Faces of Fear
By Dr. Mality
Do the worlds of the dead and the living sometimes overlap? Many believe they do; in fact, such belief is the basis of whole religions. Many others are less sure. But their skepticism might have been shaken if they had ever visited the quaint Andalusian village of Belmez de la Moraleda--in particular, #5 Rodriguez Acosta.
There have been a vast number of ghostly, paranormal encounters throughout history. But what happened in Belmez de la Moraleda (hereafter just "Belmez") starting in 1971 was truly unique...and absolutely unearthly. On the cement floor of a modest home, faces began to spontaneously appear. Faces of unknown people, which moved, frowned, smiled and wept. Faces accompanied by strange subliminal voices and sounds. Many believed they were the faces of the ancient dead, who had rested for hundreds of years in the spot where the home in question was built.
The Belmez phenomena were the subject of intense scientific scrutiny for decades. Up until 2004, the faces continued to be seen and studied at the same address, which changed its name to 5 Real Street. Accusations of fraud and hoaxing have been bandied about, but much of what happened at #5 has been substantiated and backed up by rigorous study.
The house belonged to the Pereira family, headed by Juan and Maria Gomez Pereira. It had been built in 1830 and had been in continuous use since that time, with little trouble. Juan's maternal grandparents noted there was a brief period when strange noises issued from the cellar, but this soon passed. For all of Juan and Maria's lifetime, the house had been a quiet, pleasant residence.
That all changed on August 23, 1971. That was the day Maria saw a strange spot on the cement floor of her kitchen. Attempts to scrub away the spot proved unsuccessful and the spot grew a little each day. And then, one day, Maria was horrified to see that the spot had evolved into a face! Not an exact likeness of a face, but something more like a primitive portrait or a Picasso-like version of a face. Maria had Juan and her son Miguel examine the face. They both agreed that it was a male face and it seemed to have a sad expression. In the months to come, this particular face would be called "Pava".
The Pereira family was unnerved by the appearance of the face on the floor. The face could not be wiped or scrubbed off. Neighbors were brought in to examine the face...some of them said it resembled an ancient image that could be seen at the nearby church of Jaen.
Wishing to be rid of the unearthly vision, Miguel took a pickaxe to the kitchen floor and tore out the cement. New cement was poured and a new floor was made for the kitchen. But it made no difference. On September 8, 1971, "Pava" returned to the floor, in the exact same position he had occupied before. It seemed to some that his face was sadder than before.
The face was the talk of the whole village. A circus-like atmosphere began to surround the Pereira home, as gawkers lined up to get a look at the mysterious faces. The Mayor of Belmez ordered that the section of cement with "Pava" on it be cut out and displayed behind glass. The City Council ordered that the ground in the section of the kitchen where the face appeared be excavated, to see what, if anything, was causing the phenomena.
The results only increased the eeriness and feelings of unease. At a depth of about nine feet, two headless skeletons and a jumbled mass of other human bones were found. The location of the Pereira house was once the site of a catholic cemetary that dated back to the 17th century. Before that, Muslims from the age of the Moorish occupation were buried there and earlier yet, it was the site of a Roman burial ground. The site of Maria's kitchen had been a graveyard of some kind for likely more than a thousand years before the Pereira house had been built.
It is interesting to note that an old church right next to the Pereira residence was undergoing a massive restoration prior to the Face activity. Could work on the church have disturbed the spirits resting dormant beneath the kitchen? Later on, the spirits themselves would weigh in on the subject!
The old bones were reburied with full Catholic rites at another cemetary. Eager to put an end to the phenomenon, which some regarded as a vulgar hoax, the City Council paid to again pour cement for yet another new kitchen for the Pereiras. But the results were not what they would have wanted.
Not only did "Pava" reappear, but now more faces and images joined him on the floor! Faces were of both men and women...some were almost life sized, others tiny. Some were almost totally abstract, others were more defined. When attempts were again made to wipe the faces off, the expressions on all of them changed into ones of horror and anger.
The Pereiras had lost control of their house, or at least their kitchen. Though no one was hurt by the faces, many were unnerved by them. A new kitchen was built in an attachment to the Pereira house. The old kitchen, with its strange faces on the floor, became nothing but a site for tourists, scientists and reporters to gape at. The news of the Faces of Belmez had now spread not only beyond the village, but was becoming a worldwide phenomena, particularly amongst the paranormal and religious communities.
Official scientific scrutiny came to #5 in the early months of 1972. The renowned Spanish parapsychologist German de Argumosa, invited to Belmez by the Governor of Jaen Province, came wtih a team of investigators to the Pereira house.
De Argumosa was one of the world's foremost authorities on the controversial subject of "electronic voice phenomena" or EVP...the recorded voices of the dead. De Argumosa invited another major parapsychologist, Dr. Hans Bender of Freiberg University in Germany, to accompany his expedition to Belmez.
The two scientists and their crews were soon convinced that they were dealing with a ghostly manifestation of the highest magnitude. They immediately noticed not only the faces themselves, but the way they constantly seemed to change expression and "evolve". They gave names and numbers to the faces and studied them. Some would disappear as new ones appeared...others would change expression or position. A very astute observation was made that many of the faces seemed to reflect the mental attitude of Maria Gomez Pereira, the woman most closely associated with the phenomenon. This would become a crucial point.
De Argumosa and Bender tested the cement to see if it was impregnated by pigment, paint or some other chemical agent. Their tests revealed nothing. Radioactivity and x-ray scans also revealed nothing. A television crew from Germany filmed many of the experiments and kept a constant eye on things, looking for any sign of fraud. Many were still suspicious of the faces and to prove once and for all that no outside force was manipulating the faces, De Argumosa devised a radical plan.
In the presence of the camera crew and Belmez town officials, De Argumosa divided the kitchen floor into sections, which he then photographed. He then covered each section with a coating and sealed it down. The doors and windows to the room were sealed tight with wax...any breakage of the seal would easily be seen. The kitchen was then left alone and unoccupied for 3 long months.
When the 3 months were up, the researchers returned and opened the room in front of many witnesses. The coatings over the floor were removed. The faces were still there and in fact, they had moved during the 3 months. Comparison with the earlier photographs clearly demonstrated this. For many, it was absolute confirmation that the Faces of Belmez were a supernatural phenomenon that could not be explained. The photographs, both old and new, were sent to Kodak, who examined them carefully and announced they could find no fraud or trickery.
Now De Argumosa wanted to hook up hyper-sensitive microphones to the floor. It was these microphones that he used in the past to pick up the ghostly voices and sounds of EVP at various other locations. He reckoned that the Pereira kitchen would be a rich source of EVP recordings.
He was absolutely correct. A tremendous amount of mysterious voices and sounds were picked up by the microphones. Now it must be stated that most of the EVP "words and phrases" are extremely vague and garbled. Critics maintain that they might be acoustic "echoes" of recent conversations or even sounds from outside the Pereira House. EVP is regarded with some skepticism even in the paranormal community.
Yet the recordings here were such a rich treasure trove...and some of the sounds were so clear...that it again seems likely that, like the faces, the voices of Belmez were another true manifestation of the supernatural. Many of the sounds were inarticulate cries, groans and whispers, but some very clear phrases were picked up. Following is a partial list of some of the most interesting:
"I continue buried"
"Maria, I want to go out" (in a girl child's voice)
"She goes with all the men."
"Hell begins here." (without doubt, the most ominous)
"Look below!" (this voice was recorded at the time De Argumosa first dug up the kitchen floor...the skeletons were then found)
Some of the EVP voices were pretty foul-mouthed and cranky. "Bitch" was frequently heard on the tapes, as well as the Spanish version of "Fuck yourself!" Just as the faces changed expression, the ghostly voices (unheard except on tape) also had a wide range of emotion and content. And the de Argumosa/Bender expedition was not the only one to record voices at the Pereira home. An investigator named Pedro Amoros also recorded many examples of subliminal voices in the home. The EVP collected by Amoros seemed darker and more violent than what the other researchers heard and included comments like these:
"To kill him!"
"All passed away."
"There they all are."
"One suffers."
Sometimes, the voice responded to questions. When Maria Gomez Pereira herself asked why her house had been chosen for the faces to appear, Amoros picked up this response: "It is an abuse".
EVP was still being recorded in the Pereira house by Amoros's organization into the 1990's. At one point, it was considered that the voices and faces might have been created by the subconscious minds of those in the house, particularly Maria. As noted before, the faces seemed to mirror Maria's own state of mind. One voice sounding a lot like Maria's was heard to say "I dream to you." To some, this indicates that the faces and voices were not the spirits of the long dead, but some sort of manifestations of Maria's own mind.
In many cases of poltergeist activity, a nearby person, usually a young child, seems to be a catalyst. Perhaps this is the case for the Belmez phenomena.
The faces were not merely a short-lived haunting. They continued to be seen for decades and were still being seen in 2004. Although seekers of the strange and paranormal always visited the home, the circus-like atmosphere of the early 70's finally vanished and gave way to a quieter situation. The Pereiras learned to accept that the kitchen was the site of an incredible paranormal outburst and upon realizing that no harm ever occurred to anybody, they lived with their extraordinary "tenants".
In the meantime, every attempt was made to debunk the faces and voices. The Pereiras and the psychic investigators were constantly accused of fraud and hoax. Though the researchers did write books on the Belmez phenomena, the extraordinary cost of observing, testing and guarding the kitchen year after year would certainly eliminate profit as a motive. The Pereiras themselves got a new kitchen courtesy of the City Council and made some modest profit on charging curiosity-seekers. But the disruption to their lives and the constant questioning of their sincerity seemed to weary them.
Juan Pereira passed away in the room of the faces after a long bout with cancer. His last words were that he could see them smiling and welcoming him. Later, the Pereira grandchildren claimed they could see Juan's face on the floor, although no photographs exist of this.
Early in 2004, Maria herself passed away after a similar stretch of bad health. Her last days had been spent in a hospital. Throughout the entire strange ordeal, she always seemed to remain a simple wife and mother, earning the admiration and respect of many. Her funeral drew hundreds of well-wishers.
The deaths of Maria and Juan Pereira, surprisingly, did not bring an end to the Faces of Belmez. The Spanish Society of Paranormal Investigations, of which Pedro Amoros was a member, examined the floor immediately after Maria's death and ascertained that the Faces were still active, appearing, disappearing and changing expression. To the surprise of some, Maria's face was not among them.
At last report, the old house at #3 Real Street (formerly #5 Rodriguez Acosta) was for sale. After generations, the Pereiras have given up ownership of it. It is unknown who has offered to buy the famous building; one would hope that perhaps a scientific organization, as opposed to a vulgar tourist trap, would buy and continue to examine the place.
No one to this date has conclusively proven any form of fraud or hoax in connections with the Faces of Belmez. I am sure most of the scientific "establishment" prefers to ignore the entire incident, for it would shake many tenets of science to the core. What happened in the kitchen of the Pereira House? If the faces and voices were those of the ancient dead, what caused them after all these years to manifest in such a unique way? Were the appearances connected to the minds of Maria and Juan Pereira?
Speculations abounds but no answers have yet come forth. In all my years of investigating the strange, I can think of no eerier incident or more conclusive proof of life after death than the Faces of Belmez de la Moraleda.
This is Dr. Abner Mality, turning out the lights.