Borley Rectory as it was in the 1800s before it burned down. It was reputed to be the 'Most Haunted House in England' and investigated by the famous psychic researcher of the time, Harry Price.

CHASING SHADOWS

I would like to take to task the issue of paranormal research, or maybe the lack of it, by suggesting that perhaps some methods may not only be a waste of time but also may even be leading us in the wrong direction.
First of all, let us look at what have become known as classic cases. These types of cases are usually always documented in the sort of books, which demand the title of “Most Famous Haunted Houses”, or words to that effect. We are probably all familiar with one or two of them. Borley Rectory was once considered the most haunted house in England and its reputation as such became the subject of many books. Harry Price was well known, both for his investigation of Borley Rectory and his subsequent books, but he also became the target of much criticism both for his handling of the case and his reporting of such events, which some people claimed he hoaxed himself.
Why would any self-respecting paranormal investigator risk his reputation and that of psychical research in general by hoaxing phenomena in one of the most famous cases of the time? If there were genuine paranormal phenomena occurring in the first place, why would Harry Price bother hoaxing and putting his reputation and the credibility of the case on the line? We will never know the truth about Borley Rectory because it is now long gone and we only have accounts written at a time when spiritualism and the paranormal was at its most fashionable and therefore lucrative as a money-spinner from books and the such-like.
But, what of modern hauntings? There are still a few classic cases around and famous places which are claimed to be haunted and likewise attract the usual attention from both paranormal investigators and the public alike. It does seem to me, however, that the more haunted a house is reputed to be, the more that reputation has to be maintained and even more so if it means that money can be made from it.
For example, there was one recent investigation at a well-know haunted location here in the north-west of England from which one particular piece of paranormal phenomena was reproduced, (‘reproduced’, probably being the operative word here), via a tape recording of an alleged “demonic scream”. I have listened to this tape recording myself and, in my opinion, it is possibly the sound of a fox, which has been recorded and amplified in some way, i.e. it is almost certainly a hoax. People who live in cities and are estranged from Nature are unfamiliar with the sounds of wild animals. The dog fox’s bark and mating call of vixens in season is a strange sound, (banshee-like), to those who have never heard it. In the still of night, it can even be quite eerie to the unaccustomed ear. When you think about it, any enterprising businessperson who wants to make profit from alleged hauntings will ensure that those hauntings will continue. Any one of us who are prepared to pay extortionate costs to conduct overnight vigils blatantly encourages this. I have nothing against paying money if it goes to a charitable cause, but I draw the line at contributing to those making profits on the backs of gullibility. So the ghosts have to keep haunting at all costs. Yet in the real world of paranormal phenomena, which does undoubtedly exist, such phenomena are spontaneous, are not always consistent, do not always occur on a regular basis and certainly never on demand. One major reason why most paranormal phenomena cannot be studied under laboratory conditions. After all, no one can tell even the wind which way to blow! It is also quite interesting to note that some of the proprietors of alleged haunted places do not welcome animals. In view of the fact that animals, especially dogs, are natural ‘psychic detectors’ and can often be the ‘spirit level’, (excuse the pun), in equalising situations, i.e. Is there a real paranormal presence or isn’t there? If there is, nine times out of ten, the dog will know before anyone else. After all, animals do not lie and cannot be taken in by a hoax, can they? So why are investigators and the public continually patronising such questionable areas? One of the answers to this could be that most people in general like to have their ears tickled and will even pay for the privilege. In other words, sensationalism is more appealing. Anything less does not keep people’s attentions span for too long, most people being fickle in nature anyhow.
Trying to find out the real truth seems too much like hard work and could well rock the boat of most people’s perception of what the paranormal is, or for that matter what it isn’t.
Most if not all hauntings and ghosts are simply ‘replays’ of an emotional event, which has emitted certain charge energy into the morphic biosphere and can be picked up by sensitive individuals at particular times. This morphic resonance or morphogenetic fields or blueprints theory suggests that all organisms possess an invisible energy field around them, which carries that organism’s history, which can be communicated to other morphic fields of the same type of organism. This philosophy has recently been brought to public attention by the biologist-philosopher Rupert Sheldrake, (“A New Science of Life”, Bond and Briggs 1981).
It is true to say that a traumatic event may possibly release psychic energies, which can culminate into paranormal activity. Areas in the world where trauma and torture have occurred both in the past and in the present possibly release psychic energy which sensitive will undoubtedly feel, both now and in future times. Sensitive people who have been in places like Auswich, Bosnia and Kosovo report feeling extreme negative psychic energy in the atmosphere.
Then there are the audio and visual images, which can also be experienced by individuals on a repetitive basis. They are merely images trapped in time.
Take for instance the following example. Everyone has their favourite video or music tape which they like to play over again at times. For me it is all of Prince Naseem Hamed’s fights on video. I can watch the guy time and time again in the ring doing what only he can do best. But Naz isn’t there anymore. He was only there at the time he was recorded in those moments of his time reality. Looking at it now is looking at a past event recorded and being played back in my present time reality. So while I watch him knocking seven bells out of Steve Robinson in a fight that occurred in 1996, he along with everyone and everything else has moved on and is doing something else now. This is how I see ghosts and hauntings. They are just like video and audio replays. To continue investigating such ‘events’ is surely a waste of time.
Nothing will change and nothing is achieved. Ghosts will continue to haunt like a stuck record because they are not intelligences in their own right. They are long gone people and events. Meanwhile, investigators chase after them like the proverbial little dog trying to catch his own tail and all he does is run around in circles making himself even dizzier in the process. Pursuing them is pursuing thin air.
What then of so-called inter-active ghosts, or more precisely spirits? Whereas ghosts seem to indicate mere senseless projections – spirits on the other hand are more normally perceived as personalities possessing and demonstrating actual awareness, not only of themselves but also of us.
A classic documented case of paranormal inter-activity is the story of the so-called Trianon Adventure at Versailles in France. In August 1901, two English ladies were walking through the palace at Versailles, outside Paris, looking for the Petit Trainon, the mini-palace beloved of Marie Antoinette. After becoming lost they noted a still, eerie quality to the atmosphere, (Oz factor?). During the course of their stroll, they encountered various individuals attired in pre-French Revolution period costume who acknowledged them and gave them directions. As they approached what they took to be the Petit Trianon, the elder of the women saw a fair-haired middle-aged woman, dressed in the same period clothes as the other people they had seen, sketching on the lawn just below the terrace. Then a young man directed them to the Petit Trianon front entrance, where joining a wedding party on a guided tour, they found themselves in normal circumstances once more. Only briefly did they exchange the suggestion that the Petit Trianon may be haunted. Both women returned to Versailles on separate occasions, finding that some of the surroundings they had formerly seen were now dramatically changed. The older woman later matched the woman she had seen sketching on the lawn to portraits of Marie Antoinette. In 1911, both of the women wrote their experiences, which were published pseudonymously under the title, “An Adventure”, claiming that they must somehow have ‘entered’ within an act of Queen Marie Antoinette’s memory?
My father who is also sensitive tells me of a couple of experiences he has had when staying at an old inn in Tewkesbury. Whilst staying at the pub, he awoke one night to suddenly see a young girl about twelve years old and dressed in a white shift, standing at the bottom of the bed. My father was startled and enquired what she was doing. Immediately, the girl looked at him in response. Suddenly at this point she seemed to lift herself up into the air and go to jump onto my father. In automatic response he went to throw up his arms to protect himself but found that he could not move. It was as if he was paralysed. In an instant, the girl disappeared into thin air before she landed on top of the bed. My father was too embarrassed to say anything to anyone at the time for fear of ridicule. This is a common reaction of people who have genuinely experienced phenomena that they cannot understand or explain, unlike the many sensation-seekers who claim to experience the paranormal as routinely as eating hot dinners. However, on his second stay at the same place, albeit in a different room, this time with his friend, they both heard sounds in their room, which could not be accounted for. This time, he joked to the landlady the next morning that as the place was so old that it must be haunted. She said it was, and mentioned the little girl! Though surprisingly, it was not a feature they liked to advertise.
So in this instance, regarding the little girl who my father saw, (and who apparently was associated with the pub’s past), and who interacted with him, is another example of interactive phenomena. This of course, still does not necessarily prove this apparition was the spirit of a dead girl. All it shows is that my father saw the image of a young girl who displayed awareness of his presence also. My father’s experience could well have been similar to the experience of those two ladies at the palace of Versailles. It may have been some kind of time/dimensional slip.
Maybe this is one area of research, which should be considered when dealing in particular with inter-active so-called ghosts. Are they ghosts in our reality, or are we the ghosts in their reality? When someone professes to see the ghost of a 17th Century Cavalier, for example, that 17th Century Cavalier might be well and truly living when they see him and what they are experiencing is his time for a split second. Are these so-called ghosts really intruding into our space or are we momentarily glimpsing into their space and time reality? This could be a pointer to the story of the Versailles incident and my own father’s experience. Did different time dimensions momentarily stray into each other? Were both parties merely sensitives who perceived the other’s presence? Perhaps the ladies at Versailles were considered as ghosts by the people in the period costume. Perhaps my father was considered as a ghostly intruder to that little girl who may have been seeing him as the ‘anomaly’ in what would have been her room in her time and reality. Was she jumping at him to try to ‘catch him’ or prove his solidness?
To sum up, I personally feel that to continue paranormal research in the way that too many researchers have done for too long may well be not only a waste of time, but could be leading us in the wrong direction. Pre-conceived ideas that every haunting, ghost or spirit is automatically associated with the so-called dead is another barrier to real research. Spirits may exist, but perhaps not in the way we think they do!
Unfortunately, I also feel that both our own psyches and intellect, and any technology we have at our present disposal to try and research further, is so primitive that it may well be another century or so before we even begin to grasp alternative knowledge which could point us in the right direction to understanding the paranormal, or at least certain aspects of it.