Why I spend my time studying ghosts!
Every now and again I find myself sitting in the damp, black cellar of a creaky old building. It's 3 o'clock in the morning and I'm tired and cold. In the silence every sound is eerily magnified. A colleague thinks a spiritual presence is with us and I half expect some long dead old man to suddenly appear before my eyes.
Every now and again I ask myself this question: "Why am I doing this?"
The answer is that I, and my colleagues (and about another million ghost hunters around the world) believe that there is a spiritual realm beyond our physical existence. Most of us have had some sort of paranormal experience and we are determined to find some answers.
The whole subject is fascinating and once you have been on an investigation you can't wait for the next one - even if it means spending hours in a cold, dark cellar.
Recent years have seen an explosion of interest in paranormal phenomena. The internet has loads of sites (some good, some bad) on all sorts of subjects ranging from aliens and Bigfoot to Yetis and zombies.
Ghosts seem to be of particular interest to a great many people. This could mean that more and more people are witnessing ghostly activity and / or they are more prepared to talk about their experiences - the internet, of course, makes all of this a lot easier.
Organised paranormal research dates back to 1862 when Charles Dickens (yes, him again!) and a few other prominent London gents founded The Ghost Club, which is still going strong today and has a very interesting website.
Séances in Victorian drawing rooms gradually gave way to more scientifically minded investigation with the Society for Psychical Research founded in 1882.
The twentieth century saw a growing amount of serious research into ghostly phenomena, especially after World War I.
The terrible slaughter inspired a yearning for contact with the dead. There were also supernatural tales such as the "Angels of Mons", ghostly warriors that supposedly came to the aid of British soldiers.
Harry Price was a very popular investigator of the 1920's. His books and newspaper articles brought paranormal research to a much larger audience than ever before. His most famous investigation was Borley Rectory (pictured above). This place had it all - ghostly nuns, poltergeists, unexplained footsteps, disembodied voices and a phantom carriage complete with headless horsemen.
Other notable ghost hunters include Hans Holzer who investigated a certain house in Amityville (pictured at the top!), New York. Guy Lyon Playfair and Maurice Grosse investigated the infamous Enfield Poltergeist.
These chaps, and quite a few others, have written some great books on the paranormal and especially ghost investigations. In future blogs I will return to some of these researchers because they made me want to go out and do some investigating myself.
These days paranormal investigation is not the exclusive activity of clever people who write books. TV shows and the internet have inspired many ordinary people to get involved. Inevitably, the subject does attract its fair share of thrill seekers, dimwits and charlatans who sometimes tarnish the image of serious paranormal groups.
However, the more people who do take an interest the better. Sharing experiences, communication, and asking questions raises the game. We will become more knowledgeable and more instinctively able to separate what can be explained from that which is truly strange. BGAH is in contact with other UK groups and even some in Europe and North America. (People in San Diego know about the Old Crown Inn, Deritend).
We've got an interesting year ahead with some excellent locations in the pipeline.
Who ya gonna call?
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Joanne Morris - Founder of the biggest paranormal investigation group in the Midlands
Brill Jo. How funny, when we have a quiet night I always ask my self this, But then I remember the Civic and I know why again!!!
What was the name of the medium who done physical mediumship who was imprisoned in the 2nd world war, for producing a navy solider who's ship had sank, but it hadn't been publicly announced. She was released and the witchcraft/spiritual dealing act was abolished???
All I can say is "WOW!", I'm just loving this blog so much. I remember the medium you are talking about Lyndieloo, but the name escapes me at the moment...I'm sure I will think it. I'd love to come out on investigations with you Jo and your team, the whole subject is so fasinating. Looking forward to the next one! xx Emm
The name of the medium is Helen Duncan.
Ahhh Cheers Milton, That's the lady. What are your thoughts on that story, if it's rubbish why did the government take such action?????
Emma have you had any experiences???
While I think about it. I'm reading a book a friend Shirley Bach wrote called "My Spirit Bubble" she has moved on to the next realm, but her book has answered some questions for me, she talks about her beliefs as a spiritualist, and talks about some of the science of spiritualisum and how Sir Arthur Findley explains that we are made up of atoms that vibrate and our physical world vibrates at the same speed, but the spirit world, vibrates at a faster speed, thus we can't see it, she talks about a member of Bromsgrove spiritualist church showing this with a ruler, giving it a twang and whist it's vibrating we can't see it. To me that seems logical, what are your thoughts?? Shirley was a local lass, and a lovely brave lady. Our friendship was very short, as it was a year before she passed, bless she was on crutches after slipping on ice when I meet her. If you can get hold of her book it's worth a read.
interesting post thanks!!! i really like it
I'm just loving this blog so much. I remember the medium you are talking about Lyndieloo, but the name escapes me at the moment...I'm sure I will think it. I'd love to come out on investigations with you Jo and your team, the whole subject is so fasinating.
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I am often found thinking the same Jo, why do we do it?!!!
But personally I find the whiole subject matter of ghosts and hauntings fascinating and investigations are almost addictive... if that makes sense?
I went along with my partner to an organised ghost hunt at Tamworth Castle 5 years ago (just to hunour him really!!) and after my experiences there have been investigating at least one location a month ever since!! We met the other members of CEPI through another paranormal events team and I absolutely LOVE going to different places and hearing the stories and accounts of ghosts and hauntings and sometimes experiencing that for myself.
The only negative thing I find is that some locations charge a hefty sum to hire the place for such investigations which is a real shame.
Regards
Louise :)
Nice post I was very interested while I was reading this information because is so real.