“In 1979 it seemed that whenever I was alone in the house I would be followed by a heavy, persistent energy that almost felt menacing. The following year something sat on me one night in bed and made it very difficult to breathe. Dolores suggested I send the presence packing by repeating the Lord’s Prayer and telling it to go. It took three repetitions but whatever it was, it did leave.
“Objects on the refrigerator in the studio kitchen flew off on a regular basis and came close to hurting people many times. At one time that had been the location of a set of stairs to the second floor of the summer kitchen. Maybe spirits walk there still.
“In 1984 and 1986 I ‘saw’ James McBrien Junior standing in full-dress RCMP uniform on the landing above the studio. Other people have also seen him there. At that time I had not seen any photos of him, but when we bought the home in 1989 we found many old McBrien photo albums. I was astounded to find that he was exactly as I had seen him.
“Dolores passed over in March, 1989. Four of us bought the house and rented out rooms to meet the high monthly overhead. One evening tempers flared and the tension was high. We all retired at about ten o’clock. I was awakened by a loud, hollow, humming drone, sort of musical in tone, at eleven p.m. It could have been a sound in the pipes and I set out to investigate. To my surprise the sound existed in our bedroom, the laundry room below, and the bathroom above, but could not be heard anywhere else in the house. I awakened someone else, Iris, and together we proceeded to ‘sit in the sound.’ The sound was in a vertical column that penetrated the house, approximately one meter in diameter (three feet). Within the column you could not hear yourself think, it was so loud; outside the column it was still a loud, audible sound; in the hall outside the room it was not possible to hear it at all. We could not understand the phenomenon but felt that it was not threatening. We sat in it until it stopped. It lasted one hour exactly. To my knowledge it has never happened again. I have since read that this is a phenomenon that can occur where two ley lines intersect. Ley lines are magnetic lines that exist within the body of the earth and conduct current for the planet. Where they cross there are power points and phenomena occur such as power surges, trees growing in spirals, and other unusual growth patterns.
“In 1990 a friend and I were talking in the upstairs hall during an electrical storm. I was tired and we sat down for our conversation. We had no more than sat down when a round ball of light, about thirty centimeters (fifteen inches) in diameter moved in through the window, ‘rolled’ through the air down the hall, and passed through the other end with no visible effect on the house.
“We had a friend do a spirit cleansing of the house in 1991 because it was a worry for some members of the household. We were told that the spirits might go or stay as they were free to decide for themselves. I saw James McBrien at least twice more before we moved in 1993 but most of the other activity seemed to settle down. There was still a problem with articles disappearing and reappearing as well as almost audible conversations and other sounds in the hall.
“Our dogs never did go upstairs unaccompanied, and my daughter, Sarah, preferred to have a pet for company and a lock on her door.”
Music can be an expression or ordered movement of the forces of a world with which we rarely come in contact. Some spiritualists believe that all thought expresses itself through sound. People hear this sound as a lovely yet indescribable series of ever-changing chords, akin to the sound of harps or pipes. Angels are considered to be one class of spirit who are devoted to music and habitually express themselves in this way. Hindus believe in musical spirits called gandharvas, and they say that the man whose soul is in tune with music will attract the attention of angels and draw himself into connection with them. Famous composers such as Bach, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Handel, and Mozart could hear this sound. Some of them spoke of hearing the whole of a grand oratorio, a stately march or a noble chorus in one resounding chord.
“My first experience of sound from the spirit world came in the mid-1990s, when I made a conscious choice to leave southern Ontario and move north to a secluded home in nature. Here I felt that I could be more aware and listen to the sounds of other kingdoms. One morning I awakened to the sound of music. My first thought was that someone had turned the radio on, although this was never a common practice. Then I tuned into the sound. Truly, the best way to describe it was ‘heavenly.’ Although it was faint it seemed to be coming from the second floor of the house. No one lived in that part of our home. The music was like a chorus of instruments and then it vanished. It may have lasted five or ten minutes.
“I still hear it periodically, always in the early morning hours; sometimes someone else might hear it. It stopped for a period when we were doing construction but last year it returned. It seems as though the music comes in late evening or early morning. Spiritualists believe this musical manifestation highlights the vivid and glowing life around you.
“My personal feelings about our old home are that the McBrien family were attached to this magnificent home and to the high spiritual energy. The crossed ley lines made interdimensional activity a much greater possibility.”
Today the home is in private hands. It once again houses an extended family and is yet again the home of “spirits” — the new owners have a minister among them.
The University of Toronto
~ Toronto ~
In the Norman Archway of University College lovers meet in the twilight. In that darkened passageway to Croft Chapter House they share their fiery passion. No notice is taken of the place itself, of the axe-carved doorway. In another time a star-crossed lover wielded his axe at a different pair of lovers. He might still be lurking there.
The downtown University of Toronto campus is haunted by more than one lost soul. Among the ghosts who haunt the campus is a sentinel who keeps the light on in the Soldiers’ Tower. Since the 1930s, when a workman fell to his death from the tower, a light has been reported in one of the windows of the Memorial Room. Glenn Oldford, a student and tour guide, pointed out, “Security guards working here feel very uncomfortable. One guard heard someone sneeze, but no one was around. An old man has also been seen in the main hall of Hart House.” Some people believe the man could be the caretaker Robert Beard, who spent his life working at the university.
However, the strangest tale of all emerges from the grisly murder at University College in September 1858. In 1857–58 talented European stone masons sculpted gargoyles, cloisters, balustrades, and buttresses on the exterior of the building. These Gothic Revival architectural trimmings highlight the mysterious. You might think that at any given moment one of these gargoyles could move — so many eyes watching from above. A life force stares hauntingly from each stone creation.
Paul Diabolos, a young Greek, and Ivan Reznikoff, an older burly Russian, were two of the stonemasons who worked on University College. Ivan was deeply in love with a young woman named Susie. Her father, a British upper-class businessman, disapproved of their union. The lovers kept their affair a secret. They planned to marry when the college was complete.
Ivan had forsaken his cherished vodka for many months to save for his married life with Susie. They had accumulated $500 in her bank account. But something was not quite right. Ivan brooded darkly over Susie’s lack of commitment. He had witnessed Paul and Susie exchanging “looks.” Was there something there? Rage and jealousy began to build inside him.
A close friend of Ivan’s urged him to leave Susie and find a good Russian wife. He invited Ivan to meet him at dusk by the bench near the maple tree across from Croft Chapter House.
Ivan met his friend. James Louden describes what happened next in his book Studies of Student Life (1928): “We’ll hide inside the little