Polaroids of the Dead – Los Angeles, CA
One of the most fascinating cases I’ve read and studied was about the “polaroid writing entity” in a quaint, cozy home in the outskirts of Downtown Los Angeles.Mt. Washington is a district in the northeast of Los Angeles. About a 10-15 minute drive from where I currently reside in downtown Los Angeles.
For John Matkowsky, this was a perfect suburb of L.A. to live. He acquired a modest home on a hill side in 1985. After moving in, John would claim to have heard noises around his house that would raise an eyebrow.A friend of John, John Huckert, had recently acquired a polaroid camera. Taking snapshots around the house, they both soon started seeing anomalies in the instant photos. At first it came as odd, spectral images but soon they became words. Odd as it may seem, whatever was in his house, was able to communicate.All of John’s friends that would visit the house would describe an eerie feeling. A feeling of a presence about the rooms. John Matkowsky said that at times, he felt a strange tingling around his arms or neck.
The house was built around 1906, so chances that the house could harbor energy or spirits was great. As it seems like older homes, resonate images and feelings of the past.When both Johns learned that by snapping polaroids around the house, you could capture feather like spectral energy all over; they quickly set out to debunk it.Suspecting that the film was damaged, they bought new film and tested it. To their surprise, the images came up on the new film. A friend of theirs was in their home for a party they had thrown. When John shows his friend, Ross harpold, the images they had captured, Ross laughed and dismissed it as a joke. Unconvinced that these pictures were not doctored, Ross picked up the polaroid and asked “Are you here?” and took a snapshot. When the picture was ejected from the polaroid camera, in front of the 3 men that were standing over it, the word “YES” appeared. When John Matkowsy asked “what is your name” and then proceeded to snap a picture, as the polaroid started to develop in front of him the name “Wright” appeared. They were hesitant about the authenticity of what they were experiencing. So they started asking Wright more questions like “Are you a good ghost?” “Are you a bad ghost?”. Wright would answer “Friend”.
Within the next few months, John Matkowsky and John Huckert were taking pictures daily and capturing what seemed like a prophetically and well versed ghost.Some of the questions they asked Wright were: “Where do you go when you are not here?” Wright’s answer: ” FLUX”
Another question they asked Wright, was who was he. The respond still sends chills down my spine: “ Et alia corpus delicti”"Among other things, A murder victim” John Matkowsky was so intrigued by this entity that he wanted further answers as to what or who it really was. Around that time in the early 90s, there was a popular show called “Sightings” that was produced and broadcasted by FOX television. Sightings was a show about the unexplained and the supernatural. Being that John could not get an explanation as to what was causing this, he decided to contact the show’s correspondent and ask if they would be interested in investigating this phenomenon. John was not really feeling like this was the best move on his part, since it would bring in unwanted attention. Sightings put together a team of researchers and it’s production staff and headed for the small home in the hills. Kerry Gaynor was among the research team. Mr. Gaynor had previously investigated the famous “Entity” case in Culver City, CA.
Upon their arrival at the house, they setup a controlled testing experiment, were they had brought their own cameras and film that was tagged and logged to prevent tampering. After several hours, no evidence was captured. It seemed like Wright was either shy or reluctant to create a circus attraction of itself. Several hours into the investigation, Marty Elcan, a friend of John Matkowsky attempted to get some evidence. He asked Wright: “Are most spirits good spirits or bad spirits?” SNAP! a picture was taken. As the polaroid developed, in plain sight of all the researches and the TV crew a message appeared: “There are numerous remedial lemurs.” Not knowing if Wright was playing a joke on them about monkeys from Madagascar, John Huckert looked up lemur in a Latin dictionary. The definition of a lemur in Roman mythology was that they are the night-walking spirits of the dead.
The excitement in the room was palpable. Nervous laughter masked the tension. Kerry Gaynor was impressed, but wanted further controls. “You have to establish a chain of evidence. You have to be able to observe the phenomenon from the beginning to the end. So, we have to load the film from a sealed pack, show that it’s our camera. We have to fire it. We have to control the film as it comes out.” Following Kerry’s suggestions, Sightings trained one of its video cameras on a new Polaroid brought to the house by photographic expert Edson Williams. A sealed film package was opened and a new cartridge was inserted directly into the Polaroid. A member of the Sightings team posed the question “Are you here for John or for the house ?” A picture was taken. It was placed on a table in full view. After thirty seconds, a message appeared. “Genius loci.” Kerry Gaynor looked up the word in the Latin dictionary. The exact translation of genius loci is “the guardian spirit of a man or a place.” More pictures were taken in the same manner. The messages alternated between English (”Time travel,” “Anything is possible,” “John relax and learn”) and Latin (”Ad litteram”). Edson Williams had never seen anything like it in his twenty years as a photo analyst. “I actually watched them eject out of the Polaroid. There was a moment where I thought, Oh, my God, and I was in one of the Polaroids, which made it even spookier. It made me feel that there could be something in the house.” Near the conclusion of the night-long investigation, Marty Elcan asked, “Wright, will you be with them for a long time?” The Ghost Writer replied, “Sed haec prius fuere.” Translated, the phrase means “All this is over now.”
It was the last message the Ghost Writer would send. After the field investigation, Edson Williams brought many of the photographs back to the Brooks Institute for analysis. Using a digital scanner, he was able to move in on the ghost writing and noticed that there appeared to be individual fibers in the text. He concluded that the writing might have been created using pulled strands of cotton. In his laboratory, Williams attempted to duplicate the ghost writing. ”The initial step was to shoot pulled cotton with a 4 x 5 camera using E-6 film. The next step was to preexpose the Polaroid film. I removed the cover sheet of the Polaroid pack, inserted the transparency, and exposed the Polaroid to the text. I then removed the transparency, reinserted the cover sheet, and loaded the film normally.” Using this method, Edson Williams was able to duplicate the ghost writing; however, his method took over an hour to complete and required manipulation of the film, which would have been impossible to hide. Howard Worzel, a photographic analyst at Polaroid’s corporate headquarters in Waltham, Massachusetts, was also at a loss to offer a scientific explanation for the ghost writing. “We have never encountered this phenomenon and we’ve been selling film for fifty years now to billions of customers,” Worzel noted. Parapsychologist Kerry Gaynor concurred. “I personally have never come across anything like this in the twenty years that I’ve been doing research. I’m quite familiar with the literature, and Eve never seen anything like this in the literature either.” While the scientific investigation continued, Sightings contacted world-renowned psychic Peter James and asked him to visit the house and give his psychic impressions of the site. Peter has a long history of exploring and documenting cases of hauntings that are not understood by science, but he also has been involved in cases he has exposed as obvious frauds. At first, Peter was also skeptical about the Ghost Writer. ”In all my years of delving into the paranormal world, I’ve never seen an entity present itself in this fashion, but I will say that all things are possible,” Peter remarked before entering the house. Once inside, however, the feeling that he was not alone was instantaneous. His legs began to shake. He felt a vibration throughout his body that Peter claims to feel when he is in the presence of spirits. He also began to receive several names telepathically. ”I received the name of Gilbert. There is a Robert. Amelia is throughout. I am getting an essence of all three of those names vibrationally,” Peter told the assembled group.
The two Johns were awestruck. They had already researched the names of the home’s previous owners. They had not showed this list to anyone, especially Peter James, and yet Peter had correctly named Gilbert, Robert, and Amelia — three of the names on the list. Peter did not think that any of these three people were the Ghost Writer. As he walked around the house, Peter stopped in one spot he called a “spiritual vortex,” a kind of doorway through which he felt spirits were entering the house. “I feel a very strong vibration. Something is definitely coming up from the floor,” he reported. “I get a tingling sensation. It’s also very cold here. My legs are trembling. It feels like something is coming from below and it’s going through my entire body.” John Matkowsky snapped several pictures of Peter James standing in the vortex. Strange ghostly images appeared to surround him. Peter felt two distinct spirits at this time. One he described as the spirit of an Indian tribe that had once used the land surrounding the house as a kiva, or ceremonial center. The other spirit he described was that of man who had been murdered and could be buried under the house. After Peter James’s psychic reading, John Matkowsky and John Huckert decided to investigate Peter’s theories.
They began to dig small test holes through their hillside property. In one of these holes they made an amazing discovery — shards of pottery that appeared to be Native American in origin. An archaeologist from the nearby Southwest Museum examined the site and found the artifacts significant enough to warrant a larger dig on the site. It was proof to Matkowsky and Huckert that Peter James had been right about the kiva. As for the body under the house, the men have no doubt that it is there, but digging for it would be impossible without moving the house. And perhaps it is for the best. Years of living with Wright have made the two Johns philosophical. They know that when the Ghost Writer feels the time is right, he will appear again. Ghost photographs have a long and dubious history in the world of paranormal investigation. In the late 1800s understanding of camera technology was rudimentary, and something as simple as a double exposure could easily fool the general public. The first known “ghost” photograph is the famous Lincoln photograph, in which the shadowy form of Abraham Lincoln is apparently standing behind his widow, Mary Todd Lincoln. It was ruled a hoax in the early 1900s. Today, with advanced technology and computer scanners, legitimate ghost photographs are extremely rare. After the Sightings investigation, Michael Weber, one of the best close-up magicians in the world, claimed that he could duplicate the ghost-writing phenomenon. In a closed studio in the presence of Sightings host Tim White and a camera crew, Weber was able to produce a photo with the words “We are here” printed across the front. However, Weber was quick to point out that his ability to duplicate the ghost writing did not disprove that it could have been caused by supernatural forces. It only proved that the same phenomenon could be reproduced under similar conditions. Weber reviewed the videotapes shot inside the house and said he did not notice any of the trademark movements — called “tells” — that would have indicated that either Matkowsky or Huckert was a professional magician.
Written by Javier Ortega - javier@ghosttheory.com
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Ask Wright what he thinks of the seventh angel.
“FLUX is not spoken of by wright because of where it occurs and why.”GODS LIGHT IS ONLY NEEDED… HEAVENLY SPIRITS DO NOT NEED FLUX!!!! Wright is acting friendly but the source is not”
Mark,
You bring up a good point. Wright could be acting friendly.
Much like when the Ouija board is used, an evil spirit can easily trick the person on the other side by pretending to be something else.
According to Matkowsky, they have not experienced any negative actions from Wright in the years they’ve been in the house.
Who knows…
I totally agree with you guys on the whole “good or bad thing” but seriously why are you questioning a
ghost/ spirit. If he says he fluxes then he does. You are saying all you need is the light of god. How do you
know, have you been there. I mean truthfully you dont know you have just heard. He obviously has not
went to heaven yet or even hell cause if he did he woudn’t be stuck in this world talking to us. Think about
it.
I was watching a show on the “WRIGHT” ghost and someone in the show asked if he was good or bad/what are you? He replied “GOD’S LIGHT”….
Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.
BIBLE, 2 Corinthians 11:14
Becca,
According to the home owners, the phenomenon has never presented itself in any negative form.
In almost 2 decades, they have not reported any evilness with “Wright”.
I will admit that regardless of the phenomenon being positive, I would still be weary about it.
I would assume trickery would be part of it as well.
thanks for the comment
I think it’s not being evil or harmful because it’s distracting everyone from the truth. Now people are thinking that when you die you are floating around on earth when the truth is, when you die (according to the Bible and God) you go to Hell or Heaven. Then they start molding false beliefs around this ghost. If it was mean people wouldn’t want it around or want to be around it.
-Rebecca
(Also, it seems to me that many people who think they are getting messages from God are actually getting messages from ghosts. Thus, people who are trying to be Christian prophets may well be accidentally doing “sorcery.” Testing every message for the fruits of the Holy Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (Galatians 5:22, 23)) is vital.
http://www.mit.edu/~rei/spir-bible.html)
Now the Vatican has announced that Hell does not exist.
Hell is a product of the church, to scare people into obediance.
And if Hell doesn´t exist, why would Heaven?
What does Wright mean when he talks about Flux,I remember seeing this episode on Sightings on Cable TV but I didn’t understand what Wright was talking about when he spoke about Flux
Danny,
I’m not quite sure (nor are the homeowners) what Wright meant when he answered “Flux” when asked where he went when not in the home.
My guess would be that Wright was just simply stating that he is always on the go. Traveling or doing other things. Temporarily checking in on the home (or place where he was murdered).
Flux means to flow, move or change.
I’ve been meaning to do a follow up report on this. Keep checking GhostTheory for an update
thanks.
O.k. I had a spirit way back when. He would tap to answer questions. He said that if we could see him he would look like smoke floating above us. He was murdered. Or so he said. He at first acted evil but then changed when we were not affraid. He said he would get his energy from the sun. He said he went someplace during the day but never said where it was or we just never guessed the right answer for him to say Yes to. He usually only came to our house at night. One day he just left and never came back. I believe these guys. It’s real. Only I don’t know if these spirits really are good or bad. I have no idea. I know our spirit was nice in the end and really caused me to believe more in God and to pray. He said he wanted to do good things so he could live in heaven. ??? Who knows I’m just amazed that they can communicate. I think some of them figure it out and others don’t.
I have just seen a story about the spirit of Wright and am absolutely amazed!!
Are there other sightings similar to the story of Wright’s??
I just saw this on Unexplained Mysteries and this is truly a mystery! I’ve always had an interest in ghosts (wondering if there’s one in my own house because of a white figure I sometimes see out of the corner of my eye). I’m soooooo fascinated with this!!!
“Now the Vatican has announced that Hell does not exist.
Hell is a product of the church, to scare people into obediance.
And if Hell doesn´t exist, why would Heaven”
Either the vatican was intentionally lying, or they are no longer “Christians”.
The proof of this is the fact that Jesus himself teached more about Hell than Heaven. Christians believe that Jesus was at once man and God in the flesh, he was the ’son of god’. So to say that Jesus was wrong or- even more absurd- that he was lying, would be against everything christians believe.
Jesus said narrow is the road to heaven and broad was the way to hell. Christians pray to Jesus and eveything in Christianity is based on the teachings of Jesus and the fact that he was at once man and devine.
In any case, whether you’re a Christian or not, the Catholic church is, IMHO, a corrupt institute which strives, in the days we are living in, to be politically correct despite what the bible clearly states are truths and rights and wrongs. Nowadays people ‘want to do what they want to do’ despite what is says in the bible. People do not want to believe they could potentially spend all eternity in hell, burning in a lake of fire, for sinning and not repenting and living right. I’m a Christian and I do not want to believe that could happen either; but to go against what the Jesus said and what the bible says is to go against the most fundamental aspect of my faith – that the bible is the word of God and that it is not a lie made up by man, which non believers think. It’s absurd to think that the disciples that wrote the new testaments would write things they knew were false, which would be intentionally lying and that would be going against one of their most fundamantal beliefs – which is not to lie – one of the ten commandements.
I’m always curious about things of this nature. I once saw a “ufo” fly right over my car while driving on 61st street toward the Arkansas river in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I was the passenger and my friend Tim was driving. I kept telling him to follow it to which he replied “I’m trying I’m trying.” We had no chance of staying with it. We could only watch as it flew away over the river. We could still see it for several minutes however. But when that thing swooped down in front of our windshield; Wow!! It was triangular shaped and it looked like a metal object of some sort, but it moved so fast we couldn’t really get a good look at it. This happened in broad daylight, and as I said it kept moving away from us fast like an airplane but with bending like movements one would see on “The Jetson’s.” This happened in the late eighties, and my friend Tim has since passed away from a heart attack. I wonder if this “Wright” tell me more about what that thing was??
Ortega,
I would love to see a follow up report/story on this “wright” I think there are more questions to be asked. Like for instance, Does he have unfinished business? He seem to be a christian by the mentioning of Gods name and other things he has mentioned. How bout asking him if he knows who his killer is? Or how old he was when he died? Is he an adult or child spirit? Ask him who was the last president he can remember..etc.. Did they ever dig to see if a body was indeed buried as they reported? What does he kow about things to come? Can he get a glimpse into the future? These would be qwuestiones I would ask… I sure would like to know how things are going for him now.
Where can we find more of the pics?!
More pictures are not available online.
There have been a few more scanned, but I don’t think they are up.
They have a book that they recently compiled with more photos:
http://www.drkrm.com/ghost2.html
Check it out.
-Javier
WELL, TOWARDS THE END…THEY TALK ABOUT SOME MAGICIAN….MAKING SIMILAR TEXT APPEAR…SEEMINGLY…AS I INTERPERTED IT….WITHOUT TOUCHING THE PHOTOS…HOWD…HE MAGICALLY MAKE THE SAME TEXT APPEAR WITHOUT DOCTORING THE PHOTOS….IF ON THE PREEVIOUS PART IT SAID IT LOOKED SIMILIAR TO COTTON DOCTORING THAT WOULD TAKE HOURS….EXPLAIN
Wow go figure the photo’s are being sold in a 50 dollar book. That explains it all nothing but trickery for a profit. You people are easy. I have a bridge to sell you.
hey, Bijan.
they’re not christians. “the vatican” is a building, not a person, occupied by catholics. and look up the meaning of the word “hell”. it has interesting root words, none of which mean a place of torment.
Is this real?
I mean, i see some proofs, but that means that ghost do exist and that is hard to belive, I am so shocked. I don’t know is this real or not.
Sorry fot the mistakes in writing.
Jenny,
I wrote this in a suggestive manor. It really is open to interpretation.
I’ve asked myself this very same question. The people who own the home claim that this is genuine and are not seeking publicity (after their first attempt at getting answers went wrong).
Even though I’ve spoken with the owners multiple times, I’ve yet to receive an invitation to their “hidden home”
-Javier
Why didn’t they ask some better questions? Such as:
1. Is there a God, if so, who is he/where is he?
2. Is there alien life?
3. How can we contact alien life?
4. How long before a global catastrophie, when/where/why/how?
5. Can he see the future?
6. How do we travel in time?
7. What power source should we be using for our cars/trucks/ etc.?
8. What is the cure for cancer?
9. Can we stop aging process? If so, how?
10. Is there any buried knowledge that can help mankind? If so, where?
11. What are some good lottery numbers?
This is so cool! I wish I could ask Wrighter some questions. Alot of them would be like what Jim asked. It’s really annoying seeing other people with a God given gift and not knowing how to use it. Not that I’m saying that I know how to use something like the ability to speak with ghost. I’m just saying that I would be more excited than scared!
I’ve seen this on Unexplained Mysteries recently and so decided to look it up on the web… the videos above are very dissapointing, why do they go off just when you want to see the finished developed film?????
On unexplained mysteries, it says that over 500 photographs were taken and filmed by Pete James and Kerry Gaynor, why cant we see their films of the complete developing?
@Jim
@Sketch
@Helen UK,
A lot of these questions have been covered throughout different articles I wrote:
http://www.ghosttheory.com/2009/08/30/ghost-polaroids-interview-your-questions-answered
http://www.ghosttheory.com/2008/04/03/john-matkowsky-polaroids-of-the-dead-interview
I know that A LOT of questions have been asked throughout the years be different people, and when I went to their exhibit, a lot of the polaroids were shown. I don’t remember most of the questions and answers.
The case is a very controversial one. I still find myself doubting most of it. The case seems more like an elaborate art project. I cannot be certain of this though. All I know is that the photographs are quite remarkable.
-Javier
Personally, I think the TV show was in on this with the owners of the house. Probably a hoax set up to drive up ratings. This would explain why it only lasted long enough to be invetigated by the show.
Anything is possible, and perhaps it really was an entity of some sort… but I’d bet money it was a set up.
If you google the two homeowners JOHN HUCKERT and JOHN MATKOWSKY, you will get this site advertising a gay/murder movie. Note that both are either producers/writers and director of photography. It seams coincidental that they have photo talents.
I no longer believe this ghost writer is real. Any thoughts?
http://www.hardthemovie.com/cast_crew/cast.html
Lisa,
Yes, it’s known that both run a photography business so this was obviously detrimental to their claim.
Although the writing came out on polaroids so as to appear that there was not trickery involved, many claimed that it was possible to reproduce the writing in a lab. So far, no actual proof was come out.
I questioned them both about these claims and they stood by their word.
As you can see from my posts, I am also on the fence about this claim.
It’s a weird story.
-Javier
You think might be able to tell my future if I asked about it? XDDD
Oops, I meant to write “You think the ghost might be able to tell my future if I asked about it?”
Seriously, it sounds like a magic 8 Ball.
The new show “Fact or Faked” did take on this phenomenon in the latest episode (S01E03).
Although I think they could´ve tried harder to debunk it, they didn´t manage to fabricate anything near the original “ghost photos”.
What was really strange was that when they shot their own polaroid film inside the house, the photos came out with white blobs all over, but when shot outside they were ok…
They couln´t explain that.
The only thing I can think of is radioactive radiation, or X-rays, which could expose parts of the film, resulting in white blobs since Polaroid is a positive film (They would be black on a negative).
What is more interesting about the Polaroid film emulsion, is that it´s made of polarised iodine molecules, just as a Liquid Crystal Display, and maybe could be affected by electro magnetic fields (other than light, of course) the same way as the LCD. Then it would be easy to make text appear.
Any thoughts on that?
Well, someone’s Latin translation is a bit off.
“Sed haec prius fuere” literally means, “But these [things] were before.” Also, it’s from Catullus 4. The poem’s literally about a ship.
Genius loci is right. It was a major part of Roman religion. Offerings were made to protect the household and family.
Also, “corpus dilecti” is the fact that the crime needs to have been committed. So, Wright may have been murdered, but perhaps the reason there are (according to what Fact or Faked told viewers) no records of a murder in the house is because the crime was never known to have been committed.
Whatever the case is, it appears that Wright is a Latin scholar. perhaps some questions in Latin will draw him out again…