Renovation Hauntings
This century house in Bury St Edmunds next to the Cathedral incorporates parts of the walls of the old St Edmunds Abbey dissolved during the Reformation. Over the years they have been periodically occupied as well as having stood empty at times in the 1940s and the 1980s and also in the 21st century. […]
The Hammersmith Ghost
The Hammersmith Ghost That the law of England can have problems with ghosts demonstrated by the strange case of the Hammersmith Ghost which occurred in the winter of 1803/04. It features as a podcast in the Radio 4 series The Natural History of Ghosts (2020) broadcast over 19-30th October (available from 27.10.2020 https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000nv3l). The Hammersmith […]
GHOST AT CHRISTMAS
Five reasons why ghost experiences are more common at Christmas time by Alan Murdie Traditionally Christmas is the time for ghosts and hauntings and telling spine-chilling tales. Fortunately, genuine ghost experiences are seldom as terrifying as those in folklore and fiction, but is it true that such experiences are more common over the festive season? […]
Swedish Parapsychologists launch survey of hauntings
In February 2017 the Swedish Society for Parapsychology announced the launch of a study into ghostly experiences occurring in domestic dwellings. See: http://parapsykologi.se/2017/02/upplever-du-andar-eller-spoken-i-ditt-hem/ It will be interesting to see the responses this elicits and how its results will compare to earlier surveys. The European Human Values Study (1980-1983) found that up to a third of […]
THE DECLINE AND FALL OF GHOSTS ON THE RADIO
‘NO SPOOKS ON THE AIRWAVES!’ – THE DECLINE AND FALL OF GHOSTS AS A TOPIC FOR BBC RADIO Long ago talks and discussions of ghosts and ghost hunting were a feature of BBC radio, with the subject being covered seriously. Sadly, the treatment of the subject has now declined down to a purely humorous level, […]
Has the Ghost of Lawrence of Arabia returned ?
Apparition seen at Clouds Hill on 31st July 2016 near the cottage once owned by T.E. Lawrence By Alan Murdie Europaranormal has received an interesting report of an apparition seen on Cloud’s Hill, Dorset, close to an isolated cottage that was owned by T.E. Lawrence – famous as the legendary ‘Lawrence of Arabia’. The British […]
WHAT HAUNTS THE SOMME AND OTHER FIRST WORLD WAR BATTLEFIELDS?
The 1st of July 2016 marks the 100th anniversary of the start of the Battle of the Somme, one of the deadliest battles of the First World War. Along with Verdun in France, and Flanders in Belgium, the Somme was the scene of one of the greatest losses of human life on the Western Front […]
APPARITION SUGGESTIVE OF SURVIVAL
THE APPARITION OF ‘UNCLE BERT’ – A CASE SUGGESTIVE OF SURVIVAL One of the most interesting collections of testimony for modern apparitions published before World War II is Sir Ernest Bennett’s Apparitions and Haunted Houses (1939). Drawing partly on material gathered by the Society for Psychical Research, the collection followed an appeal for first-hand accounts […]
THE WEM GHOST PHOTOGRAPH EXPOSED
The dwindling pool of credible ghost photographs has been reduced yet further, with another ‘classic image’ succumbing to normal explanation – a hoax. The famous Wem Town Hall ghost girl was allegedly captured in a photograph on November 19th 1995 as a fire raged in the 90 year-old building. Amateur photographer Tony O’Rahilly took a […]
THE OUIJA BOARD
by Alan Murdie Depending upon your point of view, the ouija board is either a parlour game which taps into the unconscious mind, a legitimate way of contacting the spirit world or a dangerous practice that exposes users to malevolent discarnate entities. Those sharing the third of these perspectives will doubtless feel vindicated by the […]
HAUNTING FORCES
GHOSTLY FORCE AGAINST THE PERSON? “One of the major points that must be made clear and continually stressed to the witness is that “phantoms cannot hurt”. Provide details of some of the other ghost stories of which you have knowledge in order to confirm this conclusion and build it up in a witness’s mind. […]
HAUNTED SOCIAL HOUSING
SOCIAL HOUSING HAUNTS The rationalist ghost hunter Andrew Green (1927-2004) was employed for five years between 1980-1985 by several local authorities in the south of England looking into cases of hauntings reported by occupiers and tenants in social housing. He took a scientific approach – informed by the findings of parapsychology – to diagnosis situations […]
THE ‘GHOST’ OF OLIVER CROMWELL (1599-1658)
By Alan Murdie September 3rd 2008 marked the 350th anniversary of the death of Oliver Cromwell in 1658. Not surprisingly such a powerful and controversial ruler is reputed to have left a number of echoes in ghostly form. But are they really Cromwell or something else? References to the ghost of Oliver Cromwell begin as […]
SKELETONS BENEATH THE FLOOR
SKELETONS BENEATH THE FLOOR Stories in which the ghost is linked with the presence of human remains have been told around the world over for centuries. It is a tradition that can be traced back to classical times, and may be considered the archetypal ghost story. A number houses in the UK still harbour what […]
THE SOUTH SHIELDS POLTERGEIST
THE SOUTH SHIELDS POLTERGEIST The following is a review by Alan Murdie of the book on the case of the South Shields Poltergeist of 2006. The book attracted a lot of controversy on-line. In reviewing this book I decided to go and examine the evidence for myself – something which no critics or sceptics were […]
THE HANNATH HALL POLTERGEIST
Hannath Hall poltergeist case begins like the start of a classic ghost or horror story. One stormy evening in 1957 a local newspaper reporter from Peterborough was suddenlystranded by a car breakdown near Hannath Hall, in the Cambridgeshire Fens. He was given shelter by a couple living at the Hall who went on to tell […]
GEF THE TALKING MONGOOSE
Illustration of ‘Gef’ (1936) from the Haunting of Cashen’s Gap by Price and Lambert GEF THE TALKING MONGOOSE “You can think as you like,” said the monk, with a faint smile. “I exist in your imagination, and your imagination is part of nature, so I exist in nature.” Anton Chekhov, The Black Monk (1894). The […]
COLOMBIAN POLTERGEISTS
‘Just like the others’….Colombian poltergeists and two predictions for researchers The late Scott Rogo stated in his book The Poltergeist Experience (1979): All through the study of the poltergeist we have seen how fickle it is. If it is called a demon it readily assumes the role. If it is treated as an intelligent […]
ORBS ARE NO MYSTERY
ORBS ARE NO MYSTERY By Alan Murdie Since the late 1990s, small blotches of light appearing on photographs taken with digital cameras have been treated by many people as a ghostly mystery. Dubbed ‘orbs’ they have been often been claimed as physical proof of the paranormal and evidence of a spirit world. In fact, they […]