A Look at the Phenomenon of the Faces of Belmez in Spain

One of the most interesting paranormal cases of the 20^th Century happened in a small town in Spain called Belmez. For the past 30 years, in a house occupied by a family named Pereira, mysterious faces have appeared on the kitchen hearth and floor.

The phenomenon began in the early 1970's. When a mysterious face appeared on their kitchen hearth, the Pereira family tried cleaning it away with every detergent and chemical they could think of. While the look of the face was successfully altered slightly, it didn't deteriorate or go away. The family eventually destroyed the hearth with an ax and then laid down new cement.

Thinking that they had rid themselves of whatever possessed their kitchen, the family went about their daily routine. Imagine their surprise when, then less than a week later, the same face appeared again.

After doing some research on the area, the family discovered that their home had been built on top of an old graveyard. They called the city council and requested assistance in dealing with the problem. Excavation turned up several corpses that were indeed still buried underneath the home.

The bones were removed and given a proper burial and the pit underneath the home was filled in with cement in hopes of finalizing the issue once and for all. Everything looked good for a few weeks. Then suddenly the same face, along with several others, reappeared on the Pereira kitchen floor.

Attempt after attempt to do away with the faces failed. Finally, the news of the phenomenon got out into the community and the house became a local curiosity. Over the course of 30 some years, scientists, researchers, journalists, and television crews visited Spain specifically for the purpose of examining the site.

Of course, a lot of people assumed that the faces were somehow painted onto the wall. However, scientific tests proved that no paint pigment was present. And an up close examination of the phenomenon appeared to prove that they actually were a part of the concrete; not something painted on top of the cement.

Others suggested that some type of chemica was used to embed the pictures into the floor. Again, however, no one was able to prove that theory.

What started out as a single face, over the years, escalated to some 15 separate faces; some young and some old; some happy and some sad. A few remained constant while others appeared and disappeared, seemingly at will.

Experts in the paranormal field went so far as to record the noises of the kitchen to see if they could pick up some ghostly activity. Playback of those tapes showed weird sounds like whispers of multiple people. Sometimes, even soft crying and desperate wails were also recorded.

Some visitors to the site claim that they continued to be haunted by the faces long after their visit ended. However, there is no scientific proof to validate those claims.

Parapsychologists have suggested that perhaps the faces were created by a member of the family through a little known phenomenon known as thoughtography. However, the process itself has never been thoroughly proven, much less validated through testing of the Pereira family.

Many different skeptics have conducted numerous tests on the faces and all of them claim to have proof that they are fake. However, when asked to produce their so-called proof, they refuse to (or can't) do so.

Accusations of fakery, obviously beg the question: What did the Pereira family get of this so-called fraud? The answer is - - nothing - - unless you want to count the new floor that the city laid after gutting the kitchen to remove the graveyard corpses or a renovated kitchen that had to be installed after thousands of visitors trudged through the room over 30 thirty years.

The Pereira family didn't charge for visitors to view the sight and they didn't accept "donations" either. While the city itself may have benefited from tourist travel, the Pereira family did not.

In any case, there are claims that the Belmez faces continue today, some three years after the death of the home's owner. And parapychologists still cannot agree on the origin of the curious human forms. So it appears this may be one of those mysteries that is never solved.