comes from the “promotion of magical thinking.”

“No one has proven that ghosts really exist.”

When asked if it was possible that there was a portal to another dimension in a closet in Pukekohe, Shearer said it was “pure speculation”.

“On the balance of probabilities, it would be no.”