Real-Life X-Files (46 page)

During real or pretended suffering, Rivas exhibited, first, pricklike marks and bleeding on the forehead (as from a crown of thorns)—though apparently not on the sides or back of the head, suggesting the marks were only for show. Then there was (possibly) a pink mark on the left palm, followed by a tiny cross on the back of the hand that was initially without blood. Later there were bloody “wounds” on both sides of the hands and feet. Willesee used swabs to obtain samples of the blood for analysis. No side wound or other crucifixion markings ever appeared. At the end of the experience—or demonstration—Rivas displayed paroxysms of a deathlike agony imitative of Jesus’ crucifixion.

Rivas’s wounds were never seen in the act of spontaneously issuing but instead were shown in incremental shots
after
each appearance—just as they would if self-inflicted during periods of concealment. Among other suspicious elements were the mismatching of “entrance” and “exit” wounds, those on the left foot being far out of alignment. Also, those on the palms and soles of the feet were, as far as could be seen, only smears of blood. Moreover, such wounds as could be distinguished were not puncturelike but rather consisted of multiple cuts, including the cross on the back of the left hand (
figure 44.1
) and an array of slashes atop each foot. The latter are curiously in pairs (
figure 44.2
) as if produced by a two-pronged implement, like the sharp-cornered, calyxlike ring Katya Rivas wore during the event.

Supposedly only twenty-four hours later, the camera recorded Willesee inspecting Rivas’s wounds. Apparently those on the palms and soles had vanished completely (but were not specifically shown), and the markings that remained were seemingly in an advanced state of healing. Willesee treated this as remarkable, but another interpretation is that the vanishing of some “wounds” indicated they were never there in the first place and that most or all of the markings were old cuts from previously faked stigmata. A genuine element of the affair was the blood itself, which was shown by DNA analysis to be Katya Rivas’s. Unfortunately for the miracle-mongering journalist Willesee—who made much of the possibility that it might be Christ’s blood in whole or in part—it proved to be Rivas’s alone.

Figure 44.1. Cross-shaped wound on back of Katya Rivas’s left hand.

Figure 44.2. Post-stigmata marks on top of one of Rivas’s feet, most or all of which are scars from previous “stigmata.”

Figure 44.3. Small cuts on author’s hand produce sufficient blood to simulate a sizeable wound.

When I was asked to appear on a television documentary on stigmata and to discuss the Katya Rivas case, I decided to experiment beforehand by inflicting wounds on myself. I used a sharp blade to cut a cross on the back of my left hand. This shallow, superficial wound yielded enough blood to produce the effect of a larger wound (
44.3
) and even (by transfer) create a “wound” on the palm (
figure 44.4
). The next day, the latter had of course vanished and the cross had begun to heal. There are certain medicinal preparations that allegedly promote healing and, as I found, cosmetic creams that through their hiding power can seemingly advance the healing or eliminate the wound entirely.

My examination of the video showing Katya Rivas’s alleged stigmatization and the simple experiments I performed persuaded me that not only could her stigmata not be authenticated, but, indeed—like other instances of the alleged phenomenon throughout history—they cannot be distinguished from a pious hoax.

Figure 44.4. Transfer of blood from wound shown in figure 3 produced fake wound on palm.

References

Barbet, Pierre. 1950.
A Doctor at Calvary
, Fr. ed.; Eng. trans. Garden City, N.Y.: Image, 1963, 103–20.

Biot, René. 1962.
The Enigma of the Stigmata.
New York: Hawthorn.

CNN & Time.
1999. TV segment on CNN, August 8.

Coulson John, ed. 1958.
The Saints: A Concise Biographical Dictionary.
New York: Hawthorn, 187–88.

“Francis of Assisi, St.” 1960.
Encyclopaedia Britannica.

Harrison, Ted. 1994. Stigmata: A Medieval Phenomenon in a Modern Age. New York: St. Martin’s.

Jones, Alison. 1994.
The Wordsworth Dictionary of Saints.
Ware, England: Wordsworth Editions, 116–18.

Nickell, Joe. 1993.
Looking for a Miracle.
Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus.

———. 1998.
Inquest on the Shroud of Turin.
Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus, 61–63.

———. 1999. Thumbs down on Fox’s “Signs from God.”
Skeptical Inquirer
23.6 (Nov./ Dec.): 61.

Radford, Ben. 1999. Movie review:
Stigmata. Corrales (New Mexico) Comment,
Sept. 25.

Randi, James. 1999. Randi’s Archive, James Randi Educational Foundation,
http:/ /www.randi.org/jr/7-30-1999.html
, July 30.

Rogo, D. Scott. 1982.
Miracles. A Parascientific Inquiry into Wondrous Phenomena.
New York: Dial.

Ruffin, C. Bernard. 1982.
Padre Pio: The True Story.
Huntington, Ind.: Our Sunday Visitor.

Thurston, Herbert. 1952.
The Physical Phenomena of Mysticism.
Chicago: H. Regnery.

Schnabel, Jim. 1993. The Munch bunch.
Fortean Times
70 (Aug./ Sept.), 23-29.

Willesee, Michael (exec, prod.) 1999.
Signs from God,
Fox TV, July 28.

Wilson, Ian. 1979.
The Shroud of Turin,
rev. ed. Garden City, N.Y.: Image.

——— . 1988.
The Bleeding Mind.
London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.

Chapter 45

If testimonials in countless books and articles are to bebelieved, spending the night in a quaint old hotel might provide an encounter with an extra, ethereal visitor. In the course of thirty years of paranormal investigation, I have had the opportunity to experience many“haunted” sites. These have included burial places, like England’s West Kennet Long Barrow (where I failed to see the specter of a “Druid priest” that allegedly attends the ancient tomb); religious sanctuaries,such as Christ Church Cathedral in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada (where the apparition of the first bishop’s wife did not materialize); theaters,including the Lancaster (New York) Opera House (where a spectral “Ladyin Lavender” was a no-show); houses, like the historic residence of William Lyon Mackenzie in Toronto (where ghostly footfalls on the stairs were actually those of real people on a staircase next door); and other sites,notably inns—the subject of this investigative roundup. (Most of the inns cited—all personally investigated—included an overnight stay, staff interviews, background research, etc. [Nickell 1972-2000]).

Why haunted inns? Obviously, places open to the public have more numerous and varied visitors, and hence more opportunities for ghostly experiences, than do private dwellings and out-of-the-way sites. And inns—meaning hotels, motels, guesthouses, bed-and-breakfasts, and other places that provide overnight lodging—offer much more. They not only allowextended time periods for visitors to have unusual experiences but alsoinsure that the guests will be there during a range of states from alertnessthrough sleep. Almost predictably, sooner or later, someone will awaken toan apparition at his or her bedside.

Appearances of the Dead

The experience is a common type of hallucination, known popularly as a “waking dream,” which takes place between being fully asleep and fully awake. Such experiences typically include bizarre imagery (bright lights or apparitions of demons, ghosts, aliens, etc.) and/or auditory hallucinations. “Sleep paralysis” may also occur, where by there is an inability to move because the body is still in the sleep mode(Nickell 1995).

A good example of an obvious waking dream is reported by “A.C.” She was asleep on board the
Queen Mary,
the former ocean liner that since 1971 has been permanently docked at Long Beach, California. As the woman relates: “I awoke from adeep sleep around midnight. I saw a figure walking near my daughter’s sleeping bag toward the door. Thinking it was my sister, I called out. There was no answer. It was then that I noticed my sister was lying next to me. I sat up in bed and watched the person in white walk through the door! Another example reported at the Hotel Queen Mary is credited to “H.V.” :

I was awakened from mysleep and observed the image of a person standing in front of my bed. There were no apparent physical features, but it appeared to be holding a flashlight, with a light shining out of it that was brighter than the form itself. I watched as the image swayed back and forth. When I called my roommate the image backed up. I called again and the vision backed up even further, toward the door. I reached for the light switch and tried to turn it on. The light switch seemed to spark and wouldn’t turn on all the way.Finally, my roommate woke up; the light came on, and whatever it was, was gone. We slept with the TV on the rest of the night. It was a great experience, and I had a lot of fun! (Wlodarski et al. 1995, 33, 35)

To be sure, not all sightings of ghostly figures are of the waking-dream variety, many in fact occurring during normal activity. Some are like the report of “J.M.,” who was at the
Queen Mary’s
Purser’s Desk when, he stated, “I caught a brief glimpse out of the corner of myeye, of someone or something moving,” or like that of “P.T.,”who said, “I saw something move out of the corner of my eye … a brief glimpse of someone or something” (Wlodarski 1995, 32, 36). Actually, the illusion that something is moving in the peripheral vision is quite common.The typical cause may be a “floater,” a bit of drifting material in the eye’s vitreous humor, although a twitching eyelid or other occurrence is also possible.
Such an illusion or a different stimulus—a noise, a subjective feeling, etc.—might trigger, as in one person who had such an experience aboard the Queen Mary;a “mental image.” In that case it was of a man “wearing a blue mechanic’s uniform” —a “feeling” that left after a few moments(Wlodarski et al. 1995,32). In certain especially imaginative individuals, the mental image might be superimposed upon the visual scene, thus creating a seemingly apparitional event.