The 1970s were a heyday for blockbuster horror films and franchises, including Alien, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Phantasm, Carrie, and many more. Although it did not reach the success of movies such as The Omen, The Exorcist, Halloween, and The Amityville Horror, a paranormal horror film titled The Entity was a modest hit.
The “true story” behind the case involved a California woman, Doris Bither, who in the mid-1970s claimed, among other ghostly goings-on, to have been sexually assaulted by three ghosts. Bither’s case inspired a 1978 novel by Frank De Felitta titled The Entity and a film released in 1982 starring Barbara Hershey. The case has parallels with other prominent “based on a true story” horror films—including The Exorcist and The Amityville Horror—blending themes of paranormal investigation, tormented victims, and evil spirits. It follows a template: Supposedly true supernatural events inspire a best-selling novel, which in turn inspires a hit horror film—with dramatic embellishments occurring at each stage along the way. Whatever true, documented events may have served as the kernel of a book or film are quickly overshadowed and exaggerated by novelists and filmmakers.
Despite its pop culture prominence and allegedly true backstory, the Bither case is not widely mentioned in books on “true” ghost stories or paranormal events. This is a curious oversight for a genre often eager to publicize and sensationalize dramatic ghost reports based on even the flimsiest evidence. One reason may be that the case is complex and strains credulity even for believers; another may be that because it involves alleged supernatural sexual assault, it’s passed over in favor of more family-friendly (albeit frightening) fare.
The Bither Story
Doris Bither’s story is by all accounts tragic. An alcoholic drug user, she had several failed marriages and lived in a squalid, condemned home with her three boys (aged ten, thirteen, and sixteen), along with a preteen daughter. Bither described a troubled life of abuse going back to her childhood. She and her sons claimed to have seen semi-transparent apparitions of roughly human shape and size in their home. Bither said she was physically and sexually assaulted by these spirits, allegedly at one point being thrown across a room into a wall by an unseen force, and one of her sons was similarly assaulted. Unable to contact the police under the circumstances, Bither described these events to a female friend. The matter would likely have ended there (chalked up to stress, mental illness, or substance abuse) if not for a random encounter at a bookstore.
As depicted in the film, Bither’s friend overheard a conversation between parapsychologists Barry Taff and Kerry Gaynor, two men who worked at the University of California at Los Angeles, talking about paranormal topics. (Taff tells the same story in a 2017 DVD interview [Taff 2017] and his 2014 book Aliens Above, Ghosts Below.) The friend related Bither’s experiences to them and asked if the pair could help the troubled woman. Intrigued, Taff and Gaynor interviewed Bither in August 1974 (not long after The Exorcist, which had been a best-selling novel since 1971, was released in theaters).
Taff holds a doctorate in psychophysiology and as of early 2021 describes himself on his LinkedIn profile as “foremost a brilliant, dedicated scientist, an extraordinary inventor, and expert in numerous areas of science, having appeared on TV and Radio including Coast-to-Coast A.M.” His associate Kerry Gaynor has a degree in philosophy and markets himself as a hypnotherapist specializing in smoking cessation.
As is often the case with haunted people, the introduction of psychics, paranormal investigators, and other self-styled ghost hunters escalated—and arguably exacerbated—Bither’s situation. Where a trained psychologist or social worker might have seen a troubled woman needing help, Taff and Gaynor saw a golden opportunity to research a real haunting.
Deconstructing the Investigation
So what really happened? Unfortunately, the case was never competently investigated, and nearly a half-century later, it’s impossible to be sure of much. Many of the key participants have since died, though Taff is still capitalizing on his involvement in the famous case through media interviews and books. There are a few sources with which we can piece together a reasonable guess at what happened—or at least what those involved claimed had happened—over the course of several months in 1974.
We have Taff’s claims and conclusions, which can be examined with an eye toward what evidence is offered (or, more often, is conspicuously absent). There is curiously little independent corroboration of the allegedly extraordinary events, and we are forced to rely extensively (if not exclusively) on secondary sources. Taff has written about the case several times, including in his book Aliens Above, Ghosts Below, and his website contains a nearly 10,000-word chapter on the topic (Taff 2011). The case is complex and summarized here out of necessity; those seeking more details should consult the original sources (though additional details may not necessarily yield greater clarity).
Taff (2014) described the investigation as “Beginning on August 22, 1974, a ten-week investigation of a reportedly haunted house located in Culver City, California, demonstrated evidence that it was infested with and frequented by occurrences of poltergeist activity in the form of object movements, collectively observed apparitions, as well as cold and stench spots.” More specifically, one summary notes that Taff and Gaynor
observed displays of small, rapidly-moving balls of light on several occasions, which occurred in the presence of a woman in her mid-to-late 30s. The lights were reported to change their motion, size, and intensity in response to the investigators’ requests, and to the occasional emotional outbursts of the female agent. Attempts to photograph the lights were reportedly met with no success on most occasions, although in a few rare instances, the lights were captured on film as curved arcs of light, akin to the “trails” that can appear in photos of lighted objects (whether due to motion of the camera, or to motion by the object itself). (Williams and Ventola n.d.)
The investigation, conducted in the context of the “broken-down, shabby nature of the wooden dwelling” had many of the phenomena typically associated with ghost reports: cold spots; odd, subjective sensations; a bad smell; and so on. The pair claimed to have experienced some unexplained phenomena, for example, “suddenly the cabinet door swung open. A frying pan flew out of the cabinet, following a curved path to the floor over 2.5 feet away, hitting with quite a thud.” Sadly and predictably, none of this was documented. They were joined by a friend of Bither’s named Candy, who claimed to be psychic and occasionally “screamed out that there was something in the corner (not that she could see, but sense).” On a few occasions, others joined in, with little or no apparent regard for investigative protocol. By far the most impressive evidence—in Taff’s eyes anyway—appeared in a few photographs. During their second visit to the home, they brought additional equipment and several cameras, which, they claimed, later yielded unexplained photographs. In his accompanying article, Kenny Biddle takes a critical look at the photographic evidence offered in the Bither case and uncovers new information suggesting that there is far less to this case than meets the eye.
The most dramatic events happened when Taff and the others weren’t there; Taff writes, “I will refrain from going into all the bizarre stories that were related to us for we cannot substantiate them” immediately before going into all the bizarre and unsubstantiated stories that were related to them. Again and again, Taff and his colleagues were forced to rely on what Bither told them had already happened.
Unable to verify her claims, the pair launched an investigation. They tried century-old techniques of ghost communication, asking spirits to create sounds or manipulate lights in response to questions (a certain number of flashes to signify yes or no, for example). The efforts were both unscientific and fruitless; as even Taff admits, to his credit, “The answers we received could not be confirmed, and never really made any sense.” There were the usual ghost gadgets, including Geiger counters, but in the end the evidence remained inconclusive and ambiguous.
Spectral Sex Claims
Bither’s ghostly sexual assault claims—which are perhaps the most notable and lurid aspect of her story and make it nearly unique in modern horror cinema—are a small subset of a much larger series of ghostly events claimed to have been experienced by Bither, her family, and the investigators.
Despite pseudopanicked scenes on “reality” television ghost hunting shows in which participants say they are pushed or hurt by unseen forces, claims of supernatural assault are very rare. Most people’s experiences with ghosts are mundane—in fact often whimsical, benign, and comforting (see, for example, Waskul and Waskul 2016). So Bither’s story, if true, is notable for that reason as well. Taff notes:
The most intense occurrence which Doris related to us was that she had been sexually assaulted by three semi-visible beings. Two of the smaller beings or apparitions literally held her down by the wrists and ankles, while the remaining form entered her. According to Doris’ testimony, this event took place on several separate occasions, each time leaving behind large and distinct black and blue wounds, especially around the ankles, wrists, breasts, and groin area of the inner thighs. (Taff 2014)
Claims of sexual relations with spirits has a long and fascinating history. In his book Sexual Hauntings Through the Ages, Colin Waters notes that “It is little wonder that a wide variety of hauntings are either sexual in nature or are a manifestation of overt or suppressed sexual feelings” (Waters 1993, 8). Waters catalogs dozens of (allegedly true) reports of phantom gropers, Peeping Toms, “heavy breathers,” and (much rarer) outright rapes. Waters mentions a home in Edinburgh, now sadly demolished, locally known as the ghosts’ whorehouse, “where people would gather [at windows] to watch … every wicked ghost and spectre in Scotland gathered there for regular sexual orgies” (Waters 1993, 23).
The logistics of ghost orgies aside, there are a handful of famous cases of alleged sexual hauntings, including the Bell Witch Legend of Tennessee (see, for example, Radford 2020 and Nickell 2014). Reports of groping ghosts are not as rare as one might think. Many reports of unseen (or barely seen) presences are described by people late at night in bed. People who experience these events often describe being terrified, paralyzed, touched, and held or pushed down by some unseen force. Most are also convinced that they were fully awake at the time and adamantly refuse the suggestion it was a dream or sleep-related hallucination. Reports of ghostly assaults exactly match this phenomenon and are reminiscent of the succubus and incubus, sensual female and male demons of medieval lore that sexually attack people as they sleep.
This phenomenon is not limited to lusty, dusty history but occasionally referenced in modern mainstream media. For example, supernatural sex made national news in 2020 when a doctor who President Donald Trump praised, Dr. Stella Immanuel—later dubbed Trump’s “demon sperm” doctor—claimed that gynecological problems are caused by (presumably invisible) demons having sex with women while they sleep. Other prominent people have come forward with similar claims. In a 2012 interview with Ryan Seacrest, pop star Ke$ha talked about the inspiration for her song Supernatural: “I had a couple of [sexual] experiences with the supernatural. I don’t know his name! He was a ghost! I’m very open to it.” Actress Natasha Blasick, star of several ghost-themed films, described a paranormal paramour in a 2014 interview: “I could feel that somebody was touching me and the hands were pushing me against my will and I could feel the weight of the body on top of me. I couldn’t see anybody but I could feel the pressure, the energy, the warmth pushing in different directions” (Moye 2014). Blasick described it as “really pleasurable” and was delighted when the unseen entity returned the following month.
There are surely countless more unknown men and women who have had such experiences. It’s impossible to know what, exactly, these people experienced, but some psychological phenomena can give the impression of a ghostly lover (or attacker, depending on the context and interpretation). These experiences—sometimes scary, sometimes sexy, but always vivid and realistic to the experiencer—are the result of normal brain misperceptions and illusions. Folklorist David Hufford (1982) estimates that about 15 percent of people experience being assaulted in their sleep by an unknown entity at some point in their lives.
Additional evidence for a psychological explanation for Bither’s experiences can be found in an article in Mental Health, Religion & Culture noting:
The family’s circumstances appeared stressful and dysfunctional. … Indeed, the investigators observed poor relationships between Doris and her children, there was fighting among the siblings. … The son further claimed … that he and his siblings were psychic, noting that in different environments throughout their lives they had occasionally seen “shadows and spirits.” (O’Keeffe et al. 2019)
The researchers also noted that “While the Doris Bither case was extreme and sensational, its phenomenology underscores why the relation between paranormal ideations and psychological wellness or symptom perception is an important and burgeoning area of study.” They suggest that Bither represents what they call “Haunted People Syndrome, a condition in which percipients within the general population who invoke labels of ghosts or other supernatural agencies to explain a specific set of anomalous events that often are perceived recurrently” (O’Keeffe et al. 2019).
In fact, Barry Taff himself doesn’t believe Bither was spectrally assaulted, writing:
Unfortunately, Doris’s claim of ‘spectral rape’ could not be substantiated due to her failing to report the incident to medical or other authorities. The fact that these alleged instances of paranormal rape occurred several weeks prior to our initial arrival prevented us from observing her already healed bruises … Contrary to what many people believe, the case of Doris Bither … was not, in my professional opinion, the result of spectral rape … but a rather disturbingly real poltergeist outbreak. (Taff 2014)
Adopting a pseudoskeptical stance, Taff implores readers:
Remember, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and while there was plenty of evidence that we were dealing with real paranormal phenomena, it very likely had nothing whatsoever to do with incorporeal sex, except in the mind of Doris and her children. … It was apparent from the outset that Doris was a deeply troubled woman whose claims of spectral rape were due in large part to extreme emotional distress coupled with an overactive imagination and libidinous fantasies. (Taff 2014)1
Unreliable Non-Eyewitnesses
All involved agree that Bither was a deeply troubled woman whose psychological problems were exacerbated by drugs, alcohol, and dire circumstances. Even Taff (2014) acknowledges that he and Gaynor elided Bither’s mental status and history:
Doris was very evasive and somewhat cryptic regarding her background, so much so that she refused to even tell us her age. … Had we pushed Doris hard to reveal more about her hellish past, such efforts on our part might have pushed us right off the case. Had we even attempted to secure the type of background information we currently collect, such as medical, psychological, family psychodynamics, prescribed medications (names of meds, dosage and duration) as well as recreational drugs and alcohol usage, Doris would surely have shown us the door from the outset. We had no way of knowing just how utterly disturbing of a life she really had led.
(This rationalization is often invoked by UFO and conspiracy buffs who choose not to press their “top-secret anonymous sources” for evidence of their claims, lest the “insider” source stop cooperating.)
To a skeptic—and especially given the stark lack of any good evidence—Occam’s razor suggests the most likely explanation is the most obvious one: Bither, like many ghost experiencers, imagined most or all of her spectral encounters. Some events, such as ordinary accidents, tripping, or falling (as might happen when one is drunk or under the influence of drugs) might have been interpreted as mysterious and malicious in light of an assumed haunting. It’s not clear what, if anything, Bither and others experienced. This is not to say that people who are suffering from mental illness and under the influence of a cocktail of drugs cannot also experience ghostly visitations, but merely that her circumstances alone offer a plausible explanation—especially because ordinary psychological priming by itself can cause people without mental illness or drug use to report ghostly experiences (see, for example, French and Stone 2014).
No Spectral Sex—Instead a Haunting
Barry Taff, having somehow ruled out hoaxing and psychological disturbance to his satisfaction, offers three apparently plausible possibilities to explain the events (including that “unconsciously released energy of an unknown variety affects surrounding matter and energy”) but finally decides that “In the simplest terms and contrary to the popular media hype, The Entity case was not, in my opinion, an instance of haunting or discarnate intelligence, but … a poltergeist manifestation.” Taff seems to dismiss Bither’s reports of spectral sexual assault but gives credence to her other supernatural claims.
On the whole, the proceedings have the markings of amateur investigation dressed up with the imprimatur of a UCLA affiliation and a participant with a doctorate. There was little or no effort by the investigators to establish a protocol, keep people from contaminating the scene, or detect—much less prevent—fraud. The fact that Taff not only believes he is psychic but suggested that a séance would be a valid investigative technique speaks much about his credibility. Taff also claimed to have investigated “some 3,500 cases” of ghosts, hauntings, apparitions, and poltergeists over the course of about thirty years—an average of 117 cases a year, or one every three days! If true, even more astounding than his prodigious productivity is the apparent absence of good evidence to show for it.
Taff’s lack of evidence would be less of an issue if others corroborated his story. Curiously, despite “over fifty” people allegedly having been present at one point or another, none seems to have come forward with accounts or evidence. I don’t doubt that others were involved, but the lack of independent corroboration is curious. Surely given the notoriety of the case, at least a few of the dozens of eyewitnesses to astonishing paranormal activity would have parlayed their participation into a book, article, or nominal fame. And, for that matter, with so many camera-toting witnesses, why aren’t there dozens of “unexplained” photos for Taff, Gaynor, and Biddle to examine?
Despite its “scientifical” veneer, The Entity investigation is rife with gross violations of investigation protocols, skeptical principles, and critical thinking. Taff revives the hoary “If I can’t explain it, then no one can” chestnut, asserting self-evidently that what they documented “cannot be explained or accounted for by any conventional physical, scientific theory or model.”
It’s little wonder that The Entity case has received relatively little skeptical scrutiny despite its notoriety, because there’s far more sizzle than steak. Many “true story” cases of alleged hauntings involve people who are scared, desperate, and in some cases mentally ill. Ghost hunting duo Ed and Lorraine Warren, lionized in the Conjuring film franchise, had no reservations about exploiting fragile and disturbed people for publicity and a good story. There’s no reason to think that Bither’s story is an outright hoax. Instead, in reviewing the wholly uncorroborated descriptions of the events that inspired The Entity, it seems like an otherwise unremarkable mix of psychological disturbance, power of suggestion, and investigative incompetence by well-meaning people who sincerely thought they’d stumbled upon an amazing case of paranormal activity.2
Notes
- Taff (2014) writes that “The psychodynamic environment within Doris’ household was extremely intense and anxiety ridden, with overtones of animosity and belligerence underlying its nature. From a psychoanalytic perspective, it is interesting to note that Doris’ reported attacks and alleged rapes were by three male ‘beings,’ the same number of male children she has.” Taff isn’t the only person who suspected that Bither’s claims about spectral sex may have been fantasies; according to Daniel Kreme’s 2015 book Sidney J. Furie: Life and Films, The Entity’s original screenplay contained a subplot about Bither’s character’s incestuous fantasies involving her children, specifically her son Billy. It didn’t make the final cut of the film.
- The fact that I suspect that the principal participants likely were and are sincere should not be taken to preclude the possibility of hoaxing. Many sincere believers (in UFO, Bigfoot, and especially miracles) have been caught faking evidence in support of their beliefs. Often they see nothing wrong with fudging phantom photos or making a statue weep if it might bring more believers to a cause they’re sure is real.
References
French, Christopher, and Anna Stone. 2014. Anomalistic Psychology: Exploring Paranormal Belief and Experience. London, UK: Palgrave MacMillan.
Hufford, David. 1982. The Terror That Comes in the Night: An Experience-Centered Study of Supernatural Assault Traditions. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Moye, David. 2014. Natasha Blasick, actress, claims ghost sex is really pleasurable. The Huffington Post (April 30). Available online at https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/natasha-blasick-ghost-sex_n_5240566.
Nickell, Joe. 2014. The ‘Bell Witch’ poltergeist. Skeptical Inquirer 38(1).
O’Keefe, Ciaran, James Houran, Damien Houran, et al. 2019. The Dr. John Hall story: A case study in putative ‘Haunted People Syndrome.’ Mental Health, Religion & Culture 22(9).
Radford, Benjamin. 2020. Big—If True: Adventures in Oddity. Corrales, NM: Rhombus Publishing.
Taff, Barry. 2011. The real Entity case. Available online at http://barrytaff.net/2011/08/the-real-entity-case-2/.
———. 2014. Aliens Above, Ghosts Below. Harpers Ferry, West Virginia: Cosmic Pantheon Press.
———. 2017. The Entity Files. The Entity DVD featurette, also available online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irL6cZY0D2c.
Waskul, Dennis, and Michele Waskul. 2016. Ghostly Encounters: The Hauntings of Everyday Life. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
Waters, Colin. 1993. Sexual Hauntings Through the Ages. New York, NY: Dorset Press.
Williams, Bryan, and Annalisa Ventola. N.d. Poltergeist phenomena: A primer on parapsychological research and perspectives. Available online at https://cpb-us-w2.wpmucdn.com/web.sas.upenn.edu/dist/b/160/files/2017/04/poltergeist_phenomena-_a_primer_on_parapsychological_research_and_perspectives-247fv93.pdf.