The persistence of visions
Why do we still believe in ghosts? Simple, says ALAN MURDIE – because we continue to see them
“And then a heavier sound, as though something is being dragged over the floor”
As we enter 2022, it may be asked just why ghost beliefs have persisted. For many, including many erudite academics in the northern hemisphere, this has long been a puzzle.
In his classic Religion and the Decline of Magic (1971), Sir Keith Thomas contrasted the relative survival of ghosts with apparent declines in the acceptance of witches, fairies and devils, admitting some questions were best left to the psychologist and psychic researcher. Ultimately, he felt what he viewed as irrational notions would diminish, but never disappear entirely. I believe the answer is simple. As I remarked to the Revd. Peter Laws for his book The Frighteners (2018), the reason ghost beliefs persist today is because people continue to see and experience them.
A recent example comes from the account penned by British journalist Jack Rear, who spent a night alone in a haunted wing of Chillingham Castle, Northumberland, in October. Of course, it could be said he was psychologically primed for experiences, having met Mr Mark Trotter, a ghost hunting guide at
Chillingham (dubbed ‘Britain’s most haunted castle’), who believes a number of spectres frequent the ancient site. Mr Trotter claimed guests had seen “former resident Lady Mary,” stating that she stepped out of a painting, “but usually we just smell her” (Lady Mary’s scent being that of roses). Save that Mr Rear was justifiably sceptical about this, and equally unimpressed by divining rods that failed to twitch, and dismissed the squeaky output of a detuned radio presented as potential spirit voices merely as snatches of stray radio broadcasts. A cold breeze was rejected as “just a gust of wind” and “a draft through a crack in the wall”, and weird acoustical effects sounding like footsteps explained as “an old house just settling”. Thus, a man built of tougher stuff than many, a virtual iron-clad sceptic. More perplexing was a light in the chapel that switched on by itself and shimmered for a moment before fading. Troubling because Mr Rear had seen his guide turn off the main switch before they entered. Then during the night came the most alarming incident.
“I am woken at 2am by an insistent
tapping at my window, like someone thrumming the glass with their nails. And then a heavier sound, as though something is being dragged across the glass. I pull the covers up and try to ignore it until it stops. What little sleep I get for the rest of the night is fractured.”
Looking up at the window the next morning from the courtyard, he could find no identifiable cause like a loose cable or piece of gutter brushing against it during the night. His experience was illustrated with a staged photograph of Jack Rear in a four-poster bed pulling the bed clothes up to his chin in mock terror for his article in the Hallowe’en edition of the Sunday Telegraph.
Jack Rear joins a long list of journalists who regale us with such curious firsthand stories. I have heard such puzzling and uncomfortable anecdotes over the years, often mentioned en passant, sitting uneasily with materialist perspectives. Typically, one hears them from proper news men and women who still actually go out as journalists into the wider world to have first-hand experiences and observe things for themselves (as opposed to deskbound ‘news gatherers’ simply scooping information off the Internet). Mr Rear’s feature article appeared in the Telegraph travel section, which was perhaps most appropriate since such spooky incidents, occurring often in the early hours, have been reported across the world in the last 18 months at diverse localities.
“It started with black shadows,” a couple identified only as Patricia and David C living at Replonges, eastern France, told the newspaper Le Progres in July 2021, describing the haunting of their family flat into which they moved in September 2020. “Then the light turned off randomly, the television turned on itself, the phone froze for no reason, the crockery made strange noises.” Swiftly convinced their home was haunted, the couple and their two young children wanted to flee but could find nowhere to go, owing to a chronic shortage of suitable accommodation. Consequently, they were driven to pitch a tent on their balcony to get some sleep at night. They had been living this way for at least a month when interviewed in July 2021.
Their collective fear may well have intensified after being told by a medium their flat was haunted by a ‘trapped’ spirit, a 19th-century woman trying to force them out. Yet the flat, described as “spacious, well-lit and modern”, was only constructed in 2016, from a converted hangar. The medium is described as a “magnetiser” who “uses magnetic energy to detect spirits”. This description harks back to the 18th century mesmerist movement which largely merged with Spiritualism after 1848, but still maintained a small cult following in France up until World War I.
Patricia and David requested their flat management company, Semcoda, provide them with alternative accommodation, but because David is disabled, it was impossible for them to get a suitable place outside the French social assistance programme. Semcoda denies any haunting, citing two previous tenants residing in the property without problems. Interestingly, Charles Fort mentions illness and disability as a background element in many stories of poltergeist-shattered homes. ( Noticias Financieras (English) 21 July 2021; Wild Talents, 1932).
Another person who came to believe her apartment was troubled by an unknown spectre and who also felt like fleeing was Indian film actress Alaya F while working and studying in New York. “There were lots of creepy things that would happen,” she informed the online gossip site Tweak India. Eerie events included loud footsteps during the middle of the night leading to an incident where, “from the corner of my eye, I saw this quick flash go past me. I was like, ‘Did you see that?’”. She added: “I didn’t see anything, but I felt something hit me as though someone was running by me. That’s when I thought ‘Okay, there is something else going on here’, and then I was really terrified, I didn’t want to go back to my home.” As well as the scurrying presence, her shower randomly turned itself on. ( India Today Online, 17 June 2021).
Meanwhile over in Italy, another film personality, director Eli Roth, was sensing something unusual was going on in his new home, a much older property, a villa dating from the 13th century that reputedly once served as a base for the Knights Templar. Speaking of his new property, he stated: “I don’t know if I’m pushing my luck here. Things move on their own in the kitchen and are falling off shelves.” Accordingly, at the suggestion of his wife, he was taking ritual precautions ‘smudging’ the property by wafting the smoke from a burning bouquet of white sage into all its nooks and crannies, to drive away evil spirits. The practice of burning sage is derived from Native American tradition and has been attempted elsewhere (see The South Shields Poltergeist, 2020, by Darren Ritson). The ritual burning of herbs was practised during funeral observances in ancient Greece, with Robert Graves proposing that the practice originally had the function of disguising the odour of putrefaction (in The Greek Myths, 1955).
Eli Roth is best known for previously producing cinematic chillers and shockers such as Hostel and Knock, Knock,
qualifying him in the pop media world to host shows such as Ghosts Ruined My Life for the Discovery Channel. It might be thought the idea of taking one’s work home did not appeal, but he is quoted as saying, “I love it! It’s so cool! It’s like living in Game of Thrones!” ( The Wrap, 15 Oct 2021).
Meanwhile, odd occurrences are disconcerting female residents of Shirreff Hall, a student dwelling at Dalhousie University in Canada. The hall is the oldest residence in the area and is afflicted by strange sounds, sudden temperature changes, electrical devices switching themselves on and off and sightings of a phantom woman known as ‘Penelope’ gliding through the corridors and appearing in bedrooms.
“I didn’t believe in ghosts, and I thought Penelope was a fun idea but just a tale,” admitted one anonymous Shirreff resident. “But with my own experience and the tales other people have shared, I am definitely hesitant to deny that Penelope exists.” She described how “I woke up about 2.30am and saw a girl standing in the corner of my room, covering her face as if she was crying. And there was no way someone could be standing where she was because that’s where my filing cabinet is.” Dalhousie College lore avers Penelope is the scorned and heartbroken spirit of a young woman who had a liaison with a professor at the local university that ended tragically. We find as a recurring feature in many ghost reports (as with Jack Rear) the witness is in bed, falling asleep or awakening. Equally familiar from widely separated testimonies is the obscuring of facial features, on which I have previously commented (see ‘Faceless Ghosts’, FT385:18-20; and for further faceless
figures, turn to p46 this issue).
Another specimen is a ghostly woman flitting through the former Schloss Hotel Waldlust (known as ‘the Ghost Hotel’) in the Black Forest near Freudenstadt, Germany, her face obscured by a white veil. Some say she is Adi, a former manager at the once lavish building who died in 1949. The hotel, which opened in 1902, was the scene of investigations in 2005 and 2011, and past guests and employees allege a lengthy collection of phenomena from the 1960s until the establishment’s formal closure in 2005: falling pictures, musty odours, shaking glasses in the bar, beer bottles mysteriously half-drained, footsteps crossing an empty hallway. Electrical anomalies also featured, with a lift reputedly going up and down for no reason. A child crying in the night was heard, even though no guests with babies were present. All are familiar manifestations, providing examples of what Guy Playfair dubbed in the UK “haunted pub syndrome” (see his Haunted Pub Guide, 1985). The site is still considered active and was attracting fresh interest in 2021, appealing to a growing spooky tourism market emerging in Germany. (“Schloss Hotel – Das haus der gruseligen phanomene” by Sara Huwiler, www.travelbook.de/orte/scary-places/ schlosshotel-waldlust-das-geister-hotel-imschwarzwald, 2 July 2021.)
In contrast, and clearly upset by manifestations, were occupiers of homes across Malaysia in the last two months of 2020. Over several weeks, mysterious loud knocks at the door during the night scared and baffled residents in a number of settlements, including Kampung Batu in Kuala Lumpur, Kampung Tengah in the south of the country and at Kampung Banting on the west coast. They occurred from 10.45pm onwards with no human culprit detectable, and residents came to believe supernatural forces were responsible. (See “Knock, knock, who’s there? No idea!” and “Wave of mysterious door-knocking reaches Jerantut; residents spooked”, New Straits Times, 20 Nov + 13 Dec 2020.)
Reports of such phenomena are known from many other locations over the years. In July 1979, a member of the Isle of Anglesey Society for Psychic Research, Mr Alfred Mills, wrote to ghost hunter Andrew Green with news that certain houses on the estate at Penrhos, Anglesey, suffered from door-knocking by invisible callers. Homes affected were near an enclosure known as “the old betting stand” converted into a bird-watching shelter.
Local stories were told at Penrhos of a ghostly Grey Lady along with traditions
of “a dead monk buried upright… seven to eight feet tall from a distant country” leading to a belief that strange forces were manifesting (letter to Andrew Green, dated 21 July 1979). Rather overloaded himself, reviewing over 400 haunted locations at the end of the very haunted 1970s, Green did not investigate, mentioning only the Grey Lady in his Ghosts of Today (1980).
Another location, this time in Australia, is also troubled by mysterious knocking. Bulimba House, also known as Toogoolawah, is a heritage-listed home built in Brisbane in 1849 for Queensland pastoralists David and Mary McConnel. According to a local history society, reports of a ghost have been known at the property for many years, with one heard knocking sharply on the door at all hours of the night. Whenever residents go to answer, no one is there. There are records of “two underground wells with which various ghost stories have been connected”, possibly giving rise to odd acoustical effects from underground water. (I think this explains some of the noises heard at Borley Church in Essex over the years). Summarising reports in general in Brisbane, reporter Bianca Hrovat categorises them as ghosts “who move objects, knock on doors and sing throughout the night”, just like at so many other locations. (“Brisbane’s spookiest haunted houses revealed”, Quest Newspapers Online, 16 May 2021).
Buena Vista Winery at Sonoma, California, is one of the most acclaimed wineries in the state and well-haunted, according to paranormal investigator Ellen MacFarlane, who was called in as a response to staff fears. “They had a fullbodied apparition of a man walking up the staircase in the tasting room,” MacFarlane told The Sonoma Index-Tribune. “All of the staff quit that night... So we went in after that.”
Paranormal investigators attribute manifestations to an insane woman from a “home for wayward women”, or the ghosts of 19 Chinese builders constructing a cellar who were trapped and buried alive along with a large cache of brandy. Leaders in Sonoma at the time were accused of being more concerned about rescuing their brandy than the trapped men, whose hapless cries are still said to echo through the winery to this day. Her suggestions are incapable of corroboration and it is possible the dim lighting in the winery barrel room and its bare brick walls make it feel like a crypt, encouraging overimagination.
More difficult to explain are very loud sounds heard during the investigation, a heavy banging on the third floor: “It was like a herd of elephants,” was McFarlane’s vivid description. “We looked at the building and the building was not being touched by any trees, any branches. Anything that could make that noise.” (see The Sonoma Index-Tribune, 14 Oct 2021). Which brings us back to Jack Rear’s strange window-tapping at Chillingham Castle.
The late Lancelot Railton, valued member of the Ghost Club and career civil servant, used to remark to me that in social gatherings of all sorts over many years where ghosts were discussed, generally a third of people present would be found to have a personal experience or story to share. Many individuals were often sceptical beforehand, with some remaining so afterwards (seeing is not always believing).
Many a family preserves its own story or tradition of a ghost. Dr Christopher Laursen from Canada comments: “There are far more occurring than we will ever know about, and most are probably very weak or minor in scope, lasting a very brief period, or resulting in very minor manifestations that remain as part of family lore, and nothing more” (interview, www.dailygrail.com, 14 Aug 2014). Other accounts may be noted by clinicians and social workers, who remain at a loss to classify them owing to unfamiliarity with psychical research.
Nearly 50 years ago the psychologist and philosopher CW Mundle in a paper entitled “Strange facts in search of a theory” doubted scientists – especially psychologists and biologists – were persuadable by way of explanations given in terms of metaphysical theories rather than verifiable hypotheses. To avoid scaring them away, he argued researchers might do best to “ascertain the facts... without any foregone conclusions as to their nature,” difficult though it was (“Presidential Address” in Journal of the SPR, Proceedings, vol.56 no.207, Jan 1973, pp.1-20). His thoughts about the difficulty of recording psychic phenomena may well have been influenced by his favourite recreation rather than by ghost hunting. An enthusiastic angler and sea fisherman who wrote on angling for years, Mundle well understood the difficulties of catching an elusive quarry, as well as the occurrence of the improbable – on one occasion in darkness, to hook a sea trout and two misguided bats on the same line (see Obituary, Journal of the SPR vol.56 no.818, 1989, pp.110-113). And he had many stories of “the one that got away”.
Fifty years on, much data has accumulated showing how often ghost reports fall into patterns, pointing to an underlying reality, though punctuated by occasional ‘high strangeness’ cases. As Dr Rupert Sheldrake has remarked, increasingly hypotheses have to be stretched to breaking point to accommodate such anomalies. To an extent, academia has been forced to recognise this with the founding of the discipline of anomalous psychology in an attempt to save the credibility of scientific materialism. Currently, we may lack testable hypotheses, but there can be no doubting the prevalence of this ongoing aspect of human experience.
“They had a full-bodied apparition of a man walking up the staircase in the tasting room”