4 THE VOICE, THURSDAY, OCT. 30,2014 EDITOR CHRIS SLATER FA ntertainment A haunting in South Van Reports of paranormal activity in a Vancouver townhouse complex By MARY BEACH ot far from Langara’s campus, four young men were crushed to death by a falling tree. It was Christmas night and they were on their way to a party. Even though this happened over 100 years ago, professionals who investigated paranor- mal activity in the area were interested. Heather Anderson of British Columbia Ghosts & Hauntings Research Society investi- gated strange happenings at a housing complex in the area. Residents reported shadowy figures, balls of light, bells ringing and glass shattering in the middle of the night. One woman heard the tor- mented voice of a woman through her baby monitor, and a picture frame that shook and rattled terrified another. “Poltergeists,”said Anderson, “noisy ghosts.” If it could speak, the land underneath South Vancouver snaking along the Fraser River could tell many stories, the kind that raise the hair on the back of your neck. Anderson said poltergeist activity, including loud banging noises, missing objects, sudden and unusual smells, objects moving or being thrown, can be caused by a living person. People in the business call it a focus. “The focus is thought to be undergoing se- vere mental anxiety such as puberty, financial stress or marital problems, for example, so great that they can basically project their emo- tions, causing physical manifestations of this angst,” Anderson said in an email. One resident in the complex was alarmed by the disappearance and reappearance of objects. Her birth control pills disappeared no matter where she hid them, even from a locked drawer. Amanda Haupt of Coldspotters said there are intelligent hauntings. “That’s going to be a ghost that’s interacting with you. If you’re experiencing someone whis- pering at you or talking to you or moving your items - having fun with you? That’s more of an intelligent haunting,” she said. Haupt has a lot of ghost stories, though she uses the term ghost loosely. Instead she describes it as energy that doesn’t go away but “becomes something else.” “A lot of times people are experiencing some activity that’s more residual, an echo of the past. It’s almost like a sound wave, somehow it’s got stuck and it repeats over and over,” Haupt said. Non-believers who haven’t heard disembod- ied voices or other mysterious sounds can get in touch with Haupt, who said she has caught on tape such sounds in her investigations. Cuckoo's Nest cast warms up Rehearsals for Studio 58 production are going well, at least so far By SABLEEN MINHAS atre piece, Kosmic Mambo, Studio 58 has started rehearsals for its next production, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and according to the production team, everything’s going well. The play by Dale Wasserman, writ- ten in the 1960s is based on Ken Kesey’s novel of the same name. Studio 58’s performance will debut on Nov.13 and will run until the end of the month. “Tt’s a both funny and shocking look at how we handled the mental health issues in the 1950s and 60s,” said Pat- rick McDonald, director of the play. It is a story of Randle Patrick Mc- Murphy, played by Markian Tarasiuk, a rogue who fakes mental illness to avoid a short term in prison and ends up in a mental health institution. Enter Nurse Ratched, played by Erin Cassidy, the head nurse who controls the ward at the hospital. McMurphy, who is an anti-authoritarian at heart, incites a rebellion in fellow inmates against Ratched’s tyranny. The plot then journeys through a se- ries of happy, shocking and _ tragic events. “T think what’s interesting about it is that we have set it in the original time of early 1960s,” McDonald said. From the set design to the costumes, everything will be reflective of that era, he added. “The set will have a black and white TV that we had in those days, the elec- troshock [therapy] which McMurphy participates in very unwillingly in Act 2 and things like that,” McDonald said. The rehearsals for the play began earlier this month. “So far we are doing really well. We are ahead of schedule,” said Corey Bullock, a production student at Studio 58.“But I am sure there will be [prob- lems] especially, once we start adding props and costumes. Then things might get a little bit more difficult,” she said. Ae: winding up the physical the- By KERA SKOCYLAS stop hundreds of people from at- tending the opening night of the All Souls events in Vancouver on Oct. 25. Held at Mountain View Cemetery, He: winds and torrential rain didn’t Inside the celebration hall, people drank tea, ate cookies, laughed and shared stories. “It’s a nice night to remember our loved ones,” said attendee Mae Spitzer. “My great-grandparents, grandpar- ents, mother, and great aunts and un- cles are all here.” One room was full of tables where people could create a personalized me- morial. They were invited to write a Several people came out Oct. 25 to take part in the opening night of the All Souls events held at Mountain View Cemetery in Vancouver. KERA SKOCYLAS photo Vancouver’s only cemetery, the event was created to honour and remember the dead in a welcoming and peaceful setting. The community was invited to sing, listen to music, create personal- ized candles and share their memories of people they have lost. Paula Jardine and Marina Szijarto, both artists, created and organized the event. “We as humans have the need and de- sire to remember the dead in an atmo- sphere of beauty,” Jardine said. message to the lost soul on tracing pa- per and then fit the paper in a glass candle holder so that the message was visible through the glass. The candle could then be taken out- side and lit and placed on a grave or at a shrine. One shrine had a wall with mes- sages written on it, and people could burn incense and light candles. People also sang along with a choir around a tall flame, and a trumpet could be heard during the night. People wrote messag- es to loved ones on long pieces of paper All Souls draws out many The 10th annual All Souls events kicked off Oct. 25 and hung them on a string of white lights. Numerous families attended the event, with babies in strollers and chil- dren of all ages. Jardine said the event is a great place to begin the conversation of mortality, and for kids to have their first experi- ence thinking about death. A young boy said “I touched a grave, mom” as he jumped in puddles in his rain boots. Colette Lisoway, who worked at the event, said at this time of year when there are so many spooky Halloween things going on, it is nice to have such an intimate and special event. “There is nothing spooky about this event. It’s very respectful, reflective, and contemplative,” she said. This event has become a tradition for many people, Jardine said, “it’s a com- fort to realize that others are feeling the same way.”