Encounters of the Unknown—Alternate Perceptions Magazine, July 2017
Man in the mirror
by: Madeline Teagle
The incident which we want to put here, however, has to deal with a specific time. September 1966 Mrs. Belvin called us considerably disturbed. Her husband was a post office employee who worked nights and it was around 10 p.m. She had quite a story to relate. She said she had been in the bathroom, washing up before getting her husband's dinner and packing his lunch and as she stood up she glanced into the mirror above the wash-basin. She was shocked to see, leaning against the door jamb of the room opposite the bathroom, a tall, slender, long wavy black haired young man, his arms folded across his chest, smiling at her in a sort of tolerant manner. She observed he had some sort of soft, drapey material, comparable to jersey, in a dull grey color, for a blouse effect. She recalled later that it seemed to have tight long sleeves and a sort of round neckling. With absolute fear she turned around to face her viewer only to discover he was not there. For a moment, she was confused, then she went to the kitchen to think about what had occurred, and about that time her husband walked into the room, put his arm around her shoulders, at which point Mrs. Belvin broke down completely in uncontrollable sobs. Her husband understandably became unnerved and stated flatly that her interest in UFO was the cause of her seeming inbalance and she needed to see a psychiatrist. He advised her to commit herself to Tallsview, a Mental Health Hospital. At this point, she called us, asking her husband to allay his action until he talked to us. She then told him what had occurred. His understanding was not too commendable, but this is par for the course.
Fortunately, Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Davis were at my house about another matter, and had with them their geiger counter. We decided to try taking it out and seeing if it might possibly pick up anything unusual. When we arrived, Art had checked the counter to be certain it was in working order and as we got out of the car and walked up the lawn, it ticked rhythmically along. When we reached the stoop of the backdoor and went up the several steps to her door, the counter suddenly and unexpectedly shot to the highest point on its register..500. We stood still for a moment and then Mrs. Belvin opened the door and all stepped inside. Once inside, the counter needle went immediately back to its normal staccato rhythm. Art then opened the door and went back out on the stoop, only to have the same rapid chatter resume and the needle to move down gradually, as though the object which made it respond was moving away. Art moved into the driveway to follow whatever it was and picked up a faster beat as he reached about seventy-five feet from the house.
Behind the Belvin home was an empty lot pretty well grown up with grass and weeds. The lot was approximately an acre in size. Art followed as best he could the direction of the high count and seemed to weave a path of leisurely walking through the grass and back to the house, stopping at the side of the house. Mrs. Belvin instantly gasped, “But that is my daughter's room, and that is where I saw that man, in the doorway to her room.” We then went inside. No additional increase in the natural pick-up of the counter was observed as we moved through the house. However, when we returned to the living room to discuss her encounter, Art sat the counter on the coffee table while we talked. Suddenly a brilliant flash of light was seen on the living room wall and the counter needle moved instantly upward and began a rapid rhythm. Mr. Belvin was non-plussed. We continued listening to his wife's story. When she had finished, we all noted the needle went slowly down to normal. Her husband did not commit her. The action of the geiger counter, for that time at least, was sufficient to convince him something out of the ordinary had definitely occurred.
After this incident, Mrs. Belvin did not, to our knowledge, have many other unusual incidents, but she continued to have sightings from time to time. We checked to see if she had wide peripheral vision, on advice from another friend that this might account for her being able to view the fellow in the doorway. She did have wide vision. The friend who submitted this information, Fred Hartline, then proffered the possibility that perhaps her wide vision, when looking into the mirror, acted like a completed circuit allowing her to see the person behind her, which she 'erased' when she turned around and looked directly at the spot where he stood, because she was no longer seeing in the same capacity.
Mrs. Belvin apparently saw something and I do know that the geiger counter reacted to something, whatever that something was.
Editors Note: I also heard this story first-hand from Madeline Teagle back in 1975 when I visited her at her home in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. I also met and chatted some with Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Davis while they were also visiting Madeline. I was always pretty impressed with this extraordinary story.