Do You Believe

Do ghosts exist? Those who say absolutely not are foolish. Likewise, those who say absolutely yes – although not wrong in having an opinion – must make sure they are not influenced by their beliefs when conducting an investigation.

Those who believe need no evidence at all; for those who don’t, no evidence is needed. The best stance for a paranormal investigator is to be somewhere in between.

A good researcher has a healthy dose of scepticism, but not cynicism. Just be open to any possibility…it is not a black and white subject.

Almost every recorded culture in history has believed in some form of life after death. For example, in Egypt during the rule of the Pharaohs, the walls of tombs were decorated with hieroglyphs (known today as the Book Of The Dead) that instructed the dead on how to proceed to be re-born into the Other World. Ancient Egyptians believed the soul had two parts, the ba (characteristics and personal traits) and the ka (the life force) – both of which could leave the tomb at night and walk among the living.

Halloween – or All Hallows Eve – is probably the best-known festival of the dead. In reality, it started as a pagan ritual in Celtic lands on October 31 to mark the end of the autumn harvest. Not all is what it appears to be!

In ancient times, people tried to foretell the future using necromancy (normally referred to today as magic, erring on the occult) – consulting the spirits of the dead.

The most famous recorded case of necromancy was in the Old Testament of the Holy Bible, when Saul consulted the Biblical Witch of Endor. Judeo-Christian writers used this for centuries as proof of the afterlife, but she was more likely to have been a ventriloquist than a witch.

The soul is the life force that distinguishes one person from another, and separate from the physical body. Many believers think that when the body dies, the soul continues to live. Some think the soul can separate and return to the body even while a person is alive (out-of-body experience/near-death-experience/astral projection/bi-location).

In the 1800s, many believed that spiritualism provided proof of the soul and life after death, particularly with the phenomena of cross correspondence.

This is where interrelated information received from the spirit world by different mediums at different times and locations are joined together to form a complete message. So far, there has never been a proper explanation for this. Is it information coming from the dead? Or is it some form of super extra-sensory perception (ESP)?

The great physicist Albert Einstein taught that energy, like matter, can neither be created or destroyed. It can merely be converted or transformed from one state to another. Inventor Thomas Edison, who lived during the height of spiritualism, had this thought in mind when he began work on a machine to contact the dead. His theory was that all life forms are made up of microscopic ‘life units’ and could be arranged in any form, e.g. a cat or an elephant. He argued these life units had a memory (using the example of skin regeneration) and if it was strong enough, it could perhaps remain together after the death of the body. Life units are indestructible, so they definitely survived death. His device remained incomplete at the time of his own demise.

In 1937 Russian electrician Semyon Kirlian used the properties of electricity to create photographs showing a person’s aura. He set a piece of unexposed photographic film on a metal plate, grounded a high voltage generator to it and connected the wire to the object to be photographed. Do not try this at home! As the film was exposed, a natural electrical discharge created a stunning, colourful halo. Believers immediately proclaimed this as a person’s aura and scientific proof the soul exists. Although amused by the photographs’ novelty, scientists were able to disprove the claim.

Every culture has legends about evil ghosts and spirits that are able to injure and kill the living. As a result many cultures have amulets and charms to ward them off, e.g. evil eye amulets.

There are many whose appearance is believed to be a death omen. These include banshees, radiant looking boys, hounds and birds.

Some folklore links certain events to moments of death, such as a clock stopping or a shooting star.

‘Ghost lights’ have been seen and recorded almost everywhere. They are seen as blue balls or yellow spheres (occasionally giving the appearance of bobbing candle flames) glowing in the darkness. Although some scientists suggest they are caused by swamp gas, electricity, magnetism or phosphorescent material, so far no conclusive natural source has been discovered.

In some civilisations, they represent the trapped souls of sinners; in others it is the soul of a person who cannot get into heaven or hell. These lights are sometimes referred to as a will-o’-the-wisp.

Any examination of paranormal phenomena must mention poltergeists (Greek roots, meaning noisy ghost). However, poltergeists are non-human entities - not ghosts – it is not an apparition or a spirit of a dead thing. They are usually described as energy – playful, simple, fun and mischievous or malicious, malevolent and dangerous – displaying generally noisy and disruptive behaviour. It is often difficult to distinguish between the two, as they both have similar traits e.g. rapping, bangs etc. They are especially known for throwing stones or making them rain from the air, and for starting fires. Ghosts are not known for either. There have been few recorded cases where poltergeists seem deliberately intent on harming or killing a living thing.

Poltergeists are an unexplained force, possibly pure disembodied energy, which hooks onto a particular place. They are frequently connected to pubescent girls. The theory goes that the psychokinetic energy they are producing at this unsettling time of growing up manifests itself as a poltergeist.

A quick checklist of poltergeist behaviour:

• Kitchenware being smashed.

• Bells ringing.

• Loud noises, including footsteps, crashes and bangs.

• Objects being thrown about, levitating or moving slowly, and changing course in mid-air. Thrown objects can sometimes be unusually warm.
  Spontaneous fires.

• Stone throwing.

• Passage of solid objects through walls or closed doors.

• Sprinkling or falling water.

• Voices.

• Odd odours, sweet or sour.

And now onto communicating with spirits…in ancient times, communicating was the domain of priests and oracles but with the advent of spiritualism (a movement which, incidentally, was based on a lie…the Fox sisters claimed to be able to speak to the dead through a series of raps…spiritualism was born…they later admitted they were cracking bones in their feet and fingers to create the noise…they had devised it as a game to frighten their mother…and died penniless), mediums and séances changed all that.

Mediums act as intermediaries between the material and spirit worlds, usually in a setting known as a séance.

According to research carried out by The Spiritualist magazine in the 1800s, there is at least one person in every household that has mediumship capabilities, and the best mediums are people who are genial, impulsive and affectionate.

Traditionally, séances take place with a group of people sitting comfortably and holding hands. Often it can take months – even years – of the same group of people meeting week after week for something to happen.

Many mediums were in fact magicians working as mediums. Remember, even the worst magician can pull off a trick in the dark. However, just because there have been many fraudulent people exposed in the past, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist!

Almost every medium claims to have a spirit guide – known as a control. Some believed it was proof of life after death and other mediums said their controls were produced by their own sub-conscious.

Table tipping (fresh from magicians’ performances) became standard fare at séances. Believers claimed it was the spirits moving the table; others said it was sub-conscious movements of the sitters.

Automatic writing – where the medium goes into a trance and apparently writes or draws messages from the dead – also became standard.

A Ouija board was also used to communicate. It is a small piece of wood or paper with letters, numbers and words on it and a small pointer. Words or numbers are then allegedly spelled out. Some warn playing with such boards is dangerous when used by the inexperienced. Some people can become addicted to it (like how people read star signs). However, the validity of Ouija boards is flimsy – there is scientific proof (just as there is bona fide proof that telepathy does exist) that the pointer moves because of tiny pulse points in the sitters’ fingers; not because a spirit is guiding it.

Other methods of communication at séances include rapping, teleportation, levitation, direct voice phenomenon (when a voice unlike the medium’s talks), the production of ectoplasm and materialisations.

So, if it’s not a ghost, then what else can it be?

Super ESP is a powerful form of telepathy that would allow mediums to mentally pick up information about the deceased from other humans. Some mediums could even be strong enough to mentally project hallucinations.

However, here are some more common possibilities:

• Fraud (e.g. the Cottingley fairies).

• Honest error due to illusion.

• Hysterical mistakes.

• Indifference to the truth.

• Deliberate distortion of the facts.

• Legend.

• Mental illness.

This is no joke! Fraudsters have many reasons for resorting to it – attention, excitement, publicity, games (especially children fooling their parents), to frighten people away from an area, to destroy property values and money.

Don’t feel disheartened. Just make sure any explanation you come up with for paranormal activity is reasonable.

That’s the spirit!

Orbs

Digital cameras and night vision cameras have thrown up a new and curious occurrence in the world of paranormal research – orbs.

Invisible to the naked eye, a snap shot taken in night vision mode can reveal at least one – and literally hundreds – of circles of floating light.

They have been christened as orbs. Some people believe they are the first stage of a ghost manifestation. Indeed, it does appear that some orbs can move in a particular, controlled manner or on demand. Others say they are simply dust particles, rain or small insects...microscopic particles reflecting the light of the flash.

Digital cameras were popularised in the late 1990s. Since then technology has made huge advances, affording crystal-clear images and smaller cameras. The same goes for camcorders, and now both are readily available from the high street with night vision, perhaps best demonstrated in the paranormal field by Living TV’s Most Haunted – the green, glowing image.

Opinions are divided on what orbs really are, and no one has yet discovered the truth. Perhaps they are merely new technology capturing a normal occurrence in an abnormal way. Maybe they are paranormal at this moment in time because science is not sophisticated enough to unravel the mystery.

For the believer, ghost lights have been reported historically as far back as 150 years ago. They are described as luminous balls or patches of light, characteristically appearing in haunted locations. They can only be seen from certain angles and appear to react to noise and light.

One thing is for sure, ‘genuine’ photographs of orbs are statistically likely to be one in a million, obscured by the thousands of other images which are indeed dust particles etc.

Orbs are just one of the phenomenon LER plans to investigate fully.

An Introduction to Parapsychology

Parapsychology is the scientific study of paranormal phenomena. Paranormal means something that is beyond normal experience and refers to unusual happenings that appear to be inexplicable in terms of our understanding of science today.

People’s attitudes differ when it comes to paranormal experiences. Believers will not consider anything but the fact the happening is indeed paranormal. On the opposite end of the scale are sceptics, who dismisses every incident as having a rational explanation. In between are open-minded people who neither believe or disbelieve – they simply don’t know and are very curious about the paranormal.

Parapsychologists fall somewhere in this middle ground, but remember, the burden of proof lies with the person who has made the claim. 

Most paranormal experiences fall into mental or physical categories, mental being a way of paranormally obtaining information, physical being a paranormal influence on physical objects. Often, an incident can be a mix of both

Mental examples include ESP, telepathy, clairvoyance, mediumship, automatic writing, apparitions and dowsing (see glossary for definitions).

Physical examples include poltergeists, levitation and pyschokinesis. 

Other examples of paranormal phenomena which do not fall exactly into mental or physical include coincidences, stigmata and lucid dreaming. 

Parapyschology is a huge field. Visit here soon for a list of recommended books or, alternatively, check out our links page for LER’s recommended websites.

Glossary - A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Absent healing:
A form of spiritual healing which takes place when the healer is not in direct contact with the person being healed.

Agent:
A person who tries to communicate information with another in a pyschic experiement. The term is also used to describe someone who is the subject of poltergeist activity.

Angels:
Good spirtual beings which help people in need. Guardian angels are said to protect particular individuals.

Animal Ghost:
Many paranormal investigators agree there are animal manifestations in the same way there are human ones. Some believe animals share a collective soul. The most common are cats (dating back to Eygptian times; cats are said to be incarnations of the devil) and dogs (e.g. black dogs on moors or in graveyards).

Apparition:
A ghost that takes on a human shape, looking as if it is alive. Often the person who sees the apparition recognises them from life. Sometimes they are not seen, but can be heard or sensed. The appearance of apparitions is documented throughout history as far back as pre-Roman times, in all cultures. Some apparitions are said to appear before a disaster occurs, while others are said to watch over a sacred location.

Apport:
A physical object which appears in an inexplicable way, as if from nowhere. Apports are often said to materialise during séance.

Astral body:
The ‘double’ of a person’s physical body, which is believed to be separable from the physical during astral projection – an out of body experience – and at death.

Astral projection:
A term used to describe an out of body experience, when the astral body separates from the physical.

Astrology:
Popularised by astrologers like Russel Grant, a practice attempting to identify ways in which astronomical events relate to life on earth. Often used to describe character traits and social trends.

Aura:
Said to be a field of energy around humans and animals. Some mediums say they can see an aura, generally seen as a luminous, coloured halo.

Automatism:
Physical movement (e.g. writing, drawing) which occurs without the person consciously controlling it. Associated with mediums in a trance. Automatic writing is the ability to write messages without knowledge of what is being written, said to be messages from the spirit world.

Banshee:
A ghost originating from Ireland, traditionally female; in the form of an ugly old hag or beautiful young woman. Believed to appear in the hours before a death in a family, wailing and crying during the night. In Scotland, a similar spirit is said to take on the form of a drummer boy or piper, again foretelling death or misfortune. 

Billet Reading:
A practice where a question is secretly written on a piece of paper, which is sealed and handed to a psychic who attempts to answer it. Mentalist magicians frequently use this routine in their acts.

Black magic:
Spells or rituals employed with the intention of harming others.

Blind:
An experimental controlling device in an experiment where the subject is not informed of key features of the experiment. A double blind is where neither the subject nor the experimenter is aware of key features.

Boggart/Bogie:
Colloquial name for unpleasant spirits. The Boggart is said to enter people’s bedrooms and assault their victim; in folklore, the Bogie is black in colour, with an ugly, grinning face, and smells foul.

Birds:
In folklore, birds were believed to be messengers of the dead. It is said that when a bird pecks on a window, it is a spirit looking for another to join it. Others say birds carry souls into the afterlife. 

Card guessing:
A test for ESP where subjects guess the identity of a set of playing cards or Zener cards

Cerebral anoxia:
A condition caused by a lack of oxygen to the brain. This causes sensory distortion and hallucinations. It is sometimes used to explain characteristics of a near death experience.

Channeling:
When a person, often a medium, receives messages from spiritual entities

Clairaudiant:
One’s ability to hear voices of the dead or other entities.

Clairsentient:
One’s ability to sense things. Some say this is merely a heightened form of basic human instinct. 

Clairvoyant:
One’s ability to see spirits/visions of things yet to come. 

Coincidence:
When two or more meaningfully related events occur within a short space of time without any apparent cause or connection between them.

Cold reading:
A technique, often used by fraudulent mediums, where a reading is given without the medium having prior knowledge of the sitter. Often, the information given is a mixture of very general statements which could apply to anyone, together with inferences made from cues given by the sitter, for example, clothes, appearance, tone of voice.

Collective apparition:
An apparition seen at the same time by more than one person. 

Contact mind reading:
Also known as muscle reading, the ‘mind reader’ holds a hand or arm and responds to muscle movements produced unconsciously by the sitter.

Control:
In parapsychology, a factor exercised to ensure the experiment is conducted properly and that all influences are accounted for.

Correlation:
An association between at least two events or variables.

Crossroads:
Historically, crossroads are associated with hauntings although the origin of this thought is not clear. In folklore, murder victims were buried at crossroads; the cross was a Christian symbol; and witches were said to practise at crossroads.

Crisis apparition:
An apparition of a person seen within a few hours of an important event or crisis, such as a death, accident or illness.

Crystal gazing:
Also referred to as scrying, this is a method of staring into a reflective surface, like a mirror, glass, crystal or liquid, to glean paranormal information.

Déjà vu:
When a person feels that they have experienced current events before. 

Dice test:
A method for exploring psychokinesis, during which the subject tries to influence the fall of dice.

Divination:
Practices like tarot, I Ching and tea-leaf reading, where the person interprets signs or symbols to gain oracular knowledge of events.

Divining rod:
A forked rod used in dowsing. They can sometimes be a pair of L-shaped rods.

Doppelganger:
German origin; used to describe a ghost who is either still living or is an exact double of a living person. Some believe it indicates misfortune; others say it’s a good luck sign. Doppelgangers tend to appear to a relative or friend of the person they are haunting, and in a location where the alive person is nowhere near at the time.

Dowsing:
Originally used to paranormally detect underground water sources or mineral deposits with divining rods or a pendulum. More recently, a paranormal method used for finding lost people and objects.

Ectoplasm:
A substance said to come from the sweat glands and orifices of some mediums while they are in a trance. It is pale or white in appearance, jelly-like or like satin, and able to form human shapes. Most known during Victorian séances, when some fraudulent mediums would use it as ‘proof’ of their ‘gift’. In fact they were often using white sheets, with the aid of an accomplice in a dark or ill-lit room.

Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP):
Where voices are recorded on magnetic tape under silent or ‘white noise’ conditions and heard only when the tape is played back.

Evil eye:
The capability of some people to harm others by simply looking at them. 

Exorcism:
A religious ceremony expelling a spirit from a building or a person, performed by a specially trained clergyman. Popularised by The Exorcist film. Often the ceremony involves burning candles and sprinkling holy water. Historically known as the bell, book and candle ritual.

Extrasensory Perception (ESP):
Practice including clairvoyance and telepathy where a person gains information paranormally.

Fairies:
Also spelt faeries, they are small, often invisible creatures that can be good natured or mischievous. Linked to ancient sites and monuments. Popularised by fairytales (hence the name) written for children.

Ghoul:
Used as a term for ghost in Arabic. Mostly used to define an ugly-looking or nasty ghost.

Graveyard:
In folklore, the first person to be buried in a graveyard was appointed its watcher, to protect it from the devil. Historically, a cat or a dog would sometimes be buried there first to become the guardian. Are you likely to find a spirit there? The question to ask yourself is 'why would a spirit want to be there?' Perhaps a relative visiting a grave could be visited by a spirit. Perhaps its the thought of what a graveyard is that's more frightening than the place itself.

Gremlin:
A ‘modern’ type of manifestation. The word is thought to have originated during the Second World War when pilots reported odd-looking creatures in the aircraft with them. Popularised by Speilberg’s Gremlins films. It spawned the phrase ‘a gremlin in the works’.

Grey/white lady:
This entity is said to originate from Tudor times, when the dissolution of monasteries left many monks and nuns – who dressed in grey – homeless. Often the colour can be interpreted differently because of the background location it is seen in (e.g. plaster/woodland).

Halloween:
In ancient times, before the advent of Christianity, people would light bonfires to summon and placate the dead on October 31. Christian churches later named it All Hallow’s Eve – the day before All Saints day.

Haunting:
A term used to describe a ghost or a paranormal event, often taking place more than once. Objects (e.g. chairs, cars, planes, bones of the deceased, paintings, jewellery) can also be haunted. 

Headless ghost:
The ghost of a person who died by decapitation. Popularised by the image of King Henry VIII’s wives being beheaded.

Headless horseman:
The spirit of a rider who has been beheaded. Popularised by tales of villainous highwaymen like Dick Turpin. Also thought to be people who lost their lives in battle.

Lucid dreaming:
Dreaming where the dreamer is aware that the experience is a dream. 

Materialisation:
Some mediums claim to be able to produce a spirit visually for others. One of the first documented incidents of materialisation occurred in America in 1860 by the Fox sisters, the founders of modern spiritualism. The sisters later admitted being frauds. 

Meditation:
Mental technique used to produce a spiritually desirable state of consciousness. Popularised by yoga.

Near death experience:
Experiences of people after they have been pronounced clinically dead, or been very close to death. In popular culture, characterised by a tunnel of light, seeing dead friends and relatives or being told to return.

Omen:
A sign foretelling events which have yet to happen.

Orbs:
Believed by some to be spirit lights, orbs characteristically appear on film (photo or video) as floating circles of light. They are invisible to the naked eye. Sceptics believe they are dust particles or small insects. 

Ouija board:
Derived from the French and German words for ‘yes’, so Ouija boards are sometimes called a ‘YesYes’ board. It is a board containing letters of the alphabet, the numbers zero to nine and the words ‘yes’ and ‘no’. Believers claim it acts as a communication channel between the worlds of the living and spirit. A glass or a pointer is used to spell out the words of the spirit connecting with the people using it. It has a fearsome reputation for possession. Sceptics say it has absolutely no use whatsoever.  Indeed, it has been proved that users can psychologically make the board spell out words without them being aware of it. Also, minute electrical impulses in the fingers aid the pointer’s journey around the board.

Out of body experience:
A conscious experience during which the person appears to be outside their physical body.

Palmistry:
A technique of assessing character and predicting future life events by examining the palm of the hand.

Paranormal:
Outside or beyond the normal. Inexplicable in terms of current scientific knowledge.

Poltergeist:
German for ‘noisy ghost’. Poltergeist activity is characterised by banging and knocking or objects being thrown around. Historically, they are malicious spirits.

Possession:
A circumstance where a person’s body is allegedly taken over by another entity.

Psychic:
A person who claims they are a mystic, clairvoyant, telepathic or with the capability to see into the future. 

Reincarnation:
The theory that some aspect of a person survives death and can be reborn into a new body.

Sceptic:
Someone inclined to be critical of paranormal activity and who generally seeks rational, scientific explanations first.

Séance:
A gathering conducted by a medium who claims to contact the dead, mostly relatives or the spirit guides of the sitters at the séance. Activity can take on the form of sounds, lights and sometimes materialisation. French in origin and means ‘a sitting’. 

Spectre:
Another word for ghost. 

Spirit guide:
A spirit assigned to a person, and believed to assist a person’s spiritual journey. Sceptics believe these beings do not exist and are used as a fraudulent device by mediums.

Spiritualism:
A religion advocating communication between the living and spirits using mediums as channels.

Spontaneous human combustion:
Where a human is badly burned but the cause appears to have originated spontaneously in or on the body of the victim.

Stigmata:
Inexplicable markings on a person’s body corresponding to the wounds of Christ on the cross.

Table tipping:
Also known as table tilting, a term used to describe the mysterious movements of a table, normally during a séance. The movements are often interpreted as communication from the spirit world. 

Talisman:
An object carried or worn by a person who believes it has the power to protect them from evil spirits or death. Also said to bring good luck, health and wealth. 

Telepathic:

The ability to read minds. Some believe this to be a true talent; others, like mentalist magicians, have proved anyone can ‘mindread’ with an easily teachable practice called cold reading. 

Trance:
An altered state of consciousness somewhere between sleep and wakefulness. Mediums claim to be able to channel spirits or emit healing energies in this state. Others believe it to be the same as meditation. A trance is characterised by the person slipping into the alpha state – when electrical brain activity is reduced to about 10 cycles per second. This is associated with a state of mental relaxation.

Witch:
A person, normally a woman, who practises witchcraft. Most worship nature, promoting spiritual awareness and wisdom (particularly a witch in the modern meaning).

Wizard:
A male well versed in the art of magic. Popularised by Harry Potter.

Wraith:
In folklore, the ghost of a person on the verge of death.