The Legacy of Lorraine Warren

Becoming a paranormal investigator requires a tremendous amount of dedication, patience, and on-the-job training while enduring endless amounts of critics, hyperbole, and highly questioned evidence. With the passing of Lorraine Warren this last week, we thought you could use a reminder of the impact Lorraine had on the paranormal world. Lorraine was an investigator who worked tirelessly at trying to bring truth forth in many paranormal claims and who also aided in defeating evil whenever necessary.

Five important facts about Lorraine and her paranormal work:

1. Lorraine and Her Secret

   Lorraine Warren was born on January 31, 1927, in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Since she was eight years old, Lorraine claimed that she could see auras around people. Attending the very prestigious all-girls Catholic school Lauralton Hall, Lorraine kept her ability a secret, for fear of being outcast. She kept her gift a secret until she met Ed Warren, whom she married years later.

2. New England Society for Psychic Research

   Together with her husband Ed Warren, the pair founded the New England Society for Psychic Research in 1952. Known as the oldest ghost hunting group in New England, it was the combination of Ed’s research in demonology as well as Lorraine’s clairvoyant senses that helped them investigate over an estimated 10,000 paranormal cases in their lifetime. Originally was set up to investigate hauntings. in 1965, both Ed and Lorraine investigated a case where a young spirit claimed she was wandering around a home looking for her mother still. It was with that case that Lorraine claimed to dedicate a large portion of their work to helping earth-bound spirits move on.

3. Lorraine Goes Looking For Ghosts

   Investigating homes that were haunted in the late 1950s was a challenge, as people didn’t know where to look for help, as well as the Warrens had trouble advertising their paranormal services. They would drive up and down streets and would stop when Lorraine used her clairvoyance in detecting a house that was haunted. Ed was a talented painter who would then do a quick drawing of the house and they would approach the home and knock. Giving the homeowners the picture, the Warrens would then slowly ask about the house and reveal their abilities to help.

4. The Amityville House Comes A Knocking

   The Amityville Horror was considered the most infamous of all the Warren’s investigations. According to an interview with Lorraine in 2005, she said that the evil permeating the Amityville house was so strong that even after she left, the evil followed her back all the way home and manifested in so many ways that Lorraine vowed never to return to the Amityville home again.

5. Lorraine Was a Devout Catholic

   Despite any misconceptions about her faith or the manner of her solo investigations in later years, Lorraine was unabashedly Catholic. In fact, prior to her investigation with Ed at the Amityville house, Lorraine had mysteriously received a letter in the mail, including a relic of Padre Pio, who was a mid-20th Century Catholic saint. She carried the relic often and it was with her both during and after the Amityville investigation claiming that if she didn’t have the relic to rely on then evil would have surely won.