LUSIA

All text and pictures

“Among the many people who contacted me,” I recounted in the first complete account of the case, “was the sister of a beautiful twenty-two-year-old woman, whom I shall call Lusia.”^[1] She is someone who has never been identified — a photographic model, and much later an actress, portrayed Lusia in representations of her in the case. This was due to the tragic outcome, and a need to preserve her identity in perpetuity.

Scenes reproducing “Lusia” were represented by a model or actress.

There is no denying that Lusia was special to me. There has been a great deal of speculation about her because, in the aftermath of the Highgate exorcism, her story evolved into one of the more extreme metaphysical outcomes that will not surprise the trained and seasoned demonologist, but is certainly a difficult area for most others.

My initial discovery of her was one of sheer delight tinged with a terrible sadness that grew stronger until it finally eclipsed her. Within the sombre tones of an apt piece of music she became enshrouded. I wrote: “Her cascading flaxen tresses caught the dull illumination of the moonlight in their pale reflection. Somewhere, in the background, I could hear the dying pulses of Strauss’ solemn orchestral work, Metamorphosen. It haunts me to this day.”^[2] Lusia entered my life as an attractive young female virgin of Danish and German extraction, living in north London, who, being touched by what lies beyond earthly confines, became part of the nightmare of hideous visions and visitations associated with Highgate at that time. I glimpsed an indistinct figure toward the end, a figure swathed in a white cerement, her face the colour of marble save for her mouth, which seemed full and wanton. This was not the Lusia I had first known. It was something else. A shade of something that had been sucked dry of life.

The real “Lusia” …

The seventeenth century alchemist, Michael Sendivogius, wrote some fitting words:

“All these things happen, and the eyes of ordinary men do not see them, but the eyes

of the mind and of the imagination perceive them with the true and the truest vision.”

The above text and pictures from Stray Ghosts by Seán Manchester (unpublished memoir) are copyright protected.

[1] The Highgate Vampire by Seán Manchester, First Edition: British Occult Society, 1985, pages 45-46.

[2] The Highgate Vampire by Seán Manchester, Second (Rev.) Edition: Gothic Press, 1991, pages 70-71.