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Spooky Stuff

This is an article and accompanying sideline that was printed on the front page of the Lakes Region Weekly. At the bottom, we have included supplemental video clips from our own footage of the investigation.

Meet a real paranormal investigator
by Michael Hartwell

While most people associate ghosts and spirits with the month of October, people like 47-year-old Ahura Z. Diliiza of Westbrook say they see them year-round.

What you call unusual is usual to us." said Diliiza, the chief commissioner of the Unicorn Rangers Psychic Police, a private group based out of Westbrook.

"My job is to determine if a paranormal event is taking place, or maybe someone just drank too much cough syrup." said Diliiza. He stands out as a powerfully-built dark-skinned guru with blonde, braided hair that always seems to drape itself across his shoulder as if by magic.

With almost two decades of metaphysical experience under his belt, Diliiza is also the owner of the Unicorn Cove new age supply store on Main Street in Westbrook. They sell supplies and services for a wide range of subjects, including astrology, exorcism, Tai Chi and physical healing.

He said he has students all over the globe and plans to open a second location in Florida. He and his eight student that make up the Unicorn Rangers work strictly for donations. They are looking at starting a television show with the company that produces Dog, the Bounty Hunter.

Diliiza said that after a person dies an energy trace is left behind.

"It's like how a snail will leave behind its shell," he said. He said there are higher concentrations of ghosts in places where there was a lot of trauma and emotion, such as hospitals, prisons, sanitariums and cemeteries.

Diliiza said there is a lot of paranormal activity in Maine due in part to the bloody conflicts between European settlers and American Indians.

"That can cause a great rift in energy." he said. Diliiza said he was living out west when an Indian burial ground was disturbed.

"There was a tornado that day." he said. He said that the world is filled with both good and bad energy, and it's not wise to mess with forces you don't understand.

"It can be very dangerous," said Diliiza. "For instance, the other day I had to do an entity removal from a group of young ladies who decided to play with a Ouija board. One of them says that she got thrown across the room."
Diliiza said he works to protect people from dangerous paranormal entities that inhabit our world. He said only trained professionals should look for signs of the spirit world or risk grave danger.

"Whether you believe in them or not is irrelevant. They exist, just as sure as light and dark exist," he said.


To haunt or not to haunt: Two perspectives
By David Harry and Michael Hartwell

BRIDGTON (Oct 26, 2007): The portraits and yearbooks at Bridgton Academy depict the proud history of a school which celebrates its bicentennial in 2008.

The academy also celebrates legends and lore visible to some with longtime connections to the school, specifically the spirit said to grace Massachusetts Hall, an academy dormitory.

Last week, a Westbrook-based paranormal investigator said he concurred with those who have seen and heard the spirit of a young woman in the dorm, and then said the campus has more than one entity calling it home.


The academy does not conceal the legends. "It is a marvelous part of the school's history," said Headmaster David Hursty. "It never turns off prospective students."


From left, Bridgton Academy's David Hursty and Bill Bearse look for signs of spirits with paranormal investigator Ahura Z. Diliiza outside the Massachusetts Hall dormitory at Bridgton Academy. (Photo by Michael Hartwell)

Tales surrounding Massachusetts Hall range back as far as 60 years ago, according to Hursty.

Hursty has been at the academy for 18 years, the last four as headmaster, but became acquainted with stories when he was president of the North Bridgton Historical Society.

Believers say there may be more than one spirit residing in Massachusetts Hall, but the most visible and audible entity is also known for the care and concern she shows residents in the dorm.

"She is very pleasant and likes music and would turn on stereos," said Bill Bearse, a science teacher at Bridgton Academy for more than 30 years.

Bearse, who lived in the dormitory for four years and has also had an office in the building, said the ghost, who some have called Johanna, has been heard sweeping floors in vacant rooms, locking doors residents had left unlocked, and, for Bearse, opening doors when his arms were full.

"I report what I have seen," Bearse said, adding he saw the ghost the first day he moved into the building. "I realize there are things you don't understand."

Bearse shared a story he heard about a husband and wife team who were renovating the building.
"He heard his wife come walking up the stairway and he decided to jump out and scare her," said Bearse. "And the only thing he saw was the ghost, and he never came back in the building. He went down the stairs and never came back."

Hursty has never experienced the spirit, but has no doubts about the veracity of the stories.
"I was a disbeliever for years," Hursty said, "But I have heard enough stories that are the same, yet from different types of people."

Thrill of the Hunt

Outside Massachusetts Hall last week, as wind-blown leaves scraped across the road and the shadows of tree limbs flickered under street lamps, Ahura Z. Diliiza, of the Unicorn Rangers Psychic Police paranormal investigation team based out of Westbrook, said he felt the emanations and energy of the wooden building quite clearly. He pointed to windows on the third floor, paned glass inside wooden frames.

"What they have been seeing is real," said Diliiza, who said the apparition was female before Bearse confirmed the fact. He also said the energy was essentially positive, eliminating the need to clear the building of any negative forces.

Accompanying him on the investigation were Beth Morrill and his daughter Evie Diliiza, both 23 and from Westbrook. They are both his students and Unicorn Rangers. They videotaped the event to look for clues and signs later.


From left, Unicorn Rangers Evie Diliiza, Ahura Z. Diliiza and Beth Morrill look for signs of spirits in the attic of Bridgton Academy dormitory Massachusetts Hall. (Photo by David Harry)

"Does she wear glasses?" Diliiza asked Bearse. He was told she doesn't and said it must have been something about her eyes that caught his attention. He concluded that it was her steady gaze upon him from the third story window.

Diliiza added more metaphysical paint to the portrait of the ghost. He said she was very tidy, and said that is why she would lock doors behind people.

Inside, the dormitory was largely empty as academy students attended study hall. Empty that is, except for the energy Diliiza said he felt as he walked along the upper floors.

"She is a very tickly presence, very watery,” said Diliiza.

The tour continued with a stop in the dormitory basement, a room Hursty said brought him chills when he was setting up the computer network there.

Diliiza stepped on a metal plate covering the floor in the center of the room and said there was a cold spot in front of the ancient rust-choked coal furnace.

He said there was something underneath the spot, deep in the earth that took all the energy out of the cold spot, named not for the change in temperature, but for the congealed effect of the air.

He urged the group to hold out their palms and feel the lightness of the air around them, then step onto the plate and feel the air above it.

Also in the basement Diliiza said he was detecting the spirit of a man wearing an officer's hat, like a military man or a cab driver.

After deep concentration and thought, a wave of joy and satisfaction seemed to wash over him.

"Oh! Milkman, a milkman," he proudly announced.

"A student who lived in the room next to the stairway who would claim that he saw someone walking by with a basket or a bucket, said Bearse. Diliiza said that must have been the milkman spirit.

Outside again, Diliiza pointed again to the upper windows of the dorm.

"You can see her presence there now. There is a faint blue light there," he said.

Interested in the history of Bridgton Academy, Diliiza became more animated when told of the school's link to the Underground Railroad and the abolitionist cause in the 19th century.


From left, Unicorn Rangers Evie Diliiza and Ahura Z. Diliiza look over an old yearbook with Bridgton Academy Headmaster David Hursty. The Unicorn Rangers is a paranormal investigation team based out of Westbrook that recently looked for the alleged spirits at the school. (Photo by Michael Hartwell)

Looking to tour another building to compare the energy he found in Massachusetts Hall, Diliiza and the tour continued to the academy's administration building. In the attic of the building, Diliiza was drawn to a front room, where secret meetings of a fraternal organization were once held.

Here he detected the presence of more spirits and pointed to a spot between the attic windows where he said he could see the ghost of a former headmaster standing.

Hursty later called the finding a surprise, but said his son had told him he did not like going into the attic.
Another perspective

After reviewing some of the videos from the investigation, Dr. Steven Novella, said he is not convinced there are any spirits at Bridgton Academy.

Novella is neurologist at Yale Medical School and the president of the New England Skeptical Society, a group that investigates the methods of paranormal investigators and he said there are more mundane explanations available. He hosts a podcast at www.theskepticsguide.org that talks about paranormal activites from a scientific perspective.

“There's no such thing as a haunted house, only haunted people,” he said.

“It’s easy to make a lot of statements, ‘I feel this, I feel that,’” said Novella. “But he didn’t demonstrate that he had any knowledge” of the history. “It’s pretty standard cold reading.”

“Cold reading is a technique of making vague or general statements that are likely to apply to anyone,” he added. Novella said this is commonly applied by psychics and it gets people to fill in the blanks the psychic made.

“Lots of times people don’t even realize they’re doing this,” he said.

“The people who want this to be true are a very easy audience, as opposed to someone who is skeptical," said Novella.

For example, Novella brought up the scene in the video when Diliiza said he saw someone in an officer's hat wearing a uniform.

“This is a very typical observation, the uniform bit,” said Novella. “He wasn’t impressed when Bearse said someone had seen a ghost carrying a basket or bucket.

“That was a really weak validation,” he said. He said the concept of a figure carrying something was vague and could have applied to a number of things.

“People remember the hits, forget the misses,” said Novella. He said this is called the Texas sharpshooter logical fallacy.

“You just shoot against the wall and then draw a target around the bullet holes,” he said. “This is the kind of sloppy thinking that leads people to the false conclusions.”

Novella said he believes some people have what is known as a fantasy-prone personality type where they think they see spirits or auras when there is nothing there.

“Whenever it’s put to any kind of test, like can you see the auras of people poking out from behind a door, they fail at those tests,” he said.

“Saying that when you are in a hypnagogic state (between wakefulness and sleep) you can see ghosts is exactly like saying that when you take hallucinogenic drugs you can see ghosts,” said Novella. “These are states in which people hallucinate.”

He said there are a lot of things that can go on in someone's mind that trick them into experiencing a fantasy they think is real. Waking dreams, for example, can pin a person in their bed and make them see figures moving about.

“People interpret these experiences based on their culture,” said Novella. “It used to be fairies and sea hags (mythological sea witch), and now it’s ghosts and little gray aliens.”

“If you don’t have some sort of filter, some basic understanding of logic and science, you’re going to end up believing in a lot of things, even really bizarre things like ghosts and spirits,” he said.
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Supplemental video from our own footage of the investigation:

A Unicorn Rangers House Call In Ahura Z's Words

Taken from the Sun Journal, Lewiston, ME

Photos by Darren Slover

A young couple came in for help, because they were experiencing nightmares, loss of energy and a constant feeling of fear in their home. They had a 3-year-old daughter who seemed terrified to be left alone.
The mother who was a practitioner of Wicca herself and a very positive woman, was experiencing chronic mood swings, and "nothing was going right," as she put it. "It's my home, and I'm afraid to be there. I feel as if something horrible is watching me, and it's always so cold, but not a cold that I can get away from."

I'd been acquainted with her before, and she always seemed cheerful and vital, but now she was pale and looked exhausted. I asked her if anything bad happened on her property, and she said that she didn't know. I got an impression of a man, and began drawing a picture of the person that I saw in my vision. She saw the picture and reacted violently as if she recognized the picture. I made arrangements to meet her and her husband at their home. He was a musician and had a mini studio in the home, and other than the constant "creepy feeling" and the occasional nightmare, had very nominal experiences.

Upon arriving with my team, I noticed that there was indeed a very thick energy emanation. The air around the house looked dim, and almost liquid. I immediately instructed my prayer warriors to begin reciting prayers of protection for the family, and the team.

I dispatched two of my agents to stay with the family and one to take photographs.

As we entered the home I stopped because my attention was drawn upwards. I looked up to see what looked like footprints, actual footprints on the ceiling leading into the house. It was as if someone had taken their shoes and walked them on the ceiling. It was then that I felt the cold, my whole team did. Normally what people call a "cold spot" is not a cold spot but just a "nothing spot." In other words, energy is energy, and needs energy in order to be. So just like we, who have a body, need energy in the form of food to survive, those that are without a body need energy in the form of electromagnetic or kinetic energy in order to be. Therefore the result is what is called by the psychic policemen a "nothing spot," which feels cold because the energy has been temporarily drained (or eaten) in order to sustain the paranormality in that particular space.

The place was very cold, and I wondered at the state of the house, and asked why there was so much still incomplete in their decoration. The wife said that they just can't get it done. Every time they try to complete one thing something breaks, and there is no explanation for it. I got the impression of cats being under the porch, or floor boards, and asked if there are cats. She said that they found the skeletons of a bunch of cats under the house after they purchased it.

I knew at that time that we were dealing with a phantom, and without going into another rant on what a phantom is, lets just say that it can hurt you or even cause you to hurt yourself. I concluded that the house needed to be cleaned, and began setting up my tools. Immediately a toy that belonged to the child began to spontaneously talk, LOUDLY. Now the fact that the toy talked wasn't abnormal - as it was a toy that talked when you pulled its string - but the fact that it talked at that time, when no one was near it, was abnormal, and it even stuttered. "Would you count with me, count with me, would you count with me one, two, three, would you count with me..." I finally said sternly "Knock it off!" and it stopped. The family jumped when the toy spoke, and almost comically drew close to me. I calmed them down and assured them that the policemen that were assigned to them would allow nothing to happen to them. That seemed to work, until a stove in the room clicked to life.

I looked at the husband, who looked as pale as a ghost, which prompted me to move over to the stove. I saw what the husband was reacting to. It looked as if the stove had been disconnected, as the wires were actually severed. One fell to the floor as if on cue. The husband said the stove had been disconnected for six months, and there was no WAY that should be happening. At that time something else began to occur. On the chimney, a face began to appear as an impression on the bricks. I recognized the face and asked "Kelly," my chief, to bring me the drawing that I did during our first meeting with the family. I compared them, and there he was, almost identical to the drawing. We now knew who the culprit was and what had to be done. I took the family to a high energy room, which happened to be the husband's mini studio, and instructed them to stay there. I had two of my officers with prayers put holy water in strategic places around the home.

And I began the exorcism. All of a sudden the place grew warm, and the stove again clicked as if trying to ignite itself, the toy talked and a very angry presence filled the air. I proceeded. The ceremony that I perform employs white candles, and the key element of this ritual is to not be distracted, no matter what. The air thickened around my hand that was holding the candle, and I saw what looked like a hand trying to bat the candle from my hands. Someone was screaming aimless words at me that really had no form and were meant solely to distract me. I proceeded.

Finally there was a pop, and the thickness in the air went away. The house felt lighter. I called the family out and left them with instructions to follow, which they did, and last I heard they were doing fine. They have since completed the work on the house, the husband, who was ill, has recovered, the wife is back to her bright self, and the child is fine. As I understand it, they sold the house and live somewhere in Portland.

Mystic Mentor

by Kathryn Skelton, Staff Writer Taken from the Lewiston, Maine Sun Journal
Photos by Darren Slover

WESTBROOK - Ahura Z. Diliiza used to stop and tell strangers when he saw something funny in their aura, and he'd get angry if they didn't listen.

Frankly, he came off as loony.

He sees that now.

A teacher taught him impulse control. To keep his head down. Zip his lips.

A year ago Diliiza (pronounced De-LEE-za) set up Maine's first school of metaphysics in an old funeral parlor on Main Street. In the evening, he heads up the Unicorn Rangers Psychic Police Department, a group whose advertised services include spell breaking, malevolent entity removal and eradicating vampirism.

They make house calls anywhere from one to 15 times a month.

He's the unicorn.

"The unicorn is a symbol of Christ and the unicorn is also a dispeller of evil," Diliiza said. "That's what I do. I dispel evil. My whole name means 'Benevolent God's champion, one who destroys evil.'"

The universe gave him the name, he said. He was born with something less exotic that he stopped using 25 years ago and prefers not to share.

Brain Box Entertainment, behind shows like the History Channel's new "The Million Dollar Challenge," is shopping a reality show based on the unorthodox school, its rangers' close encounters with the unusual and Diliiza, a striking Mr. T-like figure with long blond dreadlocks.

In his office, packed with recording equipment, bagpipes and a "life tree" no one's allowed to touch, he's ambivalent about the idea of becoming a star on the small screen.

"I did tell them, look, I'm not interested in some show like 'Ghost Hunters,'" he said. "I'm a real paranormal investigator, I'm not someone who's going to run when a ghost shows up. They show up all the time."

The rules: No drama

Diliiza opened a retail store first, seven years ago, in downtown Portland. He's originally from Los Angeles, where he said he grew up poor, watching people get shot point-blank.

"I was working at Denny's, at the Congress Denny's, then moved to the Brighton Denny's. Then one day I was walking down Congress and decided it was time to just start," he said.

He sold candles, incense and herbs out of the small storefront, and offered classes.

Just over a year ago he moved into the former funeral parlor.

When the next session at Unicorn Cove School of Metaphysics starts Sept. 12, there will be a whole slate of course offerings: tarot, numerology, psychic development, soul travel, meditation, martial arts. Tai chi, belly dance and hula classes, aikido, psychic development and psychic police training and something called Pegascene -a class that once took Diliiza and his students to Indiana for a chili-cheeseburger, just for the experience -are ongoing.

Pegascene's about strength, beauty, exploring culture and learning from the adventure, he said. In another field trip, students dressed like rednecks and went to the Christmas Tree Shop.

Diliiza teaches most classes at the school. Family and other staff, such as a chief prayer warrior, - who Diliiza trained - do the rest.

He interviews all potential students, "reads" them and asks, "What do you want?" He said he turns down more than he accepts.

"If you want to help, I'm interested in you. If you want to master something, I'm interested in you...

"But if you just want to look cool and say that you know magic, I have no interest whatsoever," said Diliiza, 47.

"There's a lot of magic to be learned in this world. Magic isn't about saying abracadabra and making a door open."

The school's rules are strict and framed on the wall: No drama. No drugs. No dating. No, this isn't a cult or coven. And leave what others have to say at the door; it doesn't matter.

Classes are by donation only; so are all the rangers' services.

That has some people suspect, he said. "People just don't believe that someone like me even exists, they don't believe it. They think I want something, and I don't, I really don't. I have talent, I have a gift."

Fees for extras, like $15 for a fire bath (drawing out negative energy using fire cups) and $30 for astrological charts, help pay the bills.

Even then, "If you need healing, you don't have the money, the money is irrelevant," Diliiza said.
He, his wife and daughter live upstairs in the former Hay Funeral home. A downstairs room sells statues and tea herbs: Dragon balance, Buddha's clarity, cedar, pine cones and jars marked "girl tea" and "boy tea."
Girl tea is for monthly symptoms, Diliiza said. Boy tea is for "stupid symptoms."

'The impossible happens daily'

Diliiza said he's a telepath; he describes the ability as letting him see further, "my eyes are bigger than yours." A lot of his message gets at the power of positive thinking and energy (don't wish something bad on someone, it'll bounce back onto you).

"I'm very 'what you see is what you get.' No trinkets. No silly waving about of wands," he said.

"Mysticism says that anything is possible. As a matter of fact, the impossible happens daily, all you have to do is take the blinders off. That's what mysticism is."

Diliiza raised the school's profile recently with commercials on the Sci-Fi Channel. One warning about "psychic predators" was inspired, Diliiza said, by a frantic woman who came in complaining that a local psychic "wanted to charge her $900 and told her if she didn't come back to see her that she couldn't help her because her son would die."

That frantic woman is one of many people who have sought out Diliiza. He figures he's helped thousands across the country.

Kristen Theroux of Standish came in seeking guidance. She was referred by her mom's co-worker. Two years later, she's one of the nine Unicorn Rangers psychic policemen.

"I was one of the people that ended up there, I would say by coincidence, but there's really no such thing," she said.

Rangers' services include everything from removing hexes - "You would be amazed at how many people hex each other, not even meaning to," according to Diliiza - to offering a sort of psychic muscle at weddings.

He stations rangers to keep "negative vibrations" off the bride and groom. An ordained minister, he performs the ceremony.

More common are house calls to people experiencing paranormal activity. They can't sleep, have visions.
"I have to go out and determine whether there's an actual paranormal event taking place or does that person just drink too much cough syrup," Diliiza said.

If it's legit, to his mind, there's a cleansing ceremony with Bible verses, holy water and an exorcism.
Once rangers leave, Diliiza tells homeowners to cool it with the arguing, fussing, drugs or drinking - or risk inviting the bad energy back. (See sidebar for one encounter with an ugly phantom, in his own words.)
Despite the standing offer, no Maine police have approached him for help with open cases.

Diliiza's started a $100,000 building fund on the school's Web site, asking for donations toward a bigger space. The eventual goal: Have 12 schools of metaphysics around the world. Theroux, down in Florida now with two other rangers, hopes to open the first satellite Unicorn Cove store in a year.

Diliiza grins at the idea of rangers running each of those schools. "I'll just get to flit around then and look mystical."

He sent in tapes to Brain Box of two recent home cleansings. In one, family members reported being pushed and hurt. He performed an exorcism and destroyed their Ouija board.

Genevieve Croteau, development manager at Brain Box, said it's a "notoriously slow" process to pitch and sell a show, and they're approaching everybody.

Diliiza's "sparkling personality, his dedication and his conviction" would make for a great reality show, she said. "We think this one has a lot of potential, especially because of Ahura. He's the 'Dog the Bounty Hunter' of the psychic world."