Bassett is the executive director of the Paradigm Research Group (PRG), established in 1996 to advocate "disclosure", defined as "an end to a government imposed truth embargo of the facts surrounding an extraterrestrial presence engaging the human race". In pursuit of that goal, last year PRG submitted the following "Disclosure Petition" to the White House's "We the People Petition Project":
We, the undersigned, strongly urge the President of the United States to formally acknowledge an extraterrestrial presence engaging the human race and immediately release into the public domain all files from all agencies and military services relevant to this phenomenon.
The petition was submitted on 22 September 2011. By 27 September it had already received the 5,000 signatures necessary for it to be considered and responded to by the Obama administration. Before the 30-day deadline expired it received an impressive 12,078 signatures, but when the government response came it was not exactly the epoch-defining admission so many had hoped for.
In an official statement dated 4 November Phil Larson of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) replied:
The U.S. government has no evidence that any life exists outside our planet, or that an extraterrestrial presence has contacted or engaged any member of the human race. In addition, there is no credible information to suggest that any evidence is being hidden from the public's eye.
This failed to satisfy PRG. Refusing to be (in its view) fobbed off, PRG has returned to the attack. This time, though, it is focusing on what it hopes is a chink in the government armour.
According to letters obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by researcher Grant Cameron, as far back as 1993 Dr Jack Gibbons (then White House Science Advisor to the President) discussed the issue of UFOs/ETs with, among others, billionaire philanthropist Laurance S. Rockefeller.
PRG explains why this is so significant:
From early 1993 to late 1996 billionaire Laurance Rockefeller engaged the Clinton administration through the Office of Science and Technology Policy to convince President Clinton to release all files regarding the UFO/ET issue and end the truth embargo. Why is this relevant to the current administration? Those persons who at the time were either directly involved with or knew about what has come to be called the “Rockefeller Initiative” include: Bill Clinton (advisor to the President), Hillary Clinton (Secretary of State), John Podesta (Obama transition co-chair), Webster Hubbell, Leon Panetta (CIA Director/Secretary of Defense), Dr. John Gibbons - involved; Albert Gore, Bill Richardson (Governor of New Mexico) - knew.
None of these high level officials have ever spoken publicly about the Rockefeller Initiative or been asked a single question about the Initiative in public by the political media. Perhaps it is time for that to change.
On 23 February 2012 PRG (re)submitted “Disclosure Petition II - the Rockefeller Initiative”. If the official response to their first petition was true, PRG wants to know, then "what was Clinton's Office of Science and Technology Policy investigating from March 1993 to October 1996 in concert with billionaire, Clinton friend, Laurance Rockefeller?"
(This second petition was originally submitted in December 2011 but problems with the White House website meant that people found themselves unable to sign.)
Will this new pressure to explain the significance of the Rockefeller letters compel the Obama administration to admit the government knows more about the “UFO/ET issue” that it has hitherto said?
I recently asked Bassett to tell me more.
In his reply to the first Disclosure Petition, Phil Larson of the OSTP wrote: "The fact is we have no credible evidence of extraterrestrial presence here on Earth." The Paradigm Research Group responded (in a press release dated 8 November 2011): "Unfortunately for the OSTP and the Obama administration, that assertion is false. Furthermore, given that approximately 50% of the American people are now convinced of an extraterrestrial presence and more than 80% believe the government is not telling the truth about the phenomenon, it is an embarrassment."
What would you say to people who believe the OSTP statement to be true, and couldn't it be that the other 50% of the American people - those who are not convinced of an extraterrestrial presence - are the ones who are correct?
Those who believe the OSTP response is true are not informed. That 50% of the American people now believe the UFO phenomenon is ET in origin proves nothing. But it's worth mentioning to the Obama administration given it is lying to that 50%. Governmental lying is now almost institutionalized and the public is growing weary of it.
It is also worth noting when the polling is broken down demographically, the higher the education and income the more likely one is inclined to accept the extraterrestrial hypothesis for the phenomenon.
The proof of the extraterrestrial presence lies with the evidence, and the United States military/intelligence structures have worked very hard for six decades to minimize the impact of that evidence. A truth embargo was imposed. That embargo will end soon.
What reason(s) do you feel the US government has for covering up the "truth" about contact with extraterrestrials, and do you believe that such a cover-up might ever be justified?
This is one of the top five exopolitical questions. The government, of course, has never acknowledged the truth embargo or its motives. However, I am convinced it was initiated in the early 1950s because of the circumstances of that time.
A worldwide active ET phenomenon was taking place at the same time the United States was aware the Soviet Union was developing fission and fusion bombs as well as ballistic missiles with their own cache of Nazi scientists. A third world war was in the offing and it would likely be nuclear. And, of course, there was so much that was not known about the ET presence and the technology in the craft recovered near Roswell, NM (and possibly other crash events).
The reality of the phenomenon had to be contained until the risks were better known and the geopolitical status was more stable.
There was no World War III, but there was a Cold War and it lasted until 1991. After then, Disclosure became a viable possibility. Why it has not happened 20 years later is a more complex assessment. But 20 years is not long given the can-kicking-down-the-road, dysfunctional nature of American governance over the past three decades. And to be fair, it is hardly a simple matter to resolve. That said, barring the odd war or massive terrorist event, resolution is close at hand.
Do you think the US government is the only power to know the "truth", and if not who else might be working with them?
No. Elements within every industrialized nation and likely any nations with air defense forces are aware of the extraterrestrial presence.
What are your thoughts concerning the nature of the assumed extraterrestrial presence?
Only the extraterrestrials know why they are here. We can only speculate based upon the evidence gathered to date. The Internet is awash with a thousand theories, not to mention an ocean of confabulation.
I have a working model I use as a guide. It's just a model. Every biosphere that evolves at least one sentient species with the ability to manipulate matter (digits) eventually goes through the transition we have been having since the late 1940s. Think of it as a coming of age process. Whatever the long historic interaction with Earth, a major shift occurs when we developed and used nuclear weapons. That transition leads to self-Disclosure (ideally) and Disclosure is prelude to open, formal contact. In other words, the human race will soon be introduced formally to its galactic neighbors. Then the real fun begins. It's a working model.
Do you believe that the tactics you are using can ever eventually force the White House to admit to something they presumably believe should remain secret, and if so how long do you think the process is likely to take?
Of course. Think of the Disclosure process as a chess game. The government (like the Catholic Church in the time of the Copernican revolution, that knew it could not indefinitely hide the true nature of the solar system from its flock) knows it cannot ultimately win the game, so it has played for draws for 60-plus years.
The advocacy process is about maneuvering the prevailing circumstances such that a draw is no longer possible. The advocacy process is about much more than demanding information. It is three-dimensional chess.
Regarding the Rockefeller Initiative, could it simply be that Rockefeller was in his own way trying to do exactly what you’re attempting? Perhaps he was merely responding to a widely held belief that information is being held back unnecessarily and wanted to encourage the Clinton administration to release that purported information, but this doesn't prove that the information ever really existed.
Simple answer. No.
The Rockefeller Initiative did not take place in a vacuum. There had been 46 years of the phenomenon and citizen science/activism by the time Laurance Rockefeller showed up at President Bill Clinton's door. The Cold War was over and Laurance felt it was time for the human race to finally learn the truth.
He did what he could, but he was quite old and Bill Clinton was compromised by his personal behavior. The effort failed - then. But it may yet be the linchpin that triggers the Disclosure event.
Finally, would you like to explain to our readers why you feel they should sign "Disclosure Petition II"?
"Disclosure Petition II - the Rockefeller Initiative" [is being resubmitted] accompanied by a considerable amount of media and web promotion. This will be done in coordination with the "Need to Know" petition being resubmitted by Bryce Zabel and Richard Dolan. These petitions are specifically formulated to challenge the White House formal statement of November 4, 2011 that, "The U.S. government has no evidence that any life exists outside our planet, or that an extraterrestrial presence has contacted or engaged any member of the human race. In addition, there is no credible information to suggest that any evidence is being hidden from the public's eye."
"Disclosure Petition I" and the White House response generated more media coverage worldwide than all other posted petitions combined. The political media have taken notice. Should "Disclosure Petition II" and the "Need to Know" petition quickly acquire the needed 25,000 signatures, the impact on the Disclosure process could be dramatic. But this depends upon the people.
Who should sign these petitions? Anyone who believes they have a right to know the true nature of the world they live in, who believes they can handle that truth, and who are no longer willing to accept institutional lying and propaganda in place of open transparent governance.
"Disclosure Petition II - the Rockefeller Initiative" was resubmitted to the White House website on 23 February 2012, but gathering enough support won't be easy.
Since the original petition last year, the threshold of 5,000 signatures necessary to ensure a formal response from the White House has been significantly raised and now a massive 25,000 signatures are required.
Anyone who wants to sign "Disclosure Petition II - the Rockefeller Initiative" has until 24 March 2012 to do so.
]]>I was reminded of this the other day when, as part of the events marking her Diamond Jubilee, Queen Elizabeth II granted royal status to Greenwich in south-east London
Greenwich was the first borough to receive this honour in more than 80 years and has thus become one of only four royal boroughs in the entire United Kingdom. (The others, by the way, are Kensington and Chelsea, Windsor and Maidenhead, and Kingston-upon-Thames.) So what made the Queen choose Greenwich?
According to the Cabinet Office, Greenwich was granted its new royal status in recognition of the close links that have existed between that place and the monarchy since the Middle Ages. While news of these links appeared to come as a mildly amusing revelation to some TV newsreaders, those familiar with the UK’s ghost stories were probably less surprised. The royal connection shines through at least two of the many ghostly tales that come from this freshly elevated part of London.
The land here on the southern shore of the River Thames was inherited by Humphrey, the Duke of Gloucester and the brother of King Henry V, in 1427. It was a great location and Humphrey quite understandably decided to build himself a large riverside house, naming it Bella Court.
After Humphrey died in 1447, the house was enlarged and improved by Margaret of Anjou, the wife of King Henry VI. So pleased was she with the charming location that Margaret named her new palace “Placentia”, meaning “pleasant place”.
The palace of Placentia was later enlarged further by King Henry VII, the first Tudor king, who seized the crown in 1485 after defeating Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field. This Henry decided to have the palace fashionably refaced in red brick, and during his reign Placentia - conveniently accessible by river and sited in what was then idyllic countryside away from the bustle and stench of overcrowded London - became a favourite royal resort.
On 28 June 1491, Henry’s son - the future King Henry VIII - was born at Placentia. He greatly enjoyed spending time here and it became one of his favourite residences. Under his later ownership, Placentia grew into an even grander palace, with a new banqueting hall and a great tilt yard for jousting and tournaments. In time, both of Henry VIII’s daughters would be born at Placentia: the future Queen Mary I in 1516 and the future Queen Elizabeth I in 1533.
Like her father Elizabeth was deeply fond of and spent much time at Placentia. It is with her that we find the first of the site’s royal ghost stories, often embedded within some version of the preceding historical place-setting.
From time to time (it is said), a figure can be glimpsed wandering over the now-buried ruins of Placentia, which lie beneath the buildings of Greenwich’s beautiful Old Royal Naval College. This spectral figure is described as wearing a low-necked dress consistent with Elizabethan fashion and sporting a red hairpiece adorned with a small crown, which has of course led to the belief that this is the spirit of Good Queen Bess herself, revisiting and perhaps wondering at the changes wrought upon her favourite palace.
The site’s second royal phantom is rumoured to be none other than Elizabeth’s own mother, Anne Boleyn. There seems little in the way of definitive identification of this ghost, however, with the story merely stating that “some of the sightings of young female figures in Tudor costume could be of her”.
Still, if you’re going to guess the identity of a female ghost in England, Anne Boleyn would probably be your best bet; her restless shade seems not in the least the shy and retiring type, allegedly haunting numerous historic locations across the United Kingdom.
They’re great stories, but do such tales really tell us anything about the paranormal, I wonder, or should they be seen more as a form of social history, entertainingly helping us to stay in touch with the past as it continually shapes the present? Given Greenwich’s intimate association with time, it seems an especially pertinent question.
Either way, it’s interesting to speculate how our present Queen, Elizabeth II, might feature in the ghost stories told by future generations.
Visiting details: The Old Royal Naval College at Greenwich is open daily with free admission to the grounds. Find out more at the ORNC website.
]]>If I’m due to take a trip somewhere, and think I might have time to visit a supposedly haunted site while I’m there, I’ll have a quick search online for local ghost stories and before long I find myself in the Paranormal Database. Likewise, if I’m looking for information about a ghost story I want to research, this is often one of the first sites I come across. Given the size of the database, this is hardly surprising.
The Paranormal Database currently contains over 10,000 entries summarising paranormal and cryptozoological reports from around the UK and Ireland. And the site is continually being updated.
Its creator, and the author of a recent book of paranormal tales from Cork in Ireland, is Darren Mann.
Hi Darren. How would you describe your website to someone who’s never visited it before?
The Paranormal Database gives a brief overview to thousands of alleged paranormally active locations around the UK. These include haunted houses, legendary places (like Stonehenge), UFO hotspots, and sites where dragons and other mythological creatures were once said to live.
How long have you been maintaining the database and what gave you the initial idea?
I started work on the Paranormal Database in 1999, although back then it had a different name and only collected ghost stories based around the east of England area, where I live. The original idea was to have a photographic website of local paranormal locations, although within a few months people started to email and share their paranormal experiences from across the UK.
A couple of years later I decided I had enough information to expand across the whole of the UK and Ireland. Now stories come in from all over the world, so I will soon be looking at expanding once again, although I cannot say for sure when.
What was it that sparked your interest in the paranormal?
I’ve been interested for almost as long as I can remember! As corny as it is, Scooby Doo was a favourite growing up, and one of my first books was an Usborne book of “real” ghosts, monsters, and UFOs.
My interest was rekindled while studying photography at university, and I found myself investigating how to fake UFO photographs.
How often do you add new information to the database, and where do you get the details from?
I try to add information to the backend database every weekend and upload once a month.
The details come from wherever I can find them - I’m sent around 60 submissions per month, but I will not use all of them due to a number of reasons. For example, ghost stories that relate to recent murders I believe will upset too many people so I avoid them. I also trawl national and local newspapers and rummage through second hand bookshops.
If somebody wanted to look further into a story listed on the database, how could they do so?
If someone is really interested in finding out further information about a story, they can drop me a line. The website also has a comprehensive bibliography.
To complement the website you’ve created the Paranormal Field Guide app. How does this work?
The actual app was written by a good friend of mine, Phil Willis. The Paranormal Field Guide figures out where you are in the UK and then displays paranormally active places that are close to your current location.
It’s basically a cut down version of the website, but much more handy and convenient if you’re on the move.
You’ve also written a book - Haunted Cork - featuring supernatural tales from Cork in Ireland. What sort of stories can readers find in there?
Cork is a fantastic place to visit - history is scattered around the countryside, and I was amazed at how many disused and crumbling forts I stumbled across. As with many places, once you pass under the skin of the seemingly normal culture, there’s a wealth of legends and paranormal encounters ready to be discovered.
The book itself is a mix of old and new ghost stories, including interviews with witnesses and coverage of the activities of CPI (Cork Paranormal Investigators) and the Ghosteire team.
If you had to choose one or two favourite stories from either your book or the database what would they be?
It is nigh impossible for me to choose single stories! I think one of the most memorable for me, mainly as it was one of the first I received, was from a sports editor of a national paper who watched a phantom coach pass through the walls of his home. The following day he discovered that his neighbour had died around the same time as the sighting.
I also become excited when I receive several different accounts of happenings from the same location but by different witnesses at different times. I have now received three witness statements relating to a large hairy creature that stands on two legs at Thetford Forest - a British Bigfoot would be cool!
That’s something I’d love to see! Any last comments for our readers?
Only to say I am amazed by the number of stories that people have shared with me.
I started off as being quite cynical of those claiming to have experienced paranormal occurrences, but after reading and hearing thousands of stories from all over the world, you start to believe there is something on the fringes of the rational and the mundane.
Visit the Paranormal Database.
]]>The fact is that where you find old buildings you tend to find tales of the supernatural. It is little surprise, therefore, that Guildford has plenty of ghostly lore.
This attractive English town is the administrative centre for the county of Surrey, and it lies approximately 25 miles to the southwest of London. Ambling along its streets will take you past buildings that have seen centuries of history and that are themselves watched over by Guildford Castle, believed to have been first built shortly after William the Conqueror invaded England in 1066.
There is so much history here that to make the most of Guildford’s ghost stories requires a good guide. Fortunately the town can boast the best.
Philip Hutchinson has been interested in ghosts and hauntings his entire life and is the author of (among other titles) Haunted Guildford (The History Press, 2006). For the past 12 years he has been a member of the Ghost Club, the oldest psychical research organisation in the world, and he has sat on that august body’s Council since 2001. In that same year he started The Ghost Tour of Guildford.
Hi Philip, right from its beginning back in 2001, The Ghost Tour of Guildford has been a hugely popular attraction. What do you put its enduring appeal down to?
Guildford is a large borough and, having a University, it has a sector of its populace which is transient. It’s unlike most ghost tours because the style of delivery ranges from the abusive to the surreal! People have come along as much for the oddity of the event as the history.
I believe the tour covers around 20 different locations, which would suggest a rather rich tradition of supernatural tales here. Would you describe Guildford as an especially haunted town?
It doesn't cover 20 sites anymore. I think it did when I first started but, as the years progress and people give me additions to some of the sites, I've added these on, necessitating those tales with less duration or foundation to be quietly put to bed. Suitably, I now cover 13 sites.
Would I describe Guildford as an especially haunted town? Well, if you'd opened a book on ghosts prior to 2000, you would only have found possibly two tales. Now, with the tour being well established, most books will reel off a whole host of them.
I’ve always maintained there are as many ghosts in a town as there are people to talk about them. Look at Farnham — when [famous ghost hunter and author] Peter Underwood lived just outside that town it gained a reputation as the most haunted town in England. Now he's moved away, it's not somewhere you'd think of.
I have now been told ghost stories linked to almost every other building in the High Street but, foolishly, I very rarely make note of them. Guildford is an old town. Most of the buildings are of great age. I would say that would give us a head start.
Has anybody ever experienced something strange during one of your tours?
Yes. Three times now, and all of them on a short stretch of Quarry Street.
In 2002, one man saw an umbrella dancing about on a CCTV screen he could view through a window.
Later that year, a woman had her leg shoved out of the way by a small hand (felt, not seen) on a set of haunted steps.
And in 2006, two people twice saw a small dog run down the road towards them and then vanish in front of them.
How about you? Have you ever seen or heard anything mysterious in Guildford (or indeed elsewhere)?
This is a question I loathe, because I get it all the time and have to go into automatic mode!
I have only once seen an apparition, at Woodchester Mansion in Gloucestershire in 2002.
I have twice woken from dreams to ‘see’ ghosts in the room, which I am sure was my brain backfiring (which makes it no less fascinating).
I have seen ghost lights (as opposed to natural photographic orbs) travelling up a wall in a house in Lincolnshire with a haunted reputation.
I've also seen poltergeist activity at a haunted pub in London when a pint glass at an unoccupied table flew across it and into the middle of the room, observed by several of us.
In Guildford, my only experiences have been during an investigation at Waterstone’s bookshop in 2004. All that personally happened to me were alarms going off by themselves and the sound of a lift rattling when it wasn't in use.
You must have some stories that you particularly enjoy telling on the tour; what are your personal favourites?
Ironically, the story I used to enjoy telling the most is now the one I enjoy least of all — the haunting of the old Waterstone’s bookshop in the High Street. I was directly involved in this case but the story is now twice as long as when I started the tour and I can't wait to get it over.
I wouldn't say there's any tale I enjoy more than another, but I certainly look forward to the jokes, of which there are a lot. If they're a reticent group, then I use the jokes to spite them!
The Ghost Tour operates every week for most of the year but I understand you’ve already given the last of your regular public tours for 2011. These will be starting again next April but for those of us eager to discover more about Guildford’s paranormal side, is it possible to book a private tour before then?
I do private tours for groups at any time, provided I'm free when the booking's made. I do still have a couple of bookings in the run-up to Christmas — a birthday party and an outing for the Surrey Police (during which I hope I get some abuse from troublemakers so we can class it as a 'sting'!).
When I began, I ran the tours every Friday night all year round. After three years I found my attendee levels from December to February were piteously low, so I stopped from December to February. The last two years, attendee levels have halved and halved again, probably due to the lack of post-Recession free publicity. As of 2012, I'll be starting on Good Friday rather than the start of March. It just happens that in 2012, that'll be the first Friday in April.
Thanks very much, Philip.
Take the Ghost Tour of Guildford:
Are you ready to discover why Holy Trinity Church is cursed? Do you want to know the identity of the mysterious lady in grey? Would you like a good excuse to visit the King’s Head pub, said to be Guildford’s most haunted building?
The Ghost Tour of Guildford will run every Friday night from April to November 2012 in Guildford town centre but you don’t have to wait until then.
Private tours can be arranged for any time, as long as Philip is available. To arrange a tour contact him via the Ghost Tour website or email him directly.
Facebook users can find the Ghost Tour of Guildford’s page here.
Images used with permission of The Ghost Tour of Guildford. Credits: 1 Simon Drake; 2, 3 Justine Cornforth; 4, 5 Ant Davey.
]]>These numbers offer tangible proof that domesticated pets are a significant part of our culture. However, no matter how many pets we have or how much we spend on them, there's still a missing link keeping humans and our furry friends from truly understanding one another: direct communication.
Sure, we can teach Spot to get the ball, or catch a frisbee, and certainly our feline friends can master the cat box, but what about those deep-seated issues we just can't seem to comprehend?
I had to take our lovable and typically easygoing orange tabby Weenus to the vet recently for what I thought was a some sort of skin condition. It seemed every time he sat still (and he's a big boy, so he sits still a lot!) he would chew the fur on his forepaws. I investigated and saw the fur was completely chewed off and only a smooth patch of skin and light fur remained. Assuming this was ringworm or something worse, we took him to the vet.
Our vet ran some tests and nothing out of the ordinary came back as the cause. He asked me some questions about recent changes in the home; I mentioned we'd taken in a pregnant stray who'd given birth to kittens — could that be it?
The light bulb went off and as it turns out, our Weenus (aka Mr. Laidback) was stressed and anxious, perhaps even fearing he was being replaced. The prescription: Ritalin for cats! Weird, I know.
This was the first time it occurred to me that pets, and especially those who aren't spending their days just trying to survive, may have some of the complex emotions I assumed only humans possessed. It definitely changed my view on how I interacted and treated my own special pet friends.
Weenus's problem was a fairly easy one for our vet to figure out, but what about truly strange and/or sudden behavior changes in your pet? Or worse, what if your pet goes missing? How on earth can we mere humans hope to understand or see the world through our furry loved one's eyes? Fortunately, there are folks out there (if you believe as I do) who have a special sense and can communicate on a deeper level with animals and act as a conduit between their world and that of humans.
Sonya Fitzpatrick is just such a person and has been communicating with animals since her earliest childhood memories. Sonya has helped famous pet lovers such as Ellen Degeneres and Rosie O'Donnell with their pet problems and is the premier pet communicator and pet psychic.
Sonya offers her skills by giving a bird's eye view (so to speak) of what animals are feeling, thinking, and experiencing, and she was kind enough to talk to us about her gifts of animal communication.
An author and radio host (Animal Intuition on Sirius Radio Channel 102, Tuesdays, 6pm - 8pm), Sonya offers personal readings and has a genuine desire to help pets and their owners communicate and understand each other better. For more about Sonya, or to get in touch, please check out her website. Check out our Q & A below:
Can you describe how and when you discovered your gift for communicating with animals?
I was born with it. I was speaking telepathically to animals long before I spoke verbally as I had a hearing loss from birth.
What is your process for tuning into and connecting with pets?
Talking to the animals is like second nature to me. I use the other side of my brain to tune in to what they are saying. I use my feelings, emotions, and telepathic communication when I am speaking to animals.
Are some animals easier to communicate with than others?
No, I just adapt my communication accordingly. When animals live with us they learn our verbal language, but when I am communicating with wild animals I use my feelings and emotions more.
Can you describe the most uncanny experience you've had while communicating with an animal?
I continue to have so many it's hard to pick just one.
Do you feel your gift is something you were born with, or something you've honed over time? In other words, can a person can teach themselves to communicate with their pets or is this an otherworldly gift you either have or don't?
For myself I was born communicating with animals and do believe it is a gift as they have taught me so much. Many people are already communicating with their animals and do not realize they are doing so. I believe that you can learn to tune into your skills and communicate if you want to.
Have you ever had animals reach out to you, or does the path to communication always start with you?
The communication works both ways.
What does the communication feel like? Can you describe what you see, feel, experience during a session?
I use all of my senses when I communicate with animals. Feelings, emotions, images, communication, as well as using my body to detect where animals are hurting. Many times vets can't find the cause of the problem or where the animal is hurting. I become the animal seeing the world from their perspective. I become them. I am low to the ground, feel as they feel, sense as they sense, small like they smell, and can read where the pain is coming from.
Mediums who connect with human spirits often find the experience painful or difficult to turn off; do you share any of these feelings?
No. The work that I do can be very draining, I have learned to close down when I am not working and rest.
Have you ever connected with humans while using your gifts?
Many times people that have passed on will come through during a reading to give messages as well as animals that have passed over.
Editor's note: Sonya kindly helped us when our beloved momma cat disappeared this past summer, and was able to offer some very uncanny information she couldn't have known, which was unnerving to say the least. Sadly, we haven't recovered our sweet Socks; however, the information Sonya provided offered a measure of comfort and closure and that alone was invaluable. This experience and a personal interest in the paranormal was the impetus for our interview with Ms. Fitzpatrick.
]]>In theory, smartphones should be fantastic news for serious researchers of the strange, combining as they do portability, ubiquity, and increasingly high-quality video and photographic capabilities. These days, more than ever before, anybody stumbling into an odd -- and possibly paranormal -- situation, is likely to be carrying the means of recording what happens to them. So, if ghosts and other such manifestations truly exist and can be filmed, we should be seeing more and more good evidence of the fact.
Maurice Townsend, of the UK’s Association for the Scientific Study of Anomalous Phenomena (ASSAP), is looking into how to deal with a growing problem. I asked him to explain what’s going on:
So, Maurice, what is it about smartphones that’s causing trouble for researchers?
There are now smartphone apps that can modify your photos to add a “ghost” figure. Some of these “ghosts” can look quite realistic. It’s always been possible to add such figures to photos on a computer, but that required learning how to use something like Photoshop. Now it is easy, just using an app on a phone.
At ASSAP, we analyse apparently paranormal photos regularly. Only a tiny percentage of the photos we look at are manipulated but that number is increasing because of app ghost photos. As a result, we’re not analysing many smartphone photos any more, simply because it takes a lot of time and effort to spot a manipulated one. We’d prefer to spend our time on genuinely strange photos.
What’s being done to combat the problem?
We would like to find out if there is an easy and quick way to spot photos produced by these ghost photo apps. We want to examine photos before and after they’ve been changed by the apps. We’re hoping to find obvious clues that photos have gone through this process so that we can quickly tell when someone sends us one.
I understand you’re appealing for help from as many people as possible. How might readers of The Morton Report be able to help you?
If any of your readers have a smartphone with one of these ghost photo apps on it, we want their help. Please email a copy of a photo BEFORE the app has been used and another one AFTER it has been used. Just send both photos, as attachments please, to me here, with the name of the app used, if possible. Please don’t edit or alter the photos in any other way.
Thanks, Maurice. I'm sure we can help!
So, if you ever wanted an excuse to play with one of these apps, this is it!
The ASSAP researchers urgently need as many examples of these ghost app photos as they can possibly get, and so I urge you all to mention this article to everyone you know who uses a smartphone.
Let’s send Maurice those photos!
]]>While holidaymakers love the Caribbean for its sandy white beaches and clear turquoise waters, beneath the stunning scenery these islands are positively steeped in dark tales of mysterious forces and supernatural beings, the best-known example being the widespread belief in zombies, or “jumbies”.
Shirley knows more than most about this aspect of the Caribbean. Not only has she collected numerous real-life accounts of uncanny incidents from these islands, but she has also had several very strange experiences herself. Among these is the following, which she told me last week took place on the island of Grenada in around 1954:
“I was twelve or thirteen, and on my way home from school at about half past three one afternoon. At the Woolwich Road junction there were four men doing road repairs. I said good afternoon to them, politely. They responded likewise and then went back to their labour - all except one man, who continued to watch me all the way up the road. I couldn’t help but notice that this particular man was tall, with very black skin, and that he had bright red eyes that did not blink.”
She wasn’t the only one to notice him. When Shirley arrived home she found the family’s housekeeper, Dore, in tears, telling Shirley’s mother that she wanted to return at once to St. Kitts (as Saint Christopher Island is informally known).
Shirley recalled:
“She told Mammy that a black man with red eyes kept coming to the kitchen door and asking for water or matches. He had done this several times during the day and always waited outside the kitchen door until she brought the water or matches. On the last occasion however, when she returned with the water, the man was standing inside the doorway. She was convinced that the man was a soucouyant and that it was going to come to suck her blood that night!”
I had previously come across the word soucouyant being used as one name for a type of witch who takes off her wrinkled skin at night to fly around as a fireball and suck blood from people. As with tales of other vampire-like creatures around the world, however, descriptions of the soucouyant seem to be quite mutable, the details varying from place to place and overlapping with those in stories of other supernatural entities.
Appropriately enough, Shirley told me that the soucouyant was said to be able to change its form:
“It becomes a shape shifter through black magic and, at night, sucks the blood of its victims. Sometimes the loss of blood is quite serious. In the shape of a lizard, a mosquito, or some other small insect, animal, or object, it can enter a victim’s room while the victim is asleep.”
It was that reported ability to enter its victim’s room that had so scared Shirley’s housekeeper, because Dore had heard stories that a soucouyant that entered your house during the day would be able to return at night to feast on your blood. Shirley’s mother laughed off Dore’s fears, as did the young Shirley, but the following morning, when the housekeeper had not prepared breakfast at the usual time, Shirley was sent to the servants’ quarters to see if Dore had overslept:
“After knocking several times, I peeped through a crack in the window and saw her lying on her bed motionless, with a deathly pallor. I called her name several times but she didn’t answer.”
Frightened, Shirley fetched her mother, and together they entered the housekeeper’s bedroom:
“Dore appeared to have lost quite a bit of blood, but she came to enough to show us her arm. In the bend of her arm, we saw two puncture wounds on which there were spots of dried blood. I saw it ‘with my own two eyes’! Well, she didn’t stay another day in Grenada. Daddy took her to the airport that afternoon, and off she went, back to her home in St. Kitts.”
Years later, Shirley bumped into Dore at the St. Kitts airport. The now elderly woman remembered only too well what had happened, but despite the passage of time she remained too scared to talk about it.
What particularly unnerved Shirley was that, “after all those years, she still had the scars of the creature’s bite in her arm.”
Shirley’s researches have since taught her that such incidents are reported “more often than one would wish” in Grenada. She also now knows the sort of defences traditionally employed to safeguard oneself against attacks by entities such as the soucouyant:
“In hindsight I know now that, had we taken her seriously, one of us could have sprinkled a line of salt, sand, or rice along her windowsill and across her doorway. Before being free to enter Dore’s bedroom, the entity would have been obliged to pick up grain by grain of the salt, etc., and thus would have been caught by the rising sun.”
Shirley is currently hard at work on a book called Dancing with the Dead about “growing up in the Caribbean with ghosts and ghouls”, and for this she has collected dozens of accounts of mysterious happenings there.
Having been given a sneak preview of some of the completed material I can’t wait to read the full book when it eventually comes out, and hope to be able to bring you further news when it does.
]]>Halloween is the second biggest retail holiday in the U.S., with buyers spending in the billions annually on decorations, candy, costumes, and Halloween-related goods. Another vital component of this month of scare is the horror flick. Hollywood isn't blind to the seasonal ambience and wisely releases many offerings to fit the mood. Just last week, the Paranormal Activity franchise released their third film, with opening weekend sales grossing over $54M, making it the highest opening film for a September/October release.
Even before the advent of filmmaking, "horror" entertainment thrived. Books have been scaring us for centuries and long before there were haunted attractions, there were traveling carnivals, which frequently featured sideshows meant to disgust, shock, or terrorize us psychologically.
There's something primitive in the need to feel afraid, but at a safe distance or in a perceived safe environment. This is the same reason why amusement parks are so popular - the concept of being afraid, the adrenaline rush as it were, plays deeply within our psyche.
Once humans began transitioning from a world filled with terror — ravenous animals, unfriendly nature, perpetually violent societies and the like — to a world with at least a veneer of civilization, the need to invent fictional horror arose. Perhaps it is rooted in our fight or flight response, or maybe we are just more easily bored these days. Whatever the reason, artificially induced fear is a hugely popular distraction.
The easiest, safest, and, frankly, laziest form of scare comes from the big screen. From the comfort of our seats, we can take a journey into our darkest fears, temporarily suspending our disbelief, transporting ourselves into a frightening alternate reality.
Even at the nascent stages of filmmaking, the urge to horrify audiences was strong. One of the truly scariest monsters created in film to date is Nosferatu. The 1922 silent film conjures a vampire, not like today's sexy and misunderstood blood-suckers, but a true carnivorous monster.
Despite advances in film technology since then (including color and sound), this remains a classic of the genre, proof that psychological terror is just as effective as physical terror and gore.
Within the horror film genre, there is a broad spectrum of classics, new and old, which continue to terrify us, even as filmmakers become more and more graphic and creative with storylines and imagery. I've been watching scary movies since I was a child, my first memory of which is being terrified by the TV movie, Trilogy of Terror, at age six. To this day, I have a deep mistrust of dolls.
Then, at age ten, I amped it up a notch and started (at my request) seeing horror films with my dad, the first being Friday the 13th, and have remained interested to this day.
As a longtime horror warrior I'd like to think I've seen enough to warrant a certain level of erudition on the subject. There are certainly foreign films I've never seen, and some that are simply to gruesome, gory or pornagraphic for my liking, but of the classics, I've seen the vast majority.
So, armed with this vast array of horror in my arsenal, I am going to compile my list of the scariest films, why they to this day haunt me, and why I refuse to watch again — perhaps the hallmark of psychological terror.
The Exorcist (1973) — The Linda Blair original in all its glory. Back when I was too young to really understand the battle between good and evil, the significance of religion, or how the two intersected, I watched this film. It tells the story of a young girl who becomes possessed by a demon identifying itself as the devil. There are exorcisms, paranormal occurrences, blasphemous behavior, and in the end, two Catholic priests are dead. The soundtrack is now fully associated with Halloween and all things creepy, especially Mike Oldfield's "Tubular Bells."
Why I won't watch it (again): Demons, possession and the unholy. Some things you don't mess with and this is one of them, go ahead, call me superstitious! Let's not forget the curse associated with the film. 'Nuff said.
Night of the Living Dead (1968) — The George Romero classic and grandfather of today's zombie films. Zombie films have been done every which way possible, including the hilariously grotesque (Return of the Living Dead, Zombieland, Shaun of the Dead), and some truly great modern takes on the subject (28 Days), but none compare to the first.
Why I won't watch it: The relentlessness of the zombies, the grainy, guerrilla style of filming, plus the utter futility of it all make this film truly horrifying. Gross, certainly, but the concept of being trapped, surrounded by murderous, flesh-eating ghouls eats away at our own hidden fears. Worst of all, every character dies. There is no happy ending to this one.
1408 (2007) — Stephen King is a genius and has brought us some of the most chilling books/films ever, but this is one of his most underrated masterpieces. This film, starring John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson, emerged along with today's thriving paranormal investigation community, which has spawned a number of popular (many of which we've written about on TMR) reality-based TV shows and attractions.
The film centers on a jaded travel writer (Cusack) who appraises "haunted" travel spots. After the death of his daughter, he seeks confirmation of an afterlife through the paranormal, but finds himself consistently disappointed. Then he receives an intriguing warning/invitation to a hotel that boasts a haunted room: 1408. This is a psychological thriller with a truly sinister entity terrorizing our protagonist -- it's King at his "shining" best.
Why I won't watch it (again): Couldn't sleep for days. Nightmares and waking up in a cold sweat. Who needs that!
The Ring (2002) — The Gore Verbinski remake of the 1998 Japanese film of the same name is a bit overreaching, a tad on the arty side, and perhaps a bit overwrought with symbolism, but the end result is just plain creepy and unsettling. Starring the gorgeous Naomi Watts, who plays a journalist investigating the untimely death of a family friend.
The death and bizarre circumstances involve a video tape, which when watched will cause death within seven days. Watts of course watches the tape, and then becomes part of the cycle of death, while simultaneously trying to unravel the mystery and save her nephew who has also watched the tape. It's a truly convoluted plot, which at times is a bit hard to follow, but effective nonetheless.
Why I won't watch it (again): I was overcome by a painful week of dark depression after watching this movie. The imagery and atmosphere is unnerving and unsettling to the core, and ending leaves nothing but despair. This movie stays with you, don't watch alone.
Paranormal Activity (2007) — Hollywood learned a lesson or two about cost vs. profits on this one. The film's writer and director Oren Peli wrote the no-budget ($15K) film to help him overcome his own fear of the paranormal, and in the process succeeded at creating one of the most genuinely terrifying films to date.
All shot within a middle-class suburban home in San Diego, the guerrilla-style film ala Blair Witch Project follows boyfriend and girlfriend Micah and Katie as they attempt to document what Katie believes to be a haunting presence, which has followed her since childhood.
The couple's undoing is ultimately rooted in Katie's unwillingness to be truthful with Micah about what's happening to her (the audience gets the sense she is more aware of the evil nature of what's happening than she's willing to admit) and made worse by Micah's blend of arrogance and curiosity.
What starts out as creepy disturbances are made dramatically worse by Micah's attempts to capture the entity on film (particularly while they are sleeping) and then antagonizing it by engaging it directly.
When things spiral out of control, instead of taking immediate and decisive action, Katie defers to Micah who thinks they can handle the situation on their own. Despite a grave warning from a psychic they consult, compounded with a conveniently out of town demonologist (there is only one demonologist in all of SoCal?), Micah and Katie go it alone to deadly results.
While we never actually see the haunting and terrorizing presence, this film creates the kind of dread and terror one might feel if forced to face something supernatural, malevolent, and unseen. How DO you defend yourself from something otherworldly and possibly demonic? Therein lies the dark heart of this film.
Why I won't watch it (again): We made the mistake of watching this before going to bed, and I was far too (falsely) confident in my horror abilities. I literally found myself waking up every ten minutes with the distinct feeling something was watching me, utterly terrified, straining my eyes around the darkened room, seeing ominous shadows.
It's been several days since we watched it and I have yet to shake the feeling. I'd call that a success, and after grossing close to $200M and spawning two sequels, clearly the numbers don't lie.
So there you have it, a rundown of horror to start off your Halloween weekend right!
We would love to hear what YOU think is the scariest movie of all time. Feel free to sound off in the comments, or participate in the poll!
Happy Halloweening!
]]>To be honest, I’m a bit nervous here. My memory is traitorously exhuming thoughts of creepy Japanese girls with hair-cowled faces, of the Bloody Mary legend, and of countless slasher films in which a mirror suddenly reveals your killer standing just behind your shoulder. What the hell am I doing here?
I’m in what’s called a psychomanteum, also known as an “apparition booth”, the idea of which is based upon the Ancient Greek oracles of the dead. Those who wished to consult with the departed would gaze into a reflective surface, such as a pool of still water, and let their surroundings slip away. As they entered an altered state of consciousness, the surface would become a mystical conduit into the spirit realm, or a means of evoking imaginary visions if you prefer to think in those terms.
In more recent times, the psychomanteum was reinvented by Dr Raymond A. Moody, author of the best-selling book Life After Life, and it has been used by researchers to generate apparitional experiences in the laboratory. Not that I’m sitting in anything as grand as a laboratory: this psychomanteum is simply something I’ve bodged together at home.
It was easy enough to do because, in essence, a psychomanteum is nothing more than a dim, quiet room containing a comfortable chair facing a mirror. The mirror is positioned slightly above your seated head height so that its reflection shows the wall just above and behind you, and a candle is often placed behind your chair as a source of flickering light.
The aim is to create an environment which can help to induce a state of trance. As you gaze into the unknown depths beneath the mirror’s surface, your eyes lose focus and - hopefully - apparitions will appear.
Dr. Moody cautions that the process is not one to be taken lightly, and so I suppose I should say something here along the lines of “Don’t try this at home.”
As I sit at home, ignoring my own advice, various distractions bother me. There’s a niggling ache in my lower back and across my shoulders; it’s always there but it’s something I don’t normally notice for precisely that reason
From several streets away comes the Doppler-shift of a speeding police siren, followed soon after by the practically subsonic thumping of a passing car’s stereo system
It’s surprising how much illumination one candle can give out
After around ten minutes I have the impression of a small, yellowish circle appearing, and a sense of a very faint silhouette inside that. The image ebbs and flows, and slightly resembles a person standing in front of a light at the end of a long tunnel. It puts me in mind of reports of a tunnel of light in so-called Near-Death Experiences, or of some reports of “alien abduction” in which the abductee is seemingly pulled on board a spaceship along something like a tractor beam.
Is there really something there? It’s extremely faint and my critical brain pushes to the fore, demanding to know if I’m reading too much into what are really very vague patterns in the shadows. And even those exist for a only few moments before I again become conscious of where I am, my eyes prick, I blink, and the room snaps back into focus.
Apparently, a commonly reported psychomanteum experience is that the mirror turns into a sort of window, which becomes filled by swirling clouds, in which visions then appear. These can be intensely vivid and, on occasion, can even emerge from out of the mirror and into the psychomanteum itself. Unsurprisingly, this is said to be a profoundly meaningful experience for the person involved, with some becoming convinced that the apparitions thus encountered are real, independent spirits rather than products of the unconscious.
A few nights later I try again.
The mirror greys out and my surroundings drop away. In front of me is a swirling grey mist with a tiny point of darkness in the centre. I have the impression of a far-off black hole at the end of a foggy wormhole. Or is it a glimpse of the Eye of Sauron? That last thought is unexpected enough to pull me back into the everyday world. I try to will the earlier image back into existence but can’t quite succeed.
Perhaps I’m not cut out for this scrying lark. Then again, achieving success would probably involve far more than the tiny effort I’ve put in so far. Maybe practice would bring rewards as I get better at allowing myself to enter the necessary state of consciousness.
There are practical refinements I could make too. My attempt at a psychomanteum was a rather makeshift affair, cobbled together on a whim by draping some dark sheets over the walls. If I were to take this further it would be worth investing a little time and expense to create a properly blacked-out and better sound-proofed chamber.
There’s one more thing I’d definitely do next time and that’s switch my phone off before trying to enter a trance. I forgot on the second night - and very nearly visited the spirit realm via the direct route.
]]>Not everyone has the luxury of enjoying zombies in the guise of fiction, though. To some, they are terrifyingly real.
In the Caribbean country of Haiti, for example, a belief persists that sorcerers known as bokors can magically revive corpses. The resulting zombies are able to eat, breathe, and move, but not to think, and they retain no recollection of who they were. Thus stripped of any free will, they make ideal slaves.
This belief in zombies sometimes strays out of the semi-comfortable realm of folklore and shambles forth into reality. The most famous real-life (if such a term is in any way appropriate here) example of this concerns a man named Clairvius Narcisse.
In 1980, Angelina Narcisse was out shopping in the market of her home village of l’Estère, Haiti, when she heard a voice whisper to her the nickname of her brother, Clairvius. That nickname was known only to close relatives and even they barely remembered it, her brother having died way back in 1962. Angelina turned around to see a sick-looking man standing beside her, and when she recognised him as her brother she fainted from shock.
Later, other family members as well as numerous other residents of l’Estère confirmed her identification. This was not the first time that a supposed zombie had been identified, but unusually this man’s mind appeared sufficiently intact for him to answer questions that only the real Clairvius should have been able to. He was also able to reveal what had happened to him.
He claimed that he had got into a heated argument over land and money with his brother, who had hired a bokor to do away with him. The bokor secretly administered a poison, inducing a fever that was followed by a deathlike trance. Clairvius was pronounced dead and buried alive, conscious but trapped inside his immobile body.
The bokor later returned, dug him up, and gave him a second drug, which enabled him to move but fogged his thoughts. Now one of the living dead, Clairvius was taken to the north of Haiti, where he endured two years working with a group of other zombie slaves. They were kept drugged until one day the mind of one of his fellow zombies somehow cleared enough for that man to attack and kill the bokor.
With the mind-controlling drug no longer being administered, Clairvius’s memories gradually started to return. For years he wandered from place to place until he learned that his brother had died, prompting him to return to his home village.
Such stories came to fascinate a Canadian anthropologist and ethnobiologist named Wade Davis, who determined to discover what the secret poisons involved might be.
Davis’s researches led him to believe that a bokor could bring on the initial deathlike state using a substance containing tetrodotoxin (a paralysing nerve agent found in puffer fish) combined with a potent anaesthetic and hallucinogen that was secreted by the highly poisonous cane toad.
Given this, the victim’s heartbeat and respiration would slow so much that the person appeared to be dead and would be buried, only to be dug up later and partially revived using another substance, containing the mind-altering drug datura. In most cases, the combined effect would be compounded by brain damage resulting from oxygen starvation, a result of being buried alive. Presumably, Clairvius had been taken from his coffin relatively quickly, which was why he had eventually recovered as much as he had.
Although Davis’s ideas have become widely known, not everyone accepts them. Another theory is that supposed zombies can be explained as wandering, brain-damaged or mentally ill strangers, mistakenly identified by the bereaved as their deceased relatives.
Whatever the explanation(s) for zombies, belief in and fear of their reality in Haiti is actively encouraged by bokors. As Davis pointed out, this widespread cultural acceptance of zombies is certainly an important component in whatever really goes on.
In our own culture, the zombie has evolved a rather different identity, one more akin to monster than to victim. For all the terror embodied in the traditional version, the modern Western zombie is every bit as unsettling a creature.
Although its physical body remains, the essence of what made that person who they were has gone, leaving only a soulless shell animated by some inhuman force. Instead of the traditional powers of sorcery, zombies such as The Walking Dead’s “walkers” are animated by something perhaps even more disturbing.
They are compelled by a primal hunger so deep it is practically pre-human, an irresistible motivating impulse reminding us that, after all our higher mental process are stripped away, we may be nothing more than creatures driven by raw and brutal instinct.
That may be the greatest horror of all.
]]>Less than a fortnight later, Queen Jane Seymour, Henry’s third -- and favourite -- wife, died of what are believed to have been post-natal complications. But, as with so many of England’s historical notables, it appears death has not kept her from wandering around.
Unlike some of the other phantoms said to haunt Hampton Court, Jane’s is a peaceful apparition. According to the palace website, she appears as a silent white figure holding a lighted taper as she drifts down the Silver Stick Staircase and glides across the cobbled courtyard of Clock Court.
Her apparition has also been reported coming out of a doorway in the Queen’s Apartments and noiselessly haunting the Silver Stick Gallery. According to veteran ghost author Peter Underwood in his 1992 book, The A-Z of British Ghosts, a few palace servants had “quite recently” quit their jobs because they had seen “a tall lady, with a long train and a shining face”, walk through closed doors and glide down the stairs carrying a taper.
While she was alive, Jane’s reign as Queen was a short one. Before her rise to prominence, she had been Lady-in-Waiting to Henry VIII’s first wife, Catherine of Aragon, who - after a long marriage - Henry had divorced, largely because she’d failed to bear him a son. Their one surviving child had been a daughter, Mary (later to become Queen Mary I) but Henry wanted a male heir to ensure the succession of his crown.
His other reason for getting rid of Catherine was that he had fallen in love with Anne Boleyn. He married Anne in 1533 and she also bore him a child. Again, though, it was a daughter, Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth I). There was still no son.
In 1535 Henry visited Sir John Seymour at Wolf Hall in Wiltshire and it may have been during his stay there that he first became attracted to Sir John’s daughter, Jane Seymour. By early 1536, as Anne Boleyn lay recovering after giving birth to a stillborn son, Henry was in full pursuit of Jane.
Although Jane was willing to marry the King she refused to be his mistress. Good for her, you might think, but it was not so good for Anne because Henry was determined to get what he wanted. Jane’s stubbornness undoubtedly helped to bring about Anne’s fall from grace (some might say she was pushed) and her eventual execution on 19 May 1536.
Just 11 days after Anne was beheaded at the Tower of London, Jane became Henry’s third wife. By early the following year, she was pregnant and on 12 October 1537 she finally gave birth to the son Henry had craved for so long.
The King was delighted. With the birth of Edward -- later to become King Edward VI -- Henry at last had a legitimate male heir, but it quickly became clear that the Queen was ill. Weak and exhausted, she developed a high fever and fell into delirium. She died on 24 October.
For once, Henry genuinely mourned the loss of a wife. Jane was given a solemn funeral and it would be more than two years before the King married again. In Henry VIII-years, that’s positively restrained.
There’s an old English ballad called "The Death of Queen Jane" that many believe refers to Jane Seymour. In this song, the titular Queen Jane endures a long and difficult labour, fearing for her child’s life and pleading with various people to cut her open and save her baby even if it means her own death. When at last it seems she is certain to die anyway her request is granted. The surgery is performed, the baby is delivered, and the Queen dies.
Although historically inaccurate, the seemingly popular belief that Jane Seymour died giving life to the country’s future King probably explains one detail of her ghost story.
Jane’s spirit is sometimes specifically said to return to Hampton Court Palace each October, but not on the anniversary of her death as might be expected.
Instead, she is supposed to appear on 12 October - on the anniversary of her son’s birth.
Hampton Court Palace stands to the south west of London, just a 35-minute train journey from Waterloo station. Starting this Halloween, the palace is offering ghost tours on Friday and Sunday evenings. For further information and to book your tickets see the Historic Royal Palaces website.
]]>He is also the author of Ghost Hunting: A Survivor’s Guide, a hugely enjoyable and informative book that I have previously reviewed for Amazon’s UK site.
I recently had the opportunity to ask John a few questions about his book and about his years of experience as a ghost hunter.
Hi John, could I begin by asking when and how you first became interested in ghosts?
I’ve had a fascination with ghosts since my mid-teens [in the mid-1970s], when I saw a TV programme which actually took the subject seriously. Such programmes were very rare in those days!
Up until then I had simply thought that ghosts were the stuff of folklore and fiction, very much like fairies and goblins. (I do apologise to any of your readers that happen to believe in such things.)
Various trips to my local library confirmed my interest and I joined a well-known paranormal investigations group (ASSAP) as soon as I could, at the age of 17.
Why do you think it’s important to investigate reports of ghosts?
We have explored every inch of the globe, and travelled in space. There are few “unknowns” left in life now. Unlike people of previous millennia we cannot just look and wonder at the mystery of it all as nearly everything seems to be explained.
The paranormal is one of the few things that does not fit into any neat explanation. It is not perhaps a question of importance, rather of an innate need to explore the unknown.
What are the strangest and/or most interesting things you have personally experienced?
I believe that if ghosts exist their aim is simply to tease me! I have never totally had that “wow” experience no white/grey shimmering spectre jumping out at me with a bloodcurdling scream.
There’s been just enough to keep my interest, however: unexplained sounds, fire exits being found suddenly open in a haunted aircraft museum at Cosworth, UK (pictured below), psychics picking up information that they really seemed to have no obvious access to by natural means. Just enough to tantalize but not yet enough to fully convince me.
Have you ever had any amusing experiences while hunting ghosts?
I well remember being allowed to unlock a “secret” compartment in a haunted hotel - a compartment where strange noises came from within. People gathering round in excitement and awe, and then finding out that the secret of that compartment was that it contained a bathroom cistern, that would rattle every time the toilets were flushed in the hotel!
Being advised by another ghost hunter to avoid the stables of a “haunted” house where strange noises were emitted even though no animal ever dared to stay there. Then, when I ignored the advice, finding that the stables were filled with cows.
Seeing a ghost hunter late at night in a cold cellar picking up a digital thermometer in the warm palm of his hand and reporting with excitement that there was a sudden and unexplained temperature rise!
Ghost hunters are human and occasionally make mistakes, especially in the dead of night at a time when the body should be asleep. Thankfully, as good ghost hunters work in teams such mistakes are amusing rather than in any way a hindrance to an investigation.
In your book you point out how the description “ghost” is used to refer to a number of different possibilities. Have your investigations inclined you towards any particular theories as to what “ghosts” are, and do you think any ghosts represent evidence for life after death?
I tend to think that if “ghosts” exist as something science has not yet explained it is likely that “ghosts” will be more than one type of phenomenon. A poltergeist may turn out to be created by the hidden powers of adolescents while apparitions may turn out to be an imprint on the atmosphere. These phenomena may turn out not to be connected at all.
Most intelligent ghostly phenomena tend to come through psychically gifted people. I am as psychic as the average brick so sadly such phenomena are beyond my first-hand experience. This makes me “instinctively” sceptical of afterlife explanations, but objective ghost hunting should not be fuelled by instinct and rationally I keep a very open mind.
You suggest in your book that it is potentially useful for psychics/mediums to assist on investigations. Could you tell us a little more about this?
It is unscientific in my opinion to exclude the use of psychics as you are discarding one explanation for the phenomena.
If a psychic comes out with previously unknown information about a site, which subsequently is shown to be true this is at least to some extent evidential of something paranormal.
If a psychic comes out with facts that cannot be true this is evidence that partially weakens survivalist claims.
If a psychic is by chance caught cheating in some way that would weaken these claims even more.
An experiment is surely a set of conditions that can help to prove or disprove a theory. It would seem that the properly controlled use of mediums clearly comes under this criterion.
Somewhat controversially you refer to Ouija boards in your book, and I remember that my own first experience of participating in a Ouija board session was back in 2001 during an investigation with you and several others inside an abandoned and rather eerie cottage in Suffolk, England.
A lot of people feel that Ouija boards are somehow dangerous - what are your thoughts regarding this?
You say that a lot of people claim that a Ouija board is “somehow” dangerous. The problem with these claims is that they seem to be based on hearsay and not any objective scientific basis. It was perhaps the apparent hysteria that has existed about this smooth wooden piece of polished wood that made me take up a few pages of the book with it.
Hysteria aside though, Ouija boards are fairly ineffective as an investigation tool. They often come up with nonsense and on one occasion when a full name and address emerged the address was shown to almost certainly not exist.
The Ouija’s best reported success was in reporting the burning down of Borley Rectory -- England’s most haunted house in the 1930s and 40s -- but even then the prediction only came true one year late.
The Ouija is more than likely just an interesting experiment in collective psychology and a way of wakening an investigations team up a little at 2 a.m.
Hardly the most useful tool to be taken along but hardly one that should be banned either.
On a rather different note, do you have any opinions on what sort of scientific (or other) equipment is useful on investigations, or conversely what should be discarded from the ghost hunting tool bag? What items do you routinely take with you?
Like many ghost hunters I have had no formal scientific training, though my Philosophy studies at University have hopefully had some effect on my objective approach.
My equipment therefore extends to that which I feel comfortable and confident using. This would encompass the full audio-visual range of devices as well as those for temperature and electromagnetic measurements.
It would also include objects for experimentation that are not understood by science such as “trigger objects” [objects set up in the hope that they will be moved paranormally], or psychics, about which we have said plenty before.
It seems clear to me that if we are testing for “a whole new science of the supernatural” then only using techniques accepted by the old science will be illogical and restrictive. It is the experiment itself that must be well thought out and objective.
What is also key for a ghost hunter to realise is that even a large case full of equipment is highly unlikely to prove or disprove anything for sure to the outside world. All we can do is take note of a place as interesting (or not) for further research, and perhaps in some cases provide reassurance to those whose experiences remain “unexplained”.
Do you feel that “orbs” can now be satisfactorily explained as photographic artefacts, or might they yet represent evidence for the paranormal?
Yes. I am fairly clear that orbs were a product of a misunderstanding of the mechanisms that affect digital cameras, especially the lower resolution ones.
It has been shown in various tests that the same effect can be created by dust particles picked up close to the lens.
For more explanation I would recommend reading Orbs, or a load of balls? by Steve Parsons or watching The Riddle of the Orbs by the Ghost Club’s Phillip Carr.
You suggest in your book that ghost hunters can be thought of as “Cavaliers”, whose approach contains “a certain colour, style and sense of fun” and “Roundheads”, who take a more scientific approach. Which approach best describes your own philosophy towards ghost hunting?
Since when should colour, style, and a sense of fun preclude science?
The point I was making was that by simply looking at gadgets you miss the whole motivation for what brought you there in the first place. The history and folklore of the premises. There is nothing wrong with getting a sense of awe and thrill from being there.
Harry Price and Professor Joad once spent the night in an actively haunted bed. I suspect that some “Roundheads” would simply put monitors there instead - but I can see no bad science at all from being directly at “the scene of the crime”. If it’s a little challenging then all the better. The monitors, after all, can also be used later.
Finally, what advice would you give to anyone who wants to get involved in this fascinating subject?
There are thousands of paranormal groups, big, small, good, and bad. If joining a group, look at their website outlook. If they talk about spirits as if they were their best friends they are believers, not investigators. If they rubbish everything that is unexplained they are debunkers, not investigators. Choose a good group of investigators that do neither.
But before doing that of course you should read my book!
]]>Aaron Goodwin joined the Ghost Adventures team as reluctant cameraman and equipment tech for the ghost hunting sessions of historic Nevada mining towns that led to the award winning documentary, which ended up as the pilot for the Ghost Adventures series on Travel Channel, now in its fifth season.
This week's episode follows the intrepid trio to Old Town San Diego, Friday night at 9 E/P.
Early on, Aaron was the comic relief, the shambling EVERYMAN wearing his fear on his sleeve, paired with the steely spirit stalkers Bagans and Groff.
But we have seen Aaron transformed into a lean, mean ghost hunting... if not machine (we still can share his outsized emotions via his open and expressive face) then at least, in his own words, a soldier, a lean mean ghost hunting soldier.
I talked in depth with Goodwin about his transformation, his commitment to spirit hunting, and the prices he has paid by phone from his Las Vegas home.
You came into it as the cameraman, right?
I had just been working on UFC and NASCAR and a bunch of things in Vegas, so coming in to shoot ghost hunting was like, "What the hell?"
Did you know Zak and Nick?
I had known Nick. I used to sneak in to UNLV for lectures and tests while I was teaching myself how to edit and use the equipment. I don't know why, but they allowed me to. I got to know this teacher and asked him how to get more involved in film. He pointed to the guy behind me and said, "See that guy?"
It was Nick.
The teacher said, "Help him out with a project, and you two will end up doing a few projects together, and that's how you get your experience." That was 12 years ago. He was exactly right.
I did the documentary and then I quit because I wasn't really into
ghosts and the whole thing spooked me. Then the first version of the documentary started
showing at film festivals and we started doing some more ghost hunts for
the documentary, and then it got picked up by Travel Channel.
Zak and Nick said "Let's do some more!" I said "Let's do it," not having any idea what they were throwing me into!
From
that point on for the first couple of seasons I was scared and couldn't
figure out if I really wanted to do this. And the stuff that followed
me home would mess with me and my ex-wife and family and friends,
everyone around me and my home.
So after getting used to it for
two years, you kind of realize that if they were going to hurt you, they
would have hurt you. So now I've become, not comfortable with it, but I
accept it and I don't want to go get "cleansed" or anything because.. I
want evidence. And if I go get cleansed then I might not get good
evidence when I'm out there.
I got adapted to it and now I like
it. When they [spirits] follow me home sometimes it can be really really
scary, but most of the time I realize -- and you'll see in season five
in a couple of episodes -- that what follows me around may not be bad or
me [laughs].
Really?!
Or sometimes it could be:
there's the Winchester Mystery House we did -- I don't know how much I
can say -- but we made something happen and it has to do with Mackey's
and it all came back full force on me. Usually it's good - sometimes
it's bad.
I used to be so fearful, but in season four at Hales Bar Dam
something snapped in me that made me more aggressive. I still get
scared and I still jump, but most of time now, instead of saying "I need
to get out of here," I face it head on.
So when that thing went through me at Hales Bar Dam...
Whoa! That was weird - something just called my name in my house! [pause]
Anyway, whatever went through me -- I believe it was the Indian chief -- I
started to feel the veins in my neck tightening and I felt like I was
turning to stone. My heart was racing, I really thought that this was
the moment where I would have a heart attack and die. I thought, "Crap, I
don't want to be stuck HERE."
I got out of there and I was all spooked. Later on that night I went
down this tunnel, it's not on the show at all. I went way out of camera
range. Sometimes when you're in the mode, you forget about the cameras - you just go.
I kept going down this really dark tunnel and I heard footsteps running
at me faster and faster and I don't know what came over me, but I felt
like enough was enough. I put my foot down and leaned towards it, I
heard this sshhss sound and everything died down and dissipated. That
moment I put my foot down, it was like, "Bring it," and everything
changed.
I remember walking out of that area feeling like I was walking off a
battlefield all badass. That was the moment that changed me. I was done
being pushed around. I get afraid, don't get me wrong, but it was time to
take a stand. Since then, I get spooked, I jump when something happens,
but I'm like "Bring it."
Nick and Zak call it the "Dark Aaron" [laughs].
The emergence of the Dark Aaron, eh?
Yes
[laughs]. I listen to the Tron soundtrack to get pumped up, and when
the song "Rinzler" comes on, Zak and Nick say, "It's battle time for
Aaron!" It's different now, it's way different now.
Everything happens for a reason. In one of the episodes coming up, if I
hadn't done that, bad things would have happened to me. You'll see it.
But another time in the new season, I said "I'm out of here -
enough's enough." I'm not stupid - if you keep messing with something,
eventually it is going to hurt you.
When did you decide all of this is real?
I was pretty sure SOMETHING was going on, but I still questioned it until I got punched in the face at Sloss Furnaces.
That blew my mind - that's when I knew. It felt like I walked right
into an elbow or a fist. I had these rings under my eyes for days.
Then, six months later I got scratched on my calf at Preston Castle.
What's
happening now is more spiritual/mental. Things are following me home.
It's weird - I could go on forever about the stuff that happens at my
house and the things that follow me around.
I know you've said
before that some of this activity contributed to the end of your
marriage. That's a pretty severe consequence.
It contributed
big-time to it. When I would leave she would have nightmares. Posters
drilled into the wall would come flying off, pulled straight out of its
hinges. The toilet seat used to go up all the time. My wife never cared
about that, but all the neighbors would yell at their husbands for
leaving the toilet seat up. They would swear they didn't leave it up,
and come to find out we were all having these same experiences.
So
when I was gone, it wasn't fair for her to sit there for a week or two
at a time, alone, with things happening to her. Then I would come home. I
was living two lives, one out there chasing ghosts and one living a
"normal" life at home.
We're still best friends - we still talk
all the time and hang out, but I felt like I needed to get that away
from her because she didn't deserve to have those things happening to
her.
She a tough cookie, but how much can you handle just sitting
home alone, not knowing what's going on exactly, but feeling a lot of
what I feel on these hunts. I thought that was bad for her. It was a
very tough decision we both had to make, but it was best for her to move
on and do something new with her life. We're cool, though - I hang out
with her and her new boyfriend.
Still, that's an awful lot to give up...
When
the decision was made and it was over and done, it was almost like I
felt I had to give up everything to go into this war, this battle that no
one could understand. It's like going overseas: "Hey, I'm going to be
gone for four years." Is that fair?
And once you've given
everything up, it changes your mindstate, it focuses your purpose. It
lined everything up inside of me to battle these spirits. So, it was
good in that way, but it still kind of sucks.
There is definitely a price to pay. When people say, "Hey, that looks
like fun. I want to get into ghost hunting!" I say, "Don't! Live your
normal life. Don't do what we do. There are consequences to it all."
Some people can handle it, but a lot of people who come to these live
events with us are traumatized for life by the things that happen. They
just aren't used to it.
There are lines you can't cross without consequences.
Yes, my line is a Ouija Board, I'm not sure why. I know it isn't
different from doing EVPs, talking to spirits, inviting them in, but
that's one thing I won't do. Maybe I messed with it in a past life or
something. I used to not believe in past lives, but now I do. There seem
to be energies that are passed on. Maybe that's what we're here for -
maybe we have certain energies that can handle what we're doing and
that's why we can do it.
It really sounds like that this has become a crusade, a mission, for you guys.
I think so. Even if Ghost Adventures
was to stop, I would still be doing this. I really think we were chosen
for something. I'm looking for answers everyday. I hunt my own house,
which you are NOT supposed to do. When things are flying around, you've
got to find out answers.
That's why I'm always listening. They
could be lying to you, you've got to stay skeptical, but when you hear
something that you can verify from elsewhere, then you know.
It
fascinates me that you've decided not to purge yourself or your home of
these entities - that's, again, a tremendous commitment!
At
the beginning I would get cleansed, I would bless myself and do anything
I could. But then I realized that's when it got worse. I decided I
didn't want to mess with my "natural" state and chase the spirits away
and mess with my evidence. Now it's like, "Bring me everything you got,"
and when it's over I'll get cleansed and blessed but until then, I'm
ready, I'm battling.
You're a spirit repository!
I
think so. I've got this talisman I wear around my neck. I've got crazy
stories for it, I've taken it off and it's literally levitated, but when
I wear it I feel safe. Lately I've been taking it off more and not
sleeping with it on, I'm not sure why. But last night I heard footsteps
walking up to my bed and I started getting really spooked, but instead
of getting scared I just said "Okay, sigh, I deal with this stuff all
the time."
And then I heard this growl in my ear and opened my
eyes, but instead of being freaked out and running out of the house, I
just closed my eyes and went back to sleep. That shows that spirit more
power, that I am fighting it, than anything. When it's over it'll be
time to get cleansed, but who knows what will be going on by then.
We've
done a pagan ritual, we had a voodoo hex put underneath us, we became
warlocks. Maybe all these things aren't trying to hurt you, they are
just trying to wake you up or get your attention. Even throwing a brick
may just be out of frustration because they're trying to tell you
something and you just aren't listening.
You mentioned showing "power" - do you think spirits respond differently if you show fear?
It
depends on the spirit. We did a lockdown where we had to wear masks
because the air was so bad. I started feeling my ribs being squeezed,
even crushed, and I started panicking, pulling off my mask, freaking
out. I felt like I was being attacked, but this was in a place where
they used to do surgery.
So then I thought, maybe they're just
trying to do their job, working on me. I hung out for another minute and
tried to relax and then it felt like it went away. So maybe it wasn't
that they were trying to hurt me, but that it was just residually
happening.
At the [Halloween '09 Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum] live event
I felt this jab in my eye - that was probably just someone doing what
they thought they were supposed to do, they did lobotomies there. Who
knows if the spirit is evil or not evil. That's why you have to just
wait it out.
You can't run out the door - you have to go with it.
I've run out before because I was so scared, but now I realize you have
to keep in the moment, keep asking - I might be getting choked out but
why not throw that EVP up there? The truth is if they are choking me
out, they are going to follow me out that door and choke me out still.
Me staying there is battling them and gaining respect. It's like
smacking the dog that's growling at you - ghosts and dogs respect you
when they can't bully you around.
Why do you think Ghost Adventures is so popular and successful?
I think the core of it is that we have been hunting together for so long and know each other so well that when you put all three of us in a room, all hell breaks loose. It's not only what we're there to hunt, but stuff follows me home a lot after lockdowns. Who's to say that what we have [attached to us] doesn't come along to amp up the energy?
So, the more we've done this and the more we keep doing this, the more it seems like we bring stuff with us. When we're in a place, what ever is there is going to sniff me out right away. Sometimes ghosts don't see you. The ghost could be walking through a bar and not see anyone...
[Laughs] That sounds like a joke: "A ghost walks into a bar...
[Laughs] But if a ghost walks into a bar and there are lots of people sitting there, he may only see one person. Just like only one person may see that ghost. The more we go in there and the more we keep doing this, the more the ghosts can sense us because of the energy we have and the stuff that follows us around. We become more sensitive to them and they become more sensitive to us. It shows this season, trust me.
After all this time hunting, what is your worldview now on these things?
It's a real touchy subject. I'm a Baptist Christian and have been all my life. I never thought twice about ghosts before all of this, but after doing this for years this is my assumption: there's heaven, there's hell, and there's something else. There are definitely three areas.
All kids are supposed to go to heaven, so why are there "spirit kids" roaming around these places? It really does mess with your mind. I believe there's God, there's the Devil, but there's something else that no one talks about. The Bible even mentions ghosts, so there is something else.
It makes me wonder. It makes me question things, but I still have faith. I wonder why we leave that "third thing" out of the equation. That's the part I'm trying to figure out.
What do you think this "third realm" is? Is it temporary or permanent? Why do spirits go there?
There is a third thing, and that third thing is the main thing. There are too many spirits that roam, we're hunting too many kids and dogs - don't "all dogs go to heaven"? We catch dogs and other animals on EVPs often. If there are ghosts and demons does that mean there could be aliens too?
I'm hanging on to some of what I think about this third realm because I'm writing a movie about it.
Can you tell us a little about the movie?
I'm working with an artist who paints my nightmares - they look just like my dreams. Two are finished and we're working on five more. When we're finished with those you'll be able to see a visual outline of the movie. It's a different way of doing it.
I'm realizing these dreams might be "it." It seems like every time I have one of these dreams or nightmares, two weeks later I'll see proof of it right in front of me. It's really weird.
A lot of it has to do with things I do on my own, not just for the show. If you're a therapist, you probably still help people in your off-time. I hunt my own house, I do my own research. I figure things out so that they seem whole to me and I can actually put them into experiments to see if I was right. Whoa, that's the most I've ever said about the film!
So this is scripted, not documentary, right?
Yes, fully scripted - it won't be cheap - it's badass [laughs]. Lots of effects and CGI and stuff.
I have another one I wrote ten years ago, and it's really weird: How did I know all of that stuff before I had ever hunted? I think maybe I have told all this since I was a little kid. I was kicked in the face by a horse and almost died. Well, technically I guess I did die, and I came back and ever since them I've been that guy who would know when something was going to happen: "This pack of baseball cards has a special limited edition guy in it." In high school I just stopped thinking about it because it was too weird, but these last few years it's all started to make sense.
That's another reason why I don't want to cleanse the place: maybe I'm being told a message or told a story. That's what Anne Rice did and the person who wrote Twilight [Stephenie Meyer] - they were told stories in their dreams and they wrote them down.
So you don't want to chase them off.
Right. People send me stuff to cleanse me all the time and are always concerned. They're praying for me. I tell them, thank you but I don't want to mess anything up. I want to stay in the funk and flow of things right now. My life may be hell and shit may happen all the time and it may be scary as f*ck, but at the same time I don't want to mess it up until it's all over.
It's like I'm going to war: when you're a soldier, you BE the soldier until it's all done. There's no half-assing it.
Ultimately, what's so fascinating about all this is these are the biggest questions.
And the only way you can really find out is by passing on. That's what we're trying to do: find out before we pass on. I'm sure that when I pass on I'll be hunting humans instead of hunting ghosts!
I'm also worried that when I pass on, all these ghosts and demons that we've taunted and messed with will be waiting there: "Welcome to our world, Aaron, what's up!" I'll probably join forces with them and say, "Let's get Nick and Zak - cool!"
Or, what if instead of coming after you: with me for example, they follow me home, they follow me around. I usually know what lockdown they're from because you sense their energy there, then I get home and sense and smell the same energy. Maybe they'll be happy to see me.