MacFarland and VandermEer

ca. 1877

Identified only by their last names in the “whispering seance pamphlet” by Z. A. Duffy, MacFarland and Vandermeer are regarded by T. Carl Rasmusen as the founders of the Society for Unexplained Auditory Phenomena. Vandermeer was a Dutch mesmerist who taught MacFarland the technique for the whispering seance, warning him that identifying or attempting to identify the source for the disembodied voices produced through the seance would permanently sever the participant’s ability to contact these voices. MacFarland brought the whispering seance to the United States, specifically Bordentown City, New Jersey. MacFarland believed that the disembodied voices were, in fact, segment of the individual’s own consciousness that had someone managed to separate from the controlling personality through the ritual of the seance. For more see The Veoka Archive

Alexander MacFarland

ca. 1985

T. Carl Rasmusen believes that Alexander MacFarland was a direct descendent of the MacFarland mentioned in the Duffy pamphlet. Alexander MacFarland was born and lived in West Trenton, less than twenty minutes from the center of Bordentown City. This geographic link, along with the connection in name, is certainly suggestive if not definitive evidence of their possible connection. Alexander MacFarland was the sole member of the Society for Unexplained Auditory Phenomena and a kind of second founder, beginning the organization some time before 1985 when he was called to investigate the New Hope Sound Demon plaguing the Carlysle family of New Hope, Pennsylvania. MacFarland concluded in his report that the unusual happenings surrounding Melissa and Teresa Carlysle were likely paranormal in origin. He went on to marry Melissa Carlysle in 1989 and died in 2005. For more see The Veoka Archive

T. Carl Rasmusen

ca. 2020

Theodore Carl Rasmusen is the current president and sole member of the Society for Unexplained Auditory Phenomena. Rather than conducting in-person investigations, Rasmussen functions as a kind of historian and archivist, cataloging the events of Alexander MacFarland’s investigation into the New Hope Sound Demon in 1985 as well as a series of similar occurrences in College Park, Maryland in 1997. Rasmusen believes the events in New Hope and College Park were caused by the same variant of paranormal phemenona, a variant as yet uncategorized by paranormal investigators. Rasmusen hopes to be the first to document and characterize these phenomena under a single name. For more see The Society for Unexplained Auditory Phenomena

Emma guile

ca. 2020

After a failed application process to join T. Carl Rasmusen’s branch of the Society for Unexplained Auditory Phenomena, third-grade teacher Emma Guile has created her own branch under the same name in the small town of Trappe, Maryland. To date, Guile has not conducted any investigations but in her mission statement she has expressed her intention to pick up where Alexander MacFarland left off in 1985. For more see The Veoka Archive