In 1982 a film called The Entity was unleashed on American cinema-goers and this terrifying experience followed a young woman as she was sexually assaulted and tormented by an unseen force. In this case, reality is more frightening than fiction because the true story behind The Entity is a much more harrowing ordeal than could ever be contained on celluloid. The story of Doris Bither, the woman whose life inspired the classic horror film, is one of addiction, abuse, and spectral rape. It’s not for the weak of heart.
The haunting of Doris Bither was a true nightmare scenario. She was being raped, and her children assaulted, on an almost nightly basis – and there was nothing that could be done about it. The Entity is one of the few movies based on true events that manages to capture the feeling of desperation that the real life counterparts surely felt, but it still can't come anywhere close to the real horror that Bither was forced to endure until the day she died.
In 1974, Doris Bither, a mother of four, was living with her sons in a small house in Culver City, California when she began to suffer a series of physical attacks that she claims were perpetrated by a group of ghosts. Rather than what most would consider a “normal” haunting, weird things happening around the house and such, Bither claimed that she was being raped by the phantoms.
This may seem far-fetched but the concept of “spectral rape” goes back to the time of ancient Greek literature and modern scientists have tied this phenomenon to sleep paralysis. Sleep paralysis effects 20% of the population and sometimes occurs when a person wakes up before finishing their REM cycle. But was Bither experiencing sleep paralysis or something much more terrifying?
While she was alive, Bither claimed that she wasn’t just attacked by one ghost, but three different entities who would attack her on a regular basis. Two of them, she claimed, were small creatures who would hold her down, while the largest of the entities would be the one who raped her. Her sons got so used to seeing the ghosts that they referred to the ghost that they saw the most as “Mr. Whose-It.”
One of her sons claimed to have seen Bither thrown around the room by an invisible phenomenon. He claims that when he tried to stop the attack he was also tossed away like loose garbage. Bither’s eldest son, Brian Harris described the entities as like “a fog” or “like a human…but not quite.”
Doris Bither's Sons Corroborated The Supernatural Abuse Their Mother Endured
The attacks against Bither were particularly brutal and they went on for years. Bither was tossed around the room, slapped, and raped almost nightly. Her sons recall seeing major scarring on her legs and thighs as if someone had grabbed her. Dither’s oldest son, Brian Harris, claims to have witnessed many of the attacks. In an interview from 2009, he says that because his bedroom was next door to his mother’s room he would have to listen to the assaults as they happened and in a few cases he actually saw her being beaten by an invisible force.
“It was like if a man was standing in front of my mother and would start to beat her. Imagine a woman being beaten. You could see her being picked up and thrown around. Sounds, slaps…but there was no one there to actually do it.” He continued, “we all felt it too. Pulling, biting and scratching…we were all attacked.”
According to Bither’s sons, she wasn’t the only one in the house who was being attacked by these ghostly creatures. The members of her family who would speak about the incident claim that at different times throughout the years they experienced things in the house as well. They say one of them was slapped by a creature, one of them bumped into an invisible man in a hallway, and the eldest son found a way to make the ghosts particularly excited.
Bither’s eldest alleges that whenever he listened to Black Sabbath or Uriah Heap that there would be an increase in paranormal activity around the home. He claims that music would set off a chain reaction of orbs appearing around the house and the house lights would turn on and off.
Bither's Bleak Personal History May Have Contributed To Her Haunting
It’s impossible to say what actually causes any haunting. Some researchers believe that a haunting is caused by negative energy in a home stemming from a curse or past violence on the land. Other paranormal investigators believe that those who are haunted bring it on themselves. Unfortunately Bither passed away in 1999 and towards the end of her life she seemed to go out of her way to avoid discussing the case that had brought her so much pain throughout her life.
Some reports say she suffered from childhood abuse and her son Brian said that she was disowned by her family after a major altercation in her teens. Some paranormal researchers allege that Doris spent her teens taking part in séances and toying with dark magic. Without speaking directly to Bither there’s no way to know for sure exactly what happened in her childhood that would attract spirits toward her, but the one thing that is certain is that she led an incredibly tumultuous and tortured life.
Paranormal Investigators Studied The Bither Family Extensively, But Their Presence Only Made Matters Worse
After the spectral rape started to become a normal thing in the Bither household, a group of paranormal investigators were called to see if they could figure out what was going on. The group of around 30 investigators set up cameras to catch anything happening while they were in the home. After everything was in place they had Bither conjure the entities.
According to a later report, Bither went into a frenzy and began to swear and taunt the spirits while the investigators watched. Allegedly light orbs began to manifest in the room, followed by a green mist that snaked out from a corner of the room. Investigators claim a mist formed in the shape of a human torso and a series of muscles. After having their film developed, the investigators were dismayed to find that none of this had been captured on camera, save for a “free arc” that was seen to be floating above Bither.
An interesting note to the paranormal investigator story comes from Bither’s son, Brian, who was just out of elementary school at the time of the attacks. He claims that the presence of the paranormal investigators exacerbated the haunting, making his home life a complete hell. He told an interviewer in 2009, “…When the team would show up, I hated it; because I knew as soon as they left, they would become so angry that the house would come alive!”
