Whether or not you believe in ghosts, I think that we should all know the story of Lorraine Warren. When I mention Lorraine Warren to people around campus, a lot of people ask me if that is “The Conjuring Lady” or “The Anabelle Lady” and although those are two real life cases she worked on, I don’t think those descriptions do her justice considering her influence and development on the world of paranormal investigations. Lorraine Warren who was to guest speak for our campus’s Arts and Lecture Series was unable to attend due to health problems, but I can only imagine the stories she would tell with all the experience she has had in the paranormal field.
Lorrain Warren was born Lorraine Rita Morgan on Jan. 31, 1927 and describes herself as a light trance medium (a person whose mind is used as a communication point between spirits) and clairvoyant (someone who has supernatural ability to perceive future events.) She and her late husband, Ed Warren, have been the nation’s top psychic researchers for the past 3 decades and together Ed and Lorraine have investigated thousands of paranormal cases and have written 9 books on the supernatural along with having several books written about their own cases. Altogether, Warren has been in the paranormal field for over fifty years.
Not only did her work include that of the stories behind “The Conjuring” and “Annabelle”, but she was one of the researchers that first investigated what is known as the Amityville Horror house, which itself has led to two movie adaptations. Lorraine isn’t afraid of having her work dramatized by Hollywood though. Besides those four movies, there were two other movies based on the Warren’s investigations: “The Haunted” was based on the Warren’s investigation on the claims of the Smurl family along with “A Haunting in Connecticut” which was loosely based off of their investigation of the Snedeker haunting in 1986.
With the rise in paranormal television, Warren has also been in several episodes of “The Haunted,” and “Paranormal State” along with appearing with her husband on “The Scariest Places on Earth.” She also made a cameo appearance in The Conjuring where she sits in the front row of a lecture that the actors portraying Lorraine are giving a talk.
Warren also helped to found the New England Society for Psychic Research in 1952 and the Warren’s Occult Museum which houses over 50 years’ worth of obscure and haunted artifacts collected from the Warren’s investigations including, satanic idols, a vampire’s coffin used by a modern day vampire, child tomb stones that were used as satanic alters, an organ that plays by itself, psychic photography, crucifixes that have been thrown from walls, Egyptian cursed items, African cursed items, Death curses, possessed toys, and even a shrunken head.
Overall, Lorraine Warren is more than just “The Conjuring Lady”, she’s also one of the main leaders in the field of paranormal investigation, and inspirations for those who are also interested in the paranormal field.