Waterdog Lake in Belmont California, original LiveSciFi article artwork

Waterdog Lake, Belmont: Haunted History & Our Investigation

Waterdog Lake in Belmont, California, has always been more than another supposedly haunted location to me. I grew up hearing stories about its wooded trails, the lake, and a terrible crime. On October 2, 1984, I was at soccer practice at the middle school when 12-year-old Lance Turner disappeared and was murdered nearby. That personal connection is why the story has stayed with me—and why I eventually returned to the area to investigate its paranormal […]

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valak demon conjuring movies

Is the Valak Demon Real in the Conjuring 2 Movie

When The Conjuring 2 arrived in theaters in June 2016, one of the questions I kept seeing was simple: Is Valak a real demon, or was the terrifying nun invented for the movie? The answer depends on what we mean by “real.” The name Valak—also written Valac, Volac, or Valu—appears in historical books about demons and ceremonial magic. That is verifiable. What those texts do not establish is that a supernatural being exists, or that […]

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Beelzebub depicted as a winged fly in Louis Le Breton’s 1863 illustration

Types of Demons: 9 Classes in Historical Demonology

The nine types of demons in one influential historical classification are False Gods, Lying Spirits, Vessels of Iniquity, Revengers of Wickedness, Deluders, Aerial Powers, Furies, Accusers, and Tempters and Ensnarers. These are categories of supposed activity, not nine individual creatures or a list accepted by every religious tradition. For centuries, religious scholars, occult philosophers, and demonologists have attempted to identify and categorize supernatural beings believed to influence the human world. While many people recognize names […]

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